After a long while...

I'm back. Well, not really since I've been quite active online for other reasons, not the least playing Neverwinter and trying to out-gambit Eddie "The Once and Future Knight" Howe last Saturday. This will be a miscellaneous post since it's really a wee bit of a few things.

Knight of Feywild and Kingslayer: Hero of Neverwinter

I'm back to my first love again. You see, the thing with respec'ing a character is that you're not dealing with a relationship. If I do the same thing with my relationship management, I swear my future mother-in-law and all my future girlfriend's BFFs will murder me a carving knife in each person's hand.

Enough on my own half-baked gallows humour, let's get back on topic. All in all, I find that Displace Fate is really like Triple H. In other words, it's that damned good. Let me be frank, this is a very damned good lifesaver. On the first glance, the risk of making Soulforged enchantment redundant is very real. However, it must be said that Soulforged is best triggered in a one-shot fatality situation where the likes of Shang Tsung would go like "I thought I finished him/her already?" while wondering at the same time whether Kelemvor owed Raiden a debt. Adding 60% damage resistance for a few seconds may sound pointless, but we must also understand that damage resistance is capped at 80%. This is especially evident when it comes to slapping Tiamat. Got slapped by her breathing cannon? No worries, Kelemvor will deliver you from death (albeit with a cooldown period). Against circumstances amounting to getting jumped by any mob in Bryn Shander/Lonelywood/Cold Run, this can give you at least some decent breathing space (especially so if you got a Negation enchantment). All in all, the trade-off is worth it. After all, I chose Baphomet's Might prior to my total recall.

On Augmented Thayan Bastion, this is also another nice boon due to added defensive muscle. The problem with this one, however, lies in random proc. There would always be moments where Arylos got himself injured (not as in the injury penalty bs) and lo and behold! Augmented Thayan Bastion proc! Considering the cooldown period for any given boon proc, it's not cool. Of course, I could have retained Rampaging Madness as an alternative. The only problem? ATB has a more stable proc game.

Defensive boons form the backbone of Arylos' dps game this time round. The problem with the combat hunter ranger lies in having the shortest dodge frames. In other words, point blank jailbreaking is never an option. Even if we're talking about wrongfooting the opponent, the trickster rogue still does it better. At the same time, I tried to add deflection boons whenever possible. Which comes to...

Critical boons. More oft than not, you're forced to choose between critical boon and deflection boon. Because I need to up the dps (since you'll get to choose between defense boon and power boon on any given tier), one can say critical boons is a must.

On the guild boons, I initially chose the stable defense boon. This is due to me being pragmatic due to Arylos' gear being very dps oriented (read: choice of artifact gear and standard artifacts). Yet, I'll admit that my personal preference is the temple lifesteal boon. After all, his god is Kelemvor and Mystra's ex is never his people's god. Then I decided to do the unthinkable. Like Joachim "der Löwe" Löw, I decided to do a major tinkering. Surprise to myself! Kelemvor really watches over his Chosen. The reason why is very simple. I tend to spam Clear the Ground. Apart from Rapid Strike, this is the fastest at-will a hunter ranger can ever get (that is provided you go stormwarden like Arylos). Because lifesteal proc upon damage instead of upon hit, it means damage over time counts. Which now comes to...

Damage over time (duh!). My second at-will is Aimed Strike. In other words, we're talking about 1-2 stacks of bleeding damage (over time). At the same time, there's Plant Growth. Then we have Magistrate's Patience. Imagine the insane possibility of perma-stealth. Not even the late Eddie Guerrero would have seen this coming.

Initially, I planned to play safe with the new guild boon testing. In other words, I stuck with Oak Skin. However, I decided to change things a bit during my last Tiamat slapping earlier on. Works just as well if you're to ask me. However, open PvE tends to test the gamer more than any epic dungeons/trials (unless you're dealing with frost giants great and not-so-great). So yeah, I'll need to test this out on Bryn Shander/Lonelywood/Cold Run.

Note: I'm now attempting a so-called perma-dodge build where Steel Breeze becomes my third encounter power of choice at the expense of Oak Skin. You can't blame me for thinking like Pep or Löw.

Add note: I still play a wee bit like a trapper. However, I tend to adopt a ranged>melee approach on a one direction basis. And it's this > direction.

And speaking of Cold Run...

I'll have to say it's easier than Lonelywood and whatever fight you'd otherwise get inside Bryn Shander. The reason why being the terrain. Lonelywood is mostly trees and high ground. In other words, there's only little maneuvering space for the gamer. Same goes for the so-called urban terrain called Bryn Shander (note that Bryn Shander stage is separated into two terrains: the city itself and outside the city). The key in surviving (and ultimately winning) lies in an effective flanking game. If you can't flank the mob or attack them from the rear, you don't need to play Neverwinter anymore. Period. This is especially evident when it comes to dealing with giants where there's so many charging bs, stun bs, stoning bs, runes bs... basically, we classify them under AoE bs.

