1-20 Quest guide for efficient TR'ing (No Sov pots edition)

[zehnvhex]

There are several decent TR'ing quest guides out there but so far all of them have shared the requirement that you down Sov pots non-stop, they run with a perma-group or they're wicked out of date making them sometimes hard to follow/keep pace with.

I've created a path that I've now done numerous HTR/RTR's on and it's been pretty quick. It's not the highest reaper xp path and does involve some re-running of quests. The goal here is to level quickly without relying on Sov pots to do the heavy lifting. Reaper xp is just a nice byproduct.

I average about 30k reaper xp per TR and it takes about ~36 hours of play time to hit 20. I typically alternate between a warlock (of course), sorcerer, rogue mech/artificer and melee cleric. I've also done some absolutely awful builds (Centered long sword favored soul) so this isn't a power build exclusive thing.

These are all fairly popular quests too so getting groups isn't terribly difficult/uncommon if you play during peak times.

---

Requirements:

- While this is designed for not guzzling sov pots like water, this quest path does make use of the permanent xp bonuses available in the game. This includes Heroic Tome of Learning (can get one free with MOTU expansion pack), 5% XP item and guild bonus to xp.

- This is by no means a F2P guide. There is lots of paid content required here, some of which is expansion content so you'll need more than VIP to run them all. DDO is a really fun game so I recommend dropping the 10bux to get all this stuff anyways.

- You will need a Shadow Crypts opener. A SC opener is a secondary account that has completed the first four quests of Necro 2 and gotten the quest for Shadow Crypts. Then they just need to sit in the group and you can zone in without having to do all 4 of the pre quests.

If you are unable to make one or have access to one, then doing the entire Necro 2 chain twice (once on reaper, again on elite) works out to being roughly the same amount of xp albeit much more slowly and some of the quests can be pretty difficult solo.

I -strongly- recommend taking the time to make an SC opener. Get a second account (free) and either buy Necro 2 or farm up enough favor to get it (takes about a day). If you are at all serious about getting multiple past lives, the amount of time/energy this saves you is well worth it.

---

Notes:

- Quests are run on R1 unless otherwise indicated.

- Quests marked with a * mean that you run them on REHN.

- Quests marked with a ** mean that you run them on REH and then repeat normal until you level if you haven't already.

- If you can't run reaper for a quest it's okay to lower the difficulty. Doing a quest on elite, then again on hard, is about the same XP as doing it once on reaper. If it's a quest I recommend repeating, just do it two extra times on normal. So instead of REHN, do EHNNN.

- If you are a first/second life character, you can get by running most of these quests simply on normal or hard and still keep pace, probably even end up ahead on most of them.

- By all means, if there is a quest you enjoy doing that is not listed, go ahead and do it. This is a list of probably the most efficient path, but that doesn't mean adding stuff you enjoy to it will make you not hit 20. Some people hate Necro1, so do the Detphs quests instead and that's fine. Some have trouble with Irestone Inlet (it's not an easy quest at that level for everyone). This is a framework. Feel free to build off it to suit your needs.

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1
XP Stones to hit level 2

OR
Korthos quests

OR
Harbor
- Protect Baudry's Interests
- Stop Hazadill's Shipment
Run these on Elite, then abandon the chain and rerun them on H and then N to level. Remember, you only need to kill 10 kobolds then can afk.

2-3
Harbor
- Haverdasher
- Durk's Got A Secret
- Information is Key
- Garrison's Missing Pack
- Walk the Butchers Path
- Stealthy Reposession
- Recovering the Lost Tome
- Waterworks Chain
- Kobolds New Ringleader **

4
Harbor
- Irestone Inlet * - If you find Irestone too difficult to solo, the 'Depths' chain from House D is also a good choice here.

