Producer's Letter

[Cetus]

It's a little weird that people go on like not having tiered loot was some big change of direction for the game. Relative to the time that the game has been around, difficulty tiered loot wasn't really here for very long.

High Road, Druids Deep, and Shadowfell. That's really all the content that had difficulty tiered loot. Gianthold didn't have tiered loot until it was made epic, and that's only because it was done during that window of time.

Well, before epic difficulty was tiered we had just **epic** loot. The quests were hard, and the loot was only available in those hard quests.

I'd like to resurrect that philosophy for EE, and make weaker versions of otherwise powerful loot for the EN/EH dwelling community.

Everybody wins. (unless the EN/EH dwellers begin to complain that they want the EE version loot without actually running EE, in which case it becomes obnoxious and unreasonable on their part. Let them have their stuff, us EE folks want something for ourselves too).

What would change in the game if RIGHT NOW, every item that has been recently released gets one extra upgrade, and this upgraded version becomes only available in the EE versions of their respective quests?

Nothing bad happens to the EN/EH folks, they continue their happy lives as nothing ever happened. But, suddenly, a lot of end game players will return to content that they otherwise would have never considered, on EE.

If somebody doesn't think so, I encourage the devs to try this experiment one day.

[fmalfeas]

The problem would come in if the EE loot was so much more powerful that the EE crew started griping that new quests (not just on EE) need to be balanced to challenge them. Or if the EN/EH stuff was so much worse than the EE that you wonder why anyone bothers at all.

The first instance is more likely though, as I've seen it happen before. (I know I mention it fairly regularly, but there's a lot for any MMO to learn from Everquest 1's long history. Like...oh...Gates of Discord and Secrets of Faydwer's launches, where they tried to challenge raiders, who's gear was at minimum 200% better than everyone elses, in the group content.)

[Lanadazia]

I feel most raid items fit this category, since you are never guaranteed a complete list of the named items on your 20th. I've heard of ppl that have done more than 80 DQ without getting their base Torq let alone upgrading it to Epic. That's plenty OMG rare. What you are asking for is items with the rarity of ARTIFACTS. While I will grant you DDO is leaning toward this with the powercreep, they aren't quite there yet and such powerful items should be limited to one per server, disappears from your account after a month? a year? so someone else has a miniscule chance of weilding the ultra-rare item. Quest equipment really shouldn't fall into this category.

well true, it is super rare, but if something lost its value due to powercreep (just look at the new epic stuff in necro4!) its not worth the grind.
also most demon queen epic gear is no more than twink gear, making it even more obsolete, since there is stuff easier to get, that is even better too

[painkiller3]

I feel most raid items fit this category, since you are never guaranteed a complete list of the named items on your 20th. I've heard of ppl that have done more than 80 DQ without getting their base Torq let alone upgrading it to Epic. That's plenty OMG rare. What you are asking for is items with the rarity of ARTIFACTS. While I will grant you DDO is leaning toward this with the powercreep, they aren't quite there yet and such powerful items should be limited to one per server, disappears from your account after a month? a year? so someone else has a miniscule chance of weilding the ultra-rare item. Quest equipment really shouldn't fall into this category.

The most recent raids have a guaranteed list of all items on your 20th. I feel the Torc drop rate is appropriate for raid gear. Quest equipment shouldn't but the raid equipment should be a level more powerful than that...

[JOTMON]

It's a little weird that people go on like not having tiered loot was some big change of direction for the game. Relative to the time that the game has been around, difficulty tiered loot wasn't really here for very long.

High Road, Druids Deep, and Shadowfell. That's really all the content that had difficulty tiered loot. Gianthold didn't have tiered loot until it was made epic, and that's only because it was done during that window of time.

How about
Shroud Greensteel.. the beginning of tiered loot.
Base item, Tier 1, Tier2, Tier3. weapons/items that were useful at each tier level of crafting.
Each phase of Shroud was more difficult than the last..when this first came out successful completion of all sections was quite difficult and often items were crafted/upgraded while running through the raid.

or

Heroic Abbott.
Removing the taint of evil on Ascension Chamber items.. like Litany using Seals of the Black Abbot that only dropped on Hard or Elite difficulty.

or
Alchemical from LOB/MA.


