So yesterday I went home sick after about 2 hours of work. Don’t think I would have gone in at all if I didn’t have a meeting I have been trying to put together for about a week. Including getting some British coworkers on the phone before they took of for the day.

Long story short, I went home and zoned out completely watching a Dirty Jobs marathon and trying not to visit the restroom too often.

A round 4, I started to feel a little bit alive and wondered over to my computer. Have you ever tried playing when you think your head is floating 2 feet above your neck? Very strange, but somewhat doable.

I was able to run the last Litany runs I needed this life to drain that last xp from it. Including two normal runs, a hard and a casual. All runs to bosses, no named loot for any of the 10 or 12 runs at least 7 of those runs with 4 people in the group. That drop rate might be a little off guys…

I decided to level to 17 taking monk level 9. I didn’t have all the prereqs for touch of death. The Ap are there sooner or later. But I think I am going to reset and see if I can’t make it fit now. I went ahead took all the available Elven Archer line. Including Terror Arrows. That was an error. They are kinda shitty. I did use them to fair effect when playing in the vale with a paralyzing bow. But they are not worth the AP right now when I also want the bad Touch.

I had just talked the wife into two manning some quests when I decided to bail and hit the couch again. I found it super funny later, she didn’t.

A few hours later I got back on, gathered the forces led them to their deaths. Reformed and tried again. And we were on the win train. At least until I was cooked. Took all I had left to watch Storagewars before crashing by 930.

Did I say I am a really bad sick person? Well you know you ❤ me, sick or not.

❤

Most of the TR group leveled to 16 over the weekend. There was some good time had and some not so good times. But all in all we are moving along well. But I want to talk about the last few levels of play on my bowonk and kinda give a little run down. My split is now 8/6/2 monk/ranger/fighter.

I have been doing the AC thing for the last few levels. All decked out for AC I can now kick it into the mid 50s; 56, 57. I normally let it hover in the 53 range and that seams to work well for the most part. Add in the ninja spy’s Shadow Fade as often as possible and damage intake is not bad.

In the places where it can be tough I am up to enough healing amp that my jungle cloak hits for more then 12, my jerky for 4 and my lesser vamp wraps for 2. Yes Tobril, some place over 200-250% even lesser gets bumped you were right. Makes me wonder if the Vamp stonedust wraps are different then the kamas from Mindsunder….

So amp + Ac normally equals no damage. But at 8 in earth with jidz I am 2d6 with my fists and greater two weapon. So not bad. Many shot and 10KS are earning their keep. But the big winner is Improved Precise Shot. All that practice with Lighting bolt, getting it to hit 2+ guys at a time is really paying off here. I haven’t gotten any complaints about my ranged combat. I think it is mostly because I don’t kite often. I can stand and take it. And most mobs don’t live real long with a Manyshot followed up with 10KS.

Most weaknesses can be shored up with temporary gear swaps. I had made a pair of GS goggles Air/Air for the haste clicky. I had intended to make them 30 Elc resistance, for another undispellable resistance. But made and error and made them +5 reflex saves. Turns out on elite those + GoGF, HG and want not I still fall enough to piss me off. All boosted up my reflex is 36+, but I will be damned if those 1s wont kill me just as dead as if it was 0. Next level I get Improved Evasion, think that will help a lot.

All in all I really like how the bowonk is handling. The main issue is that there are so many options at any given time it can be a little over whelming. But I like that. 😉

❤

I was going to try and write something new about how in game relationships can lead to out side of game relationships. The good and the bad. But I had a shitty day, and I don’t feel like rehashing that topic. Long story short, friends are good, romantic friends are good as long as they are not hurting real life relationships.

What I do want to talk briefly goes bad to a being prepared to handle an emergency. I keep one eye on the my different news feeds while working. And today I noticed that there was a real emergency developing at Virginia Tech. There was a possible gun man loose and at least one person was shot maybe dead.

I watched the story unfold on Twitter and indeed there was a police officer shot and killed while on duty. And the shooter had taken off on foot.

The story is still making is way out. I am sure by the time you read it hear it will be old information.

My point is that emergencies can happen any place at any time with varying degrees of danger. And we should try to be somewhat ready. And defending yourself and loved ones should be at the top of your list.

I want to point out that one Mr. Alex Haddox has written a book Practical Home Security: A Guide to Safer Urban Living. You can get a physical copy and a digital copy. I would say pick up a copy and give it a good read. Hopefully with his help you can nip a few possible emergencies in the bud before they become actual emergencies.

But if nothing else please keep in mind that bad things can happen at any time. Hey look at the weather today over in Scotland. While you remember a fallen officer that died in the line of duty.

❤

So last night the TR group logged on and got their shit together and ran some quests. Namely the Lordsmarch and Attack on Stormreach chains. Assuming you can put one and one together you might have figured out that there was either friendly fire murder, or threat of murder.

