Something's coming home (and it's now at Barovia) Pt III

Okay, this post is a bit special/different for a reason. Originally, Part III is about the Ruins of Berez (and John's attempt to justify why the mobs at Berez=German football). So far so good, John managed (?) to compare the Howling Hills to naked Belgians and the Cursed Meadows with Korean strawmen.

For this Part III, it's gonna be about the Whispering Wood, legally high druids, and Groots (minus Razorwood because that one is effectively the Vin "Big Daddy Cool" Diesel we've seen in the Marvel movies). And yeah, plus Groot version of Silent Hill. Namely Yester Hill.

Where the legally high druids come from

According to history (and John isn't making this up). druids hailed from the Celtic people. Now the cluster of islands known as the British Isles (not Britain as one may call it because Ireland is officially an independent republic state fyi) isn't just known for Emma "not Louise Jones" Watson, Emma "not Watson" Louise Jones, and Emilia "404 Jon and Daario still not found" Clarke. At the same time, it's known for a people having a hand in today's fictional fantasy culture and not-so-fictional occultic fanbase.

The Celtics were the first bunch of people to populate what is arguably the most famous cluster of islands. However, the Celts were more of a category of folks rather than a specific bunch. It's like in the U.K where you have Scousers, Mackems, and Cockneys. For the Celts, they got the Gaels, Picts, Manx, and Britons (not to be confused with the Brits we're now familiar with). Not to mention their very own indigenous priesthood as well. Namely, the druids.

While the world of Ravenloft is largely influenced by Eastern European culture (albeit Von was actually a Germanic word indicating you're actually a super high SES'er before society decided to do away with the definition), one can easily see other non-Slavic influences. Werewolf myths were common in any European nation where wolves were a common sight (for some funny reason, however, werewolves in Sirius the Jaeger are considered non-Darwinistic Asians, Yuliy or no Yuliy). Witchcraft was something mentioned in the history of the ancient Near East as well. As for druids and Groots, let's blame the prototype British, shall we?

Note: John needs to start watching Sirius the Jaeger. Three episodes so far, so it's not that hard to catch up. Unlike Fate/Zero where the DVDs are still somewhere gathering dust and waiting to be watched. -.-'

Three types of enemies=BFFs in the reality of Barovia

The mob in Howling Hills is considered homogenous. That's why the only critters you get to fight are wolves, wolf dudes, and undercover wolf dudes (perhaps the devs should have reworked the undercover wolf dudes so that they don't need to transform during the night). As for the Cursed Meadows, it's multicultural with a touch of dictatorship (i.e. you know the witches are effectively running the show). At Berez, it's a case of undead subjects ruled by vampires equally undead (i.e. more of a monocultural dictatorship). As for the Whispering Wood, you can call it democracy in a land ruled by a dictator named Strahd von Zarovich.

You see, no matter how John looks at it, it felt like a democracy. The twig blights are an independent bunch. As for the druids, they're another independent bunch. Of course, we got the barbarians as well. Most likely they're not into the bouncer job for the sake of M&M (i.e. not the chocolate, but Money and Mammon). Everybody has his/her own free will, actual people or no actual people.

The reason behind the change

This is because John realised there's a bit of a change in Barovia at the very least. For a few days, John went MIA in Barovia. Then in a bid to test-drive his newly bought and baked Prominence (moderate rank), he decided to use druids, Groots, and bouncers as his guinea pigs. More specifically, Arylos' guinea pigs.

However, there was a hiccup last night. John's sister decided to stream-watch her Korean shows again. Hence, John had no choice but to emulate Archer. Who incidentally was a primary source of inspiration behind the creation of Arylos as a plot character instead of just another gaming toon.

Fact: Lancer is Irish and Gáe Bolg isn't some Korean Gáe Bulgogi made from dog meat.

In other words, John needs to hold down the R key in order to make sure Plant Growth came out right. Otherwise, the lag would cause a cancelled attack. Now for those who are still in the dark over how the Hunter Ranger's dodge mechanic works (beyond the terribly short distance which even a Devoted Cleric can out-dodge), there's such a thing called dodge cancel. In other words, you can cancel most (if not every) attacks by dodging within a split second after the attack is executed. Under the right circumstances, you can easily wrongfoot any opponent, PvP or PvE. If your sister is watching Korean shows on YouTube, you'll need to dodge less, stand more, and make sure every hit from your attack counts. If it means taking a hit or two, so be it. In fact, that's how John managed to counter the Korean lag.

Changes noticed so far...

To know whether any enemy has entered berserk mode, look no further. In the Soshenstar zone, certain Batiri mobs would boast a reddish glow. That's a sign of berserk mode on standby. In fact, even Thayan wizards there do have the occasional Tenser moment. However, it must be stated that the berserk state would only stay for a fixed duration. It's like setting the pace more than lasting the pace. Something which isn't entirely non-fictional if you're to look at how the real berserkers fought their battles. They didn't get high in the middle of the fight. Rather, they got high before the fight. In this sense, the Groots aren't that problematic. The most problematic berserkers are the wolves and wolf dudes. Because they don't go berserk before the fight. Rather, they go berserk in the middle of the fight. And they can do it more than once. At least the ones you get to fight in Big Daddy Szold's Pack of Lies/Company of Wolves quest. And don't let John repeat how the wolves and wolf dudes can effectively close you down via each one's large hitbox, high mobility, and continual zerging. And speaking of continual zerging...

Yes, this is John's way of telling his sis, "You can stream your Korean shows while your bro is gaming. But does it hurt for you to try fact-checking whether he's telling a lie by saying streaming videos do lag the connection for online games instead of shooting him down like some FPS heroine?"

Anyway, back to the topic. The reason why John mentioned the berserk mode is very simple: He mistook the Prominence proc animation with the red berserk glow. Seriously, you whack any number of enemies with that thing once, the target(s) would flash red for a while. That's not berserk mode. That's Kelemvor making himself prominent.

