Ulysses

Yes, I find t3/t4 to be about the optimal difficulty in terms of time spent and the increased xp/gold. 10 mins clear is probably as long as you want for a rift...even then it depends on mob density..some maps are awesome like the quasi a1 prison, but others like quasi a2 sewers are terrible. If you are in a decent party, you can get away with 1.5-2m toughness on up to t5 (as a DH - I'm sure if it can be done on DH, it's definitely possible on the other classes as well)..provided there's a capable crowd controller in the party. That's what I usually do when I run my L4N/Mara DH. Yeah and WD with harvester is insanely awesome against any group. Tasker and Theo gloves are quite good in pets build as well. 'Decent' DH even without 6 pc mara, or massive disc reservoir, or something like endless CA (with post 1.0.4 DML/SOJ) can be really good too..provided of course you know how to stutter-step, time your SS, positioning and etc.

Found my Slowhand vinyl a few days ago...enough said.

the windmill...lol. Isn't that just nice? Not sure what they are trying to achieve here with bandos hilts...intriguing.

More veteran contents came out for ESO a few days ago..good times. Just started playing Dark Souls 2 last week...it's tough, it's meant to be tough... just like the first one. The updated Age of Mythology is worth checking out as well.

1 - As above, if you can send two ships out every 24 hours, i.e. purely resource voyages in shield (as trade goods ones would take 15 hours min..14:55?), get rudder, then crew, then parts. I'd get the deck parts first. 2 - Generally, replace all your 10k captains with 35k captains as soon as possible. Stats even with a couple of irrelevant traits are far superior to 10k captains. On the General Discussion thread, you could find some more useful information - in particular to maximising effectiveness of the 4x exiles set up in combination with the focus on bones and their stats requirements - according to xpx, the ideal captain set up should be 2 morale, 1 combat, 2 seafaring captains (one of which with 4x multi-talented i.e. 4*50 mcs + 4*100 speed). 3 - When I was in loop/shield, I had 4 statue from ages ago, so I merely rebuild two trees and that was more than enough. So in your case I think you are fine. 4 - Replace all pincer crews first, then work your way through the loop mcs crew; at the same time, get rid of wisp and add another TC merchant. Replace JOD with Exiles when you unlock them. Again, if you intend to go down the bones route later on, the consensus on the General Discussion thread is that you replace a SF crew with another Exile. Shield should feel a bit hard to begin with, but once the crew gets to lvl 6 or so, it should gradually feel easier. I would not recommend doing trade goods voyages early on, as it tends to upset the 11.35~ schedule and voyages get out of sync. It's much easier to log in and take care of it all in one go. ps: It took me 9 tries to get Exile done, at which point I was already well over 3700. So there's no need to be discouraged if you can't get it in the first few tries.

nis 8x cruelty 1.5

It has taken over 2 months but I finally managed to recruit a 35k captain with +3% and +40 trait... still not ideal but it's satisfying nonetheless. Around a month after 3766, I am at the point where I have just decided to re-roll standard mcs crews for those +100 traits to use up some of that azure. Was wondering whether the type of lodging actually increases the chance for standard crews to acquire bonus mcs traits (awe inspiring, slayer, seafarer and etc.)? On another note, my alt is up to Pincer...still yet to find the first lifeboat...pretty sure I've lost over 20 crews so far (even from 6-70% voyages on a few occasions). Is this normal? Or is it just me?

Some things cannot be taught at uni; some people's abilities cannot be graded in the conventional sense. And excelling in high school does not necessarily mean you will excel at uni. University helps facilitate the change from adolescent to adulthood (intellectually in particular) - but it still requires input from people themselves. I think it is essential for uni students to treat it like a job - this might require a change in attitude depending on how one got through high school, but is necessary to prepare for life. And university education is no longer the only pathway to later life. Given, entries are relaxed these days, and you are almost guaranteed opportunity for tertiary education should you choose to (in Australia at least), there isn't as much of a stature or prestige as it was for the previous generation (GenX and before). The thing is, you want to make the most out of university, and do things that others don't normally do, e.g. volunteering work as mentioned above, doing some part-time work (doesn't matter where - just let your future employed know you are employable...for the very least, and could get a reference at some point if required), or perhaps mentoring 1st years, supervising labs (where applicable) and etc. And ideally, you also want some sort of higher degree qualification e.g. MPhil/PhD, which imo should be the minimum for any job requiring professional knowledge, on top of whatever qualification exams/experience you have to have completed/acquired. You can always self learn things to do in your own time...like investing (in stocks - start small and build it up; from experience it's worthwhile to start early), or a new language (linguistic/programming whatever). All about time management.

