So I finally ground out the last bit of xp to level to 18. Dear god, level 17 is pure pain. And I like the shroud pre quests. But some of them are not melee solo friendly, but at least they are not impossible like Fleshmaker. And as soon as I get them all soloed, my wife was in the mood for some ddo and I got to do them all again.

But I want to share a few notes about this weekend.

Shroud snobs vs ToD. Do you know it is easier to get into a ToD as dps then in a shroud with a x/6/3 clr/ranger/monk build? It is true. As soon as we flagged. Tobril jumped on to his FvS and we threw up a shroud. Looking around we noticed that the was another group up looking for 3 more. I sent a tell and I was told to have everyone hit the lfm. Okay we hit the lfm, the wife gets in and lets them know that 2 more guildies were hitting. And I get a tell back “Sorry we need DPS”. I reply with we are dps. And sit and wait. And never hear another word. So instead we reform and start to form our own lfm again. Fill our Icons were 4 Clrs, 1 FvS, 2 Sorc, 1 wiz, and a mix of melee classes. And we were a hair short of a one rounder. I think if every one fully dumped their mana it would have been a one rounder. But I know we had some not English speakers, and they held back.

ToD is crazy xp and good times if your in the right group. I think I got like 25k and got an extra Trophy of War. No one was whining or bitching about anything. And twice Horth ran over to the group because his tank “forgot” to intim. And got to roll on a great ring for my TR lives, but lost the roll to another.

Abbot is still fun times. If you haven’t ran the Abbot raid yet because you have hear something you don’t like about the raid, or you don’t like the flagging quests. Get over it, and give it a try. Last run on Samius I won the roll on a Quiver of Alacrity. It is a huge boost for bow damage. And it has the largest capacity available (I think..). And Java is on his way to his 20th.

And finally I got to solo Epic Claw. I tagged along with Fopo as he ran through once and now I am 100% with As4 00 solo and 0% solo with Samiusbot. I think more and more I like the 2 levels of rogue. No scrolls but I got a seal to match a shard I already have.

All and all it wasn’t a bad weekend.

❤

Let me share with you the build. It has so much going for it is it almost crazy.

Level 20 Lawful Good (Could be some other Monk Alignment) Half-Elf Male
(2 Fighter 12 Monk 6 Ranger)
Hit Points: 316
Spell Points: 180
BAB: 1717222727
Fortitude: 19
Reflex: 18
Will: 12
Abilities Base Stats Modified Stats
(34 Point) (Level 1) (Level 20)
Strength 16 20
Dexterity 16 20
Constitution 14 17
Intelligence 10 10
Wisdom 14 14
Charisma 8 8
Tomes Used
+2 Tome of Dexterity used at level 7
+2 Tome of Constitution used at level 7

Skills (Level 1) (Level 20)
Balance 5 16
Concentration 6 28
Hide 7 24
Jump 7 14
Move Silently 7 24
UMD 1 10
Level 1 (Ranger)
Feat: (Favored Enemy) Favored Enemy: Undead (Change later to Evil Outsider)
Feat: (Half-Elf Dilettante) Half-Elf Dilettante: Cleric
Feat: (Past Life) Past Life: Cleric
Feat: (Selected) Power Attack
Level 2 (Monk)
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Toughness
Level 3 (Ranger)
Feat: (Selected) Point Blank Shot

Level 4 (Ranger)

Level 5 (Ranger)

Level 6 (Ranger)
Feat: (Favored Enemy) Favored Enemy: Giant (Change later to Constructs)
Feat: (Selected) Mental Toughness

Level 7 (Ranger)

Level 8 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Weapon Focus: Ranged Weapons

Level 9 (Monk)
Feat: (Selected) Past Life: Initiate of the Faith
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Zen Archery

Level 10 (Monk)
Feat: (Monk Path) Path of Inevitable Dominion: Fists of Darkness

Level 11 (Monk)

Level 12 (Monk)
Feat: (Selected) Precise Shot

Level 13 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Greater Two Weapon Fighting

Level 14 (Monk)
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Dodge

Level 15 (Monk)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Precise Shot

Level 16 (Monk)

Level 17 (Monk)

Level 18 (Monk)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Critical: Bludgeoning Weapons

Level 19 (Monk)

