Semi-drifting until end of May (12/5/19)

It’s... I don’t know whether it should be called ridiculous or absurd, but it truly felt surreal when I logged into my blog account just for fun. And no, I’ve yet to come to the point where the need to self-express online becomes the need for internet weed instead of actual weed, legal or not. Anyway, this blog has always been written in English apart from exceptional moments of non-English words being used. Like kono hito de nashi.

Hence, imagine my surprise when I saw an unexpected spike. 70 hits/views may seem nothing to you. But because I knew blogging like Lewis Carroll in Wonderland has always been a bad idea, 70 looked like an unnatural case of suspicious activity coming from China. See what I’m saying about blogging like Lewis Carroll in Wonderland. Long story short, 5 hits/views hailed from the nation of Emma Watson, Emilia Clarke, and the Anglo-Saxons. That’s natural except I didn’t remember when was the last time this happened. Then I got 38 hits/views coming from the Dutch. That has to be a moment of smoking weed. Something wasn’t right, but I was sure Simona Halep won the Spanish clay. Then came the greater moment of smoking weed: Kiki Bertens became Kicki Bertens. I’m utterly convinced this was nothing more than coincidence. Then again, like what I said about the nation of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and the Celts, I didn’t remember when was the last time this happened.

Anyway, I’ll be looking to finish my Neverwinter tactical guide. Which means I need to get the wizard and barbarian done. And one more thing: I wouldn’t be surprised if a Greek pep talk is what Belinda Bencic needs. Hopefully, I won’t get myself into trouble over this.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jHFA7x_IogE

Let me first start with the barbarian. Otherwise known as Wolfhawk, the dilemma I was facing was whether I wanted to try testing my limits or be content with the great weapon fighter status quo. To choose Swordmaster would have been perfectly okay, but to choose Sentinel means you should have been born a Greek rather than being a Singaporean. As it turned out, I was crazy enough to choose being a Greek.

Sentinel tanking game is a different kind of monster compared to Iron Vanguard fighter and Oath Of Protection paladin. This is due to how the Tab mechanic works. In one sense, tanking as either a fighter or paladin is easier due to how the human brain works in the face of status quo. In other words, we tend to be more comfortable with the things we’re used to doing. You don’t need to be Sigmund Freud or Carl Jung to understand this. In fact, you don’t even need a degree from NUS or any other university to know that. Maybe that’s why the likes of NUS and NTU are still getting the likes of Tom LeVoyeur rather than the likes of Remy LeBeau.

At the same time, however, Sentinel tanking can be easier once you get used to the idea that holding Shift is more important than that of the other two tanking options. In short, learning how to use a Sentinel properly requires the determination of a tactician. And the finest tacticians are the ones willing to grapple with unknown territory.

Quite obviously, no one is telling you to be the next William Sherman. And besides, if you’re a Singaporean, it means the rules of society would most likely ban you from being like the daring son of an American gun who actually won the American Civil War for the Unionists at the final lap despite the presence of Robert. E. Lee among the Confederates.

Using the Sentinel means understanding the fact that Tab spamming is legal and part of the SOP. In other words, you’ll need #UNSTOPPABRU! for more than half of any fight. There are two ways to plan a Sentinel build. Either you go for a more offensive strategy (but definitely not as offensive as Conan/Conanina the Swordmaster/mistress) or the typical defensive tank more than half of the gaming community would be comfortable with. Most likely, anyway. On the attributes, you only need to choose one out of two: Strength and Constitution or Strength and Dexterity. The former is more direct, the latter requires a higher level of tactical sense. If you’ve played the game long enough (I actually started playing since 2014 during mod 4), you might have already developed the feel. Not the feel of a dealmaker, but the feel of a tactician. In other words, how sensitive are you when it comes to detecting whether the dps momentum is for you or against you? I won’t be surprised if tanking in Halaster’s titular base under a mountain now requires more of this tactician’s instinct.

Because Constitution also affects AP increment and tanking now needs more daily power activation, a Strength-Constitution Sentinel is strongly recommended for beginners. A Strength-Dexterity build, on the other hand, is more raid friendly due to Dexterity now affecting movement speed instead of slotting Dark enchantments in your gear utility slots. Personally, I’m a fan of offensive tanking at least where the Sentinel is concerned. This is because choosing Sentinel means having to deal with a 10% drop in damage. I won’t call this the worst trade deal in the history of trade deals, but I have to say I never liked the idea of letting a 10% damage drop resulting in an actual trade-off. This is why I favoured a Strength-Dexterity strategy. Yes, I admit my feel for the momentum is decent enough. At least it should be.
https://republicofotters.blogspot.com/2019/05/just-another-goblin.html

Before I continue, allow me to point out that Negation is officially crap for every build unless you’re a tank. Please note the second half of this statement. The reason why being that racking up 10 stacks of 0.01% damage resistance doesn’t square with my view as a dps gamer. After all, I do main a ranger. However, auto-heal upon 10 stacks being reached (and cleared) can do quite a bit for tanking due to how combat advantage damage now works on both ends. Before Undermountain went live preview, let alone officially live, I decided to purchase a few enchantments on a low(er) budget basis. So I got myself a lesser Flaming weapon enchantment, a moderate Briartwine armour enchantment, and a moderate Dread weapon enchantment. Something I did more for the fun of it turned out to be a case of pleasantly unintentional consequences. Right now, Negation enchantment is only useful for tanking. But Briartwine is definitely now more of a decently multi-purpose usage. As a result, I have to do a bit of switching. Negation is now strictly for tanks while Briartwine is now for the rest.

Tanking in this mod is now all about how you grab the aggro. In solo running, you don’t need to grab it like Trump because solo running means the aggro would only go after you. Initially, Angel of Protection looked like a a good companion. Auto-shielding and high-end healing. Then I realised it didn’t do much for bringing in combat advantage damage. Actually, Kasca never did anything on that part. This made the Lantern of Revelation artifact half-useless, the reason why being combat advantage being its 3rd stat. This is not to say Kasca will be discarded. In fact, I’m planning to use her for raids. But for solo running, the plan is to use Vesuvius. Not the Roman volcano but a . Not a Roman Cambion, by the way. Right now, that guy is at green rank. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll up him to blue just to unlock the final form of aesthetics plus the actually useful level 30 bonus effect. But I’ll need 250K astral diamonds. Thankfully, I currently have no impulse to spend. This gives me plenty of space to carbonise the aforementioned 250K.

Now because I favour constant rage building, one thing I noticed about rage gauge increment was that rage building is now a game of actual fluctuation. In other words, actual combat would involve the rage gauge going up and down like the global stock market if it’s neither a bull nor bear. As a result, running on a Strength-Dexterity build requires more moments of #UNSTOPPABRU! than what I was used to before Halaster joined Cryptic. The adjustment wasn’t that bad, to be honest. You now don’t have to wait for a half-full rage gauge to become angry. Just a two-third empty gauge and you’re most likely be able to be one angry and unstoppable immovable object.

On the shielding, I find holding Shift to be more useful if you’re in the red zone. So unless you’re in it, my suggestion is to keep calm and carry on being angry. And one more thing: Shielding now only protects you for half of your maximum HP. This is why I did recommend Strength-Constitution build for beginners.

P.S: Okay, it’s getting a bit late. So yeah, I can only afford to start a lecture on Arcanist wizard in another post.

Add P.S: Don’t we love what YouTube can throw at us at times?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AsbONudibqo