DarkSideBard
Flying, without moving on
Analysis, my good fellow. Analysis.
Fie, fie I say! There is still time left in the semester to raise our grade to a B!
Anyways, I like the way the elements are divided (Practicality/Panoply/Relationships). It's great design. Sometimes I wonder if people doing speculation or omakes are reducing the original design space too much, but it never seems to materialize into a problem.
Hot Spring
-The Streamline: Cheaper, of equal mechanical quality.
-The Kaguya: More expensive, of equal mechanical quality.
I guess what we get depends on how useful the nonmechanical differences are, and whether we can find good use for the rest of our money? Obviously it would be nice to be able to pay for a greater amount of usefully specialized goods, but I don't know if we'll get that opportunity. If the Kaguya was meaningfully safer for taking care of our business, then I'd pick it up, but if our weirdness is noticed either way, and either of them are similar as far as Tyrant procs go...choice is obvious, innit?
Surgecraft
-2 Arete: Significantly worse mechanically, no future discounts, element's esoterics are much harder to develop and reach their developmental limits sooner.
-7 Arete: Much greater use and development of esoteric utility.
It's save Arete vs. not, which I guess means that it comes down to how useful what we pick will be in terms of utility. I am, of course, tumbling down to the save side. For obvious reasons. But I might be persuaded otherwise!
Element
-Quickwater: Improves our ability to fight in a local area by augmenting one of our most useful stats by a percentage (!). Esoteric effects are widely available, though the potions function seems to compete with Might's Repose in terms of sleep issues. Potions that grant buffs are attractive, because any sort of craftable is useful for companions, extra power in the moment, economics, etc., though the stability problem is an issue. Maybe solvable with Blood effects? Also, craftables open up much larger potential realms of exploits, even if they're unstable. Good in both forms: the +Agi bonus, even as the 2 Arete option, would take the edge off of 75% of the Stranglethorn debuff with no preparation. Power and tactical value are both here! The only problem I see is the contradiction of becoming faster by needing to be in the mist to get effects. It seems
Inksky: Spend an extra 5 arete to make Evening Sky stronger, relevant again, make Surgecraft integrated with our pre-existing build and truly synergistic with Accretion! My guess is that people who wanted another magic system won't like this option as much. Well, it does apparently make Evening Sky offer better magic options in the future, so maybe that's enough of a lure? In terms of aesthetics, synergy, and efficiency, it really helps round out our current build. The 5 Arete bonus to Pillars makes the immediate expenditure feel like more of an investment. Since the plan already seems to be Cut Through->Ruling Ring->Pillars, it just makes this an investment that is payed off later. Of course, all of this comes at the cost of this options being immediately weaker. But...who cares? We have Cut Through to spend time on, and this is the most synergistic element with our preexisting style (and perhaps the most defensive). That makes it more likely to be useful and less likely to result in a split in our development of power. Still good as a 2 Arete pick, but less competitive than the other two.
Edeldross: The widest variety of potential applications, fills the hole of nonlethal dispersion that currently exists in our build. Plus the sneaky +Catherine??? This is strong, but I honestly do not like how aesthetically divergent it is from our preexisting path? It feels like a lot more of a time-spender and wordcount-eater that the other two. I'm not particularly tempted. I think that Quickwater outshines this in the immediate and midterm at both levels of Arete spending. In the long term it has huge potential, but leads towards Total Eclipse, which I do not want. If you like Magic, taking Inksky is probably a better bet than this in terms of long-term Magic aesthetic satisfaction. The only reason I can see to take this is if you really like the aesthetic, or if you're an uncontrollable stan for Gisena or Cath. 😬
[X] The Streamline
[X] 7 Arete Version
[X] Inksky
This is my aesthetic and ability compromise with the magic peeps. It advances both of our goals at the same time: EFB investment, and a strong Magic option that leads to stronger Magic advancements (from Accretion and from the specific thematic bonus). Furthermore, it's the most aesthetically aligned with our preexisting stuff, which makes sense coming from the Panoply option! Yes, it is weaker in the immediate term. But I think that making Evening Sky relevant again in the long term after our advancement history + Uttermost is really, really necessary. Yes, dodging and healing from attacks is good. Extending your health bar by Danny Fenton-ing out of your body is good. But pure soak without damage is also super valuable to a sword build, even if it isn't as large of an immediate boost. Now, it is true that the other options give much more power right away, but consider that their paths of useful development are more divergent from our already existing setup, and will take more time and resources away from Cut Through, which we just went to great effort to get! Now's the time to pick a passive bonus with huge value for later gains, and sit on it so we can spend most of our time on Royal Sword Praxis.
The other option I considered was Streamline/2 Arete/Quickwater. I don't think 7 Arete is worth taking away from our current sequential EFB path if it's not going to be payed back later, and simply getting a little bit faster and getting a little bit more room for Treachery is a good small boost.
As an aside, does anyone else feel like the airborne fog from the last update was Surgecraft? Do the Rotspawn have the ability as well?
Somehow I feel...not that we're being offered a test? But more that we already failed the test, and this is just being handed an F by a smug teacher.
