This has been an exciting week for me as two of my favorite games received significant updates this week. First Dungeons & Dragons Online released their Menace of the Underdark expansion which boosted the level cap from 20 to 25, introduced a new Druid class and introduced Forgotten Realms to DDO. If this was not enough excitement already Star Wars: The Old Republic also released Patch 1.3 which introduced a much needed Looking for Group tool as well as Ranked (PvP) War-zones.

To be honest I have not had much time to check out DDO this week. I got as far as installing the update, logging in and confirming that I can now earn experience past level 20. However I spent quite a bit of time in SWTOR both pre-patch and post patch and I can tell the game has never been better.

I had a chance to test the LFG tool for a Heroic mission and a Hard Mode flashpoint. In both cases the group finder matched me with a group instantly. This has to do with a fact that I play a Sith Assassin Tank. I bet DPS players have a longer wait. Once I was matched up with a group, the group finder game me an option to travel to my heroic/flashpoint which saves allot of travel time. Please note that although the Group Finder takes you to your quest, it does not take you back. So if you queue up for an Illum Heroic and you are in the fleet, it will take you there but not back.

I also purchased a bunch of legacy character perks such as a portable repair droid as well as instant travel to my home world, fleet and Black Hole. Unlike the previous legacy perks these were actually more reasonably priced.

As the week progresses I will hopefully get more time to try out more all this new content

Turbine releases a new video focusing on the Druid class in the upcoming Menace of the Underdark expansion scheduled to be released on June 25th.

Dungeons and Dragons Online players have been waiting for this all year. Cystal Cove Challenge returns now through May 6th!

For those of you not familiar with DDO's Crystal Cove Challenge, it’s a limited time pirate themed event that provides the easiest way of collecting Eplic level gear. Although many players will call CC Gear the poor man’s epics, free-to-play players that do not have access to many adventure packs will often use this event to gear up.

Source: http://www.facebook.com/#!/DDOUnlimited

Crystal Cove Guide Compendium: Treasure of the Crystal Cove Guide

DDO Wiki Guide: Treasure of Crystal Cove

Turbine has released the next video in its dev diary series, previewing its Menace of the Underdark expansion.

What is DDO's Build Your Guild Event? It's a way to earn in-game bonuses and by returning to DDO, joining a guild and questing with your guild members.

New or returning player get the following benefits from joining a guild:

• Get +10% XP and +1 Loot just for grouping with fellow guild members!
• Earn two Large Bounties for reaching level 8!**
• Earn one Large Bounty for reaching levels 12 and 16!
• Earn two Large Bounties for reaching level 20!
• Your entire guild will get these bonuses as well:
• Non-new and non-returning players who are grouped with new or returning guild members earn +5% XP and +1 Loot!
• Non-new and non-returning player characters will earn a Small Bounty for their guild at levels 12, 16 and 20!

Dungeons & Dragons Online (Turbine) releases new trailer that takes us behind the scenes of the making of the Menace of the Underdark expansion.

• Druid class will be free for VIPs and will need to be purchased by all other Players
• Druids will be a caster class but also proficient with staves, daggers, clubs, sickles
• Druids will be able resistant to the harsh aspects of nature like entanglement, poison, and other natural dangers.
• Druids will be able to transform into Winter Wolf, Dire Bear, Water Elemental, Fire Elemental.
• Each shape has its own specialized set of spells

Source: underdark.ddo.com/druid

Dungeons & Dragons Online releases Update 13. Includes 6th year celebration event, 3 new free quests and many bug fixes.

Release Notes: http://compendium.ddo.com/wiki/Release_Notes_Update_13_Official

Massively.com has an excellent interview with Turbine Executive Producer Fernando Paiz and Senior Producer Eric Boyer on this coming Monday's Dungeons and Dragons Online Update 13. In the interview we learn all about the new free 3 quest adventure pack, birthday event (free +2 tomes) as well as guaranteed quest rewards on 3rd completion and new store items.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/02/23/unraveling-ddos-web-of-chaos-turbine-talks-update-13/

Being a long time DDO fan I am sometimes dismayed about how little news we get from Turbine about the future of their games. So you can imagine that I almost fell of my seat when I read the new announcements for Update 13, DDO’s first ever expansion and a level cap increase!

Here is what we know so far. Update 13 will be released around DDO’s sixth birthday (February 22nd) and will feature a new cosmetic pet system and new adventure packs that will be free to all players. This is quite different from past Updates where the adventure packs are usually only free to VIPs and available as a purchase for all other players. The next announcement is the first ever expansion pack called Menace of the Underdark that will introduce the new long awaited Druids class. This shape shifting class is probably one of the most requested features in DDO so I am sure this announcement will make many players very happy.

The big debate on the DDO forums seems to be around the cost of the expansion pack to VIP players. Usually all new DDO content in Updates is either free or unlock-able for VIP players. However since this is an expansion pack there is a very good chance that VIP players will need to purchase it. This may make some players upset.

Last but not least there will be a Level-cap increase. There is very little information about this but we can be sure it will spark much debate in the DDO community.