Category Archives: DDo

Radio Silence

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Sorry for the lack of posts last week, it was a fairly busy week plus I was ill one day so that just meant that I had one less day at work to get things done. But in addition to that I am just not having super amounts of fun right now.

My higher-level guys are not xping fast enough for me to want to be working on them all the time. My low level guys are grinding away mostly solo as Tobril leap frogs past me over and over again as people motivated to the TR grind are wanted to do. The wife is only interested in playing on the weekend when there is more then just Tobril and I playing (maybe not even together). Although last night she and I where talking and she sounded like she was for trying to play her namesake char again who is currently a pure 20ish druid. So maybe she and I will rock some easy epics again and maybe that will light a fire under my ass.

I think the real killer is I am just unhappy with how my mains, Samius and Javabot are playing. Like most wizards Samius audibled into a force arch mage to rock the double rainbow. And that was fun for a while but between the changes to the procs and just spamming different magic/chain missile spells depending on cooldown over and over again I am just tired.

Java’s dps is way lower then I remembered from the life before and I am not sure what to do about it, although I just got him back to 25 so maybe switching weapons will do the trick. If not…. I might need to find another build.

And I guess that takes me to the last thing, my spare brainpower is now thinking about magic decks and not ddo builds.

How can I shake myself out of this grand tilt? I want to look at the Eldritch Knight, it could be just the thing. If I can find away back to the melee/caster hybrid that Samius was originally it could be just the shot in the arm I need.

All that said I still enjoy playing, I just seem to find myself watching more MtG videos or playing more MtG then going and logging on to ddo…

Hell maybe I need to pug some more, that will get the blood flowing.

<3s

Surprise, Your Dead!

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Ever wonder how the DM would sound while we are playing DDo?

I do. And most of the time I think he would be whiny that I am just bypassing his whole adventure. In my head my DM is always a guy, most of the time that stereotypical nerd man/boy with the broken glasses that has never touched a boob.

Anyway, he is always falling back to cheese dick moves to try and slow me down.

Ha, the door is magically warded to be locked unless you defeat everyone in this room.
The whole dungeon is mentally tied together to know your location, or is warded to slow you down once so many guards are alerted that you are around and about.

But the worse is when he sticks a party wipe trap for no real reason other then to kill your ass.

By the way I was running Foundation of Discord last night when I realized that my mental DDo Dm is kinda a dick.

Oh if you don’t know Giant Hold quest I might have some spoilers for you.

So in Foundation, aka the one surrounded by heads, buff including Invis for last and take off down the hall, jump down, shoot down the other hall, time the door to gather the least amount of agro, pull trash into my layered AOE spells/Sword range jump around that one corner up against the wall as to avoid the traps as much as possible…..

Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang! Giggle, roll damage you take 130 points of sonic 4 times? Surprise your dead again! It is just not your night for this quest. This is the third time I got you with these traps.

See, he is a dick. Release and try again….

Turns out the fourth time was the charm and the traps weren’t there, looks like I finally won the die roll. Once I wasn’t in danger of random death to traps I was able to quickly complete the quest and finished the rest of the loop easily enough.

I will just say that my DM was in a spite full mood as he got me a few more times last night. Once in Blockade Busterwhen a captain hits me with a Disintegrate with his first action. Where I naturally roll and 1 and die. Again in Undermine, which I will blame on lag mostly. I did put myself in a spot where a lag spike was going to kill me, but I thought Ice Storm, Body of the Sun and a BIG Regen would be good enough. Guess not. Unlagged once I was a stone, nice timing on that one. Then, Tobril jumps to 18 via stone and we do Lords of Dust where I die again to massive amounts of traps. OVER AND OVER. Tobril offers to come back for me as he is off soloing the quest I am just losing everyone xps but I can reach the shrine before the traps and I figure, either he will beat the quest and I can just release or I will make it past and fourth or fifth try I made it.

In my head the DM was crying he was giggling so hard until he said, sure you made it, why not?????

It is nights like last night that make up for the nights where all he does is pout about me bypassing everything and all I can say is what goes around comes around.

What is your DDo Dm like?

