Quote:

Can we start a support group or something?  How the hell do you die to trash with one of the best mass trash-killers in the game?  "Kept?"  You died more than once?!

I'd like to watch this sometime.  Maybe we can offer some tips on how to get to at least mediocrity in a game you've been playing for 10 years.

Ah Pook wrote on Feb 13^th, 2017 at 4:30pm:



Honestly I'm still trying to figure that out myself because I've soloed E-BB Servants a number of times over the past couple of years without issue.

My thoughts are that...
1) The Aggro changes have made this quest much tougher. {Probably not tough enough for you guys to notice but definitely enough to bother me.

2) This is an Auralock and the combination of high damage Casters/Priestesses and multiple Archers is a bad one when you can only catch 2-4 of them in your bursts each time.
Auralocks are best when they can get in amongst the mobs and quickly take them out.

3) This is a 1st life ungeared alt on Argo {not my main server, not even a secondary - Sarlona - or tertiary - Khyber - server.}.
Her HPs are lower than they could be and even at 21 she's only just hitting 390 pre Shining Through/Tensers  - Yes that's almost 600 after Shining Through and Tensers but it still could be a lot higher if I went for it}.

4) The first run was with a Piking Dual-box so 2 man scaling - I'm not used to Soloing with 2 man scaling but was actually doing ok until I was joined by that other guy and literally as he entered the quest I got mowed down by the Fire Reavers. {This was just after my hireling had bought it}.
No - Better Self Healing would not have helped me as the damage was simply coming in too fast for me to cope with.

5) The second run was a bigger surprise - I'd got the dual-box alt through this chain in a group and now needed to get the main toon through it too.
So I went in solo with hire and got murdered by the first group of Drow - At that point I gave up and ran Vale instead.

6) Drow and Demons i.e. CC not working! Can't Disco or Hold.
Friends in Low Places probably has higher incoming damage at least in the end fight than any part of Servants BUT Friends is a joke to an Auralock because Disco owns the quest.
Disco is literally useless in Servants.

7) I have also complained multiple times about the lag this weekend - that could have had something to do with it but honestly I died so fast each time that I don't know whether I stutter lagged or not.

Oh and I joined in 2010, I didn't realise it was 2020 already

FranOhmsford wrote on Feb 13^th, 2017 at 6:38pm:


I haven't logged in the game in months but that point only lets me identify the problem. You bring an un-geared first life in a HE quest and you complain you cannot solo it? The rest of your message is just a plain demonstration that you lack skill that is a mandatory requirement for playing un-geared first life toons in elite (and there are people who can make them work).

TLDR
You kinda asked for it. You know you suck so you should not complain you can't win even with EZ buttons classes.

FranOhmsford wrote on Feb 13^th, 2017 at 7:35pm:


Don't worry kiddo. Everyone already insult you at their heart content without needing your blessing.

I know what I can do with my 8 year old completionist toon. If I play a first life I don't go chew more than I can handle unless I want to test a build. That is playing using your brain.

You play with your ass (on your head). Burn

FranOhmsford wrote on Feb 13^th, 2017 at 8:14pm:


It's not the advice, it's the deaf ears upon which it falls.

FranOhmsford wrote on Feb 13^th, 2017 at 7:35pm:


Cool cool. You moved out of your parents attic yet?
You need yourself a real job, man.
Your parents won't live forever and you're pushing early 40s bruh.

OK, I ate some pizza and watched your movies.  Here's some thoughts in random order.

It's weird hearing the music.  First thing I turned off.

That's a pretty aggressive playstyle.  You gotta know your build, your abilities, and your quest.  Don't die the same way twice in a row.  Jumping into the middle of a bunch of shit is a good way to get killed.  I know it's a burst build, but that doesn't leave you a whole lot of room to work with.  When you get surrounded, you're depending on killing everything to live.  There's no shame in running away.  It's a fuck of a lot faster than looking for cakes when you don't have them hotkeyed.

