People in Europe are facing multiple challenges. Inflation is high and interest rates are rising at the fastest pace in the Eurozone's history. At our borders, war also continues to rage on. We've just released our latest Financial Stability Review, which twice a year takes a look at risks to the financial system, the ability of our financial system to weather this storm is worsening. That's what we'll be focusing on in the next two episodes. Today, we'll talk about the risks we see for financial markets, for governments and in the real estate market. And in the next episode, we'll zoom in on a completely new topic, cyber risks and what they can mean for financial stability. You're listening to the ECB podcast, bringing you insights into the world of economics and central banking. My name is Katie Ranger. I'm joined by John Fell and Tamara Shakir, who both work in our Financial Stability Department here at the ECB. Hello to both of you. It's always a pleasure to have you on the podcast to talk about this topic. John, I want to talk first about one area that has been in the news a lot recently, and that's financial markets. There have been big market movements, I think we can say, in some sectors and regions. Now, financial markets have become more volatile, with prices going up and down more than before. And this is partly because of all the uncertainty we're facing. For example, investors simply don't know how inflation will develop and they're trying to second guess, if you will, what central banks' next move will be. John, can you break down for us a bit what's been happening in financial markets? This has really been an awful year for financial markets. Prices of almost any asset class one could think of are showing double-digit declines this year. There are actually very few exceptions across the globe, but if you look across different economic sectors, one that really stands out is the energy sector. And the outperformance of big oil producers' stock prices in particular offer some clues about the drivers, not only of the source of the declines, but also of the highly correlated nature of these declines. Now, we have a box, box two in the episode, which highlights a particularly unusual feature of financial market developments this year. And that was the simultaneous decline of stock and bond prices. We have not seen anything like this in more than 20 years. In fact, since 1998, there have been three euro area stock market declines of 20% or more. But risk-free bond returns have never been negative and stocks have fallen, except for this year. And that's an issue right for investors because usually they try to diversify their portfolios and have a bit of both, a bit of stocks and bonds. Absolutely. It means that there will be very few investors who will have managed to avoid large losses this year. Why has it happened? Well, I think it can be broken down into three distinct sets of factors. So the first is valuations. The second is fundamentals. And the third is amplifiers. So if I start with evaluations, you may remember in last year's episode, we warned the very high valuations for many asset classes. Now, our assessment at the time was that this created vulnerabilities to adverse developments or shocks. The type of shock we worried most about was a so-called supply-side shock. The hallmark symptoms of supply-side shocks are rising prices together with lowered output. And so bridging to the second factor, the fundamentals, the Russian invasion of Ukraine triggered a supply-side shock. That raised energy prices and that in turn raised cost of production in the economy. Now, while it benefited the oil producers, other sectors have suffered. And this has been bad for both bonds and stocks because it created uncertainty about inflation. Also, the path of interest rates related to inflation expectations and economic growth. And that explains this positive correlation that we've seen. And then finally, we have the amplifiers. So once a correction gets underway, market sentiment often turns sour and financial market activity often is scaled back. Now, we've seen this manifesting this year in sizable cutbacks of issuance activity by euro area corporations. And that's both for bonds and for equities. So they're holding off issue in bonds. Exactly, yes. So lowered risk appetite is holding investors back because they're just simply nervous about buying, taking on exposure to new issues while issuers seem to be waiting for camera market conditions and better prices to return. So while the basic motivation of market participants is caution, this actually has a paradoxical effect of reducing market liquidity. And then we have fewer buyers. It becomes harder for sellers to dispose of assets without moving the prices against themselves. And so markets become more volatile as we've seen. So where we would have concerns are situations of acute volatility spikes. Now, because these can cause vicious cycles for all three of those factors that I mentioned. So concerns about overvaluation, deteriorating fundamentals, and also receding market volatility can end up reinforcing one another. So far, this has been largely avoidable. We have seen some episodes in the energy markets. Okay, John. So there are a lot of different factors at play in markets at the moment. Definitely something that we need to keep an eye on. Now, we've been talking about energy prices and indeed one area that we've seen soaring price rises, as you said, John, is energy. And energy prices are fueling a large part of the high inflation that we're seeing at the moment. But something that is helping companies and people through this tough time is government support. Now, Tamara, I want to talk a bit more about that with you, about what it means for countries debt levels and what the repercussions are as well for financial stability. So just to put some numbers on that, in the financial stability review, we say that countries have spent around 1.4% of GDP on support measures since the start of Russia's unjustifiable war in Ukraine. And this has been in part to cushion the rise in energy prices. Tamara, what exactly are the risks there that are linked to this government support? The first thing I'd say is actually the government support has a lot of good reasons behind it, both because think morally we want to see measures taken to avoid the most vulnerable people being overwhelmed by something that's also completely out of their control. Also economically, it's really useful that there's something that helps smooth this big shot going through the economy so that it means that non-energy consumption has also given a chance to adjust to what's going on in the energy market. So it could be overwhelming otherwise. The situation though that we have to be really