Happy hunting!

Costume potions are available at the Crazy Old Lady merchants in each realm's relic town or from obtaining Trick or Treat potions at the pumpkin patches!

Highlights

• Pet abilities, damage, and survivability have been re-balanced with a specific focus on the battleground levels!
• Light Tanks have been returned to their pre-1.121 form!
• Pet fear's effectiveness has been reduced across the board!
• Several other class changes and bug fixes!

If you have any game related questions for our DAOC Devs, please 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.

The shield block cap was lowered to 60% in patch 1.96. That cap only affects RvR block rates, not PvE, and does not include the Engage ability.

No. Spell piercing only works on casted or procced spells (i.e. melee style procs). Legendary weapons change the damage type of a melee hit, and therefore do not take into account spell piercing.

Yes! As stated in the 1.124 notes we would like to make keeps more difficult to take. Additionally we are looking at improving the new ruined areas added to the game in 1.123, alleviating some of the stealth-camping going on around objectives, as well as some improvements to the battleground experience!

Here’s a shorthand list first with explanations following:

Mythical stat caps – 52
Mythical DPS – 10
Mythical Power, Health, Endurance Regens – 50
Mythical Crowd Control - 50
All others – uncapped

As the supply of items with the uncapped mythical bonuses is increased in-game, we’ll be applying caps to them as well. For now, there simply aren’t enough of those bonuses available where a cap is necessary.

Here’s some more detailed information on the mythical stat caps from the 1.118 patch notes:

• Mythical item stat bonuses and their caps have been changed in the following way:
  • Mythical stat cap items previously introduced have allowed players to exceed the traditional item stat caps of 101. However, until now, these mythical stats caps were uncapped. With the coming Otherworlds campaign and more mythical stat cap availability, the overall stat cap from items is now set to 127 (or 75+52).
  • This stat cap of 127 can be reached either solely with mythical item stat caps (75+52=127) or in combination with traditional stat caps which still have the same +26 limit.
    • Traditional stat caps are still only able to go up to +26 stat cap at level 50.
    • Mythical stat caps are able to go up to +52 stat cap at level 50, but cannot exceed the new 127 stat cap threshold even if used in combination with traditional stat caps.

Characters that transferred over from Mordred should still have their kills, deathblows, and keep/tower capture stats. If for some reason they do not, Customer Support can restore these values so long as they can locate the original transferred character on Mordred. In some rare cases, this may not be possible so please be understanding.

That's it for this week!

Have a great weekend everyone :)

Highlights

• Check out the new solo-oriented objective in Folley Lake, The Trellebourg, and Moydruim Castle areas!
• Chapter 9 of the Dragon Curse Campaign is here with a new instance loot-reward system!
• New item stat caps to Hit Points and Mythical Resists!
• Buggane’s Obelisk is no longer as easy to camp!
• Client and server stability has been improved!

• Fix for the 'warping' movement of other clients' characters.
• Fix for some missing textures on certain Race/Gender/Hair combinations.
• Dead characters should no longer be nearest-target-able and their names should appear with the correct color and at the correct height.
• Stealthers can now stealth when the Lone Wolf buff is active.
• Any characters experiencing a Lone Wolf buff that only lasts for a short, 60s duration when used should replace their Token of the Lone Wolf at the nearest Ruined area obelisk. Once replaced the buff will correctly refresh its duration every 60s.
• The Lone Wolf buff now lasts through death. It still is removed on grouping, logout, or zoning.
• The [Daily Quest] Solo Road Quest should be awarding players credit correctly now.
• Necromancers should no longer lose health and receive a resist buff when casting their level baseline lifedrain spells.

If you have any game related questions for our DAoC Devs, please 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.

Each of the following abilities are unlocked on the respective underhill servant for 30s when this proc goes off:

Underhill Stalker and Compatriot: Gains a snare style.
Underhill Ally – Gains a defensive snare-proc.
Underhil Companion – Gains a cold damage snare/nuke.
Underhill Zealot - No effect.

We’ll update the delve on this robe to clearly show these effects, thanks!

It’s still on our list! We have many other things that we’re working towards right now (more on that in a coming Producer’s Letter!) – but after those things? This is right near the top.

Poof! (Wyvern’s Talon now follows up Hawk’s Talon and Tracking Spear’s delve has been updated to reflect that, thanks!).

There are no plans to bring back assassin missions. We do, however, have some other RvR quests in the works that will similarly give players something to do while they wait around for their friends to log on.  Additionally – Doppelgangers are always available and also provide realm point bonuses for defeating them!

This is something we want to wait on until we've had time to observe behavior in the areas for a few weeks (at least). Depending on how things go, we'd rather not add in hardcore anti-camping mechanics if they aren't absolutely necessary because RvR should remain as unfettered as possible.

We are looking at several options though:

• Actively prevent camping by casting direct damage or some other spell on characters that remain in the area for more than X seconds (potentially only grouped characters)
• Strip the Buggane's Folly buff (or prevent it from working) on players who enter the ruined areas
• Add in objectives and incentives elsewhere that encourage groups and small-mans to venture to other areas

We're also open to ideas from you all so please submit them via the feedback form if you have them!

• [Daily Quest] The Solo Road
  • Quest objectives changed as follows:
    • Earn 1 solo kills in the Ruined or Maze areas
    • Earn 5 solo kills anywhere in the Frontiers
  • This change will allow solo kills in the Ruined or Maze areas to count for both steps of the quest, so if fighting there, it will be possible to get just 5 total solo kills and complete the quest. This change should address some of the issues players were seeing with getting credit when on the 2nd step of the quest.
  • Players that already have the quest should be able to relog and the objectives will update in their journal to the new values and restrictions.
• Crafted armors and weapons now have a recharge cost of 10g per charge.
  • This change will allow players to recharge crafted gear at Recharger NPCs. 
  • Characters currently in-game may need to zone or relog to have their already-crafted gear update properly.
  • Crafted gear can still be recharged at no-cost by Alchemists.

