The Totally NEW Team Corwin Thread

I know what kind of plug this is - I'm using that for my current headphone as well, but the problem is, that the one from the new headset has just 1 - which is apparingly meant to combine BOTH microphone AND headphones into 1 thing !

As far as I can understand it, it is so, that there are modern forms of this jack which can do that. My mainboard is not the most recent one and doesn't have this funtionality, to combine both into 1 jack / plug.


On the gaming side : I was positively surprised today, how good the spell "Dismissal" works against the elementals in "Taming The Flames!"
The only problem there is that i tried the spell with my new level 15 Iconic Amaunator Cleric, which means that I don't have information about how good it is at the quest's level.

IIRC Dismissal and it's bigger brother Banishment are Abjuration spells. How effective they are is based on how high your Abjuration spell school's difficulty check (DC) is. Since those are about the only two abjuration spells worth casting, it tends to be lower than Evocation or Necromancy for Clerics. They work on any monster classified as an "Outsider", which includes things like Tieflings and various Demons and Devils as well as Elementals and Eladrin. Of course, they don't work if you're on the home plane of those critters, like Shavarath (demons and devils and used car salesmen) or the Feywild (eladrin).

Spell DCs go as follows: 10 + spell level (for Dismissal, this is 4) + caster statistic bonus (Wisdom for Clerics, Paladins, Rangers, and Druids, can be either Wisdom or Charisma for Favored Souls, Intelligence for Wizards, Artificers, and Alchemists, and Charisma for Sorcerers, Bards and Warlocks) + item bonuses to the relevant school + spell focus feats + any relevant enhancements + bard spellsinger song + heighten metamagic (which boosts the spell level up to the highest you can cast, meaning 8 at cleric level 15). The higher your spell DC is, the harder it is for enemies to ignore your spells for that school.

So to the question of how good Dismissal would be at level; about as good as your level 15 cleric's version actually. Outside of using the metamagic Heighten, character level doesn't really play much of a part in spell DCs. It does effect spell penetration, which is needed for breaking various critters' spell resistance, but not everything has spell resistance (SR). Elementals don't generally have SR.

I honestly had forgotten about the old phone jacks. So much is wireless these days. I have a USB headset myself; pretty much any computer built this side of the century have a USB port that works. I have 10 for some reason on my computer on the front. Another 6 on the back.

I decided not to have wireless, but rather cables. That's a personal decision. I just wabted to be without wireless as much as possible, because I just don't like it.

"Resistance is futile", however, because we have already a lot of that around us, and I really cannot imagine any living place anymore without it - radio and such - except within the deepest countryside.



Thank you for your explanation of Dismissal. I'm really not a math person, so I just see what works and what doesn't.
(Which doesn't keep me from making basic decisions like for an Amaunator Cleric putting as much light/positive/fire power as possible into the gear.)

It's not that I hate math - it's rather that I have difficulties understanding it.
I remember when I studied Geology, we had to take lessons in Crystallography, which is about describing - and the maths of - crystals.
I remember that when matrixes / matrices were explained, I could understand the logic behoind it - but I was never able to do the math myself afterwards. Same with programming much later : I understood the logic, but as soon as math was involved, I needed help.

Which might be part of the reason why stories attract me so much more.


Besides, most in-game spell descriptions in DDO these days even lack the notice from which school they are from. Which makes it harder for me to decide what to invest where. I have to look into the Wiki if I want this information.


On a totally unrelated note, I'm looking for people to do the Anniversary Party with.
Maybe I should do an LFM or LFG.
The event is scheduled to go until 23rd of March.

I hate math myself. Which is why I work a job where I do complex equations regularly, every single day.

DDO's math only looks complicated though. Basically, you want the DC for your spells you use regularly to be as high as possible. Maximum Wisdom, Heighten metamagic, and spell focus feats and gear are pretty much it.

The main issue is that there are 7 schools, but only three are really effective for the most part. Most damage spells, plus Implosion, are Evocation spells. Most death spells are Necromancy. A lot of effective crowd control are Enchantment spells. With only 7 feats and limited gear slots, people tend to focus in on one of those three, except Wizards, who can afford to focus on two.

Alchemists spells are mostly Transmutation and Conjuration, making them an outlier.

Abjuration has exactly 4 offensive spells. Dismissal and Banishment are awesome, but limited to a relatively small subset of creatures you can hit with it. Firetrap and Glyph of Warding are weak compared to other spells of lower level. So it's hard to justify buffing that up. I can see keeping a swap item for quests that Dismissal and Banishment are good in, but not a full time focus.

