A few days ago, I joined an LFM that a friend of mine had up. He didn’t know I was joining or anything. And with out much of a pause I was in group.

Butters, the leader of said group says “Hey, Java. Did you know your anonymous?” And it hit me like a ton of bricks. Maybe that is why I haven’t gotten in to an group or two I have tried to lately. I thought that I had just made some “friends” lists and was being slow declined. But maybe it was my ninja status.

So I turned that shit off, and I was visible to the world. Life is grand, right?

If you think “yep” then you have never played a class that others have thought as a “healer” class have you?

I have gotten more tells to join groups and/or blind invites then a tell then I would have thought possible. At least 3 an hour.

Fopo’s standard reply tell of “If I wanted to be in your group, I would have hit your lfm.” is looking good. But so far I have been trying to be a good guy and reply with a “no thanks” or “on timer”(in its true). You never know when you might want to get into an group with that guy in the future. But at the same time if I am in a group, or in a quest I don’t think I will drop what I am doing to hold your hand.

One tell and done guys I don’t have any real problem with, even if they are a little bit of a pain. Guys who want to talk you into their group or argue with me about how I should just join their group or send invites get to me.

I am not to the place where I join, and then remove my headset and keep doing my own thing or even ruining their quest……. yet. I know a guy that has joined via a blind invite and kept soloing the quest he was in when they invited him. Every once and a while he would complain that the group was out of range and that he must be ahead of them as he was always having to solo the mobs.

All I know is I want another status. Some thing like do not disturbed/hidden, but doesn’t have any hidden properties for when I join a group. I don’t even care if I am hidden in the Who panel or not. But it would be nice to have a symbol that shows that I don’t want to be bothered and maybe have an auto reply giving my DnD status. Of coarse this message is not sent to members of the party I am currently in, guildies, or people on my friends list.

I get a lot of tells from people that like the shows, and I ❤ those messages. And I don’t want those to stop coming in, but for the love of God please stop with the the “can you heal x for us?” messages.

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My goal for the weekend was to get my shrooms in “the ground” and to cap out Java. Maybe get started on my barb life with Sam. But mostly those first two.

Well my shrooms didn’t arrive and when I logged off Java Sunday night my xp bar was just over rank 95, aka about 100k xp short of cap.

Luckily, I don’t think there will be too many issues in the next few nights to cap out. I haven’t rocked Tod at all yet. Plus there is the new raids to flag for and possibility do. Last I heard normal LoB is down to 0-1 pots for good healers. I am not a good healer so 2-3 pots for me. 🙂

And I am not sure why but Tobril is/was being super helpful last night. He got on and swapped around to fill the last spot in the shroud group I was in. With out being asked. I thought he was heading for a Evon that also was forming. And was surprised to see him join the raid. Then we did an elite WepShipment, I like the changes. Still feels a little long/tedious but overwhelmingly so. And pulled a Bauble. He stuck around to help work on my Yugo favor/Xp. I couldn’t get him to help while I was rocking out my streak, but now that I soloed them all on normal he is a helper….

Better late then never. But I think he figured out that Java earning his pots means he can get his Barb his pots too and now he is gun ho. Just think of all the xp working on an elite streak with 19k as the base…..

Well maybe night. Hey also as I said I am kicking around build ideas for fast/cheep leveling for this barb live. If you have any super fast leveling ideals let me know.

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So last night, after weeks (okay days) of asking, I got the guys to a few of the guys to help me keep my streak running and get some of the “big” raids done and Hard or better for Java.

You know what +25% does to a hard VoD with the first time bonus and all the other little bonuses other the no deaths (there was a living impaired Sorc)? 24K xp.

Oh mama!

We also got a hard shroud done think the final total was 21k plus around 8k on the way from parts 1-4.

I also got a ToD run on Sam done. I kited by the way. It wasn’t bad. I did use the jump-scroll-dance thing a few times. But as long as I kept a fresh cold protection up I was in good shape. Even when I took a few hits. I think Java will be a good kiter as long as the baddies in part 2 don’t have evasion.

All in all it was a good night, think I am going to work on ToD flagging for Java tonight. I hope to get people that owe me a favor or two together and do hard/elite when possible. Both for the Pot favor and to keep the streak going.

Oh, and back in that VoD goggles dropped. And I won the roll. So my hat building might have gotten a little easier. Now I have to go back to the drawing board for an all the time CordOp item… I never thought I would get the goggles on him.

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So as part of my survival kick I have planted a few veggies, bought a better way to store canned goods and have began to properly stock a pantry, gathered a few supplies for truck, and more. Let me tell you what I did last night. I ordered mushroom spores. Oh boy it is true I am going to grow some shrooms.

