Neverwinter Online: Ravenloft First Impressions

So misty. So cool. So Strahd.

Just before my internet conks out for the next two weeks I thought I'd give my first impressions of Neverwinter's latest module: Ravenloft, which has a pretty cool intro cinematic. After a cheesy quest hook that lets everyone traverse the "unescapable" mists (which is mandatory in an MMO I suppose), we finally get to the beautifully spooky land of Barovia which just oozes of theme. I especially like how Strahd's castle is literally just so close to everything.

It's nice that Strahd shows up early too.

The weekly bounty thing from Chult is here and the repeating quests are a bit more time consuming not only because of the slightly tougher baddies but also because said tasks are just slightly longer. Instead of killing 20 things, its now kill 20 of these AND 5 of those. Instead of get the 4 doohickeys, its get the 4 doohickeys AND put them somewhere afterwards.

Best parts for me so far are the night and day cycle which changes the spawns slightly. It's definitely scary to know that the Stalker from Warframe Night Terror (miniboss) shows up randomly each night to terrorize some unlucky adventurer.  Then there are the hunts which are amazing! No more grinding for bait, now you just hop into an instance with a difficulty of your own choosing, ala Mabinogi Quest Boards.

My personal favorite so far is using increase aggro range cards, the higher the better. This means the baddies aren't stronger but they come marching out for you from all over. While I first did it for a laugh, it's turned out to be a valid farming tactic since all those mobs can then drop more cool hunt cards. The bad part - I'm hunting all the time, and not actually progressing in the campaign! :P

Today I Smiled: Neverwinter Birthday!

The Fourth Protector's Jubilee, which is the annual in-game celebration of Neverwinter Online's birthday, has come and gone - leaving those who attended and participated in the optional events with a lot of free goodies. While I missed out on the last one, I still recall there was speculation if it would ever reach year IV. I'm happy to report that the game is going stronger than ever!

It wasn't only Neverwinter's birthday recently, but also mine, which meant I got even more free stuff in game courtesy of my brother, Dragonlord, who gifted me with a Celeste and lesser bonding runes among other things, and a random stranger named EdwinaVC of the Blackcloaks (alliance) who gave me a Hell Emblazon Worg mount! Thank you very much!

As a PSA for those who play NWO: get the Wanderer's Fortune mount boon if you don't have it already. It's a fantastic source of refinement points, so much so that bag space is again an issue for me.

Wish I could put these thrones as static statues.

While on the topic of Dungeons and Dragons I'm also happy to report that my group has finished the Legend of Drizzt boardgame, and have now moved on to Castle Ravenloft to face the ever present Strahd. It's pretty cool so far - I'll have a review up on that after we play it a bit more. Nice to know the next module, the Tomb of Annihilation, has a board game slated for simultaneous release.

More blog posts coming up shortly, here are some interesting clips for you to watch: a very impressive coin magician and a kid who solves the Rubix cube in his head. Might look like he's doing nothing, but just wait till that blind fold goes on. What's worse - this is a tournament - so there must be others doing the same thing. :O

Have a great day everyone!