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Question regarding lockboxes
askopdkapok
Member Posts: 648 Arc User
I'm back trying this game again after leaving shortly after release. I really love the gameplay, classes, and etc... it's the nickel and dime, leave a bad taste in your mouth manner in which some things in this game are done. I'm hoping to look past that this time around out of my sheer love for AD&D and the Forgotten Realms setting.
I'm allocating myself $20 a month for zen, which would mainly be used for lockbox keys. (which is $5 more than total uninhibited access to other MMO's) I've already spent $100 on zen since coming back for bags, a companion and some other 1-time purchase type things. Going forward though I wanna treat this like any other MMO and limit what I spend.
I will be doing mainly end-game raiding and open world stuff, very little PVP.. at least not planning on it. (actually not sure, havent even tried PVP in this game but not typically big into PVP in other games)
My question is outside of mounts, companions, cosmetics, etc... what stuff is only available in lock boxes that I would need to be competitive in end-game raiding? I'm just curious if limiting myself to opening 20 lock boxes a month is going to impact my ability to get my gearscore high enough to find a raiding slot.
It's really hard to figure out what can only be gleaned thru zen, or lock boxes, etc...
Thx for any info.
I'm allocating myself $20 a month for zen, which would mainly be used for lockbox keys. (which is $5 more than total uninhibited access to other MMO's) I've already spent $100 on zen since coming back for bags, a companion and some other 1-time purchase type things. Going forward though I wanna treat this like any other MMO and limit what I spend.
I will be doing mainly end-game raiding and open world stuff, very little PVP.. at least not planning on it. (actually not sure, havent even tried PVP in this game but not typically big into PVP in other games)
My question is outside of mounts, companions, cosmetics, etc... what stuff is only available in lock boxes that I would need to be competitive in end-game raiding? I'm just curious if limiting myself to opening 20 lock boxes a month is going to impact my ability to get my gearscore high enough to find a raiding slot.
It's really hard to figure out what can only be gleaned thru zen, or lock boxes, etc...
Thx for any info.
Post edited by askopdkapok on
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You will want a epic mount (purchased with zen so all characters on your account get it), and you will want an augment companion on your character. You will probably also want to focus on jewelcrafting for awhile since that gives you BiS jewellery items. After all that you can put your money into the NW lottery (lockboxes).
Keep in mind Mod 6 is coming in the next several months with a level cap increase which is going to upset many things.
Already have a level 3 spider mount from the $150 pack I bought at release so I'm set with a mount.. and honestly I don't even use my mount much since I'm that guy that explores ever pixel and loots every possible thing.
Cool thx for the info. I just wasn't sure what all was gleaned from only lock boxes.
As of right this minute the only Lockbox items that would affect your End Game would be Artifacts and you would do better to just buy them on the A.H.
Unless you are one of the Whales that deal in massive quantities of Zen and AD and can litorally open hundreds, even THOUSANDS of Boxes at once then don't look to get any one particular item or look to turn any kind of profit from them.
'Wen considered the nature of time and understood that the universe is, instant by instant, recreated anew. Therefore, he understood, there is in truth no past, only a memory of the past. Blink your eyes, and the world you see next did not exist when you closed them. Therefore, he said, the only appropriate state of the mind is surprise. The only appropriate state of the heart is joy. The sky you see now, you have never seen before. The perfect moment is now. Be glad of it.' Terry Pratchet The Thief Of Time
Uhhhrrrr... nothing? As it should be.
Neverwinter Census 2017
All posts pending disapproval by Cecilia
Actually, if you win the lottery twice in a row, you can get blue artifacts, but that's a very long shot.
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This.
I'm terrible with Neverwinter spending though. Sometimes I spend $100 + in a fortnight because I get this urge to buy shiny things and take the risk. Sometimes I spend a more respectable 10-20. I've opened about 400-500 lockboxes give or take, and I've gotten 3 artifact belts, 2 artifact cloaks, laughing skull, Rage drake, about 7 lesser plaguefire, and numerous epic crafting items / companion related things. No Legendaries as of yet, but my friend Got a Tensers disc once, Although he sold it when their price was lower than it is now
A lot of the boxes like "Draconic enchantment strongbox" and "artifact provisions pack" I used to just sell on AH though for the guaranteed return.
Drunken Goose of MidNight Express. - 3.3k Paladin , 3.6k GWF , 3.1k GF,
On the pro side: The Tarmalune bars will buy you Coal Wards, so if youre into upgranding Weapon/Armor enchants or want to get you artifact(-gear) to orange, they can be an option. When you figure in what AD you get for the Lockbox stuff you sell on the AH, the Coal Ward costs about 120-180% of what you'd pay with direct buying, but you might have gotten some nice Profession Asset or Enchant to keep for yoursellf. And when you're lucky, the revenue can pay for another 30 or more keys :^)
But basically, yeah, it's gambling, and the summed revenues are about 50-70% of your input, in my experience...
or as someone else mentioned save the keys for the new lockboxes and hope you strike rich. One starts at each new mod and one at the halfway point roughly a month-two months after mod release.
