Exploring Eberron: Spooky fun, Turbine news, and devising a new .

My gosh, what a week! I've got to go by sending a huge congratulations to Jerry Snook of DDOcast, who is shutting down his long-running podcast. If that doesn't sound like something to celebrate, then you hold not heard Jerry's news: he's been leased by Turbine and today's episode of DDOcast will be the last. Jerry, you deserve it and we at Massively are thrilled for you (and your new coworker!

OnedAwesome, Massively's Dungeons and Dragons Online guild is continuing to play with a floating schedule, scheduling groups and quests as various schedules permit. This has opened us up quite a bit to players who could not previously join on Wednesday night. Want to see what we're up to? Unite our forums and hold out the scheduling forum to see what's going on. As always, you can place an in-game tell or send to Rubialina, Aunwiira, or Tebraen to add a reference to the guild. It's been a busy week in other areas of DDO-land as well, and I even need to concentrate on character stats a bit, so come on after the spring and lets get started!

Ethereal Keys fixed, now let's try it again! First and foremost, I'm glad to go on the word that Turbine has begun compensating players who lost Ethereal Keys during last week's Endless Night preview. Senior Community Specialist Tolero made the announcement yesterday: "We have accomplished our enquiry on the unexpected issues some players encountered entering the second phase of the October 20th preview of the Mabar event. Players who were impacted by the bug will be contacted via the email address on their account regarding their Summoning Chamber keys. Please see that your account contact info is up to date, and be trusted to see any mail filters you may have. We apologise for the inconvenience, and value your participation in the preview!" If you were touched by the bug, it's time to beginning checking your email folders. You should receive one that tells you you're being given 50 Turbine Points for each key lost. "These points were given as compensation because you may get confused or been unable to fully utilize 2 Ethereal Key(s) during the October 20th Preview of the Eternal Night Mabar Festival," the email explains. Thanks to Turbine for taking charge of that only in time for the "actual" festival. That's right, the fete is up and running now until the 31st! The Compendium has a big festival guide, including a really valuable part of information: monster levels in Delera's Graveyard. While it's form of a presumption that a grade three character shouldn't go tearing after a red-named Vampire Lord with sword drawn, the others can be a bit confusing if you're not in the know. Check out the direct and images to live who to tackle, and enjoy the festival!

Character creation and stats This is something I've been lacking to follow for a piece now, but other things keep getting in the way. Building an effective DDO character is a process that is simultaneously a lot of fun and a bit complicated. If you're familiar with DnD you get a bit of a head start thanks to a basic understanding of the races and classes. But what if you're not? What if you open character creation and get overwhelmed trying to flesh out the most effective class and race combination while at the same time look for something you enjoy playing? So many players jumped into DDO because it was destitute and sounded like a big game, which makes t this scenario very common. It's not something I can handle in a couple hundred words, so I'm looking ahead to outgo the following few weeks exploring the characteristics of the classes and races, as good as how to make something that you wish and is effective. The whole thing is in office a work of tribulation and error, so plan on the theory of creating and trashing more than one case as you get a look for what you do and do not like. You can help minimize that in various ways. Start with the DDO wiki newbie guide, which is an incredible resource. It, much like character creation, can be a tiny bit overwhelming, so start by familiarizing yourself with the rudiments of classes and races. Each entry here is a little description, but it goes way beyond "dwarf strong, elf pretty." The individual entries each contain a link to a lots more detailed page, so if you see something that appeals, check out the link. You'll find racial traits, feats, background, and often more for the races. Class entries will give you weapon proficiency, skills, and a light and simple advancement table. (As bare as anything in DDO can get, at any rate. Use that take as the basis for the following few weeks, and if it's even a little confusing, never fear, because we're passing to dig into it together throughout November. We'll begin next week by exploring the classes of DDO in more detail, particularly that tricky question for the caster-lovers among you: Wizard or Sorcerer? I'll see you all next week!