A new mentality for doing quests as a solo first-lifer.

[1Th13rteen3]

Defeatism and self-victimization… that’s a mentality… I guess. It’s something I’ve never considered or utilized myself, but you do you.

K bro. Guess I'll just have to "git gud".
Thank you for your valued and overwhelmingly productive response.

 

[Mornyngstar]

My goto with Hardcore build is Sun Domain Cleric. Having 5 SLAs with all metamagics except Extend and Eschew is awesome especially when you get Holy Smite (with Maximize, Empower, Quicken & Enlarge at level 6?). I also happen to be using the same build on my main that is doing Racials right now (with epic TRs also).

Edit: I forgot Tier 3 of Divine Disciple the Prophetic Zenith (Choice) Searing Light shares a cooldown with the Sun Domain lv 5 SLA Searing Light so don't take the Enhancement unless you re-spec after taking lv 5.

 

[Fhrek]

Soloing on your own pace is one the best way to learn the game and have fun!
I praise you commitment to your play style!

Even nowadays with some baggage and soloing my way throu the TR Treadmill, I prefer to solo than grouping... Most people want to rush because they are "burning EXP potion"!

Keep your truth and game on!

If in Thrane and need advice, don't shy way from send a PM to Fhrek.

 

[1Th13rteen3]

My goto with Hardcore build is Sun Domain Cleric. Having 5 SLAs with all metamagics except Extend and Eschew is awesome especially when you get Holy Smite (with Maximize, Empower, Quicken & Enlarge at level 6?). I also happen to be using the same build on my main that is doing Racials right now (with epic TRs also).

If I ever do a pure CLR healer I will definitely try this, thank you for the suggestion!

 

[Mornyngstar]

If I ever do a pure CLR healer I will definitely try this, thank you for the suggestion!

There was so many times that others were chugging mnemonic potions (and every lost soul ) in quests and I was still sitting there with 60%+ of my SP even after buffing everyone.

 

[1Th13rteen3]

I also wanted to point something out... For those runs where I am being "carried" (almost literally) in R1's I DO try to help with the exp earned by doing traps. (+10/20/30% EXP bonus)
Think that helps? NOPE! People whizz by the traps by jumping over them or healing once to full and by the time ive done 1 trap, they are halfway across the zone. Think I have time to do other traps before the dungeons is cleared? 90% of the time nope.
So the takeaway is: people who are very R1 capable, the extra exp earned from doing traps is not important enough to not zerg.
This to me feels like a problem. In other words, finishing the R1 instance and totally ignoring trap disarm bonus seems not worth it to R1 capable people. I find that odd.

 

[Fhrek]

I find that odd.

Seems odd, but for them those 30% loss is outweighted by using 50% EXP potion... and "wasting time" disarming trap for the 30% while burning pot time is the "loss".

 

[Minako]

People think they are helping by zerging newbies through r1 so they level real fast. My guild did this with me. They bumrushed me through an epic Ravenloft. While I apprecate they spent thier time getting me xp they are shooting themselves in the foot a bit. While I know heroic Ravenloft so can be a contributing member in there epic is different and reaper even more different. I didn't have to lift a finger or contribute at all. I felt utterly useless, and like a leech. The biggest thing?

I learned nothing of how to handle that difficulty.

This is why you get people who have absolutely no clue how to play. Past lives and gear aren't going to help you much if you have no idea about the quest or raids because a friend ran you on r10 all the way to thirty a few times.

Are people nice for doing this, absolutely. Are they helping to get the players they need later on? Depends on your idea of help.

I have a friend who I brought to the game who I run quests with. While I run them fairly quickly I do not zerg them. When there are traps I stop and warn them of them. When I know different mechanics in a quest I stop and explain them, warn them of ambushes and we play at a difficulty where they can contribute. They learn the quests, they learn their class and when we get this pair to thirty we can be a team. Not a overpowered level 30 in my case who knows a lot of what they are doing and basically still a newbie with a thirty by their name.

