Just completed a 140 minute Deathwyrm, AMA

[Avenging_Angel]

Hello forum,
it's 5 a.m. here and I just came out of a 140something minute Normal Deathwyrm. Ask me anything.

[Thalone]

What is the volume between the surface f(x, y) = x3-sin-2 y and the the unit circle centred on (0, 2) in the xy-plane?

[droid327]

Why don't you move to America, where its not always the wrong time?

[Nayus]

How many monk splashes there were in it?

[droid327]

What is the volume between the surface f(x, y) = x3-sin-2 y and the the unit circle centred on (0, 2) in the xy-plane?

That's an impossible question. Between (0,1) and (0,3), there's no point where f(x,y)=0; therefore, it doesn't intersect the circle, and no closed volume is defined.

[Avenging_Angel]

What is the volume between the surface f(x, y) = x3-sin-2 y and the the unit circle centred on (0, 2) in the xy-plane?

My first estimate tells me Volume >= number of phlogistones I looted.


Why don't you move to America, where its not always the wrong time?

It's probably my greatest dream, to move to the US soon after graduating and to find a job there. I've heard the immigration system wouldn't allow me to just fly there and settle down, but I'll explore the possibilities as soon as I'm financially able to move.


How many monk splashes there were in it?

We had two pure melee monks and two monkchers.

[Steelstar]

Which rooms did you go through and why? :)

[TheLegendOfAra]

My roommate just brought home a bunch of candy, including 4 bags of M&M's.
We have:

Regular
Peanut filled
Pretzel filled
Peanut Butter filled


Which should we open first?

[Avenging_Angel]

Which rooms did you go through and why? :)

First puzzle was traproom, because the alternative was portals and we had enough people with trap skills to make this choice the faster one.

Second puzzle was gravity. The alternative was redlight/greenlight but most of the party was burnt out from previous experiences. The star knew his way through gravity, so he offered to lead everyone in position. He didn't account for people not being able to follow basic directions such as "follow me" and "stay here", so we spent what felt like at least 40 minutes here. Considering the completion time it may be more, I don't have the splits.

edit: In case I wasn't clear, the party leader was competent and actually knew what he was doing, so major props to him for sticking with it until we completed.



My roommate just brought home a bunch of candy, including 4 bags of M&M's.
We have:

Regular
Peanut filled
Pretzel filled
Peanut Butter filled


Which should we open first?

I'm not familiar with a couple of those flavors. Peanut M&M's are good so I'd go for those first, because when I save up the good candy for later "something" always gets between me and them. Pretzel filled M&M's sound gross, I guess I'll have to come to the US and try for myself.

[LuKaSu]

I'm not familiar with a couple of those flavors. Peanut M&M's are good so I'd go for those first, because when I save up the good candy for later "something" always gets between me and them. Pretzel filled M&M's sound gross, I guess I'll have to come to the US and try for myself.

Peanut butter filled m&ms are fantastic. They're like little tiny balls of peanut butter with a thin layer of chocolate outside. Delicious.

Pretzle m&ms are also fantastic. Some salty, some chocolate, some crunchiness. I move back to the US in September (volunteering at a school in Costa Rica at the moment) and when I get back, I hope I see some of those. mmmmmm.

Oh, and your question: What's your favorite non-stat item in the game? (like, something that isn't just to raise a stat, but to do some neat/fun effect)

[Nayus]

We had two pure melee monks and two monkchers.2 "pure" monks and only 2 monkchers. There wasn't any monk splash?
That's why it took 2 hours then. You didn't have enough earth stance.

[dunklezhan]

1. How many slots were filled via the LFM?

2. Which server were you on?

3. If Argo, and if the number of slots filled via LFM was 1 or more... next time can I come please?



Never done deathwyrm, there's never any PuG groups up and YOU try filling a raid when as the star you very clearly don't know it. I'll probably never get chance to run it ever again, so I can pass loot to others given my chance of crafting or tiering anything up would be zero.

