Welcome to the third installment of Monday’s Bag of Tricks! Every other Monday you will find useful tricks, gimmicks and ideas here that can make life in Neverwinter Online easier. Some of the stuff should be well known, but since even veterans learn something new every now and then, chance is you can, too!

With a lot of refinement currently going on at the x2 weekend as well as a even more waiting in Module 6, let’s look into the only area of refining that’s not as easy to see through: Artifacts.

With Enchantments and Artifact Gear it’s pretty simple: Never feed higher ranked stuff, you will always lose RP. It’s not as straight forward with Artifacts because they are getting a nice x5 matching multiplier so refining Artifacts and then feed them into other Artifacts actually makes sense. For quite some time now there is a rule of the thumb that you should refine up to level 59 and then use it as refinement material, but that’s not always correct.

So without further ado, here’s the spreadsheet! Simply download it and get started!

What the sheet does is weigh the cost of the Artifact you have to buy and upgrades needed on different ranks against the RP you are generating. It also respects the amount of RPs left on the Artifact you want to upgrade based on the new Mod 6 ranks. It does not include a possible crit though.

Don’t get lost in the numbers. If you don’t want any of that, only look at the grey fields at the top. You need to fill in a few values:

Cheapest Available RP/AD : Normally that’s the RP a Rank 4 Enchantment or Runestone gives (270) divided by its price. Even if you are not actually buying RP but used farmed ones, it’s necessary for the calculation.

: Normally that’s the RP a Rank 4 Enchantment or Runestone gives (270) divided by its price. Even if you are not actually buying RP but used farmed ones, it’s necessary for the calculation. Feeding Artifact Cost : Currently a Lantern of Revelation of Water of Elah’zad are like 600k in the Auction House. If you’ve farmed the Artifact in PVP or a skirmish for example, that value would be zero.

: Currently a Lantern of Revelation of Water of Elah’zad are like 600k in the Auction House. If you’ve farmed the Artifact in PVP or a skirmish for example, that value would be zero. Upgrading Artifact Rank : The current rank of the parent Artifact you would like to upgrade.

: The current rank of the parent Artifact you would like to upgrade. Upgrade Costs: The cost of the marks and wards needed for the upgrades.

The spreadsheet will put out the results on the right. It shows the total and percental RP you gain by the process and the rank up to which you should refine one Artifact before feeding it into the parental one.

There are four scenarios:

RPgm/RPi : Refine and feed the Artifact outside x2 weekends

: Refine and feed the Artifact outside x2 weekends RPgm2/RPi : Refine the Artifact outside x2 weekends, but feed it to the parent during a x2 weekend

: Refine the Artifact outside x2 weekends, but feed it to the parent during a x2 weekend RPgm/RPi2 : Refine the Artifact during a x2 weekend, but feed it outside one

: Refine the Artifact during a x2 weekend, but feed it outside one RPgm2/RPi2: Both refine and feed the Artifact during a x2 weekend

It’s not surprising that you get the most return by both refining and feeding the Artifact during a x2 weekend. That’s why the Lantern of Revelation and Waters of Elah’zad as well as different Artifact Provision Packs always gain value during a x2. Also generally spoken the situations where refining and feeding outside a x2 weekend make sense are limited.

Those that absolutely want to get BiS as fast as possible when Module 6 hits can refine their Artifacts right now and feed them on March 17th, but it’s much more efficient to just wait for the next x2 weekend.

This should help you make some informed decisions, enjoy!

Monday’s Bag Of Tricks Vol. 1: Farming Potions of Heroism The Easy Way

Monday’s Bag Of Tricks Vol. 2: Keep An Eye On The PTS

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