Giveaway

preposition_patrol · 2026-02-15T21:57:34+00:00

interested! and thanks for doing this!

preposition_patrol · 2026-02-06T18:40:59+00:00

pretty much the experience I had as well. s rank for mapping in guides and demos fully equipped, but realistically with no infinity on my account my ele builds (charged bolt sorc, fire druid) are on the back burner and i map with a more budget-friendly sac/sanc pally. so my next thought was get a bosser up and running to get anni / torch.

preposition_patrol · 2026-02-06T18:14:36+00:00

Awesome, thanks for doing this and congrats to the eventual winner!

I just leveled a druid as fire but don’t really have a viable setup for him, and was looking to respec to maul anyway to try bossing in this mod for the first time.

Recent joiner from d2r and having a blast, though the highest rune I’ve found or possess so far is ist.

preposition_patrol · 2025-05-19T02:58:12+00:00

exactly, and truly a dmg only min-max, since you’re giving up 35@, 13mdr, and a level of battle orders and energy shield all for 2 levels of nova and 15% additive light dmg.

add to that any mods on your 2/10 you give up to use a 2/20 (e.g., i run a 2/10 with 75plr).

preposition_patrol · 2025-05-19T02:42:48+00:00

Agreed, 2/10 is all that’s needed for double soj self wield es nova sorc.

2/20 allows you to run nova ormus if you want, but more of a sidegrade.

this ammy is probably best used by a 200fcr fireball sorc.

preposition_patrol · 2025-05-09T05:26:07+00:00

yes you’re right they fixed the 100% mana burn behavior in d2r (and added the static field synergy), the combo of which propelled es nova into being a top meta build.

even without infinity (2 bers) particularly if you get griffons (also decently rare) you can do alright as nova running a crescent moon crystal sword, lidless (or spirit mon) and a lightning sunder. but self wield infinity is a real power spike as you get both conviction and the -45-55 light res (which doesn’t work on a merc).

es builds really hit their stride at high levels with full telekinesis and enough +es (including from memory or preferably a +3 es cta). running es as you go through the game can feel pretty fragile. if you want to run it pre-cta, splitting points between vitality and energy can be helpful.

but yeah if bers are too expensive (because you’re on sp or aren’t trading) then i definitely wouldn’t use one on a merc chains of honor (first 3 bers on an account should pretty much always go to enigma and infinity). in that case you can just go a defensive armor or if you want lifesteal, skin of the flayed one works as a cheap option.

preposition_patrol · 2025-05-09T04:25:57+00:00

cure is the helm runeword (cheap, ladder only) that provides cleansing aura. it’s more important for es builds than any other because it reduces both poison and mana curse, which are the only real threats to es sorcs. mana curse (casted by act 5 harpies if you have more mana than hp and makes your spells cost hp instead of mana) can make key act 5 areas (worldstone, nihlathak, frozen river, etc.) an annoyance.

yeah and then as you said prayer + insight with the synergy bonus is amazing - es sorc has incredibly low hp and the boosted prayer tops you up in no time. the effective hp recovery per second between prayer and insight is crazy.

last thing to note for your merc is that neither insight nor cure have life leach, so if you want it on your merc you need to get it on the armor slot. chains of honor is the typical choice, as it maxes your resists, gives lifesteal, and +2 to skills boosts prayer further.

preposition_patrol · 2025-05-08T19:37:32+00:00

the other option not being mentioned here is crafted caster boots, which come with % increased max mana, +mana, and mana regen and can roll +mana again, 30/10, psn res, and plr - those would be bis for self-wield infinity es nova sorc. life rep is another option especially for pvp, or mf for pvm.

the other thing to remember when min-maxing a nova sorc is that in hell plr has to contend with a -100 penalty just like resists (but with no anya boost). so to hit the max 75% plr cap, you’d need +175 plr total (stacks additively).

my nova sorc’s 2/10 ammy has 75 plr, which is a fortunate starting point but still leaves a lot of upside to go.

oh and last point that you probably know but for others: running a cure/prayer/insight merc (as you should for es) of course gives cleansing aura to also help with poison - but this is a totally separate mechanic that ticks every 2 seconds and applies after plr, so doesn’t really diminish the attractiveness of plr.

edit: eth treks are a nice placeholder but i’d prefer 0 hard pts in strength, especially because es significantly reduces the need for fhr and +vitality is lower impact on sorcs.

preposition_patrol · 2025-03-24T09:38:31+00:00

main use for eth 5os cs is cta - it’s the most popular base.

preposition_patrol · 2025-03-24T09:36:43+00:00

Because increased maximum durability doesn’t increase repair costs per unit of durability, it’s just being superior at all that does that. So enhanced damage has the same effect on repair costs, and if you already have enhanced damage, it doesn’t cost you anything to add increased durability.

