Author Archives: samiusgurobo

So I am a dog….

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Friday I took the day off work for some brain scans. Turns out that my sister in law was running the CT that day so we were able to catch up some. Big plus side, she saw that there was a brain in my head so no more brain less jokes. ☺

Before the scans I took Sam and powered thru the last 6k I needed to cap out for my fighter life. I am so tired of punching everything to death. I need a caster life real bad, hence my excitement to start my druid life.

After much thinking, less so then other more complicated builds, this is what I have decided to do. I went Dwarf thinking HP and SP lines wouldn’t suck. A larger con with an easy self-healer would be ok, as well as having the boosts to tactical skills. Hey I just did a fighter life remember? My Dcs should be fairly good for tripping and stunning even with out a +10 item thanks to some APs. And nothing burns like a tripped bitch in a WoF!

My leveling plan is druid until I feel like I need another feat/ after getting WoF with monk being the most likely splash. I think all the monk-unarmed stuff works while in animal form. Maybe I should make a Vet 2 guy and try a few monk levels just to be sure. Can you Vet with a druid now?

Anyhow Friday afternoon I hit up the TR tree and became a druid. Let the XP zerg begin. My goal is to catch up to Tobril who is powering up right now and is about 10 levels ahead of me.

Level one was about the same as every other level one. Take whatever two hander I could find on the AH for 100 plat or less and clean out the first few island quests until hitting level 2.

At two find BtA Holy of Icy burst great axe on one of the 3 possible bank alts but while leveling up I got to pick a shape sifting form…. Well from what I have read bear is more dps and even though I am tired of melee 24/7 the first few levels are always a melee-fest. But using my brain for a min I look at my spell list for the “form” spells. And the wolf form Takedown is worlds better then Maul (the bear form 1st level spell). And you know all those extra tactical boosts might help with that Trip DC, right?

” Takedown – This attack deals an extra 2[W] damage, and you may trip the target, rendering it prone. Some creatures may be immune to this effect. A successful Balance check negates this effect. (DC 11 + WIS mod. Any effects that improve the DC for the Trip feat also improve Takedown.)”

So I take wolf form. With a little reading of my enchantments I see Blood Moon Frenzy, aka kill a guy and run faster. Moving faster means less time in quest and more xp/min.

Levels 3 and 4 are fast and thankfully my pile of uber handwraps are going to be a real help as your weapon type doesn’t seem to effect your animal forms attacks any, super nice. 5 and 6 aren’t too bad as I get in with other speed leveler and he can open STk pt3 and Bloody Crypt. 11 runs of the former at a min or two a run equals big xps and a little slower but still good runs of the latter takes care of the rest of the easy levels. 7 and 8 are a little slower as now it is Saturday and I need to do some non-ddo stuff. But firing up the kids account reflags me for bloody which I do a few hards totally skipped Proof, which is fast/good xp for me most of the time.

I try bear form for a little bit but it is just too slow after so much time as a wolf and Baiting Bite is so much stronger then the bear’s Shred attack. 4[w] vs 3[w] and opening people to sneak attack vs a sunder? Don’t get me wrong it looks like Tremor might make bear form better but that is a few levels away. But looking more at the list looks like the pack spells start to give more amp…. Hm more amp is more better…. So wolf might stay the clear winner.

So logging last night a little away from level 10, I really love level 9. There is just a great amount of quest at level 7 to really power up with. Like I said above I am doing the winter wolf form now at least until I get 6th level spells to try out Tremor. I have tempted to take some monk levels. 1 level would allow me to take stunning fist and having a “fighting” level will open up trip on its own. A second level will allow me to get into earth stance which I think would boost the unarmed damage if I was using a Jidz, add in the past live monk feat and I could have both good dps and good spell casting. Starting to sound a little too good. Good DPS, selfhealing and spell casting?

More on how I am playing, as it is totally different then my only guide, aka the wife, is playing hers.