Marketplace
- Shan To Kar Chain
- The Sacred Helm
- Missing in Action
- The Sunken Sewer

5
Necropolis
- Necro 1 (all 4 pre-quests and bloody crypt)

Marketplace
- Catacombs (first three quests only)

6
3BC
- Two-Toed Tobias
- Garl's Tomb (lizard/undead)
- Prove your worth
- Ghost of a chance

7
3BC
- Scoundrel's Run
- Fire Caves (P1/2)

Graveyard - House J
- Delara chain

8
Necropolis
- Shadow Crypt ** - If you don't have a SC opener, get one. If you still don't, running the entire chain on Reaper then elite is roughly the same exp.

9
Necropolis
- Shadow Crypt (two more times on normal)

House D
- Spies *

House K
- VoN 1, 2, 4

10
(OPTIONAL)Hall of Heroes
- Slavers chain if you're able to solo it. Some easy to make great TRing loot. However, the xp is trash for the difficulty/length of the quests and you're better off just doing VoN3 on normal a bunch more times.

House K
- VoN3 **

11
Sands
- Sands walkups
- Mines *
- Wiz King
- Chains of Flame - Chains of Flame is actually garbage XP for the time it takes to get to it and complete it so I usually just run Wiz King a second time on Hard and do a full clear of the optionals.
- OOB **

12
Ravenloft
- Saga on reaper

OPTIONAL 12 IF YOU DO NOT OWN RAVENLOFT
- First, get Ravenloft, it's that good.
- Otherwise head to Lordsmarch and do the Diplo/Attack chains
- You can skip Siegebreaker if solo since that one is really difficult for many builds and not really worth the time/effort solo.
- Then go to House D and grab the Relic of a Sovereign Past quest and repeat it on REHN (helpful to use an opener so you don't have to run back and forth each time)
- Then finally go to Harbor and run Memoirs until you level

13
Gianthold
- Saga on reaper

14
Gianthold
- Saga on elite

15
Orchard
- Inferno
- Lab
- Vol *
- Ghosts **

16
Orchard
- Litany *

Harbor
- Missing
- Fear factory

ES
- Shar quests

Wheloon
- Wheloon Arc
- Optional: If you do not have access to Litany because you didn't get enough parts to make a sigil, then just run the Wheloon arc again on elite and, if necessary, again on hard.

17
ES
- Druid Chain <---You'll want a group for these typically. Wisps hurt. This is probably the hardest part.
- High Road Chain
- Riddle
- Murder by night

18->cap
ES
- Storm Horns Chain <---Depending on your level of comfort with the game, these quests can be hard. Fairly easy to get groups for this though.
- Turn in two ES saga's

Vale
- Vale chain until capped <--- Vale is just what I find best/easiest to top off any leftover XP. If there's other quests you're more comfortable doing/enjoy, then go ahead and do them. Reavers Refuge stuff, Lords of Dust, etc... I just personally love Vale.

[zehnvhex]

For kicks and grins I timed some of my runs from 1-20 (solo) to get an idea of how long it takes, what quests I'd end up skipping, etc...

No XP pots ~ 31 hours.

30% XP pots ~ 24 hours (skipped several repeat runs of quests, skipped wiz king/chains of flame, did only CC in Vale)

50% XP pots ~ 18 hours (skipped all repeat runs except Shadow Crypt and VoN3, skipped Sands entirely, skipped elite GH saga, skipped Vale entirely)

[Whitering]

Thank you for the guide, I do love the Ravenloft quests and loot, though not all of them are quick by any means. Into the Mists is spectacularly quick for a quest and can get some very nice level 10 BTA/BTC loot from these quests. Do you have Ravenloft? I wonder what you think of these quests.

[zehnvhex]

Yup. I currently do Ravenloft starting at level 12 on reaper. Sometimes if I'm really sick of doing Sands (Sands suuuuuucks without friends) I do RL on 11 on reaper and then run it again on elite. It's not strictly faster or better xp, it's just less annoying, especially if you have decent cleave.

They can all be pretty quick provided you know/learn how to do them quick. Some of the 'longer' ones can be done pretty quickly.

