DAoC Catacombs - Dark Age of Camelot

Bain de Sang

(Previously Mignon)
Posts : 1887

Omni-Guide to DAoC

04/30/04 9:47 AM

This is an attempt to categorically describe the game mechanics of DAoC. This should help both the new and the old understand how they can maximize their playing and cut down on the time a new user has to spend learning the ropes. I have divided into several categories for easy reference.

NOTE: This is not all my original work. The only part I can take credit for is the conditional probabilities and general compilation of this.

A good chunk of my information comes from: Click Here.

This is in draft format and not all information has been proven or confirmed. If you see something that needs to be added, changed or removed let me know.

HISTORY OF CHANGES
Mar 22 / 04: Added LA commentary regarding to hit
Mar 22 / 04: Added some details on guard range
Mar 22 / 04: Added notes on XP and groups
Mar 22 / 04: Added notes on regeneration
Mar 22 / 04: Added index and HMTL links
Mar 24 / 04: Added a link to evade and DW testing
Apr 2 / 04: Added a link and discussions regarding weapon skill and to-hit
Apr 8 / 04: Added armor damage tables for legendary and basic weapons

INDEX
XP Calculations
Regeneration of HP, Power and Endurance
Primary Stats
Secondary Stats
Melee
Defensive Skills
Casting
Caps on Items, Buffs and ToA

HOW DO XP CALCULATIONS WORK?
Base XP
XP gained is primarily based on the level of the highest character in the group and the con of the monster in relation to the highest character. As you add more members into a group, the XP will drop. In general:

For solo you should kill yellow.
For duos you should kill ojs.
For 4 people you should kill reds/ojs.
For 8 people you should kill purples/reds.

Your base XP is capped at each level. This is to slow the rate of "powerleveling" and prevent exploitation. Nonetheless, if you see your XP is not higher for killing more powerful mobs, then you're likely at cap.

For a table of XP caps: Here

In addition to base XP you can earn several types of bonus XP. This XP is in ADDITION to your base and is not restricted by a cap. So, even if you're at cap XP acheiving bonuses can make leveling even faster.

Camp Bonuses
Camp bonuses are designed to discourage "Camping" or staying at one particular location and killing the same mob repeatedly. As more and more mobs are killed from the same "camp" the camp bonus will drop until it hits zero.

Dungeons and underwater, in ToA, have longer lasting camps that are higher in general than that of other areas.

The best way to earn XP is to pick an isolated area, kill until camp bonus drops and then move on. This will ensure that you maximize your XP.

Group Bonuses
Some mobs, when attacked by a group, will bring several "adds" or additional mobs. This is called "BAF" or "Bring a Friend". Killing these mobs will give you a group bonus that is based on the number of adds and the base amount of XP.

In groups it is vital to kill mobs that BAF to maximize XP.

Outpost Bonuses
Finally, if you kill mobs within a certain radius of a keep that your realm owns, you earn a bonus on your XP in addition to the base XP.

POWER, ENDURANCE AND HITPOINTS REGENERATION

Hitpoints, Power, and Endurance each have three Timers that determine how quickly you regain them. These timers are not effected by any spell in the game, and no effect you can do will modify the length of these timers.

Stat________In Combat_________Standing_________Sitting
Hitpoints___14 sec____________6 sec____________3 sec
Power_______14 sec____________6 sec____________3 sec
Endurance___none______________1 sec____________1/4 sec

Regardless of your level, with no spells cast on you, you will regain one unit of Hitpoints, Power, and Endurance each cycle. It is currently unsure if one unit is one point, or is multiple points at the higher levels.

Some spells will modify this amount gained per unit. Each tier of song will increase the units regained by (X * 100%) where X is the tier of the song being used. In other words, if you are playing Power song 5, you will increase the total amount regenerated per cycle by 500%.

HOW DO YOUR PRIMARY STATS AFFECT YOU?
Strength

· Improves the total weight of items you can carry.
· For Nightshades this increases your power
· Improves your weapon skill (100%) and damage with the following exceptions:
> Thrust/Alb is 50% dex / 50% str
> Pierce/Hib is 50% dex / 50% str
> Staves are 100% dex
> Bows are 100% dex
> Hand-to-Hand/Mid is 50% dex / 50% str
> Flexible/Alb is 50% str / 50% dex
> Spear/Mid is 50% dex / 50% str

Constitution
· Improves your hit points
· On mobs and pets it will actually increase your absorption of damage (i.e. the pet will take less damage)

Dexterity
· Affects the chance to parry
· Affects the chance to block with shield
· Affects the chance to dodge (50% dex / 50% qui)
· Affects casting speed
· Affects the weapon skill and damage for the following:
> Thrust/Alb is 50% dex / 50% str
> Pierce/Hib is 50% dex / 50% str
> Staves are 100% dex
> Bows are 100% dex
> Hand-to-Hand/Mid is 50% dex / 50% str
> Flexible/Alb is 50% str / 50% dex
> Spear/Mid is 50% dex / 50% str

Quickness
· Affects the chance to dodge (50% dex / 50% qui)
· Affects swing speed (see below)
· For necromancers, reduces pet's swing time

Casting Stat (Int, Emp, Pie)
· Affects the size of your power pool
· With some classes, affects the damage you do with any spell
· Please note, the casting stat for Bards is Charisma and NOT Empathy

HOW DO YOUR SECONDARY STATS AFFECT YOU?

