Now that the first patch of Neverwinter Ravenloft has been on the preview server for a couple days, we think that we have a decent enough idea what Neverwinter’s Module 14 will bring to give you guys a rough outline of our upcoming coverage. Starting already this week, we’ll preview all features of the Ravenloft update until the launch on June 26th. Pending any significant changes or additions to the content, this is the list:

• May 17th: Ravenloft Preview: Astral Diamond Refining Cap Change
• Coming Up:
  • Adventure Zone, Mob Types & Visuals
  • Campaign Structure, Dailies and Weeklies
  • Zone Quests, HEs & Solo Instances
  • Legacy Transmute Gear
  • Hunts and Attached Rewards
  • The Tarokka Deck
  • The Vampire Hunter Kit
  • Achievements
  • New Lockbox and Other Premium Items (Companions, and Mounts)
  • Datamining Update
  • Random Queue Changes
  • QoL Roundup I: Character Select Screen, Enchantment Visuals,  Pvp Campaign Boon No Longer Gives Any Item Level
  • QoL Roundup II: New Scaling, Quest Path Prioritization and Party Update, Bonus RP Event Changes
  • QoL Roundup III: Need/Greed Rolling, Home Page Facelift, Companion Upgrade Tokens, Insignias
  • New Item Level 530 Armor Sets
  • New Artifact Gear (Weapon / Neck / Belt)
  • New Dungeon: Caste Ravenloft
  • Class Balance Changes, Meta, PVP implications
  • Transmute and Gear Visuals
  • Uncensored Toolbase Updates
  • All You Need to Know About the Ravenloft Release

Make sure to bookmark this page as it will be regularly updated with all links to our preview articles! As always, we’ll make sure you get the best possible information about Ravenloft on Unblogged! We’re looking forward to discuss the new module with you guys in the next weeks.

Neverwinter UN:Blogged is always looking for writers to contribute to the blog. If you are an active player and search for a way to spread your opinions, analysis, diaries or reviews to more than 40,000 regular visitors, then don’t hesitate and get in touch with us on our contact page or message board! We are currently especially looking for console and PVP content, but that’s not exclusive. There is no frequency requirement, you post how often you want.

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Before we get into into the new content that Neverwinter Ravenloft is going to introduce, we have to talk about some pretty significant changes to old systems first. One of the changes is not less than the hottest topic on the feedback front. And that has a reason, because the devs once again mess with Astral Diamond earn rates. After Mod 12.5 brought random queues, this is the second major change to the AD economy within the last months. And while Swords of Chult more changed how Rough Astral Diamonds could be obtained, Ravenloft swings the nerf bat.

What Will Change?

But first things first. What’s actually going on and how are the devs trying to tackle it? I coincidentally had that ZAX backlog article up last week that pretty much explained the issue: There are simply too many Astral Diamonds in the economy! Currently there are not enough sinks, which devalues the currency and, among other things, inflates the ZEN/AD exchange. In the linked article I also said what you can do about it:

1. Remove the ZAX exchange limit to let the market regulate itself
2. Add sufficient AD sinks
3. Nerf AD generation

Turns out the devs decided to go with 3). With M14 Rough Astral Diamonds will have an account wide refining cap of 100,000 per day. This obviously means that AD generation does no longer linearly scale with your characters and could be a substantial nerf depending on how extensively you farmed for RADs on each and any given day.

Who Is Getting Nerfed the Most?

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The math is fairly easy. The current character refining limit is 36,000. Meaning that if you are able to cap three characters per day, you’ll see a decline in Ravenloft thanks to the new 100,000 account hard cap. As adjustment to the new system random queue rewards will be account gated as well. Only one character can earn those first run bonuses per day. Granted, the bonuses were significantly raised, overall they still won’t contribute as much to progress as before. To reach the daily cap you will have to farm additional Salvage.

I’m not sure that makes farming 100,000 ADs longer than currently, it’s just that a portion of the AD generation was moved away from the random queues. You can do everything on your best main, which for example might add to overall speed depending on how geared the alts are that you currently use for random queue farming. The bigger your account is, the bigger the nerf will be. New or casual players that only operate one character on the other hand might even see an small increase in earnings.

Is Another Hard Cap the Answer?

I’d like to point out that some change to the AD economy was necessary. People feel nerfed, but at the end of the day you couldn’t do a whole lot with your ADs anyway. If this works, the currency will get more valuable. A basic example is once again the ZEN exchange. With fewer ADs in the economy, it should fall again. You might not be able to farm as much ADs on a daily basis any longer, but the same ADs will also net you more ZEN. This is a bit speculative at this point, but just know that fewer Astral Diamonds might not mean less “value” for you.

That being said, I’m still critical of the path they’ve chosen here. It decreases the relevance of alts and adds another hard cap in a game that already features tons of progression walls. In 2015 I created the chart on the left to visualize how daily progression works in Neverwinter. And guess what, it still applies. If people want to put the time in to farm Astral Diamonds through refining, just let them. There certainly would have been other ways of taking ADs out of the economy without completely shutting down “hardcore farming”. I can’t stress enough how annoying it is that long-term players that build sizable accounts over the years tend to suffer the most from such changes.

Another reason why I don’t like hard caps is because they are not flexible. Now the 100,000 might make sense, but who knows what’s going to happen during Mod 14 and beyond. If suddenly the economy needs more ADs, players are unable to supply them themselves. Right now you could just gear another alt or two if in need, but with a hard account cap you’re actually dependent on the devs to make adjustments. And let’s just say swift reactions is not really something we are blessed with around here.

Let’s Get More Meaningful and Rewarding Ways of Spending ADs

As annoying as this nerf is to some folks, it was probably an inevitable change for now. I do however would like to see more meaningful and rewarding ways of spending ADs instead of simply limiting what players are able to do. The devs hinted that they have future plans there, so that’s encouraging I guess. But overall it nonetheless looks like some of us will have to get along with fewer Astral Diamonds per day than we’re currently used to.

What’s your opinion on the AD refining cap nerf? Is it justified or should the devs have come up with a better solution to deal with the economy issues? Share your thoughts on our social channels, in the comments below, or the corresponding thread on our message board! An overview of our full Ravenloft coverage can be found in this article!

Neverwinter UN:Blogged is always looking for writers to contribute to the blog. If you are an active player and search for a way to spread your opinions, analysis, diaries or reviews to more than 40,000 regular visitors, then don’t hesitate and get in touch with us on our contact page or message board! We are currently especially looking for console and PVP content, but that’s not exclusive. There is no frequency requirement, you post how often you want.

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As part of our ongoing series of articles previewing Neverwinter’s next module, I’d like to go over the campaign in this one. Just like every module, the Ravenloft campaign loosely guides players through the story, unlocks the new endgame content and offers a fresh set of boons. Because the devs used many features of the Chult campaign, veteran players should have no trouble getting used to the structure and progression. But for all you newcomers and comebackers, I do go over all aspects once again. So let’s get things started!

Campaign Structure

The Ravenloft campaign immidiately unlocks after completing the introductory questline. It uses the “Weekly Haul” as main progression system that you may know from modules 12 and 13. It’s basically a hard cap of how much progression currency you can earn per week. Compared to earlier campaigns it comes with the advantage of being able to freely pick when to progress throughout a week. You do not absolutely have to log in daily to not lose progress. In most cases you only need to spend one day or session to fill your Haul. This makes Ravenloft a very casual campaign to complete.

While this matches what the devs have done in Chult, the progression path is much more linearly. It kinda reminds you of the Maze Engine setup. You basically just work your way up through a given path. Every campaign tasks costs 100 “Omens”, the new progression currency. As you progress, some tasks increase the Weekly Haul and unlock new items in the campaign store and weekly quests. This makes sure that additional weeklies always cover for the increased Haul so that you do not need to run too many additional quests later on. The last task unlocks the new endgame dungeon “Castle Ravenloft” and a corresponding key task (25 Omens).

Ravenloft Boons

You can also invest your Omens in new boons, which is a separate task (175 Omens) that can be completed four times. Once again the structure matches the one from Chult. Players are presented with six choices of tier 1 boons. They can freely assign three points, also multiple ones on the same boon. They add Recovery, Movement, Hit Points, Control Resist, Damage vs. Undead, and Damage Resistance vs. Undead. You can also choose one of the tier 2 boons. They do look interesting as they add power and group buffs that fit the current endgame meta:

• Blood Lust: Every critical hit against an enemy has a chance to add a stack. At 10 stacks, gain 2,400 increased power for 10 seconds. Buff can only be applied once every 60 seconds.
• Transfusion: Healing another player for 10% of their max hits points gives a chance of applying a heal over time that will heal 5% of their max hitpoints every 2 seconds for 10 seconds.
• Hypnotic Gaze: Anytime you use a control power on an enemy you have a chance to increase the combat advantage damage of nearby allies by 5% for 10 seconds. Can only happen once every 60 seconds.
• Righteous Sacrifice: Taking 10% or more of your max health in damage grants nearby allies 800 Power for 5 seconds. Stacks a maximum of 5 times.

Players have to choose whether or not to go for the boons first. The smart move is ranking up the progression path because the extended Weekly Haul will help you complete that boons faster later on. The whole campaign takes eight weeks (4 progression + 4 boons) and eleven in case you absolutely want to go for the boos first (7 boons + 4 progression).

Dailies and Weeklies for Omens

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Now how do you get the Omens to fill the Haul? There are four quest givers in the Village of Barovia that are not complicated to find. The first one, Ezmeralda, resides at the fountain in the middle of the village. She is primarily handing out the weeklies that give 25 Omens each. Those aren’t special by the way. The first two require you to do Heroic Encounters and other stuff in the zone, pretty similar to what you needed to do in Soshentar River and Omu. I’ve not yet unlocked more weeklies, but assume those are the “Ravenloft Instance Quests” that have an official feedback thread.

Then there are three more quest givers in the village tavern that hand out rotating quests. There are only so many quests active at the same time, but completing one basically immediately unlocks another. So you can chain them infinitely to fill your Weekly Haul. All quests are pretty basic kill and fetch quests that overall are not too annoying and relatively easy and fast to complete. Hunts will also drop currency, but unlike Chult those Omens fully count towards the Weekly Haul.

