The New Blood - DDO

This weekend

2012-01-25T12:27:00.003Z

Hi guys, we've had to postpone the stuff planned for this Friday until next week - I didn't realize we were going to Derbyshire for the weekend. I might (just might) be on on Thursday and we could do something together then, but I've had a super busy week at work, so I'm not really sure.
Anyway, we've hit level 65 now, we're on a roll! Three cheers to Oss and his renown pots. :p

DDO Expansion coming this summer

2012-01-19T14:53:00.002Z

An expansion to DDO has just been announced. It's - supposedly :p - coming this summer and it's going to be set in the Underdark underground realm in Forgotten Realms, looks like we'll be facing Llolth, the spider queen.
Also level cap raise to 25 and druid class.

http://www.ddo.com/underdark/

A thread on the official DDO forum in which people have been compiling all available info and clues so far:
http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=358499

Discuss on here or on the TNB forum if you like :)

Personally I'm quite excited. :)

Mic

Holiday

2011-12-15T11:03:00.000Z

Hi guys,
I'm on holiday, first in CZ and then Derbyshire for a couple days, pretty much until the end of the year. I will probably pop up every now and then but probably not a lot during the usual playtime, ie evenings and weekends (will be going out a lot :p), so you might not see much of me.
Take care everyone, Merry Christmas. :)

M.

A misanthropic ranger with a lute

2011-12-09T12:42:00.001Z

As a part of the neverending quest to find the gimpiest build, I've been contemplating this hybrid for Reckluse's 3rd life. At first I was planning to go back to the original build, ie. Ranger 15 / Monk 3 / Rogue 2 as that was quite fun, but I have a pure ranger on Ghallanda and I know from previous experience that, despite some differences, playing both at the same time gets a bit old. So I'm going to go for something a little different this time.
I don't think I'm going to post this on the DDO forums or anything like that as I'm not all that interested in the opinion of general public, and the build is designed to suit my playstyle and preferences anyway, but I thought I'd put it here for guildies to peek at.

Level split

Ranger 11 / Bard 8 / Rogue 1
Why this split? Why 8 levels of bard and not just 6 for Warchanter splash?
Ranger 11 - all free TWF and archery feats, 30pt energy resistance. And because I like rangers. :)
Bard 8 - Warchanter I for DR song, extra dmg and two extra levels for level 3 spells: Haste, Displacement, Cure Serious Wounds
Rogue 1 - trap skills

Final stats with easily sustainable self-buffs:

Strength 35 = Base 15 +5 (level) +2 (tome) +6 (item) +3 (exceptional) +2 (Ram's) +2 (rage)
Dexterity 24 (so I can shoot things sometimes) = Base 15 +2 (tome) +6 (item) +1 (enhancement)
Constitution 26 = Base 15 +3 (tome) +6 (item) +2 (exceptional)
Intelligence 16 = Base 14 +2 (tome), will put a +6 item on for difficult traps
Wisdom 19 = Base 11 +2 (tome) +6 (item) - need Base 11 to be able to cast level 3 ranger spells
Charisma 20 = Base 11 +2 (tome) +6 (item) +1 (enhancement) - need Base 11 to be able to cast level 3 bard spells

459 Hit points (499 with Rage and ship buffs, 519 if I find space for a Toughness item) = 142 (base) +160 (Con) +20 (heroic dur.) +30 (gfl) +10 (draconic) + 22 (toughness) +20 (racial toughness) +45 (shroud) +10 (barb past life)
827 Spell points = 97 (base ranger 11) + (225 base bard 8) +80 (Wis bonus) +85 (Cha bonus) +40 (enhancement) +300 (shroud)

Feats
1 Toughness
3 Weapon Focus: Slashing (Warchanter pre-requisite)
6 PA
9 Extend
12 Maximize
15 Improved Critical: Slashing
18 Quicken
No Oversized TWF, but with Weapon Focus and songs to-hit should be fine. Will carry some Divine Power clickies as well.

Skills (without ship buffs and using items I already have; will farm all the new exceptional bonus stuff at some point)
Concentration 34 (without item on) = 22 ranks +7 (Con) +4 (GH) +1 (Focusing chant)
Disable Device 62 = 23 ranks +6 (Int) +4 (GH) +15 (item) +7 (tools) +1 (Focusing chant) +3 (Ventilated bracers non-upgraded) +3 (skill boost)
Search 55 = 23 ranks +6 (Int) +4 (GH) +20 (item - Epic Spyglass) +1 (Focusing chant) +3 (skill boost)
Open Lock 41 = 4 ranks +7 (Dex) +4 (GH) +15 (item) +7 (tools) +1 (Focusing chant) +3 (skill boost)
Perform 48 = 23 ranks +5 (Cha) +4 (GH) +15 (item) +1 (Focusing chant)
UMD 37 (39 ie. no-fail Heal scrolls with ship buffs, can put Head of GF or Cartouche on if no ship buffs) = 23 ranks +5 (Cha) +4 (GH) +5 (Shroud)

Saves (before ship buffs)
Fortitude 27 = 7 (rgr) +2 (brd) +0 (rog) +5 (resistance) +8 (Con) +1 (halfling racial) +4 (GH)
Reflex 32 = 7 (rgr) +6 (brd) +2 (rog) +5 (resistance) +7 (Dex) +1 (halfling racial) +4 (GH)
Will 25 = 3 (rgr) +6 (brd) +0 (rog) +5 (resistance) +4 (Wis) +1 (halfling racial) +2 (halfling enhancement) +4 (GH)

Enhancements
All song enhancements you can get
Warchanter I
All favoured attack and damage you can get
Ranger Favoured Resistance I
Rogue Haste Boost I
Rogue Damage Boost I
Ranger Spring Boost I
Ranger Skills Boost II
Halfling Cunning and Guile II, Sneak Attack Training I (planning to make a Rad II scimi)
Bard Charisma I
Ranger Dexterity I
Bard Wand and Scroll Mastery III
Ranger Devotion IV
Halfling Will II
Racial Toughness II
Rest can be divided among skills or halfling saves

AC
Ironskin Chant and Displacement. No, seriously, no real AC to speak of.

Gear (green items are ones I already have, rest I need to farm)
Head: Min II helm (heavy fort, prot +5), +45 hp
Goggles: Tharne's / DD
Neck: Torc / Shintao Cord / Silver Flame
Trinket: Bloodstone
Cloak: Conc Opp (+6 Wis, +300 sp, +5 cha skills)
Armour: DT robe - Heal Amp 10% / Heal Amp 20% / Dodge +3
Belt: Knost's (+6 Con, GFL)
Ring. Warchanter (+6 Cha, +1 exc Str, +2 exc Con) / Kyosho's (+6 Wis, +1 exc Str, +2 exc Con)
Ring: ?? (ToD Dex ring with +2 exc Str - need to look into those)
Bracers: Fabricator's Bracers
Gloves: Fabricator's Gloves
Boots: Striding / Anchoring

The Dodge +3 sovereign DT rune is mostly useless on this build but I already have it on my robe and I'll probably keep it, just in case I decide to TR into something with AC again. Or I might make a new DT with the two heal amps and a decent guard on the sovereign rune.
Torc and Shintao Cord and Warchanter and Kyosho will be swapped around as needed.
The problem with this gear setup is that there's no Toughness. Minos has been replaced by a Min II helm so I need to find another Toughness item or one with a blue augment slot that would fit in. Bloodstone doesn't help the slot problem a lot, some seeker is pretty much a must, but with nothing else on it (even on the epic version), it's quite obsolete. Ring of the Stalker would be the obvious solution, but that would prevent me from putting +2 exc Con on a ToD ring. EDIT: Epic Brawn's Spirits might be the answer, it has +2 exc Con and a green slot to put Toughness on, which would allow me to use the Ring of Stalker and slot +6 Dex on it.

