DocHoff

Me. Which is where some folks facepalm and say "son of a... gotta be a ballbuster in every freaking crowd!" Naw, my man, not trying to bust anything; just trying to conversate, add my own perspective. As a child of the 80s, I did have one LEGO set; I think it was something like the summer cottage. It had the little green board for the ground, yellow walls, green shutters, a little pine tree. You got just enough blocks to duplicate the house....and I hated it. I didn't want to duplicate, replicate, imitate; I didn't want to follow instructions. I wanted to...create! Dad flipped out and sent me to my room "He never appreciates anything! Coloring books, LEGOs, transformers: he never touches anything, just daydreams. There's something wrong with him." But mom understood. "You don't get Ryan a coloring book, you get him a sketch pad. You don't give him LEGOs, you give him modeling clay. You folks get it, right? LEGOs are awesome for a child, but they felt too....paint by numbers... for me. If I was going to build a house, I wanted it to be from my own imagination, not a box that gave me a picture of how the summer home should be, with an exact count of how many blocks to use for different things. Lol, perhaps I should have been an architect. Mind you, I have no idea how LEGOS have evolved, but when I was a child, they felt too restrictive. What if you didn't want a tiny oak-looking door, what if you wanted maple double doors? What if you wanted bay windows in your living room? What if you don't want your roof to look like an acute triangle; what if you'd prefer to have half the roof flat, with part of it looking more of a scalene triangle type of deal? So, I never really had many LEGOs; I had modeling clay so I could really let creativity flow. Unless I misunderstood "who cannot relate!" If what I'm to relate to is the joy of giving a child a gift, then I very much relate. I remember when my oldest first REALLY misbehaved, I told her "I'm a creative person; I love using creativity to figure out fun rewards. However, if you mess up this bad, I have to use creativity to figure out how to punish, and it'll suck badly for you because I'll be agitated that I have to be a "stick" parent instead of the "carrot" type". Luckily for me, I can count how many times the stick came out on one hand.

I liked Mad Men. These days, I don't watch much tv. When you have a bunch of fish tanks in your living room, every direction you look is a different Discovery channel special.

You know, you're right; that looks exactly like the type of building Jay Gatsby would have visited. Wheeling, dealing, making plans to reunite with Daisy; very Gatsbyesque.

Sun Life; so I was looking at the right article. Thank you

Sunlight building? I did a google search and a Bing image search because I was curious about the building's history, and I didn't get a sunlight building, I got a Sun Life building, at 1155 Metcalfe Street on Dorchester Square. So, I'm curious: did you have a typo, or are there both a Sunlight building and a Sun Life building?

Now me; I've lived in a bunch of different types of regions. I've lived in areas so rural that households still used landlines, mountains sometimes play havoc on satellite signals. I loved it there because you'd step outside and swear you were the last person alive. You can really hear the heart and lungs of the earth in areas like that. However: I love the city, too. Some see ugly boxes. A friend pointed out a building and said "What do people see in these? It's an ugly, featureless glass egg." That building was a law firm. It had buttresses, just not the type that one would see on a cathedral. It wasn't ugly, it was a symbol of hope; of past, present, and future all rolled up together. And houses aren't "ugly little squares", they're art that you get to live in. Now some houses hold their true beauty on the inside; interior decoration is not a skill that I personally possess. Some might not be aesthetically pleasing inside or out, but oh the stories that they could tell. I've also lived in a country where they wanted to tear down an 840 something year old building just because it was old. As an American, that was unfathomable to me; 100 years old for a building is OLD. There's a saying I once heard that I thought was kind of cute: "In America, 100 years is old. In Europe, 100 miles is a long distance." So, all three pictures are beautiful in their own way to me. The city one might not be pretty to some; some might find some of the buildings to be downright hideous (even though I think they're awesome). But what really makes the city picture pop to me is that it's a classic illustration of the daily saga of humans. Like that tall building in the distance; countless stories are unfolding as that picture was taken. But, that's me; I see beauty in everything, from mountain to desert to man-made concrete jungle metropolis to the actual jungle to the sea and beyond.

Yes, you and I are going two different directions with our ranged Inquisitor. I'll have to do a guide after you finish yours. You have plenty of time to finish yours; I'm supposed to take a break from gaming for a bit. I went to get a tooth extracted and they refused bc they said my bp's at like stroke level, like 150 over 110. So, I gotta go to the VA and get blood pressure pills. Son of a....if they were worried about my blood pressure, they'd send me somewhere beside the VA. That place (at least in my state) is a total cluster-jam. Anyway, I'll type with you folks later.

Ok, I jumped back in to just to see how this prototype would stand against the White Griffin; killed it in a matter of seconds, with only two health potions used. Frenetic Fervor turns the Inquisitor into Tony Montana. I don't know how he'll fare at higher levels, all I know is he's steamrolled over everything in his path so far. I don't have CM+LE+RT, because I don't need it yet. Most of the time, I don't even use Ruthless Mutilation. I can't really give a comparison between vanilla game and EE. Some folks could tell you something like "The Temple Guardian's onboard weapon is 3.15% faster in EE than the vanilla version, but his spikes do 1.14% less damage." That's not me. I play Sacred 2 (specifically the Inquisitor) because I can make builds that look like fantasy and SciFi all rolled into one. The only time I've encountered anything close was a game for Xbox Called Too Human, which I can't recommend bc the controls are beyond jank. But where else can I find a game that has a dark priest who wears robes with LED piping who runs around with a blaster in one hand and a shield in the other? The best advice I can give.... some folks play the game like it's some type of physics equation. And perhaps that's fun for some folks. But for me, that burned me out for over a year. I had the little damage calculator thing and some other thing, sitting with a pencil and paper, "ok, if I added this life leech ring, it would increase my survivability by this percent, but this other ring will increase my attack by x amount". That, for me, sucks. So, the only advice I have is: play the game, experiment. That's the best I got.

