One other bug I noticed: the minimap is so tiny as to be basically unusable. That's not a bug, but I figured out that I could just press M to open the normal map, size it to whatever I want, stick it in the top right corner, and use it as a proper minimap. The problem is that if you press M to open the map, clicking anywhere else doesn't do anything until you move the map window. So instead of just pressing M to bring up the map, I have to press M, then click and drag to move the map. It's easy to work around, but it's still a bug.
Inventory management is kind of annoying. Collectibles, ingredients, and especially gems seem like they're designed specifically to run you out of bag space. Yes, there are dedicated bags for each of those, and I have such bags, but that only helps until those sub-bags fill up.
Bags are a thing, like Gem Bags, Ingredient Bags, and the like, they really resolve that inventory issue.
Some people like smaller bags as they use them sort their collectables, others like one huge bag where they can just slot and never need to worry about them again.
Also, some bags are BtA and others are BtC, the BtA bags makes moving items between characters easier, this becomes a real big thing when you deal with raids that have crafting ingredients.
Also, keep in mind what you put in the bag, can the bind state, so if you put a BtA item in a bag that would be otherwise Unbound, the bag becomes BtA, same holds true for BtC items.
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
So, I finally died at lvl 3 (with my paladin) in "Where's there's smoke...". I think that's what it's called. The quest giver is sitting by a wagon and you have to go kill orcs and save his farmhouse from burning down. Cleared it on the second try though.
Btw, I recommend passing on that stupid quest where you have to avoid killing kobold witch doctors. I remember it gave me trouble last time I played (a couple years ago) with a dwarf fighter.
Post edited by Ancient_Exile on
"If everything was easy, nothing would be hard."
"Show me on the doll where PVP touched you."
(Note: If I type something in a thread that does not exactly pertain to the stated subject of the thread in every, way, shape, and form, please feel free to send me a response in a Private Message.)
So if I am chaotic, I will need to choose chaotic classes ?
You will need to choose classes that can take a Chaotic alignment. Like for example, Wizards can be Any Alignment, so can Warlocks, Rogues, Sorcerers, Fighters, Rangers, Clerics, Favored Souls, Artis, and Alchemist..
Now. Bards, Barbarians, Paladins, Druids, and Monks, all have their own specific alignment restrictions.
Now here is where things get fun.
Warlocks can be any Alignment, but their Alignment can affect what Pact options they can have.
Also, your alignment can affect what weapons and gear you can use, as DDO has a whole series of Alignment based gear.
To give an example, if you are a Chaotic Aligned player, you can wield Arnanic Weapons, but take a neg level if you try to use a Axiomatic Weapon.
At the same time, a True Chaos weapon can only be used by a Chaotic player.
It's a complex game.
funny is its not even hard a lot of things makes sense, only thing is you need to pretty much know how to build the char, but also the game kinda force you to rebirth, so you will need to re level again so you can get stronger
To be clear, I don't object to the existence of newbie zones. Newbie zones should be easy, as you want new players to succeed at something right away rather than bashing them over the head for not being instant experts. What I object to is when games treat almost the entire game like that. So I was glad to see that Borderlands is a lot harder than Korthos.
I would wager that Borderlands was SSG's answer to a Veteran Starting Zone, as players when they TR start at level 1 in the Korthos. If you thought it was easy for you as a starting player, now imagine being a 10th life TR, and doing that area again, because that where the Starting EXP is.
Keep in mind you have not made it to the Harbor yet, and I will say, that is where the game starts for most players.
You will also see that the Harbor is not just a new player area, there are quests there ranging from level 2, to 18th (Last I looked), so, all levels of players with all various investment in the game are in the Harbor, same for the Marketplace.
The various houses are a bit less split up, like a prime example is House Cannith, which is more an end game zone, kinda like Inspired Quarter, but even places like Kundrak, they start higher level then The Harbor or the Marketplace, so you can get a feel to move in deeper into the game, but also, as you move up, the more you end up moving around.
Keep in mind, you also have something called a Streak Bonus, this is set where if you challenge yourself, like always go in on Hard or Elite, and are no more than 2 levels above the Base level of the quest, you can get a stacking % boon, 25% max for Hard, and 50% max for Elite.
Again, that is mainly for TR's that need all the extra EXp they can get, but something for you to play with as well, since you want to see how hard you can handle things.