- Castle Ravenloft: If I get hall of heroes, chapel or north tower for ally card I reset the dungeon real quick. They're the longest ones (at least for my playstyle).

- Tea Party: Seems like it should be really long but all you need to do is rush to Ivan or whatever his name is, trigger him and then get to the jeweled key and end. The timing 100% depends on your ability to kill devils. With good cleave it's pretty quick/easy. I won't lie though this quest is brutal.

- Sealed in Amber: Recently nerfed but still pretty quick. Look up the Amber temple project and it'll give you an idea of how quick it can be. Some of the cards are still only a 3~4 minute quest.

[mikarddo]

Great list, thanks.

I think a few more are worth mentioning and maybe considering due to being fast xp.

4-5: Depth of Chain
12: Diplo + Framework
12: Relic
14: Grim + Subversion
16: Lords of Dust
16: Mask of Deception

[zehnvhex]

Great list, thanks.

I think a few more are worth mentioning and maybe considering due to being fast xp.

4-5: Depth of Chain
12: Diplo + Framework
12: Relic
14: Grim + Subversion
16: Lords of Dust
16: Mask of Deception

Diplo/Framework/Relic was my go-to prior to Ravenloft. However, with how stupid quick and good the xp is on Ravenloft + the saga bonus it's the way to go now. If you don't have RL though, Diplo/Frame is the next best and Relic if you use an opener is crazy good/fast xp to pound out REHN.

I've considered doing Depth's instead of the first handful of quests in Cata. My problem is the chain can actually be pretty brutal at low level reaper. The first three Cata quests are about the same XP, maybe a little less, but are significantly faster (for the builds I play at least).

Different strokes of course. It's a good quick quest series but I've found it unnecessary.

[Morrissey87]

Hey nice guide. I'm new on ddo here and I have some questions like how you run solo on those difficulties to maintain bravery bonuses? I find very hard to run quests on elite even with a cleric hireling because I always get hold monster on me in chains and can just watch as me and my hireling dies. Specially hirelings aren't as smart as the enemy, they like to stand on fire and wait until you health drops to 1 to start healing you. There's also the trap problem, some quests have unavoidable traps wich oneshot you on elite if you are not a rogue.

[HungarianRhapsody]

Hey nice guide. I'm new on ddo here and I have some questions like how you run solo on those difficulties to maintain bravery bonuses? I find very hard to run quests on elite even with a cleric hireling because I always get hold monster on me in chains and can just watch as me and my hireling dies. Specially hirelings aren't as smart as the enemy, they like to stand on fire and wait until you health drops to 1 to start healing you. There's also the trap problem, some quests have unavoidable traps wich oneshot you on elite if you are not a rogue.

1) after you are familiar with individual quests, they are much easier to run. Knowing where traps are and where hard fights are makes a huge difference.

2) having a past live or twelve under your belt and some good gear makes a huge difference.

3) knowing DDO in general and the current meta makes life easier. I only started my first warlock life a month ago and I'm on my second warlock life and it's worlds different than the Fighter life I did recently. Knowing when to stay away and when to run up and get stuck in to a fight or knowing when to pick off individual targets and when to try to group up enemies and beat them down with are damage is probably the biggest "secret" to DDO. Because every class can do great things (even Favored Soul), but they each do great things differently. And they're certainly not all equal. Knowing what your class can and can't do is a big part of being able to push your difficulty level up.

4)wasd is the best AC you can have. If you aren't standing where the Ray is pointed, you don't have to even try to make the saving throw.

[SuperNiCd]

Thanks for the guide zehn!

Hey nice guide. I'm new on ddo here and I have some questions like how you run solo on those difficulties to maintain bravery bonuses? I find very hard to run quests on elite even with a cleric hireling because I always get hold monster on me in chains and can just watch as me and my hireling dies. Specially hirelings aren't as smart as the enemy, they like to stand on fire and wait until you health drops to 1 to start healing you. There's also the trap problem, some quests have unavoidable traps wich oneshot you on elite if you are not a rogue.

