What a strange direction they have taken the game in

aron

I came back to Neverwinter about 4 months ago after quitting in 2016. There were many new things to catch up on but one thing really surprised me.

A good way of earning astral diamonds before I quit the game was to run dungeons with friends and then sell the loot and split it 5 ways. That has changed in a big way and not for the better. I have been doing randoms for rough astral diamonds and many LoMM runs for maybe 3 months now and I have gotten nothing valuable at all so far. What have they done to this game? Every boss used to drop something. Sometimes good and sometimes not so good but they always dropped something. Sure, doing the content can be fun but getting nothing but HAMSTER at the end makes the whole thing very anticlimactic.

The valuable things I have gotten so far have been from Zok boxes. About 4 artifacts.

Gearing up is more casual now I suppose since you get most things for seals or from expeditions but everything else has gotten more expensive. Grinding events seems to be the thing to do now.

Feels like there is less to do in the game now when playing the content is pointless unless you're doing randoms. Haven't tried IC or ToMM since I haven't capped my stats yet but I can't imagine they're much better.

Anybody have any thoughts on this?

sandukutupu

Welcome back @aron#5106 I have been playing... uh forever... and since 2016 (Maze Engine/SKT area) the game has gone through a lot of changes in those 3 years. They pulled salvage rAD and give us rAD for campaign currency. If you collect 100 Dragon Hoard coins, they are worth 1,000 rAD. Prices do vary, depending on the campaign store. Cryptic was working on a Jurassic World MMO but it got tanked... thus we got Chult, - well that is my opinion of it. Module 14 was the best thing to happen in a very long time to this game. Ravenloft is in my opinion one of the better campaigns. They introduce some real nice gear, you could go hunt monsters and they would drop gear. They still do drop the gear and unfortunately the very next module made it obsolete. The non campaign is module 15, someone really loved those PAX YouTuber's corporate humor and granted them a showcase. I call it a non campaign because you really never leave Protector's Enclave. They have a legendary enchantment at the end (bound of course) for each of your characters to obtain. Then along came module 16 which was great, the Undermountain is another great campaign. However along with it came the reduction of feats, the companions became weak, they added global scaling, and about 40% of the players left the game. They pulled back on global scaling and left it only in the dungeons. Then the non Module 17 was about the Gith and going to space, but only one tiny speck of a map was added and we got to rerun Undermountain with the new Gith race and no boons. I think that brings us up to date.

Gearing up, I wore my mod 14 armor until 18 dropped armors out of Juma's chicken bags. I had to chew through a lot of chicken to get the armor I wanted. But no new weapons. The chicken bags seem to also drop some random mounts and companions. Everything you pull from a bag is bound. The new gear is way too easy to obtain. The player made gear is cheap in the AH they make some good master crafting items. However everyone seems to want the stuff that is 300 item levels higher.

In the end, new players can enter the game run the PAX campaign (aka A.I.) at level 15. By the time they finish, they can jump into Elemental Evil for a quick weekend. Then hit the Undermountain and jump up to level 80 in no time at all. Everything on your campaign journal that reads as "Legacy" is just filler now. I get the idea they want to push players to level 80 quickly. For me, the road less traveled is more fun.

May 7th starts double currency in Barovia. This is a week I will flood my rAD bank and focus less on AD. Currently with the wasteland loot box being opened I am buying up cheap items in the AH and bank them to sell or give away as prizes in the future. Those of us who stayed after the changes just had to roll with the punches.

rev

They already have plans and stated that rewards are beeing cahnged but the biggest changes should be around mod 20 go check their roadmap for the next year

aron

sandukutupu said:

Welcome back @aron#5106 I have been playing... uh forever... and since 2016 (Maze Engine/SKT area) the game has gone through a lot of changes in those 3 years. They pulled salvage rAD and give us rAD for campaign currency. If you collect 100 Dragon Hoard coins, they are worth 1,000 rAD. Prices do vary, depending on the campaign store. Cryptic was working on a Jurassic World MMO but it got tanked... thus we got Chult, - well that is my opinion of it. Module 14 was the best thing to happen in a very long time to this game. Ravenloft is in my opinion one of the better campaigns. They introduce some real nice gear, you could go hunt monsters and they would drop gear. They still do drop the gear and unfortunately the very next module made it obsolete. The non campaign is module 15, someone really loved those PAX YouTuber's corporate humor and granted them a showcase. I call it a non campaign because you really never leave Protector's Enclave. They have a legendary enchantment at the end (bound of course) for each of your characters to obtain. Then along came module 16 which was great, the Undermountain is another great campaign. However along with it came the reduction of feats, the companions became weak, they added global scaling, and about 40% of the players left the game. They pulled back on global scaling and left it only in the dungeons. Then the non Module 17 was about the Gith and going to space, but only one tiny speck of a map was added and we got to rerun Undermountain with the new Gith race and no boons. I think that brings us up to date.

Gearing up, I wore my mod 14 armor until 18 dropped armors out of Juma's chicken bags. I had to chew through a lot of chicken to get the armor I wanted. But no new weapons. The chicken bags seem to also drop some random mounts and companions. Everything you pull from a bag is bound. The new gear is way too easy to obtain. The player made gear is cheap in the AH they make some good master crafting items. However everyone seems to want the stuff that is 300 item levels higher.

In the end, new players can enter the game run the PAX campaign (aka A.I.) at level 15. By the time they finish, they can jump into Elemental Evil for a quick weekend. Then hit the Undermountain and jump up to level 80 in no time at all. Everything on your campaign journal that reads as "Legacy" is just filler now. I get the idea they want to push players to level 80 quickly. For me, the road less traveled is more fun.

