Dungeons and Dragons Online: WarCry's Re-Review

It's been a few months since we took a peek at DDO and in that time, based on community feedback and the server merges Turbine are doing, we've decided it was time for a second look at Dungeons and Dragons Online. JR Sutich re-reviews the game in this new article.

It's been two months since I last wrote about Dungeons and Dragons Online, so I think I'm about due for an update. Since I began playing, I've gained three levels, joined a guild, and discovered that being a broke newbie is no fun at all.

As I'm writing this, the servers are being merged from a total of fourteen into five servers that will be left after August 6th. I don't see this as a sign that DDO is in trouble, I see it as the same number of people that were playing 4 or 5 months ago are still playing. They are just spread out on fourteen servers. I think that consolidating the players will make finding groups much easier and make the game more enjoyable for everyone who logs in.

After I wrote the first review, it became apparent that I had missed some of the obvious features and qualities of the game. These omissions were pointed out in forum posts not only here at WarCry, but on the official DDO forums as well. I looked over the information and advice that was presented and found that a great deal of it made a large impact on the way I played the game.

First off, I stopped using Auto-Attack. I can see where taking a more active role in fighting improves results and makes it more interesting. The next step to making the game more fun was joining a guild. Having others online who are willing to do quests or answer questions made a lot of the difference. Getting run one time through Waterworks on Elite got me Level 3 and I had easy access to The Marketplace.

I had gotten to Level 4 when I noticed something interesting. That total Favor (not Faction, Favor) number that I had been obsessing over wasn't as big a problem as I had believed. Sure, I still think that the whole idea of making Drow and 32-point builds unlockables is a poor one, but I had managed to get 270 out of 400 necessary for the extra race without much trouble at all. I hadn't even completed all of the quests listed for Level 2. The only chain quests I had done were Catacombs and Tangleroot on Normal, and the Waterworks run on Elite. Getting 400 Favor is nothing to worry about. I should have it by the time I hit Level 6 or 7. Now, working on getting 1750 Favor might take a bit more effort, but I no longer see it as a horrible grind. It's still poor design, but not game breaking.

Quest repetition isn't as critical as I thought. A player really does only have to do a quest three times, once on each difficulty setting. After that, running it to get loot, or for a couple more times to get a chunk of XP is the only reason to go back inside. I found myself running a few quests quite a bit over and over only to try to make some money.

This is where I discuss the economy and how it appears to be broken. As a new player, I'm broke. Bad. Current Balance: 722pp. Here's the problem before me: Money means nothing at all in this game. The most worthwhile and desirable objects in the game are not bought or sold for cash. They are traded for. And even if you buy that critical piece of loot, after you get all that you need, you no longer have anything to spend your money on. So established and very wealthy players do what everyone does when you have boatloads of extra MMO cash, they twink the hell out of alts. For a newbie this makes things difficult as all of the low level gear on the Auction House is either priced so ridiculously high as to make it unattainable or priced reasonably enough to bid on but guaranteed to lose during a bidding war with an uber rich player. The game needs money sinks. Starting a new character and decking them out in sparkling gear isn't a sink, it just keeps the money in play.

I'm continuing to have fun playing Dungeons and Dragons Online and I can't wait until I get a few more Levels and can run some of the more challenging quests and maybe even take part in a few raids. I should be writing a final part to my adventures in Stormreach around the time I hit Level 10 or 12. Now onto the review type stuff, again.

Graphics
The graphic quality of the game is still great. I did get to see some of the outdoor areas and the landscape was highly detailed. I got my face eaten completely off in Searing Heights and I didn't see as much as I'd like but Tangleroot Gorge looked great.

Sound
I mistakenly identified Gary Gygax as the voice of the DM. Turns out he's not the main voice. It's not really important since they are both lacking and I shut the DM audio off as soon as I figured out how. However, it should be noted that Turbine needs, and I cannot stress that need enough, needs to make Push-to-Talk the default setting once Voice is enabled. The one thing that makes me loathe grouping with anyone not in my guild is getting to hear random player guy's respiratory status, marital status, offspring status or homework status updated into my ears every one to three seconds.

Quests
I see now that repeating quests isn't necessary. If a quest gives good XP, I will do it a couple more times if I need to in order to get my next action point or if I want a specific loot item.

Combat
Turning Auto Attack off makes the game more fun, period. I was also able to get Sunder and Trip to work better since so many informed me that they are better used against targets with low Strength, like Casters. As my BAB increased and I was able to get weapons with To Hit modifiers, my misses in combat became almost non-existent.

