Been a while, time to start posting again

Honestly, I still have not gotten over Turbines screw job on their users with the Artificers. U12 challenges did not fix anything, it may have actually made it worse. So, that is not what I want to blog about, but if you want to hear a rant sometime, find me in game and mention it and you will get an ear full.

So, let's talk Completionist. As I mentioned in a previous post, I decided to make my cleric Sinfully into a Completionist. OK, first we must establish that I really did not enjoy being a healer, so making Sinfully my Completionist toon meant I did not have to do a Cleric life.

So, where are we at today. The next life I did on Sinfully was a Favored Soul. Now, remember above I mentioned I hate playing healer, so my FVS was 9 lvl's monk and 11 FVS at the end. She was duel wielding Long Swords with Whirling Strike and the FVS sovereignty for Long Swords. OK, first, it was kind of fun, but let me say that not a toon you probably want to try to use at higher levels. Since I am on the TR train with Samius, Tobril and Dezember, I could have fun without worrying about trying to have an optimum character. I think after I hit the trainer for level 20, she lasted about an hour before she was TR'd. So where are we today? I decided Barb was my next life so I can get the extra hit points for future lifes, lets face it, got at minimum 10 more lives if I repeat no classes, and some are worth repeating. I may not have mentioned, she will be a Pale Master in the end, so more hp, spell pen, spell points, etc is not a bad thing. So, as of tonight, I am sitting at 12 barb (Frenzy II), Rogue 4 (I am the trapper for the group this life) and 1 fighter (extra feat never hurts) Again, not an optimal build, but she hits well, as a Half Elf, she can use heal scrolls at 95% and raise dead scrolls, restore scrolls. She can UMD teleport scrolls and such. So again, fun, functional this life. Level 18 is likely going to be rogue for the UMD and Search/spot bump.

Also, as we get close to 20, have to think next life. Thinking at this point, she will be 12 bard (war chanter), 6 fighter (Kensai), 2 rogue. But like all my lives so far, this is a base that could change at any point as I feel froggy. Only guarantee is she will get enough Bard to get the Bard past life done. If you have a good group of friend to TR train with, TRing thru the completionist lifes can be more fun. It can be learning experiences as you test what kind of combinations you can do. See Samius's DDO blog for the things he is/has been doing for his lives.

Bravery Bonus is kewl

OK, so I decided to make my cleric (I hate playing cleric) into my Completionist. Figure that way I don't have to do a cleric life and I get rid of my cleric. So I have a funky build in mind as usual, 3 FVS, then 8 Monk then rest back to FVS. This gets my FVS life over and I am playing with the Monk feat for Long Swords along with the FVS path for Long swords. Dual Wielding Long swords looks kewl if nothing else. So I TR'd her Friday night late and with a few other toon runs over the weekend, I was able to get her to 5.2 tonight. But the kewl part is playing with the Bravery Bonus. I have ran none of the solo quests and every quest is Elite first run. So far, I have a streak of 37 Elites. Now, that is not saying I haven't ran some hards and normals on those quest that give good xp, just that they must be done elite first. This is the first time in a long while that I can say that I have enjoyed leveling a toon. Heck, my Bastard Sword bard barely made level 8 because I hate leveling so much. Be interesting to see how far I can take this because I am doing all with just a hireling cleric. Cure light is all I have and wand whipping in the middle of fights is not conducive to getting done quick. I am not a fan of pugs so I want to see how far I can level her on her own. Go Go Sinfully, you one bad girl.

Pofo has set-up his next TR

OK, I might still want to farm some epic gear, not sure, but last night definitely made a good dent in a possible TR run. So, I have been kind of out of the playing mood lately. It happens, can't get items I want, friends are off doing things I am not interested in, just in a mood or whatever. So I was sitting on Pofo last night watching the LFM's and Quiz puts up a Elite VOD run and I thought, what the heck, do it now before they up the bosses again and there is that slim chance of tomes. Quiz was picky on the group, but I know him and we got going and it was a strong group. We had to wait on DPSing the boss just to not have Orthons and devils at same time. So we finish and I open the chest to find a +3 con tome. I don't even have a +3 on Pofo now, but thought, maybe I should hold for that last TR to get my last stacking 10 hp from TRing.

Then I saw a shroud up, not that I shroud more than once a week anymore, just so bored with it, but I noticed Pofo was on #19. So easy normal run through and yes, +3 Str tome in the reward list. Yes, Pofo is sitting nice for tomes to TR now. Maybe a little Von 6 EPIC action to see if I can pull some +4's, but since I have only ever pulled one, not going to wait forever for that.

How Turbine messed up with Update 11!

Been a while since I posted, but I just hit 1000 views of my blog and I really needed to wait a few days before I posted on this subject. If you are a DDO fan, I am sure you have heard the VIPS ripping Turbine for their decisions in Update 11 for Artificers, either in game or on the forums. Some VIPS don't care, but I don't think they are looking at the full picture, but that is their prerogative. So, here goes some bullets for how I think Turbine screwed the pooch on this one.

The biggest issue and the one that I find most disappointing is their complete lack of communication of the issue in the forums with their user base. At a minimum, they should post their thoughts/reasons behind how this is rolling out instead of vague statements they are having Cordovan post.

Since day one of Free to Play, VIPS have gotten new classes, races and adventure packs for free days before the rest of the user base. Free does include those classes/races you have to get favor to unlock. Of course the issue with Update 11, is that the favor unlock will not be available until update 12 because of how they decided to implement this. This in many VIP's minds, including mine means they have removed another benefit from being a VIP member.

