To spend or not to spend?

[The Narc2]

Yeah, I've already reached 100 DDO points. I definitely plan to invest them in adventure packs at some point.

Unfortunately is sounds like you missed out on the coupon code that gave most of the old adventure packs away, which gave new players a chance to play with most of the community. This game unlike most other games holds on to their content very tightly in hopes that they can squeeze more money out of people, new players that arrived after the code give away are in a very difficult spot for finding quest mates.

In your situation with very limited access to content, for gear i suggest you focus on cannith crafting as that will give you great options, find vet friends that will actually help you, not the ones that suggest you buy the collectibles off the astral shard auction house(these ones are self investing as they are selling you the collectibles). Some vet friends if you get good ones will buy you guest passes to xpacs and pass you gear so you can acquire things.

As a FTP my first recommendation is to unlock your shared bank first and foremost as this is vital in managing acquired loot(especially bound to account), and be sure to use the 100SLOTS coupon that is active right now because apparently it is remembered as used even if you havent unlocked the base shared bank yet.

As for buying packs that will give you quick base gear to be successful thru the game, i suggest first the slavers pack as the crafted gear in there has both heroic and epic value. Then i would say the Sands of Menechtarun second as the gear in their will fill the unused holes in your slavers set. And finally gianthold for both heroic and epic content and access to the jewelled cloak(a spell absorption item).

Places to get a vet to share a guest pass with you are Delera’s in order to get your self a voice and if its a quick group, you could acquire an epic voice on the same pass. Threnal to get your mantle of the worldshaper a spell absorption cloak that will help in tricky situations.

Hope that helps some.

 

[AlimonyJFMSU]

Unfortunately is sounds like you missed out on the coupon code that gave most of the old adventure packs away, which gave new players a chance to play with most of the community. This game unlike most other games holds on to their content very tightly in hopes that they can squeeze more money out of people, new players that arrived after the code give away are in a very difficult spot for finding quest mates.

In your situation with very limited access to content, for gear i suggest you focus on cannith crafting as that will give you great options, find vet friends that will actually help you, not the ones that suggest you buy the collectibles off the astral shard auction house(these ones are self investing as they are selling you the collectibles). Some vet friends if you get good ones will buy you guest passes to xpacs and pass you gear so you can acquire things.

As a FTP my first recommendation is to unlock your shared bank first and foremost as this is vital in managing acquired loot(especially bound to account), and be sure to use the 100SLOTS coupon that is active right now because apparently it is remembered as used even if you havent unlocked the base shared bank yet.

As for buying packs that will give you quick base gear to be successful thru the game, i suggest first the slavers pack as the crafted gear in there has both heroic and epic value. Then i would say the Sands of Menechtarun second as the gear in their will fill the unused holes in your slavers set. And finally gianthold for both heroic and epic content and access to the jewelled cloak(a spell absorption item).

Places to get a vet to share a guest pass with you are Delera’s in order to get your self a voice and if its a quick group, you could acquire an epic voice on the same pass. Threnal to get your mantle of the worldshaper a spell absorption cloak that will help in tricky situations.

Hope that helps some.

Oh well, maybe one day they'll give some of the old adventure packs away again. I actually tried buying some of the expacs when they were 85% off, but the site literally wouldn't accept my payment. I'm basically forced to be F2P.

 

[Zyniiya]

As for buying packs that will give you quick base gear to be successful thru the game, i suggest first the slavers pack as the crafted gear in there has both heroic and epic value. Then i would say the Sands of Menechtarun second as the gear in their will fill the unused holes in your slavers set. And finally gianthold for both heroic and epic content and access to the jewelled cloak(a spell absorption item).

As someone that came back to the game in Oct/Nov missed the codes couldn't remember their old account and tried to play F2P for a couple of months before recovering their old account I would 100% ONLY worry about getting Gianthold if they don't get a free code by the time they save up 950 DDO Points. Simply because the XP from that pack is going to supplement XP from the F2P Diplo Chain and should get them to L16/17 for the F2P Web of Chaos chain and with the explorer being full XP to L18 they can likely bank to cap pretty easy.

