Author Archives: samiusgurobo

Earthquake is the Greatest Spell, EVER!

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Yep, I said it and I will stand by it. Earthquake is the best spell ever. Here is why:

IT TRIPS GLOWBALLS!

If I was a photo master like Geoff Hanna I would make some kind of poster with a bunch of glowballs laying on the ground with some witty text. But I am not, so use your imagination.

Last night my Tr group just finished up Dust (aka the save the spiders quest) and earthquake was a super star there. Yes it trips the hell out of spider. When the conversation turns in to “What is next?” talk. With 30sh mins left on ship buffs we all agree Running with the Devils should be next. And we don’t need to bother to rebuff because on Elite we will all die at least once. Damn, 200-point light rays.

The first room is often a real bear, sometimes setting the tone for the run. We decide that I will be the bait and Tobril and the wife will pull and kill guys off me. On a why not, try an earthquake while the guards wake up to kill us. Odds are good that they will be immune, might as well get a test out of the way.

Boom! 3 of the four trip before even transforming into their other forms. I yell come in earthquake works. And I trip the 4th guy with takedown. Doesn’t take a long and we hardly got a scratch. Quick look in the mirror, yep still smexxy and we are off.

We slow pull as able the guys wondering around the ground floor. And for the most part Tobril was able to ray them to come over and I could trip them with takedown and we would eat the bad men. We did get a group of 4-6 at one point but a quickened earthquake made them fall down and die to a furry of cold breaths and fireballs.

Making our way to the levers went smooth, also do to earthquake, stealth mode + quickened earthquake on glowball casters made things fairly fast if expensive in the SP department. I turned over my stack of SP pots to Tobril letting him be a blaster so we could move quickly.

Low on mana myself at the shrine things turned grim. The glowball I was targeting ran past me as I cast and the spell failed. The three of us split up each one taking a glowball. Tobril had the named genie as well and was the first to fall. At the point my slower cool down on my spells couldn’t keep up with the extra agro that I had picked up from him. And I fell not long after the wife lasted a little longer but by then Tobril and I had hit the shrine and were trying to recover when I chain lighting took Tobril out again, but right after the glowballs got in the earthquake effect and we ate them. And the genie died to a now fired up Tobril. (that is funny because he is a fire sorc) Post shrining we moved on and had no issues with the rest of the quest, trash died in earthquakes to fireballs and cold spells.

Even the big mean glowball died in quick order with Tobril blasting and the wife and I doting/healing Tobril. And we won, in about 36 mins, 21 pots later……We could have gone a little slower and saved pots but they are cheaper then the 30% pots we all had running.

Other things that trip in earthquake that might be note worthy, Lions and other dogs, Rust monsters, invisible stalkers (I think), I said spiders above (?) but not earth and air elies. Aka things with legs that are super hard to trip otherwise.

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More Winter Wolf Goodness

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Did you know that Druids get Flyby Attack at level 17 (ie level 9 spell)? But better? It is called Snowslide.

Snowslide:
Valid Forms: Winter Wolf.

You leap forward with the speed and ferocity of a sudden avalanche. You attack enemies in your path, dealing an extra 2[W], and targets caught in your wake are frozen solid for 20 seconds. A successful reflex save negates the effect, and creatures caught in the ice can attempt fortitude saves to escape every 3 seconds. Creatures frozen are considered helpless, but they also gain DR/Adamantine 5. (DC 19 + WIS mod) Added by Samius 10-13 sec cool down.

Okay so what is not super clear from that description is that it is an abundant leap like move. The closest thing I can find to it is Flyby Attack, which is a tear5 ED power in the sorc line. It has a 1 min cool down and slightly higher DC to trip.

So tell me what is better:
FvS wings/Air Sorc ass blast – 5 shots at a time slow regn unless your in town.
Monk leap – runs on Ki.
Snowslide – Wolf form only, Runs on Sp Short cool down, freeze people that fail a save.
Flyby Attack – Some damage, Trips (little bigger DC), Unusable until level 20 if you have the ED filled out already.

