Some thoughts on the new XP curves

[voodoogroves]

Ok, a few TRs under my belt now with the new curves.

Maybe it is me, but Levels 15 and 16 (where I'm banking even) seem to blitz by now. Level 17 or so was always a bit rougher, but with the sagas and the new curve, GH and Necro 4 just fly by.

Lower levels are somewhat sloggy. 4/5 are easy, but more repetition than I personally like.

I don't know if others are feeling the same (again this is a gut-feel), or if there is an opportunity to maybe jigger the curve a tad.

[Wipey]

Oh yeah 2 things.
Munch those xp things from daily rolls at low levels ( rather spend some shards then repeat any dull Harbour heh )
1 st time ever GH/ Necro 4 was once and done and woo, Litany and Vale so soon.

[voodoogroves]

Oh yeah 2 things.
Munch those xp things from daily rolls at low levels ( rather spend some shards then repeat any dull Harbour heh )
1 st time ever GH/ Necro 4 was once and done and woo, Litany and Vale so soon.

My shared bank is filled with XP thingies - and yeah, now I eat them in the lower levels to cut down on repeat-requirements.

[Greantun]

Can I ask why you are repeating quests?

I am not lvl 14 on my 5th life, and with the new XP curve I haven't had to repeat a quest, and I still have nearly two full levels banked. I am running Elite with BB, Voice and am a VIP, so I am doing every quest.

I don't see any issue with it currently.

[voodoogroves]

Can I ask why you are repeating quests?

I am not lvl 14 on my 5th life, and with the new XP curve I haven't had to repeat a quest, and I still have nearly two full levels banked. I am running Elite with BB, Voice and am a VIP, so I am doing every quest.

I don't see any issue with it currently.

If you were staying relatively at-level, you're saying you didn't run out of content? Never repeated?

[Turgar]

If you were staying relatively at-level, you're saying you didn't run out of content? Never repeated?

If you do every single quest one time, at level with bravery bonus, vip, and a tome of exp you will be banking xp, and have to do quests over level eventually because there is more xp available from quests than there is required to level. I did this with my last life, and I drank no xp pots at all. I can tell you that you are probably better off repeating some than doing what I did though, because some quests are terrible as far as xp per minute

and as far as the whole going for max favor thing goes, I am unsure that it's possible to max favor without 6 starring every challenge. I am currently only missing Elite favor from the Titan (it has bugged out both times I attempted it recently, and the GM refused to do anything to help) CITW, MA LOB and the challenges and I am still just over 4800 favor. I think we still need a few more updates before we will get to the coveted 5000 favor mark

[Qhualor]

with all this bonus xp, its hard to figure out if my attempt at one and done to cap is going to work well with the new xp curve. last life I capped what felt pretty quick. I think I shaved about a week off of how long it normally takes me and that was during the extra VIP xp and 30% xp bonus days.

with that in mind along with 5% xp ship buff, greater tome of learning, elite BB and most of the time I had a 10% pot running, but in the low levels I drank a couple 5% that I won from DD that I wanted to get rid of I only repeated..

GOP twice on elite because I needed the sigil piece and Sunken Parish because someone DC'd and didn't get credit for the completion so we repeated it on elite for him. everything else was one and done and there were a lot of quests I skipped. I always had xp banked anywhere from 1/2 rank to 2 1/2 ranks before I leveled. by about level 7 I ended up being 2 levels above base quest level so I ended up doing quests at my level on elite. it felt odd but at the same time extremely relieving that I didn't have to run Litany 10x and in fact I didn't run it at all. I was able to skip it. I never touched Carnival chain, i skipped Inferno but went back on normal to solo at level 17, i skipped all of Amrath and Reavers Refuge, i skipped Shadow Crypt and Cursed Crypt, didn't run any raids at all, skipped a bunch of level 11 quests and there were some random quests here and there i skipped.

this life im doing the same thing but its messing me up with all this bonus xp again so far so good and im liking it a lot. one and done is my preferred way to play.

[SlowDM]

Brilliant
Slayer pots now WAI (or wai as they should have been years ago)
one and done on elite or saved when bb don't count.

