You've got good timing, too. This just so happens to be the last copy we were able to make. Supplies have been a little tight lately, given that the local constabulary's been nosing around our business.

Given their... persistence.... we might be around a little less often, but since spreading the word's our business, we'll be back at least every couple of weeks, depending on how things go and how quickly my man on the inside can get us his information.

I think I hear someone coming, so you just take this one. Consider it a gift. I'd best be leaving. If you'd like to donate to the cause, I'm sure you know where the donation box is by now...

I have been farming boggarts in the Frontier for Sleeping Kittens, a kill task item, but there are limited amounts of boggarts there. Do the boggarts in Cathal Valley drop the same loot as the ones in the Frontier?

The Wicked One sprinted off to Cathal Valley and sent back this to report:

"After dispatching the camp of pests multiple times, the boggarts that inhabit Cathal Valley appear to be very tricky. They have indeed stolen some sleeping kittens, possibly including the one from Gremain Watford's daughter, and have also stolen some statuettes and gems. Filthy buggars."

I have a level 50 friar, with an armor factor of 663, including my self buffs. When I apply the "Aura of Deflection" buff, my armor factor only increases by 1! The same things happens to my armsman, with an armor factor of 710. Are these numbers caps or am I doing something wrong?

The Lady Templar's fascination with armor seems to know no bounds. She took off one gauntlet and drew up a nice diagram explaining the whole thing. It looks like she's good for more than repelling invaders after all.

"Alright, bear with me: this may or may not get confusing.

There are two types of armor factor buffs. For your friar, the line containing 'Aura of Deflection' is your line of baseline armor factor buffs, and the line in your enhancement specialization starting with 'Shield of Faith' and ending with 'Shield of Holiness' is your line of spec armor factor buffs.

Your base armor factor value is derived from the armor's item level, and capped at an amount determined by your character's level. For everything but cloth, the amount of armor factor you get from a piece of armor is equal to twice the item level (so, 100 or 102 at 50 and 50/RR5, respectively). For cloth, it's equal to the item level (50 or 51). This is multiplied by the quality of the armor, so a piece of level 50 armor (armor factor 100) at 99% quality is going to effectively give you 99 armor factor.

All your baseline armor factor buffs (for the friar, this is the 'Aura of Deflection' line) will do is bring you up to that cap -- so if you've got a set of 99% pieces, it's just going to give you a few points, and if you've got a set of 100% pieces, you're not going to see any gain at all (cloth wearers work a little differently, and often get self baseline armor factor buffs to counteract their low armor factor from worn armor). Spec armor factor buffs (including the 'Shield of Faith' line) will go above and beyond this amount.

So, as a purely theoretical example, you have 6 pieces of armor that are effectively worth 100 armor factor each on the paper doll. You have a base armor buff with a delve of, say, 40.

• 
  
  If your armor is 100% quality, you will have 600 armor. The base armor buff gives you 0, bringing you to 600.
  


• 
  
  If your armor is 95% quality, you will have 570 armor. The base armor buff gives you 30, bringing you to 600.
  


• 
  
  If your armor is 90% quality, you will have 540 armor. The base armor buff gives you 40, bringing you to 580.
  

Hopefully I haven't confused you too much."

I have a question about the reasoning behind the friar spell "Divine Encouragement". It is a level 44 heal over time spell that ticks for 60 points every 3 seconds. However, the level 34 staff style, "Holy Staff", procs a heal over time spell that ticks for 50 points every two seconds. So, it takes "Holy Staff" 10 seconds to heal 250 points, and the heal over time heals 240 points over 12 seconds.

So, what's the point? The only time you'd want to use Divine Encouragement is when you were in combat and couldn't cast the spec group heal... but if you were in combat, you'd just hit something with your staff and heal the group faster. Is there some use for this spell that I'm not seeing?

Contemplating the question for a few moments, the Lady Templar offered this piece of advice:

"The two effects, while similar, do have some differences.

Divine Encouragement can be cast on the move and is uninterruptible. As such, it's probably best used while you're interrupted at range and repositioning (for a more support-oriented friar) or closing on your target (for a more melee-focused friar), simply for an added boost.

Holy Staff does require you to hit your target for the ability to fire. For a melee-focused friar, this isn't a bad thing (particularly with it chaining into Excommunicate), and it is likely a better option once you can reliably hit people. For a support friar, the opportunity to use it is far less common, and you also have to juggle swapping between spellcasting and melee with the delays that involves.

So, overall? Holy Staff is probably the better option when you can employ it, but Divine Encouragement does have situational benefits and shouldn't be discounted completely. If you'd like to see either ability changed, feel free to submit feedback with your recommendations."

I currently play a heretic, and have spec'd fully into Enhancement. I have a buff, "Arawn's Cunning", that gives me 10% spell/resist pierce. Does this buff stack with the spell/resist pierce available from items in a template, or does it cap at 10% total?

