Am I off base here?

[Crann]

Just catching up on forum true i did start with 8 in con but with some correction a tome and a necklace i amsitting at 16 w/ 2 toughness feats

Where are you at now with hit points? When people say an 8 con is bad, it is generally taking into account that it will also be bad after you add in all your tomes, items and enhancements.

You are going to make sure you also have a Greater False Life item, they can frequently be found at market vendor, or grind out Vorne's belt from Sins of Attrition for GFL and +6 con on same belt.

[yawumpus]

[deletia]
Grats on pugging, but you played in the age before f2p, where people payed to pay, and so put effort in wat they wanted.
[deletia]
F2p has arrived a wave of players that want something to do, and effort is not something you see often.
/wave at Slink - Stop being a drama child and leave already IF you are!

You can't really blame issues in the Shroud with f2p. While it is possible to get into the Shroud with an entirely f2p account, it requires planning and grinding. One method recently posted was to tour the servers pulling 100 favor in each followed by two main toons in one server. You would be able to purchase (and set foot in) the vale only after leveling two toons through the desert. An alternate (quicker but grindier) method would involve running the other favor grind toons to 200-300, thus allowing you to wait for a sale while leveling the primary toon(s).

And all the vets had to walk uphill to misery's peak both ways.

[yawumpus]

Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't the holy burst khopesh of pure good be better DPS than the metalline longsword?

neither bypasses all of Harry's DR but the khopesh with the higher crit multiplier and the extra damage from holy burst and pure good would be better.

Depending on the +number, holy burst khopesh of pure good can easily be better than metaline daggers of pure good. In fact, I have both and I think that the the dagger came out less than 1 point higher on average (including crits on 50% fort), I'm not sure what the relative weapon bonus numbers are. I'd call it the exception that proves the rule. Even the worst bb tends to be better than non-devil specific damage dealing weapons (forgetting for the moment that the OP included a devil-worthless flaming bonus).

The real secret seems to be that holy silver weapons tend to be even cheaper (on the Orien AH anyway), and do an extra d6 of damage. Another is that rangers can get away with using a (cheap) holy of pure good bow* and house D silver arrows. Obviously, they should try to move up to "real" bb (melee) weapons faster than they can make a min2, but it is a start (and at that point rangers tend to be too squishy to go toe to toe with Harry).

* the silver bow is another good one. Regardless of the name it has "good" property, but it doesn't have the "silver, alchemical" property. Use silver arrows with this one as well.

[painindaguild]

. I linked dual wield +5 flaming Rapiers of pure good.

I think its allready said multiple times in this thead. also on rapiers u want burst effects. its not an dwarven axe were u can get exited from a rare crit its a crit machine u got there.

Considering I bring my own heals pots scroll ect no one carries my "dead weight"

yes they carry u trough. chugging pots means no dps. scrolling urself means no dps. besides the fact u cant do that while beating harry.
he does splash dmg so u will fail ur concentration check for that. so u have to keep beating and live by the mercy of ur healer.

u do less dps then average shroud runner, u have less survivability then the average shroud runner, u have less knowledge about the shroud then the average runner.

Is this a problem? NO!

go run shroud with some other guys, there are still people that do not care if its a 1 or 2 rounder. there are still people that have fun seeing someone else died first for a change
every new player will get this kinda stuff, no biggie just play&learn for the next time.

and groups that state fast run and link ur bb u dont wanna be in anyways. if u only run 1 shroud before u simply do not have the experience to solve a puzzle within the time those groups demand.
u want to take it slowly smell flowers and then put u killed arraetrikos in ur bio to show u ran it b4 .

this game is extremely easy, as long as uno wat to do. if u got no idea how to solo it go in a group that takes it slow. wen u know how to solo it(or how evrything works as others would say) go in a group that goes as fast as possible.

have a nice day!

[crazy7381]

Where are you at now with hit points? When people say an 8 con is bad, it is generally taking into account that it will also be bad after you add in all your tomes, items and enhancements.

You are going to make sure you also have a Greater False Life item, they can frequently be found at market vendor, or grind out Vorne's belt from Sins of Attrition for GFL and +6 con on same belt.

sitting at 294 at lev 18 with shintao cord and a belt with GFL

[Mercureal]

That's not great, but it's not bad. You can run Shroud with that, but you might find yourself dying a bit more frequently than the rest of the party, or needing to back off to heal. No shame in that, and the Shroud offers one of the best ways to boost your survivability through GS gear anyway.

