Is DDO Combat Boring?

[Stereosteveo]

In all respects DDO looks well polished.
I've only played about 20 hours.
Not to complain, (who can moan about free?), but is the combat boring in this game or is it just me?

The only other MMO I know is WoW, which I abandoned after 3.5 years heavy play...Finally thank God...
I had 4 lev 80's: 2 Priests (Holy and Shadow), 1-Tank (Prot), and a Hunter (Mainly Survival)..
But I can't go back to WoW, too addictive.

So far I have:
Level 3: Fighter: Stalwart Soldier (tank) is the intended path...
Level 2: Ranger: Arcane Archer...

I'm hoping to get more into DDO, but I can only hold the left mouse button down so long....
Sure I throw in a Trip/Sunder/Block/etc. here and there....but something "feels" wrong.
Some guides say hold the button down, some say active click, I can't tell the difference really...
Either way, I'm like "Is this all there is to it? Is this all my toon can do?"

Am I missing something here?
Keep leveling?
Play another class?
Give up on life?

Thx for your time,
-Stv..

[GotSomeQuestions]

Move around while fighting. This isn't WoW, you don't have to stand still. You can physically dodge enemy attacks by moving out of the way (particularly effective for avoiding ray spells from enemy casters). You can jump over enemies, lure them into traps, sneak past them.

Also, once you get out of Korthos, you'll find many more items that let you use a spell effect once or a few times per rest. These can sometimes broaden your options and capabilities, although the spells produced will be easier for enemies to save against than if they were cast by a player.

Personally, I enjoy playing casters, because you have more options for how to approach any given encounter/quest. Wizards and Clerics, in particular, can change their spell selection in any tavern and at any rest shrine, giving a lot of variety and flexibility.

[Kreaper]

You played WoW and think the DDO combat is boring? I don't quite know what to say about that. I recently took a six month vacation from DDO and played WoW with a friend. Never again. Not only is the combat boring, the game has to be the most eye-gougingly redundant thing I have ever done in my life. I just fell asleep talking about it.

First off, if you are going to just hold your mouse button down, you might as well be in auto-attack. If you are going to stay in auto-attack, you might as well be playing WoW. Use the active click features. It will help. Next, try a caster. That will provide a little more challenge. Finally, if you want buttons to mash, play a Monk or Pally. Monks are all button mashing and Pallies are dang close to it.

Most of all, welcome and have fun!

[Kreaper]

Move around while fighting. This isn't WoW, you don't have to stand still. You can physically dodge enemy attacks by moving out of the way (particularly effective for avoiding ray spells from enemy casters). You can jump over enemies, lure them into traps, sneak past them.

Also, once you get out of Korthos, you'll find many more items that let you use a spell effect once or a few times per rest. These can sometimes broaden your options and capabilities, although the spells produced will be easier for enemies to save against than if they were cast by a player.

Personally, I enjoy playing casters, because you have more options for how to approach any given encounter/quest. Wizards and Clerics, in particular, can change their spell selection in any tavern and at any rest shrine, giving a lot of variety and flexibility.

And what he said.

Sorry, my sleep aid is starting to work and my brain is stuck in auto-duh.

[morticianjohn]

No matter what class you choose there are going to be certain quests which are boring. IMHO it's more common amongst the melée classes even including ranger and rogue. Still there are things you can do to make things better. UMD is one way to give your toon other things to do. Clickies are very important in this game so find some solid fog Clickies and haste Clickies or pots for your tank. Get used to the fighter attack boost clicky, trip, stunning blow, or whatever else you can get. If you're not clicking something on every enemy then you're doing it wrong.

Or you could roll a nuker type caster but the low level stuff will still likely be boring

[Arsont]

My main suggestion would be to level a bit, if you're going with a ranger or fighter. For the first couple levels, most melee play the exact same way: Hold button, kill monster. Move, hold, kill. Rinse and repeat. Now, you can mix that up a bit. For example, if you solo, try kiting with your ranger. Grab a bow, shoot the ugly, run around behind him, shoot. Maybe switch to melee and whack him once in a while (Most rangers are good at both melee and ranged). Or better yet, grab multiple mobs with ranged, then swap to melee and beat all of them down at once. On your fighter, similar thing. Grab a greataxe or something else big, run down a hallway screaming your head off, whacking everything in sight once or twice. Soon enough you'll have a big group of baddies you can just beat on. It's even more fun if they can actually start to scare you and get your hp down. It's the "thrill of the hunt" that gets you through the low levels.

