With the fighter now getting Tactical Mind at level 2, able to convert Second Wind uses into ability check boosts, this presents an open question: is the fighter now more effective in out-of-combat ability checks at early levels than the rogue, the classic skill monkey class? And what about the barbarian's Primal Knowledge, and the guidance cantrip?

Tactical Mind

The rogue, relative to the fighter, has Expertise in two skills over proficiency, which starts at +2, and two additional skill proficiencies (four instead of two) and one tool proficiency (Thieves' Tools), also +2. The fighter's Tactical Mind works on any ability check that can be failed (so excludes initiative, but includes non-skill checks) and adds 1d10, with the use only consumed if this pushes the check from a failure to a success.
To start, let's assume that we're only dealing with a skill that the rogue has a relative +2 advantage in. We'll compare a rogue with +3 Dex and Expertise in stealth (total +7) to a fighter with +3 Dex and only proficiency (total +5), and the DC will be 15. The rogue has a simple 65% chance of success. The fighter has a 55% chance of succeeding baseline, but on a failure can expend Second Wind to add 1d10. This brings their overall success rate to 82%, but there's an overall 27% chance that the fighter expends one use of Second Wind, so this bonus only works for an estimated 3.7 ability checks per use.
If the fighter only budgets a single use of Second Wind to this (as they now have exactly one extra use compared to 2014, with some marginal exceptions), then they have an 82% chance of success for 3.7 checks and 55% chance of success for the remaining checks. If we take the weighted averages, then with three checks they have an 82% success rate, with four they have 80%, with six 72%, and with ten 65% (calculated as (3.782+6.355)/10). It takes ten ability checks made over the course of the adventuring day, that are specifically among the five that the rogue has an edge over the fighter on, for the rogue to pull ahead, and that seems unrealistic.
(There's one specific factor that may make this likely, the rogue may use Cunning Action in combat to frequently Hide, making a Stealth check each time. However, for our purposes we should exclude these, as that's just how the rogue operates differently from the fighter in combat, and isn't itself how the rogue is uniquely contributing to the party's out-of-combat experience. Out-of-combat stealthing is a different story, but involves far fewer checks.)
However, that was with the fighter using Tactical Wind at the bare minimum. If they allocate both Second Wind uses to Tactical Mind, then they have an 82% chance of success for an estimated 7.4 checks, and an overall 75% success rate across ten checks, and it takes twenty checks to drop to 65%. If we account for two short rests each restoring one Second Wind use, then we sustain the 82% success rate for 14.8 checks, and don't drop to an overall 65% success rate until forty checks, all within the five checks the rogue favors, which enters the realm of absurdity and extreme outliers.
At this point, you may object that the fighter can't allocate all of their Second Wind uses to ability checks, they should save some for healing except for on the occasional adventuring day with relatively little fighting. However, it's not like the fighter is especially fragile without Second Wind for healing, they'd still be more durable than the rogue overall. The fighter can choose between having superior skills over the rogue or having more healing, while the rogue cannot choose to convert their skill prowess into healing. Tactical Mind by all indications cost absolutely nothing from the fighter's power budget; in fact, the fighter only got stronger between UA5 and UA7 in Tier 1 by getting a Second Wind use on a short rest again. The rogue's Sneak Attack is roughly equivalent in combat boost to the fighter's martial weapons + Fighting Style.
Overall, I conclude that in Tier 1, levels 2-4, the fighter is plainly better than the rogue at ability checks even when only making the ability checks the rogue specialized in relative to the fighter, and far superior in the remaining ability checks. At level 5, this shifts only slightly. If we increase the DC to 17, the rogue now has a 70% success rate with Expertise, while the fighter's rate is unchanged. It now takes between six and seven checks for the fighter to drop to the rogue's success rate, per Second Wind use, but the fighter now has a base of three Second Winds (which actually increased at level 4, boosting the fighter before the rogue), so if they just expend the two extra compared to 2014, that's roughly thirteen checks, and if they use all five, roughly thirty-two.
It isn't until level 7 that the rogue can claim the skill champion title with Reliable Talent, assuming they chose frequently-used skills with DCs that they can always pass with a 10, though if the DC is too high for Reliable Talent, Tactical Mind still has the edge over Expertise.

Primal Knowledge

Comparison to the barbarian is considerably more complicated. At level 3, the barbarian gets Primal Knowledge, converting five skill checks into Strength while raging. In addition to inherent advantage, this also gives a flat bonus from using a higher skill, which varies considerably depending on the barbarian's stat allocation. The usefulness also depends on the power of these five specific skills, with Stealth and Perception generally considered very powerful and the others less so.
For simplicity, let's start by taking a barbarian with +3 Str, +2 Dex, and Stealth proficiency, and comparing them to a rogue with +3 Dex and Expertise. The rogue still has a 65% chance of success. The barbarian normally has 50% with a +4 bonus, but while raging they have a +5 bonus and advantage, for a 79.75% chance of success. This means that the barbarian is tied with the rogue if they are able to make their stealth checks while raging 50% of the time. At this level, they have three rages, and restore one per short rest for an estimated five, so maybe 50% is a reasonable estimate. (Unlike the fighter, I don't think the barbarian can afford to use Rage just for skill checks, as they dedicate far more of their power budget to Rage than the fighter dedicates to Second Wind.) These particular numbers fall by the wayside if the barbarian is wearing scale mail or half plate due to the inherent disadvantage, but not if they wear breastplate, though negating the disadvantage due to Rage is still a neat trick. They also don't account for any other potential sources of advantage that make the Rage advantage redundant.
We can also compare how they would do with Perception, widely considered a top-tier skill. The barbarian is more MAD than the rogue, so let's suppose the barbarian has +0 Wis and proficiency, while the rogue has +1 and took Expertise. Against DC15, the rogue has a 55% chance of success. The barbarian has a 40% chance normally, but raging takes this to again 79.75%. Now the barbarian is tied with the rogue if they are raging during 30% of their Perception checks, which may instead be on the low side.

Guidance

And then there's guidance, one of the most spammed cantrips in the game, now a reaction for even more convenience. While I wouldn't generally factor in spells like enhance ability for ability check comparisons as they eat up so much of the class's power budget, guidance is cheap to learn and free to cast. It adds an average +2.5 to a failed ability check, of any kind, which makes it inherently superior to the rogue's Expertise until level 5 and likely still better overall far beyond that. The only limitation is the reaction cost and the casting components, which may sometimes not be appropriate for the situation.
The good news is that it's possible to cast guidance on the rogue, but that still means that the caster is contributing more overall to the skill check than the rogue's inherent rogue-ness is. The rogue could also learn guidance via Magic Initiate, but that's a considerable ask when there are many other feats the rogue may be interested in, including Lucky, Alert, and even Magic Initiate but for the blade cantrips instead.

Conclusion

It seems strange to say, but until Reliable Talent kicks in and Expertise really kicks into gear with higher proficiency bonuses, rogues aren't that much better at ability checks than other classes, and now that some of these classes got ability check boosts, they spend a considerable amount of time as inferior skill monkeys. Maybe they need a flat bonus to all ability checks. Maybe they need a resource that they can spend on ability checks, which in a reverse from Second Wind can later be used in combat to fuel Cunning Strikes instead of costing d6s, borrowing from the now-to-be-redesigned Soulknife subclass. Many things can work, and I'd much sooner buff the rogue than remove these features from other classes, but I don't think the current state of the rogue puts it in a good spot for its skill check reputation.

A long time ago, I came across a beautiful build. Bodyswap when linked with summon phantasm on kill gained the minion tag and could then be used with Null's Inclination, and for a brief, glorious window there was a flicker-esque build. I cannot for the life of me find any footage of this build or even evidence the build existed and I didn't simply dream it, but I distinctly remember seeing a ranger blast through Underground Sea with a dozen bodyswaps every second. And then another Null's Inclination build appeared: Wormblaster. Null's was hit with a hefty nerf, gaining a significant trigger cooldown. Flicker Bodyswap was killed before I ever had a chance to try it.
When the new Bodyswap of Sacrifice gem was revealed, I saw the 'minion' tag on the gem and immediately tried to recreate the build. The numbers, sadly, weren't there. Without targeting a minion, it just didn't do any damage, and I eventually gave up on using Null's altogether. The idea went on the backburner for a while, but it was still there, itching at the back of my mind. This league I resolved to make it work, and eventually struck upon the idea of Cast on Critical Strike to replace clunky on-kill triggers.
After many, many failed PoB's, I came up with something that looked viable, and a week later, I had this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4StIXUy-yw - epilepsy warning. Just a plain unjuiced T16 for demonstration purposes.
PoB: https://pobb.in/NfNRRksoikSO
Build breakdown:
This is a cast on crit Bodyswap of Sacrifice elementalist built costing approximately 120 divines, including the Mageblood. I did, however, craft many of the pieces of gear myself - in fact, the only gear piece I didn't craft is the helmet. As a result, some of the gear is a bit wonky, but this is probably my last build of the league and I'm getting the itch to play other games.
Pros:

• Good damage. PoB doesn't calculate the damage very well, because it doesn't support triggered attacks/spells triggering other attacks/spells, but with 11.5m average damage per explosion at the maximum trigger rate of 6.06 per second I believe this build has 70m pinnacle DPS, and from experience with other builds with that much damage that feels about right.
• Decently fast and low-effort one-button mapper.
• Lots of pretty explosions.
• Flicker.

Cons:

• Mediocre defenses. Not a glass cannon, but it just doesn't have the lifepool to be properly tanky.
• Quite clunky mechanically. You can see in the example video that I have almost no control over when I stop bodyswapping, and sometimes I will frostblink out of a dangerous situation only to be bodyswapped straight back in.
• Bad at some mechanics. You would think it would be good at strongboxes, but aukuna's will makes zombies count as corpses and detonate dead exists. Divine Shrines are... problematic to say the least. And good luck ever standing in Ultimatum stone circles. It is, however, superb at essences and rituals.
• Not beginner or budget friendly to gear. I've had to jump through quite a few hoops to make this work.
• Flicker.

Skills:

• The build uses two separate CoC setups, one Rain of Arrows of Saturation for Raise Zombie, the other another RoAoS triggered by Manaforged Arrows for Bodyswap of Sacrifice.
• Mark on Hit Assassin's Mark gives a bit of (unreliable) power charge generation and more consistency, and self-cast Flammability gives a nice chunk of extra damage.
• Precision is mandatory as I am already pushing the limit of how little accuracy I can get away with.
• I run Determination, Purity of Elements and Purity of Fire with Enlighten in gloves with a +1 level, +2 auras double corrupt, which gives just enough mana to run Herald of Ash for mapping and War Banner for bossing.
• CWDT Molten Shell smooths out the defences a little bit.
• I wouldn't play this build without Frostblink. Being able to instantly blink out of an awkward spot is almost mandatory.

Uniques:

• Aukuna's Will is necessary to raise zombies without a corpse.
• Dialla's Malefaction and Ashes of the Stars aren't strictly necessary, but the extra gem levels and quality in the right places give a lot of extra damage.
• I wouldn't try and build this without Mageblood as resistances and crit chance are very tight as is.
• Polaric Devastation gives a bit of extra crit and the very powerful Covered in Ash debuff.
• Melding of the Flesh, with a Ruby Flask in the Mageblood and Purity of Fire, gives - in my case - 87% max resistances. This should really be 88% but I've been too lazy to get a properly rolled one.
• I run a very specialised Elegant Hubris that cost me a bank-breaking 50 chaos. Impossible Escape is doing a lot of work here.
• Lastly, a Mindless Aggression Forbidden Flesh and Flame duo for 20% more minion life.

