Destiny Points - What they are, How you get them, and What to do with them
by Cameron "Aelryn" Sorden
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I've seen a lot of questions posed in the forums lately by people who want to know what destiny points are all about. If you've gotten any character at least to level 10, then you've got a few. But chances are good you just looked at them, closed the box, and completely forgot about them. I know I did on my first character. This guide aims to explain what they're for, how you get them, and what to do with them.
What are they?
Destiny points, simply put, are special points that can either be used to temporarily buff your player character or to improve your monster characters in PvP. The most important thing to remember about destiny points is that they accrue at the account level. So if you spend points buffing your Champion for a tough fight, don't be surprised when you log onto your Minstrel or onto one of your monster characters and you suddenly don't have as many points as you remembered.
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The buffs, or "perks," you can give to your player with destiny points cover a wide range of interesting options. You can boost your morale, your running speed, your power, or your fighting ability (among other things). They come in varying strengths and durations with the longer and more powerful ones costing significantly more destiny points. You can use each perk up to five times in a 24-hour period, and they reset after that. Many players claim that spending destiny points on these perks is a waste since they're relatively short-lived, but as I'll explain in a moment, this isn't necessarily the case.
The other use for destiny points is to increase your monster character stats for PvP against player characters. Each of your monster characters starts as a swarm-level creature (the green-ringed ones you encounter in the wilderness). This means that they're easily dispatched by any player character near their level. To make them stronger and more capable of battling PCs, you'll need to invest destiny points in them and also to fight and gain ranks over time. Since monster play is the primary way of gaining destiny points in the first place, you'll definitely want to do this.
How do you get them?
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Taking a quest in the Ettenmoors as a monster character
So now that I've explained all the cool things you can buy with destiny points, you're probably wondering how you can get your hands on some. Well, you should already have some points if you've gotten a character to level 10 (the level at which you start gaining destiny points). You can check how many you have by pressing the little button on your mini-map display that looks like two crescent moons. This turns the destiny points box on and off and allows you to view and purchase the perks (just click "spend points" to see your options).
When your first character hits level 10, you're granted 1000 destiny points and you can access monster play from the red scrying pool in any major town. Thereafter, you get a small amount of destiny points each time you gain a level on your player character--subsequent characters reaching 10 are only granted the normal amount, since the points are account-wide. Leveling your character really isn't the best way to gain destiny points though-- it's much easier and faster to collect them in monster play.
When you enter the Ettenmoors as a monster character (through the red scrying pool), you have a whole host of ways to gain destiny points. You can complete the monster quests, kill NPCs, or kill player characters. These tasks will likely be fairly challenging at first since you won't have any points invested in your monster, but you can group up with other monster players and form fellowships to gang up on players or NPCs. As you gain points, you can increase your monster's power and things will get easier. By engaging in these activities, you can rack up destiny points fairly quickly. Plus, it's a lot of fun!
But what can you really do with destiny points? What good are they?
Well, I've already described most of the things you can do with destiny points. But you can get that information anywhere, really-- much of it is in the manual, although the descriptions there are quite brief. The question remains, what should you do with them? This is a debate that has often raged in the forums. Many players argue, as I mentioned earlier, that buying perks is a waste of destiny points since the buffs are just temporary. Other players point out that if you don't have much interest in PvP, there also isn't much point in spending tons of points on your monster characters. Even for the PvP fanatics, eventually you'll cap your monsters out. So what do you do with the excess points?
Honestly, I'm of the belief that you should do whatever you want with your destiny points. That seems like kind of a silly and obvious answer, but it's true. You should probably make some kind of investment in a monster character just so you can farm more of them, but once you can reliably earn them it doesn't really matter whether you spend them to improve your monster or buff your character. You can always earn more.
Furthermore, there are times when those perks can be immensely helpful. Especially for players who like to solo, a morale perk and a combat perk can be the difference between soloing that signature mob and dying painfully. Five minutes might not seem like a long time, but you generally know when a really tough fight is coming-- spend a few hundred points and ensure your victory. Why not? If you're a big PvP fan and have lots of extra destiny point lying around, you may as well also use the half-hour buffs whenever you feel like it. There's no reason not to be uber-buffed if you can afford it. Think of it like twinking, but more fair.
The other dirty little secret of the perks is one perk in particular: the xp buff. This is one perk that isn't time limited. When you spend points on it, it gives you extra rested experience. That means that you can kill monsters for double the xp until it runs out. Some players tend to play lots of characters and often have plenty of rested xp anyway, but if you only play one or two and you play fairly often, odds are good that you usually run out of rested xp before you finish a session. If you have lots of destiny points lying around, buy the xp perk. You'll level your character that much faster.
I hope that this guide has given you a little insight into how you can get and use your destiny points. As you can see, they're pretty useful, fun to obtain, and a boon to just about any character or play style. If you haven't yet hopped over to the Ettenmoors and tried some PvP, check it out. You can get yourself some more destiny points and start using those buffs or powering up your monster character today. Have fun, and remember to play nice with the other monsters!
- Cameron "Aelryn" Sorden
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