Author Archives: samiusgurobo

Wizbot to MaxDC Guy

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So I decided how to best use my stone of skip 8 levels for me. I was back and forth a lot but think I will be happy at once capped again. Anyway I took one of my 18/2 WF wizard/rogue (As400) and TRed him into a pure drow build. I don’t like the numbers on a lot of the stats. 14 con is low for a 2nd life guy to me. Which means I will need to work extra hard on finding Hps and getting that Con as high as it can go. To make up the short fall of that Con penalty. But I do love having a starting 20 INT so there are some trade offs.

Why? I spent more then an hour last night running down the list of possible quick second life builds I could do and was willing to skip some of the key play levels.

I have a junk Clr, that I designed the original Bowonk for him. I even picked up a first and last name change tokens when they were on sale a few weeks back with the plan to TR him some day. But he had some cons, he had a cleaned Shroud item, as well as I really want to have a monk life on my bowonk builds. And I didn’t really want to invest in a monk life and then the Bowonk live right now. I thought about using him as another Fleshy Artificer. I could skip taking the Essence feat and take the Clr past life instead. Do Helf with the monk dilly, and have a rocking Amp score and make my umd do the healing work. The nice thing would be his CorOp GS would be a boon, as well as him sitting on the shards to make a dual shard GS repeater. Take the Dragon marks and focus on electric damage and go to town. But I wasn’t ready or comfortable trying to make an artificer carry a party of 2 or more pikers to 8. Not yet anyway.

So I looked some more, Samius Jr could use a second Monk life but he is just starting to get his gear sorted. Samiusbot could use a go around but I didn’t want to be with out a scroll farmer while he was leveling back up. I even threw around the idea of taking one of the FvSs and making him into a Sorc.

But I decided that having another real DC caster for the guild would be for the best. Samiusbot’s Dcs are not horrible. And for the amount of work I put into him they are great but it is time for me to have a Big DC guy at least until Samius is done.

As for the Race decision it was fairly simple to rule out WF or any race that didn’t have a way to boost Int and starting with 20 Int is better then any other race although the +1 humans/helf have are close. But if you want the max then drow is the max. I looked at Elf for a long time however because of the Elven Arcanum line and I might regret not having that as an option. Max Dcs don’t do a lot if you can’t beat the SR of the mob.. But past live Wiz, the wiz pen line, pen feats and an item and I should be okay.

Would I have done Drow if I couldn’t skip the hard to solo as a PM levels? Nope. I never liked the Drow as a race. But I hope that skipping the hard levels will make leveling one a ton easier and will give me the big Dcs that the guild needs in epics.

Wait…. Open beta notes…. WTF? Well maybe it wont be soooooo bad?

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More Tanking Stuff

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Last night being “Epic Tuesday” and containing no actual epic runs was not a bust but not what I am looking for in a “epic” night either. Did the xp think with Fopo for a Litany run or two. Then Did a normal Tod with the guild, then did a few lack luster challenges finally ended the night getting things moved around and crafting a few Vamp shards while they are 100% shots.

Okay lets jump to the Tanky stuff. Once again Tobril fires up the old normal Tod run. I move to Samyus to tank, from the guild we have a Clr and 3 monky builds all looking for the same rings (which is lot fun BTW)… I guess one of my wife’s many monks has convinced her to put aside her anger at the raid, at least for guild ran runs and hunt for rings like the rest of us. Start filling with puggers and Miss joins on one of his many tanks, this one a fighter. Giving us 3 possible tanks. Oh, also kinda important no Artificer this run. Need like 4 or 5 more tokens to slot good in my Fang… I need to epic token hunt to night and get that done.

Part one, Miss is assigned to tank wings, so I play “try and pull the Orthon” as I am always testing my hate. With out using intim I get the orthon’s agro easily enough and keep it Doted and full DPS on it. Mean while Miss is having issues with a guy or two Doting and shooting Wings and has to chase Wings down and Intim to get him/her back. So after we all get on Wings s I grow tired of it running off after Dotters, so I throw an Intim and never loose agro of Wings again and it stops porting away. The fight is very quick after that.

Side Note: Been having lots of talks with Fopo on how much hate I have and if it is enough to hold against big dots. He has to use intim a lot more then I do atm, but we are not quite apples to apples. I got the fighter capstone for the attack speed and double strike increase as well as the fully powered Fang, giving me that extra 20% hate I think putting me far enough ahead that once I am good aligned I should be more then fine.

