Neverwinter Ravenloft Dungeon and Random Queue Changes

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As part of our massive preview of Neverwinter’s next module Ravenloft, I’d like to go over the dungeon and random queue changes today. After the introduction of the new queues in Swords of Chult, the devs will further tweak the system in Module 14. Some stuff is related to the Astral Diamond refining cap changes, but the queues are also reorganized in a more logical way. So what changes for players starting June 26th? Let’s find out!

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New Queue Categories

First of all the devs responded to the claims of players that random queues in their current form don’t make tons of sense. Especially the “Epic Dungeon” queue can be tricky for players as it combines fairly easy content with endgame challenge. That led to most groups abandoning certain content, which is not how the devs intended the queues to work.

[su_quote cite=”Asterdahl” url=”https://forum.arcgames.com/neverwinter/discussion/comment/13031820/#Comment_13031820″]Random queues are not intended to be something that you queue for only wishing to participate in a subset of the included queues.[/su_quote]

Which is why the categories are reorganized by difficulty:

  • Leveling Queue: All pre level 70 content as well as Illusionist’s Gambit (Master) and Dread Legion.
  • Intermediate Queue: All level 70 content up to item level 9000. This includes Merchant Prince’s Folly (now item level 9000), but not Demogorgon (Master)
  • Advanced Queue: All level 70 content between item level 9000 and 13000, as well as Demogorgon (Master).
  • Expert Queue: All level 70 content item level 13000 and above. Currenly that’s Castle Ravenloft only.

Overall this feels like a more logical pairing and should lead to players abandoning content way less, especially since the leaver penalty will be account wide. So if you’re queuing into content, the incentive to actually play the random dungeons goes up.

Changes to Rewards

Additionally the rewards for random queues will be changed. In conjunction with the Astral Diamond tweaks, random queue rewards are now per account per day. The payout in the meantime was significantly improved:

  • Leveling Queue: 8,000 AD 60 Seals of the Brave (Repeat: 1,000 AD / 20 Seals)
  • Intermediate Queue: 12,000 AD 100 Seals of the Brave (Repeat: 2,000 AD / 30 Seals | Role Bonus: 2,400 AD)
  • Advanced Queue: 15,000 AD 120 Seals of the Brave (Repeat: 3,000 AD / 40 Seals | Role Bonus: 3,000 AD)
  • Expert Queue: 2,500 RP 20 Seals of the Crown (Repeat: 1,000 RP / 10 Seals | Role Bonus: 5,000 AD)

[su_quote cite=”Asterdahl” url=”https://forum.arcgames.com/neverwinter/discussion/comment/13030504/#Comment_13030504″]In the same manner that seals of the elements were phased out when seals of the brave were added, this update will see the addition of seals of the crown, thus seals of the protector will be phased out and seals of the brave will become more widely available.[/su_quote]

The Seal of the Brave will by the way get its current weekly cap removed. So everything attached to these seals will become much more obtainable and contrary to what others have suggested, this is not a major nerf to salvage. The dungeons that currently drop Seal of the Protector will still do so, and additionally get an injection of RP, as the picture of the Lair of Lostmauth chest on the left shows. It might not feel like much, but 1,000 per run can add up to become a nice source of refining points over time. I’m not sure whether more difficult dungeons drop more by the way. I have run both Lair of Lostmauth and Kessell’s Retreat and they dropped 1,000 from both chests.

What Does It All Mean?

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Most players are now probably interested in what this all means for their daily random queues runs. First of all you obviously will only run each queue once with your best main to get the daily rewards. In case you’ve build up a sizeable alt army to farm randoms, sorry. On the other hand you should have much more time doing other stuff, which could be a plus. Don’t forget random queues are not the only or actually the best way to earn ADs anyway. Additionally the items attached to Seals of the Brave will basically become the new standard. With Module 14 the gear progression fully moves up to Chult and Ravenloft.

Right now only two queues are really in the daily rotation of players and I unfortunately don’t see this changing in Mod 14. Nobody is going to play Castle Ravenloft with a subpar group for measly 2,500 RP. And I’m also quite certain the “Advanced Queue” won’t see much action based on its cost-benefit ratio. So it’s probably going to be the two easier ones plus salvage runs for most players to reach their daily caps.

Advanced Queue Still Not Appealing

While the devs certainly move into the right direction with the changes, the harder and longer dungeons are still not too appealing to run inside random queues. The issue remains that the system first and foremost serves as AD farm, and as that has to be more efficient than doing other stuff. As long as you can still do 5-minute runs through Temple of the Spider and Epic Shores of Tuern, 15,000 AD for a Fangbreaker Island or TONG with a pug group simply won’t be enough. Oh, and good luck beating Cradle!

It also doesn’t help that the random queue group composition doesn’t match the current meta. I’ve been preaching that the differences in run speed are usually not significant, but perception matters. Players are generally hesitant to queue into dungeons with only one DC and tank. So it’s baby steps here and unfortunately the nerf to rough Astral Diamonds is what will dominate the talk around random queues.


What is your opinion on the changes to random queues in Module 14? 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.

