Crafting is back in Kundarak!

The crafting hall is back up and running in Cannith. If you are new to crafting or would like some more information there are a couple articles previously posted to tell you more. Check out Crafting in Kundarak for crafting basics and More on crafting- bound or unbound for an explanation on creating shards and weapons.

We have a guild ship; now we need stuff to put on it!

Hello there! It is guild leader Sanative here standing on our brand new guild ship. It is a bit barren right now, but as we continue questing and earning guild renown we will be able to add shrines and boosts to our ship. Keep questing and thanks for all your help!

Congrats to this weeks guild member!

This weeks Sarcophagus Smashers guild member is Elehotib, a level three rogue. Elehotib's sly and stealthy actions of earning guild renown have not gone unnoticed. 100 platinum pieces have been sent and a shout out here on the blog is order. Thanks for your contribution and be sure to keep questing :)
If you are a DDO player interested in joining our guild send a message to one of our officers, Sanative, Sickof, Schmeckledorf or Afrodiete and we will be happy to extend an invite.

Favor Rewards

I've only gotten 1 favor reward so far but I'm going to be getting another one soon. What are these favor rewards you might ask? Well these awesome rewards are given to you when you get enough favor from doing quests on harder difficulties such as hard and elite. I've gotten enough favor from The Coin Lords so my reward was an extra inventory space. The reward I'm expecting is with my total favor. I'm soon going to unlock the Drow Elf. Drow elves are special because they have a thirty-two point build. You get the Drow Elf when you get four hundred total favor. Once you do this, there is an "elder" in the harbor that does not allow you to talk to him until you reach four hundred favor. You will unlock the Drow Elf after you have the favor and after you talk to him. Also, you will get mail that tells you to go and talk to the elder. The mail will give you his name. Thanks for reading this post. Happy questing!

Why it is good (and fun) to hack and smash!

The crates and barrels stashed throughout the dungeon are full of goodies and extras available for your looting pleasure. Stacks of platinum, gold, silver and copper are revealed with one good bash. Healing potions, magic potions and weapons sometimes pop up too. There is another reason it is worth while to break whatever gets in your path - experience.
Take a look at the XP listed in the screen shot below. There is lots of experience to be had for smashing those breakables. The ransack bonus is worth the time it takes to break all those boxes. To see the score card when you are playing just press "X". It gives a detailed listing of the adventure and who did what. Happy questing!

I need to craft!

I have an email in to Turbine requesting the expected date for crafting to be back up. I will update the site as soon as I receive an answer!
Congrats on reaching level 14!

Still Closed!

As of this morning on 7/16/2011 the crafting hall is still closed. I have searched for an explanation but all I have been able to come up with is the apology published on the DDO Forum which says it is down temporarily.

I don't believe that DDO will get rid of crafting, even though I have seen a lot of rumors in the chat box that suggest otherwise. I have started selling off some of the weapons that I would have normally crafted, as the old inventory is overflowing. Just an FYI, this Monday DDO will be down for maintenance.

Have you found the Jester yet?

Tasty treats that pack a punch are what you will receive from the Jester of Festivault. If you have been naught though, you might end up with twigs or lumps of coal! In exchange for those coins that have been popping up in treasure chests, this festive fellow will give you Festivault tidings in one form or another. He can be found in The Harbor and all the enclaves off of the market place. He will show up on your map, with the same symbol as collectors do. Hope you've been good!

Selling, auctioning, and trading

There are many ways to get money, weapons, and the armor you desire. You can get them in quests, or as rewards, but there are other ways to get the equipment you need that are sometimes more expensive, but much quicker. If you haven't noticed yet, the vendors often will give you low prices for things you wish to sell, but sometimes (and this occurs most with the potion vendors in my opinion) they will make their products over the base value of the object, but your lucky if you get half the base value of an object! So they're making a killing! If you are pay to play, then you can buy stuff in the DDO store, but if your free to play like me, you have to find another way to get objects cheaper, and sometimes sell them for a higher price. This is where the auction house comes into play. The auction house is located on the map by the two red axes crossing each other. The products here can be overpriced, but you can find good prices on bids and auctions, and sometimes get expensive objects dirt cheap! You can also auction off things as well, there is a small posting fee, and the auction house takes a portion of your sale. The longer you post an auction, the bigger the posting fee. Free to play players can post one auction at a time, while pay to play players can post 50 items at a time. Trading can be difficult, and unless your in a party, and someone with you wants to trade with you, its difficult to do this. If you have no one to trade with, just type in your trade in the general chat box, and ask if someone is interested, if they are, you're going to want something they want, so you can trade, this strategy can be effective, but only if you have items that others would like, otherwise this wont work out so well.

