Over my lunch hour I decided to check out our new crafting system. I broke down 40-50 ish items. Made a few shards, and crafted a few (okay 2) items. I made a lesser bane weapon, and a -5% SPF ring.

In less then an hour I was able to figure out the basics. I see a lot of possible usefulness here. Even for newer characters. But I didn’t look at any minimum levels. That could be a deal breaker. Real fast let me “build” some sample items.

X wraps of lesser Ooze bane lvl 4 (not sure what the min level would be…)
Any low level Invulnerability is handy
I would love a low level Life Shield item I can use when I am TRing, say a ring
And how great would it be to load up on guards?
Looks like I could make a two handed Song blade for my bard life…
Also the idea that I could “level up” a piece of gear that I have carried along with me for flavor or looks. I know there are a lot of armor I love and lots I hate. I could make a style I like be +2 at low level and level that set of armor up with me would be huge.

I don’t know. I have the feeling that we have a fine start. But I would have rather had something a lot closer to pencil and paper.

❤

Isn’t funny when math works? The four of us went nuts tearing threw Korthos Island on elite. That was a little more then a level. Then we were off to the harbor.

Running a few quests some a few times and one right into the dirt. Looking at you New Ringleader. There is a difference between soloing. And having a bit of a team. Example I would us the jump over in ringleader and the rest of the group would go the long way smashing crates and hitting the optionals I would have skipped. And we would end up only adding a little bit of time to the final time for the quest, but get all the bonuses. Giving us a lot more xp.

Also it was nice to run almost carefree because I wasn’t the only one in the quest. Winning or losing didn’t rest on any one person’s shoulders. It was a nice change.

That is enough talking about the wonders of having a group. Let me talk about how the build is play atm.

The path is Bard/Fighter/Barb/Bard so far. Max Str, power attack, stunning blow, big two handers, and enough boosts to hit 99.9 % of the time. Bard song, rage/heroism/haste clickies and focusing chant == big to hit, big damage. So it plays mostly like a barb. Boost, charge, kill, repeat.

We did have a death or two. One mine. I went to loot the chest in Durk’s. The one behind the acid traps. And got hurt. Jumped back healed up and was even more careful. But was still getting hit. Jumped back healed up and third time was the charm. For the trap anyway. Boom, dead. And then the damage rolls by. Going to call it a lag death. But there is number one this life. I was level 2.

All in all I like the build so far. Looking forward to trying out warchanter.

Oh before I forget, Past Life: Initiate of the Faith. First of all, IotF is not Past Life: Acolyte of Divine Secrets. Don’t pull a Samius and take AoDS thinking it is IotF. But I did get to try them both last night.

AoDS, is at level 3 a clickly for 12-14 points of ranged light damage. It is not bad. I saw it as a way to get a little damage in as I charged into a baddie with out having to switch weapons. Not Bad… Not great.

IotF, is at level 3 a clickly for 10-12 points of healing. Not bad. A cure serious pot is hitting for about 22. so if I burn all my clicklys is it 2.5 pots. But I can target another part member. We had a death do to no one having a way to get someone up from incap that was already raged.

So it will take a little more testing, but so far I like it.

❤

Last night was a big night. First I won a lesser heart of wood from the lotto. Then the scramble to get ready for the bonfire was full on. Grab a few House D epics and run threw the Co6 chain on elite and fill my quiver/s. Side Note: Did you know that the Quiver of Alacrity is usable at level 1? I didn’t until I was looking at my TR bank and saw that is was usable. 1500 returning arrows and +10% ranged alacrity. Low level ranged should be so much better now. Knock out the last 50 favor to pick up a +2 tome. I like having a +2 tome from the last life waiting, Int or Dex depending on what I need for the next life. Very handy, that 1750 favor tome. Rolled up a storage squire for all of Samius’s monkesk gear that I can’t use this life. And turned in my heart of wood. Ran to the bar and made myself all sexy for my.ddo.

So I put my desire to try the Bowonk aside and followed my plan of doing my bard life. Spent an bit yesterday looking for a bard build that I thought I might like. I found a few that looked real good for end game or maybe for grouping but not a solo heavy speed runner. I want a build that will have a good xp per min ratio. And at the same time help any leveling partners, so they might stick around for the next life.

I already have a bard, Butterzotch. She is a single class level 20 Virtuoso. And while she is lots of fun and can kill anything that can be danced sooner or later. But she is not what I would call a solo build. Or at least not not according to my ideas of solo build. Mainly because her damage is not great enough to solo a “final boss” if it heals/regens. So I wanted something a little more tailored for me.

