Knox’s Veteran Recruitment Order Review: Who Should Buy It?

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The ZEN package to boost any character to level 70 instantly received a minor change in Neverwinter’s Ravenloft. So it’s time for us to look into the “Knox’s Veteran Recruitment Order” and see what players get. Is it worth to fast-track to level 70 this way, or should you save the money and take a more conservative approach?

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What’s Included?

The Veteran Recruitment Order is a major time safer and offers some items that make adventuring more convenient. First of all there’s obviously the boost to level 70. It’s nice, but in Neverwinter the solo campaign until 70 is neither challenging nor too long. In case you mainly look to skip the pre-70 content, I’d recommend buying into one of the Experience Boosters instead and follow our leveling guide. It’s a much more cost-efficient alternative.

The four full campaign completions however are definitely an upgrade early on. All campaigns come with boons (small bonuses or stat enhancements) that give you a clear advantage over any other fresh level 70. Based on our campaign cheat sheet a casual should save around two months of campaign farming from the package, which isn’t bad. But it’s hard to really dish out a correct number because much depends on how often you can login and do your dailies. The less you play, the more the package does for you.

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Last but not least you get a very basic set of gear. It should help you get started right away, even in the latest content Ravenloft. It won’t be a smooth experience right off the bat, but the next tier of gear is super easy to earn. So you really only have to be able to do the initial set of dailies and story quests. It’s a little perplexing however that they included the pieces that everyone gets for completing the Ravenloft intro anyway. It’s item level 460 and Ravenloft drops 490+ left and right. So you’ll replace it fairly soon. In a premium pack they definitely should have gone with something that lasts a little longer. The Owlbear and bags in the meantime are universally nice and definitely help to move around quickly and have sufficient space.

Trying to Estimate the Value

Estimating a value for the pack using the [sc name=”zenicon”]ZEN values of the items it consists isn’t too easy. Most of the “worth” is time savings, which is more valuable to some than others. Nonetheless here are the included items and their corresponding ZEN values.

Looking at these prices ([sc name=”zenicon”]14,800) the bundle comes at a great discount. All items bind to account however. So this pack was definitely designed as a “starter kit” and not something you can make profit off. It’s a bargain for those that can actually use the items on their chars, but not much of a help for everyone else.

Who Should Buy It?

Now who should buy it? The interesting aspect of the Veteran Recruitment Order is that it’s probably best suited for new players, but specifically designed for alternate characters. You need at least one level 70 to unlock it on the ZEN Market. New players can technically still buy it on their first char, but then the whole level 70 boost goes to waste. In my opinion it’s still a viable package because the campaign unlocks, purple mount and bags are nice when you start off. Plus playing through the campaign until 70 and getting to know your toon isn’t too bad either.

On the contrary, I’m not as much of a fan for alts. Veteran players on a big account probably neither need the included gear nor a purple mount (because they have at least one unlocked on the ZEN Market already). Additionally the new overflow rewards make sure that you can probably level to 70 just using tomes. This makes the package much less enticing for alts. It’s also good to know that the Recruitment Order doesn’t align too well with the full campaign buyout bundle. Some campaign completions overlap, making it an “either or” choice. If you want to buy max campaigns, then it’s probably best to level to 70 manually and get the campaign bundle.

Overall this means that the package is great for alts in case you can indeed utilize all or most of the included items. It can probably classified as soft boost for those that want to jump-start a new character, but don’t have the ZEN to buy the full campaign bundle. It’s also still very useful for new players, although that’s not the target audience. It’s a little unfortunate because fresh adventurers might not know that this will become available and might buy into one of the older ZEN packs instead (Hero of the North etc.) that offer much less bang for the buck. So I’d personally would simply scratch the level 70 requirement and let everyone buy it.


How do you feel about the Knox’s Veteran Recruitment Order? Is it fitting for alts or do you agree that it’s in somewhat of a weird spot? Share your thoughts and experience on our social channels, in the comments below, or visit the corresponding thread on our message board!

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j0Shi

j0Shi plays the Neverwinter MMORPG since the open BETA in 2013 and is a regular contributor to the blog and the whole UN:Project. Originally a Guardian Fighter, he has built up ALTs of all classes and plays on BIS/near-BIS level.

3 thoughts on “Knox’s Veteran Recruitment Order Review: Who Should Buy It?

  • July 4, 2018 at 9:17 am
    Permalink

    Who should buy it?

    NOBODY.

    Who will buy it?

    MUGS.

  • July 25, 2018 at 9:45 am
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    Good review.

    I wanted one of these for use on a new class release.
    Bought the first incarnation of the instant-70 >1 year ago in anticipation of the new class…
    Still unopened. Still anticipating.
    In retrospect I regret the purchase.

    It offers little. I have 3x >16k toons each collecting stacks of account-bound >500gs gear. I already have zen epic mounts. I have exp boosters stacked to the ceiling.

    All this booster does is force me to skip the intro quests which, on a new class, I really should do as class training.

    There is very little in this package a veteran couldn’t easily outfit a new toon with themselves.

    As Joshi said, Boons are a very different matter.
    I’d sooner listen to a 24-hour looped Nickleback cover of a Phish song then every set foot in the Sea of Moving Ice again.

    tldr

    I bought the original Knox booster.
    The decision was bad and I feel bad.

    • July 25, 2018 at 10:57 am
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      I’m sorry about that, Took, and I agree about Boons. Did your pack not have the 2 runic bags, even? The Vistani gear you can get just by going to Barovia, but I suppose it’s extra salvage.

      I’m still waiting for the Druid, but I’d take a Bard. Or a Monk. I will definitely roll a Halfling and a Tiefling Druid (or Bard or Monk), because that’s how I do, and the 3rd will be whatever race is most suited to the class.

      But those campaign unlocks, at that price, even in a 50% sale, I would only buy them if they were account-wide and all characters could claim whatever they needed to complete boons.

      I’m not paying that sort of price three times for three new characters. I’d rather spend the three or four months grinding it, which will be really easy with the gear and enchants I can share with them from playing for >4.5 years.

      What is it? 10,000 zen for the full pack? Times 3? That’s a lot of Pres Wards

      🙂

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