Thank you to Enn DubYa Kay for sharing his video, we hope you enjoy it.

Once started, click the double brackets at the bottom to go FULL SCREEN.

Players: Enn DubYa Kay, Jantas, Namno Ma, Jade Quinn, NotHalfADoctor

And Here's a Link to a bunch more TONG suggestions!

Alliance Council September 3rd 2017 Meeting Minutes

Regular Meeting of the Alliance Council
September 3, 2017 On Teamspeak

The meeting began at 4PM ET immediately following the Alliance Warlock Seminar.

Fennik noted that there have been repeated episodes of Alliance members using Alliance chat to solicit party members for dungeon raids requiring specific gearing or item level of the participants. After much discussion, the leaders agreed to this resolution: Alliance members who organize a dungeon raid on Alliance chat may only request the basic Cryptic requirments for item or gear.

Xerxes reported that a member on Alliance Teamspeak was using a vulgar phonetic names. The members agreed that Alliance chat users are not permitted to use vulgar phonetic names. The guildmaster of the person using the name is to be informed and requested to rectify the situation.

The above two items are to be included in the Alliance Etiquette Guidelines which will be remailed to every guild leader for distribution to guild members.

Xerxes presented the schedule of upcoming Alliance Seminars: Oct 1: Healing Seminar; Nov 5: Hunter Ranger Seminar; Dec 3: Wizard Seminar. A discussion ensued about the moderators for seminars on GWF and TR. Xerxes will work with guild leaders to ascertain appropriate moderators for these 2018 seminars.

Fennik reported that in order to increase end-game play by Alliance members, he or Vol'jin will organize a weekend MSVA run with assistance from other end-game players. In this way, five or six virgin MSVA Alliance members will be able to complete the instance each time.

Feygorn began a discussion on the possibility of the Helm guild being changed each time it reaches level 20 so lower level guilds will have an opportunity to utilize the development bonuses that permit a guild to rank up faster.  After much discussion, the leaders decided to table action on the matter for five months.

The next meeting will be held on Sunday, Nov 6th at 2PM EDT on TS.

The meeting ended at 4:48PM ET.

Respectfully submitted,
Xerxes
Alliance Secretary

New Templar Happenings....

Meeting of the Council of Templars
For both Ghost Templars and Spirit Templars
Friday, September 1, 2017 on Teamspeak

Xerxes opened the meeting at 2:10PM by asking Fennik to give a Stronghold Report.  Fennik, who gave an Alliance seminar on Stronghold Development on August 6th and 20th, indicated that we are currently working on the Rank 16 guildhall which should be ready to be upgraded by September 10th. He noted that we will most likely become a level 20 guild in late 2018.

Concerning recruitment, John noted that we are not actively recruiting at this time; however, both ST and GT will accept members who request admittance. Ghost Templars must leave room for Spirit Templars who request a transfer to GT. Xerxes said that there are approximtely 142 Ghost Templars and 88 Spirit Templars.

In his Report on the Spirit Templars, Haelirin requested help in completing the ST rank 6 Guildhall. The Council agreed to help ST finish the guildhall once GT reaches rank 16. To permit acceptance of new members into ST and lessen the flow of transfers to GT, Xerxes suggested that GT once again have an item level requirement for admittance to GT. The Council decided not to act on the matter. Haelirin suggested that the ST bank be reformatted according to character level and the Council agreed to do so.

Perseus reported that the daily 1:30PM ET Dragonflight is well-attended and that Dusk has been organzing impromptu daily Dragonflights at 7:30AM and 11:30 AM ET. The Council agreed to make these events offical Templar Dragonflights whereby the Templars will now have three daily activities. Haelirin reported that he will continue to arrange Marauder Events throughout the week so members can farm Influence for Stronghold development.

Concerning the Alliance, Xerxes gave the schedule of Alliance Seminars: Sept 3rd - Warlock Builds; October 1st - Devoted Clerics; November 5th - Hunter Rangers and December 3rd - Control Wizards. After discussing some etiquette issues within the Alliance, the Council agreed to ask the Alliance Council to add two new Etiquette Guidelines: 1) Persons who promote dungeon or skirmish runs in public chat must accept any Alliance member who wishes to join the party that meets the official Cryptic event requirements; and 2) Persons on Teamspeak may not use vulgar character names - a guideline to be enforced by Xerxes, the Server owner.

As Dr Death was not present, a report was not given on the crafting program.  However, Xerxes reported that Thyra is sending all the CraftieBank items to him, Dr Death, and Fennik.  He also reported that Craftie Bank has over 354K Astral Diamonds. The Council agreed that this AD is to be used to purchase Strongbox keys. Xerxes and Fennik will meet with Dr Death to discuss the implementation of the New GT member gift program.

As there was no new business, the meeting was adjourned at 2:45PM ET.  The next meeting of the Council of Templars is on Friday, October 6th, at 2PM ET.

Respectfully submitted,
Xerxes

Upcoming Neverwinter Changes

Neverwinter Templars,

Cryptic is coming out with some major changes, below is just a small part to whet your appetite.  Click the READ MORE AT ARC link at the end to see the whole article.  There are some really cool, nice changes, and some that will cause distress (see bonding stones).  Enjoy!

Why the change?

Refinement is a core part of Neverwinter gameplay, but a lot of the time it could feel like it was weighing down on you as a player. The pure number of items that needed to be held on to, the matching bonuses, the different reagents for different artifact types, and yes the hoarding of items until the 2x Refinement Points weekends to maximize the gains. In the end it felt more like a chore that had to be done than a fun part of the game where the player kept making progress.

For new players, the system is overwhelmingly complicated. They don't know what enchantments to use as food, what to hold, what to look for, and we wanted to make that experience far easier for players to figure out. On top of all of that, there hasn't been any major additions to the system in a long time. We took a hard look at all of this and came up with a plan to improve it in multiple ways.