Armor Factor (“AF”)
· AF affects the damage absorbtion (i.e. higher AF means you will take less damage)
· AF affects the chance to be hit (i.e. higher AF means less chance of being hit)

Hit Points
· HPs is determined by several things:
> Your class
> Your constitution
> Any +HP bonuses on items
> RAs

Weapon Skill (“WS”)
· WS determines the chance that you can by-pass another opponents defenses (evade/parry/block). It is stated by Mythic that weapon skill has nothing to do with hit/miss rates and only relates to harming your opponents chance to evade, parry or block.

· It is affected by:
> Your class
> Your weapon type
> The stats that your weapon is based on
> Whether you have a shield equipped or not

See this site for a possible calculator: Clicky

See this site for a test showing weapon skill versus miss rates: Clicky

HOW DOES MELEE WORK?

Please note that the combat engine is VERY complex but the information in here is, in general, quite reliable.

The Battle Order and the Effects of Conditional Probabilities

When someone attacks you, the order for determining your avoidance of attack (parry, block, etc.) is evade, parry, block, hit/miss, guard, intercept and bladeturn.

This order is VERY important because of the way DAoC checks each action. During a battle, if someone attacks you the program will go through each of these steps in order EVERY time.

For instance, if you evade, you cannot block. If you parry, you cannot block. For those meleers that rely on block styles, this is very annoying.

Because of the way these are checked, you ALWAYS want to improve your best defense FIRST. This leads to better overall defense. This will result in a small but noticeable overall improvement in defense.

It also means that if you have a 5% chance of evade, 40% chance of parry, and 30% chance of blocking, you cannot add these together. Conditional probabilities would mean that although you have a 40% chance to parry when checked, you will parry less often in battle due to the fact that you may evade 5% of the time, reducing the probability that during a battle you will see a parry.

Weapon Speed

Each weapon has a rated speed listed on the item. The formula for your effective weapon speed including haste and quickness is:

Eff Spd = Spd x (1-(Qui – 60)/500)*(1 – Haste)

So, if I have 250 quickness and a 17% haste buff using a 4.5 weapon I will swing every 2.26.

Please note that there is a cap in place for melee speed. You cannot swing faster than every 1.5 seconds. This means that if your effective speed is less than 1.5, you should switch your weapons because your losing damage. You would be near the cap with a 3.0 SPD weapon, 250 quickness and a 17% haste buff.

Try to avoid using fast weapons when you are at capped speed because this will reduce your damage overall.

Weapon Damage

Weapon damage is primarily based on the speed of your weapon and the damage per second (“DPS”). This number shows the potential maximum damage the weapon will do per second at its base speed. This number is modified by the speed (SPD) of the weapon. If the weapon is actually swung faster than the SPD of the weapon as we showed above, then the base DPS will increase linearly with the swing speed, and if the weapon is swung slower, than it will decrease linearly as well. This is very different than most other DPS based effects in DAOC.

Damage Cap = DPS * SPD * 3 * (1 + (SPD – 2) * .03)

This means that slow weapons receive a slight bonus to damage. For a 16.5 DPS weapon that is at SPD of 5 the maximum damage would be:

Damage Cap = 16.5 * 5 * (1.09) = 89.925

This implies that your maximum damage would be 89.925.

Weapon SPD Effective Bonus
2.5 1.5%
4.0 6.0%
5.5 10.5%

Please also note that the weapon DPS and SPD have decimal values that you cannot see. A 16.5 DPS weapon may be 16.59 DPS.

Weapon Specialization

We covered the maximum damage that is done with a weapon above. However, your damage is also a function of how much you put points into the type of weapon your using.

In general, at 50 weapon your weapon damage will be maximized.

Weapon Styles

Weapon styles are very important to understand. The best research into them was done by Jay Ambrosini aka Wyrd. In short, each style has a “growth multiplier” that adds damage above the base damage you do. This growth multiplier is calculated as:

Style Damage = ((Growth Rate * Weapon Spec) * Effective Speed)
Unstyled Damage Cap

From this we can tell that your style damage is positively affected by your weapon spec, the style growth rate and by the factors that improve your unstyled damage cap (shown in the “Weapon Damage” section). It is negatively affected by haste and by quickness.

If I use the Bumblebee Style which has a growth rate of .58, with 250 quickness and a 17% haste buff using a 4.5 weapon I will swing every 2.26. The BM has 50+11 in pierce. The weapon damage cap is DPS * SPD * 3 * (1 + (SPD – 2) * .03) = 239.4

Style Bonus = ((Growth Rate * Weapon Spec) * Effective Speed)
239.4

Style Bonus = .58 * 61 * 2.26 / 239.4 = 33.4%

When I use this style my style damage should add 33.4% to every hit.

