Since they nerfed (for good reason) the previously ridiculously overpowered Resurrection Scrolls, my only store-bought p2w concern is the companions - but by and large, AI companions, no matter their bonuses, are largely useless because of their nature. They're much more of an RP cosmetic item. Having a Phoenix by your side looks pretty badass, even if it does behave like an idiot most the time.
Companions are only allowed to attain a certain level according to their rarity - green being the lowest and purple being the highest. The first couple companions you get for free are green (I believe). You can upgrade companions by spending Astral Diamonds on them. It looks like Astral Diamonds are more or less easily obtainable in game, but it is an MMO, so some amount of grinding is to be expected.
As many players have noted, leveling up in the game is completely grind-free: many attained max level by the end of a single beta weekend, without so much as use of a store bought consumable or companion (myself included). Whether or not these items will be required for completion of end-game content in any enjoyable manner remains to be seen, but if experience at level 50 can be used as an indicator of what level 60 might look like, my guess would be absolutely not.
One thing I been wondering, what are Enchanted Key's for ? I noticed some talk in chat about keys needed to enter high level dungeons, are these related to that ? What can you tell us about those ?
I had a bad experience with drakensang . com regarding keys from shop required to enter alot of dungeons, and those keys were expensive.
One thing I been wondering, what are Enchanted Key's for ? I noticed some talk in chat about keys needed to enter high level dungeons, are these related to that ? What can you tell us about those ?
I had a bad experience with drakensang . com regarding keys from shop required to enter alot of dungeons, and those keys were expensive.
Keys are not for dungeons, they are for Lockboxes. Cryptic maintains that they'll never put any monetary barrier on access to content, including Foundry, and everything I've seen from their other games so far indicates this to be true. But, about the lockboxes - the first lockbox will be the Nightmare Lockbox. It has a chance to drop an armored nightmare, which is ridiculously awesome looking. It's a tier 3 mount, which means (my stats may be wrong here) +90% movement speed. The normal mount is +60%. Mounts can also be upgraded, like companions, with astral diamonds. Your first mount is available for, I believe, 5 gold. The nightmare lockbox also has a chance of dropping store bought consumables like XP and crafting pots, as well as Relics, which can be sold for about 40k AD. They also drop tarmalune trade bars, about 10 each, which can be used to purchase anything that drops in the lockbox, should you be unlucky enough to open enough boxes to get trade bars but not the item you were seeking.
Keys are for sale in the zen store for 100z, or a dollar each, and can be sold on the auction house.
Lockboxes in STO drop pretty cut-and-dry pay2win items (very powerful starships), but currently, there's nothing really like that in NW. There's no swords, shields, or armor in the boxes - just fashion items, boosters, and a badass looking mount.
I don't much care for lockboxes in general, but as far as they go, these are pretty tame.
To give you an idea of how much in-game grinding it would take to get a lockbox key without spending any money on it, the Dil-Zen conversion ration in STO is about 88-1 right now. Lets just assume that this game will have a higher premium, about 200-1. Dungeon delves and skirmishes, during bonus hour, reward 1k AD each, and there's a daily quest to complete one for 2k AD, as well as the daily Foundry for 2k AD. That means every 10 missions or so, you'll be able to get a free key. Character slots are 500z, so after about 50 missions - probably after capping your second toon and running a handful of extra delves to get the gear you want for them - you'll be able to get an extra character slot at no cost.
What I got was basically D&D Cash Shop Online, the sequel to Star Trek Cash Shop Online. I don't blame Cryptic, I blame Perfect World, I feel that the developer really wanted to make a great game, but were force to gate the content through the Zen store and it's absurd prices. I'm going to rate my impressions in 5 categories compared to other games that I have played.
Graphics: 5 easily the most ugliest modern MMO I have ever played. I want you to keep in mind that when I played Beta 3 for free I didn't mind the graphics at all, but when I had to plop down $60 to try out beta 4, I really had to take notice of what I was paying for. And this game is really ugly compared to pretty much every MMO released in the last 5 years.
Story Presentation: 6 Voice acting is nice, I actually like the fact that the voice acting continues even when you have left the NPC. You basically get to do the quest while given context of what you're actually doing. Unfortunately it turns out that maybe less than half the quests I get are actually voice acted, which is disappointing. There was one quest line that I absolutely loved where this evil Elf was turning people into demons. But overall I really had no idea what was going on, and this game didn't see interested in spending production dollars making me care compared to other MMOs. Even Guild Wars 2.
