Got logged in simi late last night, I am going to blame not feeling well. I got asked to do a eDQ by oncler almost right away after getting in. Turns out that Fopo also going and thought why not? The raid formed and I was fairly pleased as I knew most of the group, and they were all solid players i have been playing with a lot lately. I guess that is how it is when you form up with private channels. The Raid went fairly smooth. No deaths and mostly no loot. At least none for me.

And the raid decides to go again. I swap to my clr Healz and fly through the pre raid again. It has been a while since I have healed anything let alone eDA. But it was fine. I way over healed to the point of downing 4 SP pots but I didn’t want to let the group down because I was a rusty healer…. There was some good items in the chest this time. But again none for me…My end reward list had a silver great sword so I will call that a win.

Move on to Abbot, the wife joins up for this one. I got to spot (/sleep in roids). And I turned to talk to the wife who had just gotten across ice and boom I died… someone let at least 2 roids through. I wonder now if maybe one hit me and I stood up, blocking someone from stopping the roid that killed me… Man I hope not. But the thought that I might have caused a problem in roids is twisting my gut all up… the raid was skunked for loot this time.

We formed up for a Evon6, some how I ended up doing way more of the von 5 then I would like. Not alone but I did open all the doors. Get the ring and the voice talk to all the faces and get the key. I ended up yelling at people to get the str/wiz/lever doors open but it was not bad all in all.

The raid went smoothly, and I saw the shard of the shield. But it wasn’t in my name. 😦 but I know it is out there. 🙂 and It is just a matter of time until some one kicks it over to me or I pull my own.

There was a few items rolled on, the wife won the warding bracers I am slowly building momentum for something good to be in the chest for me there have been too many good chest opened last night to not have something good soon.

We blow through a Tod. The most exciting bit was when the wife realized she had forgotten to restock on remove curse pots, mine were guild pots… DDO store to the rescue. Want to say Fopo had the only ring drop, a Dragonic I think and after much debate he took it.

I want to say however that many of the guys passed me their trophies. I said in channel that I only had 3 and that any unloved ones could come my way. Some one said something over voice and I want to say 6-7 people kicked over their trophy to me. Thank you everyone that did that it means that Java can slot the warchanter ring he already has at 18 to help with what I hope is his final life. While grinding out the defender ring for the hate gen…

Well that was my night short as it was 3 hours of play 3 epic raids, and 2 normal raids. Not a bad night.

❤

Brb………………………4 mins later

Okay I am back. Wait I can’t get in… guys?

That is how a shroud went for my last night. No I didn’t afk before entering part 1 of the shroud, but on of the clrs did. Of course everyone thought he was joking as there where many a afk jokes as the raid was forming. And it took 5-6 mins to get everyone to step in side after the raid was formed. So far be it once everyone was in to get moving.

A few mins later the missing clr returns and finds out that he is locked out. “Bummer” I think. Good thing we have a spare. And we wrap up part 1 quickly. I want to point out that there was a lot of BS talk going on.

A melee was trying to tell the raid leader that he had too many arcanes. I linked my portal beater, and pointed out that my wimpy sorc was doing 40+ points to the portal a swing + Ice storm. I don’t carry a force spell other than my magic missile clickly from my wiz past life feat. Or I would spam that as well as attack the portal. He shut up after that.

Shrined and looted ran down to the alter and the portal to part 2. People are recalling. 😦 I can understand people wanting to help out a guy that missed the portal but all you do is reinforce bad behavior. What? Went afk in the first bit of a quest and now your locked out? Sucks to be you…. Lesson learned.

Now I don’t care if you go afk in part 1, but I am not going to reform to baby someone that waisted my time. Yep that is how I see it. If we ran up against a wall a failed for some reason I would have been less pissed then I was over completing part 1 and then having to redo it.

So I didn’t rejoin the reform. When asked if I was coming back I said go a head, I will wait for the next one.

5 mins later a zerg run starts, I join, Tobril joins and it is a faster run. No one minded if Tobril and I took off and lead the group into the next part. We were the first in to part 2, 3, 4 and Tobril zoned in to part 4 and started the fight right away. It was great. Just keep moving. If for get the time. It didn’t set any land speed records, but it was in the 20 min range. It was nice. Just what I want from the next 5 shrouds. Fast and smooth.

