Tag Archives: Druid

Shiradi Stance + Animal Form Spells, NO?

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So I have been really enjoying my Main Samius – Am(evoc)Wiz/rog in Shiradi with the different stances running. And I was talking with Tobril on Teamspeak about why I like the Rainbow/Double Rainbow line.

Then we finished up the raid we were running and I swapped to Javabot to get a little xp who happens to be a rank short of taking double rainbow at the start of our screwing off and after a few runs has the points to double up. I was so excited to see how this stance would boost Java’s Dps, as you all know he is a winter wolf melee style DC based druid so he could use a little boost to push him over into the big boy club…

But a few more quests looking for any rainbow procs and I saw none…

I could cast like an ice storm or an earthquake and see the occasional proc but nothing from the any of my wolf attack spells? That seems wrong to me.

They are offensive spells, they cost SP, use spell slots can’t be cast in anti-magic zones. WFT?

So I am turning in a bug report. And I will ask any of you that might also be rocking animal form druids to do the same. This seems wrong to me and needs to be changed.

Cookie Crisp!

<3s

 

EE Skullsmasher

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So a little while back I was talking about level 20+ weapons for Javabot to rock while in animal form. In that post I said there wasn’t much of anything in epic GH that I was that impressed with at least for Java in weapon form, Then later that day I was looking at the ddowiki, as I often do when I need to be inspired, and I happened to find myself at the list of level 25 weapons in the game and started checking them our. When I got to the Skullsmasher I was floored.

I will put a copy of the image from the wiki on my Gdrive so you all can check it out. If the image becomes broken at some point in the future the ddowiki link is here.

Skullsmasher EE

So lets check it out:

+7, Cool I can use all the help in the to hit/damage department I can get.
Intim +20, Well Java won’t be intimidating all the time, but as a S&B build with max ranks I could sometimes intim for lesser trash and the off boss like Sully in Tod?
Sup Ribcracker: An on crit effect for 13d8 is not too shabby to bad it only crits on a 20.
Red slot: Not a bad think to have in a weapon.
3.5[d6], Not amazing damage for an EE level 25 weapon, but its fine….

Now if we glue the wolf form stats to this thing we get a monster.

The base dice becomes a d10 and the crit profile becomes 19-20 X3 then we take the dice multiplier and glue it on to our wolf stats aka 3.5[d10] 19-20. That is amazing damage. It is a whole multiplier stronger then any web weapon and some of us are killing ourselves for the right web weapon.

That Ripcracker looks a lot better on a 19-20 that becomes 17-20 with Imp Crit but remains on a x3 weapon…. Add in holy burst via tod ring, a d10 frost (cold breath) and maybe shocking burst via a second tod ring and you have a big dps weapon. Way better then I first thought.

You spot any hidden sleeper eGH items for you?

❤

Turning 20 Weapons for JavaBot

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Most of you know that I have been fairly focused on a few main alts. Foremost after Samius is Javabot, not that you would know as the playtime that is being shared between him, Darth and Samiusbot right now. But its true. The only major player that hasn’t been getting the love is Samyus just because what is there to tank atm?? Not a lot, unless I want to ready for EE DQ, but why bother with that right now? Java on the other hand will have a need to do some of the content that I haven’t really bothered with, looking at you Lob and Mad Arty. A crystal fire/air aka seeker+10/ 6% double strike shield sounds mighty fine when I don’t need to worry about amp/DR.

But I want to talk weapons.

So last live Java’s main weapon was a simple pos/pos GS great sword, nothing fancy or frilly about it. As I don’t have another tr plan for him at this time I am inclined to make him a few toys that have been burning a hole in my pocket as it were. And I have touched on this a few times but not from the point of view of 20 plus.

So keeping my mind that Tod rings work like they work in animal form and that I want to get a VoN red docent this is my list of possible toys.

Epic Sirroco:
Longsword: Base (+6), Air Guard, Epic Telekinetic, Force Burst, Sirocco, Smoke Screen, Vertigo (+10) and a Red slot. So with the new augment system I could slot an extra d10…

Very tasty CC weapon and happens to boosts takedown very nicely, but not the king of the DPS.

Kron’zek’s Cruelty:
Scimitar: Base (+6), Shocking Burst, Maiming, Keen, Lightning Strike, Improved Destruction, Red

Like my Lig2 but works with my Holy burst Tod ring while swapping holy for maiming and shocking blast for Imp Dest. Also happens to be a weapon druids are proficient with so it is like +4 to hit as well as a simi viable weapon when out of form. Don’t think the keen will work in animal form but what are the odds I can find something like this that has impact?

