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
next thing is content. if one person owns something and others do not it might make it harder to run things. now that isn't saying you can't because guest passes exist for everything minus first 2 expansions.
party makeup would consist of what people are interested in playing like barbarian, cleric, ranger, wizard etc. you can also use hirelings to fill other spots or just run with only 4. running with classes such as ranger and cleric allow at least 2 people heal others when needed.
when i played my characters i also looked for ways i could help out in case it was needed like a spot heal or do traps, or something support related. so talk to your friends on what roles they would like to do and adapt to it also tell them your likes.
no matter what any game can be fun just with people alone even if the game could be terrible lol.
So you're bringing a trapper, right? Aside from that, a Cleric or other healer is always nice, though not mandatory. But you're going to want some strong dps. I imagine you'll probably play the role-game with your friends. If that were the case you can't go wrong with the stereotypical party formation of Fighter, Rogue, Cleric, Wizard. Change it up as you like.. Paladin, Artificer, Favored Soul, Sorcerer.
Bottom line, I would recommend a Trapper of some sort. After that, play with 3 sorcerers if you want to ;)
Enhancements aside, you'll have a pretty crappy Fighter if you pump it's Wisdom up to 18 and leave it's Strength at 8. Of course that's obvious, but things like Feats and Skills may not be so obvious. They need to know what Feats they want and what the prerequisites for them are.. It's never fun when you plan on taking a Feat like Improved Two-Handed Fighting, only to realize when you get to that level, that your Strength is only 16 and you need 17 for it.
The Wiki really helps out a lot. It might seem complicated, but there are only a few things they should keep in mind, such as:
-Picking about 7* or so Feats they are going to want throughout the course of the game, depending on Class.
-Focusing on skills. Especially for trappers, every point needs to go into Search, Spot, and most importantly, Disable Device. Fortunately Trappers tend to have a lot of skill points. Other characters will likely have to choose between 1-3 skills. I mention Skills because they're one of the things that you can't easily change once you pick them, same with Feats, but skills are generally more forgiving, and you can pepper them around a little if you know what you're doing.
-Keeping Constitution relatively high, never lower than 12, and preferably 14 or 16.
And basically that's it. There's more, but I wouldn't overwhelm anybody starting out. Maybe another thing I should mention is the limit of spells that certain classes like Sorcerers and Favored Souls get. Or Alignment restrictions if planning to multiclass.. :P
I could nitpick and keep adding things all day, but as I've implied, you can sometimes turn people away by over complicating things.
Somebody else can chime in with anything else they feel is important, as to not gimp your character. Worst comes to worse you start with a, single use, Lesser Heart of Wood, which allows you to redo your character abilities, skills, and feats, but not name, alignment, and appearance. But it's nice to save that if you can.
First, as mentioned, you really can't go wrong with a party of four. The worst you could do is to not have a trapper. Some dungeons will be quite a pain for newbies without one. Second most critical is a healer, but you can drag along a hireling or two for that, if desired. Costs something, though. And everyone can use Potions (and some can use Wands).
[Just a note that if you ever play Reaper difficulty, self-heal is nerfed starting at 60%. In Reaper, everyone has to heal one another. Likely doesn't apply to newbies unless they join an existing group.]
DDO doesn't require tanks or tanking until/unless you play at very high levels and/or difficulties or in some raids. DPS and possibly CC (Crowd Control) are more than adequate.
So ideally, you want:
++ Trapper: Rogue or *Artificer (no other options).
Skills - most important part of a trapper build. Spend every point it will let you into Spot, Search, and Disable. Open Locks is also important, but you can roll multiple times until you roll high enough to succeed, so not critical. UMD (Use Magic Device) can be helpful. Bluff supports some Rogue Enhancements.
Stats - Invest heavily in Int and/or Dex. Int supports Search and Disable skills. Dex increases Open Locks and is commonly the stat used for to-hit and dmg (though Int is also possible). Biggest weakness in a first-life trapper is Spot, which is increased by Wis. There's no other reason for a trapper to invest in Wis. At higher levels & difficulties, you may find it impossible to spot traps. Consider a Wis item. Invest in Enhancements that increase Spot/Search/Disable. You can't Disable a trap you can't Spot unless you actively Search your way through the dungeon (or know where the trap box is).
++ Healer: far more options and there's seldom a need for a completely dedicated one. One dedicated healer or a couple of builds with some healing ability will usually suffice. (Always nice to have more than one in case the healer dies.) Cleric, *FvS (Favored Soul), and *Druid are the strong healers (possibly *Alchemist). Bard or even Paladin are secondary. Some classes and anyone with UMD skill (usually Trappers) can use Cure wands and eventually Heal scrolls.
