My last life

[Jango-EX]

I'm passing through a tough spot these months and I decided something last week.

I'll reincarnate one last time, as alchemist, in order to regain completionist and then that's it.

Been playing since 2009, changed servers for a while and I'm with my real toon since 2013. Since 2013 I've been reincarnating. I don't have much time to play, so a life takes something between one to three months. I've reincarnated 58 times, not nearly as much as some people, but that's a lot for me.

I never played Threnal until last hardcore server. No point playing Threnal, no point playing anything other than the saga quests and the fastest xp/min quests, because after I reincarnate it will be wiped over. I'll do that when I get the lives I want.

Problem is, lives keep on appearing, right? I liked Threnal. I never played Sorrowdusk either. Never went to the Subterrane. Just have been in the reincarnation wheel.

I'm getting up in years and... what if I'm no longer around to play as "I want" with my finally perfect toon?

So I decided that and... it's bittersweet. It's kinda frightening. I mean, one day I'll lose my completionist and never will get it back!

Not even complaining about something, just sharing this.

[MaeveTuohy]

Thanks for sharing and enjoy your remaining years to the fullest.

[Saekee]

I have been playing since 2011 and decided NOT to ever do completionist since it did not seem fun. I like to test out new builds and just have fun.

Thank you for sharing and I am glad you have the courage to break the wheel. Think of it as a Zen moment. You are no longer in the cycle, just the Now.

[Oxarhamar]

I'm passing through a tough spot these months and I decided something last week.

I'll reincarnate one last time, as alchemist, in order to regain completionist and then that's it.

Been playing since 2009, changed servers for a while and I'm with my real toon since 2013. Since 2013 I've been reincarnating. I don't have much time to play, so a life takes something between one to three months. I've reincarnated 58 times, not nearly as much as some people, but that's a lot for me.

I never played Threnal until last hardcore server. No point playing Threnal, no point playing anything other than the saga quests and the fastest xp/min quests, because after I reincarnate it will be wiped over. I'll do that when I get the lives I want.

Problem is, lives keep on appearing, right? I liked Threnal. I never played Sorrowdusk either. Never went to the Subterrane. Just have been in the reincarnation wheel.

I'm getting up in years and... what if I'm no longer around to play as "I want" with my finally perfect toon?

So I decided that and... it's bittersweet. It's kinda frightening. I mean, one day I'll lose my completionist and never will get it back!

Not even complaining about something, just sharing this.

Played Thernal & Sorrowdusk while reincarnating the xp/min ain't that bad

[Matuse]

The wheel is what crushes all the fun out of it.

Doing the quest less quested and not rushing through at max speed is what keeps things from getting excessively repetitive and stale.

[gnarledmaw]

I never played Threnal until last hardcore server. No point playing Threnal, no point playing anything other than the saga quests and the fastest xp/min quests, because after I reincarnate it will be wiped over. I'll do that when I get the lives I want.

Problem is, lives keep on appearing, right? I liked Threnal. I never played Sorrowdusk either. Never went to the Subterrane. Just have been in the reincarnation wheel.

Sounds like youre just sort of burned out. The lives do keep appearing but like you've said, but that doesn't really matter because you haven't really yet played. The game isn't any fun until one realizes that there is no wheel or grind except in the players head. Imaginary wheels and grinds aren't recreation, its a job and I already have one of those.

For a while I was simultaneously playing 14 toons on my primary account and server. I would play one for a level then move to the next and play that for a level then move to the next until they all got to 20. I enjoyed all of it, none of it was wasted time. Right now I have 5 accounts and pentabox on all the servers. There is no way Ill ever get more than a couple of lives on each of those. Don't care, Im enjoying it. My primary on my primary account and server has a bunch of tomes and past lives and all that good junk so it wouldn't take much more effort to try to focus on becoming a triple/triple/triple but then what? I suppose that Id sit around and cry like so many other players that "the game isn't fun anymore" because then Ill have broken it.

Roll up a new weird toon and run everything a new way on another server. Did you know that sometimes mobs start in different places and act different ways on different servers? Even the differing availability of resources can make duplicate builds on different servers seem like a unique experience.

