Wulff

Been plowing through the Trigun manga today. Muh Feels Oh and also this

It keeps happening. The opening ceremony for the Shanghai Major main event was cancelled partially because it wasn't fully prepared and partially because the Chinese teams didn't care to show up. The first day of the main event had over FIVE HOURS of stream delays and it got so bad, that the crowd at the arena were told to leave, because the rest of the games for the day would be played online and away from the arena (Due to time restraints). Production also managed to throw away the keyboard of one of the players from Team Spirit.

Both Paero and Scoots are pretty spot on. Before you read any further, I just want to make a disclaimer and say that as of writing this post, we only have James "2GD" Harding's perspective on things. Valve have yet to make any official statement (other than Gabe Newell being a fucking retard on reddit), so keep an open mind in the coming days. We don't know it all yet. The reason why this is such a hubbub can be simmered down to the following. The Shanghai Major was produced by a production crew called "KeyTV". They have previously hosted the Nanyang Dota 2 Championship (Which was terrible from the production-side of things, I should know, I watched that garbage) and in general have a reputation for being unreliable. They were hired by Perfect World, who are partnered with Valve and take care of their business in China. KeyTV fucked up majorly once again (See: Nanyang Championship) and production quality was appalling. The broadcast was riddled with issues ranging from missing audio, missing visuals and the stream going offline multiple times. Not to mention that they had seemingly no prepared schedule for the event and the Shanghai Major experienced several HOURS delay every day... HOURS. James "2GD" Harding is an entrepreneur in the video game world. He is not involved solely with Dota 2 (In fact he is currently working on his own game with his own team) and is a former Quake professional. He has also been heavily invested in games such as World of Warcraft, Starcraft 2 and Bloodline Champions. (Casting and commentary on WoW and SC2, and actual development on BLC). 2GD is very much part of the "old guard" when it comes to eSports and online broadcasting. He was in the scene before there really was a scene and he had made a name for himself before Valve even considered taking over the DotA IP... Probably. 2GD is known for being brash and unfiltered when it comes to his hosting/casting. He brings the "banter" is probably the best way to put it. He has always been like this, this hasn't changed in the past DECADE. I remember listening to him cast professional Arena games in 2009 and he was as loose back then as he is now. This is his personality in the scene. 2GD has been working with Dota since 2012 with The GD Studio and has hosted several tournaments over the past 4 years. What I am trying to get at here, is that Valve hired 2GD fully knowing what they could expect. He has hosted THE INTERNATIONAL no less than three times in his career and he has hosted multiple home-brewed tournaments on his own. There's no way Valve did not know what they were signing up for. Not to mention that Icefrog himself got in touch with 2GD over Skype and told him, that he was glad to see 2GD hosting the Major and that he should just be himself So when you have a tournament where EVERYTHING is going wrong on the production side such as basic issues being overlooked, serious time-delays and a general lack of competence from a technical standpoint and the only bright light in the event for many viewers is 2GD bringing his special style of hosting to the panel, is it any wonder that people get fucking pissed off when their host is fired IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAMN BROADCAST? The worst part is that Gabe Newell himself, the fucking Gaben, made a post on the r/Dota2 subreddit calling James an "ass" and publically denouncing him. There was no reasoning explained as to why 2GD was fired, no explanation for why he was "an ass". It was pretty much just a fucking shitpost. What an embarassment.