Turbine has in the past let things go in the forums to let the community play itself out on an issue. Trying to control the angst with infraction points or forum bans. Usually, this works as the community works their their anger and get tired and moves on. This has not work on this issue. Over a week after the original posts in the forums on this issue and people are still commenting and the fighting is ugly. You have non-VIPs attacking VIPs when lets face it, non-VIPS don't have a dog in this fight. This is a VIP issue pure and simple. Now with that said, non-VIPs should be upset about Turbines lacks of communication.

Now, all the statements above a re purely my opinion, you don't have to agree. Not all VIPs believe this to be true. Not all non-VIPs believe the VIPs are being babies or what not, quite a few actually posted that they believe the VIPs are not getting what they pay for either.

Bottom line, I think all DDO players and especially VIPs need to pay attention to what is happening, because if we meekly allow things like this to happen, it will only be the first step in Turbine trying to erode more of our paid for rights.

Been a while

Has been a little while since I blogged but a nice thing happened this weekend I thought I would mention. I was running an Epic Devil's Assault with guys and pulled a nice set of handwraps, +5 Silver Threaded Handwraps of Pure Good. I thought at first that I would put them on my monk Chowonthis, but then Tobril mentioned I could ask what I wanted for them. So I decided to put them up on the marketplace and currently I have an offer of 4 FRDS and 2 LDS. Unfortunately as of the posting of this entry, Turbine appears to be down so I can not verify a potential higher bid. After getting my Red Armor Shard the other day, I am only 5 FRDS's away from finishing my Red Dragon Robe, so it is possible that I will get to craft it tonight.

And another EPIC item down.

OK, yesterday was interesting. I learned how to efficiently scroll farm Epic Chronoscope and pulled my first scroll, Charged Gauntlets. A quite nice scroll to pull. So last night, I was running with friends and they wanted to run Epic Chrono. I had not run it with Burradrow since getting her ready, so I said might as well try her out.

She did pretty good with crowd control, so I am still pleased with how her build came along. So we are in the bank after the Razor Arm fight and I pull the Seal for the Charged Gauntlets. I had thought about changing toons at the end to keep Burradrow off timer for farming, but now I have to try to get all three pieces in the same day.

We do the final fight and open the finally chest. No, I did not pull the shard, but I do have a Boots of Corrosion shard in there. Another player has the Charged Gauntlets shard and I offer to trade. She already has 6 shards for the boots, but she does put the shard up for roll. You guessed it, I out rolled 5 others to win the shard. So, I jump over to Pofo after the quest and built him some Epic Charged Gauntlets. Adds that extra kick to using the Epic Antique Great Ax I built him the other day.

Yesterday was a good day.

OK, so the day started out bad, since I got up not feeling well. After notifying work I would not be in, I went back to bed. I always seem to get better with sleep. So later that evening, after feeling somewhat better, I jumped on DDO.

I hooked up with Tobril and Devine and we went and did some favor in Amarath as I needed to get my yugo pots. We did Sins and Genesis elite and I am 3 points short, but Devine has a friend with a Abbot up and I still need a few things out of there, so we go do that.

The changes in Abbot from the patch seem to be that he has many more HP now than before, which doesn't make it harder, just uses up resources that were not needed before. Turbine, not really kewl with this change. Anyway, 6 mana pots later, yes, I said much more resource intensive as I used none before, we complete. The chest is opened, and I get a Litany. OK, I was not as upset about the 6 mana pots anymore.

I went after this and ran Bastian on normal solo and finished off my Amarath favor and now have my yugo pots. Between the Litany and Yugo pots, I can now get my Necro DC to 44 and my Enchantment to 43. Not bad, still could use a bigger boat and +3/4 int tome, but definitely getting strong. I am torn now, I am not sure I want to TR her again.

Burradrow has had a good weekend.

It is funny how one little thing can make it a good weekend in DDO. So, I was running around with Samius Duo'ing Twelve quest to get him flagged for TOD. He had to go eat since his wife does not bring his meals to his computer like mine does. I know, I am spoiled. So he logs off and I check what is on LFM before going to solo farm scrolls or something and wait, there is a TOD up. In the interest of setting the mood, I had joined a pug Abbott earlier and roids failed twice. I still can't understand why people can't do roids since they are so easy. But, I after running with Samius, I was calmed back down. So, I join as the kiter, which I have not done on Burradrow, but have done a few times on my sorc Soulfully. Well, as expected, it was easier on Burradrow than on the sorc as a Pale Master is easier to keep healed. So we do finally fight, interesting with other WF wizard kiting Sully and me healing him. We finish pretty easy and I open the chest to find my Pale Master ring sitting there smiling at me. So that is the happy part. The minor sad part is that moves my spyglasses out of trinket and I have to get the Litany as well as the shroud out of Abbot.

DDO Google+ Club

So, I was talking with some of my fellow DDO players recently after Google+ came out and we were talking about getting DDO players onto Google+. Well, Turbine probably couldn't sponsor trying to get it going so I bit the bullet. I posted on the DDO forums here asking who wanted to join the DDO Google+ Club. So far, we have had 14 people join as seen by our tracking spreadsheet seen here and over 500 views of the forum post. OK, 12 as of this writing with two invites pending. I am hoping we continue to grow this and connect DDO players on Google+ and that I was not totally crazy for trying this.

Feel free to share with as many DDO folks as you can so we can grow our little club. As of this morning, Google+ invites are back open so I can get invites out. But we never know when or for how long they will let us invite.

Thanks,
Ron

Delightful into the mix

Back when Epic Von 5 traps were actually Epic, I built my rogue Delightful. My whole goal was a mechanic rogue to get those traps. So, she might not do a lot of damage with her repeating crossbow, but she disarms pretty well. So, after the trap nerf, really haven't played her much. That changed today. I saw a group looking for a rogue for Epic party crashers and I switched and jumped in. She did the traps easily, no boosts even. Was the bluff for the names even. So, I even went and ran Snitch and Big Top with her. She might not be my strongest toon, but she does what she was built for well.

