• GWENT – Rank 18

    After the last post I ended up stuck at Rank 17 for like a week. Couldn’t gain any traction whatsoever against all the Butterfly and Kaedweni Sergeant decks that were suddenly so popular.

    So I built a Eithné deck specifically to fight them:

    • Smuggler x3, Trapper x2, Dragoon x3, Thunder x1, First Light x1, Shackles x1, Epidemic x1, Mardroeme x1, Lacerate x2
    • Toruviel, Ciaran, Myrgtabrakke, Braenn, Nature’s Gift, Necromancy
    • Saskia, Saesenthessis, Schirrú, Ithlinne

    Unfortunately, I was not skilled enough to make the most of it (making dumb misplays rather often) and didn’t get very far. So to hell with it I thought, I’ll go back to my roots with John Calveit:

    • Golem x3, Pikeman x3, Brigade x2, Medic x2, Rot Tosser x3, Emissary x2
    • Peter Saar, Aukes, Assire, D-Bomb, Fake Ciri, Cantarella
    • Cahir, Vilgefortz, Tibor, Letho

    Less weak to player error and far better at topdecking… and it certainly didn’t hurt that Letho plays havoc with Fogling/Resilience strategies… this deck finally broke me past the 3600 point barrier. The only change I made since putting it together was switching out Twisted Mirror for Assire (it was a dead card too often and I sometimes ended up without any cards to draw). Now let’s see if I can make it any higher.


  • Two Worlds – Midpoint

    As with Gothic 3, calling this a midpoint isn’t quite accurate since the game’s only as long/short as you want it to be. Half the map is cleared though so it’s close enough.

    At level 66 now and I experimented with both magic and ranged combat to see what ended up being the most powerful. Basically, it comes down to this:

    Melee: 20x Exotic Hachet/Armor Opener (no element) at 200 Str = ~5500 Damage
    Melee Boost: Strong Hand (Rank 10) + Berserk (Rank 10) = +500% Damage

    Ranged: 20x Whistling Death (no element) and 20x Ornamented Quiver at 200 Dex = ~11100 Damage
    Ranged Boost: Overdraw (Rank 10) & Multi Arrow (Rank 10) = +100% Damage and +4 attacks

    Magic: 20x Eruption (Earth Rank 15) with 5x +Damage/+Level/-Cost = 9390 Damage for 1174 Mana
    Magic Boost: 20x Concentration (Air Rank 15) with 5x +Damage/+Level/-Cost = +2370% Damage on 1 attack for 305 Mana

    So melee is most efficient at low skill levels (you only ‘need’ Strong Hand and Berserk), ranged at high skill levels (you need all four passives), and magic is best for doing insane amounts of one-time damage (but requires a ton of vendor farming). I have not run across all the spell cards yet but the ones I have point toward magic being best as a support ability; Strength of God, Adamantium Shield/Reflection Shield, and Grapple Ivy/Freezing Wave are great at eliminating melee/ranged weaknesses. Summoning seems to be near-useless since the best summons max out at level 30.

    Some other worthwhile things to know, in no particular order:

