Neverwinter : Beta Impressions from Total Biscuit

Played a little bit of the beta this weekend, so far so good. One MAJOR issue for me with the game design: instance reset when DC/exit. There seems to be a 5-10 minute time period after DC or exit where you can get back in and not reset. If you don't then you are reset outside and all your dungeon progression is whiped, excluding loot. So if you have been hacking away at a solo dungeon and gotten close to the end after an hour or so and you DC or have to afk and leave the game, its all gone and you have to start from scratch.

This is going to drive me insane if it is in the launch.
 
I played about 30 minutes before I couldn't take anymore. The character models are horrible, voice acting is meh and the combat system is floaty.

I might give this a try again when it's out of beta, but so far it's not for me.
 
I juggled 2 betas this weekend. Defiance and Neverwinter. I wasn't too impressed with the PvP, or rather it's entertaining enough, similar to DCUO's PvP . However, the moment i was stunlocked to death by a rogue i felt the PvP is going to make me break things. There's nothing i hate more than stunlock mechanics, and this is as annoying as it can get, rogue stealth up to you and you are dead before you can do anything. So i don't know how Cryptic plans to balance this, i hope they don't bother or at least not mess with the PvE. As much as i dislike the rogue in PvP, the rogue does need these mechanics in PvE .

Also unlike DCUO, i did not see any "break stun" button. So this is not only a rogue thing. Any class with any form of root,stun,push,explode will be a pain in the arse. I believe it's the wizard with some sort of ice storm or tornado that does this continuous pulse that throws you up in the air....let's just say there's nothing i could do while in this thing.

I'm also not a big fan of the healing mechanics, or rather the lack of automatic regeneration. I've now tried all the classes and this was the most frustrating bit . You are forced to pop potions like in Diablo 2 and if you run out you have to trek back to a campfire to heal. The cleric is the only class where i could actually just play naturally through a dungeon and feel somewhat self sustainable . I believe the Guardian does get some self healing later on, but looking at the healing power of the cleric (not exactly big heals) , i won't rely on it too much, although it does mean you can heal up mid-dungeon crawl at least.

I played the Big Weapon Fighter this weekend too, while it does play nicely, they do take ALOT of damage, which they can't heal. Their main mechanic seems to be doing more damage the more damage they take, is kinda counter intuitive because it means you will be on low health after every single fight. It did not feel like a great choice for solo'ing, they also don't get a true "dodge" to avoid getting hit, they instead get a sprint which seemed more helpful at getting to an enemy, less helpful at getting away from damage.

So yea, i'd have to say alot of the classes seems to rely heavily on groups (with a Cleric) , especially when it comes to healing. If you remotely plan to solo alot of the content, it might be a little frustrating. Even if you group up, without a Cleric , good luck too.

Now THAT SAID, i do know there's the whole companion thing. I have not played long enough to actually get one. So i don't know how much one can rely on their healing or ability to be less reliant on campfires and potion popping.
 
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Shrike said:
Played a little bit of the beta this weekend, so far so good. One MAJOR issue for me with the game design: instance reset when DC/exit. There seems to be a 5-10 minute time period after DC or exit where you can get back in and not reset. If you don't then you are reset outside and all your dungeon progression is whiped, excluding loot. So if you have been hacking away at a solo dungeon and gotten close to the end after an hour or so and you DC or have to afk and leave the game, its all gone and you have to start from scratch.

This is going to drive me insane if it is in the launch.
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Yea, that will annoy me too. Actually encountered it this weekend, i had to log off mid dungeon , came back and had to repeat it from scratch. Luckily it was only a 15 minute thing, so it wasn't too bad. So i can only hope if Cryptic does not figure something out, which i doubt, i hope the content designers design their content with this in mind. I.e. rather break it up in small 20 minute runs and string it together , rather than making one 2 hour one.
 
diabolus said:
Now THAT SAID, i do know there's the whole companion thing. I have not played long enough to actually get one. So i don't know how much one can rely on their healing or ability to be less reliant on campfires and potion popping.
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The potion popping thing was similar to DDO's wand usage and potions. I suspect it is to encourage buying these potions from a zen store. Cryptic seemed to have gone to extremes on their balancing, heavily nerfing healing and massively upping heal aggro in this beta. Probably doing "bracket shots" in order to get play feedback, hoping to hit the middle spot on afterwards.

