Author Topic: Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO)  (Read 7989 times)

Offline phaedrusxy

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Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO)
« on: August 06, 2018, 02:47:18 AM »
I started playing this again over the past week (I'm working 12  hr night shifts and frequently am not busy). The Crystal Cove area has been open and I have been having a blast running it. I've gotten to where I can solo it 9 times out of 10, and managed to get 330 crystals once. :D


It got pretty intense at times... At one point, the main "boss" came up to the top of the ramp, along with 1-2 other "mini-bosses" and several wraiths... They killed me, my hireling, and all of the kobolds... but I'd already gotten the 100 crystals so I still "won".


It was hard on my equipment, though... At one point, everything I was wearing was broken. :P


I definitely was spending more in repairs than I was getting out of it...


It was definitely worth it, though. You can craft/buy some really great gear with the green gems you get as a reward, and it was tons of fun. I did a few runs with a guy, and it was way easier with two people. Even after crafting/buying myself a set of armor and several skill boosting hats (probably costing around 1000 total), I still have over 1600 green dragonshards.
« Last Edit: August 06, 2018, 02:49:24 AM by phaedrusxy »
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Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO)
« Reply #1 on: August 15, 2018, 11:24:33 PM »
Been running this with my sorcerer, and it's significantly easier with the amount of damage he can dish out and Dimension Door to get back to the beginning quickly. I ran it with a few PUGs, but still haven't beaten that 330 crystals that I got soloing, although overall we do average more than I can get solo. I also soloed it a few times set on CR 17 with my level 11 sorcerer because I wanted emeralds. That was pretty tough, and wound up letting the Foreman die once or twice when Jack showed up, but managed to get over 100 green DS every time and got all the emeralds I needed, too. :D
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Offline Stratovarius

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO)
« Reply #2 on: August 16, 2018, 09:40:19 AM »
How close is it to actual DnD?

Offline SorO_Lost

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO)
« Reply #3 on: August 16, 2018, 10:57:35 AM »
How close is it to actual DnD?
75%ish?

It's D&D and you can learn a ton of Eberron lore, as well as expand on it, by playing DDO but it does have MMO mechanics that overlay the top of it. Particularly you get four Action Points per level which can be invested in skill trees. Also new combat mechanics like attack speed, PPR/MPR, Melee/Spell Power, Doublestrike, etc are aimed at the MMO gaming aspect to better set up scaling then the one hit lethality of D&D by becoming lethal in other ways. Like sheer numbers, because Contact Other Plane doesn't exist and you cannot Gate in Solars to claim caster supremacy.

As noted, if you want to play hit me up on what kind of Class you want. I can help you skip the learning curve of the differences and traps. Like a Human Sorcerer's best two Feats are probably Maximize and Empower Spell, because in a Spell Point system they don't need higher level Slots to use those feat and the SLAs they obtain in their skill trees ignore the increased cost of using Metamagics while enjoying the increased damage for using them. Something totally unheard of in D&D, sort of like Fighters (and even shields!) being useful.
« Last Edit: August 16, 2018, 12:34:54 PM by SorO_Lost »

Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO)
« Reply #4 on: August 18, 2018, 08:58:49 AM »
Yeah I'm using Empower and Maximize and have bought some enhancements to reduce the costs, although I have them "turned off" on my general spellcasting for now, and always on for the SLAs (which I can kill most mobs with quickly: I typically only actually cast spells for bosses and hordes). When I have them both on, and I hit something with Scorching Ray, it's typically WAY overkill (like... most mobs die to the first of the four rays...). So I'm just wasting power...

I'm having a blast running with acid first and fire second, though most people say you should spec cold primary for the later game (I haven't used my heart of lesser wood, so I could). Just made 12th night before last soloing The Pit, and then I bought Gianthold with some DDO points I had laying around and am enjoying it a lot.

I was finally able to put two points into getting Acid Blast as a SLA (requires 12th level), which is like an acid substituted fireball, and holy crap is that great. I'm doing average of 250+, and frequently critting for 500s, for a very small amount of power points (and I have over 1500 at my maximum). I have noticed that since hitting 12th there are more and more mobs that actually make their saving throws and some which I have a hard time beating the SR on, though. As in PnP D&D, once you hit the mid levels the difference between having a good save (and evasion) and having a bad save start to really become noticeable, and it's pretty easy to tell which monsters are which. Most of my spells allow Reflex saves at this point, so when I run into a bunch of rogue-like monsters with Evasion sometimes the fights take a while longer. :D

My biggest complaints are how you're basically railroaded in the game, and don't have all the utility/non-combat options that you have in real D&D. For example... there's a portcullis, and I'm a 12th level sorcerer with Dimension Door... except all that spell does in DDO is teleport me back to the beginning of the dungeon. It has no other destination options... So I have to run around all over the fkn place looking for a key... instead of DD'ing through it, blasting it open with my uber-acid attacks, summoning a monster on the other side and having it pull the switch, etc...

