We've been thrilled with the reception of patch 1.125 and want to thank you all for the feedback and bug reports you've sent in thus far, keep them coming!

Developer's note:

• We're currently aware and still working on fixes for the following issues:
  • Master level ability icon timers appearing as though their abilities are not on cooldown even though the ability is actually on cooldown.
  • Population bonuses not displaying on the realm bonuses window.

Hot Fix Notes

Update 5:35 PM EST / 10:35 PM GMT: Ywain is once again open to all players!
Update 5:15 PM EST / 10:15 PM GMT: Gaheris is once again open to all players! 

The Ywain and Gaheris servers are coming down now to perform emergency server maintenance involving a crash.

This downtime should be completed in under 3 hours. 

We appreciate your patience and understanding as we resolve this matter!
 

We've got a few more fixes and notes for your enjoyment! Once again, thank you all for the continued feedback and bug reports!

Developer's note:

• We're currently aware of and still working on fixes for the following issues:
  • Autoloot and autosplit not working on characters that have a completely empty backpack inventory.
    • We're working on a fix for this but for now a way to rectify the issue is to move a new item into their backpack from their /bank and that will allow the loot to once again be split to that character.
    • So long as characters have 1 item in their backpack, autoloot and autosplit should continue to work in the meantime.
• Molvik's keep and towers all upgrading when the Stone Quarry is taken instead of just Molvik's keep.

Hot Fix Notes

Harvest Celebration Event

• The realms are humming with anticipation for their upcoming feasts and local festivals!
  • Help the realms' Festival Steward recover a lost shipment of food and root out some secret stores of delicious desserts!
    • The repeatable RvR quests '[Harvest] Lost Turkey' and '[Harvest] [Daily] Secret Provisions' are now available at each realm's strength relic town at the Festival Steward NPC!
      • Earn bounty points for your efforts!
      • The Tower of Korazh, Deifrang, and Graoch on Ellan Vannin will have sturdier doors for this event's duration.

Farmer's Market Festival

• The Farmer's Market Festival makes its return to the following locations:
  • Albion: Ludlow
  • Midgard: Vasudheim
  • Hibernia: Ardee
• Visit the Festival Matron and go bobbing for apples to earn some house trophies!
• Let Captain Mack in Albion, Captain Marks in Midgard, or Captain Geddes in Hibernia regale you with their tales of a shark THIS big on the high seas and see if you can avenge their crews to earn the Sharkblood Bracer!

Read on for glory!

There are usually a myriad of reasons for why one class gets an ability (or the same ability but in a different form) than other classes in other realms and this case is no different.

First, we don’t just look at Minstrels’, Skalds’, and Bards’ strengths and weaknesses and then choose their form of Crescendo, we look at the realms and their classes as a whole too. This includes analysing synergies that exist among the various classes within each realm on the small and large scales. Second, we look at the overall performance and popularity of each class across the different playstyles. And finally, we analyse what each class can bring to a fight across the different playstyles.

Bards’ combination of their casting-focused support role, popularity, synergy with the other classes in their realm across every playstyle, and overall performance mandate that their Crescendo be a normal-casted spell. In short, making the spell uninterruptible would be too near to making it an instant cast and would be too powerful for our liking.

When pets were generally increased in effectiveness (including hit-point and other bonuses) in Patch 1.122B they were improved a bit too much. In subsequent versions pets were reduced back down to more acceptable levels. With 1.125, there were still some pets that were enjoying their 1.122B hit-point values while all other pets had been reduced already. The 1.125 reductions merely put the remaining pets in-line with the other pet reductions.

While the Astral Bow of Dismay’s proc rate is indeed high, the Darkness Falls’ Champion Level 15 bows and the other bows listed all have extremely similar proc rates (within 1-2%). This is unlikely to be changed.

The short answer is that it would be too powerful of an ability if it reset realm abilities in addition to the class abilities. There is not a way for it to only reset certain ‘class-specific’ realm abilities and not other realm abilities like Mastery of Concentration, etc.

For additional context, class-specific realm abilities are still classified as realm abilities and not “class” abilities. Class abilities are only the abilities that a class specializes for or gets as baseline as they level up.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances we plan to re-enable them sometime next week.

The following changes are now live!

