Month: August 2015

Monastic Arts in the Sleeping Dust

The Order of Syncletica

Despite the increased fighting in upper Heroic level quests where Ryncletica the Poisonmaster is a bit challenged, a few quests allow her to express her ninja arts in ways few other classes can manage. One of them is “Let Sleeping Dust Lie.”

A quest that’s surely the bane of zergers and slaughter-lovers, your mission is to find a couple of journals that explain an attempt by some enemies to release a Lord of Dust. To do this, the enemy has brainwashed a Crimson Foot spider hive that happens to live there. The challenge is to avoid killing any spiders for a chest, and to avoid killing more than 4 spiders once you’ve read the first journal.

As you know from your own gameplay, that’s difficult, especially in a full party. So, of all the Shroud flagging quests, this one tends to have a solo-friendly element, especially for a Ninja Spy.

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A Look at Mired in Kobolds

Erdrique's Blog

It has been a rather busy weekend for my main character, Erdrique (Level 17 Rogue).  One of the quests he knocked out this weekend is Mired in Kobolds.  Mired in Kobolds is an interesting quest in that it is perhaps the earliest quest where you get to battle a dragon (excluding Auraxylion from the Extraplanar Palace Challenges or Velah from the Vault of Night Raid).  The quest giver for Mired in Kobolds is Smiley Smythe, who is located in open air tavern in the Twelve.  Smiley tells you that his caravan was ambushed by a bad of nasty and powerful kobolds.  Needless to say, he is very upset about the incident and wishes to get revenge, therefore he asks for some help.  He also tells us that these kobolds are not your average kobold and are much more powerful than their sewer dwelling cousins.  To get to the…

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Got guild?

Even Now

I was waiting on a party the other night and killing time by watching general chat in the Harbor when someone asked the advantages of joining a guild.

I’m very lucky to have toons in two AWESOME guilds on Thelanis. Three of them are in my original guild, Emerald Dragons, while Even joined Monty’s but still quests with her Dragons buddies frequently.

Maybe it’s just because I got involved in the discussion about why to join a guild, but I’ve been noticing lately that a LOT of people are saying stuff like, “Want to join high-level guild with good airship.” That leads me to think that all they’re really looking for are buffs.

Don’t get me wrong – buffs are nice. But IMHO, buffs are a pretty crappy reason for picking a guild. I don’t think they make THAT much difference to begin with, especially past level 6 or so…

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Loot From Breakables Versus Chests

Erdrique's Blog

I have mentioned this a couple of times in other blog posts, how I enjoy the change that was put into DDO awhile back where you have a chance of getting some nice loot from breakables, which encourages players to take a few seconds to destroy barrels, crates, and vases.  However, relatively recently I have been noticing that I have been getting better loot out of these breakables that in the quests.  An example of this was when I took Hamllin (Level 16 Fighter) through the Demon Queen Pre-raid (Against the Demon Queen).  As we made our way through the quest, I broke a stone jug (or ornate jug or vase, whatever is on the platform with all the efreeti that spiders out into the individual paths) and I had a pretty nice longsword drop.  It was a +3 Poison Longsword of Draining.

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Hamllin finding a pretty nice longsword…

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Some Tough Runs This Week, Questing August 24 to August 27

Erdrique's Blog

Over this past week, my quest runs ranged from the level 7 to 23.  However, I had to runs in particular that pretty much defined the week for me, a run through Haywire’s Foundry on epic hard and another run through Against the Demon Queen on heroic elite.  To start out the week, I took Lorrikk (Level 12 Monk) out into Sorrowdusk Isle for some slayer runs.  I currently have a number of characters that are currently stalled at Sorrowdusk Isle.  Lorrikk is steadily collecting his slayers and I’m hoping to push him through the rest relatively soon.  We’ll see how well that goes.  I missed my afternoon run but took advantage of of my time while I was logged into our digital PNP game session and I logged in with Erdrique (Level 17 Rogue) and I took him through the tricky quest Undermine on elite.  This particular run was…

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Her first raid

Confessions of a Geek Mom

I was going to blog about Gamer Child’s introduction to Sorrowdusk Isle on Monday, but that pales in comparison to her introduction last night.  My baby ran her first raid!  Sniff…sniff…tears of pride here.

We all logged on as Tuesday night is guild night.  The plan was to split into two groups and continue epic Gianthold.  However, Geoff invited Gamer Child into the group as he wanted to say hello.  But everyone started asking about dropping to her level.  Furious private tells were sent.  Geek dad was very leary and protective as any dad would be.  I put everyone on extreme warning with my Mommy voice and got lots of “Yes, mam!”  So it was decided to take her into her first raid, Chronoscope.  Luckily, there were nine of us on as my one condition was no pugging.

I cannot begin to tell you how excited she was when Geoff…

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Mostly just doing the new raid

Micki's Delirium

So… Darth moved in 2 weeks ago, and this week I’m back at work after my vacation. On top of it I haven’t been feeling great, so I haven’t been playing ddo as much as I usually do. But non the less, I’ve managed to get some runs in on the new raid, and all have been successful… we lost a few archons in a few of the runs, but the last few runs have been quite good.

Except for… two days ago as we were getting ready to start the end fight, suddenly the whole party froze. Asking in Titan chat I learned that Orchard was frozen as well. I didn’t expect it to do any good, but I decided to send in a ticket anyway. My ticket said “whole party frozen in Defiler of the Just”. About 20 minutes later (I just did not want to leave when…

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Pondering My Reincarnation Strategies

Erdrique's Blog

My main character Erdrique (Level 17 Rogue) is currently working his way through his heroic lives on his way to completionist.  So far, I have completed  paladin, fighter, ranger, cleric, barbarian, druid, and monk lives with my next plan to do a bard life.  One thing I have noticed over the last few lives is that I tend to reach level 20 well before I get out of the Gianthold area.  This generally means that I’m undergoing a heroic true reincarnation before I even get out into the Orchard, the Vale of Twilight, Harbinger of Madness, and many other quest packs.  The reason why this occurs is primarily the method I used to run quests.  Unlike many players who tend to look for the most efficient route to get through their past lives, I like to learn and adjust to my new class and to explore the…

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Your Playstyle is not My Playstyle

The Order of Syncletica

You either attracted attention, or were left behind to attract more attention. Ow. You either attracted attention, or were left behind to attract more attention. Ow. As you might’ve gleaned from my last post, I’ve gotten a few more gripes about the lack ofImproved Precise Shot on my Zen Archer that I was in the mood to handle.

But after speaking with some friends, I realized it was more of an opportunity for me to discuss why I play more conservatively than more players than I realized.

Let me ask you several questions based on my observations over the years. Just make a mental note if you answered “yes” or “no” to each. The questions are in no particular order or emphasis.

  1. After your party buffs, do you surge ahead into a pile of enemies?
  2. Do you tend to attack first, no matter what your class?
  3. Do you tend to use builds that emphasize very high DPS?
  4. Are your builds primarily multiclassed?

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