A Simple Transaction I

Wolfy said:

Nope, it is just about conquering:

It is most "deal with Dien" option right now.

I'll go over both soon.

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Huh; I wouldn't expect this based on how the option is worded, but okay. It still relies on getting Adorie's Rank over Dien's when he out-Ranks we ourselves, but it's better than I thought. Still prefer my vote though.

[X] Critical Mass

Let's outscale Apocalypse-chan.

[X] Strife Without End
[X] Full Throttle

I want to see what an armament is capable of in the hands of a cursebearer. The gisena option is kind of tempting until I realize it's for gisena. But if push comes to shove I'd rather pick the gisena option than the adorie option, I'd rather intensive research to counter Dien than big no sell decrees. Also it's a better long term game to buff gisenas stats 300%.

Lets talk about Adorie vs Gisena shortly. Now, obviously Adorie is more immediate solution to our problems since she can do whole counter Foremost contagion + repel invaders reality warping thing, while Gisena has much better scaling.

Now, I personally prefer Gisena here. Reason being that big part of Adorie's option seems to be that +0.5ish to Cha and Man - an absurd benefit, for sure, but I can't see how she gets value out of it. On the other hand, Gisena getting +300% to all stats is just really good, especially since we can just get her Mental Apex for flat int too. And of course, Halos are very strong. Power one allows her to pretty much sacrifice a dog Grace(Whisper) to allow her to change graces every here or then. Or get that repel everything thing.

Adorie does have very good build path with SitS and NS.

Tyrant_Rayne said:

Don't forget Closing the Fist. That another 12 Arete right there. All in all while this is very good it just seems to expensive. Strife and fist are possible but anything beyond that is wishful thinking.

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We could get Closing the Fist and Regalia right now. It is very powerful anti-Dien too and we can just get Perilous Grandeur at some point afterwards.


Anyway, the builds as I see them:

Ze Plan Build. Somehow conjure 8 Arete and get Closing the Fist and Regalia. Very powerful, amazing follow up, but we really need that Arete. Assumes we are offered Regalia. If not just get it at later date
NS+SitS. Best non-girl build, this would give us pretty hilarious level of power. Rank 13 November Sky should stop Dien in his tracks, and fighting Hunger with +0.4ish and then additional 0.7 from Refinement of War is basically impossible. Shit with Ze Build as we lose Supreme Commander while SitS is active, but we can just not use it
Barricade of Myth: We just get two EFBs that counter Dien. Both have amazing synergy with SitS as per above. I think that getting SitS instead of Hail the Queen might be better, however
Gisena build: Ideally we want something that lets us defend while she does research. November Sky would be good, or maybe some Nova specific Advancement

Since I am not confident about getting Regalia, lets take most straightforward build -

[X] Full Throttle
[X] A True Reprieve

Restore some Mental Stability and acquire November Sky and Sword in the Stone. Boring, perhaps, but very practical.

[X] Strife Without End
[X] Critical Mass

I want to get Regalia of Strife, and the Closing Fist prereq is something I wanted to grab anyway. 62 Arete is completely doable, especially since we'll have another build vote to actually grab things. I am willing to commit 30K words to that goal.

[X] Strife Without End
[X] Critical Mass

Praxis and Graces are two of the versatile paths in our toolkit. Useful now, and likely to maintain long term use.

Remember, Hunger has Supreme Commander, which means he can apply his Rank in full as if he were physically present so long as he meets the feats and notoriety requirements. Consider how that might interact with Hail the Queen.

Also, of course, one can simply expel any would-be dissidents while the Decree is raised, and then bring them to cure them, assuming Hunger's point-blank Rank is insufficient. But none of these is a complete solution by itself, since the strength of a Decree is dependent on Adorie's Rank, and Supreme Commander on Hunger's. Dien has superior raw Rank and is improving exponentially, so it's only one piece of the puzzle!

You guys should also strongly consider Full Throttle, given its topical relevance to potential upcoming challengers!