<3s

It’s Getting Hot in Here!

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Hi guys, I know it has been awhile but work has been killer with our LDAP/php upgrade/mysql upgrade/server move. Wow that was most likely a lot of stuff I could have just called work junk and everyone would have been just as happy. Well at least the health care exchanges are not my problem… ☺

Even so I have gotten a few hours to play ddo and I want to talk a little about it. First Tobril and I rocked things to 8 last week. And then I had things to do and he jumped up (as planed) and rocked it to 20 with out me (again as planed). Then proceeded to cry that he couldn’t TR again right away. But got to TR again on Monday and I think he is moving a little slower with out me, but not a lot slower.

Basically that means that McGoggles needs to really push this week to try and hit level 16 or so about the time he stones up so to piggy back on mostly his work.

Lets talk just a little about McGoggles. Right now he is level 15 (13 druid/2 ranger) and while the dps is a little lower then I was thinking it would be it is still in solo GH range. Although I will say I have gone a little more caster then melee dps in boss fights in GH. Gear wise he is still fairly light, I found a level 14 rapier that Samius used a ton for trs and normal play back in the day and passed it over to him. The flame blades are fine for most things but as I misread the fire elemental perks thought it was up 3 down 3 for spell level. Turns out it is up 1 down 3. So I am using that rapier and my old caster melee weapon. Think I will upgrade that Threnal war blade to become my off hand caster weapon at some point, I need to see what augments I have sitting around in my bank /AH for my level.

Over all I am mostly a melee caster although I am just a feat away from manyshot and Weapons of Purity is online next level I think so some sweet manyshot action is about to happen.

Just in case you missed it:

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Okay I need to get to work,

<3s

DDo Store Saves the Day?

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So last night Tobril was playing hooky from work and happened to be hanging out on DDo, getting ready for a TR. We talked while I rocked a WizKing and he made his “go” decision. Meaning if I was coming along for the first 8 levels and maybe then some, I needed to shit or get off the pot.

So mainly do to the fact that I had 0 plans but I have already ate a heart on my pure monk Samiusjr I decided to give him a go. He has been sitting around for a while now getting less then 0 play, so why not?

With no real plan I went dwarf monk. Mostly wis/con based but with enough str to get the job done most of the time.

Then the strangest thing happened, I hit the ddo store to buy some grog for the 5 tp cake quest and I saw a cosmetic helm, it was like a sign from Sparta. I only saw it for a sec, but it was long enough for my brain to scream monk fighter in platemail, yo!

At this point I have hand wraps and whatever junk you get in the end rewards for the quests, I am not even wearing the starting outfit you get as a monk.

A grand tp later I have my hat and a cosmetic suit of plate and I am kung foo dwarf knight! Have to say something as simple as looking badass really brought me back into the fun. Now I want to “find” a build for this guy other then 12/5/x so I can be all dwarf axe/2wf/throwing my weight around monk guy. Have to say that sounds amazing!

All I need to do is get McGoggles to 17-18 so to play with Tobril post his stoning so I can working on SamJr in the off time the build should be fairly easy if I just work for centered axes for now and then rock the rest of the monk levels post lvl 7. Now just need to find feats and a simple gear list…

If you have any ideas please use the comments.

<3s

What to Do?

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Unlike most of the time when I ask a question in the title, I really don’t have the answer. So I am really asking; What to do?

My ddo time is about steady I have found that I can do 3 or 4 quests a night on McGoggles while watching MtG videos. Aka I am running around solo because no one else is around. The wife is crushing a show on nexflix. Tobril is doing the Real Life thing (will get into that later) everyone else is off in the evening playing other games and that is fine. But that means that there is a point where I wonder if I should bother anymore?

Think that answer remains yes. I mean even 2 hours of ddo solo is better then 2 hours of just about anything else but head, right?

It is strange times for me right now. Work is once again kicking my ass. Which is a good thing for the most part. My brain has moved from DDo builds to MtG deck builds and what little spare time not devoted to MtG or DDo has gone into the garden. Overall life is good right now.

