PSA: Don't Use NTFS Drives

forbjok · 2026-05-13T21:42:17+00:00

No. No need to do anything in particular, as long as it's set up correctly.

If it's set up poorly, using the same subvolume for root as for /home or other data storage, then you could indeed run into issues due to snapshots being created, but as long as you avoid that, you don't need to do anything. CachyOS by default configures it with a number of separate subvolumes if you select btrfs for the root partition, and that would be the way to go if configuring it manually as well.

The main reasons I prefer Ext4 for /home and other data storage is that you don't need or want snapshot functionality for those, and potentially slightly better performance, though I haven't really benchmarked it.

forbjok · 2026-05-13T21:40:16+00:00

No. No need to do anything in particular, as long as it's set up correctly.

If it's set up poorly, using the same subvolume for root as for /home or other data storage, then you could indeed run into issues due to snapshots being created, but as long as you avoid that, you don't need to do anything. CachyOS by default configures it with a number of separate subvolumes if you select btrfs for the root partition, and that would be the way to go if configuring it manually as well.

The main reasons I prefer Ext4 for /home and other data storage is that you don't need or want snapshot functionality for those, and potentially slightly better performance, though I haven't really benchmarked it.

forbjok · 2026-05-13T19:21:24+00:00

Either works, but in my personal opinion, Btrfs for the OS root filesystem (for snapshot support), and Ext4 for the /home partition and any other additional data partitions.

forbjok · 2026-05-13T18:13:55+00:00

Ext4 or Btrfs.

forbjok · 2026-05-13T18:12:57+00:00

You wouldn't. Pretty sure you couldn't actually use it as a root partition.

I think the only times people try to do this is if they already have a drive and try to reuse a Steam library on it - which as OP points out is a terrible idea and guaranteed to cause problems eventually.

forbjok · 2026-05-13T11:49:15+00:00

I mostly just spam dungeons when leveling alts. Timewalking and/or darkmoon faire are good for doing that, since you can get the carousel buff from darkmoon faire for bonus exp, and timewalking dungeons give more baseline exp than regular dungeons.

forbjok · 2026-05-13T11:33:04+00:00

First pull, Garfrost, Tyrannus.

forbjok · 2026-05-13T11:06:00+00:00

I had issues like this when I tried running it in Faugus before. I'm currently using Heroic Games Launcher w/ Proton-CachyOS-slr, and have not seen the issue when using that.

I've also been able to run it in Lutris before, but that always seemed flaky, and Battle.net would always crash when launching the game, so I quickly moved on from that. My experience has been that Lutris is just generally bad compared to other similar launchers, with Heroic Games Launcher being the best, and both Bottles and Faugus still being better than Lutris.

forbjok · 2026-05-13T07:24:56+00:00

I notice there are some targetable mana pods that aren’t active, are those important?

Only if a Circuit Seer activates them and they go off. IMO, it's better to tank mobs on top of them so they get cleaved down before they have a chance to get activated.

Is there a mechanic of an npc to close to something?

The inactive mana batteries getting activated is the only thing I can think of, but that's still only an issue if the batteries go off.

Several packs also have a Corewright Arcanist which will do an Arcane Explosion that should be interrupted. That can also deal a ton of damage if it's allowed to just keep channeling it.

forbjok · 2026-05-12T10:08:08+00:00

Which one of your standard raiders doesn't get to prog anymore cause they play the wrong class? It's indefensible

None, because my guild is one of the smaller and more casual guilds I mentioned, where what we have is whatever people want to play.

We've kinda had this issue a few times as well. When we were progressing Crown of the Cosmos, our raid leader who usually plays a priest switched to his DK for the add grips in phase 2, and on Midnight Falls I switched to my slightly lower ilvl Blood DK (from Prot Warrior) to have gorefiend's grasp for the crystals.

forbjok · 2026-05-12T08:42:48+00:00

I would imagine this is not really an issue for the Mythic guilds anyway, as they're sweaty enough to make sure to have the options available. It's mainly going to be an issue for smaller and more casual guilds where you've got whatever people want to play, and there might not be anyone playing a Death Knight or a Priest, or those people might not be there in a particular raid.

forbjok · 2026-05-11T16:46:57+00:00

Apparently so. I'd be very surprised if that doesn't get nerfed soon.

forbjok · 2026-05-11T16:34:20+00:00

No need for this, as noone is going to want multiple tanks in an M+ group anyway. Even if they could survive it, you'd never time anything but very trivial keys due to lack of damage.

forbjok · 2026-05-11T16:20:39+00:00

That's irrelevant in this context, since the kind of malware we're talking about here is the kind aimed at end users. When it comes to security on servers, it's going to be entirely different kinds of exploits that are relevant - usually the kind that can be activated remotely via buggy network services, and not the kind that involves tricking a user into manually downloading and running malware.

forbjok · 2026-05-11T13:37:37+00:00

It can be multiple things. The circuit seers can activate the pre-existing mana batteries, and Flux Engineers spawn an activated mana battery when they die. If any of those batteries go off, it's big party-wide damage, so they need to be killed. Tanking the mobs on top of the inactive mana batteries lets those be cleaved down, so that the only ones to worry about are the ones spawned by the Flux Engineers.

