Onward to the questions!

Proc rate is not affected by item quality. However, it is accurate to say that the damage of a weapon would be slightly less from a 99% quality weapon vs a 100% quality one. The difference in damage is extremely small though.

Additionally, for player-crafted armor and weapons, the amount of available charges changes based on the items’ quality:
100% quality = 10 charges
99% quality = 7 charges
98% quality = 6 charges
97% quality = 5 charges
96% quality = 4 charges

Arcanite is the Hibernian version of Arcanium. If you received Arcanite from an Albion or Midgard item, please submit a bug report with the item name and it will have its material type corrected. Arcanite is not a usable material in Albion or Midgard crafts just as Arcanium is not a usable material in Hibernia crafts.

The cap for spell piercing is 10%. Chants, auras, or any spell-piercing buff will not take spell piercing above the 10% cap. However, +range auras DO take spell range bonuses beyond the 10% item-based cap.

To clarify: DPS increases with both haste and celerity buffs. Damage per melee swing does go down with both haste and celerity buffs but damage per hit is not the same as damage per second (DPS).

The reason DPS increases with both haste and/or celerity buffs is because the reduction in damage per hit when those are active is less than that of their increase in swing speed.

They stack. This can be seen on the character attribute’s page by hovering your mouse cursor over a magic resistance’s value when the buff is active. The second number in the tooltip’s line “+26% / 20% Body Total” is the secondary resist value. The first number is from your items + “first-tier” resist buffs.

With Avoidance of Magic 9, a character will have 20% resists in the second-tier and the Champion’s buff also provides 10% to the second-tier resists so with the buff active and AoM9, you should see a value of 30% in the second-tier.

That's it for this week!

See you ingame :)

The Account Center will be receiving an update next Tuesday, May 29th, 2018 that makes some changes to the center’s authentication flow.

These changes are being made to improve general account security and user privacy by more directly using EA’s robust account authentication system. In addition to improving the Account Center's security and users' privacy, this update also enables us to provide additional future updates and much-requested features to the Account Center such as game account un-linking, account-based character and server lists, and more!

Once the update is live, the following changes will take effect:

• When logging into the Account Center, users will be redirected to EA's website briefly and asked to login there.
  • Once successful, users will automatically be redirected back to the Account Center.
• All account creation or account-linking services will now occur after a user logs into an existing EA account or a new user creates an EA account.
  • This means users attempting to create a new game account must first sign into an existing EA account or create a new EA account and then follow the "Create a Trial" flow as normal.
  • This also means users who wish to link or recover an unlinked-to-EA game account must first login to an existing EA account or create a new EA account and then follow the "Link Accounts" flow as normal.
    • During the "Link Accounts" flow there is a new "forgot my password" link that will allow users to reset the legacy ‘Mythic Master Account’ password (note: this is different than the EA account and game passwords!) in the event it was forgotten.
• Once signed into an EA account all services and systems included but not limited to managing subscriptions, viewing linked game accounts, and resetting game account passwords remain unchanged.
• Account Center guides will be updated to reflect these changes as soon as possible!

Read on for the questions!

Ash, the red little demon, has made his way to the Frontiers once again. He can be found around his old stomping grounds some ways south of Caer Berkstead.

“Weaponskill” doesn’t determine defense penetration by itself but is rather an index value that is built from a character’s specialization, stats, +skills, and a class’ inherent ability with a given weapon line – all of which do factor into things like damage, defense and defense penetration. While it’s easy to say a higher weaponskill character fighting a lower one will *generally* have an easier time landing attacks, this isn’t solely because of their weaponskill but is more precisely because of all of the stats and factors that make up that weaponskill value.

There is no a calculation that can be made that says “X weaponskill equals Y reduction to an enemy’s block/parry rate” because more than just weaponskill (again, specifically the factors that make it up) applies to landing or defending against attacks. There are also style and weapon to-hit bonuses/penalties as well as buffs/debuffs that can greatly alter these outcomes.

Battlemaster styles do not have a weapon skill associated with them directly and so co-opt the skill of whatever weapon is equipped when they are used. You’ll notice a general damage increase when using Battlemaster styles if you have a base and/or advanced weapon equipped that your character is specialized in vs one that your character is not.

Additionally, for advanced specializations like Albion’s Two Handed you will also notice a general increase in damage when using a weapon damage type that you are sub-specialized in versus one that you are not.

The weapon skill values displayed on the character attributes page should accurately reflect your character’s weapon skill when using Battlemaster styles since again, the BM styles co-opt the skill of whatever weapon type (and damage type for advanced specs) you have equipped.

