What was the best MoD in your opinion?

benja32gonsales

It can be for the reason that you want, Class Balance state, PvE Content, Quantity of bugs, Dailies, Dungeons, etc..., but please, give a reason of the option you voted, it can serve as reference for the following MoDs (though I doubt it a little), so they can know what they did right and what they did wrong.

chaoscourtesan

All honesty- 1st was my favorite, because I thought this sort of release was just a temporary thing to tide us over. 2, 3, and 4 just proved me wrong.

-As far as the content itself, Feywild was good, but the grind is too long and demanding for the payout. I have done it and am doing it just to have done it.

-Shadowmantle was better, and I think the grind is reasonable.

-IWD? I am pretending it didn't happen. I have no use for any part of it. I don't have anything nice to say, so I'm done talking about it. Oh yes I do.. the landscape is very pretty.

-Tyranny of Dragons.. well I like the SW. And the boons look like they will be nice. Other than that, too soon to say, but I do consider the whole setup to be broken. 5-6 players recommended, but flooded with 20-30 players or maybe more. After doing it a few days, have decided to wait a few weeks or maybe months before bothering with it. (Hint- Don't make something where people farming the hot new items are going to crowd out the people who are just trying to work through the module. Need to separate the two somehow.)

(I was hoping for story modules... similar to the 'Episodes' that STO did. If you played them, you probably know what I mean. Failing that, was hoping for something like 'Adventure Packs' as presented in CO.)

Just my thoughts, posted only because asked.

EDIT- Erp! I re-read the question.. Realized it didn't ask me my favorite, it asked me which was best. Not the same thing. If I could I would change my vote to ShadowMantle.

reilz1981

wheres the no mod option lol i liked it before the first mod where my rogue could actually pve

pandora1x

Shadowmantle for its war environment and aspect. And for the fact that we battle the main boss and mastermind that's been behind all of what's been happening.

2nd is Tyranny of dragons so far, seems pretty fun and not too tedious (yet). And for the fact that we visit old areas again.

The two others were just a fail.

benja32gonsales

reilz1981 wrote: »

wheres the no mod option lol i liked it before the first mod where my rogue could actually pve

That would be like adding an option "bald" in a hair style preference poll.

obsiddia

I'll have to wait until I'm much further into Tyranny.
If Tiamat is the end boss, and the story is fun, that would win it.
(Tho it wouldn't hurt to give us more classic dragon-ish rides and pets.)

cheesegromit

Shadowmantle > Tyranny of Dragons >> Curse of Icewind Dale >>> Fury of the Feywild.

I'm rating based on the campaigns more than anything else but there are other elements. It's perhaps a bit early to rate the ToD campaign since I'm not past Icespire Peak yet but it earns bonus points for the GF balance changes.

Dread ring is by far the best campaign in terms of its design as far as I'm concerned. Open world not instanced like Sharandar. Less time-gated in that I'm able to queue up many quests and then play them all on the weekend when I generally have more time. That includes all three mini-dungeons allowing me to earn 3 of the most time-gated currency in one day where the equivalent of every other campaign would only allow you one at a time. It still takes the same amount of time as doing it daily but it's far more flexible for someone with less time.

Icewind Dale wasn't bad but was let down by the drop rates for Black-Ice gear which rendered part of the mod useless to me.

I do still like Arcane Reservoir from Sharandar, it's probably my favourite mini-dungeon. Close second goes to Phantasmal Fortress.

biibiisai

For me, Mod 1 gives the least frustration. It has clearly reachable goals, almost ninja-proof quests, great reasons to go back - for the enchants, and all currencies earned can be spent. The boons are very nice and worth looking forward to. Redcaps are cute XD

Mod 2 is nice, especially the rewarding dungeons, but the lack of ways to dispose of the currencies is frustrating. After finishing the nice boons, there's no reason to go back.

Mod 3 is by far the most frustrating mod with meh boons, unrealistic goals (e.g., require double and triple kills on DCs and killing 1000 npc that disappears in no time for pvp campaign. This is impossible for defensive DCs common in end game pvp.), extremely time-consuming dailies that I would never go back to, horrible BI gear drop rates with even more horrible rng, and no reason to go back other than to power up the BI gear.

