Some of you may know me from my previous posts, many of which are among the most upvoted of all time on this subreddit. Just kidding, I’ve never posted here. I’m coming up on day 70 of SR and I figured I would make a post detailing what I’ve discovered.
Introduction
I began whacking off when I was 12. The negative effects were immediate. I went from a popular and liked individual to a member of the untouchable class. Never knew what caused that. Now I do.
At 13, I started working as a blackhat internet marketer. In other words, I was a scammer or con artist. I had immediate success and became “kid rich” in high school. From there, I continued ripping people off until I was 24. (You can read about all of my various scams and schemes in a 255-page book I wrote about my life, and how I changed my life, here. It's free.)
And we're back. Along the way, I became a drug addict. At 14, I discovered weed. At 16, I discovered psychedelics. At 17, I discovered MDMA and other stimulants. My home life sucked (divorced and depressed parents), so I dove straight into the world of drugs.
Overall, from the time I became a teenager, my life revolved around drugs, video games, and scamming people. I also whacked off very generously, considering it to be normal and healthy. I thought it was a waste product. Not an uncommon story.
Accidentally Discovering SR
About a year ago, I hit rock bottom, which you will read about if you decide to read my book. In essence, I was completely broke and living at home, with no friends, and my girlfriend had just dumped me. Coincidentally, I was also whacking off a ton during this time. Go figure.
A string of wild synchronicities led me to read the book Outwitting the Devil by Napoleon Hill. Think and Grow Rich was the catalyst that led me to get “kid rich” in high school, so I basically just followed Mr. Hill’s recommendations on how to outwit the devil to the letter… and it worked. I became genuinely happy for the first time in my life. I was crying tears of joy every morning when I woke up.
Frankly, at the time, I was not convinced that lust was a bad thing, because getting attention from women made me feel so good. Still, since the rest of the formula for outwitting the devil was working so well, I decided to completely repress my lust. I even managed to quit drugs under the guise of considering them to be gluttonous.
Life was good. The results were unbelievable. I moved to a new city. After being antisocial my entire life, people were going out of their ways to converse with me. I had tons of friends. Very attractive women were going out of their way to make themselves known to me. I didn’t know what on earth was happening, but my life was better than it had even been before, despite the fact that I was more broke than I had ever been before. Turns out money doesn't equal happiness. Who knew?
After about two months of completely repressing my lust, I decided to have sex. With all of this new attention from women, my lust then spiraled out of control. Repression doesn’t work. Knowledge is the key. Knowledge allows you to want to retain. At the time, I had the belief, but not the knowledge behind the belief, which inevitably led to a lack of faith.
Fast forward a couple months and I was back to where I was before: scamming, doing drugs, etc. Lust truly is the root of all sin. Lose control of your lust and you’re probably going to lose control of the rest of your life to some extent.
Whoops
I once again hit rock bottom in October 2020. I took a big gamble on a big adventure, and it failed. In fact, I came within a minute or two of certain death, and my plans were ruined. Now, I had $300 to my name, no car, no housing situation, and no more possessions than I could fit into a large backpack.
I crashed at a friend’s house and spent two months mostly moping around. At the end of November 2020, I read a random Reddit linking to montalk dot net and had a bout of gnosis.
Here is where things get interesting.
Randomly, I messaged a random Reddit user, and he linked me to The Practice of Brahmacharya. I was sold. I started doing SR, controlling my passion, and being careful to remember that pleasure comes but never stays, the human body is only clay, and everything will pass away. This was the knowledge I needed to WANT to control my lust. Before, after reading Outwitting the Devil, I was doing it almost against my will.
Results
Magnetism. The point of SR, to me, is not to attract women. But there’s no doubt that doing SR will attract women. In fact, it will attract everything and everyone. But the attraction is mostly mental. People subconsciously sense your high vibration and they look at it curiously. You’ll get a lot of love, but also a lot of hate if people are comfortable enough to confront you. Your thoughts begin to influence reality more than ever before.
Invisibility. This is mostly a joke, but I swear it’s real. When you’re vibrating at a very high level, you become invisible to others. Not literally. But I’ll give you an example. I’m walking down this road and the air is completely still. Two women are approaching, gossiping in a negative tone. As they pass, I say hello. They jump, completely startled, and looked at me as if I had just appeared out of nowhere. I was in their field of vision for, like, a minute. They should have noticed me. This has happened a couple times. I’m aware this bullet contradicts the previous one.
Calm. I used to be an explosively angry person. In fact, I used to get violent fantasies. I used to really hate the sheep. I didn’t understand how they couldn’t see through the lies! May as well exploit them. Now, I love the sheep, even though they still chirp at me occasionally, especially with all of this asinine /\/\@$K usage. (I’ve taken a hardline stance and will not put one on for even a second. Since I’m still self-employed as a copywriter, it’s possible to do since my workplace (read: bedroom) doesn’t require it. I’d recommend doing the same if you are sick of the bullshit. We need your help.)
Ability to disconnect emotion from thoughts. Emotions come and go. The error is when you let external influences affect your thoughts. There will be times when you are tense or sad. For example, it’s hard to feel totally good emotionally if you are tired. In the past, I let these emotions go straight into my neural network, which would lead to entire days full of bad emotions, which I masked with drugs. Now, I relax into the emotions, meditate on them, and they pass quickly. I usually learn something in the process. The thought of being able to control my emotions without drugs is awesome.
Ability to heal trauma. If you are not powered by your semen (lol), you’re not as strong and solid as you could be. This makes it nearly impossible to face the trauma of your past, before you woke up. Now that I have healed my trauma, at least to an extent, my life is just wonderful. I’m a complete stranger to my past scammer self, which is fantastic. IMO, the point of life is to realize your trauma, heal it, then link up with the Holy Ghost, Sophia, and help others heal theirs, too. If you’re doing SR but still not loving life, consider reflecting on uncomfortable moments from your past. Don’t repress them, just like you don’t repress your lust.
Loving life, man. If you ignore the ethics of my blackhat marketing, I was always rich in comparison to my peers, and I barely worked. I was also pretty jacked. I happened to be born with a conventionally attractive face and am quite tall. Despite these intrinsic advantages, life always sucked. Now, life always rocks, no matter what is happening. Do I still get down sometimes? Sure. You can’t feel euphoric always. But now I realize that stumbling blocks are part of the equation, and I take them in stride. I get excited for bad moments because I realize I’m about to learn something big which will make my life even better in the long run.
Difficulties / Relapse
I have not yet physically relapsed. But I have definitely let my mental state get out of control before, to the tune of looking at Instagram models, etc. This has happened twice. It SUCKED! Felt crappy for days afterwards.
When I feel it bubbling up nowadays, I take a deep breath straight into my cranium and hold it for a few seconds. It dissipates. I also channel it into my third eye if it’s a lesser urge and I feel like I can actively control it. Learned these two tricks from posters on here.
If I'm out in public, I straight up look away. I never really looked, considering it to be disrespectful. But man, don't feel bad about looking off to the side if there's an attractive woman walking in front of you.
IMO, the mental leads to the physical, and not the other way around. It’s the same as any other addiction. You can’t physically force yourself to stop if you don’t want to stop, because your mind controls your body. So, work on your mind instead of putting all of this effort into repression. Books can provide the knowledge you need to want to stop. Once you want to stop, it’s easy to do so.
Summary
As far as other aspects of my life go, the past two months have been a wild ride, as I’ve healed an absolutely massive amount of trauma in that time. One night, I did the karma meditation on ascensionhelp dot com and ended up screaming at the top of my lungs for two hours, uncontrollably, almost involuntarily. Scamming people for a decade, then realizing all of that karma in a short span of time, will do that to you!
This post has been all over the place, but I just wanted to let everyone know that SR is a very key part to living a good life. Better financial circumstances? SR can help with that. You want peace? SR. Happiness? SR. You want to stop scamming people, even though you’re damn good at it, it’s easy, and there’s no one to stop you? SR. (Side note: I did get sued by Perkins Coie when I was 17 due to one of my early scams, and I was also visited by a 3-letter agency for a particularly illegal scam, but nothing ever came of either of those instances. I’d like to say I talked my way out of them, which I did, but looking back, it was blatant intervention from my Higher Self which allowed me to talk my way out of them in the first place. Thanks, dude!)
SR is not the end-all-be-all to success in your chosen realm, but damn does it ever help. I really like this community because you guys understand the physical, but a lot of you are well-versed in the metaphysical realm too. If you want to do SR to get ahead in the physical world, that’s cool, but understand that the real power of SR is allowing yourself to access the metaphysical and spiritual concepts of this world that are hidden to the masses. Many posters here can give me a run for my money, which I very rarely experience in real life. Peace!
EDIT: Turns out I can't reply to comments on this post since I have no less than 25 karma on here. To u/UniqueUsername203: Fair question. This is an epic trollzor account, minus this post. I've had to branch outside of poker since I'm banned there for 30 days. If I really wanted to scam people again, I know of better avenues than spamming and pretending to be a girl, though I did that in an automated fashion circa 2010. Didn't work that well, only made like $20 - $40 per week and it was weird as fuck (even though I never directly talked to any of my victims).

My Christian Upbringing and How I Escaped

Discovering and embracing Satanism is an easier task for some than for others. I just wanted to share a little of my experience for anyone coming from a strict Christian upbringing or even a Christian cult. It's rare that someone is able to escape the clutches of a cult unscathed and then go on to thrive. It's not something that happens overnight and it can involve undoing a lot of ingrained beliefs, going through an identity crisis, losing family or friends, and changing your entire perception of yourself and life. Going through it, I wasn't sure I was going to ever get out. But now, I can really stand back and be amazed at how resilient we can be.
In the 80s, my midwestern parents found themselves in a self-destructive lifestyle, and after attending a church-hosted and horrific dramatization of people being dragged off to hell, they turned to Christianity as the magic cure for their unhappiness in life. When I was born, they were still brand-new born-agains struggling with substance abuse and addiction, but they went all in. And I mean ALL in. They ghosted all their friends, cut ties with every member of my extended family, and made a new family of believers. We were Pentecostal - the 700 club-watching, faith-healing, tongues-speaking, Proctor and Gamble-boycotting variety. If you've ever seen Jesus Camp that was basically my life. I don't remember a lot from those early years, but I've heard stories and have seen family photos to know that I don't want to remember.
As my sister and I got older, they attempted to shelter us from the horrors of the sin-ridden secular world. We were homeschooled with an all-Christian, church-approved curriculum taught by my mother (who had an 8th grade education) while my dad was at work. My textbooks contained and presented as fact the typical hoaxes and flawed analogies that form the basis for Christian science-denial, and I didn’t know any different. We lived in the Bible belt on a small farm, and everyone I knew was at least some form of Christian. There weren't enough non-believers to convert, so we spent most of our time trying to convert the Catholics and Baptists to "real" Christianity. My mom always said Pentecostals came first, Catholics and Baptists came along after and bastardized Christianity. Most of my "classes" were based in homemaking or farm work, and went along nicely with our weekly Wednesday night girl's program, The Missionettes. It was basically girl scouts but focused on Bible memorization and turning us into good Christian wives. We had badges like sewing, knitting, cooking, grooming, ettiquette, abstinence, and first aid. Of course we also had religious badges for communion, prayer, healing, fruits of the spirit, and the armor of god etc. A very well-rounded education.
While my parents went to church and we put on the face like we were living the blessed life, things at home weren't great. The hardest thing growing up was hearing all the adults at church go on and on about how great my parents were and how lucky I was to have such good Christian parents. One day, I remember my dad pulling me aside to tell me there was something wrong with my mom, that I should never make her angry because he wouldn't be able to choose between us. When I was 5, my mom threw a pair of scissors at my dad. They got embedded in his leg and he had to go to the emergency room. When I was around 6, my mom began to threaten my dad in front of us, saying by the time he got home from work, we would be gone. That my sister and I needed to pick who we wanted to live with because by the end of the day, we needed to be packed and ready to leave. My mom was a big fan of belts and the wooden spoon, and she never spared the rod. I have had many objects broken on me. When she would make us bend over, I would try to look back and apologize, to ask what I had done wrong, or what i could do to fix it, but anything other than complete eyes-foward submission was viewed as rebellion and only added to the count. She told me once in a joking manner that when I was in trouble, all I would say was "I want to hold you" to try to get out of punishment. She laughed. When I was 7, my mom told us that Satan told her to kill us with a potato peeler, and that she was going to kill us, my dad, and then herself. But “luckily” god "saved" us! After that, I remember my sister and I used to hide in our closet and pray to god to turn us into farm animals. Horses, dogs, chickens, anything, so we could run away and be free. We didn't even want to be human anymore. By the time I was 12, suicidal ideation set in and never really let go. Satan didn't scare me anymore. My mom did. Hell was real and I was living in it.
When I was 13, my mom found a pencil in a parking lot from a local high school and determined that it was a sign from god that we should be enrolled in public school. I was terrified. These people weren't anything like me, they were all lost sinners and it was my job to be the shining light in the midst of darkness, to teach them the way. However, it turned out, I was the one who did most of the learning. I was exposed to more math and science in high school than I had been in my entire life. I learned about other cultures and history. I actually made some friends and got to see how other people live for the first time in my life. Nothing, absolutely nothing, at that high school even touched the evil I experienced at home. There were days I didn’t want to go home. I never missed a day of school if I could help it.
The things I had believed started to not make sense in my mind anymore. It took several years for me to put all the pieces together, but the final straw was actually reading the Bible entirely from cover to cover for the first time, rather than just the “reading plan” i was given. I learned when the gospels were actually written, who possibly wrote them and why. I started reading about as many different religions as I could and started realizing the similarties of them all. I had a good friend at the time who wasn't afraid to challenge every religious and political position I had, and realized that I didn't even know why I believed what I did, only that I was told to believe it and always had. I began to reexamine everything I believed, no matter how trivial or obvious. It became clear to me that more than anything, I just wanted more out of life than I was given.
Originally, I wasn't going to go to college. We didn't have enough money, no one in my family had ever gone to college, and my parents had just assumed that I'd end up being a pastor's wife who played the piano for church services. But on the advice of an advisor, I applied to and auditioned for a music program, and I got in. I was finally getting out. But not before my mom could have the final word. When my parents found out I had been talking to a boy at school and that I liked him, she called me "the whore" for a month. One day, I had the flu and missed school for a few days. My boyfriend asked if he could bring over a can of soup and the homework I had missed. My parents agreed, and when he came in, he sat on the end of my bed (the door was wide open and I was under a ton of blankets) to ask how I was doing. My mom walked by and screeched at the top of her lungs that he needed to get the fuck out of my room and out of her house. That we weren't allowed to be in the same room without supervision. I had basically learned that sticking up for myself was useless, but I would stick up for him. He hadn't done anything wrong. I got out of bed and got up into her face and called her a psychotic bitch. She demanded that my dad throw me out. I looked at him and he looked at me and I will never forget what he said. "I told you not to make her angry because I can't choose between you. This is her house. You have to leave."
So I left. I slept in my car that night and eventually stayed with my boyfriend's family until my aunt (who my parent's ghosted) heard what happened. She took me in for several months until I could make enough money working a few part-time jobs to afford a small apartment. I completely left the church after that. I did visit a few others and even worked as a choir director at a non-denomination church for a while as a side gig, but it just wasn't the same. The veil had been lifted.
Out of the dozens of families who knew me, who watched me grow up and spent time with my family (some who even knew what was going on at home), none of them attempted to contact me. Out of all of my church friends, I am still in contact with only one, who left around the same time I did. When people say leaving a cult is like commiting social suicide, they aren't exaggerating. I was completely cut off.
If you asked my parents today, they would tell you that around 18, I gave into doubt and fell from grace. That the friends I made outside of church brainwashed me. That going to college was the nail in the coffin of my salvation. They'd tell you that by the time I turned 18, I was lost. But I was never lost. Not really. They’d never tell you that I always got in trouble for constantly questioning things. When I was eight, I wrote on the back of an offering envelope “If god created us, who created god?” and left it on a church pew for one of the elders to find (and subsequently got a beating for it). They’d never tell you that at ten, I got into an argument with the children’s pastor for saying men were superior to women because they were created first. They’d never tell you that as a Missionette, I got caught skipping sewing class to crash the Royal Rangers’ (all boys group) flag football games and outdoor events. And they’d certainly never tell you that I was eventually replaced as the president of a bible study group at school for focusing on the less-read and more appalling stories in the Bible, telling people that the gospels weren’t actually written by eye-witnesses, and encouraging people to actually read and think for themselves.
Discovering Satanism was actually one of the biggest steps in trauma recovery for me. To realize that all of my actions and behaviors were based in natural human needs and emotions that aren't at all sinful. That my learned helplessness was a direct result of my upbringing and I didn't need it anymore. That I had control of my life now. That I'm resilient and capable of going through a fire and coming out on the other end, and that I don't have to forgive anyone for anything. That the only person I can rely on is myself.
Here I am on the other side of it all, through many twists and turns. I'm the first of my family to graduate high school, go to college, or go to graduate school. I'm now a professional scientist working on Alzheimer disease research and a keyboardist in a working band. I'm active in my community both in local politics and through volunteer work. Things are far from perfect. I still struggle with old emotions, behaviors and thought patterns. It’s taken many rituals and even daily effort sometimes, but I've achieved a level of happiness and fulfillment in life I never thought possible.
——————
There is no heaven of glory bright, and no hell where sinners roast. Here and now is our day of torment! Here and now is our day of joy! Here and now is our opportunity! Choose ye this day, this hour, for no redeemer liveth! Say unto thine own heart, "I am my own redeemer." Stop the way of them that would persecute you. Let those who devise thine undoing be hurled back to confusion and infamy. Let them be as chaff before the cyclone and after they have fallen rejoice in thine own salvation. Then all thy bones shall say pridefully, "Who is like unto me? Have I not been too strong for mine adversaries? Have I not delivered MYSELF by mine own brain and body?"
The Book of Satan - Anton Szandor LaVey

