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An unexpected combo at that as i'd never tried the beast hide shifter (howl) nor had i really tested this new thornbloom spell since the blight casters emerged (iirc when we did purple as a blight caster he made use in lower levels of sla's and souped up versions (via BC enhancements) of lesser used spells like spike growth for aoe. Is Rode still riding hard?

Heh, point taken as I'd never have the points to put in the race tree to get howl, at least in the near future. Rode took gcs at lvl 6 or 7 for cc so now sits on both of them (cs and gcs). Still no major nukes but since she thinks she is a fighter, it's working out ;}

@@drzorbo3770 If the opponents can't hit back that's always a start :) Re racial trees i get the impression plenty of folk shy away from investing in there unless they have the racial points to do so, even if some of the things there are really favourable for their builds. I don't subscribe to that approach, if a tree has nice things for my build i'll go for it - like the beasthide shifter for the warlock tank or the half orc tree for 2hf builds. I guess as with any such decision it's a question of opportunity cost - if the racial seems to offer more than standard trees i'll go for it.

Agreed, but I'm a full believer in picking the low hanging fruit, too. It just pays to really look at what is available. re-spec is only coins and can bring some nice benefits.

@@drzorbo3770 Oh for sure - like on any build with a few rogue levels theres 3 imbue and sneak dice to be had low down the assassin tree. Imbues however have become a little problematic for Red of late - they attract unwanted attention as afaik they're not subject to normal threat reduction rules.

Noted with thanks matey. And it's logical i guess as they're rooted and all :)

Agreed re options and details, there's a lot to take in and imo you have to be quite keen on the dnd thing to start with to wish to persevere here :) Actually when i was starting out there were no free quests and my content was pretty limited. It took me a long time to slowly unlock new packs with points, but i still think the free quests thing when it came was great for the game & also think there's room to make plenty more stuff ftp to give newer players a better taste before deciding wether or not to commit $$$ to the game. There are several decent new player guides around, i see Axel has done one recently which he's also posted on the forum - i've always liked his content - if i'd to choose one creator to watch it would be him.

All noted with thanks matey - Red has a half decent ac for a non melee from martial past lives, but his dodge as a warforged is pretty crummy, something to do with the way they implement the docents. I know that in light armor at cap he can have 10 points more dodge as a fleshy than as warforged with mithril docent. Seems a little strange re balance - feels like it should help avoid being knocked down rather than getting up :)

Trust you to be on the ball with this one - was kind of hoping it had slipped through your net :) Noted with thanks re acid but sadly i don't have any :(

Yes we're beginning to spread our wings a little now :) I've not looked into that tank build but i'd imagine if you played a more traditional one your levelling experience would be much smoother with the offensive output and cc you'd have. The blight caster is nice in that its tree takes pretty unloved spells and adds things to them making them very compelling selections in the build - for example contagion (single target stun) becomes an awesome source of aoe helplessness in the hands of a blight caster (works also on reapers) - follow up with acid well and everything dies. BC also has survival elements built in - the death eater mechanic in the cores provides you with a nice bank of temp HP on kills. Gear for positive, negative, acid and force and you should be doing well. One thing to note, unlike the traditional druid who is mostly into evocation, the BC has several spell schools they would like to have reasonable spell DC's in (evo, necro, conjuration, transmutation), so spell focus mastery gear is nice to have and arcane initiate feat from wizard PL is great also.

Hi Doc, Sadly howl won't be available to many at this stage as it requires a large investment in the racial tree. More realistic i guess is the 11 in feydark for GCS for any with magical training. Lawful good that would explain it - outside of paladin lives i'm never that :) The thornbloom is new for me this life - had never tried it before and have been pleasantly surprised at the results.

