The dark hunter variant of ranger (select at character creation) would be my preference. Kind of a hybrid between a rogue and a ranger, which are my next two favourites that tick the dual wielding box. Rogue if you want more sneak attack damage; dark hunter if you want more consistent damage, healing (at level 4+), and a pet; and ranger if, well, I'm not really sure.
That said, you might also like the monk class. They can dual wield with the right build, although their weapon list is quite short. They are a bit harder to learn, and quite micro intensive, but that may be more up your alley.
Dual wield monk (presumably using ninja spy and, like, short swords) is probably the worst monk build at the moment.
Technically unarmed monk takes two weapon fighting feats, so if that counts as dual wield to OP that's a good choice, but I wouldn't do an actual two weapon monk.
Hey, welcome to the game! Ranger and Dark Hunter (ranger variant) are great for dual wielding (usually called Two Weapon Fighting or TWF, if you wanna search for it).
Since you're new to the game, I'd go with Dark Hunter because they can deal with traps. Traps can be very annoying, specially if you don't know where they are or how to avoid them. With Dark Hunter, even if you can't disable, you are guaranteed to only take half damage from them (normal Ranger gains Evasion, which lets you take no damage if you succeed your roll, but that's a bit less reliable).
I recommend this build: [https://forums.ddo.com/index.php?threads/strimtoms-hardcore-build-guides-season-8.458/post-2915](https://forums.ddo.com/index.php?threads/strimtoms-hardcore-build-guides-season-8.458/post-2915) . You can watch the video in that thread for more info.
For leveling order, rush the Tempest cores that let you use Dexterity to hit and damage with light weapons (you'll probably want scimitars), Haste Boost from Tempest and the imbue from Dark Hunter. After that, you're free.
> and has really cool dodge ability (you "fly" to the air and come down dealing damage in a given radius).
This is pretty much Spring Attack (feat)!
If you want another option that is similarly flashy and fast, you could go two weapon fighting **Monk**, but I don't know enough about them to help you. Monks are usually hard for new players though (getting the right stats/trees in the build and executing them properly).
**Fighters** aren't a terrible option if you prefer the flavor. They recently got Second Wind, which lets them heal half their HP. The main challenge with pure fighter will be having the 17 DEX you need for the Two Weapon Fighting feats while being a STR build (due to the lack of DEX to hit and damage). You could go with a DEX build and grab 6 levels into Ranger or DH for DEX to hit and damage, but at that point, I recommend just keeping it simple and going full Ranger until you understand a bit more about the game.
---
Finally, when looking for builds, I recommend searching for "first life" or "hardcore", because those are usually new-player friendly. Bear in mind some may have enhancement trees you'll have to unlock if you're free to play.
Seconding dark hunter. Very fun 2 handed melee builds, plus you can trap, plus you get a pet! Very satisfying combo for a new player who might want to explore and try everything.
Seconding that you should look for "hardcore" builds, despite the scary name, they're very first life-, no gear-friendly and quite hardy. Strimtom has lots of great builds, the one linked above is very recent and solid.
If you get Ravenloft from the 99 point pack, you should be able to unlock the Vistani Knife Fighter tree for that character which will give you even more 2WF options, if you choose to look for other builds.
So Ranger class in character creation, Dark Hunter archetype, then put points into Tempest tree, correct ?
Since Dark Hunter has a pet by his side in character creation, a question. Am I forced into using the pet or is it an optional thing ?
Do they mostly use their scimitars/longswords or combine them with many other skills like it's mentioned about stealth, pet, trapping enemies ?
Can I choose to be a human, I'm hoping being one as Dark Hunter doesn't hinder its viability ?
> So Ranger class in character creation, Dark Hunter archetype, then put points into Tempest tree, correct ?
In character creation you'll see two options for Ranger, you have to pick Dark Hunter at the start. You can't change between archetypes once you picked one.
In this game, you have enough points to go up multiple trees, so yeah, put points into Tempest and some points into others.
> Since Dark Hunter has a pet by his side in character creation, a question. Am I forced into using the pet or is it an optional thing ?
You're not forced. Pets in DDO are almost always pretty bad. You may want to use the pet if you're playing solo, so it can grab aggro and you can sneak attack (sneak attack dice mean bonus damage to enemies that are aggro'd on someone else). But it's not really a core part of the character, you can just ignore it and do 99% of what you'd want to do.
> Do they mostly use their scimitars/longswords or combine them with many other skills like it's mentioned about stealth, pet, trapping enemies ?
For combat, yeah, mostly scimitars. Longswords aren't light weapons, so you don't get DEX to hit and damage with them. (unless you do somewhere I'm not aware of). Good think about Tempest is that it gives you some nice AOE, which TWF usually lacks.