I'm a new TR-er and without these change's , lets just say as a 2 1/2 yr old customer i would not bother. Now i'm loving it and actually used my daily dice xp pots and bought some more.

I'm an AD&D pnp player . recently became an xp hog. But and a very BIG but, i play D&D online because of the story and 'quirks' D&D online still has i'e dragon in the market place, how can anyone say that's not AWESOME.

D&D online was 5 years old when i joined and i truelly hope i get another 5+ years of challenge and quirks.

I can understand a power gamer point of view.

I hope the new raids coming in the next 6 months , makes them spend money to keep this niche yet still years in front of the competition.

P.S. i will never play wow(swear word to me) or nvw(i did once and met'jeets' on the beach ***, 5 min was enough for me.

[Turgar]

For me the thing that keeps me coming back to DDO is the multi classing system. I love that you can put together class/race/destiny combinations that seem odd, but work so well. I am using a variant of Haek's Juggernaut concept on Optymuz now, and it's unlike anything you will find in any other class based MMO, period. If another game came out that even attempted to imitate or model after what DDO has done it would be a hard sell to get me to walk away from this game. When we used to have to farm the heck out of quests to level up it felt like repetition punishment, but they have found a clever way around that with the bravery bonus and daily playthrough bonus. If Turbine keeps going in the direction they have been going in they can count on my monthly VIP subscription for a long long time.

[voodoogroves]

Korthos + Harbor once and done on elite does not put me at 5th level. Does it seriously put you guys at 5th level?

[Greantun]

Yes, I have been running everything 2 levels over on Elite. I have always banked.

I am not running a xp pot, it would be just too much. However, I am doing all the explorers, using Voice, and getting the extra VIP that has been going on.

Not sure if it is the extra, or the new curve.

Currently am lvl 16 running lvl 14 quests (about 1/2 done) and already have enough XP to go to 17.

[kmoustakas]

I really don't like the new curve. I am playing a fancy wf artificer currently on his 7th life. No pots, no tomes of learning. Running all level one and two quests on elite for bravery*, clearing both korthos and cerulian wilderness doesn't even get me close to level 4. To make up I try to farm xp while hunting rares for the monster manual.

I would be hoping that I would just level 5 now to start working on level 3 quests for bravery. Instead it feels as if it is designed to get you directly at the base level of the quests. So if I am level 3 and run all level 3 quests for bravery I will earn enough to achieve level 4?

*Edit: forgot to include I do all optionals too!

[Kyshara]

Heroic XP is fine in my opinion at the moment. I just hate levels 1-6.

17 is really good, you just need to save GH saga for 17, run Reign of Madness, Litany EHHN and maybe farm Missing a bit.
I dont even farm Litany like before.

Level 12 is a pain in the ass, but level 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 are really really easy now in my opinion.

[Llewndyn]

Ok, a few TRs under my belt now with the new curves.

Maybe it is me, but Levels 15 and 16 (where I'm banking even) seem to blitz by now. Level 17 or so was always a bit rougher, but with the sagas and the new curve, GH and Necro 4 just fly by.

Lower levels are somewhat sloggy. 4/5 are easy, but more repetition than I personally like.

I don't know if others are feeling the same (again this is a gut-feel), or if there is an opportunity to maybe jigger the curve a tad.

It feels like Heroic is dying, and to help facilitate that they made it easier to get to epics. As long as I can get this fighter life and my last 2 stacking sorc lives done before the heroic game completely dries up, I'm pretty happy with the xp and how quickly it can be gotten...

RE: 17, at 17 I am running Litany, Sane Asylum, the Missing Chain (can't remember what it's called), and dipping my toe in Vale... usually start thinking of whatever my next life is gonna be at 17 since I am almost positive I can get groups for whatever I am running with little to no hassle at that level

[Llewndyn]

I really don't like the new curve. I am playing a fancy wf artificer currently on his 7th life. No pots, no tomes of learning. Running all level one and two quests on elite for bravery*, clearing both korthos and cerulian wilderness doesn't even get me close to level 4. To make up I try to farm xp while hunting rares for the monster manual.

