Dungeons & Dragons Online - Should you play?

I personally love playing D&D...not so much the mmorpg but its alright at least.
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Dungeons & Dragons Online is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Turbine for Microsoft Windows and OS X. The game was originally marketed as Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach. Upon switching to a hybrid free-to-play model it was renamed Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited. The game was rebranded Dungeons & Dragons Online, with the introduction of Forgotten Realms-related content. Turbine developed Dungeons & Dragons Online as an online adaptation of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), originally based loosely on the D&D 3.5 rule set. The game is set on the unexplored continent of Xen'drik within the Eberron campaign setting, and in the Kingdom of Cormyr within the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.
#dungeonsanddragons #freetoplay #mmorpg

[@VagrantVideos]

Have you played DDO?

[@michaelamcmurray]

Kinda miss it

[@lockesgameden1811]

Played it everyday for a semester in college. Loved how all the dungeons were narrated. 🙂

[@priestguardian2587]

play it every day for 10 yrs straight

[@tobyteng7522]

Yes. I play an elven ranger :)

[@okamihikuro1401]

Since 2009. I play periods of 4-6 month, and do pauses 2-3 month for other MMORPGS. But then I come back. No other game gives same experience, variety, community and unique challenges and features as DDO.

[@comfy39]

Thank you for reviewing DDO and actually getting past level 4! You are automatically better than 90% of people who "reviewed" this game on KZbin. Yes, it is an old game and most people playing it have been doing so for many years. The endgame scene is actually quite active an almost all the servers. The default server (Current Orien) always has the most new players who are also experiencing the game for the first time. Despite being not new player-friendly, those who are able to get past the first few levels and find other players/a guild that open recruits to help them will find a very intense, complex, and rewarding game to play. Also, props to showing off the DDO Wiki :) That is the best resource and is incredible helpful to all kinds of players.

[@VagrantVideos]

I think you are the first comment I’ve gotten in a while that noticed and made it a point to see that I played for more than a few hours! That’s kinda my motto, give an mmo at least 30-50 hours before I make a video on it. Unfortunately it doesn’t make for the greatest content.

[@arcanefeline]

Is DDO playable without paying?

[@comfy39]

@@arcanefeline yes it is! It is free to play, and you can earn shop currency by completing quests ingame to purchase additional adventure packs and expansions.

[@lancemcque1459]

@@arcanefeline Yes. You can grind for 90% of all the content.

[@SigfriedTrent]

As a long time player, I never think of Favor as being all that important, but you are correct that it should be explained much better to new players, as it is the key way to earn in game rewards you would otherwise pay for. Its been around so long, we lifers and likely the devs take a lot for granted because when it was first introduced, it was under developed and it just kind of grows over time into a big, and complex system.

[@DeanFWilson]

Re: Slayers in Wilderness, these are actually some of the best ways to get XP quickly, especially if you group (where everyone can split up and more mobs spawn). You can go to Wilderness areas way above your level for even better XP.

[@jafsupo]

Fair assessment. Thank you for a frank discussion of the plusses and minuses that goes beyond starter quests on Korthos Island.

[@VagrantVideos]

I debated buying the Salt Marsh expansion just because it comes with so many quests to gain favor from.

[@ofekbenhamo8497]

Literally playing this game as I'm seeing this video. yes this game is the most unplayer friendly I've ever had to experiece the wiki and the forums are you're best friends in the game but the amount of shit to experience in this game is incradible true the combat is outdated and the graphics leaves more to be desired but trying to build a character from scratch is the most invested I've ever been in anything I've been playing this game since 2009 so I'm used to a lot of the shortcomings of the game but Standing Stones Games have done so much for this game and really brought a lot of things to the next level since they took the IP from Turbine

[@VagrantVideos]

I tried to be as fair as possible. Every game I play I give a fair shake and put a decent amount of time into it. Every time I got to a new area it did give me a sense of HUGE accomplishment anytime I leveled. I WANTED to see my character get stronger. Reincarnation and such though…that’s another story I didn’t even get into.

