Tips and Strategy

This section concentrates primarily on suggesting tips and tricks for players to utilise in Heroes of Neverwinter.

General[]

Make friends! To say Heroes of Neverwinter works best when you have a large pool of friends is an understatement. Playing the game solo means that literally all of your money will go towards hiring allies, having a dozen or more friends means that you will never have to pay money for allies and will save money at a quick rate (by the time you reach level 10 you should expect to have somewhere in the region of 5,000-10,000GP assuming you don't buy equipment).
Remember to claim loot from your friend's facebook pages. A surprising amount of free stuff can be gained this way, not to mention plenty of luck potions, which are invaluable at end-game.
Easy and shame-free gifting and sharing! If you do not want all of your non-gamer Facebook friends to see your game-related posts, simply make a Facebook news feed for this game (over on the left-hand side of Facebook), and put your D&D Facebook friends in it. Then when you share or boast in the game, you can use the drop-down menu to post just to that news feed. This keeps your posts going only to your D&D friends, and gives you one easy news feed to scroll through to claim goodies they have posted.

In Town[]

Player House[]

It is possible to send friends two gifts per day by clicking the "Send Gift" button and also going to their Player House and clicking on their Chest of Wonders.
The Chest of Wonders will get progressively better rewards over a 5 day period, before resetting to it's original state.
The Chest of Wonders is the only way to get Astral Diamonds ingame (other than achievements) without paying money for them.
The Chest of Wonders no longer is garaunteed to give Astral Diamonds on each day, but randomely can have a diamond possibly in the chest.

Merchants[]

The merchants reset their stock every 8 hours (give or take a few minutes...), but start the new timers when you first check the new stock. If you're waiting to try and find an item in the shop, make sure you come back every 8 hours to start the new timer running.
Many players don't bother to visit the Beached Leviathan since it does not stock weapons or equipment, but you can buy potions and tools there that can be very useful (the Traveller's Feast in particularly is one of my favourites, when combined with characters who have high bonuses to healing it can heal quite respectably).
Try not to spend Astral Diamonds on buying equipment for a few reasons:
- It is extremely overpriced for what you get.
- Items for sale have varying gold-to-astral diamond ratios in their costs. Some have an Astral Diamond cost one tenth of their gold cost. Others have higher or lower ratios, making spending Astral Diamonds a better or worse option per item.
- The best things in the game tend to be only available in diamonds, not gold. This includes infinte energy and extra character slots. Gear will come and go, but infinite energy and character slots are forever.
- Once you are in the dungeon, you can only "buy" game pop-up items with Astral Diamonds, not gold. If you need an on-the-spot resurrection, knock scroll, rune, or glyph, only diamonds can get them.

In a Dungeon[]

Don't let a "per encounter" healing power go unused. Heal in every room. Use all of your free (power-based, not item-based) healing every encounter. Before you go out any door, check your cleric's heals and fighter's Boundless Endurance. If they're available, use them. They do not stockpile, so you won't get credit for not using it when the next encounter starts. Also, trap rooms reset your "per encounter" abiliites. When you enter a trap room with no monsters, it's another healing opportunity.
Keep running out of energy? Make several characters and rotate them, so that while one is being played, the rest are regenning energy. Wondered what to do with a few spare Astral Diamonds? Unlock some more character slots!
Make sure that your character never dies in a dungeon (or can be resurrected before the end of the room), and that friend's hired characters finish the dungeon on full HPs in order that they can be instantly re-hired, otherwise you'll have to wait for a time before they can be re-hired.

**HPs remaining on allies and cooldown period**
Current HPs/Total HPs	Cooldown Period
0%	6 hours
25%	4 hours
50%	2 hours
75%	1 hour
100%	None

When hiring characters, check the comment the player has left. Most of the time it'll be innocuous, but occassionally it'll describe how tough, hard-hitting or high-healing the character is.

Character Builds/Choices[]

Bear in mind that none of the choices you make with regard to your character are reversable. If in doubt, look it up, or prepare to redo your character or live with a poor decision!

Classes[]