One of things to keep note of, is that some quests will make it very hard to solo, not simply because of combat, but because of mechanics, like needing to pull 2 levels at the same time. A Prime example of that would be something like Tomb of the Shadow Lord.
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
So if I am chaotic, I will need to choose chaotic classes ?
You will need to choose classes that can take a Chaotic alignment. Like for example, Wizards can be Any Alignment, so can Warlocks, Rogues, Sorcerers, Fighters, Rangers, Clerics, Favored Souls, Artis, and Alchemist..
Now. Bards, Barbarians, Paladins, Druids, and Monks, all have their own specific alignment restrictions.
Now here is where things get fun.
Warlocks can be any Alignment, but their Alignment can affect what Pact options they can have.
Also, your alignment can affect what weapons and gear you can use, as DDO has a whole series of Alignment based gear.
To give an example, if you are a Chaotic Aligned player, you can wield Arnanic Weapons, but take a neg level if you try to use a Axiomatic Weapon.
At the same time, a True Chaos weapon can only be used by a Chaotic player.
It's a complex game.
funny is its not even hard a lot of things makes sense, only thing is you need to pretty much know how to build the char, but also the game kinda force you to rebirth, so you will need to re level again so you can get stronger
It's not hard if you are already fluent with the 3.x AD&D rules, because it makes sense to that rule system.
If you never played AD&D 3.x rules, this is a huge amount of things to take in and consider.
They have also revised things like: Spell Power, which used to be Lore, and they revised Lore to Spell Power to scale better with the game.
They also added in Melee/Ranged Power, which is an added boon above the base melee damage from weapon damage, augments, and stat boons.
and then put in things like Physical Resistance Rating, to augment the AC system, because the AC system was not scaling well with just amor types and a hit/miss system that AD&D had, so they built a parallel system where armors would withstand damage, and thus making it so that typically, wearing full plate would offer more ability to Tank then wear pajamas.
There is a lot to process as you play, and it is even more in depth then AD&D 3.5, but it is still built off that system.
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
Sorry @Ungood for being a pest but I cannot make up my mind. I have never played a caster in DDO. I've always played a melee and archer and I don't even know how the mage like classes work. I had a cleric, paladin and ranger when I bought the game in 2006 I think and the highest I got was about level 8 or so on the cleric. I am not really sure because I am too lazy to go retrieve my old account or characters. Decided to just start over.
So see the thing is I saw a video on youtube and then I read some stuff on the DDO boards and got enamoured with the idea of playing a Pale Master with a Skeleton Knight pet. I know the pet is not good on elite content but just on hard and levelling up to get through my first run through I saw two builds one that only put one point in the skelly and another that made a significant investment. I can reset my enhancement tree if this is not a good build later so I wondered if the build with the stronger skeleton knight is a good build or should I go with the latter.
Open image in a new tab and you can see is larger.
Sorry @Ungood for being a pest but I cannot make up my mind. I have never played a caster in DDO. I've always played a melee and archer and I don't even know how the mage like classes work. I had a cleric, paladin and ranger when I bought the game in 2006 I think and the highest I got was about level 8 or so on the cleric. I am not really sure because I am too lazy to go retrieve my old account or characters. Decided to just start over.
So see the thing is I saw a video on youtube and then I read some stuff on the DDO boards and got enamoured with the idea of playing a Pale Master with a Skeleton Knight pet. I know the pet is not good on elite content but just on hard and levelling up to get through my first run through I saw two builds one that only put one point in the skelly and another that made a significant investment. I can reset my enhancement tree if this is not a good build later so I wondered if the build with the stronger skeleton knight is a good build or should I go with the latter.
Open image in a new tab and you can see is larger.
you really should try it out, because serious, the first 2 or 3 times you will be just lvling till 20 to true rebirth, why? so you can get the 34 points builds, even if you farm favour to unlock the 32, you will need to rebirth to use the build, plus the whole stat books you can farm, but its super rare, though I admit I don't ever remember seeing someone using the skelly pets, anytime someone need help they bet the cleric npc to keep you healed.
at most spellcasters tend to go for insta damage spells, or anything who works on said dungeon.
So if I am chaotic, I will need to choose chaotic classes ?
You will need to choose classes that can take a Chaotic alignment. Like for example, Wizards can be Any Alignment, so can Warlocks, Rogues, Sorcerers, Fighters, Rangers, Clerics, Favored Souls, Artis, and Alchemist..
