A few newb questions

[Papamag]

My wife and I recently found DDO, we were impressed with the game during our trial and decided to buy 2 accounts. I have a ton of questions about this game and would love some answers or a link to somewhere I can find the answers

I rolled a WF Fighter and she rolled a Elf Sorcerer. We have been doing well together with her healing me while I tank. Our problem is if she gets agro we have no way to heal her. We are about to level to 4 and we have been discussing the possiblility of her taking a level of cleric. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Also, I've heard alot about 28 point and 32 point builds, what are these?

Is there a way I can check my total favor?

What are the best duo combinations?

Is there anyway to Assist?

I plan to be a pure defensive tank with my fighter, would it be better to take a level or two of another class or stay a pure fighter?

Any answers to these would be appreciated. Thank you in advance!
Mag

[JPW]

I don't know if anyone has already told you but if you look at the menu bar up on top there's a star in it click on that and it will show you the favs you have done you can toggle to another tab and that one will tell you you total hope this helps you out

[Nauthiz]

28 and 32 point builds refer to the number of points available to assign to ability traits (Strength, Intelligence, etc.) at character creation. You have 28 points to assign. Once you have amassed 1750 favor, one of your rewards is the option to start all of your new characters with 32 points to distribute.

I've never played a sorcerer past level 5, so take my advice with a grain of salt. Your wife could splash a level of cleric for wand use, or for that matter, she could take a level of bard, ranger, or paladin to the same end. As a charisma-based class, sorcerer's often will put a lot of points into the Use Magic Device skill and use wands that way. I suppose cleric, or bard, would allow you to use Cure Light Wounds. I've seen a lot of Warforged Fighters who have taken Wizard levels in order to be able to heal themselves, but it's nice to have someone else watching your back in the midst of battle.

As far as duo classes, I'm not sure. I have seen numerous threads on that topic, though, so try a search for it. Eventually, you'll probably start joining larger groups anyway.

Hope it helps, and welcome to Stormreach.

[philo]

My wife and I recently found DDO, we were impressed with the game during our trial and decided to buy 2 accounts. I have a ton of questions about this game and would love some answers or a link to somewhere I can find the answers

I rolled a WF Fighter and she rolled a Elf Sorcerer. We have been doing well together with her healing me while I tank. Our problem is if she gets agro we have no way to heal her. We are about to level to 4 and we have been discussing the possiblility of her taking a level of cleric. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Also, I've heard alot about 28 point and 32 point builds, what are these?

Is there a way I can check my total favor?

What are the best duo combinations?

Is there anyway to Assist?

I plan to be a pure defensive tank with my fighter, would it be better to take a level or two of another class or stay a pure fighter?

Any answers to these would be appreciated. Thank you in advance!
Mag

First question...the key to being able to heal the elf sorcerer while you 2 duo is the UMD (use magic device) skill (which happens to be a chr based skill so sorcs can get it fairly high). She will be able to heal herself with wands...and come around lvl 12+ she will be able to rez with scrolls if she keeps that skill maxed out as she levels.

I would not recommend taking a lvl of cleric with a sorc for numerous different reasons which I dont feel like typing all out atm hehe but a major one is never being able to cast the highest lvl sorc spells because you would have that one cleric.

If you happen to reroll new characters and the tank player is going to be a warforged and you want to duo alot maybe make a warforged wizard to go with it. That way the wf wizard will be able to heal themselves as well as the tank...and the -2chr penalty wf get doesnt matter for a wizard. Taking UMD on a fleshy sorc solves that issue..but you really need to be puting max points into it from the get go, otherwise she will have to do with heal pots.

The only way to assist is to look and see for yourself which mobs the player is on, there is no /assist

..and for your first couple of characters I reccomend going pure class...as far as your defensive fighter question. Once you know the game and understand how certain abilities interact with one another then try a multiclass build. Its hard enough to make a pure class build and choosing the best options if you are a new player. It is very easy to gimp yourself by multiclassing without knowing what you are doing.

[NameisToad]

My wife and I recently found DDO, we were impressed with the game during our trial and decided to buy 2 accounts. I have a ton of questions about this game and would love some answers or a link to somewhere I can find the answers

I rolled a WF Fighter and she rolled a Elf Sorcerer. We have been doing well together with her healing me while I tank. Our problem is if she gets agro we have no way to heal her. We are about to level to 4 and we have been discussing the possiblility of her taking a level of cleric. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?Sorcerers get new spell levels on even character levels, meaning she gets her first level 2 spell at character level 4, her first level 3 spell at character level 6, and so on. Since the level cap is always an even number, taking one level of any other class means the Sorcerer can never take any spells of the highest level. If top-end content doesn't matter to you, then the only thing to worry about in the cleric level question is her Wisdom. Sorcerers don't need Wisdom for anything (speaking about Game mechanics, not real-world analogies), so many clerics will have a wisdom of 8 or 10. If her Wisdom is not at least 11, she will be unable to cast any Cleric spells, including all healing spells.


Also, I've heard alot about 28 point and 32 point builds, what are these?When you first created your characters, the game automatically created "standard" characters and gave you the option to "customize" them. If you chose to customize, you had the opportunity to spend points to modify your stats (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma) to be exactly what you wanted them to be at the start of the game. A brand new account gets 28 points for that customization. People who have spent a great amount of time in game and earned 1750 points of favor have the ability to use 32 points in that customization. 4 extra points makes characters a little stronger in some way, though I find that it is usually not a huge difference.


