Things Every Player Should Know.

[Lil_Mischif]

I rather expect this to turn into a long thread. So please feel free to add your own suggestions that you think everyone should know. Please be considerate, new people will have to read through this. I'm sure they will appreciate if you leave out the truly obvious. This is for beginners, but is not intended as a tutorial.

Regarding Disposal of Excess Inventory:
It's pretty obvious that you can sell things just about anywhere. But there are ways to increase your cash flow.
First off, there are the Marketplace Pawn Shops. While they do specialize in weapons, armor, clothing or Jewelry, they will pay a great deal more than a Bar Keep or a General Vendor. It also bears mentioning that the higher your Haggle skill and your Charisma are, the more you will receive in return for your items.
But that's not the extent of the pawn shop markets. In House Kundarak, there is a little out-of-the-way shop (near the Teleporter) for pawning higher level armor and shields than the Marketplace dealer will accept.
Likewise, in House Deneith, there is another shop where you can Pawn higher level weapons.
Both of the last two have three different level vendors. They are not divided evenly by level, unfortunately.
If you belong to a guild with the "Three-Fingered Thad" hold room amenity, and you have really high level items to sell, you can go there. As yet though, Thad's vendors do not purchase anything like low-level items.
And finally, if you're interested in pursuing crafting, you may take your items to one of the Crafting Halls. There is a crafting tutorial available in House Kundarak. There's another Crafting Hall in the Cannith Enclave. And many of the larger guilds have a Cannith Crafting Hall in one of their Staterooms (large amenity rooms).

I'm mostly of the opinion that Crafting is best trained, in voice conversation, live in the game.
Especially since the new crafting system went into effect, the nuance level is far too complex to cover in a single post. Unless it's an extremely long one, of course. I've been working at it for a while and there are still many things I don't know. I'm thinking there's a large number of things that just need to be learned by doing.

[M0rdecai_QC]

Potions of: Remove Curse, Remove Disease, Remove Blindness, Remove Poison, and Lesser Restoration are always nice things to have.

If your Search skill isn't quite high enough to find the traps, or any of your other skills aren't quite high enough for the task, you can buy Potions of Heroism for an extra +2 to all skills.

Use Magical Device is a Charisma-based skill and is widely considered to be the best skill in the game. This is because sufficient UMD allows any class to use scrolls to cast useful spells such as Heal or Raise Dead. UMD is a class skill for: Artificers, Bards, Rogues, and Warlocks.

Carrying Raise Dead or Resurrection scrolls that you can cast is greatly appreciated by dead teammates.

You can press Ctrl= to lock or unlock your hotbars so that you don't accidentally drag icons off of the bar in the middle of combat.

You can assign key mappings to your hotbar slots in the options menu, so you can press keys on your keyboard instead of clicking icons on your hotbar.

This may be too obvious, but if you need more plat or Cannith Essences, then remember that higher level items are worth more then lower level items. So if you want to specifically farm plat and/or essences for some reason, do it on your highest level character.

This isn't exactly something every player should know, but by my calculations, assuming zero haggle, if the Auction House price of Cannith Essences is greater than 61 plat per essence, then it's actually more lucrative to deconstruct loot and sell the resulting essences on the Auction House rather than sell the loot to a pawn broker.

[C-Dog]

(Why in "off-topic"? Seems very ~on~ topic to me!)

...if the Auction House price of Cannith Essences is greater than 61 plat per essence, then it's actually more lucrative to deconstruct loot and sell the resulting essences on the Auction House rather than sell the loot to a pawn broker.

"if"?

I'm pretty sure the ratio of "Essence return : ML of item" is not a flat line. However, I am quite sure that I agree with you in principle, that deconstructing trash* items and selling those essences is FAR more profitable than pawning the items over-the-counter.

(* Some rare droploot (that actually is useful) will sell on the AH for more than you can make from selling essences. On Thelanis, Essences sell for somewhere below 1000/, giving the seller... oh, let's say 600 plat/essence (conservatively). Low-level items sold (rather than deconstructed) tend to be able to exceed this sale price more easily than higher level ones, for a wide variety of reasons.)

