D&D Online: Eberron Unlimited Beta

[Hotfoot]

Relevant Link

You don't need to be a subscriber, but it does double your amount of starting points from 1000 to 2000. Those points are just for the store, which is largely unnecessary. All you NEED is an account, which is free.

Well, unless you want to play a Monk, Favored Soul (Wrong name perhaps, but the sorc-like divine caster), Drow, or Warforged. Those you have to buy to unlock.

You are given two character slots with the option of buying more, plus a bunch of other options for various things. Right now, the current level limit for the beta seems to be level 4.

If you've played the game before, not much has changed, except for the quality of the quests. The starter quest in the original DDO was fucking nearly impossible for, say, a rogue. This time around, it's easily completable.

And, well, it's free. Hirelings, extra gear, and adventure packs are extra, but the base game is free, and it's D&D 3.x, so there you go.

I have a Human Rogue, level 1, ready for play.

[Cynical Cat]

Favored Soul is the correct term.

[rhoenix]

I've been playing this a bit, and so far, I rather like how they approached things in this game. There are a few things that annoy me about the interface or default behaviors, but for the most part, a lot of time and effort was put into just making it a good fun RPG, and they succeeded.

Stormreach is a really bitchy place, though. Damn kobolds.

[Hotfoot]

Okay, Marcao, Rhoenix, and I have been getting our DDO on here and there, and at this point, I think I can give a decent breakdown of the game.

1. It's actually pretty fun. It can get frustrating if you're only playing solo, but the game is playable that way. The game shines, however, as you bring a well-balanced group together. That said, if you're going to solo, roll a Cleric, Paladin, or Favored Soul. They are the absolute best solo classes. Rogues, sadly, are still the worst. That said, rogues come into their own in a group, since many dungeons are designed to be made much easier with the help of a rogue, and many fights end much more quickly with intelligent use of sneak attack.

2. The grind: Very little of the game is "Go here, kill that, deliver this, talk to that guy". Most of it is instanced dungeons, and in some cases, instanced wilderness with dungeons scattered throughout. Levelling is relatively fun, and you get four "mini-levels" between each big level, where you can spend things called action points to give yourself small boosts.

3. The "Free": This is the tricky part. In the beta, they've given out some starting DDO points, which are used in the DDO store to buy things like character slots, races (Drow and Warforged), classes (Favored Soul and Monk), a shared bank account, guild charters, potions, scrolls, hirelings, adventures, etc. You can't buy much, but you can buy some stuff. As you play the game, you can earn small amounts of points for doing certain things, but it's pretty minuscule (50 points or so each time).

You buy points for cash, with the best deal being 3,300 points for $39. Like other online services with "points", 100 points is greater than 100 cents, so when you round things off in your head, you feel like 600 points isn't so bad, but the dollar value is bigger than the point value, so there's some mental checking that needs to be done with each purchase. Now, there is a VIP membership, which is basically the $15 a month subscription rate, which offers a pretty good deal.

See, here's the breakdown. The VIP members get 10 character slots (vs 2 for free), all race/class combos, a shared bank off the get-go, every adventure and zone, and 500 free DDO points a month. Now, depending on how long you intend to play the game, each deal is worth a different amount to you. See, to brute-force buy everything that the VIP's can get now would cost you around $260, a bit less if you take it easy on race/class options and character slots. In the end, it's a lifetime subscription rate that...really doesn't give you a full lifetime subscription, because you'd still have to pay for new modules as they came out.

Now, can you play the game totally free forever? Sure, you just don't get all the modules that come with it, and the line is drawn very clearly around 4th level, once you leave the harbor. Gold quests are quests you can do, and red quests are ones you don't have access to. Very simply, once you walk into the 4-8 zone, about 80% of the available quests are tied to VIP content.

You can play over existing dungeons at higher levels of difficulty for more XP and treasure, but I can't imagine the same dungeons being just as fun when played through eight times or more.

I honestly don't know what the end game content of DDO is like, but most people seem to be of the opinion that end game content is pretty lean. The DDO store adventures certainly seem geared towards low and mid-level content, but there could be a reason for that which I haven't seen yet.

So here's the short version: Download the free version, play for a while, and see if you like it. Then decide how much money, if any, you want to put into it, and for how long. You can pay as you go, getting content as you come to it, and essentially stretching out the monthly fee to be as little as you want a month. You can get the VIP deal and blitz through it, then shut down the account, or you can pay up front for everything and come back to it at your leisure.

Here's my advice though: get some friends to play with you. This is not a game for pick up groups and friends with voice chat make the game infinitely more enjoyable. It is a fun, action-filled game that gets a good damn fix on D&D 3.x with a lot of positive changes that make the game bearable to play in the medium it inhabits.

[Hotfoot]

A recent discovery has altered my analysis considerably.

Guest passes.

I didn't pay much attention to them in the store, but now it seems they are worthy of that attention. If you already own a given adventure, rather than having your friends shell out cash for it to play with you, you can buy a guest pass, which gives 90 minutes of play time for a much reduced price compared to the overall content.

