Gear Advice for a returning player needed

[Seelowe]

Greetings all.

So, I decided to see what is new to DDO after being gone from the game for almost 4 years. Basically, I was around for the introduction of epic quests, did all the chains there were to do, soloed any raids that looked good and called it a day.

upon my return, I was confronted with loads of new things, epic levels, destinies and so forth. While reading up on that part of the changes was quite enlightening, I find myself realizing that what used to be great equipment at cap now looks like Korthos gear by comparison.

My plea here is to get a little advice, as to what gear is considered worth farming for during epic levelling as I try to get my human pure FVS evoker build through to 20/8 to start EE quests, which seem to be all the rage now. I am used to soloing mostly any quest and I would like to keep that ability. As a first epic destiny I chose exalted angel, as it seems to have good synergies.

At this point I am only using the fvs for the first playthrough of the new content as it is the most reliable soloist of all my toons and has not run into any issues soloing the quest chains in the underdark (which I assumed was a good place to level up).

His current equipment is the same I left him with years ago.












Naturally, this changes situationally, as the character has most of the 4 years ago-endgame loot in bank or as a clickie but yeah, as I said, it seems to be the korthos gear equivallent of today.

Any advice as to if it is worth grinding commendations of any particular faction, repeating a particular quest until X loot drops etc would be greatly appreciated. Basically, what gear setup is considered ideal or at least worth getting as an evoker build pure FVS.

p.s. random question: do people run the old raids at all anymore? I have not seen a single LFM for things like say... temple of despair and the like.

[Loromir]

Greetings all.

So, I decided to see what is new to DDO after being gone from the game for almost 4 years. Basically, I was around for the introduction of epic quests, did all the chains there were to do, soloed any raids that looked good and called it a day.

upon my return, I was confronted with loads of new things, epic levels, destinies and so forth. While reading up on that part of the changes was quite enlightening, I find myself realizing that what used to be great equipment at cap now looks like Korthos gear by comparison.

My plea here is to get a little advice, as to what gear is considered worth farming for during epic levelling as I try to get my human pure FVS evoker build through to 20/8 to start EE quests, which seem to be all the rage now. I am used to soloing mostly any quest and I would like to keep that ability. As a first epic destiny I chose exalted angel, as it seems to have good synergies.

At this point I am only using the fvs for the first playthrough of the new content as it is the most reliable soloist of all my toons and has not run into any issues soloing the quest chains in the underdark (which I assumed was a good place to level up).

His current equipment is the same I left him with years ago.












Naturally, this changes situationally, as the character has most of the 4 years ago-endgame loot in bank or as a clickie but yeah, as I said, it seems to be the korthos gear equivallent of today.

Any advice as to if it is worth grinding commendations of any particular faction, repeating a particular quest until X loot drops etc would be greatly appreciated. Basically, what gear setup is considered ideal or at least worth getting as an evoker build pure FVS.

p.s. random question: do people run the old raids at all anymore? I have not seen a single LFM for things like say... temple of despair and the like.

Actually, the items you listed are not horrible. Yes there are better items at epic levels, but you can still be effective with what you have. Destinies are where your power lies. Start running the epic quests and filling out a destiny. If your melee, start out with Legendary Dreadnaught or Fury of the wild, if Arcane, Draconic incarnation, divine, Exhalted angel or Divine Crusader, Archer, Shiradi ot Fury of the Wild.

As you finish the epic quests, you will start to see some of the better loot came around. A good starting point is with the Eveningstar/Kings Forest quests- Start collecting commedations from the different factions and trade them in for some better gear.


But...your gear at this point is not too bad.


For your evoker, run the level 16 Friends in Low Places quest in Wheloon for a +4 evocation ring. Very easy item to get, Guaranteed item in end rewards list.

