THE HERALD

We have loads of content, news, updates, rewards, and more coming later this month in celebration of Dark Age of Camelot’s 20th anniversary and we’d like to kick off the celebration with some fabulous RvR bonuses!

Anniversary bonuses will last from today until November 2nd, 2021.

Bonuses

On Ywain:

• 100% bonus to RPs gained from RvR kills
• 100% bonus to normal XP gain in all classic zones and dungeons

On Gaheris:

• 100% bonus to normal XP gain in all classic zones and dungeons
• 100% bonus to normal RP gain in the capital cities

In each Capital City:

• 40% Bonus to Crafting Speed
• 20% Bonus to Crafting Skill Gain

In all Housing Zones:

• 20% Bonus to Crafting Speed
• 10% Bonus to Crafting Skill Gain

Anniversaries are always a time of celebration and this month Dark Age of Camelot celebrates our 20th anniversary! Look for notices throughout the month, and especially around the 10th, for news and details of how we’re celebrating this amazing milestone 🙂

On with the Grab Bag!

Thanks, as always, to everyone for your questions! You can submit any questions relating to current development plans, to request clarification on basic game mechanic questions, or questions on community issues through the Grab Bag Submission form. For any other feedback or suggestions please use our feedback form.

Continue reading for the questions 🙂
 

Can you elaborate on the benefit of damage add buffs / spells whatever, primarily the melee damage add and the differences between the shaman one, for example, and the champion level versions. some are matter some are spirit etc. I also found an item with an 11.3 damage add buff, I’m assuming this is melee damage add bonus, so why is it not a physical damage versus say for instance what a reaver gets to greatly buff their styles?

Yes, all damage add buffs only affect melee swings, not spell casts and they are simply a way to add a small amount of damage to each melee swing. Damage adds’ damage type can theoretically be either magical or physical but neither type matters in terms of the actual damage dealt to a target.

The overall damage of damage adds is determined by the base, unstyled damage of a melee swing, with typical damage variance (which can cause lower damage melee hits to sometimes have higher damage add damage than some high damage melee hits). The damage adds’ damage is then hard-capped, not affected by resist buffs OR debuffs on the target, and is relatively static even as the damage of the overall melee swing increases. For this reason they are more beneficial to faster swinging classes and especially dual-wield classes.

There are some special damage add types like the Blademaster’s “Triple Wield” that provides a negation from being critically hit (in melee) for its duration in addition to its traditional damage add component as well as the Master Level “Faultfinder” damage add which deals high damage against object-only targets like doors. The other class, item, and champion level damage add abilities work as described above.

Is it intended that a realm can rebuy the protection obelisk even if the keep is under siege and one was already destroyed? Same for using the keep level upgrade tokens and using them if the keep is under siege.

Yes, this is currently intended. We’re open to changing this but once the inner keep’s door is opened it is be possible to kill the Master Stone Mason and prevent any further upgrades. We also don’t want to prevent realms from applying upgrades when a keep siege first begins if we can help it.

I understand that mentioned in 05/05/2017 grab bag, only Str, Con, Dex, and Qui buffs affect pets. Is this for both summoned and charmed pets? How does haste affect either type of pet and does haste work from Ring of Conflicting Forces ( https://tools.camelotherald.com/item/view/41012 ) ?

Yes, all pets whether summoned or charmed are affected in the same way by concentration buffs. Haste buffs do affect the melee swing speed of pets just like they do players; with normal concentration haste buffs, like the one from the Ring of Conflicting Forces and celerity spells both increasing the melee swing speed of pets.

What is the definition of a class ability – can you provide examples? What would the master level battlemaster 10th ability fall under?

In terms of categorization we think of “class” abilities as any non-realm ability a class trains at their trainer or earns for free as they level. So some class ability examples for a heavy tank would be Metal Guard, Fury, or a weapon style.

A Master Level ability, while still usable by a class or classes, is categorized separately since it is earned differently and not precisely part of the class itself. The same goes for realm and champion level abilities. If you need to spend realm skill points (or champion ability points) to acquire the ability, it’s a realm ability (or CL ability), not a class one; regardless of whether or not the ability is class-specific.

This may seem like a finer point, and to a large extent these categories don’t really matter when looking at classes as a whole, but when it comes to balance decisions it’s important to separate abilities into these different categories as each type can be a lever we use for balance.

For example, changing a Master Level ability like Bodyguard might be a class-defining ability for many Paladins or Warriors (among many other classes) but it’s not a “class” ability since those classes could choose a completely different Master Level path and, more importantly, because changing the Bodyguard ability to “balance” Paladins would affect so many other classes. So instead we treat something like Bodyguard as its own separate Master Level ability that is part of the Battlemaster ML path and if we wanted to hypothetically change it, we would need to ensure that its change would be balanced across not only the other ML paths but all of the classes it can be used by (including ones that can but don’t typically specialize in the Battlemaster path).