I ran a few other epics today on various toons, including my first Epic DQ on Burradrow. Still no torc, but another Epic quest down for her. Then I jumped on late tonight and Tobril got me into the Hard TOD they had going. They kept loosing members, so I jumped in. Was a real smooth run until the last part. We had some deaths healing up Horoth, but 4 pots later for me and many pots for the healers, we beat it anyway. No PM ring yet, but hey, not every toon can get it their first run like Canttouchths.

Bastard Sword Bard

Slight change, Master Touch will not work on Bastards, so will have to work the exotic Bastard feat in, but no big deal.

OK, if you follow Samius, you will know he recently posted a Bastard Sword War Chanter build recently.  I liked most of what I saw, but Samius and I do things slightly different, so I played around in the planner and came up with a 12 Bard/6 Fighter/2 Rogue version.  Pleased don't think I believe there is anything wrong with Samius's version, as he builds very good toons, but we play slightly different and this was my take on it.    Leaving out the Barbarian (might loose little DPS) and 13th level of Bard, I was able to take the rogue levels to get evasion and up some UMD and other skills.

I had been meaning to lay out a good Bastard Sword user as I have a lot of good Bastards saved up.  So seeing Samius's post, gave me some good ideas, so I stole some and then added my touches.

Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 3.8.2

Rightgeous
Level 20 True Neutral Human Male
(6 Fighter \ 2 Rogue \ 12 Bard)
Hit Points: 358
Spell Points: 388
BAB: 16\16\21\26\26
Fortitude: 13
Reflex: 12
Will: 9

Abilities (32 Point)
Strength 18
Dexterity 8
Constitution 16
Intelligence 10
Wisdom 8
Charisma 12

Tomes Used
+2 Tome of Strength used at level 7
+2 Tome of Constitution used at level 7
+2 Tome of Intelligence used at level 7
+2 Tome of Charisma used at level 7

Skills

Balance 3- 22
Concentration 5- 27
Diplomacy 5- 23
Intimidate 5- 28
Jump 8- 17
Perform n/a- 26
Use Magic Device 5- 26

Level 1 (Rogue)
Feat: (Selected) Toughness
Feat: (Human Bonus) Two Handed Fighting
Enhancement: Improved Intimidate I


Level 2 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Shield Mastery
Enhancement: Human Improved Recovery I
Enhancement: Fighter Toughness I


Level 3 (Bard)
Feat: (Selected) Power Attack
Enhancement: Fighter Armor Class Boost I
Enhancement: Bard Inspired Bravery I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness I
Enhancement: Rogue Sneak Attack Training I


Level 4 (Rogue)
Enhancement: Fighter Critical Accuracy I
Enhancement: Rogue Sneak Attack Accuracy I


Level 5 (Bard)
Enhancement: Bard Inspired Damage I
Enhancement: Bard Lingering Song I
Enhancement: Human Adaptability Strength I
Enhancement: Bard Charisma I


Level 6 (Bard)
Feat: (Selected) Weapon Focus: Slashing Weapons
Enhancement: Bard Inspired Attack I
Enhancement: Human Improved Recovery II


Level 7 (Bard)
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II


Level 8 (Bard)
Enhancement: Bard Inspired Bravery II


Level 9 (Bard)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Two Handed Fighting
Enhancement: Bard Warchanter I
Enhancement: Bard Charisma II


Level 10 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Improved Shield Bash


Level 11 (Fighter)
Enhancement: Bard Lingering Song II
Enhancement: Fighter Flanking Mastery I
Enhancement: Fighter Strength I


Level 12 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Improved Critical: Slashing Weapons
Feat: (Selected) Improved Shield Mastery
Enhancement: Improved Intimidate II
Enhancement: Fighter Toughness II


Level 13 (Fighter)
Enhancement: Human Greater Adaptability Constitution I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness III


Level 14 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Greater Two Handed Fighting
Enhancement: Fighter Stalwart Defender I


Level 15 (Bard)
Feat: (Selected) Weapon Specialization: Slashing Weapons
Enhancement: Fighter Strength II


Level 16 (Bard)
Enhancement: Bard Inspired Damage II


Level 17 (Bard)
Enhancement: Bard Inspired Attack II
Enhancement: Bard Inspired Bravery III


Level 18 (Bard)
Feat: (Selected) Toughness


Level 19 (Bard)
Enhancement: Bard Charisma III


Level 20 (Bard)
Enhancement: Bard Lingering Song III
Enhancement: Bard Warchanter II

Canttouchths is a little happier

So today, I ran a few epics on Pofo and did decent, pulled a few seals I needed.  So then Tobril came on and we decided to hit up all the Red Fens again and I jumped on Burradrow.    Burradrow picked up a couple things, but the real kicker was Into the Deep.  Canttouchths has been needing the shard for the Gloves of the Claw for a while now.  The end fight ended up a little messy, but we succeeded and low and behold, the Gloves shard drops.  So, after that, of course Cant had to go make some new gloves to sport around.  +5 stacking intimidate is nice and 30% healing amp don't hurt.  Couple more items I want to get him and he is pretty set.  Seal of the Silver Concord cloak here I come, and I haven't forgot you shard and helm for the Mroranan Helm.  Those should make him pretty solid for that next life as a Half Elf.

Another EPIC item down.

