Update 5 for Dungeons and Dragons Online is going to address a common complaint from the Lore Hounds; that guilds in DDO are currently a fluff feature. It’s not automatically a bad thing, DDO just isn’t designed with guilds in mind. It doesn’t possess many endgame raids, instead relying on dungeon adventures — A bit of content that’s perfectly capable to do with a pickup group.

Turbine Entertainment isn’t going to change the game’s core design philosophy with Update 5 (and why should it). Instead, DDO is just going to receive additional polish. Yet another nice, unexpected feature since going free-to-play.

A few days back, Internet sleuths put together an exhaustive list of what can be earned at each guild level and how much experience it takes to level. Thanks to a new developer diary, we now know exactly how players will go about getting their guild to level 100 (yes, 100 levels!). Unlike plotting your guild’s course to level 100, contributing to its success is rather easy. Just collect renown trophies, which are seemingly everywhere. Quest rewards, random drops and chests can all reward the “trophies.” Obviously, the more difficult the challenge, the greater the reward. Daily maximums also exist.

In true Dungeons & Dragons fashion, guilds cannot sluggishly progress to level 100. After level 26, guilds will be hit with renown decay — A decay that will become more powerful as a guild climbs the ranks. MadFloyd and Glid articulately described the reasoning behind the decision:

If “renown” is your guild’s “fame,” then your guild is like a famous actor, but in more ways than one! With a successful actor, the level of their fame can decline if they’re removed from the public eye for an extended period of time. The same is true for a guild’s renown – it can fade if the guild is not keeping active around the city thwarting monsters and waging battles of glory.

Rise of the Guilds is sounding better and better.