All I know is everything I loved in the Arty the Druid has more or less (minus Rune Arms), everything I hated is gone, plus uber healing and active combat spells but there are bugs. Many, many bugs to work around.

Over all there is something so much fun about running around as a wolf being and being a DC caster and having good melee options. Sounds a lot like how I felt about how Java was playing as a WF FvS, if only that kept up…..

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Druid Enhancements

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As you all know I have been rocking the Druid this life. Sitting at level 17 (18 banked) I have a few thoughts I am ready to share.

Winter Wolf form is stupid good meaning that Seasons’ Herald is a fine PRE, I have been watching the wife tear through content, that Nature’s Warrior might be even better. What is Nature’s Warrior? More damage when attacking. Up to 4d6 more dice if you’re sneaking attacking. And if you’re in a group meleeing you will want the extra damage to rack up the kills to proc….

Reaving Roar, a stance that while activated says kill a guy and sound burst for 13d6 centered on you for free. I am not 100% sure that your metas are applied but I think they are. The damage is good enough that I am tempted to work in a way to boost my sonic damage more then I currently am.

I also am a fan of Nature’s Warden. At first I miss read it thinking that my attacks would gain this extra damage, but I didn’t notice any boost fighting the undeads and assumed it was bugged and planed to leave it out. But then I started to notice some extra damage from my Walls and decided to keep it. And now that I am using earthquake I see it doing that bane damage even though it normally wouldn’t do any damage.

Speaking of earthquake, this spell is Amazing! With a capital A! I would have to look up the DC numbers but lets just say unlike the other CC that gets thrown around this one keeps trying to work threw its duration. Its only down sides are 1, it is a little shorter then other mass CC spells at 30 secs and 2, you might waist that 30 secs laughing. I swear there is very little as funny as watching a bunch of mobs falling over and over like a Bennie Hill clip. IF you remember to WoF or Ice storm while tripping everything it will kill them and you can keep laughing. More so if you have Reaving Roar running and let that extra sonic damage fire off too.

More often then not I run and run until orange skull Jump Earthquake/WoF. Cone of cold-breath spam as needed and let Reaving roar clean up tripped mobs. Fun times.

Lastly I want to point out Celerity. Not sure how you say that out loud… But I will say if you have to apply the beat down for more then a handful of attacks 15 seconds of massive double strike is sweet (even if it has a massive cool down) add your favorite weapon proc and maybe another double strike effect or two and watch the procs fly. I used this a ton while fighting the big black bone in the quest I cheat on Shadow Crypt with aka Litany. There is something to be said about double striking with a Lit 2 and seeing many lighting bolts fly. Sigh…

So those are my main enhancements this life, but what do I know? I am just a spell throwing dog? Next post: Did you know that Druids get Flyby Attack at level 17? But better? It is called Snowslide.

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Wolf Codes

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This is the list of people i have to send wolf codes out to

PrdPolack
Jafsupo
Evennote
Lrdslvrhnd
MarDeRoam
Stergan

If your on this list send me an email @ samius@ddococktailhour.com and i will send you an img of your wolf card. It will be later to day or maybe tomorrow. I had planed to get all the images taken yesterday but got pulled in to xp land most of the weekend and forgot. 😦

If you missed out don’t worry. Once i know how many codes i have left i will be doing some other give away.

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Topic Three, Holy Tree Hugger Batman

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Today is one of those days where I have a lot of thoughts rolling around in my head and I am not real sure what to settle on and turn into a full on post. So I am going to try and do a few smaller posts. I also have a few (not sure how many but more then 2) winter wolf codes to give away. If you want a code leave a comment on the topic and let me know you want a code.

Topic Three, Holy Tree Hugger Batman

I have had the sudden realization that if the xp keeps moving at the same pace or even picks up with Tobril and the wife (almost ready to tag along), I will need a new build real soon. But with my new found love of the druid, I don’t think am done playing what might become one of my favorite classes just yet. And I have be wondering if 9 levels of druid is as good as 9 levels of monk to carry a build through a life……

Nine levels of druid gives us winter wolf form and 2 level 5 spells, so Cold Breath and WoF. Some fairly good Healing at the lower levels Vigor proper and lesser mass if you want to mass heal some… Fom and Sleet storm. And two of my most used Spells Ice Storm and Call Lighting. Oh and lets you take a real sleeper enchantment “Reaving Roar“. Trust me kids you will be hearing about this one again from the “build masters” later.