• Grouped characters that are within 3,500 in-game units of the center of the ruined areas at Folley Lake, The Trellebourg, and Moydruim Castle will have their Buggane's Folly, Lone Wolf, and unlocked obelisk-teleport buffs forcibly removed.
  • Judging by the feedback we've received on these areas, they are clearly a big hit! Possibly too-big of a hit. This change is meant to alleviate and disincent some of the group-traffic in the areas but is NOT designed to eliminate it. These areas are still a part of the Frontiers and we do not intend to create any areas where only certain types of players or playstyles can venture. While we can encourage a certain type of play in some areas, the Frontiers are a sandbox for all playstyles and players. This change follows in that vein and is designed to encourage one type of play without also eliminating the other playstyles.
• Minstrel pets should no longer stop for a split-second when casting the Song of Everlasting Fervor (celerity).

• Loot chests from defeating each boss in A Dragon's Curse campaign Chapter 9 instance will now disappear 60 seconds after spawning. Be sure to get your loot!
• Loot chests should now always drop something in Chapter 9's instance:
  • Some items from previous chapters, as well as Pure aurulite, have been given a small chance to drop.
  • Cracked aurulite has been added to the loot chests that will drop if no other item is received.
  • These additions do not affect the existing chance of getting your class' set armor or the existing small chance at getting any class' set armor.
• Sleeves, Chest-pieces, and Leggings/Boots from Chapter 9's instance that were missing armor procs now have them. Characters that do not see the procs when delving the items may need to zone or relog.
  • Procs are as follows:
    • 150 absorption ablative proc, 50% damage absorbed
    • 120 point heal proc
• Several classes' erroneous Set Bonus descriptions have been adjusted to reflect their actual ability upgrades.
  • Please note that the ability upgrades are meant to be useful, but not game-changing, and to work with most/all specializations within each class.

• A Dragon's Curse Chapter 7 and Chapter 8 encounters in all realms should now award credit more reliably.
• The Pure Aurulite reward for completing the Chapter 9 quests should be correctly awarded now.
• Chapter 9's Ingolf encounter should reset properly now.
• Chapter 9's Najah's damage protection shatter should correctly trigger now.
• Chapter 9's Varshe should now correctly toggle between his modes with the correct visual cues.
• The Undead NPC in Camelot now shows its pending quest step knot on [Curse] A Friendly Face.
• Please note that we are still looking into issues with the [Daily Quest] The Solo Road quest credit. There seems to be a disrepancy between the solo kill stat and the solo kill credit from the quest that is unrelated to the region restrictions added to the quest. Given the fast action occuring at the ruined areas, this pre-existing issue is simply being noticed more often. Unfortunately, fixing this will require server downtime and so this fix likely won't be until our next major version.
• Please note that we are also still looking into several client-related crashes and will have fixes for these out as soon possible!

If you have any game related questions for our DAoC Devs, please 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.

Unfortunately there is no way to center the buffs on larger resolution windows. We have this, among many, many other updates, on our list for UI/UX improvements to make to the client!

Paypal is a valid option on the Origin.com payment portal for the Game-Time Codes. Unfortunately, for direct monthly subscriptions, Paypal won’t be potentially available until our work with EA on the Account Center update is complete (hopefully by the end of next year).

Since you do not have access to your old email address, there is not a way to change the email on our Account Center or on Origin.com as EA, for security reasons, requires access to the existing email before allowing it to be changed.

However, if you have the Secret Word to your account you can contact our billing department at support@darkageofcamelot.com and verify your account information with the Secret Word, explain your situation with the email address to them, and request that it be changed to another email address. Please note that you *must* verify your account ownership with the Secret Word before our billing team will change any account information.

If one does have access to their existing email address, they can simply visit Origin.com, sign-in, and edit the email address in their profile.

The melee resist charge on the Otherworldly belts adds to a character’s melee resistances. The Physical Defense realm ability directly reduces melee damage received by the given percentage. So in short, the two abilities will stack, but one does not directly add to the other.

What you’ve been told is essentially correct. The level 50 training dummy has 0 resists and behaves as a normal yellow monster for damage purposes.

The level 1 training dummy, when attacked by a level 50 character, will essentially display the damage cap for that style/spell since the level 1 training dummy is so far below your character’s level that it removes any variance in damage and should always show your highest damage potential.

Please do note that the training dummies are still monsters though and that while most damage-related combat functions can be tested against them, some others will not work; such as resist piercing which only works vs player targets.

Match ups will be announced the day of the tournament. A note for our finalists: please be on Pendragon and ready to start at least 10 minutes beforehand!

Details on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd placed rewards has also been updated. Head over to our 1v1 Tournament page and check out the prizes :) 


Good luck to all!  

 

Chapter 10

As the horrific shroud of the Tenebrous dissipates, the Undead have regained control of their consciousness. The Undead are free, but with its defeat, you feel a surge of darkness pouring into Childe’s Vault, slowing reaching its way into the tomb and beyond, to Albion.

Midgard

Garmr stands firm and beside him growls his faithful ally, Freki. Before them dark, ravenous energy flows from beneath the Sanctum’s holy ground. Garmr nods to you, and once again faces the energy. The Dark Dragon is here. It is time to free the Drakulv.

