I write these posts at work. They are my version of a smoke break. I go “okay lets get this idea out of my head” with the idea that I can focus on where my brain is suppose to be. Today I am needed on a repetitive task but one that takes a fair bit of concentration. Which is made unnecessarily more difficult by having 4 or 5 different Ddo related ideas floating around in my head. And what is worse is when I stop and try to take a collection those random thoughts and form them in to a complete thought and into digitals word, but they turn out to not be finished.

Grrr, so if the following is a little less then the norm, try to deal. 🙂

Turbine threw me a curve ball yesterday when they announced bonus xp days. Including many days I have already taken off work. And some while Tobril is back for Christmas. There might be some long benders happening soon.

With Samius at rank 91/92 I start to think about what is next. He should be capped out by the end of the week with just my normal play. Meaning there is bonus xp out there for the taking and I have to take advantage of that.

I could work on bard build I have loosely labeled as “side project”. But as I am still kicking around different ideas as to how to build it that is not practical.

I could level one of the alts sitting at 17 from the pre 20 level cap days. But if they were enjoyable enough I would have capped them already right?

No the answer is Sam I think. Unless something thing punches me in the face. I know that Fopo is planing to go again when I am ready. Think he has his bard life on tap, and the wife wants to take her crafter and go arty. So 2 support/ off dsp party members. Guess I need to be a cold hearted killer. It is not like they wont be able to handle themselves on Hard and Normal more then fine. But some Elites just don’t lend themselves to being soloed or short maned.

I will have to think about it. Maybe it is time to level up something totally out of the blue. Hope to have the answers soon.

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What do you think is the best item to have in your Tr bank post being reborn?

Green Steel Weapons/Accessories: I love them. Level 11 and 12 are huge when it comes to gear. Thanks mainly do to the ease and power they grant at such a low level. But no.

Titan Raid/ Von loot: There are some real gems here. Sword of Shadow, Kundarak Delving Boots, Stonemeld Plate Armor are just a few from Von. Belt of Brute Strength, Chattering Ring, Gyroscopic Boots of Striding, Jungle Cloak all wonderful raid items and I need another Jungle Cloak But no.

Dragon touched? Nope

Some Cannith crafted super twink item… Well maybe. Those robes of invulnerability with guild slots are sweet. But not what I am thinking.

A sweet bound to account bad ass weapon that you added icy burst? Like a level 2 +1 holy Icy burst great sword or a +1 icy burst keen falchon? Also very close. But no.

There are loads of other great raids out there. All with great loot but one now stands apart from every other item in ddo.

The upgraded Quiver of Alacrity! Yep a quiver. This bad boy was uber enough when it was just a huge quiver with Ranged Alacrity and no level. But upgrade this beast with a Seal of the Black Abbot and it gains 30% striding. The level remains unchanged.

It is now the best item in the game. I firmly believe that. Don’t get me wrong, it is not going to win the game alone. It is not like you can just walk through a dungeon unharmed while wearing it. It is not an easy button. But it is going to be wanted by almost everyone. And the fact that it can be used from level 1 to cap and back again is fairly sweet.

Lots of the other Abbot/Reaver loot got an upgrade. I am really pleased with the new Shroud of the Abbot. I don’t think it changed a lot. It only gained Improved Light Resistance. It is now one of the few items in the game that help with light rays. Now it was not a huge help in the elite Running with the Devils we did over the weekend 20 from 80 is still 60 and 60 times 100 is still dead. But it helped a lot on the normal and hard runs. If you have an old one it can be upgraded to the new version for a few taps at the same alter where you do the main upgrades. Looks like Breeze might have a place with dex builds now also. But be careful Looks like the new Enduring Conviction looses Banishing, a down grade for sure.

I am hoping to take my really old Dream Splitter and make it the new version so I can take that old BtC one and add Suppressed Power to make it Holy and change it to BtA! Adding Force burst is gravy!

Don’t agree use the comments to tell me what I missed.

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Your attention, please. The story you are about to see (hm read ) is true; the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

I want to share with you all my latest adventure while running Elite Coalescence Chamber.

