Level 50 Guide
Written by Luvly and Amurdora with help from DKoC guild/alliance.
This is a list of useful tips that have been compiled to help new players be prepared for RvR. While we have tried to put the most common and important tips here, a full list of everything that you need to do is to much for one guide. The most important piece of advice is to have fun, this is a game after all. If you find that you aren’t having fun, try something else or another class. While RvR is the primary focus of this game, it is about 15 years old which means there are a lot of things to do. Also, experiment with your class both in RvR and in PvE so you can really learn what it can and can’t do. You'll be amazed to find out that a Runemaster is capable of far more than just dealing damage and an Armsman can interrupt casters from range.
The second most important piece of advice is to find yourself a friendly guild to join. Each realm has one very large guild that actively invites new and returning players as well as a multitude of smaller guilds. Each guild has its own personality, so if you find yourself in a guild you don’t like, simply leave it and find another. The odds are good you will find one that will suite you. These guilds and alliances can be what really makes your gaming experience enjoyable. Do use them to ask questions, find people to play with, and experience different aspects of the game. Don’t use them to play the game for you.
Thirdly, if there is one thing you should remember it’s that you are competing against other players, some of whom put in a lot of effort to play well. You’re going to die in RvR. It takes time to learn everything so don’t get discouraged. Don’t be afraid to ask more experienced players questions. Don’t be upset when you get yelled at for doing something you shouldn’t have. Just remind the person that you are learning and make a genuine effort to learn. Even the most experienced of us makes mistakes and gets yelled at by our group members, don’t take it personally. If you do find that someone is crossing the line between fiery criticism and outright hostility, simply leave that group and don’t join that person again. There are always players who want to help you, never let a bad experience with some bad apples ruin your night.
This guide is broken into four parts. The first deals with what you should do once you hit 50. It gives general information and advice on how to obtain champion levels, make plat, and gives you a path to follow to prepare your character for RvR. The second part deals with RvR itself and contains information on what groups expect you to have, how to make assist macros and qbinds, and some general information on what to do in RvR that isn’t class specific. The third section gives a list of commands and how to setup macros while the fourth gives brief explanations on anything that you don’t understand as well as providing links to more comprehensive internet resources.
Guide for New 50’s
Congratulations, you’ve just hit level 50! Now what? Here is a list of to-do items, we’ll explain what each of these means and why you need it below. But first…
If you haven’t already, obtain Orion’s Belt and the Snatcher’s Bracer artifacts. With Orion’s you get 10% extra experience and with Snatcher’s and Orion’s on together you’ll gain 10% more realm points and 7% more bounty points. They’re both easy to get as Orion’s is very close to where you port into Oceanus and can be soloed by any level 50. You can buy Snatcher’s with BP’s or Glass if you can’t find someone to help you kill it, it only takes a couple of people to do.
Another great source of experience is the Buggane’s Folly buff. The buff lasts for 2 hours and persists even through death. It grants the following bonuses:
To receive the buff, destroy the obelisk rubble so that your realm's obelisk can be built. Then, simply right-click on the obelisk to receive the bonus!
Finally, every character you have should do the quest Saving Zarees which is found off of the NPC named Tym standing next to Zarees. He is located at the entrance to the Capital city from Mularn/Cotswold/Mag Mell. This quest was Make-A-Wish for a kid named Daniel. You can find more about the quest. You will want this quest however as it gives you the Foil Hat as it’s reward which instantly teleports you to the Shrouded Isles teleporters whenever it is used in a non RvR zone. Extremely useful as it has no reuse timer.
To-Do
With the exception of speaking to the King to unlock Champion xp, these can be done in any order.
A. Speak to the King
Champion levels grant you another line of unique abilities to make your character more versatile. With champion levels your character can gain self-buffs, melee styles, spells, and even the ability to resurrect your friends. You don’t start gaining champion experience until you’ve hit level 50 AND spoken to your realm’s King. You can find out more about champion levels here.
So the first thing you should upon hitting level 50 is to go to the King’s throne room in the capital cities. This room can be found by typing /map in the capital cities, it is located on the top left of the map in Alb, in Mid it’s the door protected by the Royal Guards when you teleport into Jordheim, and on Hib it’s behind you as you teleport into Tir na Nog. Simply right click them to click through the dialogue to enter the throne room. Once you are in speak to the King. Clicking through his dialogue will unlock champion experience, and right clicking him a second time will open up the quest for the King’s gear. Until you speak to the King you CANNOT begin getting champion experience. Do this even before you train as it’s easy to forget to do. Make sure you get the King’s gear, it’s free, it’s useful, and you’ll probably end up using an item or two in your final template.
Next you should obtain the Otherworldly Quest from Chamberlain Harlen in Alb, Athr Hasetti Theyr in Mid, or Seneschal Desmond in Hib. We’ll talk about these quests further down, but check your journal and make sure you have the quest titled Eerily Quiet which is preceded by the phrase [Spirits] in Alb, [Jotun] in Mid, and [Siabra] in Hib.
B. Templates
A template is the gear that you wear. A templated character is a character who is wearing armor, weapons, and jewelry that gives them all of the abilities expected in RvR. By having a template picked out early, you can direct what you need to do more easily. However, don’t let being un-templated stop you from enjoying RvR. It’s a good idea to RvR while working on building your template as it’s easy to lose steam on a character if you do nothing but work on a template.
That being said, while the King’s gear gives you a great start, and you’ll probably use some of it in your final template, it is inadequate compared to what you can wear. A fully templated character has more range, does more damage, is tougher, and has useful extra abilities granted by some items. If you find yourself getting smashed by other players, it’s probably a good bet that you aren’t fully templated. A template alone makes up at least 50% of the gap between a new character and an experienced one.
Once you hit 50, if you haven't found a template yet find one. The best place to find templates is Postcount.net. The class boards are broken into the archetypes, Albion Casters, Albion Healers, Albion Tanks, and Albion Stealthers for example. Simply find the arch-type that is your class and look around there. Also remember there is no perfect template. Every person has a different playstyle and that means different templates will suite one person better than another. It can be overwhelming looking at the different options and understanding which you should use, but if you ask on the boards you will typically get a response within a couple of days pointing out which suit(s) are best. Follow these links to learn more about templates and postcount. Your guild/alliance may have a website that also has templates on it, however these vary greatly in how up to date they are.
C. I Need PLAT and Champion XP!!!
Templates can be expensive however, so how do you go about getting the plat? Fortunately, plat and champion exp go hand in hand. To get champion exp it is fastest to do the following quests and buy them with bounty points as you obtain them. For 2,000 BP’s, with the Buggane bonus on (which you should get), and guild xp bonus up you will make ~40,000 Champ xp every 2k BP’s, which is about 1.3 levels of CL xp from 1-10 and ~0.7 levels from CL10-15.
The following is a list of quests that are of particular interest to level 50s due to the rewards in experience, plat, realm points, and/or items. You will find only a couple of these necessary, but all are well worth the effort. You can find raid times on postcount.net for the quests that require more people.
2. Glass quests
This quest chain starts by speaking to Destin in Oceanus Hesperos, you can start it as early as level 30. It gives solid champion exp, you get ~30,000 glass which is free Master Level 1-10 if you choose or just sell at whatever market prices are. If you do nothing else, talk to Destin and get the free 600 glass.
