Why do you play DDO?

There may be as many reasons for playing DDO as there are DDO players, but I bet most can be traced back to something simpler like entertainment.  So, why I am doing this forum post this evening?  Well, lets delve into a few things.

I began playing DDO over 6 years ago and while the surrounding reasons have varied over the years, the ultimate reason is entertainment.  Originally, my wife seen a copy of DDO in Best Buy and knowing my love of Fantasy books she pointed out to me.  She may never forgive herself for that one (kidding, she played a while herself and knows with my propensity for obsession, it is as cheap a hobby as I can have).

I used to play 6-8 hours every night after I got home from work and 16-18 hours Saturday and Sunday.  This was at it's height when my wife first got seriously sick as DDO became my escape from life and the horror of it all.  For any that may have played with me back then, I was not the nicest player on the server as I let life get to me and it often came out in outburst for those less than good DDO players.

Now-a-days, I may play 3-4 hours a night at most and 8-10 on the weekend days.  Seems like a lot still, but for me, it is like being a casual player.  Today I still play for entertainment and escape.  So what do I escape now, well life and it's aggravations.  Work is not what it used to be.  Many changes over the last 6 months and it is not as good a place to work as it used to be.  So that is a serious annoyance to escape from.  Lately, some things have aggravated me in game, so I choose to avoid those best way I know how, SOLO.

Let me clarify before anybody gets any wrong impressions.  Many know I have been on the TR train with Samius over the last many many months.  Samius is far from my aggravation, so please don't think that is it.  I call him a friend, and believe it or not, that is part of the reason I am soloing.  I know that when I get aggravated that I can become a bear to group with, so I have pulled back to my soloing ways.  Will I join back up with Samius on future TR trains, I hope so, but it may be awhile until I get things adjusted and I am in a better mood.

I read the DDO forums and they make me chuckle.  The fights over this change or that bug is humorous now.  I used to be one of those that would rail over every little change I felt was a NERF.  Complain about every bug that caused me grief in playing.  Maybe I have grown, maybe other things are more important to me now, but as I said above, they make me chuckle now.  DDO is a great game and has helped me through many things over the years and is why I still enjoy playing this great game.

So, next time you are frustrated in DDO, sit back and think, Why do I play DDO.  You may find humor in things after that.

Sneaking back into epics and raids

So, I have been on the TR train with Sinfully for awhile now and really have not done much raiding or epics, so last night after bowling, I was only one on so I jumped on Canttouchths and joined an Epic Chrono.  I just joined to run the quest, but I ended up being the tank which is no big deal as that is what Cant was built to do.  My healer last track of me in the first mini boss fight and that cost my ship buffs, but hey, we did things before ship buffs.

We get to the end fight and I have solid aggro on the boss but an intimidate pulls trash on me as well and I go down as the damage incoming is more than my healer can keep up with.  At this point, all could go screwy, but a barb takes over until I can get raised and rebuffed.  I was then able to hit intim and take aggro back.  Then it is just a beat fest until he runs out of HP.

So how did I do on my pulls, well, probably one of my best Chrono runs.  A scroll of Docent of Diabolist, seal of Helm of Frost and finish with a shard of the Charged Gauntlets.  Maybe I need to run more Epic Chrono's.

OK, so I don't blog often

Yes, I am lazy so I don't blog that often.  Unlike Samius, I don't get a chance to blog from work, so when I get home, it is DDO time, but hey, I am on vacation this week and something kind new happened to me last night I had to mention.

So, I am on life 6 or so of Sinfully's march to completionist.  As Samius has mentioned before in his blog, I have been doing more of the classes I don't like to solo with while running the train with him and the group when they are with us.  This life is something I can solo, but I hate.  Yes, I hate Paladin's.  I have never gotten a Paladin past level 8 before because they are such a pretend to do everything class.  They do none of it well, so I am not a fan.  To help, since this is TRs runs to get to 20, notch a class and move on to next life, I am not doing a pure Paladin, not even close.  At 20, Sin will be 6 Rogue (for evasion, UMD and open lock, no thief skills as Samius has that with his Arty), 6 Fighter (Kensai for Falchon to play with my Lit II Falchon) and 8 Pally (Knight of Challice, just to get Pally out of the way).

Here is a couple things that happened this weekend, first was a run thru Object of Blood. Single run, two pairs of Spectral gloves.  I have pulled the gloves numerous times of the years, but don't remember pulled 2 on the same run before.  Next was a Maid to Order run.  Samius is pure on his Arty, also known as no evasion.  So I played trap detector.  Using my best Barbarian impression, I ran down the middle tripping the traps so Sam could jump around and disarm them.  I think I got hit once the whole run, so my evasion/reflex was working pretty well.

Also this weekend, began the respecting of Canttouchths.  Cant is my tank and I tweak him here and there and eventually plan to TR him (third life) to a Helf Stalwart Defender.  He has a lot of epic gear, including the Chimera's Fang, so I switched out a feat to get a Dragon Mark.  Cant is 2 monk/18 fighter wis/dex based AC Stalwart Defender.  He was set up as 2 weapon fighting when that was way to get AC and so forth, but I am switching out those feats to make him better sword and board.  I also reset his feats today, so what does he get right now.  I can self/my boat buff his AC to 83, can hit 70 on intim.  When I get that TR in, it will go higher, but I want to wait until after the expansion to see what all changes.

OK, time to go back to work.  Need to do some raiding during the days while Sam is at work.  Need Epic Tokens for more TR woods.  Need more Epic tokens for Cant's gear.  NEED MOAR!

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!

So life 4 begins

During a TR train, you get plenty of time to talk about various things, but one thing always happens toward the end of a TR life, you begin talking and planning for the next life.  So last life on Sinfully as a barb, her saves were not great.  Samius suggested a Bard next life to help with the saves, so Sinfully is now a level 4 Bard. 

So the plan this life is a 12 Bard/6 Fighter/2 Rogue.  She will be doing War Chanter/Kensai using Falchons.  Have to get all the use out of that green steel falchon I built that I can.  She is a Half Elf with the Artificer Dilly.  Mainly, I wanted to see what I could accomplish with the Arty Dilly, with an option to switch to Favored Soul if needed later, but so far, fun playing with scrolls and seeing them extended.

I also spent some time last night running challenges.  I have not done many of these, but decided to work on my favor some as I still do not think buying Arty's should be required for VIPs.  I did some solo runs, sort of learning some of the challenges.  I was able to 2 star a couple and 1 star some others.  I then joined a group and did some Epic level runs and was able to 3 star an elite.  The TR Train group keeps talking about challenges, so some of those may be in the future.

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.