Last week I ran down the list of planed gear for Buttez. Last night I was able to swap for a scroll of the Big Top. Thanks Fo. And I was able to make my Epic Big Top. So that leaves getting the blank Belt of the Mroranon, fetching my Tod ring and getting a shard of power and I can make green steel of some sort.

I want to run down my though possess on for my green steel for two reasons. First it helps me get clear on my plan and two people seem to get some value when I do exercises like this. So lets get started.

Open slots with my gear plan are bracers, ring and boots. As I plan to swap boots often they are out for GS on this guy and you can’t make a GS ring that leaves bracers for an item.

From my playing so far she hasn’t run out of Sp yet so I don’t think I need to bother with a SP/cordOp item. But with all of 460 hp I do want to look into a HP item. But I want to boost my Chr skills, haggle can never be high enough! But the Hp and Chr skills don’t go together. What to do? Single vs Dual? Do I need to think about TRing when planing out this item?

It really to comes down to 2 things. How many larges to I want to spend and is this a forever item? For me I am am more worried about the long time use of the item so I am willing to spend a little more on it now and not wish I had something else later.

Air and Positive allow Chr skill boosts. So I am thinking a Hp/Hp/Chr skills I can still get +3 to my skills that I can clean in a few shroud runs and make a tear 2 skills/skills item for cheep later to swap into for haggling and whatnot.

So what ends with Air or Pos? Air Guard, Greater Disruption Guard, Lighting 2, Vacuum2 and CordOP. All of which are useful. I am leaning towards the Lighting 2 or the Air guard. The Lig2 second tear gives chain lighting clicky, useful for a small amount of damage. Air T2 is a haste clicky great for TRing and melees. But less helpful for a bard with the spell and sp pots. The Vac 2 also rings true as an option; I think it does okay in epics but the Destruction as a clicky a little less helpful then the haste clicky.

For now I am going to plan a Vac2 item, I might do the others later as a double post just so you can see them.

Negative Hp selection gives Str skills, while Air Hp give Dex skills. One will be +1 to skills the other +2 so the order of Neg/Air or Air/Neg can be important. Dex skills are Balance, Open Lock, Hide/Move Silent, Tumble. While Str is Jump and Swim I am thinking Dex makes more since.

So if I were to make a GS Item for Hps +3 Cha Skills and Trap the Soul it would look like so:
GS: +10 hp, +1 Str Skills, +15 hp, +2 Dex Skills – Destruction (2/day), +100 sp, +3 Cha Skills – Trap the Soul Guard

I don’t know if that helps you but it kinda helps me. And that is what is important.

❤

Monday night I mostly took a break from Xp farming on Samius to do some scroll farming and other epics; mainly due to the fact the wife wanted to watch tv and get away from the computer. Right before bed I saw a EboB LFM up and thought “Why not?” Ebob is almost a solo quest, shouldn’t be that hard to pug. But the group was kinda a mess. Didn’t want to play like a team and ended up all dead but me who took a DD and came back and stabilized the party. But some people had released and we started again.

So last night during what I hope to make a habit (Epic Tuesdays) I was not in the mood to drag along poor players. I don’t care what your experience level is stay alive and follow the leaders instructions.

We do a warm up Ebob, and it goes well. You can tell there is a few less skilled people in the group but Tobril makes up for it. And we don’t have a ton of issues. After we complete we decide to move on to ETide we lose one but pick up a rogue.

I knew the name, but I didn’t know if that was from good things or bad things. But his hp were at about 430 and I was a little worried. But I have low Hp alts and good play can take care of that, so I let it go. I want to say there was a few deaths early on; or at least that was my impression. Some of that was a guildie on his cleric. Who wants to fight a little more then his experience level really allows and keep the party alive. And there was one death I watched happen as he ran ahead of me and my song and agroed more mobs then he could handle. And then another where I had just sang to a caster and a couple melee mobs that would have jumped the party and went back to the group while they were killing a red named cow. He took off to kill the sleepy mobs and got in over his head and died.

Need less to say afterwards I had a slightly lower opinion of this rogue’s skill level. Via tells I ask Tobril if he wants to stealth reform, I know he has a shorter temper then I do when it comes to this kinda of thing. And he says sure as long as we keep the Rogue….What? I explain my thoughts to him, and he replies “Did you see the kill count? Any one that keeps up with me can stay.” As I am out of the quest and back at the boat I say “If your sure…”. And the group stays together, I just know it is about to be a long night.

The next 2 or 3 epics went really really well. I did check on the kill logs here and there and he was keeping up with or was our best killer. At one point the wife pointed out that she and the Rogue where tied and Tobril was 4 or 5 kills behind.