Epic Timeblade was on the list but I think I have leaned more to the Sirroco + a Lob shield for CC.

Drow of X weapon master trash weapon types were also on the maybe list for a long time like daggers and whatnot. But as most of their effects come from their base being changed it is not worth the hassle.

I had been looking at the Web weapons but I just don’t see them being better now that the set bonus is being changed to no longer stack with other like set bonuses. Yes Java runs a claw set.

Tobril wants me to look at the throwing weapons from the Evening star Challenges, depending on how fate is feeling the day I do some testing I might give them a try.

I also have been looking at the Lam forums to see if there is a one handed weapon that gives me a hard on with the GH update, and there is not. ☹ There is lots of nice gear for other slots but weapons have just been bad lately, in my eyes.

As all ways if I am missing a killer 1 handed weapon let me know.

<3s

1, 2 Skip a Few 16, 17, 18

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Last week as you know, I TRed Java into a druid and powered him up to stoning level and cracked open my Otto’s box that I have bought just for him..

Xp heaven!

Did the gear thing as best as I could he still has 0 rings until 18… But the questing thing as been good times even if has strange out of the blue issues. But he has XP for 18 and I am working on finishing milking the xp from Litany before I take it. See any of my 100 posts at to how I ❤ litany.

Lets jump to things that are working/things I have learned.

Using a SunFlask in animal form for fighting ghosties does grant ghost touch BUT you need to cast magic fang, as they are not magical so you need to be at least +1 for the ghost touch to work…

Remember to turn on Reaving Roar after any out of the blue death that may happen do to lag or the lack of quicken.

At some point you want quicken for heal, vigor, earthquake and summon spells. Don’t be like me and forget until you start playing again post stoning to 16 and have to wait until 18… There has been more then one death due to taking a big hit while casting and losing the spell.

The Druid Deep chain is killer for pets. Leaves of the Forest/Liveword Core (15+) are big fort simi good AC pet armor at least for ungeared new pet owners. The level 22+ versions are less then ideal however. But a nice Hide of the Goristro shouldn’t be too bad or too hard to get. Want to say I have a Con+8 Vertigo+10 set ready for Fin Fang Foom. But the real winner is the Ivy Wraps. You can find the lvl 15 wraps on the AH for less then 100k assuming someone doesn’t buy them all up. And if you happen to pull an eN or eH version you might even think about giving it you your dog. Short of making LoB wraps for it I can’t think of a better Dog wrap.

Brawling Gloves, So far it seems that the d4 from being Spike Studded is working in dog form assuming I remember to swap back to them after I trigger a power drain. More and more I am glad I took the time to make T3 versions of the lvl 16 gloves they have gotten a metric ton of use with all of Samius’ TRs and more or less every leveling alt.

ToD Rings: Now I haven’t gotten to them yet but I think that tod rings burst damage work in animal form. If that is right, I will be grinding out the Knost’s Belt and will be using that set full time I think. I could also swap in and around the Oremi’s set for a little more dps when a torc is not needed.

Lastly, I found that the dog can be a real helper. Keep it healed. Cast a few buffs and/or take the time to ship buff it up and you wont regret. Fin has gotten more kills then some other people in the group. And with the Ivy wraps/collar and a few points in the feed line he is mostly self healing assuming he passes his saves vs big fire balls and the like.

Good enough for today,
<3s

How the Hireling …

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I so wanted to complete that title with “Fracked Me” but I am not sure how turbine would like that. So I will just stick it in the first line so you can get the feel for the ton of this post.

Last night I was on the newly TRed Javabot, I just wrapped up the level 2 and 3 quests that I do for favor and leveled to 4. A fast zerg of the back half of the Water Works and the first half of the Splinter Skull chain I decided to do the Sharn market chain.

The first few runs were simple enough nothing my dog army couldn’t handle. Btw when push came to shove I went with FinFangFoom, just too good of a name not to use. And then I hit Book Binder and what I call the Jumping on the Bed Quest. What? You know you take a sec and jump on the beds also.

So I clear Book Binder, call my hire rogue and set about disarming the traps and then opening the doors. Get to the very last trap box tell the hire to disarm it and it runs to the door nearest to the trap. Hits the door, some how one shoting its, setting off the fireball one which opens and agros the room across the hall. The alert goes nuts the hire starts to die super fast. In other werds, fan + poop….