9 thoughts on “Neverwinter Ravenloft Dungeon and Random Queue Changes

  • May 22, 2018 at 8:46 am
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    I’ve never thought alt armies were a strategy that added much to the game in terms of fun, sorry to those that used it. Clearly that was never intended to be a major part of the game, as the devs keep trying to nerf it over and over. I get that this nerf can be frustrating after alt armies have been allowed to be a major strategy for some players for sooooo long. That has always been one of my major complaints against Cryptic: if you see something as an issue, fix it before people get used to it.

    Recently I complained about the gap between casual and hardcore players with the ever-increasing IL, but it seems that has been addressed with Seals of the Brave being the new common gear currency.

  • May 22, 2018 at 10:52 am
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    What I suspect is that in Intermediate Queue DPS (largest group) will get grouped together for ToDG, PoM or MPF, supports will usually get pulled to fill out manually queuing DPS and only Premades will get a random dungeon. Assuming that the devs want to have fast popping queues, the no roles required instances will get picked If this is the case, it won’t hurt AD farming but won’t exactly be enjoyable either.

    It also is bad that EDEMO serves no purpose now and either SVA is also a waste. However, unless someone manually queues for them, it is doubtful the game will force players to wait for 2 healers and 2 tanks to fill.

    Ultimately, this still smacks of a unrealistic ideal given the issues with so much of the content. So many of these instances are buggy, variable completion time, questionable rewards that a full revamp should go hand in hand with all of this.

  • May 22, 2018 at 2:37 pm
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    I love splitting the epic qeueue. I’m so sick of people hitting lvl 70 only to find they still can’t get into the lvl 70 queue for another 2 months.

  • May 22, 2018 at 3:39 pm
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    Think with dungeon scaling there will be more players going premade than ever before. Even like CB ELoL or EToS if it becomes a challenge most will go premade.
    As many do not want to struggle or have a slow run and some that used to help carry lower geared groups are no longer going to want to deal with it.

  • May 22, 2018 at 5:32 pm
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    RP is not hard to get in this game. If anything changes to the game such as the 2x refinement stone event generate so much RP that the price of RP is tanking in game. Blood Rubies regularly sell for 7 or 8k at the moment. I expect they will fall to about 5k or so this weekend when the next 2x refining stone event goes live. Increasing the supply of an already oversupplied material like RP from random q will only cause the RP prices to spiral farther and faster down the toilet.

  • May 22, 2018 at 5:52 pm
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    I am sorry but I have to take issue with this line

    “Overall this feels like a more logical pairing and should lead to players abandoning content way less, especially since the leaver penalty will be account wide.”

    The result of this change will be even more toxic behavior in the random q. How many times have you seen someone join the random q, then switch alts without leaving the party? I run into it all the time (that guy that looks disconnected is often not, he just logged into a different alt and is playing it) Players do this so they will not get hit with the leaver penalty, they switch alts without leaving the party/instance to force someone else to take the penalty by leaving the q first. All making the leaver penalty account wide will do is to incentivize this behavior so it happens more often.

    Worse how do you think making more ethical or ignorant of how the game works players feel trapped in a dungeon they dont want to be in with a bot, clueless, logged out of alt, etc. Can you see this having a pleasant influence on party chat word selection? I cant either.

    • May 23, 2018 at 4:58 am
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      Leaver penality will ba account wide and switching characters will trigger it. It presents in dungeon thread on the forum: https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/1239984/official-feedback-thread-changes-to-random-queues/p2
      ———-
      We also made a major change to leaver penalty with this update. Leaver penalty will now be account wide, and logging onto second character while the first is in a public queue with leaver penalty active will now boot the first character and inflict leaver penalty.

      This should dramatically diminish the frequency with which players simply log out of a queue. We had originally planned to implement this solution much earlier, but wanted to update the random queues to more accurately reflect the perceived difficulty of each individual queue within.
      —————

      • May 23, 2018 at 6:33 am
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        So the work around is to log out of game and log back in or is it log out and log into one of the alt accounts created in response to the new AD refining cap? Another work around would be to use the opportunity presented by undesirable dungeon to take a bio break, run trash out to the curb, microwave a snack, etc. Three or four minutes of waiting for someone else to enter the start circle so that certain dungeons and skirmishes can be run would probably result in someone else getting frustrated and taking the penalty themselves and also contribute to the toxic environment of the random q.

        Another question is how will the ubiquitous server disconnects this game generates interacting with the leaver penalties.

  • May 24, 2018 at 7:51 am
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    good insightful comments above. I stopped running daily dungeons at all, once they removed ad from solo. Attempting to force people w/ very different goals and ilvls together, and to force them to run content that varies so widely in rewards/time/hassle is gonna continue to meet resistance. Justly so. Fix the dungeons no one wants to run. Plz allow solo ad runs, cryptic. Not all of us want to be forced to run w/ the many toxic players.It is a huge turnoff to new players when they get grouped with a take it all speed runner, and it’s a turnoff to adv players to be forced to carry bots (happening more and more). I’ve seen more than a few new players quit over this, which is a shame. The heavy handed changes are making it worse, not better, imho.

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