Epic Gianthold was a good system from my perspective.
It allowed people to run all difficulties as appropriate get their items that would be upgradeable with various ingredients that dropped in scaled quantity within the raid.
So farming Enorm would take longer than running EH, and essentially a finished product running EE.
20th Endreward list gave choice of bottom tier items that could be upgraded..
all-in-all a nice clean system and not completely random.
Base items were decent, upgrades added minor bumps, or in most cases added augment slots. which is also a form of desirable upgrade.

[Abcchef]

Pretty excited for the future of the game. Ty for the time taken to talk to us.

As far as the debate about loot and difficulty... I really do think that epic elite should have some special loot of some type. Be it a unique item or slightly better stats or whatever.

I don't really do much raiding so I cant speak to that, but as far as quests epic elite doesn't seem all that hard anyway. I pug it all the time.

[Aelonwy]

The most recent raids have a guaranteed list of all items on your 20th. I feel the Torc drop rate is appropriate for raid gear. Quest equipment shouldn't but the raid equipment should be a level more powerful than that...

I didn't know that about the most recent epic raids... in that case the fault lies with the devs choosing to do that.

[Belgarath22]

All seem very nice, keep the hard work!
Happy new year to all

[Marupal]

I didn't find out Mabar was cancelled until I logged in to do Mabar. I wasn't the only one who voiced an opinion.

That would have been disappointing to find out that way.

What I was getting at is that there's hope in the Twitch episodes. Even if it involves a complete rewrite. They did something as cool as Mabar once, they can do it again.

[liriel01]

Greetings,

My name is Robert Ciccolini, although many of you might know me as “Severlin” on the forums or from podcasts. I am the Executive Producer for Dungeons and Dragons Online. I wanted to take this opportunity to look back on our previous year and look forward to the year ahead.

The last year has been eventful, and looking back we have seen many additions to the game.

In the last year we added lots of new content including three new raids. Our characters were able to explore the Haunted Halls as we had the opportunity to present that classic adventure to our players.

Player were able to band together to form more powerful guilds and update their guild airships and amenities.
High level adventurers were able to experience more powerful versions of some of some well known heroic content. We revisited both Three Barrel Cove and the most powerful area of the Orchard of the Macabre.

This past year has seen changes that have allowed for powerful new builds. Heavy armor is no longer relegated to niche builds and has instead taken its place on the front line of the fight. The year saw large improvements for Bard, Paladin and Barbarian, as well as a few improvements for Ranger and Rogue. We added a new Bard tree with Swashbuckler, and the new Vanguard tree is now available to Fighter and Paladin. We also added the Harper Agent enhancement tree. This year also saw changes to help some heroic abilities scale into Epic levels, and a rebalance of the melee oriented Epic Enhancement trees.

The Mirror of Glamering was created to give players the freedom and flexibility to capture the look of their favorite weapons and armors from the game’s treasure. We have already seen players scouring the game for their favorite items to update their style.
Players in hard and elite content faced a new challenge in the form of Monster Champions.

As excited as we are about the additions to the game, the true joy of working on our game has been the involvement of the community. The feedback on features and additions has been extremely helpful. Our players are a passionate bunch who clearly love the game as much as we do, and we love reading feedback, hearing what you love about the game, watching your videos, answering questions during live casts, and hearing stories about your in game adventures.

In the last year we have had some great people provide terrific feedback on the player’s council. I wanted to give those players a shout out for all of their time and enthusiasm. We are working hard on creating our player council for the coming year and we are both excited to hear some new voices and sad to see the current players pass the proverbial baton to the new guard.
Looking forward to the new year we have lots of exciting plans to share.

Temple of Elemental Evil
Our next big update will include the Temple of Elemental Evil. We are all excited to present this classic dungeon to the players. The Temple grounds are quite large! Although players will be presented with a quest to accomplish when they enter the temple, there will be many dangers and treasures to find if the players take the time to properly explore the vast network of temple halls and chambers.

