u/SamTheGrot

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If you're new to playing High Elves and want or need advice, this post is for you. The tips in this post are for all High Elf factions you could possibly be playing.

1). Lord Recruitment: Out of all the lords (Prince, Archmage, Princess, Sea Helm) the absolute uncontested best option for your first new lord is an Ardent Princess. An Ardent Princess with a Lothern Sea Guard stack is an extremely economy efficient stack with the potential to take on elite doomstacks later on. Best paired with an imbedded fire mage and a honed handmaiden. When you hit advanced tech, throw in a dragon, a frost phoenix, and a couple of dragon princes to help round it out.

After Ardent Princess, most lords are fine as long as you only recruit the lords with high influence price. My favorite economy efficient stack after an Ardent Princess is an Incendiary Life Archmage with 8 Lion Chariots.

S tier lords (imo): Protected Archmage (Any), Incendiary Archmage (Life/High), Resilient Prince, Dangerous Prince, Ardent Princess, Punitive Princess.

2). Hero Army Composition: You should always include an imbedded mage and one of either noble or handmaiden in your army stack. Mist Mages are outshined in battle by regular mages but have good utility for campaign actions Loremasters are optional depending on how you want to build out your stack.

3). Frost Phoenix: Others will talk about how amazing Star Dragons are, but this in my opinion is the best stand alone unit for a roster and should be included in every stack. If you want to know why, look at the frost aura debuff effect it has.

4). Confederation: High Elves have a unique automatic confederation system. The faction you should ALWAYS confederate first, regardless of who you are playing, is Eataine. This faction not only comes with two strong legendary lords, but they massively boost your economy. Tyrion alone has a skill in his tree that reduces the upkeep of ALL of your units by 10%.

5). Economy: For many factions in the game, it's fine to just paint the entire map one color, but as High Elves, this isn't what you want. When you hit late game, about half of your income will come from trade. As you progress, you should do your best to keep potential trade partners from being wiped out. Build Elven Embassies everywhere to exponentially scale your trade income. This is also why Eataine should be your first confederation option: their home settlement has a building that massively amplifies your trade income.

A build I've become very drawn to, as an example is a sort of quickscope/hotswap Waystalker build. Dual Swords + Longbow. With the 20% attack speed buff you get pretty much constantly with Dual Swords, you can weapon swap and scope fast enough to nail Stormvermin in melee, which you now kind of need to do because Dual Swords are not killing armored units. I'm not perfect at it but I'm getting better and it's a lot of fun!

Wondering if there are any other builds like this people are drawn to? Stuff that's hard to pull off but very satisfying when you can get it right.

I'm used to playing a faction that gives 99+% magic item drop chance more than half of the time, so now when I try another faction I'm like: "Where are all my items???"

I believe I know what MJ remembers at the end of the film and more importantly, HOW she remembers. Well, IF she remembers anything - right now I'm just speculating, and I figure this sub should be a safe place to share theories for fun!

There's one specific scene I couldn't help but hyper fixate on: when Jean Grey breaks free and a mind wave freezes everyone within 1km. I didn't record anything in the theater to provide a visual reference, but surely yall know what I'm talking about. When this happens, we see a tear come down MJs cheek. We don't see anyone else reactively cry when this event occurs. I think there's something here because there's a deliberate effort in the film to highlight this reaction.

The natural conclusion I've seen most people come to is that she remembered \~something\~. Personally, I can't think of another viable reason for her to start crying here. My theory, which I'll divulge shortly, started with asking one single question on this matter: why is it only MJ?

The mind wave didn't seem to restore memories for anyone else. I don't think Ned would have acted the way that he did pre-handshake if any portion of his memory was restored. Also, everyone in the city (pre-spell) knew Peter Parker was Spiderman. Yet, nobody recognized Peter as he emerged from the hospital. I'm fully convinced, however that MJ regained some form of her memory after the mind wave incident. Why? Because look at what she does after! She goes up to a rooftop that looks very similar to the one she & Peter would go to in the 3rd movie. She clutches her necklace and SMILES. Why show us this scene if she doesn't remember or if it doesn't mean anything? Now, back to the question, why is it only MJ?

I do think Jean helped her remember, HOWEVER, not in the way you might think! There's nothing in the movie to suggest Jean has the ability to restore lost memories, and even if she did have it, she'd have no motive to restore MJ's specifically during the mind wave. In fact, at the time of the mind wave, Jean would've been resentful towards Peter AND she's reacting to a discovery about her sister. Jean isn't even remotely thinking about MJ, so what happened?

