Level 11 is one of those sweet spots for many Trs. Okay I am mostly talking about me here. But I know at least a double fist full of people that also think of 11 as groovy. Its not lvl 12, but 11 is real good.

Why?

Well gear, 11 isn’t a feat or a pre-tear or anything like that as far as I know. So it must be gear…. Lets hit the high notes for me.

Lion Headed belt buckle: Str, Con, fear immunity, important for desert quests, and for me normally frees up a ring slot.

Torc, CordOp..Sp regen… I miss you guys, I will rarely take you off again until I TR again….

Min2 helm, 3x water booties, after sp regen these are my 2 favorite items. Hp and guards. Oh and ring of earth here… For stone skin cliklies. I am that arcane caster that wont take stone skin because 5 clikies and the stone skin guard trinket should be good enough.

Don’t get me wrong, I lov level 12 too, Green Blades, and Shroud weapons. I will carry my maul this life but will almost never use it as I am trying to stay as caster based as possible….

I am still way lighting based, Lighting Blot has been super good. I can hardly explain how good. But I just got Ball lighting, and Bolt is still way better. I am hopeing at 12 and the next level of the pre I will see a noticeable damage increase in fire spells. If not I think I will milk Shadow crypt with Wall of Fire then switch to Ice for the other 5th level Dot spell. But I have to do the trial and error thing as this is about 7 levels more then I have ever managed to get a sorc to before….

Okay have a good day and see you in game.

❤

So last night after taping Ddo Cocktail Hour I log on thinking okay I will just get a little xp and log off simi early. I have been so tired lately. I thought a few extra hours of sleep might do me some good. So anyway I get logged in and Stiner shoots me a tell, “Debera part4 – elite- window farm?“

So I say sure, get the invite, and it is me, Stiner(wiz/rog), another sorc, and a fighter. I get to the graveyard and I see that people are in, step in and everyone is standing around. So before I zerg off, I asked if we are zerging, max xps, other? And get told max xp but lets not take all day. Done and Done. I am down the hall pulling levers zerging along cleaning house with the group behind me doing their best to keep up.

I ending up doing some wand healing to keep party members alive. I keep my cure wand in my hand but it doesn’t feel too bad. Ending up with all bonuses and no deaths or problems. I look at the xp chart to check out the totals. And I noticed I have 80+ of the kills. The next closest is Stiner, in the 20s I think.

So I D Door and catch the window. Everyone leaves and get back in. Stiner has to sell, but everyone else gets in and we go. Bang, Bang, Zoom, ZAP.

Keeping an eye on the bonuses again, I can’t help but notice that I am not only leading the kills but dominating. Stiner gets in and he starts cleaning up the traps and then the shrine side. I end up rezing our party leader the other sorc. Good thing I have a 75% chance for a rez atm..We finish up the quest and our fighter picks up the leaders stone and runs him to the shrine. This time he got hit with the Touch of Idiocy and stopped moving to try to figurer out why he can’t cast and got nailed. So totally understand able. And I shoot him some info for fixing that up. But still 2 deaths in Debera’s 4?

I check out the old kill list again and see that I have 98 kills, Stiner (coming in late and then doing the traps) is in the 20s again. The other guys are in the single digits. WTF?

While the group is fun, and the people are funny as hell on mic I don’t need to carry a group that much. So I thank them and take off, I notice that I have one cure wand left…. I emptied a whole wand and change into that group…. I entered with 3 cure critical wands(one only had 10 charges other ones full) and left with one wand with 40ish charges…. Thought I was playing my sorc life, must have been dreaming as I was clearly a clr in there….

Stiner and I headed into an elite pit run. 42 mins and a few hireling deaths and 2 stiner deaths later, we completed for 21k.

Right around 40k in 90 mins, lots of laughs and was able to catch up with one of my busier (in real life) friends and guildies. Couldn’t have been a much better night if I had planed it.

Well I could have gotten that 20 DQ done for Samiusbot…. And you know other things… like a good night sleep would have been amazing

A warchanter bard for sword and board people.

If you lesion to to DdoCocktail hour, you might remember I told Lessah that I was kicking around a sword and board bard build that might be right up her alley. Well here it is….

