New Player - Dumb Question re: Guilds

[Gloriana]

Hi I am a new player in DDO, still feeling my way around the game (which I am enjoying very much so far).

Please forgive the dumb question, but I am curious...besides the socialization/community/friendship aspect, what "role" do guilds serve in DDO, ie: besides socialization, what advantage is there to joining a guild?

I am only familiar with two other MMORPGs...in one of them, the main purpose of guilds was to have members to raid regularly with, as well as access to a guild bank (wow), in the other game, the main purpose was to have members to raid with, to help with pvp, and to help gather materials for crafting (lineage2).

So I am wondering what the main general role/purpose guilds play here in DDO?

[Lorien_the_First_One]

I think you've it upon it. Social and grouping (raid and non raid) are the main reasons for most people. If you find a guild that has a similar play style to what you are looking for it increases your chances of logging in and finding a like minded group to run whatever you want to run that day. Some guilds are very casual, there are RP guilds, permadeath guilds, and hard core raiding guilds. Whatever you want, its probably out there. And while we don't have guild banks, in most guilds you will find guildies are very generous sharing things with those in need.

[Gloriana]

Thanks very much for the quick reply

Another dumb question...what is permadeath?

[Sohryu]

Permadeath is a style of playing that some here have adopted, in which if your character dies in game, then that character gets deleted and you start all over again. Most PD guilds also have rules about buying consumables and using the auction house too. It encourages a slower, more strategical kind of gameplay.

There are PD guilds on all the servers if you are interested.

[Gloriana]

ah, I see...that is really interesting.

At what level can one start to raid at? Are there specific requirements to raid (such as class or gear)? And how many people are required for most raids?

(sorry for so many questions, but really appreciate the answers )

[Sohryu]

ah, I see...that is really interesting.

At what level can one start to raid at? Are there specific requirements to raid (such as class or gear)? And how many people are required for most raids?

(sorry for so many questions, but really appreciate the answers )

Raids are 12-player groups, although they can be and often are short-manned.

The earliest, most accessible raid is Tempest Spine, a level 10 raid. There is no repeat timer on it.

There's a great thread on getting raid ready here: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=168355

[Lorien_the_First_One]

ah, I see...that is really interesting.

At what level can one start to raid at? Are there specific requirements to raid (such as class or gear)? And how many people are required for most raids?

(sorry for so many questions, but really appreciate the answers )

Keep asking

Raids allow 12 players, most can be completed with less, but the loot system in raids encourages the full 12 so generally that's what most people run with. The two lowest level raids are:

The lowest level raid is Tempest Spine, its a really fun raid, more like a really big dungeon. It's usually run by L8-10s. There are no prerequs for this raid and it can be run as often as you want.

The next one after that is Vault of the Night. It's 4 regular quests which need to be run to qualify you for the VON5/6 raid. I'm not crazy about the final fight, but the Von1-5 series itself is a lot of fun. VON is typical of the rest of the raids, its got some special bound end loot and is on a roughly 3 day timer before you can try again. You can see this raid run by L8-12s generally.

No special gear or classes are required to join any raid. Some raids do have specific needs but only 1 or 2 in the party need to fill that roll. (For example, a minimum 1 rogue to disable some nasty traps, or in VON5, 2 chars of any class with high wisdom to unlock gates). In some raids specific weapons are helpful, for example when you reach the shroud at L14ish, Transmuters of Pure Good are really helpful on melees and Vorpals are a must. No worries about grinding for the perfect build before raiding though

[Gloriana]

Thanks a lot for all the info (and for not making me feel dumb! hehe). Being only lvl 2, I have a ways to go before I can raid I guess, but looking forward to it