3. Supplies for the Cause
You can start this quest either by picking up supplies at the ruined keeps or Ellan Vannin docks or picking up rubble at the maze areas or small towns on the outskirts of Ellan Vannin. To complete it you must speak to the dockmaster near your realms outermost docks or the docks on Ellan Vannin. This quest is well worth the trouble as the reward is 2,750 BP’s, 420 RPs, some champion experience with Orion’s Belt on, and 2 doppelganger shards which allow you to get a variety of high end items.
Remember to grab the Buggane’s Folly buff and boost these by 75%! You can sell some of the shards for quite a sum and this is the only way to get Doppelganger Mythirians if you don’t want to buy them off of another player. Great for when action is slow. The only downside is that because it’s such a good quest chain the locations are regularly checked and so unless you get lucky you’re probably going to die a couple times. It’s still well worth it, especially when the action is slower.
4. Champion Quest Lines (3 different lines)
None of these quests are necessary, but they are nice.
As you leveled you may have begun a quest at level 30 called Summons from the King (Level 30). This is the first quest in the original champion experience quest chain. It’s not done very often, however it is a nice story line and you get some very nice looking trophies for your house. You can do the first several steps by yourself, but once you get further along you will need up to one group to complete it all, however it is rarely if ever done anymore due to the small amounts of experience you gain until the Circle of 5 step (Inferno (Level 50)). If you do it you will gain enough champion experience to obtain champion level 5, trophies, your champion weapon prior to obtaining champ level 5, and the zones are beautiful.
The second quest chain is the Labyrinth quest chain and starts by speaking to your class trainer in the capital city who will send you to speak with someone. After speaking with that person you go to the King’s Throne Room and speak with the same NPC as you did the Otherworldly quest chain. You may have ignored them when you first got them, however the labyrinth one gives you ~7p and 6 champ levels for all the parts you can easily solo on most classes. Well worth the trouble.
Finally, the [Champion] An Offer You Can’t Refuse quest chain doesn’t get offered until you are Champion Level 10 and it is the Darkness Falls quest line, it gives substantial amounts of coin and experience as well as blood seals however it is more difficult to do. Finding a group to help you however can get you to the final step, which is to kill Legion and is done regularly by Battlegroups.
5. Darkness Falls Raids
DF raids are done to make money and get needed items for your template. Typically you will get 8 blood seals per character you bring each run, with the runs lasting ~45 minutes. Since blood seals aren’t tradable, you’ll need to do 3 raids in order to buy a weapon and 4 to buy the most expensive jewelry and armor. You can make anywhere from 50-100+ plat selling items to people who don’t want to do the raids. These are becoming less common but are typically run on whichever realm owns Darkness Falls at the time.
6. Statue Quests
These quests are obtained from the giant statues in the capital city commemorating the 13th & 15th anniversary tournament that was held. To complete these quests you will need to RvR, but the rewards are well worth it.
7. Crafting
Finally, crafting is a great way to make money. Both Spellcrafting and Alchemy especially can be skilled up with the coin you earned while leveling to 50. Spellcrafting is incredibly easy, it'll teach you about templates, and you can make some serious cash. Alchemy is extremely useful as well for making potions, something that are always needed, and combining items for people. These two crafts will make you the most plat consistently. The other trade skills can be profitable as well, however they require more work than Spellcrafting and Alchemy do. It’s also helpful to have woodworking and metalworking leveled up so you can repair keeps for easy realm points and salvage random drops for coin. Avoid leveling Fletching unless you really want to as there isn’t much demand for Fletchers.
D. Master Levels
The master levels provide extremely useful abilities. You can find more information about the specific ML paths here. To obtain these there are two options; one is to do the encounters and the second is to buy them. Doing the encounters requires a couple of groups and an afternoon, but is rarely done anymore. The most common method of obtaining your master levels is to buy them. You can buy them with glass obtained from the glass quests, bounty points ((~30,000 glass or bounty points to buy), from winning a complete Master Level token from the Trifecta game, or from as a prize in the 10p box sold on the Traveling Merchant in Castle Sauvage/Druim Ligen/Svasud Faste. Other players can buy you the Master Levels and trade them to you, so don’t feel that you have to do it yourself.
E. Mounts
Mounts are extremely important to have. Not only do they provide you with extra storage space for those pesky non-tradable items, but with the proper armor you can move at Bard/Minst/Skald speed. Be sure to get all the saddle bags, armor, and barding. You can find more about mounts, including screenshots of what every type of mount/barding looks like, here. Finally, pay attention to the champion level restrictions of these mounts and armors. Once you are champion level 10 there are no restrictions.
II. An introductory Guide to RvR
Frankly, RvR is what this game is about. If you aren’t enjoying it, you probably won’t enjoy the game. These are some notes to help you do better in RvR, both in preparing for it and what to do during a fight. There is no substitute for experience though and many people have been playing this game a long time. Don’t get discouraged when you lose. Everyone playing has lost many fights. Instead of getting discouraged, ask yourself what you could have done differently to have won. If you take just a couple of minutes after every fight to think about what you did, win or lose, you will find yourself improving rapidly. The more you play a character the more automatic things will become and thus the easier it will be. If you are always trying to improve your game play you will find that RvR gets fun quickly.
If you find you aren’t having fun, try to figure out why. Is it the class, the people you are playing with, your own playstyle, etc.? The goal is to have fun. Not to win, not to make realm points, but to have fun. Obviously winning and making realm points are correlated with fun, but even if you lose a fight that doesn’t mean you didn’t enjoy it more than most of your victories. Don’t be discouraged by losing.
A. Before You RvR
1) Make sure that you are Master Level 10, have a horse with armor capable of giving you maximum speed (if you shift-right click your armor it should tell you that you have an extra 54% speed increase), and ideally are templated. As stated earlier, you shouldn’t let being un-templated dissuade you from RvR however as it’s best to RvR as you build your template rather than wait around to RvR until you have it completed. Do know that not being fully templated will put you at a disadvantage in RvR so some groups may not take you until you are.
2) Most groups will expect you to have a Greater Nereid Potion (for increased swim speed), the realm ability Long Wind 1, and an Improved Potion of Invigoration (so that you can sprint permanently). If you can, get Strong Potion of Invigoration or Draught of Omni-Regen potion so that you don’t have to get Long Wind 1. Another useful item to have is a Scroll of Recall as it allows you to quickly teleport out of a region if your group does not have any ML10 Sojourners. If you plan on running in the battlegroups you may be expected to have this scroll.
3) Download your favorite voice chat software (Discord is the most popular program currently, while Ventrilo and Teamspeak arealso common, Mumble is also used though rarely) and get a headset. You don’t need to speak, all you need to do is listen. Nobody will have time to type directions in the middle of a fight and even small things such as commands not to take the tower or kill guards can make the difference between winning and losing a fight. You’ll find groups hard to come by without these. Again, all you need to do is listen, so don’t let shyness stop you.
4) Carry a Draught of Heroism and/or Draught of Supremacy potion (or 10). Heroism potions are cheap and can get you moving if your group’s buffer is dead or too busy to buff you. Supremacy potions are more expensive but are equivalent to a buffbots buffs. Without buffs, you are completely useless in RvR.
