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. 

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

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.

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.

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.

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. =)

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?