The change they made a few updates ago means you can't just jump over everybody and run though.  If you're on the edge of a group, you can back up, or move, or do something.  Use the physics against them - hit the reapers first, then magicians, then rangers, but always keep the goddamn axe murderers away.  Burst has a huge range - far larger than melee.  Use that to your advantage.

Healing - it was making me nervous when you were down to 100 hp when you know how hard things hit.  There's very little benefit to playing that close to the edge unless you're an OS barb running with a cleric with an itchy and subtle trigger finger.  Even in a heroic quest, that's an unlucky roll away from needing a Jibbers, and on a first life...

You need some panic keys.  Some "wow, that really hurt" quickies, and some "shit, I'm about to DIE" ones.  There's a reason when they have games with consoles and PCs, one side tends to wreck the other.  Clicking is too slow.  I use a modified Doom layout; there are plenty of others.  Alt-A/S/D/F for four different heals - usually a spell, a pot, an elixer, and something else, like LoH.  Know them.  Then if you're quelled, or healing somebody else, or whatever, you have something that'll save you.

Alt-X tends to be my "oh fuck" combo.  Queen, or Vanguard, or even some superpots for level (heal 120 hp at level 3).  Buy some pots.  Don't die with spellpoints, or buffs you didn't use, or pots, or plat.  You KNOW you died to the drow last time.  Be prepared this time!

Q/E.  You shouldn't be clicking anything onscreen.  Tab cycles enemies; alt-tab in reverse.

Get a goddamn mouse.  They're like 15 bucks for a six-button thing, and you can switch warlock modes real simple-like.  Then you have both hands raping drow instead of this leisurely clicking.


How would you play on a permadeath toon?  Would it be slower?  Counting releases and running everything twice/thrice/fourth time's a charm?  XP/min doesn't have to mean "zerg everything," it can be "am I going to succeed on the first attempt?"

Again, adapt your play style to your situation, not the other way around.  I did a run of Servants with a slow-ass PUG, and jumped into the middle of the second drow group to fight.  Everybody followed me and died like a bunch of hoes.  I killed the drow, rezzed the nubs, and we moved on.  That was a smashy paladin thing that doesn't die much.  If I'd done that on a first-life stick build, we'd ALL die and they'd really be pissed.  Know your capabilities.  You can't play every cleave toon the same (and a burst warlock is basically that, with a bigger range).


Healbots - if you're gonna solo, you need to be an expert with these fat fucking swine.  Turbine/SSG can't code AI for shit, and they fired the one person who was fixing it, so I'm not sure they'll ever be any good.  You almost never want them on attack, especially when you're about to run into a bunch of drow.  Either way though, they fall asleep a lot.  You'll see that when you need a heal (or they do) and they're not doing anything.  Toggling back and forth (attack/defend) will wake them up.  Again, hotkeys.  Some people like ,/. (< and >) for quick switching.  Every update makes them worse, and this was no exception - the one before added retardation when you do a summon, but now even when you do a stay/follow toggle, you'll have to attack/defend.  Make sure you heal them in reaper, since they'll happily blow all their points healing themselves for 4 hp/shot.


Quest shit:

Servants- Pulling the switches to open that door after the first fight gets you xp and maybe a chest.  Dunno if you skipped that for speed, but it takes 10 seconds, and it's like 4k, even if you don't take the chest.

Spinner- You can do crystals as soon as you have them.  It doesn't change the spawns.  Hit block as soon as you get the web line snare warning.  You're not obligated to get tripped.


I know, I know, retard petting zoo... you ever PVP?  It'll make you twitchier.  Find an empty tavern (Market's usually good) and practice shit with a friend.  Or better yet, an enemy.  If you can handle human I, AI becomes laughable.  Or predictable, if you're prepared, and that's the same thing, really.

FranOhmsford wrote on Feb 13^th, 2017 at 8:14pm:

You have a tendency to ignore advice/constructive criticism or to consider them to be insults.  Or just consider it impossible to achieve for some reason that you feel the need to punctuate with as pile of exclamation points.

