Just another refugee from myDDO that might whine and moan about the game and such...

Sunday, April 14, 2013

The way of the Dodo

Good bye to the myddo lottery.  You were fun as you provided me with my first heart of wood, a bunch of Cannith crafting materials, and quite a few different (and mostly useless) potions.  I did believe, at first, that it was a bunch of BS, but I eventually won some festival coins, and then a bunch of other things came in to boot... But yes, it is leaving us tomorrow after the scheduled maintenance on Monday...

loved ya!

--GMT

Friday, April 12, 2013

Slipperyfish Scallopini - Drow Elf Rogue Mechanic

Now, I know I didn't make this build, nor am I taking ANY credit for any of it, but this is the template that I am using for Slipperyfish.  I am just reposting it here, as it came from the forums, and we won't have the forums for much longer, I think...  If you know who, or are the original creator of this build, please give me a holler, and I will credit you.  Have a great day!

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Concept: Focus on traps, locks, and sneak, relying on repeating crossbows for damage
Original path's flaws: Con too low, no Toughness, feats not suited to usage of repeating crossbows
Main fixes: Gave more HPs and better damage output with crossbows

AlignmentChaotic NeutralChaotic GoodNeutralNeutral GoodLawful NeutralLawful Good

Stats and Race (28/32 pt):
........Drow.....Dwarf......Elf.....Halfling...Human...Warforged.
.Str.....10........10........10........10........10........10....
.Dex.....18........16........18......17/18.......16........16....
.Con.....12........16......12/13.......14......14/15.......16....
.Int.....17......15/16.....15/16.....15/16.....15/16.....15/16...
.Wis.....10........10........10........10........10.......8/10...
.Cha.....10.......6/8........8.........8.........8.........6.....

Ability increase every 4 levels: All in Dex.

Skills (except Human and Drow): At all levels, keep maxed out Search, Disable Device, UMD, Open Locks, Spot, Balance, Diplomacy, Hide and Move Silently. Split your remaining points equally between Jump and Tumble.
Skills (Human and Drow): Same, but you should be able to max out both Jump and Tumble instead of splitting points between them.

Feats (by level), except Human: Toughness (1), Rapid Reload (3), Point Blank Shot (6), Precise Shot (9), Improved Evasion (10), Improved Critical: Ranged (12), Skill Mastery (13), Improved Precise Shot (15), Slippery Mind (16), Rapid Shot (18), Defensive Roll (19)
Feats (by level), Human: Toughness (1), Rapid Reload (1), Point Blank Shot (3), Rapid Shot (6), Precise Shot (9), Improved Evasion (10), Improved Critical: Ranged (12), Skill Mastery (13), Improved Precise Shot (15), Slippery Mind (16), Skill Focus: Use Magical Device (18), Defensive Roll (19)
Special note: The feat progresion for all races was modified on 2011/04/21 when the build was converted to ranged instead of melee. If you started this build prior to this date, you can find the old feat progression to follow in this post.

For more information about picking enhancements please read this post.Enhancements (Rogue): Cheat Death (capstone), Dexterity II, Disable Device III, Fire Trap Lore I, Haste Boost III, Improved Trap Sense II, Mechanic II, Open Lock III, Search II, Skill Boost III, Sneak Attack Accuracy II, Sneak Attack Training II, Spot I
Enhancements (Drow): Dexterity I, Enchantment Resistance I, Keen Eyes I, Perception I, Racial Toughness II
Enhancements (Dwarf): Constitution I, Racial Toughness II, Spell Defense II
Enhancements (Elf): Dexterity I, Enchantment Resistance I, Keen Eyes I, Perception I, Racial Toughness II
Enhancements (Halfling): Cunning II, Dexterity I, Guile II, Hero's Companion I, Luck (Reflex) I, Racial Toughness II
Enhancements (Human): Adaptability Dexterity I, Greater Adaptability Intelligence I, Improved Recovery I, Racial Toughness II
Enhancements (Warforged): Constitution I, Healer's Friend II, Racial Toughness II

Soloability by level:

No hireling..1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
With hireling: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20


