Hi all new player here and actually enjoying this mmorpg.

xoriandruid · April 2016

Im actually a fairly old mmorpg vet ive been playing since everquest 1 and of course been taking a very long break since city of heroes went under, I did play eq2 for a little while but it got fairly meh for me. Anyways as much as I want one of the older style mmorpgs there simply none that exist right now so I figured why not look for something with a better combat system and decent questing for a few months and I finally decided to give this a try.

I was always iffy considering all the feedback but man this game is fun for a western fantasy mmorpg, now here is the thing with me, I dont mind spending money like a vip or something each month and maybe some extra for something cosmetic here and there, will I be able I do fine for pve? Will people have a clear advantage in groups with me?

I already know about pvp but I can skip it to be honest, with all the bots in mmorpgs these days I have zero interest in pvp.

Please be honest with me because if I do have to spend allot of money I will quit anyways.

Thank you.

lewstelamon01 · April 2016

You should do just fine in PVE without spending a massive amount of money. I'd find a guild or a channel to run with, though, as if you depend on LFG you're asking to get turned down for invites to groups. Many of the "cool kids" (read: elitists) are looking for 3k+ item levels, and that takes a serious investment of time, money, AD, or all of the above.

However, the highest required item level to run anything in this game is 2.5k, which is relatively easy to achieve with little else than time and a modest investment of AD. To that end, make good use of every source of AD available. It's also possible to use AD to convert to ZEN so that you can buy shop items without spending real money.

taitinhakkaaja · April 2016

Welcome to this wonderful game and forum

VIP pays your investment back, cause you get lockbox key every day and by selling lockbox content you make your AD back. At higher ranks you also get some very helpful stuff, like signpost etc.
So overall you could do just fine without vip, but it improves quality of gaming so much that after you get used to vip, you just don't want to live without it.

xoriandruid · April 2016

Well at the moment I am having a hard time soloing dungeons and im level 14 but im guessing my companian will help, I love to group however maybe I can find a guild thats mostly free to play or something, how long does one usually go before getting vip? Im still not sure if I want it yet.

Also one key a day sounds a bit skimpy for vip and how many lockboxes the game is throwing at me.

lewstelamon01 · April 2016

What class you using? You should be able to get a companion soonish, at which point I would strongly suggest a healer.

VIP benefits are also based on your VIP rank. One month of VIP benefits is 1k ZEN and increases your VIP rank by 1. However, each subsequent purchase of VIP time increases your rank permanently based on the amount of time purchased (1 month = 1 VIP rank). The benefits are based on your rank.

It's 1 enchanted key and 1 epic dungeon key at rank 1, with up to 3 epic dungeon keys at higher ranks. However, yeah, it's always one enchanted key max. Yes, you get a LOT of lockboxes. However, for that....there's always the ZEN exchange (popularly abbreviated as the ZAX)

xoriandruid · April 2016

lewstelamon01 said:
What class you using? You should be able to get a companion soonish, at which point I would strongly suggest a healer.

VIP benefits are also based on your VIP rank. One month of VIP benefits is 1k ZEN and increases your VIP rank by 1. However, each subsequent purchase of VIP time increases your rank permanently based on the amount of time purchased (1 month = 1 VIP rank). The benefits are based on your rank.

It's 1 enchanted key and 1 epic dungeon key at rank 1, with up to 3 epic dungeon keys at higher ranks. However, yeah, it's always one enchanted key max. Yes, you get a LOT of lockboxes. However, for that....there's always the ZEN exchange (popularly abbreviated as the ZAX)

So I can exchange lockboxes for zen? Sorry im confused there. And if I buy a year of vip I get more ranks for example?

icyclass · April 2016

You can buy more keys with zen. Or just ignore the extra lock boxes.

You get a rank of VIP for each month you buy, but you get it immediately. So if you buy 12 months at once you immediately go to rank 12 and stay there for a year. If you buy a month at a time you'll be rank 1 for the first month, rank 2 for the second month, and so on. If you're unsure have a look at what each level gets you. You may decide that you really want the rank 4 benefits, for example, but can hold off on going full rank 12 until you have some more time in on the game.

xoriandruid · April 2016

icyclass said:
You can buy more keys with zen. Or just ignore the extra lock boxes.

