Here are some easy tips to speed up the grind which you may or may not already know about.
Press 1 for OK, Press 2 for Cancel
This usually applies even when the option isn't denoted, like when you are trading bounty currency for something and there is no quantity slider. Instead of clicking on OK each time, press 1 to speed up the process.
Aim above the person/item you want to interact with
Helpful if there's a stack of players (or just one mounted on a T-rex) in front of that banker, vendor or gate transition.
Check old campaign stores
Especially if you've been doing the weekly legacy quests, you may have enough to trade for boxes of AD. While you are at it, visit the seal vendors in the market as they hand out AD as well, and if you are really desperate - gold bars are more readily available in Protector's Enclave now to trade on auction.
Avoid fighting if you can (now easier with the free faster mount speed)
Fighting eats up most of the time. If you can brush off the damage and don't need to interact with anything, just run past. In those instances even if the trash does catch you, its quicker to annihilate them simultaneously rather than handle each individual group. Remember you can also speed up some vertical drops by simply jumping down - and if your character can evade, you can even negate all of the damage.
Showing posts with label Astral Diamonds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Astral Diamonds. Show all posts
Wednesday, 25 November 2020
Neverwinter Online: Four Life Hacks
Thursday, 22 November 2018
Neverwinter Online: Gold Bars Tip
While I am reserving my thoughts for the latest module, The Heart of Fire, and the workshop / profession changes that came with it for a later time, I did want to share this tiny thing that is probably old news to many but for me it's totally new!
At the Driftwood Tavern in Protector's Enclave, you can buy a treasure item called "Gold Bar" which trades at a 1:1 ratio for a gold coin (regular currency). Why is this of any use? Because you can then sell the bars at the auction house to make Astral Diamonds!
That gave me a small windfall for enchantment upgrades, so for those with extra gold lying around, it might do the same for you. :) As to why the tavern sells gold bars, it is a mystery! I'll just put it down to money laundering.
At the Driftwood Tavern in Protector's Enclave, you can buy a treasure item called "Gold Bar" which trades at a 1:1 ratio for a gold coin (regular currency). Why is this of any use? Because you can then sell the bars at the auction house to make Astral Diamonds!
That gave me a small windfall for enchantment upgrades, so for those with extra gold lying around, it might do the same for you. :) As to why the tavern sells gold bars, it is a mystery! I'll just put it down to money laundering.
Thursday, 17 September 2015
NWO: The Cryptic Method
With the release of the latest module "Grindfest" "Strongholds", Cryptic certainly designed a great way to encourage people to grind in all the end game campaigns to acquire various doohickeys to help construct their stronghold. In addition to this (or I only realized recently) that they also placed some item level "barriers to entry" on some content which I am not a big fan of - mainly epic level dungeons.
Not that I have a burning desire to do that content, but just so I have the choice for if ever I want to participate - I can. Thus began my quest to improve my gear, and I quickly found there were two paths: farming a PvE instance or farming PvP matches. The fastest method to my goal was simply to do both. It probably also helped keep me sane, giving some variety in game style.
Anywho, as a non PvPer, you can imagine how that went for me in the various PvP Domination matches (fancy name for "Hold this Location" which is standard in many other games). Fortunately you still gain currency to buy those higher level items even if you lose, though at a much slower rate than the victors obviously. What it did make me see though is how people use their various characters, and what combos were most effective since I was usually at the receiving end of them.
Using my ultra-narutard Kakashi skills I obviously then respecced my guys to be more inline with what I would encounter there and wow, taking those builds back out into the PvE environment I'm now showing much better performance than before. My alt ranger character in particular, who was pretty rotten compared to my main rogue, I now slightly favor more because of the combat techniques learned from fighting other rangers: I had no idea he could perma root and stun enemy groups with fast enough rotations.
So now, not only do I have the bare minimum to pass all the gear wall levels but I also have the player skill for my two characters to play better. I think that is pretty awesome. Still doesn't mean I like PvP though, and that's a bad thing since it feels like Cryptic is trying to push it to the forefront with the recently released Stronghold Siege patch, which also happened to remove a major source of Astral Diamonds from the game.
See with Cryptic, "fix" is the same as "hack it off with an axe". Usually as MMO's progress there are more and more patches that release ever increasing content. Neverwinter Online is one of the few where future patches actually take away things from the game like dungeons, profession rewards, the foundry, and who knows what else is to come, and unlike the Living Story in Guildwars 2 there's absolutely no lore reason for it happening here.