Tips:
- You only gain proficiency with light repeaters at Level 6 (with the Mechanic I enhancement), which means that from L1 to 5 it is best to use a rapier (possibly with a shield that has zero Armor Check Penalty like a Light Mithral Shield). You may also use a regular crossbow, but your damage output will be significantly lower than with a rapier in hand.
- In order to make these early levels easier (especially if soloing), you may pick either Weapon Finesse (to boost your to-hit with a rapier) or Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Light Repeating Crossbow (to start using repeaters early) as your L3 feat. Once you reach L6 you can respec out this feat. Another option is to get proficiency in Heavy Repeaters and drop it only at L12, in order to be able to use both kinds of repeaters from L3 to L11.
- Once you get Mechanic I at L6, start wearing items that boost your Intelligence: your Int modifier is added to the damage you deal with crossbows.
- Use Diplomacy to politely ask your opponents to attack someone else. This will let you land sneak attacks more reliably.
- You do not have to sneak to land sneak attacks. Read this page for more information on sneak attacks (in particular, on ranged attacks you need to be close enough to your target).
- If you ever get to the point (around L16) where you start running the Shroud raid regularly, consider crafting a Radiance heavy repeater. It is a great weapon for such a build.
- Ultimately you would want to reach 39 UMD to be able to reliably use Heal scrolls. This can be achieved for instance from 23 (base skill at L20) + 1 (Skill Mastery) + 3 (16 Cha with +6 item and +2 Cha tome) + 4 (Greater Heroism) + 2 (Head of Good Fortune) + 6 (exceptional bonus from Shroud raid item), which are reasonable items to obtain if you get all the way to level 20. In the meantime, accept you may fail some checks and rely on your skill boost to make it less likely.
- As a Mechanic, you are the best at making traps, which you can do starting at L4. Read more about trapmaking here.

Variants:
- I would like to thank Brennie and ReaperAlexEU for coming up with similar builds much faster than I did.
- It is possible to take the Mechanic enhancements as a melee build, for an example (now outdated though) see here.
- The last Rogue specialty feat at L19 can be changed e.g. for another Skill Mastery (+1 to all skills). From the information I could find on Opportunist and Crippling Strike, those would not work on ranged attacks and are thus not suited to this build (but I would appreciate if someone could confirm this information).
- The L18 feat on a Human can be replaced e.g. by Weapon Focus: Ranged (if you find your to-hit is not high enough), or Weapon Finesse (if you find you need to melee sometimes).
- Although overall the Bluff skill is currently not worth investing into, it may be improved some day. And if you are planning to solo a lot, it can be somewhat useful to land more sneak attacks. To get Bluff, split some points between Balance, Jump and Tumble (instead of just Jump and Tumble) so that you can max out Bluff. Among Balance, Jump and Tumble, Balance is the most important, while you can stop investing in Jump and Tumble once you are comfortable with respectively how high you can jump, and from how high you can fall without taking too much damage. Note that a 40 Jump skill (with buffs) is the maximum you need, and at L18 you can obtain a Jump clicky that gives you +30 to it.

Color code: best to worst = greenyelloworangered

Monday, April 8, 2013

My DDO weekend... Yay!

I finished "The High Road" with Wytorimabor, as he is the only character I have that can get there.  I find that the new named end rewards are  BtC on Equip.  I really like this, as I have a few friends that do not have all of the updates to the game, and my groups awesome healer type doesn't have access to the series.  I didn't find anything that I could really use, but I did see that the Epic version of Forgotten Light was up for the taking.  So, I pick that and send it off to the awesome healer.  I hope that the rest of the updates are just the same way, as I like to help the others in my group.  I might just get a list of gear that the others in my group need, so that I can not only farm for me, but the others as well.  I don't see the need to sell something on the AH or SE for some exorbitant price, as I will find the plat on my own, or just sell it at its cost, and allow you all to bid up to what you would like to pay for it.

