Dungeons & Dragons Online

[J1M]

I also really like adventures being narrated, but I really hate that they hired Will Wheaton for some of them. Somewhat regret not playing this more when it was newer. Can't really think of other games that did traps and dungeons with the same degree of care.

[Boontaker]

I also really like adventures being narrated, but I really hate that they hired Will Wheaton for some of them. Somewhat regret not playing this more when it was newer. Can't really think of other games that did traps and dungeons with the same degree of care.

The narrator really gives the game a true D&D feel, even the adventures with "bad" voice acting are great IMO

A cry for help. IYKYK

[asf]

i play with no sound

[Xenich]

I also really like adventures being narrated, but I really hate that they hired Will Wheaton for some of them. Somewhat regret not playing this more when it was newer. Can't really think of other games that did traps and dungeons with the same degree of care.

His main narration is fine, him yammering on about his childhood experience with D&D in Temple of Elemental Evil was a bit annoying and I thought it was pandering and distracting to the adventure.

If I wanted to hear commentary and reflection of the origin of AD&D, I would want the Gygax and Arneson narrations to do that, not some Hollywood kid blathering about how D&D changed his life. Fortunately, they are just "optional" objectives of clicking on the orbs and not relevant to the modules gameplay.

[Xenich]

I try to keep things moving to help with playtime. If you take a slower methodical approach to DDO you'll complete maybe 3 quests every time you get together to play. Which will burn people out faster than the speed play I do IMO (imagine being level 6 for 2 weeks). Some of the DDO quests are frustrating and cause players to rage quit.

If we had a dedicated play night we could slow down and "experience" the game more. Also I can only play on the weekends so feel free to group up and snailtrail across the game anytime. I can always catchup if you guys outlevel me.

DDO is an all-in mmo, meaning you should really just play ddo and not distract yourself with other games until you put it down. The system are very complex and there are hundreds of different dungeon layouts to play. If you only play DDO 3 hours a week, while going back to gachaslop in-between play session you'll never "get it".

Also my character is only about 5% stronger than a first life (vip) build. However I know d&d and DDO very well so my build is min/maxed, and that does make a difference.

I think Tweed and Vergil do plenty of damage, it wouldn't make sense for my fighter to do less damage than someone with spell utility and trapper skills.

I was thinking about this...

I agree that for some you can get bogged down if you spend too much time on a single level (part of the fun is picking feats, skills, enhancements and seeing how your build changes), but... you only do an instance for the "first time" once. We have played them numerous times and so it is no big deal, but the feeling of exploring and discovering all the aspects of a given adventure the first time is memorable and I know for myself, I would have hated to have it ruined by rushing through the adventure to "maximize" time and points. That is better done for the second play through of a given dungeon.

When I played most of the dungeons the first time, I was soloing or playing with others who also had no experience with them and it was much more entertaining. I think regardless if it takes too long, slows progression, etc... they need to experience it according to their "first time" through with all the mistakes, wipes, confusion, etc...

edit:

because of the way they changed delving bonuses and first time runs, you can still run the dungeon on different difficulties without losing out on first time run bonuses. It might be better to run it once carefully, then once you are done, do it again and power through for additional exp and that way they have a familiarity with the second run (on a higher difficulty). They get to experience it the first time, but then get the extra exp on the second one. Maybe normal or Hard on first run, then elite or reaper on the second?

[Boontaker]

https://ddowiki.com/page/Treasure_of_Crystal_Cove

Starting Thursday till the end of July, a pirate and kobold themed challenge will allow participants steal some **** and earn some very powerful items!

Events typically have some very powerful gear that can help fill in blanks in the higher levels (mid 20s), as well as unique enhancement gems that are must haves!

This event can provide various pirate weapons, an augment gem of +2 STR that stacks with all other sources of strength, and an endless healing potion (5 min cool down). Very useful items for anyone keen on playing DDO

I will be farming this

[Tweed]

Rom and Death

[Xenich]

So how far are you guys now?

[Vergil]

So how far are you guys now?

its dead jim

[Xenich]

So how far are you guys now?

its dead jim

How far did you get though?

[LemonDemonGirl]

I'm almost level 11

[Xenich]

Should have been some good dungeons to do by that point.

White Plume Mountain
Red Fens
Ruins of Threnal (Arneson)
Vault of Night series
Mists of Ravenloft
Delera's Tomb (Gygax)
The Necropolis
Against the Slave Lords
Temple of Elemental Evil
Isle of Dread
Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh

For those of you who are familiar with the old AD&D 1st edition modules, it should have been rather nostalgic.

[Xenich]

DDO released the expansion today. Level 34 cap now.

