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Max level content?
MMOman101
Member UncommonPosts: 1,787
I have been reading over the DDO forums and have noticed that many people seem to level multiple toons to max level. Is there little to no max level content? Is the act of leveling in DDO great compared to other games? I am just wondering why this is. I would greatly appreciate some insight into this phenomena.
“It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”
--John Ruskin
--John Ruskin
Comments
I'd say there's a few reasons:
1. Levelling is actually fun. Because there's no "ratting", and it's involved questing, it's a fun process.
2. Character variations make for a completely different experience. Levelling a fighter vs. levelling a caster=whole different game.
3. Favor unlocks drow characters and 32 point characters for future builds.
But no, there's no real shortage of high level content at all.
Are you saying you cannot create a Drow toon until after you complete "favor"? If this is true what is favor?
--John Ruskin
Favor is DDO's faction or reputation system (technically called the Patron System but no one ever uses that term). Each political House in Stormreach has its own favor to work on, as do other non-House factions. For example, after running a few quests you will likely earn 75 favor for the Coin Lords. Their representative will send you an in-game mail and when you talk to him he will give you an extra inventory slot. Each Patron has its own perks.
At 400 Total Favor (the favor of all Patrons combined) on any character, you unlock the ability to create a new character of the Drow race.
At 1750 Total Favor you can create a new character using a 32-point build rather than the normal 28-points.
So the devs have created a system where making more then one toon is the norm. The first toon needs to accomplish a series of goals so a person can make a more competitive toon. How long does it take to achieve 1750 total favor? Is it something that takes more then one toon? If so how many toons will it take to reach that goal?
--John Ruskin
All 1750 favors has to be earned by one toon and its very doable with all the new content.
At around level 5-6 you should be able to get 400 favor to open drow and at around 12-13 for 1750 32pt builds.
It is a fact that people alt over and over, because the character customization is simply fantastic. Nothing limits you in creating whatever you like. Plus the grind in the game is nonexistent if you consider a grind as a killing the same mob over and over.
REALITY CHECK
Any game where there's the abillity to make more a single character you'll find players doing so. DDO's directed experiance is far superior to any other online game that i've played. The instances are challenging and most of the environments instill a D&D'ish setting accented by a narrated Dungeon Master. With multiple character slot's you'll have the ability to relive the content if you should wish or use the alts for alternate forms of game play, ie PermaDeath.
Having a system that permits multiple characters is good and for a developer to design an environment where players actually enjoy building new characters and re-running older content is even better. If a single character design were in place there would have to be many changes to D&D rules. EVE Online and Star Wars Galaxies (pre-cu version prior to 5/2005) are good examples how a single character design works well regardless of each others short falls.
Players don't "need to" build "more competititve" toons. The first character rolled can be good enough. Since you will be running quests being able to recieve intrinisc rewards is a nice touch that enhances the experiance within DDO. Just because someone can get enough favor to build a theoreticly better character doesn't mean the old character is out dated nor outclassed. Many people continue to play their "28 point build" characters even though they've made what you would think are better ones.
Favor is not transferable amongts your different characters. People do "favor runs" and usually post a group request also known as Looking For More (lfm). The character levels vary and it's possible someone will be running a lvl 12 character through a lvl 2 dungeon for favor they've not gained yet. Once a quest is completed you gain Favor for the difficulty settings and being there's 3 settings (not counting solo) you could use the arguement that Turbine rewards players who repeat quests.
I'm not sure how long it takes to get 1750 favor. Maybe I don't know because I never cared about getting favor. I quite playing DDO a month after launch due to the then lack of content and very claustrophobic feeling of the city. Returning a year later without any desire to get the favor it took me about a month or two to obtain 1750.
A lot of people play a single character even though the favor has been obtained to build better one's. I am someone who uses the very first character I had rolled when DDO launched yet have plenty of alt's, all below lvl 4, since i enjoy my main character so much. The favor DOES however permit for me to recreate the main character if I desire, but I do not due to a lot of special loot i've obtained. I also can recieve special buffs from NPC's and buy some magical gear due to the favor.
summary:
Yes, it is normal to have multiple characters but it is not abnormal for someone to only play their main.
Need to recreate characters to be competitive is not true nor required, but you can try to build a better one if desired.
1750 Favor is easy to obtain. With a specific desire to obtaining this I would assume it could easily be done within a month. Favor is per character and not transferable - have to redo quests if you want more favor on an alt.
/me eyes Mindspat warily....
"You know... if you keep making me agree with you the world really is going to come to an end"....
Have to agree 100% with what Mindspat has said here. When I came back (I also quit shortly after release due to loads of issues, lack of content being one of them) in early February I created a new character. It is my main character. I play it almost totally exclusively. Most people primarily play on their main characters from what I've found. Though a few do bounce around a lot most don't.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas
I have 3 toons that are from the first day in DDO and they still contribute to a group in the same way a newly created toon would do. And yes, I jump between my toons on a regular basis. Most of the time the choice of which toon i should play depends on the setup and the current need of the group I am playing in.
This is the nice thing in DDO: You can really have the wildest combination of classes on your char and you are still able to help the group to accomplish a task. I also like the fact that this game has much less flamewars about imbalanced classes compared to other MMOs. The topic is just not that much of a factor in the game to really care about. The class mix of a group is more important than a specific ability of a single class.
To the OP:
DDO has no real end-game content. There is no real PvP, no keeps to conquer, no RvR. So in DDO the way to level max is your real game. Sure you have some areas in the game where you have repeat quests to unlock some raid content but thats only in 1 area of the game. Now with Module 6 there is some kind of Raid item crafting system. But the end game content you might see in other MMOs does not exist in DDO. The philosphy in DDO is "the journey is the reward". But that's not too bad because once you've maxed a char you can just choose a different class and the whole game plays totally different. So far after 2 years I do not have the feeling that there is a grind in the game. That's why I am still playing DDO
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