Of course, that takes a little bit of imagination and the willpower to push your toon to do things that might otherwise kill them. If you simply want to do more physically, then you might want to try to play a caster. Running around throwing spells is fun on a caster (Might want to try sorc first, as they're a bit easier to spam spells with). Or, depending on your skill level, you could try a battle cleric. Those tend to take a bit of micromanaging though, and are more challenging in groups.

Finally, if you really want to play a clicky based class, you could try rolling a paladin (Provided you get past level 4). Or, you could play a monk, if you don't mind plopping down however much they cost now. Both those classes rely on juggling several abilities at once (Especially once you get to level 6 or so). Paladins rely on Smites, Divine Sacrifice and several short term buffs to keep their damage up. Monks have ki, and to gain ki you -must- kill stuff. Ki lets you spam elemental strikes, line up and use finishers and to use monk abilities.

TL;DR? Level up some. Find a way to make the game more challenging. Do harder quests, do quests with groups, change how you play. If you don't like rangers or fighters, try another class (Sorc or paladin might be best). Good luck on whatever you choose.

[Geodude07]

Wow and most other mmos are mind blowingly boring compared to ddo in my opinion. You run up to something and auto click, you trade blows and use a few skills, and if you try and move or dodge you dont attack efficiently anymore and its pretty much meaningless.

In ddo you can jump over things, block them with your own body, click each time you want to attack, tumble, and more.

If you are just playing a fighter or a barb though I can kinda understand (especially low level) you pretty much hit something two times and it dies.

My recommendation is to play a monk if you like melee. You get a ton of moves and finishers (sort of like a fighting game) and you need more twitch reflexes than most classes if you play right. Sometimes you will fight without having to use much, but its way more engaging that most MMO's

[DrenglisEU]

Wow and most other mmos are mind blowingly boring compared to ddo in my opinion. You run up to something and auto click, you trade blows and use a few skills, and if you try and move or dodge you dont attack efficiently anymore and its pretty much meaningless.

In ddo you can jump over things, block them with your own body, click each time you want to attack, tumble, and more.

If you are just playing a fighter or a barb though I can kinda understand (especially low level) you pretty much hit something two times and it dies.

My recommendation is to play a monk if you like melee. You get a ton of moves and finishers (sort of like a fighting game) and you need more twitch reflexes than most classes if you play right. Sometimes you will fight without having to use much, but its way more engaging that most MMO's

I soooo agree with this statement, DDO has among the best fighting on the WWW at the moment, if you are a old WoW player you should quickly realize that. Try to party with someone who can show you alittle around Korthos and harbour.

That's my 2-cents

[DrenglisEU]

PS! Which server are you on btw?

[Delt]

DDO combat boring? Thats the last topic I'd expect to see here. It's probably the only thing this game gets right (especially in comparison to WoW).

This thread is crying out for a slew of "Ur doing it wrong" pics.

http://nowsourcing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/bush_doing_it_wrong.jpg

[Crystalizer]

classes in ddo offer loads of playstyles, consider that fighters and barbarians are the easiest classes to play, paladins need a bit more attention, rangers offer much options between melee and range fighting, and monks are most probably the most complex melee class you can have in ddo. if you want more versatility bards are interesting, they offer so many options that you will rarely use them all. casters are good too but very binary in ddo : either you own the quest or your spells are almost all useless. healers are healers, as long as you keep dps builds healthy they will be happy.

