Chapter One: Bozeman or Bust (lots of bust)
I had done it once again, like so many other years before, by traveling north to one of the harshest and coldest states that a hobo could possibly go to during the dead of winter, late-January 2021: Mon-fucking-tana. Or as the locals jokingly say, "Montucky". (edit: Shout-out to Montucky Cold Snacks, the cheap horse-piss watered down beer that is Montana's equivalent of Washington's "Rainier Ale" or Oregon's "Session Lager"). I digress.
If I was a goose, I'd surely be the Jonathan Livingston Seagull of the flock…the black sheep shitshow of a goose flying in the completely wrong direction at the worst time of the year. As forementioned, this was not the first time, nor second time, that I've done this. In fact, it's become a habit, if not straight-up routine.
Laramie, Wyoming circa November 2016. Glendive, Montana circa January 2015 Minot, North Dakota circa January 2014. Yukon, Canada circa November 2013. Bellingham, Washington circa January 2006. The list goes on, and on, and on…
And here I am. Bozeman Fucking Montana, circa January-February 2021. The locals say it's an unusually warm winter, which by Montana's standards might include 5 inches of snow in the afternoon and temperatures dropping below 10F degrees at night. However, according to the high standards of a low-class hobo born and raised on the Gulf Coast of Alabama, this weather is colder than a witches tit.
Now, that's not to say that I ain't prepared though. I assure you that I am. Sixteen years of living on the road and rails has made this black goose a well-seasoned bird, with all the trimmings. I have a military sleeping bag that can keep me alive down to negative 30 temperatures. My military backpack is waterproof, and so are the snowboarding pants that I wear under my insulated Carharrt overalls. I have alpaca wool thermal pants, merino wool socks, thermolite waterproof boots, thinsulated gloves, and several wool and polyster beanie hats. My dual-layer mountaineering tent can withstand hurricane-force winds and all the snow that a blizzard can muster.
Winter? Montana? Bring it bitch. Hit me with your best shot. You know I like it. wink
Sigh. However, DESPITE the freezing temperatures and shit tons of snow, there's a lil secret that I've learned during my many years of traveling, and that secret is certainly DUE to these wintery conditions: Jobs! Lots and lots and lots and lots of jobs! Jobs here, jobs there, jobs every-fucking-where. Hotel jobs, restaurant jobs, retail jobs, construction jobs, maintenance jobs, driving jobs, even jobs just to help other people get more damn jobs!
You want a job during winter? Well they got jobs out northern Californie way, Oregonie way, Montanie way, Washingtonie way, North and South Dakotie way, and every which way can go above above the Mason-Dixon line!
If you can't find a damn job in the Northwestern United States of America during winter, you ain't fucking looking, and that's a fact. If you got one arm and you can swing a hammer, or punch a number on a cash register, then consider yourself hired on the spot and you can start today.
Before this chapter turns into an entire damn book of its own (A Hobo's Guide to Finding Jobs) let's get back to the story here: Bozeman or Bust.
As I begin this chapter, I have a red-wine hangover that is enough to drive me to a bullet in the head. I made a pot of coffee only to puke it back up on my hands and knees in front the porcelain thrown. I think it was good ole Earnest Hemingway that once said "Write Drunk, Edit Sober". Experienced words of wisdom from a fine man that knew everything a man could possibly know about drinking shit tons of wine and writing shit tons of stories. I wouldn't be lying if I was to confess that Mr. Hemingway, along with Mr. Steinbeck and Mr. Twain, are drunken heroes of mine that I could only hope someday to sit alongside in the bookstores of Hell and Hades with a gallon of cheap Merlot. Salut, gentleman.
After puking, rolling cigarettes, drinking coffee, and puking several times more, I was finally able to sit down to try and remember what-the-fuck happened yesterday; a solemn meditation technique that involves tons of coffee and contemplation; a time to worship the asinine achievements that are accompanied in both rejoice and regret.
Yesterday started off sober as a saint. I had a job interview at this place I had found on craigslist, some place looking for fresh warm bodies to fill up their production-assembly line. I took a bus to the address they had given me, which ended up being the adress to the Bozeman City Bank.
"A bank?", I thought, as I wondered around the parking lot dumbfounded and confused for a solid 5 minutes, checking the address several times on my phone, wondering why on earth I've been sent to a state bank. After circling the parking lot, I noticed a door on the side of the bank that said "Job Choices Employment Services: Second Floor".
Godammit. I had been fucking conned. Fucking craigslist. I know what's going on here…this a goddamn employment agency that wants to take 10-15 percent of my paycheck, take away my rights to healthcare and benefits, in the so-called promise of finding me a "great career path of opportunity".
Employment agencies. Just like rats. The only "opportunity" here was them: Creatures of opportunity, parasites hellbent on scavaging peoples money and benefits. "A not-even-close-to-great career path of 9-5 slave-labor bullshit involving years of suckling away your mind, body, and spirit", the sign on the door should have read.
This was definitely a mistake. And anyone that has ever had the unfortunate pleasure of being with me can you tell one thing about me: I fucking love mistakes. I love making them, and I love learning from them. I am a walking-talking connoisseur of mistakes. In fact, I just made a mistake trying to spell connoisseur, so I asked Google "Hey Google, spell connoisseur", and due to lack of interpreting my Alabama accent, Google made the mistake of showing me the word Coitus. I have now learned that the word "coitus" is another word for sex. As a writer and the son of an English teacher, I love learning new words. As a human male, I love sex. So learning a new word for "sex" is a fantastic trade-off for that fortunate mistake!
I digress.
I decided to walk into the bank, up the stairs to the second floor, and down the hall to the employment agency. A well-dressed and very sexy debutant by the name of Tracy stood up and greeted me with a smile that was formal, professional, and admittedly very sexy.
While my dirty mind started playing cheap porn music, along with vivid images of me and Tracy wrecking that office like wild alleycats, I was suddenly snapped back into reality with Tracy's sexy voice, saying:
"Hey, you must be Mr. Huck! Are you here for the 3:00 o'clock interview? Could you please start by filling out this application? You can have a seat over at the desk here"…
Godammit. This employment agency was GOOD. I was Tracy's submissive little slut. I walked right where Tracy told me to walk, sat right in the chair Tracy pulled out for me to sit in, and I started filling out the application with the ballpoint pen that Tracy had somehow put in my hand without me even realizing it. Tracy could have stolen my wallet and the 11 dollars inside of it as well, had she wanted to, and I wouldn't have even noticed. And even if I had noticed, I would have let her do it anyway. Godammit!
As I started to fill out the application, I got to the section I dreaded most: job references. Oh boy…allow me to tell you a little about Huck's references, or lacktherof:
At my last job, I was fired because of a fight that broke-out between my ex-girlfriend and myself, which began with lots of shouting and shoving, and ended with me getting a black-eye from being punched in the face twice. Fun fact: Italian women are fiery as they are fierce, and bold as they are beautiful. And just like their male Italian counterparts, such as Sylvester Stalone or Al Capone, they know how to land a solid right jab. This fight erupted in the worker's dormitory for all employees to hear and see. And although I was the one with the swollen black eye, I was the one they decided to fire. C'est la vie, such is life. Que sera sera, it be what it fucking be.
We can scratch that job off as a reference, without a doubt.
The job before that, I was at a marijuana farm called "Great American Cannabis", in which my managers and co-workers tried to recruit me into a far-right group of sexist and racist baboons called "The Proud Boys".
There was a pre-determining factor in why that farm had hired me, and assumed I would be interested in their idealogical gang. That pre-determing factor was the very same factor that led Google to teaching me the wrong word and definition: my Alabama accent.
Great American Cannabis had hired me based on a phone interview, in which they assumed my southern accent indicated two things, in which case one of their assumptions was right, and one was wrong:
Assumption Numero Uno: Huck has an Alabama accent, which therefore indicates that he has years of experience working on farms, growing plants, and being an honest and hard-worker.
Assumption Numero Dos: Huck has an Alabama accent, therefore he must be idealogically aligned with far-right beliefs including sexism and racism.
Welp, I am proud to say that even that although a 50% winning percentage may be fine and dandy with gambling in Vegas, and can be seen as half full or half empty based on however optimisitic or pessimistic you might be, in the case of Great American Cannabis and The Proud Boys, those odds ended pretty badly.
As it turns out, despite being raised by a racist father and surrounded by bigotry in the not-so-sweet home of Alabama, those very dispositions made this black sheep child rebel from such ass-backward beliefs, and I am staunchly pro-civil rights, which means I am pro-immigration, and a proud supporter of the sufferage movement for womens right.
Obviously, that did not go very well with my co-workers at the farm, and I was fired within the first month. But wait, theres more tragic humor to the story of this farm, which I'll organize in two keypoints:
Keypoint Numero Uno: The farm was owned by Iranian immigrants. I…shit…you…not. That's right. YOU DID READ THAT CORRECTLY. Not only was the farm owned and managed by a minority group of immigrants, those very immigrants came directly from the very country is at the VERY TOP of White-America's shitlist: Iran.
Keypoint Numeros Dos: After I was fired based almost entirely according to my leftist and progressive views on race and gender equality, within just a couple of weeks nearly everybody on the farm was fired and replaced by cheaper immigrant labor in the form of Laotian women. That's right…a white-blooded American-born legal-working male, was replaced by brown-blooded, foreign-born, mostly-illegal-working females, on a farm owned and managed by right-wing racists and sexists that were anti-immigration. Once again, I…shit…you…fucking…not...let THAT shit sink in.
I literally cannot make this shit up, and let it be forever proof that reality, however tragic or ironic it may be, is far greater than fiction. You can write that last sentence in a letter, shove that puppy in an envelope, slap that bitch with a stamp, and mail it to the fucking MOON. Or you can mail it to Iran, or Laos, whichever you prefer.
However, I digress.
So, being that I was fired from Great American Cannabis by a bunch of Iranian Proud Boys, you can scratch that job off of the "reference" list as well. Sigh.
So, how about the job before that? Well, that's a hell of a story too, but I'll make it quick and cut shorter to the chase:
I worked on a fishing boat for a Mormon captain. Although I loved him like a Dad, and he often treated me like a son, my job ended in these words:
"Huck, I really like you. You're one of the hardest working deckhands I've ever had, despite it being a very terrible year for fishing. However, as a man that is a Latter Day Saint of God, as a Mormon, I'm going to have to ask you to leave because of three reasons:
1) You smoke cigarettes, marijuana, and drink alcohol and coffee.
2) You curse worse than a sailor.
3) You are an atheist/agnostic."
And in case you, the reader did not know: Mormons HATE cigarettes, marijuana, alcohol, AND coffee. They are forbidden to curse, and they are not even allowed to tolerate the company of anyone that isn't a believer in God.
Well Godammit. How in the hell am I so goddamn misfortunate and unlucky, to be the must FIRST FUCKING PERSON in the entire HISTORY OF FISHING, that has gotten fired for using curse words and drinking whiskey. I couldn't even absorb the fact that my boss was firing me because I couldn't get over the fact that I was possibly the first sailor or fisherman in all of ocean-faring humanity that had gotten fired for doing what sailors and fisherman are guaranteed and known to do best: drinkin' and cursin'
We can also scratch THAT job off the possible reference list as well.
It was at this point in the office of Job Choices Bozeman that the porn music had long since stopped playing in my head, and that I suddenly and swiftly fell deeply into a full blown existential crisis right there in Tracy's office while simply trying to think of a single reference from my last 3 jobs. The unbelievable amount of misfortune, tragedy, irony, and utter insanity of my last 3 job experiences had truly started to sink in, and I was beginning to legitimately lose my temporary grasp on sanity along with my faith in humanity altogether in one great, big, sloppy sandwich of existential fucking crisis.
Allow me to self-diagnose this existential crisis sandwich by peeling off some of the layers of this enormous stinking onion that is in the middle of it all: Either that curse that was put on me a few years ago by a Mexican trainhopping gypsy from New Orleans is proof that curses are indeed fucking real, or either I am the unluckiest son of a bitch on this entire planet that is so very unlucky that I am slowly (or quickly) coming to the conclusion that this entire life is a simulation that is programmed by some sick comedic asshole that specializes in the tragedies of both irony AND misfortune. And though some people in this world call that programmer God or Allah or Jehovah, I call him Jeff. I call him "Jeff in Programming", with same amount of disdain and hatred that Michael Scott refers to "Toby in Human Resources" in the American version of the show "The Office".
(Sidenote: If you do not understand my last reference because you have not watched The Office, then you need to stop reading this book right now, go sign up for one month of Netflix, and spend that entire month binge-watching one of the greatest sitcoms ever made in the history of television: The Office (US Version). Go. Now!)
I digress.
As I collapsed into a full-blown existential crisis while thinking of job references on the second floor employment services office above Montana State Bank, my fantasy-based relationship with Tracy was also about to crumble into an existential crisis as well, based on two very important qualities:
Quality Numero Uno: Tracy and I had no relationship that actually existed outside of my head and a stupid job application form. We had never knocked over all of the filing cabinets, water-cooler, or broken the copying machine with tantric sex. That scenario never existed period.
Quality Numeros Dos: I was about to not only lie, but also commit non-existent adultery to Tracy, thus putting a very real end to a not-very-real relationship.
I stood up from the desk that me and Tracy had never fucked on, and I told Tracy that I had to use the bathroom. And though I did really have to use the bathroom, it wasn't for the purpose of pissing or taking a shit, it was for the purpose of throwing the application in the toilet and sneaking my way down the hallway and out of the employment agency. In which case, that is precisely what I did.
Upon stepping out of the door and back into the parking lot of Bozeman City Bank, I noticed another hot little woman across the street: A dazzling red-headed freckle-faced damsel by the name of Wendy, who promised in her fertile bosom the birth of two-dollar cheeseburgers and loaded baked potatoes. I went inside Wendy's house, and began to have an oral relationship by penetrating my mouth with nearly everything that was offered on Wendy's dollar-value menu.
Stop here, acquire coffee, booze, and cigarettes until I feel like writing again, which may be later tonight, tomorrow morning, or possibly fucking never

