Subscribe to Blog via Email

We’ve talked plenty about the ongoing “Heart of Fire” launch struggles and today we’d like to highlight yet another bug that’s a major annoyance. One of the key features of the Workshop system was the introduction of so-called “+1” results. Those are small upgrades of normal recipe successes. The devs tweaked many quests so that those now require players to craft +1 results. Unfortunately however they left others untouched, which currently creates a major issue within Masterwork progression.

The main example here are the quest lines leading up to the Masterwork II unlocks. +1 items simply do not count towards the quests, which makes completing them a major pain. +1 successes are meant to be definite upgrades to normal ones and hence it makes no sense to avoid them. That’s why Proficiency and Focus level up simultaneously for the most part. It’s impossible to achieve 100% Proficiency and 0% Focus, which would be ideal to craft “non +1” items.

More Focus Equals Less Chance

Did you know that Uncensored runs the biggest Discord of Neverwinter? Come join our team, streamers and hundreds of players to talk the site and all facets of the game!

It’s obviously a logical flaw. Nobody can fully avoid +1 items, at least not in a way that makes sense. For Masterwork progression however, you have to. Sometimes it’s even better to not get too much Focus. The graph below shows the chance of getting a non +1 item for different Proficiency and Focus probabilities. A level 70 Artisan and Forgehammer should give you 75% / 50% for a typical Masterwork recipe. That results in a measly 38% chance to get the item you want. Switching to lower Focus and Proficiency values can boost your chance to up to 50%.

You can use the chart to find the sweet spot of completing the progression quests. What you want to do is get as much Proficiency without a chance to get a high-quality result. Even if though, you’re currently paying more than you should. It’s really unfortunate because many players probably thought about getting into Masterworks within the new Workshop system. But currently they run into a weird situation with the MWII unlocks.

Asterdahl Acknowledged the Issue, but No Fix Imminent

The devs by the way did acknowledge the issue, although the reasoning is a little strange. Asterdahl noted that this is in fact intentional “to not further increase the difficulty of the quests” until they have figured out a way for quests to take both normal and +1 results. We’re not sure how smaller success rates with higher level assets are supposed to make stuff easier to complete (and understand) though. He’s right that you can use lower level assets, but it’s still not logical. The comment about selling high-quality results is also inaccurate since some of the harder to acquire items bind to character. So all you can do is discard them.

Thank you for the feedback. We chose not to require the high-quality results for these quests, so as not to further increase the difficulty of the masterwork quests in comparison with the pre-overhaul difficulty of these quests. Unfortunately there is no simple way to allow the quest to take either or a combination of high and normal quality results, as they are discreetly different items on the back end. We do plan to address this issue, however, it will take some time. In the meantime, if you do end up with any high-quality results we hope that you can manage to sell these on the auction house for a profit. If you use normal quality materials to make the items, your high-quality chance shouldn’t be so high that this creates a serious issue. I apologize for the inconvenience in the meantime.

These are the type of little inconsistencies and annoyances that unfortunately have plagued the “Heart of Fire” release. We most definitely hope this will get addressed rather sooner than later so that everyone can level up Masterworks without the additional roadblock.

Have you ran into the issue with +1 items and Masterwork progression? Share your thoughts and experience on our social channels, in the comments below, or visit 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 75,000 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.