Update 8 ties up the nefarious plots that were set in motion in Update 7, as well as acting as a bookend for Turbine as they begin development for the new year. Following along as we tour Update 8!

After safely defending Stormreach from the siege, the story expands further as players continue to take the fight back to the Droaam ships themselves, but we decided to move forward in our tour to check out the third quest in the pack, called "Undermine." Here, we discovered that Droaam sappers were attempting to tunnel right into the Lordsmarch Plaza courtyard. After some scuffles with the ensuing tunnel invaders, we hopped right into that sapper tunnel to see if it would lead us back to the main Droaam monster army.

Going into the sapper tunnel will introduce players to a more classic labyrinth-like dungeon that the D&D team likes to use. In here, we pitted brains against explosives as we chased the Master Demolitionist throughout the mine tunnels. Clever players will also need to make solid use of the blasting explosives throughout the entirety of the dungeon in order to get the best bang for their buck (+1 for awesome puns). This includes, but is not limited to: clearing minefields, blowing up giant rocks on the move, all the way to blasting blocked doorways and even on enemies themselves.

After we came to the end of the Undermine dungeon, there still remained the final instance, "Siegebreaker," to jump into, which involved actually taking on the Droaam monster army, as well as fighting a powerful Green Hag, but we decided that this would be a fight best explored by the players themselves. Just remember to bring your A-game or you might be overwhelmed!

Finally, also coming with Update 8 are some new cosmetic armors that can be attached to existing armor sets to give you that nice 'chic' adventurer look without sacrificing your hard-earned stats. With eight available patterns for each armor type (heavy armor, robes, etc) and a slightly different style for each race and gender (gender is the big difference-maker here: we're talking spikes versus bare midriffs for the same cosmetic armor kit), that gives players a lot of room to find their own unique look. There are also plans to get some more of these cosmetic armor kits into the market, depending on player demand, so if you like what you see here, and you want more, make sure your voice is heard!

All in all, while Update 8 isn't nearly as robust or as content-stuffed as some of its heartier predecessors, it still remains a solid tie-up for Turbine going into the new year. With a ton of stuff to reveal as we get closer to 2011, be sure to keep your eye on DDO as it continues its breakneck pace through the F2P MMO industry.