TGIF...and time for another Grab Bag!

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

Our newsletter also returned this week! If you aren't subscribed to receive our newsletters, sign up now! In the meantime, you can view the newsletter in your browser here.

Now, on to the questions!




Is there any chance that the DF Quest NPC can be reinstated? With the RPs that are now available due to Buggane and Population Bonuses, I feel the small reward from this quest would be great for casual players like myself and also increase activity and maintained ownership of DF.

We can look at adding in some version of this quest back to help incentivize players to venture into Darkness Falls. However, this new quest version would likely be made to only work on enemies defeated within the dungeon instead of everywhere.

As for realm point bonuses in general we are very happy with the dynamic population and keep capture bonus systems and don’t foresee changes to those in the near future. However, the bonuses for Buggane’s Obelisk may get adjusted downward a bit or changed to no longer award RPs due to their impact on RvR behavior. While the consistent action that the obelisk provides is quite popular with many players, there is considerable negative feedback about the type of action that revolves around the objective and how it negatively impacts action in other locales throughout the frontier. No decision has been made either way at this time but we would like to take this opportunity to start a discussion about it and garner your feedback on it!

Creating new toons is a great fun until it comes to choose a name. Many are already taken and even the suggested ones aren't available. Can we have a clean-up of this random list, or unused names?

This is a great point and we can absolutely look at culling the taken randomized names from the list and adding in some new ones, thanks!

Are there any plans for the come back to Camelot campaign to return, or something to add a shot in the arm for population?

Our last Come Back to Camelot campaign was a huge success, so we will definitely have another. However, first we’re going to focus on addressing many of the concerns we’ve received from the playerbase about classes, RvR, and items. Once those concerns are addressed appropriately, we will have a Come Back to Camelot Campaign as a way to incentivize players to come back and see the changes. Doing a campaign prior to making those changes wouldn’t be as effective.

In the meantime we have the new A Dragon’s Curse PvE campaign, seasonal events, and battleground weekends to help increase the population. On a longer term though we are considering offering an alternative ruleset server that will attract players who may not be interested in Ywain and its ruleset back to the game in conjunction with either a Come Back to Camelot campaign or other incentives for players to return to and stay on Ywain as well.

There has always been rumors and some old data about soft and hard caps. I've always heard that there's 0 benefit for having more than 250 quickness, and very minimal returns on damage after 400 strength. What are some of the soft/hard caps on stats?

Soft and hard caps differ depending on what aspect of the stats’ benefit you are considering. For instance, swing speed is not increased beyond 250 quickness but evade uses both dexterity and quickness stats in its formula so higher than 250 quickness can still help evade rates.

Additionally, for weapons that use dexterity as their base, going over 400 dexterity has the same diminishing returns to melee damage as going over 400 strength does for strength-based weapons. However, going over 400 dexterity could still improve your cast speed (on some casts) or evade rate. Going over 400 strength or dexterity can also improve your weapon skill and therefore defense penetration if you aren’t already at those caps either (which differ for each class and weapon).

Acuity also has diminishing returns for spell damage over 400 but that would be extremely hard or impossible to reach currently.

Constitution is the only stat that doesn’t have a soft cap.

In your last Grab Bag we could read about the hidden weapon skill of the shield spec line. Now I would like to know if Left Axe, Dual Wield and Celtic Dual also have a hidden weapon skill, or if they just use the weapon skill of your mainhand weapon spec (like axe, sword, hammer, pierce, slash...).

So will a Left Axe, Dual Wield and Celtic Dual user be fine with 51 points in his main weapon spec (including +skills), or will a higher main weapon spec also have influence on his LA, DW and CD damage output?

There is a hidden weaponskill for Left Axe, Dual Wield, and Celtic Dual specs. However, the main weapon spec (Sword, Slash, Blades, etc.) does contribute to *most* of the damage dealt by dual-wielders.

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.

Thanks again for the questions, and remember to keep sending them in!