Refinement Points

Having to match enchantments, stones, and types of items created a massive amount of inventory to maintain and organize. In the end, this doesn't add to the experience as much as it takes away from it all. So we did just that, took it all away. Now players will use Refinement Points (thought you might like to keep your acronym) which will be a currency. Gemstones, Enchantments, Runestones, Artifacts, Artifact Equipment, Uncommon (Green) Equipment (must be identified), will all break down into Refinement Points which will be a currency on the inventory sheet. All of the refining will use Refinement Points for upgrades, along with reagents of course. This means you no longer have to manage all of those different item types and dread looking at your inventory or bank. You can just break it all down into a simple currency that all items share.

To go along with this we have a new conversion window that has some easy options to input all of the different convertible items that you want to break down into Refinement Points in one simple click. In addition, any item which can be converted, can be by using the drop down menu for that item. The refinement upgrade window will now have a nice clean interface where the player can slide a bar to determine how many Refinement Points they wish to add to the item. This bar will default at either the amount needed for the next level, or the maximum a player can deposit if less than a full level as we felt that is the most common action players would do. On top of that, you can now put in the full amount of RP needed to level up and upgrade all in a single button press. Nice and quick and easy!

And you may have noticed how I mentioned Identified Uncommon Equipment can be turned into RP and thought "Man, identifying all of my green drops will be such a pain!", well we are also adding an Identify All button which will take your ID scrolls and identify all the unidentified items in your inventory with one click.

Now because we switched to a currency and want to try for manageable amounts of currency. We reduced both the value of RP points of the items and the cost to upgrade items by a factor of 10. Example a black opal now awards 1,000 RP, but costs are lowered by the same factor as well. To be very clear, this does not change the cost of refinement at all! This simply reduces the values all around so we can keep the currency lower and have room for players to hold plenty of currency and grow the system in the future. We will give the exact progression charts in the technical details post as well so that you can all see for yourselves how it will be functioning.

READ MORE AT ARC >>>

Additional helpful links

Refinement Technical Details

https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter/#/discussion/1234035/refinement-technical-details

Official Bonding Stone Feedback Thread
https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/1234037/bonding-runestone-changes

Random Queues Feedback Thread
https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter/#/discussion/1234049/official-feedback-thread-random-queues

Augment Companions
https://neverwinter.gamepedia.com/Augment

Problems That Will Arise
https://www.reddit.com/r/Neverwinter/comments/6xkykv/problems_that_will_arise_with_the_m12b/

Double Refinement Resource

Thank you to Not Worth Killing for providing a new resource link.  On the right margin, you will now see a "Double Refinement" link".  Note that it addresses artifact feeding, enchantments, stronghold costs, etc.  Awesome find, thank you for sharing NWK!


Go to Resources =========== >>>

Seminar on Stronghold Development II

Figure 1: Millabout Market on Neverembers Lackey's

Welcome,

The second Seminar on Stronghold Development is focused on strategies for dealing with the most common resource bottlenecks you will encounter during your stronghold progression.  Those resources are Influence, Shards of Power, Surplus Equipment, Gems and Campaign Currencies.

All of these resources can be acquired by playing the avialable content of Neverwinter. But since there is a significant diffrence in playstyle for PvE (Player versus Environment) and PvP (Player versus Player) Content in this Game alot of Player will hesitate to experience the full scale of Neverwinter and therefore cut them self off of options to earn the afore mentioned resources. 

Stronghold Chests

Cryptic is of course offering Items in the Zen Store to speed up the Stronghold Development process with real money or with exchanged Astral Diamonds. Those Items are the Stronghold Starter Pack for 3500 Zen and the Stronghold Chest of Power for 300 Zen. The Starter Pack also includes the Stronghold Chest of Campaigns..

Both, the Chest of Power and the Chest of Campaigns can be purchased from the Auction House as well.

A good price for the Chest of Power is x < 150.000 AD and for the Chest of Campaigns it is x < 50.000 AD.

The Stronghold Chest of Power will give you 100 of each Shards of Power (Heroic-, Adventurer-, Dungeoneer-, Conqueror-) for a total of 400 Shards. That amount is doubled during a 2x Shard of Power Event.

The Stronghold Chest of Campaigns will give you your choice  of 5 Major Vouchers for one of the campaign currencies or 5 Major Influence Voucher.

With the Guild Marks you'll receive from donating the Items from the Chest to your Coffer and a clever Guild Mark Management you can also make more Astral Diamonds back than you initialy spend on the Stronghold Chests.

Influence

... is probably the most important resource overall since it is required in every Guild Hall and Boon Structure upgrade. Influence is exclusivly earned from PvE content.

Find a List of Influence sources below.

• Companion Stronghold's Cleric => +10%  Influence gain (To be confirmed!)
• 400 Influence per Character per day from Heroic Encounter on the Stronghold Map
• 600 Influence per Character per week from the Stronghold Marauders Event
• 20-100 Influence from the daily Boon Structure Quests, depends on the Rank of the Structure
• 2000 Influence from the Strongbox of Influence, is a rare reward from Dragonflights. ALWAYS open them with a Strongbox Key (6-10k AD on the Auction House)
• 18.000 Influence per week from The Recruiter (temporary Structure)

Shards of Power

There are 4 different types of those Shards and they can be earned by completing the Stronghold Quests and some Campaign Tasks. Find a List below (values are for Level 70 Character).