Just to be clear however, not “magik” mushrooms. Although it might be a good prep item to barter with if there is a major upheaval. But one, I am not willing to break the law now for something that might never happen. And two, I think that people would be more likely to want alcohol then “magik” mushrooms if there is a major issue. America loves to get their drink on.

So what did I order? Portobello and Crimini.

Portobello is that big mushroom that everyone is using to replace meat. I have found that I like taking a simple ground beef mixture (like a meat loaf or hamburger and blue cheese). Stuffing the cap with it. Grilling or baking the cap meat side up so the drippings flavor the cap. To be good eats. At the store Portobellos are about 2$ may be a little more depending on the time of the year. The spores cost me 10$ with tax and shipping. So as long as I get 5-6 good sized caps out of the deal I win. But I expect a lot more then that.

Crimini is a lot like a white cap, but brown and has a little bit more of a flavor. I mostly use them in a simple chicken broth soup or salad. But they are great grilled up on a burger, alone or any place you might use a white cap but want to add a little extra kick to the dish. I understand they are 5-6$ a pound.

The cool thing about shrooms is they just keep going. There is no seeds to replant, although they will use up all their food and then you have to “reseed” them. By taking part of the base of the plant and sticking it into new food. Should be a simple thing to do.

So after watching God only knows how many Youtube videos on growing shrooms. A lot of them about the “magik” kind I think I know how I am going to try to handle them. But there are a few things to remember.

One they are fungi. Meaning other fungi are bad news. So sterilization is a must. The grow pot, grow medium, everything must be super clean. A lot of people use a presser cooker to prep everything. But those were people growing in glasses to avoid unwanted attention. Me I will try using super hot water and maybe put things that can take it, in the oven for a few minutes.

So how am I going to do this? In a big plastic tote (good and sterile) I will add a potting mix base. Then I think I will get some hamster bedding, the big wood chips kind. Making sure it is good a soaked but not dripping wet. I will put my spores into this wet bedding as the growing medium. Put a few air holes in the side of the tote, put the top on it, maybe add a dark trash bag loosely to the top and put in a dark place. Like in the spare bath room in the basement that doesn’t really get used all that much. This room would also be were I do any home brewing…. Doing that would involve some one getting me a home brewing kit however. Some time later shroom.

I also saw some videos where people drilled holes into a log sealed the holes and end of the log with wax and then rolled it into the shade. But that takes a long time to produce. I also saw people pack there growing medium in to a basket and put the basket into a tote and that worked well. I might do that if I can get a basket I think would work well. I also saw where you used cardboard cut to fit into a tote and soak for a few hours to get it good and moist as well as easy to separate And then added bit of shroom cut right off the stem between the layers of cardboard.

So there are lots of ways to get started. I am going to try growing them I hope you might too.

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Tobril and I had the talk again. The one involving trimming the guild members again. Here is our issue, for the last year or two the Defense Guild’s numbers have been on the decline. Sorry active members. Having 15-20 people and 4 active members earning renown can be tough. Once they go inactive status however, it is not a big deal.

But this is where we get issues. A guy that has been gone for 2-3 months hears about U11 and pops on to check things out. Gets all excited and plays for an hour or two. Then logs for the night with a see to tomorrow. And we don’t see him/her for another 3 months.

And he rolls up something a concept that works better in another guild. Say a theme builds like the Halfling Commandos. And wants to work on that alt. Sure no problem. But logs on to guild alts to get something out of the bank once a week. Never says high, or replies to guild chat….

So we did some trimming. Alt that hadn’t logged on in 3 months out. Now a lot of my side projects got the ax. Mainly due to our leader not knowing what alt belongs to who. Why this is not something the guild leader can see in the guild panel I will never know.. At least color code Alt names of like accounts. So say Java and Samius are blue and Tobril and Holybott are green. So at least the leader can say oh Sam rolled up a new alt, an Arty named Excedrin. As apposed to who in the Hell is Excedrin?

I would also like to have a way to send through the game email to a guild member. Player X plays every day and out of the blue is gone…. Is player X okay? Days roll by and no word. It would be nice that there would be some way to say and maybe this is just the guild leader to push an email to the email account of player x. For while we had a guild web site for this with forums for this kind of out of game communication, but if they are not getting to game are they checking the guild forums? And say if they are hurt a family member might, might check an email account and shoot a quick reply. Player x was in an accident and is in the hospital. But will be okay.

I guess I would like some better guild tools to help manage all this guild stuff.

Say set up an ally guild list. Members of that guild could enter the other guild’s air ship so many times a day kinda of thing.

The color coding by account for guild members.

Maybe let the guild leader set a time a member has to play to move off the inactive list. Say one of the once a monthers log on and we set it for so many hours of play they would have to meet that minimum number of hours to have their guild renown count and before they would adjust the guild status.

Any way a few thoughts.

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With the cove, gone but promised to return I am looking at the pirate loot again with the idea that I know there is an item or two that I want to get made.

