The Early Bird special on SOE Live tickets is over, but that doesn't mean you can't still get a discount, or even a free ticket, hotel, or even airfare! The SOE Live Recruiter program is a great way for guilds to send members of their guild who want to go but just don't have the finances to, as well as a great way for EQ2 players to support Fan Sites.

From Brasse's Blog on the SOE Live site:

How to Win Friends and Influence People...And Get To SOE LIVE for FREE!

by Brasse

Over the next few days, you will see some guild leaders, fan site operators and prominent members of the SOE community posting about a mysterious discount code for SOE Live. Maybe you missed the Early Bird pricing, but with your Recruiter friend's special discount you'll get $20 off the current badge price, so you still win!

Waaaaaiiiiit a minute... what's in it for the Recruiter? I am SO glad you asked... because now you're going to want to be one too! NO problem, just email us and tell us your name, character name, guild, primary SOE game, and how many friends you plan to push, pull, or drag to the event with you: soelive@soe.sony.com. Please put RECRUITER in the subject line so that it does not get lost in the daily email avalanche!

Please read the OFFICIAL RULES HERE. I am not kidding – you need to read these. Now!

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For several days now, Verizon FIOS users have been experiencing connection issues with EverQuest 2. These problems seemed to have been resolved but have returned today.

More as we have it...

From Holly "Windstalker" Longdale's twitter:

Double XP weekend -- all types including guild XP - and Vault Sale starts tomorrow at noon PDT and runs through Monday, 11:59pm PDT! #eq2

— Holly Longdale (@WindstalkerEQ2) May 23, 2013

Time Zone Conversions

• PDT: Friday, May 24 @ Noon ~ Monday, May 27 @ 11:59pm
• EDT: Friday, May 24 @3:00pm ~ Tuesday, May 27 @ 2:59am
• BST: Friday, May 24 @20:00 ~ Tuesday, May 27 @ 7:59
• CET: Friday, May 24 @21:00 ~ Tuesday, May 27 @ 8:59
• AEST: Saturday, May 25 @ 5:00am ~ Tuesday, May 27 @ 4:59pm

We're a tad late on this one, but if you miss the Qeynos and/or Freeport neighborhoods which were gobbled up by last year's Revamps and wish you could make a home of them, there's an in-game poll you might want to give your input on.

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It looks like Emily "Domino" Taylor has returned to the Sony Online Entertainment fold after the successful launch of Defiance for Trion Worlds. She is now a Producer on the EQNext team. For those who may not know Domino, she contributed substantially to Crafting and Housing in EverQuest II, specifically the addition of Epic, Heritage, and Signature quests for crafters.

From her Linkedin page:

Producer
Sony Online Entertainment

Public Company; 501-1000 employees; Computer Games industry

May 2013 – Present

Following the launch of Defiance, I rejoined the SOE team to work as a Producer on EQNext. Very excited to be back with a fantastic team on a really exciting game. Look for more information about the game in August!

her Twitter:

Well, guess the cat is out of the bag now. =)linkedin.com/in/pentapod/

— Domino (@pentapod) May 21, 2013

her Facebook:

For those who haven't heard already: last month I resigned from Trion, and accepted a producer role on SOE's upcoming project EQNext. I'm super excited about the project, and very touched and grateful that so many people seem so happy to welcome me back. I had no idea so many people even knew who I was, let alone would have so many kind words. ♥ I can't wait to help make this game amazing!

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Cobalt Scar

• Kelorek'Dar no longer stuns or interrupts players as a damage shield. He will instead damage player's power pools slightly at the same frequency.
• Collections - Collectibles in Cobalt Scar should be more readily available

Chelsith

• Kuom'Ziki will no longer continue to speak when he is dead.

Jarsath Wastes

• Fixed a spawn point for collectible shinny that was below the surface at location -1619 183 1116.

Blackburrow

• The “Sabertooth Champion" should start spawning again. The respawn for him is around 20 minutes.

Sleepers Tomb

• Sleepers tomb raid – challenge mode ancient sentinel no longer heals itself with Touch of Velium II spell.

Nektulos:

• The Travelling Augur is adjusted to prevent the possibility of him falling beneath the dock.

Siren's Grotto: Dissension

• The second respawn location should not be available until the doors to the second half of the zone are unlocked.