[@HollowGolem]

One thing that makes this game interesting is that it is set in Eberron, which is a pretty non-standard D&D setting. The descriptor that usually gets used for it is something like "pulp noir spellpunk." And DDO has a few quests that really play that up. Partycrashers, for example, involves you sneaking into a banquet to save someone who hates you from assassins who are disguised among the guests and staff. Precious Cargo involves pirates on airships, and you can either use the ballistas mounted on your ship to take out the enemy, or deal with their ships the easy way: by going in and releasing the fire elementals that power them and making them explode. There are raids like the Twilight forge and the Vault of Night where the final boss isn't the major focus of the raid, but dealing with all of the puzzles and mechanics leading up to them is. The game seems dead, but if you get an active guild, you might be surprised at how easy it is to find a group. I always recommend people play the first little bit , if they like it, keep leveling a character up until you get hit with an indicator that you have to be VIP to play a particular quest, or own the adventure pack, and if you're having enough fun, grab a one to three month subscription, especially if you're in a guild that's willing to run stuff with you, and run stuff on high difficulties to unlock as much as you can and earn as much shop currency as possible. I'm sad for new players just coming in now, because in the first couple of years of covid the developers had coupon codes that allowed new players to get every adventure pack for free that wasn't part of an expansion. Sadly it's been a couple years since they've had one of those codes, so newer players have missed out on that it seems.

[@VagrantVideos]

Dungeon codes are back!!

[@HollowGolem]

@@VagrantVideos DUNGEONCRAWL plus big sales on the early expansions.

[@Mecawallace]

I've been waiting for this one for forever! Great deep dive into something I used to love.

[@VagrantVideos]

Could always jump back in! Would be interesting to run a full group.

[@Sumguyinavan_]

People always seem to review this MMO as if its not an MMO. Its meant to be played indefinitely with subscription for active service of updates and new content multiple times every year. Its not meant to be played for free, free is the hook to get you into the subscription and endless grinding. Currently there is a lot of free quests, races, classes, you CAN grind for points to get most of the good content and stuff you'll need for the unique reincarnation system IF you play long enough to get to even lv 20 heroic level cap let alone the 30 epic cap or 32 legendary cap. You CAN buy the expensive things like +8 supreme tomes, but you still won't be remotely as strong as someone who has invested even a year of consistent play. Those expensive things are meant for the people who are hooked for the long haul and earn enough points every character life to make such investments worthwhile and less of a real money cost because you grinded for most of the points already. It is something different from many mmo's and is absolutely worth playing, talking to other players to understand as the tutorial is kind of useless, and getting invested in until you really have to decide "is this a long term hobby for me, or just something I wanted to do for a few weeks without spending money?"

[@jjd4034]

Been playing DDO for free (aside from some quest packs) for several years. There’s a certain mood to it that no other game can capture. Love 3.5e d&d.

[@ThazaraofOrien]

:) I wanted to say a few words. I agree, the game is very complex and not new player friendly. What ddo does have, though, is a little bit older player base and a lot of friendly players who will help the newbies, both with how to do things, but also with in game things you might need. On my server Orien we have at least a couple of ppl regularly handing out stuff to newbies. For me, the community/ other players have always been the thing that keeps me playing.

[@VagrantVideos]

I couldn’t find anyone to group with and I wanted to so badly. If I ever make YT a full time thing I’d love to have this as a side game to play occasionally. I also saw it got a 12th anniversary update.

[@lolzcaption]

By helping newbies you mean only running them through reaper 4 and having them die 30 times and not have fun

[@ThazaraofOrien]

@@lolzcaption I mean like offering advice and giving away free stuff.

[@lancemcque1459]

This is true on all server. Many many guilds have help for newbies. The GAME is not noob friendly but the community and players are very noob friendly in my opinion and experience.

[@antongunther3977]

They really need to merge servers at this point. Playing on a server that isn't one the only populated one can feel like you are just playing a single player game sometimes. Especially if you dont play during peak hours.

