Happy 2nd anniversary, everyone! Now that we have our first global-first character in Melissa, AS Tiramisu has released on the JP version, and we're getting close to the final few banners that my last guide managed to cover, its time I come out of my winter hibernation to make another one of these.
I should mention that, while these guides were always inherently very opinionated, that might be even more the case this time, because the guides I used as a sort of second opinion to bounce my impressions off of have sadly yet to update past Mistrare. As such, my main sources this time are limited to the unofficial wiki as well as altema.
Also, like last time, I will omit the whole spiel on normal banners vs. AS banners, general summon behavior, etc. for the sake of keeping this guide short and concise. However, if you're new, and you wanna know what I'm talking about, here is a link to my 2.0 guide.

So, lets address how these ratings work.
The ratings work the same as always in that the banners are rated under the assumption that you're an F2P-player who has none of the featured units. They're also sorted in the expected chronological release order, but if the whole thing with Yipha has shown us anything, its that WFS can throw us a curve ball any time they want. Its also still true that, due to ever-increasing powercreep, modern review-culture does not apply here: Instead of a 7/10 being average like you often see with videogame or movie reviews, a 5/10 represents a banner of average quality in this guide. This is so that, with all these powerful new units, my ratings don't turn into nothing but 9.5 and 10/10s, which would make rating them in the first place pointless.
With all that out of the way, lets get to the actual ratings (aka from here, there be spoilers!):
EDIT: Thanks to u_sdw4527, it was brought to my attention that I have missed some banners. I have now added them at the end of the guide.

The anniversary banner: 7.5/10 - We're starting off with the big one. Counting AS and NS forms as seperate, we're looking at 30 different 5 star units available, with no unfeatured 5 stars. However, there really aren't a lot of duds in here: Both forms of Isuka, AS Felmina, Hozuki, Toova and Mighty are very underwhelming nowadays (although even those, except Isuka, can be sidegraded to become at least decent, and at most incredibly strong) but every other character on this banner is at least okay, with some real powerhouses thrown into the mix as well. Its also worth noting that units that only have one 5 star version have their summon chance further increased (0.24%) compared to units with two seperate 5 star forms (0.13% per form), which works in the favor of the player because a lot of the units you'd want out of this banner like Mistrare, Victor or Myunfa only have one 5 star form and hence have their summon chance boosted further. It is however a VERY diluted banner due to the sheer number of units, and a lot of them are only decent, so its 'only' a 7.5.
Melissa/Premaya: 8.5/10 - I don't claim to be some sort of all-knowing god when it comes to this game, so when a character comes out that is new for EVERYONE, the banner gets a little harder to rate, but I truly think that Melissa is amazing. Not like, best character in the game, but I'm thinking top 20, MAYBE top 15 material. The 1TAF her new zone allows is gimmicky, but what makes her amazing is her insane utility: You can put her on ANY team and she will boost your damage and AF generation in the first turn, meaning you don't need to worry about switching your fastest character with your zone setter to get the zone active as soon as possible. And if that weren't enough already, her capable of inflicting break every second turn means you can just adjust the speed of your team with equipment so your strongest damage dealer goes after Melissa (and you put said damage dealer after her during AF), which essentially gives a 50% damage increase to that damage dealer (as their damage is being doubled every second turn) for free. Couple that with the absurd Nephrite Boost, and she is most likely optimal on wind zone. All in all, I think she is crazy good, and the only reason why this banner isn't rated higher is because Premaya drags it down a fair bit, being a good but definitely not great unit.
AS Rosetta: 8/10 - Nothing has changed for this banner since last time, but I'm giving it a slightly higher rating compared to last time because I think I undersold the relevance of AS Rosetta being the only magic zone setter in the game, and what getting her means for the viability of a lot of older staff wielding characters, in my last guide.
AS Hozuki/Biaka/Shannon: 8/10 - Despite u_xPalox' feedback left on my last guide, this would have still been an 8.5, but after a lot of consideration, its not the fact that both Biaka and Shannon are wind that made me rate the banner slightly lower, its that AS Hozuki is an AS unit whose OG is terrible to the point of basically being useless. And since a boatload of amazing AS units have released on the JP version since my last guide that can hang with or even surpass AS Hozuki, it became less likely that you'd make her your AS-upgrade goal over any of the other AS units that have come out on JP by now with limited chant scripts and the difficulty of getting treatises, assuming you land the 1.2% chance of pulling her 4.5 star version.
AS Ilulu: 5/10 - Now that Cress made slash zone an F2P zone, this banner has lost the slight rating boost that AS Ilulu being a slash zone setter gave it. As I said in the last guide, if you have a banner that features both one of the worst and one of the best characters in the game, you get a perfectly average banner.
AS Ewan/AS Laclair: 9.5/10 - AS Laclair becomes a beast after her manifest (guaranteed pain, int debuff, stacking water res debuff, wolf seal doesn't get consumed in AF, and a damage multiplier of up to 1300%), and AS Ewan is frankly insane. Like, in my opinion, 'best unit in the game' insane. This man is a jack of all trades done right: Team-wide priority phys and type res buff (which is a godsend with how mobs in more recent content have started becoming borderline impossible to outspeed and kill before they do damage) which also reduces MP consumption, an attack that is either really solid or straight-up absurd in terms of damage (I'm not sure if 'critical damage +100%' means 100% extra to the multiplier, or if the damage is doubled if he crits, would love input from the comments on that one), and that attack changes its damage type depending on in what attack type zone he is, which makes him a viable pick in 5/8 possible zones (not counting Melissa's), similar to Cynthia, only that AS Ewan is the WAY better unit. What is holding the banner back from being a straight-up 10 are Ewans only decent and Laclairs slightly underwhelming NS forms.
The weapon zone banner: 10/10 - I hope y'all didn't expect me to not give this a 10 just because we now have an F2P slash zone setter. The thing is, Cress lacking the usual end of turn buff leaves his slash zone significantly weaker compared to Radias' and AS Ilulu's, so if you can get your hands on one of them, they're still MILES better, even ignoring their individual skills. Anyways, for this banner, same thing applies that applied to the elemental zone banner back in the day: Only the 5 weapon zone setters and AS Ewan are featured, meaning the value of the banner drastically decreases with every featured unit you already have. Purely mathematically, you're better off summoning on this banner over a banner with normal rates if you have 2 or less of the featured units. I didn't include my calculations, but if you wanna see the numbers behind that statement, check out the zone banner rating in my last guide.
Mirusha/AS Nagi: 9/10 - I personally like this banner a LOT. If earth wasn't already pretty damn stacked in terms of F2P units, I'd give this a 9.5, because Mirusha is definitely top 15 characters in the game material (I mean, a shadow character who can offset the negative effects of her lunatic skill with a damage reduction ability? HELLO?), and AS Nagi has arguably aged like fine wine.
AS Hismena: 8.5/10 - NS has aged very well to the point that both I and the tier list agree she isn't that much worse than her AS, and the AS is REALLY good. I was very tempted to give this a 9, but its an 8.5 because the AS form has one big problem: If your goal is damage optimization, you're not gonna have a fun time using AS Hismenas skills during AF, as there is a LOT of annoying move-switching mid-AF required to get the most out of her. For that reason, I personally even prefer her NS.
Radica AS: 5/10 - Its the fire version of AS Ilulus conundrum: Her zone is already covered by an F2P unit, and while the AS is one of the best units in the game, the NS is one of the worst.
AS Miyu / AS Toova: 9.5/10 - Now thats what I call a banner. AS Miyu has arguably the best offensive team-wide buff in the entire game (even if its only the best for units with the miglance castle personality), while being a potentially insane damage dealer, getting up to a 1600% modifier at 8 distinctive buffs (keep in mind, boosts from equipment and grasta count as buffs) and 0 MP (again, keep in mind that, during AF, you can stay on that 0 MP and still use your skills), and AS Toova becomes arguably the offensively second strongest staff wielder in the game, all while still buffing staff wielders, debuffing power and int of all enemies, and buffing her own speed with her skills.
Ywera/AS Anabel: 9/10 - Of all the crystal characters, Ywera is probably the most offensively potent, being able to even outdamage AS Miyu during lunatic, potentially even by a lot (this is another character where it says '+xx% critical damage', in this case 50%, and I'm not sure if thats just extra percent to the damage multiplier if she crits, or if it means the move deals 1.5 damage when it crits), all while still coming with a crit rate and crit damage buff rolled into one skill. And well, AS Anabel is AS Anabel: Pretty wack outside of AF, a very strong beatstick in AF.
Dunarith AS: 8/10 - I will admit that I very well might be biased here, but I don't see the appeal in AS Dunarith enough to give his banner anything higher than an 8. Yes, he is a solid support for magic zone, and he can inflict permanent poison, but thats kinda it. His damage is lackluster since he consumes his Taufe stacks (which he needs to power up his strongest skill) when they're fully stacked, and half his support won't be THAT good even on a magic zone team since the staff wielder damage buff will stack with diminishing returns with the end of turn buff of AS Rosetta. And NS Dunarith, while certainly still good, is far from unique in his ability to provide team-wide guaranteed crits by now.
ES Melina: 8/10 - As hyped as I am for ES Melina, I'm hyped to upgrade her NS to her ES manually, I'm not hyped about trying to pull her. In a vacuum, this banner is alright: NS Melina has aged considerably but is still totally usable, and ES Melina is another unit I'd consider top 15 in the game. But when compared to some of the banners that will release shortly before and shortly after this one, it just isn't worth your stones unless you already pulled something from Yweras banner and you still want another usable addition to your water zone team.
AS Shigure: 6.5/10 - AS Shigure is really good, being a potentially insane damage dealer (though you have to make sure you can do 7 (or at least 6) seperate attacks in one turn the turn before you AF with him, and... hell if I know how to do that on a water or a slash zone team), and being the first unit whose VC is both an attacking and zone-setting VC (and the zone is set BEFORE the attack triggers, meaning you get both the extra damage and extra AF building on that VC attack), but NS Shigure is just... like, not Ilulu or Radica bad, but still pretty damn bad.
AS Tiramisu: 9.5/10 - We've reached the final banner currently released on the JP version, and its another banger. I think the gospel of NS Tiramisu has been sung enough on this sub that you all know how good she is, but sadly, we don't fully know how good her AS is yet because she only just released, and at least I wasn't able to find concrete damage multipliers for her new skills. However, we do know what her abilities do, and they're... good if a little specific (as she seems to be made to specifically support earth pierce units, even if she does also work for general earth units to a lesser degree). Regardless of that though, the fact alone that she FINALLY is the second earth zone setter in the game makes this a must pull for any F2P player that doesn't have Myunfa, because of how many really strong F2P earth units there are. And if you're in that boat but you don't wanna spend too many stones on her: As soon as you pull even just the 4.5 star version, you can call it a day and then make her your AS-upgrade goal.

So, turns out I missed the new years banners that JP got. Last time JP got new years banners, we did eventually get them as well considerably later, but since we don't know when they'll come out for us, I'm gonna put their ratings down here at the bottom.

Blunt banner (ES Melina, AS Ewan, Yipha, Myunfa, Felmina): 10+/10 - Yeah I'm guessing its no suprise to anyone that these banners are REALLY good. And we're starting off with the best of the bunch: Except for Myunfa, these are literally the best characters for a blunt zone team in the game, and while putting Myunfa on a blunt team is redundant since her and Yipha cover basically the same ground, Myunfa is still the best earth zone setter even now that AS Tiramisu is a thing. And not to mention, AS Ewan can be put on any weapon zone team, making this banner shine even more compared to the other weapon zone-specific banners that follow. This is basically a perfect banner. However (and this goes for all 4 of these banners), while they have an increased featured rate at 5%, 1% for each featured unit, if the last new years banners are anything to go by, these banners work the same as the general weapon zone banner that comes out with AS Ewan: No other 5 star units are available on the banner, meaning the value quickly drops off the more units you already have on the banner.
Slash banner (AS Ilulu, AS Miyu, Victor, AS Renri, AS Tsukiha): 9/10 - As you can probably tell, the main reason why this is 'only' a 9 is because slash is already an F2P zone, and also because there are a boatload of good F2P slash units already. Also, having either AS Renri or AS Tsukiha kind of disincentivises you to go for the other, since they have the same attack type and element, while filling the exact same role of a decent damage dealer that also guarantees crits for the team, the main difference being that Renri leans towards damage more while Tsukiha is a bit more of a support unit. So, pulling one of them makes pulling the other one not THAT great. Still obviously a fantastic banner though.
Pierce banner (AS Foran, Ywera, Yukino, AS Hismena, AS Ciel): 10/10 - My only gripe with this banner is that I personally don't like AS Hismena a whole lot, but that doesn't mean this isn't easily a 10/10. Matter of fact, if this banner had featured another zone setter alongside AS Foran, like what the blunt and magic banners did, or if they had switched out AS Hismena for someone like Mistrare or Mirusha, this would have been another 10+, its that close.
Magic banner (AS Rosetta, AS Dunarith, AS Radica, AS Myrus, AS Mighty): 9.5/10 - Sadly, WFS felt the need to put AS Mighty on this banner. don't get me wrong, he isn't terrible, but he just can't compete with all the other units featured on these 4 banners. Couple that with the fact that I think AS Dunarith is WAY overhyped by the tier list, and this would have been another 9. What made it a 9.5 is AS Radica: Yes, her zone is already covered by an F2P unit, but she is LEAGUES better as a zone setter compared to AS Gariyu (or Hardy, for that matter), her end of turn buff providing healing and MP recovery instead of just buffing her own fire attack and no one elses like Gariyu does, AND she is the first and so far only unit in the game that can provide guaranteed crits to both physical attacks and to magic, and I'm willing to bet my bottom dollar that that makes her one of the most future-proof units in the game.