I'd just like to see it.

Come to think of it, I'd quite like to see LOB, MA, and Ascension Chamber too. Same issues.

[Vooduspyce]

Second puzzle was gravity. The alternative was redlight/greenlight but most of the party was burnt out from previous experiences. The star knew his way through gravity, so he offered to lead everyone in position. He didn't account for people not being able to follow basic directions such as "follow me" and "stay here", so we spent what felt like at least 40 minutes here. Considering the completion time it may be more, I don't have the splits.


And that's why I never do gravity. Too many people doing too many things to waste time coordinating when there is no scenario that forces you to do that particular puzzle. If combat training isn't available, do red light green light... it's fun, intense, and if you can't stay alive then someone can just carry your stone.

But my question is... what method of finding the real phylactery did you use in the end fight and how many iterations of said method did it take to find it?

[Purkilius]

1. How many slots were filled via the LFM?

2. Which server were you on?

3. If Argo, and if the number of slots filled via LFM was 1 or more... next time can I come please?



Never done deathwyrm, there's never any PuG groups up and YOU try filling a raid when as the star you very clearly don't know it. I'll probably never get chance to run it ever again, so I can pass loot to others given my chance of crafting or tiering anything up would be zero.

I'd just like to see it.

Come to think of it, I'd quite like to see LOB, MA, and Ascension Chamber too. Same issues.

Dude running Deatwyrm tonight around 10 pm GMT

[Avenging_Angel]

Oh, and your question: What's your favorite non-stat item in the game? (like, something that isn't just to raise a stat, but to do some neat/fun effect)

I think I'll go with Green Steel in general. I'm a fan of unique procs instead of flat "+X damage". "Deadly VI" is effective, but boring, "Sundering ooze" is fun to watch; "+10 Reflex saving throw" is neat, but "Melodic Guard" leads to interesting scenes. I'm here to have fun after all.
I like what they did recently with some augments and I hope we see more of that. Augments with special summons, guards, buffs/debuffs instead of just "more DC" and "add elemental damage". If anyone is familiar with the game, I like what they did in Torchlight 2 about random loot. There is a pool of effects like "% of summoning something when hit", "% of Firestorm on kill", "% of full heal on kill".

I'm pretty sure my sister would pick one of the Xoriat effects, most likely the Thaarak bracelet breath or the Xoriat Trinket summon. But I like the fact I can mix and match with Green Steel.


1. How many slots were filled via the LFM?

2. Which server were you on?

3. If Argo, and if the number of slots filled via LFM was 1 or more... next time can I come please?


It was on Argonnessen and the raid was completely filled via LFM. The last 4-5 slots were reserved in block by a guild who wanted to join, but was not the leader's guild so I think that still counts as PUG.
On Argonnessen, competence and top-tier players seem to gravitate around a small number of channels; their "lfm window" is the channel chat, de facto they pug from a selected pool of players. After tonight I'm starting to see why.

And please come next time we raid. I guided a first timer on this same run via tells. I generally don't lead Deathwyrm because I don't use voice chat (playing late at night and not living alone); I only led once and I had trouble with people not following instructions, so I usually just join other people's runs.


And that's why I never do gravity. Too many people doing too many things to waste time coordinating when there is no scenario that forces you to do that particular puzzle. If combat training isn't available, do red light green light... it's fun, intense, and if you can't stay alive then someone can just carry your stone.

But my question is... what method of finding the real phylactery did you use in the end fight and how many iterations of said method did it take to find it?

The one time I formed a group for Deathwyrm I had to pick between Gravity and Redlight/Greenlight; I asked the group how many were familiars with puzzles and when I received no answers my first thought was "There is no way I'm leading 11 people I don't know through Gravity, at least the concept of "move on, kill stuff" is easier to grasp". Granted, we had a few people repeatedly running with the red light and a couple dozen deaths, but at least the raid was over in 70 minutes. We left one behind because he didn't step through the gate, but I mounted a rescue mission after completion so in the end we all got to the chests.

