While playing with my guildies the other week and chatting about characters and plans, I decided to switch around on my character ideas some. Originally my plan was to have Hymm take lives he could use to improve himself when he eventually went back to being a monk. Fyrne was intended to be my completionist.

However, I haven’t played Fyrne very much lately (although I have dusted him off and levelled him some) while Hymm.. well he is my main guy, the one I always go back to. He has a ton of gear. So I decided to focus on him being a completionist instead.

So last Sunday I TR’d him into a build Tobril had mentioned to me, a 7 druid/6 monk template where the 3rd lot of 7 levels of class X became your past life. The example had ranger so I went with that 🙂 I spent last weekend and a few nights this week levelling him up. And then Turbine announced a 30% XP boost this weekend – completely changed my plans!

I’d already picked up a few Otto’s Boxes when they were put back on sale in the DDO Store. Unlike the Bigby Boxes, the Stone of XP in the Otto’s will take XP boosts e.g XP pots, guild ship shrine, Voice of the Master. With the 30% boost I thought I could also have a good chance of getting to 20 once I had stoned, then I’d be ready to TR on Monday when the new system came in. And I already had a Juggernaut build based on the U19 changes that I liked the look of.

Cue weekend of grinding XP It’s not my favourite thing to do, but when I have to I can knuckle down and do it. Getting to level 8 wasn’t a problem. I stoned, XP boosts took me to enough XP for 19, but I kept that banked and stopped at level 18 so I could run Vale missions with a guildie without messing up their Bravery Bonus.

I know it’s been said before, but that last push from 19 to 20 is nasty for a 3+ lifer. You do missions that you think are giving decent XP and your XP bar moves just the tiniest amount (or so it seems). But thanks to the help from Row, Aldrac, Samius & Tobril, I got him to 20 last night.

And now, after an hour of trying to sort out my TR cache (again!), Hymm is back to level 1. He won’t be stoning this life, I won’t be rushing him through quite so much 🙂 I’m looking forward to seeing how the new system works out and this way, I have a level 1 character to try it with, to work through it with, as well as my end game characters that will just have their enhancements reset & redone.

Life 6 – here I come 😀