Future Watch: NV, NV Eh, and Abbreviations Galore

This series is designed to give people a VERY brief overview of what to expect. This isn’t designed to tell you which units are the best, it’s designed to give you a roadmap of what we know is coming to help you plan your resource allocation. Now I know some of you are saying “Phbbbbt, GLEX just blows this up bro! They change up so much you can’t plan nothing! Pointless.” In the past this wasn’t entirely true, in fact planning based entirely on the JP roadmap actually would’ve worked out very well for most players. We’re definitely in a spot where GLEX units could change everything though. We know that CNY is coming and almost assuredly bringing some GLEX units with it. Then we still have the S3 cast coming who many be NV’s at this point, and finally we also have the Fan Designed units coming. That’s a LOT of Glex units and will quite possibly result in the largest GLEX influx that we’ve seen in GL in a calendar year. Still the JP roadmap is a useful tool.
A few notes before we begin.
-I love numbers and I think when used correctly they can help flesh out an understanding of a unit. However I also realize that there are a lot more to units then simply numbers. As such I will be using numbers but please don’t get too caught up on them. All the spreadsheets maintained have different assumptions/parameters and as such numbers will vary. Generally what’s far more important then the number itself is it’s comparison to other units. Let’s be honest, 12B average DPT doesn’t really tell you whether the unit will make Gilgamesh easier for you. However knowing that the unit does 15% more damage then Sora, or 30% more then Terra does probably tell you something so you’ll see me use those sort of notations the most often.
-We all get enjoyment in different ways, especially in a game like this. At the end of the day FFBE is a game that is meant to be fun. (I assume it’s also a game at the beginning of the day too but I sleep in a lot so I can’t confirm) The BEST reason to pull for ANY unit is because it’ll increase your enjoyment of the game. If NV Tidus is an awful piece of crap of a unit with only a single move that does slightly less damage then Ashe I’m still going to pull for him. And you should too if doing so will increase your enjoyment.
-These reviews are brief.

Lasswell and Raegen aka LassGen

Expected Late January. AMOE and TAG Chaining and LB Finishing.

Why should we care?

It feels like it’s been ages since we got a Lasswell. ::What’s that? Current banner? I don’t know what you’re talking about.:: And this Lasswell brings along his old man. On top of sporting some New mechanics Lassgen (sorry Valerium) has really solid damage output and their affinity for slaying dragons should be pretty key for some of our upcoming content.

What makes them different?

While Fina and Rain technically beat Lassgen to the punch there’s likely going to be a lot more focus on these two. All of the TAG units have a few claims to fame primarily their access to a single race active Killer Buff that they can spread to the team, increased damage to enemies with a depleted BREAK bar and of course TAG chaining. TAG chaining is a new feature that allows these units to create a chain themselves. This is a big boon for those who have severe difficulty chaining on their devices and for those who would much rather bring a finisher then a chain-partner. The AOE Active killers isn’t new but it is a big part of each of the TAG units kits and makes each of them perfectly potent and powerfully preferred for pulverizing particular...content (Dang). If it’s Dragon Slaying then Lassgen is your duo.
I would say Lassgen is the beginning of almost a Lateral Powercreep in JP. Rather than just boasting higher and more eye-popping numbers they have a scalpel like skillset that makes them perform much better then other DPS units at certain things, but only as well as other DPS units at other things. In raw numbers at the top end you’re looking at around a 10% increase over Sora’s damage both in Damage Per Turn as well as burst for much of the game’s content. However against anything with a depleted BREAK gauge their trait of “70% more damage against Broken enemies” kicks in and they do, well 70% more damage. On top of this their Active Dragon Killers if they were to come into play would be about a 37.5% damage increase. So for trials like Bahamut (Dragon and BREAK gauge) Lassgen would be more than doubling Sora’s Output. Against a trial where neither of things came into play though would be more like a 10% difference between them.
The whole TAG thing will be covered a lot I’m sure but one of the main reasons it’s important is it allows you to go from the traditional 2 chainer setup to 1 TAG chainer and 1 Finisher, which also means if you were running 2 chainers and a finisher before that could now be 1 TAG chainer and 2 finishers. I won’t harp too much on the importance of this but I will say that this is NOT a feature that has popped up a ton in JP and appears to be saved for “Duo” units. So don’t expect TAG chaining on every DPS from here on out. After these TAG banners, which in JP was just 2 Banners the only other TAG unit to pop up was the Elric Brothers in the FMA collaboration. Although keep in mind that Charlotte and Physalis TAG unit was an event reward so there is a possibility of getting at least 1 TAG unit on the cheap.
Their most powerful move is their BS LB which is a 1 hit finishing move so you would need some support chains when it comes up. They only use it every 5 turns so they don’t spam it which makes it much easier to support chain for but still something to keep in mind. And this seems to apply to ALL the TAG units as well in case I forget. A big chunk of their damage, their burst, will come from 1 hit LB's.

What’s their TMR, STMR and VC like?

TMR is a materia with unconditional 30% ATK, 40% ATK with Sword and 40% ATK with Katana so a possible 110% ATK which is pretty good even now when capping ATK seems more an afterthought.
STMR is a sword with 25% LB damage and 75% Dragon Killer.
VC is 200HP, 20% HP, 90 ATK and 50% TDW.

What do I need to make them shine?

They are primarily designed to be TDW and can use Daggers, Swords, Great Swords, Katanas and Spears in both forms with Fists available on their Base and Guns on their BS. They only have 50% TDW with their TMR equipped on their Base form but 150% with it on their BS and lose 50% TDW without their S(TMR). They get 50% ATK from Daggers, Swords, Katanas and Great Swords so potential 100% on top of their innate 200% makes capping ATK pretty easy, even without their TMR. Their biggest burst is from their LB as is common for most Damage Dealers these days so they’ll soak up some LB equipment. Overall though they should be able to take advantage of a lot of different equipment setups including most of the LB damage boost stuff people have already acquired.

Why would I want to pull for them?

They’ll probably make upcoming Dragon bosses a mite bit easier.

Why might I want to skip them?

As I mentioned earlier they represent more of a Lateral powercreep then a vertical one. Against a lot of enemies they won’t do much better then your current Damage Dealer will but in other instances they’ll shine. So it’s really a question of what that’s worth to you. This is also part of the “trend” we’re seeing from JP where we’re at a Plateau for damage output in some ways but each unit tends to have something special. As such Lassgen isn’t a “must have” the way some units have been and what’s worse is that we have a lot of GLEX coming between CNY, presumably NV Season 3 cast and Fan Designed units. As such there’s almost more question marks upcoming then anything else and many of us are loathe to be caught without Lapis if some “Mastermind Xon” level unit were to drop soon. For those who do trials on release day Lassgen will probably be a staple, but that's not most players. For players who wait until Trials are a bit more powercrept Lassgen represents a lot less. A shiny new toy with some cool features like TAG chaining? Yes. But probably not an actual gamechanger for many.

Pros:

Chaining without a partner
AOE Dragon Killer buffs
70% damage bonus vs BROKEN enemies

Cons:

Only in certain niches will they outperform current Damage Dealers

Dark Fina and Sol

Expected February. CWA and TAG chaining, LB Finishing.

Why should we care?

Think Magical Lassgen. Now think Ponies. Ha, I bet you just though of Ponies. Seriously though most of what I said about Lassgen is relevant here, Tag Chaining, AOE killers this time for Demons and increased damage against Broken enemies.

What makes them different?

Dark Fina and Sol bring a lot of what you expect from a modern mage to the table; limited elemental output (fire, earth and dark) and doing some better then others (Earth is their primary followed by Dark and Fire is more an afterthought), while also mixing in the TAG units strengths of TAG chaining, AOE active Demon Killers and increased damage against Broken enemies. They are pretty similar output wise to Physalis, our current best Mage, in Damage Per Turn and about 10% better with their burst.

What’s their TMR, STMR and VC like?

TMR is a materia with unconditional 30% MAG, 30% MAG with Whip and 30% MAG with rod.
STMR is a 198 MAG Rod with 50% TDH and 50% TDW.
VC is 200HP, 90 MAG and 50% MAG with a Rod and 50% MAG with a Robe.

What do I need to make them shine?

With a 6x chain cap and LB-centric finishing you’ll likely want to gear them TDW with LB gear similar to Ibara. They can equip all the standard mage garb so your loadout will probably be pretty standard.

Why would I want to pull for him?

Honestly it seems like we have a pretty limited selection of Magic damage dealers currently so I imagine there are some people out there that have been waiting for a solid mage as they missed on Ibara and Physalis and Dark Fina and Sol certainly are that. So if you've been waiting for a Mage they are not a bad choice at all.

Why might I want to skip him?

If you have Terra, Ibara or Physalis then you’re more or less just getting a slightly different element coverage and TAG chaining.

Pros:

TAG chaining
AOE active Demon Killers

Cons:

Limited elemental coverage

Akstar and Cleome

Expected February. AMOE and TAG chaining, LB finishing.

Why should we care?

Very similar to Lassgen but this time boasting AOE Active Human Killers and they also have a 15% Katana imperil.

What makes them different?

It’s an old guy and very young girl. So kind of like Jake and Lid if we’d gotten that duo. Honestly this is a rehash of everything I said about Lassgen except for the Killers, Human this time, and Katana Imperil on their LB. Damage wise they clock in very similar to Lassgen as well.

What’s their TMR, STMR and VC like?

TMR is a materia with unconditional 30% LB damage and 70% ATK with a Katana.
STMR is a 207 ATK 2H Katana with 50% LB damage and 50% Human killer.
VC is 90 ATK, 80% ATK with a Katana and 50% TDH for FFBE units.

What do I need to make them shine?

Although still LB-centric this unit is TDH based which means they’ll greatly benefit from the upcoming STMR from NV Lightning that will increase their Chain Cap by 1x. Unfortunately it looks like they’ll need it to match Lassgen’s damage output. Their weapon selection is Instruments, Daggers, Katanas, Great Swords and Swords. They don’t have any weapon specific ATK boosts but their built in Katana Imperil means you’ll probably want a 2H Katana for them.

Why would I want to pull for them?

If you’re looking for a TAG chainer or unit with 70% more damage against BROKEN units but prefer Human Killers and TDH.

Why might I want to skip him?

You already have a TAG unit or aren’t terribly interested in TAG units.

Pros:

TAG Chaining
AOE Active Human Killers
Katana Imperil

Cons:

Damage a bit lower then Lassgen
Less flexible gearing

Savior of Souls Lightning

Expected Late February-March. AMoE and BS chains.

Why should we care?

Lightning is a very interesting unit with a very unique kit but I’m not going to lie she has the feel of a “prototype” where we see what they were aiming for and can agree it’s a good thought but the execution leaves much to be desired. Still it’s nice to see such a unique unit and even if she herself isn’t terribly popular many will pull her just for her STMR.

What’s her TMR, STMR and VC like?

TMR is a Heavy Shield with 50 ATK/MAG/DEF/SPR and 50% ATK/MAG TDH with or without Shield
STMR increased Chain Modifer cap by 1x. Hard Cap in game is still 6x so this is mostly to benefit TDH units.
VC is 80 ATK/MAG with 100% ATK and MAG with either a Light or Heavy Shield equipped. 50% MAG/ATK TDH with or without shield for FFXIII units.

What makes her different?

EVERYTHING. You’ll see I moved the (S)TMR-VC area up because I’m going to have to reference it a lot here. So there’s 2 very big things going on here and I’ll tackle them one by one. First is Increased Chain Cap Modifier. Up until now a lot of TDW units have had TDW Mastery that gives them a chain cap of 6x whereas TDH is at 4x. The advantage is clearly TDW given just that but is offset by the fact that TDH Equipment ATK goes up to 400% whereas TDW Equipment ATK only goes up to 200% and the fact that TDH weapons, 2H weapons, have a higher variance. This tended to make the two different but roughly equal when all is said and done. Lightning has a trait that increases her Chain Cap by 1, she also has an STMR that does the same thing. Outside of her the STMR is still much more important then if first sounds as going from a 4x to 5x is a 25% damage increase, for 1 Materia. Many of you are probably familiar with my “10% STMR” rule of thumb where I like to see a 10% damage increase from an STMR to make it worth an STMR moogle. So suffice to say a 25% damage increase is huge. (Boring nerd stuff: when chaining it won’t quite be a 25% increase for all units because the chain has to build first) Still it’s a gamechanger. When Sora was new, and we can all agree Sora is unit built for TDW, I designed to compare his TDW BIS, his current TDH BIS, and his Future TDH BIS after Lightning’s STMR was released. Here’s what that looks like https://ffbeEquip.com/builder.html?server=GL#afc38320-5b96-11eb-87f8-c955d1aba12b So you’ll see that after Lightning’s STMR he’ll actually deal slightly more damage on average built TDH and a decent amount more damage when a “high roll” is achieved. And that’s with needing a fair amount of TDH gear, Killer Gear and LB gear and NOT capping ATK, LB damage, Killers OR TDH! So there’s actually room to grow there. Game changer.
The next completely new thing Lightning brings is the so-called “Sword and Board” meta which simply put is TDH even if you have a weapon AND shield equipped. An important caveat though is that 2H weapons are still not allowed with a Shield so she won’t get the Variance that a traditional TDH unit gets. However she also brings TDH DEF with her that means we’re looking at a very very bulky Damage Dealer, think Xuan Wu and Qing Long with ATK/DEF. These are the two biggest highlights but she actually has a lot more to bring as well.
She can Provoke, either actively or Passively, has a lot of Mitigations for herself so she could be a Damage Dealer and Provoke Tank. Amazingly we’re just getting warmed as she also has AOE Lightning Imbue and Lightning Damage Boost, gobs of elemental resist boosts and an AOE Double-Stack of Mirage on her Base LB. But wait, there’s more, she also has a 90% SPR break on her BS LB, that is right 90%, she switches from Physical Attacker on her Base to Magic Attacker on her BS and she can actually use Rods and Robes on her BS (sorry Lasswell), she has an 85% Fullbreak, and she has 30% damage increase against BROKEN (Depleted BREAK bar) enemies. Yeah, it’s a lot. Unfortunately if you read my opening you know where this is going though, she’s a Jack of all trades and a master of none. Her damage comes in about 25-30% lower then Sora currently does both for DPT and for Burst. While not awful considering all that bulk it’s stil less then exciting.
So as you can see this a very very very INTERESTING unit, and really only needs a trial or two that she shines in to help sell her but unfortunately we don’t really have such a trial yet.

