Yak Cast 3 “Yak on Yak Off”

Heard the TTA — haven’t listen to the rest of the show yet, but I had to respond to it.

Back in the day, there wasn’t really a way to get more than 10 slots. Actually, the limit used to be lower! It started at only 5 characters per server and *slowly and painfully* crept up to 10. You couldn’t buy extra slots in any way other than opening another account or playing on a different server, so a lot of people grabbed a second one so their extras could still run with their main guilds. DDO is a game with so many options that people love having lots of characters.

There are a lot of people now who let their secondary account sit on FtP, so Turbine isn’t making any money off them anyway. Fraud and whatnot aside, I could see Turbine making money off this (people either pay to unlock characters on their FtP secondary or pay to move them all to their primary — the second would probably make players happier). I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad idea or unreasonable request. People like Impaqt and other long time players couldn’t really plan for the current payment model. It’s only been around for a couple of months and kind of came out of left field, while DDO itself has been around since March 2006.

Also: Rog2/WizX = win. Light armor for rogues isn’t actually used much past low-mid levels unless the rogue is a strength build. A decent Dex-rogue will wind up wearing robes/outfits + armored bracers anyway as their Dexterity score climbs into the 30′s and even padded armor becomes too restrictive.

When I started, I thought 5 slots was good too…until I ran out and started having tons of ideas for characters! Not being able to run with your friends on your home server is a dealbreaker for some. Even as a relatively casual player these days, I have 16 characters on Khyber ranging from 17-19 for my high level guys down to 4-6. I still have even more character ideas that I want to try though, and I want to be able to try them with my friends, which is why I LOVE that I can buy character slots now.

First, let me say that almost any build that tries to split Wiz/Sor/Clr/FvS/Brd in a 50/50 fashion is probably crap. That’s not to say that maybe there aren’t good ones out there, but odds are if you see one it’s made by people who don’t understand the game very well. Even a battlewizard is likely to be mostly wizard, yet only splash fighter or some other class.

The Rog2/WizX build is good for several reasons (Rog2/SorX doesn’t work nearly as well — go Wiz). For one, you can take Insightful Reflexes to apply that massive Int mod you’re going to have to your Reflex save, which makes Evasion all the more awesome.

Secondly, remember how I’ve mentioned that rogue splashes can disarm traps fine if they have enough skill points to keep their skills up? Well, wizards with their high Int have tons of skill points sitting around and really very little to actually spend them on, so aside from Concentration, it’s easy to keep Search, Disable, and UMD all maxed out (that’s 7 skill points per level, which you will start getting after your native Int is 20 or higher, which could happen as early as level 4). Later, you’ll have even more skill points just sitting around. The addition of UMD opens up a world of options to you. This build can swing cure wands at high levels for self healing if they aren’t a warforged, and they can bypass item race restrictions and all that.

Next, that high Int directly increases Search and Disable Device. This offers a bigger boost than you’d get from being a pure rogue and taking rogue enhancements that do nothing but decrease your combat power via opportunity cost. A high level wizard’s Intelligence modifier is often +11 to +14 (32-38 Int). The high Int on the Rog2/WizX is pretty much a win/win for everything — more trap skills, more Reflex save (remember Insightful Reflexes), better casting ability (this being most important) — you aren’t missing out on anything by increasing Intelligence on this build like you would with a pure rogue (where more Int = less points for your DPS, and buying the rogue trap enhancements = less AP for other things). A pure rogue just doesn’t receive that much benefit from jacking up just one stat. This build has almost everything riding on Intelligence — a stat that it has plenty of.

And finally, there’s the evasion, which is a godsend for wizards who have relatively low hit points compared to other classes.

I’d also like to add that I recommend checking the wizard forums and asking about this there. I’ve wanted to play this type of character but haven’t yet, so others may have insight to offer.

Xiloscient on the DDOcast forums also plays this build.

Oh, also…about Open Lock. You don’t have to keep this skill maxed out for it to be useful, so if you can spare a few skill points for it here and there you should be able to keep it at a usable level (some have even claimed that putting 4 ranks in it at Rog1 is enough, period). You can always try again over and over on a lock, anyway.