Challenges - Worth Looking at on a Melee?

[Astraghal]

I haven't had a chance to do them yet, but can someone tell me if these are just another caster oriented minigame of DDO?

If so then I'll pass.

[ReaperAlexEU]

I haven't had a chance to do them yet, but can someone tell me if these are just another caster oriented minigame of DDO?

If so then I'll pass.

there is a +5 to all combat feats belt, eg trip and stun

there is a raft of weaponry and also some armour

your best bet is to head to house C and find the challenge traders, there you can browse the rewards and decide for your self

[moriedhel]

think he wasn't talking about the rewards as much as he was asking if they are like CC aka much easier to complete on casters than on melees

[Vormaerin]

I haven't noticed any particular disadvantage to melees on Kobold Island or the Dr.'s Mansion. Dunno about the mining ones, haven't played those. Anyway, the best bet is just play the challenges on the free token days and decide for yourself.

[BoBo2020]

Kobold Island - Short Cuts
1) Run around the island and destroy the idols to grab mechanical parts.
2) Activate the small extractors and leave a turret behind at each small extractor
3) Pick one extractor to defend and upgrade it.
4) Upgrade/defend a large.
5) Profit

Kobold Island - The Disruptor
1) Same as above

Lava Caves - Colossal Crystals
1) When you enter the quest, grab a teleporter from the foreman
2) Run forward and turn right at first opportunity (ignore the kobolds for now).
3) Clear until you find a crest of the octopus (usually appears somewhere over here).
4) Once you find it, drop down to the lowest level in the center of the map (if this is your first time, once you drop down run north until you find the first colossal crystal in order to make sure you're in the right place).
5) Drop the teleporter in a circle (there's usually one or two near here) and teleport back up top.
6) Clear the bad guys on your foreman and buy torches (you need several; max out on kobolds and barrels to speed things up.)
7) Gather up all the torches that aren't needed up top and teleport back down.
8) Lay a path to the giant crystal.
9) When a kobold grabs the progenitor crystal, hit him with an invis clickie and a haste clickie.
10) Big fight.
11) Escort your kobold all the way back up (he can't use the teleporter because of the size of the crystal. Watch him very closely!)
12) Profit!

I have not tried the others yet.

[Mark_G]

Who do you talk to in order to receive your free daily token? Sorry for even asking, but I'm old....:)

[My2Cents]

Who do you talk to in order to receive your free daily token? Sorry for even asking, but I'm old....:)

Its one of the people "surrounding" the higher of the two 'centers' in House C. Her name is Kyria or something similar. She stands right near all the event item traders.

If you play DDO and have a healthy imagination, you aren't old inside.

I wonder if I'm older.

[My2Cents]

I haven't had a chance to do them yet, but can someone tell me if these are just another caster oriented minigame of DDO?

If so then I'll pass.

I've been focusing on the Mansion since I mostly solo (hardly any groups for these yet, anyway) and I had limited experiences soloing with melee the cove-like events. Figured I'd eventually get to them. I thought I'd get to know the mansion layout and mechanics so that at some point I could lead groups in, being able to provide familiarity and direction might entice people to group with me as a melee rather than my trying to join other groups.

One of the critical aspects of whether an event is melee friendly is dependent on level. I find as a level 20 if I want to run anything at level, I take several swings to kill one mob, which puts me at a disadvantage when compared to those who can insta-kill or kill several-at-once. Although I can also carry my own self healing, it is not the same as a self-sufficient caster - I always seem to need a hireling and all the issues that entails.

Except for that -major- difference, the rest doesn't seem to matter too much. I can run events much lower than my level where I can in-effect insta-kill or quickly-kill mobs a lot easier. My level 4 cleric did great at the cove, could solo no problem, whereas things got much harder for my level 20 melee.

Then there's the issue of grouping. In cove, many people seemed to not want melees in their group, which seemed odd bcause melees could play a great role in protecting the line and defending the ramp.

As for items, I've only taken a quick look - at cursory glance the items SEEM to be no better than cove items and in-game "rarerl" items but they are at that level, if you have been lucky enough to get other rares or event epics you may not find these worth the grind, (and it looks like quite a grind at first glance) but if you don't have that much, there may be something there for you. I have to look closer.

I was dismayed to find that I need to run certain quests (those I might like less or be more disadvantaged in) at levels that might prejudice against me as a melee finding a group, to be able to expect to get the items I need.

Mind you I've only played a few a day (life has been very lively lately..)

