Yeah yeah. DDO got me good.

Late at night, I often play a quick game of DDO while my wife and baby sleep nearby. It's not ideal. My wife is a light sleeper and my baby cries at night. But I put on my headphones, type quietly, have fun, and no one's the wiser.

Except last night. I was favor farming some quests that leveled past. And then I happened upon my all time most hated quest: Faithful Departed.

Whenever I think of that quest I think of being poisioned constantly, of the PUG I was leading bickering and complaining. And I remember trying to methodicaly clear the last room, while completely unaware that entering the last room triggers a battle on top of a pyramid on the far side of the room. We also did not know that our side (the venerated) was doomed to fail if we did it the methodical way.

So, despite our multi-death sufferathon the unknown battle went against us and we were suddenly kicked out of the dungeon. Did we win? Did we lose? Was it a bug? We didn't know at first. And then we found out and we hated Faithful Departed with all our might.

But last night I returned with my level 13 Paladin to tackle that level 8 quest. It was much easier now that I'm higher level and am dripping with greensteel and raid loot. And, with the help of my trusty hireling, I managed to save one of the venerated and unbeknownst to me, skip the other one and head streight to the big fight at the pyramid.

En route, I ran down a  staircase. It was trapped but I didn't know it. Just as I was half way down the whole staircase turned into a forest of spiketraps. KA-KLUNK! I screamed a blood curdling scream, and franticly slapped the spacebar. "NoNoNo!" I thought hystericly. "Jump away from the spikes live live live!" BUT I WAS TOO LATE! Damage data erupted from the top of my Dwarf Paladin's head as he lept away from the trapped staircase. I watched with horror as my hitpoints dropped from 497 to 491.

The wife and kid woke up, and it was a huge hassle to get them back to sleep. But I gotta hand it to you DDO, you got me good. ;)

TR: Level 13 Subterrane loot

My most important Subterrane loot is my large bags. I don't know what I'd do with out them and I've enjoyed having them since before I TRed. But this post is about someting else. Sub Raid loot!

I had so much fun equpping my GS, I couldn't wait to equip more TR gear. I broke my promise to at least farm all the favor and now I'm level 13 with a bunch of incomplete mid level quests. Finding a group that is ok with the XP penalty isn't gonna be easy.

But it was worth it. Now I've got Tharnes Goggles for true seeing and sneak attack. It's been avery long time since I didn't have these sweet goggles, but I remember the twin frustrations fighting displaced mobs and begging for True Seeing. The Sneak attack also gives a +5 to hit and +8 damage against anything I don't have aggro on.

Levik's bracers don't look like much, +6 strength and some healing amp, but that healing amp doesn't just add up, it multiplies. So it's a big deal for someone who gets hit alot and has the ability to heal.

Finaly, Mabar Cloak of Night level 12. I was so excited to level up, I didn't even equip it until I was 13, so I'm including it in this post. Personaly I love the level 12 cloak of night because it has undispellable deathblock -- perfect for those pesky Beholders!

Speaking of which, my first level 13 quest was Invaders! a many beholdered quest if ever there was one!

In my last post I talked about my DDO twin. But in Invaders I met my DDO nemesis -- the Dwarven Paladin Viability Atheist! (DPVA)

Blech! What a slimy guy. But lucky for me, three very fortunate things happened. 1) I ignored him and watched Anime. 2) The rest of the PUG called him on it. 3) I was penultimate on the kill count and didn't die. Not that, the cold shoulder, sound advice or demonstrative facts ever swayed a Dwarven Paladin Viability Atheist, but in the absence of comeuppance their belecose blather compounds endlessly.

But enough about Mr. DPVA. What I wanted to talk about was that I noticed in my previous life that I was basicaly invulnerable to beholders. So I wanted to know if I could get the Invaders Beholders to slay me. It was thrilling at first, but then the answer came back a resounding NO! These beholders can't kill me for some reason. Last time I was running through here at level I was terrified of beholders. I was ok if I could manyshot them, or extend cast at them outside of the range of their terrifying spell like abilities, but now they're harmless! Anyway, it's a laugh and it makes me want to stick with the Hunter of the Dead line for a bit longer.

TR: Level 12 Greensteel weapons /kiss /kiss /kiss

After cluttering this blog with bellyaching about my weapons, I finally get to talk about my Greensteel weapons from my first life.

First up is my pair of Lightning II Dwarf axes. So cool! So deadly! So DPS! I also have a set of Holy I GS hammers for raise dead clickies and skeleton bashing. Lastly a Mineral I GS dwarf axe with stoneskin clickies.

As luck would have it, I stepped into my first ever Chains of Flame run, (I'm a TR but this is a new pack for me) and who should I meet but my twin!

