Should you play Neverwinter in 2021?

I love Neverwinter, but as with all things you love, you shouldn't be blind to the flaws they have.
An excellent D&D based action MMO with fantastically fun, frantic, fast paced combat and very weak, everything else.
Massive thank you to all my supporters on Patreon and Twitch, if you're enjoying the content then consider subscribing from only £1 a month.
#####
Patreon: / joshstrifehayes
Twitch: / joshstrifehayes
Discord: / discord
Twitter: / joshstrifehayes

[@SkyTempleMusic]

Your coverage of MMO's is outstanding. You go through pretty much everything other youtubers simply dont.

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

Thanks, glad you're enjoying the content, there are many other mmo youtubers out there, i just cover what i think matters :)

[@skinniemcfats5292]

Josh is yet another person who doesnt understand what pay to win is, and hes supposed to be the 'mmo expert' /facepalm Neverwinter IS pay2win because you can spend now to win NOW. it doesnt matter if I can grind for 8 months to finally get that thing that enabled you to kill me 8 months earlier or not.

[@billy_cross]

@@skinniemcfats5292 I feel sorry for people like you. Wife my suck for you looking in your neighbors driveway and seeing that he has a better car or a nicer house or that his wife is hotter than your wife.

[@shawnangie1]

I quit the game. The power creep treadmill is insane and demotivating.

[@sunsetsleeper]

im sorry but its not pay to win but you take less damage if you pay for vip and many more buffs? sounds pay to win...

[@bubblynbassy]

@@sunsetsleeper You can buy VIP without money and it's permanent

[@latenight6815]

@@bubblynbassy you know time worth more than money right?

[@magnus2217]

@@sunsetsleeper you dont even take less damage

[@soyoucanchangethis]

@@bubblynbassy How?

[@GalacticUnderwear]

Appreciate the shout out, was surprised tbh :) but humbled aswell!! great breakdown josh. Loved it

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

You're one of the most consistent NW creators, glad to see you're still keeping at it :D

[@GalacticUnderwear]

@@JoshStrifeHayes Thanks brother. I will continue keeping at it :)

[@clementineschalchen330]

@@GalacticUnderwear Never trust a man who does “:)”

[@mayn90s19]

@@clementineschalchen330 never trust a woman who uses YT

[@FlamespeedyAMV]

@@clementineschalchen330 😈 this better?

[@insidiouscoil8474]

The was probably the most informative and honest review I’ve seen yet for this game. Well done.

[@smileyface9459]

Except the combat is broken an he say it is good

[@alexwashington8785]

I just said this out loud 2 seconds before reading this comment LoL

[@derrickshoults3772]

Never winter is not just pay to win it’s pay to play lol. After the story good luck with grinding for a higher gear score

[@khairulbasirrudin732]

I agree this is a very honest review..Am level 49 now..Pls share how is the combat system broken?

[@weglarz]

@@khairulbasirrudin732 Some people think "it has flaws" means "broken"

[@IAmKingHomey]

So it's basically like WoW. "Congrats on being the greatest champion the world has ever seen and acquiring the strongest weapons ever forged. Now go kill this bear that is stronger than anything you've ever faced before and I will give you a dagger I had lying around in a dusty chest that deals more damage than your bis gear you spend half a year on." It's ridiculous.

[@valor144]

This is normal though no? I Mean if you dedicate on getting good gear for a few MONTHS as is said in the video, it's normal that you 'll catch up with other players that is basically every MMO ever. Now the grinding part and the pay2win part (well pay2win faster at least) ,now that's a problem

[@Neo-Bladewing]

At least with the transition from Classic to TBC Classic, and to a lesser extent WotLK Classic, you'll be using your level 60 BiS gear basically all the way to 70, and then 70 BiS gear can last you to 80. It wasn't until Cata that your previously BiS gear is totally replaced by leveling greens. That's personally why I've moved away from Retail. There's no point in doing stuff when it's current when you can just wait a couple months and get handout gear that's vastly better. At least in the Classic games, working to a full set of BiS not only gives you the option of a perma-BiS character for that expansion, but also makes the next expansion's leveling process smooth and easy.

[@Farvadude]

@@Neo-Bladewing private servers are so advanced now that i haven't bothered to play retail since mists of pandaria came out and insulted the franchise's worldbuilding with pandering to the chinese market (which is stereotypical anyway. i bet chinese players would prefer something original rather than inspired by their particular culture when they already live in it). there's just no reason to. warmane has had stable servers with high quality scripting for years now. they've been around so long i've gotten all 10 of my characters to lvl 80 (with the boosted XP gain rate on the server that has the boost. i don't play on the normal rate server because i have too many other games to play and the boosted server has TONS of people on it. way more than were ever on live servers. but they modified the spawning and such to handle it. like i said they're really advanced now. it's not like it was 10 years ago)

[@Neo-Bladewing]

@@Farvadude I don't play on PvP servers. The open world experience is abysmal since I'm not a sadomasochist and some of the community it fosters is even worse. Some of my guildies and I played on a fresh TBC private server in preparation for TBC Classic and we all just sorta got to 70 and dropped it. Open world just wasn't fun.

[@AndragonLea]

@@valor144 Not really. Ideally your gear shouldn't immediately become obsolete once the effort to acquire it reaches a certain difficulty. I. e. if you're reaching end-game and your gear is BiS only because you worked for months to make it so, the next update or quest shouldn't immediately throw you a green or blue piece that outperforms it. Well-balanced games make very rare, mythic or unique pieces as good as common or rare gear 20 to 30 levels above it to make it, well, valuable. If you get really rare gear very early in the game you'll eventually outgrow it anyways, but you'd still have a piece that's viable for much longer than an ordinary piece of the same level to justify its rarity. Some games also work with making new gear sidegrades instead of straight upgrades, allowing you to play the same class differently or boost a different set of characteristics not commonly boosted by gear for that class, etc. tt.

[@cheeher3212]

End game progress is what ruins it for me. I don't want to grind for life just to get out geared by a newbie.