Yes it's poor rewards wise & no need at all to visit these days with the abundance of alternatives available at level, but nice once in a while for a bit of a change to keep things interesting. Nice strategy with the syranian weapons - way too organized for a muppet like me but hopefully one day :)

@@airedaleone5542 Yeah... I don't do TR, but I do do Epic Reincarnations. Got myself a bunch of weapons to make that easier, as well as just a bit of roleplaying for the character. I imagine her to like collecting them. I have a set of Sworn Silver, Ethereal, and Sacrificial Daggers for level 20, a set of Blades of the High Priestess for level 21 (all the way to cap due to how busted they are as TWF), a set of Spectral Daggers at level 24, and a set of Syranian Daggers at level 29. At cap, I have the Legendary Goldcursed Dagger alongside one of the normal Saltmarsh daggers. And I'm still trying to get the Epic versions of Slice and Dice (Multitude of Madness quest), as well as Sunslice and Moonslice (two Sharn quests). And then I would also really like to eventually get Pain and Suffering from the Barovia raids. My crowning jewel would be to eventually get myself a Keeper of the Crimson Covenant, a dagger only attainable by a Cleric of Vol.

@@DBinitiate Funny you mention slice & dice - my caster druid uses a cosmetic version of one of those in lieue of his caster stick. Some super sets you have there - one funny one that recently came to my attention was the one from the new cooking themed quest - part of the new chain i think that was released for year of the dragon - legendary fried & frozen swordfish :) They come from too many cooks quest i think & make a nice set bonus plus look pretty crazy onscreen (longswords they are nominally so i guess not really for you). If you have the dino expansion you could make some really tasty endgame daggers with that.... About TR i think most would agree there's more to be gained from epic ones and they are easier to acquire also. My 2 alt characters have done mostly epic/iconic.

That's interesting to know - i have very few of the old modules from back in the day & pretty sure my brother and i never tried that one. Guess it's somewhat akin to comparing a dilm to a book you've read - in my case almost invariably the films proved a little disappointing - understandable as they really have to choose which parts to focus on. Sounds like the devs did a decent job on this one, though i still say it could benefit from the TOEE treatment of being broken up into more bite sized portions :)

@@airedaleone5542 If they were to break it up, it would nearly double the quests. The adventure, being written for tournament use, consists of three modules, each with two sections. The only one I can see not being split is the last one as that one was meant as a tiebreaker. Fun fact about the Bee room: In the module, the honey trap exists too (it's just literally a bucket put on the door which drops on the first person entering) and it says that anyone covered in honey that gets near a hive gets attacked by bees. I think that's what they replicate with the woodens parts.

@@DBinitiate Interesting that in the module there were splits and yet into the game they chose not to, creating some of the longest quests ingame in the process. Were it my decision i would definitely break part 2 into 2 bits as it's got a clear split in the middle anyway and is easily the longest. Ahhh those bees - i've almost resigned myself to the fact that i need to work only with SLA's there as a caster, but i've heard too that if you stick to a certain area they don't get you? Ahhh that's the point you're making about the wooden bits and getting close right? So avoiding those and the player should be ok?

@airedaleone5542 Yes on the bees.

@pipeosaurs I don't know about greatness but I've enjoyed the options the druid brings to the table. AFAIK no other class has the nice ticking aoe heals they get.... now if I could only remember to use them :)

Yes it's a hell of an item especially in the hands of an arti for the extra duration. The only reason i don't have the epic version is i use the epic duskheart already and have a heroic & legendary cap. How did you find the inquis down in the lower levels? The arti performs surprisingly well down there and the full DS of course makes any early aoe hit harder. I'm enjoying the new one on that short CD from your inquis tree - and i suspect the inquis may be dipping into ours now for more aoe if they were not doing already :)

@@airedaleone5542 Still not played Inquisitive in early heroics, been on the new server running the event as a pure Arti lol. Once I get what I am after from the event or if I run out of time (whichever arrives first) then I will be going back to my home server and continuing on.

@@owenhill5668 Oh, great :) How are you finding it there? I'd be chasing the sabre cat if i had access - i'm a sucker for big cats :) If doing the HC version i guess you'll get some mileage out of the RM tree - i was surprised just how survivable that made me when i played around with it at cap, though i typically use BE T5. Good hunting over there - hope you find what you're looking for!

