Death Aura -- Don't Leave Stormreach Without It!

I just wanted to give a huge virtual high five to "frimless" who left a comment on my "welcome back" / "I'm a necro now" post!

"Lesser Death Aura does a pretty good job of healing you up (and your skeleton too). I still miss the days when it lasted a bit longer... You can buy potions of Inflict harm at the Portable Hole & maybe somewhere else. But yes, there were a couple of times when I was lying on the floor with -5 hit points that I really wished there was another mage around with the death aura active. I think a party of necromancers with skeletons and summons would rock. - Frimless"

That's the key I was missing. DEATH AURA. And to make things even sexier, Lesser Death Aura stacks with Death Aura. I've been having a blast running around with my amazing heal-over-time while in vampire mode and smacking things to death as a necromancer.

HE'S GONNA BE SINGING AN OCTAVE HIGHER! *sings* "Pelvic punch man!" I was having so much fun punching things with my handwraps, that I started to feel like I wanted to take a level of monk. (Oh wait, there's that whole "lawful" alignment thing . . . um, maybe fighter?)

As I get deeper into the skill trees, I'm getting more and more excited about this necromancer. I'm level 11 now, and things just seem to crumble. So much more fun with that death aura / vampire combo running.

Anyway, I'm level 11 now. On my way here I've conquered the usual fare of foes . . . like beholders in need of a little trim off the top . . .

Yup, I did the whole Vault of Night / Laughing Knives suite of quests as well as headed over to the Red Fens and conquered the ziggurat . . . inside and out. There are some amazing screenshot moments in this quest series btw. Here's a few I snapped that I felt were worthy of a share (click on these to enlarge):

PRETTY! (Also deadly . . . I didn't survive that pit)

Also, remember last post where I was going off on how hilarious the kobolds were with their one-liners. Yeah, the Blessed Drow Scorpions just don't pack the same punch with their one-liners.

NOT FUNNY, GUYS! NOT FUNNY!

Anyway, I've ventured into the Menechtarun Desert for the time being and hope to grab more stellar screenshots while there . . . like this one I snapped earlier today! Check it out:

Now that's worth the price of admission. Am I right? Did I mention how much I love snapping screenies in DDO?

Happy Dueling!

Hello from the Other Side!

Why hello there! It's been, what, three and a half years?

WHAT?! No . . . say it isn't so! Three and a half years was simply a blink of the beholder's eye!

Well, that's what happens when real life gets in the way and your static group becomes lost in a world of superheroes. It's true, we entered into DC Universe Online and . . . we're still in there. I really think Lord Spode of Team Spode finally found his perfect game. He loves it. It wasn't all DCUO though, we also took a short break to play some GuildWars 2 . . . yeah that didn't last long. Let's just wrap up the catch up in general and say . . . LISTEN, I'VE BEEN PLAYING A LOT OF OTHER GAMES! SHEESH!

So why am I back in the world of DDO right now? Well, a week ago, I felt something . . .


It was this feeling that maybe, just maybe perhaps I was feeling a bit unfulfilled because I never rolled a necromancer in DDO and tried it out.  I mean, after all, I am The Friendly Necromancer . . .

And that's exactly who I am now.  Without further adieu, I would like to introduce you to . . .

"Thefriendly Necromancer"

My little Drow Necromancer is now level 7 and rising. Here's how it's broke down so far:

1- I started him at level 4 . . . because I could . . . some old veteran's benefit thing let me do that. WOOT!

2- The first "real" thing I did was run him over to the Cannith missions because that was totally my gig back in the day, and . . . yup . . . it was like riding a bicycle.

IT'S RAINING MAD TALISMANS!

3- At the end of the day, I was bouncing a bit between Cannith missions and Searing Heights and dinged level 5 without many issues.  Sure, it took a bit of figuring out which keys did what, and I'm still amazed at exactly how many hotbars it takes me to play DDO, but it is what it is.

4- By the time I hit level 6 I had a full set of Cannith mission gear. You know what I'm talking about:

• Rock Boots
• Frozen Tunic
• Bracers of Wind
• Blasting Chime
• Cloak of Flames
• Ring of Master Artifice

That stuff!

5- After that I looked up Level 6 missions and saw that good ol' Three Barrel Cove was right in line for that level, so I went and did the suite of missions once through, killed 750 things in the cove, and payed a visit to my all time favorite party barge:

 . . . and my all time worst puzzle room (Not really, but it feels that way) . . .

. . . and as they say in Finding Nemo, just kept swimming.

(I love screenshots in DDO)

So there you go! For now I'm enjoying all that is the world of Eberron.

What's next, you ask?!  Well, I'm thinking I may go check out Delera's Tomb and surrounding quests.  It's been a while since I've been over that direction, and as a master of necromancy, this should be right up my alley. (If there's one thing I do well as a necromancer in DDO so far, it's stop the undead in their tracks.)

What do I think of the Necromancer specialization so far, you ask?! (You're asking all the right questions today . . .) So far it's not bad! I like my skeleton pet, and I've got him pretty buffed out.  As long as I keep him hasted, he does pretty good. I also like my health sacrificing spells.  I'm not quite sure what to think of the undead combat forms though.  I soon realized that my cleric henchman didn't seem to want to heal me or my skeleton, since we're classed as undead. Hmmm, I need to read up a bit on how that all works or what would work better.  I'm not really doing much with multiclassing . . . just sticking on the necromancer line so far, but . . . if I have any revelations, I'll be sure to pass them along. (and vice versa!)

See you next time!

Happy Dueling.