Stacking seems to be the most prominent mechanic in Ravenloft, the Groot system seems to work somewhat (?) like the ten-stack stun rule seen in the ghouls and scarecrows. Either way, John isn't dumb enough to try finding out what a fully stacked status would do to him, Arylos or no Arylos. And thankfully, the Groots don't have a high-frequency red zone firing like the scarecrows featured in any quest offered by Danika Lee. More specifically, they'd just attempt an overlapping red zoning on the lesser interval basis.

The thing with Groots (apart from the occasional one running into Yishun... erm, John means the village of Barovia) is that they would jump on you. If you pass by a group of seemingly unanimated Groots, there's a chance of them suddenly coming to life and chasing after you. Unless you're riding the best possible ride (i.e. a 140% legendary mount movement speed bonus), please use the Stables utility guild boon. Either you've learnt this via Jungles of Chult or you'll never learn. Seriously, this is not a joke. Even if you're a dumb kid, there's only this much a normal human being can handle before trying to do something about it. Sadly, that's why people go to jail. Not regardless of race, language, or religion, but regardless of Nitec, diploma, or university degree. Maybe it's really better to be a reckless Yuliy than a Darwinistic vampire.

Spoiler: Yuliy didn't die because a certain girl from a totally different (inner and outer) world had yet to appear in his life (?).

Again, back to the topic at hand. The point is this: While there's no need to kill the Groots where the quests coming from Ezmerelda Park are concerned, trying to complete them would involve triggering the Groots aggro, no matter what. After cleansing a patch of corrupted soil, the Groots would pop up from the ground. Where there's a cairn waiting to be kicked down, you can be very sure a mob of seemingly inanimated Groots would be somewhere nearby. If you want to investigate the nearest Stonehenge, you're guaranteed a fight with at least a Groot or two.

As for the standard mob in Whispering Wood, there are three variations. Either it's a druid-barbarian combination, a druid-twig blight combination, or a druid-stag combination. The third type is the easiest to deal with as stags do not have any red zone attacks. Ironically, the first type is harder to take down despite the barbarian bouncer having no red zone attacks (but they seem to have a hardier constitution than the AI in Cursed Meadows). The reason why is very simple: The placement of the barbarian bodyguard is always a case of the bouncer in front and druid behind. At the same time, you're NOT guaranteed a one druid per mob combination. In any mob involving an archdruid, chances are that you'll get another druid. Archdruids are immune to knockdown, let alone prone. In fact, John wouldn't be surprised if archdruids are partial control-immune (apparently, the daze animation didn't appear whenever Arylos did a Disruptive Shot. Not sure about rooting, though).  There's a vital change in druidic magic mechanic for some reason compared to a few days ago or so. Previously, the druids have a higher tendency to cast lightning storm and a lower tendency to cast some sort of entangling magic. This makes the fight easier because at worst, the lightning would just catch you unaware, dealing higher damage and a longer knockdown duration (but nothing much unless your control resistance is too damn low instead of too damn high).  Either that or the lower damage was because of moderate Prominence plus a max rank Blood Raven Pendant. Quite likely the latter. *shrugs* But no matter what, the druids seemed to have a higher chance to cast entangle with a lower chance to cast lightning storm. So far, John's run-in with the legally high involved only one lightning storm, but at least one moment of getting immobilised. It's very easy to know when you're immobilised. Once you hear the kind of sound only a Pathfinder HR can make via Hunter's Teamwork (seriously, John isn't making this up), you know you're rooted (but not screwed). This wouldn't stun you like that green dragon woman in mod 4 and 5. But it's still annoying. Or maybe more than merely annoying considering the fact that no druid is ever alone by him/herself. Not even an archdruid. Either way, get your healing potion ready on standby once this happens. If you can't fight back, at least stay alive until you can fight back. After all, this is Barovia where Darwinism and Strahd von Zarovich rule the roost.

At the end of the day, seeing the Groots throwing a straight line's worth of botanical artillery reminds John of how the English play it long and forward. The classic 4-4-2 break and counter. The circular roots spike is like 5 men across the mid, back 3 or no back 3. Ditto for the lightning storm. As for the entangling, it's pointing towards the need to slow down the tempo via the defensive mid deployed nearer to Southgate's back 3 in the form of a diamond-shaped backline. Doesn't matter whether it's Henderson alone or him and Dier.

No matter what, your mobility matters. And by mobility, John is talking about movement speed and the ability to move around in circles. That plus the occasional dodge as some sort of movement burst in the name of evasion and offensive closing down. Maybe too much mobility and too little speed was the reason why Spain currently owes Catalonia a favour. Imagine the one Mata in the middle 3 with Silva and Busquets. That'd give either Vázquez or Asensio the freedom to run forward with Isco at the other flank and Costa up front. Same 4-3-3, but not the same old 4-3-3.

FBI, Kelemvor's Prominence, and Sheallyn=/=Shalynn

Let's hit the reverse order. Namely, Sheallyn=/=Shalynn. Again, allow John to hammer home the fact that Shalynn is a human being and Sheallyn is a drow who happened to be an Underdark exile from the Northdark. At the same time, allow John to clarify that he created Sheallyn BEFORE he knew the name Shalynn is actually legit.

1-2 hours ago, John did a Castle Never with Sheallyn Melarn. At this point in time, she's officially a thaumaturge Control Wizard(ess). There's a Trickster Rogue in the alliance party, his name is Backstab. At 16K total item level, he proved that only crazy folks on the level of Steve Jobs and Elon "the mini-sub ain't meant to be a sex toy" Musk are capable of doing that. This is not to say Backstab is Jobs because that'd imply John, as an otter, is Musk. After all, John did have a TR somewhere in the roster as well. Seriously, hoomans and demi-hoomans, have you ever heard of Exposed Weakness and Shadowborn? If these two feats don't work on a max rank basis, Cryptic should consider hiring Don T after he steps down, deep state or no deep state. After all, he needs to fire either something or someone. Preferably the latter.

