Posted by Kiara:

GENERAL

• The friends list on the welcome screen will now ignore offline friends if that option is enabled on the community window.

ITEMS

• The 4-piece bonuses on the Paladin, Monk, Berserker, and Defiler Shadow Odyssey raid sets have been improved.
• The Lycanthrope Bracelet’s effects in PVP combat have been slightly lowered.

QUESTS

• One of the lists of names for the Task “Hidden Agenda” could appear in an unreachable spot on a bookshelf. This has been fixed.

WARD OF ELEMENTS

• Elemental bosses in Ward of Elements now drop non-stacking encrusted gems. The encrusted gems can be unpacked to yield stackable elemental gems. This change allows the gems to be split between players when dropped.

Aeralik has chimed in with the first hints of what we can expect in GU52:

GU52 has a wide variety of things coming. From what I understand there will be an assortment of new quests and additional content which means additional ways to raise your aa points if you havent yet.  You have to keep in mind dfferent people have different responsibilities.  My job is to work on the class balance and combat systems which this falls under and like I said is the first part of a greater plan which we will talk about more in the future.  While I am working on this and some other things,  the other projects do not suffer at all and actually its actually pretty amazing how much stuff is going into this next update.

GENERAL

• Players will now see a new Welcome Screen upon login.
• The Welcome Screen can be disabled by adding cl_show_welcome_screen_on_startup 0 (that’s a zero) to your eq2.ini.
• You can now ctrl+left click the armor crates in the Station Marketplace window to see all of the armor pieces in the dressing room at once!

MUNZOK’S MATERIAL BASTION

• A mysterious and powerful void entity has made its presence known on Norrath.  Although its motives aren’t clear, its powerful presence has sent shivers through even the most powerful denizens of the realm.  This zone represents its stronghold and should prove a challenge for even the most experienced raiders.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Bruiser

• Enhance: Ignore Bruises will work properly

Priest

• Litany of Combat will no longer affect combat arts

Templar

• Focused Prayers will now increase hostile spell casting time instead of reducing it.

Crusader

• Cavalier’s Call will now work correctly.

ITEMS

• The Harbinger of Malcontent and the Virtue’s Guard are now kite shields with higher protection.
• Raiders who defeat The Leviathan can now collect their trophy from its corpse.
• Many raid drops have had +crushing skill added to them where appropriate.
• The Bruiser epic weapons will once again proc properly.

PVP

• The Earthen Robe should now cost the same as other chest slot set items

QUESTS

• Spells used by the Void Stalker on the daily shard quest have been made to cast faster and refresh faster to speed up combat.

WARD OF ELEMENTS

• The mystery ogre that has been attacking adventurers at the entrance of the Ward of Elements has been removed.
• The Tempest within Ward of Elements should be far less likely to leash within its own room.
• During Aiden’s encounter, Smoldering Updraft now grants players in-combat runspeed and slowfall in addition to glide.
• Aiden’s adds are now tier 8 instead of 9.

There have been concerns about having spells with a roman numeral and then spell qualities within a tier having roman numbers (App I, App IV, Adept I, Adept III, Master I, and Master II) as far as difficulties with Broker searching or confusion among new players who have to deal with a spell named, for instance Shadow Leap II (Apprentice II).

Careful reading of Aeralik’s posts had led many people to believe that this spell renaming was just the first step in a bigger process. Naysayers, looks like you just got served. 😉 We got our hint on what that process will be with this post from Aeralik:

We are acually only going to have one roman numeral in the end.  You will have Ice Comet, Ice Comet II, etc.  Instead of App 1, 2, and 4 we will instead have a slightly different naming structure.  That way the tier of each spell flows better and doesnt have the odd gaps like app 2 to app4 and adept 1 to adept 3 or people wondering why there is no adept 4 to match the apprentice 4.

Since it’s impossible to craft App III anymore, and Adept II and Adept IV only existing from AA spells which have 8 points that can be spent, I can certainly see wanting to change this.

It’s interesting that just 3 posts earlier, Snowdonia predicted this:

Apprentice I > Beginner
Apprentice II > Apprentice
Apprentice IV > Journeyman
Adept I > Adept
Adept III > Expert
Master I > Master
Master II > Grandmaster

And in response to Snowdonia’s post, Aeralik had this further to say:

Yeah we will probably do something like this with the tier designations.  We haven’t finalized the names yet but I was proposing something similar

Read More

Thanks to Denyo who has posted this great screen snap and list of all the epic encounters in EQ2 which reward a trophy:

EQ2: Darathar, Vox
DoF: Djinn Master, Godking
KoS: Lord Vyemm, Tarinax
TFD: Chel’Drak
EoF: Wuoshi, Mayong, Clockwork Menace
RoK: Venril Sathir, Trakanon, Leviathan
TSO: Gynok, Ykesha, Zarrakon, Aiden

One boulder won’t solve your Aiden problems anymore in the x2 raid zone…

Posted by timetravelling:

The adds were not intended to ALL be prevented by the boulders. Please try it again, and let me know if y’all have any issues.

From Kiara:

There will be a quick hotfix at the usual times (7am PDT for US servers and around 9pm PDT for EU servers) to fix the bug with Aiden in Ward of Elements.

