A picture speaks a thousand words, a sequence of pictures speaks more than that (hopefully)

I can still recall a certain blog via FB years ago (apparently, it's either been taken down or set to private). Because I don't want to get into trouble with a bunch of people in the near run, I decided not to name that blog. However, I can give you a hint: The color represented by Archer and Rin below.

A/N: Apart from Archer and Rin, we have another character associated with the color red.

Note to self: The world is a dangerous place to live in where your words can be twisted into a lie. Thanks to Nasu Kinoko and Urobuchi Gen for that most therapeutic video below.

Basically, this post will focus on Arylos (aka the Archer and Kiritsugu of the Six). Just a brief note here: I've finally restored the full Fey set. What this means is that I'll most likely take a hiatus from using him and turn my focus to my other toons after I complete the TCA campaign with him. For now, I'll need to finish the Elemental Evil arc for Sheallyn and Korey while Myrreas is now in the process of getting the Aboleth set. As for Cyrea, I'll most likely have her running Kabal's trial after I restored Myrreas' Aboleth weapons. What this means is that running Bryn Shander, Lonelywood, Cold Run, and Sea of the Moving Ice will have to wait. Thankfully, double refinement will be up during the first week of this year's Summer Festival event where I can just easily upgrade Arylos' Gondhammer to mythic in a single swoop. From that point onwards, splitting my focus will most likely be easier.

Also, I truly doubt Cryptic will give us any new artifact weapons set unless they're out to make the SOMI set redundant. Which is not gonna happen unless the devs decide to remove the entire Storm King's Thunder arc altogether. Just don't ask me what they're gonna do with the gear system with T2 masterwork gear now outed.

Note: Interestingly enough, the mass deflation in the auction house economy may have a role to play in Cryptic's decision to throw in the T2 masterwork gear.

Mounts and Companions

Let's talk about companions first. Due to a few auction house transactions involving a normal Soulforged and normal Holy Avenger (not to mention using a few coalescent wards via invocation coffers), I managed to streamline the epic enchantments used in the form of Negation and Vorpal.

As a result, I was able to upgrade the cat to legendary while the blink dog got upped to epic. As you can see, I've got three companions with combat advantage based active bonuses (5% combat advantage bonus from the blink dog and 2% combat advantage bonus each from Staldorf and intellect devourer). Because I managed to get the death slaad as well during the free reclaim period, it means I've got no problem with the dps when it comes to companion active bonuses. For now, I'm content with this active companions roster (mainly due to a lack of astral diamonds to make any further upgrading count).

On the mount insignia bonuses, I opted for Gladiator's Guile (mainly for movement speed increase), Magistrate's Restraint, Survivor's Blessing, Assassin's Covenant, and Berserker's Rage.

Assassin's Covenant=/=Assassin's Creed

The AC insignia bonus is nice to have, I'll have to admit. However, AC tends to work better with any mid to low dps build (read: any dps build involving CC and buffing). The reason why being that any hdps build tends to be defined via the gear. Boons can only give you this much, even the guild ones.

Ofc this is not to say every hdps build applies to this logic. Great weapon fighter destroyers can benefit from AC due to their decently high armor. Ditto for executioner trickster rogues due to high deflection (in fact, TRs have the highest base deflection out of the rest due to Dexterity and Charisma).

Note: If you want to do an Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, please know that the only way for AC to be maximized is the choice of gear.

Arylos: Le Survivant

["What makes you think Kelemvor knows you better than us?"

Before Volahk's question, Arylos turned his back. It took a few acolytes to restrain the leader of the doomguides stationed in Neverdeath while Vesper Soulhearth stayed his silence.

"Tell him, Arylos. Tell Volahk what you know," said Orran, the second in command standing between his irate friend and the impudent ranger. When Jergal's avatar had announced the unthinkable, not even Vesper could believe it. Here was a ranger, neither a cleric nor paladin. Here was a wood elf, one who would have worshipped the Seldarine had fate dealt a different hand. As it turned out, Kelemvor declared Arylos as a Chosen of his.

"Try being a deviant like me then, old man," replied Arylos, his tone betraying neither arrogance nor joy, "Try surviving the hell known as Wheloon. If you can get out alive after a week, maybe I'll tell you."]

My apologies for the asymmetrical alignment. It's a no-brainer that I'm a tech idiot. Anyway, above images are a show of how I did the gear and moveset. To maximize the usage of Berserker's Rage, I chose Forest Ghost and Disruptive Shot. Class features wise, I opted for Aspect of the Lone Wolf and Seeker's Vengeance (the latter being the off-hand artifact weapon power). Clear the Ground and Split Strike were the at-will powers with Fox's Shift, Plant Growth, and Hawkeye completing the setup. I'll explain this further later on.