[@lokusbluete3068]

its not the endgame goddammit. the game was great. for a year. then they fucked it up. the contend stays. its just a piece of shit now

[@40sUphillBothWays]

@@lokusbluete3068 F2P will ALWAYS optimize for new player onboarding--until they twist it so badly it suffocates itself. It seems sometimes purposely. Most people aren't good gamers, and often this is due to many valid reasons. Mobile gaming is trash for the competitive itch, but it is where studios are heading. Hopefully pride incentivized studios crop up to port our jones on console and pc.

[@I8one2Many]

More like you grind for years and the devs make all your gear doodoo

[@hrayz]

Enjoy the content. Play the dungeons a few times. DON'T grind for the top Gear. Just have fun with the current content and upgrade when the new stuff comes out.

[@stellardust6954]

😂😂😂

[@VandyCaville]

1:45 so it's a freemium game. Like those crappy games on mobile that dont make you buy stuff. But makes everything so much faster.

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

Basically yes, so play until endgame then stop when the cash kicks in

[@JayFFAFAlesanaES]

8:29 "Just don't say anything bad about the game". So, like every echo chamber we label a "subreddit".

[@NobodySoldier]

I, once, dared post an analysis (rather negative I have to admit) of Final Fantasy XIV and why as an old player (played since the original release, playing with the same character) I was disheartened by the game. My post was explicitly stating that it was my opinion and wanted to hear their opinion. Well except for one or two answers, the 40 to 50 comments were about killing myself or leaving the game because it is perfect and the world should be worshipping it. So, yeah. Too many game dedicated subreddit are like that.

[@thatgun6726]

If you play from a DnD players perspective and get a bit invested into the story's and things going on it can add more flavor for you. I've played games in the past just skipping all dialogue and cutscenes just to beat the game but as I got older I started wondering why I'm here and what I'm doing. Imagination is key!

[@magekazin]

Well put, I would add that recently each new mod has basically forced you to spend millions to get your character back to where you where before it dropped. Massive play style and build changes have happened and even more are to come. With that being said I loved this game and made a lot of friends in one of the biggest alliances in the PS4 version, but with the changes in content of the last handful of mods the elite players became more and more elitists and it was hard to find players to play with even though I used to run with some of the best players on PS4.

[@willprotector]

Josh your critique is spot on. I loved leveling in Neverwinter-it has one of the best leveling experiences in an MMO. I also love the action-orientated combat, though it felt weird to get hit by something just because I did not hit the dodge button method to avoid it. The end game is awful- the time locked campaigns are not fun past a certain point. The grind is real and I am a VIP player! The Astral diamond runs became a job, not fun. And the random dungeon sorter tends to put you in the same crappy dungeons (looking at you Cragmire). Great game to go through making different character types-just don’t expect a rewarding end game.

[@actionman4520]

Mod 10 was turning point.After that it became daily grind job.Unrewarding game but community is awesome.Thing is you need to find active guild that actually do daily based events.Fun.

[@hansxy0]

True. Im now in the End Game and it isnt much fun. The only stuff i currently do is doing the Daily Dungeons for Astraldiamonds and the winterfest.

[@chaoticneutraldan9417]

Did you pvp? No? Then you didn’t play endgame

[@willprotector]

@@chaoticneutraldan9417 So only PvP qualifies for in-game content? Yeah, not so. Lots of a games have endgame content that isnt PvP. Neverwinter’s endgame started after level cap.

[@chaoticneutraldan9417]

@@willprotector no you misunderstood me. He stated in his review that there was nothing at endgame but a large grind with no rewards. I pointed out that there was also pvp. Pvp is there to give endgamers a break from the endless grind. It is for endgamers. I’m countering the argument that there is nothing for endgamers not claiming pvp has exclusive rights to endgamers.

[@godhand2018]

Dude I remember playing this game as a kid and being absolutely mind blown. This was the first MMO I've ever played maybe one of my first online games period.

[@remy-pierrebabin8517]

you must be young then :D

[@YouregayDailyanime-bc7hp]

Same it was my first and only mmo game ive ever played since it was free on my xbox and also i always saw my cousin playing it

[@BigBroccoli_]

Same this was my introduction to MMORPGs and why I am now obsessed with them. It will always hold a special place in my heart

[@Kalgert]

Hey there Josh, I popped over from your "Why Neverwinter is Dying" video, and I have to ask if there is any news about that private server for Module 2 that you mentioned back in the day? Been looking around but can't find any trace of it. I was interested in getting into the game and figured that the older version would be a good place to start off with.

[@SunderingLoki]

I stopped playing after I couldn’t ever get a team for a dungeon.

[@WillofGodwin]

Man I miss this game. It sucks how the developers don't really care tho. The only thing that speaks to them is $$$

[@Elite7555]

What do you mean?

[@jpdub217]

I played this i think 7 years ago and loved it. I had no friends to play with me so I just started to drift away. I loved the capture the flag game they had and had decent gear from that. Not sure I would comeback, but I;m glad the game is still alive!

[@Marcosalgado1]

me my friend :D

[@joeljohnson9371]

7 years ago compared to now, yikes! Everything became simplified, they removed many maps and community driven content, even the combat is cookie cutter for most dps. Really not worth coming back imo

[@petervillent5573]

One thing Josh forgot to mention - back in the day (~2017) Neverwinter terminated their EU servers. So if you are living anywhere outside US, you'll be forced to play on the US servers which sometimes is fine but most of the time can be a lagfest. And that was what made me stop playing the game.

[@MolagsBols]

Left ESO for BDO... Leaving BDO and trying this. The endgame grind is fine by me. The BDO grind starts your first day and never ends. Wasted so much money on BDO and ESO is just bad, the combat sucks and I crash every 30 minutes lol hopefully this game can get me through until I can find something else or maybe fall in love and stick with it. Won't be spending any money on this game tho I've learned my lesson with p2w and it's never worth it.

[@yous4810]

Did you try FFXIV?

[@MolagsBols]

Has it made it to Xbox?? I haven't kept up with it but if it's on console I'll definitely try it out.

