First Level 20, and First TR - Pre-TR Advice?

[Dulcimerist]

I finally got my first character to level 20, and am planning to TR soon. A BtC True Heart is in the bank.

I read this thread, and am looking for a "bare essentials" type of checklist:
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/415704

This is a TWF Drow Rogue Assassin using daggers, and I plan to do the same for the next two lives. I'm not in a real hurry to hit the second TR, and will mostly use this character to help new players out.

Here are some to-do's and already done's, and wonder what else might be worth doing before the TR:
- Just got flagged for Ascension Chamber (Black Abbott Raid) and want the Quiver of Alacrity for the 30% Striding. This is priority #1.
- Am flagged for The Reaver's Fate raid, but haven't run it. Is this worth it?
- Am flagged for Zawabi's Revenge raid, but haven't run it. Is this worth it?
- Should I bother with any other raids, since I just want to TR fairly soon?
- Just hit 1750 total favor and picked up the +2 ability tome.
- Just picked up Rahl's Might and a few shards, and might use it next life. Is it worth the extra grind before TR?
- I have a Dark Blue Ioun Stone. Is this worth grinding out to upgrade for a rogue? (Upgraded Ioun Stones are BtC?)
- Cursed Blade of Jack Jibbers - Is this worth a run or two for giggles?
- Are there any BtC on Acquire items I should pick up which would be useful for a rogue?

I have a Dwarf Barbarian and a Drow Warlock banking level 19 at the moment, and will be my epic farmers. They have that aspect covered, so my rogue doesn't need to do those duties before her TR.

Thanks!

[Enguebert]

Do you have Epic Destinies (Motu Expansion or purchased) ?
if yes, maybe it is worth to go to lvl 30 and ETR+TR, gaining an epic past life at the same time.
Epic past life are stronger than Past life

Now for your questions
1) Black abbot raid : if you don't have friends flagged, you could wait months before running it. On the other hand, if you have 2 or 3 friends flagged and willing to run it, try to run it a few times before TRing
2) Other raids : there are no "must have" items, and those raids are not run often, so you can skip them
3) check favor. if you are close to 1800, maybe do some other quests to gain those 25 Turbine points
4) Jibbers : maybe join a group and run it a few times (TTT is part of daily EH, so there are lot of group doing it). Chance to get blades are small but at least you will learn the quest.
5) Other items : there are very few items who are *mandatory* during heroics so you can skip them (and it can be frustrating to try to get a specific item unless you know you will have it in X runs, like Cannith Challenge items)


If you need potions, buy them before TRing (your haggle score is higher)

[Dulcimerist]

Thanks! I do have MotU. Do the epic past lives help during heroics? How much grind does it take to hit 30? I'd rather spend time in epics with my stronger characters, since my rogue is squishy. You might help change my mind and run the rogue to 30, though...

What is daily EH?

I hit 1800 favor tonight, and might even get to 1900.

[EllisDee37]

General Equipment to acquire:

ML3 Bracers of Wind
Perma-blur (20% miss chance), ML3! You may want to roll up a disposable iconic for farming the mats. Since you only need 400 each of two different mats on two of the easiest challenges, pretty much any default path iconic will work. See Cannith Challenge Tutorials for tips on how to run the challenges.

Cloak of Invisibility (Heavy Fortification)
See solo farming video here. This ML9 cloak gives you ghost touch on all weapons plus a 10% miss chance independent from blur/displacement. (Separate rolls; blur + ghostly = 28% miss chance.) Wear the cloak until at least level 20, possibly 30 unless you grind out an epic stalker ring. For the heavy fort augment, I typically just buy them from a collectable vendor for 12 astral shards. Can also be bought for 20 epic tokens if you can't swing the astrals, or 75-95 (I forget) DDO Points from the store. (Or, if you're lucky, for plat from the auction house.) EDIT: As a rogue, you might prefer the Shadowhail Cloak from Ravenloft instead. Better in pretty much every way, except that it's ML10 instead of ML9.

