F2P guide for new players who want everything but don't want to pay.

[Kharnivor]

<EDIT> As this discussion progressed, I discovered that the TP reward does not reset when you delete your toons. I will still leave the original post intact, but the realistic TP per hour seems to be 25, or just a little higher, maybe 30. My new goal is to fast-farm 1495 TP for 32 point builds.

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Okay I want to start a thread here on a subject that has been discussed to death. Sound like fun? What I intend to do different from other discussions I've read is to keep posting updates to how (un)successful my plan is.

Quick background: I've played lots of other MMOs to death, including running a wildly successful WoW guild for years. A couple months ago i started playing DDO when i wanted a break from WoW, and I got hooked. I have never played a character past level 11 in DDO. I HAVE played every class at least to level 8. I have done a LOT of reading in these forums and elsewhere to try to educate myself on game mechanics etc.


The Issue:
Tons of people ask about the fastest way to get everything unlocked and maximize their characters without spending any cash. Typically, this question receives scorn (i.e. "That's not the way the game should be played") or vague answers that only a veteran of the game will comprehend. So, I'm in a good position to start this thread from a different perspective. I am going to do exactly this over the next 2-3 weeks. Farm 5000 turbine points 100% F2P and report on how the whole thing goes. Hopefully I'll get some feedback from you folks as I go along and together we can create a comprehensive guide to grinding up accounts from noob to stacked.


For New Players:
My suggestion, before thinking about doing this, is level a couple characters to at least 8. These are throw-away characters whose main purpose is to help learn the game. Once you have a feel for the starting areas it doesn't take long to level to 6 or 8. The easiest way to learn the basics is to roll a Dwarf Fighter with STR 18 DEX 12 CON 16. Take 2 Hand Fighting and Power Attack as your level 1 feats. From there it almost doesn't matter what you do, you will be able to effortlessly solo almost everything (with a cleric hireling) up to level 6 quests. Fast forward a week or two and you're itching to unlock all those juicy Turbine Point rewards. **IMPORTANT NOTE** when you are leveling these throw-away characters, level each one a different server. This is important!! Each quest you complete earns you 'favor', and on each server, the first character you get to 100 total favor gets a bonus of 100 Turbine Points. So by the time you've experimented with a few characters on a few servers you will already have a few hundred Turbine Points saved up.


Okay, up to this point I'm pretty sure everyone is with me. But, this is where my plan goes drastically different from similar plans that I've read about.


The goal now is 5235 Turbine Points. This will get you:
250 Points = Catacombs (I know you're shaking your head at this, but hear me out)
995 Points = Veteran Status (start new characters at level 4 on all servers)
1495 Points = 32 Point Builds (increase my killing power, eh?)
2495 Points = +2 All Stats Tome (I'll discuss this below)

I believe I can get all this solo in about 60 hours of gameplay. It is a lot of time, but in the next couple weeks I have nothing but free time, so why not? Realistically, in the world of MMO's, 60 hours isnt that long. I have bank toons in WoW with over 60 hours logged just standing at the AH and mailbox.


Here's the quick outline of my plan:
Step 1 - Experiment with characters on your first account (we'll call this ACCT1). Save up 250 turbine points. Buy Catacombs. Get a fighter leveled up to at least level 6. Complete Catacombs on Hard. Loot one of the Ghost Touch weapons at the end of Catacombs (or buy one on AH) so you can trounce the last boss on Elite. Have fun.
Step 2 - Create a new account (we'll call this ACCT2). Experiment with a couple characters, save up 250 turbine points, buy Catacombs. ACCT2 is the one you will be keeping and earning Turbine Points for. Delete any ACCT2 characters from the server where your ACCT1 fighter is. Have Fun, because from here on out there is no more fun to be had.
Step 3 - "Dual Box" (play 2 characters at once). This means either running DDO twice on your computer (easily done) or have a laptop and a desktop (like me). Below I will attach Dual Boxing instructions.
Step 4 - Roll a level 1 (any class) on ACCT2. Have your fighter from ACCT1 meet you in Korthos (the starting area). Just leave your level 1 at the door of each quest, complete the quests as fast as you can withyour fighter from ACCT1 and a cleric hireling to keep it quick and smooth. Run these quests on Elite: Heyton's Rest, Storehouse's Secret, Cannith Crystal, Collaborator. This will give 30 favor. Head to the harbor. Do Haverdasher elite, 6 favor. Run Catacombs on elite. You will receive 66 favor. Once you really have it down, you can do Catacombs solo in about 30 minutes. Favor total 30+6+66=102. Receive your instant bonus of 100 turbine points.
Step 5 - Delete the level 1 character from ACCT2. As long as you have no characters on the server, every time you roll a new character you are eligible for the 100 Turbine Point reward again.
Step 6 - Repeat steps 4 to 6. Fifty times.

