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movedraptor5913 · 8 months

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Let's talk a bit about Refraction Railway 2

I'm like a month late on this post, but time means nothing when the track loops infinitely (or at least until the next one comes out). I'm going to give a few thoughts and insights on bosses and mechanics that appear and try to scrape what useful info I can out of my 157-turn first clear. Note that this won't be super in-depth info, just some useful stuff.

Get to the point, how hard is it?

Well, I can't answer that accurately, as I meta-played my way through my first clear (Charge team hits hard). If we compare it to Mirror Dungeon 2 Hard, I'd say it waves around the difficulty of floor 3's fights. The challenge mostly comes from doing it quickly and with few options for healing. There aren't very many attacks I would consider to be "use EGO or die" like there are in later stages of MD2H, but there are some like that.

Overall, if you can consistently clear MD2H in a reasonable amount of time, you probably don't even need my advice to get a sub-200 run. Just take your Mirror Dungeon dream team and send it. If you can only get about halfway in MD2H, you can honestly still probably do this, albeit with some effort. The only caveat about team comp worth mentioning is that Tanks aren't very necessary. You mainly need to worry about winning clashes and hitting things very hard.

As for EGOs, it's a good idea to have some healing ones available like Fluid Sac, Pursuance or Lantern (Sinclair). Fluid Sac will always be the best option for this since it affects everyone and also restores SP. You'll also want some AoE EGOs, if possible, as they'll help trivialize some boss summons and hit multiple parts. Overall, EGOs are going to play a large role in lowering your turn count and keeping your DPS high, so bring a variety, if possible.

About looping

If you're like me, you expected the line to loop from start to finish every time. Well, I have good news and bad news. The good news is you don't have to do the full rotation every time. The bad news is that you're going to see those first three bosses more often than you'd like. Each loop adds more stops until you reach Cycle 5, but you'll always start with the same three bosses. Before we get into them, let's talk about-

Choosing Buffs

Each loop, you'll get a selection of 2 buffs: one for you and one for the enemies. The buffs you choose might not seem huge at first, but you start to feel them as time goes on. Ally buffs you pick will be unavailable for the next loop, but you can pick them again the loop afterwards. Enemy buffs are chosen once each until loop 5. You also get a free revive at the end of Cycle 4, in case one of your units drops dead before you enter the final fight.

For Ally buffs, you'll want to work around your playstyle. Have a lot of a sin affinity or damage type on your field team? Pick buffs that correspond to those. Mileage with effect buffs may vary, as some bosses have caps on how high the count can go for certain effects. I'd strongly suggest not going for the one-off heals if you can avoid it, as you're getting that heal at the cost of DPS in a mode that encourages DPS. If you take a hit you don't think you can recover from via passives/EGO in a fight, there's a retry button built in now. A case can be made for picking Heal All on the stop before Terminus, but that's only if you think you need a full heal before the final boss.

For Enemy buffs, my order is Opportunistic, Inhaling, Accelerating, Thirsting, Hardening. Opportunistic is basically free. There's rarely a point where you don't want to deal HP damage to the enemy. Accelerating and Inhaling are both mildly annoying but can ultimately be relatively harmless. Thirsting and Hardening sit better at the end since Thirsting drains your resources faster and Hardening makes the fights longer. What order you pick them exactly should depend on what you're most confident won't have a high impact on your turn count, but generally, this is what you're going to pick.

The First Stop - So That No One Will Cry

The name apparently stems from it beating you to death. Nobody can cry when they're dead.

The Talisman Doll is the first boss of the railway. This first encounter is probably one of the harder fights due only to a lack of resources. This fight will mark the first and most noteworthy instance of my personal mantra for low odds clashing: "They only need to lose one coin toss." When you clash with multiple coins against bad odds, try to ensure you can at least beat their lowest roll with just one coin.

The Doll will enter a block phase on turn 3, during which it becomes near untouchable. During the block phase, you can use sinners with Curse Talisman on them to attack the blocking parts to force larger stacks of Reattached Talismans on the doll. The event gives it 5 Reattached Talisman on success, so you can either give it 6 beforehand to inflict Bind or give it more than that to give it Attack Power Down. Breaking its arm reduces its Attack Power by 1.

The only scary part about this fight beyond getting your sanity up at the start is the three 17 +2 *5 hits it does on turn 4. It having 10+ Reattached Talismans reduces the coin power by 1, making it 17 +1 *5. Use either EGO or a sufficiently big normal hit to clash, because the Doll's multi-coin attacks hurt.

Steam Transport Machine

If you put a faucet on it, it'll be a time sink in more ways than one.

This dude is the first big sack of hit points you'll fight. It gains bonuses depending on the current total turn count of the run, gaining Protection and Attack Power Down on even turns and Fragile and Attack Power Up on odd turns. Later on, it gains a passive heal and extra skill slots.

Break its Steam Blaster to make it gain Fragile every time it gains Poise. You can't target the blaster once it breaks. Once its main body breaks, it gains Ineffective resistances to everything, and the fight slows to a crawl as your attacks do .25x damage. You'll want to dump as much damage as possible into it the same turn you break the body. Any attacks after that are going to be entirely dependent on Fragile to deal meaningful damage.

Alternatively, you can stack damaging debuffs on it, such as Burn, Bleed, Sinking or Rupture. Burn and Bleed have limits on their stacks against it and Sinking does half damage due to it being Gloom affinity, so Rupture works best of the bunch. Hex Nail can also be useful here if you're running a team with a lot of Envy or Pierce damage.

Drifting Fox

Whoever keeps giving that fox umbrellas, can you knock it off? It's getting angrier.

The Fox itself is pretty straightforward: clash the hits, punch the face. The only noteworthy part is the umbrella summon phase, where it Counters and gains Thorns (reflect 50% damage dealt). More umbrellas are summoned each cycle. The umbrellas power up the big scary hit that occurs the following turn (adding Clash Power +2 to a 16 +6 *1 attack), so kill them quickly.

Big AoE EGOs (Sunshower (Yi Sang) in particular) are useful here on later cycles, even if you accidentally hit the Fox's counter. If you're creative with your targeting, you can wipe out all the umbrellas in the same turn with a combination of AoEs and normal attacks while minimizing stray hits going to the Fox. While I don't know if it changes anything for sure, you can use faster units to take out surviving umbrellas before clashing with the big hit.

Cycle 1 - T Corp. Class 3 Collectors

Unsurprisingly, the only humans in the otherwise all-monster lineup feel a bit lackluster by comparison.

T Corp is the only fight with an enemy sanity gauge in the entire railway, but it only goes down with Sinking. Not much to write home about here in terms of difficulty. You know the drill.

If they end the turn with 6%-24% health, they'll be back up to 80% next turn, so try to knock them to around half on turn 1, then wipe them out on turn 2. On my first run, I fairly consistently killed them in 3 turns due to the healing mechanic until I got used to dealing with it. From Cycle 3 onwards, there's a second wave. It's just the same two dudes again, so 2 turn them again.

Cycle 2 - Faelantern

I have no joke. This is a DPS check and nothing else.

At the start of the fight and any turn when the Fairy is alive, some of your sinners will be charmed and unable to deal damage (the number of which increases with Cycle count). You can't clash with anything until the Fairy dies, so just hit it.

Deal enough damage to kill the Fairy in a turn, then nuke the tree. The Fairy revives the following turn unless the body is staggered. Rinse and repeat until the tree dies. Not the most interesting fight.

Shock Centipede

"Even in death, I stall."

Shock Centipede is a straightforward fight with its main gimmick being Self-Charge. It gains Self-Charge at the start of the fight, at Combat Start with most of its skills, and when it hits you if you have Charge. It having high Self-Charge means it gets more shield when it coils up and its big scary hit becomes bigger and scarier. When it uses High Voltage Discharge (the big hit), try to delay it to the end of the turn to prevent it from benefitting from the Self-Charge it gets at the start of combat from its other skills. When it coils up, hit it in the head to wear down its self-charge. Break its Head to remove its passive Protection and reduce the amount of shield it gets from Coil Up. If you fight it with an Envy-heavy team like I did, Hex Nail can be helpful here. Otherwise, you'll want to have someone who does good Gloom damage or inflicts Sinking to exploit its Gloom weakness.

When the Centipede dies, it doubles however much Self-Charge it had and become invincible. At this point, all you can do is win clashes to wear it out faster. In the best case, you can try to kill the Centipede during a Coil Up to skip this part.

Cycle 3 - Fairy Gentleman (Cycle 4 + Fairy-Long-Legs)

Take a breather, this one's on the house.

Nothing to talk about here, really. Break his arm and take the wine when it's available. Let him use his big scary hit to hit a Tipsy sinner for 0 damage and take the free stagger on him that follows. Just don't let the Tipsy sinner get targeted with multiple big hits, because only the first one will be 0 damage.

When Fairy-Long-Legs joins on Cycle 4, break his arm to lower his Attack Power. When he summons his clover, ignore it and deal with Fairy Gentleman and his gimmick first. FLL will stand there spamming Counter until the clover is destroyed. Just try not to let either of them heal off of you while the clover is alive. Alternatively, kill FLL before he gets the chance to summon the clover. The goal is to get one down before the other.

Cycle 4 - Wayward Passenger

Local Dead Space extra misunderstands "Make us whole", makes holes.

Break its blades to reduce its damage and limit its ability to charge. Be mindful of its Counter and manage who you want to eat the hit from it, because hits are going to hurt this far into the run.

After turn 2, it will disappear and leave behind portals. Break these within 2 turns. If you need to decide which ones to prioritize, focus on the green and blue portals, as they buff Passenger's health and coin power respectively if left alone. After the portals go away, it reemerges and can be hit again. It'll disappear again after being exposed for a turn, but breaking all the rifts forces it to expose itself early. The Passenger's big scary hit is High-Speed Rip Space, which powers up the more rifts you fail to close. You'll only have to deal with it when the Passenger is <30% HP, so it's not unmanageable.

Terminus - Sign of Roses

No matter what happens, at least it'll be over fast.

Sign of Roses gets more health but deals less damage the more cycles you wait to fight it. On turn 2, the Sign summons 7 Roses. This is where you'll want to spam AoE EGOs to kill them quickly, as each flower does a fixed 25% HP in damage to whatever sinner is attached to it by the color of their skill 1. You'll want to kill red Roses with a relatively weak hit, as the damage that kills it will be dealt back to the attacker.

The event that repeats throughout the fight has three outcomes: Refuse to dye the flowers to reduce the damage taken and damage dealt by 10%, Accept to either increase damage dealt and damage taken from the color used to pass the check by 10% or, on a failed check, have nothing happen. If you're going for speed, there's no reason to not Accept every time and just nuke its flesh once the threat of the Roses is managed.

End of the Line

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I'm definitely going to have to challenge the Railway again to see one of two things: Can I do it with a lower turn count, or can I do it with a more specialized team? My first clear was a Charge team and that's the current meta (W Corp Don/Ryoshu and Rabbit Heathcliff are the epitome of "hit it very hard"). I'm currently in the process of building a Sinking team, but I might wait until the 10/11 patch to actually use it since Sunshower Heathcliff is getting his Protection changed. A Rupture team would also be fun to try, but I'd need more resources to get that team uptied.

My only complaint is that solo/<7 unit fights are dead since you can't gain skill slots in RR2, so we can't meme on the bosses as hard anymore. Imagine the madness that could have ensued now that Sinclair can heal himself with Lantern corrosion. (As I write this, I found this clip of Yi Sang soloing the doll. Solo boss memeing isn't quite dead yet, it seems.) Otherwise, I think Refraction Railway 2 is pretty alright. It's a bit of a time investment and it's still the gameplay you're likely used to at this point, but it's something different to do.

#limbus company #refraction railway 2 #if you want a summary #85% of it is just “go face”#33% also has the caveat of “wait for the right moment”

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crystalelemental · 6 months

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Teambuilding Prep - Grass High Score

Alright, I sat the last two out as far as score went, but I like Grass type a lot, and have invested a lot into them, so I'd like to take a stab at it. So what do you do, Grass High Score?

The general conditions of this run are Time (over 10 minutes is 0 points, 1 minute is max value), Max Damage (20,000 is max score), and Total Hits (50 is max). Activating Sun is a 1000 point conditional, while Main Character and Nature Lover are the second 1000 point condition.

For Sun, SS Erika, Lyra, SS Acerola, and Adaman are able to call it. One stage will not get Sun without losing too many points to be worth it, and all four need to be used on different teams for maximum effect.

For Main Character, we have Brendan, Rosa, SC Rosa, Dawn, Lyra, SS Lyra, Selene, and Lodge Gloria. Some good, some really bad.

For Nature Lover, we have Adaman, Gardenia, Erika, Ramos, BP Erika, and Selene.

Adaman and Lyra fulfill both conditions by existing. The other three teams will need to have one of the others listed.

Vs. Ramos Ramos is weak to Poison, with Dark and Fairy sides. The only note is Sp Atk Down. No passives seem to be focused on this requirement. There are no special rules. Ramos is a straight brawl, with little in the way of frills.

