Welcome to Orien - a letter to new players

[Rakoon]

When I was a new player I didnt read the forums I spent my time playing so I'll be brief.

Here are a few tips and hints to new players:

If you start at level 1, its easier for you to get to know the basic game concepts. Ddo doesn't have the easiest learning curve but after a little while, all things get clearer.
If you decide to start at level 15 on an iconic toon, the pace will be much faster but it can also be a real fun way to start.

On your first life I recommend maxing your class stat and then constitution. Take 1 or even more Toughness feat to allow you to have more HP.
Its going to be easier for you to learn new quests by having a health margin for those mistakes you will make.

DDoWiki is your compass, your guide, your best friend. Use it to find the new quest you want to do. Its full of maps.
http://ddowiki.com/page/Home

Cannith Cubicle is a great tool with tons of crafting recipes and puzzle solvers.
http://cannith.cubicleninja.com/

You can ask questions to others by typing / advice and then your question in any public instance you are in.
As mentionned in a previous thread, the Titan channel is also a good place to ask questions to others, its a public channel open to all Orien players.
In your chat bar type: / joinchannel titan You will see a notification telling you that you joined the channel.
Then create a new chat window where outgoing text is set to userchat1 and you are in the channel.

DDo is definitly a game worth playing. Sure some are gonna say the graphics are outdated. However the new quests and expansion packs show constant improvements in graphics. DDo is about Content, Character Customization and Teamwork. The overall game is well balanced and the devs adjust the game well over time with each update. Those of you who played pen & paper Dungeons & Dragons will recognize some concepts from the 3.5 edition on which the game is based upon. And then its developping concepts of its own to adapt to an mmorpg game environment. You can either be a free-to-play player or invest into the game. DDo has a few incentives here and there to buy things but overall the game respects players who dont want to invest a lot and still allows them to be competitive.

Orien is the default server of the game at this moment to help the server grow.
Our server is always looking for more passionate players. We already have a good solid player base. The raiding scene is doing ok but needs reinforcements.
Log on, let the game enchant you and come strengthen our ranks...

Welcome to Orien.

Welcome to Dungeons & Dragons online.

[Cordovan]

Also, welcome to Orien. Nice post.

[RistoffDervish]

If you are looking for an Orien guild that is friendly to new players and always recruiting, send a tell or in-game mail to Ristoff.

We have the biggest ship in the game with all the buffs and amenities and we love helping new players out with knowledge, gear, platinum, running you through a scary dungeon, farming a quest to get you the piece of loot that just won't drop for you, or anything you may need to make you gaming experience the most enjoyable it can be.

We have no rules or obligations except have fun and be polite.

If this sounds like your type of guild, please feel free to look me up.

[TitusOvid]

I'd like to support Rakoon's post and throw in my personal contribution.

I'll help you out any way i can, be it some starter potions or equipment or advice for toon and quests. And I go one step further and say that most of the people in the Titan channel will do the same.

Either contact me over a private message or join the Titan channel. Explaining see above.

And for the old dogs on the server: keep an eye out for our guests, maybe they will stay and help you out in the next raid.

[Dulcimerist]

Although I'm less active than I used to be, I hope to become more active; and I've always loved helping new players. If there's anything I can do to help, let me know!

I'd offer to help new players grab House K and Coin Lords favor for the extra bank and inventory space.

Thanks for keeping Orien strong!

[Grandern_Marn]

I have a greeter toon posted in Korthos and I'll add some points that come up that are of value to new players in this thread and link it in the greeters bio.

In discussions with Megamecha he wanted new players to watch out for the introduction of "Champion" monsters from level 3 quests. You will know them right away, they have the crowns above their heads. They have random buffs on them and some of them can make the champions pretty powerful. If you are up against 2 or 3 champions or a champion and a whole bunch of normal monsters things can get dangerous fast so watch out for those crowns. Personally, I enjoy the challenge of the champions but most of my characters have True Reincarnated a few times so it makes things easier. Thanks to Megamecha for speaking up on a subject that means a lot to him.

[Grandern_Marn]

In discussions with other veterans who have stopped by and said hello to Velcome. The snowy side and sunny side of Korthos remains a complicated dynamic. The general chat in Korthos allows players to communicate from Korthos village to the Korthos wilderness and all of the dungeons in the area. Things get tricky however when new players are actively talking in chat but cannot see each other in Korthos village. This is likely because one of the players is still in the snowy Korthos instance. The first thing you want to do is leave the snowy instance of Korthos and get to the sunny instance. This is easily done by talking to Valeria and the Korthos boat dock and travel to Stormreach Harbour. When you arrive, turn around and talk to Valeria again to return to Korthos and the Sunny instance. Whenever I create a new character going to Harbour is the first thing I do because there is no bank or mailbox in Korthos.

Why do we have sunny and snowy Korthos? Well it is a relic of past days when the game needed a deterrent against gold farmers. Clearly it was effective because I have not seen a gold farmer in the 5 years I have played the game however listening to the early episodes of the DDO podcast 'DDOCast' it sounds like it was a problem, even inspiring top 10 lists of gold seller chat message comments. At the moment the function remains and new players should be aware of it.

[Shoemaker]

I've started creation of a project section on DDOwiki for the Korthos Greeter thread here on the forums and part of it is this welcoming message... I've put what is here on wiki on http://ddowiki.com/page/DDO_wiki:Wel...to_New_Players and am starting to refine it to be usable for anyone on any server with additional formatting and grammar checks. I welcome any input anyone in this thread may have to offer! Thanks!