As if life wasn’t full enough, and short enough, I’ve gotten the urge, and a half-dozen topics in the back of my twisted little mind, to blog to the dirge community here. You’ve been warned. There’s probably a ‘block’ function somewhere. The title is from a medieval Latin poem from the traditional Catholic liturgy of the Requiem, or mass for the dead. Dies Irae is the Day of Wrath. Dirge’s Irae, then, would be the Wrath of the Dirge. I’m not that wrathful but I can certainly get testy. Comment as it occurs to you. Derision is OK, too, but I’m hard to suppress so not-reading is probably a more productive option. Whysprr Wyrdwynd
Entry the First: Adaptability I’ve gotten lucky over the last couple of days as far as groups go, and so I’ve been just rakin’ in the ol’ experience in the Sanctum of the Scaleborn. And one thing I noticed was how darned adaptable we dirges are. The first group I got was a near-classic Dirge group – solid tank, solid healer, Troub, Ranger, Conjurer, me. I kept my mouth shut, the troubadour was friendly and fairly cute, it went beautifully. Troub sang Bria’s so I used the core buffs; dps, stoneskin, parry, Hyran’s, Harl’s. My active play was offensively-focused, Clara’s, Verlien’s, Tarven’s, and Ho! for Luda’s and the rest of the attack lineup. Last night’s group, though, was just flat strange. Guardian 64, Mystic 60, Inquisitor 67, two wizards right around 60, and ol’ Whysp at 65. What, pray, I thought to myself, does a dirge bring to this? Well, there’s always Bria’s, and that did turn out useful since the guard taunted like mad and the wizzies nuked like mad. Beyond that, what to run? I finally settled on stoneskin, self-buff, Rianna’s, Hyran’s. Offensively, I went for personal dps, since all our dps was coming from two lowish wizards, but I always opened with bump / Garsin’s to debuff wis for the casters. And we rolled along just fine. Especially since the tank turned the mob. I’ve gotten very particular about that in my old age, and I try to reward the behavior. “Sweet merciful Heavens, I’m in love†<Pause, wait for it. Someone always asks.> “A tank who turns the mob.†Then, the inquisitor had to go. Suddenly, from having a comfortable excess of healing we had just-barely-enough. So, I completely changed my tactics. Substituted parry buff for self-buff (~sigh~). I debuffed with Daro’s and Discante, used Shrieking Stab early, threw in Tarven’s and Cheap Shot as often as possible, discovered that my ministration skill for Oration of Sacrifice was annoyingly low, and generally tried to make as much of a nuisance of myself to the mobs as possible. Some folks around here will argue that I don't actually have to try to be a nuisance, well, we all have our talents. At any rate, we rolled along just fine, hardly slower than before. It’s quite likely that my efforts had only a modest effect on rolling along just fine, I own a parser but I don’t parse, not so you’d notice anyway, so it’s hard to say. But it was an interesting exercise, adapting to such different group compositions. Doubtless other classes have to adapt to different circumstances, run different attacks, and so on, but I doubt too many folks have to think as globally about what’s happening as we do.
Couldn't agree more on the adaptability. Possible suggestion to you. I've no idea if you were questing, or just grouping for xp and loot and I realize that does make a differance to folks. If you were just grouping for xp and loot, you might try to find groups in Palace of Awakening at your level. You're buffs well help people no matter what, and you'll be effective on the mobs. I personally ground out most of my levels from 64-69 in PoA in a matter of days by doing pickup groups. The possible pickup groups will obviously vary on the population of your server and what they're doing though so your milage may vary.
I have found that Tanks who dont group often with scouts tend not to bother with this. Our MT however is married to a Troub so he has always turned the mob Grab a couple of adds while running around the mob and most tanks firgure it out soon enough though As to adaptabilty, thats who we are. We bring something to everyone in one form or another. We are the ultimate ronco tool
From a through and through scout - Much love indeed to a tank that turns, flips, and otherwise uses consideration in setting up the backstabbers of the group for their best performances. /sigh
Entry the Second – Rainy-Day Money I’m a modestly-successful jeweler as well as a dirge, and so my bags are absolutely full of crafting junk; four tiers of raws, a change of clothes and some miscellaneous equipment (for why, see my speedcrafting guide here), assorted rares, and fuels. Someday I’m going to organize all that. I make a modest living out of the jewel-crafting. At an early age my parents hammered the importance of saving into my head. Not saving for anything, mind you – just saving. So I keep about 30 plat in the bank – it’s my rainy-day fund. Well, yesterday morning the rainy day came. I’d popped down to the broker to check my sales and happened to run the Dirge Fabled search I keep saved, and there it was. Banshee, Master I. A few months ago, I saw a Master of Grievance on for 2 plat, and I’m cheap by nature so I zipped to the vendor’s house to save the broker’s fee, and when I got there it’d already sold. Haven’t seen it even once since – I could just cry. So when I saw Banshee, I ran to the bank as fast as my little legs would carry me, pulled out 24 plat from my rainy-day fund, and bought it. It’s sitting in my vault right now, only slightly covered in drool, waiting the day when I turn 70 and can scribe it. Don't hate me too much, OK? Keep a rainy-day fund. But when it rains, spend it. Lord knows how long it’s going to take me to build mine back up, scout runes and jewelry aren’t selling for beans, every character on the server’s a 70th level something-or-other all Mastered up. Still, I’m ready to run 70. Anybody seen a Grievance Master? Whysp
Grievances Master? Yes, I've got it. I don't use it alot, but its ocassionally quiet useful. Now the one you bought however, that would be nice.... of course I've never saved over 10p yet in this game. Thus, I'll not be buying any masters at that price. Message Edited by SorrySonOfA on 11-02-2006 01:02 PM
Yeah um... I never keep my cash in the bank, because I don't play PVP, and I'm typically at 88/1900 weight. I always have all of my cash on me, and I missed a master for Scream of Death going for 10PP once by trying to get my stars aligned before buying it.