The Campaign Store

Last but not least let’s give the campaign store a look. It requires a second currency that’s similar to those Chultan and Omuan Treasures of Mod 12/13. You can get “salvage” gear up to item level 510, which might actually not be salvage to some players. Also most of the new Artifact sets can be fully obtained through the campaign as well as a required reagent for the restoration process of Module 14 weapons. At this point this is just an “fyi” because we’ll cover the gear additions in a different article. But giving the campaign store some strong gear choices should definitely add to its significance. As mentioned above not all items are available right from the start but have to be unlocked through the progression path of the campaign.

Conclusion

Ranvenloft offers a pretty standard campaign, especially if you’ve played through Chult. The devs definitely do not reinvent the wheel here, but give players content that’s easy to complete and has little annoying elements. The boons offer nice choices for different builds and purposes, and the campaign store is a vital part of the gear progression. Overall there’s not much to complain about unless you’re not a fan of the Weekly Haul progression system.

What’s your impression of the Ravenloft campaign? Do you like it or had you wished for something different? Share your thoughts on our social channels, in the comments below, or the corresponding thread on our message board!

Neverwinter UN:Blogged is always looking for writers to contribute to the blog. If you are an active player and search for a way to spread your opinions, analysis, diaries or reviews to more than 50,000 regular visitors, then don’t hesitate and get in touch with us on our contact page or message board! We are currently especially looking for console and PVP content, but that’s not exclusive. There is no frequency requirement, you post how often you want.

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As part of our massive preview of Neverwinter’s next module Ravenloft, I’d like to go over the dungeon and random queue changes today. After the introduction of the new queues in Swords of Chult, the devs will further tweak the system in Module 14. Some stuff is related to the Astral Diamond refining cap changes, but the queues are also reorganized in a more logical way. So what changes for players starting June 26th? Let’s find out!

New Queue Categories

First of all the devs responded to the claims of players that random queues in their current form don’t make tons of sense. Especially the “Epic Dungeon” queue can be tricky for players as it combines fairly easy content with endgame challenge. That led to most groups abandoning certain content, which is not how the devs intended the queues to work.

Which is why the categories are reorganized by difficulty:

• Leveling Queue: All pre level 70 content as well as Illusionist’s Gambit (Master) and Dread Legion.
• Intermediate Queue: All level 70 content up to item level 9000. This includes Merchant Prince’s Folly (now item level 9000), but not Demogorgon (Master)
• Advanced Queue: All level 70 content between item level 9000 and 13000, as well as Demogorgon (Master).
• Expert Queue: All level 70 content item level 13000 and above. Currenly that’s Castle Ravenloft only.

Overall this feels like a more logical pairing and should lead to players abandoning content way less, especially since the leaver penalty will be account wide. So if you’re queuing into content, the incentive to actually play the random dungeons goes up.

Changes to Rewards

Additionally the rewards for random queues will be changed. In conjunction with the Astral Diamond tweaks, random queue rewards are now per account per day. The payout in the meantime was significantly improved:

• Leveling Queue: 8,000 AD 60 Seals of the Brave (Repeat: 1,000 AD / 20 Seals)
• Intermediate Queue: 12,000 AD 100 Seals of the Brave (Repeat: 2,000 AD / 30 Seals | Role Bonus: 2,400 AD)
• Advanced Queue: 15,000 AD 120 Seals of the Brave (Repeat: 3,000 AD / 40 Seals | Role Bonus: 3,000 AD)
• Expert Queue: 2,500 RP 20 Seals of the Crown (Repeat: 1,000 RP / 10 Seals | Role Bonus: 5,000 AD)

The Seal of the Brave will by the way get its current weekly cap removed. So everything attached to these seals will become much more obtainable and contrary to what others have suggested, this is not a major nerf to salvage. The dungeons that currently drop Seal of the Protector will still do so, and additionally get an injection of RP, as the picture of the Lair of Lostmauth chest on the left shows. It might not feel like much, but 1,000 per run can add up to become a nice source of refining points over time. I’m not sure whether more difficult dungeons drop more by the way. I have run both Lair of Lostmauth and Kessell’s Retreat and they dropped 1,000 from both chests.

What Does It All Mean?

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Most players are now probably interested in what this all means for their daily random queues runs. First of all you obviously will only run each queue once with your best main to get the daily rewards. In case you’ve build up a sizeable alt army to farm randoms, sorry. On the other hand you should have much more time doing other stuff, which could be a plus. Don’t forget random queues are not the only or actually the best way to earn ADs anyway. Additionally the items attached to Seals of the Brave will basically become the new standard. With Module 14 the gear progression fully moves up to Chult and Ravenloft.

Right now only two queues are really in the daily rotation of players and I unfortunately don’t see this changing in Mod 14. Nobody is going to play Castle Ravenloft with a subpar group for measly 2,500 RP. And I’m also quite certain the “Advanced Queue” won’t see much action based on its cost-benefit ratio. So it’s probably going to be the two easier ones plus salvage runs for most players to reach their daily caps.

Advanced Queue Still Not Appealing

While the devs certainly move into the right direction with the changes, the harder and longer dungeons are still not too appealing to run inside random queues. The issue remains that the system first and foremost serves as AD farm, and as that has to be more efficient than doing other stuff. As long as you can still do 5-minute runs through Temple of the Spider and Epic Shores of Tuern, 15,000 AD for a Fangbreaker Island or TONG with a pug group simply won’t be enough. Oh, and good luck beating Cradle!

It also doesn’t help that the random queue group composition doesn’t match the current meta. I’ve been preaching that the differences in run speed are usually not significant, but perception matters. Players are generally hesitant to queue into dungeons with only one DC and tank. So it’s baby steps here and unfortunately the nerf to rough Astral Diamonds is what will dominate the talk around random queues.

What is your opinion on the changes to random queues in Module 14? Share your thoughts on our social channels, in the comments below, or the corresponding thread on our message board!

Neverwinter UN:Blogged is always looking for writers to contribute to the blog. If you are an active player and search for a way to spread your opinions, analysis, diaries or reviews to more than 50,000 regular visitors, then don’t hesitate and get in touch with us on our contact page or message board! We are currently especially looking for console and PVP content, but that’s not exclusive. There is no frequency requirement, you post how often you want.

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As part of our extensive series of previewing Neverwinter’s Module 14 Ravenloft, we are looking into the Barovia Adventure Zone today. Players are automatically brought to Barovia following the introductory quest line. It’s a medium sized map that features a village and camp in the middle and is divided into north and south by the Ivlis River. Unlike in Soshenstar River you can’t use your Kyheks in Barovia by the way. Instead, a “trudging” effect slows down your movement while wading through the water. The mist that borders the map also comes with a unique feel. You don’t actually run into invisible walls like on all the other maps, but get ported back when you venture too deep into the fog. It’s a nice way of following the original lore of Ravenloft as Barovia’s inhabitants are tragically trapped and can’t escape.

Four Major Questing Areas

The settlements are surrounded by four major questing areas:

• North-West: Yester Hill with Druid and Blight mobs
• North-East: Cursed Meadow with its Witches, Scarecrows and Spiders
• South-East: Ruins of Berez with Undead and Vampire mobs
• South-West: Howling Hills with Werewolf mobs

Coming out of the densely populated Jungles of Chult it’s amazing how freely you are able to move around Barovia. Mobs are spread out nicely and unless you’re questing, you won’t likely get engaged ever. All areas feature visual and geographic aspects that make them unique. I especially like the Cursed Meadow, but no area really stands out or falls off. Mob difficulty is probably comparable to Mod 12/13. If you had no trouble in the Chult campaigns, don’t fear the Undead and other evils of Barovia! Down below are selected pictures of new mobs. Watch out for some flying witches and teleporting vamps!

Ravenloft Druid Mobs

Ravenloft Werewolf Mob

Ravenloft Undead Knight Mob

Ravenloft Vampire Mob

Ravenloft Witch Mob

Ravenloft Blight Mob

Ravenloft Undead Stag Mob

Day/Night Cycle

An unique aspect of the map is its day and night cycle. It interchanges every ~10 minutes and has a noticeable effect on the environment. There are some gameplay implications as well, which we’ll cover in other articles, but it first and foremost adds to the feel of the zone. Whenever night falls over Barovia for example, very powerful “Night Terror” mobs randomly appear that haunt inhabitants and are very hard to take down solo. In case you run into one of those, you might actually have to run or call for help, which is quite rare for this game.

I’m also pretty sure the D&D crowd will be excited to see some familiar places and NPCs like the “Bonegrinder” Old Mill or Madam Eva and her Vistani folk. Overall I think the map captures the spirit of Ravenloft really well.

M14_obj__villageSK_building_bolton_section_06

M14_obj__villageSK_building_bolton_balcony_01

M14_obj__Layer_1_Barovia_Wagon_Cart_01

M14_obj__GEO_Raven_01

M14_obj__Geo_Head_Werewolf_01

M14_obj__GEO_Hair_Ezmerelda_Davenir_01

M14_obj__GEO_Broom_01

M14_obj__GEO_BodySlot_Fashion_Barovian_01

M14_obj__Barovia_Vista_Mountain_Slanted

M14_obj___Barovian_Trees_Pine_Large_01

M14_obj___Barovia_Windmill_Base_01

M14_obj___Barovia_Wagon_Vistani_01

Barovia features the kind of effort you’d like to see in a new adventure zone. There are a couple new assets and mobs, and the recycled stuff is cleverly reused to create a fitting atmosphere and visual appeal. Because there’s none better to capture a zone than screenshot wizard JayAgeDee, we’ll close this article by attaching some of his pictures of Barovia and the first impressions video he did with Seavia and Kolat! Have fun with it!

Yester Hill (Ritual place of the corrupted druids and berserkers)

Ravenloft Barovia the Barovian Graveyard

Ravenloft Barovia the Ruins of Berez

Ravenloft Barovia a Bridge Across the River

Ravenloft Barovia the Misty Woods

Ravenloft Barovia the Old Windmill (Bonegrinder)

Ravenloft Barovia Magic Tree near the Ruins of Berez

Ravenloft Barovia Gates to Castle Ravenloft

Ravenloft Barovia Gate to the lands of Barovia

Ravenloft Barovia Ancient Stones

Ravenloft Barovia The river spanning the valley

Ravenloft Barovia Madam Eva’s Vistani camp

Have you already been to preview? Do you like Barovia’s feel and visuals? Share your thoughts in the comments below, on our social channels, or visit the corresponding thread on our message board!

