Anyone else trying out the F2P Neverwinter MMO now it is Open Beta?
Main webpage can be found here http://nw.perfectworld.com/ and the opening cinematic - YouTube is worth a watch, each class playing out its role. The game is based on the 4th edition D&D ruleset.
I tried it last night and took 3 classes through the tutorials which get you to level 4.
Devoted Cleric - the Leader and the one I found most satisfying, not like anything I have played before in an MMO though I haven’t played many. I have played paladin type classes all my RPG life and expect this priest/paladin combo is likely to be my main.
Trickster Rogue - Striker and a fantastic killing machine that looked very cool. Definitely interesting.
Control Wizard - Controller, loved the floating orb at your side but it didn’t quite click like the other two. How to use the channeled slow with the main nuke for example??
I will go back tonight and try out the last two classes, Guardian Fighter and Great Weapon Fighter.
It looks OK if not spectacular, definitely fine for an MMO. Character customisation is very thorough and you have a lot of options there though I didn’t bother with this much as I was just trying out the classes.
As I haven’t got past level 4 I wont comment too much on the questing experience but I did enjoy the fact you were went into a dungeon pretty early, felt like old school D&D. The player generated content is getting a lot of good reviews though again yet to try them out.
Combat is more GW2/Diablo than wow or swtor, you have two spammable attacks on the mouse and 5 other class abilities you can use on cooldowns.
I got an early access package so I played in something like 3-4 weekend beta sessions, and then started playing on Saturday. Now that it’s open beta, the queue is crazy.
The Foundry is just awesome. It’s like the old Neverwinter Nights adventure-making kit in that people are making their own “modules” and posting them. Obviously the quality varies wildly, but you’re able to leave a 1-5 star rating with comments after you’re done. The integration into the game world is nice as well; you go talk to a NPC in one of the city zones, or enter a building, or travel to a new zone - no “teleporting away” into the dungeon. Considering that everyone has the same basic quests throughout (barring a few side quests that seem to be aimed at certain races/classes, from what I can tell), these are the only way I can see the game keeping people’s interest.
Forgot to mention a few things about the Foundry-made (player-generated) adventures:
Some are “set” within a particular zone. Usually at the entrance to a zone or in the inn, there is a bulletin board or a “Well-Informed Harper” who you can check with for leads on goings-on. These are links to locally-set, level-appropriate Foundry adventures. Otherwise, you can just find them from the in-game “home page” Foundry link, and regardless of their in-game location, you’ll get pointed in the right direction.
You can sort/search by various things, like player rating or newest releases.
Adventure descriptions typically include stuff like number of players suggested, approximate time duration, amount of lore vs hack-n-slash, etc.
Just like with the old Neverwinter Nights dungeon maker kit, there is variability in what you’ll see offered. Some adventures are more “setting-appropriate” than others. I played one where you investigate and avenge the theft of coffee beans from a local coffee-brewer’s shop. Another was mostly a guild’s in-joke-filled clubhouse tavern, invaded by pirates - but there’s enough of a backstory plot too, and I’ll definitely look for a follow-up. Just read the descriptions to see if you want to bother with it.
Johnny Bravo: You can use real money to buy Zen (same currency across all Perfect World games) for things like more character slots, special-looking mounts, interesting-looking companions, etc. You also get Astral Diamonds in-game as rewards for various things, which you can use in an in-game auction house to buy Zen.
I played this a bit and it felt quite bland but functional. Definitely a lot better than all the cheap WoW clones you see in the F2P MMO market but not as polished as say GW2. They’ve managed to make the combat feel pretty good which might be enough to keep people hooked. I’m not too far in though, I’ll have to check out the dungeons and companions and such at some point. Shame that the queues are so long, even during off-hours it can be over 20 min to get in. I haven’t even bothered to try during prime time yet.
If the dungeons are fun I might play this a while to scratch my MMO healer itch.
I’m not going to play it because I disapprove of Cryptic’s business plan of “pump and dump” game development. Champions Online has, apparently, one full-time developer because all the other employees have been called away to make the the shiny new game, be it STO or NWO. I won’t invest my time in any MMO which loses its developers as soon as it ships.
After the maintenance last night the Foundry was not available unfortunately so didn’t try that out, I did take my Trickster Rogue on a bit and have to say this is the D&D I remember from my youth playing with pen and paper, a few minor tasks then down the dungeon you go. Lovely.
Queues were gone as of last night, thank goodness. I also love their Gateway website that lets you look at your characters and equipment, use the auction house, and do tradeskills online!
I have to say, I really do love 4th edition rules.
How wide a spread of feats and powers do they have? By this point (in the pen-and-paper books) there are literally dozens of powers to choose from in every class, even among the starting at-will powers.
Been playing this and it grows on you. There’s all sorts of delightful details and things that I haven’t really seen in other MMOs: mobs using potions and scrolls, traps that hit hard but that can be seen beforehand if you pay attention, hidden rooms. Combat has gone from good to better since getting a companion at 16 to tank for me and now at 20 I can ride too which should cut down on the endless walking. Queues are gone too.
First dungeon wasn’t anything special but it wasn’t too bad either - I expect there will be more challenge in the later ones, while this one reminded me of the low level WoW dungeons with everybody rushing around effortlessly killing stuff. Only truly perplexing thing is their byzantine currency system with easily over ten different ways to buy gear, but that’s not really negatively impacting my gaming so far.
Since it is free, I’m giving two thumbs up for now.
Back when they had their merger, they screwed up my account.
Every ticket I’ve opened has sat for a week with no response, then is closed and marked as “solved.”
Been playing this a while now and was having fun healing the dungeons with my cleric, even as wimpy as the heals are. But now I tried to do the lvl 42 dungeon twice and the tuning of the last boss is just wildly off. It felt roughly as difficult as early expansion tBC/Cata heroics and most people leveling up and just hitting the queue for some fun times aren’t ready for that sort of asskicking. Boss summons endless stream of adds that hit me with their basic melee for 3500, which is 25% of my hp. I’m sure good guild groups can deal with her since we got her to 10%, but it wasn’t any fun in a pug.
Doesn’t help that tanks are bad at tanking and clerics get all the aggro. I’ve played all sorts of classes and can kite decently well but anybody who just wants to hang out in the back row and fill up some green bars is going to be brutally serial-murdered in every fight with adds, which seems to be what every dungeon end boss has.
Going to have to see if the next dungeon is any more merciful. If not, I’m out.