Wait there is a free AoE that happens when you kill a guy and it is sonic damage? Hmmmmm.

So what can we do with the other 11 levels of which at least 10 should be pally just to make life easy?

Well an Arty level gives some SP, rouge skills and a lot of Xbos feats. I don’t have any xbows on Samius. So a rouge level would be better over all. Maybe take that rouge level at 10 and dump all the points in to umd… something to think about…. That is when all the Chr skill items are about to kick in.

While we are looking at 1 level splashes we should look at Wiz and Fighter for the feat. Which may or may not be needed on whether or not you want to take a pally PRE. The only one I think would be worth it by the time you get it would be Knight of killing out siders, and doesn’t have an feat prereqs. So I don’t think I/we need to splash for feats.

Will pally levels be a help to the druid?

Your not going to get a ton of SP or any access to any really uber spells for that matter. Sure smites and lay on hands might help with the now huge pressure on your kind of small Sp pool, but I don’t think they will be enough help.

Over all I think if I will keep playing with this build because who doesn’t want to play a tree hugging holy batman? I just think it will have to go less Spell focused and more melee focused. And until the shape change melee stuff is all cleaned up I don’t see a great melee only druid in the cards just yet.

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Topic one, Skipping level 12.

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Today is one of those days where I have a lot of thoughts rolling around in my head and I am not real sure what to settle on and turn into a full on post. So I am going to try and do a few smaller posts. I also have a few (not sure how many but more then 2) winter wolf codes to give away. If you want a code leave a comment on the topic and let me know you want a code.

Topic one, Skipping level 12.

There are quest levels that need help. Level 12 is one such area. Not there aren’t plenty of level 12 quests but if your like me you want to keep your streak running at max and you want to spam the good quests on hard after you break the ice on elite. Meaning that at level 12 your running level 10 quests.

You have some Threnal quests a few Titian quests and a lone sand quest at level 10. Aka not worth the time to solo when going xp per min. And this life I am doing really well keeping on track. I TRed on the 24th aka 7 days ago and last night I took level 13. I am on the faster track this life. Which brings me to my second topic so look for the next post to see what that is.

Anyway I think (and I talked to Glin and Jerry about this a few times at the Con) that if Turbine could just take Threnal make them all level 10 quests and tweaked the xp just a little I could see that area really take off. You might need to do a little bit of an item pass for the end rewards but I think they are fine and if they put in a upgrade alter like they did with the Abbot and Reaver raid loot I think things would be great.

So I leveled after breaking the ice on the one level 10 Sands walkup. And starting tonight (unless there is a MtG draft or pnp game happening) I will be hitting up the desert proper.

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Topic two, Druid Naysayers are Wrong.

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Today is one of those days where I have a lot of thoughts rolling around in my head and I am not real sure what to settle on and turn into a full on post. So I am going to try and do a few smaller posts. I also have a few (not sure how many but more then 2) winter wolf codes to give away. If you want a code leave a comment on the topic and let me know you want a code.

Topic two, Druid Naysayers are Wrong.

This life even playing mostly alone or dragging a full on piker around has been super quick and easy. And I think that is because the druid class is so strong.

Sure there are some buggy issues. Like I am not 100% sure that power attack is working in animal form or whether or not the feats/gear whatnots that help monk unarmed damage are worth anything for a druid or not. I would so take the monk past life feat and work in the vestments of more fist dps if I knew things were working. But I don’t think things are right. But even so wolf/winter wolf forms are the nuts. I already talked up some of the lower level attack spells but cold breath is crazy good, almost no timer on a cone of cold? Yes please! And last night I took Jaws of winter. It is amazing even while soloing with a little bluff skill, I can’t wait to see it when I finally get to team up with Tobril who will be in total blaster mode on his sorc.

