DAOC: Origins - New Server

Favorite MMO of all time: DAoC
Favorite Xpac of all time: Shrouded Isles (DAoC)
Worst Xpac of all time: Trials of Atlantis (DAoC) OUCH.

DAoC will always be remembered for being the first MMO to offer 3 realms,each with their own unique classes. In fact, each realm had more classes to pick from than almost every MMO offers for their entire roster. The sheer diversity of race/class selection remains staggering to this day. And for those who love to sing the "unbalanced" song all day, 45 classes is no harder to balance than 9 classes, people will complain about balance no matter what, whether its 2 or 100 classes. Bottom line, more classes = more fun and much more diversity. And DAoC remains the king of that subject.

DAoC also put the highly coveted "RvR" (Realm vs Realm) on the MMO map and nobody has been able to replicate the sheer fun and complexity that Mythic was able to bring to the table. It definitely had some deep rooted issues, especially some obscene crowd control mechanics that were later suppressed with Realm Rank abilities, but probably a little too late for most players. The ones that stuck around for years saw RvR evolve into a much more pleasant experience. I was part of the world's first keep siege raid and seeing a 3 way battle with hundreds of players on my screen blew my mind away forever.

Origins is going to be a very nostalgic trip for those of us who lived and breathed this incredible MMO. For those who have never tried DAoC, I implore you to give it a spin. This will probably be your last opportunity to get a glimpse of what the game looked like back in October 2001, when there were hundreds of people running around. The premise is brilliant. It takes place after the death of King Arthur and follows the mythology of the 3 different realms: Norse (Midgard), Celtic (Hibernia) and Arthurian (Albion). It's my personal favorite fantasy setting and I can't get enough of it.

See you in the Frontiers.

I'd love to play this with a fairly regular group, but I don't think I can be damned to solo in DAoC. Maybe I will wrangle up some friends to give it a go.

I'll try it out. I played DAoC for all of 20 minutes when it was released.

Can someone give me the quick rundown on what is included in this? Is it just vanilla DAOC or does it include SI? New Frontiers? Bot leash range? Darkness Falls?

I loved DAOC but I'd never play it again unless I could skip their PVE.

Szeth_sl said:

I'd love to play this with a fairly regular group, but I don't think I can be damned to solo in DAoC. Maybe I will wrangle up some friends to give it a go.

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Same here. 6 man gank squad for the win. Plus, I agree the PVE is just gawdawful. 4X base EXP at least, plz.

Kind of excited to play this game again. Rerolled all gona roll on one side?

Gecko_sl said:

Same here. 6 man gank squad for the win. Plus, I agree the PVE is just gawdawful. 4X base EXP at least, plz.

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I am not sure I can do the pve grind in this again. The RvR is incredible amounts of fun, but holy fuck is the pve painful. It would need a exp boost to make it tolerable. The classes that make pve fun tend to suck balls at rvr sadly.

I actually thought their last expansions were really well done (Darkness Rising especially). The biggest reason is it made PVE leveling so much easier. They added task masters outside of the forts/cities where you could get a quest for an instance (either solo or group) that you could go clear in 10-15 minutes for a really nice chunk of xp. We also later discovered some creative LOS issues in some of the highest level ones where you could park alts and a level 50 AE class on top of the entrance and have a shield tank pull the whole instance. 1-50 in 6 hours once we got it all figured out. They also overhauled the battlegrounds to the point where you could level almost exclusively in them if you wanted to. Champion weapons/Champion levels and quests were also nice, especially since classic was a no buff bot server. It's why I loved the classic server as it was basically DAOC up to date with TOA taken out. Even on an origin server with SI I don't think I could take the PVE leveling unless I had a set regular group.

If you want a class in high demand for groups in either RvR or pve I'd probably say this for each realm:
Hib: Druid, Bard, Hero
Mid: Healer, Shaman, Warrior (Skald for RvR, not so much group PVE)
Alb: Cleric, Paladin, Sorc (Minstrel for RvR, not so much group PVE)

Out of those the best for solo leveling would be hero, warrior, sorc, paladin. For RvR an 8 man group of each realm ran at least 1 of each class I listed as pretty much mandatory (and usually two of the primary healing class).

Delicateflower_sl said:

Im looking for a class guide, would love to play a class thats good at PVP and decent at PVE, mainly wanted in groups for raiding

Anyone got a good link for SI era classes

also have no clue as to whats changed in SI and thus if i can trust the info on uthgard forums

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Depends what realm you decide. CCers, healers, or tanks are all around good in both PvP and PvE because of tankage. I remember playing as a cleric in a tank group and I was hidden so no one could figure out why the tanks weren't dying. ;-) There are some classes that don't do well in groups.

Utnayan_sl said:

If it's Vanilla and SI, I may even try it out. If it is New Frontiers, fuck that.

Edit: Jesus their forums... It's like the Rickshaw made it's own internet.

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I can't get over them having the user info on the wrong side of the screen.

Delicateflower_sl said:

Im looking for a class guide, would love to play a class thats good at PVP and decent at PVE, mainly wanted in groups for raiding

Anyone got a good link for SI era classes

also have no clue as to whats changed in SI and thus if i can trust the info on uthgard forums

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Basically avoid stealthers. Some stealthers have it easier than others, but for the most part leveling them sucks. Not very popular for grouping either. At end game they often roll in packs which can be deadly, and a ton of fun. Painful until that point IMO.