Hi everyone! Here’s latest DDOcast Sorry its late - work and family stuff needed to be settled. Anyways, DDOcast Episode 254 is ready! Here’s a LINK to the episode - just left-click to play, right-click and ’save as’ to download as an mp3. You can find DDOcast on iTunes, the Zune Marketplace and Cyberears.com. As our appreciation for being so patient we’re giving away Wolf Pup Codes! Right now! The first one to enter this code gets it!

D279NN3JHK94JKMMKQ7JPZZH

This code expires May 30, 2012. You’ll need to go to http://myaccount.turbine.com/ to enter the code and visit Caypnne Drop-Axe to get your in-game prize!

We’re also going to give away another Menace of the Underdark Pre-Order Code so listen to DDOcast ep 255 on SAT, JUNE 2, 2012 @ 3PM EAST (NOON PACIFIC)

We talk about the latest news in DDO! In light of the game mechanic changes coming to DDO, we have some tips and tricks on preparing. We also have a new segment called Dragon Frags and how to make a healing barbarian!

(NOTE: I usually post this over at the forums, but for some reason I keep running into “method not found” errors. Don’t worry, I’ll post a bug report.)

DDOcast is a weekly DDO podcast created by fans for fans! We discuss nearly everything related to Dungeons and Dragons Online.

Episode 249 is ready! Here’s a LINK to the episode - just left-click to play, right-click and ’save as’ to download as an mp3. You can find DDOcast on iTunes, the Zune Marketplace and Cyberears.com.

This week Sig & Anne talk about the latest DDO news, answer some listener mail, and discuss tips to prepare for the comming changes to DDO. We also have another great segment from Shamgar in his latest Epic Education!

This episode’s music is…THE DEMI-HUMAN DRINKING SONG! By Dan Marcotte from his 2009 album MANTICORES AND OWLBEARS. You can purchase this album and more of Dan’s work on iTunes, Amazon, and CD Baby.

WIN A FREE COPY OF COLLECTOR’S EDITION OF MENACE OF THE UNDERDARK!

Just listen to this episode of DDOcast! But do it soon, your chance to win will end APRIL 6, 2012 @ 11:59PM PDT!

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DDOcast Episode 249 (03-17-12)

0:01:03 Intro
0:01:47 DDO News
0:10:30 Sponsor Break
0:12:28 Round Table: Prepare for Change!
0:23:30 Shamgar’s Epic Ed: TOD part 2
0:34:44 DDOcast news
0:37:53 Whatcha been doing in DDO?
0:43:38 DDO Community News
0:48:35 Lightning Post
0:54:44 General Gaming News
1:02:24 Closing

END

TOTAL TIME: 1:03:40

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LINK for Update 13 Patch 1 now on Lamannia

LINK for PayPal now Accepted for VIP Subscriptions for all Turbine Games

LINK for DDO Coming to you soon on a Cloud Stream!

LINK for Streaming Games & Demos @ Gaikai

LINK for MajMaphunktion Reports on Broken “Things” on Update 13

LINK for DDO Store Sales

LINK for Eberron Chronicle

LINK for Melange (Turbine Dev) is looking for feed back on the new Korthos Dungeon Master

LINK for Festival of the Traveler Video on YouTube

LINK for Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate II will be REFORGED!

LINK for New D&D Boardgame by WotC: Lords of Waterdeep

LINK for Tékumel creator Professor MAR “Phil” Barker dead at 83

LINK for Diablo III is Now Available for Pre-Order

LINK for EverOuest, after 13 years, goes FINALLY goes free-to-play

Yes, all you gamer geeks out there. March 4th is worldwide GM Day, a day where we recognize the hard work and dedication of our GMs. Our game masters who spend hours planning the dungeons our adventurers crawl through. Those brave souls that let us use those uber-kewl new feats we found in some little-known supplement. Those dedicated individuals who, even though we have destroyed their detailed storylines over and over, continue to try and bring us a story anyway.

