The Totally NEW Team Corwin Thread

[dteowner]

I'm just a bit behind on my network technology. Does that mean they're actually retiring the Commodore64's? Or just that they're moving them to a different employee's coat closet?

 

[Aletys]

Well, of course we hope they're retiring the Commodore 64's, but in likelihood they're probably just moving them to a different employee's coat closet. One they're hoping will feed the hamsters more often than the last one did. Judging by the lag levels & server issues, the last one kept those poor hamsters on a starvation diet.

 

[Aletys]

The migration is done, unfortunately we're seeing more lag (serious as well as little spikes) in public areas, in quests & in raids. The lfm boards are deserted today, probably folks got tired of wiping. We didn't wipe, but came close a couple of times.

Apparently, they layed-off half the hamsters, and are feeding them even less, & the remaining ones are collapsing from hunger & exhaustion.

 

[Aletys]

+10 Loot Boost this weekend, stacks with other loot boosts

Bonus weekend on loot, per Cordovan (Bonus Treasure Hunter's Weekend:

DDO Bonus Days bring you a new bonus event: Treasure Hunter's Weekend! Now through March 13th!

What it does: Treasure dice rolls are increased by 10, making it more likely that you will get maximum effects on loot.

FAQ:

- Yes, this stacks with the Treasure Hunter's Elixirs.
- No, this doesn't increase your chance to get named loot.
- This is a separate bonus from traditional Loot Boosts, which raise the level of the chest. This raises the chance to get the good stuff for the level of the chest you are opening.
- A loot boost will raise the level of the chest, and a Treasure Hunter's Elixir will increase the chance to get lucky loot from the chest. So, combining both together will have an impact.

NOTE:

The DDO Chronicle improperly called this a +20% bonus. Apologies for the error. It's actually a +10 bonus.

What this means is that we have a better chance of getting lootgen with the bonus properties.

 

[Cm]

They said they are looking into the initial lag spike. Yesterday was not bad but not sure if it was few people on the servers or what so we will see today. I may be late, not sure, but start without me, should not be late by much.

 

[dteowner]

Any word on JM? Tonight has lots of possible paths depending on her situation.

 

[Aletys]

They said they are looking into the initial lag spike. Yesterday was not bad but not sure if it was few people on the servers or what so we will see today. I may be late, not sure, but start without me, should not be late by much.

I think it was better yesterday because there were not very many players on. Today has been even worse as far as lfm's go, with sometimes only 3 or 4 LFM's up, and all or most heroics only. No epic lfm's up at all right now. I think the last few days of lag has pretty much driven many players away till it's fixed. Raids are especially bad, with many party wipes & no completions, per the reports on the forums (Lag after data centre move).

Any word on JM? Tonight has lots of possible paths depending on her situation.

I spoke with her earlier in the week, and I don't think she'll be back for a while.

 

[Aletys]

This is one forumite's explanation of the data center move:

How Turbine Moved DDO

 

[Corwin]

Sounds about right!!

 

[dteowner]

So what's the thoughts on swashbucklers? I'm pondering what to do with Wouldii on his TR. I'm ready for some sort of melee. I've already got Shadohe going as a 2 weapon kensei. Looking at stuff I haven't tried yet, there's the swashbuckler and the "reworked" barby. The swashbuckler has some appeal due to the self-healing but I seem to remember folks (Az in particular) being underwhelmed. I've still got the itch to do a build around picks just for sheer perversity, but I don't know that fits into either a swash or barby.

Current stable:
Klubbir - TR'ing into pale master
Phuury - lvl10 warlock
Shadohe - lvl14 kensei
Bot - lvl16 healbot
RhoGu - lvl24 assassin

 

[azraelck]

So what's the thoughts on swashbucklers? I'm pondering what to do with Wouldii on his TR. I'm ready for some sort of melee. I've already got Shadohe going as a 2 weapon kensei. Looking at stuff I haven't tried yet, there's the swashbuckler and the "reworked" barby. The swashbuckler has some appeal due to the self-healing but I seem to remember folks (Az in particular) being underwhelmed. I've still got the itch to do a build around picks just for sheer perversity, but I don't know that fits into either a swash or barby.

Current stable:
Klubbir - TR'ing into pale master
Phuury - lvl10 warlock
Shadohe - lvl14 kensei
Bot - lvl16 healbot
RhoGu - lvl24 assassin

I have two wanna-be Errol Flynns. A pure and a mutt. In both cases, I actually prefer just going enough into Swashbuckler for the T3 buckler enhancement (10% dodge). IMO, Coup de Gras is buggy and inconsistent in actually working. Much of the rest of the tree isn't great. So I ended up, in both cases, going heavy into Warchanter, getting 6% extra damage, Spinning Ice, and other stuff.

