Tag Archives: TR Train

Drops on Leaving Adventure

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For about 5 years now maybe 6 Samius has been one inventory slot shorter then most other players. Back when my wife first joined me playing DDo we where running some quest or another, one that had a “junk” (for the quest) item: a Wedding Ring. And she gave it to me and told me to never lose it! And for years i was able to keep that ring safe.

Believe me it was a challenge at times. Every time i had to choose between some piece of loot or that ring, the ring won out. So much so that it has been locked down almost from day one! When TRing was added to the game it was another slot to make room for before the burning. I hoped that when Cannith Crafting was added that maybe just maybe,  i would be able to use it as an actual ring but nope…. It said uses one inventory slot so your wife knows you love her.

I will admit that i tend to leave it in the bank or in the TR cache when able but it always makes the cut when it comes time to make room before a TR. And today was no exception.

However, today i loaded up my banks and made room got everything packed away cached in my last 20 tokens of the twelve, i will need to make some D-assault runs this next life, spoke to the only not evil glowball and logged out.

Just as the screen was going out i saw it, Wedding Ring as been dropped or whatever it says when an item is lost. I jumped back in and yep one more free slot then before. It is gone.

Going to say stealth changes some time this last week because i didn’t have an issue when TRing the time before this one on Sunday morning. I want to say it wasn’t flagged to drop like that before this week. Was this ring key to some hidden exploit? Was i getting the uber loot because of its magic powers?

Oh, well…. Guess if that is the worst thing to happen this week then i am good. What are the odds?

<3s

Heal vs Howl of Terror vs Earthquake vs Finger of Death?

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Last night the TR Train crossed into level 15 opening up three level 8 spell slots to Javabot among a few other things. The first is auto filled with that level’s summoning spell leaving me with 2 slots.

What to do?

Being Wisdom based my DCs are more then fairly solid for heroic levels and are not bad for eHs and lower epics. DC casting in eE is just not worth the investment in my mind at the moment. I think people could make a go at it, even if they are never really pleased at where things stand at any given time….

Anyway, do I take one or both of the CC spells? Howl was super good leveling up on my own.

This life I have been playing much more aggressively then I tend to do when soloing. Gathering trash until Red skulled before turning to clear and being the first guy in the room when possible. What can I say having Tobril and Tim, as my insurance policy is both help and a hindrance. They let me be a little bolder as my failure does not mean the end of the quest but then our completive nature tend to ramp things up.

So back to the question, Howl is more of a save my nuts or a “hold” spell. Earthquake has a similar function but it does some damage and can pick up latecomers to the party after the spell has been cast. But has a hell of a long casting time for a guy with out quicken…

Finger is a key removal spell, but really it has about the same functionality as Creeping Cold right now, aka kills a guy.

Heal is about the same as Regen but with a larger up front payoff.

So as of last night my prepped spells are Howl and Finger. Earthquake is too slow and Heal’s main functionality can be replaced by Scrolls (if switching forms), panacea and of course regenerate.

I am also thinking about trying to go elemental over dog in a few quests to get a better feel for that form and to build a little personal experience with some of its interactions. And that will change my layout in lots of new and to me at this time unexpected possibilities….

<3s

My Smok’n Hot Healer Idea

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Since the last post I have been mulling over different druid builds. With the TR train in full swing some nights a week, as people have time to play, my motivation to grind out gear/destiny xp for capped alts fades. And for the last few weeks I have been debating what my list of guys brings to the table.

I have:
Samius as my do everything guy.
McPlunderer as my Dps/removal guy.
Darth Samius a pure dps build.
Samyus my tank that hasn’t done anything after doing all the FR quests on EE other then Web which he has done 0 times.
And Java who is returning to the dog form as a tool box dps/healer guy.

Meaning that my bard gets very little play my “healers” get no play and I have at least 2 guys that have used a true heart just waiting for a build to TR into.

So why is that rambling important?

1, I am board now when not working the TR train. Right now levels are close I don’t want to be the one that makes everyone else have to play catch up. But I am in a place where I want the good vibes from the low level Skinner box pushes.

2, Lately there has been a point/place where something was made harder/didn’t happen because our core group was short a healer. I am thinking when we throw up a raid mostly. But there are lots of times I would like to give Tobril and Rachel the option to not have to heal but can’t because my healers are un such disrepair.