[Lil_Mischif]

It is quite simple to "capture" your screen layout, once you have it the way you want to see it on all your characters.
Type the following into your chat window:

/ui layout save [insert file name here]

Then type; /ui layout load [insert file name here]

Once completed, you can use the second line only to load the same screen layout for each character. Be advised however that it will not automatically pop out, nor auto rotate quick bars and the like. It will keep the location of your inventory, character sheet, bank windows and many other things.

[Draxani]

This is since I'm often asked in game for an explanation of reincarnations, and I figured I'd add my two bits to the thread

There are 5 types of reincarnation: Lesser, Heroic, Racial, Iconic, and Epic. Reincarnation is a process that allows a character who has reached a certain level to move to a different level (with the exception of Lesser Reincarnation), and grants some bonuses in the process. Each reincarnation requires an item called a "Heart" which is given to a NPC called a "Life Shaper" to trigger the process. Upon logout, you will have an option called "Reincarnate" on the character who used the heart's name. Click on the button saying "Reincarnate" to begin the process.

Lesser Reincarnation: This form of reincarnation allows a player to rebuild their character, saving their xp and allowing them to respecify, or respec, their feats and enhancements up until the level they were when the heart was used. These hearts are rarely found out of the DDO store however, which makes them expensive, and LR'ing a rarely done process. Class levels may also be changed, but only if the heart has a bonus, a +1 heart will let you switch one class lvl, a +2 heart would let you change class at 2 lvls, and so on, up until lvl 20, which lets you change every level and part of your character, with the exception of gender, name, and current xp. THis process requires you to take all banked lvls before proceeding. Even with a +X heart, you cannot change your class lvls so that at any point in time you have more than 3 classes, for example a 1 rogue, 1 fighter, 18 ranger would not be able to switch it's class after it had respecced to lvl 3, since 3 classes hd already been established. Lvls 4-20 would be locked to only rogue, ranger, or Fighter as options, limited even more by the value of the heart. All players start with a +0 heart, allowing them to respec the characters feats and starting stats, but not class makeup or leveling order. Players from before the enhancement change may find a +20 heart in their character's inventories.

Heroic True Reincarnation: Also called a TR, this lets a player move from lvl 20 back to lvl 1. They will be granted a passive feat called Past Life: Class, as well as the option to purchase a more powerful active feat with one of their feat slots. TR resets favor, monster manual progression, quest and raid completions, and wipes the comments from a friend's list (fixable by selecting "export" before, and "import" after TR), but preserves mail and friends list, as well as guild. The first two TR's also increase the beginning amount of stat points available, as well as the xp needed between each level. Past lives stack up to 3 times. When a player gets one or more past life of each class, he can use a feat slot to purchase "Completionist" a feat that grants a stacking bonus of +2 to all stats. TR requires a True Druidic Heart of wood, attainable with 20 Tokens of the Twelve.

Racial Reincarnation: THis one has everything in common with a TR, except you TR as a race instead of a class. Players reveive a racial past life instead of a class past life, and all effects are passive, with no active option. While I myself have not reached the max RTR's, I've heard it passively grants +2 to all stats, but theres no way for me to verify that, as I haven't even started RTR's. RTR's can be attained 3 times, the first gets a bonus to a skill, the second a bonus to a stat, and the third grants one Racial Action Point, an action point only spendable in a player's racial tree. The maximum number of Racial AP is equal to the number of races (currently 10). RTR's do NOT grant a Class past life as well as a racial one, and are NOT compatible with Iconic Races. RTR requires a Heart of Blood, also attainable with 20 Tokens of the Twelve.

