Friday Grab Bag - 07/14/2017

Posted by Community | 2017 Jul 14 15:09 -0400 GMT
Happy Friday all! Shields, specs, and realm timers popular questions lately, so off we go...

If you have game related questions for our DAOC Devs, don't forget to send them in through our Grab Bag submission form. Please note this is for game questions, feedback should be sent in through our feedback form.

Click for more!



I'm trying to focus an Armsman spec on defense. Does the shield spec effect only damage done and styles or also block rate? Also how does parry compare to blocking with shields at higher specs? Would it be better to put points in parry over shield for defense?

Shield specialization affects damage dealt, to-hit chance, and block rate. In terms of Parry vs Shield spec, there are too many factors at play to say which one is better to specialize in for defense. Does the class have a better parry-reactionary style than a block-reactionary style? Is the character close to the block or parry cap already? These sorts of things all would factor into an answer. This is the sort of question you’ll want to approach other players for advice on or experiment yourself in-game with some tests. We can use this Grab Bag to explain how certain game mechanics work but we aren’t going to give away the right answer for every scenario. Figuring out those answers and using them to achieve competitive advantages over other players is part of the fun of the game!


Are there any plans to revamp items such as the Dragon Loot and Kings Armor to eliminate skills that are no longer needed in templates? Example is the Nightshade's King's Armor, and the Dragon Armor all have envenom which isn't needed, and makes these items redundant in some regards.

This is certainly something we can look at down the road. The King’s Armor was designed in such a way that removing those skills from it wouldn’t make the items any better elsewhere because the other stats are already at the level they are meant to be. For the Dragon’s gear and other items with +Envenom skill, we can take a look at changing it to another relevant +skill, removing it, or ultimately allowing +Envenom skill to affect damage like other skill lines.


I know you’ve spoken before on this but it’s been some time and things having changed population wise, so I’m curious have you given thought to implementing realm timers again?

The vast majority of accounts have characters on multiple realms on Ywain and we don’t think it would be a good idea to limit access to those characters with something as harsh as a realm timer. The recent addition of the dynamic population bonus system has helped alleviate some of the population imbalances but the nature of the game is that there will always be a realm with more players online than other realms. If population imbalances become worse and remain so we would look at some sort of realm-loyalty bonus system before ever considering realm timers.


Question about the Chanter Mana spec. There has been a lot of changes to the chanter since the last time I played. This question is in reference to PvE. I am getting two answers and would like to know which is correct. Some say the focus shield "Aura of Global Feedback does not generate agro for the pet. Some say that is does. Can you please clarify this for me? Damage from the focus shield should generate agro for the pet?

Damage shields (focus or otherwise) cast on a pet generate aggro for both the pet and the pet’s owner. The pet generates slightly more aggro than the owner but if the owner were to heal the pet too much or deal enough damage to the monster, they would quickly surpass the pet’s aggro and the monster will turn on them instead.


Will a shield at level 49 block less than a level 51 shield in a fight? And can my Warrior benefit from the use of small or medium shields in any way?

There’s no discernible difference in block rate between a level 49 and level 51 shield. The level of the shield has more to do with its base crafting material (even on dropped shields) which controls its rate of condition decay.

Generally speaking a small or medium shield will have a faster swing speed than a large shield, allowing for more frequent attacks. Due to this faster swing speed and lower weight, smaller shields use a bit less endurance than larger shields. Each player would need to make the determination if that’s enough of a benefit to use a smaller shield or not versus the benefit of a greater number of attackers able to be blocked when using large shields.




Don't forget to send in your questions! See you all in the frontiers :)