Rushed Combat Rework Patch Hits Neverwinter Live PC Server And Faces Community Backlash

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.