DDOCast 360 – Weapon Damage Calculations
Patrick briefly covers the week’s news before launching into a beginners lesson on how to calculate weapon damage!
WARNING: this episode is very crunchy and also includes visual charts. If you have more interest in calculating weapon damage, you can check out some old blog posts that go into much greater detail: Shamgar’s Weapon Calculation Blogs – http://shamgar.ddocast.com/category/building-blocks/calculating-weapon-damage/page/16/
Check out www.ddocast.com for mp3 audio, our show calendar, swag, archives, and more!
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News – 2:01
Calculating Weapon Damage – 12:47
Lightning Post – 57:37
Closing – 58:07
Support Team Turbine Movember
DDO Chronicle 119
DDOGamer Crunches Cards
Bewtopia Shroudpalooza
12 Days of Christmas
Crunchy Bits: Midwinter Games Loot
Cormyrian Midwinter Festival
Midwinter Ice Races is a new kind of seasonal event held in the iced-over Starwater River of Eveningstar, coincidentally conducted around the same time of year as the Risia Ice Games. Adventurers can run through the course of ice & illusions to compete for prizes.
- Score by getting Snow Flakes – There are four types of snowflakes, each worth different amounts of points.
- Bronze – 1 point
- Silver – 13 points
- Gold – 27 points
- Purple – 42 points
- Finishing the Course in the 3 minutes time limit – 100 points (The double points works on this also, so +200 if you complete while you have it)
- Buffs – These will be randomly located about the course like the snowflakes, touch them to activate.
- Super Speed Boost (Green orb) – Effect: +30% Melee speed, +50% enhancement bonus to Run speed, Duration: 6 seconds.
- Super Jump (Blue orb) – Effect: +30 jump skill, moon jump and Featherfall, Duration: 4 seconds, similar to the buff as found in Challenges, though shorter duration. Jumping super high is neccesary to collect a couple of the static purple snowflakes now, so get these and time your jumps well.
- Double Points (Appears as a large bright white spark randomly) – Duration: 15 seconds
- Midwinter Vole (CR 23, Animal type, Rat race) – Hit any of these once to get both Double Points and Super Speed instantly. They can be killed, but you are not intended to do so, as they have several thousand hitpoints and give no reward for being killed. A single melee hit, even a grazing hit will be enough to trigger the buff.
- Game Score and Reward Tier
- When Brace’s buff wears off or you’ve completed the race, you’ll receive rewards like midwinter motes & recipes based on how well you scored.
- Motes received are always 1/3 Score point rounded down. Lower scores are supposed to grant lower-tier Recipes, however it seems quite random.
Midwinter Race Game Rewards
You can exchange motes for wonderful wintery prizes! Here are the items you can get and their mote cost:
- Polar Bear Cub – 10,000 Motes
- 50 Midwinter Snowballs – 500 motes
- Lolth Spider Queen Cookie – 280 Motes
- Fire Shield Pot – 120 motes
- Potion of Resist Fire/Cold – 60 Motes
- Greater Protection Fire/Cold – 90 Motes
- Add Resistance to Fire/Cold Upgrades to Armor, Shield or Robe only
- This is an Inherent Elemental Resistance (Insight bonus) added to your randomly-generated items. Cost for Upgrades are as follows
- 1 point resist – Recipe, 45 Motes
- 3 points of resist – Recipe, 90 Motes (135 cumulatively)
- 5 points of resist – Recipe, 180 Motes (315 cumulatively)
- 7 points of resist – Recipe, 360 Motes (675 cumulatively)
- 10 points of resist – Recipe, 720 Motes (1,395 cumulatively)
- This is an Inherent Elemental Resistance (Insight bonus) added to your randomly-generated items. Cost for Upgrades are as follows
- Add Festival Glaciation Upgrade to Armor, Sheild, or Robes only
- This adds an equipment bonus to cold Spell Power added to your randomly-generated items. IMPORTANT: Festival Glaciation will increase the minimum level of your item to the value listed in parentheses. Upgrade cost is as follows, just click on the image to zoom in for details:
Crunchy Bits: DDO Doublestrike Mechanics
Doublestrike / Doublestike
Doublestrike gives you a percentage change to take an additional attack with your main hand melee weapon. If you have a 6% double strike then you will get a bonus attack roughly 6 out of 100 attacks. It does not impact ranged attacks, spells, off hand attacks, or attacks using special animations (like cleave, trip etc…) It will affect special attacks using standard animations such as smites or ki strikes.
