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Neverwinter: Guide to making your own build

In Neverwinter, every character is different. You have different classes, different stats, different gear, different boons and so many factors that come into play when building your character, so just copying some build from someone else that you found online might not always be ideal. It is far better then to actually understand the game, the stats and your characters mechanics so that you can tailor your character to your own playstyle.

The Neverwinter Class Guides here on MMORPG Tips are meant to help you to do just that. We give you the info you need to build your character as you want. In this guide you will find additional info that you can use if you want to learn more about how to build your character and not just copy someone elses.

Guide Index

  1. Ability Scores
  2. Ratings
  3. Gear and Enchantments
  4. Companions
  5. Mounts
  6. Paragon Paths, Feats and Powers
  7. Boons
  8. Group and Solo Play
  9. Summary

Ability Scores

When first making your character you will choose it’s ability scores. You can also reroll this later but you will need a race reroll token, so it’s best to get it right the first time. Your ability scores determine your other stats like health point or crit chance.

Choosing your scores is pretty straight forward as the game lets you know which stats area important for your character, and each class has one primary and two secondary stats that you should focus on. Not all of these are completely right though and reading on all of the is usually advised. For example CON is a secondary stat for Great Weapon Fighters but only provides defensive stats which is not good for DPS. CHA does however boost companion stats and combat advantage, making it better than CON for DPS.

neverwinter build ability scores

STR is the primary stat for GWF characters.

Ratings

Ratings or more commonly refered to as stats are the most important part of any build. When you understand how ratings work, building a character is much easier. Your base ratings comes from your Ability Scores, but can be further increased by gear, boons, companions etc. Understanding Ratings are a vital part of building your character.

The important stats to keep in mind are Power, Critical Strike, Armor Penetration, Recovery, Defense, Deflect and to a lesser extent Life Steal and Regeneration.

ratings-build-neverwinter

Ratings are a key aspect of understanding your characters build.

400 points in any of these stats equals 1% towards the cap, except for Amor Penetraion where 100 points equals 1%.

Power has no cap

Critcal Strike, Armor Penetration and Deflect cap at 100%

Defense caps at 95%

Recovery has no cap but will get diminishing returns to recharge speed after around 12k

DPS classes should in general focus on capping armor penetration and critical strike, then put everything in Power. Tanks should focus on defense and deflect, then stats shift focus to DPS stats. Healers should mostly focus on recovery and power.

If you want to learn more about ratings, stats and how they work, check out Jannenw.info.

Gear and Enchantments

Gear

Equipment is one of the main ways in which you get your stats where you want them. If you are wondering about how to get gear and increase your item score, see our Gearing up guide.

When you have reached end-game there is one thing though which is more important than stats on a lot of your gear, and that is the equip powers of the gear. As an example we have the Terrored Grips which as best in slot for some DPS classes, but have a low item level compared to other gear and even has negative points in Recovery. The power gives you 3% damage to all your encounter powers which far outweighs the negative stats.

gear-builds-neverwinter

Equip powers are important when choosing gear.

At a certain point when your item level is high (above 15k) you can start to consider whether you want to invest in alternate gear for AoE and Single target DPS as well. This can include getting two weapons with different powers and enchantments, and changing your gear and artifacts for different fights.

So when building a character, first and foremost look for good equip powers, then look at the stats. To comprare gear easily, use the Neverwinter Uncensored Ratings Simulator.

Enchantments

When getting enchantments, it is important to remember that enchantments with more than one stat will give you more stats than enchantments with only one. For example a Brutal Rank 14 will give you 600 power and crit, for a total of 1200, while an Azure will give you 1000 crit. So when building a character, getting enchantments with more than one stat will often be better.

When you have capped all your important stats though, you can get Radiants for example as they give you HP or Power which doesn’t have a cap.

If you want more info about refining your enchantments, see our refinement guide.

enchantments-build-neverwinter

Enchantments with more than one stat are generally better.

Other

Also remember reinforcement kits, food and potions in your build for additional stats.