Highlights

• Name change tokens make their return to the Mithril shop!
• The Skull Mask pattern is now for sale in the Mithril shop!
• The 14-days free trial is now disabled in preparation for development of the Endless Conquest update.
• The Dragon’s Curse campaign's difficulty has been significantly reduced and is now able to be completed with a group or less!

Click the link below for the full notes!

Hot Fix Notes

Mithril Shop

• Name change tokens have returned and are once again for sale on the Mithril Merchant found in each realm’s capital city.
• Skull Mask patterns are now for sale on the Mithril Merchant found in each realm’s capital city.

Trial Accounts

• In preparation for development of the Endless Conquest update, newly created accounts will no longer receive the14-days free trial as of this posting.
  • Any existing trial accounts will still have access to their remaining free days and are not affected by this change.

Trifecta

• The cost to play trifecta has been increased from 10 to 20 gold per attempt.

A Dragon’s Curse Campaign

Difficulty Adjustments

• All realms’ prologue and chapter encounters have had their difficulties reduced so that a single full group (or less) can reasonably complete them.
  • The Prologue, Chapters 1-5, and Chapters 7-8 remain battlegroup and/or area-credit even with the difficulty reduction.
• Monsters in Childe’s Tomb, Drakulvhamn, and A Rift dungeons have been adjusted as follows:
  • Hit point reductions that lower the difficulty of all normal monsters.
  • Named bosses and their associated monsters that are part of the various optional quests are no longer aggressive to players and instead only “aggro” a character in the dungeon if they are attacked first.
    • These optional encounters have not had their difficulties reduced otherwise.
    • This change should allow players to move through these dungeons more freely and complete certain chapters more easily.
    • The Wolfmother Guards in Drakulvhamn and the Glimmer Lords, Vampiir Lords, Rift Tunnelers, Veil Gargoyles, Veil Serpents, and Glimmer Spreaders in A Rift that are not associated with any optional encounters are also included in this change.
  • In Childe’s Tomb and A Rift the number of monsters in certain areas has been reduced as well.
• Chapter 6 instances remain solo-only but have had their difficulty reduced as follows:
  • Hit point reductions that lower the difficulty of the normal and named monsters in all realms.
  • The number of monsters in the instances of Caer Sidi and Halls of Ma’ati in Albion, Trolheim and Deep Volcanus in Midgard, and Aerus City in Hibernia have been reduced.
  • These changes should help drastically reduce the overall amount of time it takes to complete this chapter so long as each realms’ allied “pets” are summoned and used throughout.
• Chapter 9 and 10 instances remain full-group encounters but have had the difficulty of all realms’ boss encounters reduced further, in addition to the following changes:
  • Hit point reductions that lower the difficulty of the normal monsters in all realms.
  • In Childe’s Vault and the Inner Veil, the number of normal monsters in certain areas has been reduced as well.
  • These changes should significantly reduce the time it takes to complete these chapters.

• All chapter quest steps that involve a location-specific task should now display the quest dot on the /map at the correct location.
• Grey and Blue quest-icon knots should now properly appear and disappear over-head of NPCs that are involved in a quest step.
• Several quests’ text and tasks have been re-worded to provide clearer instructions.
• All chapter and prologue specific quests have had their [Curse] prefixes adjusted to include their specific chapter as [Curse Prologue], [Curse 1], [Curse 2], etc.
  • Optional side quests now use the generic “[Curse]” prefix.
• Chapter 1:
  • Albion:
    • Defeating Occulist Nera and Knight Feirefiz tasks are both displayed initially and can now be completed in any order.
  • Midgard:
    • Defeating Oracle Kel and the 5 Drakulv Oracles tasks are both displayed initially and can now be completed in any order.
  • Hibernia:
    • Salle’s [teleport] to the other end of A Rift dungeon is now available even after Chapter 1’s quest is complete.
• Chapter 2:
  • Albion:
    • The area credit for placing the soul stone into the slime has been extended slightly.
    • The tasks for this quest are now both displayed initially and can now be completed in any order.
  • Hibernia:
    • The Salle pet now automatically casts the Soul Power buff once chapter 2 is complete.

