Throne of Destiny Changes

If you have just returned to Dereth with the Throne of Destiny expansion, you'll find that a lot has changed!  Here are the main changes:

Graphics - The graphics are better - kinda!  Everyone now needs a Directx 9.0-compatible 3D card, regardless of whether they bought ToD or not.  The highest graphics are only available to ToD owners though.

Level Cap - The level cap has been increased from 126 to 275.  The devs changed the amount of experience you can earn from 2^32 (roughly 4.3 billion XP) to 2^64 (18 quintillion XP!).  Level 275 is nowhere near 18 quintillion XP though - it's closer to 200 billion total XP.  As an aside, it would take you 42,115,854 YEARS macroing around the clock at 50M an hour to reach 2^64, so it's more a storage issue rather than an attainable goal.  A detailed FAQ from Turbine about the level changes is available HERE.  Even though the total experience cap has increased, the amount of XP you can put into any skill has not, so the old maximums (again, 2^32 per skill, or roughly 190 points to trained skills and attributes) still apply.  At a point around level 250-260, you will have reached the maximum value for every skill and attribute, so you can buy...

Augmentation Gems - These gems offer special abilities to any character who uses them.  There is a long, difficult quest involved in earning the gems and each gem has an XP cost associated with using it.  All Augmentations are permanent and cannot be undone if you don't like the one you've picked.  You can use more than one augmentation, however, but you will need to wait 30 days before you get another.  A complete list of the gems is available HERE.  As you can see, each gem is incredibly expensive, so these gems are really intended for the 200+ crowd.

Extra Skill Credits - As you level past 126, you will earn skill credits along the way!  Credits are available at levels 130, 140, 150, 160, 180, 200, 225, 250, and 275.  There is also another skill credit quest for anyone above level 80, bringing the total available over a character's lifetime to 48 (not including creation credits).

Vitae - Vitae is back with a vengence!  Before ToD, the cost to remove a point of Vitae increased with your level up to level 55, where it capped out at 12,500 XP per point.  No longer!  Vitae is now progressive and uncapped - the higher level you are, the more each point costs to work off.  What's more, as your level rises, the rate at which vitae rises increases.  That means that it will take more kills to remove a point of vitae for a level 250 than for a level 10.  Turbine's FAQ states that it will take roughly 5 kills for a level 15 character, 10 kills at level 70, 15 kills at 160, and 20 by level 275. Bear in mind that those kills are against monsters that level range character would typically be hunting, translating to millions of experience per point for high level characters.  Unfortunately, this change affects everyone, regardless of whether they bought ToD or not.

Monster Level and XP - Prior to ToD, the XP you earned from killing a monster was affected by your level, as compared to the monster's level.  If you were substantially higher than the monster, you would earn substantially less XP than a character of comparable or lower level than the monster.  Since most monsters in AC will not have their levels changed with ToD, that could have meant drastically less XP for high level characters.  Fortunately, the XP curve is gone.  Everyone will earn the same amount of XP per kill, regardless of what the difference in level is.

Percentage XP Rewards - Prior to ToD, level 126 characters couldn't get the full effect from most percentage-based XP rewards, such as Tusker Tusks.  The PXP reward was calculated on the XP cost to go from 126 to 2^32 XP (which was a couple million XP, and nowhere near the roughly 200 million XP to go from 125 to 126), so the reward for 126ers was disproportionately low.  ToD fixes this problem, to a degree.  Everyone over level 126 will receive a larger reward for PXP items than a level 125 character, but these rewards cap out.  Some PXP rewards cap out right at 126, but others cap out at an effectively higher level.  Rewards like the Gaerlan Sword that have a set XP reward for 126 characters will not change.

Patron / Vassal Swearing - Before ToD, your patron needed to be of a greater or equal level to you.  However, since the game didn't display the effective level of people above level 126, people with more total XP could swear to people with less total XP, so long as they were both 126ers.  With ToD, anyone may swear to anyone else, regardless of level.  However, the XP pass-up system has been changed.  XP is passed up only if a character is of an equal or lower level than his patron OR if he has passed up XP to his current patron at any point.  If I swear my level 60 character to a level 40 character, the level 40 character will not receive any XP until his level exceeds his vassal's level.  Once the patron's level is equal to the vassal's, the vassal will continue to produce XP for the patron forever, regardless of whether the vassal then out-levels the patron.  This exception grandfathers in all existing patron/vassal relationships, so your current vassals will continue to earn XP for you regardless of the level difference.

Death Item Drops - ToD will lower the average number of items dropped each time you die!  Currently, the number of items you drop is determined by dividing your level (the one the game shows, not your effective level) by 10 and then adding up to 2 extra items, so a level 126 will drop 12-14 items per death.  ToD changes the formula by dividing by 20 instead of 10.  That means that the total number of items dropped by a level 160 character will drop from 12-14 to 8-10.  Only at the maximum level of 275 will you possibly lose more items (up to a maximum of 15).

Rare Items - Everyone who has bought ToD will have a chance to find Rare Items!  Unlike normal loot, Rare items always drop on death, so their power comes at a price.  Rares come in several tiers according to their rarity.  The most common tier consists of gems that add 250 points to a skill for 15 minutes.  Higher tiers are increasingly rare and include armor and weapons that come pre-imbued, have majors on them, and have VII spells.  You may also find endless healing kits with massive bonuses on them (including some that restore stamina and mana!), endless bags of salvage, one-use bags of salvage that cannot fail, and endless dispel gems.  You can't miss finding a rare - when you kill a monster carrying a rare, you will get a green local message saying that you've found a rare.  Some rares are so rare that the entire population of all the worlds may not find a rare of the highest tier in a year!  Unfortunately all rares drop on death, so don't take them to places where you might not be able to recover them.

Halaetan Isles - A new island chain has appeared!  The Halaetan Islands are home to the Viamontians, as well as several other races.  Have a look at my map!

The Viamontians - A fourth Isparian Heritage group has arrived - the Viamontians.  The Viamontians are a war-like race to the west of Aluvia and have conquered vast tracts of Ispar.  Their King has used dark arts to make his soldiers into violent, brutal killers, stronger than any other Isparian.  Fortunately, Auberean's magic has made us as strong as the strongest Viamontian Knight.  Viamontians do not start with a racial weapon, but instead have Loyalty specialized and Weapon Tinkering trained.  Such useful racial skills will likely prompt many people to choose to be Viamontians.