Oh and if your going to pike or afk for part 1, I normally don’t mind but get in side. And let us know clearly use the text box, and voice.

❤

Also known as my weekend report. I got a few things done. Java has banked 13, I think. Maybe not… But I did take lvl 12 and what a world of difference 12 is as a FvS then 11. One hello Blade Barrier, two hello glow ball.

Now I am not going to lie. The glow ball is hitting for 20-50 depending on if I have a sup brilliance clickly running or not. And sure it is only a little bit more damage, but you know it is a little bit more damage. And many times might have mostly killed a guy while swinging while on the way to the really dangerous mob, like hit some trash melees on the way to a caster or two. And the glow ball will mop up the melees I left behind. And on bosses every 2 or 3 shots is like gaining a swing. And the extra light is totally a win.

Story time, for those of you pay attention and counting I now have cure serous and heal for healing. Oh and heal scrolls. I see a hard or elite Von5 run go up. Well after all those really great runs I did the other day on normal I thought sure why not. First thing I was asked was am I healing type. I say not really but I can heal some. Another Fvs joins and the same basic story. A third joins and the same question is asked but he says “I can heal” the leader says well the other two are more dps then healing. The newest FvS says “well they suck then” I want you to know I kept my group alive unless they took off or could live with the con damage from the necro touch. And I ended up leading the kill count. I got next to the 3rd fvs and not only did he not heal but I needed up healing him.. Jack off. But we completed and someone finished the quest before everyone was ready. Glad I have been doing the Vom vs the blood stone in pugs. 🙂

Some of us went on to do the raid, it was a smooth run. Way easier then I expected on normal. Now I was 11 or 12 at the time and the raid is what 10? Guess I have been doing the epic too much lately.

I also want to touch on a Tempest Spine run I did, elite. It was a cluster. First of all I was the 11th man to join. Filled up on scrolls and hit the ship. The 12th man joined right after I hit the xp shrine on the boat. 15 mins later and people running of to get ship buffs later we were ready to step in. This is were I want to go, once we start using up my xp pots. At 5 mins later and the 3rd haste I just go. People that bio just after stepping in or right be for stepping in decide to get ship buffs. Frack them. And I go. About 8 others follow. We get in side. And more waiting. Until I say F it again and start moving. It was like I was dragging them all along. I went to kill ice and told them to go kill fire. They asked me to bring it back so I did. And I ended up killing them both. Ice with the dots and fire with my S word. Wtf people. At that point I turned in to a mini Oncler and started yelling and shouting orders.

I ended up with 89 or 98 kills. The next highest was 19… Now kill count is not everything. But it is something and it is handy to see who is working and who is not. Anyway we finished in about 40 mins. Way to long for a TempSpine and for 12k…

There is a lot of talk about people complaining about something Turbine is or is not doing. I mean a lot. All over my twitter feed, G+ feed, in my email box and lets not talk about the forums. But I do want to say I don’t mind paying for Artificers, even though I am a VIP. Heres why:

Other then complaining about nerfs. The most common compliant I see from VIPs is not being able to buy things from the store. Mostly while things are on sale, like 50% off packs. And I can understand wanting to move towards a totally unlocked premium account as you enjoy the full game as a VIP. But why would Turbine want to encourage that behavior? 10-15 $ a month has to be more then the average premium account spends???? Maybe not…. I don’t have the data for that. I know Most of my guild is VIPs, we have a few that are not. And the VIPs also buy TP for fluff items, where the non- VIPs feel they have to save their points for content…

Any way I got side tracked, this is an item you can buy from the store.

There will be less Arts in the first few weeks as there are many people that just wont buy them out of principle, don’t have the Tps, want to wait for them to go on sale or whatever the reason. So there will be a smaller number of fresh Arts running around. Maybe not a lot less, but less.

Also I bought the FvS. Why?

One, as to not have to grind out the favor. Sure I had/have a guy kinda close. Think Samiusbot has about 2k and a lot of stuff he just doesn’t run do to him being way down the list of Alts I am worried about.

Two, as to have them on every server. Now I don’t often leave Sarlona. That is where the home is after all. But sometimes I want to mix it up. And the Art is right up my alley.

I hope that all made sense. You know, I have a larger problem with Trs getting first time unlock then as a VIP needing to buy Art. Everyone skipping n-h-e to what ever difficulty, makes a Vip perk a little less valued, and going premium a hair more attractive.

