Asheras wrote on Jul 23
rd, 2014 at 5:46pm:
It's like any game. Even Chess. Or sex. You can enjoy it casually or hard core. It's all about what you are into.
Sex in one line with games and chess? You are definitely a poor fellah...
IMARANGER wrote on Jul 23
rd, 2014 at 5:28pm:
You can make your life quite a bit easier by running a powerful FoTM build that works very well on a first life, sure.
Again, how many folks do you know that have multiple endgame toons? Again, that's multiple toons with all destinies finished, pretty much complete kit, and a reasonable complement of Heroic and Epic Past Lives. Of those folks, how many are casuals? The answer to the latter question is: zero.
The difference between a casual and a hardcore mmo (korean for example) is that in hardcore mmo's you NEED best gear, best stats, best level in order to be good. I know first lifers that solo ee content. Not many, and they are not casual gamers, but they solo those because they have their main account banned or gifted it to someone a while ago after they quit, now came back.
That said, if you have crappy gear you are dead all the time, and so you can't level, can't play pvp, can't compete with anyone. You are not welcome in bosskills, not welcome in parties.
In contrary to hardcore mmo's, you don't need past lives in ddo. Make a fucking sorc and you are set. Level up draconic incarnation and that's it. Or make a first lifer shiradi wizard. You will be welcome in any kind of ee party, and if you don't play/stat too dumb, you will have a fair amount of kills and dps.
People in hardcore mmo's can see your gear, mostly because the different armor grades have different colors, same goes for weapons, and there is only 1 weapon per grade per class. You cannot join a party and go there with a low grade weapon and leech. Ddo disabled myddo for probably exactly this reason: people where looking up others that they didn't know and declined them if they had shit gear. Paladin heroes on the forums whined about discrimination. I bet.
If you are not top level with top gear in a korean mmo, you will have a hard time in pvp's. In the mmo that I played, 1 level lower than the opponent you faced, reduced your chances on winning this pvp by 50%. 2 levels lower and it was IMPOSSIBLE to win. Ddo has no pvp and that shit in the tavern is kindergarten crap, not worth mentioning.
In ddo you can play easily as a casual, because there's no competition, no pvp, no bosskills that require more than 12 people. There's no fight over level spots, there's no waiting to play (can always do hard/normal, after all).
In hardcore mmo's you cannot play casual, in contrary to ddo, because you got a level ranking, pvp, bosskills and you cannot participate in anything if you don't get up to the top.
Ddo starts at level 1, hardcore mmo's start at 5 levels below top level AT LEAST. To get to the top, you can invest hundreds of $ to pay for leeching, and for gear, and/or share your account with 2 or 3 friends who plays your character in turns, with timer when to wake up just to keep spots, or you bot (chances are high to get caught).
Go and play a korean mmo and see how difficult it is to get to the top with that darn xp curve. Every 10 levels you need to get 2.5 times more xp.
Level Exp needed
85->86 38,172,360,013
86->87 45,807,117,133
87->88 54,968,833,525
88->89 65,962,901,170
89->90 94,986,948,540
90->91 113,984,718,984
91->92 136,782,053,544
92->93 164,138,865,195
92 is the current top level on the server that I played. If you want to participate and be any useful, you have to be 88/89. My character was 85,7 when I quit her last year. I created her in 2007, and didn't play her for 1.5 years. It took me over 4 years of hardcore gaming, and 3000$ to get her to 85. Can't say I invested that much time/money into ddo, not even close.