Under geared and no platinum. Need advice please!

[Eladiun]

Simple answer.... The Khopesh is not a new player weapon. They are in high demand and extremely expensive. You either save them or wait till you can afford all the nice toys and buy them. They may be the best DPS in the game but that's only true if you can afford them. You would be better off with great longswords or other less prized weapons that you can get cheap than inadequate khopeshes. You need elemental bursters, holy, pure good and a numerous other situational weapons most of my melees have dozens of weapons for individual scenarios.

[diamabel]

I've been playing DDO for a little over a month and only recently went P2P. I was tired of not being able to quest with other guild members and $14.99/mo. isn't that bad to me. I started out with a rogue like every other fantasy game but just wasn't liking it as much as I thought I would. I made a couple more chars that I ended up ditching before I hit lvl5 on any of them. I ended up sticking with the Exploiter Ranger build. If you're not familiar with it, its Lawful Neutral Human 18 ranger, 1 rogue, 1 monk that uses khopeshs. So far I am loving it but recently seems like I have hit a wall.

My current lvl is 7. I have yet to add the monk splash but will do so after lvl10. Up to this point, I haven't had much of a problem. I feel like a beast with my khopeshs, +1 Axiomatic Khopesh of Righteousness and a +1 Metalline Khopesh of something and have Darkleaf (?) armor and a +5 Studded Leather waiting on me when I hit lvl8 in the bank thanks to a guild member (Am writing this at work on my phone so exact names of items escape me).

The wall I referred to earlier was when I ran Delera's Tomb for the first time. I couldn't hit a wraith or a ghostly skeleton. The group I was with was great and didn't give me flack and we still breezed through it on normal. They said I needed a weapon that had Ghost Touch. I hit the AH and spent what little plat I had on two Ghost Touch khopeshs. Ran it again with another group and still ran into a problem hitting the ghostly skeletons but I was able to hit the wraiths. ***!? That group told me I needed Ghost Touch as well, but one party member said I needed a weapon that is Holy. I went straight to the AH again and didn't come across any Holy khopeshs and House D weapon pawn shop didn't have any either. I understood in trying to make this char that finding good khopeshss would be a little difficult, but I didn't think it was gonna be like this...

I don't have the funds to get a khopesh of pure good or really a lot of other khopeshs for that matter after spending what little I did have on my current weapons. What are sure fire ways to start accumulating platinum at my level or acquire decent weapons? I can't play the AH cause I don't know the prices well enough and any collectibles or +2 items I have put on AH seem to sell at all. I want to run Delera's again in hopes of getting a feather fall ring or similar item to sell so I can get decent gear. I played WoW for a couple years so grinding out a quest to get one item doesn't bother me per say, but I'd at least like to be able to hold my own in a quest with requiring others with really great gear to constantly fight for me while I sit back and watch.

I'm not looking for a handout, just advice on what I need to be doing. I figure there are a lot of veteran players who, when rerolling or do a TR, have to start acquiring wealth again and there has to be something to gaining some wealth. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,
Poor, under-geared ranger from Sarlona

I have two questions for you. Did you run the catacombs or sharn syndicate quest chain? The catacombs may offer a silver longsword (or dagger) of ghosttouch. The sharn syndicate quest may award you with a nicked mace (which does some nice additional damage).

As a sidenote. While doing the deleras quest chain you are given a simple club that may harm those skeletons. It's not much. But better than your kopeshes at that level and vs. this monster type. ,)

Besides. Getting these mentioned weapons doesn't require you to spend any money on the auction house.

[Deathseeker]

Grey, this might be a little counter to some of the other advice, but consider it...

Plat is an issue on your first toon. Once you start hitting level 12 or so that starts to change. Your main toon will still be somewhat plat starved, but your second toon will all of a sudden become much easier to supply. You will be continuously pulling mid level weapons and gear with your higher level toon which you can send down to your lower level toons.

My main point is that the fastest way to get past being plat starved is to level your main. That means somewhat biting the bullet and not worry as much about continuously maintaining top gear on your first toon...that will be too expensive. Get him levelled and then the plat will start taking care of itself.

