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xatriu
Member Posts: 88 Arc User
Hello Cryptic and fellow players.
About a month ago I decided after a long break to return to neverwinter to check out the OP class and the new content.
During this time, despite having 5 or 6 classes already at lvl 60, I decided I wanted to start from scratch and thus I created a new character.
Since then, I have leveled ALMOST 4 characters from level 1 to 70 (2 being lvl 68 atm) and so I would like to share my experiences in my journeys through the games content.
First things first :
I am a solo player, and I dont like depending on others for solo content.
All of the characters I made was at level 4 (as soon as I finished tutorial) geared with either cat or ioun stone companions with item level 135 gear pieces, where 2 being the "of the avenger" and the last being "of the commander". These were also embedded with rank 7 enchantments, while the companion itself was embedded with rank 7 runestones.
As for my characters, they were all geared with ensorcelled main hand and off-hand which also was embedded with rank 7 enchantments. Needless to say, lvl 1 - 60 was a breeze.
With that said, I will talk a bit about the classes I leveled and my experiences with them through the new content (lvl 61 - 70), the paths i chose for them and so on. Starting with the latest class, the OP.
Oathbound Paladin :
Race : Human
Path : Oath of Protection
Paragon Path : Justice
This character was hands down the easiest one to get through the new content. The class deals very decent damage and can soak up beyond a ton of damage thanks to having "virtually unlimited hp" due to the paladins wraith skill. I believe even for a brand new player this class would b able to handle the 61-70 content very well with the quest rewards the game gives the players.
Being decently geared (all blue gear with rank 7 enchants across the board), I myself naturally felt like I could tank a mountain. I died only once at lvl 70 (very first death on the character) while helping out a fellow guildmate when we decided to take on a 15+ man heroic encounter in Spinward Rise. We ended up getting swarmed by too many enemies, there were 5 giants and god knows how many little creeps that ended up pummeling me to death. I was quite happy with myself, that I could endure the brutal beating that I was given from so many mobs.
Onto t2 dungeons (i jumped straight into t2, t2 was the very first dungeon I participated in). After the event above with the heroic encounter and reaching a 2k item score I finally decided that I should be good enough to tank a dungeon. At this point I had 40% damage resist and 100k HP, 41% crit chance and 12k power. My first action was running up to a zombies face to tank the thing. Its animation looked like a b*tchslap. A b*tchslap of doom that critted me for 140k damage (if i remember correctly) I ended up instantly dying. I felt like wet paper in this place. And "tanking" quickly became using Paladins Wraith, Divine Protector daily, grabbing aggro and then running in circles like a sissy kiting things around.
This playstyle frustrated me deeply. This was not what I had anticipated how you play tank in this game, or ANY game for that matter. So I browsed around the forums until I found a post where some player with high end gear had conducted tests in these dungeons, with charts and everything. And his performance was no better then mine. Even with 60% damage reduction he still had to kite.
At this point I laid my paladin to rest and created a new character as I refuse to play a tank this way.
Trickster Rogue :
Race : Halfling
Path : Master Infiltrator
Paragon Path : Executioner
Out of the 4 classes I leveled, this one hands down had the hardest time. Past lvl 64, things started getting heavier and by lvl 67 things started becoming a bit frustrating. No longer being able to burst things down quickly anymore, things could get messy and out of hand fast. It was at this point I realized that if you are not geared with the very high end stuff and you are not built for perma stealth, then you are not gonna be able to do certain lvl 69 content by yourself. And zones like Sharandar, IWD and DR is definitively out of the question! As for a player who is geared with only what the game gives him in quest rewards and drops, then I have no problems weeping for them if they go for this build.
Executioners path is not in any shape, form or way, viable for endgame solo content. You take too much damage as soon as you run out of stamina as you cant tank for <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>, so as soon as that stamina meter is empty then you are a dead man! Unless u manage to run away naturally. And dont even get me started on the Giants in Spinward Rise.. Full cc immunity, nearly 11k damage done to u by the rocks they throw.. I'ts a nightmare.
I finished getting him to 70 with help from a guildmate, but laid him to rest just like with my OP.
Control Wizard :
Race : Halfling (I love halflings)
Path : Spellstorm Mage
Paragon Path : Renegade
This char managed well on his own. Very high damage that scaled well through the entire lvling process. Lots of cc and utility and fairly good survivability with the shield skill and dodge mechanic. I really have nothing bad to say about this class whatsoever other than that for ME playing him became too linear. Anyways, you have range, you have control, you have good damage, and a better survivability then TR and HR. This class is great, even with the nerf to stormspell! (Yes i said it!)
Sadly I got bored with him by the time he was lvl 68 and laid him to rest.
Hunter Ranger :
Race : Half-Orc
Path : Stormwarden
Paragon Path : Trapper
This class is managed pretty well on its own with everything I had for it and is hands down my personal favorite class to play. For someone whose items though are only what they get from quests and drops, I am sure that it's a different story. I do struggle in some situations, but most of the time as long as I dont mess up I will do fine. My biggest gripe with the class however due to my ping, is it's dodge mechanic. Since you do not move through as big of a range during a dodge as a TR or CW would do, it is easier to take a hit as the HR's dodge demands more accuracy in the use of dodging. And if you fail at that accuracy, you get punished.