❤

Is that time again

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With less then 200k until I TR Samius again it is time to start thinking about builds and what is left for him…

Double-checking Samius’ my.ddo page it looks like I have everything but Druid and Pally left to play out before opening up completionist. Then I have different questions to answer for myself… But for now the questions is Druid or Pally?

The other day before Gencon I was feeling burnt out on melee lives. Or maybe I was/am just tired of the different bowonk shells. Don’t get me wrong the bowonk is super strong and is covering all the bases in the HP/DPS/healing/ Xp per Min piles but how many lives in a row can I play with is more or less the same class? Again it is stupid strong to the point where I was auto attacking end quest boss fights last night and watching Sherlock on Netflix (btw it is really great! I ❤ the BBC most of the time even if they killed Coupling)

Leveling the pally will be the fastest on one of the Bowonk shells I am liking the 9/1 monk/arty shell in everyway (other then being burned out on the melee style) so it will have to wait until after a caster focused Druid.

So lets look at the Druid because I haven’t really looked at it all that much. The wife has one she is soloing with atm and she loves it.

So a quick look at the druid class and it looks good. Mostly shape changed focused with a sub focus on the pet. Uses the ¾ Bab, d8 hp and has Fort/Wis as good saves over all it is a tree hugging Clr.

And what do we know about Clrs? It is all about the DC and spell list, ie Clrs have the 2 best spells in DDo. Okay really the best 3 spells: BB, Destruction, and Heal.

Druids get Wall of Fire (lvl 9 ie just in time for Shadow Crypt and other Necro quests) , Finder of Death at level 15 just in time for Giant Hold. Looks like heal is also level 8 spell so level 15 but they also get Panacea and a ton of Regen like spells is ample self healing and catch all healing.

The question becomes do I splash a rouge level and/or 1 or 2 monk level or 2 monk levels or not?

I think getting to WoF is super important and their spell list handles most umd scrolls easy enough but they are missing some like teleport.

Anyway I think I will try out a pure druid unless hand wraps work while in animal form in which case I might have to add a few levels of monk after level 9 earth stance dire bear with a max Wis, stunning fist/stonedust wraps and a jidx/and a past life monk feat? Sounds sexy to me….
I foresee more reading on druid/monks for me.

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Did You Stand Around and Wait for Me?

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Yes folks, I am back from Gen Con. I seem to have made it back in one piece and I am back working hard at work; or is that hardly working and writing a my.ddo post for you all…..

I could talk about Gencon but if you go to ddococktailhour.com you can hear about the first few days of the con. If you do you will get to hear from a lot of other people besides just me. Aka worth it.

So to day I want to talk about something I feel is strange raiding for xp.

With the addition of the epic levels it is super hard to find a raid group on Sarlona that is raiding for xp. It seems to me that everyone is letting 21+ people even if it is 10 guys at level 20 and lower there is almost always at lest one level 21+ guy in the group.

Well last night I thought I might have gotten lucky. There was a pug forming a shroud raid that really only had 19s and lower in the group. With 7 people already in the group I jumped in thinking that I would get a nice tasty boost this life after all. Before epic levels I could count on 200k xp from raiding fairly easily.

I was guy number 8 or 9 by the time I was allowed in and I hit the boat super fast and made my way to the raid. There is all of one guy standing around out side of the quest. And lots of talk about making it X fair this time and reforming and what not… But no one on voice but me it seems.

Before long I notice health and SP bars dropping and I discover that the group is IP. Maybe I missed something while porting?

I asked and they are doing part one over and over until they fill. From the party chat I think that they are having issues…. And this is their 4th or 5th run and they have gotten the chests some of the runs…

Go up to 10. The guys in side start to recall post-winning part 1 and looting. Once out the leader again via the text box says that they will do part one again since they are still not full and disbands the group and starts a new Lfm.

Hmm, pass. I return to the dreaming dark chain and proceed to net a 1k+ a min for an hour or so before making a run to the store. I take a look at the lfm panel and guess who is still hunting for people to fill his Shroud raid…Yep same guy.

