The Totally NEW Team Corwin Thread

It's discrimination. They're keeping the anti-social down! The Man is making us talk to people. Ick.

Originally Posted by Corwin
AND…….Half the FUN of the game is playing with others you know.

Yeah. But you don't show up when I play.

I often see Peter running around, suddenly disappearing into realms unknown to me … But I don't see you actually that often on the ship - usually you are somewhere else when I look into the list of who's online.

I think I should take the initiative and actively ask you when I see you being around (in the lst) somewhere.

Apart from that, I'm still too shy to connect myself to any PUGs. I wouldn't know how to behave there, and I'm really afraid of doing mistakes.

Don't you guys regularly schedule sessions to play together?

We do, but there's a couple complications to that. First, characters in a party need to be within 2 levels of each other or there are penalties imposed. For a while there, the "regulars" didn't have any toons in range with Alrik. For a period of time here, that issue won't be a problem. Which leads to the second complication. The game caps parties at 6 players (except for raids, but that's a different animal entirely) and we've got 6 "regulars". We can still party up on "off hours" but the scheduled game times won't do Alrik much good. Actually, there's a 3rd complication is related to time zones. With 4 US regulars and 1 Aussie, our Euro friend (Peter) gets screwed on the session time. I believe Peter starts at 1am and plays until 5-6am. I run 7pm-midnight on Fridays, which works out to something like 10am-3pm Saturday for Corwin over in kangarooland.

Not to mention that Alrik's apparently an anti-social bastard like me.

We were actually hoping, given the influx of new guild members, that there'd be enough people to start up another session, preferably a "Team Euro" that would play at times more appropriate to those time zones. Doesn't look like that's panning out terribly well, but we are still able to offer some help to guild members with loot and guildship amenities, even if we don't get to run with them regularly.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
I think I should take the initiative and actively ask you when I see you being around (in the lst) somewhere.

Yes, actually you should. Send a tell since that beeps and comes thru regardless of which chat tab someone happens to be on.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Apart from that, I'm still too shy to connect myself to any PUGs. I wouldn't know how to behave there, and I'm really afraid of doing mistakes.

I understand completely since I mostly avoid PUGs myself for much the same reasons as you. That said, most PUGs aren't too bad. Based on my limited experience, they generally aren't organized well enough for anyone's errors to really stand out. That's a little different in raids, where you generally see more experienced (and more demanding) players, but you should be OK on the quests you're running.

Originally Posted by dteowner
We were actually hoping, given the influx of new guild members, that there'd be enough people to start up another session, preferably a "Team Euro" that would play at times more appropriate to those time zones.

Well, I still have 1 character slot open …

But yes, the time zones are the greatest hassle, imho.

Okay, next time I see you I'll politely ask around.

Considering how many europeans participate on the site, I'm surprised there hasn't been a better turn-out for DDO. MMO fatigue?

Also Alrik, if you're in game and looking for someone to play with send any of us a Skype message. I rarely show as being online, but I am most of the time. If we're at our PC's, we WILL respond.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
Considering how many europeans participate on the site, I'm surprised there hasn't been a better turn-out for DDO. MMO fatigue?

I really thought the influx would work out. Not sure why we never hit critical mass.

@Corwin : Sorry, but I still don't have Skype installed on my "gaming PC".
Right now, I'm just fine with the built-in chat.

Musings from the last night : To put it theatralically, there formed a tiny Club of Adventurers - the Klubbir Club of Adventurers, so to say. Consisting of me and Klubbir.

Until last nicht I couldn't make up what this name could mean - until I came to the other meaning of the word "club". ( @dte : Why not use "Maullir" as the next character name for a barbarian ? )

The only translation for "Klubbir" I had available was "to go clubbing". In the meaning of "visiting a club".

We had a nice little questing - Kobold Assault (yay !) and The Lair Of Summoning. And I noticed that he actually isn't as "anti-social" as he always poses to be.

He suggested calling me "Corwin", too, because he said that Corwin always has a full inventory as well.
My full inventory (I got rid of a few items after our questing) is in part due to my habit to carr additional items with me which contain different effects. Like a belt of tools, so to say.
I used this when we came across a place in The Lair Of Summoning (or was it a Chamber ?) where we could notice that there seemed be something - like a hidden door or so - but couldn't find it. My character put his +int and +wis items on, even the one with the spell "wisdom of the owl" included - but in the end it didn't work out. I'll be increasing my int next time I level up !
Well, this is an example of how I use my inventory as a kind of "extended tools belt".
And because of that, it is of course always nearly full.

We beat the Kobold Assault on normal, with 2 hirelings and a summond Wolf, whoch sadly died during the assault. Closer to the end of the assault I summoned a second one which stayed for me, then, until I left the quest.

A last note on the Summoning Chamber/Lair : I know from an earlier play that when you defeat the end boss, then there are still few mephits waiting at or even behind the stairs which you'll have to cross in order to get to the end boss. I say this because dte (aka Klubbir) seemed not to know it (or was in a hurry). Defeating them could give additional experience points, I assume.

During this quest my hero/character died because he war running too fast too much forward - and was slain by 2 "optional" elementals. He had to give up and re-enter the quest.
In the battle against the end boss both hirelings died, too, but in the end we made it ! - My hero barely, because of his death he had lost all resistances he had gained through the Guild Ship's shrines.
And of course - stupid me ! - I found a flask of resistance (spelling ?) in my inventory AFTER the battle against the end boss !