Mod 4 is much better than mod 3. Developers, thank you very much for listening to our requests. You made gear unbound so everyone can have a chance to get it. You added a timer to the HEs, reduced the spawn time, and kept the instances changeable, making it so much easier to get to HEs. The boons are amazing, by far the best of all four mods imo. The daily dungeons are very well designed with nicely made music. The quests are not so linear and creates some sense of variations every day. Also, getting something for every progression in the campaign is a great idea, no matter how little is the reward. We also have a reason to go back to the lower level zones.

I say mod 4, with all its excellence, is not as good as mod 1 because of the following issues: (a) currency stacks too little; (b) it takes too long to get to the new skirmish and dungeon that everyone is drooling over; (c) the set bonus for DCs in the new armor set is kind of meh - bonus is too low and I think the stats are affected by diminished return, correct me if I'm wrong.

chaoscourtesan

Disregard this entry

frishter

obsiddia wrote: »

I'll have to wait until I'm much further into Tyranny.
If Tiamat is the end boss, and the story is fun, that would win it.
(Tho it wouldn't hurt to give us more classic dragon-ish rides and pets.)

Tiamat isn't in the story yet so have to wait for another module.

Personally mod 4 was the worst and felt the most slow and repetitive. Mod 2 was good for progression, mod 3 I had fun on preview but as soon as the cash grab items were released it kind of killed my enjoyment of it, I knew it was a short lived module anyway though the HEs were a nice new concept. Mod 4 so far seems to be the best, theres a dungeon that you actually probably want to actually do and lots of new loot. My view could change if they're too stingy though. Also there's the new awesome dragonhoard enchants which I'm burning myself out to own.

lucifron44

Closed Beta should have been added to the poll. Easy winner.

bioshrike

Thus far, I've enjoyed Shadowmantle the most. It's presented in a clear-cut way; it's not tedious or overly time consuming, and the lairs are just long enough to be interesting but not boring. The lairs also provide good rewards and so you wanna keep doing them.

Feywild has a lot of character, but its instances are too long and just aren't that interesting. The Feydark Breach, Quickling Den, and Warmakers instances are just too long for the paltry rewards they provide. The main lairs in Feywild are good in that they seem to reliably offer shards - it's just too bad that (IMO) only the terror ones are worth it. If Feywild were to have its progression scheme reworked so it paced the same as Dread Ring, and the non-lair instances gave better rewards, it'd be much more enjoyable.

Icewind Dale was more enjoyable to me than Feywild, since it had a good amount of challenge and the Black Ice enchantments were cool. I've hardly gotten any rewards besides those, and the Hammerstone Queen being in the open world of Dwarven Valley is a nice touch. It does annoy me that simply getting to Biggrin's Tomb is a task unto itself, however. I also find it odd that the 2nd area is actually easier for the few characters I've gotten there, than the main Icewind Pass section. Speaking of which, having to run all the way across Icewind Pass for quests like lighting the way is just a nuisance. Still, being able to knock out your daily quickly via Need for Mead + a small HE is convenient.

I've only scratched the surface of ToD so far. In some ways it's nice to revisit old zones. In other ways, the ones that didn't get campfires added near the dragon's area makes trying to participate in multiple fights tedious. Rothe Valley seems to have gotten this right, while the other areas missed this crucial step. Having to wait 20 hrs between progression steps is weird - why not just gate it with the daily quests? Not being able to reap the benefits of your participation in the campaign is a turn-off. With the other campaigns, I know I can turn in those dailies and unlock that boon or progression step right away, (except for a few specific ones, like unlocking Dwarven Valley in IWD or such).

damnataanimus

For me the order is this Shadowmantle, Icewind Dale, Feywild, Dragons

About the only thing I enjoy about this new mod, is the SW and new dailys. And I say IWD second, as once you had done all your dailys, you could farm he's there for chants and BI gear if you didn't have it if you didn't feel like doing a dungeon. Shadowmantle has the bests lairs with decent loot (marks of whatever, eye) and you have VT which is always fun as well as being a great relatively easy way to get a weapon set. I liked the amount of quests you could do each day in feywild, and some of the bounty items/xmutes are nice (redcap hat is awesome - I've used this to xmute my SW's horrible hat ).