Heroic Shards of Power

• 10 Shards from The Builder daily Quest
• 10 Shards for the first Tier 3 Heroic Encounter on the Stronghold Map every day

Adventurer's Shards of Power

• 10 Shards form The Master of Coin daily Quest
• 10 Shards from The Ranger daily Quest

Dungeoneer Shards of Power

• 20 Shards form The Cleric Skirmish and Dungeon Dailies
• 2 Shards from the Elemental Evil Campaign for completing 3 Heroic Encounter daily in each of the 4 Zones. Choice between Dungeoneer and Conqueror Shards.You spend to much time on that for to little Rewards.
• 10 Shards from the Maze Engine Campaign for completing five times the Daily Quest. Choice between Dungeoneer and Conqueror Shards

Conqueror's Shards of Power

• 10 Shards form The Master of Coin Quest "Fight to the Finish". This was a big problem for PvE focused Guilds since the quest goal is to win a PvP match which is not an easy task for alot of PvE Player. BUT with Mod 12 we received the option to form a Private PvP Que. Winning a private match will give no rewards but will complete the Quest "Fight to the Finish". So simply form a Private PvP Que (1vs.1, up to 5vs.5). In the first round Team one wins and in the rematch Team 2. If people want to fight they can do it off the Nodes. The fun will take a total of roughly 10 minutes and everyone will receive their daily 10 Conqueror's Shards.

A Big Thanks goes out to Tim, Guild Master from Critical Attack for shaing this Method with the Alliance.

• 2 Shards from the Elemental Evil Campaign for completing 3 Heroic Encounter daily in each of the 4 Zones. Choice between Dungeoneer and Conqueror Shards.You spend to much time on that for to little Rewards.
• 10 Shards from the Maze Engine Campaign for completing five times the Daily Quest. Choice between Dungeoneer and Conqueror Shards 

Surplus Equipment

...is also a valuable resource and is required for the majority of Stronghold Structures. Donating Surplus Equipment can in your personal Astral Diamond gains since Epic salvageable Items are a good source for Surplus Equipment. Find a List of alternatives below.

• Epic Salvageable Items will give 810 Surplus Equip, but you lose the RAD by donating it
• Rare Salvageable Items will give 20 Surplus Equip, not worth donating get the AD instead
• Green level 70 Items will give 5 Surplus Equip, if you have enough Bag space go for it.
• Drops from Quartermaster enchantments, Spoils of War will Give 350 Surplus Equip, Abandoned Gear will give 150 Surplus Equip 
• 4850 Surplus Equip from the Strongbox of Surplus Equipment, is a rare reward from Dragonflights. ALWAYS open them with a Strongbox Key (6-10k AD on the Auction House)
• various Professions can craft Crates of Surplus Equipment

Gems and Jewelcrafting

To increase your Gemstorage for Stronghold Structures you can feed enchantments, runestones and insignias to your Coffer. But the Gemvalue for these is compared to their AD value and their Refinement points very low. For Example a rank 7 Enchant/Runestone is only worth 100 Gems and we need hundreds of thousands of Gems. Therefore donating Enchants, Runestones and Insignias to the Coffer is not a very efficient way to a mass Gems for your Stronghold Projects. Find a List of Options below.

• Enchants/Runstones Rank 5 = 50 Gems, Rank 7 = 100 Gems, Rank 12 = 45.000 Gems, that is worth alot of Astral Diamonds
• Insignias Blue = 50 Gems, donate the Character Bound Insignias you get from running Dungeons and don't fit your needs
• 1800 Gems from the Strongbox of Gems, is a rare reward from Dragonflights. ALWAYS open them with a Strongbox Key (6-10k AD on the Auction House)
• 24.000 Gems per week from The Gemcutter (temporary Structure)

As you can see the Gemcutter is your best Bet for Gems, but there is another option which can generate theoratically 47.000 Gems per week per Character.

Jewelcrafting

Is a Profession which can be leveled up fairly quickly. It can be used to make AD but more importantly you can craft Crates of Gems with it.

Overview:

Jewelcrafting Task	Rank unlocked	Gems	Leather Strips	Duration	Coffer Value
Crates of Uncut Gems	4	20 Raw Gems	-	6 hours	80-160 Gems
Crates of Valuable Gems	10	20 Semi-Precious gems	-	6 hours	120-240 Gems
Crates of Simple Jewelry	17	20 Precious Gems	10 Exotic Leather Strips	6 Hours	160-320 Gems
Crates of Precious Jewelry	23	20 Perfect Gems	10 Aberrant Leather Strips	6 Hours	200-400 Gems

As you can see we can generate up to 1120 Gems every 6 hours, with a Epic Asset it is done in just 4 hours. The listed resources can be bought for Guild Marks from The Atelier and The Tannery. A detailed Guide will be published seperatly.

Spawning Sites of Rare Chultan Mobs

Click on picture to see larger format. From Neverwinter Unblogged.

Seminar on Stronghold Development I

Figure 1: The Steward from Nevembers Lackey's on the Preview Shard

Welcome,

This Seminar is meant for everyone who is interested in Managing and Planning a Stronghold in Neverwinter.

Stronghold management includes planning the order of structures you want to build on your stronghold map as well as monitoring and directing the resources required for those Buildings.

In Figure 1 you can see The Steward, he is an important NPC for your Stronghold Development.

By talking to him you can access the Stronghold Overview.

Figure 2: Stronghold Overview , Summary Tab

In Figure 2 you can see the Summary Tab of the Stronghold Overview. Here you‘ll find your current Target and what resources are still needed for its completion. Important to note is that all shown values for the strucures in the Overview already take your Stronghold Alliance Discount into account. Very convenient.

You also see the amount of resources currently stored in your production structures (Farm, Lumberyard, Mine, Quarry).

Figure 3: Stronghold Overview, Construction Tab

Figure 3 is showing the Construction Tab which includes a List of all structures already built on your stronghold map and available Plots for future projects.

By hovering your cursor over a Structure a smaller window will pop up showing you the required resources for the next rank of that building. Again Stronghold Alliance Discount included!

Once you have decided on the next Structure you want to build you can set it as Contribution Target with a click on the button to the bottom of that window. This way your Guildies see what resources are required for their Coffer Donations. You can change the Target as many times as you like.

