Note: This post was originally started on 1st November. Due to how my brain works, it clearly took me this long to finish this.
As if a default double XP event wasn't enough to derail my writing schedule, another double XP event in the form of Witches Festival said hi. To be honest, I don't celebrate Halloween. Neither do I have the intention to. If I have a girlfriend who sees 31st Oct as Halloween, I'm afraid that'd end up as Nobunaga And Kicho. If I have a girlfriend seeing it as the day Martin Luther (10 November 1483-18 February 1546) managed to just stop short of making befriending the Fool of Owari (23 June 1534-21 June 1582), I suspect it could end up like Nobunaga And Kitsuno or Ieyasu And Oai. In case you're wondering, that's my way of saying I'm a problematic person. After all, none of the Three Unifiers should be seen as... well, a saint.
Note 1: Above statement is by no means a jest directed at the Halloween train attack in Japan. While I have no qualms about laughing at a lot of things, laughing at people dying would have made me a monster. The fact I was a victim of schoolyard democracy merely means I cannot rely on Friedrich Nietzsche's most understated quote alone as a moral reminder.
Note 2: No, this is not a Batman statement. I need to say this because I do have trust issues with people.
1st November
1st November was my birthday. Even though no one would pay attention to my blog, I'm still going to do it. It's not that I'm an existentialist although the education system made sure I had to endure an existential crisis only my church can resolve. I'd like to say God but this blog is secular and I'm no Joseph Joestar. Yes, I did use the phrase 404 God Not Found a few times, but it's to hammer home a counter-view to romanticised atheism and politicised Christianity even though I'm not a heroic Kujo Jotaro.
If there's a reason why I blog, it's because I want to. The same goes for storytelling although A Requiem From Winter Past has to be my only chance of being 100% serious. Gaming? Only 70%. Science has other ideas though.
Believe it or not, I tried before searching whether there's any historical Asian man born in the same month and day. As it turned out, the only name I got was a Tokugawa. Not Tokugawa Ieyasu but Tokugawa Yoshikumi. While I don't know whether he's a war hero during the Russo-Japanese War, he did have a son called Yoshihiro who ended up being a hero without firing a gun.
Note 1: Bo "not Little Bo-Peep" Derek and Eat It are as real as Japan's current COVID-19 bed count. Speaking of the bed count, there's something about it that needs to be proven by science. It's weirder than Minamoto no Yoshitsune being hailed as Okikurmi by the Ainu despite a history of racial animosity between the Japanese (i.e. Yamato) and Ainu.
Note 2: I need to apologise to Ms Tang. You see, she always enjoys calling little Jonah JoJo. Unfortunately, that always reminds me of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. If Claudia also does that, it means I need to apologise to her for it as well. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure isn't for kids in the same way Squid Game and Cuties are not for kids. So what if it's as 2-D as a Disney show?
Note 3: Bed count for November 1 in Japan? 86. Was that supposed to be a case of underreporting or something weirder than the assumption of Yoshitsune doing the Great Hokkaido Bailout? After all, official Yamato history said he died via seppuku. Official Ainu history clearly disagreed with that. Talk about starting a racial fight no different from how Indoril Nerevar died.
Brandon and... Brandon?
It's been a terribly surreal week. If there's anything worse than some S-drama involving Night Owl Cinematics, it'd be me saying the same thing about it more than once in a row. It's nothing more than a legal case. That's the dumb part of the saga and I was dumb enough to say that more than once even though I only needed to say it once. To cut it short, we got two Brandons. The first Brandon is a fellow Singaporean, the second Brandon is an American.
If you need proof that the world has gotten either absurd or outright surreal, then look no further. If Let's Go Brandon is telling us the absurdity of a culture, then Let's Sue Brandon is telling us the same absurdity from another culture. Do I find it funny? As scary as it sounds, the answer is yes unless I want to tell a self-righteous lie. I'm not as talented as Alfian "not Adam Teo from Class 1H of 95 and 2H of 96" Sa'at or as well-educated as Jade "not Emerald" Rasif, but I have the humour of Sir John "he's no saint, Sir" Cleese. Well, sort of.
Note: My sense of humour is not meant to be emulated unless you believe a person of vitriolic vocabulary can be a role model. You and I know such a belief is false and stupid.
Hassou Tobi: Yoshitsune and Mario
Hassou Tobi or formally called Dan No Ura Hassou Tobi. The former is what the Persona series is known for, the latter is what Fate/Grand Order is known for, and both are the same signature move of Minamoto no Yoshitsune. Historically, the Battle of Dan No Ura did happen. Unlike the situation in America, killing people was actually legal during the Genpei War since it's... well, a war. Before I continue, please don't confuse Democrats and Republicans for Taira and Minamoto.