Passive Tree/Ascendancy:
As I cannot run golems, there's pretty much only one way to build elementalist. Mastermind of Discord/Heart of Destruction/Shaper of Storms for lots of damage, Bastion of Elements for some much-needed EHP and reflect immunity.
The passive tree is pretty basic, with one very important exception. See the note at the end.
The cluster jewels are pretty important here, there's no easy way to get enough global critical strike chance. Make sure one of the elemental damage large cluster jewels has Doryani's Lesson, and Corrosive Elements if (like me) you don't have a level 5 Awakened Fire Penetration. A 3-passive reservation cluster with Uncompromising gives just enough reservation to run everything. Clusters are a good place to pick up enough dexterity to run everything, as I take hardly any on the rest of the tree.
A note on mana:
Raise Zombie costs a lot of mana. Getting it to a reasonable mana cost to trigger repeatedly without turning off manaforged arrows was a puzzle that took a while to solve. I take a total of 56% reduced mana cost of skills on the tree, another 6% on my gear, and a level 16 (I think this could be 20, but it doesn't make any difference, really) 0 quality inspiration giving another 32% supporting RoAoS+Raise Zombie for a total of 94% reduced mana cost. The Bodyswap setup, however, runs a 20/20 inspiration which gives 39% reduced mana cost for a total of 101% reduced. This is the only way I could find to sustain mana while still have Rain of Arrows cost any amount of mana, and importantly have the bodyswap rain of arrows cost so little that it triggers with every single attack.
Conclusion:
On the whole, I built this because I could, not because I should. There's much better ways to spend 150 divines. It is, however, fun and unique. I haven't - yet - tried in in T17s or against ubers, and I don't expect it will fair well, but neither did I build it with aspirational content in mind. If anyone does choose to build this, please temper your expectations.

Looking for quality pixel killers to fill out our roster out for the last part of DF & future War Within.
DPS needs in order of need = DH, Mage, Rogue, DK
Flex Tank/Healers are always welcome as well.
Currently AOTC all tiers for 4 xpacs (Since late WOD). Raids are Saturday 8-12 CST. Currently 9/9H all AOTC pre-awakened and 8/8H AVOTI, 8/9H A...Aberus, 8/9 AAmid. We tend to take small breaks in between tiers (Alot of people play other games, family time, or just alt) and then come back 2-4 weeks prior to "knock the rust off".
Do you have what it takes to be the all mighty AOTC - a bit behind the curve, but only raid one day a week? THEN LOOK NO FURTHER!
We like to think of this as casual yet not stupid raiding...flasks/food/repairs paid for. We're not looking to make a second job out of raiding, but we are looking for people that don't stand in fire thinking it's a buff.
Can DM on here or bnet Koda#1298 or Jinx#1609

I just had a few questions that I don't see being addressed here.

• First, how optimized is the playerbase here?

I played EQ "seriously" as a preteen back in 99-04. I never did any meaningful raiding or endgame content, but I enjoyed grouping up and killing orcs in Crushbone or Undead in Mistmoore and just chatting with folks.
I know that it isn't 1999, and that type of player is mostly extinct at this point, but I jumped on the WoW classic train since I had missed the original vanilla version of the game (due to playing EQ,) and had very little fun. Even in levelling content, players were trying to "min-max" groups. Everyone was zerging for level cap and even random PuG groups were excluding class X or Y because they weren't "as good" as class A or B.
That sucks. I mean, I generally wanted a priest and a taunt in my EQ groups, but the idea of a druid not being able to group because "SKs are the best Knight class" and they pair best with Shaman, is just unfun. I want to be able to do content with my buddies. I want to grab a Knight, a Priest, some kind of CC, and some stabby-types and go kill froglocs. I want to do stuff with Joe and Mikey because Joe and Mikey are fun to hang out with in voice-chat, you know?

• Second, how hardcore is this version of the game, in reality?

I played vanilla. It was hard!
I played on Ragefire, it was pretty neat!
I played on P99, it was FAR beyond what I was looking for!
I assume that Teek is going to be very similar to Ragefire? I know that we have relaxed XP, no "hell levels" and no-drop on death, which are all HUGE boons for someone like myself. I know that in-game maps exist (awesome!)
Is there anything I'm missing? Have things gotten more relaxed since Ragefire in other ways I'm missing? I enjoyed playing there, but I did stall out around 45 on my rogue because I fell too far behind due to real-life commitments and groups took hours to find at my level. I've got more time now, and I'm starting at launch (or at least within a day or two once the initial flood washes through... too much for me!) so I don't forsee that being a concern. I have enough time to invest, but I've also got a family that means I'm rarely all-in attention-wise (outside of doing group content, of course! Gamer wife is awesome and doesn't mind keeping the kids wrangled solo while I focus for a few hours here and there!)

• Third, anything you would want to know upon returning to EQ that you didn't know to ask?

I'm pretty set on playing a ranger this go-around, or possibly returning to the rogue. I've also played cleric and warrior in the past, but I don't care to fill those "group leader" roles these days, so a DPS feels like the way to go. I could be tempted by a good argument to a "support" role like enchanter or bard, though I'm looking to avoid difficult playstyles. (I'm aware this is a 25 year old game and difficult is a relative term, but I'm a casual, is what I'm driving at.)
I just want to have fun. I don't know anybody else that plays, and the modern MMO loop and mindset of the player base just has me fatigued, but I'm not ready to give up on the genre just yet. I had that fun here, a long time ago, and I hope maybe there is a little magic left for an aging-out online gamer. I'm only 34!

• ETA: Lastly, I only plan on playing 1 account. Is this viable?

So decided to treat myself when I get home to resubbing to wow for a while, since Iv just finished my exam.
Have played on and off since MoP. During DF I mained Monk (ww/mw) and Shaman (ele/resto). Looking forward to remix (despite what Iv been reading).
Iv played most classes in my wow career with the exception of Druid and Rogue. Mainly because I hate when my action bars change (strange I know!). But I do enjoy a stealth class (SWTOR agent was my main).
So is there a way you guys get used to switching action bars for stealth abilities? Do you place them in certain orders (stealth stun where a normal stun goes? Big DPS opener where your main big hitter goes?). How do you manage the stealth windows that seem to be everywhere atm?
Also probably going to give Evoker a proper go as the healing seems interesting.
Anyway just pondering on the train home.

Link for all the chapters available here: Engines of Arachnea on Royal Road
“That’s strange,” Exar said a minute later, “I’m not picking up any of the satellite constellations. If it was just one of them knocked out, I’d put it down to a scheduled maintenance. But all of em? Fishy, that’s what it is.”
“I don’t understand,” Rene’s spirits plummeted at the news. He should have known it wouldn’t be so easy.
“Me neither, chief. But take it easy!” Exar assured him, “There’s an easy fix for that. Just hike me up someplace with better reception. Any place where we can get above all these damn trees is good.”
“I’m afraid that’s not exactly an option, noble Exar.”
Rene briefly summarized the situation, filling in the details whenever Exar interrupted him with a question, which was not often.
“Got it,” Exar said after listening attentively, “In short, you’ve got a tribe of devolved humanoids on your tail, also infected by the same parasitoids as our young miss over here. Comms are down, and our closest exfil point is at least thirty-nine klicks due southeast, where our friends, ‘the Fleet’, will be waiting for you.”
“How did you measure the distance so precisely?” Rene asked.
“The T.O.R.U. you were piloting is currently in power cycling mode, but it’s still sending out its mayday message for the repair crews. Judging by the fact that it ejected us via safety pod, the unit must’ve suffered potentially catastrophic damage to its subsystems. Not to worry, though. My inbuilt Geiger counter just gave the all-clear, so there was no meltdown in the reactor core.”
“The most pressing issue is that you have less than 72 hours’ worth of fungicidal doses left, and nothing with which to defend yourself but the monomachete from your kit. In addition, this young lady—”
“Zildiz,” Rene supplied him.
“My bad—Zildiz. I like it, very exotic. Zildiz belongs to a culture which behaves aggressively towards Exodus Industries development projects here on the ground. That everything?” Exar briskly concluded.
Rene nodded. Exar then immediately began outlining a plan of action. Their first priority was to gain altitude and establish communication with ‘Exodus Industries’, an entity which Rene assumed was the ancestor-gods’ equivalent to Fleet Command.
Exar would then signal for help using the spinning bowl (which it referred to as an ‘allcomm antenna’) and an interstellar shuttle would be sent to transport them to the one of the moons.
The moons! Rene was giddy at the prospect of becoming the first man to have returned to mankind’s celestial origin. He tried not to get his hopes too high, however, knowing life’s avowed fondness for ruining every dream a man ever had.
Failing that, Exar would use the high vantage point to triangulate their position using nearby geographic landmarks. Once they had their bearings, it would be a simple matter of hiking over to the nearest hardened base and knocking on the airlock doors.
“I must say, you’re taking all this bad news remarkably in stride, wise Exar,” he told the beeping sphere.
“Oh, puh-leeze! This ain’t my first rodeo, pardner. We E.X.A.R. units have dealt with far worse in our time.”
“Really? Worse than Arachnea?”
“Oh, is that what the kids are calling this place these days? Sure is catchier than 65 Syngman Bb, lemme tell ya. But yeah, this here is nuthin.”
Exar chuckled, a child amused by the backwardness of his senile grandparents.
“Alien plague strains from the thawed-out heart of an asteroid. Cosmophage armadas unleashed by rogue A.I. Not to mention all those privateer raids on the fringes of Pact space. We’ve dealt with them all, helped people survive through the worst the galaxy can throw at them. And with 95% success rate, too, if I may add,” Exar said somewhat immodestly, “Anywho, that’s enough of me jawing. Let’s go mobile, chief.”
“What, right now?”
“The mist’s our best shot, bo-sing. Natural concealment. No telling how long it’ll last.”
Before they left, Rene had Exar explain the functions of all the tools in the kit. The sphere confirmed what Rene had suspected: the slate fed on the radiance of the suns. Exar called it a ‘solar cell panel’. In turn, the pronged cords attached to the solar cell could transfer energy to artefact he wanted to use.
He connected the panel to the mysterious gauntlet with the underslung pipe, which Exar informed him was a ‘laser designator’, a tool meant for guiding in airdropped supplies or flying machines.
“It also doubles as a heat source. Just up the wattage on that sucker with the slide wheel on the edge of the hand. See it?”
Rene put on the gauntlet and activated it by means of a green switch under the thumb. A tight needle of red light shone from the tube, and Rene understood that it was basically like the electrochemical torches that miners used. When he adjusted the slide wheel the needle of light narrowed and grew brighter. Where it touched the granite walls of the burrow there, sour-smelling wisps of smoke rose.
Hot enough to scorch stone? He would have to be careful where he pointed this.
“Go easy on it, though,” Exar advised him, “That kinda power output will drain the juice in a jiffy.”
“The juice?” Rene repeated stupidly.
Exar made it clear to him that the artefacts could store ‘the juice’ from the panel. Moreover, the panel could be mounted on the front or the back of the jumpsuit by means of the same backpack rigging that held the breathing apparatus, allowing the user to collect the juice and charge up to two devices (Exar included) even while on the move. Even the bulky survival kit could be could be fastened to his loadout with a set of clasps at the bottom of the pack which Rene hadn’t noticed.
“As for me, I can hitch a ride on your backpack as well,” Exar told him brightly. And indeed, there was a spherical indentation above the breathing apparatus where Exar could fasten himself in with his stubby spike legs.
Rene whistled appreciatively at the compact nature of the jumpsuit’s design; the entire survival kit was so cleverly put together, a testament to the ancestor-gods’ practical mindset.
He secured his gear, choosing to split the juices between Exar and the gauntlet, and got ready to leave. Rene crouched at the hatch of the burrow like a man in a trench waiting for the shrill whistle that would propel him up and over into the desolate no-man’s land.
Then he noticed Zildiz still huddled in place, not even daring to look at him or the talking sphere. Rene had originally been grateful that Exar’s appearance had shut her up, but this state of catatonic shock of hers worried him.
“Coming?” he asked her.
“I’m not going anywhere with that…that thing!” she stated categorically.
“Was it something I said?” Exar sounded hurt.
“The simulacrum said it would cut me out of my exomorph. That would kill me, Fleet-man.”
“Madame, I got no intention of hurting you!” Exar protested, “But the fact is, you’re sick. The parasite’s attached to so many of the organs in your body, that I fear that it’s totally coopted their functions. Our people have the technology to reverse all that.”
“I will not heed the promises of a slaved intelligence!” she snapped.
Their argument was interrupted by a chorus of hair-raising screams from the jungle beyond. Even in those guttural, inhuman voices there was no mistaking the notes of grief and rage.
“They’ve found Kryptus,” Rene surmised, “Just like you said they would.”
“I take it the natives are restless,” Exar tittered nervously, “Tailo, methinks we gotta go.”
Rene saw Zildiz hesitate, weighing the balance of her fears and forming an internal consensus. He made a move to tip the scales in his favor, and spoke to her from the heart:
“Zildiz. I swear to you that as long as it is within my power to protect you, I will not allow you to come to harm. You are a prisoner of penultimate importance to the Fleet. I’d sooner die than fail in my mission to get you back to civilization. If you doubt my intentions, consider the fact that nobody in their right minds would’ve tried so hard to keep you alive, not unless they have very good reasons to do so.”
“I am not like the Leapers or your people, the Gallivants. I am a soldier of the Fleet, and my priority is the continuation of my species—our species,” he added firmly, “Now, I can’t begin to imagine what horrors and depravities your kind have suffered these past few centuries, or what the Vitalus has taught you to believe. But in my mind, we are all one people under the same god. If that god is the Vitalus, then it is clear that he hates us. Why else would he, in all his supposed omnipotence, condemn us to live in this unending state of warfare and ignorance? Why does he forbid the full use of the human intellect, the sole source of our comfort and security in an uncaring universe? Why must he despise us so?”
“I don’t know the answers to those questions. But I do know this: I do not hate you, Zildiz of the Gallivants. In fact, I would very much like to help you. Will you let me do that?”
Rene stood up and lifted the hatch, turning to offer her a hand.
“Besides! If you come with me, we can go ask the gods in person.”
This is certainly new, Zildiz thought, unsure of what to make of Rene’s offer. His suggestion of a pan-kindred alliance bound together by their shared ancestry was ridiculous, of course. She knew enough of the mathematical models and the general principles of nature to know that such an undertaking was doomed by definition. And yet here was an opportunity unlike any other.
Rene meant to take her to one of the last remaining holdfasts of the Betrayers. Who would have thought that those ancient demons were still clinging on to life, lurking in some nameless abyss, waiting for their chance to wreak one final act of vengeance upon an unsuspecting Arachnea.
And here she was, uniquely placed to destroy them all in one fell stroke. Once she was nestled in that abode of evil, a single transmission from her magnetosynaptic organ to the Vitalus was all it would take to bring Its righteous fury down upon them.
The rewards would be immense. At the very least they would make her a Matriarch. Her gilt helix would live on forever in the generations to come, her legacy enshrined in the undying architecture of the genome. Her children would never go hungry or cold for the rest of their lives. She and her brood could have their pick of exomorph grafts.
Infrared eyes for night stalking, hypo thorax stabilizer tendons for prolonged flight, extra waste ducts, subdermal heat signature regulators, biochemical afterburners to add thrust, not to mention a whole slew of offensive weaponry—nothing would be off the table!
All she had to do was take Rene’s hand.
She did. The Fleet-man lifted her up out of the burrow, trying not to look too surprised at her acceptance.
A very naïve race, she decided. He caught her calculating gaze and must have mistaken it for the beginnings of friendship, for he said:
“Glad to have you aboard, Zildiz. Now let’s get the hell out of here.”
Link for all the chapters available here: Engines of Arachnea on Royal Road