The Marrach Prince falls. The Marrach conquest into Hibernia is over. The Inner Veil begins to grow unstable. Waypoints to other rifts, other worlds, open and close. One wrong step means the end. There is one waypoint, though, that seems different above the others. It’s darker, and you see Salle on the other side, calling to you.

Players must defeat all 3 bosses in each realm's Chapter 9 instance dungeon to progress to Chapter 10's encounter there.

• Speak with Guy in Childe’s Vault
  • Players on Chapter 9 who defeat the Tenebrous Horror will immediately progress to Chapter 10.
• Speak with Garmr in Drakulv Sanctum
  • Players on Chapter 9 who defeat Firga will immediately progress to Chapter 10.
• Speak with Salle in the Inner Veil
  • Players on Chapter 9 who defeat Prince Varshe will immediately progress to Chapter 10.
• Defeat the Dark Dragon and earn your stone-encrusted gloves!
• Please note that players that do not have Chapter 6 of the campaign complete WILL be able to participate in Chapter 10's encounter and obtain the quest. However, the final quest step cannot be turned in for their reward until Chapter 6 is complete.

Live Hot Fix Notes

• Several balance adjustments have been made to all realms' Chapter 9 encounters to make them a bit easier and more straightforward to complete while still maintaining their fun mechanics.
  • Albion 9.1: Necromancer Janus' encounter now resets properly on failure.
  • Albion 9.1: Necromancer Janus' damage and resistances to damage have been reduced slightly.
  • Albion 9.2: One of the left or right tentacle should always be able to be damaged now.
  • Albion 9.3: The right tentacle should spawn and stun correctly now.
  • Albion 9.3: The amount of mobs that spawn from the Darkspire portals has been reduced to 2 mobs per.
  • The Darkspire Harpy's silence radius has been reduced.
  • Midgard 9.1: Dark Ingolf should no longer chain teleport players at the beginning of the encounter.
  • Midgard 9.2: The radius of the wind has been increased slightly and will no longer dissipate when it kills.
  • Hibernia 9.2: The Supercharged effect no longer has an immunity timer.
  • Hibernia 9.3: Varshe should now reliably switch from caster to melee modes in sync with his effects.

• The Hallowed Staff /use2 Infernal Blessing is now only usable by list-casters (excluding Valewalkers) and has had its duration increased from 5 minutes to 10 minutes and value reduced from 15% to 12% armor factor and hits.
• All Chapter 9 armor sets have been given a new itemization pass:
  • Sleeves, Leggings, and Boot stats remain unchanged.
  • Sleeves, Leggings, and Boots 120 heal proc was replaced with a 280 heal proc. The ablative proc remains unchanged.
  • Chestpieces were each given 2 class-usable TOA% stats.
  • Chestpieces were given 2 new procs:
    • 280 point heal proc
    • 5% health regen over 30s proc
• All Chapter 9 armor set bonuses have been given another pass and improved:
  • Where possible, existing set bonuses were simply given higher values and remain otherwise unchanged.
  • However, several classes were given either new set bonuses or retained their existing ones but still had new bonuses added.
  • The goal of these sets is to make the bonuses worthwhile improvements to existing class abilities and not to grant classes wholesale new abilities via the items.
    • In conjunction with the stat and proc changes, we think a balanced mark has been hit with these sets and their bonuses that will make it worth the effort of fitting all 3 items into a template while also not making them mandatory to use.
• Necromancer's Icebrand stats have been adjusted on the level 1-4 and level 5-12 versions to better fit characters of those level ranges.

• The Hibernian version of the Solo Road daily quest will now properly reward credit for killing Midgard players.

Chapter 9

Albion

                You must hurry! Quickly, come to Childe’s Vault! Selan is in trouble! She has chased after Decimus and Maximillian into the deeper reaches of the crypt! We have learned that the Tenebrous Undead are controlled and connected by a hive-minded monstrosity. If Selan finds this monster along with Decimus, I fear the worst! You must go to her aid!

--Guy, Selan’s Regiment

Midgard

                Garmr is still deep within the Sanctum, venturing within for the power of Drakulv Kings. With all five stones in our possession, we must deliver these relics to him so that he can use their power and infuse the Drakulv weapon! With that power we just may stand a chance against the Dark Dragon. Meet me in the Drakulv Sanctum and I will show you the way to Garmr – and make haste!

--Sigrun of the Shield of Valhalla

Hibernia

                The time has come, heroes. We have waited on Salle long enough - and with no sign of her success or failure. The Marrach will wait no longer. Prince Varshe has rallied his troops and he seeks the Dark One’s power. We must not let the Marrach Prince again such strength! Come to the Inner Veil. It is here where we will end this cursed campaign and free the Dark Elven people!

--Prince Reynarch of the Abagath
 

A Dragon’s Curse (Chapter 9)

The campaign continues! Venture into the heart of the Dark Dragon’s lair!

• The instances Childe’s Vault, Drakulv Sanctum, and the Inner Veil are now dungeons open to a full group of players to explore and conquer!

To Start Chapter 9:

• Speak with Guy in Childe’s Vault
• Speak with Sigrun or Theso in Drakulv Sanctum
• Speak with Prince Reynarch in the Inner Veil

Campaign Updates and Fixes

• There is now an NPC in Childe’s Vault, Drakulv Sanctum, and the Inner Veil that will grant players their stones of power from the previous campaign quests should they have lost their stone.
  • Requires the corresponding quest to be complete before a stone will be granted.
  • Chapter 10 will require all 5 stones.
• Several monsters in Childe’s Tomb, Drakulvhamn, and The Rift have had their aggression radius increased.
• The Soul Stone’s power buff received from Childe, Sabna, and Salle is now applied in a radius.
• Putrid, the Wolfmother, and the Veil Strider should correctly drop loot in addition to aurulite and Draginium Ore.
• (Midgard) Monsters in the Dream’s Trollheim zone of Chapter 6 of the Dragon Curse Campaign have had their aggression radius reduced.