Progression: 5 Dungeon Finder is a joke, I got grouped with two tanks and no healer. Luckily I had a Cleric companion so my GF didn't die. Exp for the dungeon is a joke, I could have soloed 3 regular quests and have gotten better exp. Also the green dungeon drops were a joke, green armor upgrades drop like rain, and you can buy blue armor from the NPCs in town. If the dungeons are worthless that automatically makes the Foundry worthless. Questing is alright, the exp is great, but the missions are pretty linear, no alternative leveling zones or anything to make questing interesting. Exp from crafting is worthless. Everything from crafting is worthless. PvP was pretty fun, but once again the exp is poor.
Combat:8 Easily the best feature in this game, combat was exciting, the classes seem pretty balance, except for the Great Weapon Fighter, but I haven't tried him. I like the feature where you can choose which abilities you want while leveling, even though it ultimately doesn't matter much. What hurts the combat is the severe lack of buttons. I thought GW2 was smoking something when they restricted players to 10-15 abilities, but you only get 7 Max in Neverwinter? I took a gamble and was hoping that the companions would make up for the lack of abilities and play a bigger role in the combat. Especially if PW was charging $10-$30 for these creatures, but they weren't worth the price tag.
Exploration: 4 Is there anything fun to do in this game besides kill stuff? Nope. Crafting is garbage, you can just look at any other post on the official forums to see what I mean. I guess you can work on the Foundry, but that strongly depends on if the foundry missions are actually worth doing in this game, and if it doesn't drop blue quality or higher armor, then the answer is no.
My User average: 5.6
Let's see the score after I factor in that I had already spent $80 on this game because of insane Z-Store prices. Total score: 0
let's see the score if this game was actually a truly free to play game without the Z-Store Total Score: 7.5
Conclusion: If you can figure out a way to play this game without having to ever spend a single cent in the Z-Store, then this game is pretty decent. However I was not one of those people. I do feel that I did not get my money's worth from this game, the Z-store prices are too high. I feel I have been robbed and I will not play this game ever again, nor will I play any other game PW / Cryptic makes.
Thanks for the heads up this is strike one from the big three looks like strike two is on the way with ESO and lets hope for a homerun with wildstar otherwise " yourrrrrrrr out !!!!"
This game is exactly what I am looking for, and I don't find the cash shop over the top at all. Sorry it wasnt what you were looking for, good luck in your search.
Originally posted by Fendel84M OP mentions them "gating" content with cash shop requirements but that is completely false. This kind of misinformation is dangerous.
Yeah you can do everything in the game without the cash shop. All the zones etc were tested without anything from the cash shop. The cash shop is just convenience stuff, or you can use zen to buy ADs to level crafting / companions faster. Its all just a matter of whether you would rather put in the time, or speed it up with Astral Diamonds (which can be earnt in game and are a great way to earn yourself some zen for character slot unlocks or mounts).
Of course there are going to be incentives to spend money. If noone buys zen, they don't make any money from this game. But nothing in this game forces you to spend money to be competitive, you just have to weigh up whether time or money is more important to you. There will be a lot of people who buy astral diamonds for the convenience, but there is nothing stopping you from spending time farming them yourself to get the exact same outcome.
Originally posted by Bigbadwlf That's right I never said that anything in the cash shop is pay2win. I would prefer people stick to the topic of the thread which is the expensive prices of the cash shop.
The only thing I thought was a tad expensive were mounts, but those are account unlocks, not single character items. Even so, $40 for a mount is a tad expensive. Luckily nothing is forcing me to buy one.
$5 for character slots seemed perfectly reasonable, and as long as classes are less than $10 I will be happy.
Originally posted by Bigbadwlf That's right I never said that anything in the cash shop is pay2win. I would prefer people stick to the topic of the thread which is the expensive prices of the cash shop.
The only thing I thought was a tad expensive were mounts, but those are account unlocks, not single character items. Even so, $40 for a mount is a tad expensive. Luckily nothing is forcing me to buy one.
$5 for character slots seemed perfectly reasonable, and as long as classes are less than $10 I will be happy.
Originally posted by Bigbadwlf That's right I never said that anything in the cash shop is pay2win. I would prefer people stick to the topic of the thread which is the expensive prices of the cash shop.
The only thing I thought was a tad expensive were mounts, but those are account unlocks, not single character items. Even so, $40 for a mount is a tad expensive. Luckily nothing is forcing me to buy one.
$5 for character slots seemed perfectly reasonable, and as long as classes are less than $10 I will be happy.
LOL
It is funny, they've said multiple times classes would be free now. Still, I wouldn't be surprised to see early unlocks.
