test content
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc

Cloaked Ascendancy FAQ (in progress)

lowjohnlowjohn Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,061 Arc User
edited February 2017 in General Discussion (PC)
My guildies keep running into the same issues when progressing though Cloaked Ascendancy, so I wrote this up for the guild forums. I figured it might help other people. Here are most of the common answers to questions our people have while starting this module.


1) The progression blocker is Evidence Of Evil. You get 25 of it from the Daily quest, +1 for some HEs, +1 from some chests, +1 from some dig sites. There's a Weekly that gives 50 (75?/100?)20. The weekly gives *20*. It appears once you've started investigating one of the wizards in the campaign.

2) The 3 resources that show on your HUD are trivial - easy to get, easy to spend. They're not used for anything important, there's no need to save them up. You can spend them for access to dig sites, to upgrade guard posts, or donate them to the treasure ship. All three of those count as progress for the Daily. Upgrading Guard Posts grants Security which is used in a campaign task for restoration resources. Donating to the treasure ship triggers the treasure ship BHE.

EDIT Feb 27: Reclaimed Magic has an important use, once you've started investigating a Wizard: Turn it in at the Ritual Sites (the ones with the small HE) for progress towards the top left campaign task. This gives you boxes that contain Portal Stones, and Portal Stones let you go fight the wizard and get an Ascended Artifact restoration resource. Make sure you pick the stone that matches the weapon you want.

The Reclaimed Weapons can be used for Security, which does the top right campaign task and can also give Portal Stones.


3) You have complete choice in how to proceed through the campaign. It seems smartest to pick a Wizard and start up the chain towards them rather than spreading around - that seems like the fastest way to unlock one of the weapon sets and unlock Spellplague Caverns. Also, it's not worth unlocking the campaign store discounts unless you plan to get ALL the Ascended weapons (there's an achievement!) since the discounts cost more to unlock than the discount you get on ONE weapon set. If you're looking to swap to an Ascended set ASAP, it's actually cheaper to buy it at full price than pay for the discount then pay the discounted price. The discount is only really worth it if you're going to buy *two* Ascended sets.

4) Unlocking an Ascended set requires going after the wizard that matches the Ascended set in the campaign tasks. Yes, there's 3 wizards and 4 sets, I think the 4th set is unlocked by Spellplague? The 4th set is already unlocked. You get the resources by farming the Illusionist's Gambit skirmish.

5) Dig sites have two states: Locked and Unlocked. When they're unlocked, a dungeon type gets attached to them. 99% of the time all the dig sites you see are going to be unlocked, because there's just SO MANY PEOPLE doing the River District right now. You can tell what state a dig site is in by hovering your mouse over the map icon.

If a dig site is LOCKED then you need to take over the guard post next to it, then interact with the dig site. Remember that Sewer Map you bought in the intro quest and couldn't figure out how to use, but completed the quest anyway? If you have a Sewer Map, or a Dungeon Map, or a Crypt Map, you can interact with a Locked dig site and unlock it, turning it into a dig site of the appropriate type. If you don't have a Map, you can unlock a random dig site type for 1 of each Collectable Resource. You get a free pass (IE, one visit) to any site you unlock.

If a dig site is UNLOCKED then that means someone else has already picked the dig site type, and you can see it by hovering over the map icon. You can buy a pass to visit the dig site from the ladder dude next to it, or find one in a treasure chest, and run the dig site for loots. You can only run each dig site once an hour, even if you change instances.

So: If you're looking for a specific dig type, carry a map or two of that type for any Locked sites you find, and swap instances to find Unlocked sites of that type. You can pick which type of site you get when you unlock a site, or pick a random type, but all dig sites on all maps are almost always unlocked simply because the Mod is only 3 days old.

If a quest sends you to a SEWER or a CRYPT or a DUNGEON, you have to go to a dig site that matches. You can't complete a Sewer quest in a Dungeon or a Crypt quest in a Sewer.

ONLY ONE MEMBER OF A PARTY needs a dig site pass - all other members get in free.