Just thinking aloud here, really. :p

What I expect from the build

Speed! Ranger sprint + haste! I like the extra speed on my current barb life, but the need to either constantly drink haste pots or drag a bard hireling along is slightly frustrating.
Self-sufficiency. 30pt energy resistance, jump, extended haste, rage and displacement - basically everything a melee wants (except FoM). Quickened self-heals, CSW with ardour clicky and some heal amp should be in the region of 150 hp. UMD to use Heal and GH scrolls and to remove neg levels.
Songs - though this bard doesn't like performing for other people! He just hums tunes to himself while zerging through dungeons on his own. A bit weird, I know, seeing as the best thing about bards is that the whole group benefits from them. Anyone who's played a high level ranger probably knows that their damage output against favoured enemies is respectable, but against everything else they feel a bit gimped. By grabbing 8 bard levels, I sacrifice some favoured damage (and some BAB), but overal damage will be better. Also Ironskin Chant, in combination with Displacement, will make up for low AC.
Some ranged combat options. With 11 levels or ranger I get all the free archery feats, however there is no room for Improved Crit: Ranged. I'm not planning to use bows very often though, it'll mostly be about manyshotting distant casters, being able to do some ranged damage in EDQ while Lailat is ported away, being able to easily grab Sally's aggro in ToD etc.
A bit of trapsmithing. Melee combat is fun, but it's good to be able to faff with traps and locks a bit for variety. And with only basic evasion, I might actually be better off disarming some traps rather than zerging through them. Not to mention the up to 15% bonus XP.

Cons/concerns

No FoM.
Only two level 1 ranger spell slots, so will have to pick only two out of Resist Energy, Jump and Ram's Might. With ship buffs and some backup level 11 resist wands, I expect I will lean towards having Jump and Ram's on most of the time.
No room for Tempest pre-reqs. That doesn't bother me so much though, to be honest, I'm not a big fan of Tempest anyway, don't even have it on my pure ranger (who's pre-dominantly melee). Costs too many feats for the benefit it gives, and without a monk splash it would really just provide the extra attacks - the shield bonus to AC wouldn't get me very high anyway.
The Will save is a bit low for soloing. Being commanded or held while on your own is no fun. I might play about with the enhancements to be able to take all 3 tiers of Halfling Will. And I'll probably eat a +3 Wis tome if I can get my hands on one, for another +1.

Level 62

2011-12-06T14:09:00.001Z

We hit level 62 last night. We can now have all +2 stat shrines and all 30pt energy resistance shrines. We don't have enough amenity hookpoints for all of those, so we have all stats and fire, lightning and acid resistance shrines. We reckon these are the most convenient ones for leveling. I was deciding between acid and cold, cold is probably present in more quests but acid traps generally tend to deal more damage. Sonic is handy at endgame when you fight a lot of orthons, but at that point most builds can either self-buff or there's someone in the group who buffs everyone up.
At level 63 we'll get a +3% XP shrine and, to be honest, that's about as far as my ambitions go with the tiny member base we have at the moment (5 people playing on a regular basis right now). It's pretty uninteresting all the way to 70, when you get Large Guild status, Tier 3 Shroud altar and Twelve teleporter. However, that's at 17 milion renown and considering it has taken us roughly a year and a half to amass 12 milion, we can expect to hit level 70 in the second half of next year ( remember, renown decay will hit increasingly harder) unless something changes and we get a lot more active. Which I don't really see happening, unless the crazy Danes come back and decide to stick around for more than 2 months or something like that.

On a related note - although we're not actively recruiting at the moment, we could definitely do with more people, so if you come across somebody who you think would fit in and would be interested, don't hesitate to refer them me, or me to them.

Guild questing

2011-11-25T07:50:00.001Z

Hi guys,
Think we could do some guild questing tonight (after 8pm UK or so). Don't think I'll put a Shroud together, I've still only done it once since the U12 blades change and I don't feel familiar/confident enough to lead it. We could do other stuff though, something on our level 16/17 dudes for example + I'm open to suggestions.

Update 12?

2011-11-09T09:02:00.004Z

Apparently Update 12 is going live during today's downtime. A bit sneaky but I'm not complaining. Might be going to the gym after work but will definitely be on to explore it a bit in the evening.

EDIT: Release notes.

M.

Level 60

2011-10-08T09:33:00.003+01:00

Hi dudes,
We hit level 60 last night and had our public announcement. Hanne and I did a shroud and ended up with some 400 renown left to 60. We decided we couldn't go to bed and leave it like that so we ran about in the Vale for a bit until we got it.
Screenies below (click to see full size version). Thanks to everyone for contributing!

Shroud back at 8pm again

2011-10-04T15:12:00.003+01:00

Thanks to some outstanding time management and careful planning (ie the decision not to go to gym on Friday nights :p) on my part, I am now able to move Shrouds back to 8pm, starting this week. Much better than starting at 9, to be honest, as there was hardly any time for any further subsequent guild questing.
I'm kinda distracted by Crystal Cove at the moment because I have figured out a couple items I could still use, but I'm still planning to run the new quests soon.. Not guaranteed it'll happen while CC is up since, with the limited time I spend in game atm, I want to make use of it while it's around, but flagging for the new raids is my next priority.

No Shroud tonight

2011-09-30T14:38:00.002+01:00

Hi guys,
I have to cancel my weekly Shroud tonight as Hannah and I are attending a Lau gig. Of course that doesn't mean you can't organize one yourself if you like. I might be online tomorrow night or Sunday.

M.

Kobolds hate you once again

2011-09-19T13:56:00.000+01:00

Crystal Cove is going live again today and will be open until October 9. I have most of the items I wanted from it on Thelanis but I'm planning to get a couple more bits, including gear for my new artificer. So if you'd like to run it, let me know, I'm definitely not going to farm it as much as when it previously on but I'll be happy to do some runs, it's a fun quest as long as you don't overdo it. :)
EDIT: I know that some people in the guild more or less missed the event when it was on the last two times, I've stumbled upon this thread that you might be interested in reading if you want to know what it's all about.

UPDATE SEP 28: The Cove is up now!

Also I'll probably try to get flagged for the new raids at some point this week, not sure when yet so if you'd like to team up to run the new quests, let me know.

M.

Update 11 is live + no Shroud this week

2011-09-13T10:55:00.001+01:00

Hi!
In case you didn't know, Update 11 is live now. A new class, 3 new quests, 2 new raids and some other goodies. Also some controversial changes to raid boss HP and damage that make the fights longer (possibly too long for some). Release notes here.
Hannah and Oss are already running about on their artificers, I might make one as well soon, just need to decide on build.

EDIT: Oh, also.. I'm afraid I won't be about for Shroud this Friday. Hannah and I are traveling. I need to delete the announcement from the MotD...

Regular Friday Shrouds moved to 9pm / 10pm CET

2011-09-08T00:55:00.002+01:00

Hi people,

As you have probably noticed, I haven't been playing a whole lot lately. I still enjoy the game but I have been busy with other activities and it's been a bit hard for me to find enough time/energy and motivation to hang around in game as much as I used to. I also need to move our Friday Shrouds to 9pm UK time because 8 is a bit problematic for me ad Hannah at the moment. I hope it's not an issue for you guys.

Thanks a lot to all of you who are keeping active and sustain our progress in guild renown. And if you plan guild runs or activities while I'm not about, don't hesitate to let me know on here or the forum. I still check those places on a daily basis (most of the time anyway). I can also provide Skype/ICQ/whatever contacts if anyone wants to be able to reach me outside the game.

M.

Quiet week but Shroud on Friday

2011-08-23T19:15:00.001+01:00

Hi peeps, I'm having a bit of a quiet week DDO-wise, trying to catch up on some non-gaming activities. If you want to do something specific in game, let me know and I'll see if I can log in and help out. I'm definitely planning a Shroud on Friday night as usual and perhaps some more guild questing afterwards if there's interest.

M.

New Weapons Shipment - total mayhem?

2011-08-19T15:09:00.000+01:00

Mwahaha. I like the look of that!
http://forums.ddo.com/showpost.php?p=4006613&postcount=32
Might be total chaos just like the first few waves in Kobold Asssault elite on lowbies. I've always loved that quest. :)

Now they just need to make the other two chests on leet drop ingredients and bauble so that people actually run it, hehe.