I understand not wanting to stand around a waste time while a raid fills. But expecting others to stand around and wait for you may not be the best plan either….

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Another Weekend Report

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Note: My vacation starts in 90 mins, but as I am going to GenCon there may or may not be posts. I will be tweeting and using Google+ for things. So if you want to keep up and or watch CtH live look for me (Samius Gurobo) on G+.

Okay on to the run down of the weekend.

I get home Firday night logging on I learn that one @Tobril is “ill” and has been playing DDo all day. Funny I should have been ill too with 35% xp bonus. Once I get on we destroy Litany and then together we start the Shroud flagging quests. Good times were had.

Saturday I get on and solo elite Coal Chamber because it is a hell of a lot easier with out people “getting lost” at the top and scaling the dungeon. Not that @tobril does that, unless you read this blog then he might. ☺

Wrap up Coal, takes about 63 mins man I am slow sometimes…. Log and take a bike ride as it is a nice 80 out side and I want to hit the farmers market on the way home and get some fresh meat. Get on about 2 hours later post ride/lunch and wham look who crawled out of bed for more xp? Mr. Tobril.

Together we rock the rest of the Vale quests on elite. Running with the devils was an extra hard beats. I guess that spell damage is being super amped by mobs as if laser guns weren’t bad enough before. I was taking 100+ hits and Tobril and I wipe in the first fight, holy cow. We restart and destroy the quest. Didn’t hurt that I passed him 10 Sp pots and told him to drink as needed on his WF arty. After I remembered my Abbot robes, although 100-20 is still way to damn much for trash mobs to spam!

12 pots and 4 deaths later we finish up. Sure is was painful but hey I understand that very few people are about to complete Devils right now so I will take the win. Oh also I hear with scaling full groups are taking 200+ per laser hit. WTF mate? Is all I get to say about that…

With about 30 mins left before a dinner party Tobril says hey can we knock out any diff Coal real fast just to flag this guy as if he will ever run shroud. Team A did the quest, while team B (tobril) cleared the top for the extra chest. He wrapped up about the same time I hit the first open able door. And the wife and I start talking about dinner, Tobril and I are talking about the quest, Happen to scale the quest to red skull and don’t quite hit where I need to stand to clear the room while red skulled and take a death due to being just plan dumb. But I happen to have a res cake and pop up and take care of business meeting Tobril at the lowest door just as he arrives. Together we burn threw the quest with a 21 min completion time.

Sunday I solo some hard/normal Enter the Kolbolds and the vale quest again on Hard/normal dragging my other account threw the latter for flagging and almost capping out that accounts first alt. Will finish things out in IQ hunting for the rune arm for sure.

I logged last night at 18.4 and 3/4 s or almost to 19 I think with the Shavraith and IQ quests I can do finish out after Gen Con fairly smoothly. IF I am really smooth I will be about to cap out and then catch up with the rest of the guild that are running a TR pass but I think that might be a little much for me alone but what else can I do but try?

Peace out kids. I look forward to seeing those of you that are going to Gencon at the con. And the rest I will try to post some while I am away, but do that twitter and G+ thing too; okay?

❤

Litany a Love Note

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Litany a Love Note

First I know I owe you all two posts today, a real post for yesterday and one for today. Let me just say I will do what I can.

Now the real post:

That xp bonus couldn’t have hit at a better time. I had just finished flagging the artificer on my premium account Steampower for Litany of the Damned. Aka the bestest (or one of the best anyway) quest in all the land.

Have to say that first run took a little longer then I would have liked. About 20 mins I had to Gh a second time, grrrr. But after I zerged the quest with Samius that piker Steampower followed threw for his chest. With out much thought I did the puzzle and drank a 30% xp pot from the store and 49k+ xp flew across the screen. Almost 30k for Steam which with out a pot, tome or streak I have to say wasn’t bad for a first run.

