Anybody trying out D&D Online?

[sstryk72]

I ask because I have been a D&D fan for about 15 years now, and yeah, I play 3.5, so I wanted to check and see if it is worth it, or if I should stick to my plan to hop on WoW with my friends in Vermont? I generally like to play utilitarian characters, if that helps at all

[mithrul]

It all depends, if you are familiar with the "normal" MMORPG like everquest or others like it, i would say go with WoW, your going to be much happier. If you have never played a mmorpg try DDO out, it has its ups and downs and if you dont have something else to compare it to, youll like it

Ive pretty much played ever mmo out to date, even some stuff that hasnt made it out of beta, and i find DDO to be severely lacking, they gave the game a very hack and slash feel to it, but its restrained by the laws of the 3.5 ruleset, but you feel like things should be moving along at a faster pace then what they really are......it can get frustrating when you dont hit a monster 30 times in a row just because of bad rolls when your used to a normal mmorpg.........but thats just my opinion, i think the game has definate potential if it is handle and patched up properly, i dont regret buying it, but i wish there was just more to it.

if you have the money to blow the game is definately DIFFERENT then any other mmo out there, try it but i bet you wont stick around past the 30 free days.

but to answer your question, buy WoW if your looking to play with yoru friends and play a more utility roll in a group setting, wow just has more to offer at the moment until DDO gets a little more polished

[junior]

WoW has plenty of issues as well. There are a lot of people who played and left for other games for one reason or another.

Just mentioning that. Research any game that you're thinking of playing.

DDO is more action oriented than other MMORPGs. Combat works best if there's a lot of input from the user. Whether you like it or not will depend on your own personal preferences. There's also no such thing as non-instance combat. But unlike other games, instances never respawn while you're inside (except for wandering monsters in some instances). Instead, the game is built around the idea of simulating an actual adventure session that you might encounter in a pencil and paper game. You chase kidnappers, descend down vertical shafts into the depths of the earth, and deal with extremely lethal traps.

The game is, in short, something of a cross between a 3rd person action game and an MMORPG. There's not really anything close to the action that you'd find in a 3rd person action game (if you're lousy at Ninja Gaiden, you don't have to worry about being similarly bad at DDO). But there's more than you'll find in any other MMORPG.

[Quirk]

If you have ever played the pen and paper D+D you will love it. I didnt like it at all untill i got out of the newb area and started grouping. What D+D has always done is try to take into acct what would really happen, so you have to be facing the target, i hear alot of complaints about that. DDO is not your avg MMORGP, its Dungeons and Dragons online plain and simple. If you didnt like D+D or havent played it, I would test it out. But, i think I am going to quit EQ2 for it.

[Lirren]

I quit EQII for DDO. My hubby, son and I all play together so we have an automatic group. And I enjoy the fact that I can get on and play for an hour or two and accomplish something. We're all casual players in this house, so time is a factor for us. There's no sitting around hacking at placeholders to get a random spawn to advance in DDO. And no level grinding by killing the same thing over and over and over. It's just dungeon crawling, which was my favorite thing in all the other MMO games I've played. And you get your experience from quests rather than from individual mobs.

It's not for everyone. There's no real soloing in this game past the introduction. But if you've got a regular group of friends available, that won't be a problem. And there's no hitting auto-attack and walking away. You'll die. Sometimes the best way to finish off a more powerful adversary is to climb up on some boxes and pelt it with arrows. And hubby and I have both gotten pretty good at shooting kobold throwers while dodging the firebombs they throw.

It's definitely just a matter of preference. If you're a serious power gamer, DDO probably isn't going to be the game for you. If you like to solo a lot, DDO definitely isn't going to be the game for you. But if you enjoyed the concept of pen and paper DND, you should try it.

[Kaylen]

I guess I played a different D&D than everyone else, where combat was pretty rare. Sitting around a table with friends doing nothing but dungeon crawls seems a tad boring, personally.