May 7th starts double currency in Barovia. This is a week I will flood my rAD bank and focus less on AD. Currently with the wasteland loot box being opened I am buying up cheap items in the AH and bank them to sell or give away as prizes in the future. Those of us who stayed after the changes just had to roll with the punches.

Yes. Gearing up is easy but earning ad for good enchantments, mounts and companions takes a long time when you can't earn anything by playing the content. I already have an account wide whirlwind and decent enchantments, but I just think it's very strange that it's nearly impossible to get anything good from doing dungeons.

Right now I'm doing the 2x refining stone event and saving up for the summer sale.

nic1985

"Gearing up is easy but earning AD for good enchantments, mounts companions takes a long time" ... @aron seem like that is the best way for a "f2p" game to entice people to spend real money to get those items.

"nearly impossible to get anything good from dungeons" "Haven't tried IC or ToMM since I haven't capped my stats yet but I can't imagine they're much better." You have not even run IC and ToMM and you assumed nothing good drops there.

People farm IC because currently some of the Lionsheart gears/artifact are BiS for certain build. ToMM is where the best weapons/rings/artifact rewards are from; rings/artifact can net decent amount of ADs on the AH. I've only been running ToMM casually since late January and have net enough ADs to max rank a Bilehthorn and Vorpal, also with enough ADs to grab two account-wide legendary mounts from AH when they were 6M AD each (Tenser and Trex).

aron

nic1985 said:

"Gearing up is easy but earning AD for good enchantments, mounts companions takes a long time" ... @aron seem like that is the best way for a "f2p" game to entice people to spend real money to get those items.

"nearly impossible to get anything good from dungeons" "Haven't tried IC or ToMM since I haven't capped my stats yet but I can't imagine they're much better." You have not even run IC and ToMM and you assumed nothing good drops there.

People farm IC because currently some of the Lionsheart gears/artifact are BiS for certain build. ToMM is where the best weapons/rings/artifact rewards are from; rings/artifact can net decent amount of ADs on the AH. I've only been running ToMM casually since late January and have net enough ADs to max rank a Bilehthorn and Vorpal, also with enough ADs to grab two account-wide legendary mounts from AH when they were 6M AD each (Tenser and Trex).

Great! So, once you've geared up enough to do endgame content you can make ad? Unfortunately getting there takes a lot of ad.

greywynd

You can make AD as soon as you can run a random dungeon.

alfared

Been playing since Nov 2016 and really loved it then...but the game has 1 major problem now...IT IS NOT FUN TO PLAY...
run in circles doing and re-doing the same thing over and over...stats cap bringing discrimination to a crescendo...can't have any fun running old dungeons cause people are so powerful at 26 or 27 k that they kill everything before you've run your encounters 2x...try an FBI run and tell me that is fun...and why would you anyway?...the loot coming out of the old dungeons is absolutely useless...you do not need skills to "play"...learn the dance moves AKA mechanics watching a YT video and let the power do the rest...can't really solo epic as effectively as before...since they took lifesteal away...not much drops in dungeons...no variety...everyone with the same 4 or 5 companions...everyone with the same setup...even thought we got about 50...yay! i got a new companion...ok now sit in my pet collection and collect dust with the rest of them...cant use them cause they weaken you too much...OMU and Chult were the high point...Acquisition Incorporated nearly destroyed this game...destroying the simple and intuitive old professions that we spent sooo much time building up...to offer literally a job in a dusty old shop...searching recipes and running around...just horribly counter intuitive...when you need a speadsheet just to make sense of it all...you know it is not simple...these clowns talking to us (people who have destroyed Orcus the Prince of Undeads and brought Demogorgon to his knees for years) like we are 5 years old learning to cross the street!!!...i still have barely touched that campaign...i'm too infuriated by their tone...i want to skewered these 2 clowns...CN is a n o o b i e run...poor Orcus...how the mighty have fallen...(miss the old 40 minutes CN runs wearing alliance and drowcraft gear...they were challenging and forced everyone to communicate and strategize...and as a by-product of this interaction... often become friends)...Old Tales is the kind of stuff needed...but there again discrimination is rampant...you are not x stats level...you are out of luck...people don't really talk or have fun in runs...it is a mad dash...just a mindless daily grind to reach stupid levels of power...(you need all level 15 enchantments?...or you cant participate?...that is a joke!)...i have many a friend who just like me knows the game inside out...but we are like 24 or 25 k IL...being discriminated by new players at 26 and 27k.......they lost their way....it is just not fun....the most fun i had in this game lately was with my chicken mask!!!!...i had people laughing and had a blast with it...only to see it "expire" after a month or so...even tough the werewolf mask...lot less fun...is a permanent item...it is like they don't want people to have fun....all you need to do...is try another MMO or a good old not online video game to realize that wow that game is not fun....now it appears they are listening to end gamer's a little....but they influence the game towards end gamer's stuff...nothing for the for the rest of us...IT IS BORING! As soon as you try another game...you see how much FUN you can have playing video games...something that Neverwinter just does not provide anymore...you could give all the free stuff stuff you want...if it is not fun...WHY BOTHER? It needs new game modes...updated loot in the old dungeons...make Master versions of the old dungeons...random composition and emplacement of enemies in dungeons...give PVP a reason to be...and bring back a little variety in the setups....powers...companions...and game play in general! Otherwise be straight forward and honest with people and re-name the game in a way that is more in line with the experience...SEAL FARM or GROUNDHOG DAY is what comes to mind!