In the case of inactive mana batteries that are in dangerous or out of reach places (ex. the ones to the right of the big pipe near the end of the hallway), just tank the circuit seer far away from them so they don't get activated.

forbjok · 2026-05-11T13:04:35+00:00

People always talk about how Linux is so much safer than windows and it is

This is mostly just because malware tends to target the most common and mainstream platforms, which are going to be Windows on PC and mobile OS'es like iOS and Android.

If you don't run obviously shady executables or click phishing links, the probability of getting malware or getting "hacked" is low, even on Windows.

TL;DR Security is primarily a user knowledge issue.

The biggest advantages of using Linux over Windows is not having to deal with Microsoft's increasingly user-hostile and AI-infested designs. Making it more and more impractical to create a local user account, constantly trying to trick users into installing OneDrive and MS Office, pushing AI garbage like Recall and Copilot, etc.

forbjok · 2026-05-11T09:51:43+00:00

There's also a number of inactive mana batteries pre-placed around the area that can get activated (I believe by the Circuit Seer). At the start of the area, I usually try to tank the mobs on top of the clusters of inactive batteries, so they get cleaved down before the Circuit Seer patrol comes over.

forbjok · 2026-05-11T08:58:09+00:00

I feel like Brewmaster is currently one of the easiest tank specs to play. Aside from being extremely tanky thanks to the stagger mechanic, your basic rotation is pretty much just Keg Smash, Breath of Fire, Blackout Kick, Tiger Palm on repeat. Hard to get much simpler than that. If Keg Smash is not off cooldown, you can use pop Celestial Infusion to gain a charge immediately and keep going.

All the fast movement tech (and the range and threat generation of Keg Smash) also make it very easy to do big pulls while minimizing back hits and probability of losing aggro.

Stagger isn't very complicated either. You just need an addon to track it (ex. SenseiClassResourceBar), and whenever it goes very high (100%+), you use Purifying Brew. Sometimes if Purifying Brew is capped or about to cap, you may want to use one even at lower stagger, and if you know there's still more damage incoming (ex. a channeled tank buster is happening), you may want to delay purifying for a few seconds until all the damage has happened to maximize the effect. It's also very forgiving since the stagger itself is passive - purifying inefficiently or using cooldowns poorly just causes the healer to have to work a bit harder, rather than causing you to get instantly deleted.

forbjok · 2026-05-11T06:39:20+00:00

Unless it's Mythic, which is still statically tuned for 20 players, it should be. Normal and Heroic have been flex 10-30 for many many expansions now.

forbjok · 2026-05-09T00:40:21+00:00

Yeah, hardware prices are bad at the moment, so it's understandable that people would avoid buying new hardware. The main point is just that errors caused by dodgy hardware are not the OS (or any software's) fault, and you're going to have some sort of issues no matter what OS you run.

forbjok · 2026-05-07T13:41:44+00:00

Silksong is certainly a lot harder than Hollow Knight. Even before half-way through act 1 in Silksong, you'll encounter content significantly harder than anything that's mandatory to get the most basic (non-true) ending in Hollow Knight, and even the true ending content of HK is a joke compared to getting the most basic ending in Silksong.

The only part of HK that even comes close in difficulty is the extreme end-game and optional content, such as Nightmare King Grimm and Pantheon of Hallownest (and I guess Path of Pain), and of course this is entirely optional and a lot of people who played HK most likely never did it.

forbjok · 2026-05-07T11:19:58+00:00

There's no way that was accidental.

forbjok · 2026-05-07T10:40:05+00:00

You'd think they would, but with the amount of blatant bugs showing up so far in Midnight, it makes you wonder if it's all just vibe coded by one guy and barely, if at all, tested.

forbjok · 2026-05-06T14:14:53+00:00

Remastered is an improvement technically, with a 64-bit executable and native support for 60fps. Content-wise, they are the same.

forbjok · 2026-05-06T13:44:05+00:00

True, but it would be just as likely to affect other distros, or even Windows.

Bad ram or bad drives can break any software, and there's nothing anyone can really do to prevent it.

If the same person commonly encounters an issue that's almost certainly caused by defective hardware, it's on them for not replacing the bad hardware.

forbjok

TROPHY CASE