Jan 30, 2011
I thought about titling this article “How DDO bends you over, screws you hard, and you ask for more!”
Too much?
I don’t think so.
I’ve played 80 or so hours in the last week and a half. Yeah, I got a little too into DDO, but I was really trying to put a “pin” in what the heck is going on.
I logged off tonight frustrated. The game simply isn’t what it used to be. Before you stop reading, I am not going off on some odd rant again.
Give me a few lines to explain myself.
Natural cap has been reached at level 20. To further progression in DDO, the game has added two things. Epic dungeons, and the ability for True Resurrection.
In 4 and half years of playing DDO, I never capped a character. I liked being in the sweet spot in the upper levels where I could play with people leveling up, or with people capped. Plus, when DDO went into a slump with mods, I kept the last level or so open in front of me as a carrot. I always had something to look forward to with my girls.
Last weekend I capped Rowanheal. Rowanshadow was capped a few weeks before. I now have 2 characters to experience the high end content with.
Before you all start clapping, I teared up when I capped Rowanheal. I am not going to be TRing her. I simply don’t have the patience needed to mess around with replaying her story. Her last chapter now revolves around her loot table, regurgitated Epic Dungeons, and short raids.
And I am not the only one. It seems the “cap a toon” flu has been spread equally through out the population.
Not only are most players in a hurry to get to the Epic level, they are playing in ways I can’t even enjoy.
My guild needed to pug out a couple of spots in a shroud run the other night. The party leader spent the better part of 10 minutes MYDDOing the applicants, making fun of builds and rejecting those who didn’t live up to expectations.
It’s not just happened once either.
I simply cannot fathom the schism shattering the player landscape.
Most of the players I’ve been around are members of some alliance channel. They use it rather than the LFM to fill groups, network and trade.
I had heard whispers players were using myddo to check players out, were abandoning the LFM panel, and were generally becoming insular within their own cliques.
To my own befuddlement, it’s all true.
Hey, I am not a huge proponent of PUGing. It’s not an aspect of the game I enjoy. I have to admit though, I felt for the people who were being summarily rejected by their build, lack of gear or guild affiliation. It stinks of a level of elitism even I can’t embrace.
I’ve had a chance to play both my healer and my rogue in Epic Dungeons and raids. I remain unimpressed. Epic equals supersized. There is no real need to meet the content with any real surprise or joy. The reused dungeons with massively inflated monsters are simply boring as heck. It’s like revisiting your least favorite relative over and over again and hoping they give you a present.
Epic dungeon’s drop scrolls, shards and seals used to upgrade items in the game to Epic power. The best part of an Epic chest is the pink token inside. I love the glowing pink shafts of light streaking from inside the chest. It’s about the only nice thing I have to say about Epics.
If I thought green steel had ruined the game, Epic loot has taken it one step further.
I had hoped Epic dungeons and loot would offer some kind of balance to an other wise bloated end game in DDO.
Instead I found monsters with insane hit points, blanket immunities and quite possibly the worst loot drop rate in the any game.
I have also been told you either TR, or you run for Epic’s if you want to viable as a player.
So either I am going to spend hours rerunning content with a character to garner a few more stat points, or I am going to spend hours grinding for Epic drops.
Either way, the story has come to a grinding halt.
I ran 5 epic raids, and about 15 dungeons between both characters. I managed to get 1 scroll, 2 seals and a shard for an item I don’t even have. I don’t foresee being able to craft an epic item in the near future. Not unless I decide to play 40 or so hours a week and grind myself into oblivion.
It hasn’t all been bad. I’ve pulled my first +3 tome on my rogue. She promptly ate it. So yummy!
I pulled my first set of spectral gloves. I was excited until I was told they really needed to be Epiced. *sigh*
I also got a flawless red dragon scale, Amara’s ring from TOD, and enough plus one tomes to fill my shared bank.
I really want to enjoy DDO again. I want to play with friends and have a fun time battling in Stormreach. What am I missing?
I know I like to play DDO to be social, to play a good story line, to take my girls to the next level. Is the only thing left to me the Epic grind or the TR train?
Is it me? Is my attitude keeping me from finding pleasure in the game? Am I coming at this from the wrong angle?
I can log into EQ2 or LOTRO and solo through a beautiful story while chatting with friends. I can play WoW and grind end game gear in a month.
What is going on in DDO? Where is the story leading? Why the painful grind for end game gear? Why the boring raids that can be completed in an hour or less? Where is the EPIC adventure in all of this?
I have some wonderful guild mates. Several of them I truly enjoy and trust. They are joyful people who spend the time to give to those around them while maintaining an eyeball for their own game goals. I want to catch that disease. The one that keeps people logging in day after day and playing.
