Positive Experience Thread

[Nahual]

Got my barb to 20 and equipped two epic chaosblades for the first time. It is something that I wanted to do for a long time (one stupid seal that never dropped), then tring and two-handed leveled faster and tried quick cutter on Cormyr and thought it is time for this. Having fun and now need to get a 4th to make legendary.

 

[Vathailos]

My first time in Ravenloft was memorable on another level. Everything from the wilderness to the music, even the sound effects while exploring made it incredibly immersive. They did such an amazing job of re-creating the "feel" of the D&D module from decades ago I was awestruck.

A love the character creation experience and consistently tweak and change builds to try new combinations. Hard to pick a favorite part of the game, but certainly love it.

 

[Sophie The Cat Burglar]

A few days ago, I discovered two secret areas in All Hail the King. The tunnels are too long to run every time but very much worth finding and exploring.

After using up all my Deconstructor augments, I added Brotherhood of the Forge to my daily schedule. For story telling , it is one of the very best quests in the game.

 

[Tyran Thraxus]

Finally finished my Shogun armor set today. Love the samurai feel.

 

[Synalon]

I've been playing on-and-off since just after DQ came out, so I thought I'd done all content in the game at least once, besides Temple of Elemental Evil. I ran part 1 when it first came out and never did part 2. I'll get round to it some day...

But anyway. Back in hardcore season 2, on the quest for 5,000 favour, I found 2 quests I'd never run before. One was Stealer of Souls and the other was The Keeper's Sanctuary. Both were great fun and really well designed. Even though it was hardcore, I couldn't help but explore everything and do all the optionals in each.

Stealer of Souls I remembered existing, since I played when it was released, but must have taken a break shortly after. The different elemental areas each had different challenges, and my heart was really racing during the fight with Sorjek. I wish there were more reason to run it, as it is good fun! And quite unique. The flagging is a nightmare though, heh.

The Keeper's Sanctuary, though, I didn't even know existed. I guess it must have been around from the very beginning of DDO. This was such an enjoyable quest to explore - so many little nooks and extra areas to explore. And the interior was designed with such care for the aesthetics. I couldn't believe I'd missed it my entire time playing? I was so happy to stumble on it! A brilliant little dungeon crawl.

As well as those, I organised a bunch of raids in season 2 as well. ADQ, Twilight Forge + Titan Awakes, Reaver's Fate, Vision of Destruction. Maybe HoX? So running those was great. Titan was definitely the highlight - only 6 of the 12 stayed on for it, with one very brave and competent monk doing the columns. We were so pleased with ourselves for the completion, and no deaths! Though, for VoD, someone sadly died in the instant death cloud getting the quest open... The quest itself was the easy part.

So overall I guess hardcore season 2 was a pretty positive experience

 

[Daemos]

My wife and I got to do 5 first-time raids on Saturday with a crew of Streamers named KozyBean, AxelAlexK, TUF-RPG, Aldbar, Druidsfire, and Nachowench. A great time was had on Orien and we learned so much. A highlight for the year!

 

[MarauderX]

Still loving the music and narrators for the most part (the author narrators tend to be worst, but still good by comparison with other games).

Adventures have gotten better with each release, which has also improved the epic levels (which I used to avoid).

 

[Col Kurtz]

I have found a new home on Cormyr. Husband and me always used to duo on Khyber, not anymore. Now we are part of a great Family, the Guild "Pay it forward", which we have joined for some HC seasons before Cormyr. Noone is left alone in that guild, everyone helps anyone that needs help. Even started raiding now, which never did before. A huge thank you to our awesome guildleader Dawnstrider!!!

i ran there a few hardcorez / great core group !

 

[Col Kurtz]

My wife and I got to do 5 first-time raids on Saturday with a crew of Streamers named KozyBean, AxelAlexK, TUF-RPG, Aldbar, Druidsfire, and Nachowench. A great time was had on Orien and we learned so much. A highlight for the year!

great to hear from Orion - I thought hell froze over like a year ago there

 

[Rusty_helmet]

My favorite experience is seeing that the devs don't fix things that have been bug reported for months but shut down tempest spine because someone posted that they got a curse cleanser from it!

 

[Jasparius]

The game is fun when no lag. So 64 bit could be a breath of fresh air.

 

[Sophie The Cat Burglar]

It was another good week on this plane of existence. I was able to make two more dinosaur bone weapons, a great sword for my special forces barbarian and an off hand dagger for myself. One thousand extra hit points changes many battles from dangerous to manageable.

Three more members of my family reached level 34. They need equipment but they can help in the equipping process, speeding it up.

It normally takes me 6 to 12 months to equip a top level character. Using my new level 34 characters, with the current loot boost underway, I found everything to equip one of my rangers in 4 days. That is some crazy stuff.

