[ddo] lo

[Joe Vaughan]

I'm mad up for it tonight... been feeling kinda "cold turkey" this week 
and GuildWars just isn't scratching my itch...

Like Leigh, I enjoyed last week immensely but still would like to try to 
remove more "WoW" from our play style. We've done the 80% that only 
takes 20% of the effort... now it's time to work on the other 20%.

We were mostly effective last week... the skelly army was fun :) but 
when we were down to our own devices it was still a bit messy.

a) Noone should enter a room/area till the rogue clears it
b) We shouldn't wander anywhere alone. not even "x is resting, lets look 
at the next bit". Rest shrines take 30 seconds tops... are we that 
impatient we can't wait that long to keep the team together. please gods 
say we're not :)
c) Don't run off when the healers/casters are buffing/healing.
d) if/when we do have to release, and we're trying to get back to assist 
the party asap, then don't be "selling" to vendor and collectors.
e) We still have a tendency to "mill in" before reading quest texts... 
and an impatience to do so. I want to savour the content of this game, 
not just rush through it as I did with WoW. I think most of us do. We 
have to take the time (and if you've already read the quest or just 
"Next, Next, Next"ed allow the others the time) to *read* texts. We 
would have possibly avoided loads of hassle with that wraith last week 
if we had.

The main thing I wonder about is why do we fear "The Plan" so much? If 
we were a real pen n paper DnD group, every engagement (that we could 
forsee) would have at least some basic planning going into it, and the 
more dangerous ones could have hours... yet, in DDO we're rushing into 
fights without any thought about strategy. This is the main reason we 
keep getting smacked. When something unexpected happens.. even in just 
the simple form of a big crit on a key character, we're off like 
headless chickens. I'm not saying we need to have a 2 hour debate before 
every single fight... 90% of them we can do with our eyes closed, but 
couldn't we have:

1. The "90% of fights will go like this so let's conserve spell points 
etc" plan
2. Plans for big fights... e.g. large numbers of humanoids... undead 
(immune to charm/sleep/diplomacy/intimidate - what to do?)... animals etc.
3. Specific plans for bosses etc... i.e. we don't just rush in but 
instead work out a buff and spell strategy, where to place ranged 
firers.. .where the Diarm tanks them etc... this will take us, 
realistically, 2 mins  before a big fight, but I'm sure will result in 
less deaths.

Finally... can I suggest, to counter a lot of the problems above, what 
we really need is a properly designated group leader. The idea is that 
we don't do anything till the GL tells us to, e.g. "Attack", "Let's rest 
then stick together", "Leigh, go scout, the rest of you don't move a 
friggin muscle" etc. I'm not saying we have to be shouted at all the 
time before we can do anything, but just generally to control us a 
bit... we're an unruly bunch at the best of times and a calming, guiding 
influence would probably be a good idea. My suggestion would be Mike, 
because he is good strategically, generally at range in combat (and 
therefore able to oversee better) and also because those dulcet tones 
are calming... kinda hypnotic... Mike nice... must make Mike happy.... 
Of course, any of us could be. (given that we're also generally "out of 
melee) Conor and I would be the other choices, but no offence to Conor, 
I think we're both a bit too authoritarian... and who the hell wants to 
play with a dictator? :)

Thoughts?

Joe.

Mike Kelly wrote:
> I'm ready and eager for tonight... 7.00pm start? Mayhem and 
> destruction all round?
>
> On 29/05/06, *Conor Clifford* < Conor.Clifford at fineos.com 
> <mailto:Conor.Clifford at fineos.com>> wrote:
>
>     I'm probably buggered tonight between tag rugby and working late.
>     No soccer tomorrow though, so should be able to start at decent time.
>
>         -----Original Message-----
>         *From:* ddo-bounces at dspsrv.com <mailto:ddo-bounces at dspsrv.com>
>         [mailto:ddo-bounces at dspsrv.com
>         <mailto:ddo-bounces at dspsrv.com>]*On Behalf Of *Leigh Murphy
>         *Sent:* 29 May 2006 09:34
>         *To:* DDO
>         *Subject:* [ddo] lo
>
>         Hi Guys,
>         Are we set fot his week? Or is anyone interested in tonight
>         instead of tomorrow so we could start a little earlier??
>         I think we rushed a bit last week, the 4 deaths by wraith
>         being case and point.
>         Things got a tad to WoWish but I have to say the army of
>         undead was brilliant :-)
>         There seemed to be too much time wasted between deaths as we
>         ran back as well. I think as soon as you're healed and
>         repaired if necessary hurry back.
>         There should really be no trading or turning in of collecables
>         when our time is so limited anyway.
>         We had talked of discussing tactics last week before we
>         started but that never came to pass. I think if somone calls
>         timeout or whatever we should group up and chilll for a sec.
>         If I can't scout (undead/spiders etc..) Diarmuid should lead
>         the way. If Mike protects Joe, I can try and protect Conor.
>         It went much better potion wise last week though, probably
>         largely due to the army we had with us and that Conor could
>         focus on us instead of defending himself.
>         On a brighter lighter note:
>         I was standing around the market place yesterday when a lvl 8
>         bard came over and gave me a +1 Frost Rapier -woohoo!!
>         So I'm all ready to backstab :-)
>          
>         Leigh.
>