My prefered playstyle.

[Talon_Moonshadow]

This thread is going to be mostly about me.

And how I like to play the game and create characters.

I've been posting a lot on the forums the past few years. And tend to get in some heated debates about certain topics.

Especially ranged combat and building char for anything other than max DPS and HP.

You can beat any dungeon with two simple traits.

DPS and HP.

With those two maxed and the means to keep them up...like healing...you can succeed in any quest in the game.


I find that boring.

I prefer brains over brawn.
And try to play the game that way.

I prefer tactics.
Of all sorts.
I particulary enjoy succeeding in an unorthadox manner. Which in DDO comes down to anything not involving max DPS and HP (and healing).

I enjoy ranged combat. I enjoy stealth. I enjoy CC. I enjoy agro management and using the terrain to limit damage taken. Distracting monsters.

Just about anything other than running headlong into the biggest mob in the game and trying to prove how good I am by beating them up faster than they beat me up.

That is not to say that I do not enjoy zerging.
Or that I do not on occasion do that very thing.

I am not a flower sniffer as some call it.
Although I do enjoy exploring. I cannot stand to stand around doing nothing.
I am very anxious to get to the next fight and to take some kind of action.

Therefore, I have spent a great deal of time developing "tactical zerging" techniques.
Many of which unfortunately use other less skilled players' lack of tactics to my advantage....but are fun just the same.

In fact, that may be why I do not complain about bad PUGs often.

Just like the guy who gets a thrill out of running ahead of the group and soloing the whole dungeon while the new guys watch, I get a thrill out of staying alive and taking their stones to the shrine.....over and over again.

I kinda enjoy having a captive audiance of ghosts watching me fight an army in a doorway, and block and heal up, to continue fighting....or use another damage mitigating tactic to survive. Leaving them to think, "well, I guess we could've handled that fight that way, and not got our butts handed to us."

I enjoy sneaking into a room full of monsters and picking up stones.
I'd enjoy it even more if I knew that certain stealth hating forum posters where there to see it.

I enjoy Irestone Islet with a bow.
Running rings around the very same casters and Ogres that just wiped out those max DPS/HP builds with their scorching rays and big fists.

I could go on and on with examples like that.

but it mostly comes down to a preference for "never taking the damage in the first place."

Certainly no one can avoid all damage all the time.
And I admit that a lot of my tactics involve getting someone else to take the damage for me.
Something as simple as letting another player be seen first, allows me to take several actions free from damage.

With my Rog this is extremely effective as that char can usually kill most monsters in the time it takes a monster to switch agro and start to try to damage me.

With my other chars it is not that easy. But if I'm careful to choose a target that is agroed on someone like a barbarian, I will seldom pull agro off of him.
(have to be careful with rednamed bosses and manyshot though )

Anyway, to avoid going on and on, I'll just say that most quests can be finished quite easily without needed a ton of DPS, HP or healing.

Raids are a little different, I admit.
Not a whole lot of room for tactics in a cage match.
But even there, just because someone else is getting beat up, doesn't mean you have to too.

[jcoffey]

Do you get a thrill from running the same instances over and over and over and over and over again also?

[Rydin_Dirtay]

You'd like version 2 of my dragonmarked (valenar) Elf 18 Ranger/1 wiz/1 fighter.

Version 3 might have 1 monk instead of 1 fighter, if I decide to go for AC. I imagine self displaced with 70 ac and Tempest III and Wind stance.

[Talon_Moonshadow]

Do you get a thrill from running the same instances over and over and over and over and over again also?

Not in a short period of time. Thus I do not raid often.

And I am bored with most of the harbor.

The content I would like to run most, is the content that is seldom run.

Especially lvl 8-12 quests. Or Amrath quests.

But I have many characters so I get to try out new tactics if I get bored.

[Talon_Moonshadow]

You'd like version 2 of my dragonmarked (valenar) Elf 18 Ranger/1 wiz/1 fighter.

Version 3 might have 1 monk instead of 1 fighter, if I decide to go for AC. I imagine self displaced with 70 ac and Tempest III and Wind stance.

I do like Dragon marked Elf Rgrs.

And if I forgot to mention it above, TWF is my prefered fighting style, if I am not getting beat up.

[Rydin_Dirtay]

I do like Dragon marked Elf Rgrs.

Eventually, after I get one of them up to 14-15-16-17, I may post the build in the Elf forum.

Sounds like I am similar to you in that I get bored with sameness and repetition--I roll up another as often as once a month, to test this or that out.

[scruffus]

I have seen many of your posts around and I have to say you're always right on in my book- your play style above could pretty much stand in for my own preferences exactly. I'm a little new at this game, so my execution of that play-style doesn't always work out as planned, but when it does its way fun. (One recent one was, haunted library solo, feather floating down into a corner of the big room in stealth mode, then opening up w many shot on the 3 arcanes and 2 priests, then meleeing the rest. Not really tactical I guess but SO ninja!)
Anyway big +++ props

[Talon_Moonshadow]

I have seen many of your posts around and I have to say you're always right on in my book- your play style above could pretty much stand in for my own preferences exactly. I'm a little new at this game, so my execution of that play-style doesn't always work out as planned, but when it does its way fun. (One recent one was, haunted library solo, feather floating down into a corner of the big room in stealth mode, then opening up w many shot on the 3 arcanes and 2 priests, then meleeing the rest. Not really tactical I guess but SO ninja!)
Anyway big +++ props

I don't enjoy soloing, but I use that same tactic.

I drop down into that room in stealth mode, and wait till the monsters agro on someone else. Then take out the Arcanes as quick as I can.
Some groups are more willing to range from above though...but still have a problem with Cloudkill.
(and having PaP on really helps that last man standing thing.)

I certainly don't always have success.
And there are a lot of groups out there that can power through everything and barely break a sweat.

I'm, just saying that there is an alternative for players who don't want to play that same way.