Part Two, I again try to pull and hold aggro this time with no head start. I get him to turn to me more then a few times. But it is too close as Tobril gets him back with in a few hits once the extra damage from his sneak attack kicks in. Losing 15 points to DR was had to be the issue, because if it is not then I can’t fix it.

Part Three, I am the Main tank. Alright! Time to go! I get him placed and people move in. Tobril asks if is it fine to come in. And two or three people said they assumed I would be good as they were in right away, including a Dotter. I said if I lost him I would intim and they moved in hard and fast. Sully dropped and Miss took her in to the corner to play and told everyone to come in right away that he planed to intim to hold her. Having forgotten my intim gloves now that I made my brawn spirits epic I couldn’t go full one AC by swapping into my AC trinket and tower shield. Not that I would anyway as with the dr issue I needed all the attack speed and double strike chance I could muster. Go go Fabricator’s Gauntlets and Epic Swashbuckler.

When the party turned everything was fine up until the very end when the dots caught up to me. But I was able to intim Horoth right back.

Win.

Un like the last 3 runs there were rings in the chest, 4 of them I think. And most of them very good ones. I was in the middle of a setting up a three way trade for the rings so I could get my Cinder ring its owner just passes it to me. (may be that guy doesn’t like Miss telling everyone how to pass the loot around, idk) But I get it. Miss offers up his ring for roll, and the wife ends up being the only one that wants it. And she passes her ring to the guy that passed me the Cinder as he was the only one that wanted it. Everyone wins, well other then Miss. Who got a completion and a good time. Totally made up for the 2 hours I wasted in an Abbot raid he ran a few days ago. 🙂

And like that my AC is 86ish self buffed. Bard song, Recitation an arty Armor buff low 90s. Rework my Armor some more to allow More dex (have 3 possible points wasted atm) if I only can see how to fit in one more point and keep the Calvary plate but mid 90s is due-able.

<3s

Just Like Everyone Else

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Just like everyone else I am debating on how to best use my Stones of skipping levels.My first thought was to jump a huge amount of XP the next time Samius TRs again. Level 8 is not hard for Fopo and I to knock out in a day. But if it is just him and I then it doesn’t take very long to cap anyway. We slow down with more people. Not because more people slow down the questing, but because we don’t want to loose people on the chains and/or strand people in places they can’t solo/pug out. Example we spent all night last night trying for the last sigil piece so we can hit Litany hard and fast, as it is almost a level on its own, last life we had 4 people to grind out sigils for and they were not always available when we were hitting those quests for xp. Anyway I think I have ruled out using it on Samius as I am always willing play him, alts are not so lucky. That said I have a few capped guys that I have been thinking need a TR to help them out.

Samiusbot is a first life WF PaleMaster. His gear is not bad, but not great either. And for a first lifer his Dcs are fairly good, 43-44 wail 42-43 for most everything else. But he has no Spell Pen to speak of and his HP wearing his “DC” docent is laughable and his Sp is horrible but he has no Sp items so it is not as bad as it looks. I could easily do a junk Barb life to 8 skip to 16 and then round it out to 20 and then go back to 20 solo as a wizard. Leveling casters are easy for me, barbs not so much.

As400 is a lot like Samiusbot but he is in a ton better shape gear wise, having his Torc and no super special docents to make him stay WF. But I thought he might become my permanent Artificer as it aligns with his original build goal of a CC/Xbow build. Yes I had a Grease casting WF heavy repeater build for a long time before the artificer was a dream in the Devs eyes. And yes he got morphed into a melee Wiz but his core gear is still there. I could also shift gears with AS400 and go pure DC wizard even though when Samius is done he will be king of my DC caster hill. That is a few lives away yet and it wouldn’t suck to have a big DC guy for epics as Samius wraps up completionist. But having him go DC caster and then Samiusbot

Butterz my Bard could also use another life. I want to change her race and make some adjustments to her build that only a TR will allow. But I don’t want the down time on her from epics to recap her with out another major epic runner.

I also have Mcgoggles a Fvs that can become anything, HealzYouNot a Clr that is a few raids short of a nice set of 20 completions and would make good fodder for a clr 2.0 as well as a clunk that will be turned into my permanent Bowonk. Or SamiusJr my Monk that can use a quick TR back into a monk…

But here is the thing, whatever I do it needs to be able to handle 2-4 pikers as well as become a popular alt to me once recapped. I want to get the most out of my skip 8 levels stone to net some guild renown, give an old alt some renewed purpose and bypass a large chunk of leveling that is not all the great on alts.

