POE 2 - Martial Artist - 80%

 

Leveling was a pain. This build is very dependent on the ascendency points.. I messed up and took Hollow Focus first instead of Hollow Form so I was stuck on Ice Strike for far too long. Then I tried to take Hollow Focus again but should have taken Way of the Stone fists which transforms Lochtonial from this:

To this... Which is crazy OP and build making for any build due to the charges. 

Very gold starved until almost late game.. Had plenty of currency but not enough gold to buy anything... 

Not a fan of this and any build which makes it difficult to determine the real DPS. Who knows about numbers... stuff just dies. Also can't tell if elemental damage or physical is better to have on my weapon.. Also feels dumb to shape shift to get the Rend and Pounce. 

Still think POE 2 ascendancy is broken.. It takes too long to get so far and then die or run out of honour.. Even with the honour resistance still not enough. Almost rage quit because of dying at the final boss on level 4 to have to start all over again. Finally was able to get the last points at after hitting level 90. 

This biggest frustration this league that someone managed to hack a trade somehow to show that an body armor had 200 energy shield more in the trade window than it did in my inventory... At least I only lost two divines. 

The end game story system was very good. Good voice acting and cut scenes. Like the variety but... I ended up just boss rushing every map to get to where I needed to be on the map which ended up being pretty repetitive. Feel like the game forces that.. 

I still like POE 1 better.... 

Ranma 1/2 Netflix - 80%

 

Watching this with the wife out of boredom.. Apparently Netflix is paying to have this old anime remade. I only watched a couple of episodes of the original a very long time ago so I don't know if they changed anything other than updating the animation. 

The jokes and romance is funny enough. Fairly repetitive. Watched both season 1 and 2. 

Project Hail Mary - 95%

 

Watched at home with the family. Nice and clean. So many movies decide they have to throw something in to an otherwise family movie to make the parental rating go up.. Nicely this one didn't feel that need. 

Lots of emotions and false alarms like someone died but no wait... they are just fine. 

Kids really enjoyed this movie so I did too. 

Amazing that Lego made a set for this movie before it even came out. 

Toy Story 5 - 70%

 

So out dated. The story line is about 10 years late.. Kids have been having their brains sucked away by screens for multiple generations now. It was entertaining enough and the kids enjoyed it. Saw it opening night at the theatre. 

POE Flicker - 100%

 

The second time I have made it to level 100 and the most dps ever. 

Leveled to 100 running 100% delirium with breach running strand. 

Lots of fun but the screen jitter caused by teleporting strikes got old. 

Amazingly tanky build. 

Went back and killed the Ubers after leveling to 100.. First time ever to even try any of the Ubers and they were all easy!

One Piece S2 Live Action - 100%

 

The first season was a perfect 100% and this second season was far better! Where to start! 

Perfect actor selection for the characters. Chopper was spot on and well animated. 

Robbin was fantastic. The fights were great, the pacing was great.

Loved the wax man and the giants. There is nothing that could have made this better. It was beyond good. 

POE Mirage - 100%

I started the league on a Ground Slam of Earthshaking slayer which was a fantastic choice.
Got to maps quick and super smooth. Bossed smoothly but a bit slow. Got to level 92 with no problems. 

Mirage was OK at this point.. I didn't interact with it too much until I saw Zizaran's video on
Easy Farming Strat for 15+ divines per hour.. 

I don't see how you can honestly get 15+ per hour... At least not with my slow Ground Slam build but it was enough for me to farm up 20 divines in about 4 hours so I could buy a Headhunter. 

So then I made a Kinetic Blast of Clustering Necromancer to use the Headhunter and it is probably the strongest build I have ever had in POE! Pain in the butt to level.. Good energy shield gear requires level 80+ to use is a pain. This build is super tanky, super good clear, and super good bossing. Killed Maven no problem. 

I started faming full Containment strongbox maps with the Empowered Mirage maps and got the best drop I have ever had!

I traded the cards for 140 divines and discovered that I could do 100% delirium Empowered Mirage maps to farm stacked decks which sell for 5C each. I was able to farm 15 ish divines per hour with ease. So I decided to farm up another 40 divines and buy a Acceleration belt. 

With this belt I went back to my slayer and changed it to a Cyclone of Tumult build. Farmed another 40+ divs to get the Voidforge, Blunderbore and other gear and was very disappointed with the build. It was not nearly as good as the Kinetic Blast Necro and the gear total cost was at least 4 times more. It could not do a 100% delirium.  So after wasting a bunch of time I gave up on the build and decided to give the acceleration belt one last try... 

So I built a Spark of the Nova Inquisitor. Leveling was OK.. not as good as the ground slam. Wish the Acceleration belt had lower level requirements... This was a very expensive build.. at least 300 divines just to get the base level gear. Once I hit mapping, I was able to go to level 93 in what felt like an hour. But in the end.... Still not as strong as the Kinetic Blast of Clustering Necromancer! Still not able to do 100% delirium maps! I am giving up on this belt. 

I kind of want to sell it try a flicker strike build but I really don't want to farm a echo shrine belt. And I expect that it too will not be able to do a 100% delirium. 

Predator Badlands - 99%

 

Fantastic movie! So much better than I expected. 

Really great ending. Good character development. 

Nice action paired with a shallow story. 

Great pacing. 

Really liked the sisters and brothers aspect. 

Mario Galaxy - 90%

 

Better than expected. Checked all the boxes.

