The weekly Grab Bag is here, and with it comes a bit of clarification about this weeks announcement concerning applicable taxes:

Q. About the new applicable taxes you announced this week. If my state does not require you to collect sales tax on online subscriptions, do you anyway? If so, how do you report/pay this?

A. You will only be charged the taxes if your state/province has mandated that you must pay them.

Q. Hi, I don't understand why the offensive and defensive proc for the Warden class aren't castable if you are targeting a Thane. Is this a bug?

A. The Equalizer took some time to explain about what indeed is a bug: This actually isn't specific to targeting Thanes - there currently is a bug in the game that will prevent you from being able to cast any offensive or defensive proc spell on yourself if your current target has an offensive or defensive proc cast on them. This is in our tracker, and is awaiting a fix. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

Q. I just was wondering why does only one group get credit for getting a relic when it usually takes a whole Battlegroup to get them? Thank you for your time.

A. With a few assumptions under her hat the Lady of the Jewels asks: Are you referring to the relic capture title? This title is meant specifically for the group who carries the relic. We will look into the possibility of a secondary title for those in the Battlegroup, or barring that, extending the title to include the entire Battlegroup. Thanks for the suggestion.

Q. I have received a wanted poster while doing my dragon quests. It says that I should return it to the Shar Queen where in Hades is she I have looked all over Shar lab maps and there is no queen?

A. The Lady of the Jewels smiles and explains: The Dragonsworn Lieutenants will often drop "flavor" items that help to give a background as to why they have turned to life as a Dragonsworn. One of these items can be a wanted poster. It is not actually meant to be turned in anywhere; it is only for the sake of helping tell the NPC's story. Sorry for the confusion.

Q. How come Amnesia is able to interrupt the "non-interruptible" Heretic damage spell?

A. Taking a deep breath to make sure to include all the words necessary the Equalizer says: When a spell is interrupted, the caster then has to wait for their combat timer to expire - this prevents them from casting for 3 seconds. The Heretic "non-interruptible" damage spell functions by preventing the player from having this 3 second timer being applied to them when interrupted by ranged attacks. However, Amnesia does not actually function as an interrupt in this regards - it will halt any spell that is currently being cast, but does not apply the 3 second timer to the character - they can immediately start casting again. As such, it does not obey normal rules and will stop the "non-interruptible" Heretic spell - but it will not prevent a Heretic from immediately re-casting it.

Q. Hey, this question has brought much debate to my fellow guildies and I. Okay, 390 is the Dex cap on a Hunter that effects Quickness, so does the 10% archery speed give an additional Quickness bonus or does it not matter as long as the Dex is capped? Thanks in advance.

A. The Equalizer nodded affirmatively: Yes, bonuses to casting speed will provide an additional reduction in cast times for Archery and Spell casting beyond the "cap" on Dexterity.

Q. Has Medairis been taken out of the game on Gaheris server? I've gone to Faraheim looking for him almost every day for the past couple of months. He had always been a morning spawn, but I've spent as much as 3 consecutive game days looking with no luck.

A. The Lady of the Jewels did a quick check and says yes: Medairis does still live out in Faraheim, but only so many faraheim doe and faraheim stags can be present in that area at one time. Try hunting the deer to the North of Boko to help make Medairis show himself.

Q. Hey! I was wondering, do ToA bonuses such as Spell Damage and Spell Duration affect Realm Abilities at all?

A. Answering quicker then I thought he would the Equalizer says: Yes, Spell Damage will increase the damage of Realm Abilities. Spell Duration does increase the duration of certain Realm Abilities as well, but not universally - for example, it will increase the duration of the snare on Thornweed Field, but it does not increase the amount of damage ticks that the target receives.

Q. I’m an Armorcrafter and was wondering why staves can’t be salvaged with Armorcrafting and Tailoring? I also wanted to know if Armorcrafting was going to have Tailoring or Gemcrafting as an option?

A. Momentarily stunned by this question the Lady of the Jewels responds: Neither Tailoring nor Armorcrafting have Woodworking as a sub-skill and salvaging all but the lowest level wooden items will not be possible if a player has no skill in Woodworking. Also, if the player is trying to salvage a staff that dropped off a monster it may be flagged as unsalvageable. There are no current plans to combine Armorcrafting and Tailoring into a single tradeskill or add Woodworking as a sub-skill for either of them. Gemcutting remains a sub-skill for Spellcrafting alone.

Q. The announcement about the taxes was given with little or very short notice, what is the reason behind this?

A. We wanted to give everyone as much advance notice as possible but then our accounts system was ready for the applicable taxes earlier then expected. As soon as we were told it was live, we did our best to make sure it was known to our players. We really do apologize for the short notice.

********
ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Camelot Road Trip is heading to Chicago, Illinois on Saturday, October 18th and we’re having a celebration for our 7th Anniversary! Join me and the Lady of the Jewels as we hold contests, give away awesome prizes and of course snacks for those tummies that might be growling (there might even be cake). What else? We’ll also being giving each player who attends an exclusive in-game item for attending. So if you are in the Chicago area or traveling from far away please stop in and celebrate our anniversary with us. As always, please RSVP so that we can get an accurate head count. Only two weeks to go!

The Ethereal forces continue to gain momentum and soon they will gain even further strength. What force is behind those doppelgangers? Surely they are not acting on their own. Stay tuned next week to see what happens to them next!

That's it for now, everyone. Have a great weekend, and be safe!