[@joshuaroe1402]

@@MolagsBols I'm pretty sure it is on console

[@ScreamQueen1990]

Maybe it’s just my play style, but i love eso and hated bdo ,FFXIV, bless unleashed, and never winter.

[@-SashaAlex-]

Not worth playing the game if they keep changing the end game with every new module. Soooo no. I had enough of their horrible monetization, small inventories, horrible grind for the in-game currency, and abysmally low drop rates for gear.

[@tyreewalker1459]

That moment when you watch the same youtuber over and over again and realise you never subbed... Luckily it was an easy problem to solve :)

[@zsrlmsb2470]

I subbed accidentally on first video but never unsubscribed, just watched a lot more of his videos and was kinda surprised when I wanted to finally sub... Well, that sub was not a mistake, just a happy accident.

[@lillyswift1052]

The game is fine, all content is free, but customer support is one of the worst among all online games. Do not pay a dime, once you paid enough they have 100 reasons to ban your account without proper reason

[@AbstractType1]

Why would they ban a regular paying player instead of a FtP player?

[@lillyswift1052]

@@AbstractType1 trust me, they ban both if you affect their economy, even through legal play

[@wilfredoriveraestremera5088]

@@AbstractType1 i got a lot of my frends gettin band just because the name of jose or ariel on a character is ofencive and got ban and they was using the real name of them lol

[@nikkshankle5390]

Been playing since 2016, these new mods have killed any love for the game.

[@Sora-o]

That "135k daily players" is soooo false lmao.

[@ZorotheGallade]

Average of 900 players per day...I've been lowkey happily looking at its decline in the latest years. Not even Covid could get anyone but the most hardcore sunk-cost fallacy whales to come back to the game.

[@kingdom1234513]

Neverwinter is in fact pay to win. you can not match the rate of content release as free to play. you wont recognize this pay to win gap until you reach max level and about 2-3 expansions behind the current release. you can enjoy, and by all means it is fun, but you will always forever be behind everyone else in powerlevel and gear. by log scaling magnitudes. the most serious hardcore gamers find themselves gated by time gated conversion lockouts, (not playtime or item collection) for earning astral diamonds. a players best bet is to flip items to actually earn an end game set. as an example, a single slot item slot gem goes from worthless basically free, to 2 days of savings, to 5 days of savings, to 3months of savings to reach the top tier slot for a single piece of gear.... ok grats you saved for 3 months heres your gem, now go do it 11 more times........ like come on. oh look, a new expansion and with it comes a new tier of gem................................................. wonderful. this completely puts end game off the table for all but the 1%. so you can reasonably maintain an end game set but youll forever be behind and unable to catch up with everyone else because in addition to spending money theyre also doing their dailies and maxing out their conversions, same as you, devaluing your time and effort. so now we get into the real money making, alts and the auctionhouse. you use a secondary or tertiary account to do your dailies on and cap out your astral diamond conversions, put something on the auctionhouse and buy your own item on your main to transfer your main more astral diamonds. isnt that wonderful? (only it gets taxed, lol)

[@tommyknocker5147]

You are right the combat was/is epic, however I quit.. When you start feeling like the cow that is being milked it is time to go, Mod 21 NEW combat "rework" killed it for me. ESO is my game now, it's combat is not as fun or responsive, but it feels more like an mmo and less like a farming simulator!

[@IAmKingHomey]

ESO is such a great game but like all elder scrolls titles it suffers from atrociously slow and boring combat mechanics. It's a shame, really :(

[@swickster]

I probably wouldn't have quit ESO if the combat didn't feel so floaty and boring lol

[@Nemoknowsnothing]

On the paper I like the game. In practice: I tried but never feel like coming back after a play session

[@Karakla08]

I miss the Neverwinter Uncensored Community. They had real knowledge about the game but the admin of the site quit as the game goes to shit.

[@xXG3TPWNEDXx]

I have 6,000 hours in this game. It was once a beautiful game. Amazing combat, party synergy, classes were unique and fun to play. Recent changes in the last year or two have absolutely bombed this game. You get punished for all the time spent in game when you are end game. You get nerfed. You get the hard worked for stuff smited into the ground and have to rebuild over and over. They did 2 combat reworks all which have made the game worse. Boring and uninteresting by over simplifying everything. Worst of all the game is ridden with bugs like you wouldn't believe. So many bugs with every patch and so many bugs left unfixed. If they do bother to fix something it takes months. It's went into such a massive slump from what it use to be. The developers are some of the absolute worst. They don't like player feedback and anything that is fun will be taken away at some point. They have committed the biggest mmo sins time and time again. Even the most positive of people have had their spirits broken. Not to mention they have the nerve to put packs into the cash shop for 200$ for exclusive in game content. Yes free mmo needs money to survive i know. But the greed the impose is absolutely barbaric.

[@MarinoKadame1]

The day they removed player made dungeons because they were mostly pissed off at players making better content than the official content was when I didn't want to come back even if I quit before that because I mostly was doing daily chores that became dull.

[@xXG3TPWNEDXx]

@@MarinoKadame1 And that hasn't changed. I don't play the game anymore but, I have friends that still do. It's the same daily bs. Content has improved a little I have to admit. However, they made all the classes so boring and uninteresting. They simplified everything and took out all the unique things in the game that made it worth grinding and building for. Now everyone has the same cookie cutter build and the freedom to express your style is long gone. You basically just log in and do the same daily stuff regardless of the content. Meanwhile they are trying to shove the cash shop down your throat. They have cycled through developers like crazy. It leaves the game in a constant change as every developer has some grandiose idea that turns the game into a steaming turd. Then shortly after they quit and it recycles. Seems no one wants the turd so they play hot potato with it. Meanwhile players voices go unheard and the game will never see better days.

[@Gidon147]

"you can access every content in the game without paying" is such a non-helpful, throwaway phrase that, in my opinion, does not belong in a review, especially not for MMORPGs. Of course you can grind out all the content, it is not worth mentioning at this point. And yes, the game is absolutely pay to win, because you can pay to reach a specific goal faster (i.e "win"), that would otherwise require you to play the game. there is no gray zone here, or in any other example for that matter, that lets you pay to skip play time and would not be "pay2win". it's not "somewhat" pay2win, it is, by a very easy to understand definition, a 100% pay to win.

