1 million dollars to level 3rd life TR in under 24 hours...

[lotsfan]

Ok no importance of past lives to next level, no usefulness endgame, no expense spared.

You have to level a 3rd life TR from 1-20 with minimal gear, no guild and no friends (so it isn't class specific based on what you might have or a static party). If you do it in under 24 hours you get a million bucks:

What class/mix?

What strategies?

What levels do you hold? (this one I am not just "funning" on, can't seem to find what levels are best held optimum xp wise?)



What quests do you repeat?

What quests do you avoid like the plague?

OR

Previous two questions combined: What leveling guide do you follow?


Do you solo hard and normal to avoid dead pug times?

OR

Do you streak elite no matter what getting in parties?

What other considerations pure speed level 1-20 3rd life?


Lets assume for sake of this amusing challenge you are trying for that million, so you always have a store pot and greater tome running, small price to pay for the grab at the million and all.

[RandomKeypress]

3rd life TR XP requirement - 4378500 EXP
1 day = 24 hours = 1440 minutes
To level 1-20 in 24 hours requires maintaining an average of 3040 exp / minute. That includes running around, levelling, sorting out inventory and breaks.

Only way I could see doing that would be by getting a lot of friends to run quests without you and then joining them just before they complete (provided that they do it fast enough to not give you a late entry penalty). That would of course be against the T&Cs.

[voxson5]

Who was that crazy guy who did a tr2 over a weekend? Pre challenge xp nerf though.

Party of 4 & split the profits. 4 x 1barb/19 sorc savants.

Plan everything first! Eliminate the downtime.

[Nubicus]

Pure Warforged Sorc

Dualbox that can open:
Doom of the Witchdoctor
Delera's Part 4
Shadow Crypt
STK 3

Dual Box so I can reopen:
Blockade Buster
Maze of Madness

LFM:
Bloody Crypt
Delera's PT 2
Tear of the Dhakkon
Wiz King
VoN 3
Tomb of the Immortal Heart
Tempests Spine
Tear of Dhakkan
Invaders
Necro 4 Quests (TR's only or reputable players/guilds only. Avoid the Stone of Change new players like the plague when trying to speed TR from 16 up)


If you meet a decent rogue along the way:
Tomb of the Shadow Knight
VoN 5 (Shortman this 3 or 4 times EHX2)
Xorian Cipher
The Crucible
Gainthold Tor
Monastary of the Scorp

Quests to Avoid Pugging w/ no friends and no guildies or avoid all together:
Enter the Kobold - Elite
The Pit :/ If you can solo efficiently, awesome. Otherwise... don't.
Inferno of the Damned - Solo it if you don't have the piece
Coal Chamber


Use http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=367893 where applicable for decent farms/duoing/pug

Fill in the rest with Mr. Cow's Dairies for efficient soloing

All that being said it would be super tough to meet 24 hours without Guildies or Friends in the wings. Some of the most efficient farming requires atleast a duo partner and people who understand the ins and outs for appropriate speed farming.

Edit: There would be minimal gear swaps. As long as you keep up to date on your spell point/hp items, minos, spell power items, the only gear you need is spell pots. lots of them. ddo store pots. I'm getting a mill, I'll drop the money so I never have to shrine. Also get the House P trinket.

[MRMechMan]

Pure WF sorc?

Puh-lease.

1 barb easily cuts 10% of the time off of the average quest (and running around town even) and 20%+ for short ones. 1 extra sorc level does not speed up much to be honest.


That being said, even if the "record" for TR2 is 18hrs, I don't see a solo/pug act breaking 24 hours, no matter what class split.

[Nubicus]

You're 'Puh-lease' was a little over the top.

But it's a matter if preference really. 1-12ish I'd rather stay pure than waste an entire level for a speed enhancement.

You get access to important AoE fast, as well as better scroll DC's faster. On top of that you gain your damage enhancement lines one step quicker. All of these things I'd rather have if I was primarily soloing/pugging content to speed TR.

You can easily make due with Expeditious Retreat/Haste.

It's easy to say it's better if you're grouping with guildies who are all doing the same build and you can appoint someone the D-Door guy. But again, the context of this thread is that you're trying to do it without friends or guildies and minimal plat/gear expense. You're relying purely on yourself.

[Lonnbeimnech]

Pure WF sorc?

