antithesis

Ok, I got my PSVR all hooked up and I can categorically & absolutely recommend that you DO NOT BUY this piece of sh!t. It's fucking awful. Remember when you were a kid and you sat WAAAYYY too close to the old CRT screen and you could see the pixels clear as day while everything else was washed out and muddy. That's PSVR. Everything looks blurry and smudged and I need to pull the screen right up to the point where they're colliding with my glasses. I don't think wearing glasses is the problem, it'll look like shit for everyone - the resolution may be 1080p, but it looks upscaled from 480p. The nose flaps are bloody annoying too and the headband is a sweat magnet. Regular games and movies look like crap. VR's a slight improvement because you need to look around to see the otherwise equally blurry and smudged crap on-screen. I'm taking these back. Day one buy. Day one return. If anyone's pre-ordered, cancel before you waste your money!

The Banner Saga 2 can be somewhat challenging in parts, especially the Master Tactician, Challenge, Against All Odds and Intense Repossession trophies. But there are some simple strategies that will make them all significantly easier. Firstly, don't start a new game from scratch. If you have any interest in The Banner Saga 2, you should play The Banner Saga as it's a continuation of the first game. That means importing save games, preferably with fat wads of Renown saved up. Master Tactician Aggressively playing the Renown banking game in The Banner Saga by not levelling up any characters (it's much cheaper in TBS2) and letting the caravans starve can net around 600 Renown to import into the second game. Note that you want roughly 50 Fighters and 50 Varl to safely navigate the final chapter of The Banner Saga, so spend Renown on food only when required to hit that breakpoint. Here's a guide for that - http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=217383299. If all Fighters and Varl die before Day 4 of the final chapter, Krumr will die. You really want him alive in The Banner Saga 2 to make Hard mode much easier for the Bolverk caravan. Importing a Save with 600 Renown in the bank into The Banner Saga 2 allowed me to level up 6 x Level 10 characters almost right off-the-bat for the Master Tactician trophy by using the Training tent for the kills. Knocking Master Tactician over asap, then restarting the import from Day 0 meant I could level-up party members and buy whatever high-level goodies I came across in the Market without ever having to worry about Renown. Challenge Alette Caravan Using a Renown-pimped import makes Hard mode very easy for Alette's caravan. Level Alette up to 10 as quickly as possible in the Training tent for the rank 3 Overwatch skill. Within the first Chapter of The Banner Saga 2, you'll come across an opportunity to pick up the Gormr Statue by tracking a dredge through the forest. Rank 3 Overwatch + Gormr Statue = insta-win for the rest of the game by causing armour-ignoring damage and knock-back on all attackers except Bears, which are few and far between. That means no melee character in any engagement will get close enough to hit your party...cheese mode enabled. The only issue is managing Willpower to ensure Alette is permanently in Overwatch mode in all battles for the entire game. You also need to make sure all of Alette's shots land for the knock-back effect of Gormr Statue to keep the bad guys at arm's length. That's easy to achieve by adding Eirik to the party for his Rally skill and Aleo for his Tale Worth Telling and passive Skald's Song skills. Don't level Eirik beyond Level 6 and invest all points into Willpower, then into the Stubborn Talent. He's a Willpower battery, pure and simple. Track comes in handy for positional blocking, but isn't required given Alette's uber-OP Overwatch skill, which is what Eirik will be powering. Aleo at first sight seems like a total dud, but Tale Worth Telling is the secret sauce to Overwatch's success. Tale Worth Telling imbues the recipient with a hidden 100% hit chance for their next shot. In Alette's case, that means every shot taken in Overwatch - she cannot miss ANY shot in the game with Tale Worth Telling active, regardless of enemy armour level. Just in case Tale Worth Telling is down (Alette's always first in the party order, Aleo second, so her first shot in every battle can be deflected), invest 3 points into Alette's Lucky Shot talent. Even without Tale Worth Telling up, she missed a total of 3 shots in 35 battles in Hard Mode. Despite the 50% chance to miss Lucky Shot at rank 3, it hits almost 100% of the time. Strictly-speaking