Would I enjoy DDO?

taramir

Ive been beta testing Vanguard off and on for a few months and Im generally underwhelmed by it. In the past year Ive played WoW, Auto Assault, Eve, EQ2, RF Online, Lineage 2 and COH/V. I dont really like any of them. I stayed with my first two MMO's, UO and Horizons, for years without ever thinking of leaving them for another game. These days, I play a game for a week and become bored of it. I think this has a lot to do with the games and less to do with me.



What I want in a game is content, plain and simple. Sure maybe WoW has content but what Im looking for is non-linear content. I dont want to have to run an instance 20 times and do it the exact same way all 20 times. I need variety. Does DDO have variety?



Im not much of a PVP type but I do enjoy it from time to time. How is DDO pvp?



How is end game? Is it 40 man raids or oriented towards small groups?



Judging by the DDO official forums there seems to be a pretty mature community and I look forward to any kind of feed back you guys can offer.



(I have played the free trial but didnt really get far enough to form my own conclusions on these topics but I will say I enjoyed my time)

BesCirga

Originally posted by taramir

Ive been beta testing Vanguard off and on for a few months and Im generally underwhelmed by it. In the past year Ive played WoW, Auto Assault, Eve, EQ2, RF Online, Lineage 2 and COH/V. I dont really like any of them. I stayed with my first two MMO's, UO and Horizons, for years without ever thinking of leaving them for another game. These days, I play a game for a week and become bored of it. I think this has a lot to do with the games and less to do with me.



What I want in a game is content, plain and simple. Sure maybe WoW has content but what Im looking for is non-linear content. I dont want to have to run an instance 20 times and do it the exact same way all 20 times. I need variety. Does DDO have variety?



Im not much of a PVP type but I do enjoy it from time to time. How is DDO pvp?



How is end game? Is it 40 man raids or oriented towards small groups?



Judging by the DDO official forums there seems to be a pretty mature community and I look forward to any kind of feed back you guys can offer.



(I have played the free trial but didnt really get far enough to form my own conclusions on these topics but I will say I enjoyed my time)

Let me say this first... DDO can be very repeative if you only join PUG groups and never create groups yourself. But, if you join a good guild, (who run many different quests and not just the "good ones") or play with friends, then its very varible imo.

Content is added every month. But you can always wish for more

PVP in DDO should fit you good. Class vs Class its very unbalanced, and will unlikely be fixed (thank god). but its just something you do for fun. no death penalty,  or xp penalty.

Raids groups have a maximum of 12 players.. so small.

you right on the community.... very helpful and friendly.

If you liked the trial, i would go for it.. you can get the game for about 15-20 dollars and you get a free month.

hope you find a mmo home soon. /wave

neuronomad

BesCirga as usual is right on target as usual.

 

PvP is for the fun factor only.  DDO certainly isn't a PvP-centric game.

 

The people are the friendliest that you will find in any MMO in my opinion.



There are a ton of quest and more being added all the time.   5 more dungeons being added most likely next week as well.  Very common for next content in this game.

 

As BesCirga said the experience really depends on who you group with.   PUG are usually going to do the popular runs like STK, Tangleroot, VoN, WW etc.   If you want RP most likely you will want to join a RP guild as you will not get RP value from PUGs. 

 

taramir

Thanks a ton you guys. Im heading to the store to pick up a copy now. Whats a good server to join?

neuronomad

Originally posted by taramir

Thanks a ton you guys. Im heading to the store to pick up a copy now. Whats a good server to join?

Fernia has a nice bunch of people.   If you roll on there I may be on tonight as my lower level Sorc Zomatok and would be happy to help you out.

we3ster

The highest group number for a raid is 12 and there are only 6 raids in the game.

Variety can come in many forms in DDO, certainly the larger dungeons all thru the game are all very different and do require tactics and planning with the traps etc, also the way people have built their characters, you could be running with a battle cleric one dungeon a wizard/ranger the next, so the diversity of character choice can add variety in how you tackle a dungeon.

PvP is not a main focus, though the tavern brawl is popular.

 

Sevenwind

Looks like I posted to late. Was going to say you can snag the game off amazon for nine dollars. If you buy it in store it may be higher.

Also if you got a good computer get the dvd version as it has the high-res textures you can install if you want. And I can tell the difference in graphics with high-res textures installed.

taramir

Thanks Seven but I was kind of limited to EB Games since I was using store credit but I appreciate it. I did get the dvd version too. Updating the client now and look forward to playing soon!

Sevenwind

Awesome, would love to know your thoughts on the game in the coming days. Likes/dislikes and thoughts on waterworks which I call the necessary evil.

taramir

Impressions so far:



Likes:

- The quests. Theres a ton of them. So far they are kind of easy but Ive found them to be exetremely fun. I cant wait to get into some harder ones.

- The graphics. They arent exactly cutting edge but they really make me feel immersed in the game. One quest that stands out for me is the one in which I have to rescue a girl that has been kidnapped. It was very short but I liked it a lot.

- Traps. Ive been nailed by quite a few of them that I was expecting, very cool.

- Multiclassing/Builds. I havent played around with this yet, Im too new, but just the fact that the game lets you do it is a plus. Itll probably add a lot of replayability for me.



Dislikes:



- Lack of population. I knew this was going to be an issue going into the game so I wont really dwell on it but the game certainly wouldnt suffer if a few more people would log in.

- The learning curve. This is something I will get over in time but as it is now, having never played d&d on paper, I have no idea what half the terms in the game mean. Im slowly figuring it all out though.





    I ended up rolling on Rhiedra. Im an Elf Paladin. I like it but Im considering switching to ranger. I havent done waterworks yet but I do have the quest. I tried to do it solo but got killed so Im going to try and find a group for it tonight. But all in all Im enjoying my time so far.

taramir

nevermind, im a noob and solved my problem :P

Odysses

One tip if you decide to stay subscribed is to keep track of the players you group with.   If you notice that you are grouping with alot of people you like from a certain guild, ask to join.    Alot of times it seems like there isn't alot of people playing and that is because everyone is inside their guild groups.  Random Pick up groups can be fun but for stratagey and fun I prefer grouping with my guild.   We all know our roles, strengths and weaknesses and work as a team much better then in your random groups.   Enjoy your time playing.