GENERAL

• An issue that was causing UI icons or elements to look blurry and low-quality has been resolved.
• An issue that was causing low-quality textures on player characters after switching from third person to first person view has been resolved.

EVERNIGHT ABBEY

• Marcus Thex should turn aggro now once all five clan leaders have been slain.

ITEMS

• The Dancing Satyr has learned how to dance and is anxious to show off his new moves.
• Bite of the Wolf will now trigger properly and apply to the warden.
• Restitution Master 1 should no longer drop from spell tables.
• The Signet of the Flame Disciple has been changed from +3 spell critical bonus to +3 spell critical to be more inline with the other quest rewards.
• Vampire and Void Bane proc stacking has been fixed such that additional pieces of gear will increase the damage and proc rate, but will not add additional procs. This is the originally intended functionality.
• The Stone Tower void shard jewelry set now has Deflection Chance as its 3-piece bonus instead of deflection skill. The block and deflection bonuses should now be roughly equivalent.
• Corruption of the Elements should now proc on offensive spell casts.

MYSTMYR MANOR

• Rhul’maldis should no longer occasionally never respond to the volatile liquid.

PvP

• An issue that might cause no infamy gain when multiple players are attacking a single target has been fixed.

SPELLS

• Tortoise Shell will once again work properly on group members
• An issue that would cause Surging Tempest to get into an unusable state has been resolved.

TRADESKILLS

• The Advanced Armorer Service quest now requires the new improved version of fulginate kite shields.
• Scholars’ volume 12 books now once again contain recipes for idols, symbols, tomes, and orbs.
• Jeweler Far Seas writs now correctly accept the new secondary items.
• An issue where Adornments would disappear when upgrading or imbuing items through tradeskills has been fixed.

WARD OF ELEMENTS

• Najena should respawn when players watch the flythrough then leave the instance and return.
• Aiden’s banishes have been re-timed to be closer to the beginning of a land phase, giving players more time to get back to the tower.
• Aiden’s adds have been linked into sizable groups instead of all in separate encounters.
• Digg should no longer chain-kill players that die and are rezzed during his fight.

From Kiara:

Hello all!

We’re going to bring the servers down at the usual time (7am PDT) for a hotfix.  We’ll post the notes tomorrow.

Included will be a fix for the overly proccerific procs.  The x4 raid zone, Munzok’s Material Bastion, was planned to be activated tomorrow, but we’re going to hold off until next week for a few more tweaks.

We’ll have the servers back up and running as soon as possible.

Thank you and happy gaming!

From EQ2 Forums

As expected, the “Spell Naming Convention” thread is getting a lot of attention.

Currently,  Summoner (Conjuror / Necromancer) pets have distinctive names. I can see where folks are coming from when they say that having just one name for all of them would be a step backwards.

Also, some of the spell names are pretty good through the tiers. If only the less imaginative spells were renamed that would make more sense.

Finally, there have been folks suggesting either an Adjective system where all the spells have the same name, but a new adjective is added to the front or back of the spell name for each tier. Others have suggested that each tier has a prefix for all spells.

I have no problem with certain spells like the aforementioned Shadow Leap and Ice Comet just using the same name and having roman numerals after them. I would say go through the spells unless there are really good names for all the tiers, to go with the roman numerals.

Hopefully the EQ2 database is set up in such a way that this whole process only requires changing these spell names in 2-3 places: In the effects on 2, 4, 6, and 7 set bonuses on Fabled armor, on the spells/CAs themselves, and in the TS recipe books.

I admit it. I can sometimes be pretty nostalgic.

I grew up on Final Fantasy II for the SNES (which was actually Final Fantasy IV in Japan). I loved the game. The storyline, the gameplay. I was really excited when Final Fantasy III came out (actually Final Fantasy VI in Japan), and I made it about halfway through and then things came up in life. But I really enjoyed the Final Fantasy series.

Years later, I bought a Playstation (the original) on the strength of Castlevania Symphony of the Night and Final Fantasy VII. I didn’t get very far in FF7 (I didn’t connect with the teeny-bopper whiny characters in FF7 as much as I did with the adult characters in FF4 and to a lesser extent in FF6). I beat Castlevania with 200.6% completed not once but twice. 😉

So it was interesting that last week that before I headed out to L.A. to attend to the 20th Anniversary Quantum Leap convention (link, and my blog), I grabbed a Nintendo DS Lite, the new Castlevania, and Final Fantasy IV which I have read about several times over the last year. I’m about 10 hours into Final Fantasy IV and loving it just as much as I did 15 years ago. Maybe it’s nostalgia, or maybe the story does hold up that well after all this time. The CGI cutscenes, occasional voiceover, and 3d-ificiation of all the graphics certainly can’t hurt. Also, the more faithful, less watered-down translation and less censorship of certain story points is much appreciated.

So what does this have to do with EQ2?

When I started playing EQ2, I was somewhat annoyed at how spells got completely different names at each tier. The ranger stealthed backstab attack for instance has 6 different names: Shadow Leap, Shadow Lunge, Crippling Blade, Dire Blade, Ranger’s Blade, and Kunark Blade. The complexity of spell upgrades has led to folks having to consult Wiki every time they buy a spell.

