Serious concerns for new players.

query523

I do realize that most 'concerns for new players' translate easilly into 'nerf/ buffs that would benefit me personally' I am trying not to do that here. I leveled a couple of toons to 70 as soon as I could for the new mod. This was challenging at times but more than do-able. I'm not really worried about that. What happened next was that I decided to finish leveling a new toon. I think the issue is the way that difficulty scales after 60. My existing toons were already overpowered for L60 content so they could deal with the stat penalties and the increased damage. The conditions for a new 60 are much different.
First there is no L60 gear really left. It has been phased out so a new 60 is starting in L60 blues. Which are sufficient for running L60 content but completely innadiquate once you hit the new stat curve and there is no stop-giving-me-xp button. The stop-gap gear is the Eternal sets. Again easy to afford if you had an active L60 before Mod6. And basically unobtainable if you are a new L60. So a new L60 is not only under-geared but essentially un-gearable to stats appropriate to the content. Naturally I could use my other accounts to buy some gear for my new 60. Which I try never to do and a new player is entirely incapable of doing. Even then I don't believe that epic shirt-pants-neck-rings will compensate for the extreme new stat curves. The best/ easiest fix would be to make Eternal or something like it part of the new L60 rewards so that they would have a basic set that was capable of running the content.

djarkaan

Just go do some Dread Ring Lairs and VT or Sharandar lairs and MC to get the elven or dread legion set. Oh wait, you can't... /sarcasm

kolatmaster

Now this is a legitimate concern.

My Guild has been running people through T1s as best we can, to help them get gear and such. The first few runs can be rough until the new kids can figure out the dungeons, rotations, general concept of the game. It's not easy, and maybe a level of gear just below T1 (like the WoD set) would be prudent to add in...

However, I've run people through with just Level 70 gear from the drops they got in Spinward Rise, so while it's not easy... It is possible in a group/Guild.

query523

Think about it, even if you could grind up those old L60 sets what level would you be after repeat-running that content? High enough that L60 epics would likely get you killed? Like I said the easy fix is to have eternal drop from the L60 reward box. Players who were already 60 would not have access to it. I'd even add some sort of weapon/ off-hand combo as those L60s are being phased out as well. L60 artis are still available if you..... grind Tiamat. Imagine, just for a second, attempting Tiamat in blues.

darkstarcrash

3-man dungeons, vigilance quest rewards, AH blues for 3-5k AD each (replacing every 2 or so levels)...

This isn't new. Any character I leveled to 60 pre-mod 6 required a trip to the AH for a cheap set of blues to get me going in the more challenging terrain of Sharandar.

The Eternal set is great because it levels with you, but the quest rewards from completing a vigilance task force are nearly as good on an even-level basis. Fill in with AH gear, which is plentiful and cheap unless you're an OP.

burkaanc

lvl 60 sets are worthless salvage, stop crying for them

as for the new sets - has anybody ran enough 3mans, i got some blue from them, but i dont remember if it was any good

imho they should just add some blue gear of ilvl 120 to 3man dungeons, new players could learn how to work in a party in a safe newbie friendly environment, and ppl who cant run t1/t2 will have some set that will, hopefully, reduce the need for whambulances here

query523

There's more to it with Eteranal. First off that it has an enchant slot. As do epic weapons. So go try runing the content in blues with no/minimal boons and no weapon/ armor enchants. Like those vigilance quests. How soon do you hit L70? how capable are you of doing L70 content? Now imagine you have no prior knowledge of the game because you are new. Everybody buys a set of blues at L60. The thing is the stats (and more importantly the stat curves) were not radically different between blues and epics. The current curve is not comparable to say leveling from 50-60. And again I would not suggest any change that would change the circumstance for existing toons that you choose to level. The egar we are using to level 60-70 is simply not available to a new player.

misharona

As a new player (started about time 6 was released), I thought I'd chime in.

Leveling up to 60 has been no problem. I've gotten "decent" gear in dungeon runs. The upgrade in mobs after 60 is tough to solo. I personally don't mind that but it could be a serious shock to players new to NW--especially if they are new to this genre of MMO in general. Two of us newbies were able to handle the Ranger Rescue (I think that's what it's called) with basic L60 green gear--but I called us lucky! Soloing that content? It's quite a bump that I believe will put off many new-comers.