All in all, it was fun, after all.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
We had a nice little questing - Kobold Assault (yay !) and The Lair Of Summoning. And I noticed that he actually isn't as "anti-social" as he always poses to be.

Yeah, that guy was damn bossy, you should have told him to STFU.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
A last note on the Summoning Chamber/Lair : I know from an earlier play that when you defeat the end boss, then there are still few mephits waiting at or even behind the stairs which you'll have to cross in order to get to the end boss. I say this because dte (aka Klubbir) seemed not to know it (or was in a hurry). Defeating them could give additional experience points, I assume.

Nope, those fire mephits aren't optionals so there's no XP for killing them. Since we were hanging by a thread, there wasn't anything to be gained from attempting the fight. Had we pulled everything to the stairs, we would have had to deal with them in the normal course of things, but since the ice mephits don't pop up on normal (that's the part where my memory failed us) we didn't have to worry about it.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
All in all, it was fun, after all.

Indeed.

I would strongly recommend that you pick up the resist energy spell. It's the single most useful spell in the game—we still cast it on our level 20's. Unless there's a specific need based on the quest you're running, you should load and use ram's might, barkskin, and resist energy. Eventually, you'll add freedom of movement to the list, but that's a few levels from now. You should keep ram's might and barkskin running on you pretty much 100% of the time. Even at level 19, when the benefits aren't that noticeable, Wouldii still keeps those spells running at all times.

Okay, I already have Ram's Might (which was the only way to get into the "Graverobber" quest, because the very first entrance door gave me constantly the message "your strength is not high enough to destroy the door". Yuck !

I also have Resist Energies - but not in my quick-bar. I used Summon The Wolf for that instead.

But all in all you have a point - I'll change it.

I don't remember having barkskin, but I have a few potions left I collected somewhere.

The Ranger summoning spells are rather weak. This is because they are using the Druid's summoning spells, but get them at such a late level. Rangers' first summons comes in at a time when others are getting their second, and it only gets worse as you get further in. I never bothered even loading the summons myself on Fireflash's Ranger life.

Resist Energy is definitely the best spell a Ranger gets. As a handy note, when you first cast it, you get a menu of choices to select. You can drag each of those choices to individual hotbar slots. You can do this with any spell that gives a list, and even the rare items with multiple effects like the Staff of Arcane Power.

Barkskin gives up to +5 AC that stacks with most other sources. If you raid later on, you'll actually have the rare AC builds asking you for that spell specifically. However, AC gets to be requiring a very high number and some hefty gear to reach usable levels later on, particularly past Gianthold. IIRC Gianthold requires something like 55AC to be unhittable, 65 around the Vale, and you need around 80-90 for Shavarath.

Buffed up, Fireflash could hit about 52AC. It had no effect out in Shavarath, I was still hit just as much as Aerii with 10 AC, and only caused a miss half the time in Vale. The main advantage was Damage Reduction, due to using a raid shield. Granted, I could probably have hit 60 with a Paladin aura specced out for AC, and a Bard, but that's not always feasible.

Now if I'd had a +1 dodge item, a +3 dodge item, a +4 dodge item, a +4 insight item, Combat Expertise (+5AC), the alchemical item buffs (+2 from stone of change), a +5 Protection, and the Bard and Pally buffs, I'd been right close to the sweet spot for Shavarath quests. I doubt I could have tanked out there, but then I had a Ranger, not a DoS/SD build. And no tanking gear.

Yes, Dodge bonuses of different quantities stack. Building for AC in DDO requires a metric ton of gear, or being a Monk. Monks can get by with less gear as they get such high bonuses to AC anyway, including centered bonuses, WIS bonuses, and full DEX bonuses. Mine had something like 35, with no gear whatsoever.

What does "AC" mean ?

And about dodging - I think I remember that the ability to doge (?) can be crafted into craftable items as well … There is so much one can do … But it requires "crafting experience" … And essences as well, of course.

AC=Armor Class

Ah, thanks.

Well, there are now several new discounts which might be of interest : http://www.ddo.com/en/ddostoresale

Musings on the last night (local time) :

- We did quite a lot of quests together
- in one early quest in Kundarak I did a corwin - went too fast too far ahead and became grilled by electric charges from a trap - the rest of the group (I remember Fireflash and Brialle) had to drag me through it, until I could revive myself (and my hireling, too)
- in the Forgotten Caverns I could only notice how fast everyone was - they did the quest so much different than I was used to (always having to be cautious of traps & enemies)
- in the later quests, everyone was fast, too
- using a guest pass, we did The Sharn Syndicate thereafter. That was fun. But fast.
- the moment that burned into my memorsy most was the trap firing - and after a brief flash of light there were I think 4 or more soul-stones hanging in the air. Wow.
- in the second attempt to that, the real Corwin decided to be cautious and stay behind. Understandable, I found.
- I wanted to leave at one point, because I decided that I'd need some sleep - I want to visit a friend in a hospital today, and i have to drive a bit towards it - sorry

And off.

You have to remember we have done those quests many, many times with various characters so we know where everything is and what has to be done. Also, because we are using skype, we communicate all the time which helps.

Brialle (JM) has memorized every trap location and map in the game. So she can find every trap. Corwin has memorized every cliff in the game, so he can fall off of them.