[x]Full Throttle
[x]Sublime Fulcrum Aobaru Legendary

Hrm?

Fighting a souped up Armament right as we come out of the RoE is much scarier than fighting right before we get a month of recovery time. I think I'm leaning towards Graces + Get in the Robot right now, after seeing a few arguments about Praxis Advancements that Hunger can expect.

Shielding Gisena with Nova while she solves our problems with technology seems like a good plan to me

You know, it's kind of incredible to think that against a normal progression type at what Hunger was at the level, they would have almost certainly lost by now just due to difference in speeds and the lack of being able to use winning fights for training as easily.

Dien's a monster, but I almost feel bad because he probably would have succeeded by now against a lot of other cursebearers.

[X] Strife Without End
[X] Full Throttle

"Qu Quack Qu!"

[X] Strife Without End
[X] Full Throttle

The course is clear. We somehow have a substantial reserve of over 50 Arete, so we should shoot for Closing the Fist and Regalia of Strife, now that we're so close.

Regalia is just really good for what it offers, unlocking the Prowess stat that effectively allows infinite scaling of Hunger's skill - solving that issue of his build - and collapsing his attributes into Potency. The latter is actually huge, cause so so many multipliers would now work in conjunction. I figure that Potency will probably also have more effectiveness on an esoteric level that its component stats as well.

But most relevant, is that upgrade to Supreme Commander. Maximizing effectiveness essentially allows to devastate Dien's galactic scale plans with a counter immediately after only a single fight. It would definitely open the opportunity for a decapitation strike shortly after we exit the Realm of Evening.

Full Throttle is selected mainly cause it doesn't cost Arete right now, but c'mon guys. We picked the Apocryphal Armament with the largest amount of physical power and we're still not using it? Kinda lame. That it offers relevant tactical information on Armaments (and we know Etrynome is one of Dien's primary trump cards) is the cherry on top.

Also, Full Throttle is in Unit 01's colors. What's there not to love?! Just seize the opportunity for as much power as we can get.

Eh. Why not. This is probably better.

[X] Strife Without End
[X] Full Throttle

Well, there is something to be said for allowing Aobaru to use it... may be good for his own Mental Stability!

[X] Critical Mass
[X] Barricade of Myth

[X] Strife Without End
[X] Critical Mass
I vote for what I love, this is my resolve as a simp.
Cool blurbs, cool graces, cool hunger, cool gisena. There can be no other choice (I actually want adorie too ).

[X] Strife Without End
[X] Barricade of Myth

Preliminary vote count?

I suppose that the question of "where will we get the extra 8 Arete" is solved easily by relying on our miners again, but I still think Regalia of Strife is a mediocre answer for Dien. With that Advancement it is likely we will out-rank him and be able to apply it wherever he is, but I don't think we will out-Rank him for long nor will we be able to easily locate him nor neutralize all of his contingencies.

Also, Hail the Queen is likely the slowest "answer" to him given we still need to conquer territory; and it won't even come online until Adorie herself outranks Dien. Hail the Queen also takes 56 Arete to come online and a 3-pick; at that price we might as well go for Regalia.

I agree with Brain here. Moreover, Barricade costs all of our current Arete, so if you want to farm picks using Strife without End then you won't be able to afford an EFB or Praxis point.

I don't think we're going to get Regalia this update, so my vote has to be Gisena + Robot or Gisena + Relaxation
[X] Full Throttle
[X] Critical Mass

[X] Strife Without End

[X] Barricade of Myth

[X] Critical Mass


Taking both Adorie and Gisena's option means we need 84 arete right? Since November Sky isn't unlocked yet and is a 2 Pick 28 Arete option.

[X] Critical Mass

While I'm not amazingly optimistic, I'd be interested to see how Lady Vanish's Grace, 'Mind control all orcs in an immense radius.' interacts with Dien and his creations. That said, Renaissance Halo requires giving up Grace of the Glaze, which doesn't really appeal to me. I'm not sure how it could be a good trade.