I feel the druid class is currently so strong I am really debating on switching from wizard to druid as my “final” completest build. I toyed around with the idea of going Arty but the lack of instakill in the arty spell list makes it a no go for me. But hell druids have Finger so some instakill. Even if it wont be as good as a PM’s. But they get better healing and can fill as many different roles as a good bard or arty. But I think they can do better then those other classes.

I am sure Java will be TRing to Druid once I finish up my Pally life while I debate what my “final” build will be. But druid is a real contender.

A like how the druid plays so much it takes me to my third topic.

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Is it Okay to have a Mistress?

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I think everyone knows I love my wife more then words, even though she hits me. Send help. ☺ But have you seen the Xp in Shadow Crypt? Totally massive! I just want to motor boat her massive xp! At level 11 I just want to crawl up in side her and try to make sweet babies of with this quest.

Last night due to staying late at work on a project and then a stop at the store to pick up food stuffs and then eating said food stuffs left me with about 2 hours of game time with my not so secrete love.

I even went ahead and bought my lovely quest some XP pots from the store. First time run on Elite with my streak fully loaded gave me 43k+ optionals in xp for about 18 mins of work. Total satisfaction……

Thanks to some thinking ahead I was able to pull my alt account threw a few elites before I errored and didn’t catch the window.

I might have openly wept. I had plans to bring that alt account threw a few times and only once I had had my way with eShadow would I allow the alt account to wonder over to and pick up the quest so we could double team her on Hard walking down the good times to casual.

Thanks to rolling around with pure wonderment/joy I have when finishing with eShadow I let Fumblebot run out the door closely followed by Samius and I to late I caught my frack up. So Fumblebot got on chapter and started opening. Once burned; I made sure to have Fumble recall out before starting the end fight which still netted him 5-6k a run for standing at the door and throwing a few walls of fire.

The last run it was getting close to bed time and I was in a rush to get to bed before the wife and dogs take over the bed completely. I started to rush. Not stopping to gather any extra gears. I am sorry I missed the signs Shadow. As I ran for the final hallway I noticed that I could have gotten a 3rd of every color. But I was on a mission. The door to the final path was in yellow water aka west I swim threw and start auto running while swaping to Fumble and get him recalling and out of no wear Samius comes running into the starting room. I ran out the east room.

So stupid.

I start making the run again from the start, this time I noticed I ran pass 3 out of the 4 rooms that I hadn’t looted yet and had I looted the last room I ran through on my last trip to yellow water I would have a set of 3rd gears…..
Even with my mistakes I was able to make 6-7 runs in two hours. And the final run netted me the last xp I needed to take level 12 when I am ready. But I am not done running with Shadow. She and I have to make a dent into level 12 before I try my hand at killing maruts and beholders in von3 and robots in von4.

I am sure my wife thinks there is another woman on the nights I run Shadow Crypt but really there is just a special quest in the hole I call my heart.

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Missing Items

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Over the last year to 18 months I have done more then a few TRs and it seems like every few lives I realize that something has gone missing. When I catch something missing I have no idea when I had it last or if there is anything else that has vanished. But the result is the same, the item is gone and I am confused wither or not there is anything I can do about getting these items back short of farming the raid. I did say all the ones I know that have gone missing have been raid items right?

The first time I noticed something missing was back when I did my Bard or Barb life. I had just turned level 12 and I was wearing shitty armor and I remembered that I had a set of Marilith Chain and Demon Scale from the DQ. I couldn’t remember which armor was the “good” for dps but I had them both. Before I started TRing I had taken all my active raid timers to a 20th list and I was passed the bad set in the chest and taken the “good” set in the end reward list. Thinking well if I am going to TR a whole bunch having armor would be the worst idea.

Of course I was missing the Marilith Chain when I went looking. Ended up using the Demon Scale for a few levels until switching to a Chain Shirt of Crippling and that went out for one of my many sets of Dragon Touched armor. But now that I think about it I don’t have the Demon Scale or the Chain Shirt of Crippling any more. Don’t think I would have sold them. But after I got fairly high in the Cannith crafting system I stopped using them so they might have gotten lost in the Armor wars. But I know that the Marilith Chain was stolen from me.