5) Check the charges on all your items and any specialized pots you like to use for your class. Load up before you log out for the night rather than when you first log in. There’s nothing more painful than going out for a run only to discover you are out of some potion or charge.
B. Siege
Bring siege! /bank is your friend and every single player should carry at least one piece of siege if not more, even casters. The two main types of siege used are Fortified War Ram and War Ram. Siege Tents are required for all fortified siege deployment.
You require 225 siegecraft to deploy fortified war rams quickly and 600+ to deploy a siege tower. Siege towers are the pink circles on the ground at keeps. In order to deploy a tower you must have 200 ironwood and 100 alloy metal bars in your bag. You must stand at the tower as it is building or it stops building (anybody with 600 siege will cause it to keep building). Take down an old tent and the rubble and deploy a new tent. You can keep the tents on your horse (up to 6) and 1 in your bag. Have the icon on your hotbar as it will take the tents from your horse for more rapid deployment.
FILL THE RAM! Nothing upsets BG leaders more than rams not being filled during a keep take. If there is no oil – casters on the ram and tanks on the door. Every single class that can use Bruiser should have one in your inventory, leveled and used on any door. If your class can equip maces, it can equip Bruiser. Bruiser gives a massive bonus to damage against doors, keeps, etc. and allows you to beat on things when there is no more room on a ram or if you don’t bother putting a ram down.
DO NOT get on a ram and go afk. Watching an entire ram full of people being destroyed is horrible. Pay attention and get off the ram if someone yells incoming. Ram driver – stay on the ram – it could mean the difference in winning or losing a fight. Remember, if you are on a ram and get mezzed or stunned you cannot purge it, so get off the moment you hear incoming.
What the types of siege are for.
Finally, remember that you get RP’s for destroying Oil (400-500/oil depending on the bonuses) and fortified siege equipment. Kill oil and kill treb’s whenever you have the opportunity, they will save your life and make you RP’s. If you are an assassin, use Seigewrecker as two wreckers will destroy most siege giving you free RPs. That’s up to 1500 RP’s for killing the 3 oils.
C. During RvR
1) Make a Group. If you are in a BG /bg groups shows you the ungrouped people as well as their class. If you are LFG – send a tell directly to people that have groups with room. /bg groups and count how many people are in each group. If you see a spot, send a tell and ask them to invite you. /bg groupclass will show you what classes are in each group. If you don’t want to join a BG or there isn’t one running, ask in /lfg if anyone has room in an 8-man. If no one replies, don’t be shy about starting a group. If people complain about how you are driving, have them drive. You’ll be surprised to find out how easy it is to get a group going if you log on around the same time every day and say you’re forming up. Take initiative!
2) Make a face macro, an assist macro and a stick macro. More information on macros can be found at the end of this guide.
3) Learn to pan. This is Mouse Pan in the /keyboard options and is much easier for someone NOT DRIVING to do. If you are stuck it’s easy to pan your camera around. When you call incoming, please use a compass direction. Everyone should have a compass up at all times. Make sure to turn off the snapback feature in options if you are going to pan. The most common setup is to use the mouse to mouse pan, however always remember you are the one playing and if you find it easier to use a different key, by all means do so.
4) CALLING INCOMING – Give a compass direction, the number of players and realm (realm isn’t as important). The number of players does not mean try to count – it’s either a few, 8 man or zerg – that’s it. How your group/battlegroup reacts will depend on this information and calling out the wrong information can get everyone killed. Always listen to what the leader tells you. Sometimes you will be told to engage, other times to keep moving. Regardless though, it is a good idea to break off of stick so that your group is more spread out and less susceptible to being crowd controlled (CC’d).
5) Again, always LISTEN to what your leader tells you. He/she will determine if the group/bg is going to turn and fight or keep going. This is critical as often times realms will use a bait group and having some people break off and chase a few enemies can completely disrupt and destroy the whole BG. Enemies use this technique often and it works because people don’t listen.
Two examples of a bad call are, “MIDS, BEHIND!!!” When in reality there are 2 mids and, “ALBS LEFT!!!” When the BG is facing multiple directions leaving it unclear where they are. What a good call sounds like is, “FG Mids SW”. Also, stay calm. Panic leads to bad things, it’s hard at first but the quicker you stay calm in RvR the easier it becomes to win.
6) SPEED WARPS. At a structure, speedwarps should be placed all around. AT A DOCK – one speedwarp should be down. During a fight ONE SPEEDWARP on incoming and then speedwarps during a push and during a retreat. Pay attention, don’t drop 3 warps in the same spot, you can say in vent – I have first warp. As with all things, communication is key.
TAKING DOWN SPEEDWARPS – never pass a speedwarp without hitting it. If you are an assassin, use Sabotage on any speedwarp you come across. Losing the speed advantage is another form of crowd control and can ruin your day quickly. Your group leader will tell you what he/she wants to do about speedwarps.
7) Stacking traps – Casters need to learn to stack traps. Traps are high damage spells that you cast at choke points that the enemy will pass through. One trap is good for intel, a few stacked traps can wipe a BG. Inside a structure there is a point on the stairs that all players must run past to get to the lord. That is the ideal place to stack traps. Other times stack on the BG leader or where the BG leader tells you to stack them.
8.) If you are a Stormlord, learn how to move storms, both your own and the enemies. Storms include all abilities in the Stormlord line, Static Tempest, and Negative Maelstrom. This will take practice to rapidly and accurately move them around, and as cheesy at it sounds to practice at a video game, you’ll find it is well worth it.
9) Assisting. The two primary factors that make DAoC the best PvP game there is are crowd control and heals. Only the highest realm rank and most deadly casters can hope to take out a target by themselves. Everyone else needs to be assisting. To assist you need to make a macro. You can find more about how to make an assist macro here.
10) To AOE or not to AOE. That should almost never be the question. Don’t AOE, it’s that simple. The fall-off damage from AOE is substantial so all AOE does is break crowd control. If the fight is basically over and everyone is clumped up, then you can AOE. In a keep situation it’s useful to AOE to hit targets you can’t see. But in the open field, AOEing a target is simply giving your enemy a free purge. Don’t do it! If you are unsure if you should AOE or not, don’t. AOE’s are the main reason you need larger numbers to win fights. If people didn’t AOE all the time, it’d be a lot easier to win fights when outnumbered.
11) Finally and to reiterate, in every fight you should learn something. Just because you won a fight doesn’t mean you played it correctly. Always be looking to improve your game play. It will make the game far more enjoyable for you, you’ll die a lot less often, and you’ll start to kill people far more often if you actively try to learn. Those of us with very high RR characters have played those characters for a very long time, and there is no substitute for experience.
We’re playing a game, but we’re doing so against other people and no one likes to lose. If you find yourself losing regularly you have two options, give up or figure out what you’re doing wrong. We want you to choose the latter option, so don’t be shy about asking questions. We want you to succeed, but you have to want it yourself as well.
III. Useful Commands
You can find a variety of useful How-To videos on topics of such as quick binds and macros on the Camelot Herald.. If you prefer reading to videos, read on.
