Normal readers know that I am thinking of taking a bit of a Samius break here at Sorc. While I am not a fan of my sorc life. It and I are reaching a happy place. I got my evocation Dcs to the place where Harry seems to fail a large number of my lighting bolts. Upkeep dots, 2 bolts, chain lighting, bolt and the awaken weakness once or twice a round and that is about all I have time for before I can start my casting chain over again. And with 8 sp lighting bolts hitting at 1200+ with that double strike chance for another 1200+ possible I should take the last 2 levels at a slower pace and get another cleansing stone. Not to mention knock out some 20 completions on some other raids for tomes. I don’t think I will make it that long but I can try to relax, some.

But I need a project, and so I have been thinking about Java. He is my full on melee wiz/tank. And he does fine in normal/hard stuff, as long as I am not fighting someone that wants to “put me in my place.” Which happens a lot more then I want to admit.

But the thing is I don’t want to worry about someone fighting me for control. I miss the old intim some times. Hit the button and win..

But those days are gone, at least for now… So we adjust. And I need to go all out hate. I think I am super close to getting a gloves of the claw scroll. I already have a bracer scroll so if I were to get those items epiced up that would be a step in the right direction. But I need a build to take advantage of them….

I tend to like my builds to be more solo capable then not, but often solo builds don’t carry the same dps that a pure group play can.

So I am asking you all for help. I have been looking at a 12/7/1 clr/mnk/rog build. But I don’t think this will hold hate super well. I am also kicking around a pure 20 FvS. I think this might be my best bet for hate tanking and soloing. But I don’t know melee fvs that well, so if you do shoot me links or builds. You can use the comments, or email me at samius@ddococktailhour.com. Or if you have tweeks for the 12/7/1 build let me get those too.

❤

Starting Sunday afternoon, I started to feel off. But I did my best to push that icky feeling aside and push on. Add in a pinched nerve in my back playing hell with my neck and triggering migraines. Lets just say i am under the weather and I haven’t slept well the last few days.

So Monday, up and moving, I am playing the “Am I well enough to go to work, game?” I hate it when others come to work ill. Makes everyone’s day shitty. And if it is something you can pass around… Lets say “stay home” is my policy. But I think I am well enough, if I get an OJ and a 5 hour energy boost and i go to work. But by lunch I am feeling much worse and decide to lay down over my break. No help, so I quick text message to my boss for a half sick day. And I am back in bed with the plan to die. I just feel like I am drifting off and bang! bang! boom! bang! boom! Boom! As my son, Remmie, tries to destroy the stair case on his way down stairs. After an hour of trying to drift off I am now wide awake. And now the mild nausea that has been floating around all day has stepped up its day. Must find a distraction!

Fumble through some CTH paper work and log on and see what is up. Thinking Tobril might be off, due to having the on call phone over last week/weekend, and a late night tweet complaining about fixing stuff in the early morning hours. I can make him entertain /carry me through some quests. But he is not on. 😦

But MissDivine is on and in an Abbot raid. Well I can use a few xps and whatnot. And if Miss is in then it is a good group. I get in. Get assigned spotter duty, cake walk. End up in ice, with Miss and someone else. Not trusting my new keyboard I let miss and the 3rd person handle the wands. Jump out and miss the platform and die. Well I am glad I explained the new keyboard thing before I died and didn’t take a wand! A few secs later an ice ball hit a dart and Miss is left swimming alone in ice to complete. So glad that someone was on the ball and DI-ed him… Smooth completion other then that. And lots of good loot drops including an unloved Purging the Pantheon that goes to the only person that wants it, me. Okay that is not 100% true. Purging the Pantheon is also exclusive, so I am the only one without one that wants it….

Give my thanks to the group. Take my favor reward. And go stand in the bar as I make a visit to the little gamers room. I return 5-10 mins later, and try to motivate to do something. After a few mins of using air dance to fly around the orchard for a while I hit the lfm panel hoping for something to catch my attention…

And there is another Abbot up. And Miss is also in that one. Sure why not. Get Java and jump in. Java is on Abbot number 17, time for number 18. Again I spot, and again I am in ice. Again it is me and 2 others. A 20 Clr that was assigned Ice and another guy, that is new to the raid. I say lets try it. The Clr and I take wands, I explain to the new guy to stand at the back of the ice island so not to get in the way wand users. And ask the Clr to do the front/back method to make sure we don’t get in each others way. And we are off.

