greater reincarnation..reincarnation..oh my aching head

[ivorygem]

hi..I have a cleric which I greater reinarnated (32 point build) and then had to reincarnate again...(stuffed up)...and i have some questions before I yet again reincarnate...!

before I go on as stated above I have a 32 point build and ate a +3 tome (of everything) for the holidays...

I didn't take concentratin figuring I could leave quicken on - not realising quicken couldn't help with scrolls...so I have to reincarnate again...! (plus leaving on quicken is ouchy in the sp consumption...I don't mind buying and drinking pots but! ...(and yes let's not go there with the whole buying and consuming pots...)

I ate a +3 tome in general and wondered as that is the case what level I could start strength at if I reincarnate again? I took some points in strength becasue I didn't want to get burdened...what is minimum strength?

I took racial toughness one and two to improve hp...not having any specced gear (sheild with greater false life) and a medium gem of health have me with a hp of 379 at level 17. I believe being up towards the 400 is ideal. I hate grinding quests ...believe challanges are tasty armour but the challenges aren't why I joined ddo...I would get a simple hand held game and play matrix if I wanted to do something like challenges...any comments on improving hp in this way? and if not racial toughness how?

I also took some lines of prayer of smiting/prayer of life (doesn't work with rad serv? worth taking though??)/prayer of incredible smiting and prayer of incredible life (have to take this first for other lines to open up) and notice the boosts to my bursts...any comment?

I'm levelling for the first time and learning the game....I have vip and haven't covered all the content...I'm jumpin all over the place...just qualified for von5/6 but haven't done it yet...adq same...etc etc...so if anyone knows of a particular quest that will give me some gear that helps that would be fantastic....

currently I am...
strength 21 (+5)
dex17 (+3)
con 25 (+7)
int 11
wis (32 (+11)
cha 25 (+7)

I am wearing blindness immunity
cloak of night
minos legens (hat) - toughness heavy fort)
belt of seven ideals improved potency vii + spell penetration vii
wiz +6 char +6 (rings)
dex +6 (gloves)
ogre +6
+5 blueshine mithral full plate of ...(not important)
health +6 (necklace)

my necklace has a small gem of power (sp is at 1396) and I carry a sceptor of magi which I swap for a superior pot vi or greater pot vii once I have buffed then swap back again to shrine and buff....

I have feather fall striding and jumping boots which I swap depending on needs...

I check out items and look for guild slot opportunitites atm...any advice would be welcome...I have empower healing and maximise spell (always on for bursts)...empower spell heighten and quicken...set up to come on when I use offensive spells....but again wow...spell point consumption is ridiculous...I come across as a noob....5 mins into quest....um....? so a bit overpowered...should I keep some..alll of these feats...and if I use the last two on a spell which would u recommend? I solo'd a lot of earlier content and have to get used to playing with a group...I love healing and offensive spells (tab tab tab....caster threat....bang!)....group control spell to help mellees..maybe soundburst (empower heighten maximise)....or greater commmand (heighten)...healing bursts plus group heals ...aura...I have 13 turns...
I always go for banishment dismissal for outsider mobs as I can really get rid of most before the group start fighting...and can't help myself...am I trying to solo still though?

hope someone reads this and replies...any polite constructive criticism suggestions would be welcome...if u have your own axe to grind please start a new thread....

ivory...happy questing everyone...! I play on cannith...

[SirValentine]

A few answers for you.

leaving on quicken is ouchy in the sp consumption

Don't need it on all the time. Probably need it on when raid-healing with Mass Heal (due to silly slow casting speed) and in Epic quests where you get hit really hard. Or anytime you notice yourself getting hit hard enough to interrupt you. If you don't notice that happening, you don't need it turned on.

I ate a +3 tome in general and wondered as that is the case what level I could start strength at if I reincarnate again? I took some points in strength becasue I didn't want to get burdened...what is minimum strength?

Some people leave Str at 8. Personally, I like to put a few points into Str, even on a caster build, both for carrying capacity, a bit more melee capability, and to make low levels much easier. But if melee is not your focus, and you already have Blade Barrier, anything between 8 and 14 starting Str will be fine.

any comments on improving hp in this way?

Toughness + a couple levels of enhancements is exactly right.

You have GFL, and +6 Con item. There are belts out in Shavarath that combine those 2 in one slot. Keep an eye out for a +2 Con tome. If you haven't hit 1750 favor yet, you get a free +2 tome of your choice when you do.

