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Dungeons and Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited - Free To Play - The Something Awful Forums

DDO: Eberron Unlimited and the new eStore is now LIVE for EVERYONE!

Go here to download the game and create an account . We are on the Argonnessen server , guild is Order of the Ten Bux This game is first and foremost an action MMO.

It is not a 1:1 translation of Pen and Paper to computer, it is just based on it.

There are a number of changes to suit the format. What's This Free To Play I Hear About? Go here to download the game and create an account . The game is free to play in the sense that you can reach the level cap without paying for anything if you really want to.

You won't have access to all of the content, so it'll be more difficult than if you bought various adventure packs or were paying the monthly fee and had access to everything.

You'll also require a leveling sigil that comes from quest end rewards every four levels. So while you can level up to 20 by farming sigils and doing the main Stormreach area content, you'll be missing out on a significant portion of the game and have a longer time getting to 20 (both due to needing sigils, and due to inefficient areas to level at the higher end). It does let you pay for the content you do want access to, and at the times you need it.

So depending on your play habits, and how long it takes you to level, and how much $15/month means to you, the Free To Play option could work out better for a lot of people.

Worst case scenario it’s a good trial to level 10ish. The eStore also contains a selection of convenience items.

Such as +20% experience for 6 hours potions, items to teleport a group mate or your whole group to you, rods that let you use the Teleport spell to move to other city areas, and other such things.

Gives VIPs something useful to spend their monthly (or bought) points on, beyond character slots and drow/favored soul unlocking.

Nothing really game breaking, and most of the stuff doesn't even give you any benefit while in-quest, they're just fun and useful little perks. VIP (i.e.

Monthly subscriber) vs Free To Play If you plan to play frequently, or for any length of time I highly recommend the VIP option.

F2P makes a great extended trial, but beyond that, the content you get access to with VIP is really nice, and unless you're thinking long long term, it's more cost effective to just subscribe if you want access to a lot of adventure packs.

And with the content releases supposedly moving back to a new Module every 4~ months, it'll likely be a long time before F2P becomes more cost effective, if ever. VIP to F2P Downgrade FAQ . How Do I Get Into The Guild? Open your Social Window (O key by default) and go to the who, and sort by guild.

Anyone in "Order of the Ten Bux" should be able to invite you.

You should also post your character name here for your first character, and then after that you can just ask in guild if someone can grab your alt.

Then just send people a tell.

The higher level they are, the more likely they are going to be able to invite, but most everyone can invite. You're welcome to get your non-goon friends into the guild as well, friend of goons are fine, random people are not. To reiterate we are on the Argonnessen server Failing that, you can also look for some of my characters: Caitiri, Cailet, Infernobot, Caisha, Umbreon. A helpful hint for being able to interact with guild chat is to make your chat window opaque, right click the party tab, and under "Set Incoming Text Types", check Guild.

This way you'll be able to see guild chat even if you want default chat to go to party.

Can also add party to guild tab the same way, so you can keep track of both but easily switch between default channels with the [ and ] keys. Gameplay The game is built around completing quests.

However, unlike most MMOs each quest is tied to an instanced dungeon/area that has been handcrafted.

There is a little randomization in some of the quests, but that shows up later on, and is largely trap positions. NPCs for quests are usually in a tavern, but can also be found around the various parts of the city or adventuring camps you wind up later in the game.

Talk to them, accept the quest, and off to the (usually) nearby dungeon entrance. Once there, you can select from Normal, Hard, or Elite difficulty.

Though to select the harder difficulties you, or someone in your party will need to have completed the quest on a lower difficulty.

The quests are definitely balanced around Normal difficulty, especially early on, but doing it on Hard/Elite is great for challenge or experience. Once inside you'll be presented with a list of objectives that looks like this: Completing a quest is what gives you the experience reward.

You do not get experience for killing things directly, outside of Explorer Areas where you get some at certain breakpoints . Pretty straight forward, the ones marked (Optional) give you a decent bit of extra experience, and can also sometimes lead to extra loot.

It is much more useful to hit up optional objectives than it used to be with the recent raise in experience for them. Experience As said above, completing quests is how you are awarded experience, not directly by killing mobs.

Everyone in the group is awarded the same base amount of experience, however this can be further modified by both individual or group based bonuses or penalties.

You do not split the experience, regardless of the size of your group, everyone is awarded the same base amount. Killing very few mobs in a quest will net you 8-15% bonus experience.

Killing a lot of them will net you 10-25% more experience.

While just killing some, won't net you any bonus experience. There are similar bonuses for disarming traps , breaking things, and finding secret doors (all 8-15%).

However these are only bonuses for finding certain % of them in a quest, you don't get a bonus for doing none of them. The first time you do a quest on normal and hard you'll get +25%, first time on Elite +50%.

Hard and elite also raise the quest level, listed, by 1 and 2 respectively.

However, it does not scale up in difficulty linearly and the new dungeon scaling system for small parties has a lesser effect on Hard and is disabled on Elite. The third time you complete a quest, you suffer a 10% repetition penalty.

For each repetition past this, it's another cumulative 10% (20% at 4, 30% at 5, so on).

However if it's your first time doing a specific difficulty, the repetition penalty is waived for that particular run.

In other words, if you run a quest 5 times on normal, and then sixth time on hard, you won't take a 30% experience penalty, but it will count as a repetition for when you repeat a difficulty.

Same with elite, the 7th time could be elite and you'd get full experience, but another run would take an 8th run penalty.

This is rarely much of an issue, but just incase. The grouping range is <Your Level>

+ 3. Powerleveling penalty is applied on an individual basis when someone is 4 or more levels below the highest level member of the party, costing them 50% of the base experience.

It’s not the end of the world, but it’s generally best to avoid the penalty for extended periods of time. Combat While there is an auto-attack option provided, and you can hold down right mouse to keep swinging, the game is action based in the sense that you don't just hit a cycle of buttons or wait on cooldowns while standing around.