So, logged on tonight and Tobril is on and wants to run some EPIC fens.  Since I need all kinds of EPICS, I am up for it, so I take Burradrow on out to Red Fens.  First, we run Last Stand.  First try went south, as they can occasionally do, but we go back in and complete.  Tobril is on Holybott, his FVS healing the group, minus the PM Burradrow and still gets second most kills.  Burradrow, the Crowd Controller has third most.  Still trying to determine how the sorc was not blasting away everything, but hey, we completed.  So we hit the chest and low and behold, there is my Twisted Talisman seal.  So before I logged off, I got to go epic my Talisman.  Sure, it is not the greatest epic item out there, but it cost me nothing to do and gives me 100 more mana from clickies.  That is two casts of Death Aura to keep Burradrows healing ticking, so I'll take it.  

We ran Claw and Into the Deep as well, but nothing special happened in either of those.  I just got to keep working on getting a bauble and the stuff to epic my spell storing ring to make the extra spell points all there.  And of course that elusive Torc, but she will come.

Burradrow is mostly EPIC good

So, why do I say most Epic good.  Well, she is not really ready for Epic Chrono yet.  The DCs are super high in there and well, I need a few more things to be ready for that.  I need to get my Yugo favor done for yugo pots.  Honestly, I don't usually worry about yugo pots, but they will add +1 to her DCs and can pick up a few more HP.  I need to start grinding TOD to get my Pale Master ring.  Won't change my DCs from what I currently have with Epic spyglasses, but will open that slot for a Litany which can help.  Then there is always store pots.  These I can guarantee I will use sparingly.  I don't have the funds to pump a bunch into the DDO store,

So, with all that said, I ran Epic "Into the Deep" and "Bargain of Blood" runs last night.  Both were smooth and pretty easy.  Picked up a shard for the Boots of the Mire from the Deep.  Not the Glows shard I need, but at least I am starting to get back into running Epics.  If the BYOH channel pursues their goal of growing a group of good dedicated players for Epic running, then I should see all I need in no time.

EPIC Snitch, Burradrow seems to be good

OK, last night, I joined a pug (I know, it is shocking) with Burradrow and did an Epic Snitch.  I started with my ship buffs and all with a 41 DC on my dancing ball/mass holds.  That was working greater.  I died in the fire trap, thank you lag gods, so my dc dropped to 40.  But it did not seem to change much and my spells where still hitting well.  So I am guessing the build I came up with for Burradrow is working.  She is sitting with both Greater Necro and Enchantment focus.  She has almost 2200 sp and 430ish hp in form.  Not bad for a drow that only took one toughness.  I will likely TR her again later just to make her stronger, but she appears to be doing fine now.  A chrono run at some point may tell the difference, but I am happy with her.  I may do a sorc or fvs life just to get her more SP at some point.

Quick, almost a rant

As most DDOers that read the DDO forums know, there is always someone ranting about one thing or another on the forums, but last week, one caught my eye.  I am home doing training today, so I have some time to finally get around to commenting.

Ok, the rant was a rogue complaining that he likes his build that essentially did nothing but assassinate and did not need Strength.  While he is absolutely correct, there is some things he did not seem to want to consider.  He was talking about how many Epic runs he had done and oh my god, kill count.  DDO is famous for the last person to hit gets the kill, so I have never found kill count to be any measure of a toon or player.  You want to impress me, show that you can survive in any situation.  What happens when the cleric is down and you are only one left?  Can you live long enough to get the healer back up?

Those that have ran with me over the years on Sarlona knows I am a big believer in survivability and I am still one of those suckers trying to build AC based toons, ala Canttouchths.  I still think it does not matter what else you can do, how hard you hit, how bad you are sneaking up hitting something, if in the end, you are dead and in the survivors pocket.

So what does all this mean in a nutshell per see, you can build your toons anyway you see fit.  The game is about enjoyment and running your play style is what you will enjoy.  Samius and I disagree all the time on how to build something, but we have different play styles and both seem to be very successful.  But keep in mind, when you go far outside the norm, you are limiting your grouping potential.  People are going to use MyDDO (Trust me, I think it is worst tool Turbine every built), or they are going to remember what they saw when they played with you (How I prefer to learn as a great player on a weird/poor build is still better than a poor player on a great build).  So, get a tough skin and don't go ranting to the forums when you built something unusual, because you will not get much sympathy from the rank and file.  Go play and show them you are a great player with a different build.

If you have to spout in the forums, in LFMs or in group how great you are, then a little secret for you, you probably are not that great.  Keep working at it.  The best players get known on the servers and get groups because they can show how good they are by action, not bluster.

Burradrow, my PM is back to cap.

OK, tonight saw Burradrow return to cap.  So, how will my tr'd Pale Master do in epics.  Well, time will tell but a few things I can tell you now.  She has a Necro DC of 42 when holding my greater necro weapon and a Enchantment DC of 41 when holding the correct weapon.  Of course, both of these are in Lich form.  Her intelligence is at 44 in form, and I only have a +2 tome at this point.  So, I should be able to eventually get her to 46.  Epic spirit glasses eventually will allow me to have Greater Necro and Enchantment at the same time.  So, back to the epic grind for now until the TR bug hits me again.

Epic Claw Solo: Still doable

OK, Update 9.1 put a kink in soloing Epic Claw, but Turbine still hasn't won because it is still doable.  Is it harder, yes, but my Water Savant Sorc, Soulful, just did it.  Can Burradrow, my Pale Master do it when she returns to level 20, well, we will see.  I am sure there will be a way, but again, not like there used to be.

Quick Post

Quick post tonight.  I did level to 12 tonight and took my Vampiric form.  I played around in Orchard, picking up the explorers to gain some XP.  Getting the 1 point of negative healing each hit is not a bad thing.  It was also nice to get +2 to Strength and ok to get +2 Char and not lose 2 to Intelligence like zombie form does.  It is also nice to not have the 20% speed reduction in swing speed.  I think it is going to be pretty nice, at least a decent fill in until I can get to Lich.

