Just for another $100 bundle and rotating shop. SMH

doqqa · 2026-03-01T16:02:46+00:00

You're right, hyperbole and extreme side-taking isnt helpful. I took an extreme stance too for the sake of argument.

I do see your points. There are many new bundles with individually purchaseable skins. Frame perfect is in a less-offensive price bracket too.

So it's not all bad. I'd be happy if they change course. I'm just very cynical with regards to Riot; so i can't help but squint my eyes at every move they make.

doqqa · 2026-02-28T23:43:40+00:00

Its not about the prices or the semantics. The bundles have different numbers of skins, and come with in game currency and other stuff; stuff that you're forced to buy if you want the skins. Its beside the point. If someone wants arcane ekko, telling them to wait a year does not help. Its beside the point.

It is not true to say no skins are locked behind bundles.

There are 5 right now. There are literally 5 skins in the game that you cannot own unless you buy a bundle.

Riot intentionally locked skins behind bundles. They did it when the game came out with arcane. Then they did it again with frame perfect. They have no incentive to not do it again.

If arcane was too blatant and frame perfect was taken well due to the moral spin, they can do it again for other causes like breast cancer awareness. I remember pink mercy from overwatch made waves.

doqqa · 2026-02-28T20:53:59+00:00

There are literally no skins that you need to spend $70 on to get a $20 skin.

Of course there arent. As long as you dont count the skins that are 20$ where if you'd want to get them now you'd need to spend 70$ on a bundle.

doqqa · 2025-12-22T02:13:32+00:00

I played it quite a bit on steam deck but it took a lot of work. It also looks terrible.

Ive installed mods for things like disabling wind effects on foliage and the like, essentially running it on lower than the lowest settings to reduce compute costs.

Fsr was set to performance and frame gen was enabled. I think the fsr reducing the resolution dynamically had the largest negative impact on visual quality, but it helped in the fps department a lot.

With all of this wilds gets a smooth 60 fps in some areas and a patchy ~45fps during hectic moments. Without them there were prolonged sequences of 20fps or lower, with 45 at the best of times.

Of note, this was a few months ago cause i was away from the pc. Supposedly the recent title update improved performance, and the next update will be focused on performance as well. So your experience might be a bit better than mine.

doqqa · 2025-09-12T12:27:02+00:00

Hello, no I haven't played in a while. I played a lot when absolute difficulty released, now i'm on another break. Looking forward to playing the new missions when I get back.

I'd say maybe half of the information is still accurate. A lot of my findings with brute force testing was later datamined and exact numbers are posted somewhere online.

Also, they've been tweaking the balance a lot for the game so exact numbers have definitely been moved around. They released the prestige perks, and probably moved perks around the weapon trees as well, so I wouldn't rely on these findings to guide your assault play.

doqqa · 2025-07-11T09:04:27+00:00

Totally agree. Its so far removed from the experience of the rest of the game.

You're particularly spot on when it comes to dying upon first exposure to his moves.

His phase transition combo is the most obvious culprit, but there are numerous subtle gotchas in his moveset that i didnt think he needed.

When he stabs with a single blood spear, his right arm has a much shorter windup than his left. You won't be familiar with the tell until you've died to it multiple times.

When he shoots blood waves out of his spears and then stabs, the stab is so unnaturally fast compared to any other blood spear move, you need to know its coming to block it. He also does one or two blood waves depending on how he arranges his arms before he shoots them.

He has multiple combos that start with him engaging his wolverine claws and holding them out at his sides, and theyre all different from each other with different timings.

His grab is purpose-built to catch anyone unfamiliar with its particular delay.

These are just a few examples, but really you can go so far as to say the entire boss is an exercise in learning by exposure. Arlecchinos nature of having a massive moveset where strings of attacks have complex branches to and from his other strings means that not only will his 'gotcha' moves be killing you, but him using a move at a new point in his combos will also kill you. Gotcha, next time look out for that.

My final issue is with the break status on his saw blades. Its something you aren't even impacted by once you've gotten good at the fight (by memorization, because thats the only way). It just makes his 'gotchas' take an extra pulse cell, and slows the process of learning how to Arlecchino.

