Notice: Rough Astral Diamond from Invocation Changes

zebular · October 2016

As many people on the PS4 seem to be unaware, as folks keep posting that they are not getting Astral Diamonds from Invocation any longer after the patch as though it is a bug, I felt it prudent to post this notice here also in the XBOX Forum for a little while to bring awareness to the change. This change has been in effect on the PC since August 15th and arrived to the XBOX and PS4 with the Storm King's Thunder update on October 18th.

You can read more about this change to Invocation here, here, and here (as well as a few other threads here and there). I'll sum it up with a couple quotes though.

Here is a rundown of the change:

Invocation now gives a Rough AD bonus instead of granting Rough AD directly. The bonus Rough AD awarded is moderately larger than what was previously granted as straight Rough AD. In general, Invoking while playing other Rough AD generating activities will see a reasonable increase in AD earned, while Invoking only will see a drastic decrease.

Also, here's some more clarification from the Devs when this hit the PC regarding the Invocation change:

Some clarifications about the Invocation changes:
There is no ""expiration"" of the bonus. It won't ever go away. As long as you are actively playing the character, the new system should not leave you any worse off.
In fact, the new system leaves you better off (again, if you are playing the character) by about +20%, because it just gives you that much more AD (at L70 -- slight variations at lower levels, just due to rounding).
There is supposed to be a UI treatment that makes this all clear. Looks like that isn't in yet . But it basically looks like a glory boost, if you've ever used one of those. It's a buff icon that tells you how many more points of +50% earn rate you have left.
There is a cap on the total boost value you can get (all numerics in any game need some kind of cap, computers don't like infinities), but it's super-big. It's set to 100,000 AD, which is about a month's worth of boost. So you could invoke all day every day for a month (ok, 27 days to be precise) and still not lose a thing (again, in fact you get +20%). Past a month, and you'd hit the cap if you invoked the full amount every day that month but never played anything that earned you AD.
Characters that you never play with -- only invoke -- are the only ones that lose out. Which was the intention: more rewards for playing, less for characters you don't play.
The reason we made this change was because was saw that Invocation was the largest source of AD that could be generated by not actually playing the game, this is not good. It was very apparent when comparing the PC numbers with what was happening on Xbox, VERY different playstyles but the vast difference between the two groups suggested this was a problem area.

The change we made will actually increase the amount of AD you would earn if combined with actual gameplay. You can even bank it for a week and play all on the weekend, you just have to do something to actually earn that AD now instead of having a bot army.

Just to confirm, there is not reset time on the bonus AD, there is a limit that can be stored which should not be able to be hit with a week of only invoking or more. Again, if you play ""normally"" you should be able to claim more AD from this than you would have previously. It really should only affect characters who ONLY invoked and did nothing else. There will be an minor UI update to make this change more transparent to the user later on and planned for the Module 10 launch.

Please do refrain from making bug report threads and reports on this, as no longer directly gaining Rough Astral Diamonds from Invocation is not a bug. Thanks!

I'll leave this thread open for questions and feedback.

ajt67 · October 2016

all well and good but I have not recived a single AD since the update not a 1 and have done 16 HE for guild several world HE & a few duengon about 80,000 worth of AD This is with 2 LEV 70 & 1 LEV 45 So when will they turn up.

darthjafo · October 2016

Ok..but I'm not getting ad from dungeons on my 62 warlock. Haven't since at least Thursday. Oddly..my level70 pally does.

ajt67 · October 2016

ajt67#5562 said:
all well and good but I have not recived a single AD since the update not a 1 and have done 16 HE for guild several world HE & a few duengon about 80,000 worth of AD This is with 2 LEV 70 & 1 LEV 45 So when will they turn up.

