1. Notice how anything that hurts the players and their ability to progress happens within hours or a few days at most - but things that improve the experience and QOL take weeks or months to implement. Hmmm..customer respect....
2. Why were Coal Wards in the T-Store made unbound? No reason to, during the price drop they should have stayed account bound. The logical choice would have been to just change the price and observe the impact on the economy. But no, as usual (in player benefit for a change) Cryptic do both and then claim it has upset the economy and go nuclear by removing them altogether. Are there no people with project management skills that could work through this??
getting the majority of them from Wondrous Boxes during invocation.
@zebular: What is a Wondrous Box? I've been playing since Mod1 and I've never heard of such a thing. (I've also only ever gotten 2 coal wards Invoking near-daily in that period with 2 characters.)
Something tells me that it was earlier. Like getting the greater marks in dread ring...I was lucky enough to save up about 60 of each so I didn't care when they removed them. I think this speaks to a general strategy: when you see something good, farm the hell out of it---it's not going to last.
.
All three Coffers of Wondrous (insert type here) have a chance to award Coalescent Wards. I've gotten Coalescent Wards from each of them. As I said above, it feels to me that I get more from the first of the three you can buy.
Funny Ive played for a year, and I have bought many of the coffers, and I invoke everyday, max amount of times a day...on 6 Different toons...in that year Ive recieved ZERO Coal wards...on anything...
So sorry, Im gonna say your a might skewed in your perceptions...or do mods get bonuses on rng?
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dademon1982Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 21Arc User
1. Notice how anything that hurts the players and their ability to progress happens within hours or a few days at most - but things that improve the experience and QOL take weeks or months to implement. Hmmm..customer respect....
2. Why were Coal Wards in the T-Store made unbound? No reason to, during the price drop they should have stayed account bound. The logical choice would have been to just change the price and observe the impact on the economy. But no, as usual (in player benefit for a change) Cryptic do both and then claim it has upset the economy and go nuclear by removing them altogether. Are there no people with project management skills that could work through this??
Hey Xeno, never noticed you were on forums too, lol. (love the sig btw, the olde Mystra days, getting nostalgic here)
Point to add to your nr 1. As said before after day one in this topic, but even more noticeable now, over a week since... There seems to be a sudden lack of communication on the side of the officials on this (and I am not meaning the volunteer forum mods, but either Strum, Asterdahl, Panderus, Sean or ANY other) NADA.
I assumed the info would get passed down the line in any case, correct me if I'm wrong, but for over 8 days without at least some response to a total outrage (this topic is NOT looking like 31 pages of sweettalk to me) to me feels kinda strange feels like it was too big of an "oopsie" and you're at a loss for words, or simply not caring.
No one in their right mind would commit $10,000s of dollars in corporate legal fees over $100 of in-game currency. It is exceeding rare for a corporation to win against an individual, and it is a PR nightmare to be "the company that sues its users over petty grievances".
On the other side, who in their right mind is going to spend the weeks of time and $1000s of dollars in private legal fees to pursue a corporation over something so trivial as a video game? For a court to award either side compensation for legal fees requires the case to be unquestionably one-sided, and this one is not.
When it comes down to it, they didn't modify VIP. it still gives exactly what was promised. You still get your lockbox keys, lockboxes still have the same things they did before. Some of the things inside have a different relative value now (I say relative because objectively, they're virtual and have zero cash value). R7 enchants aren't as valuable as when VIP started...neither are trade bars...but you still get them, just as promised. It was, however, a complete HAMSTER-move on PWE's part, so people are rightly pissed.
(The preceding is an opinion, and shall not be construed as legal advice, because providing legal advice incurs a fiduciary responsibility.)
I do agree with your statements. Someone had to play the Devil's Advocate to counter the heavy handed threats laid out and point out that if one was taken to court over a charge-back (as unlikely as that may be) they would have a chance to recoup the same kinds of monies they were threatened with having to pay up. The mods were implying that it would be an open and shut case in Cryptic's favor...which is not the reality of the situation. One of the benefits of being a Labor Activist for 30 years is that you develop friendships with Contract Lawyers who will give you legal advice for free. It also means that I do not personally need to know "legal definitions of words" as I have friends who can explain them to me in simple English. ;D
If Cryptic/PWE were the only maker of MMORPG's the threat of a perma-ban from their games would carry more weight. As there are a plethora of gaming companies wanting my money, it is utterly meaningless to those who take the time to think about idleness of the threat.
