Maelstrom

Wait, what? Where is this and how does it work?

Is it bad that this is the only Grand Hero Challenge where I've completed the hard version of it? I think I put too much stock in my one staple team and didn't really play around with different compositions like I should have. The simple substitution for Eirika was a huge hint towards that. And I keep forgetting that being around 32 or 35 instead of a full 40 really doesn't really keep a unit from being competitive with 40's. I have a few more characters I can actually use in those kinds of battles than I realized. It does help a shitton to have 99 energy to burn to try out different strategies and figure things out. For instance, that mage on the left kept surviving Kagero's attack by 1 Hp. I gave her the atk +1 seal and she took him out with exactly enough damage. Meanwhile, base Takumi was basically getting murdered by those mages. I should really do something with him or give him up to put Close Counter on Kagero. Heh, then I'd really need to find a way to put Vantage 3 on her to make full use of it... Anyways, here's how I finally got it done. I set up Kagero on the left the first turn, but still out of anyone's range. Next turn, she moves up to kill him from over the wall. Then Azura danced, and I moved Kagero right 1, down 1- which is just within range of the red mage on the right and still out of range of the knight guarding him. The mage suicided against Kagero and after that I was free to follow the previously mentioned tactic of attacking with Cecilia and then dancing to move out of next turn's range. Cuz man, both those knights with swap and brave weapons would have wrecked anybody trying to come in with a weapon advantage. Took a while to take the two knights and Zephiel though. Would have been faster if I had given Cecilia that poison strike, but it still finally worked out.

It's no problem. It's something interesting to put my mind to. Ha, she doesn't want you to be overbearing but when you give her some space she gets anxious cuz you aren't taking the lead like you used to? It sounds like trying to crack a safe, you gotta listen closely and feel out the right combination. I feel like part of this recent situation is partly on your mutual friend. You didn't invite her directly and the friend probably neglected to say that you wanted her to come. She probably got scared off thinking you didn't want her around since she didn't get the direct invite and it would be weird for her to show up after the recent strain and misinterpreting space as being standoffish and upset. The letter sounds like a good idea to me. Getting your thoughts together and hammering 'em out into words that say want you want to say, no more and no less, will indeed be an easier way of both delivering the message accurately as well as not pressuring her to come up with a suitable reply right away. Hmm, handwritten is a nice touch, but I do recommend typing out a draft first before committing it to ink. And as for the delivery, I have a suggestion. Don't just hand it to her. Give it to your friend to hand it to her. But have them say something like "This is from someone who really likes you and I think you should read it." If she asks who it's from before reading it, you friend should simply say read it and she'll find out. I imagine the gist of your letter will be to the effect that you wanted to give her the time and space she seemed to need and that you haven't given up on her or your relationship with her yet. You have your own feelings and viewpoint you can share to help her understand your situation, but the bottom line is that you want to figure things out with her. I think that between your friend saying "someone who really likes you", reading it to see that it's you and you aren't upset with her but trying to support her, and the semi-mysterious build-up may hit an emotional, romantic spot. It's almost like you're asking to court her again. Which really you are. Maybe one of the ladies of reborn can chime in on how they think they'd react to a letter and setup like that. Other than that, if you're going to go eat out or do something fun (either by yourself or with other friends as well), text her and tell her she should come along if she's free. It sends a couple of messages. One, is that you're still gonna live your life and be you, whether or not she's a part of it. You know, without her, you're still your own person. But message 2 is that you still want her to be a part of it, that you aren't avoiding her or upset. You get to play it cool but inviting, while she gets an easy out if she's still feeling anxious about things. Did you find some new place to take her? "Hey, I gonna try out this restaurant I've never been to. If you're free, wanna come with?" Going with other friends might make it feel like less pressure since it won't be a one on one situation. It won't get you the full resolution of the serious talk that you want, but you wanna re-build that comfortable feeling between the two of you again without pressure so you can get there eventually. Keep it cool and casual. Give her some honest complements and try not to over-do 'em. You're affectionate, not obsessive. What do you think? PS- I didn't expect it, but Kubo has a love story aspect to it that makes it pretty good for a date movie. JS.