Level 20 (Monk)
Enhancement: Fighter Haste Boost I
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Imbue Acid Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Imbue Explosive Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Imbue Force Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Imbue Force Burst Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Imbue Slaying Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Imbue Terror Arrows
Enhancement: Human Adaptability Constitution I
Enhancement: Human Improved Recovery I
Enhancement: Human Improved Recovery II
Enhancement: Static Charge
Enhancement: Way of the Patient Tortoise I
Enhancement: Way of the Patient Tortoise II
Enhancement: Touch of Death
Enhancement: Fists of Iron
Enhancement: Porous Soul
Enhancement: All-Consuming Flame
Enhancement: Monk Improved Recovery I
Enhancement: Monk Improved Recovery II
Enhancement: Monk Improved Recovery III
Enhancement: Monk Ninja Spy I
Enhancement: Monk Ninja Spy II
Enhancement: Winter’s Touch
Enhancement: Adept of Wind
Enhancement: Master of Thunder
Enhancement: Adept of Rock
Enhancement: Master of Stone
Enhancement: Racial Toughness I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II
Enhancement: Racial Toughness III
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Conjure +2 Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Conjure +3 Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Conjure +4 Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Conjure +5 Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer I
Enhancement: Improved Jump I
Enhancement: Improved Jump II
Enhancement: Improved Tumble I
Enhancement: Improved Tumble II
Enhancement: Ranger Dexterity I
Enhancement: Fighter Toughness I

Solid melee dps with 2d6 fists, 2d8 with Garments of Equilibrium and greater twf chain. 3D6 points of sneak attack and Touch of Death. Earth 3 stance will increase the critical multiplier with monk weapons in the upcoming mod.

Full Arcane Archer line including Improved Precise Shot and Manyshot.

Great self healing with the past live feat Initiate of the Faith, Wand healing with the Half-Elf Dilettante: Cleric and a base 10 umd and lots of healing amp (Human Improved Recovery II and Monk Improved Recovery III). The planer doesn’t have the Dilettante AP line. So I am not sure if burning 6 AP for the Clr line is real possible. But I would say we could lose some Amp for heal scrolls.

Main defenses of standing DR 6/- and Improved Evasion.

Skills allow a solid Balance, max Concentration, great stealth, and a some natural jump and as I said above 10 base UMD.

I can do a rough AC calculation but I am not super at it.

10 Base
05 Dex
02 Wis
03 monk levels
06 +6 Dex and +6Wis items
08 bracers
01 Dodge
that is what 35 with ease? Wow so huge…

So I have been talking about a build I have been kicking around, a 12/6/2 monk/ranger/x build. And if you don’t read the comments, you should because DarkSable has been making some good points and asking some better questions.

How would I layout the stats and how does the 2 splash levels effect the stats?

Let me start by saying, I like to TR. It is more likely that I would TR an older less played build into something new just to feel like I am doing something with that character vs leaving it sit longer unplayed. So a lot of my builds start at 34 points. But if you want to build something using my stats loosing 2 points shouldn’t be too hard. I don’t think I would build a stat heavy build with 28 points. Oh and I have no problems getting a +2 tome or six if I think the build would be aided by it/them. It is good to have guildies/friends that also sit on tomes making a swap easy.

Okay so 34 points Pally or Rouge: I am thinking 16, 15, 14, 10(12), 14(12), 10. All positive numbers. Tomes in order of importance Dex, Int, Str, Con, maybe the others. Oh and these stats are on a Human/Helf depending on how you roll. I also added () to show How I might tailor points for a few more skills.

34 points on the fighter: Either the same or if human I could loose 2 Int to boost Chr and still have skill points.

So before I get in to Skills (I think tomorrow) let me talk a little about how I think/plan my stats.

1, 14 is my bottom number for Con. And often my top depending on race. If we are talking Dwarfs or Warforged 16-18 is easily doable. Other races need a good reason to dip that deep into the point pool for a few HP.

2, What roles do I plan to handle and what stats do I need to support those tasks. If I am melee first, then I need as much str as I can afford with out killing my secondary roles. Caster first then I need my casting stats at their maxim.

3, What secondary jobs need stats/ and number of skill points to support them. If I am going trapper then I need 2/4 skill points per level to support those skills. Add in UMD and now we are talking 2 more… A basic plan for leveling is also needed here because we might be able to use less Int if we can plan our skills along our levels and allow us to move by full ranks.

Guess that is the big three. I think tomorrow we can talk about skills.

Let it never be said that I don’t read my replies. And I got a good one for “A build forming” and I want to address DarkSable, has he could be correct.

