There has been so much going on over the long weekend. I hope to space it out and get you all a few good posts for this week.

Lets start with a simi popular topic…. Werds, my name is Samius and I am a Chest Blesser. Well at least for a few more days. 🙂

But what is the deal. There are tons of discussion/s right now about handling blessers and looters. People looting as chests being looted as the blessing is being given. Said people bitting the chest openers head off. Avoiding groups with blessers and so on.

So really what is the big deal? I know as the blesser I took the feats to help me. I wanted to try them out. And I wanted to re-pad my plat total as I am doing a lot of crafting and my plat buffer was dwindling. (And it is working. I am slowing making plat, even when crunching most of my loots.)

Do I have problems when someone opens a chest while I am buffing it? Well yes. If 10 other people are standing around waiting for 1 guy to bless a chest then you can wait also. If your not the group leader or someone blessing chests why are you opening chests anyway?

Now on the flip side do I get “angry” when some one opens a chest on me? Not really. I know above I said yes, and now I am saying no. But here is the deal. People will forget. Get on auto pilot. Or just be in an hurry. It is going to happen. No reasons to get upset.

So what do I do? The only people I show any annoyance to/at are guildies or people in my TR channel. After a few days of me having and using the feats they are mostly trained. And they are also seeing the benefits. So they are now motivated to let me wiggy the chest.

But never in a raid. I will let the raid leader know that I can bless the chests and I will try to do so. If the leader wants to make a big deal then I leave it to them. Although I have taken to try to get ahead of the group or stop fighting and get a blessing while the group is still busy. If I notice that there is one guy opening the chests I might send him a tell letting him know that I can work the chests.

There are tons of reasons to get pissed off. None of them have anything to do with getting any extra +1 loot…

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Sure the title is a little miss leading, but it happened for me last night. 1500 slayers in the vale both Lams and Shavs rounded out the rares and a few extra. Even took the time to pray to the chests before looting them most of the time. Add in a running 20% pot, +5% from VoM or Mantle and the 2% from the boat and big xps.

Vale running is one of those things I like to do between things. Like when I am waiting for people to log in or finish running something before forming up. I like explorer areas for this. Lets me feel like I am keeping forward momentum while waiting for my guildies/friends. Otherwise a get tired of waiting on them and I end up in a quest, then they finish up and they get started on something and we end up missing each other all night. So it is just better to be the one to man up and wait and running slayers is a fine way to kill 10-20 mins.

So I step in the vale about 400 kills short from 1500, so I hit one of the slayer bonus pots and went to town. A run through pop back to town, boot my logged off wife and keep moving. Bam 1500 lams for 22K or so. Reset again. And bam another 22k. Knocked out my last 4-5 rares for 4k+ 9k for catching them all. And 2 more Litany runs for 10 k and I noticed about an hour has passed. So not to bad, right around 1000xp an min.

So I took a break to watch a movie. And returned a few hours later, and got my Reavers refuge explores and a few rares while the last of my xp pot ticked down.

I really like the new slayer pots. I know it is not popular for me to say so, but I really do. For me they are good when first entering a new explorer zone, to speed along those early xp tears. And then good again when you wish to speed along to the next tear for a big xp pay off.

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For a very important date.
No time to say “Hello.”
Goodbye.
I’m late, I’m late, I’m late. – White Rabbit.

I was searching the Ddowiki, to answer some question, when I stumbled on to this tidbit from the dev Phax.

If you first entered the dungeon ten or more minutes after it spawned, you’ll have a -80% penalty if the time between your entry and completion is less than a quarter of the dungeon’s lifetime at that moment. If it’s at least a quarter but less than half, you’ll have a -50% penalty instead.

So lets look at what this means and maybe a few examples.

So any time in the first 9 mins 59sec, we are solid. But at 10 mins we have to account for penalties. And if your in the dungeon for less then 25% of the total time our penalty remains -80%. If have been in between 25% and 49% of the total time then our penalty is -50%. But at 50% or longer then the penalty goes away. Clear as mud right?
Lets do some examples.
Enter at min 5, quest lasts 13 mins. No penalty.
Enter at min 11, quest lasts 16 mins. We have been in the quest for 5 mins 5/16 or 31% of the quest so we have a 50% penalty.
Enter at min 13, quest lasts for 24 mins. We have been in the quest for 11 mins or 45% of the total time so we still have a 50% penalty.
But if we waited to complete until the total time was 26 mins we would have no penalty.

Use this formula ( dungeon’s current lifetime – when you entered) / dungeon’s current lifetime = your % in quest. But the best way to avoid any penalty is to get in the quest with in that first 10 mins. But realize it will take at least 5 mins to work off 100% of any penalty.

Oh, boy. I am late. Got to run.

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I don’t know about you but I think there are lots of old named gear that could use a update pass. The Tome of Untold Legends, arguably the hardest non-raid items in the game to get. Some might say dual shroud green steel but I don’t think so. But almost no one bothers to run, other then TRers like myself or people looking to get into the raid. And I guess farmers…..

