As I hinted yesterday, I want to share some of my thoughts on monks. Up until Samius leveled through his Bowonk live the deepest monk I had was Samius jr with 12 or 13 monk levels. And as I said yesterday he was very old school. He kept getting back burnered in favor of Samius and Java. Hell even some of my support builds got more lovens.

So what saved monks for me, beyond a 3 level splash for fist of light?

Dark Path, aka Touch of Death and Ninja Spy 1 for Shadow fade. Ninja Spy 2 and its Water Walking power is not bad but as it only works some of the time. And then only some places have water where water walking would be helpful. Having it work on the Lava in most quests is a boon and when it works in Abbot raid is wonderful. Just the kind of thing to make it worth having.

Monks also have some of the best laired synergies.

Let me look at my favorite leveling setup. Earth Stance + Jidz + Stonedust Handwraps(not at 20 monk) + ninja fade. I think I have talked about this before. So I am not going to go in to it again. But trust me -2 dex and -10% movement is nothing for this setup.

Also my monk has Imp Sunder. Tobril was loving on it so hard while leveling up I thought that I would give it a shot. A debuff that a melee can use often that helps ToD and Stuns land? And its effect is only slightly worse if the mob saves? Done! I have been seeing chaining Tods doing 1000+ from good timing and/or double strikes with all the failed saves. On Samius most of my ToDs get saved against for half, which is still good just not great; and I am going to say having Imp Sunder is all the difference.

There will be more monk talk in the coming days, but not right away. I want to talk with you all about a “final” gear layout. I have an epic Jidz and a pair of ToD boots ready for him. And he already has big + stunning 10 wraps as well as holy of stunning 10 wraps. And if I can find some silver wraps I might make some +5 of Vamp Not lesser Vamp but Vamp wraps. But that leaves epic slotting, and lots of other slots.

Okay peace and lets start the last year of good times off right. See you in 2012.

❤

One, welcome back all. I took some time off for the holidays and that included no blog posts also. If you missed me, good. I try to give you all good content for free. And I can take a few days if I want to . 🙂

Now for the rest.

If has been one heck of a week/weekend/week. Tobril came for a visit. Aka free Room and board with a Internet assess far away from his family he can make excuses for him not to eat every meal and hang out them. Basicly a place he can just play as much Ddo as he can fit in but still make those “family” visits when he needs to. And we hang out some.

So as we do when he is around we hit Ddo hard. Starting at noonish Thursday and Friday we played until I had to go to bed, I still had to go to work for a half day on Friday. Some were along the way, he and I capped. The wife and Fopo didn’t have the extra game time we had. So they are still a little behind.

So I took the time to put a +5 heart into my bard. I went with a 16/2/2 bard/fgr/rog Warchanter. With the +3 tomes back and the uber Christmas deal on points I went ahead and put a +3 int and Con tome in to her. A Chr tome would have been for not as she has a +2 and even stats. I couldn’t see spending the points besides the hole point is to have someone for those end game raids, right? Sooner or later a +4 should happen. 🙂

I also set her up to go spell singer with a enchantment reset encase people really would rather have one of them.

But I didn’t want to waist the bonus XP. So I decided to catch up my Monk. Samius jr. He was already level 15, and is a first lifer. So I figured that I could power level him and catch up with Fo and Torance. Allowing me to help them out.

Now Samius JR was my first take on monks. He was pre Shintao/ Ninga spy. Pre Jidz, Pre most things that I take for granted now as good monk stuff. Being so I was very down on end life Monks. Level 20 was good, but not good enough. And 17, 18 and 19 were just bad. So I had planed on a nice 16/2/x build. monk/rog/x. At the time Dex (light) monks were the way to go. Trying for AC via high dex and wis and good amp making fist of light really work for you.