Comments
Since they nerfed (for good reason) the previously ridiculously overpowered Resurrection Scrolls, my only store-bought p2w concern is the companions - but by and large, AI companions, no matter their bonuses, are largely useless because of their nature. They're much more of an RP cosmetic item. Having a Phoenix by your side looks pretty badass, even if it does behave like an idiot most the time.
Companions are only allowed to attain a certain level according to their rarity - green being the lowest and purple being the highest. The first couple companions you get for free are green (I believe). You can upgrade companions by spending Astral Diamonds on them. It looks like Astral Diamonds are more or less easily obtainable in game, but it is an MMO, so some amount of grinding is to be expected.
As many players have noted, leveling up in the game is completely grind-free: many attained max level by the end of a single beta weekend, without so much as use of a store bought consumable or companion (myself included). Whether or not these items will be required for completion of end-game content in any enjoyable manner remains to be seen, but if experience at level 50 can be used as an indicator of what level 60 might look like, my guess would be absolutely not.
@Rancore Awesome, that is info I can use.
One thing I been wondering, what are Enchanted Key's for ? I noticed some talk in chat about keys needed to enter high level dungeons, are these related to that ? What can you tell us about those ?
I had a bad experience with drakensang . com regarding keys from shop required to enter alot of dungeons, and those keys were expensive.
"I am my connectome" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HA7GwKXfJB0
Keys are not for dungeons, they are for Lockboxes. Cryptic maintains that they'll never put any monetary barrier on access to content, including Foundry, and everything I've seen from their other games so far indicates this to be true. But, about the lockboxes - the first lockbox will be the Nightmare Lockbox. It has a chance to drop an armored nightmare, which is ridiculously awesome looking. It's a tier 3 mount, which means (my stats may be wrong here) +90% movement speed. The normal mount is +60%. Mounts can also be upgraded, like companions, with astral diamonds. Your first mount is available for, I believe, 5 gold. The nightmare lockbox also has a chance of dropping store bought consumables like XP and crafting pots, as well as Relics, which can be sold for about 40k AD. They also drop tarmalune trade bars, about 10 each, which can be used to purchase anything that drops in the lockbox, should you be unlucky enough to open enough boxes to get trade bars but not the item you were seeking.
Keys are for sale in the zen store for 100z, or a dollar each, and can be sold on the auction house.
Lockboxes in STO drop pretty cut-and-dry pay2win items (very powerful starships), but currently, there's nothing really like that in NW. There's no swords, shields, or armor in the boxes - just fashion items, boosters, and a badass looking mount.
I don't much care for lockboxes in general, but as far as they go, these are pretty tame.
To give you an idea of how much in-game grinding it would take to get a lockbox key without spending any money on it, the Dil-Zen conversion ration in STO is about 88-1 right now. Lets just assume that this game will have a higher premium, about 200-1. Dungeon delves and skirmishes, during bonus hour, reward 1k AD each, and there's a daily quest to complete one for 2k AD, as well as the daily Foundry for 2k AD. That means every 10 missions or so, you'll be able to get a free key. Character slots are 500z, so after about 50 missions - probably after capping your second toon and running a handful of extra delves to get the gear you want for them - you'll be able to get an extra character slot at no cost.
Thanks for the heads up this is strike one from the big three looks like strike two is on the way with ESO and lets hope for a homerun with wildstar otherwise " yourrrrrrrr out !!!!"Yeah you can do everything in the game without the cash shop. All the zones etc were tested without anything from the cash shop. The cash shop is just convenience stuff, or you can use zen to buy ADs to level crafting / companions faster. Its all just a matter of whether you would rather put in the time, or speed it up with Astral Diamonds (which can be earnt in game and are a great way to earn yourself some zen for character slot unlocks or mounts).
Of course there are going to be incentives to spend money. If noone buys zen, they don't make any money from this game. But nothing in this game forces you to spend money to be competitive, you just have to weigh up whether time or money is more important to you. There will be a lot of people who buy astral diamonds for the convenience, but there is nothing stopping you from spending time farming them yourself to get the exact same outcome.
The only thing I thought was a tad expensive were mounts, but those are account unlocks, not single character items. Even so, $40 for a mount is a tad expensive. Luckily nothing is forcing me to buy one.
$5 for character slots seemed perfectly reasonable, and as long as classes are less than $10 I will be happy.
The only thing I thought was a tad expensive were mounts, but those are account unlocks, not single character items. Even so, $40 for a mount is a tad expensive. Luckily nothing is forcing me to buy one.
$5 for character slots seemed perfectly reasonable, and as long as classes are less than $10 I will be happy.
LOLIt is funny, they've said multiple times classes would be free now. Still, I wouldn't be surprised to see early unlocks.