Full of action, comedy, and Nintendo nostalgia.

Watched at the theatre with my family and almost no one was there. 

Bower is too reformed and who is the mother of Bowser Jr.???

Liked very much how the movie was so different from the previews!

Chainsaw Reze Movie - 70%

 

Not great but about what I expected. 

Animation was fantastic. 

Story was bad. Hated the theme of my heart is for another but my body is doing whatever. 

Really hated the ending too..

They have made Chainsaw man too unkillable. Take him down to nothing and throw some blood on him and he is back to 100% in 2 seconds. 

The villain just loves to take off her clothes... 

One Piece Egghead - 95%

 

Another great one piece season. This one was much better paced than most. 

Finally some main storyline on the lost century and such. 

Good fight with Garp. 

Great animation, outfits, and world building. 

Hoppers - 100%

 

Amazing movie! Loved the squishing. Great story. Good comedy. 

Watched at the theatre with the family. 

Really liked the high council and the caterpillar. 

I had low expectations because it looked like such an avatar ripoff but it was so much better. 

Satisfactory Success 2

 

Same start location as my first success but this time I managed to complete the final turn in in only 51 hours! Compared to my previous win of 66 hours! I also went on to get the golden nut! I did leave the game playing a bit and played a bit more. Total game time to get the nut ~80 hours! 

David - 95%

 

Watched in the theatre with my family. Pretty good music and animation. Kids liked it. Fairly true to the bible, added / changed a little to make it more family friendly. 

Zootopia 2 - 95%

 

Watched with the family in theater. Pretty good, lots of laughs and just enough story. Really liked the Ratatouille reference. Pretty amazing how none of the animals have to eat. Good kids movie. 

POE LS Jugg - 100%

 

Fantastic clear, tanky and good boss! Best all around build played in a while! 

Very expensive build. Stacking int and dex is a challenge but didn't cost much to be an effective build and the sky is the limit. so very fast. Easy to get DPS in the millions. To upgrade this gear any more is 70 divs a slot so I quit after putting only about 30 divs into the build. Easy to get more currency just going for the Strongboxes. 

POE Elemental Reap - 90%

 

Very smooth through the campaign. It was a bit squishy until I got the Poet's Pen. Turned out to be the most popular build of the season. The breach tree started out good but didn't give much after a couple of patches. This build was expensive due to being so popular... Couldn't believe how much it deflated. The Dark Monarch cost me 6 divines but then wasn't worth but like 1 a week later. OK clear speed and could handle low level bosses ok but nothing uber at all.   

Catch up 2025

I got behind on my blog due to moving from Michigan back to Alabama. I could have kept up with it but I didn't. Watched lots of movies and played more POE. Not going to make a post for everything that was missed but here are some of the highlights:

POE 2

• Played a Deadeye during the Rise of the Abyssal season. Turned out to be my computer RAM was bad so the game played really smoothly. Flew through the campaign with the Deadeye and stopped somewhere around level 85. Got bored in the endgame. The abys was pretty good. Didn't bother to play another character. 

POE 1

• Played the Mercenaries league. It was OK. The mercenary is just there to provide another aura. RF Chieftain to level 95 and a Smite of divine judgement Trickster to level 90.  

Shows

• Dr. Stone season 1 and 2, working on 3. It has been pretty good but has fizzled a good bit in season 3.  Watched with my wife. 
• Solo Leveling Season 2 - 100%. Kinda didn't want to see the ants again, just like in Hunter X Hunter. 
• Jujutsu Kaisen - Season 1 and 2 with my wife. Really good anime. 100%
• Demon Slayer - Season 3 and 4 with my wife. Amazing anime! 100%
• Apothecary Diaries - Season 1 and 2 with my wife. 100%. Much better than I thought it would be. 
• Dan Da Dan - Season 1 and 2. 1 was good but 2 was not so much. By the end, I was just watching it for no reason... 
• My Hero Academia - Season 7. Really great, like 98%. Glad this show is coming to an end. 

Movies

• Jujutsu Kaisen Execution - Shoulda skipped it. Music and animation was amazing but otherwise to much review and preview. 
• Demon Slayer first movie with my wife. Too much backstory! Too much of a wait for the next one.. but the animation was really good. 
• Superman - Boring, calling out the number for what punch to throw was pretty dumb. 
• How to train your dragon live action. Pretty good.. 
• Wicked For Good - Watched with the family. Not my favorite movie.. 
• Lilo and Stitch - Live action. Watched with the family. Much better than I thought it would be. Maybe the best live action adaptation from Disney. Like a 95%
• Alien Romulus - 85%. Not a great movie but the dad jokes were good. Especially the one about why did the blind man fall in the well?... he didn't see that well!! 

I am sure I forgot some... 

My Hero Final - 98%

 

Great conclusion to a epic saga. Lots of cheesy moments. Classic ending, the bad guy is beaten, wait no he is not... hit him one more time, now he is done for sure! The baby boss was goofy. Otherwise amazing story. Good to have a few epilogue episodes. 

Gladiator II - 94%

Far better than I expected. Good tie in with the original. Managed to capture the Colosseum well. Not as good as the first Gladiator but that was a classic. Denzel Washington played his part well. Hopefully there will not be a third... Seems like it was a bit of a stretch to have this one.. the irony of being back in the pit and having to fight his way up again.. 

I watched this on the plane as I was flying back from Las Vegas to Detroit.