This is Scotland.
Of course, not everyone from Yishun has just been released from the IMH. John happened to know a girl named Jolin. She's a sweet girl currently working as a nurse in SGH. John is very sure she'd be a very good girlfriend.
Back to the cruel kid. You know one thing? Cruel kids are no different from dumb kids when you think hard about it. So no, America isn't the only place for dumb kids. And John is very sure Yishun is not the only place for dumb kids as well. Remember what he said about Jolin? He's very sure she's not dumb because it'd be disastrous for dumb people to be nurses. It's not a joke. Seriously. What Brad "pretty sure he's unrelated to Kate" Upton said, on the other hand, is a joke. Although it should make us wonder what's currently wrong with Singapore. Including Yishun.
Think the correct Lee Weiling must stand up and research what's wrong with today's kids.
http://republicofotters.blogspot.com/2018/07/somethings-coming-home-and-its-now-at.html
Random stuff John realised recently
Well, John has to admit that using Aura of Courage is better than Aura of Vengeance. The damage is better and you don't need to be hit in order to trigger it. Yes, it's common-sense logic to those who know how to use an Oathbound Paladin decently enough. Which led to John wondering about the relevance of Aura of Vengeance in the first place. Quite obviously, you can't pair it up with a non-direct damage aura. Which means you have only three options.
1. Aura of Courage. This should be very straightforward. Default bonus radiant damage plus damage proc'd from Vengeance. Easiest to pull off. You don't need to do anything of note.
2. Aura of Wrath. This should be the hardest to pull off. The reason why being that your OP must hammer as much damage as possible in order to pull the aggro. Ideally, you should do this as an Oath of Protection due to passive threat generation bonus. Slot in three direct damage encounters and execute them consecutively. Then use your at-will powers to keep hammering them. Your dps pace needs to be fast. Also, please don't use Shielding Strike for this option. Use Valorous Strike and Radiant Strike. You have to make sure your OP's HP must be going down no matter what.
Note: Aura of Wrath as a standalone is more useful in PvP fyi. Then again, everyone knows it.
3. Aura of Radiance. This is fun. Very fun. Constant aggro grab in order to constantly proc the Vengeance. While Radiance can also be used with Courage, this option would most likely result in your OP getting hit with all sorts of CC minus fighting back. In other words, using Vengeance in this setup means giving more damage to your OP and not just throwing the dps to the rest of your party. Of course, this is not considering Radiance dealing constant damage throughout combat. You'll have to keep yourself alive, though. Which means Shielding Strike.
Note: Aura of Radiance can also be used with Wrath. On paper, the damage can be very devastating. In reality... well, dunno. Either way, any build with Aura of Wrath should be using Valorous Strike instead of Shielding Strike.
Currently, John is using Aura of Courage with Aura of Protection. This is to create an even playing ground between defence and offence. At the same time, the raiding loadout now looks like this:
Q: Templar's Wrath (for temp HP and direct damage post-Divine Call)
E: Sacred Weapon (for maximising damage for Purifying Fire feat)
R: Binding Oath (for aggro hold due to Divine Call's slow buildup)
At-will powers still remain as Shielding Strike and Radiant Strike. Daily powers still stay as Shield of Faith and Divine Judgement.
For the Scourge Warlock, John decided to go curse mode. Scornful Curse feat maxed out with Deadly Curse (for solo) and All-Consuming Curse (for raiding). Throw in every manner of offensive boon and the fireworks actually went quite well. Moral of the story? If you're a templock, you can't go wrong with maxing out the curse. Especially if you're crit-based (note that John threw in 2 points for the Devastating Critical feat).
Note: Blood Pact of Cania should be useful for the Fury spec. Should be.
Chapter II: Men of Straw
It's a no-brainer that Barovia is inspired by Eastern Europe rather than Bram Stoker's Dracula. Danika Dorakova is definitely a name inspired by Eastern Europe. Notice how the first and last names end? (i.e. -nika and -kova)
For a game boasting strong liberal influences (for whatever reason, but that's not John's problem unless it really becomes one), it's interesting that instead of two original female quest-giving NPCs, Danika was the only female out of the three (please note that Ezmerelda D'Avenir is NOT counted because she's created by whoever the Stokers creating the world of Ravenloft).
John's first impression of her would be a woman around forty carrying forth some sort of ageless feel. If Park "definitely a better Park-Choi than the original Park-Choi" Shin-hye can be compared to Ezmerelda D'Avenir, then Danika is Lee "unrelated to politicians both at home and abroad" Young-ae is Danika Dorakova.
Every NPC (except for that dim-looking barkeep) can give up to three different quests (minus the weeklies). Okay, maybe Big Daddy Szold would stop at two. John can only remember two quests involving canines posing a real threat to both Barovians and Koreans alike. But the other two do indeed give three. For Danika Lee, you'll need to help her kill two types of enemies: Witches and straw men. As for the hell hounds, they're optional.