The team was running with a thaumaturge CW having the second lowest total item level. Therefore, it's not surprising that a dps Devoted Cleric can even out dps a drow CW. The thing with running a drow thaumaturge is the fact that it induces Darkfire. 10% defence debuff means John was bound to throw damage to Backstab and the DC. And besides, the DC was at 14K. 2-3K higher than Sheallyn.

But it's still fun. The fun in gaming reflects the fun in life. Namely, the process is more important than the outcome. No point killing your own joy in doing things. After all, Kelemvor isn't a Singaporean. For John, knowing what he's doing is the most important thing. There are too many morons in this world, one less idiot in the world means one less idiot alive in the world. In a non-fatal way ofc.

The challenge with using thaumaturge is that chances of lagging behind on the dps is very high. At least for a mid-game thaum (i.e. 10-12K total item level). Using a thaum means your AoE game is bound to get knackered. And any fights involving non-boss enemies would require AoE. Once the numbers add together, it's a no-brainer why oppressors and renegades are the preferable ones. Of course, there's a viable option: Shard of the Endless Avalanche. Basically, this means John needs to spend the last respec token for Sheallyn on the powers for the raiding loadout. There's no point using a short ranged Icy Terrain if your other two encounters are Chill Strike and Disintegrate. And besides, it's going on a range of 30. Which makes it an effective mid-range ballistic wrecking ball. Of course, this is NOT to say Icy Terrain sucks for thaum specs. But you'll need to throw 10 feat points into the oppressor. 5 points for Bitter Cold and in order to max out Brisk Teleport. So it's not entirely undoable. But you'll need an effective offensive dodge game. Basically, the execution (for Sheallyn) should go something like this order: Entangling Force (Spell Mastery)>Chilling Cloudx3>teleport+Icy Terrain>teleport backwards+Chill Strike/Disintegrate. This would require some getting used to, though. And there's no telling how effective it'd be given any thaum's AoE game should truly suck.

Funnily enough, the boss fights were much easier. Undead beholder, illithilich, and Orcus. They say catch 'em all, we melt 'em all. Like a team of Chus. Not Choa Chu Kang, Yio Chu Kang, and Lim Chu Kang. But rather, Pikachu(s) and Raichu(s). The reason why the boss fights in this CN run were easier is up for speculations. But it's possibly due to Sheallyn the thaumaturge. Single fire dps can be very fun against bosses. We actually melted Cthylarr before the second wave of adds arrived. Let alone the first round of London Bridge Falling Down My Fair Lady. As for Orcus, he never got beyond the first hocus pocus demonic blast. Seriously, someone in the party was surprised we're able to blast that pig monster (no Steinergate reference intended). And John was actually like "Not bad at all for an 11K thaumaturge".

Now onto Kelemvor's Prominence. In the greatest (?) show of divine intervention (?), we now got the Prominence enchantment. Someone in the alliance stated that the damage doesn't seem to scale according to power. In other words, the percentage per proc is most likely as flat as the Narita Airport. Don't ask John where he got the Narita Airport reference lest LesPros decide to hire hunters, skinners, and tanners via Craigslist. All for the sake of giving Aragaki "not part of Gaki no Tsukai" Yui a coat made from otter pelt.

Narita Airport or no Narita Airport, Prominence is still nice to have. The reason why the percentage per proc is flat and not applicable to power scaling is very simple: The moment power scaling happens, that's it. Strahd will be obliterated for good by Kelemvor, the god of death and anti-undeath will end up delivering a girl named Gaki from that philandering monster's grasp. A flat percentage is no reason for Prominence not to be a top-tier enchantment in the same way a lady's figure should never be an indication of actual merit. Of course, there are two other insane-tier enchantments. One is Dread, the other is Feytouched. If the nerfhammer is to come flying from some dev named Thor, John doubts Prominence will be in the smashing line. The reason why is very simple: Prominence shards are Castle Ravenloft dungeon drops and they cannot be purchased. If it sounds like Dread, that's because we all know what Castle Never is all about. Seriously, Prominence is so Kelemvor and arguably more Kelemvor than Holy Avenger.

Lastly, FBI. No, not the feds. John is talking about Fangbreaker Island. A few days ago, John happened to run his second Fangbreaker raid. Which is hilarious because who in the blue hell would say "My first Fangbreaker raid was during the Shroud of Souls module and my second Fangbreaker raid was just days ago during Ravenloft"? But that's how dumb John is. He rarely gets himself into anything that's random advanced queue level. Let alone random expert queue level.

It's insane. The enemies just got tougher. At the very least, the ninja turtle is now harder to kill because its shell and hide just got tougher and thicker. As for Drufi, the Herald of Winter is now moving around like an advanced German tank instead of a light Japanese tank. We suffered quite a grief trying to win this one. Majority of the wipe happened at the first phase where the arguably hardest part awaited. But the final boss fight was equally tricky as well. So what did John learn in just his second time raiding the FBI? (i.e. where the frost giants operate, not where the feds operate)

It's a mechanic dungeon. Either you know the mechanics from the first phase or you'll have to wipe and rally. It's like playing around with a Rubik's Cube. No matter how smart you are, no matter whether you're a Jewish Albert Einstein or a Chinese Zhang Liang, you don't expect to do nothing. In the same way a Rubik's Cube is meant to be fiddled around to get the best outcome, the same goes for trying to figure out the mechanics. John will only touch on the two major ones because there's not much in dealing with the ninja turtle apart from the recommended 2 DC (i.e. Divine Oracle and Anointed Champion)+1 templock+1 dps+1 tank safe combination or 1 DC (i.e. DO with Terrifying Insight and Prophetic Action)+1 templock+2 dps+1 tank risk combination.

The first major mechanic is arguably the trickiest to get right. Throughout the process, your party would be running along a narrow ledge. This gives an absolute advantage to the giants and bears. Giants have the largest hitbox when it comes to the mob. Which means manoeuvring becomes a science. Tactical science to be exact. Albert Einstein's scientific genius has no hold over the giants. Rather, the party requires the kind of strategic genius Zhang Liang was famous for.

