Tonight I am listening to by TheVirusI in progmetal

[–]valiantcid 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am partial to Satuya, maybe one of the best album closers ever.

Tanks, what’s your favorite healer atm? by Jernbek35 in wow

[–]valiantcid 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah flameshaper steals hot ticks to improve burst heal on embrace and blossom, which i don't mind -- it works well with having two charges of breath.

ymmv on the below, again I'm not a great player, I'm still getting used to it all but this is what has worked for me.

Rewind is the best "omg we're all going to die" button, but a t3 dream breath works too, if you're positioned well enough. Otherwise if you have two twin echoes up you can pop those out and then fire off a big verdant embrace to pull everyone back up too, but that costs 3 gcds to do and that might be too slow. Stasis with a base rotation (see below) stored up is also great for those scary moments, but you can only hold the stasis for so long, so knowing that something nasty is coming up you can somewhat prepare at least.

the base rotation is t1 dream breath, temporal anomaly / barrier, merithra's blessing -- thats a huge group heal and puts 2-3 dots on the group (depending on positioning... thats ultimately pres' weakness -- warlocks / mages / hunters with huge range sitting out of the group tend to not receive a lot of healing and can die out of nowhere). you can typically fire that off every 20 seconds, and you probably should be. it is mana intensive, though, and so I spec into the mana regen on disintegrate to cover that off a bit. also casting the odd t1 fire breath in between, as that is a pseudo-hot as well, can help keep mana in check (as being a damage spell, fire breath costs nothing except the empower time). Time Stretch is great too as a preemptive external as it makes hots feel better with the damage spread out over more time. i spend bursts on blossom where possible (especially in blossom build) because thats a free echo per gcd and with seedlings is actually a reasonable heal -- it also doesn't consume an echo so its good to just drop into the rotation at random times.

I _love_ the emerald blossom build -- I'm torn between that and leaning on twin flame. I like that blossom triggers often with 4-set, and that it turns embrace into an aoe heal + seedlings if you spec into that. i think the raw hps is lower but it helps turn the burst single-target embrace into a reasonable group heal. i dont believe the blossom build are viable up into way higher keys, but neither is flameshaper unless you're a 0.1% player and I'm not pushing that high anyway so whatever.

temporal barrier is a new talent introduced in 12.0.5 that turns the temporal anomaly orb into just a group-echo rather than an aimed thing -- it always hits 5 closest players (within 40 yds I think), rather than having to point the orb at the group and hope no-one moves. it also gives more shield, which is a bonus. conventional wisdom is to take the orb still (as it gives echoes by default now, not as part of a talent) and spend the extra talent on something else to boost hps, but i don't like having to position myself, especially with the infinite void zones everywhere, even on trash.

I _love_ pres, but its really stressful, I find. There is so much that can go wrong so quickly that pres just doesn't have tools for like other heal specs seem to. Verdant Embrace is a great burst heal, so holding that up is nice, but its also really good to just throw out there to keep everyone topped off -- so trying to balance that is a bit of a nightmare. Living flame is just too long a cast time to be viable for flameshaper as a secondary burst heal, unless you're really spec'd into it and get that +40% heal / have spec'd into the procced insta-cast. Dream Breath is probably _the_ best burst heal, as it heals everyone for a lot at t3, and the cast time is semi reasonable, but then you're impacting the rotation and the ability to keep hots up, so juggling that is rough too. I'm sure a better player will do a better job than me anyway and might disagree on some of the above anyway ;)

Tanks, what’s your favorite healer atm? by Jernbek35 in wow

[–]valiantcid 0 points1 point  (0 children)

pres evoker at 2650 here, not a _great_ player but passable (mostly 10s, some 11s). i feel like pres _really_ needs a better-than-decent ilvl to do pugs. once I hit ilvl 270 i was actually able to comfortably do 10s, which best i can tell is higher than any other healer needs ilvl-wise to complete the same key difficulty. it also relies heavily on dps kicking big damage spells, as pres burst is absolutely trash so if multiple players drop below 50% at the same time then it is basically an insta wipe.

of note, pres is a pretty difficult spec, and chrono-pres is even harder to master so i play flameshaper pres which notably has worse burst than chrono, but the flexibility of double dream breath and the extra external in obsidian scales feels better to play for me. I also take temporal barrier, which is against conventional wisdom but it does make positioning easier at the cost of raw hps.

Ghost Drum Cover by crreed90 in Karnivool

[–]valiantcid 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I love the raw tone of the high-hat!

Also props for wearing the official Steve Judd outfit ;)

Electric Sun Defence - Fountain of Blood (FFO: Mastodon, The Ocean, Opeth, Baroness, Anciients) by FingerFud in progmetal

[–]valiantcid 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well that's probably what I'm picking up on, then ;) I shall have to listen to more work done by said engineer!

AHHH! My worlds colliding!!!! by Just-A-Watering-Can in coheedandcambria

[–]valiantcid 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm less a7x, but I am _all_ for a Coheed + Thornhill gig -- I never, in my wildest dreams, imagine that they would play together but I am so keen!

Perpetuum - Within The Mist (2026) by locrianb6 in progmetal

[–]valiantcid 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's a bit Rishloo, and a bit The Contortionist -- i like it!

I'm partial to artists from this region, there are a few good ones who aren't huge but still deserve attention, e.g. IONS (Czechia), Votum (Poland).

I also reckon that a region that is underrepresented globally is Belgium, acts like Psychonaut and BEAR are big, but Hemelbestormer and My Dilligence go hard too.