“your saves are already gonna be killer form the monk; I would go with either 14 monk or 8 ranger. If you really do want silly high saves, go with the 2 pally, but I wouldn’t think anything else would be worth it.“

DarkSable

I thought of both 14 monk or 8 ranger but here is the thing what does those levels really do for you? Lets look at the break down.

14 monk vs 12 monk. +1 BAB, +1 all saves, Diamond Soul for a SR of 24, more slow fall, no more damage, no more AC, No more move speed.
To me the monk power curve as many false tops. Or should I say many plateaus. There are just so many levels of ho hum, between great plateaus, I can’t build into a ho hum level.

8 ranger vs 6 ranger, +2 BAB +1 will save, Imp Wild Empathy, and a 2nd level spell (what + bark skin?).

2 Pally vs 0 Pally +2 BAB, +3 Fort Save, Smite evil(1),LoH(1), Divine Grace (+x to all saves X = Chr bonus; +6 item = +3 to all), Intim as a class skill

2 rouge vs 0 rouge +1 BAB, +3 Ref savem d6 sneak attack, Trap Finding(might be okay if there are points for search/disable but never super high) UMD & Intim as class skills as a huge starting pool if skill points, attack speed boost(E).

2 fighter vs 0 fighter +2 BAB, 3 Fort, 2 feats, attack speed boost(E), +1 str(E), +1 stunning blow(E)

I hope this helps you see my mental balancing act.

❤

For months now I have had a possible build stuck in my brain. Rattling around in side my skull. Only showing itself to me in pieces.

This is the main build points.

12 monk = = Abundant Step, 2d6, Improved Evasion.
6 ranger = = Most of the TWF feats, 2 Favored Enemies, Manyshot.
2 pally or
rouge or = = saves or skills or more feats.
fighter

Probably not a WF, So this build can use the Garments of Equilibrium to boost the fist damage more. Saves should be solid. Damage… 2d8+ wraps (normally Vamp Stonedust ) + rings. Hp..not bad. And intim should be high. Not top of the line but again very solid.

I am trying to figure if this build is good enough to go ahead and build. I know that the 6/3/x ranger/monk /clr build so far is good but the damage is a little light unless I switch to special wraps.

Sound off if you want to as always.

❤

So Samius has been at level 17 for a few days now. The last few days xp per minute has been a little low. Mostly do to wanting to get all ready to jump into ToD. Twenty thousand in xp a run more or less? Yes please. Anyway all that is beside the point. The point is 20 is in range again, meaning time to start planing out the next life.

I had planned on doing a fighter life next, allowing me to keep the same 11/6/3 layout for leveling. But I have been thinking about the bard “free” past life feat. Bonus to will saves sound real nice. It bothers me to fail a hold person/monster and hope/pray I break free before they beat me to death.

So I am mentally forming a plan. Please keep in mind I mostly build for soloing/leveling up and not the end game build. So this is my plan for levels 1 to 7.

Bard then Fighter then a lot of bard levels. Picking up the feat requirements for Warchanter. And the past live clr feat. On a Horc frame thinking of stats like 20 10 14 12 8 12. Yes. I know I am doing the bard life for a bonus to saves and I don’t have any wisdom…. never said I was consistent.

So the question is, should this build push back the first tear of the pre by taking rouge at one? With a 12 Int bard would give 7 skill points a level. One for concentration, one for umb… search, disable, are both 2… so I guess I could fit it in..

What do you all think?

I was very clear with the guild. I was going to flag for the Abbot raid this weekend and suck all the xp I could from Litany of the Dead. Saturday rolls a round. No guildies.

Well I could pug it out, read loose 10% and probably be forced to babysit all day. Or solo it all myself.

So I decided to go for it solo on normal. I know I could handle it on solo diff. But I am going for xp here.

Running threw the quest is not hard. Answering all the black dragon’s questions can be. Thankfully answers are in a few places. I like the wiki myself. It has all the answers grouped by boss. In fact the only thing I would like to see changed would be highlight the key words in the line to spot to speed up looking for the right answer.

A2: I would stand by his side as he brought Stormreach to its knees. (Evil)

Anyway I was off to slay Mentau the Flesh Maker. His dungeon is fairly smooth. A few doors but you don’t have to find any keys or stand in a anti magic sphere for 20 secs or any thing. Just kill to the end hit 3 runes and pull a lever. I got a weird bit a lag and was throne up to a ledge were I could range Mentau and not have to worry about healing in his bubble. I couldn’t duplicate this leap if I tried a hundred times. But it made this fight a manyshot fest. No named loot or any thing of real value other then something like 20k xp in 20/25 min, man I love this quest.