6) The River District Daily: It's a bit confusing because it has TWO parts to it, and it doesn't make that clear, and it's entirely possible to finish one part while doing the other, for days in a row, without ever noticing.

Ostaram gives TWO Daily quests in the River District. The first is always the same: "Go do stuff", with a counter up to 100%. The second is one you pick - he presents you with 6 options and you choose one. You have to finish BOTH these quests to finish the Daily and get your sweet 25 Evidence. If you don't take the second quest, or you take it and don't finish it, the first quest will hit 100% complete and change to just "complete Ostaram's Mercantile Mission". Since this quest is called "Mercantile MissionS", it's easy to think it just says "complete this quest" and is stuck.

Some of those choose-your-own-quests are really annoying - in particular, "collect family treasures" doesn't show on the map, doesn't produce a zone on the map, and the things you need to interact with look exactly like Thievery skill nodes. Others are as simple as "run to a dig site, pick up an extra thing while you're in there".


Anyone got any other basics to add? Anything I've gotten wrong?
Post edited by lowjohn on
«1

Comments

  • xxxhansolxxxxxxhansolxxx Member Posts: 104 Arc User
    I think the mirage weapons unlock as soon as you do the "Clear the Dock" task.
  • beckylunaticbeckylunatic Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 14,231 Arc User

    I think the mirage weapons unlock as soon as you do the "Clear the Dock" task.

    At the very least, the Mirage set does not appear to require investigating a specific wizard. It's potentially the weakest bonus but also the easiest set to acquire.
    lowjohn said:

    Some of those choose-your-own-quests are really annoying - in particular, "collect family treasures" doesn't show on the map, doesn't produce a zone on the map, and the things you need to interact with look exactly like Thievery skill nodes.

    Oh, that's what the backpacks are. I hadn't taken this particular quest.

    I would say the easiest way to complete a Mercantile Mission is to look at what type of dig site has been opened closest to you, and take the quest that corresponds to grabbing an extra item while you loot the dig site. If you pick the quest based on what's already there, you don't have to worry about later finding the right kind of dig. I had initially forgotten/overlooked that the map tells you what the open sites are.

    Guild Leader - The Lords of Light

    Neverwinter Census 2017

    All posts pending disapproval by Cecilia
  • dupeksdupeks Member Posts: 1,789 Arc User
    Somewhere in the intro quest line, they explain that dig sites that are farther from spawn give better rewards.

    Also, in order to unlock a dig site, you have to secure the site at least a little bit. But you can only do this if closer sites have been unlocked. This is a little confusing, but essentially you can only access to far-away sites if someone has upgraded the closer sites. Again, you might not run into this because of the high population in River District right now.

    Also, might be worth moving this to guides and asking Zeb to tag it :)
  • dupeksdupeks Member Posts: 1,789 Arc User
    hank41 said:

    Got to be the worst expansion I have been part of. To much HAMSTER its like you will need to put in 40 hours a week just to get anywhere in this HAMSTER zone. While I could be earning AD out of the HAMSTER much easier than doing this zone.

    2 things:

    1) This is not a feedback thread, so your comment would be better placed here:

    http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/1228517/the-cloaked-ascendancy-issues/p1

    2) If every new expansion was the absolute best use of your time in terms of farming AD / progression, then folks would come out of the woodwork complaining that the game is forcing us to only do the new content (see how people reacted to fishing in SoMI, which was arguably one of the best ROI activities in the game). Personally, I'm glad that they are aiming to strike a balance. New content gives new shinies, but old content is still feasible for farming etc.
  • dupeksdupeks Member Posts: 1,789 Arc User
    lowjohn said:

    There's a Weekly that gives 50 (75?/100?) that appears once you've started investigating one of the wizards in the campaign.