BYOH, life of the Pale Master

I noticed that a few times lately, someone has hit my blog while searching on google using the terms DDO, Pale Master and Healing, so I figured I would do something I usually leave for Samius over on his blog at http://my.ddo.com/samiusbot.  It also goes along with his recent post http://my.ddo.com/samiusbot/2011/05/06/hjeal-meh-from-massive-amounts-of-damage.

So, why did I title this post "BYOH, life of the Pale Master"?  Well, as soon as you go into undead form, besides all the strong advantages you get to the character, you have pretty much signed up to heal yourself.  Since a divine healer cannot heal you with their normal spells, you cannot count on them having Inflict wounding spells to use on you.  So what do we do to take care of ourselves?

The most important is to make yourself into the arcane version of a radiant servant cleric.  By going into death forms, you can use the lesser death aura and death aura to have a constant healing (wounding) coming to you.  I find that with a PM, I do more melee time than I ever did before PM, so this is very powerful way to keep yourself healed.  Of course, you can also use inflict wounding wands/scrolls on yourself if you have the UMD to accomplish it.  This brings use to another good thing to know.

Behind the inn next to delera's graveyard, there is a NPC named Verisgante.  If you going into undead form and speak to him, he will have an extra option that states "You and I are not so different".  If you take that option, another NPC shows up.  This person allows you to exchange collectables for things that will be very helpful to you, such as wands, scrolls and my favorite to have on me, Inflict Critical wounds potions.  These can be used by a PM just like a Cure Serious healing by a regular toon.  To get the potions, you turn in "Funeral Tokens" and these are very easy to collect up from undead.

So, there you go.  BYOH for Pale Masters.

Joy in Mudville

OK, we all know that the thing Turbine is best at is taking away tactics we come up with to do quests.  Well, the changes in update 9 have had tremendous negative effects to using the life stealing property to solo Epic Claw.  Well, I am not one that likes being defeated, so tonight, I took my new Water Savant spec'd sorc, Soulful in there and solo'd it.  To be honest, in some ways it was easier, others tougher, but in general, probably equaled out and I got my fragments.

While I am sure new videos will hit youtube (assuming they have not, because I didn't look), but I was happy that I figured it out myself and did it.  I am sure that a few more tweaks to Soulful's feats and spells will make her stronger,  but after I get Burradrow (my Pale Master Wizzy) back to cap.  I might TR Soulful into Wizzy and then back to Sorc to get those DCs up and all.  But, the point of this particular post was that stick to it and you will find another way to do what you were doing before.

Burradrow is aging nicely

Hit lvl 7 last night and Firewall is once again my friend.  Ran tangle root with Samius to get to 7, then we started on Delera's before logging for the night.  Samius has already banked lvl 8 and Burradrow is 13k from lvl 8.  Maybe I can be 9 or at least close before logging off tonight.

Is Zombie form worth it?

OK, the TR train made it to level 6 last night for Burradrow and she got to take the new Pale Master form of Zombie.  First issue I have with it is that she now runs around like she has a stick stuck up her A@@.   Second issue is that the 20% swing speed makes it near impossible (in any useful way) to melee.  Lets face it, at lower levels, melee is how to level a wizard as they don't do enough damage with spells, with their mana pool, to try to kill stuff with mana.  Guess it is a good thing I have the Defense Guild guys to level with, as I am pretty sure I would struggle to solo level her and PUGS, well, we know how I feel about PUGS.

I also decided to see how much the changes in Update 9 effected my soloing of Epic Claw.  Well, it seems it totally killed it.  I took Soulful, my sorc in and never got past the first giant before I was out of mana.  As usual, the Turbine nerf bat was too big.

Burradrow is a lowbie again

Yes, TR time.  So Samius, Tobril, Torrance and Burradrow all TR'd yesterday.  So, lvl 1 to lvl 4 the first day.  Plus, always fun to watch Samius die as the Wizzard lives.

Success, it is sweet.

OK, after getting my Pale Master wizard, Burradrow soloing Epic claw, I couldn't stop.  So, I spent last couple days grinding the ingredients to make another petrifying staff for my Sorc Soulful.  Tonight, I got the final ingredient and make her staff.  So tonight, she join her wizard cousin and soloed Epic Claw.  So this means I can make between 1 and 1.5 EPIC tokens each night solo which is easier than pugging sometimes.  Not sure any other of my toons can solo it, but knowing me, I will keep trying to find ways for them to do it too.

Peace and see ya in Storm Reach.

Nice start to the weekend

Just got back from a short vacation to visit family (and yes it sucked to not DDO while there).  So, first thing I did when I got home was to jump on Burradrow and solo Epic Claw.  I have it down pretty good now.  After that and a quick scroll farm of Von 1, the wife and I had our date night.


For those interested, date night was a trip to "Cooking at the Cottage" in Louisville Ky.  This is a place where you and your partner cook a 3 course meal with a chef teaching you what to do.  Last night was Lobster Ruzzoto, Chicken Cordon Blue (well, was a fancy version anyway) and Bourbon Chocolate Pie.  It was an awesome meal.

OK, back home and I jump on Canttouchths and run an Epic Von 6, and finally, I get one of the items I need, a belt of Mroranon.  That got made epic last night. Now I need the helm shard and helm, the seal for the silver concord cloak and shard for the gloves of the claw and Cant is basically done with equipment.

Next, Samius and Tobril had an Abbot going so I jump back on Burradrow, as she really needs to pick up a shroud of the Abbot.  Well, did not get the shroud, but all was not lost, picked up a Wretched Twilight.  Another very good item for a Pale Master.

So, a great start to the weekend.  See ya in Storm Reach this weekend!