DDO is very focused on hacking and slashing through dungeon after dungeon. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's the only content it has. It's not for everyone (myself included) but, as others have said, if you enjoy action games this one is better than most single player games (in gameplay, at least; in typical MMO fashion there's no real story going on that I could see, though I did not get very far) and you excel with friends, which is always a plus in my book.

[DemonMage]

I dunno, my PnP games had a lot more dialog than DDO does, but it's really hard to make an effective dialog based quest in a computer game, more so in a MMORPG. Though they also removed a lot of the stealth options due to how experience is dealt out... just letting the rest of the party hang back and do nothing while someone with stealth/invis completes a quest in no time and gets everyone experience.

It's a fun game overall, I'm a level 8 cleric at the moment, but I also play statically with 2-3 friends, so that helps a lot. Makes grouping even easier (though it's super easy in the first place), as well as assuring that I have at least half a group as capable people =-p'

Also, tumble is your friend. As is blocking. And moving. Don't just stand there thinking you can "tank" the mob perfectly.

[Beatmon]

Comparing DDO to other MMORPGs is like comparing NWN to Diablo II. It is different tastes for different people. I feel that DDO will not be the replacement for a current MMORPG for most people. But I myself left WoW and signed up for a year of DDO. (I think it is my love of PnP D&D that makes me love DDO. It is a lot of fanboy love that makes me play this game.)

[Mei]

The reports I have from people playing DDO are it's a fun game where the dungeons are instanced and the group needs to share to trade the chest rewards as the treasure is instanced fro each member.

When asked about PVP.. that said we don't mind the pvpless world.

[Gonzo]

Been playing DDO for a few weeks now. Expected a comic or two on it by now, but alas... nothing yet :)

As far as reviewing it, and my opinion of it, there was a review done by someone at gamefaces.com and Ill paste it here.. Its very accurate, in my opinion.

*snip*

A few months ago, I applied for the Beta phase of Dungeons and Dragons Online and was accepted. I’ve never played the Pen and Paper version of DnD, but being bored with the current MMORPG’s available I decided to give the on-line counterpart a go. And the Beta was just enough to suck me into purchasing the game when it was released.

My first impression of the game was intrigue. Right away, the game feels much different than other games in the MMORPG genre. The obvious difference is that the game forces you into groups to take on instanced quests. While at first this may seem problematic, it really isn’t. Finding a group takes no time at all (on most servers) and the community is fairly mature and easy to get along with. There is built-in voice communication, though it’s not necessary. Most of the content in this game is very easy unless you are new to videogames in general.

DDO has a fairly nice character creation screen. DDO allows you to choose from 5 races: Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Halflings, & Warforged. For those who don’t know, Warforged are “living machines” that are extremely annoying to group with and seem out of place in a Dungeons and Dragons scenario. There are 9 classes to choose from as well: Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer and Wizard. Any race can be any class, although obviously some are more suited combinations than others. Additionally, players may choose to multiclass as they level up (max of 3 classes).

All classes in DDO play pretty important roles. The Rogue, for example, is a vital asset to the 6 person teams you can form in DDO as traps are common and very deadly. The only class that seems gimped is the Ranger. The last time I played the game, there seemed very little reason why you’d bring a Ranger along. As for the most overpowered class? Little does the DDO community seem to realize it, but the Bard seems pretty powerful.

Leveling up in DDO is very easy and very quick if you’re not antisocial and not afraid of taking charge. The current maximum level cap is 10 and can be achieved casually in less than a month. The content itself can be extinguished casually in 2-3 weeks. To achieve the level cap, a player will find himself repeating the same quests over and over again in order to gain more experience.

As far as experience goes… DDO players will find that the only way to gain XP is to *complete* a quest. Gone are the XP systems prevalent in the genre where players can grind creature spawns for experience points. This may just be my favorite part of DDO as personally I feel like going insane when I am forced to kill the same damn creature 1,000 times to achieve a new level. Another thing to note is that you will get the same amount of XP for completing missions with 1 person as you will get for completing a mission with 6.

