Leveling up my Pally alt in the DDO early game. Korthos anyone??

So I decided to re-roll a human palandin, mostly because it bugged me that I had to idea how to do a proper build with my warforged barabarian, and I wanted to do a 24 point build from scratch. But boy I had forgotten how much it sucks to be level one. I did the tutorial quickly, just to get a starter weapon, and because I don't know if there is any other entry way to Korthos.

Doing the low level quests is a lot easier if you team up, so me and Cornholio the Great teamed up and knocked off a few in succession and quickly leveled all l the way to 2. I know so much more now than when I started playing the game: the proper use of hirelings to aid in dungeons for example, and even what feats and skills to take that help out my class.

DDO, unlike other games has an advantage since there is so much online, in terms of guides and documentation. Many old games like DAoC, but to name one, have fewer resources, so it makes it easier to look up walkthroughs and helpful hints online.

Of course, if I just wanted to automate the character creation process I could have just used the excellent DDO Character Generator made available by the good folks over at Mortal Voyage in the Argonnessen server. Their Perma-Death guild was featured in the latest (and last) edition of Massive Online Gamer. There's a link to this great newbie tool over at their website: www.mortalvoyage.com.

 Anyone know of a good starting guild for my alt??? Look me up in Orien if you wanna get down with my pally!!

New Year, time to get caught up with Stormreach

credit: ashlock.org

Hey guys, I know it's been a long time between updates, and I do apologize for this, but it was the holidays so things got a little crazy around here. Now I am back in 2012 resolved to bring you more info. about our favorite games, looking forward to getting back into DDO.

Honestly, Nov-Dec was a blur, in so far as gaming. I really didn't do as much as I wanted to. I think I logged on to DDO once in the past month, but that was only because I downloaded the game to my external drive to see if I could run it on my old laptop. I was surprised the answer was yes, though it tends to lag from time to time which was annoying. Truth be told I have been spending more time in the DAoC battlegrounds, but given my free trial for that game will be running out in about a week's time, I don't think I will be resubbing.

Also this year, I resolve to do more creative writing, and to this end I am reading the DDO novel "The Shard Axe" penned by fantasy writer Marshiela Rockwell. I've only glanced at the first chapter, but I hope to consume it all within the next couple of weeks and post a review of it here. The reason I am doing this is twofold: I have been working on a DDO themed novel of my own set in Stormreach of course, and I find this one to be a good source of inspiration. It is readily available in paper and e-book format through Amazon or through your favorite hobby/bookstore. So go out and get a copy you will be glad you did! I will update this blog more with my progress on my book and my other writing endeavors, as well as the progression of my warforged toon on my server. Stay with me!!

why still no PvP system in DDO??

Jackson Laws in my DDO server usually does not lead to fun and intersting PvP

I have been having fun lately running through dungeons as a solo player in DDO, assisted by my hirelings, and sometimes in a group running through level 4 and higher instances. However, while chilling in the taverns one day I ran into the Jackson Laws NPCs and I wondered why the PvP in DDO is not a greater part of the game?

I came across this old thread on the subject and came to the conclusion that many players feel it is missing from the game, while others feel since DDO is based on pen and paper D&D, and since PvP is not a big focus on traditional D&D, the devs haven’t made it a big part of DDO either.

Personally, I tried dueling with a few players, and they being more familiar with their classes, handed me a pretty convincing beating every time. I would like to round up a group of players just so that I can check out the battle arenas, but I can never find enough players wanting to do so.

According to an entry in the DDO wiki, PVP in DDO is considered to be Fluff: There are no rewards, and therefore there is no incentive other than personal enjoyment to compete in PVP.  I would have to agree with that statement, it seems like it was more of an afterthought than a fully robust or fully fleshed out system.

I found this eloquent and well written editorial about pvp or DDO’s lack of it and though it is dated (written prior to Guild Wars’ launch by Arena Net) It still makes a lot of valid points. Some players want PvP in DDo just to be jerks, or to grief on other players, while others believe that a legitimate system of competing against each other under certain formats which bring them excitement and a lot of fun should be implemented in the game. I happen to fall under the latter camp. I think Turbine could implement a system which would take advantage of the inherent role playing possibilities in the game, the system in place now for dueling is not nearly as fun as dueling with players in other games.

Now, back to leveling my Barbarian!

Happy winter in the dungeons

It's been a long time since I blogged, let alone stepped into the world of Stormreach. What's been the hold up you ask?

Well I have discovered that I get bored playing just one game, even if it's an engrossing game like DDO.

My plan for a static group didn't pan out, somehow all the members stopped logging on, so I was back to square one, no static group, no set date to play DDO, but you know what I discovered? It doesn't even matter.

 Grouping for this game is so easy and so great, there is no need to go LFG, or rather, it's no effort to find one. Hence I fired up my launcher and soon enough I was doing some instances with a big balanced group again (seen here.) Winter break is coming and when I am not leveling up my Guardian in EQ2, I am going to be dissecting the nuances of DDO once more. It is cold, it is winter time, it is the perfect time for mmos and especially DDO, but like I said, I enjoy EQ2 as well, now it's also f2p and I have dinged 16 with my toon in hopes of checking out how they do battlegrounds.

