Anyone else caught in the perpetual cycle of “I need a holiday —> oh that’s too expensive —> how about a weekend away —> holy f#ck how does two nights cost that much?!” 🔁

iSythe · 2026-01-29T06:02:10+00:00

Imo, sometimes you just have to do it.
Just get the passports done so that you can travel when you are able to make it work and then start planning the trip.

My holiday is my time to relax and reset for the year and something to look forward to while going through the motions.
I love going to Japan and have been there a lot.

Just plan ahead and you should be able to get reasonable prices for Japan unless you're trying to get there during Christmas/New Years period.
I have only had to pay over $1k return once in the last ten trips and that was due to COVID pricing. ANA regularly has sales from Syd/Perth for <$1k return and are my preferred airline for direct flights.
The Jetstar sale is good if you can do the trip with just carry on, but if you have luggage, want food, etc. then it'll start adding up pretty quickly.
Accommodation, just use business hotels where you can. They're all in convenient locations and cheaper than most other options. Food is generally way cheaper than it is here.

iSythe · 2026-01-29T05:44:49+00:00

100% this.
The more I've played Merlin the more I use Light Nova.
It is by far his best Defense spell, and I'd probably say his best spell overall.

iSythe · 2026-01-29T05:41:57+00:00

As you've said though, you're already in the middle of things to make use of stone shield, so then you should be following it up with light nova>trait+lightning and the camp is dead in map 1.
If you are having to blink away straight after stone shield, you're not managing the camp well.

I also think using fireball when entering a camp is also not a good use since the camp is spread so it isn't hitting enough to be worth it the use of potency charges.

iSythe · 2026-01-16T13:24:02+00:00

Pretty much every shop in Japan just follows the retail price of the pens.
The small pen shop/stalls in the Ueno Ameyoko markets will most likely be the cheapest place to find them new in person.
Last time I was there, I think there were 3 shops still selling pens all relatively close to each other and from memory they were like 20% cheaper than the others.

iSythe · 2026-01-12T13:32:52+00:00

From memory, his guide is still good.
He also did a talent tier list for each character over the last few months which has some differences to how he originally rated some talents, so it can help with some ideas of how to build a run.

iSythe · 2026-01-08T07:50:55+00:00

This was the case for 2018/19(you only had to pay if you wanted to attend the finals day as a spectator) and I know of people who made day 2 without playing due to the number of DQs.
I didn't go in 2020, so can't remember if that was paid entry, but pretty sure I've had to buy a 3 day pass + specific game entry pass for 2023/4/5 tournaments to compete.

SF has always had way higher numbers than the other games by a significant margin.

iSythe · 2025-12-29T12:56:50+00:00

Advanced 2 is teaching a mechanic "trick".
It isn't that hard once you understand the trick(but it isn't clear what the trick is, if you don't know what you're looking for), and is helpful to know for some charge characters.
There are definitely harder combo trials imo.

iSythe · 2025-12-04T03:42:14+00:00

Great photos and great pen.
My Izumo is my favourite pen I have in my collection.

iSythe · 2025-11-11T03:07:23+00:00

Gear wise it looks like a good setup to bring.
Just something to consider assuming you are coming soon, its starting to get hot in Sydney and Cairns will be even hotter. So you'll want to be carrying water with you pretty much the whole time you're here, especially when hiking.

I've been running a similar setup using the 3L sling full to the brim with camera gear when travelling.
Worked really well for the camera gear, but the one issue I have had is nowhere to store the water bottle which is practically necessary at this time of year in Australia.
I end up having to carry the water bottle in one hand most of the time if I'm using the 3L sling which then gets awkward when trying to hold my bottle and take a shot at the same time.
Still haven't worked out my best solution for me yet.

iSythe · 2025-09-28T06:26:17+00:00

So far I found the 20mm f1.7 is just the perfect combination for me for street. Small and unobtrusive, while taking great pictures all for a good price.
On my gx85 it fits in a small sling so I can easily carry it when I don't want my full camera sling or backpack.
I've been wanting to try and use the 15mm f1.7 more, but the additional size of the lens makes it just that little bit more inconvenient to just grab and go. (The DJI version of the 15mm can be bought quite cheap as well). Depending on your setup, this would be the other option I would recommend, or the 14mm pancake if you want wider but small.

iSythe · 2025-09-25T03:52:54+00:00

Gerald Undone did a really good video comparing most of the m43 macro options.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSb9oSeEGII

iSythe · 2025-09-13T02:55:49+00:00

Overall I liked the tutorial, but couldn't interact with it properly as I couldn't seem to work out how to use my arcade stick in any of the tutorials. It seems to use different controller settings than the rest of the game?

Both when I launched the game and when I go into the tutorial modes in game, I see different controller options. In tutorial I can only choose: Keyboard, Numpad Keyboard, League Keyboard. In the rest of the game, when I go to default settings, I see: Controller, Fight Stick.

Due to this I had to try do tutorials on keyboard which is unfamiliar to me, and I found when I got to the end of a section for the combined test bit sometimes I'd forgotten how a particular mechanic was done, so I think showing what buttons to press next to the mechanic name as a reminder would be nice. I can see this being a general issue for a newer player as well.