We looked for the phylactery by sending a "shadow team" through the shadow portals, killing the two red named monsters on the left and using just one portal. We had someone with voice calling the order and sent one person in to kill a phylactery at a time.
I think it took about a dozen iterations, but I'm not sure since I was tanking the dragon and I'm basing this on party chat. We had to kill the dragon once to get more shadows. We had a couple instances of people entering at the same time and "wasting a turn".

[ReaperAlexEU]

how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

[TankerWade]

Can you explain MeleePower?

[JOTMON]

1. How many slots were filled via the LFM?

2. Which server were you on?

3. If Argo, and if the number of slots filled via LFM was 1 or more... next time can I come please?



Never done deathwyrm, there's never any PuG groups up and YOU try filling a raid when as the star you very clearly don't know it. I'll probably never get chance to run it ever again, so I can pass loot to others given my chance of crafting or tiering anything up would be zero.

I'd just like to see it.

Come to think of it, I'd quite like to see LOB, MA, and Ascension Chamber too. Same issues.

Jumped in a PUG Deathwyrm last night on Argo.
We ran traps/gravity finished in around 70 min.
stalled a bit in gravity due to unfamiliarity of enough people to find/stay on buttons, and 1 miss keeping the dragon on the mound, but otherwise a clean run.

[FranOhmsford]

What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

[Psiandron]

What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

African or European?

[Chaimberland]

A Father and his Son have an automobile accident. The Father is taken to one hospital and the Son to a different hospital. The Doctor walks into the Son's emergency room and stops when seeing who the patient is. The Doctor then says "I'm sorry but I can not operate on this person. He is my son." How is this possible?

[Relem]

Don't feel too bad, I lead one before the lock out was introduced that lasted over 5 hours, and only about 3 of the original team were part of the completion team. I didn't even bother looking at the xp chart to see how many deaths and so on there was.

Worst thing about it, I joined the group as a pugger and ended up leading it even though it was only my 2nd run.

And it was on Argonnessen. The server where North means any direction that isn't North, Don't go over there means charge, and TR means why the hell would I listen to the raid leader.

[Seikojin]

Would you do it again?

[apep1412]

A Father and his Son have an automobile accident. The Father is taken to one hospital and the Son to a different hospital. The Doctor walks into the Son's emergency room and stops when seeing who the patient is. The Doctor then says "I'm sorry but I can not operate on this person. He is my son." How is this possible?

The Doctor was the Son's mother.


On Argonnessen, competence and top-tier players seem to gravitate around a small number of channels; their "lfm window" is the channel chat, de facto they pug from a selected pool of players. After tonight I'm starting to see why.
Such groups will still typically have a few spots to pug out. They fill fairly quickly, though.

[mutilador]

A Father and his Son have an automobile accident. The Father is taken to one hospital and the Son to a different hospital. The Doctor walks into the Son's emergency room and stops when seeing who the patient is. The Doctor then says "I'm sorry but I can not operate on this person. He is my son." How is this possible?

Ghey parents?

[Oxarhamar]

first Grats for hanging in there pugging this can be a bear.

Second I'd go Red Light Green light before Gravity

even though the first dozen or so times we went thru our leader chose Gravit. he knew the puzzle from Lamania and guided each person (follow me style) to the lights. This was fast and efficient but, it lead to no one learning what was really going on in there.

Now my question did you enjoy it?

[Avenging_Angel]

Jumped in a PUG Deathwyrm last night on Argo.


Remember when we used to run together? I do, I miss those times.
I guess in a way I've been quite lucky in my history on Argonnessen. I've had the pleasure of sharing blue chats with some of the best players and most pleasant people in the server. I think I pretty much screwed myself by playing on and off for a while, and parking my bard which I played for years. It's hard to stay with the cool kids when you play three months, stop for six, then come back for two more...


