Dragon Hunt Campaign is, to put it politely; thoroughly un-enjoyable.

tgwolf

I'm going to start with the most pressing two issues:

- The inability to progress the campaign outside of hunting Ancient Dragons.
- The fact that in a few months, no-one will be running it; rendering the campaign unable to be completed.

The design is also entirely unfriendly to anyone with more than 2 characters at max; something that goes against literally the last few years of effort/changes to the game: to make it more alt-friendly.

Getting a group together to begin with is at times impossible, not the least due to a severe lack of Healers and Tanks but also due to a massive level of elitism in groups; My characters are 72-76k, more than enough for any run and in the "upper levels" of iLvL but the number of groups refusing to take players below even 80k is staggering.

Players stuck below ~60k are completely doomed most of the time; we even had one player threaten to take their own life over the issue the other day. By the time those players are able to get to what others consider "acceptable"; people will be winding down on running at all.

Changes need to be made.

plasticbat

The simple question is: why do you even want to finish this campaign at all?
There is next to nothing you can gain from it. The end reward is one boon point, 0.2% of some stat.
You may want the gears and that is about it. You don't need to finish the campaign to get that if somehow you really want them.

I can do ancient. My character is not even 70K. It is not exceptionally hard even with modifiers. The content is scaled. Item level does not really matter. Some people somehow think it does. Low item level is scaled up.

However, back to my question above: What do I really gain doing that even when I can do it? Do I even want to do that for one character for one boon point?

muschellka

plasticbat said:

The simple question is: why do you even want to finish this campaign at all?
There is next to nothing you can gain from it. The end reward is one boon point, 0.2% of some stat.
You may want the gears and that is about it. You don't need to finish the campaign to get that if somehow you really want them.

I can do ancient. My character is not even 70K. It is not exceptionally hard even with modifiers. The content is scaled. Item level does not really matter. Some people somehow think it does. Low item level is scaled up.

However, back to my question above: What do I really gain doing that even when I can do it? Do I even want to do that for one character for one boon point?

It is not exactly like that.
To get the currency needed to buy items you MUST complete the campaign. Because that is the only way to get dragon's ridges which is required to buy absolutely every item
Of course we are talking the ancient tab.

fritz

They really made us kill 100 dragons and call it a campaign y'all. But honestly, I don't think it's that bad, but it's certainly not a campaign you'll be able to easily complete on alts. I've said in another thread that Young and Adult Dragons should net Ridges as well, just at a way lower rate.

In terms of elitism: It's scaling content. Building groups off item levels is bs. I mean endgame players are more likely to have their stuff capped, but you're really looking after percentages over ilvl here. My advise is to get your hands on some Masterwork Weapons and a solid debug Artifact and Buffing Mound Power and then try to max the relevant stats for your class to 80%. I think you should have a good shot at getting into a group. I personally have no issues and none of my chars are 80k+. I'm in the range of 70k - 76k.

fritz

They really made us kill 100 dragons and call it a campaign y'all. But honestly, I don't think it's that bad, but it's certainly not a campaign you'll be able to easily complete on alts. I've said in another thread that Young and Adult Dragons should net Ridges as well, just at a way lower rate.

In terms of elitism: It's scaling content. Building groups off item levels is bs. I mean endgame players are more likely to have their stuff capped, but you're really looking after percentages over ilvl here. My advise is to get your hands on some Masterwork Weapons and a solid debug Artifact and Buffing Mound Power and then try to max the relevant stats for your class to 80%. I think you should have a good shot at getting into a group. I personally have no issues and none of my chars are 80k+. I'm in the range of 70k - 76k.

froger

If I'm building or joining a group outside of my alliance (rare, but it happens), I look at the gear a player has more than item level. I find that to be a better predictor of how a player will perform. Honestly, a high item level with gear I'd run on my alts because it isn't really useful won't get you in my group. I'll take a dps with character bound lionheart at 65k over a 75k with dragonbone vale gear.

Elitist? I suppose.

Why would I do this?
I want smooth runs.
I want players who stand a chance of knowing what to do.
I have plenty of up and coming players in my alliance I help before I help randoms.

My suggestion is to get in a helpful guild/alliance.

trace

Don't you just love how that guy who is 50k, has seal gear and 3 green enchantments, comes into the group, throws down tier 3 mods like candy, then doesn't even understand that the rest of us will be paying for his run? Granted, there are some 50k players who are really good. Most of the time, it's a slow sluggish scroll fest, esp if it's a low tank or healer.
You cant be 70k+ without at least upgraded enchants, mount and comp bolster. That person will likely have the proper comp bonuses and stats to make himself viable in the current content. I do understand why people are asking for a certain IL. I think there are just a lot of new players, as well as older players who came back to check out the new mod who havent played in a couple of years. I would recommend that Mod 23 be the last thing they do, after all the other campaigns and nearly maxing out their characters. But alas, that is not the case. They are wanting to jump in straight away. Now the end gamers are paying for their runs lol.

orangenee

When those 70k+ players pug an adult with players like me at a lowly 46k demand I leave (with god awful English I might add), and take a 30 minute leaver penalty because they can't figure out private sessions or the kick function. Well they get to wait 15 minutes until they figure it out.

No idea why they're pugging adults in the first place with those builds but people like that need to pull their heads out their bottoms.

My point being, one of the dragon campaigns is time limited and people want the stuff. Plus dragon queues will be dead in a couple of months anyway as 1. Burn out and 2. They got all the stuff they want.

Avernus hunts? Good luck with T2 and 3. Dragonbone Vale? Most of that is "nothing else to put there" tier.

Level up your enchantments I hear, coal motes put paid to any ambition there. Unless you want to spend several hundred on them of course. Unless you have seventeen alts invoking all day, where you might get one or two.

This game is one of the worst for elitists I've ever come across. I'm fairly sure those lowly scrubs are paying double what the superiority complex "endgamers" are.

bill

I have been on neverwinter since year 2 - 11 charas, primary at 62K though grinding alone - and i fully agree that the dragon hunt campaign is under-rewarded for the effort needed: once the time event is over i doubt I will be making much effort unless i literally have nothing else to do. At the very least, we could do with more Boon Points offers - at least 5.

tgwolf

I've seen 55-60k players far more capable of running ancients than 75k+.

I had a run with everyone 78k+, Tank couldn't hold threat or take damage; Healer couldn't keep anyone alive and the run failed.

Had an identical run with the average iLvL being around 65k, Tank was 59k. Held threat easily, mitigated damage with no effort. Healer had little issue keeping people alive most of the time. Dps melted the dragon.

Both with all Hard mods active. People thinking iLvL = skill make putting groups together a pain.

masteryoda

tgwolf said:

I've seen 55-60k players far more capable of running ancients than 75k+.

I had a run with everyone 78k+, Tank couldn't hold threat or take damage; Healer couldn't keep anyone alive and the run failed.

Had an identical run with the average iLvL being around 65k, Tank was 59k. Held threat easily, mitigated damage with no effort. Healer had little issue keeping people alive most of the time. Dps melted the dragon.

Both with all Hard mods active. People thinking iLvL = skill make putting groups together a pain.

Too many high item level chasers not enough players that actually think about there stats imo