But now we have Shintao/ Ninga Spy. And I love me some Touch of Death + Shadow fade. So I ate a super +2 tome. Sitting in my bank for a long time waiting for some build that could use the boost to all stats. And hit him with a +3 heart. Now he is pure. I still don’t think I quite have the build I am looking for in a level 20 monk. I will have to see how things are at cap. But I can say I really like him. He is like a weaker Samius. Some of that is gear. Some is first life 32 points issues as every stat is important. Some is how I really like the Helf as a race, thanks to the ease of fitting in good selfhealing and extra amp, even if they are fugly.

I am hoping that at cap I can gear him up with some of the epic gear I have laying about and that I will really like having him around.

I will be expanding on Monks and me tomorrow.

❤

I follow Coldin Torrence (@ColdinT) on twitter. He is a fellow Ddo player and ocasionaly asks a good question or makes a statement that gets me rolling. Most of the time I put him in the kid pile and hope the world doesn’t wake him up too hard. But early this morning, or at least I am showing it as 3am my time. He tweets the following:

“Question for my DDO players. If Turbine got rid of ship buffs, but made quests easier in return, would you be okay with that?”

I like to reply to these kind of questions here where I have a little more room and comments can be left for everyone to see.

First of all there are people out there that think that Ddo is too hard and some that think it is too easy. Me I fall in the just right group as I think the majority of players do. If you fall into one of the extreme groups you can do things to help you.

If things are too easy there are play options that you can use to make it harder. Permadeath comes to mind first, but you could also only do hard or harder content only. Try to keep your quest level 1 or 2 levels above you, etc.

To hard? You can do normal or casual questing, Get in a good static group to learn the game/content better. Or play content a level or two under level.

Now there is also a group of people that feel that ship buffs are a crutch. To those people I say “Stop using them” If you don’t like it you can choose not to use them.

Limiting everyone’s options because you/ or a group of people think something is too good is BS. There are people that think casters are to good. I think that monk/rangers are super good right now. So lets start cutting out what someone thinks is too good until everything is the same for everything and everyone. Welcome to the Socialism and Dragons online.

Wait no. Dragons are uber we can’t have that. We would have to even out the mobs too, you know because we are all the same so the mobs should be too. A few changes and we are Socialism and Kobolds online. Were no one can be better then anyone else and all you do is sit and watch your alt roll thru the quest. You can’t even push buttons. Because you might push buttons better then someone else.

No thanks.

But Sam it is just a game. You are taking things a little far.

Am I?

People left the game because some mobs had an AC they couldn’t handle. So things get changed say if you miss by little then you still get some damage, glancing blows.

No! Fack you, NO! If you miss, then by God you miss. You don’t see a NFL game assign points for getting close to the end zone. You don’t win the lottery for having 4 out 5 numbers. You don’t do damage if you miss the mob. No!

What Coldin is asking is: If take away the option for your guild to work hard and level up and then pay for buffs, but the quests are 30% easier for everyone would that be cool? Its more fair for the ones that don’t have buffs or the people that don’t want to work for the rewards.

You have to draw the line hard and fast when it comes to limiting someone else’s options. You start saying sure, sure that doesn’t effect me that is fine. You can take the +2 buff shrines form those high level guilds. My guild is level 30, what do I care. Then it is the Amp chick. Cool I am not an amp build. And then they want to take something you do like and care about and there is now one to say no with you.

Sorry bud, your question is full of fail.

Agree or disagree, use the comments.

❤

Last night content with some simple xp grinding after taping a new CtH. I was all ready to run IQ elites down to normals. Until I was ready for bed. After the drinks I had, to tape a good Christmas show, I was already tired. But bonus xp.

So our group gets together, makes the wife (with her fresh buffs) wait while we all rebuff. Much to her distress which tickled me slightly; as she is always telling me off for not waiting for her to get her buffs. But when the shoe was on the other foot I needed to hurry up for her. 🙂

So as we are about to start Eye of the Titan Tobril or Fopo start talking about their plans to do some raids. And how some other guildies were throwing/in the middle of a hound. Which started a wonderful lets shroud commentary from the wife. But after some calm and totally logical logic from my well and buzzed self we did Eye. And the next two IQ quests while we waited for the others.

