*Basic Guide to Darkness Rising*

[eggy]

What is Darkness Rising?
Darkness Rising (DR) is the next expansion for DAOC.

DAOC -> SI -> Housing -> TOA -> NF -> Catacombs -> DR

When will it be released?
It's already out on the US servers; we get it in the EU probably beginning of 2006. (It's already on the internal test servers).

How much is it?
Around £15 in the UK

Do I have to get it?
No, but you won't benefit from any of the new features/abilites unless you do!

Is there a new client?
No, it uses previous clients, and if downloaded is approximately 650mb on top of the Catacombs client.

Will my current UI work?
If it's updated for Darkness Rising it will. There are a few new windows, horse/mount window, CL selection window etc. Without an updated UI you'll be missing various features (although you can of course use the interfaces built-in to replace missing windows).

So, what's new?
-Champion Levels
-Champion Weapons
-New epic armours
-New city and town graphics
-New Darkness Falls graphics/atmosphere
-Horses
-Lots of new features that come with the patches 1.80 and 1.81 (in testing).
-Ability to equip weapons on any class (CL3)
-A few new instances for the Champion quests, and one(I think) zone(although this may not be open to those under a certain CL level.)

Champion Levels? WTF are they?!
Champion levels (let's call them CLs) are a series of 5 'bonus' levels you can get on any char. They are similar to MLs, but much easier to get; you can do them very quickly, or just carry on RVRing and you'll gain them eventually.

What abilities do I get each level?
You gain 1 CL 'spec point' each level (total of 5). These spec points allow you access to a variety of low-level base abilities. You get these by talking to the base trainers (acolyte trainer, fighter trainer etc) and speccing as you wish. You can spec in lots of things; heals, dots, DDs, styles etc...but to get the higher level ones, you have to spec in the lower ones too.

Additionally, there are little perks to getting CLs. Clerics can wield slash/thrust weapons for example, and spec in certain styles - nice addition to a class that is otherwise boring in melee!

At CL3 all classes get the ability to(if they can't already) wield a shield and a 1h weapon.
This means you can benefit from the 5% base block from having a shield equipped.
Focus cannot be put on shields. However, for classes such as vamps, it helps loads.

OMG RVR IS RUINED FFS IM QUITTING
The spells are low level; ie the heals will probably do around 100hp a time, buffs are about the lowest cleric spec buffs you can get, etc etc. They are designed to add interest to 'boring' classes; ie a merc can now low-level buff itself if specced with the acolyte trainer!

So, how do I get these CLs?
-Talk to the King in Camelot. He will embark you on your CLs (bit like the Arbiter for MLs).
-There are no encounters for CLs. You get them by xping - simple. Either in PVE, RVR, or by doing quests or helping other people on CQs (champion quests).

Champion quests?!
There are quests designed to help you gain the first few CLs quickly. These are instances, so you can do them solo, or in a full group if you wish - the difficulty of mobs scales to your level. Doing all 3 CQs will give you about 2.5 CLs. Once you've done them, you can help others doing them and gain CL xp credit. Or, as I said before, you can just go PVE or RVR.

So, I can just talk to King once then go RVR to get the levels?
Yes, easy peasy. Slower than doing it PVE, but it still works for lazy Swedish people.

Can I respec CLs?
Yes, stones are available to purchase.

What are the Champion weapons?
At CL3 you will gain access to champion weapons for your class. There are versions available for all spec types for every class in the game. You pick these up (free) from the Royal weaponmaster in the King's throneroom. These have tasty stats (will post link later) and some nice charges/procs. Once you ding CL5, you can then add an additional proc to the weapon (you have a choice) from an NPC also in the throne room.

What if I change spec?
You can change your champion level as many times as you want without having to do any more xping. Weapons never die; they will last forever just like artifacts.

How do horses work?
Basic horses are available for 250g to everyone upon attaining a certain level (35).
Basic horses cannot be used in RvR and move slower than "DR" horses.

Horses are faster than walk speed. When you enter combat or have CC cast on you, your horse automatically disappears.

What about other horses?
Every CL you ding, you get access to different Advanced Mounts.

When you first enter the kings chamber, you can purchase a 1p horse, this can be used in RvR and travels faster than the lvl 35 basic horse.
All horses apart from the level 35 one move at the same speed.

At CL5 you can access "special" horses. This have a different look about them, ie, are on fire, are undead etc. These, and the rainbow unicorn of doom cost 15p to buy, and you must also comlete a short quest to use them.

What do the expensive horses do that the lvl 35 basic one doesnt?
They move faster and look pretty. You can also add armour/saddlebags to your horse etc.

What's different in DF?
Darkness falls mobs now have better drops; Legion and Princes all drop stat cap items equivalent to TOA/Catacombs. The entire DF atmosphere has been re-vamped and I have to say it is VERY nice.