Did I tell you, that I have never really done ice before? I have been on wand duty after someone has dropped a wand. And Tobril has explained how to do it so many times to others while I was in the group. Durning his post completion “classes.” I think I have been a spotter, stuck in ice jumping along with out wands once before. But I have never ‘really’ done ice before.

We were doing fine, we are 3 or 4 islands in to ice when our third didn’t move fast enough and took a swim. No big deal, he was tagging along anyway. The clr and I keep moving. We start to round the last corner, the end is in sight and splash. My clr partner was a hair to slow getting his new platform set up and we go swimming. Thankfully again he had a DI running so we completed but I was so close to completing my first ice as a wand welder. 😦

The rest of the raid completed as stood waiting for a rez. It was touch and go for a sec. Inferno was called but wands didn’t get handed off. There was some “Who has wands?” “Can I get a wand.” from the guy assigned wand duty, but he never got a wand….Thankfully, the Clr that lived was able to get an island made not wiping the party. And it was a smooth completion.

I run over click the shrine, and head to the chest. And Staff of the Petitioner was sitting in Java’s name. With out even thinking about it I snarfed it up before something horrible happened. So now Java’s next TR is a little more confuted, but I know he will have a worth wild blue bar so his torc/staff will not be a waste. Now if I can get a nice Litany by or in my 20th end reward list I will really have by build work cut out for me….

❤

So this past weekend, I am soloing Samius trying to get to 18/ToD flagged. I finally do get to 18 btw, but that I a different story. And the wife informs me she is board.

She didn’t TR with me last run because she wanted to level one of her alts and at the same time do her own thing raid/loot wise. She has been trying for a royal guard mask now for a few weeks. She hates to buy something she can hut for, but come on. That mask is more rare then a Bloodstone.

Anyway she, informs me that she is board, and wants to do something else. And I offer her a spot in my group for xp/ToD flagging. I know she has 3 or 4 alts right near the cap that she has been talking about capping out.

But that offer fell flat. And we sat and watched Voyager on netflix for a show or two. Soon, that to brought the dreaded phrase “I’m board…”

Okay, quickly I through out getting Samius XP in a different way. Something like hard/elite shroud flagging or something. But she saw through my offer and counted with lowbes. New lowbes, even.

Sure, why not? I have been talking about leveling up a first lifer, I could use the moral boost of a fast leveling alt.

So I quickly rolled up a new character, a copy of my Stalwart song. Following the plan almost 100%. I took bastard sword and not thf. I will adjust the build to show the update.

I bought a keen bastard sword of righteousness for like 2k. Grabbed a cleaned mithral shield, a Invulnerability shard bummed a few plat from Tobril for 20 pots and a wand and I was ready.

I turned and she is sitting at her computer character creation screen. After some poking and prodding she rolls a version of the bowonk. So an hour or so of playing we are level 5. I have to say I like the way she is handling. Damage per swing is about 20-25 with criting into the 40s 50s. Not horrible, for a level 4 tanky build. But the main thing is she takes almost no damage. The top level 15% damage reduction from having the shield mastery feat and a heavy shield + Invulnerability = lots of 0s and a few 1s. I also found that human damage boost + fighter haste boost timers can overlap which = bad ass.

So I will use Stalwartsong, (I know super original name right?) as a pressure release valve. So if your on Sarlona, and don’t suck to bad, shoot me a message and we can see about setting up a channel for lowbe action…

Any way I will keep you posted.
❤

So last week some time I was running through the market place and happened to have the general tab up. And a post went up in the trade channel, price check on a Pale Lavender Ioun Stone. I looked at it real fast and made sure it was a newer one that could be unlocked. And it was.

I along with a few others replied with it was fairly rare and would bring a good price. I also sent along a tell that I would be willing to buy said item off him if he wanted. And added him to my friends list with a quick note.

