Ranking the Neverwinter Modules: The Worst

While writing for the blog or talking to the community you often touch on module comparisons. It seems natural, because people need an anchor point to build their opinions on. Judging based on whether something is better or worse than its precursor is the easiest way to do so.

The Challenges of Compiling a Ranking

That being said, compiling a ranking of all Neverwinter modules is not equally easy. First and foremost you have to judge them based on the state the game was in at that time. Additionally I think there’s a certain risk that you mix up personal fun factor and overall quality. Only because a module didn’t offer as much for you personally doesn’t make it bad. In fact, it could be better than another module that introduced improvements in areas that mattered to you.

With that in mind I’ll be putting out my personal rankings of Neverwinter modules, worst over average to best. Good thing it’s still a manageable number at 12, so we can include each and every one.

The Ranking

13. Elemental Evil

Neverwinter Elemental EvilBoy, that was easy. And it’s not close. When introduced Elemental Evil was a mess. It pretty much broke every possible area of the game. Endgame, progression, balance, you name it. It was in fact so bad that the devs needed three full modules to reverse course and get the game back on track. Going into specifics about the Elemental Evil mess-up would blow this article out of proportion, but I might as well dedicate a separate post to it. Only thing worse than the module itself was the impertinent try to sell it as a success by former producer Rob Overmeyer.

12. Storm Kings Thunder

Reintroducing armor empowerment with Voninblod in Storm Kings Thunder was just a bad overall idea. Nobody needed an additional grind at a point where the daily task list already was too freaking long. No wonder the devs eventually buffed Voninblod gain. Avoiding its consumption additionally meant constantly switching gear in times when loadouts weren’t already implemented. Welp… Fangbreaker Island was kind of cool though.

Sea of Moving Ice was admittedly a great moneymaker, but Fishing just had a much too prominent place in it considering its dullness. Svardborg key grind, Greater Mark RNG… I think overall that’s just too many things that you could and should have handled differently.

11. Strongholds

Strongholds LogoI think this might be where most people would disagree, but Strongholds was indeed kind of a disaster. Despite much fanfare the Siege PVP game mode would quickly disappear once everyone had farmed their armor. They hyped it like crazy, even ran an alpha for it, yet it never gained any traction within the community.

In the meantime Strongholds mainly introduced a guild-sized grind with tons of daily repetitive content. Not only did it widen the gap between the haves and have-nots, but attaching a value to guilds leads to all sorts of problems and drama until today. The boons are overpowered, drains wrecked havoc in PVP. There’s not much going in favor of the module other than the fact that Dragonflights were indeed a great concept.

10. Rise of Tiamat

Rise of Tiamat BannerRise of Tiamat wasn’t a particular bad module, but it didn’t feature too many great assets either. The Well of Dragons campaign zone was very welcomed as you could get through the Tyranny of Dragons campaign easier. Unfortunately the daily quests you would get were random, so you could no longer compile the quests over a few days and batch complete them. At least you weren’t guaranteed to get a full set of quests every week.

Oh and Tiamat? Yeah that one sucked badly. Advertised as “raid” it really wasn’t and in the initial design you had to queue with randoms. This epic fail actually was the start of elitist private channels on PC. If you dislike those today, go thank the dragon queen! If that wasn’t already enough, the encounter lagged badly and you had to run it eighty times for the effing boons. Thanks, but no thanks!


That’s my four worst modules in Neverwinter’s four year history. Would you have gone with others? Why? Share your own ranking and thoughts in the comments below and visit the corresponding thread on our message board!

Neverwinter UN:Blogged is always looking for writers to contribute to the blog. If you are an active player and search for a way to spread your opinions, analysis, diaries or reviews to more than 40,000 regular visitors, then don’t hesitate and get in touch with us on our contact page or message board! We are currently especially looking for console and PVP content, but that’s not exclusive. There is no frequency requirement, you post how often you want.

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 “Ranking the Neverwinter Modules: The Worst

  • September 5, 2017 at 11:50 am
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    Thanks for the article j0Shi. While I agree with many of your selections (mainly EE and SKT), not sure I agree with all. Which is OK, cause as you mentioned yourself, everyone’s parameters are different. I for example like ToD. The daily tasks in different zones create a cool diversity to break the monotony. I also loved the Tiamat trial before everyone got too OP for it. Now it’s just another grind that’s fast becoming obsolete. (as a side not, why do you say it’s not a raid?) It’s still fun to run with 15 players or less though.
    I’d be interested in reading your defense of the modules you didn’t list. IWD? Sharandar? DR? Those seem so dull and repetitive, and almost identical to each other. ME? didn’t really add much in terms of interest to the game. Underdark? The raids with an attempt at bringing back strategy were clumsy at best, and they got repetitive very quickly. Anyway, that’s just me. 🙂

  • September 5, 2017 at 7:08 pm
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    You’re right I do disagree on strongholds. Yes the PVP section went down in flames, not only because the armor was gotten, but because pvp in this game sucks as it always have. The powers and power structure of this game are just not good for PVP. SH siege devolved into premades with 140% mounts raping people to win, and no one needed it.

    On the other side the only consistent buil that people have had for a number of releases is the SH itself. Building up of a guild has provided player cohesions, and at least some reason to revisit older areas. Yes, its far too repetitive but thats a balance issue not an inherent bad.

    DF.. of the several alliances Ive been involved with, its one of the most successful things in the game. Alliances run FAR more of these than is justifiable from an EQ need standpoint. Its relatively fun, cheap, scalable, and provides a group activity for a guild to organize.

    They could spend a lot more on updating SH and it would make far more people happy than any part of the 12b nerfs.

  • September 6, 2017 at 2:18 am
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    Module 4:
    -First attempt to kill sellable loot from dungeos. Killed CN. Mod5: Tiamat finished the job with killing Tier2/Gauntlgrym dungeons.
    We do salvage runs in dungeons Ever since…
    And we despised Pirate King runs for salvage in the old days. Now we do that every day…

    -Introduction of artifact gear and dragonhoard peridot botting maddness.
    -Before mod4 if you had good gear people said you prolly had good CN runs. After mod4 people said: good gear? Just another botter!
    -CW nerfed. No real balance for it since in dps terms. And no sorcerer release to replace it for pure dmg!

    Module 6 – Elemental Evil.
    Agreed but I would mention the loss of half the really cool dungeons. Including the unshortened Castle Never. Dread Vault.
    Not to mention final blow to dungeons so we farmed dreadring minilair for profit from mod6 till mod7/8.

    Well another mention of buff maddness. When meta turned from 3dps-2 buffer to 1dps-4buffer. Prolly mod9 and then mod11 again.

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