I also got a +3 Dexterity Tome from another of my guild-mates!  Apparently all of his characters either didn't need it, or he just was willing to part with it.  He asked me what I would offer him, I said 200k plat, and he said "Sold, American".  He later said that he would have given it to me free, but I said I would still pay him for it.  They are very hard to come by, and I know that he took a hit on giving it to me at such a small price, as the current AH opening bid it 450k, and there isn't one on the SE at the moment...

I know that this is just rambling, but I have had a long day (the first work day in a week), and words are not coming out in coherent sentences.  Maybe I will be more coherent later, and able to put down something better...

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

an update and a blast...

...from the not so immediate past.

Well, for me, at least.  I ran a PUG with 2 of my guild-mates and we actually wiped!  Apparently Lord of Blades will do that to groups on epic Hard.  Wytorimabor was running tank, but couldn't hold agro without dying.  We came to the part after you kill the puppies, and when the Quori trash came, we couldn't hold it together any longer...both cleric types died, and then the rogue that was throwing resurrections / raise deads also died...  it ended a total mess.  We also had some stupid bitching, moaning, and griping going on in the chat which was also something I haven't seen/heard in a LONG while. 

The last time I was in a party that wiped was on maybe my 4th or 5th ever Shroud run, where we thought that we could run it on elite and also wiped at the second coming of Harry.  I think that was before Christmas, and my job...  I just thought that I should say something about what I have actually done lately.

Questing/Flagging:

 Wyt is working on flagging for the new raid in GH and Black Abbot.  Also he hasn't worked out all of the High Road series of quests, and has only solo'd the first in the series so far.  I also still haven't ran the Amrath (sp?) series yet, but a good friend of mine gave me the pieces I was missing for my boots of anchoring, so I can build them when I need to.  I am also one piece (# III) away on my Sigil so I can be flagged for the Black Abbot raid.  Since last year, I hopped onto a group that was running HoX, Master Artificer, and Lord of Blades, so I was able to get into that one and we didn't wipe. I got into a VoN raid and won it too.  I didn't know what we were doing in VoN, as the people were zerging it, and I know I missed at least one chest and the reason why we were in there...  But anyway, check those off of my list of needing to be attempted and won on any setting.

Equipment:

Since my last update, last May, I have completed two tier 3 GH items, a Dwarven Axe, and a pair of goggles, which I have cleansed.  they are both nice, but I am finding that my un-epic'd Templar's Justice with the force ritual added is still working out just fine.  I would like to get a Duergar's Waraxe of the Weaponmaster, just to see how it matches up to the Justice.  I upgraded my Epic Rock Boots to tier II and inserted a Diamond of Intelligence +5 into it.  I figured I didn't have any intelligence boosts on Wyt, so I should get one, and I didn't see anything that I wanted to put there, that I already didn't have on, somewhere else...

TR:
 Niernen has TR'd back into a wizard (second life), and is waiting on 7th level so he can get the maximum amount of xp from the quests we are running with the TR group. 

Other Characters:
Notagmtrojan, Slipperyfish, and Ursamajorr have all been trekking slowly, as my job has been pretty much engulfing what used to be my abundant gaming time (but such is life).  They all are in the 10 - 15 level range, so they are in that "too hard for soloing but can't find a party to run quests when I want to" stage of character building.  Maybe I will get some time this summer to do just that... 

Notagmtrojan is in a state of flux.  I retooled her for Mabar, but I haven't retooled her back into the demon-killer that I initially intended her to be.  She has way too many weapons, and way to little space for them all, so I don't know what I will be doing with her.  I will definitely fix the tooling I did, and then figure her out, so to speak...

Slippery is now a dedicated repeater shooting, Master Mechanic.  This is good, as I found a decent guide in the forums regarding this class.  I still enjoy playing as him, and he works out when my friends need a rogue to fill out their parties.

Ursa is becoming a bit of a menace as he is a druidic half elf dilettante with fighter.  He has more options to his weaponry than he would otherwise...  I am still learning how to run with him, but it is still fun to do so.  He hasn't become a hindrance in the parties he has been in, so that is good.

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Well, that is all for today.  I hope that we all get the loot we want, on the first try.  Be well and stay safe you all!

Fight On!

--GMT