Was thinking about the puzzles as I was playing recently. There are some pretty testy ones. The Reaver raid is good and uses a Mastermind style puzzle timed (been soloing that and The Fall of Truth Epic, Chrono epic for gearing). Also I noticed a lot of the quests are flipping tough on reaper. I have been doing reaper 2-3 and its not bad, but higher and it gets really hard. I need a lot more lives/reaper points to work them.

Been doing a Barbarian Fury THF build and toying with it.

I gotta say, this game is far more complex and deeper than anything out there. Hands down.

You have so many layers...

1. Standard AD&D development (levels, 1-20 feats, skills)
2. Enhancement trees (class, racial, universal)
3. Destiny trees (13 trees all available for any class to use)
4. Epic and Legendary feats

Take all of that and the ability to multiclass and make any type of mix/match focus you like and there are numerous possibilities.

Not to mention reincarnating development with past lives for (class, race, iconic, and Destiny).

When I talk of "complexity", this is what I mean. Nothing out there even touches this.

Sorry you guys didn't care for it, but it does have a massive learning curve and it can be a bit overwhelming, especially when you add in gear, augments, sentient gems, filgrees, etc...


Question for @Boontaker . Do you know anything about the Fury Destiny Tree or have you toyed with the THF builds?

I was playing with Quick Cutter and Adrenaline and if I use Adrenaline which is insane damage, it only seems to hit a single mob when I use AOEs so I was leaning to quick cutter, but on the Tier 3/4 Fury and force selector, I was a bit confused on Adrenaline because I keep seeing an Adrenaline message every so often while I playing and I wasn't sure if picking Furious and Overwhelming force would help out Quick Cutter in anyway so I switched to Spirit of the Beast and Overwhelming force.

Interesting thing is that the recent patch today supposedly "fixed" Quick cutter and it seems like it is doing better... not sure.

Anyway, that one seemed to confuse me a bit due to that message popping up and I have no idea where it is coming from. Thought you might know.

oh and @rusty_shackleford , the 15 min run thing? Yeah... not so much.

I did Search and Rescue on Reaper 2 and it took me 76 mins. I thought I was moving pretty good too... I can't imagine how long the litany lines would take on reaper (I know they took a long time on elite when I did them years ago) and I can tell you, if you do The Chamber of Raiyum without knowing it well, it will also take a friggen long time (same with the Invitation to Dinner quest in Ravenloft).

[Boontaker]

DDO released the expansion today. Level 34 cap now.

Was thinking about the puzzles as I was playing recently. There are some pretty testy ones. The Reaver raid is good and uses a Mastermind style puzzle timed (been soloing that and The Fall of Truth Epic, Chrono epic for gearing). Also I noticed a lot of the quests are flipping tough on reaper. I have been doing reaper 2-3 and its not bad, but higher and it gets really hard. I need a lot more lives/reaper points to work them.

Been doing a Barbarian Fury THF build and toying with it.

I gotta say, this game is far more complex and deeper than anything out there. Hands down.

You have so many layers...

1. Standard AD&D development (levels, 1-20 feats, skills)
2. Enhancement trees (class, racial, universal)
3. Destiny trees (13 trees all available for any class to use)
4. Epic and Legendary feats

Take all of that and the ability to multiclass and make any type of mix/match focus you like and there are numerous possibilities.

Not to mention reincarnating development with past lives for (class, race, iconic, and Destiny).

When I talk of "complexity", this is what I mean. Nothing out there even touches this.

Sorry you guys didn't care for it, but it does have a massive learning curve and it can be a bit overwhelming, especially when you add in gear, augments, sentient gems, filgrees, etc...


Question for @Boontaker . Do you know anything about the Fury Destiny Tree or have you toyed with the THF builds?

I was playing with Quick Cutter and Adrenaline and if I use Adrenaline which is insane damage, it only seems to hit a single mob when I use AOEs so I was leaning to quick cutter, but on the Tier 3/4 Fury and force selector, I was a bit confused on Adrenaline because I keep seeing an Adrenaline message every so often while I playing and I wasn't sure if picking Furious and Overwhelming force would help out Quick Cutter in anyway so I switched to Spirit of the Beast and Overwhelming force.

Interesting thing is that the recent patch today supposedly "fixed" Quick cutter and it seems like it is doing better... not sure.

Anyway, that one seemed to confuse me a bit due to that message popping up and I have no idea where it is coming from. Thought you might know.

oh and @rusty_shackleford , the 15 min run thing? Yeah... not so much.

I did Search and Rescue on Reaper 2 and it took me 76 mins. I thought I was moving pretty good too... I can't imagine how long the litany lines would take on reaper (I know they took a long time on elite when I did them years ago) and I can tell you, if you do The Chamber of Raiyum without knowing it well, it will also take a friggen long time (same with the Invitation to Dinner quest in Ravenloft).

