THE HERALD

Happy Friday all (yay!)…following on from yesterday’s Patch 1.123a notes, today’s Grab Bag answers some feedback and questions from around the community!

If you have any curious 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!

Will you be adding map points for the new ruined areas in Hadrian’s/Emain/Odin’s, and will these areas be capture-able or just as is with quests and objectives?

We will be updating the realmwar and normal zone maps so that these new additions are shown prior to patch 1.123 going live. Adding dynamic indicators will only happen if we do end up making them capturable points. For now, they are meant to be locations with quests and objectives but not capturable points. This is because we want to really focus on these areas being for smaller groups or individuals and not full-groups and battlegroups. Making them capturable lends more to the latter. That said, it’s not out of the question and we welcome any feedback on these new areas!

If you haven’t taken a look at them, you can find them at the following locations:

-South of Caer Berkstead up on the previously impassable terrain area in Hadrian’s Wall.
-East of Bledmeer Faste on top of the western-most plateau in Odin’s Gate.
-Between Dun Bolg and Dun Crauchon on the previously impassable terrain in Emain Macha.

With Celerity on Minstrel reaching 37%  as a chant, are there any plans to increase the Skald celerity?

The Minstrel’s celerity buff is not quite a chant. The Minstrel has to pull out their instrument, not get interrupted, and play the song (ala their mesmerisation song ability) before being able to swap back to their weapons and benefit from celerity for the remainder of the 15s duration (which is a minimal benefit on a 1-handed class). This mechanic is exactly how the other new Minstrel songs work as well. The Skald damage add + celerity is an always-on song. Right now, considering Skalds are a 2-handed class and given what else they received this version, we have no plans for upping the celerity value.

As per the notes: “Stealthed characters should update more frequently so that there is less “ghosting” of them when they go in and out of clip-range.”….. Will this have any impact on stealth detection?

Marginal, if at all. This is a bug fix where sometimes stealthed characters who left another player’s detection range would stick around for an extra 5-8 seconds in that location with their last known heading. This change essentially reduces that time to 2-3 seconds. Reducing it further would have an impact on detection, which is why we didn’t!

Can you please explain the reasoning on the Archer and Assassin changes?

With the introduction of the Use Limitations and adjustment made to ablatives values across the board, some of the damage openers needed to be toned down. This is why Perforate Artery and Critical Shot were both reduced in damage.

The removal of Called Shots was also partly related to the item changes but was mostly due to feedback requesting their removal and returning Critical Strikes to an opener and style-chain-based damage line.

Are we going to see changes to the classes mentioned previously that didn’t make it into the 1.123A notes like Champion, Thane, Reaver, Valkyrie, Valewalker, etc?

Yes, patch 1.123 will have 2 major Pendragon versions prior to going live. The one yesterday was the first and the next one should include class changes for the mentioned classes in just a few short weeks. However, the changes will be a bit more minor in scope as most of them are already performing well at the moment.

That’s it for today….see you on Pendragon! 🙂

Welcome to another fabulous Friday Grab Bag to launch us into the weekend!

Thanks as always to everyone for sending in your questions, keep ’em coming! You can send in your questions through our Grab Bag submission form. Please note this is for game questions, feedback should be sent in through our feedback form.

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Now, on to the questions!

What is the difference between a Frigg, Mending Pot, or Cleric Health Regen?  How do they work?  Do they stack? And which one is better?

These 3 abilities are all the same form of health regen. The Shaman Frigg and Cleric Health Regens each stack with mending potions but do not stack or co-exist with each other (only applicable on Gaheris).

The differences are essentially just how they are cast, their durations, and their delves:

-Shaman Friggs are single or group-targeted spell casts that last 30s and range in delves from 30 hp/tick at the lowest single-targeted buff to 132 hp/tick at the highest.
-Cleric health regen buffs are single-target, concentration-based buffs. It delves from 3 to 9 hp/tick.
-The mending and omni-regen potions are self-only and last 10 minutes. They also delve from 2 to 8 hp/tick.