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From the SOE Live website:

SOE Live Exclusive: Get a First Look at EverQuest Next!

On Friday, August 2nd, attendees at SOE Live will witness the unveiling of the highly anticipated EverQuest Next! Be among the first to see game features and development plans during a keynote address by Director of Development Dave Georgeson and members of the EverQuest Next team. Following the keynote, SOE Live passholders will be able to ask questions and learn more in-depth information from the developers during a number of panels.

Whether you're a long-time EverQuest enthusiast or just curious about the next big thing in gaming, don't miss this exciting chance to get your first look at EverQuest Next. SOE Live is the only place for all the insider information, so register today!

as per the SOE Live schedule, Friday's keynote is scheduled for 11:00am:

11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Keynote Address

More details to be announced. You won't want to miss this!

Celebrity Ballroom

SOE Live Early Bird Registration ends May 22nd and rises from $129.00 for the weekend to $149.00. NOTE: Anyone who registered in the past few days and was charged $149.00 will be refunded the difference.

Imagine the ability to view a spreadsheet of your characters, your friends' characters, your guild, or your guild alliance, all with their most valuable stats and gear scores (Stamina). Now imagine being able to sort this view by columns, add characters, hide certain guild ranks based on participation or perhaps if you have a main or alt raid force. Or imagine you've just joined a group and want to see what gear they've got, what upgrades they'll be rolling for, or what areas you could help them improve on.

Today, EQ2U is happy to announce the introduction of the Gear Report!

We've heard from a number of guilds that hand-maintain such a spreadsheet, but there has been a growing desire to be able to automate such a view. Errrorr was the catalyst for this feature as he showed me a screenshot of the stats that their guild tracks for each character. Then I stumbled upon Soresha's EQ2 Data site where she has built quite a bit of this functionality for her guild. But we wanted to expand this idea outside of Guilds and allow any group of characters, even Guild Alliances, to build lists of characters and view their stats at a glance.

So how do you access this Gear Report feature?

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The Test server was updated last night with a number of tweaks, fixes, and improvements.

First up, the Housing and Leaderboards windows have been merged into a new megawindow. From Ahma:

We've added a new window: Housing and Leaderboards. This UI element, which can be accessed via the EQII menu and from the Housing and Leaderboards buttons to the right of the EQII menu, combines some old windows and allows easy access to many housing related features. It allows you to manipulate all your current houses, browse and buy new houses, visit houses associated with the current zone you are in, and view the current housing leaderboards. Please check it out and give us your feedback!

Next, the monthly Moonlight Enchantments event is gaining 2 new quests and 23 new item rewards:

• "Comforting Confections" - Speak with Shasta Evergreen in the Enchanted Zygomyd Grotto
• "Blooming Good Tea" - Speak with Odeyana in the Enchanted Fay Grotto

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With Game Update 66 and the introduction of Siren's Grotto, it's now time to bump up the quality of heroic gear a bit. To do that, Drinal's Steward as started offering Tier 2 heroic armor. From Amnerys on the EQ2 Forums:

Good news! The Steward of Drinal now has Tier 2 Heroic gear available. Platinum prices on the Tier 1 Steward gear have been lowered. Greater Spirits and essences have also had their drop rates increased.

This is indeed good news, as there is certainly room for growth and a need to provide an obvious upgrade over the Advanced Solo rare drops.

However there are a few hiccups too. On the EQ2 Forums, players have renewed their objections to needing to run the 15 hour Chains of Eternity Solo Signature Quest line on each of their alts in order to shop Drinal's Steward's wares. While we've been able to buy a Steward's Key to share the Obol and Spirit love with our alts, this key has never unlocked the ability to buy from the Merchant. Thus far, the workaround for buying armor has been to swap characters around and trade it through the Shared Bank. However this won't work with Tier 2 gear upgrades.

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Despite protestations from Raid and Group Leaders, it seems the current itemization strategy of crazy-gluing desirable Yellow and Red Adornments to equally desirable items and leaving it to players to divide the child is here to stay.

An eternal optimist might say that leaving it up to players to decide whether to destroy the item to salvage the adornment is part of a longer term strategy to bring choice and hard decisions back to EQ2 itemization after years of streamlining.