Did a few normal runs after that. The first run I wasn’t thinking and answered Mentau, which I didn’t want to do first. So we restarted and went in a proper order. Cinnis/Mentau/Vol/Doomnuts. Really the only one that having the right item really helps on is Mentau as the rest of the items are so so at best.

It takes me about 10 mins to run the quest on normal. I learned that Samius is tough enough that if I clear Kai’s room of trash I can set Sam on auto attack and run Steam up just out side of the room in time for Sam to jump back throw a restore and get back to work. Sometimes Sam would kill Kai before I got switched back even.

The optionals do take a few mins on a melee. On a caster they are a lot quicker, run run run turn AOE death jump turn and run some more. Being sure to get all the chests can add a wee bit of time to the run as well. But Tome pages don’t pull themselves.

Run 6 and I was still getting almost 20K for the quest and 10k for optional per run. I am hoping that even ran dry that the quest will be time efficient with the bonus. If I can get a full level out of Litany even if it is running the same thing over and over and over then life will be much easier later when I wonder off to other level 15 quests, because there aren’t a ton of level 15s worth running for xp.

Infact there are no other level 15 quests that are anywhere need time efficient even with the extra bonus.

<3s

Cth is Going to be @ Gencon 2012 and I Need Your Help

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It is the end of the world as we know it and in typical Samius fashion I have talked Lessah in to a Live show at Gencon to really rock it out. There were still tickets last I looked and I don’t foresee selling out anytime soon. So if you going to GenCon please consider picking up tixs.

But what I want from other then to go to the show is to help me plan some games for Lessah/myself and the crowd to play.

So send me DDo trivia questions.
Marry/Frack/Kills
Weird sounding things that I can ask Lessah “What is…?”

You can also send me anything you want Us to talk about and if you think it will embarrass Lessah some send that along to just because.

Drop me a PM/or a My.ddo mail or send me an email proper @ samius @ ddococktailhour.com

Also if you can’t come for some reason, I plan to use A google+ hangout for taping the show. So look for those details to follow as soon as I get them all worked out.

Rock on guys and I expect to see some emails from you all that I hope will make Lessah trun Rowanheal pink!

❤

Chewing on a Tuna Can.

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This is going to be one of my non-DDo posts. So if that is what you wanted check back later there might be some ddo related content for you or hit the archive almost 400 posts of good stuff back there.

For the last 24 hours or so I have had a metallic taste in my mouth. I am going to use the saying of chewing on a tuna can to describe the feeling as apposed to the much funnier blowing Iron Man. But the long and short is everything tastes like tin. Food, water, tea everything; it is getting super old. I have to blame a migraine for this although before yesterday I never had a painless migraine but had other symptoms.

Well let me tell the story. I was working/writing my blog post for yesterday and I started to notice a strange taste in my mouth. A few mins later I thought I had a light going out as I noticed a mild strobe effect, nothing to bad just bad enough to be noticeable. 10 or 15 mins later I start to feel dizzy and then an overwhelming nausea. If it weren’t for my pilot training I would have emptied my belly a few times over.

Something they teach you, as a pilot is to not be sick even if you feel sick and how to not get sick while flying. Some of those lesions are a big help in the real world.

With in 30 mins I was a mess, but I didn’t hurt in my normal I am awake migraine way and that was nice. Even so I couldn’t do much while I was feeling that way and I knew it was a matter of time before my training was overcome…. So I headed home to bed. I crashed out in moments once I was in a dark/cool room. 3 hours later I woke up mostly symptom free but my normal Cluster migraine pain was back.

The last few months my migraines have shifted. And while if I don’t watch my triggers I still get that pain that makes me ponder boring out my eye and brain with a red hot spoon to make the pain stop and my constant mild pain is my constant companion. I have been experiencing something new for me. Spotting in my vision and strange tastes during attacks are new to me. And they are wearing down my focus I find myself distracted by my surroundings more and more, oh Iron Man bobble…..