General / QoL

• Dark Mode is now available as a setting and on by default. We also tied down the guy (who wrote the flashingly bright note about seizures) in a opthalmic speculum, in a dark room while opening and closing the said bright note for 3 hours.
• Light Mode uses grayish / genshin-impact-blue color scheme.
• Users can now map keys in settings.
• New user center setting : Allow Teyvat Times to publish my in-game alias (not username) and last 4 digits of my UID (When you set a world record of hunting fowl and etc.)
• Added setting for persistent aiming mode. If turned on, your character will try to get back to aiming mode even when you dash or you are knocked back.
• Going in and out of aiming mode is now much smoother. You can still dash, cast skills and still keep the cursor on. Inspired by Tombraider? Idk why I wrote this.
• When crafting an item and you run out of materials for it, the item selected stays in place and will not scroll all the way down.
• When choosing characters for the abyss, the preview button to see which enemies you will face is also there.
• When finishing an abyss floor, you can return to the abyss menu without ending the "run" to collect rewards or browse around.
• Fixed a bug with sucrose/xinqiu bonus materials when crafting.
• Fixed a bug with razor's c1 constellation not increasing his damage and not displaying a buff indicator.
• All buffs are now grouped/stacked by icon category, attack/defense/regen etc. Hovering the cursor in the grouped icon will display verbose info. (e.g. thrilling dragon tales, character talent, gouba pepper etc).
• Daily Login Bonus is permanent.
• Claim All and Repeat Buttons are now available in Blacksmith, Battlepass, Expeditions and the Like.
• VA/CV list is displayed instead of current selected voice language in character details. (e.g. if you go to a character screen, and have english voice language, you will only see english voice actor and you have to change language just to find out who the cn and jp voice actor is)
• Hide ui/hud setting and dedicated hotkey is added for creating fan-made cinematics.
• Unless it is an artifact or a weapon, an item previously recorded and consumed will no longer display as "new"
• Added shield bar on top of health bar
• Added party icon on the top right ui and a dedicated hotkey to switch parties
• Added hotkey to switch to your saved Comps 1 to 4
• Resin is now always visible at the top of UI (without needing to open up the map)
• Moved UID a bit further down by 2px so it doesn't overlap with the buttons
• Changed UID Opacity by 75% and has grayish text color, inspired by "windows is not activated"
• Added a space character on the launcher download text (e.g. "Downloading75%" into "Downloading 75%")
• Bonus damage from element-affected status (e.g. "deal 15% increased damage against cryo affected enemies" are enclosed in parentheses
• Expedition Slot Remembers Last Character Used
• Expedition Slot Remembers Last Hour Used
• All map objects are navigatable for consistent experience. and are not overridden by quests. You will always be directed towards the one you choose.
• Navigated Map Object Always Display Their Distance and Light Beacon (e.g. Leylines not having those)
• Added enemy weakspot zones with varying degrees (green,orange,red) in the adventurer's handbook, if you kill 150 of a certain enemy type. Humanoid types generally have the head as a weakspot.
• Fraction of Fraction of a bullet time effect and a red particle glows when you hit the weakest spot of an enemy.
• Reading and Clearing Story/Voice Lines syncs across all devices you own.
• Statues' Remaning Healing Energy now Visible on the Tower Itself. Dat Glowy thingies deplete when you use them.
• Statue's First Healing Tick Revives Fallen Characters by 10hp%. Second Healing Tick is Full Restoration or until Remaining Healing Energy Allows it.
• Critical strike Indicator
• Enemies in the handbook are dynamically arranged by type , then alphabetically. All hypostasis are lined up.
• All enemies are displayed in the handbook regardless of what region you currently are.
• Journal (J) is now binded to (F1), since this is where you look commissions for rather than the Adventurer Handbook (F1)
• Journal , Handbook and Archive are compressed and combined.
• We bought a time machine and went back to the time when we did the hypostasis event. The last challenge in the event is now a new hypostasis after the three old hypostasis.
• Andrius's Boss Fight is now properly a Trounce Domain, For consistency with other weekly boss.
• Changing a Team Member in your active roster won't override that slot in your saved team comp
• Active Roster and Saved Team Comps are now a seperate thing
• Selecting a Saved Team Comp will replace the Active Roster (so you can replace one member before "deploying")
• Clicking Deploy in a Saved Team Comps will immediately send you back to the game
• Switching Party Members is smoother than an oiled tits smooth, regardless of network latency. Especially in Single Player Mode.
• Resource and Player Position in the map has better visual clarity. (Imagine klee collecting wolf berries or philly mushrooms)
• Option to adjust map size , and resource/player icons.
• PC , map pin size collision reduced. If I clicked Taishan Mansion, I meant Taishan Mansion.
• Mora , Artifact Limits and etc always visible in inventory screen regardless of which tab you are on
• Blacksmith remembers the quantity of ores you refine
• Adventurer's Handbook remembers the last filter you used when browsing enemies (all, elite ,boss)
• Adventurer's Handbook points you the next enemy you are hunting (when you kill 1 ruin guard, you dont have to open handbook again to see the next one in the map)
• Adventure's Handbook knows ALL of the elite enemy locations. The list seem to be manually added instead of dynamic, possibly due to chest concealment similar mechanic. If you hunt ruin guards, I think the book only lists 4 of them in the whole map.

Gameplay

• Training dummy added near favonius hq. You have to do a story quest and spend resource to have it constructed.
• Enemies now have a difficulty rating. The higher the difficulty rating is, the higher character xp/gold they will provide. XP scales off your adventure rank level. Extra Large enemies have a guaranteed chance to drop 1-4* artifacts. They will respawn longer as a consequence. It doesn't make sense that a huge lawachurl and smol hilichurl both give 20xp.
• First and Second Dash now have different color indicators.
• If you used 2 dashes consecutively, a subtle glow/indicator pops around your character for when you are able to dash again. Inspired by Deadcells.
• Added Treasure Compass for Dragonspire.
• All excess anemoculus/geoculus/dendroculus and crimson agate can now be traded in the antiques shop.
• Treasure Compass will automatically change depending on what region you are on. If you don't have a treasure compass for that region, it will remain unchanged from what is the last equipped.
• Treasure Compass search radius is increased region wide. It will point the "nearest" treasure chest's direction. The color of the direction changes the farther you are.
• Treasure Compass will now consider puzzles as treasure, and display a different indicator. It won't tell you what steps to take to open it, though.
• Added a domain for gladiator and wanderer's troupe artifact sets. Artifact drop rate from world bosses are FURTHER reduced. Weekly boss artifact drops are unaffected.
• Prototypes will now drop at least once in the last weekly boss you face, if you are unlucky. The chance to acquire multiple prototypes within a week is unchanged. Drop rate is reduced consequently.
• World Boss Artifact Drop Rates are now visible in the adventurer's handbook.
• Prototype Drop Rates are now visible.
• Domain Artifact Drop Rates are now visible.
• 1-3* Weapons are now craftable. They will require a shit ton of ores and materials. Cold Steel for instance will require 200 pieces of mint.
• Added 6 new craftable weapons. Of course it will require prototypes you f2p piece of shit.
• Craftables, Shops and Loot have higher priority versus signboards and npc.
• Monsters and Enemies have higher priority (when attacking or casting skills) versus ores and flaming/freezing flowers and other resource objects.
• You can now equip up to 3 gadgets.
• New Action : long pressing a gadget opens up Gadget Wheel to switch gadgets without opening the inventory. Gadget goes into long cooldown.
• Domains now consider your condensed resin before saying you are out of resin.
• After completing a domain challenge, The start challenge object will respawn in the center of the arena. Game will no longer go into a loading screen. This is for the console peasants.
• When claiming domain challenge rewards, it also displays how much condensed resin you have (so you know you can still do 1 more, or gtfo) when it asks if you want to continue or leave
• Anemo Hypostasis will die if you manage to collect all the orbs, for a more consistent experience with other hypostasis.
• Weekly boss timers are now consistent. (Some have none , some at top, some at bottom)
• Dvalin's Mini Cutscene will hold your altitude (if you are gliding) when it triggers
• Childe's Mini Cutscene is now automatically skippable (named "skip when already viewed once" found in settings).
• Food is now sortable by type.
• When choosing a revival food, the icon sizes are reduced and displayed in a grid rather than a long line. When in single player mode it slows down time. Like witcher 3 or tomb raider.
• MRE can now hold all types of food, up to 3 slots.
• You can long click/hold the MRE button and switch the food it holds. Goes into long cooldown.
• Charged Longsword and Bow Attacks (for claymoreless comps) will now allow you to mine ores more effectively. This affects rock shield wall hilichurls as well.
• No one uses claymore charged attacks, even with stunned enemies. Claymore charged attacks now deal increasing damage the longer it was charged uninterrupted. You will get staggered and take more damage as a consequence. The last attack of a charged attack deals more damage and wipes half of the planet's population.
• Constellation can now be toggled on/off

Gacha / Shop

• The first cheapest crystal top up (60+60) has been buffed to (80+80) crystals. We realized it wasn't even enough for a single pull and we laughed until our sides hurt. As a tiny token of goodwill this will retroactively affect everyone who purchased this item for n amount of times the person has purchased this item.
• All in-game currencies (primo/fate/genesis/future except mora) are always displayed in the topright corner when wishing and shopping.
• Pity Counter. When it reaches 75 it glows like christmas.
• Gifting of purchase is now possible. In the case of chargebacks , the gifter gets banned. Gifts can only be sent after 60 days of purchase, and usable by the recipient after a week. Maximum of 1 gift per month.
• Gifter must have a track record of >= $20 of purchase within the last 3 months.
• Gifting is a sensitive topic. Chargeback scams fucks up game companies, banks and third party payment platforms.
• Purchase history and total is added to track expenses.
• Gambling addicition reminders when you rage spend. Also alerts a mhy employee when huge purchases are being made in error. It displays a huge red alert on the employees screen.

In Consideration

• Reworked Elemantal Mastery to also increase Elemental Skill Damage by 25% (base, some current/future characters might interact with less or more) of your total Elem Mastery. Consequently, Skill Damage from Attack Ratios are lowered. Think of ad/ap ratios in League of Legends.
• Character skills to deal compound damage of physical+element when using a weapon (e.g. diluc smash bouncing off pyro slimes, despite his big sword being sharp and shiny)

Items

• Wind Catcher Gadget now refills with anemo energy particles.
• Prototype Aminus/Archaic's proc cooldown refinement is restored. (Used to be 15/14/13/12/10)
• Boar Traps are now craftable and equippable as a gadget. You can leave it up to 48 hours to check if you caught something.
• Cast net are now craftable and equippable as a gadget. Can be used to catch multiple fish and crystal flies.
• Crab Traps , can be left in the wild for 48 hours and catches 3 crabs per trap.
• Inflatable balloon for safe swimming. Requires anemo slime materials.
• Portable towers no longer expire.
• Portable towers max deployed count is increased up to 5.
• Condensed Resin can now be used on World Boss
• Condensed Resin cap increased to 5.
• Artifact Inventory Limit increased to 5000.
• Weapon Cooldown Indicator displayed as status icon (sacrificial sword, archaic, etc)
• Seelie Companions give 1% passive bonus CharXP(Blue), CompanionXP(Purple), Mora(Gold)
• Crafting Table no longer consumable
• Portable Cooker no longer consumable (requires fuel , 1 fire stamen = 3 uses)
• Portable Warmer no longer consumable (requires fuel , 1 fire stamen = 3 uses)
• Items mined are ores
• Refined ores are ingots
• Option to refine Magical Crystal Chunk without resin, but with immensely increased cost and time

Coop

• You can see the general direction and how far an ally is like in pubg.
• In-game voice chat for random players in matchmaking

Battlepass / 12 Episode Anime

• Battlepass can now have excess points up to 3000xp , for the times when you do your reputation bounty and missions earlier before the next battlepass comes out.
• When a new Battlepass starts, it starts on mondays , so no mission gets left out. All excess days until the next new-battlepass-monday are dynamic and flexible.
• When using a condensed resin in a domain, it counts as 2 domains cleared in the Battlepass
• Cooking ingredients (sugar, bacon, cheese, etc) counts as cooking in the Battlepass
• You don't need to switch tabs in the battlepass when using claim all. Clicking claim all, claims all.
• New battlepass campaign for 12 episode anime. Milestones are displayed on website and forum. Sales earned are transparent in game and website. Inspired by dota 2 international.
• Percentage of battlepass campaign sales will go to anime funding.
• Having at least 1 season of anime puts mihoyo in the "mainstream" status in the leagues of Fate, Princess Connect, Grand Blue etc. It solidifies the IP.

Quests

• Option to abandon story quests (restart from scratch) to prevent blocking of coop
• Repeatable Quests Ideas below. Coop and matchmaking is enabled. 15~30 minutes long, walking pace. Not mandatory for daily activity/event/battlepass for people with little time to play. Gives worthwile rewards (3 pieces of adventurer's wit, 5k mora etc)
• Long escort caravan mission, from Mondstadt all the way to Liyue. From Springvale to Liyue. People and Caravan must survive. Enjoy the beautiful world of Teyvat, optional pit stops, coop chat/discord, region guard checkpoints and enemy ambush. Multiple client routes available. Go through dragonspire for a shorter, but more dangerous path. Get harassed by Fatui at borders. Board a ship and load the caravan. Get checked by Border Patrol for smuggled goods and diseases.
• Repeatable Town defense without towers. Defend the Town from hordes of invaders. Something fun with coop.
• Fatui and Friends Battle Royale. All npcs and doors disabled. You and the fatui bots duke it out. Healing only comes from special food that you pick up. Matchmaking enabled.
• Beach Defense. Prevent the Fatui from invading the coastline. Your friends rain arrows from starsnatch cliff.
• Beach to Mondstadt/Springvale goods escort services.

