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Topics - cuchulann

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1
Random Ranting / Web Comics
« on: April 18, 2015, 02:21:22 AM »
I have been thinking about some of my favorite web comics and intend to share them with all of you as well as my thoughts on them.

Stand Still, Stay Silent -  http://sssscomic.com/index.php
To start I shall give you a link to one that I am very impressed by. The story is called Stand Still, Stay Silent. Its a post apocalyptic tales where the center of known civilization is Scandinavia. The main characters at the moment at like the Scooby Doo team who are waaaaaaaay out of their element. The story gets rolling slowly with a long intro but once you are past that the scary stuff begins. The art is beautiful and creepy at the same time.
The art work is incredible. Lots of detailed sketch-like drawings mixed with watercolor landscapes. Very scary monsters.




Order of the Stick - http://www.giantitp.com/index.html
Story: A classic mix of D&D heroes on a quest to vanquish evil where the fate of the world balances preciously on the roll of a die, literally. Very funny lots of geeky humor.
Art: Very simple and fun. Look at my own avatar for an example.

Erfworld - http://www.erfworld.com/erf_stream/view
Story: A Game Master from the real world gets summoned into a world where the table top battle game mechanics are the reality. He is to be the perfect warlord to lead the armies of Gobwin Knob to conquer the world. A nice balance in the story all around. Humor, drama, and intrigue mix nicely.
Art: Like the story it is neither too simple nor ornate. Also after the first book the author began a mixed format of comic pages and prose short chapters. It works well.

Darths and Droids - http://www.darthsanddroids.net/
Story: Star Wars as if it was played out as a table top game. Lots of humor as the players try and work or weasel their way through the improbable situations the game master presents them with. Started with Phantom Menace and now is about to start Return of the Jedi.
Art: Screen capture. Takes actual still images from the films and arranges them in comic book format to fit the story.

Planet of Hats - http://www.mezzacotta.net/planetofhats/
Story: From one of the team of Darths and Droids comes a Star Trek recap comic. Each page gives a summary of one Original series Star Trek episode in comic book layout. It celebrates what made the show good and pokes fun at the now outdated concepts.
Art: Very simple but works well for the intention. This comic was created as a side project of the creator partially with the intention of teaching himself to draw.

Partially Clips - http://partiallyclips.com/
Story: Clip art and jokes. Its presented in a three panel comic strip fashion. Neat humor for most of the time. It gets pretty weird often but refreshing. Much like the strip Red Meat for those who remember it.
Art: Each strip uses a piece of clip art from a large collection. Same image in all three panels.

Spinnerette - http://www.spinnyverse.com/
Story: A college girl turns into a superhero with spider powers kinda like Spiderman but not. Plenty of humor playing directly on the improbable lives of superheroes in real life. Episodic stories that do not necessarily need to come together in a particular order.
Art: Variable. Sometimes it has a very manga style to it and others its more western. At current it is in a story that involves silver age comic styling.

Girl Genius - http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/
Story: Action, adventure, Romance, Mad Science! If Europe was ruled and fought over by mad scientists and their mechanical creations this is what you would have. Follow the exploits of young Agatha Hetrodyne as she uncovers her heritage and see if she will use her genius for good or for awesome! A good mix of madcap and witty humor will drag you along with it whether you like it or not.
Art: Very well detailed and vividly colored. It's good to take an extra look at it after reading to see everything.

Post your links to comics you recommend here.

2
Random Ranting / The Hobbit part 3, 3D high frame rate
« on: December 18, 2014, 12:46:17 AM »
Sucks Smaug's Wyvern ass.

I went to see it tonight. As I write this the film is not even a quarter of the way through yet. I enjoyed the first two films which I saw in the 2D standard format. The visual style of the 3D high frame rate, as stated above. I will as briefly as I can describe why.

The 3D aspect: Its basically a multiplane effect. Disney invented this for their animated films in the early 20th century to give their features a bit more suimulated depth. It worked very well. Video games emplyed this tactic during the transition from 8 bit to 16 bit systems. It also worked well. In the case of this film it looks likes a bunch of 2D live cells sliding over each other.  When an object breaks across all the planes (Bard's first arrow shot) to look like it moves towards or away from you it looks completely ill fitting.

High framerate: This brought all the action into super high definition all the time. Human eyes don't actually see moving objects, especially fast moving objects that clearly. Lucasfilm developed a method for stop motion animation that was dubbed "Go Motion" to create a more natural look. They just nudged the object being filmed just a bit on each frame take to blur the image slightly. The high rate makes fight action a bit more clear but adds too much to the rest. I have seen high frame rate 2D versions of the prior films and they are fine.

So the irony is that all the tech and effort that went into this presentation to make it look more real and immersive actually makes it look super fake.

My first comment about it while watching it was, "This looks like a video game." It would be cool if it was.  After five minutes I walked out. This is the first time I ever walked out on a film. My disbelief could not be suspended because the visual storm caused my flight of fancy to be canceled before it even boarded at the terminal.

If you go to see this movie, choose 2D. Frame rate is optional.

Oh and Smaug has two hind legs and two wings as fore limbs instead of the four legged and two winged dragon as Tolkien himself originally drew for the book. So the movie Smaug is a wyvern.

Getting off my soapbox now.

3
Random Ranting / Giant vs. Royal
« on: October 30, 2014, 12:17:52 AM »
Giant waves club at Royal. Royal is just a dark shade of the color blue and can't actually do anything. Giant shrugs and paints over Royal with orange.  San Francisco wins another World Series! Game 7, score 3-2. The Mad Bum (Madison Bumgardner) Locks it up from the 5th inning on!
To be fair Kansas City did play some good baseball. A couple of one sided games for both teams as well as some close ones and they do have some very good fielders. YEAH GIANTS!!!