You need to use your environment and positioning to your advantage, as well as some classes (and feats) provide you with active-use combat abilities similar to other games.

Spells are also another way to be more active in your combat. But, for instance, you don't want to let things get behind you, because that gives them a better chance to hit you.

They also can't go through you or each other, so standing in a doorway will limit the ability of mobs to attack you down to a couple (unless they are ranged/casters).

You can also use the traps in the dungeons to take out enemies if you can lure them over them.

And many other ways you can interact with the environment as well as being in more control of your individual attacks that makes the game more action based. Spells are either cast at your target, where your targeting reticule is, or the direction you are facing, depending on the type of spell.

Ranged attacks similarly can be shot at your target, or where your targeting reticule is, which can be useful for hitting things partly blocked behind geometry since targeted shots aim center mass.

There is no locational damage however, it's either something hits and takes away HP, or doesn't. You can also block with your shield or weapons, which gives you Damage Reduction, to decrease incoming damage while others (say behind you in a blocked doorway) pelt away at them, or your persistent area effect damage spells tick away at the enemies and the melees help own them.

Or even just to give yourself some extra time for the parties healer to throw a heal on you, if you're getting low. You do not regenerate health or mana (spell points) while in a quest!

You have to use spells/abilities/potions/wands to restore hitpoints, and largely only shrines (there are potions, but they are not worth using until later on if then, as they are expensive) to restore mana.

Your hp/sp are important resources and it's in your best interest to learn how to conserve both of them while playing. Scaling? I don't know a whole lot about this system, as it's new to the game with mod 9.

What I do know is that on normal difficulty, the game attempts to scale the mobs (via hitpoints at a minimum, and I believe damage/to-hit/AC as well) to provide an acceptable challenge for your group size and I believe even class composition, so for groups of 1 player to 3 players, the mobs decrease in difficulty to make it challenging but reasonable.

With 4 or more people (up to the group cap of 6 people), there is no scaling present.

This is because quests are supposed to be balanced around 4 people of the given quest level.

With hard, the scaling is still present, but is lessened.

On elite, scaling is completely disabled. Character Creation Warning: You can gently caress up your character if you don't pay attention when creating it. Your stats, skills, race, and initial class are all very important when creating a character.

Race and class are less of an issue since you should have some idea of where you're going (melee vs caster for instance) when you pick one, but your stats and skills also cannot be respecced (for now, a "full" respec option is likely going to be added to the eStore).

Your feats and enhancements can all be changed, albeit slowly if you need a massive feat overall.

But think carefully or poke around in the build thread or ask questions here unless you don't mind rerolling. Templates For New Player Official Forum thread on this topic . I happen to like Floating Leaf, Trapsmith Ranger, and Frenzied Brute;

However I imagine most any of them would work well enough.

There are also in-game templates you can choose, rather than using these custom new player templates.

Some of them are okay, some of them are completely horrible.

You're likely better off using one of the templates in that thread or asking here. New Player Tip(s) When completing the Misery's Peak quest, I highly recommend that melee take Anger's Necklace, and casters take the Archivist Necklace, these two items are the ones most likely to last you until extremely late in the game.

You can find the second piece of the set as reward for the quest Sacrifices. If you're a wizard, take the spell Master's Touch as one of your starter spells, and use the Greataxe from Korthos for a few levels.

It's a long duration spell, so even in a group if you're low on SP and no shrine in sight, you can pop that and melee it up for a bit.

After you hit level 3, or perhaps even as long as level 5.

You'll start having better attack options, and enough SP to last a bit, so this becomes less of a concern.

Sorcerers MAY wish to try this tactic, but you can only switch a spell every 3 days at your trainer, and it costs money.

So this uses up one of your reset timers, and costs you, but if you're careful of selecting your other spells it might help make those low-levels less annoying. At 33% of your max weight capacity you hit lightly encumbered, this lowers your movement speed, disables monk Wis->AC, and a whole host of other problems.

At 66% you're medium encumbered and these penalties increase.

You don't want to enter either of these states if you can help it, and this is why it's nice starting with at least 10 strength on any character.

That extra bit of carrying capacity and higher strength means strength debuffs are less likely to disable you, and you can carry more than one set of full plate. Save at least one +3 Bluff skill item.

You need 3 bluff to avoid paying 1000 plat to open the last part of the Delera's chain, so with that item and 10 charisma you're set.

If you have 6-8, you'll need a charisma potion, or item, or buff, or skill boost or something, but still cheaper than paying the bribe. (Will add more as I think of, open to suggestions!) Stats (Stat - 10) / 2 = your modifier, this is what actually affects things.

Odd stats don't provide you with any bonus, but there are sometimes reasons to start with odd numbers.

Ideally you don't want any end-game if you can help it.

And yes, this can be a negative modifier for stats under 10. Strength - Attack/damage, this is sizable factor in your ability to hit or do damage to things in melee combat. Dexterity - Armor Class and Reflex Save, this is limited by the armor you wear.

Robes have no Maximum Dexterity limit, but other than that wearing armor can impede the amount of bonus you can derive from this.

It’s also used for your ranged attack bonus in place of strength. Constitution - Hit Points and Fortitude Save, you get your con bonus * level in extra hitpoints, this is a stat that everyone should strongly consider. Intelligence - Skill points and Wizard casting.

How many skill points you get is based upon your class, but you get one extra, per level, for every int modifier you have.

You also need 10 + Spell Level, minimum, to cast as a wizard.

Wizards want this maxed, many other classes can consider it a dump stat or low depending.

For a wizard this is their bonus to Difficulty Class stat. Wisdom - Will Save, Cleric Casting, partial Favored Soul casting.

A cleric needs 10 + Spell level, minimum, to cast.

It is also their Difficulty Class bonus stat.

