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Dungeons & Dragons Online Expands with Masterminds of Sharn - MMORPG.com
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Dungeons & Dragons Online Expands with Masterminds of Sharn - MMORPG.com
The Masterminds of Sharn expansion has now arrived in Dungeons & Dragons Online after today's update. Players will be exploring one of the most iconic cities in D&D lore, Sharn. The expansion brings players sixteen dungeons, a new raid and a public area as well as the underground wilderness location called The Cogs. Guest dungeon masters participated in creating the content including Keith Baker, Ruty Rutenberg and Kyle Vogt.
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That's kind of where I have been with a lot of mmorpgs lately. At some point this horrible grind was included as a way to progress your character's power. An overwhelming grind. Guild War 2, DCUO, ESO, etc, I'll try and give them a try and its just overwhelming knowing I have to clear every piece of content and do annoying loot hunts to progress my character's power. I log in and instead of being excited to play I just look at all the huge maps I have left to grind and log out.
Out of all these, DDO has theybest chance to fix this by just consolidating and putting reasonable caps on the amount of reincarnation grind. Kind of like how the epic levels work. You can grind them all for the active buff selection, but the main benefit is gained by slecting and grinding out the main ones you want and is far more reasonable than the racial reincarnations which require each race three times for significant power gain.
Of course, I could just be less OCD and just play to enjoy it like most people do, but that's not how it works out for me and it wouldn't be OCD then. I liked the old way mmorpgs used to be when you hit cap you stopped character development and just worked on gear.
But this is a side rant, as this is a good expansion especially content wise. Daybreak has really stepped up their game with regards to DDO.
unless of course you are saying the reicarnation item grind, then yes its annoying.
plus if you can play the same class over and over from lvl 1 to 20 just do a lesser reincarnation before the true reincarnation, doing so will help in lvling that class you don't like or just want to play one class anyway
now saying its a good expansion, we need to see it first before anything, and see what else did change
I did some of it for certain skills, and added more as needed (like ranger for the +6 damage for ranged when I wanted to switch to range, etc). All the other types of reincarnation were limited and had decent benefits for doing it, but nothing that felt necessary beyond getting three for the iconics for stances that I planned on having on, getting more twists, etc. Some where added that had good shit you could immediately benefit from for all the possible builds I'd be interested in like I think the gnome iconic gave 3 MRR with each reincarnation, PDK gave something like 3 PRR, etc. The shadar-ki at least used to have one that just didn't appeal to me, etc.
Racial reincarnation gives you +1 stat, and +1 racial skill tree point. Off hand I don't remember all the races, but I am almost positive there is more than 10. You have to do each three times for the skill tree point. I currently have like three races down and am on the second for the fourth.
I think there are at least 7 more races, maybe 8 now. So that's 22 or 25 more reincarnations. That's just a huge hassle. Nevermind the new iconic has good shit so that brings it up by 3 more.
And, with me specifically and I'm not talking about other people that don't have my brand of OCD, that's what I need before I consider myself to be ready to do end-game content and focus on that aspect of the game.
"now saying its a good expansion, we need to see it first before anything, and see what else did change"
You are correct, but the people that did try it didn't complain about the content or design other than bugs (during the testing) that I've seen.
Youtube: http://youtube.com/c/gameoliodan
Twitch: http://twitch.tv/gameoliodan
This wins the most ironic post award today. Complaining about one video being "amateurish" while posting a video that is literally sub-amateur garbage is hilarious. Off topic I know but it made me actually LOL.
Bartoni's Law definition: As an Internet discussion grows volatile, the probability of a comparison involving Donald Trump approaches 1.
I think the reviewer sums it up nicely "I don't know what any of this sh*t is ... "
If one doesn't know what one is looking at then one can't really give a good review. There are definitely criticisms but one must keep things in perpsective. It's an old game that presents its content in a different way than most themepark mmorpg's.
This one seems a bit more grownup.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
The person I usually end up playing with pride's himself on never spending a dime on it, and his character is far more advanced than mine. Most of the people in my guild are F2P players. Most of them have characters that can clear most content solo on reaper while grinding lives, while I have to switch down around lvl 8 or so.
Is it far more of a pain? Sure. But this is this only mmorpg I've spent significant sums of money on and see my complaints above. I once posted in the forum that I'd spend a lot more if any of their experience gems brought me to 20, or from 20 to cap for epic. Half way is useless. Its ridiculous sucky p2w that doesn't allow me to exploit myself or my impatience. I'm not spending money to get part way there. I was brutally attacked on their forums for daring to want an easier time grinding through lives. Or not easier - instant time is what I was asking for. I still don't understand why people wouldn't want this.
I think it takes a special kind of person to play DDO in either F2P or subbing. My friend also gave me the highest level UMD skill book for free because according to him he has a bunch of them. He also has high thousands of those shard things. This game really rewards patient people willing to learn, research, and exploit the game.
The funny thing is I am drawn to DDO for their character development - he is drawn by their weird F2P model. One huge drawback he has that I don't is that he can only get content once it goes for TP in the store, so if we were even before an expansion I'd immediately pull ahead and be months ahead in theory. But, since the new content involves having to grind out lives and iconics, that is where he shines - he milks every life for every TP. There is some things I have that I think he never will have he told me - I think a one racial skill point tome, and one general skill point tome - its minimal but I guess you only get them when you buy an expansion with cash, and not the versions they have for TP through the store. I am not 100% sure if I named the right items, so don't hold me to this.