Though not perfectly attached to this, I'm going to say let's go Shauna. She's as good on special offense as physical, so this works well for her. SS Erika makes sense as the partner. This removes a lot of Erika's buffing needs with Sun, saving it for later in the match. Given the relatively poor speed of the team though, I'm going with SS Lyra. I think the inclusion of Terrain is highly valuable for this team, allowing Erika to hit as hard as possible, and providing some nice disruptive effects from Lyra's sure flinch. It's at least slightly wasteful on Lyra's own buffing potential, but I think this is fine.

Shauna, SS Erika, SS Lyra (Sun, Main Character, SS Erika beatdown, reliant on Sun MPRs)

Vs. Erika Erika is weak to Fire, with Psychic and Bug sides. Her stage condition is that she is immune to status and interference. The tools to watch for as Endurance and Paralysis, with Stun Spore Troublemaker but no Go Viral, so as long as center tank is immune to Paralysis, you're good. Erika is one to nuke. Endurance causes problems, so getting past that is critical. You also really, really want Lithe on your tank. Notably, Erika's stage, including sides, is almost entirely Grass.

It's Winter Sycamore time. He's got tremendous resistance to Grass, and can run Lithe. This is the absolute perfect time to run him. Boosting crit and literally nothing else is a bit awkward, though. However, self-sufficiency is possible here, so we're taking SC Rosa. Her debuffing is ideal in a fight largely dedicated to special offense, the Potion spamming keeps the team running well. The third is harder to say. Sadly, we're out of good partners given the other stages. There's no striker to help clean up. Given this, we're either going to slot in Lodge Gloria or Brendan. Quick offense capping to make use of the crit rate and all.

Winter Sycamore, SC Rosa, Brendan (Main Character, tanking approach)

Vs. Mallow Mallow is weak to Ghost, with Fire and Ice sides. Her warning is using physical moves, but to be honest, I don't see that much difference. Her offense is Ghost and Fighting centric, but beyond that not much to note. Oh that's why. Her stage condition is special attack being significantly reduced. Good thing Grass is mostly physical.

SS Acerola feels good here. She's not getting too many Grass moves thrown out, and nothing is special. Her DPS stacking works well with Selene, who gets us the Main Character trait, and has Ghost DPS. Yes I am saying I may invest in Selene for this fight. I'm thinking Mallow as the third. High sync potential, good DPS pressure, needs the Atk boosting that Acerola provides and responds well under Sun. So I think that's the team.

SS Acerola, Selene, Mallow (Sun, Main Character, aligned physical focus)

Vs. Gardenia Gardenia is Fairy weak, with Fighting and Poison sides. Gardenia's focus is Fighting, with Stone Edge for funsies and Pinpoint Entry 2 so she won't miss. Her allies have Poison, so you desperately want Antitoxin on the tank if possible. Stage condition is -2 move gauge, which is manageable. The condition of the stage says to lower Atk, and you know what that means.

Dawn is the tank for this fight. Pure physical, lowers their attack, natural Vigilance means Status Immunity. Dawn is perfect against this. While it's an odd choice, my picks for the others are Lyra and SS Leaf. Leaf has great survival potential in this comp, and all three run Vigilance to block the Sure Crit. Lyra sets Sun, and under said Sun, can reliably cap all of SS Leaf's many, many needs. It's a very, very slow grind, but I think the raw bulk this team produces will carry them through.

Dawn, Lyra, SS Leaf (Sun, Main Character, high emphasis on debuffs and survival with status play)

Vs. Cilan Cilan is Bug weak, with Flying and Steel sides. Cilan himself is all Grass, but his allies have Fairy and Water, with Ludicolo in particular having Rain on entry and Flood Alert 5, meaning a change in weather is appropriate. Cilan...also has no special rules. Huh. You know, after Fire's ridiculous conditionals, this one feels very tame.

Since we have yet to break him out, I think it's Adaman time. The man needs for absolutely nothing, so we're going to go Lodge Blue and SC Sonia. Blue has a nice flinch rate to augment his lack of EX, while Adaman takes every sync for the pressure. A DPS focused Defense Crush build from Sonia allows Adaman to hit like a complete tank. Adaman's Sun immediately counters Ludicolo's rain. Blue gives Sonia the needed Atk boost. Sonia needs speed, and Adaman doesn't touch gauge, while Blue has good speed boosting tools. They're highly synergistic.

Lodge Blue, SC Sonia, Adaman (Sun, Nature Lover, generally ridiculous levels of physical power)

#teambuilding prep #high score event

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dlamp-dictator · 7 months

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Okay, so I told myself I would try and get Railway done by the last last week of Season 2 since I was still mostly dicking around with my teambuilding and not making anything meta out of stubbornness, and that day is quickly approaching. Originally I was going to be lazy and just use W Corp because Charge is busted, I have Don Telepole, and I will play Meta if it means getting through a bad/annoying series of fights over with faster.

However.

I also want to at least try and be original and do something a little out of pocket, to beat this challenge my way using strategies and units I personally like using or want to use. To that end, before I ultimately cave and just Uptie 4 Warp Don for the mother of all Charge Teams I wanted to give Railway an earnest go the way I'd prefer to. And my inner Hod is acting up this week so I'm going to try and built a (Non-N Corp) bleed team.

Keep in mind I'll be bring all these units to Level 35 over the week and possibly going to Uptie 4 a few of them, namely Ryoshu and maybe Meursault. I wanted to hear the fandom's opinion before I dive into this.

That said, here's the quick summary of this team.

Yi Sang is here for Crows Eye View to buff Don and Meur's clash/coin power with that much needed haste boost.

Don is here for her good clashing numbers and declaring duels.

Heathcliff is actually more on support than a mainstay since I don't feel like dealing with his ammo.

The Zwei IDs are there to tank and Faust fuels her own Fluid Sac.

Outis is an emergency tank/rupture gal.

Ish is here to support Yi Sang's sinking if need be.

Okay, onto the breakdown.

Yi Sang: Yi Sang is going to be the on the active team is probably the most important member of the team. Along with his good clashing and Sinking application for chip damage, Crow Eye View practically required for this team so I can boost Don and Meursault's speed and let them access their extra bits as they hit +7 speed. Sunshower being a good AoE ego also helps.

The Bleed Team: With the understanding that I'm going to be pushing hard with the bleed team characters like Kurokumo Ryoshu, Rhino Meursault, and Hook Hong Lu are a must. I was debating between Tingtang and Hook, but since I have little in terms of bleed potency already I went with Hook Hong Lu. I'm hoping that Hong Lu can put in the work for bleed potency, but I can't be sure sense I only use him in mirror dungeons at the moment. I know Steam Machine's gonna' be a pain with their Bleed-Cap, but that's what Seven Outis, Molar Ish, and Yi Sang are for in case the first round with it feels too tedious. I'm tempted to put Heathcliff on the bleed team, but I'll be saving him for when I really need his Quick Supression since I can not afford to lose an expensive unit like him early on. and I can actually do stuff with his support passive with this team.

The Tanks: From what I've gleamed Zwei Faust and Zwei Gregor sync well with each other, and I'm gonna' need some damage sponges and Aggro because I can NOT afford for ANYTHING of the DPS units to die in this run. Everyone is too vital to go missing save for maybe, ironically, Rabbit Heathcliff. Faust is especially useful since she fuels her own Fluid Sac and the only thing we're really hard pressed on is Envy, but overall have units with good clashing so it shouldn't be too bad.

The Extras: Rabbit Heathcliff is here to get 45 Sanity on the first boss, then spam the shit out of Quick Supression to delete Steam Machine ASAP. Ironically, he'll be the one I'm saving until maybe the third or fourth cycle. I need at least one DPS unit I can switch out at any given time and Heathcliff is too valuable to risk losing early on. This is the same mentality I have for putting one Seven Outis and Molar Ish. Seven Outis is mostly here as an emergency unit with good clashing just in case I either lose a tank near the end or when I feel like I'll really need that spammable base EGO rupture chip damage. Molar Ish is there to help support sinking with Yi Sang along with also having good clashing power. Mostly emergency units at the end of the day.

The Supports: I have no good Rodion or Sinclair IDs, at least for Railway, so I'm gonna' be using base Rodion's passive and if I have the thread to spare I'll Uptie Zwei Sinclair for his surprisingly decent support passive. Heathcliff is ironically on the support team too since he can boost quite a few of my units with this time with his pierce boost, namely Yi Sang and Ryoshu, but Hook Hong Lu might get some usefulness out of this too if I play my cards right (or wrong).

And... that's the team. Any thoughts so far? Anyone I should Uptie 4 first before I dive in? Is this actually going to be possible or am I'm just screwed and should Uptie 4 Warp Don for MAXIMUM CHARGE TEAM to get through this?

#your dictator is speaking #limbus company

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t00thpasteface · 1 year

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Do you play ESO? :O what’s your character in it like?

omg i have. a lot. i'm putting this under a readmore.

my main is my magsorc dps Henrietta Wensleydale. she's the Demiprince of Shenanigans and half-altmer daughter of Sheogorath, the eldest of my three sisters; my hok Suzy Q Sweetroll is the middle sister and my ldb Minnie the Moocher is the youngest. Henrietta is in an it's-complicated with Naryu Virian and she loves to cook. she's bold, brash, loud, and a dedicated holder of grudges. title: Captain

jere's Em Balmer, my altmer magcro dps. she is so so so fun to play in cyro because she uses a lot of combos involving corpses and self sustain; i put a few points/abilities into things like healing nearby allies and gave her the aoe rez ult to help with capping. she's a goth who got into necromancy for the aessthetic, but she comitted too hard to the bit and is slowly turning into tamriel's hottest lich. all the necromancy and graverobbing started giving her some godawful nightmares, so she started worshiping Vaermina to try and bargain for better dreams; it hasn't paid off yet. somehow, she's dating Mirri Elendis. title: Expert Excavator

my beautiful powerhouse stamdk tank, Opens-Doors!! she's the best. she always gets me instant queues for any kind of dungeon event and she doesn't afraid of anything. she grew up in the black marsh and lived as an egg-tender for many years, never having kids of her own but becoming something of an aunt or godmother to generations of hatchlings. she had something of a midlife crisis and decided it was time for a change, so she packed her bags and headed west to look for a new life of adventure, but her motherly instincts are still her biggest motivator and she's always reminding her fellow mercenaries to eat their vegetables. title: Locksmith

Pachin-ko, my stamblade stealth bomber. if i'm playing pvp and not using Em, i'm using this girl. she grew up in northern elsweyr; her mom basically raised her on her hip and taught her how to get by with as little as possible. since she went her own way, she's become something of a thrill-seeker, always looking for that big break that'll let her settle down for real, so she's always thinking up a get-rich-quick scheme and skipping town to avoid paying her gambling debts. she met Opens-Doors in Leyawiin and they've become inseparably entangled since; Pachin-ko brings a sense of direction to Doors' wandering ways, and Doors keeps Pachin-ko from backing out of promises or betting everything on black. title: Paragon

my werewolf warden, Chuck Backstrap. she has so much wasted potential... i got her to level 50 literally two weeks before they rolled out that update that changed light/heavy attack damage and completely nerfed werewolves. :(

my alliterative breton Betty Braveheart is my one healer and hardly gets any playtime because i like killing and taunting stuff way more :') title: Battleground Butcher

last but not least: Joe Crabshack. he's my dumbass gag character with whom i do all my fishing. his lore is that he is so completely bland and uninteresting that people are compelled to loathe and shun him practically on sight. he doesn't notice or care. i bought the Sleek Creek House and painstakingly turned it into a beautiful seafood restaurant and bar just for him! my dream is to someday beat vet hardmode castle thorn just to get him the "Inedible" title, but we all know that's not happening anytime soon...

#'what about puts-dispenser-here' he's a gag character and not even level 50 he doesn't COUNT #shebbz shoutz #shebbz screenshotz #tes #eso #tes oc #oc henrietta #oc em #oc pachin ko #oc opens doors #oc chuck #oc betty #oc joe #ask

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pangolinheart · 1 year

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So when did you decide to make Rhiki a dark knight? Since you can't start the game as it she had to have started as something else. Did you pick up drk as soon as you could? Or was it a while after playing HW?

Thank you for the question! <3 I never actually intended to make Rhiki a dark knight and it wasn't really high on my list of classes to try. When I originally created the character I envisioned her as more of a cheery and spritely magic user - she really doesn't have the look or the type of personality I associated with a classical tank. FFXIV was the first MMO I had ever played, though, so I wanted to start with a class that was easy to learn. A friend who already played recommended Dragoon so that was Rhiki's original class. I still really like the Dragoon quests and I feel like they give you a little bit of context for the things going on in Heavensward. I ended up sticking with it rather than switching to a class with a more mischievous and magical vibe. Around the time I finished the main story quest for hw-proper, though, I had maxed out drg (before the level cap was raised for ENW) and I didn't want to waste msq exp by continuing to do the main story as dragoon. I had played around with a few other dps classes but wasn't really sold on any particular one, so I asked the same friend that had recommended drg what she thought I should try next. I had been kind of live-messaging her my thoughts about Rhiki's mindset and feelings from the end of arr through hw. She said "I think the dark knight story would really appeal to you." I was kind of apprehensive about tanking (it seemed like a lot more pressure than dps and a lot of people said it was the hardest role) but she offered to help me practice!

