I tend to think the best classes/styles for new players are: - heavy armoured, 2 hander-using paladin; a good balance of offensive & defensive capability, high saves for extra resilience, self-healing & a handful of useful spells. Also easier on inventory management since less need to figure out optimal weapon combinations & not using a shield means only 2 class-based enhancement trees to think about - arcane archer ranger; strong in low levels with the damage imbue in addition to weapon & ammo effects, in later levels particularly if you feel you're falling behind against more established players with better damage gear switch to paralysing arrows instead, you'll still be contributing in an effective, but slightly different way. DR is considerably less of an issue thanks to the core imbues, there's some useful spells too & it's also hard to make mistakes on feat selection since rangers get the vast majority of the essential ones free as you level. I'm really looking forward to the new renegade mastermaker tree for artificers to boost their survivability and group support capabilities - artificer is one of those classes where, badly played, they're sub-par compared to a more focussed build, but get into the groove of mixing damage-dealing from attacks, rune arm use, healing, buffing, a little crowd control & making use of the small library of scrolls they'll usually be carrying & they're awesome :D
tl;dr: play a warlock I kid! I kid! Great video as always, and I like the "new player" theme. New players have a steep learning curve with caster classes and by and large it's easier to hit things in the face with a piece of metal. In my opinion, the key to the game for new players is to find a good support network (a good guild, some friends) and group up, and any class is good for that. Thanks for the video!
From personal experience, melee´s simplicity in the leveling process turns completely against you at cap. In order to stay "socially relevant" at cap/reaper, you have to grind and maximize a hell lot and put every boost/special attack to use (via macros) to have a really high sustained dps. Otherwise you will be almost useless in a high level group and end becoming a liability due to the poor self-healing capabilities (at least with my dps fighter, barbarians are better). That means a lot of time and frustration for not being able to breeze through elite/reaper dungeons like some casting classes with cc and heal abilities and super prr/mrr figures. Fighting close combat is a pain in the a** vs range/spellcasting at cap. So looking back, and despite the love I have for my fighter after countless hours, I wish I had gone with a caster class tbh. Mainly because nowadays PUGs are mostly not based on class roles, it´s tipically each to his own. I think this is one of the reasons so many people rerolled a Warlock.
ROKUGAN I agree: melee is easier in lower levels vs. higher levels (even some mid level quests). As Axel mentioned, new players don't have the quest knowledge to efficiently use spell points at first and it's easier to melee the mobs to death. 99.9% of quests in this game boil down to "stay alive, kill the mobs, kill the boss". Some classes are better at it than others. At the moment, for reaper especially, ranged is best because you're not getting hit as often, and a couple hits from a Carnage Reaper can end your virtual life super fast. I have completionist on my main. I was cold to the idea of racial TR, thinking of it as a grind, but now I see it will be fun. All those builds I loved to get those past lives (clonk, dronk, wiz/rogue, nuking sorc) are relevant again and I can't wait to play them for fun while also progressing my toon overall. I'll even do cruddy melee lives in a group because this stupid, addicting, frustrating game is still fun for me.
I’ll say one of the most beneficial melee past lives in DDO is barbarian. 10 HP per past live(30 if acquired 3 times) is really good. Also paladin is pretty good! 10 healing amp per past live(30 at 3 pally past lives) is really helpful.
"Melee is the easiest class" and people suggest Archers to new players... Since joining DDO, I wanted something simple, easy, not because for competition, but because I choosed classes in World Of Warcraft which I played for 10 years. What's the main reason why I quit for the last time. I couldn't play the class I want, 50% community porblem with my Race/Class combo, so I choosed the one I don't like, and for 10 years, I made about 50 characters going to level 40 and 3 which I had max level. This time, I was more confident in myself, made my Dwarf Barbarian, oh mate if I was Dwarf Arms Warrior in WoW and no one pushing me for that... and I really like it. This is why MMORPG like DDO last longer. I have 120ms but still love my Dwarf running on my screen, people surronding me and greet me as we know each others for years... this MMORPG will not ever die, no matter the errors, because we can choose what we want, and there are no guides which lead us to "tryhard" gameplay.