mindful of is this is all being undertaken on the back of a few years in the pandemic where there were also really big government support measures going on. And the implication of that has been that we've been running slightly larger deficits for a few years. The aggregate debt to GDP ratio in the euro areas now gotten over 95% and there needs to be a plan to bring that back. I think a lot of countries kind of expected that after the pandemic they would be able to reconcile that the higher debt that they had with well bringing it down basically, right? Exactly and John was talking about the investor reaction in financial markets and some of that is people looking at what's going to be the median term implications of all of this. And indeed funding costs have also started to rise, including for governments. And another dimension of that increase in funding costs is also coming from monetary policy. So high inflation above 10% in the euro areas still has really got to be the focus of monetary policy authorities right now. Fiscal policy needs to respond a bit to that as well. So fiscal policy measures were too broad, too supportive. It'd be a bit like trying to run up an escalator that's going in the other direction. They would be going against each other and you wouldn't get anywhere. So that's partly why we say much more targeted temporary fiscal policy measures would help reduce those risks right now. OK, so as we know with financial stability when one part of the financial system wobbles, shall we say, then it can have knock on effects on other parts. You've said what the risks are, but if we look at it from a financial stability perspective, what effect could this higher government debt have on other parts of the economy and the financial system? The risks of it are particularly for countries that maybe have higher debt is if they were seen to be losing a bit control of their fiscal position. The response could actually end up in a vicious cycle where markets respond badly, the funding costs rise even further. And that's where you can get a sovereign crisis from. But the other implication is also that in general, if we need more targeted support this time round is we may have to accept the implications for the economy of less support. I think we've talked on this podcast before actually a few issues ago about how we've been relieved by how corporate defaults have been, for example. And a big part that the pandemic was indeed corporate fiscal support measures. I mean, at some points, I think there were predictions of very large waves of defaults that could arise and they didn't, which has allowed businesses to carry on. It's meant that we haven't then also seen unemployment rising really sharp. In fact, unemployment still historically very low in the euro area, but with slightly more targeted support, it could be that we have to expect that if there is a period of weaker growth, possibly even a recession to come, we have to let some of the effects of that go through. And that could have knock on effects if there was to be a pickup and default in the economy. Let's talk about another topic that we have actually touched on in the past tomorrow. And that's real estate.  Now, the financial stability review does find that people are still taking out mortgages. There's still demand for mortgages out there. And in fact, the number did increase in the last few months, but it does look as if this trend is set to slow. We're also seeing a sharp drop in those intending to buy or build homes. And banks have become more cautious when giving out loans as well. Tamara, how is this changing situation impacting the real estate market and specifically property prices? What do you see there? The context here is, as you said, we talked about this before. And in the last few years in the euro area, we've had a real estate market that's actually been running pretty hot. So historically very high house prices, although mortgage growth has actually been pretty moderate in comparison to those fast house price growth. And that's what we've seen in the data up to Q2. We're in a bit of a gap at the moment. So we're waiting to see the latest data for the aggregate euro area picture. But we have started to see in the monthly data and at national level that the market's slowing. And that's kind of consistent with these very challenging economic times that we're all talking about. So market slowing means that house prices are going down and that demand for houses is going down. Well, at least the pace of house price growth will be expected to slow whether or not we actually get a contraction and house prices is to be seen. But we've been talking for some time a bit like John was saying about asset prices overall being stretched. House prices in a lot of euro area countries look somewhat overvalued especially compared to incomes. And the implication is we also suspect then that in recent years there'll be some borrowers who have stretched themselves a bit in order to be able to get a house. And that's all well and good when interest rates are very low. But as the interest rate rises start to trickle through various mortgages depending on what kind of mortgage you've got for some people that could be a squeeze. And we've got a couple of other confounding facts of course which is with higher inflation of purchasing power what people have in their pocket to spend is feeling reduced overall. Then there could be difficult choices for some people to make about affording their house going forward or the implications in the wider economy of that. I've seen in the news that there's a lot of talk about fixed interest rates and variable interest rates. You know different countries have different systems in place. Is that a piece of good news for us that in the countries where there are more fixed interest rate mortgages that maybe the impact won't be as bad? Yes, I think overall we would agree with that. So for mortgage owners themselves that gives you breathing room it means that you don't see the effect of interest rates coming through all in one go depending on what mortgage you personally have but on average in the euro area we've seen more and more people with fixed terms. The other big factor is also then unemployment. That's a huge thing that unemployment is historically low and it's a big shield. That's the thing we've got to watch out for. I think if we were to see unemployment pick up that would probably be a flag for us about the direction that this could take. For the system as a whole the other thing is also that whilst the fixed rate mortgages are good for the borrowers it can mean more pressure on banks but overall in our assessment what's also fortunate is our banking system looks to be in relatively robust shape certainly compared to historical