Tag Archives: Raiding

While We R Playing ep 6 (Abbot Training Sir!)

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What kind of Training, Soilder?

Abbbbbbbbbbot Training, SIR! Abbot Training, SIR!

I really don’t know why but every time Tobril and I do one of these training runs (Mostly the Abbot) this scene pops into my head. Maybe because we take a a lot of newbs and shape them into a bunch of killers!

Btw not only did we record it but we live streamed it over at http://www.twitch.tv/samiusgurobo/ . Yep you could have seen what i saw and wondered how and the hell could i cast the wrong spells so many times in a row…

Or Download: whilewerplayingep6

Don’t know what i am talking about? One, you are too damn young. And two, i have a clip for you.

And Waiting….

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As it happens it was Wednesday last night and Tobril was around to get his raids on, sounds sweet right? I mean who doesn’t want to raid with Tobril and myself? It is 630-645 and the current DG members form up, Tobril gets the star as he wants to raid, he gets to put the groups together.  I do some mild bank work waiting for things to happen.

In about 5-10 mins I have finished my upkeep work and check out the grouping, looks like we have 4 to 5 slots left to fill and I read a comic. Around 7 I hear the wife make a comment look up and we have lost a guy and gained another guy but over all the we are hovering around the same number of people…

I say something to Tobril, who starts a 5 min alarm and warns everyone that when it goes off we will move on or try a shortman. Time passes and when the alarm goes off we move on to a web run.

Web was fairly fast and was going very smooth until the unofficial leadership switch happened and some people did follow instructions and we had to fall back so people understood the new leadership plan.  Basically Tobril has enough Webs under his belt now to lead the first 3/4s of the raid. The end fight still has some hang-ups like safe spots and judging if a shrine is needed or not. But for the most part between the two of us we have it down.

But we got it done like always quickly and fairly well. The other healer was so surprised that we were going on hard he wondered if he had the pots for it. By the end he was letting us know that if we ever needed an Hjealer to look for him. Even then I think we could have tighten things up a lot. Had a few more people been watching their curses we would not have need a fall back and shrine and we would have won a eH  run on 1 shrine. That is good healing/CC/DPS/leadership… J

By the time we filled the web and ran it after it took its sweet time filling I was ready to log for the night. I just haven’t been playing as late as normal lately or starting as early either really. To much work to do during the week so I can screw off all weekend.

Oh real fast the last 2 webs I have run have had the phat loot drops. Just nothing I overly want… But in those runs I have seen 2 xbows, 2 bastard swords, 1 longbow, 1 handwraps, 1 axe and 1 other weapon and I for one have gotten coms each run.

Time to run, but I want you all to know, if you play on Sarlona about 6-630ish central time on Wednesdays the DG will be throwing up raids. We will teach people as needed so look for our lfms. Also on weekends we do things with the Brits, same deal but you have to look for us in the who panel or via the Defense channel there are no lfms for weekend runs normally.

<3s

Role Filling

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For the first time in a long time I just can’t point to Grim’s my.ddo page and say see my weekend, so I will talk a little about what we did and I will mix in a little bit of role playing/filling in groups.

As is quickly becoming a thing for our weekends the DG and HoDW got together for to raiding and other epic questing. More raiding this weekend then we have needed to do the last few weeks as more of each guild logged on then normal.

Think we started with the dragon raid, which is becoming our normal jumping off point for the weekend. Which means I am currently needed to change guys from Samius to Butterz to fill the bard mezer role for our team. Which this week really hurt as I would have jumped at the 100K+ xp Tobril reported for Von5. But sometimes you take one for the team and other times someone takes it for you. That is why your part of a team right?

We talk some post Von run and looks like Chrono is up next as we still have more then 6 people sticking around but that means I can swap back to Samius for xps.

Think we broke for lunch around then, when we got back we were able to do some 6man stuff before everyone got back. Think we worked in a DQ, I needed to take a simi long simi afk while people did the 6man. Somehow I was still able to do two rooms in the 4 or 5 min stretches when I was at the keys between my 2 accounts.