Armin and the squad suffer from simplified, contradictory writing and lack of agency, and it hurts the final conflict (warning: wall of text)

the MC, the rival, and The ideological clash

First of all, the “War For Paradis” arc ~~(thanks for the "amazing" arc name, aot wiki users)~~ had a lot of technical writing problems (Zevi thunderspear adventure, Falbi conveniently running into Sasha’s family, Magath suddenly changing his military policy so that they don’t noscope Eren to death 30 seconds into the battle), but it was wildly entertaining and had an amazing climax. Rumbling arc mostly gives us a boring plane subplot on top of shallow and simplified character interactions and ideologies. Great entertainment Yams.
The WFP arc gave Eren an ideological opponent in Zeke. Zeke is an antinatalist in a story that seems very pronatalist, so you know he is in the “wrong” narratively, but he is a good rival due to his writing and the fact he is a direct opposite of Eren, who nevertheless came to a similar conclusion. Zeke gets unoreversed by Eren in the climax of WFP, and the story moves to next indeological conflict, that between Eren and Armin. Whereas Eren and Zeke are both doomerpilled and both intend to solve the Eldian situation via genocide, Armin represents a more hopeful and diplomatic approach to the future of the conflict.
Sadly, Armin’s character runs into multiple writing problems that make him an underwhelming rival to Eren, not just from the fact that he doesn’t fucking do anything significant for most of post-timeskip, but from the way his ideology is portrayed. For starters, Armin & co. represent not one, but two different opposing approaches to Paradis’ dilemma, one is the 50-year plan and the other is “solving it peacefully”. I say both, because the story doesn’t seem to state what Armin (or Hange, who is more or less grouped with him by the story) actually want, they agree to 50yp, but they also state that it’s flawed or immoral (since it forces Titan inheritance on Historia’s bloodline) and try to find alternatives. Those alternatives do not happen, so Armin switches to 50yp as that’s what he hopes Eren is doing and why he decides to help him in Shiganshina. However, after the Rumbling starts, the plan is forgotten again (even though it is still brought up sometimes?) and the story switches back to representing Armin’s side as “breaking the cycle of violence via talking it out with the enemy and forgiving them”.
Do I need to say that the 50yp and breaking the violence cycle are completely thematically opposite? 50yp is a plan that includes a violent strike against an enemy and keeps the titan inheritance. Thematically, it continues the cycle of both titans and war as a necessary evil for the greater good. Why is it given to the same characters that are thematically tied to pacifism and peace? Because Isayama didn’t bother to set up even more factions with opposing ideals, and just grouped everything into one?

diplomacy? politics?! I only know anti-war speeches

But even if we just look at the “talking it out” part of Armin’s/Hange’s narrative theme, it’s not well written. At all. The story in its current state equates diplomacy or any non-violent approaches to conflict to “we need to talk to the enemy”. That’s it. The extent of their diplomatic approaches as an alternative to 50yp is one (!) scene where they go to the conference and the Eldian rights speaker (who never once met a Paradisian in his life, and who Hange & co. did not talk to) is like “Eldians good, Paradis bad” and the Survey Corps is like *surprise Pikachu face*, and that’s all. That’s the end of their “diplomatic attempts”. Somehow this one press conference persuaded both the SC with their indomitable spirit and the majority of the fandom that diplomacy is impossible forever because a guy threw responsibility on a titan doomsday island nobody in the world had any contacts with for a century. Personally, I find the scene laughable. Everyone is just too racist to ever make any deals with, aside from when they stop being racist after interacting with Eldians for some time, or when the Eldians are Tyburs, or when it’s very very monetarily profitable to make deals with Eldians, but those are obviously rare exceptions and Paradis is just so alone and they can never make allies with anyone. Ever 😟
But wait! Somehow the dreaded diplomacy had place in the story for pretty much the whole pre-timeskip, despite the fact that the SC situation was somewhat Eldia-lite (everyone fucking hated them! Everyone tried to steal Eren from them)! The Uprising arc was, I guess, supposed to be a test run for the human faction-vs-human faction parts of the story. Yes, a lot of the arc was about the dilemma of killing fellow humans, but the other part of the arc dealt with diplomatic, and not solely violent, solutions to the harsh dilemmas the SC were facing. The main emotional climax of the arc is Historia freeing Eren instead of both Eren and Hisu transforming into titans and duking it out. Erwin, meanwhile, does not spill a drop of blood in this arc (aside from his own), he solves his conflict via political scheming. It’s not a very complicated political scheming, but it is a diplomatic solution to the arc’s conflict, and it’s not portrayed as idealistic fairy tale ending with sunshine and roses, it’s portrayed like smart decisions by a smart man who can make concessions and gain allies. Besides Erwin making smart plays, this arc sets up Hange’s indecisiveness and the initial desire to run away from conflict, which is soon resolved (this arc has a similar dilemma for them, sadly it’s only really resolved after the Rumbling already started), as well as the Gesumin in all his creepy glory, while also setting up Armin’s conflict over killing humans (it seems like the Gesumin part of him has completely disappeared by now, only the murder angst and indecisiveness remained, which tbh makes him a lamer character, esp. since Ereh gets to keep both his early-series murder boner and his later developement).
If Uprising was humans-vs-humans: the beginning, then Paradis dealing with outside world was supposed to be Uprising, but bigger (just like the Rumbling is Grim Reminder, but bigger). But now the training wheels are off, the enemy factions are more hostile and complicated, the diplomatic god that is Erwin is gone, and now it’s up to Armin and Hange to apply the experience they gained in Uprising and show their smarts to deal with this shit. And they didn’t need to succeed. They could have failed completely or didn’t get enough definitive results, and then Eren would go rogue, and Liberio and the Yeagerists would have escalated everything and they would have been left wondering if they could actually do any better to prevent it all. Maybe they would realize that continuing solely via non-violence is fruitless and eventually agree to sacrifice Historia and commit similar horrible deeds, and the question becomes where is the line they shouldn’t cross and what that makes them better than Eren’s final solution.
Except they didn’t do shit. They didn’t even try. They sat on their asses for four years preaching about peace, then gave up at the first attempt (if that was even an attempt). I would say that the point of this was that Erwin was too valuable and Hange/Armin were too lost without him to deal with stuff, but I am honestly not sure that this is intended by the story, instead of “the situation was impossible to ever be improved by anyone’s actions and the only way out was global genocide”, so the story didn’t bother giving Armin and Hange anything to do because it's actually not important and their themes and ideology are actually completely useless... despite now presenting them as important. The only time they do anything is the Yeagerist uprising mini-arc (which is about internal Paradisian conflict, not the external Eldian conflict), and the Alliance, which the story pretends is about the Eldian conflict but it’s actually not, because it’s about breaking the personal revenge cycle within a group of people, most of which already know each other, not about any global resolutions.
So, as a result, in the current arc we are stuck with two opposing “solutions”: in one corner we have Mr. “only way to save my country is to mercilessly stomp every man woman and child in every corner of the world outside my little island”, and in the other corner we have Mr. “I can be a manipulative little bitch that has showed vast understanding of tactics and politics my whole life, but the only thing I want to do now is talk to people and that would resolve everything somehow”. It’s an extremely contrived false dilemma that pretends there is literally nothing between genocide and utterly passive pacifism and it’s a binary. Now choose if you find methodically flattening babies to be an acceptable course of action (in which case you’d probably choose Eren, because at least he has a concrete goal and is doing something), or not in which case you are stuck with Armin who is written like a caricature soyboy lib who can’t do anything other than try to talk to everyone. Amazing writing.
This utter mess of thematic narrative is probably why Isayama decided to just have multiple characters suddenly start standing around literally giving speeches that spell out how war bad peace good break the cycle for children because they are the future. Otherwise the story leans too hard on the “genocide is pretty good eh” side. Except the speeches won’t do shit because Eren is also in part motivated by breaking the cycle (so Eren good even though violence bad?? Make up your mind Isayama), and Armin is just completely reactionary and ineffective, and even if uniting with his personal enemies is breaking a cycle, an obvious logical question is “the fuck will you do after that?” which the story answers with “idk lol”, so we come back down to “wow they both suck, but one sucks in a more boring way”.
A better conflict that would make more sense would be about “ending the cycle” via a big atrocity (genocide of one of the sides) vs “continuing the cycle” via small atrocities for the greater good (variations of 50yp/actual displomacy/political scheming), but rn the story tries to do the both sides approach where Eren wants to break the cycle by killing everyone who can potentially kill him, and Armin tries to break the cycle by… being a good person? Except he says that he is a bad person? And his side still commits small atrocities to achieve its goals like killing yeagerists at the port? I guess that he breaks the cycle on a personal level, but how does that help overall since if he stops Eren and makes a peace treaty with the remains of the world, this was only possible due to Eren being a genocidal maniac and stomping on everything to the point his enemies are forced to repent? None of this was caused by Armin’s own talents or ideology, only Eren’s. So what was the point of pro-pacifism speeches again. Why are we having so much of them.

Honestly, you guys need even more talking

Moving on, even in terms of Armin and the team breaking their own personal cycle, the story falls flat. Overall the Alliance chapters are extremely, extremely rushed and generally superficially written. The handwaved resolution of many small subplots and the formation of the Alliance in 126 are laughable. And note how it's largely Hange's actions that create the alliance anyway, not Armin's who gets stuck on a sidequest and then bumps into Annie who later joins them offscreen. We don't even dwell on Armin's motives for opposing Eren, despite the fact that it's more or less an endgame rivalry. 127 has some logical problems imo but it’s a great, emotional chapter that raises a good point of “We are all war criminals and we have lots of bad blood between us, but we need to move past that because we need to stop this massacre”, it’s followed in 128 by Magath talking about ignorance and acknowledging your crimes for the sake of future generations, it’s all good, but.
The reason it falls flat is because they do not acknowledge a lot of bad blood between them. They are ignorant of some of their crimes. All they know is Yelena parroting a list of their warcrimes (how does she know all of those details, anyway?) and then the Marco talk. Nothing else is personally acknowledged. 104th feeding a helpless Bert to a titan while he screams for his friends is never talked about. Pieck being a part of Ragako massacre is never revealed to Connie. Annie and Levi never talk ~~(not that he gives a shit about anything but monke, but still)~~. Colt and Porco are barely mentioned at all. Warriors’ brainwashing and shit childhoods being a factor in their actions is not acknowledged (does anyone even know exactly how shit their lives actually were aside from Eren and Armin? Annie tells her story to Hitch, so the audience knows, but not the characters). Liberio seems barely relevant despite happening just a month ago, not just that, but Magath knowing about the attack beforehand is never revealed to the Warriors. Guys? Hello? Don’t you think you should know about the fact that your commanding officer conspired to get your hometown massacred, but also did it with an intention to improve your country’s leadership and, hopefully, your social standing, even though it was all for nothing in the end? Well, the story doesn’t think so, he dies without a soul knowing.
Even the stuff that gets acknowledged is needlessly rushed because the chapters are trying to juggle 12+ characters in a fairly small amount of time. The example that personally pissed me off was Annie and Reiner’s resolution. As a reminder, he was the one who pushed BA into attacking the walls and Trost, generally was an ass who made their lives miserable, this dynamic spanned across two whole flashback chapters in Marley back in the good old times when pacing was good. All they get is Reiner taking the blame for Marco at the campfire, then they fight together, then it’s all resolved with half a page of dialogue which is basically “sorry I was an asshole 😕” “NP bro” *hug*. I mean, at least it’s a resolution, but it’s just so halfassed for such a complicated character dynamic that I am just left mourning the story that could have been.
Also that talk on a plane. So, Connie thinks he is “the same” as Reiner, because… let’s see… he killed Yeagerists, armed members of a radicalized splinter faction who just two days ago violently overthrew their government, titanized dozens of military members and tried to kill Hange and Levi. He does it to get a plane so their group can get to Eren and try to halt the Apocalypse. According to Connie (and to the story, I guess?) it makes him the same as Reiner, a child soldier brainwashed to commit genocide of 250 000 people. I don’t care that Connie feels sad, it’s just stupid. Like, the fix is right there, just talk about civilian slaughter in Liberio, mention killing Bert like RBA killed Marco, the yeagerist battle is your “I betrayed my friends ☹️” aspect, boom, you can now make a case that they are kind of the same, but Connie seems to feel much more guilt about his yeagerist former comrades than dead civilians, why do the yeagerists in the fandom hate Connie again? He is no.1 yeagerist stan! You should be proud of him!
(Actually the way the chapters are written it feels like the only characters in the Alliance that give a shit about people getting stomped around the world are Hange, who feels the Rumbling is partly their fault and actually takes steps to form the Alliance, and Jean, who looks like he is in a state of constant mental breakdown and once spares a panicked thought about Ramzi, everyone else is either for Ereh/muh daddy, or just feels kinda there. Like, they took a long plane trip above miles upon miles of a stomped, scorched graveyard, you’d think one of them would look out the window and comment on it, but they just talk about the harbor battle and how it makes them feel bad. People are dying around the world in graphic detail, but the alliance plot feels entirely disconnected from that. Also they let Annie, a titan shifter, go because she doesn’t wanna fight anymore. Guys, there are people dying. Maybe she could be useful. Do you even give a shit).
Anyway, since they think their sins are equivalent to Reiner's, they make the next logical leap and conclude they are also equivalent to Eren's. Bc they all kill people to achieve their goals. Then what is the actual thematic point of the conflict? What makes you different from Eren, aside from a different current objective? Why is he committing genocide, and you are not? Will the story continue the hints that Eren and Reiner are different from other characters, or is everything just superficially morally grey?

