Leveling without questing..possible??

[Logicman69]

So I had a thought the other day while I was doing a loot run the the desert. Is it possible to level a character to cap WITHOUT ever steping into a quest? After a little research and number crunching I figured out that it is possible to level a character using explorer zones only.

So I'm thinking, why not. I'm going to give this a go. It's going to be a challenge (and one LONG grind), but should be interesting. My question to the community is, what type of build would be the best for dominating the explorer areas (prefferably solo). Key factors would be the ability to self heal efficently, have decent AC and DPS, and good saves. I was thinking some form of a Ranger/Monk combo (Halfling for Drangon Marks). My other thought is this character will be a Plat sponge as I will have to rely on the AH and vendors for most of the decent equipment (no end rewards and untill the desert, no named loot).

Any thoughts on this undertaking?

[Visty]

afaik someone proofex by numbers that it is indead possible without entering a quest...though you have to make sure that you can skip the tutorial, otherwise you would have to do misery

[Logicman69]

afaik someone proofex by numbers that it is indead possible without entering a quest...though you have to make sure that you can skip the tutorial, otherwise you would have to do misery

I thought about that and I can skip the tutorial. Though no matter what I think Korthos is going to be rough going at first.

[Yajerman01]

as mentioned above going pally the first two levels will make Korthos a breeze. Seriously, its a joke, the creatures take 10 hp of damage or so, basically one shot.

[Runningaway]

Hmm you will have to find 70k from somewhere.
Korthos, ww, cerulian, searing, tangle, 3bc and sorrowdusk leave you 70k short of lvl 7 - which is what is needed for restless isles and ataraxia.

[Leyoni]

AFAIK you cannot do Korthos explorers w/o having done the initial 4 Korthos quests.

Edit: took out the word "some".

[binnsr]

AFAIK you cannot do Korthos explorers w/o having done some the initial 4 Korthos quests.

That would be correct, sir.

[Lorien_the_First_One]

AFAIK you cannot do Korthos explorers w/o having done some the initial 4 Korthos quests.

Not true if you skip the tutorial

[Logicman69]

Hmm you will have to find 70k from somewhere.
Korthos, ww, cerulian, searing, tangle, 3bc and sorrowdusk leave you 70k short of lvl 7 - which is what is needed for restless isles and ataraxia.

Interesting... I did a quick look at the overal, but not individual levels. Hmmmm.....

Maybe back to thew drawing board?

[Runningaway]

Interesting... I did a quick look at the overal, but not individual levels. Hmmmm.....

Maybe back to thew drawing board?

Depends how flexible you are...

I'm pretty sure after level 7 you shouldn't have any problems capping yourself

[Cuth]

2 Paladin / 14 Sorc

The Pally will get you thru the lowbie explorers and the Sorc will get you thru the higher ones. I'd go WF as well.

[Greydeath]

2 Paladin / 14 Sorc

If you want to start now that would be pretty good. Pal3 would be nice for the Fear Immunity as well. Perhaps Monk/Rogue for Evasion? ...but starting to give up significant casting ability.

Another option would be to consider Favored Soul and look to go all the way to 20!

[Logicman69]

If you want to start now that would be pretty good. Pal3 would be nice for the Fear Immunity as well. Perhaps Monk/Rogue for Evasion? ...but starting to give up significant casting ability.

Another option would be to consider Favored Soul and look to go all the way to 20!

Yeah. With a monk splash character I would be giving up alot in the way of casting ability. What about a Monk/Cleric speced as a battle cleric? My Pure Cleric does decent in the explorers. Having Greater Command would go a long way.

[Logicman69]

2 Paladin / 14 Sorc

The Pally will get you thru the lowbie explorers and the Sorc will get you thru the higher ones. I'd go WF as well.

I was thinking about the WF sorc route. Though I have to admit I did try playing a WF sorc once and did not like it. It would be powerfull at higher levels, but I think getting there would be a bear.

[78mackson]

2 Paladin / 14 Sorc

The Pally will get you thru the lowbie explorers and the Sorc will get you thru the higher ones. I'd go WF as well.

or...Just make it pure WF-sorc, with high strenght, dont really need that high cha to be a nuker-sorc anyway... as a reference; if you can twink you will get 80% of the kills in an ordinary pug(like delera Q) just using melee with a build like that.. at higher lvl you will dominate the explorer areas just using fireballs, til your FW grows strong

[binnsr]

or...Just make it pure WF-sorc, with high strenght, dont really need that high cha to be a nuker-sorc anyway... as a reference; if you can twink you will get 80% of the kills in an ordinary pug(like delera Q) just using melee with a build like that.. at higher lvl you will dominate the explorer areas just using fireballs, til your FW grows strong

the other plus to this is that since you're not worrying about re-entry penalties, you can blast out, recall to town for a quick drink at the tavern, then come back for more magical mayhem..

[Logicman69]

All great points. Thanks for the feedback. I'm going to try to go with a Ranger/Monk combo for this one (been dying to try this anyway). Dex based Tempest (got some lowlevel rapiers sitting in the bank on another toon). AP points into balance (to avoid any knockdown) and sneak skills.

Going to start this tonight. I'll post my progress as I go.

[Pwesiela]

I started doing this with my ranger/fighter/wizard character. It went really well, especially after I convinced a guildie to join me for a while. However, you are going to have to do some quest between level 6 and 7, as was stated earlier. You fall short of the level required to enter into Ataraxia's Haven (which is tough for a lower level character solo, I might add). I merely did the fewest quests possible to get the required xp (the pit and gwylans got me there).

If you can't do your own resists, you may also want to think about running TR on elite. You can still get the favor without getting the XP if you have a high level firend run you through while "power leveling" you. That way, you can still truthfully say that you got all your leveling xp from explorer zones (minus what's needed to hit 7).

Oh, and after I got to level 12, I decided that it was too much of a solo grind to continue and I broke down and started doing quests with him... I'm weak, I know.

[shores11]

2 Paladin / 14 Sorc

The Pally will get you thru the lowbie explorers and the Sorc will get you thru the higher ones. I'd go WF as well.

Of course WF thats the vanilla recommendation from everyone is. The race does not matter one bit however a 14 wizard/2 fighter or 14 sorcerer/2 paladin would be good. Another class that might be good would be a pure cleric or some combination of that as long as you maximize your blade barrier.

[Kerrn_Siff]

This is the most exciting thing I've read about in DDO in a while and I'm actually going to login and try this for the first time in weeks.

That's really freaking pathetic.

EDIT: and no twinking