Cold Run, on the other hand, works like the tundra terrain outside Bryn Shander. Actually, it's the same type of terrain. You're effective fighting on level ground. However, it also means you'll most likely need to get an epic mount in order to minimize the risk of an aggro chase. The mob placement is such that I can't help but see things this way (fyi, I already got myself an account wide Heavy Howler. +2000 crit ftw apart from Shea. More on that later).

As Arylos, I really have a merry time doing a hit and run like how Bournemouth plays its soccer/football under the watchful gaze of Howe. Period. And it really helps to have the Fox as an excuse for stance dance (i.e. not this kind of fox, but this type of fox).

It really feels ironic that the final stage of Storm King's Thunder may easily be the easiest out of the three. Period.

Note: Lonelywood remains as the most difficult stage due to the varying nature of terrain due forests and mountains. The crab sidequest is easy to obtain though, so go for it. You'll need as much voninblod x50 as possible.

Add note: The in-game graphics of Cold Run has to be the best job done so far. Not that the rest are crappy, but the nature of the screen just blew me away. In particular, placement of the scouts is very realistic compared to the 50-50 call in the Well of Dragons. Seriously, is the Zhentarim not paid enough to do a decent job? Or perhaps Ewan Roald's IQ is actually on the par with Arylos and Lucas Shaneway III.

Demons and Koreans

Let's just face it. Only a moron will say Koryo isn't based on Korea in the same way only an idiot will insist Kara-tur isn't based on East Asia. Earlier on, I took Korey out for a little run in Gauntlgrym (i.e. the frist Maze Engine quest). At level 68, I felt fairly confident of a decent run. Problem is, the run was a quite challenging. If you think it's not so easy for a girl to headbutt a guy into the water, it means getting Korey through the Gauntlgrym gauntlet is a tough ask. Part of the reason lies in me dumping 5 points into Hasty Escape without learning how to use it. Very fast, Korey ran out of stamina and she was nearly destroyed by the demons spawning out from the portals. I think she saw white like 2-3 times. Which is not funny at all since we're talking about less than 20% HP remaining. To make things worse, Drizzt was put out of action during the chaotic free-for-all (I think Bruenor kept fighting though). How in the Nine Hells she's able to pull through without a respawn, I don't really know. Then again, maybe it has something to do with Victim's Preservation (a really damned useful insignia bonus power if your character is lower on defense and deflect. Just make sure you use Radiant enchantments on the defensive gear slots).

Note: Possibly another key factor behind Korey surviving the demonic onslaught lies in me being forced to learn how to use Hasty Escape properly. Korey doesn't have Ghostwalker Stance.

Add note: Think Thorn Ward isn't really that useful in solo PvE. Think I may need to replace it with Constricting Arrow. Amazingly enough, her BFF Lotte survived that free-for-all.

Demons and drow

Because the education system during my time forced me to become a failure-immune S.O.B like Jon Snow, I decided to test out Sheallyn on the same Gauntlgrym gauntlet. Originally, I figured she'll have an easier time. After all, she's geared in a four piece drow armor set. Previously, one of guildies Cella mentioned that the archery tree for hunter ranger is now imba tier. While I never doubted his words (yes, he's a guy), I actually got the clearest view on why he's not lying to me. It is ridiculous, let me tell you. Korey actually had an easier time dps'ing the demons during that final free-for-all. Even with Shield slotted into her spell mastery tab, it was still a tougher fight. Shea's total item level was like slightly over 2000, Korey's total item level was definitely lower that 2000.

So what/where exactly went wrong? The thing with using the thaumaturgy tree is that it's the most defensively frail path for the control wizard. The oppressor can afford to keep the enemy at bay via CC while the renegade route can just pull off a buff or two. For the thaumaturgy tree, it doesn't have the oppressor's keep-away game or the renegade's survival game. In this sense, it's very similar to the fury tree of the scourge warlock class.

While I favor a fast hitting game, I realized that Shea wasn't firing her machine gun fast enough (no Austin Powers jokes please. It's not as if we're talking about Goldmember). Magic Missile is basically the fastest at-will power in the game (even faster than Rapid Shot/Strike). To make things difficult for myself, I messed up terribly by choosing Shard of the Endless Avalanche as one of her 3 encounter powers. That move is very hard to land in the middle of combat, but I was left with no choice because I messed up mightily by spending the power points wrongly (which means I'll need a respec to set things right). At the same time, I kept dodging to jailbreak. Wise move? Nah, it's a retarded move. One lesson I've learnt about using the control wizard is this: Do not try to dodge in close quarters.