My advice is to get the best gear you can afford, but to focus completely on levelling. Even with moderate gear you shouldn't have a problem levelling in level appropriate quests. Once you hit the levels in the teens, you won't struggle as much with plat for any other alts you create. A high level toon will generate plenty of plat for all your other alts.

Not sure which server you are on, but if it's Thelanis and you'd like some help (plat, weapons, etc) just give me a shout (PM or in-game) and I can hook you up.

[Darkrok]

Collectibles.

Seriously...low level collectibles + auction house = as much money as a low level character could need. Vials of Pure Water, Deadly Feverblanch, Fragrant Drowshood, and many others will sell for a pretty penny on the auction house and have you set very quickly. And they all come from quests you'd be doing anyways. Just pick EVERYTHING up and you'll be set on money in no time.

[LordPiglet]

I've been playing DDO for a little over a month and only recently went P2P. I was tired of not being able to quest with other guild members and $14.99/mo. isn't that bad to me. I started out with a rogue like every other fantasy game but just wasn't liking it as much as I thought I would. I made a couple more chars that I ended up ditching before I hit lvl5 on any of them. I ended up sticking with the Exploiter Ranger build. If you're not familiar with it, its Lawful Neutral Human 18 ranger, 1 rogue, 1 monk that uses khopeshs. So far I am loving it but recently seems like I have hit a wall.

My current lvl is 7. I have yet to add the monk splash but will do so after lvl10. Up to this point, I haven't had much of a problem. I feel like a beast with my khopeshs, +1 Axiomatic Khopesh of Righteousness and a +1 Metalline Khopesh of something and have Darkleaf (?) armor and a +5 Studded Leather waiting on me when I hit lvl8 in the bank thanks to a guild member (Am writing this at work on my phone so exact names of items escape me).

The wall I referred to earlier was when I ran Delera's Tomb for the first time. I couldn't hit a wraith or a ghostly skeleton. The group I was with was great and didn't give me flack and we still breezed through it on normal. They said I needed a weapon that had Ghost Touch. I hit the AH and spent what little plat I had on two Ghost Touch khopeshs. Ran it again with another group and still ran into a problem hitting the ghostly skeletons but I was able to hit the wraiths. ***!? That group told me I needed Ghost Touch as well, but one party member said I needed a weapon that is Holy. I went straight to the AH again and didn't come across any Holy khopeshs and House D weapon pawn shop didn't have any either. I understood in trying to make this char that finding good khopeshss would be a little difficult, but I didn't think it was gonna be like this...

I don't have the funds to get a khopesh of pure good or really a lot of other khopeshs for that matter after spending what little I did have on my current weapons. What are sure fire ways to start accumulating platinum at my level or acquire decent weapons? I can't play the AH cause I don't know the prices well enough and any collectibles or +2 items I have put on AH seem to sell at all. I want to run Delera's again in hopes of getting a feather fall ring or similar item to sell so I can get decent gear. I played WoW for a couple years so grinding out a quest to get one item doesn't bother me per say, but I'd at least like to be able to hold my own in a quest with requiring others with really great gear to constantly fight for me while I sit back and watch.

I'm not looking for a handout, just advice on what I need to be doing. I figure there are a lot of veteran players who, when rerolling or do a TR, have to start acquiring wealth again and there has to be something to gaining some wealth. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,
Poor, under-geared ranger from Sarlona

I might have a couple of items laying around in my bank, send me your game name. I know I twinked out my kopesh weilder, and actually ran around with a Silver holy heavy mace of lesser vermin bane for Delera's. It's a level 6 weapon. Just look everywhere, at lots of weapons types. I bought 2 dynastic falcata's (for non-clay golems) for 20k each, my mace of smiting and metalline morning star were cheap. I spend a lot of time hunting twink gear on the AH. If you figure out what sells for good prices on the AH, try and farm up (not always easy).

You also don't want kopeshes of pure good since you can't use them until you have the 20 points of UMD. Find kopheshes of maiming, especially once you get IC slashing.

[greybucket]

I feat swapped khopeshs for bastard swords earlier today due to comparable dmg (crit is lower though). The upside is there a lot more bastard sword on the AH than khopeshs and at a much cheaper price tag!

Gonna be rolling a WF or Drow Sorcerer very soon as long as I get my hands on a good, solid detailed build. Thanks for the advice. I have not yet given up! Ha

[Frodo_Lives]

To be honest, it is the crit range that makes Khopesh a great weapon. While there is nothing wrong with Bastard swords it is generally considered to be a bit of a waste feat wise.

You will only get a minimal (less than one point on average) boost to your damage from Bastard swords over longswords which makes it rather expensive to use a feat on. Especially on a feat starved class like a ranger. Dodge, Mobility, and Spring Attack are all needed for the Tempest enhancement. Throw in IC on either Slash or Pierce, Power Attack, and Toughness you only really have one feat to spare on a non human build. Now with a monk splash you get an extra feat but still.....

As a new player I would worry about effects on the weapon rather than a weapon type. A blunt holy weapon is your best bet. Heavy mace, Warhammer or Morning star is prefered but even a light mace will do. Look for the best weapon regardless if it's the best weapon type or not and you will find that being flexable means being able to equip your character much cheaper.

[greybucket]

I am using the build by LA_MIKE for my Exploiter found here:

http://forums.ddo.com/showpost.php?p...&postcount=201

I don't know how great a build it will be when I get to 20, but it's a blast playing with it. When things get slow and I'm not able to find a group or need a change of pace, I'm looking forward to playing a Sorcerer. I put together my first ever build of one and have it up for people to rate it here (hoping I didn't screw it up too badly...):

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=247953

I apologize, i don't know the forum code to add links.

[Frodo_Lives]

That's the whole point right there though isn't it. If you are having fun playing your character go for it!

I personally am a big fan of having many many characters. A few that you concentrate on and a stable of the rest to fall back on when the LFM board is a little slow.

Don't worry about optimal, it's hardly needed in this game to min max every point possible. To some people that is the fun of it all and nothing wrong with that, but don't get too caught up in it that you stop enjoying your character because of a point or two here and there.

[alcmaeon]

From the other replies you are getting you can see there are a lot of ways to get plat in this game. As already said, getting to high level will solve most of your problems. My current favorite for fast cash and a good time killer if you are waiting on timers or for guildies—the Inspired quarter quest line as well as the island stuff in the inspired quarter. Its easy to solo with a hireling cleric, and yields high end trash weapons for you to sell. You can make 100k plat in a couple hours easily here. Just take the highest base value weapon for an end reward regardless of what it is.
But you will start getting decent trash weapons to sell in 10th level and higher quests. You don’t have to wait for access to the inspired quarter to farm easy quests with decent trash weapon value.
Also, for a future plan: if you can get a bard to high level and make him a haggle bot you will make lots of cash by having him sell all the trash weapons. My bard could outsell my 16-20 level barbarians at 5th level . It will save you money on consumables as well, my bard at 20th can buy a cure serious/rage/haste/ whatever pot for 2/3rds what my barbs can. The shared bank account makes this easy to do, just dump inventory as you quest, and later switch to the bard, empty the bank and sell.
Somebody else mentioned purple coin farming—there is always a “purple coin”. Back in the day it was +1 and +2 tomes (still is to a certain extent) large ingredients, twigs, etc. Just find out what sells and farm it.
Regarding D’s tomb, even the “holy sticks” work on the ghost skelis. Grab yours and ask somebody in the group to give you the one they are about to dump and you got 2. Go from there.
By the time you have 2-4 chars at 20th level you will have a ton of cash. Many folks don’t even bother to sell trash items at the vendors or online. They dump inventory at the bartenders. Others just hit the vendors and don’t bother with the AH- which is why you can often find “almost-uber” stuff on the vendors all of the time –smiters, vorpel d-axes with kickers, etc..