THF build for a noob?

[Kroonerman]

I've been reading over some of the threads here (like the Cetus and his spawn) and most of them are just impenetrable for a new player.

I was messing around with a stripped down, 32 point buy version of the Warforged THF build someone posted, and I just don't get the mechanics enough to 'get' the build. It went monk-fighter-fighter-monk, but when I threw on a greatsword I wasn't centered (this was only 4th level)? Is that...important?

I guess what I'm looking for is some sort of two handed fighter melee build. I've got a 32 point buy opened up, and all the classes (I went ahead and subscribed), but I'm basically completely new to the game. I'm probably going to roll through the starter island again just to get familiar with what's what, since I haven't played in 2+ years, and wasn't much of a regular even back then.

Even the builds I do see don't call out where to put skill points, or enhancements. Are they just not that important, since fighter/monks get so few skill points? Is it just assumed I'll know where to put enhancements?

[ranthrock]

I've been reading over some of the threads here (like the Cetus and his spawn) and most of them are just impenetrable for a new player.

I was messing around with a stripped down, 32 point buy version of the Warforged THF build someone posted, and I just don't get the mechanics enough to 'get' the build. It went monk-fighter-fighter-monk, but when I threw on a greatsword I wasn't centered (this was only 4th level)? Is that...important?

I guess what I'm looking for is some sort of two handed fighter melee build. I've got a 32 point buy opened up, and all the classes (I went ahead and subscribed), but I'm basically completely new to the game. I'm probably going to roll through the starter island again just to get familiar with what's what, since I haven't played in 2+ years, and wasn't much of a regular even back then.

Even the builds I do see don't call out where to put skill points, or enhancements. Are they just not that important, since fighter/monks get so few skill points? Is it just assumed I'll know where to put enhancements?

Hey buddy :D

A list for you:

1) If you have access to essentially everything, a bladeforged pally/monk/fighter (3/9/8) is a nice choice. You'll start out at level 15, so do your initial levels as 3 paladin, 4 monk, and 8 fighter (taking them in that order is okay). Just make sure you don't take mithril or adamantium armor and you're fine. Doesn't really matter what feats you take when, as long as you make sure you take greater weapon focus to open up the top tier of kensai. You'll also want power attack/cleave/great cleave, and maybe power critical. Others can be toughnesses, I guess. Grab a two-handed sword and go forth and slay. You'll start out at level 15, which means you don't have to do the low level stuff and can concentrate and moving into epic levels.

2) If you have access to essentially nothing, dwarven axers get some great bonuses. Maybe splash a few levels of cleric to add some self healing and you can build yourself a stout little fighter with some self-healing capacities. You'll start out at level 1 and get to play the best content, which is all low level.

[unbongwah]

Cetus and its ilk are based on the fact that the One w/Blade enhancement from the Kensei (http://ddowiki.com/page/Kensei_enhancements) tree makes your melee Focus weapons into ki weapons, which means you're centered with them and can benefit from monk stances, ki strikes, etc. Between that and the higher-tier monk stances (Adept/Master/Grandmaster of Forms) being regular feats now has made monk / kensei hella OP since U19. However, tier-5 enhs can't be taken until char lvl 12: this isn't a problem for Iconics, since they always start at lvl 15; but someone starting from scratch with a WF or other regular race has a long way to go become One with their Blade.

So if you're trying to use a monk / kensei build like mine (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/436990-Looking-for-a-starter-build-for-a-Warforged-THF?p=5265227&viewfull=1#post5265227), you either spend the first several levels using regular weapons and ignore the fact you're uncentered (which is part of why I backloaded most of the monk lvls); or you use ki weapons (namely staves) until you hit lvl 12 and can pick up One w/Blade, at which point you switch to your Focus weapon(s). Note that being uncentered doesn't effect Evasion; so I would just stick w/regular weapons. If the uncentered icon on your screen bothers you, just follow Homer's example and put a piece of tape over it. ;)

BTW, if you do try to follow my build - or convert any other Bladeforged builds into WF equivalents - be forewarned that WF lack one of BF's biggest advantages: namely the Reconstruct SLA. This lets every BF add self-repairability, which is obviously a potentially huge advantage; you don't even need a caster splash, because you can gain SPs just from gear.