4
Random Ranting / What's for dinner?
« on: October 16, 2014, 12:32:31 AM »
Pork loin rolls. They feature homemade stuffing: Bacon, mmmm bacon, fresh rosemary, garlic, onion, sage, white pepper, curry powder, and whatever leftover bread you may have. Chop it all up then mash it up. Pound out the loin chops, fill them, roll them, then bake them. With some potatoes and any other veggies you may want to include with it. Yum!

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Random Ranting / Cover me!
« on: August 14, 2014, 02:10:03 AM »
I'm moving on towards printing a book and in my consultation with the printer I was told that the next step I really needed to do was figure out what I wanted the cover to be like. So as a package I need not only to deliver my stories but also a face for them as I would like to see it. I have been looking around at some art and found a few things I like and have been thinking of titles too. Tell me what you think pretty please! And if you have suggestions let me know.
The book will be a collection of  new fairy tales in classic style. Main characters of each story can do some kind of magic. Each one has the classic boy meets girl romance and things go wrong subplot.
 Title possibilities: Magic Tales, Wonder Tales, The Old Wizard's Book, Ways of Wonder (meh), Magical Destinies (more like a poetry book IMO), Tales from the Forest's Edge, Tales of Long Ago, From Times of Mist and Magic...

And now cover possibilities: They may require some more shopwork.

6
General Gaming / Firefly Online
« on: December 13, 2013, 11:00:08 PM »
New game in development based on the "Firefly" TV series and the film "Serenity". It's due out this summer. Not a whole lot to see about it yet but let's hope it's shiny. Main site is keepflying.com

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Diablo III General / Redwind and the Cookie Jar
« on: November 10, 2013, 03:06:34 AM »
Yesterday during a hunt for unique monsters, keys, and loot in general I found a breakable object in the oasis that I could not get my character close enough to interact with it. (See map location in first attached picture) This lead me to think that just maybe there was some kind of hidden walkmesh up to it that I  had not yet found. So after a few minutes of experimentation I concluded that it was just a bit of a tease and a simple ranged attack solved the minor issue. However during that time I realized that this process looked rather comical. My imagination ran around in manic circles with the idea and here is what finally came of it. Enjoy!