I don’t mind being the target of a little fun, if I have already had a mistake and found myself a little more ghostly then I normally like. But if I am rocking my ship buffs, mainly the xp bonus I don’t want to be made dead by my team mates.

So any way we had a few deaths, last night. The first I want to say was mine. I was eating dinner in Summerfeild as high up as I could get with auto attack on and my bow out. Need less to say, some guy I shot in the bum didn’t die and ran up behind me just as the wife asked me about 100 questions about Christmas. My focus shifted between finishing my dinner and answering her and that one guy ran up behind me and stab me in the guts, a lot.

I know that is not the kind of party member death you would expect but that was the first “friendly” death.

After that we took a swim in the harbor our brave leader said something about splitting up. I said as long as I get a shot at the chests (guild xp, crafting essences as well as the area crafting bits) and we clear the optionals sounds fine. The wife and I go to the south most boat to handle the named ogre captain. After a 10kS salvo and about 10 secs of Manyshot he was at 50% then every shot started to miss. I click the attack boost button, Miss Miss Miss Miss…. Okay? Look to check the buffs, and red skulled. Oh that would explain it. 😦 The wife and I play fox and the rabbit. Letting one get agro until needed break off and heal or the other pulled agro off. It is good to be a ninga! We managed to kill the captain off and in short order lower the alert. Next thing I know Fo is on board letting us know he has wired the middle ship and the last ship has 4 mins left on its timer.

Heading to the middle ship to get the named I learn that I am alone. The captain of this ship and I are in an epic battle with both of us at about 50% when jokes about just blowing the last ship starts to ring out.

Wait I am on the last boat!

After a few more jokes get made and someone points out that there was already a death, I bug the hell out. Fo has no problems killing me off for a joke, and they sounded like they might enjoy the giggles. Lets just say I made it off the boat alive. But the explosion warmed my back side some.

Undermine was the normal attempted murderfest. With people calling out false timer mishaps. Which I really had, when I called mine out. Or people moving past optionals while I set bombs to open the way, cutting of the “path of retreat”. What ever that is…

Towards the end there was an attempt made while everyone was waiting for the path of the final boss to open. And the wife got taken out by someone while looting her chest right at the end.

Playing with the bombs can be fun when everyone is playing. But if you take out someone that is not playing along it is not fun times. 😦

Anyway I had a good time and plan farm them some more.
❤

Inspired by Geoffhanna’s If I could have one DDO spell in real life Read his first is is much better then what ever I am about to write.

I think almost every D&D nerd has asked this question at one time or another. And while I tend to agree with Geoffhanna that there are a great number of spells that appeal to me. He hits most of the biggies: Invisibility, Dimension Door, Teleport, Fly (oh to fly /cry), Charm/Dominate; he even covers the helpful divine magics. But a few major spells come to mind that his list is lacking.

Disintegrate, the best removal spell ever. Just think about it; It handles every major problem. Cheating girl friend? Nope. Don’t like the stance you boss is taking on a topic? He might see things you way as his office starts to turn to dust. Yep, Disintegrate is a real contender.

Polymorph any Thing: Similar problem solving spell as disintegrate, but allows a more “humane” way to handle said problems. Need some cash? Bricks are cheap, gold is not. New car? Old is new again. Don’t want to eat your veggies? Broccoli becomes Bacon.

Wall of Force: How many times have you been blocked by a “mysterious” wall of force? Again handles most problems? But requires a little more creativity. How much do you want to work for it.

Create Undead, What their dead? Look if you don’t want a castle made with the bodies the living dead, I don’t think we can be friends any more. 🙂

One of the ones that I would like the most would be Magnificent Mansion. You can create a extradimensional mansion filled and stocked with your hearts desire, yes please. Sure I live in the middle of no place, but walk in to my tree and let me show you around. Here is the pool room. Why yes that wall is a HDTV. And I never have to clean.

But the biggie and most bad ass spell on the list: Shapechange. I want to be a dragon, or an eagle, maybe just be Ryan Reynolds or the new Conan for a few hours, done and done. Want to take a swim, Shark. Or maybe just hang out and do nothing? Sloth time.

But you know what? I think that Magnificent Mansion spell is my winner. Yep. Lets run down Geoffhanna’s examples:

Oh really, Mr. Boss, I am getting only a 1% raise this year? Wait, Why am I working? I have a great house with everything I could want? Maybe boredom if so, 1% is fine.

Sure Officer, here’s my license and registration … Wait, Why am driving? The living room and the dinning room is not so far away I need to drive. Wait! What the hell is a traffic cop doing in my house anyway?

Yes Ms. Bill Collector,… You want my house? Take it. I will move into a box. I don’t care.

No Mr. Imperial Stormtrooper these are not the droids you seek… Humm, okay maybe they are or maybe the ones seek are in the sub sub sub basement. 🙂

Also think of the house parties I could have. You all could come over. We could trash the place. And when we were done, I could just summon up another one. The clear winner.