[Seelowe]

Actually, the items you listed are not horrible. Yes there are better items at epic levels, but you can still be effective with what you have. Destinies are where your power lies. Start running the epic quests and filling out a destiny. If your melee, start out with Legendary Dreadnaught or Fury of the wild, if Arcane, Draconic incarnation, divine, Exhalted angel or Divine Crusader, Archer, Shiradi ot Fury of the Wild.

As you finish the epic quests, you will start to see some of the better loot came around. A good starting point is with the Eveningstar/Kings Forest quests- Start collecting commedations from the different factions and trade them in for some better gear.


But...your gear at this point is not too bad.


For your evoker, run the level 16 Friends in Low Places quest in Wheloon for a +4 evocation ring. Very easy item to get, Guaranteed item in end rewards list.

first of all, thanks a lot for the reply.
king's forest, eveningstar is where I am farming atm, doing the wilderness areas as I make my way to the quests there. Any particular loot there that is useful for the evoker? I mean I will probably end up trading purple dragon knight commendations for wizard ones, as it seems they are mostly geared towards melee toons and villagers look like they are mostly for monks?

Thanks for the tip for the evoc+4 ring. Seems like thelis found a quick replacement (facepalms at hearing it is a lvl 16 quest).

[Loromir]

first of all, thanks a lot for the reply.
king's forest, eveningstar is where I am farming atm, doing the wilderness areas as I make my way to the quests there. Any particular loot there that is useful for the evoker? I mean I will probably end up trading purple dragon knight commendations for wizard ones, as it seems they are mostly geared towards melee toons and villagers look like they are mostly for monks?

Thanks for the tip for the evoc+4 ring. Seems like thelis found a quick replacement (facepalms at hearing it is a lvl 16 quest).

You can run the same quest at lvl 26 and get the ring at +5 evocation and spellcraft +15. War Wizards items is the best place for you to start at these levels. I'm not sure they are significantly better than what you currently have, but you might find a small upgrade. You can get a couple of Wisdom items from the villagers comendations.

[cru121]

before you get overly excited, the +4 evo item is actually a necklace
http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Sage%27...%28Level_15%29
so... torc or +4 evo.

[Loromir]

before you get overly excited, the +4 evo item is actually a necklace
http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Sage%27...%28Level_15%29
so... torc or +4 evo.

Yes...sorry for the mis information.

[Seelowe]

for the regular questing and since concordant from the goggles stacks with torque, I find it quite nice to be able to not use any rest shrines even on elite from the refill on sp. So, I will probably seek to change out other slots first, like boots, cloak, one ring slot, gloves, and bracers in that order. Any advice for those slots?

After that, I need to find something with real umph to replace the GS goggles and Dt Robe.

Also, since I have advice giving ppl in the thread... what on earth is up with fortification? I had not seen a crit on any of my toons since lvl 11

[cru121]

for the regular questing and since concordant from the goggles stacks with torque, I find it quite nice to be able to not use any rest shrines even on elite from the refill on sp. So, I will probably seek to change out other slots first, like boots, cloak, one ring slot, gloves, and bracers in that order. Any advice for those slots?

After that, I need to find something with real umph to replace the GS goggles and Dt Robe.

Also, since I have advice giving ppl in the thread... what on earth is up with fortification? I had not seen a crit on any of my toons since lvl 11

I would start here:
http://ddowiki.com/page/Update_19_na...ms#Reward_list (heroic end rewards for Wheloon and Storm Horns)
http://ddowiki.com/page/Update_14_na...ation_Turn-Ins (commendation turn-ins)

some ideas: cannith boots of propulsion, terrorweb chitin breastplate, guardian's ring

[Seelowe]

I would start here:
http://ddowiki.com/page/Update_19_na...ms#Reward_list (heroic end rewards for Wheloon and Storm Horns)
http://ddowiki.com/page/Update_14_na...ation_Turn-Ins (commendation turn-ins)

some ideas: cannith boots of propulsion, terrorweb chitin breastplate, guardian's ring

thanks!

guardian's ring looks awesome. That PRR was not around when I played and looks awesome. Concordant should also still proc regardless of actual damage dealt I suppose. Cannith boots look like the jumpity jump idea of the devs. I had to chuckle at what they give Terrorweb chitin breastplate on the other hand is interesting. either +1 exceptional wisdom compared to +2 from tod rings or a +8 wisdom item to begin with. tricky

[SirValentine]

I run a caster divine, though a Cleric not a FvS, though a lot of the same principles will apply.