Witches are not that hard to deal with. Initially, they may be a bit dodgy to deal with. But not as dodgy as the most infamous Choi or whoever the guy owning MV Sewol plus the rest. Witches are only good at one thing: Throwing their gasoline and Molotov cocktails. They do have good mobility, but they're not exactly the friendliest people when it comes to making friends. In other words, witches tend to be seen either in pairs or all by themselves. See the broom? That's useless beyond allowing the owner to deal combat advantage damage. A good AoE damage game would take any of them down in no time. Even the ghouls pack a harder punch.
Then you have the more powerful version. There are those who can only fight on the ground. Then there are those who can float in the sky like some kind of holy witch. The ones in the sky are a bit more problematic. And John says a bit because you can't hit them until they come down from their holy high horses. Such witches would do two things while in the air: Dropping meteors like a Makos (however, Makos is truly a badass compared to their lameass) and zapping you with a green death beam. While they're in the air, just move around. You can't hit them anyway, so might as well troll them by moving around trying to dodge their meteors. And if the green death ray comes, just be prepared to pop a healing potion if you really need it. Come to think of it, even the Flamewrath is more of a challenge. At least the meteors drop at a faster rate and you'll get knocked down prone once any of the burning stones hit you.
Against the hell hounds, just look out for their knockdown bite. John doesn't know what's with the dogs, but it seems that knockdown bites are their favourite attack. Apart from the dire wolves, that is. These dogs take more damage, so it shouldn't be a problem. If you want to see a problem, go find them at the Howling Hills. The dire wolves there is a different monster altogether. High one-shot damage and the kind of knockdown bite which every Asian dog would die for. As for why they're optional, that's because none of the quests from Danika Lee involved making a budae-jjigae out of them. But you'll still need to kill them if they spot you. After all, only the deer would ignore you unless you attack them first. An irony considering this is the only non-retaliatory enemy type and it's actually found in Barovia. Of all places, Barovia. Damn you, Stradh. You're really a trolling god.
And speaking of trolling god, John isn't referring to the most recent spate of trolling and how to analyse trolling. But before John starts talking about strawmen, he decided to talk a bit about spiders. The so-called D-zone is known for one thing: Diversity. In Berez, you have different enemy types of the same nature. In the Howling Hills, all you get are the ancestors of man's BFF (although whether BFF as a term also denotes dietary needs is always a subject of debate between PETA and Asia). As for the Whispering Wood, you have druids high on ganja. Not to mention Groot and more Groots. Just last night, a Groot (NOT this friendly type) was seen entering Yishun. Wait, that's the village of Barovia, not D&D's equivalent of Yishun. Sorry, my bad. Damn you, Stradh. You're really a trolling god. John should have done a screen grab of that scene. It's really funny to see that happening even though Barovia isn't the safest place for any refugee. And that's putting things mildly.
As for the D-zone, you got witches, dogs, dummies, and spiders. Yes, spiders. The spiders are only good at two things. Firstly, spiders are good at web spamming. However, it must be noted that not all spiders are web specialists. Those in Sharandar don't do webs. Those in the stronghold maps are more into spitting venom. As for those you see in the jungles of Chult and the world of Ravenloft, yes they're web-spinning spiders. The second thing they're good at is that they're quite resilient for a giant arachnid. They can take plenty of damage. Coupled with the fact that the AI in Barovia does have a higher tendency to spam the red zone, it means you'll need to make a decision: Do you want to stand and fight after getting webbed or do you prefer dodging to the side just before the web lands? Barovia isn't exactly 70% flat ground so half of the fight would involve your backside facing the wall. Especially at the Ruins of Berez where the mobs are mostly the control type. The spiders can be seen around the mounds, so they can just jump down and make sure you don't hit them from the rear. It's like an attacking player in the game of soccer/football. Out wide, you have less space to move around. In the centre, you have more space to wreak havoc. If you know how to deal with that red spider in the Omu zone, it means you should have no problem dealing with those in Barovia. Either way, they're no match for the wolves and man-wolves in the Howling Hills. Benicio "the Wolf Dude" del Toro's fellow wolf dudes have to be the hardest ones to deal with in open world Barovia due to high defence, equally high offence, and the random knockdown jump.
And now, John arrives at the strawmen. Note that strawmen in the Barovian context have got nothing to do with weak arguments, fallacies, and contemporary culture. Strawmen are strawmen. During the recent World Cup, Shin "will he create the #ShinTaegukWarriors with his 4-4-2?" Tae-yong trolled Sweden like a true #TrollingGodWarrior by attempting a strawmen battalion strategy. While it'd be demeaning to dehumanise hardworking Koreans into animated scarecrows, John has to admit the strawmen in Barovia do resemble the Koreans in ways more than one. More specifically, it's two.