isayama's new best boy

Oh but the two Eren chapters we got were great: interesting panel layouts and non-linear storytelling, PATHS shards mysteries, great visual metaphor with the birds, actually subtle thematic and character writing instead of characters standing and making anti-war speeches, really shows where Isayama’s priorities lie, lol. How sad, his acknowledged faves are Reiner and Jean, but he can’t give a rat’s ass about the writing of their faction and it brings their characters down HARD. I guess his love for his own self-insert has prevailed and took over his entire remaining attention span for this series.
The problem with Eren comes in 133, because his epic “I came to talk to tell you we don’t need to talk” speech contradicts his previous behaviour. His point in this chapter is that he supposedly allows Alliance to keep their powers and come fight him because freedom. Okay let’s see, 1) in 112 he was fine with lying to MA despite stating in the same chapter that ignorance in the opposite of freedom, thus making MA “not free”; 2) he literally put his friends in jail lol. But now he values their freedom above their safety or above a quick and unopposed completion of his plans despite “not wanting to gamble Paradis’ future”. Either it’s shitty writing yet again, or Eren is a massive hypocrite (lol) who restricts his friends’ freedoms when they could have still prevented the Rumbling, but allows them to fight now when he is basically God. That said, the whole scene and the contrast of sleepy adult Headren/cheerful child Eren/creepy eyeless child Eren is kinda sus so it may be intentional contradictory fuckery at hand.
On top of that, Eren and his Colossal army are so ridiculously overpowered that it destroys any possible tension. The world armies are no threat to them because they can’t take out a single Colossal. Port Salta gets hyped up and then they job immediately because its only reason for existence is to get Alliance and Eren in the same place. Then it turns out Eren is too overpowered for the Alliance and their remaining titan shifters and two Ackermans because the Founder can summon a zombie shifter army. Since he can’t be fought with conventional weaponry and any strategy is useless, we just have to wait for some deux ex machina, probably revolving around Armin/Ymir that will actually move the plot forward, because none of the characters or factions can actually do anything. There is little to no tention because no one else really has any effect on the plot, either Eren kills Armin and they lose, or some paths stuff happens and Armin kills/stops Eren, as far as we know nothing else that any character can do matters right now. Everyone just waits till the plot finally moves forward.

TL/DR:

Armin's opposition to Eren centers around both the 50 year plan and a "breaking the cycle of violence" diplomatic approach which do not mix and just wildly alternate as Armin's "goals" as the story goes on. Diplomacy itself got nerfed in the story and turned into “talking and pacifism” to make the final conflict more tragic/philosophical/morally grey/whatever, instead it makes Armin a boring and inefficient rival to Eren, while the story fails to convincingly show Eren’s opponents breaking the cycle both externally and internally despite presenting them as breaking the cycle. Eren also suffers from potentially inconsistent writing. Finally, his overpowered abilities make the final conflict even worse because Armin cannot solve it strategically, thus relying solely on story to move the conflict for him. Arc bad

Shadowverse Rotation Meta Report. January 10th

Welcome everyone and welcome to a new Meta report. We're entering the second week of Eternal Awakening and plenty of things are still going on. As always i'll be relying on a variety of sources, gamewith, shadowverse-wins.com, tourney results and my own experiences.
Forestcraft
In the great woods of Forestcraft, where the fairies flutter and where the elves all practice archery when they're not busy with other things. We find Selwyn being rejected by Tweyen, even as they have so much in Common. Apparently she has someone else she likes. Selwyn dejected heads to the local tavern to drown his years in Ale.
For Forestcraft We find Accelerate Forest in charge followed by Aggro Forest and Loxis Forest steps in as Evolve Forest steps out. Overall Forestcrat is in a good spot with a fair bit of diversity and several strong decks at that having benefitted quite a bit from the expansion so far.
Accelerate Forest
Fast and unpredictable, this deck swoops in and out before you can catch a proper glimpse of it and before you know it. You're dead
A midrange-combo deck built around accelerate cards. The deck has grown to be the primary forest deck, getting more aggressive and using Walder more actively and aggressively, some even including Cactus Cowboy, additional Xeno Sagitarrius is being cut as well since it's not seeing much usefulness in the current meta. Also some decks run Terrorformer as a secondary win condition plus card draw source.A strong if somewhat complex deck.
Aggro Forest
Fierce and furious, the rage of the forests embodied into one deck as it tears through the meta environment!
An aggro deck built around strong threats and disruptive tools. Seeing a slight decline in favour of accelerate forest, the deck overall remains strong with some variations about, including some decks running Goblin queen as a strong board filling tool that can give your opponent a tough time.
Loxis Forest
One man from who knows where, taming the wild and turning it into his own weapons. Be careful of what he hides up his sleeves
A midrange combo deck. Loxis Forest makes a return, a bit less combo focused and more focused on making more use of vehicle amulets and so a bit more aggressive. A tricky deck, but one which in the right hands clearly enjoys some success as this deck managed the top 16 of the most recent JCG Open.
Swordcraft
In the eternal Castle of Swordcraft. Where the banners of many knights hand proudly from the near endless walls. We arrive to see Eahta and Albert sparring, with albert losing most of the fights spectacularly. Much to the amusement of the assembled soldiers watching it all. Causing Albert to run off in a huff and Eahta to run after him to give him a big hug and apologize.
For Swordcraft Evolve Sword as always remains at the top, followed by a distance by Rally Sword, Walfrid Sword and Neutral Aggro Sword. Overall the class is starting to struggle with the bloated nature of Evolve Sword bleeding the rest of the class dry, so while there is some deck diversity and choices. There's a stark difference in how good they are. Cygames really needs to knock it off.
Evolve Sword
A group of the finest heroes, decked out in shining armour and equipped with legendary weapon. Truly paragons of their craft, with a cost to boot
A Control deck built around Evolving. At 91k Vials it is by far the most expensive competetive deck in the game, and even at that cost level is starting to see a dip in popularity as it struggles against some of the top decks now and some are starting to lose some weight and go more aggressively, but are struggling to find the tools for that. A good deck, if you can afford it.
Rally Sword
A legion at arms, ever marching towards the next battle. No amount of casualties will stop them !
A tempo deck built around the rally mechanic. Overall a significant drop from last week and more of a fringe deck (along with most other sword decks) But in the right hands can climb decently, though there's still a lot of experimentation happening with some trying out evolve builds.
Walfrid Sword
One man and his will, animating an entire army into action and existence ! Who can stop this brave band of brothers ?
A midrange deck built around Walfrid. Seeing a further drop into the fringes. Walfrid Sword continues to see some play as some players enjoy it's playstyle, but overall there seems to have been no major changes to the deck or anything else to report. Expect to work hard for the deck.
Aggro Vehicle Sword
Daredevils, outlaws and madmen. All propelled forwards in a collective need for speed and victory!
An aggro deck built around the Neutral package and Proven method. Continuing to see some fringe play as apparently it works decently against Dragon. An updated build from Mororin. Very much a fringe deck like most of the other sword decks.
Runecraft
In the mystical Academies of Runecraft, where knowledge matters more than anything else (except waffles) We arrive just in time to see Isabelle drop off Fif with Karyl and tell the poor cat girl to keep the imp occupied so she doesn't disrupt everyone else. Leaving Karyl to fume and scream it's only because she's about to rotate out that Isabelle asks her to do it.
For Runecraft Spellboost Rune continues to sit at the apex, followed by Karyl Rune, Vincent Rune and Earth Rite Rune. Despite seeing more decks arrive, Runecraft overall struggles in the current meta as it's disruptive tools aren't quite useful for the current meta and lacks better threats so ends up in an awkward spot.
Spellboost Rune
Terrifying arcane power, awesome magical servants, all at the power of your finger tips if you merely devote yourself to this deck!
A midrange deck built around Spellboost Synergies. Overall struggling a bit with the rise of Vehicle Dragon. Spellboost Rune continues to be decent but lacking options to get more aggressive itself, is having a bit of a hard time. Some decks are experimenting with Elmott, but those decks are a minority. Decent, but expect to work for it.
Karyl Rune
She didn't ask for any of this. But she's had enough of the jokes, the taunts and being fed insects. Now she'll destroy the world!
A control combo deck built around Karyl and burning out the enemy. A recent arrival and a spin on Karyl with a lot of control elements, in the right hands the deck can perform decently but is rather high skill level os is not for everyone, plus Karyl herself rotates out at the end of the expansion.
Vincent Rune
A man dedicated to the law more than anything else, and willing to create laws to enforce, merely so he can enforce something
A tempo deck built around Vincent and Vehicles. Seeing a minor drop off compared to last week and as Karyl gains momentum. The deck is still fairly decent and in the right hands can swiftly overwhelm opponents
Earth Rite Rune
Drawing upon the vast powers of alchemy to conjure up seas of fire and mighty golems. It has still yet to figure out how to make gold (or gold cards)*
A midrange deck built around Earth Rites. A decent deck at the fringes of the meta. Lacking more early threats or powerful midgame tools it finds itself back to Karyl to hope to push through with.
Dragoncraft
In the great Caverns of Dragoncraft, where ancient beasts slumber for eternities. We find Hiro as always laughing like a maniac on his throne of Terrors. But the important bit is the arrival of Rola and the rest of the leaders not entirely sure if she belongs there since her Dragon is not really a Dragon. Forte points out her great big horns, and after looking at the right big ones, Rowen and Valdain concedes her points and so Rola is accepting into Dragoncraft.
For Dragoncraft Vehicle Dragon sits at the peak of Absolute Terror, followed by OTK Dragon, Ramp Dragon and Discard Dragon. Dragoncraft overall is in a very strong position with multiple strong decks with quite a bit of variety within each of them.
Vehicle Dragon
Fire, speed, madness ! All contained within this one explosive deck. Incendiary Adventure await!
A tempo deck built around Strong threats and strong disruptive tools. The deck has by now solidified its position from last week and is seeing a ton of variations. With some running Jerva, others going full aggro and cutting out most of the evolve stuff and others opting for a third route. Giving the deck quite some power since the opponent never quite knows what they're up against. A powerful deck in the current meta
OTK Dragon
From beneath the oceans, comes a terribly harbinger of doom. Drowning out the entire world to reclaim it!
A combo deck built around Disrestan. The deck has seen a bit of a drop with the rise of Vehicle Dragon, but still remains potent as it can target decks that targets Vehicle Dragon. Overall also more complex which holds back its popularity as well somewhat.
**Ramp Dragon
Storming through the skies, higher and higher as it looks to tear the very heavens apart with mighty behemoths of fire and thunder
A ramp deck built around Dragon Devouring Dread. Seeing a further drop in popularity as Vehicle Dragon and OTK dragon takes charge. The deck remains solid but lacking the same speed or flashyness as the other two is taking a minor backseat to them.
Discard Dragon
No Sacrifice is too great, no enemy too small to avoid destruction. This deck will happily tear itself apart as long as the enemy dies in the process
A midrange deck built around Discarding Cards. Continuing to drop in popularity as it just lacks the big flashy plays and aggression of the other decks and so while it still sees usage here and there is finding itself pushed to the fringes.
Shadowcraft
In the great Catacomb of Shadowcraft, where ancient empires lie buried. We find Luna starting to grow worried that Ginsetsu may have gotten lost on her way to become a leader and so sends Cerberus to help her out as she figures Cerberus should be smart enough to do the trick. How wrong she will be.
For Shadowcraft Gremory Shadow has overtaken Aggro Shadow, which in turn is followed by Burial Rite Rally Shadow and Vaseraga shadow continues to see some play. Shadowcraft is in a strong position due to multiple very strong decks giving it quite some flexibility and resilience in the meta.
Gremory Shadow
A whirlwind of death, of which at the centre stands a little girl. A twisted smile, she asks you to play a bit with her
A midrange deck built around Gremory and Rally. Gremory Shadow this week overtakes Aggro Shadow in popularity as it can overwhelm numerous decks with its massive board building skills and can use Necroimpulse both offensively and defensively quite well. A potent deck that does require a bit of getting used to but can give a lot of decks a run for their monery. Some decks even get a bit more aggressive with extra one drops.
Aggro Shadow
An aggro deck built around strong threats and reanimation. Seeing a slight dip in favour of Gremory Shadow as most decks are teching against it, the deck is still the best aggro deck in the format and can still do a lot of damage. Additionally some decks are using IO for extra burn damage, but also board control. A strong and fairly straightforward deck to play.
Burial Rite Rally Shadow
Rising from the grave, again and again. Your work is not over until it says it is
A midrange deck built around Burial Rite and Reanimation Synergies. Less popular than the others as it is a little less fast and more skill intensive, but does have more control tools as it can use Deathbringer along with Fatal order to help clear board and heal. A solid deck.
Vaseraga Shadow
One man, unstoppable by death and always returning. His purpose, is your destruction!
A midrange combo deck built around Vaseraga and getting him into play as fast as possible. Still a fringe deck, but one which some players enjoy as it can overrun slower decks. Worth noting, it is NOT a nepthys deck and only uses her to cheat out multiple Vaseragas.
Bloodcraft
In the great Mansion of Decadence and sin that is bloodcraft. We find Urias dealing with Volteo to reduce Viras debt as apparently she has a bit of a gambling problem and has ordered into a rehabilitation program to get over her problem. Volteo meanwhile is a tricky devil to negotiate with, in the end the threat of violence solves it.
For Bloodcraft Wrath Blood remains at the top, followed by Volteo Blood and some Control blood. In theory there's some aggro blood, but i like anything solid on it. Overall Bloodcraft is in a decent spot, but mostly due to wrath blood and suffers from the same issue of Swordcraft of one deck getting all the focus while the rest of the class gets neglected.
wrath blood
A deck fueled by intense anger and hatred. Fueled by these intense emotions, it moves out to conquer and destroy!
A midrange deck built around Wrath. A strong deck that continues to see good play in the current meta with no real major changes, many decks still use silver bolt hunter and that is about it really to remark this week.
Volteo Blood
Roll the dice and see what you get. This deck offers it all, but with an awful lot of caveats and even more excuses attached to it.
A Highlander deck built around Volteo. Continuing to see play with a dedicated small group of players at the fringe of the meta. In the right hands it can do well, but does require a lot of work and experience to really flow well.
Control Blood
A deck filled with great and terrible powers, slowly plotting out the destruction of its opponents as it sets up all of the pieces for its great win
A control deck built around Xeno Diablo. A fringe deck as it ultimately is struggling quite a bit in the current meta and finding itself short of tools. So mostly for the dedicated control player who refuses to play anything else no matter what.
Havencraft
In the Summit Temple of Havencraft, where Faith shines purest ! We find all of the leaders assembled as the arrival of the Fluffy Angel has put severe pressure on the brand of the Church of Havencraft and now they have to come up with a counter to it. After much debate (and Meowskers running off in tears with De La Fille after him to comfort him) they end up settling on the idea of Fluffy Featherfolk. Its Fluffy Angel, but with larger... assets.
For havencraft Banish Haven seems to be rising up out of nowhere followed by the similarly newly arrived Rally Haven, followed by Ward Haven and Sanctuary Haven. There is also Amulet haven and Summit haven, but as i normally focus on the top 4 best decks if there are any (in this case there's a total of 6) i won't be talking about those, but yeah.. haven technically has 6 decks! Overall haven is in a fairly good position practically bursting with decks.
Control Haven
Punishment from above, banish all before your sights like an angry god of the old stories!
A control deck built around strong removal, healing and Ra. The deck has made quite the entrance as it seems quite capable of disarming several of the more potent decks in the meta with it's banish plus can stall out against a lot of them thanks to all of the healing, a more skill intensive deck mind you.
Rally Haven
Penetance fuels this holy war formed up of outcasts, former bandits and more, guided by a few holy warriors to lead them to salvation!
A midrange deck built around the Rally mechanic and vehicles. Already experimented with in the first week, the inclusion of the vehicle package seems to have done the trick and given the deck some legs as it can play aggressively then make big swing turns with goddess of the west wind. A good if a bit linear deck.
Ward Haven
A host of shields and defenders, eager to end the long war and crush their enemies under the power of their faith!
A midrange deck built around Ward Synergies. Seeing a slight decrease as other decks get more popular ahead of it that can be more aggressive since in the face of Vehicle Dragon, it can run into some issues. Still a good deck though, especially in the right hands.
Sanctuary Haven
A sanctuary for the weak and needy, for the devout and faithful. Turning healing into a weapon, it can both protect and destroy!
A control deck built around healing Synergies. Still popular it has taken a minor backseat to control haven and rally haven as they do have a bit more flash. Still, a potent deck in the right hands.
Portalcraft
In the Vertex Colony, high in orbit over a long dead world. We find Yuwan trying to hide as Lishenna has decided to start a concert to get Illgenau unnerfed and he quite frankly doesn't want to be part of it. But Lishenna and the rest of the leaders aren't taking no for an Answer so he has sought refuse in a small secluded area that no one else knows off.. along with the wafflemaker, that'll show them who's boss.
For Portalcraft Rally Portal has seemingly managed to find itself back at the top followed by Artifact Portal and Evolve Portal. Portalcraft is in a decent spot with good variety but lacking any really impactful decks.
Rally Portal
A horde of faceless puppets, their strings pulled by an unseen master. What madness will follow in their wake ?*
A midrange deck built around puppets and the rally mechanic. Making a surprising return by including parts of the vehicle package for a stronger early game. Rally Portal seems to have swung itself into the meta and even into a decent position in the most recent JCG Open with numerous variations on the deck. A solid deck that does require a bit of experience for best results.
Artifact Portal
A whirling madness of Alien machines from an unknown world, what logic dictates their actions is best left in the dark, as only madness lies down that road.
A midrange deck built around Artifacts. Still two major variations with the Bahamut Combo version seemingly more popular. A decent deck that does require some skill for the best results.
Evolve Portal
Great warriors clad in a strange and unearthly energy, what sort of pacts and deals have these men and women made to gain their power ?
A control deck built around Evolve synergies. Seeing a bit of a drop, though still somewhat popular. That said lacking the more aggressive plays of Rally Portal or Artifact portal is finding itself a bit sidelined.
Quite the report this week with even more decks being added. Deck diversity remains overall high though there's definitely a bunch of them being more fringe decks (But playable if you're willing to put the effort into them). Dragon and Shadowcraft are points of concern with Georgius and Necroimpulse being the cards i'd keep an eye out for if balance changes happens. Though that is an IF at this stage since the meta is still developing with decks still appearing. I mean haven's got a total of 6 decks technically. Lots of things could still happen to be honest and i think a lot of cards still have plenty of room for exploration. So the meta i suspect is anything but settled and there may be more surprises over the coming weeks. At most any balance changes that may really need could just be buffs to help some of the less well of classes and decks rather than nerfing strong decks.
So hope you enjoyed reading this weeks meta report as it was quite the bit of work to put together!
Until next week, have fun playing Shadowverse!