No announcement at PAX about a release date, I was hoping to hear something at least.

Back to waiting and aimlessly travelling through MMOs till a new release. I am DEFINATELY NOT playing Marvel Superheroes. I really don't want to play a superhero diablo MMO.
 
Shrike said:
The potion popping thing was similar to DDO's wand usage and potions. I suspect it is to encourage buying these potions from a zen store. Cryptic seemed to have gone to extremes on their balancing, heavily nerfing healing and massively upping heal aggro in this beta. Probably doing "bracket shots" in order to get play feedback, hoping to hit the middle spot on afterwards.

No announcement at PAX about a release date, I was hoping to hear something at least.

Back to waiting and aimlessly travelling through MMOs till a new release. I am DEFINATELY NOT playing Marvel Superheroes. I really don't want to play a superhero diablo MMO.
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Yea, i'm surprised at the lack of a release date so far. Marvel Heroes announced they are releasing in June, so even if i wanted to play that, it's still far off. My only concern is, that it might mean Neverwinter will also be a June/July release, since both games had a similar schedule so far.

So i guess i'll be playing Defiance then, since it releases next week, should tide me over for a month or two methinks, hopefully just in time for Neverwinter. There's unfortunately no other MMO i feel like playing. In a world of a "3-monthers" there's not a lot happening right now, the big names like Elder Scrolls and Wildstar are far enough from release that i will most likely burn through 3+ free to play , indie MMOs before then.
 
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An interesting Q&A with the devs on Healing + Holy Trinity etc. I was also playing a Cleric for exactly the reasons they've now tweaked the Cleric, so in a way i'm sad that i probably won't be heal-tanking, but i'm also glad that i won't feel obligated to play a Cleric to avoid popping potions (now all the classes more or less need to be concerned with avoiding damage ) :

http://news.mmosite.com/content/sha...pond_to_neverwinter_questions_on_reddit.shtml
Regarding Cleric self heals, they will likely remain fairly minor for the Cleric. This is to help balance the fact that Clerics don't need to use as many health potions as other classes. Before the self heal reduction, Clerics would pretty much always have more gold than all other classes.

It was also creating situations where Clerics would just self heal tank through encounters.

So as unfortunate as the reduction is, it does make you a more concerned with taking damage in combat, which hopefully leads to a more satisfying experience at the end of the day.

Overall pretty happy with the spot the Cleric is in. In D&D Clerics are more than just heal bots, and I think we've addressed that pretty well.

Given the nature of the game, we didn't want them healing so well that other players would not bother avoiding damage on their own. This also meant that we could up their damage and let players enjoy a more aggressive healer type.
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The trinity plays a different role in Neverwinter. This is something that has changed a lot over development, and in the end it just wasn't as fun to have a 'dedicated healer.' Being a game based around action combat, having a class that focuses entirely on healing or entirely on aggro management wasn't as fun. The Guardian Fighter still controls the battle and takes a bunch of damage for his team, it is just done in a different way than in more traditional MMOs.
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Personally I find it very interesting in my own preferences how I actually like the trinity. Before GW2 came out I was all fire and flame, almost evangelical about the abolishment of it. After playing GW2 and comparing it how much I enjoy SWTOR healing to playing GW2, I have come to the conclusion that I LIKE being a dedicated healer. I LIKE having the option to click a button and to be popped into an instance group as a healer. Seeing that NW has neither dedicated healer mechanics OR an instant dungeon popping button, I will have to reserve my judgement to see how it goes.

