Wife and I are Returning For a Playthrough: Advice and Catch-Up

[Dwarfo]

Hey, everyone!

My wife, my brother-in-law, my brother, and I are returning to play DDO, starting at level one and (hopefully) reaching cap. We played quite a bit four or five years ago; I left around the Underdark update. I was simply wondering if anyone had any key advice for people who have been absent for 4.5 years and are looking to playthrough the game's quests again.

[Enoach]

Advice - Towards a static group

Make sure you cover the different aspects your party will need during this adventure

Such as
1. Roguish skills Search/Disable/Open Locks/Spot (Spot is recommended because it has been awhile and this will help you avoid traps you will later remember where they are)
2. Some form of Crowd Control be it charming/hold style/or someone running interference like a Rodeo Clown
3. DPS - a mix of Close and Far ranged damage
4. Some Healing - Best if this overlaps as in multiple characters innately have this - If you are planning on using Hirelings to cover the majority of this you won't need as much unless you plan to run raids where these cannot go.


Otherwise simply enjoy the run through together, I recommend trying to run as many different quests as possible and avoid repeating - unless you enjoy repeating that is.

[C-Dog]

Don't try to invent your own build, and don't trust builds that worked 5-6 years ago. If you want to take a solid build and tweak it, that's up to you, but it's easy to be creative all the way to fail.

o https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...=1#post5759353

Don't worry about a dedicated "Healer" in the party, as most classes now have (some) self healing. A semi-healer should be fine (or possibly none at all, depending on the others), as will closely-managed hires.


What sort of classes (or party roles) were you all thinking of?

[Dwarfo]

Thanks, folks!

We were thinking the following:

Rogue
Bard
Favored Soul
Artificer

But if no dedicated healer is needed, I might play something else other than FS.

[awar1234]

First I recommend ARGONNESSON server. Nice people who will help you if you have questions.
BLUELIGHT guild is good to join. No pressure guild.


Second, I agree that dedicated healer not necessary , but all toons should invest in UMD!!! So you can use wands/scrolls on each other.

Third, DPS is still king in DDO. Don’t gimp on damage output on any of your builds. Think damage first.

Fourth, do not neglect PRR AND MRR. New type of incoming damage mitigation. Look it up and get those numbers up!

Five, I don’t know how much content you have, but 5000 favor gets you FREE +5 ability tome!! Yes!! Go through six TR’s at 5000 favor for FREE +5 to all stats! So do as many different quest as possible!

Six, new thing called REAPER LEVEL. It is just a little bit harder than elite, but if you stick with it you will get a nice boost in your REAPER TREE ENHANCEMENTS. Since you have four people grouping together it will be easier. Go slower in reaper mode. And enjoy helping each other. IF YOU ARE GOING TO PLAY REAPER HAVE A HEALER TYPE IN THE GROUP.

Have fun!

[Enoach]

Thanks, folks!

We were thinking the following:

Rogue
Bard
Favored Soul
Artificer

But if no dedicated healer is needed, I might play something else other than FS.

The Favored Soul has a lot of potential as Melee or Caster Nuke type since they can use Charisma or Wisdom (your choice). But I would point out that the healing potential of the Bard and Artificer do already cover a wide range of healing needs of the party.

Or you could look at the cleric and check out the Domains that were added last year, this adds a lot of flexibility.

But if you have another class/build in mind I would agree you don't need to be a Favored Soul

[Moco2112]

hi all, i'm planning on buying shadowfell on black friday, if you have several toons on a server, which one gets the goodies from said expansion, ie the first on the list, the first toon created? as always thanks for the help.

oops sorry dwarfo for the hijack, didn't mean to post this in your thread.
thanks lord for the info

[lordnelson1001]

hi all, i'm planning on buying shadowfell on black friday, if you have several toons on a server, which one gets the goodies from said expansion, ie the first on the list, the first toon created? as always thanks for the help.

When you buy the pack from the Standing Stone store, you'll get a code or key of some sort (string of numbers and letters) that you will copy and paste to redeem the content. They way you do this is to copy the code, then log into the game, then open the in-game DDO store.

