New Players / Level Cap Tips


Disclaimer
Before you go any further, I just want to point out a couple things. All of the suggestions from this point forward are collected from various guides and YouTube channels from around the internet. I've spent countless hours combing through everything and collecting what the most popular options for class builds are so that I could place it right here in one place for everyone to use. Please note, I won't be going into any of the mathematics behind the builds or why one thing is better than another. If you are interested in that, you can find that elsewhere around the internet. Also note that, the equipment I have listed is not sorted in order from best to worst. They are listed as potential options for you to choose from. You may have to determine some situational uses, or check and see if your stats are where they should be before you make your decision on what to wear. For the most part, a lot of the information is the same on each page, however, some guides will also have "older" items listed. This is for two reasons. One, the stats may still be viable for the current module, or two, it's listed as a pre-end game item to help you prepare for harder challenges that are yet to come. I will list a few other helpful tips for new players, or people interested in learning/adding more. If you see that I made a mistake, or something needs to be updated, please reach out. I hope this helps, and thank you for checking out my guide!

 Item Level
The item level of your character IS important, but not as much as you may think. Please, don't let it dictate how you gear up your character. There are six quality rankings of equipment (common, uncommon, rare, epic, legendary, mythic,) and you will slowly collect each of them over time as you level. As long as you are still earning common, uncommon, and rare items at lower levels, it will almost always be a stat upgrade. But once you start earning epic gear, that's when stats become more important than item level. You may be wearing a piece of 750 item level arms, but have a piece that is 1,220 in your inventory, but the perk on the lower item level piece could be enough of a damage increase to be more viable. That's where this guide will come in handy.

 Companions
First and foremost, there is arguably nothing more important than your summoned companion. You may not get one early on, but you want to keep your eyes out for a companion power called "Augmentation." This distributes some of your companion's stats to your own, ultimately making your character stronger in every way. If you have recently hit the level cap, I would look through these guides and find the best summoned companion for your class and try to find a cheap one on the Tarmalune Trade House. The faster that you upgrade these companions, the more effective they will be. Even more importantly, from level 1 to the cap, you want to have "Bonding Runestones" equipped in the companion window. This will distribute even more stats to you. In the end game, you will earn potentially thousands towards your stat caps with these runestones, making it easier for you to enchant your armor and mounts with more damage or health.

 Companion Bolster
The other (slightly less important) part of Companions is the "Bolster" percentage. I clarify this a second time in each class guide, but I'm putting it here because it's something that shouldn't be overlooked or forgotten. The "Bolster" percentage comes from the five highest quality companions that you have in each individual category (Fighters, Creatures, Invokers, Mystical, and Beasts.) This number will cap out at 15%, but that 15% of the Bolstering will go directly into your Augmentation companion, increasing its stats, ultimately increasing your own as well. So if you have an Augmentation companion that is a "Creature," then I would focus on obtaining at least four more "creatures" and increasing their quality to increase the effectiveness of your Augmentation companion for your own personal stats. Don't waste your money on more than the five companions in each category to reach that 15% (unless you are a completionist or a collector of mounts and companions.)

 Mounts
As you are leveling, you will earn a couple of mounts - or enough gold to purchase them. I would recommend not wasting your money on the mount vendor ones. Just take the ones that you earn for free, or search the Tarmalune Trade House / ask your guild members if there is any in your guild bank. When you reach level cap, check the Trade House for the mounts that I have listed in your class guides, and see if you can afford them with Astral Diamonds. Once you have the mounts with two or three insignia slots, I would look at the Insignia Slot Bonus and socket the proper insignias into your mount to receive one of several beneficial mount perks.

 Combat Advantage
This is something that I didn't learn until way later. Combat Advantage is just a video game way of saying "flanking." It's important to note that you can only gain combat advantage with another player and not solo. When you are facing an enemy, you will see colored rings around their feet. It will change from black, to red, to white, to blue, all depending on what direction the enemy is facing, and where you are standing in location to it. If the creature has any white space located on the target ring under its feet, that is where you can stand to gain flanking, or "combat advantage." When you see the ring turn blue, that means you are currently flanking the target and you have gained combat advantage. Getting this particular stat up will increase your damage and critical strike chances. So if you are a damage dealer and not a tank or healer, than you almost always want to have blue on your enemy's target circle.

 Astral Diamonds
Astral Diamonds are the most important currency in Neverwinter. This is what you can use to purchase enchantments, companions, mounts, equipment, refinement resources, and just about anything else on the Tarmalune Trade House. Some things can be bought/sold for just a few Astral Diamonds, or be posted with a bid/buyout price of a few million. You want to be doing everything that you can to earn as much as possible. There are a handful of Astral Diamond guides on the internet, and I'm not going to go too far into it. Just make sure that you are doing your daily skirmish/dungeon/trial queue. There is also an Astral Diamond Exchange for anyone that purchases Zen with real money. This is another quick way to earn fast Astral Diamonds at the cost of a few dollars from your bank account. As you level, or when you complete certain objectives in the game, you will be rewarded "Rough Astral Diamonds." These ARE Astral Diamonds, except, you have to do one more step before you are able to use them as currency. Go into your inventory, tab over to "Riches," and then scroll down to "Rough Astral Diamonds" and select Refine. This will convert all of the rough diamonds to the proper currency. It's a pain, but, it's necessary, and something you should never forget to do.

