r/ddo • u/AnaTheSturdy • 3d ago
Looking to get started
Heya folks! Just discovered this game and I'm looking to get started playing it. Any tips and trick you would reccomend for a new player? (Spoiler, I prefer to dual wield as a strength based character for most games that allow it.)
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u/DazlingofCannith 3d ago
Hi welcome.
I'd try to play your own concepts to start. The game excels at customizability and making many different builds. I have 66 characters and hundreds of past lives (the reincarnation/prestige system of this game) with few to no builds that have been 1-1 copies of each other. Dual-wielding strength characters is a great example - that can absolutely work on most classes in the game in various ways, and even at the highest skill levels people will rarely agree on a 100% meta. The game has lots of difficulty options that can play very differently, so if you come in and immediately play whatever people say is the best build in the game it can be a fun limiter.
Aside from that, enjoy learning the quests and mechanics on your own. Get used to using the "t" shortcut view options for looking around easily. When you start playing with veteran players, watch their routes and pathing and you might find cool ways to do quests quicker, safer, or more effectively in general, or find your own cool optimizations.
If you do a strength character to start, I'd try warhammer dwarf barbarian or warhammer ranger currently personally. Both make solid mono-class characters (you can eventually multiclass in this game) and are very beginner friendly with high survivability and solid damage.
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u/AnaTheSturdy 3d ago
Why warhammers specifically if you don't mind me asking?
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u/DazlingofCannith 3d ago
They're one of the stronger single-handed weapon types currently. That's not necessary if you specifically want another type to try it out or for flavor (you could also get sword cosmetics for example while actually wielding warhammers), but all else being equal you might as well. Late game they deal more critical damage because of an item bonus called blunt trauma, and dwarf (or duergar but it's a paid race) + frenzied berserker barbarian in particular allows for a bigger critical profile, which also translates to a bit of an easier time.
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u/Front_Crow_2248 3d ago
Welcome to the game. I’m a perpetual noob even after 20 years so I know the ins and outs of character building. Start off with f2p or VIP to see if you enjoy the game before investing in buying expansions.
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u/Ishvallan Shadowdale 3d ago
Barbarian is incredibly simple but extremely survivable. Its a great first class while you're figuring things out. Strength, Constitution, Dexterity whatever's left. Dwarf and Half Orc are cliche because they're naturally great at it. Two Weapon Fighting is a bit slower/weaker than One Handed fighting or Two Handed Fighting, but if you're not challenging difficult content solo you should be fine pretty much no matter what you do as long as you don't try something obviously stupid to any experienced gamer.
Fighter is also solid and gets more feats but less self heal options.
The early game is ridiculously easy, it hasn't really been updated except some visuals in nearly 20 years. But around lv 5 you should start seeing a little bit more challenge.
Don't be afraid to run with people to gain exp at a quicker rate, but if you actually enjoy exploring and lore, go solo and take all the time you want. In group play you're likely to see people rushing through quests faster than you can even figure out what you're supposed to be doing, and they don't always slow down for you or show you the ways. But if you ask in chat for help navigating, people are generally willing to be helpful.
Keep an eye out for Expansion sales, sometimes they can be literally as cheap as a dollar and you can earn enough of the online store currency by just playing the game and getting free points. I most recommend Fables of the Feywild lv 5-6 content because gear from there is good enough to get you to lv 20 pretty well, great enchantments on the gear and you're only going to upgrade a few points by that end of "life" leveling before epic leveling.
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u/Strype_McClaine Thrane 3d ago
Honest truth. On your first life, feel free to group and use the lfm but say your new. Explore. While on your own play on normal and hard while you can.
It's really really hard to die on normal. You can do it. But when solo on normal use it as your opportunity to learn.
DDO is one of the biggest most complex games that you can spend, hours and hours just staring at class trees and make no real decisions.
Playing on the lower difficulties, You could basically do 100% of the quests on almost any kind of build.
Most players run on something called reaper which is our high difficulty setting and feel free to join reaper groups but realize you will get killed and that's okay.
Ask for help. Play one of the strimtom beginner basics builds, burn an entire weekend playing the game and if you like it sub to VIP to be able to play more of the quests. If you're having an okay time, don't worry about subscribing then.
There is no rush to end game. Experiment and play. Find out what works for you and do that...
You said you like to play strength two weapon fighting characters, Take the ranger variant called dark Hunter... That lets you get trapping skills and gives you all the two-weapon fighting feats without having to invest into dexterity.
I would recommend human or dwarf but you could probably do anything.
Dark Hunter is really good to learn the game on because you can self-heal learn where traps are and have good combat abilities.
It tapers off on higher level play but for learning it's a wonderful choice
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u/math-is-magic Thrane 3d ago
"feel free to group and use the lfm but say your new."
This is huge actually. Most people are absolutely willing to run with new people, but if you don't say you're new, they won't know that you haven't been doing this for 8 million years and will zerg through and expect you to keep up. Say you're new so they know to, at minimum, prod you into what you need to know.
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u/ApXlDeCA 3d ago
Hi there, welcome to DDO!! Hope you enjoy the game!
I think the first question should be, what server are you playing on? Cormyr is very new player friendly, and has a lot of good folk who are patient and willing to help out (I play on Cormyr as well!)
My advice would be to find a group of players. Join a guild! Finding a group outside of a guild is possible, but it's always a mixed bag, especially with how the grouping system works. It seems you have a sort of build you want to go for, so I'd research how to make it possible. Dual Wielding is always a fun option, and DDO has many different class customization options which allow for it.
