Thoughts on Soloing in DDO

[Mordoth1]

Here's Ghoste's primer: Shadow Mage: A Build. A Philosophy. He knows his stuff. Check his videos on youtube, they're eye-openers. Well worth the time.

The spells and clickies won't get you as far as knowing the opponents and scenarios. Its worth faking a sick day to enjoy someone cross training the "tricks". If you two can hook up, more power to ya.

I looked over his post for the build. I can duplicate the stats and skills with a 28 pt build and I can see the direction he's going. But it doesn't mention feats and enhancements. For instance: Mithral Body or not, spell focus, toughness, etc. I like the WF Wizard idea, it was my first thoughts because WF are interesting and I've always like wizards (that's what I palyed the most back in my younger days playing PnP D&D and other games).

I think maybe I have a problem with being a completionist. I have a compulsion to explore, find and loot everything in the dungeon..LOL. I've tried looking in the compendium and other places to get info about quests, monsters, items, et al, but there's a lot of missing information. For instance, I tried looking up the Arcane Skeleton because there was a quest I was having problems with one, but couldn't find any posted info on them. Also, what's great about a repeating crossbow? great crossbow (this is more obvious, but just saying there's nothing I could find). you can easily find the in game descriptions of items, but not what makes it a good or bad choice. Some things you can figure out pretty easily, but it's not obvious what, if anything, makes a repeating crossbow good? Does it just shoot faster? Why do people seem to like khopeshs? Looks to me like a bastard sword is a better choice for damage.

Wizard tactics, seems to me that having a summoned creature active, using CC spells and then doing damage with other spells or weapons would be a good tactic. Of course so far I've only been able to use 2nd level spells. This tactic also has the problem that if you don't kill the creature with your damage spell, then that breaks the sleep or hypnosis or whatever and then you still get mobbed.

[Mordoth1]

Honestly, if you want a somewhat modular solo-play game, go try Elder Scrolls IV: Oblvion. There are SO MANY mods for that game! New quests, cities, races, classes, dungeons, weapons...fans make new ones, and Bethesda releases new content periodically as well.

And it is an incredible world to play in--only reason I don't play it more often is that I like the social element of DDO.

I've played this game to death....LOL. I'm to the point that I'm getting bored with it, but it's a favorite. Bethesda formed an online game division to develop an MMO, but there's no info if it will be Elder Scrolls online. If it turns out to be Elder Scrolls online, I'm going to be there when it goes live. I primarily played Heavy Armored Battlemage types in the Elder Scrolls games or a Stealth/Assassin character capable of quick kill shots with bows and light magic for augmenting stealth and for getting into places. I won't deny it's a great game (also Fallout 3 was pretty awesome too). I have too much time on my hands sometimes.

[sephiroth1084]

thats a pretty good game, i would like to add also

I think I spent upwards of 20 hours in the game after leaving the starter dungeon before I bothered heading back to the main thrust of the storyline. Great game, though it can be a little overwhelming at times: you walk from town A to town B, and along the way you notice 8 new icons come up on your map, each of which are explorable ruins, mines, camps, caves, inns, etc... Do you explore them, or stay focused?

If you do pick it up, poke around online for suggestions for what mods you should download. There are hundreds and they do all sorts of wonderful things to the game, like changing guard behavior to more accurately reflect the crime being committed and lend more value to committing crimes out of sight or hearing or to eliminating any witnesses before they may alert anyone else; cause NPCs to act more naturally, gaining more lines of text/voice and getting dinner together; adding more monsters, more items, side-quests, better lighting, better shadows, better skins and music, more interesting vampire traits... I've got all of those loaded up and then some.

I've played this game to death....LOL. I'm to the point that I'm getting bored with it, but it's a favorite. Bethesda formed an online game division to develop an MMO, but there's no info if it will be Elder Scrolls online. If it turns out to be Elder Scrolls online, I'm going to be there when it goes live. I primarily played Heavy Armored Battlemage types in the Elder Scrolls games or a Stealth/Assassin character capable of quick kill shots with bows and light magic for augmenting stealth and for getting into places. I won't deny it's a great game (also Fallout 3 was pretty awesome too). I have too much time on my hands sometimes.