Firstly and foremost, the tank needs to make a decision fast. There are two ways to hold the aggro. Either by standing on the ledge or with his/her back facing the cliff wall. How the rest would move depends on which of the two aggro holding points the tank decides to take. The easier option would be standing in the middle of the ledge. In this scenario, the rest should just move up along the cliff wall. Ranged members should be standing on high ground, DC or no DC. The melee dps should go up the cliff wall and run back down onto the ledge. But there's a problem: This would open themselves up for attacks coming from the bear and whichever type the other giant may be. Actually, come to think of it, it really sounds like a dumb idea. Okay, scrap that. Let's play the Rubik's Cube once again...

The other way is to have the tank holding the aggro. Back against the wall. Not that literally, but definitely positionally. The DC(s) need to protect the tank, but that shouldn't be a problem so long the tank can move away from the giant bum-rush. Seriously to all the tanks: Don't get bum-rushed. The resultant flying rock will kill you. Fangbreaker Island is a raid where the party must move fast and smart like the ideal Spanish national football team currently under Luis "not Figo" Enrique. And that includes the tank. The moment you get a slow tank, just vote to abandon. The giants are big, but they're quite fast for a race cursed with a gigantic hitbox. The bum-rush starting animation should be all too tell-tale. Move away fast enough and the raid will go nicely. Holding down Shift and you may as well do a wipe and rally. Once the tank does this right, the dps can hit the first blue man in the line. Keep the tank alive, make sure the tank doesn't move away from the cliff wall. The tank MUST move along the cliff wall in order to make sure the aggro doesn't break away. In other words, make sure the bum-rush goes to only one direction. And that is towards the cliff wall. Consistent combat advantage is the key to navigating this phase. So just calm and carry on with the combat advantage until you reach Hati's favourite stomping ground.

Note: This is NOT to say the first approach won't work. The first option is meant for any party with pure ranged dps since it's actually possible for anyone to climb up the cliff wall. John is talking seriously here despite being a pseudo-otter. Because he did that before during both raids. As for the second option, it's for any party with at least 1 melee dps.

The second mechanic is Drufi's permafrost popsicles. If you know how to exploit it, it's very easy to win it. Yes, Drufi can be very annoying due to her high mobility. This giantess boss doesn't fight like any other final boss. She does hit and run. Which means the moment she attempts her very own bum rush, the tank needs to get out of the way. No, it's less lethal than the ones her men used on you. But it will still result in a knockdown. Which can be a real bummer because she can just proceed to chase everyone else around like Jason Voorhees doing the same to a bunch of stark naked teens (only Oghma knows what possessed the scriptwriters to do something circumstantially stupid).

There are two ways for Drufi to spawn the permafrost popsicles. One is via melee, the other is via range. Because Drufi is truly a fast woman when it comes to the laws of physics, it's impossible to grab her by the aggro 24/7. Use her strength (or in this case, constant mobility) against her. There's no point trying to preserve the permafrost popsicles when she decided to spawn some around her. Chances of them getting wrecked is too damn high unless your tank can move out of the way in time and aggro drag her away. A more practical way would be waiting for four red arrows to target a random party member NOT within striking range. It should be very easy for her to pull this off. After all, she's grab resistant. Not grab proof, though. To the one whom she chooses to arrow, please run. Not around in circles, but toward the side of the arena. Once the red circles pop up, get away. You have only a few seconds to do so. But because Fangbreaker is all about out-manoeuvring anything with a super large hitbox (apart from the biggest one called that ninja turtle), you can't really be that hopeless if you're able to arrive this far. Once the permafrost popsicles spawn, try preventing Drufi from running into the side with permafrost popsicles. If that happens, the tank should go all out to aggro drag her away. So long she keeps fighting at the centre of the stage, victory shouldn't be an issue.

Now why John mentioned the permafrost popsicles at the side is very simple. In the past, any permafrost popsicle can be an effective wall against her winter nuke. Or at least that's how John remembers it. He may be wrong, though. Either way, please make sure the permafrost popsicles are at full health. Otherwise, her nuke will still get you nevertheless. And that'd be instadeath. Literally.

Lessons learnt via breaking Storvald's fang

It's official now. Combat Hunter Rangers shouldn't be doing CC in raiding. Open world, yes. But unless you're doing stuff like Thorn Ward and Split the Sky where debuffing is actually useful, don't try doing CC. John committed a mistake via FBI. It's not worth it. In fact, John wouldn't be surprised if even a thaumaturge CW can out-CC this kind of HR. If you're running the raid, go for a pure dps. Oak Skin is good, but John just found out it can't proc Assassin's Covenant. John did a rejig on Arylos' boons due to this. 3 pts into Chill of Winter and last Icewind Dale boon being Winter's Bounty. Thorn Strike is useful for constant flurry proc, so it's a must for the dps. Doing the occasional stance switch means there's a decent chance of pulling off Thorn Ward. Coupled with Longstrider's Shot giving a 60% speed buff, it's very easy to land the botanical bomb. At the same time, Split Strike has been replaced with Aimed Strike due to the high base damage and bleed. Consistent damage dealing wise, it's going to be Blade Storm. Yes, it requires a 25% chance to proc. But the damage is now very good, potentially crazy even. Once it procs at rank 4, you'll deal an attack with a whopping 20% bonus in damage. And it's AoE. It's truly the bomb in every sense of the word. Unless the tooltip is lying. Because the tooltip for this class feature is anything but vague.

So now it should read like this:

Q: Gushing Wound

E: Thorn Strike

R: Plant Growth

At-wills: Clear the Ground; Aimed Strike

Dailies: Forest Ghost; Cold Steel Hurricane (Forest Ghost as primary daily, Cold Steel Hurricane as a follow-up to Plant Growth)

Class features: Blade Storm; Aspect of the Pack

P.S: Prominence should be good enough where the shielding is concerned. After all, Kelemvor's animosity towards the undead knows no bounds. And that includes Strahd.

