Dungeons and Dragons Online - Free to Play

[tk149]

Originally posted by: NoSoup4You
I've never played an MMO before, but this seems like a good place to start. I convinced a close friend to try DDO with me. For two MMo virgins, any character class/build recommendations? We would likely only play as a 2 person group.

I have that Dwarf Ranger already created but could re-make a character if needed.

I'd suggest one melee character and one healer for a beginner two-person party. Heal potions are pretty expensive for a beginning player. Heal wands and scrolls are less expensive, but will still take a large amount of your gold. The idea is for one player (with high Armor Class and Hit Points) to get all the Mobs to attack him, leaving the healer free to cast heal spells, offensive spells, or physically attack one Mob at a time.

With new player parties, a Cleric (or Favored Soul*) is pretty much a must-have. Note that clerics in DDO can be built to both heal AND melee (they get heavy armor proficiency and (I think) martial weapon proficiency).

A Dwarf Ranger is an excellent choice for a first build, but keep in mind that with only two players, you should be emphasizing your melee characteristics, not your range (bow) abilities. Also, until you advance in levels and choose Feats specific to two-weapon fighting, you take a big penalty for wielding two weapons at once. Use a shield if you're missing attacks or taking too much damage.

Each quest on Normal difficulty will scale down to accomodate only 2 players (the normal party size is 6). On Elite difficulty, the quest will not scale down in difficulty. I'm not sure if Hard difficulty scales down. Low level quests are very short and easy, but as with any RPG, you'll find later quests to be very long and challenging. Fortunately, there is almost no penalty for dying.

If you both die during a quest, you can have one person stay inside the instance, while the other person releases. The person who releases can heal up in a tavern (buy food and drink to replenish health and mana quickly), and then re-enter the instance. You will take an Experience Point (XP) quest completion penalty if you do this. If you both release out simultaneously, I believe that you have 5 minutes to come back into the instance before it resets (i.e. you have to start over completely).

That being said, I strongly encourage you to try joining PUGs (PUGs = Pick Up Groups). You'll be able to see a variety of character classes and tactics (both good and bad). If you let the group know that you are new, veterans are very likely to provide advice, keep you from finding traps with your face, and even give you low-level equipment. Plus, it's just more fun!

*Favored Soul - you do not have to pay to access this class. If you get 2500 Favor on a single character, you can open this class up for free. It just takes a LONG while to earn that much favor. This applies to both VIP and Free2Play accounts.

Hope you like it!

 

[tk149]

Originally posted by: Yreka
How do you get access to the "32 point builds" ? Is there a pack you can buy, or need to be P2P ?

As far as I know, you cannot buy this option. You can earn it in-game by having one character earn 1750 favor.

Don't worry about the extra four points. Any experienced player will tell you that the extra points are only a slight increase in character ability, but a good player with a 28-point build is FAR superior to a mediocre player with a 32-point build. The 32-point build was intended to be a minor reward for hitting 1750 favor (i.e. playing the game a lot), not a dividing line between good characters and bad characters. There is no way to tell if someone else is using a 28-point build or a 32-point build unless they tell you.

If you get 400 favor on a single character, you unlock the Drow race. Any Drow is already a 32-point build, so if you do hit 1750 favor, your Drow isn't going to get any better. On the other hand, you get to experience a 32-point build pretty quickly.

I don't have the character generator in front of me so this may be inaccurate, but here's an explanation of the points. When you customize your character, you get the option of going from a 10 Strength to an 11 Strength. That costs 1 point. To go from a 14 Strength to a 15 Strength costs 2 points. To go from a 17 Strength to an 18 Strength costs 4 points.

You can see that the extra 4 points do NOT mean 4 extra ability points. At best, most people just increase minor abilities by 1 or 2 points (e.g. dexterity and wisdom on a Wizard).

Hope this helps and welcome to the game!

 

[JoshGuru7]

32 point builds come after you've completed enough of the content on various difficulty levels to unlock them. In the meantime, you can unlock the Drow race fairly easily and it is 32 point as well.

For two MMo virgins, any character class/build recommendations? We would likely only play as a 2 person group.

One of the strengths about DDO is the D&D backbone that makes building diverse characters as fun as actually playing them for many people. If you're looking to primarily duo in DDO with a friend and this is your first MMO then I'd recommend starting simple with a cleric (any race but WF) and a fighter (any race but WF). Stay pure in both classes but build the cleric as a melee battle cleric (split between strength and wis) and make the fighter a tank (dodge, combat expertise, enough dex to max out your armor). Together you should be able to get through pretty much all of the lower level instances on Normal but you'll miss chests and trigger traps due to lacking rogue abilities, and miss out on a lot of fun arcane spells. Once you get a little more experience and unlock drow, you can decide to either continue on with these characters or to reroll more complicated classes like I outlined earlier based on what sounds fun then.

What would be a good DPS melee build ? I don't really care for casters.. I have rolled several in other games and they never held my interest.

In my opinion, the most fun you can have in the game as a melee character right now is as a pure TWF Paladin especially once you get to higher levels. The DPS output is tremendous and the overall defense remains very respectable with the excellent saves. Look in the TWF paladin builds for a 28 point variant. Rangers are fun with evasion and it's very popular to splash two rogue levels into a paladin build to pair evasion with high saves, but the survivability you gain here does have a cost in DPS especially when you look at the 20 pally capstone and some of the upper level paladin enhancements.