Next Vol, Again it was a simple kill and dash. I shaved off my quest completion time to 11 mins. Now to see if he is the fastest boss. It takes about 5 mins to get to Vol and 2-3 to beat him down. My biggest waist of time was running past a key and having to back track. But a clear winner in time to complete. Still no loot.

Chilthulzz, This guy has the tendency to be a real pain. But I have gear for that. I have gathered no slip booties, a beholder necklace as well as two silver flame ones. It is good to be a TR, but I wont make a third necklace most of the time they just sit in the TR bank until I need them then they sit in the real bank. Lets see what else…. Wretched Twilight, a ghost touch granting cloak with a beholder proof blur. My light bright wraps from the Mabar event and a silver long bow. Oh and we can’t forget the Torc, and a Chr ring, with them on I have 6 bursts from radiant servant and as long as I can cast lots of life.

I was asked how I was able to do this. So here it is. I spawned Chili. And moved to a corner where there was some land/ice. And watched charges on the necklaces switching as needed. As I switched to the last silver flame I ran to the other corner and began to range. As he was mostly dead from a good fisting, and manyshot and just a hair longer got him. Thankfully monk and the burst healing all works in beholder anti-magic. And if you get far enough away Chili stays away and lets to stay healed with mana. And tasty ham. Chili was the longest and most stressful of the bosses so far. Again no loot.

Cinnis was fairly simple. I made a pair of X3 water booties, 30 cold resist, Hp, Ice guard, crushing wave. So as long as I was Dwed and able to heal with bursts and fists. Cinnis is just a big training dummy that gets foggy and sometimes knocks you down. Again no loot.

Each time I run Litany I pick up speed until I am down to about 8 mins to completion. I run normal 13 times. Going between Vol and Cinnis. Never getting any loot. But I had a loot gem and an xp pot running so vendor trash was good.

Hard and Solo (didn’t bother with optionals on not normal) were not bad but Elite was a trip, . I wasn’t paying attention to my con damage fighting the mini boss. I tried to run around the room helpless until I got some con back. But he got me. Thankfully I had a stack of rez cakes left from the PAX hat giveaway. So I picked myself up and finished him. But I was mostly tapped out at that point. Jumped into the ambush pulled the lever and hunted undead. But I was across the room and I noticed that the level was reset? Okay get it repulled, I must have not pulled it. I started to notice it had been a long time with no green signal. Looked and the lever was of again. Damn the undead must turn it off on elite. So I worry about just holding the level from now on and that seemed to do the trick. Clear all the mobs from the ambush to the jumb down. Top off rage and go…. Down, Down, fail to save 110 points of damage, Down, fail to save, fail to save, (can’t take another hit) Down and made it! Hit the spikes and fail die. 😦 Again I turn to my stack of cakes. Big xp.

So there is xp aplenty for a level in Litany first life anyway. Maybe a first tr life also. But not a 2+ tr. But it was at least 3 ranks maybe 4. It was great fun, a good balance between challenge and xp.

❤

So I found a change I don’t care for in the update 9 notes. Not something so major I would have a hissie fit over but something that makes me go. Oh No! That was cleaned up from what I would really say, just so you know, and can replace “Oh No” with what ever bad word/s you have heard me say. 🙂

Want to know what it is? I know you do, I have been swamped with questions/comments wanting to know what would be come the PM nerf.

Shroud of the Lich’s prerequisites have been changed to: Level 18 Wizard, Wizard Pale Master III, Toughness, 66 Action Points spent. Any characters that currently possess Shroud of the Lich will possess Shroud of the Vampire, which replaced it at level 12.

Yep, thats it. Lich is now level 18/ PM3.

It is sad, as Lich is one of the best reasons to become a PM. The bonuses to offense capabilities are top notch. +2 int and necro dcs. But the Defenses are amazing. A big bonus to con for Hp now, and a fair shot when hit to get temp Hp. It is the whole package.

Sure double light damage hurts. As does dieing when you hit 0 Hps. But they are nothing compared to how late in life you get Lich form now.

I guess the up side is PM 3 is really really good now. I hope the incoming healing feom Vamp form will be ½ as good as all the Hp lich form granted. Guess we will know in a few weeks.

❤

I was a Dm, for a long time. I say was because I haven’t hardly run a game since before I started to play Ddo. Why? I was burnt out. But from time to time I get that old spark and I get an idea then I think well maybe but I just don’t have the fuel to get a full blown fire going. I was always a set of the pants Dm anyway. Starting will little more then a loose guild line of a hand full of fun points.