What do I need to make her shine?

This is a bit tricky because some will opt to gear her for Provoke and Evade ala Shadow while others will focus on her bulk while maintaining damage. Still others, and this will probably be the most popular imo, will focus on her damage and forego a shield for a 2H weapon. Kind of a bummer that for many she'll work best by simply ignoring the "Sword and Board" aspect of her design but so it is. Her STMR is crucial on her regardless of which path you take but whether she even uses her TMR or VC will depend heavily on which flavor of Lightning you prefer.

Why would I want to pull for her?

You want a unique STMR that can change builds up quite a bit or an extremely interesting unit that lots of things.

Why might I want to skip her?

You still have nightmares about the first twenty hours of FFXIII. That or you won’t use her. With such a unique and fascinating kit she could be a godsend for a lot of players but for others she’ll just sit on the bench because she doesn't deal enough damage to take over as Primary DD but also doesn't do enough to take over any other slot either.

Pros:

Game changing STMR
Huge bulk
Two stack AOE mirage
Provoke with mitigations
AOE Lightning imbue
Breaks- 90% SPR, 85% Fullbreak
Physical Attacker and Mage rolled into one

Cons:

Jack of All Trades

NVA Draconioan Princess Fina

January-February. CWA Chainer, EVOke Finisher.

Why should we care?

If you gave up on Chimera EXT because you didn’t have someone who could overwrite Chimera’s Field Effect then look no further. PLEASE NOTE that she is NVA unit. So this could be a unit you already have and just need to awaken, rather than one you need to pull for.

What makes her different?

Imagine if Terra had a much smaller burst but the same Damage Per Turn, you’d basically have NVA DP Fina. Up until now Terra was our only really successful EVOker, so while much of what Terra brings to the table is copied by DP Fina it’s still a very limited pool of such units. In fact DP Fina should arrive the same time as Infernal Fire Rain’s NVA (Who is similar enough but a fair amount weaker so that I’m not going to bother highlighting him) which will bring the total of such units to 3. The recent Chimera trial is made much much easier by having a unit that can do a Field Effect to replace the opponents and we’ll likely continue to see such things in the future. Unlike the vast majority of Damage Dealers in the game EVOkers don’t use Killers so you don’t need to give them any of your Killer gear which is great especially when such gear is stretched thin ::Cough cough Dark Visions cough cough::

What do I need to make her shine?

Like Terra her biggest burst is her BS LB which is an EVOke moves and it means you’ll want EVO Mag, EVOKE Damage AND LB boosting equipment. Unlike Terra though her non-LB turns still pack a huge punch and as such her EVO MAG and Evoke Damage is far more important then her LB boost. Still it’s a fairly narrow field of such equipment and FFBEequip.com will be your best friend in identifying what you have and might need.

Why would I want to pull for her?

I’ll be honest: you probably don’t. As a general rule I would never recommend pulling for NVA units, instead I would suggest Awakening them to NVA if you have them OR UOCing them. If you don’t have Terra and you can’t awaken Infernal Rain and you feel like you need a Field Effect creator OR EVOker then I would consider UOCing her.

Why might I want to skip her?

You already have Terra or NVA Infernal Rain or are waiting for Faris.

Pros:

Really good damage output
Doesn’t require killers
Isn’t as LB dependant as Terra

Cons:

Much lower burst then Terra

Closing Thoughts

At least for the TAG units we have a lot of different flavors of the same candy. Historically speaking Lassgen seems to be the best fit for our upcoming Trials BUT I don't feel that there is any wrong choice here. They all have usable TMRs, great STMRs and interesting VCs.
I'll try to do another of these Soon-ish and focus more on NVA's however it'll probably be even more concise then these are. They are doing a pretty good job of making NVA's usable, but imo none of them come close to Tifa in the Top Tier kind of way. NVA Raegen has solid damage output but is well behind our current top Damage Dealers. Reminds me a lot of his Enhancements. Gilgamesh is a nice BreakeDD that probably falls between Loren and Riku/OK but also brings several different "deplete BREAK gauge" moves. Fenrir Edel is yet another EVOker but only really fills the niche if you have no one else.

EX2 Unit Upgrades

In JP between the Release of the second batch of TAG units and NV Lightning they gave new abilities to several early NV’s at EX2. This included Cloud (FFVII REMAKE), Rain -Neo Vision-, Aerith (FFVII REMAKE), Awakened Dragon Akstar, Sol -Neo Vision-, Gabranth -Neo Vision-. You can read about these upgrades here https://www.reddit.com/FFBEblog/comments/jfjlg9/guess_ex2_abilities_are_our_next_upcoming/
Like the Upgrades of old it gave some new life to these units although none became Top Tier again imo with the possible exception of Gabranth who was and continued to be the best Physical Tank. I would note though that Gabranth received a large amount of additional bulk and Cloud received a 35% Great Sword imperil that made him relevant again.

Future Watch FAQ

Q: Where is _______? A: They suck! J/K In JP there has been a slew of new Damage Dealers released but very little else. As such I choose to focus on the more “important” ones. I also chose to only handle so many banners this time. I’ll probably put out another Future Watch covering NVA Raegen, Enhanced Crown Prince Noctis, Faris, the Elric Brothers and NV Noctis within the next month or so.
Q: Why does your spreadsheet say X and Furcula’s says Y and DreamblitzX’s says Z? A: We all use slightly different parameters although my 2.0 is pretty similar to Furcula’s assumptions now. Still sometimes we get different rotations, different builds, different chain modifiers or different assumptions. Still I try to keep a close eye to make sure we’re all in the same ballpark.

Cheers, Jon Id Schultz

Frost Mage - Improving DPS in raid (warcraft logs)

I am looking at advice on how to improve as a frost mage. Pre buff i was doing pretty bad all around and seeing as how fire was ranked much higher, i decided to change over but after learning the rotation crafting legendarys and comparing many logs the biggest mistake i was making was i wasn't NF, i have no desire to be NF id really like to stay venthyr. So i decided to go back to frost.
As frost my parse avg from WCL is 83. So i believe i have the basic mechanics of frost mage down , but i am still missing some dps when compared to other mages on WCL. I understand by looking the best players in world/region to compare there might be a skill and amount of time playing the class they have that i dont , but it some cases its 1-3k dps difference and id like to bridge that gap as much as possible .
Here is a general overview of my logs : https://www.warcraftlogs.com/characteus/stormrage/hotsumaa
and i compared to people of similar ilvl / talents in my region here:
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/zone/rankings/26#difficulty=4&class=Mage&spec=Frost&bracket=13®ion=1

More specific fights:
Huntsman - me: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/Pkm4NQgDRvB7MyXH#fight=1&type=damage-done&source=7
Top mage at my item lvl, and talent choice: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/pwrAcY9Gxzm34vTZ#fight=2&type=damage-done&source=15
There is a glaring difference here as far as blizzard and GF , i think this could have to do with how the bosses are tanked in P2 , closer together or farther apart so i reviewed another mage about 50 spots down the list ( but still a good 1500 dps ahead of me )
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/bV9t7xBP8ZHvcpfh#fight=8&type=damage-done&source=80
his abilities as far as amount of damage from each one are much closer to mine but im not sure why his are better . I am in charge on CCing the shades , i know that not alot of time and i certainly dont think its 1500 dps time , but figured it was worth mentioning.
Council of blood:
me: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/Pkm4NQgDRvB7MyXH#fight=34&type=damage-done&source=7
bets mage for ilvl/region :https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/mZC7jL6wyrFnRDGx#fight=15&type=damage-done&source=1

here two things i noticed was better up time on MoT , which i have since improved i believe by adding an audio reminder when off cooldown. the other is he has 5 blizzard casts which i really didnt understand because WCL does not count dmg to the other 2 boss enemies and the waiters that spawn usually die very quickly . agian noting i was on the interrupt chain for the caster boss, not a big deal but wanted to note.

Artificer Xy'mox (just me )
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/TCNaydXgtzYWRJqZ#fight=32&type=damage-done
Lastly this log that i did a 95% parse....and i have no idea how, i did the same rotation i always do , same trinks, did decide on IF rather than RoP because all the movement , i was not put on egg duty I'm sure many mages are but i cant imagine all of them were .

Things ive done to improve so far : -Compared logs: first id look at talents, legendary , trinkets and other variable things to see if i was just straight up missing something, i was picking the correct legos for fights and the same talents as everyone ( sometimes when learning a fight or high movement fight id go IF rather than RoP , for these fights i would compare to mages that did the same). Some of the trinkets i did not have so i would sim all the ones i did have to see what should be best . from there i would compare openers , where they were blowing cooldowns and such . Admittedly, i don't think i am very good at comparing line by line , but i think i was for the most part doing it correctly.
-Wowanalyzer : i figured this was a good place to find easy mistakes i may be making and after the first week using it i was able to correct some issues as well as learn some places i was messing up to improve upon.
-Altered time mage discord: they have been very helpful with asking individual questions , such as verifying i was correct on rotation or trinket use.
-Read guides: went back to the basics hit some top mage guides, IV, altered times reading sources.
How i improved already: -one of the big things analyzer said i was messing up on was leaving things on cooldown too often , it wasn't usually a lot of time but enough to damage my dps, so i have made it a point to pay better attention as well as added an audio reminder to my weak auras so i get a big loud BAM when RoP comes off CD .
-another thing it told me was downtime , so I've made it a point to make sure if i move for any mechanics if possible i cast something during shimmer, or toss a basic ice lance at it, if nothing better is up . -
-I set up some macros to make mechanics easier so i can get back to dpsing such as being the one to CC the shade ono huntsman. -Thru AT discord i realized i was messing up rotation a small amount and have since fixed this.
With just these simple changes i was able to bring my parses up about 10+ points on each boss from the week before and my performance in M+ benefited as well.
What next ? that's the real question i want to be as good as possible at it so im hoping someone much better at logs, and knowledge can tell me " cmon scrub this is clearly your issue on log page 63, sub section c ". Or at very least any tips, pointers, advice you may have from me would be greatly appreciated
Please let me know if you want me to give more info, or anything else

The Alchemist's Toolbox 119: Drei!

A Link to the Index: https://www.reddit.com/AlchemistCodeGL/comments/adzjua/the_alchemists_index/
Welcome to the 119th Alchemist's Toolbox review!
Today we're heading to Lost Blue to take a look at one of Thunder's strongest magic users. So without further ado, here's the next unit for review: Drei!
Drei is Veda Templar #3. Let's see what he can do as a unit, shall we?
Personal Investment:
I've got Drei at MLB with all his jobs mastered (both JEs mastered, unique job enhanced). I'm currently waiting on more of his shards for Enlightenment, but even at his comparatively lower investment level he still puts in a hefty amount of work.
Element:
Basic:
Drei is a Thunder unit, which means he's strong against Water and weak against Wind. Compared to a hypothetical Light or Dark unit with the same stats and jobs, he would be better defensively and worse offensively.
Competition:

Florid Mortician: Since this is Drei's unique job, he faces no competition here.
Ninja/Ninja [Black Tortoise]: Comparing to other Ninjas, Drei competes with Laevateinn, Lucido, Magnus, and Yuri. He beats Laevateinn in bulk and horizontal mobility while losing to her in speed and damage; beats Lucido in everything except speed; beats Magnus in bulk and horizontal mobility while losing to him in damage and speed; and loses to Yuri in everything except horizontal mobility. Factoring in Gates 1-5 of Enlightenment, Drei now beats Laevateinn in vertical mobility in exchange for an even larger damage loss; he now loses to Lucido in damage; his comparison to Magnus remains the same; and he now beats Yuri in magic bulk.
Magic MeisteMagic Meister [Serenade]: Comparing to other Magic Meisters, Drei competes with Lucia and Rebecca. Drei beats Lucia in speed and mobility while losing to her in damage and bulk; and beats Rebecca in damage, speed, mobility, and physical bulk while losing to her in magic bulk. Factoring in Gates 1-5 of Enlightenment, Drei now beats Rebecca outright.

Leader Skill:
+30% HP, +50% MAtk, and +40% MAtk Debuff Res for Thunder units. A great Leader Skill for Thunder magic teams.
Jobs:
Drei's 3 jobs are Florid Mortician, Ninja, and Magic Meister, with the Black Tortoise JE for Ninja and the Serenade JE for Magic Meister.
Florid Mortician is a magic usedisruptor hybrid job. It has:
Main Skillset

A teleport + single-target Thunder damage skill that boosts the user's agility (this skill deals magic category Slash type damage).
An AoE Healing Potency debuff that also inflicts Disable Heal.
An AoE 5-hit Thunder damage skill that deals bonus damage if the user is afflicted with a status (this skill deals magic category Slash type damage).
A teleport + single-target Thunder damage skill that deals bonus damage if the target is affected by a PAtk or MAtk debuff (this skill deals magic category Slash type damage).

Sub Skillset

A single-target Thunder damage skill that lowers the target's PAtk/MAtk and moves the target up to 4 grid squares towards the user (this skill deals magic category Magic type damage).
A single-target Thunder damage skill that lowers the target's agility and moves the target up to 4 grid squares towards the user (this skill deals magic category Magic type damage).
A teleport + Berserk self-infliction skill that boosts the user's PAtk/MAtk by 150% while afflicted with Berserk.

Its reactive is a Slash damage self-buff that also self-inflicts Disable Heal and can activate against skills, and its passives boost MAtk/Move, boost the damage of [Weeping Petals] Multilift while giving it a random hit chance, and boost the Slash damage buff potency of [Deceptive] Revoke while lowering its activation chance respectively.
Ninja is a disruptor job. It has:
Main Skillset

An evasion self-buff.
A self-based AoE skill that inflicts Blindness.
A weak melee damage skill that inflicts Sleep.
A weak melee damage skill that inflicts Poison.
A weak melee damage skill that inflicts Paralysis.
A weak melee damage skill that inflicts Bind.
A weak melee damage skill that inflicts Stop.

