Lurker > KanzarisKelshen

Fortune

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102241531/Fortune

Fortune's a kinda weird holdover from the early days of Mercs. She's not super memorable as a character in a game as crazy as MGS2 (that'd be Solidus or THE LA-LI-LU-LE-LO for my money), but she has a very unique antigunner toolkit and a really beefy railgun so she makes a compelling argument on uniqueness alone. Bad Day is a...well, it's not a great ability. It was maximum voter interp and it ranged from 'character does nothing' to 'ability does nothing, fuck you' and that's no good. The concept is fine but the execution needs polish. Lucky In War and Nothing Else feels like it should probably be either 1 week lower in CD, or able to intercept more stuff. It's kinda limited as is so it doesn't feel super worth.

Should She Stay?: Not totally sure but gonna go with yes. Railgun is fun, antigunner hax is fun (antigunner passive WHEN) and her abilities have potential. They just need fine-tuning.

Fox McCloud

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/105168996/Fox%20McCloud

For my money, one of the best 7/week designs in this game. Vehicle mercs are something we could use more of, and Fox also exemplified how to give a character a meaty nerf passive without it being crippling. He requires a bunch of legwork, but the payoff is worth it - the Arwing got a TON of respect. Interestingly, I think we shouldn't actually bring this build back in full, though...because Star Fox Zero gives the Arwing the ability to turn into a walker mech and I feel that simplifies things considerably. A new nerf passive will be needed, but I think Fox's abilities can stay. Maybe give him a Bluemarine option for underwater terrains as an upgrade? That seems solid.

Should He Stay?: Who is this guy? He's Star Fox! (Yes, keep.)

Ganondorf

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102031270/Ganondorf

It's super weird but we don't have a good bead on Dorf. I feel like he never ever thought in his OoT Ganon form? That's the one that really should get respect considering how strong and big it is, but it was all HW pigdorf who smashed lowbie or nothing. With BotW out, his Calamity form is probably a good baseline one, but I'm not sure if that doesn't elevate him to a 4/week. He'll need a new ability that isn't Pig Ganon (King of Evil is a great passive tho, keep him), and that's probably the hardest bit about improving him, but beyond that I think there's lots of good material to be mined from this build.

Should He Stay?: Duh. He's super iconic!
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

FF4 Complete Collection

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/109308865/Final%20Fantasy%20IV%3A%20The%20Complete%20Collection

This merc was kind of a stroke of genius. Lots of people DO like FF4's dudes a lot, but if history is any indication they make for bad solo mercs. The solution? Throw an entire party of them at people! How well it works is anyone's guess because they've never seen real play between Boko and Rocket, but the concept is brilliant. Their abilities are pretty powerful as well, so that's kinda nice. If you want to efficiently represent FF4, this is the way to go IMO.

Should They Stay?: Yes. FF4 is too beloved not to add members of its player party in.

Flynn

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/110119354/Flynn

Exhibit A for 'we need more SMT mercs in this game'. Flynn came in and not onl were his abilities busted (KJHHHHHHH) but his battle worth was enormous. He was clearly super under-upkeeped as a 4/week, generally providing all the utility and casting firepower of a true 5. At least now we have a solid bead on where he stands. His build needs reworking because it really is very strong, and I'm not convinced he shouldn't be replaced with Nanashi as the latest SMT4 rep, but in a way I'm thankful for his presence in Mercs. One of gaming's best series' shouldn't be left on the wayside like that. Demifiend when?

Should He Stay?: Yeah, unless you want to put in Nanashi instead.

Freddy Fazbear's Pizza

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/110096863/Freddy%20Fazbear's%20Pizza

"The more things change, the more they stay the same."

So. In earlier iterations of mercs, Pyramid Head from Silent Hill was a PS. He was invincible and stalked a single dude, tormenting them with their own insecurities and failings, and only going away if they made peace with him. Then in I wanna say M3 he came back but you could just blow him up, and it was terrible. And here we are and...it's the same fuckin' problem for a new horror antagonist. Why? Just make the animals noninteractable, anything else makes no damn sense!