The Stalwart Song Level 20 True Neutral Human
(6 Fighter 1 Barbarian 13 Bard)

BAB: 1616212626
Fortitude: 15
Reflex: 9
Will: 9

Strength 18 all level ups Tome + Human Adaptability 28
Dexterity 8
Constitution 16
Intelligence 10
Wisdom 8
Charisma 12

Tomes Used
+2 Tome of Strength, Constitution, Intelligence and Charisma used at level 7

Balance 3-14
Concentration 7-24
Haggle 5-24
Intimidate 3-34
Jump 4-8
Perform 5-23
Swim 4-8
Tumble 3-3
UMD 5-26

Level 1 (Bard)
Feat: (Selected) Power Attack
Feat: (Human Bonus) Toughness

Level 2 (Barbarian)
Level 3 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Shield Mastery
Feat: (Selected) Two Handed Fighting

Level 4 (Bard)
Level 5 (Bard)
Level 6 (Bard)
Feat: (Selected) Weapon Focus: Slashing Weapons

Level 7 (Bard)
Level 8 (Bard)
Level 9 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Bastard Sword
Feat: (Selected) Improved Two Handed Fighting

Level 10 (Bard)
Level 11 (Bard)
Level 12 (Bard)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Critical: Slashing Weapons

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

Level 16 (Fighter)
Level 17 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Weapon Specialization: Slashing Weapons

Level 18 (Fighter)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Shield Bash

Level 19 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Improved Shield Mastery

Level 20 (Bard)
Enhancement: Fighter Armor Class Boost I
Enhancement: Fighter Haste Boost I
Enhancement: Barbarian Sprint Boost I
Enhancement: Barbarian Power Attack I
Enhancement: Bard Inspired Attack I
Enhancement: Bard Inspired Attack II
Enhancement: Bard Inspired Attack III
Enhancement: Bard Inspired Bravery I
Enhancement: Bard Inspired Bravery II
Enhancement: Bard Inspired Bravery III
Enhancement: Bard Inspired Damage I
Enhancement: Bard Inspired Damage II
Enhancement: Bard Inspired Damage III
Enhancement: Bard Lingering Song I
Enhancement: Bard Lingering Song II
Enhancement: Bard Lingering Song III
Enhancement: Bard Warchanter I
Enhancement: Bard Warchanter II
Enhancement: Fighter Stalwart Defender I
Enhancement: Human Adaptability Strength I
Enhancement: Human Greater Adaptability Con I
Enhancement: Human Improved Recovery I
Enhancement: Human Improved Recovery II
Enhancement: Racial Toughness I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II
Enhancement: Racial Toughness III
Enhancement: Improved Intimidate I
Enhancement: Improved Intimidate II
Enhancement: Bard Charisma I
Enhancement: Bard Charisma II
Enhancement: Fighter Strength I
Enhancement: Fighter Strength II
Enhancement: Fighter Toughness I
Enhancement: Fighter Toughness II
Enhancement: Bard Wand and Scroll Mastery I

This concept combines a few main ideas:
added dps of the Bastard sword + the THF feats
stacking double strike % from the Inspire Recklessness + the Swashbuckler
the lessened Physical damage vulnerability (aka the shield feats) to take even less damage while keeping up this builds max dps and hate.

I got a rough hp total at about 538 = 20(hd) + 78 + 12 + 60 + 10(A) + 60(base con) + 20 (+2 tome) + 60 (+6 con item) + 20 (+2 exp con) + 45 (GS hp item) + 30(GFL) +10(SFL) + 20 (rage or stance) + 23(toughness) + 20 (Fighter Toughness II) + 30 (Racial Toughness III) 20 (toughness item)

Feel free to check my math, and/or add in things like Guild buffs and yugo pots…

Okay well that is my bard.

❤

So Sorc life Samius is level 10. As I said before I am doing fire savant with a even split fire and lighting. Okay maybe a bit more lighting even. But there are 2 spells that stand out, Lighting Bolt and Gust of Wind.

Okay first of all Gust of Wind is coming from my dragon mark. I would not use one of my so few spell slots on it as a sorc. There are quests I would swap into it as a wiz…

Any way if you want to read the description for here is a link to the ddowiki.

I have been doing von 3-4 a lot (solo) to power though levels 9 and 10. And believe it or not I have been finding myself in a place that I need to use GoW. Just tons of cloud spells, and bad guy AOEs. I have even used it to put out my own firewalls to stop healing Iron Golems.

GoW is a fine spell and probably way under used but the spell that has become my bread and butter right now is lighting bolt. First of all double strike. Wow. In pnp it would be like casting a forked spell. Hits them twice and deals double damage 50% of the time. In my case I am seeing 300+ points at level 10, counting the double strike fairly often. At this level that kills most bad men.

