Review the Neverwinter MMO for me!

[Taceus Jiwede]

Keeping in mind that I don't think I've really given the game a fair shake just yet, at only about 20-30 minutes in, I'm already unenthused.

The controls and combat are turning me off very quickly.  Even though I'm a touch typist and quite capable of finding the keys on the keyboard without looking down, I really prefer not to have to move my fingers at all during combat.  Now, in CoH I made an exception for that with my Masterminds and controlled pets mostly using the number pad, but my MMs did not typically take part directly in combat, either.  Maybe I should try using a gamepad or something, but I suspect that's not going to improve the experience much for me.

Mechanics so far aren't really drawing me in, either.  The most important piece of D&D for me is the Rogue.  And the most important aspect of the Rogue for me is solving problems creatively with as little direct combat as possible.  I'll give the game a bit more time to see if the playstyle I'm looking for presents its self at all in the next few levels, but I suspect I'm not going to be disappointed.

You can possibly try a controller.  That may help.

And regarding server merges, all that's been stated is they'll merge them at some point, not when or even a general timeframe. Though I do have to wonder about that, given how Cryptic's engine works with instanced zones and multiple instances up at once it should scale just fine without imposing servers on top of that.

Looks like they have gotten more vague.  On open beta launch day the extended FAQ just said shortly after launch.  Now its when they get it done, which quite frankly meh I am in no hurry for a sever merge.

Also Illusionss I highly recommend turning off the zone chat, its useless smut.

Neverwinter Night extended FAQ
 http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?18401-Neverwinter-Extended-FAQ

[General Idiot]

All I know is hopefully Cryptic and Perfect World invest in some funds into new servers. "It's a beta" is a common counter to complaints about the fact the game's gone down every day.

Which is a fine...if Neverwinter was the only one being affected. When it also drags STO and CO into the Underdark as well, something has gone horribly wrong.

Indeed. Supposedly the data center they use has been having hardware issues, which technically isn't actually their fault but they get blamed for it anyway.

[Tenzhi]

You can possibly try a controller.  That may help.[/url]

I'd say the game is perfect for playing with a controller.  Now, if only the game recognized controllers without jumping through hoops.  It's apparently capable of mapping the inputs (in a limited fashion at least) since it randomly changed one of my keybinds in the menu to Joy7, but it doesn't seem to recognize them directly.  And even if it did I'd likely still need Joy2Key or something similar to make the right joystick emulate mouse movement.

And holding in CTRL seems to lock on to what you have targeted, but there doesn't seem to be a way to change that in the keybinds menu and it was causing issues with my control setup.  So I had to change that button modifier to Shift and remap the utility skill to ";".

And I've been trio-ing with some friends, but we recently hit a stretch where we ran out of missions.  We got to level 19 and it sent us to... Blackdagger?  and all the missions there wanted us to be level 20.  We had to rerun Cloak Tower twice and then sweep in Blackdagger for awhile (where we were utterly destroying up to level 25 enemies) in order to reach level 20.  Meanwhile, we're having inventory crises because all our quest rewards and drops want us to be level 20-26.  And while that's okay for the drops, I suppose, quest rewards shouldn't be level locked.

Still, we're having fun with the game.

[pewlagon]

Sadly, for me, it's based on fourth edition and for me that version of D&D is garbage. Pathfinder, the evolved version of 3.5 is far superior and would have activated me more. I don't like having extra labels plastered on my class "controller wizard" just sounds silly. For me it's WotC trying one final stab at a system that drove people away from the game and into the arms of Paizo, who ironically were once the publishers of Dragon/Dungeon Magazines. DDO, for me, is still a better MMO, but neither really grabbed me like CoH did.

[Tenzhi]

I wasn't a fan of 3rd Edition without some serious house-ruling.  Pathfinder didn't do anything to change my opinion of it.  I wasn't bothered by the class labels of 4th Ed, but ultimately I found the system horrible to run... however it seemed particularly suited for use in a video game.  In any case, with 5th Ed on its way it could hardly be called a "last stab"...

[KSinclaire]

I can't believe that people are praising Neverwinter's character creator in big, 'official' reviews on other sites.

Can we not place garbage on a pedestal when we've already seen gold?

As for the MMO itself... My overall impression in brief: Combat wonderful. Game bad. It feels like they took the STO/CO Engine (which they did) - hastily made some terrible models - and then spent the rest of the development process fine-tuning the combat so that they could slap the Neverwinter name on it in a desperate cash-grab from fans of the series.

And to its credit; that care given to combat really does show. Its visceral, its satisfying - its almost everything combat needs to be. It could be better, but it shows an understanding of what sets good combat apart from, say, combat in WoW. It doesn't do it as well as TERA did for me; but it hits a lot of fine points that are easily missed.