Okay back to “What to Do? Remember when I said Tobril is rocking the real life world. Well I got a txt message from him the other day saying that he bought a ton of Otto’s boxes and with the current loot/content/broken raids/whatnots he wants to grind a few lives. But I don’t know what to do.

I have a few first lifers that could use a TR but seems like a waist of a stone. I have 2 or 3 from different things. So I would be more or less leveling to 8 with Tobril then grinding out alone from there. So what that would be like 8 hours of grind? Na, that is easy.

I have a few people I am just unhappy with at the moment. Java and Samius currently stand out. But I have less then 0 plan for them. Samius was meant to be the uber wizard, but with the Destinies uber is being a Magic Missile machine counting on Double rainbow for dps, aka fun for about 2 quests. And Java is just not living up to his last life as a dog druid. Think the enchantment changes shot him in the foot.

But I have no idea what to do now.

Builds are welcome. Thoughts are welcome. Anything that gets my brain moving in the DDo world is welcome.

<3s

What would you do?

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You are level 12 holding xp for 13 for a few days so you can build up a few runs of the Sands walkups trying to make the new xp changes work for us and you loot a junk cursed ring. Looking at your gear list you are still wearing your bta lvl 7 greater false item ring aka time to level up.

Once you add the GFL it is now level 13 so you have a few days to think things over, what is the play?

You have a yellow and a colorless to work with. I will stick an image of captan smexy pants so you can’t skip down to my answer too easily.

The answer is fairly simple I think. Fear Immunity is huge. Sure we have fairly good will saves, but as we have FoM as a spell; fear effects and greater command are about the only spells that we are worried about. And I don’t know about you but if I can fail a will save I will. And then with Vitality as an option we might as well hit it and make this a huge Hp ring.

Other allowed but less good answers include a combination of the above and Blindness immunity and a +7 skill like heal or spell power. But again I think the above is the right play.

<3s

Magic the Gathering Vs DDo?

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So I am on the up ramp for MtG taking over my life again. Pre enchantment pass my thoughts were mostly filled with thoughts of DDo, alts to level, builds to try, gear to grind and that was good. Then the pass hit and now I am all like okay do I abandon this guy and TR him now or wait until the new super TR is out? Where is the value?

Oh see there it is, “that Magic talk.” A line like “Where is the value?” is right out the MtG player handbook. But don’t panic, I am not giving up DDo, at least not yet. ☺ I am just doing things like Friday Night Magic events and the rare Saturday thing. But if you are not a MtG player you might get a little intro as I ramble on. But I have always seen/written about DDo through the eyes of a MtG player and I will more then likely be doing so even more then before. So if you start to see things that are a little strange, even for me, ask and I will most likely explain with “In Mtg ….”

So how has this week been in DDo?

Not bad. Still mostly playing my Rogue and or my “healer/caster” druid. I am digging the new Season line on him at least. On Java, what little I have played, has been me shouting, “Damn it, I am in summer!” then some more colorful additives for the next few mins, then rejoicing when returning to winter. Aka think there will be no more Season’s Herald on Dog form fighting guys…

For those of you that don’t follow me on twitter, @samiusgurobo, the satellite box/DVR crapped out. So while that was down (new one should be installed over lunch today) I would play DDo on one screen and then stream video from Starcitygames or ChannelFireball. Sure I don’t know what is going on in the newest Breaking Bad or Dexter (and if you spoil it for me I will killz you) but my nights weren’t that bad. I even found a sudo drafter site to “practice” draft picks and my builder brain is back to making decks vs making DDo builds. But I am leveling slowly but surely.

Lets talk just a little about leveling. With the xp changes it is fairly worth wild if you know your going to be slow rocking a level to plan a little head. Ie flag an opener for high xp quests and have a plan for “daily” runs. God, I hate that idea. Makes me think of WoW… But that is kinda just how it is right now. Last week I was running a Pit, Tear and a Qwylan’s and then logging off or swapping to my rogue and hitting a eHVon3 before logging to play Magic with the boy before bed. This week I set my low level opener for things like Necro4 and … I feel like there were some other things…. But if there was it is slipping my mind. I know that later tonight I will start the daily runs of Shadow Crypt. ☺

Laters
<3s

9 and 2, McGoogles

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It is hard to get a feel about a build from reading about it online or tring to extrapolate from other similar builds. Hell for a while I would use the vet 2 status and try to “fake” a sudo lowbi version and hit a few quests as a trial run and even that is only so good.