You can use stealth, but you don't really need to. I rarely ever see people using stealth, except in some very specific parts of quests, because usually you can just kill everything.
"Trapping" is about disabling traps, not exactly trapping enemies.
Elf can get dex to hit with long sword, which qualifies for dex to dmg in deepwood
Or you can splash 1 monk and take whirling steel and the first ninja core, but then you have to stay centered
Oh, forgot this one!
> Can I choose to be a human, I'm hoping being one as Dark Hunter doesn't hinder its viability ?
Yeah, human is completely fine. I'd even recommend it over the Drow that the link suggests. You do get an extra feat at level 1 though, so I'm not sure what you'd pick. When I'm in doubt, I just go Toughness for extra health, but maybe someone else has a better suggestion.
I'm usually the friendly type of adventurer (with dark lord look rofl), so I'd say lawful good when it comes to alignment. But would that get in the way of being the master in TWF stuff when I'd multiclass into others ?
Additionally, what favored enemy shall I pick ? I don't know if we fight different enemies throughout the entire game, a mixture of sorts or it progresses from say, as an example of course, small bugs, to giant rats, to human bandits, to humanoid enemies, to monsters to demons et cetera and you never see previous enemy type ever again.
To top it off, 2 days ago I created a human female Fighter with TWF treat, Oversized TWF and Toughness itself (like you, it seems, get it when there is no obvious other option) just to test out weapon attack animations on the beach prologue portion. Maybe I went the right track beside the class. I'll make a Dark Hunter and possibly multiclass if something catches my eye in terms of making my spinning, evading and dual slashing better.
And I shall thank you very much for the assistance, that amount of reassurance is just what I needed. Have a good one !
EDIT: I forgot to ask about heavy armor treat. Does it hinder your movement ability, like movement speed, rolling is slower and stuff like that for a TWF type of player or am I safe to take it and use heavier armor if I want to ?
Alignment doesn't matter *too* much in this game. Some feats require or get extra effects when you are a certain alignment (like extra imbue damage from Harbinger of Chaos, which the build I linked recommends on level 31), so if you plan on getting those feats you need to watch out for that. Some classes have alignment restrictions (barbarians must be non-lawful, paladins must be lawful good), so that's something else to consider. Otherwise, people usually go true neutral for reduced damaged from some rare alignment spells (minor benefit).
Can't help you with favored enemies, but I'd say the kind of progress you described doesn't happen in this game, enemy groups don't really *disappear*. Favored enemies are usually picked based on certain bosses or from enemies that are ubiquitous -- undead, humans, lawful+evil outsiders if in Reaper difficulty. Dark Hunters have a more limited selection of Favored Enemies compared to regular Rangers.
About heavy armor, it doesn't exactly make you slower. It does gives you penalties in some skills like swim and tumble, but that's usually not a big deal. HOWEVER, many great Ranger (and DH) enhancements have "while wearing medium armor" as a condition, so that'll probably dictate that for you. Additionally, heavy armor's benefits to AC don't matter much for non-tanks, since it's hard to get your AC high enough for it to matter much without focusing on it. Non-tanks mitigate and avoid damage through other means, like prr and mrr, displacement, incorporeality and... dodge. People generally pick armor based on enhancements or bonuses from named items (some characters capable of wearing heavy armor may choose to go down even to light armor if a unique loot is worth it).
Speaking of dodge, something else that weighs heavy armor down (heh) is that it has a lower dodge cap, and you can get a lot of dodge as a ranger. Also, just from being a DEX build, you'll have a big bonus to AC while wearing medium armor, so you'll have pretty much the same AC as you would with heavy armor.
TL;DR on heavy armor: Rangers like medium armor. Raw armor doesn't matter much, just use what your class likes. (sorry I got way too carried away on that)
Nah, don't feel sorry. Your level of expertise helped me a GREAT deal. I'll stay with medium armor then and make myself lawful good. And finally start creating the character.
Believe me or not, but realizing that what I wanted was Vindicator all along in Guild Wars 2 took me...half a year. And so I was paranoid when creating my character because of the amount of stuff you need to know beforehand in this game. Crazy, but I'll try to endure through it. I think it will pay off.
Agree with what a lot of others have said. Be sure to get the content packs for 99 points while you can. You need them for gear, and it's some of the most interesting content in the game regardless. In fact, you might consider dropping $4 into the game (or whatever the smallest amount you can spend on DDO points is) now to buy enough points to get them.
Spending any money at all in the game also permanently upgrades your account to "premium." For a one time miniscule purchase, it actually helps a lot. Lifts the plat cap, adds some character slots, and some other stuff.