A Favored Soul uses their wisdom modifier for their bonus to the Difficulty Class of the spell. Charisma - Bard & Sorcerer casting, and partial Favored Soul Casting.

All three of these need 10 + Spell Level, minimum, to cast.

For Bards and Sorcerers it is also their Difficulty Class bonus stat.

For Favored Soul it does nothing other than small bonus SP after you have the minimum needed for your spells (19 end game). Casting stats also provide bonus Spell Points (SP), and each stat is also tied to some skills.

This isn't something you really need to worry about though in most cases. Races Human - 1 Extra Feat at level 1, +1 skill point per level (4 more at level 1), good racial enhancements, no stat bonuses or penalties. Elf - +2 dexterity, -2 constitution, racial enhancements for Longswords and Rapiers OR Scimitar and Falchion. Dwarf - +2 constitution, -2 charisma, racial enhancements for dwarven axes and spells. Halfling - +2 dexterity, -2 strength, racial enhancements for saves, sneak attacks, and a solid buffing enhancement usable only on other people. Warforged - +2 constitution, -2 charisma, -2 wisdom, strong innate immunities (Poison, Disease, Negative Energy, Sleep, Paralysis, Fatigue), healed half as much by divine magic, capable of being healed with the repair line of arcane spells. Drow - Unlocked at 400 total favor on one character (Server unlock), or bought for 700?

Turbine Points (Account unlock), +2 dexterity, +2 wisdom, +2 intelligence, -2 charisma.

Racial enhancements for Rapiers and Shortsword. Classes Barbarian - 12 base HP per level, 4 base skill points per level.

Low/no armor class capabilities, strong damage dealer with Rage ability (+str/con, no spellcasting allowed), just a straight face smasher. Bard - 6 base HP per level, 6 base skill points per level.

Superb party buffing capabilities with both songs and magic.

No slouch in melee when built towards that as well.

Their Crowd Control abilities with songs and magic are also very solid.

Can work as a healer at low levels, and even in some rare cases at high levels, but takes a lot more work to do so in the end. Cleric - 8 base HP per level, 2 base skill points per level.

Decent armor class, okay melee.

Is one of the two main healers along with the Favored Soul.

However you shouldn't neglect your offensive capabilities.

Your casting especially is likely to be potent, and can lead to lots of damage, or damage mitigation (holds/commands/etc).

Turning capabilities are currently pretty lackluster, but there are some enhancements for turning them into other abilities. Fighter - 10 base HP per level, 2 base skill points per level.

Decent armor class, good DR (with a shield), lots of bonus feats.

Potential to be a good DPS character with the Kensai set of enhancements and feats tailored to that.

Can also be a reasonable tank with the Defender line, even if you don't have the gear to hit super AC. Monk - 8 base HP per level, 4 base skill points per level.

Active combat abilities with a Ki bar, similar to WoW Warrior Rage, building up as you attack things, and expended as you use your abilities.

Able to make combos to generate party buffs, or debuff mobs (including a small AE heal, and a curse that heals melees that attack the mob). Paladin - 10 base HP per level, 2 base skill points per level.

Decent armor class, some great combat abilities (Divine Sacrifice, Lay on Hands, Divine Might), great saves, minor spellcasting (4 spell levels). Ranger - 8 base HP per level, 6 base skill points per level.

Okay AC, great combat abilities.

Free Two-Weapon Fighting line (even without pre-requisite dex), Tempest Prestige Enhancement one of the few ways to get melee haste (that stacks with the Haste spell), as well as extra AC while dual wielding. Rogue - 6 base HP level, 8 base skill points per level.

Okay AC, decent combat abilities.

Capable of disarming traps, and opening locks.

Warning: Even one level of rogue is sufficient to allow a multi-class character to disarm traps and open locks, as long as they keep their skills up, so while rogues are cool and if you want to build one to be a trap guy, that's fine, but don't neglect your combat abilities. Wizard - 4 base HP per level, 2 base skill points per level.

Non-existent AC. Strong offensive and crowd control oriented spellcasting, along with some very useful buffs (haste, blur, displacement, greater heroism).

Wizards also get a number of bonus feats, and can switch their spells at any shrine or tavern.

Letting them tailor their spellbook to each quests needs.

Many people consider them underpowered compared to Sorcerers, but they have their advantages and are not really gimped. Sorcerers - 4 base hp per level, 2 base skill points per level.

Non-existent AC. Like the wizard they are a strong caster.

Unlike the wizard their spell choices are semi-static (you can switch one every 3 real-life days for a price at your trainer), but they make up for it with significantly faster casting by the end game, as well as half the recast on their spells.

And to top it off, they have innately higher SP (Spellpoints/mana) than a wizard and get double benefit from +spellpoint items. Favored Soul (2500 favor server unlock, ???

Turbine point account unlock) - 8 hp per level, 2 base skill points per level.

Good casting, good melee.

The Sorcerers of Clerics, but with a little more melee bent.

Get the extra SP and extra SP from items, but do not get the fast casting or recast. Multiclassing Multiclassing needs to be planned out from the start pretty much.

You can have up to 3 classes when multiclassing, and as this is a 3.5E based game you spread out your 20 levels between the classes, it’s not like 2E where you just level slower. If you want to multiclass I strongly suggest you ask for advice here or on the official forums before going forward. Alignment I would highly suggest some form of Good Alignment, unless you pick up the Use Magic Device skill.

Great skill to work in, but the main users of it (when you're new at least) are Bards and Rogues.

In that case I'd go with True Neutral.

Arcanes should also go True Neutral.

Clerics who don't ever want to melee or multi-class monk should go True Neutral as well.

That said, it’s not a crippling decision really and if you RP Concept demands something else, go for it. The reason for this is that Pure Good is the best random loot DPS suffix, and requires a UMD skill of 20 or Good alignment.

Depending on your luck you could find one of these as early as level 2-4, but more than likely it’s something you'd use later on.

