Dragon's
Prophet, currently in open beta, is a F2P title centered
around dragons. They are pets, collectibles, combat buddies, mounts,
resource-gatherers and skill-givers, and there are over two hundred types
of them for players to find and tame. There's also an MMO in there, so
there's a lot of new stuff to learn in a short time. Here's a bit of a
primer on how to get started.

First off: if you find images of scantily-clad women to be offensive, this
may not be the game for you. What appears as bulky spike-covered armor-plating
on a male character ends up being a chain mail bra and matching G-string
thong on a female toon. The female villain introduced in the tutorial
wears an outfit that leaves almost nothing to the imagination. Also worth
noting is that the higher level you reach, the skimpier the female armor
gets. The epic stuff sold in the cash shop is basically spike- and
fur-covered chainmail postage stamps. And it's fairly clear quite early on
(like, during the character creation process) that all female characters
in Dragon's Prophet have "been to Brazil," wink-wink nudge-nudge.

On your first play-through, you can choose to start with the tutorial.
The tutorial explains the back-story about the Osira army and their
current conflict with the evil super-dragon Kronos and his legion of
necromancers, and also gives you the basics for combat and
dragon-summoning, so I recommend it for a first character. Or if you want
to catch that glimpse of the evil hottie with the barely-there villain
armor. Skip it for any consecutive characters, though, and just go
straight to selecting your starting zone.

Combat in Dragon's Prophet is dynamic and action-oriented, like Guild
Wars 2, TERA or Neverwinter. Enemy attacks are telegraphed, usually by
animation wind-ups, and can be dodged or blocked. The character hits
whatever is in front of him, either in an arc or in a straight line.
Dragon's Prophet uses a type of "soft targeting" where individual targets
are not locked in, but certain skills cannot be used if there is no
highlighted target in front of the character

You have the choice of four archetypical character classes:

• The Guardian: "Guardians are heavily armored melee
  combatants who command a variety of weapons. Their reckless offense
  includes impact attacks and vicious strikes powerful enough to dismantle
  any opponent. Constant exposure to battle has made them resilient and
  able to withstand the risks of being on the front line. Guardians wield
  on- or two-handed weapons, with the capability to dual-wield and equip a
  shield."
• The Ranger: "Rangers are exceptional
  marksmen who prefer to engage their foes at a distance. Their uncanny
  speed and heightened senses allow them to strike first with deadly
  precision. Through excellent positioning and battlefield control they
  are capable of dispatching even the toughest aggressor. Rangers employ
  an arsenal of ranged weapons including guns and bows."
• The Oracle: "Oracles are spiritual followers of
  draconic disciplines who possess a keen battle prowess and harness
  mystical energy. They devoutly follow the instruction of their Dragon
  ancestors and strive to become a perfect embodiment of their ideals.
  Although they are lightly armored, their magical abilities provide
  enhanced defense and persistent rejuvenation. Oracles wield the dreaded
  colossus scythe or a magical focus as their weapons."
• The Sorcerer: "Sorcerers are arcane masters of
  draconic conjuration who invoke destructive elemental forces to crush
  their enemies. They channel the primal fabric of nature to rain fiery
  death on an opponent or protect themselves with an earthen barrier.
  Versatility and foresight are their assets in combat as they can adapt
  their fighting style to exploit the weaknesses o f their adversaries.
  Sorcerers brandish wands or staves in combat but their true weapon is
  teir incomparable offensive magic."

Once you haul your character through the tutorial, you lose access to
most of the skills you had all through it (which is why I recommend
skipping it for any new characters after the first one). You are given the
choice of which starting land you want to go to: Hunak, Sibernia or
Helmoth. Story-wise, it doesn't really matter which zone you start out in,
but each of the zones has a different sort of flavor. Hunak, for example,
has a bunch of dynamic public events - similar to GW2 -  right out of
the gate, whereas the other two zones have more standard click-to-talk
chained quests. Sibernia is the zone with flying dragon mounts very early
on, so if you want to start your collection with a flier, go there.

