The Lowbie Diaries Vol. 25: Portobello’s Campaign

Welcome to a new project, experiment, challenge or whatever you wanna call it. Normally experiencing the content with well-geared toons, I figured it would be quite interesting to approach the game from the perspective of a casual player. How does it feel starting from scratch and build up a character without the help of your mains? How long does it take until you are geared enough for the latest endgame content? Welcome to the Lowbie Diaries, it should be fun!


After a few weeks in the guild we’re currently working on Barracks level three for the power boon. It’s apparent the guild is lacking players for the daily Influence contributions, at least that’s the bottleneck for now. It’s not even half full and we are still recruiting. It’s interesting how a guild like this represents the overall state of the game. You are constantly searching for new players that fill the ranks of those that moved on.

In my eyes the lower tier of guilds has two problems: The members that aren’t as active and committed are more likely to quit the game or aren’t helping on a daily basis. And those that do might just switch guilds for more Stronghold progress. There are a few decent guild recruiting at the moment and if you have the gear and the activity, you can get as high as GH18 with no entry fee. That’s massive and the system sort of carries itself. The upper tier guilds have to replace the players that left the game, robbing the smaller guilds of their best donators. I think it’s a huge pain to build up a core of let’s say 30-50 players that come in daily and help you become a guild that has to offer more than others. Right now you are probably more or less getting fresh faces, which may or may not stay with the game. Hence it’s a constant come and go.

That said, I still have fun in the guild, slaying dragons, and this character has limited options because I can’t be online daily. I’m not the type of players that hops to the best possible option anyway. I’m intrigued to see how it develops.

I also fully grind the Portobello Campaign and at least with one character it’s very easy to get the 100 Accreditations per week. I can however imagine it becoming a major pain if you need to do it on five or more. What I’m really missing is the one reward that gives you significant progress after investing a full month in the event. I mean the maps are cute and nicely done, read my Trial of Traps review here if you haven’t done it already, but browsing through the rewards there’s nothing special. I eventually gonna get my Pocket Pet when I don’t have to spend the dices on the campaign task any longer, but other than that?

I am as disappointed as others that the Beholder seems to be a big phantom and since I don’t really need the Dagger, I could probably just skip the campaign without really missing out. A few titles and fashion? I like the cosmetic side, but I think events should also be used to enhance the progression a little bit. In the end it might just be shortcut for some to an additional artifact and maybe we haven’t seen all of it yet. But for now I’d consider this a subpar event for lowbies.

See you the next time!


The Lowbie Diaries Vol. 20: Here Comes the Grind
The Lowbie Diaries Vol. 21: Maze Engine Preparations
The Lowbie Diaries Vol. 22: Quite A Week
The Lowbie Diaries Vol. 23: Maze Engine Launch
The Lowbie Diaries Vol. 24: In The Army Now


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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 “The Lowbie Diaries Vol. 25: Portobello’s Campaign

  • April 14, 2016 at 8:11 am
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    They shouldve added AD for the runs.. same as skirms.. so at least you get some daily use out of it..

    but ya.. overall there is nothing in the campaign of much value.. another CA pet.. that if your totally built around it, might offer some people a small % bonus.. but how much vs loosing out on a direct damage pet like air/fire vs using this pet.

    Not much difference in the end.

  • April 14, 2016 at 8:26 am
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    “But for now I’d consider this a subpar event for lowbies.”

    That is indeed true.
    I am really puzzled how so many people keep complaining that a “pure fun event” is nothing more than a “pure fun event”. Take it or leave it, nobody is being forced… and by now multiple Officials have comfirmed at multiple times over multiple media that the Beholder is real and aviable somehow in some way, just not yet. Fair enough, if you consider it is a month long event.
    Not convinced yet? Think logical!
    Is it an April Fool’s Joke? No, because 2 years ago they did one that said a new playable dragon race is going to be aviable, they even made a super cool and funny trailer. It has been confirmed that over 100 people, put in support tickets after deleting their characters to make new ones with the dragon race asking why it is not aviable etc. …
    That is the reason Cryptic will never again make any kind of misleading or harmful April Fool’s Joke.
    Moreover, its 14th April today and CM Andy “Strumslinger” Wong has just comfirmed again its existance and aviability.
    Why would Cryptic being so busy with Module 10, Balance Patching and the event itself, make a mount (the game files exist) and then like… not release it? Especially considering it is legendary.
    The ideas and complains shown at forums, seem so unrational if you think of the points above.
    Somebody call a doctor, the saltiness people show seems to be interfering their brain functions.

  • April 14, 2016 at 6:45 pm
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    It would seem that they LIED [yes lied not tricked] about the beholder tank to get people to do the even because they knew all the rest of the event is complete crap, other then maybe the CBA companion since they are only like 2 maybe 3 other CBA companions in the game but even then most people don’t care so lying about the beholder tank being a possible reward was their only chance at making the event relevant… This aint their first time at it though, they did the same when they took the wards off trade bar store saying the game econ was not doing well cause it. lol BS the games econ was the best it had been in 3 years and was still making progress. The REAL problem was everybody had VIP and was getting all wards from trade bars and not from spending cash on the zen market… That’s why they took them out because they was not selling them on zen market near as much anymore…

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