Rushed Combat Rework Patch Hits Neverwinter Live PC Server And Faces Community Backlash
As far as poorly received patches go in the Neverwinter community, the Combat Rework patch that was released yesterday has to be up there, and Cryptic has certainly had a couple of bad patches in the past.
A common joke in the Neverwinter community is that PC players are the beta testers since patches arrive on PC before on Xbox and Playstation, and this time that certainly seems to ring true.
Looking through the Neverwinter Reddit and the official Neverwinter forums there is almost only negative feedback to the patch which seems to have been moved from the preview server to the live server much too soon.
Players are now struggling to defeat mobs in most areas of the game even though the patch was supposed to improve scaling.
Since there was little to no warning given before implementing the patch, the community and content creators have not been able to properly test the changes or make new builds.
Popular Neverwinter Youtuber Northside gave his 2 cents on the matter in a recent video saying he expected “absolute chaos” with the new changes.
Below is some of the feedback from the community.
I started playing yesterday and got to lvl 30 by todays maintanance. i log on see mobs have tripled their hp, i do more damage i have more hp myself but the game as a lvl 30 character in a lvl 30 zone is unplayable. i constantly need to use hp restore items wich come at a cost, i need 3 minutes to kill a pack of monsters that took me 10 seconds yesterday with constant kiting and runing waiting for hp pot to come off cd. i do hope its not intended to be like this
burekna2 on the Official Forums
If the new combat system is what caused even the basic mobs to be able to one-shot anyone, then the new system is BROKEN. This needs to be addressed ASAP. This is making the game too much of a headache to try to even level.
harvmonster on the Official Forums
Yesterday before I hopped off. I was 19,241 item level. Been grinding to get to Avernus. I come back. I see there’s and update. I do it. I log in. I browse my stats trying to decide where I’m heading off today to grind. Well what did I find. I got bumped up to 24k item level. Wow golly I think this is awesome. Let’s head over to Avernus right now. Well what do you now. Instead of being a few hundred points away from being just strong enough to start the campaign. Now I’m a few thousand short. So. Yeah. New update made the game grindier. Enemies are godtier strong and seem to melt everyone around me.
By Koobitz on Reddit
I’ve been playing for close to a year now and I’ve noticed that every update seems to make the game less enjoyable. This one really made me mad though. The first thing I noticed is that a health bars look different. Not that significant, but still annoyed me. Then I tried fighting, and WOW. Enemies are so hard to defeat now. I was pretty good at combat before the update and now I’m constantly dying. I tried switching out some of my powers and that made no difference.
By Itsjordanfunk on Twitter
There has been a small amount of positive feeback as well. Players with very high item levels seem to still be able to play, as well as low level characters, while most players in the middle are struggling.
Hopefully Cryptic will come up with some fixes, and improve the patch before it hits the Xbox and Playstation servers.
Let us know what you think about the recent combat changes in the comments!
What an embarrassing article. It gives voice to the inevitable complaints you get every time a MMO makes a major change without any exploration of the actual changes, reasons behind them, benefits to the game, or any perspectives other than the gripers.
Creating controversy gets clicks but it makes for poor journalism.
One can go in life with the mentality that – most people are stupid and lazy.
But those people are the ones that treat its illness, bake its bread, keep the lights on, and buy its product.
Although the number of people saying something does not make it true, chances are much higher that they are correct. Giordano Bruno and Galileo Galilei are not born every second.
And even IF they are wrong, they are your mates or your customers, you need them just as much as they need you, or more.
.
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I’m sorry you feel this way. MMOCult is definitely not a site that is out to get cheap clicks. We usually cover Neverwinter in a positive or neutral light as it’s a game that the team at MMOCult actually plays, we even have our own guild. This one specific article however was about the feedback to the changes which were mostly negative no matter how you look at it, and goal was not to get clicks but to light a fire under the asses of the developers so that they might fix the issues.
The game is barely playable right now though except for the few end game zones that received more balance from end gamer feedback before it went live. And that is only for said end gamer who already had high end characters in the old system, and tons of ressources to make up for the upcoming changes.
The critics right now aren’t adressed at how the new system works since everyone knew how it would be almost 2 months ago from now, but the actual player experience now the changes are implemented. The new system could be good if not everything was half assed and buggy, it will need at least 6 more months to be fixed and running correctly, compare it to the launch of CP2077, launch way too soon, no real vision on how things would really be…
There’s also the fact they never set a real date to these changes, they just said it was coming soon again and again, and as the preview server became more and more of a mess, people expected a launch way later. Thing is, they just threw some alerts on twitter and their forums about how the patch would go live the day it did, like « hey by the way, we’re launching the update in 20 hours, seeya ».
Until it gets fixed it will be harsh for the playerbase, and some bleeding out is expected.
To bad it’s legitimate complaints, I find it hard to believe you actually play Neverwinter. We aren’t complaining it’s hard, we are complaining it’s unplayable.
Me too, I don’t think I ever died in Sharander, now at L80, Feys take me down. This is after Friday’s 1/22/21 supposed fix
I was one of those who migrated their characters to the test server to see the changes for myself. Upon seeing the literal iceberg ahead of S.S.Neverwinter, I immediately went to the forums to voice my concerns regarding the coming disaster:
1.) Every companion had a 90% reduction in stats.