AITA for wanting a day off?

Ridiculous Impact! Know the vast world that you're stepping your foot into

Hello Traveler~ Nice meeting you here. Now this is gonna be quite a big post so I'll first give up table of contents and what'll be discussed so you can easily jump to your preferred section. I'll give you 20 resin(worth of upto 1 domain) if you read it all. This is a very big post and not much nicely formatted cuz I suck at it so just read it at your own pace.

TABLE ON CONTENTS:
1 Genshin vs Honkai
2 Some interesting opinions by community
3 Rewards in Genshin
4 Confirmation pop ups
5 Spiral Abyss is such a waste
6 One time challenge domains
7 Constellations
8 Events are bad
9 Why World Level is an absolute joke
10 Co-op aka the resource stealing mode
11 Resin and other issues
12 Should you spend money on Genshin
13 What should you do
14 Mihoyo
15 Final Words

1) GENSHIN VS HONKAI IMPACT 3
In this section let's look at some of things which Honkai did right, Genshin did wrong, and things which I presonally would love if Genshin inherits from Honkai. While the games are quite different from each other, what we'll look at is basic designs.
If you don't know Honkai Impact 3, it's a game developed by Mihoyo available on PC, Mobile platforms. For further info google is your friend.

Stamina vs Resin system:
Honkai uses a stamina system similar to Genshin which is used to play different content. There are some key differences with how it's implemented, let's look at those....

Honkai Stamina scales with Captain Level:
Captain level in Honkai is similar to Adventure Rank(AR). In Honkai your total stamina limit increases as you level up. You start at maximum limit of 80 stamina at Level 1, which doubles as you hit Level 80 increasing up to 160.

Daily Stamina refill twice a day:
Honkai provides 2 stamina refills a day where user can login and claim the stamina. If doesn't disappear till next day so you can login at night and claim both the stamina. Genshin has nothing of the sort.

Daily Login Bonuses:
Honkai had these from Day 1 and I don't even know why it isn't in Genshin in the first place. Sieze the day is not an event neither it should. There should be proper daily login rewards.

Stamina usage is very less in Honkai:
The stamina you use in Honkai to play content is very less compared to the usage in Genshin. Normal Story mode quests use 10 per run(normal difficulty), weapon exp and stigma exp(similar to artifact) use 16 per run and Character Exp use 12 per run. Money stage is the best as it uses only 5 per run. This is a lot better than Genshin's minimum of 20 everywhere.

Events use very little to no stamina in Honkai. This is something I'd like to point out here. Elemental Crucible event was bad imo, reward wise as well gameplay wise. The event used Resin to reward you AR exp as well as materials. This is quite different from Honkai where events are the ones which use the least stamina in the whole game. Most events use 5, 8, 10 or in some cases 0 stamina to play. Events also give stamina items as rewards. And tbh some events give more stamina as reward rather than using it.

Stamina refreshes costs way less in Honkai:
In Honkai you can refresh you stamina by using crystals(similar currency as primogems). The cost of refreshes is way less compared to Genshin. In Honkai first two refreshes cost only 25 crystals, next two cost 50 crystals and so on.
One pull in Honkai costs 280 crystals.
Effectively one refresh uses only 1/11 of a pull. Compare it with Genshin where one refresh costs you 1/3 rd of a pull and two refreshes costs you a full single pull.
In Honkai first 4 refreshes cost 150 crystals which is 1/2th of a single pull. So even refreshing 4 times you only use crystals about half of a single pull compared to the atrocious refreshes rates of Genshin.

Memorial Arena vs Weekly Boss:
In Honkai Impact you have something similar to Weekly Boss in Genshin where you fight 3 Bosses(boss changes per week), you defeat them and get rewards. This mode uses no stamina at all. While somehow in Genshin in addition to being only available once a week you need a whopping 60 resin for it.

Vending machine/Refrigerator:
It's a item in Honkai which automatically stores your excess stamina. Dunno why this isn't in Genshin. I know about the upcoming resin item but that's still you gotta login and do it manually. This will be a nice QoL change.

Abyss:
Honkai also has an abyss mode which resets twice a week. The reset is full meaning you start climbing from start. Abyss in Honkai is more rewarding than abyss in Genshin. In Honkai abyss is divided in groups namely sinful, agony, red lotus and myraid. Depeding on your score you either demote, promote or retain. We'll take the example of Red lotus since I feel like in terms of difficulty of clearing all the 12 Floors in Genshin, red lotus is a good comparison.
Retention in Red Lotus gives you a total of 420 crystals. This amounts to a total of 3360 crystals per month. Compare it with the 1200 primogems you get per month from Genshin abyss.
Genshin gives you 7.5 pulls per month from abyss while Honkai gives you 12 pulls per month.

Constellation and Ranking up in Honkai:
In Honkai there is a similar system to constellations where you can upgrade your character rank. It goes from Rank B -> A -> S -> SS -> SSS. Ranking up characters provide significant boosts to powers. Some characters are so that you can't even tell whether it's the same one of not. That's how high the boost Ranking up gives to units. The one saving grace in Honkai is that you can farm character fragments. Character fragments are what allows a character to increase the rank. You can farm them from story mode, events and if you get a same character from gacha then it is converted into fragments which you can use to upgrade your character.

Gacha Banners:
In Honkai you can get 3 things from Gacha namely Character, weapon and stigma(honkai's equivalent of Artificats). There is one other thing that is ELFs but we have nothing similar in Genshin and ELF is also a separate gacha from others.
The main point is that in Honkai all banners are separate. There is a separate banner for characters, weapons & stigma and lastly elf. Weapons & stigma banners don't have characters while character banners don't have weapons/elf etc. So if you hit pity on character banner then you are atleast guaranteed that you will get a character. This also makes ranking up characters quite affordable compared to genshin.
Another point to mention is that character banners in Honkai features only 1 UP rate character. Honkai equivalent of 5 star character is an S rank valkyrie. Character banners in Honkai have only one S rank character. The pity is 100 pulls for guaranteed character. So if you by luck hit the 1.5% chance of getting a S rank character then you are guaranteed to get the character on the banner. There is no ridiculous 50% chance of getting something you don't even want.

Grinding in Genshin is 10x worse than in Honkai:
The main reason why resin sucks even more. The amount of grinding you need to do in Genshin is 10x than in Honkai. Mora, Exp material for char, exp material for weapons, artificats, domains, bosses, weekly bosses. So yeah in the end what we got is
10x more grinding and 10x worse stamina system.
This is what we got. The materials you need for even one character are so ridiculous that you need to farm weeks just for that one character alone which is crazy.

Rewards for buying primogems:
This is not much of an issue and is only for whales but something I thought I'd point out. In Honkai there are rewards given to players when you buy a certain amount of crystals. The rewards include things like outfits, materials, frame, emblem, exclusive dorm set etc. They even recently revamped those awards and it gives even more now.
Genshin on the other hand has nothing like this.

Final words:
It doesn't take a genius to understand that despite having a lot of experience in the field and having better system in the past, Mihoyo went with ridiculous monetization as well as the stamina system for Genshin. Now I won't say Honkai is perfect. Hell it's quite a bad game with the number of faults it has of its own, but it's still better than Genshin. Honkai learned and improved over time, but it wasn't as bad as Genshin is at the start.

2) SOME INTERESTING OPINIONS REGARDING THE GAME
I've seen a lot of interesting opinions in various platforms including forums, reddit as well as youtube comments, and some I received on my previous post. Let's take a look at them.

Resin system is absolutely required because it is mandatory by law in China
This absolute bs of the excuse going around. I mean just one look at the game and you can clearly see how false it is. Firstly regarding the law, it is only for people less than 18 years old to regulate their playtime and money spending. It doesn't apply to others. Also going by the fact that you can play Genshin Impact straight for 24 hours throws this crap outta the window. So at least look into the things before making such statements.

I'm a working/family man. It's good that resin is there since it's perfect for me.
This has two types. One which say it's good for them but still want change and the others which just want it to stay as it is.
Okay this is good for you but what about others? Now I'm not talking bad here. I mean there's a lot of people here with jobs who don't have much time to play. BUT what about people who can play?
The ultimate meaning of this statement is that Since I can't play for much longer due to work or other things nobody else should also be allowed to play it longer than me.
This is absolute crap. I mean look at it in these two ways:
By being bound by resin you are happy but part of the community is not happy
BUT
With better resin system the other part will also be happy and you won't have anything to lose.
I mean if resin gets better what is bad for you? Another person can say farm 6 hours daily and can have better artifacts than you. But does it matter? As of now the game has 0 competitive mode and doubt it will even have any in the future considering how it's designed. You have your own world, your own abyss, your own resources. What the account next to you have impacts absolutely nothing for your play. By trying to say that resin is good due to this reason you may be having fun but you are actively trying to destroy the gaming experience of others.

