u/Frogsplosion

Basically what I'm looking for is a game with action combat or shooting that involves a lot of character optimization and buildcraft, something I can create multiple character builds in.

The one thing I'm not super interested in are games that are incredibly heavy on RNG and loot grinding like the Borderlands series, Diablo or path of exile

General list of things I've already played:

Elder Scrolls games

Soulsborne games and Souls likes (literally every single one of consequential value)

Cyberpunk

Tainted Grail

Witcher 3

Mass Effect 1/2/3/A

Fallout 3/4/NV

Outer Worlds

Kingdoms of Amalur

Outward

Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen

Dragon Age Origins

Remnant from the Ashes 1/2

[[Ephara, God of the Polis]] it's probably my favorite Commander of all time, not only is it indestructible and not a creature when it comes in making it very difficult to interact with but on top of that it also has a very powerful effect attached to it.

Even better, if you build the deck correctly losing the commander doesn't slow you down that much, azorius has plenty of powerful draw engines and good burst draw spells as well.

So this is kind of what I'm looking for, commanders that either don't attract much attention or don't completely shut off the deck when they're dealt with but can still steal a game with a subtly powerful effect.

I'm on NG + 1, and still spending all of my time leveling tarstones, because even those crazy scythe wielder guys give a whopping 100 out of 30,000 XP.

It's so bad I'm literally running the beginning of the game because it gives more tarstone XP for the time then the end game does, and because I'm trying to level up sidearm stones I can't do any stupid grinding tricks with the forgotten crossbow or trebuchaxe.

There is really no reason tarstones need to be this tedious to level up after you have beaten the main game.

So essentially what I am looking for is a deck that excels at slowing down other people's game plans while simultaneously advancing their own.

Now the first thing that probably comes to people's minds when they hear this is something like stax, hate bears or prison, but there are plenty of other ways to do this like asymmetrical board wipes, incidental life gain stapled to already powerful cards, fogs, propaganda effects, goad, forcing creatures to come into play tapped etc.

So I guess what I am looking for are decks that utilize these mechanics in a way that serve as roadblocks to my opponent's gameplay while simultaneously putting my own threats on the board.

I'm not really sure where to go with this idea besides traditional control so I'd love any ideas people have in making this work or any decks and deckless people have that are found success doing this.

So I've been struggling with deck building lately and trying to figure out where I want to go. I'm thinking it might be a good idea to get back to my roots and try some harder control game plans.

Typically I like to play somewhere in the high bracket 2 to low to mid bracket 3 range, with my LGS it's kind of hard to pinpoint a good middle ground so I'd be happy to see lists of varying power levels.

I would also appreciate any advice you have about finding success with control in today's modern environment that is so much faster and packed with high threat level cards.

I'm looking for something new to sink my teeth into on PS5 and I could use some ideas. I played quite a lot of things. I was considering Pathfinder WotR but I do recall the Pathfinder games PS5 ports being considered somewhat low quality.

Here's what I've played:

Soulslikes (Souls series, bloodborne, sekiro, Elden Ring, Lies of P, Lords of the Fallen)

First Person (Skyrim, Oblivion, Tainted Grail, Kingdom Come 1/2, Cyberpunk)

3rd Person Action (Amalur, Outward, Witcher 3)

Isometric (Baldur's Gate 2/3, Divinity OS2)

JRPGs (Clair Obscur, but frankly I'm not super interested in jrpgs)

For me it has to be refilling enchanted items from Soul gems in Oblivion and Skyrim. It's a mechanic if that does not actually serve its intended purpose as a balance lever for powerful enchanted items because the player has a million different ways to collect near infinite amounts of soul gems and on top of that it is also really annoying to have to repeatedly refill your weapons especially in Oblivion.

There is a reason I basically just pick up umbra, never refill it and never look back when I am playing a Melee character in Oblivion.

I suppose I could also complain about parrying and it's time in the sun becoming extremely overused, but to be honest it's usually good if it's implemented well, I'm just a bit sick of timing mechanics and especially sick of extremely tight timing mechanics.

However I am curious what other people find to be their least favorite or most annoying RPG mechanics in their games.

So my aim has never been the best in the world but it definitely hasn't been this bad before.

