Neverwinter Heart of Fire Workshop Artisans, Tools, and Supplements

We’ve already gone through the basics of the upcoming Workshop system and as part of our massive coverage of the new module, I’d like to highlight Artisans, Tools, and Supplements in this article. As already mentioned the recipe structure changed slightly and you can only use one craftsman (now called “Artisan”) and one Tool in Module 15. Both come with unique stats that determine recipe success rates, and extra bonuses that can help players in different situations. So let’s look at how these three essential components of any recipe work!

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Artisans

Artisans as mentioned are the old craftspeople, but work slightly different. They bind to the character and you can no longer trade, sell, or buy them. Artisans also do no longer reside in the professions inventory, but can be managed through the “Master’s Desk in your Workshop”. Any Artisan comes with a Proficiency and Focus rating as well as speed and commission bonuses or penalties. If you don’t know these stats, please go back to our basic preview of the Workshop. It’s described there. The total amount of stats depend on the Artisans rarity and level. The maximum amount of stats in each category are listed below. Please note that there is no “maxed” Artisan. A decent value in one of the four areas usually means there’s a trade-off somewhere else.

  • Proficiency: 400
  • Focus: 400
  • Speed: -75%
  • Commission: -75%

What didn’t change is that Artisans can only help you with one specific profession. And since you’re limited to eight plus six per Workshop rank (max 26), you will likely need to specialize in certain profession and recruit specific Artisans.

Artisan Recruitment

Artisans can no longer be bought, you need to “recruit” them. Applications pop up randomly at your Master’s Desk so you need to check regularly. You can then either decline or accept your new employee. You can also manufacture applications for specific professions using a premium ZEN item. Please also note that all Artisans are unique. There are 208 different ones (~26 per profession) with a unique combination of stats and bonuses and you can’t have two of the same. It also means that if you’re specializing on a single profession, you will eventually get all possible Artisans for a profession since the ones you already have can’t apply any longer. That way you can game the RNG a little bit. Overall though you will probably simply wait for epic Artisans with the right stats and bonuses to apply to your Workshop. YouTuber Rainer by the way is preparing a massive list of all Artisans and their stats and we hope he’s going to release it before Module 15.

Artisan Bonuses

The stats on Artisans are pretty straight forward, but all also come with a bonus:

  • Dab Hand: 5/10/15/20/25% chance to receive double results on most recipes.
  • Recycle: 5/10/15/20/25% chance to keep all materials in the case of a failure.
  • Passion Project: 5/10/15/20/25% chance to negate the commission cost of a task.
  • Miracle Worker: 5/10/15/20/25% chance to complete a task instantly or without consuming morale.
  • Virtuoso: 5/10/15/20/25% chance to profit from the effect of a slotted supplement without consuming it.

It’s obvious that these can be quite strong. Dab Hand for example should be best for any recipe that produces resources. Also don’t discount Passion Projects only because we’re talking about Gold. The Reinforcement Kits have been reworked in a way that the hardcoded Astral Diamonds from the old recipes are now commission costs. So negating the commission means you have a chance at free kits.

Tools

Tools in the meantime aren’t as sophisticated and only come with Proficiency and Focus stats. Here’s a list of some tools and what stats they give:

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Tool Proficiency Focus Bonus
Adamantine (best “basic” Tools from vendors) 360 360
“Worn” Masterwork Tools 370 370
Purple Masterwork Tools 400 375
Masterwork IV/V Tools (+1) 500 (525) 500 (525) 5% Virtuoso
Legendary Tools 550 550 10% Recycle
Forgehammer of Gond 600 600

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There are some things to note that may or may not be obvious:

  • The “Worn” Masterwork Tools that you get for completing the first Masterwork task in your Stronghold is already better than any Tool you can get from the exchange or other basic vendors.
  • Since other Masterwork Tools come from recipes, they have +1 versions. The best ones are the MW IV/V tools that go up to +525 in stats and feature a 5% Virtuoso bonus.
  • Legendary Tools are no longer the best in terms of pure Proficiency and Focus. That’s the Forgehammer now. But they do feature a 10% Recycle bonus.

