About four months ago, I signed up for a paid "VIP" account so I could check out the content that I was missing. At the time, they had a really good deal on memberships so it seemed like the perfect opportunity. Also, my wife has started to play about two months ago and signed up for a VIP membership over this last weekend. Finally, I created a guild about the same time my wife started playing. Because I have gained insight into to the paid content and have multiplayer experience, I felt that it was time to write a follow-up review to my previous Dungeons & Dragons Online review.
The number of missions that you have to choose from nearly triples when the paid content is figured in. These aren’t just the high-level missions either; many of them are for levels 3 through 10. Without these added missions, it can be difficult to level your character high enough to attempt many of the later missions. This also gives a wider variety of quests to prevent the game from feeling monotonous. Another benefit to the added missions is that if you find that you are having issues completing some of the missions, there are plenty more to choose from until you get better equipment or level up.
Ann added feature of a VIP membership is that every month your account is credited with 500 points to spend in the online store. Since you will already have all of the mission packs, you can use your points for other things such as more bank slots, gold seal contracts, larger bags to hold collectibles, and binders to hold your hireling contracts.
One of the most major benefits of gold seal contracts is that some classes such as the rogue can only be hired that way. These contracts expire in an hour just as normal contracts; however, you can have up to five hirelings at once instead of just the one. This allows solo players to experience the feel of playing in a party and also proves beneficial during difficult missions.
Playing in a group has many benefits. As with gold seal contracts, having more people in your party can greatly increase the chance of success in many of the quests. This is especially true if each character has different strengths and weaknesses; some rune locked doors require a high wisdom or intellect while blocked doors may require a high strength. Also, the ability to ulock doors and disable traps is essential to some missions, but rogues are unlikely to survive a large group of enemies without assistance.
Puzzles become easier when more people are around to brainstorm. Timed missions go smoother when the multiple people can split up and each do different parts of the quest. Also, if you are in a guild, multiple players give more opportunity to gain guild experience.
Guilds have several benefits. At some of the relatively early levels, members of a guild are allowed to buy a variety of items (including spell components) from the guild vendors. Guild members also may use guild-only items that can be augmented with crystals to provide additional effects over what the weapon or armor already has. At even higher levels, guilds may purchase their own airships and temporary buffs for guild members.
While solo play is still enjoyable (I played this way for about a year), there are many advantages to being in a party. Also – while through playing the game long enough – a player can amass enough points to buy all of the missions, character slots, races, and classes that VIP members already have access to, it would take an extremely long time. Points are awarded for reaching milestones on each server and also for every hundred favor points earned with each chracter (i.e. 100, 200, 300, etc.). To get enough points to purchase everything from the store would require playing through the missions, deleting the character, creating a new character, playing through the missions again, rinse and repeat.
In light of the difficulty of attaining enough points to buy the mission packs through a free account, I would highly recommend purchasing a VIP membership. If you are unsure as to whether you will stick with the game long enough to consider investing money, I would suggest playing until you reach about level 4 or 5; if you continue playing that long, it is probably worth the money. This is especially true when membersips are on sale.
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