Hello everyone!
As you can probably already guess by the title of this post, I went ahead and fact checked a lot of misinformation regarding the Redeemed Citadel in this post. By fact checking, I mean directly quoting things from Asterdahl - one of Cryptic's Devs, as well as our CM Julia (Nit0cris). Hopefully this will help put an end to the amount of misunderstandings going around the community regarding the Redeemed Citadel.
If you don't like reading, I also covered it all in a video that you can watch
here.
I posted it on Reddit as well (looks cleaner, I struggled to figure out the forums here, sorry lol) - so if you want, you can check it out
here.
What does the Reforger's Blessing Pack actually get you?The Reforger's Pack unlocks the rewards on the bottom row shown within the Campaign Preview window. It also grants eventual access to the new Aasimar Race.
Is the Reforger's Blessing Pack a buyout for the event?
To echo what a few posters have already indicated as their interpretation, there is no buyout in this content. Even if you purchase the reforger's blessings, you must play the content. The reforger's blessing affords you the ability to play at your own pace.
- Asterdahl (August 14th, 2020)
Source.
Does buying the Reforger's Blessing Pack allow players to farm at their own pace?
If you're not sure you'll be able to complete the goals in time: a reforger's blessing will be available in the zen market that allows the bearer to earn personal progress at their own pace, even after a milestone ends.
- Asterdahl (August 14th, 2020)
Source.
It should be noted that Asterdahl also said this though;
It will be possible to purchase all items in the various stores that will become available in the citadel with Zariel's favor, even if you started playing the game after Module 20 launches and the campaign has ended.
The only purchases that will no longer be available in the store will be packs like the daily refined astral diamond bundles.
- Asterdahl (August 18th, 2020)
Source.
Which means that the free rewards can be farmed over a personal period of time because the rewards will be available even after the event episode has ended. So this luxury isn't necessarily exclusive to those who bought the pack.
Can you only get the weapons if you buy the blessings pack?
You can get them free even without the pack, but not until after the campaign;
With the Redeemed Citadel we are not selling best in slot equipment in the zen market. We will not be selling categories of items traditionally associated with playing through content such as armor and weapons.
- Asterdahl (August 14th, 2020)
Source.
Will the leaderboard reset after each Milestone?
Each milestone will have its own independent leaderboard. The leaderboard concludes when the milestone is complete, i.e. when the server progress reaches 100%, the top 100 players will be locked in and rewarded.
When milestone II begins, an entirely fresh leaderboard will begin for that milestone.
- Asterdahl (August 19th, 2020)
Source.
Is the R9 Vorpal for the Top 100 Players going to be better than the normal Vorpal?
This enchant will function identically to vorpal in every way aside from visual effects. Another alternate version of the vorpal enchantment will also be added to the zen market after the milestone is completed. The two will be identical other than visual effects.
- Asterdahl (August 14th, 2020)
Source.
Will completing Milestone 1 trigger Milestone 2 right away?
The next milestone will not begin until the previous one is completed. Release dates for next milestones are simply the earliest the next milestone can start. Once the previous milestone is completed, the next one will begin if it's after the release date.
Currently, the plan is to release the episodes on the following dates. Please note these dates are all subject to change.
Episode 2: September 15
Episode 3: October 13
Episode 4: November 10
- Julia / Nit0cris (August 19th, 2020)
Source.
Comments
Does buying the Reforger's Blessing Pack allow players to farm at their own pace?
It should be noted that Asterdahl also said this though;
Which means that the free rewards can be farmed over a personal period of time because the rewards will be available even after the event episode has ended. So this luxury isn't necessarily exclusive to those who bought the pack.
Can you only get the weapons if you buy the blessings pack?
Will the leaderboard reset after each Milestone?
Is the R9 Vorpal for the Top 100 Players going to be better than the normal Vorpal?
Will completing Milestone 1 trigger Milestone 2 right away? For all of the Teal Deers: " Redeemed Citadel is not P2W because you can get half of the rewards without making a purchase."
The BiS stuff all requires a purchase. For my build, that means one of the rings, the pants and possibly one or two of the companion items.
if you haven't bought the pack the event really isn't worth doing at all. in the amount of time doing he's that have no other value on their own other than this event (they could have at least carried juma over) you could be doing dungeons or something that have at least some value on their own and make much more than the silly 100k pack or the worthless weapons.
The event IS pay to win because it's not worth doing unless you've bought it. There is no pay out for the grind that is even a tiny bit worth it.
and personally I am struck the wrong way behind making something people definitely want like a new race behind a very punishing grind AND Zen. it should be one or the other. I'd gladly give another 5k to skip grind.
this is definitely one definition of PTW imo.
I got about 9k in before I looked at the rewards for free on pc carefully and was like dayum what Am I doing? trying to get in the top 100 isn't even worth it. after 9k in my fingers were cramping and hurting. it's definitely NOT worth the effort if you're free.
if they need to go the way of battle pass. they need to lower the price and base it on xp instead of something punishing that just results in player burn out. that's my opinion. battlepass is never more than 10 bucks. and if they want to charge more for the race fine. sell it on zen store for 5k.
and what is really nuts about the way they've done this is that it's locked out significant amounts of the player base this way. 10 dollar battle pass that anyone can buy and 5k race that anyone can buy reaches x2 or more of the people of locking in people that have completed the recent campaign. makes little sense to me. the forums are full of free consultants on this stuff. seems a shame to turn away that free advice.