Something's coming home (and it's now at Barovia) Pt II

John swears Stradh would love to boss Yishun like a Barovian boss. Recently, the Singaporean equivalent of Scotland strikes again.

This is Scotland.

This is the Singaporean equivalent of 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.

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...

冬の鎮魂曲 OST~A Requiem From Winter Past

Recently, a certain Ben Davis got himself (and his entire nation) into the global limelight. In this article, Singapore is forced to look at itself into the mirror. Then we have the next Ah Boys to Men movie being done. Now let me just say that while I did troll my entire nation (?), I decide to be serious here.

Ben Davis' situation is the reason why I know reality is a cruel man's game. In life, everybody wants to be Clark Kent or Diana Prince. Sadly, the reality is always like Remy LeBeau living in New Orleans. Abandoned, forced to fend for oneself, and forced to deal with people. People may still see Ben Davis as local football's equivalent of Superman. As for me, I know I'm nothing more than Gambit trying to survive the harshness of reality.

Words on Jack Neo's behalf

No one paid me to be the Keanu Reeves to whoever that Al Pacino is. In fact, what happened to Shrey Bhargava should have never taken place right from the beginning. Period. For Ben Davis' case, however, accusing Jack Neo of being another Elon Musk is unfair. Firstly, I won't be surprised if Elon Musk is the more capable guy. Secondly (and more importantly), this was a different case from the mini-sub drama where Elon Musk ended up displaying his brand of humour.

In other words, accusations of commercial opportunism should only be entertained if Ben Davis (or anyone in his family/inner circle) speaks up. Not because of what one perceives in the situation, but rather respecting Ben Davis' freedom to make his own decisions. And if he decides to rage quit a nation which gave him everything except for his dreams, it merely means we, in Emma Watson's own words, can't have it both ways.

Others may believe in more than one standard, but I'm not going to apologise for saying I don't follow the crowd. At least not for the sake of following, that is. I've tried doing that during my years of being foolish from Henderson Primary School to ITE Dover with Gan Eng Seng School wedged in between. I was betrayed by those whom I should have no reason to place my trust in. So why should I be an idiot once again? I have no problems trusting a person within the current 24 hours. Just don't force me to do so beyond the limit I set for myself and others. If I choose to do so otherwise, let it be a matter of self-volition. As for the rules of the society, I'm entitled the freedom to decide which ones to agree with and which ones not to. In Uncle Ben's own words, with great power comes great responsibility. And the freedom of choice is always that greatest power one can ever have.

An outcast and untouchable?

In Singapore, it's very easy to recognise the local brand of creativity. We always like to feel good, hence we always endorse the feel-good brand of creativity. Hence, Jack Neo's brand of creativity is always something Singaporeans are willing to accept. Because it makes us feel good. But not me. The only reason why I use "we" and "us" is because I regard myself as a Singaporean.

I'm not sorry to say that Jack Neo's brand of creativity isn't my stuff. Yes, I've got no problem appreciating the feel-good creativity every now and then. But that's not what I want to do. What I want to do is something closer to G.R.R Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, Type-Moon/Urobuchi Gen's Fate/Zero, and Miura Kentaro's Berserk. I prefer Jon Snow. I prefer Emiya Kiritsugu. Definitely, I prefer Guts. Because they're emotionally broken characters, characters whom I can connect with. Definitely, they're the kind of characters I'd want to create. As for a dark world of fantasy, I won't call it a form of escape. Rather, it is a constant reminder that it was never my fault that I have to suffer in a way no one should. It's either that or everyone in this world deserves such a fate. Ask me and I'd rather fault reality than to be cruel to everybody else.

In fact, I won't put it past not being understood by those around me. Not my family members, not my colleagues in SGH, not even my churchmates. In this sense, I don't mind being Emiya Shirou/Archer.

Update: Awkward episode ahead for the nation?

What this post is all about

I'm going to do a twelve track compilation. If A Requiem From Winter Past is made into anime/game, how would the OST be like?

DISCLAIMER!

Note that I do NOT own the vids below. Because I don't make them. Note that I do NOT own the songs below. Because I don't own the ones responsible for making them in the first place.

Note: It's no longer 11 tracks. Rather, it's a case of 11+1.

Chapter 1  Chapter 2  Chapter 3  Chapter 4  Chapter 5

Chapter 6  Chapter 7  Chapter 8  Chapter 9  Chapter 10

冬の鎮魂曲 OST~A Requiem From Winter Past

~Track 1~

~Track 2~


~Track 3~


~Track 4~

~Track 5~

Lyrics

~Track 6~

Lyrics

~Track 7~

Lyrics

~Track 8~


~Track 9~


~Track 10~


~Track 11~


~Track 12~

List of CV

Aeravor: 関 俊彦

Gael Kodr: 杉山 紀彰

Alestrial Eliaden: 川澄 綾子

Lars Alterfate: 新垣 樽助

Kagetsu no Ji'Yeon: 三石 琴乃

Sarel Aphros: 植田 佳奈

Ineis von Stormhearth: 喜多村 英梨

Edeaux de Serpentwine: 緑川 光

Tristan Aias: 諏訪部 順一

Arondight: 置鮎 龍太郎

Lolyx Barnes: 伊藤 美紀

Seelia: 恒松 あゆみ

Weisslynn: 伊藤 葉純

Adine Tayne: 大原 さやか

Karen Tenias: 豊口 めぐみ

Lukas Brun: 神谷 浩史

Catterm Leen: 山崎 たくみ

Ostiel: 小山 力也

Erik Sohren: 小杉 十郎太

Dessail de Morte: 速水 奨

Salandra: 渡辺 明乃

Lauranc de Hallstone: てらそま まさき

Forget about China Wine, hold my Europe beer Pt II

Well, it felt weird. Very weird. Ask every Croatian whether he/she would want to see a Cinderella end to their national Cinderella story and they'd say yes. Ask them whether they'd want to see the same bunch of people bossing their national football?

