Samius Times

I have been crying to knock out a shroud for a few days. Like 3 or 4. Yep it was a simi-dry spell. Just had to get on timer. I am close to knocking out number 20 / 21 for cleaning my bracers so I can start using my my new goggles.

So Sunday morning I get in a group and I have to drop before we start, fathers day fireworks. Woot? So post lunch keeping one eye on the LFM I start to wander in GH looking for relics for Butterzcotch. I see a group send a tell, switch to Samius, hit the lfm and get denied as the party is full. :(

I did get a tell back, “Sorry slammed with tells, and all slots filled.” That was real nice, I thought that was super classy.

Went back to GH on Samius, killed some guys. Looted some chests. Decided to run Trial by Fire a few times.

Before long another shroud popped up. Join, group port a healer. And we are off. Many Many buffs were handed out standing at the front door as we were waiting for this guy then that guy to get back from afk. And a fighter starts to beg for bark. The lone Ranger says sure why not? And we get going.

1, 2 and 3 goes smooth and we start to buff and just then The ranger says, “Oh shit have to run to work. Later guys and GL!”

Then there was 11. Do we jump in to part 4, and That fighter that needed a bark starts going nuts getting angry that needs a bark and can't get one. I see people with bark, GIVE ME A BARK! And people are trying to explain that bark is only a ranger spell and that are using pots. And he won't have anything to do with that as an answer. He dies and reads the chat and starts to lesson to other players, and says sorry. But he is still fired up. We hit the alter and he gets a rez but doesn't take it.

“There were blades right there, it would have been dumb to take it! Wouldn't? This not the group for me.” Drop! Okay. Down to 10.
Leader Dcs And the line they're dropping like flies. So I say “I want completion, I don't care who the leader is, we go now.” And start to bark out orders. So and so pull, I will kite, X go down the line and do buffs A and B, Y buff with C and D. And we are off. It is all good we drop the last guy and Start the Harry fight and the leader gets back in game. And it is all good. Until a 3 or 4 second lag hit and all but the healers (including a bard) and a barb is alive. Wow! People start getting Rezed and Harry dies. Boned. But on timer and the last 2 parts was fun as hell. If the first 3 parts were fast if boring.

Java jumped into a Shroud almost just after and dual larged a chain and a scale so woot! Smooth as can be. Looked at getting into a Epic von 1 and got a tell back need great DPS and healer with 3 casters. And I said I can get a healer, no problem. It was a good thing I did as the leader and I was the only not fails in the party and he and I managed to save the day. If just. And got a token, and nothing else dropped. :(.

But I am feeling better and am looking forward to playing this week.

By Samius on Tue 15 of June, 2010 13:58 MDT

I got an email today with this link and read like this:



So want to share my thoughts now having TRed 2 guys back to 20. I am not the most experienced person when it comes to TRing, but something I can say is I am looking forward to TRing Samius for the second time and look forward to playing him up again.

This is my whole thing about TR/ loot/Xp/shroud, Ddo is not my part time job, I play to have fun. In fact lately I have noticed that when I find I am not having fun I take a break. Sometimes it is a short break sometimes for the night. A mad dash to exclusion of all less feels like work. Got to get to the end, done. Start over. Got to get to the end..... Shoot me now.

But I said I wanted to TR again, Why?

Because it is fun. Over powering quests. Running over content yelling for the game to scream out your name. It is fun. Like the greatest twinking out of a guy ever. Do you know what loot is great at low levels? Anyloot you really can't get until your higher level but can use at a lower level. Eternal wands. Sets of +2 lvl 0 stat gear, and you want to know really good times. Equip 2 or 3 green steel items as soon as you can and watch those quests cry.

So let me cover these core ideas, I have and do use the times in this thread for the wear to go for fast xp. There are levels I want to get to ASAP! Namely shroud gear levels. And other magical spots depending on the build. Hitting these milestones and really starting to have fun is key.

In my mind fast leveling should only been used to level 11/13 ish after that in my opinion it is best to make having fun the top goal. For most of us leveling is fun, but be carful not to make leveling into a chore.

Also I would say not to TR back to back on the same guy. Give it a week or so to enjoy a short break at the end game. When you starting looking at 7-8 millon xp things start to look bleak.


Things I put on my pre TR check list. Gear check pre greensteel. Level 1-4, 4-8, do we have any level 8 power 5? (Muck bane or simlar item) Also I make sure I have my level 9 heavy fort or some other “ore” item ready to go. And now I will also make sure to gather any good exclusive items or clickies that I might want to double up on. Clicky of Gh, bark skin belt. Etc......