And the truly end-game weapons don't actually require alignment for their Pure Good capabilities. Does This Game Have PvP? Barely.

This isn't the game to go to if you want PvP.

It's okay to screw around with, but it's far from a "serious" PvP game. Videos Just a quick video to give you some idea of the way the game plays, and how it looks.

I'm solo in the video, just to make it easier to record, and this is before dungeon scaling is present.

So this is a quest that was (originally) balanced for 4 level 2 party members.

And I'm on a level 3 wizard. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcyD5bdEDqg Random Screenshot Section Note: I welcome the submission of more screenshots, I have tons of screenshots but most of them are not OP material, and more just amusing to me. The effects of the spell Otto's Sphere of Dancing, also known as Disco Ball. A nice looking view as you exit out of a quest in one of the Explorer Areas. Horrible horrible raid, but still a cool looking mob.

DemonMage 15, 2009 around 06:19

This post assumes some knowledge of the game mechanics.

While I encourage someone new to the game to give this a look over, it may take some time before you understand all of it. Skills Balance Rating: Great Type: Passive Description: Opposed check versus your opponents trip DC for you to stand back up.

You get a roll every 2 seconds after being knocked down.

Resisting a trip is a str/dex check, so you'll get tripped but get back up quicker with this skill.

As a bonus, with 40 (modified) balance you'll not get knocked down by the Titan anymore. Bluff Rating: Skip it Type: Active Description: Single target, makes the target vulnerable to being sneak attacked for a very short period of time (couple seconds, tops).

Opposed bluff roll.

You're better off using diplomacy if you want to shed agro and sneak attack something. Concentration: Rating: Decent Type: Passive Description: Allows you to continue casting a spell even if you take damage during the casting.

1d20 + Concentration is opposed by 10 + Damage Taken + Level of Spell Being Cast.

Quickened spells do not suffer a chance to be disturbed when hit, so it's viable to eschew this skill on Sorcerers/Favored Soul if you keep quicken on permanently, but it's a nice safety buffer when you're new.

This also determines the maximum amount of Ki a monk can hold while out of combat. Diplomacy Rating: Decent Type: Active Description: Area Effect skill that lets you shed agro.

It has no activation timer and affects all targets in range (short range AE).

It also has occasional use in conversations.

Handy skill to consider on a rogue character, less so on others. Disable Device Rating: Great Type: Active Description: Only available to those with at least one rogue level, it allows you to disable traps when you find the control box via the Search skill.

Thus allowing your party to continue safely through the trap.

Many traps can be avoided through timing or jumping, so while it's not a required skill it can still prove very useful. Haggle Rating: Great Type: Passive Description: Vendors give you 10% of an items base value (Brokers 15%), this skill gives you an extra 0.25 per point.

So 8 points means vendors will now give you 12% (Brokers 17%) of an item's base value.

A great way to make extra money over the lifetime of your character, but often a tough fit for non-bards due to other more actively important skills. Heal Rating: Skip it Type: Passive Description: Increases the amount you and your party heal when you're near them at a rest shrine.

Also allows you to use healer's kits to stabilize an incapciated person and allow them to slowly regenerate health until they are up again.

It's much better to simply use a Cure Light Wounds wand charge or even just let them bleed out and take them to a Resurrection Shrine.

The benefit is too small to be wasting skill points on. Hide Rating: Okay Type: Active (via the Sneak feat) Description: Allows you to, in combination with the Move Silent skill, sneak around mobs and not agro them.

It takes a lot of knowledge of how the skill works to properly abuse this, but it has the potential to be a very useful skill.

That said, it's very low on my list of priorities. Intimidate Rating: Okay Type: Active Description: Small range Area Effect taunt.

6 second cooldown, keeps them locked onto you for 3?

Seconds. Okay if you have spare points floating around, and it is AE, but often agro is achieved through massive damage, not this skill. Jump Rating: Great Type: Passive Description: Increases the height (and therefore length) of your jumps.

This skill has an effective hardcap at 40 (buffed) points.

With the jump spell providing +30, heavy investment in this skill is not recommended.

However, some investment in this skill if you have spare points is.

It's nice to be able to make it on top of things without having to rely on outside buffs.

Especially if said buffs get dispelled. Listen Rating: Skip it Type: Passive Description: This skill is largely superceded by the spot skill. Move Silent: Rating: Okay Type: Active (via the Sneak feat) Description: See Hide Open Lock Rating: Okay Type: Active Description: Allows you to open (some) locked doors and chests.

Some require quest obective keys instead.

This skill requires at least one rogue level to obtain.

Is also the lowest priority rogue skill because you can try and infinite number of times on a lock, and rolling a 1 has no negative effect unlike with Disable Device (where it can blow the box up, rendering the trap permanently unable to be disabled).

So letting a lag a little is okay, but you want to make sure you don't have to spend an hour trying to roll a 20 to unlock something if you can help it. Perform Rating: Okay Type: Active/Passive Description: Bard only skill.

Required for some of the bard class abilities, and the bard Fascinate ability gets it's DC from this ability.

The DC is 1d20 + Perform skill, meaning at low levels it's not so hot, and at high levels even without items your DC will be decent, and with items it's sky high.

Might as well max this if you're a bard. Repair Rating: Skip it Type: Passive Description: As heal, but only works on warforged characters. Search Rating: Okay Type: Active Description: Allows you to find hidden doors, and more importantly trap boxes.

Well worth keeping maxed as a rogue-like character.

Not worth it otherwise.

For secret doors, other characters can use clicky items with Detect Secret Doors or Wands.

Even with a rogue, I'd encourage keeping a clicky on you for doors as it's just faster. Spot Rating: Okay Type: Passive Description: Allows you to passively detect the presence of secret doors (but does not aid in finding them) and traps.

Also allows you to tab target as well as see a faint outline of hiding creatures if you are within a certain amount of their Hide skill. Swim Rating: Skip it Type: Passive Description: Allows you to swim (slightly) faster and/or against stronger currents.

