What character for First life, L32, Reaper Mode 1, Solo?

[Annex]

After some trial and error I ended up with a barbarian / rogue, druid, paladin / rogue, and celestial warlock.

Barbarian: The barbarian started pure but after running a few quests normal, then hard, it became clear she takes a ton of damage and cannot survive big traps. Therefore, to ease leveling, I remade her with a level of rogue. I have not done much with her since.

Druid: On normal difficulty, this character constantly gets swarmed and suffers big damage in every trap. Her attacks one shot stuff when they do not fire off into the ceiling, floor, or wall. Targeting is really bad but I continue to try.

Paladin / Rogue: So far, this character works okay normal, then hard. I have no confidence she can survive on elite.

Warlock: This character made it the furthest so far, running mostly normal. Splinterskull was easy on hard since I was able to avoid almost all the traps. She hits okay and has good hit points. She uses lots and lots of cure serious wounds potions.

Notes:
1) The zap zap attack stutters which I find really annoying.
2) The chain zap ricochet is fun, especially when it shoots around corners.
3) For a few levels I put points into all the defensive enhancements. Eventually, I noticed my character's physical resistance rating and magical resistance rating were really low. Reading more carefully, the defensive enhancements do not work when Zap Zap and Dancing Zap are engaged. Umm...what? I pulled all the points out of the useless defensive enhancements and put them into light spell power. Nope. That made almost no difference. Another level later, I switched back to the useless defensive stuff to reach the 3d4 light damage. This is typical DDO--create something almost fun, then make sure it is useless.
4) Shining through and the other thing that adds temporary hit points are very useful.
5) The burst attacks are almost useless because I want to stay away from monsters. By the time I want to use them, I am jumping for my life and zapping. Maybe this was deigned to play with a game box controller.
6) When breaking down a door or clearing spider webs, I need to turn off Zap, clear the obstacle, then turn Zap back on. This was super annoying in Spawn of Whisperdoom. For target levers, I need to switch to a bow. This is super clunky. Amusingly, I am not strong enough to break down a door but shooting it with two or three arrows causes it to blast apart.
7) Traps are a real problem. Even on normal some traps hit for about half her hit points. On hard and elite those traps would kill her.
8) Leveling from 13 to 14 is very painful.

Notable Encounters:
1) On Sorrowdusk Island on normal, the priests cast a spell that takes away about half her hit points. Fortunately, she was never hit twice.
2) In Death House on normal, the sword trap right before the skeleton ambush almost killed her, inflicting about 180 damage. Fortunately, a quick heal by the hire saved her life.
3) In Fresh Baked Dreams on normal, she survived a wolf pack swarm.
4) In Trial by Fire on normal, she almost died at the second troll camp when trying to jump over a group of trolls and lagging. If not for recently acquired Shining Through and hire heals, she would have died.
5) In Trial of the Archons on normal, she was almost killed by Blades of Shavarath right next to the first portal. The hire, Miranda Kelvin, saved her life, only to get cut down herself. This all happened in three seconds. She jumped away and teleported out and will not run that quest. In all my previous runs of that quest, I was never attacked by Blades of Shavarath there.
6) At level 14 I ran The Lords of Dust chain on normal to reach Eveningstar. In The Spinner of Shadows, on the last round versus the Spinner, Mister Guardwell was one shot within about 5 seconds. She was hitting very hard and Shining Through was about to go down so I teleported out of the quest. I will use a more powerful character to get the warlock past it, which is fine.

Since the celestial pact warlock seems the most sturdy, I will take her to 20 first and see what happens. The thought of taking her into Elite or Reaper quests now is laughable but maybe at 20 something will change.

[archest]

Sorcerer , air /sonic & force - EK

Perform , resonance spell power and sonic lore
impulse, force lore
Magnetic spell power , electric lore
Greater epic evocation (3 feats)

cant seem to get the ap point to use fey sprite to find spell wards.
want the force critical in the EK tree more


just cant trap with it..................... any trapper hires who have healing and divine capability's? no didn't think so.... bummer.

