Neverwinter Ravenloft Campaign Preview

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As part of our ongoing series of articles previewing Neverwinter’s next module, I’d like to go over the campaign in this one. Just like every module, the Ravenloft campaign loosely guides players through the story, unlocks the new endgame content and offers a fresh set of boons. Because the devs used many features of the Chult campaign, veteran players should have no trouble getting used to the structure and progression. But for all you newcomers and comebackers, I do go over all aspects once again. So let’s get things started!

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Campaign Structure

The Ravenloft campaign immediately unlocks after completing the introductory questline that you start at Lord Neverember in the Protector’s Enclave. In Barovia players are greeted with a complete set of item level 460 equipment that, while it won’t be terribly helpful to most players, actually is decent enough to get along in the zone and features unique visuals. Ravenloft uses the “Weekly Haul” as main progression system that you may know from modules 12 and 13. It’s basically a hard cap of how much progression currency you can earn per week. Compared to earlier campaigns it comes with the advantage of being able to freely pick when to progress throughout a week. You do not absolutely have to log in daily to not lose progress. In most cases you only need to spend one day or session to fill your Haul. This makes Ravenloft a very casual campaign to complete.

While this matches what the devs have done in Chult, the progression path is much more linearly. It kinda reminds you of the Maze Engine setup. You basically just work your way up through a given path. Every campaign tasks costs 100 “Omens”, the new progression currency. As you progress, some tasks increase the Weekly Haul and unlock new items in the campaign store and weekly quests. This makes sure that additional weeklies always cover for the increased Haul so that you do not need to run too many additional quests later on. The last task unlocks the new endgame dungeon “Castle Ravenloft” and a corresponding key task (25 Omens).

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Ravenloft Boons

You can also invest your Omens in new boons, which is a separate task (175 Omens) that can be completed four times. Once again the structure matches the one from Chult. Players are presented with six choices of tier 1 boons. They can freely assign three points, also multiple ones on the same boon. They add Recovery, Movement, Hit Points, Control Resist, Damage vs. Undead, and Damage Resistance vs. Undead. You can also choose one of the tier 2 boons. They do look interesting as they add power and group buffs that fit the current endgame meta:

  • Blood Lust: Every critical hit against an enemy has a chance to add a stack. At 10 stacks, gain 2,400 increased power for 10 seconds. Buff can only be applied once every 60 seconds.
  • Transfusion: Healing another player for 10% of their max hits points gives a chance of applying a heal over time that will heal 5% of their max hitpoints every 2 seconds for 10 seconds.
  • Hypnotic Gaze: Anytime you use a control power on an enemy you have a chance to increase the combat advantage damage of nearby allies by 5% for 10 seconds. Can only happen once every 60 seconds.
  • Righteous Sacrifice: Taking 10% or more of your max health in damage grants nearby allies 800 Power for 5 seconds. Stacks a maximum of 5 times.

Players have to choose whether or not to go for the boons first. The smart move is ranking up the progression path because the extended Weekly Haul will help you complete that boons faster later on. The whole campaign takes eight weeks (4 progression + 4 boons) and eleven in case you absolutely want to go for the boos first (7 boons + 4 progression).

Dailies and Weeklies for Omens

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Now how do you get the Omens to fill the Haul? There are four quest givers in the Village of Barovia that are not complicated to find. The first one, Ezmeralda, resides at the fountain in the middle of the village. She is primarily handing out the weeklies that give 25 Omens each. Those aren’t special by the way. The first two require you to do Heroic Encounters and other stuff in the zone, pretty similar to what you needed to do in Soshentar River and Omu. I’ve not yet unlocked more weeklies, but assume those are the “Ravenloft Instance Quests” that have an official feedback thread.

Then there are three more quest givers in the village tavern that hand out rotating quests. There are only so many quests active at the same time, but completing one basically immediately unlocks another. So you can chain them infinitely to fill your Weekly Haul. All quests are pretty basic kill and fetch quests that overall are not too annoying and relatively easy and fast to complete. Hunts will also drop currency, but unlike Chult those Omens fully count towards the Weekly Haul.

The Campaign Store

Last but not least let’s give the campaign store a look. It requires a second currency that’s similar to those Chultan and Omuan Treasures of Mod 12/13. You can get “salvage” gear up to item level 510, which might actually not be salvage to some players. Also most of the new Artifact sets can be fully obtained through the campaign as well as a required reagent for the restoration process of Module 14 weapons. At this point this is just an “fyi” because we’ll cover the gear additions in a different article. But giving the campaign store some strong gear choices should definitely add to its significance. As mentioned above not all items are available right from the start but have to be unlocked through the progression path of the campaign.

Conclusion

Ranvenloft offers a pretty standard campaign, especially if you’ve played through Chult. The devs definitely do not reinvent the wheel here, but give players content that’s easy to complete and has little annoying elements. The boons offer nice choices for different builds and purposes, and the campaign store is a vital part of the gear progression. Overall there’s not much to complain about unless you’re not a fan of the Weekly Haul progression system.


What’s your impression of the Ravenloft campaign? Do you like it or had you wished for something different? Share your thoughts on our social channels, in the comments below, or the corresponding thread on our message board!

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j0Shi

j0Shi plays the Neverwinter MMORPG since the open BETA in 2013 and is a regular contributor to the blog and the whole UN:Project. Originally a Guardian Fighter, he has built up ALTs of all classes and plays on BIS/near-BIS level.

2 thoughts on “Neverwinter Ravenloft Campaign Preview

  • May 21, 2018 at 8:58 am
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    Compared to the Chult ones, the Ravenloft capstone boons look sweeeet! 🙂

    Has anyone heard anything about new Masterwork recipes?

    I have to say though, even though I enjoyed the flavor story the dev blog released last week, couldn’t they have moved away a little bit from ripping off Dracula completely? And now the leader of the gypsies is named Ezmeralda… *rolls eyes* We’re sorely missing R. A. Salvatore on this one, guys…

  • May 21, 2018 at 11:40 pm
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    nice boons

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