Radiance require a Good character?

[Draccus]

Since the day I dove into crafting, I have been focused on building a Radiance II rapier for my rogue. I'm not completely familiar with how crafting works so I'm taking it step by step and first concentrating on building the greensteel blank.

I got bit anxious and looked ahead at what it will take to build get the Radiance effect. I found an online planner and saw something extremely disturbing. I think the weapon will be good only since I have to use Good Burst as my tier 2 upgrade. If that's the case, I will be extremely unhappy both with crafting and DDO in general.

Can anyone verify that Good Burst requires the character to be good? I made the horrible, permanent mistake at character creation to choose the neutral alignment and have been penalized ever since. I am SHOCKED a game would have a mundane decision made at character creation have such a huge impact in the game (I can't use good weapons without a UMD check).

Sure, you can say just bump your UMD but that's a horrible solution. I have max UMD and the number of times I'm locked out of using an item or weapon because I was stat-damaged mid change is scary.

Please tell me that either a) a crafted weapon with Good Burst doesn't require a good character or UMD check or b) there are ways to make the weapon without this upgrade.

[Supercharged]

No you don't need to be good. Any of the shroud crafting alignment isn't an issue

[MrCow]

Any of the shroud crafting alignment isn't an issue

... unless you put Unholy on a weapon and are of good alignment. This would cause a negative level when the item is equiped.

[Supercharged]

... unless you put Unholy on a weapon and are of good alignment. This would cause a negative level when the item is equiped.

Oh...I was under they impression that nothing mattered alignment wise, thank you for the info.

[Lithic]

Worst case use something other than good burst for tier 2.

[sirgog]

Good Burst, as stated already, does not require you to be good like Pure Good does.

Also, I advise almost all characters to choose True Neutral alignment unless they have a compelling reason to do otherwise (e.g. want to take Monk or Paladin levels). The 'must be good or suffer a penalty' loot is generally not nearly as impressive as the 'must not be good or suffer a penalty' loot (although the latter is rarer). Plus, you take less damage from several effects (Unholy arrows from archers, Unholy Blight), and by being neutral with respect to Law/Chaos, you can use both Axiomatic and Anarchic weapons as you see fit.


The drawback to TN? No Pure Good while levelling, no equipping Pure Good items when you have 3 or more death penalties and no GH at endgame, no Ring of the Ancestors, no Enduring Conviction (think that's the name of the Abbot banisher). I couldn't care less about those drawbacks.

[Angelus_dead]

I got bit anxious and looked ahead at what it will take to build get the Radiance effect. I found an online planner and saw something extremely disturbing. I think the weapon will be good only since I have to use Good Burst as my tier 2 upgrade.
It's better to use Holy Fire Burst than Fire Good Burst. You'll have more DPS against the enemies that matter, while less against ones that don't.

[Draccus]

Thanks folks, great stuff and you really made my day. I also appreciate the advice on going Holy/Fire Burst instead of Fire/Good Burst.

One more question: I see a lot of abbreviations like MEM-EEF-OOE when describing upgrades. I looked for an FAQ to figure them out but can't find one. What do the letters mean?

[ShadowFox1978]

Thanks folks, great stuff and you really made my day. I also appreciate the advice on going Holy/Fire Burst instead of Fire/Good Burst.

One more question: I see a lot of abbreviations like MEM-EEF-OOE when describing upgrades. I looked for an FAQ to figure them out but can't find one. What do the letters mean?

First letter usually denotes the foci:

Eatrh=E
Fire=F
etc.

Second denotes the gem used:

Opposition=O
Dominion=D
Escalation=E

Third denotes essence

Material=M
Ethereal=E

The three in combination tells you what to combine for a given effect.

[MrCow]

I see a lot of abbreviations like MEM-EEF-OOE when describing upgrades. I looked for an FAQ to figure them out but can't find one. What do the letters mean?

Element
F - Fire
W - Water
A - Air
E - Earth
P - Positive
N - Negative

Gems
O - Opposition
D - Dominion
E - Escalation

Essence
M - Material
E - Ethereal

From what I have observed the common practice is to do the Element, the Gem, and then the Essence. For instance, EOE would be Earth-Opposition-Ethereal. If it is the third teir then its often a 4 letter abbreviation such as PAOM (Positive-Air-Opposion-Material).

