To SSG and the Devs small and large,

I write this letter to you, nearing 12 years of VIP play in DDO. I've been with you since Update 4. I have 42 characters across three accounts. I've been through so many revisions, nerfs, and boosts that I cant even count them any more. My monks and rangers felt the sting of your thoughtless actions more than once.
So when I tell that you I want you to look incredibly closely at this revision of the ED system: Understand that I have only posted on the forum 5 times prior to this. Feel the gravity of this discussion.

This game doesn't feel like Dungeons and Dragons any more, you have mutated it into a bland generic MMO. Random loot is scanned for augment slots then sold/decon'd when once it was sold to House D and reused by new players looking for their first Wounding Of Puncturing and Harry beater. The camaraderie is gone, everyone can do everything, and no one needs each other. New people don't play reaper, old people don't play anything but Reaper. The player base is fragmented and you aren't attracting enough new players. How many accounts are more than a year old and still active in the last month?

Do you know why? Its because you keep moving the goal posts. There are few people who can devote the time to dig into reincarnation on the scale needed to operate in the game atmosphere you've created. I play more than I should, and log 20 hours a week. I have 1 character in 42 that is going for a Epic Completionist. If you extend the level cap again, you will lose my attention completely.

The milestones these good gamers bring up are important. The progression of a toon through their paces and levels needs to feel like forward movement. And above all they MUST be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Let us enjoy our Tier 5 ability at level 12 and 26. give us enough points to spend in trees that interest us, without forcing us to take things we don't want. Let us feel the value of pouring the uncounted MONTHS of life spent in the TR process. let us feel appreciated for the commitment. Some characters will become Uber... LET THEM. They earned it.

My monk Judonno can stun anything. That is what I want him to do. I don't need 10000 hitpoints, or 500 PRR to be happy. I just need to know that when I use Stunning Fist that I hear a *Ding* and the mob puts their head down.
I need to know that when I log in I can find a group and play for a few hours, during which I make appreciable progress toward leveling and progression on my goal. The TR train is excruciating already. Keep the level cap at 30. If you want to include more variability, scrap all the extra junk you've built into the game, focus on the core of what make D&D fun: sitting down with your friends, killing monsters, exploring some fantastic stories, and occasionally getting one over on the DM. Leave the level cap where it is. Introduce more in the middle. Let me play a monk and take him through 15 different lives and only redo the same content a few times. Take a 6 month break from developing, and fix the GORRAM bugs you've already got. DDO used to be simple, adding complexity is not a direct path to add fun. You know, the best item I think you included in the game? Collective Sight, because it can be whatever we need it to be. That is what DDO should be, because that's what D&D *IS*.

Like another player posted: each ED had a certain je ne sais quoi that made it interesting. Each class has that too. Make the ED and Heroic classes synergistic. Dont sacrifice that to make coding easier. Don't let Fighters feel like Paladins, feel like Barbarians, feel like Monks. Place special emphasis (more than what you do now) on honoring the roles each can play.

The ED pass will happen eventually. But don't you DARE let it pass without full approval from the players.

Because if you do: Sunk Cost be damned, I'll cut the loss of my spent 4000 dollars and find another way to spend my time. This I promise you.