Congrats on your new Master. It's sad you had to part with so much of your hard earned money to get it, but thats the way of things i guess.
well not that it is worth it and a reasonable price but it is indeed seldom and wanted by many for example MEEE:smileyvery-happy: Message Edited by Shadowinajar on 11-02-2006 06:49 PM
On Runnyeye there is a Grievence M1 going for 30pp, and I'm very tempted. As for Banshee M1 looking at you with green eyes
My Lucky purchases was a CoB for 4 Plat. And a scream of Death for 5 Plat. (CoB was like...."Lets see what's on the broker today, do de do de do," <clicks on Master spells saved searches> "my that's a long name, Cacoph... MINE!!!!!" <Click> <Click> <Click> <Click> <Click> <Click> <Click> <Click> <Click> <Click> <Click> <Click> <Click> <Click> <Click> <Click> <Click> <Click>) FYI, CoB caps at 160 max damage with 501 STR, for now at least. And if you ask me if I feel guilty about buying a song that could have easily be sold for 10 times that much? I'll answer you "No. No sir, I do not." Anyway, When I group I use peoples power levels as a measuring stick. If the Healer is almost near max power at the end of the fight, I drop Wailing Elusion. (The fact that the tank get's hit more just serves my Master "Purcusion of Stone" so much the better). If The healers is still going strong I may drop the PoS as well. I then work on seeing if I can increase the DPS of the group. I know that some people are defense crazy but I don't like giving healers a free ride with them being at 90% power and everyone else siting at 40%. With the added DPS the group kills the mobs faster meaning the DPS people don't use as much power and oddly enough this may in turn save the healers some power too. Named mobs or adds are completely different, if we come across a named defense is always a good idea, and if we get adds, after I do my debuffs I change my buffs on the fly. Usually I don't keep the same buffs up during the course of a instanced. You will almost always hear me playing my musical instruments as a change my load out. Silentchord, lvl 70 Dirge Journeymen of the Overlord Antonia Bayle Message Edited by Hazeroth on 11-05-2006 11:39 AM
Entry the Third: Level 66 At Last! OK, OK, I get that nobody cares to hear about it every time I level up. Level 66, though, is sort of a milestone for a couple of reasons. First, it's getting into the range where one can join for the repeated instances that make up the bread-and-butter of the pegged-at-70 crowd, which means the opportunities for grouping get substantially richer which they'd better if I'm going to see 70 this decade, and the whole board's waiting for that so I'll stop whining. Second, I got to equip a bunch of fab new equipment. Why else would one play an MMO? It can't be for the intellectual stimulation or the romantic prospects; these games are complex but not a lot more complex than, say fantasy baseball. And RP-gaming has been death on sex-appeal since the first D&D books came out in the seventies. I've still got them in a box in my basement if you were wondering how authoritative I am about that. So, it's all about the shopping. My first priority is always good weapons, and anyone who wants to get Freudian about that, well, have fun, the rest of us will play in a plausible world that's only got elves, dwarves, dragons and magic. So in place of my old weapons I'm equipping Turadramin's Fang and the Blackscale Shortsword. Both are widely-available legendary weapons. I always use one slasher and one piercer for skill maintenance. The Fang's cool because it's got a 1 sec delay, which means it just goes like anything when you use CoB. The short sword's the first weapon I've had since the Pretty Good Tomahawk to proc a ward. I loved my PGT like I love my best mandolin, so it's nice to see something similar. Everything else is a bit tricky, and I'm not certain the new stuff is better than the old. I replaced my xegonite shoulders (regular xegonite, I know melodic's a better fit statwise but the repulsive purple clashes with my hair and the whole suit got consigned to raid-backup after one wearing) with the Darkscale Pauldrons. I gave up a bit on magic-type resistances to pick up melee resistances, better stats, and a touch more mitigation. I wouldn't have believed it possible, but the pauldrons actually look worse than the spiky xegonite shoulders. The xegonite was just a bit silly-looking, the pauldrons have what looks like dead butterflies as shoulderpieces. They flap when you run. If you see me out wearing 'em, just look away, don't make sympathetic comments, it's kinder that way. I also replaced my acrylia with two Dark Chitin Rings. This is the iffiest move, I think. The Legendary Dark Chitin have inferior stats, no procs, but solid melee resistances. I just haven't a clue whether the defense is worth the loss of potential firepower. Between the pauldrons and the rings, though, I picked up slightly more than 500 points of mitigation; waay better than a poke in the eye with an avian claw, which I've had my fill of recently. In the past I haven't kept separate equipment for solo (which because of my playing pattern I do a lot) and grouping, but at this point I'm going to. Acrylia rings are much better than the Dark Chitin for grouping, since I hardly ever pull aggro and offense is my job. I'm also swapping out five, count 'em, five earrings. I've got a Fishbone earring that I carry