Devils, Mindflayers, Beholders . . . and whatever this is . . .

Hello fine denizens of Stormreach! How the heck are you today?

Doing good?

Good.

As promised by the title . . . I've got a plethora of amazing screenshots from the past couple of days to share with you today.

We've got DEVILS!

Oh so many Devils!  So, the Devil's Gambit Adventure pack is one that I completely skipped last time I was playing DDO.  Actually, I don't even think it was available when Team Spode was playing DDO.

WAIT A SECOND!

Yup, verified . . . this here is 2015 content. Nice!  I should go back through the four adventures and really give this a good review then, shouldn't I?  I will do that . . . for now . . . just know that I enjoyed the devil slaying very much and took a few great pictures while I was at it.

. . . on to the MIND FLAYERS . . .

Well, at least the only Mind Flayer that really counts in my mind (aside from Fred). I love that picture of Yaulthoon.  It looks like he's really feeling the Psionics there as I put my targeting circle right on his armpit.

BTW, bonus points for anyone that can tell me how to remove that targeting circle while taking screenshots.

Anyway, as evidenced from this screenshot, I finished up the quest, In the Flesh, and I had an amazing time doing it if I do say so myself (shhh, bonus screenshot at the end of this post)

. . . on to the BEHOLDERS . . .

And not just any Beholder, that's Dead Pykzyl.  I guess that technically makes him a Doomsphere, but hey . . . a beholder is a beholder to The Friendly Necromancer. eh?

I was just happy to snag some extra loot and exp, and survive. Especially with that scary warning that this is an extreme encounter tuned for a balanced group when you're in there solo.

/shiver.

. . . on to WHATEVER THIS IS . . .

Seriously, I'm sorry for that, but when I found that in my screenshot folder, I just jumped for joy. Apparently that's an Orthon.  It's a new kind of Devil, uh, Evil Outsider, uh, Lawful Evil type of monster that's packed into Devil's Gambit pack.

I was playing dentist.

Unfortunately for him it was a very cruel dentist that needed to defeat him and take those pearly whites as treasure.

Yup, it's decided . . . I need to give a full review on The Devil's Gambit.  That picture sealed the deal.

Speaking of cool pictures from The Devil's Gambit . . . how about this shot of House Cannith at night during the Multitude of Menance quest?

That's a good bonus.  I always love when I can look up and admire a night sky.  Thanks, Turbine!

OK, and here's bonus screenshot dos . . .

Oh man, I missed that Fashion Show so much.  I had completely forgotten about it, and . . . 10/10 fashions there.

SLOW CLAP FROM THE FRIENDLY NECROMANCER!

Well, thanks for joining for this quick screenshot sharing post.  I'm sitting at level 14 in game and rising. I hope to have more posts and fun for you soon.

until then . . .

Happy Dueling.

Been Missing Missing.

Hey all!  Have you missed me the past couple of days?

Yeah, I didn't think you had, but that's cool. I found what I was missing, and it was the quest, Missing!

But before we talk about that . . . I've had this crazy idea rolling around in the my head the past week that I want to stream some DDO, but I haven't made that a reality yet.  At the time I was (and still am) level 13 and decided to start trekking through ye' old Ruins of Gianthold.  I'd load up OBS to preview my stream, get super crazy, and wreck the place up without breaking much of a sweat smashing giants left and right in the wilderness area -- and be out of time while still testing if I liked what I was seeing on the screen.  (I promise I'll get to the point with this soon because I realize this has nothing to do with the Missing quest.)

The timing never seemed right for DDO streaming, and I dunno . . . it was just all so purple.  If you know Gianthold, you'll know what I'm talking about. Aside from that I found a super cool beholder gif that I was also sticking over the top of my head in the stream preview and listening to funk music . . . and the idea came to me that this could be my shtick.  #DDO funk hour with Stingite.

It's solid, and who doesn't love funk music and DDO, amiright?

I even downloaded a voice changer so I could sound more evil, like a beholder. I may or may not use that.

Anyway, still . . . time was not right, and I just couldn't bring myself to stream just yet.  I'm a soloing noob in game, and I don't even know if people want to watch that kind of a trainwreck . . . and before you know it, people will be asking to look at my gear and my stats and then it's like . . . gah . . . do I even want to stream?

ANYWAY, the beholder-on-my-head-gif got me craving some beholder killing, and I remembered how much I dug the whole Harbinger of Madness quest line.  I looked it up, and it's level 15.  I'm level 13, so I figured I could tackle it on normal mode, and that I did!

So, I've run the Missing quest about four times now, and I dig it more each time I do it.  It's just so gosh darn creepy.  An order form for a dozen kids and a suite of cages? Cripes.  That's the stuff of nightmares - and this is especially emphasized by how the game gets all black and white and freaky during those moments of insanity.

Also creepy?  The taken.

See, now this is what I love about DDO.  Weird, strange creatures.  And this quest is chock full of evil outsiders that are just weird and scary. You're not playing some kill 10 rats quest here (although, you can actually find a few rats in this quest -- also awesome).