periods so it's sort of the dog that isn't barking right now. That's a good way to put it. Okay, thank you Tamara. Now John the last topic I want to talk about on this episode is non-banks because there's a very specific mention in the review about the issues that are facing these institutions. Now I think maybe it's worth me explaining what an earth and non-bank is because it's a pretty vague concept but non-banks are basically financial institutions that offer some of the services that a bank does, right? So like investing but they don't actually have a banking license so things like investment funds, hedge funds they're the kind of things you think of when you say non-banks. And since the global financial crisis the number of non-banks has actually grown quite a bit and they have actually been playing a key role in providing credit to the economy. Now John, why was there such a specific mention of non-banks in the financial stability review? What exactly are you seeing there? So this has been something that we have been monitoring actually for quite some time. Before the pandemic the paradigm that dominated our thinking on financial stability risks was one of a low for long interest rate environment hunt for yield and liquidity abundance in financial markets. Now one symptom of this was substantial growth of the non-bank financial sector as you mentioned. These non-banks have become a very important source of finance for the real economy and greater diversity within the financial system was offering firms more options for raising finance on better terms so there were plenty of positives. But we did have a number of concerns and they had mostly to do with what we call the pro cyclicality of non-bank finance. Now that's basically... Can you break that down? It's just simply the tendency to amplify trends both either up turns or downturns that the sector moves together with the cycle but it can make it even more amplified. Now low interest rates had set a dynamic of hunt for yield in motion whereby funds, investment funds for instance took on greater risk to generate higher returns. It was very difficult to find decent returns for commitments that they might have made to investors. So this was done in a number of ways including through taking on greater credit duration and liquidity risk and sometimes also through leverage. Leverage is when you... When you borrow to buy an asset. Yeah, exactly. Actually leverage is what you do when you buy a house but you can do that in financial markets as well. And that's the liquidity of the assets that were held by non-banks especially investment funds as the liquidity declined. That made them more prone to fire sales of assets in situations where they needed to raise cash quickly. So these would be assets that would be difficult to sell because they're not very liquid. So for instance if they faced redemption requests from their end investors they might have difficulty. What we're seeing now looks more like an orderly retreat of non-bank finance. When markets are correcting it can lead to nervousness among end investors. So those are the people who invest in the investment funds and they might be asking for their money back because they don't want to suffer even further losses. Now when that starts happening investment funds have to find the cash and this is often done by selling assets. So this retreat of non-bank finance of course it also diminishes the capacity of the investment fund sector then to fund businesses and sovereigns because investors are taking their money out. Now whether it reduces the overall availability of finance in the economy and now that would be a source of concern if that were to happen. That depends on whether banks would have the willingness or the capacity to step in and fill the gap as non-bank finance retreats. But should adjustment become disorderly say because of further asset price declines we have concerns that funds may not have sufficient cash our liquid assets on hand to be able to cope would say an extreme but plausible scenario of redemption requests by end investors. Now it is on those grounds that we've been making a case for more macro potential oriented regulation that would require funds to hold a certain minimum proportion of their other assets in cash and liquid securities so that that kind of stress could be avoided. Thank you John and thank you Tamara for this conversation. Now before we wrap up as you know very well we always ask our guests for a hot tip linked to the topic we've been discussing today. Now your previous hot tips included Roman Emperors and Eddie Murphy films so I'm quite curious to see where we're heading today. Tamara I'll start with you what's your hot tip for our listeners on the topic of well broadly financial stability. Well my hot tips actually related to monetary policy but it's so relevant to the what we're seeing today. I recommend it although I'm only halfway through so Ben Bernanke who was the former chair of the federal reserve particularly during the great financial crisis and recently was awarded the Nobel Prize. He released a book earlier this year on monetary policy I think monetary policy in the 21st century it's called or the other way around and I think it's a really really clear actually I'm learning a lot exposition of how particularly the US but central banking has changed and very thoughtful so and there's been a period of actually quite sizable development in how central banks operate and he writes really well I find really clear. John how about you? I mean a key question facing many market participants today is whether we are nearing the end of the market correction or not and so I have a book recommendation but the name of the book is Valuing Wall Street Protecting Wealth in Turbulent Times. It was published by Andrew Smithers and Stephen Wright in 2000. So even before the global financial crisis? Even before the global financial crisis and even before the dot-com bubble burst they couldn't have had better timing with the publication of the book but it's as relevant today as it was then in making the case that equity markets are strong mean reversion properties in the long run and what is meant by that is what goes up or goes up too far eventually comes down. Well that brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you so much to my guests John Fal and Tamara Shakia from our financial stability department for explaining what's going on in financial stability at this very difficult time. Be sure to check out the show notes for links to the financial stability review and for further reading on this topic. You've been listening to the ECB podcast with Katie Ranger. If you like what you've heard, please subscribe and leave us a review. Until next time, thanks for listening.