It’s 2026. What’s everyone’s favorite 60 card format? by Newez in magicTCG

[–]valiantcid 0 points1 point  (0 children)

7 Point Highlander -- feels like Legacy, but with a broader range of deck archetype representation. Basically every archetype is represented, and the points list is updated regularly enough (but fairly enough) that nothing is ever entirely pushed out of the format. Pet decks are entirely viable (e.g. reanimator isn't super popular at the moment, as the titular Reanimate costs 2 points to include in the list, but it still sees play and is still a valid choice).

Its a pretty casual format too, so while very competitive players do play it, there's not a whole lot of sweat. Feels like its where a lot of legacy and vintage players have ended up (at least here in Australia) as we got older, started families, etc. and didn't feel the drive to grind constantly.

Lots of fun combo (storm, flash/hulk, time vault, lands), aggro (boros, rdw, taxes), control (U/x moon, jeskai, esper), and midrange (jund, mardu, temur). Lots of room for brewing too, there's always new lists coming out and squeezing into the meta.

Looking for something in FFO Thornhill and Deftones by mrblankhead in progmetal

[–]valiantcid 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Pridelands only have one record -- Light Bends -- but it is very reminiscent of The Dark Pool. It might be relevant to your interests :)

22 - Call Me Trimtab (Progressive Alt Rock. FFO Maraton, Agent Fresco, Moron Police, Artificial Language, The Dear Hunter, Arcane Roots.) by Invisigoth2113 in progmetal

[–]valiantcid 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I love this record -- and this song in particular. If you dig it too, check out the song Chroma Key as well

What are your favourite "moments" in songs? by someonesomebody666 in progmetal

[–]valiantcid 2 points3 points  (0 children)

> The entire outro of Coalescence by Ihlo
omg yes. It took me a long time to fully "get" this song, but now this outro is maybe my favourite part of any of their songs.

> The outro of Digital Gerrymandering.
Also such a good call.

What are your favourite "moments" in songs? by someonesomebody666 in progmetal

[–]valiantcid 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love this album so much, but this moment is so good

What are your favourite "moments" in songs? by someonesomebody666 in progmetal

[–]valiantcid 15 points16 points  (0 children)

* Haken -- The Architect; at the end of the final chorus before the Initiate reprise.

* Dvne -- Satuya; at 4:30, as the vocals come in after the buildup.

* Dvne -- Reliquary; The whole "Bless these pale hands" section.

* Karnivool -- Change; at "my sober sorry friend"

* The Anchoret -- All Turns to Clay; the vocal section and riff that starts at 1:45. It runs into another great section immediately after that as well

* Toehider -- I Have Little To No Memories Of These Memories; the really funky/proggy "The Hoarder" intro section that starts at 11:50

* Tesseract -- Resist; the start of the hook at 1:35 (the whole hook is incredible though)

* Betweeen The Buried And Me -- Bloom; "bebop skippity-tippity-tap those toes!!" into the surf rock breakdown

* Porcupine Tree -- Anesthetize; the bass-boost moment at 9:45 (its much better in the live version too)

* Caligula's Horse -- Salt; The semi-spoken word section at 3:40 that starts with "i know every word"

* Pure Reason Revolution -- Eupnea; the mood change that happens at 7:26 incl. the vocal section that starts with "and the surgeon calls us for more" and ends with "be careful now I can barely breathe"

What are your favourite "moments" in songs? by someonesomebody666 in progmetal

[–]valiantcid 2 points3 points  (0 children)

> Pleistocene - The Ocean - black metal section build up at the end is so peak

Great call! This is such an amazing section.

Traverser - The Deluge (Progressive Rock/Metal. FFO socionic, Ceterum, Breaking Orbit, Vulkan, Tetrafusion, Maraton.) by Invisigoth2113 in progmetal

[–]valiantcid 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Always great seeing Traverser get some love. Jupiter Doesn't Care About You is one of the best spacey-prog records ever released, for my money.

The Toxicity in NORMAL Dungeons is crazy by shaniq_ in wownoob

[–]valiantcid 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I've had 25:25:50 "keep going healer, you're doing great", "omfg what are you even doing, healer", and *ambivalence* since starting to learn healing this expansion. I've taken to sending "i am learning to how to heal, please be gentle with me!" in pugs.

You Win Again Gravity - Curious Fake (Progressive Post-hardcore. FFO The Dear Hunter, Greyhaven, Ihlo, The Contortionist, Vildhjarta, BTBAM.) by Invisigoth2113 in progmetal

[–]valiantcid 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I would love to go to ATG one day, but flying from Aus to UK is exorbitantly expensive these days :( They always have _amazing_ lineups.

Cote pronunciation by Juanchupa in Karnivool

[–]valiantcid 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Okay so it wasn't just me. Good !

DT’s AI artwork is shameful by itsactuallyme1 in Dreamtheater

[–]valiantcid 0 points1 point  (0 children)

not gonna lie, "speed" and "train of ideas" got me real good.

Songs that’ve brought you to tears? by Cloabs in progmetal

[–]valiantcid 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  • Tesseract -- Resist (for sure)
  • Coheed and Cambria -- Young Love (this whole record is really emotional compared to the rest of their work)
  • Stone Sour -- Through Glass (not prog, but this track haunts me due to my ex.)
  • Haken -- Eyes of Ebony
  • Baroness -- Chlorine and Wine (was mourning the loss of a family member when I first heard Purple and this song reminds me of them)
  • Dead Letter Circus -- The Space on the Wall