So i've been reading up on the game and played a bit but im not sure if this game would really suit me so i have some questions:

--The grind, it seems like you run the same dungeon alot of times to get stuff and at cap well running the high end dungeons is all there is to do.

--This brings me to the second point, besides the quest and dungeon gameplay what other things are there? for example pvp but that seems dead here.

--Casual? The game seems to have a very casual feeling, what kind of factors does it have to make it immersive and have me playing for years.

--Since your mainly partying, how hard is it to find groups?

--Normally how long does it take to get to cap and once there what does the end game mainly compose of assuming there is one.

Thanks in advance for answers.

Originally posted by Gabby-air

So i've been reading up on the game and played a bit but im not sure if this game would really suit me so i have some questions:

--The grind, it seems like you run the same dungeon alot of times to get stuff and at cap well running the high end dungeons is all there is to do.

--This brings me to the second point, besides the quest and dungeon gameplay what other things are there? for example pvp but that seems dead here.

--Casual? The game seems to have a very casual feeling, what kind of factors does it have to make it immersive and have me playing for years.

--Since your mainly partying, how hard is it to find groups?

--Normally how long does it take to get to cap and once there what does the end game mainly compose of assuming there is one.

 

Thanks in advance for answers.

I've only been playing F2P, and haven't been playing for very long, so I'll offer what I can.

First of all, read the News section. There are a few reviews in there which are quite good.

Second of all, it's F2P. It can't hurt you at all to find out a bit for yourself.

Grind: as of right now (level 3, which I know sounds like not much but it's probably like a level 20 or so in other games), I haven't really had to run any of the instances more than once. You can, and some people do, run them over and over and over. Meh, that's not so much fun. It could be that at higher levels you need to rerun the dungeons, but so far, no need.

Plus, you have 4 levels on each dungeon: Solo, Normal, Hard, Elite. Generally you start with Normal, then rerun it Hard, then Elite. So while the map stays the same, the monsters become more numerous and more dangerous. So each time you run it in each mode, the challenge is still there.

Variety: Dungeons and Dragons follows the Pen and Paper game to a T. There are dungeons, and dungeons only. I think there's a larger bit of lore going on, but I can't tell quite yet. At higher levels there's some sort of very limited crafting option, from what I hear.

Casual: The game is casual to an extent. You can solo a lot of stuff early on, though I hear that later on it gets tougher to solo, if not impossibe (a lot of dungeons require certain classes to perform certain tasks to get past certain parts, and later on you need a diverse group to get past all the traps/barriers, etc.). However, when you're in a dungeon, you really need to finish it, and that could take from 10 minutes to an hour. Still not bad in comparison to other MMOs, but with wandering monsters, it's tough hide sometimes.

Grouping: seems very easy to find groups so far. The game almost requires grouping, so you can join groups fairly easily, and there doesn't seem to be that "gear check" BS you find elsewhere. Although at end game you need certain gear to run certain dungeons, so that DOES require you to run and rerun the earlier dungeons at end-game to get the gear you need.

The negative I find here is that if you're new, you tend to find a lot of "zergers": folks rushing through the dungeons as fast as they can. As a new player this ruins a lot of the exploring aspect of the game. In other open MMOs you can explore at your own pace. In DDO, all the playing area where you're getting XP and whatnot are the instances/dungeons, so if you're grouping you don't get the excitement of exploring. You just desperately try to keep up with folks who've run the dungeons multiple times. That really kills DDO for me. However, if your concern is getting levels and getting them fast, this would be a benefit.

End-Game: Can't help you here.

Originally posted by Gabby-air

So i've been reading up on the game and played a bit but im not sure if this game would really suit me so i have some questions:

--The grind, it seems like you run the same dungeon alot of times to get stuff and at cap well running the high end dungeons is all there is to do.

There are around 300 dungeons in the game (and 75 is free to play). You dont have to repeat any dungeons but you will probably want to run some of the a couple of times. THere are also Wilderness areas which are more oope (but isntanced) zones where you can grind mobs and/or find special locations and rare monsters.

--This brings me to the second point, besides the quest and dungeon gameplay what other things are there? for example pvp but that seems dead here.

DDO is abit of a one trick pony. The dungeons are far better than any other MMO but is lacking other things to do. THere is PvP but its not very popular since D&D rules is very very unbalanced. (even thou some spells like instant kills doesnt work in PvP)

--Casual? The game seems to have a very casual feeling, what kind of factors does it have to make it immersive and have me playing for years.

It depends on what you mean by casual. Its easy to just jump in and do a quest then log out so it doesnt demand alot of time. On the other hand its very complex and can be hard to learn. Higher level quests are also longer in general so i becomes less casaul friendly later imo.

--Since your mainly partying, how hard is it to find groups?

DDO have a vey good LFM panel which most people use. Its very easy to find groupsp if you use this tool. And dont be afraid to put up your own LFM! With the huge increase of players its now easy to find groups.

--Normally how long does it take to get to cap and once there what does the end game mainly compose of assuming there is one.

 I havent reached the cap yet so I cant really say. When leveling for the first time it will probably take 3-4 months of "normal" play to reach 20. You can start raiding at lvl 10 (Tempest spine is a popular F2P raid). Seems like "end-game" is most about raiding which also includes some kind of crafting system. You also need to run normal quests to "flag" for the raids. Now they are also adding Epic difficulty to some lower level quest which are only for lvl 20s and are very challenging.

Since character custimization is very deep in DDO people make alot of alts to try different classes and builds. DDO seems like more about the leveling than the "end-game" since you pretty much do the same thing from lvl 1-20 just much complect and challenging.

Thanks in advance for answers.

Originally posted by PhelimReagh

The negative I find here is that if you're new, you tend to find a lot of "zergers": folks rushing through the dungeons as fast as they can.

As a new player this ruins a lot of the exploring aspect of the game. In other open MMOs you can explore at your own pace.

I have seen a few groups where people zerg through things but at the lower levels (im level 10) it seems uncommon to me

Thanks alot for the input guys, as of right now it dosent seem like a game i can immerse myself into it has a casual console type of gameplay which isnt bad just not for my everyday gaming needs.  I'll keep playing the game on a casual basis though.