Since you only need one tool now to complete recipes, there’s no need to use anything else than your Forgehammer, in case you own one. Legendary Tools can still be helpful though, because you can use them to run multiple Gathering tasks at the same time. Overall however their value goes down significantly and we’ve actually seen people trying to sell theirs on live. Also make sure to move legendary tools to the character that need them before exchanging them. The new legendary tools bind to the character on pickup.

Recipe Proficiency and Focus Calculations

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Before we move to Supplements we quickly have to deal with how the Proficiency and Focus stats add up and help you complete recipes. All recipes have a Proficiency and Focus goal you have to meet. Level 70 tasks go as high as 800, Masterwork ones start around 1,300. Success rate calculation is pretty straight forward. It’s simple the added Proficiency from your Artisan and Tools divided by the Proficiency requirements of the recipe. Focus works a little differently. There is a threshold that you have to pass to get any chance on a “high-quality” result. Then the percentage starts to go up until you meet the task’s Focus requirements (which equals 100% chance).

Supplements

Looking at the stats of Tools and Artisans, you might have already figured that you are unable to meet the Proficiency and Focus requirements for some tasks. So you either live with less than 100% success rates, or use Supplements. Those are basically consumables for recipes that enhance either Proficiency or Focus (there are others with speed bonuses, but those are not as useful). Most Supplements seem to come from professions recipes, the most powerful ones from Mastercraft. But the ZEN Market is also going to sell a Supplement Pack. Supplements will probably play an important role in Mastercraft and other high Proficiency and Focus tasks, because they might be decisive in either succeeding in a task or getting a +1 “high-quality” result.

Conclusion

I think it’s obvious that the system will get a lot more interesting. You’ll basically have to recruit specialist Artisans depending on what you’re trying to achieve with your Workshop. Mastercrafters will probably aim for Dab Hand and you could also recruit a “Passion Project” specialist with a nice commission bonus for Reinforcement Kits. Tools in the meantime receive a major change as well. The Forgehammer is now the best available tool, which means that the once “holy grail” of Mastercrafters, the legendary tools, get a subtle nerf.

It’s going to be interesting to figure out the best combinations. With Artisans and Supplements by the way, the Workshop might even require more theorycrafting than old professions. So get your spreadsheet program ready, you are likely going to need it!


What’s your take on Artisans, Tools, and Supplements? Share your thoughts and experience on our social channels, in the comments below, or visit 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.

4 thoughts on “Neverwinter Heart of Fire Workshop Artisans, Tools, and Supplements

  • November 5, 2018 at 4:54 pm
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    This sounds like a bunch of crap. What happens with Epic tools?

    26 Artisans per Profession, 8 professions, 208 different Artisans? And you can have only 26 Artisans in the Workshop? So that’s 3.25 per Profession?

    So we should do one craft per character now?

    Can we sack Artisans we have hired and hire a better one?

    And how do they get trained up?

    This sounds more and more like something for end-game Masterworkers who have absolutely nothing to do 2 weeks after a new mod starts except wait for the next one. Also a clip joint for Mug Punters, new people spending Zen thinking they’ll get a bump up on Professions when all they get is crap for the wrong Profession.

    🙁

  • December 15, 2018 at 3:35 am
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    Unless I am mistaken, you may want to edit this entry. In this article you imply Dab Hands can drop two crafted items, but a later one you indicate its only for double resources.

    • December 15, 2018 at 4:14 am
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      Thanks. We’ll take a look.

  • February 17, 2019 at 12:39 pm
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    Where do you buy more tools? I’m getting fed up with not getting any answers, no matter where I look, about this matter. I can’t find any vendors anywhere in game, and I want to double up on production.

Comments are closed.