Being on Samius was a bit of a boon, as he is a fan of Ddo Cocktail hour and we shared a few tells about the show. And there was an offer of a gift, but I declined that and told him that I would check in on him later to see if he sold it and if not try to work out a deal.

Well last night I saw him log on and I wasn’t in the middle of something so I sent him a tell inquiring if he still had the Ioun Stone and if he might be thinking of parting with it if he did.

After a bit of talking. And me raising my offer and him trying to lower it. We settled on a full set of +2 tomes. He wanted a +2 str tome, okay. So I talked him into talking the full set. I offered Green steel blanks, larges, plat, and whatnot. But he claims to be a super casual player. I saw him log on each night once I added him to my list, so I don’t think he will be Mr. Casual for long. 🙂

After we swapped, he asked why the stone was so valuable. Some guy bombarded him with tells that first day through a long quest. I explained that there is a level 20 quest that unlocks it to be a permanent spell absorption item with a low level. So for me it will be a handy TRing tool. And he replied with: It is a good thing I let it go then. After 6 months of playing this was his highest level character, a level 12 bard. And he has yet to see a +2 tome, let alone a full set.

So I am calling it a win win.

❤

Yesterday I talked about looking at builds for one of my characters, Javabot. And I listed out a few level split to fit my playstyle. So last night I took a bit of time and laid out a build on the 12/7/1 split.

So meet v1 of my Solobot build:

(7 Monk 1 Rogue 12 Cleric)
Hit Points: 310
Spell Points: 608
BAB: 14141924
Fortitude: 17
Reflex: 14
Will: 16

Abilities (36 Point)
Strength 16 all level ups
Dexterity 15
Constitution 16
Intelligence 10
Wisdom 12
Charisma 10

Tomes Used
+2 to all stats at level 7

Skills: Looking at doing max Concentration & Use Magic Device looks like Balance 13 and basic rogue skills from lvl 1 aka Open locks and tumble and whatnot…

Level 1 (Rogue)
Feat:(Past Life) Past Life: Fighter
Feat:(Past Life) Past Life: Paladin
Feat:(Selected) Power Attack

Level 2 (Monk)
Feat:(Monk Bonus) Two Weapon Fighting

Level 3 (Cleric)
Feat:(Selected) Empower Healing Spell

Level 4 (Cleric)
Level 5 (Cleric)
Level 6 (Cleric)
Feat:(Selected) Past Life: Student of the Sword (possible swap feat)

Level 7 (Cleric)
Level 8 (Cleric)
Level 9 (Monk)
Feat:(Selected) Dodge
Feat:(Monk Bonus) Stunning Fist (possible swap feat)

Level 10 (Monk)
Feat:(Monk Path) Path of Inevitable Dominion: Fists of Darkness

Level 11 (Monk)
Level 12 (Monk)
Feat:(Selected) Improved Two Weapon Fighting

Level 13 (Monk)
Feat:(Monk Bonus) Toughness

Level 14 (Monk)
Level 15 (Cleric)
Feat:(Selected) Improved Critical: Piercing Weapons

Level 16 (Cleric)
Level 17 (Cleric)
Level 18 (Cleric)
Feat:(Selected) Greater Two Weapon Fighting

Level 19 (Cleric)
Level 20 (Cleric)

