Weekend Beta testers aren't under NDA, so feel free to post if you're playing.
http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?41181-Any-updates-on-NDA-for-Beta-weekendI dropped some cash to try it out after watching some of the videos. They're limiting classes and archetypes on the weekend testers. This weekend you can only play a "Trickster Rogue" "Guardian Warrior" or "Devoted Cleric." Foundry content tools are also locked-off but you can run content created by the Alpha testers and Developers.
Here's a shot of the default UI for a cleric:
My thoughts about it playing like BGDA proved correct. Don't go in to this looking for a Dungeon Master, there isn't one. It's an ARPG in combat style, but not in loot. Think of it like WoW in terms of loot drops and gear but with faster-paced game play and only 7 abilities at a time.
There's fast-travel at zone-lines but within the zone you can't just fast travel wherever you want. It's a nice compromise between making things feel too much like a lobby (Which is GW's problem for me) and making travel consume too much time. You can swap instances whenever you want in a zone, however. Instances seem to cap at 15-20 players so no real worries about mob competition.
There IS a queuing system for dungeons, events and PVP, however.
Events seem like WoW's scenarios. Small, focused group content that doesn't take too long to get through. You're guaranteed a reward at the end in addition to chances on whatever drops during the event.
Dungeons don't grant automatic rewards at the end, but the loot is better.
Xp is granted across the board for helping on kills, so you're not kill stealing or ruining anyone's Xp by helping them out with damage or heals.
Inventory is Limited, of course, but has a nice auto-sort/ stack/ tidy up button. Bank was about the same size as your starter bag.
The Quest HUD/ Minimap is pretty standard stuff. Everything you expect at this point in the greater cycle of MMOs.
The tabs off the minimap are showing events and contests that are scheduled in the zone and when the next (3) will happen. The contests are "run around and collect world spawn" things. These events can also be Bonuses to crafting, PVP events or special rewards for running specific dungeons during the contest.
The grey sunburst to the upper left is your "invocation" timer which is a pretty interesting addition. Invocation can be done at any rest point, the main city hub or using a dropped item called a holy shrine. Invoking can be done once per hour and gives you special bonuses (rated Green to Purple) I've gotten astral diamonds (currency) damage bonuses and even double XP by doing this.
The "1" in my UI shot is how many astral coins I have. You get one astral coin the first time you invoke in a day. If you don't invoke again within the next 24 hours you lose ALL your astral coins (you can only have 7 at a time so not a big deal.) You can trade these in for bonuses, seen here:
There's also coins for ardent favor items which you get randomly. They don't go away if you don't invoke but you also only get them on chance. These range from health potions up to special companion characters.
Speaking of companions, everyone gets one. Here's the UI for them:
There's quests that grant them and some are purchasable for Astral Diamonds or, as I said, the favor coins. You can name them whatever you want, rename as you wish and there's unlockable skins for them. They also level independently of you. Leveling requires sending them off for training, which varies in time based on how many levels and how high in level they are. My warrior companion took 1min to go from 1 to 3, but it could be rushed by spending Astral Diamonds. The locked inventory slots will be unlocked as the companion levels up.
Companions are also able to be active in dungeons, so you're essentially going to be a group of 10 in a dungeon.
Foundry stuff is laid out pretty readily accessible.
You can access it by hitting "L" and going to the "Catalog" tab. It lists ratings and looks like the content author can chain missions together in a content arc. You can also browse by author and subscribe to a particular author to see when they publish a new module. Very nice. I think you can only rate after completion of a mission. I haven't done one yet to find out.
Lastly on the basics, when you login you're greeted by this screen:
Suggestions for what to do that day, news, foundry items and upcoming events. They're really trying hard to make sure you know what's going on and have something to do. We'll see how it holds up for top-level players.
When I get in to specifics on the following it'll be about the Cleric as that's the class I spent the most time on this weekend. I tried the fighter and rogue but only up to level 6 or 7.
Character Screen:
What you'd expect. A paper doll, slots for equipment. Stats, etc. Nothing surprising here in terms of info displayed or stats used. The two that might have questions are power and recovery.
Power: Straight attack or damage increase. That 242 score gives me +16 to damage and healing.
Recovery: Reduce Cooldowns and increase Action Point gain. 19 gives me a 2% CD reduction. AP gain seems to be bugged because it says +-98%.