Puh-lease.

1 barb easily cuts 10% of the time off of the average quest (and running around town even) and 20%+ for short ones. 1 extra sorc level does not speed up much to be honest.


That being said, even if the "record" for TR2 is 18hrs, I don't see a solo/pug act breaking 24 hours, no matter what class split.

One really handy thing about sprint boost is when you are running at red alert and get harried ,instead of getting swarmed/surrounded and have to stop to fight, you can hit sprint boost and get ahead of the mobs even while harried. If that means getting to a ladder or off a cliff, you've saved yourself a lot of time.

[Nubicus]

One really handy thing about sprint boost is when you are running at red alert and get harried ,instead of getting swarmed/surrounded and have to stop to fight, you can hit sprint boost and get ahead of the mobs even while harried. If that means getting to a ladder or off a cliff, you've saved yourself a lot of time.

Sure. But fireball/acid blast/invisibility solve this same problem without sacrificing a level.

[Lonnbeimnech]

the context of this thread is that you're trying to do it without friends or guildies and minimal plat/gear expense. You're relying purely on yourself.

And you are trying to do it in 24hrs, so moving faster helps.

For example, My main is currently a druid, I soloed inferno of the damned on elite in 8 min this life using snowslide (which works like leap of faith followed by a 10 second sprint boost). Now I didn't make a point of using it every time the cooldown wore off and I wasn't trying to go as fast as I possibly could. If I was willing to spam it and chug sp pots instead of using it strategically, I'm sure I could have gotten it down to 7 min, maybe 6.

[ZeebaNeighba]

Wouldn't wizard be better than sorcerer because you get the stronger spells a level earlier that would let you zerg through mobs faster? Getting strong AoE's and other spells like shadow walk, haste, pwk etc a level earlier seems more useful.

[MartinusWyllt]

If it were literally a million dollars on the line you'd probably need to add the provision that no Turbine employee is eligible nor can they assist.

[Nubicus]

Again I'm not buying the sac'ing a level for speed arguement on a predominately solo TR.

I'm not trying to dump on the idea in general as I'm sure in a group TR where spell selection can be coordinated, it can be useful.

But even if you invis pot levels 1-3, you're waiting until
Level 5 to get scorch
Level 7 to get Fireball
Level 8 for Haste
Level 9 to get Wall of Fire
Level 10 for Displacement and D Door
Level 12 to get a full 30 point Resist (Which having a level earlier will cut down on rebuff time that much faster)

and so on and so forth, all of which will help reduce time via dps or utility. I'd rather have my spells early than 5 20 second clickies.

[Nubicus]

Wouldn't wizard be better than sorcerer because you get the stronger spells a level earlier that would let you zerg through mobs faster? Getting strong AoE's and other spells like shadow walk, haste, pwk etc a level earlier seems more useful.

Sorc has quicker casting time for spamming spells and higher dps overall. But if you were willing to buy store pots the entire way, I think it could be done as wiz as well.

Edit: Oh yeah, more spell points :P

[adam1oftheround]

Required dark monk with ranger splash for sprint boost.

If you don't need to kill it for a quest requirement, you run past it invisible.

There was a thread on it.

[Chai]

Sorc. Pure all the way.

Fire savant most of the way up.

Invis scroll through alot of the early stuff. A stack of those is dirt cheap. As are expeditious retreat.

Once you are done with WW and STK youre level 6.
Necro 1.
Bloody crypt. Farm
Off to tangleroot. Farm - might do a few of these before the bloody crypt farm.
Deleras. Farm
Tear. NHE
Gwylans NHE
Necro 2.
Shadow crypt. Farm.
Von 1-4 NHE
Von 3. Farm
Von 5. Farm
----------------------------------------------------
At this point you should be level 13 or so.

Desert quests. On E
Wiz King. Farm
DQ Pre
Gianthold walk ups NHE
Crucible. Farm
Madstone. Farm
Tor. Farm
Necro 4 series NHE
LOTD. Farm.
Vale quests NHE. Farm as needed
Reavers refuge quests.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At this point youre level 18 holding 19 - if not already 20.

Ive done quite a few TR3+ lives and never set foot in IQ or amrath.

[Chai]

Wouldn't wizard be better than sorcerer because you get the stronger spells a level earlier that would let you zerg through mobs faster? Getting strong AoE's and other spells like shadow walk, haste, pwk etc a level earlier seems more useful.