2.) I struggled to clear basic mobs in a drawn-out 10 minute battle I previously could solo in 60 seconds. Added to this were distant mobs agroing suddenly and swarming me from every side.
3.) Npcs appeared to have no cooldowns to their attacks while my own cooldowns seemed longer.
4.) Companions were utterly useless and no longer appeared to be adequately serving their roles as healer/dps/tank.
5.) My Legendary weapons that were originally over 1000 IL were reduced to 890 IL. Gear, Artifact, Mount and Enchantment IL were also reduced.
6.) I had more success in defeating mobs with no Enchantments slotted at all, save for the special weapon and armor Enchantments… suggesting that the presence of Enchantments were throwing off level scaling accuracy.
Folks in general chat and on the forums dismissed my concerns as being “the butthurt ravings of an entitled toxic gamer.” And yet here we all are in a mess that makes the disasterous Mod 6 and Mod 16 pale in comparison. And why? Why damage a successful MMO in such a way that it literally kicks the entire playerbase to the curb, not once but three times?
If this were all due to game engine limitations or hardware restrictions on the server-side, I would understand and be more forgiving if it meant that Neverwinter would be able to continue functioning if but for a little while longer. But taking into consideration the rather snide remark made by Neverwinter developers on a Twitch live-stream about players being “too dependant” on their companions, it certainly smacks of resentment. However…
– Who introduced companions?
– Who encouraged players to BUY companions in the ZEN store?
– Who encouraged players to BUY lockbox keys for the chance to get better companions?
– Who encouraged players to get companion gear?
– Who encouraged players to get rune stones for companions?
– Who encouraged players to BUY Bonding Runestones?
– Who encouraged players to BUY Companion Upgrade Kits?
Perhaps we gamers have been too good at playing this game and it does show. But is that the fault of the gamers for using what the developers encouraged them to use, or is it a simply lack of genuine imagination on the part of the developers?
In any case, it would seem that the only way for there to be any challenge in Neverwinter these days is for the developers to artificially make the game more difficult by taking away from the players what they have earned in-game and/or bought with ZEN fair-and-square.
I usually don’t post on articles that basically stick their preferable thumb in the air to see which way the wind is blowing, but here we go. These changes are literally what we asked for as a community over a year ago. If you look in the forums under the CDP section you will see request for “better rewards”, “more engaging”, “My class feels useless”, “who needs tanks”, “who needs healers”, “I just solo group content”, “REWARDS, REWARDS, REWARDS”, “meaningful gameplay”. This game offered all of those things at one point, and most vet’s who have been around wax poetic about pre-Mod 6, not Mod 15.
This change was intended to deal with these, frankly, long standing complaints. Change for most people is bad, they don’t like it, it doesnt matter when it happens, today, tomorrow or next year, we just don’t like it. Usually after a bit of time, we adjust to the change, and in many cases our initial impressions change, we might not hate it, some people even grow to like it. Whether that is the case here or not remains to be seen, I for one do like it.
Is it complete? no. Are there bugs and adjustments needed to be made? yes. That is no different than any other MMO in the business. The issue here is that people still are falling back into the old understanding of how things worked two, five years ago. This Dev team puts out fixes in under 24 hours, they have already done one before the weekend less than a day after release. We are not talking months or even years for fixes of the past, we are talking days and weeks here. The Devs are actively looking at forum posts and interacting and watching streams to gain context and discovery on the possible issues.
Chris Whiteside endeavors to make a game that we will enjoy and have fun playing, by ourselves and with him. He is an active player and when he runs into issues he reports them. He is trying to establish a relationship with the players to design a game that we can be proud of, and enjoy for many years to come. It is a team effort, a community effort, the players and the Devs, it is a collaborative effort, not a combative one.
If you don’t see value in that desire, and still thinking that a good business model is to screw over your players check out Cyberpunk 2077.
M8 you’ve been defending cryptic on every turn, if you trully like what they’ve been doing then good for you, I mean it, I personally don’t dislike the changes but we can’t be blind to the truth, the majority of players have been affected negatively and they are angry. I’d encourage you get out of your comfort zone, go to PE, go to the leveling zones, people are actually mad about these changes, this articile is no exageration the game is about to take another massive hit because of this.
It’s important to understand that the vast majority of players don’t watch streams, IDK if you’ve noticed but NW’s twitch chat is the same 30 people, all of them end gamers, market players who no matter what happens will be fine because they’ve been capped on ad since caturday and can turn BIS within 1 hour, but as such their feedback must be taken with care, the majority of players can’t even get 100k ad per day, I know for you that might seem like a joke, but ask in your alliance, engage with people on the in-game hub zones, you’re privileged and if you trully care about the game it’s important to listen to must.
You’re the biggest kiss ass ive ever heard of, the patch put the game in a terrible state for newcomers, low level and mid level players.
At the risk of being called a kiss ass, too:
Everyone has a right to be angry about the game… good for you.
