If you were to have only 1 past life getter
- Thread starter choco1212
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Xgya
Well-known member
I did most of my racials as an Inquisitive.
If I had to do it again, I'd probably go for that yet again.
Rogue 6/Ranger 12/Arti 2.
I'd probably re-do my progression, since all of this happened before the Improved Precise Shot nerf that makes that one feat feel a lot less essential than it used to, but otherwise Inq is still a very solid pick both for heroics and epics.
If I had to do it again, I'd probably go for that yet again.
Rogue 6/Ranger 12/Arti 2.
I'd probably re-do my progression, since all of this happened before the Improved Precise Shot nerf that makes that one feat feel a lot less essential than it used to, but otherwise Inq is still a very solid pick both for heroics and epics.
Enoach
Well-known member
I am on my last 3 lives for current races on two characters. One I ran only as a cleric and the other only as a wizard.
I'm currently also at about 60+ Reaper points on both usually running 3 solo (with pets and hires) and more when grouped.
The reason I picked Cleric was because there are so many different ways to play a cleric, even more options were added when domains entered the decision path and now we have another cleric option with Dark Apostate.
I choose both of these because they are fun for me as well as the gear I had was already set. Now there are some races where it will be a bit tougher as they are not really best for the class chosen.
Through all this time leveling all I'm going to say is for me being able to switch up the playstyle from caster heavy to melee to range kept me from being bored with the build.
I'm currently also at about 60+ Reaper points on both usually running 3 solo (with pets and hires) and more when grouped.
The reason I picked Cleric was because there are so many different ways to play a cleric, even more options were added when domains entered the decision path and now we have another cleric option with Dark Apostate.
I choose both of these because they are fun for me as well as the gear I had was already set. Now there are some races where it will be a bit tougher as they are not really best for the class chosen.
Through all this time leveling all I'm going to say is for me being able to switch up the playstyle from caster heavy to melee to range kept me from being bored with the build.
TrinityTurtle
Forum Turtle
I do a lot of mine on the sun cleric, inquisitor rogue, or ice sorc, because I *like* how they play. I'm fast and good at them.
Legit, it does not matter what class build you want to play for racial leveling. Choose the one that *you* enjoy playing, and are good at. Or choose a different one every life if boredome is an issue for you. Whatever your presonal play strengths and enjoyment are is your best option.
Some players are amazing barbarians, some are awesome druids, others rock the warlocks, every class out there someone is fantastic at. Just find your personal awesome and rock those racials lives!
Legit, it does not matter what class build you want to play for racial leveling. Choose the one that *you* enjoy playing, and are good at. Or choose a different one every life if boredome is an issue for you. Whatever your presonal play strengths and enjoyment are is your best option.
Some players are amazing barbarians, some are awesome druids, others rock the warlocks, every class out there someone is fantastic at. Just find your personal awesome and rock those racials lives!
droid327
Hardcore casual soloist
Yeah Inqui is generally the gold standard for plug-and-play lives
I like 17 Wiz/3 Arti because Death Aura will be all the healing you need 90% of the time, and you get a steady progression of imbue dice to go with Inqui's superior imbue.
But there are a lot of builds you could choose, depending what you like - you're mainly just looking for four things:
- Self-sustain, ie defense and enough healing to cover what gets through
- AOE damage, so you can quickly clear packs. Ranged AOE is even better. Spammable AOE is best so you dont need to wait on cooldowns.
- Not a late-bloomer build...you dont want to have to wait till L15 or 18 or 20 before it "finally gets good". Pure class or very light splashes tend to peak earlier.
- Move speed
I like 17 Wiz/3 Arti because Death Aura will be all the healing you need 90% of the time, and you get a steady progression of imbue dice to go with Inqui's superior imbue.
But there are a lot of builds you could choose, depending what you like - you're mainly just looking for four things:
- Self-sustain, ie defense and enough healing to cover what gets through
- AOE damage, so you can quickly clear packs. Ranged AOE is even better. Spammable AOE is best so you dont need to wait on cooldowns.
- Not a late-bloomer build...you dont want to have to wait till L15 or 18 or 20 before it "finally gets good". Pure class or very light splashes tend to peak earlier.
- Move speed
Honkin
Well-known member
It's hard to beat sorcerer once you get over the hump at level 5. Fire until 12, then t5 air with fire capstone until you can get EA wings at 26. Really, any build if you have the right gear and you know the playstyle well (30+ lives now as an arcane, many more if you include other casters).
Personally I like to alternate so I learn more about other playstyles and creating builds. I've been alternating racial lives as a sorc with other builds - Dragonlord WF, SWF pally, blightcaster, and currently spellsinger bard. If it turns out that I don't like a build, at least I know that I can TR at 20 or 30 back into sorc like I just got home from a long day and put on sweatpants.
Personally I like to alternate so I learn more about other playstyles and creating builds. I've been alternating racial lives as a sorc with other builds - Dragonlord WF, SWF pally, blightcaster, and currently spellsinger bard. If it turns out that I don't like a build, at least I know that I can TR at 20 or 30 back into sorc like I just got home from a long day and put on sweatpants.
Shear-buckler
Master of reactions
If you want to play melee I recommend monk. Works with handwraps and quarterstaff.