You can also access this list via your Guild Management Window, but CAUTION the values which are showing here do not include the Stronghold Alliance Discount.

Tending

As mentioned before we have 4 production structures on the stronghold map namely the Farm (Food), Lumberyard (Wood), Mine (Metal) and the Quarry (Stone). Those resources are important for your main buildings but even more so for the Temporary Structures.

All of them have a internal storage capacity which will fill up every 8 hours. Depending on the rank of the Structure and on an exiting support structure that capacity can be increased.

Once they reach capacity they will stop producing resources. So go tend them regularly.

John from Ghost Templars made a video on tending which is linked below.

http://neverwintertemplars.blogspot.de/2017/06/tending-stronghold.html#links

Resources

There are a lot of diffrent resources required for building structures on the stronghold map. Some of them are prouduced over time (Farm,…) and some can be farmed like the campaign resources, but there are resources which tend to always create a bottleneck for your stronghold progression.

Influence, Shards of Power, Gems and Surplus Equipment will be the most difficult to get resources. Influence and Shards of Power have a daily cap for earning them. Gems are used for refinement and Surplus Equipment helps in earning Astral Diamonds.

Strategies to gather those resources efficiently without cutting into personal gains will be presented and discussed in a later post.

Temporary Structures

With Mod 11.5 we received the option to build temporary structures on stronghold map. If you leave the stronghold through the northwestern tunnel you will arrive at the Millabout Market which presents 4 Plots for the temporary structures. Any temp. Structure will last for 7 days and you can only have one of a kind active at the same time.

We ignore structures which help with Mastercrafting for now and pay closer attention to structures which produce valuable resources for your stronghold coffer, namely the Recruiter and the Gemcutter.

Table 1: Costs for Recruiter and Gemcutter per week without Stronghold Alliance Discount

Structure	Labor	Food	Metal	Stone	Wood	Production/Week
Recruiter	12.000	38.000	27.000	24.000	32.000	16.800 Influence
Gemcutter	23.000		31.000	34.000	40.000	24.000 Gems
Total/Week	35.000	38.000	58.000	58.000	72.000

As you can see in Table 1 temporary structure are basicly exchange buildings were you trade lower valued resources for higher valued ones like Influence and Gems.

The Goal for every Guild still in development should be a constant Uptime of the Recruiter and the Gemcutter to speedup your Stronghold Progression.

With the afore mentioned Goal in mind I suggest the following Roadmap for Stronghold Development. The chosen Boon Structures have a focus on PvE content, but are in my opinion also viable in PvP.

Roadmap

Guild Hall Rank 5

- Stable rank 1-2

- Milling Yard rank 1(if you can effort it)

- Recruiter every week

Guild Hall Rank 6

- Stable to rank 3

- Market Place to rank 3

- Farm, Lumberyard, Mine, Quarry to rank 3

- Recruiter every week

Guild Hall Rank 7

- Warehouse rank 1-3

- Smelter Yard or Masonry Guild rank 1 (if you can effort it)

- Recruiter or Gemcutter every week

Guild Hall Rank 8

- Stable to rank 4

- Farm, Lumberyard, Mine , Quarry to rank 4

- Warehouse to rank 4

- Market Place to rank 4

- Recruiter or Gemcutter every week

Guild hall to rank 9

- Wizards Workshop rank 1-4 (depending on your Conquerer‘s Shard Situation you can also build the Barracks at this point, but the Power Boon will only unlock at rank 3+)

- Recruiter or Gemcutter every week

Guild Hall Rank 10

- Stable to rank 5

- Wizards Workshop to rank 5

- Warehouse to rank 5

- Market Place to rank 5

- Farm, Lumberyard, Mine , Quarry to rank 5

- Recruiter or Gemcutter every week

Guild Hall Rank 11

- Masonry Guild or Smelters Yard rank 1 the one you didn‘t chose earlier (if you can effort it)

- Recruiter or Gemcutter every week

Guild Hall Rank 12

- Stable to rank 6

- Wizards Workshop to rank 6

- Warehouse to rank 6

- Market Place to rank 6

- Farm, Lumberyard, Mine , Quarry to rank 6

- Milling Yard rank 2, now you can build the Recruiter and Gemcutter at the same time

- Recruiter and Gemcutter every week

Guild Hall Rank 13

- Barracks 1-6, if you have enough Conquerer‘s Shards of Power. The upgrade can be postponed until the Guild Hall upgrade to rank 15.

- Recruiter and Gemcutter every week

Guild Hall Rank 14

- Stable to rank 7

- Wizards Workshop to rank 7

- Barracks to rank 7

- Warehouse to rank 7

- Market Place to rank 7

- Farm, Lumberyard, Mine , Quarry to rank 7

- Recruiter and Gemcutter every week

Guild Hall Rank 15

- Animal Pen rank 1

- Recruiter and Gemcutter every week

Guild Hall Rank 16

- Stable to rank 8

- Wizards Workshop to rank 8

- Barracks to rank 8

- Warehouse to rank 8

- Market Place to rank 8

- Farm, Lumberyard, Mine , Quarry to rank 8

- one of your Support Structures (Milling Yard, Masonry Guild, Smelters Yard, Animal Pen) to rank 8 Animal Pen would be the cheapest in terms of Shards of power

- Recruiter and Gemcutter every week

Guild Hall Rank 17

- Last Boon Plot unlocked: Temple for PvE or Explorer‘s Guild for PvP

With your last Boon Structuer built there is only one big goal left Guild Hall Rank 20 and that road is pretty straight foward.

Thoughts on Boons

Will be added after an open discussion during the Seminar.

Seminar on Stronghold Development II

Since there will be alot of things left unanwsered in 45min of the first Seminar we will give a second one (maybe even a third).