Trades section on guild forum

2011-08-11T16:51:00.000+01:00

Hi dudes, I've added a Trade section to the forum. The primary purpose is, obviously, for guild members who want to sell or buy items to be able to check whether another guildie has or is after any of the items, as sometimes you will get a better price from a guildie than you would get from an outsider etc etc, yada yada.

I have started a thread with my wants and haves, at the moment it's just epic scrolls which might not be interesting for everybody as not all members of the guild are running epics (although Hannah and Tangy do and so does Hanne, occasionally) but I'm sure I'll think of other goodies I need or have as I log my characters.

This weekend

2011-08-11T13:12:00.002+01:00

I'll be home alone for two days or so and, unless the weather is nice and I decide to go a-walking, I'm planning to play throughout the weekend. Shroud on Friday at the usual time (8pm UK / 9 CET), probably followed by a guild SoS, and then I'll probably be on and off on Saturday and Sunday. We can agree on specific times, just talk to me in game. I'm planning to get Reckluse to 14 and will be running some GH and possibly other stuff as well.

Mic

Update 11 Lamannia release notes

2011-08-10T07:54:00.001+01:00

Hi guys, the Lamannia Release Notes for Update 11 have been posted. Check them out, looks like there are a lot of changes, three new quests and two raids.

Holiday

2011-07-22T08:02:00.002+01:00

Hi guys,
Hannah and I are going to CZ for two weeks on Monday. We might pop up occasionally but the schedule will mostly be busy so don't expect to see much of us.
Enjoy the summer everyone. :)

Mic

PS: Shroud tonight! Check the calendar.

No Mic for a few days

2011-07-11T19:32:00.000+01:00

Hi guys, just wanted to let you know I'm having a busy week at work and I might not be about until Thursday or Friday night. Have fun and see you later. :)

M.

Cannith Crafting overview

2011-07-08T11:45:00.000+01:00

Stumbled upon this nice database of what can be crafted on what and whether it's a prefix or a suffix. It's not really a "guide" as the title says, but for me it's a nice way to finally see what can actually be made besides the most obvious stuff like boss beaters that everyone has been talking about making.
http://cannith.deathwishgame.co.uk/

Forum post/discussion about this: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=327541

M.

Midbie questing and Shroud tomorrow night

2011-07-07T08:36:00.000+01:00

Hi guys,

I'm planning to run a Shroud tomorrow night, however Hannah has something happening at school so depending on what time she'll be back, I might postpone the run until she's home. I will provide more details in the message of the day tomorrow.
I've also been leveling Reckluse again (currently 12) and I've decided I want to use Maenya's Fists for a couple levels so if anyone wants to join me for some Eyes of Stone runs, you're welcome to. We can run the prequests too, if needed, as well as other quests or quest chains for teh XPz. :)

Mic

Grey Moon Waning (elite) and Cult of the Six (normal) quest chains tomorrow night

2011-06-19T11:36:00.002+01:00

Level range 7-10. Starting at 7.30pm UK time / 8.30pm CET. As I think we have one or two F2P players in the guild at the moment, I should probably mention that one needs the Sorrowdusk Isle adventure pack to be able to do these chains.
There are 2 people besides me who are likely to come so atm it looks like there are 3 free spots.

I might also put together a Shroud on Wychcraft before or after. Not sure yet though and also depends how many people would be interested, if not many, I'll probably just join a pug.

Moar Shroud ingredients + maybe a Shroud tonight + some VoDs in near future

2011-06-16T15:19:00.002+01:00

Hi dudes,

I've popped another bunch of Shroud ingredients into the large guild chest, 20 of each small and medium type including charged energy cells. Feel free to grab as much as you need if you're missing stuff for your 1st and 2nd tiers.
I might do a Shroud on Wychcraft tonight, time permitting. Not sure what time and for how long I'll be able to get online so no promises but stay tuned if you fancy a run. + Deffo a Shroud after pub tomorrow night. :)

I think also want Gloves on the Glacier on Wych so I might be talked into organizing some VoDs in the future. Let's discuss, if some people are interested in this.

Mic

Dev tracker

2011-06-13T14:09:00.000+01:00

For those of you who like to stay updated on what teh devz have said, I've found this fan-made RSS feed that tracks all posts made by devs on the DDO.com forum. You will need an RSS/feed reader to use it. I use Google Reader but I know some browsers and email clients can handle feeds as well.

URL: http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=XscG5ggF3hGiqevMpQt1Yg&_render=rss

Shroud and possibly Reaver's Refuge tonight

2011-06-13T09:23:00.000+01:00

Hi guys, I need shards on Wych so I'll try to run a Shroud tonight. I think Zeree was asking about Reaver's Refuge so if he still needs it, I suppose we could do some after the Shroud, I could use some of the quests on Wych and SoS on Eversmile.
I'm not sure what time exactly I'll be able to get online but I'll try to arrive at 8pm UK or so.

New member, Shroud tomorrow and Shroud flagging quests afterwards

2011-06-02T23:54:00.000+01:00

Hi guys,

We have a new member, Zeree from Norway. Be nice to him and invite him to groups when possible. He has a level 17 ranger who's not Shroud flagged, so I'm tentatively planning to run some flagging quests after tomorrow night's Shroud - on elite, because Hannah needs them on leet on Milacku. That might require me bringing Eversmile so the level range will probably be 17-20.
See you tomorrow.

M.

Small and Medium Shroud ingredients

2011-03-24T15:19:00.001Z

Hi guys,

I have far too many small and medium Shroud ingredients that I've hoarded over the years and my bags are too heavy. If you're new to shrouding, want to start crafting your items and are lacking some smalls or mediums, let me know, I'm happy to give mine away while stocks last, including charged cells.

Mic

Oh noes, they're back

2011-03-17T08:02:00.002Z

In case you didn't know, The Crystal Cove is back, from today through March 27. I know I want at least one tier 3 item so I'll be up for some runs.

See you there. :)

EDIT: I've also scheduled a Shroud for tomorrow night. We have to maintain some regular guild activities so we don't drop back to level 50. :p

M.

WW elite tonight

2011-03-08T00:20:00.000Z

I intend to run WW on leet on my TR tonight at 8UK/9CET if anyone wants to come. Level 4-6 or something like that. I'll even try to remember to get ship buffs this time so I don't get outkilled by Hanne's cleric again. :p

M.

5th DDO Anniversary

2011-02-23T01:00:00.000Z

Hi guys,

I'm planning to spend a lot of time farming lootz in the special event - see details here. :) Some interesting epic items to be obtained. I'd love to do as much as possible of it with guild. Don't miss this and come online for the anniversary, running through Thursday through Tuesday.

See you there. :)

Mic

New member, more guild runs

2011-01-10T08:43:00.000Z

Hi guys,

We have a new member, Temro. He hails from Germany and has returned to DDO after a lengthy break (2 years and a half). He previously played on Keeper.He has a level 11 rogue at the moment and is waiting for his old EU character to be transfered from Ghallanda. Be nice to him and invite him to groups if you're questing in his level range. :) I've added him to the guild roster and updated the whole thing a bit.
Also I've been trying to organize more guild runs, mostly Shrouds and SoS + prequests as that's what I need on my characters the most at the moment. Watch the calendar.

Mic

Chronoscope Sunday 8PM CET / 7 UK, lvl 6-9 + Cursed Crypt runs this weekend

2010-12-03T09:29:00.004Z

Hi peeps, just letting you know that we've been talking about a guild Chronoscope raid. It's the new level 6 lowbie raid and since quite a few people seem to have characters in this range at the moment, I thought it would be nice to have a go with at-level toons. We don't have a time but I'll see if I can arrange something this weekend.
UPDATE: We've got the time for Chronoscope now. Sunday Dec 5, 8PM CET / 7PM UK (for some reason it's showing on Monday Nov 29 on the widget on the left, for me at least). Several people have confirmed they'll try to be on.
Also Hanne is planning to run Cursed Crypt this Friday/weekend for Silver Flame/Emerald Claw necklace upgrades (no XP), ask him for details if interested. My cleric needs to upgrade her necky so I'll be happy to tag along if I'm about when it's on.

