Infinitely Disappointing

You know what's funny to me about Bioshock Infinite...

Before I played it, I'd had the ending spoiled to me by /v/, except that I'd misinterpreted the spoilers and concocted an astoundingly better alternative story that never was.

See, I knew that Comstock was Booker but I'd somehow taken that to mean that Booker went through the events of Bioshock Infinite, then there was a big reveal or some climactic event towards the end after which Booker has a drastic change in character and then travels back in time to set things right in his own way in the new persona of Comstock. There were even small things that pointed to this possibility in the game--like how Comstock knew to be on the lookout for someone with AD on their hand.

I was so excited to reach the ending to see what dramatic reveal was going to be what set the plot of the game in motion. It wasn't until Booker killed Comstock that I realized this was the ending I was going to get. Then all the bullshit scenes that make negative sense like in the OP image was the shit cherry on top of the cake.

I literally couldn't believe the game thought it was "deep story" to insult my intelligence by implying the events of the game that just happened--that tells you there are infinite parallel universes--is dumb enough to insist it could erase all of them with something as simple and dumb as drowning one particular instance of Booker.

What a joke.

Battleborn Open Beta Builds

In case anyone searches for builds and can't find anything concise or reliable here's a copy of the notepad I've been keeping on the heroes I've unlocked.

Anything that is ? is situational so what you pick is on a what-you-need-for-that-match basis.

Ambra
PvE
1-E/2-Q/3-E/4-E/5-E/6-Q/7-E/8-Q/9-E/10-E
PvP
1-?/2-Q/3-Q/4-Q/5-Q/6-Q/7-Q/8-Q/9-Q/10-Q

Benedict
PvE
1-E/2-Q/3-Q/4-E/5-E/6-Q/7-Q/8-E/9-E/10-Q
PvP
1-E/2-Q/3-E/4-Q/5-Q/6-Q/7-?/8-Q/9-Q/10-Q

Galilea
PvE
1-Q/2-Q/3-Q/4-E/5-Q/6-Q/7-Q/8-E/9-Q/10-Q
PvP
1-?/2-?/3-Q/4-E/5-Q/6-Q/7-Q/8-Q/9-E/10-Q

ISIC
PvE
1-Q/2-Q/3-E/4-Q/5-E/6-Q/7-E/8-Q/9-E/10-E
PvP
1-Q/2-Q/3-?/4-Q/5-F/6-Q/7-E/8-Q/9-E/10-Q

Kelvin
PvE
1-Q/2-Q/3-Q/4-Q/5-E/6-Q/7-Q/8-Q/9-Q/10-E
PvP
1-Q/2-E/3-Q/4-Q/5-E/6-Q/7-Q/8-E/9-Q/10-E

Marquis
PvE
1-Q/2-Q/3-E/4-Q/5-Q/6-Q/7-Q/8-Q/9-E/10-Q
PvP
1-E/2-E/3-E/4-E/5-Q/6-E/7-E/8-Q/9-E/10-E

Miko
PvE
1-E/2-Q/3-Q/4-Q/5-E/6-E/7-E/8-E/9-Q/10-E
PvP
1-E/2-E/3-F/4-E/5-E/6-Q/7-Q/8-Q/9-Q/10-Q

Montana
PvE
1-E/2-Q/3-E/4-Q/5-E/6-Q/7-E/8-E/9-E/10-E
PvP
1-E/2-Q/3-?/4-Q/5-E/6-Q/7-E/8-Q/9-?/10-Q

Orendi
PvE
1-Q/2-E/3-E/4-Q/5-Q/6-E/7-Q/8-Q/9-Q/10-E
PvP
1-?/2-E/3-Q/4-Q/5-Q/6-E/7-Q/8-Q/9-Q/10-E

Oscar Mike
PvE
1-Q/2-Q/3-E/4-Q/5-E/6-Q/7-E/8-E/9-Q/10-Q
PvP
1-Q/2-Q/3-E/4-E/5-E/6-Q/7-E/8-E/9-E/10-E

Phoebe
PvE
1-Q/2-Q/3-E/4-E/5-E/6-Q/7-E/8-Q/9-E/10-Q
PvP
1-E/2-E/3-?/4-E/5-Q/6-Q/7-E/8-Q/9-E/10-E