I am so pleased. In a little bit here I am going to be ordering my Kiwi vines. After a lot of research I think I have found the right plant for my area that is a little of the normal path. IE good for trading for more common items in an emergency. As well as picking up and planting a few guys for normal planting this time of the year.

I also am about to order my new shelfreliance Food Rotation System. Think a fancy can rotator + space saver. I heard some numbers of 30-40% savings by stocking up / moving to buying things when they are on sale. And I like the idea of having a easy way to manage my inventory. I spent 15 mins over lunch today trying to see what I had in the pantry. And decided that we didn’t what I was looking for and gave up.

I also did some shoping am got a few items for my truck/home in order. I can’t tell you how pleased I am that I have some of this stuff coming together.

Oh and did I tell you my carrots are doing nicely?

Tomorrow I hit the store and the farmers market for some items to both plant and to dry out for eating later. I am making jerky. Hmm tasty.

I need momentum, in DDO and in my real life.

Now keep in mind there are emergencies every where. Look at the storm about to/currently hitting the devs/Turbine… Well catch you Monday with I hope some DDO stories.

❤

I spent much time with Javabot last night. I was rocking the desert walkups and out of the blue the wife logs on and we run the shitty DQ pre req quest. Yes I mean Chains of Pain…. Or at least that is what we call it. 30 mins later for 8k… and we run to Offering of Blood and it took like 8-9 mins for I want to say 9-10k. And that is about as much as the wife has in her, I hope she feels better soon.

So I am alone again. And I decide to burn through some hard/elite Red Fins. But after finishing the hard runs I see the other Sam, Samulos has a Shadow Crypt hard loop up. So instead of waiting having to solo it on elite alone I decide to jump in. We go 5-6 times until it was bed time for me. Xp for 12 and then a we bit more.

Now I only bank xp in a few places until I hit 12. It is a huge level for almost every build either PREs or GS/other gear and I rush to 12 on my TR lives. After that I try to bank xp. So I go ahead and level to 12, get my new 4 or 5 swords out of the bank and get ready for later tonight were me and my new glow ball pal are going to pown some wizking. 🙂

I was told that my last Noob-Sauce Epic Class was helpful but not as helpful as I would like. So I thought I would hit twitter and see what people want to know about epics. So I have a few questions, not a ton and I just want to run down a few questions and give my answers…

“Do all party members have to be 20?” Yes and No. To enter an epic quest you must be level 20. This is not something you can cheat like getting into the sub under level. But if say you have a bud on a lowbe and he is in the group to chat over voice you don’t have to boot him for the 20s to enter epics.

“Are epic rewards and or chest items only good for lvl 20 characters or can they be handed down to lowbies?”

Quest end rewards don’t change by difficulty as near as I can tell. So epic Devil Assault reward list is the same level of list as a normal run. I want to say that epic chests are already at the max level (23) so items pulled from those chests might have high level but as long as it is not bound for some reason (raid loot). I had a +5 holy burst rapier of pure good I pulled from a epic DQ seal run, it was some thing like level 16…

Now shards seals and scrolls don’t have a min level. But if you use them to make an item epic 99.9+% of the epic items are level 20. And as far as I know they are all intended to be level 20 items. The only ones I know of that have a level other then 20 have been fixed or are about to be…

“What gear does sarlona expect a sorc to have, if any, for epics?”

I wouldn’t know. The groups I bother to run in gear is not really an issue over and above your typical gear. Heavy fort, GLF and +6 con item those kind of things. Now I talked the other day about some spells, the 8th level dance spell is a good idea. And a non elemental way to hurt things, like disintegrate or Cyblast.

Last question/s today:

“Why do certain shards/seals never drop? How big of a magic pentagram does it take to make them start dropping?”

I think seals and shards have a low drop rate in and by themselves. Add in that I feel some seals/shards have a lower drop rate then other ones. All you can do is run often. As for a magic pentagram…. Hmmm really big?

Okay I was expecting a few different questions. But as always if you have a question email me at samius(at)ddococktailhour.com or him me up via Pm or on twitter as samiusgurobo.

❤

Tuesdays are for me at least a slower night. If I am lucky Tobril gets on and we knock out some basic epics, or the wife is in the mood to quest with me. Aka do the quests I want at the levels I want. But last night she was sick and Tobril was not to be seen. But Oncler and Miss were on so I did my best to take advantage of them.