Again for the DQ I switched my main account from Samius back to Samyus to tank.

Sunday ToD, Hound, Vod, and started a Shroud over all in all a good day for knocking out raids. For the ToD we Tobril and I talked about who would tank but as no one else was able to heal I tanked and he played his healer. Yes I dual tanked both end bosses and he solo healed the raid. Wasn’t much of an issue. Think we could step it up to hard next time… If someone could use a few heal scrolls for spot healing that is.

Also we had a super fun Hound. The fastest run I ever have seen. The wiki has here DR as 999/epic so if you do more then 999 points of damage per hit say using a Unbridled Fury Epic Moment you can take her down and more or less bypass the quest. Don’t think I would do this every time but for a “Dude, Check this out!” It was amazing to watch!

We also did some role swapping for VoD we planed on hard (which I think is still a little easy for our combined forces) so I brought my tank and again Tobril Healed. This time I think the wife joined him on one of her Clrs.

I guess my point other then doing a weekend run down for Grim so we can keep track of what our two guilds get done together, is to talk a little bit about filling a role. I normally dislike making a build to fill a given role. But I do have a few role fillers. Samyus my tank, Butterz the bard/trapper I do have a few clrs none of which are super healers but one is on the list to speck out even more for healing and removal spells, Samius when all said and done will be our CC/removal wiz for sure.

We all can’t just have dps or flex alts in our tool box, at least not when raiding shortman. Most of the time there is at least one key role that needs to be filled, more often then not more then one. And if you’re a pugger, nothing will build your rep faster then being good at a given role. And if you build your rep in one area then it is often easy to use that good momentum to do other things as well.

I guess there is a third reasoning behind this post: Tobril flag your bard for Von! Samius needs booties and massive xps.

<3s

How the Pug Snatched Defeat from the Jaws of Victory, Elite VoD

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Saturday morning I am on Samius and sitting on the last rank to cap out. No guildies or channel people are on. Guessing the domain issue is holding some people at bay. I know Phlor is pissed off and refuses to “hack” his Host file. But I luck out and I don’t have to edit my host file and get on right away. Going to say my ISP is not as shitty as his, although Turbine really?

Okay back to the story. Post people check I hit the LFM panel, hey you never know. I might pug something. Low and behold there is a 1 from full Elite VoD looking for something or an artificer with silver weapons. I have silver weapons and even with out the first time bonus Elite Vod is a ton of XP and is worth doing. The group looks fine. I know a few names, as fair to alright players. And I jump in thinking this is going to make a dent in that last pile of xp.

I get in and the path to the raid is clear, win. And the chest is unopened even. I short wait for someone that didn’t make it into the sub yet and we go. No one types out buffs. After I ask for them 3 times both over mic and in chat. So I start giving out deadly. If someone wants silver they better ask. I am about to shrine when someone hits me with GH and blur. I am only down a little sp so why not just go.

As we start to zone in I start getting tells from people asking for silver…. Great…. There is a time for request people. And that is when the rest of the buffs are being handed out. But I go ahead and hand out silver to people that asked via tells. And we start.

The Orthons go quickly, as the leader starts to tank. For the record I don’t think that the leader should tank in pugs unless that leader has a clear second that can give orders for times the leader is busy.

Any way the raid is going nice and smooth. Sully is falling and those HPs are falling off. The healers are healing nicely and all is well. Until the second wave of Orthons hit at the same time a wave of trash devils hit. And there is no clear trash tank or a second to get people focused. People spread out the healers are over taxed and the CC is shitty. And people start to die. I start to give orders (not that it mattered) and rez people. My stack of scrolls started to drop quickly. Some people started to rack up the deaths. And one guy at least that most Sarlona people would know if I typed it out went afk dead and didn’t say anything in chat so I wasted 4 or 5 scrolls on him (btw he never returned).

