Being a Good DDO Gamer

This is the preface to a set of guides that we will be publishing on the site. The idea behind these is to not tell you how you should play your character, but to give a wealth of suggestions, tips and tricks to on how you can become better player. These will be generalized into certain roles that one might play in a party. Whether it is a single role you fill, or a smattering of a few of these roles, these guides will focus on the common perceptions of these roles. Much of the reason there are these perceptions of these roles is because they work, have been time tested and is what most players expect (whether consciously or not).

How to Kick Ass!

This may or may not come as a shock but… it’s not the quality of your build. It’s not about if you have 32 points or 28 points. It’s not how many Shroud items you have or if you are a war-forged.

It’s about being a good, quality gamer. This is how you kick ass! Everything mentioned above is secondary to this simple fact. Be a good gamer, work to be a better gamer and I guarantee you will become a kick-ass gamer regardless of what kind of creations you may play.

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Kicking Ass

Here is a list of tips and tricks, suggestions and ideas that will help you become a kick ass player!

1. Communication ~ Make sure you talk to your party if something isn’t clear to you. This is the most important attribute of good players. You must work with each other to clear up misunderstandings.
2. Recognize the leader! ~ Leaders go out of their way to form the group so give them the respect they deserve for it. Leaders usually run the groups because they have a clear understanding about the kind of group they want and the quest they are running. Follow their lead and it will go much smoother.
3. Don’t solo when in a group. This one is self-explanatory. Just don’t do it! If you want to solo, go solo! Stop wasting everyone else’s time!
4. You are responsible for your own health. Yes, the cleric is there to help you stay healed and the casters are there to help you stay buffed,  but you are ultimately responsible for your own health. You should jump out or turtle up if you are about to die. Take a pot if low on HP or use that clicky to keep those defenses high. You are responsible for your own death.
5. Be prepared! Make sure you are always prepared for anything you might encounter. Learning the quests helps, but having things you know you’ll need is vital. Make sure to have all your spell components, ammo, scrolls, wands, pots, weapons, armor and other gear.
6. Everyone should have the ability to remove debuffs and conditions (Or have immunity items for these). This means to have wands, scrolls, items or pots of the following: Remove Disease, Remove Curse, Neutralize Poison, Remove Blindness, and Restoration of some kind.
7. Everyone should have the ability to heal themselves. This means to have wands, scrolls, items or pots of the following:  Cure (Highest possible), Restoration, Tasty Hams
8. Everyone should have the ability to buff themselves. This means to have wands, scrolls, items or pots of the following: Resist Fire, Resist Acid, Resist Electricity, Resist Cold, Resist Sonic, Haste, Jump, Shield, Death Ward, Protection from Elements (At least Fire), Neutralize Poison, Heroism/GH, Barkskin, and Stoneskin.
9. Everyone should have the ability to save the day! This means to have the ability to raise the dead. If you cannot use scrolls, work on getting an item that raises the dead. In Slavers of the Shrieking Mines, the illithid at the very bottom of the chasm can drop one. Or you can make a Shroud weapon with raise dead? It is a single shard so it is not too bad to make.

Everyone should know their role and fill it. The more people work together and play their roles,the better the runs go. IMPORTANT: If you play a character that does not fit into an easily recognizable role make sure the party knows what role you will fill. If you are upfront about it things will go much easier.

Your Role in the Mosh

There are four major roles within a group (more will be added if it seems appropriate but I would like to stick to more generic overall roles for now). Then you can fine tune and tweak if it is appropriate for your character. DDO has a vast array of different characters that can be made and there are even more ways to play them.

Ultimately to be successful, you must fill a role in a group. It is likely that your character will have several roles they can or may need to fill. Make sure to know those, and which one is the primary role and which one is secondary. The primary role should always outweigh any responsibilities or duties of the secondary. I will use a battle cleric as the classic example. Primarily a Heala but loves to be a Killa too–they should ALWAYS heal people before they kill. They should also stop killing if healing is needed. There are MANY characters that fall into this multirole duty.

• Killa – A DPS (Damage per Second) character with a focus on taking out enemies by the dozens.
• Controla – Defensive-based character focused on controlling the battle and limiting damage.
• Heala – You keep the party alive through spells and magic in the most exciting battles.
• Fixa – With buffs a-plenty, you help the party through traps, ambushes and other surprises.

It’s up to you to be a good player, to learn the game and the way your friends and guildies run things. Everyone has their own style. Learn to work together or learn to move on. Find friends that you like to run with, like their style and make good adventurers. Make sure to tell new people of an out-of-the-norm role you may fill. I will use the battle cleric as an example again. If the battle cleric joins the group and says they are a killa first, heala second? FINE! Great! Now I know what to expect and the group can change tactics and be prepared. Its fine to fall out of the perceptions just let your group know, so they are not surprised.

Remember, nobody is the perfect player and we can all get better. Practice, experiment and ask those around you questions. Take what you learn, apply it, and before you know it, you will be the kick ass player you (and we) always wanted you to be!

Specific Guides for the Roles

I’m a Killa! – The Guide to Slaughter
I’m a Heala! – The Guide to Healing
I’m a Controla! – The Guide to Manipulation (Coming Soon)
I’m a Fixa! – The Guide to Solutions (Coming Soon)
I’m a Raida! – The Guide to Rocking Raids (Coming Soon)

Tips, Tricks and Tactics

Here I will post up a list of tips and tricks that should be helpful to everyone. These will be expanded as we go. It should be a good source and I hope even some veteran players can get some use out of these. These are simply random tips that everyone could use.

• The game has collision. What this means is that you can block, wrangle and intercept things. This has a great many uses but here are a few of the most commonly used ones: block a doorway/bridge/narrow passage, intercept arrows hitting squishies, block line of sight spells, force movement of monsters.
• V formations can be used to protect casters from mobs so they do not get interrupted.
• U formations can be used to wrangle mean monsters into a place they can be surrounded and beat down.
• Casters and archers back up when you melee them. Position yourself 180 degrees from a corner, nook, cranny or party member to make them hop back into a place they get stuck in.
• Flank enemies (be on both sides of them), this grants a +2 to hit!
• Circle enemies that move around a lot. This holds them still so you can beat them down fast.
• Some potions have funnels! Use these on party members that need help.
• Use line of sight (LoS). This means that enemies have to see you to cast spells on you, shoot you etc. Move behind walls, pillars or whatever to avoid spells and arrow fire.
• Use LoS to make casters and archers chase you. If they cannot see you they will try to move to where they can. You can often make them come to you.
• Keep an eye on party member health and help heal if you can or just remind them to watch themselves. Sometimes in the heat of battle people lose track of their HPs and a quick reminder often saves someone’s life.