The Totally NEW Team Corwin Thread

OK, what is the appeal of an artificer? Why that before a Druid??
 
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It's hard to say since the D&D Artificer wouldn't hardly translate into an action-based MMO at all. The best I can guess is that it's a Rogue, without sneak attack or evasion. They do have high skill points, UMD, DD, OL, and so forth as class skills. They are likely to be set up more like a Bard with a limited casting aspect.

The actual release notes drop tomorrow, so I'll make my usual run down of U11 here in my afternoon (likely before you get up Corwin) after I get home from work. Assuming I don't stay home, I'm a tad bit grumpy after a root canal, and my boss already asked me to stay home since he knows I have a temper and am likely to toss the bander across the building again.

However, the reason Druid is not coming this year is due to coding; the engine Turbine uses for DDO is not designed to handle in-game transformations. At all. Notice whenever there is one in a scripted event, the game uses the "bright flash" method of obscuring it? That's because it's removing the old objects and inserting the new, transformed object, like the Cojoined Abishai Destroyer in "Chronoscope" or Crateos in "The Snitch".

Another issue is pets; Druids are traditionally a "pet" class having both an animal companion and the ability to spontaneously cast the "Summon Nature's Ally" spells (similar to a Cleric and Cure or Inflict spells, depending on alignment). DDO summons leave a lot to be desired, with only a sparse handful being worth bringing in at all.

That is the sole remaining reason Druids are not coming, and the reason they are not already in. IMO, they should implement the Spirit Shaman class from Complete Divine. It is essentially a Sorcerer variant of a Druid without wild shape abilities, that would fill the hybrid healer/nuker class slot just as well. Remember that Druids get all the cure wounds spells, as well as heal (but not Mass Heal), so they are effective healers. They also get a good many of the arcane offensive spells like Firewall, and more than a few goodies of their own like Call Lightning Storm (drools!)

Artificer is a core class in Eberron, so it fits the setting, and was expected eventually. Then again, so are Druids, but again, it's Turbine's choice of engines that screwed us over there. Druid is my favorite class, so I'm looking forward to one as well.
 
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From your description, the artificer doesn't sound very appealing; since it's likely not a free class I doubt I would even consider getting it.
 
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If I had to guess, I'd think a rogue-ish toon with a significant bonus to crafting hall abilities. You'd get a few folks that would enjoy becoming "DDO blacksmiths". With crafting all the way up to level 150 now and Wouldii already starved for essences by level 30, I've largely lost interest. Unfortunate, but so it goes.
 
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There are several on the forums who feel that Artificer should NOT get crafting bonuses. Reason being as it's "pay to win" in the crafting grind. And crafting is seriously too much a grind, which is why I've ignored it for the most part. Adding in stuff like Silver Flame pots (need 400 favor to get) killed crafting for all but the extreme veterans, who have heavily-geared multi-TRs.

And no, Artificer from what I can guess does not sound appealing to me. However, wait until tomorrow, then it can REALLY sound unappealing.

I'm more interested in the new raids and the accompanying quests. From the description, this will be the first pack that actually gives a role-playing bonus; for those who play a Warforged. Minor, but very welcome IMO. As an added bonus, it should alleviate the high-level xp farming somewhat.
 
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Hey, I have a lot of essences you can have. I have NO interest in crafting, so I'll give them to you if you still want them.
 
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Update 11 News:

A partial release note has been posted. More to come:

Spell Changes: Spell-specific Metamagics(!)

Metamagic feats can now be applied to specific spells. Players can select a spell on a toolbar, click the right mouse button, and set the metamagic feats that apply to that spell.

This is absolutely awesome, no more toggling metamagics on and off. This means that spells like Soundburst, which have a minor damage component but are really only used for crowd control, can be heightened but not maximized/empowered, while the real damage spells get empower/maximize. You can leave maximize on cure spells, while turning it off for Blade Barrier, which if actually kited through doesn't need to be maximized until high end content (but only if you actually know how to kite them around the barrier, dropping 15 BB's and running through them in straight lines isn't kiting them, it's running around like a chicken with your head cut off).

Spell Changes: General

Ice Storm has had some graphical changes made to it to improve game performance. Repair spells now give an error message when targeting someone immune to repair spell effects.

Repair is irrelevant; they weren't affecting fleshies anyway. Ice Storm is a good one; even on a decent rig that can cause lag.

New Arcane Spell: Disrupt Undead.

Code:
    Disrupt Undead:
    School: Necromancy
    Level: Sor/Wiz 1
    SP Cost: 5
    Effect: This ray deals 8 to 12 positive energy damage plus an additional 4 to 6 positive energy damage for every two caster levels to an enemy undead. A successful Will save reduces the damage by half. D&D Dice: Deals 2d3+6 plus an additional 1d3+3 damage per two caster levels to an enemy undead.

Crossbow changes:

Repeaters have the lost shots bug fixed.

Great Crossbows knock down on a vorpal strike now. As if anyone uses Great Crossbows.

All Crossbows have their fire and reload functions split. Now you click attack once to fire, and once more to reload. I don't know the point either.

UI Tweaks:

Goggles can now be made visible. Another item to be absolutely hideous like the helms and armor.

Shortcut bars will now remember items placed in them when consumed or deleted, and will display the item with a greyed-out icon. If the item is available in the DDO Store, right-clicking on the greyed-out icon will open the DDO Store page for the item. If a character has several stacks of the same item, and the one in the shortcut bar goes empty, the shortcut bar will be filled with another stack of the same item.

I like that last bit; as one who uses potions and scrolls constantly that removes some degree of hotbar micromanagement.

The vitals UI for characters and parties has been given a new look. Portrait icons are shown as rendered characters in the vitals UI bar. Options now exist in the UI Settings of the Options menu to show percentages of health remaining, and whether your vitals UI displays in the party vitals list when in a group. Players can toggle the display of their rendered characters in the vitals UI bar, and turn of their personal vitals UI through the UI Settings as well.

Prestige Lines:

The Favored Soul Angel of Vengeance's Aura of Menace is now suppressed while sneaking or invisible to prevent unwanted aggro.

XP changes:

A new bonus has been created that awards players for running quests consecutively on hard and elite difficulties. This Bravery Bonus is a 5% bonus (10% bonus on Elite) that will "stack" up to five times, or until a player runs a quest on Normal difficulty.
XP Rewards for first time completion on normal, hard, and elite are now 25%, 40% and 80% respectively.

So yes, now there is a distinct advantage to running Elite repeatedly. This should also help alleviate the xp grind.

Raids:

Many raid bosses have grown stronger as a result of their numerous encounters with players. Many that did not have the following now do: True Seeing, some Metamagic feats, and some amount of fortification versus critical hits. They have also been given extra hit points and physical damage output. The amount of the increase is higher for higher level raid bosses, and for those on harder difficulty settings.

Quests/Other:

The cost of regular Dragonscale armors have been reduced to 20 scales. The cost of Dragoncrafted, Elfcrafted, and Giantcrafted armors have been reduced to 10 relics.

Rogue hirelings no longer have a drinking problem.

The ki costs for higher tiers of monk elemental and void attacks have been reduced to 5 ki each.

The Rapid Reload feat now significantly increases the reload speed of crossbows.

Rapid Shot is now significantly more effective.

Any characters with the Completionist Feat will have that feat replaced with a free feat respec upon the release of Update 11.

The Dragonmarks of Making now grant bonuses (+3 for Least, +3 for Lesser, and +4 for Greater) to crafting skills.

There are also some bug fixes in various quests.

The new raids, class, and any pre information has not been revealed.
 
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Well Peter will certainly be delighted at the news concerning Elite quests!! :)
 
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Not so fast.

It only works if you run hard or elite the very first time you run a quest...

The second time, even if it's on elite vs hard, you get nothing as you're considered "familiar" with the quest.

It's basically a ViP only perk. And any time you run a quest on normal, you lose the stack, so you have to start over again. Since most of us shortman or pug or solo, we either can't enter on hard/elite to start every time, or have no ability to complete while doing so.
 
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Well, Cm's a VIP so she can open for us. I suppose it's based on individuals, so if you have already done it on normal, but as a group we enter on Hard for our first time, WE, but not YOU would still get the bonus?
 
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Each character. So If I've done a quest on normal, I would not get any bonus for joining you on elite then hitting another elite. Should anyone hit a normal run, it resets the bonus to 0.

Group UI has also been changed to take up three times as much screen space and show hp/sp totals. Looking forward to raid groups kicking anyone without the "proper" amount of hp... *sigh* another griefing tool.
 
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So are most of you guys Premium or VIP players? I'm premium due to having bought the original box, but I wonder if it is really necessary to sub to this game (LOTRO worked better as a sub game). Any suggestions?
 
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CM is the only ViP, the rest of us are Premium. In reality, ViP's don't have all that many perks right now, though it looks like they're getting one with them already being able to open on elite. They also get all packs, and can access new ones a few days before prems can.

TBH, it really depends on your personal situation more than anything. ViP is I think $15/mo, Prems pay as they can and as they want to.
 
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Had I known in the beginning I was going to stick with this game for well over a year, VIP would have been the best financial decision. By the time I determined that I was going to stick with it, I had already plunked down enough money "one transaction at a time" that there wasn't much to be gained--I already owned most of the quest packs.

If you want unusual races (warforged, halfbreeds) or unusual classes (monk) right at the beginning, VIP would be a savings since I'm pretty sure those are free for those folks while they're a bit pricey to buy as you go.
 
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Currently there's a VIP special of 3 months for $30 plus 1000 TP's a month. If you're just starting out, that's not a bad deal. The Points alone are worth that.
 
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U11 News:

New Spell: Black Dragon Bolt. Essentially, take Polar Ray, and give it Melf's DoT effect. Earth Savants just got a huge boost.

Rune Arms are the new "weapon"; they give 1 handed melee weapons in the main hand a bonus effect (ie fire, force, etc) but take up the offhand, meaning no TWF/THF. Oddly Crossbows are now technically a 1 handed weapon, and are affected. Unsure about Handwraps, as those are likely broken again anyway.

They can be used as a stand alone weapon. How? Here's a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Khiv_4W_Yoo :D

Yes, it can be charged, and the charge shot scales with level apparently.

Sound Blast (the level 1 Arcane Sonic spell) is now AoE, retaining it's daze effect. May be bugged.

Some of the scrolls of the Artificer spells are out.

Oh and store-bought 6th inventory bags.
 
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It's a shame you don't get full race/class access as a VIP, but I guess full quest content is a big money saver anyway. I'm rolling a cleric and don't need the special races necessarily.
 
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