Also, invisibility is near useless. I understand that it seemed "unfair" that you could Invis to the end and complete a bunch of the quests without fighting, but come one... I was following an old guide on how to run through one of the adventures and it suggested using Invis to bypass some of the monsters... and they just walked up and started attacking me like I was wearing a giant, neon sign saying "Kill me, please!".  :rolleyes

And then there is the total lack of real flight... (although jumping off a cliff and lobbing fire/acid balls as you Featherfall down is pretty awesome :D)
« Last Edit: August 18, 2018, 09:12:35 AM by phaedrusxy »
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Offline SorO_Lost

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO)
« Reply #5 on: August 18, 2018, 08:15:44 PM »
Also, invisibility is near useless. I understand that it seemed "unfair" that you could Invis to the end and complete a bunch of the quests without fighting, but come one... I was following an old guide on how to run through one of the adventures and it suggested using Invis to bypass some of the monsters... and they just walked up and started attacking me like I was wearing a giant, neon sign saying "Kill me, please!".  :rolleyes
That's part of the MMO aspect. You used to invis most of quest content, specially on the old style epic quests, but the devas thought that was too broken and tweaked stealth mechanics. You actually need Hide/Move ranks now :p

Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO)
« Reply #6 on: August 19, 2018, 04:38:41 AM »
I'm on the Cannith server, and mostly playing Thurzdoom, my sorcerer 12. I also have Ulfgrom some (barb 8/rogue2/ftr1), and rarely play Tymlin (rogue 2/wiz 8) or Ulfdag (Cleric 9).
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Offline SorO_Lost

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO)
« Reply #7 on: August 19, 2018, 10:49:26 AM »
I'm on the Cannith server, and mostly playing Thurzdoom, my sorcerer 12.
You didn't include him in your PM so I haven't seen you all week. I already farmed up a lv28 Broken Oar for my beatstick. :p

I have a few characters on Cannith. Takwin (lv28 wf arty/rogue), Shigekuni (lv28 monk/rogue), Azuralt (lv12 monk/warlock), to name a few. I'm not a big fan of TRing since high level characters can draw more gold, but a few are second lifers.

Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO)
« Reply #8 on: August 19, 2018, 12:16:58 PM »
It’s Thurlzdoom... Thurl is a pbp wizard character of mine. :p sorry I thought I told you about all of them.
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Offline SorO_Lost

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO)
« Reply #9 on: August 19, 2018, 08:12:42 PM »
It’s Thurlzdoom... Thurl is a pbp wizard character of mine. :p sorry I thought I told you about all of them.
It told me that character don't exist and I thought I copy and pasted it *shrugs*.

I need to take Takwin to lv30 and just restart him over at lv1 again so I can do a pure Artificer since Rogue was nerfed years ago but he' just so slow... :(

Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO)
« Reply #10 on: August 20, 2018, 12:04:51 AM »
It’s Thurlzdoom... Thurl is a pbp wizard character of mine. :p sorry I thought I told you about all of them.
It told me that character don't exist and I thought I copy and pasted it *shrugs*.
That's odd... I added Takwin. Will send PM.

Edit: Something weird happened... I was in Tor Gianthold, and had completed the main quest and was resting up before trying a dragon and I accidentally fell into some lava... The crazy thing was, it kept burning me even after I died like 10 times... I had to log out, and that kicked me out of the dungeon and reset it...
« Last Edit: August 20, 2018, 03:33:35 AM by phaedrusxy »
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Offline SorO_Lost

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO)
« Reply #11 on: August 20, 2018, 08:22:56 PM »
That's odd... I added Takwin. Will send PM.
I've been on Shigekuni/Subcubare more, picked up Ravenloft with some leftover TP and I've been genuinely enjoying it so far. It's not a creature horde, rather it's like half empty to add to the loneliness/horror trope. Like the first quest has you exploring a house while some dead kids talk to you as you piece together what happened to them. The second one is about finding what happened to two others as you confirm your suspicions over three objectives. And the third one lets you enter Ravenloft Castle which has some spare encounters, but it's huge and four floors that has you visiting each one.

Kind of played through the first one a few times (four total) to try and get a certain ring to drop. Still got like 6 quests to go till the raid and finish.

Edit: Something weird happened... I was in Tor Gianthold, and had completed the main quest and was resting up before trying a dragon and I accidentally fell into some lava... The crazy thing was, it kept burning me even after I died like 10 times... I had to log out, and that kicked me out of the dungeon and reset it...
It's the firebug, you improperly flag exiting lava and the timer will continue to tick. It's fixed via log out but Tor would have reset since the dragons are optional and the quest was already flagged as finished.

How did you like the dragons through? And have you done the raid yet?

Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO)
« Reply #12 on: August 20, 2018, 08:56:51 PM »
I didn’t even get to the dragons and I haven’t done the raid.

Edit: Didn't play at all last night, really... like for 30 minutes. Was too busy at work. :P
« Last Edit: August 21, 2018, 09:13:52 AM by phaedrusxy »
I don't pee messages into the snow often , but when I do , it's in Cyrillic with Fake Viagra.  Stay frosty my friends.

Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO)
« Reply #13 on: August 24, 2018, 10:56:35 AM »
Got some items I'm thinking of auctioning, and wondering what I should set the minimum bid for...



