Teleport Obelisk Event

• An Ellan Vannin Obelisk now stands on the portal pad in each realm's relic town that will teleport players and their group to random open-field locations on Ellan Vannin!
  • Differing slightly from Caledonia, only members within 3500 radius of the obelisk will teleport.
• All other existing teleports to Ellan Vannin are disabled for the event's duration:
  • Master Vaughn and his elementalists, Stor Gothi Dagny and her gothis, and Brerend and his seoltoirs are all taking a well-deserved holiday from teleporting players to their safe locations on the island.
  • Tower of Korazh, Tower of Deifrang, and Tower of Graoch one-way ports are disabled.
  • Knoc Meayll teleports to and from the keep are disabled.
• The Tower of Korazh, Tower of Deifrang, and Tower of Graoch are now ruined for the event's duration.
• Knoc Meayll keep can still be captured normally by the realms and still will be periodically captured by the Manx.
• This event will run until Tuesday, March 30th, 2021.

Traveling Merchants

• The traveling merchants have made their return and now hawk their wares outside Castle Sauvage in Albion, Svasud Faste in Midgard, and Druim Ligen in Hibernia!
• The merchants will remain until Tuesday, March 30th, 2021.

Realm vs Realm Bonuses

• 50% bonus to RPs from kills
• 50% bonus to normal XP gain in all classic and shrouded isle zones and dungeons.

• 50% bonus to normal XP gain in all battlegrounds, classic and shrouded isle zones and dungeons.
• 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

Bonuses will last until Tuesday, March 30th, 2021.

Thanks, as always, to everyone for your questions! You can submit any questions relating to current development plans, to request clarification on basic game mechanic questions, or questions on community issues through the Grab Bag Submission form. For any other feedback or suggestions please use our feedback form.

Continue reading for this week's Grab Bag :)

Why do Maulers have a base melee critical hit chance and not a base magic critical hit chance? And why don’t Maulers benefit from endurance regen on omni-regen buffs and siphon endurance from omni-drains?

Maulers are primarily a melee-hybrid class and so only receive the base 10% chance to critical hit with melee styles without needing to specialize in the Mastery of Pain realm ability (though they still can to further increase their melee critical hit chance). They can critical hit with magic by specializing in the Wild Power realm ability though.

After some testing to be extra certain, Maulers do benefit from omni-regen endurance spells and do siphon endurance from omni-drain procs.

Is there any way to influence the portal pads in Treibh Caillte? I seemed to port more consistently to the same place in the dungeon when an Befuddled Rocky Golem was up. Is there any truth to this, or was I just lucky on the rolls?

Each portal location in the dungeon typically has a single portal destination it can send you to when a normal golem spawns. These locations generally teleport players back and forth between 2 areas of the dungeon. Typically, only 1 rocky golem can spawn between 4 nearby portal locations at a given time.

However, a few portal locations have a chance to sometimes spawn a befuddled rocky golem instead of normal golems. Befuddled rocky golems, regardless of which portal location they spawn in will always send players to the same location in the dungeon. When a befuddled rocky golem is already spawned, it has no effect on where other portal locations will send you though.

What is the true health% value of Convoker ML7  Dissonance Traps?

Traps are set to remove 40% of the target’s base health. This means their health value without buffs or +hits from items. Also, because the traps are a ML ability there is no +specialization bonus in regards to damage variance. This is why the damage values can fluctuate on the same target by as much as 10% of the target’s base health. Typically the damage from a storm will be around 20% of a fully buffed and equipped target’s total health.

Question about defense penetration, are defenses cut by just having an offhand out? or do I have to spec into the offhand spec to have increased shield/parry penetration/

They are cut in half by simply using dual-wielded weapons. Increasing offhand specialization does still help your defense penetration though!

My question is what stats control damage taken from archery  shots? Base af seems to not affect it, neither on a leather wearer nor on a caster, but spec af does? Also in my testing I found that abs buffs affect (friar 15% did) but a lvl 39 caster (5%abs) did not affect?

Both armor factor (AF) and absorption (ABS) should affect archery damage in a similar way to how melee damage is affected by both AF and ABS buffs.  Melee and magic resists also further affect damage of their respective archery shot types.

In our testing between 2 level 50 characters, both base and ‘spec’ AF on a cloth wearer as well as their +%ABS buffs did noticeably reduce archery shot damage when using both physical and magic shots. On non-cloth wearers, base AF buffs will do less to mitigate archery shots because high quality leather armor and up will already nearly cap base AF values.

It could be that if your tests were between a level 50 archer hitting a lower level character that the archer was capping out their damage regardless due to the level disparity. This could account for why no difference was seen in those tests!

Regardless, the higher the total armor factor and absorption values on a character, the less damage they will take from all archery shots!

Many thanks, and enjoy the weekend! :)
 

The Ywain server will be coming down tomorrow, March 30th (5:45 AM EST / 10:45 AM GMT) to perform Amazon server hosting maintenance.

The expected downtime should last 6 hours or less.

We appreciate your patience and understanding!

Thank you all for your feedback on the teleport obelisks in each realms relic town!

It's been great fun to watch the new dynamics created with groups enjoying some great combat on Ellan Vannin as well as the constant action at the ruined areas! We have also really enjoyed the epic keep battles this dynamic seemed to encourage!

