Elite.

[KylarJ]

As a monk, I can solo a lot of quests at my level on normal, and often on hard too.

However, if I attempt a quest on elite several levels below me, I often get crucified.

Elite is supposed to be two levels higher than base. It plays more like 5.

I know it's supposed to be difficult, but really, isn't it slightly over-done?

(I also know this hasn't been changed in years, so why will it now....)

[Kaervas]

It's only 2 levels higher than base for the purpose of treasure chest level.

[redraider]

The big difference you are seeing is also a feature of dungeon scaling. Soloing on Norm means a big drop in hps and toughness of mobs. Hard a little less so. Elite, I'm not sure it scales at all, so you have the 2 lvls up plus the lack of scaling back = a lot lot of difference.

[Junts]

A big part of it is that you are soloing:

Elite difficulty does not scale for the number of players in the party. While you may be able to solo the quest on hard, you probably would struggle to do so with 5 people standing at the entrance pushing up the scaling. So jumping to elite is a big jump.

And yes, elite is only +2 for treasure/exp purposes, it is +5 or more for mob HD improvements. (in lv 20 quests on elite, the mobs often go up in CR by 7-10 each).

[Angelus_dead]

Elite is supposed to be two levels higher than base.

Wrong. Elite is supposed to be +5 levels in difficulty over normal mode (for quests of level 1 to about 14).

Sounds like your report of the behavior is exactly correct. If there's a problem here, it's that the checkboxes to set the difficulty mode are insufficiently informative as to what they do.

[KylarJ]

If there's a problem here, it's that the checkboxes to set the difficulty mode are insufficiently informative as to what they do.

That one.

This is a common complaint I hear...perhaps a bit more readily available info on this would be helpful.

Thanks for the replies.

[Shade]

The idea that elite is XX levels over normal is ludicrous. That's was never the intent.

It's a difficulty setting, not a dungeon level scaling mode.

DDO offers increased difficulty in terms of putting actual player skill to the test much like any action game would do. It doesn't assume you have +5 levels, all quests are very doable at the given base lvl of the quest. Infact in many you were forced to do as the games lvl cap used to be as low as 10, and lvl10s back in the day did lvl10 elite quests just fine.

A level20 could get wrecked in a lvl5 quest on elite and turbine wouldn't think there was anything wrong with it. Because there isn't. Level does not equal player ability.

Take the black abbot for example. This raid features one of the hardest bosses in the game, and much better rewards if you run it on elite (1/4 chance at raid loot instead of 1/6) .. So do they make the bosses stats higher for elite? No he remains exactly the same as normal.

What gets harder? The part of the raid that tests the actual players abilities - the puzzles. People that could not beat the black abbot when the cap was 14, don't nessasarily have any chance at it when they hit lvl20 either.

Thats the intent of difficulty. To make it more difficult for the PLAYER.

Not the character.

So saying anything like Its +1 lvl or +5 lvls , or +1000 lvls. Is not even close to accurate.

It's elite. It's meant to be difficult. It's infact meant to be pretty much near-impossible for any solo players. The ones that can do it don't need +5 levels or the most exceptional stats to do so, just skill and knowledge of the game.

[Anneliese]

DDO does not give a XP-penalty unless you are 2 levels over the questlevel. So if you are level 5 and run a level 4 quest on normal, you get max XP.

To give a "rough" guide:

As a monk, you can usually do normal quests on your level, so you can do a level 4 quest at level 4.

For hard, I would wait until you are one higher, so a 4 quest on hard -> wait till 6.

For a level 4 quest on elite, I would either wait until level 8 (only -10%xp compared to level 1-7) or get a group going.

Of course you can do them earlier if you are twinked or know the quest well, but thats what I would recommend for a new player as a monk.

This might no longer be true at higher levels, but should work until you are level 10 or so...

[Angelus_dead]

The idea that elite is XX levels over normal is ludicrous. That's was never the intent.

That is exactly wrong.

Not only is it obviously true, the developers have said so in precisely those words.

A level20 could get wrecked in a lvl5 quest on elite and turbine wouldn't think there was anything wrong with it. Because there isn't.

This is obviously wrong too, as has been historically shown. Where do you come up with these ideas?