Early access started around 20 hours ago. Good fun. They managed to change some of the tutorial and starting areas - different from the last beta. But all in all, nice changes. Still bugs around but for a game like this and the developer perhaps, that's not particularly surprising. To anyone who doesn't know...you can still get the Explorer's Pack before the official launch on 4th April, but it will no longer be available after that. (The key differential for this pack is that it allows you the opportunity to play in any alliance regardless of race choice) But if you have bought the standard digital edition, you can still purchase an upgrade to the Imperial edition at any time. (The key differentials here are the addition of a free horse (it actually costs 1 gp), and the ability to choose to be of the Imperial race and join any of the three alliances)

RoS...so much fun. Lvl 60 legendary gears as expected, become gradually useless...mediocre ones are even surpassed by magic gear as soon as lvl 61. Fights are challenging especially if you are under-geared. Blood shards are pretty much useless from the bounties though. A5 took around 8 hrs for me in party of 4 on master...as an indicator. To anyone yet to play a5, turn up the graphics and enjoy.

First of all, welcome! As far as PVM is concerned, higher stats are better in every case. I assume you are not maxed in slayer, so that might be a start to level those stats. 3m cash is a bit tight, but I suppose the cheapest godsword for melee is better than whip + dragon offhand (assuming you can't wield vine whip (<80 slayer) and don't have EE - need 70 prayer iirc). Ranged rise, try getting a royal..if you have money left..but hand cannon is also good budget weapon (t75). Magic wise, use Staff of Light. Ranged could also be trained at Waterfiends...crimson used for summoning..then you will get unicorn/titan/yak soon enough. If you get 92 magic (assuming DT done), and maybe 70 prayer, and do a bunch of quests, you can try glacors...sol + gano might be sub-optimal..but if you can manage it well, it can a very good source of charms and magic xp. Things like Giant Mole and various GWD bosses are doable as well...but again, the budget and stat constraints will hurt your kph and revenue. Given budget, dharok for melee purposes, gano for magic and I suppose royal dragonhide for ranged purposes would suffice. It will take a while to gather all those things like ss/turm, ovl and yak...patience and persistence. Hope this helps a little bit.

Yes, I rolled five 35k captains so far...four of them have negative or wrong trait(s) and the other one has two minor positive traits... it can be quite frustrating. For ship parts upgrade after rudder, is the optimal order deck > hull > bow?

I am fairly sure that it caps at around 200 (196 or 198?) with the Hard Seers' Diary done. But if you have done the Elite Seers' Diary as well, you get 200 coal transported straight to your bank every day when you deposit into the coal trucks. But as far as I know, the normal cap is still 120.

You should always make boons appropriate to the tier of energy/memory you are harvesting, and try to buy the required energy for boons (as opposed to gathering and saving them), divine locations (if you wish), and for combining and converting them (option 3 when converting at the crater) Not sure what you mean by making inventory, equipment and skills always clickable. You can edit your UI by pressing 'esc' and selecting the edit mode (or access via settings), and drag things around, hiding/displaying various interfaces and changing key bindings such that you can always toggle for your inventory, equipment and skill levels with a click or a button, or keep them onscreen 'permanently'. Sorry if this wasn't what you were asking.

Again, you might be better off asking in the OSRS section. But the stats make sense don't they? Void requires lvl 42. You have your 52 prayer for smite (to counter protect item), 94 magic for veng, and your typical 'pure' stats. You don't necessarily have to get 52 prayer...just 22 will do for void. But you might as well take it all the way.

Failed my 5th exile voyage at 60%. Ranged/vamp gets sold fairly high (1m+) at times too. But elements is the one you want whenever possible.