Above images are the movesets after I restored the full Fey set (also, please don't mind the cat. Crytt happens to be Arylos' critter). The first image was the prototype version with the only changes being Plant Growth replaced by Hindering Strike and Disruptive Shot replaced by Seismic Shot. Also, I have to replace Split Strike with Aimed Strike due to the main hand artifact weapon power (for now, I'm not interested in spending astral diamonds for the cubes of augmentation).

Then I realized one thing. Not the 6% outgoing heal bonus proc'ed by Fey-Touched, but Rousing Warmth being my choice of final Icewind Dale feat. 

As a melee HR, I'll need to focus on the defensive end for the heroic feats. At the same time, Swift Footwork is a must as using a melee HR without a hefty load stamina means a swift burnout after a brief workout. As for Predatory Action, there's no point for that since Le Survivant mode is for solo/open world PvE. Endless Assault stacks extremely well with Lucky Blades plus the action points gain is a very good bonus to have (plus Berserker's Rage). Overall dps wise, Disciple of Dexterity is a must. Max it out, no matter which HR build you do. Coupled with Fluid Hunter, Piercing Blade, Battle Crazed, and Scything Blades, the dps increment can be a monster to behold (and that's not taking into account Assassin's Covenant).

As for the boons, I opted for a stamina-defensive based setup with critical severity being the only notable exception (due to Vorpal). And that's not to mention Assassin's Cree... erm, I mean Covenant. Rampaging Madness and Elvish Fury are there to add some much needed muscle together with Elven Ferocity. Enraged Regrowth (by right, at least) should proc AC since it will automatically grant 4000 defense post-heal. Abyssal Strikes is good for doing added damage in any demonic heroic encounters/quests, but perhaps I should have chosen Demon Slayer instead...

Displace Fate is that last line of defense, the jailbreak mechanism. Rousing Warmth is a no brainer due to a combination of Survivor's Blessing and Oak Skin.

Ultimately, open world PvE is all about surviving rather than going yolo. Yes, you'll need to have a decent dps game. But top priority still goes to surviving. Hence, Le Survivant.

Up next: It's obvious that this post is taking up too much space for my personal comfort. Next up, the remaining boons and Le Tacticien.

Loadouts (basically the story of how I spent 3-4 hrs trying to it right)

Okay, so it's maintenance time right now. I still remember the time where the player base for Neverwinter was like around 2 million or so. That was when we got another Icewind Dale mod in the form of Storm King's Thunder and Sea of Moving Ice. Then out of the sudden, this happened.

It's quite mind boggling to see a jump of 10 million plus gamers from that point of time till now. If this isn't proof of how much The Cloaked Ascendancy did right, I don't know what else is.

A/N: Is it possible that Irfan Bin Fandi Ahmad has also become a fan? I still remember Irfan the great weapon fighter 1-2 yrs ago. And I think he's still there. I mean Irfan the great weapon fighter, not Irfan the footballer.

Let's talk about the business model

Since the game first launched in 2013, Cryptic has been buggered by accusations of doing the pay-to-win model. PvP, in particular, was badly affected since it's more common to see kids with high-end gear winning the majority rather than the true blue pros doing the same thing (basically an absurd show of paradox pertaining the pay-to-win method). Thankfully, Gauntlgrym PvP was a much fairer deal than Domination.

In addition, every gamer will always try gunning for the highest rank possible when it comes to epic enchantments. Just when you thought the max rank stops at perfect, they came up with pure and transcendent. Then we have the lockbox keys where arguably majority the spending has always been focused on.

So what did the previous Mystra mod do right and what can we expect from this current Kelemvor mod?

Previously, the legendary dragon keys were worth the square root of sod all. Period. Gamers would rather spend campaign currency on the second chest keys. Period. Not so now. The current astral diamonds income system has gone from normal to abysmal, from abysmal to abnormal. The new invocation system was a good safeguard from botting. After all, Diablo 2 was done in by rampant botting all over the bnet last time round. The revamped invocation ushered a potential astral diamond rush never before seen since the insane days of planar idols and astral resonators. Ironically, it also means alts can earn more rough astral diamonds in a single full farming run (i.e. 2 dungeons, 2 skirmishes, and 2 Domination PvP matches).

At the same time, usage of legendary dragon keys also resulted in a massive deflation in the auction house market where you can easily buy an epic mount there for like only half a million with legendary mounts costing like only a few million.

