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I was sold after finding my first secret door... (newb questions)
Aganazer
Member Posts: 1,319
Why the hell don't more fantasy MMORPG's have dungeons and dungeoning skills like this game?!? 
My wife made a cleric and I made a rogue. Character creation and development is a bit overwhelming at first, but its starting to make more sense. I am relying on some guides right now, but would like to experiment more. I saw that you can respec enhancements, but is there a way to respec skill points or feats?
I remember from other D&D games how different spellcasters use different mechanics for learning and casting spells. When my wife's cleric was made it showed that she had a dozen or more spells available, but in the game she only has three spells. Can she swap them out and if so, how?
Its looking like an ideal game for my wife and I. I am a bit worried that if I get a PUG that they won't be as patient with me doing things like exploring around or searching odd places for secrets.
Comments
No way to respec skills atm (maybe in the future), however feats can be respeced using various types of dragonshards (shard depends on your characters current level) at Fred the Mindflayer in House Jorasco.
Your wife can only prepare 3 spells at a time from her spell list, if she wishes to swap them out she can do so in any tavern area.
Pug attitudes vary, if it is a group of new players they will probably be slower moving...however some veteran players are going to want to go through low level content as fast as possible (and already pretty much know where everything is.
Not sure what server you are on, but if you and your wife are looking for a friendly casual guild check out our guild on Argonessen called "Order of the Silver Dragons." We are very tolerant to new players. You can find our website at silverdragons-lair.net.
I've always thought Turbine made the best dungeon crawls. Even way back in AC they had the best dungeons. LOTRO also has some good dungeon crawls, but yeah my favorite is DDO's. Even if you've done them a million times you can still remember the first time you were there. Delera is one of my favorite if you can get past Gary's voice haha.
Feats are retrained with dragonshards I believe. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. Those drop from chests. I think you also get one as well if you do the dragonmark quest.
To swap out spells you have to be in a tavern or at a rest shrine. If that has changed I don't know. I mostly play a rogue. It's been awhile since I played but still have an active sub due to special pricing I got. You should have an icon on the screen that if you hover the mouse over it should say something indicating you can swap spells.
As for PUGs, that is all I ever do. Be upfront and say you would like to take it slow and new. Most if not all will gladly slow down. Look for a great casual guild on the forums that fits your playstyle. Once you get a good group of friends in your group that you may group with nightly DDO is amazing. It might take a few PUGs to meet some people you like to group with. So be warned you might get into a stinker of a PUG, but not often.
Glad you are enjoying the game.
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Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate.
How'd you get the pricing? This could bring some people back if they didn't have to pay $14.99.
-Almerel
Hello my old friend.
How'd you get the pricing? This could bring some people back if they didn't have to pay $14.99.
It was anniv pricing they had. 59.94 every six months 33% saving. I think they said it equals 9.00 something a month. They might still have the pricing plan, not sure. If not, they might bring it back when the anniv. comes back around.
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Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate.
I was doing a quest and one of the npcs went back and rang a gong for reinforcements. I was like, oh yeah, bring it on!
That’s what sold me into playing.
I thought that was cool too when I saw it. Now the bell that broke the ice.... awesome. I was standing on it when I told my wife "hey go hit that bell". It scared the crap out of me when the floor gave way!
I've been playing D&D CRPG's since Eye of the Beholder and in one night I already topped my most memorable experiences in those games.
There's some good times to be had in DDO. What's interesting is that usually the best times are experianced through the worst circumstances. I have yet to experiance another MMO where the demise of the party was frequently entertaining to everyone involved. I've fond memories of laughing hysterically over something as silly as being forced to watch a Minatour repeatedly charge a Cleric, knocking them down as soon as they stood up, for several minutes straight. I think the guy playing the cleric was actually laughing harder then the rest of the party who was stuck on the other side of the gate.
A gawd, then there's this time with a Spectre kicking my ass and all I could do was drink a potion in between the hits. And where were my party members? They all had Hold Person, Greater Command or were incapacitated and were helpless but to witness the spectacle - to their enjoyment I must add. It took a minute for my laughter to catch up with thiers yet a year later someone occasionally still mentions it.
