From Holly “Windstalker” Longdale on the EQ2 Forums:

Greetings Norrathians,

We’re all charged up and busy after a great time at SOE Live! The team is hunkered down and focused on the expansion, fixes, and updates on the schedule. Here are some details!

When is the EverQuest II: Altar of Malice Beta?

On Oct. 7 we will launch Limited Beta for All Access members. Most of the content will be focused on the Overlands and level increase content. We need your support!

Oct. 14 will be Open Beta for everyone. We’d love you to come check out the content and help us make sure it’s good, clean fun.

When is Altar of Malice Launch?

The expansion launch for All Access members will be on Nov. 11, just a few days after we celebrate our 10th anniversary!

On Nov. 25, the expansion will be available to everyone.

Because sleep is overrated, EQ2 fan Afista spent the weekend meticulously transcribing the two EverQuest II Q&A panels and has posted them on EQ2 ZAM. Also don’t miss the notes from the all-important Mechanics panel posted by Cyliena as linked below. I got a kick out of hanging out with both of them at SOE Live and seeing what they’re doing for the EQ2 community. I’m starting to feel like a bit of a slacker now… 😉

At SOE Live 2014, the community had questions and the devs had answers! ZAM was there to keep track of what everyone wanted to know. Afista has written a full recap of what happened during the Q&A following the EQ2 keynote, as well as the AMAA Sessions Part 1 & Part 2.

Read the entire Q&A recap over on ZAM!

(also check out our Systems & Mechanics panel recap from last week!)

From the EQ2 Forums:

WEEKLY FEATURE

• Vesspyr Isles: Pinch Aggregate, the Rare Item Procurer, now offers wares in a secluded location.

QUESTS

• Fixed a bug where the Shinies Beneath the Moonlight automatically awarded even if someone didn’t complete the proper collections.
• Blaisy Bookmaker and Unlucky in High Keep Contested, and Dawper in the Fabled Sanctum of the Scaleborn will no longer temporarily disappear after you’ve completed Dawper’s mission, “Blasted Droags!”

ITEMS

• One player cannot trigger both Practiced Tactics and Practiced Tactics II. The effects will stack when applied from multiple casters. [Fixed on 5/16/2014]
• Players may now obtain over 10,000 Draconic Etyma now. Currency caps on all other currencies are unchanged.
• The “Customize” option will now correctly appear for House Actors inside a player dungeon.

ABILITIES / ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT

• Priests now will be granted Gather Remains at level 80. This spell can be used to pull the corpses of raid members to the priest’s location while out of combat.
• The maximum health impairments caused by Rejection, Change of Engagement and Debilitating Strikes no longer stack from multiple casters.

There were some technical difficulties during the first 10 minutes of the EverQuest II: Altar of Malice keynote which was livestreamed from SOE Live last week.  Instead of clearly hearing the producer and designers of our game hyping their hard work, audiences at home mostly heard frustrated AV techs trying to get things working. Fortunately, we recorded the keynote in person and are now able to provide the complete event for those who missed it!

Zone previews of EverQuest II: Altar of Malice were released at SOE Live so that we get to see flythroughs of all the zones which the EQ2 designers and environment artists have been working on. We present the best possible version of each of these videos below, edited together with some music from ToV zones…

Looks like Press gets a healthy headstart on posting expansion news for EverQuest and EverQuest II this year. After their private meetings with Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson and EQ2 Producer Holly “Windstalker” Longdale on Tuesday, they’ve had time to draft their articles and now, they’re available for all to read. My issue is, people at home have more information than those at SOE Live who may not yet have read these articles. Some Press sites (notably excluding Massively and ZAM) get a full boat ride from SOE, paying for hotel and sometimes even airfare, dinners, etc.). EQ2Wire covers EverQuest II all 365 days a year, and we do it without VIP treatment.