I would have racked out but everyone was ready to shroud now and I thought, I don’t need that extra 20 mins of sleep. Parts 1 through 3 were good. If you have never been in a shroud group with Tobril and I in the same party you are either missing a real treat or you will want to /squelch use both.

We tear along until part 4, and we lose the Arty due to the new heat seeker blades. But we move in fine. If we could have stayed in through the blades it would have be about ¾ of a round. Harry was way below half when I did a back flip over the blades and emptied a many shot for no real damage (a little force and elec) in to him. I forgot to refill my quiver when I upgraded it to the new super version. Keep that in mind if you go to upgrade your quiver. You will loose your arrows. So I didn’t have any silver arrows, and due to an error on my part my lig2 is not good. In hind sight I should have gotten my Bow of Sinew silvered….. Damn. Slow drunk brain.

So anyway round 1, the wife goes “Where is the healing?” About the time I notice I was at like 30 hp and then caught the fill up. But she doesn’t about that time it was time to pull out and I notice she was at one hp. I try to use my clr past life feat on her. But it was empty as I didn’t shrine yet. Swap to my heal scrolls and fire one off but I am madstoned. She took care of herself with her own heal scroll. In the next round Fopo goes down, along with a 3rd person, I drop to -7 but get a heal before Harry could finish me. And he goes down in quick order.

Rez up and move on.

Part 5 I take the fire and get it pointed away from the group as they start killing off mini bosses. Another monk comes over and works on killing the Fire as I start buffing. Having missed the masses and what not. We went into the Harry fight almost right away. Think with the healers being slightly questionable I would have waited until I heard they were ready but I am game.

We loose 2 or 3 people almost right way. The people healing just weren’t ready. I have my Past life Clr clikies to thank for keeping me up. Took the clr past life at 18, I am getting about 80 per hit with my amp. Can go fire + jidz for around 110. Cure pots are about 50.

We loose a few more, but Tobril, a random and I are keeping Harry in place. But I forgot to swap my boots and become angry and pots for 50 and random heals were not cutting it. With the healing only so so at best I dropped with Harry at a sliver. Giving him a hole to run out of, and both Clrs died in short order, as he beelined to them. Tobril shout that he was staying in to finish it I yelled back there are no heals left alive. The wife fired off a manyshot; I think finishing Harry off.

It was good times. I started yelling out time remaining on my 20% xp pot as I was still a soul stone. 40 secs. 30. 20. the wife said F it and hit it for me. Thanks babe. That was the only pot I have ever know to work the xp to the wire. For me the last 5-10 mins are normally wasted.

That final fight took a hair longer then needed with people dieing and/or handling their own heals. But good times.

❤

I write these posts at work. They are my version of a smoke break. I go “okay lets get this idea out of my head” with the idea that I can focus on where my brain is suppose to be. Today I am needed on a repetitive task but one that takes a fair bit of concentration. Which is made unnecessarily more difficult by having 4 or 5 different Ddo related ideas floating around in my head. And what is worse is when I stop and try to take a collection those random thoughts and form them in to a complete thought and into digitals word, but they turn out to not be finished.

Grrr, so if the following is a little less then the norm, try to deal. 🙂

Turbine threw me a curve ball yesterday when they announced bonus xp days. Including many days I have already taken off work. And some while Tobril is back for Christmas. There might be some long benders happening soon.

With Samius at rank 91/92 I start to think about what is next. He should be capped out by the end of the week with just my normal play. Meaning there is bonus xp out there for the taking and I have to take advantage of that.

I could work on bard build I have loosely labeled as “side project”. But as I am still kicking around different ideas as to how to build it that is not practical.

I could level one of the alts sitting at 17 from the pre 20 level cap days. But if they were enjoyable enough I would have capped them already right?

No the answer is Sam I think. Unless something thing punches me in the face. I know that Fopo is planing to go again when I am ready. Think he has his bard life on tap, and the wife wants to take her crafter and go arty. So 2 support/ off dsp party members. Guess I need to be a cold hearted killer. It is not like they wont be able to handle themselves on Hard and Normal more then fine. But some Elites just don’t lend themselves to being soloed or short maned.