               Redwind and the Cookie Jar

     Once upon a time in Sanctuary there lived a barbarian girl named Redwind. People didn't call her that because she had red hair (which she really did) but because she was so fierce when fighting monsters that it looked like she made the wind bleed.
Redwind loved treasure. She liked the sharp kind of treasure that could cut monsters in two. She also liked the heavy kind of treasure that could bash monster brains into jelly. Of course she also liked the hard kind of treasure that you could wear so monsters would not cut you in two or bash your brains into jelly. Redwind loved killing monsters by the dozens to get treasure.
     Whenever Redwind went out treasure hunting her good friend Eirena would come along. Eirena was a witch, but she was not the nasty, ugly, kind of witch. She was a very pretty enchantress with pale skin and hair. Eirena was also very skinny and that really showed when she stood next to Redwind who had big muscles and could crack nuts with her bare hands.
     Redwind usually didn't like magic, but Eirena's was okay. Eirena has a spell that could turn monsters into chickens. That always took Redwind by surprise but she had to admit it was always funny to see. It also made it easier to kill the monsters and take their treasure. The really surprising thing about Eirena was that she carried a great big battle-axe with her wherever she went. "You may be an enchantress Eirena," Redwind would say, "But you sure know how to handle a weapon!"
     One evening Redwind and Eirena went to the Dahlgur Oasis near Cladeum to go find treasure and to kill monsters. After ripping one very big and mean monster and all of its tiny, nasty, minions into thousands of gooey, bloody, strips and taking all of its treasure, Eirena said, "I am hungry. Do you have any laras bread or sweet wine?"
     That took Redwind by surprise. "No," she answered, "Just a hunk of salted meat."
     Eirena smiled sweetly and said, "Well it was worth the try."
     Not to Redwind it wasn't. She felt ashamed that she didn't think to ask her friend Eirena if she liked salted meat. If she had known she would have brought something else that they could share for a snack. This would not do at all. Eirena did not eat much but she should never go hungry. Surely there was something Redwind could do.
     Then up on a hillside she saw a little wooden platform with a crane arm hanging off it. Next to the crane was a small clay jar tucked behind a fern. "Ah ha!" declared Redwind and pointed at the jar. "I know what that is!"
     Eirena looked at the jar and did not understand. "That just looks like a vase."
     "That's more than a vase! Its a cookie jar!" Redwind said happily.
     "Whats a cookie?" Eirena asked.
     Redwind stared at her friend and gasped, "You dont know what a cookie is?" Redwind sometimes forgot that Eirena was actually thousands of years old. She had just been asleep for a very long time. Clearly she had been asleep so long that she missed out on when the cookie was invented. "Why Eriena it's only the best, most yummy, treat in the whole wide world! And they're crunchity like treasure goblin heads!" Well that settled it. She had to get that jar so Eirena could try a cookie.
     "How are you going to get up there?" Eirena asked. "It's up very high. I think someone didn't want us to touch it."
     "All the more reason to go get it!" Redwind decided, "That's what treasure hunting is all about! Come on!" So the two looked and looked for a way up the very tall and steep hillside. They found a stairway, but it was old and broken and wouldn't hold an imp's weight let alone a mighty barbarian in full armor and her very good friend. Redwind tried climbing up the side of the hill but couldn't find a foothold to get a start. The jar just stood there.
     "Perhaps a bird set it up there," Eirena imagined. "They would not have to climb."
     "Where a bird can fly to, a barbarian can jump." Redwind said proudly. She crouched down and leapt straight into the air at the jar but did not get high enough. Redwind launched herself over and over again trying to get up the steep hill somehow but it was just out of reach. Eirena giggled to see her friend jumping about like the burrowing leapers that live in Khanduras. The jar just stood there.
     Redwind was beginning to get angry. "Well! That's no good. I know. All kinds of monsters drop treasure when I just shout at them." So she took a deep breath and hollered out, "Gimmie, COOKIES!" But the jar just stood there. She huffed and took an even deeper breath, "I said, COOKIES!!" She shouted over and over loud enough to wake anything in the oasis, but still the jar just stood there.
     Now Redwind was getting red in the face. "Maybe we could just get something to eat back at the camp?" Eirena asked. She was getting worried about her friend now.
     "No! I promised you cookies that are tasty and crunchity like treasure goblin heads and darn it, I can get them!" Redwind said and stomped her foot with determination so hard that it made the ground shake, but even that could not rattle the jar high above on the platform. The jar... just... stood there.
     Then Redwind smacked her head as she got a really good idea. "Oh duh! Why am I doing this the hard way? I should just throw my spear and chain at it. Then I could pull the cookie jar back to us!"
     "What if that breaks the jar?" Eirena asked.
     "Well then all the cookies will just come out and roll right down the hill to us. What could be easier?" So Redwind prepared to throw her ancient spear with its long long chain. She gave it a few testing swings, took careful aim, pulled back her arm, and heaved the spear with all her might. Whoosh! The spear soared through the air! Rattle rattle rattle went its chain following after it! It sped straight at the jar and CRASH! Redwind hit the cookie jar right in the middle on the first try! Eirena clapped her hands and Redwind shouted a happy cheer, but then they both fell silent. Not a single cookie came rolling down the hill to them. Only bits and pieces of broken pottery.
     "Aw, it was empty," Eriena said feeling a little sad for Redwind who went to so much trouble for nothing.
     Redwind was not sad. She told Eirena about how cookies were the best, most yummy, treat in the whole wide world. And that they were crunchity like treasure goblin heads. And now her hungry magical friend would not get to try any! Redwind wasn't sad, she wasn't even mad, she was FURIOUS!
     Redwind was so furious that she exploded with wrath becoming a terrifying berserker. She smashed apart water towers and broken old wagons! She kicked over barrels full of lantern oil which burst into flames and when you think it couldn't get any worse she charged at a huge pack of fallen, cleaving through them with her weapons! She smashed their bones, rent their flesh, their blood sprayed all over the nearby plants and in the end she pounded them into icky, gooey, mush!
     Redwind finally calmed down and kicked through the little bit of treasure the monsters dropped during her onslaught. "Nuts!" She pouted, thinking how disappointed Eirena must be, and how hungry too.
     "I think we should go home," Eirena said. "It looks like there are no more monsters in the oasis tonight. Maybe we can come back tomorrow and go treasure hunting then."
     "But now you won't get to have any cookies and its all my fault." Redwind sulked. "They really are..."
     "The best, most yummy, treat in the whole wide world," said Eirena. "And they're crunchity like treasure goblin heads. You know, I don't think I want any right now. I don't feel like eating anything crunchity. I think I'd rather have something soft, like cake."
     Redwind suddenly lit up with a smile. "Eirena you're a genius!" She cried happily. "We can go to Tristram! There's a place not far from there where you can get lots and lots of cupcakes!"
      Eirena was happy to see her barbarian friend feeling better. "That sounds nice. What are cupcakes?"
     Redwind had to cover her mouth with amazement then. "You've never had cupcakes either? Oh my, they are much better than cookies because they're bigger and have pink sugar frosting! And you know what? I heard that we may even be able to get a hamburger in the same place too!"
     Eirena smiled and shook her head. "Whats a hamburger?"
     Redwind laughed loud. "Oh, Eirena! You are good at magic but now you really need to learn about what's good to eat!"

The End

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Diablo III Builds / NiceHolstone - A Leggy Bombshell
« on: April 20, 2013, 07:14:18 PM »
Nice Holstone
Named for the character Nice Holystone from the animated series Baccano. There were just not enough spaces to get the full name in D3. Nice is a girl who after a childhood injury from making explosives where she lost one eye and got third degree burns over half her body didnt learn her lesson. She is a bona fide bomb freak who keeps a last resort cherry bomb in the empty socket behind her eye patch.

Profile:   http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Fogtreadder-1202/hero/27102715

Skills:  http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#PSYVUc!XgV!aYaZZc

Prefered weapon: Dual 1 Hand crossbows

Primary: Cluster Arrow / Dazzling Arrow
Secondary: Strafe / Rocket Storm

1: Caltrops / Hooked Spines
2: Preparation / Punishment
3: Grenades / Cluster Grenades
4: Rapid Fire / Bombardment

Passives: Night Stalker, Grenadier, Numbing Traps

Method: 
Open with a bang. Unload cluster arrows until the hatred is used up. If the mob is elite or especially large use punishment to reload the hatred and hit them again. Next start throwing out grenades all over the place. If they start getting too close or the fight gets too hot, throw down caltrops and evade with strafe. By this time hatred regen from grenades should be enough for short bursts of strafe. Alternating between grenades and strafe with the help of caltrops is pretty good at keeping a safe distance from most enemies but I also want to hit cluster arrow whenever I have enough hatred. Rapid fire, though very effective is kept in reserve for stunned or slow moving enemies and to take out magic support monsters like fallen shamans.