Instance Loot-reward Changes

• Starting with Chapter 9’s instance, the way loot is awarded and daily lockouts are applied in instance encounters will be updated as follows:
  • Defeating a boss inside the instance will drop a chest that ALL characters in the instance can right-click to interact with.
  • Interacting with a given chest triggers the daily lockout *for that chest*.
  • The chest will grant that character’s class a roll on the boss’ loot table.
    • These loot tables will be weighted heavily to drop an item intended for the class that interacts with the chest.
      • This is to encourage the use of multiple group setups and to avoid scenarios where certain classes are excluded from groups.
    • It is NOT a guarantee that an item will drop on each chest interaction.
  • Characters can then do the instance as many times as they desire, but can only interact with the given boss' loot chest once per day.
  • If an instance drops multiple loot chests (like Chapter 9 does), each chest has its own daily lockout timer.
  • As other instance encounters are updated with this new system, they will be noted. For now, only Chapter 9’s instance functions this way.
• Chapter 9 also introduces a new item reward type: gear sets.
  • By doing Chapter 9, characters will have a chance to earn Chest, Arms, and Boots/Leggings armor pieces that when all 3 are equipped will improve a single ability of that class (as noted by the armor).
  • The armors, when equipped, will automatically improve the class’ ability without the need to /use or manually toggle anything. If only 1 or 2 out of the 3 armors are equipped, the abilities will function as normal.
  • These armors will have less stats than most top-of-the-line pieces available in the current game to offset the ability improvement.
  • The improved abilities will, with few exceptions, be on baseline or class-defining spec-line (like Dual Wield, Savagery, Valor, Instruments, etc.) abilities only.
  • Some examples of improved abilities:
    • An extra 150 radius to a normally single-target ability.
    • Increasing the radius of an AoE ability.
    • Adding an extra damage type to a single resist-debuff.
    • Adding an extra stat debuff type to an existing stat debuff.
    • Changing from single-target to group target.
    • Increasing the ability’s duration.

Chapter 8

Albion

Maximilian…my husband…taken by the evil lord, Decimus. We must make our way into the Catacombs, vanquish the Tenebrous leaders, and find those responsible for this Undead uprising. We will put an end to their unholy crusade soon. There are reports of a waypoint opening within Childe’s Tomb. Our path into the Catacombs may begin there.
--Commander Selan

Midgard

The fifth stone is within reach, Warriors. Those from the deepest darkness, Darkspire, are making their way into Drakulvhamn once again. There is a waypoint within these dark caves, and our enemies are once again sending reinforcements to reclaim Drakulvhamn. The only way they could create such a rift powerful enough to travel through space instantly is with a stone of power. Find the waypoint, defeat the Darkspire lords, and claim the final stone. Then, we head into the Sanctum to find Garmr! Make haste!
--Oracle Sabna

Hibernia

Salle is still gone, but that doesn’t mean the Abagath march will slow! We have found the Life Stone, and with it, we are one stone away from beginning our march into the Catacombs. There is an opening within this rift, Heroes! My scouts report that the Marrach, Glimmer, and Darkspire are launching one final assault to reclaim this portion of the Veil. I leave it to you to stop them. Let us hope Salle is back before long with information on our stones of power.
--General Riarona

A Dragon’s Curse (Chapter 8)

• The campaign continues! The factions of the Catacombs and the Darkspire lords launch a final assault on their lost lands!
• Return to Childe’s Tomb, Drakulvhamn, and the Rift to close the final waypoint and prevent passage into your home realm once and for all!
• The aurulite merchant now offers loot from all encounters and bosses from the campaign!
  • Note: This does not include the Chapter 6 Band of the Dream Conqueror

To begin the encounter:

• Albion – After obtaining the quest from Commander Selan, find the Unstable Darkspire Waypoint within Childe’s Tomb. Interact with the waypoint to begin the encounter.
• Midgard – After obtaining the quest from Oracle Sabna, find the Unstable Darkspire Waypoint within Drakulvhamn. Interact with the waypoint to begin the encounter.
• Hibernia – After obtaining the quest from General Riarona, find the Unstable Darkspire Waypoint within the Rift. Interact with the waypoint to begin the encounter.

Things to note about Chapter 8:

• Completing Chapters 1-5 and Chapter 7 are all required to begin Chapter 8.
• Chapter 6 is not required to begin Chapter 8.
• You can begin the encounter by right-clicking the Unstable Darkspire Waypoint. However, you must be on the Chapter 8 quest or have completed the quest to begin the encounter.
• Once the encounter begins, if there are no players within the Waypoint’s radius, the encounter will reset.

Other fixes:

• The aurulite Mauler staff, caster staff, and small shield are now sold at the proper 35% quality, 100% condition, and 100% durability.
• Vulcan’s health, damage, and the rate he spawns fires have been reduced for Albion’s Chapter 7 encounter.
• The melee and magic resistance buffs in Vampiir’s Dementia specialization should now co-exist with all other resistance type spells (or stack with ones they previously stacked with).
• The Astral Kinetic Hammer’s damage absorption buff should now apply correctly in Midgard.
• The Friar’s Tranquility damage reduction buff should now apply correctly to the group.