Neverwinter UN:Blogged is always looking for writers to contribute to the blog. If you are an active player and search for a way to spread your opinions, analysis, diaries or reviews to more than 40,000 regular visitors, then don’t hesitate and get in touch with us on our contact page or message board! We are currently especially looking for console and PVP content, but that’s not exclusive. There is no frequency requirement, you post how often you want.

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As part of our massive preview of Neverwinter’s Module 14: Ravenloft, I’m going over the zone and campaign quests, Barovia Heroic Encounters, and solo instances in this article. As mentioned in the campaign preview, there are four primary quest givers in the zone that hand out the weeklies and rotating zone quests. I would love to report intriguing new quest designs, but Barovia unfortunately features much of the same old. Nonetheless let’s go through the quests and Heroics and see what Module 14 has to offer!

Dailies and Weeklies

The dailies and weeklies are pretty much standard fetch and kill quests. Here’s a list of some quests and their objectives so that you get an idea:

• Company of Wolves (Weekly): Complete Kiril’s Cave Lair
• Dark Heroics (Weekly): Complete Yester Hill Heroic Encounter and three minor HEs
• Lighting the Fires (Weekly): Resupply camps
• Dire Consequences: Gather meat from deer along the Ivlis River & lure and kill Alpha Wolves
• Dishonorable Dead: Slay Honor Guard and Undeads around the Ruins of Berez at night 
• Rituals of Corruption: Recover ritual components and knock over profane cairns in the Whispering Wood
• Straw Man: Recover Demonic Essence from Scarecrows around the Cursed Meadow

As you can see, there’s nothing fancy about the quests at all. On the bright side however, none of them are particularly hard or annoying to complete. Most of the time you can even stack them in a way that you can complete multiple ones at once. Some quests use the new day/night cycle in Barovia and certain objectives can only be completed during specific times. That being said, I’ve yet to run into situations on preview in which I really had to wait for a quest. Usually you can just do other stuff instead and then come back later. Some weeklies also lead to new solo instances. They are well designed, but nothing special either. Depending on your item level you might need to group up for those as the bosses can be challenging.

Zone Quests

Especially in Omu, but also Soshenstar River, random quests that dropped from the world were a significant part in the progression. Those quests handed out additional campaign currency while you were doing daily stuff anyway, and made reaching the Weekly Haul much more convenient. In Ravenloft, this doesn’t seem to be the case as much. I’ve only come across one zone quest called “Collector’s Blinsky” so far that requires you to find three dolls. There might be more though that I haven’t found yet.

Heroic Encounter

There is one interesting Heroic Encounter in the zone that’s called “Yester Hill”. You’ll come across that one because it’s included in one of the weekly quests. It features two phases in which you first have to stop blight mobs and then druids from empowering “Thornspur”. The first phase adds damage resistance to the boss, the second one HP. With few players we had some trouble on preview beating the encounter. When fully empowered it’s super hard to kill, but I assume on live it’s going to become the usual zerg party with little to no challenge.

Talking about no challenge: The minor HEs are fairly standard as well. You have to kill mobs, protect merchants, and free prisoners. One annoyance on preview is that the small HEs tend to get stuck and not spawn the last wave of mobs. Sometimes it just takes some time, but sometimes you can’t complete a HE at all. One interesting aspect that we’ve already talked about related to the random queue changes is that Ravenloft HEs hand out Seal of the Brave, making all items attached to those seals much more obtainable. Ravenloft uses the “master controller” of earlier zones that makes sure that new heroics spawn as soon as others are completed. So you can pretty much infinitely farm the HEs and I expect the usual “trains” on the first days of the release.

Conclusion

The stuff you’ll run daily in Barovia isn’t too annoying. In my opinion nothing should become too repetitive since the campaign is fairly easy to complete and the overall time commitment rather small. The new instances tie into the story and add fresh elements for a limited time as well. Additionally the Seal of the Brave dropping from HEs is a major catch-up mechanic that should help new players to get to 510 item level gear fairly easy. That however doesn’t entirely mask the fact that the devs didn’t really strain themselves. You shouldn’t expect any innovative quests in Ravenloft.

Have you tested Ravenloft on preview? What’s your take on the Barovia zone quests and Heroic Encounters? Share your thoughts on our social channels, in the comments below, or the corresponding thread on our message board!

Neverwinter UN:Blogged is always looking for writers to contribute to the blog. If you are an active player and search for a way to spread your opinions, analysis, diaries or reviews to more than 50,000 regular visitors, then don’t hesitate and get in touch with us on our contact page or message board! We are currently especially looking for console and PVP content, but that’s not exclusive. There is no frequency requirement, you post how often you want.

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As part of our extensive preview of Neverwinter’s Module 14: Ravenloft, I’m going over the new Hunts of Barovia in this article. Yes guys, the Hunts feature is back! But before you close the page because you’ve seen enough of the system’s RNG craziness in Mods 12 and 13, just know that Hunts in Ravenloft received some substantial changes that, depending what you didn’t like, might make it a little bit more appealing to you. First things first though. This article builds on what we already know about Hunts in earlier mods. If you’re a new player, you want to look up our previews for Tombs of Annihilation and Lost City of Omu. Otherwise some stuff might be hard to understand.

Hunts Again, but Not Really

Like I said, don’t let yourself discourage by the term “Hunts”, because the system did receive some favorable changes in key areas. One thing that didn’t chance though is that you still have to farm the first set of lures from mobs in the zone. Mod 14 lures are called “Wanted Posters” and drop from all “stronger” mobs in the Barovia adventure zone. Stronger mobs are those that have six health bars (Witches, Berserkers, Vampires, etc.). Posters might also drop from other mobs, but if they do, it’s a tiny chance only. One minor upgrade to earlier Hunts already is that the posters are an auto-pickup. So you can’t really miss them. While you’re slaying mobs and doing your dailies, you’ll automatically get a few over time. I haven’t fully tested by the way whether certain mobs only drop certain posters. But right now I’d say it’s fully random, because I definitely got a “Bolgera” (Scarecrow Hunt) poster from a Druid mob the other day.

Which brings us to the first major change, because the Wanted Posters are fully sellable on the Auction House. This was a request of the community and while the devs emphasized that they liked the restrictions of certain Hunt items so that players had to interact socially to trade them, they’ve reversed course for Mod 14. So if you don’t feel like farming yourself, you will be able to buy the posters you want with Astral Diamonds. It obviously also means that you can go out, farm posters, and turn them into profit much easier.

2-Star and 3-Star posters just like in Chult can only be obtained from 1-Star Hunts, but there is no longer a pyramid to climb. Hunts just drop random posters of the next tier and there are actually multiple 3-Star targets this time.

Madame Eva and Her Cards

The actual process of hunting also changed by a lot. Everything now takes place in private instances and you can choose to add challenge to Hunts for additional rewards. All starts in Madame Eva’s tent in the Vistani camp. Any player that owns a Wanted Poster can enter and start a Hunt. Additional challenge and rewards can be added by playing up to three cards from your Tarokka Deck Box. If you’re in a group only the leader can do that. We’ll go over all cards and effects in a different article in the future by the way. For now just know that you can earn extra Astral Diamonds, gear pieces, refining points, or campaign currency. It’s really cool because that way you can do less Hunts, but make them count. We’ve long called for such a system for dungeons and it’s at least encouraging that the devs now test it on a lower stage.

Depending on the quality of the card the Hunt however can become quite challenging. So you might want to bring a group, making this much more of a social and group feature than Hunts in M12/13. After picking your target and Tarokka cards, you zone into a private instance that looks exactly like Barovia. The target will appear on three out of thirteen possible locations. Madame Eva gives the players some hints, but you have to figure out the locations yourself. It’s a nice puzzle, but most of the time the description is fairly telling. We do however have a map for all you lazy folks that links all the tips to the corresponding locations. Then you basically just have to hunt your target down and kill it gradually. You have 20 minutes to complete a Hunt, but usually shouldn’t run into any trouble.

One more thing about the hunt map: It’s fully populated with standard mobs. Usually you can avoid them while tracking your target, but some Tarokka cards extend their aggro range and add HP and damage. So those can actually become a factor in the Hunt. Dying does not fail or reset the Hunt. As long as you stay within the 20 minutes it’s all good.

Rewards

Let’s talk about rewards next and about another major improvement of the feature. It makes much more sense to go with a full group in M14. All members of a group get individual rewards from the Hunt and all Tarokka cards. So ideally you should team up with four other players and rotate the lead role so that all players can initiate a Hunt and play the Tarokka cards they want. That way, everyone just brings one Wanted Poster, but gets five rewards. It also means that it’s very likely that someone, maybe even everyone, will get another Wanted Poster out of the Hunt and the group can start over again.

All Hunts grant Seal of the Brave, campaign currency, and a chance at one of the rare item level 510 Hunt items, a Wanted Poster of the next tier, or refining points. I’ve attached all Hunt gear below, but there are basically three big equip bonus categories. The first does stuff on daily use, from which the “Crown of the Undead” should be the most interesting piece, because it features a debuff. Then you have a bunch of stuff that has additional stats at the expense of others. “Hag’s Rags” for example features a nice mix of offensive stats including 3,000 Power, but subtracts 2,500 Defense. Depending on what you want to achieve and how you min/max your toon, that can be interesting. Other pieces take away Recovery or even Run Speed. The third major category ties into the new day-night cycle in Barovia. It grants different stats depending on the time and I’m not as much of a fan here. I value consistency, but others might find some use. In any case it’s a completely new type of equip bonus and you can’t blame the devs for trying to mix it up a little.

Conclusion

Hunts in Barovia is much more of a system in which grouping is rewarded. Additionally Tarokka cards enable players to add rewards and make the most out of the Hunts they do. This all should lead to fewer overall grind and sets the focus on the hunting process itself and not the farming, like it was the case in Chult.

If there’s a con then it’s probably the attached gear. Most items feel a little too random and it might be hard to find a place for them. Having more options on the other hand can’t hurt, especially since the piece are item level 510. I’m not sure Hunts will ever grow into a fan-favorite, but the M14 version should definitely be a little bit more appealing even to those players that hated them in M12/13.

Did you try out the new Hunts on the preview server? Do you like them? Share your thoughts on our social channels, in the comments below, or the corresponding thread on our message board!

Neverwinter UN:Blogged is always looking for writers to contribute to the blog. If you are an active player and search for a way to spread your opinions, analysis, diaries or reviews to more than 50,000 regular visitors, then don’t hesitate and get in touch with us on our contact page or message board! We are currently especially looking for console and PVP content, but that’s not exclusive. There is no frequency requirement, you post how often you want.