Have not spent a penny on this game since the LS nerf, so have no reason to request a refund or charge-back personally. Must say that the changes since that time, and how pissed off they have made much of the player-base, makes me think of the following quote:
"If you tremble indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine." Che Guevara
142 members in my guild when I last checked less than 10 online, and woo hoo Now 15% off enchanted keys you can use to obtain mostly rubbish!.
That is another point, that left me really puzzled. Why would anyone even want to buy more lockbox keys now? Unless you have at least some luck with those damn lockboxes... the daily key from ViP is more then enough and still cheaper. And with the Coals in the Trade Bar Store, we had at least something to look forward to at some point.
Anyway, my last drop worth mentioning from lockboxes were two Axe Beak while opening 10 lockboxes several months ago. Since then it's mostly 1-5 Trade Bars and some blue box/kit/pack/whatever.
Yep I had something similar, the only point in lock boxes was earning T-Bars for Coalescent wards, Reducing the coalescent in the T-BAR store obviously reduced there Zen profits, Ergo Coalecent removed from T-bar store, most of what you get in Lockboxes is Rubbish aside from the ultra-Rare item like an epic mount.
Only 80 more lockboxes to open at my current rate of ~8 Trade Bars per lockbox. But with my luck, they have either turned it bound to account, or nerfed the companion into oblivion, by the time i have reached the 800 TBs.
I do believe in killing the messenger...
Want to know why?
Because it sends a message!
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zebularMember, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 15,270Community Moderator
getting the majority of them from Wondrous Boxes during invocation.
@zebular: What is a Wondrous Box? I've been playing since Mod1 and I've never heard of such a thing. (I've also only ever gotten 2 coal wards Invoking near-daily in that period with 2 characters.)
Something tells me that it was earlier. Like getting the greater marks in dread ring...I was lucky enough to save up about 60 of each so I didn't care when they removed them. I think this speaks to a general strategy: when you see something good, farm the hell out of it---it's not going to last.
All three Coffers of Wondrous (insert type here) have a chance to award Coalescent Wards. I've gotten Coalescent Wards from each of them. As I said above, it feels to me that I get more from the first of the three you can buy.
Funny Ive played for a year, and I have bought many of the coffers, and I invoke everyday, max amount of times a day...on 6 Different toons...in that year Ive recieved ZERO Coal wards...on anything...
So sorry, Im gonna say your a might skewed in your perceptions...or do mods get bonuses on rng?
Nah, I just have quite a number of characters I've invested in. I usually get at least one Coal a week, sometimes more, sometimes less. I have gone a few weeks without any and on the flip-side, the most I've gotten in one week's time is 4.
Also, I keep forgetting that "Wondrous" was dropped from the coffer's name when they changed and added two more. To be clear, it is the "Coffer of Celestial Enchantments" that I focus on claiming and opening, rather that the latter two.
Nah, I just have quite a number of characters I've invested in. I usually get at least one Coal a week, sometimes more, sometimes less. I have gone a few weeks without any and on the flip-side, the most I've gotten in one week's time is 4.
DUDE. That is some seriously consistent luck, unless we are talking like 50 chars here. Usually one a WEEK? Are you Irish or something? Holy HAMSTER!
Nah, I just have quite a number of characters I've invested in. I usually get at least one Coal a week, sometimes more, sometimes less. I have gone a few weeks without any and on the flip-side, the most I've gotten in one week's time is 4.
DUDE. That is some seriously consistent luck, unless we are talking like 50 chars here. Usually one a WEEK? Are you Irish or something? Holy HAMSTER!
Yep praying army - greatest part of NWO Endgame besides Tempe of the spider -in the same boat here
Please fix Zhentarim Warlock companion's skill "Arcane Warping" to the originally intended "Arcane Boost" zhentarim-warlock-companion
Zeb, i only have 5 characters, from invokings, i only got 1 in 10 months, last time i got was 3 weeks ago on my 2nd main. you getting nearly every week? geez, seem i am Unlucky irish?
house always win, and you work for house and you get bonus rng. that what i look at.
