How many benefits in the VIP, what to spend DDO coins on, and some questions regarding cleric

[cybermastah]

So myself and my brother are sold on how awesome DDO is, and we're going to be paying for a year's subscription. My question is:

1. Do you unlock all races and classes by going VIP?

2. What happens to characters based on a race or class that you got via VIP but then ceased your VIP subscription?

3. Should we purchase the 32 point build from the get go? We do want to build our permanent classes from the get go, should we go ahead and put the money down for the 32 point build?

4. What are good things to spend the DDO coins on?

5. We saw tomes that increase your stats by ridiculous amounts per level up, do those break your characters? We don't want to play with ridiculously overpowered characters because we do still want the challenge.

6. I'd like to play a class with access to heavy armor + spells but PREFERABLY not paladin or cleric (as paladins have a relatively small spell list and I've already played a bit of cleric), IS there such a class? With VIP I'm assuming I also get access to the iconic classes.

7. Cleric or Druid (if the iconic classes don't offer what I'm looking for)? I've played cleric on my last build and had a really good time with him, but I feel that if I'm putting the money down for VIP, that I should get my money's worth and go Aasimar druid. The thing is playing a cleric is somewhat easy for me: summon pet, buff self, debuff enemy, wail on the enemy. Druids DO seem to offer a lot of variety, but I'm worried that playing them is going to be tricky, especially as they can't wear heavy armor, meaning my melee fights will have to be in bear of wolf form, but I can certainly appreciate the power that variety with druids offer. Do druids also know all their spells like a cleric does?

My brother is planning on rolling up a half elven wizard for what it's worth (meaning our duo will probably benefit highly from a tank capable character).

[Doug]

cybermastah の投稿を引用：

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.

The smallest of the three most common bag types (Collectables, Ingredients, and Gems) can be acquired for free in the Harbor by talking to the correct persons. For Gems, it's the questgiver for Smuggler's Warehouse. For Ingredients, it's the person next to the gate to the Market who gives you the Cannith Crafting questlet. And for Collectables, it's Beaudry Cartamon at the foot of one side of the Harbor.

If you invest in the Collectables Storage at the Bank, you can dump the contents of your bags there (just drag the entire bag to the appropriate tab and it will empty it). In that event, you can get away with smaller bags. You'll still want a decent-sized Ingredients bag (green) because there are a number of Bound to Character (BtC) items that are classed as Ingredients. However, Favor for the patron The Twelve will provide you with both a small and a large ingredient bag eventually.

[Doug]

cybermastah の投稿を引用：

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?

Short answer, yes as long as you can find a heavy armor that doesn't violate Druidic Oath. That won't be easy.

In general in DDO, initial proficiencies don't prevent you from getting a better proficiency and using different armors and weapons unless there's some specific prohibition in the class.
Rogues, for example, can wear heavy armor if they get the feat, it just reduces some of their skills and prevents them from benefiting from the Evasion feat. OTOH, Favored Souls are only initially granted Medium armor proficiency, but if they get Heavy armor proficiency somewhere, there are no restrictions preventing them from using it.

[Doug]

cybermastah の投稿を引用：

Hey, thanks guys (especially you Doug!), that's everything I wanted to know and way more! I've decided I'm going to run for my permanent character a druid. After playing with my brother, we're getting a pretty good glimpse of how squishy a wizard can be, and dungeons are available at the elite difficulty from the get go and we want to go the distance from the start!

FWIW, if the two of you plan to run as a static group, you'll miss bits and pieces along the way (and make your life harder) if neither of you can do traps. The easy solution is a Wizard/Rogue multiclass. It's one of DDO's easiest and most common multiclasses. You start with a level of Rogue (for the 4x bonus skill points at L1), then a variable number of Wizard levels (I usually take 7, to get either Wall of Fire or Ice Storm), then a 2nd Rogue level for Evasion (though it's not mandatory). You lose very little power as a Wizard (mainly the L20 capstone enhancement) and add the ability to sense and disable traps, open locks, and some survivability with Evasion.

There's a bit more detail on the build on another posting or two here that aren't that old. Key is to max Intelligence above all, and to keep your core Rogue skills maxed (Spot/Search/Disable). The Insightful Reflexes feat becomes a great value, making the Rogue's Evasion feat far more useful.

