Asherons Call: More More Q&A Q&A Q&A

Question AncientWizard - Does crippling blow work on a staff/orb/wand for war spells?
Answer srand - Yes. Remember, however, that a magical critical hit doesn't mean precisely the same thing that a melee or missile critical hit does, and so the effects of Crippling Blow will be a bit different for magic. A melee/missile critical hit always does at least 2 times the maximum damage of the weapon, and the Crippling Blow imbued effect increases that multiplier. Magical critical hits, on the other hand, still do additional damage, how much additional damage they do is calculated differently. Magic criticals add a percentage of the minimum damage onto the normally-determined damage of the spell. For instance, if a spell has a damage range of 110-180, and this particular spell cast hit for 150, then a critical hit (without Crippling Blow) adds 55 points of damage (50% of the minimum damage of the spell), for a total of damage of 205. With Crippling Blow, the percentage of the minimum damage that is added will be higher, and so the total damage will be higher. Notice that a magic critical hit can be less than the maximum damage of the spell, even with Crippling Blow -- if your normally-determined damage is near the low end, adding a percentage of the minimum damage may still leave your total damage under the maximum damage of the spell. This is confusing for a lot of players, because they are used to melee/missile criticals.

Question Kibo Mori - Any chance you could give some insight into Critical Strike on a wand/orb/staff?
Answer srand - Critical Strike on a wand works just like Critical Strike on a melee/missile weapon -- depending on the skill level of your attack skill, you have a greater than normal chance to achieve a critical hit. For melee/missile weapons, the base crit chance is 10%, and Critical Strike can raise that as high as 50%. For magic, the base crit chance is 5%, and Critical Strike can raise that as high as 25%. All of the imbued effects, on melee, missile, or magic weapons, have a variable effect that depends on your skill level in the appropriate attack skill.

Question Rude Roland - I wanna untrain/unspec 2 or 3 skills so i will be refunded of the xp i've spent on those skills. I have already 2.000.000.000 unassigned xp and probably i'll have more than 4.294.967.295 unassigned xp once i'll unpec/untrain all that skills, will i loose xp?
Answer srand - that it would result in you 'rolling over' your unassigned experience value, you won't actually be able to untrain the skill. Instead, you will get a message telling you what the problem is, and suggesting that you spend some of your unassigned experience and try again. This doesn't use up the skill gem, so you can try again as soon as you've spent the experience.

Question Thorsanvil1 - (summarized) What if I untrain bow but I've used 5 bow tesseras?
Answer srand - You will be refunded the xp from the tessera. Your tessera quest flag will not be reset, so you cannot use any more tessera.

Question Crassus - (summarized) I notice that I do less damage against Crystal Golems with Armor Rend than I did without. Is this a bug?
Answer srand - Weapons imbued with Armor Rending ignore a percentage of your opponent's armor. Now, in normal circumstances your opponent is being protected by their armor, and so ignoring part of it is useful for you. It is possible, however, that your opponent has such abysmal armor that their armor is actually hurting them -- making them take *more* damage instead of less -- and in those situations, ignoring some of that armor is obviously not as useful for you. This is exactly the situation that you are seeing with Crystal Golems. Crystal Golems have absolutely abysmal armor ... and so perhaps an Armor Rending weapon isn't the wisest choice when hunting them.

Question TemplarNocturne - (summarized) Why can't I ivory my shen bow when I can ivory my shen shield?
Answer srand - Indeed, the reason the Shendolain bow is not yet ivoryable is because it can be crafted into the Shendolain crossbow. The reason the Shendolain crossbow is not yet ivoryable is because I didn't want the bow archers feeling inferior. *grin* Unfortunately, time constraints prevented us from adding new ivory targets in December, but I hope to start picking up the stragglers in January.