From what I hear, the Foundry is a fantastic tool for telling stories within. Unfortunately, the overall game just doesn't grab me enough to make me want to tell any stories in it.

[Minotaur]

I've hit issues which I suspect are about to be fixed (and I could fix now if I spent some real money). I'm basically soloing and when I got my companion at level 16, it made my survivability leap, now I'm 46 and the companion (who's hit the current level cap for the companions you can buy with in game cash) just dies. I don't want to pay real money for a better one and I'm really struggling with some of the bosses after he dies in the early stages of the fight. There is an item in the shop with a "not available yet" which I suspect will allow the pet to train up higher.

I also note they're banning egregious Foundry farm arcs already.

4th ed D&D is a perfectly fine game, but it's not D&D. It works fine for this.

The thing is, if they priced the RM stuff more reasonably, I might buy some, but they've gone a mile over the top ($30-35 for the top of the line pet for one character) and there's no way I'm going to spend that, divide the costs by 3 or allow the pet to apply to all characters on the account and I might throw $50 at the game.

[Candie Firestar]

Sadly, for me, it's based on fourth edition and for me that version of D&D is garbage. Pathfinder, the evolved version of 3.5 is far superior and would have activated me more. I don't like having extra labels plastered on my class "controller wizard" just sounds silly. For me it's WotC trying one final stab at a system that drove people away from the game and into the arms of Paizo, who ironically were once the publishers of Dragon/Dungeon Magazines. DDO, for me, is still a better MMO, but neither really grabbed me like CoH did.

Remember, development of a video game takes years.  They were working on this game before WoTC decided to move to a new Edition.  So, it's not a "last stab" by any means.  Yes, some of the naming conventions from 4th Edition don't make much sense in the MMO game (i.e Encounter & Daily powers), but so what?  As long as it's nothing like the pen & paper game, I'm having fun with it.

[Olde Glory]

So, I've played up to level 10 with a Great Weapon toon. Unusual for me (I usually go in for healers) but still fun. I'm not really committed to it yet due to the fact that I'm not 100% sure what the class is supposed to specialize in; it seems to be mid-way between a tank and DPS... not quite (in my opinion) a Brute class but close. I'll be working on a Cleric soon, but I'm not very excited about the skill tree. For the record, I have yet to team with anyone and the zone chat is going to go the next time that I log on.

[Harlequin565]

[Olde Glory]

Neverwinter offers 5 starting classes. The Cleric feels like half an Emp/Psi defender with blaster damage, the Wizard feels like an Ice/Ice blaster with half the powers, and the Great Weapon fighter feels like a Titan Weapons Brute without a secondary or Momentum. In terms of options, PW/Cryptic don't seem to have given you many and this is a real downside for me. At launch, CoX had far more options for customising and individualising your character. Of course, I could spend hours and hours reading about the game to find out more, but I have better things to do with my time.

Overall I think it's a bit too twitchy for me. I don't like having to "Alt" out to click on things, and the information overload (still trying to understand the many currencies, auction house, gear, professions, how the tab power works) is making this more painful. I'm also sick of running and the horse looks like the only travel power. Appearance wise, I feel like a clone.

Funny, because I was thinking something along the same lines. With 5 classes and limited customization I was trying to figure out WHY the Great Weapons Fighter was included. From what I understand, it is a class that lacks the heavy DPS potential of the Rogue and Survivability of a Tank. If their were several options available I could see it, but this is a game where Gear Scores are posted in chat for LFGs. Without something unique to bring to the table, they are likely to be passed over in favor of one or the other by groups looking to maximize potential. Even as an option for those who want to solo, it isn't great. I had to resort to the generous use of healing potions to avoid going under.

I'll keep chipping away at it and post some more thoughts later.

[Minotaur]

Well I've been playing a bit over the weekend and it's my first serious foray into MMO's since shutdown.

I'm trying to get the hang of where I will be and I'm guessing level 10 isn't the best place to make assumptions. So that's my caveat. three classes tried so far (Cleric, Wizard and Great Weapon Fighter). I'm also aware this is a "new" game and that things will/may improve.

Do you get a pet that goes above level 15 with your founders pack ?

If not, levels 16-40 are the most fun (I'm 48 and haven't invested any real cash, so my pet dies pretty much every fight) and where to judge.

[Harlequin565]

Do you get a pet that goes above level 15 with your founders pack ?

If not, levels 16-40 are the most fun (I'm 48 and haven't invested any real cash, so my pet dies pretty much every fight) and where to judge.

No. Not dropped any cash on the game yet. I got all annoyed by their pricing for non US people. Would you say that in order to enjoy the game you do need to spend money?

[Tenzhi]

I'm finding the wait/rooting/hold time (similar to the momentum mechanic) on the Wizard and Fighter right-click At-Will powers to be really annoying. So annoying they've been deleted. Cleric is doing OK so far. Then again - I was never a huge Titan Weapons fan.

