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Fresh 60 in greens, need some help with gearing up priorities
pers3phone
Banned Users, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 0 Arc User
Hello everybody 
This is my first post here. A little background: I'm new in Neverwinter MMO, but I'm a rather experienced RPG/MMO player, having played Baldur's Gate through Witcher and DA series, also both NWN games with all expansions multiple times. I didn't play a lot of MMOs, this is actually my 2nd one, but I've played years of WoW, raided in TBC and Cata, including heroic difficulty. Not much of a PvP fan, but I will think of it once I will be able to change specs on the fly (so probably never here on Neverwinter...).
I'll also be honest, in my opinion from what I saw up to now, Neverwinter is 100% pay to win. I am not planning to support such a game, even though I like many of its features. So I won't invest money in it - it's all for the fun. Please don't feel offended, I know the "pay for convenience" theories, everybody is entitled to their opinions.
I just hit 60 on mt CW a day ago, and I thought to myself: What should I do next, especially with the expansion coming. I will try to make the questions very short:
- what goals I should set for myself to gear up as fast as possible to a decent level? I assume AD should be a priority now, so I should do the daily stuff as much as I can. I am still finishing the last map for now, then I'll do dailies instead.
- should I just queue for epic dungeons as my GS unlocks them? Will I get lots of flak because of my lame gear? I inspected some 60 players as I enjoyed the game, and they all had epic gear - didn't see one in blues. Seems I'm missing stuff?
- do I have realistic chances at good gear without money?
- what spec is "best" for running epic dungeons?
- because of fast leveling, I missed quite a few skirmishes which I'd like to complete for titles and achievements. How do I queue at 60 for this low-level stuff?
- I started leveling professions a little late. I took Tailoring and Leadership to lvl 6-7 for now, Alchemy just started. Anything special I should know about? They seem to be taking an eternity to level up.
- I have big problems with bag&bank space. I have the 3 bags from quests/default. Many enchants, bound stuff, 2 tier of potions are ruining this. I assume it's either pay up or work like a mule to get a bag from AH? Any other way? This is just a bag, not some ultracool epic that should be hard to get. As for bank space, it is utterly HAMSTER.
- should I bother to try and replace the mount? It's kinda lame with these harder mobs, I get dismounted all the time if something hits me.
- my companion cleric is dying all the time on me lately, she has become rather useless. Will I be able to improve her in the expac? I've read that the CW choice is the cat or the stone. Thoughts?
- any things that I shouldn't miss? Any conventions in the community? Keep in mind, I'm totally new at Neverwinter, so even what is considered common knowledge might help me.
I am welcoming and will be reading all advice. Obviously, I already took time to study the topics with specs and so on, yet I know there are experienced players knowing much, much more than me.
So please share
Thanks - and apologies for the many questions!
This is my first post here. A little background: I'm new in Neverwinter MMO, but I'm a rather experienced RPG/MMO player, having played Baldur's Gate through Witcher and DA series, also both NWN games with all expansions multiple times. I didn't play a lot of MMOs, this is actually my 2nd one, but I've played years of WoW, raided in TBC and Cata, including heroic difficulty. Not much of a PvP fan, but I will think of it once I will be able to change specs on the fly (so probably never here on Neverwinter...).
I'll also be honest, in my opinion from what I saw up to now, Neverwinter is 100% pay to win. I am not planning to support such a game, even though I like many of its features. So I won't invest money in it - it's all for the fun. Please don't feel offended, I know the "pay for convenience" theories, everybody is entitled to their opinions.
I just hit 60 on mt CW a day ago, and I thought to myself: What should I do next, especially with the expansion coming. I will try to make the questions very short:
- what goals I should set for myself to gear up as fast as possible to a decent level? I assume AD should be a priority now, so I should do the daily stuff as much as I can. I am still finishing the last map for now, then I'll do dailies instead.
- should I just queue for epic dungeons as my GS unlocks them? Will I get lots of flak because of my lame gear? I inspected some 60 players as I enjoyed the game, and they all had epic gear - didn't see one in blues. Seems I'm missing stuff?
