Note: This post was started weeks ago and finished yesterday.
This is most likely going to be a post full of rambling, ranting, and raving. Right now, my brain is in semi-hibernation mode. If there's anything I understand about myself, it'd be that my focus thrives and dies by momentum. If there is something for me to focus on, then I can keep going like a Duracell bunny. Once the momentum fizzles out, however, that's it. This is why music is so important. It allows me to maintain focus instead of relaxing.
Someone, please call the Divine Prosecution
Right now, I have five characters on my roster. I might have mentioned it before, but I've made good my decision to roll a Breton Warden. Unlike Darien Gautier, there's no such thing as a Stamina Breton build. Then there's my fifth character. Namely, a Khajiit.
Before I continue, let me point out that the cat may or may not be Baanzai-dar. So if you see a cat with a name that's weirdly Japanese looking, that's not necessarily me.
I find Khajiit to be an interesting race to use. While I've yet to reach the full picture (something which I suspect I can only do by running different Khajiit on different classes), I realised building a Khajiit DPS Nightblade wasn't easy. We're not talking about an Orc Stamina DPS Nightblade where base Weapon Damage can break the 4K ceiling if you know how to play it right. Khajiit seems to be that classic crit-based race where base damage and defence are on the lower end. In other words, it's not that easy. Coupled with the fact post-Update 29 has narrowed down the crit DPS build options, I had some very interesting decisions to make. More specifically, do I want more damage and less sustain or vice-versa? Unlike my other characters, rolling a Jap cat meant I have to risk one end or the other. For Magicka DPS Nightblades, it's a good thing they got Debilitate and Siphoning Attacks. They did help a lot for my Khajiit. However, there's a tricky part: What must I do to ensure using the Shadow Mundus stone effect could be legit?
This is where Alcast came in and say hi. Well, sorta. Now allow me to point out a few things:
1. The article was dated pre-update 29, so I needed to make the necessary modding. This was where others came in and said hi. Personally, I find the range of 6800 to 7000 to be more attainable for crit builds instead of 7K+. If I have to choose between way beyond 7000 and way below 6800, it's definitely the former. Penetration is now harder to cap.
2. Alcast just happened to be my most convenient source. If I want to, I can google names like Hack The Minotaur, Brah We Got This, and Niniskya. Simply put, I'm being lazy.
Ultimately, the mark I set would be either at least 53% (for Nightblades and Templars) or 47% (for Sorcerers and Dragonknights). This means I had to choose between Debilitate and Siphoning Attacks with the other replaced by an Assassination ability so that the critical chance could be set at 53%. More specifically, with a decimal number.
At this point, I need to point out my weapon trait is running on Sharpened. This resulted in Penetration reaching 8K+. Considering Khajiit most likely would be lacking in base damage (i.e. an observation based on what I have), I don't mind that.
At the same time, my personal minimum ceiling for Spell/Weapon Damage for DPS would be 3K. Any number below that means I need to make some decisions with Recovery most likely in the firing line. Good thing Wardens have their netches. I like netches. I really do.
Mk 32 and Gryphon's Fury
I'll be honest here: I got sold on Diamond's Victory until Update 32. Then it happened: Update 32 triggered the strategist in me. I don't consider myself a hardcore player. However, I do see myself as a sandbox player. If something is possible in theory, there's every chance I'd try to see if it really works. Of course, actual crafting materials would be involved. This means I can only be as harebrained as circumstances allow me to. Even Elon "the Tesla dude" Musk needed to burn his money to see whether the Space X car idea was truly as crazy as Sheogorath himself. And we all know no one can ever spend money which is never there in the first place. That's unless you're using your father's credit card.
In a true blue Oda Nobunaga fashion, I decided to do an Idiot of Owari by ditching a full legendary Diamond's Victory set for a full legendary Gryphon's Fury. A combination of Mother's Sorrow and Gryphon's Fury would mean I have to push the critical damage as high as possible. As a result, my choice was 5 light and 2 medium. For better survivability, I opted for medium body armour together with a medium belt. The tricky part came in the form of which Mundus stone to use? The intuitive answer was Thief since it adds up to the critical chance and I needed to proc the critical damage as much as possible.