 

• The Blood Stone Gloves’ +healing effectiveness buff does stack with the +healing effectiveness stat bonus on items but does not stack with other +healing effectiveness buffs.
• The Dragon Stone Gloves’ +melee damage does not stack with other +melee damage buffs. The highest value buff will overwrite any lower value ones.
• Yes, healing effectiveness stats and buffs do increase the value healed when /using the Life Stone Gloves’ omni-heal.
• No, the Dream Stone Gloves’ mesmerisation dampening does not stack with other mesmerisation dampening buffs. It does stack with the crowd control reduction item stat though.
• The Soul Stone Gloves’ damage conversion, which works identically to Eirene’s Chestpiece’s proc, also does not stack with other damage conversion buffs but does stack with the ‘conversion’ stat found on items such as Crocodile’s Tear Ring.

New and different titles are something we’ve been eyeing for some time but we just haven’t been able to get around to yet, stay tuned! Adding new thresholds to existing titles is something we can take a look at in the nearer term.

Hope everyone enjoys the weekend :)
 

Vikings of Midgard, champions of Hibernia, and defenders of Albion,

As the war rages on in the Frontiers, I write to you today to provide an update on Patch 1.125's status, dive into some of its features, and to outline our plan for the rest of the year. 

Summer Outlook

• Obtaining gear via Bounty Points will not be as efficient or as quick as doing the respective encounter in PvE. It is merely another option for obtaining the gear and one that has the added benefit of participating in RvR while doing so!
• Current Bounty Point levels are highly inflated on many older characters and while newer characters have a more reasonable amount in general their values have also been inflated with the myriad bounty point bonuses and quests rewards. As such, we'll be instituting a new Bounty Point maximum with this system. Any character with more BPs than that maximum will have their new BP value set to that new maximum value when Patch 1.125 launches. Consider this letter your invitation to use those extra BPs before you lose them when the update is released.
• We'll also be fine-tuning the amount of BPs earned via quest reward and heavily using them as an incentive in the new RvR quest system outlined below. Note: this may mean that the rate BPs are earned gets increased slightly to offset the new maximum limit and high bounty point costs.

• Characters will be able to craft the high-end equipment (with the gear's normal stats and procs) after obtaining the following components through the various means outlined.
  • The full details of this system are still being fine-tuned but the necessary tradeskill value required to craft the items will be extremely low (1-200 skill).
  • The items will either be in their respective Tailoring, Armorcraft, Weapon, Fletching tradeskills, with crafted accessories in Jewelcraft -OR- Jewelcraft will be renamed to Bountycraft and contain all of the potential items.
• In order to craft the items, characters will need the following:
  • 1 or more Bounty Molds 
  • 1 Recipe Template
  • 1 Bag of Glowing Dust new crafting component
  • 1 or more rare alchemy crafting components
• Characters can visit the Bounty Merchant to purchase 1 or more of the following items for varying amounts of bounty points:
  • Bounty Weapon Mold
  • Bounty Armor Mold
  • Bounty Accessory Mold
  • Bounty Molds will NOT be tradable
• Characters will also be able to earn a new <Type> Recipe Template item from RvR quests and (rarely from) keep chests.
  • The <type> will be the category of item that can be made (ex: Curse, Otherworldly, Aurulite, Frozen, Hallowed, etc.) from the template.
  • These categories are also the way the equipment will be categorized in the recipe list.
  • Recipe Templates WILL be tradable
• The Bag of Glowing Dust component will be purchaseable from any normal general supplies crafting merchant for 2.5 plat or can be crafted at 1000 Alchemy for around 1 plat in generic component costs.
  • The Bag of Glowing Dust WILL be tradable
• The crafted high-end equipment that results from this new system will NOT be tradable.

• Otherworldly Ore
• Essences of Omni-Healing, Omni-Regen, Tenacity, and Restoration
• Randomized Copper, Silver or Gold Keep keys for each keep
• Some event items directly
• Randomized crafting component box
• Magic Orbs
• Randomized Doppelganger Shards
  • These will no longer drop Magic Orbs or Draught of Supremacy/Celerity shards
• And more!

• New weekly or monthly repeatable quests will be offered by Commander Wentworth, Commander Hrurdin, and Commander Locke in each realm's relic towns that will offer bounty point rewards:
  • The Royal Accountant's quest 'A New Threat in an Old Form' will have its steps to kill each of the Doppelganger lords as well as 25 normal doppelgangers consolidated into a new weekly repeatable quest.
    • This quest will grant realm points in addition to the bounty point reward.
  • The statue quests Tribute: Conqueror, Enforcer, and Peerless will be consolidated into a single monthly quest requiring characters to capture 40 keeps, kill 150 realm enemies, and gather 50 supplies and 50 rubble.
    • This quest will offer the statue quests' normal potion rewards in addition to bounty points.

• A new weekly repeatable quest that requires players to gather randomly spawned crates in Ellan Vannin's dock areas, ruins, and around Knoc Meayll.
  • This quest will be obtainable from and turned into the Ellan Vannin Cargomasters.
  • Due to its more dangerous locale than the Supplies for the Cause quest, it is intended for veteran players and its rewards will reflect that.