    • Force Triple Buffering and Vsync in your graphic card’s settings to reduce the stuttering.
    • Equipment can’t be stacked beyond 50.
    • Spell Booster bonuses max out at 5.
    • The best equipment starts appearing around level 40.
    • One-handed axes stop appearing around level 50.
    • Pure-piercing damage spears stop appearing at around level 50.
    • Items can have a maximum of 5 enchantments.
    • I’ve never seen the magic schools, Sneak, or Steal appear as +Skill equipment enchantments.
    • I’ve never seen an enchanted dagger or swordbreaker.
    • Only certain herbs are worth collecting.
      • Blue Eye/Screama Badilla/Ostrich Plumes if you want to make +50% magic stones.
      • Dotted Toadstool/Adder Brother to make poison immunity potions.
      • Saffron/Lavender/Centaurium/Nothern Frostroot for the permanent stat boosts.
    • When making stat-boosting potions, use either 4 minerals and 6 mana/health potions or 10 herbs.
    • When making stat-boosting potions try to make sure all the ingredients boost the same stat.
    • Poison prevents mana regeneration.
    • Berserk and Critical Hit don’t stack.
    • Sneak does not affect Steal success or Lockpick crime reporting.
    • Stealing often has to be done from the front/side of a target.
    • If NPCs attack after Lockpicking something, running far enough away will usually reset them.
    • Strength increases melee damage, Dexterity ranged damage, and raising the magic skills increases magic damage.
    • Carry Weight maxes out at 500.
    • Different enemies resist different types of damage; make sure to have both a bludgeoning and slashing weapon.
    • There’s not much off the beaten path besides more enemies to kill.
    • The only use for swimming so far was to reach 4 small islands, each with a stat-boosting potion.

  • Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata ♭

    As work on the game nears the finish line Tomoya and the others must face challenges both new, in the form of a rival circle, and old. Will their relationship survive its completion or will they all return to their separate lives?

    Continues from where the first season left off with a similar genre composition and themes. The main change is that it develops a larger focus on profession-related concerns.

    More Information:
    Amazon
    aniDB
    Wikipedia

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  • Kizumonogatari

    Walking home from the store one night Koyomi Araragi finds a vampire on the verge of death, and against his better judgement he decides to sacrifice himself so that she can survive. He does not die however. Instead, she transforms him into a vampire and tasks him with recovering her lost limbs from the hunters who stole them.

    A prequel to Bakemonogatari, this series of movies fully fleshes out the brief flashback you get there. Content composition is similar with the main difference being that a larger percentage is dedicated to action and horror.

    More Information:
    aniDB
    Wikipedia


  • Two Worlds: Epic Edition

    Ever played Gothic? Well this game is just like it:

    Clunky melee that lets you dominate with hit and run tactics, a large map to explore with enemies that don’t respawn, a difficult beginning until you pick up a level or two, a forced male MC with slightly jokey voice acting, the ability to attack/kill NPCs, a wide variety of skills to customize your character with, and tons of stat-boosting herbs scattered around the map to collect.

    Been playing for a while now, reached level 33 and just got around to entering the first town to max out Alchemy in order to use all the permanent stat boosters I’ve been collecting from the ground and NPCs’ pockets (the Steal skill is actually good since it lets you find stat/damage boosters instead of just gold). Other good all-around early skills would be Lockpick (get it up to level 8 and keep it there) and Set Trap (traps do tons of damage). I haven’t used much magic (mainly just Heal) or any archery yet, but for melee you don’t really need anything more than Strong Hand and Critical Hit; I have Parry up pretty high but it never seems to do anything… and you shouldn’t be getting hit in the first place.

    So yeah, if you’ve played Gothic II or III before you should feel right at home. If you haven’t, then it might be better to start with this since it’s more forgiving of character building mistakes (there’s a repeatable respec option available in towns that can reset your stat/skill points).


  • Twin Angel Break

    Soon after moving to Tokyo, the aspiring hero of justice Meguru Amatsuki finds a strange medal in her dorm room. It turns out to be a magical transforming device and soon she’s fighting evil with the help of the more reserved Sumire Kisaragi as a Twin Angel.

    A straightforward magical girl show of the light and fluffy variety that leans more toward school-life comedy than action. There’s little drama and the ecchi is mostly restricted to episodic episodic transformation and bath scenes.

    More Information:
    aniDB
    Crunchyroll
    Wikipedia

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  • Sword Oratoria: Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darouka Gaiden

    At only level 3 and easily frightened by high level monsters, Lefiya feels she’s only dragging her level 5-6 teammates down when they take her along on expeditions. After falling into a depression after fumbling yet another spell in the heat of the moment it’s suggested that she find a way to help out Ais, a powerful fighter she admires who’s having troubles of her own.

