Undermountain is probably the most ambitious module in Neverwinter's history. Our goal was to fix up all of the balance issues in the game, improve systems that weren't functioning as well as they could, to make item level a more useful tool in identifying character potential, and we also happened to have added 5 new zones, new instances, and a new level 80 dungeon. There are a lot of changes to take in. Take your time, explore all of those changes, and of course share your feedback here on the forums.

Some things to know:

First and foremost is that the work is not finished, there will be bugs (and plenty of them), there will be balance that isn't dialed in correctly yet, there will even be some powers or feats that don't feel good yet. We are opening this preview up knowing that it is still a work in progress in order to get feedback that we can incorporate as we work towards the finish line.

In fact, we realize that this work is so big and that balance has been adjusted in so many ways that we will be continuing to make adjustments into M17 to even further fine tune the balance as players get more time to explore and experiment with their classes. This isn't just a one and done change that we will move on from in future modules, this is a commitment to getting balance in the best place is can be for Neverwinter.

Classes have gone through a number of changes. Some of that information is out in blogs, and more blogs are coming. We will have a thread for each class as the amount of feedback for all of this will be high and that should help keep it more focused. We do ask that you give constructive feedback for a class in its particular thread and don't use those threads as a way to bash other classes and especially not to fight with other players and their personal viewpoints. This is a lot of change, lets keep it civil so that the conversations can be the most productive.

Class to class balance is still being dialed in as well as class to content balance. Some classes will get stronger as we go through preview, some will get weaker. All of this will be to get the game in a very solid balanced state for launch. We want to be upfront with this from the beginning so players aren't shocked that a power that was extremely powerful at the start of preview is brought down by the end or vice versa. Changes will be happening.

We are doing a lot of playtests internally to find all of the outliers from our balance passes. You may find a boss that dies too fast, or one that is too tanky and grindy. You may find a queued dungeon is easier than another in the same range. Reports on anything that feels out of place compared to other stuff in the same range are very useful in helping to get all of those outliers fixed up before we launch the module.

Some other big aspects that are still being worked on:

• Artifact damage is being adjusted to scale properly with the new improvements to item level as well as the new damage values of players. They are in a state of flux right now where some will be too strong and some will be too weak.
  

• Dungeons are being put back in order after all of our work. If you are in an epic dungeon or trial and do not see gold nameplates on the enemies, then a major component of their stats will be missing and the content will be much easier than intended. We are tracking those down and should have most of them fixed by week 2 of preview. If you find any bosses that feel out of place too easy, too hard, or too grindy compared to the dungeon they're in, please let us know.
  

• Some mount combat powers are doing way too much damage, hopefully this will also be fixed up by week 2.
  

• The Baby Owlbear power will be changing to not be based on how much Power your character has, but instead based on weapon damage.
  

• PvP - dailies are very powerful in PvP right now, we will more than likely add in a PvP modifier to bring these down a bit to make PvP feel better. But please do give us feedback on the balance in PvP.
  

Overall this is a lot more change and additions than you would see in any typical module release. As such this will be a different preview experience than in the past as you will be seeing significant changes from week to week as we finish it up and use feedback to adjust some of features and balance. Welcome to Undermountain!