The Totally NEW Team Corwin Thread

Both my low level toons are level 8 and a bit to go to get level 9. If Alrik wants to join us then we can with these.

I'm fine with that. :)

My Arti went level 8 today. Barely finished Taming The Flames within a group - on elite difficulty. Me still being level 7 (hadn't done the actual level-up at that point). In the end my character had died, but I at least had the end chests and xp.

And, before I go to bed here (it's 20 minutes before 1 in the night here) a good message :

Player’s Choice #4!
August 30, 2012

Get 250 Turbine Points off a DDO Store Item Of Your Choice! (1/Account)
Coupon Code: PCW250

I'm planning to buy myself a pack for that - either tomorrow, or later if I can see that I'm able to farm up enough favour -> TP (which I doubt). I think I might end up buying Sentinels.

Edit : I just see that the Shared Bank is 25 % off ... I think I should perhaps buy myself a new Turbine Point Card ... ;)

It's here : http://www.ddo.com/us/ddostoresale


New free item of the week :

August 31 - September 6
Bracelet of Friends
Use Coupon Code BF4329 1/Account
 
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lafayette about 120 miles west of NO. NO got bunches of rain, but the eye went sw of the city and affected plaquemines parish the most. Some flooding in NO and power outages, but nothing as bad as what katrina did. for now.
 
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The thing about Bards is they have some of the best defensive buffs in the game. Then they have enough UMD to hit the rest. Displacement, Haste, UMD'ed Stoneskin wands, GH, Blur, and Freedom of Movement. With a decent build, you'll have 500+hp, and combined with that and better self healing than any non Divine Caster and you have a character that is very tough to kill. They also have the best offensive buffs in Haste and Rage, and the songs, especially once you get into Fatesinger and pull Reign, Dirge, and Siren's Song/Poof.

Mirys lands about 150-200 point cure criticals, with no metamagics. I also have a decent investment into Healing amp however.

Then they have decent, if not spectacular, saves, and due to the currently lacking higher levels, are well suited for a splash or two, with the common 16/2/2 Warchanter serving as an example. Splashing Rogue for evasion is useful, like Mirys has done, and they can with some INT investment even handle trap duties. I didn't because I didn't have the points to invest. If I had a 36point build, I'd consider it. Two Fighter will mitigate the feat issues as well.

The problem is they take awhile to get to their comfortable power level; they only get the 7 basic feats pre-20, and the two Epic feats. So if you're doing TWF Khopesh builds, like Mirys, you hurt for feats. 5 feats are required for her melee, with Toughness and Extend filling in. Extend is basically mandatory, due to the extensive use of short-term buffs.

All Bards also have some CC, with caster-specced ones being just shy of matching a Wizard. But melee ones still have song-CC from Enthrall or Fascinate, Capering Song, and Siren's Song.

Another thing is for the pugging members of the guild, Bards are pretty much universally welcomed into groups, almost as much as Clerics or Favored Souls. Their buffs largely stack with everything.

I'll admit I disliked Bard in the lower levels, but partially I wonder how much was Bard, and how much was a lack of experience with the class and a general burnout on DDO. Once I got into the new stuff in Eveningstar, Mirys became fun again. I think mostly it was the burnout, as I had mutliple characters stuck in the same level range and I was running the same stuff over and over and over.
 
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I have now hit level 8 with Sparro and taken it, so I've caught up to the rest of the group. I solo'd the first part of Delera's on elite, and then re-run it with Corwin as he wanted it, then we both did part 2 on elite without any deaths.
 
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Congratulations.

I think I'll be soloing it with my Cleric - with a hireling, very likely.
 
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I'm doind pretty good so far today, so I'll be on. Probably won't be able to pull a 12 hour marathon without including some measurable breaks, but I'll probably be good for our usual 11-12pm wrap up.

I've got to figure out where we're at on the plan. With all the PUGing that's gone on this week, I think everyone is actually fairly similar on quest completion and level status. I might be a shade ahead of everyone else, actually (8.3.1/3), but I'm the second slowest leveller in the group so it should balance out pretty quickly.
 
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Here's my plan at the moment, FWIW:
This week - Carnival - party should approach lvl8

Finish 3Barrel, lvl6 and lvl7 quests - party gets into lvl8
(If we want to run Delera for anyone, it gets a little tricky but it fits in here somewhat)
Sentinels - party approaches lvl9
Necro2 (too much XP from Shadow Crypt to skip this) - party gets well into lvl9
Threnal (I know, I know, but we've never actually completed this pack) - party into lvl10
Red Fens (set items) - party further into lvl10

And so forth…

Fill-ins for toons needing extra XP to keep up:
Delera, Searing Heights, and Sorrowdusk

Things we need to discuss as a group:
VoN, various House quests

I checked the quests by level list and found the following interesting quests we could consider:
* Complete the Three Barrel Gorge quests we need (Fire caves part 2, the Scoundrel's run). Free Agents
* Necro 1 (level 5-6): Silver Flame if you haven't already run it
* Sorrowdusk chain with explorers/slayers/rares (quest range 6-10). House D
* Valak's Mausoleum (level 6 in Delera's graveyard). House J
* Gwylan's stand (level 7 and great XP). House P
* Sentinel chain (level 7-8). House D
* The Tear of Dhakaan (level 7): House K
* Caverns of Korromar (level 8): House K
* The Xorian Cipher (level 8): House J
* Stormcleave Outpost (level 8): House D
* Stromvauld's Mine (level 8): House K
* Vault of Night part 1-2 (level 8): House K
* Necro 2: (level 8): Silver Flame
We're actually fairly close to being on track. ;) I think we're single group this week. If that's the case, I think tonight we blast thru Sentinels. If we have time remaining, which we might, Xorian Cipher would be next up.
 