That's two different stores, weird, I know. But once logged into the in game store, paste your DLC code into the Redeem Code box. The one where you can redeem weekly coupons for potions.

The Shadowfell extras are delivered to the inventory of whichever toon is logged in when you redeem the code. The Tome of Learning is bound to account though, you can choose which toon can use it ---just pass it through the bank. For the +1 skill tomes, EACH character on that server will get its own skill tome. It will look like a little envelope in their inventory, which you open and it allows you to pick which skill that toon gets to improve.

Any other extras also go to which ever toon is logged in when you use the redeem code.

Happy playing!

[Gabrael]

if you got access to artificer, one of yours could try the great x-bow build, not only is it very good DPS, it can trap, but it also got a slight CC aspect to it.
Optimally the best split is at least 6 fighter/6 rogue/4 artificer with 4 levels you can play with, depending if you want a slightly better BAB and more fighter feats, or a rogue special ability, or a mit more arti spells.
but the core of it really only requires 6 rogue, and 4 artificer. also making it a good build to farm class past lives.

to keep in mind:
- full potential shows up at lvl 12 from combo of rogue mechanic tier 5 great x-bow stuff and artificer fusillade
- plan to have at least rogue5/arti4 at lvl 12
- get fusillade tier 4 in artificer
- get the rogue tier great x-bow vorpals on 19-20 and 30% alacrity (this 30% wont show in spread sheet as it is weapon specific)
- Maximize INT
- decent dex for ranged feats.
- 1st level as a rogue
- you might prefer repeaters until you get either fusillade or rogue tier 5 abilities
- Haste/alacrity items stack with the 30% (confirmed by devs)
- Rogue core level 6 let you use INT for dmg on repeaters
- can combo that with either harper tier 1 INT for tohit or arti spell Insightful strike
- can get 10% doubleshot in rogue tier 5 and arti tier 4
- fighter core 6th level also add +1 multiplier
- get the extra Action boost +3 from artificer, can also add +3 from fighter, + 3 if dragonborn, and +3 from Epic destiny legendary dreadnought (twistable)

the perks:
- great x-bow is already great base dmg
- great x-bow trip mobs on vorpals, no saves (natural 20)
- mechanic tier 5 expand vorpal range to 19-20 (tripping mobs on 19-20, vorpal effect, or stuff like ruby of endless night that work on vorpals also will work on 19-20)
- fusillade + rogue alacrity = medieval Tommy gun, tripping stuff forever as long the fusillade last
- great x-bow get full effect from doubleshots
- full potential shows as low as level 12
- great build if you want to do the whole reincarnation thingy, can recycle same gear every life and still get any class or racial PL (just maintain rogue6/arti4)

[C-Dog]

Any other extras also go to which ever toon is logged in when you use the redeem code...

Hrmmm... yes and no.

All the character extras like skill or xp boosts are represented by items in Inventory. These start in the Inventory of the first character you log n to. They must be clicked to use, but (via a Shared Bank) can first be moved to diff alts, either for use or storage.

[Niminae]

For the +1 skill tomes, EACH character on that server will get its own skill tome. It will look like a little envelope in their inventory, which you open and it allows you to pick which skill that toon gets to improve.

Welcome back!

One bit of advice I'll give on the use of the skill tomes that come with your expansion bundles: Consider using them in your second, third, or even lower priority skills. Why? Because you can pick up skill tomes in values from 1-3 fairly easily from Sagas. And overwriting my +1 or +2 skill tome that came with expansion bundles with a +3 skill tome felt wasteful to me the first few times I did it. So I stopped doing that, and instead read my bundle tomes for lower priority skills and work on my primary skills via Saga rewards. It takes patience, because there are a lot of skills and you are only offered 4 of them per Saga completed all on Elite or Reaper levels, so your chances of getting the tomes you want are not great. But DDO is a game where patience pays off, for another example buying points on sale and content or other things on sale.