Review the Neverwinter MMO for me!

[Nightmarer]

Meh, wish I had read this thread before so I'd have done both chars in Dragon instead of Mindflayer. The game is ok, as someone said before, the combat is good, everything else is just acceptable, nothing to write home about though. The community seems quite poor, the usual load of WoW kids trolling around flaming and being flamed and the fact that it has an inbuilt DPS meter that automtically shows up at the end of each dungeon and also implements the always nasty gearscore, can't see the game attracting the nicest of people.

In any case, it's a good game to play for free, not that I'd pay a single dime to play it but it's ok to play for free.

[Taceus Jiwede]

Meh, wish I had read this thread before so I'd have done both chars in Dragon instead of Mindflayer. The game is ok, as someone said before, the combat is good, everything else is just acceptable, nothing to write home about though. The community seems quite poor, the usual load of WoW kids unicorning around flaming and being flamed and the fact that it has an inbuilt DPS meter that automtically shows up at the end of each dungeon and also implements the always nasty gearscore, can't see the game attracting the nicest of people.

In any case, it's a good game to play for free, not that I'd pay a single dime to play it but it's ok to play for free.

They are gonna merge servers at some point so don't worry about not being able to play with others here.  Also I really, really, REALLY, recommend everyone turn off zone chat.  That should be the first thing done in any MMO, including CoH.  The only time you need a team is for dungeons or skirmishes which you can que for.  Zone chats are bad, but Neverwinter seems to have an exceptionally bad one.  Other then that I actually really like this game, all a matter of personal taste of course.  But I find my self not only enjoying this game, but I have to force my self not to play it to get other things done.  Gear scores have been around for awhile, I haven't seen anyone hold it against me yet, but then again it isn't all that hard to get a good gear score, the game practically just throws gear at you.

As for the DPS charts at the end, they do act as the business cards to the Patrick Batemans of that the game.  But I haven't seen anyone get mad about losing or rub it in peoples face about winning.  I almost always get second or first on those things simply because of all the AoE damage I do and if I beat a rogue they usually respond with "Nice!" and if they beat me I respond with the same way.  I like to use the DPS score to know how I did for personal knowledge, lets me know if I can do better/worse/or if I am on par.

One big big big thing to keep in mind.  This isn't CoH.  Its not trying to be and CoH had 8 years to fix the things people didn't like and too ween out all the angry players. 

[SeaLily]

Really enjoying this game.  The combat's great, the foundry's great, everything's super cool.

I made a Foundry quest that's sitting pretty on page 1 of the "Best Quests" page right now, too- go check it out!  It's titled 'Yes, a Kobold Dungeon Master'.  And the more attentive of you will spot a CoH reference I snuck in there in the first dungeon.

Only problem so far is that the groups I'm getting for Dungeon Delves can never seem to beat the final boss if it's the 3rd dungeon onward.  Did okay on the 4th one after a few tries, but 3 and 5 are simply too difficult for a pickup team. Hopefully an organized one can take a shot at it sometime.  I might not be the world's best tank, either.

[Taceus Jiwede]

Really enjoying this game.  The combat's great, the foundry's great, everything's super cool.

I made a Foundry quest that's sitting pretty on page 1 of the "Best Quests" page right now, too- go check it out!  It's titled 'Yes, a Kobold Dungeon Master'.  And the more attentive of you will spot a CoH reference I snuck in there in the first dungeon.

Only problem so far is that the groups I'm getting for Dungeon Delves can never seem to beat the final boss if it's the 3rd dungeon onward.  Did okay on the 4th one after a few tries, but 3 and 5 are simply too difficult for a pickup team. Hopefully an organized one can take a shot at it sometime.  I might not be the world's best tank, either.

Lair of the dragon is a tough one.  It gets pretty real after 25% on the boss fight.  With a rounded team 1 of each class though I have finished with a PuG.  But its a lot easier with a group you are familiar with.

[SeaLily]

So, my Neverwinter campaign('This Is Highly Noncanon', which is now two quests in length: 'Yes, A Kobold Dungeon Master' and 'NeverNotWinter') has collectively gotten over 10,000 plays in the Foundry!  And made me a very Astral-Diamond-Rich player because people keep giving me tips.  I like tips.  Pretty soon I'll have to cash them out for some Zen and get some character slots or cosmetic outfits or something.

Check 'em out if you haven't.  Still really enjoying NW a bunch.  Foundry is super cool.