Ravenloft is still a very fun expansion. Castle Ravenloft and Sealed in Amber are two of the very best quests in the game. My favorite moment comes in Sunrise, when Ireena reunites with Sergei. I wonder why they had to suffer, where they go to live their afterlife, and why the jailers of Ravenloft are so cruel.

My monkette is now much more fun to play. She kicks some serious karma. After a full rebuild to leverage what was provided, she may become my main treasure hunter.

Finally, I leave you with a funny story. There is a big canyon in House Kundarak. From day one in Stormreach, I assumed falling into the canyon would result in instant death. For years, I would ever so carefully climb down to Chains of Flame, my hands shaking, hoping not to accidentally fall off the platform.

Some time ago, I hired an adventurer to explore the more dangerous parts of Eberron for me. He mostly lounges in taverns and drinks. On a whim, I paid him to jump into Kundarak Canyon. Well. It turns out there is an invisible wall around the whole thing! Barring some landscape glith, it is impossible to jump off the bridges, jump off the platform, or jump over the edge into the canyon.

For whatever reason, I also had it in my head that swimming too far out into the harbor would result in death. Nope. There is another invisible wall. You cannot even reach the ships. All those fears for nothing. Very funny.

 

[Tyran Thraxus]

It was another good week on this plane of existence. I was able to make two more dinosaur bone weapons, a great sword for my special forces barbarian and an off hand dagger for myself. One thousand extra hit points changes many battles from dangerous to manageable.

Three more members of my family reached level 34. They need equipment but they can help in the equipping process, speeding it up.

It normally takes me 6 to 12 months to equip a top level character. Using my new level 34 characters, with the current loot boost underway, I found everything to equip one of my rangers in 4 days. That is some crazy stuff.

Ravenloft is still a very fun expansion. Castle Ravenloft and Sealed in Amber are two of the very best quests in the game. My favorite moment comes in Sunrise, when Ireena reunites with Sergei. I wonder why they had to suffer, where they go to live their afterlife, and why the jailers of Ravenloft are so cruel.

My monkette is now much more fun to play. She kicks some serious karma. After a full rebuild to leverage what was provided, she may become my main treasure hunter.

Finally, I leave you with a funny story. There is a big canyon in House Kundarak. From day one in Stormreach, I assumed falling into the canyon would result in instant death. For years, I would ever so carefully climb down to Chains of Flame, my hands shaking, hoping not to accidentally fall off the platform.

Some time ago, I hired an adventurer to explore the more dangerous parts of Eberron for me. He mostly lounges in taverns and drinks. On a whim, I paid him to jump into Kundarak Canyon. Well. It turns out there is an invisible wall around the whole thing! Barring some landscape glith, it is impossible to jump off the bridges, jump off the platform, or jump over the edge into the canyon.

For whatever reason, I also had it in my head that swimming too far out into the harbor would result in death. Nope. There is another invisible wall. You cannot even reach the ships. All those fears for nothing. Very funny.

I'm also interested in a Monk; what do you recommend?

 

[Sophie The Cat Burglar]

I'm also interested in a Monk; what do you recommend?

Greetings, Mr. Thraxus!

My DDO character building skills are rather poor and I now play entirely solo. I recommend you ask that question in the Monk forum.

Some things to consider:

Do you have a certain race in mind? Some races have inherent traits that work very well with monk characters.

Do you have a certain weapon in mind? Some weapons require very specific things to function while centered. Some do not work at all.

Would you prefer a single or multiple class character? The latter is more complicated to build but usually more powerful. Mistakes are expensive to correct.

Do you want to play solo, run in groups, run in high reaper groups, raid, or run in high reaper raids with this character? Building a very powerful character requires very specific builds, very specific equipment, significantly more effort, probably more money, and definitely the right acquaintances. Solo play puts different stresses on a character but is far easier to accommodate. For example, how do you feel about traps? Do you like to explore?

Do you want to run from 1 to 20, from 20 to 30, from 15 to 30, or stay at 34 with this character? This question combines with the previous one. In other words, are you wanting to make go rounds with this character, collecting past life feats, or do you want to run level 34 stuff? They are very different requirements. Another possible answer is, I want to run from 1/15/20 to 34, play at 34 for a while, then reset. Many people play that way.

Do you have access to all of the add on enhancement trees like Falconry? If not, what trees do you have?

Does this character have any ability score tomes? If so, which ones. This is very important when trying to achieve some multiple class combinations.

At this point, you may be saying to yourself, "Good grief! I just want to play a stupid monk!" If so, we are cut from the same cloth. On the other hand, you may be a best of the best sort for whom all of the questions above will matter.

One problem with DDO is that there is so much build diversity, so many different ways to play, so many equipment combinations, finding the answer to any question is like pulling teeth. The worst is when you ask a question and get answers that are completely at odds with the way you want to play. I am trying not to do that to you. My hope is that the questions above will help you communicate with the people who are good at designing characters.

 

[Mechgraber]

Recently took part in an r10 Strahd. Was tons of fun. Difficulty is always there if you search for it!