due to Lucky Shot on Alette, Aleo is not required in the party. However, Aleo's second important Talent is Skald's Song, which grants 1 Willpower to every party member per kill and it stacks well beyond their Willpower limit. Stand him next to Alette, let her do her Overwatch thing, then watch your party drown themselves in Willpower, meaning they can blow Exertion points at will on whatever tickles your pickle. All battles ended up with most of my party having 20-50 Willpower in reserve. There's no need to invest any Renown into Aleo, he's fine to leave at Level 3 for the entire game. I levelled him up to 10 just to farm Renown in the battle against Trigecannthae in Chapter 12. Aleo locked him down with Insult so Alette didn't kill him with Overwatch while the smaller horse-born infinitely spawned. I got bored after 100 or so Renown and the game started to bog down, so called it a day. Leave Aleo at Level 3, it wasn't worth the effort. Equipment-wise, give Eirik and Aleo items that grant +1 Willpower per round. Aleo's completely self-sustaining and Eirik won't have any Willpower management issues with his high Willpower limit stacked with Stubborn and Calabilla or Puzzle of the Twin Rivers, both picked up in the first game. Check the requirements for each item here - http://bannersaga.gamepedia.com/The_Banner_Saga_items Pad the remaining three party slots with whoever you like. The Varl are great in the first game, but serve little purpose in an Alette Overwatch party where it's safer to defeat the enemy by death from a thousand cuts. Her party needs no Break or melee-range Strength attacks to be highly effective and the Varl just make easier ranged targets by consuming more of the board. I went with Alette, Aleo, Eirik, then filled the roster with a mix of Eyvind, Oddleif, Ro'Ech and/or Derdriu, depending on availability. While Break is unnecessary in Alette's party, it does speed things along and helps trigger Exploit, Lucky Shot and Artery Strike more often. Knockback items and Ro'Ech's Mule Kick also trigger Alette's Overwatch if the enemy is close enough. At the start of a battle, I tend to drop my party right in the middle of a cluster of enemies within range of a few tiles for this reason. Bolverk Caravan While Alette's caravan has a very easy time in Hard mode, Bolverk's path is a little harder. His caravan can't take advantage of your import pool of Renown and has to be built-up from scratch. To make things MUCH easier, level Krumr to 10 before he leaves Alette and give him Dundr's Hand (+3 Str) to pass on to Bolverk. Likewise, level up Bersi at least one time and give him Farthingjord (+3 Brk) to give to someone else. If you're lucky enough to get the Item and assuming he's still alive, give Mogun the Björg av Leander (+2 Arm / rd) item for Folka. That'll get Bolverk's caravan rolling and make for an easier time during battles. Refer to http://bannersaga.gamepedia.com/The_Banner_Saga_items again for item requirements. The rest of Bolverk's party sucks, so just fill in the slots with as many levelled-up characters as possible. I used Krumr, Bolverk, Folka, Sigbjorn, Bersi and Oli. Sparr and Dytch are mirrors of Eirik and Aleo from Alette's party, but are completely useless for Bolverk. Damage is king, so give all of the Varl the Tempest Talent and take out the biggest dredge first. Also, beware the eggs of doom, smash them asap or the damage will add up, particularly if your party has been poisoned by Stonesingers. Without spoiling too much, you'll eventually want to weaken Bolverk, or your chances of attaining Challenge are doomed at the last hurdle. That's a difficult balancing act because he needs to be as strong as possible to face down the armies of dredge. During the course of Bolverk's journey, you'll ideally equip him with the Clasp of Kyn, which is perfect against the dredge and will make Hard mode much easier. However, before the battle in Old Ford in Chapter 13, equip Bolverk with Solvi's Method (attained by killing the two "addled" Varl) to knock him back a peg or two. Carrying Clasp of Kyn instead of Solvi's Method at the end of Ch 13 could mean missing the Plat...seriously, it's that important. Against All Odds Rook hits this battle almost immediately in his playthrough and it's a challenge to win, unless planning ahead. My Rook import had 500 Renown saved (I played more conservatively and fed the caravan, leading over 600 Clansmen into Boersgard). Unlike the Alette save, I raised Rook up to Level 4 before the end of The Banner Saga and equipped him with Farthingjord (+3 Brk) so he could take that into The Banner Saga 