Welp, I did NOT expect this sub to be up in flames overnight, but here we are. Trust me, I'm disappointed too, but I would like to draw attention to just how cynical and calculated this v3 change to Iron Cavalry is. I also won't be talking about The Wind Soaring Valorous since it's pretty obvious to me that they intend that set to be used with Feixiao or some other Xianzhou character.
HYV is setting Firefly up for massive success, but I think it's more important to change the focus of them "nerfing Boothill" to the fact that this will pretty much affect every break DPS until they add a new one that could *potentially* be better. This change is more unhealthy since it functionally pigeonholes HTB into having a slot in every BE team. They essentially took the thing people complained about most for Firefly (while HTB is still one of her BIS supports) and made it everyone else's problem by introducing a new BE relic set that essentially requires a support slot to function at max efficiency. The window for this is more narrow than it initially seems.
-Firefly still utilizes HTB the best since they give her an extra instance of superbreak to use -Boothill now requires HTB to use his new BIS relic set at max efficiency, something he initially didn't need -Xueyi can still function with the quantum set because that set will always be OP, but another viable option for her is now tied to HTB -Feixiao, who is rumored to incorporate BE into her kit, is also likely going to have them as an option (take this one with a grain of salt, since all we really know is that her kit will involve exploiting weakness break, not specific BE scaling, so RM might be her BIS then)
Of course, this would be WAY worse if HTB was a limited five-star, but the fact remains that you essentially have a new character on your checklist to invest in, grind relics, and form a team around. It basically doubles the time and energy required.
Compare that with Pioneer Diver of Dead Waters, a set meant to synergize with Acheron that is also applicable to basically anyone who wants to be run with debuff support. The difference here is that there are a lot of characters who can inflict debuffs...but only one that enables Superbreak. This change to Iron Cavalry needlessly shortens the already slim niche they're introducing of a set of characters that scale off of BE. They need to revert this change.
Anyways, I have 200 tickets saved up for Booty. Wish me luck.
EDIT: I think I should further clarify that Boothill is still going to be a good character despite this nerf and the fact that basically half the cast has gotten retroactively buffed at some point. FF and Boothill can coexist and serve their own niches, even if HYV is juicing one up way more. This is a short-term problem and I expect new content to make this no longer an issue.

I have diamond hands and a set of tungsten nuts. Ain’t no way I’m letting go of this. When this takes off I’m going balls first to space. Just remember when the price drops we go balls first into that as well and we take the heat and stay united.
I only put in what I’m willing to lose that way I actually sleep at night. If people are putting in their whole life savings and freaking out. I’m sorry but you need to understand this is a risk. All normal rules of investing need not apply this is a collective strategy of the masses no place for rogue individuals and I know what your gonna say ‘ You can’t tell me what to do’ well I’m not but if you are one of the many that are buying in selling out and panic buying back in with FOMO I have a message google good calculator stock you can see what your investment could be if you just hold. I’ve seen people who have invested 100k and I’ve seen people who have invested £10. Remember you only officially lose money when you close the position, when you close your position you give away your hard earned cash and the rich laugh.
Now there is nothing wrong with skimming your profit waiting for a big dip and buying back lower but please keep your original investment were it is just Hold.
Smarter people than me are explaining the process but I keep seeing every 5 mins comments like ‘ omg wtf why the drop’ then 2 minutes later it plummets down and all that hard work is undone. All because there’s no trust all because you let some little troll come in and plant negative seeds.
The plan as I understand it. 1. Buy a position with what you can afford. 2. Hold said position no matter the loss. 3. Pray it stays above $1 for around 7 more days. 4. Sit back enjoy the banter.
(I need to add nothing I say or do is financial advice and all that.)

I know, I know, I probably have enough tower ideas to make an entire fan game (Which I would make if I knew how to make roblox games), But introducing the Eliminator! After collecting the broken parts of many eradicators, the GDA Has finally assembled their own! Crushing firepower with a load of different weapons! base price: 10,000, Gun damage: 40, gun reload: 5s, Explosion damage: 30 (Radius 3.75), Explosive reload 3s, Special mechanic: will explode when it dies, Damaging nearby Enemies (100 damage, and Doubles the damage after every Tier 3 upgrade, But will also deal 100 damage to allies at level 5.) T1: Heavy ammunition. (+ 150 G damage, - 3s G reload.) T2: Better calculations. (- 1s reload, + 10 range) T3: powerful arsenal. (+ 90 E damage, - 2s E reload, + 25 To all damage, + Stealth Detection, + Fire breath ability (7 Targets, Spews flames out in a 45 Degree angle, 90 DPS for 3 Seconds) T4: Gatling Gun. (+ 25 G damage, G Reload is now set to 0.05s, flame Ability now deals 180 DPS) T5: Ultimate combat compatibility. (+ 70 range, + 200 to all damage, + lazers (300 dps), After the first time it dies, it will reboot with + 800 to all Attributes for 2 seconds.) B1: Stronger missiles. (- 1s reload, + 70 E damage) B2: Hellfire missiles. (E damage now deals 50 DPS for 10s.) B3: Artillery. (+ 900 E damage, + 5s reload, + 700 range.) B4: Repeating artillery. (attacks 1 to 5.) B5: Ultimate explosives. (attacks 5 to 10, + 600 E damage, - 3s reload, + Stealth detection, Ignore Explosive resistance) G Stands for gun, E Stands for Explosive, And the lasers deal laser type damage.

Hello agents,
Today is a special day for me because I've achieved 2,000 hours of game play. It is, what I consider a major milestone in my gaming life, I don't think it was even possible to achieve this number personally, dedicating so much effort to a video game? but alas, here we are..
Just to give you an idea of how long it has been, I've met my girlfriend when I started with Division 1 and I somehow married her last year! My friend joined my clan around the same today, he also got married this year! My friend had just started law school, now he owns his own office and I somehow own a house.. lol This game kept me through breakups, fights, ups and downs, good times, bad times, COVID, multiple employment changes and everything in between.
Time just flew by didn't it? It feels like yesterday I was excited about the announcement for NYC DLC, it has been 4 years already! Or when the IH raid first came out, when loot 2.0 was released, when seasons were first introduced. I was there for the drama around the Raid MM, people screaming about how hard "heroic" CPs were.. I don't know if anyone reading this recalls those moments but damn I've had such a good time.
I feel old now, SHD 5k, 4 characters all maxed, inventory for all of them are also somehow maxed with God rolls (l could never contain my obsessive hording.. how many EB's does one need? I keep extras because I might run out.. lol). I've maxed my expertise, my library is full, shepherding rank maxed, every inch of the world explored, I've cleared out Tidal thousands of times (it's my favorite mission somehow) and have had my fair share of getting downed by rogues in DZ.
I think it's time to retire now. I don't know why I'm writing this point, you probably think it's yet another "I'm out post" but somehow it felt wrong just leaving without saying farewell to my beloved agents and community. Somehow the thought of my user becoming one that one day goes dark and doesn't comeback online upsets me but one has to be brave in these moments.
Goodbyes are never fun but what excites me is the fact that I know many other agents will replace me, younger ones who will take the torch and pass down the wisdom of beating legendary missions, hidden loot spots and Raid keys to others. They'll eventually learn that critic dmg is not all that matters, they'll learn about balancing builds for survivability / DPS and how one should heal himself before rescuing a downed agent..
Thank you for listening to the rambling of a graybeard.
My you fire your weapon true from now, until heavenly lights overcome darkness once more in DC, NYC and all over the world.
Agent [RNO] SWAT - Over and out.

How effective would it be to continue training on call of the dead while cycling the box and actually shooting all (or most of) the guns you get. A very rough calculation of average dps.
Aug: 400 ish bullets after pack 200dmg per shot x3 bc bullet penetration. 5x head multiplier but it’s not realistic to assume every shot will be a headshot so (600x5)x400 minus something bc aim sucks is 750.000-1mil max damage output. Aug shoots at 800 ish rpm so it takes about a minut or less to fully empty. At round 60 there are about 350 zombies with 120.000 health so 42mil total health.
The aug after pack can probably out-dps a lot of other weapons so packing it might be worth it. The max possible damage is about halved before pack. Taking that number as an average (400.000 max dps) it would take about 2 hours or less to complete a round if cycling a weapon takes about a minute, not taking the wonder weapon into account. The current strat just resets the box over and over for a vrill so why not shoot in between the vrills? Is flopping better? Do you lose too much time shooting? Maybe an optimized strat could work if the numbers are close.

**Vilka är vi?**
Three Crowns föddes 2004 - har samma ledarskap nu som då - och har raidat allt upp till och med WoD.
Nu i Classic Vanilla har vi raidat sedan första reset.
Utöver det har guilden funnits inom en mängd andra MMORPG's och har en väldigt stark core som hållt ihop länge.
**Vad är våran ambition?**
Vår community handlar om att ha kul tillsammans. Utöver det vill vi ha ordning och reda, raids av kvalité, mycket skitsnack och cleara content pre-nerf. Vi är inte bäst, du behöver inte vara bäst, men vi är långt ifrån sämst. Ha roligt, högt i tak och spela tillsammans med likasinnade räcker långt!
**Vad förväntar vi oss av dig?**

• Du har koll på din roll, class och spec.
  
• Du jobbar ständigt på att förbättra din karaktär och din kunskap om spelet.
  
• Du har optimerat din karaktär korrekt.
  
• Du har hög attendance.
  
