When to start epics?

[Maatogaeoth]

Hey all, just got my first level 20 (Seraenah, FvS) and now I'm wondering when I should actually start joining in on some of the epic LFMs.

Is there anything in particular I should shoot for? I know there's a lot of quests (aka: Red Fens) that I've never done so I should at least run through them to get a feel for the layout.

Anything else?

[efreet5]

I'm not on your server, but as a healer you should be fine joining epic lfm's right out of the gate. If you can handle healing a shroud, then you can handle doing epics.

Just one piece of advice: Know when to call it. If you decide to do some epic quests (Epic Chains, ADQ1, and Devil Assault) you'll want to gauge your resources and how well your group is doing in the quest. Epics can be fun, but if you're spending 5+ pots to drag bad groups through quests by overhealing, then they can really put you off of running them again. Over on G-Land here, there are occasional lfms that read: "need healer, other one bailed." Sometimes, that healer might've had something come up, but often it's a red flag that says the party is bad and under prepared for the quest.

[dkyle]

Based on your MyDDO page, I'd say you're basically ready. Being a healer isn't very gear intensive. Enough HP (which you seem to have), and 100% fort to survive, and after that it really comes down to your own playing skills.

Start with some of the easier epics (Red Fens, Carnival, EVoN1&2), and work up from there. If you want to familiarize yourself with them on non-Epic, that might help, but as a healer, you'd mostly be following anyway.

Biggest issue I see is that your SP is a little low for a FvS. You might find extremely long epics like Devil Assault and DQ1 taxing.

[Boldrin]

All you need is the ability to control your toon properly, and the ability to follow directions, and ask if unclear on something... Epic ready...

[Shade]

I set some requirements for melee..

For healer, yea theres not much. But there's at least 1..

Healing scrolls. Take those along.
Running out of SP is fine. Not being able to heal after your out of SP isn't.

[Trillea]

all You Need Is The Ability To Control Your Toon Properly, And The Ability To Follow Directions, And Ask If Unclear On Something... Epic Ready...

/qft.

[Maatogaeoth]

Biggest issue I see is that your SP is a little low for a FvS. You might find extremely long epics like Devil Assault and DQ1 taxing.

I've been working on this. Just got into my first shroud a week ago, so I don't have my GS spellpoint item finished yet. And I have Wiz 6 instead of Archmagi so I'm short 400 from where I could be.

Beyond that I don't know how to get it higher. I just don't know how people get spell point totals of 2900 or higher. I'm looking at 2750, maybe 2800 when I get shroud items finished.

[ayondie]

I've been working on this. Just got into my first shroud a week ago, so I don't have my GS spellpoint item finished yet. And I have Wiz 6 instead of Archmagi so I'm short 400 from where I could be.

Beyond that I don't know how to get it higher. I just don't know how people get spell point totals of 2900 or higher. I'm looking at 2750, maybe 2800 when I get shroud items finished.

Some things to consider are +2 and +4 cha tomes along with another 3 exceptional charisma from tod rings. Hitting 2900 takes a while but is possible

[Sarisa]

You should be fine. Fathom the Depths (Fens), Bargain of Blood (Sentinels), and Snitch (Carnival) are probably the best ones to start with. They offer fairly small encounters, are spread out enough that you can have things explained between fights, and have not-too-difficult boss fights. Those three are also ones that you can learn when you can melee, when you need to hold back and heal, and management of scrolls along with your SP heals. In all but the worst groups, you probably won't need to resort to scrolls.

Once you get a feel for those, other ones to try would be Big Top (Carnival), Partycrashers (Carnival), Claw of Vulkoor (Fens), Last Stand (Fens), Black Loch (Sentinels), The Tide Turns (Sentinels), Tharashk Arena (VoN1), The Prisoner (VoN2), and if you have a good leader, Chamber of Raiyum (Wizard King, Sands). Those are all accessible once you get the feel of the damage taken and what you can do. Many of these have 'tricks' that people use to make the quests easier to manage.

All three of the raids are also accessible to you, just get a feel for epics first. Of these, VoN6 is the easiest to run with good leadership, but it can turn into a wipe very quickly if things go wrong.

