Solo Project

[RonHiler]

Originally Posted by Lethe

1. Why alignment of Netural Good ?

No reason. The only difference alignment makes is for use of certain types of weapons (anarchic, pure good, holy, and so on). Going NG allows me to use holy weapons and I think one other type (the name of which escapes me at the moment). But in reality, it's not all that important. I think actually when I made the character I forgot to change her alignment on the character creater screen, so I believe she is actually Lawful Good in game.

2. You put points into UMD and I have no points in UMD will this make a difference.

Not really. It means if you run across a race restricted item, you may not be able to equip it whereas I would. In theory, I would also have more of a chance to fire off arcane wands and scrolls (but in practice, I don't generally bother, I stick with the divine stuff and just sell off the arcane items).

3. Do you use a rapier or continue to use a mace or morning star?

I still use a mace, but it's all a matter of what you find in the chests. If I found a great rapier I would use that instead. At level 7 I only just recently stopped using the starter mace from Korthos.

4. Still have not found any better armor yet, need more coins, but at least getting close to getting full plate.

How far along are you? You know you can buy from the venders as well as the brokers, and by now you should be able to afford at least masterwork full plate (I think they run about 200 gold, but don't quote me on that). You can find an armor vender in the Harbor.

5. Do you know if a high skill in move silently works with heavy armor, just a thought.

Some skills are penalized while wearing heavy armor (jump, swim, and so on), and I'm pretty sure Move Siliently is one of them. You might want to look that up and see if you are taking a penalty (or just open your character sheet and see if the skill level changes when you put on and take off your armor).

6. Tomes can be bought from the Tribuine store - have you thought about getting one or is that against the rules ?

Against the spirit of my rules, so no, I won't use the store for that purpose. For my soloist, the only things I will buy from the store are vanity items (like hair dye). Nothing that would give a tangible benifit. If I want a tome, I'll have to find one in a chest somewhere

7. No points into jump - is that because the potions are so common ?

Yep. Plus featherfall items are easy to find, so jump is next to useless. Sort of like swim I have a stack of like 20 or 30 jump potions, just from picking them up from crates.

8. Also no toughness feat - any particular reason ?

No, no reason. Toughness would be nice, but I'm already feat starved with this character, and other things took a priority.

P.S. are you still making that game ?

Yep. A big release just went out to the testers today in fact. The first one (but not the last, heh).

[Lethe]

Hi Ron:

Hope you and yours are well.

What do you do about the Wilderness Areas?

Are they considered quests ?

Can the feats Extend and Empowered Healing Spell be switch - would it be better since we do not have many spell points

Will have to redo Lethe - kids got into the computer and turned her in to a barbarian.

But that is ok - I can now use the same stats, feats and enhancements as you.

Am assuming that she can not keep any of her old stuff so will give it to my brother.

Tcare,
Lethe

[RonHiler]

Yeah, I try to do the wilderness areas as well. But those are a bit different. I can't spend too much time in them, or I go crazy, so I definitely don't finish them off all at once. Usually I'll go in and kill off 50 to 100 creatures at a time (to build up my slayer total), get as many of the rares and explorers as I can find (that I still need), and then go do something else (quests) and come back to them later.

I'm pretty sure I just finished Korthos Slayer not too long ago (but I notice I didn't mark it as finished in my log on the web page, so either I forgot to fill it in or I have a few more to do), and I finished Cerulean Hills. I'm also about half way through the slayer total in Waterworks, and have a start on the slayers in Tangleroot and Three Barrel Cove. So I generally have several going at once.

Generally I will finish up the Explorers and Rare Encounters far sooner than when I finish Slayer. Slayer is always the hardest one to complete, just because there are so many thing you need to kill (the Vale of Twilight holds the current record, requiring a total of 10,000 kills!!)

BTW: Are you aware that as of the next update (rumored to be happening on the 3rd, almost all the quests will now have 4 difficulty levels? Those that don't already have a solo mode will get an extra mode called "Casual" (which I presume is pretty much the same difficulty as Solo mode). So I guess I'll be running every quest 4 times now instead of 3. Although for quests I've already run, I don't think I will be going back and doing the casual mode (I dunno, maybe I will, just for completeness sake).

[Lethe]

Hi Ron:

Do you mostly use spells mobs have no saves against or is there certain ones you use each level, do to experience?

Ok, if I understand, Wilderness can be done at anytime within the level range of the Wilderness, which is good, because like you I get bored with the slayer stuff. If they had more to do in the Wilderness areas it would be much better, more mini quests.

If I understand the Update that is comming out, Solo difficulty will be replaced by Casual difficulty and all quests except raids will have a Casual difficulty, casual, normal, hard, and elite, and of course there is epic at level 20. And you are correct Casual will be like solo difficutly is now except you can take more people into the quest and people will get to know the quests.

Well I rerolled Lethe II and will start again, but this time I will know what to expect at least up to some of level 4.

Thanks for the reminder about the Update.

Tcare,
Lethe

[RonHiler]

Originally Posted by Lethe

Do you mostly use spells mobs have no saves against or is there certain ones you use each level, do to experience?

