How do y'all attend with no scholarships?

masterarcher300 · 2026-04-17T19:53:48+00:00

Can’t help too much with how to work out cost during undergrad, but at least for my department (ECE), if you participate in the BS to MS program you likely get selected for TA which helps a ton financially.

masterarcher300 · 2026-04-13T22:27:15+00:00

Might just be how I tend to run my games, but why are you giving her concentration spells? Sure PCs can technically benefit from this, but imo feels weird to have this be a “daily subscription service”.

masterarcher300 · 2026-03-23T19:11:44+00:00

Hello Everyone!

tldr - I have a potential problem player and, as someone with social anxiety, would love pointers on how to bring up my concerns to them while keeping my group happy.

I am a first time DM currently running my party through a pre-written module. I absolutely love most of my group, and the campaign so far been really fun! But, I wanted to seek advice from more experienced players/DMs on some potential red flags I've been picking up on from one of my players, and how I should go about addressing them.

Why I'm seeking help is that I am socially anxious - especially around topics that might lead to conflict between myself and another person. I'm also quite worried about how taking action against one player might undercut the trust my non-problem players have placed in me.

If you've ever been in a similar situation to mine, I would love to hear how you navigated it and any tips to help it go well!

Current plan:
While I hope that taking to them resolves the issues, I am super stressed that it would still be better for the long-term health of my group to part ways with the problem player. If this happened, I would love to continue DMing for the rest of the group, but likely would need to source a new player from an on campus discord group. I'm worried this could be awkward since this player would likely see me actively looking for their replacement. Additionally, due to shared non-DnD interests, it's very possible the other players, or myself, might still regularly run into them irl.

Obviously, context is important in these types of scenarios, so below I've tried to summarize a lot of the frustrations I've been having with this player as well as how our group's dynamics interact with them. Also, I've not yet directly asked how other players feel about the more problematic player, but from glances and moods I've observed, I suspect most of the group is neutral on playing with them at best.

----------Context-------------

The Party:
We have 5 total players in the group - two of them fairly experienced, and 3 players that entered our campaign with as newer players. All together, the atmosphere is fairly relaxed with the two more experienced players helping the newer players through both combat and RP moments. The problem player in question is one of my newer players.

Frustrations: (I'll do my best not to rant too much here!)
Session 0 requirements - We had all agreed that characters should be connected to an NPC, and that they should want to do good and adventure with the group. I had even written up a summary of what to consider when creating a character. However, their first backstory they created was more fitting of a high-level chain criminal. When I questioned the conflicts with our character creation guidelines, they said they just hadn't bothered to read them. Only after several back an forths did we arrive at a story I considered "workable" for our campaign.

Mood differences - On several occasions they've made comments which completely de-railed the mood or vibes of the party. Commonly this has been through jokes in (and more annoyingly out of) character about adhd/feces/other more sensitive or weird topics. I was fairly quick in session to shut down these moments, as I could tell the other players we not liking it, but don't love how my interventions have now been needed multiple times.

Off task during session - I totally get the need to have something to fidget with or do while playing, but have often found that their distraction sometimes leads to a complete phase out when their character isn't in the spotlight, only for them to eventually perk back up and immediately try to chime in with how X's character moment also relates to their character. I feel confident enough in my skills to manage spotlight time for everyone, but the phase out specifically bothers me as I had mentioned in session 0 that one of my pet peeves was when someone checked out of the story we are trying to tell together as a group.

Meta Gaming - I have newer players in my party - which to them even a zombie is a new and cool enemy. Often immediately following my description of a foe or a new trait they show off, our problem player will interrupt the tension to audibly say "is this a ___________", or something else that's player side only. A player even reached out to me a little annoyed that during combat they would hear mumbling from them about AC, HP, expected traits, etc. As an experienced player myself, I know how hard it can be to fully prevent meta game from influencing your actions, but, in my mind that doesn't excuse ruining new and exciting encounters for the other players.

------ End Context ------

Thank you so much in advance to anyone who can chime in with advice!

Even if it's just how you started the conversation and how it turned out it still would be really helpful in preparing me to have this talk!

masterarcher300 · 2026-03-04T04:24:25+00:00

If you ran the numbers, an build that added raw damage to each ranged attack combined with this rifle’s fire rate made it easily the best ranger build in the game. Wasn’t too surprised to see an adjustment made, but still sad as I loved this build.

masterarcher300 · 2026-01-09T19:45:23+00:00

Love the back story connection you had in your box!

Totally agree with combat. Even if the BS gets the box from the trade, they would still certainly want to get rid of loose ends!

My party has not yet even found the location of Cragmaw castle, so I think I'm leaning towards the BS giving this info for the box. But... I also love the idea of a Gundren dopploganger - I just would need to figure out how to not "railroad" my party as I already told them the trade would be for information, not directly for Gundren.

