Are past lives overrated?

Are past lives overrated?​

As with many things in DDO, the answer is complicated, and depending on the day you will get two very different answers on the forums.

From many people who have gathered all of the past lives, you will hear that they are overrated and that player skill (both in how exactly you're running around the map/quest and in having the right feats and enhancements for that specific build) and gear are the main factors of being highly dangerous/useful in high reaper content.
From people who have gathered a few and felt that their game has gotten easier, you will usually hear that past lives contribute a ton.

In my experience of having played since '09 and having gotten all the completionist feats so far, is that it depends on what content are you running. Anything below level 20 I feel like a demi-god if I am running R1 or less, but after level 20 I have to pick and choose my gear carefully, or else I become mortal again. I have a first-life character sitting at level 32 and 'fully' geared it IS less powerful than my main when doing the same thing with the same gear but not by a lot. At cap, my gear gives me most of what makes my character dangerous or useful and my experience playing DDO is what lets me know that this specific combination of things from gear/feats/enhancements either stacks or doesn't stack or is useful or not all that useful based on my play style.

At the end of the day I just have to say that if all you want to do is run through lower-level content blowing it away with little effort, you can do that either by having a bunch of past lives or by lowering the difficulty. If you want to be useful at level cap, you mainly need a solid build and to spend the time to get the right/perfect gear for you. If you find that you want to ek out those final small bits of power at cap, then you have a long road ahead of you.

If you are a newer player, I advise that you just find out what you enjoy in DDO and do that. Too many people focus on past lives and turn DDO into a job/chore, then burn out and are never seen again.

 

[Rage]

My ultimate advice to you is this:

Just pretend you have all Racial and Epic past lives and imagine you’re solo’ing all the content.

Illustration of your imagined accomplishment:

Then,

#1 Use the time and money saved to get yourself jacked(IRL),

#2 Meet hot chicks,

#3 Cure cancer,

 

[Supot]

Grinding past lives isn't fun for me. It is too easy. It is faster if you play the same build which makes it more boring.

I also got bored playing my main toon who has the most past lives and reaper points.
For these reasons, I chose to divide my time and resources on multiple characters.
Worth it = time having fun.

Gaining reaper points over 115+ doesn't give anything anymore for me except for HP so gaining more points on my main isn't fun anymore. Going from 0 to 75 reaper points is more fun for new toons, instead of going from 0-200 on one main toon.

You can only play one build at a time if only investing in 1 toon. If i want to play another build, I have to TR and take 10-14 days to get back to cap. There have been many times where I wanted to try a new build but I still wanted to play my current one.
Being able to have multiple fully geared toons at cap lets me play whoever I want to, or raid as much as i want, or have the option to choose who I want to TR to make a new build, and choose who I wish to keep.

-Their gear also doesn't feel wasted. I spent many lives gearing my main toon, planning my gear tetris meticulously, only to play the toon for a week, and then TR to something else. Gear is wasted. Use jeweler's toolkits to remove Augments, etc.

 

[SongandTime]

Are past lives overrated?​

As with many things in DDO, the answer is complicated, and depending on the day you will get two very different answers on the forums.

From many people who have gathered all of the past lives, you will hear that they are overrated and that player skill (both in how exactly you're running around the map/quest and in having the right feats and enhancements for that specific build) and gear are the main factors of being highly dangerous/useful in high reaper content.
From people who have gathered a few and felt that their game has gotten easier, you will usually hear that past lives contribute a ton.

In my experience of having played since '09 and having gotten all the completionist feats so far, is that it depends on what content are you running. Anything below level 20 I feel like a demi-god if I am running R1 or less, but after level 20 I have to pick and choose my gear carefully, or else I become mortal again. I have a first-life character sitting at level 32 and 'fully' geared it IS less powerful than my main when doing the same thing with the same gear but not by a lot. At cap, my gear gives me most of what makes my character dangerous or useful and my experience playing DDO is what lets me know that this specific combination of things from gear/feats/enhancements either stacks or doesn't stack or is useful or not all that useful based on my play style.

At the end of the day I just have to say that if all you want to do is run through lower-level content blowing it away with little effort, you can do that either by having a bunch of past lives or by lowering the difficulty. If you want to be useful at level cap, you mainly need a solid build and to spend the time to get the right/perfect gear for you. If you find that you want to ek out those final small bits of power at cap, then you have a long road ahead of you.

If you are a newer player, I advise that you just find out what you enjoy in DDO and do that. Too many people focus on past lives and turn DDO into a job/chore, then burn out and are never seen again.

perfectly said

 

[Shear-buckler]

It is true that the reincarnation grind easily burns people out, but it is also true that the benefits of completing that grind brings massive advantages.

The design of pulling people into a burn-out grind is questionable at best.

 

[Cmecu]

New players are just getting left behind. I feel awful when i see new players just entering the quest and the zergers ahead have already completely 80% of the content. Heck i have seen quests completed before even the new players actually enter the quest.

ROFL I was just thinking this.. You join a group, and by the time you run there and click on portal to go in, it shows a fresh instance.

Where you all at? Oh we are in the next one.. so you run to that one, and they are done on their way to next.. COGS is notorious for this Some of those quests you can do in under 2 minutes

If I join a group, I normally run to the quest then click on on join, then enter right away.. Some groups I been in, the leader waits until everyone is in.

 

[GrizzlyOso]

ROFL I was just thinking this.. You join a group, and by the time you run there and click on portal to go in, it shows a fresh instance.

Where you all at? Oh we are in the next one.. so you run to that one, and they are done on their way to next.. COGS is notorious for this Some of those quests you can do in under 2 minutes

If I join a group, I normally run to the quest then click on on join, then enter right away.. Some groups I been in, the leader waits until everyone is in.

Those are the best groups possible. Send them all my way please.

I’ll get the dishes and laundry done any time.

Mostly find myself in groups where you have to prod someone to start at all. One minute of buffs ? Wait! Hang on! Some more buffs! For a quest literally no one needs buffs for.