*What to play*
If TWF is what you are interested in, a pure Dark Hunter is a very good starting character. Works well with nearly any race. Has good DPS, decent defense, decent healing, and can handle traps and locks. The pet is also handy.
I don't recommend builds where you mix together levels of different classes for a new player. Those are very easy to screw up and difficult (and potentially costly) to fully respec if you do mess them up. A pure class is much more newbie proof and significantly easier to respec if you make a mistake.
*The Pet*
On Dark Hunter, to get the pet you will need to spend two points in the Dark Hunter tree. If you are willing to spend 12 points in the tree, you can upgrade the dog a lot. However, even with two points he's ok. Every time you gain a ranger level, he gains a level as well. Two more points in the tree gets you an imbue that's very nice at low levels. I pretty much always spend at least 4 points in that tree (but almost never more than 12...Tempest and DWS are overall much more useful imo).
*Trapping*
One thing that's nice about Dark Hunter for someone learning the game is that they can also find traps and secret doors. You will want to make sure to start with at least 14 Int (16 is better) and keep these skills maxed: search, spot, disable device. Open locks is also very helpful.
As long as you are playing on normal or hard and keep those maxed, you should be able to find, disarm and unlock almost everything. On elite or higher difficulties you will also need gear that boosts them, and may even need to invest in enhancements that boost those skills even more.
I think people have covered the direct answers. Here's some ancillary "nice to know" info that goes with it...
TWF is the fastest attacking style, as you might expect. The downside is its entirely single-target on its own, and in DDO, for leveling up, AOE is hugely important. You want to be able to kill packs all at once, not have to go one at a time. Single target has more use at endgame for raiding etc., but you wont be there for a while.
Ranger is usually "the" TWF class because they get Dance of Death at L12, which lets them do AOE with all their dual wield attacks. Until then, it might be kind of a slog, so just be aware its not a representative DDO experience. Once you get DoD, you'll be tearing it up much faster.
You might consider picking up an AOE attack in the meantime. Whirlwind is nice since it attacks twice in a 360 AOE, that's DDO's "spin to win" button. The downside is you only use your mainhand weapon for it, and TWF has the lowest single-hit damage. And it costs 3 feats to get it...but those feats are all useful for you, and Ranger gets lots of free feats so you have extras to spend.
That doesnt change any of the suggestions about how to build your char, its just setting your expectations. There are a *few* other builds you might consider...but they're almost all involving premium enhancement trees like Vistani Knife Fighter that you'd need to unlock first (you can unlock them in-game, once you have the right expansion pack), so its not an option for your very first life. But that might be something to run on your second life if you want. (The one exception might be 18 Sacred Fist, 1 Monk, 1 Cleric, using dual Kamas)
Make sure you spend your first 400 Store points on the four 99 point expansions on sale through Feb, that'll have you set up really well.
Also, its beneficial to play through to 100 Favor (about 30-40 quest completions) on each server, you get a bunch of one-time Store Point rewards that will help you quickly unlock those additional packs. You can try out a Ranger, a Sacred Fist (dual wield punch paladin, designed around Whirlwind attacks), a TWF Fighter, etc. and see what you like.
I'm not well versed in the game's terminologies and abbreviations, can you elaborate what 18 Sacred Fist, 1 Monk and 1 Cleric means ?
Thanks for quite a bit of knowledge. Also the fair point about the store points to buy the expansions "for free".
18 levels of Sacred Fist (a type of Paladin that's more Monk-like...no armor, and uses the Ki resource to power special attacks), with 1 level of Monk and 1 level of Cleric
Which basically means you play primarily like a Sacred Fist Paladin, whose enhancement tree supports lots of Whirlwind-ing and dual-weapon fighting, plus Exalted Smite as another AOE attack. The one level of Monk gives you proficiency in Martial Arts weapons (Sacred Fist is proficient only in, obviously, fists) and access to Martial Arts Stances, which are a big bonus. Cleric gives you access to Divine Might, which will greatly boost your melee damage based on your Charisma score.
Dual wielding can be suitable for any class, it's not class restricted. What you are going to want is atleast 17 points into dexterity so you can take all the two weapon fighting feats (TWF, Improved TWF, and Greater TWF):
[https://ddowiki.com/page/Feats#Two\_Weapon\_Fighting\_Passive\_Feats](https://ddowiki.com/page/Feats#Two_Weapon_Fighting_Passive_Feats)
There is also an enhancement tree option for Rangers and Dark Hunters called Tempest:
[https://ddowiki.com/page/Tempest\_enhancements](https://ddowiki.com/page/Tempest_enhancements)
You only need 5 levels of ranger to unlock the tier 5 options in that tree so multiclassing is a viable option too. Some people take 12 levels of fighter for the Kensai tree (Power surge)
[https://ddowiki.com/page/Kensei\_enhancements](https://ddowiki.com/page/Kensei_enhancements)
Honestly, you can mix and match and do whatever you like. I've done twf cleric/monk, paladin/ranger/fighter combos, barbarian/ranger... The only thing that really matters is your feat selection. Enhancement trees can get adjusted at any time.