Now. Bards, Barbarians, Paladins, Druids, and Monks, all have their own specific alignment restrictions.
Now here is where things get fun.
Warlocks can be any Alignment, but their Alignment can affect what Pact options they can have.
Also, your alignment can affect what weapons and gear you can use, as DDO has a whole series of Alignment based gear.
To give an example, if you are a Chaotic Aligned player, you can wield Arnanic Weapons, but take a neg level if you try to use a Axiomatic Weapon.
At the same time, a True Chaos weapon can only be used by a Chaotic player.
It's a complex game.
funny is its not even hard a lot of things makes sense, only thing is you need to pretty much know how to build the char, but also the game kinda force you to rebirth, so you will need to re level again so you can get stronger
It's not hard if you are already fluent with the 3.x AD&D rules, because it makes sense to that rule system.
If you never played AD&D 3.x rules, this is a huge amount of things to take in and consider.
They have also revised things like: Spell Power, which used to be Lore, and they revised Lore to Spell Power to scale better with the game.
They also added in Melee/Ranged Power, which is an added boon above the base melee damage from weapon damage, augments, and stat boons.
and then put in things like Physical Resistance Rating, to augment the AC system, because the AC system was not scaling well with just amor types and a hit/miss system that AD&D had, so they built a parallel system where armors would withstand damage, and thus making it so that typically, wearing full plate would offer more ability to Tank then wear pajamas.
There is a lot to process as you play, and it is even more in depth then AD&D 3.5, but it is still built off that system.
problems on that is the SP system and the whole power scalling, they changed a lot of rules to keep the game going, hence the whole resistance, fortification and melee power.
i'm a paladin so a lot of dungeon tend to get hard because i'm a melee, I saw spellcaster work far faster and easier on the same dungeons, just because they can one shot anything. the last changes was more to give melee more ways to catch up they notice they are falling behind a lot
Sorry @Ungood for being a pest but I cannot make up my mind. I have never played a caster in DDO. I've always played a melee and archer and I don't even know how the mage like classes work. I had a cleric, paladin and ranger when I bought the game in 2006 I think and the highest I got was about level 8 or so on the cleric. I am not really sure because I am too lazy to go retrieve my old account or characters. Decided to just start over.
So see the thing is I saw a video on youtube and then I read some stuff on the DDO boards and got enamoured with the idea of playing a Pale Master with a Skeleton Knight pet. I know the pet is not good on elite content but just on hard and levelling up to get through my first run through I saw two builds one that only put one point in the skelly and another that made a significant investment. I can reset my enhancement tree if this is not a good build later so I wondered if the build with the stronger skeleton knight is a good build or should I go with the latter.
Open image in a new tab and you can see is larger.
The pet is viable on Elite, you can cast buff spells on your pet as well as yourself, which means you can really boost up their ability to lay down a beating on things.
Now, since neither of the builds you listed were Pet/Summoned Based builds, and the difference is a total of 2 AP, between a tier 1 and a tier 3 Skeleton Pet, and this also depends on the kind of build you want to play.
For example, when I ran a Pale Master, I played a Warforged that used 2WF (Light blades), and then a Drow that used a Quarterstaff, and finally a Shadar-Kai that ended up using a great sword, all of which were melee/caster hybrids.
The few times I used a skelly pet, I admit they were fun, but also they can be a nightmare for agro control, they tend to run off and start fights you may not wanted to have started, so keep that in mind.
In reality you are talking about a total of 2 AP spent, and that is not a build breaker one way or another.
Personally, I would suggest, since you want to play with this build, to max the points into the Pet, because that will give you the best feel for what the pet can do.
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
Keep in mind you can have a Summoned Pet, a Hire, and a Skelly Knight, in effect giving you a small army to run dungeons with.
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
The few times I used a skelly pet, I admit they were fun, but also they can be a nightmare for agro control, they tend to run off and start fights you may not wanted to have started, so keep that in mind.
Yikes I did notice that when I open the door they run off and kill everything in the room. If I kept them on defensive they let me get bludgeoned. Not a good choice between the two .
Good point @alkarionlog I should try it and what the heck I will.
Keep in mind you can have a Summoned Pet, a Hire, and a Skelly Knight, in effect giving you a small army to run dungeons with.
Summoned pet is that from dropped scrolls ?
So that means my second tree is Archmage and not Eldritch Knight right?