Either ML11 Bracers of Wind or Greensteel Smoke Bracers (45 HP, Displacement clickie, Perma-Blur)
At level 11 swap out the ML3 bracers of wind for something better that also gives perma-blur. Both choices are solid, and both are ML11. The higher level bracers of wind add in dodge. For the greensteel I typically go with 25 HP and 100 spell points, which means I get +4 dex skills (open lock) and +6 int skills (search, disable) instead of just +6 dex skills (open lock) when you go with 45 hp. But I typically run blue-bar melees (paladin, ranger, fighter/cleric) so I can make use of the spell points. On a pure rogue, 45 HP is sufficient. An extra +6 trapping skills sure wouldn't suck, though... EDIT: I see from your other thread you picked up ML18 Bracers of Twisting Shade, which also have blurry. You could wear ML3 bracers of wind from 3 to 17 and then switch to twisting shade at 18; no need to upgrade in between.

Golden Guile
Old-style Improved Deception is the bee's knees for rogues, and it stacks with new-style deception like on Shadowhail Cloak. When I do a rogue life I sadly won't be able to fit it in, but if at all possible it's worth it. Other sources of Improved Deception are listed here. (An upgraded Ring of Lies would be better, but is probably too much to ask.) Pro tip: On the Golden Guile page, see at the bottom where it says "Improved Deception Items"? That's where I got that link from.


Swap items to acquire:

Upgraded Pale Lavendar Ioun Stone
For both beholders and ice flensers. 50 charges of spell absorption, recharging 15 per rest. This is particularly useful for beholders because it not only absorbs negative levels, it also absorbs the anti-magic dispel effect so you won't lose your buffs. Each 3rd list end reward guarantees one ioun stone; keep grinding til you get your PLIS. Collect the discs as end reward until you pull the PLIS then use the discs to upgrade it.

Visor of the Flesh Render Guards (at least one, preferably three or four)
7:00 deathward clickie. I carry four on any character who uses them, which is anyone who can't cast deathward and can be level drained. (Robots and pale masters don't need them since they can't be level drained.)

Silver Flame Necklace (fully upgraded)
Not really needed if you have a PLIS, but nice to have if your PLIS runs out of charges. Mainly (only?) for beholders.


Conventional wisdom is to farm heroic stuff before you tr because you're over-level so it's easy, but wait to farm epic stuff until next life because you'll be stronger.

If you plan to farm any epic challenge gear from cannith challenges, do that next life. Specifically, farm the heroic mats for the base item when you hit level 15 running CR20 challenges for maximum parts bonus. You'll probably want an epic ring of the stalker, and possibly an epic spare hand. You can go ahead and farm the epic mats now if you like (must be at least level 21) running CR25 challenges. Similar to the previous point, you can wait until next life when you're stronger.

[Enguebert]

What is daily EH?.

Daily EH are quests that gives good xp/min on epic and people runs them once per day (to avoid ransack) to level faster.
You will often see lfm groups for those dailies (and some quests are really faster in a group)

usual dailies quests (may vary from one people to another)
Von3->Von4->TTT->Spies, then Wiz-king, OOB, Grim&barret, Memoirs

[Dulcimerist]

Which challenge farmer build is the most straightforward? For iconics, I only have PDK, ML, and Shad. I have access to Monk class, which I believe is popular. I don't have FvS.

Greater Nimble Trinket at Tier 2 might suffice for my low level Blur item. It's ML4, but this rogue has gotten a lot of use out of it. ML14 Ring of Shadows is on her right now.

Is the chest the Cloak of Invisibility drops usually bypassed by most Tempest's Spine groups? I haven't seen that item. Leveling up, I made use of the Level 12 and 16 Cloak of Night, and have a 3-clickie bracers that have the Invisibility spell.

How much of a grind is the GS Smoke Bracers? I don't have any character flagged for the GS raid. The Dodge on the ML11 Bracers of Wind looks nice!

I do have the Golden Guile. ML14 Jorgundal's Collar is what she's still wearing at level 20, for the DPS. ML14 Backstabber's Gloves currently give her basic Deception. Since she's flagged for Reaver's Fate, perhaps a couple of runs for the Ring of Lies would be worth a try.

