The big 3 (plus any possible divine intervention)

Well, it's been quite a surreal few days or so. Once you've reached the end of this post, you'll definitely notice three prominent names. Namely, Mordenkainen, Bigby, and Tenser. Likewise, I came across three prominent "news", stuff which is good enough to make me feel like a bastard named Jon Snow. Okay, more specifically two out of the three. Firstly, let's talk about the real news here. Apparently, the temporary immigration ban has gotten people up in arms with arguments coming from both ends (and yes, I've read through some of them. From both ends, no less). At the same time, this CNBC article may easily be telling us that all the cynics may have been trumped by President Trump (note that I use the word "may have been", NOT have been for an obvious reason). I don't know about you, but I know my English. If you think the next four years will be unpredictable when it comes to U.S politics, then you're right. Just make sure you pass your English. To set the record straight, my command of the language is quite decent despite...

1. Singaporeans (note: not every one of them) being known as strugglers in bilingualism.
2. My standard of English stopping at GCE O-Level standard.

To be brutally frank, I'm going to view the next four years in a manner similar to Emiya Kiritsugu.

Emiya Kiritsugu won't give a damn to whether America will become great again or go to hell like Jason Voorhees. I'm not that extreme, but I prefer to retain the calm defining both me and the correct Emiya.

If what CNBC is showing is real news, then the next two "news" are... well, "news". Now my advice to every Singaporean girl is the same as my advice to every woman. If you want to be a lady, please do not emulate Cersei (I'm pretty sure a character like Brienne of Tarth would resonate more with my super mignonne legal housebreaker though).

As for my advice to every Singaporean guy (including myself) is the same as my advice to every man (including myself). If you want to be a bastard, please be like Jon Snow. If you want to be like Ramsay Bolton, then please understand that there's no difference between one bastard given a legal status and a bastard like him below.

"The blood of the First Men still flows in the veins of the Starks, and we hold to the belief that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man’s life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die."

~Eddard "Ned" Stark

Some inspirations on Souls of Faerûn

Unlike my last post here, the inspiration has got nothing to do with the late Michael Bolton. After all, why would I want to emulate Jeremy "my next top job is to troll Jeremy Corbyn" Clarkson? Rather, it's down to a few vids on an arcade card simulation game recently unleashed.

Knowing Sega and the Japanese in general, I'm very sure a copyright claim will be coming very soon. Don't believe me, go ask Angry Joe what happened between him and Capcom Japan regarding the Street Fighter 5 farce. Also, the last vid below was absolutely nuts. I know enough to understand why I'm saying this.

Okay, enough bs here. I'm now rambling like Harkle Harpell

So far so good, very little has been said on mod 11 so far apart from two pretenders having a go at each other (a triple threat match if it's really true that Arlon Bladeshaper is also a son [read: descendant] of Nasher Alagondar). Which now comes to the interesting part: Will we see a fourth contender for the Crown of Neverwinter via Myrreas of my Neverwinter Six? Well, I never said anything.

On the new artifact weapons set, it's good to see the casual gamers are not being left out of the loop. The thing with Storm King's Thunder and Sea of Moving Ice is this: We're talking about gameplay reserved for hardcore gamers. In other words, zones like Cold Run and the titular Sea of Moving Ice is NOT for idiots who can't plan a decent character build to save their own rears.

Note: Above image is NOT photoshopped. Damn you Zuckerberg for corrupting kids on FB. :P
Add note: I misspelled the name of Malakut's BFF. Shouldn't be Wlly, but rather (Mad/Massive/Tricky/Shiny) Willy.

By my own estimation, the new version of Spellplague Caverns is gonna have a minimum total item level of 2000. Basically the same standard for every T2 epic dungeons (Fangbreaker Island doesn't count as T2 level for obvious reasons. More on Jarl Storvald and his VP Drufi later on).

Quite obviously, it's gonna be reworked in the same manner as Castle Never.

I'll be back (?)

Will the likes of Idris and Chartilifax make a comeback like the Terminator and Sarah Conner? I don't know. While we know the Spellplague Caverns are back, nothing has been said about that brain with tentacles. Let alone Idris and Chartilifax. I do hope the normal versions will be back though. I'm not asking for much, the current epic dungeons setup is good enough.

Level of difficulty

Perhaps the most intriguing question lies in the challenge level. On one hand, it should be safe to assume The Cloaked Ascendancy as a module deemed moron-proof. On the other hand, however, the devs have been working their socks off modifying the difficulty level every now and then. You don't expect the River District to be like Sharandar or Dread Ring where it's now very easy to kill stuff with both eyes closed (at least for the old timers, that is). However, it's absurd to expect the kind of difficulty level you get in Icewind Dale and beyond. Quite obviously, striking a balance between easy and too easy was the name of the game for the devs. After all, the new Ascended Weapons set is now set at level 165. And this is not to mention that it's surely better than the Twisted Weapons set.

Any use for twisted ichor (plus some other stuff) come Feb 21?

