Fopo Rant

You know, every once in a while, I have to rant about DDO, but this time, I will not even rant at Turbine.

So, what this time?  Foruminites (hey, close as I can spell it and you get the point.)

So, I read the forums a lot more than I post, mainly because I often make people mad when I post, and no, I don't do it on purpose, it is just a talent I have.  So few things I have read about lately have made me shake my head.  "Ban the Exploiters", if you have read the forums at all in the last month, you have had to see these threads.  First folks, it is a freaking game we ALL like to play.  If someone uses an exploit (defined by our individual views) or not means nothing to me.  I play the game the way I believe it is meant to be played and play it with people I enjoy playing it with.  I don't care if they have the best gear in the game or still have Korthos gear, if I like playing with them, all is good.  I have played with many players over the years with the best gear and the fact that it did not make them any less of an ass, means I still didn't want to play with them.

My son just capped his first character he created 5 years ago (he was 11 when he created the character), a wizard (not a PM or AM, a wizard).  His wizard sucked as a character, level 20 and barely 200 hp, but you know, he has a group of friends that love to play together and it works for them.  Now, he is going to TR to Wizard and I gave him a plan for a Pale Master, not because I wanted to tell him how to play, but because he asked me to help.  He has the right thought process for enjoying the game, don't worry what others have/use, have fun playing how you want.

So, another recent post that Samius posted in and tweeted about, relating to some ideas on new gear for TR based toons and so forth.  It didn't take long for the OVERPOWERED crew to jump in.  I laugh when I see these posts.  As many of you already know from my blog or Samius's blog, we have a TR train going to work on completionist characters.  I laugh because these OVERPOWERED ideas will make the content to easy.  So, here is the rest of the story.  Samius is a perfectionist when it comes to character (never call them toons and he does not play toons) and part of that is crafting the top end gear to level with.  It is how he likes to play and makes him happy.  Now, I like to put together weird build (or at least different) and I often don't even put stat items on before level 13 where +6's take affect.  We both can blow thru content without any effort.  How can this be (Knowledge and experience overcomes gear every time).  I also have another character, Chowonthis, my monk that is currently doing his second life solo.  I am currently level 7.5 and not even considered grouping.  I also have a current elite bravery streak that started with my first quest in Korthos.  So the take away from all this, players are ALL OVERPOWERED and should all be BANNED.

Well, since I haven't felt well the last few days, I am going to BAN myself to a nap and think about my OVERPOWEREDNESS.

You have been Fopo'd!

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.

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.

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.