fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Wait a minute. Are the masks see though or something?
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.
TimEd
Meteor maker
Dammit Ji Rong. Wear your PPE properly.
Obviously, much like how Ling Qi's singing can be heard despite such handicaps as being in the middle of a vacuum or not having ears, Ji Rong's smirk bypasses all obstacles.
- Location
- being near locations is my passion.
It's Ji Rong - the smirk does not pass through obstacles, the masks were designed to be smug-permeable, otherwise they would have been burned through.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Joking aside, the difference between the previous duel and now brought on by PLR and Wind Thief is probably going to be that Ji Rong doesn't actually hit us every single time he takes a swing
Narratively speaking anyway, what we saw in the previous duel was that Ji Rong basically nailed us every single time, and our victory was because his Spiritual Defense was garbage and that his attacks were blunted just enough by the multiple attacker penalty keeping him from getting critical hits that we lasted until we could hard CC him with Lunatic Whirl.
The biggest change brought on by our improved nobility would be if he actually has to work to keep up with us, and doesn't just get to count on "I hit every single time", which forces us into that ridiculous damage race.
Narratively speaking anyway, what we saw in the previous duel was that Ji Rong basically nailed us every single time, and our victory was because his Spiritual Defense was garbage and that his attacks were blunted just enough by the multiple attacker penalty keeping him from getting critical hits that we lasted until we could hard CC him with Lunatic Whirl.
The biggest change brought on by our improved nobility would be if he actually has to work to keep up with us, and doesn't just get to count on "I hit every single time", which forces us into that ridiculous damage race.
Black Noise
Curious
- Location
- About 1AU from Sol
Just for fun, here's a summary of mechanical effects we're getting from this turn's training:
General:
Passives:
Arts:
Notes:
General:
- in-use meridians: 35>47
- base cultivation: green 3 > green 4 (remain bronze 3)
- domain: E > D
Passives:
- Gain (+80 derived passives, +20 conditional; +50 skill and +10 attribute bonuses):
- +5 stealth, +10 stealth vs divination (and easier conditionals)
- +5 speed
- +5 p+sp.avoid
- +15 sp.armor (10 of which is aura), +5 p.armor; +10 armor vs repeating (excl poison which TRF alrady did)
- +G rank darnkess DR
- +10 Resist
- +10 sp.hit, +20 sp.pen
- poise unchanged (-10 losing SES, +10 poise aura MSS in social)
- Non-derived: +10 music, +5 dance/art, +10 War, +10 Government, +10 Speech+Manip tests, +10 Presence
- Lose (30 single-use conditional, 10 usable conditional):
- opening strike 15 hit/pen and sneak attack 10 hit
- Also gain (~5 each means +25):
- +lv2 of LFWT, +lv5 of ENM +lv2-3 of SNR, +lv2 of UGM
Arts:
- SCS > LFWT2:
- Core tech: +C rank grapple immunity, reactivate at D cost
- OwS > BitV: shadow-form with teleports becomes a C rank stealth perfect; duration down from Persistent to Short
- Teleport: uses other than the first cost C instead of B, slight loss of offensive DR/armor bypass (locked to -2 ranks instead of outright ignoring C or under)
- Misc:
- Wind element: applicable to Sixiang buffing
- Level 2 effects unknown
- ENM3>5:
- Passing Phantom (core stealth effect+some speed/fade/sp.hit): becomes C rank
- Fading Dream (core Fade tech): becomes C rank, adds small speed bonus
- Misc: Level 5 (cap) effects unknown, presumed nice though likely no new tech
- personal guess: the anti-defense instant and tech steal combine, the 2 core techs too maybe, possibly into B rank.
- PLR6>7:
- IPF: cover 5>8 allies with the +0.5 rank to p+sp.avoid and speed.
- JT: gains dispel mitigation, still granting a 0.5 rank buff even if dispelled (I asked and while attacks aren't dispellable, buffs are and some arts attempt to do so automatically)
- EDD: 50>60% true dodge, 3>4 charges
- Misc: Dream Step effects unknown, presumably good
- TRF > SNR3 (switch):
- In general TRF techs applied to phys only, SNR applies to both phys and spirit
- Potency: G2 (TRF) > G3 (SNR)
- Instant Defense, C rank, trade:
- lose: Deepwood Vitality, a 20-ally instant defense (+3 cost per), perfect vs a single hit + dispel attempt on a debuff (with our shitty Int)
- gain: Unruffled Stygian Reflection, completely absorb a single tech, within near-range if AoE
- Long buff Armor, C rank, trade:
- lose: Hundred Ring Armament, 10-ally p.armor+pierce/cut DR buff (+5 cost per)
- gain: Rippling Starless Shroud, 5-ally armor buff (+5 cost per)
- Losses:
- lose: Ten Ring Defense, D-rank team-wide buff for G qi rank regen per enemy (up to C cap with 16(?))
