My Thoughts On The Northdark Divided Battle Pass

deadmano

This is the first time I am skipping a battle pass. I was almost going to skip the previous one, but the adorable panda mount/companion/vanity pet combo was too adorable to pass up on!

To be clear, the issue I have is with the PAID version of the battle pass, which is going for 1,750 Zen until tomorrow, otherwise it will be going for 2,500 Zen. Can't complain about free items, and a coalescent mote just for doing things I'd normally be doing anyway is appreciated!

The issue I have with this battle pass is the fact that it contains nothing unique or new. It feels like a rushed attempt to just throw a bunch of stuff in without any kind of forethought. Had there been some unique/new items like we've been given in previous battle passes this would have been a non-issue.

The other issue is the perceived value of the items offered versus their actual real value in-game, considering all other sources that these items are obtainable from. It's as if the prices are inflated or based off of their Zen value when drops in-game are plentiful.

Lastly, there is very little in the way of offering something worthwhile to mid to endgame players, as I can hardly imagine there is anything of worth to anyone aside from perhaps the coalescent motes and the packs that allow you to pick previous rewards if you had missed a battle pass.

Now compare this to previous battle passes where we've had Mythic mounts, Legendary collars, unique companions that are still useful to this day, utility items that are best in slot, and we've got a rather stale offering before us.

I do understand that it is hard to balance rewards that will cater to everyone, but previous battle passes such as the Redeemed Citadel, Echoes of Prophecy, and even Rothé Valley were worthwhile and had something for everyone with at least 1 UNIQUE item being given.

Since I'd like to keep this post as constructive as possible, I've also included a breakdown of the items on offer in the premium track.

Track 1 (2.24M AD)

• 2 Astral Lockboxes (Bound)
  120K AD worth on discount (who doesn't wait for discount?), RNG so you could get nothing.
• 4 Enchanted Keys
  Again RNG, you could get literally nothing.
• Vanity Pet Choice Pack (Bound)
  ~600K - 1.2M AD for your choice of vanity pet. Fashion is subjective, so this may be completely worthless to some. And since none of these items are new, most already have the vanity pets on offer. Not to mention the Mini Panda was on offer in the previous Battle Pass.
• Coalescent Mote (Bound)
  ~920K AD.

Track 2 (1.31M AD)

• 2 Astral Lockboxes (Bound)
  120K AD worth on discount (who doesn't wait for discount?), RNG so you could get nothing.
• Coalescent Mote (Bound)
  ~920K AD.
• 5 Scrolls of Mass Life (Bound)
  ~20K AD. This has to be the most joke item on the track thus far. 1) they're awful for trial content where you could end up resurrecting someone at the most inopportune time and 2) the times where scrolls are actually used (in newer content) 5 will barely get you through a single try if you're lucky.
• Northdark Choice Pack (Bound)
  ~250K AD. Contains literally NOTHING new that doesn't already easily exist that is purchasable in the auction house, or hasn't been included in recent battle passes. So the value I am basing it off of is the average cost for a legendary insignia, which is also 250 Insignia Powder.

Track 3 (1.19M AD)

• 4 Enchanted Keys
  Again RNG, you could get literally nothing.
• 10 Shards of Greater Empowerment (Bound)
  ~800K AD. Drop easy enough from dungeon chests and you can get 1 a day from the Reaper's store.
• 15 Mount & Companion Upgrade Tokens (Bound)
  ~112K AD. This one had me in stitches as a PREMIUM reward, considering how frequently 5 Companion/Mount tokens drop from dungeons, with the chance of getting 10-25 tokens as well. Not to mention other sources of tokens such as the Trade Bar store, the Appointment Event Vendor, the Incentive Trader and Sybella Artis (Companion tokens) to name a few places.
• Legendary Northdark Choice Pack
  130K - 280K AD. Every single one of the items in this pack can be purchased off of the auction house, enough said.

The values I have listed above are based off of average auction house prices on PC, as of this post. Since all items are bound, they are not tradeable so their ACTUAL AD value will vary from person to person.

As someone who has purchased all previous battle passes, and who has everything on offer, the PREMIUM pass has literally 0 worth to me and does not justify the Zen cost.