• Chapter 3:
  • Albion:
    • The Darkspire Harpy no longer roams Childe’s Tomb and is now at a fixed location.
      • This specific Darkspire Harpy is no longer aggressive to players.
  • Midgard:
    • Players are now directed to Sigrun or Theso prior to being directed to Garmr at the end of this quest.
  • Hibernia:
    • Quest steps 1 and 2 have been consolidated and no longer require players to de-summon Salle and re-summon her to get credit for the first quest step.
• Chapter 4:
  • All Realms:
    • Soul Casks can now be obtained from battlegroup-kills and subsequent kills done by players who have already obtained 25/25 souls, but not yet turned in the quest, will now count towards other characters’ credit.
    • Credit for this step is now rewarded directly after a kill and no souls spawn after kills now.
      • The random chance for credit has been increased.
  • Hibernia:
    • Quest steps 1 and 2 have been consolidated and no longer require players to de-summon Salle and re-summon her to get credit for the first quest step.
• Chapter 5:
  • Albion:
    • Players are now asked to defeat Occulist Naxar prior to Vulcan.
    • Grimbur now properly goes immune at 50% health and spawns the Tenebrous Dark Knight which must be defeated.
    • Grimbur now always dispels Naxar’s Barrier.
  • Midgard:
    • Players are now asked to defeat the Darkspire Crystal prior to King Bodolf.
    • Area credit around the Darkspire Crystal has been extended.
• Chapter 6:
  • Albion:
    • Caer Sidi’s cut-scene in the middle of the instance is now skippable.
  • Hibernia:
    • The Marrach Marauders have been replaced with Marrach Blackguards in the Fomor instance.
    • The Aerus City instance now offers two paths that reach the end, to the west or to the north, after defeating the sky djinn and no longer requires characters to double-back to the north to continue.
      • The location and configuration of normal and named monsters in the Aerus City instance has also been changed to accommodate this new choice.
• Chapter 7:
  • All Realms:
    • Beginning the dragon encounter will cause the normal monsters inside the dragon lair to despawn and cease spawning for the encounter’s duration.
• Chapter 9:
  • Albion:
    • All PBAoE effects are now instantly removed when Necromancer Janus’ encounter is completed.
  • Midgard:
    • All PBAoE effects are now instantly removed when Dark Ingolf’s encounter is completed.
  • Hibernia:
    • Najah’s encounter:
      • The smoke’s protection should no longer drop when a character is still inside the smoke and the smoke itself did not dissipate.
      • Characters outside of the smoke’s protection are still damaged and interrupted but are now done so in a more consistent manner.
      • New spell effects have been added to show when players are outside of the smoke’s protection.
        • The Thunder Drake’s spell effects have been changed to accommodate this change.
    • Varshe's encounter:
      • Varshe has been given additional spell effects that show when he is about to change states and now has a constant effect for the entire duration of each state.
      • Varshe now changes states more frequently.
      • All PBAoE effects are now instantly removed when this encounter is completed.

On to the questions!

The delves on the supremacy potions are set higher than the total buffing cap so that no buff bonus gear is required to reach the total cap when using the potions. If the delves were set to add up exactly to the total delve cap, they wouldn’t cap because of how buff spells reference buffing% and +skills.

Additionally, there are separate caps for base stat buffs (str, con, and dex) and specialized buffs (str/con, dex/qui, and acuity):

• Base stat buffs cap at +62
• Specialized stat buffs cap at +93

Neither of these individual caps nor the total buff cap of 155 can be exceeded on any stat buff, regardless of their delve value or use of buff bonus gear.

No, Dragonslayer equipment has high-value heal and ablative procs and TOA bonuses that we want to keep in the level 45+ range.

Yes, the spawn times in Coruscating Mine, Spindelhalla, and Stonehenge Barrows were normalized across the three dungeons in most cases. A few spawns, especially at the entrances of the dungeons, were essentially “insta-spawning” and were adjusted accordingly. The spawns are set by random chance but they should still re-spawn within a minute or two the vast majority of the time, which is hardly a slow spawn rate.

Additionally, a way to purchase alchemy ingredients for bounty points was added in 1.125!

Yes, unfortunately charge is an “old-form” ability that isn’t categorized or coded in the same way as normal spells. While this seems like something we could simply change, it’s of course not that simple. We have thoroughly investigated our options but unfortunately it is not currently worth the time investment for us to address.

Certain armor looks are derived from thee armor's base material (bronze, adamantium, arcanium, etc.) which controls things like the armor's level, armor factor, and more.

The chest-piece being copied from is likely using a low-level base material (like bronze) and so looks a certain way (like no shoulder pads), but the chest-piece that is equipped and being to is using a higher-level base material (like arcanium) and so the patterned-skin will account for your equipped armor's higher level material and show the sturdier version of the skin.