A. Making a Macro
To make a macro, type /macro <name of macro> <command>. An example, /macro face /face will create a macro for you to put onto your quickbar which by clicking let you face your target. The first face is simply what appears on the macro when you make it, the /face is the actual command. You can macro just about any single / command.
B. Assisting
To assist someone, simply type /assist <name of the player to be assisted>. Since you will be assisting people so often, it’s best to make a macro, but since the macro has to be /macro Assist /assist <player name>, it’s easier to make a macro for the macro. To do this use the following command:
/macro assist /macro MA /assist %t.
This macro will make another macro titled MA that will /assist whomever you have targeted when the macro is created. That is, if you are targeting Billings and then hit the assist macro, a new macro titled MA will be created that will /assist Billings. This prevents you from having to type out /macro MA /assist <name> every time you want to assist someone new. The person you should assist is either a group member who has a lot of experience in RvR so they know what classes look like and how important their death is, or if no one in your group is comfortable being the MA, ask in BG who you should assist.
Note that %t is the wild card operator in DAoC. So, typing %t will simply return whatever you have targeted.
IIII. General Information
A. Champion Levels
As was stated earlier, champion levels are levels that can be unlocked that allow you to gain additional abilities, increased hit points, and additional power in your power pool. To begin these levels you need to speak to the king. Once you have embarked on the path of the champion any experience you gain will count towards these champion levels. You can track the progression of your character by opening up the Interface Options after opening the Main Menu window in game (usually by hitting the esc key).
Clicking on the Champion Exp tile will open a floating window showing the level you currently have trained. Champion Exp works differently than regular experience in that if you gain sufficient experience to gain another champion level, you will NOT gain that level automatically. You WILL continue to gain champion experience however. In order to actually gain the champion level benefits that you are entitled to you need to go speak to the King again. Example: you are currently on Chapter 8 of the Otherworldly Quest line and must now speak to the King. You go and speak to the King for the first time since you first hit level 50 and started gaining champion experience. The King grants you Champion Levels 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 instantly. You may now use the points from these levels to train, and gain the HP/power pool bonuses for a character of champion level 7. Until you spoke to the King, you could not actually train in those levels and did not accrue the HP/power pool bonus even though you had sufficient experience to be champion level 7.
To train in the champion abilities you need to find the base trainer associated with the abilities you would like. Note: you CANNOT train champion abilities from the base trainer of your own class. Players may only train CL abilities from base trainers other than their class’ base trainer. Base Trainers are located in Cotswold and Caer Gothwaite in Albion, Mularn and Aegirhamn in Midgard, and Mag Mell and Grove of Domnann in Hibernia. You can identify a base trainer as they look like a normal class trainers, but have titles such as <Fighter>, <Seer> or <Elementalist>. To identify which base trainer your class belongs to, simply open up your attributes page and scroll down until you see Base Class.
You gain one ability point to spend for each champion level you gain, plus one for beginning the champion levels, for a total of 16 points to spend. These abilities have the following costs associated with them:
First ability in each column: 1 point
Second ability in each column: 2 points
Third ability in each column: 3 points
Fourth ability in each column: 4 points
Fifth ability in each column: 5 points
This means in order to get all 5 abilities in a given column, it will take 15 of the possible 16 Champion ability points.
B. Templates
1. How To Build
If you aren’t content to run a template someone else built, you can always build your own. The best way to learn about the mechanics of the game is to template yourself. If that is what you’re into, this is for you. First, you’ll need a templating program. The most commonly used programs are Loki and Gearbunny. Loki requires a key you have to buy while Gearbunny is free. Both are used by many people, with the advantage of Loki being that it will automatically find the optimal crafting you need to do. Both have been updated for the latest crafting changes.
It’s best to build off of others templates, at least until you really understand what your class should have. Of course you don’t have to and exploring the games items and putting together the puzzle that is a template yourself can be quite enjoyable itself. Remember, your template should fit your playstyle. If you find yourself not using toys very often, don’t put them in. If you prefer survivability or damage, go that route. It’s a puzzle and rather than looking at each item individually and asking if it’s the best item possible look at how that item fits into the template and ask if you could do better overall even if you sacrificed a little bit on that item.
2. Mythirians
On every toon you will want to have the following: Greater Guerdon Mythirian (RP's!!!!) and a Dragon Movement Mythirian (free water pot and safe fall). On top of these every class should have their specific Myths.
i. Tanks
Greater Irrepressible Mythirian (15% crowd control reduction), Doppelganger Mighty Mythirian, Greater Onslaught Mythirian (if you ever are going to run siege this is a must, if you never run siege it can be skipped), Greater Mythirian of Health (if you skip this it's not the end of the world, just useful for health regen if you're solo/small manning it), Greater Scathing Mythirian (8% mythical dps)
ii. Casters
Doppelganger Arcane Mythirian, Greater Focal Mythirian (must have for PvE, you'll blow mobs up far easier with this on, in RvR not as useful), Greater Power Mythirian.
iii. Healers
Doppelganger Curative Mythirian, Greater Power Mythirian, Doppelganger Arcane Mythirian
3. Toys (Items with /use and /use2 abilities)
There are as many opinions on the number of toys in the game as there are players. No matter what your opinion though, you will want at least a couple of them in your suit. Some items need to be used in combat while others should be used well before combat. To see what an item can do, right click it and click info. You will see what level the item can be used at and what its abilities are. If you right click an item you can drag and drop the icons to your quickbar so that you simply need to click them to use them.
You can find more information about quality, condition, and everything else item related means here.
C. Trifecta
Trifecta is a gambling game you can play in the capital cities or the capital cities of Shrouded Isles. It can be fun if gambling is your thing and there are some neat prizes, but this is not an efficient way to look for anything specific. The Trifecta merchants have <Trifecta Dealer> under their name.
D. Daniels Quest
From the Herald Nov 5, 2007:
This guide was written based on the most common questions and there are still many, many more things to learn about Dark Age of Camelot. Often times asking in region or simply joining an established guild is the best way to receive responses to the questions you might have. Googling is often also helpful. There are also player liaisons known as Knights and a list is provided on the Camelot Herald. Feel free to contact them in the game and even if they don’t have an answer for you, they can point you in the right direction.
This is a list of useful tips that have been compiled to help new players be prepared for RvR. While we have tried to put the most common and important tips here, a full list of everything that you need to do is to much for one guide. The most important piece of advice is to have fun, this is a game after all. If you find that you aren’t having fun, try something else or another class. While RvR is the primary focus of this game, it is about 15 years old which means there are a lot of things to do. Also, experiment with your class both in RvR and in PvE so you can really learn what it can and can’t do. You'll be amazed to find out that a Runemaster is capable of far more than just dealing damage and an Armsman can interrupt casters from range.
The second most important piece of advice is to find yourself a friendly guild to join. Each realm has one very large guild that actively invites new and returning players as well as a multitude of smaller guilds. Each guild has its own personality, so if you find yourself in a guild you don’t like, simply leave it and find another. The odds are good you will find one that will suite you. These guilds and alliances can be what really makes your gaming experience enjoyable. Do use them to ask questions, find people to play with, and experience different aspects of the game. Don’t use them to play the game for you.