The form of health regen used with all three of these abilities works so that each time your character’s health regen “ticks” naturally, its regen value is boosted by the above delves.

In addition to the stated delves, the Shaman and Cleric buffs’ have their effectiveness increased with higher specializations in Mending or Enhancements, respectively.

How do the different buff spells affect pets? I buff my chanter’s pets with a druid, but I’m not sure what buffs are useful and what the buffs actually do for each pet. Thanks

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.

If arrogance absorb MELEE damage, and archery shots, though coded like bolts, absorb MELEE ablatives, why doesn’t arrogance work against archery shots?

The distinction for archery in regards to ablatives is that archery shots, while spells, still count as melee in some ways (a hold over from the old archery mechanics). This is why the shots can still be blocked and why bladeturn affects them. However, they *are* categorized as spells in most other ways. Arrogance is simply making a more specific check for damage from melee type weapons (excepting style spell proc damage) which doesn’t include archery shots. It’s a fine distinction but that’s the technical reason as to why the two are treated differently. For consistency’s sake, both arrogance and melee ablatives should likely affect the same damage types in the same way, but doing so isn’t a simple fix and this is rather far down the list of priorities.

Is it intended that Animist has constitution as secondary attribute (+23 at lvl 50) and dexterity as tertiary attribute (+15 at lvl 50)? Even the classic caster classes have quickness as tertiary attribute. Do you see the possibility that all casters get dexterity as secondary and constitution as tertiary attribute?

Animists and Warlocks are both set this way, which is as designed. Unfortunately, there are some steep technical hurdles preventing the changing of rising stats across all classes in addition to the very many abilities being balanced around the existing rising stat values.

I really enjoyed the content in the Catacombs expansion, especially the PvE quests that span all level ranges. I was wondering if we will ever be able to access the old quests and zones in Catacombs again.

The zones, yes! The quests will depend. We will likely keep some of them but most will be changed or replaced. Stay tuned for the completion of A Dragon’s Curse campaign for the full details on the Catacombs expansion’s areas. In the meantime, it’s disabled for several reasons:

1. With the campaign, we’ve re-introduced the aurulite currency and are strictly controlling its economy going forward and so want to limit access to Catacombs areas that dropped it until we’re ready for players to venture into those areas again.
2. While some players do enjoy the low level content in the expansion, it had become redundant with the New User Journey and dungeon revamps in the classic-world zones.
3. Not only was the content redundant but it spread out the population a bit too much, especially at low levels, which is not good for the health of the game. This is mostly the case for new and lower level players who we want to funnel into shared areas. It’s also true for the number of instances that Catacombs introduced (at all levels) which provide too many options, further diluting the population, while also not being high-quality, engaging encounters due to their sheer number.
4. Closing the zones to players allows us to more actively and comprehensively develop and revamp them behind the scenes so that we can provide fewer, but more engaging instances, quests, and world content in the Catacombs expansion areas. Again, stay tuned for more details later this year!

Community note: with Chapter 2 of the Campaign, there are several legacy Catacombs items for sale on the aurulite merchant to alleviate the closing of these zones.

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

Friday Grab Bag fun time is upon us. Take a min and enjoy this week’s questions!

Don’t forget you can send in your questions for the Grab Bagthrough our submission form here. Please note this is for game questions, feedback should be sent in through our feedback form.

On we go…

Why is it that cc spells (root, mezz, etc) land even though I stealth as soon as someone starts to cast? On my scout if someone I’m attacking stealths or if I lose LoS (line of sight), my shot fails.  Either it fires and hits nothing or it won’t fire at all cause they’re no longer visible. But with casters and cc, it’s like they get a free insta as it lands regardless even though they no longer have LoS. This is in reference to casted cc spells, not their insta spells.

All classes experience the same line of sight checks when casting on stealthed targets. If a spell caster is more than halfway through their cast and their target is in view or unstealthed at that point, the spell will finish. This is the same way archery shots work in regards to casting on stealthed or out of line of sight targets. Additionally, spell-interrupts function the same way in that if the cast is more than halfway completed when an interrupting ability lands, that cast will still complete but the subsequent cast will trigger the interruption timer.  All of these systems are working as designed.