No, because most of that low level stuff can be zerged invis. Even when it cant, a sorcs fireballs take stuff right out of the picture. Haste can be scrolled or drank on a potion. At low level with a medium guild slot item (20k or so on the AH) a sorc will have 120 more mana. They can invis past most mobs at top speed and ubershot the ones they cant get past or need to kill.

[MRMechMan]

You're 'Puh-lease' was a little over the top.

But it's a matter if preference really. 1-12ish I'd rather stay pure than waste an entire level for a speed enhancement.

You get access to important AoE fast, as well as better scroll DC's faster. On top of that you gain your damage enhancement lines one step quicker. All of these things I'd rather have if I was primarily soloing/pugging content to speed TR.

You can easily make due with Expeditious Retreat/Haste.



Better scroll DCs? Really?

And if a million dollars is on the line "making due" with haste probably costs you 2-3 HOURS in a 24 hr TR without barb speed.

It is that good.

Access to important AOEs faster? Take 6 sorc, then 1 barb, fireball is all you need, and you get firewall/acid rain soon after. DOTs a level later? Who cares. Recon? You are a sorc everything that dares challenge your might is little crispy bits of bacon on the floor, repair serious is plenty. After you get acid rain/FW that is all you need.

When you kill stuff as fast as a sorc does (near instantly), you spend 90% of the time running in most quests. Running 10%-25%+ faster means much faster completion times, which means much faster TRing.

[Nubicus]

Better scroll DCs? Really?

And if a million dollars is on the line "making due" with haste probably costs you 2-3 HOURS in a 24 hr TR without barb speed.

It is that good.

Access to important AOEs faster? Take 6 sorc, then 1 barb, fireball is all you need, and you get firewall/acid rain soon after. DOTs a level later? Who cares. Recon? You are a sorc everything that dares challenge your might is little crispy bits of bacon on the floor, repair serious is plenty. After you get acid rain/FW that is all you need.

When you kill stuff as fast as a sorc does (near instantly), you spend 90% of the time running in most quests. Running 10%-25%+ faster means much faster completion times, which means much faster TRing.

I misspoke when I said scroll DC's and meant percentage to successfully cast scrolls. Again, I don't agree you're going to save 2-3 hours with a level of barbarian considering you only get 5 and they last 30 seconds.

With the exception of quests that you solo (With the exception of litany of the dead) it will help you shave off a few seconds here or there.

But Shadow Crypt, Monastary of the Scorpion, Fleshmakers, Vol, Ghosts of Perdition, Running with the Devils, Jungle of Khyber, etc, quests which are reliant on parties, or at least a partner, to effectively farm in any sort of a reasonable speed, it's not going to help you at all. Your partner in these, according to your rules, can't be a friend or guildy. A random joe from the DDOverse. You could be selective based on guild, etc and hope you end up with a good partner, but in all probability, they're not going to be a speed demon. And if you wait around for someone who is you're going to waste time.

If you think you could effectively solo 1-20 in 24 hours flat using your build I invite you to try. Congrats if you can, you win ddo. But, I don't believe it can be effectively done. At some point you'll have to rely on somebody.

[Deathdefy]

I agree with the 1 barb / rest sorc thing.

Sprint boosts are a game changer on a Sorc TR. Sprint, web+acid rain at choke point, Sprint some more. You get a lot of sprint uptime given how short most quests are when you're an OP beast. It's also +10% base run speed which is nice.

Incidentally, I'd go acid savant till DBF became available then probably switch to fire.

Levels to hold: I wouldn't hold anything until 11 or 12 for an elite Shadow Crypt farm minus bravery which you run once at 11 to get. I'd then get the full extra level somewhere between those 2, such that I was 1xp off 14 before levelling to 13. Since you're not doing epic, you can farm the heck out of Von 3.

I also find that level 12 has like 0 desirable level 10 quests, so believe strongly in using Shadow Crypt there.

[Viren1]

Who was that crazy guy who did a tr2 over a weekend?
<snip>
I presume you mean this guy? (http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=355845)

[Therigar]

There is no point in any L20 build (ie, 1 barb/19 sorc or 20 sorc) since the most efficient way to get to L20 is to hold levels at L18 which lets you get full XP out of more quests.

