Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
- Location
- The Temple of the Winds
[X][Zhengui] Blooming From Ash
Buffing Zhengui's sole stealth art is something i would very much like to see come to pass. Because Stealth!Mountain is simply too useful (and hilarious) for it not to exist in this world.
Moreover, it's the art that makes Zhengui a better tank: it has all of Zhengui more important skills: Taunt, his area control techs AND self-healing:
Eternal Roots: Double regen with a selfbuff and a dispell
Innocuous Hill: The hilarious Stealth tech. And a potential out-of-context solution that no-one facing a Xuanwu would prepare to defend against
Paradise Bedrock: Control AoE
Paradise Rampart: An other Control AoE, with different flavor
Roiling Forest Regrowth: More Control AoE which basically works as a taunt too
Comparatively, Blazing blood is the pure DPS , which is of no particular use:
Blood Boiling Venom: "I hit you"
Volcanic Stone Shell: If you hit me "I hit you"
Ashfall: AoE "I hit you", with -perception mixed in. (heal ability is in Duality)
Boiling Shot: Ranged "i hit you"
Boiling Spray: "I hit you" again
Volcanic Shot: An other "i hit you"
Duality, while potentially useful, is more of a mix bag.
Minds Apart: Nice, but it's already combat-ready, so there's little benefit to be gained from improving it
Ashfield Flowering: Healing. Definitively a nice skill that would benefit from a boost
Rebirth Inferno: Lifesaving tech. Useful but Rebirth suffers from the same issue as Minds Apart, as in there's little benefit to be gained from improving it.
Vengeful Serpent's Fangs: Counter-strike. Better than another plain "i hit you" but not by much.
A few things are nice, but too few or to little to really compare to Blooming's sheer overwhelming usefulness.
[X][Hanyi]Lonely Winter Maiden
I have no real opinion on Hanyi so i'm going with the flow...
Here, the skill already gives him two actions, focusing on it isn't going to give him three... and having two actions up all day long isn't significantly better than just for a scene.
Buffing Zhengui's sole stealth art is something i would very much like to see come to pass. Because Stealth!Mountain is simply too useful (and hilarious) for it not to exist in this world.
Moreover, it's the art that makes Zhengui a better tank: it has all of Zhengui more important skills: Taunt, his area control techs AND self-healing:
Eternal Roots: Double regen with a selfbuff and a dispell
Innocuous Hill: The hilarious Stealth tech. And a potential out-of-context solution that no-one facing a Xuanwu would prepare to defend against
Paradise Bedrock: Control AoE
Paradise Rampart: An other Control AoE, with different flavor
Roiling Forest Regrowth: More Control AoE which basically works as a taunt too
Comparatively, Blazing blood is the pure DPS , which is of no particular use:
Blood Boiling Venom: "I hit you"
Volcanic Stone Shell: If you hit me "I hit you"
Ashfall: AoE "I hit you", with -perception mixed in. (heal ability is in Duality)
Boiling Shot: Ranged "i hit you"
Boiling Spray: "I hit you" again
Volcanic Shot: An other "i hit you"
Duality, while potentially useful, is more of a mix bag.
Minds Apart: Nice, but it's already combat-ready, so there's little benefit to be gained from improving it
Ashfield Flowering: Healing. Definitively a nice skill that would benefit from a boost
Rebirth Inferno: Lifesaving tech. Useful but Rebirth suffers from the same issue as Minds Apart, as in there's little benefit to be gained from improving it.
Vengeful Serpent's Fangs: Counter-strike. Better than another plain "i hit you" but not by much.
A few things are nice, but too few or to little to really compare to Blooming's sheer overwhelming usefulness.
[X][Hanyi]Lonely Winter Maiden
I have no real opinion on Hanyi so i'm going with the flow...
I'll argue it's the worst thing to consider. The point isn't how good each tech or art is, it's how much upgrading them would increase their usefulness.
Here, the skill already gives him two actions, focusing on it isn't going to give him three... and having two actions up all day long isn't significantly better than just for a scene.
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- Location
- Brazil
And making Gui's actions lag behind Zhen's it just as bad, only that it's a bad that flares up on a different scenario.
All of his techs will naturally evolve and grow with him. But purposefully de-harmonizing a creature that's all about impossible harmony sounds bad.
Zhengui currently embodies the cicle of life found in a raging inferno making room for new growth. Make the inferno too strong and you harm the soil, make the growth too thick and it rots.
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NaanContributor
Provider of delicious flatbread, and nothing else.
- Location
- Hawaii
Huh, I know that the immediately obvious use of this is to intercept negative spiritual effects that enemies use to attack allies. But with the way it's worded, is it possible for Zhengui to steal positive spiritual effects like heals or buffs that the enemy tries to use on themselves or their own allies? It doesn't sound like that's intended, but it's a cool thought.