Sub Skillset

A single-target damage skill (this skill does physical Missile damage).
A single-target Fire damage skill (this skill deals physical typeless damage).
A single-target Water damage skill (this skill deals physical typeless damage).
A single-target Wind damage skill (this skill deals physical typeless damage).
A single-target Thunder damage skill (this skill deals physical typeless damage).

Its reactive is a chance to Poison attackers, and its passive boosts Move and Jump.
Ninja [Black Tortoise] does the following:

Adds 1 Move to the base job.
Adds a Move buff to Utsusemi.
Turns Tranquilizing Blade into a teleport + weak single-target damage skill that inflicts Sleep.
Slightly increases the damage of Shuriken while making it deal typeless damage and increasing its jewel cost by 1.

Magic Meister is an MAtk-using physical damage-dealer job. It has:
Main Skillset

A self-heal that also casts Quicken on the user.
An AoE skill that places panels which deal damage when stood on.
A self-based AoE damage skill that ignores a portion of the targets' PDef and deals bonus damage to Machine type enemies.
An AoE damage skill that ignores a portion of the targets' PDef.
A single-target 4-hit Light damage skill that ignores a portion of the target's PDef (and unlike the rest of the job's skills, this skill has a cast time).

Sub Skillset

An AoE skill that places panels which boost the PDef/MDef of allies that stand on them.
An MAtk/Dex self-buff.
A single-target PAtk/Dex debuff.
A single-target damage skill that ignores a portion of the target's PDef and deals bonus damage to Airborne type enemies.

Its reactive is a chance to reduce physical damage taken, and its passives boost HP/Dark Res and boost MAtk/Dex/agility with every KO respectively.
Magic Meister [Serenade] does the following:

Adds an AoE skill that dispels the targets' buffs to the main skillset.
Boosts the range of Weakness and makes it an AoE.
Boosts the damage and number of uses of Quarter Raid and gives it a permanent Missile Res debuff.
Boosts the potency of Pain Control.

Babel War Art:
Drei's Babel War Art brings the PAtk/MAtk boost of [Exaltation] Ace from +150% to +300%. Simple, yet extremely effective in the right scenarios.
Stats:
Drei's stats support a fairly fast, slightly squishy unit with good damage. All stats are at the usual benchmark (level 75, all jobs mastered, main job enhanced), and only Drei's unique job will be shown since it's so far above his other options. Table Key: NP = No Passive; EE = [Embodying] Eldest

Stat	Florid Mortician
HP	2008
MAtk (NP)	716
MAtk (EE)	906
Agility	132

Enlightenment:
Drei currently has 5 Gates of Enlightenment.

His Gate 1 boosts HP, PAtk, MAtk, and agility while leveling, and boosts HP, PDef, MDef, and Luck when maxed.
His Gate 2 boosts PDef, MDef, Crit, and hitrate while leveling, and upgrades Ninja Stealth to +1 Move, +1 Jump, +10% agility, and 10% lower jewel costs (previous effect of +1 Move and +1 Jump) when maxed.
His Gate 3 boosts HP, Dex, agility, and evasion while leveling, and upgrades his Leader Skill to +30% HP, +30% MAtk, +20% All damage, and +40% MAtk Debuff Res when maxed.
His Gate 4 boosts HP, PDef, MDef, and hitrate while leveling, and boosts HP, PDef, MDef, Luck, damage against Greed type enemies, and damage against Sloth type enemies when maxed.
His Gate 5 boosts HP, PDef, MDef, agility, and Crit while leveling, and boosts the range and number of uses of [Wild Thunder] Shuffle while also adding agility debuffs as a trigger for its bonus damage; boosts the range and number of uses of Aperience while also causing it to temporarily prevent buffs from affecting the targets; and boosts the damage of Illusive Lure-Blade while also reducing its jewel cost and adding an agility/All defense debuff while the target is afflicted with Sleep when maxed.

Recommended Enlightenment: Drei's Enlightenment is a somewhat unusual one since maxing Gates 1 and 4 don't provide any important stats except HP (plus agility from the final level of Gate 1). As such, while 5/5/5/5/5 (with Gate 3 being optional to max) is still his best overall setup, 4/5/5/4/5 can grant very similar performance with less spent resources.
Enlightenment Stats:
Drei's Enlightenment helps patch up his bulk and speed a bit while providing a moderate boost to his already good damage. All stats assume level 95 with an Enlightenment setup of 5/5/5/5/5. All other assumptions are the same as the regular stats section. Table Key Additions: SS = Scintillating Shearer

Stat	Florid Mortician
HP	4176
MAtk (NP)	775
MAtk (EE)	980
Agility (NP)	146
Agility (SS)	159

Example Builds:
Veda Templar #3

Main Job: Florid Mortician
Sub Job: Florid Mortician
Reactive: Deceptive [Revoke] (damage/kit synergy)/Pain Protection (survivability)
Passive 1: [Embodying] Eldest
Passive 2: Ninja Stealth {Scintillating Shearer} Note: Drei's other passives are largely niche picks for certain scenarios.

Drei's general build. Unique main and sub, reactive is a choice between damage + better kit synergy and survivability, and Drei's best general passive setup is [Embodying] Eldest + Ninja Stealth/Scintillating Shearer due to the more reliable benefits they provide. Basic strategy is to hit enemies hard with magic and use your self-Berserk when you're out of big damage skills.
My Recommended Build:
Drei will almost always use his unique job, though Magic Meister and Ninja both have some niche applications.
Gear Recommendations:
Armor and Accessories: Any HP or agility boosting gear; Trick Deck (HP + Thunder damage against Water enemies boost); Jailing Chains (agility, All damage, Drei's VCR); Screaming Bullet (basically budget version of Drei's VCR, farmable during PotK collab)
Weapon: Golden Jade Tarot (best standalone stats, agility, HP); Reverse Card (Slash damage, Drei's weapon, strong Weapon Ability)
Memento Recommendations:
Drei's best Memento is his own: Prune, Harvest, Bloom. This Memento boosts his agility; HP; Slash damage; MAtk Debuff Res; MAtk; Paralysis Res; and hitrate, with a jewel cost reduction and an additional agility boost at MLB. Its Vision Ability is a single-target Thunder damage skill that inflicts Rage.
Since Drei is a Veda Templar, he also gets some good benefits from Nine Lives (MAtk), A Night of Drinking Lifeblood (agility + HP), and My Ray of Sunshine (HP).
If you don't have any of those, then go for the biggest HP, MAtk, or agility boost that you can get, prioritizing Veda Templar and Lost Blue Group Skills.
Rune Recommendations:
Sorcery Runes are Drei's best Rune type, hands down (though Charge Forth runes are the only one that's 100% useless for him on his unique job).
For primary stats, Dex/Crit/HP/MAtk/MDef or Luck/agility is your best bet.
As for secondary stats:

Envy: Slash damage is the main one, though Magic type damage could be nice if you want Drei's damage + debuff skills to have a little more oomph.
Sloth: Any of these work depending on your needs.
Lust: Any of these can work, though Charm Res, Delay Res, and Rage Res stand out.
Gluttony: Max Jewels and Critical Rate are the 2 best options here.
Wrath: MAtk Debuff Res gets some diminishing returns here assuming you have Drei's Leader Skill up, so Agility Debuff Res is a good option for those scenarios.
Greed: Any of these can work except Bind Res (because Drei has a crazy high innate Bind Res), though Petrify Res, Death Sentence Res, and Stop Res stand out.

Futureproofness:
Drei's only update down the line compared to JP is Gate 6 of Enlightenment.
Overall Asessment:
Drei is a great unit. If you need a new magic user, he can be an excellent addition to your toolbox.
And that's the review! As always, feedback is greatly appreciated!
Make sure to let me know which of the following units you want me to review next:
Cassius, Eros, Hozuki, Longinus, Rahu, Sakura
Or choose one of the revisit options below!
Annerose, Edgar, Flamel, Sieba

Day 3 of Analyzing a Sparking everyday until GT gets a new unit.

Today we'll be covering our first LF Unit. Blue Majin Vegeta,
Author's Note I have Vegeta at 7 stars which is abnormally high for an LF character if any part of this review sounds exaggerated that may be why.
Let's show off his stats at 3 stars.
Health: 1.95M
Strike Attack: 191.62k
Strike Defense: 134.54k
Blast Attack: 183.75k
Blast Defense: 132.81k
This highlights the problem with LF units, I complain about low stats here or there in my other reviews but I can get Gohan and Trunks to 14 stars for free I can't do that for Vegeta so very often he won't have the stats to match up. None of these are abysmal but they don't impress me either.
Here are his transformed stats
Health: 2.02
Strike Attack: 215.74
Strike Defense: 139.97
Blast Attack: 206.78
Blast Defense: 138.17
His Health and Attack stats see a very nice jump in power but his defense still leaves a lot to be desired.
Main Ability 1
Realized Evil Spirit Transform into "Majin Vegeta". Restores own health by 30%. Cancels own Attribute Downgrades. Requirements: 15 timer counts must elapse.
This heal might not sound like a lot but in practice it's monstrous, it has brought me back from the brink as a super special bonus he deletes attribute downgrades so if you got stuck with a health restoration down debuff it won't affect your heal a very nice ability.
Main Ability 2
Farewell, Prideful Warrior
Draw a Special Move Arts Card next. Restores own Ki by 50. +100% to damage inflicted by the next Special Move Arts Card used (cannot be canceled). Gain Buff Effect "Nullifies enemy's special actions that activate when changing cover" for 10 timer counts (cannot be canceled). Requirements: 15 timer counts must elapse.
This is an absolute nuke of the main ability. It was made to give you the power to completely drop one character and it shows. He gives you the special move, enough ki to use it, +100% to its damage so it will hit hard, and nullifies cover change so no matter what someone is taking a hit. His nullify cover change can also come in handy even if you don't need the special move, for me sometimes I pop the main just so I don't have to worry about it. This is an absolutely amazing main ability meant to exemplify all of Vegeta's strengths
I have to cover all the passives this time because they're all a little bit different
Passive 1 Base Form
Long-Awaited Showdown
+40% to damage inflicted against "Character: Goku" (cannot be canceled). Applies the following effects to self when this character enters the battlefield: +50% to damage inflicted for 20 timer counts. Reduces damage received by 30% for 20 timer counts. Additional +30% to damage inflicted for 20 timer counts if your opponent does not have a remaining "Character: Goku" battle member.
Doing extra damage against Goku's will always be a good ability because he is the main character we will be seeing a lot of very strong versions of him and the ability to do extra damage against him is always appreciated. Plus once you have killed Goku you get even more damage inflicted. The rest of this passive is run of the mill he comes in gets some damage and defense buffs.
Passive 2 Base Form
Indispensable Pride
Applies Buff Effect "Nullify Abnormal Conditions up to 3 times" to self when the battle starts.

Applies the following effects to self every time an enemy uses a Strike, Blast, or Special Move Arts attack while this character is on the battlefield:

+20% to damage inflicted for 20 timer counts. Reduces damage received by 10% for 5 timer counts.
This adds some much-needed bulk to his kit and it can really stack up if you let him take a combo or 2. The Nullify Abnormal conditions buffs are excellent for dodging paralysis and faint, it keeps your mind from worrying to play around with characters who have that in their kits.
Passive 1 Majin
Applies the following effects to self when this character enters the battlefield: Restores Ki by 40. +50% to damage inflicted (cannot be stacked). Reduces damage received by 30% (cannot be stacked). Additional +30% to damage inflicted for 20 timer counts if your opponent does not have a remaining "Character: Goku" battle member.
It's mostly the same except for the fact that the buffs no longer have timer counts attached so you don't have to worry about losing them and now he gets some ki which is good for continuing your combo
Passive 2 Majin
+30% to Strike damage inflicted after transforming.

Applies the following effects to self every time an enemy uses a Strike, Blast, or Special Move Arts attack while this character is on the battlefield:

+20% to damage inflicted for 20 timer counts. Reduces damage received by 10% for 5 timer counts.
The only difference is the extra strike attack always useful in a battle.
Strike Card
He puts a strike card in your deck (meaning it can show up and be used by anyone) that heals you by 5% HP which is awesome and will contribute greatly to your team's longevity.
Green Card Base Form
Switch-Break
The following effects occur on hit: Destroys all of your enemy's cards. Inflicts enemy with Attribute Downgrade "-1 Arts Card Draw Speed level" for 10 timer counts. Inflicts enemy with Attribute Downgrade "+20% to Strike Damage Received" for 20 timer counts. [Comboable Arts] Strike Arts Blast Arts Special Arts Special Move Arts
This green card charges forward, as such you have to be smart about how you use it charging in willy nilly will mean you miss the hit. If you want to land this green card you have to be reactionary see what you're opponent is doing and use this green as a counter. But to speak of this card's effects are awesome it completely destroys your opponent's combo potential and sets you up to do some nice strike damage.
Blue Card Base Form
Deals massive Impact damage. Gain Attribute Upgrade "-30% to enemy's 'Sustained Damage CUT' effects" for 3 timer counts upon activation. *Blast Armor when charging forward.
This is a nice Blue card that allows you to cut through a nice amount of your opponent's sustained damage cut. Blast Armour is always good if you catch your opponent blasting don't hesitate to use this card.
Green Card Majin
The way I was before!
Applies the following effects to self upon activation: Randomly draw 1 card. Restores own Ki by 30. +20% to damage inflicted for 15 timer counts. [Comboable Arts] Strike Arts Blast Arts Special Move Arts
This is an AOE green card meaning that its effects are only close range, your best bet for landing this card is to vanish an attack and quickly use this card to knock your opponent back. Be careful these types of cards are infamous so if you just run in and spam the card your opponent can scoot back to avoid the effect and then fly back in to start a combo. If you do land it your in for some fun, he has the best knockback green card in my opinion. It's the ultimate combo starter he knocks you back, draws a card, restores some ki to use the card, and you get damage buffs to set your combo up this is one of the best green cards in the game.
Blue Card Majin
Pride-Staked Assault
Deals massive Impact damage. Applies the following effects to self upon activation: +30% to damage inflicted against "Tag: Regeneration" for 3 timer counts. Gain Attribute Upgrade "-100% to enemy's 'Sustained Damage CUT' effects" for 3 timer counts. Nullifies enemy's "Restores own health when it reaches 0" effects when this character attacks for 3 timer counts. *Blast Armor when charging forward.
There isn't much to say he is meant to do as much special move damage as possible this is meant to destroy one character and make sure they don't come back. If you run into a red regeneration character it's pretty much over. He erases your damage cut and stops your endurance it's all over.
Strengths: Absolutely titanic damage supplemented by a cavalcade of damage buffs, with additional defense buffs to make him a decent tank.
Weaknesses: In my opinion, his only weakness is being an LF unit he would top of S-tier right now if we had more freedom to get LF zpower but because of that he is subjugated to the embarrassment of being Tier-2. Devs either need to give us LF zpower more often or increase the amount of zpower you get per pull, I think 950 per pull is fair with the rates we have.
Gamepress Ranking: Tier 2
Personal Ranking: If 3 stars, Mid Tier-1 if at 7 or higher S-tier
Leave a suggestion for who should be the next highest voted comment in tomorrow's post.