Oh and also, as always, anytime you have a TIMED goal, builds that can kill the most and fastest have an advantage, sometimes a distinct advantage.

In general I am completely against any kind of timing, for so mnay reasons. BUT if a quest MUST be timed for design reasons such as system resource usage, I urge that more than enough time be allowed. If I want a race, there are PLENTY of racing games online...

[Astraghal]

Kobold Island - Short Cuts
1) Run around the island and destroy the idols to grab mechanical parts.
2) Activate the small extractors and leave a turret behind at each small extractor
3) Pick one extractor to defend and upgrade it.
4) Upgrade/defend a large.
5) Profit

Kobold Island - The Disruptor
1) Same as above

Lava Caves - Colossal Crystals
1) When you enter the quest, grab a teleporter from the foreman
2) Run forward and turn right at first opportunity (ignore the kobolds for now).
3) Clear until you find a crest of the octopus (usually appears somewhere over here).
4) Once you find it, drop down to the lowest level in the center of the map (if this is your first time, once you drop down run north until you find the first colossal crystal in order to make sure you're in the right place).
5) Drop the teleporter in a circle (there's usually one or two near here) and teleport back up top.
6) Clear the bad guys on your foreman and buy torches (you need several; max out on kobolds and barrels to speed things up.)
7) Gather up all the torches that aren't needed up top and teleport back down.
8) Lay a path to the giant crystal.
9) When a kobold grabs the progenitor crystal, hit him with an invis clickie and a haste clickie.
10) Big fight.
11) Escort your kobold all the way back up (he can't use the teleporter because of the size of the crystal. Watch him very closely!)
12) Profit!

I have not tried the others yet.

Wow, thanks for that wealth of info! :)

[ReaperAlexEU]

think he wasn't talking about the rewards as much as he was asking if they are like CC aka much easier to complete on casters than on melees

good point.

i did quite a bit of farming on my monk, being largely self sufficient (good stun DC and light monk self healing) did help but there were plenty of other players that needed the group. it just helps if 2 or 3 party members can head off to do objectives without needing a healer as there is always a ton of stuff happening at the same time.

that being said i have chosen to do the bulk of my farming on my palemaster, but i didnt at any point feel useless on my monk like i did on all my melee's in crystal cove. to be honest i'm not sure which character is best to farm with, the palemasters self healing is a lot better than the monks, but i struggle to kill the animated armours on my palemaster in a timely fashion.

the most annoying part of this is i'm not free to mix and match farming characters. i cant just swap to a different class if the party is missing something. i really hope turbine make the reward ingredients bind to account to match the bind to account reward items. it would make grouping a lot more flexible.

[TPICKRELL]

I've had no problems farming the Kobold Island quests, the Mansion Quests or the Collosal Crystal quest with a Monk/Fighter (level 15) or the island quests with a level 6 Favored Soul (casting speced, but mostly beating things down).

Once you figure out a pattern that works, its pretty easy to solo farm these for ingredients. Getting more than 1-2 stars though is a different matter.

Take a hireling who is sturdy and self healing.

[JOTMON]

All these are more geared to self sufficient builds.

Self healing casters
Cleric/FvS
Monk.

Only benefit is you can run on your caster for ingredients BTC to craft for another toon, items are BTA.

All kinds of DDO store boosters, makes it feel like a pay to win cashgrab challenge... buy tokens, buy more time, buy buy buy....


Stars and tokens are bugged but should be fixed today.

[My2Cents]

Oh yes Jotmon is right and I forgot to mention:

Unlike the cove and mabar with buyables to enhance healing speed (sucking more $$$ from melees more than others) and drop-enhancers (sucking more $$$ from non-aoe and non-insta-killers) so far these quests look like they want to sell you a whole raft of items, tokens, time, whatever. You can even sell some time to the event!

I can see it now in the next event, partway through you receive a popup that you can purchase a Mountain Dew Prize Token that will earn you 3 more minutes and another 5 coins...I only hope they pause the timer in the event long enough for you to follow the popup to the Pepsi Site....

I am -very- disinclined to buy anything for these challenges in part as a reaction to all the huxterism. If there are a lot of people out there with a lot of extra cash and they want to burn it on Turbine, that's great, it'll help support a fun game.

If you have -tons- of extra cash, enough to spend hundreds on video gaming, can I borrow some to pay down Real Life debts and daily expenses please?