In 2008 of the same day, “The Orginal DM” Gary Gygax passed away. In the 1960s, he created an organization of wargaming clubs and founded the Gen Con gaming convention. In 1971, he helped develop Chainmail, a miniatures wargame based onmedieval warfare. He co-founded the company Tactical Studies Rules (TSR, Inc.) with childhood friend Don Kaye in 1973. The following year, he and Dave Arneson created Dungeons & Dragons, which expanded on his work on Chainmail and included elements of the fantasy stories he loved as a child.

GM’s Day is the brainchild of the folks at Enworld.org, once of the most popular gaming forums on the net. What started as a little net appreciation for GMs turned into an annual event. It’s an excuse to buy your GM a bribe so he or she won’t smite your character outright. Pamper your GM with a gift of games, beer, snacks, and/or hug!

Best of DDO Themepack (ZIP)

So I made a DDO Theme Pack for Windows 7. It contains a Dynamic Feed to DDO Wallpapers. Some are official images provided by Turbine, and some are of my personal favorite screen shots

Themes are available in only some editions of Windows 7. So if you have Windows 7 Starter or Home Basic edition (or a different version of Windows), you may not be able to open or use this theme. Try at your own risk!

How to Install a Windows 7 Themepack

This will show you how to install a .themepack file so that it will become your current theme and be available to select in the Personaliztion window under My Themes.

1. Download the .zip file, unpack and save the .themepack file to your desktop.

2. Double click on the .themepack file to install it on your computer.
NOTE: This will install the .themepack to a folder with the themepack name in the hidden
C:\Users\User-Name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Themes folder.

3. A window will appear asking for subscribe to RSS feeds. You just have to click on the “Download Attachments” and wait for themes to be downloaded to your system.

4. You will notice that this .themepack file is now your current theme and has been added to the Personalization window under My Themes.

Enjoy!

PS: When you first load the Themepack, it make take a bit to load the images from the RSS feed for the first time and you may see either a black desktop or a standard Windows 7 desktop wallpaper. If you are not connected to the internet, it won’t work. If your connection speed is low, you may experience a black screen until photos are downloaded on your computer.

A friend sent this to me, I take no credit. Sung to the tune of “Jingle Bells”:

Slashing through the Orcs
With a good two-handed blade
Over corpses we go
And through the gore we wade
Mace on helmet rings
Making bodies fly
What fun to sing our SLAYING song
And watch these suckers die!

Chorus:
Oh, ring their bells with swords and spells
Don’t let ‘em get away!
We’re brave and bold for fame and gold
We’ll make a lot today!
Oh, ring their bells with swords and spells
Don’t let ‘em get away!
We’ll hack and slash and blast and trash
And blow these dudes away!

Crashing through the door
Into the dragon’s nose
Our mage whips out a Cone of Cold
And out its fire goes!
Elven bowstrings sing
Making balrogs fall
And our thief finds a secret door
Into the treasure hall!

Chorus:
Oh, ring their bells with swords and spells
Don’t let ‘em get away!
We’re brave and bold for fame and gold
We’ll make a lot today!
Oh, ring their bells with swords and spells
Don’t let ‘em get away!
We’ll hack and slash and blast and trash
And blow these dudes away!

Then appears the Lich
With his demon guard
Our wizard yawns and wishes
We’d run into something HARD…
He begins to cast
His 19th level spell
That damn Lich throws a Gate at us
And drops us all in Hell!

Chorus:
Oh, ring their bells with swords and spells
Don’t let ‘em get away!
We’re brave and bold for fame and gold
We’ll make a lot today!
Oh, ring their bells with swords and spells
Don’t let ‘em get away!
We’ll hack and slash and blast and trash
And blow these dudes away!

We appear in Hell
In front of Satan’s Throne
Our cleric waves us out the door
And takes him on alone!
Satan’s legions don’t
Want to let us go
Our Techno pulls a bazooka out

And NUKES ‘em ’til they GLOW!

Oh, ring their bells with prayers and spells
Don’t let ‘em get away!
We’re brave and bold and CRAZED, we’re told
To think we’ll live the day!
Oh, ring their bells with swords and shells
Don’t let ‘em get away!
We’ll hack and slash and blast and trash
And blow these dudes away!
Yes, we’ll hack and slash and blast and trash
And drag our loot away!!

Left click to view larger pic in window, or right click and download! Enjoy!

I usually post these in the forums in the Fan Site Section, but all things considering…I shall post it here!