Sorry back. As I was saying back to the Neurologist and likely more tests and drugs that will make me less me and help me not remember that I was hurting and not stopping the hurting in the first place. Oh the up side if I can handle the nausea/dizziness/ and flashing I can have moments with out pain. Might just need to carry a puke bucket….

Don’t worry too much about this old halfing I will manage. I just complain to my wife too much about things as it is and I figure if I complain to you all then I don’t need to bother her.

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Begging for Help.

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I spent about an hour last night working on Fleshmakers, on normal. Up until the the puzzle My f2p arty and Samius made good time. Samius moved through the quest clearing trash until I would be better served by a BBer and then I switched to the f2P account and burned threw things. Did I say I got my issues with dualboxing sorted again? Or that I was having issues at all?

I was using a 8GB SD card for my other install but U14 pushed the install over 8GB and broke things. So I took a few hours and did a fresh install on the hard disk proper. Load screens are a little longer if I hit them at the same time other wise not too bad having everything on the same disk.

Any way get to the puzzle room, set Steampower (My f2p arty) at a rune clear some Airdicks and go for it. I hit the first rune auto run to the second as I swap to Steam and hit his rune. Back to Sam in time to hit the second, jump to the 3rd hit it go for the last rune and 3 airdicks hit me at the same time and I go flying. Almost was one and done but instead I got 45 more mins of pain and suffering.

Around the 30 min mark I went to the DDo store and picked up a hireling thinking that a distraction would be a big help. Realize that I miss clicked and got a fighter hire I go back to the store and get a sorc. Summon them both and they do their thing. Aka kill lots of airdicks but not enough and dodging an attack I mistime the last jump and make myself go flying.

I am so glad that I let my xp pots expire long before trying to do this quest.

Hires die a few times I do my best to keep them healed and alive as there are moments when I think I am on the edge of hitting all the runes when something happens and I go flying. The worst is when I am on the way to the last rune and the sorc dies and all the airdicks she was dancing with a ball break and turn right to me.

Did I ever tell you that I have soloed this many times before the environmental changes?

I try using one of the hires to pull a lever too but on the tries that the hires don’t die or get blown off turns out that Steam has fallen off his rune. ☹

Looking over at what the wife is doing at 50-55 mins in and she is happily soloing the orchard for slayers. And I start to beg/whine that I need her help. What a sucker. ☺ She comes in and having another real person knocks things out of the park and first try with her in and we summon the boss. I get its agro and give her time to recall out as she is level 12 and doesn’t want to mess up her xp.

Once I looted the chest I helped her with slayer until it was cleared and then did some inferno runs hoping to pick up the missing random sigil pieces for Steam. Ended the night missing 3 parts. The one from Ghosts and two random bits, think I can wrap those up later today.

Alright guys ❤ me later.

Gear for jumpers

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Yesterday I was able to catch some of the DDocast live, first of all I want to say thanks to Jerry for pointing out that I am great and my blog is great and I will keep working at being great and trying to help you all be great too. ☺

Anyway…. as I was watching the show there came a point (like in every show) where I end up talking to the screen trying to point out things or correct mistakes but as I am not on the show it is hard to do. Damn my being lazy and wanting to use my weekend for stuff I already had planed vs doing DDocast live. So I am going to expand on a topic I think the group touched on but could use a little more explaining.

What gear is needed if I just jumped to 16 and this is my biggest guy? Having just geared up my ranged WF Arty that went from level 1 to 16 thanks to a guild xp day and a stone I have a gear list in mind. Again I think they did a good job, but I am of the mindset that a little bit of grinding explorers can give you good options and I think anyone with a healbot hire can solo explorers so I want to point out

Fort, the guys had things right that fort is one of your top concerns. And the nightforge necklace you can get with the ore turn-ins is damn handy (I use mine every TR life for a level or two). But when gearing up my dude I passed over 20 taps and got a Minos Legens instead. Yes, everyone and their uncle has one but there is a reason that it is so popular, it is a good hat. And any noob can grind 20 taps in the orchard or even begging from Vets/Guildies.