There are some exceptions. Starter styles (the first style you get) doesn’t follow these rules. The stealth openers in Critical Strike are different and listed below:

· Perforate Artery Cap = 75 + Critical Strike Spec * 9 + Damage Cap
· Backstab II Cap = 45 + Critical Strike Spec * 6 + Damage Cap
· Backstab I Cap = ~5 + Critical Strike Spec * 14 / 3 + Damage Cap

All other styles more or less follow these conventions.

The Details of Quickness and Damage

Quickness has multiple effects and some people get confused regarding whether it improves damage output or decreases damage output. Using the formulas above it is easy to test what is the answer.

@ 120 Qui / 0% haste you would do a total damage of 379 (140 style, 239 unstyled) at 3.96. Therefore, damage done per second is 95.71.

@ 250 Qui / 17% haste you would do a total damage of 321 (82 style, 239 unstyled) at 2.32. Therefore, damage done per second is 138.36.

Quickness does reduce the damage per shot, however, over time, the meleer with higher quickness will always out damage the slow one. The reason is that although the style damage is reduced, the fast meleer will be able to attack almost 2 times for every 1 time the slow meleer attacks.

Style Endurance Use

In general a meleer will have styles that use low, medium and high amounts of endurance. The styles usually list their endurance usage by:

Style__Integer_________Generally…
High____3______________Anytime Styles
Medium__2______________Positionals, Combos, Taunt
Low_____1______________Conditionals

END Cost = (Weapon Spd + 1) * Integer

Therefore, using the 4.5 SPD weapon from above, if we use a Medium endurance style it will take 9% of our endurance and if we use a High endurance style it will take 13.5%.

In general it is best using the lowest endurance style if you can help it.

How Left Axe (“LA”) Works

LA will always swing both weapons though you may miss. However, the damage done by both weapons is determined by your spec in LA. Your damage for each weapon is modified by:

Modified damage = Base damage * (.625 + .0034 * LA)

Therefore, if you’re going to use 2 weapons with LA you should have a good spec in LA, otherwise just use one weapon. There is also some testing to support that your to-hit is also affected by LA spec.

With 0 LA, you will only do 62.5% of your normal damage.
With 50+11 LA, you will do 79.5% of your normal damage.

How Celtic Dual(“CD”) and Dual Wield (“DW”) Works

CD/DW differs in the sense that it gives you a chance to swing both weapons but doesn’t modify damage.

Offhand Swing % = Level * .5% + .68% * CD/DW
@ Level 50 Swing % = 25% + .68% * CD/DW

With 0 LA, you will swing both 25% of the time for full damage.
With 50+11 CD/DW, you will swing both 66.48% of the time for full damage.

Higher spec in CD/DW also improves style damage when using CD/DW styles.

How Haste on LA/CD/DW Works

As a dual wielder you can use two weapons of different speeds. When both weapons are swung the game takes the average of the effective speed of BOTH weapons.

If a BM wields a 3.6 adze and a 2.5 dagger with 250 quickness, they will swing the adze at 2.17, the dagger at 1.55 and both at 1.86.

Generally if you can use two weapons, especially with those using LA who get the haste 100% of the time, you should take advantage of using two different weapons.

Normal Damage Table

For normal weapons, see this.

Elemental Damage Table

For elemental weapons, see this.

DEFENSIVE SKILLS
Parry

Your chance to parry is affected by the number of attackers, the size of the weapon you’re using, and your spec in parry.

Parry % = (5% + 0.5% * Parry) / # of Attackers

Parry: (((Dex*2)-100)/40)+(Parry/2)+(Mastery of P*3)+5. < Possible relation to buffs

So, if you have parry of 20 you will have a chance of parrying 15% if there is one attacker. If you have parry of 20 you will have a chance of parrying 7.5%, if there are two attackers.

From Grab Bag: "Dual wielders throw an extra wrinkle in. You have half the chance of shield blocking a dual wielder as you do a player using only one weapon. Your chance to parry is halved if you are facing a two handed weapon, as opposed to a one handed weapon."

So, when facing a 2H weapon, you may see a penalty to your evade.

Parry is only possible if they are within your frontal arc of 180 degrees.

Evade

Evade is based entirely off of your level of Evade. For each level of evade you have a 5% chance of evading. Evade V would give you a 25% chance of evading an attack.

Evade: (((Qui+Dex)-100)/40)+(Evade*5)+(Dodger*3). < Possible relation to buffs

Evade is only possible if they are within your frontal arc of 180 degrees, unless you have “Advanced Evade” which is only given to Bezerkers, Savages, Blademasters and Mercenaries. Those classes with "Advanced Evade" can evade attacks from ANY angle.

Testing has indicated that when facing enemies using 2 weapons your chance to evade is halved. This is apparently a bug.

Test Data

Block
Your chance to block is affected by the number of attackers, the size of the shield you’re using, and your spec in block.