Monster Champions and Mysterious Fragments
Characters facing the game’s toughest challenges have encountered a wide variety of Monster Champions - creatures that have increased skill and power. What is causing this increase in power? As characters investigate the source of this newfound strength they will begin to discover that many of these creatures carry Mysterious Fragments that seem to resonate with strange magical power. Could these fragments be causing these champions and their rise in power? What use could these fragments have for those looking for power?

Monster champions will have a chance to drop Mysterious Fragments. Players can gather these fragments and various agents and interested parties might trade them for a variety of rewards. Rumors of groups offering scrolls, potions, cosmetic items, and even prestigious and rare pets have begun to surface. Organizations do not have unlimited resources. As factions vie for power some agents and rewards might change as the year progresses.

Warlock
We are looking into adding a new class during the year, and we are considering the Warlock class. The Warlock creates powerful eldritch blasts to destroy enemies in addition to a variety of spells to aid them in their adventures.

New Storylines
The game will introduce a new story arc that will take the players to Shavarath for a new adventure pack. Characters on these adventures will work to prevent a catastrophe. That story will continue as the year progresses to bring the players once again to the Vale of Twilight. New threats have entered the Vale and more powerful challenges await in this chapter of the Vale of Twilight’s history. Defeating this new threat will require you to enter the more dangerous and powerful Vale of Twilight as you increase your level to 30 and obtain new treasures. More powerful items also await from the corrupted Greensteel found in the Vale after recent events have increased the magical power of the area.

Level 30
Characters will be able to gain experience to increase their level to 30. Characters who reach this milestone will gain additional feats and power, and they will be able to wield and even construct new weapons and treasures to face the foes that challenge them.

New Festivals
The coming year will bring new festivals; a mimic event where players have to hunt down mimics that have infested all the corners of the land. The autumn will also bring a new seasonal festival that will haunt your favorite places and provide characters with more treats than tricks.


These are just some of the ideas and plans we are looking into for the next year. We don’t want to spoil too much about our new monsters, new treasures and other goodies we have planned. Our goal is to present players with a taste of the ideas we are working on, and we also want to remain vigilant to the requests and feedback from the players. Your ideas are important to us, and your feedback will help guide us over the course of the year.


Robert “Severlin” Ciccolini

I still have the original game and a computer that can play it. All the patches are on the computer as are several games that can't be played on the faster computers of today. It was one of my favorite adventures, however, I would like to know if you are still thinking of a new area that includes Waterdeep, Silverymoon and the cities along that coast? I know the problems of building a new area, but I just would like to explore the realms that where such a big part of the original gold box series of which I still own all of them including the Baldurs Gate series. the D&D and DDO mix of areas and rules is a wealth of gaming as yet unexplored. Additionally, it would be nice to expand on the Drow areas: the cities. Imagine being able to enter House Baenre, Do Urden and fight against or with a house against another. Compete in challenges against the Drow schools of Fighting, Sorcery, and Religion. Monsters like the pets of Lloth: the giant spiders who are casters of magic. Anyway, just a thought to hope the game last to level 50. My husband retires 12/15/2016 and he will need something to do while I am at work. He has been playing religiously since I hooked him 7 years ago. Thanks for listening.

[AMADHA]

Warlock
We are looking into adding a new class during the year, and we are considering the Warlock class. The Warlock creates powerful eldritch blasts to destroy enemies in addition to a variety of spells to aid them in their adventures.

Robert “Severlin” Ciccolini

Great. So its obvious that magic users are the focus of DDO developers... so how will this actually be different from the rest of them? We now have sorcerers, wizards, druids, clerics, and artificers as magical classes and fighters, barbarians, paladins, rangers, bards, monks, and rogues as 'non-magical' classes. From my experience with the various "festivals" where you need to kill stuff to get stuff... the latter group seems to be killing a whole lot less for the same duration of time than the former. In a dungeon, this might be different I don't know... I'm still trying to figure out how to run in a tight circle and whack stuff. While I may be playing tempest rangers wrong, or have otherwise messed mine up, he has a tougher time killing stuff than my cleric or artificer and in surviving a dungeon. Plus, you would think that an elf would be a tougher, not weaker, ranger from the blurbs, but that is not how it is. The Harper tree seems to be a trick to dilute AP use... and I also don't understand what half of its enhancements are doing to make my character better. (hint: better hints) So I don't see the need for a "Warlock" class, especially since, technically, a Warlock is a MALE sorcerer so are we restricting its gender to male only? (On that topic... why does Warforged have a gender on character creation anyway?)