Can you explain MeleePower?

I've only heard it mentioned in a General Discussion thread once. I don't like spoilers, so I only read about new content and new mechanics once they go live and are in the release notes.


Would you do it again?

I need 18 more phlogistones to complete a pair of wraps. As mentioned before, groups for new raids are not super easy (the hours I sat waiting for a Thunder Peak to fill...), so it's very likely I will run more pug Deathwyrm in the future. I may however decide to pay more attention to the party lineup before I join, a roll at a 1/30th of a weapon upgrade is not worth three hours of my life.



Now my question did you enjoy it?

I did not enjoy it. I don't think anyone did, the star itself seemed pretty stunned judging by voice chat and a couple tells we exchanged.

[dunklezhan]

Just wanted to pop on and say thanks for the replies from Argo. Evidently my playtimes don't align with whenever all these LFMs go up!

I'm on UK time, and generally play Sunday>Tuesday nights (technically Friday too but I have regular static DDO group so I'd be letting others down). The rest of the week is for real life stuff. Y'know, like making sure I stay married :)

However, given that there's been three separate people saying 'we pug it on Argo!' (should be a hashtag or something) and take newbies (to the raid at least, I'm hardly new to DDO), I will keep my eyes ever-peeled for a raid group that doesn't say 'know it'. So, again, thanks for taking the time to reply to me and say 'over here!'

For general reference: if anyone from The Thieves Guild asks to join your PuG raid... we're of varying degrees of skill, but all of us can follow instructions which in my experience is what really matters in a raid.

[Miow]

Do you like fish sticks?

Do you put them in your mouth?

[Holybird]

THE RIDDLE:

This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down.



So tell me what is this thing?

[patang01]

I think I'll go with Green Steel in general. I'm a fan of unique procs instead of flat "+X damage". "Deadly VI" is effective, but boring, "Sundering ooze" is fun to watch; "+10 Reflex saving throw" is neat, but "Melodic Guard" leads to interesting scenes. I'm here to have fun after all.
I like what they did recently with some augments and I hope we see more of that. Augments with special summons, guards, buffs/debuffs instead of just "more DC" and "add elemental damage". If anyone is familiar with the game, I like what they did in Torchlight 2 about random loot. There is a pool of effects like "% of summoning something when hit", "% of Firestorm on kill", "% of full heal on kill".

I'm pretty sure my sister would pick one of the Xoriat effects, most likely the Thaarak bracelet breath or the Xoriat Trinket summon. But I like the fact I can mix and match with Green Steel.



It was on Argonnessen and the raid was completely filled via LFM. The last 4-5 slots were reserved in block by a guild who wanted to join, but was not the leader's guild so I think that still counts as PUG.
On Argonnessen, competence and top-tier players seem to gravitate around a small number of channels; their "lfm window" is the channel chat, de facto they pug from a selected pool of players. After tonight I'm starting to see why.

And please come next time we raid. I guided a first timer on this same run via tells. I generally don't lead Deathwyrm because I don't use voice chat (playing late at night and not living alone); I only led once and I had trouble with people not following instructions, so I usually just join other people's runs.



The one time I formed a group for Deathwyrm I had to pick between Gravity and Redlight/Greenlight; I asked the group how many were familiars with puzzles and when I received no answers my first thought was "There is no way I'm leading 11 people I don't know through Gravity, at least the concept of "move on, kill stuff" is easier to grasp". Granted, we had a few people repeatedly running with the red light and a couple dozen deaths, but at least the raid was over in 70 minutes. We left one behind because he didn't step through the gate, but I mounted a rescue mission after completion so in the end we all got to the chests.

We looked for the phylactery by sending a "shadow team" through the shadow portals, killing the two red named monsters on the left and using just one portal. We had someone with voice calling the order and sent one person in to kill a phylactery at a time.
I think it took about a dozen iterations, but I'm not sure since I was tanking the dragon and I'm basing this on party chat. We had to kill the dragon once to get more shadows. We had a couple instances of people entering at the same time and "wasting a turn".