TzHaar bank area healing is perhaps the most exciting news for me. New font looks a bit weird...

Sure the world has evolved, but that just changes the nature of war. WWII was easily defined by WWI, through the allies in treaties and motivation. This 'war', as you mentioned is a remnant of the Cold War which is a remnant of the Vietnam War, which is a remnant of the Korean War, which is a remnant of dropping nukes on Japan. WWIII in my eyes could easily be sparked by this power grab from Russia, seeing as it is the only country that can come close to a toe-to-toe match up with the American military. I feel like this is Russia calling out America for all its BS about sovereign nation protection. Perhaps war in the cyberworld? Hacking and espionage done via the Internet, just like what Israel did a few years ago against Iran's nuclear facilities (Stuxnet?). Although it seems like Russia may 'come close to a toe-to-toe match up with the Americans', realistically they lose out because virtually everyone else will not side with them. In any case, I can see the UN being dissolved on several levels - the permanent members will drive it apart with veto powers, boycotts and this extends down to the security council and the common members. I can also imagine a number of embargoes, sanctions and asset freezes being thrown around in the case of escalating tension. The last thing the US will want, is to upset China (in whatever they are trying to accomplish against Russia over Ukraine region), they cannot afford to lose out on economy - the foreign reserve, ownership of debts and businesses. You could also imagine NATO putting pressure on Russia at some point due to the increased military presence in Belarus. This whole scenario just shows how one-sided the world is. When the US made commitment to 'fix' the world to fit their ideals (or if you like, 'protect civilians from corrupted govt' or 'protect national interests/sovereignty' or 'overthrow the axis of evil' etc. it's just baloney), how positively people in general, respond to it. How inconsistent it is when others attempt to influence the world in one way or another...when we dismiss their ideals or refuse to observe what 'good' can they achieve in similar situations. Unfortunately, because of how the world works at the present, we may never witness it. Similarly, Putin won't be able to get away from this on the global stage. Not because his country's actions are not justified well enough (actually I strongly disagree with their justification, but it isn't really the point here), but it's due to other observers' tinted view of the world. Remember when they made claims about Iraq's WMD? What about their bold ambition to overthrow the Talibans in Afghanistan? Libya? Syria - still fighting there...have we already forgotten about them? Somehow they have gotten away with minor consequences (debt ceiling...they won't default - simply cannot 'afford' to economically speaking, loss of lives - unavoidable in armed conflicts). Even if there aren't any immediate sanctions of some sort, governments in the future would have a leverage over Russia in the future should they wish, over whatever happened with Ukraine. So if you want justice done accordingly (to one side or the other, or both), there's no need to worry.

I think you would get better response by posting on the OSRS section of the forum. Obviously the higher ranged, the better. It would also depend on gearing/risk taking, if you would be using arma xbow/crystal etc. Not sure on the melee part though.

Very true. It reminds me of MTG. But playing TCG on the computer just doesn't resonate in me as much as physically. Would recommend as well nonetheless.

I had 3 jod, 4 TCm, 1 wisp, 665 mcs (loop crew...were lvl 7-9) when I got into shield. It felt like a right decision when I bought in the wisp as it complimented the lowered speed on the sf hull...but on hindsight it felt a little like a waste of TC...as I found that its usefulness in shield is limited.

I think monkey knife fighters or blackjacking is fastest until you get 91. After which, pp and monkey knife fighters are roughly the same. The trainer at the Thieves' Guild is pretty fast too, but I haven't done enough to say whether it is better than the two aforementioned methods or not.

Titanfall didn't disappoint so far. Asides from the slight hiccup in terms of update/download speed on Origin, it is quite a nice game if you are into that particular genre.

...think it will be released in 4th quarter of 2014...the lvl 90 boost is somewhat pointless to existing players..but I guess it does make a fair incentive for people to try it out.

Lol that master cape poll...even though it doesn't raise the skill level cap, it does artificially create a framework for which some players will level through (even if it's purely for the aesthetics factor). In effect, it generates more incentives for players, who would otherwise have stopped/moved on, to continue playing beyond lvl 99. A nice strategy I guess...but probably not one with a significant impact...considering the time and effort the average player has to invest into it.