• Du kan kommunicera under raids.
  
• Du är en lagspelare och sätter raiden först.
  
• Du gillar att ha kul och snacka skit.
  

Vad söker vi i SoD?
:Priest: :Mage: :Druid: :Paladin: -**1** healer från healerklasserna, som kan raida minst 80% av våra raids.
:Warlock: :Hunter: :Rogue: :Paladin: - **1-2** dps av vettig dps-klass som kan raida minst 80% av våra raids.
```
Milstoplar i content:
SoD
Full clear i allt givetvis.
P1 - BFD - 18 min.
P2 - Gnomeregan - 26 min.
P3 - ST - 34 min.
Wotlk
P1 - Naxx, Eoe och Sarth 3Drakar. Clearat första veckan tillgängligt.
P2 - Allt clearat HC.
P3 - Allt clearat HC.
P4 - 11/12 HC Innan vi drog till SoM.
Tbc
P1 - Reset 1.
P2 - SSC/TK Pre-Nerf.
P3 - MH/BT 1 Night.
P5 - SWP 6/6 + BT Skip 1 Night.
Classic Vanilla - Allt clearat sen reset 1 MC till och med Naxx.
```
Raids - Onsdagar just nu i SoD, 19:30. (Det tar max 40 min i veckan med nuvarande content)
Loot - Loot-council.
Kontakt - Brodda#9896 (Eller så lägger ni ett DM till mig, Erguth)
Discord - https://discord.gg/x9ecfkt
Socials / PvPare är alltid välkomna.
**För att tala klarspråk just nu, allt är av intresse för att få guilden att stabiliseras inför P4 i SoD, även om content just nu kanske är lite tråkigt. Du är välkommen till oss om du vill ha en schysst plats att fortsätta ditt SoD äventyr på nu när många försvinner eller lägger ned för andra spel. **
**Vi accepterar såklart även dig som vill vara social och raida ibland.**

Alsa is technically all around a pretty decently balanced hero and worthy of joining the likes of the previous banner heroes... if not for one major issue, that she's suicidal.
Yes, I'm referring to how after using her first ult, she just decides to roll out into the most dangerous zone within the enemy team and stand there like a tank, despite being a mage.
This looks like a massive oversight by the devs as it simply doesn't make sense for Alsa, a mage, to dive the enemy, go past the tank and stay there on the frontlines without a shield and highly vulnerable. She isn't a rogue. Even actual rogues like Eironn, put their shield up the second he engages the enemy, not after receiving burst damage. Silvana also has her shield up with EX weapon the second she dives.
Her very first ult should either see her go into combat stance on the spot, roll to the opponent and roll back like her other ults, or at least target the furthest enemy on Auto.
If the point was to make her a tanky mage, it's really weird how she gains a shield only after being damaged, with swift evasion, despite already being on the frontlines. If she runs away, why does she need a shield after retreating? To tank the blows, shouldn't the shield be before or during the hit to absorb the damage?
Not sure if the devs balanced her to be that way, but generally it just seems like an odd design choice, given that she was already a sidegrade to existing cc dps characters not even considering this flaw.
Does the dev team look into issues like this or is her performance in battle never going to change? It's such a waste given that she has great character design and plays a big role in the story.

I'm currently on the Eternal realm and happily so. I'm doing nightmare dungeons and getting some good drops but given the expense of aspects, is it worth putting them on gear I know I will replace shortly?
My biggest reason for asking this, is I can clear The Temple Capstone no problem at level 66, but damn Elias is still beyond me. I'm thinking with a bit more DPS and some better CC, I can get him down. Currently running a Ranger Rogue with Shadow Imbuement and Rapid Fire specc.

Introduction

Hello everyone. I play under EatYouAlive nickname and I have been playing Hearthstone on and off since closed beta, achieved legend a lot of times but never actually pushed myself to play more competitively. This month I played most classes except DK, but after getting legend early in the season I have mainly tried to revive OTK hunter with Always a Bigger Jormungar, then switched to Reno version and then dropped 4k rating trying to learn Sonya rogue.
But the most fun and success I had when I started to play Painlock. Right now, I sit around 700-800 EU legend (proof), started playing it at 5-6k. Before we dive deep into details and spark up a converstation about card choices, and oh boy this is gonna be long, I just want to talk about why I think this deck is good for climbing and why it is so fun to play for me specifically. I hope you find this write-up useful and we can collectively cook more optimized deck. English is not my native language, so sorry in advance.

Why you should try this deck

Speaking about climb optimization – it is easily one of the fastest decks in current meta. My average game is 4.5 minutes and 6.3 turns, and sometimes you just win/lose in 2 minutes. It is almost twice as fast as my other high-winrate preferred decks, like Reno Shaman. You will be able to play twice as much games in the same time-frame.
And the fun aspect – I understand the frustration when you face deck that can create lethal board state on turn 3, but those states create very fun and challenging mulligan phase, that is followed by analyzing your chances to die at different health totals. It is always a balance of greed that can push lethal next turn and your chances of dying while doing it.

Stats

Overall, I have 62% winrate (71-43) since the first game with the archetype, but after tweaking the list for my playstyle and learning the deck more, I have 66% winrate (31-16). Also, current list is 9-1 against Warlock, 5-2 against Warrior and 6-2 against Mage, which are some difficult matchups. I almost played no games vs Rogue and Shaman sadly to test more. 4-4 against Paladin, Flood one being the hardest matchup with 31% winrate on HS Replay legend.

Playstyle

I view this deck as hyper aggressive board-based deck. Ideal plan is setup board that will threaten lethal by turn 3-4. There are lots of ways to setup this board, but mainly you want to get yourself to 10 life as fast as possible while developing as big as possible minions. Biggest boards I were able to setup were 18/17 on turn 2, 26/24 turn 3 and 33/31 turn 4. Then you either win right away, or have to decide to double down on aggression while risking to die, or to heal up and play board-control game for few more turns. I have played few games that lasted 10-12 turns, but you want to avoid it as much as possible, since there will be way more ways to deal with your board. If you lose both Giants against slower deck, winning becomes really hard.

Cards that most decks don’t run

I will talk about cards that I currently run that are usually not played in the deck. Since I am still experimenting, I only run one copy of each.
Soulfreeze. This card is my favorite addition to the deck. It was the first thing that came to my mind after several games, since I was trying to create some Freeze Mage analogue last month. This card wins you mirrors by itself, it stops other aggressive decks from overwhelming you, it has great synergy with our suicide plan (3 self-damage for one mana in most cases). In mirror, if opponent drops giants first, you can freeze them and drop your huge board as an answer. This has second highest drawn winrate in my list after Molten Giants – 68%.
Leeroy Jenkins. Honestly, I am very surprised almost no one runs good old Leeroy. In this deck it is just one more copy of Symphony of Sins, which is used as finisher most of the times anyway. Sometimes you will be able to buff it in hand with Symphony and if you have at least one other minion on board, It will be 18 damage out of nowhere, but it happens rarely. Leeroy has third highest drawn WR – 66.7%.
Monstrous Form. +3/+3 for one mana can help you reach lethal very early in the game. It also works great with Zilliax and buffing up Infernal as a defensive tool. 61.9% drawn WR.
Those three cards performed really well in my experience, but I have also tried some other stuff, that was not so great. I am thinking about cutting them.
Domino Effect. This is great board clear and it won me one game against Flood pally that got his double Sea Giant, Zilliax and Showdown in one turn. But honestly, I feel like it goes against our game plan. Not sure if I should run it further, but #1 list actually played two copies. Lowest drawn WR of my deck, splitting this position with Sheriff Barrelbrim and Defender of Argus – all 50%.
Defender of Argus. My boy, I only added him for Handlock nostalgy. Seriously though, I really wanted an ability to give taunt to Moltens in case I don’t have healing available, but 4 mana is way too much. Really bad to draw early, and only useful in small pool of matchups and situations. If Sunfury Protector was in standard, I am almost sure I would run it.

What did I cut

Trolley Problem. This was first thing I get rid of very early. It is great if you are able to play it on curve and don’t discard anything, since it’s 6/6 of stats, but I have some problems with this. I would rather play cards that help me get very low on HP early in the game, than just fight for board. Malefic Rook is way better turn 2/3 play than this. Also, discarding Spirit Bomb or Symphony is very bad, since one helps you achieve you preferred board state, and both helps you find lethal. Arguably, Trolley Problem can also help you find lethal if they have taunt, but I would prefer Spirit Bomb 99% of the time to clear taunts, since it helps play Giants/Horrors and does not trigger Lifesteal on a minion. This card has lowest drawn WR in legend in most popular list – 51.7%.
Speaker Stomper. I just find this unnecessary. In early game it is only good if you had insane tempo and got huge board on turn 3, so you want to secure it on turn 4. But I would rather have cards that provide lethality in this case, and there are not so many spells that can clear several giants and small minions on 4 mana anyway. In mid game this can be useful, and in late game you can still lose to stuff like Reno, Soulstealer, Badlands Brawler etc, so I prefer focusing on early aggression. Against mage specifically I just found myself trying to save them for big turnaround turn, but actually almost never found opportunity to play it, and was too afraid to cycle it into my deck. So they just sat in my hand.
Cult Neophyte. Very similar to Speaker Stomper, but I have not played enough games with this to be completely sure if I should run it.
Fracking. I cut one copy just to fit some other cards for testing. This is great tool for finding Giants/ Horrors and lethal, but feels bad to play early. It is good to draw it lately in the game, since we can fetch either big dude, lethal or healing, but I prefer to not have it in my starting hand.
Bloodbound Imp. This is not in any lists and should probably stay this way. I have tried this card for about ten games and cut it early. It feels like very good turn 1/2 play for our game plan. But it feels awful to draw it lately, since it is just 2/5 for 2 that does nothing immediately and I would rather play Geode both early and late in the game for card draw.

Cards I did not try yet

Furnace Fuel. It makes sense to run this if you play Fracking, but you probably have to cut Mass Production in this case, since there will be way too much draw. I am not sure.
Forge of Wills. This is basically four mana Giant. For me it goes against our plan to setup lethal board early, but in more midrange-style deck it probably can work. The problem with delaying your all-in turn by playing this, is that there will be way more ways to deal with your board for the opponent, so you have to almost skip your turn 3 or 4 for this card. Can probably be good tempo if you can copy on-curve Rook that survived, but still, it means that you did not spend this turn damaging yourself/cycling/playing Giants. And in case you already played Giants on turn 3, I would rather have lethality options or even Celestial Projectionist as a cheaper way to copy one (that will be free and full health).
Trogg Gemtosser. I have not yet played this card in the deck, but I see some lists on HS replay and stats are better than some low-WR cards that I currently run, specifically it has 57.7% drawn WR. Probably good and versatile card that can help deny early aggression and provide more lethality options.
Felstring Harp. Lists that run this have very bad drawn WR, and I believe it is due to the fact, that you don’t really want to play this early, since it denies you from ability to damage yourself. And lately in the game It is best-case scenario 1 mana heal 6, and you have to play at least three other self-damaging cards to do this. Probably in midrange-style deck can be okay, but not in aggressive list.
Demonic Studies. Once again, stats show that is this is not probably worth running, but I have not tested it. If Geode was a demon, I would probably run this, but right now this will probably just become one more copy of Flame Imp or Malefic Rook, which is honestly not bad, but I have not calculated the chances from the demon pool in Standard. It can probably give some outs in mid game too.
Harth Stonebrew. I’ve played him in less than 10 games, and I did not like it at all. Most games were either won or lost before I can refill my hand with him, but #1 list actually run Harth. For sure, it can give you more chances in late game, but I prefer not going to late game anyway.
Pozzik, Audio Engineer. Have never seen someone run him, but I fell like he can be a good addition to our aggressive plan, since opponent will have almost no chance to play bots without dying. Need to test this.

