Hello there!

I've had too much time on my hands today so I translated Rectors superb beginners guide to daoc. I didn't translate it one to one as it was much easier to put it in my words but I think it'll be fine.

It'd be highly appreciated if any native tongue could correct some of the mistakes I made, still learning .


DaoC Beginner-Guide


Recently I've met lots of new players here on Uthgard, many of whom brand new to Daoc. Some of em made it to lvl 15 without even knowing the comfort of the auto-run key or a stick-macro. That's why I created this start-up guide; to aid those who have no experience with the live servers whatsoever. I'll create a character in Midgard because that's my home realm. The help shown here is of course also relevant to Hibernia and Albion.

I assume that you already have a Daoc client, no matter if it is just the ToA client (which is better suited for old computers) or the newest expansion LotM. You should furthermore also have installed Daoc Portal, DOLloader or Uthgard-Launcher to hop onto the server, and have selected your future realm.

1. Character Creation

If you have chosen your realm you are now at the log-in screen. From here you can log in existing characters or create new ones. Before you do so you should collect some information about the various classes Daoc has to offer.

We have a great german website with a description of each class including viable specs.Unfortunately I could not find a comparable one in english. You can get an overview on Allakhazaam or Classes of Camelot though and when you decided which class you want to play you can google for a guide. "daoc mentalist guide" would do for example.


In principle there are the following basic classes:

Fighter/Tank

• Take lots of damage
• Deal lots of damage
• Stun enemies with a shield

Mage

• Deal lots of damage
• Debuff/Stun/Mezmerize enemies
• Summon pets

Supporter

• Heal group members
• Buff others
• Debuff/Stun/Mezmeries enemies

Hybridclasses (A mix of those 3)

Stealther

• Hide from others, sneak around and climb
• Tame monsters
• Deal lots of damage through special stealth-attacks involving poison

This is just a pretty basic breakdown of all classes, you can learn more about them at the websites I've listed above or by googling for specific ones.

I'd recommend a melee-class as a new player because they are (more or less...) the less complex classes to play. Don't create a stealther just yet, they are different in many ways and generally more geared towards solo play. Aside from chosing a class you also have to pick a race. Every race has different start-values of Strength,Constitution,Dexterity etc... . Here a short short breakdown of those :


Strength influences...

• the damage you do with your weapon. (Even though there are exceptions!)
• how much your character can carry.

Constitution influences...

• the quantity of you health-points

Dexterity influences...

• the speed in which you cast spells
• the dmg and to-hit % of Bows spears and staffs, claw-[Mid], thrust-[Alb], and pierce-weapons[Hib]
• how well you block,parry and evade

Schnelligkeit/Quickness influences...

• swing-speed when in melee and when using bows
• how well you evade

Piety.

• Primary caster attribute in Midgard. How much mana you have, how much damage you deal and what you heal for is all influenced by piety.
  The same for Clerics, friars, reavers and paladines in Albion.

Intelligence

• Primary caster attribute in Hibernia and Albion.

Empathy influences...

• Primary caster attribute for Wardens and Druids in Hibernia.

Charisma

• Primary caster attribute for Skalds(mid), Bards(hib) and Ministrels(alb).

I will now create a Skald in Midgard who is a good class to get your feet wet with. I choose a Norseman and as class a Viking so my character can really become a skald at level 5. Not every race can become every class!
Next you choose a name for your character, please be careful when thinking of one. You might get into trouble getting into a guild with a name like ShoeBox or l33333td0000d. For further reference on the naming policies on uthgard check the server rules.

Now you can distribute your statpoints. My future skald gets 10 Str, 10 Dex, 5 Qui, and 5 Charisma. Don't make the mistake and give a,say, warrior 10 points in Intelligence because that's simply not important to a warrior...^^.
Alright; if you're done distributing your points customize your appearance and log in .


2. Interface Customization

There he is - our level 1 wimp ^^. Dressed in ordinary clothes and equipped with a toy weapon. You see, there's much to do! Before we get to that part though we should familiarize ourselves with the Interface and customize it so it suits our needs.