You get a rank of VIP for each month you buy, but you get it immediately. So if you buy 12 months at once you immediately go to rank 12 and stay there for a year. If you buy a month at a time you'll be rank 1 for the first month, rank 2 for the second month, and so on. If you're unsure have a look at what each level gets you. You may decide that you really want the rank 4 benefits, for example, but can hold off on going full rank 12 until you have some more time in on the game.

Thanks, im not sure ill stick around people are saying in game you pretty much need to spend more then just the vip to be awesome while you can play the pve content you wont be awesome essentially.

oliboyph · April 2016

xoriandruid said:
Im actually a fairly old mmorpg vet ive been playing since everquest 1 and of course been taking a very long break since city of heroes went under, I did play eq2 for a little while but it got fairly meh for me. Anyways as much as I want one of the older style mmorpgs there simply none that exist right now so I figured why not look for something with a better combat system and decent questing for a few months and I finally decided to give this a try.

I was always iffy considering all the feedback but man this game is fun for a western fantasy mmorpg, now here is the thing with me, I dont mind spending money like a vip or something each month and maybe some extra for something cosmetic here and there, will I be able I do fine for pve? Will people have a clear advantage in groups with me?

I already know about pvp but I can skip it to be honest, with all the bots in mmorpgs these days I have zero interest in pvp.

Please be honest with me because if I do have to spend allot of money I will quit anyways.

Thank you.

You don't have to spend a lot of money, everything in the game can be obtained by grinding. The only thing real money gets you is shortcuts. I've probably only spent a total of 50 dollars in the game and I'm doing pretty well (IMO anyway). It is very hard to understand anything since you are still starting out. I suggest just enjoying your way to lvl 70 and pay close attention to the tutorials.

xoriandruid · April 2016

magenubbie said:

xoriandruid said:
people are saying in game you pretty much need to spend more then just the vip to be awesome while you can play the pve content you wont be awesome essentially.
Nonsense. Well, it depends on how you define awesome of course. But let me put it this way: I've got 6 characters slightly above 2.5k IL and I did that without having to spend a dime. All of them are able to carry their weight properly in any PvE content currently in the game. Granted, I did buy an account-wide mount pretty early in the game, but that's luxury and by no means required. The rest -extra bags and such- I did with VIP and the ZAx. As long as you're not into PvP, there's very little money required. You can buy your way into overgearing the content sure, but whoever does that only makes things boring for themselves. If that's how they define awesomeness, I do not recommend it. And once you have 1 character properly geared, it can provide you with the gear and AD for any alts you may decide to make later on. It takes some work sure, but there's no money required.

Awesomeness is not defined by your Item Level. That's just a requirement to enter certain content. Awesomeness is defined by how well you master your character and how well you take advantage of class synergies.
Ignore the elitists. They are the more useless ones because they won't even give you the chance to learn your class. Buying your way into a high enough IL is enough for them. Bah xD
Browse through the guild recruitment section here on the forums. There are plenty of guilds that don't require anything from you but decent and social behavior.

Thanks for clearing this up for me.

mynaam · April 2016

xoriandruid said:

icyclass said:
You can buy more keys with zen. Or just ignore the extra lock boxes.

You get a rank of VIP for each month you buy, but you get it immediately. So if you buy 12 months at once you immediately go to rank 12 and stay there for a year. If you buy a month at a time you'll be rank 1 for the first month, rank 2 for the second month, and so on. If you're unsure have a look at what each level gets you. You may decide that you really want the rank 4 benefits, for example, but can hold off on going full rank 12 until you have some more time in on the game.
Thanks, im not sure ill stick around people are saying in game you pretty much need to spend more then just the vip to be awesome while you can play the pve content you wont be awesome essentially.

I'm running multiple 3K item level characters without spending much real money. So in my opinion you can achieve anything in this game without spending any money. It will just take longer.

I buy my VIP from AD I farm in game and then convert to zen using ZAX.

I know someone else already recommended it. It is important to find a guild that work for you. They will help you with the finer details of the game and they won't kick you from dungeons even if you have a low IL. I am in a small guild, but for a new player I would recommend a bigger guild like Civil Anarchy. They are really cool.

thefabricant · April 2016

magenubbie said:

xoriandruid said:
people are saying in game you pretty much need to spend more then just the vip to be awesome while you can play the pve content you wont be awesome essentially.
Nonsense. Well, it depends on how you define awesome of course. But let me put it this way: I've got 6 characters slightly above 2.5k IL and I did that without having to spend a dime. All of them are able to carry their weight properly in any PvE content currently in the game. Granted, I did buy an account-wide mount pretty early in the game, but that's luxury and by no means required. The rest -extra bags and such- I did with VIP and the ZAx. As long as you're not into PvP, there's very little money required. You can buy your way into overgearing the content sure, but whoever does that only makes things boring for themselves. If that's how they define awesomeness, I do not recommend it. And once you have 1 character properly geared, it can provide you with the gear and AD for any alts you may decide to make later on. It takes some work sure, but there's no money required.