Would the Pale Lavendar Ioun Stone be hard to find, and a grind to upgrade? I did have fun today running through those quests for the very first time, so I might check that out. I had to leave the party as soon as it reached the Isle of Forgotten Dreams, so does that mean I haven't even completed it once?

I possibly have three Visor of the Flesh Render Guards, spread out amongst multiple characters. This is BtA, so I will acquire more as I run character through Tangleroot. My Warfoged doesn't need one? Is Deathblock a waste on a Warforged as well?

I believe I've only upgraded the Silver Flame Necklace once, which means I need to do it three more times? If the Ascension Chamber raid can upgrade this, I might be running it three times, anyway. I do have Beholder Optic Nerves.

Are Cannith Challenge ingredients all BtA, so when I TR my rogue and take a bit of a break and focus on other characters, I can gradually make my rogue some items and simply pass them on over to her?

It appears as though I'll have my rogue run the Ascension Chamber three times, might try The Reaver's Fate once or twice, possibly do Tempest's Spine (one run with over-level buddies might get it), and will take a look at what I need to do for the Ioun Stone. That should take care of the BtC stuff that only the rogue could get for herself?

Then once she's ready to TR, I can just stuff her bank and inventory full of items and supplies I don't need immediate access to? That would do wonders to clean up inventory messes which are plaguing my other characters.

[EllisDee37]

Which challenge farmer build is the most straightforward? For iconics, I only have PDK, ML, and Shad. I have access to Monk class, which I believe is popular. I don't have FvS.

The two challenges you need for ML3 bracers of wind are Kobold Chaos and Circles of Power. You could probably get 400 mats from each with a standard, default path PDK using starter gear. For Circles of Power, buy two teleporters and place them on a circle of power to simulate DDoor.


Is the chest the Cloak of Invisibility drops usually bypassed by most Tempest's Spine groups? I haven't seen that item. Leveling up, I made use of the Level 12 and 16 Cloak of Night, and have a 3-clickie bracers that have the Invisibility spell.

The value of the cloak is the Ghostly effect, primarily the part that gives ghost touch on all weapons. Cloak of Night doesn't grant that until ML16. Note that as a rogue you can UMD invisibility scrolls, which are sold in the market for pennies.


[I]How much of a grind is the GS Smoke Bracers? I don't have any character flagged for the GS raid. The Dodge on the ML11 Bracers of Wind looks nice![/I|

Pretty grindy. Just stick with bracers of wind. (And optionally bracers of twisting shade if you don't need the dodge.)


Would the Pale Lavendar Ioun Stone be hard to find, and a grind to upgrade? I did have fun today running through those quests for the very first time, so I might check that out. I had to leave the party as soon as it reached the Isle of Forgotten Dreams, so does that mean I haven't even completed it once?

Ioun stones drop in the end reward for the quest Dreaming Dark. Not the chain, just the quest. Additionally, every 3rd completion you're guaranteed to get an ioun stone in the list. (A random one, of course.) Typically I blast through on Casual for speed since difficulty doesn't effect end reward lists. As for upgrading it, you need to use crystal discs, which also drop in that same end reward list. Take crystal discs until you get your PLIS and you should have enough to upgrade it as soon as you get it. Unfortunately, you then have to run Dreaming Dark again, one last time, to get to the altar at the end of quest. That's where you upgrade ioun stones.


I possibly have three Visor of the Flesh Render Guards, spread out amongst multiple characters. This is BtA, so I will acquire more as I run character through Tangleroot. My Warfoged doesn't need one? Is Deathblock a waste on a Warforged as well?

Your warforged doesn't need deathward, no, because they're naturally immune to level drain. (Negative energy damage isn't a big thing you have to worry about.) However, you definitely need deathblock to grant immunity to insta-kill effects. Everyone needs deathblock, even characters with deathward, because deathward can be dispelled. Some mobs, in fact, like to cast dispel immediately before casting slay living. That's actually the go-to move of the mobs in the room guarding the chest for Cloak of Invisibility. Note that when enemies cast dispel, you're pretty much always dispelled. Due to poor game mechanics, you can't really ever make your saving throw against dispel. (And for the same reason, you can't really ever successfully dispel mobs, as they never fail their save.)


