To the players telling the devs how to 'fix' M16: No.

arakk00 said:

You are precisely the same group of people that resulted in the dumpster fire that was Mod 6- the dev's first attempt to do something like this. What mod 6 needed was a no-holds-barred overhaul of a lot of core systems for long-term sustainability and continued scaling, which is what mod16 promises. The PRECISE tone I'm seeing about the incredible core design changes for the game is the reason we got the half-assed debacle that we've suffered the aftermath of forever and a half. You didn't want to give up lifesteal, you didn't want your precious enchants nerfed, you didn't want.. Anything. So we got an objectively worse form of lifesteal, a full health or dead combat style, impossible to balance disparities between classes and specs, and TEN whole mods built on that shaky foundation.

It's time to let change happen, and realize you are NOT game developers. Listening to your contradictory 'feedback'- mostly aimless complaining- has been tried, and proven to be totally awful for the game. Unless you've spent thousands of man-hours poring over balance curves, hundreds of high-end dungeon logs, the mindboggling history of bugs in Neverwinter, and the source Dungeons and Dragons content this game is meant to adhere to, your feedback is largely not valid- no matter how many people agree.

Just as a couple examples: Lifesteal is almost nonexistent in D&D, and for good reason. It's a toxic stat, and backlash against the idea of outright removing it is the only reason we got 'better Lifesteal (tm)' in Mod 6, with the obnoxious damage tilt to 'balance' it. In the source D&D material, specifically the Fifth Edition that all new modules are being released in, DPS classes- ESPECIALLY rogues- are by design vulnerable to sustained damage. They're dependent on positioning, unique defensive mechanics like Uncanny Dodge, and raw damage or control strength to spread their meager health pool further- because once their health drops, it's not likely they're getting it back in a hurry, much less constantly staying maxed out. In D&D, this creates room for high-tension, low-hitpoints situations that deepen immersion and reinforce the prominence of a healer- or lack thereof. Without lifesteal, Neverwinter finally has this design space open; so long as lifesteal exists in any viable form, a game can't really tap into that kind of adrenaline-pumping action for more than a split-second.

And now, recovery. The closest thing to Recovery in D&D is.. Literally nothing. Though cooldowns -are- much different, tabletop D&D provides you with a limited number of spells or class feature uses. Sometimes you get some back on a short rest (which you might get a few of between long rests), most often you get them back on a long rest (equivalent to a night's sleep). Spells (like cantrips) and basic attacks which are not limited to a set number of uses are your bread and butter- but these 'long cooldown' spell slots and features are, as they say, 'worth the wait'. In D&D, a high level spell slot can LITERALLY open a gateway to the Abyss, or Wish yourself into a dragon, or turn a city into a crater. While not viable from a balance perspective for a game like Neverwinter, removing Recovery as a stat allows the developers to more accurately get a handle on DPS cadence- and tune your encounters and dailies to not just be closer to each other in damage potential over various situations, but to give those 'feel like a literal god' moments that its tabletop inspiration can offer.

There is a reason like this for EVERY. SINGLE. MAJOR. CHANGE.

The devs didn't just throw their hands up and say 'Let's do everything and screw up all the players LOL!'. They finally decided to act like a team of professionals and make controversial changes to the foundations of almost every system in the game for long-term health and playability. Mod 16 may come out a dumpster fire like Mod 6. Hell, I'll be surprised if it doesn't have ANY big problems, with this many big changes. But in the end, it's a move in the opposite direction from Elemental Evil. It's crushing complex, hard to balance and use systems down into streamlined, intuitive ones that can be tweaked far more easily. It's reversing the damage/hp bloat of monsters and players (to a degree, at least). It's removing toxic systems that are antithetical to the fun gameplay not just we, but thousands of potential new and returning players want from the game.

For all intents and purposes, I expect Mod 16 to be the best one we'll ever have- if this rolls out properly, we'll have what Neverwinter always should have been. So don't whine about your enchants, or complain about losing lifesteal- or really, say much of anything negative. Let the developers do their job, and forget everything you would expect from a previous mod- this one is shaping up to be really different.