Should They Stay?: Probably, FNAF is kind of a cultural thing now. But fix that fucking base ability!

Frog

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/103586751/Frog

A strong contender for 'least necessary merc' right here. If Crono is a bog standard 3, Frog is an even bog standarder one. I don't get why we don't have Lucca instead of him (actually I do, he's popular, but I mean in terms of diversifying lowbie a bit). Chivalry worked...OK, and led to one of my favorite moments in M4, but I'm not sold on Lower Thine Guard. It's never gonna trigger in a match that matters, particularly because if you bought it you telegraph it exists and has to be taken into account by the enemy team. We can do better than this. Maybe disrupting enemy battleplans for 30 secs or something? Surely this quote can have a better ability wrung out of it.

Should He Stay?: Maybe. He's super generic in terms of what he offers to a team and his abilities are kinda feeble. I'd take a Chrono Cross rep over him if we really need a Chrono merc TBQH.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

IT'S TIIIIIIME. At long last, merc analysis resumes!

Exdeath

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/106119003/Exdeath

How did it take this long for Exdeath to appear in mercs? He feels like a glaring omission considering how good he is. He's basically Kuja/Kefka but with speed feats and much more beef in exchange for a little bit less offensive firepower hype. That's a trade I'll take any day (part of my dislike for mages is how 'they job to a minigun' is pretty much always a thing that can be argued convincingly vs them, and that's a pretty standard 4/week gunner weapon). His abilities were pretty sweet, too - a free paydown is great, and so is wiping out terrain advantage if you have the firepower edge. His 'nerf trigger' is a bit debatable on whether it should stay or leave, but it's interesting too. Need more data on it to say either way.

Should He Stay?: Yes.

Ezio Auditore da Firenze

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102786757/Ezio%20Auditore%20da%20Firenze

Ezio makes no sense in mercs because terrains fuck him over so, so hard. So hard, in fact, that I think him (or whoever replaces him as the AssCreed rep, it's been a while since he had a game) should have a passive to not make them deserted wastelands. Stealth mercs do best in a target-rich environment where they can blend in, making them fight in the open is silly unless they're cloakers like Zeratul.

Bitching about battle worth aside, Ezio was basically ported over from Altair's M3 build, and for good reason - it's an evergreen that really needs no changes. Fun peacetime ability, fun upgrade ability that maybe could use a bit more juice to not be so situational but is otherwise solid. Nothing more to say here!

Should He Stay?: Yes but no tears will be shed if we get another AssCreeder.

Fetch

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/109131583/Fetch

OK, serious time. Why the hell did Fetch make it in as the primary Infamous rep? I know it's cause the admin team had played First Light and not Infamous 2 but it still makes no sense that we didn't get both Delsin Rowe and Cole McGrath considering how unique their powersets are. Bitching about representation aside, Fetch was a sneaky bullshit merc nobody bought because there was just no chance to grab her (except Gravy, who did so to deny Boko, thank you Gravy). Stash is an ability that lets you field a mostly unhindered Fetch in low and give the finger to a paydown...ON TWO WEEKS OF CD. I don't really have to explain just how broken this is, do I? The Delsin swap ability, by contrast, feels like a trap - it doesn't combo with her first ability, and the gain from bringing in Delsin isn't so big it justifies the EXP expenditure. Just split them off and make them separate mercs, they're worth keeping around.

Should She Stay?: Probably. Very solid merc that just needs a new upgrade abil.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Mac Arrowny posted...

Ushi is great against Pillars

I think I did that fight with Herc, Altera and Story Mordred though. Pretty easy stuff

Vouch with the caveat that Ushiwakamaru hits an immense lull after first ascension. She really needs to be taken to second or third to shine because her stats end up being super mediocre otherwise.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Oh, that can super work then. Lesse...