I can’t keep the hire, FinFangFoom and myself all up so I dismiss the hire. She has done her damage. Just then Fin dies. I take the pet had died hit. One of the Npcs dies failing the quest for me and before I could be booted or make it to the exit I take a lighting bolt and a fireball to the back.

And things were going so well until that point. Sigh.

Rebuff and take extra care to line up the rogue so it is really unlikely that it would try to path threw the door to get to the trap box. And we win handily.

The arty didn’t have any of these issues. I miss trap skills some times.

❤

Earthquake is the Greatest Spell, EVER!

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Yep, I said it and I will stand by it. Earthquake is the best spell ever. Here is why:

IT TRIPS GLOWBALLS!

If I was a photo master like Geoff Hanna I would make some kind of poster with a bunch of glowballs laying on the ground with some witty text. But I am not, so use your imagination.

Last night my Tr group just finished up Dust (aka the save the spiders quest) and earthquake was a super star there. Yes it trips the hell out of spider. When the conversation turns in to “What is next?” talk. With 30sh mins left on ship buffs we all agree Running with the Devils should be next. And we don’t need to bother to rebuff because on Elite we will all die at least once. Damn, 200-point light rays.

The first room is often a real bear, sometimes setting the tone for the run. We decide that I will be the bait and Tobril and the wife will pull and kill guys off me. On a why not, try an earthquake while the guards wake up to kill us. Odds are good that they will be immune, might as well get a test out of the way.

Boom! 3 of the four trip before even transforming into their other forms. I yell come in earthquake works. And I trip the 4th guy with takedown. Doesn’t take a long and we hardly got a scratch. Quick look in the mirror, yep still smexxy and we are off.

We slow pull as able the guys wondering around the ground floor. And for the most part Tobril was able to ray them to come over and I could trip them with takedown and we would eat the bad men. We did get a group of 4-6 at one point but a quickened earthquake made them fall down and die to a furry of cold breaths and fireballs.

Making our way to the levers went smooth, also do to earthquake, stealth mode + quickened earthquake on glowball casters made things fairly fast if expensive in the SP department. I turned over my stack of SP pots to Tobril letting him be a blaster so we could move quickly.

Low on mana myself at the shrine things turned grim. The glowball I was targeting ran past me as I cast and the spell failed. The three of us split up each one taking a glowball. Tobril had the named genie as well and was the first to fall. At the point my slower cool down on my spells couldn’t keep up with the extra agro that I had picked up from him. And I fell not long after the wife lasted a little longer but by then Tobril and I had hit the shrine and were trying to recover when I chain lighting took Tobril out again, but right after the glowballs got in the earthquake effect and we ate them. And the genie died to a now fired up Tobril. (that is funny because he is a fire sorc) Post shrining we moved on and had no issues with the rest of the quest, trash died in earthquakes to fireballs and cold spells.

Even the big mean glowball died in quick order with Tobril blasting and the wife and I doting/healing Tobril. And we won, in about 36 mins, 21 pots later……We could have gone a little slower and saved pots but they are cheaper then the 30% pots we all had running.

Other things that trip in earthquake that might be note worthy, Lions and other dogs, Rust monsters, invisible stalkers (I think), I said spiders above (?) but not earth and air elies. Aka things with legs that are super hard to trip otherwise.

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More Winter Wolf Goodness

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Did you know that Druids get Flyby Attack at level 17 (ie level 9 spell)? But better? It is called Snowslide.

Snowslide:
Valid Forms: Winter Wolf.

You leap forward with the speed and ferocity of a sudden avalanche. You attack enemies in your path, dealing an extra 2[W], and targets caught in your wake are frozen solid for 20 seconds. A successful reflex save negates the effect, and creatures caught in the ice can attempt fortitude saves to escape every 3 seconds. Creatures frozen are considered helpless, but they also gain DR/Adamantine 5. (DC 19 + WIS mod) Added by Samius 10-13 sec cool down.

Okay so what is not super clear from that description is that it is an abundant leap like move. The closest thing I can find to it is Flyby Attack, which is a tear5 ED power in the sorc line. It has a 1 min cool down and slightly higher DC to trip.

So tell me what is better:
FvS wings/Air Sorc ass blast – 5 shots at a time slow regn unless your in town.
Monk leap – runs on Ki.
Snowslide – Wolf form only, Runs on Sp Short cool down, freeze people that fail a save.
Flyby Attack – Some damage, Trips (little bigger DC), Unusable until level 20 if you have the ED filled out already.