Also something to think about is the Tor collectibles. Not only having 20 of each to enter the Tor, but some extra to maybe pick up a of armor. As well as powering threw quest chains like the Threinals / Co6/ Tangle Root for the end reward/s.

Lastly, Preping the TR bank. All of your gear in your inventory and bank falls in to this TR bank. But you can only see the “top” 100 or so items at a time. So moving not bound gear to another guy for easy viewing of the TR bank might be a good idea.

Those are my main thoughts. Be sure to find the happy along the way because unless every one else your playing with is also a TR or a TRx2 you will be out leveled and you will just have to live with that.

I know what it is like to feel like you need to take control of a quest/raid. I have felt that need many times. And have taken the leadership role over, both short for long term.

I don't like taking over at all. Hell I don't like to lead anymore really. Probably part of the reason I don't pug much lately. But I often feel that it is necessary. But when it happens it is normally at a point where the party is close to a wipe. And after the leader as made it clear that he doesn't have a clear plan.

In fact, I have gotten so used to people knowing what is going on I forget to lead when I am leading something. Example that epic Von 1 scroll run, I just thought everyone would know what was up. That was not the case.

However, someone trying to take over with out a good reason...... I don't think so.

So the question becomes to them did they have a good reason? And what is a good reason?

Them not liking your style, is not a good reason.
Them wanting to be in charge, not a good reason.

How to complete basic things are clearly not known, maybe. When I see this, and want to help I normally say something or send a tell to the leader. Some times it is just the mater of letting him know that you are there to lean on. Like any of you; if I had a problem I trust you all to take over in my stead.

I might have left the new guys in Titan for dead when it took so long for them to get threw the hallways.

I think all you can do is let people know your the leader and they can go if they don't like it. I have left a few quests now because I don't like people, or how it is going.

My fun is not optional!

I think until further notice I will use Wednesday as light night. I took the time to make a nice dinner and watch a movie. When I logged on I got in a DQ, did a quick reaver and leveled Butterzcotch to 13. Then logged kinda early to watch mythbusters and the last bit of the Guild.

It was nice. I had no plans and just went with the flow.

That said once Starcraft 2 comes out I might not log on at all, one night a week.

Today and for the last few days, namely since Sam pulled his Torc. I have been thinking about the next, last TR for him. I want this TR namely to round out the build. 34 points sounds/ looks/ is sexy. And without a guy I love to play/work on I loose focus.

With Java capped and mostly geared, at least until the new mod, it is time to start thinking about the next big deal. And as always when I think big deal I think of Samius.

Chris has been talking about finally TRing some one. Tobril if I remember right. He is a few raids and gear away from that point. So what a few weeks? Two months? A little longer? Does it matter? Not really I would like to be ready to TR again when he is ready, but I wont wait too long to push the go button with or with out him.

So lets see what is going on. Hmmm, 3-4 shrouds away from 20. Ding, ding! And about the same on reaver. Double ding! Some thing I have wanted for Samius is fear immunity. It doesn't have to be all the time but there are lots of times when I don't rock a GH and out of the blue: Save against fear / Natural 1. Fail. Same deal for poison. I normally use a GFL/ Poison belt but with the addition of the Torc to my gear layout, I lost my Con slot. So it moved to the belt and that means again I am able to be poisoned. :(

Also I love. No make that Love. My Min2 helm. Why well lots of reasons, but combining lots of slots and the permanent 30 acid res.. So I have been thinking about making something that combines more slots. So here is my thought.

30 fire and poison/fear immunity. That happens to be clicky of waves of Exhaustion. Not bad. Then if I want I can dual shard Fire/neg (Fire being the bonus) for Enervation guard. Useful I guess.

I could go air / neg/ air/neg for destruction clicky and Trap the Soul Guard. Also not bad. But not quite what I am looking for.

Neg(10 hp) / neg/ neg would have all 3 tears be helpful and I can see why Phlor made one for his pally so long ago. But is “Slay living guard” worth anything?

My options are limited by wanting a neg tear two. Pairing it with a helpful tear one and three if I want a bonus is going to be tricky.

On the other hand I am debating of making a 30 fire or 30 elec and poison/fear immunity and just not adding the 3rd tear or just pick a 3rd tear power I just want. Like Deathblock (neg).


As always I am just thinking out loud. (Can typing be out loud? Hmmm)

In a possibly futile attempt to clear my mind of ddo and maybe focus on work I want to share some news.

On the last day of the +2 loot week end Samius pulled his Torc. And the skies parted and the light of heaven shown upon me. When I opened that chest and saw that shining goodness I rolled back in my chair with a woot and a clap I just was pleased with myself.

