Expedition Leader Pack: Is It Worth It?

With the “Expedition Leader Pack” the devs try something new and introduce a massive “head start pack” for Module 13 with tons of unique items other incentives. That however comes with a hefty price tag. Until release day, February 27th, the pack can be purchased at the early bird discount price of 7,500 ZEN. Base price after that date will be 10,000 ZEN (~100$). That’s a lot, so let’s talk about whether the pack is actually worth the investment.

What’s Included?

First of all, let’s go through the included items. What players get is an unique Spiked Deinonychus Mount, Alpha Compy Companion, and 30 days of VIP. While most of the mount’s value is defined by its look, the companion is very viable for DPS players as it enhances damage by 5% in all of Chult (also corresponding dungeons, trials, and skirmishes) with its active bonus. Three ring slots make it easy to gear, but since it’s missing a debuff, it will have a hard time replacing the current Sellswords and Con Artists. Not to say that it’s worse than the other upcoming premium companion, the Chultan Tiger. Also included are other novelties with a title, fashion set and transmute. Once Module 13 hits, a “Weapon Cache” will be available for owners of the pack as well. It will contain a full week of progression in the new campaign extension, five Coalescent Wards, 20 Blood Rubys, and one of the new item level 500 weapon sets.

Value in Astral Diamonds

One way to estimate the worth of the pack is its value in Astral Diamonds. Due to market fluctuations it’s hard to come up with a definite answer, but overall Wards, Rubys, Mount and Companion should be worth roughly 3,500,000 ADs. That’s 7,000 ZEN (given 500 AD / ZEN, it might look differently depending on the platform you’re on). Add another 1,000 for the VIP subscription and you are already over the current discount price of 7,500. That’s certainly a best-case scenario, but indicates that you might be able to get a lot of your investment back even if you don’t include the title, weapon set and campaign currency.

Value in Gameplay

The other thing you can look at beyond AD value is gameplay benefits. As said the Alpha Compy is very viable as passive companion, but lacks in other areas. VIP is always great to have though and instantly having access to the latest tier of Artifact Weapons is obviously great. It depends however. The Pilgrim Weapons are not the strongest in the new mod and if you plan to get a different set, than this one won’t help you too much. Unless you don’t mind wasting refining points that is. Because in that case you can just start with Pilgrim and switch later. But the set obviously is more useful on a toon that plans to keep it.

Value as Head Start and Novelties

Last but not least, the pack has head start value and comes with some nice novelties. I’m not big on titles, transmutes and fashion, but I know others are. With the new Fashion Bag it’s easier than ever to handle “looks” as well. So this definitely adds some nice minor incentives to get the Expedition Leader Pack. The included campaign currency in the meantime is roughly worth a full week of progression in the new module. That’s definitely a plus as you can start with the Hunts right away or enter the new “Cradle of the Death God” trial a week earlier than the rest.

Conclusion

Overall the Expedition Leader Pack seems to be worth it. It unfortunately doesn’t offer too much gameplay value unless you planned to get the Pilgrim Weapon Set anyway. The value of the included items however comes close to the pack’s ZEN cost even without considering some of the novelties and head start currency. So if you have money to spare, I’d definitely recommend going for the pack, sell what you don’t need yourself, and be happy with the rest. The only thing you might want to avoid is paying the full 10,000 ZEN for it. Either grab it for the early bird discount or use a future sale or voucher.


What’s your opinion on the Expedition Leader Pack? Too expensive? Do you like the included items? Share your thoughts on our social channels, in the comments below, or visit the corresponding thread on our message board!

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j0Shi

j0Shi plays the Neverwinter MMORPG since the open BETA in 2013 and is a regular contributor to the blog and the whole UN:Project. Originally a Guardian Fighter, he has built up ALTs of all classes and plays on BIS/near-BIS level.

9 thoughts on “Expedition Leader Pack: Is It Worth It?

  • February 14, 2018 at 3:46 pm
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    Just remember the game is not PTW

  • February 14, 2018 at 5:56 pm
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    I was looking at this today.

    * If the Wards, Rubies and VIP were one-offs per account (which they are, of course);

    * If the weapons were account-wide unlocks for all classes and BtA, like Twisted Weapons, so Alts of the same class could share;

    * If the Title, Fashion, Mount, Companion, Currencies were account-wide unlocks,

    THEN I may have bought it. But I will pass.

    At least this is not available for cash money in a -25% Pre-Release Fake Sale Scam, like the Dragonborn Legendary Pack was.

    The Expedition Leader Pack may go live at 7,500, just like that one did.

  • February 15, 2018 at 1:11 pm
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    Nice write up thanks. I thing you should have done a Zen only cost comparison though. When you convert to AD it becomes harder for the console players to relate as our markets are not maxed at 500AD/Zen. Co-Wards 1000 Zen each, the VIP, rubies are in ZM too etc…I think that stuff alone is close to if not more than 7500 zen at full ZM cost. Companions are 2500ish zen same for mounts etc…I think if these are things you are after, it is a good deal.