Yeah, I had a heavily-armored tank who used some light magic for buffing and self-healing (very much a DDO paladin sort) and another stealthy archer who used spells for improving stealth and vision and such. I stopped playing for 3 reasons though:
-I started feeling too isolated, since I wasn't talking to people for the hours I was playing (being here contrasted with DDO)
-I really couldn't stand the oblivion gate ****
-I crafted a ridiculously overpowered bow that I could neither convince myself to put down, nor really enjoy using. I think it had 1 second of paralysis on each hit, 1 or 2 seconds of soul trap (to auto-recharge upon killing anything) and a small damage boost or damage over time effect (brewed half my carrying capacity in poisons to do this anyway).

Super fun though! Especially the thieves' guild and Brotherhood quests.

[VonBek]

But it doesn't mention feats and enhancements. It's fairly flexible. Other than the basics, it has more to do with working the game, rather than fixating on a specific recipe.

I think maybe I have a problem with being a completionist. I have a compulsion to explore, find and loot everything in the dungeon..LOL. You're not alone I've tried looking in the compendium and other places to get info about quests, monsters, items, et al, but there's a lot of missing information. That keeps the mystery going, I suppose. For instance, I tried looking up the Arcane Skeleton because there was a quest I was having problems with one, but couldn't find any posted info on them. If a forum search doesn't help, ask. The players who get into this data love to share. Also, what's great about a repeating crossbow? great crossbow (this is more obvious, but just saying there's nothing I could find). you can easily find the in game descriptions of items, but not what makes it a good or bad choice. Some things you can figure out pretty easily, but it's not obvious what, if anything, makes a repeating crossbow good? Does it just shoot faster? Yes, think "shots on goal" in sports. Why do people seem to like khopeshs ? Some players really work to wring out evey last advantage, and the number crunchers discovered this is one of the better weapons for critical hits and multiplied damage. Looks to me like a bastard sword is a better choice for damage. The bastard sword frequently costs less, and good ones can be found easier at auction, or broker.

Wizard tactics, seems to me that having a summoned creature active, using CC spells and then doing damage with other spells or weapons would be a good tactic. Of course so far I've only been able to use 2nd level spells. This tactic also has the problem that if you don't kill the creature with your damage spell, then that breaks the sleep or hypnosis or whatever and then you still get mobbed. Try Charm, to convert the enemy, and turn them against each other. You may not need to waste mana on direct damage once you get the hang of it. Remember, you may not have to kill everything, or kill everything in the order you encounter it, to complete the quest goals, even if that is a lot of fun.

Random thoughts in yeller.

[Strakeln]

If you want to learn to solo, first play the game in a group.

[Mordoth1]

If you want to learn to solo, first play the game in a group.

The point is that I want to solo. Your response makes about as much sense as saying "In order to be a non-smoker, you must smoke."

[ShrewMage]

The point is that I want to solo. Your response makes about as much sense as saying "In order to be a non-smoker, you must smoke."

Even brain surgeons have to work as understudies before they become masters of thier trade. Basically saying that in order to successfully solo you need to first know what is to expect from the quest. Now you can solo run it over and over again until you know all the in's and out's, but ultimately your better off running with other people to start out at least until you feel more comfortable with the quest. Then again if you happen to jump into a mad zerger group you probably won't learn a thing about the quest either. Unless you can keep up with them and see where they go/what they do. Either way, each quest takes time to learn and is considerably easier once you know what's coming up and how to deal with it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you absolutely HAVE to run with parties to learn the game. But ultimately it will help give you a better understanding of what your up against.