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

If by winning you mean maxing out all your stats, yep, you can indeed do that. If by winning you mean enjoying the combat, well you can do that from the beginning. If you feel you 'win' by completing the journey then just download the game, buy the level boost and campaign completion and boom, you win. If you feel you win by enjoying the process, journey more than destination thing, then you can have a lot of fun here. As for the 'access every area without paying', its an important element of the design because you CANT do that in warcraft, runescape 3, osrs, guild wars 2, final fantasy 14, or many other mmos.

[@Gidon147]

@@JoshStrifeHayes True that there is more ways to look at it, which however does not make it being pay2win a subjective thing. However sorry for becoming a little condescending there perhaps. I meant specifically Free2Play mmorpgs, not all of them. - none of the games you mentioned are Free2Play. They have different payment models and clearly distance themselves from the Free2Play concept. They do not give me an option to "win" without paying, which makes them irrelevant in a pay2win discussion. - It is, and this might sound a little unthinkable, unspeakable even, not that important in this case what anyones definition of "Winning" is when it comes to the debate about "pay2win or not". It is what the Game designer defines as "Winning". A Game, by definition, gives you an obstacle to overcome so that you are rewarded with "winning" (by overcoming said obstacle). Mind the word "fun" entirely missing in this definition. Now if a game gives me a choice of "do X times X to get your cool sword" or "Pay 20$ to get your cool sword", then the Game is designed around these two means of overcoming the obstacle between me and my sword, no matter what the sword actually does (i.e being cosmetic only). Here, The sword is the Game's win reward and both option A(Grind) and option B(Pay) are its win conditions. Mind that I am not arbitrarily trying to force the WIN word into this just to make a point. People just love so much to try to lie the whole paying part out of their game framework, make it look like it has nothing to do with their game, when it is an integral part of their Free2Play game. If give people the two options to either Grind or Pay for ANYTHING AT ALL in a game, it is automatically Pay2win. If paying is not your kind of winning or you don't see it as such does not matter, it just means you're trying to justify your (in the opinion of the designers) inferior playstyle, because clearly the best, most time-cost and button-press-efficient way to beat the game is paying up.

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

@@Gidon147 so in your definition, no mmo game in the entire world is free to play, ever.

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

@@Gidon147 in fact if you define winning as the ability to overcome X without paying, then neverwinter DOES have that.

[@Gidon147]

@@JoshStrifeHayes Oh no, I didn't say every Game is not Free2Play, only games like rs3 and warcraft which are pay2play (rs3 has an subscription model for example). All i say is, if you can EITHER play or pay, if you have those two options, then it is pay2win, regardless of free2play or not.

[@KaijuStormWolf]

I've been hearing a lot of complaints about the "Combat Changes" they recently released for Neverwinter. I was wondering if you had a chance to try them and what you thought?

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

Exactly the same as mod 2 then 12 then 16, people will complain, leave, new people will come, the cycle starts over.

[@Agumon5]

@@JoshStrifeHayes Hey Josh, so did the changes do anything to make the game more pay 2 win? Big fan of your content BTW. Found your channel last week and have binged almost all of your vids, great content!

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

@@Agumon5 hey, welcome :) The changes are something they do every few years, completely messing up the established combat formula. Give them a few weeks to sort it out and it'll probably go back to being kinda fine.

[@Agumon5]

@@JoshStrifeHayes Thanks man !

[@mike54HDW]

@@Agumon5 this game is out of date no point of downloading literally there's way better mmos like black desert or elder scrolls no point of downloading a game that is dead and out classed by other mmos, hell this game is even worse then blessed unleashed and that's saying something

[@ZorotheGallade]

The game developers just love to piss all over the players whenever they find a way to make progress while also having the tiniest shred of fun and are quick to nerf them to the ground, while leaving big glaring bugs and balance issues unaddressed for months.

[@WayneWatson1]

exactly and their marketing team does everything to suck major $$ out of you. The game is funded by suckers gambling

[@lux_angie]

Love it! You covered everything perfectly, including why I had also finally quit after playing since PC release all the way through till July 2020.

[@timothybauer1947]

This game is 1000000% pay to win.... anyone who has played this game for a long time knows this

[@iampain76]

so true, i played back in beta then for a few months upon official release. ive come back a few times but always and i mean always i get sucked into paying money to upgrade my gear and i can never not p2w in the game. the buisness practice is extremely predatory. yes you can get most things ingame via time/hard work but they make it to where you go bonkers trying to do that all the while tempting you with the cash shop. 10 bucks to upgrade items in your gear is ridiculous.

[@Alucard-kr5nk]

@@iampain76 u can get everythink for free if u will have much time to play this game i've beign playing this game for 1000h and i pay only for vip but when i want to ubgrade gear or artifacts i pay only for my AD

[@ruicabral1]

Ur so wrong. As a dedicated player you can get everything. I spent a lot of time playing this game spent a few bucks and I saw very powerfull pll. But you cant expect that to happend overnight

[@KayoYuuki]

I was surprised, didn't know this was a thing, I logged back at my main cap lvl wizard and I got one shot by a level 40 mob, I thought it was a glitch I couldn't believe the gear it took me so long to get was now trash, and I had to pay if I wanted a new character slot which would be fun for a while but inevitably end in the same way and I remember the endgame feeling a lot like a mobile game, just daily grind repetitive stuff, so I quit now I'm trying ESO and Ffxiv, much better games.

[@hevis6638]

I remember playing this when the game launched. It was hilariously broken, with dungeons being full of jump-through-the-wall skips and other exploits, and item duping exploits. The combat was really good though.

[@zeriel9148]

Good ol' foundry-exploiting days. I'm still extremely salty those exploits led them to completely cancel the foundry though--it was the only thing that really made the game unique imo, and was also tied into the identity of the franchise.

