Neverwinter is open beta now so I’m back in there. The first day it opened at noon and I got right in. By 3:00 there was so much lag that it was unplayable. I tried to log in later that night and I was 7,000-something in the queue. The next day they patched and made a huge fix to the networking which expanded capacity and stability. It's now 99% buttery smooth and I haven't encountered a queue since.
When I first tried NW in closed beta I was largely unimpressed and almost dismissed it as “just another mmo”. Over the second beta weekend I started to get into it a little and was starting to come around. Now that I’ve been in it for a few days solid and have a feel for most of the mechanics and nuances, I’m hooked.
Professions: There doesn't seem to be a traditional crafting system. Instead, you train workers for each trade skill profession and then you assign them to jobs (gathering materials, refining, crafting.) Each job has different rewards/durations. Initially there is only one job slot so even if you have multiple workers, you can only do one thing at a time. But, more slots unlock as you level up the professions. They even have a web app that lets you login and manage your professions when you’re away from the game.
Companions: Think "pets", but MOAR. You get to choose one of the main classes or a dog as your starter companion. You summon him and he follows you around like a pet. But the cool thing is he gains xp while he fights with you and you train him when he levels up to increase his stats. You start with 3 active companion slots to toggle between and more can be purchased. Ideally, you might have one of each type and summon the appropriate companion as needed for different situations.
There’s a prayer mechanic where you can “invoke” at an altar once an hour to get a buff, possibly an item, and for the first few times each day that you do it, you get astral diamonds. The diamonds are the secondary currency that can be traded for cash shop currency. Diamonds are also used in the broker/auction which I thought was odd at first, but I like it. "Regular" money is almost completely useless to me so far at level 21. You also get two different types of tokens when you invoke. The first type is accumulated every time you do it and you can spend them on buffs and such. The second type accumulates with each consecutive day that you’ve invoked (up to a max of 7) that can be used to claim rewards at various tiers.
The f2p scheme feels very unrestricted so far. They don’t do that “sorry, you can’t equip this item or go to that location because you didn’t pay” BS *cough, SOE*. They give you 2 character slots to start so you could buy more of those. You can buy mounts, additional bag/bank space, companion slots, profession components, etc. Nothing that seems pay-to-win, but things that people would be compelled to buy to keep some money flowing to devs.
I've also had a chance to play a few rounds of PvP - the few matches I played were of a "control" nature but maybe there are others. I generally am NOT a PvP type of guy, but I had no complaints.
The game is more fun that I expected after the first impressions. Unless there's something I'm missing, I think it's safe to say I'll be playing this for quite some time.
