Advice on Moonsea favor farming

[Qrvar]

Took a several-year break till the server transition. Happen to have had a toon on Wayfinder whom I transferred to Moonsea to serve as a first-time server favor farmer. Heard lag is not as bad on Moonsea, so thinking of taking a break from Shadowdale. Writing to ask opinions on what I should do with him.

Currently level 1 artificer 10/16/14/16/8/8, first life, no tomes, no gear, no VIP but some interesting goodies:
- Greater Tome of Heroic Learning
- 6 y.o. cake (so, I guess, technically = one +2 tome)
- 2 mil. heroic XP stone; 4 mil. epic XP stone; some +30% XP pots. Stones are BtC and cannot be trasferred.
- One +0 Lesser Heart, one +20 Lesser Heart
- One Raider's Box
- Snowy Owlbear Certificate

So, what would you do?
- Use XP stones (one or both?) on first life and farm favor in epics? Remember, no VIP, so would need to be able to complete at least EE on first life (can only open heroic quests on Normal)
- Power through first life, TR, then use the XP stones?
- Stay as arti, and in that case what build is best? Pure or multi? Or just LR+20 to another class (which one?) No idea how good / bad arti is in 2025, but don't see too many around.

Oh, and if anyone has a guild on Moonsea that doesn't mind a slacker - let me know

 

[Seppi Pearlsmith]

Your first 4 lives are at first lifer xp. Very easy to get them, plenty r1 groups running on Moonsea so youll have fast levelling rxp and favour. I would run 4 PL or even 7 until hit the bad xp curve. Then use the stone with an xp pot.

 

[Matuse]

They changed the XP tables for reincarnation a couple of updates ago, so it's "first life" xp for the first several lives. You don't run into full x2 TR XP tables until life...8? Something like that.

Depending on how serious you are about the favor and how long you plan on doing it, it could be worthwhile to blitz to 20 twice, reincarnate into a third life so you can open on Elite, then use the stone and start backfilling all the lower level quests and really grinding out the favor totals.

But that's a substantial amount of work. It all depends on just how much favor you want to be trying to get and how much effort you want to invest in this whole plan.

 

[Kryxal]

Pretty sure that 2 mil heroic stone will get you right to level 20, farm tokens and a fast TR might be a good way to go about it. This way, you're into a second life able to open hard instead of normal in no time at all.

Another option is to use the epic stone as well and go to level 30, pick up at least 1750 favor for a +2 tome this life and maybe a few +3 skill tomes.

 

[Qrvar]

Thank you for all the insights! Tough choices indeed. Might go for the rush to 20 on first life, as I've literally no gear on the server and would probably get destroyed in low epics trying to farm tokens.

Any thoughts on current state of Artificer - is it a good class for the rush to 20? What would be the best build?

 

[magaiti]

whom I transferred to Moonsea to serve as a first-time server favor farmer.

You should start farming 1st time favor on a new server with a toon that has zero favor.
Otherwise you will lose all rewards below the first you cross.
For example, if you transfer a character with 999 favor, then cross 1000 favor, you get 100 DDO points for first time 1000, but will not get first-time rewards for 5,25,50,500 favor on that server any more, ever.

 

[Igognito]

Did you by any chance transferred a heart of wood? Or tokens? Then my suggestion would be:
Use the heroic stone, reincarnate to iconic. Reach 20, use the next stone and reincarnate again.
Then you have an elite opener! Pretty perfect for favor farming a new server .

If you didn't got with you the necessary to reincarnate, you will need to farm it. So again I would suggest you use the heroic stone and run LOD like there is no tomorrow :-/. Hopefully you will find some groups to help you.

About guild, what times you play? I could add you to my guild but we dont have many buffs. You will be better going to Tycoons.

Also keep in mind, that EE is hard on first lifer without any equipment.

 

[TrappedSoulstone]

Currently level 1 artificer 10/16/14/16/8/8, first life, no tomes, no gear, no VIP but some interesting goodies:
- Greater Tome of Heroic Learning

unless tome is bound to character save it for first few lifes - it is not needed

- 6 y.o. cake (so, I guess, technically = one +2 tome)

+2 tome isnt much, popping Cake Loving Djinni once in a while is fun.

- 2 mil. heroic XP stone; 4 mil. epic XP stone; some +30% XP pots. Stones are BtC and cannot be trasferred.

join someone on your first life to 20 - its fast, then decide if you want go to 2nd-3rd life fast with stones. or go to 20 then iconic to 30 is a good option.