A lot of the builds you see are by vets for vets; more often than not the goal is to provide an endgame template, not a leveling guide nor a step-to-step how-to. Some of us try to keep our builds more readable or with leveling advice; but a certain amount of foreknowledge is often presumed, if only because it gets tedious to repeat the same things over & over. Still, if you have specific questions, just ask away.

[Kroonerman]

Cetus and its ilk are based on the fact that the One w/Blade enhancement from the Kensei (http://ddowiki.com/page/Kensei_enhancements) tree makes your melee Focus weapons into ki weapons, which means you're centered with them and can benefit from monk stances, ki strikes, etc. Between that and the higher-tier monk stances (Adept/Master/Grandmaster of Forms) being regular feats now has made monk / kensei hella OP since U19. However, tier-5 enhs can't be taken until char lvl 12: this isn't a problem for Iconics, since they always start at lvl 15; but someone starting from scratch with a WF or other regular race has a long way to go become One with their Blade.

So if you're trying to use a monk / kensei build like mine (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/436990-Looking-for-a-starter-build-for-a-Warforged-THF?p=5265227&viewfull=1#post5265227), you either spend the first several levels using regular weapons and ignore the fact you're uncentered (which is part of why I backloaded most of the monk lvls); or you use ki weapons (namely staves) until you hit lvl 12 and can pick up One w/Blade, at which point you switch to your Focus weapon(s). Note that being uncentered doesn't effect Evasion; so I would just stick w/regular weapons. If the uncentered icon on your screen bothers you, just follow Homer's example and put a piece of tape over it. ;)

BTW, if you do try to follow my build - or convert any other Bladeforged builds into WF equivalents - be forewarned that WF lack one of BF's biggest advantages: namely the Reconstruct SLA. This lets every BF add self-repairability, which is obviously a potentially huge advantage; you don't even need a caster splash, because you can gain SPs just from gear.

A lot of the builds you see are by vets for vets; more often than not the goal is to provide an endgame template, not a leveling guide nor a step-to-step how-to. Some of us try to keep our builds more readable or with leveling advice; but a certain amount of foreknowledge is often presumed, if only because it gets tedious to repeat the same things over & over. Still, if you have specific questions, just ask away.


I think I've got it now. I'm following along with the Kensei warpriest someone else posted, and I think you suggested I try in a different topic. I tried the melee bard thing and even by level 2 I wasn't feeling it. This build seems a bit more fun.

So...gear. I've never understood how in the world crafting works in DDO. Worth trying to make my own gear, or should I just grab things off the AH, or will I even need/want to do that? Will quests drop upgrades for me reliably? I'm a VIP member so I guess I've got all the quest lines open to roll through, will I -need- a group for anything at moderately low level, or will I be rolling alone till 4-5th? I've been aiming for doing at least hard mode quests so far, the loot/exp seems worth it for no real difficulty increase at low levels.

Where's a good place to pick up a guild, or just a like-minded group of people who don't mind having a total noob hanging around? I've played a lot of MMOs over the years, so I'm not a complete moron. Just don't know DDO stuff.

Will I want to buy/use consumables a lot? Someone mentioned hirelings, I've been using those, is there any reason not to?

As far as leveling, is it worth it just to spec enhancements into whatever the 'best' 2-handed weapon I can find at-level is, and swap the kensei points around when I find something better, or should I just leave them be and focus on taking 1 weapon type only? Don't know if respec'ing is prohibitively expensive or anything.

Anything in the store I should definitely buy for a few points? Learning tomes, stat tomes, etc.?

[unbongwah]

So...gear. I've never understood how in the world crafting works in DDO. Worth trying to make my own gear, or should I just grab things off the AH, or will I even need/want to do that? Will quests drop upgrades for me reliably?
There are several crafting systems (http://ddowiki.com/page/Crafting) in DDO, although typically the ones most people talk about is either Cannith or greensteel (GS). You can also farm Challenges (http://ddowiki.com/page/Challenges) for ingredients to make gear. I won't go into them, you can read the wiki if you like. I'll just say I think Cannith crafting is only worth it if you plan to make a lot of alts, because it's really tedious, expensive (in terms of in-game resources), and time-consuming to level up. GS crafting is most useful if you do a lot of TRing (http://ddowiki.com/page/Heroic_True_Reincarnation), since it's still the best gear for lvls 12-20.

