Chapter 13 – Page 19
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Annotations Every Day - Written by T Campbell & Flo Kahn - Illustrated by John & Jason Waltrip
Guilded Age
The Saga of the Working Class Adventurer – New comics every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday!
Its AIDS..
It’s lupus.
IT’S NOT LUPUS!
It’s ALWAYS Lupus
He’s a werewolf?
That’s lycanthropy. From memory, Lupus is one of the things you get from guano.
It’s Gastonian Brain Herpes. Don’t even ASK how you get it.
No. It’s simply a mix of Gastonian Brain Herpies, Lycanthropy, Lupus, AIDS and Wood Rot.
Don’t ask where he got the last one.
Also, unintentional pun.
It’s NEVER Lupus! (Except that one time)
It’s how (at least) some victims of sexual abuse feel when they grow up.
That is totally fucked up, but I completely get what you’re saying. Dayum.
./agree
Physical abuse too.
Is that one of the newer pokemon? I lost track at about 300.
Heh ghost pokemon ftw?
Heh I wonder if Haunter is licking him? And thus making him rage.
When even Gravedust gets the willies, you know things are bad…
You could say he’s become… grave.
Did you put on a pair of sunglasses between the words “become” and “grave”?
YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
~Queues up a song by “The Who”~
You would too, if you were looking through a microscope, and suddenly, BAM! Sorry, that function has not been coded.
It’s totes the id monster! Are you telling me Gravedust has never seen Forbidden Planet?!
Coolest movie ever. Too bad they didn’t make the rest of the series.
Red soul at morning, bad guys take warning.
It’s Haunter!
Got to Kill ‘Em All!
Ghastly is a Ghost/Poison. So, who’s got a Psychic, Bug, and/or Grass-type Pokemon?
Would not use a Grass type on that. Hit it with dig and it’s a corpse… again?
Might opt for Hypno, or Drowzee.
I wouldn’t go for a Psychic. Although you’ll hit Super-Effective on the Poison side of Haunter, all of Haunter’s Ghost-type moves will S/E you back, and Haunter is a fast son of a bitch with Special Attack up the wazoo. Shadow Ball might kill you dead before you get a chance to act.
Dig is just a no-go from the start. Most ghosts are packing Levitate these days, rendering them immune to Ground. Bug won’t work great either, as Haunter’s /Poison type gets rid of the super-effective.
Really, you want a Dark type. Or another Ghost.
Not another ghost – Haunter’d smash through that with his good ol’ shadowball.
Dark type or steel type, I’d say. Yeah, steel isn’t SE or anything, but it can wall out haunter no problem, and you can learn moves that aren’t your type. Sure you lose STAB and all, but it’d be worth it. Haunter’s not that tough anyway – I’d describe his defenses as “intangible.”
I can’t keep up with all these new Pokemon. Things were simple in the days of Red and Blue. Yellow mixed things up with the little guy following you around, and it all went crazy after that.
Dusknoir is bulky enough to outpower Haunter. Let’s remember that Haunter isn’t even Gengar, and therefore not much of a real threat.
Zakrael’s right. You want a dark type. Psychics will work, too, because you can arm them with Ghost or Dark type moves. Hell, even psychic attacks are still super effective on Ghost/Poison.
It doesn’t really matter what type you’re fighting with as much as which moves you’re fighting with.
Get Bandit, Thief’s a dark type move.
And the stats of the pokemon. And the ability of the pokemon. And whether or not that type is immune to the STAB attacks of the pokemon in question…
Dusknoir’s passable but not the best choice. A quick trip to a damage calculator says that a 252 SpA haunter shadowballing a 252 SpD dusknoir does 174-206 dmg, and a completely uninvested dusknoir has 231 hp. Assuming 31s in all relevant IVs and level 100, though. This does say that a crit or a nasty plot WILL destroy dusknoir, though, so be aware of that danger, and dusknoirs often lack direct attacks (relying on pain split or toxic or what have you). I still hold a dark type or steel type would be better.