I will have to think about it. Maybe it is time to level up something totally out of the blue. Hope to have the answers soon.

❤

What do you think is the best item to have in your Tr bank post being reborn?

Green Steel Weapons/Accessories: I love them. Level 11 and 12 are huge when it comes to gear. Thanks mainly do to the ease and power they grant at such a low level. But no.

Titan Raid/ Von loot: There are some real gems here. Sword of Shadow, Kundarak Delving Boots, Stonemeld Plate Armor are just a few from Von. Belt of Brute Strength, Chattering Ring, Gyroscopic Boots of Striding, Jungle Cloak all wonderful raid items and I need another Jungle Cloak But no.

Dragon touched? Nope

Some Cannith crafted super twink item… Well maybe. Those robes of invulnerability with guild slots are sweet. But not what I am thinking.

A sweet bound to account bad ass weapon that you added icy burst? Like a level 2 +1 holy Icy burst great sword or a +1 icy burst keen falchon? Also very close. But no.

There are loads of other great raids out there. All with great loot but one now stands apart from every other item in ddo.

The upgraded Quiver of Alacrity! Yep a quiver. This bad boy was uber enough when it was just a huge quiver with Ranged Alacrity and no level. But upgrade this beast with a Seal of the Black Abbot and it gains 30% striding. The level remains unchanged.

It is now the best item in the game. I firmly believe that. Don’t get me wrong, it is not going to win the game alone. It is not like you can just walk through a dungeon unharmed while wearing it. It is not an easy button. But it is going to be wanted by almost everyone. And the fact that it can be used from level 1 to cap and back again is fairly sweet.

Lots of the other Abbot/Reaver loot got an upgrade. I am really pleased with the new Shroud of the Abbot. I don’t think it changed a lot. It only gained Improved Light Resistance. It is now one of the few items in the game that help with light rays. Now it was not a huge help in the elite Running with the Devils we did over the weekend 20 from 80 is still 60 and 60 times 100 is still dead. But it helped a lot on the normal and hard runs. If you have an old one it can be upgraded to the new version for a few taps at the same alter where you do the main upgrades. Looks like Breeze might have a place with dex builds now also. But be careful Looks like the new Enduring Conviction looses Banishing, a down grade for sure.

I am hoping to take my really old Dream Splitter and make it the new version so I can take that old BtC one and add Suppressed Power to make it Holy and change it to BtA! Adding Force burst is gravy!

Don’t agree use the comments to tell me what I missed.

❤

Your attention, please. The story you are about to see (hm read ) is true; the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

I want to share with you all my latest adventure while running Elite Coalescence Chamber.

There are 3 of us at first and we work on cleaning that first ambush. Samuel, the Spouse and Fopa. See totally different. 🙂

Any way we are just about done when Toebreel logs on and joins us on our marry way. Things are going well, good progress is being made. I almost forgot that Samuel and the Spouse got left behind at one point just before the shrine waiting for a nasty trap on a door to be disabled. And there was much teasing of how the door wasn’t trapped. However, it was indeed.

We are just past the shrine on the first run up and Fopa’s hireling decides to heal Toebreel and not Fopa for like one second. And Boom! Fopa becomes a soul stone. Crushed; Fopa’s hireling hurls herself on to the blades of the mobs and joins Fopa. I guess a rez never crossed her mind. Due to the rage and sadness I am sure.

So rezes are thrown and we are off again. We get to the top and we claim the key to the bottom room. Samuel and the Spouse jump down using their bows to hurt the now respawned mobs. Stopping their decent to beat them to death when a few arrows fail to drop the stinky trogs.

But the path gets cleared to make the return run faster, it is elite after all. A red skull could be bad.

