The frugal pack-buying guide.

[stille_nacht]

Hallo and welcome! i see a lot of people asking in game about "what pack should i buy" "which should i get first".
ill try and keep this kind of short, for more in depth reviews, check out sirgog's thread.

this thread focuses more on maximum benefits vs. cost, note i am somewhat biased, so its not gospel here.

also, remember, be patient! if you are not immediatly going to run the pack, do not buy it! try and buy packs on sale if you can

To start off, if you buy nothing else buy: (in this order)
Vale of Twilight- this is the one absolute must in the game. Not only can it get your first life comfortably to 20 from 15 or so, it also includes the most run raid in the game, as well as the most sought after equipment in the game (see greensteel). The quests are also fun and varied.

Devils of Shavarath (often referred to as Amrath)- This is the true endgame, and contains the hardest raid in the game. The quests all have different mechanics, and since the wartorn battlefield hasn't been spammed in your face, its actually quite a cool explorer. Buy this after vale of twilight.

If you like ddo a lot, then buy: (in this order)
Gianthold- Great mid level pack with some wothwhile gear. A ton of quests, the flagging ones are quite interesting, and the non-flagging ones are quite good for xp zerging if you feel like it.

Vault of Night- Epics, quests are especially varied, and especially interesting raid. Very solid pack for lower level and capped players, eVault of Night is my personal favorite raid. Good loot in epics, some of the best at-level loot in non-epic

Sands of Menechtaurun- this might be more important than Vault of night to some, has different mechanics in each quest if the same environment. Very difficult (good thing) on epic, has astounding epic loot, which is also the hardest to acquire in the game. Good normal loot too, as well as the famed bloodstone (though those are tradeable).
Note: if you do not care about epics overmuch, and already have gianthold, you probably dont want to buy this

If you really like ddo, and feel like investing more-

Necropolis part IV- solid mid-late level pack, more important for a caster (above sands), pretty amazing caster loot as well as varied quests.

Reaver's Reach- solid pack, good easier "endgame" content, more important for melee (above sands), dragontouched armor crafting improvements make it very desirable for many melees

(this belongs in the below collection, but i feel i must address this) Delera's- do NOT put this before other packs if you are new/ want to save money. I see this as highly recommended, but that is merely because the xp is excellent. Quest-wise, the quests are basically all "kill lots of undead". Very good for xp, and some nice end rewards (voice of the master especially), but in character progression, you can level past it without much trouble, and you arent missing much in terms of interesting content.

other mid- high level packs note that you may derive more personal enjoyment from these than other packs, if something looks really interesting to you, go for it. Other packs with epic like red fens and assault on stormreach might be a good choice, also, phiarlan carnival has interesting quests and nice "beginners" epics, so that can also be considered. The Inspired Quarter is a pack that i liked very much personally, with some ok loot, good xp in group also. The new Harbinger of Madness pack is also a personal favorite of mine for atmosphere.

avoid these:
Necropolis part III, combined with frustrating quests, and the fact that gianthold pretty much nullifies any need to go here, its just not really worth it.
Ruins of Threnal- frustrating flagging mechanics, boring quests, high tp cost. its "ok" i suppose, but it just isnt worth the tp cost at all.
Any lower level (1-6) packs-with the exception of the phiarlan carnival, they are mostly pretty dull/have no epic difficulty, and you dont need more xp for these levels anyway. Not "bad", just "not worth it"


it should also be noted that quest are much, much more important than classes and extra character slots. they provide actual content.

[Avenging_Angel]

The thread is interesting, here is a question I had in mind for some time.

When should you buy shared bank (if you think it's needed)? I'm not very experienced, but it's my understanding that a considerable amount of adventure pack loot is bound to account. I'd say to get the shared bank not too early because you'd have not so much to share (except for lordsmarch plaza loot, anything else?) and packs are more useful and enjoyable, but when is a good time to choose shared bank over more packs?

Or maybe I'm just totally wrong and a shared bank is luxury only VIPs should get.

[Mark_G]

A good list from the OP. One additional comment to add.

Be patient when purchasing your adventure packs/shared bank/races/classes. At some point during the year (and occasionally twice/year), each will go on sale for 50% off. Things are routinely on sale for 20% off. Just be patient, and you'll wind up getting more bang for your Turbine "buck".

[Linas]

Good list, but I would move packs with epic content up, above Gianthold and (maybe) Devils of Shavarath.

So far I own Vale of Twilight and Gianthold packs and have a level 18 rogue (+holding level). These two packs provide good end-game content, but I want to TR without spending turbine points and that is why I would swap my GH for Sands of Menechtaurun or Vault of Night.