If nothing tickles your fancy in those lockboxes keep saving them keys, or just save your zen until something you like in the store is there reason? I've bought about 200 keys got nothing worth a key 90% of the time by AH / zax exchange values. Could probably buy a couple companions from the scales though, if i cared enough to do so, even then seems like a waste as they are worth next to nothing.
Another day i got Brilliant refin stone + gmop when i opened one, 1,5kk reward for 55k i expended.
Use those 20$ you have in ZEN monthly to improve your chars. Get them better enchants, better gear, those armor kits, nice companions for active bonus.
When your done -> lockboxes.
It is mostly a useless gamble.
I've never gotten anything really spectacular out of the boxes, but I generally break even when it comes to value.
One of the advantages to lockboxes is that sometimes you can also get campaign stuff out of them, which means skipping another day of grinding dailies - which is a key well spent IMO, since dailies quickly go from being fun to feeling like work. (I'm looking at you especially, Sharandar!)
If you like the element of surprise, go for it. But don't go in with the expectation of getting rich from opening boxes, or you'll likely wind up sorely disappointed. (Unless you're one of those people that has Tymora on their side all the **** time. In which case I officially hate you. :mad: ))
Lockboxes - Their purpose, their risk-reward and my experience on droprates
Since Neverwinter Online is a free-to-play game, there has to be money made on a consistant basis elsewhere.
Now don't be foolish and say: "*** them, they only want to make money!"
*We get new content every couple months while other MMOs run for years without any new modules (free or not).
*Neverwinter does have a micro-transaction system, therefore you can play the game 100% free and as of now there is
only a single race that you "have to buy".
*Neverwinter is a game with a very friendly early gearcurve.
*While it is indeed hard to get Artifact Gear and Artifacts to legendary level or enchantments to Rank 10 (Perfect equals r10),
none of that is necessary and the actual gear doesn't take to much to farm.
*Neverwinter is very rich in lore and has much to explore. Yes, there are some minor issues here and there (e.g. the spellplague-cataclysm backround is not very creative for DnD).
Well somebody has to pay for all that! ZEN sales, Packs and Lockboxes are there to cover that.
Lockboxes are with their droprates not designed to actually be "worth" the input.
Also every module we get 2 Lockboxes so about every 2 months, there is a new one to keep up the prices of the
drops in the auction house and moreover the interest for people to buy it.
However, its random so you can get lucky.
My personal experience:
I've spent 1126 Keys to get a [Tenser's Floating Disk].
I got none ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (2 Companions the most valuable drops).
On the other hand I got a [Pseudodragon] from using 10 Keys I had from a trade.
Since I really wanted a Tensers I bought one from somebody. He said he used 2 Keys and got it from the second.
So if you have the money, heck why not. If you wanna be rich ingame - it is probably not the best idea.
There are cases when Lockbox opening is rewarding, in most cases that is when epic mounts score that high prices.
However, since they are not designed to make rich people "richer". The game will be adjusted to prevent that from happening.
Lockbox Drops - Their necessity
Lockbox drops are in very, very rare cases necessary.
You mostly get vanity items and "shortcuts".
What I mean with shortcuts are items that give you campaign resources to quicken your campaign progress, coins that let you upgrade companions and similar things.
The only things that are on my view "needed" are for example artifacts that are BiS for your char, Metallic Ancestral Dragonborn Race that would be best for your char or pets that are BiS for you. Then again they will be aviable through the auction house and since there is no guarantee for a specific thing to drop from lockboxes its on average cheaper to buy the item from AH.
Thank you for reading
BlackyLuke
As someone who claims to have spent over $1000 worth on zen (whether you used ad or not), it's odd that you defend it. I mean really, there's no reason to ever have to spend that much and you still didn't get what you wanted. The value is just not in this game. New content every couple of months is pushing it, modules come out longer than that. However I'd say that most people aren't satisfied with the content that has come out. Games are here for the player experience and when I feel that they're trying to get away with providing as little value as possible with as little care as they can get away with, I'm not going to be satisfied. There's really no justification for some of the high costs and low drop rates in this game.
Never should you be capable of spending a grand on a game. Never should you not get what you want from doing so...
People spend five digits a night in Vegas or online poker games. Not the smartest of their moves, but fully legal. Basically, the ethics there might well be challengeable and/or doubtful, but there's the thing about "doing it on their own free will". Also, I wouldn't do it. But heck, when people want to do that, who am I to object.
That's the business model here. Much better IMHO than monthly fees, high prices for the game without a chance to evaluate it before, forced keystone pay-items, or a game difficulty not withstandable without pay items.
People doing that kind of gambling can also win money even if the odds aren't in their favour. Here you win some pixel candy or junk. If I want pixel candy, I'll buy a full standalone game for £30-50 for new releases. That's a long time I can be occupied for with a lot more content before I'm likely to win the top epic items let alone legendary. Plus you know, there's issues such as clipping on the gorgon mount and racial bonuses being broken on the metallic dragonborn. I mean really, no game is worth that amount of money.