The first would be a high frequency of firing the strawman beam. In the Storm King's Thunder campaign, you get to fight scarecrows in Lonelywood. Thankfully, the Barovians ones don't do stun. The insane part about the Barovian version of Mazinger Z lies in 2-3 of them pulling this off at the same time. There are only two types of enemies capable of pulling off more than one red zone attack in an overlapping manner. The first one would be Groot. The other is Mazinger Z. However, it seems that Barovia is full of enemies capable of stunning you on a prolonged basis. How this thing works is very simple. Below your character portrait, there are moments where a debuff status will show itself. For Barovia, stunning involved 10 stacks of some debuff icon resembling thorny branches. Two enemy types are able to do this: The ghouls and scarecrows. For the latter, the stacking frequency can be very high because the Koshiryoku Beam tends to come out faster and more often. John doesn't think he has seen any enemy capable of red zoning this fast and often before. Perhaps Harambe's BFFs in Omu, but that's it. Reaction timing is vital. It's either you stand with a finger placed on your Shift or what John is going to say below.
The other way which the Barovian strawmen resembled the Korean "strawmen" would be the physique. This is important for those players using dps classes. Getting out of the mob and hitting them back like a true world class counterattacking German team isn't that hard. The reason why is that any scarecrow would guarantee you a smaller hitbox. This allows you to run/dodge away from the laser beams without any problem. Unlike the wolf dudes at the Howling Hills, the scarecrows won't try to crowd you out via mobility and large hitbox from every member of the mob (in case you've yet to get it, yes zerging via mobility and large hitbox is the reason why Howling Hills have the toughest mob in open world Barovia). They won't really move around, so using mobility is your number one tactic to do them in.
Note: For some reason, the laser beams coming out from the scarecrows reminded John of long ball counterattacking tactics either from the back or midfield. Something which the Taeguk Warriors should be more than capable of even way before the recently concluded World Cup.
And speaking of trolling god, John isn't referring to the most recent spate of trolling and how to analyse trolling. But before John starts talking about strawmen, he decided to talk a bit about spiders. The so-called D-zone is known for one thing: Diversity. In Berez, you have different enemy types of the same nature. In the Howling Hills, all you get are the ancestors of man's BFF (although whether BFF as a term also denotes dietary needs is always a subject of debate between PETA and Asia). As for the Whispering Wood, you have druids high on ganja. Not to mention Groot and more Groots. Just last night, a Groot (NOT this friendly type) was seen entering Yishun. Wait, that's the village of Barovia, not D&D's equivalent of Yishun. Sorry, my bad. Damn you, Stradh. You're really a trolling god. John should have done a screen grab of that scene. It's really funny to see that happening even though Barovia isn't the safest place for any refugee. And that's putting things mildly.
As for the D-zone, you got witches, dogs, dummies, and spiders. Yes, spiders. The spiders are only good at two things. Firstly, spiders are good at web spamming. However, it must be noted that not all spiders are web specialists. Those in Sharandar don't do webs. Those in the stronghold maps are more into spitting venom. As for those you see in the jungles of Chult and the world of Ravenloft, yes they're web-spinning spiders. The second thing they're good at is that they're quite resilient for a giant arachnid. They can take plenty of damage. Coupled with the fact that the AI in Barovia does have a higher tendency to spam the red zone, it means you'll need to make a decision: Do you want to stand and fight after getting webbed or do you prefer dodging to the side just before the web lands? Barovia isn't exactly 70% flat ground so half of the fight would involve your back
And now, John arrives at the strawmen. Note that strawmen in the Barovian context have got nothing to do with weak arguments, fallacies, and contemporary culture. Strawmen are strawmen. During the recent World Cup, Shin "will he create the #ShinTaegukWarriors with his 4-4-2?" Tae-yong trolled Sweden like a true #TrollingGodWarrior by attempting a strawmen battalion strategy. While it'd be demeaning to dehumanise hardworking Koreans into animated scarecrows, John has to admit the strawmen in Barovia do resemble the Koreans in ways more than one. More specifically, it's two.
The first would be a high frequency of firing the strawman beam. In the Storm King's Thunder campaign, you get to fight scarecrows in Lonelywood. Thankfully, the Barovians ones don't do stun. The insane part about the Barovian version of Mazinger Z lies in 2-3 of them pulling this off at the same time. There are only two types of enemies capable of pulling off more than one red zone attack in an overlapping manner. The first one would be Groot. The other is Mazinger Z. However, it seems that Barovia is full of enemies capable of stunning you on a prolonged basis. How this thing works is very simple. Below your character portrait, there are moments where a debuff status will show itself. For Barovia, stunning involved 10 stacks of some debuff icon resembling thorny branches. Two enemy types are able to do this: The ghouls and scarecrows. For the latter, the stacking frequency can be very high because the Koshiryoku Beam tends to come out faster and more often. John doesn't think he has seen any enemy capable of red zoning this fast and often before. Perhaps Harambe's BFFs in Omu, but that's it. Reaction timing is vital. It's either you stand with a finger placed on your Shift or what John is going to say below.