Welcome! If this is your first life, and especially if you're willing to solo, I'd recommend dropping the difficulty down to whatever your build can handle and still gives you some challenge. Enjoy the story lines. Learn the quests. Learn how to get around the traps (not all are avoidable but many are). Don't worry about bravery bonus.

You only need 1/2 as much XP to go from 1-20 as someone running their 3rd+ life, so you won't need to re-run these quests as many times (maybe not at all) to level up. Many of the people who would be following this guide have run these quests dozens, perhaps hundreds of times and that helps a great deal with running higher difficulty.

Also, classes/builds are not good at the same things. A quest that might be easy on a paladin might be very tough to solo on a wiz. The quests aren't built equal either. You might find that if you compare two quests at the same level, one is considerably harder than the other one.

[zehnvhex]

Hey nice guide. I'm new on ddo here and I have some questions like how you run solo on those difficulties to maintain bravery bonuses? I find very hard to run quests on elite even with a cleric hireling because I always get hold monster on me in chains and can just watch as me and my hireling dies. Specially hirelings aren't as smart as the enemy, they like to stand on fire and wait until you health drops to 1 to start healing you. There's also the trap problem, some quests have unavoidable traps wich oneshot you on elite if you are not a rogue.

- If you're first/second life I'd recommend dropping down difficulties. You can easily streak to 20 doing just normal first life and doing just hard on second life. It's third life where you'll need to consider doing at least elite and repeat. As nice as bravery bonus is, keep in mind you don't absolutely need to maintain it. I've broken mine more times then I can count.

- If you're on your third life and still having a hard time, consider what build you're doing and/or if you have decent gear for it. A sorcerer wearing modern Ravenloft gear for example will have a much easier time then a cleric wearing random quest greens. Also, while a quest guide is great and all don't be afraid to just open up the LFM and do whatever quest someone else is doing. Even if you've already done it. XP is XP.

- Hirelings are best used as a 'mobile potion dispenser.' I have a 'summon to me' hotkeyed and a macro for 'target me, heal me and then stand still.' I almost never use a cleric hireling while in combat. It is almost always better to die and either have the hireling drag you to a rez stone (or rez you themselves) then it is to risk having both you and the hireling die in combat.

- If you find a particular quest difficult there is no shame in skipping it and doing something else 2~3 more times, or just mixing it up and finding a quest you haven't done yet but are comfortable with. My mechanic rogue for example doesn't do too well in Wiz King so I just skip that one and do another quest in that range a few more times.

- Most traps you can avoid simply by timing, jumping, or moving past them before they activate. There are very few traps in the game you cannot skip/bypass. Some of the spell traps in Friends in Low Places is about the only ones I can think off of the top of my head that you -have- to walk through.

Remember that if a door/lever has a trap that activates when you trigger it you can use a hireling for that (useful in places like VoN3, VoN4, Feast in Gianthold, etc...)

If there's a particular trap you're having trouble with, let me know.

[Morrissey87]

Thanks for all the replies! Very useful tips. I'm currently playing with a rogue 17 now and some other classes on 8 and 9, when I get bored of the rogue.
I should focus on doing my quests on normal or hard then, since I run elite on low lvl quests to farm favor and unlock all account features. The higher ones I have problem with the cc most times, since as a Rogue I can ignore most damage that comes at me. But being hepless sucks.
Traps I remember gave me headache I can think of one now and It's the one nearly the entrance of Proof is in the poison, the cross fire trap. Have to run through that one unless I can disarm it. Also I'm having trouble sometimes with my rogue to disarm traps even on normal, I have low 10 wis and 16 int and not always get to the search checks or even the spot checks, I have all related skills maxed but a couple of traps elude me. I guess some dungeons have harder traps than others even at same level.
Thanks again for all the tips, this is my first time playing ddo and my first lifes and I was having hard time to level specially with casters.

[zehnvhex]

Thanks for all the replies!

