Friday night, I crashed your party:

Q: I made a lv 24 toon specifically for the Thidranki BG. I left my toon with several bubbles short of 25 just be certain I wouldn't ding out. I have been playing with xp off. While I played, I made a kill and dinged to 25… with more then a few bubs left to level and with xp off! ACK!

A: Ack indeed. I passed this up to find out under what circumstances you could get experience despite having your experience disabled. It turns out it's a realm bonus thing that cannot, at this time, be disabled. We are investigating, but apparently we've tried a couple times to turn off the realm bonus exp and been less than successful. Mainly, I'm posting this to make everyone aware of this potential pit fall. I'm very sorry about it; I know how important it is for some to not ding out of Thid.

Q: Could someone please tell me what factors affect spell resists, and the order in which those factors are applied?

A: I'm pleased to have this excuse to announce a new Class/Spell/Style Slave, the Redheaded Stepchild. His actual name is DJ, and he has been working for Mythic in some capacity for longer than I have, first as a beta tester, then a TL, then in PQ, and at long last, with his dangerous hands on the wheel. Not the gas pedal, thank all small gods. Anyway. Bring it on, Red:

First of all, we need to get the terminology correct. Resist is used in two similar but different ways. One reduces the damage/effectiveness of a spell, one is the outright success or failure of a spell. I'm assuming we're talking outright resists, IE: "AlbGuy1 resists the effect!"

The only factors that should play in to this equation are, in no particular order:

-level of the player casting the spell
-level of the spell
-type of spell
-level of the target
-type of target (realm enemy or not)
-mastery of focus.

For example: A level 50 spell cast by a level 50 player on a level 1 player has a lower chance of being resisted than a level 50 spell cast by a level 50 player on a level 50 player. A level 1 spell cast by a level 50 player on a level 50 player has a higher chance of being resisted than a level 50 spell cast by a level 50 player on a level 50 player.

Mastery of focus is a realm ability that raises the effective level of the spell, with a cap of level 50. So, with mastery of focus 2, a level 41 spell would be resisted just like a level 50 spell.

Direct damage spells have a higher chance of success than combination or non direct damage spells in high level PVE. A level 50 player casting a level 50 DD against a level 50 target will have a lower chance of being resisted than a level 50 player casting a level 50 DD/Snare against a level 50 target.

I don't have any idea which order these are calculated, Marty would have to help me out on that. I'm also unsure as to exactly what differences there are between players and Mobs, though I'd wager a guess that players have a lower chance to be resisted than a Mob.

Things that do NOT factor in to this equation are:
-Resists (10% cold) from spells, RAs, MLs, items, etc.
-Acuity (200 intellegence)
-Bonuses to your spell line from RAs, items, etc (+10 to All magic)

Note from Mighty Marty: Levels matter the most - level of player, level of spell, etc. Things like what type of spell (nuke or combo), are less important. (One exception to the above is the buff shear category - player level matters less with that particular spell type.) Also, there should be one small side factor DJ didn't mention. If you are being clobbered by multiple attackers, you are less likely to resist magical attack.

Remember that all these things are added up, and the result from there is a simple yes/no check.

Note from Sanya: Redhead lists Mastery of Focus as a separate factor, as he should, but for the purposes of the formula, it's calculated first to determine the level of the spell, and then the ball starts rolling.

PLEASE NOTE: There are in fact other factors (for example, Master Level Storms, and there are more). But trying to determine their total impact on your resist rate is like, as Marty says, nailing jelly to a tree. You may assume that these "other factors" are not as important as the ones I have listed.

Q: What could it hurt to give (Catacombs classes, Gareth, etc) the /level 20 command?

A: First, I want to say that my job at Mythic is not to forward a personal agenda, it is to forward yours. Most of the players I speak to want /level 20 added everywhere, across the board, so I continue to advocate for that. I have heard all the very good reasons for implementing it.

But I also need to explain to you that the reason you haven't gotten it so far is because we feel like /level was not the best move we ever made. It had a brief, quick, positive impact on the game, but in the long run, it emptied out the newbie zones, making them less than inviting for the true newbies that continue to buy and try out the game. Removing it entirely might be the best thing for the overall health of Camelot. At the same time, we're loathe to take something (that you're used to considering as a reward) out of the game. So, we are presently at a bit of an impasse, philosophically. That's the whole truth in a nutshell.

Anyway, I'll keep asking for it. But now you've got both sides.

Q: There is a leprechaun camp in Cursed Forest, and you can't attack some of them. Why?

A: Those are part of a quest, and set to no-kill so people can't be annoying about camping the quest mobs. Sometimes we set those things to instant respawn and that's enough, but in other areas we have found that only setting them to immortal is sufficient.

*** 

I know it's a small number of questions, but that resist question was pretty big!

Regarding the expansion: There are some rumors flying around, fueled by some things that were tucked into 1.85A. All right, you got me - we're doing an expansion pack. Okay, just kidding. The press release is going out next week with official information. Enjoy the leak in the meantime. Moo.

Man, my knees still hurt from the big party at Comic Con and the Roadtrip stop in San Diego. I had a terrific time, and really enjoyed shaking hands with so many Camelot people over the course of five looooong days. There are two quick anecdotes that I'm dying to share. One was the fellow who asked, at the Roadtrip, where the style review was… and turned up the next day at Comic Con with an Excel spreadsheet of styles he whipped up after he left the Roadtrip at 10 PM. Sir, as promised, your document is in the hands of the producers. Two, there was a great player running the WAR demo, doing a stellar job shredding the other people in RVR combat. We were talking, I don't remember what about, something to do with PVP, when he said (with a touch of pity), "Have you heard of Dark Age of Camelot?" I stared at him for a second, stuck out my hand, and said, "Hi, I'm Sanya, I'm the Herald weenie, nice to meet you." The grin on his face carried me through the next few days.

Those two things conclusively prove, in my opinion, that Camelot players are the best.

Have a great weekend, y'all.