Rath
PvE
1-E/2-E/3-E/4-Q/5-E/6-E/7-E/8-E/9-Q/10-E
PvP
1-Q/2-Q/3-Q/4-E/5-E/6-E/7-E/8-E/9-Q/10-Q

Reyna
PvE
1-Q/2-Q/3-Q/4-E/5-E/6-E/7-E/8-Q/9-E/10-E
PvP
1-Q/2-Q/3-E/4-Q/5-Q/6-Q/7-E/8-Q/9-Q/10-E

Shayne & Aurox
PvE
1-Q/2-E/3-Q/4-Q/5-Q/6-Q/7-Q/8-E/9-Q/10-Q
PvP
1-E/2-Q/3-E/4-Q/5-Q/6-Q/7-Q/8-E/9-Q/10-E

Thorn
PvE
1-E/2-Q/3-Q/4-E/5-E/6-E/7-Q/8-Q/9-E/10-E
PvP
1-E/2-E/3-Q/4-E/5-E/6-Q/7-Q/8-Q/9-Q/10-E

Whiskey Foxtrot
PvE
1-E/2-E/3-E/4-Q/5-Q/6-E/7-E/8-Q/9-Q/10-E
PvP
1-E/2-?/3-E/4-E/5-Q/6-E/7-E/8-E/9-Q/10-Q

As for the game, well it's alright but not $60 alright.  I was hoping it'd satisfy my latent SMNC itch but it doesn't really.  I'll probably get either this or Overwatch but I'm going to wait on the Overwatch open beta to give that a try.

A Wall of Text on the Relationship between Feminism and Nerd Culture

One of the hallmark features of "nerd culture" is an unquestioning capitulation to women which explains how social justice meme complexes extensively run rampant in traditional nerd spaces.

A lot of us who might style ourselves "nerds" ended up retreating to whatever our soup du jour hobby is because it's the lens we needed to see the world the way everyone else does normally. This used to be VERY socially unacceptable. So there's a dual reality to the "nerd" experience and both stem from innate ostracization. I've written about some of this here (http://scpantera.blogspot.com/2014/11/my-thoughts-on-gamergate-over-last-few.html).

On one hand we're reclusive, protective, and suspicious that anyone new who comes in has a less-than-pure agenda--and this is virtually always backed up by experience because there ARE people who do this, a lot of them even especially now that nerd culture is mainstream. If we're going to use feminism as our frame of reference, this is every new-girl-who-broke-up-my-WoW-guild story.

On the other hand--also in my experience--people in nerd spaces are often very (even irrationally) accepting of outside interest. If I find someone who I think genuinely shares my interests I don't care who or what they are, we can get along and play vidya together. I don't care if you're black, jewish, disabled, racist, whatever. And that's an absurdly progressive statement that "progressives" HATE on a macro level because when we say this we're saying we don't care about identity politics--their beloved hammer and sickle.

Feminists love to use the latter to subjugate the former. In some ways it's understandable, because there's a fair amount of unwarranted hostility to women (but also to everybody perceived as an outsider) that come into nerd spaces. Feminists abuse men's preferences for women, which tend to be super-juvenile in nerd spaces.

To nerd males, women are like dragons; they're unusual, exotic, powerful, sometimes-ultra-destructive, sometimes-total-bros, and yes there's an element of sex appeal there. So when feminists come in say,

"all you males are all the problem, you're all sexist borderline rapists who hate women and only want them for their vaginas"

instead of our default response being,

"that's fucking ridiculous, you're acting like a dick, get out"

it's,

"maybe we ARE the problem, maybe I AM a borderline rapist and I just don't even know it, I guess I better be super-extra nice to this kind lady who risked life and limb to bring me this torch of wisdom, never question anything she or her buddies say, and do everything they want because I don't want anyone to think I'm a bad guy".

This point is made in significantly more extensive detail here: http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/01/01/untitled/

And so the Cult of Social Justice taps into the gold mine of recruitment that is nerd culture.

So what can we do about it? Nothing really, short of adapting. There's a new generation of nerds who are going to fall for this same bait being born every second, even sparing the point that "nerddom" is now full mainstream--where the Church of the Patriarchy-Is-Real reigns supreme.

I'd say it's important for free speech and artistic freedoms to be protected because the Great Wall against Their march is that there is always going to be a market for ideas and art and nerd pursuits that don't conform to progressive tastes. I believe that this is the comforting inevitability that stands in opposite to their own crushing, apparent inevitability.

