The Back of a Man (at least not for now)

My brain is currently a 50-50. At the same time, I need to motivate myself to start writing something constructive. Namely, A Requiem from Winter Past.

That is unless my beautiful legal housebreaker arrives into my life first.

Hopefully, there's nothing for me to say about American politics for the next few days. For some funny reason, I felt a bit burned out. It's like not even the smartest guy in the world deserves to be treated like Dr Park Hoon when it comes to problems in the world. Either way, I'm pretty sure an alternative for the TPP will be on the cards next year. Either that or Trump will be impeached. Who knows?

A/N: Apparently, someone isn't amused by the notion of his country joining the RCEP.

Some of the stuff I experienced so far...

When Sea of Moving Ice first came out, the difficulty level wasn't that high. After a few weeks, it seems that the devs have upped the ante. I still remember the troll mob being relatively easier to beat. This time round, I have to make sure Arylos hit faster and harder. Within seconds of engagement, the HP dropped to like 20-30%. If not for the various means of healing, Arylos would have met his god face to face. The fact that I did away with Oak Skin makes the combat feels more clásico. There are mainly three types of troll mobs. The mutated one, the normal one, and the stoned one.

Note: If you're doing a dps (or devoted cleric), you better have an effective close range AoE game. If you're playing scourge warlock, Fiery Bolt and Soul Scorch should be your BFF. Or just about any flaming attack (note that the scourge warlock's AoE game still sucks as always). One notable change in the scourge warlock's dps game lies in a change of direction. Previously, it's all about curse consumption. This made the dps game into a one-shot business. However, changes to the curse mechanic mean your scourge warlock would be dealing damage on a consistent basis without any surge or drop in the dps process. Just try comparing a sprint with a marathon and you'll get what I'm saying.

The mutated one

This mob is proof that evolution should never be trusted. We have the runechanged trolls, monstrosities evolved (with that being said, the trolls in Berserk are definitely numero uno monstruos). How in the Feywild is it possible for trolls to bite away chunks of runes inscribed on rocks, I do not know. What I do know is that they fight like suicide bombers. Period. The thing with the Abomination quest is this: Wulfgar expects you to defeat them like a true son of Beornegar, but he also expects you to risk being a victim of suicide bombing like an Israeli. While it's possible to kill those suicide bombers (thankfully, there's only one such critter in any troll mob) without having them blowing up in your face (quite literally), you're actually racing against time. The troll will not trigger its bomb once the HP hit zero. Rather, it took only 30% HP or so remaining for the bomb to go off. If I was Gond, I'd have them repenting from their evil deeds so that I can be their god. If you think Taylor "gone (swiftly) in 60 secs" Swift's romance is (and will) always be shortlived, it means you'll need to be equally fast to kill off a suicide bomber before the bomb goes off. I won't say 10 secs, but maybe around the range of 7 secs or 8.

Thankfully, the current patch has address this issue. In other words, we don't have to kill these evolved S.O.B by emulating the Mossad. I swear not even Drizzt Do'Urden would have survived that. Ellifain Tuuserail made sure of such a fact.

One thing I noticed was the lack of stoners in any runechanged mob (i.e. basically any mob with a runechanged troll). Which is a good thing. The standard (or rather the only) trolling tactic has always been about zerging and more zerging. They'll just do a bum rush and zerg. Doesn't matter whether it's Icewind Dale or Sea of Moving Ice. The average movement speed of a troll mob is quite fast. They can effectively close the distance in seconds. I only had enough time to land a ranged shot before the fun gets underway, it's actually that fast. Also, it doesn't help that you're fighting on flat terrain 9 times out of 10.

The normal one

The standard troll mob where it's all about one fell troll or two leading the line. Basically, fighting this mob comes in two ways. If you're a tank (including healadin) or great weapon fighter, it's better for you to target the fell troll first. After all, the bulk of mob damage comes from this fellow. If you're using a dps class, it's better to carpet bomb (read: the golden rule of any hdps when it comes to any troll mob).

The stoned one

Basically, this is your artillery troll mob. Armed with nothing but rocks and helmets, this mob can be very annoying if you can't close onto them fast enough. Key to taking down this mob lies in breaking through the frontline in order to take down the stoners. No matter what, just take down the artillery first. Period.

No need for gear?

I just chatted a bit with one of my guildies in the game chat. Apparently, he has no use for Mod 10 gear. Now the thing with entering the new raid instances lies in two requirements. Namely, the minimum Everfrost resistance and a minimum total item level. For Fangbreaker Island, it's 28% Everfrost resistance and 3100 total item level. For normal Svardborg, it's 28% as well with minimum total item level of 2800. Epic Svardborg requires the same amount of Everfrost resistance (if I remember correctly), but with a whopping 3200 minimum total item level.

One of the biggest problem lies in the absurdly high amount of Everfrost resistance needed. No matter how we look at it, it's nigh impossible to reach 28% unless you happen to have a high end Everfrost resistance buff (read: potion plus guild food buff toegther with the gear). Remember what I said on my guildy above?