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ghoulz66Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 3,748Arc User
News flash Zebular, most don't have 20+ characters. It's a terrible design flaw to try and force people to buy and make a horde of alts just for coal wards.
getting the majority of them from Wondrous Boxes during invocation.
@zebular: What is a Wondrous Box? I've been playing since Mod1 and I've never heard of such a thing. (I've also only ever gotten 2 coal wards Invoking near-daily in that period with 2 characters.)
Something tells me that it was earlier. Like getting the greater marks in dread ring...I was lucky enough to save up about 60 of each so I didn't care when they removed them. I think this speaks to a general strategy: when you see something good, farm the hell out of it---it's not going to last.
All three Coffers of Wondrous (insert type here) have a chance to award Coalescent Wards. I've gotten Coalescent Wards from each of them. As I said above, it feels to me that I get more from the first of the three you can buy.
Funny Ive played for a year, and I have bought many of the coffers, and I invoke everyday, max amount of times a day...on 6 Different toons...in that year Ive recieved ZERO Coal wards...on anything...
So sorry, Im gonna say your a might skewed in your perceptions...or do mods get bonuses on rng?
Nah, I just have quite a number of characters I've invested in. I usually get at least one Coal a week, sometimes more, sometimes less. I have gone a few weeks without any and on the flip-side, the most I've gotten in one week's time is 4.
Also, I keep forgetting that "Wondrous" was dropped from the coffer's name when they changed and added two more. To be clear, it is the "Coffer of Celestial Enchantments" that I focus on claiming and opening, rather that the latter two.
Well I have 14 characters, invoke them all twice a day and have got 2 coal wards in 4 months, and that tallies with my long term experience. Since the patch was I have only got 3 pres wards in 10-14 chests and no coals.
No need to pick on zebular. The mods do all of us forum users a service, and they do it for free.
In short: RNGsus giveth and RNGsus taketh away.
If you read closely, zebular's (and related) posts give a method of acquiring coalescent wards if that is something you're concerned about...and in a "teach a man to fish" kind of way, rather than the Zen store's "buy a fish" route. I think of it as "an alternative VIP", that will become very interesting for the next 50%off black-friday sale assuming mod9 is not overly grindy.
If you read closely, zebular's (and related) posts give a method of acquiring coalescent wards if that is something you're concerned about...and in a "teach a man to fish" kind of way, rather than the Zen store's "buy a fish" route. I think of it as "an alternative VIP", that will become very interesting for the next 50%off black-friday sale assuming mod9 is not overly grindy.
I would not describe managing an army of 30 different prayerbots as "alternate VIP", but that's just me -- and who the hell do I think I am, anyway? I'm just some fat judgmental HAMSTER that thinks games should be fun and not repetitive login abuse.
If you read closely, zebular's (and related) posts give a method of acquiring coalescent wards if that is something you're concerned about...and in a "teach a man to fish" kind of way, rather than the Zen store's "buy a fish" route. I think of it as "an alternative VIP", that will become very interesting for the next 50%off black-friday sale assuming mod9 is not overly grindy.
No, he created that army of alts to farm leadership. We all know how well that worked out. I suspect that using an army of alts to farm chests will be the next thing on the forbidden list.
Considering the recent ban waves, I would not take it as any sound advice. As a mod, Zeb is probably the ONLY army holder that is safe.
games should be fun and not repetitive login abuse.
Fair point. Though in all honesty, we are talking about how to avoid a company's attempts to monitize a service they provide for free. I kinda expect it not to look "normal". If it were both 'fun' and 'free', why would anyone pay?
I'll put a stake in the ground on this one: I'll wager the following: no-one is going to be banned for buying multiple character slots, and using the legitimate services that come with them.
That said, there is a very real chance that if we all build prayer armies, that coalescent wards will be removed from the boxes, or that invocation becomes 'per account'. I.e., as with all things in this game, they can change the rules without notice, so caveat emptor.
Fair point. Though in all honesty, we are talking about how to avoid a company's attempts to monitize a service they provide for free. I kinda expect it not to look "normal". If it were both 'fun' and 'free', why would anyone pay?
Well, you see to get back to the point of this thread, we have the answer: VIP.
