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Professions Revisited
markfalcone
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users Posts: 4
I've played several different MMO's and I know that professions tend to get the back seat in far too many ways, but I still complain because I truly miss a useful profession as in the old PnP days. (And yes, I do consider them useful. I know not everyone does.)
So here's my two cents regarding the current state of professions in Neverwinter:
Purples, Dragon Eggs, and the Useless 20th level: I have never seen a dragon egg, don't know where everyone is getting them, and ever since the modules came out, frankly do not care. Have no idea if there is a better shirt and pants out there that could be had with a dragon egg. If it's truly that hard to come by after pretty constant playing, then obviously it just isn't worth thinking about. So then what's the point of going beyond 19th level and the blue pants and shirt beyond possibly that "put the weapon together" thing in the modules (and no, I haven't found a group that finishes the instances enough to actually get into that)? Shoot, I wouldn't mind archers needing to make or purchase arrows like Everquest I. LOVED THAT! Or how about taking a page from WoW: Grinding stones and the like for temporary boosts or "enchantments" on weapons. As I recall, Everquest's bow making was even component based, meaning the bow would have a different set of specs depending on what string, wood, and added gear you used. I suppose that would be too difficult to even consider in the current state of the game, but it was fun in Everquest.
Alchemy, Transmuting and the 20th level nonsense: Don't get me wrong, I'm just one of those guys that very, very, very rarely uses potions. I've seen no reason to, so I don't use them very often. I might beef up before a boss. That's about as close as I come. So seeing the 20th level just being more potions (albeit powerful ones) doesn't inspire me. In fact after the last transmutations, I'm kind of done thinking about alchemy as anything more than a grind for no apparent reason other than to get it over with. Or a faster way to get to three 20th level professions. What I would like to see are more dyes. Maybe something other than just "rare" things that could be done would be "ultra rare". So "ultra rare" could be some of the dye packs that come from Call To Arms. Or better still, why not individual colors? Do you seriously make that much money from the Zen store selling single colors? And another thing, does 4th Ed not have rogues using poison anymore? WoW had something I really liked and I just mentioned it above in regards to weapons: Poisons as a temporary enchantment for rogues to use. You could have a different poison on each blade causing different effects. As I recall it was "per hit" as well, so it didn't last long, usually one major battle. Still, it was awesome.
Bottom line: Give us a reason to work up to 20 other than to "see what's on the other side of the hill". So far it has all been disappointing. Not seeing much coming up in Leadership either as someone who has one character up to 19 in Leadership.
Extremely disappointing.
Now, just so I don't make this totally negative, here are the things I have been surprised about and even liked:
Like the randomness of Leadership, though have to admit I've managed to flood the guild bank with spare healing potions and kits because of it.
Like the apparent random ability to get a surprise green professional, though would like to know what the secret is so I could make it happen more often. Pity it can't happen with worn tools.
Like the ability to transmute your way into the assorted things you need for the other professions, though in the end this leaves dragon eggs conspicuously out.
So here's my two cents regarding the current state of professions in Neverwinter:
Purples, Dragon Eggs, and the Useless 20th level: I have never seen a dragon egg, don't know where everyone is getting them, and ever since the modules came out, frankly do not care. Have no idea if there is a better shirt and pants out there that could be had with a dragon egg. If it's truly that hard to come by after pretty constant playing, then obviously it just isn't worth thinking about. So then what's the point of going beyond 19th level and the blue pants and shirt beyond possibly that "put the weapon together" thing in the modules (and no, I haven't found a group that finishes the instances enough to actually get into that)? Shoot, I wouldn't mind archers needing to make or purchase arrows like Everquest I. LOVED THAT! Or how about taking a page from WoW: Grinding stones and the like for temporary boosts or "enchantments" on weapons. As I recall, Everquest's bow making was even component based, meaning the bow would have a different set of specs depending on what string, wood, and added gear you used. I suppose that would be too difficult to even consider in the current state of the game, but it was fun in Everquest.
Alchemy, Transmuting and the 20th level nonsense: Don't get me wrong, I'm just one of those guys that very, very, very rarely uses potions. I've seen no reason to, so I don't use them very often. I might beef up before a boss. That's about as close as I come. So seeing the 20th level just being more potions (albeit powerful ones) doesn't inspire me. In fact after the last transmutations, I'm kind of done thinking about alchemy as anything more than a grind for no apparent reason other than to get it over with. Or a faster way to get to three 20th level professions. What I would like to see are more dyes. Maybe something other than just "rare" things that could be done would be "ultra rare". So "ultra rare" could be some of the dye packs that come from Call To Arms. Or better still, why not individual colors? Do you seriously make that much money from the Zen store selling single colors? And another thing, does 4th Ed not have rogues using poison anymore? WoW had something I really liked and I just mentioned it above in regards to weapons: Poisons as a temporary enchantment for rogues to use. You could have a different poison on each blade causing different effects. As I recall it was "per hit" as well, so it didn't last long, usually one major battle. Still, it was awesome.
Bottom line: Give us a reason to work up to 20 other than to "see what's on the other side of the hill". So far it has all been disappointing. Not seeing much coming up in Leadership either as someone who has one character up to 19 in Leadership.
Extremely disappointing.
