So, I was thinking we could make a SDMB Static Group. A quest in DDO normally allows 6 players; Raids allow 12. If we get 6 players interested in the group, we could run pretty much all the content in the game; it is more than possible to run raids with only 6 players. Until now, I’ve played nearly exclusively in a small Perma-Death guild (meaning we have less gear than most, and death is much more horrible) and we’ve run raids at our level with as low as 7 people. If we do decide we need help, we can always let other people join us for raids; the DDO community tends to be fairly helpful compared to other MMOs.
In order to have a well-balanced party that can run any quest, there are 3 things to keep in mind:
First, accessibility; some areas of certain quests require a certain level of stats. For example, there are optional encounters that demand someone with, say, 24 Intelligence to unlock; a party of 6 Barbarians would struggle there. Additionally, if we want to disable traps and unlock secret or locked doors, we’ll need a Rogue or Artificer. Artificers require VIP or purchase, but Rogues are available freely to all. Of course, DDO makes Multiclassing very easy; I have had Wizards with 2 levels of Rogue that could cast just as well as any other Wizard but also take down traps (and dodge Fireballs to boot!).
Second, party roles. While smart playing outweighs smart building any day of the week, we should make sure we can, at the least, damage our opponents in melee or ranged combat; have casters who can put on the hurt and use crowd control to direct the battle where we want it; and finally, have someone who can heal and Raise the dead. (Note that I said we want someone who can heal, not a Healer; DDO’s Clerics, Favored Souls, Bards, and Druids all excel at keeping the party alive but are more than capable of swinging a weapon or blasting their enemies off the face of the earth). Finally, someone who can buff would be nice.
Third, self sufficiency. With few exceptions (Barbarians come to mind), most classes in DDO are capable of and expected to keep themselves alive. Whether that means buying a stack of potions, a wand of healing, saving some spell points for a Cure spell, or just tipping the Cleric, you should always make sure to be a net gain for the party.
As a static group, we will generally only group with each other. That means that it doesn’t matter if your build makes a power gamer throw up a little, so long as you contribute to the party. The most important thing is that we all have fun. We’d meet once a week on whatever day and time we decide to play, run a few quests, kill a few beasts, and level up if we’re lucky. If you can’t make a session, no big deal; we’ll keep track of what quests we ran and tell you, so that you can catch up with other players when you can. The idea is that we all stay at the same level, so we always have someone to group with.
Hopefully we can get a group together!
PS: While we certainly don’t have to stick to this list, this is what I would generally aim for when recruiting for a pick up group:
- Melee (Someone who hits hard and can take a hit. DDO being what it is, could be anything from a Fighter to a Bard to a Wizard with Barbarian levels. A Cleric can make a great melee and also be a backup healer)
- Rogue skills (Artificer or Rogue levels are a must here, but 2 Rogue levels and a high Int score are enough to keep a Wizard, Paladin, or Cleric able to open locks and disable traps throughout the game)
- Crowd Control (Usually a Wizard, though a Bard is unmatched in this area; spells like Web, Dancing Sphere, or Dominate keep monsters where your melee can kill them)
- Healing (Clerics, Favored Souls, or Druids do a superb job here without even focusing on it)
- Damage Spells (Sorcerers are ridiculously amazing here, though Wizards or some of the Divine casters can hold their own. These are the guys who one-hit an enemy with a spell).
- Melee (You never want only one frontliner; two or three do better, especially if some of them fill other roles too)
For those who don’t know what DDO is, or who want to know if it’s really free:
[spoiler]DDO is, for those who don’t know, a MMO based on the D&D 3.5 rules (with a few hints of 4e, once you get Epic). I can’t stand other MMOs, and I love DDO; the gameplay is fairly reminiscent of games like Neverwinter Nights, as opposed to WoW. There are three types of “instances”: Public zones, where you run around town and pick up quests or buy items (this is where you’ll see other people running around); Explorer areas, where you and your party enter a personal instance; and Quest zones, where you and your party try to achieve certain objectives.
Quests have actual plots rather than simply being something like “bring me 10 rat tails from the swamp to the east!”. The plots are actually fairly well developed and different quests or quest chains tend to reference one another. If the party is willing to take things slow, we could enjoy that aspect of the game very much.
Explorer areas are more like the traditional MMO zones: You walk in, find monsters wandering about doing their thing, and slay them for XP. The way explorer areas are handled makes it feel much more natural, though; monsters don’t respawn until you leave the area, so fighting monsters feels a lot more natural. Explorer areas also have Rare Encounters, which are bonus monsters that spawn every few runs and give extra XP and loot. They also have Explorers, which are sites that you get XP for finding. So, for example, in the Cerulean Hills you need to find a number of caves, rivers, shrines, or special trees. Monsters vary slightly between runs, and you can find bandit lords or orc chiefs in certain areas every few times you run the area. (Quests also have rare encounters; for example, a quest might have a Beholder who only spawns infrequently, and is worth extra XP).
Here are some gameplay videos of people soloing DDO, for those who are interested:
A Sorcerer soloing one of the early DDO quests. (Notice how the quest entrance is inside an Explorer area; this happens in DDO sometimes. Quests have entrances to other quests; explorer areas contain vendors or quest-giving NPCs; etc)
A 20th level Fighter vs Frost Giants. This is before the update that added Epic levels; the UI has been changed radically since then.
A high level Rogue sneaking through a quest. DDO actually rewards stealth; you get bonus XP if you make it through an entire quest while killing less than a certain number of monsters.
DDO is Free to Play. It is, however, true that it isn’t completely free; after level 10 or so, most content needs to be unlocked, either through favor points or through spending money. IMO, the best way to unlock new content is to buy a subscription for a few months and use the free points that subscriptions give to buy content; over the years, I’ve gone VIP maybe 6 times, and have unlocked nearly all the content. If you choose to pay, DDO is not very expensive; 9.99 a month gets you VIP status, which lets you unlock all the quests aside from the ones above 20th level and also gives you 500 Turbine Points a month (or 1000 if you buy during a sale), which is sufficient to unlock tons of content.
There is currently one expansion pack; I’m not sure how much it is, but I got it for $20 along with a month’s subscription to DDO and something like 20,000 TP. A second expansion is about to come out. But if you only want to get in on this static group, there’s no need to worry; the expansion packs are for levels 21 and 26 respectively, which we won’t get to for a very, very long time. The TP from going VIP can also be used to purchase expansion pack content.[/spoiler]