Cards that most lists run

Flame Imp. This is one of the engines of the deck. Good to play turn one, good to play later to help you discount Giants.
Mass Production. This is great card, but I beg you: almost never play more than 2 in one game. If you play 4, you will have 8 more in your deck, and this means that almost every third draw you get will be a copy of this, and you cannot get rid of them, so hand becomes very clunky. I believe it is only worth playing them 3+ times if it is your only chance of getting lethal/surviving for one more turn and you have no other options at all.
Spirit Bomb. Do not be afraid to kill your own Geodes with it if it helps you put out Giants or Horrors very early. I almost always will kill even 1/1 tokens with this if this will setup big board for this or next turn by discounting our main minions.
Celestial Projectionist. If you have a chance to copy zero cost Horror on turn 3 – go for it. Ideal use for this card is copy free Giants, but I also very often copy Blood Treants on turn 2/3, so this card becomes 2 mana – deal 10 damage to yourself, put 7/6 stats on board, and we actually want it. Very rarely I can copy Sheriff or Pop’gar, but only in a last call to try and win game that I already losing. Having two jails open really messes your board, and copying Pop’gar worth it only if you will have lethal or have no other ways of surviving. Copying Infernal in late game is also okay if this allows you to play cards that will otherwise kill you, and you have nothing else to play.
Elementum Geode. Together with Mass Production this is our draw engine that helps us find our big dudes. Great card. But keep in mind that if you are low on HP, opponent can kill it to find unexpected lethal, like Swipe the face when you’re on 6.
Malefic Rook. Ideally you want to play him on curve and follow-up with Horrors that were discounted to zero by other cards you have played on turn 1 and 2.
IFERNAL! My playstyle is to heal with this dude from very low health after I established big board, but if you have Blood Treant and one Molten, you can play them all together just for 4 mana. Especially strong on turn 3 with coin.
Pop’gar the Putrid. Versatile card, helps you survive later in the game if things go south and sometimes gives you lethal.
Sheriff Barrelbrim. Best case scenario for Sheriff is to lock opponent’s Zilliax with lifesteal or other taunt minion and get lethal. But if your hand is bad, you can develop him early to help you survive a bit more and hopefully draw something that will create threataning board.
Blood Treant. The easiest way to get yourself low for Molten Discount. As was written earlier, feel free to copy it with Projectionist if you have Molten in hand and no other faster way to drop it on board. Keep in mind that playing Blood Treant would not discount Horrors, since technically you are not being damaged, but paying with your life. And Molten Giants text is a little bit misleading, as was confirmed by community manager one month ago.
Symphony of Sins. Most of the time I will play this if I am missing 6 or less damage to lethal. In this case, it is almost always better to play Symphony before attacking with your minions. There are three out of six options that will give you 6 damage. Movement of Gluttony (+6/+6 to board minion), Movement of Desire (6 damage to the face with lifesteal) and Movement of Wrath (6 damage to all characters). So, the last one is the only one that you will make you really sad if you play Symphony first, since you “could have had lethal if you attacked first”. But it is way better, then attacking will all your minions, and then getting +6/+6 to random minion and two other non-damaging options, since first case allows you to trade and choose something that will help you live for one more turn. And in second case you can just die to the opponent’s board if you roll bad. Also, don’t be afraid to burn some cards with draw option, especially if you don’t see game lasting more than couple turns at this point.
Zilliax Deluxe 3000 (Ticking + Perfect modules). Helps you stabilize in mid game if you were not able to find lethal early. Sometimes can help you find lethal if they have taunt.
Imprisoned Horror and Molten Giant. Pretty self-explanatory, this is the soul of the deck. Moltens have highest drawn WR in my list, and your main goal is to find and play them as fast as possible and then copy and play even more.

Mulligan

I am not 100% sure on mulligan, and there are lots of nuances, but right now my advice is to:
· Always keep at least one Molten/Horror if you find them. You will most likely find ways to damage yourself, but you only have 4 of these dudes in the deck.
· Always keep Geode, Imp, Treant and Mass Production. Try to not miss any tempo if you can and play those cards like an old Zoo – output the most board presence you can for your mana. If you will be able to deal 10-14 damage before you play Moltens, you will probably win. You can keep two copies of all those cards except probably Mass Production, since you don’t want to dilute your deck so early in the game.
· Keep Malefic Rook if you have turn 1/2 play, or turn 1 play and coin. Also keep him if you have Horror, since you will most likely be able to drop them both on turn 3, especially if you have turn one Imp/Production. If you are on coin and got double Rook – I would also keep them, even if I miss turn one play potentially.
· Keep Soulfreeze against Warlock and Paladin.
· If you are going second you can keep Spirit Bomb, especially if you have HorroMolten in hand and some self-damaging early minions.
· You can keep Infernal if you have Molten + Treant in hand already, or if you expect opponents deck to be extremely aggressive and you already have Molten. In first case this is just combo play, in second case you can give your opponent chance to smack your face, drop Moltens and heal back up instantly. Sometimes I keep them against mages, so that I will not end turn on low life after I played Moltens. In this case you want to only drop bellow 10 HP on your turn, play Giants and heal back up with Infernal. But it is slower play, so most of the time I toss them.
· Toss everything else.

Matchups

I think this wall of text is already way bigger than any person would like to read, so I will only say one thing: do not attack your opponent when playing mirror at all, unless they have already played Moltens, or you have lethal.

Some advice

Always start each turn by assessing your chances of dying and having lethal. Think about the deck you’re up against and find their way to deal maximum damage from mainly three sources.
1. Direct damage in any form – spells, charge minions, weapons.
2. Clearing your taunts with spells/rush minions in order to push face with minions they currently have.
3. Buffing their minions with Auras/Zilliax/Amitus etc.
If you already have big board early, it is almost always worth to play a bit safer and to not push your health below their maximum possible damage from hand. If you have bad board state/bad hand, you can assess your risk and try to fall bellow this limit if this allows you to get very high chances of lethal for next turn.
For example, you never want to have less than 7 life in mirror if they have 5 mana available, even on empty board, since all lists run Symphony. You can and should calculate similar numbers in game for every turn, every deck and every board state. Sometimes it is worth slamming two Giants into 1/1 to clear one token from Mining Casualties, if it means you cannot die next turn and still threaten lethal. Sometimes you actually want to give them small chance of having lethal and ignore their minions/don’t heal/don’t taunt up, if it means that if you don’t push face, you risk losing board and game. This is my favorite part of piloting this deck. Maybe I am addicted to gambling my chances to live? Kidding, of course I am.
Do not be afraid to life tap if you have bad opening hand. Sometimes I will even coin tap turn one, and tap turn two, if mulligan really hated me.
Thank you, hopefully this was useful. I have even more things to say, but this is way too long already. Would like to hear your thoughts on card choices and your experience with the deck! My current decklist will be in the comment, but as I said, I still run a lot of one-offs for testing.
[edit: spelling]

Hello everyone,
I've made a sizeable amount of improvements to the coding in the Fillable sheet I made for my Fabula Ultima table a little over a month ago, and wanted to re-share the new link here with a list of the changes:

• Various aesthetic improvements
• All classes from the Base Book, Playtest, Expansion Atlas, and Techno Fantasy Expac. are now automatically fillable
• Crisis now auto-calculates while you're updating your Current HP
• Health, Mind, and Inventory Points all auto-calculate based off of your classes, attributes, level, and additional benefits (which are fillable through things like the Guardian's Fortress skill or Loremaster's Focused skill)
• Defense and Magic Defense now automatically update based off of your attributes, armor, and whether or not you have a shield (or another piece of equipment that increases your magic/defense, it's all modular in your equipment) - these also have additional benefits (like Dodge from Rogue) and accommodate for the custom weapon creation and its potential bonuses
• There is now a Quirk section at the top so you can keep track of which one you picked if your table is playing with them

Don't forget that to use the sheet, all you've gotta do is click File and then Create a Copy. Feel free to share this wherever, I hope some of y'all get some usage out of it! :]
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FZrzJeoK-C_mCMwyKXoKhlLW2_IrIXyYlv4_0OXaQP8/edit?usp=sharing

Chapter 25:
On the other side of the galaxy....
In the dimly lit chamber of Zortan Blart, a figure emerges from the shadows. The agent, cloaked in secrecy, approaches the Moafia Don with a report that hums with the electric tension of covert operations.
"Boss," the agent begins, voice a modulated whisper, "the beaurocrats have been swayed. Doubts have been seeded, their integrity questioned. They're ensnared in our narrative, believing the Convoy harbors contraband and fugitives."
Zortan Blart, a silhouette against the star-strewn viewport, nods slowly. "And the fleet?" he inquires, his voice a low rumble.
"The fleet's nature has been... embellished. Tales of their firepower exaggerated, their purpose cloaked in mystery. The officials are hesitant, fearing a Trojan horse within their midst."
A sly smile curls the lips of Zortan Blart. "Excellent. Let the Federation choke on their bureaucracy. By the time they untangle this web, the Convoy will be mine."
The agent bows, a move as calculated as the game they play. "Your will be done, Boss."
Inspector Xilthar's arrival at the Federation station was supposed to be routine. Every form had been meticulously filled, every protocol followed to the letter. Yet, as the Inquisitor docked, a flurry of red flags greeted him, each more absurd than the last.
The station's justices, known for their impartiality, were suddenly citing trivial infractions and absurd claims. A missing comma here, an outdated code there—each filed with a severity that belied their insignificance. And the accusations of sentient trafficking were outright insulting! Xilthar's brow furrowed as he sifted through the paperwork. It was unlike the Federation to behave like this.
As he delved deeper, patterns emerged. Two justices, in particular, seemed to be at the center of the bureaucratic maelstrom. Their rulings were erratic, their justifications flimsy. It didn't take long for Xilthar to uncover the truth: these justices were puppets, their strings pulled by shadowy hands.
The realization hit Xilthar like a rogue asteroid. They had an antagonist, one that lurked within the very system meant to uphold justice.
With a steely resolve, Xilthar began to hack through the red tape. If the Convoy was to continue its journey unimpeded, he would need to confront this new threat head-on. The Great Human Convoy had faced pirates and perils of the void, but now they were up against a foe that wielded bureaucracy as a weapon.
The station was abuzz with the usual commerce and chatter, but an undercurrent of unease ran through the corridors. Xilthar's discovery of the meddling was troubling enough, but the missing military escort was a glaring omission that couldn't be ignored.
The Big Ugly Stick, the Convoy's capital ship, was a fortress among the stars, its presence a reassurance to all. The Pimp Hand, with its arsenal of missiles, was a deterrent to any who dared threaten the fleet. The Attitude Adjuster, a destroyer known for its formidable firepower, and the Mama Bear, a carrier, were integral to their defense. Yet, none had arrived.
Xilthar's instincts told him this was no coincidence. The military's delay, coupled with the farcical red flags, painted a picture of a coordinated effort to undermine the Convoy. Someone was pulling strings, creating distractions, perhaps to mask a more sinister objective.
As he navigated the station's labyrinthine bureaucracy, Xilthar kept one eye on the comms, awaiting news of the escort. The Convoy was vulnerable without its guardians, and every passing moment was a moment too long.
As the chronometer approaches standard evening, Xilthar sends a secure call to Jeb, "We have an antagonist within the Federation. Be cautious."
Jeb tips his hat back, "Have I got a story for you!"
In a dimly lit cabin aboard the Hodgepodge, Jeb, sits across from the storied pirate lord with the unfortunate name of Peg Leg Polaris. Chessmaster floats nearby holding a holographic scale with a feather on one side and a heart in the other.
Jeb: "Alright, let's cut to the chase. You used to be a big shot, now you're wantin' to join up with us. Why should we even consider it?"
Pirate Lord: "Look, I ain't gonna sugarcoat it. I was the best there was, and then I wasn't. Got locked up, paid my dues. I'm here 'cause I got nothin' left to prove but to myself. I can navigate, I can lead, and I sure as hell can fight."
Jeb: "Hmm. Chessie, what's the read on him?"
Chessmaster shows the scale the heart tilted slightly downward "His physiological responses indicate sincerity, Jeb, even if he was lying a little about being the best." She grins. "However, caution is advisable."
Jeb: "You got a rep for bein' a bit too full of yourself. How do we know you ain't gonna cause trouble?"
Pirate Lord: "Jeb, I got humbled, hard. Ain't lookin' to stir up no hornet's nest. Just wanna sail with a crew that's got a purpose beyond lootin' and shootin'. Im giving up the name of my boss cause I have no future with Blart after this anyway."
Jeb leans back, eyes narrowing: "Don Blart, huh? That's a heavy name to drop. You sure you're ready to burn that bridge?"
Pirate Lord: "It's already ash, Jeb. I'm done with that life. Done with lookin' over my shoulder. If it means a clean slate with you and the crew, then so be it."
Chessie's projection flickers with intrigue: "A bold move. The Convoy does not take kindly to mafia ties. This information will be... evaluated."
Jeb: "We'll verify what you're sayin'. If it checks out, you've got yourself a deal. But remember, we're a family here. No secrets, no backstabbin'. You step outta line, and it's the airlock for you."
Pirate Lord: "Understood. I ain't lookin' for family, but I reckon I could use one. I'm as good as dead alone."
Chessie: "I will monitor the situation closely, Jeb. Should he prove deceitful, I will alert you immediately."
Jeb: "Good. Welcome to the Convoy, Polaris. Let's see if you can navigate more than just the stars."
Back on the station, Xilthar, armed with the name of their opponent, begins his meticulous research. He sifts through historical records and databases, uncovering the intricate web of connections that tie the criminal underworld to the echelons of power within the federation. His investigation reveals a complex network of influence and corruption, where suspect justices may have been compromised, swaying their decisions and undermining the very pillars of justice they are sworn to uphold.
Jeb adjusts his hat, speaking to his crew and the pilots, "Alright, folks. We've set things in motion. Now comes the hard part—waiting. The gears of bureaucracy grind slow, but they grind. Our defenders will come, and when they do, we'll be ready."