Epic armour - do I have to redo my epics?!
The epic quests are separate to current epics. If you've already done your epic, you can commence the epics from the lvl 30 step, however, you do miss out on some really fun steps. They arn't the old horse fests of old! Unlike the old epics, the final step is at lvl 45, meaning you have some nice armour to get your final 5 levels in. The quests are pretty easy, and the epic armours have tasty stats on them - very nice for new templates.

Are there any new zones other than the instances for CQ's?
For the start of CQ3 there is a zone that isn't instanced, however, i'm not sure if you can enter if you're not on CQ3.

So what else does DR give me
You're hits and power pool raise, as you move up CL's, although not a huge amount!

So, when I get my copy, what should I be doing first?
This is what I'm going to do on my main chars:

-Talk to the King to embark on CLs.
-Get basic horse
-Do CQ1-3 in groups.
-Make XP groups to get to CL5.
-Spec my CL abilities
-Choose champion weapon
-Do epic quest

Or, if you are particularly lazy or not interested:

-Talk to the King to embark on CLs.
-RVR
-Choose champion weapon (when you ding CL3)
-Spec CL abilities

More information on DR is available here.

 

[Bahumat]

What is Darkness Rising?
Darkness Rising (DR) is the next expansion for DAOC.

DAOC -> SI -> Housing -> TOA -> NF -> DR

missing out catacombs

 

[Libertine]

1p Chestnut horses are bought from the quatermaster in the throneroom, for lv35 people you can get the quest off the stablemaster (jordheim for mids, he will send you to Vas horse master, takes 5 minsutes) which allows you to buy a horse for 250g.

King Eriks throneroom is in the new hall where the old vault-keeper was in Jord (it got a very nice upgrade), the stablemaster in jord is near the Vas exit. The champ level instances behind DF and in the top corner of west sveland look like passes between mountains, just attempt to walk down them and you will be ported to the instance.

 

[Thorwyn]

Slower than doing it PVE, but it still works for lazy Swedish people.

lol

doh.. need to spred some rep around before you can give it to eggy again :/

 

[Svartmetall]

Basic and Advanced horses:

http://www.camelotherald.com/article.php?id=167

Epic horses:

http://www.camelotherald.com/article.php?id=168

-----

Midgard horse armour:

http://www.camelotherald.com/article.php?id=165

Albion horse armour:

http://www.camelotherald.com/article.php?id=164

Hibernia horse armour:

http://www.camelotherald.com/article.php?id=172

-----

Complete listing of Champion weapons:

http://www.camelotherald.com/section.php?id=30

 

[Flimgoblin]

Just a point - if you do all 3 champion quests you get the weapon and it's second ability unlocked.

Don't have to get to CL5 to get the second ability if you do that

(though you probably want to anyway )

Need CL3 to buy the respecs (also available are ML respec stones for 3p? 4p? something like that). The quartermaster also sells weapon dyes (burnishes) which from 1.80 will be usable on artifacts as well as your champion weapons.

The "special" horses cost 15p for a token then you have to complete a fairly short quest to get the horse. All they do is look cooler.

From champion level 2 and up you can get saddlebags (2 slot, 4 slot 6 slot and 8 slot depending on your champion level) which are crafted only (can't buy them from NPCs). These allow you to store items on your horse (up to 8 items and 200 encumberance).

If you don't have darkness rising you can still get the cheap 250g horse (at level 35) after doing a quest - it goes slower than the darkness rising horses and cannot be used in the frontier.

With darkness rising and level 45 you can pay 1p to get the chestnut horse from the quartermaster's assistant which is as good (fast) as every other horse you can get, so you don't have to worry about paying 15p for an undead horse - all they do is look cool.

 

[Eeben]

Damn the new weps an mounts look great!! Cant wait to get it an harp with mcl2 charge how nice

- all they do is look cool.

Looks is everything in daoc

 

[Swedishwolf]

Very intresting and very well written cheers Eggy

 

[Flimgoblin]

Looks is everything in daoc

Indeed - but if someone whines that they can't compete in RvR because someone else has a Nightmare horse instead of a chestnut one they get a /slap

 

[DrunkSkunk]

nice 1 eggy.. got a good overview about DR now

 

[Overdriven]

Been told that actually doing the quests to get the actual CLs (PVE 4tw) can take like 3-7 hours with a opted mid full group

But then, he could be wrong.

 

[Cirandi]

So, I can just talk to King once then go RVR to get the levels?
Yes, easy peasy. Slower than doing it PVE, but it still works for lazy Swedish people.

I resent that, i did all the champion quests :/

 

[Flimgoblin]

Been told that actually doing the quests to get the actual CLs (PVE 4tw) can take like 3-7 hours with a opted mid full group

But then, he could be wrong.

