Category Archives: Rant

Welcome Back Samius, All Your Guys Are Broken!

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I know you all missed me very much and awaited my return with bated breath. Well I to hungered to write for you again.

Okay enough of that shit, to the meat!

Day 1 of U19 for me. Knowing that I would most likely need to use that +20 heart on Samius to get him up to snuff I chose to use McPlunderer as my enchantment test bed. Other then Samius he is currently my top guy for dealing with whatever DDo life throws at me.

Just as a quick reminder McPlunderer is/was my twf/full AA/Assassin 18/1/1 rog/arty/fghr. He was fairly tight. Right around 650 hp fair to solid dps against things looking at him, great dps vs things looking the other way and a fairly high instant kill DC (could be +3 higher as a pure rogue). ☺

Now with the changes I dumped 46 points into the assassin tree however many points it took to unlock arcane archer enough in kensei for my haste boost which I found in acrobat in a way that might be a little more useful… But almost non-left to spend in the Archer tree. Aka my build is shot.

Time to hit the old idea room, aka the pooper. While clearing my mind I hit the wiki like I often do and started to wonder.

Would 3 levels of ranger be worth it? I wouldn’t need to meet the prerequisites for AA via feats any more so the question is can I get everything I “want” from AA with just 3 levels of ranger?

Make arrows, check
Morphic arrows, check
Force Arrows, check
But not slaying arrows…
But you know soul Magic looks real good if you have cocoon twisted in as your healing… Echo of power for 4 -8 and a few bow hits and heal. Loth you might be a lot less scary real soon.

But the other nice thing that happens is you open up tempest and Deep Wood Sniper, which is really what this build is all about big dual welding with a massive ranged option.

As an added bonus I would be able to swap my dilettante feat to Paladin for a huge bonus to saves.. Might have a build for you all in a few days.

<3s

Time to Move the Computer?

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My wife is a huge “reality” tv fan and I think her favorite has just started, Big Brother. The nice thing for ME about her watching Big Brother is they (CBS) does this thing called live streams most of the time so there is always something for her to watch. The bad thing is there is always something for her to watch and how our computers are set up (right next to each other) that means that I have to hear all this noise.

Guess I need to expand on that just a little in case you don’t know the show. The idea of the show is take a bunch of people and lock them in a house full of cameras and make them vote themselves out a person a week until there are just a few left all a while making them play games for both prizes and “power” in the game structure.

Okay fairly simple idea for a show even though I don’t watch the show why would that make me want to move my PC?

What you might not think about is the game is full of political BS meaning everyone whispers all the time as to try and not be over heard by everyone else. Meaning for people that watch the “live” streamings there is little audio help from CBS so you end up maxing out your speakers. And it is a simple fact that if you are the one trying to hear something it needs to be about 400 times louder for you then for everyone else in the house to be able to hear. It is just a simple fact.

So either I need to talk the wife in to using her head phones or I might just be better off moving my PC into another room for the next 3 months so I don’t have to hear how girl A is pissed that boy B is talking to girl C because she said she is sisters with famous person I don’t give a fuck…

And yes that was the story for my hour of DDo time last night as I slowly worked on the eGh explorer zone alone except for my army of hires. Yup, that is the other down side of giving her something to watch, my main DDo partner now has other things to do besides get me loot and xps….

What a double edge sword this show is.

Well back to work,

 

<3s

Need More TR Cache?

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I am not sure how this thought got started in my head but now it has wiggled around a bit and I need to get it out. I know dear readers, I am both sorry for what is about to happen below and you are welcome….

What if you could take your old raid gear (or any bound to character on equip item really but for this though process I am looking at raid gear) and via some ritual convert them in to some kind of “smaller” version of the item so they could be collected in a bag/chest/container to save room. And then if you need said item again you could enlarge it again via a ritual most likely converting said item to a current version of said item.

Now we would need to add a way to monetize this system as well as keeping a free in game option, say via some kind of turn in or rare item drop to shrink and another to reconstruct that could be sold in the store or bought sold via shards like a purple dopant…  Or we could easily buy shrink/enlarge mats and they start us off with a small container say one that holds 5 and then sell larger containers or container upgrades via the store like cannith grafting.

In my mind I see this Bag as more of a “trophy case”.

Running with the thought that this is a “trophy” case, we could have this do some cool things. First add a guild trophy case that more or less gathers a list of all the characters in the guilds items in their case and then show the totals.  Like if I have a chattering ring and a circle of hatred in my case and Tobril had a circle of hatred and a Tharn’s goggles in his our guild list would be like 2 circle of hatred (mouse over for owners) 1 chattering ring, 1 Tharn’s goggles.

At the same time this might also be a good place/time to do some exporting for public viewing, like how we have the guild APIs but better.

