karaddin

Cutting a shield from outside of it is very different from inside one, especially when he can see the weaves for the one that isn't effecting him but he can't see the weaves for the one that shields him. Even when cutting the shield on Moraine he still hesitated several times - speed with weaves comes with practice and being able to anticipate a shield you can't see and cut those weaves is a level of mastery beyond merely getting the hang of the weaves - and he doesn't even have that yet. He will have explosive power when he needs it at this point but these weren't that - blowing up the Amyrlin would piss off all his allies (unless you're counting Lanfear lol) and REALLY get off to a bad start with the Aes Sedai.

I did another gig in dog town tonight, then went and did the parade and struggled with Oda functionally one shotting me if I was in line of sight when he used his smart smh. Eventually managed to burn him down by switching from trying to stack control hacks first and focusing on damage so I could mostly stay out of sight. Hit level 40, had my jaw drop at the price of tier 5 cyberware and did some scanner hustles and gigs to build up some eddies lol. Also progressed Judy's quest and Panam's, probably back to dog town tomorrow once I pick up some more cyberware. Also opened my inventory and I'd accidentally stashed half my equipped clothes and was thus missing 50 armor and hack upload speed which wouldn't have helped struggling on Oda lol.

Another detail from this episode I liked - traveling is pretty much confirmed now (which I had assumed would be the case) with how Lanfear popped Mat across to Falme and was back in time to have her stroll, but she didn't tip her hand (and risk Moraine catching the weave) by offering that. She just continues with their plan to go via the ways and opens that gate even though she hates slow travel. So often we see dumb mistakes from villains in stories so it's worth recognizing when they're doing the opposite.

Another point I really liked - Alanna abiding by the outcome of a vote amongst her and her warders, I think it's nicely establishing how deeply she respects that relationship so it will be clear when she bonds Rand its out of perceived necessity - not that she doesn't care about his feelings. They've really put the work into both sides of that landing.

I have absolutely no issues with Siuan being able to shield Rand at this point, he still has very little idea what he's doing and none about trying to break a shield. Especially when its very likely all set up for him to have a big showing next episode. I also liked Lan figuring it out. He's had months hanging with Moiraine at Verin's home and its nice showing yet another way that he did pick up a lot of skills from all the years of working with her, and he's got the perfect trigger for it in wondering "why am I not suicidal?". Personally I think this is partially paying off the Stepin stuff from season 1 that everyone else hated lol, we needed to see what should happen when the bond is broken to understand that its not what we were seeing here. The Aes Sedai were all too busy not believing him when he said he wasn't suicidal to actually accept he's not, and thus realize that there's an implication there. Those scenes with Lan earlier in the season were also hammering that home - they kept treating him like he was glass and he was clearly frustrated by their not understanding. So given he's in a situation where he should be suicidal and isn't, he's also primed to notice that Moiraine should also be suicidal and also is not. That's enough for him to dig for legends from the AoL that pointed him in the right direction. I'm also liking increasing the interactions between Ishy/Lanfear and main characters. I don't think it would work so well with the rest of the Forsaken, but Ishy is playing a long game and Lanfear is playing her own game - both of which can work with them being heavily involved with the main characters without it being a contrivance that they don't simply kill them. So putting them together can bring out some interesting dynamics and I have hopes for what we'll see between Lanfear and Moiraine.

Unfortunately they haven't fixed the bug where picking up a shard wipes that off, although sometimes it does the health boost from the shower instead haha.

XP progression is significantly faster than pre 2.0 imo. Gigs used to give a lot less than main quests but I think they give similar xp now so it really can go quickly.

The time variance between doing gigs with the fastest approach vs any other approach can be huge haha. The Regina gig in SW Watson rescuing the guy from the TC dojo normally takes me about 2 minutes, but I didn't have the body or tech levels to get the right door open this time so had to stealth through the whole thing (which is laid out so you literally have to go through the entire building to get there) and once you factor in reloads after screwing up and getting spotted etc I think it took over 30 minutes. Which is fine, just explains how you can really zoom when you know them well lol.

If they're scaling with the level it might not matter, but I think I'd do the GIM earlier in future as I'm pretty sure scaling made that harder lol. Net runner is probably fine but not so much all in on stealth as well with 3 body. I did watch a video of someone else beating the thing I struggled on very hard as well that had a much easier time than me, they were 52 so maybe more levels would be helping there. Or maybe it's my cyberware. I literally wasn't able to do the hack sequence they used.

You're at a very similar point to me when I decided to start PL. I headed to Pacifica at 35 and went in as soon as I got the call because I was worried I was getting over level or something as well, I was also melting the gigs and scanner hustles elsewhere. It changed quickly lol. Gigs wise I've done all of Reggie's and Wakako's but nothing else and haven't even finished all the scanner ones in Watson. I suspect your build is going to have an easier time than mine though.

