Siege Weapon FAQ
v2.0
updated as of patch 1.60
2/25/03
(Old Faq - 1.66)

Background

Hi, I used to be Celer Y, of <Heart of Oak> in Hibernia Igraine, in (of course) the MMORPG " Dark Age of Camelot" (DAoC).  I was a level 50 Druid with a large interest in (and moderate experience with) siege weapons.  I recently retired from the game. However, there is still very little centralized documentation on siege weapons, so I thought I'd do a quick update for everyone.
 
If you have been linked directly here, be sure to go up a level and check out my entire Siege Workshop for more goodies.

Share and Enjoy!
Celer

From 1.54 to 1.60

What's new?
Plenty. Let's look at some highlights:

1.54: wood weights cut in half

1.55: /groundassist, AE damage no longer drops off from radius, addition of bullet/grapeshot/ball of ice, damage increased

1.60: /groundassist bugs fixed, ammo stacks, greatly increased ballista damage, all part weights cut in half, degrade time doubled, arming time halved, rams on a keep door limited to 3

The Basics

What is siegecrafting?
The art of building siege weapons in battle.

How do you spell seige?
Siege. Next time you type "seige" remember... "i" before "e" except after "c"... there's more to that little diddy but I suggest you reference an old episode of Tail Spin for the exact wording.

Who can be a siegecrafter?
Anyone who is not a Spellcrafter or Alchemist. You simply become a Weaponcrafter, Armorcrafter, Tailor, or Fletcher to gain access to siege weaponry.

Can you specialize in siegecrafting?
No, there is no siegecrafting master.

What kinds of weapons are available?
There are 3 types of siege weapons, and each comes in 3 strengths (elm, oak, and iron).  From weakest to strongest they are:

What does the different ammo do?
Catapult stones are the standard ammo. Balls of ice are the same, but do cold damage instead of heat damage. Bullets do more damage but have a smaller radius. Grapeshot does less damage but has a larger radius. This new ammo is sold on page 2 of the merchant who sells portal necklaces at the border keep.

Can I take control of enemy siege weapons?
YES!  Assuming you've killed the operator or he has released control, you CAN take over an enemy siege weapon.  Use the "/control" command, described later.

Can I control multiple siege weapons?
Yes and no. You can only "/control" one siege weapon at a time, but you could handle a pair by switching your control back and forth between them.

How much damage do siege weapons do?
It depends on the target level and the ammo. Elm/oak/iron rams will do about 250/500/750 max damage against doors under level 4-5. On high level doors, iron rams will be in the 300-500 range. Ballista/palintones do massive damage to other siege weapons, and can disable them in a few minutes. Trebuchets will be hitting around 200-300 with regular ammo or ice, 400-500 with bullets, and 100-200 with grapeshot.

Does the operator's level affect siege damage?
No, player level does not affect siege damage against PCs or NPCs.

Do I get XP or RP from siege kills?
You no longer get XP from mob siege kills. You still get RPs from siege, as well as XP from those RvR kills.

How do I defend against siege weapons?
Destroy them, either directly or with ballista support. Take out the operators, that will buy you a little time.  Increasing your heat/cold resistance will help. Spread out to minimize the impact of AE damage. Catapults leave a loot bag at ground zero, so if you see one move as far away as possible!

Preparation

What siegecrafting skill do I need to start building?
Just 1.  All weapons have a requirement of 0.

What weapon/armor/tailor/fletch do I need to start building?
Just 1, you never need to skill up to build siege weapons.  Simply join the crafting order.

What goes into a siege weapon?
See the Siege Weapon Worksheet for exact recipes.  Basically they are made up of parts and wood.  All weapons of the same type have the same parts, you simply use a stronger wood to make the stronger versions.

Where do I get the parts?
You have two sources.  First is a siege keep, these being the keeps in the same zone as enemy portal keeps (Caer Benowyc, Bledmeer Faste, Dun Crauchon).  You can buy them from any of these keeps that your realm controls (sometimes it's faster to port over than to run to your own).  The second is to craft the parts.

How do I craft the parts?
See the Siege Weapon Worksheet for the recipes and tradeskill associated with each part.  Crafters need 500 skill to begin making siege parts. Parts turn yellow at 500. They need to be by a forge to do it.  They may also need to be fairly high in a particular subskill, such as Metalworking.

What crafter makes the best siegecrafter?
Probably Armor. It's possible to have 667 Armor, 500 Tailor, AND 500 Weapon and thus be able to craft all parts except for a ballista's torsion cables.

How long does it take to craft a siege part?
Under a minute.

We just conquered a siege keep, where are the merchants?
It takes time for each of the merchants to repop.  It can be as short as 5 minutes or as long an hour or two.  Make sure to be prepared for this if you're hoping to buy wood or siege parts quickly.