I believe I've only upgraded the Silver Flame Necklace once, which means I need to do it three more times? If the Ascension Chamber raid can upgrade this, I might be running it three times, anyway. I do have Beholder Optic Nerves.

Ascenscion Chamber won't do it; you can only upgrade the necklace in the end quests of the first three necro packs. I'd focus on the PLIS instead. Note that the quiver of alacrity is pretty rare. Your only real chance to get it is in a 20th completion list. Can you get your hands on a bunch of raid bypasses? If you're on Argonnessen, I can help you farm it. (You only need 2 people.) EDIT: You also need a seal of the abbot to upgrade the quiver. Seals also drop in the abbot raid: 16% chance on elite. I only mention this because if you see a seal, be sure to grab it. Unlike the quiver, seals are BTA.


Are Cannith Challenge ingredients all BtA, so when I TR my rogue and take a bit of a break and focus on other characters, I can gradually make my rogue some items and simply pass them on over to her?

Yep, BTA.


It appears as though I'll have my rogue run the Ascension Chamber three times, might try The Reaver's Fate once or twice, possibly do Tempest's Spine (one run with over-level buddies might get it), and will take a look at what I need to do for the Ioun Stone. That should take care of the BtC stuff that only the rogue could get for herself?

For cloak of invisibility, I average around 19 chest pulls to get one cloak. (I've farmed a half dozen or so of them for various characters.) You can also try for the ravenloft cloak I linked. And that one's BTA.


Then once she's ready to TR, I can just stuff her bank and inventory full of items and supplies I don't need immediate access to? That would do wonders to clean up inventory messes which are plaguing my other characters.

When you TR, everything in your inventory and in your bank get moved to a special TR cache. The TR cache has a UI similar to shared bank, but it's a separate window from the shared bank. Immediately after you TR you'll be naked, with nothing in your inventory or bank. All your stuff can be found in the TR cache, and can be freely withdrawn whenever you like. You just can't put items back into the TR cache after you withdraw them.

[valkrei]

I finally got my first character to level 20, and am planning to TR soon. A BtC True Heart is in the bank.

I read this thread, and am looking for a "bare essentials" type of checklist:
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/415704

This is a TWF Drow Rogue Assassin using daggers, and I plan to do the same for the next two lives. I'm not in a real hurry to hit the second TR, and will mostly use this character to help new players out.

Here are some to-do's and already done's, and wonder what else might be worth doing before the TR:
- Just got flagged for Ascension Chamber (Black Abbott Raid) and want the Quiver of Alacrity for the 30% Striding. This is priority #1.
- Am flagged for The Reaver's Fate raid, but haven't run it. Is this worth it?
- Am flagged for Zawabi's Revenge raid, but haven't run it. Is this worth it?
- Should I bother with any other raids, since I just want to TR fairly soon?
- Just hit 1750 total favor and picked up the +2 ability tome.
- Just picked up Rahl's Might and a few shards, and might use it next life. Is it worth the extra grind before TR?
- I have a Dark Blue Ioun Stone. Is this worth grinding out to upgrade for a rogue? (Upgraded Ioun Stones are BtC?)
- Cursed Blade of Jack Jibbers - Is this worth a run or two for giggles?
- Are there any BtC on Acquire items I should pick up which would be useful for a rogue?

I have a Dwarf Barbarian and a Drow Warlock banking level 19 at the moment, and will be my epic farmers. They have that aspect covered, so my rogue doesn't need to do those duties before her TR.

Thanks!

Paladin TR's get you healing AMP which is good for any character.

[HungarianRhapsody]

Thanks! I do have MotU. Do the epic past lives help during heroics? How much grind does it take to hit 30? I'd rather spend time in epics with my stronger characters, since my rogue is squishy. You might help change my mind and run the rogue to 30, though...

What is daily EH?

I hit 1800 favor tonight, and might even get to 1900.

Epic destinies don't work while you're in Heroic levels, but
A) the next time you hit 20, you'll be able to use the Destiny that you leveled up and that makes the low levels of Epic *so* much more pleasant and
B) the Epic past lives absolutely do give you their benefits in your next life - even when you're still in Heroic levels.