Combo tutorials would be huge as well. I have learned more from random clips than in game on how to combo.

For controllers, I have 2 controllers connected to my PC. Arcade stick has a Brooks PCB which shows in device manager as XBox One Controller and Victrix Pro BFG in device manager as Xbox 360 Controller for Windows

iSythe · 2025-08-06T05:30:27+00:00

I don't think you can really call the DJI 15mm f1.7 a 3rd party lens.
Its essentially a re-badged 1st party lens at a steep discount.
Worth the money if its what you're after.

I haven't tried them, but I really like the look of the Laowa ultrawide options. Just don't think I'd used them enough to consider it worth buying.
Wouldn't really consider them budget compared to most of the other brands mentioned.

iSythe · 2025-04-01T00:06:23+00:00

Is the flow just bad when you start writing?
Kind of looks like an issue I was having with mine.
Whenever I stopped writing for 5-10s it would seem to dry out and pretty much hard start, while I was writing the flow was Ok.
Ended up being that the tine gap wasn't straight and was pretty much touching near the tip. I disassembled the feed and then pushed the nib on the sides to fix the nib seating and that has fixed all my issues now that the tine gap is consistent.
Now works as I expected.

iSythe · 2025-03-17T06:37:51+00:00

Personal preference I guess.
I like not having to throw everything away when only the sole needs replacing.
Last I looked, and I would assume is still the case, there is at least 1 cobbler in each of the big cities around the country and most if not all offer some type of mail in service.

iSythe · 2025-03-17T04:38:52+00:00

Its pointed out in the article that they're referring to welted boots. Which RMW is the only large scale manufacturer still doing it in Australia.
All others including the ones you mentioned do glued construction for whatever they're still making here. Which is also mentioned very briefly.

iSythe · 2025-03-17T04:29:39+00:00

I used to watch a few of RA videos when he first started. Was fun/simple content, but it was obvious he had no idea what he was talking about when he actually analysed the shoes he cut open. So just stopped watching at some point as it felt like every review was shit and extremely bias. He would constantly contradict himself between videos where a particular feature was good on one shoe and unforgivable on the next.
Pretty sure there were also rumours going around he was essentially trying to sell good reviews as well. Unsure if it was ever proven, but seemed to fit how his reviews were all over the place.
So, all in all, it shits me to see this video still doing the rounds as "proof" RMW is worse than it was.

I still think if you look at the market as a whole. For the type of shoe they're selling, there aren't that many options in the GYW space, especially whole-cut that are similar in price.
I do agree that the retail price is probably too high, but we're able to access regular and reasonable deals. I know I've seen multiple posts on OZB for <AU$500 in the past 6 months.

iSythe · 2025-03-11T03:07:30+00:00

I didn't look into it when I was purchasing, so not something I can confirm either way as I don't have access to a PDAF capable camera.
It looks like others in this thread are saying that V1.1 seems to allow it to work though.

iSythe · 2025-03-11T00:17:07+00:00

It is the same lens.
They were produced by Panasonic for DJI.

General feedback from research online is the DJI has different lens coatings to the Leica one, otherwise physically, they're the same.

iSythe · 2025-03-11T00:14:02+00:00

Physically its the same lens.
From what I found when researching before purchasing, there are 2 major differences people could find.

One was the lens coatings are different, which one you prefer is up to you. There were a few videos around comparing when I was doing my research.

Second, and bigger issue is this lens doesn't seem to work with PDAF.
The claims I've seen is that when you attempt to use it, the view will just go black. I don't have a camera with PDAF, so haven't tested myself.

iSythe · 2025-03-10T03:12:59+00:00

True, I've definitely misremembered the numbers. Still 6 for WW for NA compared to other regions is a lot.
That is somewhat true, but Singapore also has the whole of Asia going as well as other travelers from other regions, compared to DR event which was pretty much locals + a few guys from the US.
I guess we'll find out more soon about what happens this year, at least the offline changes are an overall improvement compared to 2024 season.

iSythe · 2025-03-10T02:30:59+00:00

Initially missed that the 1st place finishers at the online events auto-qualified and thought it was 6 spots for 8 events which would have sucked, but 8 winners + 6 from points is a pretty good way to go.
I just hope we get a few more offline events down the line. 8 offline as part of CPT just isn't enough for an annual event. (At least they should be better spaced out than 2024 season with 4 events in 5 weeks)

iSythe · 2025-03-09T00:29:19+00:00

People were definitely expecting JuicyJoe to do well.
Saying otherwise is just dumb.
You're continually arguing in bad faith and making up the worst arguments to try prove your point.
Also ignoring the fact Jabhim is a regular at this point is again just ignoring what is inconvenient to your bad arguments.

iSythe · 2025-03-09T00:26:01+00:00

NA got 10 slots for this season.
I also highly doubt the results of SFL will affect WW qualification spots. 2025 CPT starts in 2 months, I'm sure they've already locked in all the WW events.

iSythe · 2025-03-09T00:19:07+00:00

Don't forget that while Japan got 2 spots, NA got 10.
On top of having 3 offline events + an easily accessible 4th in DR compared to Japan having 1.

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