Then a second later I was madly clicking. Get in my pack! What if the server died? Or my Internet quits? Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! And we are safe.

Then once it is in my pack I looked at the rest of the chest contents. Dustless Boots, Chaosblade, Marilith Chain and I think there was a token Storm.

I know crazy. And other than my Torc every item was up for roll. I had the second highest roll on the boots. I would have felt super guilty for taking them but two raid drops for me would be super sweet. And the guy that pulled the Chain was almost begging for someone to take it. So sad.

If you didn't know Javabot, was gifted his on the first day of the +2 loot week with a Torc from Tantrick. And it is a big deal for him. Really makes him sing. In fact even Chris noticed the change doing a Blood run.

So one more important item down. And a week or two more of raid timers and I could TR again. If I have the much needed larges to knock out my final Green Steel item for Sam.

Okay well back to work.

By Samius on Wed 02 of June, 2010 10:22 MDT

So I have been taking more breaks lately. Play for a hour or two then log and watch a show then get going again later. Or read for a bit, etc. And I want to explore this if only for myself.

I have to say I have two modes. Hot off the presses, where I feel sharp and ready to go. Or cool to start and warm up as the game goes on, where I feel my play is sloppy and improve to my normal level of skill.

But after a hot start I think the breaks are longer. I want to watch a movie or a show. And I noticed that these breaks are “triggered” by one event or a few events in a short time frame, where I just say, “fuck it” and break. More of a up here with the bull shit, I need a break.

I noticed that I tend to break sooner lately when I am cool to start. I think it is a frustration thing. I have also noticed that these breaks form when I start “cool” tend to be shorter. Or they might be staying in game, and just running slayer or something.

I don't know if maybe I need to look for my warning signs and learn them so I maybe can break sooner. To try to make those breaks shorter. Or maybe start playing a second game once and awhile. I have Spore and a few other games that wouldn't suck to rock a bit more and have a not ddo game night were I don't play.

I thought static night would be just the thing to give the time to recharge. And I enjoy the playing the group is great and having a set night to play our lowbes and we all sit at right about the right level to play together and all that. But for some reason I don't always have the love, I think part of that is that I am not in love with my guy. I love that I can crit for 100+ points of damage often but he and I just don't meld. So I loose that desire to play my fighter.

Well I just wanted to write that down, and think threw those thoughts.

By Samius on Mon 24 of May, 2010 15:49 MDT

So thanks to a few ladies, my wife and Teenie, Javabot was able to knock out 3000 slayers in the vale, and a hard then elite Rainbow in the Dark for more then 55k in xps and then group up with some peeps to do an elite coalchamber for the final push to 20.

WOW, that was a big push.

So with my 2 mains leveled to 20 I am back to the try to raid and work gear but as everyone knows I need some thing more to do then just to work timers.

So I have Buterzocth, and as400. Butters is good times but is way behind in the gear for her level but she is so close to 10 that waiting to then just how it needs to be.

As400's stats were janky. So I talked it over with the wife and got a few points and did a +1 lesser on him. He now fits a lot closer to my play style now 2 rog, 1 barb, and x wiz. This build is something Dana and I have talked about a great deal. Gear needs some switching around but the basic stat layout is 14, 8, 26, 18, 6, 10 giving As400 about 320 hps. I took the chance to do the do the Necro stuff.

So I think I will play around with the 400 and Butterzocth when not doing the epic quests or raidn.

By Samius on Tue 18 of May, 2010 14:29 MDT

Last night I took Samius in to The Tide Turns with an eye towards save spots, traps and things that might give us a leg up for epic.

I am glad to say I have high hope for this quest. The main kill room might be the place to farm for scrolls. The first door has 6 or 7 stationary archers. They can be walled with the caster standing to the side of the door while the mobs are slowly killed. Then there is a ledge under the stairs, as well as the stairs doesn't touch the wall so using the stairs for cover might not be too bad also.

The traps boxes. All the boxes are in the traps. But it looks like the traps can be evaded.

The first trap, jump on to the light post then jump to the bench with feather fall.
The second, is a lot harder as there are many blades in a lot of places. If the floor was 7 squares across

wall 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 wall

There are traps along each wall above the benches, along and pop from the ground along 2, 4 and 6. So you could walk in the voids that is 3 or 5 and not be hit by the traps. The void that is 1 and 7 I think will be hit by the wall traps. Or hug the wall and jump over the benches.