In the lower left corner is the chat- and event-window. Over them is the quick-bar in which you can drag icons for fighting styles, spells or other actions. On the right side of the screen you can gather information about your character, inventory, styles, spells and your group.Personally I don't like it when the chat-window takes so much place, so I downsize it a bit by clicking at the X in the upper right corner of it.I also don't like it having the compass in the lower right so I relocate it with shift+lmb (left mouse button) to the top of the screen.

Furthermore I like having the performance-meter because it shows lags. Press alt+P to summon it.To get a list of all keyboard allocations type /keyboard. If you want to have an eye on the clock type /clock. If you right click on it you can make it transparent so all you see is the numbers.

Now we have those 6 funny little Icons on the quickbar. Unfortunate for them, they're useless. So we get rid of them via shift+rmb (right mouse button).
Because the quickbar will fill itself pretty quickly we install a second one. To do that click on „Char“ in the upper right, get into the options and activate the second quickbar. Click on the little circle on it to arrange it horizontally and relocate it via shift+lmb in the upper left corner. Adjust the first quickbar as needed.

Now we create an important icon: the stick macro! Type /macro stick /stick. You get an icon tied to your cursor which you can put into one of your quickbars. J opens the Quest Journal, M opens the map. Comes quite handy .

Alright, we're done! If you followed the guide your screen should look like this:


There are a few handy shortcuts you should remember:

WASD: move
X: sprint
Num: auto run
Q: combat mode on/off
C: sitting down to regenerate faster
RMT: mouse look toggle
LMT: camera pan
RMT+Mausrad: zoom in/out
T: torch on/off
Tab: target nearest enemy
E: stick (besides our created macro)
F: face (stand still and look in the direction of the targeted enemy/friend)

I also mapped „reset camera“ to my thumb button on my mouse. You can do that via /keyboard.You can quit the game by typing /q or /qtd to immediately quit to desktop.

By the way: if you are a pet class and have one summoned you get a little window to control it like shown below. You can also put the controls of it onto the quickbar via shift+lmb.


The yellow circle below our Viking Trainer means he has a quest for us. Right clicking him opens a text window through which we get our quest. We follow the troll to Dalikor who already has the next quest. I think you can do that one without my help . Little advice: If you want to use an item drag it to the quickbar out of your inventory and click on it.


3. Fighting

Aah that quest was quite extensive wasn't it? In return you should be level 2 by now because you received XP (experience). Have you noticed the small window in your lower right? There you can see your hp, endurance, power and little blue bubbles. These indicate how much xp you already gathered and thus how much you need until you reach the next level.
You should have gotten a cloak and a bracer as reward, right click on it and click on Info to see what the boni of them are. Equip them by dragging them onto your doll in your inventory.

Ready to fight some monsters (mobs) aren't we? =) Some can be found between Dalikors Tower and Mularn. They also drop some great newbie armor you can use right away.
There's a nice color system to the level of the monsters we fight (or die to ), so make sure you're fighting the right ones!

gray: far below our level, no XP
green: below our level, little XP
blue: slightly below our level, moderate XP
yellow: about our level, good XP
orange: slightly above our level, great XP but you better be well equipped
red: definately above our level, same XP as oranges due to the maximum XP you can earn at your level (Daoc slang: xp cap). Red mobs should best be fought with a duo or in a small group.
purple: far beyond our level, RUN! Type /release if you didn't . You should get back to your bind point which you can change anytime by typing /bind at those small stone circles you encounted in towns.

Everytime you die you lose a small amount of xp as well as a bit of constitution. How much depends on your level and how often you already died at your level. This starts to happen at lvl 5 so you do not have to worry about that yet though. To get your constitution back visit a healer who will restore it for a small gold fee.

But back to our mobs! Skeletons are no problem for us – run up to them and click on them. Finally we can use our stick-macro . Click on it and you automatically run up to the mob and follow it around. Press Q to enter combat mode and watch as your character (hopefully ^^) beats it to pieces. It should leave a little bag on the ground after the fight. Press H to select it and G to get it. To automate this type /autoloot on to let your character collect it automagically.
You should kill skeletons until you're level 3. If they drop armor, equip it. If you're low on hp and/or endurance press C to sit down and regenerate.