I'd rather see Rangers, particularly and melee in general, get more tweaks that make them a bit more viable as character classes, particularly if you need/want to solo. Me, I like picking enemies off at distance and still being able to kill them up close, but the higher the ranger gets in DDO content the less successful at doing so they seem to become. (My experience thus far. BTW, my highest level, to date, achieved is 14. I would suggest that "at level" killing and surviving difficulty should remain the same throughout the game.) So you have to kite like crazy and maybe survive if your stupid hireling remembers to follow you (they could really use a few AI mods, like "watch that guy's HP"). Also, as levels go up you kind of need to play every dungeon twice or more... one or more times to die and modify how you approach your last death point. Is this by design? Because it sort of takes all the fun out of things after your fourth or seventh death especially since you have to "do the whole darn thing over from the start. This is really a pain when the quest is a long one.

Verdict.... Warlock: Not impressed. Lots more could use work before you add, yet another MU class.

[The_Human_Cypher]

Mabar was the catalyst for many longtime customers to reconnect with DDO. It was a stepping stone.

I found out Mabar was cancelled when I logged in last October to play Mabar. This was after months of not playing DDO. I would have played for several months afterwards. My interest would have started up again. I would have renewed my subscription.

I'm not the only VIP who feels cancelling Mabar called for a second look at DDO's direction and not liking what I was seeing.

First and foremost, DDO is a business. Cancelling Mabar was a bad business decision. Why? You had a built-in Mabar clientele who was ready, willing, able, and paying. The smart business decision was to fix Mabar, add a few new twists to it, and keep the customer happy.

There is a new Halloween event to replace Mabar for October 2015. Mabar was one of my favorite events as well.

[The_Human_Cypher]

Pretty excited for the future of the game. Ty for the time taken to talk to us.

As far as the debate about loot and difficulty... I really do think that epic elite should have some special loot of some type. Be it a unique item or slightly better stats or whatever.

I don't really do much raiding so I cant speak to that, but as far as quests epic elite doesn't seem all that hard anyway. I pug it all the time.

I think DDO keeps getting better and will stand the test of time against other MMOs. Even WoW is starting to move toward free to play in order to keep its player base.

[General_Gronker]

Roll a 20 no hp limit under level 20 sure. Not on epic levels tho.

Yes on epic levels also. Being epic should provide no protection. But then, neither should freaking death ward.

a new starter area in the FR (it could be L7 for veteran player play, since in FR are not so many low lv quests available) and waterdeep, undermountain and skullport-

No. There's already too much FR content in a game that's supposed to take place IN EBERRON. If they're going to continue to expand outside of Eberron (which they shouldn't, since there's still tons of unused Eberron), then it needs to be settings other than the Realms.

The Haunted House could be completely dark except for one source of illumination carried by the players (e.g., a pumpkin lantern) similar to the Rainbow in the Dark quest.

That is quite possibly the worst idea I've heard for the game in a while.

Boooo I think EVERYONE would have wanted Anauroch instead of the madness series

You can think that, but you're wrong. They're both poor options.

EE runs are longer duration, use costly resources, party planning, best destiny, high risk of failure

Then the destiny system shouldn't be set up in the stupid way that it is. Why waste the best XP on a destiny you've already maxed?

What is the motivation for your so called "lesser player" to better themselves

That's a crappy goal. It's a game, the goal is fun. If challenging yourself is fun, go to it. The motivation is the desire to challenge yourself. Run quests unbuffed or ungeared. It's not the job of the Devs to get players to "better themselves". It's to provide a fun experience.

The accountants have taken over DDO, only 26 more runs of MOD before i'm *guaranteed* to have everything i'll ever need from the raid.

Horse hockey. The game was supposed to not be about the grind, yet it grows ever more about the grind. Moving away from that and back to the original goal is a good thing. Other games can provide you with all the mindless grinding that you crave.

i prefer to think of collecting virtual treasure as the lottery as opposed to filling a jar with coins.