Elemental Reactions

• Vaporize's Steam deals aoe damage
• Overloads damage (electro->pyro) now deals x1.5 (pyro) damage
• Overloads damage (pyro->electro) now deals x2 (pyro) damage.
• Overload's knockback decreased significantly
• Superconduct's damage (electro->cryo) now deals 2x (cryo) damage
• Superconduct's damage (cryo->electro) now deals 1.5x (cryo) damage
• Superconduct's negative armor debuff is moved to Melt
• Melt gains the negative armor debuff due to the sudden temperature change, making surfaces brittle.
• Melt damage consequently reduced. (pyro->hydro) at x1.4% , (hydro->pyro) at x1.8%
• Geo New Reaction : Smoldering Rock or something (pyro->geo)(reverse not applicable) deals x0.3 (pyro damage) on top of crystallize
• Geo New Reaction : Mud or something (hydro->geo)(geo->hydro) deals x0.1 (geo damage) on top of crystallize, slows enemy movement
• Geo New Reaction : Snow or something (hydro->geo)(reverse not applicable) deals x0.2 (cryo damage) on top of crystallize, slows enemy attack speed
• Geo New Reaction : Seeds or something (dendro->geo) deals x0.1 (dendro damage) on top of crystallize, restores 3% of your hp. Or entangle. Prevents enemy movement (can still attacc and cast spells)

Enemies

• Enemies inside domains and abyss have their return-to-spawn-point-then-regenerate-to-full-health disabled.
• Enemy AI a bit smarter. Those with mobility skills (whopper, smol geovishap, cycin mages) won't follow you to drown in the water. The game will not check if you are wet , but if you are in a swimming state.
• Enemies attack cycle improve. Fixed bug when enemies stop attacking. Baedou Problems.
• Hydro Abyss Mage's and Hydro Fatui Gunner's Hydro Barrier now takes the same damage rate/ratio from opposing elements (cryo,electro) for consistency.
• Hydro barrier new opposing element : Geo. It makes it harder to maintain the water shield due to the mud soaking up the water and adding weight.
• Boss Childe's Spirit Whale Attack generates water in the sides of the arena, pushing you towards the center. You must have enough stamina to keep dashing to the sides before he does this, or you will have to perfectly dodge the spirit whale attack.
• Hydro SamaChurl now heals at a rate of +300/HoT per AR Milestone instead of percentage. This is for when you are hunting a LawaChurl Bounty that is near dead and healed to full health in 3 seconds. Having a fixed amount of healing ensures that it is big enough for the intended smaller enemies and portionally good enough for large enemies. The other option is to use different healing ratios for small and large enemies.
• Queen of Pain , I mean Cycin Mages have a stagger window when they are about to cast their almost-undispellable shield
• Zed , I mean Shadow Fatui Agent makes use of his shadows to dodge your attack sometimes.
• Smol Geo Vishap now drops less geo shields
• Smol Geo Vishap now uses his rolling attack near you, not 150m away from you.
• Smol Geo Vishap now burrows a bit less frequently
• Ruin Hunter doesn't stay in the air up and raining artillery forever , in consideration of bowless comps
• Fatui Cryo and Hydro Gunner Turn Rate Reduced by 10% when on Spray Mode.
• Primo GeoVishap now has a tired/exhausted animation, instead of standing still and looking at you and what life could have been for 10 seconds.
• Primo GeoVishap spin attack now has a 0.2 dodge window (previously none) and Spin Radius Decreased by 100m.

Characters

• Dvalin's Cutscene when you dispel his barrier is removed and much smoother. He just falls in place and no clipping.
• Character's "Main Stat" is now visible in attributes. Previously you can only know it when ascending or when using google, or if you really have a big brain.
• All characters passive talents are now combat related.
• All characters now have their own cooking/exploration/crafting/smithing talents. It is possible not to have OR have multiple talents in each category. We get it , everyone can taste what a good gravy is, but not everyone can make a good gravy.

Ayaka

• Alternate sprint binded to a different hotkey.
• Yes I came from the future.

Albedo

• Elevator can be activated to go up and down by using the F key.
• C2 stack counter / indicator via particles (think of razor geo sigils)
• C4 plunged attack covers albedo's sword in geo energy (like noelle, but smol)
• C6 crystallize shield has a different shape (leaf)

Amber

• Increased ultimate radius by a tiny bit.
• Allow targeting of ulimate by holding the ultimate button.
• If baron bunny is present in the ultimate radius, it will absorb all pyro damage and deal it as bonus damage when it blows up.
• If baron bunny was "charged" with pyro rain and hit with a C2 charged shot, it will trigger a micheal bay explosion animation.

Barbara

• Restored Barbara's Energetic Voice Lines
• New Lines sold seperately as Dark Barbara™ , comes with a Dark Dress
• C6 Revive indicator is now visible as a buff.
• C4 now generates flying energy particles instead of instantly regaining energy. Mind you that this is a fucking nerf to this piece of shit healer that freezes you. It's just that there's no flying particles when you use this hero.

Beidou

• Casting the elemental skill applies a strong taunt and re-initializes enemies attack loop.
• Bullet Time effect added when triggering a perfect counter, when playing in single player mode.
• The ultimate's chain lightning deals tiny spark damage if it didn't jump.
• C2 chain lightning has a different color.
• C4 buff is triggered when you do a perfect counter (Taking damage to activate a skill promotes bad gameplay)
• C4 perfect counter grants the maximum damage bonus
• C4 shield has a different color.
• C6 has aura on the ground (inspired by Dota 2's Necrophos , but purple)

Bennet

• C6 Ultimate pyro infusion just adds pyro damage to your attacks, and won't convert them fully into pyro.
• C6 Ultimate restores up to 100% hp.

Childe

• Improved manly posture when in aiming mode
• C4 Riptide slash and flash uses different coloparticles/animation
• C6 has an indicator when it works and when it is available

Chongyun

• Cryo Field's Cryo infusion just adds cryo damage to your attacks, and won't convert them fully into cryo.

Diluc

• What seriously? You really want more?
• Fuck this guy in particular
• Elemental Sword Duration Indicator added
• C6 his flames has some bluish tint

Diona

• Fixed shield duration bug and increased by additional 1.1 seconds per claw.
• Shield ratio based off max hp increased by 10%
• C2 reduces skill cooldown by -2 seonds (press) and -4 (hold). The coop shield is added by default out of the box. Anything coop should not be locked behind a paywall because it will hurt the game and fanbase.
• C4 has been reworked to grant normal and aimed uncharged shots 25% chance to deal charged attack shots.
• C6 radius is increased and uses a different color.

Fischl

• Ultimate now deals tiny bit of damage per 0.2 seconds tick when making contact with enemies (aside from getting hit by lightning once)
• Ultimate can fly/pass through thorn walls. I'm looking at you Dendro Samachurl.
• Shadow Raven Let Night F---!!!
• C4 Ultimate hp restored now scales off damage dealt by the ult.

Ganyu

• holding the elemental skill allows you to aim and won't make you backdash
• C4 Freezing Field changes color intensity per damage increase
• C6 free frost charged arrow now works with normal unaimed attacks.
• C6 uses a different particle color. Sometime it turns into a bazooka.

Jean

• Reduced Increased swaying of boobs by a tiny amount while holding the skill. You can kinda feel them slapping against your face. You can almost describe their softness and warmth in a minimum of 10 pages apart from you going sommelier describing how deep her sweat tastes like.
• Jean's Charged Attack Launch Height is too damn high that you cant even hit the enemy, so - Reworked Jean's Charged Attack : Holding the attack button launches the enemy in the air. If you keep holding it down you will perform 3 slashes in the air. If you let go early you will stay on the ground.
• Base Attack Increased by +5
• Jean can now pick up the slimes dropped by enemies and use it against them for a bighead move
• Ultimate radius is increased
• Ultimate Wall Mechanic Reversed. Enemies are now trapped inside. When you use your skill (usually to regain energy) you can air-wall slam them. Block Projectiles from outside.
• If any of you actually played jean support, a normal person would use ult to heal, cast skill to regain energy, then switch back to other characters. It doesn't make fucking sense to push them outside your wind arena because you want to fight inside the swirl/healing zone.
• Ultimate swirls every 0.2 seconds , depending on what elements are inside. Field Changes Color Each Time Like a Disco Ball
• Ultimate now slowly succs enemies to the center(without lifting them up)
• Ultimate Damage is consequently reduced.
• C1 Uses a different colored windblast
• C2 Buff Indicator
• C4 uses a different color wind field
• C6 Ultimate is now an aura and moves with you. To break away from "buffed area" convention.
• C6 Ultimate will get you to keep the windsaber for the ult's duration
• C6 Shield Buff Indicator via Particle and Status Icon

Kaeya

• Base attack incresed by 5
• Elemental Skill (Hold) Sprays Ice , think of Igni but Ice in Witcher 3 or DND's Burning Hands
• C2 Icicles light up when you defeat an enemy indicating that it really works
• C4 Barrier is of different shape
• C6 uses a different icicle particle for bling purposes

Keqing

• Aiming mode feels a lot smoother. You can aim while moving and cursor immediately shows and the kungfu pose is only done when throwing the stilleto.
• When in single player mode, casting your ultimate produces a bullet time effect.
• C4 Buff Indicator
• C6 Description is confusing as fuck.
• C6 Buff indicator
• C6 Makes your sword light up like a lightsaber.

Klee

• Imroved Torch/Bonfire/Campfire and the likes Lockon (if there's any to begin with)
• Throwing Jumpty Dumpty provides 0.1s iframe during her spin
• Ult is now no longer greedy. Pyro satellites remain when you switch characters, making our lovable klee open up for support options. Child support.
• C4 is now manually triggered, Pressing q again will make her explode, bigger damage based off remaining duration. less duration left, less damage.
• C6 klee uses different bombs

Lisa

• A lingerie shop is opened in Mondstadt to change her pantsu, socks and garter belt style and colors. Black Leather Tight Suit™ Sold Seperately.
• Option to wear glasses as a Librarian added.
• Climbing voice volume is re-mastered in asmr microphone, in all languages.
• Requires "i am of legal age" consent in the user center
• Elemental skill (press) aoe slightly increased.
• Base attack increased by 15.

Mona

• Alternate dash is now binded to alt key.
• Hydro Puppet now deals half damage upon cast and half damage upon explosion.
• C6 normal attacks use a different attack animation.

MC (Anemo)

• Palm vortex can be casted in midair to break your fall (but not propel you up)

MC (Geo)

• When you overlap geo boulders (aimed mode) it will trigger the geo explosion of the older rock, then replace it with a new one

Ningguang

• Holding the skill button surrounds her in mini jade screens , unable to perform any action until it is released or ends. Useful for cinematic stuff. Imagine tanking childe's whale attack. Or someone wants to recreate triple rashomon scene.
• C6 has a chance to use different attack animation.
• C6 star jade now resembles a primo gem.

Noelle

• Elemental Sword Duration Indicator added
• C1 heals have a special effect and voice line when conditions are met.
• C2 upgrade uses a different charged attack animation.
• C4 uses a different barrier color
• C6 upgrade uses different ult (possibly red with the same hue as her skirt) color.

Qiqi

• C2 reworked as -15% attack debuff
• C4 reworked as -20% elemental resistance debuff
• C6 cooldown/availability indicator.
• C6 has a different bling/color

Razor

• Transformation Duration Indicator added
• C1 increased damage now really works
• C1 now has a buff indicator that it really works
• C2 now has a special crit indicator
• C4 armor shred now has a (claw mark) armor shred indicator that it really works
• C4 (hold) has increased damage so it doesn't feel left out. It also has electro explosions similar to when you mine an electric ore as a special effect to indicate that you are C4 and have a big PP.
• C6 covers your sword with electricity (like diluc) when it is charged and ready
• Yes I play razor a lot.

Sucrose

• Fixed crafting bug not producing any bonus when using large quantities (say 100+)
• Improved lock on when blowing off dandelion flowers. Idk how she keeps missing them even at point blank range, Hell , at any given range.
• C1 if you overlap the wind nukes the second one will be a 0.1s delay then it will go off with a slightly bigger radius
• C2 ult has a different color
• C4 has an indicator that it works
• C6 buff indicator

Venti

• Wind current generated by skill (hold) allows him to fall slower without gliding, and allows him to shoot wind lasers. Ehe
• C2 Charged Shot produces a bullet time effect when shot at point blank or if all 3 arrows hit a single enemy. Sometimes he draws the holy lyre and it transforms into a primitive shotgun.
• C4 buff indicator.
• C6 uses different vacuum color

Xiangling

• Ultimate deals additional damage when cast at point blank because you get stab and bonk while she is twirling her spear.
• C2 last attack leaves a flaming trail special effect (inspired by kyo or iori from king of fighters)
• C6 upon cast, Xianling automatically does a speed-up full normal attack combo and then releases the pyronado normally (while covered in flames or some shit). If you are in single player mode and there are no other enemies within 150 radius the ult will cause the screen to black out, like in legend of legaia.
• C6 during the ultimate if it contacts with gouba's flames it produces micheal bay effects while raining carpet bombs and shit.
• Yes flat is justice.

Xingqiu

• Floating Swords Duration added
• Fixed crafting bug not producing any bonus when using large quantities (say 100+)
• C4 Allows you to hold the elemental skill for double backflips (inspired by law from tekken) cooldown is 1 month.
• C4 Elem Skill leaves a faint rainbow (when ulted)
• C6 Swords emit faint rainbow color. Rainbow power motherf-

Xinyan

• Hitting large enemies counts as 2 enemies.
• C1 buff indicator
• C2's level 3 shield has some bluish flames
• C6 charged attack uses a diffent attack animation or has an indicator that it works

Xiao

• Transformation Duration Indicator added
• C2 now leaves a trail of anemo energy that deals tiny bit of damage , trail lasts for 1 second and deals at 0.2s intervals.
• C6 plunge attack counts large enemies as 2.
• C6 plunge-attack-no-cooldown-empowered-dashes uses a different particle color and produces a bullet time effect when used for the 3rd time onwards. useful for cinematic purposes
• C6 during the bullet time you can sneak in a normal attack once per dash
• Bullet time is always disabled in multiplayer

Zhongli

• Increased pillar aoe by a tiny bit
• Generates energy particles per pulse, maximum of 1 enemy per pillar
• Base attack increased by 5
• Travelers can redeem promo code "WHOSYOURDADDY" for additional +5 damage, regardless if they have the hero or not.
• Attack ratios increased by 3% per attack category.
• C1 has a slightly bigger dong eherm statue
• C4 Chaos Meteor errrr I mean Order Meteor has a different rock color
• C6 shield uses a different color , come on you get the drift already.
• C6 Meteor is affected by the element of the barrier you are wearing. The element is dealt as secondary damage, primary damage is still geo. (flaming space rock?)

Why different coloparticles/animation when you have C1-C6 upgrade?

It makes whales feels special, and it gives F2P players something to aspire for. It makes you want to spend with all the bling. Particle recolor is easy peasy and can be deployed within minutes. Attack animations on the other hand are time consuming. It almost always put smile in people's faces when a whale shows up in a ferrari. "Dude check this out a C6 GeoDaddy joined my domain run. Look at the size of his statue. Oh my what a BIG meteor."