- lose: Thousand Rings Unbreaking, B rank tech for a team-wide DR and grapple immunity buff + "survive with 1 HP" once per scene
- Misc:
- level 2 and 3 SNR effects unknown, SNR likely gains a new tech
- For reference: total xp in SNR3 is 1200, for TRF6 it's 1265
- SES4 > WHR1 (switch):
- lose SES4 (G2 potency):
- Intractable Roots: short D-rank dispel resist buff with +1 action persistence for dispelled effects
- Heaven Scarred Trunk: long C-rank buff, G-rank spirit DR + debuff effect reduction on self
- Bark Worn Rough: C-rank D damage thorns-style counter to spiritual attacks and dispel attempts
- Gain WHR1 (G3 potency):
- Burning Hearth, Winter Wind: Upkeep C rank music art buff; gain IFF, gain resist, gain a single dispel-shield (one per tech, bypassed by A rank dispel)
- Frozen Walls, Homely Keep: long C rank buff targeting area or self; buffs ally sp.def, +D qi regen; debuff enemy sp.atk, D qi drain; self-mode grants D qi regen and a big resist buff.
- lose SES4 (G2 potency):
- (new) BKSD1:
- Primal War Calling: C rank far-range aoe field, recurring D rank damage (C with domain), 2 for multiattacker, 3 instead of 1 attack for any dispel attempt on LQ's music effects.
- Eagle God's Defiance: C-rank aoe spiritual attack+disorient followed up by a C-damage dive-bomb physical yeet. Auto-activates PWC if it's not up already.
- (new) UGM2:
- Implacable Advance: upkeep C rank spirit pen+damage buff, and a free Presence-based dispel vs damage negation for any of the user's attacks
- Grinding Glacial Melody: C-rank spiritual cold damage attack that recurs and stacks up to 3 times and pushes the target back at 1/2 speed minimum, works as long as we're advancing or the target is in melee and cannot retreat.
- (new) MSS1 (trade for HDW in social settings[see notes]):
- lose HDW5 (in social settings, also has 2 combat buff ally techs):
- Spring Breeze Canto: upkeep D rank music-based area perception, buffs social perception vs social defense.
- Winds of Winter Yearning: C rank social screen for up to 3 allies
- Gain MSS1:
- Mirthful Sabotage: C rank social perception; literally see connections/plot threads and the ways to best disturb and subvert them, ++manip based social perception
- Timely Misdirection: C rank ally social test saving throw with a +20 bonus
- reminder about PMR1:
- Carefree Mantle: C rank sincerity-based long speech test buff (+small bonus to poise)
- Deceiver's Foil: C rank short lie-detection and social counter vs lies effect
- lose HDW5 (in social settings, also has 2 combat buff ally techs):
Notes:
- very juicy action econ on BKSD and WHR, UGM's buff half is quite nice too
- a lot of potency increases all-around
- other than losing out on the +1 action persistence, WHR seems like the stronger resist art even at level 1 (even for non-music thanks to the second tech in self-mode, for music it's by far stronger)
- we're losing TRD which sucks since it's faster to activate, but WHR is the stronger area regen since it also does other stuff
- also losing TRU but between SNR3 potentially and better area control through BKSD and PLR we're probably fine
- UGM+BKSD = PRESSURE / putting the 'death' in death zone
- trying to dispel our music leads to a bad time
- did I mention that a ton of our new arts are Sixiang-buffable
- Social art situation:
- in social settings, provided we drop MoSS, we may have any 2 out of 3 from <HDW, MSS, PMR>
- the medium+ term idea is to run PMR+MSS, but atm when both are level 1 and HDW is level 5 it may be ok to run e.g HDW+MSS in Cai parties while we're performing/passively listening and analyzing.
- for now @yrsillar can use this temporary freedom to fit whichever 2 out of 3 arts work best in social scenes.
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TimEd
Meteor maker
SNR
So, considering the arts we are about to get, does that mean picking Wind on the past Sixiang choice be better on synergy?
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Can we equip all our social arts at the same time if we drop the combat ones?
Black Noise
Curious
- Location
- About 1AU from Sol
Wind Thief is still a darkness art so no.
Too many head meridians, which will remain the case until like past turn 18 when we'll have the opportunity to scrunch them, and even then we'll probably have better things to do.
UGM also let's us use our speed to drive people towards Zhengui, pulling a hammer-and-anvil.
i kinda want to see a sect soldier on painkillers omake
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Might want to consider getting combat arts that use head meridians.
The fact that we really overshot on successes when reducing arts to the point that it makes more sense for us to drop arts then reducing them makes me think that people with less talent/resources instead reduce their arts. If you get less successes per AP then reducing arts looks more tempting then learning whole new arts and dropping all that hard work you did.
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- Location
- Staring into the void
This was the original Sixiang
This is the current.