Just started playing this game, decided I was gonna play as a wizard whilst all of my friends chose melee characters and honestly I was the weak link in the beggining but that didn't last long especially after learning fireball and playing around with the pale master tree, definetely way more complicated than melee characters. Now I'm lvl 12, the only thing I still struggle with is spell points, I tend to run out of spell points pretty often and I'm practically useless without them :(
Yeah, you've gotta manage them carefully on a wizard sometimes. Try finding SP items to increase it. Feats like mental toughness and some enhancements can help with that too. Also, the SLAs in the PM or AM trees are low cost spells which can give you something to spam without worrying too much about their SP cost.
I raid healed on a straight lvl 20 cleric years ago. I'm back , and I'm leaving the healbotting to someone else. This time I want a more casual experience.
Love the channel, Axel. My favorite build is a Warforged Wizard 18 / Rogue 2 that is actually an Eldritch Knight. Was able to learn a great deal from your channel to play this build. Mainly, because, as you said, I simply played the character I thought would be the most fun. I like this toon's flexibility to go with melee & spells with a high intelligence to make up the difference of lower stats in Strength & Dexterity. And, of course, self-heal. GREAT combo!
Thanks, glad you're liking my videos. Wizzie 18/2 rogue has always looked like a fun build. Not a bad one either, very versatile. However, I built my wizard as pure specializing in enchantment just because I think it's fun to troll monsters with CC spells and charms :)
True...and found I don't have too many problems with that (enchanting) either with an intelligence of 60 at level 23. Just a fun all around build. Please keep the videos going. There are folks like me out here watching and appreciating them!
Just my 2 cents, a video aimed at new players would be helpful to have added in comments a key for terms such as DC... still no idea what this is... thanks for taking the time to make this.
I play melee mostly, at least my main toon is melee. My second highest toon is only on it's 6th life and it's a caster. Don't play as much as I used to but still love the game
I've played both casters and melee. I've found though that I really prefer toons that can do a bit of both. I get bored otherwise. Other than my cleric I've really wanted to try running a bard or a druid but just don't have the time to play that much these days :/
My main toon is a bard swashbuckler at the moment. I don't mind it. My favorite is to be able to trap, I love trapping. I don't know why but I do. My first life was a rogue and I loved it and it seems like there isn't enough trappers in the game. Or there isn't enough good trappers in the game, I get in groups with trappers and they blow up boxes. Druid is fun, I was a melee druid for 3 lives. Even did a bear build one life, wasn't the most fun other than I didn't die much. Didn't have much dps, not sure how they are after the recent update though.
So when I was playing my rogue I was in this group doing some elite/reaper and noticed that I couldn't open any locks or disarm any traps my skill being too low despite me raising it as much as I could each level while some guy 5 levels lower than me with 1 rogue level or what not had 4 times the level of my disarm/lock pick skill, well now ain't that a great feeling of uselessness. I also had a cleric so that I could watch people who weren't clerics, with half my level, heal 3 times as much as me. Really couldn't ever for the life of me figure this game out.
There's many ways to increase trapping/open lock skills in DDO including really good items you can find, spells, enhancments, feats, skill boosts, potions, better quality thieves tools, intelligence modifier, ect. Check around for some guides on increasing rogue skills. My first guess is you may not have increased your skills as much as you could have. You do have to do more than just increase the skill to its max each time you level up to be able to unlock on the higher difficulties. For better or worse, it is a really deep game when it comes character building and equipping your character.
Yeah I was also using the best tools I could put my hands on, and I had lock pick/disarm traps specific gear sets as well, wasn't nearly enough, I never found any incredibly high bonus gears, guess those people just had the best of the best gears to do just about anything, I really liked the game, but there is a serious problem in the terms of leveling and high level dungeon difficulty, there is so few people left in the game soloing is a near must which is improbable for a beginner so you need to find people to run you through dungeons to complete some parts of the leveling process and boy is it long and hard to find these people.
I did join guilds surely I'm in one of the least populated servers, when I join guilds it's still mostly empty, well the guild is full, but the members just havn't logged since forever, just a handful of people being active, but I think I'll replay for a bit I'm feeling the mood.