I got 300 kills with posterity so that you don’t have to.

Deathwing Strikemaster Predictions

Zhongli Drama and the problem with Geo character design

This Week At Bungie 9/10/2020

Source: https://www.bungie.net/en/News/Article/49553
This week at Bungie, we’re consuming stacks of Light.
Within Destiny 2, the exodus of Io, Titan, Mercury, and Mars continues. Zavala has tasked you with spreading word of impending Darkness and keeping our beloved vendors up to speed. There are still a few more loose ends to tie up on these destinations, so get to it.
Along your quest, you’ll have some final chances to earn unique loot and fill out your collections before access to various strikes is impeded by the Darkness.
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While the Traveler may have chosen you, it’s almost time to go beyond the Light. Don’t forget where you came from, though, as we’re celebrating Destiny’s almost-seventh birthday this week! Yeah, we know, it’s been six years. But seven is darker.
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If you haven’t snagged the sweet wallpapers or seen our Stasis deep dives, head on over to our fresh blog article covering the fun! While we're celebrating the past, we're also getting ready for the future.
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Whether you’re a veteran of Destiny or have just been rez’d in the Cosmodrome, thank you for playing, and thank you for being a part of our community.

Suit up

A few TWAB’s ago, Luke Smith took some time to run through changes to our philosophy in doling out rewards through the various activities of Destiny 2. Hit the article again if you’d like a refresher on vanity, cosmetics, and more. Today, we’ll be focusing on core playlist rewards (strikes, Gambit, and Crucible).
To quote the article, here’s what you can expect on November 10:

We are adding a new set of Armor for the core playlists (strikes, Gambit, and Crucible).
This armor shares a set of new geometry, with decals and shaders specific to the activity.
We will create new sets like this each Year (e.g., Year 4, Year 5, Year 6, etc.)
This set will arrive alongside the next expansion.

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This armor can be earned by completing activities or through vendor rank-ups. Weekly challenges are also being updated to offer avenues for players to earn higher-stat packages for these armor sets.
Additionally, Year 4 will see the return of pursuit weapons. For those of you who may have joined our community in the last Season or two, these weapons have static perks, but allow for some customization. The final two perk columns have multiple perks to choose from, so you can tailor your weapon to your desired playstyle. Our eagle-eyed Guardians may recognize this beauty from a recent Stasis trailer….
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Our goal is to have a pursuit weapon available per Season, earned through a focused quest. Banshee will give you a choice between Strikes, Crucible, or Gambit to earn the base model. Make sure you take a moment to think about how you want to earn the weapon, as you'll be locked in to specific objectives for whichever activity you pick.
Once you finish the main quest, Commander Zavala, Lord Shaxx, and the Drifter will offer you an additional quest which will reward you with weapon ornaments to the theme of their respective activities. If you’re omnivorous and enjoy all three offerings, all three will be available to you.
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So, now that we've caught your eye with some fancy armor and a new sniper, let's take a quick look at how things are changing for core activities as you launch into your new adventures on November 10. Strike, Gambit, and Crucible playlists are being streamlined.
Crucible
Starting in Season 12, the Director will be updated to reduce the number of playlists available at a given time.

Featured Modes:
- Control
- Elimination
- Rumble
- Survival
  - Both Survival and Survival: Freelance will be available
- Weekly rotator:
  - Clash, Mayhem, and Showdown
- Private matches
- Limited Availability
  - Iron Banner
  - Iron Banner: Freelance will make its debut in Season 12.
    - Similar to Competitive, this will be a smaller node next to Iron Banner when the playlist is available.
- Weekend Availability
  - Trials of Osiris
  - Note: Adept weapons, rewarded to those reaching the Lighthouse, return to Trials of Osiris in Season 12. (More details on functionality to come in a Sandbox preview, currently planned for October.)

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Strikes

Vanguard strikes and Nightfall: The Ordeal will be your two playlist options.
- Each playlist will continue to offer weekly challenges for Powerful loot.
- Nightfall: The Ordeal will continue to feature matchmaking at lower difficulties, and increased rewards for higher difficulty options.
- Note: We’re also looking to add Adept weapons to strikes in a future Season. We’ll have updates closer to Season 13 on what to expect.

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Gambit
As covered last week, Gambit and Gambit Prime will be consolidated into a single mode. We have some additional details on specific rule changes, as well as development notes from the team on how things are changing, and the goals behind them.

Hi Gambiteers! We wanted to give you an explanations of rules changes coming to Gambit in November, as well as a key update from last week.
First, some goals we wrote down before we started:

Build a more approachable Gambit Prime, keeping the one-round format with a longer round, but without the Gambit Prime armor perks.

Rebalance the motes phase to last 2/3 of each match, rather than half of the match.

Speed up the Primeval fight (compared to Gambit Prime) to give more of the feeling of a ‘boss rush.’

We started with the Gambit Prime encounters, full stop. However, without the Reaper buffs, the Large bosses that come in enemy waves were too tanky – so we pulled them all down to miniboss or elite. The pacing should feel like how Gambit feels for a pickup group, or how Prime feels for a fully kitted team.
We also playtested the “having the motes” phase target a score of 150, and/or have a heavier mote drain, but this allowed organized teams to steamroll even more effectively – not less. So, we pulled back to the current Gambit Prime mote target and drain.
We started with the Gambit Prime Blockers, but pulled the Taken Captain from the Blocker lineup, as he proved a little too potent for a 10-mote Blocker. We replaced him with the Phalanx, who can be tough to kill, but not as lethal. Since we don’t have the armor perks, we also had to remove the 20-mote Giant Blocker.
We kept the invasions during mote phases at three – just like Gambit Prime – but pulled back the minimum time between invasions during mote phases from 10 seconds to 20 seconds. It never feels good to get invaded back-to-back.
For the boss fight, we started with the Gambit Primeval fight, removed the timed Slayer buffs, increased the Primeval health and potency of the slayer buff given by when killing envoys. We respawn the envoys every 40% damage done to the Primeval – so if you get invaded and the Primeval is healed a lot, you have the opportunity to get more Slayer buffs and catch up. The fight length ends up somewhere in between the original Gambit and Gambit Prime, so we adjusted the invasion timer during the Primeval phase to match – right in between Gambit and Gambit Prime timing.
So, overall this mode will be a little quicker than Gambit Prime – mostly due to shortening of the boss phase and the removal of the larger bosses from the fronts, but one that still gives that great Gambit feeling that you all love.

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We see you’re hungry for info, and we’re excited to bring the heat. As we approach Beyond Light, we’ll have more details on how your weekly rituals are changing. Economy, Eververse, Sandbox, and more. We’re looking forward to talking about things like solo queue Iron Banner, but we have a few things left to tie up as we approach launch.
Stay tuned…

Triumph Trackers

Last week, we announced some changes coming to Triumphs in November. Various Triumphs and Seals will soon become unavailable, leaving you to figure out which things to prioritize before the end of the Season. Partnering with some community API creators, there are now multiple options for you to create a checklist of sorts. Here’s a quick list in no particular order. They’re all amazing, and we hope you find one that suits you best!

Many thanks to these creators, and we’re excited to see how their portals and communities grow as we begin another year of Destiny content.

The noble quest to vanquish all bugs

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Destiny 2 Update 2.9.2 shipped this Tuesday, and the Player Support team has been prowling the #Help forum in search of fresh bugs to smash. Thankfully, it doesn’t look like there are any major issues cropping up!
This is their report.

COMPANION APP
Early last week, Bungie.net and the Destiny API underwent maintenance. As a result of that maintenance, item transfer performance using the Companion App or third-party apps became roughly 10x faster for most players. The Companion app can be used by all Destiny 2 players on any platform, console or PC.
CONTACT FORMS
Last week, we were investigating an issue with our Contact Forms on Bungie.net. This issue has now been resolved, and players can now use the various contact form to submit help requests on help.bungie.net.
RESOLVED ISSUES
Below is a list of issues that have been resolved with Update 2.9.2 on September 8. The full patch notes for Update 2.9.2 can be viewed here.

Players will no longer freeze when respawning in Gambit.

Enemies will no longer stop spawning in Hexahedron area in the Prophecy Dungeon, blocking players from progressing.

Players who completed Tommy's Matchbook catalyst pursuit will no longer be re-awarded it.

Redrix’s Broadsword will now be available to reclaim from Collections.

Players will no longer block quest progress by acquiring Calcified Light without the quest active.

CURRENT KNOWN ISSUES
While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues that were reported to us in our #Help Forum:

Player badge counts will sometimes not update when the Season of Arrivals Collections badge is completed.

The Tribute Hall’s Completionist triumph doesn’t count Season Collections badges.

Players need to complete the Exodus: Preparation quest before they can begin the Exodus: Evacuation quest for Traveler’s Chosen.

The Artifact is sometimes enabled in Iron Banner.

Bounties/progress is sometimes not counted in Iron Banner.

For a full list of emergent issues in Destiny 2, players can review our Known Issues article. Players who observe other issues should report them to our #Help forum.

Stacks on Stacks on Stacks on Stacks

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Have you consumed your daily dose of Light, yet? No? Well, go grab your Traveler’s Chosen and have a stack! I heard it goes well with popcorn, a soda, and a relaxing MOTW.
Movie of the Week: Legends Never Die
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Honorable Mention: Thread the Needle
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Honorable Mention: Wait, that’s illegal!
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Want a chance at the MOTW emblem? Head over to the Creations page and submit your stuff! As a heads up, we’ll be getting a new emblem to hand out for MOTW in Season 12, so shoot your shot before the current offering is gone. More on that in a future TWAB.
It’s weird to think, six years ago I was sitting in my friend’s garage, wrapped in a blanket, playing through Destiny for the first time after calling out “sick” from work. I think my initial character was a Hunter. The cloaks were cool, and the Golden Gun shown in the trailers caught my eye. I had no clue what Rampage was, why Suros was considered good, or why anyone would care about an Exotic Rocket Launcher.
Fast forward to now, we have a massive community with multiple expansions, Exotics, weapons, subclasses, and more under our belts. You’ve fought back the Darkness, lost your Light, met a Wizard that came from the Moon, and more. And now – in only a few months – after looking at beautiful concept art since 2014, we’ll finally sink our boots in the snows of Europa. We’ll also be embracing Darkness abilities for the first time.
I know I’ve said “we’re just getting started” a few times since starting on the Community team… but every release gives us a chance to set off on a new path. Fresh experiences with a sense of wonder, challenges that push you and grow your skill, and opportunities to make new friends along the way. Thanks for joining us on this wild ride.
Now, it’s time for me to hop into Iron Banner as I hunt for a few different rolls on my weaponry. I’ve heard whispers from our Sandbox folk on upcoming changes to 110 Hand Cannons. Might be fun to snag a few random rolls to try out when Beyond Light ships. That conversation is for another time, though. How about next month? We’ll see if this little tease makes it through editorial. If it does, I bet you 200,000 Glimmer that someone makes a five-minute YouTube video about it.
Happy hunting.
Cheers,
-dmg04

Instagram AMA Overview (12/20)

One quote = question, 2 quote = Deca's answer
taken from https://www.instagram.com/p/CIV6YXpHrBc/

Will there be any more free packs/stuff? :d

yes! Coming this Oryxmas

Some time ago, when asked about a ray katana buff, (if I recall correctly) you mentioned you didn’t want to touch it much until you could do a more sweeping rework of items. Do you have any more news on that? As well, what do you think of proposed changes that Calcium and Talwar have suggested like a charged shot or area damage?

Yes, this is still in our sights! We tackled this to some extent in the Vital Combat update, but we still want to do bigger reviews of item balance as we've mentioned before. We hope this is something we can emphasize in early 2021 once other impactful projects like the Item Forge have settled into the game. And yes, we've seen the videos by Calcium, Talwar, and others as well! Some of the ideas like a charged shot would be pretty ambitious on the technical side, but never say never! We still want to expand on projectile and weapon systems beyond the steps we took with High Tech Terror.

With the new update, EXP is no longer gained from any monster unless the player has hit it. Is this intentional and is this permanent?
It's extremely difficult to group up together to help each other level up. It's now better to not cooperate, and make sure you can get damage on each and every enemy lest someone just steamroll the enemy before you can hit them.
Major class imbalance between those that are single hit classes vs. long ranged multi hit classes such as Sorcerer.
Party Member Level Ups completely invalid. You cannot consistently expect anyone below level 20 to be able to hit the specific monsters on the expected level up exp.
I posted this elsewhere and I heard back from countless players giving stories about how they're unable to play with their friends or family or GF/BFs simply because introducing someone to a game with so little incentive to group has forced them to quit. Personally, I am completely unable to convince my little brothers to play with me since it's so counter productive to try and level up together. In my opinion, grouping without needing to party up or be in the same guild together is what truly made the game special. Now that it's better to go solo, it's destroyed that little piece of magic that made it so fun for beginners to play RotMG and team up with strangers, that would eventually become friends.

