Greetings Adventurers! 

As promised, here is our update on Dungeon keys and Chest Rewards Tables.

Below you will find a synopsis of changes we’ve made to the overall rewards, additions to rewards with a bit of what they do, and some reasoning behind our choices. These rewards will be updated and built upon every major module, in one focus or another.

Chest Reward Table Changes
Dungeon chest Reward table changes for our existing endgame Epic dungeon key and Campaign key chests have been rebuilt to give out rewards more varied and more often. This applies to all endgame PvE queued content: Epic Dungeons, Skirmishes, and Trials.  

• We’ve significantly increased the chances of the very rarest rewards (Artifacts, Legendary Rings).
  • These items are still very rare, but they are much more common than before.

Jerrod Glint’s Caveat: We understand that, long term, this may lower the Astral Diamond value of some of these items in the Auction House. But we felt that giving players a better chance to get these items was more important than maintaining high Auction House prices on them. 

• There’s a chance to get one of the new dungeon-specific items (see below for details on those).
• There’s also a chance to get a random artifact, artifact equipment, companion, mount, or miscellaneous item (including a chance to get some extra keys!), taken from an extremely large list of existing items from throughout the history of Neverwinter.
  • There will be a higher chance to get one of these items in dungeons, skirmishes, or trials that take longer to complete.
  • These items will be Uncommon (green), Rare (blue), or Epic (purple).

Some of the Cool stuff:  Some of these items, especially when it comes to companions, haven’t been available in Neverwinter for a while. For example, there’s a chance to get a Cleric Disciple, the Sergeant Knox companion, or a Cambion Magus (these “out of print” companions have the same chance rate as others of the same quality!)

• These items will be bound to account

Technical Note: In the past, Neverwinter hasn’t really been able to give out account-bound items if they also bind to character on equip (like artifacts or companions). We now have that ability, and are using it for the first time here. If you and we like the results, we can give out more account-bound items in the future. That doesn’t mean we’ll always be giving out account bound items -- but it does mean we have more flexibility going forward.
 
What’s NOT going to drop? Well, we didn’t want things that players earned by doing some specific special task to be given away randomly. So a small number of items like the Yeti (specific in-game task), Silverback Bear (Foundry reward), and Angel of Protection (long-term Vault of Piety reward) are not going to be eligible.

New Dungeon-specific Items
While not giving away the farm in Rothé valley, we do want to show you some of the new items available in the dungeons and skirmishes. Below is a quick list and a bit of teaser on the new items- you’ll have to guess where to get them. (Hint- you can check in Collections)

Cambist’s Guantlets – Money-grabbing gauntlets that add a little spice to your attacks.
Survivor’s Wraps – Gloves that have a heavy hit, but a mean backlash.
Deepknight’s Brigandine and Psion’s Shroud – A defenseless chest piece that can increase your life expectancy. 
Historian’s Regalia – Robes that make Relic-digging look good.
Lifesilk Spinneret – Armor that help keep you alive when you take control in battle.
Zulkir’s Dreadnought – Robes that influence the dearly departed.
Black Ice Treads – Boots that give a boost to your speed and a slip to your step.
The Blackthorn – A sharp headpiece where the best defense is a good offense.
Bloodlord’s Visage – A mask that feeds you power that’s to kill for.
Brynnyr’s Demise – A mask that strengthens your weaknesses.
Dragon Loyalist’s Visage – A draconic mask that aids your scaly companions.
Jarl’s Gaze – A steely gaze that gains strength the more you resist the Everfrost.
Picaroon’s Tricorne – A hat that shows that the best riches are only for those with a keen fashion sense.
Draconic Guises – Draconic masks that infuse you with the dragons’ deeper desires.
Shard of Permafrost – A shard so cold, it can freeze time and slow magical decay.
Huntmaster’s Cloak – A cloak for the less experienced traveler.
Energon companion – An unnerving ball of energy that feeds on the energy of your enemies.
Bloodstained Shirt –A shirt that gives you strength when you have none.
 

Dungeon Loot Announcements
But wait- there’s more!  We’ve added a system that will announce in chat when people in your instance get especially cool loot. It’s not a global announcement, It’s just for adventurers in your instance, and It should only fire if someone gets something exciting (like an artifact), not for every bit of loot. It’s also an indicator that our new drop rates are in fact working as designed. 

• We’ve tried to draw the right line between what’s cool enough to announce and what isn’t. We want this to be fun, not annoying.
  • If you think we are announcing too many boring things, or if we are failing to announce some things that really are exciting, let us know!
    • Our design goal is that announced things are cool enough that, if you know somebody got that thing, you would say “grats!”
  • Also, let us know if you think the announcement should be bigger (eg, floating screen text). (NOT something you need to click on, though!)

The New “Useful Items” Inventory Tab
Another feature we’ve added this update is the new “useful Items” inventory tab. Just like crafting tools have a special bag, you now have a bag for useful items. This helpful tab is the new place for all of your keys and also misc. items you need to carry with you but not refer to as often.

It works in very similar ways to the Crafting tab, which means that once items go in, they can’t be moved, but you can mail them. We are currently looking into the ability for you to split stacks when you mail, as well as a way to transfer to your shared bank, but those applications are still in the works.

Many of these items were the ones that were asked for by you. Specifically Fishing Poles, Black Ice Picks, Trowels, Khyeks, and other items you are given in game that you will use and have to carry around. Not only should this clean up your bags, but also helps organize these items and keys. Note: this will not hold mission specific items, as those should be used up during quests. We’ve built this tab big enough that it’s essentially impossible for it to run out of space (for these kinds of items). 

Okay, well, that’s quite a bit of info I know, but as I mentioned we wanted to be able to provide you with as much information as we could. We understand these updates may not resolve all the concerns players have shared with us but we feel it is a step forward in addressing RNG + Loot Quality. We received some great feedback while this change was on the Preview Shard and we will continue monitoring player reception with the changes on Live. Thanks again for teaming up with us on this adventure! 

Regards, M.K. and the Neverwinter team.