The Lowbie Diaries Vol. 13: First Dungeon Runs And Bag Space Money Grab

Welcome to a new project, experiment, challenge or whatever you wanna call it. Normally experiencing the content with well-geared toons, I figured it would be quite interesting to approach the game from the perspective of a casual player. How does it feel starting from scratch and build up a character without the help of your mains? How long does it take until you are geared enough for the latest endgame content? Welcome to the Lowbie Diaries, it should be fun!


Because the site was on a short holiday break, this diary will not cover the latest weekly progress but some aspects of what happened over the last few weeks.


Syndrith
Syndrith

Well I completed my first T2s. Sort of. I got picked up by a guild run with three BiS characters, including a bubble Pally. I’ve read through a hot topic on reddit the other day whether Pallys suck the fun out of the game and while I was majorly profiting from him during the runs, I get what the thread author means. It was kind of weird. It definitely felt like I shouldn’t be in that dungeon (we completed ToS then eGWD), but it was not only easy to pull me through, but also to keep me alive. Frequently I saw 6-fold red numbers popping up on the screen that all would have instantly killed me (I have no Soulforge yet, not even any armor enchant), but the Paladin took everything and I did not die once. So let’s say I have been part of a T2 run, I wouldn’t call that a completion yet, because it didn’t feel like I contributed much. I didn’t even out-DPS the Pally.

Doing dragon runs in WoD I asked myself whether anyone is still doing Tiamat these days? The boons require 80 freaking tokens and it should take a lifetime to get them without driving back the dragon queen. I entered the Temple for the lulz one time and there was exactly one instance with 8 people in it. So I guess the answer is no? For a char like this it means that the last boon of the ToD campaign is not achievable. You can get a Linu here and there by trading in the campaign currency, but it’s not major. I might get to 30 for the sixth boon eventually, but no way I would advise anybody to go for 7 unless they introduce another source of Linus.

While saving for the double RP event, both normal RPs and Winter Event ones, I got introduced to one of the many artificial f2p barriers that players run into. This one is called bag space and a major pain. It’s almost cynical to read through the original dev blog introducing the new refinement system, because one of the selling points was indeed bag space.

[su_quote cite=”pinpointerror” url=”http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/neverwinter/news/detail/1001670″]So. Much. Bag space. Since you needed to gather 4 matching Enchants of the same exact rank in order to Fuse them to the next Rank, you ended up with 2 or 3 stacks of each Enchantment and Runestone, filling upwards of 30 slots in your bag.[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”amenar” url=”http://forum.arcgames.com/neverwinter/discussion/comment/3988518/#Comment_3988518″]Next, I wanted to talk about bag space. One of the main goals of the new system is to reduce the bag space requirements of engaging in the Refining system. We don’t think there will be a reason to carry around a bag full of Enchants/Runestones anymore – you’ll have the ones you want slotted in your gear and companions, and you’ll use extra ones as you get them to Refine your slotted Enchants. You won’t have a full set of all 9 of the basic Enchants/Runes at multiple ranks, as there is no need to try to stack them up to smash them any longer.[/su_quote]

Two years later we would be glad if refinement items only took 30 bag slots. Our item database lists 40 refining stones and most of them exist in different bind variants. This does not include any Enchantments and Runestones, which are also used as RPs for Artifacts and exist as BoE and BtA as well. It’s insane! I’d give them that the game has evolved since their original design, but it’s safe to say that it failed. It’s true that you ideally use any RPs you find and directly feed them into your Enchantments, Artifacts and Gear, but that’s not what practically happens. You save for double weekends, pile up stocks to sell them or do not always have the necessary reagents to upgrade stuff and further refine items.

This stuff leads to filling up bag space with even more items than under the old system and especially low chars like this run into issues very quickly. I even have one Embroidered Bag from the First Time Buyer’s Pack and it’s not enough. By far. If this would be truly f2p, you should be able to get enough bags to stuff the most common items, but bag space is actually a premium currency and to properly play the game, you need to invest money. You can use the mailbox as workaround, but that’s not the intended way either. What makes matters worse is that the devs are aware of the problem, but instead of introducing a player-friendly solution simply added another bag slot. An obvious money grab.

For the lowbie project it meant that I was not able to save up all RP for the Christmas double event. I did buy stacks of R5s however and let them idle in the mailbox until needed.

See you next week!


The Lowbie Diaries Vol. 8: Summertime
The Lowbie Diaries Vol. 9: Restart
The Lowbie Diaries Vol. 10: Double XP & 50% Sales
The Lowbie Diaries Vol. 11: Campaigns, Motes, So Much To Do
The Lowbie Diaries Vol. 12: Gear Progression


We are always looking for people that contribute to this blog. For more information check this out or visit the forum.

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.

3 thoughts on “The Lowbie Diaries Vol. 13: First Dungeon Runs And Bag Space Money Grab

  • January 5, 2016 at 4:56 pm
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    Never do Tiamat runs if the contributions are not at 100%. At 100% you will have more instances to join and bigger chance of success.

  • January 8, 2016 at 12:34 am
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    Need baggage help.. Got VIP (you should since we’ve already discussed how it can make you AD)?

    Post items you wish to save on the AH for obnoxious amounts of AD. When the posting expires the AH will mail you the items. While mail cares about how many mails you have from players with attachments it does not care about mail from the auction house. i.e. you now have a limitless bag. The second best bag in NW just got better (#1 is overflow, #2 is the mailbox)

  • January 10, 2016 at 2:09 am
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    Just a follow up to John – still viable on Xbox, even at tier 0 – depends on the group you fall in with.

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