Keep in mind this is build for me, using 5 past life’s of gear. I want to have good damage, but I want to use my Lightning 2 Maul. If I didn’t have any gear I would us a falchon or great axe for stronger damage numbers. I also want to see how the Initiate of the Faith plays out. I need to know if it will lower my running costs or not.

So here is my bard build. I don’t really have a name for it but I think of it as “Samius is pissed and singing about it.” So if you want to name it, use the comments.

(36 Point) (Level 1)
Strength 20 (all level ups)
Dexterity 8
Constitution 15
Intelligence 12
Wisdom 8
Charisma 12

Tomes Used
+2 Tome of Intelligence used at level 8 (need to keep Perform/UMD maxed
on off levels.)

Level 1 (Bard)
Feat: (Past Life) Past Life: Cleric
Feat: (Past Life) Past Life: Favored Soul
Feat: (Past Life) Past Life: Wizard
Feat: (Past Life) Past Life: Wizard
Feat: (Selected) Power Attack

Level 2 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Stunning Blow

Level 3 (Barbarian)
Feat: (Selected) Past Life: Initiate of the Faith

Level 4 (Bard)
Level 5 (Bard)
Level 6 (Bard)
Feat: (Selected)Toughness

Level 7 (Bard)
Level 8 (Bard) ====================here we have Warchanter 1 & ratkiller
Enhancement: Fighter Haste Boost I
Enhancement: Barbarian Sprint Boost I
Enhancement: Barbarian Power Attack I
Enhancement: Bard Extra Song I
Enhancement: Bard Extra Song II
Enhancement: Bard Inspired Attack I
Enhancement: Bard Inspired Bravery I
Enhancement: Bard Inspired Bravery II
Enhancement: Bard Inspired Damage I
Enhancement: Bard Lingering Song I
Enhancement: Bard Warchanter I
Enhancement: Fighter Strategy (Stunning Blow) I
Enhancement: Orcish Extra Action Boost I
Enhancement: Orcish Extra Action Boost II
Enhancement: Orcish Melee Damage I
Enhancement: Orcish Power Attack I
Enhancement: Orcish Strength I
Enhancement: Orcish Strength II
Enhancement: Bard Wand and Scroll Mastery I

Level 9 (Fighter)
Feat: (Selected) Two Handed Fighting
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Weapon Focus: Bludgeoning Weapons

Level 10 (Bard)
Level 11 (Bard)
Level 12 (Bard) ====================Lig2 maul online
Feat: (Selected) Improved Critical: Bludgeoning Weapons

Level 13 (Bard)
Level 14 (Bard)
Level 15 (Bard)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Two Handed Fighting

Level 16 (Fighter)
Level 17 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Greater Two Handed Fighting

Level 18 (Fighter)
Feat: (Selected) Weapon Specialization: Bludgeoning Weapons

Level 19 (Fighter)====================Fighter Kensei I (Maul)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Quick Draw

Level 20 (Barbarian)
Enhancement: Fighter Attack Boost I
Enhancement: Fighter Attack Boost II
Enhancement: Barbarian Extend Rage I
Enhancement: Barbarian Extra Rage I
Enhancement: Bard Inspired Attack II
Enhancement: Bard Inspired Bravery III
Enhancement: Bard Inspired Damage II
Enhancement: Bard Warchanter II
Enhancement: Kensei Maul Mastery I
Enhancement: Fighter Critical Accuracy I
Enhancement: Fighter Critical Accuracy II
Enhancement: Fighter Kensei I
Enhancement: Fighter Strategy (Stunning Blow) II
Enhancement: Orcish Fury I
Enhancement: Orcish Melee Damage II
Enhancement: Orcish Power Attack II
Enhancement: Orcish Power Rage I
Enhancement: Orcish Great Weapon Aptitude I
Enhancement: Orcish Great Weapon Aptitude II
Enhancement: Racial Toughness I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II
Enhancement: Fighter Strength I
Enhancement: Fighter Strength II
Enhancement: Fighter Toughness I
Enhancement: Fighter Toughness II

So last night I was able to hit the last hand full of quests I needed to finish up my clr life. Even knocked out an epic with little more then running to bank grabbing a pair of Epic brawling gloves and shrining to pick up BB and heal.

My stun (blow) DC is 32ish. And I know that is low, but worked really well while leveling all the way up to elite Reaver’s quests. But I had to see how well that low of a DC worked in the “baby” epics. I would say out of the 13-15 times I tried it I stunned 3-4 guys. So not real reliable but a fine tool for “lets try and go stun a epic caster”, and a great tool to have while leveling up.