Proof is in the Poison I would avoid. Once you're running a meta build with numerous past lives and ideal crafted gear maybe but on a first life build it's not a fun quest to try to solo and given the huge number of good xp quests in that range, it's not at all worth it.

For disarming a good rule of thumb for elite is (3x quest level) + 15. Some traps are less, a few are more and it's not always easy/feasible to hit that number.

[Morrissey87]

Proof is in the Poison I would avoid. Once you're running a meta build with numerous past lives and ideal crafted gear maybe but on a first life build it's not a fun quest to try to solo and given the huge number of good xp quests in that range, it's not at all worth it.

For disarming a good rule of thumb for elite is (3x quest level) + 15. Some traps are less, a few are more and it's not always easy/feasible to hit that number.

Oh thanks! yeah I don't do it anymore that quest, it doesn't even give good xp or rewards compared to the pain it gives.

[psykopeta]

Oh thanks! yeah I don't do it anymore that quest, it doesn't even give good xp or rewards compared to the pain it gives.

People think in xp/min, not xp, that's why you see repeating quests as the plan (i suggest you not doing it unless you want to finish 1 specific life in a subpar build to get the pl asap, because eventually you will repeat more quests, more times than you want to, during tr also the negligible reaper xp you get following this plan makes it not that good idea nowadays when even 1 reaper point is better than some pl xD)

Also if you have troubles in any quest, that' s what makes it interesting, just think if you can complete a full quest with that level of troubles or need to drop down the difficulty, there's no shame on it!

[updeharris]

15
Orchard
- Inferno
- Lab
- Vol *
- Ghosts **

16
Orchard
- Litany *


ES
- Shar quests

Wheloon
- Wheloon Arc
- Optional: If you do not have access to Litany because you didn't get enough parts to make a sigil, then just run the Wheloon arc again on elite and, if necessary, again on hard.

17
ES
- Druid Chain <---You'll want a group for these typically. Wisps hurt. This is probably the hardest part.
- High Road Chain
- Riddle
- Murder by night

18->cap
ES
- Storm Horns Chain
- Turn in two ES saga's

Vale
- Vale chain until capped

sorry noob question

but what is ES and vale ?

Orchard I assume is the one in the necropolis in house P ?

[HungarianRhapsody]

sorry noob question

but what is ES and vale ?

Orchard I assume is the one in the necropolis in house P ?

ES - Eveningstar
Vale - Vale of Twilight. Shroud flagging quests
Orchard is the higher level Necropolis Heroic quests.

[zehnvhex]

when even 1 reaper point is better than some pl

Truth be told the best way to do a PL and get some reaper XP is to do 1-30 as fast as you can and then just farm amber temple with a group at cap. Even doing whatshisfaces R5? or whatever he ran static group path only nets you like ~70k reaper xp from 1 to 20 in a group running sov pots.

When you can clear 30k rxp/hour doing Amber Temple even post nerf there isn't much reason to bother anymore with worrying about rxp while leveling. Just do whatever to get back to cap, farm Amber Temple until you want to blow your brain out then reset.

I mean if you want to do other quests go for it, I'm not your mom. That being said I would highly recommend never doing any of these quests -before- the level I mention. If nothing else this is a good list of "Okay what else can I do to hit the next level?"

IE: No matter how tempting it is, don't do Vale when you're 15 or you'll skip something like the shar/wheloon quests, hit level 18 and be like, "okay now what?....well guess I gotta slog through inspired quarter."

There's more then enough XP to get to 20 any which way you want these days. This is just about the most efficient path I've been able to cobble together. Not much running about, not much mucking about. Most/all quests are pretty quick/straight forward.

[Krushyn]

Do you have any other suggestions for levels 5, 8, 9 ? been in DDO about a year, and ive done the necro quests a few times, but for some reason they always give me trouble and i just dont seem to enjoy them, and i do not have a second account.

[zehnvhex]

Sure thing. Here's a few other quests you can do.