So when I read an idea for a quest/raid on the forums I get excited. I love the idea that someone’s idea might make it in to ddo. That gives me hope that some day I might motivate and get something moving.

But one of the things I never like in a quest/raid write up is level of detail. You can tell who is/was an experienced Dm by their writing.

It is almost too detailed. As if we are trying to explain what is going on to players and then adding in details as to how we think things should work. And that is fine. But isn’t that a little bit like giving the players the notes for the adventure the night before and saying “This is my plan for tomorrow’s game, what do you think?” Or making a module and saying Dm it just like this.

I would say keep your ideas broad. Giving plot points and an idea of how you think might play out. But don’t go super into detail so people get lost in the fine print.

For example an idea I have been kicking around. A few quests with a raid. I would rather do the raid in the middle of the story not at the end as we always end up doing in ddo so here we go.

Person A gets kid napped, always a classic, by a group of pirates. The nice thing here is Ebberon we have airships as well as normal ships. So lets go save Person A.

Quest 1, When we get the quest we are given the name of someone that might be able to give us some information. Perhaps this person was captured by a third party and you have to save them. Think water works.

Quest 2a and 2b, are variations of the same thing. And only one is required. Travel to the kidnappers stronghold. I picture the baddie held up in a mountain stronghold allowing us to enter via quest 2 a subterranean maze. I mean every great adventure has a castle where you wonder threw the catacombs. Or quest 3, you load up an airship (funded by who ever is important to person A) and we chart a path to this mountain stronghold. Either way we find a good staging area to assault the stronghold. Here is where we add puzzles/non combat options. After all opening doors in the catacomb avoiding mini bosses or repairing the airship while it is being attacked has to be fun, right?

Quest 3, the raid. Once we have a staging point we can form a raid group and we fight our way into and threw the stronghold. It like most raids would have a few parts.

Start with an option like storm the beaches. Maybe we do a frontal attack into the a courtyard ? Or we can try to use the tunnels to find a way into the a courtyard? Either way we have part one.

Part two, Storm the throne room or try to get to the dungeon tower. Were person A is who knows. But this is were the first big piece of meat for the raid is a big boss fight. A big scary guardian, with some support mobs. But as always your princess is always in another castle.

So we do part three. A final showdown. Where we hope to save Person A and defeat the bad man. And we return to the staging area.

Quest 4, then we have to leave. But what villain wouldn’t have a plan for retribution should he fall? Where we go back to a 6 man group to stay behind and by time for “the other group to get away.” I say a short many many mob swarm for say 10-20 mins and chain complete.

Do part 1 and 2a or 2b and be permanently flagged for the raid. Do the raid and part 4 for chain end reward of some sort. I like think I would like something along the lines of the rewards like Attack on Stormreach.

Please notice how I didn’t give any mob types, level ranges, or any real details. This could be set up at any level. Lets do kobolds, cool. Lets to demons, cool. I gave most general idea so the devs can feel in the details. Or you can take this idea and make it a few nights of pnp. Whatever.

Enjoy.
❤

I believe I said I would share a little bit of my internal debate on what to do with my Epic Jidz. So here is the deal. I have everything I need to build an Epic Jidz and a few characters that I could use it on. And possible ideas for those builds.

So Samius is using a jidz a far amount of time now but that is mostly for leveling. Once he doesn’t spend a lot of time a cap lately and when he does get to the point where is will be hanging out there he will be using that slot for his cordOp. So he is an easy no.

Javabot is sitting at cap and for a long time this is where I just assumed I would put them. But lately I have become less pleased with his dps and I am thinking of TRing him in to a full Monk or WF. It is strange half of his gear would make him a good candidate for a monk. At the same time he has some gear that would scream a melee caster of some kind. Something not unlike how Gemstone is built.

I also have Samyus that can us a little love. He is a human wiz/ranger/monk that still need to be caped. And SamiusJr , my monk, also needs to be ran to cap. Or any number of arcane or divine casters that use robes and have no real ac but can use the +8 from bracers or the +1 wisdom and the epic slots.

As always there are so many options I can’t really decide. But the main question is can I use them on Javabot even if I tr him in to a FvS? And how would I slot them for his as a FvS and how would I slot them for X build and Y build. And what can I do with them now that doesn’t hurt those plans. Because you never know how you might lean in a year.