Goal: Epic Claw Solo: Check

Ok, so a few days ago, I started trying to solo Epic Claw on Burradrow.  The one scorpion is a challenge, but tonight, I got it done.  No seal which stinks, but proof I can do it.  Keep practicing and I think I can get it down where I can do it on a more consistent basis.  Who says you need Sorcs to solo, Go Wizzy Power.

Solo, Not yet, but got some scrolls anyway

So, there was not much going on tonight.  Samius was off playing with Lessah, they try to say it was Cocktailhour, but you never know.  And I did not see much in LFMs that I wanted to do, so I practiced tonight.

My goal, to learn to solo Epic Claw.  I can get to the next to last scorpion, but I am still struggling to pull that one off.  Yes, I have watched the Youtube video and know what he does, but it still isn't easy, especially when your toon does not have points in move silently.  Note for next life, bump up that skill.  But even thou I did not succeed (yet), I was still able to pick up 3 scrolls on my attempts.  Also picked up another playing around in Von 1, so not an unproductive night and I didn't have to deal with pugs.

OK, Samius talked me into Pale Master

Been a little bit since I blogged, so I have to talk about this weekend.

I finished leveling Burradrow, my wizard, and second oldest toon this weekend.  I had her as an Arch Mage with Necro focus as I like to use Finger, PK and Wail.  I knew she was not going to do Epics and plan to TR her next.  But as I was talking to Samius, it hit me, she already had the feats to be Pale Master.  So I redid her enhancements and got a couple items and low and behold, she has 37 DC on her mass holds.  While not Chrono good, it is good for most epics and she has started grinding with the others.  Thanks to Samius, I have a Petrifying Shadow Staff to smack em while held.  I went into EPIC Claw tonight to fool around and with a little work on my sneaking, I should be able to solo that now.

So next piece, I have resisted Pale Master for a long time, as I am not one for the flavor of the month and everyone went Pale Master.  But Samius does know wizards and he kept telling me I got to go pale master.  Well, she is pretty awesome and the self healing is great.  But being my stubborn self, I will be TRing her next life back to Drow and full wizard, no rogue levels.  Trust me, Samius is probably right on splitting and getting evasion and more damage, but I figure if I get my DCs high enough, I can just level them down.  So if you look at the build Samius had on his MyDDO page, I plan on not doing the rogue and replacing the Power Attack and Insightful reflexes with Spell Focus and Great Spell Focus in enchantment.  And with drow intelligence bonus, I should be able to get both necro and enchantment DCs around 40.  Can always do another TR later if need be, but I think she will be pretty good after the first as I am liking the way she is playing now.  It is great to have resurrected a toon I used to love to play that no longer was really good enough to play and make her useful again.

See, I can do something besides complain about the client memory leak.

Turbine, hire some real developers please

OK, now I get booted while crafting my cove item.  This is freaking ridiculous.  Keeping the game running needs to take  priority over nerfs and worrying how people are trying to game the system.  If the game can't stay up, none of the rest freaking matters.  FIX THE DAMN MEMORY LEAKS!


More info, I am running along at 75% memory used.  Suddenly, with nothing else being used, memory jumps to 95% and DDO client crashes.  Then, it would not let me kill the client the rest of the way out, but it was still holding 2GB of memory.  This is getting ridiculous and worse over the last few patches.

Turbine needs to fix their damn code.

I don't appreciate spending 20 minutes getting a pug 300 dragon shards for Turbines bad coding to crash my client from the memory leak and cost me my shards.  I can't explain how pissed off I am at Turbine right now.

Pofo is capped again.

After a long weekend of Cove runs, tonight I decided to skip the cove and I solo'd a few quests and finally finished capping Pofo back to 20.  Popped in Von 1 EPIC to kill a few things before my cleric got killed and thus so did I.  But I was able to take out the minotaurs including the named.  So I think Pofo is going to be fun to play in EPICs.

I wa always pondering at work today if CANTTOUCHTHS should go 18 Pally/2 Monk instead of fighter.  I am thinking with Defender of Syberius instead of Fighter with Stalwart Defender, I would get more AC from the Pally Aura.  Sometime, I will have to sit down and figure out the numbers.  Not sure I want to grind for the DOS ring when I already have the Stalwart set.  Maybe I run some more TODs on CANT while he is still 20 and if that ring comes up, I can think seriously about it.

Well, not a bad night

Well, didn't post any blog entries this weekend, as not a lot exciting happened, but I did get my Epic Warding Shield on Sunday evening which added 2 more AC for Canttouchths allowing him to self buff to 77 sustained now.  The 30 blocking DR not bad either.  Once I can get my epic Mroranan Helm, that will be 4 more AC.  That HELF TR in the future is looking better and better.

Last night, was experiencing some lag and really only did one quest, but it was a 2 man Epic Von 1 with Tobril.  Got to like those Defense Guild guys.  (and the lovely lady Awnia that has to put up with Samius since she married him).

Tonight thou was not the best loot night, but it was a great night for questing.  Did and Epic DQ (only had 1 person die once), Elite VOD (no deaths) and Elite Shroud (1 person died).  They were all super smooth and about some of the best runs I have had in those quests and to be EPIC and Elite, makes it that much better.

The way it should go

I did not run as much last night as I usually do, but the quality was where it should be.  Ran an EPIC snitch with some friends that of course was a cake walk.  Then I jumped in a PUG shroud that was easy as well.  Then I gave EPIC Chrono another try with a pug and it was a cake walk as well.  Did not really pull anything good last night except for my regular shard so I can craft replacement goggles for HP as I switch around gear during my EPIC upgrades (assuming I eventually get all my gear).