I have also been playing Black ops 2 and my aim definitely feels smoother and overall more accurate there as well.

I know guns have random recoil but I don't think that's the issue as I've mostly been using the M16 or tap firing my ass off.

It doesn't seem to matter what sensitivity I use either.

It feels like a combination of input delay and what I would normally call mouse acceleration although in this case it feels like the joystick is ramping up super fast after a certain point.

When the sensitivity is super low sighted aiming maybe feels a little bit better but the turn speed is so bad it feels completely unplayable.

When the sensitivity is super high turn speed and hip fire aiming feels fine but the scope aiming still feels like I'm dragging a heavy iron rod across the screen and because of the acceleration I am now overshooting my targets constantly.

Trying middle sensitivity at 5, now nothing feels good, hip fire now feels sluggish and sighted aiming feels very jagged and difficult to control.

So yeah I'm having a lot of trouble figuring this one out does anyone have any advice on how to dial in my controller and aiming?

I'm looking for something in the high two to maybe low to mid 3 bracket range. I'm looking to build a couple of decks for FNM but I'm feeling kind of dry on ideas lately.

Mostly I have really grown to appreciate decks that are extremely consistent and always tend to put up a fight in the early game even if they don't get close to winning.

I already have a very consistent Gruul ramp/cascade list, So now I am looking to branch out into the other dual color pairings or maybe pick up a mono or tricolor deck if the mood strikes me.

I could definitely use some creative juice so I love to know what other people have pegged as their most consistent decklists that never let them down.

Lately at my LGS I feel like I can't keep a deck together for more than a week because of the negative reactions from one person or another.

[[Zacama]], having nine lands on turn 5 is apparently unacceptable.

[[Eshki, Temur's Roar]], Get yelled at for dealing direct damage to the entire table in large chunks.

[[Radha, Heir to Keld]], Cascade/Discover spam with cards like [[monstrous vortex]] and [[apex devastator]] is too strong.

[[Kraven]] edicts is too oppressive

[[Chainer, Nightmare Adept]] reanimator has "too many strong synergies too quickly"

And I already know I straight up can't play any deck with theft effects in any volume because people will just straight up scoop.

And the list goes on.

Honestly I wish I still had some of these decklists so I could post them. On average my LGS tends to fluctuate between high 2s and high 3s but people don't really use the bracket system much.

There are plenty of decks out there that would otherwise be a 2 that runs a couple game changers and there are decks with no game changers that have multiple infinite combos.

Despite this I feel like I am almost always the one being singled out as problematic at a table, and I'm not really sure what to do with that.

I want to build decks but at the same time I feel like there's no point because it's just going to get shot down again.

I want to not care about how other people feel when I feel they're being hypocritical but at the same time I also want people to have a good time at the table.

At the end of the day I'm just tired of dealing with other people's attitude all the time, I don't have a problem with people criticizing game design issues and mechanical problems, I call out cards that annoy me all the time but I don't fault the deck builder, I fault the designers that gave them the tools in the first place.

What I don't like is feeling like I'm being personally attacked because my deck is doing something that someone doesn't like.

I try to encourage people to build decks that everyone wants to play with and against, I try to advocate for my idea of a healthy play environment without damning anyone for disagreeing with it.

After all this time though it feels like the only person who's willing to change here is me and at the rate I'm going I feel like the change I need to make is maybe just not playing a format so reliant on social regulation.

Don't get me wrong I actually like hardcore but on these maps in particular playing hardcore is completely pointless and stupid.

People run into my line of fire and get me killed constantly. It would be one thing if people were just across the map and couldn't see me that is entirely my fault but I am literally having my teammates constantly run directly in front of me while I'm actively firing my gun, it is beyond idiotic.

I die more times in a hardcore match to my own teammates running in front of my active fire than I do to actual enemies.

I really like landfall conceptually as an archetype, but in practice whenever I attempt to build a landfall deck my experience is that by the time I have assembled enough of a board to kill someone I also probably have at least one or two pieces if not an entire infinite combo on board because of the nature of landfall, and it seems like it is just way more natural feeling to just try and combo out with landfall than it is to actually win the game with combat damage.

I would really like to find a sweet spot in something like a high bracket 2 and low bracket 3 to play this archetype in but So far I've found it extremely difficult.

