THE HERALD

This week’s Grab Bag is upon us!

Don’t forget we have many many events going on ingame right now, so don’t miss out! RvR Bonuses, Spring Flowers & Doppelganger Invasion, along with the Rites of Spring event! 🙂

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 🙂

Why isn’t the shift key available as modifier in /keyboard?

The Shift key is enabled as a modifier by default. It’s not on the /keyboard menu because disabling it would cause some issues with other client functions and keyboard shortcuts.

How big is the falloff/reduction in duration from AoE crowd control spells, like mezz? For example, if someone is at the “far edge” of an AoE mezz, is the mezz potentially only a single second?

The falloff rate from the center point of an AoE is different for the duration of spells versus their damage.

Durations are reduced to half of what the center of the area of effect would be. In other words, a player that is the center of an AoE mesmerize might see a 60s duration mez but if that same character was at the max radius away to still get mesmerized by the same spell they would see a 30s duration mesmerize.

Conversely, for damage-base spells, the effectiveness is reduced all the way down to 0. So a PBAoE that hits for 800 at its center will hit for 0 at max radius away from center.

Falloff for damage over times is unique in that AoE DoTs do not have a reduced damage or duration no matter how far from the center-point of the AoE the target is.

I noticed some gear has an enchantment bonus. Is this considered separate from a buff bonus or do they stack for an enchantment chanter and the other realms mirrors.

The +Enchantment skill bonus generally improves abilities in the Enchantment specialization of Enchanters only. However, this skill is a bit less common these days as most equipment uses the +All Magic skills instead (which would affect all 3 of the Enchanter’s magic skill lines instead of just the Enchantments line).

There is also a “stat enhancement spell effectiveness”  bonus which is a buff% bonus that pertains to any stat-based buffs (strength, constitution, acuity, etc). Meaning if you have 25% of this bonus in your character’s gear, a strength buff that delves on the spell for +40 will grant an additional 25% strength. This stat bonus doesn’t really have much to do with Enchantment Enchanters directly, but it would help Enchanters when casting their self-Armor Factor buff and any Champion Level based stat-buffs they might have.

Before I had my cyclop shield as small so I turned it in for medium and now I want it back to small again since I can use more fun skin for small, can I turn it in and change it? I have done the quest long time ago, and I’m pretty sure when you change and have done the encounter you get it insta lvl10.

If you did the original encounter you can turn it in to change it and receive a level 10 version instantly. If you instead bought the artifact, then leveled it to 10, and then change it for a new small shield version, you’ll need to level it again.

How does the game add multipliers (like duration and range) to spells?  For example, is a 9 second stun with 23% duration 10 or 11 seconds? Is there any rounding or is the decimal always ignored/truncated.

The short answer is that the decimal is always truncated/ignored.

The long answer is that ability duration is mainly determined by these factors: the base duration of the spell, the duration% bonus of the caster, and any magical resists or +crowd control reduction bonuses (realm ability or item-based) on the target. Spell piercing can also play a role indirectly by affecting a target’s magical resists, but that can be extrapolated from the following scenarios:

Scenario 1:
Spell: 9 second duration stun that uses heat magic damage
Caster: 25% spell duration
Target: 50% heat magic resist, 0% cc reduction

Actual stun duration will be 9s * 1.25 for spell duration = 11s (decimal is truncated here), then multiply that by 0.5 due to the magic resist = 5.5s with the decimal truncated again, leaving a 5s duration in-game.

When viewing this exact scenario in-game the tooltip will display “4s” remaining since the tooltip duration counts down to 0 and not to 1. So even though it shows 4s remaining, it’s actually a 5s duration in total.

Scenario 2:
Spell: 9 second duration stun that uses heat magic damage
Caster: 25% spell duration
Target: 50% heat magic resist and 55% cc reduction from determination realm ability.

Actual stun duration will be ((9s * 1.25) * .5) * 0.45 = 2s (again, the decimals are truncated at each step)

Scenario 3:
Spell: 9 second duration stun that uses heat magic damage
Caster: 25% spell duration
Target: 50% heat magic resist and 80% cc reduction from determination realm ability + stoicism.

