Advice for a new player

Ugmar

Ugmar

Dalayan Adventurer
Hello all.

I plan on starting up here shortly with a friend. We both have a lot of previous MMO experience including multi boxing and EQ.

I was hoping for two things from anyone out there. First any information you wish you had known before you started on this server (unfixable things in particular; level locked zones/ quests, important racial stuff, class balance stuff, etc...). Secondly what would be your ideal 4 toon group for beating the most challenging content possible for a small group (item farming not exp grinding).

I appreciate any thoughts or advice you feel you have to offer.

Have a pleasant day,

Ugmar
Race: ????
Class: ?????
 
My brother and i did just this.

I played SK and Cleric, and he played bard and wizard.

Sk can tank and split pull

Cleric is heal shotgun

Bard is utility, zone travel, and dps

Wizard is dps and teleportation travel
 
Unfixable things: once you pledged to a deity, you are stuck with said deity. Once you have killed a minion of a deity, said deity will hate your guts and no longer allow you to pledge to it. Every deity has an alginment that its followers are encouraged to follow, read about religion and alignment on the wiki.

Level locked content: there are Adepts throughout the levels, basically raid mobs for lower levels with maximum engage levels. There is one level locked zone, The Cesspits It seems to be quite popular for its level...

Overall, the SoD Wiki is a good starting point to answer your own questions. Bear in mind that it is player run, so it is not 100% accurate in all cases!
 
Thanks for the information.

I have read through a lot of the wiki. Noticed a couple things that have a huge impact; complete heal has a long reuse timer, apparently there is improved out of combat Mana Regen (any idea how much?), enchanter pets take commands, there's some stamina / stance system for phys dps, etc.

I had been considering a similar group to your suggestion. Couple of questions: how important is split pulling in 6 man content? Do you find a Bard is able to handle the CC needs, was the weaker slow they have sufficient? Anyone with enchanter experience able to tell me what their dps looks like (personal, pet, and charmed mob)? Also anyone with shaman experience able to speak to
their healing and dps potential?


Thanks again for your help.
 
Enchanter DPS is kinda all over the place. ENC alone is no dps at all, summoned pet is neglectable, charm pet is hit or miss, depending on what you get to charm. In the late game (read: lvl65 through the raid tiers) ENCs get spells to mimic DPS off their fellow group/raid members, and with the right people to cast on, they can be THE highest DPS by quite some margain.
 
Split pulling and Mez/CC is super important for a lot of 6man content and generally lets you push harder content. When I started with 2 other friends we did War/Clr, Rogue/Ench, Monk/Bard and we were pretty unstoppable. Sk is a good swap for the warrior as SKs get super broken at the high end. I personally liked our set up as the whole group revolved around the cleric's mana and the more powerful they get the less they use it.

With just 2 I would say Tank, Cleric, Ench, heavy DPS like a ranger, wizard or rogue. The ench will be able to mimic the DPS of the ranger and rogue long before they will be able to mimic the wizards. Plus at low levels the wizard will run out of DPS juice long before the cleric does. So if you are going with wizard I would pick an SK as they will also spend much of their time sitting on their ass not tanking until later in the game.

Cess pits is the only level locked zone but Runnyeye is level restricted (after I think 55 there are Death Touch traps). It is super fun and a great place to level from 10 to probably mid 30s with some good item drops and fun events.

Adepts are a great way to get gear at low levels, pretty fun and a good warm up to raiding but with the exception of maybe 3 items everything is pretty miss-able.
Haunted Treant has a quest line max lvl of 32 that I think Tanks and melee dps should do. Snowskin has the Hex Doll which is nice for pulling or just nice to toss on for the Wizard to make bigger booms max engage of 43. If you are making a Warrior I would say Tidefang slow proc sword will be real nice max engage of 50. Lord Rigatoni has a very nice quest line that is nice for everyone but especially nice to melee dps that is max engage of 52.

I personally I like and suggest staying at 55 for a few AAs. It leaves you in the level range for the Adepts with the best gear and several surprisingly good money/xp grind spots. All alts I make get to lvl 55 with 50aa. I am a little nuts about it so you can probably call it quits after 3 to 18 AAs especially if you always have your friend to play with. But you don't need to rush to 65. There is a lot of really fun content 1-55 that it would be a shame to miss.

My best advice though is to be curtious and patient.

This is a game of inches and I have described it to people as a game with a 65 level tutorial. It is a small community and word gets around pretty quick. The alt you were a dick to today might be attached to the guild you want to raid with tomorrow. The server is also run by volunteers with jobs and real life desires. If they aren't on right when you need them don't get bent about it.

You've already become familiar with the Wiki which is like half the battle for new players but the other half is using the wiki to plan or at least get a general idea of what you want your character to be. Knowing what religion you want and main quest faction to join will help you pick leveling spots and get a good start on your post 65 life.
 