Also increases your underwater breathing time.

Underwater action items make this skill almost totally irrelevant and the places where it comes in handy are so few as to not be worth the expenditure of skill points. Tumble Rating: 1 point - Great, beyond - Okay Type: Passive/Active Description: Passively decreases the amount of damage you take from falls, but featherfalling makes this so-so at best.

Actively tumbling allows you to roll when you move while shield blocking, and just 1 point is enough to allow this.

This roll also lets you move at full speed while under the effect of movement debuffs such as slow or shallow water.

At 31 modified skill you can do back flips and side dives.

With 36 modified skill you can do front flips.

Not recommended for raising, but if you have the free points and it's a class skill and you want flips go for it.

Note: You need both a base skill of 1, and a current skill of at least 1 to be able to do rolls.

Armor check penalties can lower you below this, but dex modifier can counteract this.

It's usually not a concern, as most people stop using armor late game or can easily counteract the penalty, but it's something to know. Use Magic Device Rating: Insane Type: Passive/Active Description: Lets you bypass race or alignment requires on almost any item passively, and therefore wear items you might not otherwise have access to.

Also lets you use scrolls/wands that your class may not have access to.

Must-have for rogues and bards.

Highly recommended for: Paladins, Sorcerers, Favored Souls, and Rangers.

Possibly others as well. Weaponry Low Levels: Look for a +1 Elemental weapon, even a simple +1 flaming dagger can last you a long time.

But keep in mind elemental adds 3.5 damage on average, so high base damage plain weapons could beat a dagger.

Any element is good at these levels, but Shock/Acid are going to be the least resisted.

Stay away from Thundering as it fires only on-crit.

With mod 9, if you're VIP or have the Sharn Syndicate Adventure Pack, there is easy access to +2 Acid based weaponry from the quests there. Also be on the look out for a Ghost Touch weapon, when used against incorporeals this will remove the innate 50% concealment they possess. Your ideal DPS weapon is, as all levels, +1 Elemental Or Holy of Pure Good.

Pure Good requires a Good alignment, or 20 UMD to use. Beyond a DPS and a Ghost Touch weapon, you may want to carry a 1 copper clup from a vendor to use on Oozes and Rust Monsters, or a Muckbane from the quest Durk's Got a Secret (Muck's chest, rare spawned mob). Mid Levels (6-13): The same applies for DPS weapons, simply looking for higher enhancement bonuses while keeping an elemental modifier. You now want to be on the look out for Transmuting weapons, though less so in Mod 9 than in the past, it still is nice to bypass various golem damage reduction. Not much more new here really.

You could consider picking up stat damaging weaponry, but with the nerf to this in Mod 9 it's main use at mid levels (Earth Elementals) is drastically lowered.

You may still want to be on the look out for high crit-range weaponry with Puncturing or Enfeebling on them to disable beholders, but in many cases you're better off with DPS or hoping the casters can handle them. High Levels (13+): +5 Elemental/Holy of Pure Good should be your goal for random dropped loot.

But now Fire is pretty much off the table, due to the prevalence of devils, which are completely immune to fire damage.

Electric is going to be your best bet here, along with Holy.

Devils have a slight resistance to cold and acid, so while the rest of the stuff will take full damage from them, electric is better generally speaking. However, at this level range you'll want to be looking into Shroud Crafting.

Which requires you to get Small, Medium, and Large ingredients from the Shroud raid (and Large also drop in mod 9 one group quests) to make a custom-fit weapon.

Most people opt for Mineral 2 here, due to it's Transmuting nature.

It's still a good choice, and the full depth of crafting is out of scope for this post.

But you can take a look at the Shroud Loot Planner to get an idea of the kinds of effects you can craft onto weapons and accessories. At this level range you also want to be looking for the so-called "Power 5" weapons: Vorpal, Banishing, Smiting, Disrupting, and formerly Paralyzing.

I'm not a big fan of Paralyzing, and they tend to be cheap, but they're still okay.

None of these will work on red-named creatures. Vorpals are 5% chance of instant death to non-red named creatures with heads.

Proficiency is all you care about here.

Only spawns on slashing type weapons. Banishing is an on-crit effect, as such higher crit range is most important here (and therefore more expensive).

Daggers can usually be had for cheap, and are 10% crit range, which is accceptable.

This also has an HD limit that may make it far less useful in Mod 9 (As well as being on the creatures home plane...).

Can spawn on pierce and blunt.

Only affects extra-planar mobs, and allows them a save.

Instant death if failed. Smiting is also on-crit, can spawn on slash and pierce.

Only affects constructs, and allows them a save, but has no HD limit.

Instant destruction if failed. Disruption is on-hit, and has a very low save.

Due to the level requirement on the weapon disruption is sort of lackluster in general for DPS characters against undead.

Worst case scenario it's a vorpal against undead.

Works fantastic against the low-will save Cinderspawn and Giant Skeletons.

Questionable use otherwise.

Spawns on all three weapon types.

Instant destruction if the save is failed. Paralyzing is on-hit, and has a very low save.

Prevents movement and spellcasting, but does not provide auto-crit like Hold does.

Spawns on all? weapon types. You also want to look into so-called Portal Beaters at this stage.

Holy/Anarchic of Pure Good/Greater Construct Bane.

These are used for beating on the portals in part 1 of The Shroud, they are Lawful Evil constructs, so you want to be able to tear them down fast. This is also where the transmuting nerf of Mod 9 really hurts.

You need a Flametouched Iron Transmuter, Transmuting of Pure Good, or Holy Silver of Pure good weapon to bypass devil damage reduction, including the major raid bosses of 3 raids.

No longer will any old transmuter do, which can cause a major hit to DPS on the boss, which is obviously bad.

