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There are also two baby Kobolds, one of which is asleep, and a teenager-sized Kobold that is ignoring everything. It seems teenagers are the same regardless of species.


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When I finally took the plunge and started a VIP subscription, I suddenly had more character slots than I knew what to do with, so I turned them into extra storage. This is the system that I set up: 1. Their first names all start with the letter Z so that they show up at the [...]


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  So, there I was, sitting on my tiny little hiney, when all of a sudden, I thunk to myself, ‘Hey Natty Nat! why dont we write a blog?!’ To which my reply was, ‘YEAH! Lets write a blog!’ So here I am, sitting on my tiny little hiney, still, now writing a blog about [...]


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I haven’t posted in a long time (nothing new there ), so now I’m going to ramble on about two topics:   1.) The Shroud – Phase 3:   I have to say, the Shroud is my favorite raid (and the first one I learned in the game). Over my past 4 lives I think [...]


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There are no great swoops, no aerobatics, no real change in posture. It seems more like being pushed through the air than of actively flying.


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One can select from a variety of blades that grow out of almost every surface on the character's head.


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All that plus a live Top Ten as well as the usual news, repartee and random hijinks: a good show, and definitely worth your time to give it a view or listen.


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All dressed up, with no booty to plunder


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So yesterday I think I learned the meaning of shit rolls down hill as my supervisor pulled me into his office for our weekly meeting let me know that we are finally expanding our web department and then proceeded to tear me a new asshole. The whole time he kept saying things that seemed to … Continue reading »


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Well, hell’s bells!

But, first a little about my playstyle…I have been playing DDO for 7 years (a little past launch) and have only capped 2 characters (extreme altaholic here), one of which is on his first TR journey.  This leaves my level 22 Artificer (Antikitherah Al’Emrys), who is sitting comfortably in Shiradi 4 with only 1 twist (Cocoon…she’s a Helf), enjoying all the oddball procs that are bundled with Double Rainbow stance

In these 7 years, I have really only PUG’d a couple of times (not too bad), soloed 97% of the time, with a little grouping with transient player-friends thrown-in for good measure.  This being said, I have not raided much (a few solo runs in Chronoscope, and more recently some solo normal runs with that bitchy red head in the desert), nor have I any real endgame loot.  In my quest to “gear-up” now that I have some free time to kill (pun implied), I’ve been running around in various Elite difficulties in the Harbor and Desert for scrolls and stuff (I’m looking at you Golden Guile).  After ransacking the Servant’s chest on EN and running Lord’s of Dust, scoring little more than a pittance of Token Fragments (hey, at least I have enough to make one Token), I decided to take on the first room of the Wizard King while waiting for my Panther summon timer to expire, so that I could continue to ransack the General’s chest for the Ring of Spell Storing.

I figured I’d get a little XP from killing the Den Mother in Elite Wizard King and perhaps find a scroll or something.  After clearing the room on EN and getting nothing more than 1 Token Fragment, I decided to up my ante and resolved to go in on EH the next time.  Although a tad more difficult, I didn’t have too many issues on EH thanks to Pin and Otto’s Whistler.  It was here that I saw my first Seal (Staff of Arcane Power, of which I don’t even have the base item) ever!  There it was in the locked chest in the first room, and I thought to myself, hmm, that’s what they look like…I was so proud of my self.

Another jaunt to the General (who of course wasn’t there) and I was back inside the Wizard King (wait, that doesn’t sound right), but on EE!!!  What can I say, I really felt like testing myself.  So, I throw-on every buff I can and head inside to discover just how quickly I would meet my demise.  I pull the first Gnoll and Pin him while backing up, ready to strike with Otto’s Whistler once he breaks free from my Pin.  This happens (he’s about 1/2 down at this point) and now I got him dancing; he doesn’t last long after that.  Now I’m thinking to myself that I can handle this, if only I can keep everything at a distance, and of course don’t waste a Pin or Otto’s Whistler with a reload animation.  At this point I am really only concerned about getting tripped by the Hyenas, which at this level is automatic if they get close.

The next couple of alcoves are cleaned-out fairly easily, with IPS and some trick-shots getting 2-3 Gnolls pinned and dancing at the same time.  Even with the pinning, dancing, and paralyzing (due to Nerve Venom), being outside of PBS range was killing my DPS, even with blasts from my Corruption of Nature (it was hard to get a full blast of 5 shots due to constantly moving).  I probably should have laid-down all of my Endless Fullisade’s, but you know what they say about hindsight.  Healing Spring and Rejuvenating Cocoon was enough to keep me mostly capped on health and only a few stuns and Greater Commands to worry about.  Now it was time to head-up the ramp and see what I could get into.  It’s here where everything went pear-shaped.