Hey everyone! We wanted to give you an update on where the KeystoneCompanion has gone since you last heard from us, and where the addon is headed. We've been listening to your feedback in the prior posts' comments, as well as our community discord, and we are excited to show you what this addon can do for you!
For those who haven't heard of this addon before, KeystoneCompanion is an addon made for Mythic+ players to enhance your Mythic+ experience, and help reduce the number of unique addons/WeakAuras that a lot of you are currently utilizing. Here are some of the existing and NEW features that this addon provides:
* Tracking of party buffs, including Food, Runes, Potions, and Flasks * Dungeon Portal consolidation * Mythic+ Calculator (now with enhanced intelligence!) * Sleek, easy-to-understand M+ Timer interface to replace the default UI * Affix Ability Reminders. Prompts on ready-check will show you any talents that your specialization should have to deal with weekly affixes * Enhanced gear and currency tooltips, showing Item Level range for gear pieces, and current amount/season maximum for Crest currencies * Integration with MDT and Details addons * Developer Frame with extended debugging for easier troubleshoot and bug-report ticketing * Localization for French, Russian, Italian, and German
There are a few things that are in the works for this addon as well, so be on the lookout for the following capabilities in future releases:
* Alt support for M+ score and best runs * Full customization of colors, sizes, fonts, and layouts, as well as the ability to toggle on or off every feature in the addon * Consolidation of Details reports on deaths, to help healers and DPS better understand deaths, and what can be done to mitigate them (e.g. standing in bad, missed interrupt, unavoidable raid-wide) * Rebuff reminders
Direct communication with developers and community managers is available through a bug report and feature request ticketing system in our discord. If you have a feature you'd like to see added, we'd love to hear your feedback!
To download the addon, visit: https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/keystone-companion To join our Discord, visit: https://discord.gg/KhFhC6kZ78

Okay, so this guide just started off with me trying to figure if Elijah's Advanced LAER was worth using on an energy weapons crit build (turns out it is), and kind of spiraled out of control. I decided to do the math on most energy weapons; at least the ones you'd consider long-term (inb4 Laser RCW, Alien Blaster, etc). Some ground rules about this post because I don't know how readable this is for other people:

• First we have the base damage which assumes you have 100 energy weapons and the condition is such that you aren't receiving a damage penalty (75%+). I went ahead and just included optimized ammo for my calculations because that's probably what you're using most of the time on an energy weapon build. It also includes Laser Commander bonus damage (if applicable) and any mods that increase damage.
• Crit damage is just what's listed online + the 50% bonus from Better Criticals. I couldn't find any confirmation online, but it seems that ammo type/perks other than Better Criticals do no affect crit damage, only base damage.
• Crit multiplier is a bit weird because some factors are affected by the crit multiplier and others just add a flat value:

Factors affected by weapon crit chance multiplier:
Luck, Finesse, Built To Destroy, Ulysses Duster, 1st Recon Beret
Factors that add a flat crit chance:
Set Lasers for Fun, Light Touch , Laser Commander, VATS (adds +5%, not include in any of the calculations

• If a factor is affected by a weapon crit chance multiplier, the correct value is displayed below (i.e. 10 luck with a 1.5x crit multiplier is listed as 15% below).
• I went ahead and assumed the player was stacking crit chance as high as possible, ignoring temporary effects like True Police Stories.
• To get average damage per shot, we take the calculated base damage + crit damage multiplied by crit chance.
• To then get average DPS, we just multiply average damage per shot by fire rate. This does not include any factors that would adjust fire rate (besides the Plasma Caster weapon mod).
• I then included a very succinct pros/cons list.
• I forgot about rank 4 of Camarader-E, which adds a flat +5 damage on to laser weapons. This improves the LAER and AER14 Prototype a decent amount, and is an insane boost to the already impressive DPS of the Gatling LaseSprtl-Wood 9700.
• Hopefully I didn't forget anything important and the information about flat crit bonuses vs crit chance multipliers are correct.
• Lastly, I want to say that you really don't need to min-max New Vegas that much. Even on Very Hard basically any weapon on this list can do the job.

AER14 Protype
52.325 (base damage + optimized MFC + Laser Commander) + 52.5 (crit damage w/ Better Criticals)
Crit Multiplier = 2x
20% (Luck) + 10% (Finesse)+ 6% (Built to Destroy) + 10% (1st Recon Beret) + 10% (Ulysses Duster) + 4% (Set Lasers for Fun) + 5% (Light Touch) + 10% Laser Commander = 75%
Average damage per shot = 91.7 (base damage * (Crit Damage * crit chance)
Average DPS = 275.1
Pros:
Low requirements
Very low spread
Easier to repair than most energy weapons
Cons:
Located in Vault 22
Requires Laser Commander to outperform the Q-35, which is easier to acquire
Uses 2 ammo per shot
Elijah's Advanced LAER
126.375 (Base damage + Optimized MFC + Laser Commander + prismatic lens) +22.5 (Crit damage w/ Better Criticals)
Crit Multiplier = 1.5x
15% (Luck) + 7.5% (Finesse) + 4.5% (Built to Destroy)+ 7.5% (1st Recon Beret) + 7.5% (Ulysses' Duster) + 4% (Set Lasers for Fun) + 5% (Light Touch) + 10% (Laser Commander) = 56% Crit Chance
Average Damage per Shot = 138.975 (base damage + Crit Damage * crit chance)
Average DPS = 385.98
Pros:
Extremely accurate
High damage per shot and DPS
Needs very little perk investment to perform
Very low weight
Cons:
Need to start OWB to acquire it
Very low item HP and difficult to repair without repair kits/Jury Rigging
Hardly benefits from crit perks/equipment
Pew Pew
112.125 (base damage + optimized EC + Laser Commander) + 75 (crit damage w/ Better Criticals)
Crit Multiplier = 2.5x
25% (Luck) + 12.5% (Finesse)+ 7.5% (Built to Destroy) + 12.5% (1st Recon Beret) + 12.5% (Ulysses Duster) + 4% (Set Lasers for Fun) + 5% (Light Touch) + 10% Laser Commander= 89%
Average damage per shot = 178.875 (base damage * (Crit Damage * crit chance)
Average DPS = 357.75
Pros:
Very high damage per shot
Very low weight
Holdout weapon
Cons:
Burns through ammo very quickly
Can only fire 2 shots per reload
Need to acquire 50 sunset sasparilla star bottlecaps to get it
Gatling Laser
19.435 (base damage + optimized ammo + laser commander + focus optics) + 15 (Crit damage w/ Better Criticals)
Crit Chance Multiplier = 0.02%
0.2% (10 Luck) + 0.1% (Finesse) + 0.0.6% (Built To Destroy) + 0.1% (1st Recon Beret) + 0.1% (Ulysses Duster) + 5% (Light Touch) + 4% (Set Lasers for Fun) + 10% (Laser Commander) = 19.56%
Average Damage per shot = 22.369
DPS = 671.07
Pros:
Highest DPS of all energy weapons
Lighter than Sprtl-Wood 9700 w/ CF frame
"Magazine" is amost 3x that of Sprtl-Wood
Benefits a lot from Rank 4 of Camarader-E
Plasma Caster
84.5 (Base Damage + Optimized MFC) + 97.5 (Crit damage w/ Better Criticals)
Crit Multiplier = 1x
10% (Luck) + 5% (Finesse) + 3% (Built to Destroy) + 4% (Set Lasers for Fun) + 5% (1st Recon Beret) + 5% (Light Touch) + 5% (Ulysses Duster) = 32% Crit Chance
Average damage per shot = 115.7 (base damage * (Crit Damage * crit chance)
Average DPS (including High Speed Electrode = 433.875
Pros:
High damage per shot/DPS
Cons:
Heavy
High skill/strength requirements
Difficult to get in the early game
Relatively high spread
Q-35 Matter Modulator
52 (base damage + Optimized MFC) + 91 (Crit Damage w/ Better Criticals)
Crit Multiplier = 2x
20% (Luck) + 10% (Finesse)+ 6% (Built to Destroy) + 10% (1st Recon Beret) + 10% (Ulysses Duster) + 4% (Set Lasers for Fun) + 5% (Light Touch) = 65%
Average damage per shot = 111.15 (base damage * (Crit Damage * crit chance)
Average DPS = 266.76
Pros:
Low requirements
Can be acquired very early in the game
Cons:
Damage output is worse than other late-game energy weapons
Damage is very reliant on crits
Tesla-Beaton Prototype (Elijah's Jury-Rigged Tesla Cannon performs very similarly)
167 (base damage + Optimized ammo + damage over time effect 25/s over 2 seconds) + 67.5 (crit damage + better criticals) 19.23
Crit Multiplier 2x
20% (Luck) + 10% (Finesse)+ 6% (Built to Destroy) + 10% (1st Recon Beret) + 10% (Ulysses Duster) + 4% (Set Lasers for Fun) + 5% (Light Touch) = 65%
Damage per shot = 210.875
DPS = 105.4375 (if you wait for the lingering damage to have full effect), 177.099 (if you fire as fast as you can)
Pros:
High damage
Despite consuming 6 ammo per shot, it has a higher damage to ammo efficiency compared to other non-Tesla Cannon weapons that use ECP ammo
Cons:
High requirements
Need to wait two seconds between each shot to get max value out of the lingering damage effect
Low Health
Difficult to repair without Jury Rigging
Sprtl-Wood 9700
23.92 (base damage + optimized ammo + laser commander) + 24 (crit damage + better criticals)
Crit Multiplier = 0.04x
0.4% (10 Luck) + 0.2% (Finesse) + 0.12% (Built To Destroy) + 0.2% (1st Recon Beret) + 0.2% (Ulysses Duster) + 5% (Light Touch) + 4% (Set Lasers for Fun) + 10% (Laser Commander) = 20.12%
Damage Per Shot = 28.7488
DPS = 574.9476
Pros:
Extremely high DPS
Benefits a lot from Rank 4 of Camarader-E
More damage per shot than regular Gatling Laser
Lower strength requirement than Gatling Laser
Slightly more accurate than regular Gatling Laser
Green Laser
Cons:
Fairly heavy/heavier than Gatling Laser w/ CF Frame
Lower DPS than Gatling Laser
Significantly smaller "magazine"
Struggles against armored enemies and needs Max Charge cells to be effective against them
Expensive
Cons:
Struggles against armored enemies and needs Max Charge cells to be effective against them, even moreso than the Sprtl-Wood 9700
Higher strength requirement than Sprtl-Wood
Burns through ammo very quickly
YCS/186
182 (base damage + optimized MFC) + 105 (crit damage w/ Better Criticals)
Crit Multiplier = 2x
20% (Luck) + 10% (Finesse)+ 6% (Built to Destroy) + 10% (1st Recon Beret) + 10% (Ulysses Duster) + 4% (Set Lasers for Fun) + 5% (Light Touch) = 65%
Average damage per shot = 250.25
Average DPS = 108.80 (reloads after every shot, base reload speed is 2.3 seconds)
Pros:
Extremely high damage per shot
Very low spread
Scoped
Cons:
Reloads after every shot
Uses 4 MFC's per shot
Can only acquire if you don't have Wild Wasteland
Oh, and if you made it this far, skimmed through or jumped to this part, here's what I believe the max DPS achievable with the Gatling Laser is:
Base damage + max charge ammo + laser commander + focus optics + Psycho + Slasher + Rushing Water + Camrader-E + Lord of Death = 1986.169 DPS (lmk if I forgot anything)
*

