test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
OFFICIAL: Refinement Changes
noworries
Member, Cryptic Developer Posts: 651Cryptic Developer › Cryptic Developer
Refinement and Enchantments are undergoing some big changes. We read the feedback on enchantments not being meaningful enough in terms of item level and stats, and how the unslot cost was a tedious aspect of changing gear. We also had a wide variety of enchantments, but many were hardly used. We took that feedback and data, looked at the refinement system, and made changes we are excited to share with you.
No More Unslot Cost
In the new refinement system there is no more unslot cost for enchantments. In fact, there are no more enchantment slots on gear. Instead, players now have an enhancement page on their character sheet. Add and remove enchants from this page with no cost.
The enchantment page has the following enchantment slots:
4x Offense Enchantments
4x Defense Enchantments
1x Utility Enchantment
1x Bonus Enchantment
1x Combat Enchantment
2x Overload Enchantments
And on the Companion sheet you will find a slot for a Companion Enchantment
With these new slots come all new enchantments with higher item levels and some new options. There are 5 ranks to the new enchantments. Existing enchantments can be exchanged for the new enchantments at the antiquities dealer.
There is only one type of companion enchant with this change. It will increase companion damage or if it is an augment companion, it will increase the value of the bonus stats from that companion.
Exchange Rates
Enchant/Runestone Rank / Exchange Currency
15 20
14 12
13 8
12 4
11 2
10 1
Weapon + Armor Enchants
14 120
13 80
12 50
11 30
10 20
Exchange Cost
New Enchantment Choice Pack Cost
All Enchantments - Rank 1 30
All Enchantments - Rank 2 60
Combat/Companion – Rank 3 90
Combat/Companion – Rank 4 120
The current item level of a rank 15 enchant on live is 200. A rank 2 enchantment in the new system is 600 Item Level which is why it takes 3 rank 15s to convert into a rank 2.
Don’t have a lot of high level enchantments lying around to exchange? Not a problem! You can also buy the exchange currency directly with AD to get a head start on the new enchantments.
Coalescent Wards have a new icon and are now called Coalescent Motes, but are also the same items they were before and work in the same way.
There are new Motes as well which when used will add their percentage bonus to the chance of success. These motes increase the chance by 1%, 2%, 5%, 10%. The lowest tier can be bought in the refinement sage shop in PE. The other tiers can drop in dungeon end chests.
New Upgrade UI
With these changes we also reworked the upgrade UI. In the past we had several different upgrade UIs depending on the item being upgraded and what items it turned into. We have combined all of this into a single UI that is universal to all items.
Each upgrade will have up to 3 components, each of which can be protected by a preservation ward. If the upgrade fails, 1 of the components is chosen at random to be destroyed, unless it is protected by a preservation ward which will get destroyed instead.
There is a percentage chance of success and a mote can be slotted to increase that chance, with a coalescent mote still raising the chance to 100%.
With this system there is no longer partial refinement point filling of an item. All of the refinement points are needed upfront and it goes directly into a chance to upgrade. Existing items with partial refinement points in them will have the refinement points refunded to the owner on login with these changes. If you are at max refinement points of 50,000,000 then you will need to spend some of that ahead of the update to receive the refunds.
Artifacts/Artifact Equipment
If every item is now using the same refinement window, what does that mean for artifacts and artifact equipment?
These items are no longer upgraded by ranks and instead are upgraded in full quality tiers each time. Some items received an item level increase during this change over.
Weapon/Armor Enchant Effects
With these changes we have separated weapon and armor enchant effects from the enchantments. Instead we have added new slots to the appearance tab where you can slot both a weapon and an armor visual effect.
Exchanging existing armor and weapon enchantments will also give you one of these matching effect items so you both have the visuals you had access to before and have new flexibility in how your character looks.
Will I have to figure this all out before I can play again?
We realize changes of this size can be disruptive and may even feel overwhelming at first. To help with this and to let people play as they normally would when the update goes live, characters will get temporary enchantments equipped automatically. These enchantment have the item level of rank 4 in the new system and give a range of balanced stats. They last 7 days before disappearing, at which point you’d want to have exchanged your old enchants for new ones to take their place.
With this release to preview work is still ongoing and some things may not function as intended or may still have adjustments to values before going live.
We welcome all feedback and bug reports.
No More Unslot Cost
In the new refinement system there is no more unslot cost for enchantments. In fact, there are no more enchantment slots on gear. Instead, players now have an enhancement page on their character sheet. Add and remove enchants from this page with no cost.
The enchantment page has the following enchantment slots:
4x Offense Enchantments
4x Defense Enchantments
1x Utility Enchantment
1x Bonus Enchantment
1x Combat Enchantment
2x Overload Enchantments
And on the Companion sheet you will find a slot for a Companion Enchantment
With these new slots come all new enchantments with higher item levels and some new options. There are 5 ranks to the new enchantments. Existing enchantments can be exchanged for the new enchantments at the antiquities dealer.
There is only one type of companion enchant with this change. It will increase companion damage or if it is an augment companion, it will increase the value of the bonus stats from that companion.