Why are you doing this?

It's just for my amusement. I'm still adding random thoughts now that 1.3 has launched. I don't care if nothing gets implemented. I would nut hard in my shorts with QoL and alleged bug/bugfixes mentioned in this post more than anything.

Afterword

Leave your thoughts below. Sorry and not sorry for the broken engrish , feel free to copy and paste whatever, use it wherever idc as long as it doesn't annoy or harm someone. Translate it in your language etc. No credits needed etc. Let your mind flow

After-Afterword

• Thanks for the awards and all kinds of reception
• You guys are awesome and insane that's a shit load of awards thank you.

Hello all
Some days ago I made a post that got a bit of attention (scopely_you_are_losing_touch_with_your_playerbase).
But my post did not focus enough on what can be done to help alleviate some of the problems we are seeing in the game right now. So therefor I will try to do a better job of that in this post. It’s not going to be perfect, probably not even close, but I really hope it can spark a discussion that Scopely, Cerebro in particular, can take some points from and try to make this game that we like so much, and make it that much better.
Before we go into the nitty gritty, I would like to say thank you for all the positive feedback I got on the last post. I had feared that it there would be a lot people throwing mud at each other or starting to bash Scopely. But most of you kept it sober and constructive, so I hope we can keep that tone.
With that said, this post can be a bit more dividing of the community, cause we all have one thing that we think is the most important thing to fix. And some of the solutions I am going to propose might not hit the spot for you or at all, but I hope it sparks a discussion.
This is going to be a long post, and I know that it will not go down as well as the first one, for one it is simply too long, but also because it gets too focused on what changes I would like to see. Cause we can all agree on that we want changes, but when we then have to discuss what those changes are, then we get more divided. I really want to point out that I don't expect everybody to agree on what I have written. And also that my native language isn't English, but I hope that my points still gets across.
But lets get into it...

Red Stars

We are going to start out with what I personally find to be the biggest issue in the game right now. I know that RTA is a more hot topic right now, but I find red stars to be the biggest issue.
Right now red stars are a double edged sword. Cause when you get the 5+ red drop on the new character you of course get happy. But with the droprates in mind, most of the time red stars leave you with a sour taste.
Getting 3 red stars or lower on a new good character is so deflating that even id you got good pulls on your last 2 characters, that goodwill is out the window straight away.
So what can we do to make red stars a bit better? I think the solution is in the silvegold promotion credits. If silver credits was added to red stars so that when you get a duplicate character, then you also get some promotion credits.
Here is how one solution could be, the numbers might have to change a bit, but this is just the general idea.
1-2 star dupe: 1 silver promotion credit
3-4 star dupe: 2 silver promotion credit
5 star dupe: 3 silver promotion credit
6 star dupe: 1 gold promotion credit
7 star dupe: 2 gold promotion credit
These are just numbers to showcase the idea. If we look at my pulls for Bishop then this is what it would have netted me (all my pulls where dupes apart from the 3 star Bishop):
20 1-2 star pulls = 20 silver credits
19 3-4 star pulls = 38 silver credits
6 5 star = 18 silver credits
Total = 76 silver credits.
Now that is not a lot, and I don’t think that would break the promotion system. But I do think that it would help with the bad feeling about red stars.
With this system red star orbs are still the driving factor, and if you get lucky then you still get happy, but now when you get unlucky, then at least you progressed a bit still by having more promotions credit.
I would also like to get rid of the promotion store. We have enough randomness in the game. If we could promote characters straight from the character screen, then the system would feel a lot better.
I get that the store is probably there to make people burn some cores when they are chasing that on character they want to bring up.
Also, let us update them way faster. Right now over a month passes on most new characters before they are even added to the store.
I think the worries from Scopely is that we would start hoarding, and then only spend on the “best” new characters. But I really don’t see that as a problem in the long run. Cause with the added focus on wider rosters you will still have to bring up more characters instead of focusing on a few.

RTA and the Battlepass

So this is the hottest topic right now, at least with the people that I talk to.
If we look to other games battlepasses are generally a positive thing, but in almost all of them they are also something that you can get done by playing the game as usual. I play PUBG and while the battlepass here is something that divides the community a bit, it is one that I like. Some days I just have to get some kills and I progress. Other days I have to get kills with a crossbow (I’m not good enough to get that done), but its all something I can do by playing the game as usual, I just have to pick up some other weapons than the “meta”.
Battlepasses are created for two things:
· Have people log in every day.
But in MSF people already have to do that, so the battlepass doesn’t do anything at all for that.
· Have people spend extra money, especially in FTP games.
If spenders got the possibility to buy all the prizes we get from the battlepass for 20$ without having to grind it out, then I am 100% sure that way more people would buy it. But with the current way its tied to the RTA I actually think you are just losing money.
The current form of battlepass that is implemented is really just an offer with extra steps.
In MSF you have tied the battlepass to a single gamemode, and that takes all the possible fun out of that game mode. No people I have talked to likes RTA, not 1 person has something positive to say about it actually. But when you ask around, then a lot of people really started to like the balanced draft.
So what can we do to make this a bit better?
Solution 1: make us able to complete the objectives in other gamemodes. And if you really want us to grind the RTA also, then make it count double so that there is an incentive to play it if you want to get it over with as fast a possible.
And that is where I think the biggest problem with RTA is right now. Its not fun, it is only a grind. The way I play it is to open RTA and press auto when I’m at work. I don’t even look at it, I just wait for the winneloser screen to pop up, and then go in and do it again. I get annoyed when people are slow, or if they don’t load in.
As I see it there are 0 positive things about RTA right now. And the biggest problem I have is that no one I asked could actually find a way to make RTA fun with the current setup.
Leagues and events could be a saving grace. But since we don’t even know what Scopley have in mind about these we can’t event try to make that better. I’m afraid that events is just like the battlepass, but I think that leagues could take RTA in the right direction. Cause if you make RTA about winning and trying your best, then its suddenly competitive instead of just a mindless grind.
And I think it goes without saying, but I’m going to do it anyways, please revert the changes you made in 5.1 about quitters.

Doom raid

After my original post I was told that the Doom raid wouldn’t actually be for a limited time. And that changes my view a lot. Cause I do like that there are new and hard/almost impossible challenges. I was only worried if it was a limited that most people wouldn’t ever be able to get in there before it was taken down. But if its there to stay, then I don’t mind the current difficulty, even though I won’t step in there for at least another 6 months at best.
But the point about the prizes still stand. They are simply not enough. Not even close actually. And right now only the top alliances are even able to get them, so you have created a “the rich getting richer” scenario, cause the prizes in there are what makes you able to compete in there.

Availability of new characters

I personally don’t mind the cadence of new releases of characters, new characters are what drives the game forward. But you have to make them available faster. The last couple of releases we have seen them added to orbs pretty fast (Longshot or Shatterstar was even added as their event was going on), and that is a small step in the right direction. But lets take a look at the most grievous current unfarmable character, Beast, he has been in the game for over 7 months (possible longer, I couldn’t find the exact date he was released.) without being farmable. That is simply not good enough.
I know that he didn’t sell that well, and that Scopely has probably tried to wait with making him farmable to see if they could make more money of him, especially now that he actually seems to have a good place on the Axmen, I get it. I personally unlocked Beast at 3 stars, and I have not used him in anything than a throwaway blitz team. Is that fun? Is that something that makes me want to invest further into him? I think you know the answer.
A possible solution to this problem is to add them to some of the stores faster. I understand why you are hesitant to add anything newish to the blitz, raid or arena store. Cause people now have so many credits stockpiled that any further income on them once they are added are out the window. But I think you can add them at a much higher price point in the stores. That does two things:
You now give people something to use their credits on that they actually want, and at a higher price you are getting people to deplete their resources faster and taking both the blitz and arena store economy to a place where we once again have to make decisions on what to invest into. But at least you are giving us something to invest into. As of right now I have 150k blitz credits, so when you added Electro at 500, that wont even make a dent into that economy. But if you added new characters faster at a premium price, lets say 5-10,000 credits. Then you are giving us something to invest in, and you are bringing the economy to a better place. They of course shouldn’t stay at the premium price forever, at given intervals they should have their prices reduced until they hit the 500 credits that normal characters in the store has.
I personally don’t mind that a few select characters are orbs only for a while. I get why they are that. But I also understand the frustration that a lot of players feel about orb only characters. I only mention this so that a discussion can spark from it.
If we look at the prices on buying new characters I think we can all agree that they are too high. But I get why they are high and I don’t think that will change. I personally don’t find it to be that big of a problem, but I understand why a lot of people do. I also think the problem would be alleviated a bit, if we could start farming them in one way or the other sooner. Then players who really want the newest characters can pay and be ahead of the meta, and the people who can’t/won’t pay can still try to catch up without having to wait half a year, where the ones they can now farm are probably power crept anyway.

New player problems

This is only something that I have heard a bit about, and only mention it so that others can chime in.
But right now there is a huge scarcity of blue ability mats. And there is no real good way of farming or even buying them.
I think the problem stems from the powerlevel of characters, so now newer players don’t have to spend time on the lower raids that actually give these mats like we did when we started out. It doesn’t take a long time for a new player to be able to get into an alliance that does at least U6 or even U7, where these mats aren’t something they get.
A simple solution that I could see working out is to simply remove green and blue ability mats from the game. I doubt that Scopley are making any money on these mats, and for people that have played a long time these mats are a non issue and never will be cause we have pretty much infinite of them.
As I said, I don’t know too much about this problem as I only just heard about it on a stream not so long ago. But I wanted to add it to the list anyways. And there are probably more new player problems that I don’t even know of. So please add that to the discussion below, but also please try to be constructive about it, not just “We want more”.

Skillitary/new teams videos

We like that we can see new teams in action, but when you showcase them you have to be upfront about them. Skillitary has left a sour taste in the mouth of most people who bought into them.
Yes, they can win against Marauders if brought up to the same level, but its still a gamble and more luckbased than playing with actual skill (on pun(isher) intended). But if you miss that first disrupt on Stryfe, then the whole team just crumbles. So if you showcase a new team as the new team to take out the “big bad”, then they have to at least be able to punch up a bit on them. I’m not saying that they should just win 100% of the time, but with Skillitary they even struggle on punch downs.
If Shadowlands turn out to be as big of a letdown as Skillitary I think that will make you lose a lot of goodwill and at this point in the game, that will be very hard to gain back.

War

I am generally pretty fine with war and how it plays out. There are two pain points that keeps popping up tho. The most obvious one is the matchmaking sometimes makes you go up against unwinnable opponents. And that does make it feel very bad. But I also understand why you can’t always have it close to your own TCP. Cause who would the top alliances ever face if it was only trying to match on TCP?
If it was changed to only factor in TCP, then we would suddenly have alliances in the top leagues, who where a 10th of the biggest alliances, but they would never have to face them because of the TCP difference. So the current matchmaking system is probably the lesser of the two evils. And yes, I know that it is very demoralizing to get 50m+ punch-ups week after week. But I think that stems from a problem that is unfixable, and that is the huge TCP difference between alliances. If we take a look at Legion_of_Cabal they currently have a combined TCP of 400 million. If we look at the 100th most powerful alliance they right now have a combined TCP of 251 million. That is such a huge difference that war matchmaking will just not ever be perfect.
The second pain point of war is time spent. And in that also when you have to spend that time. Luckily my own alliance aren’t too focused on war, we are only G4. Most of the time we face alliances that wont clear us and we wont clear them. But higher up in the leagues, clearing as fast as possible is the only way to win. And that means getting on every time new energy is available, also if that means disrupting your sleep schedule to do that. I personally would never do that at where I am in life, but I understand why. I was fighting for world first in WoW back in the day, so I get why people do it. The problem is that they have to do it 3 times a week. Instead of just, in the case of WoW, when new content comes out. Its just not healthy.
I don’t have any experience in high level war in MSF, so I hope that some of you that do can weigh in on this with ideas how to make it better.

Resource bottlenecks

This is a sore point for everybody in the game. I think we all understand why bottlenecks are a thing, and we all probably understand that it is also a necessary thing in a game to have something to grind for. But in the current state of the game, there are simply way too many bottlenecks.
My proposed solution would be as follows:
Get rid of green and blue ability mats. They serve no purpose anymore other than hindering new players from catching up. Then when the next level of ability levels are introduced, then you can add new currency for that and have us start out on the same level. Spenders will then be able to get a head start as always, and that is fine. Also take away the gold cost for leveling up abilities, or at least lower them.
Get rid of training mats all together. Or change it so that they are the only currency needed to level up characters. It simply can’t be both gold and training mats unless they are giving them out a bit more freely. And I know it’s a balancing act, cause you don’t want people to have too many resources, and if we had infinite resources, that would also be bad for the game, as there is nothing fun in having everything given to you.
If the above are implemented, then I don’t even think you have to make any changes to the gold we gain now.
We of course don’t know how much money you make out of creating these scarcities, and I get it if the metrics show that you can’t just make them go away. But then at least acknowledge the problem that players are feeling about the bottlenecks. You don’t have to fix it in one big swoop.
Gear is another bottleneck, but one that I personally find better balanced. Sure, right now getting G15 isn’t easy, but I also don’t think it should be easy. A change that I would love to see however is a better way to be able to focus on the gear that we need. Right now its all random, even the offers you made us are random. But again, I get if your metrics show something else and that you are doing this to make the most profit. But sometimes the most profit is not the way to go, if the cost is that you lose players by doing it.

Help us help you

In my first post I stayed away from mentioning bugs on purpose. Bugs will happen, and if you address them as fast as possible then that is probably ok.
But you have a limitless amount of people who would gladly help you test upcoming patches for free. Right now you even have an envoy program that you clearly aren’t using to its full potential. Have them help you out with testing new features.
Just look at ISO8, when you first announced it people where up in arms about it. But you decided to have the envoys weigh in, and it has been the best and most polished feature you have ever brought out.