I have also been told, not to complain without having suggestions.
So, in that vein, I would like to see some changes to the landscape in DDO.
Epic simply needs to be revisited. It’s lack of “Fun factor” cannot be overstressed. Giving a mob more hit points and spell points does not make them Epic, it makes them fatty. The Epic loot table needs to go on a diet as well. I visited the DDO wiki page to look over what’s available. It’s so huge it makes garnering an Epic item way more trouble than it needs to be. “Epic” levels need to be added to our characters. The PRE’s are simply not enough to make up for natural progression.
Lastly, let’s add some real raids. This is the only game I have ever played where a “raid” just means you have 12 people instead of six. There isn’t any real flagging to a raid, there are no keys, shards, multiple raid groups or true adventure to any of them in the game atm. I’ve run raids with 40 or so people, taken more than one play session to beat the dungeon and worked really hard to make sure I was useful to the raid groups. We need something in DDO to make all this Epic, TR nonsense useful. Give me something with oomph!
Mostly though, the people in DDO need a reminder this is a game. Stop hating so much. Stop rejecting people. Stop making an ass out of yourself. You are not bad people. Some of you are just behaving badly!
Maya Angelou says “When you know better, you do better.” So just do it already.
I am hoping some of you will comment with suggestions of what you would like to see in the game. with what you find enjoyable, and ideas for how I can beef up my game play. Tell me what you are doing and why you like it. We all play for different reason’s, with different goals in mind, with different mindsets. Explain yours to me, and maybe I will light on fire for the way you play!
Game On!
Hi hon!
I’ve found that since my gaming situation went from a member/officer to a leader, I’m much less focused on my own stuff, and more focused on the guild’s loot, members’ needs, etc.
I do hope that epics get a facelift in the coming updates…partly because it’s less fun for me when the boss has a gajillion hit points, and all we can do is sit and swing. The first couple times I run an epic, it’s awesome. And then it becomes normal. And to be honest, with the right group together, an epic really isn’t all that different than the quest on elite at level. (The raids are an exception to that rule.)
According to “rumor”, the epic system is getting an overhaul in the coming months. What exactly that means, I don’t know. Personally, I hope it decreases the grind for epic items. They’re supposed to be hard to come by, but take the Sands for example. When you have 3-4 pages of epic items, the odds of getting the one you want are slim to none. I’ve seen a couple “essence of …” epic items floating around in the vastness of the interwebz, and I like the idea. Basically, “essence of the bloodstone” drops in a chest for you. You can take it to the epic altar, and so long as you don’t have a bloodstone of any sort anywhere in your inventory, you now have an epic bloodstone. That would be smexy. I’m sure they will be exceedingly rare, and probably completely random…but the essence would be an idea that I could get behind.
I’ve also heard of the level cap being raised, and I’m not sure what I think about that. Personally, before the level cap is raised, I think that more PrE’s need to be released, especially for the classes that don’t have any. I also would like to see those oft-begged-for classes and races be released, ie druid and gnome. I also think more high-level content (non-epic) needs to be released before the level cap is raised. Dear devs, I don’t want to grind through the Vale and IQ anymore. Can you please throw us a bone?
Ok, now that I’ve written a blog in response to your blog, signing off for now.
/hugs to all,
KanKan
Wow, I’m crushed. As a new player (just discovered ddo within the last couple of months) who is just getting started your comments make me second guess investing my time any further. Why hang around only to be disillusioned in the end? Should I scrap what I have in DDO and move on to LOTRO before the disappointment and angst set in? I’m a casual player. This is my first MMO experience and I would like to milk the most enjoyment out of the limited time I have to spend. Is DDO on the decline? As a newb it would be nice to join a gaming community that was flourishing. I don’t want to be settling in and getting comfortable about the time that everyone else is moving on to the next best thing.
Hello Lady of the Pink!
You make several excellent points about the upper echelon of DDO. I have capped four toons in my two and a half years of playing, but I’m just starting to play upper level content, as I leveled them all up generally in parallel.
I have noticed that the drop rate for epic shards and scrolls is appallingly low. I’ve run ten or so epics, with nothing much to show for it (other than my cool epic Cloak of Shadows from the Mabar event).
I listen to DDOCast. I read some online content (mostly DDO wiki, but generally not the DDO forums as those are blocked at work and when I’m home I’d rather be playing). I truly appreciate learning more about the game when I am “in game”. The Where, Why and How of each quest and raid. I try to work on getting better at running them, regardless of the class of my character. I can’t imagine getting bored at this stage, but I guess give me a couple more years of playing.
They did fix Dragontouched armor in response to player input. Sounds like there’s consideration being given to modifying epic content. As much consternation as it can cause, I do like playing a game that “can” change it’s rules from time to time to accomodate better play experience.