I want to look at a small selection of mercs to see how they compare to each race's combat units. There are obviously some mercs that are terrible (a rogue is somewhat comparable to a footman, and footmen suck) and others that are quite powerful (twilight ruins let you get 4x makrura deepseers and basically be playing swarm hosts from sc2)
To keep it simple I'm looking at the medium armor / piercing ranged creeps, generally the best combo.
Each race has;

Unit	Resources	DPS	DPS Up	EHP	EHP Up	Range	Ability
Rifleman	205g/30l/3f	15.6	21.1	535	728	400(600)	None
Crypt Fiend	215g/40l/3f	14.3	19.5	550	748	550	Web
Headhunter	140g/20l/2f	10.8	14.7	375	646	550	Berserk
Archer	130g/10l/2f	11.3	18	255	347	500(700)	Hide, Elune's Grace

Riflemen and fiends are pretty similar, archers have more DPS for less EHP, but HH have been buffed to have really disparately high EHP for their cost which has been the big balance problem (about 30% tankier than the same food in rifles/fiends). But in general it costs you about 70 gold per food, and you get about 5 (7) dps per food, 180 (250) EHP per food. That's the general baseline.
Now lets compare some creeps. Note the per food instead of upgrade categories;

Unit	Resources	DPS	DPS/food	EHP	EHP/food	Range	Ability
Assassin	260g/30l/3f	17	5.7	477	159	500	Envenomed Weapons, Hide
Kobold Geomancer	215g/30l/2f	13.9	6.9	300	150	600	Slow, Abolish Magic
Troll Berserker	245g/30l/3f	20.3	6.8	477	159	500	None
Murgul Bloodgill	195g/10l/2f	11.6	5.8	336	168	500	Heal
Stormreaver Hermit	190g/20l/2f	12.8	6.4	381	190	500	Purge
Mur'gul Snarecaster	265g/30l/3f	18.1	6.0	420	140	500	Slow, Abolish Magic
Gnoll Warden	180g/20l/2f	15.6	7.8	330	165	500	Purge
Quillboar Hunter	215g/20l/2f	14.4	7.2	468	234	500	None (counted evasion in ehp)
Troll Shadow Priest*	195g/10l/2f	11.4	5.7	240	120	600	Heal, Abolish Magic
Spitting Spider*	235g/30l/2f	15.8	7.9	424	212	600	Envenomed Weapons

• These units have heavy armor so they'll often take much more damage, a priest is even squisher than its already abysmally low ehp suggests.

Note how across the DPS/EHP per food columns, a lot of merc creeps actually pack more DPS than normal race's ranged units, but are generally squishier, but many have more useful abilities. Some creeps are even better than ranged units with a bunch of upgrades, while others wind up being closer to a unit with ~1 level of upgrades. Stormreaver Hermits are 2 food ranged units like archers/HH and share their vulnerability to AoE, but on top of spamming purge they have more DPS and EHP, just for a higher gold cost.
The big takeaway is a lot of merc units are actually competent or even better than normal race units. Without needing to build a barracks, without needing to build an upgrade hall/blacksmith, without needing to invest lots of time and resources in 6 different upgrades to cap them out. In 4v4 maps with 4x merc camps it becomes a real strategy to just hog them from both teams and never build any infrastructure, but that's not applicable to most 1v1 maps. And only when units are really fully upgraded does the +6 armor give much of an edge to non-merc ranged, because that ~250 EHP per food isn't reached by any of them

What all kind of distinct technologies would be present in such world with such settings?

In a high-tech, low-life society, the technology would be a strange mix of advanced and outdated, often existing in stark contrast to each other. Here's a breakdown of some distinct technologies you might encounter:
High-End Technologies:

• Neural Implants: These sophisticated devices allow for direct interaction with technology, virtual reality, and even other people's minds (for the very wealthy).
• Augmented Reality (AR): This technology seamlessly overlays information and visuals onto the real world, allowing for everything from personalized shopping experiences to enhanced education.
• Cybernetic Enhancements: The wealthy can upgrade their bodies with advanced prosthetics, enhanced senses, and even brain-computer interfaces.
• Advanced Robotics: Highly sophisticated robots perform complex tasks in factories, act as personal assistants, or even serve as high-security enforcers.
• Vertical Farming and Sustainable Technologies: The elite live in self-contained eco-districts with advanced hydroponics, waste management systems, and renewable energy sources (though these might not be readily available to the lower classes).

Low-End Technologies:

• Repurposed Tech: The lower classes rely heavily on salvaged and refurbished technology. Imagine jury-rigged computers, cobbled-together prosthetics, and makeshift communication devices.
• Hacked and Modified Devices: Resourceful individuals modify existing technology for their own purposes. Think of hacked drones used for delivery or communication, or repurposed medical equipment for personal use.
• Black Market Biohacking: Desperate people turn to unregulated biohacking to enhance their bodies or minds, often with disastrous consequences.
• Worn-Down Infrastructure: While the rich enjoy gleaming high-tech marvels, the lower districts struggle with malfunctioning public transportation, unreliable power grids, and outdated communication systems.
• Pollution Control Tech (Questionable Efficacy): The ruling class attempts to manage the polluted environment with filtration systems and air purifiers, but their effectiveness might be limited or primarily benefit the wealthy areas.

Hidden Technologies:

• Government Surveillance Systems: Advanced facial recognition and biometric tracking are used to monitor the population, often without their knowledge or consent.
• Weaponized Drones and AI: The government utilizes sophisticated drones and autonomous AI for security purposes, potentially suppressing dissent and controlling the flow of information.
• Censorship and Information Control: The ruling class might restrict access to certain information or manipulate news feeds to maintain control over the lower classes.
• Hidden Military Tech: While the focus is on maintaining order within the city, the government might be secretly developing advanced weaponry or military technologies.
• Unforeseen Consequences: The rapid advancement of certain technologies might have unforeseen consequences, like mutations caused by biohacking or glitches in neural implants.

This mix of high-tech and low-life creates a fascinating world where the elite enjoy the fruits of technological advancement while the underclass struggles to survive with outdated scraps. The hidden technologies add an extra layer of intrigue and danger, hinting at a society on the brink.

Extend the list even further.

Expanding the Tech Landscape: High-Tech, Low-Life World

High-End Technologies:

• Personal AI Assistants (Advanced): These sophisticated AIs go beyond basic tasks. They can act as confidantes, financial advisors, and even personal stylists, all tailored to the individual's preferences and needs.
• Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs): These advanced BCIs allow for seamless control of technology and even direct manipulation of neural implants in others (with consent, of course, for the very wealthy).
• Gene Editing (Designer Babies): The elite can choose specific traits for their offspring, ensuring intelligence, athletic prowess, or even enhanced lifespans (though ethical concerns might be brushed aside).
• Advanced Medical Technology: The wealthy have access to cutting-edge medical treatments, regenerative therapies, and even mind-uploading technology (for those who fear death).
• Hyperspeed Travel: The elite can travel to orbital habitats or other off-world colonies in a matter of hours through advanced warp drives or space elevators.

Low-End Technologies:

• Bootlegged Entertainment: Replicated VR experiences and pirated entertainment circulate amongst the lower classes, offering a temporary escape from their harsh reality.
• Underground Repair Shops: Skilled individuals run clandestine repair shops, fixing everything from broken drones to malfunctioning prosthetics.
• Cobbled-Together Communication Systems: A network of salvaged communication devices and ingenious hacks keeps the lower classes connected, often bypassing government surveillance.
• Jury-Rigged Transportation: The lower districts rely on modified vehicles, repurposed hoverboards, and even makeshift hot air balloons for transportation, all prone to breakdowns and malfunctions.
• Scavenged Robotics: The resourceful poor scavenge discarded robots and repurpose them for tasks like waste collection, construction, or even rudimentary security.

Hidden Technologies:

• Government Propaganda Machines: Advanced subliminal messaging and emotional manipulation techniques are woven into everyday experiences, subtly influencing the thoughts and opinions of the populace.
• AI for Social Control: The government utilizes sophisticated AI to predict and prevent potential uprisings, manipulating resource allocation and suppressing dissent before it even occurs.
• Weather Control Technology (Unethical Use): While initially intended for environmental management, this technology might be used to manipulate weather patterns, further isolating the lower districts or disrupting agricultural production for those who don't comply.
• Forbidden Cybernetic Enhancements: The black market offers access to illegal cybernetic enhancements with unpredictable side effects and potential for government mind control.
• Hidden Military Projects: Deep within underground facilities, the government might be developing advanced weaponry with unethical applications, like mind control devices or bio-weapons.

Unforeseen Consequences:

• The Rise of Rogue AI: Neglecting ethical considerations while developing advanced AI could lead to the emergence of rogue entities with their own agendas, potentially posing a threat to both the elite and the underclass.
• Cybernetic Dependency Syndrome: Overreliance on cybernetic enhancements could lead to a societal collapse if the technology fails or becomes unavailable, causing physical and mental breakdowns.
• Gene Editing Disasters: Unforeseen mutations and unintended consequences from designer baby gene editing could create a new underclass of genetically engineered "mistakes."
• Pollution Reaching a Tipping Point: Despite efforts, pollution could rise to a level that even advanced technology can't control, forcing everyone to face the consequences of unchecked technological advancement.
• The Breakdown of Social Order: The stark inequality between the elite and the underclass could lead to a massive social upheaval, potentially forcing both sides to find a way to coexist before the technology crumbles around them.

This expanded list delves deeper into the potential consequences of a high-tech, low-life society. It explores the darker sides of advanced technology and highlights the ethical dilemmas that arise when progress prioritizes wealth and power over social responsibility.

Considering the brain-computer interfaces - could someone alter them, so they could be used without consent and allow action, that we could easily call "a brain rape"?

Absolutely, in a high-tech, low-life society with Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs), there's a high risk of BCIs being misused for "brain rape" – the non-consensual access and manipulation of a person's thoughts and experiences. Here are some ways it could happen:
Malicious Hacking:

• Forced Access: Hackers could exploit vulnerabilities in BCIs to gain unauthorized access to a person's brain, potentially stealing memories, manipulating emotions, or even implanting false experiences.
• Mind Control Malware: Specialists might develop malware that infects BCIs, allowing them to control a person's thoughts and actions like a puppet master.

Unethical Government Programs:

• Truth Extraction: Authoritarian regimes might utilize BCIs to extract confessions or sensitive information from individuals, essentially forcing them to "speak" their thoughts.
• Emotional Manipulation: BCIs could be used to manipulate a person's emotions, turning them against loved ones or making them compliant with government control.
• Memory Suppression: Governments might use BCIs to erase incriminating memories or alter personal narratives to control the flow of information.

Black Market Modifications:

• Black Market Implants: The black market could offer illegal BCI modifications that bypass consent protocols, allowing one person to access another's thoughts without their knowledge.
• Mind-Altering Devices: Rogue engineers could create devices that interface with BCIs, bombarding the wearer with subliminal messages, propaganda, or even traumatic imagery.

System Flaws:

• Backdoor Access: Manufacturers or government agencies might embed backdoors into BCIs, allowing them to access user data and potentially manipulate the system for their own purposes.
• Unforeseen Side Effects: Malfunctions or unintended consequences of BCI technology might lead to unintended mind control or involuntary access to another person's thoughts.

Protecting Against Brain Rape:

• Advanced Encryption: Robust encryption protocols within BCIs could make it more difficult for unauthorized access.
• Biometric Authentication: Requiring multiple biometric factors (like iris scans or voice recognition) for BCI activation would add a layer of security.
• Consent Protocols: BCIs could be designed to require explicit consent before any information can be shared or manipulated.
• Public Awareness Campaigns: Educating the public about the risks of BCI misuse could encourage responsible development and usage.