Final Fantasy, as any fan of the series knows, gives each spell just one name. Then each upgrade gets a roman numeral after it. In the case of the ranger stealthed backstab above, it would be Shadow Leap, Shadow Leap II, Shadow Leap III, Shadow Leap IV, Shadow Leap V, and Shadow Leap VI. So I got very used to having Blizzard, Blizzard II, or Cure, Cure II, etc. from playing the FF games.

At this point, EQ2 devs are looking at going to the idea of each spell having one name, and then tier upgrades add a roman numeral afterwards.

I can certainly understand why this issue is coming up now. No doubt they are starting to tackle the level 81-90 spell upgrades and are dreading yet another tier of tedious  variations on the existing spell names, some of which already have 6 variations already.

I am coming out in support of the idea of renaming EQ2 spells to have just one proper name for each spell, and then roman numerals afterwards.

I am sure there are some out there who will say this is a dumbing down of the game, but I have always felt that the spell naming conventions in EQ2 were a little awkward. And some of the spell names in Tier 71-80 certainly reeked of desparation. How many Level 70-80 spells had Kunark in the name of the spell itself? Not to mention more and more spells having the same name in one class at one tier, as that of another class at another tier. Very expensive mistakes have been made buying masters for the wrong class/tier this way.

Agree? Disagree? Toss your opinion into the ring here:

Spell Naming Conventions (on EQ2 forums)

From Kiara:

The fix for the Ward of Elements is planned to go in on Tuesday (4/7) along with Munzok’s Material Bastion (the x4 zone).

People have to have finished Ward of Elements to get the level boosting item that will allow them to kill things in the x4 zone.

No further info just yet on what will happen for people who have completed the x2 zone but had Najena being shy.

When I know more about that, I’ll let you all know.

Here you go.

The new x2 Ward of Elements zone is certainly creating a lot of discussion!

Some say it’s too hard and requires full fabled/mythical. Some say it’s easy. Some say the 5 day lockout is too long, but I am with those who feel that if each named drops 2 patterns or 1 pattern and 1 exceptional fabled item, and the whole zone is on Smart Loot, then folks can get upgraded very quickly in this zone. So far I think it is a good zone to bridge the gap between grouping and raiding and helping to gear folks up who are struggling in the x4 zone.

We did a run through last night and did not have 2 of our dedicated folks that we would normally have, but we learned a lot and pieced together the strategies which have been posted online. We intend to go back and have every intention of getting at least 3 names down. It is clear that the last 3 names will probably require some combination of gear that drops from the first 3 named, which creates a very clear progression in zone difficulty.

What would an EQ2Wire Post be without a few Zone Strategies? 🙂

Apparently Najena (who is giving hints and help before and after each fight — after all it is she who is trying to flush all these corrupted minions out of her house) is not appearing after the Aiden fight for many people, which prevents the zonewide quest from being completed (and thus, those folks will be unable to progress to Munzok’s x4 raid zone expected to patch in on April 7th).

Some folks are reporting that Digg is not working properly even when a member of the raid force successfully picks up the snake, badger, or mushroom totem and drops it at Digg’s feet as requested. Here’s word directly from timetravelling on this:

The snake totem places a buff on everyone around it and allows your DPSers to proc a debuff that prevents his healing. Please check ACT to see if this is in fact triggering.

As for the difficulty discussions – we are keeping a careful eye on it and will make adjustments as we feel are needed. Remember though that the first night through a new zone is typically the hardest, and most all of the fights are constructed such that an excellent strategy helps lessen the gear requirements. Good luck and happy hunting!

I’ll look into the snake totem and make sure it is working as intended. And if it’s not…whoop it into shape.

Also currently you cannot be revived on the Digg fight, or you will be killed immediately. timetravelling again:

It’s a bug. He casts that spell to prevent players from trying to fight him from anywhere except his floating platforms. Cept…when you die, it’s forgetting that you’re in the right place.

I’ll get a fix in for it, sorry for the frustration!

I know we were getting nailed by Ice Fall from Gelidus Ventus the Tempest (the icy room) even though we were nowhere near the edges of the upper platform. This may be working as intended, as we have been informed that if there is any line-of-sight between the fans on the edge of the room and players during the fight, they will get hit during Ice Fall, and it seemed to hit the worst when a few folks got kicked around by the Knockback. We’ll certainly give it another shot.

Editor’s Note: This was later declared to NOT be an exploit and that no further action would be taken.

In a shocking about-face, after 4 1/2 months of tolerance, EQ2 devs have reversed course and now consider mentored Void Shard runs to be an exploit and intend to patch the game so shards cannot be acquired in this manner.

Presumably with the addition of daily solo shard quest, EQ2 devs now intend to close this loophole.

From Kiara:

This is an exploit and we are currently working on a fix for it.

I’d suggest not doing it.

Whilst you won’t have the shards you’ve gotten via this method removed, it is something we are actively working on removing from the game.

Kiara posted the comment here and then closed the thread.

It seems it is my duty after each Live Update to report those bugs which managed to slip through. It’s not a job I enjoy, but someone’s gotta do it.