Okay so idea in a nutshell, 17/2/1 druid/ranger/x. X could be anything allowing for pairing with druid’s alignment issues. I am leaning fighter or wiz for the feat but an argument could be made for arty or rouge for skills/namely UMD. The core idea is a two weapon fighter using mostly the flameblade spells (as needed) in either Fire ele form or Ice form that also has manyshot/bow str as another dps option. With a quick human build going ranger, ranger druid until I wanted gtwf (bab) where I took fighter then returned to druid I was able to fit in all the feats for TWF tree/Manyshot tree and had room for toughness, power attack and 1 meta before epic levels. If I could loose a feat I could go Helf and take Arcane Archer I think anyway…

I need more time with the planer, but as I was fiddling I got a txt from Tobril that read “xp?” and I spent the rest of the night xping.

As always, thoughts?

<3s

Lets Call Today Friday

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So first of al; Sorry for not getting a post out on Friday, work was really nuts and by the time I got home I was wiped and just wanted to go play Magic. Btw drafted a sick blue/black deck loaded with counters removal and other control. Rocked Agro decks but had issues with live gain as my men were kinda slow and small….

Second of all I still love Reaving Roar!

While this stance is active, killing an enemy grants you a 6% competence bonus to threat generation for 10 seconds, and creates a burst of sonic damage that damages all nearby enemies for 13d6 sonic damage. Killing an enemy your own level or higher has a 100% chance of activating this ability. For every level below you, the chances are reduced by 20%. A monster two levels lower then you only has a 60% chance of creating this effect. This stance dispels Fatal Harrier, but stacks with all other stances.

That means the current TR train has been moving at a solid pace I know I took level 9 and then spent 30 mins looking for gear that should have been easy to find (BtA +6 stat gear) but I ended up just crafting them again in poopy BtC throwaway blanks. But that is fine what else am I doing with my crafting levels? Nothing and from what I have heard Lam doesn’t have any new Cannith Recipes anyway so I got the feeling it will just be another uncompleted system like every other new system from Turbine.

Dreaming is easy and fun, DOING IS HARD…. – any dev @ Turbine Ever!

So I just want to do a quick layout for any other people looking at doing a dog melee/caster hybrid. I am still using my shocking burst/icy burst/of pure good Scimmy paired with a +2 wooded shield with a blue slot (heavy fort) I also have a weapon set with the Sun flask/shield and the dagger from Threnial (cold 54 in the red slot and I haven’t slotted the orange yet.) My main spells are the melee attack spells Ice storm and Cold Breath. Cold Breath is a monster, as it has like a 4 sec cool down and with Maximize turned on it does like a 150-200 easy. Not bad for lvl 9.

Not bad at all.

Guess I need to wrap this up real fast, I got Netbeans actually working again so time to recreate the hours of step up I did this morning right before it crashed and died and maybe get some momentum going again.

Guess I have this on the brain, my wife is playing a FvS stick build (not sure what the class split is) but I can see some kind of not animal form druid dual wielding the flame blades with a big Wis for DPS for my epic healer. I expect Healzyounot to have a make over in the coming weeks.

<3s

The Return of Fin Fang Foom!

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After a few weeks of fiddling with the Juggernaut I am just not as pleased with how Javabot is playing. Just so happens Tobril is having the same issues…. Could that have anything thing to do with the DG play style? I think probably.

So last night Tobril asks me if I have a plan to TR Java and how close I was too ready to go under. I knew it was coming as he spent a few points/weeks converting his arty icon into a ranger icon for the past live feat. So I have been mulling it over and have been talking it out some. Namely that I was still hating on the Jugg because I was not done playing with the druid frame. So I am thinking about either just returning to pure 20 druid OR doing a 9/9/2 druid/monk/fighter build and try to really go nuts with double striking touch of deaths…

Doing a pure druid life would be just for me and how I feel like i am leaving druid uncompleted. Going 9/9/2 would be to knock out another class life with trying to push the double strike dps to its max. Which after a quick twitter asked and answered shields seem to uncenter druids in form, aka I lose a lot of the big perks of the wolf form.

Wonder how a glueing rogue or fighter or bard even would work?

My gut tonight as i finish this says, just go pure and rock all the druid love out of the system. If that stays true come a few days and a few levels lvl 10 will be druid and Fin Fang Foom will be back in force!