I have to say I was totally wrong about mister Rogue. And he wasn’t unpleasant to play with conversation wise to boot. I will say I have had days where I didn’t start off super strong and I think that was all that happened here. But if I hadn’t given this Rogue a second chance I would have stuck him in my mental shitty pile where clearly he did not belong.

So I guess I am saying sometimes if you give some one a second or third chance they might surprise you. And you also have to remember that anyone can have a false start or expect a given style and take a little bit to adjust to it not being the “norm”.

❤

So as some of you know I love twinking out my alts and my Trs. And while Cannith crafting is just about the best system to twink out; the ice games open up a whole lot of potential to get twinky.

I think I have talked about my feelings on twinking before but if not in a nut shell I love it. At low levels after a certain level of experience you can’t help but twink the most powerful thing in the game. Your level of skill.

Even a horrible player that has capped 2 or 3 guys and half pikes through every quest should have the basic skills to own the first 3-5 levels of Ddo quests. You/They might need a hair more experience to zerg them on elite in starter rags and flame touch great axe but what do I know. Maybe those piking skills can carry the day.

So all twinking out does for experienced players is pump up the fun. Well for non permie players any way.

So what did I twink out with the icy burst ritual this cold front? A BTA flaming falchon no min level and a lvl 2 holy great axe.

I try to keep an eye on my rewards lists. I always check the min level on an item. Some places are known for lower then normal level items. Like the Titan end reward list (I once pulled level 6 race required +6 dex boots). But BTA items are all over Ddo.

So over the last year I pulled those babies. I think I talked about the icy/pg repeater I saw in the carnival end reward list. And the Ddowiki has a good list of quests and chains that drop different BTA items.

I know Fopo has been running a few of the quests that drop BTA weapons, and getting good results. He has a PG Greatsword and a PG longbow both no min level. And some other items that I can’t remember.

I have one more kit to burn before the alter takes of on me. And my high level gear is mostly in place. Only missing a few slots here and there and those are epic items anyway. No, what I need is more key low level twink items that are helpful on many different builds. Maybe I can hunt up a bow like that PG one Fopo has…

Any way ❤

Last Sunday was the 50th wedding anniversary for two of the best people I know, my Grandparents. My Aunt and Mother (?) thought enough to have a bit of a party for them. I think it was funny as I got a card in the mail and I had planed to go, when a few weeks later my mom sends a text message telling us all about it and then telling us she would pick up lunch if we went. Score!

Now spending time with my family is a double edge sword. I love them. Hell they are blood, they could even flock to my house during the end times and I wouldn’t shoot them. If that is not love I don’t know what is. 🙂 I have best mates that I would help hide bodies in the “woods” if something “bad” happened; but will shoot if they show up at my door looking for food if the big shit hits the fan! So my love for my family is not in question.

But I am a kind of the family outcast. Some of that is just distance. They tell me they are only 4 hours away, it takes me more like 5, but damn that is still a 4 hour drive one way! And in part do to I was raised by my father and am something of a nerd. While my brothers where raised by my mother and where/are(?) jocks. So when I do get to see them I often end up butt of some nerd slam, although they like a lot of the same nerdy things I do. And for a long time (and probably still) I am rounder then my brothers, although one of my brothers is catching up with me, and have to eat a lot of comments on the size of my belly.

So anyway I am just hanging out after pictures talking with my son and brother, when we start talking MMos. He is a Wow player, (not something I hold against him 🙂 ) but is and has been playing around with ddo some. And he comments on the blog and the CtH. Hinting/coming right out and telling me that I should try to do some live streaming and what not see if I could parlay some of my personalty and gaming into cash.

And all I can think of is I wish, but I couldn’t play like that, like it was my job. But it sounds great. Okay maybe I could….

What do you all think? Is the blog and CtH and the rare DdoCast enough Samius? Oh did I tell you that I am thinking of signing up for a Live Taping of CTH at Gencon? If not then I am and I have until the 13th do decide for sure and to get us signed up. If your going to Gencon please let me know and if you want to see a live CtH please doubly let me know.

What was I saying… Oh would you watch me play? Would that be fun at all? I know my son loves to watch people play but I think that is mostly the commentary or learning how to do things. And while I am sure there is a few things I could teach you, but I just don’t know…..

Please use the comments on this one.

❤

I got a case of the Friday afternoons. Meaning I am ready to be someplace else and want to be doing something else; like playing Ddo. But I am here at work, so the best I can do to escape is hit twitter and maybe do some trolling or write a bit of a blog post. So a bit of a tweet and Cauthey wants me to talk about public interactions.