- One +0 Lesser Heart, one +20 Lesser Heart
- One Raider's Box
- Snowy Owlbear Certificate

Can try some fancy builds with heart if you wish. For raider reward i can only suggest spear or shortsword

 

[Qrvar]

You should start farming 1st time favor on a new server with a toon that has zero favor.
Otherwise you will lose all rewards below the first you cross.
For example, if you transfer a character with 999 favor, then cross 1000 favor, you get 100 DDO points for first time 1000, but will not get first-time rewards for 5,25,50,500 favor on that server any more, ever.

I think he ran like Haverdasher or something and that's it, so he's good. The toon was created for the 2014 (?) bridge protests so he didn't participate in any questing.

Use the heroic stone, reincarnate to iconic. Reach 20, use the next stone and reincarnate again.
Then you have an elite opener! Pretty perfect for favor farming a new server .

This is brilliant, thank you! Don't have any tokens / TR hearts unfortunately, but hopefully I can pike some LOD / VON groups.

 

[Zaszgul]

I'm doing the same thing x3 - I transferred a toon with free stones from wayfinder to each "non-main" server. In my case I also transferred some gear, tokens and heart seeds so my situation is a bit different. Also, I don't really plan to put a lot of time into these servers past favor farming. Plus I also have 5 other accounts to multibox with, but no free stones on them.

My plan:
1. Use the Heroic Otto's to hit 20. TR immediately.
2. Reincarnate as an iconic. Can only open hard in heroics, but starting at 15 makes this not a big deal. Open Elite/R in epics. Solo only with main account, since alts don't have iconics unlocked. Level to 30 or a bit beyond, completing all sagas.
3. Do an ER, eat all saga stones, eat Epic Ottos to hit 30 immediately again.
4. IR back down to level 1. Can now open E/R for all 6 accounts. Will do every quest in the game from level 1 to clear full favor.

 

[magaiti]

Use the heroic stone, reincarnate to iconic. Reach 20, use the next stone and reincarnate again.

Iconics can't reincarnate at 20

 

[Zaszgul]

Some other food for thought: they will eventually open up free transfers between the 64-bit servers, possibly at the same time the 32-bit worlds return as ghosts (which Cordovan recently said should be soon). If you wait a few days, you might have an opportunity to transfer tokens, heart seeds and surplus gear & tomes, etc from another server before you embark on your favor quest.

 

[Igognito]

Iconics can't reincarnate at 20

he has also an epic stone of xp. which will cap him immediately :-D so yeah he only needs to reach lvl 20 and he is ready to go (plus gather some seeds)

 

[Igognito]

Some other food for thought: they will eventually open up free transfers between the 64-bit servers, possibly at the same time the 32-bit worlds return as ghosts (which Cordovan recently said should be soon). If you wait a few days, you might have an opportunity to transfer tokens, heart seeds and surplus gear & tomes, etc from another server before you embark on your favor quest.

might be risky... as it will have a form of packing that would probably transfer banks/shards/etc...
But yes, it might be possible to send a toon with tokens/seeds to spare some of the grind.

 

[magaiti]

he has also an epic stone of xp. which will cap him immediately :-D so yeah he only needs to reach lvl 20 and he is ready to go (plus gather some seeds)

4 mil epic xp is not enough to leap from 20 to 30, that's a 8.25 mil gap. A 50% pot can help but still.
Well, it may be faster than another 1-20, if we consider these XP stones as freebies

 

[Igognito]

4 mil epic xp is not enough to leap from 20 to 30, that's a 8.25 mil gap. A 50% pot can help but still.

hmm I thought it was the xp needed for reaching lvl 30. Okay, then getting some extra xp will be needed. That means pot, xp tome, (he has the epic xp tome I think and I guess ship buff and a voice).

 

[magaiti]

Thank you for all the insights! Tough choices indeed. Might go for the rush to 20 on first life, as I've literally no gear on the server and would probably get destroyed in low epics trying to farm tokens.

Any thoughts on current state of Artificer - is it a good class for the rush to 20? What would be the best build?

You my go pure caster, melee or crossbows.
I'd say melee is not exciting, and caster is fine if you like casters.
Pure arty is naturally good with Repeating crossbows (Battle Engineer).
6 rogue splash is good with great crossbows (T5 in Mechanic, T4 Battle Engineer)
Any class can be good for Inquisitive (if you have it).
Keep in mind you have to get INT to hit and damage somewhere.
Common sources include:
- Harper Agent (!!! not unlocked on the new server unless you bought it from store)
- Arty spells, but only one at a time (t-hit OR damage).
- Rogue Mechanic 3rd core (to damage)
On heroic you can get by only having int to damage (from spell or rogue splash), and dex to hit (which crossbows have by default).