Dungeons and Dragons Online - Fair Codexia Dead - DDO NEWs Thread!

[Reinhardt]

I think i'll spend last days of free expansion mapping epic Barovia wilderness. Running it at level 20 first life character is proper horror adventure. And good exp.

 

[infidel]

Finished the Harbinger of Madness and got one of the few pieces of good named loot I have:

"Try not to think about where they've been."

That final part with the podium was a bit ghey but still funny.

Spoiler

Hawt. The music was pretty trippy, too.

Now on to Sharn and it looks like I've missed out on the intro. Stormreach Beacon is missing, some lady is saying I've helped her before and I don't even know what that is and what are we talking about. Did the first mission with the terrorist attack and this "corporate" D&D strongly reminds me of Shadowrun. It's funny to watch how any long-standing game will start to lift whole chunks of other environments. Like the Harbinger thing has decent Lovecraftian vibes in it plus WoD, too, with the main bad guy being very much a Tzimisce.

 

[Helton]

Now on to Sharn and it looks like I've missed out on the intro. Stormreach Beacon is missing, some lady is saying I've helped her before and I don't even know what that is and what are we talking about. Did the first mission with the terrorist attack and this "corporate" D&D strongly reminds me of Shadowrun. It's funny to watch how any long-standing game will start to lift whole chunks of other environments. Like the Harbinger thing has decent Lovecraftian vibes in it plus WoD, too, with the main bad guy being very much a Tzimisce.

There's a (pretty decent) quest chain at the Jorasco hospital about the stormreach beacon which leads into the Sharn plot. I don't know if there are other related quests or not. And that lady is standing a bit in front of the boat to Sharn, her quest is part of the saga so you def want to do that one.

 

[Reinhardt]

Maybe i'll ransack ravenloft quests on epic normal too. At least easier and shorter ones. I can fight lone packs in wilderness just fine even without hireling. Rare encounters too, but it's long and i need to use 1-2 lay on hands.

 

[Zurat-Yarkuch]

I grinded enough DDO points on my alt free account to get the Menance of the Underdark and Shadowfell Conspiracy bundles for 99 points each. Even though I probably won't use them on this account it is nice to have. I'm just leveling this alt account toon up so I can use it for quests that require four members. That way I don't have to wait for an LFM to get the favor I want. Planning on taking it to Level 10 or 12, than I'll focus on my main toon again on my main account.

Also, for any new players or people interested in trying the game out, check out my signature for the links to the free quest code and other offers. They expire Aug 31, in two days. So if you want to give the game a whirl now is your best chance to try it out.

 

[Reinhardt]

I see servers decided to go full "fuck you" again.

I guess no adventure for me then.

 

[infidel]

That's a lotta options:

Coincidentally, that dungeon had the first puzzle I've skipped after fiddling with it for 20 minutes (the shrine one).

(NPC): Evan Greybeard tells you, 'A Dragonmark is a birthmark, not a tattoo, you numbskull. And thankfully, mine is in a place that's easy to hide. Unlike the rest of this.'
(NPC): You tell Evan Greybeard, 'So, would you call it a small blessing?'
(Say): Evan Greybeard says, 'Oh, snap. Good one. I will get you for this. Mark my words, you lil scallywag.'

Finished the Sharn without the Cogs args. There are a lot of noir vibes in there, starting right from the jazzy soundtrack, and that's awesome. Red Rain is probably my favorite due to the focus on the murder investigation. Reach for the Sky has a cool back entry option after some jumping but it breaks the sequence for Kaine, unfortunately, he starts talking to thin air in the backstage areas. It all could use some more polish, Just Business has a lot of geometry bugs, holes, stairs too big, z-level fighting between the textures, etc, and they really need to work on those typos everywhere. You truly start to appreciate polish in other games which you kind of were taking as a given. The x3 exp bonus is over on Wayfinder and now I progress with more proper speed, just a single level from two parts.

 

[Reinhardt]

No, seriously, i'm glad they refused my money. Their service could put most pirate servers to shame.

 

[Zurat-Yarkuch]

No, seriously, i'm glad they refused my money. Their service could put most pirate servers to shame.

Wait, why are they refusing your money? They don't accept money from Germany?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

z-level fighting between the textures

This happens a lot in Sharn areas, it's because they built many of the areas using intersecting geometry. It's like they tried to do a modular workflow but didn't actually have modular assets.

No, seriously, i'm glad they refused my money. Their service could put most pirate servers to shame.

Yep, it's my biggest and probably only complaint about the game.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Looks like we were too quick to judge, it's not on their end.

We have been reading your reports this morning and have been investigating. So far this does appear to be related to the worldwide Internet issues being reported that have been attributed to an issue with CenturyLink.