2. Doing 6 Break damage minimum in the Against All Odds battle turned a challenge into a cakewalk. Note that in the first instance of that battle, Rook was not wearing Farthingjord. I quit to the main menu and resumed, which granted him the item. Damage the first few larger dredge while staying out of reach of their attacks, then move to take out the Slinger. Keep everyone else damaged but alive to use as body-blockers. The rest of the fight is a simple positioning battle, so avoid attacks while hitting back for Brk or Str damage. Getting hit once from a full-damage opponent means a restart or a much longer battle, so avoid at all costs. Late in the fight it's difficult to avoid all attacks, but the weakened opponents means little damage taken. I ended up killing all dredge in 1-2 shots after breaking down their armour, which Farthingjord took care of within 2-3 hits. Intense Repossession On an Easy playthrough, swap to Hard difficulty just prior to the Eyeless encounter in the caves. That ensure the right amount of dredge spawn to complete the trophy requirements. As soon as the battle starts, change back to Easy mode. Kill one dredge to allow Eyeless to possess it, then leave that unit alone while taking out the remaining dredge. When all other dredge are dead, kill the possessed unit, then start chipping away at Eyeless's armour and deal enough damage that she won't one-shot your party members. You don't want to kill Eyeless, just piss her off enough to jump to another dead dredge. Kill that dredge as soon as it's resurrected and she'll respawn and likely attack and poison a party member. That's ok, you'll need some of them to go down to hit the trophy limit. Rinse and repeat until Eyeless jumps 10 times for the trophy. By the end of the battle it's very easy for your party to one-hit her, so Rest for a round and she'll possess another unit. Eyeless does not need to die for this trophy, she and your party simply need to survive long enough for it to pop. General Tips Put points into Break and Exertion before Strength, then Armor and don't touch Willpower at all (except for Eirik, Eyvind and Aleo). That extra point or two in Exertion and Break will reduce rounds per battle and save your party on a frequent basis, so don't underestimate their value. For ranged characters, invest in these Talents in order of importance - Artery Strike (3 pts), Lucky Shot (3 pts), Exploit (1-2 pts), Hunker Down (0-1 pt). Artery Strike will double damage and stacks with items, meaning some ranged characters get 50+% critical hit chance. Exploit triggers more often when armour is damaged, which doesn't come into play a lot in Alette's armour-ignoring party, but will likely help in The Banner Saga 3. Hunker Down's nice to have, but almost no-one gets hits with Alette's Overwatch active. For melee characters, use these Talents - Artery Strike (3 pts), Dodge (3 pts), Divert (2-3 pts), Hunker Down (1 pt). Put +3 All Talent and + XX% 2x Str Dam items on Varl characters and watch them wreck face with Tempest while avoiding almost all return fire. Damage mitigation via Dodge, Divert and Hunker Down trigger far more frequently than their stats indicate, so even 1 point spent when stacked with +3 All Talents items is worthwhile. Eirik, Eyvind and Aleo should be kept in the backlines and invest into Willpower to power their skills. Any leftover points should go into Dodge and Divert. Eirik's a special case thanks to Track which can deal armour-ignoring damage, but he's better served as a path-blocker while stealthed than breaking cover and exposing himself to damage. His bear is also useful as a meat-shield and to give Alette one more shot per Overwatch, but isn't really needed. When Alette is given the opportunity to become a Mender, take it. The alternative +1 Range effect does not work while in Overwatch, so it's useless. Likewise, choosing to become a Mender means nothing if Alette is in perma-Overwatch. However, while not in Overwatch, I'd rather have Mend than +1 Range. I also suspect choosing Mender will play out to far greater effect in The Banner Saga 3, so from both story-telling and skill perspectives, Mending is the better option. Guides For maximum Renown and Items, refer to the following guides - Banner Saga: Every Decision and Consequence - http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=698507714 Banner Saga 2: Every Decision and Consequence - https://steamcommunity.com/app/281640/discussions/0/350543389019335971/ I'll post other thoughts as they come to mind, but the above tips should go a long way to making The Banner Saga 2 plat an easy achievement.