[@8Smoker8]

Tbh Pay to Win is arguable in DDO. The best items are found in game: quests, raids etc, not in the shop. XP itself isn't P2W since leveling is very easy in DDO. However xp boosts can shorten the time you need to get past lives considerably, and raid timer bypasses allow you to grind raids instead of having to wait 2.5 days. I'd say those P2W options don't really concern new players in the slightest. To "win" at DDO you just have to play it and have fun, and you can have lots of fun as 99% F2P (do spend 1$ to get your account flagged as Premium for the in-game money cap at least). And I mean it, you really don't need 10 or 50 past lives to enjoy the game, I've always viewed them as an extra factor to keep the game fun after years of playing rather than something to grind for so you can solo raids or w/e crazy achievements you want. So yeah, there are definitely expensive shop xp boosts and raid timer bypasses, but those are just status symbols rather than something required to play the game.

[@VtuberEnjoyer9-121]

I have been playing ddo for over 5 month now and I love it, It's kinda confusing but that is part of the charm; I'm only lvl 9 bcuz I'm a casual player but is a prety good game. I started playing with a friend and we got to the harbor and after that we couldn't play anymore bcuz our schedules didn't matched anymore. I started playing alone but not too much because i had hope that we could play together once again and, in only four days more we are gonna be able to play again, but only for three days and ony god knows when we'll be able to play againt togheter.

[@VtuberEnjoyer9-121]

Btw, sorry if I wrote something in a wrong way or if one sentence doesn't make sense, english is not my first language and and lately I feel like my english has gotten worse for some reason.

[@B-...]

Will have to give it a try! Great video!

[@CainSuzuko]

After the success of Baldur's Gate 3, I think there's a hole in the gaming market that a new D&D MMO would fill. There are many BG3 players that want to experience the magic of D&D through their favorite medium, video games. Tabletop requires a lot of effort to get into. You'll need to buy the essential books either the physical copies or through D&D Beyond. It's especially hard if you don't have a readily available group to play with. A modern D&D MMO would solve this problem. This MMO is a few D&D editions behind. It's going to be hard to implement all the class and subclass options in an MMO, but I think they can pull it off if they initially have the base subclasses from the Player's Handbook and release the other most popular subclasses every year or two. Alternatively, they can skip the unpopular base subclasses from the PHB because they're really outdated at this point, skip to releasing the new popular classes, or just revamp the old ones. DDO and Neverwinter could've been better.

[@iluvgames717]

I play on Argonessen server, its the most populated i think. But, its always surprise me how many players i see run around the Harbor at level 2 who dont understand that xp is easy, but that maxing favor is the most important thing. 2nd most important is Saga rewards. Earn free skill tomes and equipment sets. But earning favor is the most important for a free player and save enough to buy shared bank. FYI when you buy shared bank be sure to not be a VIP sub, or when your sub ends it will remove your shared bank, its like a bug.

[@Shaynate87]

Love the video!

[@SigfriedTrent]

Spot on and humorous review.

[@seanjorden8492]

Certain Expansion areas like Saltmarsh, Sschindylryn, Underdark and Isle of Dread are gorgeous exceptions to the graphics - so I'd recommend getting the expansions if you need some DDO eye candy. Biggest differentiator in DDO for me is the Reincarnation system - practically endless replay value to remake your char over and over and gain incremental power along the way.

[@VagrantVideos]

That’s what I think I like. I like mmos with endless progression. If I reincarnate 30 times over a player who’s reincarnated 5 times I’m slightly more powerful.

[@lancemcque1459]

I have to add Mist of Ravenloft as a must have expansion. Wow. They did a really good job on it. The DDO wiki has everything you need to get through everything.

[@witchdoctorwill1796]

Until late April, new players can grab all adventure packs for free and most expansions for cheap in game currency. Best time to pick it up. Thanks for the review!

[@VagrantVideos]

I got my code in that’s for sure! Probably why the video got a recent uptick in views as well. Either that or maybe the new thumbnail.

[@garga2]

@@VagrantVideos or the dnd movie...

[@VagrantVideos]

@@garga2 true the movie was dope

[@XCottondogX]

Are the adventure packs still free?