Shield% = (5% + 0.5% * Shield)

Small Shield = 1 attacker
Medium Shield = 2 attacker
Large Shield = 3 attacker

Each attacker above these numbers will reduce your chance to block.

From Grab Bag: "Dual wielders throw an extra wrinkle in. You have half the chance of shield blocking a dual wielder as you do a player using only one weapon. Your chance to parry is halved if you are facing a two handed weapon, as opposed to a one handed weapon."

Block: (((Dex*2)-100)/40)+(Shield/2)+(Mastery of B*3)+5. < Possible relation to buffs

Guarding
A tank who is specced in shield can “Guard” someone in their group. This gives them a chance to block an attack that would have hit the person they guard.

There are different levels of guard based on your spec in Shield. Each level of guard improves your chance of blocking for your teammate.

5 shield = guard 1
10 shield = guard 2
15 shield = guard 3

You must be within a certain range of your target (roughly 500 units) but you do not have to facing any particular direction to guard. For blocking for yourself, the 180 degree radius does apply BUT NOT FOR GUARD.

Intercept
All tanks can choose to intercept one attack for someone in their group.

If they get hit, they will take more damage then normal.

Protect
This tank ability allows you to take some agro generated by a player in your group and transfer it to you. However, this ability does have limits.

PBAEers will not receive the benefit of this ability.

Where do you get hit?

When you get hit the weapon may strike you on any one of your armor pieces. However, there are specific probabilities attached to each piece.

Torso 40%
Legs 25%
Arms 15%
Head 10%
Hands 5%
Feet 5%

Bonus %

Every item in the game has a bonus %. These bonuses make the item more effective. A weapon with a bonus will hit more often and do more damage. A shield will block more often, do more damage and hit more often.

In general, it is very worthwhile to put a bonus on all your items.

HOW DOES CASTING WORK?

Power usage and focus staves

Each spell has a cost to power that when cast successfully will deplete the caster’s power pool. The only way to reduce this cost is to use focus staves.

From the Grab Bag:

When you are not using any focus staff at all, a spell will cost you 120% of its delved cost to cast, provided it is a spell that uses focus. i.e. Healing classes do not use focus for their spells.

A focus staff will only benefit you if it has focus bonus in the same line as that spell, as modified below. (i.e. A staff with 50 levels in Mana will help Mana spells but not Void spells)

If you are using a focus staff, a spell will cost you between 80-120% of its delved power cost to cast, depending upon several factors.

If the condition of the staff is not 100%, you will not get the full focus bonus, and it will cost more power to cast spells.
If your modified spec level* is below the level of the spell, you will not get the full focus bonus, and it will cost more power to cast the spell.
If the focus level on the staff is below the level of the spell, you will not get the full focus bonus, and it will cost more power to cast the spell.

Note that all three of the above conditions factor into power cost. Thus, To get the the full 80% cost on your spells, you would use a 100% condition staff with a focus bonus greater than the level of the spell you want to cast, and cast a spell that is lower in level than your modified spec level. As each of these factors (condition, spec level, and focus level) gets further away from the optimal condition, the power cost slides from 80% to 120%.

A few examples:

If you have a staff with 50 levels in Mana, are casting a level 50 mana based spell. and your modified spec is 48 (35 spec + 11 in items + 2 for Realm Rank 3) you will get most of the power bonus from using the staff)

If your modified spec was 50 (35 spec +11 in items +4 for Realm Rank 5) then you would get all of the bonus.

If your modified spec was 16 (1 spec +11 in items +4 for Realm Rank 5) then you would get little bonus from the staff.

*Your base spec is the number of points you have put into the line. Your modified spec is that number plus items plus realm rank bonuses.

Specialization

Your specialization in a spell line affects your damage. The exact relationship is not known but the higher your specialization the less variance your spell will have and the more damage it will do.

Buff Effectiveness

Although all buffs have a delve value, the actual affect on a player is modified by their spec within that spell line. A warden with only 25 Nurture will have buffs that are MUCH less effective than a warden with 50 Nurture even when casting then SAME buff.

WHAT ARE THE CAPS IN DAOC?
Buffs

Base Buffs Cap = Receiver’s level * 1.25
Spec Buffs Cap = Receiver’s level * 1.875

A buff that goes above this limit will result in no further bonus. Therefore, it is a good idea to test the effect of a buff on a level 50 character and determine whether you can achieve similar results using a lower level buff.

With ToA items and high specialization in a buffing spell line, it is easy to make yellow buffs equivalent to red buffs.

Items

Attributes = 1.5 * level
Resists = Level / 2 + 1
Skills = Level / 5 + 1 + RR * 1
HP = 4 * Level
Power = Level / 2 + 1

Beyond this item bonuses will no longer benefit you.