For me the problem with mod 4 is its not very much content and a hell of a lot of farming. Added to which every dragon is the same pretty much, at least IWD had different HE's.

arabatur

Feywild was just an unnecessary drain on time, especially gaining the last 2 boons. Icewind whilst graphically nice and I did like the open world aspect, suffered horribly from badly thought out dailies(ninja looters) and the oh so depressing HE mechanic/RNG drops - which still have not been addressed in Tyranny. Having not fully completed this campaign, I'm already concerned it's becoming all to similar to time sink that was Feywild. Shadowmantle was easily the best constructed, with quick dailies and progression that did not seem like an eternity.

hefisdo

2 > 3 > classic > 1 > 4

The amount of buggy animations on live right now disgusts me, and I love to appreciate character models.

Also I'm not a fan of farming.

pitshade

I voted Fury of the Feywild.

Best dungeon so far as far class balance goes. No stupid add waves, strong hard hitting control immune mobs, second and third bosses are actually dangerous.

Campaign is varied as you progress through different zones, not the same three lairs for the entire campaign. (yes the spark requirement is a drawback) While quests each day are predictable if you pay attention, at least they don't get stuck and repeat endlessly unlike IWD and TOD

Scenery and mobs are best so far in game IMO. The weak stuff is still somewhat of a threat or at least a nuisance if you ignore them.

Class balance was at its nadir though. GWF had yet to be buffed, TR was nerfed to the ground and GF lost their best armor set with no clear replacement. Height of the LF4M CW era.

Finally, it's the campaign with the best reasons to keep coming back. Lesser Fey Blessings, Terror Shards, Potions of Heroism - and all of the campaign currencies can be used in some way, making currency management a lot easier.

trill34

I voted for ToD because of the PVE content: I think the progression is well-designed and I like that it scales with level. I wish this had been around the first time I played through the game, I bet it's really cool for brand new players.

ordensmarschall

So far I like the Tyranny of Dragons the best. I have not yet completed the campaign, but from what I have seen of it so far I like it. Ghost Stories is done rather well, and it gives a few small rewards for those that don't just follow the sparkly trail. I do find the end boss in the Barrow Mound (Dragonsoul) a bit easy though, not like the Ghost Story boss. The dragons are challenging, as they should be, as long as you don't have 20+ players taking the dragon down.

Overall each of the expansions have had some good points, but Icewind Dale is probably at the bottom. Simply because of the total frustration at getting anything to drop from the HEs. It was nicely put together, with some creativity and some of it can be challenging, but the RNG just totally destroys any positives.

Sharandar would be at the bottom of my list, as I don't care for the scenery in that one as compared the other 3. Plus it is more of a grind than anything very challenging to complete. The rewards for the solo dungeons are nice though.

Shadowmantle is a strong second for me as the story was well done, the scenery was put together well, and most goals were attainable after some effort. The solo dungeons were nicely done with some challenging content and creative boss mechanics.

hypervoreian

The best for me are in that order:IWD,Feywild,Dragons and last Shadowmantle.

IWD is a dangerous campaign.Lots of different HEs with different rewards,an excellent skirmish,BI Gear ,enchants.I like the place,the snowy landscape.Enemies are tough and dangerous.Variety of enemies.

Feywild is the most bautifull from all.Really nice designed areas,big instances.Overall it is more DnD than MMO.

Dragons:i am still in the beggining but i like that you revisit areas.