[voodoogroves]

Hmm. If you were VIP and are now premium, I think this holds.

If not, an early investment in Tangleroot, Sharn Syndicate or Delera's is wise just to farm for low-ish level BTA gear. Those drop great no-ML stat +2, ML 5 sta+3, etc. items ... and those will really help new players.

I personally would put Shavarath lower on the list, certainly below Sands / VON.

[Ngha]

Hmm. If you were VIP and are now premium, I think this holds.

If not, an early investment in Tangleroot, Sharn Syndicate or Delera's is wise just to farm for low-ish level BTA gear. Those drop great no-ML stat +2, ML 5 sta+3, etc. items ... and those will really help new players.

I personally would put Shavarath lower on the list, certainly below Sands / VON.

You won't cap from tangleroot, sharn, or deleras.

my personal list would be different.

1. Vale of Twilight, it includes two areas, will make you cap, and has shroud. Must have, period.

2. Gianthold, by the time you get to your second life, without GH you probably won't cap.

3. Devils of Shavarath, third TR, you need it, period.

4. Vault of Night, good for before Gianthold and Epics.

5. Sands, this will even everything out after your third TR, you /should/ be fine after you get this.

These five in this order is what I would get, afterwards if I still wanted more packs, I would get deleras first, then Necro 1 and 4. House P Carny, Sharn, and STK last. Once you have all these packs you don't really need anything else. Leveling will be a breeze.

[Doomcrew]

An add on for the OP, (the work not up to date) this might help in some decisions
as investing in packs one should think of the pay out in terms of TP.

http://forums.ddo.com/showpost.php?p...&postcount=110

.

[Terminusz]

Thank you very much for this quick guide, I've been looking for something along these lines for some time now and the feeling I got was that, exactly as you said, vale of twilight is a necessity and that alone will get you to level 20.

Now a bit off-topic I'd like to ask you (or anyone that wants to help ofc) how do I, as a completely ftp player, get to level 15 so I can start takin advantage of vale of twilight?

I know I should (and probably must) run all quests in every difficulty available and try to get as many optional objectives as I can (or that's what I try to do anyway and what seemed the most logical) but is there anything else I should know?

Right now I'm in level 11 and things are starting to look a bit bad, to say the least

Thanks in advance!

[DMCain]

Thank you very much for this quick guide, I've been looking for something along these lines for some time now and the feeling I got was that, exactly as you said, vale of twilight is a necessity and that alone will get you to level 20.

Now a bit off-topic I'd like to ask you (or anyone that wants to help ofc) how do I, as a completely ftp player, get to level 15 so I can start takin advantage of vale of twilight?

I know I should (and probably must) run all quests in every difficulty available and try to get as many optional objectives as I can (or that's what I try to do anyway and what seemed the most logical) but is there anything else I should know?

Right now I'm in level 11 and things are starting to look a bit bad, to say the least

Thanks in advance!

When I start a new toon, i generally sort my list y level and start at the top (lvl1) and work my way down getting them all elited. By the time you hit the lvl 6-7 quests, you should be roughly lvl 9 or 10 and have at the first rank of favor with most of the factions. Working the quests in this manner, you will easily out-level the content (even the F2P stuff). After that, you can pick and choose the mid-level quests and hammer them out with groups in the traditional N/N/H/E sequence for maximizing the XP. Also, if you're running quests especially lucrative in the XP category, you may want to invest in 1 (or 2) Greater XP pots on the store.

[guardianx2009]

Thank you very much for this quick guide, I've been looking for something along these lines for some time now and the feeling I got was that, exactly as you said, vale of twilight is a necessity and that alone will get you to level 20.

Now a bit off-topic I'd like to ask you (or anyone that wants to help ofc) how do I, as a completely ftp player, get to level 15 so I can start takin advantage of vale of twilight?

I know I should (and probably must) run all quests in every difficulty available and try to get as many optional objectives as I can (or that's what I try to do anyway and what seemed the most logical) but is there anything else I should know?

Right now I'm in level 11 and things are starting to look a bit bad, to say the least

Thanks in advance!

Gianthold is often popular to bridge the gap between 11 to 16'ish. However, even at 11 there should still be a good number ftp quests, just off the top of my head:
1. Hiding in Plain Sight
2. Spawn of Whisperdoom
3. Dreams of Insanity
4. Tempest Spine
5. Delirium
6. Mired in Kobold
7. Eyes of Stone chain
8. Xorian Cipher
9. Invaders
10. Enemy Within
11: Relic of Sov. Past
12: Made To Order
13: Ataraxia Explorer (and it's two quests)
Just doing Ataraxia Slayer/Explorer should net you a good amount of xp. But if those quests aren't enough to get you to Vale, you might need to invest in GH.