The number of sources of doublestrike is small compared to many other bonuses you can get, but there are still quite a number of them in the game. Stacking rules for doublestrike have never been entirely verified by devs. It seems that differently typed double strike bonuses will stack and same type bonuses will not. Untyped bonuses only stack if they are from a different source, aka a weapon will stack with a feat will stack with an enhancement, but two feat bonuses without types will not stack. If they do not stack then you should get the largest bonus.
You can see your current double strike bonus by hovering over the BAB icon (its red) in the character sheet Stats page.
Types of Doublestrike in DDO
So lets go over the different sources of double strike and group them by what should not stack and order them from largest to smallest
Mystery Shield Bonus – An untyped 4% for using a shield
Competence Bonuses – Fighter Weapon Alacrity capstone (fighter 20) 10%
Sacred Bonuses – Paladin Zeal spell (level 14 pally) 10% (no scrolls, self only, temporary)
Insight Bonus – Monk Windstance 2.5%/5%/7.5%/10% levels 1/6/12/18 respectively
Morale Bonus
- Shield Mastery / Improved Shield mastery 3%/8% when using a shield
- Timeblade (longsword) 3% / Epic Timeblade 6%
- Hellstroke Great Axe 3% / Epic 6%
- Cutthroat’s Smallblade (shortsword) 3% / 6% with tier 3 upgrades
- Swashbuckler (shield) 3% / 6% with tier 3
- Alchemical Weapon (any) Teir 2 Martial Air 6%
- Antipode, Fist of the Horizon (handwraps) 6%
- Bard Warchanter 2 Inspire Recklessness song 5% (level 12)
- Way of the Sun soul set bonus effect +6% (temporary)
- Epic Spare hand (belt) 3%
Untyped type Class Feats/Enhancements
- Natural Fighting 6% (druid level 9) can be taken up to 3 times for 18% total
- Ranger Tempest 3 (level 18) 5% when wielding two weapons
- Rogue Opportunist feat 3% (level 10)
Alchemical Bonus
- Fabricator’s Bracers with Combat Infusion 5% (temporary)
Untyped epic Destinies (seem to stack with non epic sources)
- Sentinel : Legendary Shield Mastery 6% when using a shield
- Legendary Dreadnaught: Lightning Mace 15% bonus after Vorpal strike for 6 seconds
- Grandmaster of Flowers: Hail of Blows 3%
- Grandmaster of Flowers: running with the Wind 3% (in wind stance)
Profane Bonus
- Shadowdancer: ShadowTraining 4 3% (certain light weapons only, temporary)
So who can have the most double strike?
Druids are king of full time double strike, but shield base builds, monks and two-weapon fighters are in the top ranking for doublestrke efficiency.
Shield based
- +18 if you take three levels of natural fighting: 18%
- If you use a shield you can get +8 from shield mastery (another two feats) and the +4 base shield bonus giving you 30%
- Legendary shield mastery stacks for another 6% taking you to 36%
- +3 Twist Hail of Blows for
- 39%
Monk Multiclass
- +18 for natural fighting
- +5 for second tier wind stance
- +3 from Hail of blows, and +3 from Running with the Wind
- +6 from an item for
- 35%
Each could squeeze in temporary bonuses from Shadowndancer and Combat infusion for a short term max of 47% though it would be quite unreliable to get it and only last seconds.
After the druids you would have shield using fighters and paladins, then non druid wind monks.
Anything you can do that bumps attack speed will also enhance double strike. Monk unarmed and Druid wolf forms both have faster than usual attack animations, Rogues and Fighters can get combat speed boost enhancements (also available in the dreadnaught line).
Ultimate double strike build? Probably a half orc Druid with a splash of rogue and or fighter wielding a shield in wolf form.
Thanks to the DDOWiki and SteeleTrueHeart for their hard work in collecting and testing information about Doublestrike!
Festivult Cookies & Cakes for Dec 2012

Cookies and Cakes are back for 2012 Festivult! Here are the list of cookies and cakes for this year’s Festivult in December 2012. I’ve included the whole list, including the three new cookies and the four updated ones. My favorite is still the Taken Cookie, followed by the Kobold Cookie. What are your favorites? Enjoy!
