Here's my story...

[SINIBYTE]

Ok, so here’s my story…

I was interested in DDO when I first heard about it, but due to the cost and subscription, I passed when it came out. A suggestion to try the F2P led me to come to the site and download it. So here I am…

First character, thought I’d make it easy on myself: Barbarian.
I thought, I can be stupid and hit things with a big metal stick. It worked til I realized I didn’t have any armor… reroll #1

Second character, Give me some armor: Fighter.
Was cool, took the bastard sword feat, got me some +2 all around, and had some decent HP’s. It was fun, but I still felt squishy, and my damage output was lacking, the whole character seemed “slow”. What’s that a locked door I can’t get? Reroll #2

Third Character, Give me that chest!: Rogue
Right off the bat I was feeling this character, sneaking around, doing **** nice damage, disabling traps, nothing was beyond my grasp… Found out how important INT is at level 7 and I couldn’t disable or open some things… I was really enjoying the damage output though. Reroll #3

Fourth Character, I unlocked Drow you say?: Rogue #2
Realizing the importance of UMD, INT, disabling, and several other rogue-like abilities, I had a better understanding of the class, and found myself to be useful to groups. Was a good time, but I missed out on some damage abilities that I sacrificed for more utility… Reroll #4

Fifth Character, Where’d all these points come from? Monk!
Clueless going into the class, I soon found my niche, and found I was a super fast awesome DPS with some nice little heals, awesome saves and general all around good survivability. Out of curiosity I thought I should experiment with some other classes. Reroll #5

Sixth Character, I have a blue bar now!: Wizard
Ok… Umm.. My wand is empty, I’m out of mana, and I’m hitting things with a wooden stick. I have no real defensive abilities, no armor, no HP’s, used all of my offense, and feeling quite helpless… Not to mention line of sight issues on just about everything.

So I’ll end my story with “How do you play a caster in this game?!” Am I missing something here? Sure I can one shot nuke something – once. Then my bag o’ tricks is empty. Is DDO just a melee friendly game? I guess I’m just lost when it comes to playing a caster… any help/suggestions?



tl;dr version: I'm a caster newb, and need some help.

[Kerns]

Sixth Character, I have a blue bar now!: Wizard
Ok… Umm.. My wand is empty, I’m out of mana, and I’m hitting things with a wooden stick. I have no real defensive abilities, no armor, no HP’s, used all of my offense, and feeling quite helpless… Not to mention line of sight issues on just about everything.

So I’ll end my story with “How do you play a caster in this game?!” Am I missing something here? Sure I can one shot nuke something – once. Then my bag o’ tricks is empty. Is DDO just a melee friendly game? I guess I’m just lost when it comes to playing a caster… any help/suggestions?



tl;dr version: I'm a caster newb, and need some help.

It's a matter of SP conservation, vs Damage output and availability of shrines. Correct builds are more important also, along with a few good pieces of gear with the right bonus. Far as Wizards go, they run out of SP more often early game, and quite a bit in mid game.
1. Hireling, with divine blah blah. (cleric Ability, gives mana back for undead turn, Oh and to other targets only. A pc cleric can not give them selves SP back)
2. Stock SP Pots, and afordable wands for your character.
3. Don't use Meta feats if you don't have to, and really shouldn't when ya know it's going to be a long dungeon that will stretch your SP without any extra SP usage from meta feats.
4. The opesite is true, once you learn the balance of casting to do the most damage and keep your SP the longest in any given area, Casters are some of the highest damage classes out there.
5. Wizards also have lower SP then Sorcs, annoyingly low. (enabling sorcs 5+ to cast more spells longer) and once the sorc can learn enough of a selection of spells, they tend to be casting longer.
6. Also, Sorc and FvS, both get double SP points from Power & Wizardry Items. Being the spontaneous Casters without need of studding spells every rest. (which in and of it self is one of those arguable benefits between sorc/wiz)