I'd do something like Paladin/Cleric/Bard/Monk. Paladin healing is pretty significant to help out the cleric, clerics because other healers don't really compare, bard because resist songs can really trivialize certain things, esp at lower gear, not to mention the other utility they bring, monk because they do strong sustained DPS, are relatively tanky, and can split.

Most monsters in this game mitigate slow pretty hard so I wouldn't worry about that very much.
 
Shaman are pretty lackluster as straight up healers. We don't get group heals or hots (besides self-hot) unless you're lucky enough to get certain clickies which can be difficult to come by until you start raiding. Our first runic spell (which won't come for a while) is a group version of the self ghot, but it snares and slows everyone and is generally a pain to deal with. Also, our single target heals lag pretty far behind cleric and druid. That said, shaman are pretty well balanced overall and very fun to play. We can put out decent dps and work fine as the healer in most random exp/farm group situations. Slows aren't nearly as important as they used to be on live, but they can make a difference. If you want to be doing difficult six-man content eventually cleric is the way to go for heals. Good luck getting started. If you have questions that the wiki can't answer and you see me on Draedan feel free to send a tell.

-Draedan-
 
If you can get access to enchanter buffs (mostly), I'd go with,

Warrior + Cleric for one person, and Monk + Druid for the other. Could also go Shaman instead of Druid.


First and foremost, this setup will allow you both to play with out the other being on, doing quests, farming what ever, with a healer and a "tank type" each.

The group is pretty decent too, Warrior doing ok damage, Monk can split and does good damage, Druid mostly for buffs and ports and back up dps/heals what ever is mostly needed, and cleric just doing heals obv.

Slow isent that important in SoD, just remember to aux with healers, and you should be fine :)
 
Wish I had known: Racials can range from underwhelming to overpowered. Ogre gets extra stamina for the warrior class, gnome item proc more often, erudite take less mana drain are the 3 big ones that come to mind.

two people kicking ass: SK/Paladin (tank, good agro/utility) Ench (crowd control, dps, buffs) Monk (puller, dps) Cleric/Druid (group heals)
 
I recommend Troll as a race. They are large, green, foul smell. Underrepresented racially and the server could use more.
 
fuwok said:
I recommend Troll as a race. They are large, green, foul smell. Underrepresented racially and the server could use more.
Click to expand...
Trolls have insane regen, but they also have an exp penalty that lasts through AAs and Tomes. It is something to consider, but it sure makes the first 40 levels easier.
 
Can you put a price on looking cool?

I don't think they have an xp penalty: just a -10% to learning skills. Learning is for suckers anyway.
 
Iksar had a 2.5% exp penalty but I believe it was removed during the racial rework of ~2012 or whenever that happened. Trolls have been scratching their butts with impunity since release. I don't believe there was ever an xp penalty for Troll. There aren't great racial advantages to being a Troll outside of being large and green, but that is enough to make Troll the #1 best race.
 
I wish I looked up all the quests that upgrade an item if you kill an adept as the last step.
Choose deity and main quest faction that favor eachother. There are items from some deity zones you cannot get in any other way (gate turban for melees from Plane of air, ravenward clicky from Plane of nightmare, best fishing rod from City of mercy; probably more), or at least not until much much later, when you already have high tier raiding characters. They are not mandatory items, but are convenient to have.
Similarly, decide if you'll kill either giants or dragons.
If you're into quests, they can provide xp on top of other rewards and it often pays off to do them as you're leveling up.
I also have a strong preference for races that see well and for classes that have a sort of movement speed buff. It just makes playing easier without having to cast vision buffs all the time or spending 30 minutes running through badlands.
My final piece of advice is that don't take our suggestions too seriously, pick what you think is fun, not what is 100% best and most optimal. All combinations of archetypes tank/healer/dps work well, and some more exotic combinations also do.

I did sk/druid and my boyfriend at the time did rogue/shaman. Later we made another mini group with me on paladin/enc and him monk/cleric or something like that (paladin didn't make it to 65, but the enchanter did and is pretty amazing). Both worked fine. Sk/druid was easier and had more dps, but paladin/enc was less boring.
Oh, I would also advise against playing 2 pet classes at once, dps won't be optimal when you need to control both at once. Especially if one is a mage.
 
Also true what Blink said about Races, they do matter.

Ogre - Warrior and Shaman (and Beastlord I'm told), are arguably MUCH stronger than any other race in those class'.

The Ogre Warrior has more "out of combat - start" stamina (can almost open with WW with a delay 125 weapon, other races have to melee for a good 10+ seconds).
The Ogre Shaman takes less damage from self afflicting ability's (HUGE on R2 heal).
The Ogre Beastlord's stamina lasts longer? I think...
 
So XP penalty is kina more of a bonus in my eyes. Almost everything you do rewards xp and there is going to be a point much further in the game where you eventually run out of things to xp. There are people in my guild waiting on tomes you can only get through raiding who are sitting on 500-1500 unspent AAs. So really play the race you can stand to look at longest.
 
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