No News...

...is good news.

From my latest blog entries you'd think all that I have been doing is playing
DDO. Far from it. DDO is just something new, and yet all-too-familiarly D&D.
With all its inherent ups and downs.

I don't really have much to comment on CoX-side. Black Jeremiah's doing great
with SOs, and now cheerfully soloing stuff on vicious. Enhancements are dropping
considerably more than at lvl 17-18 when I really needed them. Cashflow-wise, I
think I'm still going to be hard up, but I'll survive the lvl 30s. Maybe by
switching back to mostly DOs until lvl 35 - when affording SOs should be no
problem.

Either that, or I might do a respec eventually. Reselling enhancements might
help to make the 30's affordable. I'm seriously considering dropping smoke. I
almost never use the damn power. I'm not a sneaky type. And the -acc debuff
apparently sucks. I can put it back in if they ever think to improve the debuff.
(Since controllers nor dominators are a debuff class, I doubt it will -ever-
improve.) I'd like to try out aid self for pvp. Unfortunately, that means two
powers. Not sure what the other one I want to drop. Possibly combustion or
bonfire.

I really want to try out bonfire, maybe I'll be able to think of a creative use
and control for a placeable knockback. I'm just a bit worried that it'll become
a white eleplant. Combustion is a poor aoe anyhow, I don't mind dropping it,
problem is it's slotted to go in at level 35. Which makes aid self useless for
Siren's pvp if I put it in then. The other power I get to play around with
rearranging is hotfeet.

I just took it at level 24. It's.interesting. It doesn't really have a big fear
factor on yellow mobs that I can see. I'm just getting shot to pieces. Possibly
it's not hitting, I only have a DO accuracy in it at the moment. I am hoping
with greater accuracy (x2), and slotted slow (x3), the -speed and runaway fear
becomes significant. I doubt it'll actually do that much damage except in
domination/fiery embrace, so slotting damage seems like a tertiary concern.

If it still sucks, I'm dropping it like a hot potato and going the aid self
route without qualms. If it doesn't, then I have a powers order arrangement
problem.

Team-wise, teaming on pinnacle at non-peak hours is still as pathetic ever. Like
attempting to team on all servers at non-peak hours, actually. Teaming on
relatively peak hours is still a 50/50 silence through a LFT flag/get a team
issue on the drunk server. And then the chances of getting a godawful rotten
team are still awfully high.

I did meet some people with a clue though, and they were usually members of two
SGs, Last Exit and Eternity. A couple of them are now friended, and while I'm
happy to exchange mutually resigned tells with them about the dumb-as-fuck PUG
team we ended up on, they're all a couple levels higher than me - and I don't
subscribe to the school of thought that I need to be a constantly chatty pest to
people I've friended. I dislike it when random people come and pester me, I
always keep wondering if they just want to get on my +3 to them teams for xp.

Doesn't matter. Have unlocked Sharkhead contacts and am churning my way through
the story arcs for the bonus xp. Not much worth reporting on. Just fun to put
some MP3s on, and do those missions. All very peaceful.

---

The hype for I7 is revving up. I'm really thrilled by the concept of Recluse's
Victory. It does sorta stand to reason that they ought to learn from their
mistakes and make sure victory is more easily reached than in Siren's Call - and
the lure of having signature heroes and villains come out, and having the
dynamic world changes - it should make capturing the pillboxes more valued. I
hope.

And I think it's ironically meaningful that the game starts and ends in Atlas
Park. :P It's kinda on the par of the Outbreak/Breakout tutorial word twist.

Mayhem missions just simply have to be cool. I dunno what someone can bitch
about in those. You're going to be breaking stuff. As long as you like the
combat of CoX and can deal with the repetitive missions, how can you object to
breaking and destroying stuff with your own combat animations?

I hope it comes out in April. Chances are more likely it'll hit in May though.
Probably during the anniversary celebrations or something.

---

KoL is as thrilling as ever. Stuff is rolling along. Stat-gaining has gotten a
little slow for me right now, so besides making a new resolution to cook up
enough batches of stat-gaining food to survive the ronin turns the next
Ascension, I'm camping out in the Treasury lowbie meat-gaining and working it
all off on a stat-gaining volleyball familiar in the arena. That should speed up
my current stat gains to work through the rest of the quests.

Seal-clubbing is actually quite refreshing after Sauceror-ing. Your muscle stat
is nice and high, so your hp is high, and you can always hit. Your main concern
is that you have enough moxie to survive - and my advanced saucecrafting can
make me moxie increasing potions, which gets me into places I shouldn't dream of
being for a valuable 5 adventures. Of course, what this means is that I have
totalled quite a few big bad quest bosses in too short a period, and I'm left
waiting around for my moxie to increase high enough to get to those I can't
survive, and my muscle to increase so that I can gain a level and the next
unlocked areas. :P

I'm finding it difficult to make a decision on which skill to preserve this go-
around. At first, I wanted to take thrust-smack, and do another seal clubber to
take the skill that guaranteeds thrust-smack hitting. Seemed like a guaranteed
hit combo would be worth the price of dual-admission. Especially when I do the
Moxie classes and get high Moxie - I'll need something to hit with.

But then, I'm taking a Teetotaller path for kicks. (And also Stomach of Steel
past the Friars). So shouldn't I just stick to it and preserve the skill for
future use? 20 fullness is -nothing- to sneeze at for future adventure gains.

And I found something -damn- nice about the seal clubber skill Tongue of the
Otter. It REMOVES negative effects apparently. And it demolishes "Beaten Up".
Totally. (Oh, and let's not forget it also heals you). Now, even though I tend
to use the beaten up turns to go fishing for drinks in the Barrel of Barrels, or
sewer fishing, I think it's just dang cool to be able to remove it without
needing to waste turns. I don't think it's the first skill I'm going to
preserve, but it's certainly something on the list.

And I gotta do Pastamancery some time and get whatever the noodle-making skill
is called. Making chow meins should be dang nice, especially in conjunction with
Stomach of Steel. I can save saucecrafting for upping moxie to no end.

I'm kinda pleased that my packratting habit has paid off this headlong
Ascension. Even blissfully unprepared, I still had enough leftover food and
degrassi junk to get me through the early levels. (I had such difficulty
locating tires the first time around that I have like 20 spare cogs, springs and
sprockets, even after umpteen quests and chef-in-the-boxes.) The saleable
dictionary is perfect for Ascensions. 21,337 meat is a lot and can gain you your
first few skills. I remember wondering how the heck people got enough money for
those skills, it seemed like so much the first go around. Now, it's like,
muhaha, no sweat, I can spend it now, there's the treasury to look toward, ten
leaf clovers if necessary, and later icy peak to get all that money going.

You know, I wonder.Is it possible to summon the leet haxx0r earlier on, if I got
the proper scrolls to combine for it? Something to do for the next softcore
ascension run, perhaps. That'll save me many hermit permits.