Welcome to Neverwinter's new expansion, The Maze Engine! Check out the Maze Engine Developer Hub for a list of dev blogs and feature previews surrounding the new expansion, or just read below!

Highlights

Campaign: The Maze Engine

The Maze Engine campaign is now available! Start by talking to Sergeant Knox or the Neverwinter Guard messenger in Protector's Enclave, or Bruenor Battlehammer in Mantol-Derith. All level 60 characters now have access to Mantol-Derith.

Catch up on the story so far with Developer Blog: Previously on Neverwinter, get a sneak peek of the cast with Developer Blog: Famous Faces, and check out the flow of the upcoming campaign with Developer Blog: The Maze Engine Campaign. See some of the upcoming loot at Developer Blog: Treasures of the Maze Engine!

If you want to take a look at the process of making art for the campaign, check out Art Developer Blog: Deeper in the Underdark, Art Developer Blog: Warping Reality, and Art Developer Blog: Creating Baphomet!

Updated Queue System

Our queue system has been updated! The UI and flow has been updated, and we've introduced the following features:

Players can now set up premade groups for queues that require more than 5 players (e.g. Tiamat, Demogorgon, Stronghold Siege).

Players can now set up queue groups separately from the party they're in.

Players can now enter a private queue, allowing them to bypass composition requirements and opt out of auto-refilling.

For more info, see the Developer Blog: The New Queues!

Revived Dungeons

Four dungeons from the past have been revived as 3-player dungeons: Cloak Tower, Pirate King's Retreat (formerly Lair of the Pirate King), Frozen Heart, and Caverns of Karrundax! Like Cragmire Crypts, Gray Wolf Den, and Temple of the Spider, once players reach the minimum level for the dungeon, they'll be able to go back and play regardless of level. For more info, see the Developer Blog: Dungeons to Delve!

Epic Dungeon: Castle Never

Players can now return to Castle Never and combat a threat more menacing than ever before! Though players have driven Valindra's minions away, the reclamation process has been interrupted. The undead are back in full force, aided by hordes of demons, and adventurers will have the opportunity to drive them back once again. Read more in the Developer Blog: Return to Castle Never, get a sneak peek at the art with the Art Developer Blog: Castle Never Returns!, and prepare yourself for the trials within by reading the Developer Blog: Battle with Orcus and Art Developer Blog: Bringing Orcus to Life!

Stronghold Economy Changes

We've made some changes to Stronghold progression and economy, mainly with the goal of reducing costs to improve the Stronghold, as well as making it easier to gain certain difficult-to-gather resources. Check out our Developer Blog: Stronghold Cost Reductions for more info, but here are some highlights!

Astral Diamond costs have been reduced substantially (~50-90% in many cases).

Tyranny and Fey campaign currency costs have been reduced significantly (~20-40% in many cases).

Guild Mark gains from AD and Glory contributions have been doubled.

Profession tasks have been added that allow players to make crates of certain supplies, to then contribute to the Stronghold.

Campaign Updates

A large number of updates have been made to campaigns in The Maze Engine. The goal of these updates is to make it more rewarding and less costly to engage in campaign content even after completing these campaigns. More information can be found in the Developer Blog: Endgame Improvements, and the detailed list of changes is below in the Patch Notes, just after Items and Economy.

New Mount System

Mounts no longer have to sit in your inventory when you don't have them selected. Now, your character will have a stable for all mounts they've bound to themselves - And not only that, but once that character has access to a movement speed, they'll be able to apply that movement speed to any mount they own!

In this update, players can now ride the mounts they want to ride without worrying that their favorite is too slow, or doesn't have a passive bonus they want. More details can be found in the Developer Blog: The New Mount System, Developer Blog: Mounts Retrained, and Developer Blog: A Stable of Insignias!

Mount Price Changes

To go with the new Mount System, all mounts in the Zen Market have been updated to have a consistent price based on their quality. This can either increase or decrease the price of existing mounts (Or leave it the same as before). Here are the new price points:

Uncommon mounts (Green border): 500 Zen

Rare mounts (Blue border): 2,000 Zen

Epic mounts (Purple border): 3,500 Zen

The Shaundakul Lockbox arrives!

