How to Tackle the Refining Weekend on PC in the Wake of the Upcoming Overhaul

In the wake of the announcement of a refinement overhaul people understandably are running a little wild. Should you still upgrade Bondings? Should you still upgrade anything? I won’t pretend that we have all the answers at this point, but we at least have a pretty decent idea how to tackle the ongoing x2 weekend.

Enchantments and Runestones

For Enchantments and Runestones I’ve set up a spreadsheet where you can directly compare the new and old system. Pretty much everything in this paragraph is based on the numbers in the sheet. You can tweak some values in there, but as you might notice it’s not a full blown calculator for the new system. But no worries, we’ll update our Market Tools for module 12b at some point.

Sell Higher Ranks

The most important piece of information regarding enchantments and runestones is that pretty much everything is getting cheaper. On a x2 RP a Rank 12 currently costs about 1.45M, in the new system it’s only 1.02M. Same for Rank 10s, which drop from 428k to 319k. The reason is that the new ranks are not just added on top of everything, but more or less replace Rank 12s in terms of value. So everything below is proportionately getting cheaper.

With that in mind, our advise right after the change was to sell all higher ranks enchants that you own. You could have even gone as far as unslotting all gems from your toons. Now the market has long settled and already represents more of the value of the new system. So it might no longer make as much sense. Also keep in mind that everything is subject to change. This is based on the information right now and you should definitely monitor the preview patch notes.

Sell Enchantments That Should have Served as Reagents

One thing that seems certain however is that the system of using a second enchantment or runestone of the same rank as reagent is gone. So you do no longer need to hoard Rank 7s or Rank 8s and can safely cut down and sell your stacks. Currently a Rank 12 requires eight Rank 7s thanks to the reagent system. Under the new rules a single Rank 7 can be upgraded all the way to 14.

You Can Still Refine Enchantments

Now as I’ve said, all ranks of enchantments are getting substantially cheaper, so upgrading currently doesn’t make tons of sense. But the lowered costs mainly come from higher upgrade percentages and fewer reagents. Since the RPs themselves mostly retain their value, you can still throw them into your enchantments if you like to.

Artifacts

It’s a different story for artifacts. The main thing to look at here is the fact that matching bonuses will be gone in the new system. And upgrading artifacts is all about the matching bonuses. The feeder system utilizes that artifacts get a massive x5 RP multiplier when fed into an artifact of the same type. That’s why it makes most sense to upgrade one artifact and then throw it into a second one.

Now with matching bonuses and feeding gone, there’s a lot of uncertainty. The devs said they are halving the progression RP, but that doesn’t help a lot. I’d definitely proceed normally with artifacts and just upgrade them. You can’t do wrong here as it is the last chance to benefit from the feeder system.

Artifact Gear

On the contrary, there’s seems to be little doubt about the math around artifact gear. It’s getting its progression RP halved while reagents stay as they are. At the same time 2x RP events will be a thing of the past as well. So during double weekends you’re getting exactly the same value as under the new system.

That’s why I personally have upgraded some weapons with my bound Lesser Resonance Stones. There’s no gain of saving up those. Just don’t feed RPs into weapons outside a double event, but that’s probably nothing you would do anyway.

What About Consoles?

Console player don’t need to panic by the way. The “Swords of Chult” update is probably at least ten weeks away and just like PC they will get notified when their final 2x RP occurs.


As you can see, the refining game wasn’t put to a full stop although the impact of the changes are huge. How did you tackle the Double Refining weekend in the wake of the upcoming changes? Share your thoughts in the comments below and visit the corresponding thread on 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.

10 thoughts on “How to Tackle the Refining Weekend on PC in the Wake of the Upcoming Overhaul

  • September 1, 2017 at 10:58 am
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    You’re not losing value on artifact gear. Right now, artifact gear costs twice what it will, but 2xRP is on. After the change, artifact gear will costs half what it does now, but there will be no more 2xRP. So Resonant Stones you spend today are worth EXACTLY what they will be worth after this change.

    (Spending your bound stones AFTER this weekend, before the change, and you lose 50%. Same as any other non-2xRP day.)

    • September 1, 2017 at 12:02 pm
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      Thanks for the hint. We’ve adjusted the article! Cheers!

  • September 16, 2017 at 1:56 am
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    Not a refining weekend, but general RP question: what are the best Leadership tasks to do after 12b?

    Most players are using Leadership to generate some RP. When all RP becomes “general”, i.e. is not earmarked for particular use and is in the same pool, which tasks will be the most efficient ones in generating RP?

    • September 28, 2017 at 9:14 am
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      The tasks that are shortest. 8 hours and not 16, provided you can rotate them. Any tasks that generates one bag that generates one random stone, the ratio of stone quality should be the same. The only difference between the bags is whether they drop marks, enchanting stones, or chance of either. Artifact paraphernalia gets a lot better than it was.

  • September 28, 2017 at 11:08 am
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    What about upgrading the artifacts and/or artifact gear — if I pump in enough RP, should I then go ahead and get all the Greater Marks (or higher) to upgrade them, or let them wait until after the overhaul?

  • September 28, 2017 at 11:20 am
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    Not related to tackling the Double refine, and am sure not the right venue to bring this up. However, across multiple platforms, PC will have had 2 double refining events, and the console a single one before the new mod (at least that has been rumored, no confirmation that the console will see another double refine). The console players will have had double of just about everything except for double refining. Double enchants (fairly close together) as of yet there is nothing announced on the console schedule up to mid Nov about a double refine. Congrats to the PC gamers, and console gamers feel left out in the cold.

    • September 29, 2017 at 1:19 am
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      Here’s a quote from Community Manager Julia about the topic: “Console players will continue to have 2x RP events until Module 12b goes live on Console. We will notify Console players when their final 2x RP event occurs.”

      So unless the last 2x RP is announced, you’ll at least have one more.

  • September 28, 2017 at 9:40 pm
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    Does the changes actually mean that every rp item can be converted to rp and Put into any item that need rp? So I turn a rank 5 into rp and put it into equipment which is not alle now?

    • September 29, 2017 at 1:09 am
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      Yes, that’s the case. The matching bonuses are gone, RP will be one currency that can be used for all refinement items.

      • September 29, 2017 at 1:17 am
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        Time to by some fey blass enchants!
        I like the changes

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