The point of VIP was so that you could pay a small steady payment of cash and skip mindless repetitive unfun HAMSTER like login abuse. You had these tarm bars from your daily key that you could use to buy coal wards and other nifty stuff. But then somebody in management apparently had a "moment", and now VIP is castrated.
The only 3 recourses left for reasonable advancement are Zebular-style farming alts, paying WAAAAY too much in the Zen store, or 3rd party spammers. Personally, I would very strongly suggest neither of the 3.
Look... this game is fun to level to 60 right now. It's kinda a little less fun to get to 70. But after 70, it's time to do something else. There's no endgame here. Once you hit 70 you've won. Play something else. If you can just say these things to yourself you'll realize that you don't need to worry about coal wards or refinement or any of that endgame HAMSTER. Just play it until it stops being fun and then quit.
I'll put a stake in the ground on this one: I'll wager the following: no-one is going to be banned for buying multiple character slots, and using the legitimate services that come with them.
Unless you happen to open too many gift boxes during the winter event.
Granted, they backed off and unbanned people after admitting their detection system was overzealous. They have, however, gone so far as to call leadership armies as exploitive in their own blogs. Something that was up to that point, considered perfectly acceptable and endorsed by the rule brokers. So, i'd personally not bet my account on what they might decide is the next fix for the economy.
So any advice, regardless of its source, that tells you to game the system by sheer weight of numbers. Should be vehemently called out as bad advice.
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zebularMember, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 15,270Community Moderator
If you read closely, zebular's (and related) posts give a method of acquiring coalescent wards if that is something you're concerned about...and in a "teach a man to fish" kind of way, rather than the Zen store's "buy a fish" route. I think of it as "an alternative VIP", that will become very interesting for the next 50%off black-friday sale assuming mod9 is not overly grindy.
No, he created that army of alts to farm leadership. We all know how well that worked out. I suspect that using an army of alts to farm chests will be the next thing on the forbidden list.
Considering the recent ban waves, I would not take it as any sound advice. As a mod, Zeb is probably the ONLY army holder that is safe.
As I've said many times, I actually play all my characters. They were not created for Leadership and in fact, they all didn't always work Leadership. Each character has a "main" profession and once maxed, they'd work on another one. Only when I was low on AD is when I'd go a week or so on Leadership on them all. Best to not throw around absurd assumptions or accusations. Alas, it's clear you have some biased perception of me for whatever reason, which is truly sad. I am sorry I am an alt-a'holic and that threatens you, but really stooping to accusations of foul play is a new low, even for you.
No offense, but you just claimed that you get "usually a coal ward once a week" from coffers.
But you aren't "farming alts"?
Okay.
Let's meet halfway on this: you know what you have to do to get a coal ward a week from coffers. We know too. No one is judging here. Out of the 3 ways I outlined earlier to get past the level 70 bottleneck, you chose to do the first one. It's perfectly within the rules, and nobody thinks you're immoral or whatever. The only thing I would have a problem with is if you had picked #3 (the goldspammers from Korea) to get ahead.
The point made earlier about alt farming was that if everybody did it, then the devs would probably have to nerf Invocation. I would assume that point is right, given what the devs have done to leadership and now the tarm store.
So, it's not a "sustainable model" for character growth. Big deal. It's not like everyone has the patience that you do, and is willing to login 30 (or however many it is) characters a day. I don't see the problem here. Keep alt farming.
I have 7 characters and did the daily invoke on each for a month. That's 2.5 chests times 7 chars over the course of a month. Know how many coal wards I got? ZERO. I quit spending the celestial coins on the chests after that and just buy the +stat potions for personal use or to sell on the AH.
You know what Cryptic should have done instead of a few days notice? They should have said "At the end of next month we are going to remove Coalescent Wards from the Trade bar store." This would have given everyone plenty of time to buy wards and not literally double the value of all higher end enchants almost over night. Transcendent Weapon and armor enchants were down to around 3-4 mil a pop on the Auction house, they are now back up to 6-7 million. I noticed Rank 11s also doubled, haven't bothered looking at 12s as I couldn't afford them before, never will now.
What type of economy fix is that ???????????
