Mid-Level Crisis

[J.McIntyre]

First let me say "Happy Holidays" to my brothers and sisters of DDO.

Here's a brief background, followed by my problem / question.

I'm a veteran of MMO gaming, yet only recently stumbled upon DDO. Prior to the online options, I've done plenty of pen and paper games. So I am comfortable with the game play, and I understand the various roles within the group.

Having said that. Here's the problem I'm having, and could really use some input / advice.

I have a several chars on Cannith, ranging from 6th lvl to 12. Early levels, groups are plentiful and easy to get into. Then towards mid, I encounter such things as "Must be flagged", "Must have (such and such)", and scarcely see many grps in the mid level range as is. Also while I understand the term "Farming", DDO still has me lost on what to farm, why, and various uses of the Alter of change. (If I'm saying that correctly).

I'm also well aware of most of the community's reaction to new players. I've seen groups kick or berate a player, simply because they didn't know something .. or did something wrong. "NO! Why did you step on that platform!?!" as an example. I've been fortunate that my experiences in other games have taught me to watch and follow, and never assume.

So at mid level I kind of hit a wall. I'm VIP so all content is available to me. I do explore, and try and look things up. I do use DDOwiki as well, but I find I'm still lost with all this "being flagged", which quest to do, and such. I notice the quests early on often had Solo/Party, and indeed could be soloed. Now I'm in the range where almost every one says Party or extreme challenge Party.

Hope I'm presenting this right... but in general where most players seem to know what quests they want or need ... I'm simply floating around either soloing lower content, exploring outside areas, and jumping into whatever groups I can my level. I'm just not used to being this naive about a game's content. Others I've played were either pretty straight forward about it, easier to look up info, and seemed to have a larger amount of players that enjoyed helping newer players.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. I love the game, I'm just lost now with mid-level content. (I imagine beyond that will only present the same issue or perhaps worse).

[Bwahahaha]

Hi, my suggestion is to find a guild that will help you.

There are many that are willing to help guide a new player.

Also you might put a lfm up saying you want a guide.

Many people will go out of their way to help new players.

And as far as flagging goes, just wiki the quest chain.

Good luck and have fun...

[davidsub]

At that level, you should be doing the Sands of Menechaturn. You will find that as your level increases, the amount of content available decreases, so there is less of a problem lost at later levels, but rather repeating each quest multiple times.

Being flagged, in case you didn't know, is to have done all the pre-requiste quests in order to unlock that particular quest. For example, Zawabi's Revenge, which is a raid. In order to access this raid, you must have completed Against the Demon Queen, which in order to access that, you must have completed The Chamber of Raiyum, An Offering of Blood, and Chains of Flame. To see what quests are needed to flag for a certain quest, check the quest up on the Wiki.

If you are new to the quest, raise that up with the party leader before you join his party, to see if its acceptable. Oftentimes, they will accept you and teach you the quest, or allow you to tag along to see how it goes. Alternatively, you can also read up the quest on DDOWiki, or watch videos of them, especially the ones by MrCow, which shows each of the quests being done by him on different characters. Melee-http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=237895. Arcane-http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=226992. Divine-http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=263354. These videos are REALLY helpful to seeing how the quests are done, as well as provide a good leveling guide, at least of the bulk majority of quests.

Hope that helps,
Happy holidays!

[Culver.Civello]

Wait...patiently.

Then ride the wave.

What do I mean?

Well...I kinda noticed that these types of things come in waves on DDO. For example... When creating a specific class, like Cleric, or rogue, or some class that usually has a higher priority...it is best to wait until a certain wave comes along. I've come along to some points where your leveling and it is hard to find a cleric or rogue or even a wizard and then you go to create one and BOOM! There is suddenly tons of clerics leveling as well... xD Same thing goes on when flagging for quest. At some points you'll have people doing mainly JUST flagging, while other times..it is ridiculous to find a group to flag, because all the groups have already been flagged and are looking to flag. This of course just my own perspective on what happens. BUT... You will rarely ever be alone. If you use DDOwiki, find what quest you want to do..look at all the flagging quest to get an idea of what to expect and what you need to do and post lfms yourself looking for members, 9/10 times your not alone. Some people just don't like to take the responsibility to try and create a group. Some people might not like a leader that doesn't know what he is doing, but they are probably going to be more happy that they found something amongst the groups of "MUST BE FLAGGED"

Just a thought...

I could be just completely pulling all this out of my rear-end, but heh... Take from it what you will.

[Bobthesponge]

1) don't worry too much about being new. if you run into people who yell at you for not knowing a quest *if you declare at the beginning that you are new and don't know it* then that is their problem not yours. /squelch and move on.

2) "flagging" refers to raids that require you to complete certain quests before you can get into the raid. some of the quests also requre you to gather collectables as well to flag. the reason people put "must be flagged" on their LFMs is not to be exclusionary but because you can not even get into the quest without flagging.

3) people generally farm for rare loot or for collectables needed to craft or flag.

example of rare item farming: groups in the mendecharum desert often farm the bloodstone chests. a bloodstone is a very nice melee tricket that drops in certain rare chests in the desert so the groups will run out to the chests, check for rares, kill if there, loot, disband, reform, repeat. another common mid level farming quest is xorian cypher in house j for the planar gird (GH clickie)

example of ingredient farming: when you start running the shroud there will usually be a few people who don't finish the quest. they res out before the final altar is clicked so that they don't get completion and have to deal with the 3 day raid timer. they are farming for ingredients necessary to craft greensteel items/weapons and want to be able to run the quest over and over again.