<3s

Gear Up: McPlunderer @ 20

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So Monday night the wife took her Dps/survival build to 20 and a few runs of raiding the giants vault and an explorer or two in the devil’s battle field I had also reached even more epic levels!  Shit, my amazing lvl 12 and 14 gear is not so amazing now….  To the epic sheet and the DDowiki.com!

First thing I did was gather all the bits to make an epic Midnight’s Greetings. This guy is most likely a staple for most of my adventuring. As almost max INT rogue build (1 point went into DEX to hit 21 for future things) the eMG is amazing: +10 uses my slightly higher DEX for hit/dam and a score of other key abilities including a RED SLOT! Like I assume many of you, I started to use a red slot even in my melee builds for devotion to power my healing from the epic destinies. A +10/11 weapon would have a 30/33 implement bonus and that is huge if you’re trying to lessen the use of scrolls and wands; every point counts!

So what else did I grab real fast? At 18 I crafted a 6con/GFL ring with a yellow slot. But my maths were off and it is a lvl 20 item… grumble. But I have it on now. And I was able to slot 6 CHR. By doing that I was able to free up my cloak and belt slot. On the other finger I nabbed a tear 3  lvl 20 Ring of the Buccaneer were I went ahead and slotted Fort to free my helm. While nabbing that ring I also nabbed one of the Treasure Hunter’s Spyglasses that is a tear 3 lvl 20 item and filled its green slot with PRR which does a lot of cool things for my rogue, including cutting back on item swaps for skills. Chasing that thought of reducing item swaps I took my Gnoll Hide gloves and slotted Str and vitality letting me but my +6 STR gloves back in the bank.

In an attempt to fill now empty body slots I grabbed a Drow Piwafwi and my 2/3rds finished CordOp helm. And yes my belt slot is still empty…  And my boots are practically empty. Thing they are dex boots with 20% striding slotted in a yellow slot. AKA junk now.

So I am looking at belts and boots today as well as things that are simi long-term items. I can limp along like normal until more permanent items are ready to go. So I am leaning towards making a list of handy FR commendation items when we start the web flagging as well as a list of GH and High Road items I would like to have as options….

If you had a gear list for an assassin or dps or ranged rogue let me know other wise I know what my left side of my brain is doing as my right side gets some work done.

<3s

TR Weekend Report, Milking the XPs.

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Yep, we did it. We did the TR to cap thing rocking an Otto box’s leveling stone to make a huge level jump, have to tell you it was very sweet. Levels 1through 8 took about 7 hours so a little slower then I would like but there was some little sister action, you know when you have to wait for your little sister to catch up, but that was 3/4s due to someone waiting until the last min to decide what to do. But wanting to partake of the TR Train. Hey I am all for leaping with out looking as long as there is a team of people willing and able to help you as you get your footing, which we all had.

I want to say I was death free until we were doing Elite Jeets, and only then I died when the kitter dropped and I rushed in to take kiting duty while the kiter got back on her feet. I took a finger of death and my DW had just run out…. But I had placed myself in a place were I could self-res via the shrine and took one or two more deaths while buffing/helping the kiter get control back. Over all for all the crazy that was fling around at the time I think we did fairly well. Tobril’s parents were punking him right at the moment claiming that they were mins away from a surprise visit when he was happily chilling in my basement 7 hours away from his house… The wife and I were trying and failing to not bust out into laughter. His frustration at his parents joke was complete. Don’t think things would have been that bad had they not actually surprised visited him once or twice…

The chest (via Tobril) was good enough to leave me a Terror, which I had just added to the gear list I should have moved over for post stone pre epic gear.

In the very next quest I just plain messed up and didn’t have quicken set up for all my repair spells and failed an important concentration check and fail to -1. Thought I would recover but the melee mob that I had been fighting ran off when I went down and then turned and finished me off…. Grumble. Followed not long after with death by slipping onto spikes to rescue a party member. I apologized to everyone and promised to stop being a fuck up while I rebuffed. Thankfully we had a few deaths in that quest and I was not the only one that needed to rebuff.