[Ryiah]

If you want to try solo, you might want to look into battle mages like the one attempting to duplicate ddodevil's build. Instead of ranger, it takes two levels of rogue and one level of barbarian. There are even pictures of him showing he completed a raid by himself given enough resources.

[Noctus]

I looked over his post for the build. I can duplicate the stats and skills with a 28 pt build and I can see the direction he's going. But it doesn't mention feats and enhancements. For instance: Mithral Body or not, spell focus, toughness, etc. I like the WF Wizard idea, it was my first thoughts because WF are interesting and I've always like wizards (that's what I palyed the most back in my younger days playing PnP D&D and other games).

Wizard 16, Warforged

I´d suggest the following stat distribution:
Strength 14
Dexterity 8
Constitution 16
Intelligence 18 (all level ups here)
Wisdom 6
Charisma 6


Playstyle:
Use sneakyness to bypass enemys if possible, use CC (crowd controll spells) to control larger groups. Enchantments are your best friend. There is nothing better than letting the monsters kill each other.

Kill enemy casters 1st, asap.

Pick up a Greataxe afther buffing yourself with Master´s Touch and kill weaker CC´d monsters one by one, to conserve mana. The higher the level you get, the less usefull your melee prowess will become, but that will be compensated by your expotentially growing mastery of spells.

Once you get the 4th level spelll Firewall it will be like a totally different game. Cast a Firewall and lure the monsters around, let them chase you through the firewall and watch them burn to death, without being able to deal you any serious harm.

Your defence is not AC (you wont get it into a range where it is worth it), but Blur,later Displacement and Stoneskin, and Selfhealing.


Wizard Bonus Feats:
1st: Extend
5th: Maximize
10th: Heighten
15th Empower

Regular Feats:
1st: Thoughness
3: Insightfull Reflexes
6: Spell Focus: Enchantment
9: Greater Spell Focus: Enchantment
12: Spell Focus: Necromancy
15: Greater Spell Focus: Necromancy


Skills:
Max out Concentration(!), Hide, Move Silently, Spot, Balance, Jump.
Once you get more skillpoints through raising INT, invest them into Haggle.

[BlackSteel]

with the addition of hirelings its made it easier to solo even on melees, or high DPS no AC characters like barbarians. It still requires knowing the quest well, or being very very cautious.

I've been doing a fair amount of it on my new no AC WF pally. A hireling cleric is great for short manned groups, and a hireling WF hastebot is awesome for lone man antics, as you get decent length hastes and repairs

Its still hard to compare to the versatility or damage capability of a leveled arcane tho. Once you break ~level 10 the arcane soloer is going to have a much easier time.

[Talon_Moonshadow]

I do not enjoy soloing in DDO. I think this game is not designed for it. Doesn't mean you can do it.....as many have said. Many people do solo it....even the hardest quests.

I enjoy adventuring with someone else. Preferably a fun conversationalist. Even if they are bad players, if they have a good friendly attitude, I enjoy grouping with them.

I do enjoy stealth and exploring though. And do enjoy two-manning quests with a good friend.

Work is keeping me from actually playing DDO for awhile....
But I would love to get in a stealth group sometime. Either Thelanis or Argo.
Did one with Ghoste once and it was one of the best times I have ever had in DDO.

All my future chars will be stealthy.... and my mages usually choose more subtle spells useful in not drawing too much agro.

I should point out hirlings. I think they said they were adding a hirling vender in Khorthos in mod 9. Choose a WF hirling Ftr type and you can repair him too.

[Strakeln]

The point is that I want to solo. Your response makes about as much sense as saying "In order to be a non-smoker, you must smoke."

Okay, I'll expand on it then:

Until you have played through the game in groups, you will very likely be unable to successfully solo beyond low levels for many reasons, including but not limited to the following:

- Lack of resources
- Lack of knowledge
- Lack of tactics

I'd say the 1st one is the biggest, as you can gain knowledge and tactics through trial and error, but it can be expensive to do so... so unless you have the resources of a person that has played through the game, trial and error can be prohibitively expensive.