More on Crafting - Bound or unbound?

While deconstructing will get you crafting experience, creating shards and crafting weapons will give you more experience. Bound shards are easier to make, giving the crafter a broader selection of recipes to create. The down side is, like anything bound, its yours. No auction, no trading, it will be with you forever and ever.
Unbound shards allow the crafter to make weapon enhancements that can be sold or traded. The downside to the unbound is the selection is less because the crafting difficulty is higher.
What I have found helpful is to create some bound weapons for yourself first - if you hate them you can always break them back down again. Once your crafting level increases, try your hand at the unbound weapons. DO NOT equip an unbound weapon to check it out - it becomes bound to the person who equips it.

Crafting in Kundarak

Crafting in Kunarak gives players the opportunity to play around with weapon building skills. To build weapons, you need essences and other ingredients. To increase your characters crafting skill, you can deconstruct, build shards or add shards to items.

Deconstruction is the process of breaking down items to remove essences or to turn an item into a craftable one. This is also a great way to build up your crafting skill.

The crafting hall in the Kundarak Enclave has two vendors, one on each end of the crafting hall. This is where players can purchase their deconstruction materials, learn about crafting or transmute essences. In the next few posts there will be more about essences and how to transmute them, but for now let's stick with the deconstruction.

Anyway, besides these vendors, there is a mailbox, a bank and an auctioneer. It comes in handy if you have other business to attend to while unloading your loot at the deconstruction table.

The vendors sell four items used in the deconstruction process. Each one does something a little different, based on the essences or enchantments that you wish to remove. They are:

Liquid Knife Poison - removes enchantments +1, +2, +3, etc. on an item.

Lorinda's Ultimate Remover - removes suffix on an item, which is the ending description on a weapon.

Parfett's Leading Disolver - removes prefixes, acid touch, frost touch, etc. It is the description at the beginning of a weapon.

Dust of Disjunction - removes all enchantments and effects before making an item craftable. This is the only time you will get an item back. Deconstruction using a suffix or prefix remover will give you essences and Liquid Knife will give you the enchantment back.

So, if there is a +2 Firetouch Long Sword of Lesser Goblinoid Bane, the Liquid Knife in conjunction with the long sword would give you back the +2 enchantment. Lorinda's Remover would give you back the essences for the bane and Parfetti's will give you the essences for fire touch.

On sale at the DDO Store

In yesterday's post I talked about hirelings. Available now through July 14th save 20% on hireling purchases at the DDO Store. Enter the coupon codeHIRELINGS20 and the 20% savings will be applied.
Other sales at the DDO Store include 20% off the Monk kit and 20% alignment changes. No coupon code is necessary for those two items.
Lastly, the DDO Store is discounting weapons purchased by 35%! After selecting the weapon you want, enter the coupon code WEAPONS35. 35% will be reduced from the original price! Shop till you drop, just remember to use your coupon!

Handy hirelings

Everybody needs a little help from time to time, and DDO characters are no different! There are two ways to get the help you need at an affordable price.
The first is the the hireling vendors. The hireling will last for an hour and will work along side of you as long as they don't die. You can rent a fighter, a cleric, a Favored Soul, Bard, Wizard, Sorcerers or a Barbarian. You are allowed one hireling at a time when using the hirelings from the in game vendors and they must be summoned at the beginning of the dungeon. I have not seen any thieves mixed in with the in game hirelings, which takes us to the other option for hirelings, the DDO Store. Besides a different selection, the DDO Store hirelings are "gold sealed" and have a few special extras.
The gold seal hirelings can be summoned from wherever your character happens to be. Another extra, besides being able to rent a thief, is the option to have more than one hireling! You can pretty much build your own party and they can be brought into play anytime anywhere in the quest!