[Targonis]

Some challenges can be run solo, but a group is needed for others. It isn't so much caster vs. melee as it is different situations giving an advantage to various classes. Kobold Island for example makes it so having a ranged in the group can get you machine parts quickly, which saves time getting the first small extractor up and running. Casters are good when you have multiple mobs you are dealing with, while melees are still VERY useful for defending the machines.

Rushmore quests are just a race against time sort of thing, so the faster you kill, the better you will do.

[LrdSlvrhnd]

It isn't so much caster vs. melee as it is different situations giving an advantage to various classes. Kobold Island for example makes it so having a ranged in the group can get you machine parts quickly, which saves time getting the first small extractor up and running.

My gimpy hagglebard just summons a devil and runs towards the first extractor, counting on him to teleport to the camp and get some mech parts by the time she's there... so far, so good. Until I get a Shard of Xoriat and a pet beholder for my monk, SHE's stuck jumping down or pinging 'em from above with shuriken. There's not really a quick and easy way back up for the first option, and shuriken aren't exactly the best ranged weapon around if you don't have 10K Stars. Hell, probably not even if you DO have it...

[FeralKittie]

Of the challenges I tried with a melee character (level 15 rogue solo w/ hireling, no DDO store stuff), I did reasonably on Kobold Island: Kobold Chaos and quite well on Dr Rushmore's Mansion: Behind the Door & Moving Targets, where knowing the map seems to be a big advantage to moving quickly. Even came close to 5 stars on Behind the Door, which I wasn't expecting on a melee.

I've been using different characters and haven't tried everything, but thus far I'd agree that different challenges are easier on different classes.

[Terminus-Est]

Generally speaking, unless there is some serious tanking to be doing, an awesome caster > an awesome melee in every department...

That being said, having run about half of the challenges, I'd say there is no particular bias against melees for this. You kill the most dangerous opponents slightly slower than a caster, but its always been that way; there isn't any soul-crushing punishment for this.

The melees big theoretical advantage is Intimidate in the mining/extractor quests because it makes them a superior guard; but most melees don't bother with that anywys, so eh.

I'm not very picky about classes or roles when filling my Challenge groups, I'm more worried about basic competency as a player and the ability to follow directions consistently in a timely manner.

[LeLoric]

I haven't had a chance to do them yet, but can someone tell me if these are just another caster oriented minigame of DDO?

If so then I'll pass.

I have soloed all of the non-epic ones at max level on my 13rog/6ftr/1monk. Done 4 of the epics solo at 21 and another at 25.

For groups melees are still good as many lack shines at all or are very sparse in them. Being able to self heal somewhat is important though as outside of rushmores being able to split off the group is really strong. Even rushmores there are times to split off too. So be able to scroll heal or sf pot if you can't melee heal.

I actually would love to bring more of my melees in but due ingredients being btc and items bta I am stuck running just one.

[Astraghal]

Will try it tonight if I get time. That combat DC belt is nice. Not that tactics are worth a ****.

[Palantyr]

Haven’t had any problems completing these on melee either, solo or in group. In fact have 5/gold starred a few of the mansion challenges without casters , healers or hirelings in the group although everyone in the group could manage to either heal scroll or drink silver flame pots. Solo at level or L21-22 epics with a hireling are not too difficult either from what I’ve run so far, but I’ve only tried the mansion quests on epic while solo. The caves and palace may be more difficult to manage for epic versions (especially the palace’s marilith), I probably won’t find out myself as I prefer to run the crystal cove quests in a group regardless of class I’m playing or difficulty level. Overall though playing melee hasn’t seemed like much of detriment in the challenges. Like almost everything else in game, they’re probably easier on a caster than melee. Can’t really say though as I’ve only stepped into a couple while playing a caster, one my melee was the furthest along character for house c favor when U12 hit so I started working with that and with ingredients being BtC while items are BtA I’ve just kept at playing the melee. That’s one thing I’d like to see change if for nothing other than storage purposes. It would also be nice to be able to play a variety of classes in the challenges without feeling like I’m starting the ingredients grind all over again.