If instead, continuing the example, we wanted to adjust a Paladin’s armor factor chant, we would start the balance discussion at the ability and extend it to the class as a whole. We may look at other classes too and how they interact with the AF chant, but the discussion largely centers around a class (or at least 1 class archetype typically) and its impact on balance instead of around an entire ML or CL path and their impact on balance.

And sometimes the line blurs, like with the free RR5 realm abilities, which are class-specific realm abilities. FYI – we categorize these as class abilities too due to their uniqueness and because they do not directly cost realm skill points to earn.

Hope that helps!

Why can MTX mask patterns only be used for class specific armor types? For example, a lot of savages use the curative sunburst leather helmet since there is no available studded version therefore we are handicapped in customizing our character.

Armor patterns are clamped to a class’ highest equippable armor type in order to try and preserve class-silhouetting in RvR. Yes, a Savage could wear an actual cloth robe and equip a caster staff to try and fool enemies but their effectiveness would be very diminished too if they did. We don’t want to open the door for players to do this in look-only while actually still wearing their best equipment. Yes, sometimes this will overlap with and prevent patterning “usable” items but we feel that there’s still a great amount of room for customization within the patterning rules as they exist!

Thanks everyone, enjoy the weekend! 🙂

Friday Grab Bag time!

Thanks, as always, to everyone for your questions! You can submit any questions relating to current development plans, to request clarification on basic game mechanic questions, or questions on community issues through the Grab Bag Submission form. For any other feedback or suggestions please use our feedback form.

Questions are below! 🙂

What is the exact distance from a friendly outpost at which enemies will generate a cup/hammer/tree symbol on the war map?

6,000 in-game units from the center of the outpost, which means the exact distance will depend on various keep layouts! 6,000 in-game units is essentially the same distance as the figure clip plane limit and so if a defending player (or guard) standing on a wall is visible to the enemies passing by an outpost, there is a good chance that they’d be too close and would trigger the cup/hammer/tree notifications on the realmwar map.

Does wild healing / master of healing realm abilities affect styles?

Yes, both realm abilities will affect styles with heal procs.

Please note that this only refers to direct healing spells. Neither realm abilities affect heal over times or health regen spells or procs.

Did the NF dragons used to give credit for dragon kill titles? They don’t currently but thought they used. If not, could they be included in the dragon title count?

The three dragons in New Frontiers did not give credit for dragon kill titles. These dragons are much less difficult than the ones in the epic dragon zones of each realm and so if they were to give titles in the future they would need to be different from the traditional dragon-based titles.

Can you explain why after I use Power Lock on Necro my stun immunity goes away and I can be stunned again?

This is because the Power Lock ability stuns the Necromancer in-place for the duration of its ability and it must bypass any existing stun immunity to do so (which clears that immunity). During the Power Lock stun, the Necromancer cannot be attacked in melee and they siphon power at a very fast rate from their target. Allowing this ability to be used and then having it grant an additional stun immunity would be a bit too imbalanced as it would allow Power Lock to be used pre-emptively to prevent the Necromancer from being stunned again and any pre-existing immunities must be cleared for the Power Lock stun to land.

Are there any plans to restrict shearing abilities like Essence Shatter so people cant just spam shear other people’s buffs over and over, for instance give it a cooldown of 10 or 15 seconds? Especially in 1v1 scenarios there is not much counterplay to it other than drinking suppremacy potions over and over, which is not fun for anyone.

Thank you for this feedback! We would love to hear more opinions on this as the original intent was for Essence Shatter to be used seldomly due to the high endurance cost but has become easier to use with endurance reduction and endurance reduction potions. Conversely, the existence of Supremacy potions also can be argued to make this sort of ability less useful overall than it used to be. We are open to changing this ability but would love to hear more feedback about it!

That’s it for this week!
Enjoy the weekend, everyone 🙂

Grab Bag time! Woo!

Hope everyone is enjoying our Caledonia Event! 🙂 Level 50 opens up later today for crazy fun weekend RvR! Don’t forget to make your new characters and log them into Caledonia before the cut off time of 3PM EST / 9PM CET TODAY! 

Thanks, as always, to everyone for your questions! You can submit any questions relating to current development plans, to request clarification on basic game mechanic questions, or questions on community issues through the Grab Bag Submission form. For any other feedback or suggestions please use our feedback form.