Here’s what to watch for:

• Warden Mythical/Epic proc is feeding power to the target instead of the Warden. Hire an extra illy or switch weapons until the hotfix.
• Druid AA “Tortoise Shell” AoE blocker spell is now broken as of LU51. No word on a fix. [discussion]
• The x4 Raid zone (Munzok’s) did not go live. No word as to why, only to expect an explanation later. Possibly because so few people were flagged to be able to test it? (must have been flagged for and cleared the x2 raid zone) [link]
• The Autofollow Changes seem to be causing a lot of problems for certain people. The person following seems to randomly run off cliffs, run in circles, swim or run in a triangular pattern, etc.. In other words pathing like a mob rather than following the player. [link]
• The Access Quest series for the x2 raid zone the Ward of Elements is screwy. This is due to the fact that you must spawn several Elemental Lords, but the 4th pillar in each room needed to spawn the Lord cannot be clicked except by someone who is on step 3 of one of the Cleansing the Elements quests. You can do Cleansing the Elements, More Cleansing the Elements, and Final Cleansing of the Elements once per day, then you are done and are thus unable to click the pillar and proceed on the Access Quest.
• You can group with someone who has not completed the 3 Cleansing quests and is on the Lord step, or you can do what a lot of bastards out there are doing and hanging out in the rooms and when the Lord spawns, stealing it because you A) have no clue how to spawn it and B) think it is random or on a timer.
• Wizard Spell Storming Tempest gets permanently locked out and cannot be reused until dying/zoning. [discussion]
• The Cleric shadows AA ability Sacrifice has been rendered almost completely useless. It now takes 95% of the cleric’s health (which can no longer be mitigated) regardless of how much or little health the tank has.  Any cleric with 5% health for more than .012 seconds during a raid is probably going to die. So why was this change made? Here’s the thread that started it all. [Discussion]
• There are some comments about the Solo Shard Quest. You inhabit the body of another being and have to use its abilities and spells. I guess they did this so they could design a quest that can be done by any class. Also apparently if you go Linkdead, you can be completely trapped, unable to Evac, Zone, or use Teleport Pads. If this happens to you, you can try to /camp or intentionally go Linkdead again by disconnecting your Internet connection. — thanks brammator
• The Tinkered Banker in Steamfont is just an NPC. There isn’t a recipe to make one. Boo hiss. [discussion]
• Automated Hammers in Deep Forge now only spawn when you pull the Doomsmith. I guess this was once again done to try to prevent folks from sharing cleared/mentored instances. [comments]

Raid Trophies

It’s not a bug, but I’m sure some folks would like to check out the new Raid Trophies you can decorate your guild hall with. You need the head or other appropriate body part of the mob, which is a drop off the mob, plus a tradeskiller-made pedestal.

Don’t miss The Brasse’s map of the new x2 zone The Ward of Elements.

GAME UPDATE 51

March / 31 / 2009

FEATURED

• Weapon Appearance Slots
• Players now have access to primary, secondary and ranged appearance slots. The wield style (one-handed, two-handed, shield) of the weapons must match the weapons that are currently equipped.

• Bristlebane’s Day
• (3/31/2009 – 4/8/2009) Jesters, thieves, bards and fans of mischief are invited to enjoy the festivities that surround Bristlebane’s Day! You never know what laughs and pranks are to be found, during this enjoyable time of year. Celebrators are present in every home city, and the oddest of objects have been spotted in Antonica, The Commonlands, Darklight Wood, Timorous Deep and Greater Faydark! Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for special events occurring only on the highest of silly days, 4/1/2009!

• Lavastorm Revamp
• Lots of brand new content has been added in this classic zone. Almost all of the population has been re-tiered for solo players, with a new level 45 to 55 adventure quest line with the industrious–but rather insane Sootfoot goblins, and a new level 40-45 tradeskill quest line. Brand new void invaded areas also feature new level 80 solo quests. Additionally, a solo-able daily shard quest has been added as well as flying horse paths and additional teleporters to make traversing the zone much easier!

• T3 Shard Armor
• A new set of shard armor is now available from merchants. This requires Molds that drop from the new x2 raid zone, your T2 void shard armor piece, and additional void shards.

• Threat Meter
• Players can now see how much aggro they have generated towards NPC’s in combat. A new UI element will display players’ aggro percentage for their current target or implied target.
• Players with the most hate will also see the hate value for the player below them.
• Players’ aggro value will also appear above an NPC’s head, just below their remaining power. The aggro value displayed above an NPC’s head may be toggled off under Options -> User Interface -> Name and Chat Bubble

• Ward of Elements
• A brand new level 80 two-group (x2) raid instance has been added! This zone is balanced for players without a proliferation of raid gear, and should provide an exciting challenge to any group of 12! The first six bosses can be tackled in any order, and provide fantastic fabled loot with brand new armor sets upgraded from the tier 2 void shard sets, complete with new appearances! They also drop Molds which are necessary to create T3 Void Shard Armor.
• You can find the Ward of Elements in Lavastorm by taking the elevator down to Hollow Tower (in front of Deep Forge) to its lowest level.

ACHIEVEMENTS

• Cleric
• Sacrifice is now instant cast and recovery but will no longer be absorbed by wards.
• Allied Prayers will trigger properly if the Cleric is casting.

ATREBE’S LABORATORY

• Many NPC spells within Atrebe’s Laboratory: The Fabled City of Kor-sha will no longer target other NPCs.