Anyway, enough politics. On to the news! These are the sites we’ve found so far:

• Massively
• ShackNews
• Destructoid
• GameZone
• EQ2 ZAM
• MMORPG
• MMO Attack

The totally kickass key art is at the top of the article. And now the bullet points:

• Level 100 increase for Adventure, Tradeskill, and Guild levels.
• 14 Dungeons
• 6 Raids
• 6 Advanced Solo Zones
• 2 Contested Dungeons
• 2 Massive Overland zones created with the new unbelievable Layout Editor. I’ve heard that the new zones are so stunning that players will hardly believe they are running in the EQ2 engine.
  • Tranquil Sea: composed of the devastated Isle of Refuge, Deathweave Isle, and the Pygmie-and-dinosaur-inhabited Island of Dichen
  • Phantom Sea: composed of the haunted forest of Kithicor, the trading company’s home base Highhold, and Grimshales, an island made from a shard of Luclin
• 4 new Avatars

More after the jump…

From the EQ2 Forums:

Attention players: we will perform maintenance beginning at 3:00 AM PDT* on Tuesday, July 29, 2014. We expect this maintenance to take approximately two hours. This will impact the following SOE services:

• Commerce functions, including purchases
• Game, web and forum logins

Thank you for your patience as we complete this maintenance.

and:

ALL EverQuest 2 Servers will come down on July 29th, 2014 at 7:00 AM Pacific Time* for an update. The expected downtime is approximately two hours.

Time Zone Conversions

• PDT: July 29 @ 3:00-5:00am & 7:00-9:00am
• EDT: July 29 @ 6:00-8:00am & 10:00-Noon
• BST: July 29 @ 11:00-13:00 & 15:00-17:00
• CET: July 29 @ 12:00-14:00 & 16:00-18:00
• AEST: July 29 @ 8:00-10:00pm & July 30 @ 12:00am-2:00am

and the actual notes after the jump…

Tinkerfest goes live tomorrow and EQ2ZAM and EQ2Traders have been updated with the new crafted goodies, house items, new quest, and a totally new prestige house which have been added this year!

From EQ2 ZAM:

Tinkerfest, the Norrathian celebration of all things Gnomish, starts Friday! Your EQII ZAM staff has the scoop on the awesome new additions to this player favorite. 2014 brings back all the old activities and adds more rewards, house items, and recipes! There’s a new quest and new achievement. If you didn’t do so last year, be sure to unlock your tinkered mercenaries!

Tinkerfest 2014 will start July 25th and run through August 11th. Keep track of all your alts and every quest with our convenient Tinkerfest Quest Tracker!

From EQ2Traders:

It is after 2 a.m. – so just what is Mum still up to at this time of night? Well, Tinkerfest went onto Test in mid-afternoon, and I have been testing and writing, and writing, and re-verifying facts, and having my brains leak out my ears, and other fun stuff. I figured there would be zero way, with my fibro sleep issues, of getting to sleep before writing up the preview. With my luck, I would end up tossing and turning while mentally working on the story, so I might as well be up writing the story, right? Hopefully the story makes more sense than I do right now! Without further ado, here is Tinkerfest 2014: Skimming Along

EQ2 Wikia has not yet been updated for this year’s event.

Looks like Age’s End x2 raid, currently on Test and Beta, is being pushed back a bit. From Holly “Windstalker” Longdale‘s twitter:

Switching schedule a bit for more testing. Moving up Vigilant House Items for Loyalty pts to July 29. Ages End event release Aug 5. #eq2

— Holly Longdale (@WindstalkerEQ2) July 17, 2014

Today’s EQ2 Insider Episode #3 is now available for watching on YouTube. You can read our summary of the webcast here.

From Bunji on the official forums

WEEKLY FEATURE

• Lore and Legend: Awakened Aerakyn is now available.

HOUSE ACTORS

• House Actors will now save changes made to their greeting distances between loading and reloading a house.

ITEMS

• Colcatoth, Spine of the Leviathan can now be used by all priests

PVP and BATTLEGROUNDS

• Ethereal and Artifact weapons may be obtained via victory daily missions in Battlegrounds.
• Ethereal and Artifact weapons now grant PvP statistics.

From the EQ2 Forums:

All US EverQuest 2 Servers will come down on July 1st, 2014 at 7:00 AM Pacific Time for an update. The expected downtime is approximately two hours. EU servers will come down beginning at 9:00 PM PT (6:00 AM CET July 2nd, 2014) for the same update. Downtime is anticipated to be approximately two hours.