I put grenades on a number key to make it easier to use. By simply holding down the key I can then throw them without having to be locked onto a target. Thus I can quickly carpet bomb the area and even immediately attack anything that might try to sneak up from behind. With this and strafe I get two skills that can be used back to back which both can deal damage to large widespread groups without the need to get a target lock. This way Nice is a character that is just as effective if not more so in open areas than on narrow choke points.

Both cluster arrow and rapid fire with the bombardment rune are skills that can bypass any mob to hit a selected target. That means Nice does not have to kill all the weak minions first to get through to the shaman or elite that is just hanging back.

Optional skills:
I have just started using Preparation mixed with the passive Night Stalker to get some quick boosts to my hatred. It works well enough that I can get more Cluster Arrows out but since grenades do provide good hatred generation it is not necessary. I am also considering changing Numbing Traps for Ballistics to get more damage out of strafe. Right now she is near to finishing hell and can handle it at the higher MP settings. At inferno I shall try a few modifications to see how they perform.

This build was made just for a laugh but the combination of skills, high rate of fire and mobility makes this character pretty fun to play. That and everything Nice does ends in lots of explodey goodness!

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Diablo III Builds / WalaBingBang - Or the Dog and Chicken Show
« on: February 10, 2013, 04:41:07 AM »
    WalaBingBang.  Born Tang Wala to parents Wash and Bea. As a child he quickly took a liking to singing and soon joined the village boys choir where his piercing falsetto earned him a special placing apart from the rest of the sopranos and indeed apart from the entire choir, outside and down the road a ways. Although many called his singing gimmicky, annoying, and "Sounds like a trio of rodents being strangled," He soon earned the attention of the local fetish, pigmy, natives who started coming around to see what all the racket was about.
     In his teenage years he earned a bit of money while his voice was cracking for he could, with the power of his voice, call forth the long departed and beloved hounds of local farmers. People came within several yards of him to see him perform these miraculous shows. Soon Tang Wala had a following of fetish cultists and he added more flash and dash to his dog shows with a few magic acts. It was in this time that he changed his name to WalaBingBang as it sounded cooler.
     The WalaBingBang Show became the most popular act in all the jungle.  His high pitched songs, accompanied by the deep howls of undead hounds, shoulder shimmying dance moves, acts of fire bomb juggling, flashy displays of haunting spirits and acid storms, and even turning volunteers from the audience into chickens or pigs for a short time, took some of Sanctuary by storm. Alas his career ended when during a concert a massive fight broke out between two rival fan clubs, the OooEeeOoos and the AahAahTings. Although there were no casualties, to this day over half of those involved still lay eggs on a daily basis.
    Following the incident WalaBingBang began to roam Sanctuary looking for a new path. He found it one day when ambushed by a pack of fallen. He used all his stage magic skills to defend himself and just when he thought he would be overcome by the demons, a mass of fanatics, who secretly followed him, rushed out of the underbrush and helped him fight off his assailants. Today he travels all over with a motley entourage fighting the hordes of hell.

Primary: Fire Bomb, Flash Fire
Secondary: Acid Cloud, Slow Burn

1: Hex, Hedge Magic   
2: Haunt, Consuming Spirit
3: Sacrifice, Next of Kin
4: Fetish Army, Tiki Torchers

Passive: Fetish Sycophants, Circle of Life, Grave Injustice.

  The core idea of this build is cheap damage. That is the ability to deal as much damage as possible without using resource power. Through the passive skills Fetish Sycophants and Circle of life I get summoned minions mana free. Sacrifice with next of kin helps to keep the zombie dogs on the ready. Hex and Haunt are mostly for the healing but Haunt mixed with Acid cloud makes for two DOT skills stacked. Flash Fire rune on Fire Bomb means that I can run more damage on a group of targets without having to concentrate on particular one since it auto targets the nearest monster. Its also fun to watch it hopping about like the leaping fountains at Disney World.  The Grave Injustice passive helps to cut down the cooldowns on Hex and Fetish Army. As this char has an item with a 20 yard pickup radius this makes Sacrifice, Fetish Army, Circle of Life, and Grave Injustice much more powerful.

   Weakness: Most of the skills on WalaBingBang are AoE and they stack pretty well. This means that going against champs and elites with damage reflection is pretty much instant death.

Special: 101 Dalmatians
   This is a special tactic that eliminates large groups with ease. I first developed this when I had trouble getting past Iskatu at the start of act 4 on nightmare. I was overwhelmed by the sheer numbers against me. So with Circle of Life passive and Sacrifice Next of Kin I managed that once I had one dog out I could spam the sacrifice skill until everything was clear. Through this I got the Not in Vain and Hotdogging achivements. This works well even on act bosses so long as you enter the area with zombie dogs present. In such a case you may get multiple sacrifices blowing up in the boss's face before the odds go against you and you don't get any more respawns.