Yes the pet itself is a difference of 2 Ap but the pet build also put points above that pet which I think makes the pet stronger whereas the other build put no points in the higher tiers from that skeleton knight 1/3
The second build that I listed is significantly different in that it had than single point in skeleton knight and the upper part of that same tree has no points in it.
The few times I used a skelly pet, I admit they were fun, but also they can be a nightmare for agro control, they tend to run off and start fights you may not wanted to have started, so keep that in mind.
Yikes I did notice that when I open the door the run off and kill everything in the room. If I kept them on defensive they let me get bludgeoned. Not a good choice between the two .
Good point @alkarionlog I should try it and what the heck I will.
The AI in DDO has always been a bit rough and buggy. But those Skelly Pets are really good sustainable DPS, just make sure to keep them buffed, and they do a great job against things that your spells can be weak against.
Those Skelly Pets also make great lever pullers, so even if you opted later to not invest the extra two points into them, you should keep at least 1 point into that, just for the convenience of being able to pull trapped levers and the like.
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
I think I will have 80 AP in all at level 20 so I must plan it out well since those builds I linked have way more than what I will but I will keep what you said about CC in mind.
I think I will have 80 AP in all at level 20 so I must plan it out well since those builds I linked have way more than what I will but I will keep what you said about CC in mind.
Those builds are using +6 Tomes, and designed for Epic Reaper.
Trust me, if you just plan to run Hard or even some Elite on Heroic you have a lot of room for "flights of fancy" and flavor builds.
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
Keep in mind you can have a Summoned Pet, a Hire, and a Skelly Knight, in effect giving you a small army to run dungeons with.
Summoned pet is that from dropped scrolls ?
So that means my second tree is Archmage and not Eldritch Knight right?
Yes the pet itself is a difference of 2 Ap but the pet build also put points above that pet which I think makes the pet stronger whereas the other build put no points in the higher tiers from that skeleton knight 1/3
The second build that I listed is significantly different in that it had than single point in skeleton knight and the upper part of that same tree has no points in it.
Monster Summoning is not among the Rare Spells, so you should be able to just buy them from a vendor.
But they are just basic spells, Monster Summoning I, which you get at 1st level, and summon like a spider that dies in every fight.. but still kinda fun, and you can buff them as well
So when you get to things like Monster Summon VIII, and pull up an Orthon, those are fun.
Also keep in mind you can Charm Monsters as well, so you can walk into a fight, with your Hire, Pet, Summon, and then Charm a few more, to really make things go nuts, this becomes hella fun in rooms with lots of mob, especially if they are trash mobs, so you charm all the trash and watch them attack their boss.. Hilarious.
Need the DC's to make that work however, so like Monk Stuning First, and jade Prison effects, that becomes it's own meta game of building the DC high enough to pull that kind of stuff off.
Anyway, I now see what you mean with the extra AP's for the pet buffs, I missed that first time through.
Corpsecrafter and Eternal Fervor, which gives boons to your pet, would be an added 3AP to the total cost each, for a total of 6 points invested.
Alright.. between you and me, I would not invest into those unless you really plan to use your pet a lot.
I am going to say, if you have a heavy Melee past, that you might really want to invest in Eldric Knight, simply because I wager you will have a penchant for wanting to get into the thick of things like I do, and it does not matter how powerful your pet is, if you are getting the beat down.
So if you did plan to not augment the Pet like that, I, personally would be looking how to invest those 6 points into EK.
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
So, I finally died at lvl 3 (with my paladin) in "Where's there's smoke...". I think that's what it's called. The quest giver is sitting by a wagon and you have to go kill orcs and save his farmhouse from burning down. Cleared it on the second try though.
Btw, I recommend passing on that stupid quest where you have to avoid killing kobold witch doctors. I remember it gave me trouble last time I played (a couple years ago) with a dwarf fighter.
OMG.. yes.. Stealthy Repossession is quite the quest, despite the name.. sneaking through is not really the best way. Your best bet is si to equip all the Feather Falling and Speed boots you can, and just run the quest.. if you can get an invisibility potion, that can really give you an edge.
But mainly that is a blitz run to the end. and then the second you complete it.. there is a level of vindictive joy in turning around and just slaughtering them..
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
Yeah I don't want to stand about letting pets do everything. Okay good points thanks about the pet points I can drop .
Alright.. it's not going to be like the EQ pets, where you just stand around. You will be casting spells, depending on how you want to roll, they will be buffs, DD's and CC spells, I would wager, mainly DD style spells, AoE's and the like will be a staple for you.