[Captain Electric]

http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?243931-Like-comic-books-Forgotten-Realms-Neverwinter-Oh-boy-are-you-in-luck 

[Taceus Jiwede]

So, my Neverwinter campaign('This Is Highly Noncanon', which is now two quests in length: 'Yes, A Kobold Dungeon Master' and 'NeverNotWinter') has collectively gotten over 10,000 plays in the Foundry!  And made me a very Astral-Diamond-Rich player because people keep giving me tips.  I like tips.  Pretty soon I'll have to cash them out for some Zen and get some character slots or cosmetic outfits or something.

Check 'em out if you haven't.  Still really enjoying NW a bunch.  Foundry is super cool.

Played your first Foundry mission, was a lot of fun.  I liked the Skuls reference very subtle.  What shard do you currently play on?

[SeaLily]

Mindflayer, which seems to be the most popular choice.  Looking forward to Cryptic merging the servers, though.  Wonder how long until they're comfortable doing that(I'm going to guess not until after the first major update).

And if there's one major flaw with this game, it's a lack of a sidekicking type level shift system.  Man it is a pain in the ass to try and team with friends.

[Fireheart]

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.

Founders Pack Pet is available as soon as you leave the tutorial.  I've not reached over 15, yet, so I can't say if the pet remains useful.
Founders Pack Weapon is godly, at those lower levels.
Founders Pack Mount is still not usable before L20. 
At 3-400 Diamonds to the Zen, you are not anywhere near as rich as those numbers might look. About 180,000 Diamonds for a character slot, depending on the exchange rate.

Auction House is Diamonds only! Vendors pay copper/silver/gold only.  Currency proliferation is bad, there's no direct exchange, and when you look for equivalencies, you realize just how horribly inflated the monetary system is.

Auction House Interface is missing several important filters.  Zone chat is almost completely useless, but that's more of a social issue.

All of that said, and numerous other issues as well, I still like the game.  It's fun!

Be Well!
Fireheart

[Minotaur]

Pets:

Grey -> 15
Green -> 20 I think
Blue -> 25
Purple -> 30

I bought a founders pack late so my level 60 toon has a level 14 purple pet atm, but working on it.

It's 180K diamonds or 500 Zen for 2 character slots.

Crafting is a massive time sink, and much worse if you stay entirely F2P.

[Shinobu]

Played the tutorial last night and then played to level 11 on a rogue tonight.  I really like the combat, so this game may hold my interest for a while.  ^_^

[Taceus Jiwede]

Mindflayer, which seems to be the most popular choice.  Looking forward to Cryptic merging the servers, though.  Wonder how long until they're comfortable doing that(I'm going to guess not until after the first major update).

And if there's one major flaw with this game, it's a lack of a sidekicking type level shift system.  Man it is a pain in the ass to try and team with friends.

Same!  On everything.  I really hope they add some kind of sidekick system.  By the time I can get 3 skirmishes in for dailies I somehow have out leveled the skirmish!  I don't mind leveling fast, its a hard thing to complain about lol.  But I would love for a way to go back and do the things I out leveled.  I suppose on a second character though.  I am hoping at 60 you can go back and do all skirmishes/dungeons but level 60 versions.  You can go back to dungeons now but it takes some of the fun out of it when it is a face roll.  However, after FINALLY finishing the 5th dungeon I was really happy to see that they actually have some pretty interesting mechanics in the dungeon fights.

[Tenzhi]

Say, does anyone here know if teaming with higher/lower level characters negatively impacts XP?  And if so, by about how much?

[Taceus Jiwede]

Say, does anyone here know if teaming with higher/lower level characters negatively impacts XP?  And if so, by about how much?

I'm sure it does to an extent.  Most of your XP though is gonna come from quest completion, crafting, and interestingly enough Invocation which won't be effected.  I go back and face roll dungeons for my friends if they are too lazy to find a group and they still get decent XP.  Generally speaking most MMO's there isn't much XP to be found in killing enemies.  I ran a level 20 through a level 46 Foundry mission and on completion he got credit for a level 20 quest though, not a level 46 one.  So it would appear despite the level difference, you still only get XP the way you normally would at that level.  And of course, killing lower level enemies isn't all that good of XP.

[Tenzhi]

Well, so far I keep hitting walls where the quest line requires me to be a higher level to get new quests (the first seems to be nearing level 20, and I've only hit the second wall with one of my characters so far and that was nearing level 40), and thus I have to either sweep-grind or try to muck around with buggy Foundry quests that may or may not give me significant XP.  Invoking occasionally provides XP, but as often as not I just get a buff from it and nothing else and even when I do get XP it isn't necessarily a significant chunk; and in any case, it shouldn't be necessary just to keep trundling along the quest line.