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Diablo III Builds / Thumpinskull
« on: December 08, 2012, 08:53:18 PM »
Build in progress

   Thumpinskull. Formerly known as Kol Thumpinskull a hero of Sanctuary who rose to near godly power in his youth. When his kinsman Dan the Dangerous of clan McGrew presented him with the lost armor of the Immortal King he knew he was bound for great deeds. He foresaw all of the Children of Bul Kathos united under his banner, known and accepted by the rest of the world for the stalwart guardians they were. Alas when he struck down Baal, The Lord of Destruction, that vision fell too. The loss of the world stone and the scattering of his kind shattered his dream. To make matters worse his family, cherished siblings, also fell. His twin brother Lok the Silent was taken by a horrid undead beast called a Dracolitch, and as for his younger brother and sister, Zin and Eva they vanished into portals and never came out. Now as the last of his line he has forsaken his given name. He is Thumpinskull, and that is all. Following these multifold tragedies Thumpinskull buried his sacred armor and weapon on the remains of Mount Arreat. For many years he made his way through mercenary work until the rumors began to spread that the lords of hell were not all defeated. Thumpinskull returned to where he cached his legendary battle dress to discover that something had already taken it. He began to seek the missing pieces and his searching led him back to Tristram where he saw a star fall to the earth. He knew then that with or without his mighty regalia his job begun twenty years before was not yet done.

Character page: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Fogtreadder-1202/hero/18031571

Skills

Primary : Bash / Punish (up to 24% damage bonus)
Secondary: Whirlwind / Blood Funnel

Leap / Iron impact (defensive boost)
Hammer of Ancients / Smash (406% damage)
Battle Rage / Marauders Rage (30% damage boost)
Wrath of the Berzerker / Insainty (100% damage boost)

Passives: Nerves of steel, Weapons Master, Superstition

Preferred weapon: The biggest badest 2 handed monstrosity possible. The IK is ideal; otherwise a mace class is preferred over swords or polearms.

The idea behind Thumpinskull is he is the One Hit Wonder. Jump into the fray with a defensive boost and start hitting things one at a time until the 54% damage bonus from Battle rage and Bash is built up. Then finish off whatever might be left with devastating hits from HoA. Speed is not a factor for this build since every hit should bring a kill. Currently this is working. I have WW on this guy for when he goes up against especially large mobs. HoA is the skill Thump is built around for the largest possible single hit damage.

Perhaps the greatest weakness to this build may end up being a substandard defense and life. So I am thinking that in regards to how I gear him up I should focus on items with vitality and resists. A hit vita will of course improve defense through Nerves of steel. Of course this may compromise the One Hit Wonder effect in inferno. I foresee a tricky damage / defense balancing act in the near future. Also his life on hit potential right now is pretty much zero. So I will need to try and get more of that in the future.

Skills that may be changed out in the future are Whirlwind, Leap,  and Weapons master.

WW has not been a favorite skill, but after I began trying it out again after the last major patch it does not seem to leech fury quite as fast as it used to.  I may put HoA in the secondary position in time, but I would rather not since it is on the same key as my other Barb and I have become accustomed to it. WW is also my best escape skill if I get trapped by monsters. I may try other forms of it as they unlock to me.

Leap is kinda nice as it can be used to travel across different levels quickly. The iron impact boost is very short so I may replace this with a buffing skill and keep him as ground assault.


Weapons master is really only useful to me as long as I have a mace class weapon for the 10% crit. If I get the IK weapon for him and indeed the whole set I will want to replace this.

A bit of history behind the Thumpinskull Clan. Lok was my first D2 barb. Mace class based and I did not use any warcries. Naturally this build could not hack it in Hell level. The account Lok was on was full of first time chars all who just didnt have the stones for Hell. So as I had another account full of better builds I announced on the chat board that the first one to whisper me would get my old account. A guy by the name of Dracolitch was the winner. Zin and Eva were mace class builds on Guild Wars and Hellgate London respectively. Both used the smallest body size available on those games and so they are the little bother and sister. Kol came about when my D2 finder barb, DangerDanMcGrew found the IK armor and I was at last able to bring the complete set together. So Kol named after Lok as a twin *cough Tomax Xamot* was built specifically for the IK set focused on Whirlwind and Berserk. I would have put the first name Kol in the name in D3 but there were just enough spaces for the last name.

11
Random Ranting / Whedon on Romney
« on: November 01, 2012, 11:24:18 PM »

12
Random Ranting / Giant vs. Tiger
« on: October 29, 2012, 01:31:39 AM »
Tiger growls at Giant,
Giant smacks Tiger on the nose with one finger, "Bad kitty!"
Tiger cowers.

4 Game sweep! San Francisco!!!!

13
Diablo III Builds / Redwind - Barbarian Loot and Pain
« on: October 27, 2012, 04:09:59 AM »
Anne Redwind got her name not because she attacked when the sky grew red by the setting sun, nor from her red flag made of four pennants. When she took a ship, so much blood flew that even the wind turned red.

Primary function: Magic Finder
Secondary function: Berserker

Skills: MF/ Quest

Primary: Cleave, Reaping Swing or Scattering blast / Frenzy, Smite
Secondary: Whirlwind, rune irrelevant, to be changed soon.

1: Furious Charge, Merciless Assault / same
2:Hammer of Ancients, Birthright(MF) / same, Thunderstrike
3:Threatening Shout, Grim Harvest(MF) / Earthquake, Mountains Call
4:Wrath of the Berserker, Thrive on Chaos / same

Passive: Superstition, Tough as Nails, Bloodthirst(MF) / Boon of Bul-Kathos

First I use the two skills that can increase a chance at forcing another drop. These are HoA Birthright and TS Grim Harvest. Grim Harvest yields the best results mostly in gold. You really need to have a good sized group around you to see it work. Birthright requires first a critical hit to activate and then it is still only a small percent chance of a drop, mostly being gold again. I use it because it is a small chance, but still a chance none the less and the skill still does nice damage. I keep Wrath of the Berserker ready for champs and elites since it can increase the crit chance by 10%. I do not try to tweak the crit chance any more because I just do not have MF Gear with high MF, crit % and defense. This is why I use the passive skills for defense.

