Install Steam
login
|
language
简体中文 (Simplified Chinese)
繁體中文 (Traditional Chinese)
日本語 (Japanese)
한국어 (Korean)
ไทย (Thai)
Български (Bulgarian)
Čeština (Czech)
Dansk (Danish)
Deutsch (German)
Español - España (Spanish - Spain)
Español - Latinoamérica (Spanish - Latin America)
Ελληνικά (Greek)
Français (French)
Italiano (Italian)
Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
Magyar (Hungarian)
Nederlands (Dutch)
Norsk (Norwegian)
Polski (Polish)
Português (Portuguese - Portugal)
Português - Brasil (Portuguese - Brazil)
Română (Romanian)
Русский (Russian)
Suomi (Finnish)
Svenska (Swedish)
Türkçe (Turkish)
Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
Українська (Ukrainian)
Report a translation problem
Discussions Rules and Guidelines
Report this post
2. You need to purchase them.
3. You can unlock 32 point build.
4. What ever you think you need.
5. No they do not. They help a lot.
6. If your become proficient in Heavy armor, you can find or craft armour that reduces the spell failure while wearing armour.
7. https://ddowiki.com/page/Spells compare here..
You and your brother are going to have fun. I was sold on this game after a couple weeks of playing then went VIP and have been ever since... oh so long ago.
VIP gives you access to almost everything in the game. You'll be able to taste test whatever you want to.
Go for the 32 pt builds definitely. It will definitely help you build your characters if you want them to be permanent. Even tho, you might find yourself second guessing yourself here and there :)
The tomes have gone from a nice "perk" to improve your character, to "Hey, if you want to pay for it, here's a lot of xtra points to make an uber character." If you are concerned with overkill, get some of the lesser tomes and use them judiciously. I used to rely upon the auction house for mine instead of spending real money on them thru the store.
As far as heavy armor goes, keep in mind that there are multiple factors that go into you defensive capabilities, PRR being one of them. If you go VIP you will have access to quite a variety of races and classes to mix and match.
Your first character will most likely be a throw away character as you learn the game. Very rarely does one's first character last until end game.
There's just too much about the game to know before you start. Best advice would be to go with stock point characters at the beginning to learn the in's and out's of the game and hold back on the 32 point build til you know the best way to use it.
For the points I'd say save them for the expansions as you'll have to buy them since they don't come included with VIP. Hold off on buying tomes as you can get them via the daily rolls and I think some quests (I've gotten a number over the years and I know they didn't all come from rolls). Haven't been able to use them all, but you can sell / trade for one's you want.
3. Don't waste resources on buying 32 bit builds. Aside from the fact that they're easy to unlock by playing, you'll only get the value on your first life and thereafter that outlay is wasted. Here's why: Even if you build the toon you intend to play forever immediately, you'll want to reincarnate (either True or Racial) at least twice. The first time allows you to open quests for first-time run on Hard and increases your stat points to 34 (whether you previously had 28 or 32). The second allows first-time quest runs on elite and maxes out your stat points at 36. Even if you never reincarnate again, there's too much value in those first two reincarnations to pass up.
a) Whichever of the four expansions you can buy in-game (possibly just Mists of Ravenloft). Don't forget to compare it to what gets included with the various versions on the DDO Market first, though to compare value*.
b) Things like additional inventory, bank, shared bank, crafting, and platinum storage.
c) Epic Destinies if you don't get them by buying Menace of the Underdark's Standard Edition (recommended*)
d) The highest-value Supreme Stat tome currently available (+8 is sold for a limited run from time to time). You can farm a +2 tome for each stat easily (one per life) and if you're dedicated enough to run a large fraction of the game content in a single life, you can also farm a +5 tome for one stat each life. (Check out ddowiki's page on Favor for details.) But buying the highest value tome is cheaper than even buying the 2nd highest and then upgrading it, so there's little incentive to buy anything less than the current best.
e) UMD skill tome of the maximum value (+4 last I checked). Other skills can easily be raised to at least +3 by doing Sagas, but UMD is not on the saga rewards lists.