- Location
- Brazil
No, but it will make it last longer, or faster to activate, or remove possible penalties he is taking by doing something only elder Xuanwus are supposed to do, or make it harder to dispel, or cheaper to maintain. Likely a mixture of all that.
Upgrading Rebirth Inferno is not only immediatelly good, as you've said it yourself, it's a life-saving tech, but it might mean that he, for example, doesn't pass out after doing it. Go from his last move to a "alright, round two".
And Vengeful Serpent's Fangs is precisely the sort of tech that allows one to be an actual tank.
- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
@Ayashi, you need to switch the X to be before the description or the tally doesn't count it. I checked.
This isn't true, though. Recall that Zhengui broke through to Appraisal during the scouting arc and gained a new Gui ability, Paradise Rampart, but nothing for Zhen. This puts his Gui side at having two B ranked abilities and his Zhen side as having only one. If we want to harmonize a creature of harmony, as you said, that implies we should be improving the Zhen side.
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- Location
- Brazil
Zhen can and does improve himself. We should use this unique-ish opportunity to leverage Zhengui's unique strenght: the fact that he is an impossible Xuanwu.
It's a matter of opportunity cost. You might as well call his Verdant Ash Duality tech tree S-rank, because it's plain that good. Improving it improves Zhengui as a whole, in ways no other spirit could possibly match.
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- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I'm not sure why you think that Verdant Ash Duality is something that he won't improve on his own, but Blazing Blood is. I don't read this as a unique opportunity except insofar as to guide what development he takes next.
If we want him to be balanced, we should help him balance. And if we want him to be able to contribute on a battlefield when he's far away from the enemy, either because LQ's style takes her all over the place or because they are in the sky where he can't reach, we should help him shoot fire from his snake head.
- Location
- Brazil
Answer me this: what makes Zhengui great?
Is it the fact has he is immensely tough and has excellent crowd-control abilities? Or is it the fact that he can spit deadly flaming poison and clouds of choking ash?
The answer is simple: what makes him great is the fact that he can do both.
What makes him great is that he is a Xuanwu with dual natures. No other spirit could inherently, naturaly harmonize opposing elements into something like what he has. His Way is that of a feedback loop. Fire that revitalizes while is destroys, so growth can spring ever higher and harder, only to feed ever hotter fires in turn.
And that singular aspect of his being that makes him into a unique creature amongst the ranks of already legendary beasts is given by Verdant Ash Duality.
That's why we should take these important moments to encourage his development of it. You want Zhengui to keep up with a highly talented and motivated cultivator? Encourage and enable him to develop his cheat skill.
He was in a situation where his Gui side was needed the most, so he develop a new ability for it. If he is in a dire situation where his Zhen side is needed the most, then he will most likely keep to his entire pattern so far and develop a new ability on that side.
But it should be a vanishingly rare situation indeed where we naturally encounter that which encourages the growth of something as complex as his Way.
Verdant Ash Duality is how his dual natures come together and synergize. Improving it improves Zhengui as a whole. His fire might not be as hot as if we improved Blazing Blood, and his roots not as tough as if we improved Blooming From Ash, but the conjoining of those elements that make him greater than the sum of his parts will grow in potency.
Is it the fact has he is immensely tough and has excellent crowd-control abilities? Or is it the fact that he can spit deadly flaming poison and clouds of choking ash?
The answer is simple: what makes him great is the fact that he can do both.
What makes him great is that he is a Xuanwu with dual natures. No other spirit could inherently, naturaly harmonize opposing elements into something like what he has. His Way is that of a feedback loop. Fire that revitalizes while is destroys, so growth can spring ever higher and harder, only to feed ever hotter fires in turn.
And that singular aspect of his being that makes him into a unique creature amongst the ranks of already legendary beasts is given by Verdant Ash Duality.
That's why we should take these important moments to encourage his development of it. You want Zhengui to keep up with a highly talented and motivated cultivator? Encourage and enable him to develop his cheat skill.
He was in a situation where his Gui side was needed the most, so he develop a new ability for it. If he is in a dire situation where his Zhen side is needed the most, then he will most likely keep to his entire pattern so far and develop a new ability on that side.
But it should be a vanishingly rare situation indeed where we naturally encounter that which encourages the growth of something as complex as his Way.
Verdant Ash Duality is how his dual natures come together and synergize. Improving it improves Zhengui as a whole. His fire might not be as hot as if we improved Blazing Blood, and his roots not as tough as if we improved Blooming From Ash, but the conjoining of those elements that make him greater than the sum of his parts will grow in potency.
Here, read this. Verdant Duality is something incredibly more complex than either Blazing Blood or Blooming from Ash. The situations where one of the latter is strained and thus developed are easily imagined and encountered, but one where the former does it is vanishingly rare, and likely the result of deep self-reflection and personal growth.