Safe spots post first trap: you will come across chimera statues. It is not easy to get on them but if you get on their base then jump right behind their wings. And stand on the heads or back by the tail. But ranged is not stopped and the area around the statue is mostly ranged. Maybe we can kill the melee from the top and then keep the statues between you and the ranged.

Back to the main room. We hit the lever and have to clear the mobs on the top. But there are a small ledges that we can stand on for safety to WoF bad guys.

Outside. There are lots of guys and they can go any place you can go but we can run pull the fire elemental spawning lever and rush to the door and wait for the ship to explode.

End fight. Think we are going to want to open both doors and be able to run around the door keeping the end bosses off us. There is a ledge against the chimera statue at the back of the room but it is not real helpful as most of the room ranges or casts spells.

Well, all day long I hear how great Java is at this or how wonderful Java did that! Java, Java, Java! (Jan Brady)

While writing that last post I started think about what is Java's next level of gear? And it hit me. It is in a ToD ring, maybe a set, and some epic gear that is kinda surprising.

Lets start with my thoughts on ToD rings.
I want a ring with Charisma +6. Thats right I want to free up my cloak slot so I can freely make a Min2 cloak. So with that in mind the first ring I want is this.
Warchanter's Band - Ring: Charisma +6, Exceptional Strength +1
The Exceptional Strength +1 is a good deal
Set bonus that matters: Maximize Spell cost -4 sp, Extend Spell costs -1sp
But to get that I need my neck slot to be Torin's Choker - Necklace: Superior Potency VI, Wizardry VI
Not a Torc but until I get one it should do nicely.
Other less good put doable rings, because you should always keep your eyes open. In order of usefulness.

Kyrian's Band - Ring: Charisma +6, Exceptional Strength +1
Set Bonus: Fire Spells gain +5% chance to Spell Critical Hit, Critical Damage Multiplier increased by 0.50
Needs Singed Belt, set is okay. Belt.... well at lest is is a Superior Inferno VIII (CL:1, 3/3) clickly. Could switch into it when needed.

Thamor's Ring - Ring: Charisma +6, Exceptional Consitution +1, Incredible Potential
Set Bonus: Acid Spells gain +5% chance to Spell Critical Hit, Critical Damage Multiplier increased by 0.50
Needs Thamor's Belt, I don't see how I would use this belt or take advantage of this set right now. But it is more Con and Con is good!

Telvi's Touch - Ring: Charisma +6, Exceptional Wisdom +1
Set Bonus: Cold Spells gain +5% chance to Critical Hit, Critical Damage Multiplier increased by 0.50
Needs Telvi's Sash, well it is a ring.

On the flip hand I could try for the set or something I already wear 100% of the time. Morah's Belt. Yep Constitution +6, Tumble +15 and Jump clickly is my belt. To make the set I need a Morah's Band - Ring: Dexterity +6, Exceptional Dexterity +1 with the Set Bonus: +15 to Jump, ? % chance weapons will unbalance an opponent. I just don't see how that is a good set.

I think that I will try for the Warchanter's Band first, and will be willing to settle for the Kyrian's Band if one fell into my lap.

But that is just part of the fixes. Epic gear, the answer to so many questions.
Epic Blademark's Docent, compared to a blank Dragontouched Docent the Epic Blademark's is +1 better (+6 to +5 Enhancement Reinforced Plating are both +2). And has 4 slots.

If you were to say the Colorless Augment Slot is like the DT Eldritch slot, looking for +6 Dex to free boots or maybe +6 Con to free up belt.

The Blue Augment Slot would be like the DT's Sovereign slot with Greater Elemental Energy but the Blue slot's Toughness stacks with Green Steel items. Read Min2 cloak.

Life Shield and DR 5/Epic doesn't have a direct parallel in the DT Tempest properties, but don't all tempest properties suck compared to Life Shield or DR 5/Epic. Hell doesn't every DT property suck compared to Life Shield or DR 5/Epic? I think so. With the possible exception of 1 or 2 properties.

I had Epic Jidz-Tet'ka on my list as it is a yellow slot. And I might still go for it but it is not as key as the Blademark.

I have been looking at Epic Dusk Heart, Epic Golden Greaves, Epic Lion-headed Belt Buckle, Epic Seal of the Earth, Epic Helm of the Mroranon, Helm of the Red Dragon.

I think the shocker would be the Epic Dusk Heart, or the Epic Seal of the Earth. But they both have a Yellow slot, meaning Blindness Immunity on the Dusk Heart, or Greater false life for the Seal.

GFL not needed on the Dusk Heart.

Epic Helm of the Mroranon at the same time is a nice upgrade to my intimidate helm.

So those are my thoughts, let me know what I am missing.