Except that's not what you're describing or endorsing. If you really thought that way, then what you would endorse is randomly, amazingly rare dropped random loot that you have no control over acquiring other than running the quests. No farming for ingredients or any of that.

i think that there should be some stuff that is really ,really rare like the eSOS or the eRing of Spell Storing or whatever else.

So you agree then that these should be random, fully developed ultra rare drops then? Good, glad we settled that.

They tried to fix Mabar for quite a while. They surrendered.

Yep. Mabar kicked their collective posteriors.


Temple of Elemental Evil: I don't have faith that you will pull this off well and no Hommlett? Bah. Will it at least be level appropriate (levels 1-8)? If you were smart, you'd include Hommlett as a new starter area, and use the ToEE to level players up to 8 or so. Instead, I imagine we're actually just going to get something that is ToEE-inspired instead.

Monster Champions and Mysterious Fragments: The Champions are already a poorly implemented idea. The game really didn't need additional meat bags of hit points. Adding another collectible to the game is just dumb. And it broke the game.

Warlock: Sure, fine, whatever. AFTER YOU ADD PSIONICS!

Epic Vale: Unnecessary and a bit lazy. Stop coming back to old areas for "new" content.

Level 30: Fine, but please stop there unless you're going to go old school into Immortal Character territory.

This letter doesn't fill me with hope for the future of the game.

[NyteByrd1017]

That would have been disappointing to find out that way.

What I was getting at is that there's hope in the Twitch episodes. Even if it involves a complete rewrite. They did something as cool as Mabar once, they can do it again.

I completely agree.

[Infiltraitor]

Congrats on the promotion. Now, back to the other stuff.

Epic Vale - Great idea. It costs less money to update old content than it does to produce entirely new content. However, it doesn't sell Adventure packs. As your financial analyst, I highly recommend making the drops either unbound or BTCOE. Here is how the math works out:

Tax = 30%
Price of Shard = 5 TP
Price of Adventure Pack = 850 TP
Item Value = X

850 = (5 TP) (0.3 Tax) (X)

Solving for X, we reach a value of 566 shards.
If the total value of the limiting reagents for Epic Greensteel crafting approaches 566 astral shards, the sale of the ingredients on the shard exchange will generate revenue approaching the sale of an adventure pack. Also keep in mind that having a diverse set of choices of the item effects means that endgamers will need multiple sets of Greensteel to optimize their builds for various situations. Which means more sales, which means those vampire overlords at Warner Brothers will be less evil.


We need Heroic Greensteel Orbs, Shields, and Rune Arms. AND HANDWRAPS.
We need EPIC Greensteel Orbs, Shields, and Rune Arms. AND HANDWRAPS.


Don't be afraid of making use of rare item effects already in game instead of making some brand new broken thing.

Elasticity: The +1 Critical Multiplier on 19-20 is a great way to add scaling damage without having broken crit profiles like the Deathnip.
Blunt Trauma: +1 Critical Multiplier on 19-20.
Life Devouring: Greater Restoration needs to make a comeback.
Vampirism: Everything is BYOH anyway. Maybe Greater Vampirism.
Lifeshield and Demonic Shield: It's like DR, but better and stacks with DR.
Reinforced Fists: Monks will need love too.
Enhanced Ki: More Monk love.
Rough Hide: Primal AC Bonus.
Alchemical Bonus: Remember update 11? It's the only way to get Alchemical +2 Constitution but the item sucks so hard nobody uses it.

[Jayna50]

Could these fragments be causing these champions and their rise in power? What use could these fragments have for those looking for power?
I am 64 and retired and far from being a whiz kid at the game. After three and a half years of playing DDO I have good, sturdy characters and I am a solid player, but I do not have the skills necessary to solo elite quests and destroy these dungeons. I need to be in a party, and none of my toons can stand the onslaught of the champions. It was hard enough for me to get through the quests with a party without the champions and would die about 2-3 times a week. Now, I die about 2-3 times a quest and this is no fun. Normal difficulty is boring and I can destroy these like elite players can destroy elite difficulty quests. I really enjoyed playing as it gave me a lot to do in retirement. Now it is absolutely no fun at all. I will miss DDO an awful lot.

