Can I have an extra side of catass with my grind? Thanks.

[Shockeye]

Voodoo Extreme has some tidbits on the upcoming DAoC expansion, "Darkness Rising".

Mythic also spilled some beans about Champion levels:

Become one of the chosen champions of your Realm as you prove your mettle, skill and spirit to your King and fellow Realm mates. The King shall grant rare boons and bestowments as a reward for faithful service to your Realm. The more status you obtain within the ranks of the elite champions of the Realm, the more coveted and potent the equipment and tools you'll receive.

Once you achieve level 50, you may speak to the King and begin the process of gaining XP towards Champion Levels.

Upon completing the XP requirements for each Champion Level, players return to the King to receive their reward and their Champion Skill points.

Experience is gained through RvR and PvE content, as well as through the completion of the Champion's Quest.

Champion Levels provide additional hit points, additional power points, Champion Skill points, access to the King's Magery, and increased customization of mounts.


Subclassing:

By using Champion Skill Points, players can purchase Sub-class abilities and spells to gain additional, low level abilities for other classes. This will allow, for example, a Midgard Champion Warrior to learn a healing spell, a damage spell, or debuff. An Eldritch from Hibernia may choose to wield a blade and acquire a buff or two.


And some poop on the how to get the new weapons:

The reward for completing the Champion quest is a fully powered, class-specific Champion Weapon. Champion weapons can also be earned by Lvl 50 characters through RvR combat.

Champion Weapons are as powerful as the best weapons in the game with unique class-specific abilities.

They will not lose durability, only condition (which can be repaired).

They may be traded in for a different weapon type should the player respecialize their skills

Weapons can be tinted by players.

I wonder if the classic servers have Darkness Rising enabled...

[tazelbain]

Mythic has given up.

[ClydeJr]

So you've got:

Standard Levels
Realm Ability Levels
Tradeskill Levels
Master Levels
Artifact Levels
and now Champion Levels?

[Soukyan]

So you've got:

Standard Levels
Realm Ability Levels
Tradeskill Levels
Master Levels
Artifact Levels
and now Champion Levels?

It's funny how these games change as they mature.

[Soln]

So you've got:

Standard Levels
Realm Ability Levels
Tradeskill Levels
Master Levels
Artifact Levels
and now Champion Levels?

Mythic has given up.

I think you both have it.   

[HaemishM]

Champion Weapons! THE NEW EPICS!

Wow, how long until these things are considered "mandatory" for RVR, just like epics became mandatory for guild raids in EQ (especially the cleric epic). I don't think Mythic's given up. I just don't think the people designing these types of veteran endgame things think there can be anything more "sticky" than level ++.

[HRose]

Were it not for the fact that artifacts and ML levels are are just a bad memory and my gaming is pretty much log on and run in RvR with 7 friends, I would have quit sooner.

Join us on the classic servers?

I'm definitely NOT impressed by the expansion but I believe it will be "okay". Actually I have still more gripes about "Catacombs", which definitely destroyed any attempt to do decent PvE (hello task quests and dungeons).

I always believed that ToA was bad for its accessibility problems (grinds, zergs, MLs) and not for the content itself. DR is supposed to remove those accessibility issues. If they manage to "deliver" this (and they should if the items are quest based and instanced) the PvE will be accessible and even if "mandatory" for the RvR, it will still be okay. The problem of ToA was *HOW* the content was delivered, not the content itself.

And the damage scale. The damage scale is a huge problem, but you don't fix it with an expansion.

Btw, I'm seriously *worried* about the horses. With that shitty implementation of the boats I'm really worried about horrible controls and animations. Or even worst, just speed x 5 and the model of a horse under the ass of the character. Right now all the videos show horses going in a straight line.

What about turning and code the controls so they behave realistically instead of having jerky animations and the horse spinning and warping all over the place? It's ok for the videos, but if they don't code new controls for this feature it will just look horrible and play awfully.

[Valmorian]

Btw, I'm seriously *worried* about the horses. With that shitty implementation of the boats I'm really worried about horrible controls and animations. Or even worst, just speed x 5 and the model of a horse under the ass of the character. Right now all the videos show horses going in a straight line.

Don't worry, I'm sure there will be a large number of "/" commands to let you control your mount.  You know, /forward  /backward /left.. etc...

[Shockeye]

Go, get your grind on.

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