I haven't dived to hard into end game builds yet, I'm focusing on my past lives still (6 more to go for class comp). From what I know Adrenaline is used with Boulders might fury ability for massive spike damage, or a similar single target spike attack for reapers and bosses. Quick cutter is probably a bit better if you have heavily optimized gear and build, but adrenaline should be more satisfying.

Barbarians in particular are weird, at end game attacks per second is king and 2HF builds barbarian in particular, struggle to get high amounts of attack speed.

Gigabrain end game builds look funky as they usually take 1 level of cleric/Favored soul for the war cleric enhancement tree, it has a buff that gives you half your strength bonus on top for 30 seconds, which is massive once you get over 80 str. Also 1 level of warlock for the enlighten enhancement tree which gives you a pulsing aura eldritch blast, the damage is negligible but it will proc the level 28 epic feat arcane warrior, which nets you 20 melee power (20% dmg). 20% dmg from 1 enhancement pt, 1 level, 1 feat is pretty huge.

2HF builds that are not pure classes use the vistani knife fighter enhancement tree, they don't use daggers but the double strike, melee power, HASTE action boost, and passive attack speed boosts are universal. You can still get the vistani capstone as a multiclassed build.

A new feat was just added called Patience, which gives -10% attack speed penalty for +1 crit multiplyer. For non end game builds it's probably a no brainer, as big number feel gud. But as I said before on some builds losing 10% AS is brutal, and if you don't have high amounts of critical threat range anyway it can be an overall loss.

When it comes to 2HF builds the best practice is, main dmg stat > doublestrike > melee power > attack speed > crit threat/crit multi. Adrenaline builds focus in crit multi while Quick cutter builds focus on crit threat (great axe/falchion) only specific builds use other types of 2H weapons.

Dragonlord/bard/rogue is a ******** build right now, as a shad ar Kai iconic my build runs around with 13-20 x7 aoe attacks, which attack 3 times per cool down. When I hit level 21 I'm taking patience IMMEDIATELY to make it x8. I expect this build to get nerfed lol

[Xenich]

DDO released the expansion today. Level 34 cap now.

Was thinking about the puzzles as I was playing recently. There are some pretty testy ones. The Reaver raid is good and uses a Mastermind style puzzle timed (been soloing that and The Fall of Truth Epic, Chrono epic for gearing). Also I noticed a lot of the quests are flipping tough on reaper. I have been doing reaper 2-3 and its not bad, but higher and it gets really hard. I need a lot more lives/reaper points to work them.

Been doing a Barbarian Fury THF build and toying with it.

I gotta say, this game is far more complex and deeper than anything out there. Hands down.

You have so many layers...

1. Standard AD&D development (levels, 1-20 feats, skills)
2. Enhancement trees (class, racial, universal)
3. Destiny trees (13 trees all available for any class to use)
4. Epic and Legendary feats

Take all of that and the ability to multiclass and make any type of mix/match focus you like and there are numerous possibilities.

Not to mention reincarnating development with past lives for (class, race, iconic, and Destiny).

When I talk of "complexity", this is what I mean. Nothing out there even touches this.

Sorry you guys didn't care for it, but it does have a massive learning curve and it can be a bit overwhelming, especially when you add in gear, augments, sentient gems, filgrees, etc...


Question for @Boontaker . Do you know anything about the Fury Destiny Tree or have you toyed with the THF builds?

I was playing with Quick Cutter and Adrenaline and if I use Adrenaline which is insane damage, it only seems to hit a single mob when I use AOEs so I was leaning to quick cutter, but on the Tier 3/4 Fury and force selector, I was a bit confused on Adrenaline because I keep seeing an Adrenaline message every so often while I playing and I wasn't sure if picking Furious and Overwhelming force would help out Quick Cutter in anyway so I switched to Spirit of the Beast and Overwhelming force.

Interesting thing is that the recent patch today supposedly "fixed" Quick cutter and it seems like it is doing better... not sure.

Anyway, that one seemed to confuse me a bit due to that message popping up and I have no idea where it is coming from. Thought you might know.

oh and @rusty_shackleford , the 15 min run thing? Yeah... not so much.

I did Search and Rescue on Reaper 2 and it took me 76 mins. I thought I was moving pretty good too... I can't imagine how long the litany lines would take on reaper (I know they took a long time on elite when I did them years ago) and I can tell you, if you do The Chamber of Raiyum without knowing it well, it will also take a friggen long time (same with the Invitation to Dinner quest in Ravenloft).