Not the best night

While this weekend was semi productive, tonight was pretty much a disaster.  Joined an EPIC Chrono, two failures with the last being because the cleric leaves to answer the door in the middle of the bank fight.  Then I join an EPIC dragon.  FVS, only healer and party leader DCs before we finish Von 5.  No problem, guy is going to get another, but a few drop.  Get another bard to join and he has a guildie cleric and DPS coming.  Leader does not listen and invites another DPS.  Bard leaves and it was getting late and I said forget tonight.  So my whole playing night was pretty much wasted which makes Fopo a grumpy DDOer.

Potential next version of Canttouchths

After raiding and EPICs and farming all morning, I decided to plan out Cant's next life.  He should be able to hit about 90 raid buffed AC this life.  So here goes the stats from the planner. 

And just for Jerry, posted tp MYDDO blog at: http://my.ddo.com/burradin/2011/03/05/potential-next-version-of-canttouchths/

Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 3.8.0

CantHelfTR
Level 20 Lawful Good Half-Elf Male
(18 Fighter \ 2 Monk)
Hit Points: 402
Spell Points: 0
BAB: 19\19\24\29\29
Fortitude: 17
Reflex: 17
Will: 12

Abilities   Base Stats   Modified Stats
(36 Point)   (Level 1)    (Level 20)
Strength          10               15
Dexterity         18               27
Constitution     13               15
Intelligence      13               16
Wisdom          14               17
Charisma        10               12

Tomes Used
+1 Tome of Constitution used at level 3
+1 Tome of Wisdom used at level 3
+2 Tome of Strength used at level 7
+2 Tome of Dexterity used at level 7
+2 Tome of Constitution used at level 7
+2 Tome of Wisdom used at level 7
+2 Tome of Charisma used at level 7
+3 Tome of Intelligence used at level 11

Starting   Feat/Enhancement
         Base Skills   Modified Skills
Skills      (Level 1)   (Level 20)
Balance         8            20
Intimidate      2            37

Level 1 (Monk)
Feat: (Half-Elf Dilettante) Half-Elf Dilettante: Wizard
Feat: (Past Life) Past Life: Fighter
Feat: (Past Life) Past Life: Ranger
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Toughness
Feat: (Selected) Two Weapon Fighting
Enhancement: Human Versatility I
Enhancement: Improved Balance I

Level 2 (Monk)
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Dodge
Enhancement: Way of the Tenacious Badger I
Enhancement: Monk Wisdom I

Level 3 (Fighter)
Feat: (Selected) Past Life: Warrior of the Wild
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Weapon Finesse
Enhancement: Fighter Armor Class Boost I
Enhancement: Elven Dexterity I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness I
Enhancement: Improved Intimidate I
Enhancement: Fighter Toughness I

Level 4 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Combat Expertise
Enhancement: Fighter Strength I

Level 5 (Fighter)
Enhancement: Improved Wizard Dilettante I
Enhancement: Human Improved Recovery I
Enhancement: Fighter Item Defense I

Level 6 (Fighter)
Feat: (Selected) Past Life: Student of the Sword
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Two Weapon Defense
Enhancement: Fighter Armor Class Boost II
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II
Enhancement: Improved Intimidate II
Enhancement: Fighter Toughness II

Level 7 (Fighter)
Enhancement: Fighter Item Defense II

Level 8 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Improved Two Weapon Fighting
Enhancement: Fighter Stalwart Defender I

Level 9 (Fighter)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Critical: Piercing Weapons
Enhancement: Elven Dexterity II

Level 10 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Shield Mastery
Enhancement: Fighter Strength II

Level 11 (Fighter)
Enhancement: Improved Wizard Dilettante II
Enhancement: Improved Intimidate III
Enhancement: Fighter Toughness III

Level 12 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Greater Two Weapon Fighting
Feat: (Selected) Improved Shield Mastery

Level 13 (Fighter)
Enhancement: Fighter Strength III

Level 14 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Two Weapon Blocking
Enhancement: Fighter Armor Class Boost III
Enhancement: Fighter Stalwart Defender II
Enhancement: Improved Intimidate IV

Level 15 (Fighter)
Feat: (Selected) Toughness
Enhancement: Improved Wizard Dilettante III

Level 16 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Weapon Focus: Piercing Weapons
Enhancement: Fighter Toughness IV

Level 17 (Fighter)
Enhancement: Human Improved Recovery II

Level 18 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Greater Weapon Focus: Piercing Weapons
Feat: (Selected) Toughness
Enhancement: Fighter Critical Accuracy I
Enhancement: Fighter Critical Accuracy II

Level 19 (Fighter)
Enhancement: Fighter Tower Shield Mastery I
Enhancement: Fighter Tower Shield Mastery II

Level 20 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Weapon Specialization: Piercing Weapons
Enhancement: Fighter Stalwart Defender III
Enhancement: Fighter Dagger Specialization I
Enhancement: Fighter Rapier Specialization I

Busy night for CANT

Well, I ran a bunch of stuff tonight.  Let's see, EPIC VON 6, EPIC Big TOP.  Then we had Abbot, VOD (CANT tanked it on hard easily), TOD (failed, maybe I should have tanked it), and Shroud.  Also succeeded in getting blacklisted by a dude because I passed my loot to a friend instead of putting it up for roll.  Note I said, I passed loot chest gave to me to a friend and dude got mad.  It is ok, now I will have to look for groups he is in to jump into for the hell of it to see if he drops because I passed my loot and did not give it to him.  Funniest part was he sent a tell to Samius asking if I gave it to a guildie/friend and when Samius told him yea, he told Samius he was blacklisting me.  Didn't even ask me.  Well, I will always look to friend first as my friends usually do the same for me.  Maybe I should have kept that +4 char tome that one time that I let the group roll on since I couldn't use it, lol.