There are 3 of us at first and we work on cleaning that first ambush. Samuel, the Spouse and Fopa. See totally different. 🙂

Any way we are just about done when Toebreel logs on and joins us on our marry way. Things are going well, good progress is being made. I almost forgot that Samuel and the Spouse got left behind at one point just before the shrine waiting for a nasty trap on a door to be disabled. And there was much teasing of how the door wasn’t trapped. However, it was indeed.

We are just past the shrine on the first run up and Fopa’s hireling decides to heal Toebreel and not Fopa for like one second. And Boom! Fopa becomes a soul stone. Crushed; Fopa’s hireling hurls herself on to the blades of the mobs and joins Fopa. I guess a rez never crossed her mind. Due to the rage and sadness I am sure.

So rezes are thrown and we are off again. We get to the top and we claim the key to the bottom room. Samuel and the Spouse jump down using their bows to hurt the now respawned mobs. Stopping their decent to beat them to death when a few arrows fail to drop the stinky trogs.

But the path gets cleared to make the return run faster, it is elite after all. A red skull could be bad.

Samuel and the Spouse enter the first locked door and disposing of Frokke and taking his key. And move up to the next locked door. While looting a bag just left on by a wonderful little fire a Gelatinous Cube falls from the ceiling. Forcing Samuel and the Spouse to apply their made archery skills to slay the nasty thing. Suddenly the alert jumps from none to red. Splitting focus the couple divides their attention. Samuel stays on the cube while the Spouse tries to keep the bats down. But Samuel focused on his dance with the cube forgets his own health and a stray bat or two drop him to -2. Not a worry as he has a fairly good AC and dr as well as a jerky ticking, but it gives him a second to ponder. “Where are Toebreel and Fopa?” He asks over the mic, and two replies come in: “Lost you, waiting at the top” and “Top, lost you, Ice cream”. /facepalm

Any how Samuel and the Spouse wrap up the cube and the ambush, you know the not skip able one with like 97 displaced dispelling casters. Good times. A jog back to the first tunnel and a air jet ride back to the top cuts out a lot of not important area of the quest. Open the final door clear the room as a ful party for the first time in a while. A total of 59 mins in quest, meaning not only did the quest take way to long for the xp, missing out on drinking an xp pot before the end. But the ship buffs expired just as the end fight was raging.

Now both of these men can and have soloed said quest. Is “Lost You” a valid reason not to be with the party? Or where they piking with out the courtesy of letting any one know. And what were they doing to spike the Alert?

I can’t wait for Dust now. I plan on running back to the water at some point putting on an underwater action item and watching a show. 🙂
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So after talking with my peeps and looking at the feed back I am inclined to go Bard for that end game alt. Many of them also suggested I get over my not wanting to heal and use one of my divines. And like I told them, “I don’t ❤ you enough to heal your BS. At least not full time.”

The general consensus was Divines almost always make the cut, but who wants that? Melee would almost always be taken, but there is a level of gear needed to be in the top tear. Arcane well that is why I am working on Samius. That leaves Art and Bard. Yes I put the rogue in the melee pile, don’t like it bite me.

And once I went over the gear I already have on my bard the choice was clear. Butterz will be burned next. Maybe even as I level Sam. The wife wants to turn her crafting alt in to an Arty not because she liked it but because she wants the crafting help. Can’t say I blame her.

But what might happen is they become side projects for times when we don’t want to get ahead of our fellow Trs. But more likely it will become a main focus about the time Sam caps out this life.

So lets jump to my actual thoughts on a bard build.

I like the Virtuoso, I lot of people don’t. But I love me some Enthrallment and the Sustaining Song. But the way Sustaining Song is coded is kinda not helpful. It becomes the top level regen effect song no matter what. So if you sing it and then say another bard sings Spellsong Vigor your Sustaining Song still wins over the newer Spellsong Vigor. If they adjusted the code so that both songs could be used at the same time or the newest one was the dominant song I think it would fix a lot hate that seems to go around with Virtuosos. I do feel that they are the best solo bard. Although the Warchanter is also very tough.

