Dofus is a French subscription-based isometric turn-based MMORPG. It's a poorly optimized game with cartoon and 2D graphics and like other games it's filled with botting and RMT.
But beyond that, it's probably the only MMO that's really clicked for me. Having plenty of free time and disposable income as an adult in their late-twenties I decided to look for a game to progress through. So I gave Dofus a try, finally bought a subscription and I've been enjoying it ever since for the past 3 months.
Why some people may dislike the game? It's turn-based combat means it's slow and you'll have to wait your turn. But at the same time it makes strategy in the game something so much more real than other games.
Some fights present themselves as puzzles to be solved with the tools you have beyond brute force and raw stats. Some fights are literally puzzles of their own that ignores a players level and gear.
All of this content coalesces into the end-game content known as Infinite Dreams where every boss room, boss and enemy is randomized and buffed up as you progress through the levels. You should require a knowledge of all problematic bosses and mobs and optimize your strategy to it's fullest.
But if you're not into PvM then PvP is also a lucrative option for having fun and making Dofus Kamas. PvPing can be extremely expensive or cheap depending on what you're aiming for. It contains a varying meta as people PvP using the highest level gear or twinked out lower level characters whose gear costs are much more affordable.
This then goes into the unique variety of classes the game offers. You have some generic archetypes you can't go wrong with and then you have insane classes who break the game or radically change how battles are fought.
Eliotropes literally play with portals. Rogues can setup bombs over several turns to one-shot bosses. Fecas can make people invulnerable to damage. Osamodas can swarm the map with summons and so many other things can be going on that makes every fight unique.
Now, I've largely been talking about the mono-account server of Dofus but some people do choose to play multiple accounts, purchase multiple subscriptions and play all by themselves on their own team on the multi-account servers. Dofus embraces it's multiplayer. It's not an ARPG with multiplayer, the game expects you to acquire help. While you can solo a good portion of the game the content was not designed for solo in mind.
Dungeons are hard. Bosses are difficult. Some classes literally cannot do certain dungeons without help! Some quests ask for other people to help you. One dungeon requires 48 people standing on 48 tiles at the same time separated in four different maps!
Multiplayer is a regular thing in Dofus and if you want an MMO where guilds meant anything, this is it! I got into a guild ASAP and they've been helpful ever since and I've helped them out as well.
The downside of such community oriented gameplay in Dofus is that the game is primarily populated by the French. So your mileage on how many people are recruiting or searching for a group to do certain content may at times be gated if you rely on them to group up. Not that there aren't International or English speaking guilds. But peak market, peak easy to find a group times as such tend to be best when the French are awake.
Another issue is the language barrier and as such there often lacks good and detailed English based resources or guides for a lot of content.
And it's just that there's so much content to the game it's amazing. So many dungeons, so many quests and achievements to do or things to chase. Such as the name of the game to collect the Dofus. There are cons to the game but many aren't as serious or hold the game back.
RMT doesn't make the game worse, botting makes items cheaper and the market is fine. My only issue with botting is that it makes gathering professions nearly impossible to honestly level up as there are only a limited amount of resources at a time in the world before they respawn.
But otherwise Dofus just has everything right for me. It has a ton of content, it has variety for PvM and PvP builds, it could use some more class balancing maybe and it's got a solid no-complaints free market economy without any rampant inflation or deflation. There are so many ways to play the game and at your own pace.
I know guys who level up crafting by spending currency and then reselling it for a profit because no one takes the time to put items on the market. So long as you're doing something and productive in the game you'll make currency. It's great!
What do you think? Have you considered Dofus?
