Father & Son Duo - Need Advise

[sooktest]

My son and I want to see how well we can do as a duo.

Could I get some advice on a duo set of character types to play? What would those builds look like?

I recall a build planner, do people still use that tool to plan a character in this game?

Ideally we'd stay free to play to get started.... but still...open to all ideas.

[UurlockYgmeov]

My son and I want to see how well we can do as a duo.

Could I get some advice on a duo set of character types to play? What would those builds look like?

I recall a build planner, do people still use that tool to plan a character in this game?

Ideally we'd stay free to play to get started.... but still...open to all ideas.

sounds fun!

Check out my Signature for the two planners: Ron's and EllisDee37's - both are great, I personally use Character Builder Lite.

Good Luck!

[Armatone]

I'm going to follow this thread.

Be sure to keep us updated on how things are going!

[Nuclear_Elvis]

My son and I want to see how well we can do as a duo.

Could I get some advice on a duo set of character types to play? What would those builds look like?

I recall a build planner, do people still use that tool to plan a character in this game?

Ideally we'd stay free to play to get started.... but still...open to all ideas.

Strategy/thoughts for you:

- One as Rogue to find traps and secret doors, and open locks (which then opens entire dungeon to you), the other as a healer/melee.

My opinion, the Rogue should be Rogue/Mechanic wielding Great Crossbow so you have some ranged power (and Rogue/Mech is the most powerful Rogue type at the moment).

Other character: Paladin or Cleric/Warpriest, but I would say Paladin unless you are always going to bring in a Cleric hireling. If each of you always summons in a hireling, then you could offset by going Barbarian or Fighter.

This mix should prove very useful and have utility to dungeon crawl, while keeping your survivability rate high.

[unbongwah]

Pretty much any combo of classes can duo DDO; you can find plenty of builds in this thread, with the F2P-friendlier ones flagged as such.

[PsychoBlonde]

In my experience the best combos for duoing are:

One dps trapper
One AOE caster

You can pretty much do any KIND of combo of that, though. But for a two-man team you generally want both traps and AOE damage of some kind.

[LeadHero5]

I just finished a rogue and sorc duo, but we were warforged. As new players you will be restricted to certain classes and races. The rogue will really make getting through for you, unknown traps; plus all that sweet loot behind optional, hidden areas, and locked chests. The other can be the cleric if you feel comfortable being 'responsible' for your teams health. You can each bring a hireling, one cleric/fvs for backup healing and a fighter/barb for extra dps. They can be hired for very reasonable cost. Don't be afraid to leave them behind as you get more experienced. I have found the hirelings to be ok but sometimes they get themselves killed, use up mana, and generally have to be micro managed.

And yes, keep us posted.

[Baktiotha]

What types of characters do you like to play and how old is the son?

If the son is younger and not too disciplined then giving him a barbarian, fighter, paladin or ranger might work for you. A rogue 1/ranger 19 could be a good choice as he would handle all the traps and also be able to alternate between ranged and melee combat while maintaining a reasonable amount of self healing.

As the father in that situation you could then play a healing/supporting character. Younger kids often like warforged so you could duo as warforged and play a wizard or sorcerer with an array of repair spells. Otherwise cleric or favored soul.

OTOH, if the son is older you might find other options more attractive. A pair of ranged characters will do particularly well if you have access to artificer. The artificer pets would give you a 4 member group with the dogs being classed as fighters.

Dual wizards would work well too using the skeletal knight from Pale Master tree in the same manner. Rogue 2/wizard 18 would be a strong choice.

If you anticipate playing on into epic content you might look at bard with the swashbuckler enhancement, rogue with the mechanic enhancement or paladin (enhancement choice a bit of a personal matter).

Of course, if you have access to warlock that is the easy path to success. Both warlock and artificer will need you to purchase access. (Technically you can earn artificer but need the Cannith pack to do so -- meaning you are ahead to just buy outright in most cases.)

[Enoach]

To be able to have tools between the two of you to do dungeons there are a few options that you might find work well together.

• Fighter/Barbarian (flesh) and Druid <- Lacks traps/locks
• Wiz/Rog and Druid/Cleric/Paladin
• Bard/Rog and Cleric/Monk or Druid/Monk
• Ftr/Wiz and Cleric/Rog
• many more

If your son is not someone that you think could handle several buttons/options at a time I would recommend Fighter, Barbarian or Ranger, then you look to a multi-class that can cover the lions share of healing and traps.

[Stoner81]

Greetings and welcome to DDO!

I would go with Rogue and Cleric, Rogues have very very good DPS at the moment as Mechanics. Clerics are very good at healing themselves and others and can have good melee DPS if you don't focus on offensive spellcasting.

Stoner81.

[JOTMON]

My son and I want to see how well we can do as a duo.

Could I get some advice on a duo set of character types to play? What would those builds look like?

I recall a build planner, do people still use that tool to plan a character in this game?

Ideally we'd stay free to play to get started.... but still...open to all ideas.

lots of viable variations.
Generally you want at least one player to have trapping skills.. rogue or artificer
now this could be apure class or something like a wiz18/rogue2. few variations in the forums..some simple, some more complicated..

Personally, I would suggest starting simple.. both build Warforged Artificers.
Warforged gives you repair ( can still get healed but it is reduced) and artificers have access to lots of repair spells, so you can essentially repair each other and yourselves.
Runaround with repeating crossbows. stay together or crossfire mobs.

[Stoner81]

Personally, I would suggest starting simple.. both build Warforged Artificers.

While a good suggestion they are both Premium features and the OP would like to start out F2P.

Stoner81.