I thought that was cool too when I saw it. Now the bell that broke the ice.... awesome. I was standing on it when I told my wife "hey go hit that bell". It scared the crap out of me when the floor gave way!
I've been playing D&D CRPG's since Eye of the Beholder and in one night I already topped my most memorable experiences in those games.
I am almost envious of you experiencing all this for the first time because it reminds me of all my first times. Don't worry though, there are plenty more of those along the way!!!!
You must not leave until you free Arlos and have gathered your party safely in this hallway.
I agree, the dungeon system has been quite exciting so far. Other mmorpg's could take a few lessons from Turbine.
More good times last night.... The last mission on the newbie island. Seeing my first dragon freaked me out at first, but the real cool part was when I realized I could see the dragon walking around through the floor of thin ice.
Before I drop $30 on two subs, there are a couple things I am curious about.
-Do all dungeons have spoken DM text?
-It looks like there are a metric crapton of dungeons. Are there enough that I wouldn't ever have to repeat any dungeons to progress my character?
-What are 'Danger Zones'?
-So far (up to mid level 2) its been most effective to simply run in and hit MOB's with my weapon. All these abilities like Bluff, Diplomacy, Trip, Blocking, Sneaking, Tumble,and Sunder Armor on my rogue seem to only slow things down. My wife and I play on normal difficulty and things have been getting slightly more challenging, but not by much. Does combat eventually slow down enough to make these abilities more useful?
-I made a wizard with 8 constitution and no toughness, but with all the spell damage goodies I could pick up. I can't even manage to solo a single mission on the easiest difficulty. Assuming I group and get a few levels would this character still be gimped in the long run or is min-maxing a character like this a good idea?
Enjoy, DDO may just ruin quests in other MMOs, it certainly did for me.
I do not recall a dungeon without some DM talk.
You will need to do some on hard or elite and honestly the loot on some is so much better it is worth it.
Danger zones? Not sure what you mean.
Yes at lower levels those skills seem wasted, but that is because DDO does not want to overwhelm you at the start with making all the tactics overly important. On a rogue trip and sunder may never be as useful as they will on a strength based character, but at one time I rolled a fighter based entirely on using trip and stunning blow before the enhancement changes and immunities made those skills less useful. They are still great at high levels but not like they once where.
8 Constitution is a bad idea. Having a bit of con for some survivability later in the game is a good idea. I would suggest some min maxing once you get the gameplay down and are building a character and understand the different enhancements and feats. Right now after a two year layoff I am back and making all the build mistakes I mde years ago again because the enhancements and gameplay have changed a lot since I left.
All dungeons have DM voiceovers and as mentioned, with the right skills (spot, listen etc) there are even more voiceovers.
Where you are now on Korthos Island I'm guessing, yes, its quite easy and as a caster, its a lot easier to just whack the mobs, things will change dramatically once you hit the harbour and then again once you hit the marketplace. Things for a caster become much more tactical and you will need to plan a lot more.
I actually don't think you need to repeat a single quest if you don't want to, I now think its possible to do every quest on normal and never have to repeat. But, as mentioned, doing a quest on the hard or elite setting is worthwhile as you get better treasure and it is much harder. Take the harbour for instance and everyone's favourite pain in the ass, the Kobold Shaman. On normal, he will fire off magic missiles, acid splashes and the odd fear. On hard, he will fire off scorching rays and hold person, so already, the stakes are upped and the tactics you used on normal need to be changed. Elite is a whole other ball game, he will be firing off lightning bolts and sleet storms and things get very, very nasty, very quickly!
Some classes are better at soloing than others, especially the cleric and paladin. I have a wizard who is level 5 at the moment and he has primarily soloed, except when I have had FRENZY to back me up. He only has an 8 con as I gave him more dexterity and weapon finesse with light armour proficiency. He is more of a debuffer/necromancer which helps but it is tough at times. He probably would not be great at the higher levels on the elite settings but I don't play for that, I play for character design and creation.
