stuck in the mid-level crisis

[Baloran]

Hi, I stumbled across ddo shortly after it went free-2-play and as an old time d&d player I instantly liked the game. I went VIP shortly afterwards. I play roughly an hour almost every weekday between work and dinner. Since I also have to take care of my kids (2 and 4 years old) in this time, I rarely group but solo most content (ususally on normal) with a hireling. Once or twice a week I play 2-3 hours after the kids went to bed, in this time I prefer to play with a PUG, running harder content chain quests.

Its fun and it works well, until I hit lvl 8-10. In this level range, the fun slowly fades for me. I think there are several reasons:

- it takes much more time to level up

- an additional level does not make as much difference (at least on non caster types) as on lower level toons

- there is no interesting/rewarding chain quest in this level region

- less PUG to group with

- soloing new content (lvl 9+ quests) I often die in the quest, because there is a special enemy which requires you to bring some special weapons to hurt him at all (flesh golems...), requiring you to search the forums which weapon to use, hunt down that weapon in the ah, pay a lot of money, carry another weapon set with you which you only need for some foes and in the end you get 2000 xp and a shortsword +3...

This happens twice or three times and I roll a new toon (so much combinations I didnt try yet), go back to the harbour, hit WW, STK, Tangleroot, Deleras, Co6 and I have fun again.

So I'm asking myself: Is it just me, or do other people (especially the new ones) feel the same?

Is it just a boring level range and it gets better, or is the game starting to get serious work at that level (just reading about 60+ shroud runs makes me shiver)?

What are the quest in the level range 8-12 you should run, because they are fun, doable on normal difficulty with normal gear and have some nice rewards (xp/loot)?

Is it worth to take a toon to higher levels, considering I my play style (see start of post)?

Any suggestions/discussion welcome!

[Xeraphim]

LFM. Use it.


Also, Necropolis and House J quests. Levels 8-13 for me are the Undead Quest Series levels.


Another note: Don't wait on a full group. Just do it.

[Trillea]

So I'm asking myself: Is it just me, or do other people (especially the new ones) feel the same?
Many do, leveling in this range is not that fun, especially since they got rid of the XP bonus for doing quests below level.

Is it just a boring level range and it gets better, or is the game starting to get serious work at that level (just reading about 60+ shroud runs makes me shiver)?
It is a fairly boring level range for many. But since you are VIP you have some good choices - see next comment. Level 12 and up is where the game really starts taking off, the Vale quests, and after that the Amrath quests are all fun!

What are the quest in the level range 8-12 you should run, because they are fun, doable on normal difficulty with normal gear and have some nice rewards (xp/loot)?
If you haven't done it yet, do Delera's on elite, Stormcleave N/H/E, Greymoon and Co6 elite, maybe Threnal to get your cape (or Retribution), Shadow Crypt as many times as you can stand, and then move on to the desert.

Is it worth to take a toon to higher levels, considering I my play style (see start of post)?
Absolutely, and some of the loot you get in the higher levels will make outfitting those lower level characters that much easier!

Any suggestions/discussion welcome!

Hope my responses are helpful!

[Baloran]

LFM. Use it.

I sometimes do use the group panel to run a quest I can lead (like WW, STK, Tangleroot). I am hesitant to use it to run a quest I never did before, bc I always assumed that the guy who puts up a LFM should know the quest. So I try to solo a quest on normal and the put up a LFM to do it on hard.

Perhaps I should use LFM and write: "Come do the quest with me, I never did it before..." Wonder if I will get any people in my group...

Hope my responses are helpful!

Yeah, thank you very much. It is nice to know I#m not alone with my impression that this level range is not that fun. Good to know that there is better content coming after that range.

If you haven't done it yet, do Delera's on elite, Stormcleave N/H/E, Greymoon and Co6 elite, maybe Threnal to get your cape (or Retribution), Shadow Crypt as many times as you can stand, and then move on to the desert.

I like Deleras, Greymoon, Co6, Stormcleave. Threnal is where I got stuck soloing, bc I couldn't defeat the flesh golems (on normal). I did one (east or west, the one with the flesh renderers, but the end reward was uninteresting). I never did the shadow crypt (I generally don't like undead quests, just running deleras bc its great xp and great loot).

But I guess I will have to level with the house J and Necropolis undead quest series, if I want to get past level 12...

Any other suggestions?

[Trillea]

I sometimes do use the group panel to run a quest I can lead (like WW, STK, Tangleroot). I am hesitant to use it to run a quest I never did before, bc I always assumed that the guy who puts up a LFM should know the quest. So I try to solo a quest on normal and the put up a LFM to do it on hard.

Perhaps I should use LFM and write: "Come do the quest with me, I never did it before..." Wonder if I will get any people in my group...
You will, usually with helpful vets that will at least show you a couple shortcuts or whatever.




Yeah, thank you very much. It is nice to know I#m not alone with my impression that this level range is not that fun. Good to know that there is better content coming after that range.
Absolutely. I love the Vale quests! Amrath can be tough but fun too!