Epic Reincarnation: ETR's are a process that takes a character from level 30 to lvl 20, and grants them an active Epic Past life feat, called a EPL. These are based of the EPic Destiny Spheres, Primal, Martial, Divine and Arcane. Within each Sphere are 3 trees. When you gain xp in epic levels, The trees gain xp and level up (this is kept through all reincarnations). The sphere a player's current Epic Destiny is in will also gain Karma, which is equal to the xp gain, and which stacks up to 6 million karma a sphere. This makes Epic Destinies required for ETR. All EPL's are active toggle-on feats, and only one may be active per sphere at a time. ETR requires a Epic Heat of wood, attainable through trading in 42 heart seeds, or 4200 Commendations of Valor. A level 30 player receives 2 heart seeds the first time the player completes any epic quest, but only once per quest per day (so for getting them all in one day, you need 21 quests). Some quest reward 2 seeds for hard, and 2 from normal on the same day (elite is also an option, but doesn't stack with hard, so is rarely run for seed farming). ETR doesn't reset any progress of manuals, favor, etc, but also takes 6 million karma from a sphere. Every 4 ETRs grants another Fate point. EPL's stack 3 times and the ETR process is identical to a LR, except that it returns you to lvl 20, no matter what.

Iconic Reincarnation: Basically a racial TR, but grants a Iconic PL, instead of a racial PL (also it predates RTR's). ITR takes a character from lvl 30 to lvl 15 (if ITR'ing into another Iconic) or lvl 1 if ITR'ing to a heroic race. IPL's are also toggle-on and stack 3 times, and only one can be on at a time (or with the PDK active ability, a cooldown before any could be used/toggled on again). ITR grants both a IPL and a Class PL if applicable. ITR requires an Iconic True HoW (Heart of Wood), which is attainable in the same way as an Epic heart of wood. ITR's do not use any karma, but require Lvl 30, meaning you get 2 PLs for one heart, and gain xp towards epic destinies, giving you 8 million karma to spend later (for example, a quick shiradi ETR build, which could use karma from a ITR from a martial life to get the speed of one ED, while gaining martial EPLs).

I know this is REALLY wordy, but I hope its helpful

Also, there's a Broker in the Tavern/Spa in Ataraxia's Haven which collects all sell-able items, meaning you can sell all weapons, armor, jewelry, and even otherwise non-broker-able items like healers kits to one person.

[EllisDee37]

Split stacks of items by holding down the Ctrl key and drag the pile to split it.

Thieves Tools are used left to right, top to bottom in your inventory. If you store your preferred tools in the top left spot of your first inventory page, they will always get used instead of crappier tools you looted from chests.

[C-Dog]

This is since I'm often asked in game for an explanation of reincarnations...

... Each reincarnation requires an item called a "Heart" which is given to a NPC called a "Life Shaper" to trigger the process. Upon logout, you will have an option called "Reincarnate" on the character who used the heart's name. Click on the button saying "Reincarnate" to begin the process...

This can be intimidating, but there's an easy way to "practice", if you can find any spare character slot, even if it's not on your main Server.

Every new character gets a Lesser Heart of Wood to start. Roll up a new character (18 Str Barbarian w/ PA & Cleave goes fast), and level up to Level 2 by running Korthos Village (or whatever it takes - Lvl 2 is fast enough).

Then use that Lesser HoW to go thru the Reincarnation process, and change everything (except class(es)) around (maybe change to an 18 Cha Barbarian with Skill Focus: Haggle - or whatever). Sell off all your stuff and delete the character.

Now you're ready for the real deal. GL!

[JOTMON]

Potions of: Remove Curse, Remove Disease, Remove Blindness, Remove Poison, and Lesser Restoration are always nice things to have.

These are more than nice to have..
I would go so far to say its more of a don't adventure without them.

Use Magical Device is a Charisma-based skill and is widely considered to be the best skill in the game. This is because sufficient UMD allows any class to use scrolls to cast useful spells such as Heal or Raise Dead. UMD is a class skill for: Artificers, Bards, Rogues, and Warlocks.

Carrying Raise Dead or Resurrection scrolls that you can cast is greatly appreciated by dead teammates.

indeed,
plan to build UMD on every toon except maybe a cleric... and even then....
Target is 39 UMD. primarially for Heal and Resurrection scrolls. of which always have at least a stack of each of these scrolls for adventuring..
Lots of other scrolls available from NPC's.. take a trip to the portable hole and stock up...


