042 - Calculating your characters strength

On request :

A character has a defensive strength and an offensive strength.

Defensive :  How many hitpoints can it take before it dies.

Offensive : How many damage can it do per second.

I've made an excel file where you can calculate both.  This makes it possible to compare different setups.

You can download the file at : http://www.fileswap.com/dl/Wgz0WydUjX/
or at http://www.fileswap.com/dl/xGpFireweF/DSO_calculating_character_strength2.xls.html



Greetz
Perrush - on heredur -

033 - Cloaks part 5 : Cloak of Enlightenment

Cloak of Enlightenment

Part 5 of this series ... the Cloak of Enlightenment.  Let me first show the overview of all cloaks again :

Overview of statistics of all cloaks

The Cloak of Enlightenment adds roughly 100 armor to the Cloak of Wisdom.  Like you can see in the table the statistics of this cloak are very close to those of the Cloak of Might which can be bought for 12.800 andermant.

Quest for the Cloak of Enlightenment

The Quest for the Cloak of Enlightenment brings us to 2 dungeons, Suvius Vulcano and the Temple Sector, and one open area, Heart of Atlantis.  This quest can be though because the droprates aren't that great.  Therefor it's handy to use some tactics.  But let us first look at our opponents:

Gorgon Warrior at the Heart of Atlantis

'Swordsmen' at Suvius Vulcano - part 1

'Swordsmen' at Suvius Vulcano - part2

Zorlobb Lookout at Temple Sector

The images above show the different mobs to be killed.  The Gorgon Warriors and the Zorlobb Lookouts are well known I think.  The 'Swordsmen' in Suvius Vulcano are wrongly labelled however.  You won't get a fragment drop from the real swordsmen of the Suvius Vulcano.  Instead you need to lookout for 'Phalanx of the Imperial Lancers' and 'Resurrected Imperial Lancers', anything sith a spear will do.  The first can be found at the east side of the Vulcano, the latter on the northwest side.  The image underneath show their living grounds.

Map of Suvius Vulcano

Tactics
As I said before, this quest take a while because of low droprates.  For a while I was even wondering if I was killing the correct monsters at the Heart of Atlantis because I got no fragment drop after 30 minutes of playing.  But after a while a Gorgon Warrior did drop his Cloth of Eternity.  An other example : I was lucky to get 5 drops in 1 run in Suvius Vulcano.  Many times I had only 2 or 3 fragments.  When you need 75 ... you know you need many runs.

The tactics I used.

1) Go the the Temple Sector.  On the way kill some Gorgon Warriors in the Heart of Atlantis if they run in your way.  But don't focus on them.  The Zorlobb Lookouts are mainly located in the upper section of the Temple Sector.  So only clear that part, ignore the lower section.

At Ashraya you can pick up 2 repeatable quests which fits perfectly for this run.  The first is the Zorlobb Hunt @ B'Ala, the second is the Caught in the Snare @ J'Ulda. Those 2 quests will give you an average of roughly 60 silver per run.

2 quests you can combined with the hunt for Zorlobb Lookouts

2) After you cleared the upper part of the Temple Sector teleport back to Ashraya and go the Suvius Vulcano.  After you cleared the part in the red circle use your horse to ride to the green circle and clear that part too.  If done, teleport back to Ashraya and start the cycle again.  The Temple Sector will then be reset.

3) In this way you will find the 9 'Indestructable Claw Spikes' from the Zorlobb Lookouts first.  Then it's time to concentrate on the Gorgon Warriors in the Heart of Atlantis.  Because this is an open area there is no 4 minute respawn time.

It's good to do this part of the quest in one (or just a few) runs.  This is why.  Go to the Heart of Atlantis and start exploring the map in a systematic way.  Running in a large circle on the outside is a good beginning.  Notice where the Gorgon Warriors are (and kill them ofcours).  Once you're in the map, the Gorgon Warriors are always in the same place.  When you leave the map and come back, they can be in other places.

After a while you know exactly where the Gorgon Warriors appear and you can make the shortest route across these mobs.  Note that the respawn time in a PvE area is much quicker.  Probable close to 1 or 2 minutes.  You will see that after 15 minutes you learn to know the map and killing the Gorgon Warriors becomes a routine.  Just ignore all other mobs if you can, they only slow you down.

It took me around 2 hours to finish this part.

4) When you got the fragments of both the Zorlobb Lookouts and the Gorgon Warriors, it's time to move to Ellonidos.  At Ellonidos you can pick up a quest at Archeologist Shauna Sherlock called "Fragments of the Past" which you can do perfectly along the other quest.

The repeatable quet at Ellonidos

To get the last fragments travel to Suvius Vulcano and kill the mobs in the green area.  Use your horse to ride to the red area and clear that too.  After that teleport to Ellonidos, cash out the repeatable quest and pick it up again.  Then travel again the the beginning of Suvius Vulcano to start over.  BUT !!  you need to wait 4 minutes for the dungeon to reset.  If you enter to early, you need to wait 4 minutes again ... so keep an eye on that watch.

