First Contact Battle Pass (Premium)

murphystout · November 2023

I have always bought the premium battle pass as my way of supporting the continued development of the game. As a long time player I have finally reached the point where I am struggling to continue my investment in this game.

How hard would it be to actually offer a new mount and new companion in the theme of the new mod? I understand offering some of the old companions and mounts that new players might want. I would argue even there the ones being offered are less than desirable.

The artifact is reasonable for DPS but once again my tanks of which I play four are left out. An artifact choice pact with the new mod theme would have been great that offered something to all class roles: dps, healers and tanks.

I appreciate the coal motes but honestly I have a lot of those collecting dust in my shared bank.

Right now I feel that you just want my 2500 Zen worth of cash and have done very little to earn it.

aslan · November 2023

Agreed, both the last two Battle Passes have been lack luster. There was a comment here about the Epic Collar Progress Pack being a sufficient improvement over the Epic Collar in the last Battle Pass, and honestly, I couldn't work out if this was supposed to be a joke or not.

bigblackafrica · November 2023

I am very disappointed in the premium track on the First Contact battle pass, as I was with Chaos Between Realms.

None of the companion or mount choice packs are account wide unlocks, and they are largely not legendary quality like in previous battle passes.

Even if they were account unlocks, other than the Icosahedron Ioun Stone, they're not very desirable. None of them have particularly good combat powers or abilities, and I don't think there's anything you can't get for relatively few AD on the auction house.

The artifact is okay (for DPS) but in no way does it incentivize spending 2500 zen.

plasticbat · November 2023

I am not disappointed at all because I can make the decision easily. Same as last time.

anna · November 2023

Definitely not the best battle pass we've had, but pretty much the same as the one just ending now, so it follows the set level of rewards. It would be better if we could turn collars into insignia powder but alas.

The companions and the mounts are again absolutely nothing to write home about (they're not rare, not useful, and not particularly exciting to look at either lol), and would perhaps suit the free track more than the premium track. I like the direction of the vanity pack more, with it bringing back removed items. Comps such as the Sun of Sune or mounts such as the Regal Armored Griffon would fit the bill better.

The Magnificent Resurgence Lockbox is a poor reward, as it is lterally the one lockbox that has no chance to randomly drop its premium reward - instead you only get the rarest item on opening 250 of this lockbox. Getting just 4 of it is a waste of keys.

darthpotater · November 2023

Last battle passes are more oriented to new players. Thats not a bad thing.

Invest your zen in something else, There will be new shinny things but not in the battle pass.

davidmoki · November 2023

Yeah, it's pretty bad. The companion box has no desirable companion, while there are a lot that are no longer available or exclusives that have not been seen for years.

If they put something like black death scorpion on that, it would make a lot of money for them, especially later on, because people would 100% pay 5k zen for it, even years from now.

strathkin · November 2023

strathkin said:
Still it's my understanding what they meant by the Epic Collar Upgrade Progress Pack, was it may give some or ALL of the Powder, or possibly other Regents items used toward upgrading a Epic Collar to Legendary in time. The question really is, how much progress does it help you get 40%, 60%, or 80%, of the powder & regents--less the mote. I'd honestly hope given event runs 3 months, it give you a sizeable amount, yet I fear it's probably just a small drop in the bucket.

Now having said that, I do kind of agree with many that the Mount &/or Companion Choice Packs were lackluster. It would have been nice to see at least 1 account-wide selection, with at least 1 new previously never seen Mount or Companion reward. Certainly choices given they are only single character was quite lackluster, so had they included a Black Death Scorpion or a more desirable choice it could have helped. It's also been a long time since they've offered a new Account-wide Artifact as well.

Still I'm holding my breath depending how much they are offering in the Collar upgrade Pack. So I'm likely to wait on deciding to see really what's in the Epic Collar Upgrade Progress Pack, and how much closer it gets you. I just fear like many things it will be but a drop in the bucket. *sigh*

plasticbat · November 2023

The Epic Collar Upgrade Progress Pack is already in game. It is in the premium tier of the 2nd stage of the current battle pass.

anna · November 2023

On a further note (but I understand that the battle pass is not here to fix this), you've not released a decent tank/healer arti set since sharandar. Arguably since dragon hunts if we're being charitable.

strathkin · November 2023

Progress really once you Break 80,000 Item-Level gets a lot more SLOW. I spent 1.5 years going up from 45,000 - 80,000 after having come back after 2 years away; still progress is now, far, far, slower. Most of that is related to how quickly you earn Powder, just trickles in through game play, even if you open chests or skill nodes. Perhaps I slowed things down a bit, only because I also upgraded several Companions for my 5 most played toons as well; that was only so I at least upgraded Neverwinter Knight &/or Minsc + 1 or 2 others so they had respectable DPS.

Now I've exclusively stopped that despite I've earned or purchased all the required Companions each of my 9 Character's requires to get reasonable to fairly good DPS--there just not all fully upgraded. Still now I'm mostly focused my Main Wizard to get her being good enough to contribute her fair share and complete MDWP. Still she's just under 82k at Present with her highest Item-Level armors, yet MDWP most almost still all use 1850 Ancient Dragon Gear too, with the Bregan D'aerthe Soldiers Tunic! So now I won't now be able to participate in the new Trial; till I at least earn all the 2,600 armors and 2,400 rings. Yet earning those armors will also delay my upgrading my next Insignia to Mythic as well by several weeks...

I heard one person say it took them two years to break 85,000 with all Mythic Insignia, I know upgrading all my insignia it likely take me at least a full year and a half if I'm optimistic. That's before I even consider upgrading my Epic Collars to Legendary too. Given it took someone else almost 2 years to upgrade all their Insignia to Mythic, that's a lot of powder 50,000 in fact to earn in 2 years, and that's without upgrading the Collars.

If during that same time (2.5 years) I get all Premium Unlocks to earn 10 Legendary Collar Upgrade Progress Packs they'll allow me enough powder and shards, minus the Glyphs of Potency to upgrade but 1 collar to Legendary.

*sigh*

First Contact Battle Pass (Premium)

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