In The Cloaked Ascendancy, there is a background link with the Spellplague. And when we talk about that nearest thing to a global apocalypse, Mystra "faking" her "death" is the spotlight.
In Shroud Of Souls, Lukan's stunt took place in a Kelemvorite crypt. As a result, plenty of stuff got blown up out of proportion. Sounds a bit like how Criminal Minds Beyond Borders spoofed/screwed up the Singaporean justice system. As for me? Sorry, I don't give a damn. But I need mention that moment where the Ministry of Manpower was mentioned. If you think the kind of reaction like "that sounds Orwellian..." sounds bad, let me relate to you something utterly hilarious a few years ago. That was at the mailroom office of my workplace (i.e. SGH) where one of the staff misheard Ministry of Manpower.
Kakak A: Huh? Ministry of Main Bawah?
Because I'm born a cat unlike what a PRC insinuated about me last time round, I decided to find out for myself what is the meaning of the word. I asked the storeman (let's call him Pak A) working in the DDR. Only then did I fully realize the full extent of hilarity behind the Ministry of Main Bawah. Don't understand what is Main Bawah? Never mind, it's better for you not to know the dark side of Bahasa Melayu. Hopefully, my super mignonne stickwoman doesn't know the meaning of that term.
Wait... what if she got Malay friends? What if one of her Malay friends is a girl? Mampus sial...
Don't understand pergi mampus/mampos? Well, in Trump speak it means "you're fired". Please note that the Trump speak translation is not the literal/proper translation.
What you'll see in this post
Basically, this will be my first impression on the upcoming mod plus some side rambling so as to speak. Because not much is being outed from the info closet, I can only write this much. Which is a good thing anyway since my prefrontal cortex function is anything but normal. Pretty sure my super mignonne stickwoman knows about this since day 1.
I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I cannot discount the situation where the devs have too many complaints and too little time (let alone any free time). To rectify the bugs and glitches, corrective programming is required. In other words, one little screw up in a single line of coding text can create the programming equivalent of the MOAB. Come to think of it, was I guilty of acting like an impatient jackass all the while?
Which now comes to the other end of the issue. How would the community think? I don't represent the entire community, neither am I hired as Cryptic's PR defense attorney. The general consensus has always been a case more negativity and less positivity. No one in the studio can bail out of that, no matter what, how, and why.
I can only hope that this statement of clarification won't blow up like the worst case scenario in the RL version of 한반도 (and no, I doubt Kim Pyongyang is actually getting any more real in his threats than the stereotypical South Korean. Believe it or not, I wrote up an analysis on the staring competition on my FB profile).
An interesting add-on to the Stronghold aspect of the gameplay. One of the most understated questions so far in the game is whether it's high time for the devs to add something to the guild stronghold maps. While I've yet play through the entire 20 levels' worth of guild story quests, I think it's safe to assume that there's plenty of stories left untold. Okay, maybe not that plenty. But enough to warrant at least another 10 levels of guild hall upgrading? The implied presence of the drow is still left unexplained. The presence of Underdark and Maze Engine campaigns means surely there is more space for story telling in this part of the map. I'll admit that Cryptic's storytelling style in the game is a bit too black and white for my taste, even a wee bit politically charged at times. But because I tend to reserve a higher standard of storytelling for myself, I don't mind it at all. The studio has to race against time more oft than not.
Imagine this: 2 mods in a year! From last year, I think it has gotten up till 3 mods per year! Only an idiot will expect a story with the kind of standard boasted by Sakaguchi "will I get sued for calling my 3rd studio Moonwalker?" Hironobu under such circumstances (ironically, any plan to do a Neverwinter Six saga series with Sakaguchi-san is still theoretically possible).
I'll be covering all 3 temporary buildings listed here.
On the masterwork profession vendors, I have mixed feelings here. On one hand, I'm glad that there will be vendors selling components for the masterwork professions. Problem with doing masterwork missions is very simple: You don't have enough components to finish the second round. The thing with masterwork professions is this: To make whatever stuff worth your time and effort, you'll need a Gondhammer of at least a legendary rank. Even then, getting past the first round is already difficult enough with one legendary tool generated from the artifact and 3-4 other epic tools. While I don't expect the temp vendors to sell stuff like soft/hard aberrant leather and lined/lacquered aberrant leather, I really hope stuff like cashmere yarn and adamant rings. In other words, not everybody has the kind of free time to max out two professions at the same time (apart from Leadership and Black Ice Shaping for obvious reasons. And let's not talk about potential complications arising from the super slow levelling speed and equally super lucrative end level stuff where Leadership profession is concerned). If things go as well as I hope for, it means two things.
1. It's easier to craft masterwork gear so long you have the Gondhammer.
2. What this possibly means is a lower bidding price on the auction house for masterwork gear and a higher bidding price for the Gondhammer. After all, the so-called recommended standard will always be done by the devs according to how the in-game economy goes. If you think that's dictatorship, it means you don't understand how your country's economy work.
As for buying basic crafting materials en masse via guild marks, I have my own worries. On one hand, it's good that you don't have to go out into either Caer-Konig or Protector's Enclave for some much-needed shopping. However, the tricky part lies in the definition of buying in bulk. Under the current limitation, the maximum amount of basic crafting materials is capped at 100. To make the whole temporary vendors useful, the max cap should be upped. At least to 200 if I say so myself. This is because compared to farming guild marks, it's so much easier to farm money. If you have a Radiant enchantment slotted into a utility slot, the kaching will just keep... well, going kaching. Try imagining how much a rank 7 Radiant can fetch you in terms of cold hard cash earned. Neverwinter has always been about cash-light, assets heavy. If you still don't know this by now, it means you're dumber than an idiotic cleric who can't even heal the tank properly (i.e. worshipping the god of failure).