Back on topic: I'm surprised Reaver's Reach isn't mentioned. IMO it should be high up the list behind Vale/GH simply for the Dragontouched armor crafting. It's easier than Amrath, complements Vale greensteel crafting with the armor version, and it's quests are often run for loot/xp/flagging.

[Ngha]

I rather wear an epic armor of some kind than dragontouched due to how my equ usually pans out, but I'm not knocking dragontouched, good for some I guess.

[DrNuegebauer]

GH is certainly not "essential" for XP.

I'd list it behind ANY pack that has epic difficulty. And also behind Necro IV in terms of XP gain in the upper mid levels.

My list would be:

1. Vale of Twilight honestly this is the first pack anyone should buy

2-5. Demon Sands; Vault of Night; Devils of Shavarath; Necropolis IV in any particular order (depending on your preference

6-7. Red Fens; Deleras if you want to TR you really want Deleras - if for nothing more than the VoM (although the great XP in the 7-12 range is very nice too). Fens for the Epics + items.

Following that, whatever you want really GH might be the 'best of the rest' simply because of the madstone boots!

[Ngha]

I absolutely hate the mid level grind without gianthold, but thats just me. I don't think I'd make it to 20 without it after my first or second TR. Especially for f2p

[guardianx2009]

This was the order in which I bought my packs:

1. Gianthold - This was necessary as, at the time, the goal was to get to 20 and 1.5 years ago, there were a lot less L12+ quests

2. Vale of Twilight - Did the whole get favor on every server thing to earn enough TP for this. With GH and Vale I'm
guaranteed to be able to play the game from L1-20.

3. Devils of Shavarath -Needed more high level content other than Vale, so this was it. That and it had some really nice loot.

4. Path of Inspiration, Reaver's Reach - Need moar high level content! Especially when I decided to TR. Inspired Quarters is good for XP mostly as there's often XP farming LFM groups up. Reaver's is great for Dragontouch armor, I would've preferred this over Amrath if I found out sooner.

5. Sands of Menech. - Got this mainly for the Raid and loot. I don't like Sands that much, the loot is extremely rare (bloodstone, torc), the explorer area is waaay too vast. The flagging quests are long and just not very interesting compared to GH quests.

6. Necropolis IV - Got this mainly for the legendary Minos Legens helmet and the raid (more raids = good right?) Explorer area is good, quests are ok. Great if you are a caster/cleric, since it's all undead. The flagging mechanic is probably the worst here.

[Isolani]

Personally, I don't think Gianthold is all that important anymore. Trial by Fire I zerged 7 or 8 times because it only takes about 5 minutes and you can just drop the quest and do it again, but I do most of the others only 1 time on each setting.

I would put Sands higher personally, since there's endgame play from it. GH just annoys me now, running a bunch of short quests for 5 or 6k xp just blows when you're on a multi TR that needs like 400k xp to level. I'd rather clear out wiz-king for 20k+ xp. And maraud the mines is 6k+ xp in 4 minutes if you want to do a short walk-up quest. Offering of Blood is > 1k xp/min also if you ignore the ridiculous long run to get there. The Lordsmarch quests are roughly the same level as GH, if you run those into the ground you don't need GH.

Not saying GH is a bad pack, it's a good pack, but it isn't as important for leveling as it used to be. GH would only be an important buy for multi-TR's in my opinion, a first or second life character could skip it completely without much trouble. If GH ever goes epic, I would move it to a higher rating.

[Feithlin]

This is the order I bought my packs. I'll add some comments.