Enhancement:Rogue Haste Boost I
Enhancement:Rogue Skill Boost I
Enhancement:Cleric Radiant Servant I
Enhancement:Cleric Radiant Servant II
Enhancement:Unyielding Sovereignty
Enhancement:Follower of the Sovereign Host
Enhancement:Static Charge
Enhancement:Ten K Stars ??
Enhancement:Way of the Patient Tortoise I
Enhancement:Way of the Patient Tortoise II
Enhancement:Monk Improved Recovery I
Enhancement:Monk Improved Recovery II
Enhancement:Monk Ninja Spy I
Enhancement:Adept of Wind
Enhancement:Adept of Flame
Enhancement:Racial Toughness I
Enhancement:Racial Toughness II
Enhancement:Rogue Faster Sneaking I
Enhancement:Rogue Sneak Attack Training I
Enhancement:Improved Heal I
Enhancement:Improved Heal II
Enhancement:Improved Jump I
Enhancement:Improved Jump II
Enhancement:Improved Tumble I
Enhancement:Improved Tumble II
Enhancement:Cleric Prayer of Life I
Enhancement:Cleric Prayer of Life II
Enhancement:Cleric Prayer of Incredible Life I
Enhancement:Cleric Life Magic I
Enhancement:Cleric Life Magic II
Enhancement:Cleric Charisma I
Enhancement:Cleric Charisma II
Enhancement:Cleric Wisdom I
Enhancement:Cleric Wisdom II
Enhancement:Cleric Divine Healing I
Enhancement:Cleric Extra Turning I
Enhancement:Cleric Extra Turning II
Enhancement:Cleric Improved Turning I
Enhancement:Cleric Wand and Scroll Mastery I
Enhancement:Warforged Healer’s Friend I
Enhancement:Warforged Power Attack I
Enhancement:Warforged Power Attack II
Enhancement:Warforged Power Attack III
Enhancement:Warforged Tactics I

Weapon set up:

Lightning strike Short sword/ epic Small blade (Wind stance for 11% double strikes…) carry a warchanter bard in my pocket for 16%

Stonedust/vamp wraps when the aura alone is not keeping up.

Convictions for looking cool. 😉

I have had a growing feeling of discontent with leveling up Samius and I am ready for change. So I think after I finish getting Samius capped. I will be looking at what to do with Java. As well as probably leveling/messing around with leveling up some new alts/ older alts that have falling out of favor. But this post is about what to do with Java.

For any of you that don’t know, Javabot is my version of a “tank.” He started out as a paladin/ wiz/monk and then Tred in to his current 11/6/3 wiz/fig/monk and before the intim changes he did his job really well. But now I feel that his dps is not where I want him to be for my idea of a “tank.”

So time to start brain storming ideas. If I were to TR today he would have the pally and wiz past life free feats. But if I wait a little I can use a +3 lesser and swap out some wiz levels for fgr levels and get the fgr past live feats. I also have a few pieces of gear I want to use. A few solid named docents, including DoD and and unlocked Quor, I also have unlocked a pair of the Titan’s Grip a long with one or two other pieces of gear setting the race as Warforged.

Add in a torc/ CorOp and a blue bar is almost required. I finally got my second Enduring Conviction so I have my pair for dual wielding them. 🙂 I also have my Circle of Hatred if I want to keep up the good intim. But it is a so so option. Oh and I have everything I need to epic a Jidz. But I don’t need to build with that in mind.

Build Requirements:
Great survivability, ie Selfhealing/DR/AC??
Solid DPS
Cool tricks/fun to play

So what am I thinking? Some kinda of battle divine. Not that I wont take other suggestions under advisement but these are my current front runners.

13/4/3 clr/fgr/mnk light monk/healing aura, all tweaked out for dual welding those E. Convictions With big Stunning Fists and Blows. It looks good on paper but I am less sure how it would playout.

12/7/1 clr/mnk/rog Dark monk/healing aura, shadow fade, move to shortswords (lighting strike + Epic Cutthroat’s Smallblade for double strike…)

13/7 FvS/monk trade the aura for a shoulder cannon, lose some sneak attack and skills for Hp (a large amount) and and Sp

Not going to lie, I like the 12/7/1 at least in the abstract. But if I was going drow the 13/7 shortsword should rock….

Ideas?

❤

So about at 1:25pm the wife and I were talking about going to lunch. But going to see the new Transformer movie and picking up some food after. Looking up play times on the cell phone the next showing is at 1:30. Okay time to fly. 🙂

When I review a movie use a few proofs to tell if a movie is good.

First the Wife Test: This is basically if the wife likes the movie or not. If she can sit still and watch a movie with out complaining that she is cold, hungry, how long is this movie or something. She sat and watched the movie. So win.

The Kid Test: this test is a lot like the wife test but harder. Remmie is 11 watches lots of TV, loves video games and it is super easy to tell when he is boarded. So for an action movie to hold his attention the whole time is a small wonder. Again win.