Just as a rough idea for you, here's my current level-28 gear layout:

Quiver: Alacrity
Trinket: Litany of the Dead
Armor: Shadowscale Armor (Light Armor, +1 DC version) (Green slot & Blue slot)
Weapon: Alchemical with +2 Wisdom, 90 Devotion & 90 Combustion (Red slot)
Weapon: Thunder Forged with 150 Impulse & +6 Necro (Tier 2 only) (Orange slot)
Wrists: Dumathoin's Bracers (Blue slot)
Hat: Helm of the Blue Dragon (+3 Wis, EH version) (Green slot & Colorless slot)
Necklace: Sage's Locket
Goggles: EE Shadowsight (Green slot)
Ring 1: EE Ring of Shadows (Yellow slot)
Ring 2: Lantern Ring (Green & Colorless slots)
Gloves: Gauntlets of Immortality (Yellow & Colorless slots)
Boots: Sage's Shoes (Swap to EE Surefooted Boots when appropriate, or Anchoring or Firestorm Greaves or whatever.)
Cloak: Stormreaver's Tablecloth (Yellow slot)
Belt: Lootgen Health +9 / Dodge 10%

With the help of plenty of slots, I can cover all my DC-boosting, plus basic survivability.

11 Enhancement Wisdom, 3 Insightful Wisdom, 2 Alchemical Wisdom, 1 Profane Wisdom, 1 Exceptional Wisdom augment
6 Necro DC, 5 Evo DC, 2 Necro DC augment, 2 Evo DC augment, 1 Profane universal DC
Fortification, PRR, Concealment, Incorporeal, Dodge, Constitution, False Life augment, Power augment, Resistance augment

Now, there's plenty of ways to mix it up, and a lot of that won't be in reach right away, but like I said, just trying to give you some ideas.

People mentioned Terrorweb armor. Along the same lines, the Spider-spun Caparison and Leaves of the Forest both also can come with +3 Insightful Wisdom. I like Leaves of the Forest a lot for levels 23 or 24 through 27.

You already have a Litany, which is nice. Surprisingly, as a level 13 item, it's still best-in-slot.

[Seelowe]

I run a caster divine, though a Cleric not a FvS, though a lot of the same principles will apply.

Just as a rough idea for you, here's my current level-28 gear layout:

Quiver: Alacrity
Trinket: Litany of the Dead
Armor: Shadowscale Armor (Light Armor, +1 DC version) (Green slot & Blue slot)
Weapon: Alchemical with +2 Wisdom, 90 Devotion & 90 Combustion (Red slot)
Weapon: Thunder Forged with 150 Impulse & +6 Necro (Tier 2 only) (Orange slot)
Wrists: Dumathoin's Bracers (Blue slot)
Hat: Helm of the Blue Dragon (+3 Wis, EH version) (Green slot & Colorless slot)
Necklace: Sage's Locket
Goggles: EE Shadowsight (Green slot)
Ring 1: EE Ring of Shadows (Yellow slot)
Ring 2: Lantern Ring (Green & Colorless slots)
Gloves: Gauntlets of Immortality (Yellow & Colorless slots)
Boots: Sage's Shoes (Swap to EE Surefooted Boots when appropriate, or Anchoring or Firestorm Greaves or whatever.)
Cloak: Stormreaver's Tablecloth (Yellow slot)
Belt: Lootgen Health +9 / Dodge 10%

With the help of plenty of slots, I can cover all my DC-boosting, plus basic survivability.