Not to mention the fact that i was paying for a service (VIP) for the sole reason that i could get trade bars from chests, and that service is now useless to me, everything else included with VIP is fluff and convenience. (I sure as hell have never pulled a multi million dollar drop from a lock box.) Cryptic got caught with their hand in the cookie jar on the Xbox trade bar deal and have now decided to say "oh there is no cookie jar for anyone, so its ok!".
No offense, but you just claimed that you get "usually a coal ward once a week" from coffers.
But you aren't "farming alts"?
Okay.
Let's meet halfway on this: you know what you have to do to get a coal ward a week from coffers. We know too. No one is judging here. Out of the 3 ways I outlined earlier to get past the level 70 bottleneck, you chose to do the first one. It's perfectly within the rules, and nobody thinks you're immoral or whatever. The only thing I would have a problem with is if you had picked #3 (the goldspammers from Korea) to get ahead.
The point made earlier about alt farming was that if everybody did it, then the devs would probably have to nerf Invocation. I would assume that point is right, given what the devs have done to leadership and now the tarm store.
So, it's not a "sustainable model" for character growth. Big deal. It's not like everyone has the patience that you do, and is willing to login 30 (or however many it is) characters a day. I don't see the problem here. Keep alt farming.
Farming? Nope, I wouldn't say so. What I do on days I have time to play is first invoke and do professions once on each character and by the time I get done, I invoke again on each as the 15 minutes have passed. The last character I invoke on is the character I chose to play that day or week, which changes each day or week as I cycle my focus between my characters. I then play that character until it's invoke time is available, then cycle invokes when it is convenient and then continuing to play on that character again. I keep doing this through out my game-time for that day and usually eventually end up fully invoking on all my characters by the time I quit playing for the day. If that is farming, then yeah I guess so. However, to me that is playing the game and all of my characters.
As for getting coals wards once a week... you misunderstand, I average at least one a week. I don't always play each day but if you add the days I do play, it would work out to averaging one a week that I play. Sometimes only play one day a week, so it could take me a week or two to gain that one coal ward.
You also have to understand that I used to have a lot of time to play my many characters, often playing a chosen character for 10+ hours, off and on, per day, every day for the first couple years of the game. Now, I don't have so much time, not nearly. Lately, I've mostly only been invoking once on my first character and doing his professions with about once a week having time to do a full invoke cycle while playing a chosen character.
As for a bottleneck, I haven't experienced such. The only slow-down I feel is between 68 to 70. Leveling to 68 is crazy fast. If you're getting a bottleneck earlier than that, you're probably skipping content or missing things you could do to get experience.
Quote from PC Games.com about Neverwinter's current state:
"Word of warning, though: Unless you approach the game casually, you'll probably have to spend money. It's become increasingly difficult to play for free, though certainly not impossible. "
That's the reality, as described by outside observers. I've noticed an uptick in BS posts from trolls/spin drs trying to convince gamers all is well - the future is bright - the game is getting better. And maybe it will. But only if you are willing to spend more $$$.
*The "bottleneck" I was referring to was the item level bottleneck. Massive amounts of refining points for artifacts and coal wards for various enchants are needed to get through. The entire progression of the post 70 game here is based on boons and refining, not XP as much.
And as for your farming... yes, if you are getting so many coffers that you routinely see coal wards, then you are farming like a maniac. Most ppl never see more than 1 or 2 EVER. But labels like "farmer" don't really mean much. As I mentioned before, there is no shame or stigma for alt farming. A LOT of ppl do it. And probably more have started since last Monday. Because of the changes to the tarmalune bar store.
It is simply a side-effect of what the last patch has wrought... people are NOT going to be lining up around the block to pay 10 bucks per coal ward. They just aren't. Think about how many coals you've gotten from your coffers over the years. Multiply that number by ten dollars. Would you have spent that money?
Comments
1. Notice how anything that hurts the players and their ability to progress happens within hours or a few days at most - but things that improve the experience and QOL take weeks or months to implement. Hmmm..customer respect....
2. Why were Coal Wards in the T-Store made unbound? No reason to, during the price drop they should have stayed account bound. The logical choice would have been to just change the price and observe the impact on the economy. But no, as usual (in player benefit for a change) Cryptic do both and then claim it has upset the economy and go nuclear by removing them altogether. Are there no people with project management skills that could work through this??