WEEKLY FEATURE

• The city status merchants now have many new items for sale, including special house guests, as well as many upgraded adventuring items.
• Consumables purchased from the status merchant are now stackable items.
• Status merchants no longer require players to have a particular guild level or be in a guild to purchase their wares.

House Actors (placeable customizable NPCs for your house) were introduced yesterday, but now we have a trailer video highlighting this new feature.

From the EQ2 Forums:

You can now decorate your Norrathian homes with animated characters! Dress and animate your House Actors however you want! Add one or an army to your homes!

Kinya, webmaster of the Polish multi-game fansite Babagra, has posted a summary and notes of the second EQ2 Insider webcast which was held last Wednesday.

What happen recently in EQ2:
– weekly updates;
– dreadscale maw – new raid;
– high keep contested;
– June promotion Gear Up, Level UP;
– heroic characters are on sale;
– discount on expansion if bought in June;
– new Loyalty items added to MarketPlace.

Team is focused mostly on the things which are coming to EQ2:
– fabled Deathtoll (around 20 July);
– big unnamed event in July;
– new challenge duo coming in August;
– lore and legends for Aerakyns (June/ July).

Ethereals and Artifacts – current items will be available until mid of July then comes another set of items: weapons.
Not all the Artifacts were discovered so far on all servers. There is around only 15 of them in game currently (11 servers x 4 artifacts = 44)

June Dev Picks (from 10:30): Magic Kingdom by Sairalindie on Antonia Bayle and Meta’s Enchanted Island Tours by Metamarra on Butcherblock.

Collectors edition ToV winners (selected from ppl watching stream): Psycha, Ladylove4, DonRipper

From the EQ2 Forums:

Attention Potential Player Studio Creators!

Special testing help is needed from residents of Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

Since a big part of Player Studio is earning royalties, and since you can’t make money without taxation, we built this system to help get folks set up with their tax paperwork. Tax registration is necessary before you can list items for sale and earn royalties.

This feature costs SOE money each time someone uses it. SOE pays a partner to validate data as part of the feature. For this reason, the finished feature will include a one-time non-refundable fee of US$10 (or equivalent.) You should only need to go through this process one time. Address changes, for example, do not require a repeat of this process.

Completing this feature will make you eligible for activities that earn you real world money through our Player Studio program. Completing it during testing counts for this. This a not just a test; it’s a real registration.

To participate, please visit this page to start:
https://player-studio.soe.com/w9

Qualifications:

• Resident of Canada, France, Germany, UK or US
• Over the age of 13
• You are not already a published Player Studio creator in another game with an IRS form W-8/W-9 on file with SOE.

HINTS & TIPS:

• When you are given a registration code or a PIN number, please save it carefully. That’s valuable.
• When entering a PIN or password via copy/paste, please double-check that no space character has been added to the end. An extra space character will break it. If your code is not being accepted, try pasting it into a word processor, viewing it in another font, and typing it by hand.
• Approval is not instantaneous and there is a status page where you can return and view your approval status. It can be reached by visitinghttps://player-studio.soe.com/w9, clicking the yellow button, and logging into your Station Account. We don’t yet have estimates on how long this will take the average international registrant.
• We have a known issue with entering middle names. You do have the option to enter the form without the middle name and it should generally reach full approval status.
• If you have questions, you can email playerstudio@soe.sony.com and Syrah will attempt to help you although for legal reasons he is not allowed to give advice on how to fill out the form.

From the EQ2 Forums:

Check out the latest video featuring the Producers from EverQuest, EverQuest II, and Landmark talking about what happened during May and what’s coming up over summer!

Here are the bullet points for EQ2:

• The EQ2 team are looking forward to this year’s expansion which will increase the level cap to 100.
• In June, we want you to Gear Up and Level Up your characters.
  • All Access gets 25% Bonus XP, 25% off Heroic Characters (insta-level 85), four times the amount of Etyma currency from Tears of Veeshan missions, and 15% off the Tears of Veeshan expansion.
  • Free-to-Play gets double the amount of Etyma currency and 15% off the Tears of Veeshan expansion.
• Also in June, Dressable NPCs. These house-placeable NPCs will allow decorators to choose from a variety of races and dress these characters how you want to. You’ll also be able to choose from different animations.
• Also this month, Fabled Deathtoll x4 Raid based off the Deathtoll zone in Kingdom of Sky. As we saw in today’s EQ2 Insider webcast, the new Deathtoll encounters have been retooled and some new animations have been created as well.