I haven't dived to hard into end game builds yet, I'm focusing on my past lives still (6 more to go for class comp). From what I know Adrenaline is used with Boulders might fury ability for massive spike damage, or a similar single target spike attack for reapers and bosses. Quick cutter is probably a bit better if you have heavily optimized gear and build, but adrenaline should be more satisfying.

Barbarians in particular are weird, at end game attacks per second is king and 2HF builds barbarian in particular, struggle to get high amounts of attack speed.

Gigabrain end game builds look funky as they usually take 1 level of cleric/Favored soul for the war cleric enhancement tree, it has a buff that gives you half your strength bonus on top for 30 seconds, which is massive once you get over 80 str. Also 1 level of warlock for the enlighten enhancement tree which gives you a pulsing aura eldritch blast, the damage is negligible but it will proc the level 28 epic feat arcane warrior, which nets you 20 melee power (20% dmg). 20% dmg from 1 enhancement pt, 1 level, 1 feat is pretty huge.

2HF builds that are not pure classes use the vistani knife fighter enhancement tree, they don't use daggers but the double strike, melee power, HASTE action boost, and passive attack speed boosts are universal. You can still get the vistani capstone as a multiclassed build.

A new feat was just added called Patience, which gives -10% attack speed penalty for +1 crit multiplyer. For non end game builds it's probably a no brainer, as big number feel gud. But as I said before on some builds losing 10% AS is brutal, and if you don't have high amounts of critical threat range anyway it can be an overall loss.

When it comes to 2HF builds the best practice is, main dmg stat > doublestrike > melee power > attack speed > crit threat/crit multi. Adrenaline builds focus in crit multi while Quick cutter builds focus on crit threat (great axe/falchion) only specific builds use other types of 2H weapons.

Dragonlord/bard/rogue is a ******** build right now, as a shad ar Kai iconic my build runs around with 13-20 x7 aoe attacks, which attack 3 times per cool down. When I hit level 21 I'm taking patience IMMEDIATELY to make it x8. I expect this build to get nerfed lol

yeah, I figure I could maximize this a lot more, but atm my build seems to do fine for what I need farming some raids and L1-3 reaper content. I have enough AOE power to mow down groups and even though it is weaker single target, my healing is sufficient to handle the fight. I am running around 200+ PRR and 100+ MRR at base and Deific Warding (combined with the Occult Tree) helps keep me higher to deal with stuff. Since I have been playing off and on for years, I have the +8 tomes.

I use DDO builder to analyze some things, but I am not overly critical in every area and I will admit there are many aspects I am not heavily informed on so I may be wasting effort in some areas and I certainly haven't got as heavy into the whole "weapon/gear swaping" mid combat thing to maximize.

One thing I noticed is that some info I can't seem to find without loading it up in DDO builder, did they add anything in game to get more specific data on critical threat ranges, easy to see total strike through, etc... or do you have to add up buffs, and do a lot of the work offline?

I don't have many lives (I think 5 class, 1 destiny, and a couple racial) and lately I have been sitting at max level farming gear/hearts/etc... to make an effort on some PL runs.

Not sure the most optimal PL progression though... Was thinking Iconic for efficiency of class/iconic PL and doing double Destiny PLs per iconic life. The finish the last couple of classes and work on racial. Though I always end up changing my mind constantly.

I did the Medium black dragon armor from Gianthold and have maxed it out, farmed some Chronoscope to make some epic pieces, and I have been hitting Zawabi's Revenge for some of that gear (though that is a pain for my build and a long boring fight).

Right now most of my focus is on great axes, but I have been picking up the Falchions and I have Whirlwind with the Fury filgrees (though from what I read that isn't the best selection), but my Str at end game is nearing a 100 while raging.

Anyway, I figure with a good gear selection to pull from for melee will help me get through the other PLs pretty quickly and I do have a fair amount of caster gear, which I will start tweaking when I get to doing caster runs.

I know I can do much higher Reapers if I go very slow (ie play EQ like methodical), but its too slow and painful for the return on exp and I have found for my build power, R1-3 is enough to give me good rolls and allow me to move through the dungeons quicker (depending on dungeon).

Anyway, game is a blast. Even when I tire of it, I always come back later and it feels fresh and new.

I would desire a newer version of this game, but we both know that they would only mainstream it and dumb it down.

[Vergil]

I'm going to get so many accelerated reader points for going through this thread.

[Xenich]

I'm going to get so many accelerated reader points for going through this thread.

You up to 10 words a minute now?

