Hardcore League is a limited time event, open for 90 days, starting August 16, 2019. You can play on a special perma-death server with some additional rules.

    Basic rule: If you're dead, you're dead. No self-raises, no Raise Dead, no res shrines.
    All characters start at level 1, even iconics.
    You cannot transfer to this server, but you can transfer your characters (even dead ones) to normal servers.
    Hirelings are allowed. The goal is to be as close to live servers as possible.
    Available for VIP only.
    At this point, it is planned as a one-time event.

Rewards

Players can get exclusive cosmetic rewards for participating / meeting certain goals (favor, reaper XP, level). The rewards are account-wide, available on all servers.

    1750 favor: Eyes of Darkness cosmetic
    5000 favor: Bloody Footprint cosmetic
    10 reaper points: Tattered Cloak cosmetic
    20 reaper points: Blood Reaper pet

Slick Stick wrote on Aug 5^th, 2019 at 1:23am:

Florida is both the North and the South simultaneously. It is Long Island stapled to Alabama.

The hedging language around it being temporary is about saving face.  If it's a miserable failure, they'll write it off as an experiment.  If it's a success, then it'll be a regularly occurring thing.

I think it's a solid bizdev move, but it isn't for me.  Three months spent on cosmetics, a leaderboard and racing for bragging rights "world first" permadeath achievements, or three months doing racial PLs, new EPLs, RXP, etc.  If I wanted hardcore gameplay, I'd play PoE.  It's a much better game for that style of play, and the meta frequently changes.

5 Foot Step wrote on Aug 5^th, 2019 at 10:01am:

Because most DDO cosmetics are terrible.  There are notable exceptions like the dragon armor/helm or Strahd's cloak, but it's not enough variety.  Look at PoE for cosmetics done right.  I don't understand the disconnect in DDO, considering dungeon art assets are pretty good.  And the cosmetic biz model is lucrative as demonstrated by Fortnite and PoE.  That's the real opportunity SSG is missing here.  Make my character look cool, and I'll shell out a few bucks for it. 

crunch wrote on Aug 5^th, 2019 at 6:47am:


It's a hardcore push to increase VIP subscriptions.  It's a horrible idea.

Technomage wrote on Aug 5^th, 2019 at 10:34am:


Agreed.  1750 favor is pretty easy these days.  Even avoiding content that might have risky features that cause easy death.   Current maximum possible favor is 6359.  With another content pack coming at the same time as this release.   So probably around 6400 or so.   That means that even backing out raids, challenges, and such, you can probably get to around 2,000 by norm running the rest of content and 4,000 just by running the content non-raid content on Hard.  That should have a low risk of death.  then pick and choose what you want to Elite to get you to 5,000.   The favor rewards are achievable.  Even for players without a lot of skill./experience.   The power creep in the enhancement trees and the Ran gen loot pass makes most all pre U29 content pretty straightforward.  Of course you have to do it all on one life. 

The reaper stuff can span multiple lives.   But also comes with more risk.   Especially on toons that won't have a lot of HP. 

Technomage wrote on Aug 5^th, 2019 at 10:34am:

It's more difficult than you think on a no life toon with no twink gear and no ship buffs.  1-20 is about 120 quests when I'm doing racials and nets ~2000 favor.  When was the last time you went 1-20 doing elite+ and didn't die at all from lag? 

As for the eyes, to each their own.  It's just a different color reaper eyes.  Hell, 3 out of the 4 cosmetics/pets are just color variants of existing rewards.  Bloody Footprints are the only one that appears to be new.  SSG couldn't set the bar any lower for rolling out something new.

Carpone wrote on Aug 5^th, 2019 at 11:12am:

I have a feeling it is Expeditious Retreat animation, but red....


NOTpopejubal wrote on Aug 5^th, 2019 at 8:43am:

You can easily throw in Staten Island and most parts upstate.

Rubbinns wrote on Aug 5^th, 2019 at 11:23am:

And the copypasta is complete.

Honestly I wouldn't mind some recycled assets from LOTRO or AC.

WonderfulFoppyBint wrote on Aug 5^th, 2019 at 2:13pm:

Are additional AC assets even an option?  Last time I looked, AC is owned by AT&T -> Time Warner -> Warner Bros.    I mean, whatever was incorporated by DDO from AC before the Turbine split isn't an issue, but anything since then would be a license nightmare I'd think. 

Gunga wrote on Aug 6^th, 2019 at 9:25am:


So, dysentery

Meh, full store is on Lama, tomes, etc...  No reason to do this unless you really want the cosmetics.  100% P2W.