11 Enhancement Wisdom, 3 Insightful Wisdom, 2 Alchemical Wisdom, 1 Profane Wisdom, 1 Exceptional Wisdom augment
6 Necro DC, 5 Evo DC, 2 Necro DC augment, 2 Evo DC augment, 1 Profane universal DC
Fortification, PRR, Concealment, Incorporeal, Dodge, Constitution, False Life augment, Power augment, Resistance augment

Now, there's plenty of ways to mix it up, and a lot of that won't be in reach right away, but like I said, just trying to give you some ideas.

People mentioned Terrorweb armor. Along the same lines, the Spider-spun Caparison and Leaves of the Forest both also can come with +3 Insightful Wisdom. I like Leaves of the Forest a lot for levels 23 or 24 through 27.

You already have a Litany, which is nice. Surprisingly, as a level 13 item, it's still best-in-slot.

thanks a lot, that type of breakdown is the exact thing I was looking for. The items look good, the complete absence of GS kind of explains why I don't see as many raid LFMs as there used to be, I guess ppl just run shroud to farm for clickies. Same goes with ToD I suppose.

As for Litany and Abbot, when I left it was one of the hardest raids to lead a pug through, given so many ppl ended up being critical for its completion. Still one of my favorite raids in the game, just so annoying as soloing it was virtually impossible

Seems I need to learn a new set of raid layouts checking out where the items you mentioned drop. For now, I got war wizard's bracers, purple dragon gauntlets and don't think anything else from the commendations vendors looks too good.

the "epic" hard quests lines are way too easy to solo underlevel, undergeared, so I am kind of confused, as I remember epic being an extreme challenge (thinking of desert, house K epic). I am hoping epic elite is he equivallent to what I remember

[Michele]

those goggles are not good anymore: now the best goggles item for a fvs is "shadowsight" with +11 wisdom, also your greensteel item should have +6 int skills (aspect of smoke) or +4 int skills (concordant) for spellcraft in order to increase your spell power.

Those clothing are not good because you get PRR from a full plate: I suggest a blue dragonscale armor (light or medium or heavy at your choice: I have a light blue scale armor because I use a lot of scrolls of invisibility/teleport and I hate spell failure).

I use 3 pieces of abishai set because they increase the caster level by 3 of divine wrath, avenging light, sunbolt, energy burst, dragon breath, energy vortex (tipically bracers + boots + cloak).

You could replace ring of thelis with a guardian's ring for +24 prr (and you can slot the wizardry VI in a yellow slot).

Minos legens is obsolete in epic levels because you could slot vitality +20 in a colorless slot and have fortification and +45 hp in another greensteel item (I used a mineral II belt for that).

I personally like Torch because I use it together with concordant opposition gloves and a concordant opposition weapon (+6 int +20 healing amp +30 healing amp) in the left hand (until I'm level 26 when I switch it with libram of silver magic).

I'm also a litany of the dead lover.

Belt of defenders of siberys is obsolete (it could be replaced with a cannith crafted item with 2 slots, yellow and colorless for a lot more stuff) because constitution +6 and greater false life can be slotted using augments.

Skiver is useless in epics: at level 20 you could use midnight greetings because it can become a +10 weapon if you have a good intelligence (it's +30 spell power).

I listed my equipment in my build at this link: https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/434207-Evoker
It's a druid build but the equipment should be similar to a fvs evoker.

[Seelowe]

those goggles are not good anymore: now the best goggles item for a fvs is "shadowsight" with +11 wisdom, also your greensteel item should have +6 int skills (aspect of smoke) or +4 int skills (concordant) for spellcraft in order to increase your spell power.

Those clothing are not good because you get PRR from a full plate: I suggest a blue dragonscale armor (light or medium or heavy at your choice: I have a light blue scale armor because I use a lot of scrolls of invisibility/teleport and I hate spell failure).

I use 3 pieces of abishai set because they increase the caster level by 3 of divine wrath, avenging light, sunbolt, energy burst, dragon breath, energy vortex (tipically bracers + boots + cloak).