Medea
Lizzy Caster
Waver
Carmilla
Medusa/Martha (probably martha? removing debuffs means the pillar will hit for peanuts, and a partywide heal is gucci)
Herc

This should absolutely bulldoze the pillars. You can pick Medusa if you want, I think you'll have room to spare with such a solid offensive lineup. For CEs, you want your biggest buster CE for Herc (no surprises there), a Heaven's Feel for Medea if you have it (and otherwise something that boosts NP - probably not Black Grail because you're trying to stall the pillars here), a 2030 or NP booster for Liz, and Carmilla and the Rider can just take something to boost their cards I think. Should be a cinch!
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Ouch

like all of those servants are going to flop super hard against a pillar with the exception of Medusa (who is 'ehhh') and Medea (who is legitimately very good for pillar fights - I ran her as my third man in the London pillar rumble and she played off well with Hans and Waver). I think the only one who'll do decently and really pull his weight outside Medea is Herc, and most of that has to do with getting him his Bond 10 CE and sticking him in the backline to get several extra turns of hamhocks against the boss. I...think the best one of that set besides him is Emiya? He has a dodge for NP and more importantly UBW slaps an attack debuff, which you need to keep the pillar in check. Let's see...this is how I'd build a team shell here.

Medea
Waver support (bite the bullet here, a Waver is super useful against the pillars due to the combo of doing good damage, adding defense, and applying double stall)
Medea Lily/Halloween Lizzy/Nursery Rhyme if you have them, Hans if not
Backup Caster/Rider/Assassin (whichever one is the best you have goes here)
Medusa?
Herc

The idea is waver gives you margin to not get exploded so your caster frontline unloads everything they've got on the pillar, and if they die (if because Medea Lily could keep them alive pretty much forever with Painbreaker), Medusa and the Backup will step in to finish the job. Should all else fail, Herc's in your pocket as a pinch hitter.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

swordz9 posted...

I'd prefer to win with characters I actually care about. I don't think I've done anything at all with Andersen, Mash is benched right now since I need to level her up and I'm not sure I ever put David on any team yet.

Well, what characters DO you care about? There's probably a workable team that can be built to smash the pillars, but you're gonna have to accept that you can't run knights against them because they either halve or take neutral damage from them.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

swordz9 posted...

Finished the main London story stages so I will probably finish up the Free Quests before Saber Wars. New attack animations for the characters were pretty nice. Am I the only one who hates facing the Demon God Pillar things? They do so much fucking damage that if I'm unlucky and they do the party attack 3 times in 1 turn I can lose my entire starting lineup. I typically just barely survive or have to use a continue to beat them >_>

Run a pal's waver and use Andersen. Together they will combine to absolutely turbostall the pillar. Mashu is a potentially solid third man if you have her maxed out - the idea is Waver is your pointman, Hans lets you outsustain the damage, and Mashu's def up lets you tank. David as a fourth man for Harp of Healing-ing an NP should be enough to just blow the pillar up before it can NP twice.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

ok let's see if I can get more analysis done today for reals

first I gotta nap tho, work murdered me

see you guys in 2-3 hours!
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

voltch posted...

Guessing Drake ranked high more for her wave clearing abilities.

She's not too strong against some of the harder content. I didn't realise Gilgamesh started off so poorly back then.

It's not that

It's that Drake has a double buff that means even the shittest AoE NP is gonna hit like a truck if you have her. She also generates a shitload of stars that she then uses to blow you up. Very self-sufficient Servant that's never really bad.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

I'd call Survivor and maybe Dead Aim bad too tbqh

everything else is 7/10 and up though, RE is very good about not publishing garbage titles
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Johnbobb posted...

How about this:

If we accept visual novel characters based on how they're described then we also have to accept Sonic's canon speed according to the Sonic wiki, which lists him as capable of hitting light speed

I think that sounds fair

See, I think this runs up into 'how reliable is the writing here'.