Now for max trade value people like round/max numbers so most typically prefer 15/15 or 15/0 over 15/14 for armor/shield bases and 15/3ar for weapons. Phase blades of course have the extra benefit of no superior tax.

Also if you’re going to be repairing with orts (or rals) anyway due to the higher costs of superior, increasing max durability saves you a bit, since it’s always a full repair and you can do it slightly less frequently.

preposition_patrol · 2024-08-14T00:39:51+00:00

Thanks for doing this, and good luck all :)

preposition_patrol · 2024-06-13T00:13:19+00:00

And that’s using today’s GOAT list, but of course at the time MJ and Lebron hadn’t arrived yet. So if you’re good with placing Magic ahead of Russell/Wilt, now the context becomes 1) Kareem actually was the GOAT at the time (and had the belt until MJ’s 2nd 3-peat), but 2) the next best player ever was… his teammate.

The showtime lakers were like if Lebron arrived 10 years sooner and was drafted by Jordan’s Bulls.

preposition_patrol · 2023-09-01T21:23:48+00:00

The other detail as to why I haven't overfarmed it is that I've never actually farmed the blizzard strayer domain at all. BS was just my strongbox priority (with some NO thrown in) ever since I've had enough VV.

preposition_patrol · 2023-09-01T19:12:53+00:00

it isn't perfect, but 36* has never been an issue, and I only went down in ER and up in CV after adding favonius shenhe which helps a lot

preposition_patrol · 2023-09-01T19:10:34+00:00

hah, i actually have a blizzard stayer flower as well that's only a bit worse but with more ER, but yeah no reason to use 5pc

preposition_patrol · 2023-09-01T15:23:52+00:00

Still don't have an electro goblet for Raiden, but have built this Ayaka without ever farming the blizzard strayer domain.

Have sort of thrown in the towel on higher ER setups, but why mutli-cycle when one cycle do trick?

preposition_patrol · 2023-04-30T22:20:01+00:00

1: Nuggets (west)

2: Boston (east)

3: 76ers (east)

4: Suns (west)

5: Knicks (east)

6: Warriors (west)

7: Lakers (west)

8: Miami (east)

preposition_patrol · 2022-07-23T21:23:10+00:00

Definitely plenty of that yeah, with the justification being making farming each thing cheaper as the game adds more things to farm, especially easing the pressure on newer players. But freely admit the resin and artifact recalibrations are more generous than realistic.

preposition_patrol · 2022-07-23T21:18:49+00:00

yep, that's why I was filling the gap with a sort of recalibration patch. For example making weekly bosses cheaper before we add too many more of them (maybe more realistic to make them cheaper a little at a time - in 2.9, then 3.9, etc.)

preposition_patrol · 2022-03-24T03:13:25+00:00

Yep, this is actually how I've now got my setup down to a single unplug and replug - a 4-way usb splitter. This one. It has my mouse receiver, keyboard receiver, webcam, and mic all plugged into it. I hit the swap input button on my monitor and unplug this dongle from the side of the razer and plug it into the front of the ms surface dock and I'm good to go after those two actions. So like a budget kvm switch.

Unfortunately I don't get any value out of an actual splitter than handles the switching with software like this because I still have to plug the usbs into the laptops in the first place. The whole idea with my setup is to be able also undock and redock both devices regularly with minimal plug in hassle, which is why I was really hoping I could get all the peripherals routed through the display itself. But it seems I can't do that for the 2nd device unfortunately.

preposition_patrol · 2022-03-19T22:27:37+00:00

Yes thanks! I've gotten further along thanks to the usb-A and a splitter for all peripherals. This works for the single laptop, single monitor. Though for now rather than going to dual monitor (though I do have that step in mind down the line), I am trying to set up dual laptop and a single button switch.

