Neverwinter Grind is Slowly Getting Out of Hand With Module 10.5

On release day of Patch/Module 10.5 I’d like to look at one of my big concerns of the next major content update, Sea of Moving Ice. I was very disappointed to see that you still need to do SKT dailies and content to progress and get the boons. The list of daily tasks players have to do is already long and continues to blow up that way. Here’s what you could do on a PVE toon prior to Sea of Moving Ice given that you completed all older campaigns and unlocked their boons:

  • Stronghold Influence Run
  • Sharandar Campaign grind for RPs, Coffer currency, Power Points and/or some AD gain
  • Dread Ring Campaign grind for Marks and Coffer Currency
  • Underdark Campaign Grind for Demonic Keys
  • Maze Engine Daily for RP, RAD and Experience
  • Storm Kings Thunder Campaign grind for boon progression
  • Relic farm for gear/boon progression
  • Storm Kings Thunder HEs for gear progression
  • 2x dungeons, 2x skirmishes for daily RADs
  • Edemo for gear progression

This list doesn’t include weekly quests for RADs, the Tyranny of Dragon campaign or FBI, which is stuff I personally don’t do on a daily basis. It also doesn’t include running events that sometimes severely add to the daily commitment.

Three hour investment

Overall I’d measure the average time investment for all tasks in the three hour range, even for endgame geared characters. That’s per toon per day and, well, a lot. The issue with the current state of the game is that new additions add to the grind and do not replace old one. Storm Kings Thunder did replace the Dragonflight event with FBI as the destination for top gear. Some guilds however might still need to run it for Stronghold progression and the new HEs and dailies across three zones directly add to the daily list.

Now with Sea of Moving Ice, there is again more added than replaced. Epic Demogorgon will be probably gone for the new Svardborg trial. But you still need to do SKT grind and have even more dailies in the new zone as well as fishing. It’s insane. We’ve reached a point where players are simply not able to get all tasks done. It’s sad that Icewind Dale currently is merely dead meat, but I’m so glad we at least don’t need to look back after completing the campaign there. The new zone is beautiful, but because of its size and the relatively slow travel on the water, the dailies are again comparably long.

Too many different grinds

Demonic HE Well of Dragons
Could somebody tell the devs that HEs are not fun?

The main issue in my eyes is something we’ve said around here multiple times. The different grinds and attached tasks are too isolated from each other. When you do Influence Runs, you net little else in the process. Grinding campaigns doesn’t net RADs. Daily dungeons do not contribute to gear progression. To progress in different areas of the game, you need to mindlessly go through countless tasks, because there’s too little overlap. Does anybody have fun running a gazillion SKT HE’s for Lanolin? I sure don’t and Sea of Moving Ice will require even more of the resource.

The new Svardborg chest structure requires players to continuously run fishing, dailies and HEs in the new zone to get additional chests. I know that’s optional, but it still feels more of an effort than getting keys for Fangbreaker Island, Demogorgon or Castle Never. I especially liked that you could acquire Demonic Keys by just running group content. That way you could achieve multiple things at once in getting some RADs, progress towards gear and also restock on keys. This accumulation of daily tasks is what the game needs going forward.

Enough is enough

It’s funny that the devs reiterate they can only do so much with the amount of resources they have when the game has gotten to the point where players can also only do so much of the tasks the devs throw at them. I think looking at the game it was justified to keep old content viable for a long time. But with Sea of Moving Ice the grind is getting out of hand and more of the new tasks have to actually replace old ones. Especially more Stronghold and RP progression has to be tied to current content. Otherwise players are constantly forced to go back to old campaigns which bloats the daily task list. The devs do not like wasting assets, but at some point players need to leave content behind and turn to other stuff without missing out.


What’s your take on the daily grind in Neverwinter? Do you feel exhausted or like different options on any given day? Share your thoughts in the comments below or visit the corresponding thread on our message board.

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.

19 thoughts on “Neverwinter Grind is Slowly Getting Out of Hand With Module 10.5

  • November 8, 2016 at 7:45 am
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    Indeed, im exhausted after doing weeklies for AD on 10+ toons :S Normal daily grind is skt 3q+influ, then some dungeons from time to time (CN or FBI+shard dungs). Time wise single player games are much bettter to handle… should stick with them.

  • November 8, 2016 at 8:09 am
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    They need to make it so that Lanolin drops from the chests. It would be awesome to get 10 lanolin from an FBI chest. It would make it worth running. I have farmed and farmed that damn lanolin and the drop rate is horrible. How can I find time to do that while trying to progress through the new campaign??

    • November 8, 2016 at 11:00 am
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      vblood and lanolin, should be able to be gotten outside of doing cheesy HEs.

  • November 8, 2016 at 8:36 am
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    Please cant we have the old dungeons back? just tweak the difficulty and give us back the stuff that was fun to do.

  • November 8, 2016 at 9:08 am
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    Which is why I have thrown a snitty fit since mod 10.. this isnt a way to run a mmo, they simply do not understand.