Hopefully, John can get this done at the end of 11 pm here in Singapore. Also, having a Malay girl telling you to pergi mampus means telling you to go to hell. If John got it wrong, any Malay is free to correct him. And no, it doesn't have to be a pretty Malay girl.

Round 2: Kronenbourg 1664 Blanc vs Ožujsko

There's a reason why John decided to "help" Croatia. This was due to some original gangsta wannabe saying something he/she shouldn't have said. While it's perfectly fine for 13 yr old kids to behave like the kind of idiots they are (whether or not that idiot was 13 years old is of no relevance because even fully grown adults can shamelessly masquerade as kids and tweens on the internet), John decided to swear an oath. To help Croatia win it because that pesky little moron chose to support France. Not because he's a fan of Les Bleus but because he's a shameless flip-flopper. And you think the likes of BoJo and Don T are bad? Well, guess they're not the only ones.

Speaking of being shameless, John decided to share three shocking pieces of information.

http://republicofotters.blogspot.com/2018/07/forget-about-china-wine-hold-my-europe.html

It doesn't look good. Seriously, it doesn't. Apparently, for every Zhang Zhao, Cheng Pu, and Huang Gai in Singapore, you got a Zhou Gongjin as well. So will it be second time lucky/unlucky for John?

Due to some decision coming from the powers-that-be, there's no way John could watch the final (and the 3rd-4th placing match as well) free of charge on the Okto channel. John's family is too poor to afford cable. Just don't ask John whether he's a low SES Zhou Yu instead of a high SES Yuan Shu.

Key men for Vatreni and Mr Zlatko

John will just go straight to the most important aspect of any tactical/strategy post. Namely, the truly important guys and why they are considered VIP status.

Defence:

Dejan "not Louvre" Lovren is officially the new C.R Sete. Years ago, Wayne "and you think only Ireland was known for the Grannygate" Rooney was riled by what was an attempt to get him sent off. And it didn't help that the lad nearly castrated Ricardo "he came before William" Carvalho. It was mayhem. Sheer mayhem. Pure mayhem. However, this part is never about whether Lovren is now truly a G.O.A.T or some kind of talking kambing. This part is about two VIPs in the backline. And Lovren isn't one of them. Also, kambing is not a vulgarity. You can safely ask any Malay the meaning, pretty Malay girl or any other Malay.

Two players at the back caught John's eyes. One goes by the name Domagoj "he blocks the opposition in open play like DOMA" Vida and the other is Šime "don't say simisai footballer's name hor" Vrsaljko.

Against England, Vida was winning virtually every duel in open play against England. Lingard, Rashford, etc... it doesn't matter. Seriously, it doesn't Against England, Vrsaljko was responsible for two things. The first is exposing England's weakness. The other is to do it with his feet before doing it with his words. Should England be angry? Instead of being angry, Beaumains Southgate needs to sort out his central midfield because only the correct Harry and Stones were doing it right on the ground. He needs to have 2 ball playing mids in the middle of the park. And by that, John isn't referring to Fabian "does he have the depth?" Delph being the 3rd ball passing mid (note the maths?). If players like Eric "Der Dier" Dier and Ruben "can he loft the ball like a Spanish?" Loftus-Cheek are deemed surplus to the English cause, then there's no hope for the English cause at all. It's just going to be a question of who will inherit Jordan "unrelated to Henderson Primary School" Henderson at the tip of a defensive diamond and who will challenge Jesse "so when will this second vanguard come good?" Lingard for a starting place (that's provided Dele "will it be hello from the other side for him?" Alli keeps his place due to his ability to go box to box).

Enough about England. Let's talk about England's fellow Western Europeans. Namely, a nation of Franks and black people. This is going to be a duel, make no mistakes about it. At one side of the defence, Dom Vida will have to find ways to knacker Kylian 'will he make kimbap out of the opposition again?" Mbappé. It doesn't matter whether you're JJ Lin or JJ Ng. So long you support Belgium, it's only natural to seethe and rage at this kid. It's like strangling your fave SGN.

Apologies to any JJ supporting Belgium if Homer Simpson reminds you of yourself for whatever reason.

Dom Vida played an open play blinder at the defensive left. That'd put him on the collision course with KiMbappé. To stop him, Dom Vida needs to guess correctly whether KiMbappé will continue to run straight down the touchline or suddenly cut inside. To deal with KiMbappé, Mr Zlatko needs to get another Croatian dude to watch Dom Vida's back. If Dom Vida is there to cover the width, the whoever the other Croatian is must ensure the space in the central defensive region is covered properly. And that's not considering the greatest goal assassin in the current world of modern day football: Antoine "Fortnite is for England,  Assassin's Creed is for him" Griezmann.

As for Simi Vrsaljko, his presence down the offensive right as the ever-present rightback bossing the ball means he will be going one-on-one against Deschampions' man: Blaise "the base protector" Matuidi. This may prove to be intriguing as Mr Zlatko needs to predict who will be having Matuidi's back in the same way Dom Vida needs a teammate to have his back against KiMbappé. Matuidi is what John would call a counter-offensive player. But that's only if Deschampions opts for a 4-2-3-1. Against Croatia, he may go for the more defensive 4-3-3 which would always result in Griezmann's inner assassin being suppressed.

Luka Skywalker and Ivan the Great. One is a polarising figure of irony while the latter is the sidekick equally good. One is like Guan Yu or Zhang Fei, generals with their glaring flaws and obvious fame. The other is like Zhao Yun and Chen Dao, warriors of lesser fame yet with a nobler character. Against England, Modrić was Guan Yunchang down the right while Rakitić was Zhao Zilong down the left. The one-touch passing from the width to the centre of the box was breathtaking, the gulf in quality all too glaring in the full glory of Croatian flair. This was the kind of football fans have been paying to watch.

