Ability Scores

• What do they do ?
• Base Ability Scores
• Ability Scores gained through Leveling
• What to pick ?
• As a Tank
• As a Healer
• As a Damage Dealer

What do they do ?

In Neverwinter, each Ability Score increases 2 of your Stats percentages. Half of your Ability Score value is added to a main Stat percentage. A quarter of your Ability Score value is added to a second Stat percentage.

Base Ability Scores

When you create your character, you choose a Race and a Class. Your base Ability Scores depend on the Class you pick. On top of your base Ability Scores, the Race you pick gives you a +2 (or +3) bonus to 1, 2, or 3 Ability Scores. You can attribute 1 or 2 of those bonuses to the Ability Scores of your choice (either to a selection of them, or any of them, depending on the Race). Once picked, the only way to change these is to use a Race Reroll Token (which you can buy in the Zen Market for 750 Zen).

Ability Scores gained through Leveling

Every 3 levels up to level 12 (3, 6, 9, 12), then every 2 levels up to level 20 (14, 16, 18, 20), you will be able to improve 2 Ability Scores of your choice by 1 point. Except at level 30 and level 60, at which you will gain 1 point in every of your Ability Scores. These points are attributed to your Loadout, which means you can have different bonuses on different Loadouts. At the end of the day, that's 6 x 2 points you can attribute on each of your Loadouts. These 6 points in 2 Ability Scores can give you a total of :

• Strength : 3% Stamina Regeneration, 1.5% Physical Damage Boost
• Constitution : 3% HP, 1.5% Action Point Gain
• Dexterity : 3% Critical Severity, 1.5% Movement Speed
• Intelligence : 3% Control Bonus, 1.5% Magical Damage Boost
• Wisdom : 3% Control Resistance, 1.5% Outgoing Healing
• Charisma : 3% Forte, 1.5% Recharge Speed

What to pick ?

As a Tank

The obvious thing to do is to put your points into Constitution : you need HP to sustain damage, and Action Point Gain can be useful.

Charisma is the Ability Score that will boost your defensive stats the most, and will let you use your powers more often. You can also pick Dexterity for the Movement Speed (Tanks don't have a dash/teleport/sprint). If you are going on the offensive, Paladins mostly rely on Intelligence to deal more damage, contrarily to Fighters and Barbarians who rely mostly on Strength (which is also useful for the Stamina Gain, stamina being necessary to block). More damage means better aggro (which means monsters target you, instead of your friends, more easily).

As a Healer

The main healing stat is Outgoing Healing, and you get some from Wisdom, so go for it !

Then, the best way to boost your healing is to put your points into Charisma, as Forte will improve your Divinity or Soulweave Regeneration plus two other Stats. Dexterity is less efficient in terms of healing/damage mitigation, but gives you a small bonus to Movement Speed. Constitution is also a valid choice, for the HP and Action Point Gain, which are both very valuable for Healers.

As a Damage Dealer

Physical Damage Dealers should go for Strength while Magical Damage Dealers should go for Intelligence. Note that Physical or Magical depends on your powers and not your class. Usually, Melee classes deal Physical Damage, and Range classes deal Magical Damage, but that differs from power to power. So, make sure you improve Strength or Intelligence depending on the powers you use.

Charisma is an excellent secondary Ability Score, especially for classes which have long cooldowns. It will give you both damage and survivability. Dexterity is also a good secondary Ability Score (for the Movement Speed), especially for Clerics who do not care about their cooldowns and have less interesting Stats boosted by Forte.