Wed: VoD, Thu: Shroud

2010-11-24T09:11:00.000Z

Hi guys,

We're gonna try to put a VoD group tonight to help Hanne get his 20th completion (at least I think it's his 20th). It's a bit of a short notice so I'm not sure how many guildies will be able to come, we'll look for more on the channels before pugging.
Also Shroud tomorrow night. See calendar.

Mic

Scheduled runs and calendar

2010-11-11T12:42:00.000Z

Hi people,

We've recently had some problems with grouping that I believe are related, among other things, to the fact there are not many of us and quite a few of us are rather casual so it's hard to predict if and when we'll have enough people online. Ad-hoc grouping hasn't worked very well lately. In an attempt to improve this a little, I am going to try and organize more scheduled runs. We will continue to announce scheduled runs in the Message of the Day in game but I've also created a Google Calendar for this purpose and added a gadget linked to it to the left column in this blog. Using this gadget, even our casual members who don't log in every day will have a way to quickly check if anything is going on and when. If you see an event in the calendar, you can click it to open a bubble that contains additional information. Unfortunately the size or font in the bubble can't be customized so it doesn't really fit in, but you can click "more details" which opens the event in a separate page with all the details displayed.
If there is interest, I will give other officers access to the calendar so they can schedule and create their own entries.

Comments and suggestions are welcome ofc. :)

Mic

VON 5 elite, VON 6 hard (?), level 12-15, Thursday 8 PM UK / 9 CET

2010-11-01T08:31:00.002Z

Hi guys, we want to have another go at Velah this week. We're going to do VON 5 on leet for XP and fun. I talked to a few people last night, there are several who cannot come on Tuesday and some that can't come Wednesday so it looks like we'll either be going tonight (if we happen to have enough flagged people online) or, more likely, on Thursday.
UPDATE: Let's do this on Thursday at 8 PM UK time, subject to change. Shout at me here or in guild chat if you want to come.

VON 5-6, level 10-13, Thursday Oct 21, 7:30 UK / 8:30 CET

2010-10-20T00:39:00.004+01:00

'Nuff said!

Tempest Spine 10-13 on Thursday 8 UK / 9 CET

2010-10-12T20:56:00.001+01:00

Seems it might take people a couple days to flag for VON, we're trying to organize a guild TS run for Thursday night. Everyone is welcome to come - basically on any class, although one healer would help. Not necessary to reserve spots but letting me know you're planning to come would be nice so I have an idea how many there will be of us.

Slow midbie VON

2010-10-12T07:48:00.000+01:00

Hi peeps, our new members, Jidaro and Rivonia, are close to being flagged for VON, and they're wondering if there's any chance of a slow VON 5-6 run with the guild. They're first-timers and level 10 at the moment so it would probably be a 10-13 run with a commentary, lots of explaining et cetera. It would be nice to put a guild group together, not necessarily full, but at least capable of finishing VON 5 and having a go at the dragon. Please let me know here or in game if you are interested and whom you could bring. I'm not going to be online so much this week - busy with work - so feel free to discuss this with guildies in game and suggest a time. I'll try to arrange things so I can come. I'd be bringing Micron who's my only character in the range (wizzy 13 atm).

12-15 questing tonight

2010-10-05T00:33:00.000+01:00

Hi peeps, Intimi and I have decided we need to do a couple quests in this range on Tuesday night. I probably won't make it online before 8 or 9 UK time but if there are enough people on to form a group, feel free to start earlier and I'll join when I can, if there's a spot.
Not sure what we're gonna do, my suggestion is Titan flagging quests. :)

EU character transfers - update

2010-09-29T11:26:00.000+01:00

Tolero has posted an update on the character transfer. The planned deadline of "end of September" has miraculously transformed into "end of October". :p

Read the thread here.

Not surprising, but disappointing nevertheless.

New ship!

2010-09-08T21:17:00.001+01:00

Hi dudes,

We reached level 25 today and I've upgraded our Wind Sparrow to a Stormglory Bolt. Thanks to those who contributed some Astral Diamonds (you know who you are :)) and thanks to everyone in the guild for the renown they've helped to collect.

I've created a little Google Doc that shows what stuff we can get at our current guild level:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AjWh48ifq5PKdGtLQXBjZnBfN2dycmN2UnV2eFZGVVE&authkey=CM70lqkI&hl=en#gid=0

There are 3 tabs for Amenities, Crew and Augments respectively. Green items are available for in-game gold, blue items are only available for Turbine Points for now. Items that are bolded are ones I'm planning to have on the ship permanently (so don't replace them please :)).
I've primarily created that file for myself but feel free to peek if you like. I'm going to keep it updated as we progress in levels (poke me if I forget).

Enjoy our new ship and gadgets!

Mic

(gonna mirror this post on the forum)

Goodbye Devourer

2010-08-21T18:57:00.000+01:00

In case anyone is interested, some screenies from before Devourer was shut down. :)

Guild chest

2010-08-17T12:28:00.004+01:00

Hiya,

We have a small guild chest on the ship now that I think should be used to pass on twinks and resources to guildies. We are no longer a dedicated guild for new players so I've dropped the "no twinks because they spoil the fun" policy we had on Devourer. Please put in the chest items you think could be useful for others and you don't want to vendor them. If it's in the chest, it means it's up for anyone to grab without the need to ask etc. Only good items please, don't fill it with rubbish.

Because the chest can only be used by officers, I've made almost everyone's main character an officer - or what I think their main is, can be changed on request - so that most people in the guild can access the items and pass them on to alts if they like them. There are a few players whose mains I haven't promoted for now, like those who aren't actively playing at the moment or who have been in the guild for a short time.
Even though any officer can play about with the amenities on the ship, I would like to ask everyone (except me, Hannah, Siw or Hanne) not to buy or change anything without prior consultation with me.

For the time being, we can only purchase the guild chest for Turbine Points, it costs 395 TP for a week. As long as I have points to spare, I will renew the chest once it runs out but if anyone else feels like renewing it, it will be appreciated of course. Once we hit level 25, it should be possible to buy it on contract for in-game gold so it shouldn't be an issue for those of us who have accumulated some wealth to keep it going without having to use TP.
I'm not sure what happens with the loot when the gold seal contract runs out, supposedly everything should be still in when you renew it (maybe it has to be on the same hookpoint though?) - if anyone has any details on this, please post them here or on the forum where this post will be mirrored.

Have fun. :)

Mic

We've got a ship!

2010-08-16T00:11:00.005+01:00

It's true. We got it by the end of this week after all, before midnight. :p It's small and cute, go check it out. We've got a training dummy, a small guild chest and a mailbox on it for now, all of them for a week at least. Thanks to everyone for their contribution to this, and for giving up shiny loot to grab renown tokens on quest reward lists. :)
The next goal is level 25 so we can upgrade to Storm Bolt.

The airship name contest is still on by the way, go vote now. :)

Also thanks to everyone who participated on our first ever guild-only epic run last night, we now know that even our casual guild can do it. :) More to follow!

Halfway there

2010-07-30T09:41:00.002+01:00

Hi dudes,

We've reached 200,000 guild renown now, which means we've got half of what we need for the basic guild airship. It took us about 4 weeks, if we keep up the pace, we should have the basic ship by the end of August. Then about another month or so to reach level 25 to be able to upgrade to Storm Bolt, the smallest luxury ship. That's my goal as far as airships go, after that the guild levelling curve gets so steep I don't think we'll be getting any of the bigger ones, not unless we become a large guild (and I can't see that happening, somehow). :)

M.

Absence!

2010-07-29T19:07:00.002+01:00

Right folks just to let you know I'm going to be absent for a bit while I move home!

Pictures well come when the house is all set up :)

Take care all, see you in a week or too.

Hannah x

P.S My level 14 wants to run VoN 5 can you guys do some flagging about that level please :p

Turbine eats DDO Europe

2010-07-20T14:16:00.001+01:00

It's been almost a year but it seems that the uncertainty is nearing its end.

Codemasters forums:

Service Transition

Service Transition FAQ

Player discussion (there will probably be other threads)

Turbine:

Turbine Expands to Europe

Dungeons & Dragons Online® Service Transition FAQ

Forum thread & discussion

Mic

Maleficent Carnival

2010-07-18T23:53:00.004+01:00

Hello!!!