On the second type of temp vendors, this will most likely be the staple choice of every guild. This is because such vendors can easily hasten your guild hall progress. Even more so if your guild is of the smaller size instead of the bigger players like Gutbusters Brigade, Hungarian Lords, Win Or Lose We Booze, and Greycloaks If you belong to the latter category, however, I think it's better to discuss whether to hire the temp professions vendors instead.
As for the third type... erm the description "guilds with astral diamonds to spare" sounds like how the tooltip always work in the game. Ambiguous at best, outright pointless at worst. Unless it means astral diamonds voucher and astral diamonds quite literally. Apparently, however, this indicates a case of RNG. I'm very intrigued by the manner of rare items stated. Will coalescent ward be part of the RNG menu? Ultimately, I don't care much about the aesthetics because I tend to think like Archer instead of Lancer.
Well, at least 90% of the time anyway since I may have accidentally become Sora "no lewd jokes, please" Ma's wardrobe designer.
Note: Due to the presence of the second type of temp vendor, it's quite likely we'll see an increase in maximum guild hall level coming up soon.
The devs must have done something so terribly right with The Cloaked Ascendancy, they actually decided to ship a key aspect of this current mod into the next. In the Illusionist's Gambit skirmish, you can opt to go for the next round if your party survives the current one (up till 3 rounds in total). I won't be surprised if the Stronghold Marauders event also works the same. At least 3 rounds in total if you're to ask me. This may easily be the highlight of SOS. After all, too much Dragonflight fights can feel terribly banal (thankfully, DF fights range from occasional to some form of rarity where my guild alliance is concerned. Either that or the S'porean timezone doesn't work well with the American/European timezones).
My hope for this event is very simple. To make the SM fight feel like another IG, only more hardcore (read: more challenging). If it's any enemy type you've faced in the SH map, then that enemy type should be fair game and 100% legit.
Is there anything I should add here? You may be surprised to hear me say a resounding no. The reason why? I actually mentioned loadouts way before the devs outed their plans, believe it or not.
Note: Is it too much for me to request a Transcendent Vorpal and a Transcendent Negation as a form of appreciation cum remuneration?
Different ways of putting it, same thing actually. I truly doubt Cryptic will depart from the intro quest system which served the game so well. The line separating bold and reckless can be very clear at times. This is one of those clear-cut moments. There's nothing much for me to say, so might as well I put on my tactical thinking cap.
Firstly, I won't be surprised if you'll get to fight demons again. The reason why being Orcus' name being bandied around like some major gimmick here. The dev blog only intro'd two kinds of enemies so far, but only a moron will expect only this much (at least I don't recall anyone mentioning many a stag party organized by dryads at the behest of Nostura before they unleashed The Cloaked Ascendancy).
Secondly, how would I perceive the correct strategy? Because non-boss enemies are never control-immune (from my best of understanding, that is), the slow effect can be very useful. If it's grasping roots (either weak or strong, but definitely the stronger the better), then you're most likely halfway to the victory lap. For the teleporting wraiths, the only way for them to jailbreak is to teleport like Azazel. Even then, such a move is never spammable. If you still don't know how Valindra Shadowmantle fights in her tower, it means you're dumber than a tank who can't even tank a normal Demogorgon properly (let alone an epic one).
As for the chasing after shadows, it's quite interesting to see that they're far more of a glass cannon than the wraiths. A possible reason why may be down to the wraith's life draining being a form of life leeching (read: using your HP to heal its own HP). In other words, the amount of damage transformed into the HP healed may easily be a case of much higher percentage. So what may possibly pan out is a shadow being able to one-shot a lower level toon in any day (or night for that matter). Is there any way to avoid the assassination attempt? The answer is yes.
In Neverwinter, item level is important. This is due to minimal requirements for the end-game raiding. At the same time, your character's item level also serves as a gauge on which campaign area you're able to run and survive. In this sense, your choice of gear and total item level are equally important (read; neither being more important than the other when it comes to the true blue end-game content). More than gear level and type, however, is your tactical awareness. Willy from my guild alliance once said in the alliance chat that dps gamers mostly rely on muscle and mindless button spamming. Which is true. Most of my 7 characters are dps. In fact, Arylos is considered a dps class even though he's more of the tactician in raid instances. If whatever little info being outed is spot on, it means movement will be of utmost importance.
It's very easy to understand this tbh. To minimize the risk of getting assassinated by a shadow, you'll need to move about. Once you hear the tell-tale screech (most likely something similar to the sound made by a soul puppet whenever your scourge warlock conjures her BFF by my own guess), it's time to move. If you're a tank, healadin, great weapon fighter, or even a devoted cleric minus the Anointed Armor class feature, I won't be surprised if a one-shot attack won't kill you. If you're someone like a control wizard, scourge warlock, or even a combat hunter ranger/scoundrel trickster rogue, then you better start thinking on your feet. Period. Because the mob layout system in the game is very straightforward (i.e. there's only this much mob combination any map can throw at you), chances are that you'll have to deal with many a mob comprising of shadows and wraiths.
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