EK for the defense but you still have to swing a sword when you run out of SP. get a shield too.

epic 22 87 prr 72 mrr
is 1st life

in elemental form there's a bonus damage for the sword, character level 1d6 +6 the sorcerers chosen element damage. its a pretty good wack for a long sword.
( including spell sword damage for any selected element)
all of which scales on spell power.

in my case 28d6 + 132 +289% spell power.
I'd have to check melee power.
eldritch strike 1-2 force damage and +1w it takes a min to change from casting into an eldritch knight for the strike which i'm using the shield as well at that time cause i have very little or no spell points and looking for a shrine

equipping the weapons set and setting the strike as a quick key on my tool bar.
scepter and sword chain lightning
vs sword and shield eldritch strike

one more thing you need to have access to a crafter and lots of double augment slots.
lots of augments and access to more and crafting supplies and such.
as a 1st life toon you might make it through heroics without crafting and being lucky enough to find or buy the right equipment.

elf

[Annex]

Sorcerer , air /sonic & force - EK

Thank you for the suggestion, archest!

Many players in these forums laud the virtues of Favored Souls and Sorcerers. When my current round of characters reach completion I intend to give both a try.

.....

My celestial pact, enlightened spirit, draconic incarnation Warlock reached mid Epic levels. With quest equipment, she can complete Epic Hard quests on level. Since her single target damage is low, Bosses and certain Champions cause the most trouble. She reminds me of Mega-man, switching between Zap Zap, Dancing Zap, and Bug Zap mode. Her hit points have not ballooned as expected.

.....

Druid continues to be the worst character I have ever played. All her spells are single target. Spell targeting in DDO is horrible. She constantly gets swarmed while her spells shoot over the shoulder of enemies standing right in front of her, or off into the ceiling. She also takes severe damage from Normal difficulty traps.

.....

Barbarian / Rogue and Paladin / Rogue continue to show the most promise but none of these characters will survive an elite quest.

[Weemadarthur]

My celestial pact, enlightened spirit, draconic incarnation Warlock reached mid Epic levels. With quest equipment, she can complete Epic Hard quests on level. Since her single target damage is low, Bosses and certain Champions cause the most trouble. She reminds me of Mega-man, switching between Zap Zap, Dancing Zap, and Bug Zap mode. Her hit points have not ballooned as expected.

Just to explain this a bit the issue here is you have taken a build for an ES warlock (which is basically a close quarters CC and tanky DPS build) and are trying to play it as a long range dps build. As you seem to be focusing on the TS tree as your main tree you will not be gaining most of the defensive benefits that you would be getting if you were playing the build as the ES build it was designed to be. At the point your at you should really only be using chain or the basic strikes for clean up and instead be making the most of your CC options to keep the monsters tied up while you blast your way to victory.

As an example here try this and see if you can see the difference yourself.

1) Make ES your main tree making sure you have all the auras active, med armor equipped and ensure you have both brilliance and shining through along with both bursts. Then take TS as your 2nd tree so you can take the chain attack (useful for ranged mobs that keep running away and won't stay in the CC range of the main melee group), extra pact damage, web (free with core 2) and the enhancement that adds confusion to your blast.

2) Make sure you have all the following metamagics. Empower, maximise, intensify, heighten, embolden and quicken.

3) Make sure you have all applicable metas turned on for your bursts and CC spells (web, hold monster mass and tentacles).

4) start hearding mobs into groups. Once mobs are grouped up hit shining through then drop a heightened web slap into the middle of them and then follow up with tentacles.

5) Jump into the middle of the webbed and tentacled area and start blasting. Your aura will also be doing damage every 2 seconds and each time that goes off you will refresh your temp hp from brilliance equal to double your con score. This will mitigate most incoming damage from unwebbed/tentacled mobs.

6) If you start taking too much damage from unwebbed/untentacled mobs drop a hold monster mass on the group. In R1 or lower this should pretty much last the rest of the fight.

7) If there are any mobs left after you HMM expires switch to chain attack and backtrack holding down the attack button (don't click and release) while dropping another web to clean up.

8) go back to step 4 and repeat.

The biggest change you will need to make is to stop being scared of taking damage. With the ES tree that is what the temp hp is for. In elite and lower content you should rarely need to heal as between Brilliance and Shining through you will normally have more than enough temp hp to last any combat. Combine that with any of the healing options from ED's and you should never really be in a case where you can't out-heal the incoming damage even in low reaper content. Warlocks have pretty decent CC options if you use them (although you may need to work on your DC's) and a heightened web is especially effective with a short cooldown in those cases where things do go sideways.

Hope that helps.

[Annex]

Just to explain this a bit the issue here is you have taken a build for an ES warlock (which is basically a close quarters CC and tanky DPS build) and are trying to play it as a long range dps build.

Up until about a week ago I was doing exactly what you describe. When Lynnabel wrote a post in another thread poking fun at people who play Warlock like I do, I realized I was doing something very wrong. Then vryxnr wrote a post in yet another thread, explaining the Warlock technique of mass hold/tentacles>burst>burst>burst>repeat, I started practicing that in the Graveyard and quests. (I do not yet have the third burst.)

As you seem to be focusing on the TS tree as your main tree you will not be gaining most of the defensive benefits that you would be getting if you were playing the build as the ES build it was designed to be. At the point your at you should really only be using chain or the basic strikes for clean up and instead be making the most of your CC options to keep the monsters tied up while you blast your way to victory.

My character is based on a Warlock posted by VoodooSomethingOrOther. It is supposed to be really strong for solo play. The primary tree is Enlightened Spirit with some Tainted Scholar for extra damage and Staunch (which I have yet to use). Damage is Electric, Force, and Light. The character has shield feats, Empower, Maximize, and Quicken. Damage is low and spells fail regulalry. Eventually, I dropped the shield and picked up Force and Light clubs from Keep on the Borderlands. That upped damage but significantly downgraded defenses. Later, I found a Spell Agility augment but now lack for a shield or a place to put the augment, which I should save for level 32, anyway.

The journey continues to be a bit of a mess. I have reset my trait trees numerous times. The original character uses Unyielding Sentinel with some Exalted Angel and Draconic Incarnation. My attempt to up the damage by switching that around to Draconic Incarnation with some Unyielding Sentinel and Primal Avatar did not help. The electric damage from Draconic Incarnation is really useless.

Equipment is really difficult with three different spell powers. I have almost nothing to help with spell difficulty checks which means stuff like Evard's Black Tentacles and Mass Hold Monster do not stick. (Draconic Incarnation does not seem to help.) Even on Normal my spells do not stick! Spell targeting is really yucky. Sonic Blast is useless. Web is okay but...targeting.

The character strongly reminds me of Mega Man, which I played as a kid. I want to switch between weapons types for different monsters but I guess I am not supposed to do that. Zap Zap and Dancing Zap are kinda fun even though the damage is low. Bug zap is not fun.

*shrug* At 32 I will take 3 or 4 months to equip and see what happens, I guess. Yes, I know I am hopeless.

[Dendrix]

With an ES your damage is PBAOE - Point Blank Area of Effect.
You kill the monsters by standing next to them and firing off your AOE's and having your aura tick on them.
You need to get into the mindset for that. "I am more MAN than you." "You CANNOT Hurt me" "I will outlast you", "I scorn your damage". "Eat this AOE scumbag" Think aggressive, Be aggressive, it's fun. Warlocks are too tough to kill.

Staunch is life. Do not be afraid to use staunch, it's fun, hit staunch and look at your total temporary HP, now giggle about how awesome you are! If you see a big fight coming up or you know that there is a trap, use staunch now, before the damage come in. Sure you take some damage in the fight, but that comes off your staunch temporary HP. Easy come, easy go. Sure you have lost 3% off your max HP, but if things aren't getting through your temporary HP who cares how many HP you have?
See a shrine? Use a shrine. Get that staunch debuff off at every shrine, if you didn't have a staunch debuff then you haven't been using your powers. If you aren't using staunch, why have you spent enhancement points on it? Use staunch pro-activly and giggle maniacally as you run into fights with 1000+ temp hit points.

As for damage: just concentrate on Light and Electricity (you are an elec warlock yes?). You do have Utterdark blast don't you? With utterdark blast you can mostly ignore force, let your universal power up force. Get an red augment for impulse and stick that in your weapon. For damage I find that Draconic is great, I love the dragon breath it looks great and does loads of damage. You only need to spend a few points in another tree to have great self healing.

As for your DC's - a first life character will suck, you don't have the equipment and past lives to power through the monster defences. In epics the DC's needed run up faster than you can keep up, you need the equipment and past lives. Do you know what kills monsters? damage! not being held or webbed, doing damage to them. Drop arcane tempest on them rather than mass hold (have to spell swap for it) drop tentacles for damage, any Crowd Control you get from it is a bonus.

It's all about the mindset: "I'm going to do loads of PBAOE damage to everything and I scorn whatever they are doing to me through my temporary HP superiority"

[Annex]

It's all about the mindset:

Thank you for the reply and advice, Dendrix! My warlock continues to improve with practice and some better equipment. She really is quite sturdy and blasts through Epic Hard quests with ease. For now, if spells go off in the right place and stick, great, otherwise, I jump around.

.....

So, in all the "melee sucks" threads, numerous players extol the virtues of Alchemists. Could I break into Epic of Legendary Reaper Mode with a new Alchemist (32 or 24 points, no Reaper Points)? Experience has taught me that I suck at targeting spells which increases my reluctance to convert a wizard into a sorcerer. Is throwing grenades easier?

[PedXing20]

If you cant play a warlock you are unlikely to enjoy playing an alchemist.

[GeneralDiomedes]

As for mixing ES with other two trees for defense and offense, that's exactly what I do. I have 43 in ES to get capstone and shining through, 12 in SE to get Cone, and 25 in TS to get pact dice and spell crits. It works for me soloing epic on R1/R2. Might attempt R3 once I get more reaper points and past lives, but it will probably be too slow.

Draconic mantle and strike are really strong. If you are not noticing it then your Electric spell stats are probably too low. Do some gear focusing on that.

Also, keep in mind that electric pact is saved for no damage by monsters with Evasion. I didn't know that so next life I will probably go back to acid pact.

As you play warlock more, you will get better at avoiding damage through strafing, jumping and well timed CC. Then reaper will become more doable.

[Weemadarthur]

So, in all the "melee sucks" threads, numerous players extol the virtues of Alchemists. Could I break into Epic of Legendary Reaper Mode with a new Alchemist (32 or 24 points, no Reaper Points)? Experience has taught me that I suck at targeting spells which increases my reluctance to convert a wizard into a sorcerer. Is throwing grenades easier?

1st up I would definitely say that in the right hands end game Alch is very very powerful. However they are also extremely hard for the average player to master (which is why they are actually the least played class in the game) and suffer with some quite major flaws. They can be exceedingly squishy if not both built and played right, have some rather major targeting issues (until you can master their vial throwing you can expect over half your attacks to hit walls, ceilings and stray blades of grass or pebbles) and to top that all off can be truly awful in the earliest stages of the game.

In short Alch is not a class I would recommend for someone who is struggling to break into reaper. Tbh I would be very wary of recommending any caster class to someone who is struggling with warlock as that is by a large margin the easiest entry point to casters for that purpose (with the possible exception of a PM/EK Wiz which is mainly a melee build that can cast rather than a pure caster).

Now at this point I would recommend a complete change of strategy for you instead. Instead of trying to build a 1st life character that can enter reaper at the hardest point change the plan to making a solid character with several important past lives under it's belt that will give you a much more solid base to work from to crack that reaper nut. 1st decide what you want to eventually be to crack that reaper nut. For the case in point lets use the warlock that you are currently using. Then work on something akin to the following :-

Class lives

2x Barb past lives (+20 hp)
2x Palli past lives (+20 heal amp)
1x Wiz past life (+2 Spell pen from passive PL feat and +1 to all spell DC's from active feat)
2x Sorc past lives (+2 evo DC's + 40 spell points)

Epic lives

3x Arcane energy crit (+9% spell crit damage + 3% elemental absorb)
3x Divine Ancient blessings (+15% heal amp + 9 PRR)
3x Martial Fortification (+30% fort +6 AC at level 1/ 15 AC at level 30+)
3x Primal colors of the queen (7% chance of random effect on spell cast every 10 secs + 9hp at level 1/ +45 hp at level 30+)

Disclaimer.

Now please understand before you go into panic mode looking at all those past lives and try and work out how many years they will take that this is just an example. You may not need any of them, you may only need a few or you may even need a few more. The point is to underline that in this example every single one of those past lives would make your warlock a little more powerful and by extention a little easier to play. None of those lives require you to play on reaper to get them so any build can work. If you just ran 1 Barb, Palli and Wiz PL with the 3 arcane PL's the build you would be using would be much much more powerful (36 point build with +10 hp, +10 heal amp, +2 SP, +1 spell DC's and +9% elemental crit damage).

[Annex]

If you cant play a warlock you are unlikely to enjoy playing an alchemist.

Thank you, PedXing20. I will continue working on my existing characters.

As for mixing ES with other two trees for defense and offense, that's exactly what I do. I have 43 in ES to get capstone and shining through, 12 in SE to get Cone, and 25 in TS to get pact dice and spell crits. It works for me soloing epic on R1/R2. Might attempt R3 once I get more reaper points and past lives, but it will probably be too slow.

Draconic mantle and strike are really strong. If you are not noticing it then your Electric spell stats are probably too low. Do some gear focusing on that.

Also, keep in mind that electric pact is saved for no damage by monsters with Evasion. I didn't know that so next life I will probably go back to acid pact.

As you play warlock more, you will get better at avoiding damage through strafing, jumping and well timed CC. Then reaper will become more doable.

Thank you, GeneralDiomedes. I will continue playing in Bug Zap mode to level 32 and see what happens.

In short Alch is not a class I would recommend for someone who is struggling to break into reaper. Tbh I would be very wary of recommending any caster class to someone who is struggling with warlock as that is by a large margin the easiest entry point to casters for that purpose (with the possible exception of a PM/EK Wiz which is mainly a melee build that can cast rather than a pure caster).

Thank you for yet more advice. I will stick to my existing characters and see what happens.

Now please understand before you go into panic mode looking at all those past lives and try and work out how many years they will take that this is just an example. You may not need any of them, you may only need a few or you may even need a few more. The point is to underline that in this example every single one of those past lives would make your warlock a little more powerful and by extention a little easier to play.

Here you outline my 2015 plan for DDO! *sigh*

I guess I will just keep plugging away. Maybe it will happen, some day.

[vryxnr]

Can you remind me what server you're on? I know it's not G-Land (which is where I'm at).

There is no one single thing that will enable anyone to be comfortable in r1 as a first lifer, but it is possible to do. As you know, it's a combination of build, gear, game knowledge, and game-play (and a touch of confidence combined with being okay with death sometimes happening). Also as you know, I'm one who will advocate for warlocks as - while they are not the best of the best - they are easier to gear for and (imo of course) simpler to get into than other classes. I may have mentioned before, but I have several first lifer warlocks on several accounts who I regularly do low reapers with (solo as well, not always multiboxing). I've only recently started giving them past lives.

I've no plans to server transfer one of them over to your server, but I am tempted to make a new character on yours if you think sometimes grouping up will help (not even for running quests or helping pull loot if you don't want to, but to go over other things like encounter strategies, observing playstyles, etc). Getting used to grouping enemies, mass crowd control (and knowing which CC to use in specific situations, web vs undead and constructs for example), etc. Heck, sometimes just having someone behind you watching and letting you test out strategies without interfering can help, knowing you have actual backup in case / for when things fail miserably (I've done things like this before with people on G-Land who wanted to test their ability to solo certain raids without wasting time on a failed attempt, always staying several feet back and watching without grabbing any aggro or doing anything until they die and/or ask for advice).

(you can private message me if you'd rather keep that private. Or ignore me if that suites you as well. In game mentorship is not everyone's cup of tea either and I understand and respect that if that's the case)

[cru121]

I have some warlock mules - that I am actually no longer playing much because I usually keep one of my more main characters near cap - that use the split 41 ES / 31 SE / 8 TS. Levelups into Con. GOO pact. My tactic was to gather mobs, pop Tentacles, Consecration, Burst, Blast, and shield block if needed.

PW:Stun for ccing, PW:Kill for instakill, Wail of the Banshee just for negative levels. Though I can imagine that Arcane Tempest could be also fun these days.

Single target damage is abysmal, so I took Consume/Stricken (and also Steal Lifeforce and Dark Feeding: Blood Feast). Also took the extra movement speed upon consume/stricken enhancement to move faster to the next group. Some also had Ruin/GRuin, but these characters usually don't have many spell points...


A bonus tip for soloing r1: grab a second account bard. Suddenly a lot more builds can "solo".

[Annex]

Can you remind me what server you're on? I know it's not G-Land (which is where I'm at).

Thank you for the offer, vryxnr, but this is something I must do for myself. There is no fun or honor in watching someone else play a game.

A bonus tip for soloing r1: grab a second account bard. Suddenly a lot more builds can "solo".

Thank you for the advice, cru121. With regard the Bard, I have two, one at level 32 and one currently at level 27. They became Bards a few years back because players in these forums regularly suggest Bards are very powerful for protective benefits. When I bring one of the Bards along, I honestly do not notice a difference. Maybe they are configured incorrectly.

.....

For now, I became frustrated and am playing another game. Thank you all for your advice and guidance. I will try again in the future.

[vryxnr]

Thank you for the offer, vryxnr, but this is something I must do for myself. There is no fun or honor in watching someone else play a game.

I was thinking more about being able to give immediate feedback instead of randomly hours or even days later based on a block of text (and perhaps one day maybe even two-man some raids), though I do find that sometimes seeing someone do something instead of reading them describe it is what can make something click (imo there is no dishonor in learning by different methods, and in fact I find the willingness to put aside one's pride to better oneself quite the honorable act, though I guess this also depends on which definitions of pride and honor are being used)... but I do understand.

I know you want to enjoy this game, and thus I want you to be able to enjoy this game... and help where I can, but the nature of forum communication can only do so much... but one also cannot force it. I hope you find what you are looking for, and if you do come back, there is a community here waiting with open arms.

[marinersfan]

Thank you for the advice, cru121. With regard the Bard, I have two, one at level 32 and one currently at level 27. They became Bards a few years back because players in these forums regularly suggest Bards are very powerful for protective benefits. When I bring one of the Bards along, I honestly do not notice a difference. Maybe they are configured incorrectly.

.....

For now, I became frustrated and am playing another game. Thank you all for your advice and guidance. I will try again in the future.

I've not played much since the sonic blast nerf (and just generally too busy) but feel I can chime in on bard.

I just got my HC bard (18 w/ 2 rogue splash) to level 30. She's first life with pretty good hand-me-down gear, a +2 con tome, and 7 reaper points. At level 29 last night she could easily solo "through a mirror darkly" on R1 without a hire. I haven't tried soloing any legendary content yet, as I want to hit mid-R for first time bonus wherever possible. I think without significantly more reaper points she'll die too quickly in lvl 30+ content - just not enough hp to withstand the significant damage boost you see at 30.

If you're ok running lower level content (basically under lvl 30) initially to practice, this is not a bad build. A few pointers for bard (ignoring stormsinger as I didn't have access when built and you probably didn't either.)

1) take all the damage metamagics and at least the healing song (I also like the sp song)
2) pump up all the sla options with metamagics. Even as single target I still use sonic blast sometimes. It wouldn't be wrong to take the cure sla instead.
3) focus on your sonic and positive spell powers/crit chances
4) go fatesinger destiny. Greatest shout is really strong and provides solid CC for reapers. The epic strike and charged attack are both good as well. Not as strong as dragon breath, but the epic strike has a nice short cool down.
5) I think secondary destiny is best as primal avatar. Using that mantle with the sonic option is better than fatesinger mantle imo.
6) the feywild dreamer set from the Sharn docks is solid for boosting DC to where you can actually hit mobs sometimes, even as first life.