Mwahahaha I have posting rights here! (oh dear oh dear)

I just wanted to let everyone know that I will be looking to run some of the House P ( Maleficent Carnival ) new quests on elite on Monday (19/07) at 8 pm UK time.

The party should be Level 7-10

Mainly looking to do Partycrashers / The Snitch / Big Top all on elite (and i can open them), but with enought interest I am willing to run A Small Problem as well on elite ( the first in the series ) if we have enought people that havent done the chain before.

I've spent a while in these quests sussing them out so it might be a bit of a zerg. Can run slower educational trips on request after, but with warning to complete these quest in full on normal solo has taken me about an hour per quest.

Ship!

2010-07-04T21:28:00.000+01:00

Hi dudes,

It's time to ponder about the name for our (upcoming) airship. Check this thread on the guild forum if you're interested.

Mic

Update 5 is live

2010-06-29T13:44:00.004+01:00

and - surprise surprise! - half of it isn't working properly. :) If you were planning to log in to check out the Guild Renown system, there's no big rush - it's currently suspended.
The good news is that I briefly checked out two of the five new low level quests and they seem interesting and fun.

EDIT: Okay, Guild Renown is working now. We're currently level 3. We need to be at least 25 so that Hannah can get the posh little airship she wants. :p
Apparently there's also a +20% XP bonus on at the moment so if you've been meaning to level your lowbie, now would be a good time. I haven't found any official announcements on this but somebody mentioned in a group I was in that it's on until Monday.

See you in game. :)
M.

New members

2010-06-15T11:31:00.003+01:00

Hi everyone. We have recently recruited a couple new members, I thought it would be good to mention them on here. Be nice to them and give them a shout if you're forming a group.

Drayfor - an experienced player who moved Thelanis from the European Keeper server, has a capped wizard, Drayfor, Oddbod the rogue and a dwarven barb called Kamokazi.
Fallenflame - a new US member hailing from Portland, Oregon, currently playing a little halfing rogue/fighter/paladin (don't really know what build it is but it seems to be working fine so far :p).
Jaerael - a dwarven ranger with dreadlocks and a former member of The Rusty Nails Adventurers on the European Devourer server. Sounds British but, not being a native speaker, it's hard for me to pinpoint what particular accent it is. :)
Motherr - a favoured soul with a comfortingly sounding name and a brand new member from the UK whom I haven't had the pleasure of playing with yet, hope to change that soon!

Welcome to the guild. :)

Gollie is dead, long live Gollie!

2010-06-08T18:42:00.000+01:00

Our micro-guild now has its first True Reincarnated character. Gollie the favoured soul is now Gollie the wizard. Grats. :)

All halfling mini-Shroud on Devourer

2010-04-16T12:16:00.003+01:00

Earlier this week a couple friends and I ran a 6-man, all halfling Shroud on Devourer. Was supposed to be an all halfling raid group but due to the population issues we didn't find enough people and decided to go with what we had. It was a lot of fun. Check this link for a screenie or two and some comments, if interested (I'm the person posting as Krya):
A vertically challenged Shroud group - Page 4

Is this still a game I want to support?

2010-04-13T09:39:00.011+01:00

I'm not quite sure anymore. :(
http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=242813

EDIT: Further development:
Offer Wall Update – 4/13/2010

EDIT: Another update:
Offer Wall Update

Granted there is a big dose of mass hysteria, speculation and false allegations involved in the community feedback, but to me the worrying thing is that Turbine had an idea like this in the first place and proceeded to implement it. DDO has been increasingly less about Dungeons & Dragons and more about money.

Thelanis forum aka The Whiner's Corner

2010-03-04T08:28:00.002Z

Jesus, I think I've had it with the Thelanis section on the DDO forums. I've sort of got into the habit of checking it once or twice a day lately, in the hope of reading some server related news, but more than anything else it seems to be a place for people to bitch about other players and guilds and rant about how everyone except them and their guildies is crap. Wait, in fact that's not entirely accurate - I'm pretty sure somebody took it to the next level the other day and came to the forum to bitch about their own guildies to the rest of the server. Priceless!

This week - Vault of Night raid

2010-02-22T16:19:00.000Z

Hey guildies,

I'd like to try to organize a Vault of Night aka VON raid this week or weekend. By raid I mean parts 5 and 6 of the quest chain, ie Vault of Night and Plane of Night. It would probably be a run without level restrictions but also without XP, just for fun and to introduce the raid to the people who haven't done it before. Please let me know if you're interested in coming, when you are available, what character you would like to bring and whether or not you need to do any of the first 4 parts to get flagged. The whole thing would probably take at least 2 hours, group forming included. If we have a good party, I'd like to avoid getting pugs, as long as we can cover the stats needed - we need two characters who can at least temporarily reach Strength 25 and two characters who can reach Wisdom 20. These stats are needed to use certain runes and levers at one point in the quest and a character who has both the Str and Wis needed can cover both at the same time.

Alternatively - or additionally - we could also try to organize the raid for characters who are at the appropriate level, is about 9-12 or 10-13. VON 5 gives a lot of XP. In this case, a full raid group including pugs would most likely be inevitable as it would exclude some guildies that don't have any characters in that range at the moment.

Feel free to ask any questions. There is a guide to VON5 on our guild forum if you want to read up on the quest beforehand.

Mic

This week (Thu Feb 4 - Sun Feb 7)

2010-02-04T10:56:00.000Z

What I'm planning for the rest of this week:

Thursday night - Desert quests, starting with the smaller ones like Purge the Fallen Shrine, Maraud the Mines, Raid the Vulkoorim, Chamber of Rahmat/Kourush, as hard as possible. If there's still time after that, go on to Chains of Flame or Chamber of Raiyum to get flagged for Demon Queen. I've been having Demon Queen withdrawal syndrome.
I'll try to make level 10-15 guild groups for these if people are interested. We have some level 10 characters (Ossanna, Tinyskittle) so if these want to come, I don't mind dropping so the rest of you can form 10-13 groups without being powerlevelled by me (seems Intimi, Gleeful, Inuke and possibly others are in the 10-13 range as well).

Friday and weekend - When I'm done with the desert, I'll move on to Gianthold, probably starting with the smaller quests before taking on Crucible/Prison/Madstone. Also I skipped the Shadow Tombs so I'd like to try and get those done for favour and will welcome anyone who wants to join me, although the XP won't be very exciting seems the quests are level 9/10 on hard/elite.

Get well Khyr!

2010-02-03T17:18:00.000Z

Just wanted to let you know we're thinking of you and hoping you'll feel better soon and will able to play with us again soon, on one server or another. :)

For our new members, Khyr is a guildie from the Devourer server who's not well enough to play at the moment.

Best wishes, Khyr. :)

Mic & others

Update 3 is online

2010-02-03T16:18:00.000Z

Yey! Turbine Download Manager leeched the data while the servers were down so no further downloads were required. Read the release notes here. See you in game. :)

Relic and/or Invaders, Wednesday 9 PM GMT / 4 PM Eastern, level 11-14

2010-02-02T22:59:00.000Z

Hiya people, as the title says, I'd like to do one of these quests (or both, if time allows) with some guildies. I know Squebra, Nuke, Hanne and one or two others have characters in this range. If we get a nice group, we'll probably do Relic on hard and Invaders on normal.

Member recap (upated February 4)

2010-01-25T10:19:00.000Z

As some people have left the guild and new ones joined recently, I thought it might be a good idea to do a bit of a recap so that both the the old and new members have an overview of who's who.