Hello, I'm William Hartnell and welcome to my Minecraft let's play let's see, William Henry Hartnell It's my world's chosen to put me up to this idea you see and um, well I think it's rather good I've got a lot of personality I like to to get out into the world I'm going to be the next PewDiePie or Multiplier! Dardis hasn't got the best computer so you may have to bear with me as everything lures around me Oh no, come on! I think it's good. Hardly in the barren wasteland of Skara we're dealing with You know, they could have just been in the Rockies and left. That's all I'm saying and that's to beat wood Now I'm not entirely sure if he was joking, but let's let's have a guess what's the cards you're dealing with, let's say so Well, I've gotten some wood. That's that's good Um, so let me just span some some buttons here. So, what does that mean? There's spanned some some buttons here. Oh Who's that handsome chap? I quite like him. I'm a time lord. I figured out how to time travel more or less I can figure out a silly little computer game for you So put it in there. Oh Okay, so I've got some blanks. There's no ducks in this part from a future incarnation Chesterfield also gave me one other bit of advice that is to go straight down There is no staircase or elevator or lift if you're American or British So I just have to dig straight down. We just start here and we'll see how we go I think Chesterfield was kidding that time. Oh, and Barbara gave me a lovely little bit of advice That is to go into the ocean right and we're going to go in here Fishes and the fun thing is a video games. You don't have to breathe you can just be on the air for really forever I'm losing some hearts if I go deeper that


Good afternoon, folks. Steve Rhodes coming to you live from the shores of still sunny Delray Beach, Florida. This year, 2 p.m. update. Currently, we have all the U.S. indices trading to the upside. The Dow is up 227.7%. 1.25% for the S&P. That's 52 points. NASDAQ's 280. That's 2.25%. Russell, a little over 2% at 39 points. Some eyes up 2.8%. 86 points out there. The trannies up 1.7 or 246 points. Gold's up 23 bucks. Even Stephen, 1.770 is the Prince Silver. 38 cents trading out of 22.29. We crude up a buck 55, 1.1680 to 30. Shresley up 5 ticks and natural gas back 3 pennies. She's trading out at $8.66 out there. Let's go spend a little time. Take a look at the charts here for the indices. See what they're signaling to you and I. As we take a look at the charts out here, this 8-panel set of charts. What strikes me right now, if you're asking which of these are the most bullish? Which of these indices are the most bullish today? Steve, we would answer the NASDAQ 100. It is trading above yesterday's high right now. The Russell 2000, trading above yesterday's high, never got down to yesterday's low. That's a strong dog. Some eyes are just as strong as the Russell 2000. Trading above yesterday's high should continue to move higher out here. The transports are also trading above yesterday's high. So you've got the as well as the NASDAQ composite. So the weak indices would be the Dow Jones industrials, S&P 500, only because it hasn't taken out yesterday's high out there. Not that it won't. And the New York Stock Exchange. What other pieces of information? What other morsels of information can we get out here? Well, in the semis, they're going to go target the swing point that you're watching is $31.6670 or $31.36. If price can close above $31.6670, that's going to suggest a further move higher. The trend is they may be targeting their high from May 17th. That's in the 14809 level out here. The NASDAQ composite could easily be targeting the high of $12,985. The Russell 2000, I'd say that its price target to the upside would be about $19.52. In the case of the NASDAQ 100, it's going to be the high from May the 4th out there. And that's up in the $13.556 level. So all looks hunky-dory out there. Here's the daily timeframe chart for the NBX 100. We can see that typically you get like a two or three-day rally after a bit of a pullback out there. Here's a three-day rally back on May the 4th. Here's a two-day rally on May 19th. You know what this suggests? We should not only see this rally last through tomorrow. Tomorrow is fantastic Friday. Have a terrific Thursday, folks. Stay till your favorite polar bear date and bikes up next day. The reality is that never


Welcome to the ITU Planning Potentials Conference 2022, PP22 here in Bucharest, Romania, where I've got the great pleasure of being joined in the studio today by Ezra Ciloba, who's the Director General of the Communications Authority for Kenya. Ezra, welcome to the studio. Thank you very much. What is the status of ICT development in Kenya? Well, I will say that if you look at the entire Africa, Kenya, I think among the countries that has made significant progress in terms of that sector, we now talk of the digital economy. That has been powered by a significant number of extend of connectivity of the population. Today we are talking about 96% of citizens who are able to actually have an opportunity to access broadband services. And for us that is significant given that a lot of investment enabled by the government and the private sector towards connectivity through laying of the infrastructure, fiber infrastructure and also working closely with the mobile service providers. So in terms of development, that is like the mark of progress. The other bit maybe if you may know is that we pioneered mobile money. M-PESA? M-PESA. And that has kind of, it's part of development