Speed boost sharpedo, for example, would ruin Haunter’s day, but haunter’s so fragile that STAB and super effective really aren’t needed. Pretty much any steel type would destroy haunter, too: aggron, registeel, klinklang, steelix, I could just go down the list… But I think we found our ultimate haunter-smashing kings: Metagross or Bisharp. Psychic type for like 1/6thHKO on Metagross, and there’s no way Haunter could do anything to its bulk. Bisharp’d just be all “lol, 1/4th from ghost and you have no move SE vs me, suck on a OHKO now. Maybe even sucker punch for priority dickery.”
Oops – I misused the damage calculator.
**Haunter’s shadowball would do 168-200 dmg. Point remains correct. Also, choice specs would OHKO dusknoir without hp investment (but what dusknoir has no HP evs?).
***Haunter doesn’t actually learn Nasty Plot on further research, so he’d need to be BP’d it.
Crit would deal 338-402 damage, and Dusknoir has 294 hp at most. My recommendation for Dusknoir vs Haunter: focus sash, pain split, sucker punch. Hope that Haunter doesn’t use something with priority or something that isn’t an attack the second round.
The other option I have found effective is to simply overwhelm pesky critters of all kinds. Some pokemon, not least the starting fire for whatever version you’re on, and usually the resident nasty psychic, are both so fast and hit so hard that unless you do something truly stupid (dig on a flying, for example) you can generally get rid of them in two hits, and often in one. Usually, you can withstand at least one hit, and you’ll be hitting first, so that allows you to get around it. This still works with pokemon of equal levels, I find, provided that a little care is taken to ensure multiple options for the right stupidly fast, absurdly strong attack.
For the Ghost type, I was actually thinking Spiritomb, which is Ghost/Dark. Shadow Sneak (physical attacking ghost-type always strike first move) will will 2HKO. Haunter needs 3 hits with Shadow Ball for a kill, so can’t even pull it off on a crit. Dark Pulse from Spiritomb is a 1HKO, although Haunter will still get an attack first. Won’t do much though.
Straight Dark is probably the best, though. Pretty much anything with Night Slash will ruin his day. Scizor, Honchkrow, Weavile, Gliscor and Persian, to name five.
And the straight power method works fine on ingame opponents, but really falls down against human players. I’m not ruling out the fact that this Haunter has been EV-trained by Daedalus, so special care has to be taken.
I always forget Spiritomb. Probably because I’ve never actually owned one.
Spiritomb and Sableye … the two Dark/Ghost Pokémon and the only mons with no elemental weakness… until the X/Y generation and the new “Fairy” type.
Whoa, I found this page to be genuinely creepy.
Dammit Haunter! You know you’re not supposed to be in there! Get out of the idiot and back in the fucking ball!
;_; I was so close to being the first to say it, too…
Also, re: the mouseover text – totally Haunter.
forget Haunter, more like a frick’n Giratina.
Those aren’t real. There’s only 151 real pokemon. :P
Guilded Age offically recognizes all 649 Pokemon as valid.
First gen pokemon was dumb. That’s right – I said it.
Let’s see here: psychic types were RIDICULOUSLY overpowered. There was no differentiation between SpA and SpD, so amnesia (or was it calm mind?) just broke everything. Plus the lack of good bug type moves, PLUS they were immune to ghosts. How to win in gen1: find psychic types, use them.
Secondly, so many type combinations were completely unexplored. The only pure grass type was Tangela, for example, and Tangela had no good moves (SOMETIMES a sleep powder / solar beam Tangela could work, SOMETIMES), so basically all the grass types were grass/poison.