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As part of our massive preview of Neverwinter’s Module 14: Ravenloft, I’m going over the Tarokka Deck system in this article. The deck is handed out as part of the introductory quest line and serves a dual-purpose in the game. First of all, the cards of the deck are used to add more challenge to the Hunts of Barovia for additional rewards. Second of all, it’s a collector mechanic that can net players an unique artifact. So let’s go through the deck, the cards, and all of their effects!

How Does The Tarokka Deck Work?

As mentioned players get the deck by completing the introductory quest line of Ravenloft. It is put into the “Useful Items” inventory tab and can be brought up by either clicking it there or using the button in the Ravenloft campaign UI. The deck concept comes from the pen and paper lore. Used by Madame Eva to read the adventurers’ future, it loosely guides players through the campaign. In Neverwinter however it fills a different purpose. While doing Hunts, group leaders can add up to three cards of their deck to add additional challenge and rewards. The cards get consumed so you need to refill them constantly. You can also collect all cards and claim an unique artifact.

The Tarokka Deck consists of a “High Deck” and several lower ones. The cards in the High Deck are epic, and offer the best bonuses and rewards. The lower deck cards are rare and offer the same type of rewards in a gradual format. The first card of the Glyphs Deck for example adds 10 Barovian Coins, the last one 100.

• High Deck: Adds additional gear rewards to Hunts and feature Tarokka Deck Artifact Powers (see below)
• Swords Deck: Adds additional gear rewards to Hunts
• Stars Deck: Adds additional refining point rewards to Hunts
• Glyphs: Adds additional campaign currency rewards to Hunts
• Stars: Adds additional Astral Diamond rewards to Hunts

Where to You Get Cards?

The deck is free, but the cards have to be farmed or bought. There are several sources of Tarokka Cards:

• Campaign Tasks (High Cards)
• Some Weekly Campaign Quests (High Cards)
• ZEN Store (High Cards)
• Drop from mobs in the zone (Low Cards)
• The Card Dealer (High and Low Cards)

As you can see, you should be able to progress with your deck by just playing the zone and the campaign. Players that like shortcuts will however also be able to buy random cards from the ZEN store. If you’re looking to complete your deck, the Card Dealer in the Vistani Camp in Barovia also comes in handy. You can trade him cards and then buy one card you do not already possess once per week. This way you can fill holes by using your duplicates.

Hunt Functionality

When played as part of Hunts, the cards add extra challenge for extra rewards. You can see all cards of the High Deck and selected ones from the Low Deck above. Some cards are merely annoying or extend the Hunt, but others might make it necessary to bring a group, like “The Donjon”. The rewards are worth it though as you can get item level 470 – 510 armor. We’ll go over the gear in a different article, but you will be pleased to hear that the devs re-introduce a lot of the old transmutes that were removed with Elemental Evil. There are at least thirteen different sets (6x 470, 4x 490, 3x 510), but maybe I even haven’t found all of them yet. The stronger ones feature equip bonuses and are definitely endgame viable. The blue gear (470) binds on equip, the epics (490 and 510) to account.

I guess the gear will be what most players go after in M14, either to use it or for salvage purposes. The other cards that add refining points, Astral Diamonds, or campaign currency are nice, but are only complementary. I will by the way try to give you guys a full list of all sets and their visuals, but can’t guarantee it. It’s a lot of sets. Collectors do face quite a task to be honest, but you can also buy a pack in the campaign store that hands out the same gear pieces that you can get from the Tarokka Deck Cards.

Tarokka Deck Artifact

Other than adding rewards to Hunts, the deck once fully completed also grants an unique artifact. It’s interesting for different reasons. First of all it features a completely new mechanic as power. On use, you can select one out of three random cards that are drawn from your Tarokka Deck. Albeit there’s randomness involved, some of the effects look nice (see above). Also in case the artifact doesn’t draw any card you like, you can skip it, which shortens the cooldown and therefore can be used to proc stuff like the Insignia Bonus “Artificer’s Persuasion” more rapidly than with other artifacts. Obviously aiming to complete the deck and claim the artifact means that you can pretty much only use duplicates for Hunts. So players might have to decide how to use their cards early on. I would think that once obtained you no longer need to keep the deck intact, but I haven’t been able to test that so far.

Conclusion

Being able to add challenge for additional rewards is great, although I personally almost find the amount of gear choices the cards hand out a bit overwhelming. In the end though most stuff will probably end up as salvage or transmutes and endgame players are unlikely to switch. The same can be said about the artifact. It’s kind of a new approach for an artifact but I do not see it outperforming any current stuff. Also I’m quite interested how picking the powers works. While in combat I don’t think you really want to mess with such a mechanic, at least not unless the powers are really great. Overall however the Tarokka Deck indeed is a nice fresh idea that definitely adds an unique element to Barovia.

Have you tested the Tarokka Deck or even the artifact on preview? Do you like the system? Share your thoughts on our social channels, in the comments below, or the corresponding thread on our message board!

Neverwinter UN:Blogged is always looking for writers to contribute to the blog. If you are an active player and search for a way to spread your opinions, analysis, diaries or reviews to more than 50,000 regular visitors, then don’t hesitate and get in touch with us on our contact page or message board! We are currently especially looking for console and PVP content, but that’s not exclusive. There is no frequency requirement, you post how often you want.

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As part of our extensive coverage of Neverwinter’s Module 14, we are going to look into the Barovian Armor Sets today. Ravenloft will introduce a brand-new seal for which players can buy item level 530 armor sets. Acquisition and farming works exactly like Seal of the Brave and Primal Gear in Mod 12. It still makes sense to go over the basis and tell you guys what to expect.

Seals of the Crown

The new type of seal is called “of the Crown” and drops from the M14 endgame dungeon “Castle of Ravenloft”. The drop amounts are pretty common. It’s ten from each boss (there are three total in the dungeon) and 20 from each chest. The seal is capped at 400 per week, just like the Seals of the Brave were in M12/13. The corresponding vendor can be found in the village of Barovia. It’s located on the north-west of the main market in the outer ring of the town. The coordinates are 1485, 1546 just in case, but you should be able to find him fairly easily. The pic on the left shows the prices in the shop, but please note that it’s taken during a 50% seal discount event. Overall the seal costs match the ones of the Primal Gear. The body piece is 600 and the three other ones cost 400 each. Currently the trader sells Primal Rings under the “Accessories” category, which could be a bug or a placeholder. But maybe the devs also just want players to be able to buy the rings for the new seals as well (for salvage purposes?).

Same Stats as Primal Gear

The similarities between Primal and Barovian gear continues with the stat allocations. The new pieces feature the same set of stats as their precursors, obviously with values that match item level 530. The equip bonuses differ however. All four types feature a bonus that gives 1,500 of an offensive stat when your health is 50% or more, and 2,000 of a defensive one when your health is below 50%:

• Head: Critical Strike and Life Steal
• Body: Power and Defense
• Arms: Armor Penetration and Deflection
• Feet: Recovery and Movement

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Down below you see a screenshot that compares the current Primal Gear of Scourge Warlocks with the Barovian one of Module 14. If you currently use the Primal Gear to min/max your stats it’s obviously easy to switch since the new pieces offer slightly more through a higher item level and equip bonus. Some players might however have a hard time switching if they’re using those custom gear of Mod 12/13 that gives a flat percentage to damage or similar. In any case this will be the best item level that you can get for your armor pieces in Ravenloft content.

Envenomed Caches and Seals of the Crown

One thing we have to talk about in regards of Seals of the Crown are the Envenomed Caches from TONG. Because as you can see in this video, those will drop both Seal of the Brave and Crown, making it possible to pre-farm the currency. You’ll still be limited by the 400 weekly cap of the seal, but in case this isn’t unintended you will be able to buy your first piece of Barovian gear on day 1 of the expansion.

That’s our preview of the new Barovian Gear in Ravenloft! What do you think about the item level 530 pieces? Share your thoughts on our social channels, in the comments below, or the corresponding thread on our message board!

Neverwinter UN:Blogged is always looking for writers to contribute to the blog. If you are an active player and search for a way to spread your opinions, analysis, diaries or reviews to more than 50,000 regular visitors, then don’t hesitate and get in touch with us on our contact page or message board! We are currently especially looking for console and PVP content, but that’s not exclusive. There is no frequency requirement, you post how often you want.

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As part of our massive preview of Neverwinter’s Module 14, Ravenloft, we are going over some quality of life improvements today. As of Module 14, Cryptic has scratched the “B” updates (Shroud of Souls, Swords of Chult) and will incorporate all “QoL” changes in the main modules instead. And oh boy they didn’t disappoint, because Ravenloft’s list of little tweaks and improvements is long. We’ll be going through them one by one and talk about purpose and usefulness.

Insignias Giving Refining Points

We’re not starting off with a game changer, but Insignias giving a small amount of refining points is indeed a nice tweak. I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve discarded or vendored green ones for a while now. Sure you could already donate them to your Guild Coffers, but it never seemed worth it. Now you at least get some RP out of them, which adds a little more value. Green ones give 25, blue ones 100, and purple ones 400. For everyone who might speculate on the market and buy up Insignias now, don’t get your hopes up. Rare/Epic ones sell over their RP value and the Amethyst (25 RP) is going for pennies. So you are unlikely to make profit here.

Item Level Changes

When going on preview you might experience a little drop in your item level. This is because PVP-related boons no longer count towards it. It’s a minor change for sure, but the devs stated it’s just the first of many changes to make the system better represent actual power. It would surely have been better to only make the boons add item level in actual PVP content, but for most situations it’s fine to simply exclude them globally.

Home Page Facelift

The next change is actually already live and rocking! The “Home” screen that appears when you log in for the first time each day now features more meaningful content and shortcuts to vendors, events, and news! It also lists very basic playing tips and information, just don’t expect guides or in-depth explanations here. It’s usually just two or three short paragraphs that outline the systems and their features. The news on the right are structured in the same manner. Overall it’s a nice hub that offers most to returning or casual players that quickly want to know what’s currently going on and what has changed lately. Brand-new players on the contrary do not really get the information they need and for the endgame crowd everything should be quite trivial anyway. I think it’s a useful change nonetheless because the home screen was dated and didn’t really serve a purpose before.