But what are your options for gathering these 8 pages?

A choice of 8 +5 weapons with 3-4 powers, sounds good…..Lets look at some.

A greater Elf bane +3 to umd/other chr skills/ Control Undead clickly(1/day)?

A non-DR breaking heavy pick with a natural keen (can be improved with Imp Crit: P) of maiming seeker 8

A Battleaxe Vertigo +10 Transmuting Giant bane

Well you can read the list here: http://ddowiki.com/page/Tome_of_Untold_Legends

But I think most will agree there is at best there are 1 or 2 “real” options if we were to turn in our hard earned pages. And most of the time that means a Skiver.

But with a little tweaking I think that we can boost these items right up. Lets see. They all get a damage dice boost +1. This is a no brainier. Then make any keen or impact natural for the weapons. Take any power that has a better tear and boost to that. X bane becomes greater X bane, Destruction becomes Imp Destruction. Add a Material. Flametouched Iron, Densewood, Adamantine, etc…. They don’t have to become instant DR breakers but at least make them more then steel.

I would also add a guild slot, or two in the case of the twinblade.

Turbine, make these weapons a little better. Litany is one of the best quests in the game. Lets have its rewards be some of the best too.

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PS, Oh before I forget, any time we update a old item. There should be update recipe so old versions can be updated IF the user wishes.

Lately I have been looking at my plat pile and how it is shrinking as most of what would be my incoming plat has been turning into crafting xps. All vendor trash worth breaking down in to essences might as well be a crafting xp token for all the good it does on my plat pile. BtA named loot is hot for me now. But loot worth selling on the AH? Not so much.

So in my attempt to better my odds. I have been running loot gems (again thanks Turbine, the Pax hat was a huge plat saver).

But I have been spending plat or TP on ways to get around locks. My stock pile of knock wands are lvl 15 and I just got there. So a reliable way to get open locks wouldn’t suck.

Also you know this is the first Horc that has had a chr that didn’t suck. So I have decided to play with the Marks of finding for this life and see if they give a noticeable boost.

First of all, I need to take a few of the enchantments to give a few more uses a day as one a day is kinda shitty. At least when you pop out to the vale to try things out. Getting 3 or 4 rares to drop and having to run to a shrine or pop back to the bar for a min is far from good times.

Can’t say that I have seen a huge boost in profit. But 4 or 5 chests are not the best test sample. So I will try to report back in a few days. After a few days of opening chests.

If you have played around with the marks let me know what you have found, would you?

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Normally I don’t mind when I see someone asking for a change. I ask for changes all the time. But when I see 5+ “ddo is too hard make it easier” requests in a matter of minutes it does start to get to me.

When I read something, I read between the lines. I know most people have this power but a lot of people don’t, or don’t know when to use it vs read what is written.

So I am reading another My.ddo blog post and I read this:

“So they added spell point regeneration but its currently capped out at 12 spell points, so its really only usefull if you’re casting level 1 spells, or have some sort of prestige spell that casts for only a few spell points. I honestly cant see why they bothered, unless they plan on raising it.”

Okay, sure not so bad. Think the writer is try to infer that the cap for echoes of power is not good enough…

More complainants….About hate gen, mob IA, hireling IA (mostly healers). Etc…

I good idea: “selectable health bar up for escort missions where you must keep an npc alive” worded very negatively as to the point to not see that it is a positive suggestion.

Then this:
“Monsters that chain cast heal are really sort of broken when soloing, Dungeon scaling really needs to be adjusted to reduce how often a monster can cast heal.”

So as I read this all I began to see is the game is too hard. Nerf plz?

Not what can I do to improve. Nothing. So yes I can tell your new. Just from your post. And I say please Turbine I know your making lots of changes to account for these “paying” people. But I am still VIP and I buy and use lot of points. Hearts, Xp pots, armor skins, etc. So please be careful when trying to balance challenge vs keeping noobs in Ddo.

Sure you don’t want people leaving because the game is too hard. But you don’t want the vets that kept the servers up for years leaving because the game has become too easy.

Balance is restored. At least for me for now.

I love options, I am very pro choices. Oh I made a funny. 🙂 Well I thought it was funny.

Okay what the heck am I talking about? This girl, “Kalari” started a thread ‘Bards want DOTS to‘. Not going to lie. Didn’t read the whole thing. Did read the original post, and how it read to me was “Hey, I would like my bards to have a Dot spell.”

And I say, why the hell not? You you said a fighter wanted a Dot I would say, I don’t know… Give me a place to start so I can think though how it might be used. But I don’t have to ask Kalari for said starting place. She gave us 3 possible examples. Tied to the three PRE line for bards. Agree or not every caster likes options. Why wouldn’t a bard also want a dot option?

Me I would go with one or two spells. Like a maybe a 3 level spell that could daze or damage all mobs that “hear you yell” damage doesn’t have to be great but something would be nice. If you had 3 or 4 damage spells on your list wouldn’t you want a few more?

