Neverwinter new pics - OH GAWD ITZ HEAVAN

[Bliblablubb]

Summer event is go! Time to relocate all toons to a convinient campfire with mailbox access!

Same rewards as last year though, plus a horse made out of water (white quality I guess) and a weird chef outfit. Meh, I will stick to the login -> pray -> daily token -> logout routine...

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

The new little prayer bags are p neat too. Moar Resostones plz (actually, I think I should be able to push my Wizard's arti weapon and off-hand to Orange tier next 2X at the present rate I'm accumulating Resos).

EDIT: Also, water horse is blue quality, 18 favors of Sune or whatever the daily tokens are.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

There's an assload of new devblogs on Strongholds.

And it seems they actually learned from the whole STO thing and at least sounds like they're focusing on making guild progression accessible irrespective of Guild size. My guess is that they sort of learned from STO's massive fleet ranking requirements, and that they don't want to turn their upcoming Stronghold PvP into EoA vs no one mode. Seems only logical they'd want to have the game overrun with a huge number of guilds instead of ghost fleets and a number of gigantic super-fleets plus Norfleet.

Based on preview info, I'd think we're going to just give the finger to the PvP stuff and focus on either progression or (man)boons. And especially:

One of these merchants is an armorer who will sell item level 125 gear, along with new best-in-slot items.

About damn time we get pugtax-free items.

PS: Took the Cleric to Spinward Rise. Soloed a heroic encounter.

 

[eklektyk]

it all hinges on their resource gathering system aka latest brainfart that got voted for implementation ...

until i see exactly what it gets us and how im sceptical

but for building stuffies we need to go all-in with resources at start to powerlvl main buldings before we decida what other specials we want ...incidentally that should give us plenty of time for other less fortunate souls to discover land mines and sceletons in system and to make obvious to-pick options obv ...

as time right now for me is sparse i cant guarantee huge involvement but i should be able to do somethings frome time to time [after i upgrade my calculator that is - in a month or so]

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Seems to me that the system is probably designed to reward around-the-clock members guilds, since there at least doesn't seem to be any individual input beyond going to yell at proles to move that shit to storage.

 

[Bliblablubb]

Cleric has finally reached Spinach Raisin age! Sent her to a testrun killing a few dudes and plattforming. Turns out she has no problems in the first area, accidently wearing the old T2 set with no enchantments. Set bonus still STRONK! As long as I slap astral seal on the biggest mob to compensate for the initial impact I am not even in danger against the standard groups. Seems to be pretty effective now. Haven't checked bigger mobs yet and I couldn't remember which quests to take.
It's still boring and tedious alone, so if you plan on grinding another toon there on weekends, I might be up for company.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I'm getting a Ranger there soon enough, once he hits 70 (I've concluded it's even easier to run Spinward with cheapo blues).

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/ne...35463-neverwinter:-feeding-the-beast-dev-blog

SON OF A BITCH

https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/neverwinter/news/detail/9460133

But hey, at least lookatdem tabards at the stuff that just wants basic cost and hopefully relatively low effort. So for now we should at first aim for the Rank 2 marketplace, and only consider anything else if it's not made just for mega-guilds.

 

[eklektyk]

well min 10 players to try for guild gear ...sure we will get it

so far it looks like pylon boulding to upgrade shit to build faster is on menu

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I wasn't talking about whatsitscalled, the Rank 4 marketplace gear. I was talking about the Rank 2 gear which is just a matter of shoveling credits.

 

[eklektyk]

but i like their copy pasta aproach to design by commitee with those sets [only few color changes and a scarf or other trinket thrown in]... lazy fucks couldnt be even bothered to work some for them.

nothing worth extra work for those lvl140 items but it may be good enough if i bother with clothes for my farms
thats a big maybe in future but not now

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Meanwhile, my Ranger has started working through Spinward Rise. Doable as Archer, but decided to try out the fad and respecced to Trapper (also Pathfinder since I realized that I haven't used anything from Stormwarden tree in ages), and the difference is extremely notable. Currently at second area, 8/16.

 

[Gerrard]

Your persistence is admirable.