@@airedaleone5542 Not running the HC version it's just not my thing at all. Overall it is slow going and borderline painful honestly. The lag has been off the charts bad and Mist Stalkers hit insanely hard at low levels (I got one shotted in Heytons Rest in Korthos, literally the first quest I ran). I am now level 8 and level 6 with 2 toons and doing much better now. I am after the mount also and my other toon is getting the cosmetic pet of a lantern but it is the mount I want the most.

@@owenhill5668 You have that in common with me re HC - the walking on eggshells approach would not do anything for my nerves at all :) Really sorry to hear re lag though i suspect the server population there is 2x or more what the max is on any standard server (heard it was up towards 1k) so there is that. Also heard that unlike our servers, this new one will provide decent feedback for the devs on where bottlenecks are so here's hoping... Ouch @ Mist stalker - sounds a little like the OP mimics that crushed us all with their dots when the event first began - sounds like things are moving in the right direction for you now anyway so go get that cat :)

Hmmm looks like the site ate my reply :( Maybe hireling fans auto deleting my comments suggesting they will soon be relegated to lever pullers again this life :)

YT must be hungry as it also eats my comments, too. This is the second attempt at this one! Lever pullers are good but I run a hireling most of the time and even a summons if the q is not good for me.

@@drzorbo3770 Glad it's not just me :) YMMV but aside from the PM skeleton which can get pretty tanky, the limited number of hire/summons i've experimented with have either done very little and/or been pointless due to dying almost instantly when attracting enemy attention. Are you able to use that skeleton yet this life? He can certainly tank hits for you if you invest points in that side of the tree

In my past life I was a fan of my skelly. Even when not running auras he was rarely killed. When I did run death auras? He didn't die. Solid tank. I would run around him, getting back shots on the mobs surrounding him. Buffed with ship bonuses and the occasional 'mass' buffs I would apply, he got in the face of the bosses while I whittled them down. They hold agro till you start nuking. Great sp saver.

hahaha warms mine to see you back around the place matey, i look forward to donating many more souls to your cause in future...

Hello matey, maybe i should leave more time between them or better still, record one every 5 levels or something and make more of a summary - i think that may be a better way forward. Re cistani aside from dipping in there for deflect missiles, i only once used it as a main tree, iirc for a sacred fist dagger build. I think people are using it very successfully at the cap to get some power while still reaping the benefits of multi classing. My character Purple is nominally an ES warlock, but more towards an out & out tank. Might be nice to try him as something a little different one day...

@airedaleone5542 oh, don't worry about the video format. I just tend to build up a backlog sometimes.

Hi there, if you're looking for an arti past life i'd definitely try full arti as opposed to inquisitive. You can find a very decent build thread for that here - docs.google.com/document/d/1_Y6HMouTqgyBZTFUDsw7dQAuCYSFweEDovkkC1H3Kcs/edit?tab=t.0 . If you are set on doing arti as an inquisitive split instead, have a look at this thread for some build ideas - forums.ddo.com/index.php?threads/the-ultimate-inquisitive-past-life-getter.3101/ . If you plan on investing points into the gnome racial tree remember to go light crossbows only as their enhancements don't work for the heavy ones.

@rjh7101 You don't feel the rate of fire difference?? In terms of what difficulty mine could complete before and after the change its very similar, but I have felt and needed to adjust to the slower rate of fire

@AygnusMacGyverDDO I considered going for them but their big draw, ghostly, I have on gear at both levels so I prefer the craftable rune arms I use which are good box breakers and have the spellpower for the imbue

You're welcome Doc - you said you'd not done much with the event this time so maybe there are one or two possibilities in there for you :)

Cheers Doc, it's my lack of attention to the mana pool which is more than a bit costly on occasion :) I am sure there have been some occasions i've howled and not really needed to. I could of course have made all this irrelevant by using bear form or flame blade to take advantage of all those howled targets and despatch them way faster. Noted with thanks re hirelings/pet. I can't comment about them standing around as that's what they've always seemed to do for me & I use them very sparingly as you know - Terry would be the one to talk on that :)

ahhhh ok i see, had no idea any of the hires/summons were able to do such things without being told to :) I'm afraid i shall never be a hireling fan - way too many glitches for my liking, so yes i'll be very glad when they can be relegated once more to occasional lever pullers or ddoor makers :) Given i prefer not to use them actively, i made a really bad mistake either not using flame blade myself and / or shunning bear form here.