 Zen
Zen is the currency term used to describe real money spent on and in Neverwinter. There is a Zen Market that you can browse for a plethora of things from mounts, companions, reward packs, to cosmetic items and service packages like character renaming and appearance tokens to change how you physically look.

 Refinement Points
Refinement Points are a resource that you build up from level 1 and well beyond the cap. You can earn these by going to your inventory, selecting an item, and going to the bottom of the dropdown list where it says "Convert to Refinement Points." It will permanently destroy whatever the item is that you are converting, so if you would rather save something as an "appearance item," then feel free to do that as well. Refinement Points will become incredibly important to you when you hit the cap and get your best in slot pieces listed in the class guides. You use RP (Refinement Points) to upgrade enchantments, insignias, and runestones, and artifact equipment at higher levels. I highly recommend finding a way to get the "Wanderers Fortune" perk on one of your mounts as soon as you can. It will cause gems to drop for you to pick up and refine from your inventory to earn more points. You can also open lockboxes for higher quality gems for this exact purpose as well.

 Inventory Management
The first thing that you will notice, is that your inventory and bag space fills up very quickly. If you are like me, you may panic and worry about discarding, selling, or refining something that may actually be important. Don't. If the item is grey quality, sell it. If it is white, that means it serves SOME purpose, but it won't be the end of the game if you accidentally get rid of it (unless it's a quest item, but it will usually tell you.) Green equipment, insignias, and enchantments will be important early on as you are leveling, but once you hit the cap, they become quickly irrelevant. You can check the Tarmalune Trade House and try to post your green and blue items to earn a few Astral Diamonds, but you may not get much from doing that. So, convert to appearance and convert to refinement points are your friends. Once you hit epic (purple) quality, however, it's still just as easy. There are a few things to think about. One, are your desired stats listed on it? Two, does it have any perks or bonuses, AND does the perk sound beneficial to your particular class? Three, is the item bound to your account/character already? If the answer to all three of these questions is no, then try the Tarmalune Trade House, you may get lucky. If it's bound to you, but not better (stats/perk wise,) then convert it to refinement points. If it's equal or it seems situational for you (single target VS area of effect,) then keep it and rotate it out if you are fighting against mobs of enemies or if you are facing a single boss. However, that all goes for just equipment. If you get a blue insignia or enchantment, then I would put that into your gear if it matches the slot or if the name matches what your guide recommends. These are the things that will help boost your overall item level, earn you mount insignia bonuses, and increase certain stats. Only replace these when you have higher quality items for those slots, or you are trying to push towards a different stat. If you get any gems, and any gems at all, you can convert those to refinement points safely and right away. They serve no purpose other than to build up your RP. If you have any lockboxes, you can buy keys from the Zen Market (or get one for free daily if you increase your account level to VIP status,) put them into the Guild Bank, or just discard them if you don't want to spend real money and you don't have a Guild. Excess potions, scrolls, consumables, you can either hold on to (if you use them,) sell them to a vendor, sell them on the Tarmalune Trade House, or just discard them. The choice is yours.

 Campaigns
Work on these as you level up, or when you hit the cap and you run out of daily things to do. You can progress through them to earn Boon points which you can add to your character sheet to increase stats or bonuses. The more you have, the better. Is it crucial that you go and focus on these right away? No. In fact, once you hit level 60, 70, and 80, you will acquire an overwhelming amount of quests from Sergeant Knox or other NPCs in Protector's Enclave. You can either pick these up and do them when you have the time, or, just ignore them until you are ready to start them. What I typically do, is pick them up and do the opening quest, just so that I can unlock that zone and travel point, then go back later to work on them. There are now Legacy Campaigns which encourage you to go to three different randomized campaigns weekly and do some quests or objectives there. This helps with getting enchanting stones, refinement points, and also earn seals/tokens/currency required to progress through the campaigns. Is there a certain order at which you should do them? Technically? The answer is no. But there ARE some that you should get out of the way, or start as you are leveling. You will get campaign steps that don't even require you to go to a specific area, instead, it will have you start a task just from the campaign window itself, assuming that you meet the requirements. How do you know? Just read the step description. It will tell you exactly what you need.

 "Campaign Store"
Listed in the class guides, it may say that you obtain a piece of equipment or artifact from the "Campaign Store." If you go to your campaigns list and open a campaign, some of them will have an option to "Open the Store." This will be where you can spend special currencies that you acquire from working on these areas.

 Boons
I went over this briefly in the "Campaign" section above, however, I wanted to make a quick note about them. I highly encourage you to find a Guild as soon as you can, and, make sure that Guild is a high level. Being part of a Guild will allow you access to leveling perks. You can take advantage of the Bonus XP perk from level 1 and on, but once you hit the cap, I recommend switching that to the mount speed bonus or the resurrection sickness perk.

