Saturday 8 August 2015

(Just Like) Starting Over

I have a completionist to reincarnate after completing Warlock and he has been sitting on the shelf for a couple of weeks while I concentrate on other characters. But today I have decided to dust him off and lead him back through the grind that is Korthos. Now this gives me an opportunity to do something strange and weird, I have emptied the coffers of Grouseman so he has zero coins. Wooo hooo he is broke which will make for interesting reading as I take back into a new life as a rogue assassin. To make his life harder at the start he is going to be a halfling for the dex bonuses he gets later in the game. Now I have 32pt build and with the many previous lives he will be 36pt plus the tomes he has consumed so I do have advantages but the goal this time is not how fast I can get him off Kothos but how much coinage I can get so I can buy a cleric. When you enter a quest you will be offered options on how hard you want the quest to be (VIPs can open on Elite) but first time round just open on normal or even casual to build your coffers up to get a cleric hireling. Quest Givers have a golden chalice over their heads when you have never taken the quest from them. There are small dialogues at each quest and old hands don't read them once they have completed them a hundred times or so.
Oh boy am I broke
 When you first start the game no one tells you that crates and barrels are your best friends. Every one you break may give you copper coins, flasks of potions or even items. If you decide you want to solo your way through Korthos and you are not a cleric when you start the game you will need coins as fast as possible to be able to get a healer from the hireling vendor. The cleric is over 5 gold pieces so you will likely need to complete one quest to earn to earn the coins. The game will direct you to start with Heytons Rest, personally I always start with Storehouse Secret. It is the easiest to run, has a decent treasure chest and is loaded with crates and barrels. Doing the quest on hard netted 68 gold pieces from the chest which meant straight away I could hire a cleric and have more coin than I can spend on Korthos, it will mean little when I get off the island but this is about getting started and surviving solo. There is a puzzle you need to complete to unlock the scroll but it is fairly simple once you get to know it.
Ain't rich yet but at least my bits are warmer

Can't afford a cleric yet
Once you have a cleric you can choose which order you do Heytons Rest and the Cannith Crystal before doing the Collaborator. For Heytons remember to pick up the crests at each altar otherwise you will be running round the quest trying to find the one you have missed. There is one main treasure chest, one slightly off path that is trapped and two in the corridor that will provide a rusty long sword and a rusty mace to help take down the zombies and skellies. The Cannith Crystal is a defend the flag style quest that you will see in multiple quests in the future pro tip dont get dragged away from the crystal send your cleric instead (click on the sword in their hot bar) so you can cover the crystal in case (two come from the side). As far as I know this has no chest unless you get the rare Dren Ral which only appears on hard or elite. The Collaborator is a chase almost kill in one room multiple waves then kill a small number of monsters, the quest requirements are on the right side so make sure you know what you should do and just work through it.
That is how I have the puzzle finished

Woo hoo can afford a cleric

An introduction quest followed by 4 quests that once you get the hang of will guide you through quests everywhere. Once you complete this 4 quests you can go outside get 3 quests before entering your first wilderness. However that will be a different story with a different character, probably Merlin who will start his next life at some point soon. However Man I can now use my dice roll and later today my gold dice roll helping me get off Korthos quicker and get my hands on my festival frost Kukris.
4 Quests, 3 done with a Cleric completed

Welcome to DDO

Grouseman aka TonyN

7 comments:

  1. You do make it sound so simple to reincarnate a character.
    Thanks for the good advice.
    Like your other blog entries also!
    They really do help.

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    1. Scarily I am at 25+ reincarnations, it becomes easy when you put in the time. The grind is getting tokens of the twelve which is something I need to do before my next reincarnation.

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  2. Absolutely Love the Title (song) for this piece, so perfect... as always :-)
    This also certainly proves that you don't need to be a cleric to start and you can make money quickly to buy a cleric which you surely will need soon... Which take us back to "In the beginning" a few blogs back that you wrote...

    And I thank you kindly for putting in the picture of the puzzle, which usually takes me 20 minutes to figure out, LOL. Now I copied it and have it put away for when I need it, just have to look at the picture and follow the maze :-)

    ~Perfect~

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    1. I did think if I put the picture up it would make your life easier. As to the title everyone loves a bit of John Lennon.

      Not saying there is a right or wrong way or if someone eles choice is invalidated. But coins at level 1 are not as hard to find, every crate is your friend which you love. It is a matter of playing to enjoy yourself.

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    2. There is no right or wrong character to start with when you play.
      Whatever one feels comfortable with playing... To each his own.
      Some prefer clerics/healers, some prefer fighters,, each toon has it's own merits.. My new preference is the Warlock.
      Don't have to worry about losing spell points, I really like that :-)

      The picture of the puzzle would make any newbies life easier ;-) and that make the game more enjoyable.

      Actually, this song is very special to me... Starting Over.. was the best thing that ever happened to me!

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  3. I would be clicking the Like button here but I cannot find one

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    1. Sorry Geoff I hadn't put it in. Will see to it, I always use to want people to comment on another blog I write for (not ddo based) and my mindset needs to jump between the two.

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