Noted with thanks matey and that is what she's planning to do :)

lol never thought i'd see the day where one actually in the profession would refer to me with all my social ailments as a guru :) The advantage of said ailments is it only takes a little step for me to feel very pleased with myself which is nice. Re burnout I think hamster wheel for the sake of it with nobody to share the journey with will certainly get you there sooner or later. Having a few folk around to swap ideas with, quest or raid a little with, or just a voice now & again in the background while you do said quests makes a difference at least to me - so i totally get where you're coming from with the lack of interest, now that element is absent for you. I can't comment on other servers but Orien is the largest at present in terms of numbers and i've yet to encounter anything negative when i have joined a raid group so that's been nice. Don't worry about the nerf, the arti is still strong - that build is great for raids - almost like a ranged bard as it gives deadly weapons to all melee and ranged, which make up the bulk of any raid group these days as typically the only casters i see are EK imbue builds or alch also for imbue, or the healers as you mentioned. Bards of course are always welcome for their songs and disco balls which are hugely helpful in several raids (VOD and Hunt spring to mind). Re soulstone in one shot let's remain positive eh? Typically it takes at least 2 for me to hit the deck :)

Not at all, i have 3 characters i play regularly & my ranged character Red is currently levelling back to cap as arti - from which i can say that the lower levels too are fine - the worries we had about power loss down there don't seem to have hit us too badly :) If you mean did i abandon the arti series we were doing here, i had no choice but to cut it short as i had pre recorded to 30 but was on the old game engine, so post U70 that content was no longer representative of what people could expect to see from their build in later levels and at cap.

@@airedaleone5542 Ahhl... that makes sense. I am kinda liking the rebuilt arti using dreadnaught. Tomorrow I intend to put it in the builder and I will post it. I was also thinking of doing a quick couple of pages on how to build one on a first life.

@@dmitryw.2209 Very pleased to hear it matey, between thundershock weapons (if you are BE T5) and the dreadnought aoe stun there should be some nice CC on such a build. So far i have kept the ED's pretty much as they were, but have experimented with grabbing a 3rd aoe from the inquisitive tree plus several imbue dice. I look forward to reading your write up, and chances are as i'm reasonably new to the class, there will be nice hints for me there also. Builder is nice qol isn't it? I'm having a little trouble making V2 work properly so i'm making do with V1 for now.

As with other casters swinging a weapon would have made this so much less painful so very much self inflicted here. I could have tried flame blade which would have used our wisdom for hit & damage or at L2 there was the option to go bear or wolf for a while which would have made things far easier. The wolf even gets a cold breath aoe to use a little later...

@airedaleone5542 I respect It know on my attempt at druid ended up going bear despite my desire to go spell focus

@@pipeosaurs Despite the channel name i have yet to try a bear myself, but they look strong with some nice tactics options - how did you rate your time as one?

@airedaleone5542 tanky and cuddly

@@pipeosaurs hehe - i like how they sit at the rest shrines :)

Glad you liked it matey, the ship afaik can boost your wolf pet if you have it touch the buff bar thing. Here we had 3 druid PL and the augment summons from shifter tree helping. There were so many better ways i could have gone though - flame blades would have used my wisdom for half decent non mana reliant damage. Bear or wolf form were better options too :)

I'll remind you of the no problem with that vast pool later on matey :) As with anything, if you don't keep an eye on it, it can drop in quite a hurry as that howl doesn't hold for too long and we have no aoe. I mention it several times in the recs, going bear or wolf and swinging a weapon would have been the proper way to do it here. I've known hires detect traps and SD but never before reveal one like that as though they had true sight.