f) XP and Epic XP tomes (Greater Tome of Learning/Greater Tome of Epic Learning)
g) The Eberron/Faerun 'Hall of Heroes Passport', if interested
h) Fate tome of the highest current value (+3?)
i) Racial AP tome of the highest current value
j) Any Races or Classes that aren't included in VIP or unlockable via favor
k) Bags. You can get an adequate-sized Ingredients bag in-game, especially if you dump it into Crafting Storage regularly, but some of the others are worth buying. Specifically, the largest Collectable, & Augment bags & Cookie Jar. I've never found a need for more than a Medium Gem bag, myself. Hireling Contract storage if you use a lot of non-Gold Seal hirelings.
l) Any enhancement trees that aren't included in VIP or unlockable via favor (I don't think there are any, but just in case)
m) If at any point you elect to learn Cannith Crafting, you can buy items in the store both to support leveling (success boosters, xp pots, essences) as well as to help with crafting items (collectables bundles). And there's a Guide here on Steam to help you level your Cannith Crafting as quickly and efficiently as possible.
That should be the high-priority items. Of course you can look through the DDO Store in-game at any time to see what's on offer.
You should never need to buy Hearts of Wood unless you are either impatient and can't wait to farm the necessary items or need a major respec.
*Though it exceeds the scope of a question about DDO Points, check the DDO Market for the various versions of the four expansions. Some of the included goodies can be acquired nowhere else. In particular, the Gold Seal Hirelings included with some can be very handy. And some of the items listed here are also available in those bundles.
https://store.standingstonegames.com/store/ssg/en_US/list/categoryID.58733100/parentCategoryID.58516100/themeid.4823088000
At L1, the bonus is +2 to the affected stat(s)
At L3, it increases to +3
At L7, it increases to +4
At L11, it increases to +5
At L15, it increases to +6
At L19, it increases to +7
At L22, it increases to +8
A +6 Tome, for example, stops providing additional bonuses after L15.
None of it will make you overpowered. In fact, a player with multiple reincarnations will have considerably greater cumulative power.
A similar (though not identical) progression applies to skill tomes.
If medium armor is sufficient, the possibilities expand considerably. DDO's armor system is reasonably robust, including things like straight miss chance from AC, Dodge chance, damage mitigation from Physical and Magical Resistance Ratings (PRR/MRR), concealment and incorporeality (usually from gear or spells). And the effects of some work on a diminishing returns basis (doubling your PRR increases the actual percentage mitigation by less than that). So not wearing heavy armor isn't a non-starter, even for a melee toon.
Druids are a bit tricky, though not particularly for the reason you mention. First, you have to remember the gear limitations or violate Druidic Oath. Then you have to decide whether you will ultimately run in your racial form or in Bear, Wolf, Elemental (Fire or Water), or Tree (Primal Avatar Epic Destiny) form. Many enhancements, spells, even feats, are specific to one form or another. While respeccing due to a change in the form you customarily use is possible, it's not something you want to do at every rest shrine. Respeccing a couple of times during Heroic levels is not unusual. And in order to even make a plan, you have to research all the possibilities and limitations.
If your brother plans to be a caster, some sort of melee DPS is a good idea, but other options would also pair well, so you needn't feel excessively constrained.
As I've mentioned on another of your threads, any time after reaching L20, you can reincarnate yourselves into a completely different race/class and experience DDO a whole new way. So you needn't agonize excessively over your initial choice(s).
Also it's a shame I'll be giving up the cleric's spell list (and that is one heck of an impressive spell list), but the druid's spell list is indeed still pretty impressive, their top level spells are certainly no joke. Their ability to have a wolf companion and still summon a nature's ally should be pretty helpful, especially if I decide to put the money down for a hireling to raise the total number of characters in our duo (me and my brother) dealing damage.
Also thanks for the heads up about bags Doug! I saw quite quickly how random types of gems can drop, cluttering inventory space, gem bags are certainly a must. I'll try and get a small bag for now (if I recall, the smallest INGREDIENT bag can be gotten for free, I'll see if gem bags are the same for the smallest size), but I'll certainly keep my eye out for a decently sized on soon. I DO also want to dabble in the crafting of this game, so I'll get an ingredient bag as well. I'm getting some weird drops (can't recall what the name was....cannith essence I think? The picture looked like a glowing blue/teal orb. I also have another thing called a Siberys dragon shard), and each of them alone are currently unusable to me (I'm not even strictly sure what they do) but I don't want to give them up, nor do I want to clutter up my inventory, so bags that can hold that stuff would certainly help greatly.