Then I have a few questions that I ask myself.

Do I want to see the movie again on the big screen?
Will I buy it on DVD/Blue Ray right away?
Did I feel the plot was slow, or made un-logical leaps in the plot?
How sexy was the movie? Will it hold up?
Was I surprised?

So where would I put this movie? Go watch it. It is a really ideal summer movie. Looked great, and the story was good.

There are some adjustments made when Rosie Huntington-Whitele replaced Megan Fox in the story. And it was a hard shift. But some times actors are just dumb and get fired or quit or what ever and the story has to change to make the story work.

Look at when Don Cheadle replaced Terrence Howard in IM2 vs IM. I never liked Howard as Rhodes, not that Cheadle is all that much better. After watching Ateam I want Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson to be Rhodes from now on. And please God let there be a War machine movie and let Quinton be the man!

I do think that the story would have been better if Sam was solo in the movie. I think trying to give us a new person to “care about” in the third movie was wrong. But you know I didn’t miss Megan at all.

I will be buying this movie as soon as it comes out on disk. And if I have a friend that wants to go see it I don’t have any problem going to watch it with them again. So that is fairly high in my personal rating.

Alright Roll Out!

❤

There was so much going on in the last few days, I am worn out. Let see, work is getting a major overhaul. Our AS400 is taking a huge leap in its programing. I spent the weekend on 24hour call, not a huge deal but it as been a long time since I have been on call like that… I have the healthy fear that the As400 could spawn into Skynet at any moment. I have a personal theory that Skynet develops from 2 or 3 As400s growing angry that their offerings of kittens and babies have stopped and take steps to regain power. Hence, the human/cyborg war… Trust me, As400s are like minor gods. Their temples need looted and their followers converted before they strike at us….

What else?? Oh I am another year older. Thanks to everyone that sent well wishes. It was a good day. Of course the Independence Day holiday was on Sunday. And it was the first year in a log time that we could fire off fireworks in the city limits. Sounds like police calls were down and I am not seeing any fires, so maybe they wont ban them again… Any way we were allowed to fire off our fireworks on the 3rd or the 4th so I got to legally have fireworks for my big day. 😉

Tobril was also in down to celebrate so we had a nice steak lunch and got in a little ddo time, and fired off roman candles as if we were firing off some magic wands. Good times.

I was able to get in a few hours of game time in by getting up early on the 4th and finally was able to get to level 17.

In the week or so it took me to level from 16 to 17, I ended up solo flagging for Abbot again. I will say some of the boss fights were a lot easier as the sorc… But most of them were a lot harder. You don’t want to know how long it took me to kill the beholder. I will say there was lots of swim swim jump up Wall of Fire and swim swim…. But got them all ran. No items of note however… Did an Abbot with Tobril and I have two notes. One, goggles is way easier when everyone is in the same room. And two grats to Tobril for getting his Litany, the next one is mine. ;).

Finished Shroud flagging this weekend also and finally got to run one late last night. Two chains but the run was fairly fast, one round part 4. I was totally out Sp just before the end. I think I got the final shot thanks to max/emp magic missiles from the wiz past life feat… But it was cool seeing doublestrike lighting bolt hitting for 1200+ twice, along with ticks from the two Dots and all the other numbers ticking off for big damage.

I am looking forward to hitting the raids just hard enough to get the xp out of them and hopeful a piece of loot or two i have had my eye on for a life or three…

The fam and I hit the third Transformers movie in time for the lunch matinee. And I will do a little movie review for my next post.

❤

So I have been doing the my.ddo thing since March 16th. Five-ish posts a week M-F, looking at the post counter that is 77 published posts.

So why can’t I see all of my posts unless I go to my dashboard and look at my posts? When I look at my Archives I can only see the last half of the month. So if I want to read say woody-the-bowonk I have to know the link or dig through as the admin. What good is that if say you, one of my 5s of readers wanted to go back and read some older content?

Now I can understand problems getting in game information out of game servers and in to my.ddo. After all that is pulling information out of one database and sticking it in to a Mysql data base (wordpress uses mysql)…. Wait no, that shouldn’t be all that hard either, but I am going to give it to them any way.