Why? I am not sure. But I think it has something to do with the act of actually leveling a given alt…. It is something to ponder I guess.

Anyway, I want to talk just a little about McGoggles. The first few levels were like any other build. Use a stick or 2 little sword; pots as needed, try to use the vigor spell for most of the heals. It worked fairly well. Nothing amazing but I was able to solo more or less everything rocking an elite streak. He had 0 deaths until I tried to do the last Grey Moon quest at level 8, that last trap across the bridge just hits real hard and is super unforgiving. I missed jumped and took 3 hits for 80+ and my 20 vigor didn’t make a dent in that, but that has been his only death so far with little to no really worth wild loot other then maybe my one sword (BtA icy burst/shocking Burst/Pure good lvl 4 simmy) and the haste goggles from Chrono…

Those Chrono goggles btw are one of the best leveling items you can have, one day soon I will make a power 9 (or 10) of leveling gear items and those goggles are on the list for sure!

But until last night I really wasn’t having that much fun. He was super tough and between vigor and pots he is mostly unkillable, I had a few run away/tactical retreat moments but everyone does soloing. But at level 9 I had a feat question between metas, I went Maximize. I am waiting for +3 dex tomes to come back on line so both Manyshot and Imp Two weapon were not options (I was looking forward to Manyshot). Turns out to be a blessing in disguise as I toggled it on and set up a few spells to not use it and ran to the next quest.

With Emp Heals and Maximize that vigor now does 80 a tick and call lighting outside does 400ish as I learned by rocking Storm the Beaches. Overall he is starting to step up. I worry some that his total lack of gear and my plan to not have much in the way of leveling gear might be an issue but hey he is a second life, if I need to back down to a hard streak for soloing should be fine, right?

My Life So Far, Post U19

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So this weekend was a good one for me to play with the enchantment pass, Tobril was out of town and most of the Brits were out and about when I had free time. So it was solo a lowbe, which I did a lot, or look at fixing some of my men….

McPlunderer took the most work as I ended up swapping 3 levels to Ranger like I talked about last post. Btw sorry for the long break, what can I say I am burnt out after work lately…. Anyway 3 ranger levels are huge. Those few levels grant vital feats to free things up and allowing me to move things around, not for forget that Arcane Archer via a direct class line saves a ton of points as well as freeing up old feats.

I was able to lose Toughness and some other random AA prerequisite feat for Imp Precise Shot, oh and I gained Dodge, which I am not sold on. Overall for 150ish hp I picked up a fair amount of get things done. Deep Wood sniper, at least for this build, is amazing; 2 more sneak attack dice, a ton of healing spell power and another melee attack with bonus [W].

But the assassin tree got most of my points. Assassin’s Trick is mostly useless btw, things that live long enough for it to matter are immune and everything else would be dead had you just attacked for the time to do the animation.

With all that in mind I made a mistake and didn’t tome up (dex) before lessering and had to drop an extra stat point into dex to take extra sneak attack vs adding it to Int. But I was still able to raise my Assassinate DC by 2. Making it 51 unbuffed. Not too bad. Shipbuff, Yugo pot, store pot (?) house D pot, Let measure the Foe build up and a 60+ DC could happen…

As for everyone else?

Java is fine but I am not happy with just fixing his enhancements. Think he might get a TR simi soon. Maybe will use that heart and nab a something unfun to level up and get him back on the completionist train. I just don’t know.

Similar deal with Samius as I have with Java, he is playable but just not as good as I would like. Think I will get into a longer post about spell power/ caster changes but let me just say I used to have unmetaed Magic Missiles do about 35 points per missile to try and proc Shiridi effects now they do about 24 points. That is a lot less damages add in the changes to the Double Rainbow and I am not sure that now is the time for casters any longer.

Okay need to head back to work, talk again real soon.

<3s