A Mineral 2 will still bypass the bosses damage reduction however. Short list of things to look for high-end: High crit range Banisher/Smiter Vorpal +5 Holy/Elemental of Pure Good Transmuter with good property (via Pure Good, or Flametouched Iron) or Silver with Holy/Pure Good weaponry.

Ideal is probably Holy Silver of Greater Evil Outsider Bane (very rare combo) Construct bane weaponry, or at least Holy of Pure Good Also at all ranges considering keeping a solid blunt weapon on you for undead quests.

Your base damage, which includes strength bonuses, bard songs, power attack, etc, is all halfed by their damage reduction.

So even a simple +1 Holy Mace might beat out a fancy Elemental of Pure good weapon due to the huge loss of damage on non-blunt weaponry.

This is one of the major annoyances with the transmuting nerf.

Since no longer can you use your Mineral 2 slashers/piercers against skeletal undead to full effect. Sample Mineral 2 Khopesh, opting for +4 AC on the final tier Sample Radiance 2 Scimitar, again opting for +4 AC DemonMage fucked around with this message at Aug 31, 2009 around 18:39

This sounds right down my alley.

Do you lose anything in going F2P to VIP instead of just starting out VIP?

You don't lose anything exactly, no.

If you buy adventure packs while F2P and then subscribe, you'll still have those if/when you go back to being F2P but they aren't doing you any good as a VIP. I'm a little unclear on the character slot issue though.

I'm not sure if you're F2P if you buy one extra character slot, if you have 11 slots rather than 10 when you're VIP.

I'd assume you do so, and I don't overly see why you wouldn't, but I can't say 100% for sure that you do. So other than adventure packs bought being semi-useless during your time as VIP (but useful when you drop), there is no loss in going F2P->VIP.

Awesome OP for the new thread.

Just a quick thing about the new player build thread that's posted.

Check with DemonMage or someone else who knows what they're doing before you pick one that isn't listed in the OP.

Some of them aren't as viable as they sound (the THF paladin build comes to mind). Edited for clarity.

From the other thread, I started a new new character, never played the game before.

I asked about why it took so long to level...well I found out why. The starter town has quests available and there are two options when you first get them: Solo and Normal.

I was running through all of the quests on Solo difficulty and was getting crap XP.

Once I started to run only Normal difficulty, XP came pretty quick. Started a Warborne Wiz which was decent enough, but then went elf Rogue and liked that even more.

Probably following at level 2 with fighter, then level 3 ranger.

Saveron_01 fucked around with this message at Aug 21, 2009 around 20:02

Yeah, normal is the difficulty you should be trying to do things on ideally.

Especially with next patch, even if you're solo, normal is the difficulty to go with.

Right now, once you get off Korthos and into the Harbor you may need to switch to solo depending on the power of your build, but hopefully you're also grouping up at that point so it's not so much of an issue. And also that sounds a little strange!

One level of fighter is okay, as it opens up more weapons, and gives you a boost in HP and some okay enhancements.

One level of ranger doesn't really provide as much if you've already taken fighter as it offers a lot of the same benefits.

Anymore than two levels of multiclass on a rogue starts hurting because you lose access to Tier 3 Prestige Enhancements, and two levels of multiclass costs you a rogue special ability and a sneak attack upgrade.

So what you gain multiclassing has to be able to make up for that. This is why people often do 6 ranger with 13 rogue (the last level being 1 monk).

Lets you get Tier 2 Prestige Enhancements for rogue, level 1 Prestige Enhancement in ranger (Tempest, 10% melee attack speed increase), and still get two rogue special abilities (Crippling Strike and then either Improved Evasion or Slippery Mind), and monk nets you a free feat and the potential for more AC since neither Ranger 7 nor Rogue 14 offer anything of note.

This game is pretty awesome...

Unlike other older MMOs there are people around of every level, and active alts are everywhere. The goon guild is surprisingly active, and also up for some of the less popular quests since a lot of newbies joined up.

While there's plenty of running around zerging xp-heavy or treasure-heavy quests, there's still that ol' wonderful D&D experience of entering a dungeon, having a scout rogue lead the way, and panicking at the first signs of trouble. Last night we ran Archer's Point Defense...

Got walloped on our first effort, recovering only to run out of time before we could succeed.

On our second try we handled it like pros.

Until we decided to go fight for a measly chest that basically decimated our victorious party. And the free-to-play aspect should attract new people, but as DemonMage suggested, it's coming off like a good approach to the game, but unlimited access seems like a better option. That's my take...

Now for my embarrasing newb questions. How the gently caress do I take screenshots?

I know they have a tip on a loading screen but I never pay attention to those until I want em.

I've read a lot of people saying "the next patch will make soloing a lot easier" but they never say how.

How?

That's covered under the scaling thing. On normal things have less hp, and in theory less attack/ac/saves and lower DC spells.

This only happens with 1-3 people in the group, 4-6 it's as per normal. On hard, this system is still present but it's not as pronounced. On elite, the system is disabled regardless of group size. There is no specific information given by Turbine about this, other than that the original implementation only affected HP and the new system affects a multitude of factors.

Specifics are left up to the player to discover, as per retarded standard MMO protocol.

Can anyone post the link to the client we need to download for this?

I had to format my system and lost the client I had and now the only one I can find (high-def client) has an issue starting up this Pando Media Booster so it won't download anything.

Do people actually play much of the game, given how old this is?

It all sounds good, but I'm afraid it will be like most MMO's in that every dungeon/group-quest will consist of a bunch of people with strats they read on the internet they half-understand trying to grind through the same dungeon over and over again to get one piece of loot which will increment their primary stat by 2 points. I love the idea of a game built around well-made instanced dungeon crawls, but given how old the game is I'm kind of afraid that everyone is in the jaded-as-gently caress why-am-I-playing-this stage and few people are actually playing the game much.

DemonMage posted: Tumble Rating: 1 point - Great, beyond - Okay Type: Passive/Active Description: Passively decreases the amount of damage you take from falls, but featherfalling makes this so-so at best.