Nasu mercs aren't super great for this for example, but during Draftmerx one of the exhibition matches was Gravy's team vs Kaziklu Bey from Dies Irae - and one of the feats I used was for his speed, a screencap. The text straight up said 'going at 300 to 500 kilometers per hour' so it's like, nobody can really call that unreliable I think? It's a quantified feat so you have to entirely dismiss the source material to say it's not real at that point and that's ground for a vote DQ, IMO.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

fair

What about Shirou? Keep in a form that can like, win a fight? Or throw out too?

(More analysis coming later today. Just been a bit busy.)
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

yeah even without abilities I don't think tom's lowbie team has a great answer to 'kerrigan paydown, summon ultralisk', or just donte in general
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Ohhhhhh

Now it all makes sense

hurr I'm dum
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

DeathChicken posted...

I mean Kiritsugu first appeals in F/SN, but as far as I know all of his combat appearances are in the cartoon. At which point you're in a weird place where you're throwing a cartoon character into Mercs because he also had a videogame appearance

It is indeed weird

(though you could replace him with Kerry Alter if you wanted to sidestep that and wanted a 7/week stealth character - he's from videogame FGO and has actual feats from it)

I don't know if it's wrong per se because the idea is we want characters who are memorable and make for good matches, and he does do that. He just has that weird situation where he's only technically legal, at leat right now.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

GANON1025 posted...

Ive seen ubw, is he actually and active fighter in the other routes?

Yes. He super sucks in the Fate route and he should never ever feature as seen there, and in HF he gets Archer's arm and fights both Dark Saber and Berserker and defeats both of them because the arm gives him boosted parameters and new abilities.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Johnbobb posted...

KanzarisKelshen posted...

you can just watch a vid and that's legit what they can do

Hmmmmmmmm

No hmms about it, Nasu came out and say the most recent version of an event is the canon one so the UBW anime is How Shit Happened in UBW unless stated otherwise

And FGO is just a game that has showings so you just look at that. For example: https://youtu.be/ZvCyQOIe-xY?t=1063
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

GANON1025 posted...

Is Kiritsugu even from a game in even a remote sense

He originates in F/SN so yes

DeathChicken posted...

Death to all Fate mercs (I'll make an exception for Nero because bias)

Even somebody like Kiritsugu or Mashu where you can just watch a vid and that's legit what they can do instead of having to get into dumb arguments about text?
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Emiya Kiritsugu

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/109948255/Emiya%20Kiritsugu

FUCK KERRY

Anyway, personal hatred for this character aside, Kiritsugu was a bit of a rush job. I still don't agree with Newbie that removing his Origin Bullets and making them an ability was a good idea. They're Kerry's major calling card considering most mercs terrains do not allow him preptime, so it makes no sense to not just increase his upkeep (5/week sounds right) and keep him as a dedicated antimage. There's the question of whether he should stay, of course...and I have no issues with it. You're pulling from an anime for feats, sure, but this makes him more reliable and clear than most mercs. I think it's fair.

Should He Stay?: Probably? Unless you really wanna purge Fate stuff from Mercs I guess. Incidentally, Mash Kyrielight from FGO is probably a really good 5/week, what with being very support oriented and all and packing a shitload of animated showings.

Emiya Shirou

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102370825/Emiya%20Shirou

Sighs

Shirou...man. I really don't know what to do with him. I owned him so let's make something clear: As is, there is no point in bringing Shirou back. Reinforcement was disgustingly loose in wording and got interpreted to do nothing, Command Seals was overpriced, and Shirou himself got incredibly mixed respect because he's stuck with his pre-final fight showings in UBW and...he doesn't win a single real fight there before Gilgamesh. It's just plain not good and not workable. The most I managed to get out of him was acting as a Caladbolg suicide bomber, which is just shameful. I can see arguments for him staying or leaving, but honestly, I think the right call here is to discuss if you want a Shirou with Unlimited Blade Works and the Rin Contract OR Archer's arm active as a merc. Either one of those has actual, y'know, positive showings (beating Gilgamesh and defeating Berserker, Saber and so on), which is mandatory if you don't want to make him a walking pile of disrespect. But you could just as easily boot him. He was one of my mascot mercs and Fate is now a massive juggernaut and I...I still don't know what to do here.