Oh, thanks for letting me join your guild’s VOD run a couple weeks back. Although I had run VOD multiple times with my other toons, I had never tanked Suulomades before that time. I found your guildmates quite enjoyable to run with and informative when I had questions. I have since tanked in VOD with my barbarian LewZealand several times, including an elite run that went very smoothly.
Take care Rowanheal and STAY PINK!
I don’t feel like typing much but I must say that I agree with you how capping makes DDO boring. Same quests every day for epic ingredients. You grind epics for epic gear and where do you use it once you’ve done all your epic farms? No real need anymore.
TR has been a good solution for me. Currently in my sixth life(5th TR) and I enjoy leveling slowly.
Hi
,
I really like the game…. Thats what it is…a game. But i really like talking to people from all over the world and trying to accomplish something.
I came on pretty much…June 6th, 2011.
I was a newbie..a noob…didn’t know a thing.
Then i met a woman who introduced herself and asked me to join her group.
Ydil from halfway around the world with an accent, because she had a mic and i could only type. I met her guild mates and i had fun. What i was looking for this whole time… conversation, world events, etc….
I joined her guild and have been with them ever since:)
My problem is that i pay to play, and if the site goes down because they have problems or for whatever reason… i’m still paying for down time.
ok, nevermind that… i have 7toons, four 20th level, and one 2time TR’D. i have so many shards, seals, and scrolls… they require there own large bag. I know most of the quests by memory i have ran them soo many times.
But i am still learning and without the people in my guild (mostly women)
who are smart, funny and very kind, i would have left a long time ago.
So, i guess my suggestion to you would be to find a different world…
i forgot to mention that i was on another world where you couldn,t buy a ticket for a group…. i was soo upset, i erased those toons and moved.
i hope you find more than just a red dragon scale:)
Sorry, i joined DDO 2010
@Brian,
I have been playing a lot of different things lately
I backed DDO back to maybe 20 hours a week, and have found I enjoy it a lot more when I am not being intense! I also have moved servers, which has alleviated alot of the drama and loot guilt I felt 
I am so glad you are enjoying DDO. It is still my fav MMO! I am working on a WF FVS atm and enjoying the heck out of it!
You don’t pay to play exactly, you rent the time on the server… but I think I understand what you mean. Downtime is yuck. It happens. Bad hacks, they forget to feed the hamsters, whatever the cause, it’s never fun to have your favorite game go off line for any reason!
Happy Adventuring!
-R
I hear what you are saying about the grind. Sometimes with the guild, in high spirits, or with a good PuG the content doesn’t matter as much- the game is fun, the company’s good. A sympathetic group that are willing to help you farm for the items you need, and pass them when they drop is certainly benificial. I’ve played most of the other games you mentioned as well, and there are pros and cons to them all, I think the player base is really what tends to bring me back to DDO.
The point I wanted to make, specifically relevant to the grinding aspect of the game that has evolved and the cumbersomeness of the crafting processes, is this: It sounds that like me you have been playing this game since close to it’s launch, certainly long enough to remember the lean years where new content was a pipe dream. I remember thread after thread on the forums berating the devs for not giving us enough to do: “You have stuck us in a box, at least give us something to do in the box!” It was true, at the time you would level to 16,(or 14 or 12 depending on the year) then roll a new toon to level to XX because that’s all there was to do.
To the devs credit they did (albeit with the funding generated by the FTP model, but that’s a whole ‘nother rant.) Epics and otherwise upgradeable named items, reincarnation and now Cannith crafting- not to mention new quests, raids and wilderness areas. So now the general gripe seems to be “Gee there’s a lot to do here, and not all of it is that interesting…” With all due respect, on behalf of the developers and in light of the days when it seemed the game would be cancelled due to insuficient interest at any moment, I can’t help but cringe everytime I run accross this. It’s not true, you don’t have to TR, or grind epics, or raid to enjoy this game. Run a series of halfling barbarian/necromancers around in Searing Hieghts if that’s what makes you happy. As imperfect as the additions to the game are (and I agree with you that most of them leave a bit to be desired) at the end of the day I think we do well to remember that the game is more interesting with them than it would have been without.
Respectfully,
Z
i enjoy epics (of course i have run less than 10 in my life)…clerics and favoured souls heal, fighters fight, barbarians barb, bards and thieves are useful again, wizards CC and sorces DPS…nice and simple…as opposed to the shroud groups of the world with their clonks and 12f/6b/2rogues and other wacky things…the point about “what do you do once you get your epic gear” is a valid one…even though i enjoy epics, the TR train i think is the way to get more enjoyment out of this…even if you just go sorc->wizard->sorc->wizard for a few lives