The New Life Lockbox has retired, but while the Owlbear Pups and Baby Bulettes go to Companion Kindergarten, the Armored Griffon has kindly offered to take their place! Check out the new mounts and rewards in Developer Blog: The Shaundakul Lockbox Rides In!

Release Notes

Content and Environment

Events

2x Professions: This event now rewards double Profession XP for completing tasks in all professions except Alchemy and Black Ice Shaping. During this event, Alchemy now rewards 2x Basic Alchemical Knowledge on successful Experimentation tasks. During this event, Black Ice Shaping now requires half the usual resources for "Upgrading the Black Ice Forge" tasks.



Strongholds

Castle Never is now in the dungeon daily quest pool.

The new Leveling Dungeons are now in the daily quest pool.

Stronghold Siege: The gold pile interaction now properly calls itself a gold pile, rather than the Ranger.

Stronghold Siege: The depot names in the PvP map now match the depot names in the Tutorial.

Stronghold Siege Tutorial: Players may no longer destroy the enemy depot before the objective to do so, and become stuck as a result.

General

Bandit Slayer achievements now explicitly include pirates as well.

Black Ice nodes no longer look interactive when the player has no pick.

Chapter 4 of the Dwarven King quest arc no longer has skill nodes.

Demogorgon: Multiple players can now properly interact with the end chest simultaneously.

Drowned Shore: The Heroic Encounter, Merchants in Distress, now consistently gives rewards.

Fiery Pit: Players no longer occasionally spawn inside terrain when exiting the Cistern.

Hard to Reach Places: Minsc now respawns within 60 seconds if he ever despawns, e.g. due to a client disconnect.

Intro quests for Cloak Tower, Frozen Heart, Pirate King's Retreat, and Caverns of Karrundax have returned.

Prophecy of Madness: The skirmish phase timer now properly moves at the speed of real time.

Protector's Enclave: The Neverwinter Guards have finally sealed off aerial access to Lord Neverember.

Reclamation Rock: The quests "Holding the Line" and "Besieging the Rock" no longer give a player credit for tasks that party members have turned in.

Skirmish and Call to Arms contacts no longer have a dialog option to join a queue.

Temple of Tiamat is now joined via a queue, rather than having to go to the door.

The unachievable achievement, "Polices Drunk Orcs," is now fully removed from the game.

The Mount tutorial has been updated. The Mount Requisition Token associated with the new tutorial now gives a permanent mount instead of a temporary one.

Throne of the Dwarven God: This skirmish now more consistently gives credit for prisoners rescued. It should be easier to achieve Gold rank in the first phase of this skirmish when rescuing prisoners.

Tyranny of Dragons: Campaign contacts in Protector's Enclave now correctly indicate when quests are available for Level 70 characters.

Cragmire Crypts

The 3-player version of this dungeon now has a different Adventuring Party with rewards more in line with other 3-player miniboss encounters.

Combat and Powers

General

Life Steal Severity has been added to the game as a Rating stat. Currently, it can only be found in a handful of places.

Life Steal now properly displays as "Life Steal" in the combat log, rather than "Health Steal."

Powers that allow players to teleport to enemies now respect the size of the enemy. This reduces the likelihood that Trickster Rogues, for example, will teleport directly into a dragon.

Buffs, Debuffs, and Effects

The following effects now cannot be dispelled: Certain reinforcement timers Empower (Greed of the Dragonflight) Madness (Demogorgon) Soul Sparks Thunder Spike (Greed of the Dragonflight) VIP Health Bonus

The Temporary Hit Points provided by the Hunter Ranger power, Stag Heart, now properly fall off when combat ends.