Yeah, seriously. He's a wee lil' Dwarf Paladin just like me. He's TR just like me. He swings a pair of GS Dwarf Axes just like me.

Funniest thing was when we were waiting for a trap to get disarmed. Without talking about it at all, we simultaniously decided to step out of the room, draw identical Dwarven Throwers and snipe a row of annoying skeletons.

The only thing that was different is that my Mithral full plate armor was only +4. So afterwards he gave me a set of Mithral full plate +5!

"We are tired of waiting for a trapper, so we accepted you instead" they said.

"We are tired of waiting for a trapper, so we accepted you instead" they said.

Actualy, it was really cool. We snuck past the VON3 traps with tactics -- stand against this door and run through it before the trap gets you. Stand very very far away from that door and then go through later. Our stunt-warforged died at each door, but the rest of us were fine until the very last trap.

(Spoilers, obviously)

Endgame: Our supposedly "safe" corner got zapped hard enough to kill everyone but me, the Cleric and someone else. I used my big heal, unyielding Soverignty, to come back from the brink of death. I sprinted forward to buy some time for the Cleric. But the Inevitable ran right past me. Then my Intimidate caught his attention and he came back to fight me. My armor, defensive buffs and all that seemed to be holding.

But then the Inevitable stunned me. I couldn't move, couldn't self-heal, couldn't stop the Inevitable from killing our Cleric.

I can't cast raise dead until I level up so I was stuck with what we had on hand. The Inevitable moves fast and kills quickly. Now there are only three of us. The warforged healer, the necromancer and me. I can't heal the necro so I toss a Lay on Hands at the Warforged, he survives but gets tagged again and runs into the other room to self heal.

The Inevitable chases him, runs past me, and then spins around to fight me instead. My intimidate worked! The warforged caster takes his sweet time healing up, and I get blinded. Apparently, DDO blindness has been upgraded from black screen to white screen. Totaly cooler too.

According to the focus orb, the Inevitable has no HP left! I can't see, but I can tell that I'm losing hitpoints quickly and that my self-heals are still working. A few times I feel confident that my HP are high enough and I take a few swings with my force damage axe. I deal a bit of damage, but strangely the no-HP Inevitable doesn't die! Is it bugged? It should be dead! DIE DIE DIE!

Finaly, my vision clears and the metal giant crashes to the ground with the groan of defeated metal. The Warforged caster posts the killing blow and brags about it. I don't care, I'm just glad we won.

Again

I ran Tempest Spine again. :)

I got 4th place on the killcount list, which is pretty good for a character with +0% striding boots. I spent most of the quest chasing the group.

But fear not, my level 12 gear is much nicer.

"NEVER AGAIN!"

So, I got banned by a self-avowed female and it was super wierd. She banned me in all caps, and with a sort of stilted formal language that reminded me of WWII documentaries about the horrors of the concentration camps.

Am I missing something? I don't play WoW but I know they have even more dramaz than Khyber. Is there some sort of geeky subculture where they complain in Nurenberg-esque language?

Edit: For clarification I should say that the ban she gave me was that I would "henceforth never again be allowed to group with her" and that she would tell the whole server about my infamy. I didn't get for-real-banned. :)

TR: Gearing a Failadin

Today I made the transition from easy lowby quests to the cool quests with a splat.

I ran Haywire's Foundry on Elite on my level 10 Paladin. I couldn't hit anything, but boy could they hit me!

But since I was failing so spectacularly, I took a long hard look at my gear. I've been so excited about Greensteel and Subterrane raid loot I haven't bothered to upgrade or replace the stuff I crafted 3 levels ago.

So anyway, I currently have four weapon sets. I use my skeleton beaters on almost everything since the Holy does 2d6 to anything evil, I use a set of Muckdoom & Muckbane for slimes and rusties, Dwarven thrower for marksmanship and foreverything else there's force damage from my Antique Greataxe.

So, you can see how all those warforged and construct dogs were virtualy 100% me-proof. Lucky for me I found that I had pulled a clay gollum beater out of my TR bank. It's a nightforged Warhammer, +5 adamantine and perfect for the quest. I tried pairing it with a skelleton beater, but I got more benefit from using a shield. Trading a to-hit penalty for a bit of AC was nice. I even managed to pull aggro on some of the warforged, including the boss.

But mostly I just drank heal pots and wand whipped. I went through 80 CSW pots and 160 CSW wand charges. At the end of the quest I was totaly out of everything. No lay on hands, no unyielding soverenty, no cure pots, no cure wands, no mana.... nothing! And then I on the escape run I grabbed a soulstone out of a trap and got slain by the trap myself.

Oh how I want my Greensteel and raidloot!