Exchange Rates
Enchant/Runestone Rank / Exchange Currency
15 20
14 12
13 8
12 4
11 2
10 1
Weapon + Armor Enchants
14 120
13 80
12 50
11 30
10 20
Exchange Cost
New Enchantment Choice Pack Cost
All Enchantments - Rank 1 30
All Enchantments - Rank 2 60
Combat/Companion – Rank 3 90
Combat/Companion – Rank 4 120
The current item level of a rank 15 enchant on live is 200. A rank 2 enchantment in the new system is 600 Item Level which is why it takes 3 rank 15s to convert into a rank 2.
Don’t have a lot of high level enchantments lying around to exchange? Not a problem! You can also buy the exchange currency directly with AD to get a head start on the new enchantments.
Preservation and Coal Wards
Preservation wards in the new system are the same items they’ve always been, but they are used slightly differently than before which we will discuss in the next section.Coalescent Wards have a new icon and are now called Coalescent Motes, but are also the same items they were before and work in the same way.
There are new Motes as well which when used will add their percentage bonus to the chance of success. These motes increase the chance by 1%, 2%, 5%, 10%. The lowest tier can be bought in the refinement sage shop in PE. The other tiers can drop in dungeon end chests.
New Upgrade UI
With these changes we also reworked the upgrade UI. In the past we had several different upgrade UIs depending on the item being upgraded and what items it turned into. We have combined all of this into a single UI that is universal to all items.
Each upgrade will have up to 3 components, each of which can be protected by a preservation ward. If the upgrade fails, 1 of the components is chosen at random to be destroyed, unless it is protected by a preservation ward which will get destroyed instead.
There is a percentage chance of success and a mote can be slotted to increase that chance, with a coalescent mote still raising the chance to 100%.
With this system there is no longer partial refinement point filling of an item. All of the refinement points are needed upfront and it goes directly into a chance to upgrade. Existing items with partial refinement points in them will have the refinement points refunded to the owner on login with these changes. If you are at max refinement points of 50,000,000 then you will need to spend some of that ahead of the update to receive the refunds.
Artifacts/Artifact Equipment
If every item is now using the same refinement window, what does that mean for artifacts and artifact equipment?
These items are no longer upgraded by ranks and instead are upgraded in full quality tiers each time. Some items received an item level increase during this change over.
Weapon/Armor Enchant Effects
With these changes we have separated weapon and armor enchant effects from the enchantments. Instead we have added new slots to the appearance tab where you can slot both a weapon and an armor visual effect.
Exchanging existing armor and weapon enchantments will also give you one of these matching effect items so you both have the visuals you had access to before and have new flexibility in how your character looks.
Will I have to figure this all out before I can play again?
We realize changes of this size can be disruptive and may even feel overwhelming at first. To help with this and to let people play as they normally would when the update goes live, characters will get temporary enchantments equipped automatically. These enchantment have the item level of rank 4 in the new system and give a range of balanced stats. They last 7 days before disappearing, at which point you’d want to have exchanged your old enchants for new ones to take their place.
With this release to preview work is still ongoing and some things may not function as intended or may still have adjustments to values before going live.
We welcome all feedback and bug reports.
Tagged:
33
Comments
Lifedrinker enchantment, rank 10 can not be traded in for currency + illusion.
Bug 2 :
The size of the shield provided from the Battle Tempered combat enchantment could use some looking into :
Bug 3 :
Slotting an overload enchantment with low remaining time activates an icon stating that one of my equiped items needs to be "empowered". Clicking the icon shows this screen :
Can the weapon/armor visual effects be placed under the fashion/vanity tab ?
Bug: Slotted Enchantments and RunestonesSlotted Enchantments and Runestones disappear and are nowhere to be found. Enchantments in the inventory stay and can be properly exchanged at the Antiquities Vendor. Currently you have to unslot everything before this change goes live.
just figured you get them by mail
Feedback: Tarmalune Trade Bar Nerf
Enchantments are the major factor why Tarmalune Trade Bars, and in conjunction opening Lockboxes, are profitable. The current store offers nothing of similar resell value, presenting a massive nerf to Trade Bars and Lockboxes. I hope components for the new Refining System will be made available.
No unslot costs in the new system is great, but I hardly see myself transferring enchantments between multiple alts regardless. I'm very surprised and somewhat disappointed that working on such a massive overhaul hasn't resulted in a system that handles Enchantments and Runestones for the entire account and not just single characters. While it theoretically enables players to share stuff, the attached inconvenience will make it necessary to collect a full complement of Enchantments and Runestone for all characters anyway.
Will this keep happening? Will we continue to get more reworks than content?
If you reflect on neverwinter in any way, please, please, reflect on your reworks compared to dungeons and trials and bosses. Compare that to your competition in other MMO games.
> What happens to Marks of Potency and Enchanting Stones? Are they removed? I saw what is needed to upgrade new enchantments and it seems like there is new reagent needed for it, along with gold and rp. No sign of Marks and Stones.