The Temporary Hit Points provided by the following powers now properly respect the Temporary Hit Point rules - They no longer stack with other Temp. HP sources, and fade when combat ends. Artifact: Wheel of Elements (Earth effect) Companion: Barbarian Shaman: Nature's Wind Great Weapon Fighter: Unstoppable Hunter Ranger: Cruel Recovery Item: Greater Purified Black Ice Enchantment Item: Greater Purified Restoration Enchantment Item: Greater Purified Tempered Enchantment Item: Lesser Purified Black Ice Enchantment Item: Lesser Purified Restoration Enchantment Item: Lesser Purified Tempered Enchantment

The following powers now provide a Shield instead of Temporary Hit Points. Artifact: Blood Crystal Raven Skull Companion: Angel of Protection



Class Powers

Devoted Cleric: Flame Strike: The Repel effect caused by this power is now properly affected by Control Bonus, Control Resistance, and Control Immunity.

Devoted Cleric: Searing Light: The Repel effect caused by this power is now properly affected by Control Bonus, Control Resistance, and Control Immunity.

Control Wizard: Oppressive Force: The Repel effect caused by this power is now properly affected by Control Bonus, Control Resistance, and Control Immunity.

Great Weapon Fighter: Unstoppable: The Temp HP granted by damage bonuses now caps at 200%. This means that if a player has a lot of damage bonuses and is at maximum Determination, they can receive up to 32% of their Max HP as Temp HP.

Hunter Ranger: Cordon of Arrows: The inverse Repel / Pull caused by this power is now properly affected by Control Bonus, Control Resistance, and Control Immunity.

Scourge Warlock: Dreadtheft: The Repel effect caused by this power is now properly affected by Control Bonus, Control Resistance, and Control Immunity.

Companions

Iron Golem: Dazing Fist: The Repel effect caused by this power is now properly affected by Control Bonus, Control Resistance, and Control Immunity.

Pewter Golem: The Active Companion Bonus of this companion (still unavailable as of The Maze Engine release) now has Power and Defense stats that fall in line with other similar companions, rather than significantly higher values of both.

Phase Spider: The version of this spider in the Trade Bar Store now properly shows an Active Companion bonus of a 5% reduction to Combat Advantage damage received.

Item Powers

Ring of Cowardice: The Repel effect caused by this item's effect is now properly affected by Control Bonus, Control Resistance, and Control Immunity.

Mount Powers

Mount: Coastal Flail Snail: Flail Snail Charge: The Repel effect caused by this power is now properly affected by Control Bonus, Control Resistance, and Control Immunity.

NPCs

Enemies in 3-player dungeons now have slightly lower health.

Enemies in 3-player dungeons now have longer cooldowns on their signature / charged powers.

Items and Economy

Artifacts

Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue: This power no longer requires the player to stop moving before activating, and is no longer interrupted on movement.

Elemental Artifact weapons and their Collection pages are now more consistent.

Golden Dragon Longsword (Oathbound Paladin): This weapon now requires level 60 to equip, down from 70.

Sigil of the Guardian: At Mythic quality, now properly blocks 90% of incoming damage, as stated in the tooltip, instead of only 80%.

Sigil of the Hunter: The DoT component of this artifact's active power now properly applies at Mythic quality.

The buff granted by the Stronghold Weapon set is now called Stronghold Unity, and its tooltip now properly states that it grants 2% per stack, rather than 1%.

The Lostmauth Artifact Set name now properly displays as "Lostmauth's Hoard," rather than "Valindra's Set."

Mounts

Armored Axe Beak: The combat power, Spinning Axe Strike, is now properly identified as AoE damage. This allows it to be affected by AoE Resistance and various other AoE affecting abilities. This power now also has slight damage variance, and is properly affected by damage resistance.

Armored Giant Strider: The combat power, Strider Fire, now has slight damage variance.

Black Ice Warhorse: A typo has been addressed in this mount's description.

Greater Rage Drake: Several typos have been addressed in this mount's description.

Medium Waterdeep Horse: This mount is now Rare (Blue) quality.

Medium Adventurer's Horse: This mount is now Epic (Purple) quality. The flavor text has been updated to state that it is heavily armored, rather than lightly armored.

Mounts purchased from the Zen Market can no longer be discarded.

Reanimated Destrier: This mount is now Rare (Blue) quality.

Shadow Wolf: The Epic (Purple) quality version, which was previously available for a limited time, has been renamed to Elite Shadow Wolf.