Samuel and the Spouse enter the first locked door and disposing of Frokke and taking his key. And move up to the next locked door. While looting a bag just left on by a wonderful little fire a Gelatinous Cube falls from the ceiling. Forcing Samuel and the Spouse to apply their made archery skills to slay the nasty thing. Suddenly the alert jumps from none to red. Splitting focus the couple divides their attention. Samuel stays on the cube while the Spouse tries to keep the bats down. But Samuel focused on his dance with the cube forgets his own health and a stray bat or two drop him to -2. Not a worry as he has a fairly good AC and dr as well as a jerky ticking, but it gives him a second to ponder. “Where are Toebreel and Fopa?” He asks over the mic, and two replies come in: “Lost you, waiting at the top” and “Top, lost you, Ice cream”. /facepalm

Any how Samuel and the Spouse wrap up the cube and the ambush, you know the not skip able one with like 97 displaced dispelling casters. Good times. A jog back to the first tunnel and a air jet ride back to the top cuts out a lot of not important area of the quest. Open the final door clear the room as a ful party for the first time in a while. A total of 59 mins in quest, meaning not only did the quest take way to long for the xp, missing out on drinking an xp pot before the end. But the ship buffs expired just as the end fight was raging.

Now both of these men can and have soloed said quest. Is “Lost You” a valid reason not to be with the party? Or where they piking with out the courtesy of letting any one know. And what were they doing to spike the Alert?

I can’t wait for Dust now. I plan on running back to the water at some point putting on an underwater action item and watching a show. 🙂
❤

So after talking with my peeps and looking at the feed back I am inclined to go Bard for that end game alt. Many of them also suggested I get over my not wanting to heal and use one of my divines. And like I told them, “I don’t ❤ you enough to heal your BS. At least not full time.”

The general consensus was Divines almost always make the cut, but who wants that? Melee would almost always be taken, but there is a level of gear needed to be in the top tear. Arcane well that is why I am working on Samius. That leaves Art and Bard. Yes I put the rogue in the melee pile, don’t like it bite me.

And once I went over the gear I already have on my bard the choice was clear. Butterz will be burned next. Maybe even as I level Sam. The wife wants to turn her crafting alt in to an Arty not because she liked it but because she wants the crafting help. Can’t say I blame her.

But what might happen is they become side projects for times when we don’t want to get ahead of our fellow Trs. But more likely it will become a main focus about the time Sam caps out this life.

So lets jump to my actual thoughts on a bard build.

I like the Virtuoso, I lot of people don’t. But I love me some Enthrallment and the Sustaining Song. But the way Sustaining Song is coded is kinda not helpful. It becomes the top level regen effect song no matter what. So if you sing it and then say another bard sings Spellsong Vigor your Sustaining Song still wins over the newer Spellsong Vigor. If they adjusted the code so that both songs could be used at the same time or the newest one was the dominant song I think it would fix a lot hate that seems to go around with Virtuosos. I do feel that they are the best solo bard. Although the Warchanter is also very tough.

In light of that huge wall of text above I will be doing a Spellsinger bard. Remember I want the always loved/wanted bard so I have to pass on the Virtuoso, at least for now.

For race I am thinking Helf. I know human is slightly more optimal but Butterz is female and I am tired of big butts atm. I can too pick a race on the size of their bum. Watch me! Being a Helf opens up the Dilettante feats and for this life I am leaning towards the Paladin one. Charisma bonus to saves up to +5 with the AP line. And it opens up gaining Longbow Prof. via AP. Again not super but it is something to think about. Arty and Barb are the only other ones to consider. A small boost to Umd/caster level with scrolls, pots (Guess haste pots would be an little longer) and wands, But takes 13+ Int to be good. Barb is HP and a little DR but doesn’t take and extra stat work.

Here is the other other thing to keep in mind as a Helf it is possible to go EAA (elven arcane archer) + spellsinger and some of the prereqs can be a twofer like Mental Toughness. Down side is EAA also takes 2 more of her already tight feats. And being able to hit with the bow would involve putting some points in to Dex and not having bow strength and a good str makes bow damage so so at best. I will have to think about it.