[@ZorotheGallade]

I once got kicked from a dungeon because I didn't know I had to jump off a cliff to basically skip half of it.

[@felixyuen8225]

@@ZorotheGallade Good times, good times. Also, for a long time it was only possible to find a party if you were GWF or CW because every other class was redundant.

[@joeljohnson9371]

@@felixyuen8225 it's so ironic now that wizard is the most hated/avoided of the dps group :P

[@joeljohnson9371]

@@ZorotheGallade probably pirate king retreat, it's likely patched

[@xpcmania]

The Devs "kill" the game with MOD 16

[@BgcPrince]

Yeah they completely ruined hunter ranger for me

[@felixyuen8225]

I loved Neverwinter. Played it during one of the most difficult periods of my life, gave me something to look forward to daily. Back then there were five classes only. Left cos endgame got a bit stale, and Icewind Dale wasn't out yet, so I gave up a gigantic stash of astral diamonds. Wonder if I can still access it if I return, haha.

[@alyours2889]

Fair analysis....resist the temptation of investing $ in it...it will offer you 1 year or so of thrilling entertainment!

[@CloudKXII]

First time playing Neverwinter the game had a similar flow to BDO. It was fun leveling up to mid game but trying to get to end game is super grindy.

[@tristramemerge]

Hahaha BDO is extremely grindy too. Not mentioning Value Pack system is so unfair FreetoPlay players find it hard to sell items to central market with value pack. Time is more precious, thats what BDO make me realize.

[@Greavence420]

was going to get back into this, and nearly did, was installing while watching. Then you reminded me why I too had quit, new modules making months of farming useless.

[@BgcPrince]

Fr

[@deenman23]

wow has been getting away with it for almost 20 years LOL

[@lightish3754]

man i remember being 13 in 2015 and playing the shit out of this game every day, but never being able to get into the fun cool raids because i couldn't spend the time/money to do the sheer amount of grinding that was needed to get cyan artifacts. on the plus side, the armour designs were what made me want to become a character designer lol

[@futhington]

I remember playing Neverwinter with my friends and hitting the endgame Elemental Evil content and discovering that wow yeah it really is brutal and we couldn't adventure solo anymore. Plus we were badly optimised and not geared for higher level dungeons (none of us felt like getting VIP status either) so our few dungeon successes were hard won and by the skin of our teeth. You really nailed it honestly, the game is most fun early on and the combat rocks. It's the bit after that that sucks.

[@aegisaingeal222]

Well damn. Just started playing for a week. Absolutely LOVE the flow. But If thats what the end game is like...welll. Guess I'm just gonna drop it now and not waste the time. I'll keep my eye open in hopes the end game gets overhauled.

[@WayneWatson1]

Unless you want to spend 2 years playing and grinding for free to get the enchants, mount and companion tokens to get what you need. That or spend major $$$ getting caught up to your guild

[@BlueEternities]

This definitely makes me want to reinstall and check it out again. Got frustrated with the cash shop and tedious nature of mid/late game last time but definitely enjoyed the combat.

[@WayneWatson1]

Don't, you will regret it

[@joeljohnson9371]

You know I just realized Neverwinter is like a clone of BDO. Awesome tab targetting combat done right, but insane predatory and at certain times pay to progress cases that make endgame just feel like a boring second job, only you're losing money for this work :P

[@MenrvaS]

"Zen speeds up the process substantially" is the very definition of Pay-to-Win. "You can get everything without paying, but alot slower" is also an ill-made excuse for not branding it as a P2W game.

[@damienjones653]

I have very recently stopped playing NW after sticking around since its original release on PS4, based on my time here is a more accurate review:Clas ses completely gutted and build / levelling progression ruined. The change back then were sold as it is going to improve the player experience and make the content more difficult - didn't happen and it took 2 years for them to acknowledge and then address horrendous class imbaThere is no sense of progression. The thought that goes into stats on items in recent years seems none existent, quite often older MOD items are Best in Slot because the bonus or item is better - solution nerf the old item to force people to wear the newer item and leave players feeling cheated. Lack of reward in dungeons and not enough Dungeon content - your analysis on end game is correct it is a boring repeatable open world farm fest of late. Challenge - other than the 2 most recent trials there is no challenge. Dungeons are routinely nerfed, mobs removed and mechanics negated leaving the end game player with nothing to run but the most recent trials. The biggest issue most will take exception to is the company are essentially a band of thieves - everything you purchase from their Zen store is a short term lease until Cryptic decide to Nerf it or make it obsolete. If there was ever a better argument for regulation of the gaming industry to protect consumers then Cryptic Studios should be up there as an example. Do not spend money on this game, you WILL regret it at some point in the future. I enjoyed my time up to the point they recruited the current lead developer, at which point the game went started going on a severe downward spiral. I stuck around hoping they could turn it around, they can't and they wont because they are ignoring and bypassing the fundamental issues like game mechanics, descent progression and make it enjoyable.

[@wingsofcolour4688]

Don't play this game ever. Classes are unbalanced (with class validity rotating every major patch due to massive nerfs or boosts). You may essentially put a lot of time into perfecting one class just to wake up to it being the worst thing ever the next day. Grind is obnoxiously slow and unrewarding. Gameplay is still quite fun, but there are other mmos (e.g. guild wars 2) that do it even better and devs are actually trying. Dungeons and Trials vary in difficulty a lot and some (even though the game would tell you that they are actually viable for your level) are almost unwinnable unless you have a full veteran party. The problem with dungeons is that one of the main ways to earn currency (astral diamonds) is to do daily random dungeons and you might actually end up, quite a few times, in a party where you actually wouldn't be able to finish the dungeon (as you e.g. lack DPS to finish off the last boss before he insta kills the whole team). I would advise to stay as far as possible from neverwinter. Don't waste your time on this game.

[@lacai527]

who cares Misc.... Boo is the king of the country! edit: OMG OMG! you must gather your party before venturing forth!!!!!