Actively tumbling allows you to roll when you move while shield blocking, and just 1 point is enough to allow this.

This roll also lets you move at full speed while under the effect of movement debuffs such as slow or shallow water.

At 31 modified skill you can do back flips and side dives.

With 36 modified skill you can do front flips.

Not recommended for raising, but if you have the free points and it's a class skill and you want flips go for it. Short note on Tumble: If you are more than Lightly encumbered (which is about 30% of your 'max load' listed on the Inventory screen) or your Armor Check Penalty reduces your Tumble skills below 1, then you can't Tumble - you just do little defensive hops.

So in some cases it may be worth more than 1 rank even if you're not worried about the reduction in falling damage.

Periodiko posted: Do people actually play much of the game, given how old this is?

It all sounds good, but I'm afraid it will be like most MMO's in that every dungeon/group-quest will consist of a bunch of people with strats they read on the internet they half-understand trying to grind through the same dungeon over and over again to get one piece of loot which will increment their primary stat by 2 points. I love the idea of a game built around well-made instanced dungeon crawls, but given how old the game is I'm kind of afraid that everyone is in the jaded-as-gently caress why-am-I-playing-this stage and few people are actually playing the game much. Loot is largely random, until end-game, where most people try and get kitted out in named items for every slot if possible.

Though they come from a variety of places.

And as such, people run a lot of different quests at every level range. Of course, there are a number of quests that give high experience/minute, or provide some named loot options of worth, that people like to run.

These are usually the longer chain quests, that are also more interesting (at least your first time through, like anything else once you know it well it's not quite as interesting). All the raids in the game are on a 3 day lockout, and a long one is considered an hour.

Each person has (on normal) a 1/6 chance of generating raid loot when they open the Warded Chest, on hard/elite this can scale up to as high as 1/3rd depending on the specific raid.

Basically some raids are not much more challenging on elite, so they don't scale as much.

So you've got an okay shot of getting something, and you're generally able to roll on an item someone else doesn't want if it's assigned to them.

The overriding rule is "Your loot, so what you want with it".

What usually happens is someone gets something, they'll use it, or put it up for roll.

Sometimes they'll pass it to a friend or guildie who needs it rather than putting it up for roll though. Some named items you can grind your rear end off, and of course having multiple capped character would let you grind out the raids.

But for non-raid quests, named items stop dropping after you've looted it 8 times in a single week since you first opened it.

So while someone might spend an hour or two getting to that Ransack timer in Xorian Cipher or the Desert trying for Planar Girds or Bloodstones, it hardly takes up much time and for most of these quests it's the kind of thing people just do when they're solo as they're quests/explorer areas well below the level cap. So there is grinding there if you want it, and most raids are pretty much old hat to people besides the Abbot, The Titan (due to the randomness in it, and it's not the good kind of random either), and of course the new raid coming in Mod 9. The biggest thing you have to worry about is someone knowing the quest well and just being able to fly through it.

You can put "No rushing/zerging" or "New player" or some other descriptive modifier in your Looking For More posting, or just focus on grouping up with guildies who are new as well.

Usually when I'm in a group of new players, I try and not rush through, but sometimes instinct kicks in.

I decided to reinstall and roll a new character for upcoming hotness.

Please add me to Cruendithas ->

Warforged Multiclass

I just resubed a week ago myself, and it has been pretty fun.

I'm another of those played in the beta and the starting months people.

Figuring out some of the new things, and the value of items is the toughest part so far. We got a newb group together and ran through all of the Korthos quests.

It was pretty fun.

So getting a group together for things shouldn't be too bad.

Especially after it's free to play.

I could imagine the numbers going up significantly. We need to run some House K quests this week, cause I need to get my rep up.

I'm at 71/75, and if I remember fight once I get 75 I get my 2nd bank tab.

There are quite a few people playing that have never done some of the quests.

Hell I am just now at lvl 8 and this was higher than I was ever when I started playing at release. That being said, the guy who narrates the Therenal lines needs to be shot in the face repeatedly.

Workape posted: There are quite a few people playing that have never done some of the quests.

Hell I am just now at lvl 8 and this was higher than I was ever when I started playing at release. That being said, the guy who narrates the Therenal lines needs to be shot in the face repeatedly. My highest is 8, almost 9, when I stopped playing.

I had done enough elite coin lord quests that I got the zoom around town trinket when I logged in.

Oh, is that so nice.

Workape posted: That being said, the guy who narrates the Therenal lines needs to be shot in the face repeatedly. Seriously.

Who thought it was a good idea to put this guy's voice in as a narrator?

His name is Dave Arneson, he along with Gary Gygax (of Delera's) is one of the creators of D&D.

And he's already dead.

DemonMage fucked around with this message at Aug 24, 2009 around 03:51

So if I start the trial now, will I be able to continue as a free to play account once Eberron goes live?

I'm a little unclear on exactly how trials started right now work. I imagine until September 1st it'll work like a standard trial. September 1st it might either be disabled until the 9th, or it might work like a VIP account until your 10 days is up, and then be F2P. Worst case you get a week~ of trial, and then have to wait until the 9th for F2P to be enabled.

If you're not broke, I'd recommend dropping the whopping 10 or 15 bucks it is for one month of regular play.

You'll get to start right now, you will have everything available to you, and you'll be able to decide if you want to drop down to F2P afterwards.

When you do, you'll keep some benefits and enough turbine points (500) to unlock one thing you want to keep..

Like if Warforged are as awesome for you as they are for me, you'd be able to unlock that for your F2P account. So..

15 bucks, one month of everything, unlock drow naturally in game, go F2P, and you could have drow, warforged, 4 character slots, unlimited bank or whatever all the cash related stuff is.

Or.. you could go just F2P, and shell out 5ish for warforged, and have 2?

Character slots. Something like that.

Basically, putting in one month full-on is a good decision if you are not homeless and poor.