What am I going to do? I don’t know. I do know will power up an alt on my son’s account. Rolled him up a ranged wf artificer last night. And he loves the idea of having one. If he can keep himself ungrounded for a few days this summer he might even get to play it himself. Also I have at least one friend’s account that hasn’t played in over a year. I want to roll up a new alt on it and power it to 16 for him (maybe that will entice him into logging on again…) and if it happens to net the guild a few K in renown so be it. 🙂

How are you going to use your stone?

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Artificer Spell Stuff

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So last time I said I would talk about spells a little as I finally found a little wiggle room in my spell list. Okay so a second 6th level spell slot to play with direct damage spells: Tactical Detonation and Blade Barrier. For a while I was using BB. I love BB. I feel it is one of the best spells in the game. Yes better then Wall of Fire.

But running around with mobs following me is not how my artificer plays or at least that is not how I mean for him to be played. So I started playing with Tactical Detonation.

Tactical Detonation if you know know the spell breaks down as follows:
1d3+3 fire damage per two caster levels @ level 16 8d3+24 (33-47 range with 40 points average )
knockdown
1d2+2 force damage per caster level (no save) @ level 16 16d2+2 (50-62 range with 56 points average)
Reflex for half fire damage and Negates knockdown.

Thanks http://anydice.com/ for some quick maths.

The area of effect is a little bigger then say fireball and handles a lot like Lightning Sphere. Guess the idea is artificers make little grenades and throw them. The height is lower so it doesn’t hit the ceiling and ruin the cast, but it also has issues getting to targets above you, win some loose some. Also like Lightning Sphere it breaks breakables, but doesn’t knock down doors or light torches in Inferno like a fireball would and I hopped.

But how does it feel?

I like it a lot. Enough I made both Superior Impact and Inferno clickies. And boy I love having those clikies around because they hit my newest favorite spell Prismatic Strike. Prismatic Strike is still holding up. Although I don’t think it will last too much longer as an removal spell 30d+30 for 90ish point base is not going to last, when you take out a 3rd because it is fire damage and we are about to encounter a ton of fire immune mobs.

Any way back to Tactical Detonation, toss a TD and most of the mobs get knocked down and I can melee safely.

Tonight, first think I get to level to 17. Woot! But then I get three more spell slots fill 1, 4 and 5. 1st is an easy grease, 4th Cold Iron I think, but 5 has some options. Align Weapons, Silver Weapons or Repair Serious Damage, Mass are all fair options. At some point I will want both Align and Silver Weapons will be musts in a few levels. But for now.. As long as I am using the Dog and Tobril is leveling his WF artificer with us a mass repair spell would be helpful. But idk, I might just start carrying Silver now and get used to it. Thoughts?

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Level 15 aka Quicken Reconstruct

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Last night Fopo and I hit the xp hard and fast as we try to do most xp nights. About 30 mins before it was time to log off for the night, we leveled. As I needed too or hit the bankable xp cap. Hello 5 or 6 more points in balance, Quicken, Reconstruct, and a few other spell swaps thanks to having reconstruct.

After taking 5-10 mins picking up a few new spells Fo and I hit Mired in Kobolds. A made zerg to the end of the quest happened. Buffing, shining and whatnot and then the dragon.

The stars aligned and the build was just right. I keep lighting motes and its extra damage from lighting on the baby black dragon. Stood close enough to rune arm blast for a few hundred points of damage a charge and kept Fopo healed as he tanked the little guy. Victory was swift and easy.

I hit the shrine again, and ready myself for Big Mama. We always go for Mama (yes even on Elite) and 9 times out of 10 we win.

Fopo asks for the plan. I say I will grap the archers, he can kite around mama until have them all and then we will set up and do more or less the same as we did with baby. Off we go. Turns out the archers are using naughty arrows and not sonic ones like I thought so I was taking 5 to10 points base + 4 to 5 points from the naughty take that times what 6-8 archers and the reconstruct cool down was too long. I was able to stay alive if all my timers were used to heal myself. And with the torc and CordOp I could take them for a long while. But sooner or later I would need to heal Fopo and as that happened bang I died.

Fo was able to run around healing himself long enough to throw me a rez. But more or less as he did, he took a bad shot to the back and died. So I ran, healing and buffing until I get Fo a rez. We are in the mist of a recovery when I try for a Flame Turrent to try and give us a handful of breathing space when Fo drops again trying to pull the dragon off me. The dragon turns back to me in a heartbeat knocking me to half Hp and knocking me down. And the arrows take me down to next to nothing. When the dragon fires off her acid breath I am done.