GAMEPLAY

• Xebnok and other charming mobs should no longer cause clients to crash.
• Picking character advancement and training spells (i.e. Master II spells) will now attempt to add the spells to your hotbar and indicate where they are with spinning arrows.
• Group members can now use the /invite command to request that the group leader invite a player to the group. Just type /invite <playername>

• The entire group will no longer be zoned out of Scion of Ice when 1 person leaves.

• Chests looted with NBG or Lotto looting options will now give the group 120 seconds to make their decisions.

• Players that have completed the access quest to Trakanon’s Lair will now be able to zone directly to Trakanon without clearing Veeshan’s Peak.

• Sarnak teleporter technology in Gorowyn has expedited transport from the base of the main lift to the residential area.

• Gnomeland security R&D have created a tinkered banker prototype, which is now available for use. No warranty applies, use at own risk, no refunds, gnomeland security accepts no liability for injuries or loss incurred due to malfunction or spontaneous combustion.

GUILD HALLS

• The guild hall mender will now correctly remember the new coverage setting after it is changed.

• Paying upkeep on a house or guild hall now requires confirmation.

• The “Call to Guild Hall” spell to has been modified to have less of an impact on server performance when many players use it at once.

• Amenities will now move with players when moving to a new guild hall.

• Any amenities that are not allowed in the new guild hall will continue to be refunded to players’ escrow accounts. If the move results in having more amenities than allowed, players will not be able to move items until some amenities are removed.

• Permissions for the Harvest Supply Depot amenity have been changed as follows:
• Any player with access to the guild hall may deposit items into the depot.
• Only players with Trustee access to the hall may withdraw items directly from the depot.
• The ability to craft using items in the depot is defined using the permission level on the amenity tab.

ITEMS

• Forgotten Ring of Souls had a higher bonus on it than was intended. It has been changed to 2 base spell damage and 2 spell crit.
• The Paladin Voidbeam set’s 4-piece bonus has been changed.
• The Ranger Flightrift set’s 2-piece bonus now lowers the reuse time of Focus Aim.
• The Zealot’s Steel armor set is no longer sunshine yellow.
• The Shadow Odyssey dirge set armor has had its chest and 2-piece set bonus swapped.
• The Void Shard merchant in the Moors of Ykesha now offers weapons suitable for Brawlers.
• Items collected from the ‘old’ Ethernaut Relics collection now apply to the ‘new’ Ethernaut Relics collection.  The ‘old’ Ethernaut Relics collection has been deleted.
• Set bonuses for Shadow Odyssey raid gear and some “T4” shard-purchased gear have been modified and improved.
• Flightrift Leggings now have a ranged crit bonus instead of melee crit.
• The High-Pressure Forged Breastplate awarded by Tertiary Gurowyn Riz’Din in the Timorous Deep can now be equipped by crusaders as well as warriors.
• The delayed shipment Nagafen statues have finally arrived. Anyone who had /claimed their Nagafen at Rest item should now have a statue in place of the delivery crate.
• The Thex Mallet can now be purchased from Shady Swashbuckler if you have completed the heritage quest.
• Darkened Rapidity now adds +10 Deflection Chance to the fighter version of the Dark Mail Gauntlets.
• The effect from the Talisman of the Ethernauts should now stack with similar effects, like Frenzy of the Dead and Adrenaline Rage.
• The Tainted Ring of Anashti Sul should now proc Deflection Chance similar to its Shield Effectiveness.
• The Signet of Vampiric Kind should now also proc Barrier on a successful deflection.
• Many quest items in Moors of Ykesha have been fixed to no longer trigger procs.
• Quest items for the Befallen missions will no longer trigger procs.
• The Wantia Artisan’s satchel and meager harvesting bag no longer hold non-harvested raw items such as wolf fangs. Only items that are actually harvested can be placed in them.

MOORS OF YKESHA

• Many parts of the solo population within Moors of Ykesha have been reduced in difficulty.

PALACE OF THE ANCIENT ONE

• Multiple occurrences of Abstalius should no longer spawn in Palace of the Ancient One.

Player vs Player

• Players can no longer revive while their group is still engaged in PVP based combat.
• The infamy system has been adjusted.&nbsp; Players no longer lose infamy when they die. However, their infamy will slowly decay over time. Also, a new title has been added.

QUESTS

• Lord Byron and his cohorts should be much more accessible for updating quests in Stormhold.

• You can now assist with Qho Augren’s harvesting obsession as you level up, starting at level 5 (adventurer or tradeskill).

• City writs that previously sent adventurers into Lavastorm have been adjusted due to the changes to the Lavastorm population.

• Some of the collection items that were previously only available through the Kunark Burynai have been made available again in certain zones.

RAIDS

• All Shadow Odyssey Expansion raid bosses now have a chance at dropping master spells.

• Some raid bosses in each zone now drop void shards! (2 per instance, except Zarrakon)
• A void shard now drops from the final boss of Obelisk of Ahkzul, two from the final boss of the Anchor of Bazzul, and three are present within the Palace of Ferzhul!

RUINS OF GUK

• The Ruins of Guk: Halls of the Fallen, The Ruins of Guk: the Lower Corridors and Atrebe’s Laboratory: Fabled City of Kor-sha all have had some changes made. Most of the more undesirable spells have been removed from NPC’s and or are now dispellable.

SPELLS

• Strike of the Ethernauts and similar type effects should now all stack with each other.