ToA Caps
Cap @ Level 50
Casting Speed % Level / 5 10%
Casting Range % Level / 5 10%
Casting Damage % Level / 5 10%
Archery Speed % Level / 5 10%
Archery Range % Level / 5 10%
Archery Damage % Level / 5 10%
Melee Style Damage % Level / 5 10%
Melee Damage % Level / 5 10%
Melee Speed % Level / 5 10%

Healing Effectiveness % Level / 2 + 1 26%
Stat Enhancement Effectiveness % Level / 2 + 1 26%
Debuff Effectiveness % Level / 2 + 1 26%

Stat Cap Bonuses Level / 2 + 1 26

I intend to fight these people with love - cross-dressing green ogre love! - Woodstock

morketh

(Registered)
Posts : 11

RE: Omni-Guide to DAoC

06/24/04 9:44 AM

What are the consequences of death.. I have just started this game yesterday and I am level 9 and I died a few times, I noticed my constitution was red and I think I lost some experience can you explain the consequences of death?

I come from SWG, uhmm dont go there... its not a pretty picture, DAoC is 10x better.

PierceSG

(Registered)
Posts : 50

RE: Omni-Guide to DAoC

06/30/04 12:46 AM

You have lost Constitution points, go look for a NPC Healer and pay to regain those lost points.

Penalty for dying in PvE is loss of exp and Con pts.

I forgot howmuch you lost for exp but I guess its 10%.

Wherelse for Constitution, its 1 point for 1st death of current level, 2 point for 2nd death of current level and 3 point for death on 3rd and consecutive deaths.

Anything else you need to know?

Basha

(Registered)
Posts : 1

RE: Omni-Guide to DAoC

08/05/04 7:19 AM

Sorry if this is mentioned but I've read through twice and didn't see it.

When obtaining armour I see its graded based on your level (red/yellow etc). Do these colours matter or are they just a guide or what armour you should have at any one time? Do the stats you recieve from any of the armours change as you level based on the colour they are?
Thanks

Arness

(Registered)
Posts : 939

RE: Omni-Guide to DAoC

08/11/04 5:33 PM

The thing you need to know, Basha, is that when you use armor/weapons/jewlry that is grape to you, it will degrade quicker and eventually break. And sometimes there will be items that just won't plain work for you until you are a higher level.

Vaapalmar

(Valewalker Guru)
Posts : 525

RE: Omni-Guide to DAoC

08/24/04 5:08 AM

bit of a mess in evade/parry, as far as i know parry is halved when facing large weapons(two handed weapons) and block is halved when facing dual wielders(two weapons one in each hand) I think it needs a small review in the wording of those sections. for evade does not look afected from the grab bag contents, Am i wrong?

-this has not been a pointless +1 post-
/jedi mind trick hand wave

Rethorn

(Dead Horse Beater)
Posts : 10097

RE: Omni-Guide to DAoC

08/26/04 7:43 AM

Evade is not supposed to be effected by any type of melee in the way Shield or Parry is. HOWEVER, due to a bug, dual wielding currently halves evade as well.

"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.
You may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. You may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate, nor establish love. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I am the crotch since 2003-02-07, but no more.

Sheresh

(Registered)
Posts : 164

RE: Omni-Guide to DAoC

09/07/04 11:45 AM

There are NPC healers in almost every little town you can run across in any of the realms, they are labeled by having a under their name. SO it would be like

Pelgrof Sogki
Healer

As far as armors/weps/jewlery goes you can wear ANY of it, there are no level limits on how high you can wear them BUT to receive FULL benefit of hte armor it should con yellow to you.

Basically purple is WAY above your level, red is quite a ways above your level, orange is Pretty close to your level, yellow is just at or a little higher/lower then you, blue is a level or two lower then you, green is way lower then you, and grey is way way way lower then you.

As your leveling up try to keep you equipment yellow to you, and use it until it goes blue, since I have found that when its blue is when you receive the FULL benefit of the armor, but most switch out for newer stuff when theirs goes blue.

I taste of Death.

Doesn't everyone want a taste of death? Well they should. Most people deserve death. Keep away from me unless you think you're better than that. I probably won't like you. What Flavour Are You?

Sheresh Onhashish 48.5 Infiltrator
Proud Member of The Unseen
Albion/Lancelot

tobomc

(Registered)
Posts : 3

RE: Omni-Guide to DAoC

10/13/04 10:37 AM

Hi,

Great work on the omni guide! I have been going over the melee damage part.

Does anyone know any more details on how weapon spec points increase the damage output? I had read some stuff suggesting there is some linear change with bumps at 75% of and at 100% of full spec. Is this true?

Also the damage cap section has a mistake of some sort.

The formula listed, does not result in the cap calculated in the example given:

Damage Cap = DPS * SPD * 3 * (1 + (SPD – 2) * .03)

Damage Cap = 16.5 * 5 * (1.09) = 89.925

if you plug in the 16.5 and the 5 for dps and spd you get: 269.775

I don't see how you can come up with the 1.09 multiplier in the second one.

thanks,

--Tobo

Cruelty

(On Sabatical)
Posts : 4582

RE: Omni-Guide to DAoC

11/05/04 2:45 PM

If you use this resource, help me make it better.

Give me ideas on what new content and information we can add to make this a single source of information on DAOC.