Chapter 7

The Dream Stone is ours. I have never before seen such power from a single object. Truly, an object of wonder…and I fear the power of the other stones now that I have seen this one. If what we know of the Life Stone is true, then I fear the Tenebrous have long since brought Albion’s worst enemy back into the forefront.
--Commander Selan

Warriors of Midgard, I leave the conquest of the Life Stone in your hands. I must venture further into the sanctum of the legendary Drakulv for the ancient power of Drakulv Kings. I know I can count on you to stop whatever the Dark Dragon has planned.
--Garmr, King of the Drakulv

Salle is journeying within the Veil to locate the Dark Dragon’s lair. In the meanwhile, it is up to us to stop the madness in Sheeroe Hills in your home of Hibernia. The Glimmer and Marrach are still at large, and they have used the Life Stone to resurrect some of our deadliest of enemies. It is up to us to end them and retrieve the stone. After what you and I have been through together inside the Dream, I will be there with you in this war, always. Our people are now inseparable allies.
--General Riarona of the Abagath Dark Elves

• The campaign continues! The Life Stone has the power to resurrect the realm’s most evil enemies!
• Venture once again into Dartmoor, Malmohus, and Sheeroe Hills to defeat the Dragons! They have returned, and this time, they have help!

• Albion – After obtaining the quest from Commander Selan, speak with Maximilian outside Goldestandt’s Lair.
• Midgard – After obtaining the quest from Garmr, attack Gjalpinulva within her lair.
• Hibernia – After obtaining the quest from General Riarona within the rift, speak with General Riarona again outside Cuuldurach’s Lair.

• Completing Chapter 6 is not required to begin Chapter 7.
• Completing chapters 1-5 are required to begin Chapter 7.
• You can begin the encounter so long as you are currently on the Chapter 7 quest or have completed the Chapter 7 quest.
• You can enter an in-progress encounter by stepping into the waypoints outside of the dragon lair.
• Once the encounter begins, if there are no players within the dragon lair, the encounter will reset.

• The difficulty of Chapter 6 has been further reduced on all realms.
• Players that touch the Dream Stone during the Chapter 6 campaign quest will now be able to teleport to and from their realm’s instances from the main teleporters.
• Soul Stone’s Power buff to pierce certain enemies in the Curse Campaign has been increased to a 15 minute duration.
• NPC allies and pets no longer cause enemies with Darkspire Shielding to activate their shield when taking damage. Players must still first use a Soul weapon or have the Soul Stone’s buff to remove the shielding.
• Daila Whitesteel no longer roams around Camelot. She can be found near the northern forge in Camelot, east of the Church of Albion.
• The Grimbur encounter for Albion’s Chapter 5 now spawns less harpies and at a slower rate.
• The Bodolf encounter for Midgard’s Chapter 5 should now always award credit to players within his lair.
  • Bodolf will return to his spawn point when dragged away from his lair.
• The Salle NPC in the Rift has been increased in size to allow players to easily identify the correct NPC Salle for certain campaign quest steps.
• The Empirical Glimmer Body encounter for Hibernia’s Chapter 5 now progresses faster.
• Battlefield Potions have been reduced in cost to 25,000 aurulite.
• The Hibernian daily ‘Victory Over the Rift’ has been removed. This quest was not yet meant to be released.
• Characters who have completed the Chapter 6 solo instance can now re-enter them to adventure through them again.

Chapter 6
 

     The Dream Stone is upon us. Its power is said to be unmatched of the five. IF we can use its power for good, for what is right, then the Tenebrous will fall and our next step will be to reclaim Darkspire and liberate the Undead.
--Commander Selan

     I am now King of the Drakulv, thanks to your help. There is something I wish to show you, it is a sanctuary of the Drakulv . Only the Drakulv are allowed to enter, and only the most esteemed. For you, I will make it the first exception. Meet me within Drakulvhamn, there is still work to be done.
--Garmr, King of the Drakulv

     The new alliance between Hibernia and the Abagath Dark Elves is a breath of fresh air for us in the Veil, and quite literally! The Rift has been taken, we have won it from the Marrach. Next, we venture further into the rift. A new waypoint has been opened, and inside is what we have been looking for. Come to me, and I will show you the way.
--Prince Reynarch, Leader of the Abagath

• The campaign continues! Adventure into your memories! Some of your favorite old zones await with new challenges!
• These new dungeons are restricted to a single player only. Adventure through this challenging chapter at your own pace and relive your old memories!
  • Be sure to use Selan's Greatsword, the Drakulv Battle Horn, or Call Salle to summon some help while you are in the Dream.
    • Interact with the Dream Stone in Childe's Tomb, Drakulvhamn, or The Rift dungeons if you have lost the summoning item.
• The 2016 5v5 Triumphant Wristguard is now available as a quest reward from Chapter 6!
• To start chapter 6:
  • Speak with Commander Selan in Childe’s Tomb.
  • Speak with Garmr in Drakulvhamn.
  • Speak with Prince Reynarch in the Rift.
• Please Note: Players may need to run their client's patcher if they are not able to see chapter 6's dungeons after porting.

Chapter 5

     Daila has forged our weapons. We can now strike the enemies from Darkspire and pierce their magical shield. It is time to reclaim Albion from the Tenebrous and prepare ourselves to move within the Catacombs. Once we defeat their leaders, Dartmoor will once again be safe.
--Commander Selan

     Warriors of Midgard! I have gone on a short journey since we last spoke. I have been into the Catacombs, passed the Burial Grounds, and into the Glashtin Forge. Freki and I searched for a smith capable of such miracles. I have the Soul Weapons. We can now defeat the Drakulv King and reclaim Drakulvhamn! It begins now!
--Garmr, leader of the Drakulv Rebellion

     Heroes, my sister, Sayri, has returned to Sheeroe Hills. She has been in the depths of Hibernia, and she is leading the Glimmer to build something…terrible. I fear Mother has gotten into her head again, and when Sayri listens to Mother, bad things happen! With our Soul Weapons, we can face Sayri and her terrors. We must stop her, for the good of a renewed Hibernia.
--Salle, the Glimmer Fairy

• Speak with Commander Selan in Childe’s Tomb or Camelot.
• Speak with Garmr in Drakulvhamn.
• Speak with Salle in the Rift or Tir na Nog.