...

pfeww, that's a long 'guide'.  But I think this is the quickest way to complete the quest for the Cloak of Enlightenment.  Next post, the Cloak of Power.

031 - Cloaks part 4 : Cloak of Wisdom

Cloak of Wisdom

The Cloak of Wisdom is the first cloak which really adds something meaningful.  Besides the 25 armor value and the 93 health increase this cloak is the first to add damage points, 8 to be exact.  If you have 400 damage points, that's a 2% increase.

Quest for the Cloak of Wisdom

The quest for this cloak isn't that easy a for the previous two.  It brings us just to 2 dungeons, Hailstone Mountains and the Eternal Watch.  But the droprate of the fragments isn't that high.  You'll need to do several (10+) runs.

Let us first look at our opponents.

Thieving Iron Gnome of the North at Hailstone Mountains

Hoary Norsemen at Hailstone Mountains

Frostwolf Agitator at the Eternal Watch

Tactics

tip 1 : Because you need to do several runs, it's best to do Hailstone Mountains and the Eternal Watch turn by turn.  In that way the dungeon has resetted himself (4 minute reset time) when you enter again.

tip 2 : You don't need to clear the entire dungeon.  Especially at the Eternal Watch you'll loose a lot of time doing that. 

- At Hailstone Mountains I travelled by foot, but ignoring all mobs which I didn't need to kill. 

- In the Eternal Watch I often used my horse to ride fast through herds of mobs in search for the next Frostwolf.  In that way it just took a few minutes to seek and kill all the Frostwolf Agitators at the Eternal Watch.

You can use the map of Hailstone Mountains underneath to plan your ideal route.

Living area's of the different mobs + location of the Din of Trolls fragment

tip 3 : There are several quests you can perfectly do simultaneously with the cloak quest to get some extra gold.  The quests at Hailstone Mountain I already mentioned in this post about the droprate while farming. At Hognis Mine, the place where these quests start, there is also a quest for the Eternal Watch.  Visit Rikke and accept the quest called "Warming Pelt".  I guess you can do this quest at least 2 times while farming for the fragments of the Frostwolf Agitators.

The 3 extra quests at Hailstone Mountains

The extra Quest for the Eternal Watch

Next post will be the Cloak of Enlightenment, a quest which is even harder (but still not the worst ;) )

028 - Cloaks part 3 : Cloak of Insight

After the Cloak of Initiation you can earn the Cloak of Insight.
This cloak adds 86 health points to the cloak of initiation.

Quest for the Cloak of Insight

The quest for the Cloak of Insight brings you again to 3 dungeons : Fortress Teganswall, Dragon Caverns and Foxarrific Burrow of Investigation's HQ (what's in a name :) ).  This quest is a little more difficult than the previous although it's still straightforward, no real strategy needed.  I did the quest in 2 hours.

Underneath you see the mobs you need to kill.  Mind that the Soulless Dragonknights are actually labeled as Soulless Dragon Warrior.

Soulless Dragon Warriors at Fortress Teganswall

Dragon Brood Envenomer at Dragon Caverns

Ember Eyed Snooper at FBI

Next post will be the Cloak of Wisdom.  Here stategy starts to kick in when you want to complete the quest asap.

027 - Cloaks part 2 : Cloak of Initiation

In the previous post I gave an overview of all cloaks to be worn.  The first of the 'free' cloaks is the Cloak of Initiation.  It adds only 25 armor, nothing more, nothing less.

To obtain the Cloak of Initiation you need to do the following quest

Quest for the Cloak of Initiation

There are 3 dungeons to be visited for this quest : Hagastove Grotto, Eternal Grove and the Crypt of Kings.   To be honest, this is a very easy quest.  It takes half a run of Crypt of Kings, 1 run of Eternal Grove and 2 runs of Hagastove Grotto.  It took me 30 minutes to find all fragments.

Underneath the mobs you need to kill.

The Poison Connoisseurs of Hagastove Grotto

The Vicious Spiderspawn of Eternal Grove

The Arisen Skilled Archer of Crypt of Kings

Mind that in the quest the "Arisen Skilled Achers" are called "Resurrected Tournament Archers".  Probably a translation error from German to English. (there are more of these errors if you study the quests closely)

Next post : The Cloak of Insight

026 - Cloaks part 1 : Introduction

It took me a while to gather enough 'Scolls of Wisdom' to unlock the talent 'Cloak of Power" in the knowledge tree.  But finally I did it.  This gave me the opportunity to wear a cape like cloaks are often called.

Talent Tree - Cloak of Power unlocked

In the next posts I would like to go through the steps of obtaining the different cloaks because not much detailed information is available on the Internet.