Hi Peter, the quad repeater is a thing of the past now - they replaced the expanded clip feat which granted the extra shot with 33% doubleshot bonus. I removed patience as several of you mentioned it - took watchful eye instead for another 5% DS. Yes fusillade is certainly less punchy than before - and can't combine with shiradi epic moment for crazy things as it did before due to lower rate of fire, but damage as you say is still there - just not the rapid multi kill potential unless done through the AOE's, so it's easier to be overwhelmed solo. Interestingly the feel down at low levels seems pretty good and fire rate not that much slower than at cap now. Glad to hear your inquisitive felt ok - i think plenty were worried they may have to abandon their affected characters but i hope and believe things will turn out ok :)

Hi Luke, agree that it's still in a pretty good place, but i feel more vulnerable now not being able to switch on the boost and just hose down everything :) That said you're quite right, the damage is decent and I don't have any issues down at the low levels either, where the fire rate doesn;t seem too much different from at the cap now :) Yes the self heals are great. Did you enjoy the melee arti? Melee isn;t really my thing but i've tried and enjoyed monk and barb so far. Tried 2hf tempest too but liked that a little less, maybe as it coincided with the illithid invasion and i was getting my arse handed to me :)

It takes a little getting used to but i think we'll be ok :) Thanks for feedback on the lower levels matey - not had the chance yet myself but it's coming soon. From others recs i'm surprised to see how little difference in fire rate there is now between L1 and at cap play on the arti - which is a good thing for the lowbies & a sign we shouldn't worry too much :) Soloing R1 on a new character is great - well done on that!

I've not tried dreadnought with it so thanks for the feedback there - it looks on the face of it a nice tree for an action boost based build which the ranged arti certainly is. You didn't like the aoe stun from dread or couldn't get it to land? I got the pun yes - but i hope not, ittook me a little while but i think Red will be ok. Fatesinger is for the excellent epic strike it has - pluck the string triggers on all shots in the clip not just one - and you can double its sonic damage with a T3 enhancement in there. That strike and hunts end (which also triggers on all shots in the clip) can more or less one clip a nasty target, which is similar to what they could before with the extra shot. One thing i do see from people's recordings of early arti, their fire rate down at low levels doesn't seem that much slower than at cap - so perhaps we will not be too bad after all on a TR - time will tell :)

Welcome Brian as always - and don't despair, i'm sticking with the class for Red and i'm sure you'll be ok too. Fusillade was a real game changer when levelling before, but now perhaps you're in a position to answer that one for us. I still think it's worth picking up on the way to T5 BE, just not as powerful at clearing a mess you're in as it was before. And yes a visiting dignitary - he must have heard this is where you hang out when you're not bean counting lad :)

Definitely still in a good place at the cap for sure. No spoilers but the next series has at the start a passable impression of some of your content - stay tuned :) Speaking of your content, note to self to look at your lanterns in the mist one, still not seen that and am curious...

Cheers Brian, hope the same for you matey. Likely not the best for levelling unless in HC, but that mastermaker tree takes some beating in the staying alive stakes. Are you planning on going all the way to cap with your arti? If so you might also consider investing into the inquis tree for more imbue dice and a third heavy hitting aoe (shoot first and shoot later are now aoe following U70).

You're welcome Doc and re high note, the Devs have spared my blushes there - in the 1st recorded legendary ending (old engine) a reaper wandered through a closed door and ate me :)

It seemed to coincide more with the new raid and night revels event yes - the latter in particular i'm sure the standard tactic is to fly through on purple DA where possible. It's a shame but let's see how it pans out - personally i seem to be able to manage a comparable difficulty of content with Red - from before the change to after - so hopefully those who wish to remain in these builds can do so competitively.