I gingerly advance up the left ramp to pull the first Gnoll and pin him.  This is accomplished, and I’m now heading down the ramp, charging my Rune Arm and volleying bolts .  I then notice that everyone else is moving around too…crapballs!  So I do my best to line as many of them up (a difficult thing to do with the elevation of the ramp) and hit Pin.  I get a few of them, but all of sudden I’m stunned…great!  Next comes a Greater Command and I’m on the floor with the whole Pound Puppy brigade heading my way.  Luckily I’m up before the next stun hits and am able to pop-off a Cocoon for an additional 150 HPs and a handful of mediocre ticks of healing.  This is enough to allow me to put some difference between me and the rabid horde.  I am able to Pin and dance a few of them, but in survival mode I’m in no position to take advantage of their Helpless states.  Unfortunately, all of the casters are now down in the middle of the room with me and I’m trying to make my way back to the hallway to bottle neck them a bit.

Needless to say, with spams of Greater Command and being Stunned and Slowed, I died.  But hey, I think I did rather well.  This being said, I was not going to give-up on that chest!  After getting a Seal on EH, I could only imagine the riches that awaited me inside an EE chest!  So I rez’d and was able to pick-off the remaining 3 Gnolls one by one (fairly easy to do when one can stay upright).  With the room cleared I headed for the chest, all the while envisioning the goodies that must be all snuggled-up inside, next to the crest.  I stop to ponder the riches…then I pop the chest and…nothing!

Oh well.  At least this little (but Epic) adventure showed me two things: 1) Seals do exist…now to get confirmation of Scrolls and Shards and 2) I can survive 20 mobs on EE, with only dying once

.myrddinman

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So my first blog post happens to be about NWO. Yep, like a lot of you, I have tried it and will post my take on it as well. I registered and played as a free player on the Dragon Shard. Each server is considered a shard. I chose to do a direct download...


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Oddly, the character has birthday cakes and so forth, but no other equipment. And also, is first level.


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For the last week people crossing the bridge in the Marketplace might have noticed a large blue and yellow ribbon draping the side of the bridge.
At first Turbine didn’t explain what it was. Reading the forums people seemed to figure it out pretty quick. Being a Boston company the bombings at the marathon probably hit them hard because it was so close to home.

I read that some people were a bit perturbed because DDO is their escape from real life and this kind of thing doesn’t belong in the game.

I disagree. I think that them using the game to bring awareness to a good cause is a nice thing.

I also like that using the code “Boston” in the DDO Store you can get a free memorial ribbon to wear over your character’s shoulder. It’s cool that ten are totally free and tradeable so in the future you bring one out and give them to someone.

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So, I have a currently level 18 caster clonk with sorcerer dilettante on the Cannith server. I made the toon, after some hesitation, to join Shindurza’s guild Destiny there, to which he’s invited mostly people from myddo. I ran Korthos and some Harbor quests solo, was then joined by Domfig on his fvs and later Nessana the rogue. Some time later Keava and Rilosa joined us, but with some life changes etc, left are now me, Nessana and Rilosa. Clonk, rogue and druid. The three musketeers if have you. Currently we’re only running one night a week, which is Friday.

Well, last week we took level 18, and this week the plan was go to Eveningstar. We ran Lords of Dust last week, so this week we were to do Servants of the Overlord, Spinner of Shadows and Beyond the Rift. Ness put up an lfm and we were joined by a pally and a wizard, who turned out to be guildies (not our guildies). Half way through the first one a barb joined us as well. Servants was very smooth, I think we got through it without any deaths and only skipped one optional. Spinner did also go well, until I ran out of mana, which is when ppl started dying. But I raised them and then focused only on scroll healing the barb, which worked out well.

 

The barb left after spinner, but the rest of us continued with Beyond the rift. For me it was rather boring, because I couldn’t command and the spiders often evaded my blade barrier. I did manage to command a few earth ellies, which was awesome, lol. Other than that it was a very smooth run.

 

And after getting to Eveningstar, and realising I can’t pick up the epic quests yet, I wanted to flag for shroud. The pally and wiz stayed on and we ran Running with the Devils and Coalescence Chamber. Devils wasn’t really my thing, all I could do was stand back and heal, or I would die – which happened twice. Nice xp anyway. In chamber I was playing nice for a while, then I got bored and started running ahead a bit, only to run into too many mobs, turn around and run back to the party, lol.

