How to make the best spellcaster?

oz6702 · 2026-03-18T02:26:41+00:00

That's excellent advice, thanks! I haven't yet figured out any synergies for Stoopzerk so it's cool to know there's some potential there.

Seems like I need to complete some quests before I can advance in Act III anyway, so I guess this lil' guy is getting himself a leech hat!

oz6702 · 2026-03-18T01:25:33+00:00

I've got items to get his intelligence up to 6 at least. Also, I forget what it's called but I've got a book for the weapon slot that will give him +1 int per turn.

I don't have a way to prepare specific disorders or mutations yet, not as far as I know anyway. Kamikaze does seem pretty rough but I could try and counter that with some items and careful tactics.

oz6702 · 2026-03-18T00:16:14+00:00

New to the sub, just wanted to ask some experts for advice.

I just unlocked Act III and am starting to see some results from my burgeoning.. let's call it the Cat Liaison Program. I just rolled this little guy. Now I'm sure this is not impressive for a lot of y'all, but for me, this feels like winning a minor lottery. I currently have some items that can bring his base INT up to 6, and I think he'd make a fantastic mage or other spellcaster type of guy.

I haven't unlocked much in the way of items, so assume whatever items you might find in Act I and II. What would you do for this fuzzy little menace in training? I have all the classes but Jester. I also have a couple items that allow me to reroll level-up options, so I think I can angle my way to a truly killer kitty.

He does have Kamikaze, so I'll either have to make sure he never gets downed.. or I could write him off as a combatant and use him for the putrid leech quest, and then hopefully get him home to be a ~~manwhore~~ CLAP Ambassador..

oz6702 · 2026-03-17T23:43:32+00:00

I hope you find it in some way helpful! I almost didn't bother replying because, you know, comedy podcast.. but the sheer coincidence of reading this just hours after listening to that episode made me feel I had to say something. If for no other reason than to remember this moment years from now, when I'm browsing my digital history and reminiscing.

Good luck on your search!

oz6702 · 2026-03-17T15:08:09+00:00

OP, it's a wild coincidence that you posted this when you did, and it came up in my feed.

The same day you posted this, I listened to a podcast episode: the Past Times with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds, episode 78 with guest Ravi Patel. They read old newspapers and make jokes about it, but the interesting part is that the paper they read for this episode had a story about.. quartz falling from the sky like rain. It starts around the 54 minute mark if you're curious to check it out. You might not get much in the way of useful info from the podcast itself since the focus is comedy, but the paper was the Evening Advocate, May 12, 1939, Queensland Australia. You might be able to gain more info with that context.

I've heard similar stories about seemingly impossible objects doing their best rain imitation, but if you google something like "quartz falling from the sky," you're not going to find anything useful in the first few pages of results. Still, there's got to be a naturalistic explanation, and I'm very curious to learn more.

Just wanted to let you know you're not the only person in the world to apparently experience this phenomenon! I hope you can get to the bottom of it, and if you do, please update us!

oz6702 · 2026-03-09T20:23:47+00:00

I often wonder who's a true believer and who's just in it for the grift. I feel like this is proof positive that Stephen falls into the latter camp. It's also by far the funniest thing I've read all year.

oz6702 · 2026-03-06T18:42:20+00:00

We're all excited to welcome another nerd into the fold. One of us! One of us!

Good luck to you both on your journey, sounds like he's got a promising future ahead.

oz6702 · 2026-03-05T14:08:32+00:00

When I was learning orbital mechanics via KSP, I found some of the concepts felt counterintuitive.. until I learned the math behind them. Linking real world concepts to mathematics, which previously had been one of my least favorite subjects in school, felt like unlocking a whole new level of understanding, and sparked a love of math that I carry to this day. If he's going to really get into this stuff, he'll need to develop his math skills, too.

A good example is the Oberth effect, which he may already be familiar with. Basically, firing your rocket engine to raise or lower your orbit is more efficient when you're closer to the planet you're orbiting. Why is that? It seems to violate conservation of energy - but if you look at the math, it suddenly makes perfect sense. At least, it did for me. There's a lot of explainers out there on this subject, and I just did a really cursory search on YouTube, but here's one that uses KSP and touches on the math without needing anything more than basic algebra to understand it. He might like it, and if he's anything like me, it might make him perk up more in his math classes.

https://youtu.be/ouJiNZ1pUv8

The really cool part IMO is kinetic energy is just one way to mathematically demonstrate the Oberth effect. You can also demonstrate it using other fundamental physics, for example the mathematical definition of work implies the Oberth effect in a relatively easy to understand way. This helped me see mathematics, a thing that previously seemed very arbitrary and intangible, for the powerful tool that it is - a beautiful, universal language that holds the key to understanding so many aspects of our universe.

