Virtual Item Spotlight: Intellect Devourer

The game of Neverwinter Online has a number of item types that could effectively reviewed as part of a virtual item spotlight, but really the Companions fit the best. Everyone gets a Companion, an AI-controlled NPC who fights beside your character, which can be customized to a certain extent. Any given Companion can be upgraded with three pieces of equipment and three runestones—as well as raised to a maximum of level 30.

The Intellect Devourer is a very interesting Companion. Ostensively, this brain with legs is a horrifying monster that, once being human, has turned its life-goals to doing good and has chosen to adventure with the character who owns it. It is a striker-type, which means it has a powerful attack and fights fairly aggressively.

The back story for the Devourer is also excellent:

This poor wretch still retains some humanity after its dark transformation by evil sorcery was interrupted before its horrible consummation. Now it strives to do good deeds and honor what it remembers of its former existence.

Aww, isn’t that cute? It strives to do good deeds, even though it’s become a horrifying mockery of humanity and can no longer go back to its former life and holds a quasi-human existence.

Acquisition

The Intellect Devourer companion can obtained as a very rare reward from the Call To Arms: Gate Crashers skirmish. The last time this took place was July 17th to July 21st, 2014 and any future date has not yet been released by Cryptic Studios.

If you did not get one then, you’ll have to buy one from the auction house in Neverwinter Online. The companion runs approximately 200,000 Astral Diamonds. At the current exchange rate to Zen (500 AD per Zen) that’s approximately 400 Zen or about $4.00.

Aesthetics

It’s a brain with legs.

The Intellect Devourer is described as a glistening brain with four, clawed legs. The one in Neverwinter Online is exactly as gruesome as described, although the brain does not glisten so much, the legs thrust out quadrapedal from the cerebellum, and they end in sharp, gristly claws.

As with most companions, the Devourer has four skins available—but sadly they don’t seem very imaginative. Each progressive skin simply changes to a darker hue, but does not add any sort of glisten, psionic glow, trembling brainwaves, or anything all that really says, “Ghoulishly transformed murderbrain.”

Abilities and Training

The Intellect Devourer starts with points in Power, Critical Strike, and Armor Penetration and three defensive slots for runestones.

When this companion is in an active slot it provides +2/3/5% to Combat Advantage depending on the rank of the Devourer.

An important thing to note about the Devourer is that it’s a green quality companion, meaning it has a max rank of 20. Massive amounts of Astral Diamonds must be spent to get it up to a purple quality to raise the max to 30. This can make it somewhat costly in the care and feeding aspect.

Its two primary abilities include a mind blast power that appears to fire on a single target inflicting moderate damage, it uses this attack quite often; and a cone-of-effect control ability called mind shock. Mind shock inflicts cone AoE damage on enemies in front of the Devourer and stuns them for 2 seconds. Upon reaching rank 30, mind flay becomes available which upgrades mind shock to a 4 second hold.

The mind blast is nice and provides a fair amount of extra DPS; but the real joy of the Devouer is from the mind shock ability that provides some crowd control.

When the mind shock ability goes off, everything struck (sometimes even bosses) stands in dazed horror, sparkles glittering around their heads, as you continue to hammer away at them. The crowd control from mind shock comes as extremely useful for both solo and group with any class that tends to fight at range as it allows an easy escape.

Even without many runestones, the Devourer is somewhat resilient and does not get killed often. However, the three defensive slots do mean that it can be used to build up some strong defenses, deflection, or increased hitpoints. Getting better firepower out of this critter will need to be done with glyphs and equipment in its wardrobe slots.

The Devourer gets a neck and two waist slots (two belts), which does mean there’s still a lot of chance to outfit it with nice gear to up its damage scores.