To Hell with Uprising

Because nothing says new level 80 content like fighting under-level mobs.  Again.

Module 17: Uprising is an attempt to get more mileage out of the Undermountain zones.  Being levelling zones they don't have a lot of longevity built into them, but they're also not an especially good fit for repeatable content.  This is something that Neverwinter is normally very good at - zones like Dread Ring and Barovia are masterfully crafted to enable fast and fluid movement from one location to another, and pack a ton of content into relatively small spaces.  Most of the campaign zones are like that to one extent or another, which makes Uprising's awkward reuse of the Undermountain zones all the more jarring.

I'm not even entirely sure why I'm back in Undermountain, from a story perspective.  Seeing as Uprising opens in a literal space station it seems it would be an ideal opportunity to present some new and unique environments to explore and adventure in, but nothing is done with the setting.

So it's back into Undermountain, and while I'm fighting level 80 Illithids and Githyanki in these areas now, the original denizens are still there as well and spoiling for a fight.  This is less of an issue in Twisted Caverns, where the locals are mostly too busy getting duffed up by Mind Flayers to aggro on me, but in Terminus I spent more time fighting the original inhabitants than I did the Githyanki invaders.  Seeng as these mobs are the same level now as they were when I first trudged through that zone they don't make for interesting opponents, and this experience also underlines the fact that Terminus is one of the worst laid out zones in the entire game.

Uprising is so half-baked it doesn't even get proper campaign progression - another inexplicable break from a formula that this game has used so well in previous modules.  It all feels rushed (despite it having come out five months after Undermountain) and unfinished.  The unusually long cooldown times on the repeatable quests also suggest an effort to stretch out what little content there is.  It does have a good opening - as usual for Neverwinter - but after that it's entirely underwhelming.

To hell with this, I thought.  Quite literally, since I headed on to Mod 18: Infernal Descent.

Infernal Descent also gets off to a good start, but unlike Uprising it follows up with something that feels more substantial.  True, it reuses the guild stronghold map, but seeing as that's never been used as a pure questing location before I can't fault Cryptic for making use of an under-utilised resource..

I say feels more substantial because as yet I've only dipped a toe into this particular bloodbath.  Infernal Descent is tough, with a recommended item level of 20K, and I'm currently at just over 16K.

I did have something of a suspicion that I'd be in for a rough time in this one during the intro, which unusually teamed me up with two NPCs who I felt were doing most of the heavy lifting during the combat sequences.  Sure enough, when I got outside and started questing it didn't take me long to confirm I'm underpowered for this zone.  I can win the fights, but I'm leaning on my health stones for insta-heals more than I like.  I have plenty of them, but at 2 or 3 charges per fight I'll burn through them in no time at all if I stay here.  Which leaves me in an awkward position, being under-geared for this campaign but over-geared for everything else.  Except Uprising, for whatever that's worth.

So my plan for the next few sessions is to go back to the older campaigns, which I've barely touched on since my realisation that Undermountain had inadvertently power levelled me past them.  If I intend to take this character as far as I can, in terms of build, I'll have to do them at some point, and though my first impressions of how Mod 16 impacted them were not good it will be interesting to see in a bit more detail just how they play now.