I am new to Neverwinter, I always wanted to mess around with it but until now never had the chance.
I am having a decent time so far (lvl 33 rogue), though I have noticed a few things that I feel warrant discussion.
I am the type of player that constantly experiments with builds, specs and abilities. Neverwinter seems to charge real life currency for the ability to do what other games provide as part of the game. The amount of in game currency (AD) feats costs to change is flat out absurd for a low level player. It seems you do not even get 1 free do over and this bothers me.
Please, if I am wrong leave instructions on how to do this without spending massive amounts of in or out of game currency.
I have spent a lot of money in other f2p mmos in the past (and f2p games in general). I prefer to be lured into spending money over feeling forced to spend it. I think I would most accurately be described as a whale by most companies that have enjoyed my time with them and for the most part (Rift initial auction house unlock, although the rest of the pay model was more than fair) I never felt forced to spend money for basic things in other games.
Why is a feature that should be free and part of the game a paid service and why has the player base allowed this ?
Is there any plans to actually change this ?
Am I missing something ?
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I am totally not used to being forced into one particular build (feel trapped), maybe AD gets a lot easier and this will not be a issue.
In Rift you had 12 different (maybe 15 cant remember 4 sure) specs you could change to at the drop of a hat (best part of the game imo). 3 free slots and you had to buy the rest, which I totally did because options feel fun. 9 of my "specs" were for one particular role (chloromancer - offensive healer) and I was constantly changing those.
Maybe this is just a me thing, but I much prefer to learn by doing compared to read and know. Maybe this is just a mental problem but those 3 little points keep calling out to me, lol. /sigh
I'd also like to point out that builds tend to be pretty forgiving in Neverwinter - unless you're going for BiS stuff, in which case, the aforementioned Test Server testing is a must.
Good luck and have fun!
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As a pro-tip on that: skills that move enemies apart/away can be awesome in solo (and pvp), but in most cases are really bad ideas in group content. In group play the idea is usually to get the mobs collected together, and frequently stunned/dazed, so that AoE's can melt them away much faster. If you're doing something that runs contrary to that--using knockback effects, kiting mobs all over the place, etc.--then you're doing the group a disfavor. There are a few exceptions, but your default approach should be to avoid doing those things as much as you can until you're experienced with the content enough to know those few exceptions well. These are workable strategies for solo, especially when you're still weak or don't quite know how to min-max your class, but find ways to do the opposite in groups: group them up; root them in tight knit groups; stun them without moving them out of the melee and aoe attack ranges of your party members; if you have to kite then try to keep them as close to the main batch of mobs or at least high aggro-generating party members as possible--aggro will transfer faster, stuns are more likely to hit them to protect you, or they'll just get melted before they can take you out.
There are a lot of players that use ranged attackers--HRs and SWs in particular, though not exclusively--that don't seem to know these differences between solo strategies and group strategies, and it gets seriously annoying when a fight last 4 times as long because they can't handle their own aggro and are zipping mobs all over the place, making the melee dps drop to like 4 damage per second and aoe attackers frequently can't hit all desired targets.
This is still a problem for me. I absolutely cannot stand being trapped in my current build. Took forever to save up for a 80% horse and now I need 90k ad to respec ? That is what I paid for the horse.
How can this game not have dual spec ?
How can it take that much currency to change your build ?
Time and money spent:
NeverWinter: ~ 2 weeks, 0 us dollars spent.
Blade and Soul: ~ 2 days so far, 125.00 us dollars spent. (will be spending a lot more here as well)
If an employee of Arc ever notices this, the reason I am not and WILL NOT give you money is simply because you are attempting to force me to. There are things I would purchase, if basic game essentials were provided.
I dont wanna respec once, I want to do it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over until I find the build I am happy with. A test server is not sufficient due to lack of players to kill or be killed by.
One of the two aforementioned games is going to get a very consistent player, the other is going to get a casual visitor. I like this game, it is more my style than B&S but not being able to test my build myself has me in a state of perpetual anger.
Please. I can easily spend a third of my play time experimenting with builds and enjoy every second of it. Change this to 1 gold like it should be so I can put the time into this game I kinda want to.
The fact I do not have the currency and need to wait 3 more days just to try a build that may or may not work for me is what is most disturbing. So intentionally I do 2 skirm, dung and pvp for the currency and log off because I hate my build and I am not having fun with it.