So I gave it a try and story-wise it fit absolutely perfectly into where Rhiki was as a character at that point; I hadn't known anything about the drk quests prior to doing them but it was so closely aligned with all of the specific hang-ups and emotions that I had always attributed to Rhiki that it felt almost custom-made. Honestly, if it hadn't been for a lot of the emotional catharsis that goes on in the drk job quests there was a small possibility that Rhiki would have given up on being the Warrior of Light and I would have made a different character, because it was kind of hard to imagine her bouncing back as quickly as the msq kind of expects you to.

And honestly I ended up really liking tanking. It's definitely my favorite role to play (though admittedly I've never tried healing because it scares me.) Drk and gnb are also kind of dps-tanks so it wasn't too different from drg. The only problems are 1) 90% of tank armor is ugly and bulky and 2) rhiki has to be goth now, legally (it's in the contract i don't make the rules.)

I haven't quite maxed out drk levels yet so I'm not sure what I'll do when it happens. I do still like dragoon, and it's what I usually main in savage/ex content (at least until I max a tank class.)

#ffxiv #final fantasy xiv #asks and answers #rhiki tag #thank you for the ask! it's been a long time since I switched to drk so it brought back fond memories #what you expect with drk: become an edgy vigilante with a fuck-off big sword #what you actually get: a heartfelt story about self-acceptance self-forgiveness parenthood and the power of love #i love tanking but i'm still to scared to heal

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feralphoenix · 1 year

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WELL! finished my first run of steam edition yggdra union the other day, so as promised, heres the final roster as of the bf48 setup screen:

no surprises for anyone here i think. yggdra’s stats maxed out at level 17 in this playthrough as is inevitable for the best allied unit in the game. she would’ve maxed even earlier if the game didnt remove mvp bonuses when she rejoins the party at the beginning of chapter 5 but that never matters in the end, So Like

FUNNY STORY: i decided to work on item manual completion this run which actually requires you to actively use milanor a lot during the early game, which led to a lot of hashtag milanor-typical mvp theft... but the rng distribution this time was unbelievably funny and gave him like all atk and luck, never MIND that if theres ever any stat milanor ACTUALLY needs its tec to make sure steal always works. so despite being capable of decent dps/tank work he STILL wound up useless, just in a highly atypical fashion compared to the usual on my save files where hes stuck in mostly 4s and 5s lmfao

nietzsche ate one (1) zero reset right before level up while i was shaking off the rust of not having played for, like, 8 years or something, but also look at that hottt gen score. tank mermaid. will probably try this again for future saves where i dont have to leave my doping items to rot for item manual completion and when i dont need to raise durant for item fetching purposes

old reliable... roswell always winds up as such a solid damage dealer whenever im able to give him proper attention. if you prefer aggro tactics why ARENT you going with roswell as often as possible. he and yggdra took point most of the time on this file, with a little help from...

elena, who was absolutely the goat here; relatedly, sorry about everything, elena. a fun thing to do if you like to use elena is to make sure you get the rainbow arc from her in bf17 with steal and then actually equip it on her in chapter 8 and let her clean house/rake in the mvp. Im Sorry Elena. yggdra and milanor have to pay for her therapy sessions now i think

guess who ALSO got an inopportune zero reset while i was still shaking off the rust... mistels stats always suffer when youre letting your doping items go bad for collection purposes but it doesnt help that one of the best of those is locked to 2nd playthrough onwards, so whatcha gonna do

i played on hard mode because it was there and other difficulty levels are honestly way too easy for me, but since pamela & golden dozeu are locked your first play on steam regardless of difficulty i took these caps on bf48 because i assumed ending d would be 2nd playthrough onwards exclusive too.

IMAGINE MY DELIGHT WHEN I WENT FOR ENDING C AND GOT A NORMAL RESULTS SCREEN... means i am forced to play normal mode AFTER all to get ending c, but i will never turn down a surprise trip across heavens gate because i love to go hit hector with sticks. “youre not actually hitting him with sticks” ive sent yggdra to go do it and i Will join nessiah in yelling YAAAAAAAAAAS QUEEEEEEEEEEN SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY from the back row of the bleachers while she does that.

anyway.

over 80% item manual completion in one run is not bad for the first run after an 8 year blank. dabs. its good to be back. sting please put gloria union and blaze union on steam too

#yggdra union

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raisengen · 1 year

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Might have gone a little too hard in milking FFXIV’s free trial. Oops, maybe.

It’s interesting to compare the different classes at these levels, though. There are the obvious things, like how they try to make different classes feel different, but particularly I’m interested in how some classes are more feature-rich/complicated than others, and whether it’s intentional.

Tanks: the difference between Dark Knight and Paladin is like night and day. DRK unlocks a main combo that regenerates MP and HP, and big dark magic blasts that maintain a damage buff*. The difference between playing PLD at lv16 and Lv50 is two generic-looking oGCD attacks. You can’t even meme boss attacks with Sheltron any more...

I suppose there’s some small mercy that it makes it harder to get tanxiety when you don’t have much to do other than press your mitigations. Still, I’d trade that for actually getting to use white magic.

Healers: low-level Scholar is cruel. Your fairy has enough healing to sustain a party, so you’re stuck tapping your two attacks for the entire dungeon. It manages to be worse than playing the main story as a White Mage.

Astrologian is the only class that feels too busy to me right now, thanks to the card mechanic. Draw card, recognise effect, identify appropriate teammate, select teammate, use card, get back to work, every 30 seconds. It feels like too much hassle for what amounts to a ~1% party damage increase at best. I expect (hope) it’s fun for other people, though.

DPS: I can’t complain about feature disparity here, because there are enough DPS classes to cater to everyone. Ninja is playing DDR while Dragoon is playing hopscotch, but that makes learning new content more comfy with DRG.

Crafters**: it’s a good place to dump money when you’re capped at 300k. Buy items from shops and turn them in to grand companies for EXP and seals. I run Coerthan UberEats for the Ixal now.

#arrxiv #Posting this stuff more as 'newbie perspective' than proper analysis #*since the buff is 100% uptime and free it's basically a placebo #but placebos still work if you let them #**I don't want people to think I actually like them

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yeojaa · 4 years

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( SOMETHING COMFORTING. )

Jeon Jungkook loves Overwatch, drinking games, and Halloween. What he loves more than that? You.

pairing. gamer!jjk x named f!reader.

genre + rating. idol!au set in room filled with bunnies and a cotton candy machine that’s exploded. it’s just that fluffy. (but also explicit cause why not.)

tags / warnings. established relationship, gaming (overwatch), dorky weeb references, mentions of drinking, yugyeom makes an appearance (!!), fingering, soft soft soft love making in the shower.

wc. 9.7k

beta reader(s). the lovely @kerikaaria read through this to make sure i didn’t get too nerdy. tysm! 💛 i may like further changes once my beloved @hobi-gif gets her hands on it but i’m a potato who wanted to post this quickly. oops...

author note. this fulfills the “jeon jungkook” square of @btsholidaybingo‘s bts holiday bingo 2020 and this is the couple from angels & airwaves. while this story isn’t super plot-driven, it’s meant to be a little peek into the lives of a couple that live in my mind rent-free and continue to make me soft and gooey inside. i hope you enjoy it!

You don’t know how he talked you into it or how it really happened. You remember, faintly, the mention of a party. Something about it being a small thing - just a few close friends, the members, etc. He’d said it so offhand, like commenting on the sky or asking for another package of Choco Boys, so you hadn't given it a second thought. If it was important, he’d bring it up again and if not, well, you hardly remembered it anyway. Win-win or whatever.

So you’d given up some intelligence points, traded them for space to fit more gaming knowledge. Somewhere along the line went your memory too - the conversation wiped from your brain like Will Smith had lasered it clean.

“Zarya’s one! Zarya’s one—“ You’re not sure how many times you can repeat yourself, shrieking through comms to a team that doesn’t seem to want to listen. You’re blasted into oblivion, Mercy’s prone body launched across the map as you watch your Rein fall too. There’s an irritation bubbling in your stomach, fizzing uncomfortably like the Japanese honeydew soda you’d had at lunch. “Zarya’s actually one!”

No one cares. She’s healed by the time you respawn and make it back across the map.

“Jesus—“ Your push-to-talk remains off for that flippant comment, distaste colouring your words a bitter shade of blue. You almost want to let your Ashe get headshot by the enemy Widow, only switching the stream from damage boosting to healing when your teammate starts spamming their hotkey.

I need healing! I need healing!

What you need is a team that listens to your calls or at the very least communicates in some way. Doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen though. There’s near radio silence in the voice chat, the only other person remotely helpful being your bouncing booping Lucio that’s trying to keep a flanking Tracer off point. Stupid. You almost feel bad for him, Guardian Angeling to him when no one else seems to want to offer any support.

Ah, the life of a support player in masters ranked. So infuriating and yet— nope. Just infuriating.

You lose the first round with 1:56 to spare, to no one’s surprise. Okay, maybe to your Reinhardt’s surprise. He’s being surprisingly chipper in text chat, sending WP and a dorky smiley face. You think he must volunteer at the local animal shelter and buy coffee for the people behind him in the drive-thru. He’s far too well-adjusted, not shooting off a single accusation to anyone on the team. A silver lining, you suppose.

Your second round starts well enough. Your comp is solid - as much as it can be in the current off-tank dominated meta. Hog, Zarya, a private profiled GM Widowmaker, Tracer, Lucio, and you as Ana. You’d prefer to play Mercy - find the most comfort in her skill set - but on an attack map, you’re not risking a headshot right out of spawn. Broken maximum damage good stuff means healers are squishy and you don’t have your usual DPS to boost. (He’s off doing god knows what - maybe filming an ad for Samsung or breaking the internet with his permed man bun.)

You make it through the choke without much ado. The enemy Rein is wildly out of position, eager to make some big brained play that goes terribly wrong. Your Lucio chuckles through voice and you join him, tossing a nade when your Zarya looks like she’s about to die to a poorly executed 360 shatter.

“You winning?”

It’s your boyfriend peeking over your shoulder, so close you nearly scream, mouse launched across your desk with the intensity of your reaction. You hadn’t heard him come in, the stupid sneaky bastard as quiet as a mouse.

(It’s not your own fault. He knows you can’t hear anything when you’ve got your headphones on, the noise cancelling in your state of the art Sennheisers not something to scoff at.)

“Jeez, Kook!” You want to be more mad. Really, you do. You’re scrambling across your desk to retrieve your mouse, squeaking a quick apology into team voice when your hero stays in one place for too long. Luckily, Hog - previously sweet kind Rein - throws his big fat piggy self directly in front of you, effectively saving you from an otherwise miserable death at the hands of Torbjorn.

“What?” Jeon Jungkook has the audacity to look scandalised, shiny eyes so wide and innocent they feel more as if they belong in an early 2000s anime.

You’re not even looking at him when you huff - too invested in your Overwatch game to give him the hell he deserves. All you manage is a swift don’t scare me like that! as you pump your tanks back to full health.

You notice Jungkook hasn’t moved away, still peering curiously over your shoulder. You know he hasn’t had much time to play lately, too involved with appearances for their comeback, his schedule too packed even for you some days. You don’t blame him when he pulls his chair up behind you, rolling into place so he’s just within your periphery.

It’s a little distracting; he smells good, like his - and by extension your - favourite laundry detergent and a fruity, nectarine-heavy shampoo you’d picked up for him when he’d run out of his usual. You notice then that his hair is wet, just the wrong-side of too damp with droplets beading over his neck. Moisture soaks into the top of his shirt and you think it might be more soaked than you can see; it’s hard to tell when it’s a jet black shirt, one of the many he keeps in your closet for the nights he stays over. You realise then that he must’ve been home far longer than you’d thought, if his freshly washed pink cheeks are any indication. (Because he takes seriously long showers, nearly doubling your water bill in the year you’ve been together.)

You want to ask what he’s doing here - you’d sworn he was busy for the next few days - but can’t find the adequate brain power to do so. You’re playing an incredibly high skill character (your words) and if you don’t get this goddamn shot on your Lucio to keep him up, your team is going to die (your ego’s words).

‘Ask Kook about his day’ gets scribbled on a paper on the desk in your head and filed away under To Do Later in your overflowing brainiac filing cabinet.

“Can we pleaaaaase focus their Zarya? She has grav.” Though you offer the tidbit of information, you don’t assume it’s going to be relied upon. Your team is well on their way to taking first point - surprisingly - and there’s still nearly three minutes left on the clock. If the six of you idiots can keep it together and kill that goddamn Zarya, there’s no doubt in your mind you’ll win the game.

Alas, fate is but a cruel mistress and said Zarya gets said grav off, sucking your own Russian tank and Tracer-turned-Soldier into her hell void. Not even your well-timed nade can save them from the Genji that dragon blades directly into their faces. Your poor Lucio dies to the same ult and you imagine you or your Widow are next. Your Hog’s just respawning, his lumbering silhouette not even on screen.