I would love to be proven wrong, but I am also curious what other people's experiences with landfall are and if they have found ways to make it feel consistent and good to play without ending with infinite combos.

So I decided to pick up the port of Black ops 1. Turns out 15 years is a loooong time.

First off I now get a massive headache playing this game for any long period of time even with my glasses on.

Secondly I can no longer see anything at a distance

Even if I do get the drop on someone my reaction time is so slow I basically lose every fight anyway. I basically have to play this like a stealth game.

I also can't seem to keep the reticle on my target for more than half a second and there is no sensitivity at which I feel comfortable. Right now I'm on the highest and that seems to work okay for long distances but is terrible close-up.

I've also completely forgotten most of the map layouts, and whoever decided our uniforms should match the coloration of the level is a monster.

I used to be all about the weird stuff, back in the day I could get 20 or 30 kills with just a ballistic knife, now I'm lucky if I even hit something with the ballistic knife, and using anything except the enfield feels awful to me.

Do the stealth perks even work? Because despite having everything on it seems like just about every opponent knows exactly where I am at all times, are headphones that necessary?

And I have to say I don't remember the recoil on the guns being quite so oppressive and difficult to control, not that literally anyone else seems to have any issues with it. I guess I'll just take my four hit markers and go home.

So yeah trying to get back up to speed has been pretty rough, wish me luck I guess, maybe send me some advice, but I am definitely feeling way too old for this shit.

Coming from MTG I'm curious what people feel about this but I have always believed that the existence of infinite loops was simply the result of bad game design.

While I don't particularly have an issue with the combo archetype in general, I think that infinite loops are extremely problematic from a balance perspective, especially as the game goes on and more of them come into existence.

At least in my mind what a combo deck should look like are a bunch of cards that have extremely high synergy together and allow you to very quickly assemble a winning game state at the cost of potentially having poor tempo or inconsistent gameplay because you are fishing for a particular confluence of cards.

To use a sorcery based example, I would consider a deck built around cards like monstermorphosis, shapeshift, and how from beyond attempting to quickly cheat out a bunch of large monsters to be a combo deck, big high synergy plays that come out quickly, but not easy to draw into and leaves a lot of gaps in your tempo play.

Obviously there are already a few infinite loops in a sorcery most of which are centered around a Ring of Morrigan like the town priest corruptor combo and the chaos wish combo.

I don't think these combos are currently even all that particularly strong, but The fact that they exist at all does trouble me.

I have to say I am not a huge fan of a very board based tactical card game introducing archetypes that allow you to mostly ignore the board itself as an objective and simply interact with it to stall for time.

I am curious how other people who are more invested in sorcery than me feel about this particular topic, is this something you would view as a potential problem in the future?

Where do I go after I beat the Ring of trials? I unlocked the shortcut door in verdant Glade but that just led to a dead end. I see there is another shortcut door in scorching Glade but I am unsure how to find it.

So I feel it difficulty options in remaster are sort of the biggest elephant in the room when it comes to the game.

I am curious how people have adapted to the difficulty settings and what they choose to do to play around the big spikes at the top of the slider or if they choose to instead fall closer to the bottom of the slider but avoid certain strategies and items in order to continue allowing themselves to feel somewhat challenged.

On the highest difficulty it seems that only certain things can really punch through the defenses of enemies like poisons and summons, and on a lower difficulties it seems like it's pretty easy to overpower the game with things like maxed out armorer, spell making and enchanting.

I would love to know how people play the game and what kinds of rules they set for themselves to continue having what they feel is an acceptable level of challenge throughout their entire experience.

So I used to play a lot of theft-based decks in the olden days but it is a mechanic I really haven't touched much in recent history.

On top of that it also seems like theft has gotten stronger and evolved as the game is going on so I am curious what people have out there to fulfill their filthiest klepto desires.

So far I am mostly looking at my old [[Phenax]] blue black control graveyard theft build which seems like it's gotten a lot of updates but I'm also interested in [[Laughing Jasper Flint]] which seems like a much more aggressive style of theft deck.

I would love to get some ideas on the different kinds of theft decks that are out there and what the archetype is truly capable of in the modern era.