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.