Wednesday, May 30, 2012

More thoughts on screwing yourself in Dungeon and Dragons Online

I wanted to talk a little bit more about DDO and screwing yourself over.  I do this to myself a lot.  You really need to think about how you are going to spend your points in Dungeons and Dragons online.  This comes both for attributes and skills.  But you also have to use your feats correctly as well.

When you are dealing out your attribute points you are going to find unless your are a 3rd lifer you just don't have enough to do much with.  You are probably going to need to find one or two dump stats that you apply no points to.  Regardless of your class this stat should never be Constitution.  People over state the important of con, but I would never have a character with below 12 con; ever.  In epic quests your are going to get hit with random splash damage upwards of 100 hp.  You need to be able to take it.  Your 6 con drow sorc is every ones joke.  You need to be able to not be a burden if there is no trapper that means at least 350 hp at epic level.  Really most people would scoff at that as being too low but these are guidelines for the new and I am not trying to scare anyone off.  You primary stat should be high especially for casters as your spell dc's depend on it.  I would say the min is 16 on a primary stat, but also make sure you don't have a secondary stat requirement.  The favored soul is a bit like that where you can screw yourself if you don't get your wisdom up as well. 

States are also effected by items and tomes, so keep that in mind.  If you are not using an attribute you can get by with a +2 tome and a +6 stat item, these are actually very easy to come by at high level so don't worry.  Considering this hybrid casters probably don't need to put anything into wisdom.  Also heavy armored fighters can probably get by with out much in the way of dexterity.  Your wizard can also ignore strength.

Your skills you are probably going to want to min max unless you have something very specific in mind.   Early on I threw a point into tumble on my bard because I got some item.  That was a mistake that always bugged me.  I didn't use or need the skill and I could have had my balance increased so I got up more quickly after constantly getting knocked down.  You should take a little time and read through ddowiki to see what skills do.  Jump is always nice as it increases the height you can jump, though watch out its soft capped at 41 so you don't go any higher.  Swim seems nice until you get an underwater action item then it seems useless.  I have maxed out Diplomacy it is mostly useless except when a quest npc needs me to use it.  Intimidate you will need as a tank, casters get made when you cant pull aggro.  Search, spot, Pick locks and disable device are mandatory for all rogue types.  Concentration is a must for casters, yes even bard.  Your bard must max out perform.  Use Magical Device is the best skill in the game!  You should think about it if you can get to at least 36 skill in it.  Then you can raise dead pretty regularly.  A fighter raising someone is a huge help as is a non healer throwing heal spells.  If you are a bard or Artificer you must master UMD.

Keep in mind the only way to change skill point allotment is to TR your character.  Spend your points well.  If you are never going to reach a point where the skill becomes useful don't point one point in.  If you only need a few points of jump and can use spells beyond that then so be it.  But, generally its best to go all or nothing, trying for 70 points in a skill at max level.

Finally I turn to feats, you can really screw yourself with feats.  I love this about DDO, that you can just mess up.  I once wondered if you can make a Warforged monk with armor plating, yes you can.  Can you ever be focused? no you cant.  You can never do anything a monk does.  Well that was a mistake.  You can change out your feats with dragon shards so this is something you can fix but its a bit of a pain to do.  There are some feats like toughness that are basically always good, but you should really think about your build with other feats. 

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