Those walls aren't due to a level disparity, mind, as in most cases the folks I'm partying with are within 1 to 2 levels.  The walls just make XP a more pressing issue.  Early on in Champions Online I'd come to places where I no longer had appropriate level quests to do - but rather just quests for which I was sorely under leveled.  I think they took the wrong lesson away from that.

[Tenzhi]

In other, more review-like news, I recently deleted my level 35 Cleric.  It started out okay, but the higher I got the more it just became a super aggro magnet that didn't heal well enough to warrant the aggro, didn't do enough damage to destroy the aggro, and wasn't defensive enough to tank the aggro.  On top of that, it lacks special abilities versus undead (and, to a lesser extent, devils/demons) which I sorely miss in a D&D Cleric.  I think activating your Divine Power ought to create an AoE of Turn Undead, and an Encounter 'Protection From Evil' ability (AoE while Divine Power is active) would be nice.

[Minotaur]

Well, so far I keep hitting walls where the quest line requires me to be a higher level to get new quests (the first seems to be nearing level 20, and I've only hit the second wall with one of my characters so far and that was nearing level 40), and thus I have to either sweep-grind or try to muck around with buggy Foundry quests that may or may not give me significant XP.  Invoking occasionally provides XP, but as often as not I just get a buff from it and nothing else and even when I do get XP it isn't necessarily a significant chunk; and in any case, it shouldn't be necessary just to keep trundling along the quest line.

Invoking gives you XP and diamonds the first 3 times you do it in a day (quite where the cutoff is and how it measures this I'm not sure), and coins the first time in a given day.

I didn't hit the walls at all and never ran out of quests, but I solod and did my daily foundry quests for diamonds. Foundry quests are capped for total XP to avoid some of the more stupid farming exploits, so the more you kill, the less you get as a slug of XP at the end. Did you take the powers that reduce the aggro you draw ? Many people have complained that clerics draw too much aggro and they're looking at it.

[Olde Glory]

I'm at level 26 with my Great Weapons fighter. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how much longer the game will hold my interest. While it was fun at the start, I'm starting to feel like it's becoming a button masher. The main issue that I'm having is the limited type of attacks available. After rolling through several mobs, I've found that it doesn't matter which order I use my attacks in because in the end, It doesn't change how quickly I take them down.

If NW had a more robust skill tree, I would be more apt to think that I had just picked a poor combonation. As it is, I've tried everything available and found that other than the daily attacks, they don't differ from each other enough to matter. Am I the only one who is seeing this?

[Exxar]

In other, more review-like news, I recently deleted my level 35 Cleric.  It started out okay, but the higher I got the more it just became a super aggro magnet that didn't heal well enough to warrant the aggro, didn't do enough damage to destroy the aggro, and wasn't defensive enough to tank the aggro.  On top of that, it lacks special abilities versus undead (and, to a lesser extent, devils/demons) which I sorely miss in a D&D Cleric.  I think activating your Divine Power ought to create an AoE of Turn Undead, and an Encounter 'Protection From Evil' ability (AoE while Divine Power is active) would be nice.

You may have made a rash decision there. If aggro was your problem, that's a known bug with clerics that is yet to be fixed, if I'm not mistaken.

[Tenzhi]

I didn't hit the walls at all and never ran out of quests, but I solod and did my daily foundry quests for diamonds. Foundry quests are capped for total XP to avoid some of the more stupid farming exploits, so the more you kill, the less you get as a slug of XP at the end.

I've hit it with four characters so far by getting to...  Blackdagger Ruins?  (the place you go to light beacons and knock holes in boats around level 20, whatever it's called) at level 17-18.  The main quest line requires you to be level 19 to proceed early on. 

I have one character in the area with werewolves who reached a point (near the arena pit) where he was level 37 and needed to be 38 to continue the quest line.  I got up to 38 and got the next quest, but after finishing that I needed to be level 39 to get the next quest.  It's quite frustrating.  That and the fact that I'm constantly having inventory issues caused by nearly all of the loot and quest rewards being 1-6 levels too high for me to equip makes me want to throttle the folks on the official boards who complain that we level too fast. 

Did you take the powers that reduce the aggro you draw ? Many people have complained that clerics draw too much aggro and they're looking at it.

Yes I did.  It didn't noticeably help.  I ignored it up until around level 35 by just frantically running from bosses and their adds until my party killed them off.  But that didn't work against the dungeon imps and I finally couldn't take it any more.

You may have made a rash decision there. If aggro was your problem, that's a known bug with clerics that is yet to be fixed, if I'm not mistaken.

As noted, aggro wasn't my *only* problem with the cleric.  It's not an effective enough healer and it lacks the aforementioned signature D&D cleric ability.