We get a lot of questions asking us on whether this item works with this other item, what's the best use of an ability in certain situations, or asking how abilities and item uses work.

The Grab Bag’s purpose is to answer questions that provide insight into development plans, to clarify basic game mechanic questions (question #1 is a perfect example of these), and to generally provide updates on community issues.

It is not meant to answer game mechanic questions that essentially tell players which items or abilities are best to use with others, because that’s essentially advising them on how to play their class best. Players need to determine that on their own or ask other players for advice if they are truly stuck.

That's all from the Grab Bag for this year. Enjoy the holidays and Happy New Year from all of us, to all of you :)

Much <3

 

• Realm Point, experience, and crafting bonuses are now live!
• Bounty points are yours if you can once more assist the surly Festival Steward and the friendly Cargomaster!
• The Frozen Medal of Honor and Frozen Cloaks of Midwinter are once again available!
• Battleground Presents are there to be gathered!
• The Frozen Cavern instance makes its return!
• The Twelve Days of Midwinter gifts are being wrapped!

The Midwinter celebrations will start today and run until January 14th, 2019.
The 12 days of Midwinter event will begin on Friday, December 21st!

Read on for more details!

Realm Bonuses

• 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 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

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.

• Two new repeatable quests are now available to level 50 characters for the duration of the event:
  • Visit the Festival Steward in each realm's relic town to obtain the repeatable '[Midwinter] [Daily] Swamp Goodies' quest!
  • Visit your realm's Cargomaster at the Caer Benowyc, Bledmeer Faste, or Druim Ligen docks to obtain the repeatable '[Midwinter] Roll On' quest!
  • Bounty points await those who can complete their tasks!

 

• Olibar's Gift Retrieval quests can now be done a total of 40 times per character, per year.

• Venture to the Frozen Cavern and test yourself against the chill... and its cunning inhabitant: Jack Frost!
• Visit Njord in the following locations to enter the instance of your choice:
  • Albion: near Merlin's Tower in Camelot
  • Midgard: near the Burial Grounds in Jordheim
  • Hibernia: near the Chamber of Magic in Tir na Nog
• Two modes exist for this instance: Normal and Challenging
  • The Normal mode has a chance to drop 1 of the following rewards:
    • Frozen chestpieces
    • Frozen and other mythirians
    • Infernal sleeves
    • Darkness Falls jewelry
    • Supremacy, celerity, or omni-regen potions
  • The Challenging mode has a chance to drop 1 of the following rewards:
    • Frozen weapons
    • Frozen chestpieces
    • Frozen mythirians only
    • Darkness Falls jewelry
    • Supremacy, celerity, or omni-regen potions
    • In addition to having a chance at the weapons, the chance at the mythirians and darkness falls jewelry is much higher. The chestpiece chance is the same in both modes.
• Loot no longer drops directly from Jack Frost, instead a loot chest is spawned when he is defeated.
  • Players can interact with the chest and receive 1 guaranteed reward per day but can still participate in the instance as many times as desired.
  • This chest will despawn after 20 seconds, so be sure to grab your loot quickly!
  • Only non-trial accounts can interact with the chest.

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 Castle Sauvage
  • Midgard: Kris Kringle in Svasud Faste
  • Hibernia: Daidi na Nollag in Druim Ligen
• Speak with the above NPCs to reveal your reward for each day.
  • Each day's reward will be revealed around 5:30 AM EST / 10:30 AM 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 50, non-trial account characters and can only be obtained once per character.
  • All rewards will be tradable.
• This event will run from Friday, December 21st, 2018 for the next twelve days, with the last day being January 1st, 2019!

Ghost Keep Event

• Members of each realm should make haste to their ghostly ambassador to strengthen their realm's cause:
  • Albion - See the Ancient Paladin in the Catterick Hamlet relic town
  • Midgard - See the Ancient Thane in the Godrborg relic town
  • Hibernia - See the Ancient Champion in the Crair Treflan relic town
• Players should ask the 'Ancient' NPCs for a [progress] report to be directed to the current task at hand.
  • These NPCs offer two quests during the 'supply' phase of the event that can only be obtained and completed during that phase.
  • Once a ghost keep has been triggered by a realm, the 'supply' phase ends for all three realms and these NPCs will direct players to defend or attack the appropriate ghostly keep lord!
  • Be sure to visit this NPC at each phase to ensure you pick up any available quests.
• Earn extra realm and bounty points for completing the tasks throughout each phase of the event!
• A successfully summoned ghostly keep lord will offer the Ring of the Summoned reward, along with a quest for the Ghostly Medal of Valor!
  • Please note that players who have already completed the Ring of the Summoned quest can obtain a new one or exchange their existing one for a new one at the ghostly keep lord.
  • Players who obtained the Ghostly Medal of Valor last year can obtain one more with this event.
• For more in-depth information, our handy guide explains the phases of this event in detail!
• The Ghost Keep event will be available until February 6^th, 2019.