Thirdly, if there is one thing you should remember it’s that you are competing against other players, some of whom put in a lot of effort to play well. You’re going to die in RvR. It takes time to learn everything so don’t get discouraged. Don’t be afraid to ask more experienced players questions. Don’t be upset when you get yelled at for doing something you shouldn’t have. Just remind the person that you are learning and make a genuine effort to learn. Even the most experienced of us makes mistakes and gets yelled at by our group members, don’t take it personally. If you do find that someone is crossing the line between fiery criticism and outright hostility, simply leave that group and don’t join that person again. There are always players who want to help you, never let a bad experience with some bad apples ruin your night.
This guide is broken into four parts. The first deals with what you should do once you hit 50. It gives general information and advice on how to obtain champion levels, make plat, and gives you a path to follow to prepare your character for RvR. The second part deals with RvR itself and contains information on what groups expect you to have, how to make assist macros and qbinds, and some general information on what to do in RvR that isn’t class specific. The third section gives a list of commands and how to setup macros while the fourth gives brief explanations on anything that you don’t understand as well as providing links to more comprehensive internet resources.
Guide for New 50’s
Congratulations, you’ve just hit level 50! Now what? Here is a list of to-do items, we’ll explain what each of these means and why you need it below. But first…
If you haven’t already, obtain Orion’s Belt and the Snatcher’s Bracer artifacts. With Orion’s you get 10% extra experience and with Snatcher’s and Orion’s on together you’ll gain 10% more realm points and 7% more bounty points. They’re both easy to get as Orion’s is very close to where you port into Oceanus and can be soloed by any level 50. You can buy Snatcher’s with BP’s or Glass if you can’t find someone to help you kill it, it only takes a couple of people to do.
Another great source of experience is the Buggane’s Folly buff. The buff lasts for 2 hours and persists even through death. It grants the following bonuses:
- Realm Ranks 1L0 through 3L9 receive a 75% bonus to RP, BP, and coin buff.
- Realm Ranks 4L0 through 5L9 receive a 50% bonus to RP, BP, and coin buff.
- Realm Ranks 6L0 through 7L9 receive a 25% bonus to RP, BP, and coin buff.
- Realm Ranks 8L0 and up will receive the original 15% bonus to RP, BP, and coin buff.
To receive the buff, destroy the obelisk rubble so that your realm's obelisk can be built. Then, simply right-click on the obelisk to receive the bonus!
Finally, every character you have should do the quest Saving Zarees which is found off of the NPC named Tym standing next to Zarees. He is located at the entrance to the Capital city from Mularn/Cotswold/Mag Mell. This quest was Make-A-Wish for a kid named Daniel. You can find more about the quest. You will want this quest however as it gives you the Foil Hat as it’s reward which instantly teleports you to the Shrouded Isles teleporters whenever it is used in a non RvR zone. Extremely useful as it has no reuse timer.
To-Do
With the exception of speaking to the King to unlock Champion xp, these can be done in any order.
- • Speak to the King to start the Champion Levels
- • Get free King's Gear
- • Find a template if you haven't already
- • Get Champ Level 15, get plat for template, obtain items as you can
- • Get your Master Level’s
- • Get a House?
- • Get a horse, saddlebags, saddle
A. Speak to the King
Champion levels grant you another line of unique abilities to make your character more versatile. With champion levels your character can gain self-buffs, melee styles, spells, and even the ability to resurrect your friends. You don’t start gaining champion experience until you’ve hit level 50 AND spoken to your realm’s King. You can find out more about champion levels here.
So the first thing you should upon hitting level 50 is to go to the King’s throne room in the capital cities. This room can be found by typing /map in the capital cities, it is located on the top left of the map in Alb, in Mid it’s the door protected by the Royal Guards when you teleport into Jordheim, and on Hib it’s behind you as you teleport into Tir na Nog. Simply right click them to click through the dialogue to enter the throne room. Once you are in speak to the King. Clicking through his dialogue will unlock champion experience, and right clicking him a second time will open up the quest for the King’s gear. Until you speak to the King you CANNOT begin getting champion experience. Do this even before you train as it’s easy to forget to do. Make sure you get the King’s gear, it’s free, it’s useful, and you’ll probably end up using an item or two in your final template.
Next you should obtain the Otherworldly Quest from Chamberlain Harlen in Alb, Athr Hasetti Theyr in Mid, or Seneschal Desmond in Hib. We’ll talk about these quests further down, but check your journal and make sure you have the quest titled Eerily Quiet which is preceded by the phrase [Spirits] in Alb, [Jotun] in Mid, and [Siabra] in Hib.
B. Templates
A template is the gear that you wear. A templated character is a character who is wearing armor, weapons, and jewelry that gives them all of the abilities expected in RvR. By having a template picked out early, you can direct what you need to do more easily. However, don’t let being un-templated stop you from enjoying RvR. It’s a good idea to RvR while working on building your template as it’s easy to lose steam on a character if you do nothing but work on a template.
That being said, while the King’s gear gives you a great start, and you’ll probably use some of it in your final template, it is inadequate compared to what you can wear. A fully templated character has more range, does more damage, is tougher, and has useful extra abilities granted by some items. If you find yourself getting smashed by other players, it’s probably a good bet that you aren’t fully templated. A template alone makes up at least 50% of the gap between a new character and an experienced one.
Once you hit 50, if you haven't found a template yet find one. The best place to find templates is Postcount.net. The class boards are broken into the archetypes, Albion Casters, Albion Healers, Albion Tanks, and Albion Stealthers for example. Simply find the arch-type that is your class and look around there. Also remember there is no perfect template. Every person has a different playstyle and that means different templates will suite one person better than another. It can be overwhelming looking at the different options and understanding which you should use, but if you ask on the boards you will typically get a response within a couple of days pointing out which suit(s) are best. Follow these links to learn more about templates and postcount. Your guild/alliance may have a website that also has templates on it, however these vary greatly in how up to date they are.
C. I Need PLAT and Champion XP!!!
Templates can be expensive however, so how do you go about getting the plat? Fortunately, plat and champion exp go hand in hand. To get champion exp it is fastest to do the following quests and buy them with bounty points as you obtain them. For 2,000 BP’s, with the Buggane bonus on (which you should get), and guild xp bonus up you will make ~40,000 Champ xp every 2k BP’s, which is about 1.3 levels of CL xp from 1-10 and ~0.7 levels from CL10-15.
The following is a list of quests that are of particular interest to level 50s due to the rewards in experience, plat, realm points, and/or items. You will find only a couple of these necessary, but all are well worth the effort. You can find raid times on postcount.net for the quests that require more people.
2. Glass quests
This quest chain starts by speaking to Destin in Oceanus Hesperos, you can start it as early as level 30. It gives solid champion exp, you get ~30,000 glass which is free Master Level 1-10 if you choose or just sell at whatever market prices are. If you do nothing else, talk to Destin and get the free 600 glass.
3. Supplies for the Cause
You can start this quest either by picking up supplies at the ruined keeps or Ellan Vannin docks or picking up rubble at the maze areas or small towns on the outskirts of Ellan Vannin. To complete it you must speak to the dockmaster near your realms outermost docks or the docks on Ellan Vannin. This quest is well worth the trouble as the reward is 2,750 BP’s, 420 RPs, some champion experience with Orion’s Belt on, and 2 doppelganger shards which allow you to get a variety of high end items.