[FuzzyDuck81]

As others have said, its a very active combat style in ddo - which means a more tactical approach to combat, beyond just targeting specific enemy types, eg. placement (crowd of enemies? back into a wall so you dont get surrounded, or body block the doorway so people behind are safe to use spells & ranged weapons.. unlike other games the AI pathfinding is more complicated as mobs wont just clip through each other) & using the right tool for the job (a +5 flaming burst sword of maiming is all well & good, but against fire-immune blackbone skellies you'd be better off with a cheap +2 holy mace that will bypass their damage reduction). With ranged weapons, at higher levels you wont be doing as much pure damage but instead will be more likely to use stuff like paralysing weapons to provide tactical crowd control by keeping enemies unable to fight while other party members do the disposal.

However, if you want something with a more challenging approach to melee combat, paladins rely on using a lot of activated abilities to maximise their capabilities & if you're VIP or willing to shell out the TP for it, monks pretty much NEED to use a whole variety of different strikes, finishers etc. to really make the most of their abilities - a monk who only ever uses plain attacks is sub-par at best, but a well-played monk thats making the most of stunning blows, buffs/debuffs etc. (especially once they get some of the real high-end items) is an almost ridiculously powerful character that can act as a massive force multiplier for the entire party while simultaneously being very, very hard for enemies to pin down.

[Razcar]

In some ways the OP is correct. Combat is slow - in low levels. Your character moves slowly (no striding items or Haste spell), attacks in slow-motion, Jump skill is low, there's not so many combat options yet etc. I guess this is deliberate, to teach players from "stand-still" games such as WoW to use First Person Shooter controls when fighting (mouse-look and WASD-keys).

It does improve, and when your character gets faster you can move around more, strafe, use the terrain, make the mobs crowd each other, use Stunning Blow, switch to weapons with special effects, use clickies etc.

But having said that, a Fighter is the easiest class to play along with a barbarian. Try a monk for more micro-managing, or one of the caster classes. Or why not a fighting healer, such as a dwarven cleric.

Also think about what you are comparing here: Are you setting your newly hatched DDO characters against your 3.5 years old WoW toons? Of course you will have more options on capped characters - from any game - than ones a extreme low levels.

Give it some time, get your ranger (they get spells so little more options there than the fighter) up to level 10 and then you can make a better comparision.

[dunklezhan]

While DDO offers many more combat options than WoW, at the end of they day even this game is largely like every other MMO out there - you do practically the same thing every fight, and you fight everything till its dead. Rinse, repeat. What I wouldn't give to hit a non-zerging PuG that actually takes advantage of all this game has to offer.

DDO is NOT just combat, but frankly 90% of the time you'd never know. Therefore it is NOT going to suit everyone and the OP should not be villified for saying that, to him/her it doesn't feel quite right.

That said, DDO combat is what's kept me here rather than playing LOTRO full time - LOTRO has all the *other* elements I look for that DDO is lacking: RP supported by a beautiful game engine being the biggie.

DDO combat requires use of your real life reflexes in a way no other MMO I've encountered does, and I'm not just talking about the hardcore 'twitchers' as they're called here. Knowing when to jump back out of the way, when to press the attack, spotting an attack winding up that is worth attempting to block (assuming your latency lets you do this in time which mine doesn't), when to pull, *how* to pull, when to switch to a weapon that's more effective, when its not worth losing the second or two to switch rather than keep pounding away with what you have. When to hit your diplomacy/intimdate button, when to use CC and when to break it, when to absolutely *not* use CC, when to run, when to stand and fight etc etc etc.

My (4 year) experience with WoW was that apart from boss fights in instances, combat became the same cycle of button clicks when solo, or the same sequecnce in instances of highlight targets, CC one, pull the rest, let the tank get aggro and then AOE everything.

DDO has a similar feel after a while.... but you CAN change your tactics and switch it up. You can just hold the mouse button down and swing. But if you do that in every fight you're probably going to die, and die often, particularly once you hit about L12.

Advice to OP, as to so many OPs: try permadeath. One day I'll even heed my own advice. They fight tactically, they play to class strengths, they watch each other's backs.

Alternate advice to OP: decide what you want from the game (is it end game raiding? RP? just to be social) and see if you can find a guild that matches on the guild listings for your server.

It'll make things SO much more interesting if you're surrounded by people who want the same things you do.