Well, let's look at the facts of the movie. We know Jean can inhabit people's minds, learn from their memories, and control their bodies. We also know that for the first 80% of the movie, nobody she does this to can remember anything while she's inhabiting. This changes during the mind wave. When Peter allows her into his mind, the inhabitation is more like a connection. Unlike previous incidents, Peter was aware of her, interacted with her, and retained memory of the incident. I do not think this sort of connection was a spider-sense exclusion. I think this is an evolution of Jean's powers that we're seeing.

During the mind wave, I theorize that what MJ remembered was the earlier incident where Jean inhabited her body. The trigger for remembering Peter came from the experience of kissing Peter. True love's kiss actually did end up breaking the spell!!! The theory checks out when we compare it to Ned's situation. Ned looks befuddled when Peter first starts the handshake, but the muscle memory is still there. The fact that any trace of memory of the handshake remains likely means that the spell didn't delete any trace of Peter from his life. Rather, any memories associated with Peter were powerfully repressed. It would then take a very powerful trigger to re-access those repressed memories, like a best friend's handshake or true love's kiss!

For both Ned and MJ, I theorize that what they at least remember are memories closely associated with the trigger. Ned remembers all instances of the handshake, and MJ remembers the times she kissed Peter.

Anyways, that's my theory, so let me know what you think!

Sometimes I'll get into a game and feel like I'm getting cheated because an enemy attacked me through my block. Or I don't hear a sound queue of an attack from behind until it's too late. Or I stagger an enemy only for their attack to go through anyways.

Then, I realize my ping is in the yellow or red. Is there any way to deal with this? Or do I just gotta leave the lobby and try again?

Naturally, this is on The Island. I'm in the market for a mammoth. Why? Because they're cool, the wiki says they're good at collecting what I need, and they're cool. I earlier on had managed to die I think once or twice upon entering the snow biome and instantly getting mauled by wolves. So now, we're going to fly around and scout on our argy. Not too far from the snow biome border (but still kinda far) I notice a couple of mammoths chilling on a sort of cliff that extends over the ocean - very high above the ocean. There's several packs of wolves in the area, but they don't seem to be wandering close enough to aggro onto the mammoths. I can also see an ideal spot to perch up and tranq the mammoths without getting too close to the wolves. "Screw it, we're going for it."

Now, here's the thing. Not only have I not explored the snow biome beyond having previously gotten mauled at the entrance to it, but I don't have any dinos strong enough to deal with all of these wolf packs. I also don't have cryo tech. The time I tried fighting them with my argy, my argy almost died in seconds. Okay, so we need a plan, and we did in fact concoct a plan. I fly back to base and build a raft. I sail the raft over and leave it just below the cliff where the mammoths were. I managed to navigate without aggroing megalodons along the way.

Next step: knock out a mammoth without having it run away either off the cliff or into the wolves. I found a notch in the terrain that the mammoth would get stuck on, so I just had to manipulate my positioning at the right time so it runs into that notch. Failed the first 1 or 2 times, but we eventually got it with the last mammoth.

Time for the next stressful part. We must wait approximately 30 real time minutes for this mammoth to tame, and we have to make sure no wolves wander into us. Ironically, the snowstorm picks up and now I can barely hardly see where anything is. Then I think, "what if I just deliberately lure the wolves in the area away from the immediate vicinity of the mammoth. I'll fly close to the ground to ensure they follow me and ditch upward once I think I've gone far enough." Surely, this plan is fool proof.

So, we do just that. We fly into the blinding snow storm in the direction of the wolves and bait them into chasing after us. Now, here's the thing. Remember when I said I hadn't really been to the snow biome before? Yeah. From somewhere in the snowstorm, there's a loud roar. Suddenly, my controls stop working. There's packs of wolves chasing after me, something presumably massive roaring, and I can't see where stuff is or even control myself. *Chomp* "PLEASE ARGY GET A GRIP." *Chomp* "WAKE UP!" Right as I think I've got control back ~RAWWWWRRRR~. We're again back to flying in a random direction. The good news now is that we're out of the snowstorm and we can see again. The bad news? I can see that I'm being forced into a nosedive into the ocean. Oh, and there's a red glow at the bottom! "No no no not like this! Not like this!"