DDOcast is a weekly DDO podcast created by fans for fans! We discuss nearly everything related to Dungeons and Dragons Online – Eberron Unlimited.

Episode 238 is ready! Here’s a LINK to the episode - just left-click to play, right-click and ’save as’ to download as an mp3. You can find DDOcast on iTunes, the Zune Marketplace and Cyberears.com.

This week Sig and Anne are here to deliver you DDO news while the DDO Forums were down. (DDO Forums are now back up as of 3:30pm PST!) We also talk about the new House Cannith Alchemical Crafting system and Shamgar has another Epic Education on the Demon Queen. We also go over our latest emails and messages from the Lightning Post!

This episode’s music is THE DRUNKEN GNOME ILLUSIONIST and SCREW YOU DM by DAN THE BARD. Dan the Bard writes, performs and records songs about Dungeons and Dragons! Dan is an accomplished musician and storyteller. You can learn more about Dan the Bard and purchase many of his fine albums and songs on his website: http://bard.phoenixlore.com/

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DDOcast Episode 238 (10-15-11)

0:01:02 Intro
0:02:09 DDO News: Oh-nos! Forums Down! U11.1 Now Live!
0:10:37 DDOcast Show News: No Live show on Oct 29th
0:10:51 Sponsor Break
0:12:15 Round Table: House Cannith Alchemical Crafting
0:21:40 Epic Education with Shamgar
0:27:10 What’s Up in DDO?
0:31:36 DDO Community News
0:36:09 Tribute to DDO Cocktail Hour
0:38:54 Lightning Post
0:49:15 General Gaming News
0:50:23 Closing

END

TOTAL TIME: 00:52:22

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LINK for DDO’s Forum Maintenance Status Page

LINK for LOTRO Version of Why both DDO & LOTRO forums are down (EN, DE, FR)

LINK for Ten Ton Hammer: “Updated: Rumor: The Lord of the Rings Online Database Server Compromised”

LINK for Tweakers.net: “Database server LotrO was open to anonymous users”

LINK for Update 11 Patch 1 now live on DDO

LINK for New Known Issues for U11.1

LINK for DDOQA asks you post your bugs on the DDOQABlog at MyDDO!

LINK for DDO Store Sales Now Thru Oct 20th!

LINK for DDOwiki’s House Cannith Alchemical Weapon & Shield crafting

LINK for Theris’ Artificer Feats

LINK for Spencerian’s “A Test of Faith”

LINK for Play the “Caption It” Game on DDO Facebook

LINK for Play Trivia Games on DDO’s Twitter

LINK for Crafting with Courtney: Necklace of Resistance (Poison) +5

LINK for Jeffprime from Ten Ton Hammer offers 5 Reasons Why DDO Offers the Only True Rogue

LINK for Ten Ton Hammer: Rumor LOTRO Database Server Compromied

LINK for Samius Answers your DDO Cocktail Hour Questions

LINK for Kal’s Den 13: Good-Bye DDO

LINK for Download the MP3 of “I’ve Been Everywhere (in DDO)” by Clanky and Morah

LINK for Neverwinter MMO gets a release date: Feb 12, 2012

LINK for Neverwinter Saga, Book II by R.A. Salvatore takes the 4th spot in Publisher Weekly’s

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You can find DDOcast on Twitter, Facebook, iTunes, DDOcast RSS Feed, and UStream.

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Hotline for Voicemail and Live Calls: (650) 336-5424 Yes that’s (650) DDO-LICH
Email: ddocast@gmail.com
Website: http://www.ddocast.com
DDO Forum Names: Theris and Sigtrent

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Sig and Anne

It’s been a while since I touched MyDDO blog, but I finally found something to talk about. FEATS! Specifically for the artificer! Artificers are blessed with a high frequency of feats.

Basics about Feats

Before I go into detail about feats for the arty, I should explain feats. Feats are special abilities that give your character an edge in the game. Your character gets one feat upon creation, then one at every 3 levels; this means you get a Character Feat at 1st, 3rd, 6th, 9th, 12th, 15th, and 18th levels.

Some classes automatically gain free and specific class feats based on their class level, these are called Auto-Granted Class Feats. There are also classes that let you select a bonus feat, and these are called Class Bonus Feats.

