Wong

What's inherently wrong with the picture? I'm guessing because her right eye is replaced with a flower and her left arm is either missing or just really bloody. Baiken from Guilty Gear is also blind in one eye and missing an arm, so I don't really see an issue. This is not even JAPAN WTF worthy.

Our shortest game was two hours with three players. I won by turn 5 (10 turns max). Our longest game was eight hours with six players. We usually play 3,6 players exactly, because the game is most balanced that way, and it is really balanced. 4 player favors the Baratheons, so we usually let the new players be that house. This is because of the way the maps are set up so that Baratheons are left alone for the first two turns while the other three houses are under immediate conflict. Assuming there are three players, there are three bonus tokens that each house gets. However, you can quickly lose your powers due to a specific card, I will talk more about that later. What you need to know is that there are three influence (skill) tracks. The first track is the Iron Throne Track. Your placement in the Iron Throne Track determines the order which you can take your turn. The highest person goes first, the lowest goes last. The second track is the Fiefdoms track. When you have a tie in combat against the enemy, and you are higher in the Fiefdoms track, you win that tie. The third track is the King's Court Track. The position of the King's Court Track determines the number of special token (attack, defense, support, raid, etc) you can use per turn. These special tokens are much better than there normal token counterparts. Now for the three starting houses. 1. House Baratheon, first in the Iron Throne Track, gets the Iron Throne token. The player holding this token decides the outcome of all ties that occur in the game, except for combat, and ties determining the winner of the game. This token is very powerful if you are a player that likes to play politics. 2. House Stark, first in the Fiefdoms Track, gets the Valyrian Steel Blade Token. The player holding the Valrian Steel Blade Token may, once per round, use the token to grant himself a +1 combat bonus. This can be important because all you need is a tie to win against the opponent, making this a very good token for aggressive players. 3. House Lannister, first in the King's Court Track, gets the Messenger Raven Token. It can do one of two functions per round. First, after everyone reveals all the moves for that turn, you can replace one of your moves with another move. This is very important when you thought you were safe from an ally, but your ally turns on you, that you can replace one of your tokens with a defense token, for example. Or if you see that a player has left a castle unguarded, you can change one of your orders to attack. If you decide that you do not want to change any orders for that turn, you can use its second ability. You can look on the top of the Wildling deck. This gives you information on how much you want to bid when a Wilding attacks (I can talk more about this next time). Being first in the King's Court Track and having the Messenger Raven Token is great if you want more control of the field. Now let's talk about one card: Clash of Kings http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/agot-bg-2nd-ed/westeros-card-fan.png This is the card where we can bid on the influence tracks, and it is placed completely random in a deck of other cards. This is where the Iron Throne Token shine. One, my buddy started as the Baratheon, and on round two, no one had any anything to bid on the influence tracks, including himself. Since he controls the Iron Throne, he declared himself the winner and we had to play politics of where he gets to place us in the influence tracks. He pretty much rofl-stomped us for the first five turns before we all turned on him. My personal preference is that Starks, because I like going aggressive in the beginning and I like the strategic placement of the Starks, but I bid heavily on the King's Court at the mid game for more control of the field. I don't care to play politics, the the Iron Throne is really strong. My friend Nick use it to good effect.

What aspect of the game would you like to know? As you can expect from a Game of Thrones game, there are a lot of backstabs/betrayal throughout. A couple of times, I would completely screw over my allies after they fight a major battle against the enemy, and win the game that turn. Never let our guard down. Fun times.

Cards Against Humanity are back on stock for $25: http://www.amazon.com/Cards-Against-Humanity-LLC/dp/B004S8F7QM/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1363978469&sr=1-1&keywords=card+against+humanity

@ Ata, Actually, when I first watched the gameplay of TTG's TWD, I thought it was pretty meh too. But when I bought it and played it for myself, I found it really engaging. I don't think you can appreciate the game for watching the gameplay. You do not get the sense of tension, urgency, and immersion when you watch videos, and you may have skipped over some character buildup from skipping over some scenes. TWD as a franchise has a pretty great track record so far. A lot of people love the comics (I never read them). I personally love the AMC show series and TTG's game. The fact that Activision and Terminal Reality fucked this game the way it did shocked a lot of people. I have friends who bought this game on Day 1, raging about it. Honestly though, why would you ever pre-order a game published by Activision?

TellTale Game's Walking Dead was pretty amazing. It was tied with Sleeping Dogs as my 2012 GOTY.