and more and more incentive to innovate in that specific area. And Kenya also remains like the hub of innovation for the region. A lot more multinationals who are interested in looking at how to invest in Africa have come to set best in Kenya. And for us that means the country is opened up for these digital economy opportunities, not just for Kenya but also for the entire region. Yeah, so... Silicon Savannah? Silicon Savannah of Africa. That's how we call it. No, absolutely. I mean I've been there a couple of times and we've had, ICU has had conferences there and we've visited technological hubs there too. There seems to be a lot of energy and a lot of enthusiasm certainly for technology and technological innovation there. Exactly. And if you look at how the future is going to unfold, the government has realized the potential in the digital economy. It launched our 10-year second master plan on the digital economy. And we want to deepen a little bit more when it comes to access to technology and the value that we gain out of technology investment. So the next 10 years are going to be very significant for the country when it comes to ICD development. Let's talk about strategy. What is Kenya's strategy to ensure the attainment of the two goals of universal connectivity and sustainable digital transformation? Maybe the best way to start looking at it is to look at perhaps the challenge that we've experienced so far. While we talk about 96% of Kenyans having access, having the opportunity to access broadband for example, this will have challenges in terms of utilizing or having that meaningful access. And what the government has done now is opening up the space for more and more investment from a regulatory point of view. It's a free market and what we've been trying to do is to ensure that as many players as possible come into that particular space to ensure that we have products and services that are fit for the context in which we are operating in. The second bit we may need to look at is you look at the government structure where traditionally we've been offering services from the traditional way away from the value that is brought about by digital inclusion. So what the government has decided is to go to automate a lot of its services and for us that is an easier way of ensuring this greater access to quality public services. So we have one stream that the government has allowed private sector to invest but the other stream is where government itself is actually investing to ensure that citizens have the greatest benefit arising from ICTs. So in the next 10 years as I mentioned earlier is that we're going to see a lot more investment in infrastructure a lot more investment in the content that is being provided by the different ICT service providers a lot more investment in skills and powered by automating government services as well as opening up the market for more private investment. Let's talk about challenges. What are the challenges facing developing countries in their efforts to ensure digital inclusion and that no one is left behind? I think that's an important question. If you look at it again going back to the same question why is greater potential for connectivity this huge investment infrastructure the main challenge we are facing today is the cost of access. You can have connectivity but that is not meaningful unless you have a smart device for example smart phone or smart tablet. A lot of many African countries citizens cannot afford those devices and we've been having this idea that perhaps it is high time the manufacturers of these devices and the global community coming in that city space to come together to figure out how we can enable access to smart devices by the poor and imagining a smart device that costs not more than $500. I was going to say like a mobile phone equivalent to the $100 laptop for example. Exactly. So we do not have access to cheaper devices and the cost has been going up and up. Currently when we have global inflation rising it affects that category of citizens as well so we need to get cheaper smart devices across. We need to work around relevant content because each country in Africa is special to itself and a lot of content that is being consumed is really from outside Africa. And that means therefore the appetite to use those devices or the opportunity provided by for example connectivity is not there. So for us to be able to fully tap into that potential we need to get relevant content for the region and this is a challenge to developers and the last bit of course is skills. Skills in terms of enabling younger new generation to come up with solutions that fit their context but at the same time skills for the users. So we also have challenges there. So the urban dwellers have different skills and opportunities to be able to access and utilize the connectivity opportunities. The rural communities have got their own challenges as well when it comes to skills. So when you're deploying strategies to improve skills we also have to look at those diverse interests and you know situational status of skills capabilities. So yeah from a strategy point of view focus on skills focus on access to cheaper and smart devices as well as content that is relevant for the region. Thank you very much for joining us in the studio. I hope that some of those will come to fruition in the not too distant future and hopefully we'll get to catch up with you very soon. To watch this best the next day. Excellent. All right. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you very much.