“Rip,” says your boyfriend - like the sound, not the letters - from beside you, a droplet of water splashing across your wrist when he shakes his head. He looks disappointed - as if he’s the one that’s lost the match. It makes you laugh, the sound tripping off your tongue despite the overwhelming rage you’re currently battling.

“Rip is right,” you mumble back, tossing yourself off the map. If you’re gonna die, it'll be on your own terms. Jungkook chuckles at that.

By the time you respawn, both you and Widow are joining a fight that looks like it’s going surprisingly well. There’s no one on point and you’re capping uncontested. Widow even headshots a wayward Moira.

“You should go top left.”

You don’t turn your head. Jungkook’s always been a bit of a backseat gamer, whether he’s watching your stream while he’s out of town or sitting right beside you. Sometimes, you love it; other times, you hate it. Most times, though, he’s right. He has surprisingly good game sense, despite being lower ranked than you (something you remind him of constantly, without shame).

“Can we go top left?” You parrot into your speaker.

For once, your team listens, most of them running up the sidewall with Widow right down main. Not for the first time you wish you were playing Mercy, if only to be able to damage boost your sniper while she distracts the enemy team. Still, you make due, taking your boyfriend’s next piece of advice when it comes, unsolicited. “You should be back right by the stairs. You can see up the hall and still heal Widow on top.”

You’d kiss him if you weren’t so intently focused, unable to tear your gaze from the screen when the enemy team seems to pluck their strategy directly from Jungkook’s skull and hold conservatively on point. Amazing.

“Your Zarya has grav. She’ll probably throw it on point so you should nade as soon as you get in and Widow can pick them off without full charge.”

If he were anyone else, you’d probably be giving him hell for mansplaining your favourite game to you. As it stands, you follow his instructions to the letter and the Team Kill marker flashes across your screen.

“Told you,” he quips, ever the snooty dork you adore.

“I was going to say thank you.” Just not right now. You can’t multitask quite like he can.

If you could look over, you think you’d see him grinning from ear to ear, buck teeth and dimples on full display. “I know.”

As it stands, the other team has trouble getting on point fast enough and you’re left with a whopping 3:56 left on the clock. Thank freaking god. You can win this, you think. Easy. No problem.

“Go Ana on defense.” At some point, Jungkook had gotten up to find a snack and he returns now, bag of shrimp chips in his hand and packet of matcha Pocky held between his teeth. You open your mouth for a stinky tasty treat and he shoves four crisps in, unceremoniously and with his signature dummy grin.

You manage to crunch crunch crunch through it all but shoot him a glare the entire time. He only smiles wider, all perfectly white enamel and enough cuteness to make your heart skip a beat.

“Do you just want to play?” You don’t mean it seriously. You don’t mind him watching and you know he enjoys pretending like he’s better than you. It’s a strange give and take but one that’s uniquely yours, built over nearly a year of online friendship and another year of a real-life relationship.

“Nah, I’m snacking.” He punctuates his response as a child would, shoving a handful of chips into his mouth. You wonder, briefly, why you love him so much when he’s a certifiable goon.

The third match begins and you’re not too proud to say you spend most of it following Jungkook’s directions. He tells you to sleep the enemy Genji trying to scale the right wall - you do. He tells you to nade once their Rein gets in because your own Rein is going to shatter - you do. He tells you to do the macarena and— okay, that, you don’t.

You sweep the match, leaving the other team without a single tick.

When it comes to the final round, he seems to have lost interest in the game, instead rolling himself back to his computer with a parting, wayward ruffle of your hair. You don’t blame him but you thank him nonetheless, blowing a kiss before he settles his headphones over his ears.

You, of course and unsurprisingly, win the game. There’s nothing like using a Sym portal onto point when they’ve got a Bastion set up off point and no shield to protect him from the back.

Satisfied, you don’t bother requeueing and instead force yourself into your boyfriend’s personal space, draping your arms across the idol’s neck as he scrolls through YouTube like a zombie. “We won,” you sing-song into his ear, proud and a little smug.

“Of course you did.” He sounds equally smug and you suppose the win does belong to the both of you. He’d been a great coach.

“What’re you doing here?” It’s pure curiosity offered in the form of a kiss to his cheek, fingers locked across the broad expanse of his chest. He’s delightfully warm beneath you, familiar and unyielding as you sink over the back of his computer chair. (You can feel the chair creaking as it reclines. You don’t care.)

“Whaddya mean?”

The look he levels you with makes you think you’ve grown a second head.

“Your schedule said you had a thing tonight.” You remember, because you’d been disappointed. Halloween was one of your favourite holidays and all you’d wanted was to watch some campy horror movies and use him as a personal eye shield and security blanket combo.

“We have a thing,” he states, like he’s talking to a moron. You know it isn’t meant meanly, too emphatic and amused to hurt your feelings.

When you echo his words (“We?”) you swear you see him roll his eyes in the reflection of his computer screen. Luckily, he laughs, sweet and cracky, somewhere high in his throat - a barking hyena. It’s so cute - your favourite thing in the world - that you don’t have it in you to shame him for it.

“Yeah, we,” Jungkook repeats around something close to a snicker. “Halloween party, baby. Seriously— you forgot?”

It’s then and there you have two crises: (a) you don’t have a costume and (b) Halloween party? You didn’t think idols had those. Weren’t they all too hip and cool to get together to dress up and act stupid?

(You know the answer is no. Exhibit A being the costume-wearing dance practices BTS put out.)

“I don’t have anything to wear.” It’s truly the one thing holding you back, creasing the soft skin between your brows to resemble a peach. It’s also nearing seven in the evening and you’re absolutely certain you’re not going to find something so late in the day.

To your surprise. Jungkook looks flabbergasted, that same you-have-two-heads stare wrought across his face. It’d be endearing if it were directed at anyone else but with it trained on you, it’s rubbing you and your confusion the wrong way. Why’s he looking at you like that? Why’s your memory so bad? Why hasn’t he said anything to answer all of life’s questions?

“You said you’d go as witch Mercy.”

All at once, you’re pulled back to the offhand conversation, the pleading in his eyes, your half-asleep acceptance. It’s the memory you’d lost somewhere along the way in upgrading your in-brain video game storage. A conversation had in bed, his cheeks so big and full of joy they’d waned his eyes into crescents, and your uncoordinated answer because you’d just wanted to go to sleep and not think about anything after indulging in a few too many mochi cream buns.

“I— don’t remember that.” You’re lying through your damn teeth. Your parents would be devastated, all their hard earned money wasted on the braces-straightened enamel that was now letting lies pass.

“But you did!” He’s like a kid being denied candy, rounded bottom lip dropping into a pout that should, frankly, be illegal. It’s far too powerful on him, paired with those Bambi eyes that scream don’t eat (hate/deny/etc.) me! You can only scowl at him, because you know your own puppy dog eyes only work 100% of the time half of the time whereas his track record was immaculate.

“Okay, but I forgot to get the—“

“I have it!”

Jeon Jungkook has an answer for everything, it seems.

“I picked it up on the way here. It’s in your room along with my costume.”

The knowledge of his own intrigues you, squarely centring your curiosity on that and not the fact that you apparently need to get tested for early onset dementia. “Who’re you going as?”

“You’ll see.”

Your costume is spectacular. You can’t even find it in yourself to put up much of a fight when your boyfriend reveals it like you’ve won the lottery, throwing his arms wide in a flourish.

It’s incredibly well made, intricately tailored in a way that makes you worry how much it costs. (When you bring it up to him, Jungkook simply shrugs. You think it’s as much a gift for you as it is for him.) It’s witchy and eye-catching, the belt hung across your hips clipped with an actual book - hollowed out, thank god but also poor thing. The hat that sits on your head is neatly crumpled, sitting at such an angle you worry whether you’ll need to avoid too-low door frames. Your wings - well, you’re almost too afraid to touch them; Jungkook has to help you pull them over your arms, falling into near hysterics when you twitch your elbow the wrong way and smack him right between the eyes.

“I don’t think I can pull this off,” you state, somberly, despite the fact that you’re not terribly self-conscious. (You were, once. Being in a relationship with someone that worships your body has helped with that.)

The top of your outfit is fitted, boned and ribbed and snapped together in all the right places. Leather stands in stark contrast to your skin - summer-soft and gently golden - and hugs curves that don’t quite exist, falling short in a way that has you glaring down at your own chest. You’ve never wanted a Playboy body but in this sort of costume, it practically demands it. (You try not to dwell on the fact that you’ve been conditioned to want to look like an impractically designed video game hero.)

From the foot of your bed comes a snort, a derisive sound that draws your attention. Jungkook’s unabashed in how he admires you, stare roving over every inch like he’s about to devour you. You’re not sure how you can feel so soft for him when he looks completely the opposite, jaw set and expression sharp. A Greek god carved from hardened honey, dressed in Balenciaga blue. “You look great, angel.”

Your heart skips a beat - plays a funny little game of tag with itself - and you can’t help the smile that comes, brought to life by his reassurance. It isn’t necessary to rebuff him then - eyes rolling, laugh spilling - but you do it anyway. “You have to say that. You’re my boyfriend.”

“I don’t have to say anything,” he retorts, levelling you with a look that has your insides molten. It’s the look that reads don’t test me but also I love you and you’re my idiot. It’s your favourite look in the world, lending wings to your flimsy heart. “You look great because you always look great, no matter what.”

“What about when you found me in the shower ?”

Jungkook hesitates then. He’s no liar and he had almost had a heart attack the first time it’d happened. He’d been minding his business, half-asleep and battling the need to piss, when he’d noticed you curled up in the bathroom. How he hadn’t realised you were missing from bed, he’s not sure. All he knew was that you’d terrified him, mentioning something about invading refrigerators when he was pulling his dick out of his boxers.

His scream was what had woken you up; yours was what had him bashing his head into the wall, foot slipping on the soft pink bathroom rug. You could laugh about it now but at the time, you’d thought he’d cracked his skull right open, shouting his name so loudly the neighbours had complained.

(Lucky for you two, they were a nice elderly couple who sometimes had you babysit their grandson. They’d laughed it off when you’d apologised with a loaf of fresh bread and a bandage wrapped around your boyfriend’s head.)

“Okay— that was scary. I thought you’d crawled out of the drain or something.” A shudder rolls through Jungkook’s body, shaking him from his shoulders all the way down to his knees. It’s a strangely adorable reaction from someone who looks like he could bench press you.

“You’re calling me the Grudge?” You’re deeply offended, gloved hands clasping over your chest as if to pull out the treacherous dagger he’s just lodged there. He only rolls his eyes, leaning forward to catch you in his arms; he’s relentless as he drags you to him, side of his face pressed to the bare skin of your thigh. His cheek’s searing but you’re not surprised; Jungkook ran hot, keeping you warm in winter and sweltering in summer. (Ah, the price you paid for love.)

“Yeah, you haunt me in my dreams.”

“That’s not the Grudge, Kook.” Your scoff earns you a pinch, right where the top of your stockings end. It blooms red beneath his fingers, a little reminder of his competitive I’m-never-wrong nature. You swat his hand away, not too bothered when it only finds a home elsewhere, hooked behind your knee. Jungkook had a habit of needing to be in constant contact. A little quirk of his you adored.

“I’m serious. You look—” You should clock the look on his face, the wiggle of mischief up his nose. A dead giveaway shining bright - a beacon. “—bewitching.”

If the book weren’t attached to your hip, you’d be clobbering him with it. Instead, you’re left to whack him with the equally intricate Caduceus staff, booping it over his shoulders. You feel like a certain shamanic mandrill, Jungkook the idiotic lion that’s asking for an earful.

“Shut up!” You’re laughing despite yourself and he is too, holding you so recklessly close it’s hard to hit him without hurting yourself. All part of his plan, you suppose. “You’re so freaking corny.”

“It’s because I’m a-maize-ing, ang—”

Another wap! to the head, shielded only by a tattooed hand that curls over his ear.

“Okay! Sorry!” Except he doesn’t look very sorry. More pleased that you’ve stopped the assault, dark hair pushed back from his forehead as he stares up at you. You hate how he’s so handsome - how you forget yourself when he smiles that smile, nearly yeeting your whole heart directly into the sun.

“Are you going to put on yours yet?”

It’s quarter past nine already and all you’ve done is rope him into eating some chapaguri - you’ve been obsessed with it since a few weeks ago - and play real life Witch Barbie. You have a feeling if you don’t get him into his own costume soon, you’re never going to leave the apartment. (Not that you really mind.)

Your boyfriend - bless his heart - pretends not to hear you, suddenly intently focused on an indiscernible spot past your hip. It’d be more believable if he was glued to his phone or doing anything remotely interesting. Instead, you stare down at him and count the seconds until he realises just how silly he looks. It usually comes around six, paired with a forced chuckle and that lisp you love.

Today, it comes after the fourth count.

“You’re gonna think it’s lame.” Well, of course you will. As his girlfriend - and one of his best friends, you’d like to think - it’s your relationship-given right to shame him for his more often than not absurd ideas. It’s what you deserve for suffering through all his bad jokes and 3 AM Instagram spams.

With a hand on his cheek, you squeeze the apple like you’ve seen a certain member do a million times. “So?”