Dual Boxing Link:
http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=233077

Total time per 100 favor roughly one hour. Will be slower when you first start, but once you get a rhythm down might get that down to 50 minutes. Other similar guides I've read require groups to work together for similar farming speed. Where are you going to find a group to commit to 50-60 hours of grinding on the same schedule? Not going to happen. This way you can do it all solo. I reserve the right to rescind my time estimate at a later date.

If you have free time on the weekends, and can sit and play for long stretches, I think this is doable in 2 dedicated weekends with sporadic playing during the evenings in between.

I don't know for sure that Catacombs is the right way to go. It's possible that the 66 favor could be earned faster in the Harbor. But, Catacombs is pretty **** fast. Fighter with Blunt 2-hander and a cleric hireling can blast through it almost at running speed.


Note for new players on the +2 All Stats Tome
This tome is expensive. DO NOT even purchase it until you have a build you are sure you really want to play. Then start that build over again and use the tome before level 3 to get maximum benefit. When you finally reach level 20 you have the option to Reincarnate, start over at level 1 but stronger faster taller meaner. Your +2 All Stats Tome will carry over to the new incarnation, so this is an extremely important and valuable investment in your character's future. Do not use this on a 28 point character. Once you have 32 point builds and a +2 All Stats Tome, you are ready to rock'n'roll.

A lot of people will say "Its not worth it, you could just buy the points for $65 (approx)." If thats you, great! Go for it! But, there are a LOT of players who can't afford it or choose not to (like me!). Hopefully this will outline a specific plan with a realistic timeline. The 'realism' of my proposed timeline has not yet been validated, that info will follow.

So, over the next few days I am going to level a fighter on a separate account and on Monday I will start my plan from Step 4. I'll keep updating as I go. If anyone thinks they know a better/faster way to 5000 turbine points, please share!

Cheers!

Kharnivor

[Drona]

Ya

Lets all play like this and maybe Government of USA will bail out Turbine, just like they did for the banks!

/not signed

-5

[Kharnivor]

Ya

Lets all play like this and maybe Government of USA will bail out Turbine, just like they did for the banks!

/not signed

-5

Like I said: "...often met with scorn..."
Thank you for your opinion, however it does not dismiss the fact that many players are looking for this information. I intend to provide it.

[Irinis]

The goal now is 5235 Turbine Points. This will get you:
250 Points = Catacombs (I know you're shaking your head at this, but hear me out)
995 Points = Veteran Status (start new characters at level 4 on all servers)
1495 Points = 32 Point Builds (increase my killing power, eh?)
2495 Points = +2 All Stats Tome (I'll discuss this below)

You can get 102 favor from free quests, no need to buy Catacombs on the farming account.

Vet status and 32point builds are awesome. Some people buy adventure packs first, I bought these first on my second account. (My first account I put real money into, and it has a lot of packs, so my second account is a little personal challenge to stay mostly free to play.) I actually regret buying them first because now I have awesome characters on my second account that I can't take into very many adventures or gear up adequately because I don't have the adventure packs. However, vet status can be really useful for favor farming on new servers.

You do not need a +2 tome of all from the store on any character before buying Vale of Twilight, period. You can buy single stat +2 tomes on the AH for plat. Most builds don't need tomes, it only slightly improves a 32pt.

The best favor farming characters at level 4, hands-down, are vet status battlebards with high str and con, master's touch spell, a good greataxe, and invisibility. I know other people who swear by battleclerics, but they do a slightly longer quest list.

[BossOfEarth]

I am going to do exactly this over the next 2-3 weeks. Farm 5000 turbine points 100% F2P and report on how the whole thing goes. Hopefully I'll get some feedback from you folks as I go along and together we can create a comprehensive guide to grinding up accounts from noob to stacked.

That's an impressive speed to farm 5k TP. I've been playing totaly f2p for a year. I've amassed 'only' 4490 worth of TP (I say 'worth' because I leveraged my TP by shopping sales for the last year, I'm sure I earned less than 80% of that in actual TP.)

I've gained most of my TP from server sweeping upto about 500 Favor per server. Now that I've unlocked vet status I farm lowby quests on Orien. I don't duel box so I just tag along with whoever is running Elite in my level range and it works well for me. I don't always have a big enough chunk of time to devote to endgame quests, but there are alot of quick and fun lowby quests.

By the way, are you sure that you get the bonus 100 TP each time? That bonus does not reset when I deleted all characters from a server.

[Kharnivor]

You can get 102 favor from free quests, no need to buy Catacombs on the farming account.