So quicken reconstruct is not the bees knees all by itself but it made me feel a lot less squishy. Think I with a little more fine tuning the melee arty will really take off again. The damage out put is on par with other one handed melees. Having just finished my AC fighter I have a good idea were the water mark is for one handed dps. But I need to remember to get my DR trinkets (Bloodrage Symbiont and Kaelth’s Touch) back out of the bank for sure. If I had them think we would have won first time no problem.

Anyway expect more Arty talk after the weekend. I fully expect to be going on about Blade Barrier or Tactical Detonation.

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I’m Not your Mama, take your Drama Someplace Else!

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Sorry but person A can’t play with person B. B wont play with C. C will play with both as long as we don’t do quest X or put person A or B in roll Q. And both A and B want to do quest X only….

Or in other words when I have the star, Frack my Life.

Ever have one of those nights where everyone seems to have brought their baggage to the party? I travel fairly light any more. I have two people I don’t play with and I don’t think either play anymore. But if they did/do and they act like a human beings and keep their mouth shut I don’t think I would notice they were back in my group.

That said I know people have reasons not to want to play with others. I don’t even care what those reasons are. If your reason is good enough for you it is good enough for me. If you don’t want to play with person B don’t. And I will defend you for leaving when your gone. But if your desire to play with me is less then your desire not to play with person B what am I to do? Especially when person B is a guildie with a reservation via mails that you don’t happen to get…

I have to give preferred treatment to members of the guild. It sounds like crap but it is true. Or otherwise my guild wouldn’t be what it is (one of the best ones around). I expect all my guildies to do the same for the other members.

That doesn’t mean you, a person on my friends list, can’t have my loyalty too. But I have to be a good leader within my guild.

It is not fair to me (or anyone else) that I secretly hope that person B doesn’t long on while playing with person A or vice versa.

I don’t have an easy answer for people when this happens. If people can’t talk it out and learn to be civil for the sake of a third or forth person, I don’t know what to do…

My wife’s best friend, hates me or did enough that she tried to stop my wedding right up to the walk down the isle, and I believe she has tried to talk my wife into leaving me more then once (Thankfully my wife is dumb and still loves me 🙂 I am an ass after all.). And I don’t like her because of that fact and some other things that I happen to feel strongly about but wont talk about on an internet blog post. The point is we have worked out a system for my wife to be able to see and hang out with her best friend. Once and a while I will even recommend a visit (and offered her my rental house so she could move closer) because I know what spending time with a friend means. All awhile I don’t put her head on a stick on my front yard while she is “visiting” sleeping on my couch and she hasn’t been successful in talking my wife into leaving me.

If two people can work things out enough to be civil to each other that has as much bad blood as she and I do then I think that there is hope for everyone to put their feelings aside for the other person/s that they do care about.

But hey if you can’t, No problem. But if I slip up and forget you let you know that players on your do not group list are planing on tagging along then well sorry. I don’t even check my dnp list any more….

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Let me Sell you on the FvS

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I have a couple of Guildies looking to make/TR alts into a divine class. They both are not sure how to do so but they both have ideas and have asked for help. And this is my advice, look at FvS.

Wants: Melee, self and group healing, Hp, good defenses (other then Hp and self healing), solid solo ability.

Now I could copy and paste they want list and add a few things and call that what a FvS gives you but that would make a short post for the day. And while I want to knock out a fast one, you all deserve a good one too.

Melee: X of your faith, gives you a lot of combat options, as well as your final level 20 perk but we will talk about that later. Depending on your race you can pick between currently 5 faiths. I don’t know if the Xpack will include more or not. But your faith grants you a set of weapons and some special enchantment options. And as you level up you get better and better with your religious weapon.

Healing: Um heal spells and lots and lots of Sp. Enough said.

Hp: They have a full toughness enchantment line. So that is 40 more hp then clrs. And if your not worried about Dcs then you have one less stat to worries about then a melee Clr. Str, Con, Chr vs Str, Con, Wis, Chr so more build points in to Con if you want.

More defenses: Fvs gets three choices of gaining a stacking 10 elemental resistance. I did Fire, Ice and sonic on my FvSs so with ship buffs I am as covered as possible with out needing to use SP for more end game elemental attacks. Also at 20 you get Dr10/x, x is based off your faith which is helped along by your race if you remember. Standing DR more then 5/ is not real easy on a clr.