One cool thing about DDO is that it tells you prior to entering quests the length of time it will take to complete and the difficulty the current quest is on. What’s not cool is that you can’t set a quest to a harder difficulty until you complete it on an easy one. As I said, the default difficulty setting is far too easy for a group of experienced gamers.

The entire game takes place in one city. All quests start from the city of Stormreach. In this way, DDO eliminates all of the traveling nonsense that is so time-consuming in other MMORPG’s. Again, if DDO deserves praise for nothing else, there attempts to eliminate the annoying time sinks that are so commonplace are worthy.

The graphics of DDO look good but demand too much of your system resources to be justifiable. The sound is also good but doesn’t hold a stick to other game soundtracks and will not stand out. The most important thing to note about DDO is that there is very little content. It will take a casual gamer about two weeks to go through all of the content available. Additionally, the game is full of the same bugs that were in Beta and doesn’t seem to be improving at a pace that I feel is standard in this industry. And here’s the real shocker: They charge 15 bucks a month to play this game!

If you’re an old timer that used to play DnD as a kid and have little-to-zero video game experience, you may find DDO to be fun. If you’re a gamer, stay away: this will not satisfy your hunger. The game is plagued with bugs and fan boys, has little to no content to justify a monthly fee, and doesn’t seem to be improving anytime soon. And that, my friend, is as nicely as I can put it while retaining honesty.

P.S. There are no dragons in this game… called Dungeons and Dragons.

Gameplay: 5
Graphics: 6
Sound: 6
Value: 4
Reviewer’s Tilt: 5
Verdict: 5/10

*snip*

The only exception I would take issue with is the system resources. Ive got 2 systems at home. One is AMD 1.6ghz, 512, ti4800 128Mb. Runs the game fine (albeit not on "Very High Graphics Setting"). Second system: AMD 64-3200, 2Gb, FX5950 Ultra 256Mb.. Runs the game quite nicely on highest setting. (note to PCIe Graphics, and it still runs it great).

One thing the guy failed to mention is the Armor and its Graphics. Not evey +1 Full Plate looks like the other. Which, is pretty nice, not seeing mirror images or characters all over the place.

The really neat thing is the people. There is no "rat race" for loot, or money. When chests are opened, each item is assigned to an individual player. When people get loot they cant use, they ask the group if anyone can, and if it can be, its freely given. However, it is also expected of you to do the same thing. Understand that this doesn't always happen. Some groups are "its my loot, you cant have it". These people dont stay around long, because the majority of the people Ive played with like the "sharing loot" aspect of it. Its not like youre going to be low on cash.. Ive got over 170,000gp at level 5. The "Uber" items that I cannot even use yet, cost about 90,000 or so gold.

Overall, I can see it being like GuildWars, but not as Linear.. But, if Turbine decides to keep the content flowing, then it should be fine... and it looks like they will, because there is new content coming out in april (1 month after release).

-Gonz

[junior]

P.S. There are no dragons in this game… called Dungeons and Dragons.


While this may be true, it's already been announced that the module due for release next month (free to subscribers) will have a red dragon in it.

[Gonzo]

Ahhh yes, forgot to mention that... thanks for catching that.

Sounds like you play... I thought the review was pretty fair and accurate, aside from the couple things I pointed out..

-Gonz

[Zutan]

its pretty good.

it goes by most of the 3.5 rules from what i have read. some things are different. if you ever played a warforge in 3.5 it will be a shock because they are truely gimped so far.

they havent put in all the spells yet, and some of the ones they do have in dont work 100% yet.

none the less i have really enjoyed playing it so far, its pretty dead durring the day in the week but thats typical of most online games.

other than the first couple quests in the game, nothing is solo. if you can solo something you are amazing lol. so if you like to solo i think you wil be dissapointed.

it is deffanetly good to find people that you can work well together with to group with, as it is occationaly hard to find people that will listen, and do what they are told when you have done something and they havent. (but thats a whole other rant i need to do lol)

give the game a try if you like, its fun. i think there have been people already posting the server they are on. it seems we all play on the same one so far which is interesting lol.