Companions

Another important part of reaching your stats is getting good companions. As you propably know using Bonding Runestones on your companions will allow you to transfer their stats on to you, and with high rank runestones, it will amount to over 150% of your companions, stats, meaning a lot of stats.

You are allowed five active companions and one summoned companion. For the unsummoned active companions you only need to worry about the active bonus, but with your summoned companion you should also pick one that can wear good gear and have good combat powers.

companion build neverwinter

The Chultan Tiger is a good example of a companion with good powers, active power and gear slots.

Good gear for companions means mostly rings. Legendary Rings or Epic Rings with two offensive or two defensive enchantment slots can and should be worn by your companions. Other gear with two slots can also be bought or farmed in Illusionist’s Gambit, but will cost you more than getting rings.

Mounts

There are four things to keep in mind when mounting up in Neverwinter. Insignia stats, Insignia bonuses, Combat Power and Equip Power.

First of all you are going to look into Insignia Bonuses and get mounts that can have the bonuses you want. See our Mount Insignia Bonus Guide for an overview of all bonuses. Now you need to get the right Insiginas for the bonuses you want and with the right stats for you.

Next you are going to start thinking about your legendary mount or mounts. Two legendary mounts will usually be better as you can get the exact Combat and Equip powers you want.

mount-build-neverwinter

Tenser’s Floating Disk is a popular first choice for DPS legendary mounts.

For the Equip Power, the 4000 Power from the Black Ice Warhorse is one of the most popular. But all the 4000 stat powers are good choices as long as you get one with a primary stat for your class.

Combat Powers are a bit thougher to pick, so be sure to to some research before spending a whole lot of AD on a mount.

Paragon Paths, Feats and Powers

Paragon Path

When choosing your paragon path, personally I would recommend you to choose the path you want to play. One path is generally going to be better than the other, but but an important part of playing is not burning out and just having fun. Our class guide do however mostly support the “best” paths. Another way to find out which path is best for you is just reading up on your class and doing some google searches. The Neverwinter Reddit has a lot of info about classes and paragon paths.

Feats

When you have choosen a paragon path, it is time to choose feats. This task can look daunting at first, and it is where most players seek help to build their character. It is however not as hard as it looks. All the feats are pretty easy to understand, just take your time to read up on each one. You can also use NWCalc to make preview your build, or if you are playing on PC, you can actually copy your character over to the preview server and test out your build in-game.

Powers

With powers, playstyle comes even more into play. Try different power and see what you like and what suits your style. Don’t worry too much if you upgrade one you don’t like as at level 70 you will be gaining Power Points quickly and you’ll be able to max out most of your powers pretty quickly anyway.

Boons

Boons are pretty easy to pick. Most of the time you only have two options and they are usually one DPS oriented boon and one tank or healing oriented boon.

At the of the line you will usually have a choice between four boons. Choosing here is a bit harder but many of these boons are completly useless, so the choice shouldn’t be too hard in the end. There is usually also one that works well with DPS, one for Tanks and one for Healers here.

Group and Solo Play

As a final note, you also need to keep in mind what you will be using your character for. Certain stats, gear and powers are better for group play and some are better for solo.

The most important thing here is mostly for DPS. Almost all groups will have a Paladin with Aura of Courage so health points will give you bonus DPS, so having radiants in your defense enchantments will boost your DPS. If you are soloing however you will want defense, deflect or life steal from your enchantments to max power gain from Assassin’s Covenant.

Summary

In the end, I would recommend you to play a class and build that you enjoy. Most of the content in the game is pretty easy, without min-maxing or building your character to perfection. And when you start to understand ratings, powers and feats, building your character the way you want will be much easier.

If you have any questions or suggestion about building your character, please leave a comment and we’ll get back to you!

Alan Seymour Jr

Saturday 13th of June 2020

I have a question about a rogue build people say do you know what you want Im still learning Im a slow learner. but my friends give me a hard time. I got my rogue up to 80 but my friends are not always on Im wanting a build that do good dps but if they are not on I wanna be able to play on my own if need be. do you have any suggestions?