 

[The Narc2]

Ok so here's the deal. Ive been gone from this game for quite some time, and I don't know the quests like the back of my hand. It seems that EVERYONE now only runs R1. I feel like there are noobies that try this game out and they are either never doing the LFM (because no one joins anything below R1 any way...) or they get frustrated and leave. For me, personally - I have been getting frustrated by joining R1 groups and being as useless as a (certain bodily orifice) on my elbow, because mainly whats happening is it goes like this. I look up a build, they either REQUIRE tomes I do not have, or past lives I do not have. It seems like the community as a whole stays away from first life builds like strahd would stay away from mother Teresa or something... So trying new builds that are posted are hit or miss, so what I end up doing is putting my own spin or flavor on such builds to suit my gameplaying objectives, and this usually trashes the build or changes it in a detrimental way. When I try to join an R1 group - its usually someone with LOTS more hp than I do and 1 shots everything and just zooms across the map and either leaves mobs up that kill me or slows me down. One bad experience I had was in Ravenloft for the quest "An Invitation to Dinner". Ran R1 and when it got to the staircase part the person leading jumped all the way down and somehow entered the door at the bottom INSTANTLY. This left up 3 wraiths that wouldn't let me enter the door cause kept getting interrupted, then was knocked unconscious then dead. I rezzed and then promptly left the group, because IT WAS NOT FUN AT ALL AND THE IDEA OF THIS GAME I THOUGHT WAS TO HAVE FUN.

So it led me to do this instead. I wont join any LFMs because why bother. So as a (now after all the other shenanigans thats been happening) am a F2P player (permanently) and thusly I cannot run anything on hard/elite, so I adopted a new mentality: Run EVERYTHING on Normal. The reasoning for this is as such, I looked on the wiki at all the quests and the exp you get from hard/elite, and let me tell you, the juice simply isnt worth the squeeze. I run trappers almost every single life, and with first time run bonuses, flawless victories (which are easily achievable on normal) and shrines that can be used over and over again and me not knowing the quests, its just a far far far more relaxing and chill (read: FUN and ENJOYING) experience to just be matched to the content, rather than feeling like dead weight as a bad build first lifer in an LFM perma riding the soulstone express. People usually dont like pikers, but if you are gonna be a first lifer in an R1 youre gonna be piking any way so... Better to avoid the repair bill and the boring watching someone else play the game while you are in their pocket.

Last night I exercised this and ran Threnal on norm and hit every trap, broke every box, and killed every mob I could and I got way more exp on each leg of the journey than I think I would have even gotten on elite. So rather than being a sweaty tryhard running everything on the max diff on a 1st life character and living in frustration, I think this is way better for me. The exp you gain (BASE) from running hard/elite, the amount you get (usually 200 exp more LOL!!!) just is not worth it.

So I dont care if I am F2P and cant open hard/elite, I a perfectly fine being a 1st lifer norm running scrub perma solo. At least I can enjoy the game better in this way.
So to any newbies who are struggling playing the game, just open the wiki, run the highest exp yield quests on NORMAL (2 times if you have to) and roll trappers to offset the penalties and you'll be fine. I feel like R1 being the "gold standard" now has only hurt the game more than anything, but that's just me.

You just need to find the right community to play with, come play with EXTREME MV Permadeath on tuesday guild night. Our team of players will be a welcoming crew to run with, pm to set up a meet up.

 

[Matuse]

Reaper becoming the default difficulty has been the single greatest contributor to population loss (and lack of new player retention) out of every bad decision that SSG has ever made.

Don't buy into the hype. Reaper sucks, have fun your way.

Oh, and I continue to lobby for base XP on reaper being the same as elite. That's the source of the whole problem. Reaper should only give Reaper XP. Then we'll see just how popular the game mode is. I continue to believe that the large majority of people don't really like reaper. They only do it because they feel they have to. The ones who didn't have left the game forever, or just don't group with other people.

 

[Tarrasque]

I'm doing R4-R6 starting from harbor this life, so I typically get a bunch of people used to R1 and they just zerg and die. Typically people will skip my LFM because high reaper is not worth it at such low levels, but to me it's fun.

 

[Xgya]

some_random_quest - numbers breakdown.

Don't forget the Daily bonus in there.
For a quest with 4K base, that's 1000 xp.
I'll double the trap bonus to account for conquest/ransack/observe/side - it allows us to forget some quests don't have traps or enough kills/boxes.

So, first time run:
4000 (base) + 2400 (objectives) + 1000 (daily) + 800 (first time) = 8200
Second run:
6400 - 800 (ransack) = 5600
Total: 13800, average 6900 per run.

Compare this to starting on Hard
4250 (base) + 2550 (objectives) + 850 (first time Hard) + 1060 (daily) + 2125 (delving) = 10835
Second on Normal:
7200
Total: 18035, or a bit over 9000 per run.

