Hello everyone,
A lot of people have been asking me continuously why I’m not longer updating my blog with videos and updating the site with information about Neverwinter. It’s quite simple, I’ve lost the passion for this game. I don’t mean it like I’m not playing it anymore, actually I’m still logging in and spending several hours with my friends since as you might already know I’m also leader of Elite Mercenaria and our alliance so I have a lot of things to attend in daily basis in-game. When you love a game, when you feel a passion for it, you always want to do much more than just logging in and play, that’s when you want to start writing guides, upload videos like a gameplay, etc. You feel so submerged in the game that everything you do in the game is always something that will bring you joy.
Neverwinter used to be fun, I still remember when my friends and I were farming Dwarven King Crypt (known as DK) trying to get as many drops as possible, sharing the AD (split runs) and using the same method for the old CN back when farming weapons for every class was very profitable, specially when a new class arrived to the game! Getting a main hand weapon of a new class was like winning a lottery and everyone involved was so happy about it, I miss this, the element of surprise. You could run the same dungeon again and again, module after module but you didn’t get bored because each run was different.
If you wanted to play another class, you just had to do a couple of campaigns, farm your T2 gear in the old dungeons: Karrundax, Spellplague, Temple of the Spider and Frozen Heart. Despite the fact that you might didn’t get the piece of gear that you were looking for, you could get a sellable drop at least. If your RNG sucks, you could simply acquire the gear in the Auction House. You were free to do whatever you want. I’m lucky enough to play with mates that were also with me during these times and we unanimously agree that this was the best moment of Neverwinter.
Don’t get me wrong, I do not intend to speak bad about this game that gave me so many good moments and friends, I want to criticize it because when something is going wrong, you have to accept it and look forward for improvements. So, when I talk about when I have fun in this game, I have to go back to the past. Actually, there’s nothing fun in this game anymore. The whole game is based in the insanity: “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”. You have to keep farming the same dungeon again and again wishing to see something different but you are just going to see a refinement points and a salvageable item. Sometimes, the RNG is acceptable like upgrading an enchantment or lockboxes but for getting a piece of gear is simply dumb. This can be solved easily by adding a token or any kind of currency in the final chest and later you can exchange it for equipment in certain NPC, they can even gate these tokens behind the legendary keys (which fits their model) so you don’t feel frustrated after each run because your effort will be rewarded after some time. We already have this system with the Twisted Ichor (farming epic Demogorgon), which works great.
Another problem, the inventory. It is also dumb that even with a maxed bank and the best bags you will still have issues with the management of the inventory, there are so many ways how an item can be bound to your character ‘bind on pick up’ ‘bind on equip’ ‘bind on account’ and almost every item in the game is already ‘bind on pick up’. I totally understand that the game is seeking that every player should acquire more space either buying bags, bank slots, etc but when you are maxed already and you still have the same issue you know that there’s something really wrong here. Every new module feels like a burden because you know that there will be more items coming, e.g the new marks rewarded after finishing Assault on Svardborg, baits, fishing rods, fishes, etc, these will make your inventory cry. Solve it by adding an item that where we can add all our RP like a container, then we spend a specific amount on any item that we want to upgrade. We could add every green, blue, purple, legendary or even mythic items to the container and this can be account-wide. The fact that I’m free to spend more RP into my alts means that I have to farm more every time that I use it.
Let us have everything bind to account. We are not just stats for you, we are people. We are social and intelligent beings, we need to keep doing different things every time or our attention will go elsewhere. After you have spent a lot of time developing a character, if you want to try another one you have to start almost from zero and in this game means that you will need weeks just to get to a similar level (unless you are rich either in-game or irl). It is much more feasible that someone with two characters at the same level will focus in developing one of these knowing that it is exactly what he/she wants to play instead of upgrading everything again step by step just to get bored and frustrated after seeing that the effort wasn’t worth, finally will end up leaving the game.
In the words of one of the former lead designer of Neverwinter, Goatshark: “The reality is NW isn’t the most alt-friendly game. We’re looking to make improvements here in 2016…”
As I recently mentioned in the forum, regarding to the fix of the Tyrannical Curse in the Scourge Warlock which I have been playing since it was released (even posted a guide) but I stopped playing this ‘glitchlock’ due to the several bugs and gamebreaking powers, one of the main issues in this game is the fact that the devs have been applying buffs/nerfs/fixes by parts. Something gets fixed/nerfed, etc in mod A then it gets a compensation in Mod B, that’s simply wrong. If they are going to touch any class, they have to analyze the whole picture, see the impact of a specific fix and start applying a solution immediately. The cycle have been in the game since the first modules, most players even consider it a market strategy where there’s a top class during certain time just to nerf it and make stronger another one, usually known as ‘flavor of the month or FotM’.
The latest challenge for the PvE Players is ‘Fangbreaker island’ and the players are running it only for fun, that’s all. The rewards are so bad and the chance to obtain a piece of gear is dumb too as expected. I recently recommended that it should work like the ‘frostborn gloves pack’ In this sense: Bind to account and you will receive a piece of equipment for the class that opens the box. It would be a great QoL improvement. This would increase the activity for this dungeon since most players are not longer running it after getting every piece but most of them will be glad to run it again just to equip some alt or also for those that have several characters and wish to equip his/her healer or tank instead of his/her DPS i.e. The devs recently agreed that they will take a look to the rewards in every chest but… when will we see this?
Despite so many negative things, I’m staying in the game because I love the lore, D&D is huge and extremely rich. The combat system is great, the graphics are awesome, the environment artist is doing an amazing job. Just like everything in the life, it comes with great and bad things but these bad things have been coming out with higher frequency than the good ones. I still recommend Neverwinter for the new players, the part between choosing a race and leveling up to 70 is great, it is afterwards when you notice the huge amount of dailies and campaigns that it starts to get boring.
I hope this text can be seen in the future as how Neverwinter passed through a dark era and became a better game and please, bring me back the passion for this game.