Hi Axel, I heard that DDO is one of the best MMO's currently on the market...........Is that true? Also, What about Elderscrolls online? Any good? Thanks man :)
I think so. DDO is really good, that's for sure. I love elder scrolls as well, I've put around 80 hours into Skyrim. I did try ESO very briefly, an hour or so during a free play weekend but I don't know enough about it to compare. But DDO is really similar to Skyrim atleast in a lot of ways - I can say that. Most notably the way combat works. DDO is also hack n slash action based the way Skyrim is. DDO is of course a much older game than ESO so you can't expect the same graphics. But it's actually remarkably similar to the elder scrolls games in how it plays.
I don't know if you've done it but I couldn't find the video but could you do a video explaining the True ressurection process and leveling above 20? It looks like a completely different ball game and I just joined the after a 10 year hiatus and I'm like baffled atm. It's also resorted me to soloing because whenever I join a group, I feel very useless. :)
Depends on how you define alive. Is the population as high as it used to be? No. Do you have to make more of an effort to get a group? Yes. But is the play experience overall worse? Not necessarily. It's just more imperative now you join an active guild so you regularly have people to play with. But if you're just looking to group with random people it's definitely harder. The game maintains a very active hardcore fanbase though. Population is definitely not what I'd call "great" however but the game is still very much playable.
Axel's DDO Channel Thanks. I used to play a lot between 2007-2010 and it was really easy to find a group no matter what level you was at least in the Thelanis server. I just wanted to know if there's at least a decent size LFM selection when trying to find a group because I still have my 3rd reincarnated Barb and 2nd incarnated monk level 9 and 16 that I want to run dungeons with.
I play on Thelanis. Yes, I'd call it decent. There's usually 6-12 or so LFMs up I'd say on average. Depending on when you are playing. It's not as populated as it used to be but it's not terrible.
spent 3 minutes and it still didn't start on talking about classess at all and reviewing them...not really fond of too much blabbering and talking about stuff that's not the actual topic of the video...
@@_zarthix_ Yes, it's free to play. There's a lot of free content but the game has paid content and other things you can buy as well. But you can play through most of the game without having to buy anything if you don't want to.
You can download it at DDO.com directly, or you can download it through Steam. Better IMO to just download it from DDO.com since it's a free to play game and there's no reason to take the extra step of going through Steam.
Depends how you define winning. It has some p2w elements though, such as some things you can buy to help you level faster. The balance is good though. Its a free to play game so they have to make money but its done well. The best gear and such can't be bought. So basically it has some p2w elements but overall is not p2w.
I tend to think the best classes/styles for new players are:
- heavy armoured, 2 hander-using paladin; a good balance of offensive & defensive capability, high saves for extra resilience, self-healing & a handful of useful spells. Also easier on inventory management since less need to figure out optimal weapon combinations & not using a shield means only 2 class-based enhancement trees to think about
- arcane archer ranger; strong in low levels with the damage imbue in addition to weapon & ammo effects, in later levels particularly if you feel you're falling behind against more established players with better damage gear switch to paralysing arrows instead, you'll still be contributing in an effective, but slightly different way. DR is considerably less of an issue thanks to the core imbues, there's some useful spells too & it's also hard to make mistakes on feat selection since rangers get the vast majority of the essential ones free as you level.
I'm really looking forward to the new renegade mastermaker tree for artificers to boost their survivability and group support capabilities - artificer is one of those classes where, badly played, they're sub-par compared to a more focussed build, but get into the groove of mixing damage-dealing from attacks, rune arm use, healing, buffing, a little crowd control & making use of the small library of scrolls they'll usually be carrying & they're awesome :D
tl;dr: play a warlock
I kid! I kid! Great video as always, and I like the "new player" theme. New players have a steep learning curve with caster classes and by and large it's easier to hit things in the face with a piece of metal. In my opinion, the key to the game for new players is to find a good support network (a good guild, some friends) and group up, and any class is good for that. Thanks for the video!
Dirty William For sure, finding a good group of people is pretty essential these days I think for regular players.
From personal experience, melee´s simplicity in the leveling process turns completely against you at cap. In order to stay "socially relevant" at cap/reaper, you have to grind and maximize a hell lot and put every boost/special attack to use (via macros) to have a really high sustained dps. Otherwise you will be almost useless in a high level group and end becoming a liability due to the poor self-healing capabilities (at least with my dps fighter, barbarians are better). That means a lot of time and frustration for not being able to breeze through elite/reaper dungeons like some casting classes with cc and heal abilities and super prr/mrr figures. Fighting close combat is a pain in the a** vs range/spellcasting at cap. So looking back, and despite the love I have for my fighter after countless hours, I wish I had gone with a caster class tbh. Mainly because nowadays PUGs are mostly not based on class roles, it´s tipically each to his own. I think this is one of the reasons so many people rerolled a Warlock.