Return to Mularn and look for any merchant to sell your collected loot. Click on the item you want to sell in your inventoy and press ctrl+S to sell it immediately. As soon as you have 5 silver you can get yourself a new weapon, which is in dire need because our toy weapon is blue by now.
If you right-click on the weapon and click on Info you can see the effective damage it does. That's the value you're looking to compare whether one weapon is better or the other. Well, at the start that is , it gets more complicated (interesting!) by the time weapons get magical. The training axe has 1,2 DPS (damage per second).
So far it doesnt matter what kind of weapon you buy because we havent distributed any skill points yet. You can do that now if you want but keep in mind that you should stay with one weapon-type throughout the whole game! It makes no sense to skill in Axe and Sword because those points will be in dire need elsewhere and you can't use them both at the same time. You get a respec at level 5 if you already made some mistakes or changed your mind so don't worry .
Go to your trainer, select the skill and click on train.

Noticed how you get new icons on your quickbar? These are combat-styles which come in various forms. Right click on them and click on info to get further information about them. They appear automatically in your quickbar the first few levels. They won't later on though so make sure you add them as you get them later on by clicking on „battle“ in your upper right.

Alright, I bought a bronze bastard sowrd for my Skald which cost 4,62s. It's orange and has an effective damage of 1,8 DPS. All Items you buy from NPC-merchants have a quality of 85%, which is pretty low. It's still an upgrade from our axe though because the items level matters more. Your weapon should always be yellow or better yet, orange. Reds and purples are okay too but they items take a noticable Con hit while using them and need to be repaired more often. If the Con of an item gets below 94% its stats become worse and worse the lower it gets so it never hurts to visit a smith now and then! Just hand him the item (out of your inventory!) you want repaired and agree to the fee.

As soon as you have your newly bought weapon you can replace your training weapon with it. By the way, you can't sell your training weapon so you have to destroy it if you want to get rid of it. Left click on it and press ctrl+D to destroy it. (I'd advice doing so because you'll never need it again anyway.)



Now that you have a better weapon and some skill points in its skill-line you should be able to dance with some yellow mobs. Your next goal is to reach level 5, the best way to do that is by doing all the quests the citizens of Mularn offer you. Press M and look for the yellow dots on the map. You also get some useful jewelry by doing those so I'd highly recommend it!
If you can spare some money you can also invest in new armor. You should have an eye on the AF (Armor-Factor) and the type of the armor you are about to buy. If or not the receiving blow is completely absorbed by the armor or how much of the blow is absorbed by the armor is all dependent on the AF. On top of that every armor class absorbs a percentage of every blow no matter the AF:

Cloth: : 0%
Leather: 10%
Studded or reinforced in Hibernia: 19%
Chain bzw Schuppe in Hibernia: 27%
Plate (only alb): 34%

Not every class can wear every type of armor! Could you imagine a mage in plate armor? No? Well, the creaters of daoc couldnt either . What kind of armor you can wear can be found in the upper right again and may change at level 5.

If you have any questions about quests or anything other you can ask for help in your guild. Type /guild <text> to do so. You can also ask for help in the advisor channel which is attended by experienced players, /advise <text> to do so. If you still don't have an answer try /callgm <text> to ask a gm (game master) for help.


4. Finally level 5 – off to the Capital!

So you reached level 5, time to take up your profession as skald! This is where the game really starts. Enter the capital (Jordheim in Midgard) and look for the trainer of your class. Right click on him and become a Skald. You should see your available skill lines now, type /respec all to reset all your points. You can now distribute them anew.
From now on I distribute my points eqally in Hammer and the special ability of the skald: Battlesongs. Place the received styles and spells on your quickbar.
You also get a useful item from your trainer every 5 levels – only in the capital though!

So, you've invested your skill points and your equipment should be pretty good by now. You can go on questing and killing monsters, you could also start looking for other players to form a group. Just ask in the broadcast channel ( /broad lvl 5 Skald lfg ). If you continue solo woodeaters should be your next step:



5. Styles, Spells, Abilities and so forth...

By now you should have some styles on your quickbar, they're not that good yet but that changes when you invest more points into your weapon skill. Styles consume endurance (green bar). Some more, some less. There are generally 4 types of styles as I will show you here:

• Anytimer: Can be used any time.
  Some special ones:
  
  
  Taunt, identified by the red dot in the lower right. „Draws Aggro“. Whenever you hit a monster or heal a groupmember you draw aggro. The player with the most aggro gets attacked by the mob. A Taunt draws some extra. Use it when you're grouped with support classes to keep them from being attacked, they're wimpy afterall and can't cast when being attacked.
  