As such, the following remains in effect for the foreseeable future:

• Teleport to and from Knoc Meayll has been re-enabled.
• Teleport to the Towers of Korazh, Deifrang, and Graoch remain disabled but the towers are no longer ruined.
• Teleport to the safe areas on Ellan Vannin remains disabled.
• Players of any group-size can visit their realm's relic towns to use the Ellan Vannin Obelisk to teleport to a random location in the central area of Ellan Vannin.
  • Groups of 6+ members who use this obelisk will receive a 100% bounty point bonus buff that will auto-refresh as long as they stay in the central area of the island.
    • Please note that this buff will *not* stack with mithril-purchased bounty point bonuses but will stack with all other BP bonuses.
    • Please note that this buff will affect Endless Conquest accounts as well as subscribed accounts.
  • This buff will dissipate if the group leaves the area but will return if they return to the area and still have the Ellan Vannin Port buff.
  • Groups of 6+ members with the Ellan Vannin Port buff will continue to get updates on the number of other 6+-person groups in the central area of Ellan Vannin.
• The obelisk in each realms' relic town will also still teleport ungrouped characters to Folley Lake, The Trellebourg, or Moydrium Castle and the 1 minute anti-group camping timer remains in place at the ruined areas.

• The killer bunny makes his annual return!
• Collect and choose your Gem of the Harbinger reward!
  • Remember, the gem no longer drops as a One-Time-Drop and instead is a loot-choice on the Rites of Spring quest.
  • Killing the Harbinger of Spring mob (battlegroup-credit) still grants the quest automatically.
  • There will be no item exchange service for the Gem of the Harbinger or any of its variants, choose carefully!
  • Players who defeat the Harbinger should be careful, or they'll find themselves forever reminded of the battle!
• The Festival Steward returns with her repeatable '[Spring] Preparations' quest!
• Check out he Event Shop in the capital city to pick up your spring-themed shield pattern!

Rites of Spring Event

Spring Festival

• Level 50s should visit the Festival Steward in each realm's relic town to obtain the repeatable quest '[Spring] Preparations'
  • Earn extra bounty points for each completion!
• Visit the Event Shop in your realm's capital city to pick up your spring-themed shield pattern!
• The Spring Festival will last until April 27th!

Thanks, as always, to everyone for your questions! You can submit any questions relating to current development plans, to request clarification on basic game mechanic questions, or questions on community issues through the Grab Bag Submission form. For any other feedback or suggestions please use our feedback form.

Hop on for the questions!

Does spell pierce from doppel arcane mace stack with spell pierce from gear or is it all counted at cap 10%?

All spell piercing bonuses are capped at 10% regardless of their source.

Hello! There was an old grab bag that discussed how the casting cost of spells works, specifically mentioning focus and its impact. Can you provide insight into the factors that go into how much a spell costs and how much or little using a mace/shield over a staff affects different types of spells? Thank you.
Old Grab Bag details.

First, a quick reminder on what classes are set as a "focus caster" (note: a focus caster is not the same as a list caster; for example a Valewalker is a list caster, but not a focus caster):

Albion	Midgard	Hibernia
Cabalist	Bonedancer	Animist
Necromancer	Runemaster	Bainshee
Sorcerer	Spiritmaster	Eldritch
Theurgist	Warlock	Enchanter
Wizard		Mentalist

As that old grab bag states, if you do not have a focus staff equipped and are casting a spell on a focus caster your power cost will be increased by 120% of the spell’s normal power cost value.

For example, a spell that costs 70 power (in the delve) will cost 84 power when not using a focus staff on a focus caster.

When a focus staff is equipped, has a focus stat that is higher level than the spell being cast, is of the right spec. line, the staff’s condition is 100%, and your character’s composite specialization level is higher than the spell’s level then the power cost is reduced to 80% of the delved power cost.

Continuing the example, a 70 power cost spell now only costs 56 power with the (fully repaired) focus staff equipped and a higher composite spec. than the spell’s level.

These days, one doesn’t have to worry as much about having the right Focus specialization or +level stat, as almost all focus staffs have a +50 to all magic lines. So just make sure your focus staff is equipped,  fully repaired, and that your composite specialization of the spell’s skill line is above the spell’s level to get that full 80% power cost reduction.

Using the same example again, if a focus caster was casting a level 45 spell that cost 70 power and that spell was in a line that the caster only had +30 composite spec in, and they had a fully repaired +50 all focus spells staff equipped they would use 65 power; so getting some reduction but not the full 80% due to the spell’s level being higher than their composite spec. in that line.


Other than +focus and some minotaur relic bonuses, there are no modifiers that reduce the cost of casted spells though Cave Shamans do have an a debuff that increases the power cost of spells cast by their enemies. There is also the arcane siphon stat on some items that will give your character a chance to not use any power when casting a spell.

Otherwise, having high power regeneration (from mythical power regen stats or class’ power regen abilities) and obviously a higher overall power pool from equipping power% and power% cap gear will allow a character to cast more spells for longer too and with enough power regen and power pool% a character can largely offset the power cost of spells even when not using a focus staff!


As for the different types of spells that use this focus power cost mechanic, it’s actually less confusing than it may seem based on that previous grab bag answer:

For focus-caster classes, *all* spells found in their base and specialization lines use the focus power cost mechanic; including heal spells! 