[@Rood67]

As a 50 hour review, by someone that appears off put by the age of the graphics, and the lower than wow player base - this assessment was spot on. AD&D from 1st edition by Gary Gygax and crew was intended for those of higher intelligence; given the crazy amount of math, choice consequences, etc…. DDO is based on 3rd edition, and is no different in requiring someone not taught common core math to be able to grasp the deeper mechanics and nuances. That said, if anyone is willing to put in a little time, the game is playable by anyone. The DDO WIKI is phenomenal at giving details on everything in the game. I started as a beta player in 2005; and I’m still here, playing more now than ever. I have in game goals I and my guildies want to achieve. Although the game is digital, D&D was never intended to be a solo game. Once one learns the game, understands different builds and abilities, then one can solo quite easily in most quest. Some are designed to have additional people. Hirelings are stupid. In the clip, he shows one of the worst case scenarios in this stupidity. Once you tell a hireling to do something, they try to come to you rather than staying put. And a main point overlooked in this review; the game is still actively updated and new content is regularly released. With a good portion being free. Yes, the store has some pay to win aspect, but the things really needed are expensive and a lot of them only available one week a year. And limited to only one character. I bought a four +8 tomes several years ago; I still have two of them because I don’t want to put that on just any random toon. My main, multi-lifer; and now my main Alt that I run when the guildies are not on. Multi-life is another thing missed in this review. Once of level, a character can roll back and run up again as a different class, race, etc… and picks up permanent perks for doing do. This gives a reason to keep playing, and the experience fresh.

[@cath4411]

yoooo he’s back again !

[@VagrantVideos]

Trying to get back into the swing of things.

[@cath4411]

@@VagrantVideos anything private server stuff u might be dropping? i see ur maple stuff all went :(

[@VagrantVideos]

@@cath4411 unfortunately it all got copy right struck so I have to be really careful with that series

[@AnarchyJesus]

@0:48 u might be the only person who said anything in 3bc general chat in a decade lol. i never look at general chat anymore outside out harbor or market. here is some tips for new player: 1 play for free and dont worry about favors, crafting or anything that sounds annoying. use group tab to join parties if u dont want solo 2 when u know for sure you want to play it for the long run. buy the biggest ddo points pack you feel comfortable buying or wait till Double Bonus events then buy it. 3 here is my buying order -buy the class/race you really want(the payed classes are not really better than the free once but some of the payed race are pretty good). buy expansions start with the ones with heavy discount. if u got any points left buy xp tome, one for heroic level, one for epic level, they give Permanent xp boost. lastly there is a +8(or 10 dont remember) to all states tome if you still got points to burn(i would only buy this thing on discount), this one is not a must have because its not too hard to find these tomes in late game. there r some other pay to win stuff but it honesty they are not that useful and you will figure it out if you want them later on. ps: tomes only work for the one char that you use it on. so dont buy them if you still testing out a bunch of builds on different chars

[@VagrantVideos]

But like why lol. How else would I find a group?

[@AnarchyJesus]

@@VagrantVideos dont tell me you never open the group tab

[@AnarchyJesus]

@@VagrantVideos there is a group tab in game, i forgot the hot key but look around its not hard to find. you can make your own group or join someone else. just be ready for the groups with r1 or more in the name, those are reaper level groups and likely with some speedsters players in it. most veteran players don't mind having new player tagging along but they will not away slow down and wait for you.

[@VagrantVideos]

@@AnarchyJesus LOL the group tab makes it seem like thats for party chat

[@AnarchyJesus]

@@VagrantVideos btw group tab have a bug that some of the names dont show up. u need to go under "who" tab then click search. that will fix it

[@eugenelim11]

This game is fun. But I agree that it is very hard for some non-healing classes to solo, who have to resort to hiring healers. Some quests are insanely hard, and are torture to play

[@frankbarlow6487]

So you wanna try DDO? Ok, have you read the D&D 3.5 players handbook? No? Alright, start there. Love this game been playing D&D since about '81.

[@VagrantVideos]

My current D&D campaign is 4 years old. Love me some good ol D&D.

[@Unchainedful]

The biggest question is does this game support controllers? I play on a laptop due to school and where I live at being shared with like 3 other people. Since I travel a lot a pc tower is not an option. Playing mouse and keyboard on a laptop is a freaking nightmare and controllers ease up the pain on playing on a laptop. It’s deal or dealbreaker if a game supports or doesn’t support controllers. I’ve passed up on many great games because it doesn’t have controller support.