G'day compadres, amigos and comrades...long time, no see! I haven't trophy hunted seriously for a few years (I lost interest once I got close to 100 Plats and work / home life took priority), but I still lurk around PSNProfiles every month or so. Glad to see Sly, Parker, Stevie, Mango, Dragon and Plat are still managing the hordes. I've had a career change recently and started an online video game store here in Oz last December. Margins for games and consoles is absolutely abysmal (barely break-even), but I have access to a lot of toys these days. If anyone in Australia (and soon NZ) is after some goodies, hit me up, some of them are really good for trophy hunting. Apologies if this comes off as shameless self-promotion, that's not my intent. I'm just popping my head up to say "Hi!" to old friends I miss the days when I had less responsibilities, fewer grey hairs and more time to game... I'm still on PSN, drop me a PM sometime boys.

Soldier is dead easy to rack up a big streak. Self-healing, great range, pinpoint-accurate when bursting, big damage rockets...what's not to love?

Exactly the same setup as mine (before I started trying other HDDs), but I get stutter. Ergo, it's highly unlikely to be the end-user at fault due to HDD selection (there's little other margin for error). If it was the end-user, we'd either both have the same issue, or both be in the clear if we have the same setup. The nearest thing we get to a pattern is no pattern at all. It affects some users but not others. It affects some games but not others on the same HDD. It affects some parts of some games but the rest of the game is clean. That's the frustrating part - if it was as simple as "don't use Seagate 4TB 2.5" HDDs", then it'd be an easy fix. Sony's said nothing of the issue which means they're going to do nothing about it unless those affected get our voices heard instead of drowned out by the chorus of "I don't have a problem, you're doing it wrong". We went through that with the YLoD, which ultimately proved to be a hardware flaw and was fixed in later iterations. The closest thing I can get to an educated guess is how much stuff is stored on External Storage. Perhaps the database starts bursting at the seams, which would explain why a rebuild helps in the short-term. If there was a capacity issue, surely Sony wouldn't promote support for 8TB drives.

It's not specifically my PS4, there are too many reports for it to be that granular and there's no clear pattern. It doesn't just affect just vanilla PS4s, or launch, slim or Pro models. For example, the Yellow Light of Death was far more likely on Fat PS3s, but there's no such obvious pattern here for External Storage stutter. I'd suggest the units aren't defective because there are no other issues aside from stuttering with External Storage. Even then, it's restricted to audio and/or video playback within a game, whilst the rest of the game is unaffected, which implies some sort of bottleneck during heavy read operations. If it was a USB port, surely that would manifest itself some other way, for example a steering wheel working on one port but not another would indicate a power supply issue (I had that problem on one PS3). It'd be nice to say it's just Seagate 4TB or WD 3TB or Samsung 8TB on PS4 model number XXX, but there's no evidence of that. It'd be helpful if Sony provided a list of supported (and therefore tested) external HDDs, but that doesn't exist. I was careful to purchase HDDs that were tested at Eurogamer and proven to work with external storage, but I get the issue nonetheless. If it's not the HDD and it's not the USB ports and it's not the USB cables (I've used multiple of all), then it must be something internal and beyond my control. All HDDs work, which again implies that the intended pathways are working rather than defective. But they're not working at the touted capacity as evidenced by widespread reports of stutter, and internal drives are very definitely faster and more reliable than external, which flies in the face of benchmark results. Regardless, my point is the fault lies with Sony's implementation of External Storage, not with specific use cases, nor specific external HDDs. I'm not doing anything different to anyone else and I'm using vanilla rather than exotic HDDs. Something triggers it, but what that is is as clear as mud. Those who are unaffected need to stop the finger-pointing at end-users and help us to aim that finger at Sony for a fix.

It's not a specific brand, type, size or speed of HDD. It's the External Storage mechanism at fault. Here's a few examples I've experienced, only when using External Storage - 1. Diablo 3 will stall outright for 1-2 seconds before resuming again. This happens every minute or two. 2. There's a several second delay in audio when playing Horizon Zero Dawn. It happens on every cutscene. Lines of dialogue in-game cut short and overlay. 3. Destiny 2 cutscenes will stall momentarily, i.e stutter, every 15 seconds or so. Again, it happens on every cutscene. 4. Blood Bowl 2 audio cuts short and is desynced during the pre-game presentation. Migrating the games to internal storage resolves the issue 100% of the time. Moving the games to external storage triggers the issue 100% of the time. Again, it doesn't matter what brand, model, size, speed etc of HDD, nor which model of PS4 you own. It's a flaw on the console itself, likely the SATA interface or how the OS manages it - the game is simply not loading AV assets fast enough over SATA3 / USB3 to keep up, which doesn't make sense given the bandwidth at its disposal. It's typically manifested in cut-scenes, though Diablo 3 demonstrates that it can happen in-game. Gameplay in most games remains largely unaffected - I had no issues playing Destiny 2 / Horizon Zero Dawn on an external drive with the exception of audio / video stuttering. Part of the problem may be the volume of games stored on external storage - I have at least 50 sitting on the external drive, though data storage and data access are two entirely separate processes and one should not affect the other. It's incredibly frustrating to have a game stutter and stall every few minutes. It completely breaks immersion and I stopped playing HZD because of it. The only way I can reliably play any game is to move them from external to internal, which is bloody annoying and eats 10-15 mins of time. I run an internal Samsung SSD which is a great bit of kit, but a 500GB SSD can only hold 5 to 10 modern games, so shuffling games is a repetitive process I'd rather do without. To make matters worse, know-nothing know-it-alls on every forum this topic comes up blame the user and/or accuse them of installing inferior HDDs. That's bullshit, plain and simple. The mere fact that it doesn't happen to everyone is no reason to dismiss it as a non-issue. That attitude lets Sony off the hook and prevents a fix that is desperately needed for those affected. It's a big deal to me and others who suffer from stuttering on external storage. I've scoured the internet looking for anything that'll fix the problem and the closest I can get is to run a database rebuild. It does help for a short while, but it also nukes all patched states of installed games, resulting in the PSN redownloading mountains of gigabytes of data to repatch games that don't need it....gah! Save yourself the potential headache and stick to internal storage. It doesn't hit everyone, but when it does it's a bit rich to spend 100-200 bucks on external storage only to have it stutter, then rinse and repeat with a different HDD for the same outcome.