Topics for the 2nd Seminar

- Strategies to overcome the Resource Bottlenecks

- How to make Astral Diamonds with Temporary Structures

- …

Please suggest additional topics either during the first Seminar or via ingame mail to Fennik@rothgarbaerig.

Want to know what's up with the Templars?

TEMPLAR COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
AUGUST 4, 2017

Xerxes began the meeting at 3:05 PM on Teamspeak noting that Haelirin will be late, Perseus is on vacation, and Dusk had to sleep. Thyra has resigned from the Council for personal reasons. The guild is greatly indebted to her for her long service as Guild Crafter and Marshall since the Guild's Founding.

John gave a report on recruitment efforts indicating that we are at max capacity when one considers the number of current GT and ST recruits.  Xerxes noted that 72 members of Spirit Templars are level 70; however, many of these toons are alts of GT members.

Mrs Toons was not able to attend the meeting so Fennik reported on the bank as he has been very involved in raising funds for the Stronghold development by selling off Craft Store, GTBank and Bank holdings. Fennik stated that we have 1,000 Zen and 200K AD in the bank. There is a very large amount of shards and explorer scrolls in the bank as Fennik used the guild AD to purchase Stronghold strongboxes during the Double Shard event. The shards will be used for future Stronghold upgrades and the scrolls will be used to gather resources for the guild crafter.

Concerning Stronghold development, Fennik indicated that we are ahead of schedule as we continue raising resources to upgrade the guildhall to rank 15.  Our major bottlenecks are gems and influence.

Xerxes noted that Fennik will be giving a seminar on Stronghold Development on Sunday, August 6, at 3PM ET before the 4PM ET Regular Alliance Meeting.  He reported that the Alliance is at capacity with 13 member guilds. He noted that the Alliance is very active as indicated by the number of Dragonflight and Marauder events; the well-attended monthly meetings; and the on-going monthly educational seminars.

Fennik, who is the guild Battlemaster, reported that the daily Dragonflight is being conducted at 1:30PM ET with the help of our dedicated battlemasters: Dusk, Perseus, Fennik, Raz, and Haelirin. Haelirin volunteered to conduct a weekly Marauder's event so members can get weekly 600 influence alottment.

Haelirin reported that the GTST channel is functional. This past week he sent a guild mail to ST members inviting them to the channel and will do so with GT members asap.  Members will receive a rank 7 enchantment on becoming a channel member.

Xerxes reported that the blog and teamspeak are both very active at various time periods in response to specific happenings, i.e., a new article or seminar. He was glad to report that every Marshall uses Teamspeak.

Xerxes reported that Dr. Death graciously volunteered to become the new Guild Crafter.  He will work closely with Thyra in gathering the guild's crafting resources. Xerxes will produce a new Crafting Program page for the blog with input from Dr. Death and John.

The Council conducted Elections. Besides Thyra's resignation, Xerxes noted that the term of office of Ebb and Flow and Brandis has expired and that they will be returned to normal guild rank. The guild is grateful for their service. Haelirin and Dr. Death were unanimously elected Marshalls.

As the Council had no additional business, the meeting was adjourned at approximately 4:15PM ET.

The next meeting of the Council of Templars is on Friday, September 1 at 2PM ET (after T3's).

Respectfully submitted,
Xerxes

Looking for Chultan Treasures?

for a larger image go to the source at ddmsrrealm.com

Thank you, Thyra, for Your Service...

We regret to announce that Thyra can no longer serve as a Guildmaster of Spirit Templars and as the Director of the Guild Crafting Program.

We are most appreciative of all the hard work she has done for both guilds.  Because of her efforts, our members have been outfitted quickly and well.  Because of her work, our guild has become a mighty fighting machine.

On behalf of all the Templars, we thank you, Thyra, for your service and wish you many more enjoyable gaming days :)

Fennik, GT
Haelirin, ST
Mrs Toons, ST
Xerxes , GT & ST

Monthly Meeting of the Council of Templars' Minutes

Meeting of the Council of Templars Meeting
July 14, 2017
On Teamspeak

The meeting was called to order at 2PM EDT by Xerxes.

Xerxes reported for Stronghold Director Fennik that the Stronghold development is going ahead as planned. In order to reach our goal of having a rank 16 goal by the end of the year, we will not upgrade the barracks further but instead build an animal pen and upgrade it to rank 7.

We will complete our contract with Tornado of Souls for an exchange of Influence for strongboxes of power within two weeks.

John reported that recruiting has been excellent with GT having 148 members. Xerxes will clean out the roster soon to make room for more transfers from ST.

Xerxes noted that Mrs. Toons was not able to attend for personal reasons.  He reported that Fennik has been selling off bank items to raise AD for the stronghold progression.  He further noted the gracious donations by guildies to the guild bank, coffer and for TeamSpeak.

Xerxes reported that Thyra was unable to attend for family reasons. The guildmasters have decided to suspend the Crafting program for six months or until Thyra is able to begin her work once again.  All the items in the ST and GT banks will be sold on the AH; the AD being used for VIP, strongbox keys and strongboxes of power.

Xerxes reported that the Alliance is sponsoring seminars twice per month.  The Tanking seminar was a great success. The seminar schedule thus far is: August: Healing; September: Stronghold Progression; October: Hunter Ranger.  He noted that the Alliance is now complete with the addition of 3 new guilds to the Alliance. Ghost Templars is committed to developing strong ties between member guilds.

Haelirin, an ST Guildmaster, was asked to report on Spirit Templars.  He noted that the morale is good. He encouraged better communication between GT and ST and suggested the GTST game chat channel be promoted further.  Therefore, in the upcoming weeks, a member who signs up for the channel will receive a rank 7 enchantment.  Haelirin noted that he'd like to have ST sponsor a dragonflight during the open 11:30AM EDT time slot occasionally.

John suggested that ST members be taken on Experience Bear Runs in the stronghold.  He will make a video on how to run such an encounter.  Perseus volunteered to run some of these events.

