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Help for New Players - Stuff I Wish I Knew Before I Learned the Hard Way
DISCLAIMER:
This list is way biggerer than I expected, but I got a lot of help and it has blossomed. You may need to be familiar with *some* Neverwinter jargon. I recommend a touch of time in game... follow the quest paths, get to maybe level 8 and then come back. You won't damage your character. If things go well, come back a few times as you gain experience and things that made no sense early on will hopefully have more meaning. Good luck. If you feel something is missing or confusing, I'd be delighted to clarify.The Point
This guide is meant to provide useful tips that aren't obvious to new players. It's one person's opinion. There are many ways of doing the Neverwinter Adventuring bidness. The dream is to provide enough info that when a reader hits a familiar topic they go "Oh, yah, I remember getting screwed by that." or "I wish I knew that a while ago" or "This guy's an idiot... but let me think about that, anyway."I'm not intending to post "the obvious", my apologies if you feel that I have. Unless it's something that I've screwed up, or against which I've seen many people bang their heads, in the name of brevity, I'm leaving it out. [ed: Brevity. HAH. Wrong Thread.]
GENERAL
- A good intro from the early days and another.
- Want a *quick* rundown on the classes? Redditor cacktusjack made a great summary right here.
- PC - Need in-game help? Use the unofficial chat channel, type "/channel_join NW_Newbie"
- PC - There is a chat channel dedicated to players who don't use exploits or cheats. Join via "/channel_join NW_Legit_Community"
On Identification
- Only use scrolls to identify gear (and sell it) to the point where you can get your first mount for 5gp. (If you pay Zen for a mount, then there is no reason to hoard gold by identifying and selling gear.)
- After that, don't ID anything green your characters can't use. Exception: Refinement of Artifact Gear begins at level 60.
- Understand how trade-able an item is before you get it.
- "BoP" = Bind on Pickup. As soon as your character touches it, it's staying with them until you sell (not trade), use, salvage, or discard it.
- "BoE" = Bind on Equip. Trade-able. Anything on the Auction House is BoE. You can get it, pass it between your characters or resell it, up to when your character wears or uses some aspect of it.
- "BtA" = Bind to Account. You can't put it on the Auction House, but you can move it between your characters.
- Also - The Devs have goofed a few times during special events by mislabeling BoP companions as BoE. People have been "burnt." Before you spend hours grinding for a companion, take a few seconds to search the interwebs for related news.
- "BoP" = Bind on Pickup. As soon as your character touches it, it's staying with them until you sell (not trade), use, salvage, or discard it.
On Inventory
- Don't skip the quests in Blacklake District or Neverdeath Graveyard, they give you free bags.
- You can also get a bag from the Benign Order of the Third Eye mini-campaign.
- Dragon Cult 20-slot bags have often been a better buy on the AH than the Bags of Holding from the Zen Store.
- Bags you buy are NOT transferable between your characters, and they may bind immediately, and without warning, if you have an open bag slot.
- The bag from the Dragonborn pack can be claimed on all characters.
- Do not buy a Bag of Holes.
- An item is Recommended when it has a gold glow around the icon in your inventory.
- Equipment that is "Recommended" is not always better. The game uses a simple sum of statistics and it fails to include key aspects in the calculation.
- Shiny purple enticing lockboxes drop during battles and may have prizes inside. You may purchase keys to open them (usually about 125 Zen (~50 kAD) per key/lockbox). I can't speak to how good the lockbox loot is. I can say that it is perfectly OK to discard the lockboxes, if you choose not to buy the Zen keys. I have one slot in my bag dedicated to them. Eventually, when the game offers a new style, I discard the old pile. Some lockboxes have become quite valuable when held long enough for them to become rare.
On the Monies
- Don't buy Zen through Steam, use Arc. (PC Only)
- Do not buy Zen or Astral Diamonds through 3rd party dealers. You will be permanently banned.
- Don't use Astral Diamonds to buy from the in-game vendors if you haven't first compared prices on the Auction House. If an item is on the AH, it is probably cheaper than the game's built-in vendors like the "Wondrous Bazaar."
- Don't buy anything in AD that you can buy in Gold. Gold is usually only valuable at the beginning of the game, the most exciting things will be bought with Zen or Astral Diamonds. At level 70, you will probably have more Gold than you know how to spend.