That said--I'm not looking for (or wanting) a walk-through experience either. In an ideal fantasy world, it would be great to see a slow scale-up of difficulty from L1-L70. Great to get the new toon going but getting more challenging by increments. The gear gap hurts and I agree with what has been posted here. But what can hurt just as bad is the sudden requirement to be on top of your game, Really Know rotations, how to enhance gear with enchants, (the list goes on). The problem for many newbies will be akin to going from 60 to 0--because they haven't properly prepared themselves for 61...

It's not just gear. It's the SUDDEN NEED to know HOW to best play your toon. IMHO--it may be too easy to reach 60 just by clicking the mouse and punching some keys. Then *BANG*!!! Now you need to know how to play.

I should mention that my leveling from ~35 to 60 was mainly done in dungeons and skirmishes with a little pvp for seasoning so I can't accurately or fairly judge the content of running straight quest lines to advance.

Just some thoughts...

Edit: I really am having a lot of fun with this game. The change in difficulty--while pronounced--didn't make me want to leave. It gave me an incentive to get better.

cococya

I've started a new pally, atm lvl 64, and I did great so far, at 60 I used the free armor and weapon the elemental evil introductory quest gave me, then switched to green drops. I have no op enchants, only used t4-5 that dropped, artifacts are all green and he has the class ones for DC and SW and Waters.
So far, nothing concerning, however paladins are really easy to level up compared to other classes, from what I remember from when I leveled up my other characters. No idea if they lowered the difficulty of the mobs as well compared to last year, but it seems he can do a lot of stuff I had remembered to be difficult.
He's also doing very well in the new areas as well with the drops I pick up.

burkaanc

cococya wrote: »

I've started a new pally, atm lvl 64, and I did great so far, at 60 I used the free armor and weapon the elemental evil introductory quest gave me, then switched to green drops. I have no op enchants, only used t4-5 that dropped, artifacts are all green and he has the class ones for DC and SW and Waters.
So far, nothing concerning, however paladins are really easy to level up compared to other classes, from what I remember from when I leveled up my other characters. No idea if they lowered the difficulty of the mobs as well compared to last year, but it seems he can do a lot of stuff I had remembered to be difficult.
He's also doing very well in the new areas as well with the drops I pick up.

while leveling the only difficulty with a paladin is not falling asleep during fighting stuff, if they didnt change the regen i would have slotted the aura that damages nearby enemies and left my pally in some crowded place overnight

areee

I started a fresh Tankadin myself. I've leveled a Control Wizard and a Hunter Ranger. So movement was second nature. I found 1-60... horribly easy. Tankadin is a good class for a new player to learn the ropes, anything squishy. Well I made a second, Warlock, and getting into Shar with it instead of my Paladin. I had no trouble with my movable fortress but died 9 times on the Warlock. The massive gap in difficulty. (1-60 was no problem on warlock either) The nerf of most stats so you can damage the 70 mobs. It was a nasty shock both times.

I'm a good search fiend. I prebought stuff. I didn't touch the 70 maps until I leveled to 61 with the 2x event. Got the gear, still died all those times. Did skirmishes and dungeons. The skirmishes are, thankfully, more in line to teaching one how to use their class. The 57-61 Skirmish with two names, can't remember at the moment, is a stepping stone. Anyone who plays that gets a taste of the difficulty coming for them.

It all feels... rushed. Too rushed. New players will come in from the advertisements and run straight into this mess and go to greener pastures that aren't overrun with weeds.

diogene0

You should reach lvl 60 by the end of rothe valley if you did all the quests and played a few skirmishes and dungeons, which means that you'll be lvl 63 once you leave the brain's zone. I know that on all my alts I still have a bunch of quests to do in the whispering caverns. My GF is now 64 thanks to the reamining old levelling quests. Didn't even enter the drowned shores. I'm not saying it should stay as it is currently but the XP gains will lead you to a much higher level after the former end of the quest line, and lvl 63-64 gear will give you a nice edge in the newer zones, as long as you're not rushing to max lvl and don't skip as much stuff as you can.