• Daily RvR kill quests will remain generally unchanged except for the following:
  • The Battle of Buggane's Obelisk quest will now grant credit for its kills over the entire zone it currently resides.
  • Hibernia's Buggane's Obelisk location will be moved to Breifine in the area between Dun nGed and Dun da Behnn
  • Roaming with Friends and For the Realm will no longer grant credit unless the target of the kill is in a group.

• Supplies for the Cause
  • The quest will now only be obtainable from and turned into the Caer Benowyc, Bledmeer Faste, and Dun Crauchon Cargomasters.
  • Supplies and Rubble no longer spawn on Ellan Vannin, as this quest is more intended for newer players.
  • Supply boxes will still spawn in the Ruined areas with rubble still spawning in the maze areas.

• Otherworldly Flora will now only have a chance to drop the following:
  • Essence of Celerity
  • Essence of Supremacy
  • Nothing

• Pict Vigilant Belts are now part of the Chieftain's loot tables.

• Several quests and rewards will no longer be offered or obtainable through their existing means:
  • Doppelgangers will no longer drop their shards. 
  • Otherworldly Ore will no longer spawn in the Frontiers
  • Keep keys will no longer drop from keep lords
  • Royal Accountant's Anatomy of a Foe quest will no longer be offered
  • Royal Accountant's A New Threat in an Old form will no longer be offered
  • Scouting Ellan Vannin quest will no longer be offered
  • The Ongoing Pictish Nuisance quest will no longer be offered
  • The statue-based Tribute: Conqueror, Enforcer, and Peerless quests will only be doable 1 time instead of monthly repeatable.

• 2 new race/class combinations per realm
• Keep and tower difficulty adjustments, including attackable ‘postern’ doors that protect keep gatehouses’ boiling oil areas!
• Ruined Area improvements!
• Class Changes
• Crash-related bug fixes
• A new keep-siege dynamic objective system which will be implemented in the Molvik battleground in 1.125 and will potentially be extended in later versions to the other battlegrounds and the Frontier keeps if well-received.
• Mithril-purchaseable masks that even Minotaurs can wear!
• Visible cooldown timers for spell icons on the quickbar and active buff/debuff area!
• Item condition loss reductions!
• Craft window delve updates!
• And more!

Fall Outlook

• A new Fall Harvest event!
• DAoC's 17th Anniversary celebration!
• The Mournful King and Jack Frost instances!
• The usual Holiday events
• Realm Point and Bounty Point bonuses!

Read on for the questions!

The drop chance for the belt is fairly rare, but it is still dropping on both Marquis Halphas and Earl Serapis.  Good luck!

The Critical Strike styles use a special, stackable absorption debuff. They do not target a specific piece of equipment like armor wither debuffs but instead reduce the absorption of all equipped armor on the target by their listed amounts; just like normal ABS debuffs except that these also stack with each other.

As for armor wither debuffs like those used by Vampiirs:  only the head, chest, and legs can be targeted by them.

This is something that we’ve already received a lot of thoughtful feedback on and are planning on changing our approach. We’ll likely leave these quests as they are currently with no requirement that the target be grouped. Thanks again for all of your feedback!

No. The in-game Race and Gender changes will still change the actual race and gender of your character; however we are planning on a cosmetic-only previewing system that players can use prior to confirming the change(s) to their characters’ race and gender.

Some of the changes to RvR rewards are aimed at de-cluttering player inventories when out RvRing more than adjusting the actual rewards. Players who run around picking up Otherworldly Essences, Otherworldy Ores, and killing Doppelgangers quickly fill up their inventory which makes for a bad experience. By moving many of these rewards to the Bounty Point merchant, players get to choose when they are filling up their inventory.

Players will still be able to gather Otherworldly Essences and have a small chance at getting an Essence of Supremacy/Celerity (same chance as they have now) or killing Doppelgangers and getting their realm point rewards without also filling up their inventory with the much more common essences or doppelganger shards that are going to be made available on the BP store.

That said, it likely won’t be exactly nothing when there isn’t a successful roll for an Essence of Supremacy/Celerity. It will more than likely be some sort of small gold or bounty point reward.

Absolutely! We’re planning on putting out a small hot fix next week with some goodies to purchase with those extra, hard-earned bounty points. Your ideas are welcome!

As promised in last week's Grab Bag, we bring you some exciting items to spend your Bounty points on as well as RvR bonuses to celebrate the 4th of July!
 

