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The companion changes are made to drive Zen sales
mentinmindmaker
Member Posts: 1,492 Arc User
Rather than cross-posting, here is the link to my thoughts posted on Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Neverwinter/comments/iy4hp9/buy_your_xuna_now/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Neverwinter/comments/iy4hp9/buy_your_xuna_now/
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I do understand AH prices will probably jump up, as they did with the recent changes made for mounts. Before the changes, I could buy most epic mounts for 200K or less in the AH. They shot up to 400K and 500K overnight. The companions will most likely be more gradual change as the supply runs dry.
Personally I don't run a dungeon out of greed and immediate profit to resell items made from the run. In fact, I seldom run dungeons. I do however, buy low and sell high. I bank items over time and like wine, they become more valuable to the buyers. If I buy up augments and companions cheap, then bank them for the future, I could come out ahead. There is always the risk Cryptic Studios will offer those same items just as easy to obtain elsewhere in the game at a later date. To me, the risk is negligible as it is not real money.
I will do my best to give two examples:
Example 1:
I'm at the point where i reached lv 80, got a few boons and upped a few enchantments and i want to look into setting up a proper build for, let's say tanking tomm (which opposed to what anyone says, it is now plagued by powercreep and the only problem is mechanics, which to some degree can even be bruteforced)
I will need, ehm, lets say a red dragon ioun stone, a zhentarim warlock, maybe an iron golem?
What are my options now:
1.Run dungeons like a madman until i get them, and we know the chances of getting the SPECIFIC companion i want are pretty low due to the amount of possible companions (and we dont know the droprate yet)
2.Spend money to get zen to buy it from the zen market
3. Spend AD to buy them from the quickly-drying-up supply of the AH
4. Put AD in the ZAX and wait to get the zen to then get them from the zen market
Point 3. and 4. are where the problem lies. Without those unbound loots i dont really have a chance at getting that many resources so i'd have to calculate my income in refined ad/day (100k) and the energons/batiris/enchanting stones/trobriand set pieces/dark remnants pieces/orcus artifacts i can drop and sell. That's about all the income sources i can have.
I would now feel obligated to buy vip to have an extra little source of income, and that's only if i would open the old format of lockboxes since the new one very rarely returns your investment.
Obviously you can come and tell me there are other, better ways to make ad, and of course there are, but they mostly require you to play "the long game" which is why i didn't bring them up.
Heck, even i agree that the worst way to get ad longterm is to grind stuff for unbound loots, but it still is one of the fastest ways to get AD quick, dropping one big ticket item like a bulette or something in some redq filled your pocket with cash.
Example 2:
I am now a guy that has everything, i want to buy a bulette pup for an alt im building because it's bis and i am sure i can afford it. I look in the AH and see there are none, i look in the zax and i see the same 5x5k listings sitting there for 2 months now, i dont have zen because i spent it on something a month ago. I could open up my wallet and buy zen, sure, but why would i do that when i can just play another game for a month waiting for my zen to flip?
The problem posed in example 2 isn't as impactful on the game as Example 1, but the point here is that not much ad is getting sunk through taxes.
TL;DR for the lazier peepos: without unbound loots to sell/buy, player progression will be slowed down and some will feel obligated to spend money.
Conclusion for any dev that would read this: Give us more chase items, stuff worth putting in the AH, unbound fashions maybe if we don't get equippable items
ad 2. Spend money to get Zen to buy it from the Zen market... where the hamster did you get this option? In the Zen market companion department, there is literally nothing from any possible wish-list. DPS, heal, tank... nothing, naga.
And this is why they will not get any bonus sales from all those restrictions. This is why the discounts don't matter... because there is no purpose in having a companion from the Zen market. As long as the companions are useless, the only buyers are still gonna be the clueless... and the collectors.
@sandukutupu Yes, many companions are fun to watch, but there really is at least 10x difference in damage dealt between Xuna/Abby Chick and any other companion. 10x... at least. Then there are augments, those give you a whole hamster-load of stats. That really does have some utility too.
And while it is nice to enjoy the game - unfortunately, it usually comes down to killing stuff. And you will notice when you are twice as fast with the killing. It is actually hard not to notice. My pally has some serious problems to kill anything in the Avernus - it is safe, but it takes ages. But the Abby Chick? That monster alone has twice the damage output which I can muster with a legendary augment.
I agree totally with you, but maybe they put those companions in the tradebar store. Anyway, the options are limited unless they change the availability of those companions / mounts.
As I writed in other post, I have the feeling that they are making AD much more useless with each change, pushing players more and more to spend money. Spending lot of time wont be enough to compete.
When the game was released, people with lot of time could progress much faster than now.
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For companion choice, I always go for augment ... until they introduced bonding runestone (which did not benefit augment much or at all in the beginning). Then, the tiger. Now, back to augment. A benefit of augment for me is I always have a account wide augment companion which may not be the best but I don't need to buy one for new character. I also don't need to worry about what the free running companion is doing. These days I tempted to get rid of the puppet of my warlock because it kills stuff which I want them keep spawning. I could not get rid of puppet in combat because of the feat I chose. Sigh!
They would be ahead to create and drop new companions into the Zen store. New companions with "better functionality" and not about buffing up the player or being a superman. They would need to be BtA so they could not be sold in the Auction House for profit. They just need to get creative and put their thinking caps on.
Some of my suggestions would be;
The Reanimator - Doesn't fight but can reanimate the entire party once every 10 minutes (akin to a mass life scroll or tears of Bahamut). The cooldown would need to be long, otherwise the companion would replace life scrolls. Healing bonus.
The Pack Horse - Follows you around not an augment, doesn't fight, and doesn't get hurt in battle. Has a very large inventory and auto loots for you. AD and Gold gain as a bonus.
Weapons Specialist - This guy acts like a golf caddie and pulls out the better weapon for your current fight. While he does not buff you, his bonus buffs your weapon for this one fight. Trust me, use the 5 wood on this hole!
Be different, think unique, get creative, and have fun!
I really don't understand the thinking behind this one unless it is related to bot farming. Not saying this is necessarily the case but if it is it is the wrong way to go about it.
as a side note, I detest reddit as a whole and avoid it like the plague.
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Apparently all those concerns expressed above were unfounded. I think this video covers it.
Have fun!
Cryptic confirmed that the old premium loot system was removed/turned off, and most of the unbound companion drops came from that I think.
It seems there still are some companions dropping unbound that are regular loot and not Premium loot, like the Energon from Dread Ring.
https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter/#/discussion/1257989/premium-dungeon-loot-recorded
As for Neverwinter stories not having a happy ending, I have always complained about Cryptic Studios leaving stories dangle, unfinished, full of plot holes, and open ended. Very few of the campaigns have an ending at all, the one with the best ending, they needed to call in professional author just to write it for them. I understand your concerns.
Have fun!
Not to mention, with a "support" in place that can't even help players with issues regarding the ZEN shop, why the ever loving HAMSTER should i even think about spending more money here?! It looks like, when there's a problem of any kind, players are left up HAMSTER creek without a paddle.