Needs a lot of work!
Anywho, as a non PvPer, you can imagine how that went for me in the various PvP Domination matches (fancy name for "Hold this Location" which is standard in many other games). Fortunately you still gain currency to buy those higher level items even if you lose, though at a much slower rate than the victors obviously. What it did make me see though is how people use their various characters, and what combos were most effective since I was usually at the receiving end of them.
Using my ultra-narutard Kakashi skills I obviously then respecced my guys to be more inline with what I would encounter there and wow, taking those builds back out into the PvE environment I'm now showing much better performance than before. My alt ranger character in particular, who was pretty rotten compared to my main rogue, I now slightly favor more because of the combat techniques learned from fighting other rangers: I had no idea he could perma root and stun enemy groups with fast enough rotations.
So now, not only do I have the bare minimum to pass all the gear wall levels but I also have the player skill for my two characters to play better. I think that is pretty awesome. Still doesn't mean I like PvP though, and that's a bad thing since it feels like Cryptic is trying to push it to the forefront with the recently released Stronghold Siege patch, which also happened to remove a major source of Astral Diamonds from the game.
See with Cryptic, "fix" is the same as "hack it off with an axe". Usually as MMO's progress there are more and more patches that release ever increasing content. Neverwinter Online is one of the few where future patches actually take away things from the game like dungeons, profession rewards, the foundry, and who knows what else is to come, and unlike the Living Story in Guildwars 2 there's absolutely no lore reason for it happening here.
Wednesday, 25 March 2015
Today I Smiled: Second Wind
Sorry for the post frequency slow down, that last daily run really burned through my prepped content (and me) but don't worry, it will probably be back to that in a few weeks when I catch my breath. This is just a small post just to say that one of my Neverwinter Foundry Quests got second place. Woohoo!
While there wasn't actually a prize for second place, I still got 132,000 Astral Diamonds for tying in the Best Story section. Woo! At least I won something... ;P
I also learned a few things since my last post, such as not counting the word "The" in alphabetical listings (so I fixed my lists on the top right there), that all snakes are deaf (but can "hear" vibrations), and that 3D pens are actually a thing (a must see for artists).
Lastly I'll leave you with an video links for an old but funny Mountain Dew Ad, a talented tight rope artist, and a silly site where you compare meerkats. Hope you all have a great day!
I lost by .9? DAMN!
While there wasn't actually a prize for second place, I still got 132,000 Astral Diamonds for tying in the Best Story section. Woo! At least I won something... ;P
I also learned a few things since my last post, such as not counting the word "The" in alphabetical listings (so I fixed my lists on the top right there), that all snakes are deaf (but can "hear" vibrations), and that 3D pens are actually a thing (a must see for artists).
Lastly I'll leave you with an video links for an old but funny Mountain Dew Ad, a talented tight rope artist, and a silly site where you compare meerkats. Hope you all have a great day!
Tuesday, 23 September 2014
Keys and Treasure Chests
I find it interesting to see how each game delivers rewards to players, especially after killing tough bosses in dungeons. More and more it seems that these rewards come from treasure chests of some kind.
Guildwars 2 used to (I assume they still do) just have it as a pop up, treasure chest "button" on each participating player's HUD rather than an object in game. Neverwinter Online has a box at the end of each dungeon, often next to the handy exit portal, that can only be opened if you entered during "dungeon hour" (occurs every 6 hours) or if you brought a dungeon key with you.
You can get one free key a day provided you don't already have one in your inventory. As a typical F2P opportunity you can also buy said keys with the pseudo-real currency of Astral Diamonds (which you gain through real money expense or through doing in-game tasks). Some dungeons and skirmishes even have two chests with the bonus one requiring a different key made from other grindable currencies.
Then there's Warframe and its Orokin Vaults. Found on not so accessible Orokin Derelicts that consume a crafted key just to ENTER, there is always ONE vault hidden somewhere in the decaying space craft and if there's something Warframe is good at, it is hiding things in hard to reach spots that require good eyes and good parkour skills.
The vault itself needs a key to open but the type needed is random out of four. Since each player can only carry one key at a time this usually means to have a 100% chance of opening the room each member in a full squad needs to be carrying one. Of course holding a key negatively affects your Warframe, depending on the type you carry.
