“Releasing our third major update less than a year after launch is substantial achievement,” said Cryptic Studios Executive Producer and COO, Craig Zinkievich. And I definitely won’t argue with him. Cryptic Studios does seem intent on pumping out new content for Neverwinter at an impressive speed.
This new expansion, Curse of Icewind Dale, brings the iconic Icewind Dale to Neverwinter. A new resource has been added to the game with this expansion, and a host of new features has sprung up around it. New locations, factions, enemies, gear, bosses, PvP features; a new crafting trade, hunter paragon path, skirmish, campaign – this expansion is just packed with new content. I’d stopped playing Neverwinter in favor of Landmark and a return stint to The Secret World, but I’ll admit this new expansion has tempted me back!
Curse of Icewind Dale, the third Module for Neverwinter, is a free content expansion that introduces all new open world PvP and PvE content, while incentivizing players to battle over Black Ice, a new resource necessary to craft some of the most powerful items in the game. Found throughout the Icewind Dale region, players may risk their life to earn this resource faster in the dangerous open world PvP areas. Join one of the two new opposing groups, the steadfast Ten-Towners or the ambitious Arcane Brotherhood, and take on new bosses, new encounters, and new iconic locations. Players will also have new end-game advancement opportunities with the new Hunter Ranger Paragon Path, offering enhanced survivability and utility.
New features include:
- New locations: Icewind Pass and Dwarven Valley, featured in the Crystal Shard trilogy. Caer-Konig is the entry point for Icewind Dale, and has a hefty entrance requirement – players must have a gear score of at least 10,000 and unlocked a Rank 3 boon from Sharandar or Dread Ring Campaigns.
- New Factions: Join the Ten-Towners, the fiercely independent residents of the ten towns scattered around Icewind Dale, or the Arcane Brotherhood, whose agents have arrived to gather wealth and study the Black Ice. After joining a faction, players will be able to complete faction contracts to obtain campaign items and create a Black Ice armor set.
- New Content Type: Enter the Epic Skirmish, an amped up version of skirmish. The first of these, Kessell’s Retreat, is located in an old dwarven fortress built by the Battlehammer clan, that Akar Kessell has taken over. This epic skirmish has unique loot and offers a fierce challenge.
- Daily Keys: This one make me happy. Ever miss out on a dungeon delve in Neverwinter? It’s hard to motivate myself to queue for a dungeon when there’s no delve going on … now once a day you can get a free key to open the delve chest even if it’s not time for delving. You can also buy keys with astral diamonds. Huzzah!
- AAs: Ok, ok, this isn’t EQ so I should call it by its proper name – Post 60 Advancement. Now XP won’t go to waste once you’ve hit max level! Yet another Huzzah! Every 250,000XP you can get items which include rough astral diamonds and refinement items, as well as extra power points!
- PvP Changes: PvP has had an overhaul. Now there’s a PvP campaign, PvP leaderboards, and the ranking system has had a complete overhaul.
Check out the official Curse of Icewind Dale page with the ccollection of Dev blogs to see more!