[wooshell]

I've played the beta for quite some time, and decided not to buy the retail version (yet). It's still by far too little content for the money they want, and as a casual player I found it much too hard to go solo. Being encouraged to group play is good, being forced to group to get _anything_ done is bad. Being forced to group by removing healing capabilities is brainless. I don't want to search for a usable group for half an hour when I've only got an hour to play between assignments. (and a usable group is a lot harder to get on the european servers than it's on the US ones, at least if you insist on all people in your team speaking the same language; which is essential to survive in most cases.)

Soloing with one of the melee fighter classes would have been great fun, if they had implemented any viable option to heal yourself. No, the one rest shrine per dungeon is not enough. No, healing potions that cost half of the whole dungeon loot each and heal only a quarter of your life are not an option.
The only soloable char I found viable was the cleric.. he can heal himself completely about 4-5 times with his spell points and regenerates them completely on this one rest shrine per dungeon. Drawback is, it's quite hard tweaking a Cleric to do good damage with melee or ranged weapons.

I will surely have a second glance at the game in some months, after the first content expansions are out, and hopefully after they have yielded a bit to player demands.

[No.6]

Hard to solo? You're doing well. It's supposed to be impossible to solo.

The good news is that it's remarkably easy to find a bunch of people quickly, which means casual players like myself (by which I mean "those with shorter gameplay times" as opposed to "I can dedicate a 6 hour stretch to the game") can jump in and find an adventure. In US primetime I can pop in, hit the 'group' button and up will come some dozen groups that are ready to have my class and level, and this is on one of the lower-populated servers (Thraskshskshsk or whatever it's called). Click 'join' and start adventuring. No half hour waits. In my short time in DDO I've learned to give up "LFG" and instead find groups looking for players; or conversely put up LFP myself if I want to get something specific done.

However, as you noted, your timezone may influence things.

If casual to you means "I can pop in and play alone for a while" then this is not your game. If Turbine 'adjusts' so that soloing is a viable style, then it isn't really D&D any more.

Not healing 'naturally' in DDO over the course of some minutes isn't brainless; it's the whole 30+ year legacy of D&D (not to mention life; it'd be nice if nearly-mortal wounds would heal up if I sat around for a few minutes, but ... well, no, having rubbery troll skin and a weakness for fire doesn't sound like fun).

I appreciate those who want to just log in and do something alone for an hour, but that market is more than adequately covered. I don't think every game ought to target every possible style.

Side note: it's great entertainment reading the DDO forums as MMO 'vets' who have had tank-healer-dps drilled in their heads for the better part of a decade get smoke and sparks coming out their ears when they find out a rogue is not 'dps' and being a fighter does not mean maxxing HP and trying to make the cleric do nothing but heal, etc. That cleric's wearing the same platemail you are, bucky...

Side note 2: What's wrong with Rangers? Oh, maybe ones that were created to 'dps', but I bet people will break their MMO molds soon (see note 1) and get a handle on it soon.

[Brazbit]

I have been playing DDO for about a week now. I have not logged into WoW since I started playing DDO. I play a bard and enjoy the flexibility of the class.

Strangely enough for a D&D game I would like to see more RP elements added to the game. The game defaults to you always having your weapons out, you can sheath them but as soon as you move or do anything else they come back out. Great for a dungeon silly for a tavern. I would love to be able to use my instrument more and it would be nice if anyone else could hear it. As it is now the bard is silent to everyone but himself. Also dances are one move repeated every half second or so... even WoW has better dances, this may not be important to most people but to a bard these things limit RP ability.

The one thing I love is the built in voice chat. No need to cobble together who has what software and exclude those without it. Unfortunately surprisingly few people actually make use of this feature.