- do I have realistic chances at good gear without money?
- what spec is "best" for running epic dungeons?
- because of fast leveling, I missed quite a few skirmishes which I'd like to complete for titles and achievements. How do I queue at 60 for this low-level stuff?
- I started leveling professions a little late. I took Tailoring and Leadership to lvl 6-7 for now, Alchemy just started. Anything special I should know about? They seem to be taking an eternity to level up.
- I have big problems with bag&bank space. I have the 3 bags from quests/default. Many enchants, bound stuff, 2 tier of potions are ruining this. I assume it's either pay up or work like a mule to get a bag from AH? Any other way? This is just a bag, not some ultracool epic that should be hard to get. As for bank space, it is utterly HAMSTER.
- should I bother to try and replace the mount? It's kinda lame with these harder mobs, I get dismounted all the time if something hits me.
- my companion cleric is dying all the time on me lately, she has become rather useless. Will I be able to improve her in the expac? I've read that the CW choice is the cat or the stone. Thoughts?
- any things that I shouldn't miss? Any conventions in the community? Keep in mind, I'm totally new at Neverwinter, so even what is considered common knowledge might help me.
I am welcoming and will be reading all advice. Obviously, I already took time to study the topics with specs and so on, yet I know there are experienced players knowing much, much more than me.
So please share
Thanks - and apologies for the many questions!
Post edited by pers3phone on
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Based on market prices on my server (Beholder), ~80k ought to get you geared out in an Archmage set plus T1+ jewelry and whatnot. Toss in whatever enchants you've accumulated (you ought to have many rank 4s and probably even a few rank 5s by now just from picking stuff up as you level). That's the cheapest, fastest, kick-start option I can recommend.
From there? Things get considerably more expensive. You can probably buy a set of High Vizier (arguably the best armor set in the game for CWs) for about 250,000 AD. The dilemma, for those who are tight on cash, is whether to take the intermediate step described above (Archmage), or whether to save resources and just go straight for the gusto.
The next step is probably to grab an Ioun Stone, if you're interested in PvE primarily. The Stone'll give you a better boost than any marginal increase in Gear Score, but it costs 2000 Zen, which corresponded to about 700,000 AD the last time I checked the exchange rates.
And then the enchantment progression begins in earnest. Lesser Weapon/Armor enchants are only a little more than 100k each (the cost of a Coalescent Ward plus whatever the shards cost; shards can range from insignificant prices to ~30k a pop depending on which kind you're interested in, but they also drop fairly plentifully in dungeons). Multiply the Lesser cost by 5 for a so-called "normal" weapon/armor enchant. Multiply that cost by at least 4 for a greater weapon/armor enchant. Multiply that cost by at least 4 for a Perfect version of the same.
And of course, you also don't want to neglect the more prosaic enchants that go in your Offense/Defense/Utility slots. Rank 6s will run you probably 20-30k. Rank 7s are more than 100k. I haven't even looked at the cost for rank 8s yet myself. (Hehe.)
Anyway, I don't mean to discourage you with all of this. You really can get a decent gear loadout, capable of carrying you through most of the content in the game, relatively quickly and cheaply. There is a lot of room to grow, though, if you're into that.
Read Grimah's guide and Copticone's build thread. Then read around. There is no one true path.
Can't be done, as of this time.
Stick with Leadership. It'll take forever to level, but it offers you decent rewards at the end for minimal material investment. The other crafting professions, much like real-life business endeavors, require an enormous investment if you want any chance of making serious money.
Use your bound stuff first. Sell any enchantments below rank 4. Sell any lower-than-max-level potions. Toss out bounty tokens; they're utterly worthless. Use or toss away any of the fluff stuff Cryptic gave you as a hidden bag-space tax (fireworks).
The three default bags are quite livable once you get used to the situation. I've always been a bit of an RPG packrat, so I understand your frustration, but if I can do it, you can too
If you're planning to play any alts, an account-bound max-speed mount from the Zen store is perhaps the best single investment you can make. The cheapest option is 2500 Zen ($25). I bought one, and I don't regret it at all, but you certainly don't need one.