Also the range, it is naturally a long spell. And with the last update it is now doubley as long. For 12 sp it has become ranged death. At a max range a to get 2 shots on a beholder before it gets you in range of the anti magic zone or any of its other ray attacks, if it is charging you at a full float… Is that how a beholder runs? Any way zap zap dead beholder. Von3 has become a lot faster now that I can just stand way over there and kill them in 1 or 2 shots with out them being able to shoot back.

How to line up bolts to hit at least two guys at once. Hard target one guy that is not going to be moving. A caster or an archer is best. Any one in a long standing still pose will work. Then side step so there is a bad man not your target between you and your target. Bolt.

Then you have a moving target it is the same idea pick one that will be at the rear of your line when you cast, cover him with another guy and fire. Often I will target the guy closest to me and then run past him turn sight a 2nd or 3rd target and fire. There is a bit of timing involved but not too bad.

I say take the time to try out different spells then what is on your normal list once and awhile. Who knows when you will find another “permanent” addition to your list?

What the Frack? Yep we have a rare double post. So there must be something I really want to talk about. Last night I stayed up late to level Samius to 7. Then I spent another 30-40 mins getting all dressed up.

A new outfit. Life shield of invulnerability with a med guild slot. Aka +15 hps. Then I hit the AH to look for rings with a med guild slot. 70K later boom. Wizardry 3 and sloted with a med power cystal, +60 sp. Using the ring lets me replace my med guild FF booties with the Boots of Corrosion, allowing me to go boots, bracers, cloak for the Might of the Abishai set. My Mummified Bat will take over FF duty when needed.

Might of the Abishai set: 3 Item Set Bonus: Profane Natural Armor Bonus +1, Profane Strength +1, Evocation Caster Level Bonus +1. The Str and Evocation bonus is handy.

I put on the Raven’s set mostly because the shock gloves wont do me any good. But pluses to wisdom (for will saves), dex and a straight up bonus to reflex saves. Very handy.

I put on the Siren’s Charm mostly for con, but the sonic resistance is also very handy. The matching belt mostly do to completing the set for some extra AC, the belt alone is a big help from no ac. And I have been starting to get the occasional disease from undead and trogs and what not….

The main gear swap no one really gets to see is my hat. I was able to graft a GFL +10 concentration hat during the cove event and from level 7 to level 13 it is the best helm I could have. Total live saver.

So what does that leave me with? 131 hp and 935 sp. I am starting to get the hang of how this life will play. Move, target, spell, spell, spell kill everything. Most of my spells fall into 3 camps, buffs. Jump, run faster, night sheild…Normal shield might be better for ac, but I am using a shield just not for ac…

Then I have fire spells, scorch and fire ball, burning hands if you count the clickly…

Then Lighting spells. Shocking Grasp, Electric Loop, Lightning Bolt. I am getting tons of mileage out of these spells. Mostly do to I have clicklies of spark made for level 3 and lower. Not so for inferno, yet. 🙂

Right now it feels very click, click, clicky. I miss being about to do a few other things. And I really do feel like everything is based on how big my blue bar is….

❤

What do you think would be more xp, for a lvl 6 character? Ghost of a Chance, Legend of Two-Toed Tobias and Prove Your Worth or hard then Elite Walk the Butcher’s Path and Durk’s Got A Secret? If you said Butcher’s Path and Durk’s then you would be right.

What takes less time? Yep Butcher’s Path and Durk’s again. The Butcher’s Path on Elite took the longest at 4 mins. Durk’s on hard and elite we both in the 2 min range.

Why other then “mixing it up” would I bother to run any of the 3BC quests? The xp wasn’t good for the quest, let a lone xp per minute. The loot/ end rewards are/were junk.

So how to fix things? I think quests should be about 500-750 xp a minute if you know exactly how to complete them, and move a long as fast as possible. That would make most of those 3BC quests about 3-4k base vs their current 1.5k.

There loot tables could be adjusted… But I think some kinda of small collectible drop like the scarabs/ tapestries/shield pieces in the orchard would be really smooth. Maybe with some named boots or sashes (belts).

They wouldn’t have to be great, just solid for levels 5-7. Some were about the abashi set and the red fen sets. And have a sea goers/dock worker/fisher man feel.

Something like a guard + a Resistance. I don’t have a name… yet… but fire guard + 10 fire resistance would make a fair belt at level 5.

An item that gives +2 to hit, and weapon finesse would be different.

Or maybe do it like a cross between the scarabs and Chronoscope…. drop collectibles but get a a end rewards list to pick from and have a growing set bonus if you wear a few of the items. Maybe it grants Crushing wave guard when enough items are worn.