Can I just say how much I love making the Taken look like beautiful ice sculptures?

And those Xorian Renders as well . . . that's one beautiful Ice Sculpture.

Anyway, much to my delight, the final boss in this instance is a guy whose head looks like a beholder . . . and I'm like . . . that's totally me on my future DDO stream.  The guy with a beholder on his head. It's fate.

The beholder eventually loses his really really bad disguise and it's a beat down for the ages amongst the cages.

CAGE FIGHT!

. . . now THAT scratched the DDO itch.

I may still go back to Gianthold and kill a few more things in the land of eternal purple, but . . . there's also this.

OH YEAH, and I totally scored the Turbulent Epee!  Um, I can't use it until I ding 14, but still . . . that's one of the two pieces of epic loot from the instance, so I'm happy with that.

and speaking of happy . . .

Happy Dueling!

Yaulthoon on Fail Mode!

Yup, here we are after our attempt on Yaulthoon on Hard Mode:


At one point we had him down to 33% . . . and were so busy killing the adds that we forgot to notice the pods at his feet.

Thus, this week, Spode steaks are on special.

Our main problem was getting separated last night, once we scattered to and fro, the mind flayers, beholders, and Xorian renders would tend to smoke us. Yaulthoon on normal mode? Well, you mostly just have to deal with Taken. Hard mode is harder.

Enjoy those steaks! We'll be back next week! It's looking like Necro IV and the Orchard of the Macabre is on the horizon for Team Spode. I keep trying to convince my cohorts to hit these Cannith Challenges with me. There is a dragon in one of these after all. Team Spode loves dragons!

Happy Dueling!

Harbinger of Madness -- hard mode!

Last night Team Spode wanted to up the ante in Harbinger of Madness and run it hard mode. The hope was that this would bring us a few more gear upgrades and perhaps sprinkle us with a few more experience points. Normally right here in the post is where I would say, but boy were we mistaken! *inserts picture of Team Spode looking like steaks*. I can't do that this time though because WE ROCKED!

- Ulan picked up a Staff of Fleshshaping and the Insanity.
- Ophiga pilfered a Turbulent Epee.
- I snagged the Infused Chaos Robe.
- Spode had the pleasure of our company.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Team Spode loves Harbinger of Madness. Next week we shall attempt Yulthoon on Hard, wish us luck!

I have some fun video of Team Spode vs. Z'Miizith, the named beholder at the end of the "Missing" quest. (I like the name Z'Miizith because it makes me think of Mizithra cheese, which is delicious on The Spaghetti Factory's Mizithra Cheese Pasta with Browned Butter . . . man, I'm hungry right now) It's kind of hard to know what's going on in this video, but between my disco lights and the Beholder's prismatic sprays, it makes for a pretty awesome light show.



We were all pretty quiet last night unfortunately. Ophiga was suffering from a cold and anything more than normal mode tends to make us focus more on the task at hand and joke around a little less than normal.

Soon we'll be finishing up the Harbinger of Madness quest line and move on to something else. Necro IV has been calling us, as well as a few other areas. If you'd like to throw in your two cents on where Team Spode might head next, leave a comment below!

Thanks and Happy Dueling!

Bursting Yaulthoon's Harbinger of Madness Bubble

Last night was a lot of fun. Team Spode was warned about the final boss in the "In the Flesh" quest by Ekeiram, and definitely Yaulthoon is not an easy fight . . . even on normal mode, but Team Spode would not be deterred! Even if we went an hour OT on our regular playing time.

The night started out pretty mellow. We just needed to help Tony finish up the Sinister Storage quest since for some reason he didn't get flagged as completing that quest last week. Basically this quest asks you to defeat waves of "sinister" Xoriat baddies as they flood into a storage room. Unlike the good ol' Protect Baudry's Interests level 2 quest, there's no giant crate of supplies to protect. This is just straight up slaughter as you wipe out all the Thraak Hounds, Mind Flayer Mages, and creepy Taken as you can until Mahlurat (a flesh-render of the nastier variety) shows up.

There was nothing much to report from this quest other than Team Spode was victorious! A couple Staffs of Fleshshaping dropped for us. MAN, so upset the Staff of Fleshshaping has the same look as my Master Transmuter's Staff. Ahhh well. :)

Compared to Spode's new sword, the INSANITY, the looks of my meager weapon is definitely nothing to get excited about. Here's a short exchange from last night where we discuss the size of Spode's sword.



In the Flesh is a great instance and definitely an epic ending to the Harbinger of Madness quest series. How often do you get to be trapped in a mind flayer's mind, being blasted with Psyionics in DDO? I'm not sure, but I think I'll put this experience down as "unique" to the game.

