How To Achieve 5/5 HCL Rewards druing any HCL Season

[Dark_Lord_Mary]

Happy Summer everyone - I hope adventures go well - I wanted to post here in the HCL forum a solid plan for HCL to achieve 5/5 goals.

This season I achieved 5/5 rewards and I will layout very simply what I did. Anyone can do it with a good plan, preparation, and some luck.

By the way, these are my recommendations, and mine alone, presented here to help. You may disagree with everything I say. There are many many ways to play DDO. I am just retelling what I did for those curious. It is not a guide, but a record of my experience.

And I do have some experience. Those of you who know me, know I love DDO and have played since closed beta one. I have seen many things and I have to say I really really love HCL. It is a fantastic way to experience DDO, play dungeons and dragons, and meet new people. I am GM the guild Death Smile and grateful to all the nice people who join and play with me - I have met some of the nicest people during the HCL season, players from every live server out there. Each too has a unique way of doing quests and solving problems, its totally great! I have met some of the best and worst players in DDO, played with them, and learned a few tricks and tips of what to do and what to avoid that I will convey to you here.

The Plan: What I did.
I created two toons, one for favor and one for reaper. Why two? I wanted redundancy if one of them died. You certainly could just run one toon, or run one toon for each goal. There's no right answer - I ran two, I ran the 5k favor toon first and I ran everything on elite.

1. Favor toon - will achieve 3/5 goals: 1750 rep, 5000 rep, LVL 20, run everything on elite
2. Reaper toon - will achieve 2/5 goals: 10 reaper points, 20 reaper points, run whatever works to lvl 30 then farm RXP doing Legendary R3/R4

Where to begin

On HCL as a new toon you don't have much. Really all you have is your build and a will to succeed. Well, that is enough.

You will have a much easier time if you run with a group. Even one other person who can level up with you and help you is enough. A full group is the best. You may have friends on your home server who wish to achieve HCL goals, group with them if you can. If not,
during the first week or so of HCL, you can reach out, either on the DDO forums, or in guild chat, or even general chat - that you are looking for a static group to do 5000 favor. You do not need a static group however, you could pug your way to 5k, it will just require a bit of patience to find the quests you need.

Trick: it is not worth doing reaper in heroics. Now that being said, you certainly can. There are players who achieved all their reaper goals in heroics. I am pointing out a simple fact: reapers are easier in Legendary. It is easier to find groups consistently, and your toon is much more likely to survive due to epic destinies and epic feats. If you are new to the reaper questing, or not a very good reaper build builder, stick to elite. Focus on your favor. You just need to run everything on elite.

Tip: I will repeat, while chasing 5000 do every quest you can on elite - do not skip any quests. The only quests you should skip are quests you cannot do for some reason, like a raid. The only exception to this is TOEE part 2. This quest is pretty difficult so likely you want to skip. You certainly can do it - but there are many quests you can skip and still achieve 5000 favor. So why am I telling you to do everything? Because once you hit LVL 19 some of the quests become very difficult - if you can skip quests later, rather than sooner, your journey to 5000 will be much simpler.

Tip: there are some great favor guides and spreadsheets out there that list all the quests and how much favor they give and which quests are very difficult and should be skipped unless you have a stellar group; find one and utilize it.

The Favor Toon

During HCL III my favor toon was Mary utilizing my Mary had a Baby Bear build.

Tip: Your favor toon should be something durable, preferably something that can trap, or at least spot traps, for traps kill more players than anything else. You do not need to trap, however - favored souls, artificers, wizards, druids, clerics, are all solid choices for favor classes that are survivable. There is a reason artificers are so popular on HCL - they can trap, are very survivable, and do decent DPS, especially when in an inquisitive. But you do not need that - just roll a warforged artificer and you're good to go either with a repeater or melee weapon.

Trick: While a great player can make any build great, I would stay away from very squishy builds on HCL. For example, pure rogue assassins can be very strong but do not do that well in HCL unless you play them very well. You will know what classes you are good with and enjoy - play those. Alchemists do great damaged but cannot wear armor and cannot find traps, they have very low hitpoints, and PRR, they are super squishy - as an example - I've seen very good alchemists on HCL, I've also seen many die. Warlocks too may seem like a no brainer but warlock DPS is very low in heroics. They are stuck mostly in robes or light armor and their hitpoints are mid-range - their spell selection is limited. They may seem easy mode on your home server with all the past lives and gear but on HCL on a first life toon can be challenging. I see many warlocks die on HCL. But again - play what you are good at and you will do well - just remember to plan for traps.