But again, if you are like me, and really enjoy getting into melee and laying a beatdown, look into the EK builds, they can get really strong in the Melee department, and mixing PM and EK is quite powerful, as you can self heal, and your shrouds offer a lot of combat boons.. just watch those Vampire forms, as the Wight Priests shoot light spells at you.
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
I've run into several bugs. For starters, my rogue is now level 1, rank 12, so that "you can only store one level worth of experience" cap isn't as hard of a cap as is probably intended. It seems that monster manual is the experience source that lets you go over the cap.
Redemption also bugged to be uncompletable once. After killing the Sahuagin so that I only had to talk to Lars Heyton to finish the quest, the hard barrier over the water disappeared. I decided to see what was under the water, and then the hard barrier returned, trapping me underwater. Dying and releasing apparently forces you to restart a quest from scratch, which was annoying.
The game has a significant problem with lag. Most of the time, it's fine. But occasionally, you get some awful lag spike and can barely move for a while.
Inventory management is kind of annoying. Collectibles, ingredients, and especially gems seem like they're designed specifically to run you out of bag space. Yes, there are dedicated bags for each of those, and I have such bags, but that only helps until those sub-bags fill up.
Almost everywhere seems like it has low mob density. Many MMORPGs pack mobs together far more tightly, sometimes to the extent that it seems dumb for mobs to not notice that a fight is going on. I once saw a comic that had the head of the Scarlet Monastery (in WoW) say something to the effect of, we're under attack, so everyone split into groups of three and wait to be pulled. DDO aggro ranges are more logical.
I was surprised to see how much stuff like search and spot and pick lock gets used. Groups that don't have someone who can access that are going to miss quite a bit of loot. I'm not sure if I think that's a good thing or a bad thing. If you're a rogue, it's nice to be needed, but it could get annoying on most other classes.
ok, to answer your points... 1. YES, you can bust past the "one whole level minus 1 xp" bank cap. anything that grants chunks of xp, like the monster manual, or the gems you get from the daily dice rolls can push you past the cap, but i *think* that you're still capped, and cannot gain more till you level.
2. MOST quests don't care if you release and return to them (some have lockout mechanisms, and most raids and any reaper difficulty will also have lockouts), but that has caveats. 1. if your "group" changes between when you were in the quest and when you attempt to reenter, it resets the quest. before SSG added a "reset quest" button, people farming for certain items or rare spawns would go into a zone, do whatever it was they were doing, leave the zone, disband and reform the group, and the quest would be reset, and they would reenter. THIS MEANS that if you are "grouped" with a hireling, if you recall, the hireling "leaves your group". the group changed, the quest resets. 2. if you don't make any changes at all, you still have a 5 minute timer before the quest resets. if you get there after the 5 minute timer expires, the quest will have reset. my guess is you either had a hire, or took longer than 5 minutes to get back to the quest. also, if you DO reenter a quest, you do take a 10% xp penalty.
3. lag sucks, and it's been around in the game since forever, and they're constantly doing things to "fix" it... of note, because of how the game is structured, individual zones can have lag. so while sometimes yes, the whole game lags out, frequently it will only be a zone, or series of zones. if you ever enter a quest and notice you immediately start lagging, even though you were fine outside... try zoning out, resetting the quest, and staring over. it might just clear it.
4. ahh yes. the inventory management minigame. my recommendation... get larger bags as soon as you can. they come in several sizes, some of which only come from the store or REALLY lucky rolls/loot. otherwise you WILL get overwhelmed by junk very quickly.
5. mob density in most areas of the game actually makes sense! it's great! XD there are SOME quests, however (some of which notably were released about the same time or slightly after reaper difficulty was released) which have the stereotypical "huge pack of mobs pointlessly milling in a crowd in the middle of a long empty corridor" syndrome... and yes, when you have that many mobs in a pack, it's a very hard fight. IMHO those few quests are relatively poor lazy design, as they're relying more on mob density to make the quest "hard" than anything else. some of the earlier quests were extremely creative in how they added challenge. big ugly bags of HPs and crowds of mobs that NEED to be CCed or you die are boring and lazy if that's ALL that's being used.
