Pumping Irony

In addition to goofing off with hirelings last night, I wanted to get into a group and actually do some adventuring. I saw some groups advertising one of the wilderness landscape areas Kori was working on then a new group appeared for Gwylan’s Stand on Elite difficulty, asking for characters levels 7 to 10. Hey, that’s me! I’d completed Gwylan’s Stand last week so I remembered the quest name and that I’d been there, but the group zerged the whole thing and I had no clue what was happening. Hoping for the best, as well as a challenge — it’s a level 8 quest, and Elite is +2 on top of that — and maybe even some gear, since that +2 level increase applies to the loot tables as well.

Gwylan’s Stand is a pretty big quest, it’s listed as “Very Long” in the description, consisting of a large outdoor area (not a wilderness landscape) with several smaller dungeons inside. Our group ranged from levels 7 to 9, though we may have had a 10 with us. On Elite setting, many of the mobs were CR10 up to CR15. I still have no idea what CR (Challenge Rating) actually means or how to approximate its relationship to character levels, but suffice it to say I’d never seen enemies that strong before! This was truly a challenge, but what was even better: the group respected that challenge and rose to it rather than zerging.

This group was amazing! I had thought I’d been in a few good groups in my short time in DDO, but I was obviously mistaken. DDO plays fast and furious, and even I mostly play in mouselook mode (except with my wizard, too many spells and clickies to keep track of) and play more like a console action RPG than the slower pace we play Diku-MMO’s at. But this group actually took things slow, planned strategies for encounters and used the class roles as they were meant to be used. Rogues actually scouting ahead? Rangers shooting near mob’s feet to get their attention without pulling entire groups? Players working as a cohesive unit? Whoah! I had the most fun with this group that I’ve ever had in DDO. Crowd control was particular interesting; a ranger would lay down some sort of spike trap, I would cast a Grease spell on top of it (well, until I ran out of material components… gah!) and the sorcerer cast another crowd control spell on top of that. Three spells to slow, stop or damage the enemies as they tried to get to us. In several places, we cast those right in the middle of traps as well, so any mobs who managed to get through it all were severely weakened and easily dealt with.

We successfully managed to complete all the bonus objectives as well for the additional XP, which was enough to get Koriander to level 8! He learned two new spells, one of which is Phantasmal Killer. I keep hearing that spell being talked about as if it’s single-handedly the Totally Awesome Spell of Total Awesomeness, so I gleefully added it to Kori’s arcane arsenal and look forward to seeing it in action soon!

I had so much fun with this group, who treated it all like a normal Diku-MMO instance or raid, thinking encounters through and giving a role to everyone that I joined their guild! It was completely a spur-of-the-moment impulse decision, but one I feel will revitalize my short- and long-term interest in the game. My old guild has nearly dried up, and until last week I hadn’t been able to find a group in months. I was beginning to peruse the guild forums anyway, so perhaps this was meant to be. If this turns out to be a good guild, I can foresee DDO truly becoming my second game rather than the occasional dabbling every few months that I’ve been doing. My eyes have been opened to a whole new way of playing DDO, one that matches my playstyle in LOTRO and other MMO’s while taking advantage of DDO’s active combat and fast pace.

Next will be learning to play the wizard class better. Something I’ve been struggling with all along, but I’m hopefully getting a grip on things. I’ve asked in forums and everyone has suggested at low and mid-levels that I concentrate on spells that provide buffs and crowd control, with only one or two combat spells. That worked last night until I ran out of material components but luckily I’d memorized a couple other crowd control spells that did not require them. I love versatile classes over one-trick ponies, and the wizard certainly fits that description, but I’ll admit I’m anxious for Kori to finally become fearsome and powerful, nuking the hell out of enemies in addition to providing other benefits for the party.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 13th, 2008 at 2:44 pm and is filed under Dungeons & Dragons Online, MMO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.