Think of the cleric as a downtime-heal dispenser, not an active combat helper. Don't mind if she dies; after the fight she rezzes with full health. There's literally nothing you can do to make her into a combat-capable pet. And the pet upgrades in the new patch are much like the mount upgrades already in the game: far too expensive to bother with.
So basically... everything is bought, instead of relying in drops, WoW style? I... dunno what to say
Is the skirmish problem acknowledged? It's very annoying. I basically queued each time for dungeons&queues, but because questing is so streamlined and fast and queues so slow, I just got automatically removed from queues as I leveled. I'm the completionist type of guy, I really, REALLY wanted to complete everything lol.
Anytime
You will get drops, but they will be heavily randomized. Regardless, everything has a market value; whether you buy it on the AH or pick it up yourself, you're still "spending" the market value at the moment when you decide to equip it. For example, I've received three Coalescent Wards from invoking, and I've used them all -- but I could have sold them for more than 300k.
And after the new patch, Dungeon Delve chest items will be Bind-on-Pickup, so the market will likely shift.
I'm probably the wrong person to ask. I know there's a lot of talk about the issue in the general forums, and I imagine it'll get resolved eventually. But I have no idea when that might happen.
I assume I have to buy the simple stuff, without the extension?
Oh, yes, good point. Avoid the stuff that says, "Of the Unicorn" or "Of the Drake." Those are seal items, which as you noted have no set bonus.
Epics, here I come
What kind of enchants should I be using on them, considering the other set will be 2-3 weeks away? Level 4-5 maybe? I did indeed keep all the enchants that I found for max level, only used some when I needed bag space really bad
So I managed to fill the left side of the char. Still have greenery/blues in the right side: rings, waist, neck, pants, shirt. Trousers and shirt are 70k together and out of my reach for now.
So what are the recommendations for rings/waist/neck?
Belt with affix "fugitive's"
Neck with affix "excorcist's"
Pyro is kinda expensive. If you can afford it, go for it, othervise i can recommend blue rings with 125\125\125 power\crit\armpen(forgot the name)
Yeah, I don't have my equipment spreadsheet in front of me, but the OP certainly doesn't need the best jewelry to start.
Just prioritize the following stats:
On the offensive side: Armor Penetration > crit > Recovery* > Power
On the defensive side: HP - Lifesteal - Regeneration, depending on preference.
Without an Ioun Stone, and given mediocre enchantment slots, chances are the OP won't come up against significant diminished returns or stat caps.
(* - in principle, it's probably advisable to aim for at least 2500 Recovery, but Recovery is easy to come by without trying, and if the OP uses the Archmage set to start, s/he'll need it less than s/he would have otherwise.)
For what its worth I haven't spent much at all on this game (real money wise) - I bought a mount, and thats pretty much it. Everything else I obtained from the store (Ioun Stone, a few bags and some other HAMSTER) was done by converting AD to Zen. But this may be harder these days since prices on gear have fallen so much (I once sold a T2 breastplate on the AH for 2.5 million AD, they are nowhere near that anymore).
I bought (with AD) the Archmage set when I started my CW, but farmed everything else. Didn't take TOO long (maybe I was lucky), so its definitely the way to go if you don't want to waste your hard earned cash on this game.
The pyro rings are around 40K each. Not gonna buy right now.
What enchant rank should I put in the Archmage set? And what set should be my next focus? Magelord? Some of the pieces were quite cheap on AH (around 3-6K), but the cap was around 70K or so.
Yep. Archmage is arguably the best T1 set. It's also dirt cheap.
High Vizier is arguably the best T2 set. It's also (relative to its main rival, Shadow Weaver) darn cheap.
Or in terms of cost: Shadow Weaver > High Vizier >> Archmage.
In short, Magelord would be a lateral move, at best.