Some useful info for anyone still grinding
http://www.arcgames.com/de/forums#/...ding-to-the-arpen-needed-in-the-campaign-maps

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Spinward Rise isn't that bad once you get used to doing small sessions and only run the right quests. I already decided to opt out of the real grind that comes afterwards, having run enough ELoL to last a lifetime with three alts already.

 

[Bliblablubb]

No, SR isn't that bad. It's just boring and tedious if you do it alone. And now Vaarna_Aarnime even has a headstart I have to catch up with. Sadface!

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Well, GF can enter it now too (also HULK SMASH is still MO for them it seems). And Ranger is 8/16 into Thunderhead Reach.

 

[Norfleet]

No, SR isn't that bad. It's just boring and tedious if you do it alone. And now Vaarna_Aarnime even has a headstart I have to catch up with. Sadface!

Or you could abandon FILTHY TRAITORISM and BUILD MORE FARMS.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

So, what's the state of the game? I haven't played since early launch since my laptop couldn't run it on decent fps. I enjoyed the STO itemshop model (as in not feeling obliged to buy stuff).

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Well, the cash-shop only has three things worth buying (not obliged tho) for those who aren't suckas: Purple horsie, charslots, and reclaimable packs (if you are feeling too wealthy). It's actually probably less no-obligation than STO, since the cash shop has almost nothing worthwhile. New tiers of Leadership and new Invoke rewards seem to be making Refining much easier too.

Current state of the game is that they kind fucked things up with Module 6, but Mod 6.5 has unfucked a sizable chunk of that fuck-up (the difficulty alteration is actually a good bit more well-implemented than the stated percentages average). Most classes do pretty well right now, with good and varied styles. The main issue right now in that regard IMO is that Warlock is too underdamaged and fragile to compare favourable to the other classes. And Ranger's Shift is still weird as fuck to use.

Hitting endgame is a lot bigger undertaking now too.

And pugs still suck.

 

[Bliblablubb]

Depends on who you ask...

Drakron would say: "This is shit. Don't bother with this shit."

I would say: It has lost a lot of appeal, the latest expansion is a horrible grindfest without real motivation aside from it's being there. Making old gear obsolete and increasing overall difficulty by making enemies bulletsponges and hit really hard (to force you into aquiring the new armors that come with slapped on +25000 hp buffers) drove a lot of people away. Especially for solo play since our Codex guild is pretty much 1,5 people, so no regular group action.

Aarne would probably say something far more positive, but he spends more time playing it than me.

Gerrard is still lost in playing Twitcher 3, Ekl is earning moneyz and Sloppy is AWOL.

If you start leveling a fresh char, you will still have the same fun as before, at least until you hit 60 and the grinding begins. The old 60+ campaigns are unfair hard now if you are not lvl70 already, forcing you through the new "repeat the same set of quests 16*3 times in 4 recycled areas" chore, unless you have the patience to slowly level by leadership.

TLDR: Still fun if you start a fresh char until 60 and then move on.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Moving the old campaigns to 70 level range was a totally idiotic move, really. They actually would have helped people get new alts to Spinward Rise better than the grindathons in other Elemental Evil areas.

 

[Bliblablubb]

But then they wouldn't bother running the recycled NEW AREAS! Well, aside from Spinach Raisin (the only really new area) because you need it to get the new artifact weapon.

PLAYERS TOTALLY like LOVE OUR NEW AREAS! CHECK like TEH METRICS! No wait, I am not allowed to say that anymore.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

But yea, you should never really seriously consider the high-end endgame for elite BiS characters, not unless you have serious connections/bot/exploit/cash. The effort needed to reach BiS is astronomical. Go relatively casual, or don't go at all. And always remember, pro-gamer types should be sent to the gas chambers.

 

[Gerrard]

To help combat botting Astral Diamonds, Leadership has been disabled from Gateway. It will still remain usable in game.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I'd be pissed if I wasn't updating my professions exclusively in-game nowadays. Which I suppose means everyone who isn't IS pissed.

They said it pretty well on Unblogged, this hurts legit players more than it hurts botters (since botters will just come up with a workaround). Good news though is that the HE reward exploit got fixed real fast after Unblogged busted it open.