~~

Other stuff to keep in mind..
1. adventurer motto: Kill stuff, Don't die
2. its ok to runaway to avoid death, just don't runaway down unexplored/cleared area's.. they lead to death.
3. if death is imminent.. get as close to a rez shrine as possible..
4. plan to be self sufficient, be able to heal yourself and others if necessary.
5. keep your HP topped up between battles..
6. adjust pace of questing as needed to suit party/solo progress.. avoid taking on more than you can handle.
7. Remember where the shrines are as you progress incase you need to go back.
8. move the battlefield as best you can to your advantage.. like..
don't stand in middle of a room full of archers to fight.. get to a control point... where you can control/mitigate their ranged damage.
Don't stand in mob AOE spell effects.. like standing in a firewall.. taking damage for no good reason is silly.. move around..

[Lil_Mischif]

Start with the Crafting Tutorial in House Kundarak crafting hall.
You will be given a Heavy Mace, to craft. OR, if this is not a usable piece of equipment for your character, you can go to the Hammer and Chain (in the Harbor) to pick up nearly any base weapon, armor or shield that suits you (and they are SUPER Cheep). Do not attempt the crafting tutorial with clothing or jewelry items.

It's very important to note that items created by using Cannith Crafting become permanently Bound to Account. There is no turning them back to Unbound even by stripping them back to zero properties. There is however a benefit to this. Bound to Account and Bound to Character items cannot take any permanent damage. Even if the item is broken in a dungeon, to the point of being unusable, it will take no permanent damage during repair.

Unless you find one in your first few quests, I highly recommend picking up a ring somewhere and crafting it for Feather Falling. And while you're at it, try for a pair of goggles crafted for Underwater Action. You can take a look at the machine to see what you'll need to collect to make them, and try using the DDO Wiki to search for where to find those ingredients. once you have those two items, with your first character, you'll find you don't want to live without them for any other.

Depending on the server you're on and luck, you may be able to pick up a needed jewelry or clothing item from the lowest level dealers in the market pawn shops. Or occasionally you might find good deals in the auction house.

Unless you are creating items specifically for low-level characters, I would personally recommend that you try to restrict your efforts to "special" items. For instance;

Skirmish/Battle (preferably with a Blue Slot) for armor
Darkwood/Mithril/Blue Slot for shields
Weapons with Red Slots
Clothing and Jewelry items with a minimum of a Yellow Slot

Obviously, if you are crafting for a level 1 or 5 character, you will probably need to use basic equipment. Whatever color, slots tend to add to the minimum level when crafted. Likewise for special materials on shields, armor or weapons. And while crafted equipment can be stripped and re-crafted, why spend hard earned Cannith Essence on an item your character will outgrow in just a couple of levels or so. That said, if you have Shared Bank space, you can always pass down items one character has outgrown.

And while I'm aware that not everyone can afford to upgrade their Shared Bank, it still bears mentioning that all of the ingredients and collectibles will actually go in the Crafting Storage, in the Shared Bank. Actually, anything that goes into a bag or quiver will go into the Crafting Storage. Extra Bonus; crafting ingredients and collectibles can usually be used from the Crafting Storage.

Although I don't use them myself, I am aware of outside programs that will help you create crafted items. Feel free to look for those to help yourself. Bearing that in mind, I will refrain from attempting the gargantuan task of stating what effects are now available in the crafting system. Nevermind what each effect does, what items they will attach to and whether they will go in a prefix, suffix or extra slot.

One major improvement I found, with the recent alterations to the crafting system, is that you can now put a partially crafted item in the item crafting machines (bound or unbound) and be able to see what you are still able to add to it.


Currently, this is as complete as I can manage. If I think of something else, I will add it.

[Enoach]

You don't need a "Share" before you step in a quest to get end reward credit. You only need it before the quest is completed.

You can still do optional objectives after the quest is completed. There are some exceptions.