From Luperza on the Official Forums – a new contest sponsored by EverQuest 2.  As of the date of this post – there are only two entries.  It does appear you must have a Facebook account to enter.

Salutations Norrathians!

If you didn’t catch our first episode of EverQuest II Insider, you may have missed one of our announcements about future contests! Starting in May, we are doing a monthly contest. These may vary in theme, requirements, and rewards, so if you have any good ideas for future contest ideas, send them our way!

May’s contest is all about housing décor with a draconic theme! Head over to our sweepstakes and submit your photo! This contest ends May 27th, 2014 at 2PM PDT. Three winners will be chosen. Each winner will attain a bundle of up to five housing items of their choice (at the discretion of SOE) that’s worth $25.00 USD.

We can’t wait to see your photo submissions! Don’t forget to send us your ideas and tune into the next EverQuest II Insider on June 4th, 2014 at http://www.twitch.tv/ everquest2.

On Wednesday, April 2nd, 2014 at 2:00 PM PDT, EQ2’s new community manager Margaret “Luperza” Krohn (aka PurrfectStorm), hosted the first EverQuest II Insider livecast on Twitch. This 1 hour broadcast included EQ brand manager Adam Key, Holly “Windstalker” Longdale, Akil “Lyndro” Hooper, Chris Garlick, Gary Daugherty, and Nathan “Kaitheel” McCall.

Alas, a recording of the livecast was not preserved either by SOE or Twitch (due to a settings glitch), so this episode joins Doctor Who and other vital shows as missing presumed wiped.

That said, a few resourceful players who watched the Livecast were good enough to take notes and so we can paraphrase them below:

• Holly and Akil talked about current topics including Bristlebane Day, as well as previewing some Player Studio items that will be coming soon, including a very nice looking yacht or fishing boat with oars and other gear. Luperza mentioned that Player Studio topics will be covered in their own livesteam.
• We got to hear the ‘April Fool’s intro music’ (archived for posterity on Zam) and the new meatbeast vid was also shown (if you haven’t seen it then look here).
• Holly talked a little about All-Access (subscription, Krono, or Prepaid cards)
  • All Access players will get access to new zones / heritage quests 1-2 weeks earlier than other players.
  • Those with new All Access account will have double xp weekends.
  • More All-Access exclusive items on the loyalty merchants.
• The schedule for updates will be more public so that we can see how Smokejumper’s weekly/monthly update idea is working.
• EverQuest II Roadmap/Blueprint — Upcoming plans for EQ2 with feedback from players.
• Contested HighKeep Previewed
  • new skeleton models like crawling, one legged and some even use their head as weapon [IMG]
  • quests: drop quests, quests from items, daily missions for etyma (2 mission givers: 1 at entrance, 2nd at the entrance to picklaw part)
  • plunderable loot which you can place in your house
  • some items might be marked with our name (there is special achievement for marking all of them: Vandal title)
  • achievement for killing all nameds in the zone
  • hidden rare trophies in the trash – if you gather all you get Body Snatcher (?) title
  • new armor appearances
• New High Keep Guild Hall
• Player Studio will open up (later this year) to submissions from Germany, UK, France for players with an SOE Station account.
• Developer picks for Housing Leaderboards — returning soon.
• New Raid zone (ToV Wing 3) — Next Month
• 10 More AA points (requires level 95)– next week.

Thanks to Sambril, Kinya of Babagra Polish EQ2 fansite, and Errrorr for their note-taking!

From the EQ2 Forums:

Cyliena over at EQ2 ZAM has reported the appearance of a new Guild Hall type, based on the upper and lower parts of High Keep. This new Guild Hall choice is currently on Test, and was first noted by Kuulei. It’s unknown how the High Keep hall will be acquired/earned, or when it will become available. We’re still hoping for a Halas Tier 1 guild hall. Most smaller guilds only need a 5 room, and Halas has a beautiful exterior and great overall appearance.