Finishing remarks

Right now the game is in a rut, I don’t think that is up for discussion. It is natural for a 3 year old game, mobile at that, to lose players over time. But I still believe that you, Scopley, have the bones of a game that could live on for a long time. But you need to treat it a bit more as a game than as moneymaker. It can be both, and it can be successful at both.
Make it fun again, that’s what games are about, entertainment. There has to be things that are hard or almost impossible to get, but it just can’t be every aspect of the game.
You said you wanted to look at reducing the low quality screen time, and then added RTA. I hope you can see how that makes us have trust issues.
I know this post isn’t perfect in any way, and I am very well aware that it might not change a thing. But I do hope that will, I really really do.
If you made it all the way to the end, then thank you for reading it all, or at least skimming the points that you feel are the most important.
And please, again, lets have a civil discussion about the issues we as players feel. And remember that even if we feel something is wrong, it might not actually be wrong for the game.

Summary :
My story about Dota addiction, how to come out of it?, how to check whether you are addicted to dota ? and finally some tips to improve MMR.
My story :
During my university time, I missed my exams due to playing DOTA 1. I stopped dota one fine day and I cleared all my exams. Fast forward 10 years, last year I got in trouble at work for playing DOTA, I used to play for 5-6 hours on weekdays post work and 10-12 hours during weekends. I am a software engineer with good pay and the work might extend to 10-12 hours but with DOTA I want to log off everyday at 7-8 hours so I was unable to meet the deadlines. I also got into trouble with my wife as well (We got into multiple fights but she still stayed and din’t leave me). I was addicted to Dota. I found that DOTA + Alcohol is bad mixture. I had issues on my eyes and back. I felt like my life which is just time is just vanishing out of me. My highest MMR was 3k in 2020 and I used to play support.
Dota Addiction:
I would define addiction as you continue playing multiple games even when you want to stop and you start playing even when you don’t want to start.
My views on Dota :
Dota is likely the best or one of the best known games to mankind with great repetitive plays. It is really an awesome game. I can spend countless hours on it and still learn new things. It seems like I can keep playing it for almost infinite time or till the end of my life(it might be worth it but you will miss out on ever other thing).
Future for me :
I will and want to play dota once again when I retrie or if I can’t do other things in life due to disability. (I have also used DOTA as a tool of coming out of or avoiding depression during a death of a loved one, because I know DOTA will suck me up so that I won’t have time to be sad. ). After quitting Dota for many months, I started watching DOTA pro plays and I think I might just continue doing that.
Who should play dota ?
I know some guys could just play 1-2 games everyday an sign off. I think their brain is wired different so that they could keep it under control. There might be folks who will play 4-5 games on a weekend but still participate well in education/job and personal life. For these folks I think it good to relax or a reasonable use. If you think your education/job and personal life is affected or if you feel that you lose control of yourself in Dota then may be DOTA might not be the best for you.
Info for you guys :
If you are addicted to DOTA like how I was. Remember the only way to overcome it is to quit it completely. I have tried to play Dota again and again on multiple different years after a gap, ended up getting addicted every time and spent weeks/months trying to quit it. If DOTA is very addictive maybe your brain is not suitable for reasonable use of DOTA like my brain. Don’t lose your life on DOTA unless you are a pro player or you got nothing else to do. Dota is ultimately just a game (may be the best game ever) which is supposed to a small part of life for most of us, there are so many other good things in life to enjoy like getting good education, job, wife etc and also good hobbies like ‘A song of ice and fire’, ‘Terra Mystica’, ‘Attack on Titan’ etc. If Dota is eating away your life, then don’t let it.
Steps to overcome DOTA addiction
​

1. Stop playing dota, stop starting to play dota.
2. Uninstall Ask your friend to change the password and not give you.
3. Stop thinking about DOTA (Very important, more you think the more strong the neural connections in your brain)
4. Stop watching or reading about DOTA
5. Focus your mind on something else like reading a novel, work or another simple non addictive game.
6. If you had been addicted twice then don’t come back after months of quitting.

My advice on improving MMR:
I went from 1k to 3k in a few months. (I quit within few days of becoming 3k.)
​

1. Play a role/character which is impactful to the game to increase MMR and don’t play a character which you love. (I love Venomancer and Troll but they don’t give me MMR. But other characters which I love lesser than Troll like KOTL with will o wisp ulti, VS, Ogre and WK helphed me increase MMR from 2k to 3k).
2. If you can’t do well with a particular character after trying multiple times, no matter how much you love it, stop playing that charater for some time. Ensure that you try on a variety of characters before choosing which 5-10 to spam.
3. If you are in lower bracket then spam the characters which are good at meta. I used to spam Huskar mid for 1k to 2k. I was huskar mid with 70% win rate and 150 games. (Supports have harder time climbing up from lower MMR, thats why I spammed a core huskar to climb up. The cores in lower bracket are unreliable so you can spam ur way up a bit by playing core then switch to support on a higher bracket)
4. If you are a support then team up with a good core and play multiple games with him. One good core carry player helped me grow from 2.5k to 3k. Now I am no longer gambling to get a good random core from online. I know that if I do my job well my core is going to do his job well as well. (if you find one good player in your team, invite them again for another match as well)
5. Remember you only control a few things in a game, there could be a smurf in the opponent team, big noob in your team or unlucky deaths. So it is okay to lose such games. Just focus on how to improve yourself instead of directly trying to win many games.

I administrate a small gacha community myself and feel like these are information that need to be shared. I'm not telling you that you shouldn't or can't spend money on Genshin Impact, but the least you can do is being aware of these things.
Whether you are already caught in the trap or not, simply knowing about these tricks, traps and fallacies will help you. Games use them to lure you in, keep you engaged and tempt you to spend money. I'll try to keep these points as short and condensed as I can.

0. Am I genuinely having fun?

Since this one is not really a trap and thus something of an outlier I marked it as 0., but it's a great question to keep in mind: "Do I still have genuinely fun playing this game, or does it feel like a chore? Is this worth my limited time?" You should regularly ask yourself that question.

1. The monthly pass (Blessing of the Welkin Moon) has a great price-performance ratio and is cheap so it can't hurt... can it?

The monthly passes in games are more dangerous than you think:

• You get part of your purchase only on a daily basis to make you log in every day to not waste the gems you bought. This is to condition you to make the game your daily routine.
• Using a cheap thing you can buy makes you set up a payment option and makes you accustomed with the process of buying. This reduces the resistance in case you have the urge for an impulse purchase.
• Just because the price-performance ratio is better than the other available options doesn't make $4.99/5,50€ automatically worth it. You're still spending money on virtual things.

2. It's free to play and I enjoy(ed) it, so spending some money can't hurt.

While technically not wrong, be aware of the consequences this can have. Similar to the points above it might also be a trigger to incentivize for further purchases. Especially considering the next point:

3. Guilt-tripping the player into playing after they spent money

The game doesn't even have to do much for this since it usually happens by itself. Once you paid money you feel like you now have to play, even when you're not even really having fun.

4. The daily routine of work and chores

Just like with the monthly pass, by rewarding daily engagement with the game (daily quests/battle pass/rotating dungeons) you get conditioned to make the game part of your daily schedule/life. Once logging in and playing becomes a habit it can be difficult to stop, even if you don't really enjoy it and are literally just doing in-game work/chores.

5. The first time is free - veiling the distribution of currencies/gems

Also known as the honeymoon phase. You get a lot of free stuff in the beginning, tempting you to roll and get a taste of what rolling feels like - especially if you're lucky and get a rare characteitem. By slowly decreasing the distribution of these currencies you feel tempted to spend money to get more of that initial high you had. This hits especially bad when new content is shown/announced while you are out of gems.

6. Overwhelming the player with a lot of different currencies/gems

Genesis Crystals, Primogems, Intertwined Fate, Acquaint Fate, Starglitter, Stardust, there are so many (more or less) premium currencies that it's almost confusing - and not by accident.

• Multiple currencies are used to make the player lose track of the different values. Buying something should make the player also think they got "a lot of different things" when it's just real money in different forms.
• By sneaking in multiple currencies, the value of money is lost along the way. Example: Real money -> Primogems -> Intertwined Fate - This blurs the link between money and Intertwined Fate.

7. The carrot and the stick - New content and changing the meta

"Now that I have the best/meta character I will never need to spend money again." is sadly a trap a lot of people fall for, but what is currently considered "the best" will definitely change.
This is an investment into something that will not last, and even worse is that since you already spent a lot of money in the past you feel pressured to get the new "best" thing to not lose your place on top of the player-base.

8. "It's okay, I only spent $___, some other people spent waaay more."

If you're telling yourself something like this then you already walked further into the gacha trap than you might think. Denial in the form of rationalization is a crucial and dangerous sign for gambling addiction.

9. Gambler's Fallacy and Sunk Cost Fallacy - A dangerous combination

Well known classics, but I still felt like including them.
Gambler's Fallacy: "Gambler's fallacy refers to the erroneous thinking that a certain event is more or less likely, given a previous series of events."
Sunk Cost Fallacy: "Individuals commit the sunk cost fallacy when they continue a behavior or endeavor as a result of previously invested resources (time, money or effort)."
While already dangerous on their own, in combination these two reach a whole different level. Even with the pity system, just because you were unlucky a lot doesn't mean that you are guaranteed to become more lucky in the future. This in combination with spending a lot of money without getting what you want can tempt you to spend even more.
"I already spent $200 and didn't get what I want. If I stop now those $200 will be wasted!"
This is a highly dangerous train of thought!

10. The Sunk Cost Fallacy strikes again

You don't have to spend actual money to fall for this fallacy. If the only thing that keeps you playing is the amount of time you already spent, the items you own and the characters you unlocked, then maybe you should reevaluate your decision. "If it's not fun, why bother?"
 
 
There are a lot more techniques that are used to trick people, from flashy pull animations to making you aware and jealous of other people's characters/pulls (Why do you think phone players are incentivized to take a screenshot of their pulls and share it?), but I wanted to keep it to the most common/obvious ones.
Edit: If you're still curious and want to know even more tricks and traps, Dokuganryu linked a great and informative video. Definitely worth a watch if you have the time.
 
I genuinely hope everybody is enjoying Genshin Impact, but keep in mind how this company makes their money.

Hey everyone,
This is gonna be a pretty long post. I hope some of you are interested in this subject otherwise sorry for wasting your time. I'll add a tl:dr
This is not a rant. I love this game to its core. I'm a weeb and have always loved Zelda, so this game is perfect for me. Yes the resin system is bad and we all hope they fix it but I don't see them changing it anytime soon. Every day I log in, do my commissions, spend my resin and farm bosses. I enjoy it and for now its enough. My job is very hectic so Genshin is more of a chill game for me.
I understand that people want more content, but for now its just patience. One thing I'd like to adress before we jump into the topic at hand: I see a lot of people saying I'm f2p and I want x from Mihoyo. If you are truly f2p and don't intend on ever spending money (which is perfectly fine) you are not inclined to anything. Games, except for competitive games to a certain extend, don't care about f2p players, most of the time. You don't make them any money, so there is no point in pleasing you. If you sit in a restaurant and only order a glass of tap water, you won't get much service. This is especially true in gacha games, because a very small amount of the players provide the money.
I have/had a problem with spending money. My family was very poor and I grew up with basically nothing. I've slept on the streets as a kid and much worse. Around my 17th I moved into a friends house and started stabilizing my life. I quit school and started working cause I couldn't pay rent and food anymore. Eventually I started making enough money to have a comfortable basic life. This was the first time in my life I had money for "fun" things. I started buying things I didn't need but I wanted. This triggered some dopamine reaction and went from fine to bad real fast. I couldn't contain myself. Whenever I got my paycheck I would buy stuff. Whenever I felt down I started buying stuff even if I couldn't actually afford it. I'm almost 24 years old now and I only got this behaviour under control about a year ago.
Most of my money went into games: collectors editions, consoles. I spend a lot of money on ingame exclusive stuff or just skins or whatever. I'm a sucker for exclusive content and I know this one. I am lucky I have stable job, but in the past I had moments where I couldn't buy food because I bought x skin or x figure.
Thats where we start about Genshin. To stop this I make a gaming budget at the start of the year. I hadn't spend any of it this year yet. I started playing this with my gf and best friend. They both got klee after a few pulls and some other Pog 4 stars. At AR30 i had sucrose, c6 noelle and some c2/3 base chars. I was super unlucky. I decided then, I don't wanna spend money in this game yet, I'm just gonna reroll.
My new account, I immediately pulled Mona. I was excited knowing I would pull another 5* at the end of the game with the free primos. The one 5* I wanted was Jean (Please step on me as the gravel I am). I played for a bit and almost only pulled weapons as my 4*. I was done waiting for my second 5* and decided I'll buy the 100 euro pack to get the guaranteed pity. I got Diluc. I was super happy and felt like damn that was a 100 bucks well invested. And that's where it started. I calculated how much it woud cost me to get another 90ish pulls using the pack bonusses. It would be around 150 bucks. realising it would cost 150 bucks to get like a 1 in 15 chance to get Jean was not worth it.
I kept playing till ar30 again and was set on ont spending any more money until a good banner would drop cause the standard banner is just not worth it. At the start of this week I pulled the aquila favonius.. Jeans blade. This was incredibly lucky but also added some salt to the wound of not having Jean (spoiled gamer). Yesterday was one of the worst days I've ever had at work. And then it happened. Something that I had been able to suppress for the past year. I felt like shit and decided to pull for Jean. I spend 150 bucks, and this time I actually had to go all the way to pity. I did a 10 pull. Staring at my screen I paused for a moment. The realisation hit me, if this is not Jean, or even worse if this is a weapon: I just spend 150 bucks on something I don't want. This 90 pull investment was like a rebound. It's fun for the moment but then you become real sad again.
It was Jean. I was ecstatic. But at that point, I was happy about having Jean, but I was more happy about pulling her. Because I realised, knowing myself, I would've spent more and more to get her.
I dodged a bullet here. Some of you may say, wow you spend a shitton of money on pixels. Yes I did, it was exactly in my budget. I'm at the point in life where I always have backup money/savings. But I actually felt myself almost slip back in a really bad habit. That's why I'm making this post, cause I know I'm not the only one. Even if I hadn't pulled Jean and miraculously wouldn't spend more money there, I would've ended up wasting 150 bucks.
Especially for the younger people out there I want to give some advice I would've loved to hear:

1. Only spend money on this game if you want to support the devs and don't care about what you are gonna pull.
2. That money, is never gonna come back. If you are uncertain about the near future, don't spend it here. It's extremely hard to leave a game you spend money on, so step away and think to yourself "how long am I gonna play this game?"
3. Don't say to yourself "If I buy a game I would also have to pay X amount." Yes this is true, and this has been my logic for a very long time. You are lying to yourself tho. If you buy a game you know what you are paying for. If you spend that money on wishes you are just gambling.
4. Tell your friends/family if you are struggling. I kept my addiction to myself for very long. I felt ashamed a lot of times which resulted in me being down and buying more. If you have good friends/family, they will help you.
5. If you don't have a credit card, but are really set on buying wishes. Ask someone you know with a credit card. This will make you less inclined to spend a lot of money, and the person will also probably stop you if you start spending too much. ( I've known a lot of people who got credit cards for gacha games. don't do this.).
6. Are you playing to spend money or are you spending money to play? Both are wrong. Its a f2p game which is entirely f2p. Play the game and only spend if you have disposable income and are okey with pulling trash.
7. A lot of people have or are losing their job in this current pandemic we're in. Getting that character you want might give you a short burst of dopamine, but in the long run there is a big change you are gonna regret spending that money.
8. Twitch/youtube is good and bad. A lot of content creators in this game are very good people, constantly reminding people they shouldn't actually wish with money. But seeing players with flashy 5* or even cX 4* makes a lot of people want to spend money to get the same things. Stay away from content creators if you feel like it might influence you in a bad way.
9. 5* are not everything. They are strong, but in all honesty 4* have more gimmicks and allow for more interesting combos and builds.
10. If you are gonna spend money, think about how many hours of work you are spending.
11. Would you go to a store and let the cashier pick you random stuff for 255 euros? Because that's how much a guaranteed 5* costs.
12. Once you start spending in Gacha, it's really hard to stop.