Continued with PL tonight and definitely feeling the difficulty increase. Maybe netrunner wasn't the best choice, either I'm missing some cyberware that will make the whole thing come together or I'm just paying it wrong but any fight I can't take down from the shadows is a real struggle. PL very slight non story spoiler ETA: extra details in spoiler box

I thought it was Suroth that "trained" Ryma not Tuon and a quick Google is only pulling up interactions with Suroth - was it definitely Tuon?

I did a bunch more last night, nearly finished act 2 in the main story and started PL. The Sasquatch fight was quite difficult with my netrunner build, think it took about 10 or so tries which is certainly a step up from before. No comment on the fight itself but also found the first big one in PL quite challenging.

I saw how Corvinus spelled it and assumed I'd been spelling it wrong all my life so followed that lead lol

The patches of colour are too thick, need to do cuendillar zebra striped iglu!

Unbreakable roof tiles sound line a fine idea until the next hurricane (common in the two rivers to be sure) comes along and turns them into a massacre.

I'm now picturing them starting to use ceundillar shields as construction materials 1000 years down the line as there's no way to get rid of them lol

Blasphemy. Gooooood morning Night City! Yesterday's body lottery rounded out to a solid n sturdy 30! 10 outta Heywood!

I actually had it in my head it wasn't out till Thursday, so a pleasant surprise for me tonight!

Funnily enough a lot of the work that really impresses me (when I have someone explain what's actually being done, because I don't have the knowledge to identify it myself) is scoring for things like television or games which is quite literally background music lol. Art where the audience doesn't need to consciously appreciate what's going on, and often for the audience to be conscious of it would mean it's actually failing - its just meant to be subconscious hand rails to help the audience understand the narrative rather than there for its own end. I think at the end of the day the most important defining feature of art for me is that it makes you feel, and there's a huge spectrum of emotions to be feeling that align against fascism and really only a few that serve it, so I agree here. Fighting fascism is important, and part of fighting it is having those things we hold precious that you're fighting to protect.

I'd read an article that I assumed was this one when I saw the link but it was actually arguing the opposite - that you should hold off on doing PL until you're at least in act 3 so you've seen all the other characters etc. It gave the impression that while they don't interact with the expansion as such, you'd still be getting some chatter with your partner about what's going on etc as it specifically mentioned not being able to even talk to Kerry prior to act 3. I still know nothing about PL beyond the trailer info etc so this isn't coming from a place of spoilers, but with the higher dramatic stakes and the potential for a different end state for V (ie potentially a NUSA agent with them actually saving V from the ticking clock that all the "V keeps the body" endings still have) I'm feeling like the PL related ending might wind up being the 'canon' ending for V. Witcher 3 spoilers

Not much of one really, assuming you kill him after getting him out (which I always do) that's pretty much the end of that quest line. Anything else later on you can still do. I wound up in a similar situation with the lantern problem on my evil run - I started heading down with the drider but knew I wanted his sword so when I ran into the ambush I stabbed him and the cultists in the back and helped the Harpers - however when you're not there help them from the start they don't give it to you lol. I thought they'd offer it to me later (when you leave the inn) but nope. What you've seen suggested can work fine and it's what I did. Go as far south outside the town as you can and you'll be able to skirt south around the building and straight across a pier then jump a small break in the bridge. If you have misty step then you can just send everyone back to camp, teleport from the edge of the darker shadows and then get to the bridge with only 1, max 2 turns being ended in the shadows. Then just go to camp and get your party back together. I did it with all 4 anyway, it's perfectly doable - just more faffing about than with 1. Once you're on the other side of the broken bridge you're into lanterns and safe.

I really struggle trying to adjust to changes in the middle of a game, it's much easier to pick up the new skills and mechanics when you're slowly building them up from scratch again. So I'm also all in for restarting.

I've done the heist and a bunch of Reggie's gigs after it now, xp gain feels significantly increased which is surprising. I think I'm close to 20 already and it's staying pretty close to street cred. I have hit one amusing bug that I never saw before - when I grabbed one of the guys in Jotaro's gig, the one that's doing weights on the 3rd floor after you let them finish their conversation, the weights made it bug out and flicked both of us through the wall and into the harbour lol. Was about to kill him, swim out and run back in but it gave Jotaro enough time to notice the body so my stealth was over. The access hatch on the roof for the animal that's taken over the chemist (Blake) has been removed so I had to take a different approach for that one too.

They've learnt that the gaming community won't reward honesty on this point so we all just get the PR line. I can't blame them for it though.