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- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
You're asserting this, but the evidence doesn't bear it out; his Verdant Ash Duality "art" has already improved since the start of Threads of Destiny. Without a ton of searching, I can't pinpoint exactly when and how, because there isn't a diff log, but the numbers on the passive effect used to be this:
+5 to Spiritual Avoid vs single target attacks
+2 on Hit and Penetration when techniques from Blazing Blood and Blooming from Ashes are used in the same turn.
and now they're
+15 to Spiritual Avoid vs single target attacks
+5 on Hit and Penetration when techniques from Blazing Blood and Blooming from Ashes are used in the same turn.
So, no, I don't think it's "vanishingly rare." I think it's something that will happen by itself; it's fine if he focuses on it, but I think the thing he should be focusing on next is Blazing Blood, because that will empower capabilities where 1) he is currently lacking 2) he can directly make good on his conviction to not hold Ling Qi back.
You need to reformat this; yrsillar put them down wrong at the end of the update. The X needs to come first.
- Location
- At the end of the world
[X] [Zhengui] Blazing Blood
[X][Hanyi] Lonely Winter Maiden
[X][Hanyi] Lonely Winter Maiden
- Location
- being near locations is my passion.
I... My philosophy is sophlistic... But I do not view the world as such. Or rather, living as such leads to bad outcomes. Every high-neuron-density arrangement of atoms... Matters. In and of itself.
Or, we should not live sophlisticlly. Kindness does not need cruelty in order to exist. I assert that beauty does not need ugly, or, if you put beauty/ugly as relative terms, then there is a difference between beauty, and ugly-that-exists-at-expense-of-beauty.
And related to that; snatch beauty from even the dark moments, implore those that would create to spread their light and share it. We all deserve joy and love in our lives, to receive and imbue and share meaning. However we all define it, whatever form we decide it exists as.
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Resonant
Procrastinator Supreme
[X][Zhengui] Blazing Blood
[X][Hanyi] Lonely Winter Maiden
I pretty much agree with the current idea to shore up Zhen's ability & range so that he can contribute. And more CC on Hanyi is always good.
On another note, ever since the previous arc the updates have had quite an impact on the narrative in a way that really builds investment and I'd like to applaud @yrsillar for the great writing.
[X][Hanyi] Lonely Winter Maiden
I pretty much agree with the current idea to shore up Zhen's ability & range so that he can contribute. And more CC on Hanyi is always good.
On another note, ever since the previous arc the updates have had quite an impact on the narrative in a way that really builds investment and I'd like to applaud @yrsillar for the great writing.
- Location
- Brazil
Because Zhengui as a whole has grown, and that's what Verdant Duality represents.
Blooming From Ash has evolved because Zhengui has had reason to evolve it. If we are indeed in dire straits when fighting this following war, which is very pointendly not all about flying barbarians, such as that he needs to be more Fire Serpent, then it will naturally evolve.
Meanwhile, we should take the opportunity to increase his Xuanwu racial multiplier, instead of doing what pleb spirits do and increase linearly. Because that is overall much better than increasing either side, and much harder to do naturally.
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- Location
- The United States
- Pronouns
- He/They
My dream for this technique is that it eventually becomes a "Begin Stage 2 of the Boss Fight" AOE/transformation.
- Location
- Brazil
Yeah, it's bursting at the seams with potential. His strongest techniques, Minds Apart and Rebirth Inferno, are currently capped by being underdeveloped.
Verdant Duality is his hax Racial Feat that not only allows his Fire Serpent levels to count as Wood Tortoise levels, and vice-versa, but also gives him unique synergistic skills and the action economy to make use of it.
He is the Ideal Gestalt Character... as long as we level his Duality.
- Location
- The Space Between
you mean make a song *with* her family. right?
D
- Location
- the internet
Personally I think what's most important to improve are ZG's heals and his ranged attacks. We may not be able to do both in this turn but we can get one of them. The heals are incredibly useful and he's our only healer. And since our range of movement is limited at times now, he should up the range and damage of his attacks
- Location
- Diamond City
[X][Hanyi] Lonely Winter Maiden
[X][Zhengui] Verdant Ash Duality
[X][Zhengui] Verdant Ash Duality
- Location
- ?
[Zhengui][] Blooming From Ash
[Zhengui][] Blazing Blood
[X][Zhengui] Verdant Ash Duality
[X][Hanyi] Lonely Winter Maiden
[Hanyi][] Frozen Peak Serenade
[Hanyi][] Fleeting Spring's Chill
[Zhengui][] Blazing Blood
[X][Zhengui] Verdant Ash Duality
[X][Hanyi] Lonely Winter Maiden
[Hanyi][] Frozen Peak Serenade
[Hanyi][] Fleeting Spring's Chill
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