But loosing my already public blog posts? That is just shitty queries or a bad loop to out put the results. Lets get this fixed, hmmm okay?

You know on third thought where is the “older post” link on the UI now? I can scroll to the end of the jurnal right now that is the 17th of June (can the same bug be causing the whole problem??) shouldn’t their be a older posts that let you see at least the start of the currnent month? Or the next 12ish posts? There is a problem here….

While someone is working on my.ddo smarts lets make some minor UI changes.

Add some minor theme options? Even the main forums gives us a few themes to choose from, why can’t we have a few options on my.ddo? Or edit our own.

Also the lotteries UI. I know someone has done a little work as they put in some logic to only show the last X or in the last X months or something as to not have a few hundred winners on the list and they sorted the list putting the newest on the top. Good job, btw. Have a cookie.

But why do I still only have an add all button, to mass sign up for a lottery? Why do we not have a by server option per type of lottery?

Look at a set of lotteries I entered just recently, Heart of Wood, hair die, pass to some quest chain, etc….

And I ended up entering them all on all servers. I have a lot of characters. So I diluted the lottery a lot, because I don’t want to click a million times. But if I could go down the line and say click “All Sarlona” for the wood and the hair die I would have done just that.

I am sure I will have a few more suggestions late but it is time for lunch.

❤

You might have noticed that my last few posts have all come today and there was not a lot of Ddo talk in them. Some of you know I took a little mini vacation, with the family. Couple that with a major overhaul at work. And my sudden wonderment about solar flares and 2012 and I find myself a little light on Ddo time over the last week or so…

But I have been playing, but for 1-3 hour mins a night vs my 3+ hours a night that is my norm.

The wife, who has been banking mad xp so she can keep playing with me, has rolled up a baby sorc to have something else to do while I am grinding some of the same things over and over.

I am running lots of Inferno of the Damned and Temple of Vol. Both quests are fairly simple for a solo caster. Flesh Maker a quest I normally run a lot I have not done nearly as much. I think because I need another person to help with the runes at the end, or a hireling that I can count on….But I did run it once last night.

I also tried Ghosts last night, was doing really well thought I would complete in fair amount of time. I was at the last level and almost done, but my hireling died. And not having someone to split the agro with made things super hard for my sorc to blast everything and heal/rez with the beholder looking right at me and I fell to neg levels after my beholder necklaces ran out…. But I pulled my silver flame trinkets out of the bank along with my phase hammer and I hope to hammer through next time… 🙂 Ghosts is really good xp per min with a second person, as long as you don’t bother with the extra chest.

Tuesday or so I asked the wife to help me out and we two maned Tor with Dragons for flagging. Have I said the new lvl 5 Dots are really good? But awaken elemental weakness is the big winner, well at least against the white and black dragon anyway.. in the blue room having that 40 resistance let Ice storm and a few ray spells shine through…

After blooding I tried to solo the Reaver. But the Air Eleies are killers now and at this level I am slow to kill them alone. I miss blade barrier. I remember having a decision/fight/argument with Jerry/Cordoven about what is better BB or WoF. He thought I was nuts thinking BB was better. Wonder how that conversation would play out today????

So a last night, there were a few groups that started out at level. But sooner or later turn in to loot runs by allowing 20s in and I would drop. I want that xp….

Thankfully there was one group that also wanted xp. At 11 people and 10 mins since any new takers we decide to go the 11 of us. We step in and get a 12th, a Reaver virgin and clr to boot.

Instructions were given out. Very smooth run, no deaths, 13 mins. I ended up pulling the lever but didn’t have to solve. I will take it.

Much loot dropped. I pulled a Head, it went up for roll high d42. A napkin dropped, also put up for roll. The necklace (trinket?) the 30 elc/chain lighting clickie I think it was also given up for roll. And a +3 dex tome. Yep a +3 dex tome. Did I say we ran normal as the highest was 16? Very nice run. Oh and no I don’t think the tome was given up for roll 🙂

You know what I also pulled 2 simi hard to get sheild pieces last night also, over all it was a good night.

❤