He’s not really sure how to respond to that, mouth drawn into a pout that reminds you of children’s television show about penguins. It’s unfairly adorable. Still, you push. Jungkook’s bad at saying no to you - always has been, even before he really knew you. From “one more game!” to “bring me bingsu”, you always got what you wanted.

(Which wasn’t to say you asked for a lot. You were happy - more than that, ecstatic and over the moon - with the bare minimum. A selfie while on the plane, some shoddy cinematography during dance practice, a voicemail to wake up to. You didn’t love Jungkook for all the things he gave you; rather, you loved him for who he was, who he’d always been even before you knew who he really was.)

“Don’t laugh.” By the look on his face, you’re worried it’s something awful. The cheesiest thing in the world come to life to haunt you on your beloved spooky holiday.

It turns out to be the opposite: one of your favourite characters realised in the form of your achingly handsome boyfriend. He looks so good you’re not certain whether it’s your attraction to him or him in that particular guise that’s stronger. You figure it doesn’t matter one way or another. For tonight, they’re one and the same.

“Joker? Seriously?” You can’t hide the delight. It colours every syllable, sets them glowing like a neon sign.

Your boyfriend only rolls his eyes, as if he’d predicted this reaction. Dressed as he is, the movement is impossible to miss, brought into focus by the white domino mask. “Don’t sound so excited.” It’s an actual concern of his. He’s seen you sink upwards of ninety hours on the video game, playing it in the early hours when he’s fast asleep and you’re battling another night of insomnia.

Once, he’d asked whether you loved him or Joker more. He hadn’t liked the answer (joking as it was) and had spent the better part of the evening pouting.

This time, you’re sweet as pie, eyes so dark and twinkly he wonders whether he’s staring at the night sky. You wonder the same yourself almost every night, lost in the constellations of his irises. It’s the most intimate form of stargazing you can afford, a luxury you indulge in frequently. You’ve mapped the different formations, named them in honour of all the special moments you’ve shared; you think to label one for this night too.

“You look so good.” You don’t hesitate to brush his hair from his eyes. It’s still relaxing from the perm he’d gotten days ago, curling like classic calligraphy over his eyes. It’s surprisingly soft between your fingers, silk despite the constant heat styling. Bastard. “I can’t believe you’re going as Joker. You don’t even like Persona 5!”

By how Jungkook looks at you then - the same way he did the first time you met standing on the street corner in Dotonbori and a hundred more times since then - you realise it doesn’t matter. He’s dressed this way because you like the character.

“Oh,” you say, because there’s not much more to say. Nothing that needs to be said as he grins down at you, so heartbreakingly handsome you’ll never get used to it.

“Yeah,” he parrots back, a little smug.

Bangtan’s golden maknae is having the time of his life. He’s four cups deep into a game of beer pong that’s played like the Wimbledon classic, back hunched, jaw set. You’d think he was battling it out for the title of God of Beer Pong if you didn’t know better. (You suppose he is.)

“Angel, come here!” He’s giddy - slightly glazed in the eyes - as he waves you over, a red-gloved hand beckoning you to his side. Despite how good he looks in the costume - every weakness of yours encapsulated by the intricate dress shirt that hugs him like a second skin - the gesture is decidedly adorable, an eager puppy seeking unconditional love. There’s simply too much affection in his voice, so much sugar-spun love that you can’t deny him (even as you consider jumping his bones at a party full of people).

He’s shining as bright as the sun and you want nothing more than to live within his warmth.

With your fingers twined, he pulls you to him, drawing you tight against his side like he doesn’t need that same hand to throw another ball. You don’t mind. You know he’ll sink it even with his left hand.

“I’m winning,” he states, as if it weren’t wildly obvious by the fact all cups remain untouched on his side.

Across the table, Yugyeom’s eyes roll so far back you want to laugh. Jungkook’s competitive side is endearing at best and infuriating at worst. Luckily, his competition is enjoying himself too much to give him shit.

(He’s also probably too drunk to, given how badly he’s doing.)

“I see that.” You’re not a big drinker yourself but you like seeing Jungkook in his element. He thrives in this sort of setting, showing off all the talents he has and then some. It’s just another stage to him, somewhere he can prove himself (even if it’s over something as small as how good his bounce-shot is). “How many games have you won?” Because he’s been at this table for the last hour, dropping his competition like flies.

“All of them.” God, his ego. You know you shouldn’t stroke it but you can’t help it, brushing a hand through his tousled hair in the way he likes best. Fingers over his scalp, thumb rubbing soothing circles across the nape of his neck. He nearly melts then, tilting his head into the gentle caress.

“Good job, Kook.”

You’re so lost in your own little world that poor Yugyeom has to pull you both from it, launching a poorly-aimed white ping pong ball at the two of you. To no one’s surprise, it careens past your heads, hitting the wall behind you and disappearing off to god knows where.

“Can we play?” Again, that eye roll, visible just past the bandages that loosely wrap his cheeks. You know he’s only teasing, that he’s actually quite a fan of your and Jungkook’s dumb coupling (he’s told you), but you return his mockery with a raised hand, thumb and forefinger waving in salute.

“Losers don’t get to complain.”

The idol throws a hand to his chest, the gesture bordering on sloppy from the liquor that threads his limbs. Still, it’s cute, earning a sweet laugh from you and a witch’s cackle from your boyfriend. (How fitting.) “I’m hurt, Yoojin-ssi.”

It’s Jungkook’s turn to tease, brattiness flipped on like a haywire lightswitch. “No, you’re just bad at games!” He’s a sniggering schoolgirl, lines wrapping the delicate skin of his nose, streaking joy into the wrinkles beneath his eyes. Slightly-too-big front teeth are on full display, his expression the embodiment of an “uwu” emote.

That riles Yugyeom up, powder puff of hair bounding over to you before you have time to blink. In the next moment, your boyfriend’s half-wrestling with him, their arms locked around each other like some sort of weird four-limbed octopus. (Video game protagonist vs. hot mummy— who will win?) You jump back just in time, avoiding a wayward fist and laughing merrily. Idiots, the both of them.

“You guys have fun.” And then you’re gone, off to busy yourself with people who won’t accidentally give you a black eye or knock over the nearest thing not bolted to the ground.

You can still hear them tussling when you latch yourself to the back of a certain blond. He’s dressed like one of your greatest nightmares - an actual clown, drawing inspiration from a certain 2017 blockbuster - and yet somehow still manages to look good. You don’t understand it and frankly, you’re a little envious, but such was life.

“Jimin-ssiiiii.”

“Ahhhhhh, stop!” It’s the same reaction he always has, paired with wiggling shoulders and sweet laughter that bounces around the room and stirs to life your own. Indisputable and lovely, the sound is brighter than the sun or the lights that currently swing through the chandelier lights above your heads. “You two are ridiculous.”

“He’s ridiculous, not me!” You know it isn’t true. Separately, you and Jungkook were idiotic enough, finding humour in the silliest things (funny threads on r/Relationship_Advice and four year old Vines). But together? It was a two-person circus, graduate professors at clown college.

You absolutely loved it.

“Sure, sure,” the dancer hums, delightfully disbelieving as he takes another shot. One of three lined up across the counter, clear in little orange cups made to look like pumpkins. A whiff tells you they’re strawberry soju - your least favourite flavour. You decline with a wrinkled nose and waving hand when he offers you one. Jimin shrugs and downs the next, delicately wiping the corner of his mouth when he misjudges the pour. “Aren’t you drinking?”

You wiggle the half-empty Cass bottle in your hand in response and receive a scoff, different bottle - green, unopened - thrust into your other.

“Drink this!”

“You want me to drink an entire bottle?” You’re incredulous. Jimin’s seen you on the edge of intoxication and more than a little sloppy, giggling like a schoolgirl. It’s not unbecoming - you know better than to get blackout - but laughable nonetheless. Something to record and post on Snapchat with a voice-altering filter.

“It’s Halloween!” The pumpkin shot glass makes you go cross-eyed before he’s knocking it back too. “Live a little!”

Who are you to say no to the recent birthday boy? It would simply be bad manners and you were nothing if polite (though, you’re sure some might beg to differ - Yoongi, maybe?).

The remnants of your beer are swallowed down in the next moment, so quickly you almost choke on it. Your life flashes before your eyes, Jimin’s hand on your shoulder as he beats breath into your body. “Don’t die!”�� He cries, despite the fact that it’s his fist that’s making it worse, doubling you over with hacking coughs.

“K-Kook’s g-going to kill you—”

“No, you’re fine.” He’s reassuring you just as much as himself, laughing too loudly as you straighten up. You wonder how red your face is when he takes your place, slapping his own knee as he shakes with amusement. “Your face, oh— Your face.”

It’s not meant to be offensive but your buzzed brain demands payment for each giggle.

The base of the green bottle collides with the back of his knee - gentle, gentle - just hard enough to have him properly toppling over, collapsing onto the carpet like a frail old grandpa without his cane. You can’t help the snicker that careens off your liquor-laden tongue.

That is, until he’s pulling you down with him and the two of you are a giggling, giddy mess, tucked beneath the edge of the bar as you laugh together. It’s a chorus of sound, unrelenting and building the longer you both sit on the floor. Jimin’s practically hunched over, head caught between his propped up arms. You imagine it’s a funny sight - two people in their twenties acting like college freshmen.

“Baby?” It’s your boyfriend, amused and confused as he stares down at your and Jimin’s prone bodies. He’s got that dent between his brows, the colour of his eyes all but swallowed up by the way his cheeks press wide with his smile. “What’re you doing down there?”

“Just hanging out,” you answer, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. At your side, Jimin’s still trying to collect himself, parroting your words around his lungfuls of quieting laughter.

“Are you drunk?”

You’re not, but that doesn’t stop you from gasping, overdramatic and with your unopened bottle of soju held aloft. A modern day olive branch. “No?”

Jungkook snorts and then all at once, he’s close. Too close - smelling of beer and your favourite cologne of his, citrusy and woodsy and every other nice thing you like. It fills your senses just as his smile does, blindingly bright and bunny-like. Even behind the mask, his good looks take your breath away. You must be staring up at him idiotically, all one hundred and sixteen pounds of ooey gooey tenderness. “You sound drunk, angel,” he teases, warm red-covered palm coming to cradle your cheek. It sears heat everywhere it touches, guiding the same hue over your skin. It creeps up your chest and over your ears, standing in contrast to the material of his gloves. “Pretty.”

(He really is, you think.)

“Get a room,” comes Jimin from beside you. There’s no malice in his voice - just soft affection for a couple of lovesick idiots.

“That’s the plan,” Jungkook replies, as if he’d been waiting for the moment. It skips off his tongue and settles into your ears, tipping your head curiously as you stare at him. He’s never been very shy about wanting you - at least, not since you’d made things official, so many months ago - but you’re surprised by the insinuation. When he speaks again, you realise your brain has been rolling around in the gutter, fallen out of your ears like candy from a worn pillow case. “Want to head home?”

You do. You really, really do.

When you stumble into your apartment - the same one with the polka-dot welcome rug and crisp white paint - you realise you were perhaps wrong about how drunk you are. Everything’s coming at you quite quickly, the ground beneath your feet somehow suddenly rushing at you like Mach Five.

“Whoa—” There’s an impossibly solid warmth against your back, fingers locked around your wrists that feel more like flimsy chicken feet. “Careful.”

Your boyfriend’s keeping you upright while stepping out of his boots - impossibly expensive supple dark leather - and you’re giggling all the while, practically sinking against him as he does his best to shuffle his shoes away and get you further into the hallway. “Sorry,” you offer in a terrible stage whisper, smiling wide when you catch sight of his, small and endlessly amused. It slips across his face even as he tries to bite it back, warring with the patience he holds in spades.

“Let’s just get these off.” He means the boots - the intricate, vaguely absurd things that creep up almost the entirety of your leg, neatly wrapped and knotted midway up your thigh. Dexterous as he is, it’s a task to unravel the strings and thread buttons when you’re weighing on him like a bag of bricks.

You’re fumbling for the tops, haphazardly smacking his hands away. “Here, let me.”

Somehow, you manage to get them off in what feels like record time. (In reality, it takes a good five minutes of futility before they’re left on the ground and Jungkook’s swept you into his arms, seemingly over waiting for you to do much else.)

“Oh, my prince charming,” you tease, clinging to him like a koala. You’re locked around him, practically suffocating him, but he doesn’t seem to mind. He’s used to it when you’re this way, just a little too much liquid courage turning your level of affection to eleven. “Or are you the court jester? That’s what Joker is, right?” It’s a joke and a bad one at that. Still, your boyfriend indulges you, depositing a forced laugh against your shoulder as he navigates to your bedroom.

“You’re drunk.” He says it more kindly than you expect. Perhaps even more kindly than you deserve. You know he’s not exactly sober himself, his gaze verging on heavy-lidded. There’s sleepiness blending seamlessly with intoxication, softening the edge of his jaw, the narrow of his stare. It’s terribly tender, skipping your heart when you look at him dead on.

It comes without thought. You have to tell him. Your drunk brain and your puppy dog heart demand it. “I love you.”