[Lanadazia]

Great. So its obvious that magic users are the focus of DDO developers... so how will this actually be different from the rest of them? We now have sorcerers, wizards, druids, clerics, and artificers as magical classes and fighters, barbarians, paladins, rangers, bards, monks, and rogues as 'non-magical' classes. From my experience with the various "festivals" where you need to kill stuff to get stuff... the latter group seems to be killing a whole lot less for the same duration of time than the former. In a dungeon, this might be different I don't know... I'm still trying to figure out how to run in a tight circle and whack stuff. While I may be playing tempest rangers wrong, or have otherwise messed mine up, he has a tougher time killing stuff than my cleric or artificer and in surviving a dungeon. Plus, you would think that an elf would be a tougher, not weaker, ranger from the blurbs, but that is not how it is. The Harper tree seems to be a trick to dilute AP use... and I also don't understand what half of its enhancements are doing to make my character better. (hint: better hints) So I don't see the need for a "Warlock" class, especially since, technically, a Warlock is a MALE sorcerer so are we restricting its gender to male only? (On that topic... why does Warforged have a gender on character creation anyway?)

I'd rather see Rangers, particularly and melee in general, get more tweaks that make them a bit more viable as character classes, particularly if you need/want to solo. Me, I like picking enemies off at distance and still being able to kill them up close, but the higher the ranger gets in DDO content the less successful at doing so they seem to become. (My experience thus far. BTW, my highest level, to date, achieved is 14. I would suggest that "at level" killing and surviving difficulty should remain the same throughout the game.) So you have to kite like crazy and maybe survive if your stupid hireling remembers to follow you (they could really use a few AI mods, like "watch that guy's HP"). Also, as levels go up you kind of need to play every dungeon twice or more... one or more times to die and modify how you approach your last death point. Is this by design? Because it sort of takes all the fun out of things after your fourth or seventh death especially since you have to "do the whole darn thing over from the start. This is really a pain when the quest is a long one.

Verdict.... Warlock: Not impressed. Lots more could use work before you add, yet another MU class.

obviously you play melee wrongs
casters ARE very powerful in ddo, but they're limited to what they do. like.. it doesnt cost sp to swing that axe right?
i've had several melee and caster lifes and my conclusion is: melees are more consistent in their damage output, casters have a higher dps spike eventually (depending on what they focus on cc/nuke) but, as said earlier, are limited, especially in lower levels!
also a nuker or CC caster that doesnt has a well done build is mostly useless. like you have to tweak very hard to get that high numbers, a high casting score with all the exceptional, insightful and profane bonuses, augments (what is alot if you think of all that spell schools) available
while a melee cannot really be messed up. you might be a little too squishy or your damage output isnt that awesome, but it still works
a messed up caster instead sees 90% of the mobs evading or saving his cc.

so do not tweak melees, since they're easy enough already. also do not nerf casters, cause it takes more to be good at, than a melee!

[MangLord]

Great. So its obvious that magic users are the focus of DDO developers... so how will this actually be different from the rest of them? We now have sorcerers, wizards, druids, clerics, and artificers as magical classes and fighters, barbarians, paladins, rangers, bards, monks, and rogues as 'non-magical' classes. From my experience with the various "festivals" where you need to kill stuff to get stuff... the latter group seems to be killing a whole lot less for the same duration of time than the former. In a dungeon, this might be different I don't know... I'm still trying to figure out how to run in a tight circle and whack stuff. While I may be playing tempest rangers wrong, or have otherwise messed mine up, he has a tougher time killing stuff than my cleric or artificer and in surviving a dungeon. Plus, you would think that an elf would be a tougher, not weaker, ranger from the blurbs, but that is not how it is. The Harper tree seems to be a trick to dilute AP use... and I also don't understand what half of its enhancements are doing to make my character better. (hint: better hints) So I don't see the need for a "Warlock" class, especially since, technically, a Warlock is a MALE sorcerer so are we restricting its gender to male only? (On that topic... why does Warforged have a gender on character creation anyway?)