Right now if you look at Javabot you will see that I am wearing a cove hat. It is Concentration 10/ Greater False Life. And I like the way the bling hat + the gold cog store skin looks. And I love it with the wings out. I am golden smexy!

But at twenty I will epic a Blademark’s Docent with the new changes my GFL will become unnecessary. Opening up the possibility for a better hat. And while I could look at epic items for a better hat, I like the look of the The Admiral of Bling and/or the Captain’s Chapeau.

So I need to plan out a hat around my current end game gear and my planed end game gear. And they are not super different, a shard or two off.

Looking at the hat list things I am missing that I can handle with the cove crafting are:

Natural Armor – AC is for people more grindy then I.

Superior Potency – This could be nice as I do cast a few spells that this would hit, including all of my attack spells….

Seeker – At cap would there be a reason not to wear my blood stone? It is not like I have extra of the really good (mostly)permanent trinkets… Now it is VoM most of the time unless I am sure that there is not going to be xp coming in, or need a temporary swap for a skill boost or a clicky…

Archmagi I am not 100% sure but I think I am using wiz6 from my cordOp. At the time that was good enough for SP. Now? Maybe not but I could do a belt swap at shrines for Archmagi.

Sneak Attack – I don’t have any SA damage atm. I built Java with the plan to be a viable tank. But swap out of some hate, and it would be easy to let someone else take the hate. Also I could blind the hell out of baddies with holy aura….

As for skills there is only 2 I am really worried about, Concentration and Intimidate. By now I would normally not bother with a Concentration item on a non monk, but with the quicken/heal bug I don’t want to die do to a failed Con check. And right now I am using a Circle of Hatred for Intim but I could go +15 to either one of the skills of the skills or build tow hats to cover both…

So this is what I am thinking, and be sure to let me know what you think in the comments.

Hat D for default: Sneak Attack + Concentration.
Hat R for rest of the time: Seeker + Intimidate.

My thought is if I am in normal questing mode and using holy aura SA and Con is more important then Intimidate and I will be using my blood stone. But if I want to be sure to get that intim and keep it then I want to swap in to my HoGF also for a little more boost. I want to replace that missing Seeker if I can. Also this gives me the option of doing SA+Seeker+intim+con if I am willing to wear Hat D+BloodStone+Circle of Hatred when I don’t want to focus on just one thing.

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I leveled to 17 Sunday afternoon. And wings are still great. If you don’t like the changes, give yourself a 9 sec cool down. After a few mins with a 9 sec cool down, 3 secs and 6 in rapid session is a ton better. I know a lot of older fvs are hurting and I am sorry. But from my air Sorc life the changes are great.

But that is not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about keeping the bravery bonus up while raiding and questing with 20s.

Which is hard. Because I really don’t know what to say…. It blows?

Have you been in the raids on hard/plus with pugs since U11? It is not that they are really harder, but more Hp does equal longer. And randoms don’t always have the staying power that your guildies/channel pals do. And relying on incoming heals and raw power to push you through might not work any more.

It might take… dare I say it?… good play.

Oh I did it now. I got my fire res, and firestorms on so flame me if you want to. But it is true. You can’t count on the play skill of a given pugger to be at a certain level above poopy. Tr wings aren’t a good way to assume skill level any longer. There are a lot of bad players that get to cap and then TR.

The desire to keep the streak going when it comes to first time raids are going to be shaky. I was able to flag Java for shroud running on hard. I have something like a 13 run streak. Litany, vale, a handful of other quests. It is not long, but U11 is not real old yet ether. But I have seen the jump in xp running them on hard with that bonus.

The thing that is catching me now other then wanting to get the raids going now that I am 17 is most of the people I play with is already capped. So now that I can play with them I am limited to level 18(n) or better quests. And while there is a few of those quests their xp/min ratio is often not real high. I know soon I am going to want the xp from the basic raids. I am not a big raider but I do like seeing those big numbers pop up.

And the sooner I have Java capped or super close to cap the sooner Samius can talk to a tree about some fire.

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How long can you go on if you lost your job right now? If a storm rolls in and your have to go with out power for an extended time? What if there is a huge fuel spike and gas doubles?

Can you handle those things? I think I can some, but not all of them. But I am working on it.

I have talked some of the things my family is doing to be ready for some kind of emergency but I don’t think I have talked about how to get started.

Next time your at the store picking up your normal grocery list pick up some extra can goods that you normally eat. That is a fairly easy place to start. This weekend my wife and I went to the store to get some things because we got the grilling bug. While we were there we went down the can row. They had a ton of 10 for $10 items. So we picked up extra can goods, not a lot but some. And extra 2 of this and 2 of that, all in all maybe an extra 10$ we hadn’t planned to get on this trip. But now we have a few more days of canned goods ready to go.

