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.

[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]

[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!