Sorry for the long read. I hope this helps some people who are struggling with the same addiction I had. I don't think addiction will every truly leave your being, but you can at least control it. I love Genshin and I hope they'll eventually make the right decisions.
I know a lot of people are lonely in these times. If you don't have someone to talk to or are not comfortable talking about this with your friends/family, just message me. We can just chat or even call on discord. Doesn't have to be about money or Genshin, just talking or venting is always good. My reallife job is trying to solve people their problems or frustration, so I'm decent at it.
Thanks for reading, be safe out there!
​
TL;DR: I used to be poor. Once I got money I started spending it on games and stuff I didn't need. Got me in a lot of trouble. I’ve been ‘clean’ for over a year now. Genshin almost pulled me back into bad habits. Wrote some advice for people who feel/endure the same thing.
Edit: People are starting ot focus more on what I said about the f2p part than the point I was trying to make. I had trouble expressing myself with the f2p section. It wasn't mean to offend f2p. I didn't mean to say that if you don't spend money you aren't allowed to express your feelings/thoughts about the game.What I meant to say is that even if you don't spend money, you are still spending your time in this game and that's worth a lot. I just see a lot of very negative posts with no constructed feedback and wonder: What's even the point of posting this?"
I worded this very poorly and apologize if I offended anyone or came over as an elitist prick.
Final note: I'm trying to reply to everyone whenever I can. reading all the comments made me realise how wonderfull and positive our community is. Thanks everyone for the kind words and be sure to keep lifting eachother up.
Big thanks to u/LukeStone76 and u/SaMilVaa for the Rewards.
Everyone had inspirational or informative things to say, so I encourage to read through the comments. I want to quote u/Key_Status27 :
you're not alone, and your hard-earned time, money and labour is worth infinitely more than what any game can offer you.
​
If you ever feel like you need to talk someone you can add me on discord: Dante Stormrage#9923

Ok this post is probably gonna get downvoted but if at least 1 person reads this advice and my kinda similar story with moonshots, it's worth it.
Title says it, if you gamble on a stock or a coin that has no value besides being a meme or a hype, ONLY put money in that you don't need. Most coins below the top50 in the crypto market are either scam or don't have a real value yet. And even in the top50 there are plenty that are shady.
What do I mean with don't need?
Rent > Food/Bills > Money for bad days/emergency money. At least 1 month of payment in cash > investment money (ETF, stonks with future) AND/OR travel money > money for restaurants, entertainment, fancy stuff you don't really need but are nice to have > gamble money.
What to do if I made a lot of $$$ on my gamble?
- Make a stop loss order. Set a limit on how much you are willing to lose in %. If you already made profit, you can set it to 0%, so once it hits your investment value - you pull out automatically. Good thing is that even works if you are asleep. Bad thing is that it can dip and bounce back up - that's just unlucky then. I set my stop loss on gambles to -25%. I made a ton of -98% on crypto, that's why.
- Take out investment and a tiny bit of profits once it reaches a very high %. Make a halfway realistic goal and pull out the amount you planned. Write it down and force yourself. For DOGE I'd reccomend pulling out the investment at 0,07$ for example and let the gains ride.
Why do I say this?
- I am in crypto for about 6 years now, actively trading since beginning of 2017. I had absolutely no idea what i was doing and stumbled into a LOT of scams (ICOs) and some very profitable coins aswell.
- I yolod some in TRON since it was 0,002$ and it went up to 0,25$. I literally made 100.000$ out of a ~1000$ investment. And I traded it back to ETH for ... 18.000$ ! Yes I held all the way up and down, back then there was a meme in the TRON community called "once it reaches 1$ (...)".
A LOT of people got absolutetly rekt on that pump&dump so please be careful.
If you want to actually invest in cryptos, I'd recommend you hold 50% in BTC and check out coins like ETH (Ethereum), LTC (Litecoin) or XLM (Stellar Lumens) for example. If you are unsure and don't want to do research, just hodl BTCÐ, that will probably do it.
I wish you all the best and let DOGE go to 1$ but remember to gamble responsible. Especially with GME going down, the rest of the movement could pull back too. Good luck!

I’ve seen a lot of these posts come up over the last few days with the flurry of activity but felt like they all missed one aspect or another, so here is my shot at making a guide to keep everyone (but especially the newbies) in happy, healthy financials as they enter the space.
I'll TLDR this now for those who don't want to read a long post, but these are lessons everyone has heard. The depth of this post is to show you the real logic behind those lessons.
Anyway, TLDR is: I AM NOT A FINANCIAL ADVISER but people aren't "unlucky" in not seeing returns when they buy into a hype investment through FOMO. It is economics and mathematics dictating that you're probably not getting in at the right time. ONLY invest money you can afford to lose, and ideally only in projects you honestly believe in.
Naturally, need to start with street cred or else who would bother with what I say, right? I’m not a hugely active poster but been in the crypto space since 2016 and investing for much longer than that. Unsurprisingly means there are a lot of painful lessons that have been learned through the years. So let’s start on the journey.
FOMO MATH
Our journey starts where it often starts for most people just jumping into a new investment trend. It tends to take the form of “Interesting… it’s been going up and up. If I invest $ now and it goes up another 900%, then I’ll have $$$$$$$$$. Heck, even if it goes up another 100%, I’ll have $$ and I can just cover my expense. But I need to jump in now before it gets to its peak!”
I suppose you know what FOMO is, but for the truly uninitiated, it stands for Fear of Missing Out, and you can imagine what that means. You’ve also probably heard that it’s NEVER good to follow this and maybe even intuitively understand why. You probably think of that understanding along the lines of “I’m never lucky on these things.” but there’s a bit of (informal) math to explain this as well.
Supply and demand. You know it. I know it. Anyone who’s heard of crypto is probably informed enough to understand the most widely-known economic principle in the world. Price is highest when demand is high and supply is low, but let’s look at that in the context of a crypto pump.
Supply: Cryptos tend to be ‘mined’ through predominantly two different mechanisms, which I won’t get into here, but the salient point is that crypto’s supply growth (at least for any token you’ve likely heard of) is independent of the market. This is why it’s sometimes called “digital gold” in that it has built-in scarcity. So supply has limited impact on pricing other than to be the wall that demand runs up against.
Demand: This is where we see the big pumps – when lots of people come into a token or group of tokens wanting to buy. Again, common understanding says that when lots of people want to buy, then pricing goes up. So when demand is highest, price is highest. Which means, and this is the key part, when the most people are buying, the price is at its highest point and will start to go down from there. The natural, statistical conclusion from this is that you’re most likely to be buying at or near the highest point, with nowhere to go but down. So those suppositions of “900% or just to be safe, 100%” are entirely wrong. If you’re lucky, you might catch it on the upswing, but let’s be honest. You’re not going to sell at that 5% gain when everyone is in their euphoric “HODL HODL NO FUD” space, at which point you’re just climbing to the top of the hill only to roll down again. It’s not luck, it’s just math.
This sort of flawed assessment is also typically fuelled by seeing the absolute bottom value and the absolute top value, and comparing the difference. “It was at min of 0.07 last night and shot up to max of 0.49 this morning, so if I picked my spots right, I could have made 7x value.” But you have to know that have the hundreds of transactions that are done every second of a bull run, only a few people actually bought at that low, and only a few people sold at that high. And it is incredibly unlikely that those two groups contained any of the same people. So no, not even the best performers got a 7x return on that investment, and for all the reasons we already discussed, you certainly won’t either.
BIG BUCKS ARE BIG GAINS, BUT...
It does make sense. The more money I put in, the more I can earn. Ya know, the rich get richer and all that. Yet everyone keeps saying you need to only invest money you can afford to lose. As before, we'll start with why someone would do this, then talk about why the logic they would use is flawed.
"I could afford to lose $200, but even an unbelievable 250% return on $200 is like $500 at best and that's not enough for me to do anything I really want... But if I invest $20,000, even a 10% gain is $2,000 and that gets me a down payment on a car. I'm not looking for a lambo like those other crazy folk so I should be OK."
It almost seems logical at that point, since you don't NEED those crazy returns we talked about in the first section to achieve the financial goal you're setting. But like we said in the first section, you probably aren't investing at the right time at all, and the most common point that anyone (yourself included) is buying is at the absolute peak of the market. So while a 10% gain is theoretically reasonable, you are statistically unlikely to have bought in at the right time to get that, so now we REALLY need to think about the inverse. Because the math on the other side of the hill looks really painful.
Let's say your $20,000 investment dropped 10%. You've now lost $2,000 and if you're a fairly sensible person, you might just cut your losses and go. But if you're the type of sensible person who also doesn't like to walk away with a loss, you might see a 50% decline down to $10,000 before you cut and run. So now, how do you recover that investment? You need to turn $10,000 back into $20,000 just to break even, meaning you now need a return of 200%, or a 4x magnitude increase over the magnitude of your loss. You keep playing the game, trying to make back losses, but the mountain you have to climb is much bigger, and you're starting with a lot less. This is why when you think of risk, it isn't risk. It is punishment - and in investing, the punishment is greater than the reward.
This is an important lesson for any investor to learn. You need to start using the word "punishment" instead of "risk". Taking risks sounds sexy, like you're a brave maverick unafraid of the obstacles you might face. Heck, we're often even taught that we need to take risks to succeed in life. But punishment is what it actually feels like when your investment doesn't work out. You will feel regret. You will feel stupid. It's all normal and natural, even for people who have been doing this for years. But you don't want to couple that with the stress of having to scramble to preserve your financial future because you decided to gamble with your tuition money.
BUT WHAT ABOUT YOU?
All of this might make it seem like you simply should not invest, especially if you don't have more than a few hundred to few thousand dollars to invest with. At that point, you might be asking why someone who invests and trades crypto would be telling you all of this and perhaps wonder if they had some ulterior motive to it. So let's clear this out of the way, investing is good. If you have the cash of any amount that you'd like to hold on to, invest it, but do so wisely. Here is a rundown of how to do that and why they're considered sound advice:
- You should pay yourself first with whatever income you have, meaning set a budget and put the savings portion away as soon as you have it.
- You should have the bulk of your portfolio in low and moderate-low punishment investments that will bring stable returns over time. I AM NOT A FINANCIAL ADVISER SO DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH PLEASE, but many people recommend ETFs or Index Funds for those of you who want to leave your money somewhere and let it grow.
- Speaking of the "I AM NOT A FINANCIAL ADVISER" clause, you should understand the legal meaning of this. It means that the person who's giving you that info is not a fiduciary. In plain English, that means they have no obligation to care about your financial future. If you want professional advice, always ensure it's from a fiduciary (and remember, not everyone who claims to be a financial professional is a fiduciary). Otherwise that person may simply be spreading information to further their own interests.
- Check to see if a 4% YoY return on your portfolio balance will get you where you want to go financially in the long term. If not, you're probably best off feeding that base first. If you're set there, you can start to play around a bit more.
- Now that you're working with cash that you won't miss, DO YOUR RESEARCH. Remember what we said about fiduciaries? No one on Reddit is obligated to give you good advice, and everyone has their own interests. I know it's annoying to have to do the work, but seriously, would you do the same in real life? If someone you didn't know walked up to you and started talking about how Bird.Money is definitely the future would you go home and throw cash into it? Not knocking Bird.Money, but you'd at least want to know more about it first.
- You also need to be aware that all crypto should be considered medium to high punishment. Even BTC (Bitcoin) and ETH (Ethereum) are volatile by most investment standards, and altcoins can be even more volatile.
- The other critical reason that you must do your own research is because you should invest in things you truly believe in! All those people who became millionaires after a huge spike? They didn't get in because the news said that it was the hottest thing on reddit. Most of them got in well before others knew about it and genuinely believed in the project. Certainly VERY unlikely that you will also become a millionaire or anything like that, but even so, the worst thing that can happen is that you supported a project you honestly believed in. If we all do that, the crypto space will be better for it.
Much love to you all. Don't buy Doge. Thanks for reading!

Guide is written and updated for Season #1 Awakening

The druids summoning tree recieved a massive rework in PD2 with the goal to make it a viable self reliant build archetype on its own. Not only got the minions buffed themselves but now you are able to summon multiple of them at the same time, which wasn’t a thing back in D2 LOD. I won’t go over all changes in detail but I recommend taking a look at the official wikis druid section to see all changes that have been done in this mod before continuing reading.

An in-depth guide?

