Anyone here still playing DAoC? I got back into it a month or so ago and have really been enjoying it for some reason. I was wondering if anyone was in a particularly nifty guild on the server I play on (Percival mostly, as Albion) by any chance? My wife and I play together and do some soloing but it’s about time for our level 20-ish characters to find more grouping opportunities and get their feet wet in RvR, where it seems a guild is pretty essential.
Kudos to Mythic for some excellent support and live team work keeping this game balanced and fresh. And it still, after all this time (heh, what, two years? :)) looks damn good, even if the character models are bit low in the detail department. The Atlantis graphic upgrades, coupled with the Shrouded Isles overhaul, really gave the game some legs I think.
I’ve ditched it, but if you’re level 20-24, go to the battlegrounds. You don’t need a guild for the PvP there – your realm is your guild, so to speak. A lot of DAoC players think the battlegrounds is the best PvP experience in the game.
I agree. Also I believe they’ve now put in a level 15-19 battleground IIRC. You can get to level 15 soloing in a few days so you can get a taste of PvP easily if you like.
I’ve quit the game permanently but it was the best MMORPG to date IMO.
I’m now looking forward to City of Heroes and World of Warcraft.
Started it back up again this past October and haven’t really been playing much of anything else. Got the wife in on it and it’s now become part of our scheduled time together.
Even weirder was that several friends have just recently come back to the game as well. In fact, I think Mythic is reporting their highest membership ever? Anyone confirm/deny?
It seems just about every major complaint has been addressed from what I recall from two years ago when I stopped playing. And yes, the battlegrounds are an absolute blast, unless you’re on a BG3 server that awards one of the opposing realms a /level 30 character instead of the standard /level 20. Nothing worse than trying to take a keep from the Hibs when they outnumber 3 or 4-to-1. :(
1 part boring level grind (sit in dangerous spots with groups-- your deaths will be often unless everyone devotes hours on end to organize an effective party-- you better hope the phone doesn’t ring or someone doesn’t have to go pee at a bad moment!)
+
1 part uninteresting items (you have to be a godly character to get items with elemental effects? lame!)
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1 part boring and broken crafting system ( you can’t add your own particle effects? no homemade flaming swords? )
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2 parts of broken classes in RvR
The only thing I don’t like about DAoC is that the level grind once you hit about level 35 really starts to suck. It’s soooo boring, yet the difference between a level 35 and a level 50 is too great. From levels 1 to 25 DAoC is a great game. After that is starts do slide downhill quickly.
The only thing I don’t like about DAoC is that the level grind once you hit about level 35 really starts to suck. It’s soooo boring, yet the difference between a level 35 and a level 50 is too great. From levels 1 to 25 DAoC is a great game. After that is starts do slide downhill quickly.
That’s exactly what happened to a group of friends who started playing again. We were having fun up until the last BG. Once you get past 35 it’s a long stretch until you have hope of experiencing fun RvR again.
Yeah, I think it’s probably at least 100 hours of brain-numbing leveling to go from 35 to 50 – possibly more. DAoC would be great if the levels were capped at 30.
I’ve had a 50th level paladin on Igraine, a 45th druid on Gawaine, and a 40th necromancer on Igraine. 40-50 is easily more than 100 hours of grinding away, and it turned out that 50th pally was pretty worthless out in the frontiers trying to RvR.
Who was your Pally on Igraine? I used to play there exclusively, a Friar named Ephraim. Met some great people, though I moved on when I got into the Shadowbane Beta and have never really looked back.
If I read good reports of the RvR Frontiers expansion, I might be tempted to go back for a few months, but right now I’m enjoying online console gaming too much to want to lose myself in a MMORPG again. I find that when I get into a MMORPG, that’s all I end up playing. I’m enjoying the variety of SOCOM II, Champions of Norrath, and Crimson Skies right now, with the occasional bit of Warcraft III single player campaign thrown in.