• As an update or refresher from the recent Producer's Letter, we'll be capping the number of Bounty Points a character can earn when Patch 1.125 launches.
  • Currently the plan is to make that cap 500,000 BPs.
  • Any characters that have more than the cap will have their BPs set to the new cap when the patch launches.
• In the meantime, the Bounty Merchant NPCs have updated their wares to provide a better opportunity for veteran players to spend those extra bounty points!
  • These updated wares will only exist until Patch 1.125 launches, so spend those BPs now!
  • Some of the new wares may stick around after the patch, but their prices may go up too!
• New wares include:
  • Curse Campaign Chapter 9-10 encounter access tokens
  • Curse Campaign Chapter 10 turn-in token
  • Consolidated Full Master Level tokens
  • Otherworldly Essence gathering token
  • Instant-level 10 Loyalty Cloak token
  • A summonable Bounty Merchant that recharges your equipment and sells specialty siege supplies and BP potions
  • Bottomless Dye pots
  • Rare mounts
  • Rare and cross-realm house trophies
• Visit the Bounty Merchants at the following locations:
  • Albion:
    • Baelus - Castle Sauvage
    • Garett - Forest Sauvage relic town
    • Edgar - Snowdonia relic town
  • Midgard:
    • Kiola - Svasud Faste
    • Mirren -  Uppland relic town
    • Hithila - Yggdra Forest relic town
  • Hibernia:
    • Kolldar - Druim Ligen
    • Breagh - Cruachan Gorge relic town
    • Hamil - Mount Collory relic town
• More updated consumables and end-game gear will be available for BPs when patch 1.125 launches!

Read on for the questions!

This is correct, the radius is only applied to single-target direct-damage spells. The cloak’s delve should now reflect this information.

This was answered in March’s Grab Bag last year:

There should be no difference in damage when using a Left Axe, Dual Wield, or Celtic Dual style whether the main weapon spec is 50+11 or 40+11. In other words, once you reach the 51 composite on Sword, Slash, Blades etc. and are using a dual-wielding style your damage won’t be increased by adding more Sword, Slash, or Blades spec.

However, your Left Axe, Dual Wield, and Celtic Dual specs do have their damage (and in the case of Celtic Dual and Dual Wield their offhand swing chance) increased with a higher specialization in them. A Mercenary with 25+11 Dual Wield and 51 composite Slash will hit for less than a Mercenary with 50+11 Dual Wield and 51 composite Slash when using a Dual Wield style; they will also swing with their offhand less often.

Heightened Awareness affects everyone in the group in terms of seeing stealth and only affects stealthers in terms of granting better stealth. However, the Shadow Seek ability for assassins also grants a detection bonus and is generally at a higher delve than Heightened Awareness for level 50 assassins. Therefore, Shadow Seek’s bonus to detect will take precedence over that of Heightened Awareness’ detection bonus; but Heightened Awareness will still provide its bonus to hide.

It does look like both of these remains were accidentally disabled. They should once again drop now, thanks!

Patch 1.125 is largely focused on Realm vs Realm improvements and systems. Some class changes can always be expected in every patch but they are not the focus of this version.

Have a wonderful weekend all! :)

Onward to the questions!

Proc rate is not affected by item quality. However, it is accurate to say that the damage of a weapon would be slightly less from a 99% quality weapon vs a 100% quality one. The difference in damage is extremely small though.

Additionally, for player-crafted armor and weapons, the amount of available charges changes based on the items’ quality:
100% quality = 10 charges
99% quality = 7 charges
98% quality = 6 charges
97% quality = 5 charges
96% quality = 4 charges

Arcanite is the Hibernian version of Arcanium. If you received Arcanite from an Albion or Midgard item, please submit a bug report with the item name and it will have its material type corrected. Arcanite is not a usable material in Albion or Midgard crafts just as Arcanium is not a usable material in Hibernia crafts.

The cap for spell piercing is 10%. Chants, auras, or any spell-piercing buff will not take spell piercing above the 10% cap. However, +range auras DO take spell range bonuses beyond the 10% item-based cap.

To clarify: DPS increases with both haste and celerity buffs. Damage per melee swing does go down with both haste and celerity buffs but damage per hit is not the same as damage per second (DPS).

The reason DPS increases with both haste and/or celerity buffs is because the reduction in damage per hit when those are active is less than that of their increase in swing speed.

They stack. This can be seen on the character attribute’s page by hovering your mouse cursor over a magic resistance’s value when the buff is active. The second number in the tooltip’s line “+26% / 20% Body Total” is the secondary resist value. The first number is from your items + “first-tier” resist buffs.

With Avoidance of Magic 9, a character will have 20% resists in the second-tier and the Champion’s buff also provides 10% to the second-tier resists so with the buff active and AoM9, you should see a value of 30% in the second-tier.

That's it for this week!

See you ingame :)

The Account Center will be receiving an update next Tuesday, May 29th, 2018 that makes some changes to the center’s authentication flow.

These changes are being made to improve general account security and user privacy by more directly using EA’s robust account authentication system. In addition to improving the Account Center's security and users' privacy, this update also enables us to provide additional future updates and much-requested features to the Account Center such as game account un-linking, account-based character and server lists, and more!