This guy basically mains the great weapon fighter. The thing with this class is that it's the only offensive tank available in the game. Protection-Justice paladins may come second, but it's not really close (unless we're talking about the sentinel tree for the great weapon fighter). The core of every GWF lies in the unstoppable mechanic. Yes, you'll deal reduced damage once that thing is on. However, it must also be stated that unstoppable is meant to be the defensive core of any and every GWF build. Unless you're playing the destroyer build, you shouldn't be expecting unstoppable to be... well, offensively unstoppable as well.

The thing is, 28% Everfrost resistance will most likely affect the dps characters (minus the GWF ofc) more than any other character class which can withstand punishment. Case in point: There's a difference between getting whacked by any drow in epic Temple of the Spider as any dps class apart from the GWF and getting the same stick as either a GWF or just about any tanking class.

The damage resistance of the average GWF is the second highest. This is due to mail armor giving like 12-13 AC for a T2 armor (13 AC for GWF and 12 AC for DC). At the same time, there's also the defense stat to consider about (note that defense and AC are two different stats). At the end of the day, minimum requirements for any epic raid instances is a case of one size fitting all. If your defensive game is robust enough, all you need to do start a private queue. Period. It's only when it comes to the other dps classes (and DC as well) that the 28% becomes a big deal. I won't really say 28%, but at least it should break the 20% mark. The new epic raid instances are unlike Lair of Lostmauth for example, where you can get away with 1 tank and 4 dps. You'll need the standard layout of 1 tank, 1 healer, and 3 dps to make victory count.

Note: It must also be stated that my GWF friend has hit end-game gear even before Mod 10, so it's actually understandable why he's not impressed with Mod 10 in general.

Add note: In order to maximize efficiency and survival, it's optimal for the healer (not just the DC, but also the healadin) to be the last person behind whenever the party engages the enemy. Not too far away though.

The giant slap

Taking on giants in the middle of the Sea of Moving Ice has never been more challenging. Under the direct command of Jarl Storvald, these men (and women) in blue are way nastier than the ones attacking Bryn Shander. In Mod 10, a single critical hit won't kill you unless you're too slow to respond (not so much in the open terrain of Cold Run, but rather the mountainous terrain of Lonelywood). In the middle of the Sea of Moving Ice, the giants are more dangerous. The generic giant mob still come in pairs. However, they have a higher overall defense and most likely higher HP as well. This means you're gonna have a tough time taking them down. For trickster rogues and hunter rangers in particular, at least two major stamina kits are required. This manner of a fight won't really affect guardian fighters, great weapon fighters, and oathbound paladins. After all, the AC would most likely bail them out. For the HR and TR, dodging is the only way out. For control wizards, please don't be so stupid to attempt point-blank fire (exception to this rule would be using Oppressive Force as a point-blank fire setup. Don't laugh, Sheallyn Melarn did this stunt more than just a few times).

The ones with names are the most dangerous ones. Killing any of them will have a chance to drop the Svardborg bonus daily quest. However, you'll need to look out for the critical hit. On board the ship, the giants can be quite difficult to deal with because you'll have to deal with plenty of bum rushing and stone throwing. I know this sounds like a form of internet culture, but trust me when I say it's not funny. While such tactic has been done by the giants in Cold Run, the Sea of Moving Ice version just has it more often. Once the rock comes flying, you're most likely dead (or left with like 30% HP at most). Whatever you do, please guard yourself agains the bum rushing part. When you see a straight line in red, it means the bum rush is coming. After the bum rush (successful or not), brace yourself. The asteroid is coming. If you're not confident of getting away in time, please jump instead of just running away. At least you can get out faster. However, there are times where you jumped out of harm's way, yet getting harmed all the same. So be careful there, don't be shocked if this happens.

One nasty giant of note is that Ulf. I don't know his full name apart from his last name sounding like Bonne-something. I hate him. I really do. Once he hits you with that devastatting swing, you're as good as dead. Because he will always be flanked by a giant armored bear, eating a critical hit from this guy means you're really dead. If you can survive beyond 5 seconds after getting the critical bs, it means you're worthy of respect. I got myself killed once, not even a trigger Soulforged can bail me out. It's this annoying. Thankfully, I decided to test out a strategy. And trust me, it works.

The thing with fighting Ulf lies in engaging him in an open terrain. Where he always stands, it's basically a wide cliff of sorts. Do not engage him there. I tried so in my first run, that was what got me killed. I have no space to maneuver, I was virtually mauled to death by an armored bear. Kite him towards the wider space just in front. To do so, you'll need to take out the first giant asap. Once I adopted this strategy, Ulf was no match for Arylos' martial cunning.

Note: Choosing the Howling Weapon set was definitely a wise choice. While this is arguably the least popular Elemental Evil artifact weapon set, it's actually every tactician's BFF. The sudden burst in speed has gotten Arylos out of jail more oft than not.

P.S: Another thing I've found out is that Soulforged will only have a 50-50 chance of bailing you out if you get a bunch of ice hunters hunting you down. These crazy eskimos can move really fast. The best part? Getting yourself to the coast won't bail you out as well unless your khyek can move fast enough away from the shore.