Oh Shoot, Endarire-Don't let GA82, or resident Guardian Angel, hear you donw-talking his DDO! I am glad you returned to try it again, wait until you reach the new stuff, AFTER Zuggy! I usually GM, but decided to let a friend from work welcome me into the world of D&D Next (5th edition). We've been at it for about 7 months now, playing about once every 3 weeks on average. I like it some, but then some parts are extremely stupid, such as getting every single hit point back after an 8 hr rest an Beastmaster Rangers having to sacrifice their every turn to control one follower in a fight. So, I am currently making up my own "House Rules" for D&D Next, which I call D&D Ed 5.2 I understand that time crunch on gaming! If you lived near me I'd invite you when I kick off MY game, which will be soon!!
Go ahead and dump on DDO all you like. It's just the closest MMO version of 3.5 there is out there. Since it's an MMO, you have to do everything real-time, so it's not that close of a simulations of table-top. Neverwinter has a faint approximation of of the 4.0 rules, but it's exactly the same as Guild Wars 2, etc. Grouping sucks there, and there are some minor griefing issues. Its art work and atmosphere are outstanding, though. I don't know of any online, non-browser imitations of D&D other than those 2.
I grew tired of DDO after about 2 years of subscribing but not feeling like I was valued. DDO was initially interesting and appealing to me and I wanted it to be much more than it was. I offered feedback on the official boards. I played with friends. I had weekly raids. Ultimately, though, the combination of wasted potential (in lore and mechanics) and the grind, grind, grind just turned me off.
I can't believe I remembered the password to this account. 15 year Anniversary check in! Heard about Temple+ recently, going to do a Temple+C08 game when I get bored with my current Roguetech/Battletech game. Anyway, just thought I'd say "Heeeeeey". -D