Hey everyone, welcome back for more XOZeroes content. Today's video we're going to discuss a review, a guide, and the gameplay for FC Schmid. But before that, if you want updated XOZeroes content, please hit the subscribe button. It's down below. Okay guys, so here we are with Schmid. So here is his hero profile. So he hails from the nation Vagabond. He is actually a light element. He has an attack in terms of position and his attack type is physical. Take note, his age is 42, pretty much in his prime and is pretty ripped to wreck havoc on the battlefield. So for Schmid's stats, basically his strengths is actually going to be HP which is average, attack which is high, hit which is average as well because you need his hit for his S2 and his attack speed is high. His attack speed is actually crucial because he needs actually to go first and apply prey and the rest will have to follow him. So that is why his attack speed should be further increased as well and also his hit has to be increased above his now average stat. But for his weakness, he is more or less below average for defense. This is the only way I see Schmid in terms of defense because you need to actually more or less improve his defense because of master's footsteps. For you to have that effect with your other teammates, you need to have the highest defense. So again, it would be a challenge for you to increase his defense while you can. I'll explain further later but his dodge again is low, critical hit is low, block is low and so basically that's it. So four good stats and four bad stats. Okay, so in terms of his skills, let's go over his passive first. So basically he has counter three, so counters upon taking damage, gains one mana if target dies and gains one mana if the health of target is 70% or more. So standard for Schmid, flow mana as a general, he gives mana especially to the back rows, permanently gain. This is usually every turn and this is actually every round. So he basically gives mana to himself as well. So in terms of corruption, so corruption mark, it's a mark increases on attack by 20% for seven turns upon receiving health regeneration effects can be stacked up to five times. So more or less an example, a very good example for this one would be Dorca because of Soulbond. So basically Dorca gives him health regeneration as long as Dorca has the highest attack of the both of them. So this is actually a good one. This actually increases his attack by 20% stacks up to five times which gives him a maximum of 100%. This is crazy guys, right? Very crazy. Next would be his master's footsteps. This again was the one that I explained earlier. Grants master's footsteps to an ally with lower defense than a caster. So again you have to improve his kind of low or average defense, it's actually below average. Improve this by unleash potential number one. Number two would be gear. Number three would be you have to awaken him with blue frost element. And also you have to make sure that you get friends to help you with core memory. But there are others as well that you can boost up his defense but more or less those are the examples where you can boost his defense. Okay next would be prey. So a flicks target with prey mark when an attack hits. His passive is actually very long. Okay does not apply if the target is Schmidt so you cannot apply prey to another Schmidt on the other side. Resets turn for allies except for self with master's footsteps when attacking an enemy. Mark with prey can be activated one time per hero each round. Okay so more or less this is why you need to make sure that your other teammates or allies have lower defense than you. They need to be affected by master's footsteps for them to make use of prey. So this is one of his insane skills that he has in his kit and the list keeps growing and growing. So we're going towards gargantuan. Okay for gargantuan more or less reduces own receive damage by 90% when all allies except the caster with master's footsteps are marked. So for those who are you know have master's footsteps and are still alive. So it reduces own damage by 90% when allies except the caster again as master's footsteps. So again very self explanatory he survives well when he has other allies with master's footsteps that's it. So again crazy crazy kit I don't know where they got his kit or how they were planning to make this kit but this is really really absurd. Crazy darkblood command debuff again this is one of the things that will make tantalo cry. So darkblood command debuff if there's another living ally marked with master's footsteps besides self decreases attack and defense of the enemy that activates a damage immunity effect and enemies in the same row by 80% for 15 turns. So not only tantalo gets affected by this if I may predict your front row would look like Talia, Iris and tantalo. So all three of them will be affected by the decrease in attack and decrease in defense by 18%. So this is actually bonkers guys I tell you this guy has been training a long long time for this. So he's come prepared so more or less this is a you know this is a headache and more or less this applies to anyone who pretty much triggers damage immunity. So I'm sorry tantalo you're going to you know you're gonna have to step aside and let Schmidt pass through. Okay and his last passive would be faith destroyer so special if the caster has condemned mark condemned mark by the way is given by his S2 we'll discuss more that later. So destroys two random garden stones from target upon attacking and removes all condemned mark from self. Again this is one crazy ability that actually would would be a problem for the current for your current set of garden stones. Let's say for example you have a setup of four red and others would be random you know just like blue or green blue and green for example for the fifth and sixth. If for example your red are taken out and this guy hits you when he has condemned then goodbye goodbye no one is really safe when Schmidt is around in the other team.  