It's been a busy week around here, and it's about to be a long weekend. Most questions this week had to do with sub-classing and champion weapons - sections we're putting on the Herald next week! So this column's a bit short, with the week's runner up questions:

Q: Can the Darkness Rising files be burnt to CD, on a local machine and then installed on the machines that have poor connectivity? That is, as long as the owner of that PC has the expansion purchased?

A: Yes. Burn, swap, snail mail, whatever. All you're really buying from us is the activation code.

Q: Where's my Roundtable gargoyle?

A: We're handing them out in batches. Everyone should have their gargoyle by October 10. If you do not have it by then, please appeal - but please wait UNTIL then to appeal.

Q: I tried to pre-order the Darkness Rising expansion and it timed out on me. What should I do?

A: Wait a half hour, and then log in and check the account information. If the order processed, it will show up. But please do wait the half-hour before checking or trying again.

There are three computer programs involved with buying stuff online. There's our program, there's the program your bank uses, and there's a bit that allows the two programs to talk to each other. (Banks recommend the choice of middle bit to companies, not the other way around.) The middle bit is having some… issues, that lead to long hang times. Fifteen minutes long in some rare cases. We've done some stuff that essentially instructs our program "when in doubt, hang up," which helps a little.

I do apologize for the inconvenience. Our guys are checking out possible alternatives.

Q: Will there be other options besides your patcher from which to get the Darkness Rising files?

A: We're hosting them on our site Tuesday, Fileburst will have them Tuesday, and we're putting up a BitTorrent on Monday for those of you comfortable getting files that way. You can also download the files anywhere, and burn CDs for friends and backup copies. Basically, the thing that matters most to us is that you buy the activation key. Get the files as you see fit. (Hint: BitTorrent on MONDAY is a swell option!) Of course, no matter when you get the files, the soonest you can use them is TUESDAY, when the servers open. Sorry for the capital letters, guys, I just want to avoid confusion.

If you have no idea what BitTorrent is, check out this link: http://www.bittorrent.com/introduction.html

Q: My question regards the Realm Ability, Avoidance of Magic.  It states that(copy/pasted): "Reduces all magic damage taken by the listed percentage. (This only works on damage. Does not work on disease, dots, or debuffs and does not affect the duration of crowd control spells). Lvl1 - 2% / Lvl2 - 5% / Lvl3 - 10%......."

I know that resist rates cap at 26% from item/spell crafted bonuses, does AoM's bonuses stack ontop of that, making my imaginary 26% Energy Resist now count as 28% Energy due to AoM1. Or does AoM not stack with a capped 26%, but is instead designed to help my imaginary 'gimped' 15% Matter Resist, making it a 17% Resist due to AoM1?? Thanks in advance.

A: Oh, yeah, this one went straight to the Code Warrior: "Realm ability resist buffs (such as Avoidance of Magic) are added seperately from item/spellcrafted bonuses and spell resists. This is why in the bonus window they display seperately; in his example, if he had level 3 Avoidance of Magic and capped Energy resist bonus from items, he would see "26% / 10%" in his bonus window. The two are evaluated seperately when assessing resists. (Edit: My original answer misspoke; they're not in fact added together. My bad. - CW)

"Unlike with items, there is no hard cap for realm ability and spell resist buffs (although you're limited by which spells and abilities are available, of course)."

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We are in the process of putting up documentation for the expansion right now, as you know - but for those of you who can't wait a minute longer, please head over to http://www.classesofcamelot.com. Uriel has an extensive DR section, and even though the Herald will have the basics of the sub-classing and crafting options, you may find that you like his layout and depth of information - and there's a lot more on his site than just DR. "Classes of Camelot" is a bit of a misnomer, IMO, as there is quite a bit more there. Between this site, the Herald, and the forums and character builder at http://daoc.catacombs.com, you can find out pretty much anything you'd ever want to know about the game. Check them out.

Speaking of websites, a little bird tells me Stratics is planning to relaunch their Camelot site on Tuesday. I'm looking forward to it - and seeing the before and after screenshots that they've got up their sleeves.

I didn't make an announcement about it, but we banned a larger than usual rash of radar users, cross teamers, and general cretins this week. And I've got the mailbag to prove it. Some people are just funny - "your server must have been hacked, because I wasn't logged in and no one had my password." Someone hacked our server and the only thing they did was log in YOUR character to cheat. Sure. Except not!

I did have one case that just broke my heart - the guy shared his password with his guild, and one of them had radar running while they had his account logged in. Nearly everyone caught cheating claims "it wasn't me," but I believe this guy. People have distinctive online "voices" when they type. It's occasionally too bad we can't use writing style as proof, and that we have no choice but to take action based on accounts and not the people. But until I develop psychic powers and can both go back and time AND astrally project myself into your house, that's the way it's got to be.

The point to my rambling is please, if anyone has your password besides you, and logs in your account on a machine that you do not control, change that password right now. And for those of you whose passwords are the same as your account names? Change them. Now. Even a freaking post-it note on your monitor is more secure than matching user names and passwords!

Check out BitTorrent and see if it's something you want to do, because it'll save you a lot of time and energy on Monday - and save you a ton of frustration on Tuesday. And stay tuned to the Herald, because we've got an exciting week coming up!