You could replace ring of thelis with a guardian's ring for +24 prr (and you can slot the wizardry VI in a yellow slot).

Minos legens is obsolete in epic levels because you could slot vitality +20 in a colorless slot and have fortification and +45 hp in another greensteel item (I used a mineral II belt for that).

I personally like Torch because I use it together with concordant opposition gloves and a concordant opposition weapon (+6 int +20 healing amp +30 healing amp) in the left hand (until I'm level 26 when I switch it with libram of silver magic).

I'm also a litany of the dead lover.

Belt of defenders of siberys is obsolete (it could be replaced with a cannith crafted item with 2 slots, yellow and colorless for a lot more stuff) because constitution +6 and greater false life can be slotted using augments.

Skiver is useless in epics: at level 20 you could use midnight greetings because it can become a +10 weapon if you have a good intelligence (it's +30 spell power).

I listed my equipment in my build at this link: https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/434207-Evoker
It's a druid build but the equipment should be similar to a fvs evoker.

thanks for the reply!

your proposals are a bit different than the post before but also seems to cover most important things, especially taking into account the options you get through augmentation.
A question about midnight greetings, is that a proposition for a melee option? I can't seem to find much use in it for a caster, as the only time he melees is when he is so bored, the dummy on the guild airship becomes a viable option for fun

On an unrelated note, I see how augments have become so mainstream, epic hard seems to be the new normal difficulty. I soloed all the quests in house K and desert with an epic option on epic hard and the difference to the epic I remember when there was only one difficulty is like day and night. However, these quests also drop tokens / fragments that you can trade for augments. So, it seems like the devs gave people an easy button fix. At least, the quests I had completed back in the day on epic show up as epic elite in my favor list already

[Michele]

thanks for the reply!

A question about midnight greetings, is that a proposition for a melee option? I can't seem to find much use in it for a caster, as the only time he melees is when he is so bored, the dummy on the guild airship becomes a viable option for fun

midnight greetings could become a weapon with +10 bonus if you have high intelligence, and spellcasting implement depends on the weapon bonus.
So you can get up to +30 spell power thanks to its unique spellcasting implement (the other weapon with +10 weapon bonus and minimum level 20 is the sword of shadows and it is two handed, while the midnight greetings is a 1 hand weapon).

Usually ML 20 weapons have a maximum bonus of +6 giving you only +18 spellcasting implement (it's 12 less spellpower than midnight greetings).

you can replace the midnight greetings at level 24 with a wyrm-wrought weapon that it's still a +10 weapon but gives +150 spell power.

[Seelowe]

midnight greetings could become a weapon with +10 bonus if you have high intelligence, and spellcasting implement depends on the weapon bonus.
So you can get up to +30 spell power thanks to its unique spellcasting implement (the other weapon with +10 weapon bonus and minimum level 20 is the sword of shadows and it is two handed, while the midnight greetings is a 1 hand weapon).

Usually ML 20 weapons have a maximum bonus of +6 giving you only +18 spellcasting implement (it's 12 less spellpower than midnight greetings).

you can replace the midnight greetings at level 24 with a wyrm-wrought weapon that it's still a +10 weapon but gives +150 spell power.

cheers for the explenation. Int was definitely a dump stat when the character was created 5 years ago, as it had no utlity for an evoker build other than skill points back then (and back then Spellcraft as an Int skill had nothing to do with spell power, I believe it was showing you which spell is being cast by enemy spellcasters? Anyway, noone used to include it in builds). So, I am sitting on no Int bonus to be mentioned, for the Weapon to get buffed by it. I have a sword of shadows in bank I believe and I am pretty sure I was only missing a seal or a shard to epic it but didn't think it was worth it on my fvs back then

Level 23 atm, so I might just get that wyrm-wrought weapon you mentioned as I am almost 24. Just have to find some groups to run the gianthold quests with (**** you quests with lever pulling in different rooms) and having hirelings do that... meh