ROKUGAN I agree: melee is easier in lower levels vs. higher levels (even some mid level quests). As Axel mentioned, new players don't have the quest knowledge to efficiently use spell points at first and it's easier to melee the mobs to death.
99.9% of quests in this game boil down to "stay alive, kill the mobs, kill the boss". Some classes are better at it than others. At the moment, for reaper especially, ranged is best because you're not getting hit as often, and a couple hits from a Carnage Reaper can end your virtual life super fast.
I have completionist on my main. I was cold to the idea of racial TR, thinking of it as a grind, but now I see it will be fun. All those builds I loved to get those past lives (clonk, dronk, wiz/rogue, nuking sorc) are relevant again and I can't wait to play them for fun while also progressing my toon overall. I'll even do cruddy melee lives in a group because this stupid, addicting, frustrating game is still fun for me.
ROKUGAN The balance between melee and a spellcaster has gotta be so hard to do. I wouldnt want to be the developer who has to do it.
Warlock is the best but what enchantment tree? I personally like the enlightened spirit for the eldritch aura and light damage
I’ll say one of the most beneficial melee past lives in DDO is barbarian. 10 HP per past live(30 if acquired 3 times) is really good. Also paladin is pretty good! 10 healing amp per past live(30 at 3 pally past lives) is really helpful.
yeah, I'd love to have more of those lives on my main.
"Melee is the easiest class" and people suggest Archers to new players... Since joining DDO, I wanted something simple, easy, not because for competition, but because I choosed classes in World Of Warcraft which I played for 10 years. What's the main reason why I quit for the last time. I couldn't play the class I want, 50% community porblem with my Race/Class combo, so I choosed the one I don't like, and for 10 years, I made about 50 characters going to level 40 and 3 which I had max level. This time, I was more confident in myself, made my Dwarf Barbarian, oh mate if I was Dwarf Arms Warrior in WoW and no one pushing me for that... and I really like it. This is why MMORPG like DDO last longer. I have 120ms but still love my Dwarf running on my screen, people surronding me and greet me as we know each others for years... this MMORPG will not ever die, no matter the errors, because we can choose what we want, and there are no guides which lead us to "tryhard" gameplay.
Awesome content. Tempted on giving this game another try. Have not played it since launch.
a good video would have been way better if you show the class you playing not only 1.....
I agree. Editing is time consuming though so it's always a choice as to how much I do, though I've been doing way more in my more recent videos.
By my estimations from looking at his hot bar and weapon my guess is barberian
Or cleric probably cleric
Just started playing this game, decided I was gonna play as a wizard whilst all of my friends chose melee characters and honestly I was the weak link in the beggining but that didn't last long especially after learning fireball and playing around with the pale master tree, definetely way more complicated than melee characters. Now I'm lvl 12, the only thing I still struggle with is spell points, I tend to run out of spell points pretty often and I'm practically useless without them :(
Yeah, you've gotta manage them carefully on a wizard sometimes. Try finding SP items to increase it. Feats like mental toughness and some enhancements can help with that too. Also, the SLAs in the PM or AM trees are low cost spells which can give you something to spam without worrying too much about their SP cost.
@@AxelAlexK Oh thank you for the tips! Will keep that in mind!
I raid healed on a straight lvl 20 cleric years ago. I'm back , and I'm leaving the healbotting to someone else. This time I want a more casual experience.
new players should come to Orion, it's the most active server.
@Final Fantasy I'd like to know
Play permadeath and go pure that is the best way to play this game.
Love the channel, Axel. My favorite build is a Warforged Wizard 18 / Rogue 2 that is actually an Eldritch Knight. Was able to learn a great deal from your channel to play this build. Mainly, because, as you said, I simply played the character I thought would be the most fun. I like this toon's flexibility to go with melee & spells with a high intelligence to make up the difference of lower stats in Strength & Dexterity. And, of course, self-heal. GREAT combo!