4) mid level (lvl 8-16) is where the most quests are, IMO. you can run only 75% of them once and still level out of range. look for or set up groups for the Necro series (necro 1 is lvl 5-7, necro 2 is 9-11, necro 3 is 13-15, ect) and they give great XP and you can upgrade the silver flame trinket to let you block beholder attacks as well as other nasty things. you also have the deleras chain, teh desert quests, red fens, ect. there is a ton of stuff to do at those levels. just put up an LFM and watch the group fill.

5) have fun

[rexservorum]

Buy a motorcycle! That's how my dad handled his mid-level crisis.

Oh, wait.

Levels 6-12 have usually been tough for me to get through as well. Being VIP does help a ton, though, as does playing a class which is well equipped for soloing. Here are some areas/quests which are useful for getting through this dry spell.

- Delera's Tomb. This is good XP between about 5 and 10, and on Sarlona at least, groups for it tend to fill up fast. If you know a quest, don't be afraid to start your own group! It can be soloed, but getting the massive XP from optionals requires the ability to unlock doors and find hidden doors, along with one warm body to step on switches for you at one point.

- Sorrowdusk Island. Good XP for these levels, and there's a wilderness zone to boot for slayers.

- Necropolis 2. The last quest in this chain, Shadow Crypt, is a very popular place to farm XP. Be sure to bring your Ghost Touch weapons or Wall of Fire for this and the four quests needed to unlock it.

- Sentinels of Stormreach. Decent XP, but the quests are rather fun and can be farmed for items with the Unravelling Enchantments property. A couple of those sell for a nice amount of plat.

- Red Fens. This one comes with a wilderness zone as well. Great XP on these quests, and you will probably want to run them more than once anyway unless you get the set items you want on the first run.

- Vault of Night. You do have to "be flagged" for the raid, meaning completing the chain of four quests that comes before it, but they are pretty entertaining and good XP. VoN3 (Jungle of Khyber) is especially popular as an XP farming quest at this level because it has high base XP as well as a bunch of optionals. Although it is the third in the chain, you don't have to do parts one and two to pick up this quest.

- Ruins of Threnal. One of the best items in the game (Mantle of the Worldshaper) comes from this, and the XP is quite good as well. Dave Arneson doing the DM voice is also endlessly entertaining. Biggest problem with this is finding enough people who have the pack and are willing to stay for the entirety of the long chain.

- Sands of Menechtarun. Between the quests and the explorer area, you should be able to go from 10 to 12 just in here.

[dopey69]

even tho the quests don't say solo, most of them you can solo with a healbot hireling cleric or sometimes a hireling with firewall does the trick . i have a few high lvl toons that have yet to group with anyone . whats the worst that could happen you die and try a different tactic the next time .It is a good way to get to know the quest when soloing because most of the time people in groups are rushing. dungeon scaling has made this even easier than ever now . good luck

ps
i am not saying don't group because that can be a riot too, just don't sit around waiting go explore all the quests in your lvl, you will do fine in some and not so fine in others.You will get to know the quests making it a lot easier to form your own parties

[Kinerd]

Specifically regarding the Stone of Change, http://ddowiki.com/page/Crafting has all the information you need.

As you've noticed, towards the mid levels it becomes a lot easier to outright fail a quest by doing the wrong thing, so people are generally less willing to take risks by PUGging and prefer guild groups. A solution to this is to join a guild. I don't play on Cannith so I can't recommend any offhand, but it doesn't hurt to ask to join a guild and you can always leave later. A lot of people have been here ten times as long as you have. It just takes reps to learn these quests, in a few months you'll know VoN backwards and forwards.

Regarding the relative frequency of people being helpful, a pretty high percentage of the people don't know any more than you do and just won't admit it. In addition, like any other group of people some of the veterans here are just grumps.

[Feithlin]

even tho the quests don't say solo, most of them you can solo with a healbot hireling cleric or sometimes a hireling with firewall does the trick . i have a few high lvl toons that have yet to group with anyone . whats the worst that could happen you die and try a different tactic the next time .It is a good way to get to know the quest when soloing because most of the time people in groups are rushing. dungeon scaling has made this even easier than ever now . good luck

ps
i am not saying don't group because that can be a riot too, just don't sit around waiting go explore all the quests in your lvl, you will do fine in some and not so fine in others.You will get to know the quests making it a lot easier to form your own parties

Agreed. Solo'ing a quest is the best way to learn how it works.
Another issue at the level you indicate is the solidity of the character (including build and equipment). Almost any character can do it to level 12 without problem, but then it starts beeing harder. Ask for advices about your build and some easy equipment to obtain (don't listen to comments telling you that you should have +45 HP GS item at this level...). Some are quite mandatory, like Heavy fort. and Greater False Life items.
The next step will be the Vale, not such a big one anymore with all the stuff you can now get from the new plaza quests. Amrath is another painful step, usually requiring you to also adjust your playstyle. Epic is simply another story.