Don't forget that you can join other people's groups and don't have to feel bad about not contributing as much as you "should". Break boxes, be pleasant and try to jump into a combat only after someone else has aggro. You'll get your sneak attack damage and you'll live a LOT longer. If you carry Heal scrolls, Restoration/Greater Restoration scrolls and Raise Dead/Resurrect scrolls for your fellow players, then you'll end up contributing more than a lot of multi life characters do even if you don't kill a single critter in the whole quest.

[HungarianRhapsody]

Daily EH are quests that gives good xp/min on epic and people runs them once per day (to avoid ransack) to level faster.
You will often see lfm groups for those dailies (and some quests are really faster in a group)

usual dailies quests (may vary from one people to another)
Von3->Von4->TTT->Spies, then Wiz-king, OOB, Grim&barret, Memoirs

Something I've never figured out - why do people run them on Hard and then Normal? Hardx2 and Normalx2 give you effectively the same XP. Is there some trick that I don't know about that calculates XP differently than I think it does?

[rikkitikkitarvi]

They run first on Hard then on Normal for the first time bonus running at that difficulty. It only make a difference the first time you run it though not as dailies.
First time for hard is 40% bonus, First time on Normal is 25% bonus.

If you run Hard then hard again you would get the 40% bonus the first time but not the second time.

However if you are doing it as a daily thing then it would not matter as you would no longer get any bonuses assuming that you did those difficulties previously.

[unbongwah]

- Am flagged for The Reaver's Fate raid, but haven't run it. Is this worth it?
- Am flagged for Zawabi's Revenge raid, but haven't run it. Is this worth it?
- Should I bother with any other raids, since I just want to TR fairly soon?

The answer to all three questions is another question: "Is there some bit of kit you are willing to farm for before you HTR?" If the answer is "no," then skip those raids. Your raid completion counter resets when you HTR, so there's no point in doing so before an HTR is you're not willing to keep doing it until you acquire whatever it is you're after.

- I have a Dark Blue Ioun Stone. Is this worth grinding out to upgrade for a rogue? (Upgraded Ioun Stones are BtC?)

Some people consider an upgraded PLIS a must-have for serial HTRs. ML:2 reusable Spell Absorption is useful to a lot of toons especially when fighting beholders.

DBIS is...enh? +15 Spot at lvl 2 is certainly nice for a trapper, but how long will it be before you can replicate that with other gear?

- Cursed Blade of Jack Jibbers - Is this worth a run or two for giggles?

Unless you literally never die when playing, Jibbers blade is worth farming, IMO.

[Swimms]

Unless you literally never die when playing, Jibbers blade is worth farming, IMO.

I don't disagree but if you make the decision to farm it until it drops, it might be a while before you TR. I would guess I have run the quest 40-50 times on hard over the last half year and have never seen the blade drop, almost all solo runs.

[Dulcimerist]

Thanks for all of the helpful advice!

For Ghost Touch, I had been thinking about farming a pair of ML8 Spectral Daggers from Night Revels, but the Cloak of Invisibility would be less grind. I watched the Tempest's Spine video, and wondered how bad my rogue would get thumped solo farming. Maybe I can get a group together on Orien late tonight. I definitely want the cloak. (I don't own Ravenloft, so I can't get the one from there.)

I didn't get to the last two quests of the Dreaming Dark chain yet. Ioun Stones bind to character when upgraded? This chain has been really fun so far, so a PLIS will likely show up while I enjoy the chain a few more times.

Reaver's Fate for Ring of Lies and A Legend Revisited for Cursed Blade of Jack Jibbers might be run just once or twice for fun. If either item drops, great. If not, I'd at least had some fun while waiting for the Ascension Chamber timer to reset. I'll let fate decide if those items are meant to be for the next life. (The number of times I have to run Ascension Chamber might end up increasing the number of times I do these other two quests.)

