u/vulcanfury12

I was rounding out my 40/40 by running the rest of my Nightmare Maps using Dextral and Sinistral Scarabs. Got three fragments like 5 times in 20 maps or so, and this exact roll twice. Also got instances where only one dropped, so the first time three dropped was quite surprising, because all this time, I thought Quant affected the drop.

Bought the maps off trade because rolling them myself is gonna be hell. I had to avoid so many mods that make the mobs even tankier:

Extra Life

Life as ES

Ele Ailment Avoidance

Just to name a few, alongside the other mods I usually avoid. I used Fortress and Abomination to avoid invulnerability phases, which tend to result in cascade failure if I get clipped once.

If you get all explicit modifier nodes in the Atlas, you can meet the quant requirement if the listed number on the item is 80% or so, without having to get more from Altars. To even the playing field a bit, I went for a full shrine Atlas, and loaded up the map device with four Domination Scarabs and a Scarab of Stability so I can get more than six portals just in case.

Good luck on your quests, exiles!

Fella just stood there. I dunno in what manner, but it wasn't menacingly.

Finally managed to down all the Canvas superbosses in NG Expert. I had to consult a guide on how to do a one-shot setup with Maelle for that last one. Also, I thought he had priority when you bring in the reserve squad like when you start the battle, but it turns out First Strike and enough speed gets you there so you don't need to parry a second time.

My character with the most Luminas put in was Verso, with around 350 because his Machine Gun build was so fun but so AP-Intensive. Everyone else was around 250-260, with quite a bit of Colour of Luminas to spare. Was using Contorso for the longest time, but it turns out Simoso was the "Best" in straight up damage because Follow Up dealt twice the damage with it. All bosses were downed with basically the same setup with minor adjustments:

1. Verso pew pewing then slicing everything.
2. Sciel for turn manipulation. Then regularly giving verso double damage once I got Duallison, since you no longer need to use a dedicated skill to stack Foretells.
3. Monoco for utility. He can give shields, ramping damage, buffs, and debuffs.

I love how each superboss had a cinematic kill at the end. My favorite is the one for Lampmaster.

Favorite of the four has to be the Duollistes. It's straight up slugfest with an honest opponent. It only really has one special mechanic for phase 2, and even then, it only has four very long combos. It doesn't introduce new or randomized patterns mid-fight, so it only really demands that you be on top of your parrying and dodging, with a bit of margin for error.

I am excited for the next entry and what else Sandfall can cook up.

I have no guaranteed safe discard against right, so I was basically playing Russian Roulette. According to MAKA, green dragon is safe to discard, but I have no idea how it arrived at that conclusion. Was I to assume that guy on right was going for Tanyao? If so, how can I tell?

This last game was pure pain. 4 riichi's and not a one panned out. Could have played a lot better as well, but here comes the game reminding me that I'm not as good as I think I am, and was mainly just cruising on luck (All Last deal-in from someone else makes me 3rd/2nd).

I was blessed in this game. My first three rounds were S ranks according to MAKA then the nerves got the best of me and I started playing bad in the next few rounds, ending with an overall B Analysis. Also ended up being my promotion game to Expert 3.

Now on to the 10-streak!

In South 4 All Last, left guy was in last place, but would have needed a Baiman to get more than 30k points to end the game. I saw this as a sort of opportunity to snag first by playing a quick hand. Round ends with no one above 30k, West 1 comes in and I'm the dealer, so I'll use that to eventually get back to first.

It horribly backfired because left guy got 11700 in South 4, which retained his dealer seat (no one was above 30k at this point) but he shot to first and it all went downhill from there. I had 4 riichi's, 2 rons, 2 tsumos and 2 deal-ins. The second deal-in was with this round on a one-han hand for left guy. It was enough to get him over 30k to end the game. In my defense, I had nothing else to throw and I was in tenpai. Had I won, we would have gotten to West 4.

Lull them into a false sense of security then wabam! Baiman! Because surely he can't be waiting on the fourth 9p, right? Probably my fastest game in Gold so far too. Just three rounds overall (East 2 Repeat 1). Kinda makes up for the horrible losing streak (either tsumo'ed to death or ron'd to oblivion because I was pushing too much).