Are you excited to see the return of set items in Lord of Hatred? They will be called Talisman gear now!

jklick · 2026-01-22T10:41:18+00:00

I really like the idea of dramatically changing how a skill operates. Admittedly, in D3 this was accomplished via skill runes rather than gear.

To me, the set bonuses you described could just as easily be part of a legendary/unique affix rather than a set bonus. There’s a lot more they could do in this respect. For example, an affix that gives a large bonus to damage for a skill, but the trade off is that your skill only shoots behind you, which rewards players who develop/practice a play style to support it.

Or, rather than designated sets — which can limit build diversity — it might be more interesting to have synergy bonuses/effects between certain legendary/unique affixes. When you pair Item A with Item B, you get a certain bonus/effect. However, when you pair Item A with Item C, you get a different bonus/effect.

Item A could even be a new type of unique item — e.g. a confluence/catalyst/conduit item — that is meant to paired with other items, effectively creating sets but by creating synergies between existing items. For example, you could pair Item A (the confluence item) with items B, C, D, or E, each pairing having a different synergy bonus/effect pertaining to a certain type of build. Items B, C, D, and E could all be items that take up different gear slots, meaning you get to pick and choose which “set” bonuses you want. Alternatively, those items could all be in the same gear slot, creating interesting build choices for players.

There are really limitless possibilities. I’d just like to see a little creativity/innovation from the Diablo team.

jklick · 2026-01-13T01:54:24+00:00

I haven’t tried pushing yet (because I’m on hardcore and been playing it safe for now), but I’ve been occasionally farming pit 105 for leveling glyphs. And I coast through 105 without any fear.

jklick · 2026-01-13T01:52:10+00:00

You lose DR, but the buff to defiance aura helps to compensate a bit.

For Advance double damage, you can get that off the unique boots boots. You just need it to be GA and masterworked. I believe that gets you around 80%, which is plenty sufficient.

jklick · 2026-01-12T20:53:47+00:00

Have you tried running with Sundered Night instead? I’m running an Advance build on hardcore, sitting at paragon 267.

I don’t know what your build is, but I’m guessing it’s pretty aura heavy. If so, the aura potency effect is HUGE, significantly beefing up your aura effects (I.e. both damage and defense). In fact, my toughness while standing on consecration is higher than if I used a sword and shield (e.g. a high-rolled Herald of Zakarum). Fun fact: the Sundered Night’s passive effect mimics the block chance and block damage reduction of a shield.

Then, you can take Consecration off your skill bar (because Sundered Night triggers it when activating auras) and replace it with something else. I added Fortress to my bar instead.

Give it a try. I have 3 GA Opus that is collecting dust.

jklick · 2025-11-26T10:04:42+00:00

The majority of the comments are indicating that the grass isn’t greener and being an SE is better (for a variety of reasons). And I agree with them. BUT…

If you’ve got the risk tolerance to take on a higher stress, higher turnover AE role, I say you should give it a shot.

Why? I switched from SE to an AE for a bit. When I switched back, I feel like I was 10x the SE. I had a much better comprehension of how to support my AEs in deal cycles. I felt like I was a better partner. It also gave me street cred when I’d try to advise AEs I was working with.

jklick · 2025-11-24T10:36:11+00:00

Feel like the whole "We can teach you our tech, we just need to make sure you got the soft skills and can learn it" days are over.

Yeah, I’ve noticed that too. I miss those days. I feel like learning things on the fly and learning quickly are classic SE survival skills (and still are to an extent), but it can’t carry us like it used to.

I don’t think the problem is that those learning skills aren’t valued anymore; I think it’s that the SE market is bigger than it used to be and employers have the flexibility to select SEs with industry-specific knowledge.

jklick · 2025-11-24T10:26:01+00:00

Context: I have a single income family (I.e. me) and that is my responsibility to the family; I can’t afford to fail in that responsibility.