Now, just so I don't make this totally negative, here are the things I have been surprised about and even liked:
Like the randomness of Leadership, though have to admit I've managed to flood the guild bank with spare healing potions and kits because of it.
Like the apparent random ability to get a surprise green professional, though would like to know what the secret is so I could make it happen more often. Pity it can't happen with worn tools.
Like the ability to transmute your way into the assorted things you need for the other professions, though in the end this leaves dragon eggs conspicuously out.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
Did you know they used to be 120k each?
I agree on your points except for leadership. I think it is a well-designed profession
Here are some of my points:
1. professions should be useful, green gear dropped from mobs should be slotless always, if you want an enchant slot then look to the crafters, profession should be what produces green gear with slots.
2. the tiers should be redone to accomodate point number one, as there is no way to get assets to crafter t 2 items without using real money or a <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> ton of AD to buy zen or asset packs. Personally I think it should be T1 greens slotted, T2 blues slotted, T3 purple slotted. This at least gives a reason to want asset packs to produce purple items at low levels (as it should). I think some other MMO's do this, at least Star Wars did as I used to craft purple level mods all the time for low level toons (bare in mind mods were like enchants and they were level dependent).
3. xp should be commensurate with the rarity of item crafted, so if you craft a blue item you get more xp (i think this is pretty much the case when blues show up as rare crafts). right now it takes forever to craft up some skills because of how much xp is required. who wants to craft a bunch of green garbage no one wants ever just to sell for a few copper and make some more just to level a skill. sure you can use the gather options but those are in 6 - 8 hour increments and that will take you how long if you do it constantly daily avoiding your actual life?
4. purple mats should be rare but accessible, as it is you pretty much have to spend money or buy off AH. I have played 4 characters to level 60 and i don't think i have ever seen an egg drop from a node. i get the game needs to make money but i truly believe the game would be better off selling eggs for zen in packs of 10 for 1 dollar or 5 dollars whatever and selling more cosmetic items for 1 dollar than gouging people for 16 dollar profession packs, 3 dollar booster packs and ridiculously priced mounts. the only zen items I think are properly priced are preservation stones, 10 for a dollar, now if wards would get a reduction to around 1 dollar per ward or 2 dollars per ward I think more money would be spent. Why is everyone so stingy on people getting things in the game? We pay in one way or another for a game so let us experience the game, if its truly free to play game and free to play never spend money then limit them, but people that have a history of paying money need to stop getting gouged, if you shell out 60 dollars (or more it seems) you should have ever right to experience everything this game has to offer and that includes top end enchants.
5. as new modules come out either new levels of profession need to come with them or obsolete profession options need to go away and replaced with viable options. right now the clothing and weapon profession require hard to come by dragon eggs and yet still are crafting purple gear with only 3 stat bonuses (only if you have the assets to even craft it). that gear is NOT in anyway something people would spend 10k ad on let alone the amount it would cost to craft it. an option that would be nice to see is that level 20 craft can now produce either set bonus gear from dungeons that are bop or non set bonus gear to at least get you started, but none of this +6 control wizard robes with 3 stat bumps that no one would ever use. REMOVE the nonviable options and replace with options people can use, it might encourage people to start buying asset packs and make more money for the game.
6. alchemy should have more transmutation options. at level 20 alchemy should produce more color dyes and produce more appearance changing items. this game "claims" to have lots of customization but in reality all the customization is less than accessible to all and frankly games like this are more about how neat or different my character looks from yours and those features to make that happen should be something that is more obtainable, games where the only thing that might look different is the style of horns you choose. since there are like 9 - 12 styles and 10's of thousands of players that is still a lot of people that are probably going to look alike. so give us what we want which is a more reasonable ability to make our outfits set us apart from others.
7. i don't understand why there is no crafting queue? at least give us the ability to put crafts in queue so i don't have to sit on this all day long to craft, god forbid i take a vacation and not check a computer. if i had a queue i'd at least be able to set some long running tasks in motion and in two days wala something was done as opposed to nothing at all. sure we have multiple slots but some of those slots are pretty hard to unlock. also its pretty important to work up at least 3 skills to 20 which is a armor skill a weapon skill and some other skill, if you only have 3 or 4 slots to work with a queue is pretty much mandatory at that rate.
8. people used to do crafting in games to make money, am i wrong to believe that crafting in this game is called a profession? don't professions imply making money? its really hard to make AD with professions. high level leadership will start giving rough AD but it takes a while to get substantial gains in that area. selling clothes with slots is the only thing that really makes money and even then is the purple ones that turn any sort of real profit it seems. there seems like there should be a greater increase in stats from blue to purple, blue pants with slot is not much worse than purple pants with slots, blues on many that i have seen are something like 7 - 11 point differences in ability score improvement, why people spend the money they do on such marginal improvement is beyond me. again we are back to why craft purple when a blue is nearly as good.
These are some of my points and what I think can be fixed to make professions more useful and desirable. I know some things just are not fixable, but removing some of the +6 purple items and replacing them with at least a T1 none set bonus piece would be more better than what it is now. I really think upping the crafting levels 5 - 10 levels would be nice too, at rank 30 you can craft T2 armor, or maybe just 25 since that is also not something with large improvements.