The Joys of the Monster Manual

The Monster Manual is a more recent addition to DDO, having first come out with Update 15 back in 2012.  Currently the Monster Manual has four different volumes: Prologue, Volumes 1 thru 3.  There are a number of fun aspects with the Monster Manual.  First off, the Monster Manual works by accumulating kills of various monster types at a character level and at an account level.  As your character keeps scoring up kills of the monster types present in the monster manual they will unlock various awards, most notably experience based awards.  These awards are very beneficial to those working on past lives and in many cases are an unexpected and pleasant surprise .

Hamllin earning some experience with his recently earned monster manual award.

While your character is earning individual awards, those same slayer records are also applied to your entire account which has marks for its own set of awards.  While the character only awards are typically experience based, the account based awards are typically jewels of fortune, astral shards, or Turbine Points.  The account based awards will also unlock more lore based information in the manual and new graphics/art for the monster type as well.  If you earn enough account based awards you will then unlock the Mastery Awards which typically result in being able to see monster hit points and in some cases you can earn creature companions.

Hamllin checking out his latest entries in the monster manual for scorpions.

The only drawback to the current monster manual system is that there aren’t enough monsters or volumes .  This has been a discussion topic on the forums quite a number of times but we haven’t seen any updates to the monster manual since Update 17.  I would really like to see a number of monsters added to the manual, as many others would as well.  With Update 24 coming around the corner, I can’t help but wonder when the next volume will be released.  I hope soon, as it really is a fun thing to play around with.  I also like seeing the total number of enemies I have slain as well as those that show the number of defeats.  I just think these are some interesting aspects.

In any case, I look forward to future editions of the monster manual as well as future rewards.  Thanks for reading everybody and happy hunting!!