Longer term, even if you don't like grinding, a Greensteel HP item is pretty useful, +45 HP.

I also took some lines of prayer of smiting/prayer of life (doesn't work with rad serv? worth taking though??)/prayer of incredible smiting and prayer of incredible life (have to take this first for other lines to open up) and notice the boosts to my bursts...any comment?

You need the first tier of Prayer of Life and Prayer of Incredible Life. I suggest not taking more than that.

The Smiting and Smiting crit lines will help your Divine Punishment. The more the merrier.

I have empower healing and maximise spell (always on for bursts)...empower spell heighten and quicken...set up to come on when I use offensive spells

If you right-click on a spell (or spell-like ability like the burst) you can configure that spell's metamagic. You should have Maximize, Empower Healing, and Empower always on for your burst. And Heighten always on for your DC-based spells.

maybe soundburst (empower heighten maximise)....or greater commmand (heighten)

A Heighten-ed Soundburst is useful even in Epics with a good DC. But never have Maximize or Empower on for it! The damage is totally trivial, you're just wasting 40 SP to get like...11 damage instead of 5 damage or something.

For me, the only things I consistently have Maximize and Empower turned on for are the burst (which is free!), Blade Barrier, and Divine Punishment. Empower Healing is always on for everything, and Heighten is turned off for the spell Heal, but always on for everything else.

[Firesmall_at]

I have 2 versions of healing and damage spells usually. One with quicken on and another with quicken off.

BB has all metas on and all metas off
DP has all metas on and all metas off

when a spell costs 50-100 points u better have quicken on it, so it is not interrupted and wasted if in combat.
All metas is hot keyed for hot situations.

Casting on the sidelines u can be more conservative with quicken off.

+1 Critical healing lines more than preq for radiant servant can not be relied apon tactically for healing.
Critical smiting and Smiting 1-4 is awesome.
Life of the magic 3-4 = nice


Post your build from the character generator before u reincarn. Too many bits and pieces in the OP.

[ivorygem]

omg...I never realised I could set up multiple lot's of the same spells with feats tweaked off/on depending on needs. I only realised a week ago I could right click spells at all and preset for feats (a lovely player stopped and pointed this out to me ...plus showed me a few other tricks while grouping with her! (you meet some great people in this game). So I tripped over myself logging on and now have a few more hotbars set up...which I call my poor hot bars...conserve sp points and scrounge scrounge scrounge...with my 'the sh*t has hit the fan' hot bars still there ready to nuke in a tight corner...ie the boss at the end of a run ...

and I have the idea for a belt..thanks for that....

I;ve tweaked my dc spells to have heighten on...and turned everything else off ...and i'm figuring casting from the side works for scrolls as well...I'll guess I'll have to experiment and see how I go....

I was in the desert yesterday and when I couldnt cast simply backed off a few steps...and no problems..but have hot barred a few quickened items just in case. Will probably still have to suck a pot every now and then as I experiment with rad serv and how that works...my rad serv is two weeks old now and I am getting used to how/when to use it ...aura and bursts and how that effects sp points...thanks for the advice...will come back and check posts if anyone else has ideas.
ivory

[Firesmall_at]

to suck a pot every now and then as I experiment

Sounds too casual in use. It should not have to be.

Based on what I am reading at lvl10 about your build and play xp u may need to do a lot more reading on clerics for your benefit. Sounds like u have got by and realized as many of us have with our first toon at lvl10 that somethings that worked before don't and things that were broke that I did not notice are really broke.

It is ok. We have all been there and u have come to the right place.

There is a character generator that allows u to build your character through a program instead of in the game. A great tool. You can then post your build by copy and pasting it on the forums.

Character generator
http://www.rjcyberware.com/DDO/

But more importantly there are tons of builds on here that work well with tons of pages of the pros and cons, so enjoy. Clerics IMHO (in my humble opinion) are one of the most diverse and fun characters to play.

As you get use to a build you may not want to play it at level or above level and try out some casual runs. It helps develop your methods and more time to think about improvments. Maybe some solo runs in slayer with a hireling to test things out and play with the interface your mouse and keyboard.

There are some great threads on keyboard mouse setups. I got mine on here somewhere.....

here,



Now if your toon has a lot of money then u can buy heal scrolls. Even at 85% success rate they work well at saving your sp. Have 30-50 (200 at higher levels) handy if u are poor for really tough fights that u want to win really badly in and heal using cure critical then heal scroll. Cure critical with all metas or some metas and the same with Cure Serious if the heal scroll fails. U can stack all three of these as one cools down use the other.