[@lemat7273]

Now they made the leveling phase very short. This is good cos people can join the endgame sooner but also bad cos now you unlock abilities too fast and slowly unlocking them and trying and figuring out which ones you liked kept the game fun. Now that im in the endgame and have my skills and build figured out im a bit bored. Might level up a new character...

[@KHIMERA609]

I admit it's been a few years since I stopped playing, but I doubt they've found a way to make all the classes relevant. Also I don't know how it is now, but, back when I was still playing, each module they added wasn't a new adventure, but a new batch of dailies.

[@WayneWatson1]

Now it's bunches of heroics

[@azurastar00]

You are wrong about the new mods. We get better gear ofc but not All the New gear is bis. If u reach that top gear prior to a mod release , you are most likely good to play the New content. As of 2021, 2022, new players that come straight into a New mod Will not be anywhere close to veterans of the game. They will have go throught the grind as well. I think your neverwinter experience is a little outdated in that departament.

[@JustDaZack]

One of the few MMOs I've played a bit in my life. Didn't catch me after a while but I still enjoyed my short time with it :)

[@NestlaysChaulkolateChips]

Neverwinter is pay to win. Just because people can earn everything playing free, doesn't mean it isn't pay to win. If someone can get an advantage in anyway in combat (buying better gear), it is pay to win.

[@realleprechaun1706]

I never realized what it was I loved about neverwinter since I left to play other games... Now I realise it's the COMBAT... Oh the memories

[@DespicableMe007]

try GW2 ;)

[@ItzMeNike]

The idea of grinding exclusive amount of hours into a game for the gear only to become useless or inferior later on is a turn off. No thanks. Kinda reminds me of ESO. If I had to grind so can everyone else

[@Tastygraph]

Watching your videos is almost better than actually playing an mmorpg :P Its a bloody crime that not more people know about your videos. Your knowledge and objective approach to the mmorpgs you play, is very much like a research paper... except not boring! Keep up the good work :)

[@markmeas1559]

I love this game? Is that the ads is fucking annoying because they don't stop talking the same shit every time? it's fucking annoying to me? But I do love this game?

[@jbaisden]

I just started playing because i was listening to critical role. I normally always go wizard but went warlock and am ridiculously OP or i feel that way. Only lvl 10 though.

[@ThorgrimGrudgebrearer]

for me DDO online is supperior to other dd onlines but its almoust dead

[@Stravix814]

I don't hear DDO super often. Honestly, I love it, but unlike Neverwinter, the barrier to entry is soo large in DDO. So much power is locked behind literal years of grinding that trying to be competitive at this point is a lost cause. That said, the character customization and the good ole fashioned DnD feel of the game keeps dragging me back in.

[@ThorgrimGrudgebrearer]

@@Stravix814 now its dead for new players, under previus ovners you could easy grind DDO store points playing their other game Lotr online and in like 4-5 hours of playing it you unlocked half of ddo dungeon packs, now destiny/resets/dungeon locked behind p2p its to much for new players ... if you unlocked it years back its rly nice game whit new content but dunno how long it will last whit 0 new players ;)

[@bsm1214]

I've started this game today and some kind soul gave me a rat pet (lvl 150 I think) which is veeery strong. Thank you whoever you are!

[@algum504]

Soooo... play till the endgame, try endgame content once then farm perma boosts till new expansion comes?

[@ichaysei]

I played Neverwinter for years before Mod 16 and I actually deeply enjoyed the system of being put down to "Tier 2" every mod... It meant that there was constantly something to do, even if that thing could be monotinous at times. But as you said in another video, Josh, it's friends that makes the game fun, even if you are doing monotinous gameplay :) Mod 16 ruined it though in my opinion, as, now, every mod, if you have a specialised character for something like Critical Hits/Damage, you literally lose the ability to do critical hits/damage at the start of each mod making your entire Neverwinter persona irrelevant, you're just the exact same hunter/wizard/healer as everyone else :/ Love the video though! I just wish Neverwinter reverted Mod16 when they realised that most of the playerbase literally stopped playing because of it lmao

[@elementalgaming59]

was one who stoped.. NerfOfTheBall they killed my cleric after a 4 year grind and i still was missing so much. get rank 12 gems and only like 3 lol Boom rank 15s now! ok i grind to rank 13-15 boom mod 16 drops and my toon is worthless completely a pally tank can out heal and buff a cleric. wish they would come out with a classic version like wow did... or if some one would..

[@borasraven7584]

Isn’t this basically what WoW does? Just called expansions not modules... lol

[@rayvngamez]

I just started neverwinter & i love it but this kinda made me sad lol

[@Agumon5]

Basically don't fall in love with it. Know that it's a short-term relationship. enjoy it for what it has to offer early on, and be ready to leave once it asks you to pony up money to make a commitment.

[@JcLazy1]

@@Agumon5 not true the community is very nice. If you are in Xbox I will give you gear up to level 70lvl

[@JcLazy1]

Just find friends.

[@Khaz8969]

isn't those gear resets normal in MMO´s?

[@oldplayer9033]

This, why I stopped playing years ago! Not more to say.

[@asemyamak3984]

Exactly

[@ahmadel-hagary371]

Not sure you are talking or rapping 🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️

[@RealGTZ]

I use to love neverwinter so much until end game it ruined everything for me I kinda wish I knew people who would just give me the stuff

[@eurosonly]

Literally the problem with gamers these days. They just want hand outs. No wonder we have so much mtx going on in games.

[@RealGTZ]

@@eurosonly bro what are you talking about if you ever played neverwinter you'd know that getting what you want takes months to get specially if you have a LIFE my guy literally also that's like 99% of gamers and don't act like you never done it 😂

[@shirophoenix01]

RIP Rothe Valley. I hate the fact that we can't adventure there anymore, it was one of my favorite locations :( .