Where's a good place to pick up a guild, or just a like-minded group of people who don't mind having a total noob hanging around?
Check the various server forums to see who's recruiting. When in doubt, use the LFM panel and don't be afraid to admit you're a newbie.

Will I want to buy/use consumables a lot? Someone mentioned hirelings, I've been using those, is there any reason not to?
The two main reasons not to use hirelings while soloing are (A) dungeon scaling (http://ddowiki.com/page/Dungeon_scaling) is based on total party size inc. hires (although they don't count as much as real people); and (B) hires are pretty stupid and die easily (esp. in Elite quests) if you're not careful, which both loses XP (http://ddowiki.com/page/Experience_points) for quest completion (though again less than a human character's death would) and can leave you up a creek without a paddle if you were counting on them to keep you alive.

In PUGs I usually leave it up to the party leader to decide if hires are allowed.

As far as leveling, is it worth it just to spec enhancements into whatever the 'best' 2-handed weapon I can find at-level is, and swap the kensei points around when I find something better, or should I just leave them be and focus on taking 1 weapon type only? Don't know if respec'ing is prohibitively expensive or anything.
Resetting enhs only costs plat; the cost goes up with level and every time you do it (though the latter penalty decays over time). Eventually you'll be rich enough not to notice the expense, but that'll be a while. I tend to respec my enhs every couple of levels, in order to rebalance odd stats, add in new features (or get rid of old ones I no longer need), etc. Swapping feats is much more expensive, so to me that's what you focus on making sure you get right when you level.

[Cardtrick]

In addition to what Unbongwah said . . .



So...gear. I've never understood how in the world crafting works in DDO. Worth trying to make my own gear, or should I just grab things off the AH, or will I even need/want to do that? Will quests drop upgrades for me reliably? I'm a VIP member so I guess I've got all the quest lines open to roll through, will I -need- a group for anything at moderately low level, or will I be rolling alone till 4-5th? I've been aiming for doing at least hard mode quests so far, the loot/exp seems worth it for no real difficulty increase at low levels.


"Crafting" to me means Cannith crafting. That's the broadest crafting system, the only one based on character skills, and the only one that allows creating custom loot. (It's the ones based on the "essences" you'll see in random chests.) It takes a huge time and resource investment to get high crafting levels. And doing so requires breaking down most of the random gear you find in chests and end rewards -- which prevents you from using or selling that same gear.

It can be kind of fun, or at least satisfying, and it's exceptionally useful for creating low-level twink gear for alts or TRs, but it's definitely not worth trying to craft your gear on your first character. By the time you're able to create a particular piece of equipment, you'll have leveled past the point where it's useful. Just hang onto your essences for now (or sell them on the auction house, maybe) and think more about crafting later on, once you start thinking about creating an alt or TRing.


Where's a good place to pick up a guild, or just a like-minded group of people who don't mind having a total noob hanging around? I've played a lot of MMOs over the years, so I'm not a complete moron. Just don't know DDO stuff.

Unbongwah mentioned the server subforums. Under each of these is a Recruitment subforum. Try taking a look at the last few posts in your server's sub, or even post your own thread saying that you're a new player looking for a guild, describe your playstyle/playtimes, and ask if anyone's interested.

Alternately, join random PUGs and if you enjoy playing with someone, ask them if their guild is recruiting.




Will I want to buy/use consumables a lot? Someone mentioned hirelings, I've been using those, is there any reason not to?

Yes, absolutely, you will use tons of consumables. Or you should. Don't worry about them much in the first few levels, but pretty soon you'll find that the platinum is really starting to roll in. At that point, it's time to stock up on potions. (And scrolls, if you're UMDing.) I usually have at least one hotbar or two hotbars filled with potions and clickies. Cure potions are obvious. They're not great healing, but at least they're something, and they'll keep you going if you're in a group without a healer or soloing without a hireling (or your hireling dies). As you get higher in levels, you'll also want Poison Neutralization, Lesser Restoration, Remove Blindness, Remove Disease, and Remove Curse potions -- these are all conditions that can kill you quickly if you can't fix them. Haste potions are useful for tough fights. (I actually buy a couple of hundred of these every day and have them bound to my 'G' key, so I can keep them running nearly constantly -- but that's expensive.) Heroism potions are useful across the board -- until/unless you get some way to cast Greater Heroism on yourself, you'll want Heroism running all the time. If you don't have some way to cast Resist Energy, getting potions of at least Resist Fire and Resist Acid (but preferably all 5 types) is a huge help to your survivability. The versions you can find at most potion stores are low-level, and only give you 10 points worth of resistance. When you get up a bit higher, there's a vendor in The Twelve that sells 20 point resistance potions -- super useful. Higher level guilds have shrines to give you an hour of resistance, but if you die, you lose it; and I hate dealing with ship buffs anyway, I'd rather just go to the quest.