[Doug]

cybermastah の投稿を引用：

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.

That's fair and reasonable. And, as mentioned, a +2 tome isn't hard to farm, and a +5 tome, while challenging, is also available eventually.

Your concerns about making gameplay too easy are misplaced, though. There's a level of difficulty available to suit any toon possible to construct in DDO. Reaper is considerably harder than Elite, and has 10 difficulty categories within it (1 Skull to 10 Skulls). You won't ever be OP as long as you pick the appropriate difficulty for your skills and gear. Still, no reason to head into the big leagues right out of the gate. And you can buy tomes at any time and the amount of bonus suitable to your current level will immediately be applied.

Storage, in all its forms, is probably a better initial investment.

[Doug]

Doug の投稿を引用：

[H]ere's a list of things to consider spending your DDO Points on (in no particular order).

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.

I didn't prioritize these because any attempt to do so has to be at least partly based on personal ideas and such. However, there are some generalities I can make:

1. For F2P players (not the OP poster), very little should take priority over buying adventure packs. And don't buy low-level packs first. That's a common error. There are plenty of F2P quests at low levels. It's at mid to high heroic levels that there's a lack. Buy some of those first. Long-term recommendations have been to buy Gianthold and Vale among your first pack purchases (But see 2. below).

2. Keep an eye on sales. There's something for sale in the DDO Store in-game every week starting Thursday. The current DDO Chronicle will list the sales and it's usually linked in the launcher news. If you foresee wanting something within the next few months and see it on sale, buy it (obviously if you have the DDO Points available). This is particularly relevant if you're F2P and hoarding DDO Points.

3. You'll want some things right away because you intend to use them immediately, whereas other purchases can wait until the moment they become relevant. For example, if you intend to run a particular race or class you don't own or have access to, you'll need to buy it.

4. Things that make your character more powerful are nice, but there's nothing inherently wrong with running a lower difficulty. OTOH, if you play long-term, you'll regret throwing away or selling stuff due to a lack of storage. Increasing your Inventory and Bank space should be a fairly high priority. Larger bags can wait longer if you have Bank Crafting Storage space into which to empty them.

5. Next (especially for F2P) would be an XP tome to make leveling easier in the previously-mentioned mid to upper Heroic levels (Greater Tome of Learning).

6. After that it depends on whether you want to reincarnate or continue into Epic levels. Whenever you intend to start running Epics (L20+), you'll want Epic Destinies and possibly the Epic version of the XP tome (Greater Tome of Epic Learning).

And, at any point in this process that suits you, you can buy Tomes to make your toon stronger.

I don't recommend bothering with Cannith Crafting for a while. Play the game and collect essences and collectables for a while. Then check out the guide here on Steam for how to level your CC skill quickly and efficiently and accumulate the resources to do so.

[SotF]

While not a point purchase, my major suggestion for a first buy is one of two things. Either grab the catacombs starter pack from Steam or the Market, or go to Amazon or Ebay and find an unopened DDO: Stormreach box. You can normally get the box for between $6-$8 and gets you a month of ViP. Catacombs also gets you the permanent hireling that is very useful to have.

Something else that I've had fun with while playing are a few extra monster manual chapters, a bit of bonus xp for completions and one more thing to look at when you have extra time and a need to do something. The popups of completions is a nice thing for you.

Doug の投稿を引用：

Daynox hits 1. & 2. on the nose.

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.

One thing that it does do is give the free stat tome of choice when you hit the favor level of the normal unlock on characters. That's still a nice bonus for it.

Doug の投稿を引用：

cybermastah の投稿を引用：

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.

The smallest of the three most common bag types (Collectables, Ingredients, and Gems) can be acquired for free in the Harbor by talking to the correct persons. For Gems, it's the questgiver for Smuggler's Warehouse. For Ingredients, it's the person next to the gate to the Market who gives you the Cannith Crafting questlet. And for Collectables, it's Beaudry Cartamon at the foot of one side of the Harbor.