There is probably no way to actually level a 3d life in 24 clock hours. There is every possibility of leveling a 3d life in 24 quest hours. The problem is time lost in getting groups together, buffing, traveling to the quest, stopping for bio, etc.

Add to that the restrictions of no friends, guild, minimal gear, etc. and it becomes more of an issue.

As far as strategy, there is really little reason to hold levels until L18. With a bit of planning you can select quests and run them the optimal number of times to get most XP and never have to worry about being above level.

Also, always maintain the elite streak. On a 3d life you can open elite directly so should always do that first time thru.

IMO greater tomes of learning and XP potions make it a lot easier. Any buff to XP that you can get is a buff you should get. Run on an XP weekend if possible.

Certainly doable if run Friday thru Sunday. But, in 24 clock hours -- that would be a lot of work and I'm not sure it could actually be done unless you had a preset group.

[krtkoo]

Just to mention few facts: those OR guys who made it in 27 hours duoed it and they had 20% xp holiday bonus. But still it is great achievement, but you have to realize that 20% xp boost gives you cca 800k xp for free.

I rly doubt you can TR2 in 24 hours solo. You need to have at least 1 person to run with you and you both need to know the quests well. It really saves you a LOT of time when you split in quests and it saves you time in most of quests for harbor to reaver refugee. Then you have to know exactly which enhancements to take, which skills to boost, which spells to take etc. You have to prepare equipment which you will wear on different levels and you have to prepare it in advance. The best option is to run together with 2 more ppl. If you want to make such an achievement you have to reduce the time outside the quests – this is very important. The best char for such TR zerg is imo 19 sorc/1barb. You dont need to run quests with rogue, every trap in game or better to say every trap in the quests you need to run in TR2 zerg run can be avoided.

edit:


There is probably no way to actually level a 3d life in 24 clock hours. There is every possibility of leveling a 3d life in 24 quest hours. The problem is time lost in getting groups together, buffing, traveling to the quest, stopping for bio, etc.


as someone pointed out, OR guys zerged TR2 in 27 hours - they had onl 20%xp pot running, if they had 30% xp pot, they would done it. not to forget, that sometime you can have 30% heroic xp boost. so under those conditions, you are able to make it. bio / eating is not so big problem if you are duoing ;)

[Silverleafeon]

Interesting reading.

It would be very difficult to say No Friends, yet let a person put up public group looking for party members.
It might be either solo only, anyone available, or a limited number of people available.
Solo only makes certain quests such as Bloody Crypt less desirable.
Public groups only brings the possibility of people deliberately trying to sabotage, possibly for a kickback?

One might ponder how this million dollars would financed?
That might alter the condidtions involved.

Sports events can sometimes offer big payoffs due to large amounts of televsion viewers, prompting sponsers to pay more for advertising spots.

A video game could be taped I guess then viewed on a website.
I guess that could generate revenue?
____ thousand(s) dollars might be more realist in nature.
A contest to sponsor a game would be likely to pay out that amount.

Even something like a life time membership (worth maybe one or more thousand) would attract people.

[bigolbear]

my solution:

I pay FTS 500,000 dollars if he can do it - I leave all these mundane details up to him ;)

[Therigar]

Interesting reading.

Well, I'm doubtful that any reasonable person reading something in a game forum would actually believe that there was an offer being made to pay real money to 3d life TR in under 24 hours. IMO it is just an attention getter and nothing more.

But, when you look at all of the restrictions, which are not presented in legal terms (a big hint that no real money is being offered), it is clear that the challenge is simply too large. Some of the restrictions are too vague to have meaning -- for example, minimal gear. What, exactly, does that mean?

So, the idea is simply to present a topic for us to discuss. I think that looking at what OR did in ~27 hours shows that, even with preparation and excellent cooperation, it is very difficult when run with friends/guild mates. Since both of those are also prohibited it seems, IMO, that the most reasonable response is, "Can't be done."

Now, I will reiterate that it is possible to get to L20 on a 3d life in ~24 hours of in-quest time. And, it is possible to do that if you rely entirely on solo and pug quests.

I am currently on a 3d life with one character and working my way through a (old) leveling guide. At the moment I am right on the mark of ~12 hours through L10. And, I've intentionally altered some of the quest choices to eliminate those that require openers or windowing (like Thrall of the Necromancer) to take into account the ability to solo if necessary.

