The Totally NEW Team Corwin Thread

Reywind plans to be there, so we should be OK for the 16's.
 
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Pump is knocking on the XP wall. However, 3 of the 4 quests have traps, so I'm pretty much going to have to roll with him.

I suggest saving Ghosts of Perdition for last. Temple of Vol is easy, so that first, then maybe we can get through Fleshmaker's quickly. I don't know Inferno at all, so it will likely take longer.

Push come to shove, I'll just lose XP. It's not like I'm hurting for it.
 
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Inferno's the one where you jump thru the bonfires from "hot side" to "cold side" and if you do them in the wrong order you get stuck. I was looking earlier and we have run all of Necro4 before, but we've run Fleshmakers and Ghosts the most. I mostly agree with Az' proposed order: Vol, Fleshmaker's, Ghosts, and finally Inferno.
 
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I still remember the time when we first ran in Korthos and later the harbor quests in Stormreach. The biggest fun was to actually explore the town areas and dungeons and learn about the different monsters there.

[...]

If you join a group of elite players you will just follow around getting XP and not have time to enjoy this new world.

[...]

Elite runs are often with people who know the quests well and that means they will hurry to the end to get the rewards and XP and over to the next quest. If you want to learn how the quests work then solo play or pug play with inexperienced players is the best way.

Through reading through the forums, and by in-game experience myself, I'm getting hints towards that in SWTOR as well.

The "Elite", that is the Raiders and such, people, people, who know the content so well that they can tell you how to get through a level meanwhile they sleep.

In SWTOR, there's some part of PvP, which is completely missing in DDO - for which I still love DDO.

I have been "looking into" and playing PvP in SWTOR a bit as welll - and it was devastating. As a Lowbie, one can play in so-called "battlegrounds" (BGs) [which feel a little bit like "mini-games" within the big game, because they are totally set apart from the rest of the game, although there do exist "open PvP zones" as well) too. But I wouldn't recommend this at all, because, even although one gets "powered up" to - in principle - reach the same "height" like everyone else in this BG, one gets "rolled over" far too easily. Mostly because gear is so much important there. Much, much more important than in PvE !

In my very personsal view I'd say : Be glad that there is no real PvP in DDO ! It makes the game so much easier - and, despite its flaws, I see DDO much more - and better - balanced towards PvE than SWTOR.

Of course "power creep" is in DDO (like in SWTOR) as well - but since DDO is mainly PvE, it doesn't matter *that* much there - unless you team up with so-called "Elites", of course.

And Eliticism ... Is here, there, and everywhere. ;)
 
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I finally put in an order for part of my new rig. I changed some things, mostly because of cost. I'm buying a CPU/MB bundle with an integrated ATi 7660D chipset. The 6320 in the borrowed computer, with only 4GB of DDR3 (of unknown speed) handled the high res DDO and Minecraft without issues. I plan on splurging on some RAM, come Friday. 16GB should do.

This means I only need the cables, PSU, RAM, and a HDD to have a completed system. The only expensive part being the PSU.

Later, I can buy a better dedicated video card and keep it reasonably current, should publishers stop being abusive toward their paying customers and I start buying games I'm interested in again. Since I doubt pigs can ever learn to fly, I think I won't hold my breath.
 
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Cables ? Should I look whether I can send some to you ? I have cables of various kinds …

I could even send two memory "things" (forgot the right word, I'm sorry) to you, but they would only be 2GB in total.
 
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I probably have spares laying around, but they're so cheap that it would cost more to ship from Germany than they'd be worth. I appreciate the offer though.

One of these days, I'm going through the pile of broken computers and tossing everything into the scrap pile. Just as soon as my bro gets his truck back, or rather quits adding more parts to the engine and lets the mechanic finish putting it together.
 
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They are excellent support characters, but "fun" depends on your personality. If you enjoy helping others accomplish a goal without really having much direct impact yourself, then a bard is a great plan. That's not necessarily a bad approach--my healbot cleric was pretty well worthless outside of buffing and healing others but I had a decent time running him and he was always welcome in a Shroud PUG. Az had some sort of uber-bard splash build that allowed him to swing the pointy sticks with some authority in addition to all the buffs and heals and he appeared to enjoy running it, but Corwin didn't seem to enjoy his more traditional "buffs in a box" bard all that much.

I haven't run a bard yet myself, but I expect it would be a very different experience if I did.
 
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In that case, a bard might be just the ticket for you. Corwin and Az might help with builds. JM actually is running one of her toons thru a bard life right now--she's up to level 3 after her TR. I strongly recommend some quality time with the character planner--window-shopping feats and enhancements is a recipe for disaster.

Planner website
 
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The new Neverwinter MMO game? I wanted to try that myself, since it's in beta now. But if it's as bad as some say then I think I will not bother with it.

One bad side about the Neverwinter MMO is that they don't have paladins as a class yet. :) Joke aside it seems the game is quite unfinished with only a few classes support (rogue, cleric, wizard, fighter).
 
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Bards are difficult early on and unless you build and equip it a certain way (You'll have to ask Az about that) are mediocre solo toons. Once you get to the higher mid-levels they come into their own. They have excellent buffs/songs most of which can't be dispelled; they can heal well; they have excellent CC abilities; mine with a Blade of Fury became a decent melee fighter as well. They are very versatile once they reach about level 10-11. There are 3 different build types as well- virtuoso, spellsinger and warchanter. I played the spellsinger. Jo and Az have played the others. The SS is definitely a powerful buffer.
 
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I've played all three at one point or another. I capped a Spellsinger, then switched to Virtuoso after, which is what Mirys is right now.

As said, Bards take a long time to really come into their own, much later than most classes. They lack either the number of songs, the song duration, or the spell points to do much than limited buffing and healing, up until 12 or so. Then past 16, they don't get a whole lot as they haven't got any Tier 3 Prestige Enhancements, they have a short spell list. This is why you see a lot of 14/6, 16/2/2, and other deeper multiclass builds using Bards as a base.

On the other hand, any party/raid leader worth their salt will want a Bard in the group, as they have buffs which stack with everything, other buffs which draw some of the pressure off of the Divine and Arcane of the group, and can hold their own in melee with a decent weapon, using Displacement and some crowd control abilities to mitigate damage. Their main CC ability gets to be very powerful, working often where others do not, and they can boost it further to affect undead and constructs as well.

Warchanter - IMO not worth it right now. They get a small boost to their Inspire Courage, medium armor proficiency with no arcane spell failure, and the ability to use AP to get a martial weapon proficiency (worthless with the spell Master's Touch). Their tier 2 song gives a small bonus to Doublestrike, at the cost to Fortification. Tier 1 song is DR5, which is readily available from other sources. For a melee Bard, the difference in dps in almost non-existent versus the other PrEs.

Spell-Singer - Extra spell points helps the limited SP pool of the Bard, and the PrE songs are highly useful to casters (both the Bard if built as a caster and other DC based casters). The spell point regen song basically gives you unlimited sp until you run out of songs, and that means unlimited CC/Displacement/Haste/Rage/Healing.

Virtuoso - More songs, and enhancements to your song CC. Enthrall is an upgraded version of the basic Bard song CC, and Capering Song is very useful to stop most single targets.

I would go Spell Singer for a first Bard, myself. The extra spell points helps alot when you lack the gear to mitigate the low sp pool, and the regen song is invaluable while you learn to manage that pool. Virtuoso is a decent choice, though you won't see many running around. Most Bards seems to split between Melee Warchanter and Caster Spell Singer.

Mirys can solo Epic Hards without issue, including the HP-inflated Gianthold Epics. She's also stepped foot into Epic Elite pugs, and managed alright, though there are certain design choices in EE's (and even EH's and some EN's) which hurt Bards more than other classes, since they lack either the hp pool or the high PRR to absorb the high damage numbers coming in. This is more a problem with the design of the mobs than the class, they're being designed around Stalwart Defender fighters with 50%+ damage mitigation from AC, 40% from PRR, 20% from Blur, and 1000+ hp. 500+ hp Bards with no PRR and no AC are kinda stuck with only Displacement.
 
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Could someone post a builtfor spellsinger as an example? I mean it's clear that perform and other stuff is to take but I don't want to start playing and realize at level 7-8 that I screwed up my char.

One feat could screw me up.
 
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Haven't got a build handy just now, but yes perform and everything to increase and enhance songs are your base. There should be an ingame template, but I didn't like it.
 
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