[Baktiotha]

While a good suggestion they are both Premium features and the OP would like to start out F2P.

That doesn't mean that warforged artificers are not a good suggestion. OP will find out soon enough that F2P is a real grind and that he wants more content anyway. Unless extremely poor (in which case he should probably not be investing in computers and the internet) OP can spend $20 per account for 1600 TP each and pick up artificer on both accounts. That $40 investment is probably two trips to eat fast food or an afternoon at the movies -- so not particularly burdensome on most people.

Artificer is very good for heroic content. It also works well in most epic content and adequately in the remaining epic and legendary content on normal/hard settings.

The problem is that we don't know enough information about the father/son. Knowing something about the son's age and knowing something about preferred play styles would help narrow down the advice.

Edit: I should point out that OP may have lots of content already since he lists as a founder from February 2006. OP may be premium already so it would mean just a small investment for the son.

[bls904c2]

Welcome

as a father who plays this game with his kids ( 13, 9, 7, 6 ) it has been a blast playing with them. their accounts started as free 2 play and the only things that was purchased was the expansions which we purchased around christmas time at 75% off. 2 of them have opened up all quest packs through the use of the free Turbine Points (TP) given to you every 100 favor. over 2 1/2 years of play. i on the other hand have spent a pretty penny.

for classes to start

a rouge is very important to have because of all the hidden areas and locked chests/ doors.

a pure rouge can be an easy button (crossbow build) to a multi button assassin build to just a splash of one or 2 levels of rouge. for ideas there are plenty of examples in classes area of the forums.

a rouge/wiz or rouge sorc is also a good option

the second player can be anything you like if you use hireling clerics

being free to play and just running it as a duo, you will have to play everything on normal first giving you a feel of the quest and monsters.

i recommend playing a few different classes to level 6 so you can get a feel of the basic functions of the class to find out what you want to play. on top of trying out the class you will earn TP points to get new packs. one thing to remember is magic classes are weak in beginning and get stronger as you progress.

have fun because the wildernesses and quests are new only once, so enjoy it. explore every nook. don't worry about good builds. go for flavor enjoy the game there is plenty of time for building the best toon you can make at a later date.

one thing you might want to do is also check out the different servers and look at how many people are on. player population can affect your experience when you decide you would like to try out raids. there are also guilds that can offer you help and advice when you get out of the starting area of korthos. guilds also have a perk of guild airship that offer buffs to help strengthen your characters.

enjoy the journey you are about to embark on. there are beautiful sights to be had, glorious battles to be won, and many treasures to be plundered.

[Stoner81]

That doesn't mean that warforged artificers are not a good suggestion. OP will find out soon enough that F2P is a real grind and that he wants more content anyway. Unless extremely poor (in which case he should probably not be investing in computers and the internet) OP can spend $20 per account for 1600 TP each and pick up artificer on both accounts. That $40 investment is probably two trips to eat fast food or an afternoon at the movies -- so not particularly burdensome on most people.

Artificer is very good for heroic content. It also works well in most epic content and adequately in the remaining epic and legendary content on normal/hard settings.

The problem is that we don't know enough information about the father/son. Knowing something about the son's age and knowing something about preferred play styles would help narrow down the advice.

Edit: I should point out that OP may have lots of content already since he lists as a founder from February 2006. OP may be premium already so it would mean just a small investment for the son.

Read my post again, I clearly state that it is a good suggestion but the OP clearly states that they wish to start as F2P and they may move to Premium or VIP further down the line.

Stoner81.

[Arianrhod]

A few random thoughts to add to what others have already said -

- If you're new to the game/f2p/first life/guildless, be wary of any builds you find posted in the forums, unless they're specifically described as newbie-friendly. Most of the popular builds will assume resources new/free players just won't have (past lives, tomes, etc.)

- If you have access to the classes, a druid and an artificer can be a good combo, because the controllable pets can be used for a variety of tasks that would otherwise require extra party members. Pale Master wizards have a pet that works too, and don't require any special access. Of course there's always hirelings, but the pets don't take a party slot, so can be used in addition to hirelings

- Rogue skills are more important than healing, since "pocket healer" hirelings can be had for ingame gold and rogue hirelings cost TP

- playstyle/fun trumps efficiency - if you both really like playing rogues (which can be surprisingly fun, playing ping-pong with the aggro), do that. It'll be better in the end than one person getting frustrated/bored trying to be the healer or tank (or whatever) when they don't really like doing it.

[Jacque159]

My husband and I play together duo. We are working on completionist and build all pairs to compliment each other. Others have covered builds that work together well. Just keep in mind the spot skill of your melee toon. Since they will be leading the way in the quests, it pays to have high spot to see the traps before getting killed by them.

[Rykka]

Paladin and TrapperRanger are a good combo. Both can dps. Both can heal. Trapper can disarm traps and open locks for more xp and optional encounters. Pally can cast SLA Greater Restore and cast raise dead scrolls/spell. Neither are too squishy.

Pure Ranger and Pure Rogue are complementary. Both can be very stealthy and/or be ranged killers. Rogue support comes from their higher UMD skill and scrolls and their trapping skill.

Pretty much any pair of characters that are built to be self sufficient, but that can aid their teammate in a pinch, become very strong as a pair.

Less fun (imo) are combos including a primarily support character, like a cleric, and non-support character, like a fighter. Clerics are very good at supporting larger groups, but they lose out in personal dps and have unnecessary strong healing specialization for a pair of characters IMO. It works fine but is unnecessary when most classes can be built to not need a healer 99% of the time and just need a scroll cast Raise Dead after they walk facefirst through a nasty trap.