In light of that huge wall of text above I will be doing a Spellsinger bard. Remember I want the always loved/wanted bard so I have to pass on the Virtuoso, at least for now.

For race I am thinking Helf. I know human is slightly more optimal but Butterz is female and I am tired of big butts atm. I can too pick a race on the size of their bum. Watch me! Being a Helf opens up the Dilettante feats and for this life I am leaning towards the Paladin one. Charisma bonus to saves up to +5 with the AP line. And it opens up gaining Longbow Prof. via AP. Again not super but it is something to think about. Arty and Barb are the only other ones to consider. A small boost to Umd/caster level with scrolls, pots (Guess haste pots would be an little longer) and wands, But takes 13+ Int to be good. Barb is HP and a little DR but doesn’t take and extra stat work.

Here is the other other thing to keep in mind as a Helf it is possible to go EAA (elven arcane archer) + spellsinger and some of the prereqs can be a twofer like Mental Toughness. Down side is EAA also takes 2 more of her already tight feats. And being able to hit with the bow would involve putting some points in to Dex and not having bow strength and a good str makes bow damage so so at best. I will have to think about it.

Comment and what not below.
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So I have been getting some feed back over the last few weeks that lead me to believe that atleast some of you, the readers, don’t know who I am or what I do. So I want to give you a min biography.

I am/was one of the co hosts on Ddo Cocktail hour, I like to think of it as that first 15 mins of Live but an hour long and with Ddo as a central topic. There were guests sometimes and sometimes not. We have stopped making new episodes but they hold up well and I think most people would agree at least moderately funny.

I also do/did a segment on DdoCast called Sound Concepts. It kinda got left behind when Lessah and I started CTH but I still come on as a guest any time SigAnne asks.

I do a kind of Dear Samius service. Where I answer peoples questions about builds or most anything Ddo related. You can PM me or send an email to samius@ddococktailhour.com

I am known as Samius the Fat Halfling, and my main is Samius Gurobo of Sarlona. I am a wizard at heart, in fact I have leveled a total of 1 sorc past level 4 and that was Samius when I did the sorc life on my competitionest train. And while I don’t hate the end game I enjoy the leveling process the most. Getting new abilities, and always running different content even if it is the same over all 190 quests.

I used to pug all the time, but over the years bad pugs have gotten to me and I moved to more and more of a short man/channel group player. That doesn’t mean I never pug. Because if I know names in the group I often am willing to give the group a try. But I find that failed runs leave a bad taste in my mouth and it takes awhile to be willing to try again.

Other then Casters and giving advice (wanted or not) one thing I like to think I am known for is taking classes and twisting them into roles most people don’t think that class can do. Like a wizard or bard tank or a ranged focused monk. The build I ❤ best is the 18/2 wiz rog necro focused guy but right now I am loving my Bowonk build.

I also am super fascinated with movies, tv shows, books and general prepping; so there are plenty of non-DDO related topics from time to time but most days you can find a Ddo related topic here. I also try to post 5 times a week, Monday – Friday. With rare double post on days if and when I feel like it.

Well I hope we are all acquainted now. So send in your topic requests please leave comments and or hit the little ranking system so I can get a feel for what it is you want to hear about and I will have something for new for you tomorrow.

❤
Samius

I have a lot of capped alts. And while my game at the moment is gaining competitionest for Samius. I do on occasion feel like doing some end game content. Mainly when guildies or channel peeps are looking for people to fill groups.

So my capped line up is Java (currently a FvS) who I made with the idea of having an end game ready alt. And to be fair, for the effort I put into him; he is super tough with a lot of room to grow gear wise at least. But he has healing spells and therefor is only good to healbot to many people. So he lives in the for friends and soloing only pile. Along with my 3, yes 3 other divine casters. But if people can life until I mass on myself then by all means he can “heal” your group.

I have 2 standby arcanes capped and willing to do something. But their Dcs are kinda low, not having a ton of super gear. Although Samiusbot could be properly equipped and become a fairly solid caster for a first lifer. But then I would loose my main bank alt…

Want I want is an alt that has a place in most end game content, requiring little to no extra gear grinding.