We've got a few more fixes and notes for you on this fantastic friday! Once again, thank you all for the continued feedback and bug reports.

Developer's note:

• We're currently aware of and plan to address the following issues during our next server downtime:
  • Death spam range unintentionally reduced. 
  • Issues with Wardens applying the new pre-set helm patterns.
    • To alleviate any issues, Wardens are currently prevented from purchasing these helm patterns until then.
    • Normal or blank helm patterns will still work normally.
• There's lots brewing for DAoC in 2019 and we can't wait to share the full details in the coming weeks!

Click the link below for the changes and bug fixes that are now live!

Hot Fix Notes

Mithril Shop

• Death Mask helm patterns are now for sale on the Mithril Merchant found in each realm’s capital city.

Items

• The Glacial Shadowblade Axe now correctly procs the +Axe Weaponskill buff.

Molvik Dynamic Objectives

• The Mercenary Captain, Quarrymaster, and Siegemaster can now only be attacked within melee range.
• The duration in-between keep level upgrades and downgrades from owning the Quarry objective has been increased from 3 minutes to 5 minutes per keep level.
• Mercenaries will now respawn as the appropriate realm.
• The Siege Workshop's benefits have been improved as follows:
  • Ownership of this objective now also controls whether siege weapons can be placed inside the entire Molvik keep.
    • Whichever realm owns the keep will need to maintain ownership of the Siege Workshop objective if they wish to use siege anywhere within the keep.
      • For example: If Albion owns the keep and Midgard or Hibernia owns the Siege Workshop objective, siege weapons will not be able to be placed inside Molvik keep and any existing siege will be removed.
    • If the Siege Workshop is inactive, siege weapons can be placed normally.
    • The workshop still controls the sturdiness of Molvik keep's outer and inner gates in addition to this new siege-placement benefit.

Quests and Encounters

• Albion's quest, A New Threat (Epic 7), step 2 now properly awards completion credit.
• Midgard's quest, Tomte Dawn (Epic 3), step 3 now shows the correct [keyword] when speaking with Vidarl to progress the step.
• Hibernia's quest, Finding the Keeper, now properly progresses when returning to Seneschal Desmond.
• The quest, Unraveling: Infernal Investigation, now properly progesses on steps involving the Teleportation Stone.
• The Belt of the Moon and Belt of the Sun encounters once again spawn properly.
• The Belt of the Moon encounter now correctly awards the level 10 artifact turn-in quest upon completion.
• The Winged Helm encounter now correctly awards the level 10 artifact turn-in quest upon completion.
• The Staff of the Gods encounter can once again be completed.

Client

• Fixed some recipe names and typos in the Spellcrafting tradeskill window.
  • Please note players currently in-game will need to log out and run their patcher to see this update.

Update: Maintenance complete! The Account Center is back online.

The Account Center will be down today, Thursday, January 31st for maintenance. 

Downtime is estimated to last until 12:30 PM EST / 5:30 PM GMT. Please note that there may be issues signing-in to the Official Forums for the duration of this downtime.

Thank you for your patience and understanding!

Click more for the questions!

Currently, no, only the highest ranked version of the spell is available as you specialize into Aura Manipulation. This was done to strongly encourage Aura Manipulation and Mauler Staff specializations to be raised in tandem.

However, this is certainly something we can look at changing going forward and allow the lower versions of the Gift-spells to remain in the spell list as Aura Manipulation is trained up. As always, we welcome additional feedback on the matter!

Yes, the Icy Rock Paralyzer shield still drops on all 3 realms. I

t has a very small chance to drop from almost any ‘Named’ monster in the Labyrinth. However, in Albion and Midgard, Prelate Quietus II is your best bet to obtain it and in Hibernia, Tiller Prime Peche has an equally high chance. Don’t forget that a list of monsters that drop a given item is freely available within our official Item Database!

