What if someone could take a screenshot of every item that could be placed in a House, Guild Hall, or Dungeon, and then provide information about where that item is acquired, either from a Merchant, Recipe, or Quest.

Well you don’t need to wish any longer because such a site exists. Lera’s EQ2Furniture.com is a comprehensive catalogue of every house item in EQ2, with screenshots from multiple angles, as well as data on how to acquire each item. The vast majority of this information was hand-entered, so this has surely been a monumental undertaking.

Frostfell this year has new quests, new crafts, and more things to do and acquire from the daily Gifts, Quests, and Crafting. Niami Denmother of EQ2Traders has once again covered them all in exquisite detail. First up is a revamped Frostfell Winterland Village (it’s no longer merely a clone of North Everfrost). Read her detailed article here:

<< Frostfell 2013: Snowy Facelift @ EQ2Traders >>

There is also a new Frostfell-themed Prestige House. Follow Niami as she goes on a detailed tour of this new arctic wonderland:

<< Frostfell Dwelling Tour @ EQ2Traders >>

Finally, a much-requested feature of diehard crafters and lovers of all things Frostfell, permanent Frostfell Crafting Stations. If you want to discover these on your own, then don’t read the article below!!

<< Shiny Boxes All Do Hide @ EQ2Traders >>

From EQ2 ZAM:

The season of giving and cheer has arrived! Frostfell will begin following the downtime on Thursday, December 12, and this year brings about a festive season of change.

This year Frostfell introduces one new quest, A Deepice Mystery, which explores the altered Frostfell Wonderland Village and must be completed before several older quests may be obtained. Many new craftables are available to tradeskillers this year, resulting in items such as Gingerbread Plushies and a Glacier building block set. Several returning quests have new reward choices or tokens added to them.

Players with extra “gifties” from the Gigglegibber Gifty Storehouse can exchange them for Frozen Tokens of E’ci on the Enchanted Lands dock. Santa Glug can be found with his bag of goodies inside the Frostfell Wonderland Village for players to receive their daily presents. Crafters can finally rejoice as they obtain the first ever Permanent Frostfell Crafting Stations!

ZAM is pleased to offer alt-a-holics an updated Frostfell Quest Tracker. Print it out and chart up to 15 of your characters’ progress. We also have an image gallery of the new zone which you can see by clicking on the image below. Happy Frostfell!

<< Jump to ZAM’s complete Frostfell Guides >>

view the Frostfell 2013 Gallery @ EQ2 ZAM

From the EQ2 Forums:

Frostfell is active on Test!

There’s plenty of Frostfell cheer throughout Norrath this season! Gigglegibbers and Frostfell elves are busy celebrating the holiday within the player cities, and encouraging everyone to visit the Frostfell Wonderland Village, accessed through the Magic Closets in Qeynos Province District, Freeport, Haven, Kelethin, Neriak, Gorowyn and New Halas. There you can assist Candice Cheriweth, Gardy Ex-Giftgiver, Mr. McScroogle, Queen Bunny, and Snarf Frostfoot with some holiday tasks, but only after you release them from their deep freeze! For those that have a talent for crafting, you can help Sogs Frostfoot, or gather presents to craft wondrous new Frostfell goodies for yourself. Don’t forget to log in each day and claim your extra-special Frostfell present from everyone’s favorite Frostfell Gigglegibber, Santa Glug!

Frostfell will hit live servers December 12th and end January 9, 2014 as per Kaitheel:

This event content is currently set to run 12/12/13 at 8am PST* through 01/09/14 at 7am PST* on the live servers.

Kaitheel also posted some interesting stats on Twitter:

#Frostfell 2013 content has been submitted. So far, it’s 740 design files touched, 389 of which are new! 101 hours of design time. #EQ2

— Nathan McCall (@kaitheel) December 4, 2013

From Holly “Windstalker” Longdale‘s twitter:

For those curious, here’s a look at the new winter prestige home coming with Frostfell. So cool. 😛 *cough* #eq2 pic.twitter.com/ajzYrZ53ZP

— Holly Longdale (@WindstalkerEQ2) December 4, 2013

View the full image after the jump..