Plans, aka what is next?

Well right now I want to hit a few more House D epics. And then see where my House D favor is sitting at maybe shooting to 150 and restocking up on arrows. Then I will be hurling my body upon a bonfire and resetting to level 1. But I am not 100% sure what live to live. Bard or Monk.

If I do my monk life I know I can solo as much as I need, mostly because I will be rocking my Bowonk build. But I won’t be alone this life. Okay not totally alone anyway. Tobril, Fopo, and my wife are all planing to tag along. As well as we hope to be getting to know a new guildie who is on newb probation. I have high hopes that he will work out.

So with all these possible teammates that Bard life (that might not be as solo capable) sounds better and better. So now I need to build a bard. And see what sounds like fun.

Okay wish me luck.

❤

When I feel like I have to pug something, it bothers me. I know it. I start to feel the tilt just for coming to the decision to hit the LFM panel. It is not you, its me. Okay I lied it is you all. Not you the reader but pugs in general. Fool me once shame on you, fool me again and again and again I am going to stop pugging. Not that I have been having bad luck lately with pugs. I haven’t. It is just that it will take more then a few weeks to overcome the year of bad pugs.

So looking at the xp bar on your 2+ TR and knowing that there are a handful of quests (okay they are called raids) you could do for 10-24k xp you start thinking okay so I can watch timers and try to hit these.

And as I said I have been in some fine raids. A few Hard VoDs, some fast Shrouds, some Abbots (even got a hard for the xp bonus), a few ToDs heck the last ToD was on Hard. And we had 1 or 2 people new to the raid! So I am not complaining about the groups I have been in lately.

But the act of opening the Lfm panel puts me in an off mood. So when I click on and hit join. I am on my way up on my emotional roller coaster. Getting ready to just go nuts.

And I think my family can see it now. Strangely I don’t get asked a lot of questions when I am waiting on getting it to a group.

So on saturday night when I saw a mostly full normal VoD I thought okay. Looked the group over and saw a fair spread. And the lfm said need 1 dps and 1 bard/caster thing. I hit join, and sent a tell asking for the dps slot. I was thinking first time bonus for normal… tasty. And I wait.

And wait.

And wait.

I curse a little and say guess I am getting my.ddoed. I don’t really mind getting checked out. But come on. Normal VoD? Please.

After a min I get this reply, “No” and declined.

Humm okay.

I reply, “ No prob, thanks for the decline.” the raid leader replies “yep” and I talk to Tobril who is on his FvS. And I am pissed. Can’t tell you why. Guess I wanted that normal bonus. Instead he and I fill the last slots in a hard VoD and go while the other lfm sits.

The new raid starts to talk, and someone says something like great we have 4 healers. I say, I am mostly dps, but I will do my best. On of the 2 FvS (not Tobril) also says he is an arcane archer and mostly dps. And that starts what feels like a 15 min bitchfest about battle healers and they trying to inform us that we can heal and fight at the same time. I just shut up and let them go on. Hell I don’t care what people say, right? In fact I was getting pissed. So pissed in fact I decide not to use any sp on anyone that said anything on the topic. And I didn’t I healed only with the fist of light finisher, and the rad bursts. My Fists and bursts do 80-100 with all my enchantments and belt clickies. Fire off a FoL every 15-20 secs and a spot burst and there is not a lot of other healing needed.

Know what? No deaths. No pots. And it was a smooth run other then people running their mouths. In fact the roughest part was the run to the quest where people that stuck with me had no problems where half of the group spread out and needed saving.

I guess my point is be careful of your state of mind while playing. I will say I put that first vod raid leader on my “friends” list with a message. It was a spur of the moment thing. Did he deserve it? No. Will he come off? I don’t know, I might just change him to a warning message. And give him a little rope.

❤

Once again we have a topic from Twitter. This time from a bud of mine Fopo aka @burbaby. And he wants to know my tips for soloing. So lets run a few of them down.

Kill mobs: I would think this would go with out question, but when building/playing character for solo play you have to be able to get around/threw the mobs in the quest. This includes boss fights. At low levels boss fights are fairly simple, and almost anyone can push and complete. But as you start to creep up into the mid levels finishing the final fight solo becomes harder and harder.

Heal: You need away to keep your red bar full enough to complete the quest. As long as you have a plan that works, I don’t really care what it is. I try to keep my healing as cheap as possible. If your going to us Pots then you need lots of AMP to make those pots go farther. If your to use a hireling by a folder and keep a lot of different kinds. You never know when you might need to swap to a different NPC. I love vamp weapons, +1 hp a hit can be good enough to lower costs a lot, or even replace a lot of other healing. And now at level 13 anyone can have vamp weapons.

