by Darkgolem on Feb 25, 2007
By
Darkgolem
Many MMORG's have special events on
anniversaries, holidays, and other situations. With the Dungeons
and Dragons Online special event just a couple days away, I decided to
share my thoughts on the best strategies to earn experience and loot
for these sort of things.
Much like planning for going to the
best neighborhoods for Halloween, in most of these special events,
there are sweet spots where you gain the most benefit in the most
efficient way. You have to plan carefully for what is the most
efficient means to gain loot or experience (or whatever your MMORG of
choice is giving away). The nicest thing about this planning is
that in heightens your anticipation of the event. Make sure to
wring your hand's greedily while thinking about it.
After done chuckling maniacally, make sure to check below for further
ways to plan the enrichment and , um, enlevellment of your characters.
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For loot in DDO, you
need to consider these things:
Some things to remember is that you
want to do the highest level quests possible, almost always.
Those who do not have higher level characters should marshal their
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alt="Happy Dwarf doing Treasure Dance"
src="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/Cheesomancy/Funnydwarf1.sized.jpg"
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monies for the auctioned off items that will be sold by higher level
types. But if a quest is one level lower than the maximum, it
might be considerable as a loot run, if it is done quickly. For
example, there are some quests which are fairly easy, well known, and
can be done in a matter of much less than an hour. Done on elite,
they can get you loot much faster than some of the higher level quests,
and are only one level lower. You might consider doing these,
since a mass of almost best items is sometimes better than a handful of
highest level items.
When doing quests for experience,
you need to finish the quests in question. However, remember that
this is NOT the case with loot runs. Think about quests with an
eye toward reaching the chests without being concerned about finishing
the quest. Once you have looted some chests, you can simply leave
and go right back in, with a minimum of resources used.
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For experience bonuses, and similar
benefits, found in special events, you need to consider the following:
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In the context of DDO, you should
remember that often, a lower level quest on elite is faster than an
equal level adventure on normal. Furthermore, you
should take into account the time it takes to reach a quest. For
example, if you wish to go to quests in the desert, you have a long
trip across monster infested sands to reach the location where you wish
go.
href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=Cheesomancy&id=Funnydwarf2&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">
alt="Darn it. Crummy Loot!"
src="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/Cheesomancy/Funnydwarf2.sized.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 250px; height: 186px;" align="left">Just
because a quest has high experience does not't mean it's the best
choice. If you have quests you can complete quickly, these can be
more benefit than a quest which takes longer, but gives more experience.
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Also remember, you don't have to do
quests at your own level. Some quests give good experience, but
if you have to spend time recovering for a party wipe, or if you take
debt from multiple deaths while completing it, it is not worth
it. Easy and fast for a half the experience is worth more than
quests which are hard but more rewarding upon completion, since the
time and debt you might take while doing this quest will water down
what you might receive.
Finally, keep in mind that quest
chains are better than single quests. This is because it takes
less time to organize a party for a quest chain between the quests than
for individual quests. If, for example, you are doing the
splinterkull series of quests, you finish a quest, head outside, turn
right around, and run back in. If you do separate quests that are
not part of a chain of quests, you have more time between quests as
your party repairs, buys items, sells, and so on. The goal is to
have a flow of quests, with minimum delay, to have the fastest level
gaining experience.
The below list includes mid and
slightly higher level quests. Note that these include quest
chains, so levels might be slightly off (one quest being lower than
another). Also note, the level numbers might vary depending on
whether done on normal or elite (for example, you might do
Splinterskull series on elite, but Delaras series on normal, since
Splinterskull is easier, even though their levels are close at some
points)
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size="-1">Happy Looting and
Levelling!
Comment on this article
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=9364">here in
the forums!