I'd say if you get a group of reasonable players together (e.g. a guild group, but not necessarily RR90 ML400) you can do all 3 in a weekend.

 

[brad]

So do normal most basic horse, not the cheap lev 35 one, the one above that, would the have the same amount of abilities as what a war hourse would have? or do the bigger horses offer you more stuff than just look better?

Otherwise i will just buy the cheapest horse i can for rvr and that will be it. Not going to waste 15p to just look better if thats the case.

 

[eggy]

Thanks for the input.

I'll post screenshots from test servers later to give you guys an idea of some of the abilities/wepons etc.

ML respecs are indeed purchasable from mobs within DR, they cost 4plat each; "King's Star of Destiny".

 

[Overdriven]

I'd say if you get a group of reasonable players together (e.g. a guild group, but not necessarily RR90 ML400) you can do all 3 in a weekend.

Give ML4000 ><

Aye, hopefully - though if you go for all 5 it could take a while, I'd say, get the first 3 done in 1 day, the next; the next day.

 

[Kelio]

So, I can just talk to King once then go RVR to get the levels?
Yes, easy peasy. Slower than doing it PVE, but it still works for lazy Swedish people.

:worthy:

 

[eggy]

Ah yes, by the way, I wrote the "lazy Swedish people" thing for guild gimps such as Arabian, Oljad and Knatte (...Knatte is RR9 and is still ML6), and forgot to edit it out in the FH post

 

[Shatari]

Oh, I'll add a little fact to all here that likes to abuse water. When you're on horse you can't dive the horse can swim at the surface though.

 

[DocWolfe]

how do the instances work on on the pvp servers?

 

[Ttillub]

When was it postponed to 2006?

Last official estimate is still christmas 2005 I think?

 

[big_ish]

I agree, the horses and new weapons looks very cool.

 

[Darzil]

When was it postponed to 2006?

Last official estimate is still christmas 2005 I think?

When it became the end of november and no release date ?

They were hoping for Christmas, but I seem to recall hearing about distributor issues.

Darzil

 

[Tilda]

Some corrections:

Basic horses go at one speed and acctually iirc cost 250 gold. You have to do a small quest for the "basic non dr horse.

The "DR" horses cost from 1p (for normal brown colour) to 15p for the rainbow unicorn of doom!
The DR horses, can be used in RvR zones, and also go faster than the non Dr horses.
If you want some sort of "speed" in rvr, you'll want to buy a 1p Dr horse.
The 15p "special look" horses require a mini quest to be able to use them.
More basic horses like my 1p brown pony are just, zone into kings chamber, buy horse, put in /mount, and use.
All upgrades in price, are just for different looks.

All classes get the ability to wield shield and 1h weapons, and I think staves, at CL3.
This means you can benefit from the 5% base block from having a shield equipped.
Focus cannot be put on shields. However, for classes such as vamps, it helps loads.

You're hits and power pool raise, as you move up CL's, although not a huge amount.

Epics, if you have already done your epic on a charachter, you can "bump" yourself through the low bits, and start at the level 30 quest.
The epics end at lvl 45, and so are worth doing, if not for the nice armour pieces, for the armour to level in alone.
The epics are not the mamoth horse riding fest that they were before. They are acctually fun!
I did from lvl 30 epic to lvl 45 epic inside 3 hours, solo apart from the last step.
The lower level epics are also awesome fun!

Eggy, can I edit your replies + corrections into your post or do you want to make a new one and i'll sticky that one?

Tilda

 

[eggy]

More additions than corrections, but sure edit my original post.

 

[Puppet]

I'm pretty sure they don't, but being honest I'm not 100% so I will check later.

They do work, the cheapest lvl 35 one is PvE only, but the higher ones work fine in RvR aswell.

Also, there is a seperate client, which is about 800 Mb. big. For the US version its downloadable, and I reckon a same thing will be used for EU.

 

[Jai13]

is there any new zones apart from the insatnce?

 

[Tilda]

is there any new zones apart from the insatnce?

Theres the Kings chambers in camelot, and quite a few other assorted instances around the old realm for the CL quests.
At CL2(or perhaps start of 3) there is a new zone for a part of it thats not instanced. Past CL3 I dont know.

 

[Shatari]

Theres the Kings chambers in camelot, and quite a few other assorted instances around the old realm for the CL quests.
At CL2(or perhaps start of 3) there is a new zone for a part of it thats not instanced. Past CL3 I dont know.

From CL3+ it's just an open dungeon. Co5 (Circle of 5) is too hard for most to do less than 2fg's, while there's also an end boss (3.4). 1fg can do it if they're very organized (note that this is on "Classic", so it's probably easier on normal servers).

 

[Raven]

maybe a silly question, do armour crafters get new recipes for the horse armour? does qual effect it in any way?