As a melee character you should be aiming ultimately for around 400 HP by level 20, and it sounds like you should be able to get close. One thing you can do for a little extra now is to buy a big stack of Rage potions and keep Rage constantly active when you need extra HP. You can get the Rage spell from a caster, but potions are cheap and you won't need to keep asking the caster for a refresh. You could do that with Aid potions too for another +10/11, but constant potion-drinking can a bit impractical at some point.

[crazy7381]

That's not great, but it's not bad. You can run Shroud with that, but you might find yourself dying a bit more frequently than the rest of the party, or needing to back off to heal. No shame in that, and the Shroud offers one of the best ways to boost your survivability through GS gear anyway.

As a melee character you should be aiming ultimately for around 400 HP by level 20, and it sounds like you should be able to get close. One thing you can do for a little extra now is to buy a big stack of Rage potions and keep Rage constantly active when you need extra HP. You can get the Rage spell from a caster, but potions are cheap and you won't need to keep asking the caster for a refresh. You could do that with Aid potions too for another +10/11, but constant potion-drinking can a bit impractical at some point.

ya I'm working on crafting 2 gs rapiers one is going to be pure dex with that +15 tohealth the other not sure yet

[Mercureal]

You can't get additional HP on a weapon, but you can get it on accessories: belt, boots, bracers, cloak etc. You get +10 HP for the first tier, +15 for the second and +20 for the third, +45 in total.

On weapons, you can get Exceptional bonuses to your ability scores, which stack with the normal enhancement bonus you have on your other ability-boost items. You can get +1 and +2 bonuses, which is a possible +3 to Con; if you could find 1 other point to balance it off to 4, that's an extra 40 HP at level 20. You can also get items that give you clickies of Stoneskin, which really helps with survival.

My suggestion is for your first and second items to be a weapon and an HP accessory. You will probably gather enough ingredients to get them both to tier 2 fairly quickly, as long as you run Shroud regularly. If you haven't already, check out this website, it's a great resource for GS crafting options:

http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~delalle...roud/index.php

[kernal42]

2nd anyone without beaters likely can't hit on a 2 with PA either...

This is really the point. Having the right weapons suggests good things about the toon's preparation for Shroud. Not having them doesn't.

Come to orien, pretty sure alot of pugs wipe. Unfortunetly it has been a few months past, and they wipe less.

I joined a pug a few months ago, thinking the wipe phase of learning was over. Boy was I wrong..... I dc'd in part 5, and came back to a party wipe. Bad day to go for a 40th completion..

I've been pugging almost exclusively to keep two toons timered, and I've only seen one wipe in the past two months (due to both healers being woefully incompetent; they didn't actually throw out any heals in part 4...). Orien pugs are generally fine.

Incidentally, I haven't noticed a significant difference between success rates of Pugs that require linked BBs and those that don't.

Cheers,
Kernal

[CrushingInklings]

I have been playing the game since launch and i still ask people i don't know to link BBs when applying to my groups. Its a simple form of weeding out trouble. NO not everyone needs a BB to complete shroud on normal but when you have been playing as long as i have and are running 5 toons through shroud on a new server you want to deal with the least amount of headache possibly.

I get all types of responses when asking people to link BBs. Most of the time its new players that don't understand what a BB even is and i have no problem explaining to them what it is. A lot of time people are very thankful and i will end up taking them along for that fact. Someone who wants to listen is always welcome in my groups geared or not. Other times i get eltiest jerks who are offended by me asking or i get people who get butt hurt that i wont allow their insufficient weapon to join my raids and call me "noob". Those people get ignored fast and its fine by me. I run about 50 shrouds a week and most people like the groups i run. My pug runs normally take half the time others do and we still have a good time doing it.

My best advice i can give anyone is. Don't anger people who lead raids. If their leading it, its their call. If you don't like what they are asking for in the LFM don't join. If they ask you to link a BB and you are offended, GET OVER YOUR SELF youre not that special. If you don't have a BB their will be a group popping up in the next few hours that wont require one. No reason to get into arguments with a leader who is wading through tells about his group. You arn't going to get in the raid doing that and it will most likely only cause problems down the line for you.

[crazy7381]

Its not really a complaint it just caught me off guard due to a successful first run. Anyway thanks to a helpful player I now do have a BB which helps me get into shroud groups you know who you are many thanks

Quazicotl lev 18 rogue
Quazihealz lev 6 cleric