THE HERALD

An early morning Grab Bag for you today 🙂

Today’s Grab Bag includes a look at tentative plans for the next Caledonia event coming 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.

Continue reading for the questions 🙂
 

Is there anything you can spec in to increase the damage of focus shields, int/mom, etc?

No, focus damage shields (and normal damage shields and damage adds) are simply a calculation of the damage shield’s delve amount, the damage dealt to the target or pet, and then normal spell variance. Damage shields and damage adds are one of the rare abilities where, other than unlocking higher delve versions, increasing ones specialization and +skill stats does not increase their overall damage or reduce damage variance either.

The Chanters Underhill Zealot is supposedly supposed to have “increased range” on its spells. Unless I missed something it’s casting at what seems to be 1500 range and has no additional range compared to the level 1 Companion pet. Is there something I missed?

Good catch! The underhill zealot’s range is correctly 1500 and the information delve has been updated. The main benefit of the underhill zealot is that its damage-over-time ability interrupts each tick.

When getting kills in rvr at keep fights, sometimes I get a solo kill, a siege kill, one or the other or sometimes both. i.e. I poured oil and killed three people on a low level keep, I got the deathblows for all three and fairly certain they were all full health as guards had been dead a while and there weren’t many defenders. I got one solo kill and one siege kill for the three. Can you define how these types are kills are awarded for the daily/weekly quests?

For the solo daily and weekly quests, only “solo” kills award credit. Solo kills are defined as follows:

-The player earning the solo kill is ungrouped and otherwise receives no help during the kill (heals from other players, etc.)
-The player earning the solo kill does equal to or greater than 80% of the damage to the enemy player who is killed.
-The enemy player who is killed must be worth full realm points.

That’s it! The deathblow is not actually needed so long as the player did equal to or greater than 80% of the damage.

For the siege-oriented daily and weekly quests:

-All kills must be on targets that are within the named regions of each keep.
-The keep must be actively under siege (flames on the /realmwar map)
-You or your group must have dealt 80% of the damage to the enemy player who is killed.
-The enemy player who is killed must be worth full realm points.

From the example given, the only thing that could have prevented both solo and siege credit on 2 of the 3 kills was that those 2 targets were recently killed and not worth full realm points. The 3rd kill properly granted both solo and siege kill credit!

I was told Snatcher does not give you the 6% bonus to all realm points earned and ALSO 7% bonus to all bounty points earned. Is this true ?

After some investigation we were not able to find a scenario where the bonuses were intended to work and weren’t given. Remember, Endless Conquest (Free) accounts don’t receive realm and bounty point bonuses other than those bought at the Mithril shop. There are also some quest rewards that are setup to award a set value of RPs and BPs and ignore all bonuses (including Mithril shop ones). Under normal circumstances and assuming a Veteran (subscribed) account, the Snatcher artifact’s RP and BP bonuses do apply correctly!

Are there any changes planned to Caledonia coming in August or what can we expect?

For the most part, we’ll have a very similar setup to the last event but with a few changes to help make things a bit more streamlined. We are planning on starting out characters at level 10 to help the event ramp up into the higher levels faster. This will also give an extra day to play as level 50!

We are also still looking into more ways to achieve better realm balance in the event and will likely look at offering higher initial character levels to lower populated realms if there is any severe disparity!

Enjoy the weekend all 🙂

Behold! A Grab Bag!

Stay tuned next week for some new keep upgrade system features and changes, reintroduction of the safe teleport on EV, class tweaks, bug fixes, and the midsummer event!

Friday, July 30th, at 8:30PM EST / Saturday July 31st at 2:30AM CET sees the next player ran 8v8 draft night! We’ll be hosting a multi pov stream on our official Twitch channel for the event featuring povs not just from our usual dev pov, but also from many streamers within the groups 🙂 There’s still time to sign up, so join the draft discord to find out more!

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.

Onward for the questions!