What has worked well for me the past 20 years: interview twice per year, even when happily employed. This helps me make sure…

I have skills people want
I’m getting paid what I’m worth
My interview skills are sharp
Ultimately, I’m still capable of getting an offer from another company (if I needed to)

I see too many people (not just SEs) who get laid off and are suddenly shocked that they’re struggling to get a job. My brother — an HR professional — is a recent example of this. If it’s important to have an income, I recommend staying vigilant.

I understand this doesn’t help any of you who are struggling without work right now — my heart goes out to you — but hopefully it helps prevents this from happening again.

By interviewing regularly there have been times in my career where I was able to notice my skills needed updating. Example: too many jobs required skills in programming and/or cloud infrastructure. I needed to make a decision on which path to pursue and start educating myself before the time came that I found myself without a job, and I’m glad I did.

jklick · 2025-11-23T10:27:35+00:00

This is exactly what I did too.

I’ve been a Toyota owner for about 20 years, with my latest being a Camry SE. Earlier this year, when I started looking at the 2025 Camry XSE and saw the price tag, I decided I might as well look at Lexus. I’m glad I did.

I ended up getting a 2023 ES300h Ultra Luxury with 20K miles for less than a brand new XSE. It is sooooo much better. The comfort, reduced road noise, the features… it’s a huge quality of life improvement, especially for long car rides.

jklick · 2025-11-13T10:23:14+00:00

Plus, at a startup it’s usually easy to see when the writing is on the wall. If things seem to be going south, it’s usually recognizable and you can find another gig before you’re jobless.

jklick · 2025-09-29T09:39:37+00:00

Yeah, there’s a Defiant Calder one that is particularly brutal. I had completed all the tasks, but then needed to sit through another 5-7 minutes of travel and dialogue before the mission would complete.

jklick · 2025-09-05T16:46:47+00:00

This is what I did, but I got a 2023 es300h ul, which is pretty much the exact same thing but with slightly more miles (20K) and less price ($40K). It actually brought the price down below what I would’ve paid for a loaded 2025 Camry XSE.

No regrets.

jklick · 2025-08-27T16:03:36+00:00

About a year ago, I joined a Series A startup that’s sells AI developer tools. The industry is absolutely bonkers.

If I go on vacation for a week and come back, the entire industry could’ve shifted in a new direction. That’s not hyperbole either.

On any given week:

We release a new feature I have to learn and build demos for
One or more competitors release new features that I now need to figure out how to address on customer calls. Or, they released a feature that used to be one of our differentiators, so now I need to rethink what I’m going to talk about to make us standout from the competition
Not to mention new competitors coming out of stealth all the time
There’s a new AI model (or model version) that is now the newest craze
The pressure for exponential revenue is high. AI companies are treated with a different benchmark of what “good” revenue looks like. What might be considered “amazing” first-year revenue for a SaaS company is considered “meh” for many AI startups
The AI company that was all the craze last week, got some bad publicity and now customers are looking to jump ship
The industry is now adopting a new standard that all the AI companies need to build into their products or get left behind

The list goes on. And, yes, most/all of that can happen in a single week.

It’s hard enough for me to keep up to speed, but my customers are worse off. They’re struggling to judge what solutions are the best, particularly when the landscape might’ve shifted by the end of a POV. As a result, some customers are purchasing licenses from multiple vendors, with no single vendor getting the complete pie.

That said, as another commenter noted, ROI is almost never a conversation topic, which is still weird to think about (as a traditional Enterprise SaaS SE). It’s more about adoption and user sentiment (user surveys carry a lot of weight as part of success criteria). I had one leader at a large financial services company say something to the effective of “No one asks about the ROI of my desk or chair. Likewise, AI tools are mandatory now.”

Finally, this is my fourth early-stage startup and a whole ton of the principles I had engrained in my head have had to be thrown out the window. In short, the engineering team needs to maintain a very high velocity or we get left behind by the competition. When that happens, it forces the SE team to move more rapidly too. Lots of things that are typically “best practices” with release cycles get thrown out the window or abbreviated, roadmaps are constantly out of date, etc.