The main perk however, would be helping free up inventory with out having to add more pack or bank space. Think about it. How much old raid gear do you leave in your TR cache? Me I have caster gear that gathers dust on melee lives and melee gear during caster lives.

Many talks with Glinn about inventory space, I think I understand that is it a big deal to add more space in banks or packs. Due to the nature of the beast that is the character file in the backend. But a system like this would be amazing and as I understand “bags” are a lot easier.

OR on the flip side… they could just make a chest that any item/s can go into with no rituals and be super cool.

<3s

Want to be a Better Player?

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This is the single best thing you can do to improve your DDo play skillz. DEVELOP WASD skills.

DDo has a fairly amazing combat system, by far the most interactive of any game I have ever played online. And might rival more then a few offline console games.

Build matters a lot less then your ability to not be where the damage is when it comes staying alive and the best players I have ever seen almost never stop watching their positioning. They are always staying ahead of the where the damage is while keeping a high DPS level.

This was very apparent to me last night when the wife and I were rocking Vale quests on our TRs mainly in Running with the Devils and not taking massive amounts of light damage. 150 points a ray btw… or as I like to call them lazer death rayz!

Not that there weren’t any deaths, (although we cleared to and through the tunnels really well and thought we were in amazing shape until the first chest area) with just the 2 of us and our healers, because there was a few deaths. But there were a lot fewer deaths (ie 0) when we could keep moving to manually dodge those damn Lazerz. When we had room to maneuver we were able to stay ahead of things, in places were the numbers were overwhelming and we had less room to keep moving is where we choked.

So what I am saying is, if you are rocking a solid build and you are still struggling keep a eye out for those people that seem to excel and watch them move and I bet you will see them dancing around the screen with those WASD skills.

<3s

The Joys of Pugging: Keavaa

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I know lots of people are going to read this and call me an elitist or a snob and I am cool with that even though I wouldn’t call myself an elitist. I try at least every other day to read all the DDo related blogs. Can’t really say you have a thumb on things if you don’t at least read what others are putting out. But today I hit Keavaa’s blog and there is a ranty post about other people playing their characters as they want…

I remember this place. Back before F2P, before I became a guild/channel/shortman player back when I wanted to trust that everyone was as good or better at DDo then I am (most days as good as me is really not that hard people).

But something happened and I remember the moment happened after the 4-5 day in a row of pugging out and failing running the Hound raid. Before this cold streak the DG could pug out like 8 slots and win every time. Hell I even formed the groups back then. There were many Dinner at Harry shrouds or Free Waffles raids up lead by Tobril or myself. Hell even the wife got on mic and lead pugs from time to time.

But something about those 3 or 4 fails left a taste in my mouth that I can only describe as fowl and I half swore off pugs right then. It took the Brits wanting to learn the Hound raid for my Clr with 18 completions to get to 20.

Think a large part of my issue was I expected others to either have or do what I thought they should. If they are a divine class I expected them to be able to heal and use scrolls to extend their SP pool or they needed to pony up for pots.

Back then extend was good and casting Haste and Rage was worth wild. Now extend is worthless and I only cast those spells on request and often I only have one or the other as often my spell slots are tight.

However, one of my most prep spells is knock, well if I am not on a skilled splashed alt anyway. But again I can’t assume that anyone has anything any more. I have TRed so many times I have had lives where I didn’t scribe any scroll that was not found in a chest unless I happened to get scribing kits as loot and only then because I didn’t want to waist them. Even now Samius has lots of missing spells in from his list because I might TR him again some time.

Guess, my point is everyone tends to suck sometimes. I wrote about me not having any gear while leveling up my Arty. That meant no heal scrolls or even a Death Ward clickly (which is fairly standard gear). And I have lost out on chests because the rogue in the quest didn’t carry tools. And Tobril and I often find each other at odds as I don’t keep him hasted at all times, hence part of the reason he went Juggernaut, guess what he is not super happy with the Jugg in part because he is spending time buffing everyone all the time, ask for an armor of speed for the 14th time in a quest and see what happens. 🙂

The only sure fire way to know that the group you are in is really prepared is to solo/guild and make damn sure you are on the ball. Me and mine have learned to build more and more self-reliant builds so more and more slots in pugs are warm bodies for pulling on chests.

Yep I might be a little elitist, but I am also a realist.

<3s

Asking for Advice

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I love giving advice, like so many people I can easily see solutions for others even when my own path is unclear… It is a gift. And one I like to use, for example you can ask me almost anything and I will be happy to set you on your course. And your welcome to follow my advice or not but don’t get unhappy if my advice is not the advice you were hopping I would give, I am not here to be your yes man.

I was enjoying one of my new favorite podcasts CoopCast over at chickenthistlefarm.com and they went into a bit of a terror about how some people ask for their advice and becoming unhappy that what they offered was not what the askers wanted to hear. That rang true to me. I can be your yes man if you like but don’t pose your question in the form of actually wanting help.