Here are some of the most Frequently Asked Questions we are seeing about the new EverQuest II expansion Tears of Veeshan. This article will be updated as more details are found!

How do I get started in Tears of Veeshan?

The Tears of Veeshan expansion begins with the Tears of Veeshan: The Eternal Broodlands Signature quest, which you will receive an in-game mail about, and which you can pick up in either Qeynos or Freeport. Once on the quest, you will begin a path that takes you to the Vesspyr Isles.

How to travel directly to the new zones without doing the quest lines?

• If you are in a guild hall, you may travel by Druid Ring to Vesspyr Isles. Player-summoned druid rings may or may not show Vesspyr Isles as a travel option. This has been reported as a bug. Tinkerers may also craft a [eq2u]Wormhole Generator: Obol Plains[/eq2u] and then fly to the druid ring there to travel to Vesspyr Isles.

Tears of Veeshan offers new Tradeskill quests, tradeskill collections, recipes, new tradeskill apprentice recipes, purple war runes you can craft, and Gemstones which can upgrade Advanced Solo and Heroic gear as well as many other new features. There’s also a great change to building blocks and a new pack pegasus.

From Niami Denmother of EQ2Traders:

There is quite a bit going on regarding crafting in the Tears of Veeshan expansion, and since one of the SOE Dev team, Caith, went to the trouble of putting together a master list for us for beta, I am taking that list and running with it.

Continue reading at EQ2Traders!

Here are the Update Notes for the Tears of Veeshan expansion (ie Game Update 68) from the EQ2 Forums:

After rediscovering Yelinak, now the steward of Vesspyr Isles alongside other fallen and familiar dragons, players learn of the time/space powers behind the Tear of Veeshan stolen by prismatic dragon Kerafyrm the Awakened. With Kerafyrm’s fearsome power looming over Norrath, players are called upon to shine light into the darkness brought on by the Awakened’s draconic army, and set the stage for a new Age to begin!

Features:

• New class – Channeler!
• New Dragon-themed AAs
• AA limit increased to 340
• New overland area, Vesspyr Isles – Adventure, amenities, quests, collections, and more!
• Nine new dungeons
• Two new raid zones
• More Tradeskill and Tradeskill Apprentice Items
• New PvP item tier

From the EQ2 Forums:

Open Beta for EverQuest II: Tears of Veeshan will open tomorrow, on Tuesday, October 15, 2013. This is a great chance for players to check out the new Channeler class and new dragon-themed Alternative Advancement (AA) systems for each archetype. We’d love your feedback on these features, as well as other parts of the expansion! Beta will last until the launch of Tears of Veeshan onTuesday, November 12, 2013!

How to copy your Live and/or Test character over to the Beta server:

• You can click the ‘Beta Copy’ button on the character create screen to copy the currently selected character.
• You can log in your character and then use the /beta command.

Join members of the EverQuest II Art & Animation team including Tim “Haohmaru” Heydelaar, Tom Tobey, Dave “Covic” Brown, and Aaron “Gnobrin” Bisnett as they talk about what it takes to create new zones, characters, and weapons for EverQuest II, as well as previews of upcoming zones and artwork!

This video includes:

• a detailed reveal of the reimagined Bixie characters
• a behind-the-scenes look as the team at first worked towards a different visual approach for Siren’s Grotto before building what was eventually delivered
• flythroughs of upcoming Highkeep, Temple of Veeshan, and Nexus zones in EverQuest II’s 10th expansion: Tears of Veeshan
• a zany Fun with Art segment with Tom Tobey showcaseing some of the key animations we’ve gotten in EQ2 this year
• a sneak peek at content for 2014 (dinosaurs!)
• the exciting new Terrain Editor!

NOTE: Silence in the first 1-2 minutes of the video, followed by frantic tripod setup noise for another minute is perfectly normal.

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Cobalt Scar

• Yeppa’s Last Stand: The othmir have moved their tradeskill forge to a less exposed location.

CHARACTER ACHIEVEMENT TEMPLATES

• Auto-consume items will now auto-consume after the AA Template is committed.

PLAYER HOUSING

• Mannequins: Resolved an issue where a player would be unable to select an outfit for a hireling after moving items between houses.

TRADESKILLS

• The Hydra Helm recipes can no longer benefit from material conservation effects.