Continue on for the questions 🙂
 

Is there a way you can deselect certain spell effects from group mates or make them smaller? The issue I have is when the minstrel does his resist buff and the range buff the purple sphere is so large on my character that I cant see thru it. Effects group or self don’t affect it.

Unfortunately the only command that will eliminate this particular spell effect is ‘/effects none’ as it is both a group-based spell and one that is cast on your character directly. We can, however, look at adjusting these effects to be less obtrusive!

What’s the reasoning behind vampiirs getting wall climb for free while Minstrel have to skill 25 stealth and Savage even 50 in savagery (which makes the H2H build have to sacrifice the 9 second side chain stun style)? Wouldn’t it be justified to have vampiirs sacrifice something as well like 20 points in shadow mastery for example?

There are always balance distinctions among the realms as very few classes are mirrors of each other and even when classes are extremely similar they all have class-defining differences. Climb walls is a powerful and popular ability and one that is not given out lightly.

Minstrels and Vampiirs were both designed from the beginning to have climb walls while it’s been a late addition to Savages. Savages are much less vulnerable to crowd control than either Minstrels or Vampiirs and can deal much more consistent damage than either, even when sacrificing for the climb wall ability. That is why they are required to give up some of their melee prowess when going for climb walls.

That said we are always looking at the classes and will adjust accordingly if deemed necessary!

Are the pre 50 pictish camps ever going to be back? Or mass pve/levelling the way these camps worked? I know Caledonia is a level event but for times outside Caledonia.

The Pictish camps were put in as part of the Pictish Invasion event and were never meant to be a permanent fixture. These camps also had a downside of allowing players to reach level 50 with minimal active play and that is not something we want to encourage. However, there are still several efficient ways to level in PvE only with the New User Journey, Atlantean bounty quests, in the classic dungeons with their bonus experience, as well as various popular monster camps throughout the world.

Are people going to get in trouble for joining random guilds in Caledonia or making them?

In short, no. We will be adjusting things for the next Caledonia event so that this practice is no longer possible or necessary. For this event we’ve also added the RP/XP guild bonuses to the starter guilds for the duration of the event!

Are there any hints on what’s to come for daoc’s 20th birthday you can share?

Lions, Wolves, and Stags – oh my – 20 years!!!!

We will be having a massive celebration for the month of October complete with new Veteran Rewards, a true “Arthurian” questing journey, bonuses, and so much more! That’s all you get for now *wink*.

Off to make the last of my toons and a bunch of realm points!

Enjoy the weekend all 🙂

Bonuses

On Ywain:

• 50% bonus to RPs gained from RvR kills
• 100% bonus to normal XP gain in all classic zones and dungeons

On Gaheris:

• 100% bonus to normal XP gain in all classic zones and dungeons
• 50% bonus to normal RP gain in the capital cities

In each Capital City:

• 40% Bonus to Crafting Speed
• 20% Bonus to Crafting Skill Gain

In all Housing Zones:

• 20% Bonus to Crafting Speed
• 10% Bonus to Crafting Skill Gain

Have you or your friends been thinking of coming back to Dark Age of Camelot? Or are you a veteran player just looking for a change of pace!?

We’re excited to announce our 3rd Catch Up In Caledonia event coming Monday, August 30th at 3 PM EST / 9 PM CET!

Read on for the full details!

What is Catch Up in Caledonia?

It’s a way to start fresh and rapidly progress to the end-game with players around your level!

When does the event start and end?

How does the event work?

• For the first 4 days of the event, newly created level 1 characters will be automatically zoned into the Caledonia battleground where they will vie for control against the enemy realms!
  • This will be the ONLY way to get inside the battleground zone. Once inside, characters can voluntarily leave but CANNOT return!
  • All monsters, center-keep guards, and siege weapons are removed for the event. The only way to progress is by defeating realm enemies in battle and completing the related quests.
  • Charm-pet classes will be able to create a pet to charm at their realm’s portal keep.
• ​At 3 PM EST / 9 PM CET on Friday, September 3rd, character starting locations will reset to their default zones and no new characters will be able to join the event. Everyone still inside Caledonia will be able to continue progressing for the remainder of the event’s duration.
• Experience, bounty, and realm point bonuses will be granted to both free and subscribed accounts in the battleground to help them progress!
• Earn bounty points for completing quests and defeating enemy realm players and use them to purchase level-appropriate gear as you strive to 50 and then master and champion levels!
• All characters will begin and remain in the same Caledonia zone for the entirety of the event.
  • The following level caps will be in place for all characters in Caledonia and will increase as follows every 24 hours:
    • Day 1 (Monday): Level 19 maximum
    • Day 2 (Tuesday): Level 29 
    • Day 3 (Wednesday): Level 39 
    • Day 4 (Thursday) : Level 49
    • Days 5-7 (Fri-Mon): Level 50
  • Characters that reach the day’s level cap will still be able to earn realm and bounty points.
• Characters that are 5 levels or more below the day’s level cap will receive the Caledonia Boost buff.
  • This buff greatly increases the damage dealt and greatly reduces damage received from characters that do not have the buff (higher level characters)!
  • Characters with the Caledonia Boost buff active will also DOUBLE the XP and BP rewards for themselves and their group!
  • When the level cap reaches 49 the buff will be given out to characters 3 or more levels under the cap.
• Realm points are drastically reduced for kills where a realm outnumbers the other by 3 to 1 odds or more.
  • This penalty currently only triggers when the attacking realm has 25+ members in the area of the kill.
  • This system is designed to encourage groups to roam around separately more during the event!