Mihoyo is very generous. You should wait and see it'll be good
A very hard disagree with this statement and this is coming from someone who played Honkai from start till the release of Genshin. Mihoyo is farthest thing there is when talking about generosity. It's the mindset which the people have developed while playing Honkai. You get so little rewards that when you get something a little nicer it feels like a very big thing. This is what Mihoyo rolls with.
Let's look at Honkai. The game gave an item name S rank egg which had some S rank characters to choose from. This was done on the 2nd anniversary, that is after two years of playing the devs game a free character and people were like it's the best thing there is. Not to mention it contained all the characters released year before and none of the new ones. Other games give out way too much that people don't even know about. Hell they are usually so generous that even Mihoyo's Anniversaries don't even compare to their normal events.
Another thing people consider generous is the ability to farm S Rank characters. You can farm some S Rank characters in Honkai using the currency obtained from Memorial Arena. You need 80 fragments to unlock S rank characters and 100 fragments to unlock Awakened S Rank characters. You can only buy 6 fragments for normal and 8 fragments for awakened character per week. All in all you need 13 weeks to unlock the said character and it takes years to farm it all the upto SS or SSS Rank.
So yeah Mihoyo is far from generous. Look at other games who know what generous is.

This is a Gacha game
I feel like most of the people who use this excuse haven't even played any gacha games. It's very easy to see for any gacha game player just how bad genshin is even by gacha games standard. In terms of stamina alone I feel this game has the worst system in the entire gacha game market. I've played my fair share of gacha games and haven't ran into these problems. Hell I never really ran into stamina problem in Honkai.

You do not need gacha characters to clear the game. You can easily do so with the free characters.
The main point of playing games like Genshin which features a variety of characters is playing with the characters you like the most. Of course it may not be true for all but most players have a fav character and they do wanna play with them.
Also look at free characters. They're boring as hell. Kaeya, lisa, amber their moves and gameplay ain't even good. Literally every other character has more interesting moves and is stronger than them.

Genshin is Free-to-Play(F2P)
This is one of the naive opinions. Please know that just because a game is free to play doesn't mean anything flies. It doesn't mean they should be able to do whatever predatory crap they want and get away with it. These are carefully crafted tactics. There's a reason by this F2P game has earned more than Pay-to-Play(P2P) games. And honestly if you ask me F2P games throw more crap than any P2P game.

But FGO gacha is bad, it doesn't have pity.
Tbh it's a very fcked up mindset if for comparisons you always look at the worst things. This basically says you never want anything to improve.
Why even look at worse system!? Why not a good one!? Why you look at FGO, why not at Azur Lane!?
And look Genshin even by gacha standard is one of the worst games there is. Abysmal rates paired with abysmal primogems is just pure garbage. If there is one gacha game worse than Genshin then there are 100 better ones too. Stop using sh!tty excuses to defend such systems. In the end you're getting nothing out of it.

Resin is required for progression check. They don't want you to max out everything within week.
There are way better ways to do this. The first and very simplest one that pops up in mind is just limit the number of runs per day. Resin should've been extra in this game not the center of it.
For example, limit the number of each domains a player can do to say 5 per day. Then if players wanna do one particular domain more then they can use resin. Limit the amount of AR Exp you can do per day and let people grind leylines as much as they want. There's very little you can do with Mora itself you can do in the game. Everywhere you need additional items with Mora to do something. But even then it's still locked behind resin. Realize how fcked up this is.
Also the grind in the game is insane. With the amount of RNG slapped on artifacts, nobody's maxing them in a week or two.

Meh we are not the main market. Asian countries can sustain Genshin by themselves. It won't change anything even if we cry.
While this is true for almost all mobile gacha games, this imo is different for Genshin. Genshin has a lot of western audience and whales. Even according to latest data around 20%(45 million) of total revenue is from US. That is a lot. So yeah western audience is quite huge in genshin and has the ability to make impact. Also the main market ,that is, China are the ones which are revolting the most

3) REWARDS IN GENSHIN
Honestly one of the other bs things in the game is the rewards. Be it event rewards, achievements, chests, quests, spiral abyss. Literally every part of the game is very very low rewarding compared to the effort to you in. Look at Adventure Rank(AR), at higher levels above 40 you need more than 10k exp to advance to next level. That's is 5-6 days worth of grinding and what you get in the end. A measly two fragile resin, maybe 100 primogems, a crap 5 star artifact and 50k mora. Just wow, imo this game instead of rewarding you, actually punishes and spits in your face.
Spiral Abyss is currently the most difficult content in the game. You need 2 teams and a total of 8 characters to challenge upper floors. While not all should be maxed, at least some should be and others also at ok level. They should be better as floor goes on. So gratz you spent months building your teams and cleared the most difficult content in the game and what you get. A bs 1200 primogems. Not even 1600 for a fcking 10 pull but rather this petty amount.
Look at the discord event. Pfft 50 primogems and that too for only 50k people. Pathetic.
This is the case with literally every thing in the game. The amount of reward you get for clearing them is abysmal. You don't even get that feeling of accomplishment after seeing the pathetic rewards.

4) CONFIRMATION POP UPS
One of the very basic things that the game lacks is confirmation popups. Be it abyss, wishes, upgrading materials, characters everything. Don't even know why such a common thing is missing. I play with controller and wasn't used to controls yet due to the reverse O and X system and ended up hitting wishes which I didn't even wanna do.

5) SPIRAL ABYSS IS SUCH A WASTE
Honestly an awesome game mode whose potential is really wasted and badly implemented. Currently the most difficult content in the game. It has 12 Floors and Floor 8-12 reset twice a month. Now let's see how it's badly implemented....
5.1 -> Complete waste of 8 Floors and replay value
There is literally no incentive to play first 8 floors again once you've cleared them. Like why the hell is this even a one time thing. You've created those 8 floors so make use of them. Refresh the whole thing. It's such a waste.
5.2 -> Rewards should be reversed in terms of stars earned
Primogems rewards should be given out fully once you clear the floor regardless of how many stars you earned. The materials and artificats you get can be locked behind the star system even though it is also bad. What they're doing is effectively blocking players from earning even the free primogems. With how scarce the resources are in the game, it will take quiet a bit of time for most players to get to a level where they can clear abyss fully with all stars. This is again a very scummy move.
5.3 -> The timer to earn stars is complete crap
What abyss is now currently is just a dps check. If you have high dps build then you can clear it, otherwise ain't possible. This just limits the strats that players can use. There are tactics, defensive strats, chill strats but this timer just throws everything out the window.
Make it co-op. Make it difficult. There's so many possibilities. Honestly this can be such a good mode but once again is completely wasted.

6) ONE TIME CHALLENGE DOMAINS
Another waste of a thing, the challenge domains that are in the game. Despite having ridiculously low rewards this again is also a one time for Mihoyo knows why. Again very good level design, fun to play but no incentive to play again due to no rewards.
These should refresh every week.

7) CONSTELLATIONS

Realize the fact that every character you get is just 1/7 of his full potential. It is strictly not 1/7th of their power but what I mean is their abilities locked behind constellation. Add this to the fact that let's say you spend $200 to pull a 5 star character. Voila now you've got a character which is 1/7th of his power. Constellations are ridiculous. They provide very high buffs which sometimes completely transform the character.
Constellations should not exist in the game. Whether I pay to get a character or get it by luck, it should be the complete character and not locked behind some sh!t system that requires 6 more of the same thing.
also some people say that you do not need full constellation, he's already pretty strong as he is. See this is wrong. This mindset that you're compromising for something lower is wrong in itself. As I've already said above this constellation system is crap in itself.

8) EVENTS ARE BAD
For games like these events are one of things that are exciting and offer new content. But events in Genshin are a total joke.
The rewards are crap. You get a total of 210 primogems for an event that lasts one whole week. That's not even 2 Wishes. Also the additional rewards you get are just some negligible trash.
The gameplay of events is crap. Take a look at the ongoing event. Is there even anything interesting or worth doing in it. Atm it's just a daily login bonus with few extra steps. Similar was the elemental crucible event. You had to do that buggy crap 20 times to get what? 1 Wish!?
These are not events. It justs Mihoyo laughing at the players faces while giving away bread crumbs.

9) WHY WORLD LEVEL IS A JOKE
Almost nothing scales with good with world level. The things that scale, their scaling is very bad. Look at Mora Ley line, at AR 35 it gives 44000 Mora and at AR 40 it gives 52000 mora. That's just freaking 8000 increase for a week of grinding. 8k Mora is nothing at higher levels. Exp ley line gives 3-4 books which is not even enough for freaking one Level up. The stuff that doesn't require resin doesn't even matter, exp from mobs, mora from mobs etc. All World leveling does is just increase the stats of enemies and nothing else.
The resources requirement increases 10x while resources income increases maybe 0.5x

10) CO-OP aka THE RESOURCE STEALING MODE
Ah yes the resources stealing mode. What you can do in coop? Nothing except stealing resources cuz you ain't getting anything else if you don't have resin. Once again one of the crap rewarding mode. The only incentive to do coop is to imo clear domains easily if you do not have much stronger characters. If you have resin you can get the rewards otherwise another waste of time. Also the reward you get is nothing different. It's the same crap you'll get whether you solo or coop.
Without resin you're just doing carry service. In a game like Genshin which doesn't have competitive features and has a vast open world Coop can be one of the best things there is. But once again no thought was put into it.

11) RESIN AND OTHER ISSUES
Resin issue doesn't even need any introduction at this point. I've already made a post about it before.
Here are some other posts by users which are very good and worth every read. I'll update this as the time goes on. There are many others also. Make use of that search.
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/j7taod/everything_wrong_with_genshin_impact_community/
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/j5lksg/to_all_the_players_defending_poor_design_in/
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/jignnt/im_in_ar41_and_ill_be_polite_but_resources_in/
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/jk9dbw/professional_western_game_designers_advice_on_how/
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/jd1o98/mihoyo_seize_the_day_shouldnt_be_treated_as_an/
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/jhmyep/lack_of_quality_repeatable_overworld_content_is/
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/jabc4w/dont_forget_that_not_only_resin_here_is_a_badly/
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/j741n3/dear_mihoyo_and_devs_please_please_dont_spoil/
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/jgu30w/weekly_bosses_shouldnt_require_resin/
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/j6qxwo/genshin_feels_like_an_open_world_rpg_that_become/
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/jcjfcm/lets_talk_about_atrocious_primogem_rewards_and/
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/j8o46b/reexploring_the_world_should_be_a_core_endgame/
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/jbc64u/there_needs_to_be_a_way_consistently_earn/
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/jd3gcl/character_exp_from_monsters_should_be_a_viable/
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/jf8hqt/the_r_word_but_mostly_xp_mora_the_antiwhaling/
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/jgbmum/a_short_and_long_term_solution_to_the_empty_world/
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/jgl22l/resin_is_a_problem_but_the_lack_of_engaging_open/
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/jcszfh/how_much_content_is_there_actually_in_genshin/
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/jajhyl/to_anyone_saying_that_we_cant_complain_about/
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/jbr57l/how_to_improve_genshin_and_its_open_world/
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/j5xc74/a_gacha_veterans_opinion_on_genshins_gacha/
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/j7pvqs/a_discussion_on_genshin_impact_from_a_chinese/
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/j6kmoc/resin_in_genshin_impact_and_how_it_effects_the/

12) SHOULD YOU SPEND MONEY ON GENSHIN aka KNOW THE PREDATORY GACHA SYSTEM
It's your money feel free to use it however you want. But please keep few things in mind.
As long as Mihoyo's making bank changes ain't happening. It's a business and they won't listen or have no need to listen as long as they're making millions. The best way for these companies to get them to make changes is show your dissatisfaction in their revenue. Once the revenue goes down, changes will follow. It's as simple as that. Also keep in mind this is gambling so please be very careful.
The tip I follow is that $100 is nothing in Genshin. It's a lot of money and it doesn't guarantee you anything in Genshin. This keeps my mind in check.
Also for newer people or even the existing players to gacha games, know the system very well. It can get you addicted quite easily and can end in way worse situations. There's a lot of info on the internet and posts on this subreddit also, please search for them and read them. Here's are some of them....
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/j6smci/you_should_know_about_the_tricks_gacha_games_use/
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/j6hlfa/i_assume_genshin_impact_is_the_first_gacha_for_a/
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/j7gkep/a_little_bit_more_on_how_gacha_games_trick_you/
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/je3uw4/before_you_spend_money_on_this_game_consider_this/
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/j6fto8/genshin_impact_dont_let_yourself_fall_victim_to_a/
There are many more. Google is your friend.

13) WHAT SHOULD YOU DO
First of all I'd encourage people to keep voicing their opinions and dissatisfaction with the game system. This is the very first step. Secondly this whole post provides lots of things which you can copy paste into the surveys/feedback that happen anywhere. Last is just to enjoy the game.

14) MIHOYO
So far my opinion of the company is absolutely worst. With the way they treat their players and their decisions I've yet to find anything good about this company at all. Let's look at some of the worst decisions made by them.

Nerfing of chest rewards as well as spiral abyss
One of the worst decisions and a spit in the face of the players. Players complained about the lack of primogems in the Closed Beta and Mihoyo's response to them was nerfing it even more. I mean look just look at greed the going is going to so that they snag some extra bucks from the players wallet. On top of being already low, they were nerfed even lower.

Censoring and deleting of posts
Another one of their crappy moves. On official forums they delete posts which criticize the game system.

The Joke known as Feedback
It's the currently ongoing joke in Genshin Impact. You get something which looks like a survey and you fill it to get some mora and nothing else.
So far Mihoyo has not given a single fck for the community. They've not even recognized that current problems, let alone fix them. The latest developer response was complete crap. It contained half of the things which nobody even asked for. A simpler response like "We know about the resin issue and are currently working on it" would've been 100% better than what we got.

The tone deaf bard
I'm appalled at Mihoyo's ability to ignore the feedback and their playerbase. Especially their western audiences. It's a no brainer that they're a company and want to make profits but hell it pisses me off that even after making so much they don't give a sh!t about the players.

15) FINAL WORDS
It no denying the fact that the game is very interesting and fun to play. BUT it has some of the worst type of designs I've seen in a game. These things should be changed and it'll make it one of the best games there is. Resin system, World Level, Bosses, Abyss, almost everything in the game is greatly flawed.
Hopefully it becomes better.