In most of the US it is time to plant the winter veggies. I hit Lowes a few weeks ago and bought a few 5 gal buckets for 2$, a bag of potting soil, and a few veggie plants. I took a bucket and put a few holes in it put it in side a bucket with out any holes and planted my portable garden. I can move them any time, they can go out side on the back porch or inside under a window with the shades open. Easy. In a few weeks I can have a real garden fresh salad any time.

Do you have a grill? Do you have enough fuel to cook out tonight if your stove doesn’t work? I have a charcoal grill so I know I don’t having just cooked out last night. But I have have my turkey fryer stand ready to go with ample propane if my stove doesn’t work. And an extra bag of charcoal is on the list for the next big shopping trip.

Here is the deal. I just read an article were it claimed that there are about 46 million people at or below the poverty level. And if your reading this then odds are your not there. But it went on to interview some people and they talked about how quickly they went from normal people with real jobs to where their at now. It can be a fast slippery scope.

Take a little time and think about these things. And don’t say “If something happens I will just be screwed so I might as well enjoy myself now.” Take some baby steps to help yourself in advance.

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Last night Java was almost forced to level to 16. I was a little short but the number of level 14 quests were getting a worth while amount of xp from was getting a little light. So after burning the 13s on hard and some on elite and some of the 14s on hard too. I said that is it. I am on the last rank any way. Level time. So minor victory.

So now 15s are on the block, but there is new tasty xp bonuses. I am not sure they are super clear on how they work but I want to share my understand of how they work.

First of all it is all based on first time doing a given quest. If it is the first time for a quest then one of 2 counters goes up or they both get reset to 0. So you have two counters, one for hard and one for elite. The higher these counters the better your bonus is going to be. I don’t have the numbers in front of me but I think you can get an lot of extra xp. I looked them up you get a stacking bonus of 5% for hards and 10% for elites. And stacks up to 5 times. Not sure if that is additively or cumulatively.

If it not the first time going a given quest then you get changes to your hard/elite counters.

So if the first time you do quest A, and you do it on hard then your hard counter goes up one. If you do quest A again there is no change to your counter. Bravery bonuses are only given on the first time ever runs of a quest.

So move on to quest B and do hard, +1 hard counter, and a larger bravery bonus to xp. But then so go to C quest you haven’t done it this life and do normal, hard = 0 and elite=0.

Also there is a with in 2 char limit of the normal quest level. So if your doing a level 4 quest on hard making it level 5 and you want to work your bravery bonus you had better not be higher then level 6.

So my plan is to start making first time runs on hard making the quest at level. Then then go ahead and back down to normals and then hit an elite. By doing that I think I can keep a good bravery bonus going. It might even be worth it to do a bit of a loop and hit 5 on my counter and then hit a big xp quest on elite first time through for a huge bonus.

Encased you missed it the first time bonuses got changed also, elite is a whopping 80% now. So say a 10k quest on elite 80% with a 25% bravery bonus + 25% kill bonus + 10% vandal +10 for not dieing +10 for not reentering + 5% vom + 2% ship equals just huge. I did some what I think was bad math and got almost 300%, I think that is lower as some bonuses are to base xp and some are to total xp.

Anyway low level xp is going to get a lot better. Mid levels???? I am not sure about yet. But I can’t wait to see.
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Well no ddo for me last night. The router died and then my cell battery died. So there was no internets for me. Now I know some of you don’t play every day but for the most part I do. At least for a few minutes, even if all I do is log on and watch youtube videos and play wait and see if the channel brings me something to pull me away from youtube. Normally I am on some amount of time.

So I had a night off. What did I do? Read. Yep I walked the talk. What I mean by that is when someone says they can’t play I point them to a book. Normally a good book. So when presented with the same problem I took my own advice, and read.

So I finished the Harry Dresden book I was reading. I really enjoy these Dresden files books. I also really liked the short lived TV show. But they are totally different. They took names and very general ideas and that was about it. As most things the books are better. I might do a pod on them some time. Maybe one themed books that got made into TV shows.

Speaking of TV, my summer shows are wrapping up. If you missed Suits, Necessary Roughness or Against the Wall check them out.

I that is about it. Got in some extra puppy time, did a messed up parent teacher conference. The kid’s Science teacher is smoke’n hot. Hope I wasn’t drooling. Didn’t see a wedding ring, wonder how she might feel about joining the Samius Commune a little early. 🙂

Oh and before bed I knocked out a few chapters of Food from Water. I was thinking it was more of a aquapoincs book when I bought it. Turns out it is more a harvest and growing in a rural environment. Damn Amazon. But it has some good information in it regardless.

Well pray that the overnight delivery gods favor me and that the new router/modem come this afternoon and game can resume tonight.

If not, I guess it will be Shard of Axe time.

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