Dude, Risk Legacy is amazing. If you have a playgroup of hardcore Risk players, you should definitely try 15-game experience. You'd be surprised how much impact the board state has from game to game. I don't recommend buying it if you do not have a regular playgroup though. +1 for Munchkin. So good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KAGwNtI26w That's pretty much how my friends plays Balderbash too. That's also how we play Apples to Apples. We try to get the most ridiculous answers. I also recommend Card Against Humanity. My buddy pulled a gem a couple months ago: http://i.imgur.com/BhhC3.jpg If your friends like Improv, Whose Line Is It Anyways awesome.

+1 for Balderdash I also highly recommend A Game of Thrones, 2nd Edition. http://www.amazon.com/Game-Thrones-The-Board-Second-Edition/dp/1589947207/ref=pd_sim_sbs_t_1 It is a great game with three, five, or six people. Four players is doable, but the Baratheons gets a huge advantage. We normally give the Baratheons to new players if we have four players. Very complex game. Lots of backstabbing. I will give more details tomorrow. Here is a in-depth overview:

@ 1:28, when your opponent tries to strike your twice with a slow like the Zweihander or BKGA when your shield is up, you can parry preemptively when your opponent tries to land a second it, and your parry will be successful. Try it out sometime. It is much safer than trying to counter attack with your weapon and rewards you with even more damage. @ 2:05, very nice dead angle. Do you know what dead angle is?

Hey, LS, your build is just like my max speed pyro! http://mugenmonkey.c...2RlbiwxLDAsMA== This is actually my second favorite build. Putting on the Crown of Dusk and Bellow Ring gives you ridiculous damage for your pyromancy and dark bead. I also like Great Magic Weapon since I am already splashing INT for Dark Bead. For this build, I pretty much forgo the thought of using shields. Pyromancy Flame is nice on the left hand because you can combo, CGFB -> Iaito R1. And swapping out the Iaito would debuff my GMW. For your spell slot, I think you should try (in this order): 1. Fire Surge 2. Great Fire Ball and Chaos Great Fire Ball 3. Great Combustion and Black Flame 4. Fire Tempest and Power Within Reasoning: - We want to start out with Fire Surge because you can mask Fireballs and Combustions with it - Next we have Fireballs because if you successfully land one at close quarters, you can quickly swap for a Combustion move to combo - We have Fire Tempest and Power Within at the last because it has no affinity with the other spells. So you can spam some Fire Surge, mix into Fireballs, and combo with Combustion, with ease. Putting things in order helps with transition, so it all comes down to muscle memory rather than memorization. Rachis, I really like your vids so far. You should post more once you start to PvP.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN7NLWIDGDU

Fuck breakfast.

It is most likely just a placeholder. Not many games releases on the 31st of December.

Hey Steve, here are the poise breakpoints: 21+ poise (for sustaining a 1HR1 katana/medium weapon hit) 31+ poise (for sustaining a 2HR1 katana/medium weapon hit) 36+ poise (for sustaining a 1HR1 greatsword/large weapon hit) 41+ poise (for sustaining two consecutive 1HR1 katana/medium weapon hits) 53+ poise (for sustaining a 2HR1 greatsword/large weapon hit) 61+ poise (for sustaining two consecutive 2HR1 attacks from katana/medium hits) 76+ poise (for sustaining a 2HR1 Zweihander/giant weapon hit) To be honest, you do not have to hit the 53 poise breakpoint anymore. 53 use to be the norm because the claymore and MLGS can combo with the 2H R1. They can't do that anymore because of the 2H R1 nerf. The 1H R2 combo still works, but you only need 36 poise to not get comboed. The other reason to get 53 poise is so you can poise-stab (trade hits for BS) a greatsword, but I never liked that tactics myself. I'd say as long as you hit 41 poise, you should be good. Anything above is gravy. This should give you a lot more armor options. You can go with something cooler looking like this: https://mugenmonkey....GlnaHQsMSwwLDA= Oh, and hitting the 41 poise is important because it also stops Great Combustion. It is pretty easy to combo with Great Combustion with 45 DEX. Just kick -> GC -> walk up a little -> GC -> walk up a little -> GC. That is usually enough to kill you.

Pffttt!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSsbKCVL2XA

Hey Mike, were you there when I OHK Pinwheel with GC + Dusk Crown + Bellowing Ring + Power Within? And yeah, Pinwheel is pitifully weak. Killing all the wheel boys before the fog gate is harder. Especially at NG+, they are viscous.