Chapter 4

      As the outlook brightens within the dark tomb, Commander Selan is pushing the offensive forth into ending the Tenebrous uprising. Rackham, the first of the Undead to betray the Tenebrous and seek out Albion for aid, knows of a way to use the Soul Stone’s remaining power.

      With Oracle Sabna now a part of the Drakulv Revolution, the pillar of leadership begins to sway amongst the Drakulv rebels. However, this will not stop Garmr and his crusade to liberate the Varulv kind from their cursed masters. He will work with the Oracle, who has discovered a way of forging weapons made with soul magic, if it means he will no longer serve the ancient evils of Midgard’s troubled past.

      The Veil is home to all sorts of magic and terrors, and Prince Reynarch of Abagathar finally has his opportunity to make his mark in Dark Elven history with the defeat of the Glimmer. To that end, their Glimmer Fairy ally has thus far delivered unremarkable aid to the Abagathar Dark Elves – and she continues to do so. Salle cautiously offers the Resistance a way to create soul weapons – but with a warning; this magic is evil, and using it can have unknown consequences…

• Speak with Commander Selan in Childe’s Tomb.
• Speak with Garmr in Drakulvhamn.
• Speak with Salle within the Rift in Sheeroe Hills.

• The Soul Stone’s Power buff from Oracle Sabna for Midgard players and from Childe for Albion players is now obtainable from their respective NPCs even after the Chapter 3 quest is completed.
  • Hibernia players can get this buff from their Salle companion.
• The Blood Stone quest encounter was bugged in the case that some players may not have received their Blood Stone from Chapter 2.
• Note: You will need the Blood Stone to complete coming chapters.
• On Albion: Defeating the Blood Slime in the Blood Pit within Childe’s Tomb will always award players who are missing their Blood Stone with a replacement. The Blood Slime will always spawn for players who have completed the Chapter 2 quest, ‘The Blood Stone’, by interacting with the Blood Pit.
• On Midgard: Defeating the Blood God in Priestess Aiyana’s Shrine will always award players who are missing their Blood Stone with a replacement. The Blood God will always spawn for players who have completed the Chapter 2 quest, ‘The Blood Stone’, by defeating Priestess Aiyana.
• On Hibernia: Defeating the corrupt dragon hatchling in the Rift will always award players who are missing their Blood Stone with a replacement. The corrupt dragon hatchling will always spawn for players who have completed the Chapter 2 quest, ‘The Blood Stone’, by destroying the glimmer egg.

If you have any game related questions for our DAoC Devs, please 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.

Sure can!

All emerald, sapphire, and diamond seals now stack up to 1,000.(Blood seals will remain at 500 due to their limited supply)

This is a hold-over from the original “auto-training” specialization system that granted certain classes some extra “auto-train” points to a) try and prevent those early players from not specializing correctly and b) to incentivize certain specializations over others.

It’s an admittedly outdated system and the free skill points acquired are fairly negligible; but we’ve no plans to change how this works at this time. We certainly wouldn’t remove the system as many players have become accustomed to their existing specialization options. So the choice is to leave it alone or give other specializations auto-training points. Rather than figuring out where to draw the line on new auto-training specs, we plan on leaving things as they’ve always been in this case.

Yes, this is something we would like to address in the overall housing update.

Great memory!

Yes, the player-purchased skiffs and cogs from Trials of Atlantis zones should show your guild’s chosen emblem when they are placed in the water. There’s no need to visit any emblemeer NPC as they should display the emblem as soon as the skiff or cog is purchased and placed in the water. However, unfortunately there is a known issue where the ship’s sail will display the wrong emblem and pattern instead. We have that on our list of bugs to fix!

New Frontier scout ships, galleons, and warships always display their realm’s insignia and colors and not the guilds’.

Enchantment of Fire will change the damage type of the legendary weapon to Heat damage for its duration. It will not, however, change the damage type of the legendary weapon’s debuff proc. So in the given example a Body legendary will do Heat damage for the duration of Enchantment of Fire but will still proc a body magic resist debuff.

Graceful light only increases the effectiveness of heals cast by the healer, not the effectiveness of healing on a given target.

• Buggane's Obelisk will no longer spawn at the Lucan's Summit, Uald Heights, or Cavana Drift locations.
  • The obelisk can still spawn at the three realm maze locations or on Ellan Vannin.
    • The chance for it to spawn on Ellan Vannin is now double that of any of the maze locations.

• The Frozen Medal of Honor and Frozen Cloaks of Midwinter are once again available!
• Battleground Presents are there to be gathered!
• 50% RP, BP, and XP bonuses are now live!
• The Traveling Merchants have made their winterly return to the realms!
• The Frozen Cavern instance will not return with Midwinter and instead will be available in a separate event in late January.

Midwinter will start today, December 19th, and will run until January 15th, 2018.
The 12 days of Midwinter event will begin on Thursday, December 21st!

Read on for more details!

• 50% bonus to RP gain from RvR kills
  • This will display as "+75% to all realm points gained from RvR" in your /bonuses window. The default value is +25%.
  • This bonus applies to all RvR zones, including battlegrounds.
• 50% bonus to normal XP gain in all classic and shrouded isles zones and dungeons
• 50% bonus to normal BP in all NF zones
• 50% bonus to normal BP in all battlegrounds

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

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

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

Several popular items have also made their return along with some brand new additions!