Miraculously, we regain control before becoming shark bait. The wolves that went over with me on the other hand...yeah they became shark bait. I fly back up carefully, not knowing what on earth just happened. The mammoth is still safe. However, a new pack of wolves have spawned relatively close. I'm not willing to risk whatever just happened, but luckily, the mammoth is now tamed. We spend some time feeding it until it gets to be full hp. Why do we need it to be hp? Because we're about to do something very stupid. We're going to walk off a cliff into a mile high vertical drop and hope that we (1) manage to aim the fall correctly and land on the raft and (2) not die from falling on the raft.

Success! We landed on the raft, alive! But wait, the wolves that went over earlier have brought the sharks closer, and the mammoth is awfully low hp. "We must row faster. We must row faster. We must row faster." The raft was in tatters, but we eventually made it home with the mammoth alive!

1). Magic Items. Invocation of Lileath (5 turn duration, 10 turn CD) gives a 50% bonus to magic item drop chance for all armies. Assuming you have the proper skill tree perk and an embedded mage, you're looking at a 99% magic item drop chance. You'll get to deck out every one of your lords and even most heroes with items from your massive stash of items.

2). Big Money. Once you've got all of Ulthuan under control, all buildings factionwide get a 10% boost to income.

3). Court Intrigue discount. This used to be more relevant before the phoenix court mechanic got introduced, because it meant that you confederated other high elf factions faster than anyone. This is still true for minor factions. It's still nice because for me personally, I like using court intrigue to make playthroughs more unique by forcing certain evil factions into a military alliance against me. Adds a fun new layer of difficulty.

4). Tree units. I won't lie, I basically ditch these past turn 40. However, they make playing early game battles a lot more fun and interesting!

5). Free early game influence. Normally for high elves, you may want to rush a noble or two to start performing secure influence actions. For Avelorn, that's not necessary. Any settlement Alarielle ends her turn in will passively generate influence for a certain number of turns. In this way, she is still the fastest High Elf faction at confederating, giving you access to all of the other Legendary Lords and their benefits!

There are a number of things I really love about High Elves, but the #1 thing I miss most when I try playing another faction is the influence mechanic. The influence mechanic allows the player to make a playthrough more unique and challenging, and no other race can do this.

You can use influence to force different evil factions to make an alliance that they would otherwise never make. Combined with the Unnatural Selection Mod, you can really gas up the lategame power of an AI by allowing them to become a continental super power. Then, you can force two continental super powers into an alliance against you. My current playthrough has Grimgor's Ardboyz in an alliance with Archaeon. In other playthroughs I've done things like force Vampire Counts into an alliance with Skaven, thus giving normally all melee vampire armies access to skaven artillery.

I'm not sure if this is common knowledge, but for any who don't know, extra curse resistance on warrior priests causes them to gain max hp from grimoires. Your max potential HP on a warrior priest can then be 218 (with rounding), as this multiplies with the 20% HP bonus you can get from necklace.

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I know this is gonna get big downvoted just by the title, but I need to speak my truth. The 2024 PHB feels more like disjointed patch notes than it does a complete edition of D&D. Let me explain.

It is sorely lacking in basic rudimentary lore that is necessary to comprehend the roleplay aspect of a tabletop combat roleplaying game. If you haven't played in prior editions or read prior materials, you aren't given info on how to create a character with any depth (ideal/bond/flaw) and you barely understand anything about the classes besides how they perform in combat. A new player who wants to make a Cleric & has only read the 2024 PHB does not know the name of a single deity. The writers could have just hit copy-paste on all of this stuff from the 2014 PHB and it would have been fine.

Because this is not a complete rulebook, it should have been organized as a massive errata organized by backwards compatability with the prior edition. Different sections presented as "optional" rule changes that you can implement into your 5e group based on preference. Sections are split based on their ability to be amended to the 2014 rules independent of other sections. Like the idea of Weapon Mastery but want to keep classes unchanged, go for it! Only want the updates feats? Sure. Mainly just interested in the class changes because Clerics SHOULD be good at religion? Go ahead.

As a stand alone, it's organized fine. But for mix/mashing with 2014, the layout feels very inefficient.

The wiki suggests it increases overall stagger power in the middle of enemy attack animations, but the trait says "push strength." Which is it?

I've regained a strong desire to play this game again. There's much I've forgotten, and although I've looked up some guides to try to refresh my memory, I'd like to ask the community for some things that I've forgotten and are still unclear for me.