Long time readers might remember that durning my Sorc life I took a few weeks off grinding the xp to take a few raids to 20s again and to farm Epic von6 for shield parts, which I totally got by the way. But as I ran eV6 about 10 times for the shard for my shield I was passed lots of other base items just in case. Some I used others got added to the bank and doubles got sold. One such double item that I know I sold one of and kept the other was the Ruby Encrusted Gauntlets. I remember thinking that I could foresee making a set of gloves epic at some point the boost to fire spells and epic slots in gloves, but that was a long shot as I have 7 fingered gloves and like UMD.

But I had two pairs. I know that I had at least one set during my Arty life as I tried using the non epic version for its clickly thinking that if anyone can make this clickly worth wild it would be an Arty. It wasn’t by the way. But that was only a few months back.

Jump to last night when for some reason I thought that they might have some kind of combustion value and allow me one less weapon swap in combat and my glove slot happens to be empty now that I am no longer using the Vulkoor’s Might set. And no joy in the bank, which I guess is okay as taking a look at the ddowiki today, the level 9 version does not have any combustion.

So have you noticed any thing gone missing on TR? Like me does everything that goes missing seem to be raid items or is that just a trick of the mind and non-raid/named items go missing from time to time but I just don’t notice?

<3s

Flame Throwing Winter Wolf

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I said yesterday that I would explain how I play my druid and I think the title sums it up nicely but I will elaborate some.

I have a Merc Stealth keyboard:
Merc Stealth

As you can see it has a wonderful video game section that allows me to play ddo much better then I could before. But like all layouts there are keys that are easier then others to hit. For me the “quick keys” that I find easiest are 1-4 and 7-9.

I bring it up because I think that showing what spells align with which keys shows the order of importance.

So my quick keys are:
1 Takedown, Quick back of the hand DC for its trip effect is 24ish which works on most mobs. Might need to find a vertigo item and boost it more. By far the most used spell/special attack.

2 Baiting Bite, this is my kill guy attack. If I need something dead now I hope this guy is of timer. So far max damage I have seen from this attack was 389, yes I rolled a crit but as the wolf forms are 19-20 they are not bad. But I am level 9.

3 Call Lighting, on monks this is where I put stunning fist. This is the easiest of the number keys to hit and I hope starts to show how even though I am melee a lot of the time I am just as spell caster as ever.

4 WoF. Every caster I have has their main AOE spell on the 4 key. It is just kinda my thing. Having this spell here just makes things easy for me. And you haven’t lived until you stunned or tripped a burnable monster in your main AOE.

5 Ice Storm, I want to have to reach for this key some, I don’t want to put of my WoFs because of a slight error. On monk lives I use this key for my finisher.

6 Flame strike, It is a little slow but as it does fair damage some of which is good damage I like to have it around. More then once this life I run to red skull WoF and then used Flame strike on top of wall to clear the agro. But it is over out of the way.

7, the second easiest quick button for me to hit. It is currently Panacea but once I have another 5th level spell slot it will become Cold Breath I think.

8 I think is currently Spike Growth. I like to have a CC spell here and for a while Snare or Entangle took the slot but I wanted more AEO damage for some of the gather mobs kill kill kill fests that I am currently running for xps.
9 Vigor, I just want to say I really like this spell. And I can’t wait to play with more of the regen spells. But they are not extendable? Come on Turbine, WTF?

10/0 is always Cure pots. That is another for every alt thing. But I almost aways reach across with my mouse had to hit the other 10/0 key

So to me that kind shows the melee and caster nature of the druid but incase it is not clear to others my current style is pull until I get slowed or I need to kill for a quest adjective. And then AOE and more often then not stand and trip and or eat people.

I guess weapons might also help make a clear picture but as they are about to change tonight (I will be leveling up) I think they can wait until the level up dust settles.

BtW I know I say this about every class, but I really like the Druid and I am really thinking about making Javabot one full time now.

<3s