    Looks like only 20 evidence for the weekly. That's really low :(

    http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/1228665/mod-11-weekly-task

  • ilmenirailmenira Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 269 Arc User
    very nice thread, thank you!!!
    adinosii just posted the weekly gives 20 EoE
    http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter/#/discussion/1228665/mod-11-weekly-task
  • ghoulz66ghoulz66 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 3,748 Arc User
    The hell do the treasure chests from the maps drop normally? It worth piling those up?
  • lowjohnlowjohn Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,061 Arc User
    dupeks said:

    lowjohn said:

    There's a Weekly that gives 50 (75?/100?) that appears once you've started investigating one of the wizards in the campaign.

    Looks like only 20 evidence for the weekly. That's really low :(

    http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/1228665/mod-11-weekly-task

    ooooh, that really is low. I didn't play on Preview, and haven't unlocked the Weekly yet.
  • rickcase276rickcase276 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,404 Arc User
    edited February 2017
    Mirage weapons correspond to Lukan, the wizard who's mind you enter in the skirmish, which is where the fleece (I think it is) component drops. As the skirmish is already unlocked, mirage weapons are available from the start. As for me, it is Nostura ( fey weapon) all the way.
  • qwregtqwregt Member Posts: 38 Arc User
    edited February 2017
    how do they expect you to do this campaign when you're only above 2 to 2.2k what a blank joke i just tried killing the cw gf ranger and mobs and they crit so blank hard that none of my 2k toons can survive against them cause this is the reason i dont want to play cause the mod is to disappointing why i just decided not to bother with it tell some adjustments came along
  • greywyndgreywynd Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 7,083 Arc User
    qwregt said:

    how do they expect you to do this campaign when you're only above 2 to 2.2k what a blank joke i just tried killing the cw gf ranger and mobs and they crit so blank hard that none of my 2k toons can survive against them cause this is the reason i dont want to play cause the mod is to disappointing why i just decided not to bother with it tell some adjustments came along

    Campaign tracker: the bottom is the easiest. The top (River District) is the hardest.
    I'm not looking for forgiveness, and I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight. And if you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you too.
  • lowjohnlowjohn Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,061 Arc User
    qwregt said:

    how do they expect you to do this campaign when you're only above 2 to 2.2k what a blank joke i just tried killing the cw gf ranger and mobs and they crit so blank hard that none of my 2k toons can survive against them cause this is the reason i dont want to play cause the mod is to disappointing why i just decided not to bother with it tell some adjustments came along

    Well, it's the newest (and hardest) campaign. The good news is, you're not the only person having trouble, and there's *zero* disadvantage to teaming up - all the progress towards dailies is shared, HEs get easier with multiple people, you can actually save on Dig Site passes as a group... why not team up with your guild, or friends, or even just "some randos in /zone", to get your progress on?
  • weaver936weaver936 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 443 Arc User
    qwregt said:

    how do they expect you to do this campaign when you're only above 2 to 2.2k what a blank joke i just tried killing the cw gf ranger and mobs and they crit so blank hard that none of my 2k toons can survive against them cause this is the reason i dont want to play cause the mod is to disappointing why i just decided not to bother with it tell some adjustments came along

    Ummm... go to Somi get some maps and up your Item level like the devs designed Somi to let you do for FREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!.
    “Improvise, Adapt and Overcome!”

    ― Clint Eastwood, Heartbreak Ridge



    Guild Leader of Ardent Justice HQ: Always recruiting People not Pixels.


    FOUNDER and OWNER of the SKT3K Channel: SKT Only Content 3k+. http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter/#/discussion/1228278/skt-content-for-the-non-elite-video-links-provided
  • plasticbatplasticbat Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 12,183 Arc User
    qwregt said:

    how do they expect you to do this campaign when you're only above 2 to 2.2k what a blank joke i just tried killing the cw gf ranger and mobs and they crit so blank hard that none of my 2k toons can survive against them cause this is the reason i dont want to play cause the mod is to disappointing why i just decided not to bother with it tell some adjustments came along

    Did you clear all other solo content with 2 to 2.2k item level? Based on campaign tracker, the difficulty level is WoD, SoMI, IwD and then TCA.
    *** The game can read your mind. If you want it, you won't get it. If you don't expect to get it, you will. ***
  • aaramis75aaramis75 Member Posts: 348 Arc User
    qwregt said:

    how do they expect you to do this campaign when you're only above 2 to 2.2k what a blank joke i just tried killing the cw gf ranger and mobs and they crit so blank hard that none of my 2k toons can survive against them cause this is the reason i dont want to play cause the mod is to disappointing why i just decided not to bother with it tell some adjustments came along

    Below 2.5k is a bit of a challenge in here, much like IWD was back in the day.
    If you're a control class, then you might be ok; if not, you could struggle - plenty of adds that hit hard and leap at you constantly.

