Mauling the Bullpen with Gambits

Daily Ramble 232: Mauling the Bullpen with Gambits

Actually the title is kinda a desire since the Angel’s bullpen needs some serious help. They blew another lead and this time the offense couldn’t recover the game. But while that was happening I read through another Star Wars comic and continued to learn about Darth Maul. Finally, I took some more steps in LOTRO and started learning more about the abilities of the Warden.

First Look at Star Wars: Darth Maul #2

Darth Maul: Book I, Part II by Cullen Bunn, Luke Ross, and Nolan Woodard. Published by Marvel Comics, 2017.

Patience is not one of Darth Maul’s stronger traits. Anger, hatred, and rage are more likely to be the terms used to describe him. And when his master, Darth Sideous demands patience, it takes everything the Sith apprentice has learned to control his actions. That is until he learns of a Jedi Padawan captured by the Xrexus cartel.

This situation presents an opportunity to release his vengeance and sate his bloodlust. So he and his hired band of bounty hunters head to Nar Shaddaa to get what they need to find this cartel and take the Padawan. It turns out Xev Xrexus is auctioning off the Jedi and Maul plans on being the highest bidder or at least stealing the Padawan from whoever is.

The couple of brief fights that Maul engages in on the way to the auction do little to slow him down or ease his rage. He is determined to get to the Drazkel System, to the auction, and to put his hands around the Padawan’s neck.

But when he finally looks upon his enemy in her cell, she shows no sign of fear, no worries that Maul will harm her, no acknowledgement that he is her mortal enemy. She simply looks slightly annoyed at being confined.

I rate this issue an B and am looking forward to seeing what Maul has in mind for the Padawan and how he expects to kidnap her without revealing his Sith background and notifying Darth Sideous that he’s disobeyed his master.

This comic can be found on Marvel Unlimited, Comixology or at your local comic book shop.

The Bullpen Needs To Improve

Yesterday featured another contest between Minnesota and the Angels. Tyler Skaggs took on Lance Lynn and came out on top…at least for 6 innings then the bullpen took over. Unfortunately they pitched as they have been recently and were unable to hold the lead, giving up 3 runs in the 9th. They really need to figure out what they’re doing because they keep choking lately.

On the offensive side, Upton continued on his hot streak hitting his 4th home run in as many games. He gets my Player of the Game. I just wish the team would have held on for the win. Calhoun had a good night going 2 for 4 and Maldonado went 3 for 4, but it seems the bullpen needs to have at least a 4 run lead these days or they blow the game.

Today the two teams continue their 4 game series in Anaheim and the Angels look to make it 2 outta 3. Kyle Gibson (1–1 3.49) pitches for the Twins and it looks like Nick Tropeano (1–2 3.42) may be going for the Angels if they activate him from the DL.

Gambit Builders

Since I already defended the town of Archet once and learned about the various Warden abilities I though it would be good for me to help Katethein learn the basics.

Essentially, there are 3 main abilities that Wardens utilize…since I’m in the Assailment ranged stance, these abilities are: Quick Toss, Behind the Shield, and Warden’s Aim. There are similarly named abilities for melee combat when in the In the Fray stance – Quick Thrust, Shield Bash, and Warden’s Taunt, but they do slightly different things.

Regardless of which stance you’re in, the main focus of Warden combat are the Gambits. And these are generated by various combinations of the these 3 basic abilities. So essentially, you do one action followed by another and they build up to a Gambit that you can trigger causing another action.

The basic abilities are important though, as well..

Quick Toss is your basic attack. it’s straight forward and causes Common damage. It has a chance to apply a DOT but the primary purpose is to start many of your high damage Gambits. Offensive Strike and Deft Strike both start out with a Quick Toss as their foundational builder.

Behind the Shield is more of a defensive action. It still causes damage but it also can trigger a debuff – Cry Resist Rating reduction – which I’m not really sure what this means but it’s a debuff. Persevere and Impressive Flourish are a couple of the Gambits with Behind the Shield as a foundational builder. These tend to build up defense or cast a heal on the Warden.

Finally, Warden’s Aim does a litle bit of damage and the applies a small DoT. Once again, the main point of the ability is to use as a builder for things like Goad and Precise Blow.

Right now, at Kat’s level, she can only perform Gambits that are composed of 2 builders but down the road, there are series of 5 builders used for different Gambits. And they all are executed with the Gambit Default skill. This causes some small basic damage but is essentially the trigger for the Gambit that a Warden has built up. So at level 4, Kat needs to learn combos of 2 actions followed by the Gambit Default action so basically, to really train as a Warden, Kat needs to be running strings of 3 abilities.

And she’s gotta learn what the different combos do…but that’s a job for another time.