I would be hoping that I would just level 5 now to start working on level 3 quests for bravery. Instead it feels as if it is designed to get you directly at the base level of the quests. So if I am level 3 and run all level 3 quests for bravery I will earn enough to achieve level 4?

*Edit: forgot to include I do all optionals too!

Not necessarily wrong, but Korthos once on elite all the way through puts me at 3. Going to harbor and doing everything but stealthy repossession as quickly as possible (just the level 2 stuff) on elite puts me pretty close to 5... I might hit Kobold's new Ringleader 4 or 5 times.

Then it's Waterworks, Catacombs, and Sharn. Toss in some Tangleroot, then Depths chain, by then even on a third life I'm hitting 6 or getting close to 7...

I NEVER do monster manual farming, or explorers, or S/R/E... WAY too much xp without having to bother....

As an aside, I DO have the tome of learning, I'm not sure why the new curve is to blame for you levelling so slowly though... this is a lot like going to play football wearing high heels and complaining that the turf is the reason you can't juke anyone out, but maybe that's just me (I stopped wearing high heels while playing football, kept tripping over my own feet)

[Wipey]

Again, not a complain, just an observation.
Chugged 50 pot from cards right away after TR, Greater Heroic tome, 5% ship and voice, not vip. Even munched some 8k xp to get immediately to lvl 2 for Maelstrom.
2 hours ( 1 hour on pot remaining ), all lvl 1 and 2 quests done. Not even close, 3rd lifer without ship buff or xp pot would need to spend so much time repeating Harbour.
People are not making stuff up or "doing it wrong".

[Qhualor]

Again, not a complain, just an observation.
Chugged 50 pot from cards right away after TR, Greater Heroic tome, 5% ship and voice, not vip. Even munched some 8k xp to get immediately to lvl 2 for Maelstrom.
2 hours ( 1 hour on pot remaining ), all lvl 1 and 2 quests done. Not even close, 3rd lifer without ship buff or xp pot would need to spend so much time repeating Harbour.
People are not making stuff up or "doing it wrong".

did you zerg them for xp/min? I ran a few TR lives after the xp curve change and didn't have a problem. they did say they added more xp required to level in the low levels, but with VIP, 5% ship and VOM, greater tome, 5% pot, elite BB and maximizing xp in each quest except trap I had no problem leveling. I was always banking xp or running elite quests at level in the low levels without repeating and doing every single quest.

[Wipey]

I am definitely not a slowpoke but not going for speed records either.
But heavy invis usage, secret doors if possible, traps and always going for Devious or better pretty much in every quest under lvl 10 or so. I guess that's considered zergy

Levelling up is not a problem, always can do stuff underlevel ( and I sure do that with Von, Shadowcrypt, Litany and stuff ), just to show that it might not be enough for levels 4 - 6 if you like to quest relatively fast.

[era42]

Korthos + Harbor once and done on elite does not put me at 5th level. Does it seriously put you guys at 5th level?

There are tons of level 3 and 4 quests in market and all around. You do not _have_ to be level 5 to do level 3 quests. You can do them at *gasp* level 4. Even 3, but with the amount of exp around, it might be hard to justify. Repeat after me: you are allowed to do level 3 quests on level 4, you can survive there even without advancing to level 5 first.

Sure, at some point you probably need to either repeat some quest, or move to higher level quests.

Further, there's zero need to bank levels now from exp point of view. I usually bank exp sometimes to not to overlevel some some quests, but other than that, levels just fly by. I do repeat some good stuff, doing a handful of the best quests e+h+n, but that forces/allows me to skip alot of the content too, even the low level stuff.

[MangLord]

I can easily stay entertained running each quest on elite up to level 12 or so, then I hit a bit of a wall with level 10-11 content. That seems to be one of the thinner areas, xp wise. I try to avoid Threnal and Restless Isles altogether. I would not mind seeing a new pack for this level range at all, considering how miserable those two packs are.

Level 15 elite isn't terrific, but I usually make up the difference with wilderness areas. I generally avoid repeating quests, but I usually repeat a few with friends that are of similar levels, but haven't finished a chain or whatnot. Gianthold, Sorrowdusk, Wheloon and VoN seem most common for me to repeat.