There are currently four classes in Heroes of Neverwinter: Cleric, Fighter, Rogue and Wizard.
Clerics are the Leaders of the parties and have strong ranged and melee attacks, with a variety of healing spells available to them to bolster the party. At least one cleric is normally taken in a party. Clerics are the only class with a feasible ability to heal another party member. Your only other healing options are items, and given the tightness with money in the game, that's a rough way to go, especially early on. Clerics tend to be good at most things (average damage in melee and range, average HPs, average AC/defences).
Fighters are the Defenders of the parties and have many abilities built around soaking up damage. Fighters can use any weapon, can wear the heaviest armor (scale), and have the highest hit points. Their damage is stong, but lacks the upper maximums and better special effects of a rogue's. They also have some damage-resisting/self-healing abilities. However, fighters currently have little ability to draw enemy attacks, so presumably take only 1/4 of enemy damage. This leads many players to ignore them, bringing a second cleric or rogue. A fighter can, however, do fairly well at isolating melee-only monsters for a few turns, if built to do so, through a combination of slowing and proning effects, and aggressive positioning (the Charge ability helps). While the game does not have explicit abilities that force enemies to attack (like taunting in many other games) or penalties for not attacking the fighter (like marking or opportunity attacks in pen & paper D&D), the game does appear to base monster attack decisions at least partially on proximity. This means, especially with melee-only monsters, the fighter can shift the focus of monster attacks a little more in the player's favor. A fighter also does a good job of drawing enemies together for other characters to drop area effect templates (which do not affect allies in this game). For the time being, however, the fighter is just not as good at his specialty as the other three classes are at theirs. There is one silver lining to fighters they have the ability to solo lower level dungeons. A fighter can solo never death on normal from level 3 and solo neverdeath on hard at level 4.
Rogues are the Strikers of the parties and many of their abilities revolve around damage-dealing, mobility and debuffing enemies. At least one rogue is often taken in a party as they are the only party member able to unlock doors and remove traps (although doing so is never required by a dungeon). Rogues are also valued for their L1 Stunning Blow attack which will render a single enemy incapable of acting for a number of turns, and many rogue strategies centre on stunning the primary enemy target on the first turn. Rogues have average AC/defences, average HPs, high damage output, high mobility and almost every attack they deal has a debuff associated with it. They also have the highest short-term damage output, with some rogues dealing over 100 damage in a single attack.
Wizards are the Controllers of the parties and as such concentrate on AoE damage output and limiting enemy movement. Almost every attack a Wizard gets is a ranged AoE, and wizards are often tasked with removing minions (low-HP/level mobs), dropping templates on multiple creatures to kill them at once while the rest of the party attack single boss-monsters. Interestingly, Heroes of Neverwinter has no friendly-fire, meaning that wizards can continue to drop AoEs onto the enemy before and after melee is engaged with no worry of damaging his allies. As well as raw damage, wizards have a few abilities which slow or knock prone enemies, slowing them down and preventing them from closing or escaping too quickly. Wizards tend to have quite low AC/defences, low HPs but a high damage output and high mobility. They are the only class that can reliably AoE throughout the encounter.
Information on class builds, race selections and equipment associated with the classes is available on the individual class pages.

Character Creation[]

There are four "stock" characters already prepared. The following are considerations with respect to a custom made character.
A male Dragonborn Fighter: choose a custom character over the pregenerated fighter, given that the overall difference in stats will net you +1 WILL.
A female Eladrin Wizard: the character has 8 CHA, which is impossible to obtain using a custom character.
A female Human Cleric: it is possible to obtain a character with better abilities using the custom choice.
A male Halfling Rogue: it is possible to create the exact same character in the custom build.

Ability Scores assignment[]

The Ability Score page lets you assign 22 points on various abilites.
The starting values of each ability depend on the race and class of the character.
For each ability, the first 3 points cost 1 to increase, then up to 6 points they cost 2, then it costs 3 to add the 7th point and 4 to add the 8th. So, in order to add 8 points (the maximum amount) to a single ability, 16 points must be spent.
It is generally better to have an ability with an even value, so that its modifier will increase by a step.
Keep in mind that when you reach level 4 you get to increase two different abilites by 1 point, and the same happens on reaching level 8.
It is common practice to spend all 22 points, and make it so the sum of all abilities is an even number, and no more than 4 abilities are an odd value. In this way when the character reaches level 8 all its abilities can be an even value.

Party Composition[]

C/C/R/W - This is the most ubiquitous party, able to take care of traps, clear out minions and withstand a lot of damage. This is generally accepted to be the most flexible and resisilient party, able to deal with most situations without trouble.
Some parties may swap out the spare cleric for a rogue (for boss fights) or a wizard (for dungeons with large numbers of minions).
Some parties may swap out the wizard for a rogue (for boss fights) or the rogue for a wizard (for dungeons with no traps).
For dungeons with no traps and few, tough monsters, some players even take 3-4 clerics. They can take, heal and deal a lot of damage. The dungeon might not be the fastest ever, but you're almost certain not to party wipe!
Fighters are rarely taken by competative players since without any way to draw attacks away from their allies, the main role of a fighter (damage absorbtion) is negated. They will rarely die, and can deal moderate damage, but won't help the party's survival as much as the other three classes.

Information Extracted from the Game[]

A balanced party offers the widest range of abilities. Each Class offers something unique to the group!
Level 1 Heroes can be hired for free in the Tavern!
Having a hard time with an Adventure? Consumables like Potions, Food, and even powerful Glyphs can turn the tide!