Thank you so much for reading this till the end. Now as promised go look at your resin, you'll have at least 20 resin stored up by now. Have a nice day~~~~

Encouragement from answered prayers

The Medieval Blood Libel Lives On In QAnon: Child Cannibalism, St William of Norwich, and Abortion

Well, this is going to be a long hot mess, I apologize from the start, like Inigo Montoya I have to say, "There is too much" even trying to sum it up, partly because it's a lot and I mean a LOT of history, also because it's very personal to me. I'm lucky that I don't live with any Qultists, but I deal with it at work, and we all deal with them on some level, as we saw on Jan 6th. I really want to make a joke about a national "Epiphany" but there's just nothing funny about it, even if it has some grotesque comedy.
It's personal because I was raised in a worldview that feeds this, and I feel amazingly lucky, like I was just missed by a meteor by inches, that I got out long enough ago that there was no chance of buy-in. But the whole thing is so triggering for that reason, I have a clear memory of having believed in secret alternate histories full of conspiracism and prophecies, in which every historical event had alternate interpretations explained by Sin, with the greatest sin of all being abortion, where all the media and all of science/medicine was lying to us because they hated God and families and goodness, but we weren't supposed to DO anything but pray because it was part of God's plan (trust the plan!)
So it's like being a fish that has taken to the land, remembering swimming in that sea of delusions, but now breathing air and even trying to recall that mindset feels like drowning today. But it helps explain what is going on and why Q is so potently seductive - it's a very ancient meme that has been constantly refined and tweaked over centuries, with a steroid injection a hundred years ago that took it to all new catastrophic levels culminating in the Holocaust.
That was of course the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," a propaganda work created in 1903 by the Russian government to retroactively justify their pogroms by supposedly-leaked documents revealing the secret programs by the secret Jewish leadership to subvert and destroy mainstream Christian society, which was translated in 1919 in English and was promoted and published in America by non other than Henry Ford, whose bigotry and open embrace of fascism somehow never made it into our history books when I was in school and he was praised as an American genius-hero, while the theater class was putting on "Fiddler on the Roof. "
They didn't tell us about IBM then, either.
The Protocols memetic influence can be seen in the David Ickes Lizard people secretly rule the world stuff, but it's also invisibly omnipresent in the entire anti-abortion movement. The Protocols didn't appear in an early 20th century vacuum, instead they drew on a long tradition across Europe of justifying persecution of minorities by claiming they were uniquely wicked and depraved so it was really self defense, and particularly targeting their Jewish neighbors with the accusation of ritually killing and eating Christian children. William of Norwich was the first unsolved crime of a murdered boy whose death was blamed on the local Jewish community, in spite of the local government saying it was unproven at the time, but not the last.
Right there, you can see where we are now, in a "distant mirror" to use historian Tuchman's phrase: the accusation wouldn't have been made if there hadn't already been bigotry, which in turn led them to reject the official government statement that persons unknown committed the crime, and an entire fictional account being treated as "the truth" since it didn't have the uncomfortable possibility that it was one of US who did it, and we could be breaking bread with a murderer! No, no, it must have been one of those heretical THEM!
And it never goes away, even if serious respectable people in positions of authority tried to debunk and disprove and defuse the mob mentality - that just proves that they've been turned or bought or are part of the child-sacrificing cult too. The Freemasons get pulled into it, as rivals to the established churches, and eventually abortion too, because Jewish tradition says not a child until born, and the life/health/safety of the mother always took priority. So "Jewish doctors" in pre-WW2 writings where there doesn't seem to be any relevance to a doctor's religion really means abortion, in the censorship of the early 20th century.
And abortion means "good" women running around having sex for fun, with all the fears of being "cucked" that have never left conservative masculinity. "Jews will not replace us" as they chanted at Charlottesville, this "Great Replacement" theory, has it that the secret plan is to use the degenerate arts and media made by (((Hollywood Liberals))) to convince pure white women to race mix, or to not want godly white husbands, so feminism too is part of the plot, and tolerance of gay rights, along with Communism which rebels against the rightful authority of rich white Christian men, whose money means they're blessed by God, unlike the bad people who shouldn't be rich because they're NOT white Christian men, in the horrible hash of memes which fed the rise of the Reich as it had the Tsars' pogroms the last generation.
And so the whole world dealt with the consequences of letting these conspiracies fester and interbreed from the old media of pulpits and bars to the new media of cheap printing, then radio waves, then movie reels. The "blood-dimmed tide" reached everywhere, but that's cold comfort to the victims.
And then the same people who had been preaching the Blood Libel until they got their genocide turned around and cynically applied the term "Holocaust" to legalized abortion. The people who were fans of Fr. Coughlin the "Radio Priest" who did an early Horsehoe Theory going from supporting FDR to supporting Hitler, who rejected Vatican II because it rejected the former ritual blaming "The Jews" for killing poor baby Jesus, and also rejected any and all calls to social justice of every kind.
The Catholic conservatives rebranded by changing "the Jews" to "secular humanists" and "Hollywood liberals" and added "environmentalists" to the long list of child-sacrificers in their conspiracy, and the Fundamentalist conservatives jumped on the bandwagon as a way to erase the stink of supporting segregation and reclaim a moral high ground by protecting innocent babies. Who's more innocent than anyone? The unborn! They've never done anything, so they can't be Milkshake Ducks. (Once they're born? Fuck 'em.)
And YOU don't need to do anything either, just pray and vote Republican! It's so easy! You get to bask in the righteous glow of hating the worst people in the world, people who KILL BABIES for fun & profit, because OBVIOUSLY the doctors are lying when they say pregnancy is dangerous, it's NATURAL, so it must be a highly-profitable industry because otherwise why would they do it? This is straight out of 1930s fascist propaganda, only by 1975 they had so thoroughly erased the word "Jews" that a younger generation never knew it had been there. So there's your distrust of science and medicine and demonization of Planned Parenthood, mandated by Christian religion in far too many churches.
You can boost your conspiracy fix with add-ons like miracles, visions, and secret truths that even the mainstream clergy don't want you to know about, like The Third Secret of Fatima or The Tribulation/The Rapture, or with accusations that not only are the evil (((doctors))) butchering babies for profit and to overthrow Western Civilization, but they're SELLING BABBY PARTS to cosmetics companies and even Coca-Cola.
Why? How would this make sense? Why would companies sneak illegal human tissue into your shampoo or your soda, ffs? Because they're EVIL, duh. Now YOU are part of the ritual cannibalistic cult, like it or not! There are BABBY PARTS in your vaccines, doncha know? You've ALREADY BEEN contaminated! And Procter & Gamble has a Satanic symbol for a logo, and you put their toothpaste IN YOUR MOUTH! How can you care about baby seals when they're murdering baby HUMANS? How can you care about adult workers suffering picking grapes toiling in the vineyards of California or the packing plants of Nebraska when they're killing BABIES? It's a (((Communist)))-Muslim-homo-fascist plot! WE know the TRUTH! The rest of you are either asleep, or supporting the Devil!
At the same time, it's obviously part of the same evil God-hating conspiracy that the media is publishing allegations of priestly pederasty. Disbelieve everyone except us, and hate them because they say WE are the baddies.
No, it's the whole godless nation of America that's evil, because the laws and culture tolerate abortion/gay people/women who take jobs away from men EVEN IN THE ARMY obviously to weaken us so the Commies can roll right over us Wolverines!/tree-huggers who want to replace humans with baby seals and spotted owls/Freemasons/the foreign family who moved in next doothe teens who play loud music and wear weird sexy clothes -- and someday soon, God will smite the land, and THEN you'll all be sorry!
UGH I CAN'T EVEN, I used to believe ALL of this crap and I didn't even get to Paul Weyrich and the Southern Strategy. That will have to be another post, but this is at least a peek through a private window into how "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities" and we saw the same exact flailing of leaders between running away from the stochastic terror consequences of their words and plunging deeper in when some impressionable young Christians started shooting and blowing up health care providers after having been raised in "Stop the New Holocaust" rhetoric since birth. It was just supposed to motivate you to send us money, vote for the Corporation Party, and do absolutely nothing else except maybe yell at some miserable pregnant people trying to get medical help.
Past is predictive.
All of Q has its roots in the fertile soil of American conspiracism going back to the "Purity of Essence" antifluoride campaigns and the John Birch Society so often mocked but never extinguished, which in turn goes back over a thousand years and even more, because accusing the religious minority you want to scapegoat of being child-sacrificing cannibals worked for the Romans, too.
History is Irony.
Eye-Opening Links - the link between white supremacy and abortion opposition isn't even trying to hide these days, but a decade and more back, it was pretty much only Fred Clark writing as a liberal Christian trying to bring sanity to America by debunking the Rapture peddling reverends of the Right before TEOTWAWKI - "The Biblical View that's Younger than the Happy Meal" is very powerful:
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2012/02/18/the-biblical-view-thats-younger-than-the-happy-meal/
Here's a Salon article which cites this post, and other authors, on the use of abortion as a way of memoryholing school segregation:
https://www.salon.com/2018/07/08/when-evangelicals-were-pro-choice-and-the-nra-was-pro-gun-control-a-history-of-hypocrisy/
His entire blog, Slacktivist, is worth checking out but it's a lot, so here's just the abortion tag:
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/tag/abortion/
And here's the one that explains why Qult members WANT there to be a vile cult of (((Hollywood liberals))) raping and eating children that they can feel justified in murdering if only by proxy, the saga of Bad Jackie:
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2010/09/19/jackie-at-the-crossroads/
Here's his post on the Blood Libel propaganda transformation of William of Norwich from tragic victim of an unknown killer into a "martyr" - EXACTLY like Trump using that poor woman shot by accident as a justification to persecute immigrants from the southern border:
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2019/05/02/thomas-of-monmouth-the-hugely-influential-christian-writer-youve-never-heard-of/
Here's that earlier instance of the alternate reality creation, the Procter & Gamble Satanic fabrication:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/procter-gamble-satan-conspiracy-theory
I don't want to put up links to historic bigoted propaganda, you can find that easily if you really want to, but one thing that's really interesting about the Protocols is that large parts of it were plagiarized from novels and other sources which weren't even about Jews, translated into Russian, and changed to fit the rest of it. That was how the Times of London debunked it in 1921, a lot harder before Turnitin existed. Villainy, but also LAZY villainy, just like we saw the last four years. But it works because the people who ate it up didn't CARE that the fake justification for doing pogroms was a bad pastiche - and they STILL don't.
I'm sorry this is so rough and rambling, but it's like looking into the Mirrorverse and seeing who I could have been if I wasn't too gay, too nerdy and too overall fucked up, when I see those smiling preppy women beating down the Capital doors or posturing on the TV with their guns. The Abyss smirks back winking at me, unrepentant as Sarah Palin at the shooting of Gabby Giffords. I don't know how to get anyone else out of it -- I'm not even sure how I escaped, really!

Some reviews of perfumes that sounded repulsive to me, but took great pleasure in sitting me down, slapping me, and making me shut up.

Deadset's All Characters Cheat Sheet & Endgame Guide Compendium, Season 22 Edition

S22 COMMENTARY AND THOUGHTS

Greetings, /Diablo!
The foreboding Season 22 announces the arrival of shadows - spectres of the past that grow ever thicker, clawing through the shrine and pylon beacons for another chance at fighting the demonic hordes. The Shades of Nephalem past stand by our side in the unrelenting fight against the minions of Hell, eager to spill the blood of our sworn enemies...
...Or level us up really quickly, at least. They're really good at that.
Season 22 is a curious crossbreed of past Seasonal endeavors, as it features both an "environmental" effect (the Shadow summons) and a "mechanical" effect (the 4th Kanai's Cube slot). While the latter ends up being more of a uniform buff than a truly build-shattering concoction, it introduces just enough of a theorycrafting tinge to the Season to make both ends of the spectrum - fans of the theory and fans of the spectacle - to maybe make us all happy for once. At very least, we won't be chasing snowballs.
As a personal takeaway, I think this Season prompted me to think about starting on more classes and builds than many previous Seasons have managed to. Maybe it's the need to consider the 4th Kanai's Cube slot that gave me pause at each and every concept? Regardless, I think we should all be glad for the confidence on display when it comes to Seasonal changes - this is the first time we see a dual theme, and on top of that both its aspects end up being important and impactful. Add a decent number of mechanical changes to items and sets, and even a paragon category change (who expected that to happen in 2020?), and this is one of the best Seasons we've had in a long, long while.
Have a great Season 22, and as always - happy hunting!
-Deadset

>>LIST OF DETAILED GUIDES EVERY CLASS AND EVERY ACTIVITY<<

(No, really!)

WHAT'S STRONG, FUN AND MAYBE EVEN NEW IN SEASON 22

BARBARIANS

Haedrig's Gift Beginner Build: Horde of the Ninety Savages
Wrath of the Wastes - Rend
Built from the ashes of a very old Rend/IK mixture, the Rend Wastes Barbarian truly shows the potential and terror of this DoT build. An unstoppable machine that whirls, cleaves and guts demons like Barbarians were always meant to do. With the newfound powers of Ambo's Pride, this build bleeds his enemies dry in an instant, turning what was once an unassuming bleed into a fearsome nuke that gets applied every second. Couple that with the savage elegance of Whirlwinding, and it's no wonder people will return to this build time and again when it comes to Barb progression.
Might of the Earth - Earthquake
Never the build at the forefront, Earthquake is nevertheless steady, extremely satisfying and a feast for the eyes. Couple its wholesome rotation with the newfound buffs and you really have a contender for Barb seasonal playtime. If you prefer to devastate a large area over precise shots, like to control the battlefield and gravitate toward rotations that just feel good to execute, Earthquake is your jam.
Might of the Earth - Seismic Slam
Always underappreciated, but always ready to pounce from the shadows and deliver, the Earthquake set has been quietly sitting very close to the leaderboard's top through a select few, but very devout Barbarian players. Ever since Season 19, we have Seismic Slam the way it should always have been - a thunderous mid-range devastator, the perfected counterpart of its older, pure Earthquake cousin. With the reworked Fjord Cutter, this build is quite the underrated powerhouse.