[Xenich]

Well... Patience definitely doesn't work for my build (THF GAxe Fury/Occ 16/4 Barb/Fighter). Losing 10% attack speed is a killer and if a mob slows you, well... its bad. You can compensate with action boosts and the like, but I don't think it does as well as the Attack/bypass feat they give. I have noticed a very nice increase in effectiveness with that feat and it has allowed me to comfortably increase my reaper level and still feel like I can move quickly through the dungeon. Also, the fix for Quick Cutter has definitely increased damage output.

One thing I haven't really put a lot of effort into though is getting my tactics up and tweaking for helpless/stuns/trip increases. So I think the slow would be fine, but you would seriously have to gear and build for it. I think it might actually be more effective in the specialty feat focuses they added, but those require giving up quite a bit to obtain. Having to get GTHF and one of the GTWF/GSWF/GShield just to get speciality is quite a few feats, especially when one line will be useless at any given moment (barring weapon swaps constantly which is a bit busy for my tastes).

Besides, the level of reapers I do aren't enough to really force me to focus on extreme damage. At this stage my healing/defense is good enough to handle everything smoothly AND do damage fast enough to move quickly. I am only around 17 points into reaper so far, so the exp is sufficient to see the points come in. I think I could handle maybe R5 maybe R6 before it slows down, but I think one of those the reapers are increased in power and abilities which make things difficult.

I have been able to do many raids solo, but some obviously aren't possible (VON/PON) which is too bad because there is some nice gear. I have Epic Elite The Fall of Truth on farm, but I haven't messed with Caught in the Web as it is pretty complex, you need good ranged and mine is severly lacking. I think the Vistani Tree would be good balance to upping my ranged ability while keeping focused on my build, but I will have to play with it.

There are definitely some splashes that could help out a lot (druid/Ranger for Rams might would help my build) and the Warlock splash as you mentioned would be great as well.

I still have several PLs that work well with THF and line up with my current build focus, so I will tweak them in the next few runs.

Was going to cap at 34, do a bit more farming for gear and then start running Iconic PLs. I have saved up enough hearts to do many PLs now, so it should be fairly quick runs.

Anyway, it just blows me away why people don't find this game amazing. It makes the other MMOs development systems look extremely shallow.

[rusty_shackleford]

Anyway, it just blows me away why people don't find this game amazing. It makes the other MMOs development systems look extremely shallow.

It has a lot of UX issues which hide a gem of a game under it. Bad server lag that's near unfixable without a major rewrite, terrible UI, severe power creep, etc.,

[Xenich]

Anyway, it just blows me away why people don't find this game amazing. It makes the other MMOs development systems look extremely shallow.

It has a lot of UX issues which hide a gem of a game under it. Bad server lag that's near unfixable without a major rewrite, terrible UI, severe power creep, etc.,

Yeah, the lag can be an issue at times, guess I am just used to it and it isn't consistent, I will have weeks of playing without real issue, then have some really bad experiences with phase, chopping, and stand stills, but I guess I have been lucky because they don't seem to cause a loss. Then again, I am not pushing the content to an absolute level where a single delay of a heal, hit, etc... causes a wipe.

UI is daunting to a new player, but it is pretty flexible once you learn it well. Hot key system is pretty in depth, but it is limited in some areas for sure.

Still, the positives far outweigh the negatives in my opinion.

[J1M]

Is there a new player guide that highlights what someone new should focus on for goals? Seems like reincarnation would be key, but why, how many times, do you need to do it with each class/race, etc.

How long would it take to wade out of the kiddie pool?

PS: I played this in beta but never ended up subscribing.

[Xenich]

Is there a new player guide that highlights what someone new should focus on for goals? Seems like reincarnation would be key, but why, how many times, do you need to do it with each class/race, etc.

How long would it take to wade out of the kiddie pool?

PS: I played this in beta but never ended up subscribing.

Well... I think there are guides... but it is hit and miss and the game has changed so much that information gets outdated pretty easily over time.

Here is a good place to start:

https://ddowiki.com/page/Home

Have ad block up, the site is horrible without some sort of blocking (I use host list blocking and the site looks clean with no ads).

This is another like site, pretty much same info for the most part, but not as detailed as the wiki.

https://ddocompendium.com/w/Hi_Welcome

Main DDO site forums (this is the newer one, they changed a while back and it isn't... in depth as the old one)

https://forums.ddo.com/index.php

This is a link to the read only old DDO forums, lots of info on the game over the years, but a lot of the builds, advice may be outdated due to changes in the game.

https://forums-old.ddo.com/forums/



Game is really nothing like you remember in Beta, but the old dungeon content you played may still be similar.

Basic info:

1-20 game (called Heroic) is standard AD&D... classes, feats, skills (everything is useful depending on build and focus). This is accompanied by Enchancement points, you get 4 per level. Those points then go into "wow" like trees of race, class, universal (not all are available, some need to be purchased in the store or are part of expansion purchases).