• Freezing mythirians are now available for sale on the last page of the Mythirian merchant!
• Don't forget, Ghostly Medal of Valors are also for sale on the Rarities merchant!

Players can find the merchants at the below locations. Happy Shopping!

In Albion: Just outside of gates of Castle Sauvage in Camelot Hills
In Midgard: Just outside of Svasud Faste in the Vale of Mularn
In Hibernia: Just outside of Druim Ligen in Connacht

The days grow short, a chill is in the air, and warm fires glow in our homes. The Midwinter Festival has come once again to the Realms! Visit the festival grounds to take part in the festivities and challenges.
 

 

Another exciting year in Dark Age of Camelot is almost in the books and another, even more exciting year is about to begin! Even more exciting, you say? Unquestionably - but I can’t just spoil things right away, you’ll have to read through the letter to find out why!

There are three major development goals that we intend to accomplish over the next year.

1. Make Realm vs Realm the best experience possible. This means returning RvR’s focus to the combat and realm war.
2. Improve the returning player experience. Streamline and update the many avenues to getting a character back up to speed.
3. Grow the game’s population. More marketing, community engagement, a continued focus on user experience (UX) updates, and new incentives to play.

It’s not quite all about exciting announcements though, I’d also like to spend some time reviewing the past year and how it fits in with our future goals.

This past year has seen many changes: a massive PvE campaign, A Dragon’s Curse, that introduced engaging instance encounters and tons of new loot; we also added new daily quests and solo-oriented objectives in RvR, introduced the MTX Mithril currency, the new cosmetic patterning system, introduced the official item database download to our website, toned down item ablative-stacking, and made several class and RvR adjustments to continue to address your ongoing feedback.

Many of these features set the table for the year ahead. The Mithril currency gives us the needed flexibility to meet our stated development goals in many ways and will of course let us introduce the much-requested race, gender, and name respecs as well as account-to-account character transfers in the year ahead.

Additionally, much of the content released this past year, yes – even the Dragon’s Curse campaign, helps us meet our goals. The updates to RvR and classes speak for themselves to this point, but there’s much more on the way to ensure Dark Age of Camelot continues its status as the best PvP MMORPG of all time.

First, it all starts with making the best way to earn realm points be from killing players. The new daily quests and the new RP bonuses affecting kills only are a great first step towards this and we’ll continue to ensure kills from RvR, rather than RvE or non-kill quests, are the most effective way to earn realm points.

Second brings us to keeps and towers. These have always been intended to be challenging and very rewarding realm objectives which require strategy and realm-collaboration and coordination to capture and defend. We’ve been listening to feedback from players from all play-styles, and our plan is to improve this system. This doesn’t mean simply ramping up guard difficulty – we still think players are and should be the most important defenders of their realm’s keeps and towers. This does mean an increase in door and wall difficulty though; with specific keeps being more or less difficult than others.

With that, we’d also like to explore adding some additional keep-based objectives around a few to start and eventually every keep in each realms’ frontier if players enjoy the dynamic. These new objectives would be capturable and would activate benefits to attacking or defending when that is under siege. Measures will be taken to ensure that a simple, yet effective level of strategy be required to ensure that keep sieges are a much more dynamic and engaging RvR component.

We’d also like to extend many of these ideas to the battlegrounds (we may even use the BGs as a proving ground for these features before deploying them to the New Frontiers). Finally, we’d like to address some of the art-related layout issues with the keeps such as making the inner keeps roof heights' higher than the outer walls and towers; along with better protection the oil areas for defenders.

For classes, we know that there are still some loose ends to clean up and will continue to gauge your feedback and adjust accordingly.

The Dragon’s Curse campaign will help us towards our goal of improving the returning player experience. As we streamline the many returning player-related features like doppelganger shards, king’s champion armor, illustrious bounty point armor, supply quests, and others it gives us something to coalesce those features around.

The campaign also let us invest in a more engaging and robust instance-based PvE system. Rather than add PvE content that can be easily completed with a bot (or seven) in tow, we strongly feel that content requiring an active group is the most conducive to growing an engaged community over the long term. Guilds and groups are the beating heart of Dark Age of Camelot. They are where many of us met our first friends in-game, and the camaraderie forged on the battlefields and during many epic encounters have, for so many, grown into something much more important and permanent.

Aside from any tweaks to the Dragon's Curse campaign and how it pertains to the streamlining of the returning player experience, we have no plans for any more major PvE-related updates this year.

In addition to improving returning player experiences, we’ll be taking a look at new player experiences as well. A major feature involved with this is updating the quickbar UX. The two major quickbar issues we plan to address are that users can’t move already-placed abilities to different slots and that the only way to bind quickbar slots to key-presses is via an outdated and sometimes confusing /qbind command.

Another focus over the past year has been community engagement with the re-introduction of the bi-weekly Grab Bag and monthly Newsletter. The Grab Bag will remain as a gameplay-focused question-and-answer session and the Newsletter as an avenue for community spotlights, monthly recaps, and previews of what’s to come. Both of these have served us well as a means of providing important information to the community, but after reviewing their impact, we can do more!

Speaking of which, the aforementioned RvR ideas were brainstormed and discussed directly with several battlegroup leaders on a conference call with us this past fall and this direct communication is something we'll be continuing with other groups of players in the coming year.

Continuing in that vein, we’re pleased to announce a monthly developer live-stream to hear your feedback, answer questions, and generally interact directly with you all! This will be hosted on our official Twitch channel by yours truly (along with other devs and knights) and will be a casual way to address your concerns and talk about upcoming plans and changes while we enjoy playing DAoC alongside you all! Depending how things go, we may increase the frequency or adjust the dynamic of the events. The first one will be announced shortly after the new year!