Idk where all these stupid permadeath rumors started. They've announced idk how many times that it doesn't work that way. This is a very simple, very common stamina type battle mode. You simply can't continue to use them in the same challenge attempt. Once you lose all your units to the overwhelming odds (or call it quits before you're wiped out and all your score and progress is lost, depending on how they set up the mode), your attempt ends, your score is tallied, and then you start over in a new attempt later. No units lost. It's like saying you lose your units in arena battles the way you could in FE7 and others. Unbunch your panties, people.

Oh no, I rolled a 5* Jaffar in my first summoning round of that banner. He's good but super glassy. I've got one Saizo at 4* and he's got that poison strike 3. Poison strike would be great chip damage against any other greens or reds that I'll reluctantly have to attack so someone else can finish it off after. She hits hard but not so hard that people die every time. I'm still working on Rein or Linde as good substitutes. As far as Tiki goes, she gets hit often after I lead an attack with her, especially with mages trying to trip away. It's not really a problem of getting her there or keeping her there. It's definitely on the order of when she gets there and there are still enemies left. Even at 50% or lower, she still tanks quite a lot and a guaranteed double hit is almost guaranteed to kill whatever she's attacking.

Well, the problem is I don't have a Tharja at all. I have plenty of 3* Odin's for blue tome users and 3* nino's but no tharja to pass it on from. hmm, I really don't have any dependable red tome users at all. 21 4* henry and 26 4* sophia I guess, but young tiki is all the red magic fire power I need. Who should I give poison strike 3 to? It seems wasted on Linde, who doesn't really leave survivors. I kinda wanna give it to Kagero but she already has the serviceable dagger-breaker. My main idea right now is to give it to Cecilia (especially when I can safely attack non-ranged red units and place Tiki or Fred in front to tank a hit) and give her a threaten skill. Atk, def, res, spd... any one of those would work well on her and take up her empty C slot. Hmm, brash assault on tiki seems real good. It's a B skill and that slot is empty on her.

I was finally getting around to doing some of the challenges. One of 'em was to use a sword user on P 5-2 on lunatic. It's amazing how one member change made the map so much easier than my original run. Well, half the map of enemies was red while my main team is half green. I also realize how useful Eirika would be to a Gronnblade user. Seiglinde give atk +3, Hone speed gives +4 speed. So as long as you end your turn next to her, next turn you get +4 spd and +10 atk. Sweet Christmas. And pivot seems to be a good way of getting her where she needs to be. Maybe even throw herself in front of a glass cannon who would otherwise die to secure the W for the team... So the real question is... who is the best gronnblade candidate?

meanwhile, in castle de Mael, sits a level 40 4* Cecilia- bow killer, soul stealer. Also, Hunter's lobster brother came by to say hello. But yeah, Cecilia really needs a lot of skills, her rally resistance really helps out Tiki and Fred but the others are pretty bad.

tfw when you get to a famous scene to help illustrate (some) ambiguity. Anybody seen A Few Good Men? @Kyoyoyoyoyoyoyo and @SHIA But that other feel when one of your friends takes you to see a really good movie. And today is the last day they're showing it in theaters. It's an anime movie called "Your Name" (Anata No Namae Ha). It's landmark in at least one respect as the highest selling movie of its kind in Japan. Which then got limited screening over here. I hadn't even heard of it before going to go see it myself. But hell, it was really worth watching. I tagged Kyoyo because he could probably watch it is pick apart all the things the movie does right... and Shia because of the way it relates to dreams, like waking up with a powerful emotion from a dream you can't remember. Idk where you can find a non-spoilery synopsis but here's an edited version of what's on wikipedia: Mitsuha, a high school girl living in the town of Itomori in Japan's mountainous Hida region, is bored of country life and wishes she were a handsome Tokyo boy. With her grandmother and younger sister, she makes kuchikamizake sake. Mitsuha begins switching bodies intermittently with Taki, a high school boy living in Tokyo. Their memories of each swap fade quickly, similar to dreams. They realize the experiences are real when their friends and family tell them they have acted strangely recently. They begin to communicate by leaving notes in Mitsuha's notebook and memos on Taki's phone, and intervene in each other's lives. That's just the beginning, with them slowly figuring out what's going on and not even including the real twist and turns that make for the movie's major conflict. The direction, the art, and the music are astounding, not to mention the core of the story itself, with an incredibly potent quote of of time and connecting.