Funny Ive played for a year, and I have bought many of the coffers, and I invoke everyday, max amount of times a day...on 6 Different toons...in that year Ive recieved ZERO Coal wards...on anything...
So sorry, Im gonna say your a might skewed in your perceptions...or do mods get bonuses on rng?
Point to add to your nr 1. As said before after day one in this topic, but even more noticeable now, over a week since... There seems to be a sudden lack of communication on the side of the officials on this (and I am not meaning the volunteer forum mods, but either Strum, Asterdahl, Panderus, Sean or ANY other) NADA.
I assumed the info would get passed down the line in any case, correct me if I'm wrong, but for over 8 days without at least some response to a total outrage (this topic is NOT looking like 31 pages of sweettalk to me) to me feels kinda strange feels like it was too big of an "oopsie" and you're at a loss for words, or simply not caring.
FateSpinners Guild Leader We are RECRUITING!!
If Cryptic/PWE were the only maker of MMORPG's the threat of a perma-ban from their games would carry more weight. As there are a plethora of gaming companies wanting my money, it is utterly meaningless to those who take the time to think about idleness of the threat.
Have not spent a penny on this game since the LS nerf, so have no reason to request a refund or charge-back personally. Must say that the changes since that time, and how pissed off they have made much of the player-base, makes me think of the following quote:
"If you tremble indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine." Che Guevara
http://neverwinter.gamepedia.com/Shadow_Demon
might be still worth going after.
Only 80 more lockboxes to open at my current rate of ~8 Trade Bars per lockbox. But with my luck, they have either turned it bound to account, or nerfed the companion into oblivion, by the time i have reached the 800 TBs.
Also, I keep forgetting that "Wondrous" was dropped from the coffer's name when they changed and added two more. To be clear, it is the "Coffer of Celestial Enchantments" that I focus on claiming and opening, rather that the latter two.
[ Support Center • Rules & Policies and Guidelines • ARC ToS • Guild Recruitment Guidelines | FR DM Since 1993 ]
zhentarim-warlock-companion
Pure -> Transcendent Plague Fire weapon enchantment giving 80damge/20 seconds for 500k+ AD is a joke.
plague-fire-weapon-enchant-r11-vs-r12
you getting nearly every week?
geez, seem i am Unlucky irish?
house always win, and you work for house and you get bonus rng. that what i look at.
Some of the Players I know went straight to Microsoft on this....
Sad but most efficient way to get wards.
*Sad that this is the most efficient way to get wards*
zhentarim-warlock-companion
Pure -> Transcendent Plague Fire weapon enchantment giving 80damge/20 seconds for 500k+ AD is a joke.
plague-fire-weapon-enchant-r11-vs-r12
+ Xbox players got something as compensation for every 200 Trade Bars.
+ A "Free Gift" pack.
+ And another "Free Gift" pack now.
Hmmm...
In short: RNGsus giveth and RNGsus taketh away.
If you read closely, zebular's (and related) posts give a method of acquiring coalescent wards if that is something you're concerned about...and in a "teach a man to fish" kind of way, rather than the Zen store's "buy a fish" route. I think of it as "an alternative VIP", that will become very interesting for the next 50%off black-friday sale assuming mod9 is not overly grindy.
Considering the recent ban waves, I would not take it as any sound advice. As a mod, Zeb is probably the ONLY army holder that is safe.
That said, there is a very real chance that if we all build prayer armies, that coalescent wards will be removed from the boxes, or that invocation becomes 'per account'. I.e., as with all things in this game, they can change the rules without notice, so caveat emptor.
The point of VIP was so that you could pay a small steady payment of cash and skip mindless repetitive unfun HAMSTER like login abuse. You had these tarm bars from your daily key that you could use to buy coal wards and other nifty stuff. But then somebody in management apparently had a "moment", and now VIP is castrated.
The only 3 recourses left for reasonable advancement are Zebular-style farming alts, paying WAAAAY too much in the Zen store, or 3rd party spammers. Personally, I would very strongly suggest neither of the 3.
Look... this game is fun to level to 60 right now. It's kinda a little less fun to get to 70. But after 70, it's time to do something else. There's no endgame here. Once you hit 70 you've won. Play something else. If you can just say these things to yourself you'll realize that you don't need to worry about coal wards or refinement or any of that endgame HAMSTER. Just play it until it stops being fun and then quit.
