Tuesday, June 18, 2013

DDOCast Player's Choice Design for True Reincarnation

On the ddo.com forums, there was quite angry disapproval about the Epic Reincarnation proposal when it was first revealed. I for one am not invested heavily in epic destinies, but I can understand that those who have played more epic content would not like the original proposal. But current discussions seem far more favorable.

But Sig and Anne over at DDOCast have a pretty good proposal here, which I encourage people to look at. I for one think the opportunity to provide input is good, and while I don't think one proposal will please everyone, brainstorming ideas and incorporating the best concepts should result in the most value and the least pain.

1st raid? Well, technically 2nd raid.

So, having capped 2 characters and being on a third life for one of them, I finally did a raid the other day. (I've done heroic Chronoscope solo with my bard and also on Lamannia, but I don't think that really counts.)

Yes, it was Tempest Spine elite with my 1 Monk/11 FVS. I was recruited and I figured what the heck, though I usually don't respond to tell invites. (and never to blind invites). The leader was even cool that it was my first time. I had a little bit of trouble keeping up early on, but once I figured out the 'cross the bridges and get to the cave' thing, I was able to keep up.

Only the fire jets gave me pause, but I survived. I was prepared to raise and heal with scrolls but it wasn't ever necessary. There were beholders somewhere too =). Very quick and easy run, I don't think I will have as much trepidation now joining Von 5/6, except for the time component. I'm thinking LAN party, get an LFM 'need guide' up and see how it goes.

I'm banking 13 still but probably not for much longer. Blade Barrier will probably be the spell of choice. I can't imagine a more useful spell, and I miss my persistent AoEs from my wizard lives. Even my bard has more! I have an elfcraft robe for crits, I can craft evocation focus, I just need a impulse/impact and I'll be good to go.

My PnP game may be starting back up soonish. Probably not this weekend but maybe next. I'll have to check out the adventure and see what's coming up =).

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Minecraft break

My son Deebs got back into minecraft recently and I finally got the LAN connectivity working so I can play with him.

We started making a house yesterday, and today he added some more floors and put in the stairs himself. He even added a hole on each floor to make quick access to the ground level:









Cheers!

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Artificer or Fighter splash

I am currently leveling a half elf Monk/Fvs (1/10) and I am approaching a moment to choose my third class splash to get feats all in a row

Fighter gives 2 feats but requires mental toughness taken as a feat. Artificer doesn't require mental toughness but has no bonus feat. 

Artificer also gives a repeating crossbow option and rune arm use. Since I won't have 10k stars until 20, that will help. Many feats work well with both artificer and arcane archer, including rapid shot,point blank shot. Zen archery, precise shot, etc.

Since I didn't take artificer at 1, trapping ability will be nonexistent. 

Is there anything I'm missing in making this decision?

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Church and the Cult

I've been under the weather so less posting but I'll try to not let that keep me down.

I've been running Church and the Cult to get a silver longbow. Out of three runs, I've gotten Bloodplate Armor, Cloak of Shadows, and fragment of the Silver Flame. I'm hoping the trend continues and I get the silver longbow next.

The other items aren't bad actually, They all got quite a bit of an upgrade with update 17. I am glad to see named loot actually being better than random loot again, since for a while there random loot was coming out ahead.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

DDO The Shadowfell Conspiracy Expansion Pack Comparison

So, what's the difference between the standard edition and the collector's edition, including any pre-purchase bonus items?

  • 2 more character slots
  • 2 more iconic heroes
  • greater tome of epic learning
  • a better skill tome
  • an additional 1000 turbine points
  • extra cosmetic stuff
  • $20 more
Two extra character slots is storage space if nothing else. It also means I could roll up a Juggernaut or something else that looks fun. 625 TP ea without discount, 500 TP ea with 20% discount.

Iconic heroes don't really interest me right now. It sounds like they might be TR able in the future, so that might change but for now, with no TR they are kind of dead end.

A tome of epic learning is kind of cool. I know I like my tomes of learning from MOTU, so this might be an equivalently cool item. It also gives incentive to not grinding the same quests over and over again.