6. just like pen and paper... traps and locks are A THING. there are a LOT of builds especially for TR junkies that include a level or 2 of either rogue or artificer for trapping, and many multi TR characters have run maps so many times they tend to know the exact locations and timings of all the traps, so even if they can't disable or evade their way, they jump through anyway by picking their timing and knowing when to make their move to not get hit. that said... either having a rogue/arti with you OR being a multi-classed yourself is extremely useful.... both to a pro (up to 30% extra xp for "ingenious debilitation" bonus of disarming most/all of the traps? SEXAH!!) and to a newer player who doesn't know all teh locations and may need a trappers hand to get through.... plus, sometimes there's some really good loot hidden in locked chests... just like pen and paper ^_^
6. just like pen and paper... traps and locks are A THING. there are a LOT of builds especially for TR junkies that include a level or 2 of either rogue or artificer for trapping, and many multi TR characters have run maps so many times they tend to know the exact locations and timings of all the traps, so even if they can't disable or evade their way, they jump through anyway by picking their timing and knowing when to make their move to not get hit.
Please pay attention to this if you join a group and players have wings over their heads.. do NOT try to keep up with them as they run off.
Some of those players have done the quests, no joke, 100's of times, and know where everything is, and have built in ways to avoid all (or most) of the problems, and if you are new, no disss to anyone in any way, and while I am sure you are a good player, but chances are, you are not ready for what might hit you.
And getting blasted apart by a trap because you tried to race the TR junkie.. ends up the long way around to the raise shrine..
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
And getting blasted apart by a trap because you tried to race the TR junkie.. ends up the long way around to the raise shrine..
if they're nice... if they're assholes they drop your stone in lava and mock you in voice as they keep running breakneck speed... then kick you when they finish the quest.
thankfully that kind of douchebaggery, while possible, is relatively uncommon.
And getting blasted apart by a trap because you tried to race the TR junkie.. ends up the long way around to the raise shrine..
if they're nice... if they're assholes they drop your stone in lava and mock you in voice as they keep running breakneck speed... then kick you when they finish the quest.
thankfully that kind of douchebaggery, while possible, is relatively uncommon.
LoL.. yah.. DDO has a very mixed bag community.
That is why my basic rule of the thumb is, if I do not know any of the acronyms or abbreviations they are using.. I pass on that group.
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
I remember I did eventually beat it (the kobold witch doctor quest) with my dwarf fighter, but it took me several tries. Decided not to go through the pain this time.
"If everything was easy, nothing would be hard."
"Show me on the doll where PVP touched you."
(Note: If I type something in a thread that does not exactly pertain to the stated subject of the thread in every, way, shape, and form, please feel free to send me a response in a Private Message.)
I remember I did eventually beat it (the kobold witch doctor quest) with my dwarf fighter, but it took me several tries. Decided not to go through the pain this time.
It's really all about knowing the path and speed running it.
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
Comments
Some people like smaller bags as they use them sort their collectables, others like one huge bag where they can just slot and never need to worry about them again.
Also, some bags are BtA and others are BtC, the BtA bags makes moving items between characters easier, this becomes a real big thing when you deal with raids that have crafting ingredients.
Also, keep in mind what you put in the bag, can the bind state, so if you put a BtA item in a bag that would be otherwise Unbound, the bag becomes BtA, same holds true for BtC items.
Keep in mind you have not made it to the Harbor yet, and I will say, that is where the game starts for most players.
You will also see that the Harbor is not just a new player area, there are quests there ranging from level 2, to 18th (Last I looked), so, all levels of players with all various investment in the game are in the Harbor, same for the Marketplace.
The various houses are a bit less split up, like a prime example is House Cannith, which is more an end game zone, kinda like Inspired Quarter, but even places like Kundrak, they start higher level then The Harbor or the Marketplace, so you can get a feel to move in deeper into the game, but also, as you move up, the more you end up moving around.
Keep in mind, you also have something called a Streak Bonus, this is set where if you challenge yourself, like always go in on Hard or Elite, and are no more than 2 levels above the Base level of the quest, you can get a stacking % boon, 25% max for Hard, and 50% max for Elite.
Again, that is mainly for TR's that need all the extra EXp they can get, but something for you to play with as well, since you want to see how hard you can handle things.
One of things to keep note of, is that some quests will make it very hard to solo, not simply because of combat, but because of mechanics, like needing to pull 2 levels at the same time. A Prime example of that would be something like Tomb of the Shadow Lord.
If you never played AD&D 3.x rules, this is a huge amount of things to take in and consider.