Should He Stay?: I really don't know. I'm way too biased to say here. I think the paths I outlined (HF, UBW unlocked or booted) are the only ones that make sense though. Which one's better IYO?
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Edgar Figaro

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102457939/Edgar%20Figaro

One of the most 'why' inclusions in this game I think. FF6 is already overrepresented (Kefka, Kuja, Celes, Sabin - that's a lot of dudes for one game), and Edgar is one of the most generic FF6 characters you can get. Yeah yeah, Tools, fun stuff...but they got argued precisely never, yo. And it's not like Chris is a bad arguer so you can't pin it on the leader sucking at getting votes. We can do better than this. Put in Gogo if you really need a fifth FF6 rep. More interesting stuff can be done with the fact he's a superstrong bonus boss in FF5 and hmi being able to mimic other characters without poaching their parameters. His abilities weren't that good either, so I'm not really feeling him besides being a cool character.

Should He Stay?: No.

Eleonora Yumizuru

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/109948153/Eleonora%20Yumizuru

Speaking of 'why' inclusions...I don't know why Luis made this build. Ellie isn't the fan favorite from TMS, TMS is itself a game that came and went without a peep, and HOLY FUCK THOSE ABILITIES JFC

Like, count the ways this shit is busted

Controllable KO? Yep. Friendly Fireproof status shell that can thirdparty dudes or possess them? Yep. Free ability usages? Yyyyep. Each ability is more busted than the last, it's crazy. You can nerf these all to size and make her fair, but why? She's not worth the effort. Abel, Atsuro and several others from Devil Survivor, Joker and some of his bros from P5, Demifiend from SMT3, Cielo and Heat...we have way more pressing SMT reps already.

Should She Stay?: No.

Elizabeth

mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/103044214/Elizabeth

Real talk, I don't get why Liz is a 3/week. Her abilities are fine, but nothing about this is gamebreakingly strong in a way that makes me think she deserves to be at the top cost PS slot alongside Jeigan and Ashtar. Her second branching ability upgrade also fucking sucks and is way too conservative, and honestly you could make her a permanent assist character and she'd be totally fair. I think she's the better Bioshock Infinite rep over Booker so if one has to stay it should be her, but she could use some sprucing up to justify her pricetag imo.

Should She Stay?: Yes, with some buffs/changes.

Elma

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/109131589/Elma

You know what the true Dumbest Argument was? Whether Elma starts in her mech or not. She should come back and her abilities are good but if she does, clear up that she starts in her mech or outside it, and if she does start in it clarify whether abilities will hit her or the mech. That's all folks!

PS: Mira confirms we can and should abandon the whole 'empty lifeless terrains' bullshit. It nerfs stealth characters and makes for lamer matches. We can afford a bit more pizzazz with our terrain for sure. This doesn't mean every terrain should be populated, but a fair amount? Yeah sure. And no tier restrictions either!

Should She Stay?: Yes.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Dr. Wily

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/106563318/Dr%20Wily

I'm super sad we never got to see Wily fight in any meaningful capacity. Really curious about how much respect he'd get. Regardless though, this is a really good build - a prime example of intelligent design, reusing event mercs to create an unbelievably faithful build for the good doctor. You can get incredibly varied abilities...at the price of not being able to easily reuse any given one after it's spent. Is that worth it to you? It certainly was for FFD.

Should He Stay?: Yes. Excellent build.