I’ve recently started playing a Mentalist and I noticed that the spell Derangement (lvl 40 confuse spell in Mentalism spec) has no effect on theurgist pets. It delves the same as other spec confuses, which do work on theurg pets. Is this intended? If so, what is the purpose of this spell and why does it delve as a confuse?

In our testing, these confuse spells in the Mentalism specialization affect theurgist pets in the same way that confuse spells on other classes do. The likely scenario where the confuse didn’t work is in a 1v1 environment where the theurgist pet has no other target to change to. It is the act of changing targets that causes the theurgist pet to be dispelled by confuse, so if there were no other targets for it to change to when you cast confuse, it won’t be dispelled.

On a crafted pieces, armor or weapon. There are Imbued, enchanted, glowing and ensorcelled dust, in each of the following: Silvery, Golden, Mithril & Platinum. What is the breakdown for using? Is there a better one for the weapon or armor pieces. It is by a level of the piece is there a different result using say for example Mithril enchanted dust over Platinum ensorcelled dust?

The Spellcrafter may enchant items with a bonus (similar to what NPC enchanters have been providing, but at a higher cost). To do this, the Spellcrafter uses dusts (coppery imbued dusts to platinum ensorcelled dusts) and combines them with the item in question to graft an enchantment bonus on it. The enchantment bonus can go all the way to 35% for the highest level items, and you can imbue partial enchantments (if, for example, you wish to save on the cost of dusts). You can also enchant an item partially and then come back later to imbue the remainder. You’ll see all of this reported in your chat window when you combine the dust to the weapon or armor.

Your bonus is based on the dust you use, with the Coppery Enchanted Dust, your bonus is 3%. The other dusts provide higher bonuses.

For level 50s, crafted armor and weapons should aim to have a 35% magic bonus from enchanting.

I like the new dragons curse campaign. I was wondering about the items on the merchant. I wanted to know if you will be adding more to the merchant. The weapons for one, there are no weapons for my stealther. Bow would be good and a 1h thrust. plus a 2h weapon would be great. Also will the items be able to be re skinned with MTX?

Glad to hear you are enjoying the campaign! We will be updating the items available for purchase with aurulite as the campaign continues.

For MTX, we’d eventually like to add a robust item-reskinning system but for the first iteration we will only be offering existing items with different, but un-changing skins.

Will there ever be improvements to Minstrel/general stealth spec? In the past it wasn’t much of an issue but with the multitude of items (Savage cloak, Shades of Mist, etc.) and abilities (track, improved assassin detect/movement, assassin/archer group stealth detect) it’s getting harder to stay hidden from classes that shouldn’t be able to find stealthed characters easily.

Given the fantastic utility that Minstrels provide to the “stealth game” as a whole, upping their stealth abilities has to be done with great care. That said, we can give the line a look, along with the rest of the general improvements coming to the class (among many others!) in patch 1.123.

Thanks as always for your questions, keep sending them in!
Have a good weekend, all 🙂

It’s Friday, and hopefully the weather is looking up for the weekend’s activities..yay. 

Thanks as always to everyone who sent in questions, keep ’em coming, we can take it! You can send in your questions through our Grab Bag submission form. Please note this is for game questions, feedback should be sent in through our feedback form.

Without further ado, this week’s questions!

When Vamps were released, they were toted as having naturally high health regen.
My experience supports this. The recent addition of Necromancer undead form with higher health regen has me wondering – how much higher is Vamp health regen, as opposed to other classes?

The level 46 Shadow Mastery self-target health regen that Vampiirs get has a delve of 150. Contrast that to the highest health regen spell on other classes (not including the Necromancer) with a delve of 118 on the Mentalist single-target HoT. The Necromancer’s Decrepit Form grants a different kind of health regen than the Vampiir so comparing delves directy doesn’t work but it ends up being a faster rate of regeneration on the Necromancer. However, the increased regeneration rate on the Necromancer’s Decrepit Form is offset by their lack of Armor Factor and inability to stand toe to toe in melee like the Vampiir can while still benefiting from their health regen.