Since VIP members get 500 free DDO points a month, this allows them to invite several friends with them on various adventures, meaning that as long as one person in the group is paying a monthly fee, everyone else can sort of piggyback alongside.

Take that as you will folks

[rhoenix]

This is looking rather interesting, for what its worth. I have a Ranger and a Monk right now, and I have to say, playing my Ranger is more fun than my monk at the moment. However, this may change.

[rhoenix]

My monk is now level 5, and a serious ass-kicker. Thanks to the elemental strikes, my monk can heal herself when beating up foes (with one charge of Fists of Light), and with three charges, heal all allies (for 1d4 + 1d4 every two levels).

Moreover, minor party buffs are possible, such as rendering one's allies immune to daze/sleep/stun for 60 seconds, or giving a +2 morale bonus to attacks/saves/skills for 60 seconds.

I'm kinda digging the action-points-buy-neat-extra-stuff thing now.

[rhoenix]

Alright, with the official game, I now have a level 4 monk that's actually better than my last one (even if she does have base 8 Int and Cha).

The official game is out, and one can get it for free, and it is even possible to unlock all the game's content without paying any real money.

Enjoy.

[rhoenix]

Well. As much as I like monks, they suck in DDO, and I've now come to accept that. I went looking for a good barehanded monk build that could solo well, or at least keep up with other classes - the consensus was pretty much "eeehhh, don't bother".

So, I'm on the Sarlona server with Hotfoot & B4, now with a greatsword-using human Paladin, and a dual-wielding elven Ranger who specializes in dual-wielding.

[Comrade Tortoise]

I may need to get in on this action starting once my fellowship application is in...

[rhoenix]

After reading through the Ranger's ability list...shit. If you've ever wanted to make a badass dual-wielding character, make a Ranger. The special bonuses they get are well worth it. (Look up Tempest in the Ranger DDO Wiki to see what I mean, and then check out its successors Tempest II and III.)

[Hotfoot]

If you hurry, there's still a deal today that gives you the best rate of cash to DDO points at 100 points per dollar.

Several adventure packs are on sale as well, I recommend:

Demon Sands, Delera's Tomb, Tangleroot Gorge, and the Vale of Twilight.
Hurry hurry hurry.

[rhoenix]

I can't help but wonder about the Sharn Syndicate, since so many things in the Marketplace seem to need it.

That aside, my ranger is now level 5, and shaping up nicely - this is the level where I can't spend any AP, in preparation for turning level 6 and immediately getting the Tempest ability. Then...this character will be on the road to becoming particularly vicious with two weapons.

[B4UTRUST]

Blah. Still haven't hit 4 yet. Been grinding but it's taking awhile. Dwarf dual-wielding is doing pretty good. Got 5 AP saved up waiting to level to see if something good comes up for me to grab.

[rhoenix]

Blah. Still haven't hit 4 yet. Been grinding but it's taking awhile. Dwarf dual-wielding is doing pretty good. Got 5 AP saved up waiting to level to see if something good comes up for me to grab.

Make sure to read the DDO Wiki - for fighters, the Kensai is a good prestige class to segue into, and there is an option to focus on Dwarven Axes as well.

I mainly picked elf for my ranger build due to the bonuses to longswords, bows, and ranger-ish skills like Search, Spot, and Listen.

My Paladin is sitting by her lonesome for the moment, being quite honestly not as interesting to play as my ranger. Perhaps I'll wait to get a Drow, and then make a Paladin with one.

[rhoenix]

YES.

I managed to make a Monk build that so far is able to easily keep up with my ranger. This I certainly did not expect, so here you are.

I started with a human Monk, starting with the feats Two-Weapon Fighting (which most certainly does apply to unarmed attacks, even if Two-Weapon Defense and Two Weapon Blocking don't) and Dodge, picking up Mobility at level 2, and Power Attack at level 3, with the intent of getting Spring Attack for this character.

Unlike with the Ranger, the Monk doesn't get awesome AP abilities open by going the Dodge -> Mobility -> Spring Attack route, but considering that the Monk's main advantages are movement, Spring Attack simply makes sense.

Even though you can't adjust how much of your attack bonus Power Attack uses to add to damage, it is predictable as equal to your monk level, at a maximum of 5 (unless you play a Warforged - but I digress). The extra attack each round due to Two Weapon fighting, coupled with the extra damage of Power Attack made sure this monk is easily able to keep up. She is nearly level 5 now, and so far, working just as well as my ranger; better, in some places.

[rhoenix]

Progress update on the monk:

Getting Mobility in preparation for Spring Attack is now more in doubt, as getting Improved Two-Weapon Fighting at level 6 is mighty attractive. However, the +5 bonus to hit while moving that Spring Attack gives would take full advantage of a monk's strengths, so we'll see.

I dumped 4 skill points into UMD on this character, and I tacitly admit that was a waste.

With that said, this monk at level 5 is still very impressive, and going strong.