The whole reason people did all 3 difficulties instead of repeating the same was originally that first time bonus but also to avoid ransack while doing it.
Less worth it nowadays, mostly because the biggest bonus is hidden in the Delving part, and that one you only get in one difficulty. (the delving bonus for R1 on that one quest would be 6750, almost one full Normal run)

Here is what happens with our first example (two normal runs) with a Greater Tome of Learning
So, first time run:
4000 (base) + 2400 (objectives) + 1000 (daily) + 800 (first time) + 2000 (tome) = 10200
Second run:
6400 - 800 (ransack) + 800 (tome) = 6400
Total: 16600, average 8300 per run.
For people with Tomes, the second run is worth so much less that finding another quest becomes the obvious best answer.

 

[Chiefvisigoth]

I have been playing for a while now. Usually solo because I am a flower sniffer. I understand your frustration been there myself. I am currently in a guild, and I've also started a free-to-play account for a change of pace. I have toons on all the servers, so if you are looking to run with me, send a PM here, and I will do a run with you if I am at that level on that server.

The power players do not understand it, and eventually, that attitude will end this game. If you do not increase your player base, then eventually the game will not be financially viable.

The frustration I have with putting up LFM groups is that the interface does not work for me, and there is no explanation out there on how it works. I can not play, leaving the entire LFM panel up to respond to a player wanting to join my group. As a much older player, PC's did not exist when I was growing up and did not show up until after I got out of high school. Also, the gaming consoles were something I got for my son. So the Mario brothers' jumping skills are not in my wheelhouse.

 

[Grim]

I been playing this game for almost 20 years - never joined a guild, never joined a PUG and mostly just soloed the whole time. (I did have some friends and fam try the game over the years and ran with them in dedicated groups and even short-manned some of the raids, but for some reason my friends always moved on) - but all this time, 20 years of running my own program I've had ZERO FOMO. This is my game and I do what I want. I don't worry about bravery bonuses (or should I say didn't?) I don't care what the jones are doing, what the new hotness is or if my gear, stats, build whatever is sup-par, supra-par or *****'d. I just make up little stories with my costumes, steeds, pet and hires and smell the flowers as I groove along in my world.... it's enough. I'm not stressed, don't care if I spend my entire game session standing on the market bridge looking at the wiki, I never have to get permission to go on a bio and if I don't log on for 5 months - I didn't miss a thing. Over time you start earning PLs, accumulate some decent gear, find some go to builds and next thing you know you are zerging through R1 - R3 with just your hires. Hell I started a second account and piked myself. And then there's multiboxing, another story for another time. Point is - you do you.

Honestly what difficulty mode you run in isnt that big of a deal - its just a number. Hard mode dropped more gear for me than R3, Elite sometimes is way harder than Reaper levels because after you earn reapers point or so you gain power through the reaper trees that makes reaper easier than Elite. Just do what you like and make this great game yours... peace.

 

[saekee]

Hey glad you are playing the game the way you like! We are all doing that (I would like to believe) so for some, zerging high reaper is a blast!

One reason people zerg is that they have done the quest already a ton of times. It is like driving faster on familiar roads—someone new to an area drives much more slowly as they look at directions, road signs etc whereas a long-time resident is burning rubber as they know exactly when the sharp bend will appears next.

Another motive is xp pots. They are costly and on a timer. Timers have a psychological effect on almost everybody to be time-maximizing. I guarantee you that a lot of folks slam the marketplace trog quest (Freshen the Air) due to the visible countdown timer to quest fail. A party gets 30 min, does it in 6 but still gets the nervous need to rush it due to that visible countdown.

 

[1Th13rteen3]

People think they are helping by zerging newbies through r1 so they level real fast. My guild did this with me. They bumrushed me through an epic Ravenloft. While I apprecate they spent thier time getting me xp they are shooting themselves in the foot a bit. While I know heroic Ravenloft so can be a contributing member in there epic is different and reaper even more different. I didn't have to lift a finger or contribute at all. I felt utterly useless, and like a leech. The biggest thing?

I learned nothing of how to handle that difficulty.

This is why you get people who have absolutely no clue how to play. Past lives and gear aren't going to help you much if you have no idea about the quest or raids because a friend ran you on r10 all the way to thirty a few times.

Are people nice for doing this, absolutely. Are they helping to get the players they need later on? Depends on your idea of help.

