Still not quite being entirely honest

vyltrana · February 2016

this is how they are still advertising this game:-Completely Free-to-Play

You don't have to pay to adventure. From level 1 to the level cap, all playable content in Neverwinter is free for everyone to experience.
We all know different

kreatyve · February 2016

I know plenty of people who have played completely free and still have best-in-slot gear, completely legit. I can name at least 1 person off the top of my head right now.

Unknown · February 2016

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Unknown · February 2016

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boondoc0 · February 2016

kreatyve said:
I know plenty of people who have played completely free and still have best-in-slot gear, completely legit. I can name at least 1 person off the top of my head right now.

pc or xbox because that's believable on pc. for the obvious reasons.

yourenext2die · February 2016

It is completely free to play, many of us playing have been so since day one. Then you come along as a noob getting destroyed and cry out because you're not 3K+ in your first week of playing. How do I know you're a noob? Because you're whining like one. Get multiple toons to 70 and build up your AD. Grind seals or guild marks for gear. Really easy if you've done it more than once.

thaswoopster · February 2016

This mmo rewards you for time played. Paying reduces the time required and gets you cool items.

Not paying, well...should I draw a picture?

cscriv79 · February 2016

vyltrana said:
this is how they are still advertising this game:-Completely Free-to-Play

You don't have to pay to adventure. From level 1 to the level cap, all playable content in Neverwinter is free for everyone to experience.
We all know different

The only thing you ever NEED to pay is time, everything else even Zen and items from the Zen market can be obtained freely with that time spent.

nightshift56 · February 2016

My gear may not be best in slot, but it gets the job done well enough for my 3 level 70 toons and I am a free-to-play player. If you're able to put in the time it takes to earn your gear and upgrades, you can play for free. On the other hand, if you're a got to have it now type of player then you will probably be tempted to spend real world money to get items faster.

shamrok · February 2016

There is absolutely nothing in this game that you can't get with AD

namebrands · February 2016

TL;DR

The truth of the matter is yes, it's completely 100% free to play. The other side of the matter and just as true, is that they make most things a huge grind on purpose in hopes that you will find it less than enjoyable and thus spend money for zen in order to speed up the process.

In regards to people having BIS gear and 100% free to play, the other part of that is that in it's early form on xbox, it was MUCH easier to grind out leadership armies for substantial AD gains, not to mention being able to farm dungeons like pirate king, etc, and turn around and sell those items. It wasn't uncommon to be able to run Spellplague Caverns, get lucky and get a High Vizier Helm drop and turn around and sell it within an hour for at LEAST 300k AD and quite possibly much more.

So yeah, back then it was easy for someone with boatloads of time to farm up a ton of AD. Maybe get lucky on some lockboxes and viola'. Once VIP came out you could still take advantage of buying Greater Marks of Potency among other things, and turn around and sell them on the AH for a small profit.

Flash Forward to the present: They removed most of the AD gain from leadership. They removed most of the dungeons to "rework" them and made the drops in the dungeons bound so you can no longer sell them for profit. They flooded the market with Greater marks of potency and now, even Superior marks of potency so that they sell on the AH for MUCH less than you can get them in the wonderous bazaar even with VIP 12. Basically, they've removed most ways of gaining large amounts of AD. The only way to build tons of AD now is to run things like shores over and over, hour after hour, in order to build up a reserve of junk to salvage when double AD comes around. OH wait, you can also get a pittance for your weeklys, and an even smaller pittance from leadership. The carrot on the stick comes in the form of the lockbox - Maybe YOU can get lucky this time and get that special legendary that sells for millions of AD on the auction house - Just be careful not to get your account jacked with because some random other party bought YOUR item off the AH to fulfill some nefarious purpose.

So yeah, its possible to be in the higher tiers and do it 100% (monetarily anyway) free. It only costs hours upon hours upon hours of grind in order to do. But hey, none of us really want to go to work anyway right? Sure, relationships are nice but meh, you don't need any because you've got to grind shores nonstop for the next 3 weeks straight.

Cryptic isn't known for high quality games man lol. Sure, they weren't as blatant about it early on as they are now, but it was always about the dolla dolla bills yall. The only saving grace for me was that coming from PC, I already knew what kind of deal this was and thus, tempered myself accordingly. From my experience, they do the bare minimum possible, and do it in a way as to make buying that almighty zen look appealing. All the new content just seems to boil down to rehashed maps from other quests, and more Heroic encounters than you can shake a stick at. They should seriously consider renaming this to Shores of Turin Online, or Heroic Encounter Overload Online.