The meeting ended at 3PM EDT.

Respectfully,
Xerxes

Sahha Balls

Summer Festival offers some pretty awesome rewards, and the key to the best of it is getting yourself some Sahha Balls.  Through Sahha you can gain copper, silver, and mitheral tickets.  Note that there are many highly valued items beyond the legendary mounts, there are strongboxes to help your stronghold development, preservation wards, and many hard to get enchants only offered through events, e.g. Brutal enchantment.  Here is a video of how to start obtaining Sahha Balls.  It is unedited at the moment (will edit and speed it up soon), but it walks you through the process that is not explained well in Neverwinter.  The first time you do this on your character you must play in a Sahha match, but after that you don't need to that.  You get three balls the first time you complete the tasks, then you get one per day and only have to collect the flax seed and run the profession to get your ball.  So this means the first day it takes a little time, but after that it is pretty quick.  Enjoy!

After you have created a truckload of sahha balls, party up some friends so that everyone will reap the rewards.  Go to any enclosed space in the game, e.g. under the bridge (in the corner wedge) in the summer festival map, inside a tent at the main campground in Volosk, and start kicking your ball as fast as you can.  The ball is on a timer, so the more you kick it the more the rewards drop.  This is why you want a confined space, so the ball doesn't get away from you.  Don't pick up any rewards until the timer on the ball expires, otherwise you won't kick it as much and you won't get as many rewards to drop.  It is fairly easy to create 800-1000 balls during the event with five characters on your account.  You are looking for the mitheral tickets to drop.  Take them to the vendor by the soccer field and trade them in.  This is how you can get a chance for awesome drops, like a tensor disc.

Click the square brackets in the lower right corner to go FULL SCREEN.

Mithral Tickets
Midsummer Legendary Mount Raffle
Chance at Emperor Beetle, Black Ice Warhorse, Tenser's Floating Disk, Imperial Rage Drake, or Skeleton Steed
Midsummer Epic Mount Raffle
Chance at Heavy Inferno Nightmare, Sylvan Stag, Owlbear, Apparatus of Kwalish, Gorgon, Rage Drake, or Giant Beetle
Midsummer Artifact Raffle
Chance at Forgehammer of Gond, Token of Chromatic Storm, Thayan Book of the Dead, Kessell's Spheres of Annihiliation, Horn of Valhalla, or Sphere of Black Ice

Silver Tickets
Amnian Jadeite
Preservation Ward
Azure Enchantment, Rank 7
Silvery Enchantment, Rank 7
Radiant Enchantment, Rank 7
Dark Enchantment, Rank 7
Draconic Enchantment, Rank 7
Brutal Enchantment, Rank 7
Cruel Enchantment, Rank 7
Vicious Enchantment, Rank 7
Savage Enchantment, Rank 7
Black Ice Enchantment, Rank 7
Every Type of Insignia!
Golden Bell
Strongbox of Influence
Strongbox of Surplus Equipment
Strongbox of Gems

Copper Tickets
Flowers for everyone
Favor of Sune
Enchiridion of the Volley
Codex of the Check
Fundamentals of the Spike
Compendium of the Set
Body Paint "Dancing Clouds"
Body Paint "Barbed Flames"
Body Paint "Gilded Wire"
South Sea Coutrements
South Sea Sarong
Ornate Sahha Ball
Brown Boo Sahha Ball
Red Dragon Sahha Ball
Blue Beholder Sahha Ball
Relaxing Summer Chair

by El Sacerdote@John#5811 aka John on TS

Fennik, Perseus, Jantas, Dude & Serena at Tomb of the Nine

Click to see the Developer Blog for Tomb of the Nine

with assistance from Sugar Daddy Feygorn :)

First Boss done!

Right infront of the 2nd Boss.

Second Boss done.

Yes, that is the Arena with the final Boss.

Last challenge has yet to be completed.

Stronghold Update

Dear Templar,

Time for a new stronghold update to inform you about our latest achievements and future plans for the Guild!

Finished upgrades in the May and June 2017:

- Guildhall to rank 14
- Stable to rank 7
- Wizard Workshop to rank 7
- Market Place to rank 7
- Lumberyard to rank 7
- Quarry to rank 7
- Barracks to rank 5
- Smelters Yard to rank 2

Requirements for the upgrade to Guildhall 15:

Warehouse, Mine, Farm and Barracks to rank 7

Our biggest roadblock is and always will be the Conqueror‘s Shards of Power (CSoP) for the Barracks and the POWER BOON.

Aside from winning in PvP, those CSoP can only be aquired from the Maze Engine- and Elemental Evil Campaign as well as from the Stronghold Chest of Power (300 Zen/150.000 AD).

Farming the dailies of both campaigns for 5 days will yield 20 CSoP. Kind of MEH!

1 Stronghold Chest of Power will give 100 of each Heroic- /Adventurer- /Dungeneer- /Conqueror Shards of Power (Total 400).

Opening those Stronghold Chests of Power during a 2x Shards Event will result in a total of 800 Shards of Power per Chest.

That is what we are currently preparing for.

So far we have gathered 80 Stronghold Chests of Power and keep buying them from the AD we receive through your generous Donations! Thank you very much and please keep it coming ;)

Total number of Stronghold Chests of Power required to upgrade the Barracks:

Barracks       Total number of Chests
      6                       42
      7                       91
      8                     145
      9                     204
    10                     270

Right now there is no 2x Shards Event scheduled in the calendar that means we have over 2 months time to gather as many Stronghold Chests of Power as we can.
You can help by donating Items to the Guild Bank which we will sell to make AD or by directly buying Stronghold Chests of Power and sending them to GTBank@gtbank#2424 where we will store them until the 2x Shards Event.

