DDOCast 527 - Slayer Areas pt 4

[pjstechie]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5LxePvXhQM

We look at the release of Update 39: White Plume Mountain and Other Tales with our guest Asheras then we rap up our discussion on Slayer areas with Evilbeeker!

Have thoughts on this show, ideas for round table topics, questions you’d like us to answer, or topics you’d like to see us debate? Leave us a comment, send us an email (ddocast@gmail.com) or give us a tweet (@ddocast)!

Check out www.ddocast.com for mp3 audio, our show calendar, archives, and more!

Want to support the show? You can feed the kobolds (give money) on our Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/DDOCast)! We use these gifts to support the show and give out prizes.

Producer’s Note: Due to personal time constraints there will be no timestamps this week. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Watch shows live at twitch.tv/ddocast

DDO Chronicle 292 (https://www.ddo.com/en/news/ddo-chronicle-issue-292)
Update 39 Release Notes (https://www.ddo.com/en/update-39-release-notes)
Mac issue (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/497986-U39-Mac-Patching-failing-with-quot-Netsession-Error-quot#post6117269)

[FuzzyDuck81]

Barbarian changes are all pretty sweet, I'm really looking forward to levelling one again & it's nice that occult slayer will actually be viable for DPS as well as having the defences.

Really enjoyed the new quests, lots of unique ideas, mechanics & new assets in them which is really cool.

I'm loving the AoV changes, the +caster level & +max caster level boosts make that selection of spells really effective & the cometfall SLA in particular is positively murderous when loaded up with metamagics.

I disagree with the "you can completely ignore it" view of the universal trees - there's a number of low hanging fruit abilities in them that can be really nice & fill in some gaps for many characters, eg. item defense in falconry for any stick user, haste boost in vistani... also despite the lack of wisdom as a focus stat, falconry can be great for a rogue - blinding attacks with a reasonable chance of working & the 50% fort reduction, especially if combined with assassin's trick, can significantly reduce the time to beat down normally crit-immune enemies eg. those shambling mounds in Baba's Hut.

Saying that, I'm still mixed about having the falcon abilities being linked to attacks - it's nice to have +W attacks but having a 3rd option just as a clicky to send the bird on it's way would make it more useful for casters & melees as a combat opener while you're running towards the group, or for some tactical fun combined with confusion from the warlock past life on a sneaky type.

Pro tip with the Barovia slayer area... even if you're doing a heroic TR as soon as you hit 20, if you've already done it on heroic you can step straight into the epic explorer area & grab your BtoC base weapon & sentient gem for that life - even if they're only then going to be used as fuel for another gem, they're free!

[Niminae]

Pro tip with the Barovia slayer area... even if you're doing a heroic TR as soon as you hit 20, if you've already done it on heroic you can step straight into the epic explorer area & grab your BtoC base weapon & sentient gem for that life - even if they're only then going to be used as fuel for another gem, they're free!

And even if you haven't run Into the Mist in Heroics I have found that it's an easy run at 20th on Normal even for a first life character. I was a bit surprised to find that since you're 9 levels below the quest level and the character had no EDs filled out and really rubbish gear, but that's the case. Run Mist and then you can grab a sentient jewel and a ML29 weapon before you TR.