Once the update is live, the following changes will take effect:

• When logging into the Account Center, users will be redirected to EA's website briefly and asked to login there.
  • Once successful, users will automatically be redirected back to the Account Center.
• All account creation or account-linking services will now occur after a user logs into an existing EA account or a new user creates an EA account.
  • This means users attempting to create a new game account must first sign into an existing EA account or create a new EA account and then follow the "Create a Trial" flow as normal.
  • This also means users who wish to link or recover an unlinked-to-EA game account must first login to an existing EA account or create a new EA account and then follow the "Link Accounts" flow as normal.
    • During the "Link Accounts" flow there is a new "forgot my password" link that will allow users to reset the legacy ‘Mythic Master Account’ password (note: this is different than the EA account and game passwords!) in the event it was forgotten.
• Once signed into an EA account all services and systems included but not limited to managing subscriptions, viewing linked game accounts, and resetting game account passwords remain unchanged.
• Account Center guides will be updated to reflect these changes as soon as possible!

Read on for the questions!

Ash, the red little demon, has made his way to the Frontiers once again. He can be found around his old stomping grounds some ways south of Caer Berkstead.

“Weaponskill” doesn’t determine defense penetration by itself but is rather an index value that is built from a character’s specialization, stats, +skills, and a class’ inherent ability with a given weapon line – all of which do factor into things like damage, defense and defense penetration. While it’s easy to say a higher weaponskill character fighting a lower one will *generally* have an easier time landing attacks, this isn’t solely because of their weaponskill but is more precisely because of all of the stats and factors that make up that weaponskill value.

There is no a calculation that can be made that says “X weaponskill equals Y reduction to an enemy’s block/parry rate” because more than just weaponskill (again, specifically the factors that make it up) applies to landing or defending against attacks. There are also style and weapon to-hit bonuses/penalties as well as buffs/debuffs that can greatly alter these outcomes.

Battlemaster styles do not have a weapon skill associated with them directly and so co-opt the skill of whatever weapon is equipped when they are used. You’ll notice a general damage increase when using Battlemaster styles if you have a base and/or advanced weapon equipped that your character is specialized in vs one that your character is not.

Additionally, for advanced specializations like Albion’s Two Handed you will also notice a general increase in damage when using a weapon damage type that you are sub-specialized in versus one that you are not.

The weapon skill values displayed on the character attributes page should accurately reflect your character’s weapon skill when using Battlemaster styles since again, the BM styles co-opt the skill of whatever weapon type (and damage type for advanced specs) you have equipped.

 

• The Blood Stone Gloves’ +healing effectiveness buff does stack with the +healing effectiveness stat bonus on items but does not stack with other +healing effectiveness buffs.
• The Dragon Stone Gloves’ +melee damage does not stack with other +melee damage buffs. The highest value buff will overwrite any lower value ones.
• Yes, healing effectiveness stats and buffs do increase the value healed when /using the Life Stone Gloves’ omni-heal.
• No, the Dream Stone Gloves’ mesmerisation dampening does not stack with other mesmerisation dampening buffs. It does stack with the crowd control reduction item stat though.
• The Soul Stone Gloves’ damage conversion, which works identically to Eirene’s Chestpiece’s proc, also does not stack with other damage conversion buffs but does stack with the ‘conversion’ stat found on items such as Crocodile’s Tear Ring.

New and different titles are something we’ve been eyeing for some time but we just haven’t been able to get around to yet, stay tuned! Adding new thresholds to existing titles is something we can take a look at in the nearer term.

Hope everyone enjoys the weekend :)
 

Vikings of Midgard, champions of Hibernia, and defenders of Albion,

As the war rages on in the Frontiers, I write to you today to provide an update on Patch 1.125's status, dive into some of its features, and to outline our plan for the rest of the year. 

Summer Outlook

• Obtaining gear via Bounty Points will not be as efficient or as quick as doing the respective encounter in PvE. It is merely another option for obtaining the gear and one that has the added benefit of participating in RvR while doing so!
• Current Bounty Point levels are highly inflated on many older characters and while newer characters have a more reasonable amount in general their values have also been inflated with the myriad bounty point bonuses and quests rewards. As such, we'll be instituting a new Bounty Point maximum with this system. Any character with more BPs than that maximum will have their new BP value set to that new maximum value when Patch 1.125 launches. Consider this letter your invitation to use those extra BPs before you lose them when the update is released.
• We'll also be fine-tuning the amount of BPs earned via quest reward and heavily using them as an incentive in the new RvR quest system outlined below. Note: this may mean that the rate BPs are earned gets increased slightly to offset the new maximum limit and high bounty point costs.