 

After tonight runs, Keronna is missing 37k xp for level 20, and I need to start to plan her gear, lol. Keronna is only a 28p build, and even though I made a build plan for up to 20, I never planned her as epic. She really has no gear, and soon no plat either. But I guess plat won’t be that much of an issue once she gets epic. I do need to decide on ED, though. She is a pure caster build, maxed wizdom, and 14 cha for the dilly, dumped dex and str. She can melee a little, but her str is only 20 in fire stance, so she doesn’t hit too hard. She does better as caster. So, from the divine’s she’d prolly be better in EA. But, maybe I should go DI? or GMoF? Got to think about that.

Alright, that’s all for now. Ty for reading and see u in game.

P.S. All quests were run elite.

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Day Three of tackling the new enhancements finds us examining Coin Serf, the Hagglebot with Benefits.


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So I have been webbing more and more in the last few weeks. And while I am not the best ddo player ever I have the quest more or less down.  So well the last 3-4 runs I didn’t die at all and the raid kept the deaths down to low almost no deaths. But almost always there is at least one person that gets thrown off by a leg.

Jump to run 2 on Samiusbot aka Tuesday night, Brai (I think) asks in Defense if anyone wants to web. I was just clearing the web explorers as it was about bedtime and thought well if it was a fast normal maybe…. Turns out that was his plan exactly. I use a bypass and tag in. Things are going well until I go to sidestep a leg popping out of the ground and walk into another one spawning right behind me. Thought I was good as it looked like I had stopped. Turns out I had just lagged and in fact I was thrown extra far… Like really really far. The rest of the run went very smooth.

Last night Tobril has the on call phone for work so he doesn’t want to solo heal a hard just incase. I tell him to just throw up a normal and say on Tobril then. That was the plan anyway but as people started to file in the Channel people really turned out and we had a hard capable party.  Oh I bypass again, need that repeater, bow, clever on the bot…

My normal task of herding the cat was assigned and I talk to Anna standing behind one of the tooth things. She runs down to attack some random spawn and I jump to behind the rock to tell her to not fight and my vision goes black like I am blinded then I die. Looking at the log I took a hit from Loth for 250 and then I was killed by myself. Not real sure what happened… But I never expect to complete with out dying just thought I had the quest down.

Skip to the leg fight. I see one spawning at my feet and move away but I guess I was doing a running man as I go from trying to move to open space with no in between time. BTW I was asked about what the leg tell looks like and how I would describe it is as if the ground is forming bubbles for about 1 sec if you don’t move in that sec then you are gone. If there is a pre bubble tell I haven’t picked up on it. Sometimes if you are real lucky you can see the start of the leg coming out of the ground with the earth cracking but for me bubbles or go flying.  Death 2.

Death three, in the first optional area I move around the mini boss to keep Anna safe and I am adjusting to avoid the spikes on the roof when we go up. I fall to about 300. I quicken reconstruct quicken repair serous and try a quickened mass light (?) repair no spells go off. Not sure if another person was in my orb or what but I never got a heal and I thought I was shooting the mini boss… But I died on the roof from small arms fire from bowmen. Improved precise shot is a double-edged bolt, one that got me in lots of trouble through out the raid. I picked up 3 tear 2 light dots at one point, as an example….

Death four as I am going to blame on IPS as I picked up a priestess before I could kill her clearing trash mobs and got comet fall tripped chain killed while the healer was right next to me and telling people that I was tipped got me 0 loves.

Five kinda pissed me off a little. We were fighting Loth the second time. Now if I can I like to stay back by that pillar where we all stand to let Anna work the last ball. Lets me keep Anna back and still range when I don’t need to clear trash while having cover from Loth. So I was standing there clearing 3 or 4 spiders when I take a Loth death beam. WTF? Drink a curse pot repair check my placement and take 3 more beams in a row. My stone was right where I should had been safe. Maybe there is no cover from Loth and this whole I was just lucky… Totally questioning my understand of the raid…

Worse part, the only named item that dropped was the hammer (which is a great little item so naturally when it goes up for roll I do so, d100 high. I type out the command and roll a 17 the guy right above me, who is a faster typist I guess nails it with a 100.  Ho hum. But I chill out just in case the winner changes his mind. And the wife files a slot of a guy that randomly DCs in the first part of the quest. So I am waiting for her to pass me her repeater was told to pull but didn’t. Anyway I see Sam wins and the item get moved to my name. I call hang on… And check the txt log. I am guessing that the guy that rolled a 100 was either honestly missed by its original owner or squelched so I confirm that Mr 100 still wants said item and is in the raid and pass it over to him.

