She (W) may be good from a gameplay point of view but her psychotic glee of blowing people up is a major turn off in my book.

That's My Fetish™
...more to the point, I really like what Ayana Taketatsu does with those gleefully psychotic lines :d

Guess I should also at least E1 Elysium to keep Myrtle company. Were this many DP ever meant to be held by human hands?!

Yay E2'd the terrorist cockroachW, guess I should start working on Final Form bullyWeedy next? ◕ω◕)v

From ones I don't have it leaves Skadi, Angelina, Nightingale, SilverAsh, Schwarz, Magallan, Mostima and Blaze.

I was mostly thinking about Angelina since she's great with her slow and will be handy for stuff like CC with limitations on casters etc. Nightingale or SilverAsh would be great too. Nightingale as ultimate arts defense (which isn't that important until you get enemies like GrudgeBearers/WorldCursers in recent event) and SilverAsh for curing cancer. Of course I can technically get both of them from recruitment, but my luck with top tags wasn't exactly the best. I didn't actually really consider Blaze, but I guess she would also be neat and I did like her in story... Then again I still want game to challenge me.

From that list Silverdaddy would be my first pick; his passives are crazy utility (decloak is a rare, very convenient ability and unconditional global team buffs are very yes) and he ain't known as the Schwing Schwing Man for nuttin'. Blaze is the Final Form of AoE Guards, already a strong archetype, and you can build whole strats around her but just doesn't have the same level of sheer utility and team synergy so I'd rate her as a lower priority. Ange is good too but that no-attack condition on her stronger skills can make her rather awkward to use (S3 turns her into discount Eyja with slow when active tho), and as you say Nightingale's specific niche doesn't come up all that often - her phantoms can be extremely useful though; I got good mileage out of them baiting casters and drones in Anni3 for ex.

Magallan is peak drone gameplay and from vidyas I've seen can be insanely strong if used right, but dronemasters in general strike me as tending to require a bit of rejiggering of your whole tactical outlook and can't really be just "plugged in" to your more conventional lineups on the fly. Wouldn't consider her a priority unless that approach to the game particularly tickles your fancy, personally.

Mostima's interesting. That passive area slow and Caster SP regen buff are no jokes (combo her with Iffy and watch the world burn, for ex, or other area slow sources like Greyy and Manticore to totally tarpit a lane) and her actives are really strong if used right. S2 completely locks down and does heavy Arts burst to everything in her attack range for its (short) duration - I tripped up the buffed Crownslayer in the recent CC with that one to good effect - while S3 is basically Truesilver Slash (Arts remix) with side order of slow and some knockback. The activation costs are pretty prohibitive though, even with the SP gain from her second passive, and she doesn't deploy cheap herself either what with being a high-rarity AoE caster. I'd say she's definitely worth developing and using if you have her, but not someone to go out of your way to get.

Schwarz and Skadi are arguably rather similar in many ways - both are specialised "boss killers" and have the same problem of not really bringing much else to the table, or even doing something that you couldn't just as well use a lower-rarity or more versatile Op for. Franka or Hellagur (maybe even Utage) oughta be able to do Skadi's main job just fine and Hellagood can additionally hold an entire lane unsupported thanks to his self-heal if needed, freeing a medic slot; while Schwarz has no shortage of powerful and usually more versatile ranged monsters for competition. I wouldn't personally suggest picking either in this particular context, and if you somehow had the choice between the two outside it I'd take Schwarz no contest - if nothing else her range makes her more flexible in terms of deployment and application, and Skadi's "potent single-target melee" niche is seriously oversaturated anyway. also Skadi's attack animation looks fucking ridiculous

From what I hear Skadi is kinda meh. While she's certainly good at what she does - dueling bosses - she doesn't really do anything else which is pretty meh for a 6* Guard, never mind now one in an already rather saturated niche. At that rarity the selling point tends to be versatility and/or giving candy to the rest of the team after all.

Saria is better because she can also function as a Medic and thus performing two roles. This makes her better than either Hoshi or Liskarm and why she is considered part of the "Big 5" overpowered ops. However, Saria does show up in the shop often.

It's more that Saria can do things Hoshi simply doesn't, but on the flipside she also melts under the sort of massive pressure the oni can readily facetank (healer-defenders characteristically have lower raw stats to compensate for their versatility). Lisk isn't even in the same league anyway given she's 5*, but she's got a number of unique quirks and that passive makes her a silly good SP generator for other Ops in the right circumstances - a whole different niche.

Anyway, out of that list my pick would be Saria or Eyja - the former for versatility and universal applicability, the latter for being disgustingly OP for her DP cost. That S3 deletes whole waves of heavies like few other things in the game, fo' reals. (Mostima and Ch'en are both nice too but much more niche IMO.)

Shockingly, articles tend to contain more than their opening sentences. As evidenced by the second, the third, and, y'know, the rest of the article.

97.8% native Japanese, as of 2018, is ethnically homogenous as all fuck by any measure. Just because the remaining 2.2% is as wildly colourful sprinkling as anywhere else - putting aside the minor detail that between them Chinese and Korean expats amount to nearly half of the sum total - doesn't make it any less of a functionally irrelevant curiosity.

All the more so as the article explicitly points out this is after a very recent (relatively) dramatic uptick in the number of foreign residents...

Point being, the popular entertainment of a virtually ethnically monolithic island nation with a pretty bad case of literal island mentality - which tend to go together for obvious enough reasons (just ask the UK, a longtime repeat offender) - is going to be real slim pickings for "ethnic representation" in general.

so if your point was about industry practices rather than ground-level demographics, then I'd have to agree.

