ESOtivity: ToT

It's been only a short while since I last posted something. While I won't call it surreal, it's still surprising. In the past, I was more focused on blogging even though the only thing of actual value would be (and still is) A Requiem From Winter Past. With video gaming, the focus went (and still goes) the other way. Is gaming dangerous? I have to say the answer is yes. Thankfully, I have:

1. The determination of Guts against addiction.

2. The genius of Minamoto no Yoshitsune against using the money for the gacha.

Granted above statements are hyperbolic in nature, but it's true I can live instead of just surviving without gaming for at least 14 working days. At the same time, it's equally true I never spent money on gacha and still could make things work.

So what will this post be about since the last part of the title looks like a crying emoji?

ToT=Tales of Tribute

Recently, I had a hand in testing out things on the PTS for High Isle. There's only one reason why I did that. And that's to have a hand in playing Tales of Tribute. Otherwise known as ToT.

Before entering the PTS, I did have a bit of knowledge about how this mini-game works. But it's one thing to know the rough outline of things and quite another to know the vital details. That's where I decided to go to ESO Hub and see whether there's any information beyond what the likes of Kotaku and Massively OP had offered.

Long story short, I was floored by what I saw. The reason wasn't that I was dealing with a Gwent styled artwork featuring a random dryad's bosom (i.e. how Gwent could get a T rating from ESRB is beyond me if I want to be objective here). In fact, the closest thing in Tales of Tribute to something rated M was probably a bowl of dead mice. Rather, it's the massive amount of details I had to process from Treasury and Saint Pelin to the Duke of Crows. If there's anything I can't do, it'd be processing an info dump. Unlike Max "Imperial Maximus" Zeng, my brain doesn't function like Aozaki Touko. Instead, it functions like Aozaki Aoko.

 

Or maybe more specifically Aldo.

 

Needless to say, the apparent info dump didn't deter me from trying out the new mini-game. The Antiquities mini-game is a decent time-passer so long you know how to use the scrying tool, but not engaging enough. Tales of Tribute? That's where I'm currently having fun on PTS right now.

The ToT process

When I first dropped feet at Gonfalon Bay, my only intention was to find a way to play Tales of Tribute. The city was a Mediterranean beauty to behold. At the risk of sounding culturally ignorant, it felt very Italian. More specifically, it's a combination of French and Italian.

 

Thankfully, there were only two side-quest markers. I did some subtraction math and ended up at the correct place. The tutorial was easy. After that, the same went for the practice match. It was only after the practice match that things got interesting. You have two cats giving two different dailies. The smart one gives you the easier daily where you duel NPCs across three places in Tamriel. The not-so-smart one? PvP aka the hard one.

At the first glance, taking the smart one's offer would be the easy way out. After all, one must learn before playing. For me, I decided to do both as a form of testing. I first tried PvP and the outcome was... quite frankly terrible. My fellow human being deserved to win. As for me, I was left floundering and wondering which card to take. The learning curve was rough, but it taught me one important lesson about myself: Any attempt to process excessive info would result in my brain registering a blank.

This was similar to a scene in Ya Boy Kongming! where Eiko's online followers count skyrocketed to 1000+. Unlike tricking others into processing nothing, I forced myself to process everything. The cards were still decoys.

It was then that I moved on to the not-so-smart daily given by the smart one. That's where the interesting part came from. Before that, allow me to point out that for whatever reason, PTS seemed to be overloaded. This resulted in me being forced to abort a match every now and then despite leading the AI by a score of 30+ to less than 10 (Note: I'm utterly convinced anyone could have done that, so it's not as if I'm the Second Kongming or Yoshitsune Incarnate).

Initially, I was still fumbling around with the cards on the table. In this sense, nothing changed. Then I realised I should have focused on two decks. It's actually quite easy for now. There are only four to choose from at the moment: Duke of Crows, Saint Pelin, Loremaster Celarus, and Grandmaster Delmene Hlaalu. Out of the four, I settled on Duke of Crows and Saint Pelin. The reason was that both boasted a direct approach. It's like playing Gwent where the logical path for a new player is to first choose the Northern Realms faction instead of Nilfgaard. If you choose the latter, you're either crazy like me or a genius like Yoshitsune.

You know something is going to happen when a Nilfgaard player gives you this kind of face.

 

Right now, I can't tell you how the four other decks work because I've yet to progress that far. However, it's interesting to see the Hlaalu and Psijic Order decks functioning somewhat like Nilfgaard where dictating the momentum is the name of their game.

Going back to Crystal Fragments?

If there's anything I've learnt about myself, it'd be that no one should ever trust me due to having the whimsical mind of a chaotic neutral Aeravor. Why did I say that? Because I decided to switch to Crystal Fragments despite what I said previously.

To put things in proper context, using Crystal Weapon did serve me well more often than not. During my most recent veteran Elden Hollow I run, however, my DPS was abysmally low since my aim has always been to reach post-40% despite not having to move much (i.e. not Volenfell last boss). This prompted me to try changing certain things. Yes, I'm a fickle scoundrel either at times or most of the time.

So what I did was a setup I used to do until I changed it. Again, I'm a fickle scoundrel either at times or most of the time. Unlike above, I actually forgot why I changed it. In fact, I didn't even remember whether it was pre-Update 29 or afterwards. Apart from a minor change due to how Update 33 endorsed a hybrid approach to a certain Fighters Guild passive, nothing changed.

Note: This is only for the front bar!

Crystal Fragments; Crushing Shock; Degeneration; Bound Aegis; Camouflaged Hunter

Ultimate: Greater Storm Atronach

Gear: Mother's Sorrow, Gryphon's Ferocity, Ilambris

Note that if I had not used Ilambris, there's no reason for me to use the Raijin Daioh himself.

Replacing Gryphon's Ferocity or complimenting it?

In that same previous post dealing with Crystal Fragments, I mentioned prioritising my Khajiit alt in gearing with Order's Wrath. However, Hack "he doesn't hack your HTML because it's illegal" the Minotaur made me think more than twice.

 

 

The reason why he changed my mind was because of the reduction of critical chance being only 2.7%. Believe it or not, that means I should really switch down Mother's Sorrow instead of Gryphon's Ferocity. At the same time, running on Ilambris means I have to prioritise damage over critical chance. After doing the math instead of meth (not that I'd do the latter), my Dunmer Sorcerer's critical chance only went down to 54.6%. Going by Alcast's math, it means I still hit the passing mark of 47%. Just don't ask me whether 54.6% is a 2:1 pass or a 2:2 pass. I prefer to see it the British way.

P.S: Really need to thank Wagakki Band for this song giving me that adrenaline rush to finish this post. Now if only I can start doing Part 2 of Minamoto mina-san and finish it by next Tuesday.