There's a clear misunderstanding here and shuffling of blame to the end-user. External Storage on a PS4 or PS4 Pro CAN cause stuttering during video and audio playback and general gameplay. It has NOTHING to do with user error, nor HDD brand, nor HDD RPM. It's a problem with the PS4 OS or hardware and it has not been fixed. I get stuttering on a PS4 Pro with External Storage. I get none when the same game is moved to an internal HDD or SSD. My other two vanilla PS4s exhibit no stuttering and neither uses External Storage. It has nothing to do with specific games either - I get stuttering on Diablo 3 gameplay, Destiny 2 cutscene video stutter, and Horizon Zero Dawn audio desync, ONLY if the game is installed on an external HDD. It's been postulated that the proximity of the external HDD to the PS4 causes interference with Wi-fi, which may explain controller disconnects or lag. It's also been postulated that moving the HDD away from the PS4 and using ferrite core shielded cables may fix the stuttering. I can confirm with absolute certainty that this does NOT work. I'm a gear-head with 35 years of PC / console gaming experience. I know my tech inside-out. I have used WD, Seagate and Samsung USB-powered 2.5" and wall-powered 3.5" HDDs and get the same problem on all. I've used multiple USB cables, both long and short, shielded and unshielded. I've used different console USB ports. I've positioned the external HDD on top of the PS4 and up to 6 feet away from the PS4. I've toggle Performance Mode on and off. I've rebuilt the database, which did help temporarily, but not for long. None of this makes a shit-lick of difference to the core stuttering problem caused by using External Storage. My advice is to NOT use External Storage. Instead, get a 2TB to 4TB internal 2.5" HDD or SSHD and you'll never have to worry about stuttering. If you're yet to experience the problem, good for you, but stop dismissing this as a non-issue when there are many reported cases of it on the internet. The issue lies with either the PS4 OS or the SATA3 interface and NOT user error.

Agreed with above. Unless you're a Saudi "prince", buying every game on the list is far from the most financially-responsible way to approach trophy hunting. Many countries have game rental services these days for a buck or less a day. Secondly, many of the top accounts are game-shared because no human being can game for the time, patience or resolve required to ding a thousand plats solo. Thirdly, there are import sites where the group will essentially purchase a game and trade between them. That mitigates the cost significantly.

It's pretty easy in the lowest-level DZ against randoms. Get close to the max level (14?) to give yourself a power advantage against most opponents, who will generally be ill-equipped noobs. Most rogue attacks will happen on extractions, so hang around and wait for opportunities to take out rogues. Watch out for the level 99 guys, they're there to farm you! If you take time to mix-max your low-level character by completing all of the medical missions and encounters to unlock skill points and little else, you can get the Recovery Link signature skill before levelling beyond the first DZ. Also take First Aid and Support Station to improve your chances of survival. In terms of load-out, SMG and Shotgun would be advisable as most rogue encounters end up as short-range chicken dances. Take some time to farm purple gear from chests in infected zones and it shouldn't be overly difficult to solo the trophy.