Remember to grab the Buggane’s Folly buff and boost these by 75%! You can sell some of the shards for quite a sum and this is the only way to get Doppelganger Mythirians if you don’t want to buy them off of another player. Great for when action is slow. The only downside is that because it’s such a good quest chain the locations are regularly checked and so unless you get lucky you’re probably going to die a couple times. It’s still well worth it, especially when the action is slower.
4. Champion Quest Lines (3 different lines)
None of these quests are necessary, but they are nice.
As you leveled you may have begun a quest at level 30 called Summons from the King (Level 30). This is the first quest in the original champion experience quest chain. It’s not done very often, however it is a nice story line and you get some very nice looking trophies for your house. You can do the first several steps by yourself, but once you get further along you will need up to one group to complete it all, however it is rarely if ever done anymore due to the small amounts of experience you gain until the Circle of 5 step (Inferno (Level 50)). If you do it you will gain enough champion experience to obtain champion level 5, trophies, your champion weapon prior to obtaining champ level 5, and the zones are beautiful.
The second quest chain is the Labyrinth quest chain and starts by speaking to your class trainer in the capital city who will send you to speak with someone. After speaking with that person you go to the King’s Throne Room and speak with the same NPC as you did the Otherworldly quest chain. You may have ignored them when you first got them, however the labyrinth one gives you ~7p and 6 champ levels for all the parts you can easily solo on most classes. Well worth the trouble.
Finally, the [Champion] An Offer You Can’t Refuse quest chain doesn’t get offered until you are Champion Level 10 and it is the Darkness Falls quest line, it gives substantial amounts of coin and experience as well as blood seals however it is more difficult to do. Finding a group to help you however can get you to the final step, which is to kill Legion and is done regularly by Battlegroups.
5. Darkness Falls Raids
DF raids are done to make money and get needed items for your template. Typically you will get 8 blood seals per character you bring each run, with the runs lasting ~45 minutes. Since blood seals aren’t tradable, you’ll need to do 3 raids in order to buy a weapon and 4 to buy the most expensive jewelry and armor. You can make anywhere from 50-100+ plat selling items to people who don’t want to do the raids. These are becoming less common but are typically run on whichever realm owns Darkness Falls at the time.
6. Statue Quests
These quests are obtained from the giant statues in the capital city commemorating the 13th & 15th anniversary tournament that was held. To complete these quests you will need to RvR, but the rewards are well worth it.
7. Crafting
Finally, crafting is a great way to make money. Both Spellcrafting and Alchemy especially can be skilled up with the coin you earned while leveling to 50. Spellcrafting is incredibly easy, it'll teach you about templates, and you can make some serious cash. Alchemy is extremely useful as well for making potions, something that are always needed, and combining items for people. These two crafts will make you the most plat consistently. The other trade skills can be profitable as well, however they require more work than Spellcrafting and Alchemy do. It’s also helpful to have woodworking and metalworking leveled up so you can repair keeps for easy realm points and salvage random drops for coin. Avoid leveling Fletching unless you really want to as there isn’t much demand for Fletchers.
D. Master Levels
The master levels provide extremely useful abilities. You can find more information about the specific ML paths here. To obtain these there are two options; one is to do the encounters and the second is to buy them. Doing the encounters requires a couple of groups and an afternoon, but is rarely done anymore. The most common method of obtaining your master levels is to buy them. You can buy them with glass obtained from the glass quests, bounty points ((~30,000 glass or bounty points to buy), from winning a complete Master Level token from the Trifecta game, or from as a prize in the 10p box sold on the Traveling Merchant in Castle Sauvage/Druim Ligen/Svasud Faste. Other players can buy you the Master Levels and trade them to you, so don’t feel that you have to do it yourself.
E. Mounts
Mounts are extremely important to have. Not only do they provide you with extra storage space for those pesky non-tradable items, but with the proper armor you can move at Bard/Minst/Skald speed. Be sure to get all the saddle bags, armor, and barding. You can find more about mounts, including screenshots of what every type of mount/barding looks like, here. Finally, pay attention to the champion level restrictions of these mounts and armors. Once you are champion level 10 there are no restrictions.
II. An introductory Guide to RvR
Frankly, RvR is what this game is about. If you aren’t enjoying it, you probably won’t enjoy the game. These are some notes to help you do better in RvR, both in preparing for it and what to do during a fight. There is no substitute for experience though and many people have been playing this game a long time. Don’t get discouraged when you lose. Everyone playing has lost many fights. Instead of getting discouraged, ask yourself what you could have done differently to have won. If you take just a couple of minutes after every fight to think about what you did, win or lose, you will find yourself improving rapidly. The more you play a character the more automatic things will become and thus the easier it will be. If you are always trying to improve your game play you will find that RvR gets fun quickly.
If you find you aren’t having fun, try to figure out why. Is it the class, the people you are playing with, your own playstyle, etc.? The goal is to have fun. Not to win, not to make realm points, but to have fun. Obviously winning and making realm points are correlated with fun, but even if you lose a fight that doesn’t mean you didn’t enjoy it more than most of your victories. Don’t be discouraged by losing.
A. Before You RvR
1) Make sure that you are Master Level 10, have a horse with armor capable of giving you maximum speed (if you shift-right click your armor it should tell you that you have an extra 54% speed increase), and ideally are templated. As stated earlier, you shouldn’t let being un-templated dissuade you from RvR however as it’s best to RvR as you build your template rather than wait around to RvR until you have it completed. Do know that not being fully templated will put you at a disadvantage in RvR so some groups may not take you until you are.
2) Most groups will expect you to have a Greater Nereid Potion (for increased swim speed), the realm ability Long Wind 1, and an Improved Potion of Invigoration (so that you can sprint permanently). If you can, get Strong Potion of Invigoration or Draught of Omni-Regen potion so that you don’t have to get Long Wind 1. Another useful item to have is a Scroll of Recall as it allows you to quickly teleport out of a region if your group does not have any ML10 Sojourners. If you plan on running in the battlegroups you may be expected to have this scroll.
3) Download your favorite voice chat software (Discord is the most popular program currently, while Ventrilo and Teamspeak arealso common, Mumble is also used though rarely) and get a headset. You don’t need to speak, all you need to do is listen. Nobody will have time to type directions in the middle of a fight and even small things such as commands not to take the tower or kill guards can make the difference between winning and losing a fight. You’ll find groups hard to come by without these. Again, all you need to do is listen, so don’t let shyness stop you.
4) Carry a Draught of Heroism and/or Draught of Supremacy potion (or 10). Heroism potions are cheap and can get you moving if your group’s buffer is dead or too busy to buff you. Supremacy potions are more expensive but are equivalent to a buffbots buffs. Without buffs, you are completely useless in RvR.
5) Check the charges on all your items and any specialized pots you like to use for your class. Load up before you log out for the night rather than when you first log in. There’s nothing more painful than going out for a run only to discover you are out of some potion or charge.
B. Siege
Bring siege! /bank is your friend and every single player should carry at least one piece of siege if not more, even casters. The two main types of siege used are Fortified War Ram and War Ram. Siege Tents are required for all fortified siege deployment.