Comment and what not below.
❤

So I have been getting some feed back over the last few weeks that lead me to believe that atleast some of you, the readers, don’t know who I am or what I do. So I want to give you a min biography.

I am/was one of the co hosts on Ddo Cocktail hour, I like to think of it as that first 15 mins of Live but an hour long and with Ddo as a central topic. There were guests sometimes and sometimes not. We have stopped making new episodes but they hold up well and I think most people would agree at least moderately funny.

I also do/did a segment on DdoCast called Sound Concepts. It kinda got left behind when Lessah and I started CTH but I still come on as a guest any time SigAnne asks.

I do a kind of Dear Samius service. Where I answer peoples questions about builds or most anything Ddo related. You can PM me or send an email to samius@ddococktailhour.com

I am known as Samius the Fat Halfling, and my main is Samius Gurobo of Sarlona. I am a wizard at heart, in fact I have leveled a total of 1 sorc past level 4 and that was Samius when I did the sorc life on my competitionest train. And while I don’t hate the end game I enjoy the leveling process the most. Getting new abilities, and always running different content even if it is the same over all 190 quests.

I used to pug all the time, but over the years bad pugs have gotten to me and I moved to more and more of a short man/channel group player. That doesn’t mean I never pug. Because if I know names in the group I often am willing to give the group a try. But I find that failed runs leave a bad taste in my mouth and it takes awhile to be willing to try again.

Other then Casters and giving advice (wanted or not) one thing I like to think I am known for is taking classes and twisting them into roles most people don’t think that class can do. Like a wizard or bard tank or a ranged focused monk. The build I ❤ best is the 18/2 wiz rog necro focused guy but right now I am loving my Bowonk build.

I also am super fascinated with movies, tv shows, books and general prepping; so there are plenty of non-DDO related topics from time to time but most days you can find a Ddo related topic here. I also try to post 5 times a week, Monday – Friday. With rare double post on days if and when I feel like it.

Well I hope we are all acquainted now. So send in your topic requests please leave comments and or hit the little ranking system so I can get a feel for what it is you want to hear about and I will have something for new for you tomorrow.

❤
Samius

I have a lot of capped alts. And while my game at the moment is gaining competitionest for Samius. I do on occasion feel like doing some end game content. Mainly when guildies or channel peeps are looking for people to fill groups.

So my capped line up is Java (currently a FvS) who I made with the idea of having an end game ready alt. And to be fair, for the effort I put into him; he is super tough with a lot of room to grow gear wise at least. But he has healing spells and therefor is only good to healbot to many people. So he lives in the for friends and soloing only pile. Along with my 3, yes 3 other divine casters. But if people can life until I mass on myself then by all means he can “heal” your group.

I have 2 standby arcanes capped and willing to do something. But their Dcs are kinda low, not having a ton of super gear. Although Samiusbot could be properly equipped and become a fairly solid caster for a first lifer. But then I would loose my main bank alt…

Want I want is an alt that has a place in most end game content, requiring little to no extra gear grinding.

So I am thinking about TRing my bard, Butterzcotch. She already as some of the important gear. Mainly an Epic Elyd Edge and the Mad Lutes. She has some other helpful (raid) gear but nothing super wonderful.

So I am thinking of taking her and doing a 2nd life TR with her. Also it wouldn’t suck to really max her haggle on the way. She would always be welcome in raids that don’t have a bard; would only take a little work to fine tune and can sit on her laurels for long periods of time.

The other way I can go is SamiusJR. My first monk alt. He is not capped. Think he is around level 15. So he is about a week of work from cap. Less if I get him in a good groove. Like if I took the next life off and leveled up an arty and him switching on and off as needed for xp. He currently doesn’t have a ton of gear. But I have epic sets of things sitting and waiting for someone to use them and he could take advantage of a lot of those items. Not to mention Tobril might have already done all the hard leg work with his Tennie Tiny build. Just a thought.

So what do you think? One of these two? Cap a different build? Take one of my 20s waiting for a TR and do something with them?

I am open to ideas.
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