Even more: Wings, that leap ability is super good, I mean I use Tp to buy stacks of Missile-toe when it is available. And FvS just get it… Free spells for hitting level 20, Sure shield spell 100 time a quest is not uber, but Searing light, Cure light wounds or Incisibilty are all cool and I can even see times that command undead might be a boon.

Any way roll all that together, and you get one very tough build for solo or group play.

There are some down sides. Spells come a level later then a Clr and you have less slots over all to play with. It can be strange to have a ton more Sp and less spells to cast. Also it is very hard to have it all on a fvs. If you want to be heavy Dced caster with another major focus your stat points don’t really help you and one focus will need to fall aside to a lesser role. As casting FvS needs both Wis and Chr. Unlike Clrs Chr is not just a perk for turns that turn in to other abilities, it is a major casting stat and needs to be at least 12ish. Also Fvs only get Wis +2 enchantments and not the +3 that Chr’s get. But casting FvS are very fun, I have a ranged/casting focused fvs and he is very fun (kinda wish he was an elf so he could also go Arcane Archer.

Anyway before looking at reinventing the wheel for a melee divine build take a look at the fvs class.
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Thinking about Waterfalls, I mean Changes..

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I was going to talk more about Artificers, this time defending melee artificers and spout some damage numbers and whatnot. But I don’t feel like it. They due solid damage, and once quicken reconstructs are online I will be top notch I think.

So what to talk about then???

I am level 14 with 15 banked so what else is there to talk about? The next life. I have fighter, paladin and the soon to be out druid to go until completionest. Druid is out because it will not be out when I am ready to TR (I hope) and do I really want to do another “new” class with out doing a few levels of sample play? Not really.

Both fighter and paladin work on the bowonk frame well enough. I missed the ranged option going 9/x on the rouge life if melee combat was stronger. So I am inclined to do the normal 6/6/8 bowonk lives for them.

I also find myself missing that hard up Ac tank. Leveling Samyus had some challenges. But feeling invincible was not one of them. And with Samius’ TR cache and a willingness to do the 2+ splash for evasion and full umd a quick and easy sword and board life might be just the thing to mix things up a little.

No matter. That is at least 2 or 3 weeks away. Lots of time decide, right?

Side note. I did some leading last night. Like really leading, and not just shouting orders to guildies/TR pals when shit hit the fan. I did a nice walk through with the guild/Fopo for a epic Small Problem. And then lost Fopo and picked up another guildie and lead Tod.

I don’t like to lead anymore. I don’t like having to be the nice guy that hand holds people and walks through the quest for everyone as if it is their first time. I play the social game here, not there. And I totally blame the time about 4 months after the influx of F2P people hitting the level cap. Or how I remember it “Six Months on the Fail Train”. That would make a good song for Ddocast.

Anyway I lead the groups and everything was fine. There was little to no loot however, so no reward for me to make me thing that maybe I need to lead more often…. But it was a good enough time.

A Long Weekend’s Thoughts on the Arty part 2

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Picking up where I left off fleshy arty’s with the Craft Essence feat Vs the Bot arty. Don’t know what I am talking about? Look down.

Now I am comparing apples to oranges here, keep that in mind. We have my arty, human with the craft essence feat, melee/spell casting focused, super tweaked out gear and past life wise (rune arm is more then extra damage) vs Tobril’s first life bot Xbow guy with what ever gear….

My guy has more HP, AC, and raw damage out put. And yet Tobril’s guy seems to be over all harder to kill and has less trouble in quests.

I think it comes down to the advantage of ranged combat over melee. There is a funny relationship between ranged and melee combat. Ranged has less damage and less risk. Melee is more more damage and much more risk. But he who lives wins, and often that is the ranged guy because he can run away and keep fighting were the melee runs away he is all running away.

Let me try to explain via a story that happened this weekend. Tobril and I do an OOB on Elite (to matain his streak). Fopo and I ran it easily earlier in the day. Tobril and I get started, and in the first big fight the mini boss scorp stuns Tobril’s Arty some quick repairing keeps him alive while stunned. H breaks off to heal up and I try to pull the scorp off him but he can’t cast spells due to the bewilder effect the scorp has and takes a few more hits while running away and dies. I throw him a rez and we kill the mini scorp boss.

The quest goes down hill from there. Finally ending with him carrying my stone around for 5 mins as he tries to get my rock to a shrine.

How is that an example of either one being any good as we both died and left the quest?

Well shipbuff-less, gear-less he was able to keep moving. Using what he had to stay alive and moving forward.