Choosing the right race

Pic Courtesy of Yahoo! Images

When creating a character, there are many different customizations you can make for your character, which is a very enjoyable feature, but did you know that the race you choose influences the way you play the game? For example, the drow elf race has a + 2 dexterity, + 2 intelligence, + 2 charisma, and a - 2 constitution. This means that drow elfs are have a bigger advantage by playing as a rogue, bard, ranger, sorcerer, or wizard. They also have + 2 to enhancement saves, they inherit spell resistance, a + 2 to listen, search, and spot. The dwarf race has a + 2 to constitution, and a - 2 penalty to charisma. They also have racial toughness, spell point enhancements, bonuses to saves against spells and poisons, and bonuses when fighting goblin, or giant creatures. So dwarves would make good fighters and barbarians. Elves have a + 2 bonus to dexterity, and a - 2 penalty to constitution. Some benefits include immune to sleep, as clerics they can bring fallen allies back to life at level six, and + 2 to search, spot, and listen skills. They make for good rogues, clerics, rangers, and wizards. A half elf has no bonuses, but no penalties either. They have access to both elven, and human feats since they are half elf, and half human. Half orcs have a + 2 to strength, but suffer a - 2 to intelligence, and charisma. they make good fighters, barbarians, and paladins. Haflings are the smallest race, and add a + 2 to to their dexterity, but a -2 to their strength. They add a + 1 to armor class + 1 bonus to attack rolls with thrown weapons.They recieve a + 2 to jump listen, and move silently skills, a + 4 to hide, they also get + 1 to all saves, and a + 2 to saves against fear. Their flaw is that they can only carry 75 % of what the other races can carry in their inventory due to size. They make good monks, and excellent rogues. Humans get 1 extra feat at the first level, get 4 additional skill points at creation and 1 additonal skill point per level. They take no penalties, and are the most well rounded race, and can excel at any class. Warforged have a + 2 constitution, a -2 wisdom and charisma. They are immune to poison, sleep affects, paralysis, disease, nausea, fatigue, and exhaustion. Since they're warforged, cure and heal spells from clerics are reduced, if you want a fully effective heal for your warforged character, you must have a player or hireling with a good repair skill. Warforged characters would make good fighters and barbarians with their bonus constitution and immunity to fatigue.

Add some D&D to your desktop

If you are one of those players who can't get enough of DDO, this is the link for you! Follow this link for a redecorating adventure! With a great variety to choose from, DDO has wallpaper for your PC that will remind you of the game everytime you see your desk top! There are three recently added ones that include a quaterly calendar. Check it out and download your favorite.

Getting ready for a quest

     When the time comes to venture off into some unconquered land, it is good to be prepared. Nothing spoils a quest more than an"Inventory Full" message or death due to being potionless. As your character packs up to move out, here are a few tips to smoother questing.
     First, check on slot availability. Press "I" for the inventory. On the right hand side there are two tabs. By selecting the lower tab, it puts the inventory into a list and conveniently notes the amount of free spaces. If there are only a few spots left, unload before pressing on.
      Ammo shortages during a battle spell certain death. Check to see that there are plenty of arrows, bolts, darts or whatever ranged weapon you carry. Don't have a ranged weapon? Consider picking one up for emergencies. A questing hero may be able to hack and slash with the best of them, but may fall in battle if the enemy is shooting from higher ground.
Got healing? Even clerics should have some back up way to heal themselves (or others) in desperate times where a shrine can't be found. Potions, wands, scrolls, cloaks and many other possibilities will give the character a safety net.
Weapons become worn and broken, especially if ooze is around. Having a ooze bane weapon in your back pack is always a plus, but if you don't have one, keeping a crummy weapon you really don't care about to fight ooze is a must.
Having all the spell components needed to cast spells is another important part of preparation. Not a spell caster? What about a healing kit? You can't save fallen members of your party lying unconscious on the ground without it. Comes in handy in an emergency.
Those are just a few suggestions to check before heading out into the wilderness. Being ready makes the game so much more enjoyable, so pack your crates, barrels and backpacks and go on a quest!