Fighting types were completely boned, bug types were completely boned, all the ghost types were actually ghost/poison and poison type sucks so all the ghost and grass types were completely boned, rock was for some reason an offensive type, blah blah blahhh. The only sensible way to play Gen1 was to get psychics, use amnesia (or calm mind? I seriously forget), and then win. Seeing as there was just a bit more than enough psychics to fill a team – Exeggutor, Slowbro, Mr. Mime, Mewtwo, Alakazam, Hypno, Starmie, Jynx – all competitive teams looked the same. Most people used Starmie over Slowbro because of speed, so that’s one out. The real choice was between Mime, Hypno, and Jynx, seeing as how those were the weak links of the team. Hypno was usually the best choice, but it’d vary depending on the metagame.
And don’t bring up Scyther. Scyther didn’t learn ANY bug type moves in gen1. NOT A SINGLE ONE. I just checked to make sure.
In conclusion: Gen1 sucks. Gen5 is awesome, though.
I have read everything this person has typed up in the comments so far and I have one thing to say:
TSED is truly a Pokemon Master. I agree with their comments 100%.
I always liked just playing the games. When I start worrying about stats and powergaming and all the game loses all the fun. The pvp stuff ruined the pokemon games for me.
Psychics were definitely overpowered in first gen, yes, but they’re hardly the only ones used competitively. For one, you’re forgetting the three great Normal types of First Gen: Chansey, Tauros, and Snorlax. Chansey was a Special wall like no other; with Softboiled to heal, she could soak up STAB Psychics like they were nothing, and pelt you with Thunderbolts and Ice Beams until you were either frozen, paralyzed, or fainted, or else whittle you down with Seismic Toss. Snorlax had access to Amnesia and Rest, meaning he could be a Special wall like Chansey, but could also hit like a truck with STAB Body Slam (which has a 30% chance of paralysis, remember), or STAB Hyper Beam as a finisher (which was actually viable in this gen, and this gen only). And Tauros, while less bulky and slightly less powerful than Snorlax, has the advantage of a good speed stat, making him one of the only viable physical sweepers in first gen.
Golem and Rhydon also found a place on many teams; a good Ground type is always good to have around to soak up Thunderbolts and Thunder Waves, and their physical moves, including STAB Earthquake and, in Golem’s case, Explosion, were something to be feared. And then there’s the Special attackers that aren’t Psychic, like Cloyster, Lapras, Jolteon, the legendary birds… even Gengar, although that’s more for his Normal immunity.
Of course, this is all assuming no Mewtwo. As soon as Mewtwo is allowed, the name of the game becomes bringing down your opponent’s Mewtwo before they bring down yours. As such, it’s best to pack your team with as many Psychic types as possible, since they’re the only things that can effectively resist Mewtwo’s Psychic.
First gen non-psychics and no mention of pin missile Jolteon? For shame!
Chansey’s great in theory, but was actually a great chance to set up. Yeah, you can’t bring in Starmie or Exeggutor on it, but the other psychics can sit down and start using the stat boosters. Remember, +2 special = +2 SpA and +2 SpD. If faster than Chansey (not that hard) then you can probably stomach it and give yourself more [Amnesia?]s. And then you’ve effectively lost. Chansey’s Special was pretty decent though, so it was possible for this to backfire. Just remember, there WERE pokemon who had higher special than Chansey, and also its defense is one of the worst in the game. I forget these days which types were special and which were physical, but if you had any sort of phys coverage you’d laugh at Chanseys. Also, toxic.
Snorlax is a better point. I will concede that Snorlax WAS used and used effectively, but I personally have no experience with it until much, much later.
I remember Tauros as being Alakazam bait. I went and looked over them on bulbapedia and can’t see why, but I… remember them as being Ala bait. Huh.
Golem / Rhydon: Slowbro’d or Starmied. Earthquake wasn’t a problem for a psychic team, really. If you weren’t dealing with the douchebaggery of ALL PSYCHICS then they were very good, but if you were, eh. Splosion WAS scary though, I’ll grant you that, but it was too slow and too squishy (special-wise) to get splosions off a lot. Definitely still happened, of course.