 

[tk149]

Originally posted by: JoshGuru7

In my opinion, the most fun you can have in the game as a melee character right now is as a pure TWF Paladin especially once you get to higher levels. The DPS output is tremendous and the overall defense remains very respectable with the excellent saves. Look in the TWF paladin builds for a 28 point variant. Rangers are fun with evasion and it's very popular to splash two rogue levels into a paladin build to pair evasion with high saves, but the survivability you gain here does have a cost in DPS especially when you look at the 20 pally capstone and some of the upper level paladin enhancements.

Huh, I am very tempted by this concept. I really hadn't thought of Paladins as DPS'ers, but more as Intimi-tanks. I have a Rogue build that splashed 3 levels of Paladin for the extra saves (and durability). Any links to a specific build?

 

[JoshGuru7]

Originally posted by: tk149

Originally posted by: JoshGuru7

In my opinion, the most fun you can have in the game as a melee character right now is as a pure TWF Paladin especially once you get to higher levels. The DPS output is tremendous and the overall defense remains very respectable with the excellent saves. Look in the TWF paladin builds for a 28 point variant. Rangers are fun with evasion and it's very popular to splash two rogue levels into a paladin build to pair evasion with high saves, but the survivability you gain here does have a cost in DPS especially when you look at the 20 pally capstone and some of the upper level paladin enhancements.

Huh, I am very tempted by this concept. I really hadn't thought of Paladins as DPS'ers, but more as Intimi-tanks. I have a Rogue build that splashed 3 levels of Paladin for the extra saves (and durability). Any links to a specific build?

A lot of it depends on what kind of gear and tomes you're going to be able to throw at it starting at level 1, so I'd recommend taking the concept from one of the below builds then tailoring it to what's realistic for you.

20 pal (squishier build w/ awesome DPS)
18 pal/2 monk (evasion build w/ good DPS)

I'd probably recommend a drow version of the first build with rapiers, personally.

 

[astrosfan315]

I rolled up a sorcerer this week and have her to level 5. Man, she's a blast (literally!) to play! I got a great robe out of the catacombs that adds 2 to her casting level. Add that with some +50% and +6% items (she's dual wielding for stat bonuses) she is quite the powerhouse.

I two manned a couple dungeons with my friend's alt, a paladin. So sorcerer and paladin make a fun 2 person group.

 

[tk149]

Originally posted by: astrosfan315
I rolled up a sorcerer this week and have her to level 5. Man, she's a blast (literally!) to play! I got a great robe out of the catacombs that adds 2 to her casting level. Add that with some +50% and +6% items (she's dual wielding for stat bonuses) she is quite the powerhouse.

I two manned a couple dungeons with my friend's alt, a paladin. So sorcerer and paladin make a fun 2 person group.

Sorc's rock! My favorite character is a level 18 sorc. The only drawback is the fact that you can only change out a spell every three days, and it costs gold to do so. Therefore, if you're not already familiar with how a spell works and how effective it is (some spells in DDO are completely useless), you may have some difficulty finding the "right" spells to take. I'm having fun experimenting with the new level 9 spells.

Others may argue this point, but I strongly believe that you should grab "Haste" as soon as possible. Nevermind its effect on others, it strongly contributes to your own personal survivability. Also, "Jump" is VERY useful. Throw down a firewall, then jump over the heads of MOBs, kiting them into the firewall. You'll greatly reduce the amount of damage you take.

As a Sorc, you might want to increase your UMD (charisma is the base ability). My Sorc can use Cure Serious Wounds wands, and even has a good chance with Raise Dead scrolls. Very useful. You can't always rely on a cleric, and heal potions are expensive.

 

[Magusigne]

So after playing Aion for awhile (and realizing most of my friends are too broke to pick it up)

I've ventured into the new DDO F2P model. Much like I was last time, I am pleasantly surprised at the improvements made to the game.

You have the option of buying points to unlock things (Monk class, Warforged Race). However as a F2P member you can just gather influence points by completing quests and can save yourself $$$ by using these favor points in place of Turbine points.

Very well done game. And contrary to many other posters I think this is a decent model. You are not really gimped at all by not paying a dime. You have access to the standard quest lines and class/races, and might I add the quests in DDO are done surperbly.

Level 4 being the cap before you need to pay, well this is totally untrue. Initially you are capped at level 4, however there are quest rewards called sigils of leveling which raise your cap by 4 levels. If you wanted to choose a better reward such as a weapon over the sigil then you need 100 turbine points to get one.

Definately a great game!

 

[tk149]

Originally posted by: Powernick50

<snip>

Welcome! Hope you enjoy the game. The DDO forums are a great source of information, although they're not organized as well as they could be. Kind of like Anandtech

The low level quests, while fun, don't hold a candle to some of the higher-level quests, in my opinion. My favorite area for both artwork and fun-factor is still Gianthold (level 10-16).

Don't be afraid to ask veterans for advice, but also take any reply with a grain of salt. I've seen both good advice and just plain malicious "tips" on the chat channels (e.g. hit Alt-F4 to open up an option).

Voice chat is helpful 99% of the time, and you can "/squelch" somebody annoying the rest of the time.

Remember that this is not just a group-oriented game, it is TEAM-oriented. A group might complete a quest, but a TEAM will complete it faster, use fewer resources, and is just plain more fun!

 

[tk149]

Update 11/09/09 in original post - new server available.

 

[zerocool84]

Anyone else still play this game? I just downloaded and thinking of giving it a try.

 

[tk149]

Anyone else still play this game? I just downloaded and thinking of giving it a try.

I'm on Thelanis server. Right now they're having a winter festival in the Harbor area. I haven't really tried it out yet.