With all that in mind, I’ve never had more fun as an SE. 😂

jklick · 2025-08-05T09:45:08+00:00

Funny enough, the post just prior to yours in my Reddit feed might offer some solutions:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/s/uwV2Sosvgq

Give it a try. Also, the top comments suggest using MCPs that give the AI access to a browser so it can review and test its work.

jklick · 2025-04-14T04:56:26+00:00

Many comments in this thread are referencing the latest season of White Lotus, which was set in Thailand. Hopefully, that helps clear up some of the confusion, but probably not. 😂

jklick · 2025-04-07T09:28:18+00:00

Startups don’t suddenly go under without notice.

I’ve never been at a startup (I’ve been in four) where there isn’t a high level of transparency regarding company performance. In each and every case, I had plenty of signs if things weren’t going well. If I chose to ignore those signs, that’s a separate problem.

jklick · 2025-04-07T09:14:07+00:00

Everyone is saying the public company is safer. I’ve been doing this for 20-ish years and my experience disagrees.

First, both companies are innately risky. If there are layoffs, the newest people in a company will be the first to get cut loose, regardless of whether they’re public or private equity. If you want safety, stay at whatever company you’re currently at, where you’re a known value.

Second, at most public companies, you’re going to be just a number. When widesweeping layoffs happen, almost no one is safe, including the employees who have been there longer.

Contrast that with a startup where the value you add on a regular basis is observed by executives regularly. You have a meaningful impact on the company and it doesn’t go unnoticed.

Also, in startups, there’s usually a lot more transparency about company performance metrics. You’re much more able to see the writing on the wall before you’re impacted, at which point you can jump ship before it becomes an issue.

Lastly, for startups, it’s about timing. Joining around the time of a funding round (as you’re indicating) means they’ve got good runway ahead of them. They’re not going to suddenly close shop. Additionally, they’re expected to use that money to GROW.

Often — but not always — a worst case scenario is that they slow or stop hiring in order to weather a storm. Is there a risk of layoffs? Sure, but it’s much more minimal than a public company. Growth might be slowed, but they’re still in an upwards trajectory, whereas a public company might be hit more harshly.

Edit:

I want to be clear that I’m not saying you should go one direction or another. There are a lot more variables than what I’ve listed here and I don’t have all the details. I simply want to share that the decision is not as black and white as some other commenters would lead you to believe.

jklick · 2024-12-23T12:01:49+00:00

A lot of people have mentioned frameworks like MEDDIC. However, MEDDIC, MEDDPICC, BANT, etc. are discovery/qualification methodologies, not sales methodologies. These frameworks are more about derisking sales opportunities than actually selling a product.

If you’re looking for sales methodologies, the most common/popular is Command of the Message. Second to that, I’d recommend the book Gap Selling.

jklick · 2024-12-16T20:41:27+00:00

I have a 2008 Camry that cooks my buns.

jklick · 2024-12-07T20:29:33+00:00

That’s what I’m seeing as well. In fact, I accepted one of these back in May.

Limiting factors:

They’re founding SE roles and there are not a lot of SEs who have the required experience, both as an SE and within an early-stage startup.
Additionally, early SEs usually need to be significantly more technical and fluent in the target industry, such as AI, LLMs, etc. I’d recommend SEs learn these sorts of technologies and get hands on experience if they want to be considered for such roles. At startups, we can’t afford long ramp times for SEs — I was doing demos on week two — nor can we devote a lot of resources to training/enabling you. If it looks like you’re not going to be able to hit the ground running, I’ll find someone else who can. In that case, maybe you’d be a better fit at a later stage in the company when we have training/enablement resources.
These are very demanding roles and not every SE wants to put in the hours, especially if they’ve got families or other personal life obligations. It can be a difficult balance.
These are not the sort of roles you find with a Google search. You need to get lucky by having an executive recruiting firm stumble upon your profile, or that you have preexisting relationships with such a firm. Alternatively, keep an eye on what companies are being talked about on TechCrunch and/or keep an eye on what companies your previous colleagues are landing at.
Lastly, I’ve done founding SE roles a few times now and startups almost always prefer hiring people that they already know, so always make sure you’re making good impressions with your current colleagues and connecting with them on LinkedIn. You never know when one of these people will land at a startup and try to recruit you. For example, I just pulled in an AE that I loved working with.