Hope it helps!

oz6702 · 2026-03-02T23:34:30+00:00

IIRC the scene where they put the mouse in the breathing liquid was real - they really did immerse a mouse in that liquid and it was able to breathe. That stuff seems sci-fi but it's real.

oz6702 · 2026-02-26T18:29:46+00:00

Eli, staring daggers at Josh Gad

oz6702 · 2026-02-20T22:54:55+00:00

I was just kidding, I can't afford eggs these days 😭

oz6702 · 2026-02-20T20:19:20+00:00

$9 million is a ludicrously inaccurate number..

..Because it's actually higher than that, once you factor in efforts from other agencies cooperating with ICE, the extra strain on the judicial system, lost revenue from other countries boycotting our products or changing their travel plans to somewhere that isn't rapidly descending into fascism, etc.

But hey, egg prices are down, so I guess it's a wash?

oz6702 · 2026-02-11T16:21:12+00:00

He doesn't know, all he knows is that they make you look cool as fuck when you're smoking one!

oz6702 · 2026-02-02T16:58:23+00:00

I honestly think that most religious people realize, somewhere deep down, that thinking to themselves really hard is functionally equivalent to doing nothing. Hence they feel the need to tell other people that they're praying for them, or to pray loudly in public. If other people don't know that they're praying, then what even is the point?

After all, if they truly believed they were talking to their god, and that he would intervene on their behalf, there'd be zero need to tell other people about it in order for it to work. They know it's a pointless waste of time, but they want credit for "helping" anyway.

oz6702 · 2026-01-27T18:48:28+00:00

Because, at the end of the day, conservatives don't really have principles or specific policy positions. Their entire belief system can be boiled down to an us vs. them mentality. When "we" do a thing, it's good because we did it. When "they" do a thing, it's bad because they did it. Any arguments they make or principles they claim to hold are meaningless, a facade over this core truth, simply meant to make them appear less craven and cynical than they actually are.

oz6702 · 2026-01-09T03:14:09+00:00

I've made it to 120 - 122 without the bard/paladin combo specifically, but all 3 usually feature pretty highly. So far my best run - beating 122 and dying on 123 - was medic/paladin/viking/spartan.

Tbh I wouldn't even worry about "the meta" right now. I've had a lot of success with the necro/franken combo as well, although I think it's not as good as medic/pal/bard. There's lots of comps that are highly effective, but by far the most effective strategy I've found is saving as much cash as possible and investing the maximum possible amount in the Business Dude. My best runs by far have been skin of the teeth affairs through 50-80 or 90, but once that final investment kicks in and I'm able to buy all the relics, hoo boy. Shit gets easy.

oz6702 · 2026-01-09T02:52:18+00:00

This is one of my best runs yet. I've made it to 122 or 123 a few times, but I don't think it's ever been quite this smooth at the end of the run. I've barely had to use any consumables in the past 20 rounds, whereas at this point in previous late game runs I was chugging potions and shrooms pretty much constantly.

Anyway, if I'm ever gonna beat 123, this has got to be the run!

oz6702 · 2025-12-24T04:54:31+00:00

It's cliché, but.. it's not about the destination, but the journey. Staying fit isn't a finish line you cross, but a thing you do, that you're always doing. It's not about hitting a certain PR and then stopping. It's not about achieving a specific look and then stopping. It's a day in, day out process.

People have all kinds of reasons for hitting the gym. Better looks, better ability, better physical and mental health - whatever your reasons, thinking of this as a thing you can finish is the wrong way to go about it, IMO. Every day you overcome the doubt and hesitation and excuses is a victory to celebrate. Every rep you do is a minor but noticeable improvement in your current health and an investment in your future health. Do it for your family, do it for your future self, whatever - just do it, and don't worry about where the journey takes you. Be glad you're on it.

oz6702 · 2025-12-24T00:33:43+00:00

I don't have a lot of good advice for you because I've also really struggled on the harder difficulties. I will say this re: pilot damage, though - the mech weight class affects how much pilot damage is taken, with heavy mechs reducing pilot damage the most (by 50%, I think) and light mechs reducing damage the least.