Whenever I start a new game, I usually mad dash to Pinwheel, get the Rite of Kindling, and Homeward Bone back to Firelink Shrine. Sometimes, I would make a detour to Nito and pick up the Gravelord Sword before fighting Pinwheel. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBKIiqUIezQ Oh, and more important than Rite of Kindling, just getting one of the family masks is worth the trip. Except for Mask of the Father. The nerf makes it useless now. It is kind of funny, because at low levels, Mask of Father's 5% equip load bonus barely cover his 1.2 lb weight.

The cool thing about the running R1 and 2H R2 is that if your opponent try to dodge by rolling sideways, you can still catch them with the great scythe. The 2H R1 actually has pretty good phantom range and hitbox. The Great Scythe is a great weapon overall. Dark Souls actually has a VERY healthy roster of weapons. The only weapons classes, imo, that does not have good representation are the Hammer (Reinforced Club, Mace, etc), the Fist Weapons, and Whips. All other weapon classes has at least one good weapon in their category.

DWGR does not work at 50% equip load anymore. The easiest way to get 53 poise and fast roll is with Wolf Ring, Knight Gauntlet, Hollow Soldier Waistcloth, and staying below 25% equip load. Hitting good poise and fast roll is not an issue if you are using light Dex weapons, but it does become an issue for weapons like the Claymore. Also, using buffs means you are at a timer. You want to get as many hits out as possible, so stamina becomes really important.

I agree that the Zwei does not need buffs. But it does make the R1 combo a guarantee death trap. I also like the Pike and Halberd with buffs, but that's about it, as far as Q weapon goes. Yeah, it makes hosting a pain, but if all you do is invade, it is not really an issue. It really depends on how Steve want to approach this game/build.

The issue is not going 27/40. The problem is going 27/40 and 40 Faith. If you look at Steve's stat, he brought his VIT/END down to 32/30. That is pretty low for SL125, with or without family masks. Personally, if I were to make a buff build with 27/40, it'd look like this: 39VIT/12ATT/40END/27STR/40DEX/30FTH Spells: SLB, WOG

I'd go with 16STR/14DEX. Going with 14DEX opens up a lot of weapon options too. It gives you the Balder Side Sword, Shotel, Uchigatana, Gargoyle Tail Axe, and Great Scythe. All of which are really good weapons. Quelaag's Furysword and Demon's Spear are also great options at 16/14 because they have a high base damage, and can match the power of many elemental weapons. The problem with going 27/40 and 40FTH is that then you are limiting yourself to buff quality weapons. The only good Q weapon to buff is the Zweihander, so you are actually limiting yourself even more. Oh, and if I were to build a Q build, I'd personally go with the Pyro route. This way, I won't have to sacrifice VIT/END. http://mugenmonkey.com/darksouls/?b=cHlyb21hbmNlciw0OSwxNiw0MCwyOCw0NSwxMiwxMCw4LDk5LDU5LDEwLDMsMzEsMzEsMjIsMTUzLDUwLDExNCwxMDUsbm9ybWFsLG5vcm1hbCxub3JtYWwsbm9ybWFsLDAsMzcsMzgsMzAsMCwwLDAsMCwwLDAsMCwwLDAsMCx3b29kZW4sd29vZGVuLHdvb2RlbixsYXJnZSwxLDAsMA== Going to 28STR gives me Murakumo, my second favorite weapon in the game. Really deadly weapon.

What are your current stats If you have your STR at 16STR, you can easily make a DEX/FTH build. 50VIT/12ATT/40END/16STR/40DEX/30FTH Spells: Sunlight Blade, Wrath of the Gods Weapons: All good Dex Weapons except Washing Pole and Murakumo Heck, you can even use the Clay with this build.

2H Claymore and 2H Moonlight GS use to combo before the 1.07 patch. They do not anymore because there 2H swing speed is now slower than before. 1H Claymore can still combo, so there is a reason to 1H for PvP now. Also, 2H Running Attack -> 2H R1, combos. The Halberd is great because the 2H R1 stil has the infinite combo, until your run out of stamina anyways. I do not recommend Claymore with buffs. Buffs were meant to be used by quick (DEX) weapons because your opponent can just wait your buff out. It is really easy to wait out a buff against a Claymore. Now that Claymore's can't combo with 2H, it loses its death of touch with buffs, so the risk/reward is not on your side. Buffs works great with weapons like the Great Scythe, Uchigatana/Iato, Balder Side Sword, Estoc, and Falchion. The only STR weapons that works well with buffs are the Great Club (one ground pound or 1h rolling attack can take away 1100+ hp) and Zweihander (touch of death combo). You can even try the Halberd because it can apply lots of pressure and can combo. I think Claymore is great as an elemental weapon or on a build with 27STR/40DEX.