As for hirelings, when I'm soloing I usually have one running. It's just faster and easier than messing with potions on non-self-healing builds. And sometimes you need someone to pull a lever. I get annoyed with them dying and drawing trouble, so I usually leave them sitting behind and then call them forward to me once I've cleared an area.

But it's good to have some experience running without a hireling if you ever intend to join a group. If you have a hireling constantly healing you, you may not realize how damage you're really taking. Running without a hireling can be very useful for learning how to play, since it'll teach you how to move to avoid damage, how to pull single enemies when necessary, when it's best to avoid a fight, why it's valuable to have AC/DR/Dodge/PRR/Blur/ and other means of damage mitigation, etc. Plus, when you do join a group, especially at low levels, you'll probably find that even groups with a healer have a lot less healing than a hireling. The hirelings have built in potions to extend their SP, and they also only concentrate on healing one player, unlike a real healing player who has to heal himself and 5 others and do other things besides.


As far as leveling, is it worth it just to spec enhancements into whatever the 'best' 2-handed weapon I can find at-level is, and swap the kensei points around when I find something better, or should I just leave them be and focus on taking 1 weapon type only? Don't know if respec'ing is prohibitively expensive or anything.

Yes, definitely, feel free to respec frequently. Enhancements are always quite cheap to respec. Feats are a lot harder, and they get much more expensive as you level up. Once you start taking feats that tie you to particular weapon types (improved critical, weapon focus, weapon specialization, etc.), you'll generally want to remain using that type of weapon primarily.

Even beyond just weapon types, there are a lot of good reasons to respec enhancements. Maybe you really want an enhancement in the fourth tier of a particular tree, which has several prerequisite enhancements that aren't as useful to you. It doesn't make sense to take those prerequisites until you have a high enough level (and enough APs) to take the fourth-tier ability you're actually interested in. Until then, spend your APs on things that are more useful to you right now.


Anything in the store I should definitely buy for a few points? Learning tomes, stat tomes, etc.?

A learning tome isn't really necessary on your first life. On a first life, you'll level up to 20 at a good pace without even playing every quest, even without the tome.

If you get hooked by the game and decide to join the TR cycle, where you hit level 20 and then restart at level 1 to gain new abilities from past lives, then you might want to consider the tome of learning. Your second and third lives each take considerably more experience than the prior one (the extra XP tops out with life 3, and all further lives are the same). For those lives, a greater tome of learning does make a big difference.

Similarly, I'd say don't spend the money on stat tomes right now. It's hard to get +4 or +5 stat tomes through regularly questing, but those are also quite expensive in the store; lower levels of stat tomes drop much more commonly and can be purchased with in-game currencies. You'll get one +2 stat tome for free at a certain favor level, there are some raids that drop tomes with regularity, etc.

Basically, it's not a bad idea to buy tomes -- they're definitely useful, and they'll continue to apply even if you someday TR this character. But they're also not necessary, and they can be found in game without spending much money.

One thing I do spend Turbine Points on, even though it's just for convenience, is any kind of inventory management tool. I've bought extra inventory tabs, Huge Collectables and Ingredients bags, a hireling folder, etc. I'm not necessarily recommending this, but I've never regretted it either. I hate inventory management.

[NaturalHazard]

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/426765-Kensei-Warpriest-for-new-players-(Human-12-8-Fighter-Cleric)

this might be good, have self healing.

If you have access to BF though thats a whole new kettle of fish :)

[DrNuegebauer]

It all depends what you can access.
If you have BF, then a Juggernaught is an excellent place to start.

Very easy to play, lots of self healing, pretty good DPS, and great utility.

You can do it with WF, but it's a little bit harder on the self healing until you get reconstruct.