  
  Detaunt, seldomly used. The exact difference of taunt, makes you lose aggro.
  
  
• Follow-ups:
  
  -> ->
  Can be used subsequent to a previous style. They generally do more damage and/or have special effects.
  
  
• Reactive Styles:
  
  
  Green dot: Can be used after you parry.
  
  
  Purple dot: Can be used after you block.
  
  
  Light blue dot: Can be used after you parry.
  
  
• Positional styles:
  
  
  Can be used from a specific direction to the mob like from behind or the side.

The difficulty which reactional styles is to use them at the right time. You can't predict what the mob is going to do so you have to be quick when you block/evade/parry. Another possibility is to use backup styles, you prepare a reactional style but immediately also prepare an anytimer. If you, say, parry you use the reactional one, if not you use the anytimer.



In this case Wild Call is the Anytimer and Tribal Rage is a After-Parry-Style. You can easily see the damage difference too.

If you're really quick (or become it sometime ) you can also turn /cancelstyle on. If you click on a style and click on it again you won't execute it anymore. Extremely useful when you prepare your anytimer and a few milliseconds later you parry, just „undo“ the anytimer and use the reactional style.


Spells there are lots. But you can classify em:
All the Icons are just examples, they vary depending on realm and class

• Damage spells:
  
  DD's:
  
  Direct Damage, simple nuke
  
  DoT:
  
  Damage Over Time
  
  Bolt:
  
  An energy bolt with very high range. Deals lots of damage but is blockable by a shield.
  
  Lifedrain:
  
  A DD which drains hps off a victim and adds them to yours.
  
• Debuffs:
  
  Slows down an enemy or weakens it through debuffing their stats (str,dex...) or by lowering their attack speed or attack range. They are great to pull mobs if you are in a bigger group because they won't bring friends (daoc slang: add) that way.
  
• Crowd Control (CC) = Spells which hinder the enemy to move and/or act
  
  Snare:
  
  The enemy moves more slowly.
  
  Root:
  
  The enemy is rooted to the ground but can still attack. Broken when he receives damage.
  
  Mezz:
  
  The enemy cant move nor attack nor do anything else. Broken when he receives damage.
  
  
  
  
  
  Stun:
  
  The enemy cant move nor attack nor do anything else. Not broken when he receives damage.
  
  
• Besides offensive spells there buffs (enhancements für friendlies); they could be strength enhancements, a bonus to mana regeneration (Power over time, pom) or heal spells.
  
  
  Some of these spells are also available as AE-spells (Area effect). They're identified by a circle below the icon:
  

Some spells need some time to be cast and you can be interrupted while you're casting them. (Remember why you, as a tank, should taunt? That's why) Others are instant.


The following Abilities are received automatically by certain classes:

• Protect
  
  A great tool for aggro management. When you give protect to a player in your group you draw a big part of the aggro he would receive. It's for example useful to put it on casters or healers.
  
• Guard
  
  Classes which can spec in shield receive this handy ability. It's necessary to have a shield equipped in order to use it. When guarding a group member you block for him if you are near enough. It's useful to put guard on the player who has the aggro all the time to get the most out of it.
  In RvR (Realm versus Realm) you generally put it on a healer, a caster or any other high priority target of the enemy.
  
• Intercept
  
  With this one you can intercept the first hit a group member receives. You take the hit (+ some extra damage) instead of him. Again makes sense to put it on Casters/Healers in RvR.
  
• Quickcast
  
  Some casters receive this ability at level 5. When activated the caster can cast one spell and not be interrupted if he is being attacked. Usable every 30 seconds.

While we're speaking of blocking: there are small, standard and big shields. The only difference is that you can simultaneously block 1 enemy with a small one, 2 enemies with a standard and 3 enemies with a big shield. The more enemies you have after that the less your block-rate.


6. About leveling groups

By now you should have the fundamentals down. You learn the rest in game by asking fellow players or through learning by doing. Because leveling alone is boring you can create a group with other players. You share the xp that way and generally level a lot faster. You get the most out of a balanced group consisting of 1) tanks who take the damage and hold aggro 2) support classes who heal, buff and debuff and 3) damage dealers, mostly casters. That way every player can play his role to the fullest.
You should keep an eye on the level difference though. How much xp everyone gets depends on the size of the group and the levels of its members. A difference of 5 levels is too much in most cases but it really depends.