Conjuration is probably the best school outside of the big three, since it has some highly effective spells like Web and Comet Fall, plus it's the school of choice for pretty much all Acid arcane spells. It also has some stuff like Solid Fog (basically an AoE Blur spell) and Sleet Storm (AoE Displacement with a knockdown effect, also a party buff). It also holds about half the Alchemist's spell book.

Enchantment has the biggest crowd control spells that everyone loves. Mass (and single) Hold Person and Monster, Mass (and single) Charm Person/Monster, Dominate Person/Monster, Irresistable Dance, Dancing Ball, and the Cleric standby Command/Greater Command (Sit!).

Outside of the Alchemist spell book, Transmutation has a whopping two offensive spells. Flesh to Stone and Disintegrate. The latter is a bit underpowered these days, the former is only useful in certain quests due to it being basically a hold person with a different graphic. The stone effect lasts only a few minutes.

Illusion again has only one primary offensive spell; Phantasmal Killer. Gnomes and Feydark grant a couple more, mostly Color Spray/Greater Color Spray, and the trio of Shadowblade spells in Feydark. A Deep Gnome Archmage Wizard going into Feydark can make use of this school, but otherwise it's hard to want to invest in.

Most damaging spells belong to Evocation. Basically, if it does Fire, Force, Light, Electric, Cold, or Untyped damage, it probably is an Evocation. This also includes the mighty Implosion.

Necromancy has the bulk of the instant death spells, like Finger of Death, Destruction, and Wail of the Banshee. It also has every damage spell that does Negative typed damage. Dte is currently running a Death Cleric. It also has such spells like Enervation and Energy Drain and Symbol of Death, which drain levels from enemies. Common tactic is to hit critters with Energy Drain before casting a spell like Wail or Mass Hold Monster, to make the second spell more likely to hit.

Thank you very much for this detailed list. Not having a D&D rule book (only a starter) makes things a bit harder.

Maybe I should switch into the old ancient German-language client for a few days to understand things a bit better with the translations. Too bad that Turbine/SSG have give up translating the game.

I noticed on the forums and in-game, that a lot of players use Pale Master / Necromancy in one form or in another (one version I read about was a Pale Master Trapper - huh ?), and it seems to be a little bit too good these days, considering how many players seem to take that.

My current main Wizard, Bany, was set out to concentrate on both Fire & Illusion, because I really wanted to try out these illusionary blades. In reality, I have given up the close combat there, and use that for my ranged Force damage (illusionary thrown blades, so to say). These are very effective against a lot of monsters which are otherwise immune against other things.

One thought I once had was that of a Drow with Vulkoor as deity, because this combination would grand Short swords as a favoured weapon - and exactly this thought appeared one day as a build for an Illusionist melee fighter in the forum.
Maybe I'll do that one day with one of my alts, but not now.

With the different schools, I often have the problem of remembering, which spells belong to which schools. The school name should be an umbrella, but for some spells I can't imagine (as a picture), how they are done. I try to keep spells in memory via the image of how they are generated, and what they do.

Abjuration, for example, contains for me the prefix "ab", which means in German language "away [from]". "Abstand" means "standing away [from someone or something]".

I have great problems creating a mental image out of that. Maybe it's like "keeping damage away from the caster" ?

Conjuration is like … drawing the rabbit out of the hat, or "things out of thin air", so to say.

Enchantment contains the chant … I'm singing a song, which makes people listen to it, for example. Bard songs, for example, are especially good at that. (Otto's resistible / irresistible dance - have you noticed that in the guild ship's Dance Hall most dancing figures move like in Monty Python's Ministery For Silly Walks ? )

Another problem is for me, to keep in mind which spells are divine in nature. My mind wants to put them into an own school : Divine Spells. Yet somehow, divine casters have spells from other schools in their book as well. That confuses me.

Evocation is something I often mix with Enchantment - because both words begin with an E.
However, I often mentally mix Evocation with Conjuration, because somehow I once stored in my memory that "both schools evoke something out of thin air", so to say.
I have difficulties making an disctinction between both schools.

You'll see a lot of pale masters because it's the easiest way to have self-healing and arcane attack spells at the same time. Add in the skeleton familiar, which is actually a pretty solid aggro magnet if you spend enhancement points on it, and it's a nice package to solo.

My Friday death cleric hasn't really started with necromancy yet. There are not enough low level damage spells to make it work. The build I'm following actually centers around light spells until level 11 (coming soon to a theater near you!) when I do a feat swap, completely revise my enhancements, and switch over to run like Az described.