Whirlwind has got to go! Honestly this skill is utter crap! It is a slow roll at 145% weapon damage amongst a mass who all get to hit you as you pass. Forget about life steal you are lucky if you come out even after one pass. More of a panic move if you have no other skills ready that can get you clear of a mass. I have Furious Charge at 195%, with the rune, it cools of fast if not instantly, causes a small knock back sometimes and build fury instead of uses it. Hmm.  Works faster, hits harder, less chance of getting hit, and builds fury. Such a hard choice is it not?
In place of Whirlwind I am considering Rend for more DoT.

Now the stats:

MF gear:
Magic Find : 250%
Gold Find: 60%
Life: 15466
DPS:12300
Armor: 6500

Quest gear:
Magic Find: 87%
Gold Find: 36%
Life: 32900
DPS: 17200
Armor: 7900

Notes: Previously this char was a two weapon fighter but now I cannot get a better damage combo than a good weapon and a shield, I am not keen on running without a shield when MFing since that is when I am weakest. I am considering a shout buff in place of WW for Mfing.

14
Diablo III Builds / Dreamsinger - variable wizard
« on: August 30, 2012, 05:47:14 AM »
My first wizard has finally reached inferno.

Profile: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Fogtreadder-1202/hero/11089291

Goal: A solid DPS wizard who can go solo or group support with a variety of skills.

 Current offense: Electrocute / surge of power,  Disintegrate / Volatility,   Energy twister / wicked wind,  Hydra / frost hydra.

Current defense: Energy armor / Force armor,  Diamond skin / Enduring skin.

Passive: Power hungry,  Blur, Cold Blodded.

Weapon: The best one hander I can find and a shield with good Int and defense, Alternate any two hand with significantly better damage than the first combo.

When at all possible I keep my distance using two skills that have a long range beam effect and two which are static but can be placed at targeted location. Hydra and energy twister can be re cast at point blank range when needed. For defense I rely on the damage reduction of the afore mentioned skills.

This build is yet to be tested in inferno.

Strengths:
 A mixture of offensive damage types. Frost hydra cast at a distance before entering an area which begins to chill targets making them more vulnerable via cold blooded. Add a well placed twister and then follow with Disintegrate or Electrocute as power allows.

Defensive: Okay now the force armor rune by description states that no matter what, all single instance damage cannot exceed 35% of your max life. So that means at full life it would take at least 3 hits to kill. With blur you reduce melee damage by 20% which would be an extra 7% less from your life max. Meaning that melee can only do 21% of your total life in a single hit and thus will take 5 hits to kill. Since I have used this combo I have noticed that I live a lot longer and with diamond skin I can last in toe to toe battles.

Weaknesses: This skill set has only one skill with a cool down and that is diamond skin. If I don't get hit very hard then by the time it wears off it is already halfway past the cool down and i just need to keep my distance until I can use it again.
You can place multiple twisters in a small area but their range of effect and whether or not they stack is in question. Also this is a power hungry skill. I like disintegrate but it too uses a lot of juice very fast.

Optional skills that I have liked
Arcane mines: Very effective when planted in groups, requires a bit of strategy to get the best effect.
Disintegrate / Intensify: By the time i get it maxed out I have half a second until my juice runs out.
Disintegrate / Chaos nexus: it targets others for you at less damage but it works. Used this a lot.

Don't like
Mirror image: May take some coaxing to see its worth.
Meteor: Never liked it in D2 and still don't Takes too long to get going. By the time it hits, the target has already left the zone.

15
Diablo III Builds / Fogtreadder - Demon Hunter
« on: August 18, 2012, 01:33:43 AM »
"The fog creeps in on little cat feet," -Carl Sandburg


Primary Function: Crowd control. Fogtreadder uses a combination of skills to ensnare and quickly take down large numbers. He maintains a distance between himself and his prey as often as possible using evasive tactics (running in circles) alternated with strong AoE attacks.

"Can I hit a moving target? That's my specialty!"

Active skills:
   Primary: Entangling Shot / Chain Gang. Right from the start Fogtreadder seeks to keep his prey weakened, as many as possible.
   Secondary: Elemental Arrow / Ball Lightning. Damn, do I love this skill. In a hatred to damage ratio nothing else compares. I have seen one of these do two critical hits to a single target. One on approach and again in passing. It does not happen all the time but it does happen. Also the range of Ball lightning is wider than Nether Tentacles. I have tested this. Really this skill is the closest to D2s Frozen Orb. Straight line motion, uninterrupted, a wide area of effect, with a chance to hit targets multiple times.
Additonals:
   Caltrops / Hooked Spines. I used to use jagged spikes for additional damage but it became necessary to slow enemies even more so to allow more opportunities to strike while being pursued.
  Marked for Death / Grim Reaper. After trying the different variants it became clear that it was best to use a damage boost that would stay on the target and affect others around it, since the monsters move in packs. True those within the area and not marked receive a significantly lesser amount of damage. But when you target a boss and his minions take the lesser it works out okay.
   Vault / Tumble. So often you really need to get away fast, over and over again.
   Rain of Vengeance / Dark Cloud. A DoT AoE skill that follows you dealing damage to nearby enemies. That means I can keep running and with just enough distance, still do damage without having to stop.