I started the night on Java, being he is 11 now I am out in the sands running the quick walkups for fast xp and a little plat in my pocket. TRing and buying scrolls and what not puts a dent in my already light pockets. And right now I want to buffer Java’s capitol to buy a few hundred heal scrolls and still rock my last backpack slot. I did say I was light in the plat area right?

Anyway I have been swapping in my GS 2xAir cloak for hastes and taking the 20ish damage hit while I swap around. Bloody evil taint….

But then I catch, Oncler and get a ship invite. Boo Ha! See I was in a rush before TRing Java and even though I had a cleaning stone and the larges I didn’t wait to run the one more shroud. I hit my 20s for a litany (miss) and cleansing stone (thankfully a given) and wam bam was level one in about 2 hours. But I knew that Caffeine had the first and last tear alters. (My boat can do the first tear 🙂 ) so I decided I could whine for an invite and I did. And my cloak is done. Lighting Rest and Hps.

People might wonder why the Lighting Rest and not more Hps? One I like having beholder/dispel prof rests Lighting and Acid are high on my list. Ie number 1 and 2.

So while I am finishing up my cloak I am asked to join the guys for a elite Tod…. Sure I like shots at +4 tomes and still need a good Chr ring that I can slot con on to. The group forms and some one in on timer for 22 mins. No big we decide to do an elite Vod while we wait. 22 mins later we complete get junk in the chest and we are off to Tod.

Rescue Harry, I am not assigned to heal a Wf today, nice. But Miss asks me to stay on top and kill elementals and dogs and what not. Sure.

He runs in to start the fight and I stay in place and start Doting eles and pwk/fingering dogs. Well I guess Miss gets thrown right away and didn’t get to start to gather any agro. And right away the judge is on me. Well I start to scroll myself and ask where do you want the judge. Well everyone is talking so I don’t get an answer. I scroll some more and ask again. This time I can here Miss but not what he said. I ask the clr who is right next to me to turn on his aura at least while I am trying to dump the judge off. But I think it was too loud still, as still no aura or heals from Mahmood. Scroll myself and fail the consecration check, drink a pot but to little and end up in the box.

I curse and the raid falls quite, and Miss goes on about how he told me to find him. I explain that I couldn’t hear shit. But I was doing okay via scrolls until I wasn’t. And how I was right next to the healer, if his aura was on or a cure mod came my way I would have lived. I don’t know if I shamed him into it but the aura seemed to be on the rest of the raid…

Skip to part 3. It was a crazy one for some people. Not me I got to scroll heal Miss until I ran out of scrolls. 60Ish. We went on and on. I ran out of scrolls I counted out the final 10. And ran to help on Sully. Totally stole the kill too. 🙂

But right before we got Sully Miss dropped. We went through tanks for a min or two. This is why i think of Oncler as good leader in my mind. He kept a clear head, didn’t get overly excited, reassured everyone and gave clear instructions as we tried to keep the raid moving. But we got everything under control. I notice that the other casters are drinking pots. I run my clicklies and try to do my best to get a few sp back as orthons are called. I do well but I end up drinking one during the final push. A final push made longer as our light monk drops.

I want to say we earned it. No +4s but Oncler passes a ring to Rath who also gets a ring. A ring I want. He jokingly offers me a trade: never do a naked dance2 again for the ring….

I tell him to keep it, I just got to do the naked dance. 🙂

But he kicks it over to me anyway and all is good. A little time in the explored area and it is all good.

It was a good night there were offers of more questing, but the wife needed some meds in hopes of feeling better in the morning so I was off to the store then a short show and bed for me.

One of the best Tuesday’s in a long time.

❤

The best comment ever heard over voice for me is “You don’t have spell X?”. I love it. People just assume your spell list is the same as everyone else’s. Let me color you a mind picture.

I have been leveling Java as a FVS, as I hope you all know. He is around 11 now and starting to come into his own. And as every divine caster will tell you at some point you will get a tell please join X quest please. Now this life I have been in a bit of a mood, a good one not a bad one. And I ask “Are you looking for a healer?” because if they are asking anyone with divine spells we all know what they want. When I get a “yes please” back I say “Sorry, I only have 1 healing spell, if you need a healer you might want to keep looking” And it is true. Java’s only has cure serous.