You require 225 siegecraft to deploy fortified war rams quickly and 600+ to deploy a siege tower. Siege towers are the pink circles on the ground at keeps. In order to deploy a tower you must have 200 ironwood and 100 alloy metal bars in your bag. You must stand at the tower as it is building or it stops building (anybody with 600 siege will cause it to keep building). Take down an old tent and the rubble and deploy a new tent. You can keep the tents on your horse (up to 6) and 1 in your bag. Have the icon on your hotbar as it will take the tents from your horse for more rapid deployment.
FILL THE RAM! Nothing upsets BG leaders more than rams not being filled during a keep take. If there is no oil – casters on the ram and tanks on the door. Every single class that can use Bruiser should have one in your inventory, leveled and used on any door. If your class can equip maces, it can equip Bruiser. Bruiser gives a massive bonus to damage against doors, keeps, etc. and allows you to beat on things when there is no more room on a ram or if you don’t bother putting a ram down.
DO NOT get on a ram and go afk. Watching an entire ram full of people being destroyed is horrible. Pay attention and get off the ram if someone yells incoming. Ram driver – stay on the ram – it could mean the difference in winning or losing a fight. Remember, if you are on a ram and get mezzed or stunned you cannot purge it, so get off the moment you hear incoming.
What the types of siege are for.
- • Catapults – hit players
- • Trebuchets – hit walls. Destroyed walls and towers cannot have oil/siege placed on them, and spots on keep walls with the little half circle at their base will create a hole when destroyed. When the call for tanks beat the wall, this is what you should be hitting.
- • Rams - hit doors
- • Palintones - hit other siege/oil and can keep a door open
- • Ballistas – a hybrid which can target a door or a player
Finally, remember that you get RP’s for destroying Oil (400-500/oil depending on the bonuses) and fortified siege equipment. Kill oil and kill treb’s whenever you have the opportunity, they will save your life and make you RP’s. If you are an assassin, use Seigewrecker as two wreckers will destroy most siege giving you free RPs. That’s up to 1500 RP’s for killing the 3 oils.
C. During RvR
1) Make a Group. If you are in a BG /bg groups shows you the ungrouped people as well as their class. If you are LFG – send a tell directly to people that have groups with room. /bg groups and count how many people are in each group. If you see a spot, send a tell and ask them to invite you. /bg groupclass will show you what classes are in each group. If you don’t want to join a BG or there isn’t one running, ask in /lfg if anyone has room in an 8-man. If no one replies, don’t be shy about starting a group. If people complain about how you are driving, have them drive. You’ll be surprised to find out how easy it is to get a group going if you log on around the same time every day and say you’re forming up. Take initiative!
2) Make a face macro, an assist macro and a stick macro. More information on macros can be found at the end of this guide.
3) Learn to pan. This is Mouse Pan in the /keyboard options and is much easier for someone NOT DRIVING to do. If you are stuck it’s easy to pan your camera around. When you call incoming, please use a compass direction. Everyone should have a compass up at all times. Make sure to turn off the snapback feature in options if you are going to pan. The most common setup is to use the mouse to mouse pan, however always remember you are the one playing and if you find it easier to use a different key, by all means do so.
4) CALLING INCOMING – Give a compass direction, the number of players and realm (realm isn’t as important). The number of players does not mean try to count – it’s either a few, 8 man or zerg – that’s it. How your group/battlegroup reacts will depend on this information and calling out the wrong information can get everyone killed. Always listen to what the leader tells you. Sometimes you will be told to engage, other times to keep moving. Regardless though, it is a good idea to break off of stick so that your group is more spread out and less susceptible to being crowd controlled (CC’d).
5) Again, always LISTEN to what your leader tells you. He/she will determine if the group/bg is going to turn and fight or keep going. This is critical as often times realms will use a bait group and having some people break off and chase a few enemies can completely disrupt and destroy the whole BG. Enemies use this technique often and it works because people don’t listen.
Two examples of a bad call are, “MIDS, BEHIND!!!” When in reality there are 2 mids and, “ALBS LEFT!!!” When the BG is facing multiple directions leaving it unclear where they are. What a good call sounds like is, “FG Mids SW”. Also, stay calm. Panic leads to bad things, it’s hard at first but the quicker you stay calm in RvR the easier it becomes to win.
6) SPEED WARPS. At a structure, speedwarps should be placed all around. AT A DOCK – one speedwarp should be down. During a fight ONE SPEEDWARP on incoming and then speedwarps during a push and during a retreat. Pay attention, don’t drop 3 warps in the same spot, you can say in vent – I have first warp. As with all things, communication is key.
TAKING DOWN SPEEDWARPS – never pass a speedwarp without hitting it. If you are an assassin, use Sabotage on any speedwarp you come across. Losing the speed advantage is another form of crowd control and can ruin your day quickly. Your group leader will tell you what he/she wants to do about speedwarps.
7) Stacking traps – Casters need to learn to stack traps. Traps are high damage spells that you cast at choke points that the enemy will pass through. One trap is good for intel, a few stacked traps can wipe a BG. Inside a structure there is a point on the stairs that all players must run past to get to the lord. That is the ideal place to stack traps. Other times stack on the BG leader or where the BG leader tells you to stack them.
8.) If you are a Stormlord, learn how to move storms, both your own and the enemies. Storms include all abilities in the Stormlord line, Static Tempest, and Negative Maelstrom. This will take practice to rapidly and accurately move them around, and as cheesy at it sounds to practice at a video game, you’ll find it is well worth it.
9) Assisting. The two primary factors that make DAoC the best PvP game there is are crowd control and heals. Only the highest realm rank and most deadly casters can hope to take out a target by themselves. Everyone else needs to be assisting. To assist you need to make a macro. You can find more about how to make an assist macro here.
10) To AOE or not to AOE. That should almost never be the question. Don’t AOE, it’s that simple. The fall-off damage from AOE is substantial so all AOE does is break crowd control. If the fight is basically over and everyone is clumped up, then you can AOE. In a keep situation it’s useful to AOE to hit targets you can’t see. But in the open field, AOEing a target is simply giving your enemy a free purge. Don’t do it! If you are unsure if you should AOE or not, don’t. AOE’s are the main reason you need larger numbers to win fights. If people didn’t AOE all the time, it’d be a lot easier to win fights when outnumbered.
11) Finally and to reiterate, in every fight you should learn something. Just because you won a fight doesn’t mean you played it correctly. Always be looking to improve your game play. It will make the game far more enjoyable for you, you’ll die a lot less often, and you’ll start to kill people far more often if you actively try to learn. Those of us with very high RR characters have played those characters for a very long time, and there is no substitute for experience.
We’re playing a game, but we’re doing so against other people and no one likes to lose. If you find yourself losing regularly you have two options, give up or figure out what you’re doing wrong. We want you to choose the latter option, so don’t be shy about asking questions. We want you to succeed, but you have to want it yourself as well.
III. Useful Commands
You can find a variety of useful How-To videos on topics of such as quick binds and macros on the Camelot Herald.. If you prefer reading to videos, read on.
A. Making a Macro
To make a macro, type /macro <name of macro> <command>. An example, /macro face /face will create a macro for you to put onto your quickbar which by clicking let you face your target. The first face is simply what appears on the macro when you make it, the /face is the actual command. You can macro just about any single / command.