I would recommend avoiding Jungle of Khyber (VoN3), Haywire Foundry (VoN4), Vault of Night (VoN5 pre, the raid is fine), Against the Demon Queen (pre, raid is fine as long as you have multiple mass cures known), Offering of Blood (Sands), Chain of Flames (Sands), Spies in the House (Sentinels), Devil's Assault, Into the Deep (Fens), and Small Problem (Carnival) until you get a bit more experience. Some of these are only very rarely run on epic.

[Maatogaeoth]

Thanks for the input everyone. How often can you run epics? Are they once a day things or.. ?

[killerzee25]

The timer is 17 hours or around that, so basically once a day.

[crazydamage]

432HP 2372 SP

Basically you are an ungeared fvs that doesnt belong in epics. You have zero raid/shroud items and zero epic items.

You can compensate for this by willingness to use scrolls/Pots.

Some epics are laughably easy. You can be carried through by stronger characters if you choose to sit in the back and heal (and contribute nothing else).

Minimum requirements to group with me: GS HP/SP Item. Tier3 GS weapon for melee. Depending on the class (Monks) i will require TOD rings and other gear.

You are missing SP item, bauble, abbot staff, vile blasphemy, TOD heal belt clickies, eardweller, festival dagger, noxious embers and a bunch of other equipment.

What these do is extend your mana so you can contribute other things Buffs/DPS/CC/Spell dps besides sitting in the back and healing. As I said, you can compensate for lack of raid/shroud items by using scrolls/SP pots.

HOWEVER, if you were to group with 6 ppl geared as poorly as you, you will fail, so in essence you will be heal botting a group of stronger characters that carry you through the quest until you get better gear.

[Enoach]

I would recommend starting with the House P Epics - Snitch and Ringleader. These are actually among the easiest and less intense of the epic quests.

What you should do though is let the party know you are new to epics, and as Shade pointed out be willing to carry extra methods of healing suchas scrolls to compensate.

After running an epic quest seriously evaluate your own performance. Ask how could I manage my resources better, am I lacking someplace - Spell Points, hit points, Saves, etc.

Then evaluate what could you do to fix that issue. This may mean that you need to go do other raids, get more gear, or even the most extreame TR to fix issues with your Abilities.

Your goal as a Divine in an epic quest is to be an asset and not a liability. That means to not only be able to help keep the party alive, but to be able to contribute to the success of the quest.


Everyone that is running Epics has had their first time. Each person hopefully made the evaluations that I'm recommending and has made adjusments that suit them.

You don't have to be super geared with years of raid questing - but it does not hurt.

Also I recommend getting in with experinced groups to start with, as running the quest on epic is different than what you have encountered so far. Be willing to listen and follow direction. Ask questions as you have already preficed that its your first time.

[cheever77]

432HP 2372 SP

Basically you are an ungeared fvs that doesnt belong in epics. You have zero raid/shroud items and zero epic items.

You can compensate for this by willingness to use scrolls/Pots.

Some epics are laughably easy. You can be carried through by stronger characters if you choose to sit in the back and heal (and contribute nothing else).

Minimum requirements to group with me: GS HP/SP Item. Tier3 GS weapon for melee. Depending on the class (Monks) i will require TOD rings and other gear.

You are missing SP item, bauble, abbot staff, vile blasphemy, TOD heal belt clickies, eardweller, festival dagger, noxious embers and a bunch of other equipment.

What these do is extend your mana so you can contribute other things Buffs/DPS/CC/Spell dps besides sitting in the back and healing. As I said, you can compensate for lack of raid/shroud items by using scrolls/SP pots.

HOWEVER, if you were to group with 6 ppl geared as poorly as you, you will fail, so in essence you will be heal botting a group of stronger characters that carry you through the quest until you get better gear.

NOT THIS

Follow the others advice from this thread. As a healer myself my first epic was on a cleric with 2k sp and i did use pots. But it was a poorly led wiz king which took 3.5 hours.