    • February 15, 2018 at 4:52 pm
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      Good point, sundikelana. I play on PC, but I agree. Zen is the common, baseline currency across all platforms. Those of us suffering from AD Inflation (thank you, Resonator Exploiters) can do their own conversions.

      Maybe a better approach would be a Zen cost analysis, then show the PC and Console rates for trading AD for Zen and vice versa?

      Are the rates the same on XBox and PS4?

      And how many AD does your Zen cost you? Trading AD from Random Runs and Weeklies might get you a lot more Zen for your AD than on PC.

      The pack contents easily come to more more than 7500 Zen. But the actual GAME VALUE of what you get is the point.

      5 Coal Ward = 5000 Zen
      21 Blood Rubies = 14,000 Zen, although the pack has only 20 (so 13,600 Zen)

      So that’s 18,600 Zen right there.

      BUT, 20 Rubies are worthless because that is 100,000 RP. And that will not get even a SINGLE Artifact Weapon half-way to Legendary in RP terms. You could get both to Rank 41. I have more than that many RP on most characters already, from green junk and Invoking Bags.

      And No One but a Neverwinter FOOOOOOOL would EVER buy Blood Rubies for Zen. And certainly not 13,600 Zen for 20. They are the biggest rip-off in the game.

      So the Zen “Value” of the Rubies is scam bait, as they are not worth anything near that much Zen in actual, game terms and CERTAINLY not worth the cash you could spend to buy 13,600 Zen.

      If the Rubies cannot be sold on the AH (EG if BoP), it’s a waste of Zen as Blood Rubies are GROSSLY Overpriced. Should be 3 for 200 Zen, not 2000.
      If they CAN be sold on the AH, the price will drop if a lot of people buy these packs.

      Better to spend 3500 Zen on an Account-Wide Armored Bear Epic mount and run Wanderer’s Fortune on all your characters. Preferably in a 50% sale, like with those Maze Engine coupons they did. And enchants like Dragon Hoard, Fey Blessing, Quartermaster’s etc.

      5 Coal Ward = 5000 Zen
      Well, there’s a 3% drop rate on Celestial Coffers from Invoking. I go through the misery of manually invoking on all my characters 6 times almost every day. So between 2xRP Events I get about 150 coffers. So that’s 4 or 5 BtA Coal Wards right there. Unless RNGeezuz crucifies me. If I am lucky, 6 to 9 Coals.

      1 month’s VIP, 1000 Zen.
      Yeah, I buy 6 or 12 months in a 50% Sale. Sell the companions.

      The Companion
      MIGHT be worth 2500 Zen, but only if it were an Account-Wide unlock.

      The Mount
      MIGHT be worth 3500 Zen, but definitely ONLY if an Account-Wide unlock.

      The Weapons
      Well, who knows? If all my classes could claim a BtA set, so Alts could share, that would tempt me.

      ~

      AND, of course, if you spend cash on Zen, do it during a 25% Promo.

      And when you Spend Zen, be wise with what you buy and preferably do it during a 50% Sale. There will be one in the Summer, maybe Easter. There were two 50% sales last Summer Festival.

      But at least use coupons or spend Zen during 15%, 20% or 40% sales.

  • February 18, 2018 at 11:23 pm
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    Hi!

    First of all – big fan of your blog.

    Second – I don’t know what are the prices of Zen in US but in Poland, to buy the pack (even with the discount) is basically to pay the price of 3-4 D&D 5e rulebooks. And if you ask me – that’s a hell of money for something like this. I got what I wanted (Alpha Compy) from AH and it was only 500k. I never was interested in weapons and will go for the easiest ones to obtain. Weapon bonuses became more irrelevant every single mod since we rotflstopm the content.

  • February 21, 2018 at 6:51 am
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    What items can be claim for all my alts?

  • April 12, 2018 at 3:20 am
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    Are the coal wards and rubys bound? Makes a huge difference if you can actually sell them…

    • April 12, 2018 at 5:33 am
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      You can sell them

  • April 12, 2018 at 5:53 am
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    Thanks a lot for the quick reply.
    Quick updateon my reasoning to buy: ZEN is lately around 450ad on ps4, which makes this pack cost (7500 zen) roughly 3.4 mil ad. At the sam time the compy sells at around 550k, the mount for 100k, the wards for 450k. So selling all of those and a few rubys you get back roughly 3 mil ad. Meaning you pay for the weapon set, the campaign currency and the 1 month VIP only about 400k ad or a bit less than 900 ZEN which sounds like a good deal if you have enough ad to buy 7500 ZEN.

    Cheers all!

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