Final advice for OP: you're not alone. Two of my RL friends felt the same way you did (they also hated that spell points didn't regen on their own, which was the thing that finally swung it for them). They decided the game wasn't for them after about a year, and went to find something else. You may decide the same. No game can be for everyone, don't worry about it. Have a poke around and see if you can find a guild that fits you better, and if not, and you really don't like it... move on.

The game's F2P after all. It'll still be here when you've tried everything else and realised there's nothing else quite like it...

[Anthorin]

In all respects DDO looks well polished.
I've only played about 20 hours.
Not to complain, (who can moan about free?), but is the combat boring in this game or is it just me?

.......

I'm hoping to get more into DDO, but I can only hold the left mouse button down so long....


You know there is an auto-attack mode? You dont need to hold the mouse down. (Of course you may feel this makes it even more boring ;-) )

[FuzzyDuck81]

You know there is an auto-attack mode? You dont need to hold the mouse down. (Of course you may feel this makes it even more boring ;-) )

Though in some situations, particularly with ranged weapons you really DONT want to use auto-attack - the rest of the party will be rather put out with you if you have it switched on & end up hitting the (hostile) thingy that you have to keep alive.. or even more in VON6 & end up shooting Velah.

[MRH]

http://cdn1.knowyourmeme.com/i/2626/original/doing-it-wrong.jpg?1242842328

[Stereosteveo]

Thx for all the replies. Good to see such a large devoted mature community here.

I fully intend to keep playing, and that sounds like what I need to do. I really haven't even grouped yet, and last night I read a rave review of DDO in that the higher level dungeons are completely unlike other MMO's in that the traps/puzzels/encounters/etc. can be very challenging and require a lot of close-knit teamwork. I look foreword to this.

Many people say keep moving, I am 99% sure I read a screen-tip or guide that said moving lowers your rolls, and striking is more accurate standing still. It made it blatantly clear that all the moving around is unnecessary. But I'll try it. (I'm used to casters having to stand still while casting, but mele moving.)

I'm glad to see that several people feel the combat is what keeps them playing DDO. This is promising. I like exhilirating combat, as well as the RPG side of MMO's. And yes, maybe I am guilty of comparing higher level WoW toons to low level DDO toons.

Sure even in WoW my casters had more abilities, and I would expect the same in DOD, but I must say the mele combat was intense also, very intense. On my tank for instance: Rage/Charge(stun)/Slam/Hamtring....then a couple sunders....then maybe Intercept or Intervene to the next mob while leaving that one crippled, repeat then Devestate them all down.......It was like a time warp rush in most encounters. Maybe it had a lot to do with the sound and graphics, but I swear it blew my mind for a long time. It's like you could actually feel the impact through the kybd/mouse. It was very fast pace and I enjoyed the challenge. Same with healing and DPS, a lot to pay attention too, aggro/positioning/encounter phases/etc. Good targeting a must. The last thing I would call WoW is boring, and I've been gaming for 34 years. Yeah OK, so I just hit 40....(ouch!)

But I'm not here to defend WoW. Although I can't believe I've managed to stay away from it for 1.5yrs.. But I'm here to figure out how "I'm doing it wrong" so I can enjoy DDO better, and I have a better sense now. Thanks again for the replies.

My toons are in the 'Cannith' realm for the guy who asked. Bladeslanga (Fighter) and Swyftaros (Ranger).

See you guys (and ladies) around,
-Stv..

[Falecido]

Welcome!

[Cam_Neely]

Thx for all the replies. Good to see such a large devoted mature community here.

DDO is fantastic, but this is the biggest difference I have found from any other MMO.

Yes moving lowers your + to hit, but that becomes less of an issue when you can start hitting on a 2. Lower levels it matters a bit, as you might be missing on rolls of 5 or 6 ect. Your fights might take longer, but its good training for the future levels, and helps you keep your HP up by avoiding hits.

DDO combat is great, and as you get up to levels 10 or so you will notice that more and more. Once you get to 17+ you will see there is a ton more to combat then WoW.

'clickies' are huge as well, and you have to stay on your toes to make sure they are used at the right moments to max your potential.

Enjoy!