I appoligse I made an error ok to start I live in Australia not a lot of players in this time zone. Now to details and the problem I log it NW with my level 70 and go to guild do guild task 4 he total kill 100, kill boss for builder deposit made to guild coffers then on to dailys do them and evoke when time to during this i will go to dungeon list and sellect 3 or 4 random most times wait list will time out so sellec 2 or 3 epic dungeons and a skimish or 2 again I have done about 5 hs gaming killled 2 dragons done about 12 he all daily quest an maxed out evoke made gold and picked up lots of stuf for refing my gear an my RAD Count is ZERO So I guess I have not just spent 4 to 8 hours playing the game I have 2 lev 70 an several on there way to 70 I play one caracter at a time doing alI daily quest that I can then spend an hour or so with one of my under 70 caracters. All for ZERO AD.

darthjafo · October 2016

My level 70 is the only one getting any rough from dungeon or skirms. My now level 64 scourge did both gray wolf and caverns yesterday for guild quest and no AD from either.

Something is clearly broken

omegarealities · October 2016

I just want a clear definition of "actively playing". From the sound of things, if you don't "actively play" a character you might lose that bonus. Is there a certain amount of time, or things we must do to keep a character "active"? If a take a week off from the game, will my characters still be active?

areus · October 2016

Out of curiosity, where exactly can you obtain Astral Diamonds? I was only interested in them to upgrade the companions and "purchase" the identify scrolls. From the numerous posts it would appear you only get them from multiplayer dungeons or selling artifacts which you only get when you're level 70, or the Exchange which I won't touch. Since the higher your character levels the more unidentified items you find it has become pointless picking anything up. This in turn means I don't accrue any extra in game money. So I'm not able to purchase anything better to equip my character or companions.
While I can understand the point about 'farming' wouldn't it be better and fairer to make Astral Diamonds a drop item from the chests, taking out the enemy and/or successfully completing missions just like you get experience points and/or items?
In case anybody is wondering, I know this is a multiplayer game. However, I stopped playing that part because I got fed up hanging around in queues and being left behind in a dungeon because it would appear certain people were only interested in gathering.......Astral Diamonds!
As I said, out of curiosity..............................

zebular · October 2016

omegarealities#7219 said:
I just want a clear definition of "actively playing". From the sound of things, if you don't "actively play" a character you might lose that bonus. Is there a certain amount of time, or things we must do to keep a character "active"? If a take a week off from the game, will my characters still be active?

As the "more clarification" section says, your bonus will never expire. The "Actively Playing" part is referring to how much bonus you can earn and has nothing to do with any expiration.

speedokillz · October 2016

AD is, in fact obtainable by completing certain weekly quests. Here is a link to the ones: https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/neverwinter/news/detail/9598793-additional-ad-sources

Also, running a couple dungeons each day (I like 3-player Temple of Spider) will provide AD, PvP (personally not into that), and skirmishes will too. Ranking up a couple professions to 25 and crafting things to sell for AD has netted me some profit in the past.

The fact that the current state of the game required paying for Zen to sell for AD and various "farming" techniques is, to me a bit against the idea of 'playing your character' as suggested by the devs. If that is the case, let AD be something in Stronghold that we mine and award those that are contributing to the Stronghold coffer a cut of the AD mined...

omegarealities · October 2016

zebular said:

omegarealities#7219 said:
I just want a clear definition of "actively playing". From the sound of things, if you don't "actively play" a character you might lose that bonus. Is there a certain amount of time, or things we must do to keep a character "active"? If a take a week off from the game, will my characters still be active?
As the "more clarification" section says, your bonus will never expire. The "Actively Playing" part is referring to how much bonus you can earn and has nothing to do with any expiration.

I see that now, blame too early in the morning combined with not enough sleep. Tends to do strange things with signals from the eyes to the brain.

posineg · October 2016

Not to sound stupid, for I know I do that to often but If I invoke twice first thing in the day and get a 300 + 50% and a 500 + 50% would I expect to get 800AD when I get a AD reward plus 50% of the original reward?

For example, I invoked the above times and then did a request/challenge/mission that normally gave 1000AD. Would I expect 1800AD, 2300AD or some other amount?

Is the 300, 500,... the total that you can get using the 50% bonus and if you had only invoked for the 300+50% and then did the 1000AD mission you would only get 1300AD rather than 50% of the 1000AD as a bonus (1500AD)?

Thank you.

darthjafo · October 2016

I believe but it could be wrong that if u run something after invoking those times that you would get 800 ad added to whatever the normal amount you get.

Therefore it would seem that it would be best to run a dungeon after the 2nd to last invoke as the final one does not provide a bonus.

penybont · October 2016

I too am not getting any astral diamonds from praying there was no need to change the praying system in the first place.