When I played DDO I loved playing the healing cleric, if I wanted to be in an instance as one, I just had to type Healer Cleric LFG x instance and would almost instantly be in a group and ready to go.
 
At least NW isn't abolishing the trinity like GW2 did. In that same interview they did state, they have play tested all the group content with a "standard" group consisting of a healer,tank and dps. So i'm pretty sure, Clerics will still be healing quite a bit (and most likely required often) , although it does seem like they want to at least get that Tank to use his block and the rest to use their dodges and not expect spam heals coming in.

As for instant dungeon / dungeon finder, isn't that there?
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/...everwinter-Delving-Into-The-Cloak-Tower-.html
Like the dungeon finder in WoW before it, the dungeon system in NW will find a group for you if you don’t have one, and you will be able to access any dungeons right from the UI (though traveling to them is also an option as well).
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EDIT: Hehe, in that very same article above, the previewer stated this:
The trinity is in full effect here, and your Guardian Fighters will need to tank, your Rogue needs to position himself, and the Cleric needs to stay out of harm’s way and keep himself and others alive. After so many months spent in GW2, it was actually nice to have defined class roles again. A welcome change of pace that signals to me that the trinity shouldn’t and couldn’t go anywhere if it wanted to.
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That was back in Feb though, but chances are 90% that the trinity will be pretty "holy" . So i kinda expect the scenario where it will be "easier" to have a tank+healer, but if your group is good at dodging damage, you can get away with it....and the game is certainly designed to allow you to dodge damage (as opposed to say WoW where you can't dodge damage if your class+stats does not allow for it).
 
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Another beta on the 12th, this time testing to level 50 and crafting. Open beta on the 30th with no character whipe after. You can call it a pre-launch ;-P
 
Shrike said:
Another beta on the 12th, this time testing to level 50 and crafting. Open beta on the 30th with no character whipe after. You can call it a pre-launch ;-P
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Nice, i think my defiance stint might be over by neverwinter launch time. I was about to go into marvel heroes beta in the absence of nw dates, but now i might not need to.

I think i will however skip the beta on the 12th though, it's becoming sad that i am clocking more hours in betas than in actual released games hehe.
 
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I see Cryptic is actually listening to the community so close to their launch and changing the skill system to be more "tactical" or rather have more a feel of "choice" .

http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/04/10/neverwinter-gives-players-the-freedom-to-buy-skills/
Quoting beta feedback as a reason, Cryptic is changing Neverwinter's character progression to allow players to purchase new skills via power points. Previously, specific skills were handed out automatically upon hitting certain levels, but apparently choice was a big request of testers.

The new power points system, which will be available in the upcoming fourth beta weekend, allows for both skill unlocks and upgrades. There will be certain restrictions, such as keeping the third rank for all skills locked until level 30 and not giving players enough points to purchase everything by the time they hit the endgame.

The team says that this system will make the decision of feat choices more strategic, particularly in compensating for any power weakness.
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I must admit the original system was a little boring and basically did not really leave alot of choice in the matter. You still have to make a choice as to which of those abilities you use in combat. Either way, so now it sounds like they give you option to put points in them rather than just getting them.

I suppose at the level cap, it won't really matter, but while leveling it certainly will make things a bit more interesting.
 
It seems the crafting is the money maker (for the company, not the player). In this weekend beta, reports are surfacing that the crafting works somewhat like SWTOR. One person suggested they replace the crafting tab with a "Slavery" tab. Basically you gather materials and you set a crafting queue, also sort of like Fallen Earth. The problem here is that, for example, one person posted that they are on crafting level 2 for cloth items (low level) and it takes 6 hours queued up time (real time too) to craft one item.

Obviously this leads to the craft time boosters you can buy in the cash shop.

It remains to be seen if the time taken and prices of boosters will change before the "release".