TRADESKILLS

• The Far Seas Supply Division has learned of another mission where a group of talented tradeskillers may be sorely needed.  Madria Varas will have details of the new mission once they are available.
• Representative Purrla from the Far Seas Trading Company is seeking help from the cities’ tradeskill societies! Tradeskillers level 40+ may wish to assist.
• Armorers, woodworkers, and jewelers have improved their recipes, and can now make improved versions of tradeskilled shields and secondary items. Old shields and secondary items that already exist will not be affected, only new ones created henceforth.
• Tradeskillers with their epic earrings may soon find more red collectibles if they look in the right areas–
• The “Tunare’s Gifts” volumes 1 through 5 and “Bartending for Sadists” recipe books are no longer limited in number of uses.
• All armorer reaction events in the level 50 range should now result in a success round if successfully countered.

USER INTERFACE

• Players can now drag equipment from their appearance slots to the macro window.
• Fixed a bug where damage reduction info was not displayed correctly in the mitigation tooltip.
• The raid window has a new “Advanced’ mode that will display effect icons for all members of the raid. To switch views, right-click the raid window.
• A bug in the raid window sometimes causing users to not be drag-able has been fixed.
• The carat in text boxes will no longer render if the EQII client doesn’t have focus.
• UI Settings files are now stored in a new XML format.  Existing INI files will be converted the first time a character is logged in.
• Tooltips of icons in the collection window now look like regular item tooltips.
• The quest journal can now be sorted by quest name.
• Players may now specify key bindings for all 10 hotbars in the Options window under Controls -> Hotbar Keys. Right-click a hotbar and choose “Hotbar Setting” to assign a key mapping.
• The group window now displays a health bar for your group members’ pets.

ADVANCED USER INTERFACE

The following modifications were made to UIScripting / UI Builder and are mainly of interest to the modding community:

• UIScript now supports the following functions: int(), abs(), floor(), ceil()
• Results of math operations in UIScript now only return the required precision instead of always forcing 3 decimal places.
• Fixed a bug parsing negative floating-point numbers.
• New Scripting events added: OnMove, OnSize, OnTextChanged.
• The BackgroundEmpty image of a UIProgressbar will no longer render unless the progress value is zero.
• Support has been added for a new UIColorStyle object.&nbsp; Any object property that accepts a color will now accept a reference to a UIColorStyle object.
• Players can now press F2 to edit the name of an object in the TreeView
• Players can press Enter or Escape while editing an object name to commit or cancel editing.

YKESHA’S INNER STRONGHOLD

• Ykeshan Footsoldiers in the Field General Uktap encounter in Ykesha’s Inner Stronghold now drop warbeads.

ZARRAKON’S ABYSSAL LAIR

• The mark of attack spell associated with the Mystmerian Wraiths in Zarrakon’s lair no longer persist through death, but the wraiths recast it on newly resurrected opponents within 3 seconds, allowing them to resume fighting with their group.

Kiara chimed in this evening with this news:

This is a head’s up to let you know that we’ll be bringing the servers down tomorrow morning to push Elements of Corruption (GU #51) live!  Unless of course the “big one” hits and Southern California drops into the ocean…  In that case, it might be delayed again…

In addition to this, Vivox will be updating voice chat, so it will be unavailable across all games.

The estimated time for the servers to come down is 7am PDT.

If there are any changes to the plan, we’ll let you know.

While we do not have a date yet for GU51 (The Lavastorm Revamp, now minus the Fighter Revamp), we now know that it will be released sooner rather than later, with as many of the fixes, improvements, and content as possible, excluding the much maligned Fighter Revamp.

Kiara posted:

The Lavastorm changes ARE going to be pushed live.

Right now they’re being separated from the fighter changes so that we can push them live (and a little extra polish is being thrown on as well).

I don’t have an exact date yet for the Lavastorm changes going live, but I know that the team is working hard to push them as soon as they can.

When I have a clearer ETA, I’ll be sure to share.

Rothgar was nice enough to post here on my blog and at the forums:

Lavastorm is going live separate from revamp. Right now the plan is that {the Agro Meter} will still make the cut.  The next update to Test should include all of the features that have been accumulating over the past couple of months minus the fighter changes.

After the deafening silence of the last 3 weeks with regards to the Fighter Revamp and the state of GU51 in general, we’ve got a response on March 17 from none other than Bruce Ferguson, Producer of EQ2. Read it Here.

The changes made with the initial release of the fighter revamp (on the Test server) need to be removed.  However, rather than just roll back your characters to when we first introduced the changes on Test back in January; we’re going to need to split out the consolidated spells, which will reset them to Adept 1.

For our Test Copy server, we’re going to need to wipe the entire character database, which will likely take several days.

For all of our players, this means that we’ll be reinitiating the adjustments to tank balance from a fresh point.  The difference is going to be in how we go about planning and communicating the changes, because we want, and need, to know what you think.

Our plan is to start an open dialogue with you, our players, and to get your feedback every step of the way. This will mean more time in between updates, but we think that it’s worth it to get you more involved in the direction of the game.  We hope that you agree.

We realize we haven’t been stellar at consistent communication in the past, but consider this a big step towards this goal.