    An alternate look at the events of DanMachi. Whereas that centers on Bell and Hestia, here the perspective follows Lefiya and Ais across the same time period. Both shows have the same themes along with a similar genre composition and you do not have to have seen that to watch this.

    More Information:
    Amazon
    aniDB
    Wikipedia

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  • Clockwork Planet

    A thousand years after the destruction of the Earth, humanity now lives on a clockwork replica planet. It’s here that the failing student Miura Naoto finds his life turned upside down one night after an advanced android is accidentally airdropped into his apartment. While not having any luck fixing clocks, he manages to get her working again and ends up on a quest to repair the city’s failing mechanisms before it all falls to ruin.

    A mixed-genre action series, heavier on comedy than drama, with minor ecchi and romance elements.

    More Information:
    aniDB
    Crunchyroll
    Wikipedia

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  • ID-0

    Maya Mikuri is a geological surveying student specializing in deposits of Orichalt, a little understood mineral that allows for movement of matter and data through an alternate space-time. Finding herself rescued by freelance excavators after her first official dig went bad she ends up forced to join their crew until she can pay off her debt.

    A mecha action series with a prominent mystery/conspiracy plotline at its core.

    More Information:
    aniDB
    Wikipedia

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  • GWENT – Rank 16

    I’m continuing to play this game almost religiously.

    After my earlier success with the Bran-Discard deck I hit something of a wall, winning and losing in equal measure. Changing things up I switched over to a Calveit-Spy deck following the random acquisition of the Rainfarn card in a keg:

    • Golem x2, Brigade x3, Medic x3, Engineer x1, Rot Tosser x3, Emissary x2, Ambassador x2
    • Peter Saar, Aukes, Vanhemar, Decoy, de Wett, Fake Ciri
    • Cahir, Rainfarn, Vilgefortz, Tibor

    I had remarkably good success with this and practically flew up the ranks. It has bad matchups against both Elder-Consume and Voorhis-Reveal though (two popular archetypes right now at this position; the third being Dwarf-Boost) and I’m debating whether or not to fit Letho in somehow.

    Aside from that one I have two other ‘main’ decks I switch between in ranked play. A slightly revised version of the previous Bran deck (which I saw at least two other people playing):

    • Queensguard x3, Pirate Captain x3, Pirate x3, Priestess x1, War Longship x2, Shackles x2, Mardroeme x1
    • Champ of Champs, Donar, Operator, Sigrdrifa, Svanrige, Alzur’s Double-Cross
    • Ermion, Villentretenmerth, Ciri: Dash, Decree

    I picked up Villentret for an Elf control deck, but he worked out remarkably well here as well… still might switch him out for Lugos or Coral though. The bronzes haven’t changed much but the silvers were switched around often; I may yet go back to running Johnny instead of Operator and Svanrige is still underwhelming (following the post-update nerf, Morkvarg’s no longer in the running).

    As for the third deck, well I took my own advice from earlier and saved up the necessary scrap to build a more powerful monster deck. Elder-Consume in this case:

    • Celaeno x3, Nekker x3, Ekimmara x2, Vran x2, Behemoth x3, Mardroeme x2
    • Grave Hag, Fiend, Katakan, Crone x3
    • Ge’els, Caretaker, Decree, Succubus

    It’s pretty standard, with the only real departure from the norm being the Mardroemes. I was running Kayran instead of Caretaker for a while, but playing the Kayran more often than not resulted in severe card disadvantage.

    The recent hotfix definitely altered the metagame. With weather no longer being so dominant it’s now possible to actually play decks without being forced to find space for 3+ weather-removal cards, which opens up a number of options. While it was manageable, there is no denying that weather was definitely overpowered before with average bronze weather cards being able to shift the power balance far more than average bronze unit cards.

    It’s still powerful now, you just can’t run all-weather decks anymore. So all in all I’d have to say the change was welcome. The Morkvarg and Olgierd changes are a bit more questionable though. Well, we’ll see how things go.