Do try easier epics. Use scrolls for spot heals and mass cures/heals for those "O FRUIT" moments just to help you conserve mana. Find people you know, or guild names that are known to be good. After a few you will wonder why people above request you have all that gear......

Sure it helps but isn't necessary IMO. Gee I still don't have most of it on my FVS and I manage an average of 1 epic a night. However I am in, IMO, the best guild on Khyber..............

So that makes a HUGE difference.

[sweez]

What most of you people are ignoring, is the fact that they can take your undergeared toons in epics and blow through them - but they know those epics like the back of their hand.

For a new player that is just starting to play epics, I'd recommend completing at least two tier 3 shroud items (weapon/hp if melee, sp/hp if caster) and a few Amrath clickies. Sure, Amrath is "harder" than some epics, but it's a great exercise, and the loot is better than in crappy epics anyway lol. It's not just a matter of gear, but matter of getting more healing experience, true a lot of epics are "easy" but there's still a lot of spiky damage in almost all of them.

Anyway, I'm a bit of a special case, on my first capped and Shroud flagged toon I waited for about a month to get all the gear I needed (Harry beaters, portal beaters, vorpals...) and the HP to a place that I felt comfortable with to even enter Shroud... but I'm a bit OCD I guess.

Be sure to bring a few stacks of heal scrolls, fire shield scrolls and invisi clickies, and for god's sake be sure to tell everyone that you're new to the quest(s). Have pots but don't drink them is also a good general rule. Abuse free CLW if you have it.

[Dwarfo]

on my healer, i had only been doing epics for a couple of days, and saw an EPIC devil assault up that needed a healer. there were fairly experianced people in the group that i had played with alot, i alerted them it was my first time, they said it was cool. i went into the quest, we easily beat it i used ZERO pots.

i had good gear though, no epic gear, but fully equipped by raids.

[NaturalHazard]

on my healer, i had only been doing epics for a couple of days, and saw an EPIC devil assault up that needed a healer. there were fairly experianced people in the group that i had played with alot, i alerted them it was my first time, they said it was cool. i went into the quest, we easily beat it i used ZERO pots.

just curious what kind of gear do you have?

[Dwarfo]

this was a while ago on my now tr'd fvs vulkora.
she had tod rings, with only +1 exc
lorriks set - shield/necklace.
bracers + gloves of glacier(gloves switched with gauntlets of eternity at times)
dreamspitter for neg lvl draining held mobs + skiver.
minos of course.
boots were probly striding.
tier 3 conc op goggles.

cant really remember anything else, was this chars layout a month ago. she is now a melee wf fvs.

EDIT: and bauble, but if i remember correctly, i didnt need to use it. also used i think 40 heal scrolls.

[Boldrin]

NOT THIS

Follow the others advice from this thread. As a healer myself my first epic was on a cleric with 2k sp and i did use pots. But it was a poorly led wiz king which took 3.5 hours.

Do try easier epics. Use scrolls for spot heals and mass cures/heals for those "O FRUIT" moments just to help you conserve mana. Find people you know, or guild names that are known to be good. After a few you will wonder why people above request you have all that gear......

Sure it helps but isn't necessary IMO. Gee I still don't have most of it on my FVS and I manage an average of 1 epic a night. However I am in, IMO, the best guild on Khyber..............

So that makes a HUGE difference.

I remember, I came in on my Sorc and saved the day on that one... you guys had already been in over 2 1/2 hours and had a list of over 10 people with deaths, so a lot had come in prior to me.. Sometimes it's fun saving a trainwreck

[crazydamage]

NOT THIS

Follow the others advice from this thread. As a healer myself my first epic was on a cleric with 2k sp and i did use pots. But it was a poorly led wiz king which took 3.5 hours.

Do try easier epics. Use scrolls for spot heals and mass cures/heals for those "O FRUIT" moments just to help you conserve mana. Find people you know, or guild names that are known to be good. After a few you will wonder why people above request you have all that gear......

Sure it helps but isn't necessary IMO. Gee I still don't have most of it on my FVS and I manage an average of 1 epic a night. However I am in, IMO, the best guild on Khyber..............

So that makes a HUGE difference.

PM me your name so I can not group with you ever.