Still going to try it out through, its D&D, fantasy and has an amazing player content creator. I am starting to think that holding off on buying the mid level pre-order pack is a good idea, might need the cash to buy stuff I need ;-P

*Edit: also read that all the crafting and auction house functions are accessible through the "Gateway". Basically out of game on a website. Now that rocks!
 
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Shrike said:
It seems the crafting is the money maker (for the company, not the player). In this weekend beta, reports are surfacing that the crafting works somewhat like SWTOR. One person suggested they replace the crafting tab with a "Slavery" tab. Basically you gather materials and you set a crafting queue, also sort of like Fallen Earth. The problem here is that, for example, one person posted that they are on crafting level 2 for cloth items (low level) and it takes 6 hours queued up time (real time too) to craft one item.

Obviously this leads to the craft time boosters you can buy in the cash shop.

It remains to be seen if the time taken and prices of boosters will change before the "release".

Still going to try it out through, its D&D, fantasy and has an amazing player content creator. I am starting to think that holding off on buying the mid level pre-order pack is a good idea, might need the cash to buy stuff I need ;-P
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Interesting, i popped into the beta this weekend just to see what they did with the skill systems. I generally ignore crafting in MMOs these days, unless it's like Fallen Earth where you don't really have a choice and it is 100% useful to do. So at this stage i don't quite know why i would want to farm and craft in NW other than making money (or playing the AH / Economy game). Rather NW seemed like a standard MMO in regards to the crafting. There's always loot drops and thus crafting at some super maxed out level -might- create an item that is slightly different or better than some epic drop, but for the most part it is alot of energy spent on creating once-off items.

Very few MMOs have actually done crafting right. Even GW2, i got totally mind numbingly bored with the whole thing and never saw the point. I rather just go kill a boss and hope for a drop. There's also way too many currencies in the game to buy "stuff" with which i'm sure will override crafting anyway.

That said, i was popping health potions like crazy the bit i played. So i am going to assume the crafting will be revolving around consumables like pots and those toolkits.

My Cleric wasn't performing as well as i remember, the skill reset also resulted in me not getting the same abilities on the same level. They basically now have made it similar to a WoW Talent tree with tiers (need to spend x points in a tier to unlock the next tier etc). So for the most part the main difference is you can now choose to upgrade existing abilities instead of getting new abilities you won't use. I did however had to unlock those abilities to advance to the next tier eventually, so you end up with the same. Overall it's a nice change, creating somewhat of an illusion of choice.
 
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diabolus said:
Interesting, i popped into the beta this weekend just to see what they did with the skill systems. I generally ignore crafting in MMOs these days, unless it's like Fallen Earth where you don't really have a choice and it is 100% useful to do. So at this stage i don't quite know why i would want to farm and craft in NW other than making money (or playing the AH / Economy game). Rather NW seemed like a standard MMO in regards to the crafting. There's always loot drops and thus crafting at some super maxed out level -might- create an item that is slightly different or better than some epic drop, but for the most part it is alot of energy spent on creating once-off items.

Very few MMOs have actually done crafting right. Even GW2, i got totally mind numbingly bored with the whole thing and never saw the point. I rather just go kill a boss and hope for a drop. There's also way too many currencies in the game to buy "stuff" with which i'm sure will override crafting anyway.

That said, i was popping health potions like crazy the bit i played. So i am going to assume the crafting will be revolving around consumables like pots and those toolkits.

My Cleric wasn't performing as well as i remember, the skill reset also resulted in me not getting the same abilities on the same level. They basically now have made it similar to a WoW Talent tree with tiers (need to spend x points in a tier to unlock the next tier etc). So for the most part the main difference is you can now choose to upgrade existing abilities instead of getting new abilities you won't use. I did however had to unlock those abilities to advance to the next tier eventually, so you end up with the same. Overall it's a nice change, creating somewhat of an illusion of choice.
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Sadly, potions are not craftable, apparently another way to encourage money coming in for the game, or so I hear. Agreed on the crafting, I always gather stuff to sell to crafters in MMOs and only get into the crafting MUCH later in the lifespan of my playing. Being able to craft out of game is a great feature for me.
 
