Next go around, make it EPic

[Ghwyn]

I'm enjoying the Hardcore server, and starting off at 1 with no past lives and no exploits is refreshing.

Next go around, how about starting off at level 20. It would be fun to try all kinds of builds and see what works, plus I enjoy epic more than heroic. That might be in part from running heroic enough for racial completionist, but epic would be a fun twist.

[Ralmeth]

I'm enjoying the Hardcore server, and starting off at 1 with no past lives and no exploits is refreshing.

Next go around, how about starting off at level 20. It would be fun to try all kinds of builds and see what works, plus I enjoy epic more than heroic. That might be in part from running heroic enough for racial completionist, but epic would be a fun twist.

Interesting, but I don’t think that will work. The issue is that epic elite is too hard and epic hard is too easy, so everyone will just play epic normal or hard, and it won’t be that challenging. If there is another go around, I think they should stay with starting at level 1.

[Loromir]

I'm enjoying the Hardcore server, and starting off at 1 with no past lives and no exploits is refreshing.

Next go around, how about starting off at level 20. It would be fun to try all kinds of builds and see what works, plus I enjoy epic more than heroic. That might be in part from running heroic enough for racial completionist, but epic would be a fun twist.

You gonna start naked?

[Ghwyn]

You gonna start naked?

Its hardcore, maybe naked should be the only way to play, lol.

[Memnir]

My initial reaction to the idea is that it is less interesting and would be less fun.
But I also had a bad initial reaction to the current HC idea, and am loving it in actuality - so likely it would be better than I think.

[Silverleafeon]

If the Devs wanted to do that (not saying it is a good idea), they could simply reenable iconics as level 15 and activate Vet status I with favor.

[Hafeal]

I believe Epics are waaaaayyyyy more gear intensive than Heoric. Not to mention you are starting without a complete set of EDs.

I am not wanting to grind gear for a 3 month stint to make EE or higher a more enjoyable experience.

You can run Epics now ... but I am guessing since there are not nearly enough groups, so perhaps you are thinking this would be a way to get more people for different content ... ?

[mbartol]

epic would be a fun twist.

One twist is that you have the option to start out with a Heroic (or Racial, I guess) past life of your choice, and run from Level 1. Would everyone grab Paladin PL for the Healing Amp, or possibly Wizard PL? Think about a new HC build possibilities with a free past life thrown in.

Perhaps it would be more beneficial to crawl to 30 for an Epic PL?

One down side is that you would split the population between Heroic & Epic out the gate, but there is a pretty healthy population on the HC server.

[Ralmeth]

Okay, I'd like to add some perspective, as I made it to level 20 and decided to try leveling up a bit in Epics, and as a point of reference I'm using a Swashbuckler build with mid heroic gear (min level 10 - 15). So I don't have an overpowered build...Playing in Epics is kind of boring. I tried a bunch of Epic Hard quests and it felt like chopping down trees to kill the mobs, as my DPS isn't good for epics without any destinies filled in. I wasn't really challenged, but it just took forever to get through quests. As a result, I dropped down to Epic Normal, and mobs would die at a reasonable rate, however the danger of getting killed is pretty minimal. If I was on a regular server I would do a combination of sagas to pick up skill tomes, along with lots of daily runs to just get leveled up and past this.

So my thought is that Hardcore & Epics isn't a terribly fun mix. The game was a lot more fun in heroics where it seems that the game is much more balanced, there are real threats to getting killed, etc. IMHO, the epic destiny system and epic difficulty levels is not super fun. Honestly, I think DDO would be better off reworking the entire Epic leveling experience.