9th of August, National Day. John suddenly has the mind to share a video accidentally Singaporean.
The reason why John pulls off this stunt is very simple. For some funny reason, Japan has gotten "quite" obsessed with Singapore. John has to add the quotation marks for a very good reason: It's Japan where gaijin politics don't matter much. Yet, this was no excuse for Japan to showcase the correct Yui in a kimono displaying the full glory of Singapore. Weeks later, Dr Tan Cheng Bock was given a similar treatment at the hands of Nikkei Asian Review (also known as the Bloomberg-WSJ of Japan). Dated 4th of August, you may think it's no big deal. Wait till you noticed these...
1. Coverage of opposition politics in Singapore has never been the forte of the international media even though this should be even more important than what the likes of TOC, TRE, and Alex Tan said.
2. The neutral guy called Reuters last covered Dr Tan in July while Nikkei Asian Review actually posted a later version at Aug 4th.
In fact, an effort made by the unusually generous Japanese before the 5 days prior to 9th Aug was noticed by these river otters.
Moral of the story? Maybe someone should invite the big kahunas of Nikkei Asian Review for next year's NDP.
A furious Fury?
Okay, it's official. Layes Wolf*bleep* is now officially Layes Wolftree. The reason why John decided to do that was that Layes was, after all, a bastard. To give a terrible (?) analogy, such a person is NOT like a child born from a local Singaporean woman and a white foreign guy but rather a bastard born from a Japanese guy and an Ainu woman. If this sounds offensive, please understand that Rhaegar can be seen as the Westerosi equivalent of a Yamato while Lyanna can be seen as the Westerosi equivalent of an Ainu. Hence, Jon Snow can be seen as the Westerosi equivalent of a... Yamainu?
Anyway, Viaa Bellerouge was intended to be seen as a daughter of nobility. Quite obviously, she didn't agree with her parents on the social straitjacket (i.e. something that Antonia Bayle was immune to for obvious reasons). But that doesn't mean the name of Bellerouge shouldn't be used. As for Wolftree, it's equally obvious that this is an English last name, unlike Viaa's French last name. Thank you, all you Western European sons of a Germanic gun. You made John L'Otter recognise the difference between a high-class name and a middle to low-class name.
Useless fact: This sea otter actually read this during his days at Gan Eng Seng School when such stuff wasn't cool with the river otters.
While this post is mostly about his experience of using a Fury, it's possible that he may add in a few bits on using a Paladin. To cut short the chase, is Fury a viable choice for first-timers? Below are two links which may make you think twice before investing your time, life, and possibly money on the A-bomb class.
The biggest challenge in using a Fury is this: You need to play like Batman instead of Superman.
We all know what Goblin Slayer and the Notorious UBG are famous for. Apart from traumatising people with graphic content (for some funny reason, the Japanese are very good at that. Just ask Isayama), there's the Japanese Batman trope. Case in point: Goblin Slayer is the epic fantasy Batman while Emiya Kiritsugu is the contemporary fantasy Batman. Wait, does that make John an ally of justice or an anti-rape vigilante?
Apologies to the river otters who keep black cats at home. You're definitely not Guts.
One thing John noticed about the relationship between survivability and playing a Fury is the fact that you really need to have a staple control move that either slows down the enemy or (better still) immobilise that fellow. The reason why is that the risk of using a Fury lies in fast mana usage and being less than ideal on the defensive side. While being a Priest class, Druids can't wear full metal jackets. This makes them less bulletproof than guys and girls like Templars and Inquisitors. While being able to wear leather armour, they're not Scouts (i.e. they can't dodge like Bruce Lee on exobytes). It's quite obvious then to see that any defensive aspect lies in the buffing. For Wardens, this shouldn't be an issue since this is the defensive half of the druidic coin. For a Fury, it's healing and... more healing? That is unless you opt for a slow/stop-and-destroy strategy. But there's another problem...
No nukes for you until you're old enough
The challenging part about using the Fury is the same as the challenges of being a minor. Below the legal age? Sorry, that means you can't booze, have sex, and watch The Sexiest Canuck Alive in M18 mode. Below level 32? Sorry, no nukes for you.