Hps, Con and GFL items are only costly at their lowest levels. Start looking at Con+6 of some dumb skill levels 13-15 and the price will be a lot lower then a level 13 clean version, although the con bet you are given is well enough for the time being. But still the AH might put some items out of reach and I would rather see you with a Nightforge Armband (IFL/Heroism 3/day clicky) and a + belt of Thoughtful Remenberance item over being super broke.

Armors, if you don’t know there are a lot of armor guys that take different turn-ins in the Giant Hold area, including the relics you get in the explorer or in the chests from the GH quests. IF you don’t have armor these are good options. And hell I keep a set of the Elfcrafted Chain as my personal armor for non monk casters, and if it is good enough for Samius then it is good enough for you.

Weapons and other misc can be farmed in the Attack on Stormreach chain. Everyone can use a Axe even if it is not the best weapon but with a little work it upgrades to a lot of nice options and while your at it keep an eye out for the Staff of Shadow and the Stonedust hand wraps. Together they make some of the best items in the game for self healing.
Speaking of self-healing, Bodyfeeding weapons are great. Bodyfeeding of (lesser or normal) vampirism with a huge crit range are better. Look around/invest. Oh and there is a cleaver in that attack on stormreach chain I talked about above that is has bodyfeeding and you can upgrade to add lesser vamp. Tobril used one to more or less solo everything on his Barb. The barb super cleave is real good when you pay 10 off a bodyfeeder proc and gain 10 hp or more and then rebodyfeed to do it again.

A quick few items that the cast crew missed: Bloodrage Symbiont an easy to farm DR5- item with other perks. Assuming you are going to make yourself a silver flame necklace gather your scarabs and make some dust and turn things in for Kaelth’s Touch it is another great easy trinket to swap into. Oh and lastly before leveling into 17 go and farm yourself up a Stalker Ring in the House C challenges. Makes all your weapons vorpal vs humanoids which is most of the stuff that vorps anyway.

Well that is a lot of werds. Think I am going to call it here if you have questions or things to add use the comments.

❤

Working the AH

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Some days I have really good luck with the AH and others not so much. I think I need to get in touch with my inner Scrooge McDuck and work the AH hard.

I remember my first “win” with the AH. I was level 5 or 6 on some alt. Back when I had been playing actively for a few months don’t even know if Samius was capped yet. Think the Level cap was like 12. Any way I pulled a +1 int tome and was all giddy. Didn’t know in a few years I would trade +1 tomes for crafting bits and be glad to have that as a viable option vs just selling them to the bar keep between quests.

Anyway having used my 1year bday cake as a +1 int tome I didn’t have a need for it but I knew I could sell it. Checking the AH there wasn’t any other +1 int tomes on AH so I listed it for 1millon gold + 30% for AH fees. Yes that was a ton of money to me back then. Think it was up for all of an hour before it was bought out. Told Tobril later what went down and there was quite a shitstorm from him about how lucky I was and how he never gets the good pulls. Looked at the AH a day or two later hunting a +1 tome of some sort and saw there was a ton of +1 int tomes listed on the AH want to say that 200k gold was the top of the scale with lots of 150k gold tomes. I totally hit the lull just right.

However last week I had a something similar happen. I pulled two +3 tomes in one night. Running to the AH (because I am soooooo broke) I checked out the current prices on +3s. There where lots of +3 Chr tomes around a millon plat so I wasn’t going to bother with that. But there wasn’t any Con tomes listed. Winner winner!

Looking at the pricing of the other tomes I listed it at a millon plat with a 1.5 buy out. Comes back to me in the mail a few days later. Hmmm. Guess the “rich, I want a tome right now” guy was out.

Guess if your on Sarlona and see this and want to buy a +3 Con or Chr tome shoot me a PM/mail/tweet or something other wise they are going back on the AH for a possible pay off someday.

❤