I have a friend who I brought to the game who I run quests with. While I run them fairly quickly I do not zerg them. When there are traps I stop and warn them of them. When I know different mechanics in a quest I stop and explain them, warn them of ambushes and we play at a difficulty where they can contribute. They learn the quests, they learn their class and when we get this pair to thirty we can be a team. Not a overpowered level 30 in my case who knows a lot of what they are doing and basically still a newbie with a thirty by their name.

This is an amazing, amazing post and response. I am almost in tears (not lying!). THIS is what the game needs to get back to!! I remember the days where voice chat actually worked on argo and khyber (my old 2 stomping grounds) and I was in a guild "Good Intentions Guild" i believe and they did this!!! It was amazing and to me THIS was the literal "golden age of DDO"...
That was long ago and it feels like those days are long past. I understand about people wanting to be efficient because leveling is a slog, a HUGE one. But you are spot on when you said you felt like a leech, a piker basically. Trust me, I am the kind of person where this is the WORST feeling to have, and it is not fun at all.

Edit: I wanted to add as well that I had some really nice people zerg me through Ravenloft a while back in R1. I was VERY appreciative of their time. And sometimes they did stop and explain things, but it was usually "dont go to center" when the big picture fight in invitation happens and the floor collapses. Think about it y'all "dont go in center".. What does that even mean?!?!?? By the time I saw the floor collapsing, it was too late and I luckily had safe fall but I fell into a room of baddies that were very nasty so I had to "stay put" till they could come get me, which took time, which meant the zerg had to temporarily stop. I felt horrible. yeah yeah yeah spotlight syndrome or whatever you wanna call it, IT STILL DID NOT CHANGE HOW I FELT. I felt like I was a detriment to the group, so yeah - it was a negative thing. I now know about that damn floor collapsing, but everything in ravenloft was a blur and thats about the only thing I know. So rushing people thru content helps them yes, but it doesnt help them LEARN said content. That day I just calmly said to myself "it's ok, ill come back on normal or casual", which I havent done yet. But since I am leveling again I will very soon.

Don't let me be misunderstood, I am eternally grateful for anyone who helps me level faster by basically carrying me or rushing me through content - it's just that it's very hard to learn mechanics (like the collapsing floor, for example) when this happens.

 

[1Th13rteen3]

I been playing this game for almost 20 years - never joined a guild, never joined a PUG and mostly just soloed the whole time. (I did have some friends and fam try the game over the years and ran with them in dedicated groups and even short-manned some of the raids, but for some reason my friends always moved on) - but all this time, 20 years of running my own program I've had ZERO FOMO. This is my game and I do what I want. I don't worry about bravery bonuses (or should I say didn't?) I don't care what the jones are doing, what the new hotness is or if my gear, stats, build whatever is sup-par, supra-par or *****'d. I just make up little stories with my costumes, steeds, pet and hires and smell the flowers as I groove along in my world.... it's enough. I'm not stressed, don't care if I spend my entire game session standing on the market bridge looking at the wiki, I never have to get permission to go on a bio and if I don't log on for 5 months - I didn't miss a thing. Over time you start earning PLs, accumulate some decent gear, find some go to builds and next thing you know you are zerging through R1 - R3 with just your hires. Hell I started a second account and piked myself. And then there's multiboxing, another story for another time. Point is - you do you.

Honestly what difficulty mode you run in isnt that big of a deal - its just a number. Hard mode dropped more gear for me than R3, Elite sometimes is way harder than Reaper levels because after you earn reapers point or so you gain power through the reaper trees that makes reaper easier than Elite. Just do what you like and make this great game yours... peace.

You bring up a very interesting point I was thinking about the other day. R1 is a trap, and here is why. Once you get enough reaper points you are FAR FAR more powerful in R1 than you ever will be in Elite because of the reaper enhancements. Which I believe is part and parcel the issue now, most vets are probably pretty accustomed to this and will never reroll a first lifer and only do the R1 train and TR if they wanna try another build. To me I think this kind of defeats the purpose of character slots, because let's say John Doe has 1 character and he says "im just gonna play this one single character" and does the R1 PL/TR thing and THIS is how he plays new builds. Well then that entire time the other character slots are just... empty. Maybe he puts some mules on there, maybe his kid has a toon or three on there, but John just plays this one_single_character. Now that is fine, it's his perogative (sic) - but it seems odd to me where you have a game with multiple character slots, you HEAVILY HEAVILY invest into 1 single character (seemingly forever?) Because you know, if you reroll that 1st lifer, it will be literally AGES before it ever gets up in power to that ONE character that has 200PLs.