The effects to choose from are:
-75% health
-75% shield
-75% damage
-50% speed
Upon opening the door whoever used up the key is back to normal, for a short time at least because picking up the always single "mysterious artifact" (which you will only identify at the end of the mission) will again inflict one of those four effects on you at random.
Oh, and it also triggers an alarm that changes your enemies into the Corrupted faction, so if you came in geared up to fight things with fangs, claws and tentacles you will suddenly find them joined by heavily armored folks with lasers, heavy machine guns and rocket launchers. I suppose I should mention that while not as creepy as the Eris Hive ships these derelicts are far more dangerous, boasting some of the toughest foes and traps in the game.
Vault looting is completely optional though, which means to -earn- whatever it is you looted you MUST complete whatever your actual mission is on that space ship AND make it to the extraction point afterwards. Alive. Specifically the guy carrying the artifact.
So far I've done two of these and they were awesome as it felt we really "earned" that extra reward. I've run many more where I was the sole key carrier and the vault lock didn't match what I carried though. Those were slightly annoying! :P
What's your favourite method of loot delivery in game? Do you like having an easy exit at the end or would you prefer that people had to "get to extraction" on their own?
Guildwars 2 used to (I assume they still do) just have it as a pop up, treasure chest "button" on each participating player's HUD rather than an object in game. Neverwinter Online has a box at the end of each dungeon, often next to the handy exit portal, that can only be opened if you entered during "dungeon hour" (occurs every 6 hours) or if you brought a dungeon key with you.
You can get one free key a day provided you don't already have one in your inventory. As a typical F2P opportunity you can also buy said keys with the pseudo-real currency of Astral Diamonds (which you gain through real money expense or through doing in-game tasks). Some dungeons and skirmishes even have two chests with the bonus one requiring a different key made from other grindable currencies.
Ultima Online laughs at treasure chests when bosses can just explode into gold.
Then there's Warframe and its Orokin Vaults. Found on not so accessible Orokin Derelicts that consume a crafted key just to ENTER, there is always ONE vault hidden somewhere in the decaying space craft and if there's something Warframe is good at, it is hiding things in hard to reach spots that require good eyes and good parkour skills.
The vault itself needs a key to open but the type needed is random out of four. Since each player can only carry one key at a time this usually means to have a 100% chance of opening the room each member in a full squad needs to be carrying one. Of course holding a key negatively affects your Warframe, depending on the type you carry.
The effects to choose from are:
-75% health
-75% shield
-75% damage
-50% speed
Upon opening the door whoever used up the key is back to normal, for a short time at least because picking up the always single "mysterious artifact" (which you will only identify at the end of the mission) will again inflict one of those four effects on you at random.
Oh, and it also triggers an alarm that changes your enemies into the Corrupted faction, so if you came in geared up to fight things with fangs, claws and tentacles you will suddenly find them joined by heavily armored folks with lasers, heavy machine guns and rocket launchers. I suppose I should mention that while not as creepy as the Eris Hive ships these derelicts are far more dangerous, boasting some of the toughest foes and traps in the game.
Vault looting is completely optional though, which means to -earn- whatever it is you looted you MUST complete whatever your actual mission is on that space ship AND make it to the extraction point afterwards. Alive. Specifically the guy carrying the artifact.
So far I've done two of these and they were awesome as it felt we really "earned" that extra reward. I've run many more where I was the sole key carrier and the vault lock didn't match what I carried though. Those were slightly annoying! :P
What's your favourite method of loot delivery in game? Do you like having an easy exit at the end or would you prefer that people had to "get to extraction" on their own?
Thursday, 5 June 2014
Neverwinter Online: Fast Campaign Strategy Tips
If you play Neverwinter Online to the latter stages you will find yourself in "Campaigns". Areas such as Sharandar, the Dread Ring and Icewind Dale that require you to complete a (small) variety of daily tasks to push the quite literal completion bar to 100%. Unfortunately even the most stalwart player will feel the grind of these things after awhile so I thought I'd put up a quick post on some tips of how to clear each zone faster and spend less time in game grinding, specifically if you are a Boon Hunter (purchasable unlocks at specific stages of each campaign that improve your character) like myself. If you are chasing equipment drops then some of this might not apply to you.
LeadershipLevel this Profession up since it can provide a consistent stream of Astral Diamonds for you, which is required to unlock some of the Boons.