Hey! is there any reason that the Mid Axe style Valkyrie’s Shield doesnt have any to hit bonus across all classes? Axe seems the lesser used weapon on mid for alot of classes, so is there any reason for it? And could it be fixed to have a medium bonus to hit? TY!

Valkyrie’s Shield provides a medium defensive bonus. As a general rule (though of course there are exceptions) most styles provide either a to-hit or defensive bonus but not both. That said, we will certainly take a look at this style and Axe in general to see if it warrants any adjustments!

I have a question concerning bow damages type. Thrust damage is dex/strength, the bows are thrust damage, are they capped on dex/str then? Or only dex?

No matter the damage type, all Archery specialization-based skills or basic bow shots (on other classes that may use bows) are solely dexterity-based.

Technically, damage types have no direct connection to any character stats. The damage type is simply the type of magic or physical damage used for calculating against the target’s resistance values. For example, Legendary Weapons use magical damage types but the damage is still treated like a melee swing, using all of the factors, specializations, and stats from the character that determine melee swing damage.

While damage types are simply a type of damage used, specializations can use different stats or combinations of stats to determine damage. For example the Thrust specialization in Albion (or Piercing in Hibernia) uses a combination of a character’s dexterity and strength stats to directly determine their damage (and increase their weaponskill) while the Slash specialization (or Sword in Midgard and Blades in Hibernia) is solely strength-based.

Regarding Dragonslayer cloth robes, according to the item DB there are 2 versions, one with dex/acuity cap and the other one with 4% range/dmg. Is the one with dex/acuity cap still available in game? At the dragonslayer dude with the quest for the armor piece I’m only getting the option with range/dmg (necro), and I also can’t wear it with lvl 44 even though it doesn’t say anything about a level requirement.

The version with 4% range and spell damage is the only version that drops on Ywain and Gaheris. The other version is only from the Bossiney cluster which would require a character transferring over with it now since Bossiney is archived.

Note: Characters with the version from Bossiney can swap it at Trishy in Camelot, Brohd in Jordheim, or Elenora in Tir na Nog for the Ywain/Gaheris version but this exchange is not reversible.

There is a level 45+ requirement to equip the gear and we will correct the issue preventing that requirement from displaying.

Is there any reason why the Hallowed Staff has a CL15 requirement, but none of the other Hallowed items do?

This appears to be an oversight and is now corrected. Thanks!

With how tanky you can make templates these days (CL15, 600 hp, 10 conversion being accessible, etc) is it time that heavy tanks had some of their abilities looked at? Mostly thinking of their free AoM9 passive, rather than their free 10% extra HP or their active abilities. At the time of these abilities’ introduction it made a lot of sense why heavy tanks needed them to be viable. Nowadays however killing a heavy tank in any playstyle (1v1, 8v8, zerg) feels like the equivalent of killing a raid boss. Although character toughness is higher across the board and tankiness is an emphasized feature of the heavy tank archetype, it feels as if the recent changes to templating has made them a bit too fool-proof.

We are always looking at class performance and do tend to agree that they may be a bit too sturdy currently. Stay tuned!

Thanks everyone! Fun week ahead next week 🙂
Enjoy the weekend!
 

The Grab Bag is upon us!

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 🙂
 

How much does weaponskill impact a fight both offense and defensive wise? Does my weaponskill affect my chances of bypassing their defenses i.e. if I have 2k ws do I have more chance to hit a 1.5k ws person or the reverse, 2k ws defending versus a 1.5k ws . If it has a defensive impact, which one is taken into account (take dual wield classes having a hidden ws number for dw styles, if the base weapon one would be used for the calc or the hidden one)?

Weaponskill values are not directly used in any combat calculations or formulas. However, because your character’s weaponskill is a reflection of the myriad stats and +skills, it’s a good indicator of how a given character would stack up against another. So yes, a 2,000 weaponskill melee character is generally going to land more of their attacks and successfully block, parry, or evade more against a 1,500 weaponskill character; but again – not directly because of the weaponskill values. And since WS not used in calculations directly, the 2nd portion of the question is not applicable.