Being someone who plays with 200 ms ping because I live in Norway, the HR's dodge mechanic is virtually impossible to work with. Sometimes I will succeed in dodging a projectile coming at me by dodging when the monster is in the middle of the animation. Sometimes I succeed by dodging right when the monster launches the projectile. And sometimes I succeed in dodging before the monster even starts the animation of launching the projectile. This all has made me come to a certain realization that I presently didn't really think much about, but ill get into that in the next part.
About a month ago I decided after a long break to return to neverwinter to check out the OP class and the new content.
During this time, despite having 5 or 6 classes already at lvl 60, I decided I wanted to start from scratch and thus I created a new character.
Since then, I have leveled ALMOST 4 characters from level 1 to 70 (2 being lvl 68 atm) and so I would like to share my experiences in my journeys through the games content.
First things first :
I am a solo player, and I dont like depending on others for solo content.
All of the characters I made was at level 4 (as soon as I finished tutorial) geared with either cat or ioun stone companions with item level 135 gear pieces, where 2 being the "of the avenger" and the last being "of the commander". These were also embedded with rank 7 enchantments, while the companion itself was embedded with rank 7 runestones.
As for my characters, they were all geared with ensorcelled main hand and off-hand which also was embedded with rank 7 enchantments. Needless to say, lvl 1 - 60 was a breeze.
With that said, I will talk a bit about the classes I leveled and my experiences with them through the new content (lvl 61 - 70), the paths i chose for them and so on. Starting with the latest class, the OP.
Oathbound Paladin :
Race : Human
Path : Oath of Protection
Paragon Path : Justice
This character was hands down the easiest one to get through the new content. The class deals very decent damage and can soak up beyond a ton of damage thanks to having "virtually unlimited hp" due to the paladins wraith skill. I believe even for a brand new player this class would b able to handle the 61-70 content very well with the quest rewards the game gives the players.
Being decently geared (all blue gear with rank 7 enchants across the board), I myself naturally felt like I could tank a mountain. I died only once at lvl 70 (very first death on the character) while helping out a fellow guildmate when we decided to take on a 15+ man heroic encounter in Spinward Rise. We ended up getting swarmed by too many enemies, there were 5 giants and god knows how many little creeps that ended up pummeling me to death. I was quite happy with myself, that I could endure the brutal beating that I was given from so many mobs.
Onto t2 dungeons (i jumped straight into t2, t2 was the very first dungeon I participated in). After the event above with the heroic encounter and reaching a 2k item score I finally decided that I should be good enough to tank a dungeon. At this point I had 40% damage resist and 100k HP, 41% crit chance and 12k power. My first action was running up to a zombies face to tank the thing. Its animation looked like a b*tchslap. A b*tchslap of doom that critted me for 140k damage (if i remember correctly) I ended up instantly dying. I felt like wet paper in this place. And "tanking" quickly became using Paladins Wraith, Divine Protector daily, grabbing aggro and then running in circles like a sissy kiting things around.
This playstyle frustrated me deeply. This was not what I had anticipated how you play tank in this game, or ANY game for that matter. So I browsed around the forums until I found a post where some player with high end gear had conducted tests in these dungeons, with charts and everything. And his performance was no better then mine. Even with 60% damage reduction he still had to kite.
At this point I laid my paladin to rest and created a new character as I refuse to play a tank this way.
Trickster Rogue :
Race : Halfling
Path : Master Infiltrator
Paragon Path : Executioner
Out of the 4 classes I leveled, this one hands down had the hardest time. Past lvl 64, things started getting heavier and by lvl 67 things started becoming a bit frustrating. No longer being able to burst things down quickly anymore, things could get messy and out of hand fast. It was at this point I realized that if you are not geared with the very high end stuff and you are not built for perma stealth, then you are not gonna be able to do certain lvl 69 content by yourself. And zones like Sharandar, IWD and DR is definitively out of the question! As for a player who is geared with only what the game gives him in quest rewards and drops, then I have no problems weeping for them if they go for this build.
Executioners path is not in any shape, form or way, viable for endgame solo content. You take too much damage as soon as you run out of stamina as you cant tank for <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>, so as soon as that stamina meter is empty then you are a dead man! Unless u manage to run away naturally. And dont even get me started on the Giants in Spinward Rise.. Full cc immunity, nearly 11k damage done to u by the rocks they throw.. I'ts a nightmare.
I finished getting him to 70 with help from a guildmate, but laid him to rest just like with my OP.
Control Wizard :
Race : Halfling (I love halflings)
Path : Spellstorm Mage
Paragon Path : Renegade
This char managed well on his own. Very high damage that scaled well through the entire lvling process. Lots of cc and utility and fairly good survivability with the shield skill and dodge mechanic. I really have nothing bad to say about this class whatsoever other than that for ME playing him became too linear. Anyways, you have range, you have control, you have good damage, and a better survivability then TR and HR. This class is great, even with the nerf to stormspell! (Yes i said it!)