Passive Skills:
   Vengeance: Though Elemental Arrow is the only hatred using skill and pretty inexpensive it can burn out. Also this skill recovers 2 discipline as well.
   Cull the weak: A marked foe enters a caltrop or I hit it with my primary, Yes I want to do even more damage to it.
   Sharpshooter: Is there a DH that does not use this? This build also requires a bit of patience. With a fully procced crit rate holding for one second, that means a whole stream of Ball Lightning can wash a horde with crits from the start. Step carefully, mark your target before it is aware of you, and then let em rip!

Weapon of Choice: Bows or dual hand crossbows. Hand cross bow and shield option if available.

Known weaknesses:
Life: Really low on this, Fog is a one hit wonder in both directions. Still hoping for gear that will give me what I really need.
Single boss fights: Since the focus is on AoE it takes a long time to handle unique and elite bosses. Not impossible, but it can get pretty hot and close.
DISCIPLINE!!!!! Oh lord have mercy,  for a passive skill that would halve your hatred regen for more discipline regen! Items witch give more discipline are few and I have not seen any that can even support one caltrops. Resource recovery only applies to hatred. Current viable solution: Run like monkey!


16
Diablo III General / Pony Playlist
« on: June 17, 2012, 12:15:19 AM »
So one thing I  just don't like about D3 is the music in Whimsyshire. I know, play the tiny violins for me. But I have made the following list of songs to play when doing pony runs that I think are more appropriate. Feel free to make suggestions and post your own playlist for this wacky place.
It's called Psychedelic Playtime

Mama Told Me- 3 Dog Night
Joy to the World- ""
Chick Habit- An April March
Windy - The Association
Strawberry Fields Forever - Beatles
Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds- ""
Maxwell's Silver Hammer- ""
Octopus's Garden- ""
All Along the Watchtower - Bob Dylan
Eight Miles High - Byrds
Wheels on Fire - ""
Sunshine of Your Love - Cream
Hold Tight - Dave, Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mitch, & Tich
Riot in Thunder Alley - Eddie Beram
Henry the 8th - Herman's Hermits
White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane
Purple Haze - Jimmy Hendrix
Misty Mountain Hop - Led Zepplin
Ramble On - ""
I'm a Believer - The Monkees
Wipe Out - Muppets (Animal)
She's a Rainbow - Rolling Stones
Incense and Peppermints - Strawberry Alarm Clock
Woo! - Jared Emmerson-Johnson (Featured in Sam & Max : Moai Better Blues)


17
Diablo III General / Staff of Herding
« on: June 06, 2012, 03:37:34 AM »
First you must collect the following items in the game.

Black Mushroom: Act 1, Randomly spawns in a corner room on any level of Tristram Cathedral (Thanks 420 & Throbblefoot)

Leoric's Shinbone: Act 1, Leoric's Manor Fireplace.

Wirt's Bell: Act 2, Can only be purchased from the merchant "Squirt the Peddler" for 100,000 gold.  (You do get an achievement for it.)

Liquid Rainbow: Act 2, Dahlgur Oasis, Mysterious Cave dungeon. Search East side for one of the South facing inlets.  You will find the Alchemist (full name?) being attacked by ghosts. He opens the door to the dungeon. Find the "Mysterious Chest" in that dungeon. Both the alchemist / dungeon are a random spawn and the chest inside is also a random spawn.

Gibbering Gemstone: Act 3, Fields of Slaughter, Cavern of Frost dungeon.  Dropped by a randomly spawned Vile Frost Stalker boss named "Chiltara" (purple name) (Thanks 420 & Throbblefoot)  Dungeon and boss are both random spawns and item is a random chance at a drop from the boss.

Plan: Staff of Herding: Act 4, random chance to drop from Izual.

Once you have the plan, use it on the blacksmith to make the formula. If you have the five pieces then you can make the staff for 50,000 gold. Then once you have the staff, just put it in your inventory, and walk up the road from New Tristram to the ruins of Old Tristram. Along the way you will meet an old friend who will open the way to sunshine, cupcakes, teddy bears, and everything sweet and wonderful, which wants to kick your ass.

The staff may be used and swapped across any hero in your account but not across regular to hardcore and vice versa. Hardcore heroes will need their own staff.

You must use a hero who has killed Diablo to enter the area. Like the D2 Cow level: Kill Diablo in normal - opens secret level in normal from Act1 area. Kill Diablo in Nightmare - opens secret level in nightmare in Act 1 area, etc.

(I have heard that the staff must also be upgraded to be used in nightmare and higher difficulties. To be edited when the method(s) for doing so is(are) known or  disproven.)

So If you want to go to that magical, scary, place and don't have the staff to do it, and you see me on, I can take you there in normal so far.

-Cuchulann -aka in D3- Fogtreadder.

18
Random Ranting / Whoof! A story of a story.
« on: May 16, 2012, 02:36:45 AM »
Back in the summer of 2000 I went on a language immersion trip for six weeks to St. Petersburg Russia. I had a copy of the Simarillion with me and also picked up a book of Russian fairy tales (in translation). After going through much of this recreational reading I got the notion that I could write a fairy tale. So I assemble a basic fairy tale plot; hero goes on a quest against evil to win the hand of the princess; filled in the blanks of who was who and gave a bit of thought on how to incorporate as much classic elements as I could. I thought it would be a one sitting read.
   I finished the first, hand written draft in April 2001 at 92 pages. So much for it being a short story. The second draft took another year to retype. This finished at 60 pages double spaced. About a year after I finished the second draft and thought it was a good time to really start re hashing it, the computer it was on blew up. Literally, sparky sparky boom! I had no diskette backups, only hard copies. The lesson here is BACK UP THOSE FILES!
   For a few years I stared at my many hard copies with notes written by classmates on them and though about the daunting task of typing it all back up again. It took ten years for me to actually get back on it. Though I procrastinated a full decade I have now finished the official third draft. 62 pages SINGLE spaced. I think that it came out to be much better with several more years of writing training under the belt as well as a few more inches of gut. Now begins the long task of clean up editing. Hopefully you may actually get to see it at a book store or on Amazon or the like some day, Or possibly on Throbbleserve where some of my shorter works may be seen.
   So I say, Whoof! Got that part done!  May 15th, 2012, "Allucdar the Thief" version 3.0 now finished. version 3.1 in production. Thanks for reading this post. Do you have a grueling tale of artistic effort? Share it here!