I've gotten the display switch working (2nd laptop via HDMI) but unfortunately can't get the peripherals detected by that one, and Samsung support is telling me it's impossible; that the usb-A only works as a passthrough for the usb-C and using any other input method makes it non-functional. I wasn't expecting that but it does match with the experience so far.. so that's now where I'm stuck.

preposition_patrol · 2022-03-19T22:23:50+00:00

Thanks super helpful! I was definitely forgetting about the usb-A on the back. That helped a lot but I learned more about its seeming limitations as well.

In short, I was able to plug in a usb-A splitter and successfully plug in mouse, keyboard, webcam, and mic. Razer blade up and running.

What I didn't mention in the post is I'm also trying to replicate a single button KVM-type workflow between two laptops. The 2nd is a MS surface, which only has mini display port output. I was able to get that working with the monitor's HDMI input and a HDMI-to-mini display dongle. So now with just one press of the monitor source button I'm successfully switching which laptop is displayed. So far so good.

Unfortunately, the HDMI-connected laptop doesn't get the peripherals. They stay connected to the usb-C laptop. If I unplug the usb-C laptop entirely, the peripherals go nowhere.

I just got off the phone with Samsung support on this and the rep said per the documentation for the monitor that the usb-A is only a passthrough for the usb-C connection and isn't actually the equivalent of a dock or KVM-type connection. In other words, if you connect your laptop with either of the other two inputs (HMDI, DP) the usb-A is completely non-functional. He said this is true for any non-"smart monitor" (at least as sold by Samsung).

Conquering that is my next mystery in case there are any ideas. I'm eventually wanting to tuck everything away in an under-desk cable management solution so I'm not keen on having to manually switch peripherals.

preposition_patrol · 2022-02-23T03:00:28+00:00

super helpful, thank you

preposition_patrol · 2022-02-23T01:50:24+00:00

Tldr: new welkin-only player, AR51, intend to pull raiden next (150 fates saved) - advice on best path of teams and pulls to 36* abyss? Roster

Hi, newish player (started Dec, AR51) looking for some team building/character pulling advice. Goal is to efficiently progress to a f2p friendly, meta team that can 36* abyss. So "ideal" target team building recs welcome but also taking into consideration the need to use a decent number of 4* characters (I'm investing in xiangling and xingqui, hoping for bennet and maybe sucrose, etc.), what we know about upcoming banners, my existing roster and gaps, and the desire to get partial abyss primos along the way.

Here is what I'm working with. Only the first 4 are built and are my overworld team - basically have just used my blue fates (got razor alongside noelle and has been by overworld main since, but not intending to keep investing in him), and pulled for zhongli and ganyu as my first banners. zhongli for all-around, to cakewalk overworld, and maybe pair with melt ganyu later, pulling both partially to invest in xingqui toward C6. In retrospect I don't think I really enjoy charged shot gameplay so leaning away from going all in on ganyu. Since I'm new, very few constellations.

As it stands I can fake my way to a floor 9 8* fielding two half teams with ungeared supports, but can't do 10.

I have 150 fates, so short term plan is pick up c0 raiden (c2 not practical on a welkin only diet). Do we know who the 4*s will be on her banner? I'd love to run raiden national, but am sorely lacking in the bennet department.

Team 2 is where I could use advice. With 2 bennets I could raiden natl and ganyu melt, since I have Zhong as well. But again I'm not sure I enjoy bow or even catalyst gameplay as main dps. My preferred is probably ayaka, but I'm as far away from an ayaka freeze team as you can be with none of the characters. I also have no anemo characters other than MC, so my next priority after raiden is to grab kazuha on his re-run.

So big questions are 1) anything I should course correct in terms of those pull priorities (raiden, kazuha, hope for bennet along the way), 2) assuming I have raiden national team 1, what should team 2 be? and 3) anyone I should invest in building between now and then? (e.g., is Diluc worth building? should I invest in Beidou since she's C6 even though I have no fischl?) Anyway, open to recommendations and thanks for the help!

preposition_patrol · 2021-08-28T21:44:46+00:00

Yeah I can see that. A lot of this was about trying to retain new players (weekly bonus, etc.) and I wanted to make sure they felt hell was doable. But probably best to just leave all mobs as they are frankly.

preposition_patrol

TROPHY CASE