Actual stun duration will be ((9s * 1.25) * .5) * 0.2 = 1s

Stay safe and sane everyone! 🙂

As we make our way through the finishing touches on Patch 1.127 and look towards an alt server, we will be gathering a ton of feedback from the whole DAoC community covering various topics for both that server and Ywain/Gaheris. To start the ball rolling on this, our first Ywain/Gaheris poll: Increasing the maximum character level beyond level 50!

We will be adding new PvE zones on Ywain to aid in reaching the new character level, with even more great PvE campaigns! These campaigns will be run simultaneously, reducing the wait time between chapters on each campaign. Up to 4 campaigns will run at once, released weekly, and are full of new items with interesting new item uses!

So check out the poll below and vote for the new maximum character level!

Welcome to this week’s Grab Bag!

Our March newsletter is due out any time now, so make sure you’ve signed up to get the newsletter in your inbox as soon as it’s out 🙂

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 🙂

I wanted to respec ra’s on my 39 cleric, but someone said I couldn’t respect ra’s until I was 40, is this accurate?

Veteran accounts can still respec, but the messaging in-game for respecs is a bit outdated. The game will tell you that you must wait until level 40 to perform your 2nd free respec, which is not completely false in that you WILL get another free respec at level 40, but you can always /use a respec stone and initiate another respec at your trainer.

I know DF is not a full time RVR zone and Macro groups are allowed in area to pve. But when you are in there and a macro group is actively hunting you does that fall under the guidelines of Macro groups not to engage in RVR action.

Macro groups/multiboxing are not permitted in the Frontiers and Battlegrounds. There is no guideline against them RvRing in Darkness Falls or other RvR areas aside from the Frontier/Battlegrounds.

That said, free EC accounts are not allowed to be use macro groups/multibox anywhere in the game and will be actioned accordingly.

For more information on what’s allowed, please check out our previous Producer’s Letter on the subject!

I’ve been using ichor of the deep and noticed that it doesn’t seem to have a radius, at least at rank 1 but delves as having a 500 radius. Also tried ichor rank 2 and didn’t seem to have a radius either. Is there a radius or just delve error?

Thanks for the report! This is fixed now and it should properly snare at 500 radius.

Why are my battlefield, 50%rp bonus pot, and others counting down for around 2hrs after I log? It says remains after log out.

These potions remain on logout (or disconnect) in so far that the buff does not completely drop (like many others do by default) when you exit the game (or zone to another area). However, all buffs and /uses have their durations elapse when logged in AND out of the game.

I have a few accounts’ houses that are scheduled to be repossessed in 1.127. They all have the timer for demolition in-game.   I have three houses, two Alb and one Hib that have been locked to 23 days until demolition.   It has been that way for a very long time. Now that my 3 accounts are subscribed, will my mansions be torn down, even though I have active accounts, and have been active for some time?

No, your houses will not be demolished if you have a subscription active.

Since the repossession process is currently disabled any house that WAS scheduled for demolition will still display as such in-game, even if that account is now active. However, when we re-enable the process, it will check each house for its account’s subscription status and refresh any currently subscribed accounts accordingly and remove the demolition timer.

House repossession will only trigger on houses whose accounts are still inactive. If an account has been inactive for >120 days, the house will immediately be demolished with the launch of patch 1.127 and if an account has been subscribed <120 days ago, but is currently inactive, the process will set the appropriate demolition timer.

And to be clear: we are only enabling house repossession due to account inactivity in 1.127. House rent will remain disabled and no houses will be removed for lack of rent payment.

That’s it for this week! Stay safe out there, all, and please be careful!

See you in the frontiers 🙂

Welcome to this week’s Grab Bag!

Our February newsletter went out earlier this week, including a poll for a future weekend event! Check it our in your browser here, and make sure to vote! Now’s also the time to make sure you’re signed up to get our DAoC newsletter in your inbox soon as it’s sent 🙂

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 am using Renvek’s crafting helm for spellcrafting and It says I have a 100% chance to gain skill but I have made several gems without gaining skill and it is using charges still is that normal ?

