Neverwinter

[Batman]

I don't think I want to see them again 'that' badly.

[rhoenix]

On a note regarding Professions - Leadership is probably the most broadly useful, but takes a very long time to level properly from 18 to 20. At that point, you may be well-served by sending three of your people for War Games Training (for 240 profession xp each), and send the other three on Tactical Training (for 160xp profession xp each). Quests that give you Astral Diamonds typically give you 120 profession XP each, and typically take longer than the 8 hours it takes for War Games Training or Tactical Training.

So, once you have Leadership to 20, you'll note that the Profession rank does in fact go higher than 20, but you only need to hit 20 to unlock the additional Profession slot.

After that, to get the second and third Professions to 20 (so you unlock the 8th Profession slot), I'd suggest Alchemy, and then either Mailsmithing, Leatherworking, or Tailoring, depending on which profession makes shirts and pants for your character class. Alchemy is rather quick to level to 20, which is nice. Leatherworking/Mailsmithing/Tailoring will let you make Gemmed shirts and pants for yourself, and then make more to sell nicely on the Auctionhouse. The Armorsmith and Weaponsmithing skills are only useful as long as what you can make stays at parity with your level, and after level 55, that gets questionable fast - so those two are right out.

In short - Leadership first, then Mailsmithing/Leatherworking/Tailoring (depending on which skill makes shirts & pants for your class), and then Alchemy. Jewelsmithing is good too, and you can substitute it for Alchemy if you like.

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On the 9th profession slot:
To get the 9th Profession slot requires that you get a tier 3 result from a given task, which basically requires that you have purple crafting tools for that profession. Basically, how it works is like this - with no tools, you have a 100% chance to get the tier 1 result for a given task, and a 0% chance for tier 2 or 3. Each tool you add will grant you a chance for a tier 2 result, and if you get over 100% chance for a tier 2 result, the result overflows into the chance to get a tier 3 result.

e.g. having 4 blue-quality tools (at +24% each) for a task will give you a 96% chance for a tier 2, with a 4% remaining for tier 1. As you can see, that's not enough for a chance for a tier 3 result.

With 4 purple quality tools (at +40% each), you'll get a 160% total, which equates to a 60% chance of a tier 3 reward, and a 40% chance of a tier 2. The quality of the crafting personnel you're using won't affect the tier results, only the quality of the tools you use. They are all rather expensive on the auctionhouse, so this is yet another reason to go for Leadership first - it makes stockpiling Astral Diamonds much easier. For this reason, tools for Leadership are all very expensive on the auctionhouse, but at a certain point, they begin to pay for themselves, as you can see.

[rhoenix]

Leadership no longer gives Astral Diamonds, except for the rare quests that require Marks of Gratitude.

Source for reasoning: http://forum.arcgames.com/neverwinter/d ... d-changes/

EDIT: Yeah, this more or less makes Leadership completely useless now, unless I'm missing something.

[rhoenix]

So - a brief Ongoing Adventures in Neverwinter, because reasons.

I have my Great Weapon Fighter still at 63, and still stalled on doing the rest of the Elemental Evil questline with him, but on the other hand, he has Mailsmithing at 18 now, and it will be 20 by the end of the week.

My Ranger is level 68, has finished the Elemental Evil questline, and is currently doing the Tyranny of Dragons and Dread Ring quests to level to 70, so he can use the rewards I got for completing the Elemental Evil questline (an artifact bow, and an artifact belt I got from the Auctionhouse a while back). His Leadership is getting close to 20, but will likely take a few more days before he's working on Leatherworking.

Leadership still gives you chances for large chests of loot and such, but I have to admit, the lack of Astral Diamonds there makes it much less attractive than it was before. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing, as long as the excessive Astral Diamond costs for things go down as well.

[rhoenix]

The Underdark campaign is now live, offering its own set of rewards and boons. Beating up demons for fun and profit is always a good option.

Astral Diamonds are now easier to get your hands on in general, and now in particular with the new Demon Heroic Encounters - you have a chance of getting a rare blue ring after completing one that you can Salvage for 3000 rough Astral Diamonds, though some you can sell for slightly more on the Auctionhouse.

The best place for this, one that CynCat found and pointed out to me, is in the Well of Dragons. Not only does someone offer a radiant quest to go complete three of them in exchange for stuff, you can simply follow the conga line of players going to the next encounter, and play the Benny Hill soundtrack as you watch demons get torn apart en masse.

I will say that Paladins do kind of shine in these encounters. I normally don't play tanky types all that often, but the Paladin's abilities are making me reconsider it.

That said, I really shouldn't make a new character yet. My poor Warlock has been terribly neglected for many moons now.