Defense: You need some kind of strong defense. Large HP pool, DR, high stealth, AC, what ever floats your boat. But being a solo build you can’t have glaring weaknesses because you don’t have some one there to catch you if you fall.

Gear: Keep all the supplies you might need handy. Remove Curse/Blindness/Elemental Res pots. Check your casting supplies and check them often. Along with any thing else you might need. Invis Clickies are a must.

You have lots of play style options.

I take the fastest path to the xp. If there is an optional I will hit it or skip it based on the xp/time ratio.
Some people like the slower milk all the xp from a quest method.
And some can sneak threw the quest.

It is up to you.

Okay back to work,
❤

I have two more topics from twitter to talk about today. ‘Why kobolds kick ass!’ and ‘The different versions of D&D over the years, and which one is the best and why’. From CSIStormreach and Niatnuomwed.

Kobolds, hmmm. I don’t have a lot of good things to say about them. Other then they die real good and are tasty with just a min or two full on in a WoF. Thats what I call a kick ass monster. Xp and Good Eats! Thanks CSIStormreach.

The different versions of D&D over the years, and which one is the best and why? What a meaty question. Let me start with a simple list of DnD that I have played over the years and in order I played them. 2nd (aka AdnD), 1st , 3rd , 3.5, 4th, Path Finder, And you might count Neverwinter Nights 1, Ddo, and a few of the dungeon crawls on the game boy (Eye of the Beholder is the one I remember best)

If I did a top 5 list I would say this order:
1- Ddo
2 – 3.5
3 – PathFinder
4 – 2nd
5 – Neverwinter Nights

But Why?

Well one Ddo has most of the things I love best about DnD. You all can hear me go on about my likes and dislikes on DdoCocktailHour.com

Third is so close to the best version of PnP I have ever played. 3.0 I always felt was just kinda off. But 3.5 cleaned up 75% of the things I felt was wrong. And then broke a few handfuls of things. But it was real close. I stand by if they made a 3.25 it would be ideal.

PathFinder is so much closer to “right” then a lot of other versions of Dnd but I haven’t really gone super nuts on playing it, so I can’t rate it higher. But the little I have played I would say it has the DnD feel so much more the 4th it is scary.

Second, This is the game I learned with. I played it for about 10 years. Even in an house hold where it was the “devil’s game” I carried the PHB everywhere. I was able to rip off the cover and it was a simple white card stock. It allowed me to keep it in my house and pull it out in school with out feeling like a freak. I will always remember my second ed. games fondly.

Neverwinter was/is really great single person dnd computer game, it has group play but is kinda sucks. Had I not found Ddo I would call this game the best dnd computer game of all time. Now it is the second best.

There was my top 5. What is your list?

I know this is not Ddo related but some times I have to just get something out, and you are my audience. So stick around and read a little about the best Scfi show ever.

I have always loved Scfi/fantasy tv shows. Enterprise, and every other Star Trek show, FireFly, Angel/Buffy, Tremors, Stargate: , and more. I can think of only 1 or 2 Scfi/fantasy shows I didn’t love (“Lost” I am talking about you). But if I had to list out my top 5 the number 1 slot would be Farscape.

Let me digress a little more. I like to watch shows by the season, or at least in long runs. And I have fallen hard for Netfilx on Demand Streaming. I had finished up all the Lie to Me that Netflix had available for streaming. And I was looking around for another show to start on and BAM! Farscape. 3 weeks later and I have once again devoured all 4 seasons.

Every character has that real person feeling to them. And you come to care about them very quickly. And the stories are filled with highs and lows. I watched the last 2 shows today and for the last hour now my heart has been pounding. And I ran to Amazon to buy Farscape: The Peace Keeper Wars. The 4 hour ending movie/mini series.

But the best is thanks to Johnny Confidence (from Flex your Geek Podcast) I learned the the story doesn’t end there. The original creator as teamed up with Boom! Studios to make a Farscape Comic. I ordered all 3 of the paperback books and I will be taking a look at seeing about getting the comics as the come out. Check out Johnny Confidence’s write up that informed me all about the books.

Long story short check out the show if you haven’t seen it before or if you know the show have haven’t watched lately check it out again.

So i had a kind of writers block, more of a “Do I really want to talk about that again?” as apposed to straight up writers block. So as a work around, I asked for a few topics from some of the best people around, my twitter followers. I got a few topics and I will work threw them as long as they keep coming in or until I have something better to offer.