As for non-focus caster classes, other than those other power cost modifiers mentioned above their spells will cost the exact same as the delve shows. If a spell delves for 30 power, it will cost 30 power when cast by a non-focus casting class.

For classes that can cast Mesmerize, does +skill (+Pacification, +mind, +music) assist with your chance to land said spell?

It does not and these +skills do not increase the effectiveness of crowd control either. +Pacification actually provides no benefit to any spells in its line while +Music does affect the damage of a Bard’s damage shouts and +Mind does affect the power cost of Mind spells since Sorcerers are a focus caster.

A previous grab bag stated that weaponskill isn't used in any combat equations.  What benefit does envenom weaponskill debuff then have in combat?  What exactly is debuffed?  Does melee dmg debuff in envenom modify style proc damage in any way?

The Weaponskill debuff is technically reducing the underlying aspects of the character that contribute to their weaponskill totals – such as how much they are specialized into a weapon line, among other things. It’s just displayed through the weaponskill stat. This debuff will cause targets to land less of their melee attacks and block/evade/parry fewer melee attacks against them as well as reduce the target’s overall melee damage dealt.

The melee damage debuff only reduces damage done by the target’s melee portion of their style. Style procs are spells that are attached to a style and so they derive their damage from the proc’s spell delve amount. All spells are treated as casted/magic damage (regardless of the damage type). This is why stats like spell piercing help style proc damage and why melee damage debuffs don’t affect them.

Why can't Maulers use Polaris? It’s a staff

Maulers use the specialized staff skill ‘Mauler Staff’ which are staffs that can only be wielded by them. Polaris requires the ‘Staff’ skill (same skill that all casters and the Friar class has). It’s maybe a small distinction on paper but it’s similar to how a ‘Polearm’ is a two-handed weapon but Paladins can’t wield them even though they can specialize in “Two-Handed” weapons.

We do realize that Aura Manipulation specialized Maulers are largely caster-hybrids now and would like to have more caster staff-options. We’ll keep monitoring things but right now Maulers are performing quite well with their existing itemization options and so have no immediate plans to introduce more caster-centric gear options.

What is the buff cap on summoned pets and non-summoned pets?

Neither summoned nor non-summoned (charmed) pets have hard-caps on their buffs.

Remember, buffs don’t affect pets identically as players, here’s a link to a previous grab-bag answer on this very subject: Grab Bag 05/05/2017 
 

Enjoy the weekend everyone - I'm off on an egg hunt! :)

 

Thanks, as always, to everyone for your questions! You can submit any questions relating to current development plans, to request clarification on basic game mechanic questions, or questions on community issues through the Grab Bag Submission form. For any other feedback or suggestions please use our feedback form.

Continue reading for the questions :)

Does myth DPS from skull of the soulkeeper (for example) increase the dmg from melee necromancer?

Yes, mythical DPS stats increase melee Necromancer damage.

Can you please confirm if Esbjorn and Enar still spawn in Oceanus Notos?

Hmm, the only NPCs named Esbjorn or Enar are redcaps found in Midgard Shrouded Isles’ zone Modernagrav. These two, along with the named redcaps Erland and Evert do still have an extremely rare chance to spawn as outlined below.

Get your pen and paper out…

Killing skadedjurs anywhere in Modernagrav will cause a ‘Named’ fengarus (Xothra, Zanguirus, or Yigan) to spawn around 48100 16400 in the zone. There’s a small chance that killing the skadedjurs will only spawn a normal fengarus so be sure to clear those out too!

When a ‘Named’ fengarus is killed, it has a chance to spawn 1 of the 4 ‘Named’ redcaps (Esbjorn, Enar, Erland, or Evert) at the redcap camp (1 spawns at each crystal cluster). It also has a chance to spawn normal redcap bestigars so these will need to be cleared out if a named does not spawn and the process begun again!

Lastly, when a ‘Named’ redcap is killed there is a chance a ‘Named’ reanimated howler (Yngve, Ingvar, or Ingegard) is spawned around 34,500 34,500 in the zone with a small chance that a normal reanimated howler is spawned instead.

Par for the course, if any of the ‘Named’ mobs in this chain (or their normal mob placeholders) are already spawned anywhere in the zone, they will need to be cleared out first before killing a skadedjur will cause the first mob in the chain to spawn.

Happy hunting!

I'm very tight on inventory space these days, mainly due to items that aren't tradeable which means I can't dump them in my house vaults.  Needless to say, this doesn't mesh well with my OCD.  Are there any sources of personal storage that I'm overlooking?  The only ones I know of are personal vault and mount saddlebags.

Great game, thanks for all you guys do!

The personal Vault keepers and your mount’s saddlebags are the only direct areas to store *most* non-tradable items currently. For non-tradable mounts specifically, there is a Royal Stablemaster in each capital city (or a portable one can be purchased at the Mithril MTX Shop) that will store those items for you so that they are not taking up inventory space.

We hope to introduce additional features like the Royal Stablemaster for other categories of non-tradable items in the future!

In response to a previous Grab Bag question about scripting and multiboxing (here), is the following scenario legal: In NF, a player has a bot on a separate computer that is spamming heals using a pre-recorded automated sequence of keystokes (for example over 30 seconds) while they play another character on another computer. Where is the line drawn for having multiple characters in NF?

