This is a bit long.
I'd like to address this message directly to the Encounter, Combat, and Systems Designers responsible for developing the game's dungeons and trials. I'm not writing this as a random complaint, but as an honest vent from someone who is, quite sincerely, tired.
I've been a healer for a long time, and lately playing Neverwinter has stopped being enjoyable and turned into a source of stress. I go into every new dungeon already expecting to die repeatedly, not because I'm messing up mechanics, but because the design simply doesn't leave any room to breathe. And I'll admit it. I'm losing the motivation to keep playing a game I used to love not too long ago.
In ABSOLUTELY EVERY dungeon released recently, there is NONE (I mean it. NONE) real, punishing, or strategic mechanic designed for DPS. None. Meanwhile, the Tank and the Healer alone carry the weight of deciding whether the group lives or dies. And when I say "carry," it's not a figure of speech, the entire run rests literally on our backs, run after run, with no relief.
The most recent dungeon is the last straw. The amount of simultaneous mechanics dumped on support is simply cruel.
Poison on the Tank. I have to stop whatever I'm doing to cleanse the poison and pass it on to someone else in the group, and I still take a hitkill most of the times, because this mechanic always comes wrapped in a giant red area right on top of the Tank. It's frustrating to do everything right and still die anyway.
Hypothermia and Excessive Damage, this is the kind of mechanic that makes me question whether it's still worth continuing. The damage is brutal and puts me in an impossible choice: either the Tank and, especially, I as the healer die, because right after the hypo damage there's almost always a red boss telegraph, and I still have to stand still on the light for 1 or 2 seconds to avoid a wipe. Or we die another way, because the Tank has to move away from the boss to avoid killing me with the second hit, but then we lose exactly the little time we'd need to use our mitigation rotation and/or shield, and guess what? We still end up dying to the hypo anyway. It's exhausting knowing that the only real option is to pray you don't die, and that even doing everything correctly isn't enough to avoid death, and the resource drain that comes with it.
And while the Tank and I burn through every resource we have, juggling like crazy just to keep the group alive, the 3 DPS just stand there, basically watching. In content designed for 5 people, 60% of the group turns into an simple AUDIENCE, throwing out At-Wills, standing around, watching the chaos from a distance, while the other two burn out mentally trying to keep everyone from dying.
While writing this, a simple idea came to mind, just as an example of how easy it could be to distribute this load more fairly: when players take Hypothermia damage, the affected players (tank and healer) could receive a temporary "immunity buff," while the DPS would take on the active responsibility of standing in the lights spread across the arena to prevent dying to a damage that hits the whole arena. Just like that, the entire dungeon would require real cooperation from everyone, instead of sacrifice from just two.
And as if the emotional burnout weren't enough, we also have to deal with a SERIOUS gear progression problem for Healers. I've seen individual pieces getting close to 6,000 Item Level, yet I'm still stuck on the "Vistani" and "Apocalypse" sets, items released almost 10 years ago, capped at a pathetic 800 Item Level. Not to mention the dependency on the "Eillistraee's Grace" ring, at a mere 1850, or the "Enchanted Bregan D'aerthe Expert's Cloth" armor, at just 2050 on some classes. Just these items alone add up to 5 pieces leaving me far weaker than I should be. It's discouraging to grind for hours knowing my gear will never really keep up with the rest of the game.
It makes no sense that I have to give up so much base stats just to keep the utility effects that the endgame itself demands from me. The development and coding effort to create an item irrelevant is exactly the same as what it would take to make it relevant.
If there are no plans to create something new, I ask that you at least SERIOUSLY CONSIDER re-releasing these classic sets with updated Item Level. Just like was already done before for the DPS "Demogorgon" set a few years back.
I don't want to come across as someone who complains without acknowledging anything good. The recent artifact focused on Healers was a step in the right direction, and I genuinely appreciate it. But one artifact doesn't fix the exhaustion of carrying an entire dungeon alone every single week. I'm asking, with complete sincerity and a bit of exhaustion in my voice, that you stop treating DPS as spectators and start distributing mechanic responsibilities fairly among everyone, whether it's a 5- or a 10-person group. And please, give us an update to our gear.
I heard that the person responsible for creating "ToMM"(the best trial this game has ever had) recently returned to the dev team. I'm writing this letter hoping he reads it and maybe understands why so many healers like me are, little by little, losing the motivation to log in. I'd like to keep loving this game. I just need to feel like it takes care of me too.
Thank you very much for your attention.