Certain races and classes get additional feats:

• Humans get one additional generic feat slot at 1st level.
• Half-Elves get an additional race-specific Dilettante feat at 1st level. These feats are similar to taking one multiclass level.
• Fighters get a bonus feat at 1st and 2nd level and every even-numbered fighter level thereafter, taken from a list of combat-oriented feats.
• Monks get an extra feat at Monk level 1, 2, and 6, taken from a list of martial arts feats.
• Rogues can select an extra feat at Rogue level 10, 13, 16, and 19 from the list of Rogue Special Ability.
• Wizards get to choose a bonus feat at levels 1, 5, 10, 15 and 20, taken from a list of spellcasting-oriented feats.
• Artificers get to choose a bonus feat at levels 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20, taken from a list of Artificer bonus feats.

Artificers and Feats of Awesome!

Here’s the breakdown by Artificer level. I’ve also included when you get character feats:

• 1st - Artificer Construct Mastery, Inscribe Infusion, Rapid Reload, Unleash Iron Defender, Reanimate Construct, Trapfinding, Character Feat
• 2nd - Rune Arm Use
• 3rd - Character Feat
• 4th - Trapmaking, Class Bonus Feat
• 5th - Retain Essence
• 6th - Character Feat
• 8th - Class Bonus Feat
• 9th - Character Feat
• 12th - Artificer Skill Mastery, Character Feat
• 15th - Character Feat
• 16th - Class Bonus Feat
• 18th - Character Feat
• 20th - Class Bonus Feat

For the Artificer Class Bonus Feats here’s what you can take, provided you can meet the pre-reqs:

• Augment Summoning
• Construct Essence (Pre-req: NOT a Warforged)
• Adamantine Body (Pre-req: Warforged)
• Improved Fortification (Pre-req: Warforged)
• Mithral Body (Pre-req: Warforged)
• Mithral Fluidity (Pre-req: Warforged)
• Improved Critical: Ranged
• Power Critical: Ranged
• Weapon Focus: Ranged
• Point Blank Shot
• Rapid Shot
• Improved Precise Shot
• Precise Shot
• Shot on the Run
• Any Dragonmark of Making (Pre-req: Human)
• Any Skill Focus
• Any Metamagic Feat

Synergistic Feats you can take with as a Character Feat:

• Toughness - arties get d6 hit dice for hit points which mean you’ll have Hit Points much like rogue. Taking toughness a few times well help your durability
• Insightful Reflexes - this is especially handy if you plan on multi-classing into rogue in order to gain Evation AND you have a higher INT bonus than your DEX bonus
• Mental Toughness & Improved Mental Toughness - if you are taking your arty down the spell caster route, you’ll find yourself spending lots of mana on buffs. And spend more mana on repair for your Iron Defender, and even more, if you are Warforged. You can always trade this out later during higher levels.
• Quicken Spell - if you move around and find yourself under fire, you’ll want this feat so you can cast spells without being interrupted.
• Maximize & Empower Spell - these two feats will increase the damage output of your offensive spells. Great with spells like Blade Barrier, Blast Rod, Lightning Motes, and Tactical Detonation
• Spell Focus Evocation - This feat makes it harder for enemies to resist the casters spells. It adds +1 to the difficulty class of the spell. Since most of what the Arty cast’s is evocation, that’s the school you select.

Some Oddities and Caveats I’ve found with feats and the Arty:

• Extend Spell feat & Item Spell Buffs - As far as I can tell, the item spell buffs (cold iron, elemental weapon, etc) aren’t extendable.
• Augment Summoning & Flame Turret - Though it’s a summon, it’s not a summon that can be augmented. Works fine on your dog, hirelings, and other non construct summons.

Overall, selecting feats for the Arty is quite fun. Such a broad selection can lead to different paths that can suit any play style and all within a single class build.

So I was flipping through my collection of old D&D books and thought, “Wow these monsters are pretty old, would anyone recognize them today? ” If you guess all five right I might send an awesome secret prize your way! If you want to view a bigger image, just click on it.

Monster #1

Monster #2

Monster #3

Monster #4

Monster #5