One change is I have since added heal scrolls to the 3 key on my keyboard and numpad for my naga mouse. I have cure critical at your lvl on key 2 and cure serious on key 1. So my heals go like this if a toon takes lots damage... cure critical with all or half metas then heal scroll then cure serious or critical if scroll fails. The metas are a balancing act at lvl 10 gradually using more as u lvl. U should have 3 cures hot keyed with quicken on and your best meta balance and the same three spells with metas off on a shortcut bar for cheap heals. Your cheapest heal are burst though. At your level without heal spell I think I had 3 different versions of my cures because I did not buy heal scrolls back then.

__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __

For a regular mouse 5 button:

I have divine favor spell on scroll wheel button.
Emergency best cure/heal with all metas on but3 to emergency heal myself or another.
Button 4 varies either melee buff/ best spell. Sometimes BB or DP or crowd control. Maybe best heal/cure scroll. Changed for me over time with toon and level.
__________________________


My Naga Mouse only has 12 extra buttons. lol
-/+ are 11 and 12.

Naga is for - In Combat spells with metas. Risk of getting hit.

on shortcut bars 10 and 9
Naga thumb numpad
1-3 Single heals with quicken and empower heal always on (2=emerg best heal)
4-6 mass heals with quicken and empower heal always on (5=mass heal)
7-9 mass heals with quicken and empower heal always on (8=burst)
10-12 miscl.....crowd control with quicken and heighen on -cometfall,greater command, soundburst (on shortcut bar 9)
_________________

Sideline healing:

Shortcut bar1 -
keyboard 1-0 are hot keyed direct to Bar 1.
1-3 single cures/heals empower heal always on and other metas off
4-6 mass cures(burst has every meta) empower heal always on and other metas off
7-0 raise deads
_________________

Melee buffs:

shortcut bar 2 1-6
h,j,k,l,b,n keys macros

h- best heal/cure scroll to be used after seperate toon selection. no macro.

Macros selects me and equips and uses item:
j- melee buff me- haste item
k- melee buff me- divine might
l- melee buff me- rage item
b- melee buff me- divine power spell
N- emergency scroll heal/cure macro selects me and use scroll

these are then added to the macro keys S1-6 on X6 keyboard
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Hot key assignments:

shortcut bar 2 7-0
7= positive aura
8= Mouse scroll wheel = divine favor
9= Q= fighter haste
0= E= divine power item
or
9= Q= haste item (pally)
0= E= exalted smite3 (pally)
_________________

Offensive casting and other:

R=select me
T=Primary weapon or sound burst spell with heighten
G=secondary weapon or greater command with heighten
F=voice chat
V=divine punishment all metas
C=blade barrier all metas
X=destruction all metas
z=cometfall all metas
_________________


Nothing is selected always off.
Empower heal is selected separately at high lvls always on.
At lower lvls metas are selected differently due to less spell pts. Ie. I take maximize early for bursts, but have it off for everything else at low lvl.
_________________


Any default menu screen (ie. quest screen, character sheet) letter reassigned is the same except added 'ctrl' infront of it like Ie. Ctrl+L for its default screen.



**********************Reassign the 'R' key ASAP. It will run u off a cliff by accident.*************
**********************Reassign the 'R' key ASAP. It will run u off a cliff by accident.*************
.

[ivorygem]

thanks I printed ot that stuff plus have the page bookmarked. I certainly do run quests just to twiddle with spells etc and work out what works so will do...while I don't have the mouse u mentioned might go shopping...or set up some hot keys on my keyboard and play with them...I carry some wands but notice I don't use them anymore (heal one at a time? noooo too time consuming). I ran some quests with groups today and noticed my spoints lasting much longer so happy with that...I also held back unless I found myself really needed...the mellees really enjoyed melleeing and loved the bursts and when it got busy I jumped in...seemed to work well and I didn't get any complaints...
keep productive comments coming..any shortcuts I haven't thought of? want to run my first adq elite soon so those healing ideas are great...want to keep my end up ! think my char has come up 200 % from the politely worded..."um...u DON'T have radiant servant...? that's...INTERESTING..." I got three weeks ago..plus I have guildies who have helped a lot too...
I have a sup pot vi sceptor and a greater pot vii so I'm thinking one of those two cure mass and scrolls....plus bursts...I have plat so no problems there...

ivory

ps I'm level 17...and learning fast! no reincarnation planned at this stage....happy with my new plans /ideas for for now...

