* Git a big weapon hit like garg!
* Cold, Niacs is the low level finger of death!
* Its all about the max/empowered fireball, you should nuke!
* Merfolks for the win!
Everyone is convinced their way is the easiest and bestest way. This is a good thing, it means that DDO has multiple valid play styles.
Rather than have new players try to theory craft which answer is the best for them, I thought it would be nice if there was a brief library of videos demonstrating the different play styles at low level.
If you need video software, http://obsproject.com/ is a free program you can use to capture videos. If you want something simpler, http://www.bandicam.com/ allows you to capture up to 10 minutes with the free version. This is more than enough for low level quests.
I will maintain this post with an index to the different style videos (assuming anyone posts any). You don't need to do an elaborate write up (although you can if you wish), I'll describe the spells/enhancements that you are using.
SLA stands for spell like ability. These are granted by either enhancements or epic destinies. For this style of low level play, the focus is on using the burning hands and acid splash SLAs. This build is a good start point of moving towards a fire/force build that will synergize with the Shiradi epic destiny.
Creation: This is not intended as a full guide, but max cha, lots of con. Spell power, concentration and repair are key skills.
Future points should go into the fire savant tree. Work on getting your fire spell power up and your levels up. As soon as your casting level is level 7, you get 2 rays from scorching ray (doubling the damage). You get an additional ray at level 11. Get the scorch SLA as soon as you can. When the points in earth savant would be enough to let you get fireball... reset the earth tree and go full fire/force.
* scorching ray - No save, fire dmg.
I have two copies of scorching ray on my spell bar. One has no metas for hitting trash. The other has both empowered and maximize turned on so I can take bosses out quickly.
Don't bother with these unless you really want a hold-your-hand walk through.
In these videos, I have no ship buffs and no equipment other than what the starter ship gave me. Butchers path is a good test of endurance and kobolds new ring leader is a good test of spike damage to kill a dangerous boss.
The but I don't have vetrans, poor me section!
Fear not, if you have the repair light damage spell, you can still do heroic elites at low levels.
The level 1 barbarian hireling Byron hits hard enough to do the killing in Korthos.
The level 3 barbarian hireling Frenzy hit hard enough to do the killing in harbor elites.
Because both of these are warforged hirelings, you can repair them to keep them healed.
This style focuses on single target elimination. It is a little safer for party play than the fire/acid SLA style because it snipes from a distance and lets someone else get in close for the damage. The low level spells to start off are niac's cold and scorching ray. The level 3 spells lightning bolt and frost bolt displace niac's cold. As soon as this happen, I recomment going just air savant so you do not take a penalty in fire or cold. When you get polar ray is a good time to switch back to cold savant and enjoy the dps.
This style is much more gear dependent. In the video, I have no +cha gear, no +conj DC gear and I'm dealing with the worst case saves against niac's cold. In addition, this style is less mana efficient than the AE SLAs because it takes one target out at a time. The shocking grasp SLA compliments this nicely when something keeps making saves because shocking grasp does not have a save.
I generally play this build as an air savant in mid levels (so I can have fire/electric without penalty). Long term, it would transition to a cold savant as an 18/2 pally or even a pure sorc.
This was a big deal to me when I first switched from barbarian to sorcerer. Setting up your UI to be conducive to your playstyle and how the hell do I manage these millions of skills I now have instead of Rage, Sunder, Trip?
Here's a setup I use for a Fire Savant.
When starting out, you're not going to have all that many skills/spells, but they will pile up quick and soon you'll be wondering where to put them all and still see the screen!
Beyond the physical layout that I have commented on in the image itself, I like to organize my hotkeys as such that my most spammed spells are on Q and E, 1234, and then modifiers. For example, I have Burning Hands on E and Scorch on Shift+E (hold shift to power up your spell! ok not really but thats the thinking behind it). Same with Fireball and Delayed Blast Fireball, Q and Shift+Q. When I need acid damage, again I have grouped the spells using the same hotkey with a modifier.
1. Separate active combat stuff from buffs/out of combat stuff. Having to find stuff on 3 bars is already a bit much for me so the visual quadrant separation is important.
2. Use easily accessible and logical hotkeys for in combat spells. Out of combat I have all the time in the world to click so that stuff can go anywhere but my bread and butter spells need to be on keys I can quickly reach.
3. Still be able to see as much of the game world as possible. I'm not a fan of stacking every single bar on the bottom. 3 high is the max!
4. I need a bar for spell components because I always run out at the worst times and having something on the UI to quickly glance at instead of looking through my inventory helps remind me when I'm low!
There are a few things on my personal UI that could probably use tuning up but a lot of it is also habit. So for your own UI, I think the principles I follow are pretty good and you can adapt them to your own needs! I like to think this is just one suggested way that could work for you that no one ever taught me/told me/was discussed specifically about switching to a spellcaster and I think it is a crucial part of arcane playstyle!