Thanks, glad you're liking my videos. Wizzie 18/2 rogue has always looked like a fun build. Not a bad one either, very versatile. However, I built my wizard as pure specializing in enchantment just because I think it's fun to troll monsters with CC spells and charms :)
True...and found I don't have too many problems with that (enchanting) either with an intelligence of 60 at level 23. Just a fun all around build. Please keep the videos going. There are folks like me out here watching and appreciating them!
Thank you for making this video
You're welcome!
Your video made me want to come back THX MAN :P
Have fun :)
Just my 2 cents, a video aimed at new players would be helpful to have added in comments a key for terms such as DC... still no idea what this is... thanks for taking the time to make this.
Though it is an old video, I did do a video like this called "DDO Basics for New Players" which should still be helpful.
i am a barbarian halfing with two wounding of puncuring rapries. was 12 years ago!!! ME STRONGS. TSINTSANTSON WINS.
I play melee mostly, at least my main toon is melee. My second highest toon is only on it's 6th life and it's a caster. Don't play as much as I used to but still love the game
I've played both casters and melee. I've found though that I really prefer toons that can do a bit of both. I get bored otherwise. Other than my cleric I've really wanted to try running a bard or a druid but just don't have the time to play that much these days :/
My main toon is a bard swashbuckler at the moment. I don't mind it. My favorite is to be able to trap, I love trapping. I don't know why but I do. My first life was a rogue and I loved it and it seems like there isn't enough trappers in the game. Or there isn't enough good trappers in the game, I get in groups with trappers and they blow up boxes. Druid is fun, I was a melee druid for 3 lives. Even did a bear build one life, wasn't the most fun other than I didn't die much. Didn't have much dps, not sure how they are after the recent update though.
That's me with healing. Love doing it.
Warchanter is a great melee/spellcaster build, get a bit of both worlds not the best of both but it's fun and you can go pure with it too
So when I was playing my rogue I was in this group doing some elite/reaper and noticed that I couldn't open any locks or disarm any traps my skill being too low despite me raising it as much as I could each level while some guy 5 levels lower than me with 1 rogue level or what not had 4 times the level of my disarm/lock pick skill, well now ain't that a great feeling of uselessness.
I also had a cleric so that I could watch people who weren't clerics, with half my level, heal 3 times as much as me. Really couldn't ever for the life of me figure this game out.
There's many ways to increase trapping/open lock skills in DDO including really good items you can find, spells, enhancments, feats, skill boosts, potions, better quality thieves tools, intelligence modifier, ect. Check around for some guides on increasing rogue skills. My first guess is you may not have increased your skills as much as you could have. You do have to do more than just increase the skill to its max each time you level up to be able to unlock on the higher difficulties. For better or worse, it is a really deep game when it comes character building and equipping your character.
Yeah I was also using the best tools I could put my hands on, and I had lock pick/disarm traps specific gear sets as well, wasn't nearly enough, I never found any incredibly high bonus gears, guess those people just had the best of the best gears to do just about anything, I really liked the game, but there is a serious problem in the terms of leveling and high level dungeon difficulty, there is so few people left in the game soloing is a near must which is improbable for a beginner so you need to find people to run you through dungeons to complete some parts of the leveling process and boy is it long and hard to find these people.
Unknown Population is an issue, you're not wrong. Try looking for a guild to join or a static group. It helps a lot.
I did join guilds surely I'm in one of the least populated servers, when I join guilds it's still mostly empty, well the guild is full, but the members just havn't logged since forever, just a handful of people being active, but I think I'll replay for a bit I'm feeling the mood.
Try checking the DDO.com forums, reddit or DDO discord and someone will point you towards more active guilds
Hi Axel, I heard that DDO is one of the best MMO's currently on the market...........Is that true? Also, What about Elderscrolls online? Any good? Thanks man :)
I think so. DDO is really good, that's for sure. I love elder scrolls as well, I've put around 80 hours into Skyrim. I did try ESO very briefly, an hour or so during a free play weekend but I don't know enough about it to compare. But DDO is really similar to Skyrim atleast in a lot of ways - I can say that. Most notably the way combat works. DDO is also hack n slash action based the way Skyrim is. DDO is of course a much older game than ESO so you can't expect the same graphics. But it's actually remarkably similar to the elder scrolls games in how it plays.