I like Deleras, Greymoon, Co6, Stormcleave. Threnal is where I got stuck soloing, bc I couldn't defeat the flesh golems (on normal). I did one (east or west, the one with the flesh renderers, but the end reward was uninteresting). I never did the shadow crypt (I generally don't like undead quests, just running deleras bc its great xp and great loot).
Do you mean the clay golems? (big brown and ugly?) They can be a pain because of their DR - your weapon has to be both blunt AND adamantine. That anti-healing curse can stink too...

But I guess I will have to level with the house J and Necropolis undead quest series, if I want to get past level 12...
If you are already 12, the desert will be your best bet for leveling quickly, but Gianthold will also give good XP and get you Reaver ready for some good loot. Unless you have a really good build tho and some decent loot, soloing GH won't be easy however.

Any other suggestions?

See above!!

[Baloran]

Do you mean the clay golems? (big brown and ugly?) They can be a pain because of their DR - your weapon has to be both blunt AND adamantine. That anti-healing curse can stink too...

Yeah, I mean the clay golems. using a dex-based TWF build (rouge/bard/fighter) I only could get a few points through the DR, and since I got cursed, I couldn't heal myself and therefore I couldn't get them down before I ran out of hitpoints ...

I then looked up the forums and noticed I need adamantine and blunt. That when my frustration started, I mean should I really have a special weapon for every enemy? Like chaotic and piercing for an other type of enemy? And do I have to memorize every enemy in the game, carry a special weapon for every enemy in the game (or two, since TWF) and keep on switching weapons on the fly in every fight?

I mean on normal, it should be possible to do on-level quests with standart on-level equipment. Or like deleras, you should get a weapon which can work in the quest (like the club of the holy flame for the ghostly sceletons).

Just if you think of delera: I carry blunt/holy, slashing/holy and ghost touch. But one holy wepaon is enough to get through the quest on normal, since the DR is not that high.

And its not only the Therenal quest, I recently PUGed in a lvl 11 quest, where you had to fight Marut. No melee in the group could do serious damage to this thing.

So how is it in later levels?

[Danmor]

I usually carry around some kind of metalline blunt weapon for those cases. Pretty useful against skellies as well.
If you can get a blunt metalline of pure good weapon you're set for most stuff.

I am aware that those are rare, but you should be able to pick up some cheap metalline weapons at a broker. These can be used against a variety of mobs that have some kind of metal DR.
In my experience you can bypass nearly every DR just by carrying two sets of metalline of pg weapons (blunt/slashing or blunt/piercing)

edit: marut you need anarchic weapons iirc.
I usually google monster DR DDO and get a page that lists mobs and their DR.
forum thread
ddo wiki page

[Trillea]

Yeah, I mean the clay golems. using a dex-based TWF build (rouge/bard/fighter) I only could get a few points through the DR, and since I got cursed, I couldn't heal myself and therefore I couldn't get them down before I ran out of hitpoints ...

I then looked up the forums and noticed I need adamantine and blunt. That when my frustration started, I mean should I really have a special weapon for every enemy? Like chaotic and piercing for an other type of enemy? And do I have to memorize every enemy in the game, carry a special weapon for every enemy in the game (or two, since TWF) and keep on switching weapons on the fly in every fight?

I mean on normal, it should be possible to do on-level quests with standart on-level equipment. Or like deleras, you should get a weapon which can work in the quest (like the club of the holy flame for the ghostly sceletons).

Just if you think of delera: I carry blunt/holy, slashing/holy and ghost touch. But one holy wepaon is enough to get through the quest on normal, since the DR is not that high.

And its not only the Therenal quest, I recently PUGed in a lvl 11 quest, where you had to fight Marut. No melee in the group could do serious damage to this thing.

So how is it in later levels?

The problem is various types/amounts of DR is one of the main ways that the Devs keep this game from being too easy. We used to have 1 weapon that passed all types of DR in the game except /- DR. They quickly figured out that this was WAY too powerful, and nerfed the property Transmuting, and we now have Metalline in its wake.

Now I know that this can be frustrating to someone new that doesn't have a lot of money/loot, but there are a few things that you should keep an eye out for in reward lists:

Metalline (preferably bludgeoning) weapon of pure good - beats DR of demons and devils
Holy (burst) of cold iron/cold iron of pure good - beats demon DR
Holy (burst) of silver/silver of pure good - beats devil and vampire DR
Metalline (preferably bludgeoning) weapon of flametouched iron - beats both demon and devil
Holy/pure good bludgeoning weapon - undead skelly beater, Sor'Jek beater
Bludgeoning adamantine weapons - golem beater, but only clay golems HAVE to be bludgeon, so keep an eye out for any adamantine weaps. I believe the named staff in Threnal is adamantine, so you may want to finish that chain with a pug.

Sun Blades (great undead whackers)

[PurdueDave]

Perhaps I should use LFM and write: "Come do the quest with me, I never did it before..." Wonder if I will get any people in my group...

You might be surprised. I guarantee there are a lot of new players in the same boat.

[7-day_Trial_Monkey]

I like to use the message: "Never done it.. should be fun!" in the LFM. I never hesitate to lead a group into a quest I don't know.