DDO Beginners' Guidelines

[balliztik1]

Since this is getting some attention, I've decided to post a short bit about how to get started with DDO to get the most out of it. There's a few main points to make, particularly the separation of beginners from the rest of the world, which quests to do on which difficulty, etc., and what items to seek out.

**Separation**
Beginners are in a completely separate area of the game, called Korthos Island. This means that even if you begin the game, you can't join the Eclipse guild and you can't party with the existing players. This is primarily a tutorial area and is 100% optional.

~~My suggestion is this: Do the first quest where you wake up on the beach. This will net you a decent weapon as well as some starter gear. From there, head to the docks and sail to Stormreach immediately, bypassing the whole island. What this does is puts you in the same group as everyone who isn't a new player, meaning you can join the guild, group up, access mail, participate in auctions, etc. What this DOESN'T do is cut you off from the beginning quests. If you skip the tutorial, you can always replay it, so there's no worries about missed content. The only thing that skipping the tutorial affects is the storyline. It won't make sense until you beat the last tutorial quest as to why certain things have happened, but it's a decent payoff, in my opinion.~~

There's actually a bug in DDO that will allow you to bypass the first quest, but still stock up on potions, which are abundant in the beginning area. What you do is as soon as the game loads, run up the hill and start breaking all the boxes, picking up those valuable potions. When you've gotten them all, simply log out and do it again. If the boxes aren't back, type /death, or jump off a cliff to kill yourself, then reloot. Once you're pleased with your arsenal, relog, then talk to Jeets, telling him you want to skip the beginning.

**Quests and Loot**
In order to gain XP and loot the fastest, there's a general pattern you may want to follow. I will point out which quests you can do with how many people, and what order to do them in. This is not set in stone, and even I didn't follow this, so it doesn't matter overall, but it's a rough outline.

* **Heyton's Rest**
* Do on Normal (any class), followed by Hard (tank/healing classes, or others with hirelings or a group). Do Elite if you can. You need to either be a tank with a cleric hireling, a cleric with a tank hireling, or a small group. It's possible to solo Elite, but not easy.
* This quest is fairly quick experience for its difficulty, but poor loot.
* Pick which amulet you'd like for the first reward. Thereafter, just pick one and sell it. There are two chests in this dungeon, so it's okay loot for its level.
* **The Cannith Crystal**
* Attempt on Normal (all classes), or do it on Solo if that proves to be too much of a challenge. Hard and Elite require a group or hireling for most classes.
* If you have a group, you can quickly do this on Normal, Hard, and Elite in a matter of minutes.
* Each of the 3 bracer items are useful. You might want to pick up one of each. The Axe and Spear Bane bracers can be swapped out depending on the fight, and the Bracers of Assistance are invaluable. It's to your benefit to stock on Bracers of Assistance, unless you can cast Aid already.
* **The Storehouse's Secret**
* Do on Normal (any class), followed by Hard (tank/healing classes, or others with hirelings or a group). Do Elite if you can. You need to either be a tank with a cleric hireling, a cleric with a tank hireling, or a small group. It's possible to solo Elite, but not easy.
* This is the shortest quest in the game if done right. It's possible to run this quest in less than a minute, even solo, though new players might take around three minutes or so. If you can, grab a group and complete this several times on Elite for a quick, easy XP boost.
* The belt reward is nothing special, so pick one and sell the rest. There is a chest in the dungeon, though.
* **The Collaborator**
* Attempt on Normal (all classes) or solo, if you get overwhelmed by the waves. Hard and Elite are primarily for groups, but may be doable by tank or healing characters, or with a hireling.
* This quest is shorter than Heyton's rest, but harder, giving more XP. This makes it popular for groups, so try to jump in on one and run it normal, hard, and elite.
* There are four chests in this dungeon, one of which gives free potions 100% of the time. It's very easy to run through this multiple times to get decent loot and stock up on potions, so take advantage of it.
* **Stopping the Sahuagin**

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[Dark Crusade]

Doing both Misery's Peak, as well as The Aqueduct quest will open a selection of set items for you. Both quests will get you either part of the set. There's various sets to enhance your character, often increasing your AC or attack. Perhaps you could add details on this next. xD

[balliztik1]

@Kreator:

> Doing both Misery's Peak, as well as The Aqueduct quest will open a selection of set items for you. Both quests will get you either part of the set. There's various sets to enhance your character, often increasing your AC or attack. Perhaps you could add details on this next. xD

Yeah, I wasn't done. I was just taking a short break from my homework. I'll add more to this. Need to be in game for some of the stuff I'm adding, and just didn't have the time.

[death]

The Storehouse's Secret is short? No shit. We did it fast as hell no elite ;D

[balliztik1]

Just updated this, but thinking about retiring it in favor of more in-depth guides. I've yet to see any guides for DDO quests that go more in depth than XP earned, possible loot, and quest location/map. I've been taking notes on things that would be of great use in a guide format, so I might be making a nice collection of quest guides.