One major (and massive) difference between using a Paladin to survive and doing the same thing for a Fury is the fact that Paladins have the famous two holies: Holy Circle and Holy Wrath. The former is an AoE hit-and-heal while the latter is an AoE hit-and-stun. Needless to say, the duo makes for a very good bread-and-butter AoE synergy. So what does a Fury have? The need to have a tactician's mindset. Killing stuff and enemies in Everquest falls under two possibilities: Either you go one on one or you go one versus a mob. That's the issue with using a Fury in mob fights. A Paladin is like an A*STAR scholar while a Fury must be like Batman graduated from ITE.
If there's something that worked for John like a dual-edged sword, it'd be NOT using slow/stop control to shape the fight. Rather, his bread-and-butter control tactic remains as Death Swarm. Or otherwise known as the most druidic holy spell (i.e. Druids are not known for holy damage). Why it's called a dual-edged sword is very simple: While it gives Layes a higher overall damage output, it also results in the need to go melee and hope he can outlast the opposition like how Archer famously outlasted Gilgamesh in the Great Heroic Bailout). Thankfully, John managed to invest that one AA point into Kudzu-kun.
John doesn't know how many Fury first-time users are capable of having to revive no more than five times or so while below level 20, but he hopes there are quite a number of them. The reason why being that... well, Layes actually revived like no more than five times while below level 20. Considering how difficult it is to level up in this game plus the fact that things could/would go rough when running Thundering Steppes at any level between 20 to 25, that may sound crazy. Hopefully to John, that is. After all, it'd be very awkward for him to be called Batotter.
Why you have to be an animal 24/7
Why do you need to be an animal 24/7? This is NOT a question involving otter nature and what Isaac Asimov once famously said. This question is about being a Fury and how to survive any aggro before you can unlock Starnova. The answer is very simple: 1+1=2.
In Everquest 2, the allocation of AA points is done on auto-pilot mode. This is not to say you can't do anything about it. You have three personal unused slots, so use them. Wisely and properly, that is. At the same time, left-clicking an AA power on the right column would result in a rollback. What rollback does is to revert your AA powers back to the relevant point. John knows this is nigh impossible to explain, so allow him to use the Mr Bill analogy: It's called the Everquest version of system restore. Those who understand how Windows work would tell you that to create a system restore, you need to set a system restore point where you can revert your OS back to when it used to be up till the system restore point. Rollback works in a very similar way as in any changes made to the AA powers would only take effect as far as where you set the rollback. Sounds confusing? Let John give a clear(er) example below:
There are ten AA powers on the right column. John clicked rollback on the fifth AA power in the list. This should and would result in the AA powers starting from the fifth to be reset. In other words, any new choice of AA points allocation would start from the fifth to the tenth.
This is very important because Everquest 2 is all about trial and error. If you think like a typical river otter, then please don't bother playing this game. If you think like an insane river otter, then (perhaps) this game is for you. Thankfully, it took John like level 25 or so to get the trial and error right. So why so much seemingly hoopla over this?
Because as a Fury, you'll need to max out Shapeshift.
Because as a Fury, you'll need to max out Shapeshift.
Running in animal form is vital in surviving mobs. The reason why is that in animal form, you take less damage. This is especially evident in winter wolf form (John will elaborate on this later on). As a Fury, a maxed-out Shapeshift would result in two awesomely unexpected consequences:
1. You won't turn into an animal once you enter shapeshift mode.
2. This has to be arguably the most important aspect of a Fury's game: You can trigger BOTH Peerless Predator AND the shapeshift form of your choice.
How does John know that? By doing a trial and error like an insane river otter. See why he says this game isn't for the typical river otter? Although to be honest, that was an accidental discovery since his aim was only to max out Shapeshift. Talk about the next best accident since Sir Alexander Fleming discovered the medical version of 007 otherwise called penicillin.
Note: Please be aware that the dual animal logic only applies once your character hit level 25.
