Friday is here, and so is the weekly Grab Bag !

Q. I have a question concerning Armor Factor. According to an old patch note (Patch 1.79) Armor Factor does increase your blocking rate. Many people have been telling me it doesn’t help in blocking at all. Could you clear this matter up for us please?

A. After some searching for the 1.79 notes the Balancinator quotes: Item-based AF bonuses now actually increase your AF, block damage, and report as such on your character sheet. - From the 1.79 patch notes on 2005-09-13 13:19:27

I believe you are referring to this line in the 1.79 patch notes. The term "block damage" is confusing. It refers to your armor factor "blocking" or "reducing" the damage, you receive from being hit. Your armor factor does not help your block rate.

Q. When on my Friar (Level 39) and I have a dragonsworn accommodation buckler equipped with a 5% enhancements stat cap. The bonus doesn’t show up when I look at my /bonuses, and it doesn’t make a difference when I buff my self. Is it bugged?

Second part of my question is; I buff myself with a vestshieldweapon that all have a bonus to stat enhancement on them, and than switch to my normal vestweapon will those stats stay on me since I buffed using my concentration?

A. After a few minutes of looking into this, The Equalizer states: The bonus on the item is not affecting your character for one of two possible reasons. First, the bonus in question is a fifth-slot bonus on a crafted item, and these bonuses will only affect the player if the item has been fully spellcrafted with four other bonuses. Second, this bonus doesn't increase the cap on buff effectiveness, but instead just provides an additional 5% bonus. Since buff effectiveness caps at 25%, your character may already be capped on buff bonus.

As to your second question: Yes, your buffs will retain the increased effectiveness if you switch armor, weapons, or jewelry after buffing.

Q. I tried to recharge the recent King's Gift, the Regal Amulet of Hibernia, only to be told by many NPCs that it can not be recharged. Is this true? If not, where do I go to recharge it?

A. Seeking the truth? The Lady of the Jewels has this answer: The Regal Amulets cannot be recharged. We plan to add a note about this to the delve of the amulet in an upcoming patch.

Q. I have a question about the Healer self melee proc buff. It says 'non-realm enemies' does that mean PvE?

A. Without a moment of hesitation the Equalizer says: Yes, it means that this spell only will be usable in PvE situations.

Q. I remember reading something about class and level combinations being unlocked for Origins, will we for example be able to play Troll Shadowblades?

A. With a little sigh, the Balancinator nodded: Yes, there will be added race/class combinations. Unfortunately, Troll Shadowblades did not make the cut. I was pushing for Troll Hunters, but <sigh> the idea was shot down.

Q. I helped form a small guild about 6 weeks ago and now the GM has left the game. I am the highest ranking guild member and want to become GM in order to promote and perform other GM functions. What steps do I take ?

A. The Equalizer did a bit of verifying to be sure: Actually, you don't need to take any steps at all. Camelot has a system in place that automatically checks guilds to ensure that at least one Rank 0 guild member has been active recently. If none of the current Rank 0 members are active for a period of 30 days, then it will automatically promote the highest-ranked guild member to Rank 0 within 10 days.

Q. I have a question regarding the Realm Ability "Wild Power" and how it reacts with Life-Taps. I am wondering if "WP" is weighted against LT's, or if some other mechanism may reduce the likelihood of "WP" criting with LT's? The reason I ask is because when I play my Darkness spec Spiritmaster (with "WP2"), I notice that my baseline DD "Obsidian Strike (and even the Suppression spec baseline "Death of Souls") frequently criticals in both PvE and PvP. My Darkness spec Lifetap, "Extinguish Lifeforce", rarely criticals in the same circumstances. From reading the "Wild Power" description I was under the impression it worked with all offensive damage. Any help you can provide would be appreciated. <Salute>

A. With a very good game-like /salute in return the Equalizer explains: Wild Power will affect a lifetap spell the same way that it affects normal direct damage spells. You may have encountered a run of bad luck with your own spell, but internal testing has shown no difference in critical rates between the two spells listed when using Wild Power.

Q. I was wondering if you have come up with a solution about fixing the problem with us not being able to see what type of class a person is in /who and group tab? This is vary annoying when you’re the buffing class that needs to be able to see what buffs to give that person!
Thank you for your time.

A. Our Shining Cavalier was very glad to have a chance to say: Yes, we have a solution and it's currently being tested. Expect to see it on Pendragon soon and then it'll be fixed with 1.95.

Q. I have a question I really hope you can answer. Is it meant for the Amnesia/Amnesia (AoE) spell to remove speed if you are hit by it? In that case I wonder why you have made it instant cast as any hib group with a bard can run up any other group from the opposing realms.
Just think that with 2300 range this spell is extremely powerful as an instant.

A. The Equalizer didn’t forget this one: Amnesia is designed as an offensive spell, as it can be used to stop spell casting. Because of this, it will interrupt movement speed and put the target into combat.

Q. I have been wondering, and have gotten several different answers from people. The spec you have in block/parry, including the '+ to skill', how many '% chance' you have to block/parry. How much does dexterity and/or quickness affect the evade/parry/block? By numbers?

A. Our Warrior Team Lead Apriori spent quite a bit of time testing this one for you: Well, this is a particularly thorny question to answer because you said the dreaded word “numbers!” If this were as simple as “X amount of Dexterity equals Y amount of block/parry/evade,” then there would be reliable information out there. That’s my way of saying that I’m not going to directly give you numbers!

The reality of the situation is that your defense rates have many influencing factors, including (but not limited to): Class, spec, stats, shield condition and who/what you are fighting.

There are some numbers that we know for sure: Evade and Parry are capped at 50%, Blocking is capped at 75%, Dex and Quick affect evade, and their average has a hard cap of 250; Dex affects Shield and Parry and it has no cap; Spec’ing in Shield/Parry increases your chance to block or parry by .5% per spec level; Realm abilities like Mastery of Blocking/Parrying and certain Mythirians will also add to your block/parry/evade %.

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Lady of Jewels and I had a fantastic time at the San Diego Road Trip last weekend. If you haven't had a chance to attend one, well why not? Come for the prizes, for the snacks or to ask us your questions! Our next Road Trip is coming up at the end of August in Seattle, shortly after that we'll be in Austin on September 13th and then we are off to Chicago in October. Come on out and join us, all the details are located on our Road Trip map !

Calling all potential Team Leads! Some of the positions we are looking to fill include: Valewalker, Bonedancer and Heretic. Team Leads! If you think you are an expert in your favorite class then we want to hear from you. Apply today !

The doppelgangers are back! That's right, they have returned to invade the frontiers and they take some interesting forms. Just be careful out there, those new evil forms are dangerous.

That's it for me this week, please stay safe and cool during this warm summer weekend. I will see y'all out in the frontier - let me at those doppelgangers!