Well, my arena team wasn't doing it against even the lvl 30 challenge. Then I swapped in lvl 37 Linde and 32 Azura for dancing. Linde pretty much solo'd the whole thing except for when Tiki took out the green knight. Fred just kinda sat there and looked pretty, tbh. I just really, really need to level up side characters. For a few weeks there I was only doing arena to keep increasing my tier ranking, or just working on 3 stars for inheritables. this new-ish 99 stamina thing is pretty nice. Although my attention is getting split between raising up decent characters and trying to get those fliers for the challenge up to level to grab those orbs...

Jaffar is definitely good at first... until later maps make you realize how much you have to protect and baby him. He is the epitome of glass cannon. He deals plenty of damage, and deals def/res down and -7 damage no matter what if they survive. He's great to lead with but he can rarely taken even one hit, especially given life or death. He helps kill things but often finds himself dead in the bargain. As a result, he's a bit difficult to get to lvl 40. Also, this has been the hardest arena week yet for me. It doesn't help that I haven't played it sober but... at this point, advanced runs have been very difficult, since it matches we with teams that generally have way more inherited skills on each unit. Tiki has her bad area blast and Cecilia feels especially useless without a triggered ability or a decent B ability and completely lacking a C ability. Her rally defense is nice but her Atk +3 as her A skill falls very short of an amazingly useful skill.

Idk, it just matches a lot of my aesthetic. I just really love the most recent Dragon Ball Super Ending, "Boogie Back" and tbh, I don't think this is actually a nigthcore version. Seems like a trick of the title to mislead copyright shit from their back. seriously, I enjoy this maybe too much. 2:11 and beyond is new to me though. the DBZ ending doesn't last this long.

I honestly have no idea why you guys like that ability so much. Tiki has a similar ability, and has the tankiness to see enough turns and attacks to bring it out... but it usually comes too late and the cpu moves so that you can rarely hit more than one person at once. It's not a skill I use often or rely on at all. It's a fancy little extra that really doesn't do much to anyone with decent res anyways. It just takes too long to activate and by that time I usually have things well in hand. I have Rein as a 4* and he doesn't have the full blast till later and the earlier form of it is even worse as far as applicability. He's on the glass cannon side and gets his ability even more rarely than Tiki as a result. I guess I just prefer moonbow and luna a lot more. They activate sooner and reduce defense/res at its base to do more damage, whereas this skill is simply one extra attack that doesn't involve effectiveness/resistance, even if it is an area attack, which often times means less damage done because of the lack of effectiveness to give it a boost. I honestly think this ability is just... not good at all.

I mean, if you like gritty and dark storylines, I guess I'd recommend Devil Survivor 2 or Persona games...

Don't push it too hard when you ask. Make it less of an interrogation by talking about how the uncertainty is making you feel. You know, sharing your viewpoint instead of only asking.

So I just watched the first episode of Overlord. It isn't the anime I was looking for, but it shows promise and I know it's been mentioned around a few times. It's still just the beginning, so does anyone here have any particular opinions about this one?

I'm just saying that they've only dipped their toes in the pool. I encourage them to go deeper and try out something a bit more involved.

Just so you know... those are all casual games, as far as board or table top gaming goes. CaH is the king of those games. That's like playing tetris or candy crush compared to playing a tactics or persona game. I've played all of those except Othello. Just saying, there are far more involved games than those.

Dive deeper. You don't need air.

Just tell her that you're gonna try giving her some more space and not to think you're being cold or anything, feel free to hit you up. If that frees up some time for you, maybe use it to scope out some new places to take her or something. Kubo's on netflix and it's a good netflix and chill option.

The above picture triggered apoptosis in every cell of Arkhidon's body. Rip, buddy. May you reincarnate as a cheetah and exact your revenge on the gazelle population.