In Neverwinter’s Swords of Chult the rough Astral Diamonds production is moved to a new system of random queues. We’ve already previewed it and today we are looking into how to deal with and profit from it. What are casuals and endgame players now supposed to do?
The Queues
First of all let’s go through the different queues and discuss which characters should participate in them. All mentioned AD values include estimated non-VIP salvage values of runs as well. I have been very careful here. Especially in the epic queues you are probably able to get a bit more on average.
Normal Dungeons
Any character above level 12 can already start participating in the normal dungeon random queue. It nets 8,800 AD. This should be one your daily list in terms of RAD production because it’s always super easy. At worst case you’ll get into one of the longer dungeons, but it’s only a matter of minutes to get through them anyway. Players can safely queue for this solo.
Skirmish
I would already compile a premade group for the skirmish queue (8,200 AD) though. The reason is that you can get into Illusionist’s Gambit, which in rare circumstances could end catastrophic if you’re in an undergeared group. Remember that this queue is available to all characters at level 64. So you’re not guaranteed to a full 70 party. The completion time really depends on the content, but on average this queue should probably take about ten minutes.
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Epic Dungeon
Now here comes the fun part. This can go from very quick (Shores of Tuern) to a true grind (Spellplague Caverns) for the 10,000 AD the queue hands out. If you’re solely behind daily RADs then you won’t be a happy fella landing inside mSP or FBI. The rest of the list is easy to complete, but based on RADs per minute this is probably the worst queue.
I’m actually not sure how you should tackle this. I’ll probably avoid it as much as I can unless I really can live with going through Spellplague or Fangbreaker Island. In any case you should compile a party that can conveniently beat these dungeons. Nonetheless this is probably where we’ll see the most quits, leaver penalty or not.
Also premades might have a way to get around the longer dungeons anyway. The devs added a feature that allows groups to vote to abandon content. This is a great addition because it prevents situations where a minority of players hold the whole group hostage. However, if you communicate accepted content before runs and then just vote against everything else, it completely works against its purpose. I guess we’ll see.
Epic Trial
The epic trial queue on preview currently doesn’t list Tiamat, but it’s probably supposed to be included. In any case make sure to build a potent premade that can beat Master Svardborg. Within a proper setup, the 8,000 AD from this queue should be fairly easy to obtain.
Hero’s Accord
I gotta be honest here. I won’t run this for refining points and seals. It’s just not worth it in my opinion to suffer through the Tomb of the Nine Gods with one tank and healer only. It is possible of course, but I rather do something else with my time.
Earnings
With the above numbers in mind, what are characters able to earn on a daily basis? For undergeared alts and those leveling up it’s pretty easy. You have the skirmish and normal dungeon queue that should land you 17,000 AD on each day for two runs. That’s easy money and actually more than you probably made in the old system in a comparable time.
For endgame players that try to get to 36k RAD quickly it’s a different story. The normal approach was to run two Shores and two Temple of Spiders daily. These are quick completions and in a potent group you can get close to the daily max in 30 minutes. Now you have to go through all of the queues minus Hero’s Accord to get to 36k. It’s very unlikely that players are able to do this in the same amount of time, resulting in a slight nerf to high-end AD production. Especially all those 11k alts that were absolutely viable to rush through 2x ESOT/ETOS before might run into issues with some of the content in the epic dungeon and trial queue. In certain situations it might still be better to farm Shores and Temple of Spiders in a private queue although that doesn’t grant any daily bonuses.
Again: Much depends on how the vote abandon feature is implemented. If endgame players can vote out of the most painful content, it’s obviously not as much of an issue.
Group Constellation
Now that random queues do no longer allow your four support power setup, it’s time to rethink group constellation. I’m not exactly sure what the best healer/tank combo is going to look like, but I think Anointed Champions might be more requested than Divine Oracle or Devotion Paladins. You can probably go with either tank class.
In the three DPS slots however, support builds get a significant upgrade. CWs, HRs, TRs and SWs that bring buff and a little heal to parties besides damage will become a substantial part of an ideal setup. Overall this should theoretically open up more spots for players that had a hard time finding groups, and spread out the available tanks and healers. I think there is a lot to like about this, and runs probably won’t last that much longer, but don’t be surprised to run into some issues in the first couple of weeks. Having only one healer and one tank means groups are having way less protection and margin for error.
But as said, I doubt that too many players will even run the harder content within random queues. And in Valindra’s Tower, group constellation hardly matters…
That’s our guide for the new random queues in Neverwinter’s Swords of Chult. Have you already made up your mind how you are going to approach the system? Share your thoughts in the comments below and visit the corresponding thread on our message board!
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