    As others mentioned, if a bit low iL, just group up.
  • adinosiiadinosii Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 4,294 Arc User
    To say that the "..3 resources that show on your HUD are ... not used for anything important" is a bit misleading. At the very least, I suggest saving reclaimed magic until after you unlock the portal stones. You can get one portal stone for 25 Reclaimed magic, and you will need quite a few of those to get the drops you need if you are going to restore your weapons.
    Hoping for improvements...
  • mysteriasdrassamysteriasdrassa Member Posts: 299 Arc User
    So just where do I find the adventures that drop incriminating evidences. . I been running around all day looking... should have never picked up that stupid quest
  • rickcase276rickcase276 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,404 Arc User
    edited February 2017
    I have found the adventuring party mostly near to the paths in the fey area of the map. Mostly along the front edge of it. I have completed it once, and now have it for a second time. But I did not look for any of them today.
  • ghoulz66ghoulz66 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 3,748 Arc User
    What's resistance resource, how do you get it, and is it worth grinding?
  • tuesdayrolld20tuesdayrolld20 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 47 Arc User

    So just where do I find the adventures that drop incriminating evidences. . I been running around all day looking... should have never picked up that stupid quest

    I have been doing it for 3 days so far. Not sure where they are alllocated. I just go and do other things and if I come across them, I kill them. 1 left. maybe tomorrow. LOL! Yes it is a dumb quest. It may be also that the instances are so busy, that they are being killed constantly and not respawning quickly enough.
    Miri Droverson


  • mysteriasdrassamysteriasdrassa Member Posts: 299 Arc User
    Great, another quest with poor respawn.. just like administering meds to the sick in Lonelywood
  • rickcase276rickcase276 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,404 Arc User
    I got the reward, but it auto-opened, so maybe that is what happened to you too.
  • lowjohnlowjohn Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,061 Arc User
    adinosii said:

    To say that the "..3 resources that show on your HUD are ... not used for anything important" is a bit misleading. At the very least, I suggest saving reclaimed magic until after you unlock the portal stones. You can get one portal stone for 25 Reclaimed magic, and you will need quite a few of those to get the drops you need if you are going to restore your weapons.

    Good to know! This post is *really* working off "what I've figured out, so far, early in the campaign". I want to emphasize that - these are the best answers I have, not necessarily the best answers.

    Where do you trade Reclaimed Magic for portal stones?

  • kolatmasterkolatmaster Member Posts: 3,111 Arc User
    Does anyone know if the Mirage set weapon bnus, the clones/illusion that are summoned, actually do damage when they attack with you? eg. they would increase the damage of the set bonus, etc. Thanks! :smile:
    va8Ru.gif
  • waywardwizard#4349 waywardwizard Member Posts: 201 Arc User
    edited February 2017
    The evidence of grind is way to limited per day considering the campaign requirements.
  • hammbo1969hammbo1969 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 165 Arc User

    So just where do I find the adventures that drop incriminating evidences. . I been running around all day looking... should have never picked up that stupid quest

    I struggled with this too. I think they spawn randomly by dig sites as if they're trying to steal the riches (as per the quest text). However, still took a few days without camping said sites.
  • gabrieldourdengabrieldourden Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,212 Arc User
    You can trade Reclaimed Magic for progress in the campaign task that gives you portal stones at small/medium HE sites. There's an area with sparkles inside a flower shaped structure where you can just press F and trade
    Le-Shan: HR level 80 (main)
    Born of Black Wind: SW Level 80
Sign In or Register to comment.