ITEMS

• Dawnbreak should proc much more reliably.

Join lead artists from Sony Online Entertainment including Tim “Haohmaru” Heydelaar (EQ2), David “Covic” Brown (EQ2), Kevin Lydy (EQ), and Tramell “T.Ray” Isaac (PS2) as they talk about the Player Studio program with Director of Artistic Development Joe “Rystall” Shoopack and Player Studio head Rick “Storn” Reynolds.

They walk through the item submission and approval process, including iterations and common choke points as first drafts become fantastic items that are successful and profitable for players and SOE alike.

NOTE: This video does not include the brief Powerpoint presentation shown at the beginning of the panel, which highlighted the winner of the Dark Elf Player Studio competition.

Holly “Windstalker” Longdale couldn’t resist…

Heck ya! Goblins…with buckets on their heads! Coming to High Keep in the ToV expansion. #eq2 pic.twitter.com/snjTfR3997

— Holly Longdale (@WindstalkerEQ2) August 6, 2013

These were posted just a few minutes ago on the EQ2 Forums:

DARKNESS DAWNS

The oracles still see chaos and uncertainty on the horizon even with victory for the New Combine army in Cobalt Scar. Join Field Marshal Vishra at Scarstone as he tirelessly guards the newly found Tear of Veeshan – an artifact that could turn the tides of war forever in this time of delicate peace. Is it the key to preventing the end of the world foretold in the Ages End prophecy? Those that have completed “Tear in the Grotto” are being summoned to find out!

FABLED DUNGEONS

• Fabled Clefts of Rujark (accessed from Sinking Sands and Pillars of Flame)
• Fabled Scornfeather’s Roost (accessed from Sinking Sands and Pillars of Flame)
• Fabled Djinn Masters Prism (accessed from the ‘Fabled Dungeon Portal’ in Pillars of Flame)
• Fabled Pedestal of Sky (accessed from the ‘Fabled Dungeon Portal’ in Pillars of Flame)

NEW CONTESTED AVATARS

• Three New Contested Avatar Raids: Pit yourself against three new contested avatars in the overlands – Prexus, Solusek Ro, and Drinal!

ARENA OF THE GODS

• The Arena of the Gods is a raid instance that allows 24 players to challenge any of the 9 avatars that are in game (includes the new contested avatars released in this GU). Once you kill an avatar and are rewarded, you can continue to practice the encounters as much as you want (there is a 3-day lockout timer for rewards). Entrances to the Arena of the Gods can be found in the cities of Freeport and Qeynos.

Game Update 67: Darkness Dawns has now hit the EQ2 Beta server and here are the Update Notes. Game Update 67 is expected to go live July 23, 2013.

Fabled Dungeons

• Fabled Clefts of Rujark (accessed from Sinking Sands)
• Fabled Scornfeather’s Roost (accessed from within Fabled Clefts of Rujark)
• Fabled Djinn Masters Prism (accessed from the ‘Fabled Dungeon Portal’ in Pillars of Flame)
• Fabled Pedestal of Sky (accessed from the ‘Fabled Dungeon Portal’ in Pillars of Flame)
• Three New Contested Avatar Raids: Pit yourself against three new contested avatars in the overlands – Prexus, Solusek Ro, and Drinal!

Arena of the Gods

• The Arena of the Gods is a raid instance that allows 24 players to challenge any of the 9 avatars that are in game (includes the new contested avatars released in this GU). Once you kill an avatar and are rewarded, you can continue to practice the encounters as much as you want (there is a 3-day lockout timer for rewards).

If you are a member of a Guild, then over the last few months, you’ve gained the ability to pay your rent on all of your houses, visit them with one click, and also visit the houses of friends and guildmates, all without having to venture beyond the confines of your guild hall. Now, these abilities have come to those who are between guilds or simply prefer to adventure on their own.

With this new window, you can travel directly to any of your houses anywhere in Norrath as long as you are within a city zone. You can also pay rent upkeep, and view stats about your house. When you are inside your house, you can of course rename it and take up to 2 screenshots which will appear on Housting Leaderboards for others to view.

From the EQ2 Forums:

PLAYER HOUSING

• Added a new window, “Housing and Leaderboards”. This window, which can be accessed via the EQII menu and from the main menu bar, 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.