Character Select Screen

Our last quality of life change today is one that many have been waiting for! The Character Select Screen now features a few sort options that help to arrange your toons more logically. Many veteran players had the issue that their mains were spread across their account because the list is sorted by creation date by default. This option still exists, but is extended by four others: Last Played Date, Level, Class, and Name. You can also mark one character as main that will always show on top, regardless of the sort. Theoretically this should allow players to find and access the characters that matter the most much faster, but the system has practical flaws that severely hinder its usefulness.

Just imagine a veteran account that has 50 toons, all level 70. This is not unusual as leveling and farming Leadership for months and years will eventually lead to max level. Such an account probably prays with all characters every day, rendering “Last Played Date” and “Level” useless. Same for “Class”, unless all your pray and storage alts feature the same one. So all that’s left is to name your toons in a way that the mains will end up on top and your alts on the bottom, which feels like a workaround.

It would have been much better to allow marking multiple mains or let players freely arrange their toons. I assume that was too difficult or didn’t make it in time, but that still doesn’t change the fact that in its current form, the sort options probably don’t offer as much for the issues that the system was designed to help with. So overall there’s more work to do here and I certainly hope that we’ll see improvements down the road.

What’s your take on the mentioned quality of life improvements? Do you like them or should the devs have spent their time differently? Share your thoughts and experience on our social channels, in the comments below, or visit the corresponding thread on our message board!

Neverwinter UN:Blogged is always looking for writers to contribute to the blog. If you are an active player and search for a way to spread your opinions, analysis, diaries or reviews to more than 50,000 regular visitors, then don’t hesitate and get in touch with us on our contact page or message board! We are currently especially looking for console and PVP content, but that’s not exclusive. There is no frequency requirement, you post how often you want.

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As part of our massive coverage of Neverwinter’s Module 14, Ravenloft, I’d like to preview the Undying Lockbox and other ZEN store additions today! No update comes without a flurry of new premium items, and Ravenloft is no different. On top of the new lockbox we have a couple mounts and companions that could be interesting! So let’s see what players are presented with on June 26th!

Undying Lockbox

The new lockbox is called “Undying” and comes with brand-new legendary and epic mounts and a companion. You can see the tooltips below and I’ve also attached videos that show the mount’s visuals, which are quite unique and cool. Some players will probably be in love with the legendary Swarm’s combat power as well. It has already been nerfed from 10% to 5% potency, but still seems to be fairly strong. The Razorwood companion feels equally overpowered. With +25% Combat Advantage Damage and additional Critical Severity it should instantly make it into players’ DPS loadouts. It’s also a viable active pet thanks to three offensive slots and ring/ring/neck, but it doesn’t feature the debuffing attacks that other companions offer.

ravenloft-m14-swarm-mount-tooltip

ravenloft-m14-mist-form-mount-tooltip

ravenloft-m14-razorwood-companion-tooltip

The blue drops feature one intriguing change, and that’s the Companion Pack. It’s renamed to “Companion Equipment Pack” and drops +3 to +5 gear from the Illusionist’s Gambit and the older Adorable Gear from the New Life Lockbox. All gear is unbound so you will be able to fully buy and sell the gear. A random test returned way more purple Adorable gear than Gambit +4/+5 by the way.

The Enchantment Pack contains the Dread Enchantment and a new “Eclipse” Armor Enchantment, which adds Deflection chance and a stamina refill on Transcendent and Unparalleled levels.

Eclipse Rank Powers

Lesser: Increases deflection chance by 8%.
Moderate: Increases deflection chance by 11%.
Greater: Increases deflection chance by 14%.
Perfect: Increases deflection chance by 17%.
Pure: Increases deflection chance by 20%.
Transcendent: Increases deflection chance by 23%. Whenever your stamina drops below 20% your stamina is refilled and no longer depletes for 4 seconds. This effect may occur once every 60 seconds.
Unparalleled: Increases deflection chance by 25%. Whenever your stamina drops below 20% your stamina is refilled and no longer depletes for 6 seconds. This effect may occur once every 60 seconds.

Other than that the blue drops are pretty standard and unfortunately also feature an “Adventure Pack” again, which wasn’t exactly a fan-favorite. The devs however seem to like the concept and brought it back. I personally am also not that fond of the Fashion set. There’s only old sets available and you can’t even pick which one you want to get. On the bright side: If you call yourself a fashionista, you will probably be able to get most included sets pretty cheap.

ravenloft-m14-variety-fashion-pack-tooltip

ravenloft-m14-howling-adventure-pack-tooltip

ravenloft-m14-full-moon-enchantment-pack-tooltip

ravenloft-m14-darkened-night-stronghold-pack-tooltip

ravenloft-m14-cursed-artifact-enchantment-pack-tooltip

ravenloft-m14-bloddied-companion-equipment-pack-tooltip

Vistani Wanderer

All recent campaigns featured a premium companion to enhance the drop rates of progression currency. Ravenloft continues this pattern with the Vistani Wanderer, a ZEN Market companion that increases the drop of Barovian Coins, Omens, and Gold by 10%. Assuming Cryptic won’t change their prizing policy significantly, the Wanderer should cost 2,500 ZEN.

ravenloft-m14-vistani-wanderer-companion-tooltip

Winter Charge Promo

The Winter Festival is still months away, but it looks like the devs already finalized the corresponding promo that hands out unique rewards for charging ZEN. It’s probably comparable to what they’ve run last year, just that the mounts changed. You will be able to get an epic sled and a teal crag cat. Also don’t forget that the Summer Charge Promo starts in a week that features two unique mounts as well.

ravenloft-m14-silverleaf-sled-mount-tooltip

ravenloft-m14-teal-crag-cat-mount-tooltip

Tarokka Card Key Bundle

As always new mods come with a new package for the x20 Enchanted Key bundle on the ZEN Market. This time Tarokka Cards are included that you need to add challenge and rewards to Ravenloft Hunts. I’m not sure it’s worth buying into the keys just for the Tarokka Cards, but if you wanted to get keys anyway it might make sense to hold onto your ZEN a little longer to get the M14 stuff.

Ravenloft Founder’s Pack

We’ve covered the Founder’s Pack extensively in its own article, but for the sake of completeness it’s also listed here. This might actually come to the ZEN Market before too long by the way. The devs introduced the Expedition Leader Pack of M13 two weeks before launch with an early bird discount. So the M14 version could be available as soon as June 12th. This would also align nicely with the Protector’s Jubilee and its massive ZEN discounts.

These are the premium rewards that will come with Neverwinter’s Module 14: Ravenloft. Do you like what you see or don’t you think you’ll be spending too much ZEN? Share your thoughts and experience on our social channels, in the comments below, or visit the corresponding thread on our message board!

Neverwinter UN:Blogged is always looking for writers to contribute to the blog. If you are an active player and search for a way to spread your opinions, analysis, diaries or reviews to more than 50,000 regular visitors, then don’t hesitate and get in touch with us on our contact page or message board! We are currently especially looking for console and PVP content, but that’s not exclusive. There is no frequency requirement, you post how often you want.

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As part of our massive preview of Neverwinter’s upcoming module “Ravenloft”, I’d like to go through some more quality of life changes today. On our first roundup I’ve already covered the Character Select Screen, Home Page Facelift, Item Levels, and Insignias, but there’s a lot more to come!

In the first version of this article overstated the nerf to Retraining Tokens. The revised version now more correctly lines out the change. Thanks to dupeks for providing the information in the comments!

Enchantment Visuals

Let’s start with a big one, because a longstanding request will get filled with Module 14. Weapon and Armor Enchantments were a pain for some players, because their visuals could severely mess with a character’s theme. It was basically a hardcoded feature and you had to live with it. Since pretty much all of them feature dominant effects and colors, this even led to situations in which players picked the enchant fitting to the toon’s visuals instead of picking the one that made most sense in terms of gameplay. This fortunately will be ancient history in Ravenloft because you can finally switch off the enchantment visuals in case you don’t like them. Just like for the head pieces the context menu will have an additional option that let’s you turn off visuals.

This feature is also a classic example of stuff that takes time even though the devs really wanted it to happen. Thomas Foss repeatedly stated that it’s on their agenda, but it required the software team to come in and actually rework the code. So it wasn’t something the game designers could do on their own.

Retraining Changes

The next one might be controversial as you could label it a nerf. Retraining Tokens will no longer retrain the whole character, but only either attributes, powers, feats, or boons. Alternatively you can spend 60,000 Astral Diamonds to reset these areas. On the one hand this is great, because you have much more choices and no longer need to click through all powers in case you only want to tweak your boons. But obviously the tokens themselves got nerfed, because respeccing the full character will require four tokens in Module 14. To compensate for this change, tokens will be reduced from 300 to 100 and all single tokens that players already own will be converted into packs that contain three tokens instead.

It’s still a 33% nerf, but I nonetheless think it’s a good change. Retraining Tokens are neither expensive nor hard to get. And realistically you rarely respec all areas of a character anyway, making the new system more flexible and cheaper. Only in some limited cases respeccing will actually get more expensive.

New Scaling Mechanic

• Official Feedback Thread: Level Scaling Adjustments

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Neverwinter Ravenloft will feature a more intelligent mechanism that should tackle scaling much better. The current situation is that level 70 toons, especially endgame ones, are completely overpowered when scaled down. On the contrary lower levels have a hard time while scaled up. This is a change that makes sense, but players rightfully fear that it will make the leveling dungeons inside the random queues too much of a pain. Speedrunning through them is a major part of the daily AD generation. On the other hand new players were having a hard time keeping up with all the 70s in low-level content and it’s hard to challenge that the leveling dungeons should more cater to their needs.

That’s the theory, but on preview the new scaling was hardly noticeable. My endgame toons are still rushing through the maps just like before. If at all then you can probably experience a little drop in overall damage, but that’s about it. So this might not be the end of the road as more tweaks could be coming. Now that the system is in place the devs will have an easier time adjusting it on the fly.

Quest Path Prioritization

• Official Feedback Thread: Quest Path Prioritization and Party Update

Last but not least the quest journal will get another upgrade. Quest path prioritization and party mechanics are reworked in a way that you have more control over how the quest path is chosen and what quests show up in the tracker. All tweaks can be looked up in the feedback thread I linked above, but the most important one imho is that you can now not only prioritize quests, but also completely prevent them from showing up in your quest tracker. That way you can hide outdated ones (tutorials etc.) that you won’t likely need any time soon. It’s a well done feature that will mostly benefit new and low-level players that mainly rely on the quest path to bring them to their next adventure.