My recommendation would be to take it slow and steady. You don't have to worry about what difficulty you are running - the more powerful you get, the more you up up the difficulty of the quests to Hard, Elite and Reaper. Take time to explore and learn the dungeons. This is the type of game where you will be seeing a lot of them again, so having knowledge of the content helps a ton! As someone mentioned, I wouldn't worry about expansions yet unless you're really getting into the game, just worry about exploring and having fun with it! The game does have a tough learning curve admittedly, especially if you go in without DnD knowledge (like when I started). But if you're patient, you'll catch on!
Hope this helps! I wish you the best of luck in your new adventures! Also, if you are on Cormyr and would like a guild home, let me know!
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u/math-is-magic Thrane 3d ago
Welcome to the game!
Biggest things - Check out the pinned post for new/returning players. LOTS of info and resources here.
Second thing - this community is, on the whole very chill and willing to help. Don't hesitate to use the wiki or other fan built resources, or to ask any questions you may have. This game is complicated AF so there is absolutely NOT a culture of like. 'The wiki is cheating!' or whatever. Nah, the wiki is your friend. Let the vets help you!
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u/3Kbaito 3d ago
Hello and welcome to the game!
I've been in the same boat as you, i installed the game last year but only recently i have been really playing it. I'm going to tell you what i've been doing since i started.
First of all, do not get intimidated by people just zerging all the quests. Doing quest in a party is way better than by yourself (imho). So if you start a quest, tell everyone who joins that you're new, usually they respect that and do the quests slower (ddo players are very receptive of new players, and i always find someone who likes to teach others).
Usually, there's some codes that they give close to some sales (black friday, christmas) that you receive some quest packs for free and some expansions for really cheap (ddo points and also real money). Leveling without any expansions or packs is really rough and the reason i stopped for some time.
I did end up buying some expansions when i got a sale and i also used the free code they gave us so now it's way better.
At the start, you'll feel really weak and that's completely normal, strength in ddo comes from gear-reaper points-past lifes (and a good build). At first you won't have any so dying a lot is normal. The best gear for heroic leveling comes from feywild (lvl5), ravenloft (lvl10) and sharn (lvl15).
There's a pack that gives a free mount (keep of the borderlands), if you create a party asking for help farming for the mount people usually come to help.
Dungeon helper is a software you can use that really helps you find your way through some quests.
And now for past lifes. I focused on heroic past lifes first, with some epic past lifes as well. The first 3 epic past lifes in each sphere gives a lot of power, so it's good to go after them. And there's also something called heroic completionist (there's also racial completionist) but heroic completionist is way easier to get. If you get one past life in each class, you get heroic completionist. And also, it's good because you'll play with each class and then you'll learn about them, and get to decide which ones you'll liked better (i did find some of them really bothersome to play and some really good, at first i played as a barbarian but now my most liked class is bard and sorcerer)
This is coming from a new player, maybe some veterans have better advices to give. Happy to have another player join us!
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u/Good-Operation-1227 3d ago
VIP has the best dungeon experience and character building experience imo
Invest in the double point sale and sit on it until adventure packs go on sale
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u/IamGlaaki 2d ago
When I started playing I was terrified by traps. They are no so dangerous if you know there they are or there is a trapper in your team. If you find traps annoying, a good melee class with trapper skills is Dark Hunter (Ranger archetype). It is focused on two weapons fighting instead of two handed weapons, but you may give it a try if you have problem with traps.
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u/Professional-War4555 Cormyr 2d ago
Welcome to the game.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
The game has tons of tutorial pop ups... there are lots of friendly players...
Usually if you have any issues you can just ask someone.. most of them are helpful..
and if they dont know they'll probably know someone who does.
VIP has alot of benefits.. BUT IF you buy an expansion pack its yours forever. (where as vip is lost when you dont pay)
...some guilds are really strict and will boot you for nothing... but there are some good ones out there also..
..IF you run thru a dungeon 8 times in a week you'll ransack it and after that you'll get nothing in the dungeon for a week.
DDOwiki.com has tons of info and help about the game..
Ranger/Dark hunter will give you dual wielding for free...
Rogues start out with more skill points and class skills than others...
Monks and Artificers get alot of class feats..
Halflings make great rogues..
Elves can get access to arcane archer enhancement thru their enhancement tree..
...you get DDO point (25 i believe) for every 100 favor you get..
..also you can earn things thru increasing the favor of the poswwers that be.. (warforged, veteran status, 32 pt build, skill bonuses..)
..IF you have a 'pet' like a companion wolf.. you can only have one.. you cannot have a skeleton warrior (from necro mage) and a wolf (from dark hunter) and/or an iron defender (artificer) out at the same time... (also your pet is whatever level the corresponding class is.. so if you multi class Dark hunter and Artificer.. you could have a Wolf and an Iron defender.. but lets say you are 10th level total and 5th dark hunter and 5th artificer.. your pets are only 5th level while you are attacking 10th level challenges.. they'll probably die alot.)
...just a few things off the top of my head..
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u/droid327 2d ago
This game is old school in that it doesn't hold your hand or put railings on the bridge. You can easily paint yourself into a corner with clumsy build design. So try not to come in with expectations from other games or pnp... Read up a little and find a build that interests you, but has proven efficacy in game, and follow that until you get a feel for things yourself
There are STR based THF builds but they're very specific, and usually more geared towards raiding since leveling wants AOE and two hand is the worst at that
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u/serj_diff Moonsea 3d ago
1) Get subscription.
2) Get subscription.
3) Get subscription.
4) Find people to play with.
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u/Kjeberg Moonsea 3d ago
Welcome to the game!
I vould start here: https://ddowiki.com/page/newbie_guide
And Strimtom has a series called Beginner Basics: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtsQoxbW0LXqbTXu0VVZ_kA79W-6mIRSo