D&D can be a bit confusing due to how spells are set up. You have spell levels, which are separate from class/character levels, then DCs, which are separate again. Then you break it down by class, and it's not only not always obvious which spell is Druidic, Clerical, or Arcane, but there's a ton of overlap, with a large chunk of the spell books between the three being carried over to one or both of the others, or simply being a carbon copy (Destruction vs Finger of Death).

Add in that the 7 schools don't always appear to have logical spells; like with Tactical Detonation (Artificer spell) being Evocation, versus it's Cleric twin Cometfall (they're the same spell!) being Conjuration. A lot of inconsistency.

https://ddowiki.com/ has pretty much everything you need to know, though newer stuff like Alchemist is missing from the spell schools. https://www.d20srd.org/ has basically the core rules of D&D 3.5 edition (there's a comparable site for 5E as well) too, though DDO has deviated a LOT from pen and paper.

Paladin going into Feywild is actually an effective build. You get Charisma to your to-hit and damage while your familiar is out, and Paladins get a lot of bonuses from high Charisma. Drow can work, though I went with a Tiefling for my Feywild Paladin. It does cost a feat because you need Magical Training, but since Paladins basically can get free cleave feats now, they're not as feat constrained. Also, the Shadowblades don't have to be summoned; it also works as a weapon enchantment like Elemental Weapons. Perfect for beating up Oozes and Rust Monsters. So you're not restricted to short swords. I also have a melee Favored Soul build planned out that uses Feywild for the CHA to-hit and damage, for the next time Mirys comes around looking for that past life.

Rogue levels into a Wizard is also a fairly effective build. Two Rogue gives you evasion, and the feat Insightful Reflexes gives you your Intelligence bonus to your Reflex save, making the Wizard able to have a solid reflex saving score. Evasion is pretty effective then, and with the high INT, you can maintain all your trapping skills without issue. Plus you have access to the Heroism and Greater Heroism buffs, which add +2/+4 to skills. Always take your Rogue level first, since first level gets 4 times the skills points. If you don't, you'll be behind on your trapping skills for a long time.

Palemaster gives the Wizard easy self-healing with Death Aura spells and Negative Energy Burst, as well as some extra degree of durability from being undead. The drawbacks have largely been eliminated, so it's worthwhile for most to put points into. The Skeletal Knight is a fairly tough critter, and can actually be controlled like a hireling, so it's more useful than a summons.

azraelck said:

Then you break it down by class, and it's not only not always obvious which spell is Druidic, Clerical, or Arcane, but there's a ton of overlap, with a large chunk of the spell books between the three being carried over to one or both of the others, or simply being a carbon copy (Destruction vs Finger of Death).

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Exactly this confuses me greatly.
I can only use what I have in the spell book, of course.
And there I'm going after "what will I need most ?"
Plus, for silo play I sometimes use different spells, especially since my focus is always on survivability. For example, for soo play I often put the Knock spell into my spell book. That Bany has it as well was rather by chance. I thought it'd be a bonus.
For group play I sometimes use different spells as well, like Dimension Door. I thought that this would benefit to the group, so I took it.

azraelck said:

I also have a melee Favored Soul build planned out that uses Feywild for the CHA to-hit and damage, for the next time Mirys comes around looking for that past life.

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When you get that put together, do share. I'm in the very early stages of tinkering with that setup, too.

I'm really surprised how effective Phuury is right now with his light spells. Even when we weren't doing undead-centric quests, I was able to do some respectable damage. Don't know whether that's a result of the recent spell re-jigger by DDO or just the fact that with one exception my clerics have always been pure heal/buff bots (the exception being that machine gun nun build I played years ago) so I have no basis for comparison. It has me thinking a little bit about a light casting FvS since they've got an enhancement tree just for that sort of thing. The only real limitation on the faux-death cleric so far has been lack of spell points and part of that is that I've been blasting indiscriminately. Still a little gunshy, though, since FvS is the only class I've ever disliked a build enough to LR completely out of it.

For the group play, I'd say you can skip knock; we have two trappers able to hit every lock, so that's a wasted space.

DDoor is always useful, to the point that even Peter has it on his Sorcerer, despite being sorely constrained at that spell level.

To help yourself be a little less squishy, try to keep Displacement up regularly during fights. 50% miss chance make a huge difference.

Don't worry too much about spell choice for a Wizard (or Cleric, Druid, and Artificer) though. You can always swap if something isn't working how you want. I will say this: every group loves good crowd control. Seeing every monster fall down or get held is magical, and helps out tremendously. That's why most of my Wizard builds have built in focus toward Enchantment spells. Yeah, you won't lead the kill count, but you'll save the party more often than not with a good Mass Hold.

