The Totally NEW Team Corwin Thread

I can easily bring in a character that is down to level 4, and fill almost any role. Fireflash can handle traps, Ijii can heal a bit and buff, etc… About the only thing I don't have a lower level for is a dedicated healer, but we can grab a couple hirelings or try and pull a random person off for the role. So even if I'm on Rachail, feel free to send a message if I'm on. I can always bring in somebody to play.

*Edit*

After soloing a bit with my floating sorc, I've found that Snowball Storm isn't actually all that bad. Keep in mind it's a level 2 spell. It's basically a weaker, cold damage fireball. As a Sorc won't get level 3 spells until level 6, it's a fair area effect spell to pick up early on, though for a Wizard it might be more worthwhile to just take Melf's instead, and wait a level. I'll probably swap it out later, true, but for now when soloing it's my most efficient means of taking on groups.

2d6 + 40% (so 2-12 + 1-4 or so, for 2-16 damage per hit, and I've hit as many as 9 in one go tonight. Compared to Flaming Hands/Acid Burst which may hit 3, but will mean you get hit as well.) At level 6, Fireball will replace it. But then, I'll be replacing most of my attack spells then anyway.

Targeting is an issue, as it targets an area, not a critter. Sort of like Fireball, from the way some of Corwin's explode away from the critters he was aiming for. ;)

In terms of soloing, I still rarely run out of spell points, but can basically nuke my way through the quests. I ran Garrison's, and only resorted to my melee weapon a few times, when it wasn't worth the effort of casting a spell. Last fight, I just ran in, spammed Snowball Storm a couple of times, then Magic Missiled the boss the rest of the way.

Despite missing about half the time with my SS targeting, I still had 100sp to spare at the end. I did find a Power III robe on Fireflash earlier which I sent along. So that's an additional 60sp, making for 485. I could probably find a Power or Wizardry item giving my 100-150sp on the AH, farm a CHA+2 item from Stand Your Ground, and be pushing 600+.

*edit again*

Apparently there's a bonus to loot drops this week. Loot dropping is currently 2 levels higher than normal. I pulled a Flaming Club of Pure Good, a Frost Byshek Bastard Sword, and a Glaciation III ring (+40% to level 3 and lower Cold spells). Among other nice drops. I even had three people start arguing over who I'd trade the Bastard Sword too, until I told them it had long since been sold on the AH.

BTW, with that Ring, my Sorc does more damage now with Snowball Storm than with Flaming Hands. My current tactic to to use Expeditious Retreat, run around gathering mobs to myself, then blasting them once or twice. Bash in the heads of the few survivors. With MM doing 12-16pts damage now as well, I can use it for single targets pretty well. I need a power item on another slot, then I can use the Robe of the Duality from Catacombs and get some more power out of my spells. Though I do like the looks of my current Robe.
 
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We'll keep our eyes peeled for you.
 
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Thanks to Corwin and dte for help in hitting 5 on my Sorc. She now has about 600sp, without any real significant gear to help out.

Oddly, yesterday when I logged on with Fireflash for a bit, some random person gave me a wand of cure serious, 32 charges. There's a few charitable folks around apparently.

DDO is going through some hefty nerfs, particularly to Two Weapon Fighting. It's not longer a viable combat style for non-melees (Paladin, Barbarian, Ranger, Fighter), oddly which doesn't include Monk. Of those, Ranger Tempest and Fighter Kensai get the lesser hits, with only a 25% drop in damage output. Yes, 25%. The reason was to reduce lag, which it actually may make it worse (tested on the preview server, with a low population, has identical lag as current live servers with a heavy population).

THF loses glancing blows while moving. This means a more static fighting style, and a loss of DPS, though how much I don't know.

Master's Touch is nerfed to only give proficiency in equipped weapons. Not an issue for any guildies, as my bard uses a staff, Corwin uses TWF, and no one else plays an Arcane. But as a common tactic for low level arcanes is to grab a great axe and cast Master's Touch to survive the early levels where you lack sp to do even a short quest, this is a major change.

Arcanes get a few new spells, mostly Negative Energy offensive spells. All are for the useless Pale Master PrE Wizard line, as they heal the Wizards while undead. But they're available for Sorcs, so I may pick up Death Aura.

Monk gets two PrE's, Ninja Spy which makes Short Swords a Monk weapon and gives sneak attack damage (which somewhat helps with the TWF nerf) and Shintao which gives a Smite, Prot from Evil, and a few other things. Basically making them more like a Unarmed Paladin.

Halflings get a new walk animation.

New adventure pack, level 5 IIRC though. Also new named items, some of which look good (particularly the Mirror Cloak).
 
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I've noticed a dramatic step between the stuff my L6 fighter has done so far and the last few remaining level 4 quests and level 5s. I was pretty well breezing thru the level 4 quests, but hit a couple bastards at the end (Proof is in the Poison, in particular). I've started working on some level 5s for the various houses and it's been a rough ride. Not sure what the deal is.

Also, either the Rest for the Restless (Phiaran from Lady Napethe) quest is bugged or you've got to have some real search/spot skills. I've gone into the dungeon 3 times now, and simply can't get past a gate. I've tried every combination of valves and nothing works. Crud.
 
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Unfortunately, I wasn't able to log on today; everytime I tried I got a server full message and I had to CAD to leave the loading screen. As you get to the higher quest levels, you NEED others as soloing becomes more and more of a challenge. Rest for the Restless is a great quest which I've done several times, but it needs either 2 players, or a 'trick'. In that room with the locked gate, you either have to have someone else there to unlock it from a different location, or 'recall' out and re-enter the dungeon with some XP loss. I've done it both ways.

Next, there's some news about the new Guild system available. Here's a link: http://www.ddo.com/ddogameinfo/developer-diaries/1037-guild-leveling-system
 
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Proof is in the Poison is one of the more challenging quests in that range, very long and with few shrines. It's not meant for a solo character, though it can be done solo. Fun quest, though I rarely run it myself due to the time involved. Sort of like Tear of Dhaarkan (or however it's spelled), which is very long, and only has a single shrine towards the end open normally.

As Corwin said, Rest for the Restless requires either an exploit or a party. There's another quest in Three Barrel Cove that's the same way, but it's unusual for a quest to require two or more people.

Try soloing at level 8-10, where my Paladin is at. There are far fewer quests, and most of them are rough on a solo character. That's why I usually try to play with Peter's higher level Paladin instead, though his two lower levels are caught up now.
 
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Info about DDO update 5:

Turn undead was pretty useless in DDO, but with update 5 it will become better.
1. Turned undead will not flee as now, but remain stationary. That makes it easier to kill them.

2. Clerics will get 2 new enhancements.

•Cleric Radiant Servant I

Prereqs: Level 6 Cleric, Cleric Improved Turning I, Cleric Life Magic II, Cleric Heal II, Empower Healing, and any one of: Cleric Divine Cleansing I, Cleric Divine Light I, Cleric Divine Healing I, Cleric Divine Vitality I, or Cleric Divine Might I.

Benefit: You are a beacon of light against evil. You count as 1 Level higher when casting Positive Energy or Light based spells and gain the ability to expend a Turn attempt to create an aura of Positive Energy that Heals you and nearby allies over time and damages nearby undead. Any undead that you successfully turn with your Turn ability are destroyed instead of frightened, and your turns regenerate over time (1 every 2 minutes).

Positive Energy Aura
Benefit: You may expend a use of Turn to produce a Positive Energy Aura effect on yourself, which envelops the caster in an aura of Healing, Positive Energy. Allies within the aura are Healed 1 hit point per 3 caster levels as long as they remain within it. Undead enemies are damaged for the same amount.

•Cleric Radiant Servant II

Prereqs: Level 12 Cleric, Cleric Radiant Servant I, Cleric Prayer of Life I, Cleric Prayer of Incredible Life I, and any one of: Silver Flame Exorcism, Unyielding Sovereignty, Undying Call, Bladesworn Transformation, Vulkoor’s Avatar, or Cleric Charisma II.

Benefit: You are a beacon of Light against Evil. The Empowered Healing metamagic now grants you a 75% bonus to Healing spells instead of 50%. You count as an additional 1 Level higher when casting Positive Energy or Light based spells, and gain the ability to expend a Turn attempt to create a burst of Positive Energy that Heals you and nearby allies, removes some negative levels and ability damage, and damages nearby undead. Spells that cap out above 20 (like the Mass Cures) will go up to Caster Level 22 with Radiant Servant II.

Positive Energy Burst
Benefit: Positive Energy expands from the caster, Healing 1d8+ 1 per caster Level to all nearby allies, as well as removing 1d4 negative levels and 1d6 points of ability damage. Undead are instead damaged by the energy, taking 1d8 points of damage per caster level. A successful Will save reduces the damage by half.
 