There are like a zillion things I need to save ad for that is not a basic game necessity like a respec, but I will not be happy until I like my build. Even then I will experiment with other stuff.
Unless there are drastic ad income changes at 70, I can safely say this is the best example of a pay to win game that I have ever played.
The pay model this game is using needs to be improved drastically. Why ignore the #1 money producing element of free to play games (wardrobe) ?
I have played a lot of free to play games and this one is the only one I have not spent a dime on.
Why even bother complaining about it ? I like this game, so far and wish to keep playing it. Yes, I hope positive change occurs.
If I was not enjoying parts of this game this thread would not have existed.
I am complaining because I care and would like to hang around a while.
WHEN you find the build you like making you respec on real server too, then it's not that hard to get AD for the real respec.
You can get AD transfering from one character into another (if you have more than just your Trickster Rogue of course) making past the 36k cap. You can get AD salvaging a lot of item from levels 60 to 70. Plus the AD you get for doing the first 2 dungeons, skirmishes and PVP for each day and each character.
No.
Just read the answers in here, it's more like finding ways around it over the PTS, or trying to minimize the costs for it as much as possible, through discount vouchers or exchanging AD to ZEN when the exchange rate is more in your favour.
Some might even dare to say, that the players have given up on hoping for any changes in this section of the game...
Anyway, it would be nice to see more events with respec tokens as reward, or if we would get more informations in the "AD Changes" department.
Last summer, during the summer event, cryptic gave players a free 80% speed horse, but you have to play regularly to get it. You can get many things for free in Neverwinter, but you must play regularly, especially during events.
I will redo paladin eventually, as I messed up on certain powers I wont ever use.
Then maybe do my gwf again.
but yes.. before christmas events happened I was always really slow at respec.. never seemed worth the money half the time , unless it was something major.
They used to be a little more "free" with free respecs , but lately that hasnt happened. So you have to be prepared to pay for one if you have to.
I can't understand why all the kvetching in threads like this about paying for respecs, transmutes, coal wards (pre TarBar store rework), etc. Game is F2P. Everything in game can be had for AD, or for Zen which can be bought with AD. No real-world money need be spent. And as mentioned...this is NWO...not another game. It is not set up to be friendly to the pockets of those who wish to re-spec every other day or own every fashion set in the game. While F2P, this game is not run by a charity, and they do need to secure some revenue to keep it up and running for us....even if we continually whine on forums about the product they provide.
Here's what you may not have figured out yet, Katarina, and what no one has told you in this thread. This game has largely become a subscription game for those of us in it for the long-haul, and who are not just dipping our toes in before dashing off to another shiny new game. So if you want to make your life a ton easier, invest that $125 you talked about earlier once more into a 12-month VIP subscription. Use a 15% off coupon from invoking to make it cheaper. The daily rewards from free lockbox key can (typically) be sold on the AH for astral diamonds, which you can then convert to Zen if you like. If you hit a good lockbox drop here and there, you can buy all the respecs you want. At rank 12 VIP, you also get a huge discount on things from the wondrous bazaar (GMOPs, SMOPs, etc), which at your character level will save you a ton of money/AD down the road.
No I don't work for Cryptic, so I'm not truly shilling here. I do spend money on the game though...and the re-work away from a Zen economy to a TarBar economy was brilliant on PWE/Cryptic's part. I effectively pay my $10/month subscription, I get the thrill of opening a lockbox for free every day, get tons of benefits (travel post, mailbox, bank anywhere...injury immunity is huge too), and the issues being discussed here largely disappear...because everything is either in the TarBar store (like the fashions you like so much, Katarina), or available via the AD you will make from selling your daily lockbox drops.
Please don't let me add to the "feeling forced" vibe you already feel. It's a good game, with some good folks in it. I understand you have an issue with the way Cryptic/PWE tries to earn their money. This is just my honest opinion here...you will have to spend some money on any F2P game to advance significantly, unless you make that game your entire life. For me, VIP program makes that advancement a whole lot easier, and a lot cheaper in the long-run.
I hope you can come to enjoy it here. It's actually pretty cool.
What would be nice is if Cryptic added a weekly or monthly respec token for a higher level of VIP or something... at least then if you like the game and buy in the experimenters would be looked after a little.