So I am thinking about TRing my bard, Butterzcotch. She already as some of the important gear. Mainly an Epic Elyd Edge and the Mad Lutes. She has some other helpful (raid) gear but nothing super wonderful.

So I am thinking of taking her and doing a 2nd life TR with her. Also it wouldn’t suck to really max her haggle on the way. She would always be welcome in raids that don’t have a bard; would only take a little work to fine tune and can sit on her laurels for long periods of time.

The other way I can go is SamiusJR. My first monk alt. He is not capped. Think he is around level 15. So he is about a week of work from cap. Less if I get him in a good groove. Like if I took the next life off and leveled up an arty and him switching on and off as needed for xp. He currently doesn’t have a ton of gear. But I have epic sets of things sitting and waiting for someone to use them and he could take advantage of a lot of those items. Not to mention Tobril might have already done all the hard leg work with his Tennie Tiny build. Just a thought.

So what do you think? One of these two? Cap a different build? Take one of my 20s waiting for a TR and do something with them?

I am open to ideas.
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So yesterday I went home sick after about 2 hours of work. Don’t think I would have gone in at all if I didn’t have a meeting I have been trying to put together for about a week. Including getting some British coworkers on the phone before they took of for the day.

Long story short, I went home and zoned out completely watching a Dirty Jobs marathon and trying not to visit the restroom too often.

A round 4, I started to feel a little bit alive and wondered over to my computer. Have you ever tried playing when you think your head is floating 2 feet above your neck? Very strange, but somewhat doable.

I was able to run the last Litany runs I needed this life to drain that last xp from it. Including two normal runs, a hard and a casual. All runs to bosses, no named loot for any of the 10 or 12 runs at least 7 of those runs with 4 people in the group. That drop rate might be a little off guys…

I decided to level to 17 taking monk level 9. I didn’t have all the prereqs for touch of death. The Ap are there sooner or later. But I think I am going to reset and see if I can’t make it fit now. I went ahead took all the available Elven Archer line. Including Terror Arrows. That was an error. They are kinda shitty. I did use them to fair effect when playing in the vale with a paralyzing bow. But they are not worth the AP right now when I also want the bad Touch.

I had just talked the wife into two manning some quests when I decided to bail and hit the couch again. I found it super funny later, she didn’t.

A few hours later I got back on, gathered the forces led them to their deaths. Reformed and tried again. And we were on the win train. At least until I was cooked. Took all I had left to watch Storagewars before crashing by 930.

Did I say I am a really bad sick person? Well you know you ❤ me, sick or not.

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Most of the TR group leveled to 16 over the weekend. There was some good time had and some not so good times. But all in all we are moving along well. But I want to talk about the last few levels of play on my bowonk and kinda give a little run down. My split is now 8/6/2 monk/ranger/fighter.

I have been doing the AC thing for the last few levels. All decked out for AC I can now kick it into the mid 50s; 56, 57. I normally let it hover in the 53 range and that seams to work well for the most part. Add in the ninja spy’s Shadow Fade as often as possible and damage intake is not bad.

In the places where it can be tough I am up to enough healing amp that my jungle cloak hits for more then 12, my jerky for 4 and my lesser vamp wraps for 2. Yes Tobril, some place over 200-250% even lesser gets bumped you were right. Makes me wonder if the Vamp stonedust wraps are different then the kamas from Mindsunder….

So amp + Ac normally equals no damage. But at 8 in earth with jidz I am 2d6 with my fists and greater two weapon. So not bad. Many shot and 10KS are earning their keep. But the big winner is Improved Precise Shot. All that practice with Lighting bolt, getting it to hit 2+ guys at a time is really paying off here. I haven’t gotten any complaints about my ranged combat. I think it is mostly because I don’t kite often. I can stand and take it. And most mobs don’t live real long with a Manyshot followed up with 10KS.

Most weaknesses can be shored up with temporary gear swaps. I had made a pair of GS goggles Air/Air for the haste clicky. I had intended to make them 30 Elc resistance, for another undispellable resistance. But made and error and made them +5 reflex saves. Turns out on elite those + GoGF, HG and want not I still fall enough to piss me off. All boosted up my reflex is 36+, but I will be damned if those 1s wont kill me just as dead as if it was 0. Next level I get Improved Evasion, think that will help a lot.