It is not intentional. This is a quite elusive bug we have been having difficulties to track and correct. Because we are immersed in a team-wide process to launch the upcoming release, we haven’t been able to investigate with as much depth as we would have liked.
We know it’s quite disruptive, and it will have the appropriate attention as soon as it’s humanly possible.

What type of potatoes do you use to run the servers

Sweeeeet potatoes 😏

Will you actually focus more on QOL updates like status effect reworks, phase reworks, bug fixes etc, instead of pumping in more new content?

We want for sure dedicate time to polish and improve things that already exist. That being said, what really drives our efforts is our vision for Realm. We have a vision for what we want to achieve in 2021 and a good part of it involves improving on existing systems, but in other cases, moving towards that vision mean new systems.

Will there be any more dungeons planned after Oryx Sanctuary that will either be as hard or maybe even harder? Something that might continue the lore or maybe something so strong not even oryx could handle

n the long term, yes. Endgame content is one of the most time consuming and dev-intensive kinds of projects on the design side, so it's not something we can do super regularly, but the game naturally progresses in that direction over time. While we can't promise anything HARDER than O3 particularly soon, we do still want to create new endgame content consistently.

What are the main focuses for updates right now. Like is it new material or is it more focused on bugs/glitches.

At this VERY moment, we're focused more on content in December with things like reconstructed dungeons, a brand new dungeon, item forge, quickslots, and more. But overall our focus is both, as our team is growing and more capable of tackling both ends of development simultaneously.

Is there going to be any more event bosses?

yes

So I’ve got 2 questions for ya:

Do you guys plan on eventually updating all art in game? Or is it just gonna be the ones that really need it? (ie; epic dungeons, sprite world)

What are your thoughts on adding a second white to the cdepths to put it in line with woodlab and ddocks?

We aren't looking to update every sprite in the game just for the sake of it, but we do want to get the game to a more consistent style over time, particularly in the case of the original lofi assets, many of which even lack basic animations and are completely static.
There will not be another white in CDepths at the time we release the reconstructed version of the dungeon. However, Doku has received a buff and we do intend to give the CDepths another white a little later down the line!

What’s the attitude to bots in realm (such as the ones advertising in nexus)?

This will probably come as obvious, but we don't like them any more than you do! We know they're unsightly, and part of our 2021 plan includes taking more legitimate measures against bots, beyond just chat filters but also proactive prevention systems that aren't disruptive to human players.

Why change the removal of negative effects on entire group from the Tome of Purification?

We know this was a controversial change at the time, and it was heavily debated among our internal design team as well, but we ultimately felt this was a necessary balance change despite the precedent the item had set since it was introduced. Having to account this item constantly limited our design choices, often forcing us to lean more than we'd like into other iffy design measures like high damage bursts just to be able to make something challenging/engaging (especially pre-Vital Combat). With the tome as it is now, we feel more comfortable using status effects in moderation and with consideration, instead of just annoying spam.

Will you guys ever implement any new ui looks for exalt? I really like the flash ui and wish i could play with it

UI/UX is an important topic on Exalt for us! We don't plan to make artistic variants like a retro Flash style (which Exalt's UI is already heavily based on, just sharper), but we are developing alternative layout styles which we hope to make available sometime in 2021.

Hire me?

send us your CV!

uhhhhhhhhh
Another question. Will there ever be changes to LOD drops? Currently the dungeon has almost no reason to run. It takes about ten to fifteen minutes on average just for a mana pot and the ST is dreadful. Nobody ever does the dungeon but the fights are well designed. If there were better drops people might actually go in them. I would argue that Life should drop and Celestial Blade also needs some tweaking. It's super unconventional as is and the Enforcer is honestly 100x easier to get. The changes to Water Silk Robe made people actually sometimes go in and kill Blue then leave, so if you guys made the other drops better people would actually stick around.

This will probably take place in an aforementioned balancing patch that reassesses a multitude of items throughout the game.

Will there be a fix for the constant vault bug soon? It gets really annoying entering my vault and having to nexus and re enter thanks to it just error-ing every time I try to move an item to or from a vault.

Problems that arised with vault are also very, very elusive to reproduce for us. As we commented, we quite busy at the time with the upcoming release and this problem, which we cannot consistently pinpoint to a cause yet, is eluding us (until we can put our full efforts on it again!).
So, we'll investigate it in depth as soon as we wrap up the current release! We cannot give an answer on when or how fixes will happen, though, but we will be on it for sure.

Hey DECA, not too long ago I made a post on a tweak to how Exaltations worked. The TL;DR of it would be "Make exaltations based on the amount of exaltations per weapon type or armor type instead of based on completions. Basically, 24 exaltations of staff classes should be that 5% drop rate bonus instead of 1/5 every stat for every class." I would love to know if you would be willing to consider this idea, partially or fully. If you would like more explanation, I made a full post on it here: https://www.reddit.com/RotMG/comments/jqep7s/a_tweak_to_exaltation_bonus_gains/ Thank you again.

We really appreciate the time and effort put into this deep analysis. We won't say at this point what will be included or not, but definitely it will be helpful to have this on the table when we discuss our approach to further iterations of Exaltations and the overall progression!

Two pretty quick questions:
#1: Will the player Pleased ever have his necro death on the legends in-game leaderboard? As someone with a high fame character, dying and then not receiving the fame or credit after my characters death is my worst nightmare.
#2: Now I know the testing for Item Exchange is coming out tomorrow, but are there/could there be plans to implement Oryx 3 tops into the exchange pool? (T14Weapons/T7abilities/T15Armors)

1# please contact support for this. 2# For now the item forge is focused specifically on untiered items. We may expand this over time, but top tiered items are not currently planned.

Are you planning on reworking the entire realm-map anytime in the future? Also what is the plan to get rid of all the spambots in nexus? And one final thing, are there any plans to structurize trading? Such as having a trading-server or a marketplace?

Yes, reworking the realm is a huge but important project that we want to take on! As fundamental as it is, many of its systems have aged badly and create a tedious experience for both new and veteran players in different ways. When we ultimately redo and expand this whole system, the map will naturally evolve with it. The spambots and overall disruptive behaviors, we realize, need special measures and an important consideration with modern approaches. So that will be something we'll deal with for sure.
Lastly, we have been studying trading and overall the ingame economy for quite some time. We are considering changes and new systems for this. However at this point we for sure don't want to rush this part and take our time ensuring we make the experience better and study well the implications of any changes we introduce.
It helps a lot that we now have much better tools that we can start taking advantage of. Things we couldn't do with previous technology. So yeah, it could happen.

Where are the deca offices?

Berlin

Any plans to change the janus/court system? These dungeons feel very inaccessible in their current state because a large group has to choose to do them over oryx

We had hoped to revise this system with the release of High Tech Terror, but since this was a topic of debate, we put it off to have more time to come up with a solution we all felt was right. We still plan to come back to the court system!

is the game going to be again as smooth as it was the week between the fame update and hotfix?

please elaborate on that...

For example lags from trees(shatters, candyland etc.) and also lags from higher amount of people on once place

In the dungeon art contest hosted a few months back, you said that you reserved the rights to use content submitted to it. Does that mean that the dungeons from the dungeon spec/art contest could be part of the game someday?

yep!

Are guild going to get updated?

Oh you can bet we have some Plans™ for this :)

Will the community game "Boss mimic Slurpie" ever make it to the game? It was posted on reddit quite alot of time ago reached alot of likes. Is it possible to write such a code that the pet changes it's apperance based on the boss a player is facing?

Cool idea! We don't support such a custom functionality now though

Do you guys have internships?

we do!

Any plans to rework projectiles that blind or paralyze? I really do feel like a game based on dodging projectiles suffers a lot from having a status effect that forces you to just sit and accept your loss. Blindness, on the other hand, feels like an outdated relic of old Realm, and a lot of people agree that its effect is too punishing since the Unity port, and the effect in general is unappealing to the eye (instant darkness layered over the entire screen with no transition, hp bars disappear, forces some people to play with higher brightness).

We took some smaller steps with the Vital Combat effect by lowering many durations and locations of effects like these throughout the game. Paralyze is something we try to use much more carefully now, and Blind is something we want to rethink overall (and use very little of until then). So overall, yes, we acknowledge the meta is a bit skewed sometimes towards punishing, all-or-nothing situations created to how status effects work, and this is a design problem the other teams didn't want to tackle and dragged on.
Definitely we want to take steps to improve this and we believe the most recent content/reconstructions show this new philosophy.

Will u ever introduce the ancient Doom bow or ancient Demon blade?

Likely not. These were experimental items, and at the moment we'd like to figure out a good use (and likely overhaul) of heroic dungeons before considering those items again.

Thank you all for your participation. If you haven't seen your question answered please search for similar ones or wait until our next blog post. Stay safe!

edit a day later: they answered some more on the blog

Is there any plans on developing a console version? Or at least thought about? I feel like it would really open up the community more.

No. The investment (time and money) needed to accomplish this would take us off the path we set to develop and make the game more enjoyable to play. However we should never say never.

Are you planning to readjust the difficulty/frequency of status effects in existing dungeons now that group puri is removed?

We already did this with the release of the Vital Combat update, but we may still review further instances of egregious effects.

Can you guys please think about Latin America players? My very first thinking it’s about gold value, try to adjust with the country currency, second thinking it’s about support, I know a lot of players that had various issues in and out game that they can’t or don’t know how to open a ticket or something because of language troubles, my suggestion would be to add more language options at Deca website atleast.

Oi Gregório. Claro que pensamos nos nossos realmers da América do Sul ;).(Translation: Hi Gregorio, of course we think about our South American realmers). We will take into account your input about localization. Thank you.

What do you plan after reworking all dungeons/ the whole realm?

We have a vision for Realm, and the reworks are a very important part of that. We really want to keep striving for that vision, and for sure, that will also imply new exciting stuff is to come (including brand new systems!)

Will there be any rewards like the veteran of 2017 for older players, especially those with accounts over 7yrs? Maybe a bonus something every year anniversary for the account?

It is being discussed 😉 But there is a very big probability that yes, there will.