Where do I get ammo?
Standard ammo is sold at supply keeps. The portal necklace merchant also sells all ammo types on Page 2. Finally, you can now craft all ammo types. Note that you do NOT need a forge to craft ammo, it can be done in the field.

Where do I get wood?
Your capital city, the siege keeps, the battleground portal keeps, and a "crafting" town (Innis Carthaig, Cornwall Station and Gna Faste) will have elm/oak/iron wood for sale. There is also wood in most SI towns.

How much does this cost?
See the Siege Weapon Worksheet for costs.

How long does it take to build?
Just a few seconds.

Do I need a forge or lathe?
Nope, all can be built in the field.

Do I need any tools?
Yes, you need all three tools (smith hammer, planning tool, sewing kit).

Can I fail and lose parts?
You can fail, but will never lose parts. Just try again.

Does having a higher siegecrafting skill help?
In theory, you can build them faster and have less failures with a higher skill.  When they turn grey, you should build them in half the time.

How high can I go?
By crafting ammo, 68.

What items and macros should be in my siegecrafting toolbar?
All I use is the build icon, /fire, /repair, /control, and /control release. I use the GUI for most other operations.

Transport

How much do parts weigh?
See the Siege Weapon Worksheet for exact weights. Don't forget the tools, which weigh 8 pounds themselves.

How much does Lifter help?
Each point in Lifter adds 20% to your carrying capacity. So casters aren't helped as much as tanks.

I just ported and now I can't move, can I get a strength buff please?
It's good practice carry ONLY what you can SELF-BUFF.  If your buffer dies, you will become rooted to the spot.  Let the organizer know you've taken on too much, let them decide to redistribute or get you buffs.

I was over encumberance, and I got buffed, but I still can't move.  Why?
Buff not big enough?

Gathering and distributing the parts takes forever!  How can I cut time down?
If you're going to be doing this thing a lot, keep parts and wood stored in your vault.  Park a mule at a vault and store even more.  Try to keep all parts together on a single carrier, even better if they can carry parts and wood.

Can I move siege weapons once they are built?
NO!  Make sure you're building in a good spot BEFORE you start!

Operation

Where should I build a ram to take down a door?
Move flush against the door, take a step back if you like, and take a swing at the door.  As long as you don't get a "door is too far away" error from melee, you should be fine.  That's not a guarantee, so err on the side of closeness. It's also important to note that you can move a bit and retain control of the ram, so you might want to move to the side against the wall, or back up, if taking damage.

Where should I build a catapult to defend a keep?
Catapults have a minimum and maximum range.  If you want to hit the pile at the door, you'll need to build it along the REAR wall.  From there, you should be able to hit both doors.  Usually, you can build it such that you can both operate the catapult and buy ammo at the same time. If you build it in the front, upstairs perhaps, then the minimum range will put it down the hill, and the pile at the door will be safe (but at least you can see your target and harass the casters!).  Try to build multiple catapults and fire them at the same time, this can end a keep assault rather quickly. Remember that catapults will fire "through" walls and doors, so you can still hit defenders once they're at the inner door.  Ballista also ignore LoS.  Maximum range on these weapons is quite far, farther than you can ground target when standing beside it (so you need to move up some, target again, and move back to fire). From the back wall, you can still force casters to move quite far back (usually all the way down the hill) if they need to med.

Can I use a catapult or ballista to take down a door?
Rams are lighter, cheaper, and faster for this particular job. I'm not sure how much damage catapults and ballistae do to doors, or even if they damage them at all. But they would certainly be a LOT slower than a ram.

How do I actually construct it?
First, get all the parts in your inventory.  You may become rooted to the spot, so get into position BEFORE asking for parts.  Drag the siegecrafting icon into your toolbar, click it.  Select the weapon you want to build, drag it into your toolbar, and click it.  You'll see the progress bar move fairly quickly.  If you fail, try again.  Eventually, a weapon will pop out at your feet.  You automatically have control of the weapon.

I'm trying to build a trebuchet to defend a siege keep, but the merchant won't sell me the parts because I'm carrying too much. What do I do?
You don't need to be HOLDING all the parts and wood for a siege weapon... you simply have to be in POSSESSION of them. In short, this means you're allowed to buy the parts and drop them on the ground. As long as you build the weapon before the parts decay, you'll be fine. Oh yeah, make sure you have enough money BEFORE you start!

How do I take control of a weapon?
If you built it, you automatically have control.  If not, target it and type "/control".  A dialog will pop up with the various commands.  You can use this, or close it and type slash commands or macros instead (I prefer to use macro keys).  Only one person can control it at a time, you'll get a message saying who has control (or if it's controlled by an enemy) if you can't. So don't be afraid to "/control" if you aren't sure who (if anyone) is in control.

How do I let someone else control it?
Type "/control release" and anyone (INCLUDING THE ENEMY) can take control.  They just need to target it and type "/control". If you move out of the weapon's control radius (5-10 steps away) you will automatically release control and the GUI goes away. If you die, you automatically release control.