• Characters will be able to craft the high-end equipment (with the gear's normal stats and procs) after obtaining the following components through the various means outlined.
  • The full details of this system are still being fine-tuned but the necessary tradeskill value required to craft the items will be extremely low (1-200 skill).
  • The items will either be in their respective Tailoring, Armorcraft, Weapon, Fletching tradeskills, with crafted accessories in Jewelcraft -OR- Jewelcraft will be renamed to Bountycraft and contain all of the potential items.
• In order to craft the items, characters will need the following:
  • 1 or more Bounty Molds 
  • 1 Recipe Template
  • 1 Bag of Glowing Dust new crafting component
  • 1 or more rare alchemy crafting components
• Characters can visit the Bounty Merchant to purchase 1 or more of the following items for varying amounts of bounty points:
  • Bounty Weapon Mold
  • Bounty Armor Mold
  • Bounty Accessory Mold
  • Bounty Molds will NOT be tradable
• Characters will also be able to earn a new <Type> Recipe Template item from RvR quests and (rarely from) keep chests.
  • The <type> will be the category of item that can be made (ex: Curse, Otherworldly, Aurulite, Frozen, Hallowed, etc.) from the template.
  • These categories are also the way the equipment will be categorized in the recipe list.
  • Recipe Templates WILL be tradable
• The Bag of Glowing Dust component will be purchaseable from any normal general supplies crafting merchant for 2.5 plat or can be crafted at 1000 Alchemy for around 1 plat in generic component costs.
  • The Bag of Glowing Dust WILL be tradable
• The crafted high-end equipment that results from this new system will NOT be tradable.

• Otherworldly Ore
• Essences of Omni-Healing, Omni-Regen, Tenacity, and Restoration
• Randomized Copper, Silver or Gold Keep keys for each keep
• Some event items directly
• Randomized crafting component box
• Magic Orbs
• Randomized Doppelganger Shards
  • These will no longer drop Magic Orbs or Draught of Supremacy/Celerity shards
• And more!

• New weekly or monthly repeatable quests will be offered by Commander Wentworth, Commander Hrurdin, and Commander Locke in each realm's relic towns that will offer bounty point rewards:
  • The Royal Accountant's quest 'A New Threat in an Old Form' will have its steps to kill each of the Doppelganger lords as well as 25 normal doppelgangers consolidated into a new weekly repeatable quest.
    • This quest will grant realm points in addition to the bounty point reward.
  • The statue quests Tribute: Conqueror, Enforcer, and Peerless will be consolidated into a single monthly quest requiring characters to capture 40 keeps, kill 150 realm enemies, and gather 50 supplies and 50 rubble.
    • This quest will offer the statue quests' normal potion rewards in addition to bounty points.

• A new weekly repeatable quest that requires players to gather randomly spawned crates in Ellan Vannin's dock areas, ruins, and around Knoc Meayll.
  • This quest will be obtainable from and turned into the Ellan Vannin Cargomasters.
  • Due to its more dangerous locale than the Supplies for the Cause quest, it is intended for veteran players and its rewards will reflect that.

• Daily RvR kill quests will remain generally unchanged except for the following:
  • The Battle of Buggane's Obelisk quest will now grant credit for its kills over the entire zone it currently resides.
  • Hibernia's Buggane's Obelisk location will be moved to Breifine in the area between Dun nGed and Dun da Behnn
  • Roaming with Friends and For the Realm will no longer grant credit unless the target of the kill is in a group.

• Supplies for the Cause
  • The quest will now only be obtainable from and turned into the Caer Benowyc, Bledmeer Faste, and Dun Crauchon Cargomasters.
  • Supplies and Rubble no longer spawn on Ellan Vannin, as this quest is more intended for newer players.
  • Supply boxes will still spawn in the Ruined areas with rubble still spawning in the maze areas.

• Otherworldly Flora will now only have a chance to drop the following:
  • Essence of Celerity
  • Essence of Supremacy
  • Nothing

• Pict Vigilant Belts are now part of the Chieftain's loot tables.

• Several quests and rewards will no longer be offered or obtainable through their existing means:
  • Doppelgangers will no longer drop their shards. 
  • Otherworldly Ore will no longer spawn in the Frontiers
  • Keep keys will no longer drop from keep lords
  • Royal Accountant's Anatomy of a Foe quest will no longer be offered
  • Royal Accountant's A New Threat in an Old form will no longer be offered
  • Scouting Ellan Vannin quest will no longer be offered
  • The Ongoing Pictish Nuisance quest will no longer be offered
  • The statue-based Tribute: Conqueror, Enforcer, and Peerless quests will only be doable 1 time instead of monthly repeatable.

• 2 new race/class combinations per realm
• Keep and tower difficulty adjustments, including attackable ‘postern’ doors that protect keep gatehouses’ boiling oil areas!
• Ruined Area improvements!
• Class Changes
• Crash-related bug fixes
• A new keep-siege dynamic objective system which will be implemented in the Molvik battleground in 1.125 and will potentially be extended in later versions to the other battlegrounds and the Frontier keeps if well-received.
• Mithril-purchaseable masks that even Minotaurs can wear!
• Visible cooldown timers for spell icons on the quickbar and active buff/debuff area!
• Item condition loss reductions!
• Craft window delve updates!
• And more!