Laughing Flight of the Wind Thief
Sixiang has never had any bonii to darkness? And we've gained cultivation bonii to both wind and dance which help with LFWT. I'm confused as to why you state that it's not relevant.
EternalObserver
eYe Gaze baCk
- Location
- The Void
BN speaks of the Darkness vs Wind vote back at turn 3 with Sixiang
- Location
- Staring into the void
Found the relevant section.
So we had darkness as an option.
Edit:
Wind won with 96 to darkness 89, it was a close vote.
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- Location
- The United States
- Pronouns
- He/They
We coulda picked Wood or Water tho...
Arkeus
Crazy cat guy
- Location
- France
I think we should... manage our expectations a bit?
Those improvements overall can seem like a lot, but not only there is a few differences between what they seem to be and their actual impact, there also is a somewhat cavalier assumption that Ji Rong hasn't had any improvements worth speaking of- or that there won't be this incoming turn for him, too.
To get into the more gritty stuff, most attributes improvements that don't actually change the letter of the derived attributes don't actually matter so much in an actual fight, and very few of our improvements change any of those. Arguably the biggest improvement derived stat wise will come to our armour/s.armour, but that improvement likely would happen thanks to Resolve anyway. I'd have to look up whether we have a chance toward base S s.armour, but even if we do I don't think Ji Rong does a lot of S damage.
No, the real change will come from the actual tech changes, and of those while they all look good on paper, beside flat out 'additional arts' only LFTW doesn't have any drawback whatsoever. LFTW improvements are big, however, especially qi-conservation wise. We do have BKSD/UGM as 'additional arts' though.
However, UGM/BKSD/WHR/SNR will all be new arts we have never used before. This means that there will be kinks to be worked on, narratively speaking, and there is the question of 'how much is BKSD/UGM appropriate for a duel against Ji Rong', too.
Those improvements overall can seem like a lot, but not only there is a few differences between what they seem to be and their actual impact, there also is a somewhat cavalier assumption that Ji Rong hasn't had any improvements worth speaking of- or that there won't be this incoming turn for him, too.
To get into the more gritty stuff, most attributes improvements that don't actually change the letter of the derived attributes don't actually matter so much in an actual fight, and very few of our improvements change any of those. Arguably the biggest improvement derived stat wise will come to our armour/s.armour, but that improvement likely would happen thanks to Resolve anyway. I'd have to look up whether we have a chance toward base S s.armour, but even if we do I don't think Ji Rong does a lot of S damage.
No, the real change will come from the actual tech changes, and of those while they all look good on paper, beside flat out 'additional arts' only LFTW doesn't have any drawback whatsoever. LFTW improvements are big, however, especially qi-conservation wise. We do have BKSD/UGM as 'additional arts' though.
However, UGM/BKSD/WHR/SNR will all be new arts we have never used before. This means that there will be kinks to be worked on, narratively speaking, and there is the question of 'how much is BKSD/UGM appropriate for a duel against Ji Rong', too.
As well as the part where, again, our Domain and much of our arts are focused on group combat and utility, while Ji Rong is more focused into punching good.
Honestly, the main reason I'd think of us having an advantage would be the spirit gap here. Without spirits I'd probably give it to Ji Rong 7/10 times.
Isn't it gonna be 1 on1?
There are at least a few people who act like darkness is Satan, and blame all of LQ's failings on it.
Thematically, darkness is want, and ambition.
These aren't bad traits for a cultivator. Want ties you to the world, since the things you want are probably of the world. Helps stave off the urge to be an eternal cave hermit.
Ambition is needed to get anywhere as a cultivator.
And you don't need to live a hard life to have those traits.
Thematically, ice is way scarier. It's big on death, and inevitability. of a lack so total, that it hurts. A need to seek fulfillment. This is something you probably wouldn't find internalized in someone who didn't live a difficult life. It's described as entropic for a reason.
TimEd
Meteor maker
Ice is also... cool
Really, on themes, any and all will have good and bad, depending on how/where/what it is used on.
Yeah. Really I only made this post because it's past midnight, I'm unrested, and I'm still catching up with the thread.Ice is also... cool
Really, on themes, any and all will have good and bad, depending on how/where/what it is used on.
I was catching up an saw posts about how LQ's heart demon is because dark. Really though, I think it's because the promise made to Zhengui combined with how the Xiulan/assassin thing was handled.
We made a promise to lean on our comrades and then didn't trust Xiulan to not get ganked immediately. Also, many of our comrades can't possibly keep up with LQ's cultivation.
It's not really a rational issue, but the heart isn't rational. I think LQ had the right of it in her conversation with Meizhen.
I just wish dark stopped getting vilified. It's not really justified, it's seems to be just because it looks kinda edgy.
Honestly, I don't think we can do without some edgy themes anyway. We fight with expression. Anything that can destroy will probably be edgy, and we need at least one dedicated beatstick art no matter what.
- Location
- Greece
In universe, fights between cultivators that use bounded spirits are usually considered 1 on 1.