The wide variety of customization, weapons, and armor brings back some of the complexity that has been missing from MMOs like WoW and the new SWG. This is a very good thing in my opinion, I like having unique individuals over having cookiee cutter classes where players can be swapped with little regard as long as the class is right which is what games like WoW provide.

It is still early but I am totally sold on DDO. I only hope they expand the non-combat abilities someday, when they do the game will be perfect in my eyes.

[Gonzo]

Side note: it's great entertainment reading the DDO forums as MMO 'vets' who have had tank-healer-dps drilled in their heads for the better part of a decade get smoke and sparks coming out their ears when they find out a rogue is not 'dps' and being a fighter does not mean maxxing HP and trying to make the cleric do nothing but heal, etc. That cleric's wearing the same platemail you are, bucky...

Yeah, people coming from 14,000HP and 3,500AC are in for a nice big fat suprise. Mostly in the forums.. "omg wtf ddo the suxorz i quit" to which people reply.. "cool... seeya".

No, the game isnt for everyone.. Some people down-right hate it. But alot of those people that hate it are from that 14K/3.5K MMO's.. and its too hard for them NOT to rush headlong into a fight.. only thing that will get you is 2 shotted.

Did you see the thread about age? (how old are you?) I was pleasantly suprised to see a TON of people in their 30's. I also liked the thread about old people getting lost, and the "old guy" responding about looking around, taking his time, and picking up their shards when he gets to them... hehehehe

-Gonz

[Gonzo]

Side note: it's great entertainment reading the DDO forums as MMO 'vets' who have had tank-healer-dps drilled in their heads for the better part of a decade get smoke and sparks coming out their ears when they find out a rogue is not 'dps' and being a fighter does not mean maxxing HP and trying to make the cleric do nothing but heal, etc. That cleric's wearing the same platemail you are, bucky...

Yeah, people coming from 14,000HP and 3,500AC are in for a nice big fat suprise. Mostly in the forums.. "omg wtf ddo teh suxorz i quit" to which people reply.. "cool... seeya".

No, the game isnt for everyone.. Some people down-right hate it. But alot of those people that hate it are from that 14K/3.5K MMO's.. and its too hard for them NOT to rush headlong into a fight.. only thing that will get you is 2 shotted.

Did you see the thread about age? (how old are you?) I was pleasantly suprised to see a TON of people in their 30's. I also liked the thread about old people getting lost, and the "old guy" responding about looking around, taking his time, and picking up their shards when he gets to them... hehehehe

-Gonz

[No.6]

When I started in D&D, the initials TSR actually stood for something (Tactical Studies Rules) and they used a lizardman for a logo.

Still have copies of Dungeon and War of Wizards (sp?), the latter of which was based in the Empire of the Petal Throne world. That should date me sufficiently.

:D

[Lenardo]

i still have my fiend folio with elric in it....

[No.6]

That would be a Deities and Demigods rather than a Fiend Folio; the latter was a compilation of monsters from British creators. Mine is intact also.

[Gonzo]

heh... I dug out my old D&D books.. Temple and Oriental were my favorites..

Guess I sufficiently dated myself as well..

-Gonz

[Lirren]

You guys who have played PnP DnD, would getting some of the books help explain things in the game a little bit (like the whole mage armor thing)?

[DemonMage]

Somewhat, but it depends on what exactly you want to know. Often your questions can be answered by reading: http://d20srd.org/, the compendium on ddo.com, or the forums.

[junior]

The 'mage armor thing' is somewhat complicated no matter how you look at it. Actually, it's not really. It's just difficult to explain.

Basically, you can only have one of any given type of modifier affecting a given stat (with certain exceptions, such as Dodge modifiers, which stack).

Mage Armor provides a +4 armor bonus to AC. Certain other things, such as armor, provide an armor bonus to AC as well. Since you can only have one armor bonus active at a time, the highest bonus is the one used. So Plate armor will take precedence over Mage Armor, while Mage Armor will take precedence over Padded Armor. AC bracers, such as the ones that are given as a possible reward choice for clearing Waterworks, count as an 'Armor Bonus' as well. And that means that they don't stack with Mage Armor either.

