What is the max level and how many game play hours does it take to reach?

Max level is 16 atm and as far as play time I really couldn't tell you. Only have a Paladin at level 3 so far but having a blast  so far. I kinda feel feel bad I didn't get into this game more at launch.

Originally posted by Unicorns_Pwn

Max level is 16 atm and as far as play time I really couldn't tell you. Only have a Paladin at level 3 so far but having a blast  so far. I kinda feel feel bad I didn't get into this game more at launch.

wow thats low...i thought gw was low...but man...

Originally posted by Housam

Originally posted by Unicorns_Pwn

Max level is 16 atm and as far as play time I really couldn't tell you. Only have a Paladin at level 3 so far but having a blast  so far. I kinda feel feel bad I didn't get into this game more at launch.

wow thats low...i thought gw was low...but man...

There are 4 ranks per level. So you can think of the current cap as Rank 80 if you prefer.

oh...so 16 levels is like 64 levels

Originally posted by Housam

oh...so 16 levels is like 64 levels

Didn't explain that well, 4 ranks where you get enhancement points as a reward and then the level increase and reward. So a total of 80.

As for time to play, if certain quests were repeated and the whole thing rushed it could probably be done in a month or less. Of course it would be pointless way to play, DDO quests are that different from the standard MMO fair that they really need to be savoured. Plus there are favour rewards which require you to fill as many quests as the highest difficulty level, and then of course raids. You would have capped long before all of these are done, assuming you did just quests and ignored the exploration areas.

Expect the cap to increase to at least level 18, probably 20 this year.

I should have elaborated more, but being newish to the system makes for a lot of details that can be missed. It's fun to actually play a game where your character and their abilities can be controlled by more than just what loot they wear.

Originally posted by Unicorns_Pwn

I should have elaborated more, but being newish to the system makes for a lot of details that can be missed. It's fun to actually play a game where your character and their abilities can be controlled by more than just what loot they wear.

 

Unfortunately, as you progress from the Harbor into the Marketplace [and beyond], it DOES get more gear-dependant [or party-dependant].  You will need a weapon of [insert creature type here]-bane to be able to take down the MOBs fast enough to survive as well as have items [refered to as "clickies"] that let you cast certain spells or give immunities vs poison [or death spells, etc].  If you have a large enough party, you may have party members that can cover those deficiencies [neutralize poison spells/scrolls, etc].

I didn't say there was 0 gear focus. Just that character development takes in more than just your race and what gear you have. If there was 0 importance on gear it wouldn't be necessary to implement them in the loot table obviously.

Oh, I'm not disagreeing with you - while I resisted action points at first ["that ain't D&D!"], I really like that you can customize your character as much as possible while still being in a class-based system by using them.  I'm just saying that for SOME dungeons, you MUST have either the right gear or a person in your party with the right spell or you are doomed.

agreed, and although I haven't experienced those elements yet, I fully welcome them as another addition to adding complexity and challenge to the game and not requiring me to go gather  X amount of crunch berries from a higher lvl mob I killed at lvl 2.

Originally posted by MMOman101

What is the max level and how many game play hours does it take to reach?

Capping out at level 16 is going to be dependant on "when you want to cap".  You could cap out in a week if you want although it's not going to do you any good when you don't understand how to play the game nor what your character should do upon reaching it.

With the plethora of character builds not being limited to anything other then your imagination you are bound to haev a very difficult time playing anything if you rush it to lvl 16 without knowing how to play the game.  What you will learn is that players will quickly lose patience for your shortcomings if you don't know how to play.

This game is absolutely nothing like guild wars.  The dynamics and settings in DDO are unmatched - the settings have been a late comer. 

Game Play Hours?  As many as you want.  If you played a character from lvl 1 to lvl 16 (capped) without rushing and actually doing the content it might take you a little more then a month.  There's so much good content that if you rushed to level you're bound to find your self rerolling just to experiance the content you missed.

Originally posted by mindspat

 

Originally posted by MMOman101

What is the max level and how many game play hours does it take to reach?

4 ranks per level and current max is 16 levels.  When you level up you are essentially at Rank 0. 

 

Capping out at level 16 is going to be dependant on "when you want to cap".  You could cap out in a week if you want although it's not going to do you any good when you don't understand how to play the game nor what your character should do upon reaching it.

With the plethora of character builds not being limited to anything other then your imagination you are bound to haev a very difficult time playing anything if you rush it to lvl 16 without knowing how to play the game.  What you will learn is that players will quickly lose patience for your shortcomings if you don't know how to play.

This game is absolutely nothing like guild wars.  The dynamics and settings in DDO are unmatched - the settings have been a late comer. 

Game Play Hours?  As many as you want.  If you played a character from lvl 1 to lvl 16 (capped) without rushing and actually doing the content it might take you a little more then a month.  There's so much good content that if you rushed to level you're bound to find your self rerolling just to experiance the content you missed.

I am a player who's been going since Jan 1 now, and I have gotten 1 character to Level 4 (Rank 17) and about five others to level 2 to 4 as well in this time. I got frustrated at level 4, it seemed as if the experience gain slowed down a lot, and then I held out a bit before starting up on the level 4s until the Mod 6 hit. Now I am back to enjoying them with the death penalty gone.

My question: when you say it should/could take a month, do you mean a literal, physical month (as in contiuous play) or do you mean a month if you play for 2-3 hours a night? I'm curious about actual number of hours of play time. Because at the right I am going (I can play about 1 or 2 times a week for 2-3 hours each) it seems lke I'll hit level 16 in 2010.

Just curious.