What you want based on Angelus_dead's suggestion is PDM/FDM/PFOE (http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~delallea/ddo/shroud/cgi-bin/shroud.cgi?forced=radiance_1_&altar=3&weapon=longsword&item=item&craft=1&effects=radiance_,holy,__flaming,heightened_awaren ess_4).

[Draccus]

Element
F - Fire
W - Water
A - Air
E - Earth
P - Positive
N - Negative

Gems
O - Opposition
D - Dominion
E - Escalation

Essence
M - Material
E - Ethereal

From what I have observed the common practice is to do the Element, the Gem, and then the Essence. For instance, EOE would be Earth-Opposition-Ethereal. If it is the third teir then its often a 4 letter abbreviation such as PAOM (Positive-Air-Opposion-Material).

What you want based on Angelus_dead's suggestion is PDM/FDM/PFOE (http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~delallea/ddo/shroud/cgi-bin/shroud.cgi?forced=radiance_1_&altar=3&weapon=longsword&item=item&craft=1&effects=radiance_,holy,__flaming,heightened_awaren ess_4).

Ah, got it. It's an abbreviation for the entire recipe...cool. Thanks!

Last question: am I right in observing that the problem with the dual focus Tier 3 upgrade is that you actually need three supreme shards vs. just one? instead of, say a fire shard, I need a fire, a positive, and then combine them into a fire/pos.

[Strykersz]

Ah, got it. It's an abbreviation for the entire recipe...cool. Thanks!

Last question: am I right in observing that the problem with the dual focus Tier 3 upgrade is that you actually need three supreme shards vs. just one? instead of, say a fire shard, I need a fire, a positive, and then combine them into a fire/pos.

You only need two, but yes(put both charged shards in the device with a cell, they become one super shard that then gets combined with the item/weapon).

[sirgog]

Ah, got it. It's an abbreviation for the entire recipe...cool. Thanks!

Last question: am I right in observing that the problem with the dual focus Tier 3 upgrade is that you actually need three supreme shards vs. just one? instead of, say a fire shard, I need a fire, a positive, and then combine them into a fire/pos.

The big problem isn't that you need 2 Supreme Shards (they're pretty easy to come by).

The big problem is that you require 24 large ingredients, with a disproportionate number of Large Scales.

[Junts]

And the scales is such a stupid simple reason too: Scales are in all 3 kinds of gem and both essences, and stones are in 2 kinds of gem and both essences, which is why they're by far the highest demand ingredients.

[TommyBoy]

It's better to use Holy Fire Burst than Fire Good Burst. You'll have more DPS against the enemies that matter, while less against ones that don't.

can you go into a bit more detail as to why? I'm trying to decide which way to build mine and my character it good aligned so the pg wont matter any how. to me it seems there are far more non good mobs then evil. Im sure theres something im missing.


Also does the 4d6 light damage effect all mobs or just light sensitive mobs like undead and oozes?

[Draccus]

Holy is a better Tier 1 than Fire simply because Holy is 2d6 and Fire is 1d6. Good burst and Fire burst do the same damage. The only place Fire has the advantage is against neutral or good mobs. Fortunately, there aren't enough of those to really matter. So by going Holy/Fire/FR instead of Fire/Holy/FR, you gain an extra d6 damage every hit against most mobs.

The 4d6 light damage works on everything. Good, evil, neutral, trash, orange named, red named. I haven't found anything immune to it yet but things die so fast it's sometimes hard to tell what's going on.

[Thrudh]

can you go into a bit more detail as to why? I'm trying to decide which way to build mine and my character it good aligned so the pg wont matter any how. to me it seems there are far more non good mobs then evil. Im sure theres something im missing.

There a quite a few non-evil monsters (animals, mephits, vermin (spiders and scorpions), elementals)... but I still think the number of evil monsters out-weigh the neutral ones.

I went for Holy based on the end-boss fights... all of which are evil (Even the named elementals in the Shroud count as evil instead of neutral so holy affects them too)


Also does the 4d6 light damage effect all mobs or just light sensitive mobs like undead and oozes?

Affects all mobs...

[sephiroth1084]

I went for Holy based on the end-boss fights... all of which are evil (Even the named elementals in the Shroud count as evil instead of neutral so holy affects them too)

.

The Stormreaver is not evil.