Why do beginners give up the game? Why so few players?

[Bolseiro do Condado]

I've been playing for 5 weeks and, honestly, like most of those who come to know this game, I've given up playing.

An RPG where the Wizard is always out of mana and has no way to buy mana potions, nor is there any way to even drain mana, is not an RPG.

Every RPG I've ever played has never had problems with mana. And in every RPG I've ever played, I only play Wizard.

If this game requires a Wizard to act like a Gandalf, swinging swords to save mana for the final boss of each stage, then make the Wizard as strong as a Gandalf. And even if they did this, it still wouldn't be an RPG Wizard, but at least this would be helpful.

This game has no wizards. Real wizards use mana, but if this game doesn't have easily accessible mana potions, then this is not an RPG, but rather a slot game, where we have to pay real money to at least have the basics to do the basics, which is that the Wizard has mana!

Can someone please tell the developers that Wizard needs mana?

I'm not even going to list the other thousand defects of this game so as not to run out of mana.

This explains why games like Tibia have had 32 thousand players online for two decades, while this one, if it has 1,600, is a lot. And look, Tibia didn't even have sound until two years ago...

Mana potions, developers...mana potions...

 

[rabidfox]

There's SLAs to let casters hit hard without burning thru mana. There's rest shrines to get mana back. If you meta normal spells, you'll go dry fast (and even faster with meh gear where you don't cast as hard or have the DCs to always land spells). Mana can be an issue when someone is new and doesn't know how or where to conserve it or if soloing as some caster setups handle things better solo than others.

 

[Dandonk]

At higher levels spell points gradually become less of an issue, and at cap I never run out when I play a caster.

To mitigate the issue at low levels, try to find Spell Like Abilities in your enhancement trees, and get those for cheap damage. SLAs have longer cooldown than normal spells, but are cheap and you can even right click on them and use all your Metamagics (like Maximize and Empower) without extra cost, for even more damage.

All that being said, yes. At low levels, casters are annoying. SLAs help some, but it's still nowhere the ease of a melee with a big sword. Sorry.

On the plus side, when you get up to mid-high heroic levels, melee will hate you when you obliterate mobs with a single spell right before they get in range

 

[Vox]

Spell point conversation is a skill, probably moreso in DOO than other titles, and a player can run out of mana in every other game with a spell point system.

However to be fair, yes, to a certain extent wizards and other spellcasters are expected to look at other means to bypass dungeons, such as using hirelings, using spells like master's touch & swinging a greatsword, participating in party adventures.

There's many reasons why this game is so niche & small, and it isn't anything to do with how easy SP potions are to get.

 

[Nebless]

All the D&D lore I know of always has Wizards on the weak side and hoarding their mana so it's there when needed. I'm pretty sure on the character creation screen it says solo ability: Challenging and not much mana is one of the reasons why.

If you get lucky on the daily dice roll you might get some mnemonic elixir's which replenish your mana. Until then hit ever rest shrine to replenish your mana.

 

[Mornyngstar]

There are also Cleric hires with Divine Vitality.
If there was unlimited Mana Potions then every spell that a spell caster used would be maxed out on Metamagic with no strategies.
One of my fondest memories is of Gianthold (preepic update), Gryseldia and I (both casters) was exploring and came across Trial by Fire. Both of us were down to echos of power but decided to run it on Elite anyways. It did take us a long time and we also ended up using wands that we had in our inventory. It is one of my fondest memories. Note that we did not have any hires.

 

[Br4d]

Wizards in DDO use Master's Touch for the first few levels to whack things with a two handed weapon. This works just fine on normal difficulty and there are barbarian and fighter hirelings who will clear rooms for you as you whack away.

As you accumulate spell-like abilities (SLA) from your enhancement trees you will begin casting them with maximize and quicken (most likely) and this will give you cheap cost-effective spell damage.

By level cap you will be casting anything in your arsenal easily with all the appropriate metas enabled.

 

[Quartis]

thats 3.5 D&D low level wizard dont deal serious spell dmg until lvl 3 or 5.

Get some aoe dmg spells and lure enemies together and blast them, that is far cheaper than using single target damage spells.

Get an item that empowers the dmg type your aoe dmg spells do, for tons of dmg. Grade 1 and 2 has acid, cold, fire aoe dmg.

if you play more than HARD, then your spells dont deal enough dmg to shot them down, add in the Eldritch Knight cleave after using aoe magic that should wipe them out.

archmage enchantment school core 1 is best, 1 spellpoint to apply an aoe "sleep" effect used wisely it avoids much dmg.

Sadly wizard has no aoe dmg sla until lvl 12.

 

[Aelastiar]

Skill issue tbh.

 

[Coffey]

Elf is my favorite for a first life caster. You can gain back spell points with Fey Energy Tap 5 times before resting. I use it when i first enter a dungeon and then as often as i can as there is a 2 min cooldown.

Fey Energy Tap: Activate: A drop of blood lets you tap into the endless energy of the realm of the fey, giving yourself or an ally temporary spell points, 10% incorporeality, and a -2 penalty to Will saving throws while they last. This ability can be used one/three/five times per rest. (Activation Cost: 1 HP. Cooldown: 2 minutes) (24 Spell points +6 per level) Note: Restores an initial amount of spell points (100sp?), after which every spell subsequently cast will grant the temp spell points (24 SP +6 Per Level) on top of the initial '100sp'.