I've got control, now what?
The commands you need to know:
1. /aim: points the weapon at your target (or ground target)
2. /arm: prepares to fire
3. /load: picks the ammo to load
4. /fire: free the beast!

How do I aim a catapult at the ground?
Use your ground target key, F5 by default.  Hold it down (keep it held) and a yellow cross and dot will appear.  Use your movement keys, or mouse if in mouselook mode, to move the target cross around, and the pan up/down keys to move the dot (representing elevation).  If you can't see your intended target from where you're standing, go ahead and move to a better position, set the target, and move back to the weapon without targeting anything else. You can also pretarget if you know where the enemy is going to gather before they actually get there. Finally, you can use the /groundassist macro if you have someone spotting for you.

I pushed F5, where is my ground target?
Keep F5 held for a few seconds, it will appear at your feet. Look down if you need to. Remember to keep it held down as you move the target.

Can I directly target a catapult?
Nope, you need to use a ground target.

Can I ground target a ballista?
Nope, those work with direct targets only.

Can I use /assist with siege weapons?
No.

Why is it telling me I must select my target for my catapult?
You probably haven't set your ground target and /aimed yet.

Why is it telling me I haven't aimed my ram yet, I know I did!
Try doubleclicking the target (keep doors are notoriously tricky to target) and /aim again. Also try /arm again, maybe you're a little lagged.

Why is it telling me my target is too close/far?
Because it's out of range. If you think the target SHOULD be in range, you may want to ground-target and /aim again to confirm.

How long does /arm take?
Rams take 5 seconds, ballista take 10 seconds, catapults take 15 seconds.

Why is it telling me it's not ready to aim/arm/fire yet?
This message means the weapon is currently doing something (usually arming). When the weapon is done, the message will be more descriptive. If you aren't sure what step you're on, you can always try /fire until you get a more descriptive error message.

Why is it telling me it is already armed?
Because you've already /armed! You can /fire now, or /aim again (though aiming AFTER arming can cause problems with catapults).

When do I load?
Load during your /arm.

How do I load ammo?
Only catapults and ballista need ammo.  Load it by dragging a SINGLE stone or bolt onto the weapon. You may have to unstack the ammo.  Load as much ahead of time as you want. Anyone can drag the ammo onto the weapon.

Why is it telling me to choose my ammo slot?
You need to click on a piece of ammo before /load.

Yay, it fired!  How do I do it again?
Quick, /arm /load and /fire again!  And again!  And again!

Do I need to /aim every time?
No, only use /aim when you need to change targets. Try to do this after firing and before arming to minimize problems. But just /arm and /fire (and loading ammo if necessary) are needed to keep a weapon going.

Can I get hurt by friendly fire?
Nope, don't worry about that.

I died while controlling the weapon, what now?
When you die, you automatically release control.  Have a realm-mate quickly "/control" the weapon. Be alert of who is operating your siege equipment, keep them healed and guarded by a shield user, and be ready to take their place if they fall.  Though it's polite to give them control back once they're rezzed, if they want it ;)

What do I do if I want to build a second weapon?
Always "/control release".  Frequently, you will build the ram for the outer door, operate it, then build the ram for the inner door.  If you don't "/control release" the first ram, you can't take control of the second.  Even worse, you may not realize you're still controlling the first one, you'll get the dreaded "target is too far away" error, and the rest of your raid force will verbally assault you for screwing up the rams.  When in doubt, take a deep breath, clear your target, type "/control release", and try the weapon again.

Can the enemy target my ram through the inner door?
Probably.  They can bash it and nuke it, set a ballista against it, but not take /control of it. Keep an eye on the health of the ram operator and the ram itself.

How do I repair siege weapons?
Target it, type /repair.  Anyone can repair siege weapons, not just the operator.  It is based on the repairer's woodworking skill.  You do NOT need wood to repair them though... just the skill.  Eventually they will be unable to be repaired and decay naturally.

How long do weapons last?
They decay in 20 minutes or so if not repaired.  If maintained, they can almost last over hour.

I'm done with the weapon, can I /salvage it?
Yes, but it's a bit buggy. Don't move or try to cancel the salvage. Rams will give back 500 of the proper wood type when salvaged.

I'm dead, can I use siege weapons?
Sadly, Mythic nerfed the dead's ability to control siege weapons.  Corpses only have one good use now... scouting.

Special Thanks

<Heart of Oak> for their wonderful support, for helping me gather data and test theories, for organizing raids, and for letting me knock down my first door at only level 34. From officers to Acorn Gatherers, you all helped make this happen.

All those who contributed info to this FAQ

Everyone who asked questions about siegecraft

http://www.daoctradeskills.com

Hibernia:Igraine for their leadership and their backup in the field.

Albs and Mids for volunteering to be trebuchet test dummies, and for spending many gold and platinum setting up doors to be knocked down.