Jungkook returns the confession with humour, eyes sparkling despite the haze of alcohol that dims them down. As always, he indulges you, giving you support in the form of his heart and his hands. (Literally, he’s still holding you even though you’ve reached your destination.) “Love you too.”

“Is it time for bed?” You’re surprisingly tired, despite the fact that you’d slept until late in the afternoon. You certainly wouldn’t mind falling face first into your mattress.

“You need a shower first.” It’s a simple statement of fact, you know that. You’ve got at least ten pounds of makeup on and your hair’s the furthest thing from soft and silky, carefully coiffed to mimic Mercy’s signature style. You still pretend like you’re just a bit offended, scowling into the face of your boyfriend even as he rolls his eyes, already somehow able to read the words written into your expression. “I meant we and no, I’m not calling you stinky.”

He’s stolen your thunder, as he so often does. You pout, as you so often do.

“Okay,” you relent, finally, moving to rest your head against his shoulder. You could get down - walk on your own two tired feet - but you’re enjoying the closeness, how warm and real he feels in comparison to the swimming surroundings. “Will you wash my hair?” You don’t really need to ask but do anyway, because you like the sound of his voice when it’s so close.

“You know I will.” Because he always does when you shower together (and it falls on a designated hair washing day - that was important).

You offer your thanks with a kiss, laid right over the jumping pulse in his neck. When Jungkook hums in acknowledgment, you feel the way the muscles constrict, his Adam’s apple jumping beneath your lips. You zero in on it with laser precision, mouthing over his throat. Somewhere above you - against the shell of your ear - he exhales a laugh, breath hot.

“We’re showering, baby.” As if that’s meant to stop you. He, more than anyone, should know how adamant you get, singularly focused on whatever’s got your attention. He’s been on the receiving end of it more than enough times, strung into playing another one, two, ten matches of Overwatch or hunting down the limited edition Funko Pops that now sit proudly on your white shelf (and behind your plants and on the ledge by the front door).

“We can shower and have fun,” you mumble into the expanse of his chest. He’s so pleasantly warm, unyielding and firm and so, so comfortable. You think you could live in the feeling of his arms. (You’re lucky you get to.) You don’t even mind the sudden cold of the counter or the space that forms between you when he sets you down, because he’s still caging you in where it matters most. “Right, JK?”

It’s a nickname you rarely use now - one that only comes out in times of desperation. You’ve never quite understood why it affects your boyfriend the way it does, stuttering the rhythmic beating of his heart, but you love it nonetheless. It makes you grin, high on power and giddy with nothing but sweetness.

He’d explained it to you once. Jay was how you’d met him, the version of himself you’d loved first. Jungkook was the side of himself he’d wanted to give you but couldn’t. JK was the in-between - the chaos and the calm. Hearing you say it brought back all the memories of year one and he liked that. You could only laugh at his sentimentality and tuck the piece of knowledge somewhere deep, to be pulled out in instances like this.

“Right, angel.” You don’t miss the colour on his cheeks - so pretty you reach your hands out to cup them, squishing them between your palms like an old grandmother testing a watermelon. You continue to hold him until he pulls your hands from his face, guiding them to the edge of the counter with gentle pressure. “Gotta get undressed to shower,” he chides, that twinkle in his eye that makes it hard to look away.

Really, how can he expect you to do anything when he’s got an entire unexplored galaxy hidden in his irises? It’s an absurd ask.

“Or I’ll help you.”

Your clothes fall away while you’re still staring up at him.

First, the gloves, peeled from your fingers with utmost care. Kisses fill the spaces between each finger, passed from knuckles to wrist, all the way up to your elbow. You squirm when his teeth graze the sensitive underside of your bicep. He stifles a snicker into the skin.

Next goes your cape and wings, hung on the door handle. His mouth warms the suddenly bare skin, pressing affection into the line of your shoulder, up over your neck. You don’t squirm this time, instead humming a noise of delight. You hardly notice when the corset goes next, undone by surprisingly nimble inked digits. There’s hardly a moment to savour the freedom - you can finally breathe - when his hands replace the cups, palms eager over your chest. He doesn’t hesitate to hold you, pinching your perked nipples with a sly grin.

“I thought we were going to shower.” The words are barely out before turning breathless, stolen by the way he easily palms your breast, dropping his face into the crook of your neck.

“We are, angel,” Jungkook teases, rolling your bud between his thumb and forefinger, other hand moved to splay across the now-bare small of your back. It’s almost embarrassing how easily you fall into him, drawn against him like a moth to a flame. “Just need to get you warmed up first.”

“The shower’ll be warm,” you say - or think you say, anyway. It isn’t quite articulated, half your brain left somewhere at the party (or maybe caught dead centre in the coil that’s tightening in your stomach).

“Do you want me to stop?” It’s so quiet you almost miss it, too distracted by how he slips the rest of your costume off. Shorts, thong, stockings, silly witch’s hat. “Tell me if you want me to stop, baby.” Ever the gentleman, he’s patient, meeting your glazed stare with something close to concern. You almost laugh in his face then - stopping short only when you note just how serious he is, the tell-tale set of his jaw shining like a familiar beacon.

You return your hands to his face, palms cradling his chin like he might break otherwise. “I never want you to stop.”

That’s all Jungkook needs before he’s slotting himself between your legs, mirroring your motion with hands creeping up the side of your neck, fingers ascending into the roots of your hair. He holds you close and kisses you like it’s all he’s ever wanted. “I love you,” he breathes, speaks against the corner of your mouth.

You parrot the words back at him and he grins, stepping away in the next moment. He laughs when you pout, offering a kiss in apology as he undoes the buttons of his dress shirt, slipping the soft cotton off. You stop then, entranced by the revealed skin, how it shifts with each adjustment of muscle, sinew tight over his arms and shoulders. You wonder, not for the first time, how you’d managed to luck out so spectacularly.

“Start the shower.”

You hop down with the direction, slipping past him to do exactly that. You don’t miss the way he rotates, brings himself closer as you move away. The magnetism is undeniable - always has been.

“I love you,” he states, again, bare against your back as you hover by the edge of the glass door, one hand stuck past to test the slow-warming stream. He’s solid, familiar and comfortable, as he slinks his arms back around you, heat burning the shape of his hands over your ribs, the shape of your hip. You think he might mark himself there, just as neatly as the floral ink does. You wouldn’t mind.

The water is welcome, bathing the both of you in steam when you step inside. It’s an incredibly relaxing feeling, being caught between the spray and the hard body behind you. You hum a noise of pure delight, turning your face toward the one that nuzzles itself into your neck, and bring your hands to rest over his, fingers slotting between ink.

“Hair?” You’re not in a terrible rush but you like redirecting his attention (pretending to, at least) - the teasing that formed the base of your relationship presenting itself in the quiet reminder. It earns the laugh you expect, muffled into your hair, featherlight over the delicate shell of your jewelled ear.

“Patience, baby.” It’s something Jungkook tends to say a lot, whether waiting in queue in Overwatch or in bed, with you a complete mess. He repeats it easily, like he’s the poster boy for the virtue. (He isn’t.)

“What am I waiting—” The question dies, swallowed whole by the gasp he draws from you with a wandering hand. Fingers slip across your stomach, digits deftly seeking out warmth as if you weren’t already enveloped in it. It’s a touch that’s tantalisingly slow, unfairly light, but it still makes you keen when it drags over your lips. A single digit pushes past muscle - so shallow you’re not sure you’re not just imagining it - before retreating, dragging your slick back up to your clit. The moment the pad of his finger makes contact with the sensitive bundle of nerves, you almost jump. Would, if he weren’t caging you with his other arm.

You feel the cold of his teeth bared against your neck then, the throaty laugh that pulls out of his chest and deposits itself into your hair. “Patience,” he repeats, swirling his fingers over your clit, his mouth moving in tandem with the twist of his wrist. He peppers love and affection in the form of kisses, presses devotion with the edge of his teeth, soothes all your nerves with a sweep of his tongue.

“Kook,” you sigh, already well on your way to being a boneless mess. There’s tingling in your toes, fizzing in your stomach, butterflies in your chest. A whirlwind of emotion and sensation that he stirs to life effortlessly.

“Relax for me.” You do so because it’s easy, because he’s so devastatingly good to you.

The figure eights skating over your clit cease, fingers dropping further down to nestle against your cunt. He pauses there, almost experimentally flexing against the muscle that aches and clenches around nothing, eager for more. You think he’s smirking by the way his lips form with his kisses, a little lopsided and devilish. (You wish you could see him.)

A single digit enters you then, to the third knuckle as if your body was made for this, for him. (It was.) He coos against your neck when a garbled mess skips off your tongue and nearly laughs when another slips in alongside it, turning the mess into nonsense. Despite how badly you want it - need it, really - it’s a sensation that’s too much and not enough all at once, toeing the line between pleasure and pain.

It was how Jungkook loved you - recklessly, shamelessly, in no half measures. With more love than you could ever hope for, giving you things you didn’t even know how to ask for.

“Relax, angel,” comes as he begins scissoring both fingers inside you, stretching you out with an otherworldly amount of care. Even your neglected clit is given some sort of relief - anything to ease the sting of two long fingers - his thumb gliding over it with each stretch of your walls. He knows exactly where to touch you, how much pressure to apply, and you’re melting, lost in the feeling.

When he’s had enough and he curls his fingers within you, seeking out that particular spot, you’re trembling, caught off guard. Heat builds quickly with the precision of which he taps against that spot; it starts low in your back, climbing each vertebrae of your spine until you’re quivering in his arms.

“K-Kook.” It’s both a plea and a demand, nonsensical as he guides you through your orgasm, keeping you upright against him when your knees feel like they might give out.

“I’ve got you.” And he does - hook, line, and sinker. He holds you steady as the pleasure crashes over your head, keeps you anchored to the here and now and the pleasure that rolls through you like a relentless wave. It sinks beneath your skin, settles heavy into every atom, and he never lets you go. He’s got you.

When sensation returns - slowly, so slowly it feels like you’re stuck in the Twilight Zone - you only want to turn. See him, hold him, whisper sweet nothings as you kiss him silly and thank him for his service. Instead, you’re held in place, two hands firm upon your hips even as you crane your neck to look over your shoulder at him. You should recognise the look on his face. “Kook?”

“My turn.” It’s a statement more than anything, a kind heads-up as he nudges you forward. There’s that same twinkle in his eye, the only source of light around the pupil that’s blown out, otherwise engulfing the constellations he so normally offers you. It’s a black hole and one you’d gladly get lost in. “Hands on the wall, baby.”

You’d never been one for shower sex - it’s too small a space, too much happening at once, a guaranteed freak accident waiting to happen - but you can’t deny him when he asks so nicely. (It really hadn’t been that nice but you were a certified sucker for one Jeon Jungkook.)

Hands find themselves on the wall, palms flat, fingers splayed. In the same instance you wiggle your hips, there’s a ghosting touch over your spine. It trails up and down, soothes the residual heat that lingers, and then slips higher, palm gentle over your throat. His thumb rubs reassuring circles over the nape of your neck, pressing gently into the sensitive spot behind your ear. It’s distracting and you realise much needed when he sinks into you with one fluid press of his hips, filling you so full you can’t help the gasp that bounds past your lips and bounces around the glass enclosure. “Oh fuck,” he sighs, his grip on your hip tightening incrementally.

He sounds like sin and feels like heaven.

“Always so good for me.” Another thing he says, often and without prompting. It still feels just as good the umpteenth time, sparking pride deep in your chest as he pulls out and drives himself back in, staring in rapt fascination at where your bodies meet. “Always so perfect for me.”

“Because I love you,” you quip, more than a little out of breath and jostled by the way he thrusts into you, measured and with enough force to shake your legs.

“Love you too, angel.” He doesn’t need to say it back - you know, can feel it by how he holds you, drives you to brink of insanity with his cock - but he does it anyway. He always says it back, no matter what, even if he’s half-asleep or distracted. He’ll never stop saying it.

The hand on your hip falls, slinks across your hip and between your legs, and you’re pushed further forward, his feet gently kicking yours further apart. Jungkook assaults your clit then, timing each pass with each thrust. An attempted glance back has fireworks going off before your eyes, specks of pleasure lighting up your vision; it’s a technicolour lightshow, framing the way his face scrunches, brow set and jaw hard. He’s determined, focused on bringing you to another orgasm before he hits his own high. You assist him as best you can, swiveling your hips and grinding back against him even as the coil pulls impossibly tight in your stomach, barely held together by threadbare strings.

“Kook,” you whine when the tension becomes too much, hands scrabbling across the wall of the shower. The same overwhelming tingle sparks beneath your skin, entire body trembling like a leaf when the head of his cock brushes that spot inside you at just the right angle.

He doesn’t relent, rhythm turning almost punishing as he drives you over the edge, launching you headlong into your second orgasm. You’re not sure how you stay upright, near sobbing when you crash into euphoric bliss, neither his fingers nor his thrusts ceasing. It’s almost too much and yet you know how close he is, so you push back, whimper words you know he wants to hear.

“P-please, Kook. Please.” You’re reaching a hand back, desperate to interlace your fingers with his. He gives in easily, catches your hand in his own and plants it on the swell of your hip as he chases his own release with desperation. “Come for me, Kook. Fill me up.”

