Maze Engine Dungeons Preview

After discussing the campaign and the mount system I want to conclude my personal previews of the Maze Engine with a quick look at the introduced dungeons.

I was not able to play through all leveling dungeons, but had a shot at Karrundax and the Cloak Tower and have to say they are well done. I’m not a particular fan of generally streamlining dungeons, but for the leveling ones it absolutely makes sense because people want and need to quickly get runs in for the daily ADs or XP. Add the nice scenery and the dungeons absolutely work for their intended purpose of filling the blanks during low-level progression. Running the dungeons also simply feels good again and brings up memories, but this will unfortunately soon wear of in the daily grind. It’s still nice to be able to rotate through more choices.

Speaking of memories: In case you have missed our Dungeon Memories Roundtable call, go check it out. We’ve received a lot of great feedback and stories and make sure to add yours as well.

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The difficulty of the new leveling dungeons is comparable to the current three-man versions of Temple of the Spider, Gray Wolf Den and Cragmire Crypts, which means they are walkthroughs for endgame players and their value will solely depend on the amount of XP they give and their length.

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Unfortunately I missed the opportunity to look up the amount of experience you get for completing the leveling dungeons, because the devs said they would be a great way to work towards your overflow rewards. I will definitely check whether they offer more per time spend than the current Vigilance Tasks in Spinward Rise and the Fiery Pit. If so it would definitely be an upgrade, because it would combine AD and XP in your daily routine. Players will of course run the dungeon that can be completed the fastest, assuming all give the same rewards at level 70. The Cloak Tower looks like an early favorite in that regard.

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Then of course we have Castle Never as new endgame challenge addition. First of all I like they are trying to get a little bit more creative with trash mobs. Splitting up to close rifts, HE-ish mini tasks, those moving poison traps. You need to be a bit more aware and can’t sleepwalk through it.

All of it not being too hard is not an issue for me alone, but it becomes one when adding the bosses. All of them simply hit hard and do little else, which is obviously too low for an engaging fight. This will add even more incentive to just grab a Pally and if they ever fix the class, most players will struggle to compile enough debuffs and mitigation to avoid being one-shotted left and right.

I already stated in my mount stable preview that I don’t like the approach to counter the power creep by delivering unavoidable damage above the usual Hit Points and call it challenge. It is an issue that we have progressed so far into the new stat curves that the Life Steal change has long been negated and DPS classes are either one-shotted or heal up in seconds, but you can think of plenty mechanics outside damage and healing that would make fights more skill-based and fun.

Castle Never will become just another addition to the daily grind, which is a slight disappointment especially in a module that lacks big content additions. The rewards though look promising enough to run it over Lostmauth, because you are getting tons of Seals and the Artifact set and new Rings should be useful for quite a few builds.


Good thing we don’t have to wait too long now and can jump into the dungeons on a bigger scale starting today. Make sure to share your experiences in the comments below or the corresponding forum thread!

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.