Remember, you never have to do anything alone anymore, create the character you want and get a hireling to help. Use spells like charm and summon monster to assist you and you will be surprised what you can do. You are new to the game so don't beat yourself up, get to know the dungeons, mobs and spells and you will be great! The first time you solo a dungeon is a great feeling, you have just done something designed for four people, you will do it, I promise!
You must not leave until you free Arlos and have gathered your party safely in this hallway.
I agree, the dungeon style we seen in DDO and Neverwinter nights is great and mose MMOs should take a hint.
In most games dungeons are just about fighting but there is so much more that make a dungeon funny, traps, hidden stuff, nasty suprises...
In a regular MMO a thief is just good as DPS and tank and healers are the important ones in dungeons, in the old Pen and paper games the thief was the king of the dungeon.
Personally I would really want to see a Forgotten realms online, preferably made by Bioware even though Turbine would work also. DDO have it's downsides however but the dungeon part is great.
Damn I'm hooked. We finally died for the first time to some fireball throwing kobold or maybe a trogolyte. It was impressive. Everything up to that point was easily tank'n'spanked. Maybe its time for some hired help.
What's the deal with hirelings? I found a hireling vendor, but didn't see one called Frenzy. In fact they all started at level 4 and up. I'm not sure if that's the right place. Do you have to pay them for each mission? Do they take any loot?
Also, are Festivault coins really worth as much as I saw them going for on the AH? Gold coins for 100k gp each? I'm assuming you can get more than random cookies for them, right?
Answered my own questions about hirelings
here.
Yes, there are a variety of DM narrations throughout the game's content and every area contains them. There are diffierent "DM's" and Gary Gygax had done a few as well.
While there's a LOT more content in DDO then people realize it must be mentioned that the core design is around the concept of repeating them to some degree. This doesn't mean you must absolutely repeat every quest a plethora of times to level, but in retrospect you will be finding quests that you simplay cannot avoid running due to how well designed they are. My bet is you will hit level 16 without running every quest since this is a standard occurence.
Danger Zones - not sure. Could those be the explorer areas where you recieve incremental EXP for discovering points of interest, fighting randomly named mobs and otherwise dispatching mobs as you come across them? If so, these areas offer some of the best soloable and repeatable content in the game.
Those abillities will eventually become more functional. My take on Bluff is it's broken and only applies to Rogues based on the mechanics of the game - it needs serious improvement. Let elaborate on Diplomacy: let's say you and your wife are playing and as you're running slightly ahead you realize you've become surronded by baddies. Hitting Diplomacy while you're wife is just entering the room is like standing there with your fingers pointing every other way and saying "Erh, it wasn't me!" and they shift their attention to her. Intimidate works in the opposite and if you notice the icon above their heads when it's used it resemles those reverse negative pictures that shows something else; instad of ominous figure standing over it's a middle finger! Shield Blocking increases the Damagre Reduction and sometimes it's all that can be done. Tripping mobs works well against most mobs besides named bosses. To rewind - Diplomacy is one of the most beneficial skills in the game that does not get enough use by the player base. Think about it, an abillity to temporaily trick the mobs into thinking you're of no interest to them.
Combat advances as you do through the content. There's going to be a lot of "Wow!" moments as well with some "what the hell just happened!?!" Some of the content can be extremely difficult for 2 players and a good group of mature players makes the dungeon crawl shine.
Min/Max depends on the player. Most people who min/max builds intend to power level them and twink them out with predetermined gear they've got sitting in a bank vault. I advise agasint it, but that doesn't mean you shoudln't do it. 8 Con on a Wiz means you're going to be dependant upon someone else to take agro (ie, use diplomacy to get the mobs off you; they use Intimidate to get agro off you) and help keep you alive while you abilities are more centric to a specific function. My opnion on an 8 con is you're going to need to learn how to play your character around it by strategic use of Diplomacy and crowd controls spells. This is where the game becomes more complex.