We've recruited some newer US players lately, welcome to to the guild, guys. :)

Squebra aka Intimi and Gleeful hailing from Massachusetts.
Inuke, a crazy sorc tossing firewalls all over the place. A rl friend of Squebra's, also playing Itank, Capthank and Hazelhank.
Philter, freshly recruited, a friend of Squebra's and Inuke's.
Nixxy from California, playing a capped wizard, not sure about alts. :)
Davgeon from Kansas, new to DDO but with a long history of MMO addictions. :p

Plus there's this bunch of silly people who moved to Thelanis from the Devourer EU server:

Myself aka Micron, Reckluse and Eversmile.
Hannah of York aka Gollie, Tinyskittle, Tinyclanger, Blaime, Littleears, Soupdwagon and possibly others.
Siwani, Silisa, Tilisa and Alairna - a Swiss player and the longest serving member of the guild besides myself.
Hanne, an altoholic and multiclassing enthusiast from the UK, plays Ossanna, Gazunder, Kovalier, Kovali, Ilyusha and maybe others I don't know about.
Gil aka Urillium, Isuldurn, Plugnplay and Kinyard, hasn't played a lot recently but hoping we'll see more of him, preferably with Khyr as well!
Gazz aka Melaniee, Gabbby, Smashibashi and Doppey, a Scottish player and old friend from times long gone. :)
Jeng aka Gromber and Bromder, haven't seen much of him lately but he seems to come and go randomly.. I'm sure he's somewhere about.
Tas aka Plucking, due to return from Xmas break but seems to be taking his time.

I apologize if I forgot about someone, if you're not on the list, shout at me and I'll add you promptly. Also, bye bye to Susy and Myyster who left the guild to join Legion.

See you in the game people! :)

Mic

This week (updated Tuesday)

2010-01-18T13:50:00.000Z

Monday night (EU time): Shan-to-Kor hardest possible, 4-7 or 5-8 (depending on whether I can beat the temptation to level up)

Tuesday night: Three Barrel Cove explorer (whatever the level range is.. 4-8 I think), Shard Syndicate chain on elite (might not be able to open the last few quests)

Wednesday night: Same as Tuesday except I'll try to get online earlier tonight and actually get the stuff done. :)

Others later in the week, details and exact times will be (hopefully) posted:
Gwylan's Stand, Delera, Litany pt. 1, Tear of Dhakaan and other level 5-8 stuff in general. I need to catch up on you guys.

Mic

This weekend

2010-01-16T08:27:00.000Z

Hey dudes. I'm gonna be about this weekend, not sure what times but I intend to catch up on some low level stuff I left behind so I can move on.. Namely Kobold Assault (as hard as possible), Irestone Inlet (same) and, who knows, I might even do a Tangle.. Ewww.. Need to do some of the Sharn series as well.

Please consider helping

2010-01-14T15:24:00.000Z

I seldom do this, but in this case the scope of the disaster is so huge and the country affected is so poor and entirely depends on help from the rest of the world. I'm talking about the Haiti earthquake of course. I don't need to post any links because it's all over the news and, nowadays, anybody in the civilized world has the possibility to donate to a trustworthy organization that will spend their money where they are really needed. When things like clean water and basic food are needed, even the slightest help makes a difference.

I'm sorry if anyone thinks that this doesn't belong on the blog of a DDO guild, but I believe that it is coded in the spirit of The New Blood that people should help each other and assist those in need.

Mic

Merry Christmas :)

2009-12-24T15:26:00.000Z

Merry Christmas to all New Blood members on Devourer and Thelanis, and to everybody else who reads this post.

Love you all. :)

Mic

Screenshots

2009-12-16T14:49:00.001Z

If you have any screenshots you think are worth sharing, let me know and I'll put some sort of online gallery together. I think I'm way too lazy to dust off my limited HTML knowledge only to post my own screenies, but if other people send me stuff, I'll feel obliged and will do it.

The New Blood in presence, past and future

2009-12-10T10:47:00.000Z

Presence
Satine, Community Relations Director at Codemasters, has replied to the thread mentioned in my previous post. Check her post here or the whole thread here (Satine's post is #341). There is little to comment on since the answers don't reveal anything new or substantial, except a rather vague commitment saying that Codemasters would try to arrange a character transfer if the need arises. I personally wouldn't overestimate that part of her post, but it's better than nothing. It's obvious that Codemasters have done little to re-assure european players, but it seems that the inactivity and lack of communication is caused, at least partially, by the ongoing lawsuit between Atari and Turbine that they're involved in. I'm fed up with endless discussions on the CM forum and tired of speculations so I'll just wait and see what happens.
I renewed my DDO Europe subscription last Saturday and have been playing there very casually. I don't know how long I'll stay but I have realized that I am attached to the server and the community (or what's left of it) more than I thought I was. Khyr is still playing on Devourer and has no plans to start elsewhere. Marwnad/Wayof is still subscribed, although he's playing on Thelanis simultaneously. Gazz was apparently online last night but I missed him and haven't had a chance to speak with him lately. I will keep you updated on any Devourer or DDO Europe related news, if and when there are any.

Past and future
In the meantime, I have founded The New Blood on Thelanis. The "newblood" userchannel has all sorts of people from various guilds and servers on it now, which I welcome and have no problem with.. But I think I need something a bit more private, to share with a closer circle of people.
There are going to be some changes to how the guild is run and what it's about. The New Blood has been about for two years, it was first founded at Christmas in 2007 with the purpose of bringing new players to DDO Europe. I've never been too much of an altruist but I've always loved Devourer and its community, and I believe that the best thing an ordinary player can do to help a community grow and prosper is to introduce new people to the game, make the beginning easier for them and make them feel welcome so they stick around long enough to get a feel of the game and learn to appreciate it. I promoted and presented the guild and its goals on the official forums, on our website, on the guild forum and in the game. We managed to gain some reputation and people got used to sending newbies to us, knowing that we wouldn't let them down.
Now, my beliefs and my attitude towards new players remain the same, but my commitment has gradually changed, in the way that I simply can't do it anymore without feeling like I'm doing a half-assed job. I have been playing DDO for more than 3 years, I know it inside out and I've seen everything it has to offer (except Mod 10 :p). My priorities have changed, the youth enthusiasm is gone and all I want to do in the game now is to have fun, play with my friends, work on my characters and do whatever I feel like doing, whenever I feel like doing it. That doesn't mean that I will not accept new players or avoid them, but I would like The New Blood to be a collective of friends and like-minded people who enjoy playing together - pretty much what it's been anyway lately, only without the official "send newbies our way and we'll look after them" part.

Two more personal notes: 1. My opinion on cheats and exploits has not changed. 2. As I said above, from now on I'll only do what I want to do. When I want to play with guildies, I'll play with guildies. When I want to join pugs, I will join pugs. If I don't feel like doing something, I won't be talked into it. When I help someone, I help them because I want to and I don't expect them to help me or repay me later in any way. When someone offers to help me, I appreciate it but don't consider myself obliged to help them later in any way.

All current or recent members of the guild on Devourer who are fine with everything said above are more than welcome to join The New Blood on Thelanis. See you in game. :)

Mic

A lil' bit of downtime :)

2009-11-29T11:34:00.001Z

Hiya people,

I'm sorry you haven't seen much of me the last few days. I am about, not a lot though and often at obscure times (like midnight to 3AM last night :p).

There are two reasons, one of them being the fact I've reached the point where I need to slow down for a bit before I get fed up with the game.. It happens every now and then. :) The other reason is a somewhat uncertain future here at DDO Europe. Not sure you have noticed, but a considerable number of players have stopped playing (either temporarily or completely) and few new ones are coming. Module 10 delayed, no Free to Play, no DDO Store, no events, no competitions, no communication from Codemasters - new players have little reason to start in Europe. In comparison with the US servers it's a dead place. At the moment, Devourer feels more like a guild than a server to me - I somehow keep playing with the same people regardless of what group I join or start.

The community has asked Codemasters for a state of the game address. Until CM responds to this request, I don't feel very motivated to spend a lot of time on my characters or level new ones, I'm afraid. Even "playing just for fun" isn't very appealing when you're on a seemingly dying server.

If there are some good news from CM and it looks like DDO Europe will last for a while, I have every intention to stay on Devourer. Unfortunately for this to happen, something would have to change. A mere "we're not going to shut down" won't suffice at this point.

If there are no good news or CM doesn't respond at all, I'm off to play with Susy on Thelanis, one of the US servers.

I am still going to be about to play and socialize while waiting to see what's going to happen, however, you can't rely on me being on pretty much every day as usual. I will keep you updated on any news or decisions. If you'd like to speak with me but can't get hold of me in game, post a comment here, on the guild forum, PM me on the Codemasters forum or send an email to micron @ thenewblood-forum.com, I check all of those daily.