Against Les Bleus, however, the duo need to be at their intellectual best. There's no question about the technique. There's no question about Modrić's indefatigable steel. However, Deschampions will be out to cut off the passes from one half of this dynamic duo, so that the other half will be forced to carry the team. And once this happens, Croatia is done for. For Modrić, the question lies in how deep he will play. Assuming he will start in the hole 9 (since Mr Zlatko enjoys doing 4-2-3-1 like a German), how close will he play to the Croatian four by two? No one can fault Griezmann's grit (after all, his club boss thinks like his national boss). However, once Croatia starts bossing the area between the French frontline and backline, Les Bleus will be in trouble.

This comes to Ivan the Great down the left. His rampaging running against England was reminiscent of Thomas "he plays Assassin's Creed like Griezmann as well" Müller doing the same thing against Argentina four years ago. Different flank, same thing. Les Bleus defensive weakness lies in KiMbappé and Le Mann. Why John says this is very simple: The two are never specialists in defensive work beyond tracking and trying their best to do an Irish Keane. This presents an interesting scenario for Ivan the Great: Will he go all the way down to the byline wire or will he do what Vrsaljko did against England at the other flank? Remember, Croatia's equaliser effectively killed England. Before that, the Three Lions were defending well from the 20-yard box to the midfield. Of course, this didn't mean anything when it boiled down to the most vital ingredient for victory and defeat: The final ball worth the square root of sod all coming from a nation that invented the phrase. Either way, Les Bleus would have done its homework. They should know it pays to learn from a rival vanquished at the end of the Hundred Years' War.

As you all can see, anything can happen from this point onward. That includes Mario "Super Mario" Mandžukić becoming the one and only proven Super Mario. Against England, Super Mario proved to the entire world that it's possible to take apart the defensive juggernaut in blue. Why John says so is very simple: Les Bleus won it against Les Diables Rouges because of an ineffective Romelu "the black Romulus" Lukaku. If Lukaku got it against France, Deschampions might well be staring at a repeat of the Hundred Years' War for all the wrong reasons. Against a half-arsed English starting XI, it seemed that Lukaku still hasn't got it going by the ratings from the Sky people (which would explain why it took full strength Belgium XI this bloody long to score the second goal).

Super Mario will not be in a forgiving mood. Corrupted people bossing the national football or not, Croatia and Mr Zlatko would want to win it. For the people and the nation, make Croatia great again. Of course, John is referring to the football and Jules Rimet golden club.

As a centre-forward, he's expected to hold up the ball in the box. As Super Mario, he's capable of drifting out wide or ghosting into the danger zone like a Croatian playing Assassin's Creed. In fact, that's how he scored the winning goal. Can Les Bleus shackle such a guy? Super Mario's ability to go either out wide or entering the fray right at the centre means his tactical awareness can easily wrongfoot a defence marshalled by the ever-excellent N'Golo "no Terry-Ferdinand jokes pls" Kanté and the equally excellent Raphaël "Pepe's problem has a name, and that name is Raphael Varane" Varane. In the centre, it's very easy to mark anyone. If the same guy goes out wide, the central defensive unit cannot afford to chase after the fellow, Super Mario or no Super Mario. Lest, we forget, the reason why Les Bleus is so excellent at the moment (results and defence wise) is down to having two bulwarks intelligent and strong like a pair of knights in shining armour. Never mind the colour of the armour. That's not important because John is a Singaporean who respects his fellow Singaporeans, otters or no otters.

Forget about China Wine, hold my Europe beer Pt I

Okay, so we've arrived at the last two days of the World Cup. Surprisingly, Brazil wasn't in the top 4 party. Surprisingly, England made it this far. Not so surprisingly, Belgium also made it this far. Most surprisingly, Croatia usurped Brazil's right to be in the final. It's like a half-baked ITE graduate proven to be more capable than his fellow Singaporean who happened to be a university graduate with a history of studying in elite schools. More then Singapore, it seems that this year's World Cup is truly operating on meritocracy when you discovered Croatia and Belgium supplanting Brazil and Germany without batting an eyelid. So to Rob Mart and Mr Zlatko, John L'Otter salutes you for proving to the whole wide world that you don't need to be considered an elite to make things happen for your nation. After all, while not every football team is a good football team, any football team can be an exceptional team. Hopefully, John L'Otter won't be guilty of giving the FAS false hopes and deluded dreams.

Before John starts the ball rolling, allow him to show you all a list of alcoholic beverages. No, not the China Wine.

So there you have it. Forget about China Wine, hold my Europe beer.

Round 1: Leffe vs Strongbow

Gutting, isn't it? According to a Belgian, Belgium as a football team lost to an anti-football team in the form of France. As for England, the less said about the final ball the better. Actually, John will come to that. Interestingly, the battle between France and Belgium was reminiscent of Archer's fight against Lancer.

Ironically, the nation in red fought like the Servant in blue while the nation in blue fought like the Servant in red. Also, Rho Aias taking the form of a seven-layered shield painted like a flower with seven petals shouldn't be seen as some kind of socio-political/religious statement from Magic Kinoko himself.

Against a nation of blue, there's a problem plaguing a nation of red. It's called Romelu "the black Romulus" Lukaku gone MIA. There's a very good reason why Rob Mart decided to butter up his own man. On one hand, Harry "neither a knight nor a prince, let alone a politician from Singapore" Kane isn't Belgian. On the other hand, the black Romulus is a Belgian, black or no black. That's one of the reason.

However, there's another reason. John saw the match between the Les Bleus Archer and Les Diables Rouges Lancer. After the disappointment and excitement died down, Lukaku stood out from the rest for the wrong reason: Belgium might have won it if he did turn up to boss the box like the founder of the Roman Empire.

