TR1 xp - a casual player's perspective

[RioRussell]

Not really a PSA, but something close to it.

Let me start with this. I have a wife, 3 kids, and career. I would classify my playtime as casual. I play once a week, with our massive guild of 3 people that played PnP together in the 80's and all started playing this game around the Mod1 timeframe. Occasionally (1-2 times a year) the wife and kids are at the in-laws and I get several days with just work and more time for DDO.

If your playtime is similar to mine, this may be helpful. 2 of the 3 of us in my guild decided to TR our main characters. My TR started on Jan 6th, 2011. I hit level cap yesterday, on August 4th, 2011. Allow me to make two suggestions if your playtime is limited:

1. Plan early and often: Specifically for some of the better xp/min quests, make sure you are doing them at appropriate levels. Yes, you can get in a group and do shadow crypt at level 7, but there are lots of quests with good xp at that level. MrCow's diaries are an invaluable resource for this. My general rule was to do quests at +/- 1 character level from quest level.
2. Find a wiz/sorc at level 10: IMO melee's dominate quests until right around level 10, when arcane casters rule the roost. Same can be said for divines around the level 12-13 areas, but your mileage may vary.
3. Push through Level 16 and 19: I found these to be the only two 'grindy' levels. I think level 16 would have been easier with Update 10 and the new quests, but that 390k xp to make level 20 took a while. You will get there, eventually.

I salute those that have several past lives under their belt. with a ~50% increase in cap xp, that would put my TR2 cap somewhere around 1 year in time. Thanks, but no thanks.

rio

[maddmatt70]

The real tr players are almost certainly unemployed or hate the end game. I am not just talking about those that got a tr here or there on a character here or there, but rather those that have 4-6 lives on 5 or so characters sort of thing or the equivalent on a few characters. Really tring is not a casual player thing in the remotest sense of the word unless you want to grab one past life on a character here or there because it is such a hideously long tme grind. A casual player can strangely enough play the end game and actually be relatively successful at it, but at tring not really at all.

[grayham]

The real tr players are almost certainly unemployed or hate the end game. I am not just talking about those that got a tr here or there on a character here or there, but rather those that have 4-6 lives on 5 or so characters sort of thing or the equivalent on a few characters. Really tring is not a casual player thing in the remotest sense of the word unless you want to grab one past life on a character here or there because it is such a hideously long tme grind. A casual player can strangely enough play the end game and actually be relatively successful at it, but at tring not really at all.

Some good points here. If you're bored of Raids and don't like epics much then TR'ing is an attractive option I would think....

[Inkblack]

Some good points here. If you're bored of Raids and don't like epics much then TR'ing is an attractive option I would think....

This is exactly why I TR. Not that I'm hardcore. It takes me 4-6 months to cap a double TR.

To the OP, I agree -- keep to appropriate level quests, and levels 16 and 19 are really painful.

[jkm]

The real tr players are almost certainly unemployed or hate the end game. I am not just talking about those that got a tr here or there on a character here or there, but rather those that have 4-6 lives on 5 or so characters sort of thing or the equivalent on a few characters. Really tring is not a casual player thing in the remotest sense of the word unless you want to grab one past life on a character here or there because it is such a hideously long tme grind. A casual player can strangely enough play the end game and actually be relatively successful at it, but at tring not really at all.

Strange. Your broad brush strokes forgot one little category - the "I like to make new builds" category.

Lets see, I can test a new build on a TR and not have to do the following:

1. Grind for Equipment
2. Grind for Equipment
3. Grind for Equipment

Did I mention I didn't have to grind for equipment?

I'd much rather test a build with Peppr and see how it performs with max equipment than test it with a new character and find out its not what I want after 32 shroud runs.

[maddmatt70]

Strange. Your broad brush strokes forgot one little category - the "I like to make new builds" category.

Lets see, I can test a new build on a TR and not have to do the following:

1. Grind for Equipment
2. Grind for Equipment
3. Grind for Equipment

Did I mention I didn't have to grind for equipment?

I'd much rather test a build with Peppr and see how it performs with max equipment than test it with a new character and find out its not what I want after 32 shroud runs.

