I am currently looking to get into Dungeons and Dragons Online, but I'm not sure if this is the game for me yet. I have a few questions about the game. I hope someone who plays this game can clear it up for me.

1st question: Is it free? I read somewhere that it is f2p, but when i try to register an account on the website, it asked for my product key.

2nd question: Is there a lot of end game content? I enjoy going through many different raids in search of the best gear. Can I do that in DDO?

3rd question: What are the raids like? I've played WoW before and I really enjoyed grouping up with people and fighting a giant boss. I'm not looking for everyone to be just spamming attacks at the boss. I want it to be something a bit more organized like a  tank, some healers and dps.

4th question: How is the pvp? When I'm not raiding for the best gear, i like to do some casual pvp.

If DDO fits my description, can someone please help me start out in the game? I've looked into guides for the game on the ddo forums, but it's still kinda confusing. Maybe link me to a good tank build, because i really like tanking.

1. It's not yet free, but soon the US side should become free.

2. There is content, but I would not say alot, more like better quality than large amount.

3. DDO is more like doing quests with teams. There isn't many raids at all.

4. DDO is mostly PVE game.

1. US F2P is currently supposed to be from the 9th Sept.

2. There is a fair amount of content now, but the content is very different to your standard MMO fare, all detailed instances rather than lots of kill, deliver and collect quests.

3. There are currently 8 raids (I believe) and an additional one with the F2P launch. They are at a range of levels and generally consist of more than beating on something, i.e. doing a puzzle while fighting, or dropping pillars and hitting with a beam, or flying through halls filled with spikes to throw a switch

4. PvP is basic tavern brawl or arena. DDO is very PvE group centric.

Ok that seems fair, but will I have to raid many times for the best gear? I like repeating different raids a few times (maybe 2-4 for each raid) to collect each individual piece of the best gear. Also are there tanks, healers and dps? One more thing, I heard that if you are f2p for DDO, a lot of the content is restricted to you. How restricted is it?

DDO isn't like other mmos. i don't believe the raids give specific gear, just the random chests that can drop stuff. the difficulty you pick at the start of the instance determines the quality of the gear dropped. like PnP D&D, a lot of the gear won't have a name or set, but something as simple as full plate +2. though i haven't experienced the end content, so i could be wrong about that, but i doubt the gear is what you think of from a standard mmo.

as for class roles... you do know that pretty much all mmo classes are taken from D&D? every class has a role, or two, and with the option of being able to tweak your build at the start, you can really play with how your character does his role..... something i wish other mmos would allow, instead of every race having a defualt build. it's pretty damn sweet to either min/max your build, or possibly gimp it with bad experiments

 Ive been playing DDO for a few days now, and im really enjoying it.  I find it very solo friendly, and i love how there is a narrator as you do quests, its really neat!

Im enjoying myself playing this game.

I have decided to give this game a try with some friends, but can someone please link me to a good tank build? I don't like experimenting with builds when I start a game, because I don't like messing it up and having to make a new character.

Originally posted by chinaboy123

Ok that seems fair, but will I have to raid many times for the best gear? I like repeating different raids a few times (maybe 2-4 for each raid) to collect each individual piece of the best gear. Also are there tanks, healers and dps? One more thing, I heard that if you are f2p for DDO, a lot of the content is restricted to you. How restricted is it?

Raids do drop named items depending on the difficulty you do them the higher chance of a drop. But generally on normal you would have say 20% chance of a named item, if you don't get it you will get normal loot. In addition every 20 times you do a raid you get a reward generated purely from the named items. What happens in practice is people have the named item or do not want it so when it drops they offer it up for a roll and can reassign it to someone else.

First difference though is you do not need raid items to be fully functional in DDO, some of them are nice but nothing is essential to play. The twitch nature of the combat means that how you play can have as much bearing on how you do as your gear. Normal high level gear drops very easily and you can buy most items in the AH.

There is a crafting element in one particular raid (and in next raid I believe) which has several stages and gives crafting material drops that you can then put together in certain orders to give items and weapons special effects. This can be grindy if you are compulsive about having a particular item.

Content is restricted in the F2P, you can grind to open the content, but the intent is to get you to spend a bit of money to buy content in modules.

Originally posted by chinaboy123

I have decided to give this game a try with some friends, but can someone please link me to a good tank build? I don't like experimenting with builds when I start a game, because I don't like messing it up and having to make a new character.

well, do you just want a pure tank, or would you like to be able to heal as well? if you just want the best armor and shields, just make a fighter with high constiution. i can't remember, but there might be a fighter path, with tank role in mind, which will make it easier. if you want to be able to do a little healing, on top of your healing, then a paladin, will make a good choice. both of those will be able to do some good dps as well. on the other hand, if you want a good tank, with great healing, a cleric, that follows the warpath, will get ya the heavy armor, healing, shields, tower shields, and ok dps.  though, if you just want heavy armor, and not worry about healing or spells, just a fighter with the tower shield proficiency, will be simplest.