[@dubbydapanda7189]

30 seconds into the video... *starts downloading Neverwinter*

[@armyguy4124]

😆

[@nuulo2738]

Im already downloading this game via Epic store. Just came here to watch gameplay :D

[@ah111815148199147]

positive reviews from f2p & casual gamers, as a p2p player this game has it worst

[@chrislewis7878]

Don’t worry they’ve just ruined the early and mid game too and completely broken endgame 😂

[@stephengajdzis4471]

not to mention completely changing classes at times...rip power share pally

[@justinwallace269]

Seems intriguing. I've been trying to get Blizzard to update to this type of combat in WoW since WoW was first talked about in alpha. I don't mind players getting power upgrades because I'm not a fan of gear progression in the first place. I prefer PvP to be skill based. I like using professions and little tricks you learn along the way to make the difference, not boring gear grinding. That's where WoW falls down big time. People play like freaks until they become all powerful and newb shot you. Not interested in no-talent gear whores steamrolling me, so this looks promising.

[@kluafoz]

Josh loved the video and yes I know it's a year old... I came here from your newer video about Neverwinter. I do have a question as to what game there is out there that you grind for a super epic legendary weapon and it stays that way throughout the next expansion?

[@JarlHavi]

I’m actually like NeverWinter. Playing Warlock at the moment and it’s really fun. My companion at the moment is a wizard and we’re just melting enemies at the moment. I’m loving these areas where they feel like dungeons.

[@yocruzzz6016]

I play as a sun elf with a bow

[@calltothekindred1147]

*Looks at my 1300 hours* Oh god the end game. As someone who hit the top 5% of players, within one of the top guilds, and probably (at the time) top alliance on PC with minimal money sinks. (One mount, a pet, small assortment of things, and monthly service). I had issues with the end game. I was at one point was waiting for content and enjoyed it. I stopped playing for about 2 years or about two modals (dino and vampires) I came back and I was very sad. For those who know I had the dragon flight gear completely decked out. This was thee end game gear. For awhile it out performed latest module gear. When I got the box with the blue gear from raven it hurt that blue gear was better than the gear I spent hours with my guild/alliance to earn. I would have been fine if it was mid tier gear. After doing some of the ravenloft content I would have to switch it out or replace it with new dragon flight gear. Nope it became worse than the stuff on the ground. I understand that there is a power creep and to keep the game alive old gear does get worse, but that hurt and I think tainted my experience playing. One day I want to go back, but it would be hard without any friends that play it anymore.

[@Guilemouse]

That was well put and well written, I sympathize fully without doing the end game myself. I think the journey must be worthy of your destination and hopefully you will go on more journeys in the future.

[@antongunther3977]

Man I remember the beta of this game. I wonder if my old account is still around

[@onetailedjin]

You should go see man

[@Skenjin]

Cannot cover Neverwinter without covering Dungeons and Dragons Online. The MMO sanctioned by WotC but for some reason they do their damndest to hide the fact it even exists in favor of their lovechild Neverwinter.

[@TheMik088]

Every MMO plays out the same way. Grind to get BIS rinse ,repeat. Its the journey not the destination that counts....

[@badnewzbandits3053]

Lmao the destination is what exactly? Grinding in any other game is easier than this. You legit have to waste years not fucking months. If you ever ever ever plan on getting the items you need for end game. Good luck getting 10 mounts to mythic if you’re new. This game is a complete joke. Every mmo plays out the same my ass. Show me a game that has a campaign that can’t be completed in one year???

[@tchevensky7802]

@@badnewzbandits3053 the point is: how fun is it? Have you ever played allods online? black desert? thats the meaning of "boring" , you literally stay in a spot killing the same mobs for a freaking 24 hours to sell the junk for some coin, and spend that shit trying to upgrade your gear with a joke RNG and with a chance to literally break your gear !

[@badnewzbandits3053]

@@tchevensky7802 dude I’m on cyberpunk now who cares about black desert lol

[@tchevensky7802]

@@badnewzbandits3053 people looking for old school mmorpgs and cant afford a pc wich runes cyberpunk

[@fundemort]

"A creepy healer/dps combo who help themselves by harming others, the Wwarlock".... As a main Warlock, I'm insulted. Really insulted.

[@BlastMagicianYGO]

As someone who is playing a Warlock in D&D, this is pretty accurate to the tabletop

[@sushifish406]

"There is so much grinding at end game, you'll have to run dungeons and bosses over and over" *Cries in Savage Gladiator Chain*

[@naurbrannon]

haha, I just gave up immediately and spared myself the suffering

[@jessayaki9496]

Love your vids. My friend and I are looking for a new game for play for a while. We liked the action combat of Tera, but it's pretty quiet these days. Maybe we'll give this one a try.

[@lordemeth1802]

Late reply do you and your friend still play

[@stevedudeman]

The English Hunter Ranger!!! I've played about 2,500 hours of this game from 2014-2019 (Including DCing in your Fangbreaker Island YT video)and I pretty much agree with everything you said here!

[@TheChampVK7]

I loved this game up until i reached end game that grind is fucking ridiculous

[@Thorocious]

I'm fucking sold man! Shocked I never seen this game before, downloading now.

[@deedee6613]

So there was an update recently that changed quite a bit

[@Yurie13]

just hearing the premium aspect of it makes me wanna go away immediately.. lmao

[@Glitterworms]

Yep same here

[@rjswas]

you can play the whole game without spending a dollar, the premium/vip is totally optional, plus you can use the in game currency Astral Diamonds to buy the premium currency ZEN to buy the Vip if you want it for its handy perks like fast travel and Warehouse anywhere and so on, the only issue is that the AD to ZEN trade is super slow.

[@Zonno5]

good luck finding any f2p mmo then.

[@Yurie13]

i am playing one (for years already) and im already installing another one and i've been playing f2p mmorpgs for years LMAO

[@optank4000]

Bad news mate. On preview (test server for those who don't know) they made sweeping changes to combat, companions, scaling, etc... Now if you have say a level 10 character in a level 10 zone it takes quite a few hits to kill them. The worst part is scaling. I put a few lego mounts and pets on that same level 10 toon and their was no difference in damage out put. I feel bad for all the players in game since this will kill their progression. A new level 80 player will only be about 5-10% damage lower than a maxed toon in every zone and dungeon. Great video!!