- The seals from Bounty Hunters in each zone are not valuable, they get you equipment that would be good for a character who hasn't completed the tasks needed to earn the equipment. (Seals of the Elements and Seals of the Protector are exceptions).
- Send Gold to your other characters using the Bank in Protector's Enclave. Open your Bank window. At the bottom of the pop-up, there are fields to deposit and withdraw Gold.
- Pass Astral Diamonds between characters using the Astral Diamond Exchange. On the character with AD, create an offer to Buy Zen at a price of 50 AD each. Then, with the "Listings" tab, cancel the offer. On the needy character, in the "Buy Zen" tab, click the "Withdraw" button.
On Teaming
- You don't have to do any of the team dungeons or skirmishes as you level, though you may miss a title. Some of the gear you win is good respective to the level.
- Please take a moment to understand dungeon etiquette.
- Your character's class may have an effect on how quickly you can queue for Dungeons. For example, Paladins tend to queue quickly. HRs do not.
More info including Level Specific recommendations in the comments!
Post edited by kreatyve on
5
Comments
Miscellaneous
LEVEL 10 - Heroic Feats and Paragon Paths. Want to follow a Build?
LEVEL 10 - Professions
LEVEL 10 - Mounts
LEVEL 10 - PVP
LEVEL 11
LEVEL 15 - Enchantment/Refinement
More in the next comment!!!
LEVEL 16 - Companions
LEVEL 26
LEVEL 60
More stuff in the next comment!
LEVEL 70
... Thanks to my guildies and the Neveredditors for their help on this.
And thanks in advance for your ideas.
--heethin
Also you might want to add Genie's Gift, the one-size-fits-all campaign currency trader token found in more modern lockboxes, to your campaign shortcut list.
One thing about Sword Coast Adventures that you may want to add ...
Professions. You can access your professions here, and collect your reward or start a new quest. I have found this much more efficient than being in-game and taking care of it. Especially with a few alts.
also, for new players like me, by the time you get to 70, even if you've been consistently dropping all your enchants into your artifact, it's only going to be blue (maybe halfway to purple) at best. and the special power which you can only activate once every few minutes is not going to be really OP or anything. so it's a stat stick basically. and it's the only one to give you deflection.
most class builds can benefit from the lantern or waters stats, so i agree, you should think about that before taking the book. but if you took it without knowing all that, it's ok. it's not the end of the world. and as for me, i don't regret it at all. besides, i fully expected that there are better artificts that will be harder to get and might replace those free ones anyways. i just got my sigil of the hunter and will go for sigil of the trickster tonight. i'm not really interested in leveling anymore chars to 70 anytime soon...but i concur that you should check out those sigils at the claims vendor in enclave because maybe you might want another's class sigil.
and thanks for telling us that the sigil is available to all chars after you get it the first time, this is good to know
Guardian Fighter (GF): Very survivable, but lower damage and no sprint/dodge means that gameplay can be plodding.
Great Weapon Fighter (GWF): Good damage & survivability - a great first class for a new player.
Control Wizard (CW): Good damage and controls - a little "squishy", so may be a good choice once you are more experienced.
Oathbound Paladin (OP): Very survivable, only moderate damage, suffers from the same mobility issues as the GF, but gets an on-demand dash ability with no cooldown very early on, which somewhat mitigates that. In place of a dash/dodge ability, they get a block, (similar to a GFs), but which also heals all in a small radius around them. Has the added flexibility of becoming a tank or healer at level 30.
Trickster Rogue (TR): Very high damage, but can have survivability problems if not played by an experienced player. Still, their ability to enter stealth gives them superior control over how a fight goes.
Devoted Cleric (DC): This is my favorite and most-played class. While they may not be necessary for every team, I view them as not just a healer, but as a force-multiplier. They bring some of the best team buffs and enemy debuffs to the table, and can solo quite effectively. Their class mechanics of building up divinity, then casting powers in divine mode, then taking advantage of the stacks of empowered you build up, can seem daunting to the uninitiated, but once you get that eureka moment, it all comes together.
Scourge Warlock (SW): This is a class that I have somewhat mixed views on. They can do high damage, but definitely have some issues with survivability. With proper support, they can deal great damage, but the class is in need of a lot of love, and may be a better choice once you have some game time under your belt.
Hunter Ranger (HR): This is another class I'm rather fond of. They mix ranged and melee damage with a variety of survival and buffing tools. Trying to find a good balance among all the options can be a task unto itself, but similar to the DC, once you do find that sweet spot, everything just falls into place.