B. Assisting
To assist someone, simply type /assist <name of the player to be assisted>. Since you will be assisting people so often, it’s best to make a macro, but since the macro has to be /macro Assist /assist <player name>, it’s easier to make a macro for the macro. To do this use the following command:
/macro assist /macro MA /assist %t.
This macro will make another macro titled MA that will /assist whomever you have targeted when the macro is created. That is, if you are targeting Billings and then hit the assist macro, a new macro titled MA will be created that will /assist Billings. This prevents you from having to type out /macro MA /assist <name> every time you want to assist someone new. The person you should assist is either a group member who has a lot of experience in RvR so they know what classes look like and how important their death is, or if no one in your group is comfortable being the MA, ask in BG who you should assist.
Note that %t is the wild card operator in DAoC. So, typing %t will simply return whatever you have targeted.
IIII. General Information
A. Champion Levels
As was stated earlier, champion levels are levels that can be unlocked that allow you to gain additional abilities, increased hit points, and additional power in your power pool. To begin these levels you need to speak to the king. Once you have embarked on the path of the champion any experience you gain will count towards these champion levels. You can track the progression of your character by opening up the Interface Options after opening the Main Menu window in game (usually by hitting the esc key).
Clicking on the Champion Exp tile will open a floating window showing the level you currently have trained. Champion Exp works differently than regular experience in that if you gain sufficient experience to gain another champion level, you will NOT gain that level automatically. You WILL continue to gain champion experience however. In order to actually gain the champion level benefits that you are entitled to you need to go speak to the King again. Example: you are currently on Chapter 8 of the Otherworldly Quest line and must now speak to the King. You go and speak to the King for the first time since you first hit level 50 and started gaining champion experience. The King grants you Champion Levels 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 instantly. You may now use the points from these levels to train, and gain the HP/power pool bonuses for a character of champion level 7. Until you spoke to the King, you could not actually train in those levels and did not accrue the HP/power pool bonus even though you had sufficient experience to be champion level 7.
To train in the champion abilities you need to find the base trainer associated with the abilities you would like. Note: you CANNOT train champion abilities from the base trainer of your own class. Players may only train CL abilities from base trainers other than their class’ base trainer. Base Trainers are located in Cotswold and Caer Gothwaite in Albion, Mularn and Aegirhamn in Midgard, and Mag Mell and Grove of Domnann in Hibernia. You can identify a base trainer as they look like a normal class trainers, but have titles such as <Fighter>, <Seer> or <Elementalist>. To identify which base trainer your class belongs to, simply open up your attributes page and scroll down until you see Base Class.
You gain one ability point to spend for each champion level you gain, plus one for beginning the champion levels, for a total of 16 points to spend. These abilities have the following costs associated with them:
First ability in each column: 1 point
Second ability in each column: 2 points
Third ability in each column: 3 points
Fourth ability in each column: 4 points
Fifth ability in each column: 5 points
This means in order to get all 5 abilities in a given column, it will take 15 of the possible 16 Champion ability points.
B. Templates
1. How To Build
If you aren’t content to run a template someone else built, you can always build your own. The best way to learn about the mechanics of the game is to template yourself. If that is what you’re into, this is for you. First, you’ll need a templating program. The most commonly used programs are Loki and Gearbunny. Loki requires a key you have to buy while Gearbunny is free. Both are used by many people, with the advantage of Loki being that it will automatically find the optimal crafting you need to do. Both have been updated for the latest crafting changes.
It’s best to build off of others templates, at least until you really understand what your class should have. Of course you don’t have to and exploring the games items and putting together the puzzle that is a template yourself can be quite enjoyable itself. Remember, your template should fit your playstyle. If you find yourself not using toys very often, don’t put them in. If you prefer survivability or damage, go that route. It’s a puzzle and rather than looking at each item individually and asking if it’s the best item possible look at how that item fits into the template and ask if you could do better overall even if you sacrificed a little bit on that item.
2. Mythirians
On every toon you will want to have the following: Greater Guerdon Mythirian (RP's!!!!) and a Dragon Movement Mythirian (free water pot and safe fall). On top of these every class should have their specific Myths.
i. Tanks
Greater Irrepressible Mythirian (15% crowd control reduction), Doppelganger Mighty Mythirian, Greater Onslaught Mythirian (if you ever are going to run siege this is a must, if you never run siege it can be skipped), Greater Mythirian of Health (if you skip this it's not the end of the world, just useful for health regen if you're solo/small manning it), Greater Scathing Mythirian (8% mythical dps)
ii. Casters
Doppelganger Arcane Mythirian, Greater Focal Mythirian (must have for PvE, you'll blow mobs up far easier with this on, in RvR not as useful), Greater Power Mythirian.
iii. Healers
Doppelganger Curative Mythirian, Greater Power Mythirian, Doppelganger Arcane Mythirian
3. Toys (Items with /use and /use2 abilities)
There are as many opinions on the number of toys in the game as there are players. No matter what your opinion though, you will want at least a couple of them in your suit. Some items need to be used in combat while others should be used well before combat. To see what an item can do, right click it and click info. You will see what level the item can be used at and what its abilities are. If you right click an item you can drag and drop the icons to your quickbar so that you simply need to click them to use them.
You can find more information about quality, condition, and everything else item related means here.
C. Trifecta
Trifecta is a gambling game you can play in the capital cities or the capital cities of Shrouded Isles. It can be fun if gambling is your thing and there are some neat prizes, but this is not an efficient way to look for anything specific. The Trifecta merchants have <Trifecta Dealer> under their name.
D. Daniels Quest
From the Herald Nov 5, 2007:
A damn fine quest.“We are proud to introduce a quest that was written by someone very special. The Make-a-Wish foundation contacted us on behalf of Daniel, a young gentleman with Marfan Syndrome, whose dream is to become a game developer.
Daniel wrote up his idea for a quest based on his character and his companion and we've taken his wonderful ideas and implemented them in Dark Age of Camelot. The quest is called 'Saving Zarees' and is available from the NPC 'Tym' in the starting area (Cotswold, Mularn, and Mag Mell) of each realm. The quest is available at two level ranges to make it accessible to as many people as possible. It is available for characters level 7 to 10 and characters level 48 to 50. We encourage players to get on and try out their realm appropriate version and send us feedback on the quest; we will compile that feedback and send it to Daniel.”
This guide was written based on the most common questions and there are still many, many more things to learn about Dark Age of Camelot. Often times asking in region or simply joining an established guild is the best way to receive responses to the questions you might have. Googling is often also helpful. There are also player liaisons known as Knights and a list is provided on the Camelot Herald. Feel free to contact them in the game and even if they don’t have an answer for you, they can point you in the right direction.
DAoC Community Lead
Broadsword Online Games
Broadsword Online Games
Comments
There are many other video's on youtube that will help you get up to speed on how to RvR. I suggest that you watch as many as you can. Some were made by people who have RvR'd for many years. DAoC is a hard game to play. But you will get so much more satisfaction from cooperating with a team to beat live players than you EVER will from fighting some AI PvE mob!
Ding 50 Checklist video
On a side note, I leveled a lot of artifacts to level 10 before I retired, and can't believe how little utility they have, hard to fit them into a template, which is a shame.
So kings gear is great until you can get a temp together then I would use the temp