Duke Nukem

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/101968285/Duke%20Nukem

I really don't get why Duke had all his fun toys removed. No Devastator, no X-3000, no explosive shotgun, nothing except the jetpack. Like what is even the point if you're not gonna make him more than a flying McGunner? There isn't even an excuse of 'well his previous build was bad' because Wang was extremely generous with him, he just had shit removed for no reason. We can do better than that - updating him to DNF, giving him the boosted holoduke from that and actual heavy ordnance could easily make him a 5. Especially if you give him a passive to represent his very unique health mechanic:

"Hail to the King, Baby!" (Passive): Something as petty as injury could never stop Duke - only losing confidence in himself could ever get him down. In battle, Duke will take no physical damage from enemy attacks. Instead, attacks that would damage him will instead reduce his ego, as seen in Duke Nukem Forever. If his confidence in himself is completely shattered, he will not die, but will instead leave the battle. He may restore his ego through any appropriate means that he can find.

Tell me a flying invisible Duke with full gear ain't a 5, I dare ya. As far as his abilities go, I feel like When It's Done needs work - it's robbing Peter to pay Paul, I think is how FFD put it once upon a time, and he was right. Make it so there's some way to get around it besides 'I have humongous ability defense' and we're really cookin' with gas.

Should He Stay?: Yes, of course. Hail to the king, baby!

D.Va

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/108621187/D%20Va

Preferred Race Random is sssssoooooo powerful. I still waffle about whether it's better if it full randoms or if you don't upgrade it to force paydowns to fight and then dickhammer them. That's really the only thing worth discussing here - D.Va is otherwise an excellent mid/low tank, which we need more of, she has two great abilities, and her build is faithful to her. Really the only thing I might want to give her is a 'NERF THIS!' ability where she can willingly lose her MEKA to use her ult as a damaging SoB. That's it.

Should She Stay?: Yes.

Earthworm Jim

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/105860145/Earthworm%20Jim

A build in dire need of more mathematical rigor. Jim's quiz show is just plain not worth five weeks of CD and it shouldn't even have the option to be so - statistically speaking, assuming your opponent picks randomly and doesn't know you at all, they have a 70% chance of nailing at least one question, dramatically limiting its usefulness. Set it to three weeks of CD no matter what and 2 on upgrade and he's good. GROOVY! is an excellent ability that enables SO MANY COMBOS - if Quiz Show wasn't trash he woulda been bought in a heartbeat.

(PS I hate the cow. It lets voters meme vote and it makes leaders angry when this happens. I recommend letting him bring a cow in as a free assist instead because we really don't want things that let voters abandon all objectivity in a game so loaded with biases already.)

Should He Stay?: Yes.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Time to get back into this

Gimme a bit to start writing
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

4* CE Shirou in both pulls

COINCIDENCE? I think not

Clearly you have to summon him before Tesla shows up
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Corrik posted...

My theater audience cheered at exactly two scenes during this movie. I will give someone a hella pat on the back if they can guess them. No the end or beginning sequence

"See you around, kid" is one of them for sure. I don't think they cheered during the hyperdrive ram but I bet they went quiet. Did I guess right on these two?
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

And again, I can't do inflation-based numbers for a worldwide market.

Why not? It's all dollar-converted. It's perfectly possible to know what the world dollar is at compared to 1920 and calculate inflation adjustments off that.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Like, you legit don't get what makes the domestic market interesting. I can track ticket sales. I can track a market that is not still emerging here. I don't give a fuck if another market saves a film. I only have an interest in film culture in the United States and its permeation. You consistently think what I care about is what studios care about; I don't. I'm more interested in how and why Americans digest the products they do, and how businesses respond to it.

You're aware this is a highly provincial perspective right

Like, even if you really don't care about China, Europe and the Americas are fully known quantities. There's a shitload of stable markets and you can filter the growing ones out pretty easily.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

ExThaNemesis posted...

There are literally billions of ways I can think of for her to use the Force the first time other than that bullshit.