I think I was in that group with you. First time I ever did green/red light but it's not difficult to understand stand still on red light. Altho I'm no fan of stupid red named critters that you can't even do anything tactically too and it got a lot of us in the very end before we got out of it. I grabbed as many as I could but one was still in there.

140 mins is a lot of time; I remember doing a longer one then that the 2nd time I did Wyrm. And it was a PITA. Personally I wish they scaled it down to 2 mirror puzzles and one special. Adding more layers of the same silly puzzles isn't adding more fun, just more of the same. if you compound that with a dysfunctional end fight it gets worse. Win or fail all raids should feel like they offered something. The run time on some of these new raids with waves after waves of trash until DA hits you as a brick makes fail heartbleeding frustration more then a feeling of close but no cigar.

[patang01]

THE RIDDLE:

This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down.



So tell me what is this thing?

Bieber?

[dunklezhan]

THE RIDDLE:

This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down.



So tell me what is this thing?

Nerd rage?

[CaptainSpacePony]

Discussion: It sounds like you had many things contribute to the marathon raid. Deathwyrm run times can vary widely because of the inherent randomness built in. I personally would never choose gravity with any amount of puggers. (BTW I'm a perennial pugger). Red light can rack up the death count, especially with the semi-random killing of stationary people (don't target other players and leave mouse look off to lessen this) but lavender is the color to wear.

Bad luck on finding the real soul-jar can happen. The last run I did, it was probably about the 10th jar--which was a bit painful. The 3 runs before that was the 1st or 2nd.

Question: If this experience becomes typical for you, will you consider changing servers?

[LuKaSu]

(BTW I'm a perennial pugger).

I just read this and think, "so... you don't need to be replanted each year?" I'm sure the word has an in-context meaning, but the only usage of that word that I know deals with flowers and vegetables.

[Holybird]

Bieber?


Nerd rage?

You are pretty close. Keep on trying:D

[bennyson]

THE RIDDLE:

This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down.



So tell me what is this thing?

Warforged Titan?

[bennyson]

Now my own question

What character race are you?

[Holybird]

Warforged Titan?

Nope. And yes could be but no.:D

[Rykka]

You are pretty close. Keep on trying:D

The answer, of course, is The Second Law of Thermodynamics.

[Holybird]

The answer, of course, is The Second Law of Thermodynamics.

No, please do not talk about Physics while I'm on vacation:D. And nope that is not the right answer:D

[ReaperAlexEU]

THE RIDDLE:

This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down.



So tell me what is this thing?

time

[Chauncey1]

What's the average airspeed of an unladen swallow?

[Chauncey1]

what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

AND I got the line wrong too...dangitalltoheck!

[Holybird]

time

And we got the winner! Have to ask did you Google it or are you Tolkienist like I am?

[ReaperAlexEU]

And we got the winner! Have to ask did you Google it or are you Tolkienist like I am?

i've read both the hobbit and LotR as a teenager so it might be buried deep in there somewhere if you got it from either book :). but no, i didn't google it, it jumped out at me from the first line and i did a quick scan to make sure there were no curved balls towards the end before posting :)

[TheLegendOfAra]

I'm not familiar with a couple of those flavors. Peanut M&M's are good so I'd go for those first, because when I save up the good candy for later "something" always gets between me and them. Pretzel filled M&M's sound gross, I guess I'll have to come to the US and try for myself.

Took your suggestion, started with Peanut and went to peanut butter next. Thanks! (We were having a serious debate before your answer. XD)
Pretzel m&m's are amazing. The salty with the sweet is perfect since I'm not the biggest of chocolate fans.