My FvS build is pretty basic. THF feats, Quicken, PA and Cleaves, going up War Soul as the primary with some into Feydark and the healing tree. I'm thinking going back to the old Half-Elf melted candle person for the Fighter dilettante will be the most effective way to get the two FvS lives, with the stats being 13 STR (for the dilettante) , 14 CON and max CHA. Should be able to toss a few into INT to keep up UMD. I may consider two levels of Fighter or even 3 Barbarian instead though. I like the speed, and the extra Cleave would be nice. Definitely not a top-DPS build, but should be fairly survivable with reasonable DPS.

Basically, it's a modernized version of Mirys' original life.

azraelck said:

To help yourself be a little less squishy, try to keep Displacement up regularly during fights. 50% miss chance make a huge difference.

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Since Bany is of Elven origin, I'm thinking of taking the Dragonmark as a feat. I didn't do that so far. I could then buff it up in the Elven racial tree.

Alrik Fassbauer said:

Since Bany is of Elven origin, I'm thinking of taking the Dragonmark as a feat. I didn't do that so far. I could then buff it up in the Elven racial tree.

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Wizards can choose a lot of different spells so it's probably smarter to invest in more metamatic feats for your wizard.

You need to invest quite a lot into the racial enhancement tree to get all tiers of the dragonmark. You would probably be better off investing more in eldritch knight for protection and archmage or pale master.

Here are some must get feats:
* insightful reflexes
* Extend
* Maximize
* Empower
* Quicken
* Heighten
* Spell focus enchantment
* Spell focus necro
* Spell pen
* Greater spell pen
* Greater spell focus enchant or necro
* Enlarge

List of spells:
Spells (not an exhaustive list, but should give you an idea):

1st: Jump, Shield, Obscuring Mist, Hypnotism for debuffing Will saves, the bolt spells are decent at early levels (but they all share the same cooldown), Master's Touch is good at low levels, Grease is always fun

2nd: Lesser Death Aura, Knock, Invisibility, Blur (until Displacement), Web, Resist Energy

3rd: Haste, Displacement, Fireball (will carry you until DBF), Sleet Storm (if your party has FoM), Magic Circle Against Evil

4th: Death Aura, Negative Energy Burst, DDoor, Wall of Fire (really good in heroics), Charm Monster, Crushing Despair

5th: Protection from Elements, Teleport, Prismatic Ray (can deal with constructs on a lucky roll), Niac's/Eldar's (boss dps)

6th: GH, Flesh to Stone, Reconstruct (if running with toasters), Undeath to Death, Necrotic Ray (insane damage, quick cooldown, cheap)

7th: DBF (carries you until Meteor Swarm), FoD, Prismatic Spray (again for constructs), Disco Ball, Mass Hold Person

8th: Not much good at this level, but you'll need Sunburst

9th: PWK, Mass Hold Monster, Meteor Swarm, Wail, Rend the Soul (watch out for deathwarded bosses, as this won't work against them)

SLA's: The SLA line in Pale Master is pretty good. Necrotic Blast, when combined with Fireball or DBF will kill pretty much everything until you get Meteor Swarm.

Sorry, but doing Pale Master is a no-go for me. :lol:
I just don't want that. Period.

Well, that's going to put a real kink in my "theme party" plan for the next group. Weren't sure whether we were going to call ourselves the Walking Dead or the Grateful Dead...

dteowner said:

Well, that's going to put a real kink in my "theme party" plan for the next group. Weren't sure whether we were going to call ourselves the Walking Dead or the Grateful Dead…

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The choices above work just as well not being a pale master. You can be an archmage and use necro spells. Finger of death is particularly good.

The Grateful Dead were far superior to the Walking Dead, or am I dating myself again!!
Alrik, as Peter suggests, an Archmage with a few necro choices is eminently playable; I've done it twice.

I'll see what I can do. A few necro spells as "standalone spells" aren't too bad for me.

P.S. : Wasn't it Metallica who had that album name "Death Magnet" ?

I guess that in DDO it would be "Hate Magnet", eh ?

Edit : Regarding "death" : HCL 4 is coming at the end of this month : https://ddo.com/en/Hardcore

I always wanted a guild run where everyone had critters. Basically all Arty, Druid, and PM.

azraelck said:

I always wanted a guild run where everyone had critters. Basically all Arty, Druid, and PM.

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6 toons + 6 pets + 6 hirelings + 6 cosmetics = a serious mob.

Yeah ! :lol:

I have 1 Artificer at level 11, 2 rarely played Druids at level 6 & 8 ( did I say that I'm an Altoholic ? :lol: ) plus a few parmanent Hirelings ( I think that everyone of us has some ).
Plus the usual cosmetic pets ... :lol: