Grinding Time! – a Reaction to “Developer Blog: Level Cap Increase”

Dev Blog : Level Cap Increase

Time to put your grinding pants on boys and girls… It’s leveling time!
The center of this level cap increase are Undermountain dungeons instead of Elemental Evil zones. Let’s hope it’s a wee bit less grindy. However, we have to be real, leveling is almost always grindy. That’s just par for the course. Knowing that I’m hoping the devs have reviewed the Elemental Evil campaign, and improved upon it in as many ways as possible. I honestly was digging the story of Elemental Evil a bit, but then again I’ve played the Elemental Evil campaign in pen and paper DnD so my interpretation of it may be skewed because of that.
The note in the blog about ‘keeping your eyes open for treasure’ I find enticing, yet also tinged with apprehension… Firstly, I love phat lootz, and I cannot lie. If there is treasure, in NW or in a pen and paper game, I’m going for it. Simple as that.
However, the apprehension ways on if there is new gear every level from 71-80, what really is the point of it? Outside of maybe the leveling campaign is designed to be longer than ‘normal’ or even Elemental Evil, that would add some ‘value’ to loot at each level. This is where things get fishy…

Like, do we need to get gear from previous level 70 campaigns to have a chance to Level up to 80? Will it be that hard? For example, a new player levels to 60, then goes through the Elemental Evil campaign to level 70. Can they just continue on to Level 80 w/o having to worry about any campaigns and then just go back and ROFL’stomp Chult/Ravenloft/etc. with level 80 gear?
Your guess is as good as mine! Though we should have some more answers on that shortly. I’ve got a feeling the leveling process will be a core part of the Undermountain campaign. Undermountain however is pretty well built for that conceptually as the devs can pull from many different dungeon levels/zones.

We’ll just have to wait and see!


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14 thoughts on “Grinding Time! – a Reaction to “Developer Blog: Level Cap Increase”

  • February 27, 2019 at 10:03 am
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    I suppose primal Gear will suddenly be crap? I remember Mod 6, when level 61 green gear was more powerful than Mod 5 epic gear

    But will there be new gear available for Seals in PE?

    Also, Kolat, with the forum still down, how could I contact you or make a post on another subject?

    Cheers!

    🙂

    • February 27, 2019 at 10:11 am
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      So the ‘what gear will be good’ question is completely legit… I’d think that basic level 70 Gear isn’t as good as basic 71, though better level 70 gear like the Primal would possibly still be useful for some levels while grinding up. We should know shortly, ie. this weekend, as hopefully Preview will be live then!

      And for contacting me, on the Official NW Forums, my handle is kolatmaster so just shoot me a PM there if that’s cool! 🙂

    • February 27, 2019 at 6:04 pm
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      Not exactly true. The set bonuses from lvl 60 gear were still better than lvl 61 gear. So it was a give and take. Just like any lvling zones gear is kind of irrelevant because it becomes out dated to quickly. I doubt they will change that model about Neverwinter since there focus appears to be sprint people to end game.

      • February 28, 2019 at 12:42 pm
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        I’d be really surprised if any Level 71-79 gear has any sort of set bonus/ability that has a wow factor… So ya, some Level 70 gear may still kick ass for a bit!

  • February 27, 2019 at 1:10 pm
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    They did say, I believe in the state of the game stream, that primal and other high item level gear that is currently available will hold you over through a portion of Undermountain, before you have to start replacing stuff. So gear shouldn’t immediately become obsolete.

    • February 28, 2019 at 12:42 pm
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      Hoping so!

  • February 28, 2019 at 2:30 am
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    They will prob increase the level of chult and other areas like they did when it went from 60-70. The well of dragons for example became a lv70 zone. Previously it was 60.

  • February 28, 2019 at 6:13 am
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    70 Gear with sets bonuses might be better then 70+ gear without but with better stats for a bit. But once you are hitting 73-75 its time to swap gear as the content expects you to have those better stats.

    Adding all these stats has always been a contention to me with NW. A piece of Armor should be a piece of Armor, only stats that should change it is what it is (chain, plate, scale, etc) and what it is made of (bronze, steel, etc) then maybe some magic added. In D&D the only stats that magic add is up to a +5 for the very best (adding to AC, which NW is now ripping out). Then flavor it with some magic like fire resistance and cosmetics.

    Then there is the restrictions to class????? Why can’t a cleric where fighter armor? Why can’t a rouge wear ranger armor? Etc? In fact every class should be able to wear whatever they want but take negatives in their class if it interferes such as a wizard casting a spell in leather or a rouge wearing chain.

    And the only game I ever saw that gave HP to armor and shields had rules in that if it went to 0 it was destroyed and to gain HP back it had to be repaired. Why is the fighter and the pally now denoting their physical shields as HP…AND its related to their bodies HP? Do they have slaps of their body fat hanging on the shields???? This is just stupid. A shield either blocks or it doesn’t, same with armor, hence, AC.

    • February 28, 2019 at 12:44 pm
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      Interesting idea to have gear not class related, though that’s not exactly in theme for Dungeons and Dragons. Wearing Heavy Armor, for existence, is relegated to Fighters, Paladins and such. Rogues don’t, and very rarely some Wizard/Sorcerer builds might but it requires a bunch of Feats…. At least it did in 3.5/4, not sure about 5, but I think it’s still the case.

      We’ll see soon enough though! 🙂

      • February 28, 2019 at 9:33 pm
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        In regards to potentially rolfstomping the older campaign content, in theory this should be solved by the scaling. Once mod 15 hit console’s I stopped playing and went back to SWTOR, where in the years since I last played they have adopted a gamewide scaling (based on level, not gear). If your gear is low for your level you will struggle, if you are well geared it will take time but won’t be a completely one sided slaughterfest (I have to heal up every 3-5 mobs or so for instance, but I’m wearing the 2nd most powerful gear in the game) and honestly it’s a hell of a lot more fun than overleveling and rolfstomping the content ever was. It also forces you to always pay attention to mechanics and really polish your game skills. If they do the scaling right I’m confident it will revitalize the game quite a bit.

        As far as new gear, if it follows standard mmo formula the endgame gear should be viable for 3-5 new levels or so, after which you will get new gear that is much, much better. Gear permanence is not desirable for MMOs, and you should never expect that the gear you spent months getting will last more than a few months anyways. Getting new gear is half the fun.

        If these changes are executed well I’ll probably start working NW back into my gaming schedule. If done really well I might even feel comfortable opening my wallet back up. Time will tell.

  • March 2, 2019 at 11:31 am
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    Please…. STOP the gif’s !!!

    • March 2, 2019 at 5:54 pm
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      Survey says… Nah.

    • March 3, 2019 at 7:37 pm
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      Yeah… kinda agree with Jack on this one… one gif if fine but a pile takes me back to the 90’s World Wide Web, AOL, and the sound of a modem connecting.

  • March 2, 2019 at 10:48 pm
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    For such changes to make sense, they would have to completely remove artifact weapons / items. And definitely increase the amount of experience required to the next level (now you can hit 80 out of 70 in a minute).

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