No, this would not be legal. Any playing of multiple characters by the same person via scripts is not allowed in New Frontiers or RvR Battleground zones. Normal “dual-logging” of accounts is perfectly fine so long as their actions are in no-way automated while they are both being played.

I'm having a really hard time finding BP merchants for all the crafting components I need for level 51 recipes.  Can you list all of the BP merchants and their locations?  Right now, I can't find the merchant that sells ToA crafting components and all Google searches lead to Sage Gilda, who only accepts glass--a currency I can't obtain.

• ToA Legendary Weapon components
  • These be obtained with bounty points by purchasing Doppelganger Shards at Garett, Mirren, or Breagh’s <Bounty Master> store in each realm’s relic town.
    • Doppelganger shards have a chance to drop reforming energies which can be used to receive these components from their respective TOA encounters at the trogo zontanos mageia NPCs in TOA zones.
  • These are also purchasable in Housing with gold or with Atlantean Glass in the Hall of Heroes.
    • Glass can still be obtained via trades with other players or converted from other old alternate currencies at the Alternate Currency Conversion NPC in each realm’s capital.
  • Please note that the Orb of Entropy and Pound of Flesh legendary weapon components are not sold anywhere and must be farmed via Otherworlds encounters.
• Rare Alchemy components
  • Garett, Mirren, or Breagh’s <Bounty Master> store in each realm’s relic town
• Perfected Armor patterns
  • Garett, Mirren, or Breagh’s <Bounty Master> store in each realm’s relic town
• Otherworldly Ore
  • Garett, Mirren, or Breagh’s <Bounty Master> store in each realm’s relic towns
• Otherworldly Essence
  • These can only be obtained by gathering them in Otherworlds or Frontier zones.
• Bountycraft recipes and molds:
  • Garett, Mirren, or Breagh’s <Bounty Master> store in each realm’s relic town
• Broken Dragonsworn Armor and Weapons
  • Currently only purchasable with Dragon Scales in each realm’s capital or with gold in Housing.
    • Similar to Glass, Scales can still be obtained via trades with other players or converted from other old alternate currencies at the Alternate Currency Conversion NPC in each realm’s capital.
  • The Dragonsworn Armor and Weapons can also still be directly farmed by killing dragonsworn mobs at their camps in the dragon zones.

Thanks everyone! 
Have a great weekend :)
 

 

• A new daily group credit quest has been added to both Ywain and Gaheris servers requiring players to hunt down and cull the Doppelganger numbers for a reward of 10 Invader Seals.
  • Doppelgangers have a rare chance to drop additional Invader Seals regardless of the quest being active or not.
  • Each character can only benefit from a max of 300 seals.
  • Doppelganger spawn rates have been increased at their existing locations and more locations have been added at each realm's maze and throughout Breifine, Pennine Mountains, and Jamtland Mountains.
    • Doppelgangers now spawn on Gaheris for the duration of the event and will award the identical RP and BP amounts as they do on Ywain.
• Rewards can be claimed at the Doppelganger Traitor at the strength relic town or in capital cities, and are unlocked at the following thresholds:
  • 10 seals = 1 Elixir of Conquest
  • 25 seals = 2 Elixirs of Conquest
  • 75 seals = 1 25% Realm Point Bonus potion (3 charges)
  • 125 seals = 1 Draught of Conquest
  • 175 seals = 1 50% Realm Point Bonus potion (3 charges)
  • 225 seals = 2 Draughts of Conquest
  • 300 seals = 1 50% Realm Point Bonus potion (30 charges)
• Doppelganger spawn locations that were too close to outposts have been moved further away or to a new area.
• Invader Seals earned from the previous Doppelganger Invasion event will not count towards this event.
• The Doppelganger Traitor NPC found in the capital cities (only this one!) is also offering a way to expedite the event at a significant discount to the normal price of the event's mithril rewards!

• All rewards and invader seals are no-trade, no-drop, no-destroy, and no-sell.
• Any leftover invader seals on a character will be removed at the end of the event and cannot be transfered to other characters.
• The Doppelganger Invasion event will come to an end on Tuesday, June 15th.

Thanks, as always, to everyone for your questions! You can submit any questions relating to current development plans, to request clarification on basic game mechanic questions, or questions on community issues through the Grab Bag Submission form. For any other feedback or suggestions please use our feedback form.

Grab a cuppa and read on!

How many styles can be backed up in daoc? Is it 3 or more? I always thought it was 3 styles like anytime + reactionary + follow up to reactionary but someone told me it’s more. So I didn’t know if there was a specific number of input commands that can be backed up or not.

The melee combat system will only queue up to 2 *valid* styles to try in a given combat round. This means if you hit the style hotkey for an Evade-based reactionary style and then an Anytime style, the system will try to use the Evade-based reactionary style first and then the Anytime style on the next melee swing.

The order in which the styles are queued is the order that the system will attempt to fire them. If an anytime style is always queued first, it’s always going to be attempted first and anything queued behind it will be ignored, so melees need to ensure that they queue up their styles in the right order!

The key word here though is “valid”. Valid styles mean any style that is eligible to be used in the next round due to your actions in the previous melee round.  When initially engaging in melee combat, the only valid styles are the 1st styles in a chain (positional-based, evade/parry/block reactionary, or anytime styles). Once engaged in melee, a valid style could also be a 2nd or 3rd style in a chain (also known as follow-ups) if the prerequisite for that style was met in the previous combat round.