20-30 game is different (called epic) in that you stop leveling class. So whatever you are at 20 (single or multiclass) you stay as and your enchancements no longer progress (ie you are done, no more points, but you can reset them fairly easy with in-game coin (costs go up the more you do it though). This part of the game has a new set of trees called "destiny trees" and this is your bread and butter for development. All trees are available for any class, but may or may not be useful depending on the advancments focus. These are mostly open, but like enchancement trees, some are bought, part of expansions, etc...

30+ game (currently capped at level 34). This is called Legendary. This is also different in that once you cap out at max and reincarnate (if you want), the moment you reach 30 again (and choose to level up), all exp from 30-34 will be granted to you that you completed in the prior life. This is done as an interm to them building up to the level 40 game where Legendaries will become a source for reincarnation like Heroic and Epic.


For epic and Legendary, you also get feats similar to heroic at certain levels.

Anyway, best way to level... its... subjective and really dependent on what you want to do, but... here are some key points.


Of the Past life goals, there are:

1. Class (level to 20, reincarnate). You can get a PL feat both passive (auto granted) and one you can select when leveling as a feat slot. (max 3 per class)
2. Racial (level to 20 reincarnate). Same as class, but for each race. Can only choose race or class in the reincarnate each life (not both) (max 3 per race)
3. Iconic (basically a race/class hybrid, level from 15-30 , ie they start at 15, come with starter gear and you are given all the exp up to 15, you choose the classes EXCEPT the first one, that is decided already) (max 3 per iconic)
4. Epic (level from 20 - 30 reincarnate... back to 20). (4 spheres with numerous focuses in each, each focus can be done 3 times for max bonus, at a certain point once they are done, additional destiny points are earned... ie points for your destiny tree for epic game).

Key points...

Iconics are a hybrid of an existing class/race, when you do Iconic as a Past Life, you get both the Class PL feat award AND the Iconic PL feat award. So, its a good source to kill two birds with one stone.
There is a thing called "completionist" which means if you do a single PL of every class, you get this capstone feat that gives very nice bonuses. You can do this for Race, Class, Iconic, and Epic. Look up the details on the bonuses on the wiki.

Note: for PL class, it is the highest class that qualifies. So, if you want to PL fighter, it must be more levels than the other classes you multiclass into.


The best way depends on what you want to do.

I would say...

If you are doing racial as a focus, do 1-20, then 20-30.

Do epic reincarnation back to 20, level up again to 30 (there is plenty of content and and a method to this, read the wiki on PL approaches).

Epic reincarnate back to 20, then heroic racial reincarnate back to 1. Repeat for for each race as you like. Check the bonuses, they change per life.

If you are doing class as a focus. Do Iconic (for instance, Razorclaw starts with 1 level barbarian)

Level from 15 to 30. Epic reincarnate back to 20, level to 30 again, Iconic reincarnate back to 15 and repeat.

The reason for double epic reincarnation is that the bonuses are VERY nice (+3% double attack stance per life, maximum 9% and stacks with everything), you will see the most bang for your buck with those over any other PL.

Final note...

How you build will change based on what area of content you are focusing on. An end game build may be horrible for 1-20 heroic because you are counting on having more feats or access to the Epic Destiny ablities. Plan accordingly.

Use this planner to flesh out your character before you start it (it will reduce headaches and mistakes that are difficult or costly to repair in game).

https://github.com/Maetrim/DDOBuilder/releases

It also adds up the stats neatly for you so you can see where you want to maximize.

That should be a good start, but basically read the wiki, the new and old forums as need and you should have everything you need to play.

[J1M]

I really appreciate the time you took to lay all that out for me. It sounds like the reincarnation bonuses are tied to a character rather than an account-wide unlock?

[Xenich]

I really appreciate the time you took to lay all that out for me. It sounds like the reincarnation bonuses are tied to a character rather than an account-wide unlock?

Yes, only the single character which is why playing more than one character in DDO makes very little sense.

[Xenich]

Oh, forgot to mention that there is yet another area of development on top of all I listed... reaper. Basically 3 trees that allow for further gains and abilities which are earned by playing any dungeon on reaper levels 1-10 (higher levels means more reaper exp, and regular exp as well).




Gets a lot tougher, but... it gets you points to put in a tree like this:




Which will add the bonuses (as long as you play the dungeon as reaper) in ALL of the content (Heroic, Epic, Legendary).

[Xenich]

Couple of more thoughts on DDO.