While a growing number of Adornment Dislodgers have become available since the Chains of Eternity expansion launched, their cost has kept them out of reach for many players. Especially the obscenely expensive Superb Prismatic Adornment Dislodger which is one of the few types which preserves the item AND a choice of one adornment.

With today's update, the aforementioned Superb Prismatic Adornment Dislodger will drop from 1,000 plat to 250 plat. Further, EQ2 designers have posted that some cheaper adornment removers are on the way.

A few years ago, travel within EQ2 was only slightly arduous. Players often had to travel to Nek Forest, Thundering Steppes, or Moors of Ykesha to then bounce off to places farther afield. EQ2Wire even published a World Travel Map (and gave away copies at Fan Faire) which suggested the easiest means of travel.

Then over time, recast times on Guild Hall and Call Home spells got shorter, and travel restrictions lessened. Then came a major streamlining which eliminated all bells (and carpets) in favor of a single universal World Travel Bell on almost every dock which will take you almost anywhere in Norrath.

Eventually, players were able to purchase stacks of five Portable Globe of Swift Travel that allow us to summon a World Travel Bell anywhere. If you thought the streamlining was finished, you'd be wrong. It looks like those portable globes are about to undergo "point of need" streamlining. On Test, you can now click on your Map and travel, for a fee.

From the EQ2 Test Forums:

Greetings Testers,

Today's Test update brings instant travel! You can now click on your map, click on the Quick Access Teleport button in the upper-right corner, and choose where you want to go.

This feature will cost Station Cash once it hits the other servers but it is currently free for you to check out on Test. Please play around with it and give us your feedback!

Thank you.

EQ2Wire Comment: Undoubtedly, the introduction of this feature will coincide with the removal of those Portable Globes, so I'd stock up now.

UPDATE from Ahma:

To clarify this, instant travel will only allow you to go to existing travel locations (druid rings, wizard spires, and bells). Beyond those, you will not be able to choose a specific location within a zone.

Hopefully today's update will finally and completely put the EQ2 Platocalypse to bed:

From EverQuest2.com:

GENERAL

• Click-to-cure should now use the robust remedies that are in your bags.
• Pet back off will now remove auto-assist.

MERCENARIES

• Quest mercenaries should no longer overwrite your hired mercenary if they die.

ACHIEVEMENTS

• The Triumph "Destiny of Velious Over Achiever" should once again be awarding to players who have already killed the required bosses.

GUILD HALL AMENITIES

• Bells should no longer require a 6 person group to zone to Cobalt Scar.

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From EverQuest2.com:

Calling All Player Panelist Hopefuls!

SOE LIVE Player Panel submissions are OPEN!

The biggest hit of SOE Live last year was the inclusion of player panels for the first time. We loved 'em, YOU loved 'em, and they'll be back for 2013! We'll have panels on Friday, Saturday, and now Sunday as well!

We are looking for panels on any subject that will be of interest to SOE Live attendees. Here are some suggestions to get you started:

• Managing a Guild
• Guild Leaders Support Group
• How to run a raid without losing your mind
• L337 gameplay tactics (in any SOE game!)
• How to win in PvP
• Roleplay in the 21st century
• Running an in-game event
• Cosplay tips and tricks
• Why SKs are overpowered (just kidding!)
• Player Studio
• Fan Sites
• Livestreaming - how to!
• Making videos
• Fan Art and/or Fan Fiction
• Mastering the art of... ?
• Another amazing topic that we've never thought of!

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If the 48 slots afforded [eq2u]metallic reptile hide backpack[/eq2u]s just doesn't cut it and you need a full 50 slots to carry your worldly possessions, then head to the Marketplace this Mother's Day weekend where you can acquire 50 slot bags. This offer is only valid for THIS weekend.

From EverQuest.com.

At long last, Item Unattuners have come to the Marketplace.

In 2010, these became available in a three-pack from an ultrarare Legends of Norrath loot card. Prices on trading websites were upwards of $100 for the opportunity to unattune three pieces of armor, weapons, or jewelry and pass it on to another character.

Then with the introduction of the Goblin Games last August, players could play the repetitious games (which were necessitated by anti-Gambling laws) for tokens which could be exchanged for individual gear unattuners.

