Dofus any good?

[Dr.Epic]

I'm just wondering if it's worth checking out. I saw a commercial for it on TV and it looked kind of stupid. The best they could come up with is just saying it has required RPG elements: classes, levels, etc. Just based on that, Adventure Time is more of an MMO, and that's a TV show. Basically, the commercial made it looked like some lame internet game on like Adult Swim or Newgrounds with maybe an hour and a half of game play before it got really boring. But then I check the wiki and saw it has gotten a following. So, I'm just wondering for those of you who have played it is it worth investing time into?

Thanks.

[Cespenar]

Dofus, back when I was playing it for free, was actually quite good. The combat system is akin to Final Fantasy Tactics, which is to say, good. The setting, while light and tongue-in-cheek, is original and refreshing.

In my time, though, the free-players were constrained to some portion of the map, and the paid players had quite a few other solid advantages as well.

Also, as with most online games, it's best played with friends.

And finally, I have no knowledge of what it's like as of now, because the last time I played it was around 5 years ago.

[Seerow]

I played the game for 2-3 years, and have a few friends I still talk to who still play it actively.


If you like FFT style grid combat, it's a great game. The mechanics are are pretty slick, and easy to get a grasp on. All of the classes have interesting tactical options, and there are multiple viable builds for every class (usually depending on your primary attribute and element type. But there are a few oddballs like Damage Iops [which was my main spec] that don't use an element at all). The game heavily encourages inter team coordination and interaction, from coordinating where you stand for buffing, to having bosses that require coordination and everyone doing what they're supposed to to survive.

It's also pretty cheap. I believe it's something like 60 bucks for a 1year sub, and any sub comes with a free pet or living item (living items are basically vanity items that let you change how your gear looks), that clocks in at about 1/3 of what a WoW subscription will cost you.

So that's the good. Now for the bad:

The game is a TERRIBLE grind. It's actually not so bad if you consider hitting level 100 the end game (which it effectively is, at level 100 you get your last skill, not counting dopple summoning), but unfortunately there's a lot of gear that requires above level 100 to equip, and experience gain crawls. Like I played for 3 years and the highest I got was 150, the game caps at 200. At the time I stopped playing there was like 3 level 200s on my entire server. On one hand this means you're almost always progressing (at a glacial pace), on the other hand, there is gear from end dungeons that requires level 190+ to equip.

Also, fights tend to take a long time, relative to other games. This is expected in a tactical RPG, but it is worth noting. Because if I say "You have to do 100 fights to level" that sounds fine. I mean, in WoW you slaughter thousands to level up. But in WoW, a single mob is about 10 seconds to kill. In Dofus, a fast fight is 2 minutes long. An average fight is more like 5-15 minutes, and a boss fight can basically be anywhere from 30 minutes, to 1-2 hours long. The experience for bigger fights tends to be better to make up for that longer timeframe, but it still takes forever to level. Like at the point where I quit (around 150) it would take 10-15 Soft Oak (a pretty high level dungeon) runs to gain a single level. At higher levels it gets even worse. (going from 199->200 costs as much as going from 1->199, just as an example)

It is important to note, unlike most MMO's, there are almost no quests, and the few that there are have quest rewards that are hardly worthwhile. Because of this, there is almost no storyline you can follow while playing, and there is no natural flow from area to area. Also past a certain point, you need a group to handle even normal on level mobs, so when you're solo all you can do is grind out lower level mobs or dungeons, which can get pretty boring. Basically you need a group of friends who have similar activity times to you if you want to do stuff at higher levels.

On top of the level grinding being harsh, gear is even worse. Past like level 20 or so with the Gobbal set, EVERY piece of gear you ever wear needs to be crafted. Crafted gear is crafted from stuff that generally only drops off the end bosses. The drop rates on these things is low (like for your group of 8, you're lucky if 1 of the item drops), so you can be stuck running a dungeon dozens of times for a single piece of gear.

Oh, and not everyone can craft everything. You can have 2 professions per character. Professions take TONS of time to level up, and a ridiculous amount of resources and money to increase the crafting professions. Because of this, chances are you're looking for someone else to craft your gear after you get all of those resources, and they generally expect payment for their 3 seconds of work to craft it.

Then, when you get the gear, the stats on the gear is randomized, generally with a pretty wide range, so it is entirely possible to spend all this time farming a new piece of gear, then the stats on it are below average, and actually below what you already had.

To compensate that, there is a system called Maging. Any crafting profession can pick up a specialization, which is effectively a second profession you need to level, known as a Magus. What mages do is crush gear to get runes. These runes can then be used to increase the attributes on the gear. The upside is, this lets you fix bad gear. You can also "overmage" gear, where you bring the stats above the normal natural max. The downside is, this ends up costing a lot of money. Also runes have a chance of failing, and can actually reduce the stats on gear further. If you are attempting to overmage, the chance of the rune failing and reducing stats is harsher. And for more important stats like AP, MP, and Range, the runes required are crazy expensive, and are much harder to take.





Basic tl;dr: The game is a massive grind. Personally, I don't like that and prefer a faster progression rate, but if you like grinds it can be all right. The combat system is fun, but unless you're constantly PVPing or running high end dungeons, it will get pretty stagnant after a while. I'd recommend trying it and determining for yourself how the pace feels to you. You can play around in the starter area up until level 20 for free to get a feel for the basics, after that, a 1 month sub is only like a few dollars.

[Dr.Epic]

Meh, I don't mind grinding all that much. I never played FF tactics, but I've played FF I, II, IV, and VI. It anything like those.

[Seerow]

Meh, I don't mind grinding all that much. I never played FF tactics, but I've played FF I, II, IV, and VI. It anything like those.

No, totally different from the other final fantasies, as those are standard JRPG, you just select your action and you're done.


Basically, think of it as more of a board game, or playing D&D with a battle mat. You have a map that you move around on. You take your actions on your initiative, and you can move 1 square per MP you have (starts at 3, can be boosted with gear. Most boots past low level give an MP so typically a character has 4-5 MP), your attacks have various ranges, where they can hit a target only so many squares out, or can't target a square too close. Then you have Action Points, you have a base of 6, and at level 100 you gain a bonus +1. You spend action points to use your abilities. You can also get AP from gear (most amulets past low level have +1 AP, and there are popular items such as the Gelano Ring that give extra AP), so your typical high level character will have at least 8 AP, and can have up to 11 to 12. Most of your abilities cost 3 or 4 AP, with particularly cheap abilities (such as Leek Pie, or Intimidation) that cost 2 points, or particularly expensive abilities (such as Iop's Wrath, Moon Hammer, or some weapons) that cost 6 or more. Your enemies also have AP/MP restrictions, so the tactical part comes in and figuring out how to maximize your ability to attack the target while minimizing their ability to hurt you. Or in team play to get them to attack the Sac or whoever is running with high HP gear and a vit spec, while leaving others still available to do their thing.

Like I said, try out the free area, that will give you a decent taste of what it is like. If you still like it, grab a 1 month sub, because if you made it through the starter area, it's probably at least worth 1 month of play time, as that will get you through the early levels and into the meat of the game. If after making it that far the grind hasn't depressed you entirely, and you've found a good regular group, you can probably safely buy a longer subscription to keep playing.

[Knaight]

Regarding the combat system, play the Telepath RPG 2, 3, or Arena. It is somewhat similar, and should give you an idea of whether or not you will like the combat, though it is a lot more deterministic.