I had a different intro, but it came across as whiny and not quite what I was going for. So instead let me say I from Thursday night until Sunday about 6pm my time I was on a terror. And my go go batteries are mostly tapped out. Thankfully I was able to log on and do some mindless mob killing / xp farming in the vale and that got me going enough to get some real play in.

I think everyone knows that I dig using the explores for just this kind of thing. And I think most of you know that I am enjoying the ranged options that the bowonk is offering(to the point of ranging only for whole quests). After about 30-40 mins of just chillin killing with my lig2 or the paralyzer of PG, I started to feel human again.

After my time in the explores ranging lately I can see why so many people like them. They are claming.

As I was saying, I was feeling human enough to want to help a Fopo with a quest. I guess the main boss at the end can be quite a pain. But between Fo and I (10KS and Manyshot) the fight only lasted about 50 seconds.

Let me tell you Mummies don’t have an issue with Acid or Lightning but Force of Disruption tears them up. : )

Afterwards is dawned on me that we are level 14 now meaning Attack on Stormreach is up. And I love that chain. And we ran that first one in the chain 2 or 3 times.

So all in all it was a fair night of play before logging to watch Dexter and reading Dresden Files until I fell asleep in bed.

I can’t wait until tonight when I hope to log in an get a full charge on my batteries.

❤

The other day I did a little song and dance to get a meaning full AC on my bowonk. And while not great for the questing I am doing it is worth wild. I think I said a few post back it is about 49 + buffs like shield and pro evil.

One of the things I did to get my AC up was craft a simple outfit. Lifeshield of imp False Life. To free up a ring slot that was equipping a greater False Life ring for a +6 dex ring. Aka +3 Ac for -10 hp.

The minimum level for said item is level 13.

I run over to the stone of change add +1 AC ritual to it and enjoy the night. I log on the next day and I am wearing a funky outfit. Checking my sheet I am standing in the buff. Equip another robe I have handy and remove it and back to the standard undies.

Strange but the point is my outfit got recalculated to be a level 15 item with the +1 stone of change ritual on it. Grr.

So I sprung for some house C marks from the store and lowered my item back to level 13. But come on.

This is not the first time a Cannith crafting bug hit me. I made a force burst of lesser vamp great sword with a med guild slot and added the + to hit gem. Took it up to level 9 where it was a level 5 item. Growl.

Anyway it was on my mind. And I needed a topic to post.

You get hit with any fun times crafting bugs?

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I am seeing a ton of builds doing the Helf ranger/monk thing for 10KStars and Ninja Spy. And now after playing my own build to level 13 I have some thoughts.

It is the most fun melee build I have played. Before this I would have said my bard/fighter build or a WF FvS. It combines all the things I like in a melee; healing (self and others) and good damage numbers. While at the same time giving it a great deal of options for style of play and/or personal customization. Ranged is a good option for damage with a few banked Ki and a Manyshot of timer ready to go or 30sec left on cool down. And if you have a good healer in the party many of the Helf Dill options are super good as well as having viable options for stances to use. Like I said good and full of options.

With that said the bowonk is a 3 class build. So taking any of those 3 classes to the needed levels as to count as the “life” for the purpose of having done the class for past life feats, is easy. Add a few more levels of the wanted class and lose some monk levels. It is not a hard sacrifice for such a flexible frame.

But if I want to say use this frame for say a Pally or Rog life. It becomes a little less clear how to use it. So this is my basic 12 level package. With the idea that I have a few lives already done. But they ate not 100% needed but they add options.

1, Rang(1) Feat (Point Blank Shot)
2, Monk (1) (MF – Power Attack)
3, Rang(2) Two Weapon Fighting, Feat (Barb past life)
4, Monk (2) (MF – Stunning Fist)
5, Rang(3) jidz+earth d6->d8
6, Rang(4) Feat (Monk past life)d8->d10
7, Rang(5)
8, Rang(6)Manyshot, Improved Two Weapon Fighting
9, Monk (3)Feat(Sorc past life)
10, Monk (4) Unarmed Strike d10->2d6
11, Monk (5)
12, Monk (6) Feat (Weapon Focus: Ranged) AA- force and acid arrows…
*All past life feats can be replaced with non past life feats other then the monk one: but I happen to think the past life feats are better.

This path is laid out as it is for two main reasons. Get the most out of the ranger levels while keeping the pain of playing with a bunch of deep monk splashes down. And Bring AA and GTWF up as quickly as possible.

Also this layout happens to get your 12 base in 12 levels. Believe me I have seen many builds that defer getting to their point until very late in life. I once watched my friend Dana at level 18 or 19 until his build even started to click. Some builds do fine but really don’t get going until cap and epic gear. We don’t have to worry about that here.

The other thing I think is nice is if you want to take your first level in your “main” class for say skills or bonus feats this layout shifts up fairly nicely. There aren’t any prerequisites for anything. I can easily see going Rog first level for skills on a rog live or Fgr or Pally for full Intim or to take a combat feat like stunning blow or toughness.

Anyway I need to get to work,
❤