Icon | Name | Spell |
---|---|---|
New Cookies | ||
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Spinner of Shadows Cookie | Enveloping Swarm |
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Lolth, The Spider Queen Cookie | Lolth’s Blessing: +2 Profane attack and damage, +3 Profane PRR, +5 Profane Unviersal Spell Power. You can buy this cookie with winter motes at the alter. |
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Spiderweb Cookie | Spiderskin |
Updated Cookies & Cakes | ||
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Lamannia, the Twilight Forest Jelly Cake | Vigor |
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Shavarath, The Battleground Jelly Cake | Enchant Armor |
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Queen Lailat, the Marilith Cookie | Blade Barrier |
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Suulomades Cookie | Shocking Weapons |
Festivult Cookies | ||
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Arraetrikos Cookie | Meteor Swarm |
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Beholder Cookie | Disintegrate |
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Black Abbot Cookie | Stoneskin |
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Black Abishai Cookie | Remove Fear |
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Blue Abishai Cookie | Blur |
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Green Abishai Cookie | Neutralize Poison |
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Hezrou Cookie | Infernal Power |
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Red Abishai Cookie | Protection from Energy: Fire |
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Succubus Cookie | Mass Charm Monster |
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Velah, the Red Dragon Cookie | Cometfall |
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Warforged Titan Cookie | Titan’s Grip |
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White Abishai Cookie | Fire Shield (cold version) |
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Xyzzy Cookie | Bee Breath |
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Stormreaver Cookie | Call Lightning Storm |
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Kobold Cookie | Wondrous Power: kobold jumping powers & a purple crystal. Used in Collection Challenges. |
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Lord of Blade Cookie | Wondrous Power: Adventure Area Slayer Boost 10% for 30 min |
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Medusa Cookie | Flesh to Stone |
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Taken Cookie | Wondrous Power: it will make you look “Absolutely Fabulous” |
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Toven d’Cannith Cookie | Radiant Forcefield |
Festivult Cakes | ||
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Daanvi, the Perfect Order Jelly Cake | Defender of Law |
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Dal Quor, the Region of Dreams Jelly Cake | Wondrous Power: Diseased, but gain some spell points afterwards |
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Dolurrh, the Realm of the Dead Jelly Cake | Death Ward |
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Fernia, the Sea of Fire Jelly Cake | Fire Shield (fire version) |
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Irian, the Eternal Day Jelly Cake | Sunburst |
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Kythri, the Churning Chaos Jelly Cake | Hound of Chaos |
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Mabar, The Endless night Jelly Cake | Wail of the Banshee |
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Risia, the Plane of Ice Jelly Cake | Ice Storm |
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Syrania, the Azure Sky Jelly Cake | Jump with Feather Fall |
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Thelanis, the Faerie Court Jelly Cake | Prismatic Spray |
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Xoriat, the Realm of Madness Jelly Cake | Otto’s Sphere of Dancing |
Festivult Jester Build!
Now with Simulated Drunken Stupor!
The jester is drunk and he trades cookies for coin, hard to say what class that is so its pretty much up to you. I went with a Wizard with two levels or Arty up front
My thinking is since the jester wears robes, I want a robe wearing class. I like the idea that as an artificer he makes goodies, and it gives me haggle as a class skill which seems appropriate. Wizard will give him access to the majority of the cookie spells. I went for pale master and be a zombie Festivult Jester which looks just a bit like a drunken stupor that you find the Jester in, but also because I just like pale masters a lot.
Mechanically, artificer-wizard is probably a little weaker than rogue-wizard. You miss out on evasion and a few skill points. What you gain is a nice starter weapon with the repeaters, access to rune arms as spell enhancing weapons, a tiny umd bump, and more spell points. In either case you get UMD and trap skills which are a nice side line for a caster. While evasion is unquestionably superior in end game, the cross bow and rune are are simply a lot of fun and make playing a low level caster a breeze.
More…
Festivult Cookies & Cakes for Dec 2011

Hey DDO Fans and DDOcast Listeners,
Here are the list of cookies and cakes for this year’s Festivult in December 2011. I’ve included the whole list, including the five new ones and the updated ones (only two really). Enjoy!
DDOcast 145, Part 2 – Crunchy Bits Collection
(The MP3 file can be downloaded HERE Right-click and ‘save as’ to download as an mp3)
Hello again!
This is Volume 1, Part 2 of Crunchy Bits and was complied and released in two parts by Jerry back in November 2009. You can find Part 1 here.
I thought it would be a good idea to release put these out this week since Sig and I will be out for this weekend and there will be no live show for Ep. 227.