Silverback Bear: The level required to use this mount is now 4, down from 60.

Silverback Bear: This mount's description no longer claims it wears armor.

The Bulette mount acquired from Dougan Hammerfist's NCL store has been renamed to Challenger's Bulette.

Wolf of the Wild Hunt: This mount is now Rare (Blue) quality. Its speed bonus is now 80%, increased from 50%.

Wondrous Bazaar

Gilded Giant Spider now costs 750,000 Astral Diamonds, down from 1,000,000.

Level 60 gear has been replaced with cheaper, transmute-only versions of these items.

Medium Waterdeep Horse now costs 500,000 Astral Diamonds, down from 700,000.

Turmian Merchant Garb has been moved to the Trade Bar Store.



General

3-player dungeons now grant Seals of the Adventurer, rather than various other types of Seals. Older Seals can no longer be purchased for Ardent Coins in the Invocation store or from bounty vendors. Seals of the Drake, Lion, Manticore, Pegasus, and Drake can now be traded for Seals of the Adventurer at the Adventurer Seal Trader. The trader dealing in these Seals can be found at the Seven Suns Coster Market in Protector's Enclave. These Seals can be used to purchase gear of a wide variety of levels. They can also be used to purchase bags of 500 Rough Astral Diamonds, as well as basic Rank 5 enchantments.

3-player dungeons now give a significant amount of experience when completed.

Adorable Pocket Pet: This item can now properly be sold for 8 copper.

Bonding Runestones now show the correct bonuses at ranks 11 and 12.

Masterwork Professions: All equipment produced by Masterwork Profession tasks are now Item Level 145, up from 140. This affects existing equipment as well, but does not affect Stronghold Artifact Weapons.

Mount Training Manuals now grant the equivalent Mount Movement Power, rather than trying to upgrade a mount.

Normal Skirmishes now give a significant amount of experience (roughly half that of 3-player dungeons) when completed.

Salvageable / Transmutable versions of the gear from Castle Never's previous incarnation has returned in the newly-updated version.

Dread Ring: Adamantine Gauntlets now properly give a chance to receive Superior Marks from Astral Coffers.

Dread Ring: Star Metal Gauntlets now properly give a chance to receive Greater and Superior Marks from Astral Coffers.

Stronghold Icon: This item's stats at Legendary quality are now properly in line with other equivalent off-hand Artifact Equipment.

Strongholds: Master Artificers no longer contribute as much to the Labor coffer as Grandmasters of any other profession.

Strongholds: Shards of Dragonforged Steel can now be donated to the Treasures of Tyranny coffer for 1,000 points.

The unreleased Ring of Natural Order no longer appears on the Collections pages, as there are no longer plans to release the item in the near future.

Tymora's Lucky Coin: This item can now properly be sold for 8 copper.

Campaign Updates

Sharandar

Arcane Reservoir: Completing this weekly quest now grants 100 Feywild Sparks, increased from 50.

Assist Artisans: This campaign task now awards a Stronghold voucher worth 1,000 Fey Trinkets, rather than Iliyanbruen gear.

Assist War Effort: This campaign task now requires 3 each of Abjuring Charms, Iliyanbruen Blades, and Vibrant Seedlings, down from 9 each.

Astral Diamond costs have been removed from all Sharandar Boon campaign tasks.

Astral Diamond costs have been removed from the "Assist Artisans" campaign task.

Astral Diamond costs for the "Assist Ritual Magic" campaign task have been significantly reduced.

Astral Diamond costs have been removed from Dark Fey Keys.

Battle for Sharandar: Completing this daily quest now grants 10 Gold Crescents and 15 Feywild Sparks, increased from 7 and 10 respectively.

Iliyanbruen Armor, Fey Weapons, and Redcap Weapons now scale to the player's level. Item Level and stats at Level 70 are unaffected. The level required to equip these is now 61, decreased from 70. These items are now Bind to Account on Pickup. This only affects newly-purchased items.

Seals of the Dark Fey: The tooltip on these Seals has been updated for accuracy.