Rather, the control wizard has to maneuver around while nailing as many hits as possible. Whatever you do, don't force yourself into a corner unless you're prepared to teleport in order to throw the opponents off-guard. I'll need some practice via the Dwarven King questline until the respec comes.

Note: It's really a miracle that Shea didn't need a respawn to set things right.

Add note: Something's not right somewhere once I think about it. Why is it that the aggro kept coming in the wrong direction despite a rank 2-3 Battlewise feat?

P.S: Getting late now. Need sleep. Got work tomorrow.

What do you mean it's not political?

It feels weird. Really weird. 8th November is not just that D-day where voters have to choose between Hitler and Stalin (either that or it's bailout day). At the same time, Cryptic decided to out Mod 11 (or rather Mod 10.5 if you like to see things this way) at this very day. Already, there are certain grounds for me to suspect the likes of Prince Andy, St Thomas, and the now departed Akromatik(a) to be liberals. In fact, Ed Greenwood may easily turn out to be a supporter of PETA due to his last name being synonymous with going vegan. Either way, I don't give a damn. So what if they're liberals? At least they recognize my presence due to merit of deed (if this sounds familiar to you, that's because the son of Beornegar would eventually become the leader of the Elk tribe). So what if they might be closet conservatives? Maybe they will vote for McCain instead. Oops, sorry. That last statement is most likely a case of wrong channel.

A/N: Yes, I know that Yankee nuclear bomb being dropped. I don't have to up the link since there's only one other n-bomb and it's from the correct Kim. Either way, I've given up on politics in the same way politics gave up on me. Doesn't stop me from attending forum dialogues amounting to staring at the minister though.

Add A/N: Forgot to add something to this post. A little wonder why I ended remembering Shadowfell during work today.

Before I get started...

Let me just say that my last Tiamat run was a disaster. Normally (I say normally because it has yet to happen), I'll never get frustrated if any outcome of failure is a result of personal failure. It's only when external circumstances conspired against me would I get frustrated. To set the record straight, pretty much 99% of the content is lag-free. The only 1% of the deal? Tiamat. Perhaps it's because unwanted memories a freeze lag are being forgotten at a fast (or at least decent) pace. Perhaps it's because my last couple of Tiamat raids were successful. Either way, the 2nd half of the run was disastrous. It's like Middlesbrough losing to Man Utd 2-0 due to 3 players (from our side) sent off in a span of 5 mins. It's not my fault that that freeze lag was the cause of unnatural death where I'm concerned.

Credit to my guild alliance, they're pretty cool about the failure. In fact, I won't fault one of them saying our dps output was too damn low instead of too damn high. A disastrous 2nd half (at least for yours truly) really sealed it for me though. Throughout that disastrous period, I kept whiffing my Gushing Wound (against any Tiamat's head no less). 2-3 times, the cause of unnatural death was due to falling off the cliff. Again, freeze lag (ok, that's technically a lie. The first fall was due to my vision unable to discern where the cliff edge was. Standing within Hallowed Ground can be fun until this happens). I was actually lucky enough to escape the breathing cannon under such a severe handicap. There's only this much you can do even if you have the kind of tactical awareness like yours truly.

Credit goes to Nasu Kinoko for (accidentally) unlocking my gaming potential.

I was very damned frustrated. There was a clear strategy, so it's not as if the fault lies in my party. I've reached a certain level of technical and tactical excellence without the advantage of MasterCard, so it's not as if the fault lies in my part. It almost felt as if the devs were out to troll me. After all, Jarlaxle pulled off a similar stunt on Drizzt during that fateful duel in the Silent Blade (apparently, Artemis was angry like me, if not most likely worse).

Long story short, I needed to vent my frustration on something else. Not via PvP because there's not much reason for me to do that since mod 6. I had three choices. Namely, Phantasmal Fortress, Dread Spire, and Death Forge. First option was out because the Zulkir of Illusion was too damn easy for me. Not Dread Spire because I've already had a target in mind. Which left Death Forge and its Jawbone. The resultant curbstomping was quite therapeutic so as to speak. I was stance switching like a pro (not that I need to do so once every 30 secs or so like a trapper) and I was executing hits like Kiyomatsu (if you don't know who is Kiyomatsu, then please at least know his main). It was literally a session of curbstomping. Therapeutic, but could have been better. *shrugs*

A/N: Ironically, that failed attempt to take down Tiamat (or Tiamak if you're a Malay) earned me a consolation prize which is better than the ones I've got via a successful raid. Namely something worth more than 300K astral diamonds.