I don't cast spells at mobs (with this character). My spells are used for buffing and healing. That may change when I get a few more levels (in fact, once I get blade barrier, I expect to be casting that a fair bit). Clerics aren't much for offensive spell casting, at least until they get up into the level 5+ range of spells.

[RonHiler]

Hey Lethe,

Just a followup to your last couple of questions. I recently started back up, doing a few quests here and there.

I did go back and do the Casual mode quests once U3 hit. I'm still getting caught up on those, but I've done most of them now (I had all of level 1 and 2 done already, I think those all had solo modes. I'm about done with all the 3s and 4s, and most of the 5s). The ones I'm mainly missing now are the ones where I'm in the middle of a chain (like Tangleroot and Waterworks), so I can't go back and do those until I finish the chain from where I'm at.

I have started to use some offensive casting spells, although pretty judiciously still. A full buff cycle for me is about 100 SP, plus heals, so I need to still budget my points for when I need them. But if I'm getting overwhelmed, I'll pop off a Soundburst to get some of the pressure off. I've also played a bit with Command, but this probably won't be a spell I will use on a regular basis (although Greater Command is a different story once I get that).

My character is desperately in need of a medium collectables bag. I'm hurting for backpack slots and bank slots for that matter (I don't use the Account bank for this character, just the regular bank, and it's full). At best, I have only 15 or so empty slots going into a dungeon, so they fill up pretty quick, and a lot of those slots are being taken up by collectables. Sadly, a medium bag is 88K gold, and that's a lot of cash for this type of character. I've saved a bit over 50K now, so I'm getting there, but it's meant I've not upgraded my armor or weapons for some time now.

Getting another bank slot will help a lot too, but House K favor is difficult to get at this level (and even at level 6, those are notoriously difficult quests), so getting that to 75 is nearly the same Herculean task as trying to earn 88K gold on a pure soloist, heh.

[Lethe]

Hi Ron:

I hope you and yours are doing fine. How is the game you are building going ?

With regards to the Casual mode:

I completed all the level 1 (Casual/Normal) on the island and am now ready to level up to level 2, but still need to finish the island slayer part.

My brother (on a different server, could not give him stuff) says that the Casual mode difficulty is level 1 even though it is a level 2 quest unless it is a Solo difficulty only.

He says when you enter it says it is level 2, but when he looked at the report it says; this is a level 1 adventure and the highest player is level 2 ?

Does this mean that I can not level up until I complete all the casual level 2 quests ?

Will this change the rules ?

Not sure if Casual mode difficulty for level 3 quests are level 2 difficulty ?

Since you mentioned in your last post that you have completed most of them, maybe you could shed some light on this.

Oh yes, need more space in bank and on character and I agree for collectables need tons of room. Will buy a quiver to hold all those arrows and bolts. No skill points for haggle, which would help

As for armor, not sure if I should wait until I can afford a +1 fullplate or just go buy a reqular fullplate (have just enough, I think). Maybe I will get luckly and it will drop for me as loot

I am waiting until the 20% experience bonus goes away, otherwise I will be level 4 before I get all the level 2 quests done on Casual/Normal.

And from what I have heard is that you can only go 1 or 2 or possibley 3 levels without leveling up, otherwise you loose the experience. I am at present well into level 2 as it is.

As for spells, when I do level up this time, I will choose the dog. But the command spell, when it works is great - to bad it is a single mob only spell.

Glad to hear that you are getting in some game time and not always working real hard.

Tcare,
Lethe

[RonHiler]

Originally Posted by Lethe

Hi Ron:

I hope you and yours are doing fine. How is the game you are building going ?

Pretty well, though much slower than I'd like. I'm working a lot in Maya these days, getting a player avatar built (just about done with the base geometry except for the head). Then I'll be UV mapping and texturing it, then rigging and skinning it, and setting up a couple of animations for it. Practically finished

My brother (on a different server, could not give him stuff) says that the Casual mode difficulty is level 1 even though it is a level 2 quest unless it is a Solo difficulty only.

He says when you enter it says it is level 2, but when he looked at the report it says; this is a level 1 adventure and the highest player is level 2 ?

Your brother is right. Casual difficulty reduces the quest level by 1, so a normal level 2 quest will appear as a level 1 quest on Casual.

Does this mean that I can not level up until I complete all the casual level 2 quests ?

Well, you can use any rules you want. For me, I always level up as soon as I hit the needed XP, regardless of whether or not I still have quests left to run at that level. This means at the early levels I tend to end up leveling faster than the level of quest I am running (right now my character just hit level 8, and I'm just now starting the level 6 quests). It used to be that the quests would catch up in level around level 5 or 6, but now with Casual mode in there, I will probably be ahead of the quests until about level 8 or 9. Of course, it depends a lot on how often you go back to do Hard and Elite quests at lower levels too. I try to run those before the XP penalty for over-level gets too harsh, so I'm trying to mix in Level 2 elite quests and Level 3 hard quests along with the Level 5/6 Casual/Normal level quests I am running now.