I'd rather see Rangers, particularly and melee in general, get more tweaks that make them a bit more viable as character classes, particularly if you need/want to solo. Me, I like picking enemies off at distance and still being able to kill them up close, but the higher the ranger gets in DDO content the less successful at doing so they seem to become. (My experience thus far. BTW, my highest level, to date, achieved is 14. I would suggest that "at level" killing and surviving difficulty should remain the same throughout the game.) So you have to kite like crazy and maybe survive if your stupid hireling remembers to follow you (they could really use a few AI mods, like "watch that guy's HP"). Also, as levels go up you kind of need to play every dungeon twice or more... one or more times to die and modify how you approach your last death point. Is this by design? Because it sort of takes all the fun out of things after your fourth or seventh death especially since you have to "do the whole darn thing over from the start. This is really a pain when the quest is a long one.

Verdict.... Warlock: Not impressed. Lots more could use work before you add, yet another MU class.

I think Turbine has put forth a tremendous effort towards melee classes in 2014, what with the addition of Swashbuckler tree (my favorite thing ever as a rogue aficionado), Paladin revamp, Barbarian revamp, medium/heavy armor and shield adjustments, and Harper tree. I realize Harper tree is kind of a catch-all, but it greatly helps struggling classes with some terrific, all purpose enhancements. The universal melee/ranged/spell power is incredibly handy for virtually all classes, assuming you don't have anything better to spend AP on.

As a TWF character, you may want to look into sets of banishing/smiting/disruption/vorpal weapons. The increased chance of rolling 20s as a TWFer always made those weapons very attractive, and greatly boosts your mob killing abilities.

Mabar did seem to favor a couple specific classes, namely pale masters and monks, but did feature the amazing Cloak of Night that benefits just about everyone. Who doesn't need deathblock, dodge and ghostly miss chance? Crystal Cove is largely friendly towards melee classes, and the Risia event allows equal opportunity for extra icy burst or glaciation effects on a weapon of your choice.

Elves are top notch as archers! (pardon the pun) No other race offers the special advantage of racial DEX for damage with longbows or scimitars, allowing you to fully invest in DEX for damage and top notch reflex saves for evasion. From a build standpoint, you can afford to invest fully in DEX and CON, and have tremendous reflex saves and a healthy HP stock at epic levels. As a negative, it makes no sense at all to not be an elf if you plan on playing a ranger, unless you utilize Harper INT enhancements and spend a feat on Insightful Reflexes. Yes, pure rangers could benefit from some ranged power at epic levels, but paralyzing arrows are basically the best thing ever at heroic levels. Manyshot is wonderful, but the doublestrike penalty seems unfair when you consider the concessions made to other martial and primal classes in the past year. If the doublestrike penalty wore off when manyshot did, it would be very, very nice. Heck, negate it entirely for pure rangers and throw them half the bone you gave to bards and paladins, or even the synergistic boosts from iconic races, so there's some enjoyment from the current AA capstone. (how is an elf archer not iconic, btw?) It wouldn't be a travesty to allow a pure AA ranger 20% doubleshot on four manyshot arrows. Make it a capstone AA ability so monkchers can't exploit it. I just want to enjoy playing my pure elf ranger again after enjoying swashbuckler stance and holy sword updates. He used to be my most favorite character.

[MangLord]

casters ARE very powerful in ddo, but they're limited to what they do. like.. it doesnt cost sp to swing that axe right?

That's always been my argument, but the last year has changed that somewhat. A caster may be able to instakill, but a greataxe will never run out of juice. I'd much rather have a greataxe in the hands of a dwarf kensei than a pale master anyday. With a limitless blue bar a caster is going to win every time, but a warrior doesn't need to pitstop at every rest shrine. I'm much more familiar with using cleaves than I am with casting CC on a doorway and using it as a chokepoint for AOE effects, but I have played both. I prefer the play speed of melee cleaving, although a combination of CC and THF cleaves makes for a very smooth run. Take my opinion for what its worth as a melee guy.

That being said, a greataxe can't make a whole mob dance in a doorway, nor can it make an annoying beholder fight on my side for half a quest. Casters have very cool abilities, but I can always rely on a bow, axe or sword when all other resources are gone.