Anyway, that's my novella for the week. Just remember - milk the game for as much enjoyment as you can while spending as little as possible - THAT's the real end game goal here. THAT's the way to win @ neverwinner.

telprydain · February 2016

Agreed - playing since Beta, and totally agree that it's not even close to pay-to-win. I know several people who take pride in their BiS, totally free, toons.

I've seen and played PTW games before, and as long as the ZAX works we're a long way away from the kind of BS that goes on there - areas, levels, BiS equipment all behind premium currency that can't be earned via gameplay.
I'm willing to concede that PVP is a tough nut to crack if you aren't a OG Neverwinter player or dropping Zen, but the path is still there if you want to grind your way up. For PvE it's not only not PTW, it's not even that hard to achieve a very viable build (especially now that UD offers a leg up to the first T1 content).

Frankly, any "ptw" nonsense coming out in response to the whole ruby/ward situation is misguided, as we've had Dragonflight and general lockbox silliness without the same overreaction.

yourenext2die · February 2016

thaswoopster said:
This mmo rewards you for time played. Paying reduces the time required and gets you cool items.

Not paying, well...should I draw a picture?

You could use a large white dry erase board and a pointer to point at your completed picture to point out the obvious. Unless you prefer a smaller scale picture projected from an overhead for your presentation. lol

sethzer02k2 · February 2016

"this is how they are still advertising this game:-Completely Free-to-Play

You don't have to pay to adventure. From level 1 to the level cap, all playable content in Neverwinter is free for everyone to experience.
We all know different"

@vyltrana it's completely free to play, you don't have pay anything to pay at all. Yes spending money will/may speed up your time to get end game gear and stuff but you don't have to spend a dime. They only thing I ever use $money for is keys and that's because I want too not because I needed to. Every single item I have equipped was either earned in game or bought with AD I got from playing the game(other then my mounts that came from lockboxes).

So yes it's free to play, you don't have to pay for any content, all zones are unlocked(some behind a level wall), and everything can be earned in game.

Now with that said, is some aspects of this game a cash grab? Yes but how else are they suppose to keep their severs up/content coming out? I mean that stuff cost money.

ltsmithneko · February 2016

Im a 3k Gwf ive spent 0 on the game so far and causally I out dps 4k gwf's, im in one of the top guilds of xbox and looking foward to 2x refine to boost my stats and IL about 200-400 more then to top it off when 2x AD comes around ill have a nice 5mil in my pocket.

As these others have said you don't need to pay its just abit longer to get there and depends how devoted you are to get there~<3

armadeonx · February 2016

I agree with the above - when you enter the game as a new (FTP) player you should not expect to have a fully geared killer any time soon.

You have to build up a regular income, grind up your professions, learn the system, learn your class. Most people mess up their first character or two unless they get advice from a seasoned player.

Ideally you want to get yourself to a point where you are earning in excess of 100k AD per day - this means refining across at least 3 characters, building up bank slots for storing up salvage & getting your main character sufficiently geared so it is attractive & effective for groups running dungeons & skirmishes.

This takes months. Until then just focus on enjoying the game. Join a guild, make some friends and take some pleasure in watching your character become more & more effective. This is an mmo, it's all about the journey.

thefiresidecat · February 2016

telprydain said:
Agreed - playing since Beta, and totally agree that it's not even close to pay-to-win. I know several people who take pride in their BiS, totally free, toons.

I've seen and played PTW games before, and as long as the ZAX works we're a long way away from the kind of BS that goes on there - areas, levels, BiS equipment all behind premium currency that can't be earned via gameplay.
I'm willing to concede that PVP is a tough nut to crack if you aren't a OG Neverwinter player or dropping Zen, but the path is still there if you want to grind your way up. For PvE it's not only not PTW, it's not even that hard to achieve a very viable build (especially now that UD offers a leg up to the first T1 content).

Frankly, any "ptw" nonsense coming out in response to the whole ruby/ward situation is misguided, as we've had Dragonflight and general lockbox silliness without the same overreaction.

the gear like that has other options. enchants don't. and to get into the 3000's it's really all about the enchants. and you will need to break 3000 to beat the new raid. the gear from the lockbox and the dragonflight gear (which is grindable if you're beating more than one dragon in dragonflight) isn't necessary to beat any particular content.

shamrok · February 2016

I used to play a P2W mmo hosted by the now out of business company called out spark, in that game you literally have to spend $200 per item just to make content bearable not to mention the $30~40 per month in cash shop buffs with having to grind out 1bil+ exp to level up and if you don't have the right cash shop buff when you die you lose 1% if your tnl exp

Still not quite being entirely honest

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