Likewise! But I don't think it's bullshit because again, Leia was super overdue for it and her dying in that situation would've been awful. It's an actually very effective fakeout because you fully believe she's going to die, so saving herself with the Force is pretty good stuff.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

ExThaNemesis posted...

Oh and the Leia Marry Poppins thing actually made me say "what." in the theatre and got some snickers from the people around me.

No one seriously thought that was a good scene did they? Like that was fucking BONKERS. If someone had told me about that scene before I saw the movie I'd have called them a liar.

*Raises hand*

Gave me chills to see Leia use the Force. It was way overdue, and a very good way to send her off after the death of Carrie Fisher.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Lopen posted...

How important is that stuff to the narrative though unless you're heavily invested in Rey.

Like the "risks" were in the petty details. The main narrative was very safe

Very, p much. 'Does Kylo do a face turn and Rey a heel turn' dictates how you begin your ninth movie, for example. Same for Snoke being alive vs not. None of this stuff was gonna change TLJ significantly because TFA is a shit movie that didn't bother to answer a single question it raised, leaving TLJ to pay the piper, but TLJ's responses dictate how Ep9 is written.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Lopen posted...

How is any of that like, risky, though.

Those feel like forks in the road more than risk taking ventures. Like things didn't work okay, that happens all the time in Star Wars. If that's your definition of risk Rogue One was the most risky movie ever.

I dunno most of it wasn't very unexpected to me. The natural flow of the story took that stuff where it went.

Rewatch TFA Lopen. Does it feel like what happened in TLJ was the natural and obvious conclusion if you watch the previous movie? Like you look at Rey spending so much time obsessing over luke skywalker and her parents and your response is 'they're clearly not gonna matter', for example?
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

greengravy294 posted...

just gonna merx politics it up and state that kanz's juryrigged pc from Zimbabwe probably has two more weeks until it goes down for the count

#TeamGravy

I actually literally just got the parts for the new PC today

NOW I'M PLAYING WITH POWER
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Lopen posted...

Do you think playing it safe is a weird complaint or do you not think it played it safe. And if you don't think it played it safe what do you think it did that was particularly risky or unexpected.

Let's see...

-Pushing Poe's development towards being a responsible leader instead of 'one hell of a pilot'.
-Not having Rey learn things from Luke, and in fact actively state that it's better if she blazes her own path (this is kinda undermined by her stealing the Jedi texts instead of letting them burn but alas).
-NOT having the cavalry come to the rescue of the Resistance.
-Heroic solutions and brave bullshit not working out.
-Successfully managing to set up Kylo Ren as the final boss and axing Snoke instead of having him be Palpatine 2.0.
-Priming Kylo for a Miles Edgeworth-style face turn (partly a Franny Von Karma turn too).
-Maybe splitting up the Finn/Rey ship? Depends on what the last movie does.
-Most importantly, not having Rey be Luke's daughter. You can't tell me this wasn't what was foreshadowed in TFA, man.

There's a lot of complaints one can make about this movie, but 'too safe' is not one of them. All of these things just fly in the face of what is too safe for Star Wars.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Yeah, Wrex basically tells the merc 'skip the ability phase my homie' so they don't get to do anything, regardless of who they might target otherwise. It's not ability protection so much as ability denial.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

sry guys, spent this week finally updating my potato computer so I've been kinda unable to sit down and write due to shopping

Free tomorrow so hoping to rectify that a bit
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Mac Arrowny posted...

Whoa, there are guaranteed Claws in the Atlas Academy quest?

Every Mystic Code quest has a guaranteed mat at the final stage. Grab em!
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

scarletspeed7 posted...

Bulgaria is by far the most unhappy country in the EU, a newly-released survey has found.

The former communist country, which joined the European Union in 2007, came bottom of a Brussels poll on life satisfaction.

