EagleJoust
Member
So I got the freeddo24 coupon for the free quests. I will likely buy the trove pack so if that's the case which pack do you recommend of the remaining options for the year if the dragon freebie?
Which Free xPack for new player
- Thread starter EagleJoust
- Start date
PurpleSerpent
Monster Hunter of Moderate Renown
Let's just quickly recap the remaining options:
- Sharn loot is great for entering Epic levels for the first time, and can still do quite well at cap. It's unlikely to be useful straight away, but you'll want to pick it up at some point. On the other hand, it already gets heavily discounted in sales and gets given away nearly free whenever a free quest code comes out, so buying it now might be a bit of a waste.
- Feywild offers fantastic loot for heroic levelling and is also still fairly good at the level cap.
- As much as I like the quests in Saltmarsh, and although it's level 3 and thus you'll definitely be able to run it straight away, Feywild overshadows this pack in terms of both heroic loot quality and ease of levelling, and the Legendary loot isn't much to write home about either. It's probably not worth claiming it this way.
- Isle of Dread is the most expensive pack on offer, and it's fantastic for players at the level cap, since it currently offers most of the meta endgame loot. For a new player, though? Not really as valuable. The heroic loot is fairly underwhelming, and it's much less convenient for first-time levelling since you have to run around a massive wilderness on your first go because teleporting doesn't work until you complete certain key quests. Also, the fact that the level cap is being raised with Myth Drannor this summer means it probably won't be the Legendary endgame content for very long by the time you reach that level of play.
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The_Apocalypse
The Chosen One
Isle of Dread. Most useful and most expensive.
Solarpower
Well-known member
If you do - Sharn. If don't - Ravenloft.
The only benefit of Saltmarsh - good XP at lvl 3-5. But even if you are lacking XP at those levels, don't get it ahead of other packs.
Isle of Dread is useless unless you are planning to stay at lvl 32 for a while. It's just the most expensive pack in the list.
It being the most expensive pack in the list would be a good reason to pick it, no?
It certainly would be my pick. Heroic IoD is by far the most interesting content at level and very far from being useless. (wow)
Both Sharn and Ravenloft are periodically offered for 99 points. We're not going to see that for Isle of Dread for a long while.
I would argue that the greater utility of Saltmarsh is a soft start for the epic levels, you play it on heroic, getting gear that can be upgraded with materials that drop from said heroics to level 20 gear. It complements the Sharn ( heroic) gear very well i think. Also, unless you have more past lives than sense, don't go to Saltmarch with a level 3 toon and expect a nice time, it's the first "modern" content for those levels and the challenge is pretty harsh unless you have a full set of named gear.
cursedblessedone
Trigger Me Elmo
Now I want Saltmarsh! Saddens me how easy DDO has gotten on normal and hard difficulty then the disproportionate leaps and bounds in difficulties, sometimes in elite, often in R2+ content, unless you stacked with TR'ing perks and other things average players don't.
Mornyngstar
Well-known member
A few factors to consider. If you are going to buy the trove anyways then we can skip Menace of The Underdark, Shadows over Wheloon and Ravenloft. If you don't mind waiting until next Anniversary in February, then also skip Feywild and Sharn (they had them on sale for 99 store points each and most likely will again. This leaves Saltmarsh and Isle of Dread (ran into this with my alt accounts). Price wise I went with Isle of Dread. Unlike what others have said about Feywild being superior to Saltmarsh they keep skipping the fact that you can upgrade the heroic gear to lv 20 epic gear. This makes leveling thru epics that much easier. The pact ingredients are so damn easy to get also (currently sitting on 9k+ of Saltmedow hay) and you only need 50/item to upgrade to epic. For my alts I will run off some favor to get them the 2k store points to buy Saltmarsh next.
PurpleSerpent
Monster Hunter of Moderate Renown
The reason I didn't recommend Saltmarsh for epic gear is that Epic Gear just isn't hard to get these days. The OP already identified they've used a free quest code, which means they have access to at least six adventure packs which offer competitive, or even better, loot at that tier of play.