All the Best,
Xerxes & Fennik

4 Dragon Run

We hope you enjoy this four dragon run.  It even has an exciting finish with the timer winding down!  Thank you to Not Worth Killing for sharing this awesome piece of fun!

Click the squared brackets in the lower right to go FULL SCREEN.

Cast of Characters:

Mildly Offensive
Not Half A Doctor
Fennik
Jantas
Sharyah

Tanking CN, eTOS, eLOL

Our alliance tanking seminary is this Sunday 3 pm EST.  We streamed some dungeons today, and Black Dragon gave some commentary on how he tanks, Castle Never (CN), Epic Templs of the Spider (eTOS), and Epic Lair of Lostmauth (eLOL).  We hope you enjoy this video, and it whets your appetite for the tanking seminar.  Details on the seminar are below in the previous post!

Click the squared brackets in the lower right corner to go FULL SCREEN.

To Tank or Not To Tank?

YOU ARE INVITED!

TANK or NOT TO TANK

Training Workshop for Alliance Neverwinter
Sunday, July 2nd, 3PM EST on Alliance Teamspeak

Prepared by Aussie@mysticaussie

OVERVIEW & PURPOSE
Bringing alliance member’s together to embrace their class, providing practical experience and understanding with sound knowledge; enhancing your gaming career.

SESSION TIME: 3:00pm - 3:45pm

Introduction: ​Workshop Guests to be introduced

Each speaker will introduce themselves, their build, why they chose to be a
guardian fighter as well as their preference regarding either PVE or PVP.

This short training guide is about pure tanking, Today, we have Alliance members here
to outline their experiences including challenges that face the Guardian Fighter. Each
member has their own style based on these experiences, we ALL started somewhere….

Where did you start?

Guardian Fighters focus on confronting and holding ground against enemies, which
taking the main focus ensuring the attention of the enemy to create an easier defeat. It is
not the primary target of the Guardian Fighter to focus on damage.

Hint:
PVP​: defend the node; so that your allies are free to kill, because YOU will not be able to.
PVE​: hold up your shield up especially with the boss, bash him for a few seconds let your
stacks build up. Monitor your damage.

Topic One: What abilities are best? 

Primary Abilities:
1. Constitution: As a Guardian fighter you need to consider constitution, this will be how much punishment you will take. Your HP (Hit Points).
2. Strength: Damage that you do that will cause the boss to stay focused on you
3. Dexterity: Try and get dexterity as high as possible.

Topic Two: How do I choose what Race? 

Picking a race is more personal choice than anything. What makes you happy? What racial abilities does this race offer and ability bonus? Research what will ultimately enhance your play style and build.

Hint​: Some races will give you an edge. 

Topic Three: Confused with gear and items? 

How heavy is the guardian fighter's gear? Well if you are expecting to run a marathon FORGET IT. you are a turtle. You pop out and then hide in your shell so to speak. Find the most defensive/protective armor you can get. Armor gear is important so keep on top of it. You might want to focus on regeneration and life steal. Constant HP regen and stealing HP from your enemies as you attack them.

Hint: PVP​: you need to be able to heal yourself over time. 
PVE​: help the DC/healers in this environment (always keep that shield UP, stay alive and control the combat). Potions will also assist these could save your life. 

Topic Four: How do I play? 

You need to lead, get aggro, avoid traps and burning areas. You need to be the one to get to the toughest enemy within the group. Take the immediate focus and once defeated, you can then help destroy the adds. This is the time to then heal if you need.

Hint: Used your most damaging daily or encounter to start with. Do not use your daily unless you have too.

Topic Five: What companions/mounts and insignia do I choose? 

Interestingly enough there are a lot of opinions on this topic, but if you want to start with the basics here are a few options to start with. Once you are comfortable with your guardian fighter explore up to date companions to assist your class. There are a lot of guides to choose from (google it, ask about it, try it)

Companions: Strikers are great for dps (damage per second) this will assist in speeding things up, some guardians will use the striker then switch out to a healer when encountering a boss. Here are just a few below:

1. Dancing Shield: this will give you a 20% defence debuff on the target hit as well as the 3 X defence slots for bondings along with 3 belt slots.
2. Energon: 5% hp need we say more.
3. Rust Monster: (my favourite) 5% damage debuff on attacker when you are hit and stacks 3 times. 4. Stalwart Golden Lion: this will build your radiant weapon buff (alternatively a Dread Warrior)
5. Healer: cost effective regarding potions, great when you are grouping or challenging the boss, but if your healer gets the aggro make sure make sure that you taunt the enemy from the healer.

Mounts/Insignia bonus: This is an important part of the of your tanking potential, and the many options that are available to you depend on your build type. As stated earlier especially in PVP you need to heal yourself.

This is my suggested Insignia bonus that I have used for my buff/tank build: (Aussie - Fighter Sword Master Tactician/Protector)

- Oppressor’s Reprieve - Heal over time, when stunned, knocked or immobilized 4% of your max HP over 4 seconds.
- Shepherds devotion - when you use your daily power there is an increase in your teammates defence, deflect and movement by 5% of your power.
- Champions Return - heal over time and stamina, when at 50% HP you instantly recover 20% of stamina and healed for 20% of your max HP over 10 seconds.
- Gladiators Guile - move faster when your stamina is high and regen stamina when it is low.
- Survivor’s Blessing - heal over time, when deflecting an attack you are healed 3% of your max HP over 4 sec.

Topic Six: PVE (Player V Environment) 

Do you want to be successful to your party? You are the one who leads the group, takes the agro, you wear the damage so that your party does not. Keep the attention of the most powerful enemy. If you are struggling communicate with the party, change strategies, you are the battle manager, if the enemy is not attacking you…. You are NOT doing your job! Look after your healers where possible, agro the attention from the healer. Looooove your healer...

Topic Seven: PVP (Player V Player)

Remember that your party will also be successful when you play as a team in PVP.