Thradisar Starwise's store has been reorganized for ease of use. Players may now purchase armor for classes other than their own. Iliyanbruen Cloak and Iliyanbruen Ring may now be purchased directly from this store. The cost of Iliyanbruen Armor has been significantly reduced. The cost of Fey Weapons has been reduced.



Dread Ring

Astral Diamond costs have been removed from all Dread Ring campaign tasks.

Astral Diamond costs have been removed from all Thayan Lair Keys.

Dell McCourt's store has been reorganized for ease of use. Players may now purchase armor for classes other than their own. The Ring, Belt, and Cloak of the Dread Legion may now be purchased directly from this store. The cost of Thayan Armor has been significantly reduced.

Recover Thayan Gear: This campaign task now awards a Stronghold voucher worth 1,000 Dark Gifts, rather than Dread Legion gear.

Seals of the Shadowmantle: The tooltip on these Seals has been updated for accuracy.

Thayan Armor now scales to the player's level. Item Level and stats at Level 70 are unaffected. The level required to equip these is now 61, decreased from 70. These items are now Bind to Account on Pickup. This only affects newly-purchased items.

The Ring, Belt, and Cloak of the Dread Legion are now Bind to Account on Pickup. This only affects newly-purchased items.

Vendors in the Dread Ring now properly appear on the map.

Wages of War: This quest no longer requires the player to view Dell McCourt's inventory.

Icewind Dale

Astral Diamond costs have been removed from all Icewind Dale campaign tasks.

Black Ice Armor is now Bind to Account on Pickup. This only affects newly-purchased items.

Greater Cloak of Black Ice and Greater Belt of Black Ice now cost 100,000 Black Ice each, down from 250,000.

The Item Level of Elemental Purified and Elemental Corrupted Black Ice Armor has been increased to 130, up from 122. The quality of these items is now Epic, increased from Rare. The material requirements to craft these items via Black Ice Shaping have been significantly reduced.

Treasures of Xvim: This campaign task has been renamed to "Frozen Treasures," and now awards a Stronghold voucher worth 1,000 Frozen Treasures, rather than the Slayer Ring of the Xvim.

Urgus Battlehammer's store has been reorganized for ease of use. Black Ice Gauntlets may now be purchased directly from this store. Slayer Ring of the Xvim may now be purchased directly from this store.



Tyranny of Dragons

All items found in the remote Campaign store can now also be purchased from Feldon Strongbeard in Well of Dragons.

Astral Diamond costs have been removed from all Tyranny of Dragons Boon campaign tasks.

The Astral Diamond cost has been removed from the "Dragonforged Artifact" campaign task.

The Astral Diamond cost for the campaign task, "Dragon Hoard Enchantments," has been reduced to 5,000, down from 20,000.

The cost for the campaign task, "Adventuring Gear," is now 50 Dragon Hoard Coins and 3 each of Cult Secret and Dragon Sigil, down from 100 and 6 respectively.

Dragon Forged Steel no longer costs Astral Diamonds to purchase.

Dragon Forged Steel, Dragon Gems, and Dragon Bones may now be donated to the Stronghold coffer.

Eternal Armor is now Bind to Account on Pickup. This only affects newly-purchased items. The tooltips of these items now clearly state that they scale to the player's level. The cost of these items has been significantly reduced.

Feldon Strongbeard's store has been reorganized for ease of use.

Temple of Tiamat

Defeating Tiamat in the Temple of Tiamat now grants 20 Seals of the Protector.

It is no longer possible to receive a Minor Resonance Stone when defeating Tiamat.

Once a week, players may now earn a Cache of the Dragon Queen by defeating Tiamat. The cache contains one Greater Resonance Stone and one Major Astral Diamonds Voucher. Eligibility for receiving a cache resets every Monday at 3 AM server time.

Opening the Dragon Queen's Chest in the Temple of Tiamat now grants 40 Seals of the Protector.

The chance of receiving a Lesser Resonance Stone, Resonance Stone or Greater Resonance Stone when defeating Tiamat has been increased.