As soon as a melee queues up 2 styles that are “valid” for the next round, those 2 are queued and cannot be changed (and no other styles can be queued) until after the next melee swing. If a melee has style cancelling enabled and has only queued up 1 style they can re-select a style to un-queue it but once 2 are queued they cannot be cancelled either.

However, there is NO limit to the number of *invalid* styles in a melee round that can be attempted prior to queuing the 2 valid styles. Obviously, an invalid style is one that will fail if it is not immediately backed up with a valid style before your next melee swing, but over the course of a fight it may be useful to continually attempt to queue up a follow-up style so that it will fire as soon as its prerequisites are met. This allows the melee to not have to watch their combat log as closely allowing them to focus more on their surroundings and other combat tasks!.

For example, when performing a side-positional, a melee may first hit their 2nd in chain side positional follow-up style, then their side positional (1st in chain), then their anytime to ensure that the side positional’s follow-up style will always fire when its prerequisites are met.

In theory, there is no limit to how many of these follow-ups a melee attempts before queuing their 2 valid styles.

Another example would be where a melee hits their style hotkeys for the 3rd and 2nd side positional follow-ups, then the 3rd and 2nd rear positional follow-ups, and then the 1st in chain side and rear positional styles.

The melee system will only ever queue up the first 2 valid styles of those 6 that are attempted, but if they are continually attempted in that order, the follow-ups will always fire when their prerequisites are met! One has to be careful though because in this last example, if the melee is not behind or to the side of their target, all 6 of their styles will fail.

So in summary, there's no limit to how many follow-ups or invalid styles can be attempted each round before that limit of 2 valid styles is reached.

Is amnesia supposed to interrupt casters that are under mastery of concentration?

The Mastery of Concentration (MoC) realm ability only protects the caster from interrupts and Amnesia does not technically interrupt (unless resisted). When Amnesia applies to the target it causes them to “forget” the spell they were actively casting. Amnesia is a very powerful tool when used to counter a MoC’d caster but Amnesia itself must be continually cast to fully counter them and can be interrupted (or Amnesia’d) itself!

HI, I have one question concerning root from archery. How is it possible that a lvl 50 pet gets rooted 40 seconds from lvl 48 shot that has 15sec (+25% dur)? I tested SM pet and it wasnt rooted not even close to 40 seconds

The level 48 archer root shot (Bola Shot 4) has a starting duration of 36 seconds, not 15. With +25% duration, this works out to a starting duration (before resistances, etc.) of 45 seconds. If the pet did not have resistance buffs up at the time of the root and the archer had only +10-13% duration then the root would last exactly 40 seconds.

Item stat cap on conversion is 10% How about procs from Astral legs and Frigid Soul Quencher ? Does it stack ? So I could technically get 30% conversion if I’m lucky with the procs?

The damage conversion from abilities on the Astral Leggings of Fortification and Frigid Soul Quencher items do stack with the item-stat “Conversion”. However, the item abilities do not stack with themselves, so in theory 20% is the highest amount of conversion one could have.

If I was to use a Cold Leggy Staff debuff and dmg use and use the LVL10 Stormlord ability that makes a damage spell AOE. It's not doing the AOE part, am I doing something wrong?

The Stormlord Arcing Power ability only applies to your next cast, not an item’s cast.

Is there a way to tell when a guild was founded?

Unfortunately there is not a way to tell currently. Perhaps in the future we can look at adding this in!

A lot of reading and info for this week :)

Thanksall, and enjoy the weekend!
 

What is Catch Up in Caledonia?

When does the event start and end?

How does the event work?

• For the first 4 days of the event, newly created level 1 characters will be automatically zoned into the Caledonia battleground where they will vie for control against the enemy realms!
  • This will be the ONLY way to get inside the battleground zone. Once inside, characters can voluntarily leave but CANNOT return!
  • All monsters, center-keep guards, and siege weapons are removed for the event. The only way to progress is by defeating realm enemies in battle and completing the related quests.
  • Charm-pet classes will be able to create a pet to charm at their realm's portal keep.
• ​At 3 PM EST / 8 PM GMT on Friday, May 21st character starting locations will reset to their default zones and no new characters will be able to join the event. Everyone still inside Caledonia will be able to continue progressing for the remainder of the event's duration.
• Experience, bounty, and realm point bonuses will be granted to both free and subscribed accounts in the battleground to help them progress!
• Earn bounty points for completing quests and defeating enemy realm players and use them to purchase level-appropriate gear as you strive to 50 and then master and champion levels!
• All characters will begin and remain in the same Caledonia zone for the entirety of the event.
  • The following level caps will be in place for all characters in Caledonia and will increase as follows every 24 hours:
    • Day 1 (Monday): Level 9 maximum
    • Day 2 (Tuesday): Level 19 
    • Day 3 (Wednesday): Level 29 
    • Day 4 (Thursday) : Level 39
    • Day 5 (Friday): Level 49
    • Days 6-7 (Sat-Mon): Level 50
  • Characters that reach the day's level cap will still be able to earn realm and bounty points this time!

What improvements have been made?