Jungkook does just that, balls tight as he spills himself inside you, hand at your throat so tight you’re seeing stars. Somehow - with the feeling of him grinding into you, overcome with so much sensitivity - you come for the third time, crying very real tears as the sensation washes over you. It’s weaker than your first two but unravels you all the same, seeping the energy from your limbs. You’re grateful for how well he knows you and the fact he catches you before your arms collapse, pulling you to him with gentle movements.

“I love you,” he whispers against your temple, out of breath and sweat-slick despite the water that rains down upon you.

“I love you,” you answer, pressing a kiss to the hand that still twines with yours. “But I still need you to wash my hair.” It’s cheeky and you know it so you don’t even mind when he bites into the meat of your shoulder, leaving a pretty red mark that’ll bloom for the next few days. “Ow!”

“You’re a brat.” Said even as he’s reaching for your shampoo bar, teasing it through your roots with practiced movements. He’s careful despite his scathing tone, gentle despite how he glares at you from the corner of your periphery. Each tangle is neatly undone and not a single bubble gets in your eye, much to your joy.

“I thought I was an angel.” You’re taking a page out of his book, speaking in fluent pout.

He catches your lips with his own, pushing your lathered up head beneath the steady stream when he withdraws and speaks. Suds run across your cheeks, eyes shielded only by the hand he keeps steady along your hairline. Even so mean, your boyfriend is still terribly nice. “You’re my angel - but you’re still a brat.”

You can’t argue with that.

tag list. @neverthefirstchoice @youwannabelostandnotbefound @snackhobi

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books-are-my-life-stuff · 2 years

Text

What the hell was that Cynthia fight...?

Well, at least that gave me an excuse to use Wally and let him stand at the center stage because precious boy deserved it.

Anyway, I was expecting to get brutally destroyed, so I decided to keep my points low for now. Only 6.250 points because...wow, that was something.

I dunno if it's just me, but Electric-weak Aaron seems to have a lot of HP. He was rather difficult to take down, but thankfully the team managed to pre-sync it....after one reset because N failed to crit his sync. At this point I'm used to this.

I probably should have capped the points in Flint's fight, but I was too afraid that Bianca couldn't take it even with permanent Psychic Terrain and Reflect. Oh well. I probably should have used Lear too since I used him pre-Master Mode run.

First time used Hala, in Bertha's fight! He's actually very strong and I like using him. I brought Spring Burgh for the 6*EX buff, defensive and crit buffs, and also Catalyst. Bugsy is also there to spread AOE defense debuffs, MGR on Leer, Fast Track, and Move Gauge Acceleration. All attempts that I did to work on Hala's constant speed debuffs. I probably should use Hala a lot more, and maybe I will try using him against Latios too!

Lucian's fight was not pre-sync, because enabling Harry 5 is really difficult. Had to reset two times because everyone kept missing flinches even with Aggravation and Staggering. This team is hard to take down, yes, but Blue relied on Harry 5 and Brutal Clarity a lot as main sources of his DPS. But once flinches are successful, Blue could deal really scary DPS from his Hurricane. I think I should train more to use Blue, just like how I used BP Zinnia.

Cynthia's fight was also not a pre-sync clear, and that's for a damn good reason. She debuffed everyone's accuracy on entry and every time she attacks, which is painfully annoying. Plus, she has Ramming Speed, and can raise her Speed to +4 when she's in low health then murdered the tank. That's really bad. Bea and Knight Diantha kept missing their hits, so I decided to go with Wally.

An odd choice, I know, but Wally could raise his own accuracy, so he could negate the accuracy debuffs, and he also could lower Cynthia's speed and enabled Cakewalk. Of course I didn't bother to go to -6 Speed, as long as Wally got a bit of the multipliers on his sleeve, it's great. Wally needed Attack+Crit and Speed for Ramming Speed, so I brought Hop and Masked Royal. Even though Masked Royal couldn't debuff defenses reliably since he kept missing, he still managed to land a few hits to help Wally. This fight was insane, but that gave a room for Wally to shine, and I'm glad for that, because he's the first sync pair that I EX-ed, and the first 5* that I got from gacha as well.

Sinnoh Champion Stadium has been very scarily challenging. It's fun, I like it! The enemies are pretty challenging and I think that's very cool! I hope I can do better next time, but if I can't, I want to at least reach 4000 points every week.

#personal #pokemon masters #that was certainly something!#can't wait to get destroyed even more next week!#sinnoh champion stadium is a lot of fun so far #and i'm glad because sinnoh elite fours are pretty cool #thank you pokemas for doing them justice

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fleetingfigures · 3 years

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Mitigation made Manifest - A Scholar Analysis

Hello everyone, and welcome to the first part of my analysis series! Today we're going to be taking a look at the titular Scholar job, as well as delve into how it works, what it excels at, what it comes short on, and how well it is designed!

In an effort to keep everything organized, I'll section off this post into 4 main portions. If you're on a computer, you can use ctrl+f (or command+f if you're on a mac) to search for the following headings:

[ Basics ] [ How Scholar Works ] [ Gameplay, Tips and Design ] [ Final Evaluation ]

With that out of the way, let us begin!

[ Basics ]

Before we dive into Scholar, I believe I must go over a few things, the first being the issue of Scholar’s origin. Scholar, and by extension, its sibling, Summoner, have a unique system wherein they originate from the same base class, Arcanist, and also share each others’ levels (i.e if you level Summoner to 71, your Scholar will also be 71). As per most jobs, many of the base class’ actions translate to its advanced jobs, but the issue comes in its respective role - Arcanist is a magical dps. For Summoner, this is a fine transition as they share this role, but for Scholar, it is a tad awkward. At no point in your time as an arcanist are you ever really taught how healing in FFXIV functions, nor is it ever your ‘job’. The only real healer you can even start the game with is Conjurer, and beyond that, if you want to pick up a healer on the side without a level skip, only Astrologian and Conjurer are healers right out of the gate. As such, It’s hard to recommend Scholar as someone’s first healer as its levelling experience does not translate to how healers are played effectively.

Though, on this topic of effective healer play, I also feel the need to describe XIV’s healing design. At its core, a healer’s job is to obviously keep the party, and most importantly their tank, from dying. But, this is where some issues arise. In higher-end content, a healer is expected to also carry their weight in terms of DPS, and should have comparable RDPS (Damage taking into account buffs/debuffs applied) to that of a party’s tanks. This brings me to the focus of XIV’s healer philosophy: One is to balance the healing they must do with the damage they output. Spending all of your MP on healing is forsaking your duty to at least deal some damage, and only doing damage will obviously cause your party to die. Healing is essentially a game of ‘how low can I go?’, and as you gain more experience and comfort in the role, you can push that threshold lower and lower.

As for more general terms to be aware of, I shall make a small list!

DPS/ADPS/RDPS: Damage per second/Actual damage per second/Raid-contributing damage per second. These are terms used mostly by raiders to quantify how much damage is contributed. For classes that have buffs and debuffs, their DPS/ADPS do not accurately show their true damage, but their RDPS takes into account the bonus damage their buffs and debuffs have granted. Slidecasting: A term describing the leniency that cast times are given in this game because of server connection. For all spells, you do not have to be sitting through their entire cast bar, as they can instead be cut short so that one can still move while in the last bit of their cast. When one can slidecast a spell is dependent upon the cast time of the spell and the spell speed of the individual. HoT/DoT: Heal over time, Damage over time. GCD/OGCD: Global Cooldown/Off-Global Cooldown. Spells and weaponskills operate off of something called a ‘GCD’. A GCD is essentially a lockout until you can cast your next spell/weaponskill. For spells, as they have a cast time equivalent to their GCD, you can cast another right after you finish the first. By default, this GCD is 2.5 seconds for every class, and is reduced by abilities and skill/spell speed. But for weaponskills/spells that are classified as instant, that GCD lockout can instead be used to move or to use OGCD’s, namely abilities, that aren’t constricted by the GCD. The use of OGCD’s during a GCD lockout is called... Weaving: Using OGCD’s during a GCD lockout. Using just one in this timeframe is referred to as a single weave, and using two is referred to as a double weave. For SCH, you want most weaves to be double weaves. Ghosting: The bane of all arcanist-based classes. Unfortunately due to the AI of pets in this game, there is a delay between when you input an action and when your pet performs it, and a general delay in all pet actions if you are moving and they have to catch up. Sometimes when inputting abilities too quickly or using a demi-summon as actions are queued (like Summon Bahamut, Phoenix Trance and Summon Seraph), the queued action will either be delayed or never go off, but will still go on cooldown. Hence the term ‘ghosting’.

[ How Scholar Works ]

Now with the basics made clear, we can get to the actual meat of this analysis! In FFXIV, there are two denominations of healers: Shielding and Pure. Scholar falls into the prior classification as most of its kit is themed around the prevention of damage. Adloquium and Succor, for example, heal less than White Mage’s Cure II and Medica II, but apply a shield equivalent to 125% of the health restored. As such, Scholar is less of a reactive healer, but more of a proactive one; they set up their resources in advance so that the fight flows with less chaos. Scholar’s base kit is as follows:

Ruin/Broil I, II, and III: Your standard damage spell for a healer. Cast this when you’re not healing. Bio/Bio II/Biolysis: Your standard DoT spell for a healer, ticks 10 times over 30 seconds. Make sure to always have this on the enemy, that is unless the enemy is about to go away, or will die in 15 seconds or less. if this spell sticks to a target for more than 15 seconds, then it technically has outdamaged 1 broil, thus making it a theoretical gain! Physick: The basic heal for a healer; heals for about 400 potency. Once you get to a higher level, you should realistically never touch this heal again. Adloquium (Lvl 30): Scholar’s ‘big single target heal’; heals for 300 potency while erecting a shield equivalent to 125% of the healing done (technically 675 potency in total). Shields generated by this are denoted by the ‘Galvanize’ buff. If this crits, bonus shields will be added as another buff called ‘Catalyze’. This shield does not stack with itself, Succor, Seraphic Veil, or Nocturnal AST’s shields. Succor (Lvl 35): Scholar’s AoE heal; heals for 180 potency and erects a shield equivalent to 125% of the healing done (technically 405 potency in total). Shields generated by this are denoted by the ‘Galvanize’ buff. Like Adlo, it does not stack with what was listed above. Ruin II (Lvl 38): An instant cast version of ruin. It’s potency upgrades as you level, capping at 200 at level 72. This spell is mostly used to weave OGCD’s, or to just generally move while not missing too many casts. Art of War (Lvl 46): Your standard AoE spell for a healer. Deals 160 potency to all enemies in 5 yalms and is instant. Unlike Holy, this spell is a DPS gain on 2 targets or more. Deployment Tactics (Lvl 56): As an OGCD, spreads the target’s Galvanize buff to all nearby allies within 10 yalms. Does not spread Catalyze. Emergency Tactics (Lvl 58): Transforms the shields from Adlo and Succor into a flat heal. Useful in a pinch, hence its name, and gives Scholar a chance at outputting fat heals. Chain Stratagem (Lvl 66): Where Scholar’s RDPS comes from. Applies a debuff to a target that increases the chance they receive critical hits from all allies hitting it by 10% for 15 seconds. Multiple of these cannot be applied to the same boss, and will overlap. Keep in mind its 120 second cooldown as it is crucial to getting better at Scholar! Recitation (Lvl 74): Your next Succor, Adloquium, Excogitation, or Indomitability will always crit. In the case of Succor and Adlo, they will also not cast mana. In the case of Excog and Indom, they will not require an aetherflow stack. Mostly used to cast excog/indom through a double weave, and is immensely useful to make healing easier. 90 second cooldown.

To build off of my last point of resources, it’s high time to introduce two of Scholar’s best friends: Eos and Selene! Eos and Selene, as per SCH’s Arcanist base, are the pets for this job. Unlike carbuncles and egis, they do not deal damage, but instead use their actions to heal, and are crucial to Scholar’s gameplay. Also like the other pets, their action potencies scale differently as opposed to the player’s. For example, Eos/Selene’s Whispering Dawn skill has a listed regen potency of 120, meanwhile WHM’s Medica II regen has a listed potency of 100. One would think that Whispering Dawn would tick for more than Medica II, but through my testing, it is only about 86.8% as effective (due to number variation in FFXIV, this percentage is subject to change). The factor in which pet scaling affects your fairy’s heal is about 64%. With that little disclaimer out of the way, the Faeries’ kits are as follows:

Embrace (Lvl 1): A 150 (96 with pet scaling) potency single-target heal. This is what your fairy will do with its free time. Whispering Dawn (Lvl 20): A 120 potency regen over 21 seconds (537 potency heal in total with pet-scaling). Due to FFXIV’s server ticks, HoT’s and DoT’s hit every 3 seconds, and as such, WD translates to about 840 potency (in terms of your pet’s scaling that is). This ability is activated by the player as an OGCD. Fey Illumination (Lvl 40): A buff that reduces magic damage taken by all allies in range by 5% and increases their healing received by 10%. Lasts 20 seconds. Dissipation (Lvl 60): Munch on your Fairy to gain 3 aetherflow charges and +20% healing magic. This does NOT AFFECT THE POTENCY OF YOUR OGCD HEALING. Your fairy will automatically respawn after the 30 second duration. Aetherpact & Fey Union (Lvl 70): Designate an ally as an OGCD to form a tether between them and your fairy. Your Fairy gauge will then deplete by 10 every 3 seconds to apply a 400 potency (256 potency with pet scaling) heal. This tether will break after the target is 15 yalms away, if you cancel it by using aetherpact again, or if you use another fairy skill. Fey Blessing (Lvl 76): As an OGCD, spend 10 Fairy Gauge to have your Fairy perform an aoe heal of 350 potency (224 potency with pet scaling). Summon Seraph (Lvl 80): As an OGCD, replace your fairy with Seraph. Embrace now becomes Seraphic Veil, a 200 potency (128 potency heal with pet scaling) heal + shield. Consolation (Lvl 80): Essentially Fey Blessing, but only available during Seraph. Heals for 300 potency (192 potency with pet scaling), and shields for the same amount. Has 2 charges per every Seraph summon, and the shield stacks with your own shields as well as a nocturnal Astro’s shields.

