Reddit: Overview of changes from previous BW to BW4

[Zeli]

www.reddit.com/r/Neverwinter/comments/1cd94c/overview_of_changes_from_previous_bw_to_bw4/

So i broke down and purchased the $60.00 pack to get access to this weekend/head start access to the game, and here is an overview of what's changed since BW3.

Crafting:
I was dissapointed in the crafting system in general, you don't actually have to do anything to craft, just click a button and a crafting asset will take care of everything for you. It takes time, but its not time that you have to actually devote to crafting. Also, some of the time requirements are crazy, it took 6 hours to crate a pair of leather shoes (lv 9 trickster rogue boots) - this was as a lv 2 leatherworker fyi. Overall I think the crafting system needs work. (I did like that you can do your crafting form the internet (https://gateway.playneverwinter.com) and thought that the website interface actually felt smoother than the in game tool for crafting.

Gateway:
The gateway program is awsome! Being able to update your Auction House listings, and search/purchase new items right from the internet was great. The crafting was smooth from this perspective (see above for opinion) and being able to switch characters to work on all of them at the same time is quicker than the in game features.

Power Tree:
I'm of mixed feelings about the new leveling tree. On the one hand, I really like that they took peoples concerns into consideration and made a major change to the game. The level system isn't bad, but if they decide to keep it this way I think it needs some work. Some of the powers got moved from early powers in BW2/3 (bait and switch was like lv 7 or something as a rogue, can't get until lv 25+ - can't remember exact level right now).

On the other hand, I really enjoyed being able to try out all of the powers in the previous BW's. I felt like I had MORE character customization when I could pick any power and slot it into my active power section. As it is now, I spent points on powers I would never use, just to unlock powers that I wanted.

Level Speed:
It felt to me that they made the leveling in BW4 even faster than previous weekends. My rogue is now lv 44, with a play time of 1 day 16 hours 43 min (41 hrs aprox). I went from lv 34 to 44 in 10 hours this weekend, which is about what they wanted, but I wasn't actually playing that entire time, I tested out crafting and searched all of the vendors for new gear and stuff, played the Auction House as well. I think I spent a total of 7 hours leveling up, and made 10 levels this weekend - that seems quick to me, especially at the higher levels of the game.

Identify Scrolls:
In previous BW it cost 800 AD for an identify scroll. They now have 3 different types of scrolls (lv 1-29, lv 1-59, lv 60). The costs are much more reasonable now (15, 45, 150 respectivily). I sold a few items on the AH, and purchased 20 lv 1-59 ID scrolls for 900 AD. I also found 18 during my travals while questing. It was very reasonable to keep all of my gear that I found identified so I could sell in on the AH.

General Overview:
Overall I'm still a huge fan of Neverwinter, and I'll be playing once the game goes live at the end of the month. I feel that the Crafting System still needs work, and the Leveling system (if they don't change back) could use a little work as well. Otherwise, a great game that I'm looking forward to. Also, the Gateway is awsome!

[Zeli]

Another point of view from here. Disclaimer: I played with a friend and we got total of 3 characters to ~25ish. (GWF, Control Wizard and Trickster Rogue)

Crafting:
Crafting is very similar as it's on browser games like in Farmville, Mafia Wars or Supercells games (Hayday, Clash of Clans). First thing you do is to get an asset, a person who will craft things for you. Then you give him a task which he will do. All the crafting takes time, time being some minutes (1-15) on levels 1, couple of hours per craf at lvl 2 and up to 18h at level 3 (well, that 18h craft is another asset). Crafted gear does not feel too good, and you probably won't be gearing your 1st character with the crafted gear. You can get descent gear for alts tho. BUT... Here is the link to the mentioned games. You can haste the crafts with AD. You can also play the crafting minigame on a browser with your Gateway connection.

Gateway:
I don't have anything to add for a OP, except you can play that crafing minigame on your browser.

Power Tree:
I'm really happy that they made this change. Getting a level is now a relevant update even before lvl 10, when you start to get the feat points. On power tree, you get enough points to spend without feeling that anything relevant gets missed. As OP said, they have changed the skills locations on power tree. Adding a levelup point to a skill adds damage of skills by 10% in almost all cases I checked (well, some cc skills got slightly more duration, switch and bait's clone got 10% more hp). You get now new skills available on every 5 levels, generally speaking 3 new slots to spend points, and this makes the change op mentioned. For Tricster rogue you get switch and bait now at lvl 20 instead of lvl 7. Also the duelist blades opens at 20 instead of lvl 15. Control mage's dailypowers got changed as well, now starting with the magnetic -daze all -thing instead of that huge ice nova (you get the nova back at lvl 10). Generally speaking, as said, I really like the change as it gives you more options to tweak your character.