Take care. :)

Mic

Slow Shroud on Friday Nov 27, 8pm (UK time)

2009-11-21T10:33:00.000Z

We've teamed up with Brotherhood of the Wolf to do a first-timer friendly Shroud run.
Check their forum and our forum for more information or ask me in game. :)

EDIT: Looks like, after all, this is happening next Friday (November 27) at 8pm UK time (9 CET). Please let me know as soon as possible if you're interested in coming and if you have any characters you need to flag for the run. I'll help.

Mic

Transnational silliness

2009-11-09T21:50:00.001Z

One of the things I like about playing DDO on a European server is that I get to meet all these funny people who come from various countries. Thanks to the fact the playerbase is more mature compared to other games, you have a chance to get people to talk about their countries and learn from them. This thread on the Codemasters forum made me think about all the countries our current and former members have come from. I posted a list of these countries and later I decided to elaborate on that in this blog, to see if I can remember who these people actually were:

Current members.. more or less

Czech Republic - me

England - Nouda, Hanne, Khyr, Gil?, Jeng? and whole bunch of people who were in the guild at some point in the past.. I think statistically Englishmen (or -women) have dominated the guild

Scotland - Gazz

Wales - Wayof/Marwnad

Ireland - Arkayne (recruited only recently and currently on a break.. not sure he'll stick with us but I hope he will :))

Belgium - Myyster (currently on a break)

Sweden - Susy, we've had other Swedish members in the past (Diflure, Skyly, ...)

Denmark - Tiani, Falke, Devall, Aeiry

Germany - Tas (there have been more in the past.. Hellsound springs to mind)

Switzerland - Siwani

Austria - Meleana/Nelea, co-founder of the guild, her mains are in the Rusties, currently on maternity leave and only playing occassionaly on US servers), others in the past: Sentira and friends

Italy - Ari, co-founder of the guild, his main is in the Rusties, currently travelling

Turkey - Giatso/Raklynn, haven't seen him in a while but I suspect he might pop up again later

France - Xyathe (mostly plays on Keeper, only pops up on Devourer occassionaly), there's also another bloke whose name I'll have to look up in the members list, he logs in like once a year these days :p

Croatia - Namadeva, Xyathe's girlfriend

Other countries

Poland - Ziggri, a rather enthusiastic young man who disappeared into thin air one day.. think we might see him again

Romania - can't remember the name but she was a girl who didn't like the fact you couldn't change hair styles and hair colour like she had been used to in EQ2.. I think she went back to that game eventually

Russia - a bunch of blokes who popped up after Mod 9 and didn't stick around for long.. think they didn't make it past trial period; at one point there was also a person called Deceivery in the guild

Portugal - hmm.. can't remember anyone actually, I might have made that one up..

Norway - Khamee from the Rusties had one of his character in the guild at one point

Estonia - can't remember their name but they were in the guild.. didn't stay for long :)

Greece - Guitar was from Greece, he had his own guild called The Silent Guard that was a lone beacon of role-playing on Devourer in it's day ;) .. last I spoke with him he was off to Pirates of the Burning Sea

Israel - there was an Israeli person in the guild at one point, can't remember his name, sadly

New Zealand - there was a couple whose characters were called Lunch and Dinner... they lived in New Zealand, they might actually have originally been English but they're gone now, so can't confirm :)

If I can think of more, I'll edit the post. Feel free to post a comment if you can think of other people :p

New poll about US servers

2009-10-29T11:32:00.000Z

Hiya dudes. After reading some recent posts on the Codemasters DDO EU forum, I've started to wonder if any members of the guild would consider migrating to a US server (probably Thelanis), should DDO Europe become a desolate place.
Although I have no intention of leaving Devourer at this point, I have to admit that I have not seen many new players since the launch of DDO: Unlimited in the US, except a short period after the release of Module 9. It seems that even European newbies are attracted by the Free to Play (F2P) option that DDO Unlimited offers and - whether I like it or not - the DDO Store as well. The american servers seem to have a much bigger population, too.

My point of view: I honestly don't like the idea of DDO Store and I like playing with European people on a European server, even though it's a small one. I love The New Blood and its members. However, one can't help but think that Codemasters don't have much interest in DDO Europe anymore, even though they claim otherwise. Whether or not it's their fault or whether Turbine are helping it is another discussion, nevertheless, it seems that things are not going to get much better in the foreseeable future, unless Free to Play is introduced in Europe, and the population of Devourer is going to either stagnate or slowly decrease. As it stands, there is no word on if and when F2P will make it to Europe and it might be that Turbine doesn't want it to happen at all, even though Codemasters are keen on the idea. Who knows? As there's no communication from either of the parties involved, we are left to speculate.
Every now and then, somebody I know disappears and quite a few people who still play on Keeper or Devourer have alts on US servers as well, "just in case" Europe is closed down. Quite a few people have made it clear that they're only staying in Europe because they can't face re-grinding all their precious loot.
My plan is to play on Devourer for as long as it's fun. It's where it all started for me. I've been here for 3 years, my friends and my guild are here and I will stay faithful as long as it makes sense. Patience might pay off and chances are Devourer will see better days again. Some people have left but others have come back and I've even heard about US dudes who have come to play in the EU because they couldn't face the hordes of clueless newbies attracted by Free to Play: :p If things continue getting worse - most notably if there are no new players on the server - I will consider moving the guild to the US, if the game will still be attractive enough for me at that point.

I'd love to know what you people's opinion is on this. Please use the poll on the left and feel free to post comments to this entry. We can also start a thread on the guild forum if anybody would like to discuss things in more detail.

Thank you,

Micron :)

This weekend and Monday

2009-10-24T11:52:00.000+01:00

Waterworks elite, Saturday 5pm UK time, 6pm CET.
STK hardest we can incl. Sacred Helm, later on Saturday evening or Sunday (will update).
Both level 3-6 or 4-7 depending on who wants to come.

EDIT: Tangle elite on Monday night if an opener shows up! Apply here or on the forum or shout in game. :)

Possibly slow Shroud for newbies on Sunday evening but no promises :)

Shout in game, comment here or post on the forum if you want to come (reposting this thread on there in a sec).

This blog

2009-10-19T22:45:00.000+01:00

Yeah so I've sort of scrapped the old website. There wasn't much justification for its existence anymore. The FAQ was too long and the member list was useless and a nuisance to update anyway, what with all the altoholics in our guild. :)
I get to ramble on this blog when I feel like it and the links (basically the only useful feature of the old website) are going to be in the left panel, as soon as I've worked out how to do that. I'm pretty new to Blogger so feel free to come up with suggestions. And of course everybody is welcome to comment on whatever ramblings I post here, provided they're coherent enough to be commented on, which I can't guarantee.
The forum is still where it's always been and even if it's usefulness is questionable, it's gonna be there in the unlikely case somebody else than me actually wants to say or discuss something.

Self-healing THF kensei with saves

2009-10-18T10:17:00.001+01:00

I've been playing this character for two years now and just decided to reroll him again, for the second time - the previous version didn't have UMD and I kept having bad dreams about getting neg levels and not being able to remove them. So I remade the build and thought I'd drop it here for you guys to giggle at.

I wanted to play a fighter that runs about and hits stuff with a big weapon but I can't stand having to be babysat and not being able to heal myself. This bloke meets those requirements and on top of that can tank in most situations if needed, except the most demanding ones. He's primarily a tier II THF kensei though. Tier III can't be reached because of the 4 pally levels. The trade-off is:

no fighter capstone (-10% attack speed)
loses 2 bonus feats
no Kensei III

divine grace and aura (+7 to all saves + boost)
+2 AC (aura + enhancement)
access to metamagic feats and Paladin Devotion II that make the marks worthwhile
perma immunity to fear and disease
a lil' bit of LoH

Some DPS sacrifced to more survivability then. Some people couldn't get over losing the capstone, I'll try to live with it and use Haste Boost as often as possible. Fear and disease immunity can be obtained on items or via GH of course but on a pally they're always on, can't be dispelled and don't occupy an item slot. The metamagic feats remain the most important reason for the splash though. Along with Paladin Devotion II, they provide fast, reliable self-healing that allows me to top my (or somebody else's) health up about ten times per rest. With the five Greater marks healing for 459 hit points, I can get myself from almost dead to full health in the blink of an eye even in the middle of a fight - no Concentration check required. Without these feats and enhancements, the marks would probably not be worth it and I could as well go for full DPS - but that would be a different character.

