A PSA about the Well of Dragons and the dragons therein.

vincentkurayama · July 2015

If you've been playing Neverwinter today and spent a good amount of time in the Well of Dragons, you've probably noticed the chatter in chat about grouping up at a certain location and moving through a certain order when the dragons touch down. Some say "start at top right, work from green clockwise and end on black" while others insist that you should "start bottom left at white and end on red". I'd like to go ahead and just put out a quick little PSA so we can put this issue to bed as to where and more importantly, why you should start at one of those spots and not the other. You have 10 minutes to take down all five dragons, after all, and if the players in your instance aren't coordinated, you won't be able to get through all five encounters and have five shots at rewards.

The following claims are made for starting at white:

"You should start on white! I googled it/google it".

It's a crucial thing to remember that, while search engines are a useful tool, they don't by any means make you an expert, especially if you just click the first result and go with that. While it is true that on PC the order was starting at white and going around to red the PC was dealing with a bug at that time where killing the red dragon would despawn all the rest. Clearly such an order would make sense if we were dealing with that bug, but we're not.

"Starting at white gives better loot!"

This one really makes me face-palm. Your loot is determined by two things: your contribution to event completion and RNG. Where you start in no way can influence a Random Number Generator.

So then why start at green? If we go back to the PC example, PC players started at white and ended on red. If it works, why change it? Well it has to do with efficiency, in this case, time efficiency. If we look at a map of the Well of Dragons and the event locations, it becomes pretty clear why working clockwise from green makes the most sense.

Clearly the trek from black to green is going to take a while. Not just that, but you'll end up staggering the players in the zone. In short distances, the people with the faster mounts will get to the fight faster than those with slower mounts. But over longer distances, that speed difference is going to add up and those with slower mounts will arrive far later. So not only is it a time-wasting trip, it makes the fight against green take longer as everyone files back in.

zephyriah · July 2015

It is only more efficient if you are in the map early. If I am in another zone and come to WOD just before :45 it is more efficient for me to start at a dragon near the entrance. White works, then again so would red. The farthest dragon from the entrance does not.

You and others who support green need to understand that the most efficient loot route is not the only determinate to efficiency. If I come in late, I'm not going looking for the zerg. I'm starting near the entrance, even if I'm solo. And yes, I did play PC so the white bias is established in me.

vincentkurayama · July 2015

zephyriah wrote: »

It is only more efficient if you are in the map early. If I am in another zone and come to WOD just before :45 it is more efficient for me to start at a dragon near the entrance. White works, then again so would red. The farthest dragon from the entrance does not.

You and others who support green need to understand that the most efficient loot route is not the only determinate to efficiency. If I come in late, I'm not going looking for the zerg. I'm starting near the entrance, even if I'm solo. And yes, I did play PC so the white bias is established in me.

That's totally understandable, honestly, and it's still beneficial for everyone. I'm mostly aiming this at people who are working on grouping up well before the 45 minute mark. I think that may have been the case on the last run I did, as when we got to red dragon it was dead and white was being worked on.

williamreedy · July 2015

100% agree with this post. I wish there was a way to get people to read this. People on the PC realized this after Elemental Evil dropped, so the point about PC players starting at white is no longer even relevent. It is foolish that there is argument in the chat about anything, just start at green, zerg the heralds, transfer to another instance, kill more heralds, get your loot, rinse, and repeat. There is no need whatsoever to confuse the player base by posting nonsensical claims about drops or distances or which dragon to start at. 100% start at green, 100% of the time. If someone in the chat posts what zone is going to start at white, evacuate that zone and go to a correct one.

A PSA about the Well of Dragons and the dragons therein.

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