Journey ! Destination

Ashkael

I hear alot of people saying that I shouldn't be playing just to see that next level. That I should enjoy the game as I'm playing it and that the "next level" should simply happen while I'm playing, as opposed to being the reason I play.

There are a few problems with that line of thinking.

First and foremost is the fact that some classes, especially the Sorceror, are horribly weak at low levels. Indeed, the vast majority of your life may be spent cowering behind the tanks hoping that your magic missile or chill touch doesn't draw aggro in the entire .2 seconds it takes to kill something. So how, as a gimp, am I supposed to enjoy the game? If my weapons are too weak to do any significant melee damage, and my spells are both weak AND fairly worthless, (Chill touch is the default starting sorc spell. Worthless against machines and close to worthless against undead) how am I supposed to enjoy my journey? No, I have to live for the next level, where I just might get some skills and spells that would make a group take me in out of more than mere pity and ignorance. Sure, I MIGHT get more powerful later on, but as the game reportedly has "no end game content," what's the point?

Second is a combination of the players and overall poor level design. Now, it's great if you run through a dungeon the first time with friends who haven't done the quest before. Count yourself very, very lucky if that happens. Since the game pretty much requires you to repeat quests with zero randomization, you'll almost always have a "tour guide" available for you to cling to. The puzzles and traps, no matter how well designed, are worthless if one player has done them before and knows how to bypass them. This is simply not fun. The players could remedy this by "pretending" they haven't done the quest before, but if you need to "pretend" you are clueless in order for your group to have fun, then the game itself is severely flawed. Simple randomization, a feature from dungeon crawlers as early as the original Diablo, would have nullified this problem entirely.

And there you have it. If you're a sorceror or other gimped class grouping with players who have more than 5 minutes experience, then there is no concievable manner in which you could live "for the journey." Your only option is to sit back, hope you don't get killed or cursed, and pray that the next level gives you some decent stuff.

apocalance

me, you mean me.. as I'm one who says that....

I played a sorc and did so quite effectively. I don't have a lot of time to post atm but I can come back if needed later.

I stayed behind the melee and used a crossbow with very good results. When needed I used BH to literally save the day. I had zero complaints from group members about my style and was even given praise because of my use of BH. This was at low levels and well, I had fun.

As for the dungeon crawling/run-throughs, that's all you. I decide who I group with and who I run through with. I had someone in beta who knew all the low level stuff too well because of the number of characters he had played and he asked "you guys want me to lead you through or I can just hang back so you can experience it?" If I group with someone who runs through dungeons that I've not been through before, then guess what, I'm going to speak up about it and leave if necessary. I'm sure people will understand. DDO seems to be of more mature gamers. Maybe that was just beta.