Best Solo-Friendly Classes for New Players

[Br4d]

Pale Trapper is good for a new player. There are lots of options on how to build and incorporating melee damage is pretty easy.

#1 SWF - SWF, Improved SWF, Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, Insightful Reflexes, Spell Penetration. Requires 7 Balance and 13 Dex. Things not perfect: no stance (Precision ceded to Spell Penetration), Light Armor or less (for Evasion). Potential Dex to Hit and Damage from Assassin. Potential Imbue build. Potential Instakiller build.

#2 THF - THF, Improved THF, Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, Whirlwind Attack, Spell Penetration. Requires 17 Str and 13 Dex. Things not perfect: no stance (Precision ceded to Spell Penetration or Whirlwind Attack), Light Armor or less (for Evasion). Potential Int to Hit and Damage from Harper Agent. Potential Instakiller build. Walking AoE in the thick of things most of the time.

The biggest issue is the balance between being able to cast spells effectively and melee effectively. The only spells you will cast at high effectiveness are IK's and AoE's and you'll have to bring everything else in melee.

 

[Matuse]

Traps on normal are no danger to anyone.
They are a nuisance at best, not a danger.

You should try watching a new player, they pop up every so often on Twitch trying the game out.

Traps on normal WRECK them.

 

[Weaponalpha]

Class of your choice with self heals and go Inquisitive. 12 points in Harper Agent for Int to hit and damage plus Know the Angles battle trance and fill up Inq tree with essentials for huge damage and survivability i.e. mostly no fail saves. Some classes easier than others but most impact will come from ranged Inq DPS. I prefer trapping and evasion so 18 Arti 2 Rog for great self healing and boost to damage spells. Best if Warforged but fleshies are fine. You even get 4 bonus feats. The main thing is ranged which is super new toon friendly as you can kill things before they reach you and find safe spots melees cannot. Inq because they do the most damage. When the question is, "What is an easy..." the answer is always Inquisitive.

 

[droid327]

Potential Dex to Hit and Damage from Assassin.

Not with /2 Rogue you're not...requires /3 for DEX to dmg

The biggest issue is the balance between being able to cast spells effectively and melee effectively. The only spells you will cast at high effectiveness are IK's and AoE's and you'll have to bring everything else in melee.

I never had a problem on my 18 Wiz/2 Arti being able to effectively use CC like Disco Ball, Mass Hold, even Greater Shout while still maintaining full investment into my weapon DPS. Though that might depend also on past lives, +8 tome, etc. too, since we're talking about new players. But still - dont think you'll have trouble casting on Elite or R1, once you get there, which new players wont be right away.

Wiz AOE nuking is kinda weak though IME, without the MCLs of other nuker classes, and with limited SPs. Dont think you need to spend a feat for Spell Pen either.

 

[Br4d]

Not with /2 Rogue you're not...requires /3 for DEX to dmg



I never had a problem on my 18 Wiz/2 Arti being able to effectively use CC like Disco Ball, Mass Hold, even Greater Shout while still maintaining full investment into my weapon DPS. Though that might depend also on past lives, +8 tome, etc. too, since we're talking about new players. But still - dont think you'll have trouble casting on Elite or R1, once you get there, which new players wont be right away.

Wiz AOE nuking is kinda weak though IME, without the MCLs of other nuker classes, and with limited SPs. Dont think you need to spend a feat for Spell Pen either.

I mostly use Arcane Tempest and fight in it. Very good ticking AE to fight in on E and R1. "Step into the purple with me and only one of us will step out and it is not going to be you."

I can use Disco Ball without a lot of issues on E and R1 however it makes the fights boring and it uses mana which I try to reserve for things that actually speed up fights.

 

[LurkingVeteran]

Pale trapper is a great solo exploration class but it takes some preparation to execute on muti-class builds.

Pure Wiz-PM or PM+EK is pretty good as well, but probably want to go shield and max MRR to make up for loss of Evasion. FvS and Cleric are similar just a bit more defensive options. Druid is really versatile but more complex and not F2P.

Pure Paladin is a no brainer, good saves, just get some MRR. Most variants of Artie are in this category as well. As is Ranger, but it doesn't really start to shine until L10+ when it gets both workable heals, evasion and the required gear to make it work.

Another, simple, classic is Rogue TA staff build. You can deal with traps, staff THF is straightforward, and it is pretty fast and fun. Just needs a hireling healer or some race that can heal.

These days I suspect that any branch of Monk with Shintao for Healing Hand is also very friendly, just make sure to max whatever main stat that the tree gives stat to dmg on (dex/wis, or str). It's basically a cloth-paladin with evasion now. This means you a) get to heal and b) can run through traps, without any complicated multi-classing, and works earlier than ranger. Just get your reflex save up.

 

[Purr]

For brand new players, something with evasion and lockpicking (and doing locked doors and chests) would be fun, I think. If you have access to warforged, a warforged rogue 2, eldrich knight 18 is a lot of fun because it has self healing through repair spells, buff and resist spells, and does melee damage with sword, shield, two handed sword, whatever. Really shows off a lot of the melee action and let's you feel like you can handle anything the game throws at you on normal or hard, and gives you a little forgiveness on traps while you learn where they are.

 

[danzig138]

If you have access to warforged

Of course, as noted, most new players aren't going to have access to warforged.

 

[Kutalp]

Pure Rogue with Harper tree Intelligence to Hit and Damage . The rest is optiomal.

Rogue 2 with Wizard

or Artificer or Alchemist.

Rogue/Bard.

Much more to do then simply Nuke spam spells or Melee. Flexible and fun. Can use magical items and possible roleplay options for quests.

 

[Positive thinking]

Human rogue/barbarian/wizard is a great place to start for a brand new free to play player that wants to be able to solo.

Just find a veteran player to help you layout the build progression. You can learn many of the different aspects of the game with this build alone, melee/ranged/spell casting /imbues/self-healing/trapping/aspects of gear(armor and weapons)/saving throws/fortification/spell resistance/a variety of enhancement tree(especially as you unlock some of them)

Tips for brand new players that are completely free to play with this build.

Firstly, every day pick up your free cannith challenge token in house c, use these in epics at level 21 to get your tokens of the twelve as quick as possible as you may not own content that will get you tokens of the twelve.

Secondly, first life level as fast as you can to level 21 so you can run your tokens and TR to unlock hard setting, repeat this so that you can unlock elite setting. If you can unlock 1750 on these lives then great you will add a +2 ability tome to your character which is permanent.

Thirdly, save all your DDO points to buy content when it is cheap, always hold atleast a 1000 in your store for those really special offers like when they give out the 50% off discount code or when they are selling some older expansion for 99 DDO points, although my guess based off the way the game is going that we may not see any of these in the future and if that is the case make sure packs you buy are spread out in levels and have good returns like the ones that have both heroic and epic(legendary ones can come later), for example three-barrel cove, sands of menechaturen, gianthold as these are excellent and also provide some great advantages gear wise. I prefer gianthold as it has a saga that you will be able to repeat to add +3 skill tomes to your character whilst earning an epic past life or two, as well as giving you access to relics and the augments they can buy(plus I love all the dragons).

Also try to build your own solo guild, as for free to play this can become your own personal storage which is very limited on free to play. Ask for ship invites from others to get buffs when you are running in groups.

This game is completely free to play if you know how to bypass many of the paywalls and ignore the ones you cant get around.

In EXTREME MV Permadeath on Argonessen we do a lot of teaching for free to play, and worst case scenario if you die alot at low level you are going to pile up the ddo points as all the guildies are helping you by opening quests on elite.