But we got things under control and started moving again. And sully dropped and dropped. BBs started going up and I said let me BB as I still have 400 sp and the healers claimed to have drank a pot or 2. But still BBs that were not mine kept going up. And we took a few waves of bats and all was fine. Sully dropped and dropped we had some losses but we still had fair dps. And I started to notice that mine were the only BBs. And that I was siting kinda low. But I saw one of the clrs right behind me casting. Then bang took chain lighting to the face and died and then I saw the mass go off. I don’t know if the clr didn’t have quicken on or was trying to use a scroll or what but the heals just slowed to a crawl and people started to die. Right after I died it was the tank, the bard and an healer. And the take fell. Sully was at that sliver of life that you can’t even see. Someone threw the tank a rez and he he retook agro for a bout 4 secs as buff less and at half hp he didn’t get any heals. The healer died right after and the bard ran around like a little girl and died screaming. Or that was my take on it anyway.

After a moment I got a tell from the leader asking me if I knew what happened and I gave my quick summary of the heals slowed to a crawl and we died. Back on the boat and after I dropped group filling up as I let the auto attack kill the training dummy I got a few follow up tells from the former leader. He said that the healers refused to use pots.

I am cool with that but if they said something I would have healed myself and I could have scrolled the tank I think long enough to finish it. But no commutation kills groups more then any raid boss. Also in hindsight if that one dps (who had an Esos) would have returned I think we might have had the extra dps to but us over but like I said it was right there. Hell if one of those divines doted sully vs throwing BB after BB on top on my BBs it would have been enough.

I don’t know. There were a lot of things that could have fixed things. But I think if there was more helpful commutation and less unhelpful chitchat I think we would have won.

❤

I need a Kiter….

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Last night was “epic night” and as so the guild tries to make an effort to run some things together. And we have settled into a kind of pattern, of ToD and then a few epics. Tobril gets off work nabs a fast bite to eat and gets on around 7ish my time (aka our starting time), about 15 past the hour a guild tod forms and pugs out the last slots. Our guild can bring 7-9 people if the active players all long on. We could almost fill a raid alone if all of simi active members got on too but not quite….

Anyway I had just finished my dinner and checked the time. Raid time. Logged on and saw that the Tod was up and was Tobril and Phlor and better then half full with puggers. Well I nabbed two slots for the wife and I. Knowing she was bringing her monk. I asked what Tobril needed/wanted me to bring now that my tank has his ring I can be flexible for the group. “I need a kiter” he says.

Hmmm, Now I have backed up once or six times. And every time I have been called to run I get a BB off and wing and some times I run enough to get a second wing off and some times not but I normally last about 30-40 secs once called to kite. But sooner or later everyone is a kitter had to have a first proper go, right? Guess last night was going to be my time.

Now I have 2 people that might be able to kite flagged. Javabot my melee FvS and Samiusbot a PM wiz. Java runs ToD from time to time has boots and hps. Samiusbot is flagged so I can use Yoguo pots and not much else. He happens to be flagged because you have to do all 4 flagging quests to get the favor for those pots… But has little to no gear. Don’t get me wrong for a first life and next to no work he is good enough but I wouldn’t want to take him into ToD. And I don’t want to be the guy banished because he doesn’t have boots or anything.

So Java it was. Turns out starting out as the kiter a lot easier then being the back up. My last loop however my last BB was not quite in the right spot and one shadow drifted to the top of the stairs. I was about to pick it up when Tobril said not to bother and about 10 secs later we won. Once again Java didn’t get his belt. I am starting to think that it has been removed from the loot tables, or is it when I step into the raid with him. I see it all the time on other alts. Oh well.

So being a little late to the party let me fill a role that I hadn’t gotten to before. Maybe I shouldn’t talk it up a whole lot because then Tobril will ask me to kite more often and tank less. But I think once As400 is flagged and booted up again I will try to tank the shadows on him. And that sounds like a lot of fun.

❤

Raiding as an Artificer

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Raiding as an Artificer is a lot different then normal questing and challenge running is a lot different still. This weekend I got to try both raiding on my artificer and challenges (both epic and none epic).