Historical records in Japan can be quite difficult to understand. The reason is that embellishments tend to be part of reality. Caesar worship in Japan especially evident from Meiji to Showa before the A-bomb was dropped twice actually hinged on the belief the Emperor Jinmu himself was literally a descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu. That's clearly less scientific than the possibility of Yoshitsune doing a Hassou Tobi from Aomori to Hokkaido if you're to ask me. But the Japanese actually believed that and I suspect this actually caused a state of post-war existential crisis on a national level as a result. Maybe that's why only the Japanese can pull off works like Evangelion, Berserk, and Tokyo Ghoul.
The same goes for the legend of Hassou Tobi. In the Battle of Dan No Ura, it was said that Minamoto no Yoshitsune jumped across a whopping total of eight boats parked on the sea. There are two ways to start appreciating the sport of long jump: One is Kodama "not Suzuki" Ami, the other would be Minamoto no Yoshitsune. But did Yoshitsune truly break the Olympics record for long jump N years before the first Tokyo Olympics? Physically, I find it either impossible or implausible. We're not just talking about the laws of physics and Sir Isaac Newton's most famous discovery, we're also dealing with armour weight. Ask me whether an Ainu could have done it and I'd still say it's either impossible or implausible. Interestingly, most of the boats used resembled your local neighbour's sampan more than your former boss's HMS Prince of Wales.
Eight boats or one, Olympics record breaker or not, Yoshitsune's feat was cemented in the Japanese walk of fame. There's actually a statue displaying this feat in Japan though. Of course, you have to wait a while since Japan is currently reopening its border at a much slower pace.
Effectively, the legend of Minamoto no Yoshitsune might or might not have been responsible for videos like this below.
インポシブル#1 is unrelated to Yoshitsune while インポシブル: エキストラ is clearly and literally インポシブル.
Note: Behold Khunzar-ri's Guile.
Hassou Tobi: Hircine and the Psijic Order
It sounds terribly stupid for me to say this, but it actually took me more than a year of playing ESO to decide what I'm really comfortable with. It's not so much about messing with unplayable builds. Yes, Stamina Sorcerers shouldn't be for Bretons. That's me pushing my luck and it took a guildmate to slap me back to my senses. But the majority of the builds I messed around with actually worked decently enough. ESO isn't for everybody due to its notorious performance issues and this caused me to mess around even more like a Frankensteiner gunning for his PhD instead of a Frankenstein who already got his PhD. The reason is that abilities involving leaping and teleporting have a weird tendency to cause performance issues. Abilities giving Major Expedition are good enough, but I won't be surprised if not every Stamina DPS Nightblade is comfortable with using Twisted Path. Personally, I find it good and I'm running a Stamina DPS Orc Nightblade on a two-hander. The Armory system for Update 32 is clearly a Divines-sent gift for players getting the shorter end of the performance stick and I'll come to that later on.
Hassou Tobi #1-Dark Elf Magicka DPS Sorcerer
This is my main. Originally a Stamina DPS Breton, I did a Total Recall by Koreanising him into a Dark Elf. Politically wise, he's still under the jurisdiction of High King Emeric instead of Skald-King Jorunn. Racially wise, I need to point out there's nothing in common between the Dunmer and Koreans. Tell a Korean to roll a Dark Elf, however, and I suspect he/she will roll an Argonian instead.
Hassou Tobi factor 1: Ring of the Wild Hunt
Otherwise known as every man's BFF, the closest Daedric Prince to a wolf decided to give me an easier time thanks to the Companion system. Mirri is my DPS and Bastian is my tank. Without the system, I wouldn't be running about with Hircine's signet on multiple toons. My confidence level was never high enough to solo a base-game world boss and my Sorcerer has always been running solo with no pets. Thankfully, it took like only two world bosses in Greenshade to drop the final lead needed to dig up the real deal.
Gearing Ring of the Wild Hunt meant I had to make adjustments. Before that, I ran with full Ilambris and Lover effect. With this, I had to go 5-5-1-1 instead of 5-5-2. Initially, I opted for Mother's Sorrow and Diamond's Victory. Then I realised I got damage sustain issues. Replacing Mother's Sorrow with False God's Devotion went much better. That's before I decided to stop being a close-minded individualist (i.e. one of the reasons why I can be so difficult to deal with). I went through some of Alcast's guides to give me a better idea of what to do. Before I continue, let me say that Alcast happened to be my most convenient source of information. Apart from him, there are names like Hack the Minotaur, Brah We Got This, and Niniskya. So this is clearly not a free-of-charge endorsement from someone who is never a social influencer. And besides, people would have a real reason to hate me if I decided to become one.
