Monday, August 25, 2014

Neverwinter PvP a Highlight of Cryptic's Game

water contest in the Summer Festival Neverwinter event
Summer Festival in Neverwinter can be a messy affair




Once more I found myself enthralled by Neverwinter this evening, and it seems to be quickly becoming my No. 2 mmorpg right behind DDO. Currently we are in the middle of the Summer festival and I participated in the water contest which was quite fun.

Prior to doing so I jumped into some PvP in the 5v5 arena and for once it was an evenly matched contest. We lost but only by a few points, in fact it was the closest match I have been involved since becoming eligible for PvP. One of the knocks on this game has been that some perceive it as P2W. 

I am not sure that this criticism is fair, from what I have seen at least in the lower level brackets, some of the matches are evenly matched considering the composition of the teams. It is true that control wizards and other casters seem to be very powerful, but sometimes it is just my fighter against another fighter or cleric and or rogue and it seems as though it is a fairly even contest, especially if we all work together

I really wish I had more experience but I think it takes practice like everything else. Another aspect of PvP I enjoy in the game is that it isn't as dependent on gear as World of Warcraft. In wow, it seems that you may be in the same level bracket but you can still lose because you may not have the greatest gear, but this does not always seem to matter in Neverwinter. 

I won't pretend that it's all easy and effortless, it's an intense experience and there have been many times when I went toe to toe with enemy players who got the best of me one on one, but it's a pretty good thrill and thus far I am enjoying the battles. I think it gets more intense in higher levels, but I will have to wait and see. My friend is still playing RIFT and I have yet to experience warfronts in that game, but for the time being Neverwinter will be the go to game when I feel like pvping because DDO is not designed for PvP.







Thursday, August 21, 2014

Project Table Top: Enjoying D&D 5E on a Budget


OK I am going to talk about 5th edition some more. This Sunday I am scheduled to continue playing the 5th edition Mines of Phandelver module which came with the new starter set, with a few changes.

You see, at our last gaming session my group and I had to stop midway because we were all still very unfamiliar with 5th edition rules. The main change will be that instead of my inexperienced self DMing, I will have one of my friends do it because, well he is just better at it and he has volunteered, thus freeing me to play a fighter character and kick some goblin butt.

This whole experience started me thinking that what I really would like to do, perhaps as an end of summer and going into fall project would be to take some of my old and classic D&D books, modules and set, specifically some of the info found in the 4E "Into the Unknown" book and incorporate the creatures and other material into 5th edition rules. Now wouldn't that be fun? It would take some work to be sure, but oh so rewarding.

I was vacillating on whether to pick up the new PHB, but seeing as it doesn't seem that long ago that I picked up both the Into the Unknown supplement and the 4E PHB, dumping $50 on a core book that isn't really essential for me to continue my game sessions seems a bit excessive and unnecessary. So I have decided instead to go the economical route and spend hard earned cash instead on some previously printed but still awesome material, most of which can be picked up online on this fanstatic website.

I can just see it now, how awesome would it be to be able to pull out a copy of that first edition Manual of the Planes and try to update some of the content for the new system? Can it be done? Anything is possible with a little effort and imagination and isn't that what D&D is all about?

BONUS: For light reading material this week, I refer you to the A&D comic book series published by DC Comics in the late 80s and early 90s and approved by TSR.

I recently picked up No. 33 "The Wager that Saved Waterdeep" for 50 cents (I know what a deal!) and will be devouring it tomorrow morning from cover to cover. I shall elaborate on it and other D&D reading material in subsequent posts, but suffice it to say that this comic penned by Dan Mishkin and featuring artwork by Jan Duursema should hold me over until the new IDW series comes out later this year.






Friday, August 15, 2014

Neverwinter put a spell on Me

I am not going to lie, I have been playing Neverwinter more than DDO of late, but that is not to say that I like one game over the other.
I find that at least up to now, I get something different from each.

DDO makes it way easier to group with folks so it has more of a party and D&D feel that Neverwinter which could be labeled just another World of Warcraft clone by some. Yet to do so would be doing the game a great disservice as I feel that it does utilize some of the D&D lore to offer a good mmorpg experience, especially now that they have partnered with Wizards of the Coast during the Tyranny of Dragons event.

As far as DDO is concerned, I posted this query to the forums the other day:

When I made my warforged Barbarian, I didn't pay much attention to things like feats and skills or even paid attention to a guide like this one
 

I  like my character and has advanced to level 9 but I am not sure he has the optimal feats and skills needed for best results, I never fully researched the requirements and I feel like rolling a new character and starting all the way from level one, except I don't much feel like going through the early content and quests once more.

Is it really necessary to acquire all the recommended feats and skills and what if I don't have them? Should I stop playing my character and re-roll??? 


I got varied responses from the very attentive and kind community but I decided to re-roll so that I could make the build correctly and named my new character son of Doomar (since my original was Doomar a warforged Barbarian.)

I read that a warforged sorcerer was a good build for someone new to the game, well I am not exactly new but I will be with this new character and since I am not used to playing casters, it will be a good experience for me.

I also wanna personally apologize to the folks at Cryptic when I said that DDO completely pawns Neverwinter. Actually, it is like comparing apples to oranges since each game is different and each one brings some good things to the table.

The main problem I have right now with Neverwinter is I transported to what appears to be a high level zone and unless I group, there is no chance of me surviving it. DDO leveling is slower than most mmo games by design so I feel pretty good about my progress in that game.

My goal is to reach level 15 before the end of the summer which I think is very doable. I may also purchase some upgrades so I can explore the Forgotten Realms content as I have restricted myself so far to the Eberron setting.

I also tried out the D&D 5th edition starter set last week with my friends. It was a very slow session with the pregen characters and module found in the box, but mostly because we were all getting used to 5th edition rules and trying to figure out spells. When you have a caster in the party, things can get a bit confusing, but I hope to sort it all out before our next session. Players still had a blast killing goblins in the city of Neverwinter which is all you can ask for.Maybe I will post a vid of one or our sessions, or elaborate on the pregens and the pros and cons of the starter set adventure for those of you yet to try it.