IDK..

They quests are fun enough. And are okay on the whole difficulty thing. The puzzles are really good. But if the xp blows and there is no quality loot why bother?

This would be a great place if they wanted to add some way to add a hook point or two to a guild ship. Making it a drop that happens out here would really liven up 3BC…

❤

There is a post on the boards with a guy that wants to make an AC wizard. Mostly for style. Here is a link Got me thinking about AC again….

Cove items are crazy good for ac…

Epic Cavalry Plate 16 ac / 3 max dex /25% asf
Mithral
Demonic Shield
DR 5/Chaotic
Resistance Save +5
Superior False Life
Empty Blue Augment Slot (remember blue slots can be come -15% Arcane Spell Failure chance or Greater Nimbleness)

Epic Duelist’s Leathers 8 ac / 12 max dex/ 10% asf
Feat: Mobility
Epic Nimbleness
Balance +15
Attack Bonus +2
+4 AC Dodge bonus
Empty Blue Augment Slot

If you can fill out a 12 dex (aka bonus*2+10 or 34 dex) then your looking at more AC then any other armor out there. Add in the dagger tooth belt if you have even more dex. Lets not forget the +4 dodge bonus.

Is there any reason a “Caster” can’t wear these armors? Not really. Although I would use the Cavalry Plate over the Leathers if I didn’t have evasion. The Plate lets us aim for a good ac with out gimping con and str. A low base dex can max its dex bonus with a tome and +6 item, if we are using the epic swashbuckler then we have a +2 exp dex bonus also.

So a possible Ac break down using the Epic Duelist’s Leathers slotted for 0 asf. 34 dex…

10 base
8 Duelist’s Leathers
12 dex +2 if dex is 38 and have daggertooth belt.
8 Epic Swashbuckler
2 Alchemical (shield and armor)
5 Deflection bonus
4 Heightened Awareness
1 Feat: Dodge
2 Dodge Chaosgarde Bracers/ Epic Cloak of Night
3 Chattering Ring
4 AC Dodge bonus from Duelist’s Leathers

51
3-5 Natural pots, ring of earth, ranger, hat lots of ways for a natural bonus
2 Recitation
1 haste
59

5 Combat Expertise
1 House D guild buff
1 House K guild buff
4 bard song
5 paladin aura

76?

With 2 more points if you get a super high dex.. or go halfling for +1 more?

Picking a sorc savant line seems to be a lot like a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock. There is no clear right pick and no one really understands all the rules. Okay I am sure there are a few people that understand Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock but I am not one of them…

But I do/did understand Magic the Gathering. In Magic there are 5 colors red, black, blue, green, and white. They float a round a color wheel and most of the cards fit in to an ideology dealing with their color.

The colors to the right and left of a particular color are allies to that color. While the 2 colors across from that particular color are enemy colors. So White’s allies are green and blue. And it’s enemy colors are red and black. Simple right?

So as I started thinking about my sorc line and the bugs and spells effecting each element I thought of magic’s color wheel and sketched out my own version for the elements.

I wanted to be an air savant. I mean it looks great, Abundant Step (I still think that should be instantaneous fly for all arcane), really big call lighting, and good walls and both new big dot spells. And all we give up is F2S and a few clouds. I can make that work.

Wait!

Looks like call lighting might have a bug with air savant. Or it might be a earth spell and not an air spell… Wouldn’t mind a dev response on this one…. But either way air is out, because I still want big call lightings. I am seeing reports of 1000 point normal hits everu 2-4 secs. Not bad for a clickit and forget it dot.

So we look at air’s ally elements and make one of them our focus. Fire has wall of fire, one of the main leveling spells. And water has the better (damage) first tear clicky (between fire/ice) and one of the two big dots.

I really don’t want to miss out trying the call lighting storm, but I am looking at not getting it until level 12 or 15 depending on how badly I want it. So at the moment I am leaning towards Fire with a heavy tilt towards Lighting and lighting spells. With hope that there will be some word/fix for call lighting storm. I would rather be a air savant but going fire gives the most wiggle room loosing the least amount of what I like to have when leveling. And if it turns out that call lighting sucks I can lesser out of the marks and into necro focus feats….

❤

Last night was one of those nights where things just went well. Leveled Samius to 3 super close to 4. And ran an Abbot raid with Java. And while not the smoothest run, there was 3 good pieces of loot. And moved Java’s counter to 18. And is making my decision as to what to do with Java even harder.

