DDO Total Content Measure - part 2

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• Point of progression - ~51%, (193 of 376 instances completed, just finished the 5's on elite)

• xp gained - ~351,000, (rank 40, ready for 9.0)

• Hours commited - ~85 hours

• Total favor gained - 610 of 1750
  
  Bonuses unlocked:
  • Coin Lord: both inventory extensions & Drow characters
  • Free Agents: +1 Free Agent items
  • Silver Flame: first price reduction
  • Phiarlan: 30 minute buffs

• General comments:
  
  Just a mini-update since I've hit another milestone - 50% of the current game content down, and our characters have just made level 9.0. With 200k to earn to hit the first cap, we're just starting on the level 6 quests. Apologies for the slow down in pace, but my recently aquired Alienware took me off to other places for a bit, (Oblivion - beautiful but pure grind? Quake 4 at 63 fps - yum :)) Anyway, not much to add regarding the last batch of quests. Largely the level 5's were easily achievable, with very few that actually challenged our parties. +2 stat items and decent elemental weapons are slowly beginning to drop, although the xp rewards are still generally in the 1-3k range. Quests that stand out include the Litany Vampire on hard, which despite being a grind for the most part, really got the heart racing in the final fight. Want to nail a Vampire without losing out to stupid regeneration rates? This is the place...
  
  
  
  
  The xp isn't bad either :D
  
  Other quests that caught the eye include the ship to ship battle, Guard Duty, for breaking the monotomy of dungeon grind instances, and the Depths chain on elite, for being much harder to handle than the other quests for not much better xp or loot rewards. Depths and Tangleroot certainly become much harder as you step away from the ideal group, and I'll be interested to see if the variability of viable parties decreases now as we move into the 'big boys' quests. It's certainly becoming harder to get away with not having a Cleric, although they're hardly a neccessity yet. The same goes for ranged based characters. Wizards or some other form of crowd control however, are an absolute must already. The only class that really is being left out thus far would be the Rogues, although with the force traps in Grey Moon Waning getting close now, I can see that changing soon. It'll be interesting to see if this narrowing continues tho, as it may go some way to explaining the difficulties some players have in getting groups for higher level content.
  
  Anyway, enough waffle - more later possibly, and another update shortly when we hit 10 or cap. Huge thanks to Lugnut, Redhammer and Shenra for all their help in getting this done. Almost there now guys!