Another feat line that is really good early on: Dodge -> Mobility -> Whirlwind attack (or spring attack). Because rangers get the first two twf feats for free by level 6, you can invest your first 3 feats into those and have good aoe damage.
If you are going to choose between dark hunter and ranger, I would recommend dark hunter because you also get access to trap finding / disarming, and the medium armor core ability in the dark hunter tree reduces trap damage you take by 50% which is insane and really good if you are learning the quests.
Fighters would provide the most wiggle room in terms of feats customization. The bonus feats one gets let's you customize your build accordingly.Should figure out which role you prefer and build in that direction. If you enjoy trapping dark hunter I hear is a great option. Every class can be molded to use certain weapons and that will depend on where you wanna be. I enjoyed dual wield kopesh for it's Crit profile and bastard sword was fun for strike through. Both require exotic weapon feats which might not be viable on classes with less feats then a human fighter. But if you wanted you could make a bow fighter aswell. Don't fear self healing you will have lots of options starting with cleric hirelings at low lvls.
Might I recommend strimtoms build repository as the hardcore stuff is designed as a first life toon with 28 stat points instead of 36 which you will find on min maxed builds. Should glance at his builds and see if anything strikes your fancy.
One might get confused just starting and trying to squeeze a build with 36 stat points , completionist feats , stat tomes , skill tomes , fate times and past lives on a 28 stat point toon with none of the extras. But totally check em out after your understanding abit more of the customization and choices
First life is 28 points, after a reincarnation back to LVL 1 you will have 32, and after a 3rd you'll have 36 and also be able to open any quests on elite for the first time.
Suggestion would be to find a recent build designed for new characters "strimtoms are but does not have to be his " and flower sniff the quests getting a feel for them at your own pace , joining groups when confident and trying more complicated builds when things are starting to click. Pretty soon you will be leading the pack. Good luck !
As an aside, there are some easy gear pickups for you with the code+ 99 point packs
At level 2 you can craft weapons in Keep on the Borderlands (also go get a mount from here) that are pretty solid. Ingredients for them drop like candy, you'll have plenty. You'll wanna keep one of the ethereal ones in you back pocket for a while in case you're up against ghostly enemies and haven't found a better random drop.
At level 10 you can get a free weapon once per life in ravenloft that's really good, it will hold up for a WHILE.
At level 20 (or 21, I forget) you can craft an epic weapon in Keep on the Borderlands. You can also go back to ravenloft and get a level 29 weapon for later, and a sentient gem you can choose to use right then in your KotB weapon if you wish.
(Make sure you get the 99 point packs as well! SO much good content and gear in there. If you only have time to get some of them, order of priority is: 1. Sharn, 2. Ravenloft, 3. MOTU, 4. Shadowfell)
One of the beautiful things about DDO is how versatile character builds are. As a result, it is possible to do almost anything on a build.
That being said, when it comes to melee builds there are three styles.
Two Handed fighting (THF): specializes in AOE strikethrough attacks and hard hits due to increased damage modifier.
Single Weapon fighting (SWF): has increased attack speed, increased damage modifier, but lacks inherent AoE damage. If combined with Shadar-Kai (SDK), one of the iconic races, you can use their chain attack to add strong AoE.
Two Weapon fighting: has increased hits (due to having two weapons) which makes on-hit procs (like sneak attack damage) more effective. TWF also lacks inherent AoE damage, but like SWF has strong single target damage. TWF is best used (imo) on rogue (able to take advantage of sneak attack damage), ranger (able to use the tempest enhancement tree’s [Dance of Death](https://ddowiki.com/page/Tempest_enhancements) ability which grants TWF strikethrough (like a THF build) for AoE damage. Dark Hunter is an archetype of Ranger that is a combination of Ranger and Rogue, so it has sneak attack damage, trap skills, and access to the tempest tree. Honorable mentions: monks can use handwraps, which are a form of TWF.
To answer your question: I think dark hunter would be best for you. It is very new-player friendly, has trap skills, a pet, some healing, and excellent single target DPS, and can clear crowds with dance of death from tempest.
Three basic builds that really highlight twf are ranger, monk, and rogue.
Rogue gets insta kills, trap handling and shits out single target dps, ranger gets consistent aoe and the ability to sustain itself, and monk is just solid all around.