It *should* make your F2P experience (if thats the route you want to go) that much better.

I haven't really been satisfied with Linael's performance as a Paladin.

Been knocking around a pure Fighter build that looks like it would be a beast.

Enhancements would be something like: Enhancement: Fighter Attack Boost I Enhancement: Fighter Attack Boost II Enhancement: Fighter Attack Boost III Enhancement: Fighter Weapon Alacrity Enhancement: Drow Melee Attack I Enhancement: Drow Melee Attack II Enhancement: Drow Melee Damage I Enhancement: Drow Melee Damage II Enhancement: Elven Dexterity I Enhhancement: Elven Dexterity II Enhancement: Kensei Rapier Mastery I Enhancement: Kensei Rapier Mastery II Enhancement: Kensei Rapier Mastery III Enhancement: Fighter Armor Mastery I Enhancement: Fighter Armor Mastery II Enhancement: Fighter Armor Mastery III Enhancement: Fighter Critical Accuracy I Enhancement: Fighter Critical Accuracy II Enhancement: Fighter Critical Accuracy III Enhancement: Fighter Critical Accuracy IV Enhancement: Fighter Kensei I Enhancement: Fighter Kensei II Enhancement: Fighter Kensei III Enhancement: Fighter Rapier Specialization I Enhancement: Fighter Rapier Specialization II Enhancement: Racial Toughness I Enhancement: Racial Toughness II Enhancement: Fighter Strength I Enhancement: Fighter Strength II Enhancement: Fighter Strength III Enhancement: Fighter Toughness I Enhancement: Fighter Toughness II Start with 16 Str, 18 Dex, 12 Con, 10 in the rest (I really hate skill penalties), end up with 24 Str, 20 Dex after enhancements and level bumps.

302 hit points before items, and a metric fuckton of +Attack/+Damage.

Skills will probably be Balance and Jump and 1 rank of Tumble. For feats it would be TWF/ITWF/GTWF/OTWF, Toughness, Focus/Specialization line in Rapiers, IC: Piercing, PA, etc. AC would be wet paper bag levels, though...

Still slowboating XP, since I would run through an instance twice, then move to another one.

I really want to like the game, but the XP grind even at low levels is pretty horrid.

Saveron_01 posted: Still slowboating XP, since I would run through an instance twice, then move to another one.

I really want to like the game, but the XP grind even at low levels is pretty horrid. Are you solo'ing or running in groups?

The lower levels should be blasted through in a couple of hours with good groups. I've got a lvl 3 cleric that I was toying around with if you need someone to come drag you through Water Works or any of those ones.

Saveron_01 posted: Still slowboating XP, since I would run through an instance twice, then move to another one.

I really want to like the game, but the XP grind even at low levels is pretty horrid. Yeah, you should definitely be asking in guild for people around your level, at the very least.

Since experience isn't split, as long as people aren't taking forever between quests all grouping does is make things faster and easier. It also helps to get the hell off Korthos.

Get the quest rewards you want, and then start hitting up Harbor quests.

Most of the good harbor quests are way better experience than any of the Korthos ones. I hit level 3 on a new monk within a couple hours, and that was with effectively no twinking since I'm staying at level 1 (it'll be my Favored Soul when the patch hits). ---

I think I am going to hold out til the game goes f2p, right now I am tinkering around with classes I wanted to try out.

DemonMage posted: [Edit] Also what is your problem with Linael? I guess it boils down to not feeling like I was carrying my weight.

I was running around with +16 BAB but that wasn't enough to reliably hit things, and when I did hit I was doing crap for damage with a 16 Strength and wielding shortswords.

And I didn't have the Dex for ITWF/GTWF to get extra attacks.

Meanwhile I had an AC of 25 or something so everybody and their blind uncle was smacking me around all the time.

16 BAB?! That's insane!

No but uhh let's see here.. Attack: 7 BAB + 5 (20 str) + 2 angers + 1 goggles = 15.

Divine favor is another 2 I believe, but even so 15 is solid.

Any other build is looking at 18 str starting tops, that's 1 attack or 5% more than you.

Make sure you're not using power attack very much right now, unless you can connect on a 2 it's costing you DPS. Shortsword vs Rapier is only 5% crit difference. You also get Divine Might and Divine Sacrifice now or soon. What does a fighter get?

Nothing. No kensai yet, maybe a +1 hit/damage from focus/spec but favor gives that and more. Barbarian at least gets rage to pull ahead.

Rangers get favored enemy and Ram's Might.

Rogues get sneak attack (sometimes). Oh and you have drow racial attack/damage to factor in. So I'm not sure what makes a fighter so much better.

Even a barb will have trouble perma raging at that level, and it's not as strong as it will be.

Really ranger is probably your biggest contender early game.

Does the int gained from enhancements effect skills on level up?

I've got a +1 tome laying around and 4 enhancement points unused, wondering if it's worth taking it until lvl 20 for the extra 6 skill points(yay 8 int)....I figure it won't work that way, but who knows with turbine.

Nope, enhancements don't qualify you for feats or anything during the level up process. You could go for 1750 favor as you get a +2 tome for every character you get to 1750, along with 32 point builds on that server with the first character.

DemonMage posted: Nope, enhancements don't qualify you for feats or anything during the level up process. You could go for 1750 favor as you get a +2 tome for every character you get to 1750, along with 32 point builds on that server with the first character. Yeah I've been doing that past few days, up to about 1550 or so, Not sure the 6 skill points will be worth taking the int tome though(And I won't be rerolling this char just to remake with 32 point build)

Trust me, take the int tome.

It is the ONLY tome NOT retroactive.

You'l get other tomes in time, especially if you hit up raids, but every level you level without an int tome is skillpoints forever lost.

Note that there is talk of being able to buy a "full" respec in the estore in a mod or two, which might make it possible to correct it but ehh....

Just take the int now =-p




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