I will note that "solo" in this case means "with no other living people running characters." It does not mean "without hires."

There are some quests that will be easier to do when grouped and eventually I will probably post LFMs to run them. But, total time inside the quests will end up being right around that 24 hour mark.

Actual real life time is going to run about a month (allowing for real life distractions, time spent on forums and "oooh, shiney" moments).

[Inferno346]

But, total time inside the quests will end up being right around that 24 hour mark.


Good luck. You are timing via xp pots I assume? I honestly think you are underestimating your time a bit. 12 hours in at level 10 is not on schedule for a 24 hour TR because of the xp curve (although the latter half of the levels do have better xp/min). From 12 hrs at 10 I would put you closer to a 40 hour completion.

[Therigar]

Good luck. You are timing via xp pots I assume? I honestly think you are underestimating your time a bit. 12 hours in at level 10 is not on schedule for a 24 hour TR because of the xp curve (although the latter half of the levels do have better xp/min). From 12 hrs at 10 I would put you closer to a 40 hour completion.

I am timing via XP pots and am actually under the 12 hours at L10. I was just generalizing.

I agree that the second 10 levels should take a bit longer as there are some places that look to be slow spots. But, this is my first try at doing this and I could have been much more efficient in quests -- something I assume somebody really focused on getting there the fastest would be doing.

The only other thing that I'll make note of is that the leveling guide I'm working from does not include the latest quests. I haven't really taken a look at that side of it.

But, my worst case feel right now is that it will be under 30 in quest hours and that is doing just about everything solo.

[Djeserit]

Based on personal experience, I vote for 1 barb splash faster overall than pure sorc, especially in groups, but even solo. You always want that next spell up to about level 12, then you don't care. For the rest of the levels it's pure gravy. So maybe you take that 1 barb at level 13? Haven't tried that yet, I always took it at level 1.

My impression is that 35-40 hours quest time is 'standard' for people who are serious about getting the life done. I usually take about 80-120 hours because I run inefficient quests that I happen to like. I don't repeat quests mostly. I also spend time teaching new players how to run quests. I putter about with different gear, feats and enhancements and generally 'waste' time.

[Inferno346]

Based on personal experience, I vote for 1 barb splash faster overall than pure sorc, especially in groups, but even solo. You always want that next spell up to about level 12, then you don't care. For the rest of the levels it's pure gravy. So maybe you take that 1 barb at level 13? Haven't tried that yet, I always took it at level 1.


It depends on playstyle, really. For someone good enough to keep up 3k xp/min solo, level 2 is the sweet spot to take the barb level imo.

[MRMechMan]

I used to take it at level 2 (can't at 1 as can't take a metamagic feat otherwise) but recently I like taking it at lvl 7...once you get fireball and firesavant 1 (or acid blast/earth savant1) that is a massive increase in killing speed/power.

Level 8 for acid rain or firewall is a nice jump as well, but I tend to be using those less than fireball at level 6-12 anyway as fireball is 1 or 2 shotting most things and is much faster.

After 1 barb level any other character feels like they are wearing lead boots when running around...it is rediculously addicting.

[Eighnuss]

3040 xp per minute = 4,378,500 xp in 24 hours. Lets assume that 33% of your game time is spent not getting xp, so we will MATH and call it 4560 xp per minute minimum per quest over 16 hours of questing. This means you should have 16 hours of questing and 8 hours of everything else. Since we are getting paid 1 million bucks I'm gonna spend 200$ outright on ddo store sp pots, xp pots and xp tomes. Toon would be 1 arti 1 barb 16 sorc. There's plenty of good XP power level guides so I wont bother to rehash one of those, most people know the efficient xp farms and leveling procedure. I forgot the xp bonuses grated by tomes and pots and streaks but i think there was upwards of 50% guaranteed bonus to all xp and then another like 80% for first elite runs. Factoring in all the available xp bonuses will reduce the xp per minute down to somewhere around 3-3.5k per minute. I think it is quite doable, has probably been done already, and on far less zergish builds. I also think that 1/3 of play time not in quests is a large over estimate. I could realistically picture someone doing 20 hours in quest 4 hours out which makes your needed xp per minute even lower.

Also to comment on the talk about when to take multiclass levels, when I played this toon i took arti at 1 and barb at 2.