Ya, I know it isn't required, my theory is that it may be faster than farming favor in the harbor. In the first round of farming it may not make up the difference, but in a few weeks I'll be back to farming again to buy Gianthold and then again a week later for the next mission pack. So, in the long run, i think it will be a good investment. As i said, this is just a theory. I will prove myself wrong or right next week.

You do not need a +2 tome of all from the store on any character before buying Vale of Twilight, period. You can buy single stat +2 tomes on the AH for plat. Most builds don't need tomes, it only slightly improves a 32pt.

I'm curious for more info on this. Of course real F2P accounts can only have one auction, so Plat is extremely limited. Personally I want the +2 INT tome as a minimum from level 1, the rest can wait, but I would really, really, really have a lot of fun getting the tome and seeing the results through mid levels. For me, it is worth it. For others, perhaps not.

[BossOfEarth]

The best favor farming characters at level 4, hands-down, are vet status battlebards with high str and con, master's touch spell, a good greataxe, and invisibility. I know other people who swear by battleclerics, but they do a slightly longer quest list.

I hadn't thought of invisibility. I've been going with Barbarians for 10% runspeed + Enhancement: sprint.

[Kharnivor]

By the way, are you sure that you get the bonus 100 TP each time? That bonus does not reset when I deleted all characters from a server.

Well, no, I guess I'm not sure. I've read it in several places in other people's discussions of this subject, but I can't say that I have already done it and confirmed the repeat TP bonus.

Maybe I've been reading out of date info and this is no longer a viable TP farming solution, making this whole thread moot. I won't have time to experiment until Monday so I'll let you know.

[Cenerae]

Well, no, I guess I'm not sure. I've read it in several places in other people's discussions of this subject, but I can't say that I have already done it and confirmed the repeat TP bonus.

Maybe I've been reading out of date info and this is no longer a viable TP farming solution, making this whole thread moot. I won't have time to experiment until Monday so I'll let you know.

I was under the impression that it only counted for your very first 100 favor earned on that server, but you get 25 points for 100 favor under usual conditions, hence the 100 favor drive in the first place.

[Kharnivor]

I meant to address this in the original post.

Traditional wisdom says: Buy mission packs, you can unlock 32 points and veteran for free.

I say: Spending the TP on 32 points and veteran unlocks on all servers. Getting them from favor only unlocks on one server. Whats faster, 2500 TP or 1750 favor on every server?

I'm not saying it's right for everyone, many players will prefer to buy the mission packs first. I've already bought a few. However, I personally enjoy some farming and would rather spend a week or two farming than spend weeks or months working on a character that isn't maxed out for stats. I know that it isn't necessary to have the stats so maxed out. It is what I prefer. It's the way that I, personally, will most enjoy the game. Therefor it is exactly the correct way for me to go about spending my TP. Other people will feel the same way, this thread is for them.

[dunklezhan]

yeah sorry Kharnivor - the 100 favour server first reward doesnt' reset if you delete all your toons. Its once only.

[dunklezhan]

I meant to address this in the original post.

Traditional wisdom says: Buy mission packs, you can unlock 32 points and veteran for free.

I say: Spending the TP on 32 points and veteran unlocks on all servers. Getting them from favor only unlocks on one server. Whats faster, 2500 TP or 1750 favor on every server?

I'm not saying it's right for everyone, many players will prefer to buy the mission packs first. I've already bought a few. However, I personally enjoy some farming and would rather spend a week or two farming than spend weeks or months working on a character that isn't maxed out for stats. I know that it isn't necessary to have the stats so maxed out. It is what I prefer. It's the way that I, personally, will most enjoy the game. Therefor it is exactly the correct way for me to go about spending my TP. Other people will feel the same way, this thread is for them.

I agree with you on this - my highest level favour toon is only just over 1000 as of last week (unlocking vet). After a year. And I have bought every adventure pack except the two top level ones because, well, its taken me a year to get this far, its going to be quite some time before I get anywhere near L20!

I know I play a lot slower than most people, but on top of that I don't care for repeating quests over and over in order to do them on hard/elite (fine if I've got an opener, but if not, its just a grind).

There is an argument that says if you can get to the 1000 favour mark with a 28 point toon, you'll learn more because its harder. That's absolutely a fair point. But if you want to grind favour... well its just going to be faster with a slightly tougher character.

Or, if like me you're just impatient and would rather drop the cash, even though you aren't grinding favour or trying to do anything particularly fast... well that works too!

Having said that though - if you want to grind favour really fast after U7, you're better off subscribing with ACCT1 for a month for 15 bucks, because you'll be able to open everything on elite straight away so you can grind ACCT2's favour that much faster. Makes a bit of a mockery of staying pure F2P, I'm just saying it would be faster - you certainly might grind more favour than $15 would buy you, which is, technically, profit.