[C-Dog]

Along the extreme south road in The Harbor, starting at the foot of the pier and moving up to the gate to The Market, there are 3 NPC's who will each give you a "bag". Each is different, and each can auto-collect some of the stuff you will start to gather - gems, collectables, and crafting materials. Get these, open them and set them to "auto-collect". Hit "Gather" if your pack is already cluttered with these misc. items.

Then, in the far northwest corner of The Harbor, there is a weapons store, the "Hammer and Chain". About the only useful "weapon" they sell is ammo, but the ranged vendor also sells "quivers" for only a few plat. Grab a "wide" one, open it and set it on "auto-collect", and drop it into your "quiver" gear slot. It will then work the same as the above bags, collecting up to 2 stacks (200) of 6 diff types of ammo. (If you are ranged, also grab a "narrow" quiver to use for your actual ammo. 400 x 3. Grab more than one if you feel the need.) Not that equipped quivers feed you ammo from the top down, so organize it appropriately - don't get stuck with some Level 12 ammo at the top that you can't use!

(Edit - the H&C generic weapons can be used for crafting. Dunno why I thought the opposite.)

(Right next door to the H&C is a magic shop where most(!) casters can find basic (low-level) material ingredients, etc.)

Lastly, don't forget to sell the gems regularly (by selecting the "Sell" tab and then clicking "Sell Gems" at any Tavernkeep/Merchant). As for the others, if you're not going to use them some can sell for a nice price on the AH. Sim w/ unwanted arrows/bolts, but you have to do this manually.

[Lil_Mischif]

Greate suggestions. Thank you, M0rdecai_QC.

[Lil_Mischif]

There are 5 types of reincarnation: Lesser, Heroic, Racial, Iconic, and Epic. Reincarnation is a process ...

While I do appreciate the input, this thread was intended for novices (people who are entirely new to the game). They are unlikely to pay attention to information such as this. Quite simply, they won't need it for a long time, possibly even years.

[Draxani]

While I do appreciate the input, this thread was intended for novices (people who are entirely new to the game). They are unlikely to pay attention to information such as this. Quite simply, they won't need it for a long time, possibly even years.

I totally understand, I'll try to post more immediately relevant information in the future. My train of thought was that I get asked about reincarnation fairly often by newer players (typically lvls 2-7) who are trying to plan ahead or want to know what they need for their character. However, I can see how this isn't relevant to an entirely new player, and I'll try to post more beginner relevant stuff from now on. Thanks for the feedback though

[Lil_Mischif]

... As you offer your suggestions, new characters (whether they belong to experienced or novice players) start with quite limited available space.
And not everyone has the wherewithal to afford to buy more personal backpack and bank space, let alone shared bank, etc.

I'm trying to do everything I can here to encourage new people to stay in the game. The learning curve for this, and presumably other games of its nature, is positively enormous. Let's avoid inundating our novices with information they can't possibly use at this time.
Please feel free to create your own thread to give slightly more experienced novices the information that they will surely, eventually, need. This is not the place for it.

[Lil_Mischif]

When you first come "off the boat" from Korthose, you will be able to get a series of FREE bags.
Baudry Cartamon will give you a red "Small Collectables Bag", just for accepting his quest. When you pick up Treasure Bags or interact with a sparkly item, on the ground, in a dungeon or adventure area, the resulting collectible will go into the Collectibles Bag.
Fitzat the Fence will do likewise when you accept his quest. But he will give you a blue "Small Gem Bag". Please do note the gems that go into this bag should be sold for more cash.
When you reach the gate to the Market, Felix d'Cannith will be happy to give you a green "Tiny Ingredients Bag". And if you wish, you may be able to pick up the path to the Crafting Tutorial from him as well.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Be sure to open each of your bags, lock them down and select the Auto Gather click box inside the bag. Locking is necessary to prevent accidentally disposing of your bags. Auto Gather will cause items picked up to be immediately deposited into the appropriate bag/quiver, assuming there is space.