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

Back in 2019 i made a video called why neverwinter is dying and i specifically said its because they keep pulling strong players back into weakness. And now they've done it again.

[@DiMAAcadia]

I've been trying out the preview, my toon doesn't feel weaker, it actually feels better. They've found a way to end the ridiculous power creep, a start on making old gear not become outdated with every mod release and ways to smooth out scaling to be far less problematic. Combine that with the recent loot drop rate increases, and the future dungeon rewards improvements, and I'd say that the new Executive Producer Chris Whiteside is doing a great job of helping to turn things around in this game

[@vdec9774]

The best way to play the game is to find some friendly players in a guild and, after 2300h in the game it's the social aspect that keeps me comming back

[@TheBlabor]

I am level 80 item level 12000 ...what is guild in this game???how to be in a guild???

[@vdec9774]

@@TheBlabor if you realy want to find a guild, the best way is to just ask someone to invite you to one

[@haroldfarnal8996]

LOL! I remember grinding in JD years ago and then waking up the next day to check what my progress only to find out that I was booted out from the server.

[@JustSputnik]

I’m a HUGE fan of D&D and didn’t know this existed, the only problem I have is trying to play a game that came out 5 years ago, but I’m already downloading and ready to play

[@badnewzbandits3053]

Just uninstall the game. At this point players should realize that you are being sold items that will decrease permanently in value. Or reskinned items that do the same amount as a previous mod. So many examples of how the studio sole focus is getting your money. This content should have been promoted before the anniversary. You can’t tell me this isn’t basic scaling. NOTHING shockingly new or anything that couldn’t have been done before the exclusive item push the last 6 months. Or last two years. I’m not saying you can’t be hype for this, but at the same time people should realize and care that a community of players are wasting their lives on this game and should probably had quit years ago for a better life. Not saying this game is terrible. But the constant changes (debuff) that clearly are being pushed once an item is done being sold in the zen market is toxic. Ranting but if you’re rich in the game obviously you will never quit and if you’re a pay to win/play player, then you probably need to stop putting money into this game. I still love the potential the game could of had back when it started. But man so many years have passed since then.

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

I made a video called 'why neverwinter is dying in 2019' , the exact arguments i made in my video have repeated themselves in this scenario.

[@aaron.shafer]

Three plus years playing NW, and this is spot-on. I'm really disappointed at this point. Devs don't care.

[@joshuafrase2652]

Try play sto the dev's don't care at all about that game

[@asemyamak3984]

U forgot about pvp... it sucks

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

Yeah its very, very broken and pay to win.

[@blackcitadel37]

The video was on point. Just great. In my personal opinion, someone who played that thing for more than 3.6k hours: Short answer: No. It's not worth your time at all. Long answer: Cryptic's business model is based on keeping players in the "wannabe end-game" level. You create many characters, get hooked with the leveling experience and start grinding and spending money to run the endgame content. Then they decide to change everything overnight, nerf all the stuff you spent a lot of time and money to get and you're forced to gear up, grind and waste more money to get back to where you were. Rinse and repeat. On top of that, it's getting more and more P2W with every update.

[@javimateo154]

I started playing neverwinter almost around 2 months ago. Combat system is the best out there. Very engaging. The problem is high-level geared. When you focused on this and try to get items fast, you are limited for astral diamond dairy refinement. So you try to repeat again and again same quest or dungeons and the reward rarely is worth the time u invested. One thing i have to add, it´s that maybe is not a p2win, but if you pay, your progression is quite faster. If you pay VIP, game progression is acceptable. If not, game is horrible. I think if they get a good balance between time invested and reward obtained, it would be even better than it is. Neverwinter put a barrier to players when they undestand how much time have to spend to get high-level geared. It plays too much with random rewards, and the chances are too low. They have everything they need to improve the game, but sometimes i think they are too greedy to make what they have to.

[@Mogojoegotube]

Been playing for about 3 years. I completely agree with what you said. It's incredibly fun and the combat system is a masterpiece. HOWEVER, this is coming from a very endgame player. Endgame is both very fun, and not very fun. As much as that might not make sense basically its somewhat exciting and fun grinding out the new gear and it's incredibly rewarding eventually getting it BUT it does take a hideous amount of time to get the gear. The moment a new module comes out BOOM the 'old' gear most of the time is completely outclassed. But if im being completely honest although I've spent quite a large sum of money on the game (for an 18-year-old lmao) and when I see my wonderful precious gear get completely outclassed by new stuff its demoralising and a bit sad. Seeing and playing a new module is incredibly exciting and I do like grinding out new gear as it's pretty much what the game is all about and its an MMO. I've never seen or played an MMO that isn't grindy. So yes id advise playing it but just DONT rush it. Otherwise, you might end up A. Getting bored of the game when you enter endgame and B. Spending real-world money that you probably don't need to if you just spend more time on the game.

[@dwightsmithjr5783]

Best response I’ve read...don’t rush it...especially if you know it’s an mmo and new modules/gear is coming next expac

[@joeljohnson9371]

So glad there's still teens playing this game, old people are nice, but that's almost the only people who are playing and I'm not trying to become old too fast now :P. But on a serious note, the demoralization that comes with knowing your hard work goes to waste every few months is not something good to continually build on yourself. Of course you did play for 3 years, but the game really is not at the potential it could be, and that is a reason why I'm depressed even watching these videos and knowing people are just playing another mmo, not playing through my memories of the real Neverwinter

[@angelganon8213]

I was interested but it sounds like it's not worth it

[@annabaelfire2173]

I started playing yesterday. I'm already a level 31 tank fighter. seems fun so far. Don't plan on spending any money on it though.

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

Thats the best way to play :)

[@aledi1430]

that's actually terrible. How can you play without reading story books about the characters, quests and dialogues carefully?

[@joshuaroe1402]

@@aledi1430 I am guessing you just hit the skip dialogue button lol

[@magnus2217]

If your playing solo then you probably should choose the other fighter paragon path, tanks are more for dungeons and won't do as much damage so it will take a lot longer to level up