Completion and capability is only one part of the enjoyment of playing the game. Imagine if they made all player characters appear as characters from super Mario Brothers but maintaining the same ability for quest completion. The new raid may have been the specific part of the newest expansion that triggered the lag yes, and perhaps night revels as icing on the lag cake, but it still does make sense to pin it on ranged artificer as some sort of reasonable culprit. It would also go a long way towards a bit of understanding if SSG was more transparent about things.

@@primate2744 Totally agree and from an enjoyment perspective, mine went down with this new change. I wonmder how many folk would happily accept your mario solution if it made them top the kill count every game? :) Customer relations has never been their strong point, due in no small part to a really small team i think. Have you tried the new raid yet? I've yet to set foot in there but i heard that fire dot was pretty rough

I'm sure there would be more than a few boot lickers lined up and ready. Lol. I haven't tried the new raid yet. I own all content on the game, including a few ultimate fan bundles, but I'm reserving purchasing the new one until I see if they resolve this lag issue effectively and hopefully in short order.

@@primate2744 I've enjoyed the new quests but if you'd consider investing just for xp and/or gear potential i'd say don't bother. I don't farm anyway as it's super tedious, but those who are have complained plenty on the forums about low drop rates & remember you need both gear AND augments for this gear, neither of which drop particularly often. My advice would be to hold on until/ unless they consider a change or sell at discount or for points.

@stevenhoward3358 Hi Steven, it seems broadly speaking that my experience mirrors yours, in that we can no longer fusillade for an array of special effect triggers to get us out of the mess we are in :) Boss and single target damage still looks strong but my ability to clear trash and stay safe doing so took a hit. I'm not able to test heroic at present so if you do take the plunge I'd be interested to hear the results. Hopefully those harder hitting aoes will help?

Yes i think it's very clear patience must go - i swapped it out for watchful eye for an extra 5% on doubleshot. At cap for sure it's all the added effects which have taken the biggest hit - and shiradi is all about those so that's going to be noticeable i'm sure - though we could say that every volley that vanished into thin air before the update was not helping us at all so... :) Do you run a pure arti like Red? I was wondering if splits might be more viable now - maybe something that could pick up killer to boost DS further?

I am pure arti and many past lives and 74 reaper. I built for a bunch of survival. I need maybe to look at getting more double shot and more button pushes. I'll post my current build on the arti forum tonight snd you can tell me where I'm dumb. Quirki is the character. If they ever fix Cormy, I'm going to see how pure arti is there as a first life

@@dmitryw.2209 Why would i tell you you're dumb? :) Everyone has a right to an opinion/strategy and we can all learn little things from hints in others builds. For example with the arti i never qyute know if i should be trying scion of arborea, ethereal or even air - what's your opinion there? I basically let the DC side go btw - so no casting or rune arm for damage, i just use the rune arm to craft on. I wouldn't say Red has many past lives but he has similar reaper points to you so i look forward to seeing your build. I've experimented as pure arti with T5 BE and T5 RM, always at least 8 harper for KTA, always WF race so far as it's a nice tree for an arti, but that will have to change next life - any race suggestions? I was thinking tabaxi for sneak die and deflect arrows? I see Epic Soul is trying going into the inquis as 2nd tree. 31 pts there gets ranged power, doubleshot, saves bonus, some int, 4 imbue dice and a 3rd aoe for the arti as the new inquis aoe's (ask questions first or later) also work with our repeaters

Ahhh Terry i don't know how you tell friend from foe half the time with all that clutter on the screen but you seem to manage well enough :) Perhaps some sort of multiclass will be more competitive now for the arti - maybe something to pick up killer to access another 20% doubleshot potential?

@@airedaleone5542 The sad part is I have UHD monitors on a windows PC but it was recording very poorly. I don’t know if it’s OBS settings or what. The clutter is due to my Linux laptop only having a 1080 screen. Yeah I play DDO on Linux and record. I will see if I can get OBS to record better on a Windows machine. Will give me something to do to try and give viewers a pleasant experience.