Awesomeness is not defined by your Item Level. That's just a requirement to enter certain content. Awesomeness is defined by how well you master your character and how well you take advantage of class synergies.
Ignore the elitists. They are the more useless ones because they won't even give you the chance to learn your class. Buying your way into a high enough IL is enough for them. Bah xD
Browse through the guild recruitment section here on the forums. There are plenty of guilds that don't require anything from you but decent and social behavior.

Agreed 100% with @magenubbie, what I would like to add to this is that if you want to get a single character to BiS at the expense of others, it is perfectly viable to do that for free as well, it just takes time.

xoriandruid · April 2016

theslotharmy#3268 said:
This game is free to play, pay alot for extreme time saving.
I wasted 300K AD yesterday trying to get a 1% refine chance.

Yup, they want you to spend time trying to get 1% refine chances and you have to do that
about 6 times for a good enchantment.

Also, it is possible to get good mounts if you get 36k astral diamonds each day for 31 days.

Otherwise the game is sort of fun.
It sucks 99% of the time but you play for the 1%.
The 1% is very fun once you find it.

Well as I said im willing to go vip if I continue enjoying this mmorpg.

wildfirede · April 2016

I love D&D and liked the game from the start but imo wait till you hit an itemlevel of 2.2-2.5 and have seen the same reused instances again and again and have to spend 10$-20$-40$-80$ to upgrade each level of your enchant then decide.

plasticbat · April 2016

It depends on what your goal is and how soon you want to reach the goal. I am a slow person. I don't have to reach my goal ASAP like many people unless there is an time limit (e.g. such and such will not be available after date xyz). I do spend a lot of time in the game.

xoriandruid · April 2016

wildfirede said:
I love D&D and liked the game from the start but imo wait till you hit an itemlevel of 2.2-2.5 and have seen the same reused instances again and again and have to spend 10$-20$-40$-80$ to upgrade each level of your enchant then decide.

What do you mean?

kievitz · April 2016

xoriandruid said:

wildfirede said:
I love D&D and liked the game from the start but imo wait till you hit an itemlevel of 2.2-2.5 and have seen the same reused instances again and again and have to spend 10$-20$-40$-80$ to upgrade each level of your enchant then decide.
What do you mean?

He means if you want to gear up higher than 2,5k and aim for bis and trans enchs, you gonna have to pay up, unless you want to grind your a$$ off.

But at a point were you hit 2.5k on one toon its good to pick up another and level it up.

And you can use your 2.5k toon to get your alt/s their 70lvl stuff easier, so you save them from the dungeon grind.

Just try to play casual and stress free.

Happy hunting.

EDIT: get vip

xoriandruid · April 2016

kievitz said:

xoriandruid said:

wildfirede said:
I love D&D and liked the game from the start but imo wait till you hit an itemlevel of 2.2-2.5 and have seen the same reused instances again and again and have to spend 10$-20$-40$-80$ to upgrade each level of your enchant then decide.
What do you mean?
He means if you want to gear up higher than 2,5k and aim for bis and trans enchs, you gonna have to pay up, unless you want to grind your a$$ off.

But at a point were you hit 2.5k on one toon its good to pick up another and level it up.

And you can use your 2.5k toon to get your alt/s their 70lvl stuff easier, so you save them from the dungeon grind.

Just try to play casual and stress free.

Happy hunting.

EDIT: get vip

Well that sounds pointless to get vip if I have to spend more money in the first place.

yokki1 · April 2016

theslotharmy#3268 said:
VIP gives you keys, which you can use to open boxes.
The contents of the boxes can be sold on the trade house for Astral Diamonds.
By opening one box a day, the total amount of Astral Diamonds that can be made can be converted to ZEN.
The amount of ZEN you get is usually more than enough to pay for another month of VIP for free.
So basically, VIP pays for it's self and you have chances of getting super rare items so why not buy it?