Thanks for the encouragement on continuing to level 30. That's when the destiny I choose (Shadowdancer) gets completely filled? I prefer to quest in groups, and do want to contribute as much as I can. In my limited questing in epic, I'm finding that sneaking around during a fight and picking out enemy casters or orange-names with full health bars to assassinate is good, while doing some special attacks and DPS while waiting for the Assassinate cooldown. I did max out UMD, so I should stock up on some scrolls. (Is it cheaper for me to buy the BtC guild scrolls with the rogue's low haggle, or cheaper for my 70 haggle character to buy the unbound scrolls from House J?)

The paladin past life is something that I've been looking at. My rogue still has a BtC +20 Lesser Heart. Might it be worth using to get a paladin past life for the 10% healing amplification? If I do that, then lives #2-3-4 would be rogue lives. This character is more along the lines of an alt, so I won't be going through the next lives very quickly at all. How much of an impact is 10% amplification on a rogue, compared to +1 sneak attack damage and +2 to saves vs. traps?

[EllisDee37]

For Ghost Touch, I had been thinking about farming a pair of ML8 Spectral Daggers from Night Revels, but the Cloak of Invisibility would be less grind. I watched the Tempest's Spine video, and wondered how bad my rogue would get thumped solo farming. Maybe I can get a group together on Orien late tonight. I definitely want the cloak. (I don't own Ravenloft, so I can't get the one from there.)

Tempest Spine is a raid so there's no scaling, which means that the mobs are at full strength. But it's level 10, and you're in epics, so I have to imagine it won't be overly difficult.

I didn't get to the last two quests of the Dreaming Dark chain yet. Ioun Stones bind to character when upgraded? This chain has been really fun so far, so a PLIS will likely show up while I enjoy the chain a few more times.

Remember that you don't need to re-run the chain, only the quest Dreaming Dark. When farming ioun stones I typically run it 3 times per session once per day to help mitigate the grind. Takes around a half hour all told. (7-8 minutes per run once you get the hang of it.)

Thanks for the encouragement on continuing to level 30. That's when the destiny I choose (Shadowdancer) gets completely filled? I prefer to quest in groups, and do want to contribute as much as I can. In my limited questing in epic, I'm finding that sneaking around during a fight and picking out enemy casters or orange-names with full health bars to assassinate is good, while doing some special attacks and DPS while waiting for the Assassinate cooldown. I did max out UMD, so I should stock up on some scrolls. (Is it cheaper for me to buy the BtC guild scrolls with the rogue's low haggle, or cheaper for my 70 haggle character to buy the unbound scrolls from House J?)

You can cap three destinies on your way to 30. In addition to Shadowdancer, you should also try Legendary Dreadnought at least. Your dps may be (probably will be) better there than in Shadowdancer.

As for scrolls, the guild vendor scrolls are cheaper, but neither are particularly expensive compared to the plat you earn while in epics. I'd say just buy them with the character who will use them. Note that they don't stack together, so if you have 10 heal scrolls from the portable hole and 10 heal scrolls from the guild vendor, you can't combine them into a stack of 20. For this reason, try to always buy from the same place. I used to always buy from the guild vendors but then I switched to all portable hole all the time for a couple reasons. One is that they're unbound. If you need to pass someone some scrolls, you can't pass guild scrolls. Second is that you can buy more scrolls that you definitely want at the portable hole, so if you have to go there anyway, why not just buy them all in the same place, y'know?

The scrolls I tend to stock up on are Teleport, Greater Teleport, Greater Heroism, True Seeing, Invisibility, Heal, and Greater Restoration.

The paladin past life is something that I've been looking at. My rogue still has a BtC +20 Lesser Heart. Might it be worth using to get a paladin past life for the 10% healing amplification? If I do that, then lives #2-3-4 would be rogue lives. This character is more along the lines of an alt, so I won't be going through the next lives very quickly at all. How much of an impact is 10% amplification on a rogue, compared to +1 sneak attack damage and +2 to saves vs. traps?

Both are quite nice for a rogue. If I could only have one, I think I'd rather have the rogue past life.

[C-Dog]

- Just hit 1750 total favor and picked up the +2 ability tome.
...
I hit 1800 favor tonight, and might even get to 1900.

2500 and Favored Soul (and then 3k and Vet II) is really not that far away (if you have access to the packs). Might as well. 5k and the +5 tome... a bit of a slog, not for a 1st life.