However, Rob Mart did pull off mistakes of his own. More specifically, Belgium lost the kind of penetration it had during the first half after France scored the decisive goal. Hazard went from the greatest BioHazard in modern day football to a random enemy shot down by either Jill Valentine or Leon Scott Kennedy. It's really that bad. And if Hazard couldn't perform, Belgium shouldn't be expecting Kevin "Der Bruyne" De Bruyne to carry the entire nation. In came Dries "Dr Dries" Mertens. His presence injected new life into an otherwise insipid show of the Belgian blitzkrieg. His presence outside the box and deadly crosses threatened to upset the balance like how Abraham van Helsing managed to upset Dracula's plans. Unfortunately, for some funny reason (most likely not due to some kind of curse coming from West Jerusalem), Mertens ran out of steam. The moment that happened, Belgium was screwed. Yes, Hazard did attempt a Ronaldo (the correct one from the correct Portuguese speaking nation fyi). Alas, it was a case of too little and more than just too late.

Against Croatia, one couldn't fault Andy's dad if he believed in England in the same way the English believed in England. It's like comparing the reputation of Raffles Institution with the image of Gan Eng Seng (Secondary) School. So what if the latter's principal went by the name of Ho Peng? A neighbourhood school is forever a neighbourhood school. RI will forever be the elite while every Gessian is doomed to be an average Singaporean. Mr Zlatko quite obviously never read the script. While this was never a case of David slaying Goliath, one could compare Croatia's victory over England as Sun Quan's victory over Cao Cao.

John is only upping this vid 4 teh lolz. Also, John is not about to answer whether Cao Cao was from RI. Let alone whether Zhou Yu was a Gessian. And no questions on whether Xiao Qiao graduated from Charles Sturt University.

What must go right for Les Diables Rouges and the Three Lions:

Like how Belgium was screwed by a nigh non-existent Lukaku (note that John uses the word nigh because Lukaku is still alive somewhere in Russia), England was screwed by its non-existent final ball. Like how one move from Zhou Yu in the video above became the defining moment of victory, the difference in the final ball quality was the defining moment of defeat for every English Harry. John has to be brutally honest here: The value of England's final ball was the square root of sod all. In particular, Harry has to shoulder the blame for all the misses he did with his final ball. And no, John is not blaming Maguire. It's the other Harry and he's not in Buckingham atm.

How the correct Harry managed to play the wrong ball forward highlighted two problems Beaumains Southgate must address shortly after this tournament is done. It's utterly cruel to the English. In fact, John was in two places at the same time. One place is called London, the other is called Zagreb. London is the place for every romantic. As for Zagreb, it's for the purists. Croatia played great football and it deserved to win it. England defended well from the penalty box to the midfield, alas if only the final ball was even half as good.

If things must go right for England, these two guys need to be considered. John calls them the black and white future of England. Because England is now a multi-cultural nation previously defined by the Anglo-Saxons. Just don't ask John whether Emilia "404 Jon and Daario not found" Clarke is a Eurasian.

The presence of Eric "Dire Dier" Dier and Ruben "seriously, when will the culture demand him NOT to turn the other cheek?" Loftus-Cheek in the team should give England hope aplenty. Since the hope is now gone this year, here's hoping for two years later.

Either way, Beaumains Southgate MUST find a way to pass the ball right from the midfield. In other words, his 3-5-2/3-1-4-2 must NOT just be about the back 3. Yes, it's good to see the likes of Harry "the next Cap Harry?" Maguire and John "officially proven not to be a stoner" Stones playing nice football and putting in a nice amount of defensive graft. But it is NOT enough. England MUST make sure it can play the ball out anywhere from the back 3 to the central mid. Captain Harry is not the captain England should be looking at when it comes to passing it forward. A hurricane can destroy many things, but it can never travel forward like a lightning bolt. And that's what England needs. Be it now or in the future, what is Beaumains Southgate gonna do about the middle 3 of his five-man midfield?

For Belgium, Rob Mart has the better life. The main problem with losing to an anti-football team (an irony given the national history of  La République itself) was Lukaku gone missing. John can't stress enough how this had knackered an entire nation. There's only this much the likes of BioHazard, Der Bruyne, and Dr Dries could do if that one emperor of a centre-forward went missing. If the black Romulus can rouse himself into action, then England will be in trouble. Period. Belgium will want to make this right at the end of the tournament. And if Lukaku can lead the team to victory like the real Romulus leading his troops from the front, that's it (note that John doesn't know whether the founder of the Roman Empire did attempt this kind of military stunt before). As for whether Dr Dries will start the game, it will have a major bearing on this Dead Rubber of Pride and Glory. His presence created a massive alarm for Les Bleus whenever he got the ball. Whenever he did a short ranged cross from outside the penalty area, John's heart was guilty of beating faster like a Lamborghini made in Belgium. That's how such a player can lit up the final match of Belgium's competitive season. If Dr Dries starts, then will Der Bruyne start in the holding mid? Rob Mart favours a 3-4-3 where Belgium is concerned. So long the wingbacks are able to keep things stable, there's no reason why Der Bruyne can't play as a holding mid. Remember, Rob Mart's fellow Catalan who currently lives in the city of Manchester made it possible. Catalans may be crazy, but you can't fault the genius in them. Bald or no bald.

Of course, it's not ITE for England. It's NOT The End, England. You did a fine job in defending the 20-yard box and middle 3rd. Your final ball was worth the square root of sod all against Croatia, but that's the only thing you'll need to work on. As John has said, Beaumains Southgate needs to create an effective 6-man passing block. 3 lads from back passing the ball, 3 lads at the centre mid doing the same. England only needs one defensive mid, that is whoever the guy deployed just in front of the back. If it reads like a diamond-shaped backline, you're reading it right.

P.S: Against France, Nacer "will he be Belgium's chad?" Chadli was seeing plenty of the ball out wide in the French half. In fact, he was the main source of ammunition supply. For some funny reason, he went MIA after John posted a few stuff on FB during the match.

Final P.S: John will be doing the final write up for the grand finale tomorrow. 9 pm atm, John has yet to eat his dinner.