All I know is everything I loved in the Arty the Druid has more or less (minus Rune Arms), everything I hated is gone, plus uber healing and active combat spells but there are bugs. Many, many bugs to work around.

Over all there is something so much fun about running around as a wolf being and being a DC caster and having good melee options. Sounds a lot like how I felt about how Java was playing as a WF FvS, if only that kept up…..

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Flame Throwing Winter Wolf

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I said yesterday that I would explain how I play my druid and I think the title sums it up nicely but I will elaborate some.

I have a Merc Stealth keyboard:
Merc Stealth

As you can see it has a wonderful video game section that allows me to play ddo much better then I could before. But like all layouts there are keys that are easier then others to hit. For me the “quick keys” that I find easiest are 1-4 and 7-9.

I bring it up because I think that showing what spells align with which keys shows the order of importance.

So my quick keys are:
1 Takedown, Quick back of the hand DC for its trip effect is 24ish which works on most mobs. Might need to find a vertigo item and boost it more. By far the most used spell/special attack.

2 Baiting Bite, this is my kill guy attack. If I need something dead now I hope this guy is of timer. So far max damage I have seen from this attack was 389, yes I rolled a crit but as the wolf forms are 19-20 they are not bad. But I am level 9.

3 Call Lighting, on monks this is where I put stunning fist. This is the easiest of the number keys to hit and I hope starts to show how even though I am melee a lot of the time I am just as spell caster as ever.

4 WoF. Every caster I have has their main AOE spell on the 4 key. It is just kinda my thing. Having this spell here just makes things easy for me. And you haven’t lived until you stunned or tripped a burnable monster in your main AOE.

5 Ice Storm, I want to have to reach for this key some, I don’t want to put of my WoFs because of a slight error. On monk lives I use this key for my finisher.

6 Flame strike, It is a little slow but as it does fair damage some of which is good damage I like to have it around. More then once this life I run to red skull WoF and then used Flame strike on top of wall to clear the agro. But it is over out of the way.

7, the second easiest quick button for me to hit. It is currently Panacea but once I have another 5th level spell slot it will become Cold Breath I think.

8 I think is currently Spike Growth. I like to have a CC spell here and for a while Snare or Entangle took the slot but I wanted more AEO damage for some of the gather mobs kill kill kill fests that I am currently running for xps.
9 Vigor, I just want to say I really like this spell. And I can’t wait to play with more of the regen spells. But they are not extendable? Come on Turbine, WTF?

10/0 is always Cure pots. That is another for every alt thing. But I almost aways reach across with my mouse had to hit the other 10/0 key

So to me that kind shows the melee and caster nature of the druid but incase it is not clear to others my current style is pull until I get slowed or I need to kill for a quest adjective. And then AOE and more often then not stand and trip and or eat people.

I guess weapons might also help make a clear picture but as they are about to change tonight (I will be leveling up) I think they can wait until the level up dust settles.

BtW I know I say this about every class, but I really like the Druid and I am really thinking about making Javabot one full time now.

<3s

So I am a dog….

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Friday I took the day off work for some brain scans. Turns out that my sister in law was running the CT that day so we were able to catch up some. Big plus side, she saw that there was a brain in my head so no more brain less jokes. ☺

Before the scans I took Sam and powered thru the last 6k I needed to cap out for my fighter life. I am so tired of punching everything to death. I need a caster life real bad, hence my excitement to start my druid life.

After much thinking, less so then other more complicated builds, this is what I have decided to do. I went Dwarf thinking HP and SP lines wouldn’t suck. A larger con with an easy self-healer would be ok, as well as having the boosts to tactical skills. Hey I just did a fighter life remember? My Dcs should be fairly good for tripping and stunning even with out a +10 item thanks to some APs. And nothing burns like a tripped bitch in a WoF!

My leveling plan is druid until I feel like I need another feat/ after getting WoF with monk being the most likely splash. I think all the monk-unarmed stuff works while in animal form. Maybe I should make a Vet 2 guy and try a few monk levels just to be sure. Can you Vet with a druid now?

Anyhow Friday afternoon I hit up the TR tree and became a druid. Let the XP zerg begin. My goal is to catch up to Tobril who is powering up right now and is about 10 levels ahead of me.

Level one was about the same as every other level one. Take whatever two hander I could find on the AH for 100 plat or less and clean out the first few island quests until hitting level 2.

At two find BtA Holy of Icy burst great axe on one of the 3 possible bank alts but while leveling up I got to pick a shape sifting form…. Well from what I have read bear is more dps and even though I am tired of melee 24/7 the first few levels are always a melee-fest. But using my brain for a min I look at my spell list for the “form” spells. And the wolf form Takedown is worlds better then Maul (the bear form 1st level spell). And you know all those extra tactical boosts might help with that Trip DC, right?