My goal with my guides is to really provide a lot of information to players, not just a list of items and no explanation how to get there or why you want them. Also I am not a fan of videos; imo you can’t tell if you like playing a build just by watching someone playing it in a perfect handmade setting for a couple of minutes… you can’t grasp the actuall feeling of the build this way But don’t worry I got something even better for you! In various sections of this guide you will find 4 different singleplayer savegames to DOWNLOAD with characters in different progression stages with real gear all functioning properly! So you can try and test the build in this guide to full extend yourself, on your pace, the way you like it and as long as you want to see if it fits your taste and if you actually want to play it on ladder.
Just to mention it: I am mostly a HC player, so I design all my builds geared towards a HC setting – feel free to adjust everything you don’t like to your liking if you play SC. Don’t treat my recommendations as the only options you have, think for yourself and try out different stuff which looks interesting to you.

General Playstyle:

Very meticulous and safe playstyle – perfectly suited for HC. Your minions will kill, tank and draw attention away from you while you are standing in the back spamming Ravens… Sounds boring to you? Well if you like you can also get your hands dirty: use you shapeshifting abilities and transform into a bear, fight by your minions side and maul down hords of daemons with them! If the situation is dangerous just sit back, kite and reposition your trusty merc and your minions with the new teleporting ability Gust. Carrion Vine devouers fallen corpses to heal you and your minions after an engagement. Cast Cyclone Armour in the right situations to protect yourself from elemental damage.

PROS

• Very safe playstyle
• Not many klicks required to play this build
• Can be build very tanky
• Very good bossing character
• Can do Ubers and MiniUbers solo and safely
• DClone is possible solo (but very hard, you have to play really well)
• Can do maps with dangerous mods/high density in HC solo
• Very good build for group compositions which want to tackle difficult content together
• Smooth ladder starter

CONS

• Summoner playstyle is not for everyone
• Achieving good clear speed requires some gear investment / not the best farming speed at the start of a ladder
• Minions are a little weak at the at the start of Hell difficulty, requires frequent resummoning and good positioning
• Druids don’t have good life scaling (comperatively low HP pool at the beginning of Hell to other classes, weak FHR and block frames), you will need good gear and some investment to feel tanky, otherwise you have to know what you are doing
• If you want to play this build well, you need to switch between many skills, kite, pay attention to your envirenment and constantly reposition. The skill cap of this build is quite high – profund D2 knowledge will be required to play this build to max efficiency, especially in groups, since your mistakes might cause deaths to your group members
• Requires to setup minions everytime you start a new game

Basic skill point distribution in the endgame:

Summoning Tree:

• 20 Raven
• 20 Summon Spirit Wolf
• 20 Summon Dire Wolf
• 20 Summon Grizzly
• 1 Poison Creeper
• 1 Carrion Vine
• 1 Heart of the Wolverine

Elemental Tree:

• 1 Arctic Blast
• 1 Cyclone Armor
• 1 Gust

The rest points are yours to choose and depend on preference. I personally like to dump as many points into Gust to reach a cooldown timer that feels good for a fast playstyle, repositioning frequently. Other options would be investing into Heart of the Woverine for damage or investing into Werebear, Lycanthropy and Maul if you want to transform frequently and fight by the side of your minions in first row. Just keep playing around with it an see what you like best.

Stats:

• Strength: enough to wear your gear (and to be able to perform a weapon swap in combat)
• Dexterity: depends if you are going for max block; otherwise no points here/enough to wear gear
• Vitality: Everything you can spare goes here
• Energy: Nothing

Breakpoints:

• %FCR: If you are focusing on Gust and are mostly spamming Ravens in the background you would want to reach at least 46% FCR breakpoint (13 frames) for your teleport to feel smooth, more is always good but not needed (reminder: you can’t use Gust while shapeshifted – but you can perform warcrys while shapeshifted in PD2! Those also depend on your %FCR breakpoint)
• %FHR: If you go maxblock I would aim for the 63% breakpoint (7 frames) – if you prefer going werebear form often and wielding a 2H-weapon go for 86% (6 frames)
• %FBR: Druid has very slow blocking frames so investing here is a must; go for the 6 frames breakpoint (52% in human form, 65% in bear form if you insist using a shield), don’t use shields with no extra %FBR on them to avoid getting block-locked.
• %IAS: Depending on your weapon choice if you wanna go full werebear (use an IAS calculator), otherwise, none.

Leveling – How to level this build from scratch:

Normal:

Pretty easy overall for summoner. Spam Ravens and resummon your minions when needed – Diablo is the most difficult encounter here since he is able to kill your minions fast. Just keep your distance and keep resummoning them until he is deas (this will take a while but it is a safe approach).

Level	Skill	Level	Skill	Level	Skill
Level 2	Raven	Level 13	Cyclone Armor	Level 24	Raven
Akara	Poison Crepper	Level 14	Summon Spirit Wolf	Level 25	Raven
Level 3	Arctic Blast	Level 15	Summon Spirit Wolf	Level 26	Raven
Level 4	Raven	Level 16	Summon Spirit Wolf	Level 27	Raven
Level 5	Raven	Level 17	Summon Spirit Wolf	Level 28	Raven
Level 6	Raven	Level 18	Gust	Level 29	Raven
Level 7	Raven	Radament	Summon Dire Wolf	Level 30	Summon Grizzly
Level 8	Raven	Level 19	Summon Dire Wolf	Level 31	Raven
Level 9	Raven	Level 20	Summon Dire Wolf	Level 32	Raven
Level 10	Raven	Level 21	Summon Spirit Wolf	Level 33	Raven
Level 11	Heart of The Wolverin	Level 22	Raven	Level 34	Raven
Level 12	Carrion Vine	Level 23	Raven	Level 35	Summon Grizzly

Gear to look out for at the end of Normal: Spirit sword, Stealth chest, Ancients Pledge shield, a random Wolf Head with +skills (just farm Normal Cows for required runes and some random charms and bases – it is not difficult to get, you also will occasionally drop low level set pieces, some of them are pretty decent at this point). Try to build an Insight Polearm for your Act 2 merc – it will carry you early Nightmare along with your minions.
Here is an example of how your character should look like at this stage in the game – download the savegame and copy it into your D2 savegamefolder and start it in Single Player: DOWNLOAD - Early Nightmare Test Character

Nightmare:

Got your basic gear ready and some decent resists to start out? Good – if not farm Nightmare Countess and Black Marsh/Stony Field for runeword bases and runes before you go on. You can also attempt to build a Lore now if you have a good base. Just carry on through the acts – Nightmare is easy with basic gear, you will face no problems at all (watch out for dolls in Act 3! Their explosions got reworked and now have a delay). If summoner is to slow for your liking at this point you can respec to wind druid at lvl 40 (it basically utilizes the some gear, so you can make an easy switch anytime you want using a respec – Hurricane will carry hard in Nightmare and is a great tool for farming Nightmare Cows at a decent speed with very little gear) – but summoner can also do everything at this point without problems. After maxin out ravens put around 5 points each into both of you wolves and then max out Grizzly, after that max out Spirit Wolves and Dire Wolves in this order. Once you kill Baal it is farming time! You have do do some farming for basic gear in PD2 before you go to Hell difficulty, otherwise you will struggle hard. So take your time to farm up some gear in Nightmare Cows. Nightmare Cows is THE best farming spot at this point in PD2 thanks to player 5 loot; Cow Kings drop table is really nice and you can kill him here; the portal can still be opened afterwards – you can drop a ton of good stuff there. Lets assume you get really unlucky and get no good drops at all; you sill will be able to progress as summoner, no worries.
Gear to look out for at the end of Nightmare: Just pick up every amulet and charm, reroll grand charms from Cow Level for Skillers, sell them and buy 3-4 clean summon skillers for your druid. Gamble amulets for a good chance at +3 class tree skill levels with the gold you get from cows and selling items to vendors – sell +3 amulets for other classes and buy a +3 summon druid amulet if you don’t find one yourself. Build yourself a Rhyme shield in an exceptional base, upgrade your Stealth to a Smoke chest in an exceptional base (if you can’t find a Lum rune, just buy one or use a 3os chest and socket it with Ral-Ort-Thul for some resist instead. Overcap your resists with charms to have good resistances when you enter Hell difficulty. I recommend using a respec hear to invest some points into dexterity reaching around 50% chance to block with a Rhyme shield. We likely won’t have access to %PDR or decent amounts of flat PDR at this point so block is an option to consider against physical attacks.
Here is an example of how your character should look like at this stage in the game at the bare minimum before you should enter Hell – download the savegame and copy it into your D2 savegamefolder and start it in Single Player mode: DOWNLOAD - Early Hell Test Character

Hell:

Hell is difficult for almost any character build without gear in PD2 similar to vanilla. As a summoner just be careful, keep resummoning your minions when they die and take your time – you will get there. Just do Act 1 normaly until you reach Outer Cloister waypoint. From now on just farm Pits. It is a lvl 85 zone with a high treasure class which can drop almos all items in the game. Farm up gear before you continue through the acts. You can do it as a summoner with basic gear but you have to really know what you are doing to not die – farming Pits for gear is way easier. For skill points just finish maxing out your wolves and put the rest points into Gust to lower the cooldown further.
Gear to look out for while farming Hell Pits: You want to get complete Aldur’s Set as soon as possible. Every piece but the body armour can drop even in Nightmare difficulty – Aldurs isn’t overly rare and one of the easiest class sets to farm. The Set also recieved a huge buff in PD2 which makes it the abolut best midgame gear choice overall for this build – you need very good gear before you can even think about outclassing it. So just farm and buy all pieces one by one if you don’t find them yourself. Once you have aquired the full set just buy two Nagel rings for MF, look out for a white Monarch, socket it and build yourself a Spirit shield, buy IK belt if you havn’t found a decent rare belt yet and you are basically done. Before you carry on I highly recommend buying any kind of Ampliy Damage on hit weapon for your merc to deal with physical immunes.
Here is an example of how your character should look like at this stage in the game. You can cruise through Hell now and farm any regular Hell content with this setup and even do easy maps – download the savegame and copy it into your D2 savegamefolder and start it in Single Player mode: DOWNLOAD - Midgame Test Character
From here on out it is your choice where you want to take the build – get more clean skillers first and decide from there what you want to upgrade next.

Endgame Gearing:

This section only covers endgame gear options (check leveling section for gear progression). PD2 provides a very in-depth gearing system thanks to various balancing changes to uniques, runewords and adding a corruption and socketing system on top of that. Everything depends on gear composition – imo their is no (or very seldomly) clear BIS option for a gear slot for any build type. Just take a look, compare and try to reach breakpoints where you can. I will also mention usefull corruptions to look out for on each gear slot. I won’t list every option since there is just too much to cover – instead I will focus on pointing out interesting concepts and ideas for you to build around. If you have questions regarding gear choices just ask in this thread – people can have a discussion and help each other out with ideas.

What should be your focus?

Try to stack +skills until you reach around slvl 45 with precast gear and stop there (you don’t need that many, around lvl 35 is sufficient for all regular content). More is always possible but not needed. At this level your minions can tank Ubers confortabely and going for more damage won’t improve your clear speed by much – don’t be a mindless „tooltip warrior“ in PD2, higher numbers don’t always translate into higher clear speed in this game. After that focus on defence, getting extra auras from gear and building a great merc.
Want to see how a fully decked out HC Summon Druid performs in PD2? Download this savegame and copy it into your Diablo 2 savegame folder, start the game in Single Player mode and enjoy! DOWNLOAD - Endgame Test Character

Weapons:

• Heart of the Oak [Ko-Vex-Pul-Thul] in a Flail: good old Hoto, great %FCR, 3 skills and some resist. This runeword got nerfed in PD2 but it is still a very good option to consider for defensive setups which don’t have room for resists or %FCR in other slots.
  
• Beast [Ber-Tir-Um-Mal-Lum] in an Berserker Axe/Ettin Axe (1h) or a Champion Axe (2h): Depending if you want to use werebaerform often and fighting yourself with your minions – go for a 2H weapon since it has better %IAS frames and more damage. The classic approach would be just wearing it for the Fanaticism aura to buff you minions and stand back which also works. Keep in mind that this runeword got changed slightly in this mod – it no longer provides up to 40 Strength but has more %ED and a higher level of Fanaticism to compensate for it.
  
• Doom [Hel-Ohm-Um-Lo-Cham] in an Berserker Axe/Ettin Axe (1h) or a Champion Axe (2h): You don’t feel the need for more damage but wan’t more CC to support your group? Then Doom is the choice for you – Holy Forst provides some nice slowing effect and cold damage to you to deal with highly physical resistant monsters on your own, damage and %IAS is also great. Doom is a top choice for group support if you play with someone who can provide you and your minions with a Fanaticism aura already like a Bowzon or a Zeal Paladin.
  

Shields:

• Stormshield: Want %DR and max block on your build? Then this is the choice for you – not much to say here since it is still one of the best choices despite the huge %DR nerf it recieved.
  
• Gerke’s Sanctuary: Got buffed in PD2 and is a top tier choice now. Great resists, max block viable, a +skill and %DR paired with some flat pdr and mdr – one of the best defensive shields you can get
  
• Moser’s Blessed Circle: still one of the best shields available imo for a rather cheap price
  
• Rhyme [Shael-Eth]: super easy to get and very decent in an elite base for any max block build out there. You get resists and the very valuable affix CNBF which affects cast speed in PD2 so it is great to have in any build now. Corruptions to look out for: +1 skill, resists, CNBF, block chance/block rate, cast speed, %PDR, %FHR, Replenish Life
  

Weapon Swap:

• Call to Arms [Amn-Ral-Mal-Ist-Ohm]: While BO got a massive deserved nerf in PD2 CtA ist still great and better than ever for this build in particular. Mostly overlocked CtA also gives the player access to Battle Cry which got reworked and reduces physical resistances of monsters now. You can break physical immunes with this and it stacks with curses! And you can perform warcrys while shapeshifted – it is a massive buff your build so use it in your weapon slot to prebuff (it basically gives +2 skills, one from the runeword and one from Battle command) and as a utility tool – use your weapin swap actively in combat to perform warcrys.
  
• Lidless Wall: Great caster shield overall with skills, %FCR and mana after kill. In this build it is used as prebuff gear – you can even corrupt it for another skill which leads to a +3 all skills off hand, which is he highest you can get in this gear slot.
  