But I'll try anyway:

390 HP, which is what you show in the Harbor prior to entering the quest at 21st level is very low. Gear up or expect to die a lot when running EE quests.  The Warlock ability to pile on temp HP does not obviate the need of any character to have decent HP throughout.  You have played this game for many years, this should not be news to you.

Only a small tip on technique:  In Spinner you targeted Hezrou a few times.  All they do is respawn tougher, so ignore them as best you can and focus on the spiders and lighting the pillars.

Frank wrote on Feb 14^th, 2017 at 7:08am:


Trust me...I do NOT ignore constructive advice.

I may find it not viable for me personally but it is not ignored.

Frank wrote on Feb 14^th, 2017 at 7:08am:


It's a caster - 400 at level 20 is as far as I know still acceptable in Elite - She's only 10 short of that and has a huge buffer of recastable temp hp on top.

Maybe I could get her a better Con item for 20 more hp, Maybe I could get her a better False Life item for another 10 but we're not talking a huge difference here.

Yes maybe that extra 20-30 hp would be enough to stop the one-two shots getting me - the difference between 18 and 21 with no better gear was. But this is what I mean about Insults vs Constructive Criticism - 390 at Lvl 21 is not stupidly low for a Caster, I've seen Rogues with 350 or even less at that level and Casters with under 300.

Could my HP be higher - Yes.
Would I like it to be higher - Yes.
Am I going to search out perfect gear every time I level up - No.
Will my HP get better as I move up through Epics - ABSOLUTELY!
Will I be running EEs on that character any time soon - Well maybe E-VoN 5 but that's easy when you have a full Raid Group.

Frank wrote on Feb 14^th, 2017 at 7:08am:


Now this I didn't know - Are you sure they respawn TOUGHER or is it just that it feels that way?

I'm not sure I can just ignore all of them when I run Spinner but I can certainly try.
In groups Spinner can go south fast.

Frank wrote on Feb 14^th, 2017 at 7:35am:


Flesh to Stone is a Fort save - Already the lowest Save on a Lock.

I've used TWO Twist Slots on getting my Reflex up because I fully realise Saves are important DESPITE constantly being told by others that that's a waste of Twists.



That's ^ my Lvl 30 Lock on Cannith {2nd Life with 1 Wizard Past Life} that I ran Reaper 1 TTT on.

No she's not fully geared up or maxed out, She doesn't have multiple past lives, she does have 3 ERs so far and she's by far the strongest character I currently have.

My saves could be higher yes but I'm not sure how to get them higher without messing up something else - I can't craft for Lvl 30 yet {I think 21 is my limit}.



Again...I'm not ignoring your advice - I'm just trying to make you understand that not all of it will work for me personally.



P.S. What exactly are decent saves for Mid Tier Epics like TTT on EE?
What are decent EH Saves for Mid Tier Epics like TTT?
What are decent saves to be looking to get for LE and LH?
NOT Maxed Saves - Minimum requirements for viability?

FranOhmsford wrote on Feb 14^th, 2017 at 6:44am:


People (at least some) are leaving the chain for epics. Decent xp for first run, part of a saga and fairly trivial to run.

bob the builder wrote on Feb 14^th, 2017 at 9:03am:


On this I'm afraid we'll just have to disagree because though Hireling Clerics aren't perfect on any mode I have always found them to be much better on Attack than on Defense.
Much more likely to throw a heal on Attack than on Defense.

In fact the ONLY ones I'll put on Defense are Larafay and Barrage strictly because on Attack they run out of SPs faster, Not as much faster as you'd expect because Defense doesn't work {at least not for me} the way it should.

bob the builder wrote on Feb 14^th, 2017 at 9:03am:


And I've found they do exactly the same in Defense only are even less likely to heal for some unknown reason - I'm not lying here, I wouldn't use Attack if Defense was better for me but it isn't.

And I'd be willing to bet that I've used a lot more Hirelings than you or indeed pretty much anyone else playing DDO has.


bob the builder wrote on Feb 14^th, 2017 at 9:03am:


One problem - I can't drive!