” Takedown – This attack deals an extra 2[W] damage, and you may trip the target, rendering it prone. Some creatures may be immune to this effect. A successful Balance check negates this effect. (DC 11 + WIS mod. Any effects that improve the DC for the Trip feat also improve Takedown.)”

So I take wolf form. With a little reading of my enchantments I see Blood Moon Frenzy, aka kill a guy and run faster. Moving faster means less time in quest and more xp/min.

Levels 3 and 4 are fast and thankfully my pile of uber handwraps are going to be a real help as your weapon type doesn’t seem to effect your animal forms attacks any, super nice. 5 and 6 aren’t too bad as I get in with other speed leveler and he can open STk pt3 and Bloody Crypt. 11 runs of the former at a min or two a run equals big xps and a little slower but still good runs of the latter takes care of the rest of the easy levels. 7 and 8 are a little slower as now it is Saturday and I need to do some non-ddo stuff. But firing up the kids account reflags me for bloody which I do a few hards totally skipped Proof, which is fast/good xp for me most of the time.

I try bear form for a little bit but it is just too slow after so much time as a wolf and Baiting Bite is so much stronger then the bear’s Shred attack. 4[w] vs 3[w] and opening people to sneak attack vs a sunder? Don’t get me wrong it looks like Tremor might make bear form better but that is a few levels away. But looking more at the list looks like the pack spells start to give more amp…. Hm more amp is more better…. So wolf might stay the clear winner.

So logging last night a little away from level 10, I really love level 9. There is just a great amount of quest at level 7 to really power up with. Like I said above I am doing the winter wolf form now at least until I get 6th level spells to try out Tremor. I have tempted to take some monk levels. 1 level would allow me to take stunning fist and having a “fighting” level will open up trip on its own. A second level will allow me to get into earth stance which I think would boost the unarmed damage if I was using a Jidz, add in the past live monk feat and I could have both good dps and good spell casting. Starting to sound a little too good. Good DPS, selfhealing and spell casting?

More on how I am playing, as it is totally different then my only guide, aka the wife, is playing hers.

❤

Is that time again

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With less then 200k until I TR Samius again it is time to start thinking about builds and what is left for him…

Double-checking Samius’ my.ddo page it looks like I have everything but Druid and Pally left to play out before opening up completionist. Then I have different questions to answer for myself… But for now the questions is Druid or Pally?

The other day before Gencon I was feeling burnt out on melee lives. Or maybe I was/am just tired of the different bowonk shells. Don’t get me wrong the bowonk is super strong and is covering all the bases in the HP/DPS/healing/ Xp per Min piles but how many lives in a row can I play with is more or less the same class? Again it is stupid strong to the point where I was auto attacking end quest boss fights last night and watching Sherlock on Netflix (btw it is really great! I ❤ the BBC most of the time even if they killed Coupling)

Leveling the pally will be the fastest on one of the Bowonk shells I am liking the 9/1 monk/arty shell in everyway (other then being burned out on the melee style) so it will have to wait until after a caster focused Druid.

So lets look at the Druid because I haven’t really looked at it all that much. The wife has one she is soloing with atm and she loves it.

So a quick look at the druid class and it looks good. Mostly shape changed focused with a sub focus on the pet. Uses the ¾ Bab, d8 hp and has Fort/Wis as good saves over all it is a tree hugging Clr.

And what do we know about Clrs? It is all about the DC and spell list, ie Clrs have the 2 best spells in DDo. Okay really the best 3 spells: BB, Destruction, and Heal.

Druids get Wall of Fire (lvl 9 ie just in time for Shadow Crypt and other Necro quests) , Finder of Death at level 15 just in time for Giant Hold. Looks like heal is also level 8 spell so level 15 but they also get Panacea and a ton of Regen like spells is ample self healing and catch all healing.

The question becomes do I splash a rouge level and/or 1 or 2 monk level or 2 monk levels or not?

I think getting to WoF is super important and their spell list handles most umd scrolls easy enough but they are missing some like teleport.

Anyway I think I will try out a pure druid unless hand wraps work while in animal form in which case I might have to add a few levels of monk after level 9 earth stance dire bear with a max Wis, stunning fist/stonedust wraps and a jidx/and a past life monk feat? Sounds sexy to me….
I foresee more reading on druid/monks for me.

❤