[Xithos]

WoW combat was what drove me away; lots of cool stuff in that game but the combat put me to sleep compared to DDO. Combat is the one thing this game got right and the reason most people that are here still play. Whether or not you will enjoy the game is going to be heavily dependant on whether or not you like the combat. If you like it enough, you can look past the other problems with DDO.

[little_me]

well, moving does give you -4 to hit. (unless you take a feat to counter it or three since it's line, "spring attack" i think)
at low levels, below 6 or so, you can kill almost everything in all quests, solo, with ranged weapon. (as ranger anyway)

and while moving gives you penalties to hit, it helps you avoid following:

-if you are surrounded, they get bonuses if they attack you from sides or behind. (so moving IS heavily recommended, prolongs your life)
-avoid some of the special attacks. (namely, i seem to be able to avoid almost all of wolf/cat types trip attacks, which are pretty much ray type.(jump at you, thus if you are not there, not tripped)) other humanoids do it with with sweep like attack though which is harder to avoid.
-you get bonuses to hit if you flank them (side or behind) it wont work well 1vs1 but with group against you... well.. someone there is ALWAYS turned wrong way.

that is about all i can think of right now. benefits of moving are many. not moving? many also, each has their own situational good and bad sides.

[Cloista]

Welcome, from another ex-WoWer (been off Wow 2 years nearly now, been on DDO since it went F2P in Sept 09 so been here a good 16 months now).

I actually went back to WoW for a trial of Cata (my main there was a Rogue) and I didn't even last an hour before I logged out, and fired DDO back up, because it felt like I was fighting in treacle. You mention your Warrior feeling fast paced at the time, well, at higher levels you had more to do, so it DID feel faster. But having a capped melee here (and a 17 bard), and a formerly capped (when cap was 80) Rogue and 2 BC capped alts (Tankadin anda 'lock), I can say when you compare the two at equivalent levels, it is DDO which is paced faster, and that's with me having 2 high level characters with very focused abilities (generally 4-5 active skills used frequently, others used for specific events). As everyone else has said, compare like for like, and you'll see the difference.

One major bonus DDO has over WoW also is the sheer customisability of your character, and that makes a lot of difference to how you play it, while there are 'min-max' builds, as is the natuee of all computer games, DDO is far less cookie cutter than WoW.

[Furbitor]

what they said.... plus why stand still and chop like a lumberjack? I gaurantee there is mobs you'll face that will flank u./

if you strike from the sides or behind you get a +2 to hit bonus! and if you let mobs get behind you they get the same!!

why stand still and get hit this is real-time combat. not tree-felling.

[katana_one]

Yes, you will take a minus to your attack roll for moving. But it is often worth it, as mentioned above, as moving may save you from taking damage you didn't need to take. It's situational, and up to you if it's worth it to stand still and slug it out, or to try and avoid being hit and taking a few seconds more to kill him.

Personally, I found it helpful to take my low-level melee characters into quests solo just to practice maneuvering around a single enemy. Also, I would equip sword-and-board regardless of the build so that I could get a really good feel for how blocking worked. Maybe that will help you.

Go into a quest solo and find a single monster to practice on. Don't attack it, let it attack you but try to avoid getting hit by watching for the attack animations and getting out of the way. Run around behind it when it lunges forward. Shield block (shift key) and see if you hear the "thunk" sound effect of the attack impacting your shield and notice how much less damage you take from the hit.

The practice of out-maneuvering a single monster will pay off when you reach the harbor and suddenly find yourself surrounded by half-a-dozen (or more) swarming kobolds. You will be able to side-step them, swing, side-step again, and corral them into a tight-packed herd and prevent them from surrounding you, all the while picking them off one by one.

For me, it's moments like that when the difference in game play is most noticeable and the most fun.

Your mileage may vary.

[Missing_Minds]

Many people say keep moving, I am 99% sure I read a screen-tip or guide that said moving lowers your rolls, and striking is more accurate standing still. It made it blatantly clear that all the moving around is unnecessary. But I'll try it. (I'm used to casters having to stand still while casting, but mele moving.)


Casters do NOT have to stand still in this game. quite the opposite really.