Keep doing this and you'll never have to spend money. Plus, learn to play the trade house.
I won't say how since everybody would know then. . .

you mean by buying zen store items and reselling them on ah for profit? or buying cheap items that are needed a bit before 2x events and sell them then basically making profit from nothing?

ironzerg79 · April 2016

magenubbie said:

Nonsense. Well, it depends on how you define awesome of course. But let me put it this way: I've got 6 characters slightly above 2.5k IL and I did that without having to spend a dime. All of them are able to carry their weight properly in any PvE content currently in the game. Granted, I did buy an account-wide mount pretty early in the game, but that's luxury and by no means required. The rest -extra bags and such- I did with VIP and the ZAx. As long as you're not into PvP, there's very little money required. You can buy your way into overgearing the content sure, but whoever does that only makes things boring for themselves. If that's how they define awesomeness, I do not recommend it. And once you have 1 character properly geared, it can provide you with the gear and AD for any alts you may decide to make later on. It takes some work sure, but there's no money required.

Awesomeness is not defined by your Item Level. That's just a requirement to enter certain content. Awesomeness is defined by how well you master your character and how well you take advantage of class synergies.
Ignore the elitists. They are the more useless ones because they won't even give you the chance to learn your class. Buying your way into a high enough IL is enough for them. Bah xD
Browse through the guild recruitment section here on the forums. There are plenty of guilds that don't require anything from you but decent and social behavior.

thefabricant said:
Agreed 100% with @magenubbie, what I would like to add to this is that if you want to get a single character to BiS at the expense of others, it is perfectly viable to do that for free as well, it just takes time.

These two quotes pretty much sum up the game. You can do all the PvE content you want without spending a dime. No content is gated behind a paywall, and you'll never run into a spot where the game says "Insert Credit Card to Continue". I agree 100% with both @magenubbie and @thefabricant here.

If you're playing regularly, you can definitely get a few toons leveled and geared to the point where they can contribute to any group in any PvE content. If you focus a single character (like I do), it's possible to achieve BiS or near BiS and keep up fairly well as they add new gear.

But that being said, I do spend money on Neverwinter, just like spend money on any type of gaming. Gaming is a passion of mine, and I love to indulge that passion. I figure most sub games I'll spend $10-15/month just to play, and what I budget for myself monthly for games and entertainment is much bigger than that. So if I see something in the Zen store I want, I'll buy it. If there's something really shiny in the game that I need to pay with AD, I'll transfer Zen to AD and get it. But I've never felt like I MUST BUY something to keep playing. It's all for fun and because I enjoy it.

So with that, don't let people make you feel bad or feel like you're cheating because you spend money on this game. I know some people take a great deal of pride in doing it all for free - which is perfectly fine! But the opposite is also true, there's nothing wrong with indulging your passion by dropping a few bucks.

And in that regard, one of the best things about Neverwinter is you'll always have access to what you paid for. If you decide to take a break for a few weeks or months, then come back to check out new content, your account will be there. Your stuff will be there. You can pick up right where you left off. There's no payment need to get into your account, nor will you find that you're required to pony up big dollars for expansion content.

anoregon · April 2016

theslotharmy#3268 said:
VIP gives you keys, which you can use to open boxes.
The contents of the boxes can be sold on the trade house for Astral Diamonds.
By opening one box a day, the total amount of Astral Diamonds that can be made can be converted to ZEN.
The amount of ZEN you get is usually more than enough to pay for another month of VIP for free.

Just curious to get input from other folks, how common is the above scenario? Is it really as easy as use your daily key, put everything on the AH at the current going rate, and make enough AD to get 1000+ zen a month?

plasticbat · April 2016

anoregon said:

theslotharmy#3268 said:
VIP gives you keys, which you can use to open boxes.
The contents of the boxes can be sold on the trade house for Astral Diamonds.
By opening one box a day, the total amount of Astral Diamonds that can be made can be converted to ZEN.
The amount of ZEN you get is usually more than enough to pay for another month of VIP for free.
Just curious to get input from other folks, how common is the above scenario? Is it really as easy as use your daily key, put everything on the AH at the current going rate, and make enough AD to get 1000+ zen a month?

I would say it is common to get enough AD. I am not sure if many people actually doing that though because people like me would not let go of something really good (that potentially could be sold for million or potentially useful).