We are also looking at incentives to get more of you playing on the Test server, for further feedback.  We truly believe that if we can get more of you testing and contributing your feedback, we will know more about what you all want, what you all believe is best for the game.

We want this to be a collaborative effort between SOE and its players. When we get the details of the Test server incentives worked out, we’ll be announcing it on the forums and on EQ2players.  We’ll also be announcing the plan for improving our communication and creating an open two-way dialogue with you as soon as we’ve worked out all of the details.

This is a very refreshing and surprising communication. It tells me that the Ivory Tower approach to the fighter revamp has cost SoE a lot and tarnished the praise they had been receiving from casual to hardcore groupers and raiders about how The Shadow Odyssey addressed a lot of their needs including Shadowknights and Berserkers becoming desireable tank classes and the introduction . I feel that the raid progression of TSO will be even better with the forthcoming x2 and x4 raid zone.

If there is one truly frustrating issue in all this, we don’t know when the Lavastorm Revamp of GU51 will go to the Live servers. I know I have been very excited about the x2 raid zone and other quests to help gain AA points.

We’ll keep you informed as soon as we know when GU51 is going live (and I have 99% confirmation that it will go live separate from the fighter revamp).

Looks like Game Update 51 — Elements of Corruption — including the Lavastorm revamp, new x2, x4 raid zones, T3 armor, and fighter revamp have been further delayed.

From a March 9, 2009 post on EQ2Players:

As many of you know, we’ve been working on Elements of Corruption (Game Update 51) for some time…there really is a lot of good stuff coming, including new zones, new raids, new quests, a revamp of Lavastorm, the list seems endless. However, we’re not quite ready to release it. I know many of you were expecting us to do so this week or next, but at this point, we just need some more time to spend working on it so that it’s just right for all of you. Please be patient with us while we finish polishing the update, and as soon as we have a good date that we can ship out all of this exciting goodness, we’ll let you know.

Here is the new Tier 3 Void Shard Armor.

NEWLY REVISED FOR 3/4/09 — T3 Set Bonuses have been adjusted.

Note: Just in case it’s not clear, I have Photoshopped out the Set Bonuses from all but 1 item in each screen shot. Every T3 Void Shard Armor set has set bonuses for having (2), (3), (5), and (7) pieces from the set.

Bard, Enchanter, Predator

Druid, Rogue, Cleric

Summoner, Sorcerer, Shaman*

* You know those whacky Shamans… always running around buck naked wearing just twigs and funny hats. 🙂 Actual screen shots BTW.

Crusader, Brawler, Warrior

[placeholder] Bard/Shaman, Crusader/Warrior/Cleric, Brawler/Druid

I realized today that I do not have the T3 upgrade for Wilderness Warrior up.  I will work on getting this up today.

NOTE 1: For those folks with TSO x4 Raid Gear looking at these items and having a heart attack, stroke, or other blood flow stoppage, login to Test and look at your gear again. The TSO x4 raid gear from ToMC/PoAO/etc. (which people are starting to call T4) has been upgraded substantially to make room for these new T3 items.

NOTE 2: Bracers which are boss drops in the new x2 raid zone. These make the 7th piece in each set.

NOTE 3: For those resourceful Assassins out there who have been juggling 3 pieces each of Soul Lancer and Ravagers, the T3 upgrade for Soul Lancer is not usable by Predators. Fortunately Fyreflyte is making a code change to the T3 Void Shard Merchant to accept T2 Soul Lancer pieces to upgrade to the T3 Ravager pieces.

This is being discussed on the EQ2 Forums.

Ok, I hopped over to Test and got the scoop on how the T3 Void Shard Armor seems to work.

There are two NPCs:

• Assilus Poisonbolt <Elemental Pattern Quartermaster>
• Borden Chargehammer <Elite Void Shard Armor Quartermaster>

As you run the new x2 Raid Zone “The Ward of Elements”, one or more Molds will drop from raid bosses. To buy your T3 Void Shard Armor Pattern from Assilus, you must have the necessary Mold and the requisite number of Void Shards.

Borden will take your Pattern and the requisite T2 Void Shard Armor piece and turn it into a T3 Void Shard Armor piece.

For instance, I run the x2 Raid Zone and I get my Boot Mold. I give the Boot Mold and 5 Void Shards to Assilus and he gives me a Boot Pattern in exchange. Then I turn to Borden and I turn in my T2 Boots and the Boot Pattern and he gives me my brand spanking new T3 Boots. I do see how this could confuse people. The simplest way to explain it is with this chart:

T3 Void Shard Armor

8 Void Shards + Head Mold + T2 Head -> T3 Head
10 Void Shards + Chest Mold + T2 Chest -> T3 Chest
12 Void Shards + Shoulder Mold + T2 Shoulder -> T3 Shoulder
5 Void Shards + Gloves Mold + T2 Gloves -> T3 Gloves
8 Void Shards + Legs Mold + T2 Legs -> T3 Legs
5 Void Shards + Boots Mold + T2 Boots -> T3 Boots

But we’re not done yet. All of the T3 Void Shard Armor Sets have a 7 piece bonus, meaning you’ll have to get the Bracers somewhere. Note that some armor sets have multiple items of the same slot listed in the “set”. Coercer and Illusionist for instance have 2 headpieces they can choose from.