A recent Asylum Sanctorium guild run, however, convinced me that maybe I've been looking at the wrong place. While I wouldn't be surprised if not every group member was running Hodor's Reflexes, the Hodor table clearly contradicted the ESO encounter log. Under Hodor's Reflexes for DPS, I was the second-highest Hodor just behind the guild leader who happened to be a Nightblade. Under the ESO encounter log, however, I was placed 5th in damage dealing. Being the highest damage-dealing Sorcerer (i.e. there were three of us) didn't matter a Sheogorath's cheese to me. Ditto for the fact I never have a good DPS record in running Asylum Sanctorium and Halls of Fabrication for some reason. If there's a possible way to up the damage score, why not try it?
This came to two questions:
1. Did I mess it up by using Precise instead of Infused?
2. Should 47% critical chance have been enough for me instead of post 50% if I wanted to use Shadow instead of Thief?
One good thing about running a Daggerfall Covenant character is that gaining access to the Thief Mundus stone in Alik'r Desert is as easy as going from point A to point Z in a straight line. Literally. The good thing about the said character doing Cadwell's Almanec? Reaching the Shadow Mundus stone in Greenshade via Marbruk is as easy as going to your nearest convenience store.
This gave me the chance to experiment. There were two ways for me to test this out: Either annihilating a target dummy or obliterating trolls. The former would be the intuitive approach but more of a hassle. The latter would be counter-intuitive but easier depending on whether you've unlocked the Honrich Tower wayshrine at the Rift. And besides, it makes crafting Hunding's Rage gear so much easier.
How I got to go about doing it was this: First, I wayshrined to Shrikes' Aerie to get the Thief. Then I wayshrined to Honrich Tower to experiment on the frost trolls since Trollslayer Gully is synonymous with troll spawning. After killing two of them, I jotted down the damage range. So long I could get the minimum and maximum damage count, it's good enough. Then I wayshrined to Marbruk, switched to Shadow, and re-experiment.
While I won't say I have the genius of Han Xin and Fa Zheng, I'd say
I have their memory span. Not only can I remember the ones doing me injustice from Henderson Primary School to ITE Dover with Gan Eng Seng (Secondary) School in between, remembering the DPS numbers I got before I decided to experiment the switch was surprisingly easy. Before that, my DPS range for troll killing is at a consistent 18K range. With Thief and Infused trait, the numerical range went up to 18K-22K. Switching to Shadow was the fun part: The DPS range was at 18K to 23K.
What that meant would be...
1. In terms of solo content involving trolls, Shadow was slightly better than Thief.
2. Despite this, the outcome hinted at a better DPS in a group boss fight. The longer the fight, the more critical hits I'd land. At the same time, opting for Infused instead of Precise means my overall base damage would be better especially due to a combination of the Lightning Damage glyph and Energized passive.
A Japanese speaking Japanese in an English speaking guild? インポシブル!!!!!!!
More specifically two of them. To be honest, I found it to be a pleasant surprise although there's no way I was able to communicate with them. I may know a bit about Japanese culture and history, but that's because of a curiosity that my country's educational system is unable to destroy.
Nevertheless, the language barrier wasn't an excuse for them to type in Japanese one after the other. This is not to say the Japanese don't understand English. If there's anything one of the most hilarious moments in recent Kansai history had taught us, it'd be that the Japanese don't need the likes of University College London, Georgetown University, and Columbia University
to have a laugh.
In retrospect, it's interesting that the Japanese duo (I say duo because I don't know their gender) decided to type in Japanese instead of English. This prompted me to google how the zone filter in the game chat work. More specifically the Japanese end.
Guess what I unearthed?
To have a decent idea of how difficult it is for a non-Japanese game to impress the Japanese from Hokkaido and Tohoku to Kyushu and Shikoku, let me use two celebrity weddings as a comparison.
On one end of the aisle, you have the marriage between Park "confirmed a better Park-Choi story than the original one" Shin-hye and Choi "confirmed a better Choi-Park ending than the original one" Tae-joon. People are talking about it and it's only natural for any decent human being to wish the couple all the best in the days ahead.
Then on the other, you have Aragaki "unrelated to Gaki no Tsukai" Yui announcing her marriage to Hoshino "not Urobuchi" Gen. Beyond Japan, I guessed no one talked about it. Within Japan, however, there's apparently some kind of national meltdown towards a national waifu no longer there and waiting to be replaced (apparently, that'd be Yoshioka "Yoshi-R" Riho if internet news is to be trusted).