If you have just a few Platinum, continue on through the harbor to the Hammer and Chain, general weapons and armor shop, near the bank. Pick up your choice of a Thin Quiver &/or a Wide Quiver. Consider doing so even if you don't use a bow. It will save a ton of inventory space. I regularly carry 1 Wide Quiver, in my backpack and 1 Thin Quiver equipped to the ammunition slot, beneath your "Paper Doll".

If you are a Rogue &/or a Crafter (or you just want to), you can go into the Twelve. The Twelve Patron, just inside the entrance to the tower, will give you a Small Ingredients Bag.
When you've collected some cash, you will be able to get MEDIUM Collectables and Gem bags from shops in House Jorasco or House Phiarlan. Depending upon your Charisma Stat and Haggle Skill, each bag will cost around 8,000 Platinum. Probably not higher than 9,000 Platinum.
Please do not be fooled! People will try to sell the same bags, that you can buy at the above prices, for much more money in the Auction House. Do Not confuse these with the much larger bags of the same colors. And you probably shouldn't waste your precious inventory space on additional ingredient bags, beyond what you can get for free.

[Lil_Mischif]

Deleted

For some reason, I could not use the delete button.

[Lil_Mischif]

Regarding the Cannith Crafting, post, I seem to have neglected to mention something.
I am uncertain to what level it will continue to do so, but if you have your crafter do all the item deconstruction (that which you do to acquire essences), it will help you gain crafting levels more quickly.
It is also important to note that, I have noticed the lower the level of the character doing the construction, the greater return of Essences you are likely to receive.

[C-Dog]

If you read just a bit back in the thread, you will see that I covered everything you said, except the mention of the magic shop...

I see where you did after my post - what's your point?

I...I have to strongly disagree regarding the Hammer and Chain equipment. For extreme low levels, that may be the only way they can get a usable weapon of the type they need (ie. Sickles for an Olladra Cleric)...

And I have to disagree with you.

If a character is designed to use sickles, they're going to get better dps (as a new build) w/ a "+1d6 x-damage" non-sickle than with a generic non-magical one. (Besides, how many "new players" are going to go w/ an obscure weapon build?!)

Also, recommending crafting to a brand new player? It can all be summed up in 2 words - "Auction House". (Same w/ specialty weapons, for that matter.) Not every player will want to craft (ever!), and even fewer new ones will want to detour their initial experience of the game to the "grind" (however you define that) of the Crafting Hall.

Anyone who can do basic math knows that a +1 heavy mace (d8) does less damage than a +1+1d6 dagger (d4) - to choose the smallest weapon out there, which you'll easily find (or better) in Korthos somewhere. And all ll but the most esoteric builds will be better to start with one of the Ember weapons offered before Korthos, than with a +0 whatever from the weapons shop.

The title of this thread (that someone who will go nameless chose, ahem) is "Things Every Player Should Know", not "Things Any Player Might Conceivably Want to Know".

[Lil_Mischif]

... the "Hammer and Chain". About the only useful "weapon" they sell is ammo (can't Craft these weapons into blanks) ...

I'm afraid I have to disagree with you here. Many times, while doing the Crafting Quest (or if I couldn't find a weapon, of type/level, that I needed) I've used the items, sold in the Hammer and Chain, to craft on.

It's also worth mentioning that a complete novice may only be able to afford a weapon from the Hammer and Chain. And who wants to spend most of their platinum on something they are just going to strip to run through the crafting quest with? Not all novices have help with money or leveling up. Sometimes it can be difficult getting platinum, when you're first starting. An on many servers, people tend to post stuff that's worth anything, for outrageous prices.

I don't recommend using items bought at the Hammer and Chain, for higher than L5 (or maybe as high as 7 in a pinch). By then you should be able to find *something* with materials, slots or something to add a bit of a boost.

Now there is a shop, somewhere in Deneith, that sells +1 versions of those same items, from the Hammer and Chain. Those Can Not be crafted.

I will offer a potential clarification about AMO. Unless it is a Returning item, amo can not be crafted. It is possible to Create some amo, through crafting though.