 Okay, But How Do I Increase My Item Level And Stats?
Once you hit the level cap, there are many options of gear to work towards. But this shouldn't be your priority. The first thing you want to focus on, is getting your augmentation companion and the highest ranking Bonding Runestones that you can either afford or create yourself. With the runestones, you will get a large amount of your companion's stats transferred over into your own; this will help you reach stat caps. After that, get a stable full of five mounts with three insignia slots, preferably ones that will allow you to gain the insignia perks listed in your guide. Work towards getting purple quality insignias in every slot that match the required insignia bonus. Do both of these things while working towards your best in slot equipment. While you do so, make sure you are using the highest rank enchantments in every slot of your gear that you can buy or create, just like the insignias and runestones. Your actual piece of equipment will only give you a small amount of item level towards your total, and the rest will come from your companion loadout and their quality, and your mounts and insignias. The other thing that will lend small amounts of item level, will be campaign boons. If you go back and do the Legendary Campaign quests, or work on other campaigns in general, you will unlock the boons over time. So as long as you are setting goals for yourself, and working on one thing at a time (so you don't go insane,) you should see a steady increase in your item level and your stats.

 "Stat Caps"
In the previous paragraph, I used the term "Stat Caps," and I wanted to elaborate a little bit on what that means, for those of you that are unsure. This term refers to the "recommended" range at which your stats should reflect. Damage dealing classes (DPS/Damage Per Second,) will have different goals than a healer, and a healer has a different area to focus on than a tank. I will list the current stat caps below, and hopefully remember to update this with each new release of content. It's also important to note that some classes have certain features that require you to put more focus on certain stats. I would read through your class features and ensure that you aren't missing anything important to your build.

 Mod 18: Recommended Stats

 Lair of the Mad Mage
         -Undermountain Campaign Completed
         -20,000 Item Level
   Tanks:
         400,000+ Hit Points
         Incoming Healing (As much as possible)
         68,000 Defense
         68,000 Deflection
         68,000 Critical Avoidance
         68,000 Awareness
         100,000 Combat Advantage
         68,000 Armor Penetration
         68,000 Accuracy
         68,000 Critical Strike
   Healers:
         300,000 Hit Points
         120,000+ Power
         Critical Strike = (Power x 1.25)
         10% Incoming Healing
         20% Outgoing Healing
         68,000 Defense
         68,000 Critical Avoidance
   Damage Dealers (DPS):
         300,000 Hit Points
         120,000+ Power
         10% Incoming Healing
         68,000 Armor Penetration
         68,000 Accuracy
         68,000 Critical Strike
         80,000 Combat Advantage
         68,000 Defense
         68,000 Critical Avoidance
Tower of the Mad Mage
         -Stardock Questline Completed
         -Lair of the Mad Mage Completed
         -24,000 Item Level
   Tanks:
         650,000+ Hit Points
         Incoming Healing (As much as possible)
         80,000 Defense
         80,000 Deflection
         85,000 Critical Avoidance
         90,000 Awareness
         130,000 Combat Advantage
         80,000 Armor Penetration
         80,000 Accuracy
         80,000 Critical Strike
   Healers:
         400,000 Hit Points
         150,000+ Power
         Critical Strike = (Power x 1.25)
         10% Incoming Healing
         40% Outgoing Healing
         80,000 Defense
         85,000 Critical Avoidance
   Damage Dealers (DPS):
         400,000 Hit Points
         150,000+ Power
         10% Incoming Healing
         80,000 Armor Penetration
         80,000 Accuracy
         80,000 Critical Strike
         130,000 Combat Advantage
         80,000 Defense
         80,000 Critical Avoidance
The Infernal Citadel
         -Avernus Campaign Completed
         -23,000 Item Level
   Tanks:
         800,000+ Hit Points
         Incoming Healing (As much as possible)
         85,000 Defense
         85,000 Deflection
         90,000 Critical Avoidance
         95,000 Awareness
         135,000 Combat Advantage
         85,000 Armor Penetration
         85,000 Accuracy
         85,000 Critical Strike
   Healers:
         400,000+ Hit Points
         150,000+ Power
         Critical Strike = (Power x 1.25)
         10% Incoming Healing
         50% Outgoing Healing
         85,000 Defense
         85,000 Critical Avoidance
   Damage Dealers (DPS):
         400,000+ Hit Points
         180,000+ Power
         10% Incoming Healing
         85,000 Armor Penetration
         85,000 Accuracy
         85,000 Critical Strike
         135,000 Combat Advantage
         85,000 Defense
         90,000 Critical Avoidance

 Thank You
Thank you again for checking out this guide! If I have forgotten anything, or my information above is misleading or wrong, please let me know! The same goes for each of the following class sheets. My goal with this is, again, to compile information from all around the internet into one place that is easy to digest for everybody, new and old. So I will do my best to continue adding to this while I keep playing Neverwinter and update every guide with each new module that is released. Please be patient if it has yet to be updated past Module 18, I am just waiting for updated guides and best in slot gear to surface online, and then it will be right here for you.

Comments

Post a Comment