1. Vale of Twilight. It was enough for me to cap to 20 my 1st character. However, it required a lot of slayers (the good part is that it gave enough money to equip my chars). Like OP, I think this is really the must have and probably the 1st pack to buy.
2. Sorrowdusk, because it was the best ratio Favor/TP. This is probably not the best choice. I didn't regret it when I bought it, but there are better choices now.
3. Sands of Menechtarum, because it helped filling the gap between the last F2P quests and the Vale, and because it had an epic potential. I really like my choice. The quests are numerous and varied, and it's very manageable to do them on elite and thus gaining the most favor from the pack.
4. Amrath, to provide more high level play. The potential of this pack is nice, but the grind for the boots is horrible, and it's not much run outside of guild runs. For these reasons, you shouldn't buy it too early.
5. IQ packs (Path of Inspiration and Dreaming Dark). The quests are nice, quite easy, and provide good XP and a lot of random loot. There are also good named loots, but it's an awful grind. You should really try to get the shared bank before these packs or a bit after, because the named items are BtA.
6. Gianthold. I ran the quests a lot before DDO:Unlimited and I still like them. The xp is very good and really helps leveling, but the loot is a lot less interesting now (except perhaps madstone boots, most of the casters' items are covered by cannith craft now), the pack has no epic potential and it costs a lot.
7. VON, for similar reasons to Sands. Some of the quests are very good xp (Von 3 and 5), and the loot is very nice, both on norm and on epic. In the perspective of epic, VON is probably a better choice than the Sands, but for leveling, the 2nd is better imo, because it offers more variety in the quests.
8. Red Fens. I didn't know this pack and followed the opinion of some posters. I really like this pack. At level, it has very good loots, that don't require a lot of grinding. Some of the epic items are also very good. If I had to redo my buys, I would get it earlier.
9. Sentinels, because it had epic potential. I really regret this pack. The quests are not very interesting, and for epic, Phiarlian Carnival is much better because it is run a lot more often and provides a soft introduction to epic content (the quests are easier than most other epic quests). The xp is mediocre and the loot bad at level and not much better on epic. I don't recommand the Sentinels' pack, at least yet (could change if they change epic content). Phiarlan's carnival seems more interesting, though I don't have it yet.
10. Devil Assault, when they changed it. It's very good lowby pack imo. The loot is really impressive for low level characters, the raid is run a lot. On epic, the loot is also very impressive. The side quest (DA) is boring but gives access to some unique loot: silver handwraps (if you're very very lucky) on norm/hard, and ingredients (including for amrath: I found a Devil Keepsake there) on elite.
11. Necro IV. It was mainly for access to Minos Legens. It's less important now. There is also the Abbot raid, but I hate it and I even more hate the terrible flaging system. Some like it though.
12. Reaver's Reach. I only bought it after Necro because in the past, you needed gems from GH, Sands and Necro (in addition to the 3 wilderness zone of RR) to flag. I discovered it's not the case anymore after having bought the pack... I would probably have bought it earlier if I had known. They also changed the crafting system (which was really awful) and now it is much more accessible to make the armor you want, or at least an armor you want to wear. The xp is nice too, but it may be hard to find groups. I find the quests interesting.
13. Attack on Stormreach, because it had some very nice items for my characters. The quests are nice and the loot is fine. XP isn't bad either. Not a priority, but not a bad pack.

I didn't buy Delera, because I ran it a lot too much in the past and the quests are quite uninteresting. This is only important for a 3rd TR imo, not really a must for a 1st character.
Here is the order I would suggest to buy the pack, based on my own experience/preferences:

1. Vale of Twilight
2. Sands of Menechtarum or VoN
3. Reaver's Reach
4. Amrath
-- At this point, you should try to get some more character slots if you didn't before ; you should also try to get the Shared bank to equip those characters with crafted items
5. Devil Assault
6. Red Fens
7. Phiarlan's Carnival
8. Path to Inspiration
Etc.

All those packs both provide content for leveling and for high level characters.

[stille_nacht]

The thread is interesting, here is a question I had in mind for some time.

When should you buy shared bank (if you think it's needed)? I'm not very experienced, but it's my understanding that a considerable amount of adventure pack loot is bound to account. I'd say to get the shared bank not too early because you'd have not so much to share (except for lordsmarch plaza loot, anything else?) and packs are more useful and enjoyable, but when is a good time to choose shared bank over more packs?

Or maybe I'm just totally wrong and a shared bank is luxury only VIPs should get.

IMO shared bank is never a real necessity, it is very convenient, but in my multiple lives, there are very few times that i really wanted to transfer a BTA item. (most items from raids tend to be BTC)

adding part about sales

[voodoogroves]

You won't cap from tangleroot, sharn, or deleras.

Yeah, that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is those have great lowbie twink gear ... those things we use to breeze through the lower quests came from somewhere, and mainly that's here.

[stille_nacht]

Yeah, that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is those have great lowbie twink gear ... those things we use to breeze through the lower quests came from somewhere, and mainly that's here.

buying a pack for lowbie gear wouldnt be very economical would it? :[

besides, even voice of the master is really just a little convenience, 10% longer first life is barely anything anyway. carnifex is nice, but can easily be replaced by a nice common holy axe or the like

[voodoogroves]

buying a pack for lowbie gear wouldnt be very economical would it? :[

besides, even voice of the master is really just a little convenience, 10% longer first life is barely anything anyway. carnifex is nice, but can easily be replaced by a nice common holy axe or the like

I think your lens you're using is awesome - for people who know how and have the tools to get near end game fast.

I just think the great many people who are F2P and struggling are not near cap at all.