I think it's important to keep that in mind if you're someone who find themselves discouraged that everything you love is being stamped out. They literally can't win until they've snuffed out every flame of individuality--and even if you're the last one left they won't have won until you're dead.

Frankly, it's this confidence that makes it pretty easy for me to not be on Twitter shitposting about SJWs 24/7. I can appreciate that there's people out there keeping the fight alive but kind of feel sad for people who have made that their everything. Especially when people let their anger get misdirected at things that really aren't important. Especially when there's so many cool video games to play now.

Thoughts on Knight (Tanking)

Unlocked Knight last week, finished Cryomancer and started putting points into Knight this week.  Tried an HT tanking with Knight a day or two ago with maybe half of the effective tank talents and didn't really care much for it (switched back to Paladin after a not-really-tanking-related wipe on the last boss).  Did an MSM earlier today with a few extra talents and abilities I didn't have before (most notably, Barrier II) and it went much smoother.

Barrier II is the real make-or-break-point.  It was actually just recently nerfed but not to the point where Knight is inviable.  The recent patch reworked Inspiration (previously, the diminished Willpower regeneration from Barrier is removed for 6 seconds after using an ability that consumes Willpower) to Counter-Grip (the bonus effect of Barrier II lasts 1 second longer and Lunge restores 2 extra Willpower).  The important component of Barrier II (that's missing from regular Barrier) is that it doubles the damage reduction (30% to 50-55%--depending on if the bonus takes Rockwall into account) for 4 seconds after using an ability that consumes Willpower.  From what I understand, with the right talents you could maintain a very high uptime on the Barrier II bonus due to enough Willpower regeneration which is now a bit nerfed.

Frankly, between a competent support, judicious management of the Barrier II bonus and Tantrum/Resolute Defense, and Whiplash being an OP-as-fuck underdog ult for backup, you should have plenty of sustain to survive any fight a Paladin can.

Which is better?  Eh, I dunno yet.

It's hard to peg either one into a role yet too.  For example, Knight has much better AOE options but no AOE taunt.  Paladin has a low-cooldown, on-demand emergency shield but Knight has constant damage reduction.  Paladin and Knight can both get 4 and 3 seconds of invulnerability with a 16 and 15 second cooldowns respectively (with varying utility; Paladin can extend that invulnerability to allies, Knight can reflect a huge chunk of damage).  Neither seems to have a particular advantage at tanking single targets.

I feel like Knight is much more safer at tanking, but I also feel like I have more control over what's going on as Paladin.  So we'll have to see how things go as I finish up Knight and play around with it more.

Skyforge Block stat - Is it worth it? & Tanking stat discussion & Recommended Chapels

Sitting here with my first spare okki tablet trying to decide where to drop a second superfluous chapel.  The question on my mind is which tank stat is least valuable and thus most amenable to being replaced by an alternate chapel.  But that decision's not super interesting with regards to this post, here we're gonna look at Block specifically.

It's hard to find information on how all the tank stats work, but Block is especially nebulous.  At face value without doing any calculating, I actually assumed Block would be hella useful for tanking--it usually is in most MMOs and proc'd damage reduction is usually pretty high priority--so I was surprised to find a lot of people claiming that Block is worthless (tl;dr for below: it probably is indeed worthless).

But here's some theoretical math:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ttemNuGG8TlLqYEOLGcxK5PItUFaOroqWnnnNCkiPFQ/edit#gid=0
Edit: Should be fully viewable now and anyone should be able to edit the yellow boxes.  Let me know if you have any trouble with it.

Here's what we know:
-Block "occasionally" reduces damage
-Decreases "incoming damage" by a "certain" percent of Stamina

Here's what we don't know:
-How often "occasionally" is; ie the proc rate
-What specific percent of Stamina is applied

Here's some assumptions I'm making:
-The stat value of Block refers to the % of stamina by which damage is reduced, and that this value is a flat number (ie when blocking occurs with 15% Block you're reducing damage by a 0.15*Stamina flat amount)
-There's no other sources of straight up damage reduction (ie incoming damage is not modified at all)

Here's the variables involved:
-Proc rate; I wrote in samples for varying proc rates from 10% to 100% in 10% intervals
-Incoming damage magnitude; it's obvious right off the bat that fewer, larger hits make Block less worthwhile and conversely it's better suited to more frequent, smaller hits (basically, means there's more chances for Block to proc)