I have mixed feelings about this when it comes to mounts. On one hand, you can't fault players for feeling shafted after farming so much Tarmalune trade bars. One epic mount of any type costs 2400 bars. Then the next thing you realized, that Sylvan Stag you bought for 2.4K bars will only fetch you like 300K to 500K astral diamonds on the auction house. What this means is that more autonomy is being given to the zen-astral diamonds exchange. You can't really blame the devs in this context since the currency exchange is all about the zen sellers calling the shots (Been since day 1 tbh).

On the other hand, however, you can never outrun the aggro by riding a mount on a rare mount speed. Already, galloping at 80% speed bonus would still ensure a 50-50 chance of getting aggro in Sharandar and Dread Ring (let alone Icewind Dale) in mod 6. Right now, you really have to ride at the epic mount speed of 110% speed bonus to stand a decent chance of outrunning any aggro in the River District (in particular, Gyrion's artillery units are very damn annoying due to their blue fire DoT bs). Still a 50-50, but at least it justifies the absurd deflation in the auction house economy when it comes to the epic mounts. To those who have yet to hit the River District, you've been warned in advance.

By this time, we should have realized the legendary dragon keys have become the bedrock of Cryptic's business model for Neverwinter together with the lockbox keys (and to a lesser extent now, the strongbox keys). By saving time, this new economy strategy ensured more gamers opening the second chests in any campaign raids (e.g. Throne of the Dwarven Gods, Lair of Lostmauth, Kessell's Retreat, and Demogorgon). Apart from Throne of the Dwarven Gods and Prophecy of Madness where the second chest loot has a 50-50 chance of being mediocre, the rest of second chests have a higher chance of dropping better loot. As a result, plenty of stuff in the auction house can be sold at less than 10K. Case in point: I got a green Amnian horse via the second chest, I ended up doing the horse-trading for 4K+ astral diamonds).

So what can we expect from the current mod? Firstly, I don't expect the mass deflation to abate anytime soon at least. After all, Cryptic has yet to tweak the aggro when it comes to riding past them with a rare mount speed. Which is a good thing even though it means the only way for gamers to earn a profit via selling an epic mount is to buy a Turmish Lion and sell it for like 1 million (which is not surprising given the Combatant's Maneuver insignia bonus being rarely available).

Secondly, it's already very evident that Cryptic is now expanding its current business strategy to loadout slots (500 zen) and buyable inventory slots (full list here). If you want to opt for the quick fix option, you can try out the auction house for the Dragon Cult Pack since I'm expecting more gamers to raid Tiamat's temple of doom like Indiana Jones this time round. If you still don't know the relevance between inventory slots and individual gear used in the respective loadout, you're even dumber than a cleric worshipping the god of failure.

A brief note on loadouts

By default, you have two loadout slots available by the time you hit the end-game level of 70. Problem is, you'll most likely need at least 3 loadout slots. Which means you'll need to spend at least 500 zen.

The reason why being Storm King's Thunder and Sea of Moving Ice requiring everfrost resistant gear. Not so much when it comes to running the open world content, but rather the fact that raiding Fangbreaker Island and assaulting Storvald's Svardborg requires at least 28% everfrost resistance. While every character may have already gotten a default 4% everfrost resistance (at least I noticed the mathematics doesn't stack up correctly when it comes to having only 2 everfrost resistance kits worth 3% each), it means having a full set of SOMI artifact weapons would only give you a total of 6% everfrost resistance. If I'm to use Arylos as a reference, it means only 16% everfrost resistance. Of course, if Arylos chose to imbibe a greater potion of everfrost resistance (something which is perfectly in-character for a military genius since he thinks like Archer and Kiritsugu), he would have broken the so-called 28% glass ceiling by reaching 30% everfrost resistance (if I recall correctly, greater potion of everfrost resistance will give you 14% bonus in everfrost resistance). Then again, you'll most likely need to slot in one stack of such potions in your potion slots anyway.

As for whether to allocate one loadout slot for Demogorgon fights (not so much for the normal, but for the epic version), it depends. If you're comfortable with using your main, then I'd say just reserve the third slot for Fangbreaker Island and Svardborg. However, this option would require either a 3 piece Dragonflight set bonus or a 2 piece Dusk set bonus in order to maximize your chances of getting gold for epic Demogorgon (and together with that, higher chances of getting great loot in the second chest).

If you want to create a third slot for running stuff like Fangbreaker Island, Svardborg, or even any open world instance for mod 10 and 10.5, I recommend getting a 2 piece Frostborn set bonus if you have enough Tarmalune trade bars. Wanderer's Vigor helps a lot as it will reduce your dependency on everfrost resistance whenever you're running open world instances while you'll really need that 25% chance of getting an extra Ostorian relic in order to maintain your mod 10 gear. If you want to limit your loadout slots at two, however, then you must be prepared to spend considerable time farming voninblod (either by running the relevant campaign zones or purchasing 200 voninblod on a mass buy basis from the Riverfront area at the River District since the merchant there is now officially open for business).

