Mod 9 - Castle Never

garlaanx · May 2016

Just wanted to share my first time experience in castle never. Wasn't around when it was out before. Pretty cool instance. The lag right now is insane though. So many people running it. There was over 250+ instances on launch day.

This video is about an hour after launch. We didn't do to bad. Esp, for not having a full haste cleric with us. Have done multi runs since this and have done just fine. No issues except the lag every once in awhile.

We need more dungeons like this. That require teamwork to get thru. Not just instances you can jump in and slaughter everything in sight. Gets boring after awhile.

Anyway, video is about an hour long. Enjoy guys!

Will post a decent full complete run eventually. -- Feel free to discuss your first runs and how they went. Esp if this was your first time doing CN.

https://youtu.be/Q1LRYySfbWg

sax1993 · May 2016

Castle Never is alright. I still enjoyed it more in mod 5.

It's still not that challenging. Was running with the guild tonight and we rolled through the whole dungeon with a GF and no healer (I'm DPS/Buff Cleric). I run astral shield just to buff the GFs into the fray but if we did a big pull I'd throw an empowered one down and everyone is immune.

Orcus isn't very hard himself either especially if you got ranged DPS.

They need to bring back the old dungeons and make them more difficult and make the rewards on par with CN.

Still waiting for that bubble nerf because people still think you need it for everything, which is annoying. Was kicked from two EtoS today cause of no haste lmao.

ddem0n888 · May 2016

sax1993 said:
Castle Never is alright. I still enjoyed it more in mod 5.

It's still not that challenging. Was running with the guild tonight and we rolled through the whole dungeon with a GF and no healer (I'm DPS/Buff Cleric). I run astral shield just to buff the GFs into the fray but if we did a big pull I'd throw an empowered one down and everyone is immune.

Orcus isn't very hard himself either especially if you got ranged DPS.

They need to bring back the old dungeons and make them more difficult and make the rewards on par with CN.

Still waiting for that bubble nerf because people still think you need it for everything, which is annoying. Was kicked from two EtoS today cause of no haste lmao.

I've run it a few times now. The lag was horrendous and I have no issue with my internet speed. We've done it with 1xHR, 1xCW, 1xGWF, 1xSW and 1xGF (PvP Spec).

I definitely agree that the 4 levelling dungeons they brought back should also have an Epic version. Castle Never does seem a bit 'rushed' from a Development perspective.

Devs please make this happen for Mod 10. You know it makes sense

garlaanx · May 2016

sax1993 said:
Castle Never is alright. I still enjoyed it more in mod 5.

It's still not that challenging. Was running with the guild tonight and we rolled through the whole dungeon with a GF and no healer (I'm DPS/Buff Cleric). I run astral shield just to buff the GFs into the fray but if we did a big pull I'd throw an empowered one down and everyone is immune.

Orcus isn't very hard himself either especially if you got ranged DPS.

They need to bring back the old dungeons and make them more difficult and make the rewards on par with CN.

Still waiting for that bubble nerf because people still think you need it for everything, which is annoying. Was kicked from two EtoS today cause of no haste lmao.

Agreed... As a SW I was able to take Orcus down from 15% to death solo.. and I'm only 3k IL atm with missing boons. He auto arrgo's my comp/puppet (don't have puppet threat as a feat either)

We have been doing about 15min-20min max run thru's now.. Normally Perm Bubble Pally + Haste Cleric + 3 DPS (SW, 2 GWF) All around 2500-3kish.. So.. I would like to see it maybe get harder.

ftryda · May 2016

I think lag is a huge issue, especially with several instant death mechanics built in to Orcus, but otherwise can be enjoyable.

Last night my girl and I queued up to test our luck for a quick pug run. To our surprise the game queued us in just the two of us and allowed us to turn to the initial start door and it pulled us straight to orcus. I imagine a group had just abandoned the instance at orcus as we entered. Retrospec I should have just checked the leaderboard, literally just thought of that now. Fail. Regardless this turned into about the most enjoyable couple of hours I have had on Neverwinter in a long time.

We decided just to give it hell knowing it was a suicide run anyway. I am a temptation warlock and she is a trapper ranger. We had a couple rough goes at first, but after learning the mechanics we consistently got Orcus below 50% and then below 25%. Our luck just wouldn't hold to get past the last 15% as we became plagued with lag and upwards of 3 death spheres at a time, which is one miserable combination. With the increasing lag we decided to stop before ruining the enjoyment that we had been having just messing around.