WoW: Cruelty NE Druid Level 43
WoW: Cruelty NE Hunter Level 37
WoW: Bloodlust Dwarf Rogue Level 23
WoW: Angst Dwarf Priest Level 20
WoW: Icicle Gnome Mage Level 20
DAOC: 50 Shaman, 50 Thane, 50 Enchanter, 50 Bard, 50 RM
Author of Omni-Guide to DAOC

"I'm not 15!!!! I'm 17 and a half! HHAHAHAHAHAHA I PWN J00" - Vianney

"Relax this is beta! It'll be fixed before retail! This message has been brought to you by the former Iraqi minister of information - now employed by Blizzard."

"Jeez, Mig, you're the fastest updater on the internet." - Sanya

"You die in RvR, you blame Mythic. I die in RvR, I try to figure out how I fucked up." - Wackle

"In any MMORPG, higher level players are a sort of status symbol. They have better equipment than you, and can go on exciting adventures. It's natural to want to do the things that they do. However, as in any situation, one should refrain from acting the role of a fuck-smudge. They worked hard to get where they are, and they don't owe you anything. If you want to level up... you have to earn it. Source: CTRL-ALT-DELETE

Rethorn

(Dead Horse Beater)
Posts : 10097

RE: Omni-Guide to DAoC

11/05/04 6:00 PM

The resist table (its in your other thread) would be nice, as well as adding a link to the decay tables.

n00bsicle

(Registered)
Posts : 596

RE: Omni-Guide to DAoC

11/06/04 12:32 AM

Could the DW bug be that he swings twice (or less with DW/CD) per attack, and therefore calculated evade twice, giving you a decreased chance to evade both attacks? In that case, it wouldn't be halved evade, it would be much less.

Rethorn

(Dead Horse Beater)
Posts : 10097

RE: Omni-Guide to DAoC

11/06/04 7:58 AM

The DW bug is that it counts it as two attackers. And it went from being a bug to design intention last I heard.

Cisan

(Registered)
Posts : 264

Crafter Guide for non-Crafters

12/07/04 12:53 PM

(hope it's not off topic...)

For a change a guide to player-made items for those who just want to know the "useage" part and not the "how to make it".

First of all you should choose the level of the item you want. It should be orange or even red for you, you'll most likely outgrow it before it is beyond repair. I usually recommend a level of 5x+1 (i.e. 6, 11, 16, 21...) for weapons and a level of 5x (5, 10, 15, 20...) for armor, since this usually grants very good spellcrafting properties and also is the best value.

You want 99+ quality items. Masterpieces (MPs, 100% quality) are usually too expensive to make for leveling, that's something you MIGHT want for your second (or "final") set, when you have your set of artefacts and other goodies. Until then, you tell your crafter you want 99+q. If you happen to get a MP, nice, but don't require him to do MPs. First, it's quite frustrating for the crafter to do, and many will refuse it or charge incredible amounts of gold. Do NOT take 98 percent quality either, it will severely cut into the Spellcrafting possibilities (discussed in a later posting).

First of all, check housing. Many crafters put the 99q items that are "waste" items from MP attempts on their consignment merchants, and they usually go for CHEAP, often you get them for material price or even less. Also, check for jewelry, bracers, rings, etc that would fit you.

For the items you cannot find, you need a crafter. Do not buy them at the NPCs, those items are of very low quality (85%) and are impossible to Spellcraft (i.e. impossible to put buffs and enhancements on them). Do a /who (tradeskill) to find out if there are some crafters around that also announce themselves as crafters. I.e. "/who tailor" if you're looking for a tailor. Send a /tell to them and ask. NICELY. Realize that there are by far more people looking for crafters than there are crafters, I could put my Spellcrafter into crafting mode and craft for DAYS without a moment of idleness and I'll even have to send people away.

Make sure that the items you want are "grey" for him, this means that he can actually craft them at 99% quality. "grey" means in this case that they are "grey" in his crafting window, not that they are grey to him to use it. So a lv 5 crafter can very easily craft a lv 30 Masterpiece if he happens to be a master crafter. Legendary crafters can craft masterpieces of all levels, even if they are not yet grey for them.

If you cannot find a crafter this way, check the "crafter corner". Every realm supposedly has one, for Albion it is Gothwaite Harbor on the Isle of Glass (for other realms, someone might be able to post a similar location). Go there and broadcast what you're looking for, your chances are good that you will get a response, at least during prime time.

To find out if your crafter is trying to rip you off, check http://www.aros.net/~fumigatr/daoc/craftingcalculator.htm and pick the items you plan to have him craft. Add about 5 redos and you'll have a good average what it will cost him to craft it.

If he agrees to work for cost+tip, tip him well. Grant him about 50 percent of the cost as tip if you can afford it, too many changed their policy to charging through the nose when they found out they don't get tipped, and they CAN squeeze the living blood out of you 'cause there aren't many willing crafters around.

Cisan - Legendary Fletcher
Gaunvan - Legendary Spellcrafter
Qenda - Grandmaster Tailor
(Albion/Guinevere)

(why, sure I list my tradeskill levels, everyone can level to 50...)