Having a +2 instead of a +1 skill tome? And it can't be UMD? Oh well. I don't think that makes or breaks anything.

Turbine points are always useful.

Cosmetic stuff?  I don't care about cosmetic stuff, but I know some do. If these aren't bound...then that might be plat or other stuff. But I bet they are bound.

So that is around 2000 TP worth of useful stuff, and some indeterminate value on other stuff, for $20 more dollars. So at least at that level, it's a good deal, or at least not a bad deal.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Even more necropolis xp

So last night I worked with a guildy to open up Shadow Crypt while she was AFK, so I got two runs in while waiting to run Bloody Crypt on Hard.

That hard run on Bloody Crypt gave bravery bonus to her, so she was very close to the xp for 10 while banking 9. Same for my Ranger/Rogue so they are both level 9 now.

On another note, having a trapper and/or evasion is almost always good to have. Too bad not every build can fit it in. 

Monday, May 20, 2013

Necropolis xp

I think it was Friday that I got in two runs of shadow crypt with a sovereign pot I got from the daily dice, and I hope to get in some more while the xp weekend continues in Wednesday. I'm pretty close to level 12 now.

I'm considering banking xp, but I also want to break out the mabar wraps, garments of equilibrium and stonedust vampiric wraps. I'll probably farm shadow crypt while the pot is active.

I also ran Bloody crypt on my level 8 Ranger/Rogue for kicks. And by kicks I mean xp. I put up an lfm and I didn't get anyone until I was finishing up the 4th lock, so I waited a short bit for them to show up and finish up the quest. I did get a Mantle of Stria which I don't know if I will keep or sell. It seems like it could be useful.

I also 'upgraded' the armor on my pure ranger. I was using invulnerability but after about level 10 that doesn't work as well anymore so I now have buttressing armor with it's DR 4/- and Nat Armor. The nat armor isn't really necessary but if I'm lazy and don't cast barkskin it's nice to have.

I'll probably run Bloody Crypt again tonight. Maybe I'll get more takers on an LFM

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Quest cleanups

Last night I was able to get in a few quests, but nothing special.

The 2nd catacombs quest with my ranger/rogue. Once you know these, they can be very fast. I am hoping to get new end reward equipment with slots. Silver/ghost touch/undead bane with a red slot? Yes please! Even eternal rest would be nice, though I may farm devil assault for handwraps instead.

Shadow Crypt flagging with my Bard for favor and to be able to open for others. Got a +1 longsword of smiting as an end reward on one of them. That should see some use in Von 4 I think.

Then House of Broken Chains with my bard and guildmate barbarian to continue the Menace of the Underdark storyline. Next up is House of Death Undone, which was quite buggy when I played it last, and got me to TR not just once, but twice with my main. No special loot except a sapphire of protection +6.

One nice thing about the panthers from the Collectors edition is that they are gold seal, so we have a full party with just two of us, two panthers, and two regular hirelings.


Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Useful Tools/Sites

I wanted to give a quick shout out to two very useful tools/websites.

The first is YourDDO.While some parts are now broken (the compendium parts) the API for some of the myDDO stuff works so you can see xp, stats and equipment of characters.

The other is a set of ios tools by jjflanigan on the forums. Not only that, he wrote a css style for the new web forum that makes it quite a bit better looking! It's available here.

My alt now has a voice of the master and is level 7. Only 20k to level 8, which should be a walk in the park. But in the meantime, get some other characters flagged for shadow crypt.

Friday, May 3, 2013

Alts and grouping

One of my alts is quickly rising through the levels in an attempt to level up a static guild member. I won't call it a static group since we all have disparate play times and durations. Even more accurately, it's me and two IRL friends in the guild.

So I have a third life Monk1/FVS10, and 1st lives Bard20/Epic2, Ranger12, Rogue2/Ranger 4, and Paladin16. A few are banking xp but anyways, a good approximation of my range of characters.