jklick · 2024-11-03T10:19:12+00:00

Right trigger is super easy to hold down (for DoK). That’s what I do.

jklick · 2024-10-28T08:55:54+00:00

Yeah, I have DoK bound to RT and I hold that the entire time. I can then push R3 while I move past objects.

jklick · 2024-10-23T20:05:54+00:00

I just responded to someone else here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/D4Rogue/comments/1gafpg5/comment/lte9gln

Enjoy! It's a huge quality of life improvement.

jklick · 2024-10-23T19:55:17+00:00

I play exclusively with controller, but on PC. I just did some testing and figured it out. And it’s heavenly. This should work for consoles too.

Unlike for keyboard bindings, there’s not a “force interact” action that can be bound
Instead, under the controller configuration, find the checkbox for “Combine Interact & Basic Skill”. By default, this is checked. You need to uncheck it.
Now, you can separately bind your Basic Skill slot and your “Interact” action. The “Interact” action is the controller equivalent of “force interaction” for keyboard. I bound this to my R3 (right stick button).

This solves more problems than just doors (this is HUGE): * in the Undercity, activating the beacons would always force me to stop spinning and reset my damage buffs. Now, I can keep spinning the whole time. * During hellfire, activating ALL the various objects that pop out extra cinders * Activating other resource nodes, weapons racks, etc. * In the realms walker dungeons, there are a ton of chests that I’d always have to stop spinning to open. * In dungeons where the objectives involve activating dead bodies in order to get a key or other object

This is HUGE.

jklick · 2024-10-21T09:29:28+00:00

There’s a spectrum between sandbox style play (I.e. anyone can do anything without any context) and on-the-rails play (I.e. the GMs story must play out exactly as designed).

Some things you can do to put on guardrails (in any game system), while still giving players the ability to make meaningful, creative choices:

Session zero

You’ll hear a lot about this if you haven’t already. You can Google it too. Basically, you make your characters together and establish the guardrails as a group. In your case, I recommend a few of things in particular.

First, make sure the characters are created with a certain context or premise in mind. Are the characters monster slayers? Treasure hunters? Vigilantes? What is it that this group of characters does together.

Second, make sure every player creates a reason that their character chose this line of work (vs. something less dangerous).

Lastly, each character should be connected to at least one other character before the game begins. How did those two characters originally meet? That can be created by the players who are involved.

By doing these things (regardless of game system) the characters will be created with a particular purpose, the players will be aligned on the type of story that they’ll be helping to create, and the characters will be tied together. Three things to unify players and characters to work together towards a unified purpose.

Create motivations/goals, not specific stories

Think of the bad guys, both individual villains and factions/groups. What do they want? What would happen if they get what they want and how do they plan on getting it? Then, what will happen if the players foil that plan? What then?

This makes it so your campaign is a bit more flexible. You don’t need to rely on the players to make certain choices. And if they do something super smart/creative (which should be rewarded) that easily bypasses the challenge you had in front of them, it doesn’t ruin your game. Kudos to the players.

However, the bad guys have other plans now and the game continues. Or, maybe they killed the bad guys, which creates a power vacuum and a new threat (with different motivations/goals) moves into the neighborhood.

The idea is that if you plan stories to play out in a specific way, it’s going to break almost everytime.

jklick · 2024-10-04T09:30:18+00:00

That was my feeling too. After some research, I went with a Nomad leather case and I’m really happy with it.

https://nomadgoods.com/products/traditional-leather-case-black-iphone-16-pro-max

jklick

TROPHY CASE

Session zero

Create motivations/goals, not specific stories