For example, take Tomb of the Astrologer. It's a well known solo loot run that can be done in under 5 minutes per loop. But if you don't know how to do that 5 minute run, you'll be OOM and dead before you know it.

[Thrudh]

Um...being a relatively new player, just been playing almost two months. Please answer a couple questions for me:

What are clickies?
What is skill focus UMD? I know what a skill focus is, but what's UMD?

I'd rather play a pure mage actually.

Did anyone answer your questions?

A clickable item is an item (like boots or cloak or ring) that has 1-5 charges of a spell... For instance, you might find a ring with the cleric spell Aid on it with 3 charges... You can use it three times between shrines (it gets all its charges back when you shrine or stand in a tavern for a while).

Aid and Heroism clickables are very useful for solo characters... You can find them in chests or buy them from the Auction House.

Mod 9 is coming out soon, and it will make soloing MUCH easier... All dungeons will scale to the size of the group. So if you're solo or with two people, the monsters will be much weaker and easier to kill.

Hopefully that alone should solve your problem... Just wait for Mod 9

Definitely go with warforged wizard if you want to be a caster... repair spells heal warforged so you'll be able to heal yourself.

Good luck to you

[Mordoth1]

Wizard 16, Warforged

I´d suggest the following stat distribution:
Strength 14
Dexterity 8
Constitution 16
Intelligence 18 (all level ups here)
Wisdom 6
Charisma 6


Playstyle:
Use sneakyness to bypass enemys if possible, use CC (crowd controll spells) to control larger groups. Enchantments are your best friend. There is nothing better than letting the monsters kill each other.

Kill enemy casters 1st, asap.

Pick up a Greataxe afther buffing yourself with Master´s Touch and kill weaker CC´d monsters one by one, to conserve mana. The higher the level you get, the less usefull your melee prowess will become, but that will be compensated by your expotentially growing mastery of spells.

Once you get the 4th level spelll Firewall it will be like a totally different game. Cast a Firewall and lure the monsters around, let them chase you through the firewall and watch them burn to death, without being able to deal you any serious harm.

Your defence is not AC (you wont get it into a range where it is worth it), but Blur,later Displacement and Stoneskin, and Selfhealing.


Wizard Bonus Feats:
1st: Extend
5th: Maximize
10th: Heighten
15th Empower

Regular Feats:
1st: Thoughness
3: Insightfull Reflexes
6: Spell Focus: Enchantment
9: Greater Spell Focus: Enchantment
12: Spell Focus: Necromancy
15: Greater Spell Focus: Necromancy


Skills:
Max out Concentration(!), Hide, Move Silently, Spot, Balance, Jump.
Once you get more skillpoints through raising INT, invest them into Haggle.

Dang it! (I'm southern btw) This sounds like a great and fun build. I'd already started a new WF Wizard with low Strenght and high Dex. But what you're saying here makes sense.

Decisions, decisions....restart again? Hrm.

Wait!! I'm using stats from Ghoste's sneaky, WF soloable mage. He's also acknowledged as know his stuff. Mabey a blend.

[unionyes]

I like to solo a lot too.

It helps to know the quest fairly well. There are some that I solo where I stop in a seemingly empty hallway, throw down a solid fog and a couple firewalls, displace myself, move forward a bit, and throw a fireball down the hallway to pull everyone into my death trap.

Also when soloing, it helps to treat things somewhat as a puzzle. Die at X spot? Try a different approach there, maybe a different clickie or spell, or a different pulling method.

Soloing can be very rewarding, keep it up you will have a blast with it.

[Depravity]

Wizard 16, Warforged

I´d suggest the following stat distribution:
Strength 14
Dexterity 8
Constitution 16
Intelligence 18 (all level ups here)
Wisdom 6
Charisma 6

You do actually want a bit more dex on a stealth build. I was just trying to min max a stealth sorc (needs int 14 for the skill points, that 6 cuts in on the other stats noticeably). Current endgame mark is, iirc, ghaele clerics at 38-ish spot/listen. You want a few more points beyond that for "padding" when something unforeseen happens, like a mob turning around suddenly, or a named critter with slightly higher stats. Do keep con up though - the toughness/AP hitpoints are the ablative armor that lets you get yourself out of trouble. I'd recommend keeping Ddoor on a key that's easy to hit until you get the hang of things.