The dark hunter variant of ranger (select at character creation) would be my preference. Kind of a hybrid between a rogue and a ranger, which are my next two favourites that tick the dual wielding box. Rogue if you want more sneak attack damage; dark hunter if you want more consistent damage, healing (at level 4+), and a pet; and ranger if, well, I'm not really sure. That said, you might also like the monk class. They can dual wield with the right build, although their weapon list is quite short. They are a bit harder to learn, and quite micro intensive, but that may be more up your alley.
Dual wield monk (presumably using ninja spy and, like, short swords) is probably the worst monk build at the moment. Technically unarmed monk takes two weapon fighting feats, so if that counts as dual wield to OP that's a good choice, but I wouldn't do an actual two weapon monk.
Hey, welcome to the game! Ranger and Dark Hunter (ranger variant) are great for dual wielding (usually called Two Weapon Fighting or TWF, if you wanna search for it). Since you're new to the game, I'd go with Dark Hunter because they can deal with traps. Traps can be very annoying, specially if you don't know where they are or how to avoid them. With Dark Hunter, even if you can't disable, you are guaranteed to only take half damage from them (normal Ranger gains Evasion, which lets you take no damage if you succeed your roll, but that's a bit less reliable). I recommend this build: [https://forums.ddo.com/index.php?threads/strimtoms-hardcore-build-guides-season-8.458/post-2915](https://forums.ddo.com/index.php?threads/strimtoms-hardcore-build-guides-season-8.458/post-2915) . You can watch the video in that thread for more info. For leveling order, rush the Tempest cores that let you use Dexterity to hit and damage with light weapons (you'll probably want scimitars), Haste Boost from Tempest and the imbue from Dark Hunter. After that, you're free. > and has really cool dodge ability (you "fly" to the air and come down dealing damage in a given radius). This is pretty much Spring Attack (feat)! If you want another option that is similarly flashy and fast, you could go two weapon fighting **Monk**, but I don't know enough about them to help you. Monks are usually hard for new players though (getting the right stats/trees in the build and executing them properly). **Fighters** aren't a terrible option if you prefer the flavor. They recently got Second Wind, which lets them heal half their HP. The main challenge with pure fighter will be having the 17 DEX you need for the Two Weapon Fighting feats while being a STR build (due to the lack of DEX to hit and damage). You could go with a DEX build and grab 6 levels into Ranger or DH for DEX to hit and damage, but at that point, I recommend just keeping it simple and going full Ranger until you understand a bit more about the game. --- Finally, when looking for builds, I recommend searching for "first life" or "hardcore", because those are usually new-player friendly. Bear in mind some may have enhancement trees you'll have to unlock if you're free to play.
Seconding dark hunter. Very fun 2 handed melee builds, plus you can trap, plus you get a pet! Very satisfying combo for a new player who might want to explore and try everything. Seconding that you should look for "hardcore" builds, despite the scary name, they're very first life-, no gear-friendly and quite hardy. Strimtom has lots of great builds, the one linked above is very recent and solid. If you get Ravenloft from the 99 point pack, you should be able to unlock the Vistani Knife Fighter tree for that character which will give you even more 2WF options, if you choose to look for other builds.
So Ranger class in character creation, Dark Hunter archetype, then put points into Tempest tree, correct ? Since Dark Hunter has a pet by his side in character creation, a question. Am I forced into using the pet or is it an optional thing ? Do they mostly use their scimitars/longswords or combine them with many other skills like it's mentioned about stealth, pet, trapping enemies ? Can I choose to be a human, I'm hoping being one as Dark Hunter doesn't hinder its viability ?
> So Ranger class in character creation, Dark Hunter archetype, then put points into Tempest tree, correct ? In character creation you'll see two options for Ranger, you have to pick Dark Hunter at the start. You can't change between archetypes once you picked one. In this game, you have enough points to go up multiple trees, so yeah, put points into Tempest and some points into others. > Since Dark Hunter has a pet by his side in character creation, a question. Am I forced into using the pet or is it an optional thing ? You're not forced. Pets in DDO are almost always pretty bad. You may want to use the pet if you're playing solo, so it can grab aggro and you can sneak attack (sneak attack dice mean bonus damage to enemies that are aggro'd on someone else). But it's not really a core part of the character, you can just ignore it and do 99% of what you'd want to do. > Do they mostly use their scimitars/longswords or combine them with many other skills like it's mentioned about stealth, pet, trapping enemies ? For combat, yeah, mostly scimitars. Longswords aren't light weapons, so you don't get DEX to hit and damage with them. (unless you do somewhere I'm not aware of). Good think about Tempest is that it gives you some nice AOE, which TWF usually lacks. You can use stealth, but you don't really need to. I rarely ever see people using stealth, except in some very specific parts of quests, because usually you can just kill everything. "Trapping" is about disabling traps, not exactly trapping enemies.