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Furnace of the Ages [Challenge Duo]

• Fire Thief now has custom text to clarify how the effect works.

and after the jump, almost every class’ has had at least one ability adjusted to use spell skills like Ordination, Disruption, Subjugation, and Ministration…

Looks like there might be some update notes for tomorrow’s extended downtime after all.

From Holly “Windstalker” Longdale‘s twitter:

Our new housing UI will go live in our update tomorrow! Home sweet home… #eq2

— Holly Longdale (@WindstalkerEQ2) June 20, 2013

The new combined Housing / Leaderboards window hit Test on May 15th and received mostly positive reviews, although some players expressed frustration at the addition of another zoning step for touring houses. This extra zoning happens between each house your tour, so touring houses will take twice as long. Still, the rest of the new features have been positively received.

NOTE: This is not the Player Studio House-selling feature.

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.

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

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.

Niami Denmother has come through with another set of previews on her EQ2Traders site for tomorrow’s Game Update 66: Scars of the Awakened.

Here’s a master list of the reading material I have put together for folks regarding the crafting/housing side of things. The Crafting/Housing Preview contains links to all of the other pages mentioned below, but this should help if you want to shortcut to something specific.

• EQ2Traders Corner GU66 Crafting/Housing Preview
• GU66 Carpenter Furniture Guide
• GU66 Buyable Furniture Guide
• GU66 Apprentice Information
• Cobalt Scar Crafting Quests Intro
• Yeppa’s Last Stand Crafting Quests
• Scarstone Crafting Quests
• Cobalt Scar Crafting Quests Endline

Niami’s previews go into some of the new features in Game Update 66 such as Pitch and Roll for house items, pictured below:

And you don’t have to memorize the command to hide/show the Housing control wheel above (I personally dislike it, but it’s how you must access Pitch and Roll commands), as a new Housing sidebar has been added:

From Holly “Windstalker” Longdale on twitter:

We have more work to do on Player Studio House sales, so it won’t be going live with the game update on 4/30. We’ll update soon though! #eq2

— Holly Longdale (@WindstalkerEQ2) April 23, 2013

Logo Mockup by EQ2Wire

In addition to the new content in Game Update 66, which hits Beta today and will go live on April 30th, there are numerous class tweaks. But instead of class balance (although there is some of that), the overriding theme of the class improvements in this update could best be summed up as “What Bugs Your Class Most?” All those things about your class that drive you crazy, like having to be directly behind the mob to use your biggest hits as a Dirge, or having to be exactly 5 meters from the mob to do both your Melee and Ranged CAs as a Ranger.

Read over the notes and give us your take. Are these great, long overdue changes, or does it almost go too far, making things a little too convenient? As a Ranger, I’m excited about the changes, but will I become even lazier now that I can stand pretty much anywhere in the room and do my maximum DPS? I certainly applaud a number of the changes which were things that “didn’t make sense” which have now been fixed.

After the jump, Game Update 66’s Beta Notes…

This was posted over a week ago, but I wanted to post some commentary about the forthcoming ability for house decorators to sell their house layouts on the Marketplace. And since that time, there have been a number of clarifications from EQ2 Programmer Kenneth “Terrogaunt” Roecks which further shed light on what we can expect.

Here’s Holly “Windstalker” Longdale’s initial announcement:

Greetings to our decorators – existing and potential,

These are very exciting times for passionate decorators! On April 2, when we start Open Beta for Game Update 66 “Scars of the Awakened,” we will also be inviting you to test our Player Studio House category that allows you to buy and sell decorated houses of all types, shapes, and sizes in our marketplace! Sellers earn a real portion of the profits!

We are working on details right now to make decorating simple to do and test. For example, your new character copies to Beta will include the houses you have on your server so setting up homes to sell should be easy.

We are working on a lot of details behind the scenes to get Player Studio Houses ready too, including a new Web page that will allow you to pre-qualify to sell houses through Player Studio (if you’re not already qualified through Player Studio) so you can get ready to sell houses when the category launches. We will let you know as soon as pre-qualifying is live!

Our goal right now is to launch Player Studio Houses with our game update on April 30!