Create your own Adventures in the Dungeon Workshop and share them with all of Neverwinter! Available to players who reach level 10!
Remember to check your Chest of Wonder! Its contents improve each consecutive day it's looted, up to five days before resetting.
Visit your friends' houses and be sure to leave a Gift inside their Chests of Wonder. They just might return the favor!
To maximize your chance to hit an enemy, use a Power that targets its weakest Defense score (AC, FORT, REF, or WILL).
Keep an eye on the Initiative List. It's often best to eliminate enemies that are soon to act.
Flank enemies by moving two or more party members into adjacent squares. This forces them to yield Combat Advantage, granting attackers a +2 bonus to their Attack Rolls!
Ongoing Damage of the same type does not stack. If an enemy is already suffering Ongoing Damage of a certain type, it might be best to target a different enemy with Ongoing Damage attacks of that same type.
Merchant Inventories reset every 8 hours. Don't waste Astral Diamonds reseting them.
Your Energy regenerates fastest when you participate as an Active Spectator in other Heroes' adventures. So if you're low on Energy, help out your fellow Heroes!
Potions of Luck reveal Treasure Cards when you loot a chest, allowing you to improve your chances of selecting the prize you really want! Use up to 10 Potions of Luck on each chest!
Stunned characters can still use Teleporting abilities!
Weakened characters do 50% less damage than normal.
Slowed characters can only move a maximum of 2 squares.
Dazed characters can either move or attack, but not both in the same Turn!
Dragonborn characters receive a +1 bonus to Attack Rolls when Bloodied.
Halfling characters receive a +1 bonus to AC when Flanked by enemies.
Human characters receive a +1 bonus to all Saving Throws
Fighters receive a +1 bonus to Attack Rolls when Bloodied.
At the start of an Encounter, the Rogue class feature First Strike grants the Rogue Combat Advantage against all enemies that have not yet acted. The Rogue receives a +2 bonus to Attack Rolls against these targets.
Wizards gain a +1 bonus to AC when equipping a Staff or an Orb.
You gain a new Power each level, except levels 4 and 8. When you reach those levels, you get to increase any two of your Ability Scores by 1.
Other players can participate as Active Spectators during your Adventures if you use their characters. Active Spectators can help out by performing a variety of Boosts during the action!
Use the AI toggle to have the AI control your entire party or all party members except the main character. Turn the AI off to have full control of all your Heroes!
Low on Energy? Purchase Drinks in the Beached Leviathan Tavern or a full Refill from the Adventure Board! Energy slowly regenerates on its own over time and regenerates faster when you participate as an Active Spectator!
Enter a personalized motto for each of your characters on their Character Sheets! Let all of Neverwinter know a little bit more about you!
When you complete an Achievement, any item rewards will appear inside your Chest of Wonder! This allows you to choose which of your characters will receive the item.
Having trouble detecting Traps? Higher Intelligence and Wisdom scores will improve your chances. You can also find or purchase consumables to boost your perception.
Your Score for each Adventure is based on a variety of factors, including combat performance, healing and survivability, and adventuring flair! Try different strategies to increase your Score!
The Cleric ability “Cascade of Light” makes enemies more susceptible to damage from all your party members! It's a great way to soften up a tough opponent for your other characters to finish off!
Click, hold and drag the screen to move the game view. You can also zoom in and out to get the best view of the action!
Chainmail and Scale Armor offer higher Armor Class (AC), but reduce your character's Speed by 1.
Shields boost both your character's Armor Class (AC) and Reflex Defense (REF)!
An Attack Roll of 1 always misses. An Attack Roll of 20 always critically hits
Your friends' characters can be added to your party without cost! The more friends in your Adventuring Band, the more characters to choose from!
If your friends' characters end your adventure at full health, they can immediately be used again in another adventure! The lower their health at the end of an adventure, the longer the wait time until they are ready to be used again.
Some enemies have abil ities that activate when they are killed. Sometimes it pays to finish off enemies from a distance…
Observe and use the Initiative Bar to think ahead and determine the best tactics and strategy! Your characters can heal, buff, and attack in the same turn, but enemies can too!
Sometimes the best way to deal with powerful monsters is to disable them in any way possible by stunning them, slowing them down, dazing them, and other such tricks.
Powers that deliver Ongoing Damage to enemies are best used at the beginning of fights.
It's best to use heavy damage melee attacks on powerful enemies after you've done everything you can to lower their defenses.
The Cleric's offensive powers are especially effective against the undead.
There are many more useful items than just healing potions in the Tarmalune Trade House. Take a look and see!
You cannot equip items from your inventory during an adventure so make sure you have the best gear on before you leave town!
When possible, try to lure enemies into tight groups so that your Wizard can blast them with a Fire Ball or other powerful area of effect spells!

Useful External Links[]

The Official "D&D Heroes of Neverwinter" Facebook Page: This is the official 6waves Facebook page for the game and it is regularly updated by the always-helpful ~GM Jahia~. Get information on the latest changes to the game, report bugs and receive status reports on bug fixes or even ask questions to the game developers and/or other players on this page!
"D&D Heroes of Neverwinter players" (Facebook player group sponsored by the HoN wiki): It's a great place to share your knowledge about the game or new item discoveries you've made, to ask questions or generally, to have a laugh with 100+ fellow players!)
6waves' FAQ (can also be accessed from the D&D HoN game app under Game Menu > Help): It provides useful info on some of the most basic concepts of the game.
The Official Atari ""D&D Heroes of Neverwinter" Forum:Review the information and questions made by other players, report bugs or give feedback on the game. Althought this forum is somewhat inactive, a good deal of information can be found there.

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