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Early combo moves for an Oracle.

Your initial repertoire of attack skills will be limited to left- and
right-click skills, which can be chained together into combo attacks.
Timing combo attacks can be tricky - the attack durations seem to be tied
to the combat animations, but that timing is imprecise and you'll need to
do some trial-and-error testing to figure out the sweet spot. You will
also want to keep your latency as low as possible, so pause your torrents
and streaming videos for the time being. Reaction time is crucial, and a
200ms ping can make it hard to string a viable combo together.

Later on, you'll earn new skills that are tied by default to the Q, E, R,
V and top-row number keys. These skills can also be used in powerful combo
attacks, usually in concert with mouse-button attacks. More combos are
unlocked as you gain levels, as well as additional skills, and capturing
and training different dragons earns you Dragon Soul skills. For example,
the big lumbering bull of a dragon I captured on my level 5 Sorcerer came
with Life Calling, which is a handy little instant self-heal. My Level 7
Ranger, who has two different dragons, has Shell Protection (reduces the
number of monsters attacking the character by 60%), Cure (a self-heal
which also affects the dragon) and Downpour (a small heal-over-time for an
ally).

Questing is the chief method of XP gain, and quests are available in two
main ways: MMO-standard text-box quests issued by NPCs, which are the most
common, and dynamic public events similar to Guild Wars 2. These are more
common in some areas than in others. For example, the Hunak region has
several of these right at the town gates and continuing out into the
wilderness, but in the Helmoth region, you won't encounter them until much
later. In the low-level areas, most general questing takes place on the
open landscape, but a few quests will send the character into instanced
spaces. These instances can be run solo or with a group, but take care:
though it says it's meant for solo characters, some of the fights may
difficult. The Helmoth region features a canyon crawl instance at around
level 9 or 10, which took me several frustrating attempts to hammer
through. Bite the bullet and run with a group whenever possible.

It's also possible to get overwhelmed by normal landscape mobs,
particularly if you experience high ping rates. For the most part, my
Guardian was able to survive two on-level mobs when fighting alone, or up
to three when fighting beside her pet dragon and/or chugging potions and
kiting. Anything more than that was too much, and Gunkarella would take a
savage beatdown. Over time, with better gear, more practice and lower
network latency, I would most likely be able to handle more enemies at
once, but in the meantime I have to temper my enthusiasm with a healthy
dose of caution.

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When you level up, you get points to spend upgrading your ability scores
on your character sheet. Dragon's Prophet isn't reinventing the wheel with
ability scores - the ones they use should be familiar to anyone who has
ever played any kind of stat-based RPG since the 1970s - and helpful
tooltips describe what the abilities actually do for anyone who might be
confused by them. Hit C to open your character sheet right after gaining a
new level and click the little up arrows to distribute your points.

The interesting thing about this system is, it's essentially
unrestricted. That is, there's nothing stopping a Ranger, say, from
cranking all of his points into Strength and Constitution instead of into
Ferocity (which is pretty much equivalent to Agility in any other game and
would be much more appropriate). On the one hand, this allows for a much
broader range of specialists and generalists than one might find in other
games, and serious number crunchers can work out complicated formulae for
the very best distribution of points for each specialist role for each
class. On the other hand, it can also lead to unplayable mistakes that
can't do anything well. Fortunately, if you do end up making a major
blunder, you can buy Attribute Reset Powder from the cash shop.

After familiarizing yourself with the combat skills, it's time to get
yourself your first dragon. Approach any creature with the word "dragon"
in its name (or nearly any dragon - some are specifically aligned with the
enemy and cannot be tamed) and use the Capture skill on it. By default,
this Capture skill is mapped to the 6 key. Your character will do a
high-flip somersault onto the beast's back and ride it like a bucking
bronco until either the dragon is tamed or it resists your taming attempt
and throws you off. If it resists your attempt to capture it, the dragon
will begin attacking as soon as you are thrown off. You can either run
away to avoid killing it, or kill it and try again on another.