[Firesmall_at]

"um...u DON'T have radiant servant...? that's...INTERESTING..."

um...u DON'T have -Superior Ardor VI-...? that's...INTERESTING...

Get Superior Ardor VI for your burst, auras, cures.

Superior Brill V is great for Divine punishment. Contact a crafting friend for it or at auction house. It does not drop. It is made.
BTW, DP with all metas on is your best boss/orange name weapon.

Lots of items in there too. I posted my stuff just to give u some ideas. More info on my other threads linked from my stats if u want more details. Everyone has their own methods.

The Naga mouse is $60-80 dollars. This was from another thread, but I love that thing. Coolest mouse on the planet, IMHO. Helps me hold my own with the kids on here.

I also bought a Micrsoft X6 keyboard on sale for $50. It has lit keyboard and is very quite. Has macros too. If u dont have macros u have to select yourself is the only difference.


Level 17 @#%$#@$. Thought my post on my UI was overkill till I read your current lvl.

Time for Tower Of Despair flagging. At level 18 there is some really nice loot. Superior Ardor VIII belts for mass cures.

Buy 200 heal scrolls for raid healing (try not to go below 100 reserve). Raid healing = heal spell then heal scroll then heal spell then heal scroll... the damage taker. Maybe a mass heal in there or mass cure if others are taking splash damage.

Enjoy.

[ivorygem]

just been reading up on potency vs ardour...and gtfoh! I swapped from devotion to potency and thought I was the antz pantz...and now I'm going back to school! trouble is I play on my own and just stumble across this information....we have someone who crafts in the guild so I'll contact them asap! :-)

eh no good...no one who can craft that high..asking on advice online now...hopefully someone can make it for me depending on ingredients etc...could be too expensive for them...

[ivorygem]

update...now have some ardour clickies and checking into brilliance pots...plus ah

[Firesmall_at]

What server u on dude. I have some Superior Brilliance V shards. I have hoarded them because for some reason they are not bought at auction on Orien. There are others on here that craft them on their servers too, so if u browse through the forums u can find a crafter. I got them dirt cheap, but they are not cheap to make. They go anywhere from 8000 plat to 30,000 plat.

I love my clickies, so I have 2+ of everything for more clicks. They also free your hands up for melee weapons.

items:
Both Superior Ardor VIII belts = 18 minutes worth. I always try to refresh them every 3 minutes. (TOD=Tower of Despair or flagging quests)
Sup Brill V= same refresh, i try but tend to only do it when an orange name shows up
Divine power = on the 'e' key to activate and jump into combat. I think the spell is expensive in sp when u can get an item with 5 clicks each. The item is caster lvl 7, so just a little bit less HP and timer, but u save sp. Got 3 of these. 3-5 clicks each.
haste= on the 'q' key, same reason as divine power (I have fighter haste, so I use that)
rage= for boss fights, but mostly spell buffed by another though

Removes on items= rmv disease, rmv curse, neutralize poison

Potency on a necklace from TOD
CON and GFL on a belt from TOD that is swapped with archmagi +200 sp and ardor VIII belt

And many more that I would have to look at my character hot bars to list. I have 14 shortcut bars for swapping equipment and hot keyed stuff.

[C-Dog]

before I go on as stated above I have a 32 point build and ate a +3 tome (of everything) for the holidays....

I was told by my Guild that in Update 13 Tomes will be carried over to the next character - if you can wait that long to TR.

[ivorygem]

how do you hotkey these items?..if someone lists the steps I should be able to follow but I can' t seem to work it out on my own...haven't hotkeyed anything before...

I play on cannith

thanks ivory

[Firesmall_at]

how do you hotkey these items?..if someone lists the steps I should be able to follow but I can' t seem to work it out on my own...haven't hotkeyed anything before...

I play on cannith

thanks ivory

Esc

Options
Ui
Keymap

Just like wsad keys have a function u go in and assign other keys but to a shortcut bar then u drag a spell or item to that shortcut.

Ie. Assign the v key i go to key map shortcut bar 2 and at select 1 on shortcut bar 2 i put v.

A v shows in shortcut bar 2 item 1 then i drag a icon-spell,item to it.