Hey, I'm still in my guild! I hate packing.
So, here's that long-awaited mod 21 review. I'm gonna call it part 1 because I've only experienced part of what's going on now.
The queues are harder.
If you're a new player or maybe even just have a new undergeared toon who hasn't got all its powers yet you might not be able to complete even the simplest random queues.
If you're a seasoned player who may be a little undergeared and unexperienced in the new Epic/Advanced dungeons in the random advanced dungeon queues... you might not be able to complete this dungeon either.
So basically it's like it was when I was a new player, and, when I first felt seasoned.
You are only level 20 now instead of level 80..
Who cares. If you were max level, you still are. If you weren't - it doesn't matter either because levelling is levelling - it's all about the quests you complete, not how many times you ding. They could have chosen to make us ding 100 times before the questlines were over, but, they chose 20.
Which brings me to what I think is the biggest change. You can look at it as good or bad but this is how I look at it - Getting to max level is like running one long tutorial now. For any character you make and level up it's the same quests, the same (nice!) rewards. I said that in Alliance chat and someone said "yeah but it only takes hours to level". Hmm well, if you subtract the time it takes to experiment with your new powers solo and in a team then, yeah, maybe. They aren't like 2 or 3 hours though and you'll do them every time you level a new toon. That is the biggest change in Mod 21. Forced Tutorialvling. (And a bunch of zones that understandably seem to mean a lot to people, but that I personally never go to, went away). I can never remember actively playing a game where every time I made a new toon I had to do the exact same quests every time to get all my levels.
You know how everyone in nearly every game complains that they have to do the same newb mishes over and over when they level a new toon? Well Neverwinter takes that to the next level in mod 21. It sounds really restrictive and it is and I don't like restrictive stuff by nature so I instinctively didn't like this, but... For now, the rewards are current. I can still do other stuff while I follow my straight line to max level. The only difference is that there's no XP for....anything. Just the 'tutorial'. When I do go back to levelling I know how to pick up ..exactly.. where I left off on the reward/level trail and I know I'll do all the quests that give me all the special rewards I want.
Oh, and BARDS. That's new.
I'm gonna go back and play mine right now.. Even though I already have a fully geared healer who's perfectly fun I'm playing a wha?
And that is my part 1 review of the beast that is mod 21. If you are endgame this doesn't really change much for you that I see except that you can get into more dungeons in the random queues now. Oh and that you have to spend bigillions to upgrade your insignias to Mythic in order to keep up with the Joneses. But lets face it. If you're NW endgame what else do you have to spend bigillions on to be uber ... lately : p If you are new, this is like the best time to make a new character with the new quest rewards + the Lord Neverember recruitment event + (?) and new class to try. If you're the Get Off My Lawn type, it's festival time in Zone chat. Something for everyone.