My thoughts on spending on the Zen Market:
As the OP mentioned, do not buy through Steam - there may be complications or restrictions if you choose this method of payment, and you're better off just buying your Zen directly. Give yourself at least 1 solid week of playing, before you spend any real money - if you enjoy the game, then go ahead and buy some Zen.
If you are enjoying the game, then here is how I'd go about buying that Zen:
1. Buy $10 in Zen, (that should come out to 1000 Zen).
2. I believe it's still running, so you should get the First Time Buyer's Pack. This gives you a good tanking pet and some other goodies, simply for buying at least 500 Zen, so you haven't actually used up any of that Zen yet.
3. If you've been playing for a while, then you should have discovered that you sometimes get a coupon when you invoke, (something you're directed to learn about at level 11). If you get a "15% Off any item" coupon, use it to buy 1 month of VIP access for 850 Zen. The important things about doing this is that it gives you some daily ID scrolls and an enchanted key - this allows you to open 1 lockbox per day on 1 single character - considering that this amounts to 30 such keys, and that even with the best enchanted key coupon, it would still cost more than twice what the single month of VIP gives you, I feel it's worth it. One important note here is that I recommend checking the value of these items on the auction house (AH) to see if any are worth selling, instead of directly using. If you get lucky, and get a valuable item, it may in fact be better for you to sell it on the AH and use the Astral Diamonds (ADs) you get to buy more Zen, and then spend those on an account-wide mount or even more VIP time, if you are enjoying things and plan o sticking around longer, (and creating more characters to boot).
"Is it better to be feared or respected? I say, is it too much to ask for both?" -Tony Stark
Official NW_Legit_Community Forums
Lantern on AH: 400-500k AD
That's on average 400k difference. Or two week's grinding AD. Or a tenner for ZEN.
Smart kids buy Aurora, and grab the Lantern for free...
Also I disagree with "don't ID anything green your characters can't use" With the drop rate of ID scrolls you might as well use them to ID stuff to either sell for more gold or donating to the guild coffer if they happen to be in a guild.
Also, how do you not have to Lia Knowles's GWF build guide? If you're going to link build guides, pretty much remove any pre mod 6 build guides since most of them are so out dated do to nerfs and feats being moved around that they will just inform new players how to make a useless mod 6 toon.
And finally, you should mention that the T1 blue Elemental Alliance gear is BoA and you can purchase gear for other classes via the misc tab from the seals trader which makes gearing up alts a little easier. Btw, guild gear is also BoA so you can do the same thing if you're in a guild.
anyway, nice guide....
[ed- what the hell, one or two extra words aren't going to be what makes this a long post. Added.]
1. The two most intellectually challenging factors are character build and tactics/power/feats. Those haven't changed much. And, until other builds surface, I'm ok with people wading, on their own, through the limited choices in gear. The links are preferable to nothing, which brings me to my next point...
2. I welcome recommendations to add.
Do you know of any information on dungeon etiquette that is more current and complete?
I don't disagree with "Don't ID anything green..." It's just one person's (mine) opinion and it's a recommendation that takes into account the costs of time and inventory, which to me are more valuable, than the 100 RP points or the coin... plus picking up greens in a dungeon is a way to get on your team's bad side, though most of us are used to it by now.
I will definitely add Lia Knowles' GWF build. I'd be glad to add any other post Mod 6 builds that I see surface with good support from the community. I won't get all of them, that's what the googles are for.
Excellent point on the T1 blue EA and Guild gear. I will add that too.
Keep them coming.
also, thanks for the advice on sigils, because although i'm loathe to level another char to 70, i didn't know you get all the sigils you unlock on every char, and since artifacts are not that easy to get, having the devoted one might be nice until a super special rare or set one is found.
thanks again for the info!
"Is it better to be feared or respected? I say, is it too much to ask for both?" -Tony Stark
Official NW_Legit_Community Forums
NW-DC9R4J5EH - 'The Black Pearl' - Spelljammer! Phlo Riders and Space Orcs
Thanks for all the fish.
Level 15 Enchantment - you get a ring with a slot. Keep it for a few levels, there's virtually no gear available before level 20 with an enchantment slot, and with a rank 5 from AH it's far better than anything else.
Correction - lockboxes always come with trade bars, not sometimes.