Have you had questions concerning shield blocking after the 1.96a patch notes? Then check out tonight's Grab Bag , where it is a topic of some discussion, along with: art work for bounty point cloaks, runed demon seal fragments, the quest 'Grave Honor' lvl, a bashful Dob among other things. Read on to learn more:

Q. I remember in the past, the Midwinter Medal of Honor quest was available below Level 50. The new quest is a Level 50 only quest so I can't make temps for Cathal Valley that included this necklace. Is there any chance the level of the quest will be lowered and, if not, when can I hope to see another chance to get this necklace below level 50?

A. Smiling joyfully the Lady of the Jewels has some great news for you: The quest 'Grave Honor' can now be completed at Level 49. This was changed during this past week in a hot fix. Enjoy!

Q. In a recent Grab Bag it was stated that the change to shield block rates in the 1.96a Pendragon Patch Notes "only affects the RvR block cap". Does this change affect block caps on the PvP ruleset and when dueling realm-mates?

A. The Equalizer while gazing up at the ceiling was ready to clarify this: RvR, or Realm versus Realm, is the term that we use to refer to any combat between two players, rather than combat between a player and a monster. As such, this change to the blocking cap affects all combat between two players, including duels and combat on Mordred.

Q. I have been farming savage bears to spawn Dob in the Bog of Cullen off and on for nearly 7 years. Is this One-time-drop (Dob's Bloody Fang) still available?

A. The Lady of the Jewels went straight into the mob loot to look for Dob and confirmed: Dob does indeed still roam the waters in the eastern part of the Bog of Cullen, however like many named monsters players may need to kill the other mobs in the area such as the savage fishing bears and the siabra waterwalkers to increase his chances of showing up. He still has the one-time drop Dob's Bloody Fang as well, which is available to player's 45 and above who kill him.

Q. Hello! I'm wondering if it would be possible to modify the artwork of the bounty point cloaks to include the realm's emblem along with their colors? If not could someone turn me towards a quest that would give a cloak out that has the realm emblem on it?

A. Searching through her vast knowledge of cloaks the Lady of the Jewels says: The (Realm) Cloaks of Might/Magic have the symbol of your realm on them. They can currently be gotten by completing the Blood in the Water quest for the Farmers' Market Festival.

Q. From the last Grab Bag: "PvE and RvR block rates have two separate caps". I just searched in the knowledgebase, but could not find what are the PvE block rates (Shield and Parry). It would help deciding whether I would get "master of parry" or not. What are they?

A. The Equalizer pretended to have a shield in his hand thinking I wouldn’t wait for an answer then he said: PvE blocking rates currently depend on the size of the shield being used. Currently, the blocking rate caps are as follows for PvE:

Small Shield: 80%
Medium Shield: 90%
Large Shield: 99%

Note: These values only affect PvE - in RvR, blocking is currently capped at 75%, and 60% on Pendragon.

Q. My group ran around the Decayed Lands last night for over an hour, there were no other groups out there, and we found no Runed Demon Seal Fragments. So we are wondering A) are the seals only found around the perimeter of the Decayed Lands or throughout Agramon island? How rare is the spawn for the seals, because we seemed to have the worse of luck out there.

A. The Lady of the Jewels had a look at Agramon Island and the seals found on it: The Runed Demon Seal Fragments spawn all over Agramon, even at the bottom of Starlight Lake on occasion. They have a moderate spawn rate, and several can be up at one time. Widening the search should turn up more of them.

Q. I Would like to know how long the Mystic line Champion level damage and debuff (resistant) cold spell debuffs the target. Does this debuff of the damage and debuff spell, last for a duration? If so this would be very beneficial for the user of the "Cold" Legendary Weapons and help when teamed up with casters that deal cold damage? I would like to know as I currently am running with two Legendary "cold" swords and this would help my damage output.

A. Within just a few minutes the Equalizer had the answer: Yes, these damage and debuff spells leave a lasting debuff on their target that decreases their cold resistance. Both Raven Blast and Minor Raven Horde in the Mystic Champion Level subclassing line last for 20 seconds after casting.

Q. In the 09-12-08 Grab Bag, a question was answered in regards to CLXP and RXP.

Quote:

Q. I have some chars that have rested XP, every time when I level with them I have a problem with the way Bonus or CLXP is getting added to XP. When I do have rest XP all bonus and CLXP only is coming from the rested XP and not from all XP.

For example I have a level 28 Healer that is using the XP-Charge from the Amulet of Midgard, which delves as a 10% XP bonus. Now I receive 5,160,960 XP from a mob - I get 2,457,600 for being rested and I get 245,760 Bonus XP from the XP charge. That seems to be wrong to be as the 10% bonus XP should come from the 5,160,960 XP and not only from rested XP. The same is when you do have a character that is getting rested XP and you get CLXP, the CLXP is only coming from rested XP and not from complete XP.

What is causing this?

A. This question took awhile to decipher but the Equalizer was more then ready for the challenge: The way that experience is displayed when received from a monster kill is slightly misleading. When you kill a monster and it displays that you have received 5,160,960 experience, this is the actual value that is granted to your character. Everything after that is merely a broken-down version of where this experience came from.

In your example, you actually would have only received 2,457,600 experience from killing the monster, had you not been rested and had the 10% bonus. That value is where the amount of extra EXP granted is calculated - rested experience will give you a 100% bonus, and then the bonus EXP gives you 10% of that original value. The same is true of Champion Experience - 10% of the original value that the mob would have given you.

As it stands now, Champion Level Experience is not affected by Rest Experience, and will only be calculated based on the experience that the monster would have given before any bonuses were applied.

But according to the patch notes for Patch 1.94 in regards to RXP and CLXP:

Quote
Note: Characters will continue to gain RXP at level 50 for the purposes of champion level experience.

This seems contradictory. Could you please clarify this? Thanks!

A. Challenged with the contradictory answers the Equalizer figured out this mystery: So, it turns out that both the patch notes from 1.94 and the answer from a previous answer were half-correct. Rested EXP was intended to provide a bonus to Champion Experience at level 50, but was incorrectly calculating how it awarded that experience, which led to the grab bag answer from September 12.

As such, we have gone back into the code and fixed the issue that was causing rest experience to be awarded incorrectly to players. Thank you to everyone who pointed out the discrepancy in these two answers.

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Chicago Road Trip is coming up on Saturday, October 18th and we're celebrating! We've got some great prizes including an exclusive in-game item that is only available to players who attend. There will be contests and a great deal of fun as we celebrate seven years of Dark Age of Camelot. Please make sure to RSVP !

Those pesky doppelgangers have gathered some extra strength this week, just what are they up to? If you haven't had a chance to kill them recently, you should search for one!

Calling all Team Leads! Fancy yourself an expert Bonedancer, Heretic or Valewalker? We're looking to fill those three spots so if you think you would make a great Team Lead we want to hear from you. Apply today !

That's it for me this week, I am going to brave the dreary rain soaked Virginia weather and head on home. Stay safe all.