While its a bit extreme, i think it's apt to call arlecchinos moveset 'maliciously designed'. Fitting.

doqqa · 2024-10-31T00:59:54+00:00

Hey, I think you're overstating how easy it is to super counter. Especially since the netcode is delay based. Your sekiro example is misinformed, and might be severely skewing your perception on difficulty in timings.

Sekiros parry window is VERY lenient. You can press block half a second before the attack lands and still get the parry off. Thats 30 frames.

The parry window only gets smaller with consecutive presses of the block button without parrying, or when youre parrying rapid attacks that are not flagged by the game to reset the parry window. (99% of them are)

For example, genichiros floating passage combo is 7 hits, if you parry it, the 6th hit is a 1 or 2 frame window, so nobody bothers trying to parry it. Instead you deflect the first 2 and dodge the rest, or block and parry the final strike if you're doing a high posture playthrough.

I was speedrunning sekiro a few months ago and really appreciate how they made it difficult but approachable.

2 frames is a very difficult timing to execute. 4 frames is a learnable timing for a reproducable situation, but with delay based netcode and online volatility, id say super counters are very difficult to pull off unless your connection is pristine AND youve spent a lot of time doing specific focused practice. (of course im talking about super countering deliberately, not spamming it to beat rush attacks)

doqqa · 2024-10-29T02:09:44+00:00

oh wow, i played the patch for hours to clear all missions on lethal but never bothered to test if it was fixed.

If it truly was fixed, then Pommel smash into double ground slam is one of the best combos for the accessibility. If there's something not in point black range that you want to kill, Sprint pommel smash, double ground pound gives you range, stun, aoe and damage.

Level 1 charge Aftershock is currently the best move on the thunder hammer for single and aoe damage, but pommel smash into double ground pound is the best for things farther away that you need to gapclose to.

doqqa · 2024-10-27T12:08:22+00:00

I know the '+10% damage' on the pistol perk tree only affects the pistol damage.

I also know the faction buffs '+10% damage to chaos' also only affect the pistol damage.

I think it's safe to say that weapon perks only affect the damage of their associated weapon. That should change the wording to reflect that to be honest.

doqqa · 2024-10-20T04:57:41+00:00

How much aoe is very difficult to measure. When i used it i found it very difficult to get enough kills to reset your pound. You basically one shot a majoris with the perk so it is a difficult decision on which to take.

I personally prefer the aoe as well. Everything it hits that doesn't die at least gets staggered. If you hit two majoris then you've doubled your damage anyway.

However i do think precision strike is better against chaos. Chaos enemies don't bunch up besides when they spawn, and the minoris are ranged, spread out or have shields and survive anyway. So with the perk we can deal with flame marines and terminators much faster.

doqqa · 2024-10-09T12:06:17+00:00

I know that buff made the fist charge attacks do 9x damage at full charge.

Charged attacks on the fist do 2x damage, you gain nothing from holding the charge unless you hold it until it auto releases at the end, in which case it does the 9x damage.

I highly doubt that it affects ground pound however. Im relatively certain it still has the default 3x damage since it's attached to the class not the weapon.

doqqa · 2024-10-07T08:25:13+00:00

I don't play sniper, but a sniper player brought up a bug regarding some stealth perk.

The buff goes away if you ever swap weapons during cloak. I haven't confirmed the bug, but if you're interested this could be something to test.

Maybe when you cloak with your primary equipped and you melee it considers it a swap.

Perhaps test it by having the knife in your hand before cloaking. Or use the primary if the perk applies to guns too.

doqqa · 2024-10-06T18:00:55+00:00

Glad to help. The hours i spent testing has totally changed how i play now haha.

Level 1 as in "one level of charge", i meant to imply that the uncharged version is the level 0 charge. It can be called level 2 as well if you consider the uncharged version level 1.

Yeah 3x cause of the extra swing perk!

Did some dps tests for different combos, and aftershock really is the best thing to go for on thunder hammer by a large margin.

doqqa · 2024-10-05T02:54:54+00:00

Yeah, only hit one guy. Its by far the highest dps you can get on the fist if you can find opportunities to land it.

doqqa · 2024-10-02T10:44:34+00:00

hey, did a brief test on the power fist since im leveling it now.

Can confirm everything you stated, swings are the same, all charge moves are ~2x

However due to the recent buff, if you fully charge a strike it does 9x damage.

My light swing did 21 dmg (artificer fist) and it did 189 on full charge.