I guess I am jaded in thinking that if it were me, and I had tons of time and PLs invested in a character the mere thought of starting over would be like nails on a chalk board for me, but I get it - everyone's different and for some this might be the ideal way to play, and I totally respect that.

 

[Grim]

Sure, I have one character that I've put more time and investments in. But I often roll up 1st lifers to try out a build or just do something different for a while - roll on a new server and start the kingdom up anew. Sometimes I abandon them and they become mules or name place holders and sometimes I TR them or hold them at cap. between 3 accounts and now what 4 servers that a lot of 1st lifers. That's one of the things I liked about hardcore servers - everybody started out fresh - even playground. I made it to 20 a couple of times but most of those characters are DOA or transferred over as mules. I still play the first character I made back in 2006 a lame Paladin< MacRighteous DooGoodish - Ha, what a gimp, and he isn't my main character, but I have just as much fun with him as I have with any of my characters., because fun isn't necessarily a number or achievement - it's between the ears.

 

[Yulrem]

This is an amazing, amazing post and response. I am almost in tears (not lying!). THIS is what the game needs to get back to!! I remember the days where voice chat actually worked on argo and khyber (my old 2 stomping grounds) and I was in a guild "Good Intentions Guild" i believe and they did this!!! It was amazing and to me THIS was the literal "golden age of DDO"...
That was long ago and it feels like those days are long past. I understand about people wanting to be efficient because leveling is a slog, a HUGE one. But you are spot on when you said you felt like a leech, a piker basically. Trust me, I am the kind of person where this is the WORST feeling to have, and it is not fun at all.

Edit: I wanted to add as well that I had some really nice people zerg me through Ravenloft a while back in R1. I was VERY appreciative of their time. And sometimes they did stop and explain things, but it was usually "dont go to center" when the big picture fight in invitation happens and the floor collapses. Think about it y'all "dont go in center".. What does that even mean?!?!?? By the time I saw the floor collapsing, it was too late and I luckily had safe fall but I fell into a room of baddies that were very nasty so I had to "stay put" till they could come get me, which took time, which meant the zerg had to temporarily stop. I felt horrible. yeah yeah yeah spotlight syndrome or whatever you wanna call it, IT STILL DID NOT CHANGE HOW I FELT. I felt like I was a detriment to the group, so yeah - it was a negative thing. I now know about that damn floor collapsing, but everything in ravenloft was a blur and thats about the only thing I know. So rushing people thru content helps them yes, but it doesnt help them LEARN said content. That day I just calmly said to myself "it's ok, ill come back on normal or casual", which I havent done yet. But since I am leveling again I will very soon.

Don't let me be misunderstood, I am eternally grateful for anyone who helps me level faster by basically carrying me or rushing me through content - it's just that it's very hard to learn mechanics (like the collapsing floor, for example) when this happens.

I don't believe in "learning the content". I think that's just stupid. Learning means it'll turn boring soon so you yourself will turn into an XP and loot craving zerging Zombie. I believe in experiencing quests on the spot then and there ideally in teamwork with others. Even if you are playing something again, don’t go there with the intention of learning it.

Although I have to say I am going to finish DDO. Yes, with the TR system you can play the whole game on loop for eternity, but I don't see the point in that. Grinding bores me to death. By level 34 I will have played all the quests and will move on... and maybe come back in a few years if I forget everything and DDO will still be around with new content...

...unless by level 34 a sensible community forms around the values I value... maybe to do raids.

(I temporarily removed the last part because I wasn't sure but then after giving it some thoughts I realised that's right. Without a sensible/sensitive community, there's no point to engage with this game any different than any other offline game.)

 

[1Th13rteen3]

I don't believe in "learning the content". I think that's just stupid. Learning means it'll turn boring soon so you yourself will turn into an XP and loot craving zerging Zombie. I believe in experiencing quests on the spot then and there ideally in teamwork with others. Even if you are playing something again, don’t go there with the intention of learning it.

Although I have to say I am going to finish DDO. Yes, with the TR system you can play the whole game on loop for eternity, but I don't see the point in that. Grinding bores me to death. By level 34 I will have played all the quests and will move on... and maybe come back in a few years if I forget everything and DDO will still be around with new content...

...unless by level 34 I find a community worth staying for, maybe do raids with in a sensible way.

I understand, when I said "learning the content" i meant not to be a detriment to the people carrying me through it so as to not slow them down and feel like dead weight... because that's a horrible feeling, trust me.