This goes well with the cleric hirelings that have the spell Divine Vitality:

List of Hirelings
level 2 Belest Relethwyn
level 3 Elieri Thistledown
level 4 Maloren
level 5 Kendra Estleton
level 6 Arias Oreth
level 6 Mareth Lorestryn
level 7 Laerathor
level 9 Marissa Lorle
level 11 Arkyn Shahrud
level 12 Miranda Kelven
level 14 Tempys Lorben
level 15 Jatrina Sartosa
level 16 Natasha Thorston
level 17 Ayron Staliya

Spell point management is a very annoying part of DDO that causes me to turn the game off sometimes.

Casting buffs is another annoying part of DDO spell casting but you can set macros to make it more tolerable lol.

While playing Elf for Fey Energy Tap and using hirelings with Divine Vitality help alleviate the SP issue you must also learn to manage your usage as others have suggested here.

 

[PersonMan]

As a player who has been playing Wizard to cap since before Echoes of Power and SLAs existed, Wizards do exist.

 

[GrizzlyOso]

There is literally a way to buy sp potions. Go buy as many as you want. Then we can qualify as an "rpg" for you. Because somehow RPG stands for ... RabilityTo PayFor Gmana potions

 

[Br4d]

Gmana, what we all need now and then.

 

[Eltronin]

I've been playing for 5 weeks and, honestly, like most of those who come to know this game, I've given up playing.

An RPG where the Wizard is always out of mana and has no way to buy mana potions, nor is there any way to even drain mana, is not an RPG.

Every RPG I've ever played has never had problems with mana. And in every RPG I've ever played, I only play Wizard.

If this game requires a Wizard to act like a Gandalf, swinging swords to save mana for the final boss of each stage, then make the Wizard as strong as a Gandalf. And even if they did this, it still wouldn't be an RPG Wizard, but at least this would be helpful.

This game has no wizards. Real wizards use mana, but if this game doesn't have easily accessible mana potions, then this is not an RPG, but rather a slot game, where we have to pay real money to at least have the basics to do the basics, which is that the Wizard has mana!

Can someone please tell the developers that Wizard needs mana?

I'm not even going to list the other thousand defects of this game so as not to run out of mana.

This explains why games like Tibia have had 32 thousand players online for two decades, while this one, if it has 1,600, is a lot. And look, Tibia didn't even have sound until two years ago...

Mana potions, developers...mana potions...

Amazing, 5 weeks and you already know everything wrong with this game. I think it's more like, 5 weeks and you can't be a super powerful wizard like you've seen on youtube so buff my character attitude. 5 weeks isn't long enough to really learn any game to it's full potential or all of its tricks.
And guess what, Gandalf started at 1st level and had to become strong, he just wasn't suddenly super wizard.

 

[Coffey]

DDO is not for the faint of heart lol.

 

[Jasparius]

Skill issue tbh.

For a new player? Thanks Captain Obvious.

Well done on helping a new player out as well.

I guess you like DDO becoming more and more cliquey every year as more and more people leave.

 

[rabidfox]

Caster Druid is super thirsty for mana at low level even when you know what you're doing and have gear. Blightcaster Druid however has the SLAs to play nice. Wizard and cleric can both be rough at low levels. Mana issues, especially if solo can be a hard learning curve in early heroics. At least we don't have to just auto-attack monsters with eternal wands...

 

[Coffey]

Caster Druid is super thirsty for mana at low level even when you know what you're doing and have gear. Blightcaster Druid however has the SLAs to play nice. Wizard and cleric can both be rough at low levels. Mana issues, especially if solo can be a hard learning curve in early heroics. At least we don't have to just auto-attack monsters with eternal wands...

Wizard also has the pale master tree with a skeleton knight that cost 2 AP to gain so level 1 if you want. It is very tanky and will attack for you. Add in a cleric hireling and you will do very well just leading the way lol.

Choosing appropriate defensive buffs for the instance, instead of casting them all, can also save you considerable SP.

I also suggest against using extend spell (10 SP per buff) on your buffs as they usually last long enough until you get to the next shrine.

 

[Jasparius]

Caster Druid is super thirsty for mana at low level even when you know what you're doing and have gear. Blightcaster Druid however has the SLAs to play nice. Wizard and cleric can both be rough at low levels. Mana issues, especially if solo can be a hard learning curve in early heroics. At least we don't have to just auto-attack monsters with eternal wands...

Masters Touch and Carnifex !

Clerics get SLA's pretty quickly. FVS I think struggle more with new characters. With knowledge and past lives you can get a huge SP pool though.

 

[rabidfox]

Wizard also has the pale master tree with a skeleton knight that cost 2 AP to gain so level 1 if you want. It is very tanky and will attack for you. Add in a cleric hireling and you will do very well just leading the way lol.

Masters Touch and Carnifex !

And that's the problem. One can swing a weapon or use pet/hires to offset stuff, but it's not always the experience someone wants in the game. Some people just want to cast out of the gate. Bard used to be awesome for that and then they nerf'd sonic blast; it was one the nicest early heroic casters around for a while before that AoE nerf.