Late Welcome

Hello to everyone in the Sarcophagus Smashers. I know its a little late to be welcoming you but this is my first of many blogs. I'm sure that people have covered a lot of what I'm going to say to you but I will do my best to talk about different things. For this blog I want to specifically talk about one part of the things that you use. Trinkets. It took me a long time to find a trinket. When I found my first trinket, I was in the later parts of the Stormreach Harbor. It took me a while to find my first trinket obviously but I think it was worth it because it added 5 hitpoints to my total hitpoints and had a +1 enhancement bonus. I know that there are many more different kinds of trinkets out there so you probobly won't get the same kind I did. What kind of trinkets have you seen, used, or are using now? Leave me a comment, I would love to hear from you. Happy questing!!!! :)

Enhancing stats

Nobody is perfect, including DDO characters! Trying to build a well rounded player is a challenge and it no doubt often leaves the newly created character with some low spots. To help us along, DDO has a variety of stat boosting accessories sure to please even the fusiest of questers. Helmets, rings, bracers, belts, armor and trinkets are one way to give a little boost to weaker attributes or an extra boot to already great stats.
Let's say you really want to be stronger. Since there is no DDO gym to pump you up, your character comes across some +1 Ogre Gloves. Put them on and poof, the character has a +1 addition to their strength. A few quests later your character comes across +1 Ogre Bracers. After equipping them the character still only has a +1 strength bonus. Hmmmm.....
While enhancements give players a boost, the wearable ones don't stack. To further increase attributes past the wearable stuff there are a couple of options. Spells and potions can be a shorterm fix when a player needs (or wants) to increase their power in some shape or form. There are also tomes that can be purchased through the DDO Store. Those will increase the specific attributes according to their label. These are permanent increases bound to your character. And lastly, the enhancements that can be increases through skill points. Check with your classes trainer to see which enchantments are available.

Guild member of the week

Congrats to Healderon, a level six cleric and Sarcophagus Smasher Guild Member. Over the past week, this member has increased in level and in turn, helped earn guild renown for all of us. Thank you for your dedicated questing.
Each week, one of our guild members will be recognized here and sent a little bit of Platinum to help with expenses. It is just a little something to let guild members know that their questing is noticed and appreciated.
Good job to a fellow cleric!
We would love to hear from you, (even if you are not a guild member!). Any questions or comments can be left here and one of the guild officers will reply :)

Using the right weapon in battle

A variety of weapons appear in chests and are given as rewards. This allows players to carry multiple kinds of weapons and equipment for different kinds of battles. For example, when fighting sahuagin, a Humanoid Bane weapon will inflict additional bonus damage to the monsters, making it easier to beat them down. Fire weapons and cold weapons will also do additional damage to many creatures, but the bane weapons are more "monster specific" and will usually inflict the greatest damage.
Cold monsters, like an ice memphit, will take extra damage from a weapon with fire. And just the opposite, a fire monster will take extra damage when hit by a cold weapon.
There are lots of different types of bane weapons and some types are self explanatory, like elf bane works well against elves. Evil outsider bane works well against hell hounds, however so does cold or ice.
Bane weapons aren't always easy to come by, so a back up like a fire, cold, electric or acid weapons are always nice to have.

July Festivult 2011 is here!

You may have noticed something new in your treasure chests recently. Copper, Silver and Gold Festival Coins are waiting to be claimed in dungeons everywhere. So what do you with the new found loot? Trade it in to the Jester.
The coins will be available through July 17th. The Jester will be lingering in multiple locations starting July 11, 2011. Festival coins can be turned in for reward to the Jester in The Harbor. He will also be in the Houses of Kundarak, Jorasco, Phiarlan and Deneith.
The more quests completed, the more coins will be earned. So get out there and quest!

On sale now!

The DDO Store is running a 20% off sale on XP potions and 30% off on the coveted 32 point build. The XP potions are handy, especially if you are impatient with the climb up the "level ladder".  They are available in a variety of strengths and time durations. A three hour XP Potion with a 10% boost is 48 points and they go up from there. The potions automatically pause while in public areas and when you are logged out.
The 32 point build puts any new character at an advantage, giving the character creator eight more points to play with. This one comes with a hefty price tag of  1047 points. You can still build a great character with a 24 point build, but for those power seekers also looking for a good deal now is the time!
Another sale that is going on is the Double Points on the biggest point pack. For $49.99 buyers get the 3100 DDO Points plus a bonus of 3800. That's a lot of DDO Points!