The other way which the Barovian strawmen resembled the Korean "strawmen" would be the physique. This is important for those players using dps classes. Getting out of the mob and hitting them back like a true world class counterattacking German team isn't that hard. The reason why is that any scarecrow would guarantee you a smaller hitbox. This allows you to run/dodge away from the laser beams without any problem. Unlike the wolf dudes at the Howling Hills, the scarecrows won't try to crowd you out via mobility and large hitbox from every member of the mob (in case you've yet to get it, yes zerging via mobility and large hitbox is the reason why Howling Hills have the toughest mob in open world Barovia). They won't really move around, so using mobility is your number one tactic to do them in.
Note: For some reason, the laser beams coming out from the scarecrows reminded John of long ball counterattacking tactics either from the back or midfield. Something which the Taeguk Warriors should be more than capable of even way before the recently concluded World Cup.
Not much changes?
Right now, John is convinced that his Hunter Ranger main should be using Oak Skin and Plant Growth. Which left the last encounter power slot. Should it be Fox's Shift or Thorn Strike? The latter is good for the dps. Cooldown time so far reads like 5+ secs. Which is very good considering how the frequency of proc'ing would decide how good any combat HR dps will be. However, John is still more comfortable with Fox's Shift (note that John is talking about the raiding loadout). A setup involving Fox's Shift, Oak Skin, and Plant Growth won't guarantee you a high-end dps. You only have one pure damage encounter, one buffing encounter, and one CC-damage encounter. This means such a build is strictly a 2-way support. One way for buffing, another way for CC. In any party with a dps specialist, this would be giving them the unfettered right to deal damage. If you think such a build can out-dps any Great Weapon Fighter (assuming it's the destroyer spec), it means you're smoking ganja. In factm it's likely that this approach would result in a mid-dps party member. Not exactly the type any party leader would want to take. But that's most likely because no party leader can predict what kind of HR would be in the party.
For now, the raiding setup should look like this:
Q: Fox's Shift (for CC and self-movement buff)
E: Oak Skin (for self and mass buff)
R: Plant Growth (for pure dps)
At-wills: Clear the Ground; Split Strike (effective at-will AoE offence, no matter what)
Dailies: Forest Ghost; Disruptive Shot (for some funny reason, John ended up using DS more often due to instinct)
Class features: Blade Storm; Aspect of the Pack (guess John should switch to Twin-Blade Storm for the former. After all, he got Horseman's Hood [+1500 crit if only one enemy is present] and Lightning weapon enchantment [no-brainer for those running an AoE dps build] for Arylos)
Before John ends this post, he decided to say something about Sheallyn. Yes, you all read it right. It's Sheallyn, NOT Shalynn. Shalynn is a human being, Sheallyn is a drow.
You see, John decided to do something crazy here. Okay, not that crazy. For Sheallyn's raiding loadout, he's now going with this setup.
Q: Chill Strike
E: Icy Terrain
R: Disintegrate
Spell Mastery: Entangling Force
At-wills: Chilling Cloud; Storm Pillar
Dailies: Ice Storm; Ice Knife
Class features: Arcane Presence; Chilling Presence
The problem was that John had been running Sheallyn on an oppressor spec for both loadouts. However, this current raiding loadout wasn't constructive for oppressor specs for a reason: Lack of dps value. John realised that in any raid, he prefers a long-range strategy instead of short-mid range approach where the ranged classes are involved. This results in the balance between control and damage being screwed. So might as well do a feat respec. Thankfully, the current system allows you to do that without a respec token. But you'll need to cough up 60K astral diamonds. Which isn't that hard even considering how the devs changed the random queuing system.
So instead of going oppressor, John decided to switch to thaumaturge. This decision wasn't made without thinking things through. John has Chill Strike and Disintegrate, two single target spells. Then there are two thaumaturge feats mattering a lot as well: Destructive Wizardry for Storm Pillar (best for boss kill) and Frozen Power Transfer (for maximum damage stacking since thaum specs depend on this to deal high damage). Coupled with building up Arcane stacks via Spell Mastery version of Entangling Force, combining Arcane Presence with Chilling Presence has to be some kind of reference for every Control Wizard user. A lot has been said about Chilling Presence being the BiS for every CW, but an effective arcane stacking means using Arcane Presence as well would be more BiS than just Chilling Presence alone. By John's guess anyway...
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