The Different Cloaks

In total there are 8 cloaks.  3 of them, cloak of luck, cloak of courage and cloak of might, can be bought with andermant.  For the other 5 you must do a quest for each and buy a contract ranging from 10 silver up to 1000 gold.  You also must play the quest of the 'free cloaks' in order.  You have to do the quest for the cloak of Initiation first, then the quest for the cloak of Insight and so on.

Underneath an overview of the statistics of the different cloaks

Statistics of the different cloaks

Next post will be an review of the Cloak of Initiation.

edit : for an overview of the English forum, click here.

025 - Epic Mounts

I saw a video of the new epic mounts which go with the new talent quick riding, mentioned in this post, today.  You can see the video underneath for yourself

I counted 5 new mounts :

• a horse
• a dragon
• a bear
• a sort of locomotive
• and a ... euh ... creature

I made some screenshots of them :

Epic Mount : The Horse

Epic Mount : The Dragon

Epic Mount : The Locomotive

Epic Mount : The Creature

Epic Mount : The Bear

024 - Quick Riding - Knowledge Tree

On the Drakensang Latinoamerica facebookpage I saw an image of the new knowledge tree talent from the testserver.

First the knowledge tree :

New talent on knowledge tree

The speedy mount, called dragon brood, for sale in the shop for 40000 andermant, around 30 € or $40.

Dragon Brood for sale

 Finally a stunning image with the new mount in place.  The figure on top is Crazyrabby who has an own YouTube channel about DSO.

New speedy mount in play

Note : You can make your own character on the testserver for free and see all these changes for yourself.

021 - Patch R090 ... ... and more

New level gem with R090

R090, one week after ...

Exact one week after the dreadful R089 release, read my post about it, R090 is released.  To be honest, I like a few things of R090 very much.

ELO system
One of the things I noticed was :

"PvP matchmaking is now based on an ELO system"

This could be very well THE solution to balanced PvP matching. You can read more about the ELO rating system on the wiki page.  In short, the system works as follows.  You gain points by defeating opponents and loose points by being defeated.  After a while players can be ranked according to their points.

The beauty of this system for PvP matchmaking in Drakensang Online is that this ranking is not influenced by experience nor fame tree level.  Only the capabilities in the arena are brought into the equation.  So it is well possible that a player of level 34 plays better then a level 38 player although his fame and experience tree is probably lower.  By this system the level 34 player will indeed rank higher than the level 38 one.

To me it looks promising.  Let's see how it works out in real life.

New level gems
Bigpoint is adding a new level of gems, the sacred gemstones.  I was wondering if anyone want to buy this because they are so expensive for the little you gain with it.

Take the sacred ruby for example.  You need 27 polished rubies (+10 dmg) of 6400 andermant to craft the sacred ruby.  27 times 6400 is 172800 andermant.

To upgrade from a radiant ruby (+20 dmg) to a sacred ruby (+25dmg) cost you 115200 andermant, that's roughly 100€.  Just for a 5 dmg gain.  A costly adventure if you want to upgrade those 10 slots ... ...

edit : 
I just found this image on the drakensang latinoamerica facebookpage ...  you must be kiddin' me ...

Re-balancing Dragon knights again with R091

The news of the days came late this evening in this post on the English forum.  And I quote :

"First of all: Hi guys and gals!

We, the Game Designers of Drakensang Online, have decided that we want to come closer to you. Let you know what we're doing, what our intentions and plans are and what we will be working on in the future.

For this purpose we talked to Community Management and decided to open up this channel of direct communication with you, the player.

Please feel free to check this channel frequently. We will not adhere to a strict posting schedule (we do have a game to develop), but we will give our best to keep you in the loop of the most important developments in Drakansang's future!

With that said, let me address the elephant in the room:  We have followed the discussions around the re-balancing we did with Release 89 closely and played hundreds of PVP matches ourselves to carefully evaluate the situation. Our two main goals still are PVP balance as well as making the game more fun in general.

We would like you to know that with Release 91 we will introduce a whole set of changes. Many of which address your concerns regarding PvE gameplay and the Dragon Knight specifically. We will also introduce smaller tweaks regarding overall balance, making your choice of talents much more interesting while improving PVP balance at the same time.
Have fun with Release 91 and the re-balancing and let us know how you feel about it. We can't wait to hear from you. 

We will continue working and improving upon the balancing and our core gameplay. For example: How would you like to execute skills like "Battle Cry" and "Adrenaline" mid-movement?

Kind regards,
Drakensang Online Game Design"

Now mind the line I colored red and bold.  Did they really read all those concerns on the English and German forum ?  Or did they already noticed that many dragon knights play a lot less than before ?  We'll never know.  But the most important is that they want to do something about the playability of the dragon knight in PvE.  Let's hope the changes are significant.

Although a little premature, but I have a good feeling about the recent update and the upcoming one.  Let's hope my feelings don't betray me.