They have also revised things like:
Spell Power, which used to be Lore, and they revised Lore to Spell Power to scale better with the game.
They also added in Melee/Ranged Power, which is an added boon above the base melee damage from weapon damage, augments, and stat boons.
and then put in things like Physical Resistance Rating, to augment the AC system, because the AC system was not scaling well with just amor types and a hit/miss system that AD&D had, so they built a parallel system where armors would withstand damage, and thus making it so that typically, wearing full plate would offer more ability to Tank then wear pajamas.
There is a lot to process as you play, and it is even more in depth then AD&D 3.5, but it is still built off that system.
So see the thing is I saw a video on youtube and then I read some stuff on the DDO boards and got enamoured with the idea of playing a Pale Master with a Skeleton Knight pet. I know the pet is not good on elite content but just on hard and levelling up to get through my first run through I saw two builds one that only put one point in the skelly and another that made a significant investment. I can reset my enhancement tree if this is not a good build later so I wondered if the build with the stronger skeleton knight is a good build or should I go with the latter.
Open image in a new tab and you can see is larger.
Here is the thread this post is the 6th one on the thread
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/508151-Pale-Master-Feels-Like-Auto-take-Now
Then there is other build that only put one point in the pet
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/508244-Pale-Master-Has-Never-Been-Better-Versatile-and-Fun?p=6246402#post6246402
problems on that is the SP system and the whole power scalling, they changed a lot of rules to keep the game going, hence the whole resistance, fortification and melee power.
Now, since neither of the builds you listed were Pet/Summoned Based builds, and the difference is a total of 2 AP, between a tier 1 and a tier 3 Skeleton Pet, and this also depends on the kind of build you want to play.
For example, when I ran a Pale Master, I played a Warforged that used 2WF (Light blades), and then a Drow that used a Quarterstaff, and finally a Shadar-Kai that ended up using a great sword, all of which were melee/caster hybrids.
The few times I used a skelly pet, I admit they were fun, but also they can be a nightmare for agro control, they tend to run off and start fights you may not wanted to have started, so keep that in mind.
In reality you are talking about a total of 2 AP spent, and that is not a build breaker one way or another.
Personally, I would suggest, since you want to play with this build, to max the points into the Pet, because that will give you the best feel for what the pet can do.
Keep in mind you can have a Summoned Pet, a Hire, and a Skelly Knight, in effect giving you a small army to run dungeons with.
Yikes I did notice that when I open the door they run off and kill everything in the room. If I kept them on defensive they let me get bludgeoned. Not a good choice between the two .
Good point @alkarionlog I should try it and what the heck I will.
Thanks @Ungood I'll take that stronger pet build.
So that means my second tree is Archmage and not Eldritch Knight right?
Yes the pet itself is a difference of 2 Ap but the pet build also put points above that pet which I think makes the pet stronger whereas the other build put no points in the higher tiers from that skeleton knight 1/3
The second build that I listed is significantly different in that it had than single point in skeleton knight and the upper part of that same tree has no points in it.
The AI in DDO has always been a bit rough and buggy. But those Skelly Pets are really good sustainable DPS, just make sure to keep them buffed, and they do a great job against things that your spells can be weak against.
Those Skelly Pets also make great lever pullers, so even if you opted later to not invest the extra two points into them, you should keep at least 1 point into that, just for the convenience of being able to pull trapped levers and the like.
Trust me, if you just plan to run Hard or even some Elite on Heroic you have a lot of room for "flights of fancy" and flavor builds.
But they are just basic spells, Monster Summoning I, which you get at 1st level, and summon like a spider that dies in every fight.. but still kinda fun, and you can buff them as well
So when you get to things like Monster Summon VIII, and pull up an Orthon, those are fun.
Also keep in mind you can Charm Monsters as well, so you can walk into a fight, with your Hire, Pet, Summon, and then Charm a few more, to really make things go nuts, this becomes hella fun in rooms with lots of mob, especially if they are trash mobs, so you charm all the trash and watch them attack their boss.. Hilarious.
Need the DC's to make that work however, so like Monk Stuning First, and jade Prison effects, that becomes it's own meta game of building the DC high enough to pull that kind of stuff off.
Anyway, I now see what you mean with the extra AP's for the pet buffs, I missed that first time through.
Corpsecrafter and Eternal Fervor, which gives boons to your pet, would be an added 3AP to the total cost each, for a total of 6 points invested.