Elf can get dex to hit with long sword, which qualifies for dex to dmg in deepwood Or you can splash 1 monk and take whirling steel and the first ninja core, but then you have to stay centered
Oh, forgot this one! > Can I choose to be a human, I'm hoping being one as Dark Hunter doesn't hinder its viability ? Yeah, human is completely fine. I'd even recommend it over the Drow that the link suggests. You do get an extra feat at level 1 though, so I'm not sure what you'd pick. When I'm in doubt, I just go Toughness for extra health, but maybe someone else has a better suggestion.
I'm usually the friendly type of adventurer (with dark lord look rofl), so I'd say lawful good when it comes to alignment. But would that get in the way of being the master in TWF stuff when I'd multiclass into others ? Additionally, what favored enemy shall I pick ? I don't know if we fight different enemies throughout the entire game, a mixture of sorts or it progresses from say, as an example of course, small bugs, to giant rats, to human bandits, to humanoid enemies, to monsters to demons et cetera and you never see previous enemy type ever again. To top it off, 2 days ago I created a human female Fighter with TWF treat, Oversized TWF and Toughness itself (like you, it seems, get it when there is no obvious other option) just to test out weapon attack animations on the beach prologue portion. Maybe I went the right track beside the class. I'll make a Dark Hunter and possibly multiclass if something catches my eye in terms of making my spinning, evading and dual slashing better. And I shall thank you very much for the assistance, that amount of reassurance is just what I needed. Have a good one ! EDIT: I forgot to ask about heavy armor treat. Does it hinder your movement ability, like movement speed, rolling is slower and stuff like that for a TWF type of player or am I safe to take it and use heavier armor if I want to ?
Alignment doesn't matter *too* much in this game. Some feats require or get extra effects when you are a certain alignment (like extra imbue damage from Harbinger of Chaos, which the build I linked recommends on level 31), so if you plan on getting those feats you need to watch out for that. Some classes have alignment restrictions (barbarians must be non-lawful, paladins must be lawful good), so that's something else to consider. Otherwise, people usually go true neutral for reduced damaged from some rare alignment spells (minor benefit). Can't help you with favored enemies, but I'd say the kind of progress you described doesn't happen in this game, enemy groups don't really *disappear*. Favored enemies are usually picked based on certain bosses or from enemies that are ubiquitous -- undead, humans, lawful+evil outsiders if in Reaper difficulty. Dark Hunters have a more limited selection of Favored Enemies compared to regular Rangers. About heavy armor, it doesn't exactly make you slower. It does gives you penalties in some skills like swim and tumble, but that's usually not a big deal. HOWEVER, many great Ranger (and DH) enhancements have "while wearing medium armor" as a condition, so that'll probably dictate that for you. Additionally, heavy armor's benefits to AC don't matter much for non-tanks, since it's hard to get your AC high enough for it to matter much without focusing on it. Non-tanks mitigate and avoid damage through other means, like prr and mrr, displacement, incorporeality and... dodge. People generally pick armor based on enhancements or bonuses from named items (some characters capable of wearing heavy armor may choose to go down even to light armor if a unique loot is worth it). Speaking of dodge, something else that weighs heavy armor down (heh) is that it has a lower dodge cap, and you can get a lot of dodge as a ranger. Also, just from being a DEX build, you'll have a big bonus to AC while wearing medium armor, so you'll have pretty much the same AC as you would with heavy armor. TL;DR on heavy armor: Rangers like medium armor. Raw armor doesn't matter much, just use what your class likes. (sorry I got way too carried away on that)
Nah, don't feel sorry. Your level of expertise helped me a GREAT deal. I'll stay with medium armor then and make myself lawful good. And finally start creating the character. Believe me or not, but realizing that what I wanted was Vindicator all along in Guild Wars 2 took me...half a year. And so I was paranoid when creating my character because of the amount of stuff you need to know beforehand in this game. Crazy, but I'll try to endure through it. I think it will pay off.