I think Venomancer is a hero that can be approached from a couple of different ways. The most obvious one is playing Venomancer in the support role, which is what I think most people are familiar with. The big issues that Venomancer suffer from, is that he has an attack range which is average at best, poor base movement speed and outside of his Agility growth, his stat gains are subpar. Another glaring problem is that the hero has no hard disables. As such the hero falls into this weird kinda middle-ground between viable support and viable carry. Now of course you can swing the odds in your favour by picking Venomancer in the right game, against the right heroes. Despite Venomous Gale having undergone significant changes in the past 1-2 years of Dota patches, it is still an incredibly strong slow. I think it might still be the most potent slow effect at level one, but I could be wrong on that. So with that in mind, the old pubstomping lanes á la Juggernaut + Venomancer are still viable, albeit less so than in the past, because both Blade Fury and Venomous Gale have received nerfs since Dota 2 launched. The point is: Pick heroes that can make something out of the strong slow from Venomous Gale and watch as Venomancer's viability as a support skyrockets. Then of course you can pick Venomancer to both push and/or counter-push, not to mention make life a living hell for enemy heroes that are reliant on their Blink Daggers to get good initation. Plague Wards are without question Venomancers signature ability and I really can't imagine many builds where this spell is not maxed out as early as possible. You just have to remember to get creative with it. Use it to scout, use it to block escape paths, deny runes with it and so on. Outside of being a lane support, I think Venomancer has a place in the middle lane. However I wouldn't just idly pick him and go mid every game, as I can guarantee you that a lot of popular mids would absolutely demolish him (Invoker and OD spring to mind). But if you recognize that the enemy has picked a weak laner for mid (Pudge or maybe Shadow Fiend. Even TA, just because your dots really screw with her), then you can most likely go ahead and dominate the mid lane without too much issue. Also with the latest rework to how Veil of Discord is built (no longer a recipe, but 2x Robe of the Magi instead) that item is honestly super dank on Venomancer. The Helm of Iron Will gives nice sustain for lane and the Robes of the Magi really help Venomancer and his shitty mana pool. An item I would recommend AVOIDING on Venomancer is Mekansm. The item used to be a staple for the hero, but after receiving a few increases to its mana cost (Its now 225 mana to activate I think), it's really hard to make it work due to your abysmal int gain. I'd say maybe if you are mid and you're actually able to get some farm and plan on going Guardian Greaves then sure, but other than that - nah man.

It's no secret that I browse a lot of garupan and /ak/ threads on the 4chinz, someone asked for yukari and erwin lewds

Hey. I recently had a day off from my stationary PC and video games and all that good stuff I usually do in my spare time. I actually thought my PC had broken down, but as it would turn out, it still had some life in it, so I got it up and running the evening of the same day it "broke". In the time I thought I was without a "gaming PC" however, I ended up alleviating my intense boredom by drawing some stuff. I used to be pretty interested in drawing when I was like 10-16, but I got away from it and haven't really drawn seriously since. A couple of years ago I posted a sketch in the anime thread (of an anime character) but I figure since we have this board now, I might as well post these here. Requested by anons in the dr/a/wfag threads. Kumiko and Slacker-senpai from "Hibike! Euphonium" enjoying ice cream (Best girls according to the anon who requested it and I am inclined to agree). Ayano Sugiura revealing her panties while embarrassed WARNING: LEWD As you can see, both of these are very much WIP, especially the Ayano one. Like I mentioned above though, I got my PC back and running on the same day and my interest in drawing faded that same night. I posted these in the drawthread and encouraged anyone willing to finish them, because I wouldn't be doing it. I doubt I will be updating this thread with any sort of frequency because I usually don't have an interest in doing these things, but who knows. I might end up in a similar situation in the future.

Full Metal Panic! is honestly pretty fun. It was grating on me initially due to it literally being high school antics and misunderstandings: the anime, but once it showed that it could actually have a serious arc it was really good. The Arbalest is cool af tbh fam.

Hello and welcome to Wulff's guide to supporting in the 4k bracket! Chances are you've been forced into a support role during the draft of your game, because you didn't exactly know what core hero you wanted to play and were too late to lock in a core position. You're obviously not happy about this, but at least you're not fucking retarded enough to pick a jungling core like Lifestealer or Legion Commander instead, good on you! So now you have to pick a support, but you have no idea what support you should be picking, because you've literally never played anything other than mid or safelane in your last 1000 games. Ideally you want to pick something with a stun, because stuns are good. You also want to pick something with ranged auto-attacks because it makes winning your lane easier and gives you more room to harass the enemy laners. But who cares about that right? Dota 2 is about having fun and not about creating a well-rounded draft that can work cohesively to achieve victory. So you pick some shitty fucking support hero that barely synergizes at all with the carry in your lane. Think something dank as fuck like Zet support Xd Then you load in as your hero of choice and happily declare "me support ;:D" as you buy a courier and no wards, as you need that money for as many Gauntlets of Strength as possible. Besides you bought the courier, that's enough supporting for the first 10 minutes of the game! What you don't know is that your team is collectively wishing for you to suffer from a fucking stroke as they look at your 2x Gauntlets of Strength, 4x Tangos and 1x Salve inventory, but what do they know, they're probably <4.2k shitters lmao. You then proceed to wander into your lane, not bothering to assist your team in securing one of the two powered-up Bounty Runes that spawn at 00:00 and also not bothering to at least block your creepwave so you can have a more favourable laning experience when the two waves collide. No, you just stand yourself under the tower and alt-tab because you have to get your loud and obnoxious music playing. It's literally impossible to enjoy Dota 2 without it. Now comes the real bread and butter of supporting - The laning stage! A point in the game where supports are arguably the strongest heroes on the map. So do you want to know how to properly support your hardcarry in his lane? Of course you do! Here's the trick: You sit half a screen behind him, not bothering to use the regen you brought to lane in order to trade and harass the enemy laner(s). Instead you just let them walk all over your poor little carry as he burns through his regen in less than two minutes due to the heavy harass damage he is receiving. But that's fine, as long as you're not taking any damage and not feeding, you're doing your job! Bonus points for randomly casting your spells at the enemy without any warning to your lane partner(s) making it impossible to coordinate any sort of kill-setup because you're too busy bopping your head to the sick beatz yo! If you want to take it to the next level, you can also spend the laning stage aimlessly wandering between lanes looking to make yourself useful, despite the fact that all you're really doing is weakening the lane you were supposed to be supporting and also not getting any experience, leaving you terribly underlevelled and absolutely fucking worthless come the midgame. Finally the epitome of supporting is attaining the coveted 30-minute Hand of Midas meta timing. Screw wards, screw upgraded courier, screw boots - Hand of Midas is what it is all about baby. If you get this item before 30 minutes, you're absolutely fucking sorted, I promise. There's no way you can lose the game at that point.