around to keep waterbreathing up in case I fall in, get disoriented, and drown. This probably hasn't happened to me in forty levels but I still wake up whinpering some nights remembering it. Then I've got three moonstone resist rings, one of each resist type, that I use for soloing depending on the dominant damage type of the critters. Finally I've got a Planar Orb of the Wanderer, which has a nice melee proc, for grouping. What with all this, plus two pairs of boots (J-boots plus xegonite, I'd wear Spyrachis boots but they're an abhorrent pink), and crafting junk and quest books and all, my bags are a mess. Does anyone know if you have to carry around all those quest books and half a lightstone and all? Can I keep 'em in my vault, will they update there should I get off my oversleeping rear end and actually work on some of those old green quests? I’m going to reorganize my baggage Real Soon Now. Best, Whysp Message Edited by Whysprr on 11-06-2006 08:10 AM
I have a couple 32 slot boxes dedicated to old 10x10x10 books that I refuse to destroy, but will be getting to in the same vein of Real Soon Now. I pull them out when (*when*) I'm going out to burn down a couple more quests, then they go right back in the bank if I don't finish em. My bags are cluttered enough with things I need to have me on a moment's notice (like my rod of rathe shattering...)
/em pokes Whysprr and Sorschae. You both are my heroes. /em goes back to shrouding herself whilst she stalks the forums.
Entry the Fourth – The Square-Law and Progression in EQ2 I’m at a very good spot in the power-curve right now. I’m all Ad3 and Mastered-up, got a couple bits of low-end Fabled gear, everything else is Legendary or Mastercrafted. I just eat white and even low-yellow ^ critters alive, I hardly even have to use a napkin. I can end in the green on my health bar when everything’s going well. So how come two of ‘em are death? I’ve been a gamer as well as a history-reader forever, and once upon a time I got interested in naval warfare in the Dreadnought era, no, it’s not PvP. And I read a theoretical account of naval warfare circa 1914 many years ago that explained this more clearly than anything else I’ve run into. Suppose two battleships, equal in strength and training, meet on a calm sunny day and whale away at each other. All things being equal (which in the real world they never, ever are, ask any crew member of the Hood, whoops, you can’t), both get battered into wrecks and sink at the same time. The two ships are equal in strength. All clear so far, right? Now, suppose that two battleships jump one lone vessel under the same circumstances. The two ships together will sink the singleton twice as fast, as they will alone, so it only gets a chance to put half as much damage into its target. The two ships have sunk their opponent, taking only one-quarter their total health (to put it in EQ2 terms) in damage. Two ships (characters, MOBs) are four times as powerful as one. In fact, similar thought-experiments show that the power of a group increases with the square of the number of members. Mechanically, the reason this happens is that the group has both double the firepower and double the ability to take damage that a single has, and each additional member adds both firepower and damage-absorbing ability. This explains why two ^s vaporize me every time. Even though I’m comfortably more powerful than one alone, two of them are four times as powerful as one. And, when you take scale-independent powers like stuns and interrupts into account, the curve might even be steeper than the ‘rule of squares’ would indicate. Two of them stun and interrupt me twice as much as one, but I can only stun one at a time, daze one at a time, etc. Against that, my firepower modestly scales up with increasing opponent group size due to the AOEs, but I suspect that’s minor overall – and doesn’t even apply to out-of-group adds. The square-law also explains the reason heroic and epic mobs are so blitheringly powerful – they have to be. Ignoring the tactical synergy of healers and tanks and dps, a full group is thirty-six times as powerful as a single character. A full raid is 576 times as powerful as a single character, sixteen times as powerful as a full group. It’s no wonder then, that when the group ceases to work as a group (as when the tank loses aggro) the mob makes short work of the insect-like individuals pitifully running for cover. And to my eye, it also makes the task of SOE in balancing epic mobs particularly daunting, though lots of play-testing probably helps :smileywink:. Practically, I’m not sure what all this does for anyone, except to explain why it’s such a good idea to pull with one’s back to a cliff. Whysprr
I recently purchased an ebony buckler (cant stand the look of round shields) and a 1h sword for soloing and now actually can survive and beat up to 3 things beating on me and often end up with above 70% health. Worth a try for sure.
Whysprr Hrmm your post are absolutely hilarious. You should write a book if you havent already and if you have let me know what it is so I can buy it and read it! Thanks for all the great info that you and other have freely posted about strats and abilitys of Dirges. I hope to start posting regularly as I learn more about Dirges so that I can provide help to others just starting out. Good hunting! I'll start gathering info and sharing some of my adventures ..