I find grouping to be far more fun with people I know then people I don't, so I'm willing to run my level 6 guy through quests with a level 8 artificer to get her up in levels to help my third life out. I can still solo most content that I want to do, but having someone else can make it go much easier and usually faster.

Anyways my rogue/ranger is 20k xp away from 7 which should be a piece of cake. A priority is getting a Voice of the Master for the 5% xp, so just Delera's part 3 and 4 to go, and bravery bonus is a nice perk.

One thing I do like about TRs is the ability for premium players to unlock on hard (2nd life) or elite (3rd life+), which coupled with bravery bonus makes those lives a bit more tolerable.

I see the Otto's box is back, which is a little rich for my blood, but hey, I wouldn't be averse to trading something I got but didn't need for a box or a stone.

Monday, April 29, 2013

Shadow Crypt...Fail

I finished flagging for Shadow Crypt but before I got the quest, I thought I better see if there is an LFM so I can save that flag for later, maybe open it up for some alts, what have you.

So I found one...Elite farm AFK start in 10 minutes. So I click join...and wait...and wait...and wait...like 15 minutes.

and I get accepted to the group. So it's just me and him and I grab the window for him since he was AFK inside. That's good, right? Maybe he was soloing before and opening it up for others, or maybe he was part of a previous run and wanted to keep running it.

So we go through, and those flame turrets are pretty good. Not quite like a firewall which I've used in my prior lives to own this quest.

So we get to the vampire and dps just isn't there. Chat says empty my blue bar into him, which would normally be a great idea, except my favored soul doesn't have a lot of damage spells, mainly crowd control. I alternated between maximized cure serious, searing light and deific vengance and scrolls of heal, but it just wasn't enough.

Get a few terse lines during and at the end of fighting, then a recall and a leave group. I guess if he was that uber he could just solo it? IDK. I had raise dead scrolls too...so?

So it seems spell selection will be important, which will take time to change on a FVS.

Divine Punishment, Cure Critical, Searing Light, Cure Serious, Deific Vengeance, Cure Mod, Nimbus of Light would seem to be the best ones to use, and max out the smiting line along with radiance and devotion items. And I'll bring a hireling with firewall. =)

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Jungle of Khyber

I just finished, as in within the last hour, Jungle of Khyber in a pick-up group on elite bravery bonus. Yay!

A few observations:

  • Traps are bad. If you have a rogue or artificer in the party, let them handle it. ( I know that most groups rush through the first trap while the trapper stays behind to disarm it, but that didn't go well so and leads to...)
  • Raise dead is good. Someone should either have scrolls or have it memorized. In this case, that someone should have been me, but since I solo so much, I never invested in scrolls. I now have 10. If I have to use more than 10 in a quest...ouch.
  • Beholders don't live long when rushed. That doesn't mean you won't die, though (see observation above)
  • Marut DR is tough! Make certain you have something that will work against it if you are melee. In my case, I had some spells and played the healer role while not blasting.
30k+ xp for about half an hour isn't bad in my book (thought I know that can be slow for some)

Next...Shadow Crypt?

Friday, April 26, 2013

The question of ranged combat

I was having a small bit of altitus and decided to play my human tempest. I rolled her up at veteran status 7, so she started off with an odd smattering of gear, and a strange feat selection. I've kept her on that path but when I have exotic weapon prof: Khopesh, why would I take improved crit piercing? What is that path thinking?

Anyways, she's been banking level 12 for a while now so I leveled her up, and decided to run a quest. I wanted some adamantine ore so I could put the ritual on my main's crafted robes to help out with wear a little bit, so I thought Relic of a Sovereign Past on normal would be a good quest to try.

Everything went mostly smoothly, using my crafted keen khopesh of lesser vampirism and a festival icy burst holy of pure good handaxe, i tore through those Duergar without trouble. But I was running short on time so I rushed to the end fight, and never did shrine in the quest, so I ran out of sp for healing, and she's always been a favor runner so pots and wands were non existant.

So I was at the end quest, looking at King Dolgrim and thinking...maybe I can kite? And I did, and it worked, thanks to precise shot, diehard, an endless flask of rum, manyshot. and luck.