I'll have to say yes. This is provided that the new artifact weapon set is bind on pickup. If it's bind to account, then there's no point running epic Demogorgon beyond trying to get your ideal +5 rings (which are still 100% relevant to the gameplay as far as I know). So what does this mean?

1. The elemental artifact weapon sets should get cheaper in the auction house. Far cheaper if I say so myself. Currently, the main hand weapon can go like 100K astral diamonds while the off-hand weapon can go like 70K or so. It won't hit a sudden plummet, but I won't be surprised if you can get a complete set for around 60K to 80K or so.

2. Strictly speaking, only the Golden Dragon set from mod 5 (or was it mod 4?) is considered obsolete. Cryptic will most likely be doing a gradual progression in terms of getting the highest end artifact weapons. In fact, they have been doing it since mod 6. So yeah, the current artifact weapons won't disappear like Nightcrawler in the streets of Bavaria.

3. Use your current set to feed your Ascended Weapons set once you restore the whole damn thing. Quite obviously a no-brainer.

4. Again, it's back to what I've said on balancing the difficulty level. In fact, point 4 will be Cryptic's make-or-break factor for this mod.

5. Additional usage for twisted ichor? Dunno.

6. Will we see a drop in pricing for unified elements? The good thing about unified elements is that one can fetch you plenty of astral diamonds. Currently, it's going at 30K in the auction house per pop. Hopefully not. That will shaft gamers like me who spent an excruciating period bargaining with the RNG for the last recipe of the alchemy profession. In fact, such a move may easily make the alchemy profession redundant. Period.

7. Assuming the pricing of unified elements stays in the same range (not to mention the dragon egg as well), it means the devs will need to reduce the amount of other crafting ingredients required. Either that or we won't be seeing a change in pricing for the elemental artifact weapons in the auction house.

8. Alternatives, this may instead mean a spike in pricing for the major armor reinforcement kits (they're actually good for upping the total item level in case you want to take on giants on the epic scale).

9. There's a 3rd alternative. Namely being used to restore the new artifact weapon set. Actually, this may easily be the likeliest way to go. Won't be surprised if the ingredients needed to restore them read like unified elements and dragon egg.

10. Don't be surprised if you'll need certain masterwork ingredients in the name of artifact restoration.

11. If point 9 and 10 are for real, then we really have to keep our fingers crossed for the Ascended Weapons set to be bind on account instead of bind on pickup.

Back to the north

With the introduction of the new artifact weapon set, what should we expect from Jarl Storvald and his VP Drufi? The problem with the upcoming mod lies in the danger of Fangbreaker Island and Svardborg being redundant. The problem with Storm King's Thunder and Sea of Moving Ice has never been down to the challenge level. I'll be the first one to say I really like how the developers maximize the usage of terrain and AoE overlap to the gamer's disadvantage. In particular, the weekly Bryn Shander fight can be either challenging or a pain in the neck (depends on whether you're good enough a player). Your mobility is effectively screwed because you're fighting on a narrow path where your enemies happen to be one big ass yeti and its equally big ass BFF. As if 'tis not enough, you have to deal with winter wolves and random moments of power-up buffing (read: Once the yeti turns red, the wolves will no longer be white). It's back against the wall. Not so much if you're a tank (unless you're so hopelessly dumb, you shouldn't even be tanking the aggro in a T1 dungeon). But if you're a dps (especially the melee type), then this fight will most likely be the best evidence of your skill (or the lack thereof depending on the fight ofc).

After gushing so much about the challenge level, what's the problem? The reason is very simple. Great fight, crap loot. Period. The whole thing is basically another Icewind Dale where the challenge level doesn't measure up to the reward. Not every gamer approaches the fight with the Messi mentality. Period.

While I don't expect things to change much in the open PvE end, I really hope the best set of RNG will be reserved for Fangbreaker Island and both versions of Svardborg. By that, I mean higher chances of getting unbound rare or epic companions. In fact,  I don't mind the devs giving a higher drop chance for stuff like Brynnyr's Demise and  Zulkir's Dreadnought where the stats alone are worth the luck (note: The good thing about Brynnyr's Demise is never about the base stats since they're absolutely crap. It's getting either 2000 bonus defense or 2000 bonus power which seals the deal for every melee dps build). In fact, why not give the gamers extra rough astral diamonds as well when it comes to epic Svardborg? After all, that one is supposed to be the hardest raid ever with a minimum item level requirement of 3.2K (plus the stupid 28% Everfrost resistance bs).

Note: Apparently, the devs intended the Ascended Weapons set to be the second to the current Relic Weapons set. Same item level, but the difference lies in how powerful the set bonus is. They actually did this concept before via the elemental weapon sets in mod 9.

P.S: Any bets on divine intervention coming from Mystra? After all, this meme below best explains the underlying elements at work.

Hey, I got a new idea for a new playset!
Will J.Morningstar pay me for my idea? :P
Note: Not to be confused with another Morningstar.
Add note: Maybe we can get a future mod involving Kelemvor, Mystra, and Cyric in the plot. Who knows?
Final note: Just don't ask me whether my super mignonne legal housebreaker and her BFFs will play out their Fiasco.