Pretzle m&ms are also fantastic. Some salty, some chocolate, some crunchiness. I move back to the US in September (volunteering at a school in Costa Rica at the moment) and when I get back, I hope I see some of those. mmmmmm
Good luck! And they are fantastic. One of my favorites. ^^

And @OP I think on Argo the biggest thing about staying in the circle of "cool kids" as you put it is really just communicating with them more often.
Even if you take breaks, when you come back send someone a tell and let them know you're back and looking to run some raids/quests. Even if you don't make it into some of the more nit-picky channels, you can make it into the more chill channels, or just get invited via tells. The main thing is that when you get back let people know. They may have taken you off their friends list since you were inactive or what-have-you and will not have known you were back. ^^

[Avenging_Angel]

This turned out unexpectedly fun for me. Thanks everyone for taking part in the thread!
I had the answer to the riddle since my copy of The Hobbit is not far from me; I guess I took too much time to come up with a clever answer.


Do you like fish sticks?

Do you put them in your mouth?

Yes, and yes.



Question: If this experience becomes typical for you, will you consider changing servers?

I'm already playing a bit on Ghallanda with my sister, but I wouldn't start all over again.
There is not a lot to discover for me in terms of content. There are a lot of playstyles and build I'd like to try, but I'm going to stack them all on the same character instead of starting with a 28pt build in a place where I know nobody.



What character race are you?

The character that was in the raid was a Halfling.



I think on Argo the biggest thing about staying in the circle of "cool kids" as you put it is really just communicating with them more often.
Even if you take breaks, when you come back send someone a tell and let them know you're back and looking to run some raids/quests.

You may be right, I should have. I think the change in characters was a big factor in not being in the circle anymore, since their names are nothing alike. But I'm always afraid of bothering people (this applies in real life as well), so I'd rather not ask than ask and be rejected (I figure it would go something like "Hey, I'm X, I'm back after a hiatus with a different toon" -> "Why would I care?").

[TheLegendOfAra]

You may be right, I should have. I think the change in characters was a big factor in not being in the circle anymore, since their names are nothing alike. But I'm always afraid of bothering people (this applies in real life as well), so I'd rather not ask than ask and be rejected (I figure it would go something like "Hey, I'm X, I'm back after a hiatus with a different toon" -> "Why would I care?").

Well, that is always a distinct possibility, but I think most people would just be glad to see a friend back in game.
You'll find for the most part even if you're just a passing acquaintance a lot of people will remember you.

Hell, back when I was still on my first life pure ranger I took a 6 month break from the game with only telling my guildies and a couple close friends since I was moving to Japan for a while. I had only just started to get a regular place into SMA raid trains at the time, and occasionally a few other guilds raid trains. When I came back it only took a few tells and a couple raids and I was right back where I had been. It was that easy.

Granted it may have helped a bit that I was on my main toon, one that has a rather distinctive name on Argo (Almost every toon that starts with Ara is me. ^^)

[Vooduspyce]

THE RIDDLE:

This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down.



So tell me what is this thing?

water

[sirgog]

Ask you anything, eh?

Are kittens flammable?

[Psiandron]

Ask you anything, eh?

Are kittens flammable?

Well, MalkavianX certainly implied that (see below), but I don't know if he can provide any empirical data.

You could try putting one in a box with a match...

[Chaimberland]

A Father and his Son have an automobile accident. The Father is taken to one hospital and the Son to a different hospital. The Doctor walks into the Son's emergency room and stops when seeing who the patient is. The Doctor then says "I'm sorry but I can not operate on this person. He is my son." How is this possible?


The Doctor was the Son's mother.

Correct


[QUOTE=mutilador;5392527]Ghey parents?

First time I've seen this answer but now that I think about it, in today's world it could be a possibility.

[ReaperAlexEU]

Ask you anything, eh?

Are kittens flammable?

no, they are made of flame retardant furr these days for health and safety reasons. otherwise you'd need a licence to own a kitteh and the fire officer would have to make a visit once every 2 years to ensure you were taking the proper precautions.

incidentally this is why you need a dog licence...