Crusaders are one of the slowest classes to deal damage starting out. They honestly might be the slowest class to level and to roll out on lower Torment levels. The payoff being that with real gear, they are currently (probably) the best solo class in the entire game. I have a Invoker-build Crusader on seasonal Hardcore and I can play Torment 8 or lower without a care in the world. I only have to actually pay attention to cooldowns and hazards on Torment 9-10. TL;DR: Crusaders start out slow and cumbersome to play but end up being fucking stellar with gear.

Hey friends. I'm not even sure how many users browse the anime threads now that we've been so neatly boxed into a little corner of this website, so who knows how much input I'll get. Anyway here's the deal: I like Shounen anime a lot. I enjoy the adventure, the powerlevels rising, the power of friendship and the long continuous journey that usually comes with the Shounen genre. My favourites include Fullmetal Alchemist, Hunter X Hunter and Hajime no Ippo. Now the thing is that I am looking for a new Shounen anime to watch and when most Shounen anime are at least 50-100 episodes long, I figured I'd ask for some suggestions before diving head first into one, only to find out 30 episodes in that it's not what I expected. I'm obviously prepared to watch something that is long, but I will say that "The Big 3" (Naruto, One Piece, Bleach) are pretty much out of the question because I doubt I can handle 500+ episodes of anything. Are there any Shounen anime out there that you can recommend? I don't mind if they aren't "10/10 best anime i will ever fucking see" but just something that's good and consistent and has a satisfying ending. Is Fairy Tail any good? Is Magi worth watching? Has anyone seen InuYasha or Yu Yu Hakusho? Old anime doesn't bother me either, so feel free to recommend me something from the 70's or 80's if you've got any suggestions. I'll add a list of stuff I've seen which most people would classify as Shounen. Fullmetal Alchemist Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Hunter x Hunter 2011 Attack on Titan Code Geass (R2 included) Hajime no Ippo Sword Art Online (Kill me) Fate/stay night, Fate/Unlimited Blade Works, Fate/Zero Dragonball (Not Z or GT or Super or any of the stuff past the very first series) Rurouni Kenshin Thanks friends.

who /hardcoreseasonal/ here?

Gonna do the doubler, but no one has responded in like 4 days so its OK. Ordered this today, 40% off.

thank you for helping me self-insert as the little girl. On-topic: Heroes of Might & Magic III Wide variety of factions that all play differently. Fully-fleshed out magic system with different schools of magic being available and each of them catering to a different playstyle. Long and interesting campaign with neat little cutscenes that were pretty decent for their time. Literally hundreds of scenario missions to play with tons of different objectives and game rules that make each one a unique experience. Random seed maps. Very expansive map editor which is also simple to use, making community map-making simple and fun. Online multiplayer that to this day is still active. 100% God-tier OST. All in all Heroes of Might & Magic III is a complete package and provides probably over one thousand hours of gameplay that doesn't really get stale because of the hundreds of unique scenarios (plus the campaign) that manages to switch it up a good amount. Necropolis best castle.