Not literally having to be an animal btw
Peerless Predator grants you the form of Singapore's favourite animal. Namely, the lion. While this is the best shapeshift form a Fury can get prior to level 25, it must be stated that being a lion alone won't bail you out from sticky situations. Actually, John doubts you can survive the Crypt of Betrayal by being a fearless lion alone. In other words, you have to choose a second form to act as that vital compounding factor. It's like asking John why the Japanese were able to win the Russo-Japanese War despite suffering a higher body count. His answer would be this: Because they won the fight on the infantry side even though the war was focused on the naval end.
Same logic here. The lion is to be your navy and the other shapeshift form is to be your infantry. So which infantry should be your choice as a Fury? Now before John starts, allow him to point out that any increment on the attack and defence will NOT show on the character sheet. Any changes seen is the result of what the tooltip says, so please don't be bluffed. Again, this discovery is brought to you by Trial & Error.
Same logic here. The lion is to be your navy and the other shapeshift form is to be your infantry. So which infantry should be your choice as a Fury? Now before John starts, allow him to point out that any increment on the attack and defence will NOT show on the character sheet. Any changes seen is the result of what the tooltip says, so please don't be bluffed. Again, this discovery is brought to you by Trial & Error.
Tiger:
This is the dps member of the trio. Fast attacks plus a 10% chance of triggering a specific attack called Tiger Bite that deals slashing damage. But there's a problem. The tiger does take more damage than the other two members of the druidic trio. This is effectively your light assault infantry.
Winter Wolf:
This is the 50-50 member of the trio. The reason why John says that is because despite giving you a 3.5% bonus in critical chance, the dps value is lower than the tiger. However, it's definitely higher than the treant. This is effectively your medium vanguard infantry. If you want to play it rough in group PvE, then you'd want to seriously consider this option.
Treant:
Furies, please take note of this walking plant. If you need any reason to become Treebeard's mini-me in your quest to curb stomp every orc and goblin you come across, look no further than two things: The increase in base incoming heal shown in the tooltip and the defensive increment NOT shown in the character sheet and the tooltip. Furies are not as defensively resilient as their Warden counterparts, so the defensive synergy can be very good. Actually, it's very good. This one has to be your heavy defensive infantry. If you want to play it safe or just way too lazy to switch form like John, then this one should be your choice.
Shapeshifting and three basic archetypes
Personally, John does feel that playing a Fury does offer you three archetype choices: hammer, caster, and spell-sword. This is apart from the commonly (?) stated healer, damage, and healer-damage archetypes.
Hammer relies on combat arts and auto-attacks. If you want to go on this path, please max out Nature's Blade. That is because this combat art gives you the Haste effect. Combine Haste status with Primal Fury and you're on your way to be Wolverine. This also means you'll need to max out your mitigation and possibly blocking chance as well. This can be done via maxing out the physical damage mitigation AA in the Dragon tab and the elemental damage mitigation AA under the Hierophant tree in the Druid tab. After that, depending on your secondary shapeshift form, you may want to focus on other aspects of defensive AA, not the least the five-pointer blocking AA under the Shadow tab. If you're running as a tiger, it's strongly recommended to focus every AA point on the self-defensive ones, after which you can move onto the offensive. If you're running as a winter wolf, you can afford to free up more AA points for the offensive ones. But please still focus on the mitigation. Not only that, you'll need to come up with an effective mitigation synergy where stuff like wards and damage debuffs are equally important. You may have to trial and error for quite a while though. Not to mention the possibility of this below.
Caster can be very straightforward. In this game, you have five attributes. Strength, Stamina, Agility, Intelligence, and Wisdom. Out of the five, only Stamina and one attribute relevant to the class are important. The rest is moot. That is until you notice the first tab of the AA section indicates which tree is under which attribute. Using the Druid AA tab as an example, the list looks like this:
Naturalist-Strength (i.e. for all the hammers out there)
Animalist-Agility (i.e. best self-defensive option if we're talking about the final tier AA)
Serenicist-Stamina (i.e. the one with a must-have AA power related to critical chance)
Hierophant-Wisdom (i.e. survival spec tree which is also known as soulforged druid)
Stormcaller-Intelligence (i.e. nuke and heal)
This implies that each Druid AA power would be affected by the relevant attribute, so it's up to the gamer to try guessing what the attribute would modify. This is also the reason why John said the caster archetype can be very straightforward. Because spell damage for Druids is based on Wisdom, maxing out Stormcaller's Control (i.e. the second AA under the Stormcaller tree) means jacking up the base spell damage via Intelligence as the second spell damage mod.