What’s your take on the mentioned quality of life improvements? Do you like them or should the devs have spent their time differently? 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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As part of our massive coverage of Neverwinter’s Module 14, Ravenloft, we preview the new legacy transmute gear pieces that range from item levels 490 to 540. At first it might sound strange to label the gear “transmutes” when the item levels are endgame viable. The visuals however match those from legacy gear of the Mod 60 era that was removed with the Elemental Evil update. So reintroducing those looks is indeed a key part of what the gear offers.

At Least Twelve New Sets

Neverwinter Ravenloft will introduce not less than twelve new sets that can drop from various locations throughout the world and the campaign. Before we get to the sets themselves, let’s quickly talk from where players can get them. First of all, there’s a “Salvaged Gear Pack” in the campaign store for the basic campaign currency. By simply doing the dailies you should be able to get multiple ones per week. Please note that the tooltip is not yet updated. The pack contains pieces of item levels 490, 520, or 540. Next to the campaign the other major source is Hunts. The gear has a chance to drop from hunt targets and you can get additional pieces from playing Tarokka Cards. All High Cards add gear and since there are 14 unique ones, there might also be 14 sets. I’ve run across twelve different ones so far, but maybe I simply haven’t found all of them.

Pieces also have a chance to drop from the stronger mobs of the world and from bosses and end chests of Castle Ravenloft. Below is a picture that shows a small selection of the gear.

Gear Visuals and Equip Powers

Since there is so much new gear, it’s impossible to give a preview of all stats and visuals for all classes in this preview. But we at least have the corresponding level 60 sets and equip powers. Depending on whether you remember the looks from back in the day this may or may not be helpful.

First of all it’s important to point out that not all legacy gear is included here. The pieces that are missing (like T1, T2 armor sets or Dread Legion gear) can be found at the Gauntlgrym Supplier in Mantol-Derith, which is part of the Maze Engine campaign. Between these two sources now all legacy gear should be once again obtainable in the game. While the Underdark stuff is strictly transmutes, the higher item levels in Mod 14 have some endgame viability in slots that you use to min/max your character. Especially Darklord and Seer head, body, and arms pieces could be interesting.

Overall this next to Hunts seems to be another approach by the devs to hand out great, but not quite top-notch, item levels in single player content. The Barovian sets that have to be acquired from Castle Ravenloft are technically better at item level 550, but I guess most players will do just fine with 520 and 540 even in endgame content. At least topping what you currently use in Mod 13 shouldn’t be as much of an issue.

Conclusion

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The legacy transmute gear of Module 14 not only brings back some of the old looks that the game lost with the Elemental Evil update, but also provides a relatively easy path to item levels 520 and 540. While the gear is endgame viable, most will probably acquire it for the visuals. I personally for example really liked the Mod 5 Draconic Templar set for Guardian Fighters and am happy that I’ll be able to get it again. The blue sets being unbound could also present an opportunity for early birds on the Auction House, although those should eventually sell for pennies.

Overall I like the idea, but the amount of gear choices is almost overwhelming to be honest. Maybe the devs should have limited the additions a little, especially since not all sets feature unique looks, but this is surely a first word problem. In the end it simply means most players should be able to find gear at least for their alts, but most likely even for their main toons.

What’s your take on bringing back the old looks and the endgame viability of the gear? Share your thoughts and experience on our social channels, in the comments below, or visit the corresponding thread on our message board!

Neverwinter UN:Blogged is always looking for writers to contribute to the blog. If you are an active player and search for a way to spread your opinions, analysis, diaries or reviews to more than 50,000 regular visitors, then don’t hesitate and get in touch with us on our contact page or message board! We are currently especially looking for console and PVP content, but that’s not exclusive. There is no frequency requirement, you post how often you want.

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In today’s preview article about Neveriwinter Module 14, Ravenloft, we quickly go over the (lack of) class balance changes, meta implications and PVP outlook. And “quick” is an overly accurate label here, because actually there’s not a lot to report. There’s no giant shift in the meta to expect, but I nonetheless want to touch on some minor things and the current status quo.

Change to Piercing Damage

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The only notable change of Module 14 is the one to the functionality of piercing damage. Both Hunter Ranger’s “Piercing Blades” as well as Trickster Rogue’s “Shadow of Demise” now deal damage based on post-mitigation damage. So far both powers were dealing damage based on values before mitigation. The funny thing is, we’ve pretty much gone full circle now, because that’s exactly how the powers used to work (at least TR). The devs tried a few things, but apparently eventually decided to reverse everything. The reason is pretty simple as Rogues were too powerful in PVP. Since Shadow of Demise was calculated before any mitigation (and even ignoring whether or not opponents actually dodged a hit), there was little to no way to avoid massive SoD procs. Now players’ Defense and Deflect (and other mitigation sources) once again affect piercing powers, and as compensation SoD deals 25% more damage.

For Hunter Rangers little should change in PVE in the meantime, but for Rogues this is effectively a buff as mitigation is completely negated by Armor Penetration and the additional damage directly translates. As result some players observed nice SoD procs on preview. TRs should move up the DPS chain by a little.

Other Changes

There are pretty much no other notable changes. Guardian Fighters can no longer prone opponents with “Bull’s Charge”, which is obviously a nerf and should help prevent certain stun/lock, chain/kill scenarios. Also worth mentioning is the fact that the new “Prominence” Weapon Enchantment that drops from Castle Ravenloft benefits the GWF class, solidifying its place at the top of the DPS meta tier. That doesn’t mean by the way that “Prominence” will outperform any existing “bis” choices. But if it does, GWFs should profit the most.

Resistance Ignored Cap Will Be Raised Too 100%

PVE builds in the meantime will need more Armor Penetration for the new capstone Castle Ravenloft dungeon. The bosses feature 100% Damage Resistance, so builds need to feature an equal amount of Resistance Ignored to match that. That minor stat rebalance won’t change the meta drastically however. We still fully expect endgame groups to feature four support builds and one DPS. It’s going to be interesting however how the community chooses to deal with one particular mechanic in the Strahd fight of Castle Ravenloft. The group can get separated and you need a potent second DPS to free the first one. Toons that can switch between support and DPS (GF/CW) fit that role nicely, but you could obviously simply switch characters before the last boss as well.

But since that only affects that one dungeon, the meta tiers we defined for Module 13 are still accurate and intact. In case something changes, we’ll update the article!

What are your thoughts about balance and meta talk going into Module 14? Share your thoughts and experience on our social channels, in the comments below, or visit the corresponding thread on our message board!

Neverwinter UN:Blogged is always looking for writers to contribute to the blog. If you are an active player and search for a way to spread your opinions, analysis, diaries or reviews to more than 50,000 regular visitors, then don’t hesitate and get in touch with us on our contact page or message board! We are currently especially looking for console and PVP content, but that’s not exclusive. There is no frequency requirement, you post how often you want.

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In this preview of Neverwinter’s Module 14, Ravenloft, I’d like to talk about a new buff device that’s going to get introduced. Players can grab a “Vampire Hunter Kit” by simply completing the introductory quest line that, once activated, features an independent set of encounter powers that debuffs and controls mobs or heals the party. It’s comparable to Fishing in Storm Kings Thunder or Sahha during the Summer Festival. I’ll quickly go over the powers, the acquisition of ammunition and how players can utilize the kit the best.

The Kit Is Free, Ammunition Isn’t

Once obtained the Vampire Hunter Kit is located in the “Useful Items” tab. It then has to be moved to the potions bar to use it. On activation the power tray changes to three new abilities:

The kit, as the descriptions suggest, is mainly useful against the Night Terrors that roam Barovia at night, but it obviously also works in other content. I’m not sure how bosses can get slowed by 25% since they’re immune to control abilities or hardly move anyway (Atropal), but maybe this pierces the usual resistances? Most interesting for DPS is the Silvering Kit of course, which adds a decent amount of damage for 30 seconds and should become a nice boost in high-end speed runs.

The abilities look great, but there’s a catch. While the kit itself is free, the ammunition isn’t. It uses “charges” of different materials for each power. Also you can’t simply buy unlimited charges of each power, which means that in PVE runs you are limited to a few uses and then have to go restock. That’s, well, inconvenient, but you can see why the devs refuse to give teams a permanent 200% extra damage. The occasional 30 second use in boss fights is already a very nice buff.

Random Merchants Hand out Ammunition

The second obstacle is getting the ammunition itself. In Barovia certain merchants pop up at random locations for a short period at daytime that hand out the charges for gold. They also sell one of the required reagent for Sun Weapons by the way. We’d love to hand out some sort of map for the merchants, but haven’t fully figured them out yet. All we can say is that the locations and the time of appearance is random. That’s not super helpful, I know, but it’s what we have right now. We’ll surely update the information at some point.

As you can see, the charges cost Gold, which makes sense since it adds some needed significance to the currency. It also means whenever you find a merchant, you should have no trouble getting what you need. In case you actually are low on Gold, I’d recommend piling up some for Mod 14. Like I mentioned above, you can’t simply buy as many items as you like though. There seems to be some type of internal limitation that only allows to acquire one charge per day cycle, or even 60 minutes. So stacking up on charges has to happen over time.

How to Use the Kit the Best?

While the kit’s tooltips suggest that its main purpose is to fight those Night Terrors, I think it’s best utilized within dungeon runs to get a temporary DPS boost in boss fights. That said, Night Terrors in Barovia are tough and it can’t hurt to have your Morninglord Lantern or Holy Water ready as panic button. But then again: Dying isn’t an issue in this game, so if you come across a Night Terror and can’t beat it, who cares?

Overall the Vampire Hunter Kit unfortunately has a certain potential to become dead code. The merchants being hard to find and only having one charge makes it a pain to constantly have it available. I can’t really see people farming Barovia between runs to restock their Silvering Kits. The 200% extra damage boost is big, but shouldn’t really be the difference maker between making or failing a run. So while the kit definitely fits the theme and is a nice gimmick, I don’t think it’ll develop into a major system in Mod 14. One additional minor downside is that it blocks a spot in the potion bar. We have so many different buff devices that three slots there really become a limiting factor. Future quality of life changes should definitely include an extension.

Conclusion

The Vampire Hunter Kit is an interesting idea. It gives players some buff charges in an intriguing way. To not make the abilities too powerful however, the kit comes with certain limitations that might significantly hinder its viability in the end. It will surely make it into some speed-run videos, but I’m not sure it’s something that will be utilized consistently.