So lets look at what we have according to Cauthey. Random buffing & /trade hawkers & bad /advice & flame wars. Wow that is a lot. Lets see what I can say about them.

Random Buffing: Haste, Jump, GH, Mass healing, etc: they all seem good to me. I know if I am on one of my divines I have a tendency to mass at bars or any time I feel like it. And my people that can drop haste do so a ton while running around town with no rhyme. So I think buffing is cool. I even sing the bard skill song to people while I am hanging out at the vendors.

/trade and /advice used for trade: Now have my private channels in my general tab. And I just leave the trade and advice in that main channel so I kinda watch them. But unless there is a killer deal or someone needing a bit of help like a swap for equal value; I just let it go. Although I will send a tell to any one I see swearing in those public channels and then report them depending on their reply. But private channels or party anything goes.

All in all I think the public interactions are good. You can even show off your smexy pet if your an arty. I like that, a little more personalization. And I love to do the naked dance while standing around.

Alright, there you go 2 mins on public chatter.

❤

Those of you have have been keeping up already know, I am working on cleaning up and gearing up my Bard Butterzcotch for various end game functions. Mostly with little to no extra effort or grinding. However I would like to have a clear plan.

Now she has already taken on the task of our epic trapper. So far the only busted traps have been before I had any skill boosting gear. Oops. Since grinding out the blank for her Epic Utility Vest she hasn’t had an issue getting any trap.

What is also nice she already had a list of qualty gear ready to go like the Epic Elyd Edge and Light and Darkness and the Mad Lutes!

So moving some bound to account stuff around her is my basic, little to no grinding plan:

Helm: Epic Big Top (Missing a few things but have the shard and blank the rest should be easy)
Goggles: Magewright’s Spectacles (Swap Spot)
Neck: Nyoko’s Necklace
Trinket: Epic Treasure Hunter’s Spyglass (Swap Spot)
Armor: Epic Utility Vest (+2 Good Luck)
Cloak: Magewright’s Cloak (Set Bonus: Spell Focus Mastery +1, Magewright’s Quick Wits)
Bracers: Might become my CordOp(or Air)/Chr Skills slot + Swap for Ventilated Bracers or even Bracers of Wind as she runs the Challenges…
Belt: Epic Belt of the Mroranon (GFL)
Ring 1: Nyoko’s Band (Set Bonus: bonus to hit (+2 exceptional bonus to hit) and damage, 20% less threat) Slotted with +2 Chr or Con
Ring 2: I really don’t have a plan for it atm…
Boots: Cannith Boots of Propulsion (also swap)
Gloves: Tinker’s Gloves (open)

Anyway what am I missing? What would you change?

❤

Last night I had hopes of massive xp in my sights. But there was a family emergency at my mother-in-laws place involving a dog and a bag of chocolate chips and my wife went to help force some stuff down the dog in hope of making it puke. As it is my wifes first double TR I don’t want to get ahead of her too much in the xp department. So I decided to do something else while she was out.

Before the hold changes my epics where done on Samius or SamiusBot. As my main, Samius got the job of holding and keeping track of everything he has many Large, Huge and Stubidly Large bags (Some from the store) so caring all my epic bits and none epic bits around was simple. And I could just do a quick name search and see what I had and what I didn’t. But now with Butterz making the runs I need a better way.

So I started moving all my non sand epic bits from Samius to Butterz. But having things spread out got me thinking I needed a better way.

And I thought “Well I have the time…” And began to fill out a spread sheet with all my bits and got my stuff listed and labeled. Hell I even added some color encoding to help speed me up when I am missing one part as well as seeing what shards I have at a glance as they are the hard part in my mind to get.

But as I got going, I started to notice I had a lot more things complete then I thought. For example, Von stuff. I have not only the shield ready for Sam’s final life. But I also have the Warding Bracers and the Belt of the Mroranon ready to go. If I can get the base item on the right alt.

Reviewing all this organization, I can also see I am a scroll light on a lot of sand items. Bramble Casters, Chaosblade, Storm, etc. Not to mention most of the House D epics either being done or mostly done. And a surprising amount of Chrono epics missing just one part also.

I will say taking the time to get a little more organized and seeing what I can or almost can make makes me a lot more excited about running the epics then I have ever been before.

❤

New Year’s Day… now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. – Mark Twain

Time for everyones favorite time of the year: Resolution time. Aka self denial time/ lie to yourself time.

And while I am sure this year wont be any different I am going to try just the same. This year I am going to try to take some of the loose fitting goals I have been playing with for the last few months and turn them into real resolutions. Some Ddo related others less so. So to the list.