Naturally, the general agreement would be that I should go TWF instead of THF.. I've already got a TWF melee character and I really don't fancy playing yet another khopesh dualling toon, there are way too many around already. Instead I want to try something else and see for myself if the Kensei THF benefits are any good.. And I really like seeing a lot of red numbers all around me.
Nevertheless, the build could be converted to TWF by dropping Con and Cha by 2, putting those points into Dex instead and replacing THF line with TWF. Force of Personality could be replaced with Khopesh if you so wish and another feat could be swapped out for OTWF, although with Kensei II it shouldn't be necessary.

If this character ever finds a +3 Int tome, I will consider replacing Force of Personality with Combat Expertise. With the Weapons Focus and Kensei to-hit bonuses, it might actually be possible to have both CE and Power Attack on at the same time and still hit (if these two can be on at the same time that is - need to check). I could also put the last ability raise in Int if I somehow get a +3 Str tome before level 20. I would however have to eat a +2 Wis tome and free up the cloak slot to put a Wis +6, +3 exceptional Will save cloak in it to maintain a respectable Will Save. With the Mineral II and Cha skills items already in place, this would require 40 Shroud runs because two Cleaning Essences will be needed.

Figures reached after a couple months of grinding follow. Everything is self-buffed, feel free to add the usual extra bits you get when you've had half the server come over and buff you up.

Base Stats:
Str 16, Dex 10, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 12

End Stats:
Str 32 (40 with Power Surge on) = 16 base +5 level +2 tome +3 fighter +6 item
Dex 18 = 10 base +5 spectral gloves +2 tome +1 halfling enhancement
Con 24 = 16 base +2 tome +6 item
Int 12 = 10 base +2 tome
Wis 8
Cha 20 = 12 base +2 tome +6 item

Hit Points:
517 hp = 200 base +140 con +20 heroic durability +30 gfl +10 draconic vitality +22 toughness +30 fighter toughness +20 halfling toughness +45 min II goggles

To hit THF:
40 = 20 base +1 size +11 str +5 weapon bonus +4 gh +2 weapon focus +2 competence (spectral gloves) -5 power attack
(+ Kensei bonus)

AC THF:
41 = 10 base +1 size +12 DT breastplate +4 dex (armour mastery I) +5 protection +3 barkskin pot +2 pally aura & tier 1 enhancement +1 armour ritual +3 chattering ring
49 = 41 see above +4 shield clicky/wand +4 insight bonus or armour or weapon

AC shield mode:
55 = 41 see above +9 mithral tower shield +1 shield ritual +4 insight bonus on armour or weapon

Saves:
Fort 40 = 14 fighter16/pally4 +2 pally aura & enhancement +5 divine grace +7 con +1 halfling racial +5 resistance +4 gh +2 head of gf
Reflex 31 = 6 fighter16/pally4 +2 pally aura & enhancement +5 divine grace +4 dex +1 halfling racial +2 halfling luck +5 resistance +4 gh +2 head of gf
Will 33 = 6 fighter16/pally4 +2 pally aura & enhancement +5 divine grace +5 charisma force of personality +1 halfling racial +3 halfling luck +5 resistance +4 gh +2 head of gf
Additional +2 with Pally Saves boost on.

Skills:
Level 1 (fighter): Intimidate full rank, UMD half rank
Level 2-5 (paladin): Indimidate half rank, UMD half rank
Level 6-7 (fighter): Intimidate full rank, UMD half rank; nom nom Int tome
Level 8-9 (fighter): Intimidate 2x rank, UMD half rank
Level 10-11 (fighter): Intimidate full rank, UMD half rank, Tumble half-rank
Level 12-20 (fighter): Intimidate full rank, UMD half rank, Balance half-rank

Intimidate 57 = 23 ranks -4 halfling +4 fighter +5 charisma +15 item +4 gh +6 cha skills necky +2 head of gf +2 kensei
UMD 31 = 11 ranks +5 charisma +4 gh +6 cha skills necky +2 head of gf +3 cartouche/abbot gloves
Tumble 1 rank
Balance 4.5 ranks

Feats (Level 1 fighter, 2-5 paladin, 6-20 fighter):
1 Least Dragonmark of Healing
3 Toughness
6 Lesser Mark
9 Greater Mark
12 Empower Healing Spell
15 Maximize
18 Force of Personality
F1 THF
F2 ITHF
F4 Improved Critical Slashing
F6 Power Attack
F8 GTHF
F10 Weapon Focus Slashing
F12 Weapon Specialization
F14 Greater Weapon Focus

F16 Greater Weapon Specialization

Enhancements:
Halfling Dex I
Extra Dragonmark IV
Hero's Companion II
Halfling Luck Reflex II
Halfling Luck Will III
Fighter Armour Mastery I
Fighter Attack Boost II
Fighter Critical Accuracy II
Fighter Haste Boost I
Fighter Intimidate IV
Fighter Strategy Trip I
Fighter Strength III
Fighter Toughness III
Halfling Toughness II
Paladin Bulwark of Good I
Paladion Devotion II
Paladin Extra Lay on Hands I
Paladin Resistance of Good I
Paladin Saves Boost I
Kensei II + Weapon Mastery II (GS or Falchion, yet to be decided)

Self-heals:
Dragonmarks can be cast immediately in the heat of battle, can't be interrupted, can be cast while quelled or feebleminded.
5x 459 hp Heal - Greater Mark (7x with dragonmarked set)
7x 150 hp CSW - Lesser Mark (more with dragonmarked set)
9x 50 hp CLW - Least Mark
Above figures include +20% bonus on incoming heals from Hound bracers, divide by 1.2 to see how the marks will heal

2x 70 hp LoH

Desired gear (Bloodstone, Spectral Gloves and Intimi helm ready and waiting, rest to be farmed):

Head: Intimidate
Necklace: Charisma skills / Silver Flame / Cartouche / Dragonmarked necky / Sup Pot VI
Goggles: Mineral II (Heavy Fort, Protection +5, +45 hp)
Trinket: Bloodstone / Head of Good Fortune
Cloak: Charisma (+6 Wis +3 exc Will Save Shroud cloak later)
Armour: Dragontouched Breastplate, Tier 1 +5 resistance, Tier 2 True Seeing, Tier 3 +4 Insight if lucky, otherwise a decent guard
Belt: Con +6, GFL (Knost/Vorne/DoS)
Bracers: Levik's Bracers (+6 Str, +20% Incoming Heals)
Gloves: Spectral Gloves (GT, +5 Dex, +2 competence to-hit)
Ring 1: Resistance / Dragonmarked set ring (Charisma) later
Ring 2: Chattering Ring / Energy resistances
Boots: Striding / Anchoring / FF etc...

Notable weapons to be farmed:
Mineral II two-handed weapon, Good Burst & +4 AC or Good Burst & Acid Blast if I win a lottery and get Insight on armour
Lightning haste / air guard +4 AC scimitar for shield mode

That's about it. Summary:

Neat:
Hits a lot of things at the same time with a big sword and self-heals while doing so.
Can DPS, tank and heal others as required depending on quest and group setup, even though he doesn't excel at any of the roles.
Undispellable immunity to fear, disease and 95% things that require a Fort save (the remaining 5% are 1s on dice).
Can chuck halfling companion bonuses on main tank when being an off-tank.
When I'm not drunk, usually outlives everybody else when things go pear shaped (except the clerics if they're decent).

Not so neat:
No capstone and no Kensei III.
Can't reach enough Intimidate and AC to be a proper main raid tank.
5 feats sacrificed to healing that could be invested in DPS and/or AC.
Occassionaly runs out of marks and LoHs and has to resort to wand healing.