I bring this up because I felt like I was getting a little of that I wanted a yes man attitude the other day from a friend.

I was asked if it would be a good idea to TR his main (3pally lives and a clr live) so he could relearn the game after a long break? He has found a real live friend to newb up with from 1 until (?). And like a lot of people he is all about his main. A sentiment, which I totally understand by the way, Samius and I have a similar bond. But this player (Phlor) has a strange history that I feel discourages me from saying do it.

He is not much of an XP farmer thanks to his original ddo guild. According to him they where very slow paced and thought they could get ahead in low risk quests, making things very slow. Once he capped he found another guild, the Silver Flame Guardians, a very solid guild a little more focused on the end game and raiding which Phlor excels at playing. Then he moved to the DG mainly to lesson the guild drama that larger guilds bring and that is when the TR train started and he hit a wall, A couple of times.

This is why while I feel responsible for Phlor. I didn’t so much talk him into TRing as became obsessed with TRing Samius to the exclusion of everything else. I helped him level as much as I could, I even logged onto his account and powered him up this last go around as he “really wanted to be an raid healer” but as far as I know has played his main maybe 5-6 times since I recapped him but in his own words “he is not a caster.”

So when he laid out his plan of TRing and leveling up with his newb real live friend and asked for my advice, I worried about the xp difference between a first life and a third plus lifer. And knowing that they are not going to be rocking an elite bravery bonus from 1-20 I worried about the xps being there with out burning him out again.

And when I didn’t share his excitement for his plan I felt his disappointment. It was clear enough that I picked up on it… And that is saying something.

But now I have a plan. If he were to TR his main and level with his friend and then at level 8 do the Otto’s box jump to 16+ but then save leveling up until his first life counterpart is ready to level then the xp difference would not be apparent. Phlor would almost always (once the stone Xp is gone things would get harder) have the xp to level until late in the game and they could do quests at whatever difficulty they want leaving the question of when to level up to the new player. Then as they get deeper into the game when xp starts to be an issue again options start to open up to having other guildies with alts at twenty to jump in and help power them through.

Anyway, if you want me to poo poo any of your plans make a note in the comment section or hit me up via samius @ ddococktailhour email.

<3s

I can be a Prejudice Asshole.

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We all face prejudice each day, how we handle that prejudice is what makes us who we are. If your reading this then you and I most share a little judgment from someone, aka we are gamers or comic book readers or prepers or maybe all three. Over this lass weekend I saw prejudice from a few angles of view and thought I would share.

Jump to a cook out I had with my in-laws, nothing super special. Meat, cake for cake eaters and a conversation, you know a normal family meal.

In dinners past, there have been a little fun poked and the wife and I at our newer prepper mindset. But as we pulled in I started to notice green on my sister–in-law’s front porch…. Strange. Walking up I noticed a lot of fresh lettuce in a window box. And a few window boxes in a few windows with leafy things growing in them.

The wife noticed and commented with a glad you didn’t bring a salad now?

Right there I was being a prejudice ass. I didn’t think my in-laws had even that level of preparation in them. I was wrong and I continued to be wrong as later after we ate my brother in law showed me his when shit goes down carry gun and his “survival gun” an U.S. Survival AR-7. Good enough that he can bring in some food for his family if he had to, his words more or less. Still think having more then a few days of food is a better start then a gun and 10k rounds for said gun but to each their own.

BTW, the AR-7 is very nice think I need to get one for myself; .22, light weight and the ability to stow the upper and barrel into its stock getting down to about 18 inches in length.

I was floored again, have they really grown up that much? As we talked some more I gave them tips for making raised beds and offered to help them build their own greenhouse. The whole time I was thinking are these the same people that were poking fun at me a year ago for buying my shelf reliance and wanting to have a few chickens in my backyard?

Then as we moved to reading and what books we have been reading I said something like now that I have found comixology and that most of my “free time reading” as returned to comics. And the comment was made of how when my sister in-law grew up she stopped reading picture books. Which got a laugh out of my mother in-law who said there are pictures in Harry Potter. And the topic turned to how my sister in-law liked the Twilight books and we all were feeling a little superior again. Or at least I might have been.

Is there a point to this? Not really. Is this the kind of prejudice that people encounter everyday do to race, sex, or who we love, from assholes? Not even close. Just saying that for everything that makes us different there is something that makes us the same. And even I, a married white middle class man that is more or less a emotionless ass feels like sometimes people are being a little prejudice against me, maybe we all need to grow up and just handle our own shit. Do I love my in-laws any less because they think my reading comics books is childless? No. Do I think less of them for liking Twilight? Lets skip that one… ☺

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