DDO Beginners Guide

DDO Beginners guide


You get 3 wakestones every day at 12pm pacific from the woman who issues daily bonuses by the temples rift stone, and an unlimited amount if you pay for a 30 day pass. Although if you have leftovers from another day like 2 or 1 it will always fill to 3 and end the number you get for that day so make sure you have exhausted them first

Although you can play the game solo its more beneficial to take at least one real person with you so that you can pick each other up when you die and minimize deaths

Partying with someone outside of your level range will give you a penalty that increases the more they outclass you. This also applies to quests that you either out level or are too high for you as well as bosses. Do quests and stick with people around your own range. This penalty is less severe when they are your clanmates.

Although the world is immediately open to you and almost every area is open off the bat some areas can only be accessed when others are leveled up.

All vocations are unlocked from the start (The only exception is Spirit Lancer, but you can ask people to carry you to get the vocation). However, to access to their job master, you'll still need to rank up specific areas. This is required to get your skills past level 6 (skills will change into its stronger version when reaching this level).

Blue quests on the world map respawn, and are the best option for exp. For maximum exp you can farm area bosses repeatedly. An area and its quests will always respawn upon entering an inn. Main quests will give a HUGE amount of XP but is a one time thing.

You will also get a ring that grants x2 XP that works up to level 45. Combined with main quests, you can get one vocation to high level pretty quickly.

It costs money to recreate your character so ensure you're comfortable with its appearance the first time

While there are several benefits for paying such as increased multipliers for exp quests, raid quests, and blood orb rewards you can acquire everything without paying, and can access the end game armor by farming raids

Quests cycle every week, and some quests change what level they are. Additionally what raids are available cycle weekly as well

The lestania news will be your most important asset. Each week a quest will generate a guaranteed reward on one completion, and then random rewards for each subsequent completion. This extends to end game mats and ingots. In addition it'll also tell you the levels that each quest has become weekly.

Hunting for mats and raiding are your best options for money which becomes a non issue in later levels. While early game mats can be found for 20-40k gold the later mats will sell for 40k-200k.

Grand Missions and Extreme Missions are your end game contents. GMs will usually reward you with materials for top tier armors of the season, while EMs gives you mats for the best weapons.

All GMs need you to play with real people so pawns are not allowed. Same with EMs, except a few which allow you to do with your main pawns, but there's no 2-man-2-pawn kind of party setup.

Don't worry when you're playing with Japs. They're mostly silent and only use in-game phrases to communicate.

Some Grand Missions will yield a lot of gold. They also have low versions so you can participate in without worrying about your level or being one shotted.

Your gear should be around your level for maximum effectiveness against enemies. At the same time you should be crafting your gear and crafting new gear repeatedly instead of buying them. Mats for this can be found on the bazaar.

If you still want to buy gears, they are available at shops in different areas. Highest level weapons/armors is around level 51-55. After that, you're on your own.

You can dye any equipment piece as long as you have the corresponding dye and at least one enhancement level in it.

Your RC is used to provide your pawns with JP outside of the one they get for leveling up. The exchange rate is around 10RC = 1JP.

In order for your pawns to learn skills above level 5 and extend to 6+ you have to learn that skill rank yourself by playing the same class that they currently are.

There are skills which need to be unlocked first before you can level them up (There's 'Special Contidion' below the skill name). The first skill will need you to clear Extreme Mission 4, while the others are unlocked by filling the Ascension Tree, which is basically season 2's blood orb tree)

Your blood orb tree will unlock gradually as you complete main quests. These provide you with boosts to hp, stamina, and attack/m.attack. While most blood orb monsters are found in dungeons don't prioritize farming them until later levels where you'll receive 500-2000 BO per run

You have 2 skill palletes that you can switch anytime. This makes for a total of 8 skills you can bring along. Warriors rejoice!



-----A short introduction to the rage mechanic-----
Most bosses, when taken enough damage, will enter a rage state. When this happens, there'll be a stamina bar below its HP bar. In this state, boss:
- Takes very little damage
- More aggressive
- New attacks
A support vocation (Element archer, Priest or Spirit lancer) will be able to expose monsters weak points. Hitting them in those spots are faster than pulling depending on where they are, and even faster if hit with the corresponding element.

In season 2, a Break mechanic was introduced. By keep hitting the boss during its rage time, you'll build up a blue icon on the left of its HP bar. When it's completely blue, a large amount of stamina damage will be dealt, and the stamina bar will also turn blue. During this time, pulling will become more effective than usual.

When the boss is out of stamina, it'll go into a tired state. Keep hitting it and it'll fall down.
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--------------Stats and their meaning--------------
Things like HP/ST, Physical Attack/Physical Defense are pretty self explanatory. There're a few not so obvious stats that you might want to know:
- Strength/Magick: Determine your maximum damage. More means more damage for physical/magickal attacks. Passives from Fighter and Sorcerer.
- Blow Power: Determine your chance to stagger enemies. Also helps with building up the break gauge (blue icon). Passives from Hunter.
- Endurance: Defensive stat against blow power. More means you can withstand hits without being staggered. Passives from Warrior.
- Chance attack: Determine how effective your attacks can down an enemy when it's in tired state (i.e just when a boss an out of stamina when in rage mode). Downing a boss faster means you'll have more time to whack its face. Passives from Warrior.
- Healing power: Determine the recoverable (white part) HP when you are damaged. At 0 Heal force, 70% of your HP is recoverable when hit. Each point in Healing power increases this percentage by 0.3%. Passives from Element Archer.
- Exhaust attack: Determine how well your attack can drain bosses' stamina. Currently no passives to increase this.
- Knockout power: Determine how well your attack can stun (swoon state) enemy. Note that most spells cannot stun enemies so this stat can be useless for certain skills. Passives from Warrior.

It should be mentioned that the 'physical attack' stat is compared directly to enemy's 'physical defense'. If your character P.Atk exceeds their P.Def, you'll always do maximum damage. More P.Atk in this case will NOT increase damage. Same goes for magick. Increasing Strength and Magick stat will continue to improve your damage at this point.
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