Unlike the first time running the same 5-5-1-1, I have a better idea of how to make things work. In retrospect, I got the application of Diamond's Victory terribly wrong. While I'm not running a full Bahsei, it merely means there has to be a way for Mother's Sorrow to function decently in this manner. Bahsei's Mania and Diamond's Victory would clearly complement each other very well. Meta combination if you're serious about making Diamond's Victory work. But I'm not running a meta since the only trials I've done are the training ones with my guilds with the rare exception every now and then. At the same time, something happened during a normal Cloudrest trial a long time ago and that caused me to avoid trial PUGs as much as possible. There's no such thing as a gaming community with zero toxic players.
With Ring of the Wild Hunt and Mother's Sorrow, my Mundus Stone effect went from Lover to Shadow. A large part of this was due to changes made to the armour skill lines. The DPS bonuses from light and medium armour passives now apply to both Stamina and Magicka DPS builds. At the same time, a particular medium armour passive now gives additional critical damage at 2% per piece. This resulted in me opting for two medium and five light instead of two heavy and five light in the past. The 4% bonus in critical damage is clearly too lightweight for a DPS Sorcerer with a 51% critical chance. That's why I need Shadow. As for my choice of one piece Monster set bonus, that'd be Valkyn Skoria due to the Penetration bonus. With that, my Penetration managed to hit the optimal range of near 7K to slightly over 7K. 6.8K to be exact.
All that's left would be striking a balance between damage and sustain. I experimented with two options: Crystal Weapon and Race Against Time. Both are self-buffs, so they'd proc Diamond's Victory. RAT is clearly sustain-centric while CW is far towards the DPS end. In my most recent normal Sunspire guild run, my DPS was terribly bad. Not at the bottom, but it sent a message to me saying that CW would be a better bet. Before that, I did a normal Halls of Fabrication guild run. Now that particular raid was interesting because I never had a good DPS record in running Halls of Fabrication and Asylum Sanctorium. This was unlike other trials including Sunspire. However, running with a CW together with Force Pulse and Haunting Curse actually yielded a much better DPS. So much so that I was left asking questions from myself. As I've said, I never had a good record in Halls of Fabrication.
For my choice of ultimate, I'm currently still sticking with Shooting Star on the front bar and Suppression Field for an AoE back bar. I'm not sure whether I'll go back to Greater Storm Atronach for the front bar though. There were moments where Shooting Star performed better, but I had been using Greater Storm Atronach for a longer time. Then there's Might of the Guild passive and it's the main reason why I actually chose Shooting Star over Greater Storm Atronach.
Update: Currently back on GSA mainly due to Expert Mage passive and the fact I'm more comfortable with its targeting mechanic.
Hassou Tobi #2-High Elf Magicka DPS Templar
This alt must have gone through more tinkering and changes than the number of Pep "every Catalan's favourite name" Guardiola's experiments. Initially, I insisted on doing a melee Magplar using Puncturing Sweep and Explosive Charge. But there's a problem: Performance issues due to Explosive Charge.
Then I decided to say either beat it or Billie Jean to this idea. The only reason why I persisted so long on a fool's errand was due to stubbornness. That's actually a personality flaw although it shouldn't be confused with having moral principles.
Hassou Tobi factor 2: Ring of the Wild Hunt and Celerity
A major issue I've had is low mobility. Out of my four toons, two of them move faster and the two others move slower. The Templar happened to be one of the slower two. Even with Ring of the Wild Hunt, something just felt terribly off. The rotation didn't come out right, that efficiency was more of a 50-50. Using Unstable Wall of Elements didn't address it. The main factor was Purifying Light. On one hand, it'd much easier for me to ditch it. On the other hand, I can be as stubborn as Joachim "Der Löwe" Löw if I want to. Again, it's a personality flaw. This time around, I might have got it right.
I've always recognised the DPS potential of the Backlash ability. If you're doing a Stamina DPS Templar, Power of the Light would be very good due to the Minor Breach debuff. A particular Stamina Templar was using it in a guild trial raid and I can only say that's Hircine himself.