Solarpower
Well-known member
Nope.
a) You need to get that heroic gear first. And droprates in Saltmarsh looks like ?
(Good luck with farming everyone's favourite "Danger at Dunwater" ? See you in 10 years.)
b) Farm for Saltmarsh gear, upgrade it to lvl 20 versions only to throw them away at lvl 21 where you'll put your Borderlands gear on ? Nice plan. Don't forget, we have a very limited space in our in-game storage. We literally need but can't save gear from every adventure pack for every class for every level... ? Saltmarsh gear is easy skippable.
PurpleSerpent
Monster Hunter of Moderate Renown
"Choose the most expensive one" isn't necessarily always the best strategy - if Isle of Dread was terrible, I wouldn't recommend it regardless of cost. In this case, the reason a lot of us are recommending other packs is that while Isle of Dread is more expensive, other packs are more valuable to a new player, at least in the short term.
If only we could make up our mind on which packs those are.
(It's also worth noting that Isle of Dread is only more expensive if you're buying the adventure pack with DP - if you want to buy it from the Market and get any of the other stuff, Sharn, Feywild and Dread all cost the same, different discounts on event sales notwithstanding. This is another point against Saltmarsh, actually - it's much cheaper this way.)
I generally do random trash quests from 3 ( end of khorthos) to 4, i then grind some feywild wilderness till 5, after that i get a mix of feywild and the chronoscope stuff for mad set bonuses and run through Saltmarsh, this is for leveling, any gear that drops is just gravy, when you do that on multiple toons and through progressive lives you'll have the gear you want.
You are not *wrong* about any of the things you say, i simply draw a different conclusion from that data.
Solarpower
Well-known member
So, if you were asked to choose between pizza and a radioactive waste storage facility, would you choose the latter because it is more expensive? ? Well, whatever floats your boat.
I don't say IoD is bad. But it's a pack created to support the new level cap. If someone isn't planning to spend time at lvl 32, at least in the near future, why would that person needs IoD right now ?
Finngon
Well-known member
If you do plan to go with the trove pack, I'd say it's a toss-up between Sharn and Isle of Dread, but I'm leaning towards Sharn. lvl 15-16, great XP, great loot as well. Meanwhile Isle of Dread is for lvl 7-8 which is kind of crowded already due to Three-Barrel Cove, Necropolis part 2, ToEE and Slave Lords. Isle of Dread is more geared towards the endgame then.
If not, then yeah Ravenloft 100%. There aren't many quests at around lvl 10-12 so Ravenloft fills that area perfectly. It's also in general the best expansion pack in DDO.
If your read my comment my premise is if I wanted both things, I would take the one with the highest value for free. If that is weird to you I can't help you with that
dur
Paladin. Disruptor. Since the 1970s
IoD has a nonEpic level. I'm not exactly thrilled about have to farm a million dino bones and their vars to get effects on Legendary items but it's fun. We will kill that Dragon one day. 
Dunno if this has been mentioned: the freexpac is the Standard Edition - no mounts/hires/teleport - and if you ever want to upgrade, you will not be able to get Upgrade Price. The DDO Website Store won't recognize that you have Std.Ed, so you will have to pay full USD price. Ditto for xpacs purchased through DDO In-game Store (points.)
Dunno if this has been mentioned: the freexpac is the Standard Edition - no mounts/hires/teleport - and if you ever want to upgrade, you will not be able to get Upgrade Price. The DDO Website Store won't recognize that you have Std.Ed, so you will have to pay full USD price. Ditto for xpacs purchased through DDO In-game Store (points.)
The Nameless One
What can change the nature of a man ?
If you are just TRing once you touch cap then you get Feywild, otherwise if you're staying at cap for whatever reason (most likely first time Reaper XP) then get IoD. Also, IoD heroic gear isn't so terrible.