Fall Outlook

• A new Fall Harvest event!
• DAoC's 17th Anniversary celebration!
• The Mournful King and Jack Frost instances!
• The usual Holiday events
• Realm Point and Bounty Point bonuses!

Read on for the questions!

The drop chance for the belt is fairly rare, but it is still dropping on both Marquis Halphas and Earl Serapis.  Good luck!

The Critical Strike styles use a special, stackable absorption debuff. They do not target a specific piece of equipment like armor wither debuffs but instead reduce the absorption of all equipped armor on the target by their listed amounts; just like normal ABS debuffs except that these also stack with each other.

As for armor wither debuffs like those used by Vampiirs:  only the head, chest, and legs can be targeted by them.

This is something that we’ve already received a lot of thoughtful feedback on and are planning on changing our approach. We’ll likely leave these quests as they are currently with no requirement that the target be grouped. Thanks again for all of your feedback!

No. The in-game Race and Gender changes will still change the actual race and gender of your character; however we are planning on a cosmetic-only previewing system that players can use prior to confirming the change(s) to their characters’ race and gender.

Some of the changes to RvR rewards are aimed at de-cluttering player inventories when out RvRing more than adjusting the actual rewards. Players who run around picking up Otherworldly Essences, Otherworldy Ores, and killing Doppelgangers quickly fill up their inventory which makes for a bad experience. By moving many of these rewards to the Bounty Point merchant, players get to choose when they are filling up their inventory.

Players will still be able to gather Otherworldly Essences and have a small chance at getting an Essence of Supremacy/Celerity (same chance as they have now) or killing Doppelgangers and getting their realm point rewards without also filling up their inventory with the much more common essences or doppelganger shards that are going to be made available on the BP store.

That said, it likely won’t be exactly nothing when there isn’t a successful roll for an Essence of Supremacy/Celerity. It will more than likely be some sort of small gold or bounty point reward.

Absolutely! We’re planning on putting out a small hot fix next week with some goodies to purchase with those extra, hard-earned bounty points. Your ideas are welcome!

As promised in last week's Grab Bag, we bring you some exciting items to spend your Bounty points on as well as RvR bonuses to celebrate the 4th of July!
 

• As an update or refresher from the recent Producer's Letter, we'll be capping the number of Bounty Points a character can earn when Patch 1.125 launches.
  • Currently the plan is to make that cap 500,000 BPs.
  • Any characters that have more than the cap will have their BPs set to the new cap when the patch launches.
• In the meantime, the Bounty Merchant NPCs have updated their wares to provide a better opportunity for veteran players to spend those extra bounty points!
  • These updated wares will exist until Patch 1.125 launches, so spend those BPs now!
  • Some of the new wares may stick around after the patch, but their prices may go up too!
• New wares include:
  • Curse Campaign Chapter 9-10 encounter access tokens
    • The Ch 9-10 Access token simply lets you go straight to the chapter 9 instance, pick up the chapter 9 quest, and complete it and chapter 10's encounters. Characters can do this having completed none or only some of the previous curse chapters.
      • It does not grant credit for chapters 9 and 10. The encounters for chapter 9 and 10 must still be completed after this token is used.
      • If your character is already on chapter 9 or beyond, this token cannot be used.
      • If a character wants to complete any previous chapter for their rewards, they can still go back and progress through chapters 1-8 normally even after using this token.
    • Costs 35,000 BPs
    • Tradable
  • Curse Campaign Chapter 10 turn-in token
    • The Chapter 10 Turn-in token simply lets your character turn-in their Chapter 10 quest without having to do the Chapter 6 solo step first. It does not grant *credit* for chapter 6, it just makes it so your character can turn in 10 and get the glove reward without needing to do chapter 6.
      • It does not grant credit for chapter 10 or chapter 6. The encounter for 10 must still be completed, this token just allows characters to turn in the chapter 10 quest to their king without needing to complete chapter 6's quest.
      • If your character hs already done chapter 6, this token cannot be used.
      • If a character wants to complete chapter 6 or any previous chapter for their rewards, they can still go back and progress through chapters 1-8 normally even after using this token.
    • Costs 30,000 BPs
    • Tradable
  • Consolidated Full Master Level tokens
    • Costs 40,000 BPs
    • Tradable
  • Otherworldly Essence gathering token
    • This token allows characters to gather the Otherworldly Essence plants in the Frontier or in the Otherworlds regions.
      • It does not automatically grant access to the Otherworlds regions, however. To get access to them, characters will need to have completed the prologue to the Otherworlds Campaign.
    • Costs 20,000 BPs
    • Tradable
  • Instant-level 10 Loyalty Cloak token
    • Characters can use this token before or after obtaining their loyalty cloak. Once /used, simply equip your non-level 10 loyalty cloak and will instantly level to 10!
    • Costs 40,000 BP cost
    • Tradable
  • A summonable Bounty Merchant that recharges your equipment and sells specialty siege supplies and BP potions
    • Sells heartwood wood for BPs!
    • Sells siege ammunition!
    • Sells hastener gems in addition to the normal BP consumable potions!
    • Can summon anywhere: lasts 90s with a 10 minute re-use timer.
    • Once summoned, any realm-mate can purchase from it or recharge their gear!
    • Costs 100,000 BPs
    • Not tradable
  • Bottomless Dye pots
    • 3 versions available (be sure to check the item delve before purchasing):
      • Crimson and Black
      • Royal Blue and Black
      • Forest Green and Black
    • /Use these dyepots to get a random dye of the chosen color. Continue to /use as needed, they're bottomless for a reason!
    • Cost 100,000 BPs each
    • Tradable
  • Rare mounts
    • Mount options include:
      • Nightmare steed
      • Rainbow Unicorn
      • Silver Unicorn
      • Storm steed
      • Ice steed
      • Fire steed
      • Earth steed
      • Undead steed
      • Kelpie horse
    • Cost 30,000 BPs
    • Tradable
  • Rare and cross-realm house trophies
    • Cross-realm dragon trophies!
    • Glacier Giant, Green Knight, and Evern trophies!
    • Rare cross-realm Shrouded Isles trophies!
    • And more!
    • Costs ranging from 100,000 to 1,000,000 BPs
    • Tradable
• Visit the Bounty Merchants at the following locations:
  • Albion:
    • Baelus - Castle Sauvage
    • Garett - Forest Sauvage relic town
    • Edgar - Snowdonia relic town
  • Midgard:
    • Kiola - Svasud Faste
    • Mirren -  Uppland relic town
    • Hithila - Yggdra Forest relic town
  • Hibernia:
    • Kolldar - Druim Ligen
    • Breagh - Cruachan Gorge relic town
    • Hamil - Mount Collory relic town
• More updated consumables and end-game gear will be available for BPs when patch 1.125 launches!