It could be worse - *every* attack power could root you, like in CoH. 

In any case, every class gets another At Will they can pick up and swap out at level 20.  The Great Weapon Fighter's is an AOE combo and I heartily recommend swapping it out for the right button charge up attack.  The wizard gets an attack that looks similar to Magic Missile except with poofy ice balls, but for my part I don't mind the Ray of Frost and will likely swap out Magic Missile.

Things like targeting other enemies to lay down as many Astral Seals as I can is highly annoying with the camera jumping around like an angry Rikti Monkey.

Are you letting an angry Rikti monkey handle your mouse or something?  The mouse directs the camera, so it shouldn't be jumping around on its own.

[Minotaur]

No. Not dropped any cash on the game yet. I got all annoyed by their pricing for non US people. Would you say that in order to enjoy the game you do need to spend money?

Not sure, I'm refusing to spend till they drop the prices which I think are extortionate, if you have friends at your level and can team, you probably don't need to spend, I'm struggling with some of the bosses solo. I'll wait for the books that allow the pets to level up further before committing real money.

[Harlequin565]

It could be worse - *every* attack power could root you, like in CoH. 

There are some that don't? I'm finding that double-tap to dodge doesn't work whilst I'm in mid-animation.

Are you letting an angry Rikti monkey handle your mouse or something?  The mouse directs the camera, so it shouldn't be jumping around on its own.

If you manoever so that a wall is behind your back, it goes all over the place. Oh for a simple zoon-in-with-scroll-wheel. Editing the .ini file to set a zoom range should not be a standard player experience.

[Tenzhi]

There are some that don't? I'm finding that double-tap to dodge doesn't work whilst I'm in mid-animation.

It could be that that the rooting is so short that I haven't noticed.  I don't use double tap to dodge, I use Shift (or whatever I change the keybind to) and shut off the double tap so as not to accidentally use up Stamina when I'm just trying to move.  Dodging doesn't seem to be high priority for the most part, though, nor as twitchy and split-second as it was in TERA.  In the case of AoEs I can often just move out of them without dodging, and as often as not it's been better to just keep attacking and eliminate the threat faster rather than dodge.  And sometimes when I dodge out of the way I still take the damage from an attack, while other times I'll dodge and get hit shortly afterwards but instead of taking damage it will say DODGED.

If you manoever so that a wall is behind your back, it goes all over the place. Oh for a simple zoon-in-with-scroll-wheel. Editing the .ini file to set a zoom range should not be a standard player experience.

Can't say I've ever been in that position (that I've noticed), though I've only put in about 40 hours of play.  I'll test it out deliberately when the servers come back up from maintenance.

[Candie Firestar]

What I find most annoying is most Lt. and Bosses have attacks that Knock you back, make you go Prone or Pull you towards them.  In this case the Dodging function (double-tap move key) to get out of their zone.  These prevent you from casting your attacks and can be frustrating.

However, like most new things, it takes some time/experience to get the hang of it.  And now that my Level 21 Control Wizard has some nice control powers, I can use them in combos that it's not so much of a problem.  And having a Cleric companion helps my survivability.

I haven't spent any money on the game and my survivability and fun haven't suffered.   You need to play past Level 10.  To judge the game before you hit level 20 is disingenuous.

[Tenzhi]

Can't say I've ever been in that position (that I've noticed), though I've only put in about 40 hours of play.  I'll test it out deliberately when the servers come back up from maintenance.

Alright, I don't know if it's something they fixed with the patch, but the camera doesn't do anything frenetic when I'm backed up to a wall.

[Taceus Jiwede]

Funny, because I was thinking something along the same lines. With 5 classes and limited customization I was trying to figure out WHY the Great Weapons Fighter was included. From what I understand, it is a class that lacks the heavy DPS potential of the Rogue and Survivability of a Tank. If their were several options available I could see it, but this is a game where Gear Scores are posted in chat for LFGs. Without something unique to bring to the table, they are likely to be passed over in favor of one or the other by groups looking to maximize potential. Even as an option for those who want to solo, it isn't great. I had to resort to the generous use of healing potions to avoid going under.

I'll keep chipping away at it and post some more thoughts later.

GWF get much better as the game goes on.  I duo with a friend who plays a GWF actually and they really shine in dungeons.  They are AoE melee damage, their job is to kill the trash.  Same with a Control Wizard which is what I play, so in a group we work very well together dealing with trash and keeping enemies off the cleric so they can heal and the rouge so they can DPS.  Having seen a GWF level up to 40 and playing side by side I can tell you they make great companions for a wizard, something to deal melee AoE damage while I deal ranged AoE damage, things melt when that happens.  Big targets are easy you just DPS them but someone has to manage the adds otherwise you get overrun and wipe.