Battle Passes, in my opinion, are meant to provide chase items/rewards that are usually not obtainable anywhere else, and give a reason to want to pursue doing them in the first place. Items on offer should be useable by everyone, and should include a healthy amount of vanity items for those who already have it all (capes/titles/fashion/vanity pets/mounts) that have not been seen before or are very rare. Items given should be reasonable, for example if you offer mount/companions tokens they should definitely be way more than what drops from a dungeon and enough to upgrade a companion/mount of your choice to mythic rank (120/150 respectively).

Thank you for offering a battle pass/season pass in the first place, and especially for listening to feedback and including it as part of base game activities in order to progress it instead of having to break away to do specific tasks that get monotonous with repeatable dailies/weeklies. I believe you can do better, and I hope to see an exciting battle pass release with rewards for all!

If you need ideas, the community would be more than happy to provide them, please don't discount your player base who can provide valuable insight aside from game metrics.

rheylinsark

Yeah, this one feels phoned in. Both of us in our household who play Neverwinter are passing on the premium tier of this one as well. We were happy to buy the previous premium pass for the unique and adorable account-wide panda mount/companion/vanity pet trio, but there is nothing in this pass of rehashed items that we need or want or can't get by other means.

plasticbat

Solution: if nobody buys the premium pack, they will adjust it for the next one. Vote with your wallet. Not worth it? Don't buy it.

pitshade

Redeemed Citadel was a great value. Probably TOO good for those of us with a lot of characters. For ky 4k zen w/coupon, I got 15 or more race rerolls and legendary insignia packs. Not happy that they reneged on the promise that it was good forever but not especially surprised either.

Echoes wasn't quite as good but still worth it with Corbin, the lion etc...

Rothe was not as much but at least the panda stuff is unique (for now)

This current one, I'm not going to bother with the premium track. Will most likely do the free track, although I don't normally do the RQs. This is like when you were a kid and got socks at Christmas. Not even particularly good socks.

greywynd

History of the game. First time around: good stuff. As the years/events pass: less and less.

rockster

If they'd put the seductive fashion in there everyone would have bought it. They just don't use their heads.

plasticbat

My take of this new battle pass is they are aiming new players. There is nothing worthy enough for the veteran players. Making 'new' stuff means extra development/design/decision costs to them. Hence, they just re-hash the old stuff for the new players. Low/no cost, assembly line, plug and play, safe.

deadmano

plasticbat said:

Solution: if nobody buys the premium pack, they will adjust it for the next one. Vote with your wallet. Not worth it? Don't buy it.

Exactly what I did, but it'll take more than one person. This was just meant as constructive feedback on the off chance it gets read by the powers that be. Making the rewards enjoyable for all would take 0 extra resources since they exist in-game.

plasticbat

deadmano#4272 said:

plasticbat said:

Solution: if nobody buys the premium pack, they will adjust it for the next one. Vote with your wallet. Not worth it? Don't buy it.

Exactly what I did, but it'll take more than one person. This was just meant as constructive feedback on the off chance it gets read by the powers that be. Making the rewards enjoyable for all would take 0 extra resources since they exist in-game.

Well, not everyone can just satisfy with "they exist in-game". Many want new stuff which is not yet available in game. i.e. whatever that you care does not mean it is enjoyable to me. On the other hand, whatever I don't care also does not mean nobody else love them. If there are many people buy the new premium pass, it means there is a market for it. So, Cryptic guessed that right.

fritz

Tbh., it's a catch-up mechanic that has more value to new players and upcomers than us beta testers from 2013. I'm not yet complaining because so far the mix was just about right, but at some point the devs certainly have to cater to the hardcore community again. Also, while I'm still doing my randoms on most days, tying the battle passes to that activity has run its course. Time for a new idea and approach.

trinity706

The Coalescent Motes from the current premium track essentially justify its price (especially if unlocked when the price was like 1750 ZEN), everything else is pretty much bonus. As long as the rewards from the pass exceed the purchase “value” personally don’t see a problem even if there aren’t exclusive rewards, etc.

Personally don’t agree with the way to progress the passes being heavily tied to group content, in part because it reduces the capacity for solo type players to earn the higher tier rewards. Also feel it should be possible for each character to have their own progress (as it was with the Redeemed Citadel). At the beginning of a battle pass players would be able to choose “account” or “character” battle pass (of course the character battle pass would have different rewards and other ways to earn progress). An alternative battle pass type can help encompass the “hardcore” and solo players, two parts of the player base that have been left out of consideration for quite some time.