Okay so we move on to his S1 so S1 is able destroyer required minus three deals 178% life steal damage to all enemies and heals his own health by 100% of the damage dealt.  Okay I can't express so much you know so much craziness in this guy because he's more or less what everybody wants right now. So again very very good S1 plus S1 gives prey so take note of that. So for his S2 more or less it's called dark blood requires five mana it's a crazy burst spell deals 1050 damage to one enemy grants condemn mark to self if target dies. Again this is where you get condemned and this hits like a truck really takes out your first gardens easily without their shields and you know he's basically a Swiss army knife Schmidt. I don't blame you know I don't blame you guys for summoning him I summoned him too so we go now to his unleash potential so more or less Schmidt's unleash potential this will need work. Mine will need work because I haven't opened it I haven't you know I haven't taken him into consideration so for his if you finish his stamina tree which enhances his HP more or less he will get what else. He will get grants amount to self when the round starts again more mana to fuel his S2 spell. For this one he gets Reset's turn one per round if mana owned is under three and he'll hit again turn reset and for his attack he gets another turn reset.  So again grow further you have to finish first defense then stamina then probably attack because he also needs to survive as well so again the best sequence would be defense stamina in the attack. So let's take them into PVP but this is just a sample of what more or less he could do he actually has a lot of passive skills and it's actually very ridiculous. Let's try to let's try to give him as much you know highlight in terms of his support so right now I'm going first with Dorca with her S2. So let's wait for Schmid's turn so Dorca is here because she actually gives a health regen to Schmid which in return increases his attack as well. So that is actually in his CS passive so Dorca will be able to affect this one corruption but will go first with his S2 because we're going to run out of time later. So more or less this is just to give pray to everyone as long as skill hits. So again you need to have a higher hit for Schmid for this to happen so triggers damage immunity so I guess they have lower let's see. So see once Tantalot triggered the damage immunity effect now he has decreased attack and decreased defense.  So right now it's Summer's Blessing but my next attack I think would do it. So for for for Junai she has lower defense than Schmid for this lineup. I think she'll have another crack at it. Yes they do. So again another S2 which actually shows you how powerful Schmid is. So he can really exploit his his what do you call this his turn resets. I think also for for what do you call this for FC Shell she can actually have her turn reset later. So right now Tantalot is not feeling well. It's not really feeling well in terms of what has happened why has my attack and defense gone down. So basically Schmid has crippled him so much that it leaves you know it leaves his whole team very you know very annoyed or very what do you call this. Let's go with the let's go with the S2 for Shell. Let's have another turn reset for for Schmid. I think I think his stories is actually a good good pairing in terms of Schmid and Junai and Shell. So I'm trying I'm going to try to build this one so we're going to try to kill one enemy here. So let's try to kill Rera that we could have condemned for his S2. Then when he has condemned he can break garden stones actually as long as he hits and his damage immunity. Okay, so sorry for that. So anyway, more or less again, even if you lower down the attack and defense of Tantalot, he still gives damage. So that's actually what he brings left what he gives left because more or less with him lowered down attack lower down defense. He's actually paper and actually just cut through it right through him and eliminate him quickly and the rest of the team will eventually be vulnerable. So if you can see here we're about done will have another match after this one and try to try to have another go at Schmid. I like this team actually because it gives me a lot of flexibility. This is not actually my main team. Although Astorys Republic composed of Junai and Shell has been has been one of the you know what one of the strongest heroes that I have. But again, if you can see Schmid actually makes them pretty much better, easier to bring.  I usually bring wasted red, but as you can see, they actually do the job anyway. So I'll go with another team here. Let's see. Okay, so let's do this. This is without let's do another team. Let's check out another team with with here. Let's try this one if we can handle this Linnombe team. So more or less, I think the weakness for everyone would be Linnombe. Now that Schmid is here, so we'll try to have a, you know, a match up with team Linnombe. See if we can hold on to the initial onslaught and we can. Let's see. I don't think I'll survive if I attack. So let's hold off on his other S1 because I'm sure there'll be a lot of counters and she'll be dead. See? So even if I didn't go there, it's a lot of damage still. So let, let, we'll let loose Schmid for his S1 to give prey so that we can actually retaliate. There you go. Quite a bit good damage. I know he can actually hold on to the onslaught. So let's, who's next? So we have Baraka from the opposing team. Let's just hope that I can weather the storm and have a counter attack and probably, you know, exploit the master's footsteps in the prey. I have Charmed with them, although that is actually a plus for