CRUSADERS

Haedrig's Gift Beginner Build: Aegis of Valor
Akkhan/Invoker - Thorns Bombardment
Say what now? The Thorn Bombsader is back with a vengeance, and is a force to be reckoned with in Season 22. Dropping barrels of pristine, unadulterated devastation from the skies, this will be one of the best soloing builds for the entire Season. Thorns Bombardment is a calculating, bursty, cooldown centric build that dishes out punishment in spectacular dollops that will take it all the way to GR150. Note that the build survived a hefty PTR nerf and emerged strong - a testament to its pure numbers.
Aegis of Valor - Heaven's Fury Shotgun
One of the two new sets from Season 20 ascended Crusaders to a whole new level, and evoked the times when the Holy Shotgun was considered OP, because it was the only Reaper of Souls build that demolished T6. Hundreds of millions of damage and health spikes later, this (un)holy amalgamation of items delivers a mixture of Fist of the Heavens and Heaven's Fury Shotgun shots with righteous ferocity that have earned this build the one rigthful nickname: the God Crusader.
Aegis of Valor - Fist of the Heavens
Not as strong as its counterpart, but just as satisfying - the Fist of the Heavens visuals are undeniable - and one of the best Crusader farming builds out there, again courtesy of the new Aegis of Valor Crusader. Mount up, descend into battle and demolish screens full of demons with violent, electrified arcs covering the entire battlefield? What more could you ask for? This build is stronger in Season 22, making it one of the top tier farmers in the entire game, and a pure pleasure to spread destruction with.

DEMON HUNTERS

Haedrig's Gift Beginner Build: Gears of Dreadlands
Gears of Dreadlands - Hungering Arrow (and Bolas!)
Using the powers of the Gears of Dreadlands set, this Demon Hunter build combines the deadly precision of Hungering Arrow with the elegance of movement and battlefield maneuverability of Strafe. The end result is one of the most versatile, agile and honestly - just visually appealing playstyles in the game. Valla's Bequest lives on yet another Season, ensuring this will remain the top tier Demon Hunter build for yet another round of 150 clears.
Legacy of Dreams - Rapid Fire
The emergence of the Rapid Fire build finally brought the close range, Tommy gun-like fantasy of the Demon Hunter class to life - all in a destructive, methodical playstyle that isn't afraid to get into the thick of fights and chaingun-and-grenade its way out. If the strafing evasion of GoD is not for you, and the top of the leaderboard is not your primary concern, this remains one of the most fun ways to play Demon Hunter: right in the demons' faces, melting them off.
Gears of Dreadlands/Marauder - Support
Using the combined might of the Gears of Dreadlands and Marauder sets, this support Demon Hunter build combines the strong damage buffs and pulling utility from the Entangling Shot and Bolas barrage with the myriad utility and toughness buffs coming from the Companion synergy. I never thought I would include a support build as something to be excited about, but it has been so long since Demon Hunters were this desirable and this versatile in the meta, that I can't help but highlight it.

MONKS

Haedrig's Gift Beginner Build: Patterns of Justice
Patterns of Justice - Tempest Rush
Rooting its powers firmly in the TR-dedicated Patterns of Justice set, this alternate take on Tempest Rushing gives its Sunwuko brother a run for his money. The set empowers Sweeping Wind to astronomical proportions, stacking all the runes and swelling the vortex of destruction to a veritable cyclone. The opportunity to include the Shenlong fists in the setup in Season 22 elevates it even further!
Inna - Wave of Light
Although not particularly exciting, this is a purposeful highlight; the ease of starting an Inna Wave of Light build can take you very far into the Season with relatively minor time investment. Inna WoL is a tried and tested build that combines the inherent screen-clearing AoE of Explosive Blasts with the forgiving, easy-to-play Inna set. If you're looking for something to breeze the Season with, this is a strong contender.
Raiment Shenlong - Generator The Monk bread and butter. There is nothing wrong with liking this spec, and if you haven't hopped onto Monk in a while, it's still a great choice. If you like to punch things hard and fast and don't fear managing survivability in the closest of melee combat, this build will still deliver.

NECROMANCERS

Haedrig's Gift Beginner Build: Masquerade of the Burning Carnival
Masquerade - Bone Spear
Testing the full capabilities of the dedicated Masquerade of the Burning Carnival set, this Necromancer build focuses on a unique amalgamation of Simulacrums and Bone Spear to produce a crafty sniping playstyle that can take its time setting up fights due to its impressive endurance. Incredibly capable - likely one of the strongest builds this Season - and most importantly, Land of the Dead-independent (hurrah!), this is a build for all the CDR-weary Necromancers out there!
Legacy of Dreams - Corpse Explosion
Basing itself on the versatile and adaptable Legacy of Dreams power and stacking a bunch of empowering and synergistic legendary items, the Corpse Explosion Necromancer provides another supremely powerful and visually striking playstyle this Season - and this one relishes on exploding cadavers, which is about the coolest and most Necromance-y thing you could say. High contender for my second build this Season, I've wanted a top tier Corpse Explosion Necromancer ever since this class came into existence.
Legacy of Dreams - Poison Scythe
Emerging from a combination of the Season 21 changes to the build-defining Haunted Visions amulet, the adaptability of the Legacy of Dreams bonus, and the plethora of Poison-themed skills at the Necromancer's disposal, this Necromancer build offers a simple-yet-deadly playstyle that reaps enemies without a thought for cooldowns. Will this build tickle your fancy for mechanical mastery? Nah. Will it cause theorycrafters to break down build minutae in endless excel tables? Nah. Is it the strongest and laziest Necromancer thing since Bone Storm from ages ago? You betcha.

WITCH DOCTORS

Haedrig's Gift Beginner Build: Mundunugu's Regalia
Mundunugu Spirit Barrage
The Mundunugu set empowers one of the most visually satisfying builds of Witch Doctors, Spirit Barrage, to a ridiculously powerful level that will (barring any unexpected changes) seal the WD's spot in group play for a long, long time. To top it all off, this build is very versatile across all game activities, and can be adapted to everything from bounties, through keyfarm and speeds, to high end solo and group pushing as the Trash Killer. Truly top tier value of a Headrig's Gift for Witch Doctors this time around!
Zunimassa - Carnevil DoD
The Carnevil Witch Doctor summons an army of swarming minions at his side, whose adorable mimicking of his blowdart attack - and positively horrifying attack speed - are a sight to behold. This has been a long time coming; Zunimassa has been building up in power over the course of a few patches, with set and item changes that slowly inched it up in viability. It has been overcome by Mundunugu Spirit Barrage for some time now, but remains one of the strongest - and most evocative - builds in the WD arsenal.
Helltooth - Zombie Bears
Honestly, if this didn't make you check the year of this post, I don't know what could. But yeah, ZOMBIEBAAHS have been buffed now; still nowhere near a contender build, but strong enough to raise an eyebrow and make you chuckle. Seriously, if you choose to run this for GR pushing and Arachyr Chicken for farming, you might be my favorite person on the Internet right now.

WIZARDS

Haedrig's Gift Beginner Build: Typhon's Veil
Legacy of Dreams - Mammoth Hydra
The Mammoth Hydra playstyle brings the tankier - and more potent - version of the Hydra playstyle, and holds the reigning title of the top Wizard build in S22. If you are looking for a straightforward, durable and classic-feeling Wizard build, I would look no further than this one.
Legacy of Dreams - Frozen Orb
Leave it to Legacy of Dreams to put Frozen Orb back in the spotlight. Combine the Frozen Orb nostalgia of sorceresses past with the slew of synergistic buffs to items like Wizardspike (holy nostalgia indeed), and you have an awesome new playstyle that leaves enemies debilitated and helpless, watching their frozen death creep ever closer.
LoD Energy Twister
Alright, well, if the Zombie Bears didn't make you check the year of the post, then maybe this did. Yes, Twisters are back and no, you don't have to stack them in a corner. You can play a honest-to-Diablo spellslinger that drops down Tornados left and right and simply enjoys the obliterating vortex. And isn't that a nice thing indeed?

GETTING STARTED THIS SEASON, OR HOW TO GET TO THE COOL STUFF

We can clearly see an influx of new and returning players - people looking for guidance and advice on early crafting, gambling, and character building foundations. This is my attempt to convey as much information as I can in a single thread.
At the very start of the Season, your first job is, naturally, to create a new seasonal hero. While this first choice does not lock you down too terribly, note that the Seasonal Journey rewards you once per Season - only for the character that completes the chapters first. Bearing that in mind, pick your character and go in game.
While in town, approach one of the followers that most closely matches your class (Templar for Barbarians, Monks and Crusaders, Scoundrel for Demon Hunters, and Enchantress for Witch Doctors, Necromancers and Wizards), select the "Inventory & Skills" option, take their weapon and equip it yourself - it is a significant upgrade over the base weapon that you start with.
Note that once you reach level 7, vendors in all towns - the ones with the nickname "the Fence" in their names - will start selling rings. Each of them has a chance to sell rings that increase your Average Damage (i.e. 2-4 Damage), which is a massive DPS boost early on.

THE IMPORTANT BIT FOR S22 ONLY: LEVELING WITH SHADOW CLONES

This tactic is only available in Season 22, and relates to the Shadow Clones that you get after clicking any shrine or pylon. The clones are AI controlled, high damaging allies that persist for 1 minute before disappearing, but are able to comfortably carry you on difficulties up to Torment VI for extremely fast leveling (~40-50 minutes with some luck and a good route).
To execute this leveling strategy, all you need to do is check for shrines at specific waypoints in Adventure Mode — ones that are relatively safe and will not risk your character's life. Once you find the clone, simply run around the zone and let him wreak havoc, leveling you up with a tremendous speed in the process. Note that the Shadow Clones scale with your equipment, so you can check vendors to supplement their damage with some very basic equipment.
The following is a list of relevant waypoints (note that they are not fixed spawns, so move down the list if you do not find one):

Act I - Southern Highlands (down from WP and to the left before the bridge);
Act I - Leoric's Manor Courtyard (several spawn points, explore the area a bit);
Act II - Howling Plateau (run up from the waypoint, along the upper rim of the map);
Act II - Road to Alcarnus (run through the area; spawn point near Maghda entrance);
Act III - Bridge of Korsikk (at the waypoint itself; other spawns in the Fields of Slaughter optional);
Act III - Rakkis Crossing (right at the waypoint; optionally run up the bridge);
Act III - Tower of the Cursed Level 1 (along the upper and lower rim of the first section of the map, near WP);
Act III - Tower of the Damned lvl 1 (along the upper and lower rim of the first section of the map, near WP);
Act IV - Realm of Fractured Fate (explore the area near the waypoint, multiple spawn chances);
Act IV - Lower Realm of Infernal Fate (explore the area near the waypoint, multiple spawn chances);
Act IV - Gardens of Hope lvl 1 (near Rakanoth; check right above and right below the waypoint);
Act IV - Gardens of Hope lvl 3 (explore area near waypoint; wells do not work like shrines for shadow clones!)

Challenge Rift Completion and Kanai's Cube

After your character is created, head to the Game Settings menu, go into the Challenge Rifts and start the current weekly run. Note that you have to have completed at least one Greater Rift on your account (either in non-seasonal or previous seasons) to have Challenge Rifts unlocked. Challenge Rifts are a weekly challenge that provides a fixed character and a build (usually using quirky skills and/or heavily unoptimized stats and items), and challenges you to beat the Greater Rift completion time of its original owner.
The completion of the Challenge Rift is usually trivial and can be completed either solo or in a group, and will net you a Challenge Rift Reward cache. Open it up in-game with your brand new seasonal character and claim its contents: Death's Breaths, a couple hundred of each of the base crafting materials, Blood Shard, a couple million gold, and 15 each of the Act-specific bounty cache materials. With your newfound riches, upgrade both your Blacksmith and your Mystic craftsmen in town to their maximum rank.
Your next important step is to acquire Kanai's Cube. Kanai's Cube is found in The Ruins of Sescheron - the waypoint in the top right corner of the Act III map. From that waypoint, run left towards the city and make your way around the ruins; one of its far corners (typically upper right, lower right, or lower left) will have the entrance to the next zone, the Elder Sanctum. Once in the Elder Sanctum, make your way through the zone, practically to its other end. When you find the Cube and click it, it automatically transports itself back to town.
While you are at it, take a look at the Kanai's Cube guide for additional details on its use - it is an incredibly important part of your character progression at any point of the game, so make sure to acquaint yourself thoroughly with its properties.

Which Item to Craft and Extract in the Cube?

One of the strongest early game boosts that you can obtain while leveling is to craft a yellow (rare) level 70 item at the blacksmith, then try to upgrade it into a valuable legendary at Kanai's Cube, and finally extract its property for one of the Kanai's Cube legendary power slots. Note that this strategy is stronger for some classes over others, particularly favoring Demon Hunters, Necromancers, and somewhat Barbarians. The remaining classes can skip this step and directly go to gambling, sparing themselves some disappointment and saving some materials for level 70, since you can do this recipe exactly once at the Season's start (you only have so many Death's Breaths).
When choosing which rare item to craft, keep in mind that you are looking to upgrade them into a legendary that provides some form of skill damage multiplier that will skyrocket your leveling efficiency. Every class has a different set of valuable items to attempt for:

Barbarian:

Craft a rare level 70 Two-Handed Mighty Weapon, and use the Upgrade Rare recipe in the Cube to try to obtain either a Fury of the Vanished Peak, The Gavel of Judgment, Bastion's Revered or Blade of the Tribes.

Crusader:

Craft a rare level 70 One-Handed Flail, and use the Upgrade Rare recipe in the Cube to try to obtain either a Darklight, Gyrfalcon's Foote or Johanna's Argument.

Demon Hunter:

Craft a rare level 70 Dagger, and use the Upgrade Rare recipe in the Cube to obtain either a Karlei's Point or a Lord Greenstone's Fan. Demon Hunters are excellent at this strategy since they only have 2 daggers, and they are both great for leveling.

Monk:

Craft a rare level 70 Daibo, and use the Upgrade Rare recipe in the Cube to try to obtain either an Incense Torch of the Grand Temple, Balance or The Flow of Eternity.

Necromancer:

Craft a rare level 70 Two-Handed Scythe, and use the Upgrade Rare recipe in the Cube to obtain either a Bloodtide Blade, Maltorius' Petrified Spike, Nayr's Black Death or Reilena's Shadowhook. Necromancers are excellent at this strategy since they only have 4 legendary Two-Handed Scythes, and they are all great for leveling.

Witch Doctor:

Craft a rare level 70 Staff, and use the Upgrade Rare recipe in the Cube to try to obtain either a Staff of Chiroptera or Wormwood.

Wizard:

Craft a rare level 70 Wand, and use the Upgrade Rare recipe in the Cube to try to obtain either a Fragment of Destiny, Serpent's Sparker, Unstable Scepter or Wand of Woh.

