I started a couple of weeks ago and am enjoying it. Initially I had misgivings as my friend who turned me on to it related that HP/Spell points are not regenerated spontaneously, but restored at rest shrines. Plus, I was skeptical about how high the quality could really be for a free-to-play game. But, it has turned out nicely so far.
Admittedly, I haven’t had time to get burned out on it and only have a level 3 char. The levels only go to 20, but there are sub-levels called ranks that each amount to an amount of gameplay comparable to a level in other MORPGs.
I’m playing a dwarven fighter, specced to be the best tank possible. Any advice from vets? Any bragging or sharing of your expriences? If this piques any dopers’ interests, I’m on the Sarlona server. (Gneis Gi)
It originally was a subscription game and only went F2P sometime in the last six months, so a lot of the assets were already created with those production values.
The HP/SP only at rest shrines thing is a compromise between the fast pace of MMOs and the resting and regeneration mechanics of D&D. You only get your spells and some HP regenerated when you rest, which in tabletop terms is 8 hours every day. The DDO devs instead balanced regeneration around being able to do so 0-2 times per dungeon, which allows for more fun and action.
It’s not a bad game at all, and I enjoy the havoc my greatsword-wielding Fighter causes. But there are other games I find more fun and have more friends on, so I don’t play that often.
You can solo pretty well; in fact, there are some quests that require solo play. All instanced quests have a difficulty modifier you select before entering the instance. IIRC there’s Solo (or Easy, forget which), Normal, Hard, Elite, and Epic which was added recently. You get Easy and Normal to start with, then when you complete it on Normal you can replay it on Hard, then Elite, with larger rewards each time. If you know what you’re doing and play intelligently (and have decent gear), you can usually solo up to Hard, although Elite will usually require a group.
one caveat is that you can’t grind in the game as you an in many others. Killing individual mobs doesn’t usually net you any xp, so you have to quest. Now, in a given quest, you may get bonus xp for each mob you kill, so there is that. But, you don’t have the experience of running outside of town and just hacking a slashing until you ding. One really nice feature is hirelings. You can pseudo-solo by hiring a mercenary. Gneis is a tank, but does respectable damage, so when I use a merc, it’s usually a cleric. Overall, it seems solo and group friendly. (at low levels, I am a noob, so can’t speak to higher levels).
I was playing DDO then i spent a month on Fallout 3 New Vegas neglecting DDO. Lord of the Rings Online went free and I’ve been playing it almost two weeks. I like LOTRO better than DDO. I played DDO for over a year.
DDO and LOTRO both are having a 100,000 Turbine points give a away contest for Christmas. Sign up for the contest, if you haven’t already.
DDO has been free for over a year. I joined it in the beginning of October 2009.
That initially worried me too. But since playing the game I now find that I don’t want to play MMOs that do regenerate constantly(which is, sadly, every single other game as far as I can tell). Having no regeneration allows for so much better balance and quest design. And gives the game a much less grindy feel. For example a dungeon in DDO can be difficult as an overall thing; you can have weak encounters mixed with medium and hard encounters throughout a dungeon and they are all, even the cluster of pathetic kobolds in a level 8 quest, relevant because they consume your resources which are theoretically finite. As where in, say WoW, each individual encounter in a dungeon must be at least a little challenging or it just gets tedious because you regenerate nigh instantly once battle ends rendering the previous battle irrelevant. And if each battle is challenging than it’s also tedious as you have to wait for an annoyingly long time to regen after battle. No regen simply leads to a faster pace, potentially better class design and balance, and much much better quest and dungeon design.
I haven’t played since a few weeks before they went free to play(which was last summer, IIRC) so my advice might be a touch out of date. But the biggest tips I can give is pretty much just always be prepared and never rely on your group unless you absolutely have to. And ignore anyone who says that armour is irrelevant, I think that idea died out a while back but it was a ridiculously popular sentiment for a time. There were Barbarians running around in robes :rolleyes:. If you can spare any points for the use magic device skill do so, it is the single most powerful skill in the game hands down at least it is if you like being self reliant. Once you’re at around level 9 or higher try to have some way of giving yourself Resist Energy: Acid, Fire, and Lightning 20. Cold and Sonic would be nice too but aren’t quite as important, especially sonic which is very rare. You can get rings and cloaks that can do those, and if possible try to get the acid and fire on different item slots as you’ll want them on at the same time often, especially when fighting outsiders and abberitions. And if you can replace them with resist 30s when getting to level 11ish better still. Of the few years I played the game the most annoying circumstances were when I played with allies that couldn’t get resists on themselves when I wasn’t a class that could hit them with resists myself.
Is Sarlona still the unofficial Chinese server? I ditched for Khyber way back when as more than 1/2 of all groups forming at any time were Chinese.
I got horribly addicted, and didn’t find it grindy at all. Though I guess it depends on your definition of grindy.
Oh, good gravy! Now the little Hellions are not allowed to play DDO? What is my wife thinking? She says we “discussed this”. We did not. We discussed DnD, years before the online iteration. The kids have played WoW and LOTRO.
“I don’t want them playing that game.”
“What game?”
“Dungeons and Dragons.”
“This isn’t DnD, it’s DDO. One is pen and paper, the other a computer game.”
“You know what I mean.”
“No, and I’m not convinced you even know what you mean.”
“It’s that concept.”
“What concept, computer games? The words DnD? Are our kids not allowed to pretend?”
AAAAAAA!!! This exchange took place after the Hellions waited three hours for the download and we both wrangled with finding unique usernames for them. Is this about the 80s witchhunting woo that accompanied all the “Satanic child-sacrificing culuts”?
I play DDO off and on. It’s a nice break from WoW in the sense that, at least at low levels (I have nothing above level 10), you can really play what you -want- to play. You don’t have to be cookie-cutter. I also love that my rogue can be a trap monkey and be ‘in demand’, as it means avoiding lots of nasty stuff and finding lots of hidden doors and chests and the like.