Tip: Traps kill more people in HCL than anything else combined - for every 10 deaths 7 to 8 are likely traps, the other deaths are heroic reapers, and certain champions or named bosses like the magma brute in the new gatekeepers quest or Hera out in the Borderlands.

Do all the quests you can on elite and you will hit 1750 favor, then 5000 favor. Once you do, you can take LVL 20.

Tip: go to the NPC and claim every reward you unlock as you unlock them. Visit your home server and collect the reward there to be sure. Do not wait. As soon as you earn it, unlock it. More people than we hear about here waited and died and lost their prizes that were unclaimed. Do not let that be you!

The Reaper Toon

Pick a survivable build and take it to level 30 as fast as you can. Level up through heroics doing any difficulty. It doesn't matter. Whatever you can do fastest. Your goal is to take your toon to LVL 30 and fill your epic destinies. Once you hit LVL 20 select your destiny and begin earning karma. You may do the quests on normal, hard, and elite for 1st-time bonuses. Save your reaper 1st-time bonus for when you are in a group running r3 or r4

Trick - reaper 1st-time bonuses, if you utilize a 50% pot, a voice of the master, and guild ship buffs, will net you a significant amount of RXP in legendary R3 or R4. You want to plan for it and do it - do not waste it on an R1 unless you have no other option. You can find groups that run R3 and R4.


During HCL III my Reaper toon was Platinum utilizing my Mary's HCL Reaper Necro ES Warlock.

So I wrote in heroics Warlocks on a first life are not the best choice. But once you get into epic/legendaries the Enlightened Spirit tree gives you access to lots of hit points, self heals with temp hitpoints, PRR, MRR, and moderate DPS. The DPS is low - but you are survivable. I will post my exact build and a link to it.

Tip: your reaper toon should be something that does high DPS and has high hitpoints. Barbarians, Warlocks, Favoured Souls, Bear Druid Melee, certain builds of EK wiz, Inquisitive builds are all good choices. Of course, again, a good player can play well on any build, so things like Alchemists, Sorcerers, and DC Wiz, Ice Bards, fighters, can work but would require a bit more work and a bit more skill. Play what you are good at, just keep in mind you want lots of hit points and lots of DPS.

Hit Point goals: 2000 +
If you do not have 2000 + hit points you run the risk of being one-shot killed. You can still be killed with 2000+ very easily but it is a good goal. Your PRR/MRR goals are about 150/100 minimum - more is much better. Gear can be hard to come by on HCL so do the best you can.

Tip: epic gear farming is a fantastic way to earn destiny karma and get your destinies filled.

Trick: Fill as many destinies as you can - this will make doing legendary reaper much much easier. Once you get your main twists set up, and your main destiny that you will run R4s in you want to fill your other spheres until they are all full. Do not run in an off destiny while working R3/R4 - bring your A-game. It is HCL and you want to maximize your chances by eliminating all that could go wrong.

Run with the same group if you can doing Reaper dailies, getting as many 1st time bonuses as you can along the way. If you are alone - create an LFM advertising for R3 or R4 legendary - there is a group of players on HCL who are doing the same thing and will likely join. If you cannot find a group continue to farm your gear and destinies. By the time I hit 20 reaper points I filled 10 of the 12 destinies and had all my preferred twists.

TRing - There is no need for TR on HCL. You certainly can, but all of the goals are attainable on a 1st life toon with the proper gear, a good group, and in epics, the right destiny/twists

Tip - something you could do to farm destinies and gear is epic TR - this would give you a powerful epic past life, as well as more gear and XP. You do not need to do this, however.

Trick - patience is a virtue. Many days and nights you will log in and not see a group. It is important to be patient. Look for the group, notice the times you see them, ask people you meet when they are running again. Some players will be doing the same thing you are, whether it is heroic favor farming or legendary reapers.


This is my experience - As I said, many will probably disagree - but this worked for me. It is not a guide, just sharing information. I hope you have fun with whatever you do in DDO, after all, that's the point, and whatever you do, good luck, see you on the HCL and I hope your adventures go well

-Mary

PS -
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