May 2013

Dungeon Delving – The Cloak Tower #Neverwinter

stargrace May 2, 2013 2Comments

My guardian is level 16 – almost 17 at the time of this post. Some fantastic things came with reaching those levels. At 15 I was able to access the foundry, which is dungeon creation. I haven’t begun to even attempt to create a dungeon yet, but they’re coming. I’ve had a lot of fun playing through the few foundry missions I’ve done so far, they have had some great stories. One tip I would give to people is to read the description of the foundry carefully first. They’re very specific as to how many people should be attempting them – I began one that said it was ideal for 2 people and it was a painful experience – but I did manage to complete it. It was also the first time I died.

You go through a few important stages. At 11 you can begin invocations (I think that’s what they’re called, basically its’ prayers). There’s an NPC you visit in the main city near the Northern part, she’s surrounded by a blue circle much like you see at a campfire. You can pray every hour, and earn buffs and astral diamonds from these blessings. The first time you pray every day you’ll earn some seals that you can collect and turn in. You also learn how the broker works, although to be honest I didn’t even bother reading the text on that quest, so far I’ve just sold everything to vendor.

I am also able to queue for dungeons now. The first one being ‘The Cloak Tower’ – and it was a lot of fun, but you have to be alright with ‘typical’ dungeon mechanics. What I mean is if you’re going with a group of strangers expect there to be that ONE person who rolls need on absolutely everything that drops. There’s those who don’t recognize anyone as being the tank and who are constantly rushing forward, etc. If you don’t enjoy PUGs you may not enjoy doing them in Neverwinter. However, I didn’t let that stop me, and just went with it. I didn’t win any gear, but I couldn’t use it for my class anyhow. I did earn a bunch of seals, and I enjoyed the little stats at the end that mentioned how much “stuff” everyone did (healing, dps, etc). I have no idea what the seals are for, or where to spend them. I think I saw an npc standing outside of the actual zone-in entrance, but I’ll have to check tomorrow to be certain.

Anyhow. It was fun, I had fun, and I’m having fun. More details tomorrow! For now I need some sleep. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Lets Play #Neverwinter

stargrace May 1, 2013 2Comments

Surprisingly enough I am having an absolute blast in Neverwinter. There are queues but as far as stability I think this was one of the smoother “open beta” launches I’ve seen in quite some time. When the servers were first opened to the public there was some incredible lag and “rubberbanding” which is where your character seems to fling around backwards after you’ve moved, like a rubber band snapping back into place, but that issue was solved quite early on (and they even let the public know it was due to a bad firewall at one of their data centers). There are still queues and they are still annoying BUT they’re the lesser of two evils I like to think. I don’t mind doing something else while I’m waiting to log in, it isn’t as though I’ve dedicated any money to the game (yet).

Which brings me to the next great point. The game is free. There’s apparently no moment where you will be stopped because of not paying. I asked that in specific this morning because I couldn’t see where they’re going to make any money from. So far I’ve reached level 10 and haven’t felt an urge to spend any coin at all. I have two bags and there are enough merchants around that I can sell before either of them fill up. I’m crafting without any issues and I don’t mind waiting for the crafting to complete instead of spending gems to quicken it along. I do have some Zen on my account, I’m guessing this carried over from STO where I have a lifetime subscription because I’ve never purchased any.

I can see where appearance gear is going to be a nice money maker. It doesn’t seem to matter what class everyone is playing, we all sort of look alike. Above is Blesse, my guardian fighter. I had to inspect two friends to see what classes they had chosen because we all looked very similar. I had a shield. They didn’t. That was about my only indication.

This morning the queues are longer than they were last night. There’s also down time starting shortly for a number of hours. Still, I’m excited and can’t wait to start playing again. This one certainly caught me off guard.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.