Very strong and very fast.
Very strong and very fast.
PainStealer
Well-known member
Fire Cleric.
I've done many lives as Sorc, Warlock, FVS, Wizard and for me they all pale in comparison to the Fire Domain cleric. Amazing self healing and amazing AOE SLAs. Falconry gives you sprint boost and away you go.
I've done many lives as Sorc, Warlock, FVS, Wizard and for me they all pale in comparison to the Fire Domain cleric. Amazing self healing and amazing AOE SLAs. Falconry gives you sprint boost and away you go.
Ying
5000+ hours played
Out of the hundreds of heroic past lives I've done, Fire Sorc is hands down the fastest. There's plenty of pre-level 12 content where you can avoid fire-immune mobs. Fireball will carry you through R1s until Delayed Blast Fireball. Quests have so many shrines you always have enough mana. Gather up packs of mobs, nuke. Rinse and repeat until 20.
Warlock is also an effective choice, though it's boring and slower than Sorc.
Warlock is also an effective choice, though it's boring and slower than Sorc.
I honestly don't understand people who just want to use one build to go through the past life grind. Sure, it'll be a bit faster than coming up with, gearing and playing a new build for each life, but it sounds like a great way to get burned out and never actually finish said grind to me. Not to mention the fact that character building is one of DDO's strong points, and skipping that entirely sounds horribly boring.
Imo, you should put more care into the journey instead of only thinking about having fun once your character has all past lives, especially since most past lives give a negligible boost to an endgame character, depending on build.
That being said, personally I've found that what's important to make leveling as fast as possible is high run speed and high burst aoe dps. Sorcs are the best at the latter and unlike other casters they're good from level 1, while monks are best at the former. Staff monks are probably the best compromise. Either way, having falconry available for sprint boost will shave some time off every life, so it's highly recommended.
Imo, you should put more care into the journey instead of only thinking about having fun once your character has all past lives, especially since most past lives give a negligible boost to an endgame character, depending on build.
That being said, personally I've found that what's important to make leveling as fast as possible is high run speed and high burst aoe dps. Sorcs are the best at the latter and unlike other casters they're good from level 1, while monks are best at the former. Staff monks are probably the best compromise. Either way, having falconry available for sprint boost will shave some time off every life, so it's highly recommended.
Phoenicis
Savage's Husband
You touched on my reason: Gearing.
Gearing up for multiple builds takes alot of inventory space. Running one build repeatedly eliminates most of that. Running three and cycling between them isn't as efficient as sticking to one, but it's still better than switching out for something different every life.
Honkin
Well-known member
Inventory and cosmetics are the real end-game of DDO.
Leveling gear is actually not that bad once you start slotting in augments. Saltmarsh, Feywild, Ravenloft, Sharn will cover all of your non-weapon gear and is nice and compact. Then it's just making sure you have the weapons lined up for each life. Caster sticks are simpler in that aspect. It can be a pain keeping a golf bag of kukris, daggers, repeater, crossbows, falchions, longswords, etc. around.
Endgame gear is another matter if you plan on running raids and r10's at cap. I streamlined all my gear around charisma casters (fvs, sorc, warlock, bard) and strength builds (barb, pally, fighter). Just now starting to do some int (artificer, inquis, wiz, alchem) and wis (cleric, druid) builds while I build out that part of my collection. But you don't need to do that optimization for leveling gear unless you plan on doing high skulls for a challenge.
Leveling gear is actually not that bad once you start slotting in augments. Saltmarsh, Feywild, Ravenloft, Sharn will cover all of your non-weapon gear and is nice and compact. Then it's just making sure you have the weapons lined up for each life. Caster sticks are simpler in that aspect. It can be a pain keeping a golf bag of kukris, daggers, repeater, crossbows, falchions, longswords, etc. around.
Endgame gear is another matter if you plan on running raids and r10's at cap. I streamlined all my gear around charisma casters (fvs, sorc, warlock, bard) and strength builds (barb, pally, fighter). Just now starting to do some int (artificer, inquis, wiz, alchem) and wis (cleric, druid) builds while I build out that part of my collection. But you don't need to do that optimization for leveling gear unless you plan on doing high skulls for a challenge.
ok, but you don't actually need to optimize gear for leveling. For instance, using the same set of gear for a barb life and a monk one is fine, you just need to switch armor and replace strength gear with wisdom one. As for the inventory space, that's what mules are for. I keep one alt for lvl 5 melee gear, 1 for lvl 10 ranged gear, etc...
It's only at cap that you need to play gear tetris, and if you're focused on past life grinding, you probably won't spend much time at cap.
Shear-buckler
Master of reactions
If you level without running some reaper at cap you are wasting a lot of rxp and progression. Re-doing your end game gear is expensive and time consuming, and that is where the gear matters the most too.
2 Mill rxp in a life is doable doing all the r10's.
So 13 lives and your reaper capped.
From there can ignore the need for endgame re gearing, quite worth imo, can even be lazier and just go for like 100 reaper points to get majority of the benefit from reaper trees.
I agree, but I know plenty of people who just run 1-30 and immediately TR (or even 1-20 for people who have all epic lives). For those, there is zero need to worry about gear optimization.