Is there any plans to adjust the bd/ani 10 minute duration ABS buff to make it group only and/or have a range similar to skald/bard/pally resist buffs? With the addition of ports directly to folley/moy/trelle we are seeing more and more people use “abs bots” for 12.5 minutes and then porting back, getting the buff again, repeat. This really causes an imbalance in the playing field and only benefits “duelers” who port to the “solo spots” and is a huge disadvantage for people who don’t use this type of bot because they may not only RvR at those. Wouldn’t it make sense to adjust it to group/range requirement like resists?

Yes, we’ll likely be adding a range check and/or limiting these to group-only buffs in the near future.

Does Protect help generate aggro vs Bonedancer subpets which are split assisting, and presumably working off of an aggro table?

Yes, protecting a character will generate aggression from the Bonedancer subpets, just like normal attacks against them or healing your group can generate aggro from them. 
 

What are your thoughts on the mechanics of Throw Weapon (Battlemaster ML6). I’m mostly referring to the fact that you don’t get disarmed if you hit a bladeturn or brittle guard and can keep throwing as your swing speed dictates, at times to great continuous interrupting effect if you face players with pbt. Whilst the way the ability works might not be intuitive due to this, it has worked this way since day one. Would you consider the usage of this ability for this purpose to be ‘working as intended’, or an oversight in its design that you might look into changing?

This is working as intended. There is a similar mechanic to how instant-snare abilities work where if they are resisted they can be immediately used again, which is also working as intended. The cooldowns on these abilities are only meant to fire if the ability lands on its intended target.

What item type(s) is your current focus in terms of additions to the mithril shop? I know I’d personally like to see more unique weapons added to the game, of which the egg shield was a good start. Based on the last Grab Bag answer on weapon and new skins, do you mean entirely new item models, or things like Frozen weapons which are reused models with some alterations?

We mean a little of each! 😀

Enjoy the weekend all 🙂

See you in the frontier!

TGIF and TGITGB! 

Just a quick note that the answer regarding AOM and resists in May 28th’s Grab Bag has been updated for additional clarification.

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.

On to the questions!

Can assassin poisons benefit from stat debuff effectiveness bonus from items?

Only the weaponskill and constitution poison benefits from the stat debuff effectiveness bonus as it is the only poison classified as a ‘stat’ debuff. Both the weaponskill and constitution portions of the poison benefit from the stat debuff effectiveness bonus!

No other assassin poisons benefit from the bonus. For those wondering, the strength reduction portion of the disease poison doesn’t benefit from the debuff effectiveness bonus since that is not an actual strength debuff but instead an inherent trait of all disease spells; and disease is not classified as a ‘stat’ debuff. The same goes for the melee damage effectiveness poison which reduces the targets overall melee damage but does so without directly reducing a melee-related “stat” on the target.

How come you can’t dye some SI weapons such as Primal Sword of Fire but you can Easmarach’s Stinger? In this situation they are both Galladoria weapons that are physical damage type and nature and there is no apparent reason why one should be dyeable and the other not. Any chance of getting this fixed?

This was likely an aesthetic design decision made based on the weapon’s “glow” effect in combination with the default tint of the blade. Looking through the item database there are a number of other blades that use the same sword icon with varying weapon glow effects and default tints that are also not dyable. We can certainly look at adding new ways to acquire this skin and weapon glow effect combination (and others!) with different tint options and/or potentially allowing it to be dyable!

Are there any plans to add more/new skins to the game, and a way to see or preview what a skin would look like first before getting the item (say from CM’s) and spending mith and not liking it and having to redo?

Yes will continue adding new skins to the game! We also will be adding a preview system in eventually, but that is not currently planned for this year.

I’ve seen a lot of mentions about item uses and pots not stacking but co-existing, what does this mean if pots co-exist? Like if I  use a battlefield pot for 25% RP and a buggane over rank8 for 15% I’m told they just co-exist so what do I actually get? If its that I only get the 25% from battlefields would I then not get the other buggane bonuses for bp/coin too?