A really long post with some thoughts about the game

Purchased Mortal shell on the night of the 27th and haven't really been able to put it down since. Played every fromsoft game since demon's souls and I was pretty skeptical about this game, so I waited for a sale. I can say that for me this game is easily worth 30 dollars, and I only paid 20. There are so many things I loved about this game I really just don't know where to begin.. i'm not a game reviewer or anything but I just have had such a great time with this game and its been a while since ive had a hard time putting the controller down like this.. so I wanted to share some thoughts. This will be a long post so thanks in advance for reading
The music is incredible. The sound effects of the landscape and the brigands playing lute are just amazing. Then I discovered you can play the lute yourself.. and for a while this game just became me finding the coolest spots to sit down and play the lute while using photo mode. It was such a great added touch, all the little tunes you can play on it.. they are very ominous and really fit the games atmosphere. And when you play it for sester genessa she bobs her head. That is amazing. Every time I got to a sester I would use the lute next to her while I would smoke. Then I found the corrupted sester and played the lute for her and a flash of heavy metal music played. And if this wasn't enough, someone on here had told me you can use the lute to de-aggro the lute playing brigands and he was totally right. There was even an achievement for it. I have probably jammed with like 12 brigands since. Seriously, I can't express enough how awesome I think the lute is... more games need to capitalize on the bad assery of the lute.
I didn't know about the recent DLC until I was towards the end of my obsidian form run, and I installed it right before the final fight. When I dropped in and Rotting Christ started playing I felt like such a badass. That shit is amazing. I'm on NG+4 mostly because I just can't get enough of that boss soundtrack
Weirdly enough the frog guy was in my game before I downloaded the DLC and I looked up what he did and got the skins before knowing about the Rotting Christ soundtrack. So I guess downloading the DLC was just for the soundtrack? I saw it say that there was a mini quest with gorf added with the DLC but havent found anything besides the skins so idk.
Some thoughts on the shells. Have some possibly controversial feelings on Eredrim and Harros
My personal favorite is Tiel. I leveled him up all the way first. Initially I was giving a couple levels to each of them but then when I learned unlocking fast travel required leveling up a shell completely I just pumped everything into Tiel. He's a lot of fun to use and has my favorite design of all the shells. He basically gets 1 or 2 shot by every single boss and most enemies but his stamina pool and dodge is just 👌.
When I leveled Tiel up all of the way i ended up switching to Eredrim so I can use whatever glimpses I earned on a new shell. At this point in my playthrough I had defeated Imrod and tarsus, in that order. I had no idea where I was going and just happened to take them out that way but i'm glad I didn't go to dim gate first because that place is wild. Using Eredrim there made it easy but it was still so overwhelming compared to the other places. Definitely has "final area" vibes so it felt right to save it for last.
Here is the thing about Eredrim... I appreciate having him but it's basically like playing the game in easy mode. He's like a walking tank. If I had to think of a catch phrase for him it would just be "get the fuck outta my way". It's nearly impossible to die while playing as him and the boss fights are crazy simple with him. Crucix's whole area was difficult and filled with tough enemies and since I used Tiel for all the previous bosses I was expecting Crucix to be quite the challenge.. but I beat him with almost no effort using Eredrim. He is simply too over powered. However, i'm on my 4th playthrough right now and have been experimenting with different shells/weapon combos for a while and his massive health bar does not help him anywhere near as well as it did on the first or 2nd playthrough. This might be an unpopular opinion but I think he needs some kind of nerf, if even just a small one. Maybe changing that one perk of his from 15% health increase to 10%. Using him really takes like half the effort out of a lot of fights
Harros
I really liked Harros and almost leveled him up all of the way instead of Tiel... the only thing that made me not was that he has 2 perks that involve acquiring more glimpses. It makes sense, since he is the first shell, for him to have perks like that, but I think one of these perks should simply be removed and replaced with something else. Reasons being that at a certain point glimpses won't be as useful to you as they were when you first started, and second is that I think Harros could use a small buff to better balance himself against the other shells. This is a petty complaint and its not to say I think Harros isn't useful in his own right because his shell really is awesome, but he's just lacking a little when compared to Tiel and especially to Eredrim. I think if his Accretion of dominance perk was removed and replaced with something different his character would balance out better with the others. Especially if Eredrim also got a small nerf.
This is just a suggestion for what could replace that perk. Harros to me seems like a character with a lot of will power. His perks resemble that of someone with a lot of determination. That being said, I think a good perk for him could be something like "chance for special attacks to only consume 1 bar of resolve". I think it would give his character a little bit more of an edge
Harros is already plenty good and this is really just something that i thought could be a small quality of life improvement if anything. His accretion of resolve and endurance perks alone are truly magnificent. If you can harmonize those together all your fights will be so swift and fluent. One might even say artistic.
Solomon I haven't used enough to really pick apart. I have used him enough to say that I like his shell and currently think its very well balanced. The amount of resolve bars he has leads me to believe he has potential to completely shred bosses with special attacks. Would love to hear some thoughts on people who use solomon, he's the only one I haven't done a playthrough with yet, only because the others seemed more appealing to me personally
Obsidian dark form.
This shit was crazy. When I got towards the end of my first run I was looking up achievements and stuff I might need to do before fighting the final boss. Thats when I saw the achievement for beating the game in obsidian form. Suddenly I remembered that pillar in the swamp. I never would have bothered doing something like this but someone online had said it isn't that bad since you can just run past everything and all you need to do is kill 5 bosses. I thought to myself "those are some pretty good points. I bet I can do this since I just beat the game and im familiar with everything"
I originally just wanted to beat Hadern in the practice area for the achievement but ended up just using that save for my obsidian run. Like a misinformed fool I optimistically wandered to my doom. I felt so sure of myself... like all I had to worry about was being patient and dying a few times to the boss's. No. That was only a tiny part of the hell.
I went to the pillar and became obsidian. I crawled back out of the hole... took 6 steps.... and a frog jumped on me and killed me.
It was at this point that I knew, I had fucked up.
My whole world came crashing down around me. "What have I gotten myself into" I asked myself as I rest my face in my palm. But alas, I went on.
I started out getting a couple acids around fallgrim for my weapon then went to imrod's area first. You have a large stamina pool in obsidian form thats nearly impossible to deplete, and the whole time you are running and rolling your heart is just beating so fast.
I got to Imrod a little easier than I expected, and somehow miraculously took him down on my second try. To me he is the easiest of the bosses but I still thought he would take me some more tries
Next went to the enslaved Grisha. This one took me 4 tries, and 3 of the deaths I had were because of bitch ass icicles falling from the ceiling. In fact, when I finally killed the Grisha I actually died by a falling icicle like .2 seconds after making the final hit. So I got super lucky
Tarsus was the first boss to be an actual pain in the ass for me in obsidian form. I ended up taking him down on my 5th attempt but that was only because I used a golden bell before the fight and kept using molten spike on him which is super OP against Tarsus.
Crucix was definitely the one I was most nervous for because of that little twerp with the crossbow. Not only Crucix, but on your way back after beating him there is that row of 12 archers you need to run past to get out.
I have no idea what it was, but out of all 5 bosses Crucix easily gave me the hardest time. I died to him at least 15 - 20 times before ever getting him to his second form. But the first time I got him to his second form was also when I killed him. He has a lot of surprising attacks that require quick reaction so it took a lot more time to memorize his moves than it did for the others. As for that line of archers, I really don't know how but I literally rolled passed all of them and their bullets just weren't hitting me. I felt like someone was looking out for me
The unchained. I was expecting this fight to be the worst of them all, but I ended up beating this on my 5th try. 6th try if you count the time I went to shoot him with the ballistazooka right off the bat and immediately got slapped.. but we won't talk about that. The hardest part about his fight is when he summons the shades. Its just a matter of not looking away from either the boss or shades too long so you don't die from a sneak attack. In the end he had the easiest moves to memorize and left himself open very often. Two of the times I died were because I used the molten spike attack on him and when his head fell it damaged me since I was close. The key of his fight is simply having patience. He has a huge health pool, and at the time I had no idea you could roll in and out if the whirlpool to kill the shades that he is collecting for health. I literally stood as far away as possible thinking if I got anywhere near it I would be sucked in.. so that sucked. Wish I knew that at the time
So basically now after owning this game for like 5 days I have no lifed it and got every achievement. My one save is on NG 4 and all the weapons and shells are fully upgraded. I pretty much go around jamming on the lute or smacking chisels at people like im playing baseball. Sometimes I like to treat myself and lauch a few people into space with the ballistazooka. For 30 dollars this game is just so incredible and has provided me with so much entertainment. And as someone who usually doesn't go for "souls like games" that aren't from software games, this has seriously hit the spot. If I could reccommend another game to anyone reading, I would say to check out "Ashen". It's a shorter game like mortal shell and has souls like qualities. Very different art style but I promise it's a great game. Don't think its on PS4/5 but its on Xbox and might be on PC
Thank you if you read this very long post. And thank you for this amazing game.. I truly hope to see another in the future, or maybe a new area/shell/weapon added as DLC. I personally would love an Axe weapon, ha.

