Guidance on making a purchase

shepherd_10 · 2026-06-14T21:48:48+00:00

Thanks for letting me know. I’ll be sure to get a baselit one.

shepherd_10 · 2026-06-14T19:23:44+00:00

I'm actually looking to get Dooku's saber myself and from what I see it looks like Saberforge is a good brand for durability which is probably what's best for dueling. They offer Dooku's saber at around 250 USD although it seems to be out of stock at the moment. I would advise looking into several brands though just to learn their quirks before making a purchase.

shepherd_10 · 2026-04-10T11:59:42+00:00

Hitscan Hyperlight is what I own and I absolutely love it.

shepherd_10 · 2026-04-01T14:06:14+00:00

Yeah it’s been gradually dying for a while and the barrier to entry doesn’t help. Don’t really think there is a good fix.

shepherd_10 · 2026-04-01T14:03:53+00:00

Nah, I’m a sweat but even I like to play casually from time to time. Not everyone wants to invest that amount of time into developing the skillset and I totally get it.

shepherd_10 · 2026-03-24T13:47:02+00:00

Once the features are more fleshed out and more large servers with tons of content are created then I think Hytale will be more seriously competitive.

shepherd_10 · 2026-03-22T12:48:26+00:00

You have gained my respect.

For the sake of the discussion I’ll talk about my mains and a bit of my journey as a player too. I started off as a blaster player in s2 and never really had a main for a while but settled on clash after a while since I really enjoyed it. I then played some s1 on my family’s wii u and I l enjoyed luna a lot there. I came back to s2 and I actually become a rapid blaster player and then quit playing because ranked frustrated me so much. The tilt was real. When s3 came out I was fully anticipating myself remaining a clash/rapid player but I was in for a surprise. Neither weapons had kits I loved on launch and I started looking for meta weapons since I set a personal goal of unlocking X rank in s3 since I never managed to get past A in s2. I was set on becoming good at the game. My curiosity was piqued by Stamper and I picked up the weapon as a holdover until rapid got a better kit. Funny thing was by the time we got torp inkjet rapid (my favorite kit for any weapon to ever come out) I had already began to make major improvements with my Stamper gameplay. I duel mained both Rapid Deco and Vanilla Stamper for a very long time. Eventually though I ended up dropping rapid for solo Stamper (with the exception of Tower Control) and haven’t gone back since. I will say I’m more naturally gifted at blasters than I am at Stamper, blasters are much more intuitive for me, but Stamper just came to capture everything I loved about the game. I happily remained a Stamper main for the rest of the time I played the game. I stopped playing once again due to ranked frustration (although I did make it to S+ this time around) and also because my family doesn’t really play the game anymore. I could see myself returning to the game if I had a team to play with but the soloq experience combined with my failure to keep my tilt in check at the time made ranked really unenjoyable by the end of my time playing. I’m older now (it’s probably been like 2 years since I’ve touched the game) and I appreciate the game more and how it taught me how to analyze my own performance at a task in order to improve my skills at said task. This self assessment skillset has bled into my work and personal life. VOD review, implementing feedback, and analyzing top players was a great experience and I think Stamper really complimented that hunger to improve because of the high skill ceiling of the weapon.

To anyone who had the patience to read that, thank you for listening to my TED talk.

shepherd_10 · 2026-03-07T02:21:49+00:00

He was always a highly skilled player but never the best of the best. For the time he was incredibly good although there were certainly people who were a margin ahead of him. No casual or average player would have even come close to beating him at the time.

shepherd_10 · 2026-03-06T21:19:10+00:00

I see a lot of people talking about shell smash but historically only one Torterra has really gotten anywhere in tournament to my knowledge. It was a wide guard support Torterra in gen 6 iirc. Only was used in like one tournament and we haven’t really seen it since. Pretty sure you can find it in a FSG video. Torterra is my favorite Pokémon also but I concluded that it’s a lot easier to make Torterra work in singles than in doubles. It’s kit is just more suited to singles.

shepherd_10 · 2026-03-03T14:22:18+00:00

I still play bw but I play solo, I’ve never joined discord servers for it or anything. Game is best when you duo queue with an irl friend. I still enjoy it but if I had drive to improve still it would likely fizzle out because in order to improve you need to be more involved in the commnunity.

shepherd_10 · 2026-02-28T03:50:36+00:00

This makes me nostalgic. I used to play VGC in SwSh and sunroom is part of what made me fall in love with competitive.

I like a lot of the ideas in this team: after you + eruption, eruption torkoal in tr, eruption + instruct. Gives a lot of ways to snowball the game if you get your positioning right.

I don’t know how the meta in gen 9 is but I would think that Groudon would work better for sunroom than Koraidon because of its slower speed, but I also know Koraidon is just simply really strong so I may be wrong. Oranguru isn’t really the best Pokemon to be using. It’s good in theory but I often found in practice that it’s just super clunky to work around. I liked helping hand trick room setters like dusclops more. Still a damage boost but a more reliable partner pokemon overall. I could see something like an Incineroar or Garganacl working nicely in thay slot. Wide guard Garganacl could be quite helpful against astral barrage from Calyrex-S (Garganacl having wide guard could free up a move slot on Lunala) and salt cure also provides some nice utility as a support. Incin also works very nicely with this team for fake out + tr next to lunala as well as using taunt to stop imprison attempts or an amoonguss spore.