TEAM 
T=Together, 
E=Everyone, 
A=Achieves, 
M=More. 

Contrary to popular belief it is not how many kills you achieve in PVP in my opinion it is about winning the match as a TEAM, communicating strategies, changing tactics, supporting and defending your teammates. If you are in it for yourself, you do not have your party’s best interest in the forefront of your mind. D n D is not about doing it alone, never was. It is very frustrating for a guardian fighter, I assure you YOU will be taunted, YOU will take a beating, YOU will be the bait if you do not work as a TEAM. The guardian fighter will call the targets BACK them up. During PVP there aggro and taunts are lost compared to PVE.

In Conclusion: 

Tanking comes with experience and study, ensure that you prepare yourself to be a tank. If you are not experienced in specific dungeons and or PVP there are great youtube videos that will assist in the understanding what is expected. Talk to those who are experienced for tips and guidance …. HAPPY TANKING!!! For more information look for this document and more in the Workshop Seminary channel in Teamspeak.

New video linked on our Stronghold menu/page on the topic of T3's, aka Big Heroics in the Stronghold.

Click the bracketed square in the lower left of the video to take it FULL SCREEN.

New Guild Goals

Templars:

The following list of goals approved by the Council of Templars shows where we expect the guild to be at the end of the year.  We thank you in advance for being part of the journey and helping us achieve our destination :)

Six Month Goals (June 1 - December 31)

1) Become a level 16 guild;

2) Serve at least ten members per month via the Crafting Store;

3) Increase Teamspeak usage with ten new users;

4) Increase the number of posts to the blog to at least one per week;

5) Recruit fifty new members;

6) Increase member item level so that 10% of the members have Hero rank (12,000 IL);

7) Offer two educational seminars (on healing, class builds, etc.) to the Alliance and members; and

8) Increase the number of Stronghold boons to nine.

We can do it!

All the best,
Fennik and Xerxes

Announcing: Alliance Tanking Seminar

TANK or NOT to TANK...

An Alliance Training Seminar on Tanking:
Sunday, July 2nd, 3PM (sharp) EST on Alliance Teamspeak
For more information, contact Serena@mysticaussie

Bringing member's together to embrace their GF and OP classes.

Providing practical experience and understanding with sound knowledge; enhancing your gaming career.

Every seminar encourages those members who are interested in a specific class of choice.

We will discuss topics such as back to basics, beginners to advanced, tweak your builds, and play styles - PVP verses PVE the list is endless. We are here to help point you in the right direction.

If you have a specific tanking question, mail it to Xerxes@fidelis#5885. We hope to answer your tanking questions during the seminar.

All the best,
Xerxes
Alliance Secretary

Tending the Stronghold

So we are starting to add videos to the website, and our first is a quick tutorial on how to tend the stronghold.  This video is also on our stronghold page/menu above, but is here to make it convenient for you to see just what is new!

YouTube Tending Video (5:24)

You can enlarge the video with the YouTube controls

or by clicking the [  ] in the lower, right, corner.

by John@nevertoad

So You Want TeamSpeak to Talk to You

TeamSpeak (TS) has the ability to speak to you.  It can tell you that "Xerxes" has entered the channel, or "John" has left the server, etc.  This feature is particularly helpful if you do not have two monitors and TS needs to run in the background behind Neverwinter.  This feature is client based, so each person decides whether or not they want to turn it on.  To use this feature:

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Create a bookmark if you are not already using one and enter the following settings.  Otherwise, manage your bookmark and enter the following settings.

1. Bookmarks menu, "Add to Bookmarks"
2. Click the "Go Advanced" link at the bottom to the left of the OK button.  This will bring up more options.
3. Bookmark Name: Alliance
   Or whatever you want to call it
4. Nickname: Xerxes
   Enter the name you want to see appear for you when you are on TS, do not put any tags on it such as [GT][SoS][TCA] etc.  These automatically appear when a server admin grants you privileges.  If you put your own, you probably will fool the server admins, and they won't grant you any rights.
5. Phonetic Nickname: Zerk-zees
   Enter your nickname as in #4, but instead spell it as it would sound.  Many names will be just fine, but if you have non-English name with a different pronunciation, or a name with special characters, you will need to do your best to write it phonetically.  This is how TS will try to say the name so that it is meaningful to everyone who uses Text to Speech.  Again, only enter the name, no tags or other text.  Use the "Self" menu, "Set Phonetic Nickname" and you can try spellings out, press play, and find one you like.
6. Server Address: ghosttemplars.teamspeak3.com
7. Put a check in the final checkbox called "Connect on Startup," if you want TS to always startup using this bookmark.  By using this bookmark, you will not have to enter all of the above settings each time you launch the application.  This is super convenient.  If you don't see the checkbox, go back to step 2, and make sure you "Go Advanced."
8. Click OK to save these settings.

HOW TO SETUP TEXT TO SPEECH

1. Tools menu, "Options," select "Notifications" on the left.
2. Change the Sound Pack to "Default Text To Speech"
   Notice the "Get more soundpacks" link just above the apply button.  If you want a different soundpack, it is highly advisable that you use this link and only download soundpacks from reputable and well known sources.  You don't want to download a soundpack that is a Trojan virus or other malware, you don't want a keylogger that could harvest your login and get your game hacked.  Use only reputable companies for soundpacks.
3. Select "Playback" on the left, and notice the two volume sliders.  The second is the "Sound Pack Volume," and you can lower this so that TS will make its announcement softly and won't overpower all the other voices in your TS channel.  I set mine to -37.0 dB, which is less than 10% of the slider.  Everyone's computer, headset, etc. is different, so find a happy place for you.
4. Click OK to save these settings.
5. VERY IMPORTANT: Now close the application completely and relaunch it.  All done, have fun with it!

Thank you to Nasali and the many others in TS that helped during the implementation of the Text to Speech feature!

by John@nevertoad