Despite not completing just the two of us, I still felt like the experience with CN was a success simply because we enjoyed ourselves for first time in a while just messing around. Having the option to queue a party of any size would be great to create little challenges like this, but top priority would be to fix the lag.

Side notes on this, since I am temptation warlock I do not have a puppet and the skills I use do not bring one out against a single boss. That being said I need to give the Shadow Demon credit as the mvp of the run. We both have one as our active companion. They tank very well and since Orcus attacks so slow and fixates on melee attackers he would simple target one and kill it and then turn around for the other, but by the time he killed the second one the other would already have self revived. Only a few times when both were down did I use my bell to get it back quicker. Healing output of a templock helped keep them alive longer as well. Also as a templock the only way to die in this fight is making a mistake or really bad luck with death sphere spawns and lag. Otherwise even after the big 80% hp hits bringing us to near death the enemies actually attack so infrequently that we can freely attack and fully restore health in seconds.

All in all CN is alright, long but atleast more interesting than other current dungeons. Sadly my enjoyment was not from a developer design intention, but rather by likely a mistake in the system letting us go at Orcus as a duo. Just goes to show the game is what you make of it and despite any content released you need to adjust and create your own challenges that you will enjoy accomplishing. Can't stress enough how much I wish we could queue any party size under 5. Hope devs are listening and realize that allows players to make their own challenges and increase replay ability at no expense to development time beyond removing that restriction.

ltsmithneko · May 2016

Btw ya know Orcus isn't supposed to turn around that fast.

It's a bug that will hopefully be fixed. His attack isn't bugged it's supposed to be such a large aoe cone-ish attack.

awrex1977 · May 2016

Since old dungeons were removed (on XBox about a year ago), the following has been added to character progression....

Level cap 70
4th tier Class abilities
6 sets of boons (a 7th set of boons is coming with revamped EE)
Mount equip powers
Mount insignia bonuses
Enchantment rank increase to 12
4th Artifact slot

Max IL = 4224

CN was re-introduced (in an abbreviated form - boo) less than 72 hours ago. New "end game"... in less than 72 hours it is being farmed heavily, can be run (w/out going all out speed run style) in about (conservatively) 20 minutes (cut scenes, the 5 portal closings, the loading gates, long walks, etc) pretty much hassle free by characters no where near the IL cap.

Why did it take a year to get that back?

Got bored and screwed around on an alt last night, Clock Tower quest came up, figured "why not"... Incredibly let down, absolutely no chance anywhere of dying, ROFLSTOMP style on a 14-15 lv GF. Seems to me that adding the leveling dungeons was a complete waste of developer resources.

Campaign - thus far is not challenging (only 2 characters I have touched it on are a 3.1Kish CW & a 2.7Kish DC), the daily x5 mechanic seems to have been implemented solely to slow down progression (w/ so much centering around making progression easier than it already is, this seems contradictory to me). The placement in old zones to go kill stupid demons at location x & y is poorly executed), Holding out hope the Underdark Map is expanded upon with NEW ZONES...

Basically, the game designers/developers have implemented systems that allow characters to achieve immense amounts of individual power over the course of the past year (power creep).

There is no content in game that mirrors that power creep.

When is that content coming?

As is, released content is burned through either A) as soon as it is released, or

as soon as it is unlocked (EDemo, Campaigns that time/currency locked).

Grinding RP and amassing AD is the "end game", and that IMO is flawed.

Since EE was released...

3 Epic dungeons left in game, all of which give the same rewards, which makes no sense IMO.

MOD 7 - Strongholds, guild orientated version of a massive RP grind.

MOD 8 - Underdark, an entire mod that is based on 3 skirmishes, highest IL requirement in game at 2.5K... which is a joke. Questline available at level 60.

MOD 9 - just released, new "end game" is already being farmed. Campaign/questline available at level 60.

a revamped EE campaign/questline is incoming, available at level 60.

It makes no sense to me why a game that launch on PC nearly 3 years ago (and over a year ago on XBox) is seemingly going backwards.

Level cap (and power creep) was increased over 6 months ago on XBox, yet the content they are releasing is catered to 60-70?

Conservatively, the 1-70 grind can be easily completed in 2 weeks without going nuts playing a couple hours a day.

70+ is when character progression really starts - time/AD/RP or $ sink into artifacts, enchants, companions, and artifact equipment.