Someone brought up that pierce/thrust weapons now are entirely based on dexterity, I’ve been looking for a grab bag or patch notes that’s answered this question but I haven’t been able to find it. Do pierce/thrust weapons use only dexterity as a stat towards their damage now or is it 50% strength 50% dexterity still? Or does it all depend on the class you are playing?

Most thrust weapons use both dexterity and strength stats to determine damage, defense penetration, and weaponskill; these lines are Pierce in Hibernia, Thrust in Albion, and Hand to Hand and Spear in Midgard. Some thrust-damage weapon lines, like Celtic Spear and Large Weapons in Hibernia or Two-Hand and Polearm in Albion are entirely strength-based. The only weapon lines that are entirely dexterity-based are Shield,  Friar (and caster) staff, and Archers’ bows. Mauler Staff and Fist Wraps interestingly enough, are entirely strength-based.

While I play most realms, and have most classes on each realm. I’ve recently ventured into trying the new flavor necro classes, both melee and caster version specs.  While the melee necro is abundantly strong, it is however more balanced than caster necros with the heal pet.  Why does the pet heal for 500+ hp per heal, AND cure dot/disease in one single swoop?  I would also like to know for Molvik RvR sessions, will pet class abilities ever be scaled to character level (IE SM pets having purple NS and debuffs)?

The heal pet only heals for those sorts of values and casts the cures when in Spirit Form. When in the other caster form, Decrepit Form, the heal pet is not casting any cures and heals for less. Additionally, both heal pets are *extremely* vulnerable to melee and spell damage. That said, we are not done adjusting both the Necromancer or pets as a whole. Scaling abilities better in the battlegrounds as well as some overall pet-class adjustments are both coming in patch 1.123!

Can you explain the benefits to enchanting crafted armor and weapons? Some say it affects absorb but I’ve also heard it’s AF that it affects and not absorb.

Certainly! Enchanting armor is necessary to reduce the hit-rate enemies have when meleeing you. Enchanting weapons increases the hit-rate of a character when meleeing a target. If you are missing a lot with your weapons or never seem to get missed in melee make sure your gear is enchanted!

When is the Harbinger of Spring making its return?

The Harbinger of Spring event is slated to go live next Friday, April 14th and run until Monday, April 24th!

What’s coming in Patch 1.123 and then what’s next after it’s out?

1.123 is our major focus right now and is slated for later this Spring (currently mid-May).  Here’s what to expect:

• Shaman Cave, Druid Nature, and Cleric Smite specialization improvements.
• General improvements to the Skald and Minstrel.
• Assassin melee specialization adjustments.
• Normalizing burst damage across all Light Tanks a bit more.
• Melee or utility improvements to several hybrid classes such as Mauler, Friar, Reaver, Champion, Vampiir, Thane, and Valkyrie
• Additional adjustments to various pet-based classes.
• Introducing our first foray into MTX with the introduction of a new mount type as well as some cosmetic variations of popular armors!
• Item /uses and procs, along with the ability to stack multiple item-based abilities at once, will be toned down to help shift the focus of combat back to class and realm abilities instead of equipment!
• RvR changes that piggy-back onto how the Ghost Keep event’s feedback goes.
  • Potentially leaving Caer Benowyc, Bledmeer Faste, and Dun Crauchon as normal keeps and adding in some new ruined areas in Hadrian’s Wall, Odin’s Gate, Emain Macha, and/or Ellan Vannin to offset their loss.
  • Removing the PvE quests in the battlegrounds and increasing the rewards on their RvR-focused quests.
  • Removing or altering Buggane’s Obeslisk objective.
  • Removing or altering the portal ceremony to Ellan Vannin.
  • New RvR quests!

After 1.123 is out we have several things on the horizon for the summer:

• Dark Age of Camelot website revamp!
• A Dragon’s Curse campaign continues!
• 1v1 Tournament!
• 5v5 Tournament!
• And finally, some detailed updates on alternate server and ongoing Ywain plans!