Be prepared for more monsters („Adds“) as the group grows unless you use a debuff to pull. When that happens the group should concentrate on one mob while the support classes mezz/root the others. If this is not possible aggro management comes into play – the tanks should draw enough aggro (taunt!), otherwise the healers or casters get aggro which is bad as it renders them useless.

It makes sense to change spots from time to time because every mob gets a „camp bonus“ to its xp proportional to the time it has been standing there. If you share your spot with others, never ever attack their mob! This is rude because you prevent them from getting any xp. This also applies when healing them so be careful.

You can find other players by using the /who command. /who 5 15 for example lists players in the level range from 5 to 15.
/who vale shows you what players are in the „Vale of Mularn“ right now. To get information about a specific player you type /who <name> .

You can communicate with others via /Send <name> <text>, for example /send Aaronas Hey! Wanna group? I'm a level 12 skald. You can reply directly by pressing R or typing /reply


7. Now get on with it!

Alright, good luck leveling! Your next big goal is to reach level 25 so you can visit the first RvR battleground: Braemar. From there on the RvR part of the game grabs hold of you and never really lets loose, promise .

Have fun!

Hey man, really nice work! I could not have done it better
Hope some Uthgard-DAoC-Beginners will find the way in this forum and read it =)

I´ll add the classes of camelot link to the german guide too, because the mystics website is down for some months.

Thank you for this, learned a lot.

Great work right there!

Nice guide, even ive been playing for a long time (8 years) and learned two things from these guides, i never understood the purpose of a backup style and how it was used ( i always used cancel styles when needed). And didnt know you could do a /who for a level range more then 1 level.

Very nice Work !!

I´ve noticed 2 minor mistakes though, maybe OP can correct:

1st : on the controls it should be "mousewheel" not "mouserad"

2nd : where first combat is explained, to enter combat mode you use "^" key, not "q" by default.

nice nice but something is wrong there

Fighter/Tank

* Take lots of damage ------------|
* Deal lots of damage |
* Stun enemies with a shield |
|
Mage <----

* Deal lots of damage
* Debuff/Stun/Mezmerize enemies
* Summon pets

nice guide.

imo sticky this bad boy

EDIT: also, if the OP would... add these links into his guide, maybe it'd help out some new players as well.
(not my guide)

http://voina.tistory.com/72
http://voina.tistory.com/73

supposedly this guide will get you 1-5 in about 20 minutes, with a full set of armor, and i believe some jewels/bracers.

Found this one (referring to Patch 1.63, which is very near to Uthgards pach level goal):


Dark Age of Camelot Comprehensive Beginner's Guide from Oct 30, 2003
http://www.neoseeker.com/dark-age-camel ... ielpu.html

Hello there,

Thanks to the posters for these guides.

I plan to try again DAOC when Uthgard will be launched in the next weeks/months. "Again" 'cause i already played once here, as a total beginner. Unfortunately, i was attracted by the infiltrator class. I did total ****** from lvl 1 to 50, and then did total ****** when playing rvr. In the end, my lack of skill / curiosity for any guide added to the amount of experienced players stomping over my dead body got me bored.

The reset of Uthgard is somehow an opportunity for beginners like me, i guess. So i'd like to play again this game, but this time i'll try to do things "right". I'm looking for your advice on which class to play.

According to several guides, melee classes should be picked for beginners. Still, i would like to play healer. Because i would like to be picked in a group quite easily, plus i usually like to play healing classes. And yet, DAOC is not World of Warcraft, and i guess i can't heal while masturbating or drinking a beer.

Still, can i play healer and have fun, or is too demanding and needs "investment" (don't know if it's the right word) to play correctly ( correctly as in "i'm not in the competitive way of playing") ?

And which one of the healing classes might be "easier" to handle ?

Otherwise, i'll probably play a melee character. Why not ? I would rather play a DPS class, then. But which one might be easier to handle ?

Thank you for reading.

Bisous.

Very handy. Nice work.

I read some articles on this site and I think your post is really interesting and has great information. Thank you for your sharing.