If you invest in the Collectables Storage at the Bank, you can dump the contents of your bags there (just drag the entire bag to the appropriate tab and it will empty it). In that event, you can get away with smaller bags. You'll still want a decent-sized Ingredients bag (green) because there are a number of Bound to Character (BtC) items that are classed as Ingredients. However, Favor for the patron The Twelve will provide you with both a small and a large ingredient bag eventually.

The bags really aren't worth it until later in game beyond the starter ones and the larger ones that are free or bought with normal ingame currency. They're also better to wait until you've decided, for sure, that you're keeping the character.

Inventory space is a better option, in my opinion, than getting the bags...

[Doug]

SotF の投稿を引用：

While not a point purchase, my major suggestion for a first buy is one of two things. Either grab the catacombs starter pack from Steam or the Market, or go to Amazon or Ebay and find an unopened DDO: Stormreach box. You can normally get the box for between $6-$8 and gets you a month of ViP. Catacombs also gets you the permanent hireling that is very useful to have.

You don't really need or want Catacombs itself early on. (Either you're VIP and have access or you're F2P and higher-level packs are more important.) This would solely be to get the L3 Gold Seal Hireling Cleric. It's handy to have, but far from sufficiently for me to agree with this recommendation. But more critically, don't confuse this with buying the pack in the in-game DDO Store: that won't get you the hireling.

SotF の投稿を引用：

Something else that I've had fun with while playing are a few extra monster manual chapters, a bit of bonus xp for completions and one more thing to look at when you have extra time and a need to do something. The popups of completions is a nice thing for you.

I'd have put that in my to buy list, except that the OP is from a VIP, and they get access to all the Monster Manuals automatically.

But if you're F2P, you might consider adding this into the purchase list at whatever point suits you.

[Doug]

SotF の投稿を引用：

Doug の投稿を引用：

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.

One thing that it does do is give the free stat tome of choice when you hit the favor level of the normal unlock on characters. That's still a nice bonus for it.

While true, this is confusing and potentially misleading. Since the question was whether or not to buy 32 point builds, this is irrelevant to that question. Worse, it could be read to suggest that you should purchase them for the tome. And since earning that tome has literally nothing to do with 32 pt builds except that it occurs at the same Total Favor, it's confusing.

It's nice to point out additional valuable information, but presentation is important.

[Doug]

SotF の投稿を引用：

Doug の投稿を引用：

The smallest of the three most common bag types (Collectables, Ingredients, and Gems) can be acquired for free in the Harbor by talking to the correct persons. For Gems, it's the questgiver for Smuggler's Warehouse. For Ingredients, it's the person next to the gate to the Market who gives you the Cannith Crafting questlet. And for Collectables, it's Beaudry Cartamon at the foot of one side of the Harbor.

If you invest in the Collectables Storage at the Bank, you can dump the contents of your bags there (just drag the entire bag to the appropriate tab and it will empty it). In that event, you can get away with smaller bags. You'll still want a decent-sized Ingredients bag (green) because there are a number of Bound to Character (BtC) items that are classed as Ingredients. However, Favor for the patron The Twelve will provide you with both a small and a large ingredient bag eventually.

The bags really aren't worth it until later in game beyond the starter ones and the larger ones that are free or bought with normal ingame currency. They're also better to wait until you've decided, for sure, that you're keeping the character.

Inventory space is a better option, in my opinion, than getting the bags...

I'd agree. The time to buy bags is on an as-needed basis. When your existing bags continually fill in between trips to the bank to dump them into the Shared Crafting Storage, then buy bigger bags.

When to buy how much Inventory vs Shared Crafting Storage is an individual decision based on usage.

[Taebrythn]

my take on monster manuals is they're great to have but if you're coming from a free player or premium area i would say to look at content first. this gives you more to play and it can lead to more points you get from doing the quests. i look for more bang for my buck. another thing i look for when i buy content when i first started doing it was there heroic and epic content in the pack. if there was it gave me a reason to buy it. in heroic there is plenty of things to help you level to 20 easy. that wasn't a problem. it was 20+ the free content really takes a drop after that.


so i would just look at how many quests and if there were slayer areas. i enjoy both. so it was a seller to me if there was both heroic/epic. that is something a consumer should think about. what is it you want from your game? like expansions? etc. one non content thing is nice and that is shared bank. this way you can actually move bound items to other toons even if they're used as a mule. can't mail bound items.