The rest of the afternoon went very smooth, including the back end of IQ and elite Kobold and Monastery. Then I needed to try and be a good friend and called it a weekend. Tobril had a 7 hour drive after all and it was already around 3:30 my time or 9:30 for the brits. Looking at twitter the brits kept going and hit 20+ last night. The wife is also at 20 on her fighter, so looks like tobril and I will need to rock a few things on Wednesday to put us all ready for epics this weekend.

Will save how I feel about the Jug build for later in the week. But I do have a lot of mindless Challenge grinding to do in the next few weeks I want to make a Master Artifice Ring and maybe a few of the Elemental weapons…

Also I will be swapping a feat or two and maybe working in the two weapon chain and or the Shuriken Expertise just to see if I can get the Stance/s proc % rate per min equal to or grater than my Evoc Archmage Wiz….

Well

Change in Plans, Time to Make some NEW Decisions….

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Due to a schedule conflict and a number of people sending in messages saying (xp weekend should be this week) plans are shifted to TR Train this weekend, aka no time for double TR Doctor Jones!

*While Writing Update*
DDO Bonus Days brings you +15% Heroic and Epic XP, now through Wednesday, May 22nd! #DDO #TonsofXP

Glad we (you and I) talked a few things out with my double TR plan and thanks to everyone that sent in your XP weekend guess is off.

So today I am trying to decide on a few things, like what build do I want to land on and how can I turn salvage the TR train if I am wrong now and right before and the bonus xp weekend is in fact in the following weekend… (Which we now know the 17th starts the xp weekend)

So Tonight I will TR/ first level gear up Java and gear layout for levels 2-6, there is not a lot of gear changes between 6 and 8. More or less prep the weapon upgrades and basic gear swaps like level 5 gear and low level trap stuffs.

So for build this life, could say “F it” and do another druid life, but we talked though all that and I think I will stick to the plan of trying the Juggernaut build for a while.

Which means I need to pick a version of the build I think I will like the most, the Pally splash or the Ranger splash.

Pally = Higher saves with less work
Ranger = More burst dps and sprint boost…. Sprint boost….

Okay that was not that hard. Sprint Boost…. Sorry I’m back. Lets copy the planed build and get a forum link if you haven’t seen it already.

Juggernaut Ranger
Level 20 Lawful Neutral Warforged Male
(2 Monk \ 2 Ranger \ 16 Artificer)

Strength 16 25
Dexterity 15 20
Constitution 17 23
Intelligence 13 18
Wisdom 11 16
Charisma 6 10

Level 1 (Artificer)
Feat: (Selected) Point Blank Shot

Level 2 (Monk)
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Power Attack
Level 3 (Monk)
Feat: (Selected) Cleave
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Toughness

Level 4 (Artificer)

Level 5 (Ranger)
Feat: (Favored Enemy) Favored Enemy: Evil Outsider
Level 6 (Ranger)
Feat: (Selected) Great Cleave

Level 7 (Artificer)
Level 8 (Artificer)
Feat: (Artificer Bonus) Quicken Spell
Level 9 (Artificer)
Feat: (Selected) Manyshot
Level 10 (Artificer)
Level 11 (Artificer)
Level 12 (Artificer)
Feat: (Artificer Bonus) Improved Critical: Ranged Weapons
Feat: (Selected) Improved Critical: Slashing Weapons (Or Bludgeoning)
Level 13 (Artificer)
Level 14 (Artificer)
Level 15 (Artificer)
Feat: (Selected) Mithral Body
Level 16 (Artificer)
Feat: (Artificer Bonus) Precise Shot
Level 17 (Artificer)
Level 18 (Artificer)
Feat: (Selected) Precision
Level 19 (Artificer)
Level 20 (Artificer)
Feat: (Artificer Bonus) Improved Precise Shot

Thinking about what gear Java already has and I think I will lean more towards the un-centered style but I will need to look at what Bow/XBows at his disposable because I don’t think he has any…

Well think that’s a plan, unless I decide when TRing tonight to do druid at the last sec… Could happen.

<3s

Time to Man Up and Make the Call

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All of you know I have been caption wibbly wobbly on this TR proposal that Tobril and I are going to go for to do a double TR in a weekend. To work the True Heart of Wood timer and fit in the playtime in our schedule this means we have to TR tonight! But I don’t have a plan……

But Tobril is on board and has a rough plan so I need to shit or get off the pot real fast and being that I put the idea in his head I feel responsible and need to make this happen.