Running for a silver longbow will probably be in her future, even if I don't use her ranged abilities much. Or, if trying to get one, why not get three? (Then I can have two, one each for my ranger and fvs and sell one =) )

I also took a look at lamannia to see what a FVS monkcher looks like in the new enhancement system, and put it through it's paces.

First off, feat changes: Mental toughness is no longer required, meaning that you can get the feats you really want for ranged dps sooner. But Ten Thousand Stars is now a feat. So no net change there, except 10K stars can be a bonus feat, where mental toughness is not.

2nd, enhancement changes:
Current: You had to spend 16 action points if your a ranger, or 24 points if your a elf or half elf to qualify, and then spend 4 to get the arcane archer enhancement. (min level 6 or 8 respectively).

Alpha: Elf or Half Elf spends 10 points in tree and 4 AP to unlock AA tree. Ranger gets the tree for free.

The tree itself looks okay. If you don't need every single power (I doubt most people do), you can streamline it quite a bit I would think. I didn't do that, as I spent almost all of my points in the AA tree, to see how powerful it's ranged ability was.

I leveled up to 25 in the test dojo, got shridai champion, and ran chronoscope on heroic normal with a bow of sinew. I didn't have to melee at all except to get ki back for 10k stars (another problem, no points left for monk enhancements).

It went okay. I don't have much to compare it to. But I'll probably want an abishai set some day so I might start running that raid on live.

Overall I think the FVS monkcher will not die due to the enhancement pass.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Share plz

by Melkior @ MelkiorWhiteblade.blogspot.com

So, Meloth the inept favored soul with an odd smattering of handwraps, bows, and a level of monk reached level 10, and I start looking at quests to run for elite bravery bonus, other quests to farm, and what gear I need.

Those updated fanged wraps from Tangleroot had caught my eye, so i ran that chain again and got lucky, getting the fanged wraps with ribcracker which is not too bad. 7d6 on crits, which without crit modifiers is about an extra point of damage per attack. With the removal of autocrits, this isn't as awesome as it could be, but oh well.

I then farmed Delera's part 4 for xp, and ended up getting the upgraded devotion handwraps as well. A third time through the chain to get all the first time bonuses gave me a pretty cool reward list, but I didn't see anything particularly useful that I didn't already have so I got the only BTCoE item, another set of handwraps and put them on the AH.

But while farming on my own I put up an LFM, to share the good times. I got a request to share Thrall of the Necromancer. "I can't do that, it's a chain quest," I responded. "Which quest is it?" I'm thinking...that's why there is an LFM up...it says Hard Farm, and the quest says Thrall of the Necromancer. Anyways, got it all straightened out, and finish out the quest. "I'll grab window" I put into group chat...and you can imagine my dismay when I see the two others sitting outside with me before I can. But I made the best of it and ran the chain again. By the way, thanks to DDOwiki for that new info on how to solo the water gate optional in part 2 with a hireling (summon monster for the win?)

I also ran Von 1 solo which was kind of interesting. I ended up joining a group later for von 1 and 2 on elite, and that went very smoothly, except I'm still not zergtastic. And don't even mention Claw of Vulkoor. I'd never taken a shortcut on that one, so I got quickly separated which isn't good for a squishy.

I figure the necro 2 flagging quests will get me to 11, at which point I can alternatively run von 3 or shadow crypt, and use my 100 roll on the daily dice 30% xp pot for some good times. (Fingers crossed for someone staying to grab window)

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Tangleroot? Grey Moon Waning? Level 10?

by Melkior @ MelkiorWhiteblade.blogspot.com

So I finished up Tangleroot with elite bravery bonus and got skunked on end reward list, considering that I really wanted the new Fanged Wraps, which are tons better than the old version. Instead I got that summoning staff with two augments. Maybe I can put some spell power into it and make it into a kind of caster staff, or just wait and see what kind of augments I get in the future to make it worthwhile.

Also got one quest to go on Grey Moon Waning, and after that I'm pretty much done with level 7 elite bravery bonus quests, so i can farm for fanged wraps, or Delera's for the updated Devotion handwraps.