Note that this part of the leveling strategy requires some amount of luck for non-DH and non-Necromancer players. Leveling in a group minimizes the risk of RNG screwing everyone over, but sometimes you will be unlucky; this is nothing to be bothered by, as leveling in Diablo is still a fairly easy and straightforward process.
If you are lucky, however, and obtain one of the items outlined above, you will have just about enough Death's Breaths to use the Extract Legendary Power recipe in Kanai's Cube. Do that, and then slot the (now maximized) legendary power of the item in the Cube, netting yourself a considerable leveling bonus. Needless to say, adjust your build accordingly to the legendary power, i.e. if you get Guard of Johanna as a Crusader, make Blessed Hammer your main damage dealing skill throughout leveling.

Spending the Challenge Rift Blood Shards

Your next step is to try and gamble for valuable items from Kadala at level 1. Since not every legendary is available right from the start, the legendary item pools for some classes are restricted in a beneficial way to obtain another strong damage multiplier right from the start. If you do not consider the legendaries listed for your class particularly attractive, you can always gamble for Helms for a considerable chance at obtaining Leoric's Crown; extracting its power and socketing rubies in your helmets throughout leveling will net you a hefty amount of extra experience.

Barbarian:

Gamble for Bracers, trying to obtain either Bracers of Destruction or Bracers of the First Men. Spend any remaining Blood Shards on Boots for a chance at Lut Socks.

Crusader:

Gamble for Bracers, trying to obtain Gabriel's Vambraces. If you are lucky to get them quick, you can also spend some (or all, if you are feeling lucky) on shields for Guard of Johanna or Denial. At level 31, if you have any Blood Shards saved over, or new ones you are willing to spend, you can try your luck at Pants for Hammer Jammers.

Demon Hunter:

Not many great options; you can gamble for Belts, trying to obtain the Hellcat Waistguard, although Grenade comes a little later in the leveling process. Otherwise, either go for Leorics Crown (helm) or the damage proc of Pox Faulds (pants). Another gambling strategy you can attempt is saving shards for level 30, when you can gamble on Quivers for a chance at Sin Seekers, or level 31 - for the additional chance at Holy Point Shot and Spines of Seething Hatred.

Monk:

Gamble for either Boots (hoping to obtain Rivera Dancers or The Crudest Boots) or Bracers (hoping to obtain either Pinto's Pride, Cesars Memento or Gungdo Gear). Adjust your gambling strategy for Monk depending on the item you obtained (if any) on the previous step, where you upgraded a rare item (i.e. gambling for bracers if you got an Incense Torch of the Grand Temple, hoping to get Pinto's Pride).

Necromancer:

Gamble for Gloves, trying to obtain Grasp of Essence, or Rings for Circle of Nailuj's Evol if you upgraded your scythe (see above) into Reilena's Shadowhook.

Witch Doctor:

Not many great options; you can gamble for Mojos, trying to obtain a Gazing Demise, but its usefulness is rather limited in early character progression. Otherwise, either go for Leoric's Crown (helm) or the damage proc of Pox Faulds (pants).

Wizard:

Gamble for Sources at level 1, trying to obtain Winter Flurry, or save them for level 31, when you can gamble on Rings for a chance at Manald Heal, or level 33 - for Source gambling for Etched Sigil.

Crafting a High Level Rare and Reducing Level Requirement

Pick a two-handed weapon category of your choice (2h Axes, Maces, Swords...) and craft a level 70 weapon of the chosen type. Avoid class-specific weapons, since they add a class-specific roll to the secondary stat pool (i.e. Max Fury), making this strat harder. You are looking for a roll with:

At least a Crowd Control secondary stat - Chance to Stun, Slow, Fear,.. etc. On Hit;
Ideally, also a Life per Hit primary stat;

If both these stats are present, you have eliminated a large part of the possible Secondary stats on the weapon. Thus, you can easily reroll the other Secondary stat (the one that is NOT the crowd control stat) into Reduced Level Requirement - making the item wearable up to 30 levels prior to level 70. This is a tremendous damage increase for a large chunk of your leveling process.
Of course, if you are very lucky, the Reduced Level Requirement can roll onto your crafted item outright.

Complete a Boss Bounty

An easy early boost to your character in Seasons is to check your bounties for any easily completed act boss killing bounties - the most famous examples being Zoltun Kulle (at the Archives of Zoltun Kulle waypoint) and Maghda (down from the Road to Alcarnus waypoint) in Act II. Another option is Azmodan at the very end of Act III. Simply run past the mobs and go straight for the boss kill.
The boss bounties reward you with a Diabolic Hoard chest that is guaranteed to drop you a couple of rare items; they will boost your overall character power nicely right at the beginning.

OTHER, NON SHADOW METHODS OF LEVELING UP

Torment VI Traps Method

Turn the difficulty up to Torment VI and go to the Halls of Agony Level 1. Run and dodge past monsters that come in your way until you reach the falling blades traps; there, lure the monsters towards these traps and watch as they get slaughtered, netting you tremendous experience.
This method, while extremely efficient time-wise, is also (arguably) quite unfun and counter-intuitive, not to mention prone to mishaps. Needless to say, this strategy is not Hardcore-friendly and will result in the (frequent) death of your character.

Via Massacre Bonus

You can also consider leveling via Massacre bonuses — a very potent strategy in solo play. The Massacre bonus XP system was revised in Patch 2.4.1 into a multiplicative experience bonus that rewards you for chaining kills of monsters. The caveat is this bonus only works in bounties - and not during Rifts.
To successfully pull of long chains of monster kills, pick highly populated zones - the Cathedral (Act I), Halls of Agony Level 3 (Act I), and, most notably, Fields of Misery (Act I). The tactic is to always be on the move, leading monsters into one another, abusing Cursed Chests for monster spawns, and generally using skills with DoTs or high AoE (Rend for Barbarian, Blessed Hammer for Crusader, Multishot for Demon Hunter, Wave of Light for Monk, Locust Swarm for Witch Doctors, Blizzard for Wizards).
While Massacre leveling will require frequent restarts of the game (every 5-10 minutes), it will result in some of the fastest leveling in Diablo 3, clocking under the 2 hour mark when you get the hang of it. Due to its individual nature and the level of coordination required to pull it off in a multiplayer game, leveling by Massacre bonuses can only be recommended for 2+ players if they are experienced and have voice communication; this is predominantly a solo leveling technique. It also has the considerable downside of losing the increased legendary drop rate and blood shards of rifting.

Via Cursed Chests

This is one of the faster methods, clocking in under the 1 hour mark with experienced groups that have a Necromancer with them. The reason for the inclusion of the Necromancer is the supremely strong class-specific legendaries that are able to be gambled from the get-go — namely, Grasp of Essence to amplify the damage of Corpse Explosion, and Bloodtide Blade to amplify the damage of Death Nova. Either of those lucky finds can carry an entire group on up to Torment VI difficulty. Ideally, the remaining teammates will support the DPS carry with buffs and as much crowd control as they can muster.
The preferred way to level through Cursed Chests is to have individual party members make their own games, and invite the rest of the group when they stumble upon one of the Cursed Chests from the list below. Note that Act IV has no suitable spots.

Act I - The Cursed Cellar - The Old Ruins (dangerous for Hardcore characters due to lack of space!)
Act I - The Cursed Court - Cathedral Level 2
Act I - The Cursed Bellows - Halls of Agony Level 3 (dangerous for Hardcore characters due to fire traps!)
Act II - The Cursed Spire - Archives of Zoltun Kulle
Act II - The Cursed Pit - Archives of Zoltun Kulle
Act II - The Cursed Moors - Shrouded Moors
Act II - The Cursed Temple - Temple of the Firstborn
Act III - The Cursed Garrison - The Battlefields
Act III - The Cursed Bailey - The Ruins of Sescheron
Act V - The Cursed Peat - Paths of the Drowned (dangerous for Hardcore characters due to high damage monsters!)

Via Rifting

For groups and players that do not stress losing an hour in the 1-70 race, the general recommendation is to stick to rifts for the 1-70 journey. Rifts grant you increased legendary drop rate, blood shards for gambling, and a hefty "hand-in" bonus at the end. While rifting has a higher degree of randomness than bounties (map layout, monster density and composition are all RNG), the removal of Rift Keystones as a requirement to open them allows you to simply remake if you get a bad (difficult or slow) rift.

And this is it! Thank you so much for reading this megathread and my guides! Good luck and have a great Season 22!

is gambling really a sin video

Gambling - Is it a sin? The subject of gambling is multi-faceted and something that can divide Christians. On one side of the fence, there are those who argue that it is only a game and, like anything else (eating, drinking, etc.), it is acceptable as long as it does not become controlling or addicting. On the other side are believers who argue that gambling on any level is morally wrong. Which side is correct? Usually, it is considered sinful, although no religion explicitly states that gambling is a sin. But why is gambling illegal if it’s not really a sin according to religion? Well, according to countries that have outlawed gambling as a crime, there is an implied morality to consider and gambling clearly goes against the grain of that code of conduct. The Talmud condemns gambling as a sin. The Quran lists it as haram. Certain sects of Hinduism specifically forbid it. Would it not be prudent to heed the common wisdom of these great faiths? Even if you’re non-religious, you’ve surely heard horror stories wrought upon families by gambling. Be it fathers or mothers abandoning their parental responsibilities, losing life savings or ... Different religions have different advice about gambling. Let’s first start by describing what gambling is before you read my argument with a young man I met. Is-Gambling-a-Sin-in-Islam-Christianity-Hindu-or-Any-Religion. Gambling refers to any situation or game that has money involved and the outcome is uncertain. It means you are not sure of the end results so you are gambling. Gambling, whether it involves games of chance (e.g. card games), wagers or betting, or even lotteries, is not intrinsically evil (Catechism, No. 2404). However, a person may only engage in these activities with a strict adherence to virtue. First, he must act with temperance, whereby he keeps his passions and emotions under the control of reason, acts with moderation, and uses material goods in a good way and in accord with the circumstances of his life. If you’re one for believing all the latest rumours, you’ll be shocked at Las Vegas’ latest gossip. Word has it, that the off-Strip Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino will be demolished. Now, for those of you who don’t know, that’s the location for the World Series of Poker Main Event ever since 2005. So is there […] The Bible’s answer. Although the Bible does not discuss gambling in detail, we can discern from Bible principles that God views gambling as a sin. — Ephesians 5: 17. *. Gambling is driven by greed, which God hates. ( 1 Corinthians 6: 9, 10; Ephesians 5: 3, 5) Gamblers hope to gain money through the losses of others, but the Bible condemns coveting ... Question: "Is gambling a sin? What does the Bible say about gambling?" Answer: The Bible does not specifically condemn gambling, betting, or the lottery. The Bible does warn us, however, to stay away from the love of money (1 Timothy 6:10; Hebrews 13:5). Scripture also encourages us to stay away from attempts to “get rich quick” (Proverbs 13:11; 23:5; Ecclesiastes 5:10). Gambling most definitely is focused on the love of money and undeniably tempts people with the promise of quick and ... Most often when people gamble it is because they become addicted to the love of money. A simple game can become a sin when it takes over our minds and hearts and leads us down a road of never being satisfied. Study the following Bible verses about gambling and see why God encourages us to stay away from it. Find scripture quotes about gambling and ... Gambling is one of the most controversial topics in modern day society. Some people think it’s the best thing on the planet, others reckon casinos are the work of Satan.

Arguments for and against banning gambling - Debating Europe

is gambling really a sin

is gambling really a sin - win

Ok, I'm really stupid or I found somthing cool out. SOOOOOOOO I just think I found out why Husk is in hell. Alastor killed. Angel is a sex worker. You can tell what they did by there designs! For Christians (like myself) gambling is a sin. Now look at husks wings! They have card patterns!

#WEWANTCHANGE - GUIDE - UPVOTE THIS!! SO THE DEVS/YOUTUBERS CAN SEE IT /ANSWER TO RAIYUDEN FEEDBACK VIDEO

Here is your step by step guide!!

EDIT: UPDATE 02/05 2021!

(YOUTUBERS THAT MADE A FEEDBACK VIDEO)

(1. Preparation) WHAT YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW

(2. ACTION) Copy/PASTE the following:

(3 Spread the message)

A Hint to this this thread

B Post your feedback here

(WHAT WHALES/Japanese citizens CAN DO)

WHY DO YOU EVEN PLAY THE GAME?

My opinion:

WHAT I WISH LEGENDS WAS:

WHAT THEY NEED TO DO (in my opinion)

1. Introduce long term gamemodes

2. REBALANCE

3. INTRODUCE MORE SKILL/SKILL BASED Characters

4. COSMETICS

5. The "little" Stuff

CONCLUSION:What would we get after all these changes?

THE Dragonball Legends YOU DESERVE

A game you want to play the entire time, without ever getting finished.

A game you want to spend a lot of money on, since you know you always can use your characters

A game that stays exciting the entire time.

YOUR Dragonball Legends Community

Day 70 of SR

My Christian Upbringing and How I Escaped

Armin and the squad suffer from simplified, contradictory writing and lack of agency, and it hurts the final conflict (warning: wall of text)

the MC, the rival, and The ideological clash

diplomacy? politics?! I only know anti-war speeches

Honestly, you guys need even more talking

isayama's new best boy

TL/DR:

Shadowverse Rotation Meta Report. January 10th

AITA for wanting a day off?

Ridiculous Impact! Know the vast world that you're stepping your foot into

Encouragement from answered prayers

The Medieval Blood Libel Lives On In QAnon: Child Cannibalism, St William of Norwich, and Abortion

Some reviews of perfumes that sounded repulsive to me, but took great pleasure in sitting me down, slapping me, and making me shut up.

Deadset's All Characters Cheat Sheet & Endgame Guide Compendium, Season 22 Edition

S22 COMMENTARY AND THOUGHTS

>>LIST OF DETAILED GUIDES EVERY CLASS AND EVERY ACTIVITY<<

WHAT'S STRONG, FUN AND MAYBE EVEN NEW IN SEASON 22

BARBARIANS

CRUSADERS

DEMON HUNTERS

MONKS

NECROMANCERS

WITCH DOCTORS

WIZARDS

GETTING STARTED THIS SEASON, OR HOW TO GET TO THE COOL STUFF

THE IMPORTANT BIT FOR S22 ONLY: LEVELING WITH SHADOW CLONES

Challenge Rift Completion and Kanai's Cube

Which Item to Craft and Extract in the Cube?

Barbarian:

Crusader:

Demon Hunter:

Monk:

Necromancer:

Witch Doctor:

Wizard:

Spending the Challenge Rift Blood Shards

Barbarian:

Crusader:

Demon Hunter:

Monk:

Necromancer:

Witch Doctor:

Wizard:

Crafting a High Level Rare and Reducing Level Requirement

Complete a Boss Bounty

OTHER, NON SHADOW METHODS OF LEVELING UP

Torment VI Traps Method

Via Massacre Bonus

Via Cursed Chests

Via Rifting