---

Now I set out to write this about Block to get a better idea how much of an impact it might be having but I decided to just go ahead and try to look at Shield Power, Adaptation, and Endurance as well--since knowing how Block works doesn't mean much without comparing it to the others.  Here's some notes based on these very rough calculations

-Shield Power: I'm assuming it modifies all incoming shields and not just personal sources
-Shield Power: Since the determinant of the usefulness of Shield Power is how many times a shield is applied, I modeled it as effective HP gained per minute--ie the shield being used as soon as the cooldown is available for Celestial Shield and Unstable Shield (including the Rain of Fire talent).  Note that with Paladin talents, Celestial Shield cooldown can be reduced if the shield is destroyed, which makes the eHP/min potentially higher in practice.  I don't have Alchemist unlocked to compare those shields unfortunately.  Knight shields are smaller and less consistent so I didn't really take the time to throw those in for now.
-Block vs Shield Power: Block needs a very high proc rate even in high frequency/low damage situations in order for it to be better, point for point, than Shield Power
-Adaptation: "Incoming damage is temporarily reduced if you take consistent hits."  Working assumption: Adaptation% damage reduction for subsequent hits beyond a short time period.
-Adaptation vs Block: At a constant proc rate (ie a situation where all incoming damage qualifies for Adaptation damage reduction), Adaptation seems to be comparable to Block at ~50% proc rate on a percent-by-percent basis
-Endurance: Assuming the % value is the damage reduction percent.
-Endurance vs Adaptation: On paper and in each stat's ideal situation, they appear to be the same value percent-by-percent, however one needs to consider that they are useful in opposite situations.  It's also worth considering that you can get Endurance in larger chunks via chapels than Adaptation.  Personally, I think it's more common to take larger amounts of damage, so I prefer Endurance when it's a choice between them.
-Nothing here takes healing into account, so there's probably some fudging there maybe.

AFAIK none of these stats are available from rings, so the real discussion here is chapel selection.  Based on all of the above, here's what I would recommend:

Province: First choice > Second choice
Dawn Plateau: Endurance > Block
Kesalia: Shield Power
Symerlis: Shield Power > Block
Ithanos Archipelago: Shield Power
Hallaghi Valley: Endurance > Adaptation
Fjord Kangher: Shield Power > Block
Thyrthon Plain: Endurance
Damon Wasteland: Adaptation > Regeneration

*Shield Power reportedly caps (soft or hard?) at 25%, so you may or may not want to pick one Block chapel over a Shield Power when you start upgrading to purple chapels.  I'm not aware of any other stat caps at this time.

Honestly, if you want to be prepared for all situations I'd recommend grabbing both first and second recommendations for each province to have maximum versatility (also, in the future we'll be able to activate multiple chapels in a province) but it's naturally up to you if you want to have DPS or support stats on backup first.

If You're Cappy And You Know It, Cap Your Hands

Had another cap discussion again and found two new responses: 1) farm equipment and 2) but leveling orders IS important!

1) I don't know if my situation or strategy is unique but I'm actually much higher in proficiency than than I should be for my prestige, which means stuff is easier than it's listed difficulty would imply (having too much prestige without enough proficiency creates the opposite problem where everything feels too hard and you become unable to equip new gear you find).  Now, this doesn't guarantee I have gear that matches my proficiency, but at the least a) my stats outpace the content, b) it is indeed noticeably easier than it probably should be, and c) I only ever need to do Normal level content to be assured rewards.

Basically, yes I could farm better gear, but I neither want nor need to when I can slowly accrue better gear organically as I progress.

2) Order levels only have an important impact on temple level caps.  Now, my temple levels are hitting caps, but it's because I'm hamstrung by Greatness, not order level.  In fact, my order level is currently double the requirement for the next level temples.

You get Greatness from the upper atlas, and thus need Sparks of Insight.  So again...

No Cap On Whining

And furthermore, why are new players stuck at the same lower cap?

And why can't I create a new character to play with friends who want to try it out?

And why do you have to do ridiculous shenanigans like this to maximize your prestige gains? http://www.reddit.com/r/Skyforge/comments/3c9wxs/how_to_maximise_your_prestige_gain_within_the/

And

And

And

And