DDOCast 454 - Update 33 Review & Listener Questions

[pjstechie]

Draculetta & Patrick review Update 33 with input from Cordovan, then we take a look at some listener questions including some build questions!

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Update 33 Review - 2:46
Game News - 34:22
Community News - 40:28
Lightning Post - 53:20
Closing - 1:57:08

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DDO Chronicle 216
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[FuzzyDuck81]

A collection of thoughts as I listened...

I've been loving the monk changes I've really been having a lot of fun with Henshin & am enjoying playing as dark side on them, the healythwack tier 5 thing is rather nice Making the jade line work on any enemy type was a brilliant change & you can get a lot of crowd control by sneaking up, using sap, then stunning fist, kukan-do & tomb of jade.

Suggested items to craft:
-ml4 good & bludgeon/slash/piercing (whatever your preference) item of whichever type you use makes for a very, very strong piece of kit from level 4 to 8, particularly for any kind of ranged character who add ammo & any imbues on top.
-As a general tip, for the extra slot I like to go with ability damage on weapons with a nice crit range (note, new cc vampirism has an internal cooldown, so not actually all that great), i'd recommend wis, con or dex to reduce their saves. For an ooze beater, have charisma damage on crit in the extra slot - it only needs to proc once to reduce oozes to 0 and you'll get the helpless damage boost to tear through them fast.
-For armour, a combo I've found rather nice on my light-side monks is a blue-slotted (for heavy fort) ml13 outfit with devotion, healing amp & parrying, it'll keep you going nicely till you get the estar gear & their tasty set bonus.

Ooohh, new gold seal hireling speculation... I'm gonna guess it'll be a dragonborn paladin, so tough in a fight, bit of healing & maybe some special racial dragonbreath thing too. Or maybe a combat-capable pseudodragon because who doesn't want to unleash the firey fury?

One of my favourite things about the caught in the web raids was listening for the tell-tale hiss of a demolition charge proc from a potion of wonder while waiting on the unskippable cutscene before we got our loot.

The newbie solo-capable one I'd concur with paladin being a great option, probably a 2hander type since that way there'd be one less tree to worry about figuring out optimal enhancements too. Personally though I'd recommend ranger since archers are excellent at damage-dealing now & lets them keep at a safe distance from tougher enemies plus pretty much everything they need comes as free feats, making them extremely forgiving to build.

Barbarian I had a great time with a 2wf gnome using shortswords & light picks, since the racial enhancements let you get extra damage & competence bonus to critical threat then the FB tier 5 gives you the +2 crit multiplier while raged, (ravager t5 is competence to critical threat, so they don't stack) it's enormous fun and tears stuff up very effectively. Would be even better as a deep gnome with the wizard level LR'ed out for the extra mobility tumbling through enemies & the better saves.

My favourite ranger build tends to be capstone in arcane archer but tier 5 from deepwood stalker, which unfortunately leaves basically no APs for any other trees, but can get you a lot of ranged power and doubleshot. Elemental arrows is phenomenal in low to mid levels in particular & i take the same approach of sticking only with acid then just extra damage dice & will have force arrows for use vs. incorporeal or acid immune enemies.

Paladin I tend to prefer as a 2hander knight of the chalice/sacred defender type & will run them as a combined fighter/backup cleric since that greater restoration upgrade for remove disease is excellent, then there's the raise dead too from sacred defender.. the only thing missing is freedom of movement

I've gone off of chain blast for a warlock, I've been preferring cone blast instead - it needs a little more positioning but your blasts are more powerful and can hit more enemies at once, plus to unlock it you'll likely spend APs in the abilities that let you reduce enemy saves & spell resistance, making other spells & attacks more effective.

The swashbuckler build I like to go with is a 14 bard, 4 fighter, 2 rogue too; you get a fast-moving & nimble character with a great combination of ability to dodge or endure a surprising amount of damage, really nice dps, good crowd control, self-healing, buffs, evasion & trap abilities too - very versatile & capable.