This is where Ritual of Retribution comes in. The tooltip seemed like nothing to shout about, but I was like "why not?" and went for it. It's always much better if you know the core of the problem. For me, it's all about making the copy-and-paste damage work. It's efficient. Very efficient. While I need to get in mid-range or closer to get this working, I don't mind taking risks if I know something is going to work. It's not a 3000 versus 25000 logic, I don't need to be the second Nobunaga to make it work.
For Celerity, I really like this CP boon. My templar is running on two heavy and five light. Running at a slower speed means a 10% movement speed bonus is always much welcomed. I don't need to swing it like a crazy Johnny, I only need to move within a range of 8 metres since that's the reach of RoR. Needless to say, it works.
Hassou Tobi #3-Orc Stamina DPS Nightblade
Nightblades are fun. I'll give them that. Even though my main is a Sorcerer, the strategist in me is definitely drawn towards Nightblades. Maybe, just maybe, I'll roll a Khajiit Nightblade, Baanzai-dar or no Baanzai-dar (because I want to indulge my inner Cao Cao). After all, I still got 5 more slots in my character roster. I'd like to have a go at Wood Elf Stamina DPS Sorcerer (because I want to indulge my inner Emiya) and a Breton Magicka DPS Dragonknight (because I also want to indulge my inner Galahad) as well though.
It takes a bit of fumbling around, but I soon detected the greatest challenge in using my Nightblade. You see, my Orc actually got a surprisingly high Spell Damage rating for a Stamina DPS. It's obviously a class issue rather than a race issue. Since Nightblades are always known to go full pure damage, it means trying to maximise the Spell Damage aspect would make plenty of sense. After all, I think like a strategist/tactician despite a gross lack of actual paper qualifications.
Hassou Tobi factor 3: Ring of the Wild Hunt, Celerity, and Twisted Path
I don't have to tell you why I go with Hircine's royal ring and a royally fast Celerity. I mean Nightblades have good mobility, Orcs can run as fast as any Olympics sprinter of any race, and I'm using melee like a crazy Johnny Axeman.
Twisted Path, therefore, might look like some kind of overkill. I like Twisted Path. I really do. Great AoE and great damage. By using it, I can deal damage continually. At the same time, a triple whammy in movement speed means I can easily close in on the mob/boss. I can never be too fast. Okay, that's a lie since chest looting in Sunspire is a geographical hazard.
Beyond chest looting in Sunspire, the onus for me is to always move as fast as possible to stab the target. This results in a different approach for the back bar. For my other 3 toons, it's a single target DPS front bar and AoE DPS back bar. For the Nightblade, it's a melee front bar and a ranged back bar. My first normal Maelstrom Arena completion yielded a Maelstrom Bow and that's before the devs implemented the Einstein RNG system.
So yeah, I need to do quite a bit of random normal dungeon raids to get used to it. I find that I'm more willing to practise in live-firing mode instead of dummy parsing mode.
Hassou Tobi #4-Breton Magicka DPS Warden
I'll be honest here: I really enjoy using Warden perhaps more so than any other of my toons. The reason isn't due to gameplay (but I'll come to that later on), but rather good news involving a fellow Singaporean. The success of Kevin "unrelated to Guan Yu unless proven by science" Kwan and Kyla "unrelated to Zhao Yun unless proven by science" Zhao actually provoked an urge to roll a Breton Warden.
So why Breton and why a Warden? Bretons are clearly the Elder Scrolls version of the Celto-Romans. However, the Celto-Romans weren't the same bunch of Celts we're more used to seeing. The latter would be closer to the Reachfolk, their legends involving names like Cú Chulainn, Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, and Fergus mac Róich. For Celto-Romans, I'd associate their heroism with names like Lancelot du Lac, Gawain, and his son Guinglain. As you can guess, the Celto-Romans did leave behind an awesome legacy in storytelling. And storytelling is what the Wardens do best. As for me, I'm a storyteller. A little wonder why I appreciate songs like these.
Hassou Tobi factor 4: Celerity and Race Against Time
This is clearly quite different from the other 3 toons, gearing Thrassian Stranglers is legal unlike strangling people. Due to the one-item rule, it means I can't gear my Warden with Ring of the Wild Hunt as well. However, Thrassian Stranglers can perform insanely well in group raids. Despite Bretons having nothing in their racial passive skills arsenal in terms of raw damage, the final racial passive lowers ability cost. Now this one is very important since Wardens can be surprisingly good at blowing things up. Literally. Two base abilities of note: Scorch and Impaling Shards. If you want to roll a force of nature regardless of identity, you may want to consider rolling a Warden.