Lets start with Sam. I am starting to see why people like the sorc. Right now at level 3 I have about 550 sp. That is a lot of burning hands and shocking grasps. I have taken to running until yellow/red skulled, keeping an sup inferno/spark clickly running, backing into a corner and burning hands burning hands burning hands burning hands burning hands burning hands burning hands burning hands burning hands burning hands shocking grasp any one that doesn’t die in flames.

Remember I have 5 dr/ magic and am rocking a fair amount of Hps. I also have a fair amount ship buffs for things like fire/elc/acid 20 so I take fairly little damage. Will this trend last post level 6? I don’t think so but there are more blasty spells later. Sorc does feel like I can just blast 24/7. Damn playing smart. I can blast my way out of any problem. I hate to encounter the day I can’t…..

Okay Java, the wife joins an Abbot raid. And they wait and wait for someone/s able to handle ice. So I join as Java to try to do Ice with the wife. But someone switched to a 20 clr and made the swim so she and I got to sleep in roids.

Completion did take 2 tries however, the first run I thought was funny as only goggles failed. But roids took a hit and I guess some people didn’t get filled up before entering. And that one hit took some people to less then their level in HP. And when rage ended there was some deaths. So we restarted.

Take 2 I was worried about right from the start as 2 of the 10 wizards died right off the bat. I am guessing failed disintegrates… But they got rezed and we moved on. Ice and roids went fine. Again we took a hit in roids. But everyone had lots of hp this time… Goggles 4 men entered, 2 men lived. So I guess they had some problems.

I spotted and lived through an encasement. Beat down went fairly quickly. Abbot didn’t have time to call dick. Let alone the Inferno.

Loot there was gloves, a breeze and of coarse a Enduring Conviction. I was the first to roll and I got a 99 out of 100 and no one else either wanted it or thought they could win. Bam matched pair.

Now I really don’t know what to do with Java. His gear is really set up for how he is playing now. I am just not super happy with how he is playing with the changes to the Fist of light finisher and his dps is a lot lower then I would like…. Thinking about some kind of clr/ranger mix but only if I can get the dps good enough. I will have to think some more on it…

❤

Capped again on June 5th thanks to a few thousand xp from the Amrath slayers. Ending with the defeat of Centurion Armisos. And before much longer I was dead and gone and looking around Stormreach as a Sorc….

I know right, the most dreaded of classes. But if any one can get me through 20 levels of sorc it is Samius. And depending on how the run to cap is this might be the life to take a little break from the constant TRing and power leveling.

I enjoy leveling. There is a wonder feeling of momentum as long as leveling is simi fast paced. But once level 17 or so rolls around I tend to get a hair tired. Levels 18-20 just don’t move fast enough for me. When your looking at another millon xp at 5kish a pop it is easy to get a little disparaged. But you play for the big scores. And things work out.

Okay enough gloom. Lets look at the build. You can look at Samius by clicking the Samius link in the upper left.

Stats 14 8 14 11 13 18….Oh and Helf. Seems fairly Straight forward. Going for a pure blasty blasty life, that was Tobril’s idea. He remembered me making a comment about being tired of the constant melee and suggested I give myself a break from all the melee and run up a pure sorc.

I always want good self healing, hence Helf, as I am soloing up this life. The guild is finishing up their Trs. Most are finishing up their last few ranks. I would have waited for them but they didn’t want to TR again right away. 13 points in Wisdom lets me do the Clr: Dilettante feat which will give lots of healing via wands and scrolls. Once my Umd is up there I can swap it out for monk (healing amp /AC?) or Pally (saves).

Another perk or going Helf for this life is I will be able to play with the Dragonmarks of Storm. I use the Stormreaver Gingerbread Cookie, for the Call Lighting Storm, a lot when leveling. I see 40-50+ points of damage fairly often. I can only guess what adding in the enchantments/feats and items and going lighting savant will do for its damage…

Something else that is kinda cool. With the guild/channel’s help I have gathered a few different items with med and small guild slots. Crafted wizardly 1 on a ring and slap on a med power slot and your looking at 60+25+sorc bonus and you have lots of extra mana. Right now I am sitting at around 400+, once I can I will clear that ring and level it to wiz 2 then 3. Same deal for Hp a med slot is about 20 hp. Add in the level 1 outfit of Invulnerability made with the Cannith crafting I wore most of my bard life. Well from when the Cannith crafting came out until level 16 any way.

Right now Shocking grasp is doing about 10 points 29 with a spark pot running. So I can grasp and wand thru almost any thing at this level.

❤