Experimenting with an independent set of powers is certainly a focal point in Ravenloft. While the Sunsword (that works in the same way) is a major mechanic to beat Strahd, the Vampire Hunter Kit is merely a gimmick though. Nonetheless I like that the devs are mixing in new things to give the mod an unique feel.

What’s your take on the Vampire Hunter Kit? Will it be useful? Share your thoughts and experience on our social channels, in the comments below, or visit the corresponding thread on our message board!

Neverwinter UN:Blogged is always looking for writers to contribute to the blog. If you are an active player and search for a way to spread your opinions, analysis, diaries or reviews to more than 50,000 regular visitors, then don’t hesitate and get in touch with us on our contact page or message board! We are currently especially looking for console and PVP content, but that’s not exclusive. There is no frequency requirement, you post how often you want.

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In today’s preview article of Neverwinter’s Module 14, Ravenloft, I quickly go over the added achievements. It’s mainly just the list of stuff that you can grab in case you’re one of those completionists, but I’ll add some context and comments where it makes sense. So without further ado, let’s go through the additions!

Achievements in the Barovia Adventure Zone

• Scrying Barovia: Find all three Srying Stones in Barovia
• Barovian Hero: Complete all 7 Heroic Encounters in Barovia
• Clean Sweep: Defeat 50 Brooms in Barovia
• Terror Terror: Defeat the Night Terror in Barovia
• Vampire Slayer: Defeat 100 Vampires in Barovia
• Witch Hunt: Defeat 50 Witches in Barovia

There are basically three major categories of achievements to get in Ravenloft. The first one are slayer and exploring achievements in the Barovia adventure zone. There are obviously your three Scrying Stones to find, but players are also tasked with completing all seven different Heroic Encounters on the map and killing the various new mob types. Please note that there are no new full “slayer” achievements, just the ones that are listed above.

Castle Ravenloft

• Castle Ravenloft: Account Unlock
• Castle Ravenloft: Defeat Strahd in Castle Ravenloft
• Ghost Stories: Comfort all three of the restless spirits that haunt Castle Ravenloft
• Night Terror: Defeat the Night Terror in Castle Ravenloft
• Pew, pew, pew: Kill all vampires in the chapel before using the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind in Castle Ravenloft
• Ravin’ Loft: Wait for all 5 Haunted Ballroom dancer groups to attack before defeating any in Castle Ravenloft

The second category involves the new endgame dungeon Castle Ravenloft. You get one for unlocking the dungeon as well as completing it, but there are also four “side tasks” that you can do. Just make sure you communicate achievement hunting before queuing as not everyone might be willing to go after these. I’m not sure by the way whether the “Night Terror” is a hidden mob/boss. I have completed the dungeon on preview and don’t have that achievement unlocked. Which either means it was added recently or that we never encountered it on our runs. I quite frankly didn’t pay too much attention so it could be both. Have fun figuring that one out (if there’s even something to figure out).

Hunts of Barovia

• Card Shark: Complete a hunt using 3 cards
• Bounty Hunter: Complete a hunt in under 5 minutes
• Master Hunter: Complete all 10 Hunts in Barovia
• Triple Thread: Complete a 3-Star Hunt (might be old)

Last but not least the new Hunts come with a set of achievements as well. Most are easy to obtain and I actually already have some completed just testing Hunts in the new mod. I think “Triple Thread” also has to be new because I’ve not completed it although I definitely completed “King of Spines”. So I guess it’s a 3-Star Hunt in Barovia.

Conclusion

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I personally am not that much into achievements, but for all you completionists and title hunters Barovia certainly offers some entertainment. There’s not too much innovative stuff included however. Soshenstar River in my eyes was a great example of how you could add explorative elements with the achievement system. Not sure why the devs didn’t continue that pattern in Omu and now Ravenloft. Little Easter eggs and gimmicks can add small bits of fun and excitement to your everyday grind and are the type of features that really round off a mod. But I’m far from complaining here. Overall Ravenloft features twice as many achievements as Omu did and with that offers enough incentives to those interested in that feature.

Are you an achievement hunter? What do you think about the Ravenloft additions? Share your thoughts on our social channels, in the comments below, or visit the corresponding thread on our message board!

Neverwinter UN:Blogged is always looking for writers to contribute to the blog. If you are an active player and search for a way to spread your opinions, analysis, diaries or reviews to more than 50,000 regular visitors, then don’t hesitate and get in touch with us on our contact page or message board! We are currently especially looking for console and PVP content, but that’s not exclusive. There is no frequency requirement, you post how often you want.

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As part of our massive preview of Neverwinter’s upcoming module “Ravenloft”, I’d like to go through some more quality of life changes today. Our first roundup covered the Character Select Screen, Home Page Facelift, Item Levels, and Insignias, the second one Enchantment Visuals, Retraining Changes, New Scaling, and more! But that’s still not everything the new mod has to offer. So let’s conclude the quality of life changes with a third roundup!

Illusionist’s Gambit +5 Gear

Many players will be pleased to hear that Illusionist’s Gambit +5 gear now finally has been updated to feature two off/def slots. It was one of the weirder design decisions by the devs to give these super-rare items an overload slot, and with that effectively make them worse than their +4 versions. Maybe there were great plans with overload enchantments or whatever, but apparently that never materialized and hence the change makes sense. We just hope that you haven’t discarded, salvaged or donated them to your guild coffer yet.

Relic Armor and Restoration items

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Another minor change is the one to Module 10 Relic Armor and Restoration items. With Ravenloft the game completely moves past Storm Kings Thunder with its gear progression and hence the gear is no longer available for dungeon seals. Instead you can buy everything for the SKT campaign currencies. I’ve attached pictures of the new stores below. Reagents like Lanolin are completely overpriced, but it’s not like you’re going to need them anyway. The most basic (and unbound) gear in Ravenloft features item level 490 already and with that even surpasses Vivified Relic Armor.

mod14-skt-store3

mod14-skt-store2

mod14-skt-store1

Companion Upgrade Tokens

I assume players will be pleased to hear that Companion Upgrade Tokens can now be account shared using banks. Just like other currencies you can now freely move them between characters and no longer need to manage the tokens separately. Albeit a small change, it’s now that much more convenient to open companion packs and such as you no longer have to do this on a character that actually needs the tokens. This has been a request for a long time and it’s good to see that the devs will make it happen in Mod 14.

Need/Greed Rolling

Official Feedback Thread: Need/Greed Rolling

With Ravenloft the devs get rid of one of the major annoyances of the need/greed system. The looting mechanic was actually fine, but there are currently situations in which the screen can be swarmed by lots of loot roll windows. This is annoying and in crucial moments can even distract from gameplay. That’s why in Module 14 the game will auto-roll most need and greed, and players can set a personal threshold to completely opt out of certain rarities. That should prevent situations in which you have to deal with items that you don’t want as well as keeping your screen free of popups.

Bonus RP Event Changes

Official Feedback Thread: Bonus RP Event Changes

I think we can agree that the Bonus RP event that took the place of the Double RP event after the last big refining changes was pretty crappy. It simply didn’t hand out enough RP to make farming the event worthwile. This changes in Ravenloft as the devs have completely reworked the structure. Mobs now hand out more refining points and there are bonus rewards for reaching certain thresholds. Additionally players can buy boosts to earn the refining points faster. This is a clever way of using the event as minor AD sink, but depending on the AH market it might not be worth it. The amount of RP you’re able to get is still capped by the way (125k per character including all threshold bonuses), but the gain is finally noticeable. So players overall should definitely get more out of the event.

What’s your take on the mentioned quality of life improvements? Do you like them or should the devs have spent their time differently? Share your thoughts and experience on our social channels, in the comments below, or visit the corresponding thread on our message board!

Neverwinter UN:Blogged is always looking for writers to contribute to the blog. If you are an active player and search for a way to spread your opinions, analysis, diaries or reviews to more than 50,000 regular visitors, then don’t hesitate and get in touch with us on our contact page or message board! We are currently especially looking for console and PVP content, but that’s not exclusive. There is no frequency requirement, you post how often you want.

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Neverwinter Ravenloft is the 14th major update of the game and brings adventurers to Barovia, a dark demiplane. It is ruled by evil Count Strahd von Zarovich, a relentless vampire that uses a deadly mist to prevent the inhabitants of his land from escaping his terror. The Neverwinter campaign aligns with the official D&D storyline “Curse of Strahd”. Adventurers are lured into Barovia by a travelling folk called the “Vistani”, gradually learn the lore and struggles of the land, and will eventually challenge Strahd in his Castle Ravenloft.

As always we’ve compiled all relevant information you need about Neverwinter Ravenloft and walk you through the additions and features in this article. Have fun with it!

Solo Story & Campaign

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The module introduces a full new campaign in its own adventure zone. For the third time in a row, Ravenloft, utilizes the “Weekly Haul” as progression system that allows players to freely choose when to do their tasks over the course of a week. Adventurers grind through a pretty standard set of dailies, weeklies, Heroic Encounters, and campaign tasks. You can either progress towards the endgame dungeon “Castle Ravenloft” first or get a set of four new boons. The zone itself comes with new solo instances and a day and night cycle that has limited gameplay impact. Overall the mod catches the spirit of Ravenloft pretty well. It’s a dark and horror setting in which dangers might lurk right behind you!

We have prepared preview articles that cover all aspects of the story, campaign, and zone below. Just click through!

• Neverwinter Ravenloft Campaign Preview
• Neverwinter Ravenloft Preview: Barovia Adventure Zone
• Ravenloft Preview: Barovia Zone Quests, Heroic Encounters & Solo Instances
• Neverwinter Ravenloft Preview: The Vampire Hunter Kit
• Neverwinter Ravenloft Preview: Castle Ravenloft Dungeon
• Neverwinter Ravenloft Achievements

System Changes & Additions

One of the more discussed changes of the module was the one to the Astral Diamond refining cap. ADs are the player’s main income and since it’s changed from a 36,000 cap per character to a 100,000 for the account, many players fear that this will nerf their overall income. Along with the cap changes, random queues were adjusted and tweaked to fit the new system. The queues are now more sorted by difficulty of content and not by type, which should lead to players finding the same challenge throughout a category.

The Hunts system, in which players track and bring down certain unique targets, is also continued in Barovia, albeit in a different form. Hunts in Module 14 are instanced and much more of a group activity. With so-called tarokka cards players can add challenge and rewards to Hunts, and overall the system is much less RNG dependent, which was a major flaw of the counterparts in mods 12 and 13. Ravenloft in the meantime is light on class balance changes and the meta shouldn’t change drastically.

