Playing an old account for the first time since DDO started

[Hybro]

I started playing DDO again with my old account from back when I initially pre-ordered the game. I only played DDO for several months and like many others, maxed out my main character within the first month.

I am wondering if some veterans can point me to some of the major changes that have happened since the beginning. I know some MMOs have a list of all the past update notes.

In particular all my original characters seem weak in comparison to new characters I started. For example, I have a rogue at lvl 5 that couldn't hit a **** thing, like 6 misses for every hit, even on solo and normal quests several lvls below him. I know there is no way that I got that character up to lvl 5 with that kind of hit rate when the game started. I leveled up a new rogue to 4 prior to reactivating my account just to get the hang of the game again and he was easily able to land hits with just the TWF feat. I picked up weapon finesse for my old rogue at 6 and that has helped a bit, but my lvl 4 rogue still has a way better hit rate.

Fortunately my lvl 10 cleric seems ok, but hes mostly a healbot for now.

I am just kind of stunned how gimp my old rogue feels. Looks like my only option is to use a reincarnation.

Some other questions for old account activation:

1. Do I not get tubine points for all my pre-existing favor?
2. Have they changed xp awards? I have a few lvl 1 and 2 characters that have more quests done than some of my new characters, but they are 2-3 lvls lower than the new characters. Same with my old rogue, he had all the way up past deleras tomb completed but my new rogue was lvl 4 almost 5 without leaving the harbor.
3. Was there any changes to UMD?

[Ingo]

1. Do I not get tubine points for all my pre-existing favor?

I don't believe so. I think there was a chunk awarded to returnees who resubscribed back in September.

2. Have they changed xp awards? I have a few lvl 1 and 2 characters that have more quests done than some of my new characters, but they are 2-3 lvls lower than the new characters. Same with my old rogue, he had all the way up past deleras tomb completed but my new rogue was lvl 4 almost 5 without leaving the harbor.

There's been a 20% XP bonus going on for the last week or so. That would account for some of the difference.

Quests have been toned down in some cases, and scaling was introduced for Normal and Hard levels so that the difficulty matches the group size. The Korthos quests in particular are much easier than they were years ago when they were located in the harbor area.

3. Was there any changes to UMD?

Only change I'm aware of is a recent one - if you boost your UMD with a +UMD item and/or a +Charisma item in order to equip a race restricted item, then the RR item will unequip if your boosts expire and your UMD drops. (Might not quite have that right as I don't have any chars with enough UMD to deal with it yet, but I recall some complaints along these lines after a recent update.)

I came back after a 3 year break and discovered my old Pally to be pretty gimped in the new game. One major difference is the Toughness feat. Almost every character takes Toughness now because it not only gives the 3 +1/level HP boost, but there are Toughness enhancements (+10 HP each) you can get with Action Points if you have the feat. By level 4 you can have two of these plus the feat, adding an extra 27 HP to your character.

Also each class has Prestige Enhancements that can be purchased at levels 6/12/18 (if prerequisites are met). Some of these are major improvements, and some are major at level 6 and not so much at level 18, etc.

You certainly want to review your enhancements and probably pay the fee to redo them entirely. Come to think of it, you may have had them all reset and needing to be reallocated due to an update years ago.

Have fun!

[Hybro]

Thanks for the reply. I saw that my enhancements were reset, but not my feats. Maybe I just had a gimp rogue to begin with, I dunno.

Anyone know when greater reincarnation is coming out? Would hate to splurge on a lesser and then greater comes out a week later.

[Lorien_the_First_One]

If you have 1000 favor on that l10 of yours you can talk to Nyx in the harbor and get "Vet" status. Once you get that you can start new characters at L4. If you are unhappy with your L4 & L5, the best bet might be to play that L10 until you get the 1000 favor (or even buy vet status instead of reincarnating)