Things I learned:

Even my sorc felt less squishy. In a raid group where there are people assigned to heal the party often over look the artificer. I guess, they are over looked as WF arties are so good at healing themselves and I guess the fleshy arties are rare monsters. I learned to life with a heal scroll in my hand any time I was not standing with the melees. The killer is the only time I died in an elite Vod we ran over the weekend I was both with the melees and standing in an healing aura and died waiting for a mass that never came….

Preping all the weapon damage buffs kills your other spell options. I don’t know about you but on my lvl 18 arty losing Radiant Forcefield and Prismatic Strike for silver and align weapons really hurts. And pulling a six level spell for Deadly often means putting your healing in someone else’s hands when it comes to that red bar.

Also you need to expect that people are dumb. Yes even other arties. At one point I heard, “Sam, can you re silver me?” I say sure and cast silver on that person (happened to be Fopo). Before too long Fopo sends a tell “Silver plz not cold iron”. I don’t even have cold iron prepped. So the other arty (who didn’t buff anyone that I know of) had to cast over my silver. With what happed to be a useless buff, almost harmful buff at that.

Sooner or later everyone wants something, just try to be super clear and flexible to giving buffs. People will have the wrong weapon out when they ask for a buff or die and need rebuffed. And you need to be able to help them out when it happens.

As for challenges you are great. The things that make you needed and wanted in raids weaken you in challenges. But swapping in to a casting, soloing layout is pure gold. Don’t get me wrong weapon buffs are important, but a good BBer that can also heal a tank while not burning SP to dps bosses is huge. More then one run I went after and killed the dragon and then ran back to the group in time to help fopo tank and kill the boss spawn. Then returned to clearing trash with the remaining sp.

The last big thing I think I learned this weekend is a pure arty is a lighting rod set on fire and doused in an acid bath aka no evasion so so at best reflex saves is a killer. Find room for more then just the normal 30 fire/cold/elc/acid/sonic and pro of the same. Find room for those 33% fire and elc absorption item/s.

But I really love the class, to the point that I am thinking of returning to it and not the Wizard post Completionest feat…

❤

Thinking about Waterfalls, I mean Changes..

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I was going to talk more about Artificers, this time defending melee artificers and spout some damage numbers and whatnot. But I don’t feel like it. They due solid damage, and once quicken reconstructs are online I will be top notch I think.

So what to talk about then???

I am level 14 with 15 banked so what else is there to talk about? The next life. I have fighter, paladin and the soon to be out druid to go until completionest. Druid is out because it will not be out when I am ready to TR (I hope) and do I really want to do another “new” class with out doing a few levels of sample play? Not really.

Both fighter and paladin work on the bowonk frame well enough. I missed the ranged option going 9/x on the rouge life if melee combat was stronger. So I am inclined to do the normal 6/6/8 bowonk lives for them.

I also find myself missing that hard up Ac tank. Leveling Samyus had some challenges. But feeling invincible was not one of them. And with Samius’ TR cache and a willingness to do the 2+ splash for evasion and full umd a quick and easy sword and board life might be just the thing to mix things up a little.

No matter. That is at least 2 or 3 weeks away. Lots of time decide, right?

Side note. I did some leading last night. Like really leading, and not just shouting orders to guildies/TR pals when shit hit the fan. I did a nice walk through with the guild/Fopo for a epic Small Problem. And then lost Fopo and picked up another guildie and lead Tod.

I don’t like to lead anymore. I don’t like having to be the nice guy that hand holds people and walks through the quest for everyone as if it is their first time. I play the social game here, not there. And I totally blame the time about 4 months after the influx of F2P people hitting the level cap. Or how I remember it “Six Months on the Fail Train”. That would make a good song for Ddocast.

Anyway I lead the groups and everything was fine. There was little to no loot however, so no reward for me to make me thing that maybe I need to lead more often…. But it was a good enough time.