Our articles covering all systems and changes are listed below. Click through in case you’re interested in the details!

• Ravenloft Preview: Astral Diamond Refining Cap Change
• Neverwinter Ravenloft Dungeon and Random Queue Changes
• Neverwinter Ravenloft Preview: Hunts of Barovia
• Neverwinter Ravenloft Preview: The Tarokka Deck & Cards
• Neverwinter Ravenloft Preview: Class Balance Changes, Meta & PVP Implications

New Gear & Items

As always a new mod also comes with new items. Ravenloft will introduce a new type of seal as part of the Castle Ravenloft dungeon for which players are able to buy a new capstone armor set. On top of that the line of artifact equipment will be extended with two more weapon and four more artifact sets. The campaign, mobs, and Hunts are able to drop a wide range of item level 490 – 540 gear, which additionally features legacy visuals that were discontinued with the level cap raise of Elemental Evil in 2015. Whoever was a fan of the old looks (or simply likes more choices) should be pleased.

The new lockbox is called “Undying” and comes with Ravenloft themed mounts, companions, and a new “Eclipse” armor enchantment. A new “Prominence” weapon enchantment by the way drops from Castle Ravenloft. You can find all the details about the new gear and items in our articles below!

• Neverwinter Ravenloft Preview: New Item Level 550 Barovian Armor Sets
• Neverwinter Ravenloft Preview: Artifact Gear and Weapons
• Neverwinter Ravenloft Preview: Legacy Transmute Gear (Item Levels 490 – 540)
• Neverwinter Ravenloft Preview: Hunts of Barovia
• Neverwinter Ravenloft Preview: New Undying Lockbox and ZEN Store Additions

Quality of Life Changes

Starting with Module 14 the devs have scratched their approach of releasing a “b” module featuring quality of life changes. Instead, those are included in the main module update. That’s why Ravenloft features a flurry of small improvements and fixes that players have been waiting for. The list is highlighted by the ability to disable enchantment visuals, sort characters on the select screen, and updates to the need/greed system and bonus refining points event. We’ve covered that and much more on our preview articles below!

• Neverwinter Ravenloft QoL Roundups I: Character Select Screen, Home Page Facelift, Item Levels, And Insignias
• Neverwinter Ravenloft QoL Roundup II: Enchantment Visuals, Retraining Changes, New Scaling & More!
• Neverwinter Ravenloft QoL Roundup III: Bonus RP Event, Need/Greed System & More!

Have fun in Barovia!

We hope this list will help you to find your way through the mists of Barovia! In the coming weeks we’ll be extending our coverage with more guides and other Ravenloft resources. So make sure to come back regularly! In the meantime, enjoy the module update and have fun with evil Count Strahd!

Are you excited about Ravenloft and its features? Share your thoughts on our social channels, in the comments below, or visit the corresponding thread on our message board!

Neverwinter UN:Blogged is always looking for writers to contribute to the blog. If you are an active player and search for a way to spread your opinions, analysis, diaries or reviews to more than 50,000 regular visitors, then don’t hesitate and get in touch with us on our contact page or message board! We are currently especially looking for console and PVP content, but that’s not exclusive. There is no frequency requirement, you post how often you want.

The post All You Need to Know About the Neverwinter Ravenloft Release appeared first on Neverwinter:Unblogged.

On PC launch day I’d like to conclude our preview coverage of Neverwinter’s “Ravenloft” module by going over some random findings in the game files that we haven’t mentioned anywhere else yet. It’s not too much, but nonetheless could hint at some stuff that’s planned for the future.

Two More ZEN Additions?

First of all I’d like to hint at two possible additions to the ZEN Market that I initially missed in the post about upcoming premium items. The game files have ZEN art for a pack containing Enchanted Keys and a Coalescent Ward. So the devs might bundle the two items at some point in Ravenloft. Additionally there’s art and icons for a new pack containing Insignias. It’s interesting since the latest “Undying” lockbox doesn’t feature a mount pack any longer. So players might need to hit the ZEN Market for more supply.

Preview_Pack_Mount_Insignia

Preview_Pack_Coalward_Keyring

Updated Halloween Event

It also looks the the Masquerade of Liars Halloween event is getting a few extra rewards and tweaks this year. Apparently there will be an empowered version of the Illusionist’s Mask that can be upgraded to Mythic. Additionally a variety of new Ravenloft themed masks, a pet, and a mount will be available. Some changes to the game files also suggest that the event might get an additional rewards system. Unfortunately there are no specifics at this point.

Icon_Companion_Broom

Icons_Inventory_Mount_Broom

Icons_Inventory_Event_Halloween_Treat_Protectors

Icons_Inventory_Event_Halloween_Treat_Iwd

Icons_Inventory_Event_Halloween_Treat_Chult

Icons_Inventory_Event_Halloween_Treat

Icons_Inventory_Event_Halloween_Illusion_Mask_Witch

Icons_Inventory_Event_Halloween_Illusion_Mask_Twig_Blight

Icons_Inventory_Event_Halloween_Illusion_Mask_Scarecrow

Icon_Inventory_Artifacts_IllusionistsMask_Empowered

Icons_Inventory_Event_Halloween_Treat_Underdark

Reborn Lockbox?

Talking about no specifics: The game files include references to a “Reborn” lockbox in numerous occasions. This may be the next lockbox or something entirely different. We’ll see! There are not even icons or anything yet. So this definitely feels premature.

New Guild Hall Decor

The following decor is in the game files, but we couldn’t tie it to any actual content so far:

• Dungeon Master’s Table
• Divine Feast
• Rust Covered Gibbet
• Haunting Soul Lantern
• Plundered Thayan Statue

The names might suggest that it could be introduced as part of events. The table would fit the Day of the Dungeon Master, the feast the Challenge of the Gods and the lantern the Masquerade of Liars. So in case you’re into decorating your Guild Halls, there’s already more scheduled to get introduced!

Giveaway Mounts

Colored giveaway “community” mounts have become the norm in recent years and Ravenloft will have a few as well. There are icons for beetles and stags for PS4 and Xbox and two additional wolves, which we assume will also be for consoles. PC gets a teal wolf with the Ravenloft release.

Icons_Inventory_Mount_Wolf_Redlined

Icons_Inventory_Mount_Wolf_Darkfish

Icons_Inventory_Mount_Stag_Fire_Xbox

Icons_Inventory_Mount_Stag_Banded_Ps4

Icons_Inventory_Mount_Beetle_Giant_Ps4_01

Icons_Inventory_Mount_Beetle_Giant_Xbox_01

That’s our small datamining update for Neverwinter’s Ravenloft! Tell us what you think on our social channels, in the comments below, or the corresponding thread on our message board!

Neverwinter UN:Blogged is always looking for writers to contribute to the blog. If you are an active player and search for a way to spread your opinions, analysis, diaries or reviews to more than 50,000 regular visitors, then don’t hesitate and get in touch with us on our contact page or message board! We are currently especially looking for console and PVP content, but that’s not exclusive. There is no frequency requirement, you post how often you want.

The post Neverwinter Ravenloft Datamining Update appeared first on Neverwinter:Unblogged.

The latest patch of Neverwinter not only introduced some hefty nerfs of River District Heroic Encounters, but also added some new assets to the game that could hint at what’s coming next in Module 15. In case you aren’t really up-to-date with the current state of the guesswork, here’s a quick recap. A couple months ago, Wizards of the Coast revealed the next big story line for the D&D franchise. It brings players to the iconic city of Waterdeep and will be released in September. Since Cryptic likes, or is even contractually obligated, to pick up official story lines, the assumption has been that Neverwinter also is going to take its players to Waterdeep. September also fits the timeline of the next module release.

Return of Fishing?

Now we’re actually able to add some more hints to our theory. You might not be too thrilled about the first one however. Because looking up the game files we found a new Fishing Pole that was recently added to the game. We dug deeper and additionally were able to uncover some power names that indicate a full fishing feature in Module 15. There’s unfortunately only one description available for a “Becritter” (internal label for a separate set of powers like Sahha, M14 Sunsword, or M10 Fishing) that apparently “Allows the wielder to fish in some areas”. Based on the power names, it seems like players will be fishing on a “Shore” in “M15”.

It seems like this could be a system very similar to Module 10b. We have put in the corresponding M10b power where we found obvious matches. Notable absentees are “Becritter_Boat” powers, which indicates that you’re indeed fishing on the shore, and not on a Khyek like in the Sea of Moving Ice.

Waterdeep Is a Coastal City

While fishing itself might not excite you, at least this could add one more hint at Waterdeep as location. The “Crown of the North” is located on the Sword Coast a little bit south of the “Mere of Dead Men”. So it’s not too hard connecting the dots here… Fishing feature in Module 15… Waterdeep is a coastal city… Jackpot? That being said though, the powers aren’t labeled “Waterdeep”, just M15. So it’s obviously very premature talk about something that could turn out completely different in the end. Nothing is confirmed yet and probably won’t be for another 3-4 weeks.

Founder’s Pack

Another thing that made the game files in the recent patch was a preview picture of the upcoming Module 15 Founder’s Pack. Unfortunately it’s not equally telling as the one of Module 14. On top of the included VIP subscription and refining stuff it just shows a new human companion and a fashion set called “Patrician”. The term “Patrician” obviously fits an urban setting. The icon of the set shows a bat though, which is one of the main symbols of the Ravenloft extension. But does fishing really make sense in a Ravenloft context? I don’t think so…

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Icons_Inventory_Misc_Chest_Fashion_Patrician_Pack

Icons_Inventory_Fashion_Patrician_Head

Icons_Inventory_Fashion_Patrician_Top

Icons_Inventory_Fashion_Patrician_Bottom

Anyway, it’s fun to connect the dots and theorize about this stuff. What’s your opinion about fishing and the new assets? Share your thoughts on our social channels, in the comments below, or visit the corresponding thread on our message board!

Neverwinter UN:Blogged is always looking for writers to contribute to the blog. If you are an active player and search for a way to spread your opinions, analysis, diaries or reviews to more than 50,000 regular visitors, then don’t hesitate and get in touch with us on our contact page or message board! We are currently especially looking for console and PVP content, but that’s not exclusive. There is no frequency requirement, you post how often you want.

The post Module 15 Founder’s Pack, Fishing Return Hinting at Waterdeep? appeared first on Neverwinter:Unblogged.