I'll tell my brother about the ability tomes, but the truth is I'm concerned that at the least, until we hit 20, all these extra points will make the gameplay far less challenging. When we hit max level I can certainly understand why we would want to be as powerful as possible, but until we're at max level, I'm concerned gameplay will be made much easier. Myself and my brother were still managing the challenges of relatively higher difficulties comfortably, I'd hate to have that made easier. It would probably be optimal to do so, but for us the fun is in the challenge, we're not looking to make optimal characters, or at least not just yet.
I've also decided to put the money down for VIP benefits, as it should give me access to the druid (if I recall correctly), but also the Aasimar, which according to the DDO wiki is one of the better choices for druid.
Druids not being able to wear heavy armor and wield tower shields is going to feel hectic (I mean, they're not even allowed to use METAL shields, lol), but I am still looking forward to playing as them. I see someone mentioned something about a druid enhancement, but does this enhancement allow me to use my druid abilities as well or just provides proficiency?
Enhancements are also another mind boggling thing I'm having trouble wrapping my head around. When I dropped the game, I can't even recall if there was Cannith crafting, but now enhancements too? There's been a LOT of changes to the gameplay, but I'm certainly looking forward to enjoying all the flexibility this game has to offer.
Thanks for all the help guys, especially you Doug! That's a lot of extremely helpful info and should help me and my brother make our choices towards what we're going to be getting. Myself and my brother have decided we'll get all the packs available on the store because it should also give us some nice starting DDO points to allocate towards whatever we'll need!
I will note though, that the difficulty of quests is designed based the amount of power players are able to reach. DDO is the type of game where you can have every bonus available and still die due to player error, not being prepared, not knowing a quest, or bad luck. Having a stronger character can be looked at not so much as to make things easier; but to allow you to run quests on a higher difficulty.
Since I touched on enhancements in your other thread about Iconics, I'll add to that here. You may already know some of these things, but I'm going to cover some basics for other new players who might be reading this.
First, it's not so much to take in as you may think. They did a great job streamlining the UI, and made it as easy to respec them as a click of a button.
You can open them anytime from the DDO menu button in the bottom left corner of your screen. Mousing over the icons in that menu will show you the shortcuts for them. Enhancements can be respec'd in any public area, no need to go to a trainer (default shortcut ctrl + R)
Some tips: Always be sure to read the specifics about enhancements (as with Feats). Check if they are a passive or active; also, if they're a permanent bonus or have a duration and cooldown. Some are even toggles on/off. After you Accept Enhancments by spending points in the tree/s, they will show up in the Enhancments tab on your character sheet (default shortcut "C"), and you can drag them from there onto a shortcut bar.
Be sure to check out DDO wiki if you are looking for other specifics. It has pretty much everything covered:
https://ddowiki.com/page/Enhancements
All 3 of the basic bags (small size); Ingredients, collectables and gems are available free in game once you leave Krothos Island and get to the Harbor:
https://ddowiki.com/page/Bags
I'm still using the small ingredients and gem bags, but upgraded to a med sized collectables bag as you pick up a lot of those once off the island.
Essenses are used in crafting. Also once you get off the island you'll have access to your bank storage that you can use to store some of that stuff taking up space in your inventory. Also after a bit in the Harbor area you'll have enough favor points to get a extra inventory bag.
I'd have to say using some of those monthly points you get on maxing out your inventory bags wouldn't be a bad thing.
Oops. You're right. Never done a Bear, so I haven't invested much into the Nature's Protector tree. Clearly overlooked that codicil to that Core enhancement when reading, too. I could remember a few who could get medium armor proficiency from an enhancement, but none that could get heavy. My bad.
The major caveat is that there's very little heavy armor in-game that won't break Druidic Oath. (Actually, even medium armor that won't break Druidic Oath is in short supply, especially for a first-lifer.)