Unknown · November 2016

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Unknown · November 2016

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zebular · November 2016

texasrebel1967#5048 said:
your talking about ps4 in xbox one forms

I guess you didn't read the rest of the first sentence:

zebular said:
As many people on the PS4 seem to be unaware, as folks keep posting that they are not getting Astral Diamonds from Invocation any longer after the patch as though it is a bug, I felt it prudent to post this notice here also in the XBOX Forum for a little while to bring awareness to the change. This change has been in effect on the PC since August 15th and arrived to the XBOX and PS4 with the Storm King's Thunder update on October 18th.

armadeonx · November 2016

When you pray you can see a small AD symbol appear next to your name on the top left of your screen. When you go to it, it'll tell you how much AD you have in the 'pool'.

That 'pool' amount is added to the reward for whichever AD daily task or salvage you perform.

If you don't think it's working, note the amount in the pool, note the amount of unrefined AD in your inventory, then run a 3 man dungeon or skirmish. You'll see the AD reward you get for that task is higher than normal - by the amount you had in your pool, which should now also be reduced or empty depending on how much was pending.

The pool AD is earned at 50% of the value of the task. E.g. if you run a dungeon that earns you 5k, you can earn 2.5k from the pool.

The key point is paying attention BEFORE you do stuff. Know how much unrefined AD you have, know how much is in the pool and know how much you earn from a task without the pool.

Until you've done this you can't say it's not working because you don't actually know.

rgjhgjhghdfjhghf · November 2016

So what does this all mean? I having problems understanding this. If I pray do I still get some AD? or am I now be in forced to do dungeons and other stuff what I don't really like to be able to make some.? I ask when i do pray I have yet to see any AD in my money section of my invetroy still says 0 AD im level 40 if that helps

moogie101 · November 2016

rgjhgjhghdfjhghf said:
So what does this all mean? I having problems understanding this. If I pray do I still get some AD? or am I now be in forced to do dungeons and other stuff what I don't really like to be able to make some.? I ask when i do pray I have yet to see any AD in my money section of my invetroy still says 0 AD im level 40 if that helps

Simple answer, Yes you are being forced to play the game a particular way to earn AD.

When you invoke you no longer get AD, instead you earn AD Boost. (To see how much press Select & then move along to the first blue box underneath your XP Bar to see how much you have so far. Max is 100K)

Then when you earn AD through Dungeons/ Skirmishes/ Salvaging items etc you receive the normal AD plus a percentage of that AD boost. In fairness you do end up earning slightly more BUT you actually need to play the game to earn it which sucks if you have several Alts who were daily picking up free AD.

Even if you don't like dungeons run them this weekend as its Double AD which with the boost I'd imagine you've earned if been invoking means you'll get loads of AD. It even counts for the lower tier dungeons like Clock Tower which you can knock out in about 5 minutes.

rgjhgjhghdfjhghf · November 2016

Thank you for your reply. In short no AD for me or anyone who not a Dungeons/ Skirmishes/ Salvaging fan. Just seems a little unfair. But ha ho lets hope there not that important and I wont need to stress over it.

moogie101 · November 2016

rgjhgjhghdfjhghf said:
Thank you for your reply. In short no AD for me or anyone who not a Dungeons/ Skirmishes/ Salvaging fan. Just seems a little unfair. But ha ho lets hope there not that important and I wont need to stress over it.

Mate, even if not a fan of dungeons its still worth running them just to earn the AD.

ecrana · November 2016

rgjhgjhghdfjhghf said:
Thank you for your reply. In short no AD for me or anyone who not a Dungeons/ Skirmishes/ Salvaging fan. Just seems a little unfair. But ha ho lets hope there not that important and I wont need to stress over it.

I'm wondering how you made AD to begin with if you're not a fan of dungeons/skirms/salvage? Just running weeklies? You're missing out on the main way to make AD in this game if you're not running any of those and salvaging things. Quite honestly, if you're not running those things once you hit level 70 you won't be able to progress very easily unless you plan on paying real cash to buy refinement.

Notice: Rough Astral Diamond from Invocation Changes

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