Coexisting but not stacking in general simply means that the 2 (or more) effects will all remain activated on the character (and show in the buff icon area of the UI) but only 1 of the effects will actually affect the character. Contrast that with non-coexisting effects that overwrite lower level versions of themselves or other similar buffs/debuffs so that they are the only effect showing in the buff icon area of the UI.

In *most* cases of coexisting effects it’s straightforward and the highest value effect will be the one that affects the character.

However, the RP, XP, BP, and coin bonus effect used on the battlefield potion and buggane buff are an exception to this.

Here’s a previous Grab Bag answer that explains how these effects work:

Spell-based realm point, bounty point, experience, and/or coin bonus buffs will NOT stack with the same bonuses on another spell-based buff, but will stack with any different bonuses. Very importantly, in the case that 2 spell-based buffs that have the same bonus are applied only the bonus from the spell that was applied first will affect the character.

This means if a RR8+ character has the Buggane’s Folly buff granting 15% to RPs/BPs/Coin and then /uses the battlefield potion which grants 25% to RP gain, the character will still only have the +15% RP/BP/Coin bonus applied and the 25% RP bonus from battlefield potion will not affect them. If the character were to drop the Buggane’s Folly buff in this example, the battlefield potion’s 25% would then affect them.

However, if a RR2 character has the 25% RP buff from the battlefield potion applied first and then applies Buggane’s Folly +75% RP/BP/Coin buff, the character will now receive the 75% BPs and Coin bonus from Buggane’s Folly but will still only receive the 25% RPs bonus from the battlefield potion. The +75% RP bonus won’t be applied until the battlefield potion’s effect is removed.

“Spell-based” specifically refers to any bonus that is applied from a spell and that shows up in the buff icons at the top of the character’s screen; this includes buffs that are cast by items, monsters, or players. Realm point, Bounty Point, Experience, and Coin bonuses that come from other systems like guilds, item stats, dynamic population, outpost ownership, relic ownership, or from specific zones are separate and do stack with each other and with spell-based bonuses.

In my testing, I realized that the Enchanter curse set “Emberlight” does not affect any of the 30% resist debuffs, however it does affect all of the 50% resist debuffs (Mana spec) was this intended?

Yes, the Cabalist, Runemaster, and Enchanter sets all increase the duration of their 50% magic resist debuffs only, not the lower delve resist debuffs. We’ll make sure to update the item sets’ information delve to explicitly state that.

Thanks everyone 🙂

Enjoy the weekend!
 

It’s Grab Bag time!

Only a few days left to complete our Doppelganger Invasion Event, and enjoy the RvR Bonuses and Merchants – all end Tuesday, June 15th 🙂 

Saturday, June 19th, at 4PM EST / 10PM CET sees the next player ran 8v8 draft night! We’ll be hosting a multi pov stream on our official Twitch channel for the event featuring povs not just from our usual dev pov, but also from many streamers within the groups 🙂 There’s still time to sign up, so join the draft discord to find out more!

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 the questions 🙂
 

Is the pulse charm just based off your spec +skills, or is master of focus and a focal myth also helping? I’ve been told it does only on the first cast/charm of the pet, but if I have to manually recharm him as he resists, does it help there too or just the very first initial charm?

Mastery of Focus and Focal mythirians help on each pulse and the initial cast of a pulsing charm spell.

Why are Valewalkers not able to spend rp’s in Physical Defense?  In comparison to the Heretic: both can spec a weapon, both can spec a defense (parry for VW, shield for Tic), both have an abs buff, both have a shield buff (although the Tic’s has a higher value). Yet, the Tic can get Physical Defense.  I know the VW has an instant health buffer for a damage value, but anyone could the same thing with a potion or item, correct? Other cloth wearing classes have Physical Defense available to them. Thanks!!