Step back, deep breath, and consider the options then it all becomes new again.

[Jango-EX]

Thanks guys!

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

All of my characters are lower than level 16 (okay, 17 a character yesterday), so I didn't even TR so far.
Being an "underdog", it's all still fun to me.
I must add, though, that I was absent from DDO for several years.

[glmfw1]

If you see the goal of gameplay to have all past lives possible, then the TR wheel matters.
If you see the goal of gameplay as having fun, then it's entirely different.

With each TR, I run 1-30, different class from the life before with an ED picked to suit. I run solo or in groups I generally run HE to 20 then EE (group) or EH (solo). I get my fun from picking my build options as I go (i.e. what works and helps improve how I have been playing the character) rather than by following someone else's builds (min-maxed for someone else's playstyle, not mine) and by picking the quests I want to run that life (there's enough content to pick and choose). I gain challenge by running under level and jumping into quests without reading up on them first (or preparing specifically for what I remember), unless quest givers give away something obvious that I need to do. Sometimes I'll rush through quests for pure XP/Min... other times I'll do optionals based on the story. End result is that while I'm not gaining power as fast as hamsters and not gaining gear unless it happens to drop, each life is fun. I can log on one day or not... I don't have to worry about falling behind anyone, as my benchmark is enjoyment of play not hitting targets set by someone else.

[Vandervert]

Best of luck to you and to your future. Have fun, enjoy life.

[Aelonwy]

For a while I was simultaneously playing 14 toons on my primary account and server. I would play one for a level then move to the next and play that for a level then move to the next until they all got to 20. I enjoyed all of it, none of it was wasted time.

That's close to how my family plays. We kind of play whichever characters we're in the mood to play or choose characters based on what content is at their level. Like the day before yesterday we played my thief acrobat, hubby's tank and son's druid because we were all at the level on those characters to try out the refurbished epic Catacombs but last week we played characters that were 15-16 level because we were in the mood for some Madness xoriat quests.

[apocaladle]

I have been playing since 2011 and decided NOT to ever do completionist since it did not seem fun. I like to test out new builds and just have fun.

Thank you for sharing and I am glad you have the courage to break the wheel. Think of it as a Zen moment. You are no longer in the cycle, just the Now.

I did sonething similar, I play builds I enjoy and I enjiy the 1-20 run but I have never done a build for the conpletionist feats.

Am currently at ~40/150 past lives and dont have completionist yet, mainly I don't like rogues. Some people love em but they are not for me so unless I stumble upon a rogue build I really love I don't think I'll ever play one.

Play what you like and if you get some past lives on the way all the better but don't grind for the sake of grinding.

[krimsonrane]

breaking your builds and putting you back on a hamster wheel is a DDO staple. They THINK it's a way to keep players involved. they're wrong. it's a total turn off. Who the heck makes 5 year plans in a video game? But that's what we're expected to do.

[Red_Knight]

I had a similar epiphany recently. I haven't done the Completionist TR wheel. In fact I've only TR'd one character so far, and have no plans to ever get the completionist feat. If it happens eventually, it happens. But no plans for it. However what I have realized is that I do not enjoy the Favor grind. Since I'm not VIP, I have to run quests on normal, then hard, then elite (hard then elite for my one TR'd character). And running every quest through Elite difficulty is tedious. I use to enjoy many of the harbor and Korthos quests. But I realized I was viewing them as a chore, and not something fun to do.

When I made my first alchemist I initially decided not to run Korthos quests on Hard and Elite because very low level alchemists struggle. I could have used a barbarian hireling to easily handle them, but meh. Didn't feel like making the effort. And as I continued my "Normal only" runs, I realized I'm actually enjoying the quests again. Getting a Muckbane from Dirk's got a secret felt special since it happened organically instead of me farming that one quest for hours to get one. Getting offered a Black Widow Bracer at the end of Waterworks made me grin, because I wasn't expecting it and now I could swap to a robe with lower armor value but spell power boosts I needed.