The Knights were quick to offer an answer to this one:

"Spell/resist piercing is capped at a total of 10% from buffs and items. You can use any combination of this buff or gear with spell/resist piercing to hit this cap."

One thing that I've never been too sure of, as there seem to be conflicting opinions on the subject, is the stat that specific weapon types used to determine damage. I've always believed that it was Strength for Crush/Slash weapons and a combination of Strength and Dexterity for Thrust weapons.

Touching upon the techniques and conditioning needed, the Lady Templar offered a short discussion and demonstration of a great many weapons. I was able to scribble down the following notes:

"This should be a more-or-less complete list of 'which weapon lines use which stats' -- the damage type for weapons within the line (for example, Hand-to-Hand thrust vs. Hand-to-Hand slash) plays no part:

Only Strength: Albion Slash, Albion Crush, Albion Two-Handed, Albion Polearm, Hibernia Blades, Hibernia Blunt, Hibernia Celtic Spear, Hibernia Great Weapon, Hibernia Scythe, Midgard Axe, Midgard Sword, Midgard Hammer, Midgard Left Axe, Mauler Staff (all realms).

Only Dexterity: Albion Crossbow, Hibernia Short Bow, Midgard Thrown Weapons, Staff (non-Mauler, i.e. casters and friars), Shield (all realms).

Combination of Strength & Dexterity: Albion Flexible, Albion Thrust, Hibernia Pierce, Midgard Hand-to-Hand, Midgard Spear."

I was wondering if you could tell me what the Piety/Acuity stat does for different classes. I am a Bonedancer, and would like to know exactly what it does for my class and how it affects what I do.

Drawing upon her own piety, the Lady Templar was able to grant insight into this query:

"A class' Acuity stat is the stat that contributes to the potency of spells they cast as well as to the size of its power pool. In the case of the Bonedancer (and all Midgard classes), the Acuity stat is Piety, and it is used to determine the damage done by offensive spells as well as the size of the power pool. Gear that offers Piety or Acuity will increase the Piety stat for the Bonedancer.

Some classes, like the Vampiir and Mauler, will use a different stat as their 'Acuity' stat, but this stat will not be increased by +Acuity items.

For reference, the Acuity stats for classes are listed below:

Piety: All Midgard cloth casters, Clerics, Friars, Healers, Heretics, Paladins, Reavers, Shamans, Thanes, Valkyries.

Empathy: Druids, Wardens.

Charisma: Bards, Minstrels, Skalds.

Intelligence: All Albion and Hibernia cloth casters, Champions, Valewalkers."

Here's one thing that has always bugged me, though it never seems to be mentioned: why is it that the animation for a melee attack that kills your opponent is never shown?

Shrugging, the Lady Templar offered this response with a wry smile:

"This is simply a quirk of the engine. Although, perhaps we could say it's a feature, highlighting how your enemy was so stunned by your combat prowess, battle-ready pose, rugged good looks and fantastic hair that he or she suffered a heart attack and died on the spot."

Does the focus bonus on a staff only affect the power cost of baseline spells, or does it affect all spells?

The Lady Templar is running the table this week.

"Focus on staves affects only the power cost of baseline spells - specialization spells are unaffected."

Do champion level resists factor into crowd control durations? How effective are my champion level resists compared to other resist buffs?

The Lady Templar gave a slight nod of her head and offered this reply:

"Champion Level resist buff spells are primary resist buffs, and will impact CC duration in the same manner as other primary resist buffs (from a warden, cleric, or skald chant, for example)."

I've heard rumors about this, but I wanted to ask if it was true. I was told that crowd control durations were actually increased if a character has secondary resists. Is this true? If so, why?

The Knights went digging through the archives and discovered a partial transcript from a speech by the Sovereign Crusader on this very subject:

"Second tier resists are not supposed to affect crowd control durations at all, but instead they are having a negative impact on characters with second tier resists (with regards to crowd control). The increase in duration that is caused by second tier resists (Avoidance of Magic, for example) is directly proportional to the increase in first tier resists.

MATHEMATIC FORMULA:

Duration Delve * (1 - (First Tier Resist * (1 - Second Tier Resist))) = Duration After Resists

This includes any and all 'second tier' resists, and not just Avoidance of Magic."

I noticed that the artifact Battler has an accuracy proc. Does this proc offer any defense penetration increases, or does it strictly improve chances to miss outright?

The Lady Templar cracked a smile, gently patting the blade at her side.

"The accuracy boost proc on Battler serves only to reduce your chance to outright miss an enemy. It does not afford any increased defense penetration."

Do you ever plan on bringing back Guild News or The Scroll of Valor?

Taking away Guild News makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for new players to find out what guilds are recruiting, and causes a similar problem for guilds announcing guild recruitment.

As for the Scroll of Valor, members truly enjoy being publicly recognized for their achievements, but you've taken that away from everyone. Why?

A few of the Knights nodded, and one offered the following comment:

"We've received some feedback lamenting the absence of these features, and we're definitely taking a look at a way to bring these back."