character-planner
Latest
Exploring Eberron: Getting the most from the DDO Character Planner
Many MMOs share a common factor that can either be a fun challenge or a complete frustration: the inability to respec your character. From a lore or storytelling perspective, it makes perfect sense. You wouldn't train as an archer for years and become highly skilled then expect to change your mind one day and immediately be an expert swordsman. Dungeons and Dragons Online is an MMO that has this characteristic. You can respec through reincarnation, of course, but it will cost you. Reincarnation gives you more points to spend, so it definitely has that advantage, but usually it's better to know what you're doing from the outset. I mentioned quite a while back that I recommend you cycle through a few low-level classes as a new player in order to get a feel for point distribution and the strengths and weaknesses of each race and class, but there's another tool that's well worth knowing. Follow along after the jump and let's look at the DDO Character Planner.
Exploring Eberron: Rolling the right character for you
Who are you whippersnappers? Get off my lawn or I'll blast ye into kingdom come! Shoo! I mean, howdy! Sorry, I got a little startled there. We just found out this morning that Rubi, your faithful DDO columnist, was captured by a beholder and locked away in a level 20 dungeon. While the Massively DDO guild, OnedAwesome, faithfully levels up in a rescue attempt (every Wednesday night, 9pm eastern/8pm central!), I've been drafted to keep the column going until victory is assured. Considering that a vast majority of my personal DDO resume is confined to levels 1 through 10, I have a soft spot for the newbie experience. And seeing how many fledgling dungeoneers are flocking to DDO these days, I figured I'd go back to the beginning to walk new players through the first week of the game. For you veterans out there, this would be a great time to (a) point out how much I say is completely wrong, and (b) offer up your own tips and advice in the comments section. Today, let's start with one of the most vital decisions you'll ever make in the game: rolling a character. Hit the jump and let's hope for all 20s!
Slippery stats and spells revealed by Chardev
Two aspects of my personality come into conflict quite often during my time playing WoW. You see, I love getting the most out of my gear, and pushing every little point of damage I can get out of my equipment. However, I hate doing math in my leisure time. When you really want to get down to min-maxing, you're stuck with that little math part.Fortunately, there are tools out there to help that out somewhat. The latest tool being Chardev.org, a website that allows you to either build a character from the ground up or import yours from the Armory. Everything from gems to enchants to talents are able to be altered here, and while this isn't the first website to do something like that, it does do something differently. It allows you to see all of your stats, and the breakdown of your spells. Their damage, damage coefficients, casting time after Haste, all of that. It definitely isn't perfect or a replacement for good math, but it's quality work regardless. The ability to refine your item searches further would help a lot. As it is right now, it just throws you a giant list of what could technically go in that slot, with no way to narrow it down. Still, seeing spell stats and how gear will affect them laid out for you is very cool. Chardev is worth at least a look![ via Massively ]