What improvements have been made?

• An extra day at max level has been added to the event by changing the starting level cap on the 1st day from 9 to 19 as well as increasing the starting level from 1 to 10.
  • Level 1 characters first zoning in should visit the Caledonia Event Coordinator NPC to automatically reach level 10.
• Any realms found to be at an overall population disadvantage by the 5th day of the event will have their starting level adjusted to level 30 and receive extra bonuses for the duration of the event.

How far will I be able to progress?

Time for the Grab Bag!

Stay tuned during the week for our official announcement post on the upcoming Catch Up In Caledonia event starting August 30th 🙂

Thanks, as always, to everyone for your questions! You can submit any questions relating to current development plans, to request clarification on basic game mechanic questions, or questions on community issues through the Grab Bag Submission form. For any other feedback or suggestions please use our feedback form.

Read on for this week’s questions!

I’ve been told in PvE, spell level is irrelevant and all spells no matter the level are brought up to your own toon level – is this true?

No, all spells take their set spell level and check it against the target’s level for resistance rates. The target of a spell could be a monster (PvE) or enemy realm guard, pet, or player (RvR) and its level is used against the spell’s level to determine resistance rates. The same is true for spells on style procs where the level of the style determines the level of the proccing spell.

This is why the Mastery of Focus realm ability can be quite important in both PvE and RvR as it raises the level of your character’s spells so that resistance rates are lower.

Here’s some more context on resistance rates from a previous grab bag (again, spell levels work the same as style levels when discussing style procs):

All spells have a base chance of 10% to be resisted, so a level 50 style proc will still get resisted at around that 10% rate, on average, when attacking a level 50 target. However, a level 12 style proc with no Mastery of Focus will see around a 30-35% resist rate vs a level 50 target and a level 34 style proc without MoF would have a 15-20% resist rate, on average.

Hello.
I have a question on Endless Conquest and Champion stuff. While EC characters can’t get champion levels. I was wondering, if I sub play and get the Champion levels and abilities on a character. Then unsub/wait the cooldown to play. Will my character still about to use Champion abilities even though my account is EC again?

Endless Conquest (free) accounts can earn Champion Levels normally. They do not get access to the CL abilities though.

In the above example, the re-activated EC account’s characters would still have their CLs but their CL abilities would be removed. If that account were to subscribe and return to Veteran status, the characters would need to re-train their CL abilities.

Does the Multi-spectral Goblin Bracer still drop?  If so, from who? Herald search shows two entries for “current” mobs that drop it, Spectramancer Gozier and nervous ketos.  However, per patch notes from April 2007, the following statement was made: Ki’atra and the Nervous Ketos (Uilani) have disappeared as the magic holding them to the planes has faded.

If the nervouse ketos is no longer in game it can’t drop from it. Gozier is stated to be in either Laby or Briefine and both locations have been searched endlessly, no luck. Any chance you can verify if Spectramancer Gozier is still able to be located and killed in game, and the region it’s located in?

Spectramancer Gozier is the Temel minotaur relic guard that spawns on a hill in Breifine. He drops the bracer as a One-Time-Drop to level 45+ characters.

The Multi-spectral Goblin Bracer is also still available via the copper-bound chests (2 platinum) that offer randomized rewards and can be purchased on the classic-world side of each realm’s Borderkeep though!

Is there any way to know through the account center which classes on accounts meet the /played requirement for EC? Or possible to get it added?

We can look at adding this to the account center eventually, among other data. For now the character selection screens are the only area where this information is displayed (via the Play button being accessible).

Is it working as intended that you guys removed AoM from melee necro form but you still can’t use an AoM charge while in melee form? So they basically are only class in game that can’t get it?

Necromancers should be able to use item magic resist charges now. If a magic resist charge item still states that it cannot be /used, please relog and it should work now.

Off to get ready for Caledonia, new toons, new names!

Enjoy the weekend, all 🙂