• Characters that are 7 levels or more below the day's level cap will receive the Caledonia Boost buff.
  • This buff greatly increases the damage dealt and greatly reduces damage received from characters that do not have the buff (higher level characters)!
  • Characters with the Caledonia Boost buff active will also DOUBLE the XP and BP rewards for themselves and their group!
  • When the level cap reaches 49 the buff will be given out to characters 3 or more levels under the cap.
• Random teleports into the zone are now all in open field locations!
• The buff NPC offers a free of cost Full Buffs token to level 1 and 2 characters!
• Level 1-5 characters will no longer receive resurrection sickness after death and its duration is set to 60s for all other levels in the zone.
• The /xp off and /rp off commands no longer stop XP or RP gain in Caledonia.
• Crowd control durations now have a reduced starting duration, scaling down by 1% for every level below 50!
  • This reduction starts at a 2% reduction at level 49 and scales down to a 50% reduction at level 1.
• A new realm point penalty system has been introduced to the Caledonia zone for kills done by overwhelming forces!
  • Realm points are drastically reduced for kills where a realm outnumbers the other by 3 to 1 odds or more.
  • This penalty currently only triggers when the attacking realm has 25+ members in the area of the kill.
  • This system is designed to encourage groups to roam around separately more during the event!
• The kill counts for completing quests have been reduced at the early level ranges.
• Champion Level experience rewards for quests at level 50 have been drastically increased!

How far will I be able to progress?

St. Patrick's Day Event

 

• As part of the quest, players will be shapeshifted into a realm-specific "leprechaun" but have ALL of their stats debuffed by 75%.

• But fear not, leprechauns may be weak but they are also nigh impossible to catch: shapeshifted players will also have an unbreakable CC-immunity and speed buff for the duration of the shapeshift.  

• Oh, and we hear the real leprechauns love hiding their treasure around the "maze" areas of each realm. Enjoy some zany RvR throughout the event!

• The ROG reward is a choice between a ring or a bracer similar to the Valentine's Day event with some slight differences. These ROGs will only allow up to 5 slots for stats but will also have 1 of 6 possible /uses.

• Players that interact with the 'Leprechaun Treasure' at the realms' mazes will now receive a new One-Time Drop (OTD) reward, Patches' Mug.
  • This OTD can only be obtained once ever on a character (and not a new one each year).
  • Players must be on the 'Leprechaun Treasure' quest to interact with the Leprechaun Treasure and obtain this OTD.

      

For players of all level ranges, there are three pesky little tricksters who are hoping you're not too lucky! A 'charming' reward will be bestowed upon those who have the cunning to out-wit:

Killaghe in Albion
Daighu in Midgard
Iollarme in Hibernia

The "Luck of a Leprechaun" quest can be obtained from the following:

Sir Prescott in Cotswold
Hrolf in Mularn
Epona in Mag Mell

Once again, the event will run until Thursday, March 18th.

A happy and safe St. Patrick's Day to one and all, and we'll see you in the Frontiers!

Teleport Obelisk Event

• An Ellan Vannin Obelisk now stands on the portal pad in each realm's relic town that will teleport players and their group to random open-field locations on Ellan Vannin!
  • Differing slightly from Caledonia, only members within 3500 radius of the obelisk will teleport.
• All other existing teleports to Ellan Vannin are disabled for the event's duration:
  • Master Vaughn and his elementalists, Stor Gothi Dagny and her gothis, and Brerend and his seoltoirs are all taking a well-deserved holiday from teleporting players to their safe locations on the island.
  • Tower of Korazh, Tower of Deifrang, and Tower of Graoch one-way ports are disabled.
  • Knoc Meayll teleports to and from the keep are disabled.
• The Tower of Korazh, Tower of Deifrang, and Tower of Graoch are now ruined for the event's duration.
• Knoc Meayll keep can still be captured normally by the realms and still will be periodically captured by the Manx.
• Ungrouped characters can also use the obelisk to teleport to the ruined areas of Folley Lake, The Trellebourg, or Moydruim Castle (as well as Ellan Vannin still).
  • This is a one-way, random teleport and does not unlock any of the individual ruined area locations, it simply allows players to port into one of the ruined area locations from the relic town obelisk.
• Ruined area ports are now refreshable when all 3 locations have been unlocked and all port-buff durations have been reduced from 6 to 2 hours.
• An anti-camping mechanic has been added to ruined areas.
  • Any grouped characters that remain in the area for longer than 1 minute will take repeated damage until they leave the area for at least 1 minute.
• This event will run until Tuesday, March 30th, 2021.

Traveling Merchants

• The traveling merchants have made their return and now hawk their wares outside Castle Sauvage in Albion, Svasud Faste in Midgard, and Druim Ligen in Hibernia!
• The merchants will remain until Tuesday, March 30th, 2021.

Realm vs Realm Bonuses

• 50% bonus to RPs from kills
• 50% bonus to normal XP gain in all classic and shrouded isle zones and dungeons.

• 50% bonus to normal XP gain in all battlegrounds, classic and shrouded isle zones and dungeons.
• 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

Bonuses will last until Tuesday, March 30th, 2021.

Thanks, as always, to everyone for your questions! You can submit any questions relating to current development plans, to request clarification on basic game mechanic questions, or questions on community issues through the Grab Bag Submission form. For any other feedback or suggestions please use our feedback form.

Continue reading for this week's Grab Bag :)

Why do Maulers have a base melee critical hit chance and not a base magic critical hit chance? And why don’t Maulers benefit from endurance regen on omni-regen buffs and siphon endurance from omni-drains?