Complex development system, hands down no other game touches it. The level of function and how things change depending on level, class, race, gear, etc... create numerous possible builds, functions and approaches to play all layered into a recursive system of play . While this can be utterly intimidating to new people, and painful until you learn it due to mistakes, it is what has allowed it to avoid the dead game every MMO has with consumed content stagnation.

The interaction system (puzzles, traps, world mechanics, etc...) all create detailed interactive environments. Many are simple, some are very complex and can be challenging, or at the least satisfying.

Success in the game is skill dependent, but not simply reaction skill, but knowledge and application of build strategy.

Difficulty tailoring. I don't care how good you are, you can set the dungeon to a level that is too hard for you. Harder levels have more mobs, harder mobs, bosses, special attacks/features from mobs, and more loot.

The risk vs reward is fairly balanced here as loot drop rates increase based on difficulty. Named loot will drop at a very low rate (6% Normal?) to as high as 33% for Elite with reapers adding 1% chance per skull, for a total of 43% drop rate with a 10 skull run (good luck). Also, higher levels increase chest drops, other types of drops, exp, renown, etc...

Everything matters and is useful depending on focus. While a certain build may have dump stats due to focus, they are not useless and do have function and useful purpose that help regardless of your focus.

Skills have multiple function and purpose (ie intimidate is a taunt, also a influence roll in dialog, and is layered in its use with feats, trees, classes, items, etc..).

Exp is earned by dungeon completion. While you do get instant exp for completing various objectives within the dungeon, standard MMO mob kill exp progression isn't viable (you get some exp from boss or special kills, but not enough to make major difference). You have to win to get your exp, so no mindless grinding (well, off mobs... eventually when you get a dungeon on farm you will fast run it mindlessly cutting corners and the like). Point is, risk vs reward on this is much more balanced.

Monster Manuals. Cool feature where every mob encounter is in a book which shows your total kills and gives detailed info on the mob over time as you have killed enough of them (ie health bars, resist/immunities, special attacks, history, lore, etc...). You also gain milestones that award EXP and various items that aid you in development.

Reincarnation, this is hands down the most genius MMO mechanic to date. Content is reused, character development is enhanced, and all gear becomes useful as it can be used in another life with a different focus. For those who obsess over gear collecting, this is nirvana.

Sentient items, augments (item enhancement gems), filgrees. Sentient gives your weapon or item (certain ones) a personality (think the sword Black Razor in AD&D which talked to you and had special abilities). This allows you to slot this into your weapon and gain exp to expand its filgree slots, then... you can add filgrees (augment sets with bonuses based on type and number you slot and interact with various skills, feats, classes, etc...).

Anyway... list goes on and on and on and there is really too much to go into...

PTW is horrible in this game. Not in the sense that you "Need" to do it, but the game is designed in a way to market off key moments of frustration. For instance, dying right at the end boss and your "respawn" window comes up with a button that will allow you to spend astral shards (store purchase, tradable) to instant rez (expensive though, so only enticing for extremely frustrated and weak willed people).

The store also sells tomes (increases EXP), Stat/skill tomes (up to +8/+6), exp potions for higher earned rate in exp/renown, as well as various other gimicks of this nature such as Otto's boxes (limited time offers) which give you 2-4 million exp essentially allowing you level from 1-20, 20-30 in a single click.

Augments. These are gems kind of like diablo and the add stats and bonuses to your gear depending on gem slot. The upside is all of this is "reasonably" obtained in game and they are often better in anyway (for instance, you may be able to get a + 6 stat augment in the store (level capped), but the game actually may drop/earn them that are a higher bonus, so the games rewards usually are always better.

The real crappy thing is how augments and the like are handled. To remove an augment, you need a kit. As far as I know, standard augments can not be removed by any means other than store kits. You can replace them (destroying the current one in place), but you can not remove them without essentially paying money (150 points per kit), though you can earn points in game (ie each quest provides favor points based on difficulty, and for every so many favor points you are awarded 25 store points). Also, if you sub you are given 500 points per month.

So technically, if you are careful, plan your actions, you can avoid situations where the cost would be an issue.

Sentient items are a bit different, you can earn these kits in drops which allow you to remove the filgrees and sentient gems (not semi-rare). There are also specialty items (bone items) that also have special gem slots which I think may be store only, not sure.

There are other PTW things here and there in the store, but that is the bulk of it. Since exp is king, consumables are the big thing mostly I think.

FTP, the game is fully FTP grindable and you can achieve everything without spending a single penny, but it will require point farming, saving, tricks, etc... to purchase everything. You still still use the store points, you just earn them in game through various means. Very long, very grindy, but if you are ok with that, it is viable... but it will be greatly limiting until you purchase all the quest packs and expansion content (as well as some classes and races). I hate FTP style, fortunately DDO allows an option for more old school payment methods.

