Dungeons and Dragons Online is now over six years old, but that hasn’t stopped developer Turbine from crafting new content for loyal fans. While the base game takes place in Eberron, a new world created for Dungeons and Dragons Third Edition, the game’s first-ever retail expansion, Menace of the Underdark, finally brings players back to The Forgotten Realms.
The Forgotten Realms is something fans have been asking Turbine to add in for years now. This is the same setting as the numerous R.A. Salvatore novels, the Baldur’s Gate games, the beloved Neverwinter Nights series and many, many more pieces of fiction. Fans of Dungeons and Dragons, even just people who like high fantasy, have been connecting and delving into this world in droves since it was first introduced in 1987.
Having journeyed into The Realms and played as the new Druid class that comes with Menace of the Underdark, I think hardcore fans have plenty look forward to – especially when it comes to character progression. For starters the level cap has risen from 20 to 25. Level 20 was sort of a hard stop for Turbine’s MMO partially because it corresponded to the max level in D&D, but the team’s trying to do more with how you tailor your character to your playstyle, and felt their new leveling system would help them do that best.
Turbine’s solution to furthering character customization comes from a new series of Epic levels, where progression between level 21-25 nets you points to spend on Epic Destinies. Epic Destinies allow you to specialize, and start from a set of four groups: Martial, Arcane, Primal and Divine. Once you select a group, you then pick a starting point for your Destiny, earning experience that nets you additional points to spend in an elaborate tree. With enough time and effort you can level up a Destiny to the point where you have a chance to bridge it with a neighboring group. This means that you can combine chunks of Destines together, creating unique builds that suit your particular needs.
To give long-term players plenty of reasons to keep on grinding, Turbine’s made it so you can level up all Epic Destinies if you’re determined. You can shelf your progress in a particular Destiny if you choose, working and earning experience towards a new one. If you decide you don’t like the abilities or build you’ve been working on, you can change back to your old Destiny build, picking up right where you left off. You can also keep your progress even if you decide to use DDO's True Reincarnation feature where you reset your level back to one. You can’t earn experience towards your Destinies as you go back through the content, but at least you won’t lose the countless hours you spend as a high level character.
You can play Dungeons and Dragons Online for free, but the Menace of the Underdark is a paid expansion with multiple different versions. This is pretty standard for MMOs, but what’s different here is that how much you spend determines what content you get. If you by the “base” version of the expansion you get access to the new zones and dungeons, as well as the Destinies, but you don’t get the new Druid class. If you purchase the “Standard” or “Collector’s Editions” you get everything, along with some special goodies you can check out on the official site. VIP subscribers, who pay a monthly fee, get access to the Druid class regardless of whether or not they buy the expansion.
Long-term subscribers and new players alike can check out the expansion for themselves when it releases Monday, June 25th. Just be warned: new players won't be able to effectively access the Underdark content until they're at least level 16.
Source : ign[dot]com
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