My advice for professions is try to max out Tailoring. The Intensive scrap gathering tasks give you A LOT of experience and really race you up the ranks. Get it to lvl 20 within a few weeks and you can make your own shirt and pants, then sell more on the AH. After that concentrate on leadership as a cash and AD generator along with getting the odd large chest of goods etc.
Getting a cat or stone is way out of my league at the moment. Bought a Phoera which was a mistake I think - it's ok, but would have been better spending the 90k on some High Vizier gear.
So I bought 2 Focal Magi items and 2 Fatebender for reasonable amounts and enjoyed the 400 crit and pow boost. Pale Bone Bands for rings (125, 125, 125) were cheap too. I have replaced the Focal Magi gear with HV now and miss the crit hugely, but the recovery boost is significant.
I guess some of these decisions weren't optimal in the long term, but they did let me run T1s fairly comfortably and I've improved my play style hugely as a result. Eventually I'll get the rest of the HV kit and hit the T2's properly. Some parties can cope with a slightly **** CW with T1 gear. Other struggle and runs can take ages
I'll gear up as best as I can from my limited resources. I consider this on par to crafting on WoW. You wanted to raid as a mage, let's say at the start of TBC? You'd craft Spellfire+Spellstrike sets, which mostly consisted of you grinding for mats from regular mobs. You grinded some more for mats for enchants and reputations. Then, you'd join a guild which would run Tier 4 and fill/replace gear as needed, and hopefully ascend to Tier 5.
This means I'll try to join a guild that runs T1 here once I have decent gear. There's no excuse of being ungearead when the gear is so cheap. Then I'll run the starter epics and slowly progress to next tier, which I intend to run within a guild, since I'm no pro at the game and need somebody that know what to do to run the show.
Best answer to the thread right here.
But coming back to your topic about gearing-up, please go on and read the patch notes, there are going to be changes, where you're going to benefit from, as I suppose.
So what next? High Vizier pieces are from 6000 to 150000 AD/piece. The "gemmed" pants and shirt - very expensive too. The enchants - criminal (btw, I've run into people with good enchants in PvP - we need a matchmaking system... very OP). Then there's the stone.
I personally dislike this "buy gear" system, but it is what it is for now, until I can find my way to running the epic dungeons.
Side question: the PvP tier 2, still with Glory? I didn't spend any, mostly because I consider the T1 set inferior to what I have... and it is heavy on the inventory.
Also want so see what changes the expac will bring. Maybe T2 will become completely obsolete and I'll need to skip it. Who knows.
Thanks again for your answers guys, they were very helpful. I mean, I really read quite a lot about the CW on the web, I don't like to leech knowledge that it's available if you just could read, but I had (and still have) many specific noobie questions that I needed reassurances
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Wow. Amazing moderation skills. Thank you for your time to edit and clear everything, I appreciate it. I've been moderating myself and know it's much easier to just close and move on. Yet you took the long road.
Thanks again
A couple of weeks ago there was a Call to Arms event in which people who'd outleveled the Orc Assault skirmish could run it. This checked off the achievement and there was also the possibility of getting special mounts and armor/weapon skins. My understanding (I believe that the devs said this at some point in the 24-hour podcast) is that eventually they're going to offer events like that for all the skirmishes.
Yeah I participated in that event, I was right about at the level when I had to do the regular orc skirmish, freshly started for a few days. I remember being very surprised at how fast stuff died, and that I got level 4 enchants instead of 1-2
Anyway such events would be great if regular, IMO the events are one of Neverwinter's best features. But it would also be great if there would be a daily random skirmish at 60, with mobs scaled up to match the player level. Since scaling works quite well in the foundry, I assume it's not something so hard to be done.
No you buy T2 from the relic sellers on the gauntlgrym map, for gauntlgrym coins.
The module 1 is about T2 gear too.
And finally, yes, "exp" on zone chat means "must know exploits". You can get into such runs but you'll never learn to play the game, and if one day you're facing a real fight, expect to ragequit.
On a side note, adds are the very reason CWs exist, if you find it annoying, it's sad, because that's what we do and without huge packs of mobs the class is completely useless.