-Cuchulann

19
We begin in Auckland, strangely enough they pronounce it like "Oakland" not far from where I left. Across the dateline and equator at the same time can leave one a bit confused.
Here we have the welcoming gate at the airport, (the first bit of NZ I ever saw) then the skyline of Auckland, and two sides of New Zealand maritime history, a 100 meter long royal Mauri canoe and the Black Magic yacht, which won the America's Cup in 1995.

[attachment deleted by admin]

20
Random Ranting / Giant vs. Ranger
« on: November 02, 2010, 01:51:30 AM »
Giant: *STOMP!!!*

Ranger: *squish,*

GIANT WINS!!

YEAH SAN FRANCISCO!!!

21
General Gaming / Sam and Max Season 3! the Devil's Playhouse
« on: March 11, 2010, 11:45:08 PM »
Yes! a new season starting next month! Check out the trailer.

http://www.telltalegames.com/samandmax/thedevilsplayhouse

22
Fun and Games / Darths and Droids and DM of the Rings
« on: October 25, 2009, 06:46:27 PM »
Okay i just found out about a couple of comics. They take movie images and paste them together in comic format and give it a story that its people playing a pnp game. I'm laughing my ass off.

http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0001.html

http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=612

23
Random Ranting / Telltale Games celebrates Talk Like a Pirate Day!
« on: September 18, 2009, 11:16:20 PM »
For everyone who has played some of the Telltale games or thought of it, for one day you can get a coupon code for a free game episode. This is their special promo for Talk Like a Pirate Day. I got SBCG4AP : Dangeresque 3. Woo hoo free stuff!

24
Random Ranting / Order of the Stick
« on: December 05, 2008, 12:06:38 AM »
I just found out about this web comic this weekend and thought I'd show it to all y'all in case you haven't heard of it. I think you'll appreciate it.
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0001.html

25
Random Ranting / Auld lang syne!
« on: January 01, 2008, 02:58:30 PM »
Happy new year all! And happy hangovers too! Its just about noon here and my roomates just got home and went to bed. Woke me up and didn't even make some coffee. So I made a full pot and they went to bed. that mens the coffee is all mine Ahahahahaaha!!!!
My wish for this year is for people to have their heads on straighter than they did last year.  Lots of madness happened in '07.
Post your new years wish here! Do you know what Auld lang syne means? Do you know who coined the phrase? Do you know why the Wyoming quarter is so plain? Cheers!

26
Random Ranting / Video link thread
« on: November 17, 2007, 02:52:38 AM »
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bcvbQAssGU
Patrick Stewart on the Extras.

27
Random Ranting / Evil in a can.
« on: September 10, 2007, 01:55:44 AM »
Attn: R&D@myleigonsofdoom.egg

Halt production immediately, Microsoft beat us to it. This image is cc'd to the legal department to see if we may be able to sue for copyright infringement.

-Ivan Grossnei Most Horrible and Feared Bow Before Me Unworthy Slime.

[attachmentid=1287]

[attachment deleted by admin]

28
Random Ranting / NaNoWriMO
« on: August 16, 2007, 12:39:03 AM »
So, only 3 1/2 more months till the next National Novel Writing Month! Are you going to do it? I'm going to do it! 50,000 words in 30 days? Yeah no problem! Why last year I got uhm.. okay 7,000 words but I tried man!! So really, who is going for it? I am going to at least try to beat my LY. So go on to http://www.nanowrimo.org/
and check it out. You can see a bit of my work from last year if you do an author search with my name here if you like too. Also for those of you who are interested in participating, I will refresh this topic each month until go time in case you forget.

29
Random Ranting / Goin' shoppin"
« on: July 14, 2007, 10:16:32 PM »
So, it came time for my bi-annual bicycle upgrade and this is what I got. Two Specailized "Armadillo", puncture resistant, street tires, Front and rear cartridge style brake pads for LX gold V-brakes, two sets of replacement pads for same brakes (because the next time I'll need pads the next model will be out and they will be twice as expensive,) new cables for both brake sets, handlebar grips, and a "Body Geometry" seat. Total cost after tax: $234.25. I don't post this to try and impress you, more to irk all of you who spend that much, or more, every month to maintain a car which you problably don't need so often. Okay let me get down off my political fat tires, and for those of you who cycle, here's a toast for you!

30
Random Ranting / Head for the Hills! Cuch's got a degree!
« on: February 21, 2007, 03:46:29 PM »
What did I find in the mail today? My BA in Creative Writing! It's like Christmas again! Except its late February. Still after all the years of my life I've put into this and the thousands of dollars in loans I have to pay back, I now have an 8.5X11" paper with my name, (spelled correctly thank god), that confirms it! So now just like Comic Store Guy I can say. "Out of my way hu-mon, I am college educated!"

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