Maulers are primarily a melee-hybrid class and so only receive the base 10% chance to critical hit with melee styles without needing to specialize in the Mastery of Pain realm ability (though they still can to further increase their melee critical hit chance). They can critical hit with magic by specializing in the Wild Power realm ability though.

After some testing to be extra certain, Maulers do benefit from omni-regen endurance spells and do siphon endurance from omni-drain procs.

Is there any way to influence the portal pads in Treibh Caillte? I seemed to port more consistently to the same place in the dungeon when an Befuddled Rocky Golem was up. Is there any truth to this, or was I just lucky on the rolls?

Each portal location in the dungeon typically has a single portal destination it can send you to when a normal golem spawns. These locations generally teleport players back and forth between 2 areas of the dungeon. Typically, only 1 rocky golem can spawn between 4 nearby portal locations at a given time.

However, a few portal locations have a chance to sometimes spawn a befuddled rocky golem instead of normal golems. Befuddled rocky golems, regardless of which portal location they spawn in will always send players to the same location in the dungeon. When a befuddled rocky golem is already spawned, it has no effect on where other portal locations will send you though.

What is the true health% value of Convoker ML7  Dissonance Traps?

Traps are set to remove 40% of the target’s base health. This means their health value without buffs or +hits from items. Also, because the traps are a ML ability there is no +specialization bonus in regards to damage variance. This is why the damage values can fluctuate on the same target by as much as 10% of the target’s base health. Typically the damage from a storm will be around 20% of a fully buffed and equipped target’s total health.

Question about defense penetration, are defenses cut by just having an offhand out? or do I have to spec into the offhand spec to have increased shield/parry penetration/

They are cut in half by simply using dual-wielded weapons. Increasing offhand specialization does still help your defense penetration though!

My question is what stats control damage taken from archery  shots? Base af seems to not affect it, neither on a leather wearer nor on a caster, but spec af does? Also in my testing I found that abs buffs affect (friar 15% did) but a lvl 39 caster (5%abs) did not affect?

Both armor factor (AF) and absorption (ABS) should affect archery damage in a similar way to how melee damage is affected by both AF and ABS buffs.  Melee and magic resists also further affect damage of their respective archery shot types.

In our testing between 2 level 50 characters, both base and ‘spec’ AF on a cloth wearer as well as their +%ABS buffs did noticeably reduce archery shot damage when using both physical and magic shots. On non-cloth wearers, base AF buffs will do less to mitigate archery shots because high quality leather armor and up will already nearly cap base AF values.

It could be that if your tests were between a level 50 archer hitting a lower level character that the archer was capping out their damage regardless due to the level disparity. This could account for why no difference was seen in those tests!

Regardless, the higher the total armor factor and absorption values on a character, the less damage they will take from all archery shots!

Many thanks, and enjoy the weekend! :)
 

What is Catch Up in Caledonia?

When does the event start and end?

How does the event work?

• For the first 4 days of the event, newly created level 1 characters will be automatically zoned into the Caledonia battleground where they will vie for control against the enemy realms!
  • This will be the ONLY way to get inside the battleground zone. Once inside, characters can voluntarily leave but CANNOT return!
  • All monsters, center-keep guards, and siege weapons are removed for the event. The only way to progress is by defeating realm enemies in battle and completing the related quests.
  • Charm-pet classes will be able to create a pet to charm at their realm's portal keep.
• ​At 3 PM EST / 9 PM CET on Friday, May 21st character starting locations will reset to their default zones and no new characters will be able to join the event. Everyone still inside Caledonia will be able to continue progressing for the remainder of the event's duration.
• Experience, bounty, and realm point bonuses will be granted to both free and subscribed accounts in the battleground to help them progress!
• Earn bounty points for completing quests and defeating enemy realm players and use them to purchase level-appropriate gear as you strive to 50 and then master and champion levels!
• All characters will begin and remain in the same Caledonia zone for the entirety of the event.
  • The following level caps will be in place for all characters in Caledonia and will increase as follows every 24 hours:
    • Day 1 (Monday): Level 9 maximum
    • Day 2 (Tuesday): Level 19 
    • Day 3 (Wednesday): Level 29 
    • Day 4 (Thursday) : Level 39
    • Day 5 (Friday): Level 49
    • Days 6-7 (Sat-Mon): Level 50
  • Characters that reach the day's level cap will still be able to earn realm and bounty points this time!

What improvements have been made?

• Characters that are 7 levels or more below the day's level cap will receive the Caledonia Boost buff.
  • This buff greatly increases the damage dealt and greatly reduces damage received from characters that do not have the buff (higher level characters)!
  • Characters with the Caledonia Boost buff active will also DOUBLE the XP and BP rewards for themselves and their group!
  • When the level cap reaches 49 the buff will be given out to characters 3 or more levels under the cap.
• Random teleports into the zone are now all in open field locations!
• The buff NPC offers a free of cost Full Buffs token to level 1 and 2 characters!
• Level 1-5 characters will no longer receive resurrection sickness after death and its duration is set to 60s for all other levels in the zone.
• The /xp off and /rp off commands no longer stop XP or RP gain in Caledonia.
• Crowd control durations now have a reduced starting duration, scaling down by 1% for every level below 50!
  • This reduction starts at a 2% reduction at level 49 and scales down to a 50% reduction at level 1.
• A new realm point penalty system has been introduced to the Caledonia zone for kills done by overwhelming forces!
  • Realm points are drastically reduced for kills where a realm outnumbers the other by 3 to 1 odds or more.
  • This penalty currently only triggers when the attacking realm has 25+ members in the area of the kill.
  • This system is designed to encourage groups to roam around separately more during the event!
• The kill counts for completing quests have been reduced at the early level ranges.
• Champion Level experience rewards for quests at level 50 have been drastically increased!