Capturing a dragon involves a little mini-game, requiring the player to
keep a moving marker centered in the little window by using the W, A, S
and D keys (and additional keys for more challenging dragons later in the
game). There are meters on either side of the capture window. The yellow
one on the left represents your Dragon Soul points, and will gradually run
out after a few seconds. The red one on the right is your success bar, and
fills up when you keep the taming reticle centered. It fills up faster
(indicated by the little number to the right) when you keep the icon in
the center ring, slower if you let it slide to the outside ring, and stops
if you let it fall outside of the grey circle altogether. If the yellow
bar runs out before the red bar fills up, the dragon resists your attempt
to capture it and turns hostile. If the red bar fills up before the yellow
bar runs out, the dragon is tamed and added to your collection.

Higher level dragons are more difficult to capture, and lower level ones
are easier. And once your Dragon Soul points have been drained after a
failed attempt, you'll need to wait for the meter to refill before you try
again by staying out of combat or calling out an already-tamed dragon and
killing monsters with it. There's no limit to the number of times you can
attempt to capture a dragon, so keep at it until he's in your pocket. You
can also try putting more points into the Charisma stat, which gives you
better dragon-taming ability.

You can only "carry" a limited number of dragons around with you at any
given time. Up to 6 dragons can be equipped in the dragon stable - these
are the ones you carry around and can ride or employ as combat pets, and
whose combat skills (Dragon Soul skills) you share. Different dragons will
have different Dragon Soul skills, and finding the ones that best
complement your character may take some trial-and-error experimentation.

Up to a further six dragons can be housed in the Dragon Lair, which can
be accessed at certain towns with a Lair Manager. The Lair is for training
your dragons and for getting them to gather resources and such. On the
Dragon Processes tab, there are 8 different processes they can perform:
Special Process, Skill Training, Ore Collection, Herb Collection, Wood
Collection, Leather Collection, Cloth Collection and Hunting Collection.
The Special Process task seems to be mindless busywork that results in a
large Training Experience gain.

Initially, you are limited to two slots in each (Stable and Lair), and
the remaining slots can be unlocked with Station Cash, the cash-shop
currency used in all SOE games. Should you run out of space in the Lair
and the Stable, you can always move your excess dragons into the Dragon
Chamber, which can store 96 dragons when you unlock all the slots (again,
the unlocks require Station Cash).

The cash shop in Dragon's Prophet is called the Marketplace, and is
opened with the ; key by default (or by clicking on the chest icon in the
menu at the top, which becomes visible and usable when you hit the ESC
key). While the shop itself is fairly unobtrusive, you will be provided
with ample opportunity to spend Station Cash before you ever stumble
across the actual Marketplace. Following the traditional F2P Upsell
Strategem, players have essentially unlimited access to all content in the
game, but have to buy a lot of unlocks to achieve anything efficiently.
Inventory and dragon space is at a premium for several levels until and
unless you buy slot unlocks, and even then you will likely find yourself
making frequent runs to town to unload at vendor stalls. If you plan on
playing this game for a while, these unlocks are worth the money.

A second currency, Dragon Insignias, are earnable in-game by completing
daily quests, and can be used to buy most of the same stuff from the
Marketplace as Station Cash. They can't be used to buy inventory unlocks
or housing items, but they can be used to purchase stuff from all the
other categories in the Marketplace. In other words, you might want to
save your cash for major upgrades and important unlocks, and wait for the
fluff stuff until you can afford it with Dragon Insignias.

This should be enough to give you a running start with Dragon's Prophet.
Obviously, there's a whole lot more to the game than the first few levels,
so get in there and explore it all from the back of your very own mighty
dragon!