Just like in real life, if you don't move, you are dead. Mobs love to slaughter easy stationary targets.

Use the environment to your advantage. Only force spells have the ablity to track you, other wise dodge, block, and jump to keep your rear alive. (just note, the bunny hopping combat style doesn't work well for melee.)

While moving does lower your attack roll by -4, if you have a high BAB and high str you really don't have much to worry about at mid/end game.

Oh yeah, spells. There is no roll to hit. There are saving throws and line of sight checks.

[Missing_Minds]

I gaurantee there is mobs you'll face that will flank u./


F'n mephits! I hate those suckers.

[ckorik]

Honestly as someone who plays both games I would not call WoW combat boring - or 'stand in one place' with the # of things you have to move out of - avoid - or interrupt.

I think many DDO players who state this either have not played endgame WoW within the last 3 years or are exaggerating to make a point.

DDO combat is based on first person shooter type movement - at low levels you will *not* see much in the way of tactics being used unless you play with a group of veterans who are used to working together.

Some examples:

Low level casters can cast an AOE mez (CC the entire room!) however most low level players pay such little attention to what they are hitting that it is worthless to cast in a PUG. Same thing with Web - you can kite monsters through the web until they become stuck - however that requires people to pay attention - and move the mobs through the webs over and over - and for the other caster to not burning hands the web (thus destroying it).

Melee types can trip - and a well oiled group will keep damage to a minimum by not allowing the monsters to stand for more than a few seconds - however most new people don't understand how powerful this skill is.

HOWEVER....

This game (at least IMO) is not about the combat.

It's about the dungeons. Frankly the *best* - most well designed content, traps, encounters, flavor, in *any* game I've played hands down.

No dungeon in WoW has ever made me jump out of my seat in surprise or be afraid to touch a chest. DDO does that constantly.

The designers in this game are the best in the industry and something that I hope they continue to capitalize upon.

[HAL]

On my tank for instance: Rage/Charge(stun)/Slam/Hamtring....then a couple sunders....then maybe Intercept or Intervene to the next mob while leaving that one crippled, repeat then Devestate them all down.......It was like a time warp rush in most encounters. Maybe it had a lot to do with the sound and graphics, but I swear it blew my mind for a long time. It's like you could actually feel the impact through the kybd/mouse.

I also play WoW and it does have very good special affects and sound affects. I don't have a high level melee in DDO, but it doesn't seem that they have the same kind of sound affects that WoW has.

But once you understand more of the mechanics of DDO, you'll see how you can move to avoid spells/ranged/flanking and not interrupt your own damage. This game is very twitchy (almost too much for me).

[bonscott87]

Welcome.

One thing I noticed you said is it sounds like you're using a premade "path" for your toons. Don't do that. Always do custom and build the character the way you want too. The paths aren't always the best and doesn't allow you to customize to your style of play. I mean, you can be a Barbarian that uses healing wands if you want. :)

[Coldin]

Didn't see anyone else mention this.

But for your first character, I would stay away from any Archer or Tank builds. Using bows and shields will be very boring coming from games like WoW.

My advice is to roll up a Fighter or Ranger (or maybe a rogue or monk), and go with Two Weapon Fighting. It's a much faster attack style and is a lot more flourishy.

Alternative, go for one of the spellcaster classes. They can be pretty weak at low levels, but should be more exciting.

Just don't expect DDO to be anything like WoW. The combat system is entirely different.

[Natashaelle]

There are a few different combat styles, and staying put and whacking at mobs is just one of them.

Ranged combat is a bit flawed currently, and it's basically an art form to use it a little more effectively.

Mêlée, well there's basic tanking like you've been doing (often supplemented with combat maneuvers like trip etc by specialists), combination of WASD/arrows movement and a combination of mob avoidance/pulling/other tactical positioning, intimi-tanking, all-out 2-handed/2-weapon fighting DPS, and etc ... all of which with mouse-look, first-person look, and 3rd person view variants ; as well as the point-and-click and keyboard shortcut variants.