Read More

From the EQ2 Forums:

All EverQuest 2 Servers will come down on March 11th, 2014 at 7:00 AM Pacific Time for an update. The expected downtime is approximately two hour.

Time Zone Conversions

• PDT: March 11 @ 7:00am ~ 9:00am
• EDT: March 11 @ 10:00am ~ Noon
• GMT: March 11 @ 14:00 ~ 16:00
• CET: March 11 @ 15:00 ~ 17:00
• AEST: March 12 @ 12:01am ~ 2:00am

From the EQ2 Forums:

WEEKLY FEATURE

• Weapon Damage Bonus and Spell Weapon Damage Bonus are now displayed under the Autoattack category in the character sheet window.
• Max Health % is now displayed in the tooltip for Health in the character window.
• Physical Damage Reduction % is now displayed in the tooltip for Mitigation in the character window.
• The Etyma Merchant Delvakin in Falinpol has several new consumables that may be purchased to assist you on your adventures.
• Those that have completed the quest ‘Putting the Rage in Ragefire’ may now purchase upgrades to some crafted consumables from Delvakin in Falinpol area of Vesspyr Isle.

From the EQ2 Forums:

It’s Brewday once again in Norrath, and there’s nothing like the Dwarven celebration of Brell and beer to bring your spirits up! Adventurers across Norrath are invited to sample exotic brews, complete festive quests, and visit the mysterious Bar of Brell.

New for 2014:
Beer Tokens: Better than real money (because beer!), this special currency is a new quest reward option and can be used to purchase event-exclusive items.

Brewday Recipes: Take a break from drinking to craft some brand new Brewday items! Balin Copperfoot in the Bar of Brell has copies of “Brewday Accouterments to Craft V,” as well as previous editions.

New Quests: There’s some strange noises coming from below the Bar of Brell, and it’s not the band, the brawlers, or the boasting patrons. Speak with the bartender to learn more!

Brewday Bounty: Visit merchant Balin Copperfoot in the Bar of Brell for seven new Brewday items.

From Holly “Windstalker” Longdale on Twitter:

This week’s weekly update (tomorrow) includes the Oakmyst prestige home that players voted for last year! Bug fixes too! #eq2

— Holly Longdale (@WindstalkerEQ2) February 18, 2014

Also with tomorrow’s update there’s several new Gold member-only Loyalty Merchant items, including a Betrayal token and equipment. #EQ2

— Holly Longdale (@WindstalkerEQ2) February 18, 2014

From the EQ2 Forums:

QUESTS

• The Channeler Epic Quest is now available for all level 95 Channelers.

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Vesspyr Isles

• Zaszae’s Armor Exchange in the Falinpol area of Vesspyr Isles will allow you to convert any Cryptic, Arcane, or Potent armor that has not been upgraded with a gemstone into a Token specific to that tier and slot. Seven of these tokens can then be used to purchase a piece of armor from Zaszae.
• Anex and Onerind Fe’Dhar in Vesspyr Isles no longer turn toward players hailing them.

Accursed Sanctum (Raid)

• The tomes unlocked around the zone should be available again after the player using the ability leaves the zone.
• The Legionnaires should more predictably cast their respective curses.
• The legionnaire curses now persist through death.

Temple of Veeshan: Guardian’s Edifice

• Kigara and Kelana should no longer summon players when they are able to chase them.
• Derig’s adds have had their health reduced but also must now be killed in a timely manner.
• Fireshots in the Grendish encounter have had their outgoing damage reduced and now hover closer to the ground.
• Winter Juggernauts in the Grendish encounter must now be killed in a timely manner.
• When Grendish is defeated the door to the second wing should be opened!

From Erin Oakley on the EQ2 Forums:

The weather may be wintery, but the denizens of Norrath are full of holiday cheer! The annual celebration of Frostfell features gift giving, fabulous feasts, holiday crafts, and of course, Santa Glug and his helpers.

Interested in joining the fun? Travel to the Frostfell Wonderland Village by finding a magical wardrobe in Qeynos Province District, Freeport, Haven, Kelethin, Neriak, Gorowyn, or New Halas.

Frostfell will begin December 12, 2013, and run through January 9, 2014, so bundle up and join the fun!