And now onto Nov 8th

Very little has been outed so far, but I'm pretty sure the Sea of Moving Ice will be exactly what Mod 10 has been intended for. Namely those who are really that damned good like the Game himself. The only notable change in the mob is looking like a good challenge to me. Already, fighting a trolling mob can be very challenging for a character with T1 gear. This is for Icewind Dale. In this current mod, it's a dps fight against time (that is if you're a dps character). These blue critters would adopt a zerg and surround strategy with the stoners stoning you behind the enemy line (I know it sounds funny. That is until you meet one of those mobs). Not a problem if you're a tank (then again, tanks are now much more open PvE solo friendly). It's about the dps classes that things may get sticky.

The modded trolls now have increased damage upon hitting low HP. What this means is that you'll have to off one of them asap and break out of the circle from there. Mod 11/10.5 has yet to reach Nov 8th, but it doesn't hurt for me to prepare you guys for what lies ahead across uncharted waters. Whatever you do, just don't get yourself between the main force and the stoners.

On the new fishing system, I'm pretty sure there will be fears of grinding. After all, Neverwnter is all about grinding (unless ofc you have MasterCard). In fact, this is my chief concern. Already, the reward system for an otherwise good challenge is crap. The only reason why the relic gear is useful is for Fangbreaker Island (apparently, the chance of getting +4/+5 rings has been lowered quite a lot for either version of Demogorgon. Which left only Castle Never and Fangbreaker Island). Like the black ice gear in mod 3, the newly touted relic gear is nothing more than something with the shelf life of Taylor "gone (swiftly) in 60 secs" Swift's romance. More specifically Hiddleswift gone Hiddlesplit (yes, I know my future girlfriend may easily be a Hiddlestoner. Love your boyfriend=love his sense of humor).

Which now comes to a pair of level 145 (if my guess is correct) relic artifact weapons. The question now is this: Is there still a need for preservation? The timer for any piece of usable relic gear lasts only like 1 hr. Which is stupid. There's no point putting them on on a prolonged basis unless going to Fangbreaker Island is the only thing you'll do. Period. Take my advice, master only 1 character. Fangbreaker Island is the only place where you can get the best rings available in-game. Unlike the Underdark version, the Fangbreaker Island rings boast of actual stat parameters instead of increasing the numbers. If you're to ask me, 1 Underdark ring plus 1 Fangbreaker Island ring should be the way to go. After all, you're most likely guaranteed a +4 ring at the very least (hopefully). Back to the relic artifact weapons. I really hope it stays the same as the current relic gear. Now before you all start setting me on fire like Mr Trump, let me explain. If it's really a case of level 145 artifact weapons, how long do you think will be needed to get them? Unless the devs nerf the difficulty level of the new zone, the less proficient amigos will miss out on the best stuff! Already, grinding for the current artifact gear is a chore (this is not to mention epic Demogorgon being upgraded). The most straightforward way to get a level 140 artifact gear set would still be via the Drowned Shore. Period. So perhaps it's not that bad. However, what if the bonus lies in anti-giant warfare and nothing else? To quote that German Oddrun from The Fantasy Forums: "Yay! We're screwed! -.-'..."

Note: Above logic should only apply if the new relic artifact gear works like the current epic relic gear property wise. If we're looking at something identical with the Underdark system where the artifact gear doesn't give you any bonus against (very) specific enemies, then just skip my rant above.

Then we're coming to the treasure maps. It's quite an interesting concept to be honest. Done properly, plenty of gamers will be flocking to the Sea of Moving Ice like sheep to shepherd. However, this also depends solely on the quality of loot dropped. You can't expect us to play sheeple for the sake of some level 140 gear. I mean let's just face it. Playing the current campaign requires an average item level of 140 even though no requirements have been enforced. The only problem? That'd crash the gear market. The reason why being that the Dragonflight and Lionsmane gear are both at level 140. At the same time, the newly upgraded black ice forge system also allows the gamer to bake level 140 gear (which comes to the relevance of the current elven gear set come this next mod). Then we have the masterwork gear and relic gear, both which are at level 145. Ultimately, the alternative is for the loot to be fixed at level 140. The only catch? Loot dropped can be of any class and bind to account. By doing this, more alternate characters will be able to play Yoomes Bond/Kookules/the (Koryoan) disciple of Arylos in the Cold Run.

Lastly, the zones. Or rather, zone. The difference between the two lies in plural noun vs singular noun. Then again, I'm convinced that all you people are more intelligent than Matou Shinji.

Enough of the digressing. Let's get this over and done with. One thing I'm suspecting about this next mod lies in the possibility that we'll only get 1 zone. One big ocean with plenty of icebergs, one big map with plenty of places to run. Assuming that the conclusion to Storm King's Thunder lies in the Sea of Moving Ice, it means there's not much for the devs to work on when it comes to individual zones. Which basically makes the boating fun.

Just watch out for the dragon turtle below. Not every dragon goes by the surname Lee.