Last night I got in a von5 farming party. Once I joined 4th or 5th in the group I made it clear that I was not a healer and with a +6 wisdom item I only have a 12. And the leader didn’t have a problem with it. But there was a monk that I guess didn’t have a way to fix the con damage post poison or nerco touch. And was always complaining about con damage. The leader linked his lesser restore pots and I replied “what he said” We made 3 runs and I didn’t hear from that monk again. 🙂

Ask a sorc one of the things I have problems with is the lower number of spell slots. I have told you about not having a way to hurt the Abbott while leveling up by swapping Disintegrate for Reconstruct but that decision hunts me in Evon6. Not being to one shot the pillars. But I can cast CyBlast 2 or 3 times and not have an issue, takes a hair longer but normally not an issue.

But I want to share another evon6 story. The other day we get moving and life is good. I am assigned base 1 with another guy. The base gets prepped and people take off. I am standing in the “safe” spot with my wf melee partner and a reaver runs over. My partner stands there as yells dance him, dance him! And dies as I try to recon him up. I jump over behind the reaver and check my invis no problems.

I rez and heal the Barb who starts to try dressing me down for not having dance. And I just inform him that I don’t carry dance but I do have a stack of rez scrolls… But I didn’t stand there and let myself get beat to death with someone throwing reconstructs… Time comes to take our base but the freshly back to life barb can’t hit anything because he died and lost his buffs. WTF? Power attack off, hit == win. But he slips on some ice and dies. I do get the shield on the pillar down and kill it once but do to timing we miss. I get it to half a second time but with the reaver on me my sorc is just too squishy and I die with the the pillar at about ½. Oncler wings over in time to drop the pillar with comet falls and the raid is saved.

Moral of the story, don’t assume that someone can save you. Save yourself! Not everyone is going to have the answer for your bad play. Does my sorc need to swap into dance? Maybe and I will be making that change in my spell list, However, I will not stand by and let myself become helpless waiting on someone else to save me.

Oh and a bonus moral, Don’t assume that someone is a cookie cutter of someone else. Spell lists for example are personal choices.

❤

Wow, how to begin…. I have been asked to talk about epics. With the idea of getting started doing epics. Or how to break into epics. Epics kinda have 3 categorizes, easy, normal, long as balls. I say lets stick to the easy epics for right now.

What are the easy epics? For me they are BoB-Bargain of Blood, TTT- The Tide Turns, Claw-The Claw of Vulkoor, Von1 Tharashk Arena, Stand – The Last Stand and the following raids DQ – Zawabi’s Revenge, Von6 – The Vault of Night and Chrono – The Chronoscope. I just listed all the raids I think….

Any way if your new to epics look for eBoB and TTTs. These are fairly simple see a mob kill the mob epics. There are a few tricks to avoid unneeded fights that some people will use and others wont. Like if Tobril and I are doing Ebob once to the shrine we move around the corner to the left of the shrine and clean up mobs there. To not pull up the red named cow.

In TTT right at the start you can agro the archers in the first room and then run back behind one of the House D npcs they can be shot by an arrow and then the npcs move into the fight. It is just a help for the first fight or two. And proper trap use is a must. Web and balls in the traps and pulling mobs into the traps can really cut down on the time it takes to finish a TTT. Oh and go ahead and clear to the end fight people. There are like less then 10 mobs. But every kill is a shot at a scroll or tokens, go get them….

Claw is an solo or dual able epic, it does take some practice but any one can invis and use sneak mode to stealth through the quest. I would say however, practice on none epic. Learn the scorp’s patterns and then step it up. Be ready for a few fails. But if you keep at it you can solo it fairly easily.

And I have yet to see a group fail last stand. I am sure they are out there but it is “see a caster kill it first, see a not caster mob kill it next” epic. I have seen that lots of people have soloed it. I am not one of them but I do see that it can be done.

As for any other epic and epic raids. Send a tell. Let them know that your new to the epic and be willing to learn. Most leaders are willing to give clear instructions. If you take the time to hear what they are saying then you are golden. Just don’t be afraid to ask for help and be sure that you understand what you are being asked/told to do.

And healbots can get into almost any thing just to get a feel of what is going on. Then once you understand the ins and outs other rolls become a lot easer.

Hope that helps. And later I will talk about the normal epics. Ie Devil Assault.