On to the questions!

Yes, Kertom still drops the Black Weapon Enamel and many other weapon enamels. However, it is correct that turning in reforming energies will not grant the dyes. This is because the reforming energy turn-ins only grant the realm-specific treasure and not the treasure shared across all 3 realms for a given encounter. This is something we can look at rectifying for all turn-ins down the road!

Banespike and the damage proc from the Howling Predator Vest do not stack, they apply the same type of damage buff. The higher value proc will overwrite or prevent the lower value banespike from applying.

Base AF on a level 50 naked character is capped at 510 AF (or more precisely: (character level + 1) * 10). Then, an armor type’s absorption% is added onto that base to determine the base armor factor cap for that character when they are wearing their equipment. Level 50 cloth wearers would have the same cap of 510 base AF and a level 50 plate user would be capped at 683 base AF. The universal formula for this is ((character level + 1)*(armor absorption% + 1)*10).

On leather armor and up, reaching the base AF cap is possible without a base AF buff at all if each armor piece is of 100% quality and made from the highest level material for a character’s level. This is because leather armor and up have (character level+1)*2) base factor values whereas cloth armor only has character level+1 base factor and would need a base AF buff to reach its base AF cap.

The item stat of Armor Factor (capped at 50/50) is added directly to that base AF value, but is able to go over the base AF cap, just like a “spec” AF buff can.

So a Cloth wearer with a capped base AF of 510 (from their armor + base AF buff) and 50/50 AF stat on their items will see an total of 560 AF on their character; with spec AF buffs able to take their total AF even higher.

In terms of melee damage reduction, the simple answer is to say that the more AF your character has, the less damage you will take in melee. A more encompassing answer becomes complicated quickly because there are other factors like armor quality and condition that also determine how much damage is taken when a given armor piece is hit.

Armor quality affects both the chance that your armor will absorb the blow at all and if that roll is successful, how much damage will be mitigated. Armor condition also affects how much damage is mitigated.

These effects are then lumped in with the effective armor factor of the piece, its absorption, a character’s spec AF/item AF stat values, and then a host of variables from the attacker, including damage variance, to determine how much damage ends up being mitigated. And that’s about as detailed as we’re willing to get with the combat algorithm.

The 50/50 AF stat being a way to go over the base AF cap means it can be one of the few ways to directly increase your character’s melee damage mitigation though, so again, the more the better!

The order of resolution in combat is Evade, Parry, Block, Guard, Miss, Bladeturn.

Don’t forget about the newly added Gem of the Harbinger variations with +5% conversion too!

The item stat cap for conversion is 10%. Any amount over that does not affect your character.

We're currently working with the EA Origin store to correct an issue preventing the purchase of the Dark Age of Camelot Mithril packs. A few other Origin packs are also affected, including Ultima Online's Sovereign packs, but game-time code purchases should function normally.

We hope to have this corrected by tomorrow, July 18th, 2018 and will update this post here if anything changes. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this causes and thank you for your patience and understanding as this matter is resolved.