Fie, fie I say! There is still time left in the semester to raise our grade to a B!
This is tremendously funny. Rihaku, are you spending the rest of your free time reading marketing and psychology books in an attempt to get better at baiting us? This is honestly really clever and absolutely will work on a significant number of the people reading this update, for sure.
Anyways, I like the way the elements are divided (Practicality/Panoply/Relationships). It's great design. Sometimes I wonder if people doing speculation or omakes are reducing the original design space too much, but it never seems to materialize into a problem.
Hot Spring
-The Streamline: Cheaper, of equal mechanical quality.
-The Kaguya: More expensive, of equal mechanical quality.
I guess what we get depends on how useful the nonmechanical differences are, and whether we can find good use for the rest of our money? Obviously it would be nice to be able to pay for a greater amount of usefully specialized goods, but I don't know if we'll get that opportunity. If the Kaguya was meaningfully safer for taking care of our business, then I'd pick it up, but if our weirdness is noticed either way, and either of them are similar as far as Tyrant procs go...choice is obvious, innit?
Surgecraft
-2 Arete: Significantly worse mechanically, no future discounts, element's esoterics are much harder to develop and reach their developmental limits sooner.
-7 Arete: Much greater use and development of esoteric utility.
It's save Arete vs. not, which I guess means that it comes down to how useful what we pick will be in terms of utility. I am, of course, tumbling down to the save side. For obvious reasons. But I might be persuaded otherwise!
Element
-Quickwater: Improves our ability to fight in a local area by augmenting one of our most useful stats by a percentage (!). Esoteric effects are widely available, though the potions function seems to compete with Might's Repose in terms of sleep issues. Potions that grant buffs are attractive, because any sort of craftable is useful for companions, extra power in the moment, economics, etc., though the stability problem is an issue. Maybe solvable with Blood effects? Also, craftables open up much larger potential realms of exploits, even if they're unstable. Good in both forms: the +Agi bonus, even as the 2 Arete option, would take the edge off of 75% of the Stranglethorn debuff with no preparation. Power and tactical value are both here! The only problem I see is the contradiction of becoming faster by needing to be in the mist to get effects. It seems
Inksky: Spend an extra 5 arete to make Evening Sky stronger, relevant again, make Surgecraft integrated with our pre-existing build and truly synergistic with Accretion! My guess is that people who wanted another magic system won't like this option as much. Well, it does apparently make Evening Sky offer better magic options in the future, so maybe that's enough of a lure? In terms of aesthetics, synergy, and efficiency, it really helps round out our current build. The 5 Arete bonus to Pillars makes the immediate expenditure feel like more of an investment. Since the plan already seems to be Cut Through->Ruling Ring->Pillars, it just makes this an investment that is payed off later. Of course, all of this comes at the cost of this options being immediately weaker. But...who cares? We have Cut Through to spend time on, and this is the most synergistic element with our preexisting style (and perhaps the most defensive). That makes it more likely to be useful and less likely to result in a split in our development of power. Still good as a 2 Arete pick, but less competitive than the other two.
Edeldross: The widest variety of potential applications, fills the hole of nonlethal dispersion that currently exists in our build. Plus the sneaky +Catherine??? This is strong, but I honestly do not like how aesthetically divergent it is from our preexisting path? It feels like a lot more of a time-spender and wordcount-eater that the other two. I'm not particularly tempted. I think that Quickwater outshines this in the immediate and midterm at both levels of Arete spending. In the long term it has huge potential, but leads towards Total Eclipse, which I do not want. If you like Magic, taking Inksky is probably a better bet than this in terms of long-term Magic aesthetic satisfaction. The only reason I can see to take this is if you really like the aesthetic, or if you're an uncontrollable stan for Gisena or Cath. 😬
[X] The Streamline
[X] 7 Arete Version
[X] Inksky
This is my aesthetic and ability compromise with the magic peeps. It advances both of our goals at the same time: EFB investment, and a strong Magic option that leads to stronger Magic advancements (from Accretion and from the specific thematic bonus). Furthermore, it's the most aesthetically aligned with our preexisting stuff, which makes sense coming from the Panoply option! Yes, it is weaker in the immediate term. But I think that making Evening Sky relevant again in the long term after our advancement history + Uttermost is really, really necessary. Yes, dodging and healing from attacks is good. Extending your health bar by Danny Fenton-ing out of your body is good. But pure soak without damage is also super valuable to a sword build, even if it isn't as large of an immediate boost. Now, it is true that the other options give much more power right away, but consider that their paths of useful development are more divergent from our already existing setup, and will take more time and resources away from Cut Through, which we just went to great effort to get! Now's the time to pick a passive bonus with huge value for later gains, and sit on it so we can spend most of our time on Royal Sword Praxis.
The other option I considered was Streamline/2 Arete/Quickwater. I don't think 7 Arete is worth taking away from our current sequential EFB path if it's not going to be payed back later, and simply getting a little bit faster and getting a little bit more room for Treachery is a good small boost.
As an aside, does anyone else feel like the airborne fog from the last update was Surgecraft? Do the Rotspawn have the ability as well?