 

[Sophie The Cat Burglar]

I meant to post this Sunday morning but forgot.

During the last week, three more of my characters reached 34 so that long term project is approaching completion. Two more characters received dinosaur bone weapons.

With so many characters at maximum level, I sent my Avatar low to make some Heroic go rounds. Depending on mood, I can now play Heroic, Epic, or Legendary as desired. That feels good.

My loot pulls of the week were two Sparks of Memory from White Plume Mountain and one Deconstructor from Brothers of the Forge. Three storage characters are now flush with Legendary Isle of Dread equipment. I need to puzzle out some equipment sets.

As with last week, I earned a small amount of Reaper Experience (but no Reaper Points).

My funny story of the week happened in my kitchen. I am fasting for Lent--no solid food except Sundays--and decided to make myself some chocolate pudding. After 8 minutes in the microwave, I pulled it out and immediately knew something was very wrong. The company changed the box art such that Cook and Serve and Instant now look almost identical. After wrinkling my nose and staring at the black bowl of weirdness for a few moments, I stuck it in the refrigerator to see what would happen. It turned into a weirdly rubbery, gelatinous mass. I poked it with a spoon a few times, rolled a successful Wisdom check, and decided to put it down the drain. I started the garbage disposal, turned on the water, stuck the bowl into the stream, pushed with the spoon, and...the entire glob of black corruption jumped out of the bowl straight at me. Yes, I was attacked by a Black Pudding in real life. Fortunately, I evaded and the Black Pudding glopped into the sink basin and down the drain. It made a horrible, horrible sound as the spinning blades of the garbage disposal tore into it.

 

[DDO Gaming]

watching this and listening to Cordovan explain why "dead-brain monster syndrome" occurs

 

[Bjond]

There are only two things I've found that DDO does best, but they're nice:

• build flexibility
• voice-over delivery

Combat, "creature-comfort" QOL/UI, puzzles, jumping, art, graphics, glam/skins, have different games I'd call out for top, but none of them deliver story via voice-over. There's this insane desire in other games to tell stories via cut-scenes as if that's the only way to do it.

I *hate* and despise cut-scenes. When I want to watch a movie, I don't want the movie to stop and wait until I play a game. When I play a game, I don't want it to stop until I watch a movie.

Oh, and the builds here .. yeah. Nothing else like it in any other game. When peeps in another MMO ask "how do I build ..", I want to shout "there are no builds!" Choosing 0.1% more or less crit or defense is not a build!

 

[Synalon]

watching this and listening to Cordovan explain why "dead-brain monster syndrome" occurs

What part of the video does this happen?

 

[Sophie The Cat Burglar]

DDO continues to offer a lot of fun activities.

During the last week of the loot boost, I found many useful things including another Jibber's Blade. In retrospect, the biggest winners of the loot boost are all my much improved sentient weapons. I also completed some equipment sets and found some nice helper items, like another Pale Lavender Ioun Stone.

Sending my avatar low is allowing me to experience the original story anew. I really enjoy old chains like The Waterworks, The Seal of Seal of Shan-to-kor, Tangleroot Gorge, Delara's Tomb, Necropolis I, Sorrowdusk Island, and Threnal. They are far superior to most modern quests, moody and serious, and tell meaningful stories.

Last Sunday, I decided to give Lanterns in the Mist a go. The developers obviously attempted to create an event open to less skilled players like myself, and that deserves a measure of praise and involvement. To my surprise, the event is rather dark in nature! In the very first quest, my level 1 character needs to hide from a Balrog! Whoa! This is fantastic! The writing needed another round of polishing but...I am hiding from a Balrog! My lantern has almost reached 1,000, some fights along the way were really good, and the story snippets are well done.

This week ended up being really interesting. On the main server, my avatar (dagger rouge) is leveling up from 1 to 10 running mostly Elite and actually succeeding. That is a first. Meanwhile, my new character (mechanic) is leveling up from 1 to 10, running mostly Normal, while fighting the army of the Silith Empire. Many battles along the way were rather tense but the job is getting done. Difficulty for both characters is very roughly the same. Bouncing back and forth between both characters ended up being fun.

Meanwhile, meanwhile, my high level ladies are giggle smashing epic stuff for experience and loot but at a much slower pace than the previous three weeks. This is a nice relief from the tense adventures of my avatar and Silith fighter.

Finally, the biggest surprise of the last three weeks was The Isle of Dread. My initial impression was strongly negative, mostly because I detest Sting, also known as Vecna. Having now played quests 2 through 12 many times, my opinion changed to very favorable. Bullywugs and Boobytraps and Fall of the Forbidden Temple are my favorite quests. They are not as dark and serious as the quests I mentioned earlier, but deliver enough depth of exploration and menace to keep my interest piqued. Whispers of Return is a solid, short form quest. The Curse and the Captive Crustacean is a weird, fun arena battle. The pixie village out in the wilderness is a nice feature.