Legendary birds I have always had mixed opinions on. Zapdos was good for the waterpsychics, articuno and moltres were good for exeggutor, and they could all hold their own with some of the wussier psychics… but you were often better off using one of the psychics. OFTEN, not always. It’s difficult to say and honestly I wasn’t good enough back then to have an opinion now. I think* that it depended on how psychic loaded the opponent’s team would be; the more psychics, the less useful they were. I’ve “always” been partial to moltres toxic stall myself, though it didn’t really work until gen4 and I am probably blinded because of that.
Mewtwo being absurdobroken: that’s kind of my point. Gen1 had too many things that were just so much better than >95% of the other options. Specific pokemon, specific types, specific moves.
Also, why would you not choose Jynx over Hypno? Jynx has better type coverage with STAB Blizzard, which is accurate enough in 1st gen to be better than Ice Beam; a more accurate sleep move in Lovely Kiss; and a respectable Speed stat.
I honestly don’t remember. I think it had something to do with ice type’s weaknesses + no hp + bigger, badder pokes on the other team OHKOing it before it does anything. Hypno had no real weaknesses (psychic lol) + way more hp + higher special.
If less psychics are out, then Jynx starts to do better? Maybe that’s it. Or maybe something about how you could only get one from a trade (that’s why I didn’t use her)? It’s been too long.
Yeah, Ice is kind of the worst type you can be at any given time. The combination of weaknesses it has is susceptible to basically all of the most popular typing strategies.
Ice type’s only weaknesses in 1st gen were fire, fighting, and rock. Fighting, as you said, sucked in 1st gen. Rock Slide was the only rock move worth worrying about, and Jynx’s Blizzard could easily take down the Rock-types that would carry it, all of them being part Ground. That just leaves Fire to worry about. Fire as a type kind of sucked back then, so Fire pokes were rare on competitive teams, although you still might see Charizard or Arcanine sometimes. Fire didn’t resist ice back then, though, so Charizard was screwed against Jynx anyway, and Arcanine’s easy enough to counter with a Rock, Ground, or Water type. Admittedly, there are some non-fire types that could learn Fire Blast, but only a few can use it effectively, and those typically have better moves they could be using.
Still, Jynx’s greatest use is being able to quickly and reliably put opponents to sleep with Lovely Kiss. If you’re playing without sleep clause, that can be enough to win a match by itself.
IT’S WIGGLYTUFF!
It’s Shoe!
Guess Harki knew what he was talking about.
Oddly enough, remember when Gravedust could barely get Harki’s name from that slaughtered village because of a certain type of magick?
Could be Harki knows what it is because he is utilizing it too…
It’d be nice for Frigg to finally cut Byron some slack after this. Well, then we’d lose the comic relief of their differences…
Doubt it, Frigg’s anger towards Byron stems more towards her fear of him. If anything, she might become colder.
Pretty good insight, IMO. Frigg went from swaggering jerkass to sniping jackass the moment berserker Byron chumped her effortlessly.
Go go fourth wall shenanigans!
Elder god nosebleed. Coming to a berserker near you.
“… I’m gonna need a bigger arrow….”
Forgotten Gods eh? I say this is where Frigg steps in with a God of her own.
Yes. Zach. I called demonic possession. In your face.
Imma going with ‘fell into magic cauldron as a baby’
It’s Ragius, the great god of… Rage. No wonder he was half forgotten. I’d be too.
No, it’s clearly Huagagh.
“Huagagh, I choose you!”
“HUAAAAAAGH!”
Gold Star.
It’s nice of the red Haunter-shaped entity to make Byron’s hair all floaty.
Let’s get reddy reddy, let’s get reddy reddy, let’s get reddy to rumble!
I’ve got a question, actually.
Given that he’s Byron the Berserker, I’d imagine he chose Berserker (or some similar class where berserking is a skill) when he started the game. So on the off chance they exorcise his berserking rather than make it controllable, does that mean he becomes a player without a class or does that constitute a respec?
And what the heck would he introduce himself as? The Byron who was formerly known as the Berserker?
