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Fans

of DDO

have a lot to look forward to with the upcoming release of DDO's

first expansion, Menace of

the Underdark. Closed beta for

the new expansion starts today, but Ten Ton Hammer got a sneak peek of

the new content that will have players rising to new levels with epic

levels, all whilst traipsing across the hallowed lands of Forgotten

Realms. Turbine's very own Ian Currie, Design Director, Erik Boyer,

Senior Producer, and Leo Tan, Public Relations, showed us several

things, but one aspect of the new expansion really caught our eyes,

Epic Destinies.

What are Epic Destinies in DDO?

The short answer is that Epic

Destinies in href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ddo">DDO

are epic enhancement trees that players can level up in to gain new

abilities. Players will be able to open a new tab (naturally labeled

"Epic Destinies") which will open up your Epic Destinies window. In

this window, there will be two distinct tabs: Tree View and Map View.

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The Tree view of Epic

Destinies.

The Epic Destinies are grouped

into four distinct categories: arcane, primal, martial, and divine, and

there are a grand total of ten Epic Destinies at the current time. They

are:

Arcane

Epic Destinies



Draconic Incarnation

Fatesinger

Magister

Primal Epic Destinies



Fury of the Wild

Shiradi Champion

Martial Epic Destinies



Grandmaster of Flowers

Legendary Dreadnought

Shadowdancer

Divine Epic Destinies



Exalted Angel

Unyielding Sentinel

The Epic Destinies do conform

somewhat along class lines, but each one will have advantages that any

class could use. The player's play style will the ultimate deciding

factor on which Epic Destiny and specific abilities to take.

Gaining Epic Destinies in DDO

DDO

players will be able to gain Epic Destinies once they hit level 20 and

talk to a Fatespinner, an NPC trainer. From that point onward, their xp

will be dumped into two separate pools: general xp, which goes towards

increasing your epic level, and Epic Destiny xp, which goes towards

increasing your levels in your Epic Destiny. Each of the ten Epic

Destinies have five tiers of abilities in which you will spend action

points accumulated from leveling that Epic Destiny. Each Epic Destiny

has a grand total of 50 points of abilities to purchase, but you'll

only get 24 total so a lot of decision making will have to go into your

selection. The smaller icons at the bottom of an Epic Destiny tree are

unlocked if you fully gain an entire tier of an Epic Destiny.

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The Map view of Epic Destinies.

Once you hit level three in an

Epic Destiny, you can choose to pick a different Epic Destiny to begin

leveling in, but the new Epic Destiny must be picked from a linked Epic

Destiny (as seen on the Map View tab). However, you can only have one

active Epic Destiny at a time. Any previous Epic Destinies that a

player has picked up will not be able to be used while that specific

Epic Destiny is inactive. There is a way to get around this though by

using Twists of Fate (as seen on the bottom right of the Tree View

tab). DDO

players will get Fate Points as they gain levels in Epic Destinies,

which they can use to purchase Twists of Fate, which allows players to

select an ability (tier level 1 or 2) of an inactive Epic Destiny and

be able to use it. These Twists of Fate can be pulled down to a

player's hotbar for easy use. Players will also be able to unlock the

ability to pick higher tier level abilities by spending additional Fate

Points.

Epic Destinies and Endgame DDO

The introduction of Epic

Destinies will really give endgame players something to quest and

strive for. DDO

players will be able to unlock every single Epic Destiny, which means

that you can adventure to gain fifty levels of Epic Destinies. Since

you can't take every single ability, players will have to carefully

consider what abilities to purchase. However, this isn't the end-all

for Epic Destinies. Turbine states that more Epic Destinies will be

coming out in the future, with three new ones already being worked on.

All in all, Epic Destinies are really going to shake things up in DDO,

not to mention that you'll be doing all this while adventuring in

Faerun.

Our thanks to Ian Currie, Erik

Boyer, and Leo Tan for giving us a sneak peek of the new Epic Destinies

for DDO.

Tune in tomorrow for a hands-on preview of the rest of the Menace

of the Underdark expansion.