Two very useful features in this update for me... 1. Custom friends lists - I can't recall how I met half the peeps on my friends lists, so being able to organise them per-game is very useful. 2. Parental controls are invaluable if you have kids. With the recent spate of "hey cutie" and "get your psn code here" spam poisoning the PSN, I like to control who can communicate with my 4 younglings. The clock and notification colours are useful too.

I've setup a Minecraft save file on PS3 at the point where you jump into the portal for The End? trophy. The End is only a few minutes work after that, so it's an ideal file to wrap up the Plat on PS4. Problem is, whenever I attempt to upload the Save file, it stalls at either a random point, or gets to 95% before resetting to 0%. I've been trying for a few days now and the same thing happens every...single...time Anyone else having trouble uploading a PS3 Minecraft save? Any solutions? Obviously, I've tried hard rebooting the PS3, power cycling the router, deleting and recreating the save files...nothing is working.

I had to import a UK copy to OZ to ping that stupid trophy. The 1.10 patch was supposed to address it, but it did nothing. I spoke with Activision at the time and they were looking into it, but nothing ever came of it.

The caravan doesn't matter. Food is a complete non-issue in BS2. Focus on keeping party members alive that you want to use in subsequent games. Egil's the stronger choice, but Ekkill might help with Bolverk's caravan. I didn't use any characters of either class during either game, unless forced to do so. Both Egil and Ekkill are tier 3 characters (Egil due to Overwatch rendering him useless), so make the choice based on role-playing more than anything.

The Onef decision only impacts the members imported from BS1 to BS2. I think it's a simple decision between Egil and Ekkill. Innocent Alette makes no difference in BS2, she becomes a merciless wrecking ball regardless of choices in BS1. Egil would be handy as a tank...if Alette's Overwatch wasn't in BS2. He also adds some flavour text in BS2 and will likely do the same in BS3.

I updated my post above for more detail. Yes, it was an Easy playthrough. Party comp didn't matter. Make a backup save just before hitting the final chapter so you can import Rook or Alette without having to replay a large chunk of the game. Just be sure to have roughly 50 fighters and 50 varl and you should be gold.

With Alette, yep...barely. I scraped through the final chapter of BS1 with 1 Varl left. Losing all would have meant Krumr was unavailable in BS2. I did no levelling up, let all clansmen die (except 50 or so fighters & varl for the final chapter) and followed this guide - http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=217383299 I played it safer with Rook, fed the caravan, levelled him up to 4 and still went through with over 500 renown.

