The Quest Guides are Coming!

By Ralsu

It's an exciting time in the world of Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach (DDO). With the release of Twilight Forge, Turbine has given us a bundle of new goodies to explore in DDO. Here at DDO @ Ten Ton Hammer, we've been busy planning exciting new content for the month of August. Just as we were finalizing the schedule for August, I happened upon this missive from Catie in my inbox:

Ralsu,

My guild uses your site for a lot of information. We really appreciate the link to your spell guides that you added to the front page a few weeks ago. We use it often. We also like the weekly themes on your site.

Overall, we love T[en] T[on] H[ammer], but we wish you had quest guides, too. Is there a reason you don't?

Well, keep up the good work anyway!

Regards,
Catie (Dellywick, rogue halfling 8, Argonessen)

First off, you're welcome for the link to the Spells Guides, Catie. I'm glad your guild finds those guides useful. As for the weekly themes, that's something I'll keep going as long as I can. We still have a lot of DDO material to cover, so you'll be seeing new themes.

Now on to quest guides. The truth is, Catie, that we've been collecting data on quests since launch. We have some of the quest guides written already, but we wanted to get a bunch done before we published any of them. During beta (we had 3 writers in beta), we started compiling data about Feats, Enhancements, and spells so we'd have it ready when Turbine lifted the NDA {non-disclosure agreement). We wanted to be able to bring you description for each of those critical components of DDO by launch in February 2006. Then Turbine took the wind out of our sails by posting the Compendium to the official DDO site. Most of the data we collected was useless duplication of theirs. We had to take a new path: rating the Feats. Enhancements, and Spells. But that took more time because we like to test everything personally here at DDO @ Ten Ton Hammer.

Back to quest guides, let me assure you that we've been compiling the data for the past 5 months. I can now proudly say that we are ready to start unveiling our quest guides! Look for the first series to come in late August. After that, we'll start posting them regularly. I'll be sure to mix them up for you, too. Our first set of quest guides will be lower level, but future sets will vary in level greatly. Thanks for the letter, and be sure to stop by and say hello in our forums.

Your emails impact our content. If you have a suggestion or a question about our content, be sure to drop us an email and let us know. We'll do what we can to give you the content you want.

I have one other email to share, this one from Bloodycap:

Dear T[en] T[on] H[ammer]:

I think you guys are being a little too harsh about the drow in DDO. Darkgolems [sic] editorial makes it sound like drow are a bad thing. They f***ing rock! For once a company gives us something to make players better and happy but you guys complain. I don't understand.

Peace,
Bloodycap

Thanks for the email, Bloodycap. I'll try to answer without speaking for Darkgolem. I think the thing that concerns us is that we see no reason to play a halfling wizard (for example) at this point. Or an elf rogue. Based on the Ability modifiers of drow (+2 DEX, INT, and CHA, -2 CON), they become the race for rogues (DEX and INT), wizards (INT), bards (CHA), and sorcerers (CHA). Aside from humans, who get an extra Feat and extra Skills, no other race really gives me a reason to pick them for the four classes I just mentioned. The racial Enhancements of a dwarf aren't impressive enough to make me want to play a dwarf rogue over a drow rogue. Now what about my friend Larry who has a Level 10 dwarf rogue? He loves his character, but he knows it could be better if he rolled it as a drow. Something about that isn't right.

Darkgolem's second issue with the drow was the way we access them. Grinding through quests to get the faction to unlock the superior race and grind through the quests again is just not right. Drow should be selectable at character creation without unlocking them. Some may argue that drow are a reward for players, but we don't agree. Making people grind to unlock drow rewards those with the most play time (as Darkgolem noted). Then the same system punishes them by making them level a new toon. A person should be able to buy DDO online, download the updates, and start a drow today if she wants to. But that's just my view, and I appreciate your opinion. And don't worry: we have a whole week dedicated to the drow coming up.

Well, there you have it, folks. I promised you a DDO surprise, and you now have the official announcement that quest guides are coming to DDO @ Ten Ton Hammer! As always, if you think you can do a better job than us, I invite you to put your skill where your mouth is and join our staff! Thanks for reading.

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