Okay the fist one on the list that got my attention if from FriendlyNecro He wants to know “Favorite places to farm money solo and advice?”

So where do I go when I need plat in a hurry?

Mostly IQ/ Dreaming Dark, Mining for Ancient Secrets is one of the best plat per min runs at least for a good caster. I Dream of Jeets if you can hit the 2 optional chests are also quick and often very good.

Amrath, Both the explorer and Sins of Attrition are also favorites. There is a nice run out in the battle field where you hit the Orthon by Sins, The Horned Devil and Cat by Genesis Point, run around and check on the closest Golem. All of these guys at the moment are vorpalable or smiteable. And Sins had lots of chests and are very soloable for a few different builds.

But the best way to make plat (in my mind) is to get something that someone else doesn’t want take the time to farm and sell it to them.
Green Steel items and weapons are one of best and all the vale quests are very solo able with a caster, and if you know the quests well on a melee.

Hunting up Adamantine Ore and/or Soul Gems: Essence of Earth can also be a good cash maker.

And of course there are epic scrolls and large ingredients, (again Amrath quests)

But on the flip side low level quests can have a super profitable return. So even at while low level the chance for profit is out there. Keep your running costs down and leveling can be profitable.

Mid levels… you can run the two other tomb quests. Chamber of Kourush and Rahmat. An Invis clicky or two find the end boss while keeping the alert down stopping to slay when only when needed. It takes a few mins for a fair chest, and a really good end reward. Run out check the blood stone chest hit the two quests pick up an end reward profit.

Okay there are a few tips. Have some you want to add? Use the comments.
❤

I have ran two different Shroud runs since flagging. The first as I said last post was good but came about from a Shroud leader (lets call him DIUC) not taking my TR Clr hybrid as a dps roll. I understand his group and all but it was a normal Shroud. Come on people.

The second started out the same way. When I noticed I was off timer I hit the LFM panel and started looking. There was one group just starting, already had 2 healer types a rogue and a caster type. I took off out of Reaver’s Refuge and hit JOIN!

After a min I get a tell “Interesting Build?”

I reply “My Clr life TR build, think of me as dps and we are good.”

A min later and I thought I was about to get left on hold. I would rather be declined then left on hold. And I get a follow up tell “That makes since.” And I get the invite.

If takes a min to finish filling, and then we had a drop just as we stepped in but we quickly got another body and got moving.

The leader informed us he was getting bad lag and that he might be a hair behind us. We knock out part 1 with little problems. Not a speed run, by any stretch but not slow. And almost dead silent.

We hop into part 2 and get moving. I make a few comments and start to move things along. As Dana sends a tell asking me to pike a DQ. And boom I get the star. The old leader apologizes but the lag is bad enough that he can’t lead and as I was the only other person that seamed to be willing to voice anything I got the star. And I went from ho hum Samius to pick it up lets get our ass moving Samius.

It was a fun part 2 also, Cat, Fire, Gnoll and Orc. Mobs ended up being fought a lot closer to the crystal then I would like but what the hell. We have a good caster at the rock. Cat dropped first. I told everyone to bust it. And then Fire dropped. Okay?? Getting a little worried now. Then boom part2 was done as Gnoll and Orc got away from each other enough to die.

Part 3 was a normal/easy run solved 1 puzzle, lowered the way to the water. Have I said Manyshot is good yet? If not it is great. Moving along, ran 4 waters so yep normal run.

We buff and jump in to part 4, so close to a one rounder. I can’t seem to get everyone to dump extra mana in to Harry but the dps is going all out all ready. Second round he is dead as the green rays just start to hit him.

I asked if we needed to kite for anyone or can we surround the gnoll and beat down. The Healer chimes in that he would like us to kite. I always like to make the healers happy if I am going to count on them to keep me alive. So we kite.

Kill Harry take his Scales (Did I say I am 2 for 2 on scales this life 🙂 ) and move on to a quick DQ (For xp even!)

I don’t know about you but this second Raid leader ( I will call him Cal), Cal earned my willingness to go the extra mile, But simply asking me about my build when he didn’t understand it, and counting on me to act in the role I said I could handle. He gets added to my list as a good leader, even though he didn’t really lead the group. For that and for knowing when to step back and find someone else to lead when he couldn’t.

The First leader (DIUC) I talked about last post has been added to my list of not to join his group list. Yep once and done. My game time is too short to sit in queue because some one can’t decline me. Or trust me to handle the role I said I would handle.

Oh well..

❤