Since I finally figured out that Fraps was the answer to my problem of not being able to record what I'm saying while videoing AND since I'm in kind of a video mood today, I'll just let the combat video speak for itself. (need to turn down the pick up of my headset mic so that I'm not subjecting people to the background sounds of my real life home LOL)



Of course, that victory was after about an hour of trying to figure out exactly how to go about killing this thing. The first time we saw the globes coming at us, I thought, well . . . perhaps you have to hit them back at him baseball style. (scratch)

Not much longer after that we figured out that the bubbles would burst the bubbles holding Yaulthoon's prisoners. The DM's voice helped us realize that made yaulthoon susceptible to damage. Thanks DM!

The real problem was with that horrifically beautiful Mind Thrust ability from the Mind Flayer. Every time we'd get Yaulthoon down to about 15% life left, he'd just rip us apart with these beautiful strands of pink death. On the third attempt we decided to check DDO Wiki and see what we missed. What we had missed were (as I so eloquently state in the above video) "those darn pods around his feet."

That made all the difference.

The other major challenge from In the Flesh came in the form of what is known as a doomsphere. From what the wiki is telling me, there are only three doomsphere mobs in the game. Dead Pykzyl (which surely is a street name of saying Dead Pickle) wiped us a couple times as well . . . we'll be back to destroy you Mr. Dead Pickle! We're saving our revenge for the upcoming weeks.

At the end of the day and largely thanks to the sweet 20% exp bonus going on during the holidays, Ulan dinged 15 and I upped my level to 17. Spode finished two of the three 1500 kill quests in Gianthold, and now is only 3 ranks behind my exp lead in the group. Just between us, I think he's on a mission to pass me by. :D

Of other news, it's good to hear that Lessah is back amongst the community! Cocktail Hour's X-mas special was a good one! Also, can't forget to mention DDOCast's Holiday special as well. I've been downloading back episodes of DDOCast lately and listening to them on my drive to work.

I gotta figure out a segment . . . I just gotta!

Happy Dueling!

Harbinger of Madness vs. Diablo II

You have a lot of madness in DDO. Madness seems to be a Turbine developers favorite psychosis. The Path to Madness. The Maze of Madness. Madstone Crater. And now The Harbinger of Madness, which is really just a setup for the Reign of Madness, right? There's so much madness that it's enough to drive someone to the Chamber of Insanity!

I don’t blame Turbine for all this madness though, I blame . . . Madness!


Insider's perspective: when Madness sings "Our House," they're talking about the House of Xoriat they're trying to establish in Stormreach.

So, I can tell you right now, that Team Spode LOVES Harbinger of Madness. I made the comment over e-mail today that I think Harbinger of Madness is less about the exp (which is “ok” not “killer” though), and more about the loot. We had three unique drops on Normal mode from random chests that were some of the best pieces we’ve seen yet in our little ragtag band of mid-high levelers.

Spode got a nice sword named Insanity (who doesn't want to fight madness with insanity?), and we saw some other loot that made us wonder what else we could find, DDO wiki has some promising items listed.

What else was nice is that the difficulty wasn’t too bad! At least on normal mode. There were a few mishaps here and there, but nothing horrifically ugly that we didn’t overcome. If hard mode brings better loot (as one would suspect), sign us up tenfold. The quest chain in total seems like it would take around 3 hours to complete. We only had two, so we left the last instance for next time we meet.

(The general consensus was that we weren’t planning on meeting Christmas day, so we’ll probably be meeting up on the evening of the 26th. And if that doesn’t work, we just may take a couple weeks off until the holidays are over.)

Ophiga had a great summation of our experience in Harbinger of Madness, and to be honest, I don’t have a whole lot more to add. I would like to say that this quest series so far has been creepy awesome! Two thumbs up! Children missing from a school? Cocoons harvesting flesh golems? Beholders? Mind flayers? Undead? Strange Camera seizures as you pass through particularly haunted rooms? Yup, Harbinger of Madness has exactly what I like!

I love quest series like this that evoke a certain mood and succeed while giving you challenging game play that isn’t too punishing and then finishing it all off with rewarding loot. That’s an art, and I feel the developers at Turbine did a great job right here. In a way, Team Spode has been playing through a lot of aging content where GOOD loot has been hard to come by in areas that were tuned to drop loot in a different age of DDO. Most of the gear we are wearing hasn’t come from the chests we’ve looted, but from sales at the auction house.

And that’s why Team Spode loves (Or at least why I love) Harbinger of Madness so far. It’s awesomeness is perfect for our little group. Please give us more of this. Yes, PLEASE. Failing missions in Cannith sucks. Failing Blue Dragon fights sucks. Complicated crafting recipes that require extensive farming sucks. Harbinger of Madness ROCKS. YES, PLEASE! I completed the dungeon, now give me the awesome loot. DONE. I don’t have to craft loot. I don’t have to cleanse loot. I don’t have to improve loot with a raid. I don’t have to do anything but profit. It’s like freaking Diablo II. YAY! The only thing that would make this better is if awesome loot and health potions just squished out of monster’s bodies when they died.

So from the bottom of my heart, thank you Turbine for the Harbinger of Madness. If this is what’s on the menu of the future, sign me up for seconds and thirds.

Happy Dueling