Take more time to play the “end game”. Seeing as the only times over the last year I took to play in the end game was when Samius was big enough to do a few epics and/or a raid or two on the way to the TR tree. So more should be easy. As you know I have been readying my bard for epics and what not. She is all flagged and ready to go. And I am going to use Tuesday nights for a while to do epics and whatnot with her.

Wrap up Samius’s TRing. Okay more like get the completionest feat then finish Sam. I have 4 or 5 lives left until I can take it, at 6- 7 weeks a life I should be well with my scope to be done in a year.

Do some more reading. I am keeping this one kinda vague. I have a lot of different things I want to read. And now that I have my tablet and phone to read with taking 15 to read is a lot easier then ever. And I was tricked into resubing my Marvel sub, what they are comic BOOKS! They count. Yes they do! I along with a more then a few other people were lead to believe that the new Droid reader would allow us to read the sub books, but you still can’t. Need to get with Fopo on the right Flash plug in to get it to work on my tablet’s browser…..

Have a new look by Gencon. I am growing my hair back out, that includes my facial hair aswell. It started off as my normal long time between shaves and pushing my hair cuts back. And then No Save November hit and that was a good reason for work to let it slide a little more. Now it is long enough and I have had it long enough that no one asks any more. But really I want to look more like my drawing that Clank did for me. That is normal right?

As part of this new look I have been watching what I eat trying to getting to a better weight. Cutting out the soda for the last year has really helped. Just not enough. So as of Jan one I am Peleo. Yep I am a cave man. There is only three real issues with going cave man for me. One no Bacon. Okay less bacon is how it is going to work. No corn, pop corn is my main snack, but I think I can replace it with coconut. And lessen the salt. Which why bacon is an issue. But here is the thing. I can’t smell. So I “need” a lot of salt to flavor my food so it has a taste.

I take it back there is a fourth issue with the new diet. It involves lot of sea food and game animals. All of which I love to eat. But my wife doesn’t. And the smell bothers her a lot. So making her unhappy so I can eat is an issue.

So do you have a list? Or do you have any tips eating cave man style? Use the comments.

❤

Werds guys and gals. Yes I spell it werds. Deal.

Any how, Werds. Hope your off to a good start to the year and I doubly hope you earned lots of xp and phat lootz from the bonus days. Think they end today as the Ice games return…. Speaking of I got some goodies to get icy bursted up. Mainly a bound to account lvl 2 +1 holy great axe, aka my new baby leveling toy.

In that last week or so I capped Samius, and TRed him again. Up to level 6 as of last night, with most of level 7 banked. Capped Samius Jr, after being declined from a hard hound run. ;( Guess his my.ddo looked bad as I sat in the queue for 5-7 mins before a decline. But I watched the lfm sit for another 10 mins waiting for divines and or bards. Tobril got in on his FvS and asked me to switch (3 divines and a bard all off timmer) , but I don’t take kindly to being declined with out a tell. Although I do like being declined vs waiting in the queue forever so I wont hold it against the raid leader. But I am not switching around to help him on that run. Unless a guildie would say call in a favor…

Any how back to the last week or so, flagged and booted Butterz and Jr for Tod. And got her ready for all the epics I think. Now that I think about it however; she might need to do the Sentential chain for those quick epics….Will have to check sometime.

Any how, I wanted to do the Carnival chain for 2 reasons. One: to ready them for epic runs. And two: get the base item for the Epic Batman Vest for her. Umm Epic Utility Vest? With it and other miscellaneous items she has collected over the years, she is a really good epic trapper for a 16/2/2 warchanter.

I told all that to tell this part of the story.

I ended up having to run the chain twice as I didn’t get the Utility Vest the first time around. But looking over the list I noticed a fairly solid BtA weapon in the list. I don’t remember the exact details but it was +1 something of righteousness level 0. But it was a less then helpful weapon type to me so I passed taking the rune arm I think.

Rerunning the chain my armor was in the list but so was a +1 icy heavy repeater of pure good, also level 0 BtA. So I don’t know about you but I am going to spam this end chain looking for the other base items as now that I have an Epic runner I like I am going to try to do some more Carnival epics. But with the ice games running a even better twink item wouldn’t suck. If an elemental touch (weapon) is good for elite level 1s. And an elemental touch/ icy – icy burst is super. How amazing would a elemental of PG with Icy burst be?

Feel free to complain about power creep but at those levels more damage is just fun times. It is not like the content is super hard…

All I am saying is read your lists very closely. There are some good things dropping. Don’t believe me? Take a close look at Samius’s My.ddo details. And Pm me with how uber some of his gear is. 🙂 And i am jealous of some of the wife’s TR gear!

❤

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

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

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

Monks also have some of the best laired synergies.

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

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

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

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

❤