When is a mod (and frankly several mods) going to cater to the vast majority of time spent in this game - the 70+ over powered, 2.5/3/3.5/4K+ crowd?

zman81420 · May 2016

Been great thus far, have logged 40+ successful meltfest runs.

cscriv79 · May 2016

You said it perfectly @awrex1977, been so many 2xrp latley and only reason is to get ppl to spend money to get IL higher and for no reason as the PvE is too easy. PvP is just a shambles as many a long term PvPer or numerous threads on these forums will tell you.

If you are going to keep increasing the IL and doing 2xRP so ppl can reach higher and higher you need to add content to challenge them, to make it worth while getting that high IL.

garlaanx · May 2016

ftryda said:
I think lag is a huge issue, especially with several instant death mechanics built in to Orcus, but otherwise can be enjoyable.

Last night my girl and I queued up to test our luck for a quick pug run. To our surprise the game queued us in just the two of us and allowed us to turn to the initial start door and it pulled us straight to orcus. I imagine a group had just abandoned the instance at orcus as we entered. Retrospec I should have just checked the leaderboard, literally just thought of that now. Fail. Regardless this turned into about the most enjoyable couple of hours I have had on Neverwinter in a long time.

We decided just to give it hell knowing it was a suicide run anyway. I am a temptation warlock and she is a trapper ranger. We had a couple rough goes at first, but after learning the mechanics we consistently got Orcus below 50% and then below 25%. Our luck just wouldn't hold to get past the last 15% as we became plagued with lag and upwards of 3 death spheres at a time, which is one miserable combination. With the increasing lag we decided to stop before ruining the enjoyment that we had been having just messing around.

Despite not completing just the two of us, I still felt like the experience with CN was a success simply because we enjoyed ourselves for first time in a while just messing around. Having the option to queue a party of any size would be great to create little challenges like this, but top priority would be to fix the lag.

Side notes on this, since I am temptation warlock I do not have a puppet and the skills I use do not bring one out against a single boss. That being said I need to give the Shadow Demon credit as the mvp of the run. We both have one as our active companion. They tank very well and since Orcus attacks so slow and fixates on melee attackers he would simple target one and kill it and then turn around for the other, but by the time he killed the second one the other would already have self revived. Only a few times when both were down did I use my bell to get it back quicker. Healing output of a templock helped keep them alive longer as well. Also as a templock the only way to die in this fight is making a mistake or really bad luck with death sphere spawns and lag. Otherwise even after the big 80% hp hits bringing us to near death the enemies actually attack so infrequently that we can freely attack and fully restore health in seconds.

All in all CN is alright, long but atleast more interesting than other current dungeons. Sadly my enjoyment was not from a developer design intention, but rather by likely a mistake in the system letting us go at Orcus as a duo. Just goes to show the game is what you make of it and despite any content released you need to adjust and create your own challenges that you will enjoy accomplishing. Can't stress enough how much I wish we could queue any party size under 5. Hope devs are listening and realize that allows players to make their own challenges and increase replay ability at no expense to development time beyond removing that restriction.

Great stuff mate. Yea, I run the Shadow Demon as well like you suggested to me. So I'm sure that had a huge part in me doing Orcus alone. Demon/Puppet combo + range attack + survive AoE

All good feedback. Good stories. Keep em coming!

Also, I noticed artifact price going down fast.. started at 8m.. dropped to 4m.. then around 1.5m... Now around normal price of the other ones.. 700k-900k -- Hope no one paid an absurd amount for theirs =P

missdayum · May 2016

garlaanx said:
Just wanted to share my first time experience in castle never. Wasn't around when it was out before. Pretty cool instance.

Well I was. Been playing the game since April 2015 as a matter of fact and I actually HATE THE NEW VERSION. Why? Simple three things:

- It's way shorther than the original Castle Never.
- I miss the spider and dragon boss fights for reals.
- The loot (except for the orc artifact) are pointless. What do I do with LV60 epic gear except salvaging it for 5,500 ADs!?

Not happy with the new version and I was really looking forward to it.

Unknown · May 2016

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Unknown · May 2016

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ltsmithneko · May 2016

poopoomcmuffns said:
Played the new version last night for the first time with a pug group, all consisting of 2.5-2.8k il, with me being a temp lock at 3.4 il. Huge dissappointment, i liked the old cn 200 percent more. It felt like a long heroic encounter, it may be a little more fun without a bibble pally, but the player base is 98 percent bubble nubs, but even so...not even worth the time unless your farming for orcus set.

I am </3 But the artifact equipment refinement is nice too.

Mod 9 - Castle Never

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I am neither here nor there, for I am NevrCene