The latest expansion for href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ddo"> style="font-style: italic;">Dungeons and Dragons
Online,
Update
11
, is full of red meat! style="font-style: italic;">Update 11
features the new artificer class, a new quest hub, 3 dungeons, a new
wilderness area, 2 end-game raids, and an update to crafting. Ten Ton
Hammer’s Ethec has braved the hordes at gamescom 2011 and
secured a sneak peek from style="font-style: italic;">DDO
producer Erik Boyer, who gave out a lot of juicy details that will
surely fire up players.


The Artificer

First and foremost, the newest class to appear in style="font-style: italic;">DDO
makes its debut
in Update
11
, the artificer. The
artificers fuse magic and technology
and were responsible for the creation of the warforged and have a lot
of unique abilities. First, they get some really nice spells. Erik
gleefully described the Mass Deconstruction spell that wreaks havoc on
warforged gone bad. Further enhancing their combat abilities is their
use of the rune arm, which is a device that allows them to focus their
energy in order to cast a more powerful spell. These devices can be
charged up to increase their effectiveness. There are a total of five
tiers of charging and the spell damage is multiplied by the tier
charge. It has a good range of roughly 60 meters, but Erik laments that
he has yet to bring down an airship with one. Normally, the charge in
the rune arm drops during movement, but an artificer can take
enhancements to negate that effect.


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Artificers also have the ability to use a flame turret, which acts as a
vicious trap. Erik pointed out that NPC artificers have them too, so
expect to see them while you’re questing. To round out their
combat skills, artificers also can use the new repeating crossbow to
pincushion their enemies.



Another aspect of the artificer is that they can have a pet. The
standard pet is everybody’s favorite warehouse watchdog: the
iron defender. When you first get one, it starts out as a puppy with
big feet. (Erik thinks they’re cute, but anything that can
tear the flesh off your bones ain’t cute in my book!) As a
player gains levels, so too does your pet in the form of training. You
can have your pet increase his aggro by taking specific enhancements.
In addition, you’ll be able to modify their appearance so
that everyone will know that Old Rusty is your dog!



At the current time, the artificer is a pay-only class to be found in
the DDO
store. Turbine expects the final price to be in the mid-range
cost for classes, even though it has the most features.


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Goggles

A new item piece comes into style="font-style: italic;">DDO
in the form of goggles. Players will be
able to toggle their goggles (nice rhyme, eh?) on their equipment page.
They’ll be a number of different lens colors and some of them
will glow. The epic goggles will glow purple in their epic majesty.
Every player will get a free pair of randomly generated goggles for
them to be profiling and styling.


House Cannith

House Cannith is the newest enclave to be added to Stormreach and is
accessible from the Marketplace. House Cannith is a human house that
specializes in artificers, but you’ll find plenty of
warforged in the area. You will notice a difference in interaction with
the NPCs if you’re a warforged as opposed to being a member
of another race. Moving around the enclave will require you to use
various moving platforms as that House Cannith is always bustling with
activity.


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House Cannith serves as the quest hub for style="font-style: italic;">Update 11.
Erik remarked that
this is the first time in over two years that the content (quest-wise)
was geared for end-game players. The levels for the adventures start at
19. Overall, there are three quests and 2 raids, most of which feature
in or around the wilderness area, the Cannith Manufactury. This
sprawling structure is the epicenter of the enclave. You will spend a
lot of time in the Manufactury now, and in the future as well. Erik
mentioned that more quests will take you back into the Manufactury in
Update
12
.



As you travel through the Manufactury, you’ll get clues to
the ongoing story by finding records in the various explorer points.
These records are voiced in character to more fully draw you into the
story.





Crafting

Turbine officially takes the training wheels off of crafting in style="font-style: italic;">Update
11. They are officially
removing the beta tag from crafting. Players
will be able to craft goggles and rune arms. A new crafting device will
be introduced in the form of Runestones, which can be used for crowd
control devices. If you gain enough favor with House Cannith,
you’ll also be able to reduce the minimum level requirement
for magic items by two. Time to hit all the quests on elite!


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Raids

Now, we get to the heart of the content in style="font-style: italic;">Update 11:
the raids. The
two new raids take place under the Manufactury and follow two plot
lines. The first storyline is the Lord of Blades, the legendary
warforged who has come from Eberron’s main continent to
Stormreach in search of the Creation Forge. The Creation Forge was used
to create the warforged titans and the Lord of Blades has big plans for
it. Since he is consumed by hate for all those made of flesh, he wishes
to use the Creation Forge to empower himself and to create an army of
warforged. However, things have become even more complicated.



It seems that the Creation Forge is still linked to the Plane of Dreams
and creatures from that plane have crossed over to Eberron. These
beings possess sentient beings and use them as a vessel. Players that
have True Seeing up will be able to detect them. The mighty Lord of
Blades has been affected by these beings and is no longer in control of
himself. It’ll fall to the players to beat some sense into
him and free him of his possession and stop his use of the Creation
Forge. This 12 man raid will culminate in a titanic battle where the
Lord of Blades will unleash deadly spin attacks and, after leaping high
into the air, will land and pound the ground behind you, knocking you
on your butt. Erik says that there are a lot of custom animations, new
soundtracks, and dialogue to make the raid a memorable experience.



The second raid deals with what Erik calls the CEO of House Cannith,
Tobin. This artificer feels that he’s been double-crossed and
feels only rage against the warforged. To that end, he’s
created a device that will essentially lobotomize all warforged and
make them automatons, no longer capable of sentient and independent
thought. To stop him, you’ll venture down into
Tobin’s Laboratory to defeat him. However, he is a powerful
artificer.


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Players will face a host of danger. You’ll be assaulted by
waves of enemies that include warforged titans. Tobin has created a
couple of these bad boys and they have some new tricks up their
sleeves. However, Erik’s favorite part was the puzzle in the
laboratory. Above the floor is a grid that shows a number of different
patterns. Tobin will program the grid to electrify the floor. To avoid
getting hit by an electrical charge, you’ll have to follow
the pattern and there’ll be more than one. One misstep and
you’ll be taking hundreds of points of electrical damage.
Erik was practically cackling with glee as he described it as a
murderous version of Simon Says.



Update
11
is packed to the gills
with new content for players. In
addition to the new quests, raids, and the new class, there are other
things such as improved explosives so that players will know where to
move once a party member sets one. There’ll also be
mage-cannons to be encountered as you adventure. These deadly weapons
can be disarmed by rogues or artificers and be used by the players
against their enemies.



The biggest things in style="font-style: italic;">Update 11
are the introduction of the artificer
class and the inclusion of content geared for level-capped players.
They’ve been due some love and attention for some time and
it’s good that they’re finally getting it. I assume
that they’ll get more attention in style="font-style: italic;">Update 12
as Erik
mentioned more quests in the Cannith Manufactury in that upcoming
Update. So let’s strap on some cool ass goggles, raise our
metallic puppies, and go on some raids!



To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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