Cisan

(Registered)
Posts : 264

Spellcrafting for non-Spellcrafters

12/07/04 12:54 PM

First of all, don't bother trying if you don't have some money at hand. SCing isn't too expensive, but it does cost money.

First, go to http://sc.aod.net/ and download the calculator.

Then, start it and put the jewelry you have (cloak, necklace, bracers, ...) into it and set the level you plan to replace your gear again (i.e. for which level to "cap" stats). Switch the "Display" to "Distance to Cap" so you see what other buffs you would benefit from. If a stat is displayed as negative, you are already above buffcap and would NOT benefit from further buffs in this area. You might even want to take a bracer or ring off and replace it with something more sensible.

Next, check housing for further buff items and maybe armor that already fits your requirments.

Then get a crafter to manufacture the other clothing and weapons you don't have yet.

Now for a little theory: Every item has a number of "imbue points", which depend on its level and (even more) its quality. Every gem you use use up a portion of those imbue points. The formula by which it's done is a bit complicated, but what it boils down to for you is that the "heaviest" gem weighs TWICE in the formula. This means two things:

You get BAD stats if you use one big gem and a few smaller gems, if any.

You get GOOD stats if you use 4 gems of roughly equal "weight".

To illustrate it, putting 13 str in one item and 13 dex in another has the same "weight" as putting 10 str/dex in one and 10 str/dex in the other one.

So it does pay to spend a little time getting a good spread worked out. Generally, you can get better buffs by spreading your buffs evenly across your gear instead of cramming all dex or skill into one item.

There is a thing called "overcharging". Overcharging means, you put more buffs into an item than it can usually hold. Up to 5 points more can be pumped into an item, but at a cost and a risk. The risk is that the item can explode, rendering it useless, the cost is that it usually takes a few tries to get gems that are good enough for overcharging. And you should NEVER overcharge with anyone but a Legendary Spellcrafter, who are usually quite rare and those guys know that all too well.

In short, if you don't have a ton of money on your hands, don't OC. It can easily double the cost and the Spellcrafter will charge you considerably more for an overcharge. And if it fails, your item is GONE.

Find a SCer and tell him what you want. He might want you to mail the result of your calculation to him, do it, it speeds up the crafting process considerably. Don't forget to tell him which items he should craft, nothing pisses a SCer off more than making gems just to have you tell him afterwards "Oh, the pants are already SCed"...

Spellcrafters can now also enchant your gear, the same way the NPC enchanters do, but at 1/2 the cost. Even if you can't afford a spellcrafting, ask a SCer for some enchantment if you meet one. It's quick and doesn't cost him a lot of time, so he'll usually do it rather cheaply.

Cisan - Legendary Fletcher
Gaunvan - Legendary Spellcrafter
Qenda - Grandmaster Tailor
(Albion/Guinevere)

(why, sure I list my tradeskill levels, everyone can level to 50...)

Fiddler 4

(Face meets slide)
Posts : 339

RE: Spellcrafting for non-Spellcrafters

12/19/04 11:15 AM

about buff and item caps, say i have 80 base constitution. I have a base buff that gives 50, a spec buff that gives 75, and 75 on my armor, does that mean id have 280 con? And each con would give me how ever many hps it normally would, it doesnt give less. Is there a chart that shows how much hp you get per point of con for certain classes?

She couldnt quite explain it, they'd always just been there, mmmmmm,mmmmmm,mmmmm

Kenandan

(Registered)
Posts : 12

RE: Spellcrafting for non-Spellcrafters

01/12/05 4:22 AM

There is a site that calulates your hp..

This is it: http://www.btinternet.com/~challand/hp_calculator.htm

I dont know if its out of date.. but It might be of some use

Guyver

(Registered)
Posts : 1065

RE: Spellcrafting for non-Spellcrafters

03/24/05 2:05 PM

I've found hpts to be moded by race. I believe class even modifies it further but havn't tested this.

Examp; For a Saracen Scout, hpts =SUM(Con*0.5799)*(Level/2)+19
Inconnu Scout, hpts =SUM(Con*0.50499)*(Level/2)+19
Briton Scout , hpts =Sum(con*0.50499)*(level/2)+19
Highlander Scout, hpts = Sum(Con*0.4547)*(Level/2)+19

I had to figure these formulas out, so I don't think they are completely exact, but I /leveled a scout of each race and wrote down their hpts and con per level, then used these formulas to duplicate the /level process....every 4th or 5th level I was off by 1 hpt. Then I used the formula on my own 50 Inconnu scout(Naked), and hit it dead on.

LlunchBoxx

(Registered)
Posts : 1

RE: Omni-Guide to DAoC

07/31/05 9:35 AM

Hey Great Job on the guide. The Quickness thing is just a little bit confusing. Lets say I've got a 5.6 weapon with 208 quickness and a 28%haste buffer. How fast would I swing?

saintboy

(Registered)
Posts : 3

RE: Omni-Guide to DAoC

08/22/05 1:47 PM

I'm sorry, I know this is a cruel question to ask, but I left the game just before the first x-pack- what all has been added on? A link to a list would be helpful.