Close but no Items for me…

Maybe this weekend?

<3s

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There are other, lesser reasons, but mainly, being a Hjealbot is no longer considered to be a fun way to play DDO. Everyone has to be all battle-clericy all the time. "Bring Your Own Healing!" they say right in the LFM, and woe indeed to the hapless no...


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This may be a record — I’m actually posting on consecutive days! I took my first look at the just release to open beta of the new Neverwinter MMO made by Cryptic Studios and released by Perfect World. My character to test with you ask? A halfling control wizard named Merri Thrushmage was my choice. [...]


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Today me and Grim were gonna finish flagging for CitW, by running the Demon Web quests. I put up an lfm, we got 3 ppl and off we went. I of course, do not navigate, so let Grim lead I just kill stuff and either brag about my dps or complain that I’m not doing enough. Well the Demon Web quests on eH were smooth sailing with 2 monks, rogue, cleric and… I think last guy was a barb? I of course completely forgot to snap any pictures duing the runs. They were good and Maidae and Sprynge are now flagged for CitW. Yay!

After those runs, I felt too wired to quit, would have wanted to run a raid, but since no one joined my Shroud lfm after it being up for a couple of mins, we decided to run eH DA instead. From this quest I did remember to snap pics. We entered 4 man + 2 hirelings.

 

 

 

I like killing stuff, and I like pictures. But I also really like the cleric dilettante on my monk. It’s saved my ass and the completion of some quests more than once. I can’t imagine running a monk that can’t use heal & raise scrolls.

Oh, and yes, my posts haven’t been that intelligent lately.  I have been working a lot, and when I’m not working I’m playing DDO, exercising or hanging out with the degus. I also try and get some sleep once in a while as well as rest my back (which really hates all this sitting in front of the computer I do.)

So, to sum up, I like pictures, I like to kill stuff, and self heal. I post blogs about my toons. Sometimes raids. Now sleep. Not a post, lol.

Thank you for reading and letting me babble. Happy questing.

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A few days away from Eberron can sure feel like an eternity, after the serious hours i’ve put in lately running Epic stuff with the guild.  This was moving week, and while i’ve experienced some of the more restful nights of sleep lately, the evening leading up to slumber has been pretty darn boring without any Internet access.  So just in case no one understood how much of a geek i am, there’s a bit of proof for you.  Someday i’ll regale you with my intramural basketball story and then you’ll really know for sure.

Anyway, here i am siphoning some free wifi at my favorite cafe.  It’s a terrific location even if their product leaves a lot to be desired.  Or, as a recent facebook interaction went down, wherein they urged fans to vote for the establishment as the “best coffee shop in Willoughby, and the best coffee,” i asked for clarifcation – are those two different categories?  Because it’s definitely my favorite coffee shop.

But i digress.  This is tagged in the DDO category afterall.  But without much playtime or nifty screenshots to share, instead i have only a single night’s adventures to recall and a new Long Shot project to tease.

Monday night is raid night for Sacred Flame Guardians on Sarlona.  And since my air savant Schir Gold is crackling with Epic power these days, as you know from previous posts i’ve been running lots of Epic Hard content including raids the likes of which i’d not experienced in the tenure of my DDO career (that spans about 7 years now).  So…yeah.  It’s been an exciting time of new content, new loot, and new friends.

Unfortunately, i made the noob (newb?) mistake of not turning in my completion of VON last week after my second-ever run (wherein i received a whole fat lotta nothin’ in the epic chest; still had fun though).  Snagging screenies from orbit led to a re-entry freefall, a trip to the Fatespinner, and a falling-asleep-at-the-wheel late night logout.  It wasn’t until about mid-day Monday when i realized i never ran back to Barrow to let her know the Plane of Night was liberated from the great wyrm Velah.  Sorry to leave you hanging, House K.

Thankfully my guildmates were all cool about my amateur mistake.  When i jumped on to get raid ready on Monday, they were just about to do some dragon-hunting in the Tor and invited me along for some fun and loot (and the extra chance for gear pulls i imagine). Shot a quick text to Wrongside in case he wanted to join, and i was off.