Bulgarians averaged just 4.8 on a zero-to-10 scale of happiness, some distance behind Portugal, the next most miserable with 6.2.

damn son, I didn't know vlado made people so miserable IRL too
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Sceptilesolar posted...

KanzarisKelshen posted...

I do need to run through t*** 3rd

Oh, wait, what?

Why aren't you doing this already?!

Because I've been trying to finish Dies Irae instead cause I owe meisnewbie that one

My backlog is a hydra and it takes a lot of effort to play the part of Hercules!
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

I'll take a copy on PC

I do need to run through TitS 3rd but I have that one and I will make a playthrough topic to keep track of my progress so you know when I get rolling. Shouldn't take very long I think!
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Tom Bombadil posted...

the other one is the one I have issues with

Saber > Lancer because it's not Fire Emblem but then I have to deduce how Archer fits in

Archers use their long range advantage to shut down Sabers before they can close the distance.
Lancers have protection from the Archers' arrows and enough mobility to dodge their shots.
Sabers have superior martial skill and stronger weaponry with which to overwhelm the Lancers.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

I definitely agree with the assessment re: tiers. I CAN make my team into a bunch of low tier gods but it really requires me to predict in advance the match is gonna take place in low and make a lot of...let's say bad picks. Not because they're necessarily bad powerwise, but beause I end up fielding a team of randos. By contrast I feel the characters I picked more or less represent the core of my team with the exception of BBAMM. None of the dudes I brought in were unimportant to my run in M4, which is something I wanted to represent through my picks.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

pretty much yeah - I don't know if it's so clear cut in mid but it certainly is in low.

And since it comes down to me, I say we do the fun match option for giggles but say Lopen wins officially regardless of result. I think that's fairest.

Now for my abilities...

Sorey's seraphim custom is set to...Dezel!

Morrigan brings Enhancements, Hexes and Summoning.

Morrigan is friendly to Mega Man, and he refuses to be rostered today. Kefka takes his Shao Kahn (Soul Steal), and Ike (Aether) weapons, and brings in Eddie with him.

Kefka tells Sorey to kill everything!

Nothing beats the sweet sound of hundreds of voices screaming in unison!

Done.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Was just waiting on Tom's opinion there really

I can do my abils but wanted to check what he preferred
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Aw yiss

just logged in, spent my summoning ticket, got an Altera! My first SSR and it didn't even take a week to get one! :D
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Arti posted...

I can't find any use for the battlesuit with my current lineup. Going to get the Atlas Institute mystic code instead.

Perfectly reasonable, though I'll say that pretty much any team can benefit from an Asterios/Hans/David spot swap if you have kaleidoscopes. Them's good splashable fellas.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Nah, you didn't. I straight up don't think I can beat that with the resources at my disposal. I could in mid but Tom setting the tier at low makes it not doable (I have no idea why you'd set low tier as the place to fight the match at vs bass but whatever)

The fun match is at least arguable tho. That one can maybe work, maybe. Requires a bit of gambling but I think I can make it competitive.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

I reached more or less that conclusion too - I think it's kind of possible for me to stage an arguable match in the worst case scenario but I'm not 100% sure. Too many permutations to fully hash it out. Need to see how the abilities play out to make sure, really.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Looks good to me too, PROCEED
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

I did say 'only roll if you're waifufishing'! Nothing wrong with grabbing waifus at all, it's just that if you do want power London's a wasteland. It's a banner that's good for love, not power.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Lopen posted...

KanzarisKelshen posted...

Let's say 24 hours as usual so peacetime ability windows work as normal imo

(so ability windows close at 21h-40m from now, ish)

What's this even counting from btw

Like Tom already said done so maybe we can just both agree to a time for the ability and paydown windows to hit.

From Tom's post is what I was thinking

inaugurate peace with it, count down 24 hours from there

but yeah, since you spent Wrex I think we can dispense with those formalities

Pay down Sorey and Kefka.

Done.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.