[My2Cents]

Haven’t had any problems completing these on melee either, solo or in group. In fact have 5/gold starred a few of the mansion challenges without casters , healers or hirelings in the group although everyone in the group could manage to either heal scroll or drink silver flame pots. Solo at level or L21-22 epics with a hireling are not too difficult either from what I’ve run so far, but I’ve only tried the mansion quests on epic while solo. The caves and palace may be more difficult to manage for epic versions (especially the palace’s marilith), I probably won’t find out myself as I prefer to run the crystal cove quests in a group regardless of class I’m playing or difficulty level. Overall though playing melee hasn’t seemed like much of detriment in the challenges. Like almost everything else in game, they’re probably easier on a caster than melee. Can’t really say though as I’ve only stepped into a couple while playing a caster, one my melee was the furthest along character for house c favor when U12 hit so I started working with that and with ingredients being BtC while items are BtA I’ve just kept at playing the melee. That’s one thing I’d like to see change if for nothing other than storage purposes. It would also be nice to be able to play a variety of classes in the challenges without feeling like I’m starting the ingredients grind all over again.

I'd like some tips on how to run the Mansion on epic solo at level 21 or 22 as a melee. I don't have enough UMD for heal scrolls, I've got to grab a few more items before that becomes feasible. Haven't run a lot of Amrath quests yet, which I assume is where Silver Flame pots come from?

May I ask what's the AC and damage output for your melee? I'd love to be able to solo with hireling at level on epic and anything I can do to get my character the equipment necessary to do so would help. One of the biggest issues for me is how long it takes me to take down a mob - with a timed quest I get bogged down on any of the non-epic at-or-near level mansion runs. I haven't even considered trying epic.

[barecm]

The answer to the OP... YES.

[Palantyr]

I'd like some tips on how to run the Mansion on epic solo at level 21 or 22 as a melee. I don't have enough UMD for heal scrolls, I've got to grab a few more items before that becomes feasible. Haven't run a lot of Amrath quests yet, which I assume is where Silver Flame pots come from?

May I ask what's the AC and damage output for your melee? I'd love to be able to solo with hireling at level on epic and anything I can do to get my character the equipment necessary to do so would help. One of the biggest issues for me is how long it takes me to take down a mob - with a timed quest I get bogged down on any of the non-epic at-or-near level mansion runs. I haven't even considered trying epic.


Well the silver flame pots come from the last tier of silver flame favor, perhaps a bit onerous to attain as you have to do most of the silver flame quests on elite although there is some wiggle room. That means catacombs, necropolis 1-4, abbot, and a few other random quests. They also require at least 11 in every stat or you're helpless for 30 seconds. How you get there doesn't matter items ship buffs whatever but drinking one causes -10 to every stat for 30 seconds the penalty doesn't stack thought so you can drink as many as needed.

I've kinda been playing for a while, as a side effect my characters are rather geared out and my plat balance is beyond what I'll manage to use which really helps with reckless drinking of silver flame pots. I’ve been playing the challenges with an eSoS wielding double digit tr’d barbarian with the epic/end game/situational gear you’d expect to see on a barbarian, so dps output high, AC low. That said soloing the mansion quests on epic isn't any where near as productive for me with melee as running it in group, it's just possible and had I not started these on a melee character for the favor I would probably run one of my casters. I grab a bard hirling, sinistra, using her for haste, displacements, and perhaps a heal but I tend to prefer the pots. After buffing and grabbing some initial crests it's beeline to named succubus as she's the most trivial named to take, at least for me. After that I'll probably head towards the spider for the chest while time runs out, when soloing the challenges I'm not trying to go for 5 stars or massive score instead I'm just trying to make a little forward progress on ingredients while I wait for guildies to get done doing whatever it is I'm not able to do with them. Knowing the layout of the map and what areas are called are pretty important too.

Just assuming from the silver flame potion question, I'd be more prone to recommend a group when it comes to the mansion epics for you. It really doesn't need an optimal group and you can get away filling spots with hirlings, but grouping makes it alot easier and more productive. Soloing them can be resource intensive while a group that sticks together can get a completeion pretty easily, perhaps it might not yield as much of a reward as a gearedtothehiltwe'veplayedthisgametomuch group that can handle splitting up but hey you gotta work with watch you got available.

[My2Cents]

Thanks for the detailed response. I'll read and learn.

I wouldn't even bother trying to solo if I could get a group more easily. Although I have only been on for brief periods since challenges began, I've been on multiple times per day and only seen one LFM for the mansion. My guild doesn't seem to be doing a lot with the challenges.

So I have been trying to solo best I can to become familiar with the layout so I could put up LFM's and hopefully others would join....making slow but steady progress.

[sheepface]

If you are going to run them, run them on whatever character you feel most comfortable on and most self sufficent. You will have a hard time in there if you need a babysitter.

[Astraghal]

Gah, I still haven't gotten to run these yet, I've been having too much fun levelling a Bard. (Thank god too, I still have my ingredients bags) :rolleyes: