What would be a good choice to purchase...

[jfgddo]

IoD, SSoS, or FotF. Which of these is best bang for the buck?

[misterski]

IoD, SSoS, or FotF. Which of these is best bang for the buck?

I would wait on sales for SSoS or FotF. IoD probably won't be put on sale until after the next mini expansion is released. SSoS is also a mini expansion so it will be cheaper than the other 2.

I would also look at gear lists for each expansion and see what you need more of.

[Eantarus]

IoD, SSoS, or FotF. Which of these is best bang for the buck?

I would not buy anything at this point. Best not to spend a single dime on this game until some improvements come along.

[slarden]

It depends on many factors. If you accumulate points fast enough perhaps wait for the mini xpac coming out this summer and buy the rest with points.

From your list Feywild has the best set bonuses, Isle of dread has the latest most powerful gear including a crafting system and Saltmarsh has mats upgrading many epic items to legendary and is unique being the only items upgradeable to epic right at 20 using mats you earned in heroic quests/wildernesses. It's good on hardcore for that very reason.

From a points/$ perspective:

Saltmarsh 19.99/1999 points
Feywild 39.99/2495 points
Isle of Dread 39.99/3995 points

So if there is a pack in that list you want to buy with points it would be feywild first.

Who knows when xpacs will go on sale again in the cash store, it could be this summer or it could be black friday. It seems usually point sales happen in the summer and $ sales on black friday - but the summer sales have also been shifting towards consumables lately.

[Marshal_Lannes]

How much do you TR? If you TR a lot, then Feywild. Feywild has an amazing ML5 gear set with excellent set bonuses. These items can easily take you up to level 15. There are always groups for heroic Feywild or if you post one it will fill. Has rare Feytwisted epic chests to chase. Dryad and the Demigod is arguably the most fun raid in the game.

Or you do like Sentient XP? Saltmarsh has arguably the best chests in the game because you get 1000 sentient XP drops in virtually any chest out there, zone, or quest. The heroic content for Saltmarsh is challenging on reaper. Many players don't like doing it so grouping is much more difficult. XP isn't great either. No raid.

Isle of Dread has the best explorer zone, especially if you like the whole Lost World vibe. Has the most powerful and current crafting system. Skeletons in the Closet raid is the newest and therefore the most popular current raid. And finally, if you like dinosaurs this is an obvious choice.

All three have very good epic gear sets.

I adore Feywild. I can't imagine the game without Feywild. I'd rank it Feywild, Dread, Saltmarsh. But if you're an endgame-focused player who wants the best new stuff Dread would be at the top. Saltmarsh you can live without, and since it was a mini-expansion that makes sense it wouldn't quite stack up to the other two.

[KraftLorance]

IoD, SSoS, or FotF. Which of these is best bang for the buck?

slarden and Marshal_Lannes hit the nail on the head with "it depends".

Personally I'm someone who trends towards Heroic. I get deeply bored of epics and reincarnate somewhere between level 21 and 24. So for me, Fables of the Feywild is the bees knees. I can generally jump into it and ride it (and its Saga reward) up to Ravenloft. This makes IoD pretty pointless for me due to its level range.

(On the other hand, Protoceratops Hatchlings drop in IoD so clearly it's a buy.)

While in heroics I don't find SSoS to be especially great (the monsters are too bloated, imo. It's a significant difficulty spike in a way that feels unnatural to me at best, and actively frustrating at worst). (Though I still actively love SSoS because Arthur Romeo is just SO GOOD as a DM voice.)

So, maybe this helps. But if you're someone who plans to play into Legendary, sitting at cap, doing raids, then nothing I said really matters to you personally. Maybe you could see if one of your guildmates would spring for a Guess Pass so you can try each expansion out first and see which one you mesh with the most?

(Also, piggybacking off of slarden, don't forget that first time favor rewards are server specific. So if you're planning to buy one with cash you *might* be able to then also pick up FotF or SSoS by playing for a bit on other servers)

[Dendrix]

Stuff

And all of it is correct. All 3 packs are good and you won't regret getting any of them.
Overall, I'd go Feywild if I had to get only 1.

[axel15810]

Between those 3 it entirely depends on your build (for gearing), your main goals in DDO (endgame/raiding or reincarnation) and subjective preference.

If you could provide more details about your characters and DDO goals I could give more specific advice but can't really recommend one over the other otherwise.

[Bjond]

I can't imagine the game without Feywild

Feywild also has free fast mounts in it's raid. Salt has no raid. Dread has no mount. Hunt or be Hunted is free right now and also has a mount, but many others still want that one. I still haven't seen one rot in the chest yet. Dryad (Feywild) mounts almost always rot.

IMHO, a fast mount is critically important for a new character, but once you have ONE on that server, more doesn't help. Extras are purely for cosmetics.

Fey has some of the easiest chests to farm for L29 gear. It's possible to quickly repeatedly check for Feytwisted chests, which always have a nice item (no reroll or rerun required).

However, Salt wins for cheapest overall gearing in game. You can upgrade the L3 gear VERY easily to L20. One trip through Salt @ L3 and you can upgrade ALL the gear you found to L20 for free. You can also upgrade the L20 to L30, though that is a bit more work and can take actual grinding/farming. For Salt gear, you never farm the L30 quests. Just hit the L3s and upgrade.

Typical gearing during level is Salt|Fey > Sharn > (maybe) L20 Salt|Sands|etc > L30/cap. The L20 gearing step is indeed optional. Sharn L15 is plenty strong enough to take you to cap.

Personally, I'd rate it as Fey > Salt > Dread for a new player.

---

BTW, if you are going to buy things for your account or character, it's almost always MUCH cheaper to use $$ > DDO Points > whatever than just direct $$. Best newbie buy? Keep on the Borderlands Bonus Pack for the account-wide fast horse. Every character you ever create will have a fast horse no matter which server it is on.

[Dilbon]

Isle of Dread is rather pointless, you can easily live without it. Saltmarsh is essential if you like upgrading items from Sands and stuff. Feywild is great overall.

[o2t4f]

Feywild also has free fast mounts in it's raid. Salt has no raid. Dread has no mount. Hunt or be Hunted is free right now and also has a mount, but many others still want that one. I still haven't seen one rot in the chest yet. Dryad (Feywild) mounts almost always rot.

IMHO, a fast mount is critically important for a new character, but once you have ONE on that server, more doesn't help. Extras are purely for cosmetics.

Fey has some of the easiest chests to farm for L29 gear. It's possible to quickly repeatedly check for Feytwisted chests, which always have a nice item (no reroll or rerun required).

However, Salt wins for cheapest overall gearing in game. You can upgrade the L3 gear VERY easily to L20. One trip through Salt @ L3 and you can upgrade ALL the gear you found to L20 for free. You can also upgrade the L20 to L30, though that is a bit more work and can take actual grinding/farming. For Salt gear, you never farm the L30 quests. Just hit the L3s and upgrade.

Typical gearing during level is Salt|Fey > Sharn > (maybe) L20 Salt|Sands|etc > L30/cap. The L20 gearing step is indeed optional. Sharn L15 is plenty strong enough to take you to cap.

Personally, I'd rate it as Fey > Salt > Dread for a new player.

---

BTW, if you are going to buy things for your account or character, it's almost always MUCH cheaper to use $$ > DDO Points > whatever than just direct $$. Best newbie buy? Keep on the Borderlands Bonus Pack for the account-wide fast horse. Every character you ever create will have a fast horse no matter which server it is on.

IoD has a mount in raid too.

[slarden]

The mount is a good point, but at least from my perspective it's super easy to get a bta mount with borderlands. Psychoblonde puts together some fantastic maps and if you follow the path you can get a mount super fast:

https://ddowiki.com/page/Map_of_the_Borderlands

You basically go counterclockwise and after podrage you go to grubhub next - if you are farming on a higher level character with ddoor it's fastest to ddoor to the start and then go to grubhub with the crests. You can't recall and re-enter as you would lose the crest (yes I might have done that once when I wasn't thinking about it properly).

Alternatively you can just farm a few chests until ransack.