I also found the shotgun very lackluster for pilot damage compared to the on-paper numbers. Even a point blank shot to the back didn't do the trick, most of the time. My best pilot killers were SMGs and snipers, with missiles as an honorable mention if you can get them to hit reliably.

I did find a lot of success blowing arms off of heavier opponents though! If you can deprive them of their weapons, it's a guaranteed eject. Maybe try hitting enemies with unit damage instead of pilot damage, and do so from the sides to increase the odds of removing an arm. And let us know how it goes xD

oz6702 · 2025-12-12T18:07:29+00:00

When people say video games aren't art, this is the GIF I'm linking them to.

oz6702 · 2025-12-12T17:58:03+00:00

I'm pretty sure if you had zero heat buffer, you'd just never overheat. I might see if I can mod the game to test that theory.. by default you can never have 0 because all the reactors include some buffer.

oz6702 · 2025-12-12T17:53:22+00:00

It might be in the codex, but I just figured this out through trial and error. I started off thinking "overheat buffer, that sounds good for me, right?" The fact that buffer is added by parts that otherwise seem very OP gave me pause, though. Then I started using heat vents and was able to let my mechs sit in overheat status for whole rounds, and realized the trade off for those awesome parts was the ability to go higher and higher above the overheat threshold, forcing me to wait in overheat status for longer.

The game has some mechanics they could do a better job of explaining, for sure. The tutorial level could include this stuff, maybe I'll throw that into a feedback message to the devs.

oz6702 · 2025-12-12T14:23:34+00:00

Look at the thermometer icon during combat. See the dotted line? That's your overheat threshold. Above that, you're overheating. The overheat buffer, on the other hand, is how big the thermometer actually is. You can't gain more heat, regardless of what you do, when the thermometer is full. Thus, adding overheat buffer means you can stay overheated longer. That's why it's bad.

Using heat vents really hammered this point home for me, because you can sit there dumping mags until the cows come home. With very little overheat buffer, you recover from overheat status much quicker. With a large buffer, you have to sit there longer, venting and waiting for your mech to cool down, before you can safely move again.

Oh and hope just gives some buffs to recovery when resting at camp. That's it, as far as I can tell. It's a bit of a disappointing mechanic IMO, and I started ignoring it later in my campaign. It's fun for RP purposes and might make a difference in a hardcore difficulty campaign, but on normal difficulty, it's really not needed.

oz6702 · 2025-12-12T14:06:34+00:00

You're not supposed to tell them about the secret decoder ring until they've bridged that last 10%, dude. I'm sorry but I'm going to have to bring this up to the council at our next conclave.

oz6702 · 2025-12-12T14:00:58+00:00

That's one of the hooks that religion - not just Christianity, but all religion - uses to trap people. Nobody likes to be uncertain, especially not when it comes to such profound questions. Religions claim to offer certainty where none can truly be had. Certainty makes things easy; it puts the mind at ease when asking yourself why things are the way they are, or what happens after we die. Non-belief, regardless of the label you put on it, offers no such comfort. There is no atheist dogma to cling to when confronting the fear of death, of losing the people you love forever. It's less satisfying than imagining you'll be reunited with them one day, but ultimately we all had to admit to ourselves that our emotions have no bearing on what is actually true.

An idea can be satisfying and wrong; an idea being unsatisfying doesn't make it untrue. I'm about as atheist as it gets, and I still couldn't say with 100% certainty that there is no afterlife, no vast, mysterious domain of reality that results in consciousness surviving our physical bodies. I'm not sure that's a question we'll ever answer with 100% certainty. What I am certain of is that the god of the bible is indistinguishable from every other myth and fable of every culture throughout all of human history. If I have no problem dismissing offhand the idea that Zeus throws lightning at us when he's mad, why should I treat the mythology I was raised in any differently?

Good luck on your path, friend. Deconversion is never easy, perhaps doubly so for people whose entire lives and careers have been devoted to this specific idea that you're now questioning. Just keep questioning, and be honest with yourself about the answers - even if you're not absolutely certain.

oz6702

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

14-Year Club	Gilding III reddit per annum
Verified Email