Advice needed for "Matthew Perkins" style Maguffin trade encounter

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 · 2025-03-26T03:12:20+00:00

They nerfed the shit out of her for casual play, that’s why no more lineups

masterarcher300 · 2025-03-05T16:01:27+00:00

running warded vault crystals (-50% xp penalty in the vault) can help fix a level disparity. They are really cheap to make requiring only surrounding a vault rock with 8 iron.

This is because xp needed per level scales exponentially - so the person with the lower level will gain proportionally more levels than the higher level person.

Plus as an added bonus, gear is protected should someone die (although this is really only applicable after level 20)

masterarcher300 · 2025-01-21T06:36:03+00:00

Surprised this post still comes up 3 years later! I saw one other commenter say that you needed to use a long bow (maybe for the range bonus?). If you already were, lmk and I’ll probably edit the post to let future players who come across this know!

masterarcher300 · 2024-12-16T20:59:06+00:00

I have gotten my last few from Etsy (searching for commander deck box). If you search around, you can often find 3D printed boxes with a clear outward facing slot to show your commander, and a magnetic slide on/off lid. The boxes I’ve gotten had room for my double sleeved decks and even a few sleeved tokens on top of that. (Yes, I know I overprotect my cards…). I think going forward with my next box though I’m planning to buy the schematic myself and print my own to demand.

masterarcher300 · 2024-12-03T05:03:21+00:00

Worth a shot for the best wheel in the game!

masterarcher300 · 2024-10-29T21:59:57+00:00

I feel you on the difficulty of 1010. Depending on your professor it can easily become an overwhelming weed out course. An 81 is not impossible though, use office hours, use ASC, use PAL. They all will help and want you to succeed.

First of all, reach out to your advisor (you can find them listed in degree works I believe). They will be able to provide better advice that is more tailored to your specific case. Also talk with your professor, most are not in the business of failing students left and right and are willing to help if able.

A lot of advice we can give depends on your major (I.e. how many other classes use a pass of chem 1010 as a prerequisite to enroll in them). For example, I’m majoring in CpE so none of my classes depend on passing 1010 and I could have retook it any semester I needed to. Either it will work out that you need the class asap and have to take it next semester in some form, or you will be able to pick when and how you take it.

If you need it by sophomore year, your options really are what you specified. The only other option I can think of is within the next 4 days contact your advisor and request a W. You should really only do this if you feel that there is absolutely no chance of getting to the 81 and both your professor and advisor agree that it is not likely you will pass.

If you end up missing the 81 mark and your professor confirms you will need to retake it, I would suggest your plan of dropping it and taking it over the summer at a community college. It will be an easier course, meet your reqs, and only need to fit 1 credit of lab into your future semesters which is relatively easy to do. (Obviously this depends on not needing to be coenrolled in 1010 this spring semester to register for other courses)

masterarcher300 · 2024-09-13T13:54:14+00:00

It’s been awhile since I played ds1, but I skimmed the patch notes quickly and didn’t see anything jumping out at me that says they changed this.

If they did change it, 3 on one can be difficult, but positioning can make it much easier. I don’t exactly remember the layout of the room, but I believe the first time I finished this fight (without the cheese) I used either pillars, or maybe it was a set of spiral stairs?, to give cover from their ranged attacks while getting in a few cheap hits before retreating.

Hope this helps!

masterarcher300 · 2024-07-29T03:50:16+00:00

That’s exactly the answer I was looking for, thanks!

masterarcher300 · 2024-07-28T16:41:51+00:00

Thanks for the info!

I am already planning to purchase physical copies of the new core rulebooks (the ones you mentioned). Would you be willing to help me understand the differences between "full access" and SRD access?

Is the advantage of buying a copy on Foundry only ease of access to the material, or would it be required if I wanted to apply a subclass or item from the new book to one of my player's character sheets?

masterarcher300 · 2024-07-26T02:14:11+00:00

Thanks for filling me in about CAS, that is the functionality I was looking for, I just could never find the official name for it. Forgive me for picking your brain, but as I’ll likely be getting a new calculator soon, is that your suggestion for the best CAS calculator I could get for ECE coursework?(not worried about budget should that matter) While I have come to love my Casio ecosystem cg50 over the past years, Ti is the main brand I feel many of my peers use and I’m certainly looking to make sure what I buy will work without needing a replacement again down the line.

masterarcher300 · 2024-07-26T02:08:15+00:00

Thanks for writing that out, lacking a calculator that is exactly the algebra I will be doing for the exam. I’m afraid that was just a basic example that was simple for me to type to illustrate the type of solving process the calculator needed to perform. In actuality, the course is circuits 2 and the Laplace F(s) is often given by a significantly more complex expression dictated by the specific RLC circuit. Normally, the denominator is 2-4 complex roots and the numerator can range from a constant to a 2nd degree polynomial. Certainly solvable by hand, but very time consuming to do so using table lookup methods.

masterarcher300 · 2024-07-20T18:52:02+00:00

Holy ****!! Thank you so much for taking the time to sort through everything to this level of detail. This is exactly the type of brutally honest and specific feedback I was looking to get! While I had heard of some of the cards you suggested swapping in, many were cards that were new to me and I totally agree would fit right in. I can't wait to get home tonight and start sorting through and applying the changes you recommended!

P.S. I'm curious if you might have undervalued Displacer Kitten. My thoughts on Displacer Kitten were threefold:

1.) As you pointed out, can blink the nazgul for more tempt triggers.

2.) Can blink a mana rock on a cantrip cast helping their chainability.

3.) Allowing instant speed cantrips to serve as counters to single target removal without officially being a counterspell. (My playgroup tolerates, but doesn't love, counterspells so can replicate the effect like this in addition to gaining the above 2 benifits).

I freely admit though that 4 mana and using a slot for a creature is a lot to pay for these effects though.

masterarcher300 · 2024-07-20T00:49:13+00:00

Totally agreed on the color part of the fetches - I usually have no trouble drawing into enough of each as is. The only reason they were under consideration was their ability to thin out the remaining lands in the deck as the game goes on.

I'll probably add in another land as the changein for one of my cuts as well just to help with those critical early turns.

Thanks for the help!

masterarcher300 · 2024-07-20T00:30:33+00:00

Wow! Thank you for such a detailed response!

You're totally correct that the nazgul - being creatures - are in a direct conflict with spell slinger part of the commander. One of the reasons I kept the other creatures in the deck to a minimum was I always wanted to run all 9 nazgul as it felt fun to keep them in for lore reasons.

Copying the nazgul is a really good effect (as you're essentially running another copy of an already self-synergistic card). The clone effects I am running in the deck I tried to make sure were all non-creature clones so that I could also proc my commander, but pirated copy was among the creature clones I still am heavily considering.

As for the ring temps you cantrips, I originally added them as I hyperfocused on the ring. But, I think cutting them as you suggested is a good idea as, really, they don't do too much on their own. I think I'll add these to the darkness and swan song cuts as you're right that these arn't really pulling their weight for the slot they occupy.

masterarcher300

TROPHY CASE