Realm balance is an important topic that our development team has and continues to discuss at length.

As we’ve mentioned in previous updates, we are planning to have an RvR population balancing system that replaces the current Dynamic Population Bonus system with the launch of the Endless Conquest update.  Whether that is a new ‘Realm Loyalty’ system that offers account-wide rewards for sticking to a single realm *in RvR* (PvEing on other realms wouldn’t interfere) for certain lengths of time or another, more active population balancing system specific to the Frontier regions remains to be seen!

At this time, we have no plans to bring back realm login timers.

The 25% reduction to blocking bonus from dual-wielded attacks reduces the target’s block rate by 25%, it does not subtract 25% from their block rate %value. In the example given, it is the latter: a block rate of 40% is reduced to a 30% rate when facing a dual-wielded attack. 

For testing purposes and context: this dual wield bonus is applied to the mainhand and offhand swings separately. Meaning if a swing test of 1,000 is performed, the 25% dual wield reduction bonus can be seen when looking at the number of blocks on the mainhand OR offhand swings; but tallying up the total number of blocks from both mainhand and offhand swings would not give an accurate account of block rate.

Using the same example above, if there is a 40% block rate before the dual wield bonus, each of the mainhand and offhand swings will get blocked 30% of the time (benefiting from the 25% reduction bonus), but 60% of the time at least one of the mainhand or offhand swing will be blocked.

Yes, these bonuses only last one enemy attack round and are essentially added on to any other parry and evade bonuses that are active but will not exceed the caps to parry or evade chance.

• As a precaution, the realms have devoted extra resources to Ellan Vannin, opening up direct teleport to the Towers of Korazh, Deifrang, and Graoch!
  • Teleport to these towers is one-way only and can be initiated via the /realmwar map.
  • Teleport is only possible if the realm's supply line is intact:
    • Albion must hold Caer Boldiam and Caer Benowyc to teleport to an EV tower
    • Midgard must hold Glenlock Faste and Bledmeer Faste to teleport to an EV tower
    • Hibernia must hold Dun nGed and Dun Crauchon to teleport to an EV tower
• Level 50s should visit their realm's General to obtain the [Manx] [Daily] Preventive Measures quest!
  • Speak to General Kogis in Catterick Hamlet
  • Speak to General Bruki in Godrborg
  • Speak to General Vegda in Crair Treflan

 

Mithril Shop

• Eye Mask helm patterns are now for sale on the Mithril Merchant found in each realm’s capital city.

Event Quests 

• A Matter of the Heart: This quest will give players of all realms the chance find the imp, Russel, located mainland side of Castle Sauvage/Druim Ligen/Svasud Faste. He's ready to offer some interesting tasks from the local imp's union in return for a Lawn Cupid trophy, experience and coin. Don't forget to speak to Lady Payne and earn your ROG Valentine's Ring or Bracer too!

• Keeping Company: This quest will be offered to characters level 45 and above and will have a unique challenge for players in Albion, Midgard and Hibernia.  As a reward, players will receive a Tiny Compatriot Crate, experience and coin. Visit Lailen in Jordheim, Pondar Cully in Camelot, and Harris MacCullogh in Tir na Nog to start the quest.

• Valentine's Traditions: These quests will offer three old style quests which were part of the original Dark Age of Camelot Valentine's Day content. Players will be able to complete the quest up to eight times, which is based on the number of times the original quest has been issued online.  Players will be rewarded with a Hearts Cloak, Heart-Shaped Box, experience and coin. Visit  Rumdor in Mag Mell, Hrolf in Mularn, or Sir Prescott in Camelot Hills to start the quest.

Bonuses

• On Ywain:
  • 25% bonus to RPs from kills (a total of 50% will display on your /bonuses window)
• On Gaheris:
  • 50% bonus to normal XP gain in all classic zones and dungeons.
  • 50% bonus to normal RP gain in the capital cities.
• In each Capital City:
  • 40% Bonus to Crafting Speed
  • 20% Bonus to Crafting Skill Gain
• In all Housing Zones:
  • 20% Bonus to Crafting Speed
  • 10% Bonus to Crafting Skill Gain

1. Press the Windows key and type dxdiag in the search box
2. Click on dxdiag.exe
3. When DxDiag opens, check to see if there’s a button that says Run 64-bit DxDiag – if there is click it
   ---If that button doesn’t appear, move to step 6.
4. You’ll see a green progress bar in the bottom-left of the DirectX Diagnostic Tool window while the program is gathering information.
5. When the progress bar disappears, it means your report is ready.
6. Click Save All Information.
7. Save the file to your desktop (make sure it’s saving as a text file) and give it a name you’ll remember.
8. Click Exit.
9. Attach the file you just saved by clicking upload below.
10. Click submit.