In Rachail's case, she is a deep splash build, with levels of Rogue (evasion and trap skills) and Fighter. This gives her 3 cleaves, two stuns, and decent DCs for both. I also get some much-needed durability from Defender, and can build up more doublestrike and PRR with the Shield Mastery/I Shield Mastery feats.

Aedammair is a straight Bard, but basically is following a Warchanter focus as well.

I also have been thinking on a Barbarian/Fighter build, with access to Supreme Cleave (4 Cleaves!), 10% Barbarian speed bonus, 10% Defender speed bonus, around 12% Bard speed bonus (and HASTE!). This would be a future life for Rachail. Using PDK I can get both CHA for my to-hit and Damage, and 1/3 of my CHA bonus to the DCs of my tactical feats (including Spinning Ice/Frozen Fury). I've not worked out the feats yet, but theoretically I could squeeze in Whirlwind attack as well (for 5 cleaves in heroics alone), making it an AoE monster.

Remember you are restricted to light weapons for Swashbuckling, and no Scimitar (made a light weapon in Tempest) doesn't work. So you can use a Light Pick (best weapon for a Swash, actually) but not Heavy Pick.

 

[Aletys]

A friend of mine has a good swashbuckler build. I'll try to get it from him tomorrow.

 

[Aletys]

30% Guild Bonus & 20% off Bank & Bags

This weekend:

• DDO Bonus Days bring you +30% Guild Renown and Double Commendations of Valor, now through March 20th!
• 20% off on Shared Bank Storage, Character Bank, Storage Bags & Shared Bank Platinum Vault

 

[azraelck]

What's the plan for tonight (in before the Savage Dragon)

 

[dteowner]

GH Tor, maybe GH raid, take level.

 

[Cm]

Ok hopefully everyone knows the time change hit this past weekend. It is actually time to start right now.

 

[Corwin]

No, we didn't!!

 

[dteowner]

A little looking ahead--

We've got two situations hitting that actually dovetail nicely, but will entail doing things a little different than usual:
1) A rather significant lack of lvl15 content (There's only Harbinger1 and the 2 Meridia quests since a few of us have no way to get to Wheloon)
2) There's a lot of content in the 18-20 range that we never run because we transition to epic stuff as soon as the toons hit 20.

Soooo, my proposal is that we start running some stuff under-level. If Harbinger1 and Meridia only get us half way to toon lvl18, so be it. We move on to Spinner anyway. I think we can handle it, being TEH AWSUM like we are. I'm planning on skipping the Vale this time to get us some variety. We're going to run Reaver's Refuge (which we haven't run in half of forever). We're going to run some of the Eveningstar stuff that never gets run on heroics. That sort of thing. But I don't think we can get there from here if we don't run a few things 1 level early.

If we went this path, there's part of me that would skip Harbinger1 as well, but we generally like that chain so I'm not sure about that one. We'll definitely run Meridia for the new loot, but that's only 2 quests.

The other thing is that it might make sense to allow people to take their levels early. As long as we don't get ahead of the content, I don't see a problem with half the party being at level and half being 1 level behind. It might make splits a little more complicated, but I can deal with that.

Thoughts?

 

[Corwin]

Don't forget IQ!!

 

[dteowner]

Upon further review...

First off, it's actually Harbinger2 (build a boat) that we like, although we generally enjoy Harbinger1 (the fashion show) as well. No worries, it looks like we'll run both chains.

Second, if we don't do the Vale and Wheloon1/2, there's only the Spinner chain for level 16 content. That means we'll want to get a little extra out of the level15 content which means running Harbinger1.

Third, there's a buttload of level17 content that we're wanting to run, so if we go into it under level, there shouldn't be a problem with everyone catching back up.

Fourth, there's a good bit of level18 content to run as well so we should have no problem getting to cap.

Roughly speaking, here's the plan:
Meridia quests, Harbinger1 chain
Those that have 18 can take it
Spinner chain
Hopefully, everyone will make 18 after this. 10 quests should be sufficient, me thinks.
Harbinger2 chain, Reavers Refuge, Druid's Deep
Everyone should have 19 by then
IQ1 chain, High Road chain
That should get everyone pretty close to cap. We can call an audible if necessary.

Thoughts?