The difference in global exposure happened to be an indication of how insular Japan is as a nation. On one hand, the toxicity of Western politics failed to firebomb the nation from Hokkaido and Tohoku to Kyushu and Shikoku. On the other end, necessary changes were hamstrung. In other words, the anomaly within Japan is bound to apply to other areas including gaming. This made ESO's presence no small feat especially given Final Fantasy XIV's status as
Japan's national MMO.
Seriously, even Sakaguchi "not Ango" Hironobu said so.
This comes to how likely is it for a native Japanese player to join an English speaking guild since there's already a specific Made-In-Japan version. In fact, language is both a wall that separates and ties that bind. It's quite interesting since people always go for the language they're most comfortable with. In short, it's only natural for native Japanese players to visit the official Japanese site instead of the official site. This is truly what makes the presence of two apparent native Japanese players in my guild as intriguing as Breton politics. Just don't ask me whether Yoshi-R is one of them because it's a question as dumb as asking me whether the other one is Yoshi-P.
New zone+new story=Elder Scrolls VI?
Only 2 days more and we're going to have the grand reveal from the West to Japan. When ZOS first teased the new expansion as going to a place never before seen, I hazarded a guess and say it's Akavir. The nature of the trailer, however, may have indicated
others were right in saying it'd be at the High Isle.
There's no denying the Celtic feel to the trailer music. Since Akavir is inspired by the Oriental East, the music couldn't have indicated it's Akavir. On the other hand, High Rock is largely inspired by the Celto-Roman culture responsible for giving us the Arthurian legends of yore (the Reachfolk would be more of the Proto-Celtic people defined by earlier tales like the Ulster Cycle and Tuatha Dé Danann).
But what if it's actually about the Direnni elves? Let's make a daring assumption here: What if a descendant of the Direnni Altmer decided to stage a separatist war? After all, a Direnni kingdom for the Direnni sounds patriotic, right? But what if the Direnni are either too few or nigh non-existent? In the events of Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall, only one NPC was of Direnni blood: Medora Direnni. While this means a Direnni can start the new story at High Isle, it also implied that there wouldn't be many of them left by the Sixth Century of the Second Era. In other words, the so-called Direnni kingdom may be more about one to remember the glory of Direnni rule and replicate it upon... yep, you guessed it right: High Rock.
A Direnni separatist movement may sound like the Altmer version of the Stormcloak rebellion, but it could serve as the storyline for The Elder Scrolls VI. I'd say two possible scenarios:
1. The Thalmor retained their grip on Cyrodiil. As a result, they decide to orchestrate an invasion into the regions of High Rock, Hammerfell, and Orsinium.
2. The events of Skyrim made sure the Thalmor's hold on Imperial lands got Fus-Ro-Dah'ed, Alduin or no Alduin. As a result, whatever events surrounding northwestern Tamriel would indicate the Thalmor are forced to invade High Rock, Hammerfell, and Orsinium.
Speaking of getting Fus-Ro-Dah'ed...
If this storyline goes through (not that I'm going to be responsible for that), it'd be interesting to see whether faction choosing is going to be less patriotic and more political. Three factions for the player to choose: High Rock (Bretons), Hammerfell (Redguards), and Orsinium (Orcs).
Within each faction, there may be sub-factions.
High Rock:
Ring of Daggers and King's Guard. The former believed in a unified Breton kingdom under a High King while the latter is the legacy of King Ranser of Shornhelm out to secure independence for the entire Rivenspire region.
Hammerfell:
Crowns and Forebears. In the aftermath of the Lhotunic faction's downfall, Hammerfell enters an uneasy peace between two feuding factions. The Crowns insist the old ways are enough for the Redguards to thrive and prosper while the Forebears insist on diplomacy with the Bretons as the best defence.
Orsinium:
Faith of Trinimac and Cult of Mauloch. Ever since the polarising rule of Kurog gro-Orsinium, the Orsimer were no strangers to the conflict between two religions. Brother set against brother and neighbour against neighbour, the future of Orsinium hinges on whose god is the one true god. But before that, the Orcs have a debt of gratitude to settle when the Imperials made sure there remained a future for the Orsimer people after Orsinium was sacked for the third time.
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