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.