Shrike said:
Sadly, potions are not craftable, apparently another way to encourage money coming in for the game, or so I hear. Agreed on the crafting, I always gather stuff to sell to crafters in MMOs and only get into the crafting MUCH later in the lifespan of my playing. Being able to craft out of game is a great feature for me.
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Ugh, they better not mess around with the potions and cash shop, we don't want another Allods Online disaster. The thing with the potions, even my Cleric was going through them like i was playing Diablo 2. You're constantly popping them and since the cooldown is pretty fast, i pop the pots multiple times in a fight (boss fights specifically).
 
Ok, so potions not in the cash shop but will cost AD from vendors. AD you can get in game by grinding and potions drop from mobs, so I guess it is not all doom.

What I find VERY VERY interesting are repeated comments by the Community Manager on the forums that NW will NOT be pay to play. In other words, new content will NEVER be gated by cost. All new content will be available, free. The only thing you pay for is the cash shop shinies and boosts.

In DDO, new races, new classes, new content was always staring at you from behind a "pay for me please" gate. Which is why I always SUB when I play it, I cannot stand not having access to content.

I wonder if NW's apparent policy will continue and if it will actually make them viable. Personally, I have never been much for "boosts" in cash shops in F2P mmos, fasion yes, boosts, no. I am interested to see how the game will survive on this particular incarnation of the F2P model.

Bought the Guardian pack, having a top speed mount available to every character I make is just too much to pass up.
Having read that training your mount up to top level speed costs HUGE amounts of in game cash made me think twice about not doing it.
Being able to pre-download patches for release right now was also a major consideration. Before I bought the pack, couldn't pre-download. As soon as I bought it, download started.

Decided that this will be the ideal game to get into medium level roleplaying. The user created content is just screaming at the RP communities to use. The trick is going to be to find a medium RP guild.

All in all, pretty excited for the rest of this half of the year. I have some action F2P whenever I want with Defiance and some fantasy RP with NW. The future is rosy for my gaming ;-)
 
Hehe, still want to see about that F2P model of theirs. I'm not convinced it's as "free" as that.

AD = Astral diamonds. Isn't that the cash shop currency anyway? I know there's "Zen", but that is just the PerfectWorld global currency (between all their games) which converts into AD for NW. So technically it implies Potions are "cash shop" items, because you can buy AD with $ . Just because it's on a vendor and not the cash shop, doesn't make it any less of a cash shop item? The only difference here is, you can generate AD in the game with the prayer thing and maybe crafting, not sure where else you will get AD. I never saw AD drop of anything or received as a reward for anything.

Remember there's still the normal currency (gold) which does not convert to AD last i checked. So anything that requires AD, as far as i'm concerned is cash shop items.

So i won't be surprised if they are still going to make you pay for content in the form of AD, and because you can generate AD in the game they are technically taking some liberties with the definition of "cash shop" here. Actually, it might be worse, they might give you your class/race/zone for free but making you pay constantly for consumables...i'm not quite sure what i prefer, pay once-off for content or pay constantly for consumables?

It's like having to pay 50k gold for a mount at the vendor, and you can either grind the 50k or you can simply buy the gold with $. Just because the vendor is standing in the world , doesn't mean it's not a "cash shop" thing going on here. Or am i missing something here?

Anyway, i got that middle founder package, i think it's Guardian? So hopefully i can play some on the 25th since founders get early access. I am sadly (or maybe not so sadly) overseas when this game goes full open beta, so will be giving them a gap to fix some issues until i return ;)
 
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Most of what I have been reading about the beta game play into higher levels do not mention having to buy consumables other than rez scrolls from the "cash shop", so I am not quite clear on how it all works. Looks like we will find out next week. See you in game when you get back ;-)
 
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