Shadowmantle:A boring add fest ,boring as hell.I did some feywild runs and some IWD runs.But shadowmantle?I hate that place.

last note about IWD:it has the best gear that you can aquire solo with out the need to do dugeon runs.For non GWF/CW classes IWD was their only hope to catch the big fishes:CW and GWFs.
Especially for poor GFs IWD gave them a chance by aquiring gear in par with other classes ,and leave in dust their mod1/2 crappy idiotic sets(Regent etc...)

oicidraz

From what I remember, Shadowmantle, PvP was good and far more balanced than now, the game wasn't so bugged, ZAX worked perfectly, etc..., that was the best mod for me .

charononus

Mod 4 is a lot of fun content wise. It's not really much new content, but it gets you back into older zones and seeing them which is fun. Open world events like the dragons are fun but much better done than IWD. New skirmish and dungeon to look forward to. Mods 1 and 2 only hit half of this with the skirmish and dungeon but no HE's. The HE's really put this one ahead.

mystagogue

For me Shadowmantle

---

> Feywild

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> Tyranny

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>IWD

jonkoca

For me, IWD wins hands down. Sure it has it's problems, but for the sheer novelty of content - HE's, black ice gear profession, the empowerable armor, the extra overflow slots, owpvp (however underused) 2 boon campaigns, new pvp gear sets, class artifacts all contributing to a wider variety of build options... And the scenary - not to mention the new hub village and the young yeti who pretty much is always unimpressed by your offering. A much needed ego-sink.

Clear winner.

TOD, if only for the silly glyphs and the artifact belts/weapons. And the dragons of course.

Shar and dread, just monotone boon grinders. Hate powries. Really. Hate them. Where's the honour in endlessly killing a bunch of sociopathic munchkins dressed like Santa's elves. Surprised Rudolph wasn't a miniboss.

kurtb88

Seems clear it should be an easy IWD pick since you have the Encounters to spice things up.

mehguy138

Favorite IWD

PROS:

- 3 beautiful and atmospheric locations;
- HE introduction;
- PVP campaign;
- BI gear that can be used in PVP;
- overload slot introduction;
- open world PVP;
- dailies where you felt that you actually progress through the campaign.

CONS:

- enchantments drop nerf;
- GWF and HR huge imbalance;
- low drop rates;
- meh boons;
- BOP stuff.

Worst TOD

PROS:

- new BiS jewelry;
- good boons;
- old areas revamp.

CONS:

- huge CW imbalance;
- boring, tedious and frustrating campaign progress;
- absolute winner in number and coverage of bugs which are:
- visual bugs (arcane singularity);
- chat bugs;
- UI bugs;
- drop bugs;
- abilities bugs etc.
- absolutely unplayable PVP due to CW OPness, SW Soul Puppet bug, glyphs etc.;
- useless sets.

cloud990pl

Icewind Dale for all of its content, it introduced more than previous MODs, problem was how it introduced them.
You could think that after rescuing dozens of caravanners your reputation in IWD would rise but nope... you have to get x ammount of BI and "do" one HE (as in walk by).
Hmmm... Well I think IWD has introduced most content but also has most wasted potential

zoiks100

The modules are more destructive to the base game than they are additive. Pointless, dull daily hubs, ridiculous mudflation, more limited grouping...This game had more than enough uninteresting filler quests at launch, it didn't need more, nor did it need a HUGE increase in PC strength with little to no improvements in NPC mechanics to increase challenge or PVP improvement to compensate for shortened TTK.

What this game needed, and I say needed because it's really too late at this point, was improvements to the base game not more filler content. They should have used major patches as an excuse to have game mechanics improvements made, in particular to foundry as that's the one thing that differentiated this game from other MMOs. And they should have expanded the story, after all a big portion of what makes any Forgotten Realms game successful is the fact that it draws in fans of the BOOKS, not just pnp D&D. Imagine this game with expanded story content from the books, raids, more pvp mechanics/maps, content that scales to groups, improved grouping mechanics, more foundry mechanics (including the pvp foundries they initially wanted to make), more classes and more class options, more races, etc. etc. Instead we get dailies, dailies by the bucket load.

Anyway if I had to pick a module, I would pick 2, mod 2 and mod 4 since they added a class each at least. Nothing else added to the game so far matters as far as improving it goes.

myowmyow

Definitely Mod 2 for all of the reasons already provided by others - hands-down winner.