Lets look at a few more ideas for bards that came to me while I was reading her post.

Crashing Symbols. A ear drum breaking clanging is banging against your brain up side your head. Dealing some about of sonic damage unless you make a save for half. Give it a duration and let it stack a lot like the new Dots we have been given in game. There is a good one person bard themed dot.

But what I would really like to see is a removal song for bards. You sing a haunting song that ending is so lovely when it ends it breaks your will to live. Will save/Fort save or die. Make it require a huge perform skill and set up the DC so it can super good.

Bards get a bad wrap in Ddo. The are jack of all trades, master of none. Okay well in Ddo they are master of the buffs and the halfassed of all. Why not focus more on the one theme that is unique to bards, MUSIC?

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Back when I first was getting ready to TR, I thought knew what I was doing. After all I had leveled many guys to cap. And a few extra xp would hardly slow me down. I was wrong, but I learned my lesson well. Those few extra xps took a lot longer then I thought they would. And I needed to take a long hard look at my gear, before going again.

Often I would find myself swinging away with my Rad2 rapier, doing “fine damage” doing the fighting in a wall/cloud thing. It could take a while to clear a dungeon when trying to save SPs for a later fight.

So when I started looking at my plan for my 3rd life, I looked at a building a better option. And for me that option was a big two handed lighting 2 weapon. After much time and thought I went with a maul vs a great ax. It better fit my style/needs. And it has served me well, from level 12 almost every life, this one is no exception.

But it is exceptional, as this life my lovely Lig2 maul as stepped up its game even more. How? Well by gaining double strike, naturally. How else could it get any better?

At level 14 I leveled to 12/1/1 bard/fighter/barb. And gained warchanter 2. The Inspire Recklessness song is so good. For a shotty -10% fort I gain 5% double strike. A worthy trade off considering you can slot extra stacking fort in guild slots (small +10%, med +15%) or wear your Stalwart Trinket (if you made one).

I haven’t seen a double lighting bolt yet… but I think it is just a matter of time and finding a mob with enough hit points to live long enough until it happens. But I like the idea so much I am debating on switching my Virtuoso bard in to a warchanter to add in the off hand Swashbuckler and a bastard sword with the THF line for crazy damage. 🙂

If only there was a way to add in Zeal also…..

Thumbing around the forums you can see a number of different threads; and why all have different topics they all have the same answer. A in game player rep system.

What do I mean? Just like the forum rep you can add to or remove rep from a user. But I have some guide lines.

1, Rep is account based. This way someone can’t just jump to another character and have a clean slate if his/her rep falls low.

2, Rep modifiers falls off after 30 days. Any rep gained or lost at 31 days or older is removed.

3, You can only mod rep for some one in your party and only once a quest. When rep is changed a message shows on screen letting you know that is has been changed and the value of the new score. Maybe only once in a 24 hour time frame. I am not sure on how often you can add to a users rep… if you quest with the same guy 3 or 4 quests in a row and he is super helpful and what not each quest you might want to give rep to that user during each quest.

4, If no one changes your rep in a 24 hour period that you have played and grouped you get a free bonus amount of positive rep.

5, Your rep total can been seen by you, and group leaders only. Group leaders only see your rep total when your applying to a group.

6, When you give neg rep you also take a point of neg rep. So you better mean it.

I don’t know if this would really help but it would allow me to clear a lot of room on my “friends” list. And would maybe get me to (lead) group more by help me filter out some of the undesirables. Your reputation would be right there for others to see good or bad.

As the title says I have a few more wants – ideas. This time items. Aka items that makes the Dragonmarks look better, not unlike the Chimera’s Fang. Lets take a look at some of the feats and what we can do that would keep in line with the theme.

Mark of Storm – Gust of Wind/Electric Loop/Call Lightning Storm
I picture the Cloak of Storms. It does some so so effect normally like twilight. Good but not uber.
But if you have the Gust of Wind mark you get something like shock damage to melee damage like the Epic Red Dragon Armor or lightning guard (1d8). Electric Loop grants a small stacking % to double strike change. And Call Lightning Storm grants lighting strike guard. Good enough to devote a slot and 3 feats.

Mark of Healing Cure Light Wounds/Cure Serious Wounds/Heal
I am not sure what type of item matched this feat the best but I am inclined to say a ring or some kind of weapon. It it is a weapon it could have some kind of tall person bane. All humanoids that are not dwarf or halfling. Then we add regen effect. A Rez effect maybe, and then grant a fast heal effect to the target when you use any of your cure/heal clicklies.

Mark of Warding Fire Trap/Glyph of Warding/Greater Glyph of Warding
I am thinking a Shield with a big Bonus and nice damage dice. Then granting a miss chance with the first feat. Larger shield proc chance to attack with the shield. Finally granting a large DR 15-20 range.

So there are quick ideas. What do you think?

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