The reality of some of the quests is that they are simply too difficult to run at equal level with a soloist, bordering on impossible. Proof is in the Poison, for example, is a level 3 or 4 quest, and I still had a lot of difficulty with it even at level 6 on Normal (even on Casual it was no cakewalk). Same deal for Irestone Inlet, where there are a ton of Witch Doctors that will tear a soloist apart unless you are constantly casting protection spells. And to do that you need quite a few spell points, which makes this a very difficult quest to do when you are level 4 (you will run out of spell points pretty fast, and there are only a couple of shrines in the area).

Oh yes, need more space in bank and on character and I agree for collectables need tons of room. Will buy a quiver to hold all those arrows and bolts. No skill points for haggle, which would help

Spend an hour or so every once in a while and run around the city to turn in those collectables. Not only will that open up some pack space, it's a great source of income for the lower levels, as you can sell off the stuff you don't want to keep.

I managed to make it to 88K gold, so I did buy the Medium Collectables bag, which opened up a ton of room in my inventory, so that was a big help to me.

As for armor, not sure if I should wait until I can afford a +1 fullplate or just go buy a reqular fullplate (have just enough, I think). Maybe I will get luckly and it will drop for me as loot

I would imagine it will. By about level 3 quests you should start seeing some +1 armor drops in chests or as end rewards. Certainly the Catacomb quests have those sort of drops. Maybe even in some of the level 2 quests for that matter (like the boss chests).

As for spells, when I do level up this time, I will choose the dog. But the command spell, when it works is great - to bad it is a single mob only spell.

The dog is pretty decent. The scorpion is next to useless (it's always tunneling underground and thus dropping agro). Right now I have the hellhound, which is pretty cool to have. Gotta love the firebreath thing.

Glad to hear that you are getting in some game time and not always working real hard.

Thanks. Sometimes you gotta take a break and play, if for no other reason to remind yourself what you're doing all that work for, hehe. BTW, if you are interested, you can always follow my progress on my soloist page, I keep it up to date whenever I play.

http://www.rjcyberware.com/DDO/DDOSolo.php

[Lethe]

Hi Ron:

Hope you and your are doing fine.

Well I made it to level 2 and am almost level 3 (need 100 exp).

For spells I took: the heal spell, the Dog, and Nightshield, will these be ok or do you recommend some others ?

What do you do about those pesky runes that you have to use in the various quest ?

How did you get Ransack bonus in the protect the crate quest - I have not been able to do that - do I have time to run around a break eveything and still save the crate ?

I will finish off the Island slayer tomorrow I hope, then start on the next ones: Cureulean Hills and Waterworks.

Any suggestions for them ?

Well off to bed.

Tcare,
Lethe

[RonHiler]

Originally Posted by Lethe

Hi Ron:

Hope you and your are doing fine.

Well I made it to level 2 and am almost level 3 (need 100 exp).

For spells I took: the heal spell, the Dog, and Nightshield, will these be ok or do you recommend some others ?

Yeah, that seems fine. I don't remember exactly what I took at level 2, but that sounds about right. I may have taken Bless rather than Nightshield, but try them out, you can always swap spells at the tavern and/or shrines, and figure out which ones work best for you.

What do you do about those pesky runes that you have to use in the various quest ?

If you can't pop a rune lock at first, try the appropriate potion (Bulls Strength, Owl's Wisdom, Eagle's Splendor, and so on) if you have it. If that doesn't do it, then you pretty much just have to walk away. No one character is going to be able to pop open every single rune in the game (well, unless you are a 36 point build with a full set of +3 tomes, then you may pull it off, heh).

How did you get Ransack bonus in the protect the crate quest - I have not been able to do that - do I have time to run around a break eveything and still save the crate ?

You don't. There's no practical way to do that with just one person. Protection quests are a bit different than your normal quests, and for those, you need to stick with the objective or you are going to fail it, heh. I just protect that crate, then when the time is up and the quest ends, I go around and open all the crates (just to get the drops, since you don't get the Ransack bonus)

I will finish off the Island slayer tomorrow I hope, then start on the next ones: Cureulean Hills and Waterworks.

Any suggestions for them ?

Not really, those are pretty straight-forward areas. Careful of the bugbear bards in Cerulean. They are casters, and as always, you should go after the casters first.

You are going to have to go into WW several times to do the four quests. I suggest each time you go in (both going into the quest and coming back out), you clear out the WW area. That way you can finish the slayer/rares over time, while doing the quests. It keeps it from getting tedious. Ultimately, you will have to go in several times because there aren't nearly enough creatures inside to get to 450 anyway (there are only about 30 in the entire place). One of the rares is behind a rune-locked door, which is a PITA, but I believe with a potion you can pop open that door (if you followed my same build, anyway). If you can't get that door open even with a potion, that's one place where I'd say it's okay to bring in a Hireling to help (just to open that door, not for combat), since you need to get in there for Rare completion.

I'm done with all the level 5 quests myself, except for two more Tomb quests on Normal. I haven't been able to muster up the enthusiasm to get those done yet (BTW, for Tomb of the Burning Heart, that will be the first time you need to bring a Hireling to help with the pressure plates, and even then it takes a bit of luck). I need to get those done so I can move on to the level 6 quests, which for me, start to get pretty interesting.