Ok, I started my ranged Inquisitor prototype with one purpose in mind; to make a build I don't have to completely focus on, because I like playing games while watching "My Name Is Earl" on my phone. I started all over because I didn't like zealous doppelganger. I trash my builds if they can't 1) beat the kobald chieftain by level 25 and then 2) make it to Khorum without drinking a single health potion. This build did it by level 22; it took me seconds to kill the chieftain. When I got to Khorum, I suddenly got the idea to try my hand at building John Wick's home in a game called Rising World. But before I go, I can show this build. At level 23: I split attribute points between dexterity and vitality 17 Tactics Lore 22 Gruesome Inquisition Focus 31 Ranged weapons 16 bargaining 7 Blacksmith 10 toughness The only combat arts I have: Frenetic Fervor with the Fanaticism mod Ruthless Mutilation with Ire, Dolor, Frenzy I don't have any mods in Soul Reaver yet I have a full set of Igard's Judgment, each piece blacksmithed with +8.1% attack value and +8.6% defense value all of the rings and amulets are dexterity and ranged weapons based. I also have an essence energy smallarm because it gave me a -12 Gruesome Inquisition regeneration time This build's just a fledgling, but I wasn't expecting the building bug to bite right as I arrived at Khorum. So, I'm off to try my skill with John Wick's home, before it got blown to all crap and back in the second movie. I'll see you folks...idk, in the summer? Fall? Somewhere around there. Later days, everyone

I can do that. I'm not going to steal ric's thread, but I can give a sampling of what I'm working on. He's nothing that our veterans of the game haven't seen before, he's just new to me because I'm trying things I've avoided in the past. Like shields, for example; I've never used a shield w the Inquisitor before. I never used the doppelganger as a permanent buff before. I don't think I'm going to do that again. I thought with him as a buff, I'd avoid the death penalty, but I still lost my survival bonus when I tested it. I've never used Djalek's Annihilator before, which I like . I'm trying to avoid the Clustering Maelstrom, Levin Array, Raving Thrust combo, as we've all done that a million times, but my Inquisitor's currently as squishy as a bladder snail. He uses Soul Reaver; I can't picture an Inquisitor without it. He relies heavily on Ruthless Mutilation and Frenetic Fervor. Nothing new; I'm sure there's several guides that build him better than I've done. Never really looked at guides or the wiki before; I'm one of those stubborn s o bs that insists on doing everything himself. If I follow a guide, it's not MY build; it belongs to whomever's guide I followed.

Your list looks like mine. Sacred 2's the only game that I've consistently been playing since 2008. I lost interest in Starfield and Elden Ring way too fast for my liking. Sacred 2 and Vintage Story are the only games I've never uninstalled. In recent years, it has indeed felt harder to collect complete sets of anything, but it helps when you have a whole army of treasure hunters. Your ranged caster looks like mine, except I focused more on the ranged aspect. And a few other subtle differences, but it's hard to remember without looking at my character, it's one of Those mornings.

How very original. If someone would have said "dragon" to me, I don't think I'd ever have pictured one eating a star; now that's some out of the box thinking Kudos.

I have one that some might find funny. I thought I was alone yesterday morning, so I was singing one of my favorite 80s pop songs at the top of my lungs while cleaning. A little while later, my daughter came down and said "Dad, are you serious? Those can't be the lyrics!" I said something like "hey, it was a different time, don't hate! The '80s saw the birth of many blockbuster franchises; Terminator, Robocop, The Predator, etc". So, I looked it up, and saw how terribly wrong I have the song and it's meaning. Most of my understanding is due to the fact that I'm a goof, but I blame a tiny percentage on a slightly warped cassette. Here's Mr.Mister's Kyrie, as sung by DocHoff: Carrying a laser on, Carrying a laser on, He Dark wind blows hard against the mountainside, Across the sea into my soul It reaches into where I come to hide Setting my feet upon the foam It's heart is old, it holds my memories My body's burnt from jet-like flames somewhere between the soda soft machines is where I find my shed again Carrying a laser down the road that I must travel Carrying a laser through the darkness of the night Carrying a laser, where he'll go;will you follow? Carrying a laser on a highway made of light. "The hell, Doc?", right? The song is supposed to be kind of like a prayer, if I understand correctly; I thought it was about the apocalypse. Picture this: In a demon-sundered post apocalyptic world, a cyborg (named Kyrie) lives on top of a mountain, the entrance to his lair is hidden between two Pepsi machines. Most of his fleshy bits are scorched by the jet-like flames of demons, he's carrying a laser while riding a motorcycle at night to rescue people and bring them back to the safety of his hideout. Highway made of light: reference to his motorcycle and the fact that this cyborg was chosen by God to be humanity's savior. That's what I thought the song was about. As a child, I wasn't allowed to watch R rated movies and read Stephen King, but my parents watched HBO at night, so I'd stay up and listen. They also had a copy of The Stand, which I'd sneak at night, as well.

Excellent! I love looking at drawings; I myself can't draw worth a spit.

Nope, sorry, I'm mistaken. I saw one of those LOTR movies in '01, and the battlefield scenes bothered me a little bit then, but it's been over 20 years. I rewatched it the other day. It's just that if I have a whole two solid hours to myself, I'd prefer to explore my own imagination these days over someone else's.