Read on for the updates disguised as questions!

Endless Conquest development is currently underway and will take the bulk of 2019 to complete.

Our Endless Conquest FAQ has been updated and show’s our current plan:

What can Endless Conquest accounts do and not do?

Please note that some of these may change prior to launch:

• Can play for free on the Ywain server.
• Can obtain max realm rank.
• Can earn Master Levels and Master Level Abilities.
• Cannot earn Champion Levels or Champion Level Abilities.
• Can fully participate in PvE encounters or quests and earn endgame loot but cannot earn existing alternate currencies.
• Can obtain level 50 but cannot use the /rp off and /xp off commands.
  • The rate of character progression will also be limited.
• Will have "classic" buffing rules.
  • EC-characters must stay in range and be grouped with any other character that they buff or are buffed by for the buffs to work.
  • Cannot use existing buff potions.
• Can play on any pre-existing character of any class as long as the account was previously subscribed.
  • Newly created characters are limited to the following classes:
    • Albion:
    • Cleric
    • Friar
    • Paladin
    • Sorcerer
    • Mercenary
  • Midgard:
    • Shaman
    • Healer
    • Valkyrie
    • Runemaster
    • Berserker
  • Hibernia:
    • Druid
    • Warden
    • Bard
    • Mentalist
    • Blademaster
• Cannot own or be given permission to access a house or guild house.
• Cannot create a guild or be promoted to guild master.
• Will have access to all tradeskills except Siegecrafting and Bountycrafting.
• Will have access to all three realms on a single account.
• One EC-account logged-in per person.
• Will not receive veteran-based account rewards.

As you can see, EC accounts will be full-participants in PvE, the game’s economy, and in RvR but will be limited in ways that maintain the integrity of the game and still provide excellent benefits and value to our loyal subscribers!

We agree! We already have one in the works and hope to release it in the coming weeks.

The full-merchant issue is one we’ve discussed previously and do have plans to address it in conjunction with the planned Housing update (post-Endless Conquest).

The 200 platinum cap on characters is a much trickier issue. Not only does it affect the game’s economy in drastic ways, there are also significant technical barriers to changing it (which we’ve discussed previously). That said, it is something we’re investigating changing as in general we would like to increase the cap in conjunction with offering game-time-code sales for platinum. We’ll have more news once that investigation is complete!

This has been a VERY tricky bug to track down. Until we can pinpoint exactly what is causing the crash for some players (it does not happen to all players all the time) it’s going to remain an issue. While some of our fixes have alleviated the issue for certain players, it is still happening quite frequently for others.

If you are still experiencing the crash frequently, please visit this form and send us your information!

There will be a Producer’s letter coming soon that will outline this in greater detail but we are happy to share a short outline with you all, now!

Endless Conquest development will dominate the bulk of our time and resources for 2019. It’s a major, major upgrade that we have to get 100% correct. However, there are some features that are part of Endless Conquest that we plan to release as they are ready, instead of holding them for the major launch. With that context out of the way, here’s our 2019 roadmap and beyond:

• Endless Conquest preliminary launch features (launched as completed):
  • Realm vs Realm population-balancing feature
    • Group-finding and forming improvements as part of this.
  • User Interface improvements including UI-scaling
  • Overall progression and economy changes
  • Web-based community tools such as item search, spellcraft calculator, realm war status, leaderboards, etc.
• Content updates throughout the year
  • Ongoing bug fixes and class changes
  • New and recurring events
  • Potentially expanding out the Dynamic Keep Siege objectives to other battlegrounds and the Frontiers.
  • Monthly Mithril Store updates
• The new website launched and tied in with the already-released community-based tools.
• The launch of Endless Conquest itself

Post-Endless Conquest:

• Catacombs expansion revamp
  • This involves re-launching the Catacombs zones and content as entirely end-game focused.
  • Small-group-based PvE encounters and instances with a focus on obtaining unique armor and weapon skins that share existing item stats/abilities.
  • A major surprise. *wink*
  • More details to come!
• Housing update
  • Existing housing art revamped!
  • New housing types and new art!
  • Update to many of the housing system features
• Alternate “progression” server(s)
  • Subscription-only access
  • Will have potentially varying alternative rulesets
    • First server will start out as a “Classic” + Shrouded Isles + Housing ruleset
    • Will remain in its launch-state for as long as its playerbase wishes (vote-based) and then will advance through the major updates of Dark Age of Camelot’s history until catching up with Ywain’s state, at which point players will be able to transfer to Ywain.
    • Depending on the success of this server, there may be others added with similar rules but forced advancement/progression, etc.
  • Full details are currently being discussed and we’ll have more information after the launch of Endless Conquest!

As you can see, we have a lot of exciting developments coming this year and beyond and we look forward to hearing from you to make them the best they can be!

Lots to talk about there, very exciting! Don't forget to head over to our official forums and join the chat :)

That's it for this week, enjoy the weekend!

• No known cause is reported but they suspect this could be Manannan mac Lir's doing... somehow.
• Caer Benowyc, Bledmeer Faste, and Dun Crauchon and all of their towers are in ruins!
  • These Ruined Keeps' walls and doors cannot be repaired and postern doors can be used by any realm.
    • Wholesale repairs on these keeps will be too costly and impossible for some time, however some Repair Supply shipments are beginning to be stockpiled at the keeps.
      • Players on the Supplies for the Cause quest can now visit these Ruined Keeps and gather Repair Supplies.
      • Repair Supplies remain available at Folley Lake, the Trellebourg, and Moydruim Castle too.
  • Teleport to these outposts is still available.
    • Players can use the /realmwar map to teleport to these outposts as normal.
    • Ownership of the keep and all of its towers is still required for teleport.
    • Ownership of these keeps is still required to open telepot to enemy realms or to the Ellan Vannin towers.
  • The Lords of each keep and their tower captains maintain their ever vigilant watch.
    • These Ruined Keeps can be captured and controlled normally but will not spawn any extra guards.
    • These keeps and towers cannot be claimed by guilds.

Read on for the questions!

While it is understandably frustrating, these specific scenarios are classified as Cross-Teaming.  The act of Cross-Teaming is distinct from Cross-Realming in that the actors involved are not communicating information to members of an enemy realm to actively sabotage the Realm War-at-large.

There are engagements where working with an enemy Realm against a third Realm may provide a superior strategic advantage in terms of risk and survival. Standing idly by while a member of one’s own Realm is attacked is certainly not an honorable action, but this too does not qualify as Cross-Realming.

If you believe that a player of your Realm is colluding with an enemy by having an account logged in to communicate location or tactical information, please submit an appeal with the names and a description of the events, and one of our CSR’s will conduct an investigation of the incident and take all appropriate actions based on our findings.

Yes, these are still accurate.

The short answer: No, the 1.5s swing speed is not able to be broken; it’s a hard cap!

The long answer: Spells that increase a character’s swing speed are increasing that speed up to the 1.5s cap. One-handed, faster weapon users like the Vampiir, who also get access to a high-value buff like Darkened Haste’s 45% combat speed buff will hit that 1.5s swing speed cap very easily. They get the benefit of not needing a ton of quickness and/or celerity to hit the 1.5s cap!

It’s on our wish-list as well but will involve a complete re-work of how the dye system works.

The current dye system uses a mechanic that tints the undyed armor or weapon to the dye color. In a system like this, a white dye shows up as a totally transparent dye, meaning your armor or equipment would look the same as undyed. The “color” white is actually what we use on the dye-remover items like mild acid enamel remover to return equipment to their natural colors. It also means extremely light grey or cream color dyes are not going to work as they are essentially transparent themselves.

It’s not impossible to alter this system but unfortunately there are currently a lot of other things on our to-do list that take precedence. We look forward to adding in white and other lighter-hues as soon as we are able to!

Yes, mesmerisation immunity is always 1 minute in duration.

There are no abilities that remove it, bypass it, or affect its duration.

As always, much <3 :)

See you in the frontiers!

• Players should no longer experience a crash-to-desktop in certain locations, including the Capital Cities and several dungeons or instances, though the crash could have theoretically happened in almost any area of the game.
  • If currently online, players will need to log-out completely and re-patch their client to obtain this update.
  • Thanks again to all of the players who helped us track this down!