    ITS JUST NOT FUN DOING DAILIES all the time.

    a few mins a day, we will all do.. maybe 1 hour worth..

    WE CANNOT do everything they want us to do and still play a actual fun aspect of the game.

  • November 8, 2016 at 12:55 pm
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    Yo these comments got me dying. Why is everyone doing dailies? Unless you haven’t finished the campaign and have been only at it for a month, you should have 2 campaigns left at most.

    Play NW for what is fun, not for what you feel obligated to do. I didn’t do any of mod 9’s daily quests and I haven’t even been to Bryn Shandar yet. When i feel it would be fun to do, i’ll do it, not because its new and therefore i MUST.

  • November 8, 2016 at 1:35 pm
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    I moved on to Final Fantasy XIV, never looked back.

  • November 8, 2016 at 2:41 pm
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    One of the reasons I’m ignoring this new module!

  • November 8, 2016 at 5:53 pm
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    First of all campaign unlocks should per account,why is it so important for them that every alt needs to farm all over again?And who gave them the idea that fishing would be a fun way to get the endgame gear?They need to wake up, this is turning worse than a chinese android game. We need to get our gear from dungeons and raids for pve and not with the current drop rates so that it feels rewarding. And from doing pvp for the pvpers. Fishing, planting carrots and milking cows should not belong in any MMOrpgs endgame unless it is called Farmville

    • November 9, 2016 at 12:28 am
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      Exactly. Only thing I enjoy in mod10b is finding treasures as I love secrets like this.

  • November 9, 2016 at 12:10 am
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    I must agree completely here! Whilst I do not try to break my back doing every possible daily I can, if I don’t seem it fun for me at the time, character progression, especially for people who have multiple characters is not only a tedious task, but the rewards are also little to none existent….. The double slotted rings are hard enough to attain without trying to grind dungeons for central artifacts and gear! And dailies are a must for character progression….
    The countless times I have achieved gold on every stage of throne or prophecy and came top of the leader board, only to yield a +1 ring is maddening!
    What further adds to this problem is all the nerfs console have caught due to PC players exploitation of the game and the ridiculous amount of character bound items with neverwinter! Leave it at account bound and call it a day!

  • November 14, 2016 at 3:10 am
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    They are killing the Game with this, more and more of my Guildies are spending increasing amounts of their time out of the game.
    Neverwinter burnout is very real now.

    I have given up even running for AD on my alts (and I had pretty much given up on that before the changes).

    There is just way too much to do, and it is extremely unrewarding.

  • November 17, 2016 at 10:24 pm
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    Pffft. SKT takes 20-30 minutes tops. First campaign took considerably less, maybe 10-15 minutes. Always take all quests and hand in 3. Do a bunch when you feel like it, save results.

    Grinding a few HE’s 30 minutes at will is not bad. Or grind a bit longer when you feel like it.

    The good weeklies takes me a total of 40 minutes. UD, SKT, Sharandar, IWD.

    Running dungeons or PvP is the game, can’t possibly cry about spending time on that.

    If you’re catching up on old campaigns. Rough deal. Agree it could be speeded up for new players.

  • November 17, 2016 at 10:27 pm
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    And influence, 5-15 minutes, exhausting. Don’t even have to do it daily.

  • November 17, 2016 at 10:36 pm
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    One last thing, the game had to be designed to give each player/char some daily content. Running 5 chars full grind is an ambitious decision. Pay up if you wanna do it, up to you.

  • January 23, 2017 at 12:55 pm
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    Fk the fishing and stupid heroics not dropping lanolin. RPG game should be a fishing simulator!

  • February 13, 2017 at 9:07 am
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    Lets not forget key change makes farming almoat useless. Dungeon runs were how i broke the monotonous grind. Buying keys for 99% useless items is ridiculous at best. At least i had a chance at a 5 mill ad item albeit slim to none. Even running cn 10 times a day i havent seen a shard once. I will be damned if i pay for keys for the same result.
    People are busy farming relics and new content when they realise that nsva is fubar and you need 3800 il to even sniff at msva for epic weaps.
    Reality is without a way to farm for ad the 3k to 4k stretch got exceedingly more difficult. Very disappointed with direction Neverwinter is heading. I suspect an exodus as more people cant get nsva or msva and have great difdiculty increasing il.

  • May 11, 2017 at 5:54 am
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    my biggest problem with this game is more to lack of gear drops that actually improve you. sure drops like orcus wand or tiamats orb should be rare but my problem is u can complete lets say etos 10 times and 9 time out of ten your just going to get blue alliance gear which is stupid considing you can by both the blue and purple alliance gear with seals of elements and protector. im at 2.5 gear score on xbox one and see no likelyhood anytime soon of it increasing. at least not before 11.5 item level changes. its left me wondering despite how fun this game is if its really worth my time and effort. id have to spend alot of cash on zen to convert to ad just to buy the gear i need then alot of farming refinement stuff to get them up.

    i think imo something with gear drops need to change. not drop rates but more if its gear you can buy with seals it shouldnt drop in dungeons/raids you need to do to get better drops

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