The chance of receiving a piece of Elven armor from defeating Tiamat when Tiamat Hoard Reclamation has reached Tier 2 has been increased to 100%.

Stronghold Siege

Once a week, players may now earn a Cache of the Fallen by winning a match of Stronghold Siege. The cache contains one Greater Thaumaturgic Stone and one Major Influence Voucher. Eligibility for receiving a cache resets every Monday at 3 AM server time.

Strongboxes of Influence, Astral Diamonds, Surplus Equipment or Gems may now drop in place of standard vouchers. These Strongboxes can be donated directly to a guild coffer. When donated, they count as one Epic voucher of that type. They can also be opened using a Strongbox Key for five Epic vouchers instead.



User Interface

Bank

If the Account Shared Bank cannot be accessed, Gold and Trade Bar labels are now properly hidden and no longer overlap the error message.

In the Guild Bank, changing permissions no longer occasionally changes permissions for different ranks than the one selected.

When accessing the bank via the VIP Banking Portal, closing it no longer causes a chat message about an invalid command "DoneAction."

Campaigns

The Campaigns window now has a keybind ("]" by default).

The Tyranny of Dragons campaign no longer shows a redundant "Speak to Elminster" unlock requirement.

When attempting to claim campaign reward items with a full inventory, an error message now properly appears.

Character Sheet

Enchantment / runestone context menus now show the name of the selected enchant / rune.

Chat

</font> tags no longer tend to appear in NPC Chat logs.

Friend requests can now only be sent by accounts with at least one character level 15 or above, just like tells or zone chat. While this won't necessarily stop spam, it removes the incentive to send unsolicited friend requests to bypass the restriction on /tell.

Collections

Opening the Collections screen while it is glowing now more reliably directs the player to one of the items they recently received.

When clicking Zone Rewards when talking to specific contacts, the Collections UI now shows up properly.

HUD

When interacting with a player in the world, the "Invite to Party" option now always displays, though it is grayed out if invalid.

Inventory

Items in the final bag slot can now properly be selected in certain item selection menus.

Tooltips on Companion stats no longer occasionally take several seconds to update.

Tooltips on Salvageable gear no longer display the "Salvageable" keyword in two separate places.

Journal

The achievement category "Seasonal" has been renamed to "Events."

Key Binds

A key can now be rebound to open the Companions UI ("=" by default).

A key can now be bound to open the Mounts UI ("[" by default).

Leaderboards

The Maze Engine expansion's leaderboard has begun. (Leaderboard progress on NeverwinterPreview will not carry over to the live game.)

Mounts

Mounts can now be previewed just like gear.

Queues

Demogorgon, Demogorgon (Master), and Temple of Tiamat are now classified as Epic Trials.

Rewards

When opening items that show a reward window, the quality presented by that window now more consistently reflects the best-quality item in the pack.

When using Tomes of Experience, a white square no longer appears in the upper left of the reward window.

Stores

Discount values now display in in-game stores, such as the Wondrous Bazaar for players at the proper VIP rank.

Gateway

Trade Bars and Guild Marks now properly show in the Inventory.

Stability and Performance

Certain passive powers now affect server performance much less.

Players may now use the -NoAutoRotateLogs command line option when launching the game. This option allows the player to retain any log files the Neverwinter game client creates, instead of automatically overwriting old ones after a certain point. WARNING: This will cause the log files to take up more and more disk space over time if they are not properly deleted.

Several issues that could cause instability, stalls, or crashes have been resolved.

Localization

Neverwinter: The Maze Engine is now fully localized in French, German, Italian, and Russian.

Known Issues

With World Detail Distance set to Medium or below and loading into Castle Never, the ground at the very beginning may start out invisible.

On lower settings, certain objects become unlit. This occurs more frequently with objects in the distance.

The following lockboxes are currently unavailable on the Auction House: Dark Forest Lockbox, Feywild Lockbox, Frozen Crystal Lockbox, Magnificent Emporium Lockbox, Rusted Iron Lockbox, Unearthed Lockbox.

The achievement, "Dancing on the Ceiling," currently cannot be achieved.

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