This composition is safe, low-stress, shuffle-resistant and most highly profitable for Apprentice & Veteran dungeons. I don't run anything else, unless trying to level up other characters - 1. Antiquarian - Nervous Stab, Flashpowder, Festering Vapours, Protect Me 2. Highwayman - Tracking Shot, Point Blank Shot, Duelist's Advance, Open Vein 3. Grave Robber - Pick to the Face, Lunge, Shadow Fade, Poison Dart 4. Vestal - Judgement, Dazzling Light, Divine Grace, Divine Comfort Slots 1-3 play leap-frog, typically go first due to high speed and take out the stress-inducing backlines on the first turn. High accuracy and critical chance on Highwayman and Grave Robber means crits land frequently, taking care of most in-battle stress. Start Grave Robber in slot 4 for 2 x Lunges, before leaving Vestal at the rear. Take Gallows Humor on Highwayman and Grave Robber for strong party-wide stress management while camping. Antiquarian significantly boosts treasure, which ultimately makes the long-game and Platinum trophy easier to achieve. Hamlet upgrades are easier, as is provisioning, and the gold-sink aspect of stress is mitigated by overflowing the coffers with gold and heirlooms. Open all containers with the Antiquarian for maximum loot. When gold-farming, stick to medium dungeons as they seem to have the most amount of secret rooms. When heirloom-farming, do long dungeons and favour heirlooms over gold. Antiquarian is the core of the build, mostly due to making the resource game dead easy, but also thanks to great synergy with Highwayman via Protect Me + Dualist's Advance. Unsurprisingly, Antiquarian gets targeted a lot, which opens up multiple opportunities per round for Riposte from the Highwayman, greatly improving his damage output. Spam Protect Me, then occasionally drop Flashpowder to debuff enemy accuracy by up to -18 at level 5 for even more team-wide dodging. Festering Vapours blights for up to 4pts / round, which is handy for boss fights, particularly when stacked with Grave Robber's Poison Dart. Stack +Surprise on Antiquarian to minimise party shuffling, which really only affects the Vestal, and to increase the team's already strong first-round advantage to wipe out stress well before it becomes a problem. +Dodge / Speed / Protect are irrelevant once Antiquarian pops Protect Me, so they're a wasted attribute for trinkets. If stress is an issue, stack -Stress trinkets as she'll be hitting the fewest crits. Stack +Healing (up to a 63% boost) on the Vestal for big, reliable & party-wide heals. Vestal's a much safer option than the Occultist's RNG-based healing and frequently hits heal crits for stress management. Her job is to keep the red bars topped up while tossing out the occasional Judgement for dmg with a strong self-heal, and a stun in Dazzling Light, when needed. Stack +Dodge on the Highwayman to counter his squishiness. He'll be targeted a lot more due to Dualist's Advance + Protect Me, which also adds up to 30% Prot, making the Highwayman pretty tanky. Alternate between Duelist's advance to refresh Riposte and Point Blank Shot for big damage. Tracking Shot is there for its buff as both Wicked Slice and Pistol Shot are largely redundant. Open Vein is for bleed DoT on high-prot enemies and bosses. Stack +Scout on the Grave Robber for a very high chance of uncovering the map, finding secret rooms and getting more loot in general. Take her +Scout camping skill too. +Dodge isn't needed for Grave Robber, she's got that covered with Shadow Fade (which also stuns) and can easily stack Dodge to 50+ while she gets back in position for Poison Dart or Lunge. Grave Robber also removes diseases while camping, removing another gold sink. Not to mention Poison Dart as blight DoT to counter high-prot and bosses...what's not to love? Give it a try - it's a really easy and fun team to run, crits a lot to minimise stress, dodges most attacks, handles shuffling like a champ and can take on bosses with big stacks of bleed & blight and heavy direct damage. They eat Apprentice and Veteran dungeons for breakfast and should remain viable at Champion when fully levelled. Remembering to reset the party order after every battle is the hardest part of running this group. Stress, dodge, conditions and crits are a huge problem in Champion dungeons, so I run this build - 1. Jester - Finale, Solo, Battle Ballad, Inspiring Tune 2. Leper - Hew, Withstand, Solemnity, Initimidate 3. Plague Doctor - Noxious Blast / Incision, Battlefield Medicine, Emboldening Vapours, Disorienting Blast 4. Vestal - Judgement, Dazzling Light, Divine Grace, Divine Comfort The team composition has excellent synergy all round and turns the Leper into a bona-fide boss-killer after camping with +30 Acc, +10 Crt and +10 Dodge. It's also an incredibly safe build to run on Apprentice and Veteran dungeons as an off-team for the Antiquarian build. Start Jester in slot 4 and open with Battle Ballad for team-wide crit and speed boosts for 3 rounds to compensate for their middling speed, then swap to spamming solo for opposing team-wide accuracy debuffs. Plague Doctor and Vestal hit the backline with stuns to neutralise stress inducers. Leper damages both front-lines with Hew, essentially removing the need for a second damage dealer. When stress starts to mount, Jester uses Finale to land the biggest hit / crit in the game and move to the backline to use Inspiring Tune. Plague Doctor gets shuffled to slot 2, which is why we're taking Noxious Blast / Incision (depending on resistance of foes) and Disorienting Blast, which also stuns and clears corpses to bring enemies into Leper's Hew range. When convenient, Plague Doctor and Jester buff Leper with Emboldening Vapours and Battle Ballad for high-damage crits, or Leper debuffs damage with Intimidate. The team features 3 x heals, 2 x stress-heal, and bleed / blight removal for solid health management. 3 of 4 members are religious, which ties into Vestal's camping prot and stress buffs. Camping skills also hugely buff the Leper's crits and accuracy, along with team-wide stress reduction. It doesn't matter if the Jester is caught out of position as Solo will move him to the front. For Trinkets, +Stun & +Surprise on the Vestal, +Stun / +Bleed & +Scouting on the Plague Doctor, +Accuracy & +Crit on the Leper, +Debuff & +Stress Heal on the Jester. Given Jester's Solo spam dropping enemy accuracy by up to +36, there should be no need for +Dodge. For quirks, +Speed is king followed by +Accuracy for all, +Crit & Damage on Leper, +HP on squishies, and -Stress on helps for everyone. Alternately, swap Jester out for a Hellion and Leper for a Crusader. Take stun on both the Hellion and Plague Doctor to control all 4 opposing slots. Crusader's handy for stress management - though not as strong in that department as a Jester, he makes up for it with brute strength and by allowing the PD to remain in slot 4 for the double stun & blight. Marking teams like Bounty Hunter, Houndmaster, Occultist, Arbalest are fun and have high damage output, but are very reliant on RNG for healing and stress at higher levels. Darkest Dungeon has so many options and every build has at least one or two holes, so it ultimately comes down to what works best for you in the dungeon you're running.