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Sentinels ? Okay, I'll buy that pack, then.

I finally gave in and bought myself another Turbine Points Card. Part of the reason why I did it was the 25 % off Shared Bank.

Apart from that I'm thinking of buying Restless Islands, too. Well, that depends on how many points I'll have left.

I had thought about Attack On Stormreach as well - and I don't know about Necro 2.

Is Reaver's Reach of an use ? It's cheap (only 250 Points) as a regular price. But lower-level packs have a higher priority for me anyway.

The prices hve been shifted around somewhat in the past.
You can see all of the new prices here : http://www.ddo.com/ddostoreadventurepacks
Or here (as a neat table) : http://ddowiki.com/page/DDO_Store

And - should I really buy myself a bat ? ;)
 
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Graoannnnn
 
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Missing Reywind I thought.
 
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Reywind won't be playing today.

Alrik, DON'T buy Restless Isles, NONE of us will run it. I bought the new pack with my 250 point discount coupon. Attack on Stormreach is an excellent buy, though with the Necro series, sometimes you can buy a pack with all 4 quite cheaply. Necro 2 and 4 are the best, we rarely run 3.

Jo, I won't be buying a Bat; instead, I'll simply run DhedKhat!! :)
 
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Okay, I bought the Sentinels pack now - and finally a Shared Bank ! Yay ! ;)

I'm not sure about the rest yet ... I'm going to sleep early this Friday, I think that I'll be online for a longer time on Saturday evening/night.

My Wizard just died trying to find out more about the Bargain Bazaar, by the way. He didn't have enough health potions, no hireling available, and nothing summoned. And when he was dead I found out that he had a BB running. When was that ???
So I decided to finish the Lighthouse quest which I hadn't done on elite difficulty with him yet. 1500 experience points - not bad for that quest. And this time WITH a hireling ! ;)
 
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Yeah, I was only kidding about Restless Isles. I am serious about slogging our way thru Threnal, though.
 
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I didn't go far into Threnal so far - there were always other just as exciting new adventures ahead ... ;)

The forum's review of the Restless Islands aren't that great, though. That's why I'm still not sure what to think of it.

A similar thing is true for Reaver's Reach - I'm not quite sure what to think of it, either.

Necropolis - although it might be giving good xp & loot, it's just a bit too gloomy for my taste. But that's just me.

Until somethin extraordinarily happens, I've decided to rather save my TP for another good sale that fits my desires better. For example another discount of Adventure Packs (I unfortunately missed the last discount).
 
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I think the BB might be 'burning blood'. Not sure, but it does damage to you over time if that was it. The Necro rewards are worth that one. Get your trinket upgraded so it saves you from 10 negative energy attacks.

You should be able to do the Bargain Bazaar with pots and a heirling. Just go slow so you don't get too many hitting you at once. Pugging would be the easiest of course. Boss fights are a bit tough at level. I forget what level you have but if I have a toon close enough and you see me on just ask about teaming up.

A few of the group said they will be out over the next few weeks so looks like we will have to run our high levels while they are gone.
 
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Ahem, no, with "BB" I had meant "Bravery Bonus", sorry. I should have been more clear about that.
This abbreviation is common in the DDO forums.
And I don't remember anymore when I had aquired it, that's it.

Edit : Burning Blood is indeed a harmful spell, yes. I'm glad I didn't encounter it so far.
 
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… Now I'm really worried :

I was just finishing Delara's Part 1, as the PC froze. Completely froze. No key was able to wake it up again, nothing. I had to hard-reset it.

I was a bit suspicious, but not much.

I did the usual stuff after that : Repairs, ship buffs, selling, exchanging spells.
Nothing extraordinary on that part.

As I entered Delara's Graveyard, however, when I had almost reached the tomb, the PC froze again - no, it didn't really freeze : The while display began to flicker !

The flicker was exactly like the one before my former graphics card went kaputt.

And I had to restart the PC TWICE until I got a normal view.

I tried it once more, but then, the flicker even started in the loading screen before the own characters are displayed !

I immediately turned the whole PC off.

Background might be that I had to reset my settings several days ago. (Game didn't want to get back from windowed mode into full mode again, I don't know why).
Maybe I had put the grapühics settings too high again, I don't know.


A few months ago someone in the DDO forums claimed that DDO "destroyed his graphics card". No-one believed him, me included.

But now I've become suspicious. Can too high settings really destroy a graphics card ?
The problems with my former graphics card began within DDO. And you all witnessed it : It was within Redwillow's Ruins.

And now the same.

And both post-15. I mean, after Update 15.

I don't know what they did with DDO, but I'm *really* worried now. Maybe they silently assumed that everyone had a bigger card nowadays than I do ?

I think I must file a bug report there.
 
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I have found someone having a similar issue : http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?p=4672294

I'm still using Windows XP, and my new card (the other one went kaputt - very likely (I fear) caused by DDO as well, possibly from overheating) is an 8600 GT based card - thge old one was a 9600 GT based card, both NVidia based.

However, I cannot start DDO anymore. At the loading screen it all freezes.
Even after resetting all settings from the Launcher program (taskbar -> right click -> options).

The OS generated a crash report, from which I saved some data before it got sent to Microsoft (you know, this usual crashing report dialog).

I'm simply stopping to play DDO from now on until I get this resolved. I just don't want to lose another graphics card.
 
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