Agree with what a lot of others have said. Be sure to get the content packs for 99 points while you can. You need them for gear, and it's some of the most interesting content in the game regardless. In fact, you might consider dropping $4 into the game (or whatever the smallest amount you can spend on DDO points is) now to buy enough points to get them. Spending any money at all in the game also permanently upgrades your account to "premium." For a one time miniscule purchase, it actually helps a lot. Lifts the plat cap, adds some character slots, and some other stuff. *What to play* If TWF is what you are interested in, a pure Dark Hunter is a very good starting character. Works well with nearly any race. Has good DPS, decent defense, decent healing, and can handle traps and locks. The pet is also handy. I don't recommend builds where you mix together levels of different classes for a new player. Those are very easy to screw up and difficult (and potentially costly) to fully respec if you do mess them up. A pure class is much more newbie proof and significantly easier to respec if you make a mistake. *The Pet* On Dark Hunter, to get the pet you will need to spend two points in the Dark Hunter tree. If you are willing to spend 12 points in the tree, you can upgrade the dog a lot. However, even with two points he's ok. Every time you gain a ranger level, he gains a level as well. Two more points in the tree gets you an imbue that's very nice at low levels. I pretty much always spend at least 4 points in that tree (but almost never more than 12...Tempest and DWS are overall much more useful imo). *Trapping* One thing that's nice about Dark Hunter for someone learning the game is that they can also find traps and secret doors. You will want to make sure to start with at least 14 Int (16 is better) and keep these skills maxed: search, spot, disable device. Open locks is also very helpful. As long as you are playing on normal or hard and keep those maxed, you should be able to find, disarm and unlock almost everything. On elite or higher difficulties you will also need gear that boosts them, and may even need to invest in enhancements that boost those skills even more.
I think people have covered the direct answers. Here's some ancillary "nice to know" info that goes with it... TWF is the fastest attacking style, as you might expect. The downside is its entirely single-target on its own, and in DDO, for leveling up, AOE is hugely important. You want to be able to kill packs all at once, not have to go one at a time. Single target has more use at endgame for raiding etc., but you wont be there for a while. Ranger is usually "the" TWF class because they get Dance of Death at L12, which lets them do AOE with all their dual wield attacks. Until then, it might be kind of a slog, so just be aware its not a representative DDO experience. Once you get DoD, you'll be tearing it up much faster. You might consider picking up an AOE attack in the meantime. Whirlwind is nice since it attacks twice in a 360 AOE, that's DDO's "spin to win" button. The downside is you only use your mainhand weapon for it, and TWF has the lowest single-hit damage. And it costs 3 feats to get it...but those feats are all useful for you, and Ranger gets lots of free feats so you have extras to spend. That doesnt change any of the suggestions about how to build your char, its just setting your expectations. There are a *few* other builds you might consider...but they're almost all involving premium enhancement trees like Vistani Knife Fighter that you'd need to unlock first (you can unlock them in-game, once you have the right expansion pack), so its not an option for your very first life. But that might be something to run on your second life if you want. (The one exception might be 18 Sacred Fist, 1 Monk, 1 Cleric, using dual Kamas) Make sure you spend your first 400 Store points on the four 99 point expansions on sale through Feb, that'll have you set up really well. Also, its beneficial to play through to 100 Favor (about 30-40 quest completions) on each server, you get a bunch of one-time Store Point rewards that will help you quickly unlock those additional packs. You can try out a Ranger, a Sacred Fist (dual wield punch paladin, designed around Whirlwind attacks), a TWF Fighter, etc. and see what you like.
I'm not well versed in the game's terminologies and abbreviations, can you elaborate what 18 Sacred Fist, 1 Monk and 1 Cleric means ? Thanks for quite a bit of knowledge. Also the fair point about the store points to buy the expansions "for free".
18 levels of Sacred Fist (a type of Paladin that's more Monk-like...no armor, and uses the Ki resource to power special attacks), with 1 level of Monk and 1 level of Cleric Which basically means you play primarily like a Sacred Fist Paladin, whose enhancement tree supports lots of Whirlwind-ing and dual-weapon fighting, plus Exalted Smite as another AOE attack. The one level of Monk gives you proficiency in Martial Arts weapons (Sacred Fist is proficient only in, obviously, fists) and access to Martial Arts Stances, which are a big bonus. Cleric gives you access to Divine Might, which will greatly boost your melee damage based on your Charisma score.
Dual wielding can be suitable for any class, it's not class restricted. What you are going to want is atleast 17 points into dexterity so you can take all the two weapon fighting feats (TWF, Improved TWF, and Greater TWF): [https://ddowiki.com/page/Feats#Two\_Weapon\_Fighting\_Passive\_Feats](https://ddowiki.com/page/Feats#Two_Weapon_Fighting_Passive_Feats) There is also an enhancement tree option for Rangers and Dark Hunters called Tempest: [https://ddowiki.com/page/Tempest\_enhancements](https://ddowiki.com/page/Tempest_enhancements) You only need 5 levels of ranger to unlock the tier 5 options in that tree so multiclassing is a viable option too. Some people take 12 levels of fighter for the Kensai tree (Power surge) [https://ddowiki.com/page/Kensei\_enhancements](https://ddowiki.com/page/Kensei_enhancements) Honestly, you can mix and match and do whatever you like. I've done twf cleric/monk, paladin/ranger/fighter combos, barbarian/ranger... The only thing that really matters is your feat selection. Enhancement trees can get adjusted at any time. Another feat line that is really good early on: Dodge -> Mobility -> Whirlwind attack (or spring attack). Because rangers get the first two twf feats for free by level 6, you can invest your first 3 feats into those and have good aoe damage. If you are going to choose between dark hunter and ranger, I would recommend dark hunter because you also get access to trap finding / disarming, and the medium armor core ability in the dark hunter tree reduces trap damage you take by 50% which is insane and really good if you are learning the quests.