Today, players are able to purchase these items directly from the Marketplace:

• [eq2u]Item Unattuner[/eq2u] -- 350SC

• [eq2u]Item Unattuner Bundle[/eq2u] (7) -- 1,960SC

Read more about the Item Unattuners, as well as Siren Plushies on EverQuest2.com.

From the EQ2 Forums:

From Nandy "Zoltaroth" Szots on the EQ2 Forums:

Hey guys! Good news! We are going to be hiring more programmers for EQII. We have already made a hire from the community and having people that are passionate about our game working on it is good for everyone!

Below you will find links to the job posting on SOE's webpage. If you have any questions feel free to PM me. Even if you have not programmed C++ in some time but have a programming background and are passionate about EQII you should apply!

Also please include a cover letter that clearly states that you play this game and a little bit about your play style.

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With Chains of Eternity, Research Reducer potions/totems were removed from the Marketplace in favor of an "Upgrade Now" button directly on the Research tab. While there has been some debate about slight changes in pricing, the end result of being able to peel days or weeks off of Spell Research right from within the Research tab has been a simpler, more streamlined experience.

The old way -- digging through the Marketplace to find the correct consumable with the right duration that best matches the number of hours/days left on your research -- was less than intuitive. Further, consuming a Research Reducer without the Research window open didn't provide much feedback of what was actually happening.

With Game Update 66, the ability to Unlock gear on Free-to-Play accounts right from within the Equipment tab by right-clicking items and unlocking item-by-item or choosing to "Unlock All" was added. Tomorrow (May 8th), this will become the only way to unlock gear as the [eq2u]Equipment Unlocker Pack[/eq2u]s are being removed from the Marketplace.

Once again, the fine details of cost are being debated on the forums. For players who wish to unlock all their gear (up to 22 equipped items), this is clearly a more streamlined approach. But those players who prefer to individually manage gear unlocks, this takes away those options. Some players have also pointed out that the individual unlocks through the interface are 35SC each, while the Equipment Unlocker 5-packs worked out to 30SC each. Streamlining is good, but longer term, players wonder if the new "built-in Unlock" feature will enjoy the periodic discounts and rebates that the Unlocker packs used to.

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With Game Update 66: Scars of the Awakened, it's clear that the EQ2 team are trying to do some new things with quests. I've done I guess about 1/2 of the Othmir questline in Cobalt Scar and have had to do some interesting tasks under certain conditions which go way beyond the usual "kill 10 rats" quests. Of course the problem with more complex quests is, there are so many more places where they can break, and I haven't encountered this many breaks in a single quest in a long time.

I'm talking about the quest Gifts from Prexus. If you don't want the quest spoiled, then skip this article.

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Login servers for all SOE games appear to be down.

Posted at 10:36am:

We are investigating and working to resolve an issue with logins. [Dexella]

— EverQuest II (@everquestii) May 3, 2013

Update at 11:39am:

You should be able to log in to game now. Happy adventuring! [Dexella]

— EverQuest II (@everquestii) May 3, 2013

From the EQ2 Forums:

PLAYER HOUSING

• Fixed an issue where the moving crate sometimes wouldn't show up when moving houses.

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

General

• Coin rewards for Advanced Solo zones have been increased.
• Minimum coin rewards for Heroic zones have been increased.

ABILITIES / ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT

Warrior

• Reversal should no longer periodically reapply its visual.

QUESTS

• The recipe "Circle of Flames" should now correctly appear in the recipe book for those who have scribed it.
• Meru should no longer mysteriously die during the quest Gifts From Prexus.

Today we're happy to add Class Focuses and Racial Traits to EQ2U. This is something we've wanted to add for a while, but it took a little while longer to do as the spells and icon positions for each class and race required data entry. Please let us know if you find any stray icons or missing info.

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From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL

• Fixed a bug where not all of your points spent would load from an AA mirror.
• Granted a free respec on all trees to all players.

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Sirens Grotto Raid

• Caella the Pearl encounter - Siren Controllers are slower to react after spawning and have less health. Entrancer Lisha now waits a while after casting Numb Senses to cast her Consume Vitae AOE.
• Entrancer Lisha will no longer charm pets with Siren’s Melody.

Siren’s Grotto: Alluring Embrace [Heroic]

• Health has been reduced on a number of NPCs.

Drinal’s Castle Raid

• Fitzpitzle should now properly advance to his rooms when defeated.

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