1). For light attacks vs. heavy attacks, is there any kind of indicator when you've held the button long enough for the attack to become heavy? Or is it just something you have to get a feel for with practice?

2). Does it matter how long I hold down the button for a heavy attack in terms of damage or stagger power?

3). Is there a tip or gimmick with the crafting and/or loot system that I should know about? I at least feel like I vaguely remember it mattered HOW you opened chests or crafted items to get the best possible result.

4). Is there a way to heal (non-temporary hp) without using items?

5). Is there any critical information I should be aware of before I queue up for higher difficulties? (Legend+). When I last played, I primarily played Legend+ difficulties with others online, so I know I'm suited for it build-wise. But now that I'm coming back to the game, is there anything I should be aware of or educated on before going into this difficulty?

Jynxzi treated 90-95% of the game content like common trash. Wouldn't learn the mechanics. Wouldn't explore. Wouldn't learn boss fights until he dies 1000 times and realizes he has no other choice. Wouldn't even bother trying navigate towards the bosses on his own. Only did required bosses + Placidusax & Malenia. (Mohg is technically required with intent to enter dlc)

And then what happens? He instantly hits New Game+, meaning he has to start all over on this magnificent game that he clearly loathes if he wants to play the DLC.

99% of players: *Searches wiki for additional info upon getting attacked by invisible enemies*

Jynxzi: "This is broken." *rages into the void of silence and continues to suffer*

To maximize moonveil damage, you want

1. Spellblade Set (no shot he even looks around to find this unless someone tells him, but it's easy to get)
2. Magic Scorpion Charm (Requires interacting with many NPCs and searching around map for multiple different things)
3. Alexander Shard (Easy/Simple to acquire)
4. Magic Shrouding Cracked Tear (Need to fight Erdtree Avatars)
5. Rellana's Cameo (first remembrance boss of DLC)
6. Ranni's Dark Moon (high int requirement - must complete lots of game content & ranni's questline)

If you aren't exploring to get this things that collectively add a massive amplification to your damage, the moonveil damage is going to be catastrophically lackluster. I tuned in to see him doing a pittance of damage to Placidusax. Noticed he isn't even using wondrous physique before fights and I immediately understood. His lack of desire to explore the game means he doesn't have the tools to succeed. Even though he's trying to learn the boss fights now, he's being done in by his lack of interest in the game overall.

The difficulty he has with Elden Ring is self-imposed. And I hope he reads this so he actually gets the advice he needs.

He doesn't spend any of his time in boss fights calming down and analyzing the boss. A boss that is comparatively easy to deal with seems like an insurmountable challenge because of a failure to understand their animations. Understanding animations is how you learn when there is an opening to attack and when you need to run or get ready to dodge. When GinoMachino, a legendary Elden Ring player, entered the DLC for the first time, he deliberately never tried to first time a boss. Instead, he focused entirely on dodging, healing, blocking until he felt comfortable with his understanding of the boss' moveset. This method is a faster track for success than just running at them endlessly without a clue of how the boss works.

He doesn't reference the Fextralife wiki for anything. He just spent 4 hours fighting the same boss with Moonveil. Had he taken the time to read the wiki page on Moonveil, he would have beaten the boss in 30 minutes max, maybe an hour with a refusal to learn about boss animations. Instead, he continuously used the weapon as sub optimally as possible.

None of the mods, hivise, or whoever else is SUPPOSED to be in his corner helps him. I don't mean micromanage him, but at least tell the man that Fextralife is a resource that exists and is available to him. He's floundering constantly as a result from his lack of understanding about the game. Why does nobody help him understand? Don't tell him how every boss works, but give him the tools to succeed. When they do "help him," they aren't really helping. They are only giving him directions without actually improving his understanding or telling him how to improve his understanding.

I would help him and have tried to send messages, but the odds of him reading my message out of the sea of people spamming his chat is probably lower than my odds of winning the lottery.

I see a lot of posts like this on this thread, and I'm going to tell yall right now that regardless of context, the answer is always the same. You should NEVER under ANY circumstance go to your DM and say "Reddit says you're doing this thing wrong, you should DM differently." Thus, any responses on these type of posts are moot.

If you have a problem with your DM or what they are doing, talk to them. Some DMs are bad. Some DMs are good. Even for bad DMs, the solution is not to ask reddit to referee your D&D group.