Yes, this is normal behavior. The 100% skill gain bonus has a random chance to apply or not. When it applies (only possible on non-grey recipes and when not at max skill), it will cause the item to use an additional charge and you should see your spellcraft skill increase. The crafting haste bonus will apply to every spellcraft recipe crafted and so always uses a charge. This means when the skill gain applies, 2 charges will be used on the item and this why you will sometimes not receive a skill gain but still see the item use one charge.

I have a question about my vulcans charm on albion. It has charges now that I don’t remember it having and I can’t recharge it. Is this intended?

The Vulcan’s Charm (and the Vulcan’s Eye and Vulcan’s Favor) have always had 30 charge limits. They are intended to be a consumable/one-time-use item for their respective craft bonuses, though they can still obviously be worn for their other stat bonuses when the charges run out. All crafting bonus items are meant to work this way, with the exception of the Renvek crafting helms that are received from the quest in Cotswold, Mularn, or Mag Mell.

Does anything affect the damage caused by storms, siege weapons, traps etc.  The damage varies but I’m unclear what affects the damage aside from chance.

Siege damage can be modified by siege damage and siege damage protection buffs such as from the Skald, Minstrel, and Champion siege chants. Additionally, some siege ammunitions have a magic or physical damage type such as thrust, matter, crush etc. Any resist buffs or debuffs on the siege weapon’s target would affect its damage; however resist piercing on the user of the siege weapon would not. 

Conversely, while storms and traps use the essence damage type, they are not affected by essence resist buffs/debuffs on their targets because they are technically cast from an object (so the casting character’s stats cannot modify the damage) and are set to use a straight percentage damage amount on their targets (so the target’s resistance values are ignored). The variance you see on these abilities is just the general base damage variance on all un-specialized direct damage spells.

                                                                                                                                  
Can you tell us how melee crit chance is calculated? And what’s the cap?

Melee and spell critical hit chances are calculated similarly so we’ll answer with both in mind!

From an old but still accurate 2005 Grab Bag:
The base chance to critical hit is 10% for melee damage and for magical direct damage spells. Damage over time spells have a base 0% chance to critical (meaning they will never do critical hits) but that chance can go up if the player purchases the Wild Power realm ability.

A 10% chance to critical hit means simply that each melee swing or each direct damage spell cast has a 10% chance to critical hit. If a melee character were to train the Mastery of Pain realm ability to level 9 and get the +39% critical hit, their total critical chance would then be 10% base + 39% bonus = 49%. The same additive process works for Wild Power on spell casts too or with Wild Minion with pet classes.

Your specialization, stats, or +skills have nothing to do with critical hit chances.

The cap for both melee and spell critical hit chance is 50%. This 50% cap applies to all realm abilities and buffs that increase critical chance such as Mastery of Pain, Wild Power, Wild Minion, class abilities like the Warlock’s Chamber of Destruction (+10% spell critical chance), Minotaur relics found in the world, or any other critical hit chance buffs.

The only exception to this is the Berserk ability on Berserkers that causes their critical hit chance to be 100% for its duration (it also raises the critical hit damage cap from 50% to 100% of damage dealt). Additionally, the Triple Wield ability of Blademasters prevents melee critical hits entirely for its duration regardless of their targets’ chance to land a critical hit.

Astral Wither proc does not have any animation. This makes it near impossible to catch in the chat log when you are fighting, especially when you’re running with a group. Would this be something you guys would be willing to change?

The Astral Mordant weapons that proc armor withers do have a small spell effect that appears on the armor piece that gets withered (Helm, Chest, or Legs), just like normal class-based armor wither abilities. We can certainly look into adding a secondary, general and more visible effect that notifies targets they’ve been withered though and perhaps one that makes it easier to see which piece was withered.

Is it working as designed when grappling (power lock) with necro a Charged enemy that he can run around and reposition himself, whilst the necro can’t?

Yes. Charged targets are immune to crowd control and so are still able to move around when grappled.

That’s it for this week!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend full of keep battles, rps, and good friends! 🙂