I am new to DDO and so far been thrilled with it. Best and most challenging adventures I have ever had in a game.
It's pu nah chia. And it's useful
I don't know if you've done it but I couldn't find the video but could you do a video explaining the True ressurection process and leveling above 20? It looks like a completely different ball game and I just joined the after a 10 year hiatus and I'm like baffled atm. It's also resorted me to soloing because whenever I join a group, I feel very useless. :)
I haven't done a video on that. That's a good video idea though. A video on reincarnation I definitely could do, I'll consider it.
@@AxelAlexK Awesome, I'll subscribe incase you do, thank you for the great content so far :)
I'll see what I can do. I have a few videos planned first though. Glad you enjoy the content, appreciate the sub.
What class is that your using? Can you post your build
Cleric. Here's the build: czcams.com/video/O6EWGrj2hP4/video.html
What is the right spell for the situation?
Web
FOM
I'm a returning player. I want to get back into this game but I want to know if the game is still alive.
Depends on how you define alive. Is the population as high as it used to be? No. Do you have to make more of an effort to get a group? Yes. But is the play experience overall worse? Not necessarily. It's just more imperative now you join an active guild so you regularly have people to play with. But if you're just looking to group with random people it's definitely harder. The game maintains a very active hardcore fanbase though. Population is definitely not what I'd call "great" however but the game is still very much playable.
Axel's DDO Channel Thanks. I used to play a lot between 2007-2010 and it was really easy to find a group no matter what level you was at least in the Thelanis server. I just wanted to know if there's at least a decent size LFM selection when trying to find a group because I still have my 3rd reincarnated Barb and 2nd incarnated monk level 9 and 16 that I want to run dungeons with.
I play on Thelanis. Yes, I'd call it decent. There's usually 6-12 or so LFMs up I'd say on average. Depending on when you are playing. It's not as populated as it used to be but it's not terrible.
spent 3 minutes and it still didn't start on talking about classess at all and reviewing them...not really fond of too much blabbering and talking about stuff that's not the actual topic of the video...
arcane archer is good for solo
Did you kind of skip over support?
InternetStudiesGuy I talked some about playing support with hybrid and divine classes. It wasn't a class category I used though.
Are you a priest and a warrior I don't understand are you able to play more then 1 class
Yes. In DDO you can multiclass - take levels from 2 or 3 different classes if you want.
@@AxelAlexK interesting is it free I kinda want to try it out I'm so angry I never heard of it until now and I played everquest 1
@@_zarthix_ Yes, it's free to play. There's a lot of free content but the game has paid content and other things you can buy as well. But you can play through most of the game without having to buy anything if you don't want to.
@@AxelAlexK I'm going to download it tomorrow wanna hook up and play together so I'm not just playing aimlessly,
divines have to heal imo if not your'e usless lol
From where you downloaded the game? steam or main page?
You can download it at DDO.com directly, or you can download it through Steam. Better IMO to just download it from DDO.com since it's a free to play game and there's no reason to take the extra step of going through Steam.
Newerwinter is not better then if he have dd too?
Can a rogue lv 7 / wizard lv 13 search and disable traps from Dungeons of lv 10 and above?
yes, if you've put enough skill points into disable device
I thought I liked monk tell I played it as a drow now I just like rangers
Freddygotfingered yeah, same here. I like melees that wear armor and use weapons :)
Is it possible to be powerful without epic destinies in this game?
bobly bob At levels 20-30, no. They are basically mandatory unless you only want to play levels 1-20.
Ok thanks for the answer ill try to save up turbine points for it then
you also get them included with the MoTU expansion if you plan to buy that - it's on sale a lot, I'd buy destinies that way
Axel's DDO Channel alright thanks for all the help. just subbed
👍
is this game pay to win ? can you win unfunded ?
Depends how you define winning. It has some p2w elements though, such as some things you can buy to help you level faster. The balance is good though. Its a free to play game so they have to make money but its done well. The best gear and such can't be bought. So basically it has some p2w elements but overall is not p2w.
@@AxelAlexK oohh ok thanks for the info , i might try this game thanks :)
Well this is bad advice. Just straight up bad.
Pu nay shia