Also, what of all this talk of the game being gimped over certain armor? Someone I know said that the introduction of certain armor or something ruined the game.

Ruin Explorer

(Registered)
Posts : 1

RE: Omni-Guide to DAoC

09/13/05 12:26 PM

WARNING: This Omni-Guide is full good information with one GIANT BLOODY LIE in the middle of it.

The author states.

"Some spells will modify this amount gained per unit. Each tier of song will increase the units regained by (X * 100%) where X is the tier of the song being used. In other words, if you are playing Power song 5, you will increase the total amount regenerated per cycle by 500%."

No.

The times he puts are pretty much correct, in regards to the ticks of health, end, and power regen. End is actually 4 endurance per 1 second, not 1 endurance per 1/4 of a second, the unit used is clearly 4, but that's not a big deal.

What is a big deal is that he has completely and totally wrong information on power regen.

It does not multiply anything. There is no 500%. It adds a FIXED VALUE to the static power regen. Testing by myself and other revealed that the basic power regen tick value appeared to be 7 power/tick at level 50 (this was quite some time ago, it may have changed, and it is almost certainly different at lower levels, though perhaps the recent change was to fix it at a 7 value for all levels). The power song, or any kind of crack, or the RA serenity, adds to that number.

For example. You sit at level 50 for power. You have your basic regen (believed to be 7), you have crack 3 or power song 3 (for example), and say you have Serenity 2. Your total power regenerated per tick will be 7 + 3 + 2 or 12.

As I said, tests confirmed this. Further, if you go do your own tests, they will confirm it.

Even if you can't get the numbers that precise, you can SURE AS HECK disprove this UTTER nonsense about it "multiplying" power regen rates. If power song 5 gave you 500% power regen... You'd notice... Anyone who has even played a caster in a group with power regen KNOWS power does NOT come back 5x faster...

Checking through the rest...

You might want to note that Celtic Spear is explicitly pure Str. It is implied in what you say but people still claim it's Str/Dex.

Dodge is called Evade.

End cost for styles - That's interesting, I will have to test it. I don't think it's correct, because no other thing about styles is so neat and tidy (many high damage styles have wildly varying growth rates, for example), but it's worth a look. At least it will be easy to test.

Intercept is wrong - Tanks no longer take more damage than usual when they intercept. They take the exact normal damage they would. The hit is applied to them normally. It can even trigger reactive proc effects!

Protect is half-right - It's actually more dangerous than what you say. PBAE damage normally spreads aggro throughout the group with the PBAEr only getting very very slightly more than everyone else, it's a unique spell in that way. With protect it stops spreading aggro properly. You can test this easily. The PBAEr will get aggro extremely quickly if protect is on him.

It doesn't work on DoTs either.

Your hit ratios for locations have been contradicted by Mythic, though I've seen no thorough tests either way.

Power regeneration is no longer penalised below 50%.

That's all for now.

Clyde-Q-Cragmoore

(Registered)
Posts : 1583

RE: Omni-Guide to DAoC

09/19/05 5:33 PM

The Section on shield "Guard" is erroneous. I can tell you, as a 50 shield armsman and a 50 shield hero, that you DO have to be facing whatever is attacking the person you are guarding to have a chance to block it for them.

You are not a rare and beautiful flower.
You are not a special and unique snowflake.
You are the same pixels and binary data as everyone else.
You are not your character class. You are not your platinum count.
You are not the horse you ride.
You are not the contents of your consignment merchant.
You're not your frickin epic armor.

We are the all-singing all-dancing crap of the world. Clyde Cragmoore + Friends:50 Arms, Pally, Theurg, Ment, Hero, Warden, Vamp, Zerk, Warlk, Skald, Warr and more OTW. ML10s where applicable. LGM SC/AC/Alch/Fletcher/Tailor. Elder tag 4tehwin.
Gas Bandit Gaming

Nfrad

(Registered)
Posts : 733

RE: Omni-Guide to DAoC

09/28/05 12:54 PM

I believe that your formula for LA is incorrect and the mechanics are somewhat misleading.

When calculating BASE LA dmg...

LA = 62.5% + [(Composite Spec) x .34]%

So...
62.5% + [(1+0) x .34]% = 62.84% for each weapon OR 125.6855 total dmg
62.5% + [(50+11) x .34]% = 83.24% for each weapon OR 162.48% total dmg.

By specing higher in LA you will increase your STYLED dmg when using LA styles as well as your BASE dmg.

ALSO: Check out this link for a more complete look at melee mechanics.

http://www.classesofcamelot.com/other/styles/Styles.htm

Bacrurian

(Registered)
Posts : 1

RE: Omni-Guide to DAoC

12/12/05 10:25 PM

I am wondering if you had a chart that lists how much experience it takes to level. It would probably be a nice addition to this guide.

blackitalian

(Registered)
Posts : 105

RE: Omni-Guide to DAoC

02/07/07 2:01 PM

we need a new omni-guid... anyone have the time or smarts to do it? us noobs would appreciate it.

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