THE HERALD

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 🙂

As promised, here is our Official Item Database download! 

Web developers or software programmers can utilize the database’s .json format to create valuable template-building and item search tools or convert it to a file type that works with existing tools’ item databases. While we will be offering an item search tool on the new website at some point after it launches, this downloadable database is meant to bridge the gap until then and provide an up to date database of the game’s equipment!

Please note: this Item Database contains data only on equippable items (armor, jewelry, and weapons) and is not meant for non-equippable items.

Following on from yesterday’s Patch 1.123b notes, this week’s Grab Bag answers questions sent in or asked around the forums regarding the changes and new MTX store!

Our latest DAOC newsletter is out today, so make sure to check your email! If you haven’t signed up for our newsletter, you can do so here.

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.

Read on for the Grab Bag!

I’m excited by the new pattern system and have tried it on Pendragon, having fun switching looks and patterns, but I’ve noticed some items that I want to pattern are not dyeable, such as the Otherwordly helms or Freezing items – can these be made dyeable? Also does the level requirement on items like these prevent my low level toons from patterning the look?

Enabling the pattern to overwrite the item’s dye settings is something we’ll look into! It may be that this limitation remains for the release of patch 1.123 though. For the requirements on patterning items, yes the ability to equip and use the item (along with matching the 2 items’ armor types or weapon damage types) is required before it can be patterned. This means that low level characters that want to equip and pattern high-end gear can only do so if there are no level, champion level, or other requirements preventing their equipping that gear. Even still, there are a lot of high-end items that do allow lower level characters to equip them!

I’m curious to see how the 20% attack speed reduction (ASR) effect follow up style works in conjunction with the 16% asr parry style itself. Does the 16% ASR effect from the parry style will negate the 20% ASR effect from the follow up or not?

The 16% ASR applies initially, then the follow-up style overwrites it with the 21% ASR version. Once the 21% version is up, the 16% version will not apply again until it has dropped because it’s not more powerful than the 21% version. You will see the combat message: “Your target already has that effect.”

Legendaries only come in one type, so is this meaning that leggies can’t have different skins at all if we have to match them sword for sword and heat for heat? Or can we swap them between thruster and slasher legendaries?

Correct, legendary weapons will not be able to be patterned to different weapons, including to other legendary weapons or to any physical-damage weapon. This is to ensure that the weapon you see and recognize on your enemy is dealing the damage type that it normally deals; so as not to disrupt normal combat tactics.

With the new PvE campaign starting, and many quests in the frontier, is there any plans to increase the amount of quests our journals can have, and also allow us to remove more quests like the epics/champion quests, and such?

There are no immediate plans to increase the amount of room in the journal, unfortunately. However, we will definitely be taking a look at all of the unremovable quests in-game and seeing about drastically lessening their number for you!

That’s it for this week, guys. Stay tuned to the Herald next week for info on our Item Database! 🙂

A little late, but not forgotten. Protect was a popular topic recently, with many questions sent in, so read on!

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.

This week’s Grab Bag questions and answers are below!

With the coastal resource crate system being removed, will the alchemy drop rates/stacks acquired through PvE be restored to “pre-crate” levels? Any hope of just leaving the crates in game for us crafters?

The coastal keep resource crates will be removed but some of their rewards will be disbursed to new features and quests that should offset any alchemy resource supply issues!

Does Protect still work after the recent aggression changes to heals and taunt styles?

In short, yes. However, the aggression mechanics were changed such that simply applying Protect passively is not enough to keep ‘aggro’ any longer. Tanks will have to use taunt melee styles and taunt abilities (if they have them) to maintain ‘aggro’ now.

Mythical PD doesn’t appear to act like the real Physical Defense. Items like Freezing Winter Myth or the Dragon myth have PD values but it just adds it as a flat resist not going above cap. Is this intended or can you explain how exactly its suppose to work?

Correct. The ‘Myth: Physical Defense’ stat on items is an increase to the *first tier* melee resist values (Crush, Slash, and Thrust) and does not exceed resist caps. It is not coded like the Physical Defense realm ability that reduces physical damage by increasing the *second tier* melee resist values. There are no plans to change how this works.

I’m happy to say I’m a returning player after being out for about 15 years.
It’s great to see people still playing and makes me happy to see the devs showing this game the love it deserves and moving it forward so I want to say thank you!

My question is in regards to scaling UI to corresponding res. I’m on a 27″ screen and have maxed out screen res size which makes everything look so much nicer and run smoother but I haven’t been able to figure out if I can scale the UI appropriately. Is there a way to do this and if not do you have any plans to do this anytime in the near future?

This is one of many things we’d like to address with a general User Interface update. We are working towards this slowly but surely as resources allow. It’s a huge undertaking!

Any update on patch 1.123? Will there be updates to the class changes on Pendragon?

Yes! We have a 1.123B version coming very soon to Pendragon that will have additional class changes to several classes that didn’t make it into the 1.123A notes AND tweaks to several of the changes made in 1.123A based on your feedback. Additionally, and the reason for the wait thus far, is that we are also introducing the new Mithril currency and shop. We were able to squeeze in an armor, cloak, and weapon “patterning” system that will allow characters to copy the look of their existing items onto their other items (with some restrictions)! Stay tuned for the notes for the full details!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend, all!