Oh, another funny tonight, running a VOD and two healers which were FVS's, neither had death ward to cast on group.  Not even the single target version.    Some days, it just makes me laugh and other days I shake my head.  Some things are simply required to know at those levels and people don't get it.

The grind has started -

OK, tonight CANTTOUCHTHS started his grindfest.  I did a hound as well as EPICS for Into the Deep, Von 1 and Tide Turns.  Did pick up the seal for the Delving googles which gives me the components for EPICing those.  The rogue may have to build those some day, after CANT gets all he needs.  Samius did pick up a scroll during our runs, just don't remember which he got.

Wow, CANT cant believe it

OK, last night I capped.  Tonight, family goes to a movie and then when I get home, I see a TOD posted.  I figure I need to get my completions in (this is to be number 2) so I can grind to 20 and hopefully get my Stalwart ring.  Well, don't have to worry about 20 completions now as I actually pulled it.  Did not even have to hope to win a roll.  Worst part is I am not ready for it as now I need to grind out my epic helm of MROR to move the Wisdom 6 to that slot to keep my AC.  What a nice dilemma to have.  Was also great to hit 82 AC when fully raid buffed in TOD.  Next life is going to be even sweeter now.

Time for EPICS

OK, was too much time in game this weekend to blog.  But tonight, big milestone, CANTTOUCHTHS is capped again.  Still have some gear grind to do, but he is pretty decent now with 72 self buffed AC, 56 intim.  Pretty sure after I get the gear, probably couple more AC and then when he (in the future), TR's into HELF, should easily self buff over 80.  You know, sometimes the gear grind is a little much, but love playing the game so much that I just switch to another project and come back later.  DDO is the best out there.

Events equal alot less sleep

Yep, 5 a.m. to bed, and 10 a.m. time to start again.  Too many great items and xp to get to sleep too much this weekend.  Time to go egg hunt and get ready for the defense guild guys to log on and start eventing again.

TOD Time

Tonight, Samius and I (on Canttouchths) duo'd Bastian and New Invasion to get TOD flagged.  Right as we finished, a TOD popped up and we both got in.  I got my Stalwart Defender necklace and now start the grind for my ring.  Samius did get his Wizard ring for when he makes it back to Wizard.

Overall, was a real good night.  The 27k+ of xp from TOD has Cant at second bubble of level 19.  Got some grinding to do on his gear before I TD him again to Half Elf, but I think he is going to be a pretty strong toon when he does go HELF as I am liking how he plays now as a half-ling.

Event time

Well, the birthday event was launched today and I met up with the defense guild folks and we ran it quite a bit tonight.  Made 7 runs thru the crystal quest, all successful.  6 was with the defense guild at level 25 and I took Canttouchths thru once with his hireling cleric at level 15.  Awesome ran 3 of my many toons thru the egg hunt and pulled 4 medium xp pots and a repair anvil for my specials.  The event is popping off very high level loot thou.  I pulled 200k weapons and 100k items.

Going to be a busy birthday event, especially with the bonus xp as I still have 3 toons I need to get from 19-20.

Think you guys will enjoy the event if you did not get to try it tonight.

Cant made lvl 19 and

Got a number of raids in this weekend to include my first VOD.  Ran it on hard and pulled a +3 int tome.  Could have been a better tome but since I plan to TR him again into a Half Elf, at least I will get some more skill points out of it.  I was able to hit raid buffed 80 AC today.  Once I TR into the Helf, think I will hit mid 80's at least.  and with the extra Helf intim timer, should make a good toon for holding the aggro.  My Helf Dilettante will be Wizard so I can use 10 min shield wands and blur wands plus various other wizardly goodness.  That makes even Samius like the toon.

Well, not as much playing tonight, but good progress

Well, did not have as much playing time tonight, but made best of the time.  Ran with the Defense Guild guys and got a Prey on Hunter, Abbott, Demon Queen and Reaver done tonight.  Got a couple raid items, one of which will be useful next life.  Staff of Arcane Power should work with my next life using the helf dilettante for Wizard.

Hound Down and trucking

Yep, tonight was Cant's first Hound on this life.  Also spent time with Samius and Torrance getting to level 17.3, 113k short of level 18 now.  Samius is going to try to see if the guild/friends want to run a Shroud tomorrow evening and also we have to look at getting in some Abbotts.  I could see CANT running a bunch of raids next weekend if he is off timer.

Cant hits 17

Last night, running around with Samius, Tobril and Torrance, CANT hit level 17.  I am now flagged for Von, Reaver, Abbott and Shroud.  Abbott was the worst as usual as it took many runs to get all of us the piece to flag.

Tonight, hit the rest of GH elites and then turned our attention toward Reaver Refuse.  SOS runs in the future.

Canttouchths hits level 15

First off, Sunday, I ran all the Giant Hold Walk-ups with Samius and Torrance. Good XP and amazing how fast and easy they are at level when you are playing with good players. 


Then tonight, we ran POP and Madstone, which finished off getting me to level 15.  Nothing like hitting 15 to go to the +7 Armour Bracers for another point of AC.  Cant enjoys self buffing to 66 AC in Stalwart Defender stance and Intimidating everything to him for the party to kill.  For those that don't know, Cant's previous life was mostly Ranger, so he has the past life feat to get 3 clicks of Bark Skin. 

It is going to be interesting when I get him to level 20 and geared out to see if a dex based tank can hold the argo in Elites and Epics.

Canttouchths hits level 14

Cant, running watching Samius die yesterday hit level 14.  Then did some raiding with the Defense Guild, short manned of course.  Cant got his first runs of Chrono, Titan and Demon Queen in for this life.