For me, the nukes involve two atoms: Deep Fissure and Force Pulse. In terms of raw damage, Elemental Weapon is better. But because my focus thrives on momentum, Elemental Weapon clearly doesn't cater to my strength. One to me is the Caladbolg I can't control, the other is the Kuji-Kanesada I can easily wield.
This is where Celerity comes in. Wardens don't seem to move that fast. Either that or it's the heavy armour in the chest slot. In solo PvE, I go with a pretty Blue Betty due to the Major Sorcery. In group raids, I opted for Race Against Time for the same reason as Celerity. At the same time, this would create a lighter load on my Magicka usage. This is vital because my Warden's front bar DPS relies heavily on DeepPulse. Not to be confused with the kind of technology which you can plaster a cyclist onto the background as if he's cycling towards the dark side of a lobby (yes, I did mention something like this before), DeepPulse refers to Deep Fissure and Force Pulse. That's how I blow things up and it's very efficient even in dungeons and delves since sustaining the Thrassian Stranglers effect stack isn't an issue. Lower maximum Health is a drawback together with weaker damage shield strength, but it shouldn't be a problem for me due to a back bar involving Ice Fortress and Arctic Blast (Enchanted Growth if it's group raiding).
Gear wise, I may not opt for Medusa because RAT already gives Minor Force. That plus I prefer not to use Bird of Prey for the Major Expedition due to how I set up the hot bar (i.e. Q, E, R, 1, and 2 for non-ultimate abilities; 3 for ultimate ability). Of now, I'm running with Law of Julianos and Ancient Dragonguard. Ideally, I'd say Mother's Sorrow with either Dreugh King Slayer or Berserking Warrior. Quite probably DKS. Now if only I can start kicking my own derrière to start soloing a normal Fungal Grotto. As much as this statement is literally anti-science. You know, the laws of physics.
The G
Despite the nature of Singaporean politics, the title isn't meant to imply the PAP is a bunch of white-wearing and Trinimac-worshipping Orsimer. Neither is this a reference to Tekken where there's really a G. G refers to the Armory assistant NPC. And he's an Orsimer. I like his dialogue. In particular, the one about people fighting bears was funny. I still remember a T-shirt Ms Tang wore years ago. It's a bear, it's from Yellowstone, and it said, "Send more tourists. The last ones were delicious". Unlike everyone else in the same building, I have a dark sense of humour.
Enough about the Orsimer G. Let's get onto the Armory system. Currently, there seems to be a bit of glitchery remaining. The worst, however, is over. At least for now. ESO's greatest strength lies in content. Programming-wise, you can't blame people for wondering what's the difference between Maryland and California beyond the presence of Hollywood and big tech HQs.
In the first few days of the Update 32 release, players got a sudden surge in extra Champion Points. It's like Elon "the Tesla Guy" Musk feeling so insanely generous, he literally bankrupted himself by rewarding every Tesla employee. We all know that's not the case, that it's just a status called Major Glitchery. They managed to fix it, but I still needed to do the first respec twice per character. The first respec got reset, so it didn't count. Then there's my Breton Warden having to regear a ring. Otherwise, the slot would remain self-emptied. Anyone of a normal person's temperament would have flipped the desk. Thankfully, part of myself is as stoic as Sotha Sil.
Major Glitchery devolved into Minor Glitchery aside, the Armory system is a Zenithar-sent to me. The reason is that possibly due to distance and ESO having fewer servers than New World, I tend to experience higher latency. If it's a high-end event like Witches Festival or Undaunted Festival, Sheogorath's cat would be running across the 5G connection instead of the keyboard. Therefore, one less addon is always better than one more. In other words, I don't have to use the Dressing Room add-on.
Of course, there's a major drawback. To fully utilise this convenience, I have to spend money on the crowns. The G would cost 5000 crown points. Every additional slot would be 1500 crown points. However, I don't spend much. In fact, I spent very little on this game thus far beyond ESO+. Initially, there's a certain need to spend on the research scrolls and skyshards unlock to ease the alts' progression. But once the rough part is over, the spending would slow down to a trickle. I've played Neverwinter and I'm still glad I didn't realise debit cards can be used. I played Everquest 2 and the payment model was aggressive. Lord of the Rings Online was fun, but I decided not to take up the VIP membership.
So will I revert to using the Dressing Room add-on? I doubt so. It's not so much about the Orsimer G, his unique dialogue as a combat pragmatist, and the insane convenience of the Armory system. Rather, it's due to performance issues. The push factor is that one thing sealing the deal instead of any pull factor.