The Early Bird
Learn what time the daily and weekly quest resets. Much like newly released content, it is often fastest and easiest to do it as soon as it resets because a whole bunch of other people (also the ones who just want to get it over with) are doing the same things. Group up to gain credit faster or if you don't like grouping then you can still benefit by having less random monsters to deal with as they often get cleared by the high traffic player paths of the day. It also makes it easier to run into a more "common" heroic encounter in Icewind Dale that has people wanting to complete it.
Avoid Fighting
Fights take time. If you have a "kill" mission try to always do it in or near a zone where you need to accomplish something else as doing the other task will often net you all the kills you need. When avoiding foes take the path already traveled by others (and help them clear it if you catch up) to have an easier time. This is also true in dungeons. Make use of that Cloak of Lesser Etherealness you got from the Whispering Caverns!
Fast Travel Route
Do not forget to use your mounts. They often can be used in any open air instance such as Witch Fen or Warmakers. If you aren't fighting and are on foot just try to mount regardless of where you are. Also pick the best path to complete everything without having to double back. In Dread Ring and Sharandar, you can switch instance to instantly teleport you back to the nearest camp fire to save even more travel time.
Daily Prayer
While you should already do this in-game for the pretty cool rewards, if you manage to keep it up for 6 real days in a row you can spend your Celestial coins on a Cache of Campaign treasures that will remove some of the grind time for you. Remember that missing 1 day of invocation will make all your Celestial coins vanish, but it literally takes less than 5 minutes to do if that's all you have time for each day.
Set Your Targets
Each campaign requires set "currency items" to advance, but especially in Sharandar, you don't need all of them all the time. Do the maths and figure out just how much of each you actually need then unless you are intentionally after the EXP you can start skipping the daily quests that you no longer need to do! For example, all the Sharandar dungeons just give Crescents which you will be drowning in later from all the other tasks in the region. Unless you really want them, the EXP or the item rewards that the dungeons drop then you can save a lot of time by simply ignoring them.
Dungeon Running
It's fastest to clear content in a team so use the Looking For Group chat channel and even if you really don't like teaming up, I highly suggest doing so for the Dread Ring dungeons and Biggrin's Rest in Icewind Dale. The Dread Ring dungeons are easily soloable (especially Phantasmal Fortress) in give or take 10 minutes. In a party you can clear it in under 5 (even with just ONE other person). Just announce what group you are looking for and you'll probably get an invite pretty quick, especially if it is the daily.
"LFG DS" (Dread Spire)
"LFG DF" (Death Forge)
"LFG PF" (Phantasmal Fortress)
"TT/AB LFG BR" (Ten Towners / Arcane Brotherhood faction Biggrin's Rest)
Patience beats Griefing
Sharandar and Icewind Dale have some poorly designed quests that reward griefers who sneak in an interact with the one use objective while someone is off fighting the guards legitimately. It's not too bad in Sharandar since these objectives are clustered together and only lightly guarded. Icewind Dale is more punishing. If this happens to you there then my advice (other than "do unto others" if you can catch up to them) is to simply wait as close as you need to be to where the objective will respawn which is all of around 2 minutes. Trigger the item as soon as it pops up and walk / ride away. Escaping the respawners aggro depends on what is respawning, but at least you got the objective.
Mining Nodes
Icewind Dale requires you collect 300 raw black ice daily. While you gain this from doing heroic encounters the faster way is simply to mine every node you encounter, especially if the node is unguarded. They spawn in specific spots so each time you find one remember where it is so you will know where to look the next day.
Bare Minimum
Some days you just won't have time to play. That's fine. Some days you might think you don't have time to play. Well, given you can just stack (pick up quests but don't do them) three days worth of dailies from Dread Ring and Sharandar here is the bare minimum that you should do to not "lose" a day of progress. This is also the order I do it (on my ranger alt) in to make the most of the other players helping or at least clearing the way. Afterwards I do Icewind Dale again on my main rogue. :P
1 - Pray and if available, purchase Campaign Coffer
2 - Icewind Dale - complete 1 encounter/collect 300 ice, faster in Dwarven Valley
3 - Dread Ring Daily Dungeon
4 - Battle for Sharandar (mass murder powries to get 3 Feywild Crystals)
Hopefully these tips are of some use to you so that you can spend time doing the other things you like! :)
LeadershipLevel this Profession up since it can provide a consistent stream of Astral Diamonds for you, which is required to unlock some of the Boons.