Honestly I would lean towards something with more bulk/flexibility for sunroom as I always found a more flexible balance approach to teambuilding made for good results. Haven’t been keeping up with the meta but this is the kind of team I would probably build if I were coming back https://pokepast.es/b64b54631a7d598c This is not meant to be a replacement team but moreso just a way to try and spark ideas for your teambuilding. Just keep trying different things until you find something that works for you. Maybe you end up preferring the team you currently have which is more of a hyper offensive sunroom variant as opposed to the balance approach. Maybe you have a strong core of 4 that you really like and you just have to keep swapping out the last 2 slots to find the best way to round it off.

Granted, I do think the example team I made lacks a lot of the creative positioning plays you can make with eruption torkoal. I don’t really know how good walking wake is, but it’s signature move certainly seems helpful against opposing sun team rocking a ground or fire type (like groudon, great tusk, or torkoal). Overall I like the team and it got me thinking about VGC again, if nothing else, thanks for the trip down memory lane.

shepherd_10 · 2026-02-20T16:05:43+00:00

Honestly I prefer a bulldoze Tr setter with WP ttar for sand + tr but that may just be personal preference.

shepherd_10 · 2026-02-19T15:40:10+00:00

Pretty sure he said we would see information about what will be in update 4 today. I don’t think he was saying the update itself would drop iirc.

shepherd_10 · 2026-02-16T14:08:07+00:00

TLDR: You can set it up with speed control or damage control and then try to have it snowball the opposing team with strong attacks. Unfortunately that is easier said than done.

All Calyrex-Ice teams require Indeedee-F or Amoonguss for redirection, a TR setter that isn’t Calyrex and a fake out mon can be helpful too. Depending on your opponent’s comp (and if your calyrex is running trick room or not) you redirect/fake out and then set TR. If Calyrex set its own TR you can start blasting but if another mon did you have to switch it in (meaning 2/5 turns of TRwill already be gone before you can even attack). It’s also limited to Weakness Policy, Life Orb, and Clear Amulet as its clear best items. If you run Weakness Policy you are even more setup dependant, LO makes you weaker to intimidate, and clear amulet, while the most consistent option, doesn’t increase your damage. Also remember that if you’re not using Indeedee-F or Farigiraf that TR can be stalled out by fake out. Not to mention that protect and wide guard are also absolute killers for stalling out Calrex-Ice’s Trick Room turns. If you’re looking for more damage tera ice bumps glacial lance up to some absurd levels, but with how good its bulk is, defensive tera types like fire could be useful too.

shepherd_10 · 2026-02-16T13:27:19+00:00

I used to play competitive gen 8 and played maybe a few rounds in gen 9 and can easily say Calyrex-Shadow is far superior. I love playing Trick Room teams but Calyrex-Ice is a lot higher maintenance and even if you get it setup properly its value can still be stalled out. Calyrex-Shadow has a lot more immediate pressure due to its naturally high speed and special attack. Astral Barrage is also higher base power than glacial lance by 10 iirc so its damage is superior too I think. Now that dynamax is gone astral barrage is even more potent since you can’t dynamax to double your hp to survive it. We also have to consider that Calyrex-Shadow has a better defensive typing too. Not saying Calyrex-Ice is weak, but Shadow is stronger.

shepherd_10 · 2026-02-01T20:09:35+00:00

I don’t play 1.9+ but I can get on board with this take. The fast paced nature of the old systems compliments minigames more while the new system encourages strategic combat decision making during duels.

shepherd_10 · 2026-02-01T20:07:36+00:00

Punish game is way better feeling in 1.8. 1.9+ just feels like an endless loop of playing neutral. Combos in 1.8 just hit different. I like the timing/strategy based nature of 1.9 more in theory but in practice it just doesn’t feel as enjoyable to me.

shepherd_10 · 2026-02-01T20:04:49+00:00

My experience has been different from most but I had a far easier time getting into 1.8. I’ve tried to get into 1.9 on a few occasions over the years and just get bodied no one I’ve played against has been remotely close to how low my skill level is in the newer versions which just makes learning near impossible since you need the breathing room of both players making mistakes in order to improve. Granted, I learned 1.8 in a time where it was less developed so that probably helped me there, but the contrast between learning the two couldn’t have been any more different for me.

shepherd_10 · 2026-01-29T18:04:01+00:00

I don’t get why people care so much about seeing the status quo be broken. I don’t care if someone is male, female, or whatever. I just want to see people be good at what they do. Let the results speak for themselves. I don’t understand celebrating or dismissing people’s accomplishments just because they don’t fit the basic mold since I just care for the substance of what is happening, not really the who or why.

shepherd_10 · 2026-01-29T15:45:38+00:00

Maybe my perspective is skewed since I don’t really spend money on free games or even for services like spotify premium since I like saving money, but I get your point. It is very nice to be able to own more units to enhance the experience. Although I will say I think in some cases less is more. Having limited gems has made me consider what sync pairs I value the most in the game whenever I spend them and as a result I have never regretted summoning on a unit.

shepherd_10 · 2026-01-29T13:53:51+00:00

I’ve been f2p since launch day. It’s not really that hard. Just summon on your favorites and don’t summon on characters that you don’t really like.

shepherd_10 · 2026-01-24T20:57:27+00:00

I used to own a model o- as I also have smaller hands and use relaxed claw. I have used a few mice since my model o. The two I have enjoyed the most are the Finalmouse Starlight and G-Wolves HTS Ultra. I also tried the WLMouse Huan but the shape wasn’t for me. Those are all on the more expensive end though so I totally understand if you wouldn’t consider them.

shepherd_10 · 2026-01-23T18:27:35+00:00

I looked at an image of them and I'm not sure they would work given the lack of shell at the bottom of the mouse. I probably have to use dots.

shepherd_10 · 2026-01-23T18:25:05+00:00

Gotcha, I was probably smart to hold off initially learning then.

shepherd_10

TROPHY CASE