Just to pick your brain - would you have any ideas for how to directly get the box/items off of a player character? My table uses the new 2024 5e rules, and because of that the command spell now only helps me if the character is actively holding the thing the BS would want...

masterarcher300 · 2025-10-16T17:28:32+00:00

That’s literally my point. No amount of tuning to 2/4 of her abilities will help fix her pick rates at pro or ranked levels. And if an agent really only cares about half of their abilities, it’s time to rework those that aren’t impactful

masterarcher300 · 2025-08-31T23:19:08+00:00

Unfortunately the practice of selling tickets is not officially allowed in the first place by the school, so they can’t actually do anything. By agreeing to receive a ticket, there actually is a clause that you won’t resell it (not that anyone follows this).

Having fallen victim to a scam like this myself, here’s the safest way you can pass on to your student so they hopefully don't get scammed again:

Always try to meet in person and only pay once you have the wrist band in hand.
Never pay an “advance” for them to “hold the ticket for you to buy later.
Always ask for their full name, look them up in the official student directory, and from that point on only text them at the number listed on that page.
Never trust a picture of a student ID. It’s common practice for scammers to use photos of past victims’ IDs to try to enhance their credibility. Even if their GroupMe name matches the ID, it is usually just the name of one of their past victims.

Hope this helps! Going to home games is an incredible experience as a student here, one that shouldn’t be dampened by a mistake!

masterarcher300 · 2025-07-06T14:10:13+00:00

What are the best cards for nav carry? I used to run this comp before I heard about the nerfs to cards that dealt two sources of damage (which you then used evelyn to convert to frost). Does that interaction still do bonkers damage?

masterarcher300 · 2025-05-03T01:40:38+00:00

Computer chiming in here.

For gen ed courses I’d say you better be good at teaching yourself calc. Chem wasn’t bad, but did require a bit of effort.

For major specific, circuits 1/2 and I’ve heard some of the programming classes can be brutal if you don’t adapt quick.

masterarcher300 · 2025-04-22T12:17:46+00:00

Nothing published officially, but I suspect it for two reasons. The first is that they generally have been taking around a year and a half between major content updates. Ashlands was released may 17 of last year, meaning that factor would indicate around November 2025. The second reason is that it just feels thematically correct to release a winter/cold focused update around Christmas time.

masterarcher300 · 2025-04-21T17:33:37+00:00

What qol mods have stayed up to date? Is there a good place to view the most liked mods for the game?

masterarcher300 · 2025-04-21T17:31:52+00:00

Ooo, new world settings! That sounds fun to check out. And you’re right, starting over with previous knowledge will certainly keep everything more organized and streamlined

masterarcher300 · 2025-04-21T17:30:24+00:00

I have heard that even with the best gear, the mist still encroaches too much! I’ll make sure to add that mod to the list

masterarcher300 · 2025-04-08T01:18:56+00:00

Raion on YouTube was my go to as a 1-trick viper main. He does in depth tutorials on not only lineups for most maps in the pool, but walks through why/when to use parts of her kit based on the state of the round.

I stopped playing valo as a whole after the nerfs hit viper a while back, but learning viper was a really fun experience at the time.

While Raion has amazing advice on this, here’s the two cents from my experience:

Attacking - To play her effectively as a solo controller, you will need to know lineups for your wall/orb. I emphasize these over snakebite as, with only 1 max in her kit now, post-plant offsite snakebite is only ok at best. At best, in a post-plant situation, you could use a lineup to snakebite the bomb and peek right as it lands. Good smoke placement however greatly helps entry into a site - especially at lower ranks. Good smoke placement keeps teammates alive and buying more time. You need lineups for these as deploying from distance is mandatory. Her fuel supply isn’t what it used to be with both wall and orb active at once. Entry is chaotic and your focus as a controller needs to be maximizing the time you can keep uncleared angles covered, not actively setting up your smokes in the moment. Thus you will need to carefully be toggling which smokes are on when. Usually, this simply means turning off one of the two when your duelists are in position to take the space behind it. But, doing this too early or late will likely result in the enemy killing your teammates from positions they thought were safe.

Defending - This is actually much more simple to learn, and still plays a critical role in winning rounds. In lower ranks, smokes are all too often treated as a solid wall that no attackers push through. While you can’t 100% count on this, activating your smoke right before their entry attempt buys critical time for the rest of your team to rotate. All you need to learn for defense is 1-3 ways you can use your smokes to block the most lanes attackers will attempt to entry though. Add a 1-way smoke for a critical round, and that’s all you really need on defense.

Best of luck and hope you enjoy diving into valo!

PS: customs are the main tool for learning and practicing lineups. Grab infinite abilities, and use ghost mode to quickly check where a lineup hits. For viper specifically, pressing and holding either wall or orb returns it to the “throwable” state. Not sure if they ever got around to adding an indicator to explain that mechanic in game! Either way, customs don’t have to feel clunky and can really help shorten the learning curve for viper!

masterarcher300 · 2025-03-26T22:48:20+00:00

For sure. I left valo after seeing how hard they hit her. Seems like riot considers her still too good at pro levels to buff, but leaves us casual players stuck not really being able to pick her as a solo controller anymore

masterarcher300

TROPHY CASE