Update: 9-5-19
After several questionable updates, I am convinced this game will not survive much longer. Nerfs to optional quests make some dailies pointless, increasing the grind. An outright cap of 95% dodge makes High-end content for melee impossible simply because DDO math does not add up. 9 times out of 10, something will, magically, hit through that 5%. Hilarious buffs to reapers make end game difficulties even more harder than they already are. A lack of good content coming from the developers has also put the game into question. Ravenloft was good, but Sharn, from what I've seen, was a flop. Ravenloft was still being played a year after release, and even now is still the most popular expansion. Sharn died a few months after release. The Sharn Raid is absolutely hilarious. Rather than fix the multiple bugs in the raid, they chose to nerf monsters in it, which didn't fix the issue.

Absolutely amazing game, but unfortunately too much is locked up as DLC and expansion packs. If you can afford it, great. If not, that sucks. I have spent a good 2,000 hours (Most of which on the actual launcher because I got tired of updating steam every time...) in game, 1,000 as free to play, and another 1,000 or so as VIP, so I've seen both sides. There are very large dead areas where the grinding is simply too much and too boring. If you're dedicated, you can grind out currency to get new, better packs, but that takes a good amount of time and might not be worth it for you in the end. The raid system is thoroughly broken. Old raids are forgotten and left un-updated, some raids are simply moronic in their difficulty (Like the Ascension Chamber, a level 17 quest that can wipe a full party of level 30s with absolute impunity..), and more than a few simply just aren't worth doing the often BS flagging. Level 20-30 more or less requires you to have something called Epic destinies (Costs 995 DDO points, AKA about $16) or otherwise you simply won't have the power to be any good in the final levels. Some content is outright forgotten as well. Some very fun packs are incredibly hard to do simply because you can't find a group. Nobody does them because the loot is bad, or it takes too long, or whatever... This game needs more TLC than it is getting, unfortunately.

(See comments for more of my thoughts based on what others have commented)