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Look here for full update 5 list of changes:
http://ddo-daily.com/update-5-development-activities

Info about the TWF nerfing is here:
http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=251248

The nerfing has been changed lately and now the rules are like this:

To save calculating time the game engine will only calculate attacks with the main hand attack and instead check your feats etc. for the percentage that you also made an attack with the off map weapon.

Before you had a 100% chance to attack with the offhand weapon. Now the rules are like this:
No feats: 20% chance
TWF feat: 40% chance
Improved TWF feat: 60% chance
Greater TWF feat: 80% chance

So it seems like TWF (two weapon fighting) is pretty nerfed at low levels, but become better with higher levels. You can get greater TWF at level 12. I have that with one of my paladins.

This means that if you get TWF you're pretty much forced to take all the other TWF feats (ITWF, GTWF) to make it useful, but I think most people do it anyway.
 
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From what I've read, Radiant Servant's aura isn't working quite right. It shuts off when attacking, and swapping weapons can change the amount of healing you get from it. Even so, might be worthy thing to shoot for; more healing is never a bad thing. The burst effect seems more useful as an anti-undead measure than healing.

Turn Undead is still affected by the high enemy HD as before. But at least it's useful now, instead of being an aggravating mess.
 
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I dropped the $12 in points to get Phuury reincarnated. He looks a little different and hopefully his skill set and feats will be more useful than before. We'll see how it goes. Got my ranger to level 6 by knocking out a good bit of Tangles and got my fighter thru Rest for the Restless (thanks for the hint, folks). Fighter just went into the Necropolis, so we'll see how that goes. Can get quite a bit of playing done when you play hookie from work. ;)
 
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Wish I could help you, but this has been a very busy week for me, combined with being unable to log on to DDO the only day I was free to play. Next week should be better.
 
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That's my problem, when I get off work, I only have a couple of hours before needing to go back to bed. So running anything substantial is difficult. Fridays are usually a half day, so I'll be working on catching up on normal stuff until game time usually. Saturday and Sunday are now the two days that I'm certain of time to play.
 
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Tried a mission with the fighter before heading to the necropolis that kicked her ass. Seemed like a very cool (and medium length, IIRC) mission with some different types of critters to kill, but desperately needs somebody that can disable traps. Even on normal, the traps hit hard and there's plenty of the them. "Lair of Summoning" over in Kundark.

I don't really mind since I'm a solo player at heart, Corwin. I enjoy the multiplayer sessions because of the people that are in the group, and occasionally the adventures call for reinforcements (some day, I need to get my ranger thru Bookbinders like we did for the fighter), but the 3 toons I'm working with (I haven't run a mission with the cleric in a month) are all built to solo now that I've rebuilt the barby.
 
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Yes, I prefer to play SP as well, but DDO isn't really built well for solo play, which is fair enough. I only play with people I know since like you, I enjoy being with the people we have in the Guild. Having fun with them is the main reason I play DDO.
 
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I wouldn't mind pugging if the pugs didn't suck so much. A Bard should not be main healer and dps in a group including a Cleric, Fighter, and Barbarian. Yet I've done that on Ijii, with twice as many kills and doing all of the healing. A monk should not be finding traps for a Rogue, who hides well to the rear and contributes very little other than traps.

It is a MMO, so group play is sorta the point. At least it's possible to solo in DDO. Many f2p MMOs I've tried, it's impossible.
 
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The pug's become a lot better at higher levels. More experienced players play in those and I get a lot of valuable information. Especially the reincarnated ones know what they're doing (they've been level 20 before). The downside with very experienced players is that they know so well what to do that you can get left behind unless you always follow the crowd.
 
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I'll be on the scene as long as I can wrestle my monitor into one final day of functioning. Not a sure thing at this point. If I ain't there within a few minutes of start time, don't wait.
 
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I found Buccaneer's Walkway today.

I took my Sorc in, swapped out Magic Missile for Jump, and went looking.

When you leave the tavern, turn right outside of the gate and go back into the town through the next gate. There'll be a crumbling wall, with enough Jump, you can climb onto it, and then on to the Walkway. I was able to do it with a couple of tries, though I made the mistake of casting Expeditious Retreat as well, and thus had much too fast movement for the way I climbed it.

More than likely, it will take a Jump spell or pot, maybe even requiring a level 5 or better caster as well (at level 5, the spell gives a +20 bonus to Jump, +30 at level 9). Monks may be able to get it without trouble though.
 
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Now your Sorc can't get MM back for 3 days!! :) Wonder if it's worth it lol; my Wiz could try I guess. Any luck with the Bounty?
 
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