All the secondary stats work on similar ratios, so the Deflect, Crit and lifesteal numbers don't really modify anything on my character since they're so small.
Nice thing is the game has dyes and item appearance modification from the get-go.
You also come to this screen to add enchants to any gear. They're dropped or purchased, not a skill you need to hunt down from players.
Powers Screen:
Like D&D, you can see that powers are divided in to 3 types: At-Will, Encounter & Daily.
At-Will powers cost no resources to use and can be spammed to your hearts content. Like other ARPGs, if you hold the button you'll spam the attack.
* Lance of Faith - Basic attack you start with does damage based on your weapon at range.
* Astral Seal - Does initial damage but also provides a "seal" that heals anyone who does damage to the monster after that.
* Sacred Flame - Single target attack. Every third hit causes increased damage and grant Temporary HPs to all allies in 25' range. (At level 19 this is one THP. I don't know how long it takes for these to wear off.)
I found in groups that Astral Seal is what I spammed 90% of the time when using at-wills. I'm not a damage dealer, after all, and the THPs granted are pretty small compared to spreading healing to the mobs everyone is attacking randomly.
General Skills are just that. Everyone can dodge, Racials are by race (Humans get +2 feat points and +3% defense) and skills are by class.
There are little nodes in dungeons that are usable only by certain skills that give you crafting mats. There are temp buffs you can buy from vendors to grant you the skills from other classes. (Religion, Dungoneering, Arcana, Theft, Nature)
Dodge is done by double tapping in the direction you want to dodge. (And clerics can also shift-tap) Very useful when mobs are doing wind-up skills that do heavy damage. The mob puts a big red Area marker 1-2 seconds before they use their skill. The usual MMO caveats about morons and fire apply.
The Encounter powers have a cooldown. As I mentioned under stats these cooldowns can be reduced by the "recovery" stat on the character panel.
* Sun-burst is a PBAOE damage and heal.
* Healing Word is a targeted HOT with 3 'charges' Charges take 15 secs to recover, but stack. So if you have all 3 on one player it does a lot of healing.
* Chains of Blazing Light is a damage and snare.
* Daunting light is a small-radius targeted AOE after a small delay. (1s delay)
* Forgemaster's Flame is a high-damage single-target snare
* Searing Light is a beam that does decent damage in a straight line. Good for groups, not so much for soloing.
Daily powers work by filling in the D20 symbol in the middle of your HUD. As a cleric, any action that damages or heals fills a portion. There's Feats and class passives that increase this gain in addition to the Recovery stat.
As you'd expect daily powers are much more powerful than Encounter or At-Wills.
* Guardian of Faith - Summons an angel that does massive damage with a knock-down then takes off again, healing your allies.
* Hallowed Ground - PBAOE that grants 20% increased offense and defense for 15 seconds.
* Flame Strike - Targeted AOE with a Knock-up and splash damage.
To put some numbers to this at level 19 - My Best at-will does 135 damage, Encounter does 835 with a 15s CD (Daunting Light) but is hard to hit with so I use Sun Burst which is 276 dam/heal, and Flame Strike does 1,157 damage
Feats:
Feats are Neverwinter's talents. They follow the old talent paradigm but you're not locked in to any particular tree until you hit the Paragon levels.
Cleric feats include better heals, better recovery bonuses, increased AP gain, more crit, increased HPs, Tempory HPs after getting damaged, etc. Respecs can be done at any time but cost Astral Diamonds.
Lastly that Tab is the special class power. For priests it's Divine Power. That's what the Arc with the + symbols are on the Cleric HUD. When a cleric hits TAB they go in to a special mode that expends Divine Power. Each Plus is one arc-full of power.
Left click and right click are channeled powers that reduce DP at a continual rate when channeled. Left is damage right is heal to self and target (non-enemy) Your Encounter powers gain additional abilities/ strength but consume a full plus of power when used. For example,
Sun Burst adds a knockback and
Healing Word adds a direct heal to go with the HOT component.
(Note: I understand this is how stealth works for Rogues as well. There is no "invisiostealth" like other MMOs. Instead it's a limited duration buff.)
Shnikes this is a lot. I'm going to post now and will expound later if there's questions.
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(USD -> Zen ->AD hiding true cost between two barriers as is Cryptic's style.)
(I played a cleric too, btw). If I had to sum it up, it was sort of like an ARPG-MMO hybrid.