Alternatively I might not sell this stuff, and instead sell the Portable Hole I got... which would probably give me enough platinum to last as long as I'll play this game. :D

Edit: Sold the portable hole, looks like it went for the minimum bid, which was 250k, and the auctionhouse took like 30%...
« Last Edit: August 25, 2018, 12:30:44 AM by phaedrusxy »
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Offline SorO_Lost

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO)
« Reply #14 on: August 29, 2018, 09:13:31 PM »
Yeah the AH can have some nice stuff, sometimes.

I've been running quests for some key items and I picked a special ring up for my lv12 Monk (forgot the wiki hates direct links). Anyway, while Air Stanced it adds +3d6 electricity damage per hit and creates a bleed effect that deals 1d8 every 2 or 3 seconds. Plus I have Pirate Grove's Gloves for another +1d4 damage and a chance to Trip. Enlightenment tree adds another 3d4+spellpower per hit too. Ad my current weapons is the Barovian's Handwraps which deal (2.0+monkbonuses)[1d6]+5 magic/silver/good, +3d6 holy, +3d6 fire, +3d10 vs undead, I'll probably slot another +1d4 in using it's Red Augment and I can also render it Sentient if I wanted for another +4d6 acid or something. Lots of little damage, easily resisted but he is still on the Heroic side. Mostly it's about the combining some temporary boosts to reach 100% Doublestrike, 80% offhand chance, & +60% attack speed for a few seconds. The big thing later will be to bring his base damage up rather than using bonus damage.
« Last Edit: September 03, 2018, 02:59:15 AM by SorO_Lost »

Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO)
« Reply #15 on: September 05, 2018, 05:52:35 PM »
Crazy awesome day. I got the Pansophic Circlet and Hypnotic Pendant on a single reaper 1 run (which I've been farming on lower difficulties for 2 weeks), and also got a yellow slotted Jeweled cloak on a reaper 1 run in the minotaur maze in gianthold. I'm totally convinced that running in reaper is the only way to go now, and PUG groups work just fine for most quests. :D

I also got a bizarre and awesome random scepter that has +20 vitality bonus to health, +7 armor, +35% insightful glaciation and +24% competence to healing amplification.

Oh, and a Cloak of Featherfall with +8 to wisdom, which I am auctioning for probably way too cheap. :P
« Last Edit: September 05, 2018, 05:59:29 PM by phaedrusxy »
I don't pee messages into the snow often , but when I do , it's in Cyrillic with Fake Viagra.  Stay frosty my friends.

Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO)
« Reply #16 on: September 09, 2018, 05:12:51 PM »
I’ve been playing around with my wizard with 2 rogue levels and hate him... So freaking gimped after playing... well any of my other characters. I should delete him so I’m never tempted to waste my time on him again...
I don't pee messages into the snow often , but when I do , it's in Cyrillic with Fake Viagra.  Stay frosty my friends.

Offline SorO_Lost

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO)
« Reply #17 on: September 09, 2018, 05:46:45 PM »
I’ve been playing around with my wizard with 2 rogue levels and hate him... So freaking gimped after playing... well any of my other characters. I should delete him so I’m never tempted to waste my time on him again...
You may want to keep him around. You can mail your self any unbound items allowing you to create a "Mule" to store various items (like all of that pirate grove stuff for the next 11 months) and since your Wizard probably ran a bunch of House K & Coin Lord quests he can store 80 more items than a new character can.


Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO)
« Reply #18 on: September 09, 2018, 06:28:14 PM »
I realized how fkn gimped he was when I noticed that my warforged fighter hireling was so much more effective that it almost made no difference whether I actually did anything other than hide and let him kill everything. I was basically just there to heal him and disarm traps/open locks/etc... In other words, I was basically his bitch, and not the other way around. :P

That works OK soloing some quests, but I failed 3 times on that one with the mummies you're supposed to save from being murdered by drow. If I took the hireling and my skeletal minion, they'd always gank the mummy before I could stop them. If I didn't... I'd be killed by the drow... or unable to kill the drow before they ganked the mummy. SUCH a PITA...

I think this character wouldn't be too desired in most groups, either, although so far I've been able to keep his trap and lock abilities up well enough to perform the corpse role. So there's that... If I can get one more level on him to get Dimension Door, he'd make a decent runner/mule/trapspringer/etc.

Edit: getting stoneskin and DD made a huge difference.
« Last Edit: September 12, 2018, 09:48:13 AM by phaedrusxy »
I don't pee messages into the snow often , but when I do , it's in Cyrillic with Fake Viagra.  Stay frosty my friends.

Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO)
« Reply #19 on: September 13, 2018, 01:30:20 AM »
So... I got the level 14 tower shield with 0 ASF (skyvault) on a reaper 1 Tor run last night... Now I need to decide whether to use it or sell it. :P
« Last Edit: September 13, 2018, 02:00:01 AM by phaedrusxy »
I don't pee messages into the snow often , but when I do , it's in Cyrillic with Fake Viagra.  Stay frosty my friends.