When I died I had just found a mana pot greater I think. Not a major for sure. And went on a blasting melee/rune arm run but it wasn’t enough. I just got pounded down. There were so many guys hitting me that sooner or later hitting that heal scroll wasn’t going happen. Damn concentration checks! And I with out my recon boosting clickly running my repair spells were not enough to keep myself up (also no quicken yet..).

So by the very nature of the beast of “stay out of line of the melee mobs” is a huge deal. And kept him running longer me.

So Samius, what should I take from this?

Well readers, unless you have a damn good reason to try and go melee dps on an arty don’t. Or don’t get angry when you get your head handed to you out of the blue. I die a lot this weekend. 5-6 times I think. And I want to say every death (save one) was due to the fact I was in melee and failed a con or Umd check to save myself.

Btw check the math on those umd checks. I think the % on the scrolls are off and are giving a higher % then you really have. Think I caught it saying I had 110% to use a heal scroll while I was around 35 on my umd score. Just saying take a look for awhile.

**That one none melee related death, Fopo and I were in Made to order. I was disarming a trap and my dog saw a box and ran over to break it. I took a hit as it ran over the trap trigger. No big deal. FinFangFoom freaks out and runs back to me (tripping the trap again) and back to another box (tripping the trap again) and back and forth 3 more times in about 2 secs and tripped the trap about 6 times in total. Lets just say once I was raised I put the ghost dog in its box for a while. Maybe the hunter of Boxes is not the best thing ever??

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** Edited to fix horribly bad errors pointed out by Mr. Tiemmothi.

A Long Weekend’s Thoughts on the Arty part 1

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Lets jump straight into some thoughts on the weekend’s play. First most of the time the group was Fopo and myself but there was ample time when Tobril also got to jump in on his arty. Watching the two different kinds of arty’s play has given me some basic thought to share. I do really like the arty class as a whole and I think they have a hidden depth. Remember I said the same thing back when Helfs came out and now they are the other master race.

Casting focus Artys seem to be the way to go, at least if you like casters at all. The Blast rod spell is just as amazing as my wife said it was. If not more so. Empowered with a Superior Lighting clickly running I am seeing 300-500 points to as many guys as you can fit into the cone and it always castes right unlike cone of cold…Add in Lighting Motes, which other then the cloud not lasting as long as I would like it quite nice, To rake up the damage another tear and those 400-500s are fairly normal. A can hardly wait to fit in Maximize. But the surprise winner for me so far is Prismatic Strike.

Prismatic Strike’s summary in the ddowiki doesn’t do it justice.

A brilliant ray of multicolored light projects from your finger, causing the target to be afflicted by three different effects. The spell does 1d3+3 points each of fire, force, and sonic damage per two caster levels, up to a maximum of 10d3+30 damage (per element) at caster level 20, and the target’s melee and ranged damage is reduced by 75% on a failed saving throw, this spell has double range.

I hit up http://compendium.ddo.com to see how Turbine has the description written out as and I get the following:

A brilliant ray of multicolored light projects from your finger, causing the target to be afflicted by three different effects.
The first deals 4 to 6 sonic damage per 2 caster levels (up to a max of 40 to 60 damage at caster level 20) and knocks the target prone; a successful Fortitude save halves the damage and negates the knockdown.
The second deals 4 to 6 force damage per 2 caster levels (up to a max of 40 to 60 damage at caster level 20) and dazes the target; a successful Reflex save halves the damage and negates the daze.
The third deals 4 to 6 fire damage per 2 caster levels (up to a max of 40 to 60 damage at caster level 20) and reduces the target’s melee and ranged damage by 25%; a successful Will save halves the damage and negates the penalty to attack damage. This spell has double range.

Which is a lot more clear. You get 3 rays per cast a sonic, fire and force. Each ray does a d3+3 every other level so if it is your first level 5 spell it will be 6d3+18 points per ray or 18d3+54 base. But the crazy part is that each damage ray has 3 other effects to try and trip up the target if it doesn’t kill it out right, which it will a lot. Sonic as a knockdown effect, force dazes, and fire reduces damage by 25% each one against a different save and most likely against the hard save for the kind of target. Knock a caster on its ass, make a melee swing a little less hard etc. And there is no reason that all three can’t happen at once. 🙂 Running around in the sands I used this spell a lot and it if it didn’t one shot the mob it would often leave it dazed and triped and a quick melee swing on the way past it finished it off.

Looks like a good place to stop for now. I will knock out part 2 later today I hope. Fleshy vs Bot.

❤