This. I just just a ton of AD on MOPs with the Bazaar sale.
I like Gold being such a major component in the upgrade process. Think it's still a bit under-represented in terms of significance in the game and this should help.
I would prefer it if we had a explanation on why the developers think this change is ideal for the longevity of Neverwinter as a game. I'm fine with doing away with the cost of removing an enchantment intact, what I don't like is how this new system is basically dropped in our laps with nothing more than 'we understand this is disruptive and overwhelming'
Enchantment slots for gear is a common trait among any RPG, MMO or not. This change is literal garbage in the toilet the way it is currently.
Feedback: Preservation and Coalescent Wards
Is it possible to also include a fix to how binding work on wards with these changes? On live I have a stack of unbound preservation wards, a stack of BTA preservation wards, and a stack of BTC preservation wards. It's a waste of inventory space the way this is currently going.
The reason players can exchange for rank 2 of the stat enchants and rank 4 of the combat and companion enchants if those match the stats/level/power of the old ones. The damage boost on a rank 4 combat enchant is the same as a rank 14 weapon enchant now. The companion enchant at rank 4 is the damage increase of having all rank 15 indomitables on live now. The exchange is to make sure players can exchange to keep themselves where they already are (or get caught up if behind that now).
While there is a gold cost to upgrade, I would compare it to how many times you've likely paid to unslot an enchantment over time.
There have been some comments on why can't we exchange max rank old for max rank new. This is adding more progression, and if we hadn't done a new system, we would have added new enchantment ranks like we have many times in the past. We haven't added ranks in a while because we did want to take the time to explore different improvements as well as resetting the ranks so there weren't so many for players to deal with. So we held off adding new ranks until we could get to that. But if we had decided against that plan, you'd see new ranks above 15 happening now.
You know, actually I was perfectly content with my good old Vorpal, for example, and was hardly alone at that despite more people using Lightning or Bilethorn. But now the Zen purchase rates decided it's time for us and our good old enchantments to part ways. Thank you for cutting back on the variety of choices yet again, after the same thing was done to the other in-game systems such as leveling or builds. Who needs choices in an RPG anyway, right?
A hundred kinds of exotic dung!Everything should be neat and uniform, and preferably take years of free grind to obtain, which the players don't have because the 'reworks' are pumped out too fast, and each new rework punishes the player base for grinding out the previous ones. Oh, and please don't forget to roll it out on live ASAP so we can all taste-test for ya and diligently point out all the bugs that render half of these fancy overcomplicated new systems unusable.I perfectly understand that with the way this has been going for the last few years your target demographics are almost exclusively new players who spent less than a year playing, so they basically have no experience to make a comparison. Us whiny boomers just need to go away with our nostalgia and whine somewhere else, I get that. But even if those potential new players are so gullible as to pay their way to the current BiS as soon as they reach level 20 they still need to be motivated to do so, and without actual content to play with that BiS gear that is highly unlikely. Even less so that they will stick around and keep paying after another 'rework' descends upon their previous purchases and makes them all useless out of the blue.
That is, I can understand the desire to milk it to the last drop and then resell it to some hopeless MMO-graveyard, but even the milking process itself looks like it's in a bad need of some long and hard QA testing. You guys sure this is the way it should go?
That said, been around since 2014 and hasn't been prone to ranting until now, but seeing so much potential getting wasted due to bad management hurts too much at this point
> They are the ones we are starting with, but it is likely other types will be added over time.
> Content Designers and Environment artists don't tend to work on these types of systems. But there is also an entire module on preview with a new adventure zone, campaign, and there will be a new trial as well.
> For my own curiosity, what were you planning to do with those 100 enchantments if this system change hadn't happened? The enchantments on live can still be upgraded, so one option is to raise some of them to rank 10 to exchange into the new enchantments.
>
> The reason players can exchange for rank 2 of the stat enchants and rank 4 of the combat and companion enchants if those match the stats/level/power of the old ones. The damage boost on a rank 4 combat enchant is the same as a rank 14 weapon enchant now. The companion enchant at rank 4 is the damage increase of having all rank 15 indomitables on live now. The exchange is to make sure players can exchange to keep themselves where they already are (or get caught up if behind that now).
>
> While there is a gold cost to upgrade, I would compare it to how many times you've likely paid to unslot an enchantment over time.
>
>
>
> There have been some comments on why can't we exchange max rank old for max rank new. This is adding more progression, and if we hadn't done a new system, we would have added new enchantment ranks like we have many times in the past. We haven't added ranks in a while because we did want to take the time to explore different improvements as well as resetting the ranks so there weren't so many for players to deal with. So we held off adding new ranks until we could get to that. But if we had decided against that plan, you'd see new ranks above 15 happening now.
So you're telling us not to buy keys anymore because you're just going to take what drops from the lockbox away from us. Got it.
To me, this stuff - especially the new Motes system - screams predatory money grab tactics. Blizzard seems to be dying, if you want any of those WoW players to end up spending money on Neverwinter you need to take a step back on the predatory stuff and a step forward on ease of use stuff and bug fixing.