dr. b

Dr. Stone #218 — wow a lot happened fast in this chapter. @ Ginro Neru #18 — well… that was disappointing

#56 — a good, fun chapter

My Sorc -- henceforth known as Matriarch fira -- finished Hell at level 81 I basically used nothing but Fire Ball starting from level 12 until when I hit Act IV NM, where fire immunes start appearing, and then I re-spec'd to use a hybrid of Frozen Orb, Fire Ball, and Meteor. Ended up with: - Max points in Frozen Orb, Fire Ball, and Meteor - 10 points in Cold Mastery and 8 points in Fire Mastery - 1 point in all prereqs, and 1 point in each of Frozen Armor, Static Field, Telekinesis, Teleport, and Warmth My modest end-game gear, all found along the way: Sword: 'Spirit' (TalThulOrtAmn) Battle Sword (+2 all skills and other nice bonuses) Shield: 'Spirit' Monarch (another +2 all skills, helpful resistances, other nice bonuses) Armor: 'Smoke' (NefLum) Scarab Husk (Big resistances!) Helm: 'Lore' (OrtSol) Hyrdraskull (+1 all skills and lightning resist) Gloves: Magefist Boots: Natalya's Soul (big boost to walk speed plus extra cold and lightning resist) Belt: random magic belt with fire resist Amulet: magic ammy with +2 to cold skills Rings: rare rings with resists and reduced poison length Also, I outfitted my merc (Act II NM) with an 'Insight' (RalTirTalSol) Grim Scythe, which grants a high level Meditation aura, part-way through Hell. That was a game-changer. Never ran out of mana again with his Meditation aura. I got pretty lucky turning up a Lum rune fairly early on in Hell, which enabled me to make the 'Smoke' rune word. The Monarch shield didn't turn up until I was in the WSK in Act V! It can be tough finding a Monarch to make a 'Spirit' shield. Hell Cows are done, so this character is retired. I can recycled some of the gear with another character later if needed. I might equip her with some budget Magic Find gear for funsies. Might turn up something decent running Hell Andy and Meph.

1??) Taiko??? no Tatsujin Rhythmic Adventure Pack #1? 2) Final ?Fa?nt?asy?? ???V 3) Chasm 4) Cosmic Star Heroine 5) Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker 6) Final Fantasy V (aga?in??)?? 7) Diablo II: Resurrected???? Honorable mention as I beat Hell difficulty today with my Sorc Hell Ancients were a headache, took a few tries, but after that it was pretty smooth sailing. Take that Baal Last thing to do tonight with the Sorc is Hell Cows.

Have any of you checked out Ousama Ranking / Ranking of Kings ? Been meaning to give it a look. It seems to have a pretty good score on MAL, for whatever that's worth. Sounds like it could be fun based on the synopsis...

Mephisto be dead The High Council was actually more of a handful than Meph. I made it as far as the River of Flame in Act IV Hell. Took me fooooorever to get through the Plains of Despair, one small step at a time. Sweet Jesus, I hate Burning Souls Lightning bolts just come flying across the screen before you can even see or target them. My poor merc bit the dust a few times from these out-of-nowhere attacks Clearing the City of the Damned was easy compared to the Plains of Despair. edit: Diablo is dead too

The Elusive Samurai #39

I am feeling no signs yet of getting bored of D2. I've played this game so much over the years. I know I'll get fatigued eventually and give it a break, but even I am surprised by how much I want to keep playing it. Haven't put it down since I downloaded D2R on my Switch.

Yeah this ending was pretty crummy Sucks for the author. Surely they didn't plan for it to end this quickly and in this way. It was so weird going from everybody passing the entrance exam to the whole thing end a few chapters later. I enjoyed this chapter. The dynamic between Neru and his mum reminds me a bit too much of my wife and 10 year-old daughter though... I am beginning to tire of the constant fight/make-up cycle

Sounds fun, I might check it out if/when I tire of Diablo 2 again...

I find the dad pretty amusing, so that helps me enjoy it more Dude should have stuck with the guitar though…

Part of it might be a cultural difference..? When I lived in Vietnam, I’d often see comedy duos/groups doing specials on TV. They would do skits and things along the lines of what’s going on in this manga. Stuff that my wife and her family found hilarious fell flat to me. It’s not that I didn’t get it. I dunno, it just didn’t make me laugh. If I showed them a Western comedy program that I liked, say The Kids in the Hall, I’d be laughing my head off and they’d probably be like, “What’s funny about this?”

Act II Hell is done. Bye bye Duriel

I sort of liked the new dude for a second, then it all went sideways. Turned out to be pretty lame. Those high school uniforms though

I like the art style of Hunters Guild, and some elements are interesting, but it’s been hard to follow. I actually enjoyed some of the most recent revelations (the book, the guild’s role as caretakers of the book, etc.) but yeah these things feel like discoveries that would be made near the end of the story. Oh well, if Candy Flurry wasn’t good enough to keep going then Hunters Guild isn’t either Wrap it up.

I’m gonna look at Show-ha Shoten! later today. The Jump app says a new chapter is coming in 30 days, but of course that doesn’t tell us how much longer it could go after that.

The Athletic is reporting that Buster Posey is going to announce his retirement tomorrow…

Great win last night. Fried came through for them big-time. They really needed a solid start. I think Freeman stays in Atlanta, but I don’t think he’ll take too much of a hometown discount. There is already an article on The Athletic discussing 2022 World Series odds… Can we please just celebrate the 2021 season a while longer first?

I got my Sorc as far as the Catacombs in Act I Hell. Level 70 now. Starting to progress more smoothly and easily compared to when I started Act I. Got some better gear for my character and the merc. Rune words with +skills have given my spells a nice boost, and I just made an 'Insight' polearm for the merc which has been a huge help. It grants a pretty high level Meditation aura when equipped, so I basically never run out of mana anymore. That makes life so much easier. I'll see if I can handle Andy this evening. If that goes smoothly then I'll probably run her a few more times to see if I can get some interesting drops. A SoJ or two would be lovely... edit: Andy's down Went back a few more times and got nothin' good, so we've moved on to Act II. Now that I've adjusted to immunities in Hell, things are going quite smoothly again, albeit at a slower pace of progress.

Neru #15 and #16 Dr. Stone #216 The Elusive Samurai @ Unno PPPPPP #7

Chapter 55 was good I also wonder if we're approaching an ending. It would be somewhat bittersweet if the manga ends soon-ish, but at the same time I usually prefer to be left wanting more rather than to tire of something that goes on too long.

I want them to win so Alex Anthopoulos can get a World Series championship. Wish he could have done it with the Jays in 2015…

I just beat NM last night with my Sorc. I re-spec’d in Act IV NM to add a second element though. I basically got that far using nothing but Fireball, but fire immune monsters start appearing in Act IV NM, so it was time to change things up. Now Frozen Orb is the main skill, with Fireball and Meteor used as fallback options against cold immunes. Hell is gonna be a slog. I’ve already bumped into some very annoying fire and cold immune uniques. My merc has to take care of those. He dies a lot though I’m pissing away gold resurrecting this guy all the time.

Very cool news!

I’ll keep watching