The Night of The Warlock

I suppose like everyone I have been waiting to try out the new Warlock class, I dislike trying them out in beta as I have enough problems with time management without having two versions of ddo to worry about. So over the last couple of days I have played all three pacts and all three prestige enhancements. So I have some idea of what I am going to get myself into. I have a completionist that no longer is since the coming of the warlock and I will need to dust Grouseman off and reincarnate him to run his warlock life and then back to being an assassin. Also Merlin has had 3 Sorcerer Lives, 3 Wizard Lives, and is on his second favoured soul life. Merlin will need to do his third Fvs life and then I am thinking 3 lives as a warlock before finally settling back as a Sorcerer. So today we draw from the screaming metal vocals of Doro for our title.

Pew, Pew, Pew

 So lots to think about in terms of playing characters but I have now created a Warlock that I intend to run. After testing the various options and the various play styles that you get my first though is fiend as a pact sucks. Fire while being useful at the lower levels just doesn't cut it as you climb through the levels, certainly in comparison to acid and sonic damage so while fun I just cannot see me running a pact that is not going to stack well. I know there are alternatives and ways to change them but one spell has swung my prefered pact. I have always found knock useful when I am not running with a character who has rogue like abilities and as the Great Old One pact has knock it sort of set me down that path plus Acid is always a good choice for elemental damage as not many creatures resist it.

Fire based okay for once.

At first I was expecting to choose tainted scholar as my prestige enhancement but whilst the chaining effect of the eldritch blast is nice is just doesn't make up for me having to still kill things even if I confuse them. I found I wasn't using stunning blast or confusion, which are the tier two, tier three spell like abilities. So if I am not using part of the abilities it suggests once playing in earnest I will not be maximising the use of the characters abilities so it rules it out of my choices, certainly for first life. Once I have a bit more experience then maybe it will be an option but I have certainly needed to try the character out over my favourite 15 minutes of DDO questing, the depth series of quests. I tried confusion twice and just as quick as I used it I still used the pew, pew, pew attack only.

I have to admit to be drawn towards the Enlightened Spirit prestige route for a couple of reasons. Firstly the use of the Eldritch aura, the fact that it runs constantly without me needing to concentrate on it and I can wield a weapon at the same time is so useful early on in game, in fact I may well select this for one of my reincarnations but best of all at tier three is Eldritch Burst, an attack that works like the aura in the animation as the burst seems to shoot out of your feet and feels like a giant cleave the way it harms every baddie around you. Certainly the tier four and five abilities are well worth having even if they will fill up the hotbar and require triggering.

This time I caught the blast in flight

However as I have decided on the Great Old one for a pact and that is a chaotic choice the choice then for a prestige enhancement sits naturally with Soul Eater, which lets be honest seems totally in line with the great old ones. I love the Consume ability which is sat at hot key 1 and 2 is stricken. Nice Damage Over Time effect and stackable so some of those bosses will fall if you can just stay out of their way. And dark feeding is sat at key 3, blood feast destroying a monster's constitution being my preferred choice. I may have got it wrong but I have glanced over the abilities and played them for a little bit so I could get some idea of what they feel like. There will be hundreds of warlocks as people try them out but I do feel that given the  choices set before us play style will decide the prestige choice. However common sense will guide the pact choice.

This is too easy, next target please

Finally my name was going to be Grousesheel to take from Sheelba of the eyeless face, however it seem to read like Grouse's Heel so I have gone with what was my original choice GrouseNinga which is taken from Ningauble of the Seven Eyes. Certain people will recognise the names but if you don't google is your best friend.

Happy Blasting Grouseninga

The Path of Merlin

So I haven't written for a couple of weeks which is about right for me but gone over the time I normal set myself to sit down and write so why the delay? Well I write when inspired and being on Ghallanda has slowed me down a bit on the old inspiration front. And bonus points to anyone who recognised the title as a track from Medwyn Goodall.

Always wondered how wise I should be

 But the journey continues and Grousemerlin is now on his seventh life and is now a favoured soul. After 3 lives as a sorceror and 3 as a wizard this next stage of 3 as a favoured soul is grind, I am no healer really and although I have a level 16 cleric and a epic 4 favoured soul neither get the playtime I probably should put it. Both will probably end up as first life caps and used to support the other member of the guild as her characters grow.

Will this make or break the man?

So Merlin has been put on the path of warpriest, which is something I don't normally select. When test building I have always prefered Angel of Vengence but I figured I should at least one life go with Warpriest. Not really enjoying grind to be honest, I love the arcane cannon approach to magic users and the fact I do more slaying via sword than magic suggests either I am playing him wrong or I should try to treat him as a fighter for the next 3 lives. Still he is level 6 and grinding his way up even though the screenshots were taken a couple of days ago when he was level 5.

On the real downside, Merlin had a hard bravery streak of 97 when I ran a quest without thinking and forgot to select hard. That is so frustrating, I know only the first 5 count to the bonus but now I have to get the 5 again, this time I might select elite. You never know I might grind that all the way up before the mush I call a brain slips up again. Still life 7 is impressive to me considering I have also a completionist and a pale master who has 3 lives. Plus of course Conan the Monk who is second life.

Some people should not be allowed weapons and beer.

So my characters are running well but the server issues has made my game play a bit stop and start. The TV, reading, listening to music and even audio books all impact on gaming time. The thought has crossed my mind that I should try to play 3 or 4 days very intensively on Merlin and see what that does. Now the desire to run for guild renown has dropped it is all about creating characters that are fun to play. I know that grinding lives sounds a chore and I guess it is but the ends justify the means, at least in this case as all that is getting slaughtered is more Kobolds.

So to all those out there grinding lives my thoughts are with you as we all strive for the most fun characters we can make.

Grousemerlin