Subbing +Expansion purchase is the optimal way to play DDO IMO. Its standard concept, but... because of the way the game is, you have to pay for all the content in one form or another. You don't get the previous expansions by buying the newest. The sub gives you the basics (most classes, races, and base content with some exceptions).

The nice thing is that you can either purchase the expansion content on their site (ie they come in full feature packs like they did on release, barring some very old expansions which may be missing some key items/perks) or you can buy it piecemeal in the store as you go for what you need (the expansions are broken up into quests by level packs like heroic or epic, etc...).

The cost when not on sale on the main site is very pricey, but... they have sales every so often where you can buy them from up to 90% off if you can watch and wait. It is possible to get all of the older expansions for dirt cheap (10+ bucks per expansion, exceptions).

Store sales happen every week so coordinating timing and frugality can net you a lot of result without paying anything. In reality, you don't need anything from the store (outside of the content itself), so it becomes just "convivence" after that.

I have gone back to this game off and on since I played it in early Alpha when it was a single dungeon and a tavern. It has changed a lot since release, some of it good, some of it bad... but... the core aspects of what makes it unique and IMO far superior and more advanced than anything out there is its base design in its systems. Many are "old" in their implementation, and can be clunky at times, but I think it still far exceeds other games.

This is the type of game you can play for decades and for all but the absolute autistic, you won't EVER run out of development play. For an average player, you I doubt you will ever see the "end game" play. You can see all the content, but the "play" (ie reaper 10's, soloing at level raids, and achieving some reincarnation level builds), but not the completion of development, certainly not before new content is out and there are more carrots to chase. In that alone, it completely destroys everything else out there, no sitting on your arse waiting for something to do.

[J1M]

What would you recommend as a starting character? For example, in other games playing a healer might help get a group when you don't have the extra power from molting feats.

[Xenich]

What would you recommend as a starting character? For example, in other games playing a healer might help get a group when you don't have the extra power from molting feats.

I don't group to be honest, so I couldn't give good advice on what is often sought after, needed, or useful to people who group with each other.

For a first lifer... stick to pure class (easiest to deal with, adjust and not make mistakes with and most are pretty strong alone). I would pick something that has self heals, fairly durable. I would say... Druid, Favored soul, Paladin, Monk, Barb, even fighter are good.

Most classes can get some form of limited healing be it through base class, enhancements, or later on in the 20+ game through destiny's (20+ game will require some content purchases in the store though I think for the destiny trees). Also, everyone can have a single hireling, so if you do melee you can run with a cleric/favored soul to heal, cure, death ward, and eventually rez.

If you like melee, I would say Pally or Barb, very strong pure builds, very powerful and both can heal themselves pretty well and Barb really tears things up once you balance your gear a bit.

Fighter isn't too bad, but their only real healing until 20+ I believe is second wind, which may be sufficient, also they get the most feats so you have plenty of room to play around.

Now if you don't mind using scrolls, potions, and wands you can supplement any of them, but you will need to put skill points into UMD to not fail scroll/wand checks. Potion (no umd check) healing is limited at a certain point, but it is great for buffs, cures, etc... and they are not too expensive at the vendors.

Druid = healing, animal form for various melee, caster bonuses, buffs/cures, etc...

Favored soul = cleric/fighter hybrid, good balance can be powerful melee (caster too I think) and has lots of tools with spells.

Paladin = Good fighter, healing, great against undead, etc...

Monk = Interesting class, very active play style, self healing, cures, self rez, and numerous tools for melee.

Barb = Beast of damage (best with THF), good mitigation, raging, useful survival tools (can open locks with their racial enchantments).

Fighter = Most feats, many options for weapon type/wield, limited healing, easiest of all classes to splash another class with if you must multiclass (stick with standard 18/2, 16/4 build splits, but again I would NOT recommend multiclassing until you fully understand enhancement trees as they have class level limitations to how far you can go up the cores, and core enchantments are key to many builds).

Some may be more gear focused to get returns over others, I think it is obvious as to which (less spells, more focus on gear).

Personally, if I were starting... I would pick druid or favored soul as it will give you the biggest experience with multiple aspects of DDOs play and still be a solid leveling experience.

[Xenich]

Well, good news concerning DDO.

Those of you who have experienced very bad lag (I never did that was game breaking until recently) know how bad and frustrating it can be. Well, they just finished their 64 bit stress test and apparently the new servers far exceeded their expectations, so much that they are fast tracking to moving to them (and locating them in Las Vegas). That is, apparently the stress has zero lag with extremely heavy loads...

So, that will be a very big thing coming.

[Tweed]

This kinda came and went.