Economy
Broken. Not sure what to suggest as a fix other than huge money sinks at higher levels, which sounds great since I'm not at the higher levels. Bribing for Favor perhaps? Paying cash to remove XP debt? Right now the game is suffering from an almost Diablo II-like problem where items are now the real currency due to rampant inflation.

Overall
I have been spending 5-10 hours a week in the game at the times I was able. Oddly enough, due to a lot of outside real life reasons, DDO has become the game that I am playing the most. Any game that your girlfriend thinks you play too much must be doing something right.

Pros and Cons

• Exciting Action-based Combat System
• Mouth-breathers
• Again, Graphics look great
• Economy gone wild

Permalink

I think D&D online would have alot more lasting value if it had random dungeons, and random traps. Right now the traps are always in the same location, which leads to players knowing exactly where they are, defeating the purpose of the traps. And random dungeons can't be too incredibly difficult to implement, AO has been doing that for years now. Without these things D&DO is just another treadmill.

This review is much more balanced and accurate that the earlier one. I appreciate that!
I agree with about the audio problems, some chat you just can't hear, with others its overwhelming. A separate volume slider for voice chat in the UI would help a lot. Joining a guild helps a lot with the economy problems, most guilds have banks with separate website that allow member to withdraw some uber items that will help your lower level builds. Money is needed for consumables (wands and potions) in the higher levels.
The one thing i'd like to see changed is the differences between races and classes further
widened so as to make each race and class unique and valuable in the various quests. Too often a party of high HP and DPS tanks can take on any quest with out the need for trapsmiths or casters.

Ok.. I have to disagree with you on the Unlockables. I think you are under the impression that you should get both the Drow and a 32 point build to start with. Those are extra bonuses and should not be considered the Norm.

Drow- This race in many ways is far superior to other races and to allow them to be made right away would give a slight unbalance *Though they are now every where anyway*. Because of how DDO was made the negatives of playing a Drow *Which would offset the unblance* that is in place in the Pen and Paper version of D&D, can not be added to the MMO, so the Favor unlock was put into place to make it slightly more difficult to make them.

32 Point Build- think of a 32 point build as a Bonus, not the norm. and really in the grand scheme of things *especially at higher level* you could never tell the difference between a 32 point build and a 28 point build character.

I have played DDO since open beta, probably averaging about 5-10 hours a week norm of playtime. The unlockables are ok, but for instance I have not gotten the 1750. I have found that by doing just the quest on Elite will get you all three levels of Favor for the quest, so going with someone for 'favor runs' who have said quests on Elite already is the best route. You only need one character to have 400 and 1750 favor to unlock for that server, but after that just certain house Favor (House P is highly valuable) is all that you need for individual characters.

As for the economy, play a caster, specially a Wizard. You never have money as your going to stores and buying scrolls either to cast on your party (Raise Dead for Clerics is popular) or just filling out your spell book as a wizard.

Fighter types are cheap but if you play for any period, you soon end up with what I term a 'golf club bag' of various weapons that have different effects (Acid, Fire, Silver, ect) to get past invulnerbilites or weapons that are greater bane style (extra damage and to hit vs that type of critter).

As for play, a randomizer like City of Heroes is desperately needed. Even if you want to try out different classes, you still end up having to do a lot of the same quests over and over again. Another huge problem with the game is that once you reach a certain level (3-5) it is pretty much impossible to solo quests. If you can not get a group your SOL and can spend hours waiting to play, depending on your class. Unless your a Cleric. Then you have to beat off requests to join groups.

Another huge problem I have with the game is the fact there is a friends list, but it is per character. So if your friend is playing and you do not have that particular character on your friend's list, you will never know it. Some form of Global friends list is needed, specially something that goes across servers.

At the end of the day, this game is based off of the crappy 'Eberon' world some yahoo came up with when he won a contest, so it was D&D's latest crap they tried to shove on you. Fact is, this game is no where near D&D 3.5 which has totally revived the franchise back to popularity. This is proven by the 'condensed' servers from lack of players... yeah, 5 servers now from 12 to help ensure people can get groups. Whatever you want to call it, the downward spiral has begun. On top of that, D&D 4.0 will be released in 2008. How that will effect DDO will remain to be seen, but it is not a good sign for the game unless they adapt to the new system as well.