Leveling:
Not sure about the leveling speed, I think I got exactly same spot at same levels now. Although I played only 2 characters to lvl 25 on this BW. We noticed a weird thing leveling tho. It is possible that if you level up with a friend, you get different quests from same quest givers. Just to name few: he got rescuing prisoners -quest at black lake and I got the Find stolen goods -quest. Same thing happened at Tower. He got the quest where you need to find a lost mail, I got the arch mage quest line. I think this COULD BE related to the classes you play. On this session I played control wiz and he played GWF. Also noticed that quest tend to get broken when done in parties. We broke 2 quests during the weekend and had to disband quests and start over. (ie: On black lake's skaven instance "loot two keys to go past a door. I looted one and him another, door didn't open and keys are bop)

AD requirement:
As OP said, everything gets fueled up with AD. On this I get the mixing feelings. It's something you need to grind a lot. Well, getting them is not hard, as when "skirmishes" event pop, you get 1000 un cut AD as a reward for every skirmish you do. As daily limit to refine the AD is 25k, you are kinda 'forced' to grind that amount daily in a way or another. You can choose to do daily dungeons for 1k or daily forge for another. Forge one is repeatable. Forcing a player to do something is a big turn off for me. What you need them for then? As said, you can use them to haste crafts or pet trainings, purchase 100% spee mounting skill (2.7 M ad!!), you get some gear with them, you need them for removing the gems from armor/weapons... In short: They are your most important currency. And they cannot be changed from a character to another.

Changed level requirements on stuff:
I'm not sure if pets were up on BW3 or not. I kinda missed them back then. You get a pet at lvl 16 now. You can, how ever, buy one earlier with AD / Zen. When pet levels up, he goes away for a half an hour or so now to level. If you want it right away back, spend your AD. Incantation the gods (ctrl + I ) got changed from lvl 7 requirement to lvl 11. Crating requires lvl 7(?), not entirely sure about the crafting's level...

Character Balance GWF feels a LOT weaker now than it was on BW3. Thanks to removed cleave. Even with godly blue weapon it is losing on damage to CW and TR.

Control Wizard feels buffed by a ton since BW3. Now topping damages on skirmishes and pvp. On instances tied with Tricksters.

Trickster is still top DPS, but the lack of any real aoe really hurts. Soloing with Trickster gets pretty tricky around at lvl 18 or so. Of course getting a gear helps, but it feels much more gear dependant than it felt on BW3. This could be imagination, as I don't honestly remember what I got at BW3 and are that gear tied with BW4's gear. Daily powers all feel really weak tho. I tried all 3 of them, but none of them felt 'op' nor even 'ok'. The best skill is still swich and bait, as it gives you tools to play around with stealth.

[Zeli]

Crafting:
They took a page from SWTOR here, so anyone who's played that will recognize some similarities, except you don't send combat companions. Overall, the system is ok, but the time requirements are too long; I saw a few items that would take 12-16 hours to do, which makes a certain kind of sense (I'd not be able to make a pair of shoes in 30 seconds, but this isn't real life), and you are limited in activity slots at first, but as you get higher in both levels and skills, you get some more, but they come a bit too slowly for me. I liked the addition of 'extra ingredients' to make things go faster though.

Gateway:
I think this is a great idea. I think the horrendously long timers for some skills kind of require it; if something is going to take 16 hours to make, I would enjoy to start it when I have six more hours at work, and will finally have that digital sweatshop I always wanted.

Power Tree:
I think it was ok. Just ok. I think it's a better system than the last one, but the artificial gating of the third tier for each skill (You need to reach a higher level to unlock the ability to put a third point into each skill) somewhat detracts from the reason for the switch; if I've got a bunch of rank two skills, but can't take rank three, well, now I have to put a point into something I won't use at all or much, since I can't unlock a stronger skill tier for something I will use until later. Other than that, I liked it. Picking the powers I want instead of being handed skills I won't use is much better.

Level Speed:
I only got my rogue up to about level 20 or so, but I never felt that I had to grind a lot, but overall I thought the leveling curve was pretty good. The foundry will go a long way to remove the 'grind' aspect from missions, since after a month or so of release there will be some excellent content (I know I'm going to make a few missions!), and by the time most people create an alt, there will be so much content that you'll be able to basically level to the cap using foundry missions only.

Identify Scrolls:
I think that the outcry about this mechanic has been a bit overblown here. The mechanic is kind of shitty, yes, but the drop rate for these scrolls has been increased quite a bit. Even when I was identifying all of the gear I was picking up, I had over 30 for some time. They were also very cheap to buy, the most expensive was 150 AD. Seeing as you can get 2k AD a day just by doing a dungeon and a foundry mission, it's not THAT big a deal, but people whining about 'pay to win' have no need to worry that much.

As an aside, I think that un-identified loot should not drop in instances, or at least not from bosses. Nothing sucks more than winning a roll against someone only to identify it and find out it's not an upgrade. Yes, of course I could trade it, but that's treating the symptom, not the cause, simpler to just be able to see what loot it is first.

I've not played D&D for 20 years, is this mechanic even a thing in D&D?

General Overview:
Overall, a very enjoyable game, one that I'll be playing for a while. I think the cash shop is a bit expensive, but that might change over time. I've already dropped $60 on the game, but I can see myself dropping $10 here or there for some armor dyes or character slots or whatever, but I doubt I'll be buying things like outfits and mounts, they're simply too expensive, and I can't justify paying $40 just for a mount.

[Winin]

Astral Diamonds are not required, but they make life better (speed up timers, get premium gear, etc). You gain them by playing the non main quest line. And all the stuff you do at max level gets you them. Also you can trade them for Zen (the cash coin). So if you have time, you can grind them, if you have cash, you can buy them from people with lots of time. Same system in STO and I never felt particularly hampered by it in STO.

Also you can trade AD between characters, but it involves a little trick with the Zen-AD exchange (make an AD offer to sell with one char, then retract it, then log in other char and remove the AD from escrow). A dev posted that trick, so it is allowed. They said they were working on a way to trade between characters and to use that trick for now.