However, if you collect enough AD to buy (say) 6 months VIP, the VIP cost is not 1000 Zen per month.
I personally have not paid any real money to get VIP.

omegaosprey · April 2016

I just came back to this game about three weeks ago after a long break and I also have the same gaming pedigree you have so here is my take on it fwiw. The VIP is generally speaking worth it if you like playing the game. Not for the AD resales value (unless you are lucky) but just because it makes for a nice little bonus and opens up some other parts of the game you might not normally explore b/c they are behind an overt paywall (e.g. lockboxes).

You have to remember everything about this game is designed to get you to invested early so when you hit the grind wall you will keep chugging along whether you like it or not. Artifact upgrades exemplify this. Green upgrade is super easy. Blue is also not to bad (sort of grindy but nothing worse than other games for what you get). But upgrading your purples is where you run into the cliff. The advice about stopping at 2.5k iLevel is pretty much spot on unless you have pretty extreme grind tolerance and/or an open wallet.

If you get to 70 and have a character you like and you have the financial means, I would recommend spending about $20-$30 on the Zen exchange for AD. This should give you enough AD to get rank 7 (or 8) enchants for your gear, get your artifacts up at least blue and maybe purple and will make working your way through the various repetitive campaign tasks much more enjoyable or at least tolerable.

There are multiple rough edges in the game. Lots of bugs for class abilities. And the nickel and dime stuff can be really grating. The one that drives me craziest is the 300 zen for a respec. If you like playing around with different combinations, be prepared to open your wallet.

Finally, I don't recall if you said what type of character you want to play but basically DPS > most other classes for most of the content. Playing a tank or a healer (I have a GF I main and a DC) can be rewarding personally if you like that sort of thing but most of the non-dungeon content is predicated on killing stuff quickly and moving on and even the dungeon content has that bias to some extent. All the DPS classes are tanky enough or have enough active mitigation and heals that being a tank or a healer isn't required in the open world content and is actually a liability for quickly completing it given equivalent iLevel.

shadowslave604 · April 2016

ok my 2 cents...

having played on and off from launch i NEVER spent money until last year to purchase a mount and buy vip level 1. i spent 50$ on a zen card.
there is something to be said for account wide purple 110 mount when you have 4 toons.

in my first month of selling items from the daily key i managed to make enough ad to buy 1 more month. this continued for awhile until i hit it big...i got 2 orange drops in 1 month.
1 i gave away to a fellow guildy.
1 i sold for ad...lots of ad.

i then got a 3 month vip and upgraded my toons to better gears.
also vip allowed me to exchange all my r5 to r7 chants and to get some nice stuff from tradebar store.
after getting all my lesser weapon and armor chants to greater for the cost of vip which i have only paid 10$ for...i would say it has been great for me so far...

but be warned i have not got any big drops since the first and only 2 i got.
mind you i have got tons of artifacts i have sold, artifact gears i have sold or traded or fed to my gear.

being an avid gamer i do buy zen about 20$ every now and then if i see something i want i have spent about 400 in a year on 4 toons including a new howler mount at 50% off...

do you have to spend money hell no..i didnt at first but then i did because i wanted too and i found a guild i like playing in. also i found people who have less than i do and i frequently give away tons of stuff in PE or to guildies or ppl in dungies i see that dont have stuff i also trade to other players for the things i need all due to free keys from vip. so for me and others like me vip is totally worth it.

am i BIS hell no and dont wanna be...my toons are all 2.4-2.7 and have mostly purple gear and class artifacts.
i will tell you this at 2.4-2.7 ilvl i can solo almost everything in this game. play smart read guides ask other player what build they use and join a guild. you will like it.

edit - stuff

lantern22 · April 2016

You can get by in this game without spending $$, yes there is grinding to be done but I think that's just part of these kind of games.

Don't listen to all the harbingers of doom on these forums.

Buy a purple account wide mount - is definitely worth the $30 or so.

xaansteel · April 2016

Day to day the lockbox key alone is probably worth twice the cost of level 1 VIP by the end of the month, then you do get the occasional massively valuable thing, and the trade bars are valuable. A dungeon key is worth 5k a day, that's on all of your characters mind you. The rest of it is nice and saves you some time. Well worth it

demonmonger · April 2016

You will do just fine without spending more than 50 bucks per year

Hi all new player here and actually enjoying this mmorpg.

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