Also, even if you're not heading to 30, you can start to earn Destiny XP, and that is kept when you do decide to make that march.

- Cursed Blade of Jack Jibbers - Is this worth a run or two for giggles?

It's a low % drop, but you want it, and the only way to get it is to roll those unloving dice. GL!

Do the epic past lives help during heroics?

Yes, but each is only a small %. But once you have several, they really kick in!

How much grind does it take to hit 30? I'd rather spend time in epics with my stronger characters, since my rogue is squishy.

Proly less than it took to get from 1-20, BUT... I (personally) strongly recommend that 1st life characters do NOT pursue 30. Get a TR (or 2) under your belt, then go for the Epic Reincarnation. More power, more player experience, more gear - it can be done, but SO much easier.

[Dulcimerist]

My first character, a dwarf barbarian with level 19 banked, has the most total favor at about 2000. He will stick around in epics for a while to farm total favor for Favored Soul (Veteran Status came with MotU), and his barbarian HP and tankiness would hold up far better in epic quests than my rogue.

After running a couple of epic quests on my rogue tonight, I don't think I want to run her up to 30 on first life. One of those quests was Spies in the House, which always makes me completely question my ability to even play DDO at all; so that was probably a bad quest to try. (I did have a shot at Jibbers prior to Spies, and didn't want to simply bail on the group after TTT.) I think I'm up to 300k epic XP now. I should probably open my Shadowfell items to get the epic learning tome on her - I didn't expect to be earning this much epic XP before TR'ing. The barbarian should open his first in order to get the greater epic learning tome, letting the rogue take a lesser.

[HungarianRhapsody]

My first character, a dwarf barbarian with level 19 banked, has the most total favor at about 2000. He will stick around in epics for a while to farm total favor for Favored Soul (Veteran Status came with MotU), and his barbarian HP and tankiness would hold up far better in epic quests than my rogue.

After running a couple of epic quests on my rogue tonight, I don't think I want to run her up to 30 on first life. One of those quests was Spies in the House, which always makes me completely question my ability to even play DDO at all; so that was probably a bad quest to try. (I did have a shot at Jibbers prior to Spies, and didn't want to simply bail on the group after TTT.) I think I'm up to 300k epic XP now. I should probably open my Shadowfell items to get the epic learning tome on her - I didn't expect to be earning this much epic XP before TR'ing. The barbarian should open his first in order to get the greater epic learning tome, letting the rogue take a lesser.

Don't stress about Spies. It's an awful quest to get through while you're getting used to it, but it's a big juicy sack of easy XP to grab each day once you do get used to it.

[Matuse]

Ascenscion Chamber won't do it; you can only upgrade the necklace in the end quests of the first three necro packs.

Just to clarify this, the altar in the raid can be used to go from the nugget all the way to the necklace (and the 4th tier reward as well). If you're farming for a Quiver, you probably will be doing the raid enough times to get the 4th tier item (go for the Nightshield clicky dress, it's great for any life that can't cast that), and then build a second nugget up to the anti-beholder necklace.

You do not need Necro 1-3 in order to advance the nugget.

[Dulcimerist]

Just to clarify this, the altar in the raid can be used to go from the nugget all the way to the necklace (and the 4th tier reward as well). If you're farming for a Quiver, you probably will be doing the raid enough times to get the 4th tier item (go for the Nightshield clicky dress, it's great for any life that can't cast that), and then build a second nugget up to the anti-beholder necklace.

You do not need Necro 1-3 in order to advance the nugget.

Oh cool! I had been almost positive that the nugget could be upgraded in the raid, but that was based on my personal knowledge from six years ago. If memory continues to serve me correctly, I'm unable to work on two nuggets simultaneously? Also, the trade-in for the Nightshield is best done prior to having a nugget go to the 10-charge anti-beholder level? I know there are problems with having two, or one and an Emerald Claw, and having the upgraded version get deleted. If I padlock an upgraded nugget and accidentally talk to one of the guys, would it still delete it? Those two NPCs make me nervous. lol

Also, I see that the Nightshield clickie armor looks pretty cool. If I turn that into a cosmetic armor, would it still keep the clickie ability on it?