But really trs take so long to level even for the most efficient hardcore it is not a daily thing. I can farm for a few scrolls or items or run something and trade a few items, etc and trade that for gear of one sort or other and run 3-4 raids a week so thinking about 6 hours or so of playtime and probably gear out one character in 3 months with fairly good to great gear. Heck just get lucky and get 1 lg scale or red scale and trade that for fairly solid gear crafted or otherwise and you can be not a liability on epic runs lol. Icy burst kit a decent weapon you get off the auction for cheap - really there are tons of ways to get pretty solid gear, but the tr grind is a whole different can of worms.

[muffinlad]

I love raids, love the game, love playing my toons.....but I do dislike Epic (and...I do have a job). The Only Epic items I have are Easy Epic- and I think I even have components for one or two that I have just never bothered with from playing around with other folk.

The additional exp is steep, but not much of a climb. Am I ever going to get my x3 FvS, x3 Wizard, x3 Sorc? Right around the time I retire.....20 years from now.

I am not rushing, and I don't see the reason to rush all that much, as long as I enjoy the game....

And if I don't enjoy it, why am I playing it?

Regards,

muffinhippy

[jkm]

But really trs take so long to level even for the most efficient hardcore it is not a daily thing. I can farm for a few scrolls or items or run something and trade a few items, etc and trade that for gear of one sort or other and run 3-4 raids a week so thinking about 6 hours or so of playtime and probably gear out one character in 3 months with fairly good to great gear. Heck just get lucky and get 1 lg scale or red scale and trade that for fairly solid gear crafted or otherwise and you can be not a liability on epic runs lol. Icy burst kit a decent weapon you get off the auction for cheap - really there are tons of ways to get pretty solid gear, but the tr grind is a whole different can of worms.

Heh, you have to be closing in on 3,000 shroud runs across all of your characters. How in the world can you look at that number and then say that TRing is a grind.

[Beer_Dude]

The real tr players are almost certainly unemployed or hate the end game. I am not just talking about those that got a tr here or there on a character here or there, but rather those that have 4-6 lives on 5 or so characters sort of thing or the equivalent on a few characters. Really tring is not a casual player thing in the remotest sense of the word unless you want to grab one past life on a character here or there because it is such a hideously long tme grind. A casual player can strangely enough play the end game and actually be relatively successful at it, but at tring not really at all.

I though you had a job

No all kidding aside you make a good point. I think I'm one of those people that could give 2 shakes about end game so I keep finding another toon to TR or an excuse to Tr another toon. This ONLY is my perspective and I know it goes against the norm.

My thoughts of end game/Epic stuff is why? You already are kicking ass on elite/epic so now you're going to grind for better gear just to kick said boss' ass faster. To me it's just not that appealing. I'd rather TR a toon and have a ton of different quests to run and enjoy the run back to the top. Again THIS IS ONLY MY OPINION and I know I'm the minority in this case. More power to those that can stand the epic grind they're far better and have more patience than I. But if I only played as much as the OP I think you'd get a ton of milage doing the epic stuff because it would always be a fun challenge. SO I couldn't agree with you more Norg.

[Clownpuncher]

I would love to TR more often, but it's too much of a grind for me and my relatively limited time. I would like to see Turbine to something that would make it more of a challenge and less of a time sink.

[Purgatory]

TRing if fun everyone should do it

[Enoach]

I TR'd my Cleric because my Loot Dice sucked in ToD (20 runs no cleric rings, 20th end reward no cleric rings) -> So far this life i'm up one Ring of Feathers and a Planer Gird. hehehe

[~herbstlich]

16-18 are easy to lvl. I'd prefer to bank 18-20 %) Just cause on 18 lvl you can still farm reaver's refuge and already can run some amrath.

[anto_capone]

Level 16 wasn't so bad for me, I farmed litany to death which was a level right there.

I also never take level 19 on any of my toons. I go right from 18 to 20. I'm only ever 19 for the 30 seconds I stand next to the trainer as I level up.

If you stay level 18, you can run with 20's and not get as huge an xp hit, and you can still farm those vale quests a bit over level but without too much penalty.


My toughest level was 11. I couldn't find a VoN 5 farm for the life of me, and it's the one raid I really only ran a few times. The few times I ran it left me with a bad taste, due to some bugs; but other than VoN 5 farming I couldn't figure out what to farm.