[S] King's Survivor Japan: Back to Basics

For the fourth to last season, we are heading to Japan where 16 castaways will face off in a more classic version of the format King's Survivor (and a whole load of other series) uses. There will be no idols, no Exile Island, no Edge of Extinction, and the only twist is that there is none, besides the swap. Now, we'll see who is competing on this season:
Taiyo (Japanese for sun) Tribe:
Alexa Dunn, 22, Singer, u/LordYeet777
Alexa was born into a very religious family. They always went to church, always had sunday lunch, and were always conservative. Alexa went to an all girls private school, where she excelled in her extracurricular activity in singing. Her teachers were so impressed by this that they applied her to appear on AGT, where she won s4 of AGT for her singing. Her life was great, until one night after a night of partying she put rude remarks on twitter. While Alexa doesnt remember this (in fact, shes certain someone stole her phone that night), her reputation was hindered. Alexa hopes that Survivor will redeem her reputation back to what it once was.
Aurora Yasir, 29, Medium, u/CaptainkKenny148
Dana Llywelyn, 21, Math Student, u/Dadaist-Drama
Dana is a Welsh-American who has taken three years of college and has developed into a skilled mathematician, but unfortunately she might not be able to attend next year. Her older brother Hercule, in an incident of drunk driving, severely injured the mayor of the town her family resides. Needless to say, the resulting lawsuit case has left their family in severe financial straits. In a fit of desperation, her mother signed her up for the show without her consent, and a lot of pleading managed to land Dana a spot on the show. While Dana believes this definitely isn't the best course of action her family should have taken to earn enough money (she could have just gotten a second job) she won't turn down the opportunity to visit a tropical island for a while.
Darla Adora, 24, Swimsuit Model, u/HazuMega
Darla is nice to everyone she meets, and everyone loves her. She's klutzy, ditzy, even scatterbrained, but noone else minds because she's fun to be around. She's also seen as being really emotional, and if anyone brings up those high school rumors that her cute and ditzy persona is a facade, prepare for the waterworks. In truth however, those rumors are true. She's really a cruel uncaring person ready to do anything to get the million dollars. She'll flirt, she'll hurt, she'll do it all for that cold hard cash. Her strategy going in is aided by the tube top she chose to wore because it draws attention to her bust size making her appear more attractive.
Malik Love, 25, Soccer Player, u/JokeForsaken3856
His mother was a muslim, a father was a christian, but a the end pick Islam as his religion. Both of his parents died when he was 8. He wanted to make something of his life so he became soccer player. He was in MLS dream 11 3x. Now he wants to do something for his kids and make them proud.
Pablo Chavez, 43, Comedian, u/asiansurvivorfan
Growing up, Pablo was always the class clown, he would always manage to make not only his classmates but also his teachers laugh. At the same time, every one of them would say that he could never make a career out of it especially in a poor Mexican city. While he struggled in school, didn’t have a lot of money, and and was a little chubby and got teased because of it, he always had a positive outlook on things no matter what. Pablo thinking he could make a living through comedy, decided to drop out of school but little did he know he was way over his head as this caused him to struggle to make any sort of money for a while, he eventually picked up a corn selling job which gave him enough money to pursue his true dream of moving to the United States and becoming a well known comic. But once he got there, he only continued to struggle as English wasn’t his first language and he was still lacking financially. He eventually stumbled upon a small comedy club that was free of charge, this is where he was exposed a wide variety of struggling comedians and actually began to learn English through the club. He started performing every Friday night and he was instantly adored by the regulars. His success only got better as he started getting paid gigs at bigger venues and finally achieved his dream of becoming a successful comic. He now lives a stable live with his wife and 2 young daughters. He came on Survivor to spread good vibes and laughter but to also prove to all the people that thought he couldn’t succeed as a comic that he made it.
Ryoma Hashimoto, 25, Internet Reviewer, u/swoldow
If you look up "toxic fanbase" in the dictionary, there would probably be a picture of Ryoma Hashimoto right next to it. Ryoma is an internet personality, who usually makes reviews on YouTube on anime and movies. However, there is one problem, as nobody from Ryoma's subscriber base even takes him seriously. The reason being that Ryoma is a toxically loyal fan to a universally hated anime series called Dragon Maidens, a series where a young traveler seeks companionship with three anthropomorphic dragons, who are also cute girls. Due to the unnecessary fanservice, lack of a coherent storyline, and annoying protagonist, literally everyone besides Ryoma and like three other people hate this show, and as a result, everyone only watches Ryoma ironically. However, Ryoma doesn't know this as he has such a big ego, and continues to make blatantly biased reviews on anime he usually scores low, simply for not being Dragon Maidens. Ryoma is playing survivor just for the fame that goes along with it, and wants to play as evil as possible, just like the generic villain of his favorite show. Ryoma will get into fights with anyone who doesn't share any opinion he has, and he doesn't care, as he is still a smooth talker, which backs why his sponsorships have stayed with him despite him being a glorified meme.
Zach Dalton, 25, Waiter, u/SilverOwl24
Zach fits the stereotype of a varsity athlete. Good at sports, confident and also egotistical. Now that he's out of college pursuing life after being a star athlete both there and in high school, he's currently trying to find himself and he's confident Survivor will not only help him figure it out, he'll win the money to set up his life. And he doesn't care who he'll backstab in order to get there.
Tsuki (Japanese for moon) Tribe:
Alex Dohte, 26, Lifeguard, u/SilverOwl24
Alex was originally born in Australia, but her family moved to California when she was 13 years old. Although she was new to America, she quickly adjusted and quickly became a star swimmer on her school's swim team. Now that she's adjusted to the USA, she's ready to face whatever other challenges come her way and is ready to tackle Survivor.
Bradley Worth, 37, Motorcycle Mechanic, u/Twig7665
While Bradley wasn't the most well off fellow for most of his life, he had an inexplicable interest in engines, specifically motorcycle ones. He would spend days at a time working on, fixing, and modifying motorcycle engines, until he decided to open up a motorcycle repair shop sometime in his early 20s. One day, he took a customer of his's motorcycle out for a spin after fixing it, and ended up totaling it in an accident. He survived without much injury, but he became senile afterwards, getting drunk frequently and just doing whatever he feels like doing, for a lot of the time he was drunk. His repair shop was closed down, and now he just spends his time on the streets, not knowing how to get out of his situation. He signed up for Survivor, not knowing much about it, but he saw the one million dollar prize, and he wants it desperately.
Chayna Varne, 25, Illusionist, u/asiansurvivorfan
Chayna grew up with parents that were always busy with work and never cared to spend time with her. Due to spending most of her time with her grandparents, she picked up the art of magic from her grandfather due to him doing it in the past and the art of stage presence and charisma from her grandmother due to her being a performer in her past. She decided to combine both into her own type to illusion show that she would perform in from of her grandparents. As soon as she could, she started performing on the street in an attempt to reach her ultimate dream of getting a show in Vegas. Unfortunately it wasn’t easy as she didn’t get much attention at first and the offers she did get was to just be an assistant. She then realized how many limitations there were on her due to her trying to get into an industry dominated by men. She managed to get enough money through busking to buy a small venue where she could perform she art. While now in Vegas, she still hasn’t gotten that big headline show she’ll always wanted and came on Survivor to get closer to that
"Hurricane" Hailey Barranda, 24, Clown, u/AngolanDesert
Hailey, or as her friends call her “Hurricane Hailey” has had quite a life story. She had a very normal childhood growing up in a 2 parent household in the suburbs. While she was in high school, Hailey started to develop severe mood swings. Her parents took her to the psychiatrist, where she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Her symptoms only got worse and she ended up dropping out of high school. When she saw that there was a job opening at the circus for a new clown position, she knew she had to join. After joining the circus as a clown, she had grown much happier and her personality became very intense. She still has mood swings here and there but has found out how to cope with her mood swings more efficiently.
Marley "Mar" Wett, 31, Marine Biologist, u/swoldow
Mar is a very awkward man who is basically always out of his element. He was told of stories of pirates with his brother as a kid, and Mar always had a dream to sail the sea as a result, and this led to an addiction to basically anything involved with water. He geeked over all the pirate movies in high school, memorized hundreds of different species of fish, and both him and his brother, Bateley, made plans to move to florida together, study marine biology and navigation respectively, and save up money to go sailing in the atlantic and they both were able to do so. Mar was having the time of his life until Bateley got suddenly attacked by a shark on their voyage, losing his eye, and causing Mar to have to bring the boat back. Bateley immediately moved away from Mar, abandoning him and never seeing him again. Mar is now alone, and quite literally a fish out of water, as he doesn't fit in with the usual beachgoers of Miami, however, he now works as a marine biologist for an aquarium. He hopes to use this experience to show Bateley he is sorry, as Bateley was a fan of the show, and win for him.
Matthew "Matt" Harrisburg, 41, Security Guard, u/TDSwaggyBoy
Matthew was the eldest of four kids, and has always felt like he was responsible and was forced to take charge. A natural born leader, Matt's always strived to help others. Initially, his childhood dream was to become a cop, but due to an injury in his hip during training, he ended up dropping out of the academy.
He became a security guard instead, a humble work which he enjoys. Matt's currently married to his wife of 10 years, and together they have two kids: Both sons. He hopes to be able to win the grand prize for them.
Rodger Cunningham, 55, Construction Worker, u/HazuMega
Rodger watched Survivor's first three seasons to watch people survive in the wilderness. But when the strategy started to evolve, it became more focused on the tribal councils and less focused on day to day camp life, so he quit watching. When his coworkers told him Survivor was doing a "back-to-basics" season, he was overjoyed, and he even applied. He has no strategy going into this season, he only wishes to survive in the wilderness. He is a workaholic and spends more time working than even sleeping or eating, as he keeps mobile foods like apples, burgers, or even space food. He's fine with others as long as they don't try to disturb his work. He is also very biased. He is kind to cute women and hard working men, but if he feels that any of the men aren't working to their fullest potential, he will severely reprimand them.
Yan Horiuchi, 38, Brain Surgeon, u/swoldow
Yan Horiuchi is a stern, serious, and deadpan woman. You will never hear Yan laugh, or see her smile, as she is always in business mode no matter what. Yan was raised with 6 brothers and a sexist father, so she was constantly mistreated by her father, as well as her brothers due to being influenced by him, leading to her to simply not care about her family during her childhood. The thing that hurt her the most was how her father had dreams for her brothers, but not for her, as her dad sent her brothers all of these fancy books, as he wanted them all to pursue medicine like he did, but gave nothing to Yan. However, Yan's youngest brother, who also felt picked on by the rest of his siblings, realized how badly Yan has felt her whole life, and offered to help her pursue her dreams by letting them share his books on medicine. As a result, Yan became driven to prove her father and the rest of her siblings wrong, and graduated at the top of her class, got into every big medical school there is in the country, and continued working until she graduated on top of her class too. Yan is now a successful Brain Surgeon, and makes a ridiculous amount of money. However, she is still not much of a people person due to her childhood, and will enter the game seeing her allies like chess pieces rather than people.
Link to Season
Episode 1: The sixteen castaways arrive in Japan, where the host announces that they will be split into two tribes of eight, just like the first season. They draw buffs, some draw yellow buffs and form Taiyo, while the others draw black buffs and form Tsuki. Then, they are tasked to get as much stuff as they can off the boat within a minute, and everyone dashes madly to get stuff onto their raft. They are then directed to their islands. When the Tsuki tribe hits their beach, Matt decides to go running to look for the idol, and is noticed by Alex, who calls him out for it. Matt then elects to help with the shelter, but Hailey steps up as the leader of the tribe, which causes some people to want to target her. Over at Taiyo, Alexa and Pablo get off to a great start by arguing over how to build the shelter. This causes Zach to side with Alexa, and Dana sides with her as well, and soon the whole tribe is siding with Alexa. The Tsuki tribe wins immunity, and back at Taiyo, Zach wants Pablo gone. He reveals he did not trust him the moment he and Alexa had the fight, and that he should go to Dana. Dana then tells the rest of the alliance about the plan. Pablo decides to vote for Malik, thinking he's a physical threat down the road. At tribal council, Pablo becomes the first boot in a unanimous 7-1 vote. He is not phased by it, and wishes his tribe luck, despite all of them voting him out.
Episode 2: After Pablo's unanimous boot, the tribe seems to be more unified, although cracks soon emerge. When Dana tries to go out of her element to get to know everyone better on her tribe, it makes people see her as threatening. When Ryoma calls her out for it, it causes her to feel isolated in her tribe, so she leaves her alliance. Zach feels bad about her getting called out, so he and Dana try to form an alliance with Malik, who was originally in the majority. Alexa and Aurora, despite being very different, start the become very close. At the reward challenge, the Tsuki tribe wins reward, and they are shocked to see Pablo voted out, who they thought was strong. Matt and Roger get into a fight over their differing beliefs surrounding the game, and Hailey bonds with Yan, which is noticed by the tribe, so their heads are on the chopping block if they were to go to tribal. Alex and Chayna also bond, and they form their own final two deal. Tsuki wins their third challenge in a row, the immunity challenge, and at Taiyo camp, the verdict seems to be voting out Dana. Dana, Malik, and Zach try to vote out Alexa, seeing her as the biggest social threat, but Alexa is able to convince Malik to flip from his side to vote off Dana, and at tribal council, Dana is voted out 5-2, and Zach is pissed at Malik.
Episode 3: After Dana's blindside, Malik decides to flip back to the minority, since Zach was so angry with him. Also on that beach, Alexa and Ryoma form their own final two. Tsuki wins a fourth challenge, the reward, and they get extremely cocky. Bradley gets into a fight with Hailey that results in Hailey wanting to vote out Chayna for some reason, and Taiyo finally wins something, the immunity challenge. Hailey desperately tries to get votes to eliminate Chayna, a huge strategic threat, and convinces Yan and Mar to vote with her, but then Chayna learns that Yan would be voting for her, so she gets her counter-alliance to cause a counterstrike against Hailey's alliance. At tribal council, The five stay strong, and Yan is voted out 5-3.
Episode 4: Now halfway through the premerge, Hailey earns her nickname "Hurricane Hailey" and absolutely freaks when the votes don't go her way, causing the tribe to see her as a loose cannon. People get angry at Chayna for some reason, namely Bradley and Alex, and they start to distance themselves from her. Alex and the four men even form an alliance against Chayna, thinking she has the idol. Tsuki goes back to winning challenges, by winning reward. At Taiyo, Ryoma somewhat cuts ties with his alliance, and nothing else happens. Tsuki wins immunity once again, and Malik tries to target Aurora, one of the most well liked members of the tribe. The others are having none of that, and they all pile votes onto Malik, except Zach, who votes for Aurora with him. Malik is blindsided in a 4-2 vote, and he is the fourth person voted out.
Episode 5: After Malik's blindside, both tribes are asked to pick three representatives for a challenge. Aurora, Darling, and Ryoma are chosen for Taiyo, and Bradley, Chayna, and Mar are selected for Tsuki. They are then told to drop their buffs, as a swap is about to commence. The three representatives from each tribe switch tribes, and now, on the Taiyo tribe is Alexa, Bradley, Chayna, Marley, and Zach. On the Tsuki tribe is Alex, Aurora, Darling, Hurricane Hailey, Matt, Rodger, and Ryoma. They then compete in a reward challenge, which the Tsuki tribe wins, their seventh win. Absolutely nothing occurs on the Taiyo tribe, while on the Tsuki tribe, Matt and Roger go rogue on their alliance, with Roger even having a fight with Alex. Taiyo wins immunity for the second time, and at the Tsuki camp, Matt decides he wants to make a power play by getting rid of the biggest strategic threat on his tribe, Hurricane Hailey. He talks to the newcomers to get them on board. He then goes to Roger and Alex to stop them from killing each other to get Hurricane Hailey out. His plan succeeds and Hailey is voted out in a 6-1 vote.
Episode 6: After one of the bigger blindsides of the season, Matt inadvertently caused himself to be seen as the biggest threats going into the merge, and Alex starts to really hate him for whatever reason. He tries bonding with Darling to get a better standing, but it doesn't really work. The Tsuki tribe wins reward, and at the Taiyo tribe, they vow to not be in the minority come merge. Alexa and Chayna get very close, and Mar and Bradley get into a bit of a fight. Despite being quite unruly, the Taiyo tribe wins immunity again, and Matt starts to talk to people about blindsiding Aurora, since he thought Aurora was too big of a social threat. This backfires, and the rest of the tribe votes him out unanimously 5-1.
Episode 7: The merge occurs. The blue Jiyu tribe consists of Alex, Alexa, Aurora, Bradley, Chayna, Darling, Mar, Roger, Ryoma, and Zach. They then immediately jump into immunity, which Chayna wins. A new, mixed-tribe alliance consisting of Alex, Bradley, Chayna, Darling, Roger, and Zach forms, and Chayna also tries bonding with Ryoma to get him on her side. Alex and Bradley choose to vote for Aurora for her being too likable, while Alexa, Mar, and Ryoma opt to vote for Bradley, thinking he is a physical threat. The rest vote for Mar, and Mar, without an idol is the seventh person voted out in a 5-3-2 vote.
Episode 8: Now with only nine people left, the remaining contestants participate in a reward challenge, which is won by Bradley, who brings along Alex, who he wanted to form a tighter bond with. Zach starts to improve the shelter, which is appreciated by the other tribe members. Roger picks a fight with Bradley upon his return for not taking him, and leaves the alliance. After Bradley wins immunity, Ryoma starts to see Zach as threatening, so he chooses to vote for him. Chayna lets her alliance know that she wants to get out Aurora, but Roger is still wanting to get rid of Alex, so despite him leaving his alliance, he still talks to Alexa, Aurora, Chayna, and Darling and they all decided it was in their best interest to help him out, and vote off Alex. Alex, Bradley, and Zach decide together to vote off Alexa, seeing her as the biggest threat. When the votes are read, Alex becomes the first juror in a 5-3-1 vote.
Episode 9: After Alex's blindside, eight people remain in the game. A second post merge reward challenge takes place, with the contestants split into pairs. Bradley dominates the challenge alongside Darling, and they win reward. Back at camp, Zach feels left out of the vote, and voices his opinion quite loudly. This causes him to be somewhat disliked and him to leave the alliance. Roger also has a huge meltdown out of nowhere, causing people to feel threatened by him. Ryoma starts to heavily dislike Roger after this, so he decides to vote for him. Bradley wins immunity again, and the tribe figures out just how dangerous Bradley could be. When word comes around of Aurora wanting to target Chayna, Zach lets Chayna know, and the two of them, plus Bradley, Darling, and Roger, vote for Aurora. Aurora is voted out 5-2-1, becoming the next blindside victim of the season.
Episode 10: The final seven compete in yet another reward challenge, this time the Survivor auction. Literally everyone except for Darling wins something, and it's all food related items. Chayna decides that now is the best time to go rogue, so she leaves her alliance with Bradley and Darling. Sensing he's in trouble, Bradley wins a third immunity challenge in a row, and Chayna decides to stay true to her ailing alliance one more vote, by pulling in Zach to make a tight four and learning that Zach wanted to target Ryoma, who was quite the loose cannon. Ryoma talks to Roger, and the two of them plan to vote off Zach, who Ryoma did not like at all. Alexa, completely out of the loop but not giving up, decides that voting for Roger would be her best bet. At tribal council, Ryoma is voted out in a 4-2-1 vote. He is shocked and confuddled, and becomes the third juror.
Episode 11: After Ryoma's lukewarm blindside, the final six compete for reward, which Roger wins. Bradley calls out Chayna for absolutely no reason at all, causing them to get into a massive argument, and Darling and Roger have a similar fight soon after Roger returns from reward. Alexa and Zach form a final two right before the immunity challenge, despite voting for each other before. Chayna wins her second immunity challenge, and Bradley immediately believes he's screwed, so he talks to everyone besides Roger and tries to get them to vote off Roger, who he didn't trust, and he figured, since Chayna had immunity, he'd try and get rid of one of her closest allies. Zach lets Chayna and Roger know about the plan, so they vote for Bradley, not trusting him, and a 3-3 tie happens at tribal council. Nobody changes their vote on the revote, and then the host announces a new twist, whoever has the most past votes will be voted out. Bradley had one more vote than Roger, so he becomes the fourth juror. He is not happy about this new development.
Episode 12: After an interesting tribal council, paranoia is rampant within the tribe, and nobody knows who to trust. Darling wins the final five reward, a car, and is given the option to give it up to someone else, but doesn't do it. Instead she keeps it for herself, angering the rest of the tribe, who view her as selfish. Zach forms a new alliance with Chayna after this, and Roger wins immunity, saving himself until the final four. Alexa, still sympathetic for Darling, chooses to vote Chayna with her, and the rest vote for Darling, and she is voted out in a 3-2 vote and becomes the fifth juror, leaving only four people left in the game.
Finale: The final four, under the impression that there will be a final three, really work up a sweat trying to win the final four immunity. Alexa surprises everyone and wins, and everyone starts looking for a new target. Roger becomes outspoken about how he wants to target Chayna because she controlled the whole post merge up to this point, and the other tribe members see this as being spiteful, so Roger is voted out 3-1 and becomes the sixth juror. The next day, the final three are dismayed to learn that it will be a final two like the last two seasons, and they compete in another immunity challenge, which is an endurance comp. Chayna drops out first, leaving Zach and Alexa, and Alexa pleads for Zach to drop, which he refuses to, and Alexa falls, making Zach the winner of the final immunity. He sees he has alliances with both Alexa and Chayna, so he decides to vote off... Alexa, due to him thinking he could beat Chayna. Our final two is Chayna and Zach. Zach is criticized for being out of the loop a lot of the time, and his loyalty to Chayna really cost him, while Chayna is penalized for being in the minority for the premerge portion of the game. Ultimately, they go with who they thought was the better player, and Chayna Varne becomes the winner of King's Survivor: Japan. Darling is announced as the fan favorite due to her being likable and for the audience feeling bad that she got screwed over by winning the car.
Winner: Chayna Varne, u/asiansurvivorfan
Fan Favorite: Darla "Darling" Adora, u/HazuMega
Potential Returnees: Chayna, Zach, Alexa, Darling, Bradley, Matt as a second chance
The next season will take place in Gabon, where 16 new contestants, and two returning captains will face off in a battle that may end up being ridiculous. It will be King's Survivor Gabon: Champions Vs Contenders II!

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F2P-focused Summon Guide 4.0

Future Watch: NV, NV Eh, and Abbreviations Galore

Lasswell and Raegen aka LassGen

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Dark Fina and Sol

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Akstar and Cleome

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Savior of Souls Lightning

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Closing Thoughts

EX2 Unit Upgrades

Future Watch FAQ

Frost Mage - Improving DPS in raid (warcraft logs)

The Alchemist's Toolbox 119: Drei!

Day 3 of Analyzing a Sparking everyday until GT gets a new unit.

I got 300 kills with posterity so that you don’t have to.

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