Kyoto Animation make Amagi Brilliant Park and it's shit. They then make Hibike! Euphonium and it's pretty fucking good honestly. They then make Musaigen no Phantom World and it's shit. Ergo the next Kyoto Animation anime will be good? Please? Also how the fuck do I embed this shit? https://gfycat.com/UnitedDisfiguredIndianskimmer

Upvoted for Kongou desu.

A couple of days ago I finished my first anime of 2016 and that anime was "Mawaru Penguindrum", which is definitely among the top contenders for weirdest show title. Now before I say anything about the anime itself, I want to mention the fact, that this anime was directed by none other than Ikuhara Kunihiko (Nicknamed "Ikuni" by fans) who is also responsible for directing another anime which I thoroughly enjoyed - Revolutionary Girl Utena. If you're familiar with his work, you'll know what I mean when I say that Mawaru Penguindrum absolutely bleeds "Ikuni". If you are a fan of Utena, then you should without a doubt find some time to watch Penguindrum. Alternatively if you've tried to watch Revolutionary Girl Utena but found yourself unable to keep an interest, I'd also recommend Mawaru Penguindrum. It is a lot more modern and while it shares a lot of the same direction (Symbolism and plot twists out the ass and a big focus on destiny and fate), it is a very different show. I'd like to think that Mawaru Penguindrum is more digestible for the average watcher. With that out of the way, let's actually talk about Mawaru Penguindrum. A fractured family, two brothers and a sister trying to make a life for themselves following the disappearence of their parents. The sister is deathly ill and while her brothers are doing everything in their power to improve her life, her illness is incurable. It is only a matter of time. The day arrives and the sister collapses while on an outing with her brothers. She is pronounced dead at the hospital and her brothers grieve. Until a sudden twist of fate brings her back to them. Her doctors call it a medicinal impossibility and a miracle but something extraordinary seems to have been behind the sister's resurrection. With that the small family is thrust into a conflict of past, present and future. A conflict where they come to discover the truth about themselves, their family, the past and their destinies. A pretty vague description of the story, I know, but the truth is that there are so many layers and twists to Mawaru Penguindrum that going into even a little detail about the plot will essentially end up being a spoiler. Frankly I don't really have much to say about this anime, because I believe it is best watched as fresh as possible and with as little information as possible. That isn't going to stop me from singing its praises of course. Mawaru Penguindrum represents something which I personally find very lacking in modern anime. It is well-thought out, has a nice red thread that is followed from beginning to end, connecting all the characters and events. It is smart and completely avoids the average anime stereotypes. It constantly hints at the truth behind the conflict to the viewer, but it is not heavy-handed and allows you to speculate and draw your own conclusions as you continue watching. Combine that with a fresh and crispy-animation style and good looking character designs, along with an EXTREMELY memorable soundtrack and you have a recipe for what is, in my personal opinion, one of the best anime ever. In a day and age where so much anime seems to be unfiltered garbage with little real creative direction, made solely to sell figures and merchandise and appealing to the Otaku-crowd with excessive amounts of fanservice and moe characters, it's honestly just fucking refreshing to watch a show that isn't about all that, but actually has a story to tell. That isn't to say that Mawaru Penguindrum is completely devoid of any and all things that I broadly refer to as "fanservice". Comedic relief can be found in the form of fanservice in this anime. I of course won't award it any points for this because I dislike fanservice in general, but I will defend Mawaru Penguindrum by stating that when the storyline, world and characters are as strong as they are in this anime, the occasional fanservice scene doesn't really hurt the viewing experience all that much. Not to mention that director Ikuni is famous within the community for his exploration of sexuality in anime, as silly as that might sound to some. This is especially true for Revolutionary Girl Utena and also Mawaru Penguindrum to a lesser extent. So with a vague description but tons of praise, all there is left for me to do is urge you one final time to please sit down and watch Mawaru Penguindrum. It's really worth watching. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB2sow7tbJ8

It keeps happening.

Yeah really. If you don't know who the guy is and "don't care about his profession", then what compelled you to post? Other than to stir the people who are genuinely saddened by his death I suppose.

: (

I just want to go on record and state that having a rice cooker is super nifty.

Manglobe were already struggling financially due to various flops over the past years, they decided to pour a lot of money into Gangsta as sort of a last-ditch effort and the show was a commercial failure in Japan. It was just the last straw, moreso than the only straw, if that makes sense.