Is there a way I can check my total favor?There are two stars on the menubar at the top of the screen in game. The four-pointer brings up a detail of the map of whatever area you're in. The five pointer brings up the "Adventure Compendium" which lists off all the missions from level 1 to level (your character level +2). That list has the amount of favor you've earned for each of them at the very end of the line. If you click on "Patrons" at the top of the screen, the Adventure Compendium also gives you your totals in the different categories of favor, including your total overall favor at the very bottom.


What are the best duo combinations?There are literally thousands of viable combinations. The best one is two people who like playing and know each other well. Don't worry so much about having the best two characters for duoing. Worry more about playing the two characters you have in the most efficient, most fun possible way.


Is there anyway to Assist?In CoH, you can click on a character and choose to assist that character in fighting whatever mob they are currently engaged with. In DDO, you just have to pay attention and go after the same mob manually. If you'd like to see this feature added to the game, I encourage you to start a discussion in the Developer's Discussion forum on this board. Word it diplomatically though, as there are plenty of people who will take umbrage at the thought of that type of feature coming before whatever they want more...


I plan to be a pure defensive tank with my fighter, would it be better to take a level or two of another class or stay a pure fighter?Until you get to level 6 or 7, defense makes a huge difference in DDO. The better your defense, the longer you live and the more help you can give others. Once you start playing the higher-level content, defense starts to be number of hit points. It starts to matter much more how quickly you can put your opponents on the ground, and much less how hard they can hit you while they are still standing. There are discussions about how high AC can go, but what most of them fail to include is that you can't get above 35 or 40 unless you have raid loot and/or you have significant time invested in collecting the absolute best items you can find through looting every mission a thousand times. In pen and paper DnD, an AC of 35 is god-like in combat, but in DDO it's only useful until level 7 or so. Kobolds can't hit it, but ogres will still two-shot you before you can blink. I'd recommend focussing on being able to hit as hard and as often as you can, and hope that your sorcerer can heal you fast enough to keep up.


Any answers to these would be appreciated. Thank you in advance!
MagI hope my answers aren't too depressing, and that you and your wife enjoy the game. It really is fun, as long as you don't approach it the same as pen and paper DnD. I've been playing for over a year myself, and I find that the more I play, the more I learn, and the more I know, the more fun I have playing. Your mileage may vary, but I hope you both have at least as much fun as I have. :)

[issiana]

i dont see anyone mention this yet...


but carry healing potions!

lots and lots of them. and dont just stop at healing.

get the following..

1/ healing potions (cure light, moderate and serious)
2/ lesser restoration
3/ remove fear
4/ remove curse
5/ remove blindness
6/ resist posion
7/ remove disease
8/ resist fire/cold/electricity/acid/sonic (only usefull at low lvls and can be found in barrels when they are broken)


this list IS EXPENSIVE to maintain, but anyone CAN and SOULD carry this list as it makes even the low hitpoint caster self sufficent.

I always carry a miniumum of 50 or each type of healing potion that are used on top of the healing wands my umd sorcorer can use.

yes umd is awesome and at lvl 14 my sorceror can act as a party healer, since there is not much left on the cleric lists that i cant umd cast from scrolls, but basically its to keep me self suffiecient and soloable /duoable. To make umd work you need to start right from the beginning (aka lvl1) and keep it maxed out, you will also need to start with a max charisma. this is important as every even charisma score will give you an extra +1 to your umd, and you need EVERY +1 you can get to make umd work.

I also sugest having healing potions even when you can umd wands as you can drink potions while underwater, you cant use wands or cast underwater.

I would also sugeest (dare i say it...) min maxing a caster. Max out the primary ability, give yourself a good con (my base is 12 min on elf/drow) and a little intelligence (you need concentration and umd so thats a intell of 10 as a minimum!) after that comes wisdom (helps to avoid those nasty hold person spells which are certain doom to a low hitpoint caster). str and dex are almost pointless to a caster (imo) i would go higher str than dex simply so you can carry more loot, lol

I hope this helps.

[Solmage]

If you happen to reroll new characters and the tank player is going to be a warforged and you want to duo alot maybe make a warforged wizard to go with it. That way the wf wizard will be able to heal themselves as well as the tank...and the -2chr penalty wf get doesnt matter for a wizard. Taking UMD on a fleshy sorc solves that issue..but you really need to be puting max points into it from the get go, otherwise she will have to do with heal pots.

If you're open to rerolling at least 1 of the chars, consider making a rogue 1/wizard X warforged wizard. You won't be able to handle all the traps on elite without uber equipment you won't have, but you'll be able to tackle a large amount of content covering all the bases: melee for damage, wizard for healing both of you and disarming traps and opening locks. (Your main issue will be spotting traps by the way, warforged take a hit to wisdom)

If you're open to rerolling both, consider an elven or dwarven rogue 1/ranger X as your main melee/ranged fighter damage, and disarmer, together with either a maximum charisma full human bard specializing on healing and crowd control, or a bard 1/wizard X also specializing in crowd control.

The bard level is so you can use any healing wand without UMD, and have access to a high UMD to more easily use resurrection scrolls later on. Unlike a sorcerer, a wizard looses very little from 1 level of a misc. class. Still, you may be better served with the full bard, since they can become quite proficient at healing once they get the mass cure X wounds line of spells.

But, best of all, both the ranger and the bard 1/wizard or full bard can use all healing wands, so this will REALLY help you when running adventures. (Keep in mind the buffs of the bard will also help you a LOT in combat)

If you need specific build advise, just ask again! :)

[tenga]

eh i didnt read everyones reply, but you could just make a new sorc and go wf, then she could heal herself