As a plus it's the easier one to find a party to run with then the other two packs.

XP REALLY slows down around L13 for a F2P.

 

[Syrius]

In WoW, players who are leveling are generally discouraged from buying anything in the auction house until they reach max level based on the notion that leveling gear gets rotated out regularly, isn't an efficient use of funds, and can be acquired normally without purchasing. Does this same dynamic apply in DDO?

Platinum at end game becomes laregely worthless, a paid currency takes over.
So spend plat as you see fit.
There are more and less efficient uses, but by endgame its all the same, sat on a million plat wondering what to do with it.

 

[Neon Puce]

You'll have unlimited plat fairly early on, but imo there's never anything worthwhile on the AH these days. You might find a +1 skill tome for 2 mil plat --no, you should not buy it.

The shard exchange is mostly pointless, too. Unless someone has underpriced a tome, or you're push raiding and want to blow shards on radiant forcefield pots or something, you don't need anything from the SE either.

Just farm what gear you need (put up an LFM; people will help if they are not FROZEN). Make sure to get your free +2 tome each life (+5 if you're patient). Save your points for content (unlocks, xpacs) or for whenever +8 universal tomes go on sale and then buy one.

Someone had a tome exchange thing going on one of the old servers; maybe they're still doing that.

If you want astral shards and/or hit the plat cap, stop selling your greens to vendors and instead crunch them into essences then sell stacks of them on the shard exchange.

 

[Archest]

the ah is based on game accrued plat not real money. shard exchange is real money . sped it wisely in the shard exchange the AH is used for leveling at low levels as that equipment cycles fast. crafting at higher level's and shard exchange for wants , wants badly or desires

 

[Smokewolf]

In WoW, players who are leveling are generally discouraged from buying anything in the auction house until they reach max level based on the notion that leveling gear gets rotated out regularly, isn't an efficient use of funds, and can be acquired normally without purchasing. Does this same dynamic apply in DDO?

Point-Blank AH is for sucker's. Either they don't have what your after due to BtC / BtA restrictions, or the prices are so high as to make your eyes bleed. Beyond that, SSG pretty-much killed off the AH years ago, with all of the restrictions to counter Rus / Asian plat farmers.

Instead, what I'd suggest is that most gear can be acquired via farming at the appropriate level. For instance while at cap (lvl 34) I'll run around and farm stuff in advance of my next TR, as do most players.

 

[Grimscore_Riffstorm]

No.

I just love that it was a yes or no question and this is the only answer haha

 

[Jhenissa]

Point-Blank AH is for sucker's. Either they don't have what your after due to BtC / BtA restrictions, or the prices are so high as to make your eyes bleed. Beyond that, SSG pretty-much killed off the AH years ago, with all of the restrictions to counter Rus / Asian plat farmers.

Instead, what I'd suggest is that most gear can be acquired via farming at the appropriate level. For instance while at cap (lvl 34) I'll run around and farm stuff in advance of my next TR, as do most players.

AH was killed off at the same time the gold economy was killed off. It coincided with the 1st Crystal Cove event and had nothing to do with plat farmers.

It was just one of countless foot shootings this game has inflicted upon itself.

 

[Zyniiya]

AH was killed off at the same time the gold economy was killed off. It coincided with the 1st Crystal Cove event and had nothing to do with plat farmers.

It was just one of countless foot shootings this game has inflicted upon itself.

Wow the first Crystal Cove I played that event SO MUCH I still have some green dragonshards kicking around I think that's the event they were from.

 

[Smokewolf]

AH was killed off at the same time the gold economy was killed off. It coincided with the 1st Crystal Cove event and had nothing to do with plat farmers.

It was just one of countless foot shootings this game has inflicted upon itself.

While the timing of the specific events is a little foggy, I do remember the why...

It had everything to do with the plat-farmers, especially when they were duping Otto-Stones in mass and selling them on the AH. Turbine, seeing their cash-cow being disrupted, chose to act in a decisive, heavy-handed way that the AH never really recovered from. The side effect of locking down the AH was that the BtA / BtC items (indirectly) worked to slow player progression. Thus helping SSG make more sales down the line as players sought the means to enhance their progression.