The bundle gives players early access to the event's items, AND full account access to the PREMIUM items.
Otherwise, you can get the non-premium items for free during the event if you can keep up with it, and get any of the items after the event using event or campaign currency when the event gains either permanence or becomes a repeating event, however development decides to announce it's implementation at a later date.
To me, it seems like an early access model experiment on how to release campaigns in the future to generate some cash, in lieu of pay to win or forced subscriptions.
The event is not mandatory, the bundle is not mandatory. All you gain is early access to some convenient shiny toys that probably are not BiS. I know I'm buying the bundle. I've got 5 characters with all campaigns complete except for the last one, and only an hour a day to play until i can free up more time next year.
It is unfortunate that the event was released with such poor documentation. There were a lot of players excited to buy the bundle who did not out of fear... caused by vague descriptions and missing information, who did not want to waste their money on something that might ultimately be useless to them.
or I can not buy a set, grind a lot and not get most of the rewards? it's just that I already have over 28k of currency and the store for milestone 1 is unavailable. will I be able to buy something in that store after 100% completion of the server?
"To reclaim this item, you must have completed and claimed this Forge's Blessing item from Milestone I".
I just don't understand the logic of this approach. I would like to hear the official version, because as a result, we do not have complete information about this event.
@nitocris83 I would be very grateful if you could clarify these questions.
The top layer rewards can be obtained without paying Zen but you need to get enough favor within the time limit.
The bottom layer rewards requires Zen purchase.
"To reclaim this item, you must have completed and claimed this Forge's Blessing item from Milestone I/II/III/IV"
completed -> do all the grinding.
claimed -> you need to buy Forge's Blessing from Zen store in order to claim anything from the bottom layer.
By the way, crown of candies looks cool. My character will be an hot head.
If that is the case then this is still a pay to win event due to the time constraints. If you wish to actually participate with out taking time off work and grinding for 8 hours a day or more you need to get the buyout simply to complete your personal milestone.
PC finished the overall progress fairly quickly for the first segment of the event. Like a week or less. That doesn't bode well for a casual player whom might get 2 or 3 hours of play time a day at most.
Thus rewards are gone even though they are "free" due to being grindable. But only if you devote all your time to do it so you fall within the time frame of the overall milestone progress.
If I am wrong with this view on how the even operates, please let me know. I'm trying to make sure I understand this as accurately as possible.
You have until Milestone 2 STARTS to complete your personal milestone rewards [1,2], Milestone 2 will start on Sept 15th [2] (or later if the server progress for some reason takes a vacation). If you have a reforger's blessing, you have all the time you want, but must complete milestone 1 before you go on to milestone 2 [3].
My Sources: 1, 5th paragraph https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/neverwinter/news/detail/11477213-the-redeemed-citadel!
2 https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter/#/discussion/1257475/redeemed-citadel-additional-information
And 3 the in-game campaign window tooltips for the 2nd milestone.
When milestone 1 is "completed", it is not ended. You can do your personal progress until milestone 1 is ended. It is ended when milestone 2 starts and that will be Sept 15.
hell yeah thats what i cal enjoyable gameplay for next 1/3 year ... sign me in
better lets rather praise our new awesome campaign before someone notice dislike and wipe whole topic again
imo the solution as it stands right now is to make it so all xp counts. so people can do what they do and move forward with it and open it up to everyone in the game. forcing people do endless grind bhes equals burn out on a high level. either that or make it so that the "weeklies" are repeatable. I'd much rather grind Elol or spellplague than bhes.
the best path forward is to increase the value of the hardmode mission bonus from 600 to 1800, and to announce that after the fourth stage has ended, that all items (including the premium) will be available via game vendor for fallen currency.
Since I did not do "Path of the Fallen" as fast as others, I still have those quests to do. Fulfilling both Fallen quests and favor quests in the same run, it is not that bad. That also allows me to skip upgrading Legend set and jump direct to the Blessed set from Alabaster set. For the minimum, IMO, this is much better than farming maps before (although I now have more than 100 maps in the inventory).
I am doing this in relax mode. Can I do that for 4 months? Not sure.
Now, the "free" reward tier is not worth much - the Blessed weapons are worthless if you have the Celestial or Lionheart set, and as for the AD rewards, you could earn more AD in the same time by not grinding the event.
No, the whole Redeemed Citadel is pretty much worthless except for the items in the "paid" tier - a copuple of rings, 3 companion gear pieces, good pants, legendary insignia, whirlwind mount and the Asimar race. To me, that stuff is worth the grind and 4000 Zen (5000 if you are unlucky) - and some of it is indeed BiS for me, even if it only gives a minuscule increment over existing gear.
However, I really only play a single character nowadays - and that's the issue with this event .... it is OK to spend an hour per day on it to get the rewards, but if you have multiple alts, it is, well...just not fun. That's the angle that might need some reconsidering ... but for people with just one character.....meh, no complaints from me.
In the old day, Neverwinter always required grinding. There was no buyout package at all.
e.g. The elemental weapon required one to grind 100 BHE when it came out and that could not be done alone (almost everyone wanted the fire one). You could not buy that in any mean (short of taking over somebody's account) until much later.