Grab Bag - January 18, 2008

Here it is, amidst the snow. The Grab Bag!


I have a question I hope someone can answer. I am trying to find out what the cap on spell piercing bonuses is. I currently have a templated wizard, and when I type /bonuses, it shows a 20% spell piercing bonus. Since /bonuses show 20% to spell piercing, is that indeed accurate?

I sent this one over to the Balancinator, who was happy to reply. The spell piercing bonus cap is 10%. You do not receive bonuses to spell piercing beyond the 10%, but it is possible to equip items that take you over the cap. The /bonuses field should not report anything over the 10% cap. It has been entered into our bug tracker and is awaiting a fix. Thank you for pointing it out.

If you are grouped with a character, and that character is pretty far away (e.g. at Druim Cain while you are at Crauchon), does that character siphon Realm Points for any kills you make? Even though that character is not in range to get any of the Realm Points?

A guildie was telling me that an AFK'er I was grouped with was cutting my Realm Point production in half, because the Realm Points were divided by the number in the group, and then apportioned out. So even though the AFK'er was well away from the zone I was in, he was impacting the number of Realm Points I was producing.

The Bearded Wonder helped out with this one: Being in a group affects the number of Realm Points you receive, regardless of the distance. The AFK character may be too far to get any Realm Points but the other character will get less than if they attacked solo. So if you know that your buddy is going to be afk for awhile, it's probably a good idea for you to disband him from the group until he comes back, to get the highest gain in Realm Points.

I have been playing some on Gaheris and was just wondering why the task dungeon outside of Tir Na Nog, The Accursed Caves, has different bonuses? If I get a 'labyrinthine' task, I receive less of a reward than a 'long corridors' one. Why is this?

This is the way that the task dungeons were designed. The Bearded Wonder explains: The rewards for the task dungeons are based on the difficulty of the mission that is involved. The long corridors dungeons are generally a bit more difficult, and so the rewards are higher.

Why does the Empathic Deathwatchers Chain necklace in Hibernia show that it's a level 50 item, but I can't get the benefits of it until I'm 50, but the Cloak of Insanity is also a level 50 item but I can get the benefits of it before level 50?

The Bearded Wonder did a little research on this one, and found a previous Grab Bag where this was addressed. Since I wasn't here at that time, I thought I'd keep this question in the Bag this week for those of you who missed it, like I did. http://www.camelotherald.com/news/news_article.php?storyid=3124

The level value you see is a number we manually assign, just to let you know the level player it is intended for as well as to determine how fast the item degrades relative to your own level. What determines whether the item affects you or not is a hidden value automatically assigned based on the stats on the item called the Bonus Level. If the Bonus Level is higher than your level, the item won't affect you.

The Empathic Deathwatchers Chain won't affect someone below 50 because of the amount of bonuses on it. The Cloak of Insanity will affect anyone over 32 because it has a lower bonus level.

If I have an account that is currently inactive and past the 120 day mark; what will happen if I reactivate it now? Will I keep my house as if nothing happened? Will I lose my house? Will i lose my house when 1.93 finally goes live?

Since the timers reset to 120 days, if you reactivate now, you will keep your house. For all intents and purposes, it is currently as if the timer had just started. So, come back! We miss you!

 Is fault finder a damage add that works on any target or is it only for siege/doors?

The Herald says:

Style that gives a 20% damage hit bonus against objects such as siege equipment.

The delve says:

Target's melee attacks do additional damage.

Damage:20.0
Target: self
Duration: 20sec
Casting Time: instant
Recast Time 2:00 min


I have tested it in PvE and never got any message of additional damage from mobs. my base damage never increased either. If you could answer this question it would go a long way to ending a argument in /gu. :)

Firstly, thank you for sending in a very thorough question. You provided all of the information we could possibly need when researching the answer, and you made our job very easy. Here's the Balancinator's explanation:It is designed to only work on objects. It works in the frontiers to destroy siege equipment and doors. It also works on objects in some PvE encounters, such as the 'Egg of Youth' encounter where it can be used to destroy the huge braziers.

I have a character on Percival who is the Guild Master for a guild that was created on Nimue. Since my character is on Percival, that was the server I had to buy my housing lot in. I'd like to make my personal house the Guild House though, but it won't let me. Any advice, or any way to resolve this?

Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do to in regards to this issue, due to technical reasons involved with how clustering, guilds, and housing works. The only way to use the house purchased on Percival as a guild house would be to do it for a guild created on Percival. You could try starting a guild on Percival and then using the house purchased there for a guild house for the new guild.

Alternatively, you could try to sell the house you have on Percival and then have a friend create a character on Nimue and bring them into the guild there, buy a house there, and then transfer it to the guild. This would involve a bit of trust, so it should only be attempted with someone you are sure is reliable. The Bearded Wonder tackled that one, and he asked me to stress that the second option should only be attempted with someone who you would trust with your life. Or at least with lots of plat and a house deed. We do not, in fact, endorse the decision to do this. Please keep in mind that CS will not be able to help you if someone up and runs with objects and money that you willingly handed over.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Camelot Road Trips are gathering speed and our second stop will be on May 10th in Bethesda, Maryland. There will be free food, prizes and of course our Devs to answer those hard to reach questions. We absolutely love meeting our players all around this country. Camelot players are the best - period. Road Trips 2008.

Our Midwinter Festival will be coming to a close at the end of this month. This means that none of the quests and items related to Midwinter will be available once the Festival ends. For those that have not had a chance to celebrate the winter season, there is no time like the present to get out there! It's not that cold out - really.

Do you have a friend who deserves to shine in the spotlight? Does your guild or alliance have something interesting to say? Don't forget about the Scroll of Valor and Guild News. The Scroll honors your friends and guildies for their accomplishments in game, and Guild News is great for getting the word out about recruiting and guild events and accomplishments. Send in your submissions today!

A little birdie told me that the clustering of Caerleon and Devon is imminent. I don't have many more details at this time, but keep an eye on the Herald and I'll get them to you as soon as they hit my inbox.

It looks like Midgard outside the windows here in Virginia; we got our first real blanket of snow yesterday. It puts me in the mood to hunker down with a mug of cocoa and crack some skulls. Have a fantastic weekend, see ya on the battlefield!