While it was primarily the former, uh, did you actually read what you linked? Because the very opening sentence of the article is rather at odds with what you seem to be trying to say here...

I'm half Black Caribbean half Causasian myself and I thought I was finally getting some representation :(

Yeeeeaaaaahhh Japanese mangos would be a pretty bad place to look for it in general. Just sayin'.

TBF the human mind is pretty amazing at bullshitting its way through cognitive dissonance - especially if it's already malfunctioning...

But I have a strong suspicion you've already put a lot more thought into the practicalities of the situation than the author did.

A cat is fine too...

Rye posted:

Ok can y'all check my Onlyfans so I can afford the guaranteed Blaze pack? Thanks. This is a joke

You got me x3 I was thinking like "Wait!? Rye has Onlyfans!?"

Rita and Bianka had a very cute scene in HI3 2 days ago. No one can convince me they aren't a thing!

It was eminently homosexual. I approve. (Relatedly I'm totally shipping Alvitr and Susannah after that Secret Origin of Dudu fanfic brainstorming session they had in the event.)

Also My Wotan Can't Be This Cute!

last edited at Jan 3, 2021 11:40AM

*sigh*

Don't know why I even bothered. Oh right, referencing a CyberBug meme is why.

Not like the girl has any actual power here you know - the maid's employers are her parents not her, and what with being a minor and all she as-such has no say in the matter. Tellingly the maid's objections revolve entirely around sensible worries over getting sacked for any funny business with the young lady; said lady's possible disappointment and/or ire do not appear to be a concern.

Rather the point would seem to be that the miss changing tack and T-posing to assert dominance "assuming privilege" that she doesn't actually even possess makes the older girl go weak at the knees, dry in the mouth and likely moist... somewhere else. It's practically speaking roleplay that, evidently, hits all her fetishesbuttons.

its as much a Tragedy as the Society™️ we live in

A wild W appears!
Phew, was afraid I'd have to farm far more for this banner. Not even gonna try for dupes, that's for sure. (It's a neat touch that her "faction crest" is uniquely Babel...)

On a side note, I wonder if Mostima has any relation to the species Nian is cause she also has a dragon-like behemoth in her E2 art. It's a physical manifestation too and not an aura thing like with Ch'en or Bagpipe.

Yeah that's not "theme animal" like usual, what with Mostima being a(n altered) Sankta - those guys get more abstract E2 BG arts anyway. It's something in those staves of hers; check the final paragraph in her Promotion Record:

More importantly, though, what was the monstrosity that appeared behind her at the moment the two forces within her hands overlapped?

Suffering (temp.) did always seem extremely anxious about the whereabouts of those things... Writers only know what's in there, not like the place had a shortage of Eldritch Abominations lurking in dark corners.

random posted:

I like Rosmontis so far. If they'd ever add her,

Was there ever any doubt, really?

Well, I remember reading that they wanted to add Kal'tsit, but didn't because she'd be too op or something like that, so I was thinking they might use the same excuse with Rosmontis.

AFAIK Kalt was an Operator already in the beta tests - and so utterly broken they apparently still haven't figured out how to rework her enough to be balanced in the actual release. To quote a comment on TakDes's overview of her, "Looking back at this, Kal'tsit basically summons Hellagur every 25 seconds."
...yeah.

No wonder her and Red mop the floor with Crownslayer and her squad by themselves in-story :v

How do you get all of these rolls without spending a crapton of money on the game?

Hoard Originum, tickets etc. for months ┐(ﾟ～ﾟ)┌

On an unrelated note the official Discord server's icon has been changed into a suitably "BOOM! Wahaha!" W one, which amuses me far more than it should.

...not for the first time do I suspect my sense of humour might be slightly juvenile >_>

I like Rosmontis so far. If they'd ever add her,

Was there ever any doubt, really?

The comment section ended up more entertaining to read than the actual manga lol

ikr? Came here with the figurative popcorn, was not disappointed.

I also failed to recall that Kaoru had a specific reason to know German, as opposed to (say) Swahili... Yes, probably best not to change that, in case it becomes an important plot point later on. You never know.

I'm already counting chapters until when we'll be introduced to this friend.

It's also a curious parallel to Honoka and Elisha - the Yamada sisters seem to be similar in unexpected ways. :P

I'm pretty sure this is just Worksafe Netorare by proxy. By my understanding, the main draw of NTR (besides the sexual aspect) is the anguish of seeing someone you care about (Significant other, mother, little sister, etc) go off and be taken away/'stolen'.

That's just westerners, because cuck porn exists. The Japanese attitude is that it's fun to steal.

I've seen enough JP hentai where the whole gimmick is the viewpoint character being the cuckold to Press X To Doubt this claim.

They have the vocabulary to precisely distinguish at least three main different varieties of NTR for a reason you know.

I mean tbf the Arknights world-setting in general - or at least the parts we get to see onscreen - is pretty much a Triple-Shot Depresso with a large topping of Bleak.

Was honestly pretty impressed by just how bleak the writers managed to make the Kazdel civil war sound with nothing more than the character dialogue; reminded me of some descriptions of (parts of) Germany during the Thirty Years' War.
No wonder there's scores of expat Sarkaz wandering around who aren't super keen on going back there (eg. Mudrock's bunch)...

"Fundamentally, I'm a big boobs person..."

fukken lol'd

Obviously with W there is only one thing to do: use her to blow herself up.

"I am you, but better."

An aside that kept bugging me - what species Ines is (was)? She's not a Sarkaz (as W liked to remind her) but there aren't all that many horned races around and she doesn't have the characteristic tail of the Vouivre, who'd otherwise look like the closest match.