This comes down to primary class roles in combat as well as general balance concerns. Valewalkers are primarily a melee hybrid focused on offense and are capable of dealing very high melee damage while Heretics are primarily a caster and/or healer hybrid. Yes, Heretics can dish out some very high damage as casters but they do not bring the same threat in melee as Valewalkers do. Additionally, Valewalkers get access to Evade IV and a frontal AoE root style that enables them to escape from multiple melees if needed so granting them even more ways to reduce melee damage is not something we are considering changing at this time.

If an item is listed in the official item search, does that mean it definitely exists in game? I’ve been farming Luso for his Luso’s Claw for weeks now and item DB says it drops from him, so am I just unlucky with the drop rate?

Yes, the item database should only show items that can be obtained in-game. Luso’s Claws have a very rare drop rate. Good luck and happy hunting!

Str and str/con increases the damage done by Fossil Archer. It nearly doubles it. Why is this so and they don’t follow the dex damage like Hunters, etc ?

Buffs provide different benefits for pets and monsters than they do for players:

From the May 5th 2017 Grab Bag:

Strength buffs increase a pet’s melee damage.

Constitution buffs decrease damage done to a pet.

Dexterity buffs reduce a pet’s spell cast timer, decrease damage done to the pet and increase its chance to hit with archery and bolts.

Quickness buffs reduce a pet’s melee attack timer.

No other concentration buffs affect pets.

In this case, fossil archers get the to-hit bonus from the dexterity stat since they are using archery attacks AND the strength stat’s bonus since archery attacks by monsters and pets are treated like a ranged melee attack in terms of damage calculations.

Bountycrafting is now out for a while. Are you still planning to extend the amount of craftable items like dragon items since you can’t get scales or buy them for BPs?

Yes, we will be extending the Bountycrafting offerings as the supply of alternative currencies dwindle and perhaps add some loot from other areas such as Summoner’s Hall and Shrouded Isles dungeons too! For now, there are still quite a few alternate currencies sitting out there (which can be converted to scales) and available in housing that can be used to obtain the dragon items.

Hello, could you please tell me if the Bricriu Nemthenga mob still spawns in Cursed Forest in Hibernia main lands or has this mob been moved/disabled?

Yes, Bricriu Nemthenga still spawns. It helps to keep the rotting parthelonian and fleshless parthelonian populations down in the area.

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

With the Catch Up in Caledonia Event now ended the party has moved back to the Frontiers!

Please enjoy the return of the traveling merchants and the following RvR bonuses for the remainder of the ongoing Doppelganger Invasion Event!

Traveling Merchants

• The traveling merchants have made their return and now hawk their wares outside Castle Sauvage in Albion, Svasud Faste in Midgard, and Druim Ligen in Hibernia!
• The merchants will remain until Tuesday, June 15th.

Realm vs Realm Bonuses

On Ywain:

• 50% bonus to RPs from kills
• 50% bonus to normal XP gain in all classic and shrouded isle zones and dungeons.

On Gaheris:

• 50% bonus to normal XP gain in all battlegrounds, classic and shrouded isle 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

Bonuses will last until Tuesday, June 15th.

It’s Grab Bag time with some stream news 🙂

Tune into our official DAoC Twitch channel this Saturday night for a multi-pov stream of the player ran 8v8 draft event! Carol will be joined by host RamikOaken and a plethora of streamers from the groups taking part in the event for a fun and fight filled stream with all the action, and of course, giveaways! Stream will kick off at 4 PM EST / 10PM CET on Saturday, May 15th.

The following Saturday’s (May 22nd) stream (from Caledonia!) will be a special giveaway stream as we’ll be giving away the following (in no particular order):

• 30 Charge 50% RP Bonus Potion
• Name Respec
• 3 Month Game Timecode (#1)
• Race Respec
• Dragon Mount
• 3 Month Game Timecode (#2)

Don’t miss out!! Prizes are limited to one win per person. The stream starts approximately 4:45PM EST / 10:45PM CET with the first giveaway starting at 5PM EST / 11PM CET!