Stats & Skills - mostly don't matter with respect to the healing job. Concentration avoids having casting interrupted when you take damage (true for all casters). Heal increases both your Positive Spellpower (the amount you heal) as well as how many HP are restored to you and party members at a shrine. You need to invest in the primary casting stat enough to cast the spells (ALL casters need 10 + spell level points in their casting stat to cast spells of that spell level, e.g. 16 to cast L6 spells. For DC-based spells, more is better. For heals, it doesn't matter as long as you can cast it.)
Those are the sort-of-critical roles. Possible others:
++ Crowd Control: quite a few options. CC becomes more important at higher levels & difficulties, though it's always helpful. Still, at low diff, another DPS might be more useful. OTOH, best to learn the ropes when it's non-critical. ;)
Casters with Enchantments like Hold, others with Conjurations like Web.. look at the spell list for the class that interests you, pick the spells you want, decide on a School on which to Focus (Feats), consider the Heighten Feat at higher levels, and invest heavily in your caster stat (Max it at L1 and take all levelup stats there and buy gear with that stat. Some Enhancements will also boost it.)
Melees with Feats and Enhancements like Trip, Stun, etc.
Items that Paralyze or Freeze enemies or have similar effects.
Etc. At higher difficulties and levels, you'll face more mobs simultaneously. The ability to prevent them from doing damage, even briefly, will help considerably. And some forms of CC also make enemies Helpless, so they take additional damage.
++ DPS: literally almost unlimited options. Damage spells, archers and arbalesters (crossbow users), melees with Feats designed to hit more often or more targets, even traps that can be set so you can lead mobs into them. In general in DDO, DPS is king. Dead mobs can't hurt you.
++ Tank: usually a melee class designed specifically to grab and hold aggro and absorb a lot of damage (and mitigate it). Can be the same class as a DPS, just with different Feats and Enhancements. Common choices are Fighter and Paladin (or Bear-form *Druid). As mentioned, not particularly useful in DDO for newbies.
So, ideal party composition for a group of four newbies:
1 Trapper
2 (or more) with some kind of healing. Everyone should carry wands and potions.
1 CC
DPS for everyone.
Quite a bit of overlap is possible. The trapper can also be DPS and sometimes even have some ability to heal or CC.
Most common newbie-killers:
Kobold Shamans with Lightning Bolt. Can one-hit many newbies. Electric Resistance is a lifesaver (literally). DON'T STAND STILL! This is generally a good habit in DDO. You can avoid everything from Lightning Bolts and (most) Ray spells to projectiles like arrows and bolts if you aren't where they aimed. Note that even Jumping in place may make some of these miss if your Jump is high enough. Jump's effect maxes out at 40 (60 for someone in Sneak mode, suffering from a -20 penalty). If you have a caster with the Jump spell, they can eventually boost everyone by 30. This is useful to know because there are penalties to moving and casting or while range-firing. Those penalties are NOT incurred by Jumping in one place.
Crowd Control: Spells like Fear, Command, Hold, Web, etc. will make you a sitting target unable to retaliate AND taking bonus damage. Some classes resist better than others. Kill casters quickly. A caster's spell dissipates when they die, so this will free a buddy. Check out Enhancements and such that will mitigate. At low to mid levels, a Ray of Enfeeblement that hits can drop you by up to 10 or 11 Str. If you dump Str, use an item to raise it to 12 if you can (and keep in motion ;) ). At 0 in any attribute, you become Helpless. You can still move, but can do nothing else.
Traps: Make sure your Trapper's Spot is maxed (including gear). Use voice if possible, so when they spot one, they can yell "Trap!" Doesn't do much good if they spot it just as the party barrels into it.
Other than that, one convenience recommendation: Get permanent Feather Fall. When I first started, it was a rare and expensive effect. Now it isn't. Makes life a lot easier. Dying from a fall is embarrassing.
Also, thank you for the reminder about casters taking priority, I will definitely keep that in mind.
The one downside to Artificer comes as you get to higher levels, where sometimes the trap box is on the other side of the trap. Rogues, with Evasion and high Reflex saves, can often get through the trap to disable it. Artificers are much more at risk of dying. Most traps can be timed, jumped, or otherwise avoided if you're good and careful (and if lag doesn't mess you up).
The other benefit to having a trapper (not dying in traps wasn't enough?): More XP. You can get up to a +30% bonus to the base XP of the quest if you do enough traps (assuming the quest has traps).
DDO has the concept that damage can interrupt a caster's spell, but only for player casters. Monster casters' Concentration appears to be infinite. So the only way to interrupt a caster is to CC or kill it.
Note that Arcane Archers (usually Rangers, but can be Elf or Half-Elf) get the option to use Paralyzing arrows, a cheap and effective CC. They also have enhancements that allow them to bypass most forms of DR (Damage Reduction) without needing multiple weapons. Thus, an AA is a very good first-life option for someone in your group.
Probably tomorrow I'll do a post on aggro management in the Newbie Advice Post.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/206480/discussions/0/3111394035969162086/