@@AygnusMacGyverDDO I was talking about that mass of hirelings when mentioning clutter :) I know it's not for everyone but talking a little in the background so the viewers hear your thought process or in my case lack of it can be a nice thing too

@@airedaleone5542 LOL. Because of my misinterpretation of your meaning I am on this yucky Windows 10 computer with high definition monitors and hopefully the screen looks less cluttered even with my extra fighting staff helping me win. All those hirelings are so neat to me. They are levels 10-18 and are running Epic Reaper and mostly staying alive. I suppose that's why I have any success in Legendary Reaper. It's all the hirelings. My 18 or 19 reaper points only takes me so far. Here's 5 reasons why hirelings are great: 5. They make soloing feel less lonely 4. They can help with tricky quests like Xorian and Necropolis 3. They help with sneak attack damage because they are aggro magnets 2. They don't pike 1. They show up on time to the quest

@@AygnusMacGyverDDO hehehe can't argue with you on the xorian cypher one :) 18-19 reaper points is a decent start matey - have a little go at cap when you get there you'll see they'll accrue quite nicely.

Sadly it's rendered the rest of our series here pretty irrelevant as it's now showing things which are obsolete in the game :(

Hehehe - very typical of me that is, total failure to notice the obvious - buffs running out, nasty opponent in the area etc.. Ah yes the ones behind closed doors in there can be such a pain :(

hehe point taken - though the CC duration in the higher difficulties has been significantly reduced

That's why i feel better about struggling through this change - safe in the knowledge that all over the world folk are going lag free on the back of my sacrifice :)

Hi Axel, love your content matey so pleasure to see you here :) Pre update i didn't feel any detriment to patience but now i'm having to be a little more patient (read dying between reloads!) I guess a feat respec might be in order. Liked the look of your bear build - we really should feature a bear here soon given the channel title so mayhaps i shall give that one a go - hopefully it's friendly to melee newbies like me :)

@@airedaleone5542 Yeah I also took Patience on a melee and didn't like how it felt, can't imagine having that plus a speed reduction on top of it. The bear build I wouldn't say is the simpliest, it's pretty complicated as far as bear builds go, just so many buttons to press. A pure bear would be simplier though bear is kind of complicated to play in general compared to other melee classes.

@@AxelAlexK Pre update especially when fusillading i barely noticed a difference but now as you say i'm going to have to replace that one as it looks like my shots are being fired through pea soup. I like the thought of trying a bear one day as it seems to have some really nice tactics options which i like on a build as i solo a lot. I suppose the dragonlord would be the obvious choice these days for an easier version of such a build without having to visit other classes for trance and such.

@@airedaleone5542 Yep, having played both for a lot of hours I can very confidently say that bear is good but Dragon Lord is for sure better.

@@AxelAlexK Sad to hear you say that but i guess predictable :( I've not touched the dragonlord but for a melee to have CC that seems to work on pretty much any target does seem to blur the lines somewhat. Perhaps i should give that one a go and if it works well in my hands then it must really be good :)

Hi David, i've not had chance to play with it yet since the servers came back up but red is at cap now (recs are a little behind) so would be nice to make a little vid on that tonight if possible. Do you play one of either build? The 2 biggest concerns i'm hearing are low end power (early levelling), which ironically i made a big thing about in this series (how strong the arti was) & now seems to be seriously compromised, and fewer/slower shots obviously equates to less chance to trigger meaningful effects at cap (freeze, paralysis, feareater etc). I run a dino ice weapon at cap vs trash so it will impact me too i'm sure, but let's wait and see...

@@airedaleone5542I’m playing great crossbow mechanic rogue with 4 levels of artificer for endless fusidale. Like you, i left the ranger and longbow area to switch to fast shots (even though much love to ranger, just too slow and single target, too many nerfs to lonbow). Now i’m seeing the nerfs to inquis, arti, fusidale and no holds barred, there is no safety for us ranged players haha. Only caster is allowed to dominate DDO.