Still, DDO may lack the pvp, but what it lacks in pvp it more than makes up in its rich instanced based group quests and unique approach to gaming with an emphasis on D&D 3.5 edition rules. Until the Neverwinter RPG drops, you will find me collecting loot and fighting kobolds and other assorted creatures here in Stormreach.  My toon is Doomar in Orien server. Come say hello sometime!! I will be on at least twice a week this winter every week.

Crawling back into the Dungeon with a static group

DDO soloing is fun if you have a hireling that can heal your damage

For the past month or so I have been coming on and off DDO. To this day, I have not found a f2p game that gives me as much fun as DDO, if only for the sheer ease in which one can group in the game to get things accomplished.

Finally, recently I found the static group I have been longing to form ever since I started playing. A static group, for those of you unfamiliar with the term is a group of players who bond together to play at consistent and regularly scheduled hours. It's like an extended party, and unlike a guild, it usually consists of 3 or more players getting together to play at scheduled hours of the day or week. Ours meets fairly irregular hours, but I an always count on one or two members being online at least twice a week, sometimes more.

I had to abandon by original toons, my wizard and the other toon due to the fact they were not specked correctly. With DDO, just like its paper and pencil counterpart, stats mean a whole lot, especially if your plan is to duel spec. So, I rerolled my Warforged and my new toon is almost level 5 now.

I have been guilty of leaving DDO at times and trying out other games. This fall for example, I was planning to go back to wow for their seasonal events like Brewfest and Hallow's End, but after Blizzard turned down my request for a pass to attend Blizzcon for the second year in a row, I was like, "F, that, if they can't spare one measly pass for me to attend their con, then I am done playing any of their games."

Thus, no Diablo 3 or wow for me. Instead I have been testing out the waters in the f2p market, running through Crystal Cove, and having fun doing so. I have thus far played: Allods Online, Champions Online, Guild Wars, Anarchy Online, Earth Eternal, Warhammer Online, League of Legends, SWG, Dark Age of Camelot and a Chinese MMO called Forsaken World. There may have been a few others I forget.

There are things I like and dislike about all of them, and though I haven't played any nearly as long as I have been playing DDO, none of them beat DDO for its community or easy of grouping. The thing that is great about DDO is that if I can't find someone to do the instanced quests with, I just hire some hirelings and still have fun. Also, nothing beats the group quests. 

This is a Dwarf Marksman in Forsaken World in aciton

In future posts I will update on the progress of both my guild and on the progression of me and my static group.  I hope it doesn't take another month of me playing for another post on this blog.

Perhaps I will post about each of these MMO f2p games I have sampled recenlty and detail their plus and minuses in a later post.Cheers!!!

Multi Classing in Dungeons and Dragons Online

OK so things didn't go as originally planned. I haven't updated this ddo blog because I had not been playing the game consistently until now. Turns out that when I logged back in again recently, I found out I had been ignoring stats so I said goodbye to my previous toons and re-rolled a Barbarian.

I had to start with a melee class because even though it was fun to learn spells and play a caster for a while, my real enjoyment comes out of a melee based character, it's what I like, though I suspect I will also enjoying playing a specialty class like a rogue in the future.

The latest issue of Beckett's Massive Online Gamer has an interesting article on multi-classing in DDO. The secret to multi classing according to the author is combining classes that use the same attribute scores.
Seems reasonable to me, though for the moment I am going to stick with leveling my Barbarian all the way up without mixing another class, it's hard enough to explore the ins and outs of Stormreach for a noob without having to worry about double dipping. BTW, the concept of multi classing is not unique to DDO, but because Turbine wanted to follow closely the paper and pen tabletop version of the game in its MMO, or at least as closely as it could within the confines of the genre, there is quite a variety to choose from.

Other games in which the concept of multi-classing exists are Runes of Magic and Faxion Online, though I have yet to try the last one. It can be argued that Multiclassing in DDO is among the best given so many combinations are currently possible. If you're interested in starting a static group, I play in Orien a couple of nights per week and my warforged's name is Doomar. Drop me a line if you want or look for me in game.

The noobish adventures of Galatron and Ganderol the Mystical

What did I learn so far this weekend kids? Hayden's family crypt on elite is tough, especially when your party consists of a noobish Wizard toon and a rogue/cleric. We were OK on normal but we got a little greedy and decided to undertake the crypt on elite, maybe if I had a few more spells in my arsenal, but not at this juncture as I am way low level. Yes that is my soulstone floating after the mean skeleton destroyed me.

Still, DDO continues to be a great MMORPG experience, especially given the fact I have barely started playing the game again and I don't know what the hell I am doing yet. I have heard from a number of gamers that playing the table top helps, so I think that to that end I will probably start playing both, in my quest to have a good time in Stormreach.

That's all I have for you now, but rest assured that the adventures of both Ganderol the Mystical Wizard (seen below in his full noobish regalia) and Galatron Spikes, the fantastical paladin  will continue, as soon as I get more free time to play them both!