How far will I be able to progress?

• 30 Charge 50% RP Bonus Potion
• Name Respec
• 3 Month Game Timecode (#1)
• Race Respec
• Dragon Mount
• 3 Month Game Timecode (#2)

Thanks, as always, to everyone for your questions! You can submit any questions relating to current development plans, to request clarification on basic game mechanic questions, or questions on community issues through the Grab Bag Submission form. For any other feedback or suggestions please use our feedback form.

Continue reading for the questions :)
 

When it comes to a boon (band of the dream conqueror), how does it apply? Is it hit points/af when you applied the boon, or is it hp/af you have at that point while the boon is up? So for example, if I have 600 hits in temp, and I boon, will the boon be worth less as I take damage? Cause I now have less hits?
And with that, if I say, ran 2 crafted to get higher hits/af, and I boon with them up, does that hp/boon decrease if I swap items?

Band of Dream Conqueror’s Triumphant Aura improves your max health, it does not reference your current hit points at all when applying its bonus. It also recalculates the hit point bonus if your max hit point values change via a gear change or buff (debuffs do not affect max HP).
 
For example:
If a character has 2,702 hit points buffed and uses the band, they will get 4% additional HP for a new total of 2,810, or an increase of 108 hit points.
If that character improves their gear and gets another 150 max hit points, they would have a new base max hits of 2,852 and so the band’s 4% bonus gets recalculated for a new total of 2,966; an increase of 114 hit points.
 
It does not matter what order the gear is changed or when the buff is used, the bonus will be the same.
 
The Armor Factor bonus is calculated the same way as HP; with it only referencing the character’s max AF and recalculating the bonus if that value changes. AF debuffs do not affect the character’s max AF (which is based on their equipped gears’ AF values, any AF stats, and their AF buffs).
 
So the only enemy combat-effect that would lower the effectiveness of an +AF/Hit buff would be a buff shear that removes a constitution or AF buff. As soon as the character is rebuffed, the +AF/Hit bonus would recalculate and increase again though!
 

 
How is the Skalds Song of Ragnar Health and Armor buff calculated? Same goes for the Band of Dream grp Aura. Which one of these buffs stacks with each other. I know Band of Dream and Skald Buff stacks so you can get a total of 10% increased AF+Hits.

The class-based +AF/Hits buffs are calculated identically to the Triumphant Aura described in the previous answer.

Class-based +AF/Hit buffs stack with item-based +AF/Hit buffs; however 2 item-based buffs or 2 class-based buffs do not stack with each other.

 
 
In a previous Grab Bag in 2019 you discussed how character model height affected LoS. How does shape shifts affect this, if at all?  If I’m an Elf and use croc/wolf/cat etc shape change, is my LoS based on the original toon height or my shape change?

The LOS would be based on the height of the shape shift form. An Elf standing behind a small barrier may be able to cast over it (and be cast upon) but an Elf using a crocodile shape shift form would be too short to cast over the same barrier (or be cast upon).
 
 

How is champion rank 5 calculated for damage? I feel like the damage is not what it used to be when I played champ in previous years when using the ability. Is it working as intended still?

Champion’s Realm Rank 5 ability looks at the targets armor absorption%. The Champion’s melee damage is increased the more absorption% their target has.

Damage against a cloth caster should be about the same with or without the RR5 active because the armor absorption values of cloth wearers is 0%.
 
However a Chain wearer has 27% armor absorption (ABS) and so the Badge of Valor RR5 would reduce its absorption% down to 0% (Plate armor at 34% is also reduced down to 0%), making them as vulnerable to the Champion’s melee damage as a cloth wearer for the duration of the RR5.
 
All other damage-mitigating abilities and bonuses are not affected though, so it’s quite possible that a high-ABS target could not take as much damage as expected during the RR5’s duration if they have some other strong damage mitigation ability active that can help offset their loss in absorption%. In most combat circumstances a Champion focusing on high-ABS targets during their RR5 will see a nice boost to their damage though!
 
 

Does Blademaster triple wield change your weapon dmg to energy or just give you an energy dmg add?

It does not change the Blademaster’s damage type. Triple wield provides a damage add (energy damage) that also prevents the ability to be critical hit, a 15% damage increase, and a 10% accuracy boost.



Thanks all :) 
Enjoy the weekend!

 

Traveling Merchants

• The traveling merchants have made their return and now hawk their wares outside Castle Sauvage in Albion, Svasud Faste in Midgard, and Druim Ligen in Hibernia!
• The merchants will remain until Tuesday, June 15th.

Realm vs Realm Bonuses

• 50% bonus to RPs from kills
• 50% bonus to normal XP gain in all classic and shrouded isle zones and dungeons.

• 50% bonus to normal XP gain in all battlegrounds, classic and shrouded isle zones and dungeons.
• 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

Bonuses will last until Tuesday, June 15th.