But categorically you claim these changes were hidden and thrust on the player base without warning, without “creators” getting to test the changes, etc. which is false. It was on pre-view for 6 weeks, and was announced through various mediums not just Twitch streams.
As for the struggles of the new players… they have acknowledged it and announced they are working to fix it. Be patient. I know that is not the answer you want, but it’s the answer you get.
Be angry. Move on or don’t. Play or don’t. But present facts and not opinions veiled as facts.
So admittedly I didn’t test before the emergency patch that was dropped within 24 hours of the issue with levelling zones being identified.
I decided rather than speculate I actually test and back up my thoughts. I streamed today and started a fresh character. No hand me downs or boosts in any form. With little effort I got to level 17 in about 2 hours 10 mins. Was killing slower? A little. Did I feel threatened. Never. I was on ranger so some classes mileage may vary, but overall I had to play my class to its abilities and not just be a mindless button masher.
I then took a fresh level 80 who is only halfway through Undermountain and went to see how the best path to gear works and see if it was achievable solo.
I was on a rogue so again other classes my have a slower experience with killing (Looking at paladin tanks and healers). I cleared the entry quest to Vallenhas (which I don’t think is scaled like Avernus).
I went in to Avernus got my vehicle, demonstrated for new players how to grind treasure maps the easy way and then completed the majority of my first round of weeklies my item level was 20k.
Again I had no hand me downs other than some companion gear which could easily have been picked up had I completed Undermountain (I also had a some mounts but only 20% bolster but no insignias at all). I did some basic enchant exchanges at the exchange vendor using the items you are given at level 70 to improve my character.
I was on test so didn’t get to experience any dungeons and my ilvl wasn’t enough to do REDQ RTQ but I’m pretty sure I could have gotten there with some very easy work in Avernus or grabbing gear from Ape/Insurgencies.
I hit a health stone 2 times when I tried to pull 2 packs and didn’t want to die. Playing to my class strengths I never felt threatened. Things only died a little slower than the pre combat change experience. I even took on Mog and who had been patrolling for a while. I died to his add’s once due to poor positioning. I then came back and had him below 50% when he despawned as he had been up patrolling too long before I engaged him but it was a fight I was winning and should have won. Even if I had lost I don’t think that would have been unreasonable as a new level 80. We need challenges where we need friends, it is after all an MMO, not a single player game so getting help for what should be a hard experience is actually a good thing imho.
In both of these examples there is no 1% or endgame element and It was achievable. I didn’t just mash buttons and win. I had to play to the strengths of my class which I feel leads to people becoming better players.
Are somethings broken? Tomb of the Nine Gods spirits and end boss feel like they have too much defense, Lair of the Mad Mage, Yes the stones at the Worm have too much defence still. So Yes, there are things I feel need fixing. Do they ruin my game experience? For me, No. All these things are going to be fixed very quickly.
The combat changes have increased my enjoyment. Having to worry about mechanics or actually experiencing them and having to play to my class in a more skilled manner has been a positive experience for me.
If your desire is to mash buttons with little concern for your class skills and group play and just scoop up loot then perhaps a game like Diablo 3 is a better option.
You do realize there are more casuals that can’t play at 100% efficiency than there are experienced players. You’re experience only applies to the people that want to have the hardest game possible, the majority of the playerbase finds this patch atrocious for many reasons. It’s not wise for a MMORPG to alienate the majority of people that keep the game active and alive.
This is my take on the combat, and i’ve been a casual mid-level player since 2014. It follows a similar ‘perform bunch of encounters and atwills and kill’ combat in early mods, which in itself isn’t a bad thing. The issue that’s become apparent is the enemies overbuffed HP and combat advantage due to scaling. It’s nice that as a starting player you have like 50k health, however your initial power is not nearly as effectively in dealing damage to the enemies as prior to the combat rework (this becomes apparent when you’re fighting enemies on the sleep dragon bridge and continuing from there). Especially in areas like Blacklake District and Tower District which normally should take around 5-10 mins to complete now takes double that time. This also explains why new players are going to have a harder time to adjust, since the combat has become more tactical about where you place yourself in a fight, and encouraging players to party up although earlier content is better left soloing.
For mid level-end game-BiS players though, these changes aren’t all too gamebreaking. Some areas like the acqu. incorp. basement are still bugged and close to unplayable. I think like most of the disasters Cryptic release, you just have to wait for a couple weeks if not months for things to be straightened out.
I will say the one thing that ruined the gameplay for me the most is the xp bonus from azure enchantments being hard nerfed. For anyone who wants to create a new toon other than just invoking will find it incredibly tedious to level up now, whereas before it could take a mere 2-3 days if you had high rank azures and guild xp boon. This personally for me is the reason i’m losing confidence in Cryptic to keep Neverwinter relevant, as they’re changing things that either have no negative consequence on the game and are beneficial to the playerbase in whole. Hopefully they recover and start caring about their entire playerbase and not just the ones giving them revenue.
But this made my class as a healer useless? They buffed the potions in dungeon. I do not damage, I can even complete the quest outside of a dungeon without help. No pally healers are useless more than ever.