After that...Necro 2 and VoN. Anyone on Khyber looking for a piker...I mean hjealer?

In other gaming news, played board games last weekend. A Touch of Evil, Elder Sign, and Maul of America. All good in their own way, but I think Elder Sign was the best of them.


Sunday, April 14, 2013

Sentinels of Stormreach finished on E BB

by Melkior @ MelkiorWhiteblade.blogspot.com

http://melkiorwhiteblade.blogspot.com/2013/04/sentinels-of-stormreach-finished-on-e-bb.html

I had finished bargain on blood solo elite before, and then I took a look at Lamannia after taking my TR character over to see what the enhancements look like. Once thing I am quite pleased about is that you can qualify for Arcane Archer sooner in the half-elf tree, but that building up in the tree now takes 5 points instead of the regular 4.

Imbues didn't seem to work correctly, but I went all out and took my level 11 ranger over as well, and trained up AA to cap. Seems to work pretty good, but I don't have a good baseline for comparison.

I also don't know how 10k stars will work, or Zen Archery, so I've got a bit of trepidation about the build. It sounds like a free LR might be given once the enhancement system goes live, as some builds might not be viable anymore. I'm not keen on Angel of Vengeance / AA / Some generic Monk tree  but that will remain to be seen.

Anyways, I tried out ranged on my TR on the test server and wasn't really impressed, though my Ranger did do a bit better. So I felt ready to finish up the chain on Khyber this weekend. Got kind of skunked on end rewards, though.

Now to move on to other level 7 quests for my bravery bonus. I'm thinking Gwylan's Stand.

p.s.

Also, trying to get my feed working correctly with blog readers and such. Blogger doesn't seem to be as friendly as wordpress in that regard. But if you are having trouble, try the following feeds:

http://melkiorwhiteblade.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/

or

http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MelkiorWhiteblade-PeasantBane/

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

New Delera's Loot

The Update 17 end reward item updates for the Delera's chain are all very intriguing, even more so than some of the other stuff I've picked up here and there, and making a choice isn't as easy as it once was.

Even some items that get regular use got a bit of an upgrade, if only an augment slot. I don't yet have a silver longbow so Serpentbranch looks reasonable. But I also have the other items in my reward list that include two slots, which could come in useful:


They all have their uses, but at this point, I am leaning towards Serpentbranch. Thoughts?

Monday, April 8, 2013

Level 9

I got my third life fvs/monk to level 9, which means heavy fort, rapid shot, and divine power. I also ran challenges to get the earth bow, and I crafted sonic damage and masterful craftsmanship onto it, so still min level 8.

I'm keen on getting some of the new augment slot loot from Delera's, I just have the last part to do. I'm also looking forward to running Sentinels on elite bravery bonus. Elite BB is sure lots of tasty xp, but I think it's much harder to solo! It's gotten me a little bit out of my soloing shell but that leads to my next point.

I've learned that I really can't zerg very well. I don't know if that is a build problem, or a play style problem. Survivability is a big issue. Some quests I do just fine, but with a full party zerging through or splitting up, dungeon alert means really getting slowed and bogged down. At least that is how it is for me. I'm sure things will be different once I get blade barrier.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

OurDDO Feed

Evennote from the myDDO blogs has put together a nice resource for those of that blogged (even occasionally like me) to keep all the DDO blogs together in one place, and I should be included in the near future. Check it out at OurDDO.

In other news

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Third Life: Monk / Favored Soul/ Fighter

I'm using wax_on_wax_off's monkcher build here (http://forums.ddo.com/showpost.php?p=4222951&postcount=11) for my third life and so far so good. Between Fernia wraps and Fanged wraps I feel pretty good. Cha is dumped so I can't even cast yet, until I get to third level and my tome kicks in, and I can craft myself a +3 cha item, min level 3. That will last me a little bit.

Doing quests the first time on elite is a bit different than what I am used to, but it does bring a little bit of challenge to the game at the early levels, when usually having some twink items makes low levels trivial.