Body Armors:

• Rain [Ort-Mal-Ith]: Really great runeword for just a Mal rune. Got buffed in this mod and offers up to +3 to summon skills. I personally really like the Cyclone armor on struck especially against frame based attacks like Diablos Lightning Hose – it can safe you when you make a mistake or don’t pay attention.
• upped Spirit Shroud: Yes – this thing is good now, really good. It provides a skill, %FCR and CNBF in PD2 as well as huge amounts of flat mdr and high replenish life which is a buffed stat in this mod – if you stack it on different gear pieces the regen is significant. What makes this chest really good is the high potential through corruption and sockets you can get on top of that.
• Arkaine’s Valor: Really great body armour for summoners in general – huge defense rating, +2 skills, high %FHR paired with vitality on lvl. Again – corruptions and sockets bring huge potential. This can be a +3 all skills chest which also work for warcrys

Corruptions to look out for: +1 skill, resists, CNBF, block chance/block rate, cast speed, %PDR, %FHR, Replenish Life

Helmet:

• Aldur’s Stony Gaze: Recieved a massive buff and gives up to +4 to summon skills on top of FHR and cold resists and has huge corruption potential on top of that.
  
• Spirit Keeper: Very defensive helmet which gives up to +3 to a random druid skill in this mod (many great options for this type of build available like: any summon, HotW, Gust, Cyclone Armor, Werebear, Lycanthropy etc.) – maybe not as much damage as other options but versatile.
  
• Jalal’s Maine: got nerfed but is still one of the most well rounded options for any druid build thanks tot he wide variety of stats it provides – makes other gear slots very flexible.
  
• Steelshade: Got reworked and is now one of the best option for any max block build which depends on +skills – it grants massive block chance and block rate… on a helmet! This helm can save you tons of dexterity investment which leads to more effective HP overall.
  

Corruptions to look out for: +1 skill, resists, CNBF, block chance/block rate, cast speed, %PDR, %FHR, Replenish Life

Gloves:

• Trang-Oul’s Claws: Looking for %FCR? Get these! They are better than Magefist since you don’t need the +1 to fire skills and the mana regen and it provides some cold resists instead as well as a higher defense rating.
  
• Bloodfist: Great gloves which you can wear from start to finish – 30% FHR and 40 flat life is huge – you rarely get rare gloves which are better than that.
  

Corruptions to look out for: block chance, block rate, %FCR, Replenish Life, flat life, resists, stats

Boots:

• Waterwalk: are now 40% FRW in this mod, also max fire res and flat life are nice
  
• Aldur’s Advance: the „worse Waterwalk“ in this mod, but cheaper
  
• Hotspur: low level boots with max fire res, fire resist and little life but without %FRW – if you are using a Vigor merc this downside isn’t that harsh they are worth considering
  
• Infernostride: max fire res and %FRW, pretty nice boots overall
  
• Natalya’s Soul: already capped on fire resist? Then this pair of boots might be great for you
  
• rare/crafted boots: rare boots can have a variety of great stats like %FHR, %FRW and resists
  

Corruptions to look out for: CNBF, Curse Duration Reduction, %FRW, %FHR, resists, Replenish Life, %PDR

Belts:

• String of Ears: great belt for Werebear Hybrid since it provides leech on top of %PDR and flat mdr
  
• Verdungo’s Hearty Cord: %PDR and huge amounts of Vitality paired with little %FHR – solid defensive choice
  
• Rare/crafted belt: have huge potential and can be some of the best items in the game.
  

Corruptions to look out for: max res, block chance, %FCR, %PDR, %FHR, resists, stats, Curse Duration Reduction.

Rings:

• Bul-Katho’s Wedding Band: +1 skill, life on level paired with life leech – great slot to get some leech for the werebaer.
  
• Wisp Projector: got reworked in PD2 and provides non class skills now and +1 all skills on top o fit. This nets potentially +4 to HotW – it also has some %lightning absorb which is great (if you consider wearing 2 of them for +8 to HotW on your druid… won’t work sry since non class skill levels are capped to +3 for classes which have the original skill available to them, so +3 is max for druid – for other classes this will stack to +6 of course)
  
• Ravenfrost: Can’t get CNBF on other gear slots? Going for max block? Then this is a great ring for you. Up to 20 dex and 250 AR help you reaching max block and hitting monsters with werebear. The cold absorb is also great to have – consider having one around for heavy cold damage encounters.
  
• Rare/crafted ring: can provide life, stats, %FCR and resists to fill out deficits
  

Corruptions to look out for: %FCR, leech, CNBF, Curse Duration, Resists, Stats

Amulet:

• Mara’s Kaleidoscop: +2 all skills paired with resists and all stats
  
• +3 Summoning magic amulet: Simple but it just works fine, it also can have a nice suffix on top of it like life or %FCR. Since they are fairly common this can be a good target for getting a nice corruption too
  
• crafted caster amulet: can have +2 druid skills and up to 20% FCR with other goodies
  
• Nokozan Relic: worth mentioning since it is fairly common and got buffed. Provides huge amounts of %FHR, fire resist and max fire resist; a good corruption can make it pretty nice.
  

Corruptions to look out for: max res, %FCR, +1 skill, %FHR, block chance, resists, Replenish Life, stats

Inventory:

• 9x Summon Skiller
• Torch/Anni
• Resist/FHR charmes to reach breakpoints
• Life charms

Open Sockets:

Sockets should be used to reach breakpoints where you can with either jewels or runes for purely defensive purpose, no need to look out for offensive stats here. If you are satisfied with your defences go for %magic find.

Mercenary:

Mercs got an overhaul in PD2 to actually bring diversity and chouce to choosing a follower for your build. All mercs now provide some kind of passive aura and some of them have a wider variaty of weapons they can equip. Mercs also have more than 3 gearslots to equip them in this mod – check out the merc section on the wiki for more information.
Act 1 - Fire (Vigor):

The Act 1 rogue merc is actually really useful in this mod. It is my personal choice for a follower for this build. Vigor aura not only provides movement speed to you and your minions but also increases velocity which makes your minions more responsive and act faster! This is a huge improvement to their sometimes clunky minion AI. Otherwise it is ranged attacker, which does not benefit from the melee splash changes – so consider it a support role, not a damage dealer.

Act 2 - Defense (Defiance):

Very good if you are figthing in werebear form often since it boosts your defense further (defense rating works while running/walking in PD2!) – combined with the defense bonus from shapeshifting you can reach some pretty good numbers. I would not go for this if you are mostly in human form, since druid has no way of scaling defense to great effect if not shapeshifted.

Act 5 - Barbarian (Might):

Need more damage? Then this merc might be the choice for you. Might aura got buffed in PD2 and provides a huge boost to your minions. The barbarian merc is also the most durable one and can hold on its own if needed. (nice thing to know: since barb mercs can now equip 2h axes and 2h maces in this mod this merc can wear full Immortal King set and get all the boni from it – if you want your merc to become a walking death mashine go for it; thanks to elemental damage bonus he is able to deal with physical immunes this way)

Merc Weapons:

• Wrath [Pul-Lum-Ber-Mal] in a Chu-Ko-Nu: luxury option with CNBF and higher Amplify damage proc rate than Wildwitch String on an Act 1 merc – still very little damage but you reach 8 frames with it without further IAS investment in other slots.
  
• Wildwitch String: the new go to weapon for breaking phyiscal immunes on Act 1 merc – socket it with 2 shaels and stack off weapon IAS on gear to reach the 10 frames breakpoint (54 IAS needed with 2x Shael in bow) – deals almost no damage but good enough against singel immunes if you wait long enough – Amplify Damage is a huge DPS boost to your minions.
  
• The Reaper's Toll got changes and now has Amplify Damage on hit - overall a really fast and solid weapon with good damage and leech on top of it
  
• Vile Husk: Again, Amplify Damage on Strike is king – your Act 5 Barbarian will help you out greatly with it. (Decrepify got reworked in this mod an no longer provides physical resist reduction => Lawbringer is no option here for breaking physical immunitiy)
  

Merc Body Armour:

• Treachery [Shael-Thul-Lem]: Got nerfed and now only provides a much weaker version of Fade on struck – still a great chest since it provides huge amounts of %IAS and some %FHR
  
• Heavenly Garb: Very overlooked option imo. Sanctuary aura makes it so any physical resist of every undead monster in the game is ignored (the game will treat it as the monster having 0% DR, yes even physical immune monsters!) – most physical immune monsters you will encounter are of undead type so heaving even a seemingly weak lvl 1 aura around will let you deal with them easily, they will fall over like flies.
  
• Templar‘s Might: One of the best reworks in this mod imo – it now provides a lvl 8 Might aura (which got buffed btw) to enhance the damage of your minions and yourself. It has a really high strength requirement so consider sockting -15% requirement jewels into so you don't have to search for extra stats in every gear slot of your merc just that he/she can wear it.
  
• Shaftstop: Very defensive option thanks to huge amounts of %PDR and life – best defensive merc chest in the game (could also be an option for your character to be honst)
  
• The Galdiator’s Bane: Got buffed in PD2 and now provides even more flat pdr and mdr on top of great stats like %FHR, CNBF and great defense. The Attaker takes damage on hit mod got buffed hard so if you want you can stack this attribute on all gear slots and make a thorns merc.
  

Merc Gloves:

• Laying of Hands: damage against daemons, huge fire resist and 20% IAS – could not wish for more.
  
• Dracul's Grasp: got reworked and no longer provides lifetap on hit, still really good gloves for mercs thanks to open wounds, life leech and 20% IAS.
  
• Ghoul Hide: again huge damage potential paired with 20% IAS – you get the theme here, IAS is king in almost all situations.
  

Merc Belts:

• String of Ears: BIS merc belt – nothing else to say here, don’t think anyone would ever consider something else. Not that rare to get, great stats, leech and damage reduction.

Merc Boots:

Same options to consider as for your character – noteworthy mention: Rite of Passage set boots have CNBF in this mod and are not too rare to get; cheap option for your merc.

Merc Helmets:

• Vampire Gaze: The %DR option, very defensive and overall great choice
  
• Andariel's Face: Has +2 skills which apply to merc auras as well as %IAS – really great merc helmet overall
  
• Tal Rasha's Horadic Crest: cheap and great, has everything your merc wants.
  
• Guillaume's Face: Want to stack crushing blow on a Act 5 merc? Go for it, he will be an absolute powerhouse and can solo the game with great gear and your support
  
• Crown of Ages: Very rare but also really good – has 75% curse reduction in this mod which gets rid of curses almost immediately on your merc – also has %DR, great %FHR and 2 open sockets to custumize.
  

FAQ:

How do minions work/scale?

Minions have hidden resists and damage reduction which is not displayed ingame. Their resists scale with skill levels (soft points); their AR and defense scales with monster level, so no need to invest into AR scaling from merc auras. This means minions become automatically more tanky when you switch to a higher difficulty (they don’t get hit by attacks that often) to keep up with the monster scaling a little better. Minions benefit from all auras and buffs like Battle Orders that are applied to them after minion scaling is done multiplicatively. Different minion types generate different threat levels which basically work like a taunt or define how much aggro a minions can draw.

How many minions can I have up at the same time?

12 Ravens, 5 Spirit Wolves, 3 Dire Wolves and 2 Grizzlys on top of 1 spirit whisp and 1 vine of your choice. You can’t have multiple spirits or vines up at the same time in PD2

Do druid minions deal splash damage?

Not all, only the grizzly and vavens perform attacks which deals splash AoE damage; the grizzlys cleave has a big spalsh damage radius, ravens only have a small radius. Wolves don’t have melee splash. Ravens on the other hand automatically chill a monster on attack slowing their action speed. Poison creeper spreads vines on the ground which deal poison damage over time on each frame when monsters stand on them.

How does Cyclone Armor work exactly?

Cyclone Armor is a very usefull tool which prevents a portion of elemental damage before your life orb takes damage. Cyclone Armor applies before resists are taken into account (this is why it drops so fast against heavy elemental attacks) – in PD2 it was given a short cooldown so you can’t spam it anymore so look out for timing it correctly.

How does Gust work?

Gust is a newly introduced skill in PD2 which is a wind based teleport ability. The cooldown gets lower for every soft point into it (so you don’t have to spent as many hardpoints if you don’t want tot o get a reasonable good result) – all cooldowns are shared between abilities which apply a cooldown in D2! So consider that when teleporting around and using Cyclone Armor in between. Gust also applies a short duration stun to surrounding monsters on impact, but deals no damage itself. This stun is very reliable to get around if you have invested in %FCR, %FHR and/or %FBR to not get locked in place.

Call to Arms runeword got nerfed, is it still worth using?

YES – CtA is so good on this build! It provides up to 300 life and 150 mana with good gear to you and your minions/merc for buff duration of 5min (so it is not annoying to keep up) which is significant. Without some +skills it is pretty weak, so don’t think just swapping one on almost doubles your life pool like it does in vanilla – you need investment to make it work. Another great thing in PD2: Battlecry recieved a rework: it now reduces the physical resistance of nearby monsters and can break physical immunity – it also stacks with curses! It is great for this build since you can perform any warcry while shapeshifted which makes having access to battlecry through CtA a pretty nice utility tool on top of it for this build.

Hybrid WerebeaSummoner melee build? WTF?

It is actually viable in this mod and pretty fun and versatile to play around with. Damage is good enough with some investment and skill point focus to handle monsters on your own. You can also just be a support for your minions zoning monsters by applying open wounds to bosses, battle cry against tough elites or to break physical immunes. Or you just stand in the back in werebear form if you don’t want to teleport in this specific moment or spam ravens just to benefit from the huge defensive boost your werebear form provides. You can get 400-500 extra life and triple your defense rating just for shifting to bear form in hard encounters. Lycanthropy scales with softpoints so just investing 1 point while using a Beast weapon can go a long way (you get werebear from the weapon, so you don’t have to spec into it) – just switch between human form and shapeshift form freely depending on the situation.
THANK YOU FOR READING | SPECIAL THANKS | ABOUT THE GUIDE CREATOR Thank you all for reading through all of this, i hope it was interesting and helped you out in some way or another. I decided to write this guide to show a different perspective on approaching build guids and playing PD2 in general. It is only season #1, plenty more to come and this mod is already great – balance isn’t that much off like people claim – I am actually pretty impressed by it getting it done this way on the first iteration.) I really enjoy the PD2 mod so far. Just wanted to thank the whole PD2 Team for all their work, time and passion they invest in there free time to provide us players with a great new and enhanced experience of playing our beloved game Diablo 2. If you have any questions please just ask. Thank you again for reading – more guids to come in the future as I experience new interesting builds.