Sadly I got bored with him by the time he was lvl 68 and laid him to rest.
Hunter Ranger :
Race : Half-Orc
Path : Stormwarden
Paragon Path : Trapper
This class is managed pretty well on its own with everything I had for it and is hands down my personal favorite class to play. For someone whose items though are only what they get from quests and drops, I am sure that it's a different story. I do struggle in some situations, but most of the time as long as I dont mess up I will do fine. My biggest gripe with the class however due to my ping, is it's dodge mechanic. Since you do not move through as big of a range during a dodge as a TR or CW would do, it is easier to take a hit as the HR's dodge demands more accuracy in the use of dodging. And if you fail at that accuracy, you get punished.
Being someone who plays with 200 ms ping because I live in Norway, the HR's dodge mechanic is virtually impossible to work with. Sometimes I will succeed in dodging a projectile coming at me by dodging when the monster is in the middle of the animation. Sometimes I succeed by dodging right when the monster launches the projectile. And sometimes I succeed in dodging before the monster even starts the animation of launching the projectile. This all has made me come to a certain realization that I presently didn't really think much about, but ill get into that in the next part.
Post edited by xatriu on
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Comments
Classes, paths, difficulty :
As the game is in its current state, certain class builds needs a complete overhaul. I only did 4 classes and 1 single paragon path for each individual class. And the difference in their solo PvE performance could be several miles apart the way things currently are. It should not be that way.
With the introduction of mod 6 you guys have created quite the pit of problems, no offense. And to solve things in order to achieve a certain balance again.. You have quite the task ahead of you.
The way I see it, ALL classes and builds should be able to handle ANY solo content, WITH gear given by the game. That being said, you guys need to prioritize and cater to the players that doesn't have all day to play games, I feel as if you guys have been doing the opposite with mod 6. I am probably wrong about this (at least i hope i am), but just in case i am not.
You have the new players and the ones with none or little Astral Diamonds, you have the rich players and then there's the ones in the middle (me).
Having read around the forums (which I do a lot), I still see people complaining that content is too easy. You guys need to just down and right ignore those players as they (no offense here) are basically poison to the games PvE content and the not so rich.
They are the ones who have reached the top, or a point where they themselves have passively obtained the "power" to adjust the games difficulty by simply gearing themselves DOWN with non high-end or BiS gear.
It seems to me that those players have not grasped the idea that getting top end stuff is SUPPOSE to make you strong and powerful and to a certain extent make you feel like a "god". So by catering to them in any way, you will by default screw new and poor players over, and HARD. Which in return will most likely contribute to those very players not wanting to put real money into the game and just simply quit playing.
Dungeons :
Dungeons in its current state invites many problems all across the board. Monsters dealing so much damage that even tanks is nothing but wet paper and can die to an auto attack, and has to kite stuff around in order to not die. This philosophy is bad. It is not the way a tank wants to play a tank either.
I suggest you nerf monster damage in these dungeons by a fair margin, so a tank can actually tank and feel like a tank, and then raise monster hp 30 times if you have to. The point is for trash mobs to have so much hp that they will simply out sustain and kill a party that does not bring a healer to keep players alive, and a tank and even an off-tank (gwf) to draw monster aggro.
Also bosses should have a less non-ability (red area) damage and more HP. Its a dungeon, where top end gear is rewarded, it SHOULD be somewhat time consuming next to fairly challenging. But one hit KO's to non-red area attacks is no fun at all.
Latency (Ping) :
I have been wondering if latency is taken into consideration with the game? As i stated earlier, using dodge mechanic to negate damage on the HR class is virtually impossible for someone with a rather high latency, and i been wondering if you take things like that into consideration. It could be a good idea to give the squishier classes some tweaks that would benefit their survivability and at the same time compensate players with high pings. Like 5-10% temp hp of max hp gained for 1-2 secs on a failed dodge attempt? Just an idea.
This is all I can think of at the top of my head.
Thanks for reading.
1) Add 1 vs 1 PVP.
2) Fix the descriptions on skills. For example, mention how long effects last. Paragon Powers dont even mention their upgrades. this needs to be fixed.
3) On the descriptions of skills mention if they get upgraded from a Feat.
For example.
Savage Advance (Encounter) gets an upgrade by Battle Awareness (Feat) granting 5/10/15/20/25% shorter cooldowns. This will make skills' explanatory wayyy better. Especially when combined with more detailed descriptions for skills.
I have no experience with CWs over lvl 60, but I can confirm the OPs are having it easy all the way to 70 and in the solo campaigns. While the TR is slowly going back to the dps class without dps.
It's no fun to think that we only have a tiny number of options in terms of playable/viable paths. Lots of work needs to be done to balance all types of builds.
As the guy above me posted, incorporating PvP poses a special challenge. But, this has been addressed previously as many encounters/feats have separate effects for mobs vs players, so I am confident that with some good balance on PvE content, there would be small adjustments that would make it just as balanced in PvP.