We understand that its been a while and some things may have changed, but most of the advice and knowledge still applies. If you listen to it and have any questions feel free to send us an email or post in our forums. We hope you enjoy this republishing of Crunchy Bits!
Thanks,
Anne
July 28, 2011
P.S.: I’ve kept Jerry’s original message but will make another post for part 2 of the collection. If I’m feeling particularly ambitious, I may republish the Crunchy Bits Notes here on ddocast.com.
P.P.S.: Oh and 2009 is back when I was finishing up school and our play time in DDO was at its low point, and well before we inherited DDOcast from Jerry.
Part 2: Left click to play, right-click and ‘save as’ to download as an mp3.
:00 Introduction
:25 14-Rogues
10:28 15-Combat Basics
22:49 16-4th edition Sneak Peek
30:49 17-Team Tactics
40:27 18-Barbarians
50:32 19-Paladins
59:44 20-Weapon Traits pt 1
1:10:19 21-Weapon Traits pt 2
1:19:35 22-Weapon Traits pt 3
1:29:01 23-Art of Character Building
1:40:01 24-Multi-Classing
1:51:30 25-Special Forces Multi-Classing
2:03:52 26-Skills
2:15:21 Jerry, Sigfried and Anne Outro
END
TOTAL TIME: 2:18:04
###
All right. I’ll be mostly away from the ‘net through the rest of the Thanksgiving weekend. Have a good holiday, be safe and I’ll see you soon.
Jerry
November 25, 2009
DDOcast 145, Part 1 – Crunchy Bits Collection
(The MP3 file can be downloaded HERE Right-click and ‘save as’ to download as an mp3)
Hi everyone!
This is Volume 1 of Crunchy Bits and was complied and released in two parts by Jerry back in November 2009. I thought it would be a good idea to release put these out this week since Sig and I will be out for this weekend and there will be no live show for Ep. 227.
We understand that its been a while and some things may have changed, but most of the advice and knowledge still applies. If you listen to it and have any questions feel free to send us an email or post in our forums. We hope you enjoy this republishing of Crunchy Bits!
Thanks,
Anne
July 28, 2011
P.S.: I’ve kept Jerry’s original message but will make another post for part 2 of the collection. If I’m feeling particularly ambitious, I may republish the Crunchy Bits Notes here on ddocast.com.
P.P.S.: Oh and 2009 is back when I was finishing up school and our play time in DDO was at its low point, and well before we inherited DDOcast from Jerry.
Hello Everyone,
Doing something different this week for the long Thanksgiving holiday. The following is a two-parter featuring all of the “Crunchy Bits” in one place! Sigfried and Anne did an amazing job with these, and I’ve had numerous requests to put all 26 of the segments together and release it.
I figure long road trips for Thanksgiving and the introduction in recent months of new players to DDO makes this is a great time to finally get this done. New players and veterans alike will get a lot out of this – here’s the crunchy stuff! Presented by Anne and Sigfried on DDOcast, here’s a treasure trove of useful advice and information and a great way to delve deeper into DDO!
This is a lengthy show. I’ve split it into two parts, each a little more than two hours long. Consider this both a “show” and an archive, a reference spot for the future.
Listen in parts or as part of a long road trip, enjoy! All of the Crunchy Bits show notes can be found HERE.
Visit DDOcast.com for any and all of the episodes in which these originally ran. Approximately September of 2007 through August of 2008. With just a few exceptions, all of the information contained within is accurate as of the time of production. Keep in mind that lots of rules have changed in DDO over time. Still, a ton of good information is here.
Thanks Sigfried and Anne for your hard work and research.
Jerry
November 25, 2009
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DDOcast’s Crunchy Bits Master Class with Sigfried and Anne Trent, hosted by Jerry Snook
Part 1: Left click to play, right-click and ‘save as’ to download as an mp3.
:15 Introduction and chat with Sigfried and Anne
12:41 1-Two Weapon Fighting
22:20 2-Two Handed Fighting
32:05 3-Armor Class
43:05 4-Mod 5 Strategy
53:46 5-Races of DDO Overview
1:03:41 6-Ranged Combat
1:15:24 7 (accidentally called 6 in the segment)-Spell Casting Basics
1:26:57 8-Cleric Strategy
1:36:44 9-Bonus Stacking
1:47:46 10-Dynamic Duo
1:56:12 11-Intimitanks
2:05:54 12-Battle Wizards
2:17:52 13-Saving Throws
2:27:11 Outro by Jerry
END
TOTAL TIME: 2:27:44