Just that one change has breathed new life into the game. And I'd been seriously considering quitting for good. The favor grind had sucked most of the fun out of the game.

[Clemeit]

Sounds like you (and many of the players on the forums) have lost track of what a game is supposed to be. You enjoyed Threnal? So run Threnal! You don't enjoy the endless grind, life after life, maximizing XP/min to get through it and onto the next? Then stop doing that!

Do what makes the game fun for you. If you don't enjoy the endless TR cycle, stop TRing. Run some alts. Spend a little more time enjoying the content and stop trying to "hit cap as fast as I possibly can so that I can TR and do it all again." Realize that in most things in life (and especially in DDO) the journey is more important than the destination.

There's a lot more to see along the way than most people realize.

[Jango-EX]

I'm level 4 now, doing the borderlands... I'm getting the shakes, you know? I saw an aasimar and remembered that I won't have that past life, I looked my racial enhancements, noticed I could use an extra point and I was just another gnome life away from that... ****.

But yes, I'm having fun. I think the last time I had fun was when I rolled an alt to help a friend who had started a free account three or four years ago. She played just for a month, but it was fun to help her.

Before that? Maybe 2011, when I first put together my pirate tricorne, in the old server.

I feel good, but a bit strange. It's still weird to do quests this slow.

[korgzz_bloodaxe]

breaking your builds and putting you back on a hamster wheel is a DDO staple. They THINK it's a way to keep players involved. they're wrong. it's a total turn off. Who the heck makes 5 year plans in a video game? But that's what we're expected to do.

Which build was broken by them adding another character class? You are not expected to do anything, you are the one who does it. Take responsibility for yourself Mr Hamster.

[SirValentine]

No point playing Threnal, no point playing anything other than the saga quests and the fastest xp/min quests, because after I reincarnate it will be wiped over.

Some people enjoy TRing strictly for it's own sake; I'm not one of them, and it sounds like you're not either.

Having my character progression erased when I TR sucks.

Problem is, lives keep on appearing, right?
...
I'm getting up in years and... what if I'm no longer around to play as "I want" with my finally perfect toon?

So I decided that and... it's bittersweet. It's kinda frightening. I mean, one day I'll lose my completionist and never will get it back!

Exactly. If they wouldn't keep moving the goalposts on you, you wouldn't have that problem. Or if they gave you a way to progress that didn't involve erasing your other accomplishments.

breaking your builds and putting you back on a hamster wheel is a DDO staple. They THINK it's a way to keep players involved. they're wrong. it's a total turn off.

It works for some people, but definitely not for everyone.

Which build was broken by them adding another character class?

For starters, every build that included Completionist. For Alchemist, add in every build that wants to be good at Transmutation.

If you don't enjoy the endless TR cycle, stop TRing.
...
Realize that in most things in life (and especially in DDO) the journey is more important than the destination.

You're contradicting yourself. Telling me the journey is more important than the destination is spoken exactly like someone who enjoys an endless TR cycle. No! The journey is just what's between me and the destination. I want to enjoy the destination, if the devs will let me arrive. The frustration is when the devs deliberately make the journey unpleasant and deliberately keep moving the destination further and further away.

[carsonfball]

Did you know that sometimes mobs start in different places and act different ways on different servers?

Do you have evidence of this? I'm not saying you're wrong, but I regularly play on two servers (Sarlona and Orien) and also on the Hardcore server and have never witnessed this. It could just be in quests that I don't do?

[Red_Knight]

Do you have evidence of this? I'm not saying you're wrong, but I regularly play on two servers (Sarlona and Orien) and also on the Hardcore server and have never witnessed this. It could just be in quests that I don't do?

I'm not sure about "act in different ways", but some quests can and do change enemy locations a bit with each instance. Most don't though. Explorer areas also tend to move or remove enemies that are suppose to spawn near a quest entrance when you exit said quest.

On the other hand, mobs do tend to act differently (initially) when you're stealthy then they do when you're the big clanky full plate wearing paladin who couldn't hide behind a cliff.