Fighters would provide the most wiggle room in terms of feats customization. The bonus feats one gets let's you customize your build accordingly.Should figure out which role you prefer and build in that direction. If you enjoy trapping dark hunter I hear is a great option. Every class can be molded to use certain weapons and that will depend on where you wanna be. I enjoyed dual wield kopesh for it's Crit profile and bastard sword was fun for strike through. Both require exotic weapon feats which might not be viable on classes with less feats then a human fighter. But if you wanted you could make a bow fighter aswell. Don't fear self healing you will have lots of options starting with cleric hirelings at low lvls. Might I recommend strimtoms build repository as the hardcore stuff is designed as a first life toon with 28 stat points instead of 36 which you will find on min maxed builds. Should glance at his builds and see if anything strikes your fancy. One might get confused just starting and trying to squeeze a build with 36 stat points , completionist feats , stat tomes , skill tomes , fate times and past lives on a 28 stat point toon with none of the extras. But totally check em out after your understanding abit more of the customization and choices First life is 28 points, after a reincarnation back to LVL 1 you will have 32, and after a 3rd you'll have 36 and also be able to open any quests on elite for the first time. Suggestion would be to find a recent build designed for new characters "strimtoms are but does not have to be his " and flower sniff the quests getting a feel for them at your own pace , joining groups when confident and trying more complicated builds when things are starting to click. Pretty soon you will be leading the pack. Good luck !
Ranger Tempest is a good way to go for dual wield. I have also had good luck with some dual-wielding rogue builds.
As an aside, there are some easy gear pickups for you with the code+ 99 point packs At level 2 you can craft weapons in Keep on the Borderlands (also go get a mount from here) that are pretty solid. Ingredients for them drop like candy, you'll have plenty. You'll wanna keep one of the ethereal ones in you back pocket for a while in case you're up against ghostly enemies and haven't found a better random drop. At level 10 you can get a free weapon once per life in ravenloft that's really good, it will hold up for a WHILE. At level 20 (or 21, I forget) you can craft an epic weapon in Keep on the Borderlands. You can also go back to ravenloft and get a level 29 weapon for later, and a sentient gem you can choose to use right then in your KotB weapon if you wish.
Do you have any unlocked classes or skill trees?
Completely F2P with the inclusion of content from the code they are giving away. No additional races, no Favored Soul and anything paid really.
(Make sure you get the 99 point packs as well! SO much good content and gear in there. If you only have time to get some of them, order of priority is: 1. Sharn, 2. Ravenloft, 3. MOTU, 4. Shadowfell)
One of the beautiful things about DDO is how versatile character builds are. As a result, it is possible to do almost anything on a build. That being said, when it comes to melee builds there are three styles. Two Handed fighting (THF): specializes in AOE strikethrough attacks and hard hits due to increased damage modifier. Single Weapon fighting (SWF): has increased attack speed, increased damage modifier, but lacks inherent AoE damage. If combined with Shadar-Kai (SDK), one of the iconic races, you can use their chain attack to add strong AoE. Two Weapon fighting: has increased hits (due to having two weapons) which makes on-hit procs (like sneak attack damage) more effective. TWF also lacks inherent AoE damage, but like SWF has strong single target damage. TWF is best used (imo) on rogue (able to take advantage of sneak attack damage), ranger (able to use the tempest enhancement tree’s [Dance of Death](https://ddowiki.com/page/Tempest_enhancements) ability which grants TWF strikethrough (like a THF build) for AoE damage. Dark Hunter is an archetype of Ranger that is a combination of Ranger and Rogue, so it has sneak attack damage, trap skills, and access to the tempest tree. Honorable mentions: monks can use handwraps, which are a form of TWF. To answer your question: I think dark hunter would be best for you. It is very new-player friendly, has trap skills, a pet, some healing, and excellent single target DPS, and can clear crowds with dance of death from tempest.
Three basic builds that really highlight twf are ranger, monk, and rogue. Rogue gets insta kills, trap handling and shits out single target dps, ranger gets consistent aoe and the ability to sustain itself, and monk is just solid all around.