Definitely not pay to win. You can get anything and everything (except keys to iron locboxes) just through playing the game. The Cash Shop holds only Keys and mainly Cosmetic Items and fashion items to make your character look good. The PvP is lacking in variety, but there is no worry of being placed against an OP enemy as you're automatically scaled to their level.
I suggest giving this game a try, it's really fun.
I actually liked the game, gonna keep playing it. So far it really seems not "pay to win". Much better than Granado Espada.
The game quests are decent enough, fully voiced, the game world is beautiful.... characters can be customized in several ways in their looks... the combat is fun, and it is free to play.
From what I've understood, it's not LITERALLY P2W. As in, people spending money are no more powerful than any particular person playing fully free.
However, it's on that line of being as close as you can be to P2W. By spending money, you essentially can decrease the endgame grind to near zero.
As such, one ought to play this game less like an outright MMORPG (with communities, a fair comparison between player power based on time/effort spend, solid economies) and more like a 'massively' co-op action RPG that you can play alone, with randoms, or with friends. The highly 'instanced' (loading screens with new or solo areas) nature of this game also increases this feeling.
Yes, people who spend money will be at the top end of stats with a lot less effort than you.
But no, they won't be outright more powerful than you if you spent time grinding.
@Hyrenapth - So yeah, as I was getting at, there is no real 'competition' when it comes to the highest level content. What there is, is just the content itself, and competition in terms of completion of content.
I could be wrong about any of this, but this is all what I've understood from months ago.
It is a fun game though. Also people don't seem to mention how it's a very instanced MMO. It's not like say WoW with massive continents that are consistant. This is what REALLY bugs me about MMOs these days.
Installing it right now, I would like to know if this game is "pay to win". Wanna play a new mmorpg but want to avoid "pay to win games".
if you're planing to play the story line then go for it, BUT if you're planing to invest time in this game prepare yourself to cash out a lot of money.
Hints every single bag cast 10$ and it's not account wide. crafting is painfully slow and you need to invest cash, This is the worse, Fusing shards and runestones you will need cash if you want you character to reach it's full potential, and remember new content bring new gear that mean you will need to cash more money. skill respec another 6$ every time you want to change, Mounts+pets you will need to pay 40$ and not account wide.
Conclusion don't let people tell you this is not P2W and that you can get all in game cause you will never get all of that without cashing out money. So if you want to just play the story line go for it it's free no p2w there, if you want to play deeper this will cast you 10x more then a regular sub base mmo the choice is yours.
My good friend is Lv 60. He has 3 bags. didn't spend money.
The slots given are enough for pretty much any regular activity. They aren't killing your game, at least.
The problem, I guess, is that you can't get MAX bag space without Zen. That either means a ton of grind so you can convert Astral Diamonds to Zen, or spend real money for Zen.
It's not that things are painfully slow either. It's that it takes *regular* gameplay. Not like popping in every week like a sub mmo, but like popping in daily if you want good progress. That's how these MMOs are designed. You can pay money and get things asap depending on the $, or take longer but not to a CRAZY extent (btw Kripp is a fool who gets regularly banned for exploiting games and barely understands the games he's not banned from).
You keep saying things cost $. That's not true. There are many ways to get Astral Diamonds in game (even by selling items you have on the AH). Make enough and you'll convert it to Zen, the Cash Shop currency. People want to sell their Zen for Astral Diamonds, so there you go. It's basically GW2's system on crack, because it's not just vanity based.
But let's be clear, there are people in endgame RIGHT NOW with EVERYTHING they wanted without spending ONE CENT. PERIOD.
Neverwinter is a great game but it's definetely P2W. If you can live with that and ignore the constant new releases of useless companions, mounts etc in the Zen store, you will be fine.
kelemvor you've obviously never seen an actual P2W game. NW is as far from P2W as it gets, you can get literally anything without spending real cash, and it's actually not even that time-demanding to get what you want, no matter how expensive it might be. I get called pay2win loser or creditcard hero all the timer in pvp, despite not spending a single cent on the game.
I suggest giving this game a try, it's really fun.
Does that mean that if I pay I can get it instantly and if I don't pay I have spend 100+´hours getting same gear, or what?
The game quests are decent enough, fully voiced, the game world is beautiful.... characters can be customized in several ways in their looks... the combat is fun, and it is free to play.
However, it's on that line of being as close as you can be to P2W. By spending money, you essentially can decrease the endgame grind to near zero.
As such, one ought to play this game less like an outright MMORPG (with communities, a fair comparison between player power based on time/effort spend, solid economies) and more like a 'massively' co-op action RPG that you can play alone, with randoms, or with friends. The highly 'instanced' (loading screens with new or solo areas) nature of this game also increases this feeling.
Yes, people who spend money will be at the top end of stats with a lot less effort than you.
But no, they won't be outright more powerful than you if you spent time grinding.
@Hyrenapth - So yeah, as I was getting at, there is no real 'competition' when it comes to the highest level content. What there is, is just the content itself, and competition in terms of completion of content.
I could be wrong about any of this, but this is all what I've understood from months ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_Z-3cFiJMCY#t=235
Oh and it's a bit old so things might have changed a bit but I am pretty sure it's still very relevant. Correct me if I'm wrong though.
It is a fun game though. Also people don't seem to mention how it's a very instanced MMO. It's not like say WoW with massive continents that are consistant. This is what REALLY bugs me about MMOs these days.
if you're planing to play the story line then go for it, BUT if you're planing to invest time in this game prepare yourself to cash out a lot of money.
Hints
every single bag cast 10$ and it's not account wide.
crafting is painfully slow and you need to invest cash,
This is the worse, Fusing shards and runestones you will need cash if you want you character to reach it's full potential, and remember new content bring new gear that mean you will need to cash more money.
skill respec another 6$ every time you want to change,
Mounts+pets you will need to pay 40$ and not account wide.
Conclusion don't let people tell you this is not P2W and that you can get all in game cause you will never get all of that without cashing out money.
So if you want to just play the story line go for it it's free no p2w there, if you want to play deeper this will cast you 10x more then a regular sub base mmo the choice is yours.
He has 3 bags. didn't spend money.
The slots given are enough for pretty much any regular activity. They aren't killing your game, at least.
The problem, I guess, is that you can't get MAX bag space without Zen. That either means a ton of grind so you can convert Astral Diamonds to Zen, or spend real money for Zen.
It's not that things are painfully slow either. It's that it takes *regular* gameplay. Not like popping in every week like a sub mmo, but like popping in daily if you want good progress. That's how these MMOs are designed. You can pay money and get things asap depending on the $, or take longer but not to a CRAZY extent (btw Kripp is a fool who gets regularly banned for exploiting games and barely understands the games he's not banned from).
You keep saying things cost $. That's not true. There are many ways to get Astral Diamonds in game (even by selling items you have on the AH). Make enough and you'll convert it to Zen, the Cash Shop currency. People want to sell their Zen for Astral Diamonds, so there you go.
It's basically GW2's system on crack, because it's not just vanity based.
But let's be clear, there are people in endgame RIGHT NOW with EVERYTHING they wanted without spending ONE CENT. PERIOD.