If you're wanting play PvP, be it Domination or Gauntlgrym (since Icewind Dale is too much of a free for all to be considered strictly PvP), then it's obviously best to reserve one slot for your PvP gear. In fact, the change in challenge level is already evident in the light of the new mod. Which means PvP is most likely affected as well.

A/N: Apparently, the servers are still being knackered. Hence, the current maintenance going on right now. It's not every day that you get two shard maintenance sessions in a row.
~dated: 5/5/2017 (Singapore time zone)

2nd update: The servers are still knackered after maintenance.

3rd update: Connection is now horribly mutilated. I don't know whether the fault lies in a lack of foresight when my family opted for SingNet before I started my gaming life or just plainly the fact that no sane online gamer should ever choose SingNet in the first place. Then again, my entire connection now has the tendency to take a temporary trip to Kelemvor's Crystal Spire whenever my sis starts streaming her Korean (or whatever) stuff.

Any lesser human being would have screamed at her regardless of whose fault it is.
Not me though.

Tactician and Survivor: Arylos

Basically, it took me 3-4 hrs to get right the entire loadout process. At least somewhat. Firstly, I realized Heart of the Blue Dragon was worth the square root of sod all. Period. The good part in using it lies the counterattacking usage behind the triggered effect. The bad part is that this potential aspect of a melee hunter ranger gameplay is worth nothing compared to what Assassin's Covenant can give you. In other words, I'm actually better off using the four artifacts listed below (in no particular order).

Sigil of the Devoted, Sigil of the Hunter, Sigil of the Trickster, Forgehammer of Gond

The problem with Heart of the Blue Dragon is that it lacks power. Out of the 3 stats, only recovery is useful due to lower cooldown and more action points gained. Critical is a moot stat because I've got enough of it (not to mention as well that any artifact main/off hand weapon got critical and recovery as the key stats). Combat advantage would have been good if not for what I've said in the beginning of this paragraph. Period.

Ultimately, the counteroffensive shock it gives is NOT worth my time and effort beyond the need to test drive its effectiveness. Now that I've tested it long enough, I'll just use to max out my Gondhammer come the next double refinement event in late June.

1-2 hrs ago, I decided to do an Arnie on my tactician loadout.

Because there's nothing broken about survivor loadout, hence no need to fix it.

I decided to switch tactician loadout to the classic hdps hunter ranger build. Yes, you've guessed it. It's now strictly archery mode like this vid below.

Because the connection remains mutilated enough to screw up my image upload, I decided to explain every single damn thing word by word.

Firstly, let me state the irony behind the Great Korean Screwjob (or whatever). While it would have driven any gamer up the wall and beyond the parapet, the grossly mutilated connection revealed how much of a strategist I'm meant to be. In the process of doing the paragon feats, I was stuck between two options. Either I max out Bottomless Quiver or Stormcaller's Arrow. The former would have given me plenty of firepower anywhere across the DDR (read: Dept of Dps Rampage) while the latter looks like a less attractive option. Insanely enough, I actually opted for Stormcaller's Arrow.

The final outcome? I thought the Great Korean Screwjob had screwed me up badly during my last skirmish run (i.e. Master of the Hunt) before the timer reset. As it turned out, I was actually hit with a double whammy. The mutilated connection ensured I would be more than 10 steps behind the rest, the same manner of connection ensured two disconnections in a row plus that damn message in red. The irony is, Stormcaller's Arrow was the reason why Arylos managed to hit 2nd spot in the dps ranking despite the insane odds being stacked against yours (and his) truly.

As for survivor mode, I opted for defensive boons and a great deal of stamina. Hopefully, I can upload the relevant screengrabs tomorrow (that is so long my sis doesn't pull off the Great Korean Screwjob [or whatever] on me). Let's just put things this way first: I got Assassin's Covenant across both loadouts.

P.S: The final part of this post were actually done after my sis quit killing the connection. Also, the servers were also mutilated together with the connection. Asked my alliance mates after our last Dragonflight run or so, they gave me an affirmative. The problem now? My dad's junk making plenty of noise because my bedroom has become a gadget garage of sorts. He should have realized by now this son of his was born abnormal.

Add P.S: Because I'll most likely be able to restore the entire Fey set by tonight, I'll need to do some testing. Hopefully, I can up the screengrabs of my total recalled loadouts asap.