[Farayon]

Personally I want the +2 INT tome as a minimum from level 1, the rest can wait, but I would really, really, really have a lot of fun getting the tome and seeing the results through mid levels.

+2 tomes are ML:7

[Kharnivor]

+2 tomes are ML:7

I don't think that is quite right.

You can eat a +4 tome at level 1. You will receive the bonus as you level, automatically. At level 3 +1, level 7 +2 etc.

[Kharnivor]

What got me onto this in the first place is the fact that I've been trying to buy Turbine Points on my credit card for a month. Something is going wrong with the online transaction, I use the credit card every day, there's nothing wrong with the card. I've opened 3 tickets and have gotten no response. So, since I want to play but they won't let me pay, I need another solution.

yeah sorry Kharnivor - the 100 favour server first reward doesnt' reset if you delete all your toons. Its once only.

Yeah, I've been looking all over to try to confirm this.
So, my new goal is 32 point builds and try to buy a +2 INT tome with Plat, since I have a few level 9-10 toons I can make some money with.

32 Point Build 1495 favor @ 25 per hour = 59 hours
The same amount of time I had hoped would yield my whole wish list.

Thats OK, I'm still going to go ahead with it, and keep posting here so others know how it went for me and if it's worth repeating.

Cheers!

[Kharnivor]

Ya so, I gave it 7 hours that I wish I had back.

In 7 hours, aiming for 175 favor, I earned an unimpressive 125.

My conclusion, you would be better off collecting refundable bottles from ditches, they would earn the money to buy the turbine points faster than farming. You can farm up your first one thousand favor very easily, after that, new players, either buy some points or be prepared to wait a long, long time for enough points to buy large, meaningful account additions.

Cheers!

[Mackem]

I don't think that is quite right.

You can eat a +4 tome at level 1. You will receive the bonus as you level, automatically. At level 3 +1, level 7 +2 etc.

You can't.

[Faerbaste]

Ya so, I gave it 7 hours that I wish I had back.

In 7 hours, aiming for 175 favor, I earned an unimpressive 125.

My conclusion, you would be better off collecting refundable bottles from ditches, they would earn the money to buy the turbine points faster than farming. You can farm up your first one thousand favor very easily, after that, new players, either buy some points or be prepared to wait a long, long time for enough points to buy large, meaningful account additions.

Cheers!

Well having just successfully completed a 3 week favour farming project to earn enough TP to buy Gianthold to get my level 12/13 characters closer to end-game I must say I disagree with you and don't think much of your determination.

I DO agree with the spirit of your original post, it IS possible to unlock this game for free - but its not fast or easy. It does require the investment of a lot of time and effort. However, if you think about it, why would Turbine make it fast and easy? If they did then everyone would do it that way, no one would pay anything at the DDO Store or in subscribing to save time and "cut corners" and Turbine's revenue would plummet leading to a business failure.

Yes, its a grind that does get pretty boring, but it IS possible, IF you have the determination to stick with it. You should set yourself more achievable goals and take things one step at a time, that way you will be encouraged by the completion of these "mini-goals" instead of aiming for the top from day one and making such a small dent in your target figure after one session that you become discouraged and give up.

So to all the free-to-play people out there I would say "go for it", just don't expect to do it in 5 minutes with no effort. Take things 1 step at a time with achevable and realistic goals.

[Lithic]

I am going to do exactly this over the next 2-3 weeks. Farm 5000 turbine points 100% F2P and report on how the whole thing goes.

I got to the above line and died of boredom. Fortunately I had recently consumed my wife's engagement ring to cast Death pact.

I'll have to find another large diamond before she sees what I did to her ring though...



Edit: Btw, if you are going to dual box to farm favor, why not do it with a lvl 8+ sorc? Firewall makes everything lvl 12 or less way way faster, plus you'll have haste and invisibility and fireball.

[Faerbaste]

I got to the above line and died of boredom. Fortunately I had recently consumed my wife's engagement ring to cast Death pact.

I'll have to find another large diamond before she sees what I did to her ring though...



Edit: Btw, if you are going to dual box to farm favor, why not do it with a lvl 8+ sorc? Firewall makes everything lvl 12 or less way way faster, plus you'll have haste and invisibility and fireball.

lol, yeah, well I must admit I got about that far into it as well, I disagree with most of the specific advice he gave and the targets he set were just crazy-talk, BUT as I said, I do agree with the spirit of the post.

As for quick-er results, personally, i stuck to low level stuff level 4 and below since there was far less chance of quest failure and therefore wasted time. I did a small number of quests a LOT of times in order to get my TP, it was boring, but it worked.

Now I have achieved my immediate goal of getting Gianthold, I can stop favour-farming for a good long while while I play it and will only have to go back to the grind when I want to get the next thing on my wish-list.

hmmm, maybe I should write my own "how to" guide