Or, if this fails horribly and they can’t get him to stop, he could be the Beserker Formerly Known as Byron.
You know those business cards he has? They’ll just have an arcane rune on them.
…I totally want to play a mage who casts explosive runes on small pieces of paper as his business card now…
At that point, I suspect anyone could guess what he prepared that morning.
They did say that it could never be removed, but that they were hoping to make it so that he could call on the power when he needed it rather than just having it go off.
I suggest they pick a keyword. Preferably something awesome, like “electrolysis”
Depending on the character creation system Worlds of Arkerra has, he could simply be a fighter character with the berserker flaw.
And if he gets the berserk exorcised, then he may end up a regular fighter of equal level similar to what happens to a paladin if they screw up.
And of course, there’s no real reason why he couldn’t continue calling himself Byron the Berserker. He’s been using that name for a while, even when he’s completed jobs without going berserk.
And come to think of it, would you really want to challenge someone who calls themselves a berserker to ‘prove it’?
To add to the sense of profundity generated by the key signature, I tend to change the lights a bit: So that you get a real sense of… red…
what is this i dont even
Many of my comments contain links. :)
Possessed by ferns!
“Fools! That knowledge is reserved for the Maintainers!”
(Two points for knowing the reference.)
It’s the Dragon Tattoo!
Well. That’s alarming.
Hmmm…Blocked from seeing beyond the surface, eh? Magick of a half-forgotten god, eh? Perhaps the cause might be from a certain observer named Daedalus.
“Fools! That knowledge is reserved for the Maintainers!”
(Two points for knowing the reference.)
Gravedust: oh wait, my vision was on TV, gotta change it to TV2.
This is what happens when you divide by hero.
It’s BLARGHLERAAAARGHLEWAAAAUUUGH!
Thus it was revealed that Byron was a child of Bhaal, Lord of Murder.
I’m just glad we seem to have finally moved beyond discussions of bear shirts, magic mushrooms and pee-drinking.
Occupy Wall Street?
Occupy Gastonia
Occupy Byron’s Head And Make Him Kill Everything.
Demons nowadays are very organized, you know.
I am definitly likeing the way you express “the duality of man” via the the character development of both byron AND frigg.
take frigg. A foul mouthed ignorant uncaring ill tempered manic bitch on the surface that disguises the fear of the fact that deep down she would rather listen to the Angels of her better Nature. And yet the potential is there. When she manifests her inner Nature it is more subdued than her prior behavior would indicate.
And then there is byron. Who is just as much an extreme example as frigg. Only taken in the Opposite direction.
A gentle speaking perceptive even tempered(OR ELSE!) unassuming nice quiet melancholy fellow on the surface that disguises the fear of the fact that deep down he would rather like to listen to the Demons of his better Nature.
And yet the potential is there. Also when he manifests his inner Nature it is more Prominent than his prior behavior would indicate.
Both are Individuals that may have started out neutrally alligned but are quietly dispairing the fact that “things? from the outer realms” have taken a vested interest in meddling with there lives to the point that neither can remember what a good nights sleep was.
How will this play out?
I dont know.
Actually iI take that back. I have a couple of good ideas as to where it Can go. But this troper will STFU cause its not my story to tell.
But i reeeeeeaaaaallllly look forward to finding out.
+1. And the art on this page is done so well!
Gravedust is being blocked…by SOPA!
SOPA literally means “piece of garbage” in Swedish.
Gosh darn SOPA has Enraged Byron. And rightly so.
Came up with “modded” version of the page (alternate dialogue) but be warned, it’s not funny at all: http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/8274/20111116guildedagech13p.jpg
D:
And then Gravedust ripped Byron’s head off using his bow. An omniscient voice announced “FATALITY.”
He proceeded to fight Freddy Krueger.
Fixed that for you
:D
D:
I could do these non-sequiturs all day.
I’m just gonna come right out and say it, Heracross is the best pokemon.
Yeah, sure, he’s vulnerable to just about everything, psychic, fire, doubly so against flying.