Granted, they backed off and unbanned people after admitting their detection system was overzealous. They have, however, gone so far as to call leadership armies as exploitive in their own blogs. Something that was up to that point, considered perfectly acceptable and endorsed by the rule brokers. So, i'd personally not bet my account on what they might decide is the next fix for the economy.
So any advice, regardless of its source, that tells you to game the system by sheer weight of numbers. Should be vehemently called out as bad advice.
[ Support Center • Rules & Policies and Guidelines • ARC ToS • Guild Recruitment Guidelines | FR DM Since 1993 ]
But you aren't "farming alts"?
Okay.
Let's meet halfway on this: you know what you have to do to get a coal ward a week from coffers. We know too. No one is judging here. Out of the 3 ways I outlined earlier to get past the level 70 bottleneck, you chose to do the first one. It's perfectly within the rules, and nobody thinks you're immoral or whatever. The only thing I would have a problem with is if you had picked #3 (the goldspammers from Korea) to get ahead.
The point made earlier about alt farming was that if everybody did it, then the devs would probably have to nerf Invocation. I would assume that point is right, given what the devs have done to leadership and now the tarm store.
So, it's not a "sustainable model" for character growth. Big deal. It's not like everyone has the patience that you do, and is willing to login 30 (or however many it is) characters a day. I don't see the problem here. Keep alt farming.
You know what Cryptic should have done instead of a few days notice? They should have said "At the end of next month we are going to remove Coalescent Wards from the Trade bar store." This would have given everyone plenty of time to buy wards and not literally double the value of all higher end enchants almost over night. Transcendent Weapon and armor enchants were down to around 3-4 mil a pop on the Auction house, they are now back up to 6-7 million. I noticed Rank 11s also doubled, haven't bothered looking at 12s as I couldn't afford them before, never will now.
What type of economy fix is that ???????????
Not to mention the fact that i was paying for a service (VIP) for the sole reason that i could get trade bars from chests, and that service is now useless to me, everything else included with VIP is fluff and convenience. (I sure as hell have never pulled a multi million dollar drop from a lock box.) Cryptic got caught with their hand in the cookie jar on the Xbox trade bar deal and have now decided to say "oh there is no cookie jar for anyone, so its ok!".
http://massivelyop.com/2016/02/10/neverwinter-trade-bar-store-bait-and-switch-causes-community-stir/
As for getting coals wards once a week... you misunderstand, I average at least one a week. I don't always play each day but if you add the days I do play, it would work out to averaging one a week that I play. Sometimes only play one day a week, so it could take me a week or two to gain that one coal ward.
You also have to understand that I used to have a lot of time to play my many characters, often playing a chosen character for 10+ hours, off and on, per day, every day for the first couple years of the game. Now, I don't have so much time, not nearly. Lately, I've mostly only been invoking once on my first character and doing his professions with about once a week having time to do a full invoke cycle while playing a chosen character.
As for a bottleneck, I haven't experienced such. The only slow-down I feel is between 68 to 70. Leveling to 68 is crazy fast. If you're getting a bottleneck earlier than that, you're probably skipping content or missing things you could do to get experience.
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"Word of warning, though: Unless you approach the game casually, you'll probably have to spend money. It's become increasingly difficult to play for free, though certainly not impossible. "
That's the reality, as described by outside observers. I've noticed an uptick in BS posts from trolls/spin drs trying to convince gamers all is well - the future is bright - the game is getting better. And maybe it will. But only if you are willing to spend more $$$.
And as for your farming... yes, if you are getting so many coffers that you routinely see coal wards, then you are farming like a maniac. Most ppl never see more than 1 or 2 EVER. But labels like "farmer" don't really mean much. As I mentioned before, there is no shame or stigma for alt farming. A LOT of ppl do it. And probably more have started since last Monday. Because of the changes to the tarmalune bar store.
It is simply a side-effect of what the last patch has wrought... people are NOT going to be lining up around the block to pay 10 bucks per coal ward. They just aren't. Think about how many coals you've gotten from your coffers over the years. Multiply that number by ten dollars. Would you have spent that money?
This is all I'm saying.