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 🙂
 

When it comes to a boon (band of the dream conqueror), how does it apply? Is it hit points/af when you applied the boon, or is it hp/af you have at that point while the boon is up? So for example, if I have 600 hits in temp, and I boon, will the boon be worth less as I take damage? Cause I now have less hits?
And with that, if I say, ran 2 crafted to get higher hits/af, and I boon with them up, does that hp/boon decrease if I swap items?

Band of Dream Conqueror’s Triumphant Aura improves your max health, it does not reference your current hit points at all when applying its bonus. It also recalculates the hit point bonus if your max hit point values change via a gear change or buff (debuffs do not affect max HP).
 
For example:
If a character has 2,702 hit points buffed and uses the band, they will get 4% additional HP for a new total of 2,810, or an increase of 108 hit points.
If that character improves their gear and gets another 150 max hit points, they would have a new base max hits of 2,852 and so the band’s 4% bonus gets recalculated for a new total of 2,966; an increase of 114 hit points.
 
It does not matter what order the gear is changed or when the buff is used, the bonus will be the same.
 
The Armor Factor bonus is calculated the same way as HP; with it only referencing the character’s max AF and recalculating the bonus if that value changes. AF debuffs do not affect the character’s max AF (which is based on their equipped gears’ AF values, any AF stats, and their AF buffs).
 
So the only enemy combat-effect that would lower the effectiveness of an +AF/Hit buff would be a buff shear that removes a constitution or AF buff. As soon as the character is rebuffed, the +AF/Hit bonus would recalculate and increase again though!
 

 
How is the Skalds Song of Ragnar Health and Armor buff calculated? Same goes for the Band of Dream grp Aura. Which one of these buffs stacks with each other. I know Band of Dream and Skald Buff stacks so you can get a total of 10% increased AF+Hits.

The class-based +AF/Hits buffs are calculated identically to the Triumphant Aura described in the previous answer.

Class-based +AF/Hit buffs stack with item-based +AF/Hit buffs; however 2 item-based buffs or 2 class-based buffs do not stack with each other.

 
 
In a previous Grab Bag in 2019 you discussed how character model height affected LoS. How does shape shifts affect this, if at all?  If I’m an Elf and use croc/wolf/cat etc shape change, is my LoS based on the original toon height or my shape change?

The LOS would be based on the height of the shape shift form. An Elf standing behind a small barrier may be able to cast over it (and be cast upon) but an Elf using a crocodile shape shift form would be too short to cast over the same barrier (or be cast upon).
 
 

How is champion rank 5 calculated for damage? I feel like the damage is not what it used to be when I played champ in previous years when using the ability. Is it working as intended still?

Champion’s Realm Rank 5 ability looks at the targets armor absorption%. The Champion’s melee damage is increased the more absorption% their target has.

Damage against a cloth caster should be about the same with or without the RR5 active because the armor absorption values of cloth wearers is 0%.
 
However a Chain wearer has 27% armor absorption (ABS) and so the Badge of Valor RR5 would reduce its absorption% down to 0% (Plate armor at 34% is also reduced down to 0%), making them as vulnerable to the Champion’s melee damage as a cloth wearer for the duration of the RR5.
 
All other damage-mitigating abilities and bonuses are not affected though, so it’s quite possible that a high-ABS target could not take as much damage as expected during the RR5’s duration if they have some other strong damage mitigation ability active that can help offset their loss in absorption%. In most combat circumstances a Champion focusing on high-ABS targets during their RR5 will see a nice boost to their damage though!
 
 

Does Blademaster triple wield change your weapon dmg to energy or just give you an energy dmg add?

It does not change the Blademaster’s damage type. Triple wield provides a damage add (energy damage) that also prevents the ability to be critical hit, a 15% damage increase, and a 10% accuracy boost.

Thanks all 🙂 
Enjoy the weekend!