Wizard Bonus Feats:
1st: Extend
5th: Maximize
10th: Heighten
15th Empower

Regular Feats:
1st: Thoughness
3: Insightfull Reflexes
6: Spell Focus: Enchantment
9: Greater Spell Focus: Enchantment
12: Spell Focus: Necromancy
15: Greater Spell Focus: Necromancy

I'm going to have to disagree here - at top end you need spell pen/greater spell pen to push the non damaging spells through spell resistance. Swap out the greater focuses, you'll hit more often overall, since not overcoming SR means they never even have to take that boosted save. Stealth wizards are also one of the few builds that make enlarge really worthwhile - you can fire things off from well out of draw/aggro range, which helps keep your target's friends from realizing what's going on. I personally don't have empower on my matured stealth wizard, but he has some problems pushing enough damage through. Running with the devils elite, for instance - I just can't take out the rassenfrassen named paladin. I can get there with 0 kills, 0 notice, or maybe a kill if I want to take out the named bearded devil (blind his friends, contagion for con damage, Ddoor out, watch him sicken and die in the combat log.), but I just can't get past his regen fast enough to kill him before I run out of SP for firewalls.

Skills:
Max out Concentration(!), Hide, Move Silently, Spot, Balance, Jump.
Once you get more skillpoints through raising INT, invest them into Haggle.

Agreed, although most issues where balance comes in you're probably in trouble already, just from getting into them. Spot is a must have, and try to keep max spot gear available at each level, as it's hard to stealth past things that you can't see well enough to tell where they're looking. Two skill points for one full rank of tumble gets you the right to use it, which will make the occasional ray shooting match easier.

[Junts]

I prefer to solo play. I know most people would say "then why play an mmo if you want to solo?" The answer is that stand alone PC Games don't have dynamic content, i.e. added adventures/quests and content. You play it and you're done.

That being said, I've been playing DDO for about a month and a half. I've restarted characters many times since it's not possible to respec classes, etc. I've finally got a character I like, currently Ranger 2/Wizard 3. However it's becoming more and more apparent that this game is really not good for soloing. Looking over the list of the quests for example, the leve 4 quests only have 3 with a solo mode. The level 5 quests aren't any better. What I don't understand is why the devs will have a solo mode on some quests and not others, makes no sense.

I just attempted a quest on solo difficulty for a level 5 character and was completely destroyed in seconds in one of the encounters. The Lair of Summoning is the quest. Again it seems to make no sense to have a quest which is listed with a solo difficulty appropriate to my character level that plays more like a "hard" difficulty quest. It was completely over the top to be locked in with various monsters, then unable to see anything due to either being blinded or in a darkness spell with traps spewing out mutliple kinds of damage. I'm not sure what all the monsters were since I couldn't see them or what the traps were either.

It appears you can only effectively solo in this game if you are playing a fighter character or possibly a cleric.
What about those like me who like magic?

Guess I am just expressing my frustration. I've put time and money into this game and feel like I've hit a roadblock to my character progression. Games which force grouping lose out on another part of the mmo market, players like myself who want to enjoy a game that is dynamic, not static like stand alone games.

It appears the search is once again on.

Run stuff on normal; the solo difficulty is just a gearing-up-super-easy mode for a few very low level quests. It is possible, with the right equipment, to solo almost anything in the game (though you probably wont be able to solo the -really- high end stuff unless you party, since you'd need some raid loot to do that), even without twinking, once you get good at ddo, you'll be able to solo quests up into the teens. However, many great end-game solo builds are not good lowbie solo builds: i strongly advise you to try a cleric. They're one of the few that are good solo at every difficulty.