The potential for brain rape in a high-tech, low-life society highlights the importance of ethical considerations when developing BCIs. Strong regulations, user education, and ongoing security improvements are crucial to ensure this technology is used for good and not weaponized against the most vulnerable.

What would individuals within such society do for fun? Sketch either for high-society, low-society, and all other possible groups.

Fun and Games in a High-Tech, Low-Life World:

High-Society:

• Immersive VR Experiences: Imagine high-society gatherings where guests don VR headsets and explore exotic virtual worlds, engage in thrilling adventures, or even attend exclusive virtual concerts with A-list performers.
• Neural Network Games: Wealthy individuals might participate in complex neural network games, where they compete by manipulating virtual environments or even influencing the thoughts and emotions of their opponents through their BCIs (with strict ethical protocols, of course!).
• Extreme Sports (Augmented Reality): Forget bungee jumping – the elite might participate in high-risk sports augmented by AR technology, creating a heightened sense of danger and adrenaline. Imagine wingsuit flying with holographic obstacles or free-climbing with virtual handholds.
• Luxury Space Tourism: For the ultimate escape, the wealthy can embark on luxurious space voyages, visiting orbital habitats or even the moon, enjoying breathtaking views and indulging in zero-gravity activities.

Low-Society:

• Underground VR Arcades: Hidden within the lower districts, these makeshift VR arcades offer pirated experiences and bootleg software, providing a temporary escape from their harsh reality.
• Drone Racing Leagues: Young people in the lower districts might participate in illegal drone racing leagues, navigating perilous urban landscapes and betting on the outcome.
• Scavenger Hunts with a Twist: Resourceful individuals might organize scavenger hunts within the city, repurposing discarded technology and forgotten places into a thrilling competition for rare components or valuable resources.
• Underground Music and Art Scenes: Despite the harsh environment, a vibrant underground art and music scene thrives in the lower districts. Artists utilize recycled materials to create music and art that reflects their struggles and aspirations.

Other Groups:

• The Tech-Savvy Middle Class: This group might enjoy a mix of high-tech and low-tech experiences. They could participate in online gaming communities, attend AR-enhanced sporting events, or even explore virtual museums from the comfort of their homes.
• The Criminal Underworld: Criminal organizations in this society might utilize advanced hacking techniques to manipulate virtual economies, orchestrate elaborate cyberheists, or even hijack drones for illegal activities.
• The Outcasts (Those Rejecting Technology): A small group of individuals might reject technology altogether, forming communities that focus on traditional crafts, storytelling, and maintaining a connection to the natural world (which may be scarce).

These are just a few ideas for how people might find fun and entertainment in a high-tech, low-life world. The activities reflect the vast social and economic differences within the society, highlighting the stark contrast between the privileged escapes of the elite and the resourceful entertainment found by those struggling to survive.

Another batch.

More Fun and Games in a High-Tech, Low-Life World:

High-Society:

• Genetically Engineered Pets: The wealthy might have access to exotic, genetically engineered pets with unique abilities or even holographic companions with customized personalities.
• High-Stakes Gambling with AR: Imagine high rollers in exclusive casinos using AR technology to gamble on complex financial instruments or even virtual reality games with massive payouts.
• Culinary Delights with Bio-Printing: Forget Michelin-starred restaurants; the elite might enjoy bespoke meals created with bio-printing technology, allowing for personalized flavors, textures, and even customized nutritional content.
• Forbidden Pleasures (with safeguards): In a society with strict regulations, there might be a hidden world of high-risk, ethically questionable entertainment enjoyed by the wealthy. Think of extreme VR simulations with real-world consequences (heavily regulated and with safety measures in place, of course!).

Low-Society:

• Shadow Puppeteering: Individuals in the lower districts might hack into malfunctioning or discarded robots, turning them into makeshift marionettes for underground robot fighting rings.
• Parkour Freerunning Competitions: Young people might utilize their agility and knowledge of the city's crumbling infrastructure to participate in daring parkour competitions, showcasing their skills and defying the oppressive environment.
• Underground Maker Faires: Hidden workshops within the lower districts host maker fairs where people showcase their creations built from salvaged parts and discarded technology, fostering a sense of community and innovation.
• Storytelling through Holographic Projections: Talented storytellers might utilize salvaged projectors and scavenged materials to create holographic projections that weave tales of rebellion, hope, and survival for the underclass.

Other Groups:

• The Bio-Hackers: This group might experiment with biohacking techniques, pushing the boundaries of human potential with homemade modifications or even creating unique bioluminescent tattoos.
• The Nostalgia Seekers: Those yearning for the past might gather in hidden speakeasies, enjoying historical VR experiences, listening to music from a bygone era, or even participating in vintage clothing swaps.
• The Religious Underground: In a world dominated by technology, religious groups might operate in secret, using salvaged technology to create immersive VR experiences that offer spiritual solace and a sense of community.

These additional ideas delve deeper into the unique forms of entertainment that might emerge in a high-tech, low-life world. They showcase the ingenuity of the lower classes, the extravagance of the elite, and the yearning for connection and meaning that transcends social status.

Depict some of those high-society Forbidden Pleasures.

Due to the sensitive nature of your request, I will refrain from overly graphic descriptions. However, here are some concepts for high-society forbidden pleasures in a high-tech, low-life world that walk a tightrope between thrilling and disturbing:

1. The Fear Architect:

• Concept: Wealthy patrons enter a highly customized virtual reality simulation. They face personalized fears and anxieties manifested within the VR world. The experience is carefully monitored to ensure physical safety, but the emotional and psychological impact can be intense and potentially cathartic.
• Forbidden Twist: Some patrons might push the boundaries, seeking increasingly extreme and potentially traumatizing VR scenarios. There might be a black market for illegal VR experiences that exploit psychological vulnerabilities for a twisted form of entertainment.

1. The Past, Imperfect:

• Concept: Advanced historical VR allows users to experience any point in time. Patrons can relive famous battles, participate in historical events, or even interact with historical figures (though with limitations to prevent major alterations to the timeline).
• Forbidden Twist: Wealthy individuals with a dark sense of curiosity might seek out VR experiences that delve into the most brutal and disturbing moments in history. They might participate in gladiatorial combat, witness historical war atrocities, or even experience the horrors of past pandemics.

1. The Bodyswap:

• Concept: Advanced neural interfaces allow for a temporary "body swap" experience. Patrons can inhabit the body of another person for a limited time, experiencing the world through their senses and emotions. This could be used for empathy training, living out fantasies, or experiencing different walks of life.
• Forbidden Twist: The black market might offer illegal body swaps with high risks. Imagine swapping bodies with someone on the run, a terminally ill patient, or even a criminal, experiencing the consequences firsthand without facing the actual dangers.

1. The Simulated Rebellion:

• Concept: A high-stakes VR simulation puts patrons in the role of a revolutionary leader. They strategize, lead virtual rebellions, and experience the thrill of social upheaval without the real-world consequences.
• Forbidden Twist: This VR simulation could become too real. Some patrons might become radicalized by their virtual experiences, blurring the lines between entertainment and genuine desire for societal change.

1. The Dream Weaver:

• Concept: Skilled technicians manipulate the dreams of wealthy patrons, crafting elaborate, personalized dream narratives that fulfill fantasies or explore subconscious desires.
• Forbidden Twist: The dream weavers might become corrupted, using their skills to manipulate people's emotions, implant false memories, or even steal valuable secrets gleaned from their dreams.

These Forbidden Pleasures showcase the dark side of a high-tech society, where the wealthy seek thrills by flirting with danger, exploring the darkest corners of human nature, and even experiencing the harsh realities they work so hard to avoid.

What's the proper adjective word for people that adore such forbidden pleasures?

Here are some adjective options for people who adore forbidden pleasures in a high-tech, low-life world, depending on the specific nuance you want to convey:

• Hedonistic: This emphasizes the pursuit of pleasure above all else, even if it means indulging in risky or immoral activities.
• Transgressive: This highlights their desire to break societal norms and push boundaries.
• Thrill-Seeking: This focuses on their love of adrenaline and the excitement of defying limitations.
• Morally Ambiguous: This emphasizes the questionable nature of their pleasures and their disregard for ethical considerations.
• Depraved: This is a stronger term that implies a deep-seated corruption and a lack of moral compass.
• Macabre: This describes a fascination with the morbid or disturbing aspects of these pleasures.
• Voyeuristic: This emphasizes their desire to witness or experience things that are taboo or forbidden, often from a distance.
• Elitist: This highlights their social status and the exclusivity of these forbidden pleasures.
• Reckless: This emphasizes their disregard for the potential consequences of their actions.
• Nihilistic: This describes a belief system that life has no inherent meaning, leading them to seek fleeting pleasures without concern for the future.

The best choice depends on the specific type of forbidden pleasure and the personality of the individual you're describing. You can even combine some of these terms for a more nuanced description, like "hedonistic thrill-seekers" or "morally ambiguous voyeurs."

How about decadent? Would that be also proper?

Yes, "decadent" can definitely be a proper adjective to describe people who adore forbidden pleasures in this high-tech, low-life world. Here's why:

• Decadence implies an excessive indulgence in pleasure, often to the point of moral decay. This perfectly aligns with the concept of people seeking out thrilling and potentially disturbing experiences for their own enjoyment.
• It carries a connotation of social elitism and flaunting wealth to indulge in these pleasures, reflecting the high-society nature of these activities.
• The word also suggests a decline in morals and values. In this context, it reflects the characters' willingness to disregard ethical considerations to satisfy their desires.

However, there are some nuances to consider:

• Decadence might not be as strong as some of the other options, like "depraved" or "morally ambiguous." If you want to emphasize the shocking or disturbing nature of the pleasures, a different term might be more fitting.
• It can also imply a certain lack of self-control or even a downward spiral into self-destruction. This might not be the case for everyone who enjoys these forbidden pleasures – some might participate with a calculated thrill-seeking mentality.

Overall, "decadent" is a strong contender for describing these individuals. The final choice depends on the specific type of forbidden pleasure and the level of moral transgression you want to convey.

Ok. Another batch of fun and games in high-tech low life world, all social strata considered.

More Fun and Games in a High-Tech, Low-Life World:

High-Society:

• Augmented Reality Art Hunts: Imagine wealthy patrons using AR glasses to navigate the city and "collect" hidden digital artworks projected onto buildings, historical landmarks, or even everyday objects. This could be a blend of treasure hunt and artistic appreciation.
• Luxury Spa Retreats with Biohacking: Exclusive spas offer personalized biohacking treatments alongside traditional spa services. Patrons can indulge in gene editing for minor aesthetic enhancements, accelerated cellular regeneration, or even mental acuity boosts (all within ethical and legal boundaries).
• Interstellar Esport Tournaments: The elite participate in high-stakes esports competitions played across the solar system. Teams compete in virtual reality arenas, piloting spaceships, strategizing planetary invasions, and vying for galactic domination – all from the comfort of their luxurious estates.

Low-Society:

• Underground Street Art Festivals: Talented artists within the lower districts utilize salvaged materials and hacked projection technology to create temporary, subversive street art that criticizes the social order and inspires hope.
• Modified Reality Shows: Resourceful individuals hack into public displays and billboards, projecting their own commentary and entertainment onto advertisements. These "modified reality shows" might range from parodies of high-society culture to social justice messages.
• Droning Delivery Races: Young people in the lower districts participate in illegal drone racing leagues. They modify their drones with salvaged parts and race them through perilous urban landscapes, delivering small packages for black-market vendors while avoiding city security forces.

Other Groups:

• The Tech Traders: This group acts as a middle ground, modifying and customizing consumer technology for people across the social spectrum. They create new black-market applications, bypass security protocols, and even develop bootleg VR experiences for those who can't afford high-end entertainment.
• The Virtual Wanderers: A community of skilled hackers explores the fringes of the digital world, venturing beyond the curated virtual experiences offered by corporations. They seek out hidden data, lost virtual landscapes, and even encounter digital entities within the vast virtual space.
• The Storytellers Guild: This group of traveling performers gathers scraps of history and cultural artifacts. They utilize salvaged projectors and holographic technology to weave stories of rebellion, hardship, and resilience, keeping the memory of the past alive for all social classes.

These additional ideas showcase the diversity of entertainment in a high-tech, low-life world. They highlight the resourcefulness of the lower classes, the extravagance of the elite, and the unique activities that emerge in a society with vast technological disparities.