I had about 6 lessons when I was 16/17 and started dreaming about driving into a wall - I stopped taking lessons!

bob the builder wrote on Feb 14^th, 2017 at 9:03am:


Which ones exactly?

I already have T for changing between mouse look and non-mouse look.
I already have G for disabling/enabling auto-targeting {I still don't know which one I should be using because I can never remember...Is it disable or enable I want?}.

Oh and G and T are both really annoying for me...G because I keep hitting it by mistake and can never remember which one exactly it should be on? Does this change by character and build too?

And T for reasons I'll go into below....

Oh and F is my Voice activation which I never hit by mistake even though it's between G and D {No idea why that is but I've never hit F by mistake so far}.

bob the builder wrote on Feb 14^th, 2017 at 9:03am:


Oh GOD!

I LOATHE Mouse Look mode - Every time I hit T by mistake I'm all over the place!

I don't play FPS games, I haven't played FPS games going back 20 years or more to the original Doom and Tomb Raider which I wasn't good at.

I came to DDO from PnP - The only other Computer Games I'd played at all in the 10 years prior were TIF and Madden {again I wasn't good at those either}.

bob the builder wrote on Feb 14^th, 2017 at 9:03am:


You see T is terrible for me because I keep hitting it by mistake - I don't know why but I do.

And I cannot play in mouse look - The only time I do play in mouse look is when I hold down the right mouse key to swim.


Please don't say I'm ignoring advice here - This is quite simply one bit of advice that is no good to me....I can't play in mouse look.

bob the builder wrote on Feb 14^th, 2017 at 9:03am:


This key...¬?

Actually I don't think that's used for anything but I do hit it a lot by mistake when going for 1 or Tab - I'm not sure I want to waste heal scrolls like that but it might be useful for Cocoon on characters that have it - I'll give it a shot ty

bob the builder wrote on Feb 14^th, 2017 at 9:03am:


B's a bit too far for me, I sometimes have trouble getting my thumb to hit the space bar properly and B is above the middle of the space bar out of reach for quick access.

bob the builder wrote on Feb 14^th, 2017 at 9:03am:


I don't have the benefit of years of FPS gameplay as a kid.
Don't think I haven't tried mouselook, it doesn't work for me.

And I had trouble with the Playstation and Nintendo Gamepads trying to play old Beat em ups like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter - The number of keys some of you guys use is well beyond me.

Limpgimp wrote on Feb 14^th, 2017 at 9:41am:


It's possible that some people are doing that which WILL reduce the numbers running Heroic too but...

1) what are they running instead? I'm guessing they're also skipping heroic Wheloon, Mask, Druids, High Road and Storm Horns.
I suppose Battlefield would do it but I don't see that many Battlefield LFMs.
IQ XP is notoriously low.
RR = Rofl

2) At low level Epic levels most of my characters are not yet EE capable outside of EE VoN 5/6 which I swear is underscaled comparatively even once you add in the extra damage 6-12 players do when running together.
I'm not exactly usually the one farming kills at the puzzle and I stay on the right usually when doing south.


3) I actually saw 2 Servants LFMs up on Cannith this morning together with one having 2 players in and the other 1 player {no idea why he didn't just join the other 2 as they went IP literally at the same moment.}.
Maybe I just picked a bad time to put up a Servants LFM on Argo but it was SATURDAY EVENING GMT so prime time for US which is the bulk of Argo's population!

Oh and don't tell me it was because it was me - That character is pretty new and barely known - People might recognise Clievelund as me and ignore him but I doubt many would have recognised Bjorkalina as me prior to yesterday/today and those videos {which don't have all that many views either} and these forum posts about her.

FranOhmsford wrote on Feb 14^th, 2017 at 10:11am:


I find that on Friday/Saturday evenings, most players that are on are not interested in that type of content.  They are hitting Raids (Legendary Shroud, Spine, HoX, Fire Peaks, Deathwyrm) or running upper end content like Slavers.  At least on Cannith time of day often dictates LFM content.