It could also be you're finding it "boring" simply because you've brought some of your old WoW playing style into your DDO gaming, so that even as a new player you're finding things to be somewhat familiar ? :)

[asphodeli]

OP: In short, don't just stand there, do something!

[VonAlmerth]

Honestly as someone who plays both games I would not call WoW combat boring - or 'stand in one place' with the # of things you have to move out of - avoid - or interrupt.

I think many DDO players who state this either have not played endgame WoW within the last 3 years or are exaggerating to make a point.



This x100. Anyone who has played Wow pvp at end level with any seriousness would know that Wow is anything but stationary and dull. Try 40+ keybinds and custom macros. Try actually getting out of Brill before forming an educated opinion. :P




This game (at least IMO) is not about the combat.

It's about the dungeons. Frankly the *best* - most well designed content, traps, encounters, flavor, in *any* game I've played hands down.

No dungeon in WoW has ever made me jump out of my seat in surprise or be afraid to touch a chest. DDO does that constantly.

The designers in this game are the best in the industry and something that I hope they continue to capitalize upon.

Again, this x100.

Where DDO excels is in atmosphere, which it has in spades. From creepy sound effects to bursting sarcophagi - I too have genuinely jumped and been startled by some of the scripted elements here.

DDO also has a fairly good collision mechanic and AI making the combat very movement heavy; casters actually trying to gain distance from your melee attacks, for instance. Which is a subtle but important difference from Wow combat.

At the end of the day it's about your own impression of it though I would urge you to get further into the game before forming a conclusion. Like Wow, unless you gain full access to your characters abilities and the content in the game you'll never really know with certainty the true potential of the game.

Oh and +1 to Ckorik for the informed and considered response above.

[Blank_Zero]

The only time I find combat to be boring is when I have to play beat down on some the high HP epic mobs like malicia or cratoes. Other than that, I love the ddo combat system. My favorite thing in this game still is the orthon spawns in vod, jumping back and forth between mobs to take em down as fast possible while the tank holds down the boss in the corner of the room for everyone else.

Ddo combat is really about teamwork, not button mashing. Once you get up there in level you will start to see this. Especially if you can find some groups of other fairly new players who want to explore as much as you do.

[DToNE]

Combat in any MMO/RPG is "boring" in comparison to fighting games like Street Fighter. Still, it's respectable.

The game's combat will constantly throw twists at you. One such example is when they start throwing stages with a lot of oozes and rust monsters at you; monsters that break your weapons very quickly every time you hit them.

If it's not the monsters it's the terrain. One -MAJOR- example of the terrain being more dangerous than the fight is a raid more commonly known as "Abbot". The puzzles kill more players than the boss himself; most of the agony in this raid originates from failures in the puzzles.

That and you're very low leveled, so it is only natural you have not encountered elite traps yet. A lot of the traps in this game are creative and fatal. There are quite a few multi-tiered traps that will make you think "oh dear gawd, how do I get through this?". They taunt you into these situations as well; one example of this is a switch you must activate to progress in the quest that has roughly 20-25 spikes to impale you with, you have no evasion, and no rogue to disarm (sadly, I was on my Bard in one such situation; my only solution was the "goodbye cruel world" approach).

And if those don't kill you... your friends and guildies will. Right when you finish setting a bomb (that does 1000-2000 damage) your friend/guildmate dances you as you watch time bomb start to flash ever so faster per second. Once you blow up, you star plotting against them and trying to blow them up as well. Grease your feet under your feet on top of an epic trap, Grease your AFK character off a cliff, Grease you right before an important jump, etc etc etc. Overall, your friends/guildmates can be the biggest obstacles in a quest.

Still, overall, it's only boring if you seek out reasons to make it boring. Lots of rooms for entertainment in this game.

[Calebro]

I'll echo some of the others here. OK, almost all of them.
I despise most MMOS simply because combat is amazingly boring. Stand here. Beat on the mob until one of you is dead. Repeat. With the exception of some/most bosses, this is not the case in DDO. You're still too low level to really notice it, but this game has what is quite literally the most dynamic combat of any game {MMO} I've ever played.
That dynamic combat and the real time decision making required is what keeps me here as opposed to going back to platforms.