The Early Bird
Learn what time the daily and weekly quest resets. Much like newly released content, it is often fastest and easiest to do it as soon as it resets because a whole bunch of other people (also the ones who just want to get it over with) are doing the same things. Group up to gain credit faster or if you don't like grouping then you can still benefit by having less random monsters to deal with as they often get cleared by the high traffic player paths of the day. It also makes it easier to run into a more "common" heroic encounter in Icewind Dale that has people wanting to complete it.
Avoid Fighting
Fights take time. If you have a "kill" mission try to always do it in or near a zone where you need to accomplish something else as doing the other task will often net you all the kills you need. When avoiding foes take the path already traveled by others (and help them clear it if you catch up) to have an easier time. This is also true in dungeons. Make use of that Cloak of Lesser Etherealness you got from the Whispering Caverns!
Fast Travel Route
Do not forget to use your mounts. They often can be used in any open air instance such as Witch Fen or Warmakers. If you aren't fighting and are on foot just try to mount regardless of where you are. Also pick the best path to complete everything without having to double back. In Dread Ring and Sharandar, you can switch instance to instantly teleport you back to the nearest camp fire to save even more travel time.
Daily Prayer
While you should already do this in-game for the pretty cool rewards, if you manage to keep it up for 6 real days in a row you can spend your Celestial coins on a Cache of Campaign treasures that will remove some of the grind time for you. Remember that missing 1 day of invocation will make all your Celestial coins vanish, but it literally takes less than 5 minutes to do if that's all you have time for each day.
Set Your Targets
Each campaign requires set "currency items" to advance, but especially in Sharandar, you don't need all of them all the time. Do the maths and figure out just how much of each you actually need then unless you are intentionally after the EXP you can start skipping the daily quests that you no longer need to do! For example, all the Sharandar dungeons just give Crescents which you will be drowning in later from all the other tasks in the region. Unless you really want them, the EXP or the item rewards that the dungeons drop then you can save a lot of time by simply ignoring them.
Dungeon Running
It's fastest to clear content in a team so use the Looking For Group chat channel and even if you really don't like teaming up, I highly suggest doing so for the Dread Ring dungeons and Biggrin's Rest in Icewind Dale. The Dread Ring dungeons are easily soloable (especially Phantasmal Fortress) in give or take 10 minutes. In a party you can clear it in under 5 (even with just ONE other person). Just announce what group you are looking for and you'll probably get an invite pretty quick, especially if it is the daily.
"LFG DS" (Dread Spire)
"LFG DF" (Death Forge)
"LFG PF" (Phantasmal Fortress)
"TT/AB LFG BR" (Ten Towners / Arcane Brotherhood faction Biggrin's Rest)
Patience beats Griefing
Sharandar and Icewind Dale have some poorly designed quests that reward griefers who sneak in an interact with the one use objective while someone is off fighting the guards legitimately. It's not too bad in Sharandar since these objectives are clustered together and only lightly guarded. Icewind Dale is more punishing. If this happens to you there then my advice (other than "do unto others" if you can catch up to them) is to simply wait as close as you need to be to where the objective will respawn which is all of around 2 minutes. Trigger the item as soon as it pops up and walk / ride away. Escaping the respawners aggro depends on what is respawning, but at least you got the objective.
Mining Nodes
Icewind Dale requires you collect 300 raw black ice daily. While you gain this from doing heroic encounters the faster way is simply to mine every node you encounter, especially if the node is unguarded. They spawn in specific spots so each time you find one remember where it is so you will know where to look the next day.
Bare Minimum
Some days you just won't have time to play. That's fine. Some days you might think you don't have time to play. Well, given you can just stack (pick up quests but don't do them) three days worth of dailies from Dread Ring and Sharandar here is the bare minimum that you should do to not "lose" a day of progress. This is also the order I do it (on my ranger alt) in to make the most of the other players helping or at least clearing the way. Afterwards I do Icewind Dale again on my main rogue. :P
1 - Pray and if available, purchase Campaign Coffer
2 - Icewind Dale - complete 1 encounter/collect 300 ice, faster in Dwarven Valley
3 - Dread Ring Daily Dungeon
4 - Battle for Sharandar (mass murder powries to get 3 Feywild Crystals)
Hopefully these tips are of some use to you so that you can spend time doing the other things you like! :)
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