DDOGamer: 19 is the loneliest number

[geoffhanna]

Do you have any level 19 characters?

DDOGamer doesn't either. And never will.

[lordalberonn]

During this last Crystal Cove Event, my character Minimouse on Argonnessen, started out at level 17. As the event progressed, she leveled up to 20, and I took each level as it came along. Admittedly, she's on her first life and she has a Greater Tome of Experience and a Voice of the Master to help her; she ended up leveling very rapidly through this event. I was playing very regularly, but not super hard-core. I also let my paladin go through 19--it was not during this event--though that was a while ago and I don't recall how difficult is was for him.

What I'm getting at is that if you choose your time wisely when you level up to 19, it may not be as painful as you make it out to be. With some XP amps, the right level runs, and a good group to run with, this does not have to be a pain.

With Crystal Cove, you can find groups that want to work hard to find that they need without messing around. I was running into a lot of the same people during the event and we all remembered who was an asset for the group on previous days. We also were not afraid to challenge ourselves. Doing level 21 runs not only gave us a chance to score big with the progenitor crystal, but the XP earned during those runs contributed to my swift leveling of Mini. We also did lower level runs since the number of Dragonshards earned during those level 21 runs were not always great.

Now I do agree that we need better content for this level range to encourage us to be able to take our levels and not get meager XP during this transition during those times outside events such as Crystal Cove. I'm always happy to see new content and if it fills a previously meager level range with more challenging quests for better XP and loot, that's even better. With the inclusion of the Forgotten Realms's heroic level quests, there is plenty of classic adventures to draw from. As an example, I have fond memories of running the Temple of Elemental Evil with my 1st Edition AD&D Paladin. Seeing that in here on heroic, or even better: epic difficulty would be fantastic.