@@AverieDavid16 Yes, my character Red was a longbow user from creation initially to try out the ranged mechanics & grew into his role as a big single target damage dealer, but post hunts end change he lost his USP so went looking for pastures new. lol no safety for ranged - i hear throwers are where it's at right now at the cap, but those are rough to level. Might be nice to feature one here but i'm not sure on a good build for that - shuriken maybe? Would love the run speed on a monk. Re domination from what i can tell its melee at present. To the extent i see some group listings for no caster or healer - dps only - and raid composition is broadly melee too with the odd healer & tank. Casters can still be strong in quests though - i have a cold druid who does pretty well.

@drzorbo3770 I hear you on the group vs solo thing. Reds standard bow builds of the past were decent when grouped but found seriously lacking when soloing. The arti is a far better soloer imo with its strong heals, decent aoe and some cc thrown in there too. Remains to be seen how today's update will affect things. From what I'm hearing the damage output will remain similar but any potential on hit triggers like ice, paralysis, slow etc will be less effective as it will fire less shots in the clip and more slowly than before. Caster cleric is on my radar too as we've not yet done that here

@miniscribbler7638 Not in its present form as I'm not vip, but I look forward to hearing of the experience of others as plenty of us are pinning our hopes on such servers moving forward. I'd have liked a shot at the mount too as big cats are my thing :)

@@airedaleone5542 im sure having to start over from scratch will put a lot of people off. i thought they might allow transfers later, but someone told me they will never have transfers as the 32 bit client characters wont be compatible. im not sure if thats true or not.

@miniscribbler7638 I'm guessing plenty would just leave rather than start again from zero having invested years of time and money in characters and guilds . I cant believe they're not at least looking at the possibility of such transfers in the future, some on orien are hoping others may move to alleviate the lag situation there at present. They managed to copy characters across to the 64 thing for the recent test days that were done so why not permanently in future? Maybe in the fullness of time we could look forward to 3 of these souped up servers, do away with all the old and consolidate the player base ... but.... what would be transferable and what not? Already the new arrivals to orien have long standing issues since transfer, like broken monster manual

I hope you get to go to UK. It’s one of my favorite memories was taking my Sabbatical in Kensington/London. It was so exciting seeing the places we have seen in James Bond films and Doctor Who. Good luck. It was nice hearing the laughter.

Yes much shorter cooldown on that one than many of the other epic strikes & this one comes with the possibility of a mini stun with no save so happy days. Our on hit effects will be nerfed with the coming update 70 as they're slowing fire speed and reducing also number of shots in the clip, so effects we can trigger now like blindness & later slow, freeze and paralysis, all will be a little less effective than now, but if it helps the ugly lag situation at present (had to abandon again last night as my game ground to a halt) then i'll be glad of it.

Yes, indeed to all above. Rodehard tried a few things and the lag (even with a different time than you played) was making a jump from steep stairs looked like a slide show more than smooth floating down. I wasn't aware that the upcoming update would be that heartless.

@@drzorbo3770 If you happen to catch me around in a less laggy time maybe we can boosy RH up together. From what i can gather the update is aimed at reducing lag by reducing the amount of projectiles the server needs to track, so coming down hardest on the arti who i guess is the chief offender here. Less shots per clip (expanded clip will no longer give an additional shot in epic) and more time between those shots. To make up for this they are removing the significant doubleshot penalty on both repeaters and duel wielding xb, so while the damage output may remain comparable, other things like stacking vulnerability on targets or triggering special effects on hit will be less effective than before.

Cheers Terry, glad you enjoyed it matey and yes it was in the balance pretty much right to the end i guess - a little too much on the edge for my liking :) Re interacting it becomes tougher at least for me when there are attackable opponents in the vicinity to use the interact to collect and the manual way as seen here can be really tough sigh... Still we won this time so 1-0 for the good guys :)

I've kept trying with the sound but sadly don't seem to get very far. Next series i try changing more settings so here's hoping... Spinner with 2+ is fine but collecting shards while she's all over you can be rough