Shield, on the other hand, counts as a different kind of bonus (a shield bonus, I believe, though I could be mistaken). So it should stack with Mage Armor, armor you wear, and the magic bracers. But I suspect it won't stack with an actual shield.

This applies to other things as well. For instance, my rogue found boots that added to sneak, and a ring that added to sneak. But only the larger of the two bonuses is applied, so wearing both items is a waste of space.

The PnP book is useful in that it contains the raw stats for things like spells (which aren't available in-game, unfortunately), and gives you a better idea of how some of the mechanics work. For instance, while the game shows the d20 roll that determines whether you successfully hit or saved, I don't think there's anywhere that tells you how the numbers actually work.

[Lenardo]

i played for a bit saturday night and had fun..except for a @$%@$%%^$^& know it all who complained about my healing...
after 2 quests/dungeons where this ass --DIDN'T DIE-- we hit a new dungeon that reamed us a new one and all this guy did was bitch about my healing.

i figure i did good for what we were doing and my level

i am a level 3 cleric we were doing level 6 dungeons...

in 2 of the 3 dungeons i kept most everyone alive- hell i died a few times- only had 2 players die completely- the 3rd one, Everyone died as i blew thru my "spell points" and then a box spawned an arcane skeleton when i was oos so i couldn't heal anyone (my wand use is lacking atm) and the group wiped

he kicked me outta the group.

once he did that, the rogue and the other fighter quit the group and sent me comments that i healed excellently..

so every game has it's share of asses

[Lirren]

Junior, thank you! That's exactly the kind of thing I wanted to know. I've collected a couple of + performance items for my bard, but now I know I just need the highest one. That actually helps a lot.

I think I will go get the book for the spell info. I still don't quite understand some of my spells.

[Beatmon]

Junior is correct even if he is unsure of his reasoning. Actually just float your mouse over your AC in your character sheet to see your armor bonus types. Fro my mage it looks like this.

Armor Bonus (from bracers) = AC4
Dexterity Bonus = AC4
Sheild Bonus (from Shield spell) = AC2
Natural Armor bonus (from headstart necklace) = 1
Size Bonus (from being small halfing) = 1

Add that to your base of 10 and I have an AC of 22.

The only AC bonus that will stack on top of itself in PnP D&D is Natural Armor bonus. I have yet to find an in-game natrual armor bonus other then my headstart necklace so I don't know if it will stack in this game.

To the above types of AC bonus you can add deflection bonus (shield of faith adds this), luck bonus (feats in PnP but I have yet to see one in DDO), morale bonus (bard song),and feat bonus (dodge ability). I am guessing there may be other unsual bonuses to add to that but those are the main categories.

And like Junior said, the same type of bonuses don't stack. A shield bonus is the same as your shield spell, your bracers of AC are the same as mage armor and scale mail.

[DemonMage]

Note that the spell info listed in the books or on the d20 SRD doesn't always match up to the game spells. Often the damage is done slightly differently, and for some spells the saves are changed/removed. Fireball for instance is 1d3 + 3, rather than 1d6, which makes it hit the middle/high end of the standard numbers, which is good since things in DDO have more hitpoints.

For Arcane spells, there's a post in the Sorcerer forums entitled "The way your spells REALLY work", which has information on levels 1-3, and working on 4-5 (the guy is leveling up a wizard and getting scrolls to test them all out).

Also, the Dodge feat isn't a feat bonus, it's a... dodge bonus =-p There is no feat bonus category.

[OuchMaker]

not even sure if the original poster is still even looking at his own thread since he hasn't responded...

but...if you are, take it from a hardcore D&D fan...skip it, you'll like WoW more

the only cool thing about this game was the little narations when you enter certain areas of a dungeon...like a DM explaining what you see