I do -super- strongly recommend working towards getting an SC opener (you can make one for free, though it'll take a few hours to do so) if you intend to do lots of PL's. Ballpark if you intend to do more then 6 PL's, an SC opener is 100% worth the time it takes to make one.

Anyways, you might have to repeat some of these quests a few times, I've tested a few alternate paths, but Necro1 and Necro2 have always kinda been staples in my runs.

For level 5:

- Finish out the Catacombs chain. The crypt one where you have to go in a giant square is a bit long, but it's good xp and so is the rest of the chain.

- As someone else pointed out the depths chain in House Deneith is decent, quick XP. A little shorter then the 4 necro quests and a little less xp, but some people find them easier.

- The Sharn Syndicate pack isn't bad, but the chain can be brutal solo without a trapper on higher difficulties.

For level 8:

- If you aren't sick of it, re-run 3BC on a lower difficulty then the one you just ran. It's a ton of XP and hard to replicate the value there.

- The Pit and Tear of Dhakaan are fairly popular (or some of the dumbest quests in the game depending on who you ask) and offer a ton of xp. Best with a group though since they are kinda longish.

- Sorrow Dusk isle is an alternative as well. Depending on your build, selected difficulty, etc...the last two quests might be a bit much (Quench/Church can be brutal) but the first 8 are worth about the same XP as a single shadow crypts run.

For level 9:

- If you still aren't sick of it, re-run 3BC yet again, as many times as you can stomach until you ransack it to oblivion. These quests are stupidly good xp for the level and insanely quick.

- Some of the Threnal quests aren't bad if you have them. The only one that's actually difficult these days is "Entering The Gate Chamber" if you're on melee because of that stupid triple Ice Flesner fight. So if you just do the first 7 and call it a day you'll be okay.

- Slave Lords quests are worth a decent chunk of XP. They're just not efficient by any means because they're post-MOTU content (so you have to deal with HP bloat and huge packs of mobs) and take forever.

- One last alternative is finishing out the 3BC saga by doing the House Deneith quests (Black Loch, Tide Turns, Blood Bazaar and uh..the one with the ballista) and then turning in the saga.

[Selvera]

So... you suggest a number of quests that in my own testing I've determined to be not very good. This might be simply a factor of different builds being good at different quests or perhaps you've found ways to optimize quest times or xp beyond that which I have (certainly I'm always open to learning more). Or maybe they're some of the weaker quests on your list, (In theory my own list has a similar no-pot 1-20 completion time... if I ever buckled down and just zerged without waiting for afk/bio/pugging/etc).

Irestone Inlet -> You even suggest repeating this quest a few times; but even 1 and done I've had a hard time getting more then 1k xp/min out of this quest. Regardless of if I split up from the party and solo one side while they do the other side or if we run as a group through the whole thing. How do you manage to make this one good? (As a frame of reference, similar tests put the depths chain at about 2k xp/min at the same level, and feel easier).

The Sacred Helm -> To be fair I never properly tested this one, but back when I ran this a bunch for the chance of a reaper helm (never saw one), I never seemed to get good xp out of this and it always felt surprisingly difficult for its level.

Missing in Action -> In a completion where I thought my group did quite well; split up completed everything fast etc, this still marked in 10% below my "average quest at level" mark. Do you find this exceptionally good; or just one more quest in the same area as good quests (sunken sewer and stk)?

VoN 1 -> When I tested this one; it always fell way below average (55-65% of average xp/min at level), even when I thought the run went smoothly/efficiently. Am I not zerging it hard enough or something?

Wizking -> I'll admit my tests of this might have been deceptively bad because the PUG I was running with at the time couldn't manage to split up and complete the other towers. I chocked this quest as below average (and much worse then mines/oob at the same level), but you mentioned repeating it. Worth pursuing even if I even if I end up soloing multiple towers often?

Most of the higher level stuff I just agree with; although it's hard for me to consider skipping Sane Asylum.