me. So I just have to weather this one. This Linnombe team is actually insane in terms of attacks. They're so relentless and plus Schmid. See, they're actually attacking a lot. And I don't know if, if my team will still survive this onslaught. See, I'm only left with Bathory and I don't know if I can still, you know, win this one. So again, you can see there the onslaught of Schmid going first, giving prey and the others really attacking multiple times. And that's actually the key for, you know, the key for the number right now. And they're going to be a headache. They're going to be, they're going to be tough in terms of PVP to beat. I don't know what, what will line games come up next. So more or less, we'll just have to weather this storm of Linnombe because even with this team, I can't even, you know, I can't even survive. I only have two left and they're hanging Bathred. So again, more or less, this is a done deal for the opponent.  So I'm just actually waiting for this to be over. Okay, so you probably noticed that the second match didn't finish. So my emulator just gave up on me and well, you know, that match would have ended in a loss anyway. So anyway, let's move through with his recommended garden stones. So again, for Schmidt, I would recommend two for you to awaken him with. So what I did first was initially awakened him with a frost set.  Another option would be darkness set because darkness set would give him definitely a defense maximum of 500 plus a hit. A hit of maximum 12 hit because again of his S1 because you need it to apply prey. Okay, so these are the two options that you actually would need if you want to bring Schmidt or if you want to awaken Schmidt in your lineup, more or less for equipped stats. There are a lot of combinations now, more or less, I'd go with either with three frosts to give him more defense. And the others would be random or you could give him four, you know, four HP, which is red. Then the two others would be random. So more or less take a pick on how you're going to build Schmidt because again, he needs to prioritize defense for him to be a, you know, an impact for his team. Okay, for synergy with other heroes. So so far from what I've seen when when my team was kicked out the door, more or less the best fit for him hands down would be the number. Most of you guys know that because Schmidt was already existing in some of the teams, but now it's actually very obvious. He is paired best with the number one because he actually has a high attack speed. He could go first. He could apply prey and more or less for the heroes of the number of the team. More or less, most of them have low defense. That is why he is the most. I think he's he's the missing piece for the number to be to be honest with you. So more or less, I'm going to hate this for a very long time, but I'm going to have a big trouble with the number, especially with Schmidt around. So more or less the number best fit so far. Okay, again, if you want to splash him with other, you know, other teams, make sure that you have low defense heroes or more or less you have leveled Schmidt up, especially for signature force and the others like. Core memory, gear, awaken. So all of the things that you have to increase his defense do that because your your teammates should have lower defense than him. And he is an attack type character, which is where which he is actually very hard. He it's very hard for him to increase his defense because his base stat for defense is actually below average. Okay, and he's actually good as well. In terms of his prey and master's footsteps for the turn reset, he works well with heroes with skill effects like silence or stun. So they could actually stun a couple of people in a row or silence a couple of people in a row. So more or less very good with heroes that have skill effects. Next is my overall rating. So out of five, five being the highest. So start off for stat. Basically for stat, more or less I'd give him a five because you can't expect pretty much perfect stat. But more or less he has hit what he needs to hit in terms of stat. Attack speed is very good. Attack is very good. Although defense is below average, but it can, you know, with a little bit of tweaking you can mediate defense. So I'll give him a five. Ridiculous stat spot on in terms of what he really needs. Okay, for playability in content, you could never go wrong with him. He is pretty much very good in PVP. Again, as long as you build your team right, even if you splash him with a non-Linombe team, he will actually perform well. Again, it depends upon how you design your team. You can actually exploit master's footsteps and pray with any team that you have. Okay, for synergy with other heroes. Again, I was thinking about giving him a five, but I ended up giving him a 4.5 because he actually synergizes with almost any team. Okay, for my final thoughts. So basically for Schmidt, oh my God, he's a beast of a villain. That's it. Very a really, really bad guy, a bad man that has everything that anyone could ask for. So hands down, I think one of the best heroes now in the game. Kick Tantalo aside. Tantalo was one of the best, you know, he kicked Tantalo to the curb. Okay, number two, his kit has everything. Guard of the Stone Breaks, Self-Heal, anti-damage immunity, high damage, single target skill. You name it, he has it. So he's like a Swiss army knife. And my last opinion is that I think after a few months, Line Games or ExoZears will have another counter for this guy. I'm sure. So again, this is what they do. They create a super strong character, FC. Then after that, after a while they would just give, they would just release another counter to, you know, to the current meta or the one that's, you know, shaping the current meta. Anyway, you guys, stay safe, take care. This is The Warden and I'm out of here.