But that doesn’t matter.
Heracross has heart.
And he’s also a giant bug that knows Kung-Fu.
I agree with this also.
Fft. It’s not water type, and therefore not in the running for best Pokemon.
(Wartortle, FTW.)
That’s not how you spell Arcanine.
…Supposed to be one up. My replies tend to end up in the wrong places a lot. :|a
My Heracross has a higher atk than my legendary musketeer trio.
All three of the “musketeers” are fighting types. And Heracross is all “lol, really? I can OHKO all three of you, and I outspeed all three of you, and I doubt you can OHKO me because I RESIST ALL OF YOUR MOOOOOVES (except you Terakion, shut up, I still outspeed and OHKO).”
Heracross is a pretty cool bug. Eh OHKOs and doesn’t afraid of anything.
But hey. I’m also pretty partial to a large number of water types (marine invertebrates are kind of my ‘thing’ when it comes to science) and also some other bugs (Crustle is awesome shut up) and also Sigilyph and also Scraggy / Scrafty.
My favorite Unova ‘mon is most assuredly and without a doubt Cofagrigus. He’s hilariously tough and Mummy is one of the best new abilities they could introduce.
I’m so glad the bill that coincidentally shares my namesake is gone. SOPA sounds like a name I would have named my characters back in the day, too. 0 for 2.
What is with these ad things coming up and half-blocking the page?
Like every time any page reloads, even when I post a comment. I don’t know if this is something you guys intentionally put in, but no offense, it’s making me twitchy, because looks a *lot* like those spam/scam “ads.”
Fighting censorship is not spam. The ad just tries to make a point by “censoring” whatever it is you’re trying to see.
Is it legit? Because I’d like to support not censoring my webcomics. If it’s not legit it should stop censoring my webcomics and making me say words that should be censored.
Well, it bypasses adblock so it’s probably Phil-induced.
Phil-induced, T-approved.
It’s legit. Google “Internet Blacklist Bill.”
No, fighting censorship is not spam. However, there have been numerous fake “OMG the government is going to tax/charge for/shut down the interwedbz!” petitions and chain letters over the years, and a current tactic for phishers and other scammers is to throw up a window that you can’t close, think you’re closing but you’re not, etc. And GA’s forums were hacked not too long ago. I would rather ask than be hacked or phished.
I don’t know if those petitions you encountered before were actually scams or not, but I’ve been whistleblowing on this issue since 2006 because they’ve been trying to dissolve Net Neutrality since before then. It’s only now that their efforts have gained any significant ground.
Other places where censorship is rife now include universities. Horowitz’ “students’ bill of rights” is allegedly an attempt to allow students to express any and all opinions that are relevant to a course. In actuality, it prevents professors from expressing any opinion that is not deeply conservative. Several states are now beginning to pass it into law. One passage (and yes, to an extent, this is cherry-picking particularly extreme examples, but the rest is pretty similar) allows students to sure “any teacher who repeatedly raises controversial materials”. Horowitz has stated that by “controversial” he means material like Noam Chomsky, the potential for American military interventions around the world to be seen as imperialist, or similar issues.
Regrettably, the internet is only one of the avenues of free speech that assorted conservative lobby-groups are attempting to close.
It’s what Gravedust sees when he tries to peer into Byron’s soul
Nocturne?
“GRAVEDUST! What do your Dwarf-eyes see?”
/applauds.
They’re taking the Bandit to Isengard!
Nice.
Can’t believe no-one has brought up Khrone yet. To the blood god, this is everyday minion-boosting.
“Wow, there seems to be something long and pointy going through my chest. I guess blood for the blood god. RRRRAAAAAAGHLBLAGHL.”
Yes?
I agree with someone earlier mention Gravedust might be getting into contagious territory–especially if he probes more. The whole situation is totally a setup for something horrible to go down.
ITS THE RAREST OF THEM ALL, NUMBERNOTFOUND01 THE BEST POKEMON