Welcome to this week's edition of our Grab Bag! 

Being the end of the month, our newsletter is also due soon.Make sure you're signed up, just enter your email address on this sign up form!

Don't forget our official forums opened recently so hop on over there and get involved :)

As always, thanks for all your questions, keep 'em coming! You can send in any game related questions you have for our DAoC Devs through our Grab Bag submission form. Please note this is for game questions, feedback should be sent in through our feedback form.

Read on for this week's questions!

Can you comment on the current state of quick cast? Now that most people run 370+ dex and 10% ToA bonus, a quick cast is much slower than normal casting. This poses a problem with tanks running through a caster and then /face over and over which leads to a target not visible message. Is this something that is going to be left as is?

We currently have no plans to adjust the cast-speed of the quickcast ability or make any adjustments to the core line-of-sight mechanics for casts or melee attacks. Sticking and facing targets can be immensely useful in combat but are not meant to be the end all be all of combat movement.

Manual movement should be and is rewarded over using movement assists like stick and face in many situations. Skillful manual movement can drastically reduce the amount of not-in-view messages seen by casters trying to cast on targets as well as by melee users trying to hit certain targets.

I am new back to the game with a few friends. We need to know if having + to Stealth or Envenom as my NS has +19 to both and if it does nothing I could spend the spec points on other stuff.

+Envenom  is not currently beneficial over level 50 specialization. It does still help variance prior to level 50 spec. This *may* change in the future and any such change will of course be included in patch notes here.

+Stealth is still effective at reducing the distance at which your Assassin or Archer is detected by other stealthers and by increasing the distance you can detect other stealthers. The new values are outlined as follows from the Patch 1.121 notes:
 

• Assassins at 50 stealth specialization (with Shadow Seek IX) will detect other Assassins with 50 stealth specialization (with Shadow Seek IX) between 325 and 500 in-game units.
  • This value can be influenced by the detected assassin’s +stealth skill over level 50.
    • In other words, +stealth skill over level 50 will increase the ability for an assassin to hide from all stealthers using a stealth detection bonus like Mastery of Stealth, Shadow Seek, or Track; +stealth skill does not give any bonus to detection.
    • A 50+24 stealth specced assassin will be detected at 325 units by other 50 spec assassins using Shadow Seek IX.
    • A 50+11 stealth specced assassin will be detected at 425 units by other 50 spec assassins using Shadow Seek IX.
    • A 50+0 stealth specced assassin will be detected at 500 units by other 50 spec assassins using Shadow Seek IX.
• Assassins at 50 stealth specialization will detect Archers with composite 50 stealth specialization (and free MOS9) at around 400 in-game units.
  • This detection value is not influenced by +stealth skill over level 50 for either party.
• Archers at level 50 (with free MOS9), and composite level 50 stealth specialization will detect other Archers at around 725 in-game units.
  • Archers using the level 50 Track ability will detect other Archers at around 1000 in-game units.
• Archers at level 50 (with free MOS9), and composite level 50 stealth specialization will detect Assassins with 50 stealth specialization between 675 and 750 in-game units.
  • These values are influenced by the detected Assassins +stealth skill over level 50:
    • A 50+24 stealth specced assassin will be detected at 675 units by MOS9 archers with 50 composite stealth spec.
    • A 50+11 stealth specced assassin will be detected at 713 units by MOS9 archers with 50 composite stealth spec.
    • A 50+0 stealth specced assassin will be detected at 750 units by MOS9 archers with 50 composite stealth spec.
• Archers using the level 50 Archery Track ability will detect Assassins between 950 and 1175 in-game units.
  • These values are influenced by the detected Assassins +stealth skill over level 50:
    • A 50+24 stealth specced assassin will be detected at 950 units by MOS9 archers with 50 composite stealth spec.
    • A 50+11 stealth specced assassin will be detected at 1063 units by MOS9 archers with 50 composite stealth spec.
    • A 50+0 stealth specced assassin will be detected at 1175 units by MOS9 archers with 50 composite stealth spec.

Hi all I’m bard with low reg, will it help my baseline heals if I put more points in it or does it not matter?

Yes, adding some specialization points into Regrowth will help your baseline heals in terms of variance. Without any specialization in Regrowth, baseline heals will have extremely high variance in the amount your targets are healed for on a given cast. The more specialization into Regrowth, the lower the variance will become and that range of variance will move closer to the heal’s max potential value as spec increases too.

At extremely low specialization values, even though the amount of variance reduced will be hard to notice, it is still helping.

Hi,

I wanted to know if there were plans to make the ring of the Summoned from the Ghost keep event tradable? Since you made the Ghostly Medal of Valor tradable, could we expect the same with the ring of the Summoned? Or at least make it tradable between characters of the same account (ie through house vaults)?

Thanks

No, the Ring of the Summoned will remain un-tradable as it’s a crucial reward and incentive to do the Ghost Keep event when it comes around. Allowing it to be traded on house vaults is not a viable solution either since other accounts can be allowed access to a house’s vaults.

Since Otherworlds and Dragon Curse raids have been a success, is there a possibility we could see an update of loot tables in Master level 10 Dungeon or any of the old PvE area's that were a success to DAoC back in the day?

Based on the multitude of feedback regarding PvE over the past few years, we have decided to hold off for a good while on adding in or improving large-amounts of loot/equipment. We may still introduce a few items or existing item-variants for special events over the next year or so but we have no plans for massive PvE-based overhauls or revamps. Instead, we’ll be focusing on RvR improvements, streamlining the returning player experience, and client updates in conjunction with the Endless Conquest update coming.

Over the longer-term (1-3 years) we will of course be looking at all aspects of the game for improvement with Housing, Catacombs, Trials of Atlantis, and Shrouded Isles all on the table (and likely in that order).

Enjoy the weekend all :)