Yeah, I think it’s probably at least 100 hours of brain-numbing leveling to go from 35 to 50 – possibly more. DAoC would be great if the levels were capped at 30.[/quote]
With the addition of Avalon City in Albion, it took nowhere near 100 hours for me to get from 40-50. I returned last year as there was a resurgance of guildies coming back to MLF. So I ended up working a character from scratch to 50 + epics, as my old cleric was now the guild buffbot, in around 4 days total of played time. Also I am sure the time could be cut down in AC if you actually get a group that knows what its doing or a guild group, as I made most of my experience it seemed doing sewer runs with them. :P
Aside from ML3 and ML4.2, I am actually enjoying ToA.
Physically impossible in that amount of time. I don’t care if mobs of appropriate level spawned right in front of you so there was no travel time. But your claim to have also done the epic quests is definitely key to your exaggeration, as anyone who has ridden a horse repeatedly up 'n down the length of the realms can attest to.
Yes, the introduction of AC made 40-50 a helluva lot easier. My 45th druid on Gawaine was my first toon and I hit that in January of 2002, but I burned out because originally getting to 50 was just god awful.
If you’re an alchemist you can add elemental effects to weapons, though damned if I’ve ever seen anyone actually do it.
The lower level battlegrounds are very fun. The BG0 levels 15-19 is the best I think; no one really knows what they’re doing, and the differences between characters isn’t that great. BG1 I’ve found is a lot tougher; the difference between a level 24 and a level 20 is pretty severe. I understand it only gets worse from there on in, in terms of having to be at the top of the level cap for the next BG.
I am not looking forward to the higher level grind, but then again, I don’t know if I’ll still be playing it six months from now. I tend to be episodic in these things. But it’s held my interest more than any other MMORPG I’ve played, certainly longer than EQ did for some reason.
I don’t know how long it takes to level from 35 to 50, but I’m happy to characterize it as “far too long” in regards to DAoC. It absolutely kills the game for me.
What really gets me is how hostile are these level treadmills towards the players. They exist for no other reason than to extend the amount of time it takes to level. They don’t make the game more interesting. They don’t make the game more entertaining. They add very little to the game experience other than time and boredom.
The lower level battlegrounds are very fun. The BG0 levels 15-19 is the best I think; no one really knows what they’re doing, and the differences between characters isn’t that great. BG1 I’ve found is a lot tougher; the difference between a level 24 and a level 20 is pretty severe. I understand it only gets worse from there on in, in terms of having to be at the top of the level cap for the next BG.
One of the interesting things about the lower level battlegrounds is the the crowd control stuff isn’t so uber. Stun, mez, and root all have far shorter durations than they do when cast by higher level characters.
Mythic is revamping RvR, so maybe I’ll take a look at the game again when that’s implemented.
Physically impossible in that amount of time. I don’t care if mobs of appropriate level spawned right in front of you so there was no travel time. But your claim to have also done the epic quests is definitely key to your exaggeration, as anyone who has ridden a horse repeatedly up 'n down the length of the realms can attest to.
Yes, the introduction of AC made 40-50 a helluva lot easier. My 45th druid on Gawaine was my first toon and I hit that in January of 2002, but I burned out because originally getting to 50 was just god awful.[/quote]
Sorry for no screenshot, but I have seen SS’s of lvl 50’s with less played time, granted they were pl’ed I think. I did it over several evenings for about 2 months, some of which as I said were sewer runs with a great guild group, while others were lousy pickup groups, but being a pbae wiz always kept me from waiting forever lfg. Also pre-SI, you are right it would have taken ages just to get from 40-50 in Lyonesse, as I gave up on my cleric at 45 as well due to endless pulls of pygmys. :P
As far as epics, the wizard epics are a breeze. The 50the epic only required the help of a necro while it took a full group to do the Paly/Friar Epic next door. BTW, if you are comparing epics between Hib and Alb I wouldn’t, as the Hib ones are a major PITA.
Yeah, the balance of abilities and offense/defense in BG0 is very good. I’ve never seen a full-on frontiers RvR experience, never having had a character that high a level, but it must be something to see. I know in the lower level RvR stuff everything happens so fast it’s like, whoa, I’m dead, what happened?
High level combat isn’t all that different from low level combat. The big difference is the length of the crowd control spells. Everything else tends to scale. Fireballs hit harder, but the targets have more hit points, so it’s a wash. The realm abilities throw some curves into the process as well.
I don’t think you’re missing much by not leveling up.