[@VagrantVideos]

It’s possible but it is definitely more of a mouse/keyboard MMO. Some of the other games I’ve covered on the channel are more suited for controllers like Neverwinter.

[@Elias-gz1cp]

A little late, but yes it does support controllers. I have used an Xbox 360/One and 8bitdo controller on it. Also play it occasionally on a seam deck. Has had native support for them for as long as I can remember. If you are playing through steam you may want to turn off all the keybindings in steam because they conflict with the in game default settings. Or if you have downloaded it directly through their website, you may want to close steam before launching DDO because of a similar conflict. One thing to note with the default controller config is that the movement and mouse cursor movements are backwards. When you push up on a thumbstick, you move backwards or mouse cursor moves down. Not sure who thought that was a good idea. To change that, go to the keybinding tab under the main menu options and look for "mouse emulation" to fix the mouse cursor. Will need a mouse handy while you change those

[@Dulkh4n]

come to Orien ( server in ddo) , the lag is a little disrupting at times, but hell we got a big population. at all times.

[@TheSongDragon]

Actually when I hear anything resembling "this game is so complicated, you will be so confused" what I hear is "people are idiots nowadays who can't deal with a game that isn't super simple and hand them all the answers, God forbid you need to actually figure shit out"

[@taleladar]

Many of the classes also have set "paths" to choose from, which even automatically do all the complex stuff for them! There's not really any excuse bashing the character customization for being to hard if the decide to stray off those paths and do their own custom character. They even get the free reincarnation woods to change builds and correct their mistake.

[@URMyNewTV]

@@taleladar That's a great first example for the things the game doesn't tell you: you never, NEVER ever pick a path. They are ancient and will waste featslots for you. The only easy way is to google "DDO built for new players" and follow the instructions. Either you do that, or you have a very bad toon, or you spend days in reading and learning about the classes before even daring to click on create a new character. lol

[@nikp3572]

Need a 5e version of it

[@StaryBrudnyLis187]

DDO is a great game, i often go back to it and smack the sht out of it

[@HollowRick]

Wow I haven't thought about this game since it originally came out I remember wanting to play this and City of heroes at the time but my parents were those boomers who thought a subscription to something would steal their card details haha it's funny now days they have Netflix ect and don't bat an eyelid 😂

[@chrisbrezny5893]

Well done!

[@nilsalmgren4492]

Little bit of advice, you can move off your stone, then take the rez on land not in lava. Then your hire does not run into the lava to be next to you. Sometimes you need to be smarter than your hire.

[@Rhises]

Good ol D&D

[@jfrazout09]

What are your thoughts on the upcoming movie?

[@VagrantVideos]

It will probably be mid in terms of quality but definitely gives popcorn dumb movie vibes.

[@v1ct0rmf]

I din`t found the character creation that complicated. Sure, if compared to teh wow/wow clones is, but if compared to D&D adaptations into single player RPGs like NWN1/2, is like 3.5e with added skill trees.

[@MrDudeBro]

DND YESSS

[@saveenly4332]

i wonder what could revive the game

[@Pengooeine]

So you can mix and match classes? dope

[@Dulkh4n]

yes and you can sometimes break the game at least for a while, there is so much posible. combinations that is not unusual that players figure out a a broken combination and use it until it get hit by the nerd bat hard. but is much part of the game and so much fun to came up with your own build or improve existing ones...

[@HollowGolem]

Some of the most powerful builds stack features from multiple classes. I missed the good old days when the wood chipper build stacked druid wolf form with ranger two weapon fighting speed boosts to attack so quickly it caused server wide lag if too many people played the build at once, and the devs had to nerf the two weapon fighting styles so hard that it hasn't been viable since.

[@jeffreysmith469]

I do not feel bad for new players getting started.