Now that those are out of the way, you must be thinking, “The fuck is fairy gauge and aetherflow?” Well, I’m glad you asked, as they’re both intrinsically tied to each other! Starting at level 70, every time you spend an aetherflow stack, you gain 10 fairy gauge, pretty simple, yea? As for aetherflow itself, every 60 seconds you can cast the skill named, well, Aetherflow, to gain 3 stacks of it and recover 1000 MP. These Aetherflow stacks can be used on the following OGCD abilities:

Lustrate (Lvl 45): A 600 potency heal. Very straightforward, and often not used because of the value of the other options. Energy Drain (Lvl 45): A 100 potency damaging OGCD. If you don’t need to heal, and you don’t think you need to heal for a bit, this is your go-to aetherflow dump. Also, if you’re attempting parses on Scholar, have fun using all your aetherflow on this. Sacred Soil (Lvl 50): Create a bubble that reduces damage taken by all allies inside by 10% for 15 seconds. At level 78 this upgrades to offer a 100 potency heal (500 potency heal in total). Only costing 1 aetherflow gauge, having a 30 second cooldown, and lasting 15 seconds, this skill is INCREDIBLY GOOD, especially after the level 78 upgrade. Indomitability (Lvl 52): A 400 potency AoE heal. Straightforward, but very effective because of its numbers. Excogitation (Lvl 62): An 800 potency heal that triggers when the target falls under 50% HP, or if its 45 second duration ends. While it feels awkward to use for beginners, its usefulness is immeasurable. It is technically a higher potency version of Lustrate, with a slight cooldown and delay, but fills a more ‘fire-forget’ niche. Very useful inside of all settings but remember, it will not proc if the target will outright die to the damage before it triggers (i.e if a tank takes a tankbuster at 51% health, and the hit does 60%, excog will not proc.)

[ Gameplay, Tips and Design ]

Scholar, as I have stated, fills the role of a preemptive healer, especially with all of the mitigation present in its kit, as well as the existence of Excog. As such, this job sees a greater increase in effectiveness as you yourself learn a fight compared to a pure healer such as WHM/Diurnal AST. If you know when the party/raid-wide damage is coming, and you prepare accordingly with... Say, A sacred soil and a succor, that is a good chunk of damage you or your co-healer won’t have to heal, thus affording both of you more time to deal damage. Inside of higher end content, like savage raids, having said mitigation is both invaluable for progressing through fights, as well as streamlining and perfecting them. For a while, because of that fact, SCH was the unofficial ‘king’ of healers for a very long time, especially considering there used to be a lot more damage inside of SCH’s kit (rest in peace almost everything that made it unique lol). The start of Shadowbringers was when SCH was finally taken off of its throne, not by AST like many would think (also because it took quite the hit), but by WHM of all things. Thankfully through a series of buffs since 5.0, SCH would begin to see themselves slowly climb back and situate in a comfortable position, but while Scholar is in a good spot now, that does not mean it’s perfect.

Scholar’s ability to heal pure HP is a bit lacking, especially so when dealing with attacks that place the party or specific players at 1 hp. SCH’s find themselves having to use multiple resources in trying to recover that lost HP, often losing much more damage uptime in comparison to WHM or AST (Which is why the ideal healing composition involves 1 pure healer and 1 shield healer). This usage of multiple resources also makes SCH a fair bit more punishing to inexperienced healers than AST or WHM. With the HP recovery of fairies being nerfed in Shadowbringers, much more of the agency is placed back upon the player, who in turn must pay attention to everything that the class has to offer. Obviously not all content is going to necessitate OPTIMAL PLAY, but with all the moving parts present within its kit, Scholar demands a bit more attention to be paid towards it and its skills.

Outside of a learning curve and lack of pure healing, Scholars are punished heavily for dying. Not only must they spend a GCD in resummoning their fairy, all fairy gauge and aetherflow stacks are also lost on death, and if aetherflow was on cooldown at the time, A SCH is going to not have a majority of their kit for awhile on top of having reduced healing due to weakness/brink of death. This once again lends itself to Scholar being less beginner-friendly as opposed to the other healers, even with the existence of freebie heals from your fairy.

Hell, speaking about fairies, therein lies an issue itself - Scholar being a pet class. Conceptually it’s awesome, but with how FFXIV handles pets/demi-summons and their AI, it’s also quite the hassle. Like I mentioned above, ghosting is a problem when it comes to pet classes, and if you don’t properly adjust around it, some of your cooldowns can simply just go poof. Weaving both Whispering Dawn and Fey Illumination in the same double weave will cause the one that’s cast later to cast quite a bit later. On top of that, if you’re moving while you’re weaving them, there’s a chance you’ll have to wait for the fairy to catch up to you to finally cast them (which is why placing your fairy pre-battle is very useful). And as a general rule of thumb, never use summon seraph right after you use Whispering Dawn or Fey Illumination. Wait until after you see the buff apply on everyone as using Seraph will cancel the queued action.

With all that being said, however Scholar is still highly effective in what it does, it just requires a bit of experience. While I can’t offer tutorials on every fight, there are a few general tips I can give for aspiring scholars out there!

[ Tips ]

(General Advice + Combos)

Double weaving on Scholar is rather straightforward, but if you're using Ruin II to do so after your Broil, it will be a technical DPS loss if you do not use an energy drain within the weave window! Broil III has a potency of 290, Ruin II has a potency of 200, and Energy Drain has a potency of 100. In weaving without the use of energy drain, you will lose 90 potency in comparison to if you were to cast another Broil III. Using Energy Drain will add another 100 potency, thus gaining you 10 potency overall. Of course you shouldn't always dump an aetherflow on energy drain when you're weaving, but it is something to keep in mind when you are aiming to do more damage!

- Healing Combos -

[Single Target] If you are AoE'ing, replace ruin II/Biolysis with Art of War!

[AoE Mitigation] (Shield + 5% magic damage mitigation + 10% all damage mitigation)

[Panic AoE Healing] (1029 potency AoE Healing) As a bonus little tip in regards to this, remember Scholar's AoE healing spell/ability priority! The above combo is when you cannot afford time for a regen, but if you can, follow this list. 1. Whispering Dawn (if you can afford time for the regen) 2. Fey Blessing 3. Sacred Soil (if you can afford time for the regen) 4. Indomitability 5. Succor + Emergency Tactics 6. Succor

Scholars luckily have a wonderful mobility tool in Ruin II which allows them to position easily, though at the cost of DPS. However, this loss is minimal compared to its cohorts, wherein WHM either has to clip their Dia or use a lily, and AST either has to use Lightspeed, or slowly shuffle over with Malefics. This makes Scholar a bit easier to navigate when learning fights! Don't be afraid to use Ruin II if you're looking to push for a clear or learn a mechanic better, as a dead scholar is worse than one that is losing dps.

A crucial part of Scholar's kit is actually Chain Stratagem. While it loses much of its usefulness in public groups, or those who do not exactly care for proper rotations, when you can coordinate buffs and opening combos, it provides a large boost in DPS for the whole party. Typically, the ideal time to use Chain Stratagem is upon your 4th GCD, and everytime it comes off cooldown after, but this can change depending on your group. Here is an example 4th GCD Chain opener.

(Dungeons)

While AoE’ing mob packs, you can keep your focus target on the tank. It will make it much easier to heal them in a pinch.

Sacred Soil is essentially a free 15 second long cooldown for the tank, that ALSO heals at level 78 and above. It’s very, very useful.

Using Excog and adlo between pulls will allow you to spend more time AoE’ing mobs

Don’t forget about your fairy skills, especially fey union. Lazy mode is using fey union after whispering dawn, fey illumination and sacred soil and then proceeding to press art of war until the cows come home.

(Trials/Raid)

Recitation + Excog on your main tank pre-pull. Many use recitation+Adlo and then spread the shield with deployment tactics, but you don’t need to use recitation for that! Catalyze is the bonus shielding a crit adlo creates, and cannot be spread. Therefore save your recitation for a free excog and use a normal adlo+deployment tactics afterwards.

Please, please, PLEASE, if you are in a static or raid environment, make sure you allies stand in Sacred Soil when they can. It makes all of your lives easier.

Pre-placing your fairy in the center of the arena is a good habit to get in, but if you need your fairy AoE’s while you’re away from the center, make sure to press heel on your fairy hotbar to make it follow you again.

[Design]

Outside of all that, there is a collection of miscellaneous things that I do want to prattle off in relation to this category, mostly being some design choices and ideas I had for the class going forward. So, let’s begin!

Why does Fey Blessing not become Consolation when you have Seraph out? They are essentially the same thing, and you CAN’T EVEN USE FEY BLESSING WHEN YOU HAVE SERAPH OUT. WHY IS FEY BLESSING AND CONSOLATION SEPARATE BUTTONS. ANSWER ME SQUARE ENIX, TELL ME WHY.

There should be another way to dump Fairy gauge. It would make the system a bit more interactive (A lot like how lilies got an AoE version as well as Afflatus misery with SHB).

We should be able to cancel fey union in the middle of a cast. Breaking the tether does not have an animation nor any animation lockout, and in my eyes is technically not an OGCD. With this change, cancelling fey union can be done on the fly and not require a weave so as to not lose uptime.

The delay upon shield application is a tad annoying, especially so in the use of deployment tactics. Sometimes, if you cast too late, the boss’ Aoe will eat the heal, but not the shield. And in the case of the latter, if you use deployment tactics too quickly, you’ll spread nothing.

Bring back fairy uniqueness ;-;

[ Final Evaluation ]

Now comes time for my final grading.

Going forward with these Class Analyses, I will grade the class upon a set of categories unique to their role (DPS, Tank, Healer). As such, in my grading of Scholar, I will judge it based on the following categories, on a scale of F-S:

Damage (Personal) - The damage they bring to the table by themselves. Damage (Raid setting) - The damage they bring based upon their RDPS potential Accessibility - How easy is it to pick up and play? Mitigation - How well can they prevent damage? Healing - How well can they heal damage? Fun - Well, is it fun? Fantasy fulfillment - Does it fit the class aesthetics/lore?

Damage (Personal) [7] - While not as powerful alone as White Mage, Scholar is not entirely dependent upon team mates for damage like Astrologian.

Damage (Raid Setting) [8] - The addition of chain stratagem to Scholar’s already decent damage takes that one extra step beyond.

Accessibility [4] - Starts as a DPS in Arcanist, has many unique functions and is punished heavily if they die in the middle of a battle.

Mitigation [10] - They’re the originator of shield healers, and definitely keep the crown. Sacred soil is always going to be ridiculous.

Healing [6.5] - Scholar’s pure healing is a bit lacking, but with Square’s fight design, any healer should be able to make it through a fight. Therefore, I cannot rate Scholar all too low in this category.

Fun [7.5, almost 8] - Keeps you engaged, but lacks the pizzazz of Astro and the oomph of White Mage. Still a fun class at the end of the day, though!

Fantasy Fulfillment [9] - As tactical geniuses in the lore, the feel of Scholar gameplay fits that ideal! Through your mitigation, pre-planned abilities, and setting up of fairy abilities, you definitely feel like a tactician controlling the flow of battle, though it does falter a bit with a lot of their old options being removed in SHB.

[ End ]

And with that, we are done with this analysis! As for my personal conjecture with Scholar, it’s one of my mains, and used to be my go to raid healer, that is until my static needed a bit more upfront healing for e12s prog awhile back. If you were to look at my FFlogs, you’d probably see an absolute deluge of WHM parses since it’s uhh... Kinda technically my new healer main, but I still love SCH I swear! Another thing that made me switch from SCH to WHM was the inclusion of a DRK in our static. The ability to instantly remove Walking Dead with one button is so much easier than blowing cooldowns on both healers. Though, technically, from a savage perspective, the highest damage team setup is SCH + AST (Mostly because boosting teammate damage will always do more than just being good yourself, especially this late in the tier).

Anywho... This is the REAL end of the analysis. Hope you enjoyed and if you have any suggestions, questions or things to address, just comment and let me know!

Yabi, out~

#ffxiv #ooc #guide #Scholar #Class Analyses

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