If you are not turned off by outside assistance, possibly someone on your server would be willing to send you some cash for the consumables required to do so: its a lot of potions and wands and such.

going pure solo with no outside help is something that probably only a very skilled and knowledgable player can do; most ddo quwests are very hard without foreknowledge, especially if you dont know what kinds of items to acquire and hold on to for them.

as noctus said, a wf wizard is also excellent (or a wf sorc, though they really profit from 32 point builds), as they are a self-healing caster

my sorceror is a very effective soloist, and human, but would not be without raid loot.

[Xander69]

Yep, I have canceled a second time took a 3-4 month break due to the lack of being able to do anything, NEVER groups for 11th level people. So I came back and not
4 days in I canceled again. The phrase "beauty is only skin deep" applies to this game completely. It looks amazing and that’s where it stops being amazing.

I have played mmo for 15+ years and have max toons in 3 of them. While some where harder than others to level up. In all of the games you always had both options present
Group or solo play in all cases group play gave more rewards than
Solo play none where virtually impossible solo and ddo is just that its group or epic fail sadly with the game not being very popular anymore its subs are way down.
I have gone days playing online and never found a group. The model where grouping is rewarded more than solo play works allot better than group or quit because with 100's of
mmo out there people don’t wait around they cancel just like I did and play something else, Think if I could do some solo quests at my level that where slow I might still be playing and when enough
People like me get online they might group as your current model works its sit here and hope someone logs on... sorry that’s epic fail.

DDO needs to do a 180 to survive it needs to start releasing 50% or better solo content with each expansion. Make solo play possible but grouping more rewarding. I think the biggest problem I find in trying to solo is that spell points don’t regen at all on missions this is a unique dynamic that no other online game with a mana point system dose to casters I think this is biggest issue with playing the game solo as a caster. No mana regen outside of town and only able to rest in certain places is a receipt for failure. Why do I say that? Look at your competition nobody else dose it like that so you’re ether a genius or a moron. =)

[Strakeln]

Yep, I have canceled a second time took a 3-4 month break due to the lack of being able to do anything, NEVER groups for 11th level people. So I came back and not
4 days in I canceled again. The phrase "beauty is only skin deep" applies to this game completely. It looks amazing and that’s where it stops being amazing.

I have played mmo for 15+ years and have max toons in 3 of them. While some where harder than others to level up. In all of the games you always had both options present
Group or solo play in all cases group play gave more rewards than
Solo play none where virtually impossible solo and ddo is just that its group or epic fail sadly with the game not being very popular anymore its subs are way down.
I have gone days playing online and never found a group. The model where grouping is rewarded more than solo play works allot better than group or quit because with 100's of
mmo out there people don’t wait around they cancel just like I did and play something else, Think if I could do some solo quests at my level that where slow I might still be playing and when enough
People like me get online they might group as your current model works its sit here and hope someone logs on... sorry that’s epic fail.

DDO needs to do a 180 to survive it needs to start releasing 50% or better solo content with each expansion. Make solo play possible but grouping more rewarding. I think the biggest problem I find in trying to solo is that spell points don’t regen at all on missions this is a unique dynamic that no other online game with a mana point system dose to casters I think this is biggest issue with playing the game solo as a caster. No mana regen outside of town and only able to rest in certain places is a receipt for failure. Why do I say that? Look at your competition nobody else dose it like that so you’re ether a genius or a moron. =)

Well, thanks to folks like you, we now have "Special Olympics Soloing" coming to DDO in Mod 9 (Soon™).

Why, Devs? Why couldn't you just give every quest a solo OPTION instead of deciding it for us based on party size? Because of this guy who came back for 4 days and left?

Grumble.

[VonBek]

I have no problem playing a wizard, it's my favorite class.

Hey Mordoth,

Thought you might get something from this if you're still exploring DDO from the Wizard point of view: Wizards Handbook