[@TheMotherStory]

Sea shanty vibes

[@cjbalata]

the new rock golem race kill my dark elf rogue :(

[@VagrantVideos]

Ooof that’s a no bueno

[@arockalypsgaming]

Played it religiously for years from 2006 until 2011 when I left for Rift. Recently went back and realized that it was a completely different game then the game I used to play. Not only that but more then 1/2 the content is behind pay walls. Now if they ever opened up a legacy server I'd go back but as it is now, the game I used to love is dead.

[@Botoburst]

It can be complicated and confusing. DDO wiki and Strimtom are your friends.

[@VagrantVideos]

Yeah it’s an mmo that sort of requires a guide to get the most out of it.

[@barshalen99]

Nah, I'm just gonna play Arelith on Neverwinter Nights instead. 300+ active players and constant updates with an active dev and DM staff.

[@VagrantVideos]

I dipped my toes into neverwinter a few months ago, combat is super fast paced it seemed.

[@barshalen99]

@@VagrantVideos neverwinter nights. Not neverwinter. Nwn is a 20 year old game that still hosts PW servers with custom content. Neverwinter is a crap mmo.

[@Botoburst]

@@barshalen99 I loved higherground but they aren't on steam. That was so much fun.

[@Jibcutter]

I’ve played on persistent NWN servers. They are fun but I’ve honestly been addicted to DDO since I got into beta at beginning of 2006. It was (and is with fun/skilled friends) the best D&D videogame experience I’ve had. I’m over 155 reincarnated lives on my main character.

[@blacksabbath2559]

These old game were good, but now they are dead. Worst greedy ppl grab them to make money and turn them in microtransactions hell: neverwinter, lotro, swotor, D&D online. Hopefully i played them before their fall.

[@YoutubeCommentor1]

I had fun with the short time I played this back in the day. It's alright but aged pretty poorly imho.

[@VagrantVideos]

The earning cash shop stuff is interesting but so many mechanics are dated.

[@Jibcutter]

I’ve played it since beta in early 2006. It actually has increased in quality and amount of content compared to its early years. Not sure why ppl think it’s on life support when it’s population is actually been flatlined for over ten years. Also development efforts into it marked increased. Back when cap was 10 we had to run the same quest over and over and suffered through very slow content releases.

[@lumendelsol]

I just played yesterday. Its packed with peole. WTF are u talking about?

[@moscaxXx21]

tried it, played a few hours and it feels so rough, outdated, repetitive and no sense of achievement not even from the new loot dopamine effect, not for everybody

[@VagrantVideos]

It’s definitely a retro mmo

[@Cytl-bu3nq]

It's not perfect, but it's a lot better than that Neverwinter Online abomination. Don't take this the wrong way, but reviews mean very little when you are only playing for 30-50 hours. If you can get to level 20 or 32 and then reincarnate to another race or class then you can come back and be critical.

[@VagrantVideos]

Say that to literally every other mmo KZbinr. By that mentality you would watch none of them because none of their opinions mean anything to you. Also I quite liked the game. I felt I was pretty positive.

[@scottishjp5082]

im sorry but ddo isnt an old schoolc mmorpg lol old school mmorpgs consist of swg ultima online ever quest ect

[@otter44]

This game actually used to fun. But sometime in the early 2000s it turned into a free to play (aka pay to win) game. There was a time when pulling a paralyzing long bow from a chest was exciting or the sword of shadows was jaw dropping. Now it's a crafting grind. Also, D&D is also inherently a group based game where you needed a rogue, cleric, tanks, and caster to team up and complete a quest . Now every class can do everything so no one needs anyone. Why not just make it single player? I actually can't believe people are still dropping $$$ for this "Free to Play" pile of junk.

[@Dulkh4n]

what are you talking about? you know little about this game and it shows, first the game went F2P in 2009 so not early 2000s, crafting is not necesary at all, there are a lot of end game builds that dont use crafted items at all. and the p2w is kind of there but you can get almost anything in game ( mostly stats tomes) or grind ddo points to buy them.

[@taleladar]

I'll also say, it's blatantly wrong that "every class can do everything"

[@scottishjp5082]

ddo is just another wow clone

[@lancemcque1459]

I beg to differ.

[@baseddlite7306]

dumb take

[@lucvanheumen2246]

?? This game is litterly the opposite of wow