All in all I really like how the bowonk is handling. The main issue is that there are so many options at any given time it can be a little over whelming. But I like that. 😉

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I was going to try and write something new about how in game relationships can lead to out side of game relationships. The good and the bad. But I had a shitty day, and I don’t feel like rehashing that topic. Long story short, friends are good, romantic friends are good as long as they are not hurting real life relationships.

What I do want to talk briefly goes bad to a being prepared to handle an emergency. I keep one eye on the my different news feeds while working. And today I noticed that there was a real emergency developing at Virginia Tech. There was a possible gun man loose and at least one person was shot maybe dead.

I watched the story unfold on Twitter and indeed there was a police officer shot and killed while on duty. And the shooter had taken off on foot.

The story is still making is way out. I am sure by the time you read it hear it will be old information.

My point is that emergencies can happen any place at any time with varying degrees of danger. And we should try to be somewhat ready. And defending yourself and loved ones should be at the top of your list.

I want to point out that one Mr. Alex Haddox has written a book Practical Home Security: A Guide to Safer Urban Living. You can get a physical copy and a digital copy. I would say pick up a copy and give it a good read. Hopefully with his help you can nip a few possible emergencies in the bud before they become actual emergencies.

But if nothing else please keep in mind that bad things can happen at any time. Hey look at the weather today over in Scotland. While you remember a fallen officer that died in the line of duty.

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So last night the TR group logged on and got their shit together and ran some quests. Namely the Lordsmarch and Attack on Stormreach chains. Assuming you can put one and one together you might have figured out that there was either friendly fire murder, or threat of murder.

I don’t mind being the target of a little fun, if I have already had a mistake and found myself a little more ghostly then I normally like. But if I am rocking my ship buffs, mainly the xp bonus I don’t want to be made dead by my team mates.

So any way we had a few deaths, last night. The first I want to say was mine. I was eating dinner in Summerfeild as high up as I could get with auto attack on and my bow out. Need less to say, some guy I shot in the bum didn’t die and ran up behind me just as the wife asked me about 100 questions about Christmas. My focus shifted between finishing my dinner and answering her and that one guy ran up behind me and stab me in the guts, a lot.

I know that is not the kind of party member death you would expect but that was the first “friendly” death.

After that we took a swim in the harbor our brave leader said something about splitting up. I said as long as I get a shot at the chests (guild xp, crafting essences as well as the area crafting bits) and we clear the optionals sounds fine. The wife and I go to the south most boat to handle the named ogre captain. After a 10kS salvo and about 10 secs of Manyshot he was at 50% then every shot started to miss. I click the attack boost button, Miss Miss Miss Miss…. Okay? Look to check the buffs, and red skulled. Oh that would explain it. 😦 The wife and I play fox and the rabbit. Letting one get agro until needed break off and heal or the other pulled agro off. It is good to be a ninga! We managed to kill the captain off and in short order lower the alert. Next thing I know Fo is on board letting us know he has wired the middle ship and the last ship has 4 mins left on its timer.

Heading to the middle ship to get the named I learn that I am alone. The captain of this ship and I are in an epic battle with both of us at about 50% when jokes about just blowing the last ship starts to ring out.

Wait I am on the last boat!

After a few more jokes get made and someone points out that there was already a death, I bug the hell out. Fo has no problems killing me off for a joke, and they sounded like they might enjoy the giggles. Lets just say I made it off the boat alive. But the explosion warmed my back side some.

Undermine was the normal attempted murderfest. With people calling out false timer mishaps. Which I really had, when I called mine out. Or people moving past optionals while I set bombs to open the way, cutting of the “path of retreat”. What ever that is…

Towards the end there was an attempt made while everyone was waiting for the path of the final boss to open. And the wife got taken out by someone while looting her chest right at the end.

Playing with the bombs can be fun when everyone is playing. But if you take out someone that is not playing along it is not fun times. 😦

Anyway I had a good time and plan farm them some more.
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