I've just picked up my PS4 Pro. Unboxing it showed a number of external differences from vanilla PS4 - 1. The Pro is about 20% bigger than the PS4. 2. The power supply cable is now the same size as PC, implying it has a bigger PSU. 3. The buttons on the new controller are dark grey rather than black. That's a bit fugly IMHO, but whatever. 4. There's an extra USB port on the back. Nice. There are lots of internal changes which I'll get into later, or read this Eurogamer article to get up to speed - http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2016-playstation-4-pro-review Note that 2160p is 4K, the measurement has simply swapped from vertical to horizontal pixel count. 4K's the right moniker to use given the screen has quadruple the pixels of 1080p. More info here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4K_resolution The first thing I did was replace the 2TB HDD with a 500GB Samsung SSD. The HDD bay is now on the back of the console and replacing the drive with an SSD was relatively trouble-free. The only issue was the plastic dust cover over the bay - pulling it off was easy, putting it back without breaking the little plastic thingies required a little more effort and patience. Once I got the SSD in there, it was time to fire the Pro up. The power button's clunky and I don't like it at all. It's kinda levered off the left-side of the console and is pretty loose and junky. A few corners look to have been cut to hit a budget. It's a minor quibble, but it all lends itself to a value judgment. Interestingly, the Pro seems to ship with 3.70 firmware whereas we're up to 4.05. Note that upgrading the HDD requires the full firmware install file, which weighs in at 891 megabytes, and not the default 312 mb update file. The full FW file is buried behind a poorly designed small black graphic at https://www.playstation.com/en-us/support/system-updates/ps4/#newinstallation. Now onto the judgment - is it worth upgrading to Pro if you're happy with vanilla PS4 @ 1080p? After a few days of testing, I'm going with "no" for now. I haven't noticed massive leaps in UI speed others have reported from an SSD upgrade, nor have I noticed any performance or visual effect improvements in vanilla PS4 games. Some gamers I've spoken to have reported more consistent framerates in games like Battlefield 1 and The Witcher 3, but I've yet to confirm this myself. Eurogamer has done some performance testing and the results aren't good - in some cases PS4 games running on Pro are performing WORSE than on vanilla PS4. This is due to the aforementioned resolution increase then downscaling to 1080p for Pro-enhanced titles. At this stage it looks like the Pro is little more than a 4K resolution increase, which is working against 1080p gaming. More info here - http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2016-why-are-some-ps4-pro-titles-running-slower-than-base-hardware Where the Pro will shine is 4K gaming, PSVR gaming, and future Pro games that offer separate performance modes for 4K and 1080p. With any luck it won't take Sony long to respond to performance criticism of the Pro and offer improved 1080p native resolution gaming rather than upscaled / downscaled for little noticeable graphics improvement at 1080p at the expense of frame-rate. Unless we get separate options for 1080p optimised gaming rather than the current upscaled to 4K then downscaled to 1080p, which offers zero performance benefits for older Pro-enhanced titles, steer clear of the Pro for now. But if you're into 4K gaming, go for it.

Way too much Destiny. The rest is kind of a blur, I haven't focused on trophies at all.

I did some digging around and the answer is a definite maybe... If you start PS Now using the US account, i.e the subscriber, you can apparently swap users on the PS4 to play PS Now games on alt accounts. Refer to http://community.us.playstation.com/t5/PlayStation-Now/Sharing-PS-Now-Account-Between-Users-on-Same-System/td-p/45561813 However, if you want to use PS Now on PC, Vita, PS TV or a supported smart TV, only the subscriber can access the content.

Unless you use a VPN. I'm tempted to try, but don't want to piss money up against the wall if it doesn't.

I upgraded a client's Invision Community Suite a few months back, the process was much simpler than expected (only one template to edit). Here's a plugin members may find useful - https://invisionpower.com/files/file/7853-online-indicator/ As the URL implies, it's an online status indicator. That's helpful for Chat, PMs, Gaming Sessions etc.

Ta. I must have missed that part.