First we tackled the black dragon.  We had to beat it down twice, because my DOT killed the poor beast before his giantish companion fell.  But it was no biggie and we defeated the pair of them.  Nothing of note in the chest.

Next up, the white dragon.  Snickety-snack and we’re rummaging through his hoard in about 2 minutes flat.  No Intricate Field Optics for anyone.  *sigh*

Finally, the blue dragon and his punishing trapped treasure room. This battle went surprisingly smooth and we raced down the hall to check those chests…and success!  Reikenn managed to pull that Blue Dragon Helm he’s been searching for.

And, of course, we all got scales aplenty.  i’m really thinking warforged might be the way to go for me on subsequent TR’s, if only because docents make it so much simpler.  i don’t know though…still on the fence about those living constructs.  Convince me, non-fleshies!

Following our time in the Tor, we went through the typical “what do you guys want to do next?” situation.

“Chronoscope?”

“How about Caught in the Web?”

You could tell by the lack of enthusiastic – or any – response that these were not top priority choices for any one at the time.

“High Road?”

“I could do that?”   “Yeah, sure.”  ”I haven’t done that in a while…”

It was settled then – High Road it is.  Wrongside and i had just a few days prior made some tentative footsteps into the wilderness area and had a blast.  The relatively newer open areas like this, King’s Forest, Underdark, and re-tooled Gianthold are really terrific in my opinion.  i love the little pop-up random quests that you stumble onto, and the breadth of the places is wonderful.  This environments really speak to the PnP gamer in my, where just getting to the adventure can be an adventure in and of itself.  On a side note, ever get so caught up having wilderness area fun that you wind up skipping the quests?  Me too.  But not this night.  i get the feeling that in a way, Wrongside and i helped rekindle some spark of fun for our guildmates that have run this stuff so many times before.  They get to see things from our perspective a bit as first-timers and i’m happy it reminds them how much fun it can be.

Running the Netherese Legacy was also cool for me, because there are a few pieces of gear i’ve had my eye on, like the Wizard’s Ward, Shadowmail,  Nether Grasps, and Treads of Falling Shadow.

We ran each of the quests on Epic Hard.  Now, i don’t know if it was the experience of my mates, a magic combo of class contributions, my naivete regarding my own power, or all of those things and more, but these quests were pretty easy.  i mean, we practically steamrolled through all of them without missing a beat.  Unfortunately, the loot gods turned a blind eye towards me that night and i didn’t pull anything of note (i.e. named loot – yeah i’m a label whore).  At the end of it all i choose the base model Nether Grasps for my reward.  Wrongside picked up Forgotten Light, and he is excited to someday dual-wield it alongside the coveted Celestia from CitW.  He also pulled a nice Glaciation Wizard’s Ward that he passed to Reikenn.

And that was the last i’ve played.  Needless to say, i am champing at the bit for some DDO action!  In the meantime, i’ve been theorycrafting a new character and planning for the future of The Long Shot.

Oh!  And i was super stoked to check out the DDO Chronicle this week and see the Community Spotlight shining right here on the Long Shot!  That was really awesome.  Along with that, a mention and terrific compliment on the latest DDOCast episode 280, a gracious comment from Gamer Geoff, and a pending press pass to Gen Con Indy, i am convinced that focusing on DDO here at the site is a major plus.  What could be better than playing a game i love, then writing about it and interacting with the awesome DDO community?  If my metrics are any indication, DDO seems to be the ticket to punch for whatever audience i’ve got, too.

To that end, i’ve got a special segment planned for The Long Shot that i’ll tell more about in the near future.  i’ll give you a hint about it here though: it combines my Journalism studies with DDO.

Also coming up, i’ve got an interview with a firmly established gamer and all around great guy that i can’t wait to share with y’all.

And once i get me some Internet, i’m looking forward to updating this post with some eye candy and links as well.  And, of course, some gaming!

Thanks for visiting!

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  Normally these days, Im not Turbines biggest fan anymore. However, today they released cosmetics into both DDO and LotRO in support of the One Fund Charity for the victims of the Boston bombings. On this, I gladly choose to stand with Turbine and got myself both the DDO One Fund Ribbon and the LotRO One [...]


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The play style will change and be more button-ey. But the role will not, she will still be an off-tank DPS build that is extra useful in places like Enter the Kobold.


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With the demise of MyDDO blogging I have taken Geoff up on his incredibly gracious offer to host our blogging on his site. While I’m not an incredibly prolific poster, occasionally I manage to get a few words recorded in the electronic ether. Who am I you ask? The best way to describe me is [...]


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