Alright.. between you and me, I would not invest into those unless you really plan to use your pet a lot.
I am going to say, if you have a heavy Melee past, that you might really want to invest in Eldric Knight, simply because I wager you will have a penchant for wanting to get into the thick of things like I do, and it does not matter how powerful your pet is, if you are getting the beat down.
So if you did plan to not augment the Pet like that, I, personally would be looking how to invest those 6 points into EK.
But mainly that is a blitz run to the end. and then the second you complete it.. there is a level of vindictive joy in turning around and just slaughtering them..
But again, if you are like me, and really enjoy getting into melee and laying a beatdown, look into the EK builds, they can get really strong in the Melee department, and mixing PM and EK is quite powerful, as you can self heal, and your shrouds offer a lot of combat boons.. just watch those Vampire forms, as the Wight Priests shoot light spells at you.
ok, to answer your points... 1. YES, you can bust past the "one whole level minus 1 xp" bank cap. anything that grants chunks of xp, like the monster manual, or the gems you get from the daily dice rolls can push you past the cap, but i *think* that you're still capped, and cannot gain more till you level.
2. MOST quests don't care if you release and return to them (some have lockout mechanisms, and most raids and any reaper difficulty will also have lockouts), but that has caveats. 1. if your "group" changes between when you were in the quest and when you attempt to reenter, it resets the quest. before SSG added a "reset quest" button, people farming for certain items or rare spawns would go into a zone, do whatever it was they were doing, leave the zone, disband and reform the group, and the quest would be reset, and they would reenter. THIS MEANS that if you are "grouped" with a hireling, if you recall, the hireling "leaves your group". the group changed, the quest resets. 2. if you don't make any changes at all, you still have a 5 minute timer before the quest resets. if you get there after the 5 minute timer expires, the quest will have reset. my guess is you either had a hire, or took longer than 5 minutes to get back to the quest. also, if you DO reenter a quest, you do take a 10% xp penalty.
3. lag sucks, and it's been around in the game since forever, and they're constantly doing things to "fix" it... of note, because of how the game is structured, individual zones can have lag. so while sometimes yes, the whole game lags out, frequently it will only be a zone, or series of zones. if you ever enter a quest and notice you immediately start lagging, even though you were fine outside... try zoning out, resetting the quest, and staring over. it might just clear it.
4. ahh yes. the inventory management minigame. my recommendation... get larger bags as soon as you can. they come in several sizes, some of which only come from the store or REALLY lucky rolls/loot. otherwise you WILL get overwhelmed by junk very quickly.
5. mob density in most areas of the game actually makes sense! it's great! XD there are SOME quests, however (some of which notably were released about the same time or slightly after reaper difficulty was released) which have the stereotypical "huge pack of mobs pointlessly milling in a crowd in the middle of a long empty corridor" syndrome... and yes, when you have that many mobs in a pack, it's a very hard fight. IMHO those few quests are relatively poor lazy design, as they're relying more on mob density to make the quest "hard" than anything else. some of the earlier quests were extremely creative in how they added challenge. big ugly bags of HPs and crowds of mobs that NEED to be CCed or you die are boring and lazy if that's ALL that's being used.
6. just like pen and paper... traps and locks are A THING. there are a LOT of builds especially for TR junkies that include a level or 2 of either rogue or artificer for trapping, and many multi TR characters have run maps so many times they tend to know the exact locations and timings of all the traps, so even if they can't disable or evade their way, they jump through anyway by picking their timing and knowing when to make their move to not get hit. that said... either having a rogue/arti with you OR being a multi-classed yourself is extremely useful.... both to a pro (up to 30% extra xp for "ingenious debilitation" bonus of disarming most/all of the traps? SEXAH!!) and to a newer player who doesn't know all teh locations and may need a trappers hand to get through.... plus, sometimes there's some really good loot hidden in locked chests... just like pen and paper ^_^
Some of those players have done the quests, no joke, 100's of times, and know where everything is, and have built in ways to avoid all (or most) of the problems, and if you are new, no disss to anyone in any way, and while I am sure you are a good player, but chances are, you are not ready for what might hit you.
And getting blasted apart by a trap because you tried to race the TR junkie.. ends up the long way around to the raise shrine..
thankfully that kind of douchebaggery, while possible, is relatively uncommon.
That is why my basic rule of the thumb is, if I do not know any of the acronyms or abbreviations they are using.. I pass on that group.