So lets make a plan, starting with goals and wants.

I want to do this on Javabot. He is working his way to completionist and I want him to make it as long as I am enjoying his builds on the way. Him making completionist is not like Samius getting it. It is a good long term goal not something that I want to get to as soon as I can stand it. That said I really like him as a druid, right now.

Since this first live is mostly skipping the live I should get something out of the way that I don’t enjoy playing like barb or sorc… And I do like the Druid and I wonder if I can make 9/10 levels of druid work like I could make 9 levels of monk work, aka carry the build. Which I think it will.

So lets just put this bonus life in the nasty life pile but make a quick list of the classes I don’t enjoy playing and plan to do one of them.

Now the question is do I go back to druid or do I pick another class? I am not ready to move away from the druid life and I think that is my holdup but right now it seems like a waist not to go for the Arty (Jug) live before the Devs do something to kill the build. Doing an arty life also gives me a lot of bank for the buck on future TR lives with the UMD bonus….

Lets say I stick to this plan of ending up as a Jug, if I don’t like it guess I can TR again and solo back to Druid easy enough. I mostly soloed it to 20 the first go around after all. So what life would be the best bang for the buck on the Jug? My personal don’t enjoy list is Sorc, barb, ranger and to a lesser extent bard. Of that list I think the Jug build would get more bang from the +2 damage from ranged. I could/would have very similar burst ranged DPS as my pure 20 has, slightly better even, between Endless and Manyshot I might never swap to melee. Okay I would but come on…

So that is the plan I guess. 10/10 Druid/Ranger for this junk life and one of the 2 main Jug builds next life.

Guess it is a plan if I chicken out and go back to Druid right away the extra resists will be some help even if the ranged damage is mostly wasted.

If I am not thinking of something please let me know.

<3s

PS, Anyone that is offended by the title… Man up. J Aka know that I ❤ you and I only mostly a sexist pig.

 

The Plan and the ALTERNET PLAN

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Like I said yesterday Otto’s boxes are in the store. I teamed up with the wife to buy Tps a few weeks back because I heard that they might be back soon and she wanted to have a pile of points for her latest TR project. I wanted some Boxes so moving up to a much larger package seemed like the right call.

So now I am siting on some Otto’s boxes…. And as I have said there is some thought as to when the next XP weekend is going to be scheduled. My guess is over the Memorial day holiday weekend.  So people are getting ready for a TR blitz to 8 and then a good stoning using the bonus xp from the weekend, some heavy pot use, vp and boat we plan to be near cap if not at cap by weekends end.

I have a lot characters that could use such a TR to knock out a fast life. Javabot is a standout in my mind, but I really like him as a druid and I am not sure if I am ready for him to move on to something else…but a quick swap to a Juggernaut build is not out of the question.

Fire up the ALTERNET PLAN

I TR Java after this weekend putting my Rog on the back burner for a few nights and power level Java to 8 giving me at least a week before the start of my projected TR weekend. Then the first night of the XP weekend Stone and power to 20 and TR again to power threw with everyone else…

This plan is quite a gamble, I feel the fool trying to form a plan around a bonus weekend that I am guessing will happen and when. But if I don’t then whatever I do decide on I need to be happy with playing for a while as I don’t plan to rock another 3x TR to epics alone for awhile.

So lets assume for a min that my weekend gamble is right and we will have my theorized XP weekend, what do I do? Java’s plan was to work towards completionest as I jump from build to build. I never wanted to play the same build again until I am rocking completionest but I think Java is really suited to the Druid frame and play style.  So is the alt plan; something useful for druids then return to being a druid???? If so, what is best for a druid other then more druid lives? Because more druid lives does not get him any closer to completionest…

I don’t know what is best. I could knock out a barb, fighter or Sorc life and then jump into a Jug build and chill in that build for awhile (sure a Jug would be a good fix for a while) and then when I am tired of being a Jug I would be 2 lives closer to completionest… Or I could just do back to back Druid lives and be happy with +4 more to all stats on my summons/pets with the only losses being favor and raid counters. Which I don’t think I care about at the moment.

Lots to think about in the next few days because timing will be important. I guess there is also plan C… I have a few other guys that need the love. Grumble! Too many options and I need to decide real soon or I will miss my window.

<3s