If that's your cup of herbal tea (no intent to advertise Game of Thrones and Emileesi Clarke btw), then please maximise the firepower by selecting the Intelligence increment boon under the racial tab of your character advancement. As accidentally racist as John may sound here. The first two selectable options should be choosing between Intelligence and Strength. If you're a hammer archetype, go for Strength. If you're a caster archetype, go for Intelligence.
If that's your cup of herbal tea (no intent to advertise Game of Thrones and Emileesi Clarke btw), then please maximise the firepower by selecting the Intelligence increment boon under the racial tab of your character advancement. As accidentally racist as John may sound here. The first two selectable options should be choosing between Intelligence and Strength. If you're a hammer archetype, go for Strength. If you're a caster archetype, go for Intelligence.
Spell-swords are quite interesting. They don't necessarily need the resilience required from the hammers or the high damage of the casters. They are basically the adjustable scale where you can opt for a 50-50 balance to your best of ability or rig the balance towards either end like Will Raj. As a result, spell-swords don't have to be choosy when it comes to the gear. You have gear which gives you bonus spell skill, you have those which give you bonus defensive skill. Then there are those giving bonus offensive skill. Spell skill bonus improves your spell casting while defensive and offensive skills should be self-explanatory. For Layes Wolftree, it's a case of gravitating towards the caster end. Of course, this is not to say melee doesn't feature half as much as it should. A simple trick John discovered (again?!?) here: Death Swarm>Thunderspike. Due to the presence of Primal Fury, this means he doesn't have to worry much about Haste. That is, for now.
Solving the mana death riddle
Since survival is of utmost importance to a Fury even more than a Ranger, the question should be what can be done to up the efficiency. The answer is very simple. Just do something about your in-combat health regeneration. Ideally speaking, you should be having two characters in your roster slot unless you're willing to pay according to the aggressive terms of the Daybreakers' business model. If you're going to main the Fury, use your alt to craft imbued rings of Stamina. This is definitely the main source of in-combat health regeneration since the percentage triggered is like 14% or so if you're running a character of at least level 20 with an imbued ring of Stamina at level 20. At the same time, having little to no options in the AoE department means higher chances of triggering the effect even though the probability stands at 3%. That's pretty a lot even for a level 30 since we'd be talking about accumulative percentage in actual circumstances. Depending on your personal preference between playing it safe like Zhuge Liang or taking risks like Guo Jia, you can choose between having two imbued rings of Stamina or just one. For Layes, he decided to be a son of a gun by choosing one imbued ring of Stamina and Demini's Class Ring. Works very well so far.
In-combat health regeneration can go a long way in preventing death by mana death. The reason is very simple: The more you're pinned against the ropes, the more mana you have to use to keep yourself alive. That's not cool. At the same time, using treant as your secondary shapeshift form means better insurance while keeping your mana bank account healthy.
This comes to mind the question of how many healing spells you'll need to keep your Fury in optimal shape after every fight so that he/she doesn't have to spend too much time bumming at the same spot in order to allow the health and mana bank accounts to self-refill. For John's bastard Fury, it's three direct heals, one HoT heal, and Sylvan Touch. Out of the five, two direct heals are used for bringing the HP bar back to a healthy state before using the lone HoT to push it nearer to 100%. The third direct heal and Sylvan Touch are for bailout purposes with Sylvan Touch as the one-shot bailout while the third direct heal is to be used as what John would call a four-spell sequence.
Note to Furies who want to take the imbued ring advice: If possible, craft an Imbued Gold Band of Stamina due to the zero hate mod. Or basically any tier 2 imbued ring of Stamina depending on the crafting level.
Note to Furies who want to take the imbued ring advice: If possible, craft an Imbued Gold Band of Stamina due to the zero hate mod. Or basically any tier 2 imbued ring of Stamina depending on the crafting level.
P.S: Let it not be said that John doesn't endorse the river otters' spirit of positivity.
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