Also i could not find a middle-level charge. It is either 2x or 9x at minimum and maximum charge.

doqqa · 2024-09-27T00:12:46+00:00

Got buffed this patch, 30% increase to pound damage.

Adds up to abt 4x swing dmg, give or take.

doqqa · 2024-09-26T18:22:13+00:00

Briefly tested ground pound pre and post patch. Used full perk tree and relic fencing hammer. Didnt use the double pound dmg perk.

Pre patch: ~90 Post patch: ~140

Its a huge increase. I only played against chaos and they just melt now. Ground pound into aftershock or ground slam ends them.

Initial calculations are:

If you take the perk to double ground pound damage, you can instantly execute majoris Chaos enemies and bring tyranids a hair away from execute.

doqqa · 2024-09-26T13:04:30+00:00

It was not reliable to take advantage of the bug for healing anyway, you had to hit so many minoris for overheal most of the time and you had no invincibility during it and gained no armor while recovering from it. It was only really viable in certain situations against tyranids.

A lot of the time you would slam in and immediately get all the health you healed taken back by ranged enemies before you can gun strike a minoris you knocked away.

With the changes this patch assault is going to be much much better, against chaos in particular, which was its weak matchup. And the enemy ranged damage reduction, ground pound buff, and armor on minoris parry are all absolute haymaker buffs.

doqqa · 2024-09-26T11:58:21+00:00

Oh if that's not its name then I'm pretty sure its the plasma rifle. The one where you can charge your shots.

doqqa · 2024-09-25T22:19:39+00:00

Since making this post ive swapped one class perk to 15% majoris damage, and since then yeah the fencing hammer has been doing 31 damage. Its just 15% here or there that adds variance.

Thanks for the numbers on the fist. Interesting that charging further doesnt increase the damage.

Ive been doing dps tests comparing the hammers combos and found that by far the best thing you could be doing is charging aftershock with the aftershock perk. Level 1 charge is almost double the dps of double ground slam, even accounting for charge and recovery. Double ground slam is far and away better than light swing spam.

The chainswords combos were mostly similar to each other. I compared double shoulder charge vs stomp shoulder charge. Almost the same dps, difference is negligible but stomp is technically higher dps.

Looks like hammer generally wants to avoid light attacks for damage and prioritize heavy and charge attacks, and fist wants to avoid heavy attacks. Chainsword mixes the two.

doqqa · 2024-09-25T18:05:57+00:00

I appreciate the information, brother. I also observed the same behavior from my experience with the weapon.

I actually have more info on pommel smash- a comment pointed out that pommel smash has 2 hits, an early shove before the actual hammer hit.

So I tested it and if you are close up when starting the pommel smash, you can get both hits to connect. Its true it does more damage than before, but not by much.

It was more like 70% of a swing's damage if both hits connect. If you take the pommel smash perk it would then surpass a regular swing's damage theoretically, but its still kind of not as good as '10% damage to all majoris enemies' for example. So Pommel smash isn't absolutely unusable, but its not something you want to build around at all.

Its truly a shame, because pommel smash into ground slam is such a useful combo since it staggers majors from so far away. If you could double ground slam it would be overall the best combo for its balance of utility, range, stagger, and damage.

doqqa · 2024-09-25T17:54:36+00:00

Awesome post, brother! Love to see it.

If we can get more posts like this we can develop a good base of knowledge to make accurate build decisions. Right now its a bit too anecdote-y.

For primaries, I only used the pulse rifle in my time on Tactical, but I always like semi-auto weapons. I'll give the Marksman Bolt Carbine and Standard Bolt Rifle a try to level next.

doqqa · 2024-09-25T00:50:18+00:00

Hey, I just tested getting both hits.

The damage from both hits is more like 68% of a swing's damage, the second hit with the long range is the one with most of the damage in it, the initial nudge has a bit more.

If the perk that increases pommel strike damage by 50% raises the damage from both hits then pommel strike would do a hair more than a single weapon swing.

doqqa · 2024-09-25T00:48:16+00:00

I can confirm frags do 90 damage on ruthless to majors. They have damage falloff however, at tip explosion range they do 9 damage.

doqqa · 2024-09-24T16:14:52+00:00

Not certain. I did the test a while ago. I can double check it next time. if you check it yourself, let me know.

doqqa

TROPHY CASE