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthre...-connectivity-issues-this-morning#post6355260

 

[Zurat-Yarkuch]

Just googled CenturyLink. It's an American multinational telecommunications company, and somehow they messed up the internet in North America and Europe.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/centurylink-subscribers-report-widespread-internet-124023836.html

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Meld Into Darkness is pretty much a mandatory twist if you aren't using shadowdancer.

 

[Reinhardt]

Gained another level for codexia guild...

 

[Hoaxmetal]

Gained another level for codexia guild...

I even made some alts to increase the renown bonus to 300% for 6 active accounts (logged during last 30 days) when I used to play

 

[Lhynn]

Just did my last run of sharn, this time in heroics, it was pretty fun. Played with a paladin friend, he seems to do about as much damage per swing as my level 7 spells, thf paladins are crazy currently. Tempted to reroll as one next life.

 

[Reinhardt]

Just did my last run of sharn, this time in heroics, it was pretty fun. Played with a paladin friend, he seems to do about as much damage per swing as my level 7 spells, thf paladins are crazy currently. Tempted to reroll as one next life.

I'm 2h paladin. Sharn is one of the worst places to play as melee character. Lots of annoying ranged enemies you have to chase + buggy surfaces = not fun. I will miss Ravenloft but not Sharn.

 

[Lhynn]

Just did my last run of sharn, this time in heroics, it was pretty fun. Played with a paladin friend, he seems to do about as much damage per swing as my level 7 spells, thf paladins are crazy currently. Tempted to reroll as one next life.

I'm 2h paladin. Sharn is one of the worst places to play as melee character. Lots of annoying ranged enemies you have to chase + buggy surfaces = not fun. I will miss Ravenloft but not Sharn.

You may be shit at charbuilding. Every paladin ive teamed up with steamrolled sharn. Though its probably that you dont have many reaper levels.

 

[Reinhardt]

You may be shit at charbuilding. Every paladin ive teamed up with steamrolled sharn.

I'm not talking about "hard", i'm talking about "annoying". You never know if you will just run over this tiny plank or you will start climbing, or it even throw you from the ledge. Add to this 20 fags who run from you in all directions leaving traps in their trails and you will get very enjoyable melee experience.

 

[Helton]

I'll second the anti-suggestion. I'm so fucking eager to reincarnate out of melee. Casters and archers scatter, hamstring me, have to slowly run to each one. Raptors jump frenetically back and forth so half my tactics attacks don't even roll a to-hit. Kobolds jump on boxes, spiders dance around so I have to constantly move camera. Archers placed on top of platform I have to run all over room to get to. I place my holy ground down and then target immediately flees across room so I have to leave it. Latency and fleeing enemies also cause you to miss important tactics attacks without a to-hit chance. Speaking of lag, have fun spending 10 seconds swinging at the air everytime there's a lag spike, hitting nothing.

These issues would only get marginally better with an op build. The game is just not built with melee quality of life in mind.

 

[Helton]

You may be shit at charbuilding. Every paladin ive teamed up with steamrolled sharn.

I'm not talking about "hard", i'm talking about "annoying". You never know if you will just run over this tiny plank or you will start climbing, or it even throw you from the ledge. Add to this 20 fags who run from you in all directions leaving traps in their trails and you will get very enjoyable melee experience.

Oh yeah trapper spam mostly only affects melee (except those spiders I guess). The goo-trap assholes give you a run-speed debuff that lasts 30 seconds. And I doubt non-melees ever even step on them. What an "eff you" to melee chars. Also that goblin boss you have to fight 3 fucking times (why?) constantly running away or stealthing and laying bombs so you can't even chase him directly... I don't think he does that the third time tbf.

 

[Reinhardt]

Finished my exploration of epic Barovia. ~2000 kills, all journals, 9/15 rare encounters. Leveled from 20 to 22. Didn't get enough vistani items for second weapon...
Did some quests. It's doable, but not worth the trouble. Too damn long to kill anyone, especially bosses.

 

[Lhynn]

Finished my exploration of epic Barovia. ~2000 kills, all journals, 9/15 rare encounters. Leveled from 20 to 22. Didn't get enough vistani items for second weapon...
Did some quests. It's doable, but not worth the trouble. Too damn long to kill anyone, especially bosses.

Why would you want a vistani weapon? They suck and you get them for free. Though you do want weapons from barovia, just not the vistani ones.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I keep spending all my astral shards on extra gold rolls. Not really sure what else to do with them.

 

[Helton]

I keep spending all my astral shards on extra gold rolls. Not really sure what else to do with them.

Skip boring/inefficient saga quests.