To recap: improving RvR, tightening up the overall gameplay with bug fixes and streamlining the returning and new player experiences, and adding the various UX features will be our sole focus in ramping up through the first half of 2018. That means less focus on new additions and more focus on fixing and improving our existing systems. Ramping up to what you ask?

Well...

We’re thrilled to announce a new way for players to experience Dark Age of Camelot’s iconic realm vs realm warfare for free with Dark Age of Camelot: Endless Conquest!

The Endless Conquest will be a new account type that allows players to enjoy Dark Age of Camelot through level 50 (and beyond) for free, without a paid subscription, forever. Endless Conquest players will be able to level all the way to 50 on a limited selection of classes, participate fully in RvR, and earn Master Levels, Champion Levels, and Realm Rank – to a point.

The Endless Conquest is coming Fall 2018 and we couldn’t be more excited. While permanently free, there are limitations involved with the Endless Conquest accounts such as character slots, leveling rates, house ownership, item trade and storage, being limited to Ywain and Gaheris servers only, and more. Please visit our FAQ for the full details we have so far, and please continue to check as new information on this exciting new development will be added as we move into the new year.

And that finally leads us to the potential of an alternative ruleset server. As things stand now, there are two major obstacles preventing the launch of one in the near term (as in this next year). The first is that everyone seems to have a different view of what the perfect alternative server ruleset would include. We knew this going in, and feel confident we can deliver a ruleset that would be both highly engaging and appealing to a wide swath of former and new players alike.

That being said - as we have previously stated, we would never create an alternative ruleset server unless we were confident in the Ywain server’s population and health. This is the second and much more challenging obstacle. The Endless Conquest is going to be a huge step in overcoming it. Again - we are thrilled to finally announce and talk about our plans. 2018 is going to be an excellent year for Dark Age of Camelot!

There’s even more on the way – like the new website and official forums – that just can’t all fit into this already lengthy letter! Stay glued to Herald for more details on the Endless Conquest and other updates.

From everyone at Broadsword have a safe, warm, and happy holiday!

Onward,

John Thornhill
Producer

On the first day of Midwinter, Broadsword gave to me...
 

• Login to the game and visit the following NPCs to receive a special reward each day!
  • Albion: Santa Nicholas in Camelot's church
  • Midgard: Kris Kringle in Jordheim's Assembly Hall
  • Hibernia: Daidi na Nollag in Tir na Nog's Alainn Cuir
• Speak with the above NPCs to reveal your reward for each day.
  • Each day's reward will be revealed around 10:15 AM EST / 3:15 PM GMT and last the remainder of that day.
  • If you miss a day, you will be able to catch up and receive the missed rewards by visiting the NPC on subsequent days.
    • This means if you simply login on the twelfth day, you'll receive all 12 rewards!
      • Make sure you have room in your inventory!
• These rewards are limited to level 50s and can only be obtained once per character.
  • All rewards will be tradable.
• This event will run from today, December 21st, 2017 for the next twelve days, with the last day being January 1st, 2018!

Items

• Doppelganger Shards and Magic Orbs can now be used anywhere, including the capital cities and housing zones.
  • This fix should also address the issue with stealth classes that could sometimes /use these shards or orbs and then stealth and not receive their items.
• Nearsight cures will now only remove the nearsight aspect of the Golden Scarab's Vest proc and not the snare and shapeshift too.
• The following Curse Chapter 9 set bonuses should now properly apply their respective ability upgrades (many of these have been fixed since before the new year but are being retroactively noted):
  • Bainshee
  • Eldritch
  • Spiritmaster
  • Sorcerer
  • Valkyrie
  • Wizard
  • Healer
  • Scout
  • Minstrel
  • Reaver
• Several Curse Chapter 9 chestpiece and leggings icons have been corrected to display the appropriate armor slot.
• Heal procs on Curse Chapter 9 armors should now all fire properly.
• Necromancer Bloodlord's Armor should no longer drop as "tattered" from the Curse Chapter 9 instance.
• Valewalker's set bonus has been increased from +33% to +66% additional absorption.

A Dragon's Curse Campaign 

• All realms Chapter 10:
  • Encounters now award area credit.
    • Please note that to receive area credit, players must be within the magical barriers that are active during the encounters.
    • These encounters will no longer grant credit to any battlegroups that are setup.
  • It is no longer possible to receive the glove reward without first completing Chapter 6's quest.
• All realms Chapter 8:
  • Encounters now award area credit.
  • The countdowns between attack waves have been reduced from 30-300 seconds down to 30-60 seconds.
• Albion Chapter 9:
  • Janus should always reset his encounter properly now.
  • Some of the normal mobs and Albion's 9.3 encounter have had their difficulties reduced to better align their difficulty with the Midgard and Hibernia versions.
• All realms Chapter 7:
  • Encounters now all award area credit.
    • Please note that to receive area credit, players must be within the magical barriers that are active during the encounters.
• Albion Chapter 7:
  • The barrier will now properly reset when the encounter is completed.
• Albion Chapter 6:
  • Morella's ability to mesmerize has been removed.
• Midgard Chapter 6:
  • The Dark Oracle and Dark Drakulv will no longer aggro as a group.
• Hibernia Chapter 6:
  • The Glimmer Ghoul and Dark Glimmer have been relocated to alleviate line-of-sight issues.
  • Additional instructions have been added to direct players to the proper pathway upon clearing the second area in Aerus City.
  • Avriels have had their difficulty reduced slightly.

As a token of our appreciation to each and every one of you, all Midwinter festivities (including bonuses and merchants) will be extended until the morning of Monday, January 22nd.

Thank you for playing Dark Age of Camelot and enjoy!