Originally posted by Kirstie at EQ2 Forums:

We have some exciting new features in the works for EQII! One of the first we’ll be talking about is Research Assistants.

These hardworking researchers will help you acquire upgrades to your spells and combat arts while you’re off adventuring in the deepest darkest dungeon or asleep in your own warm cozy bed. Even though they’re hardworking, they’re not a speedy service and they are limited in how much they’ll help you. Because this kind of research is complicated, they’ll only be able to work on one spell or combat art for one character per server.

All research requires a base amount of information to work with. In the case of the Research Assistants, this manifests in that they require you to have the previous tier of the spell being upgraded before they can begin work for you. So, in order to research that Master I, you’ll need to first know the Adept III version, though it doesn’t matter whether that Adept III version came from researching or from your friendly neighborhood sage, jeweler or alchemist. The time required to research a spell increase will vary based on the level and tier of the spell. A level 20 Adept I may only take an hour, while a level 80 master will likely take a month or longer.

We’re still working out the details of how these assistants will work in Norrath and we want to hear your feedback. Do you have a preference on how these researchers would look or how you interact with them?

There have been many requests over the last couple of years for SoE to provide a way for people to acquire hard-to-find masters such as level 53-58 masters which do not get upgraded beyond that level. Rangers have a level 53 buff which does not get upgraded for instance.

I think it’s a good idea. If you have characters on 3 different servers, then you can have ONE character per server researching a spell upgrade.

Considering the time investment (2-5 weeks) for ONE spell, this meets a need that many people have been begging for. There are level 50’s Masters that do not get upgraded. Also, Illusionist and Conjuror master pet spells routinely go for 200-300 plat.

This allows people to choose WHICH spell they want to upgrade rather than having to continue grinding old dungeons or old raid zones to get a master which might or might not be on various loot tables.

I think most people WILL NOT use them to get Adept I’s but I suppose ubercasual players who only play once in a while and don’t want to drop the 4 plat on a silicate loam might upgrade 1 spell a month this way.

I think this is a good idea.

Personally, I would also like to see a device that strips the NO TRADE tag off ONE item per month.

Recently players noticed that they were unable to start Commisioned crafting of void shard items if the crafter was in possession of the void shard. Emily “Domino” Taylor, EQII Tradeskill Developer, responded on the Official Forums:

“The transfer of no-trade items (including void shards) via commission crafting was unintended. Going forward, you can expect that this kind of transfer will not be possible. A recipe that requires a no-trade item to make and produces a no-trade product, should require all of those no-trade components to be held by the person who is going to end up with the final product.”

Many players used this to sell no-trade crafting components along with the crafting service (usually 2-3p per shard).

From EQ2 Forums. First on Zam.

I saw the most terrifying quote today from the mechanics developer of EQ2, Aeralik.

this is the first part of trying to get people back into their core roles so to speak.  Tanks take the brunt of it now but we realize other classes are doing high damage when they shouldn’t be while some others don’t have the utility to match their role.  Some may even pick up new roles down the line.  So while we are currently tweaking the fighters we do have things in mind for the others albeit probably not as dramatic as the fighters( at least I hope not ).

I would respond to it, but I cannot think of better words than some of the quotes from other players in that thread:

Maroger said:

Is this rewriting of the game some form of job security? I really don’t see the point in overhauling a 4+ year old game that everyone but you seems to be happy playing. And the fact that you do not bother to answer question of why buff mergers, why nerfs to spells merely indicate that you honestly have no real justification for what you are doing. What you have just written seems like a job security description than a meaningful effort to improve the game.

Aeralik’s statement is truly scary. I cannot understand how he convinced some producer that what he was doing was the right thing and that he even knew what he was doing. Management should step in and stop him if they want to have a game with paying customer left when he is finished.

UntilitSleeps wrote:

Only when the last class is changed, the last decent raid loot is nerfed and the last bit of challenge is gone from that game you will realize that no playerbase = no money.

You are on your best way to destroying a game lots of people enjoy. I bet enchanters, bards, clerics and shamans can’t wait to be “balanced” by you.

The quoted statement makes me want to QUIT INSTANTLY.

STOP DESTROYING YOUR OLD GAME YOU NEVER ADVERTISED
BY PISSING OFF THE CUSTOMERS YOU HAVE LEFT.

Of course if there is one thing I can guarantee, Assassin DPS will not go down one point. 🙂

From EQ2Players.

In Game Update 51 (scheduled for a mid-March arrival), Tradeskillers will get some love:

1. A new Tradeskill Instance in the Void. This will be a bit different than the existing 3 group tradeskill instances which level 50-80 tradeskillers have been doing since TSO came out.
2. Updated recipes for shields, orbs, and other secondary slot items.
3. Guild Hall Trophies were mentioned at FanFaire ’08 and will make their appearance here. These trophies consist of 2 raid “bosses” from the original launch and 2 additional raid bosses from each subsequent expansion. Tradeskillers will make a “trophy mount” which, when combined with some remnant of the boss (presumably its head) will created a guild hall-placeable item. The recipe for this comes from the master tradeskill delegate you bought your AA mirror recipe from.
4. The Far Seas Supply Division (the new TSO tradeskill faction) has work for you in Lavastorm! New mounts including a lava rhino and flying, flaming, carpet and of course there are the obligatory house furniture items as well. 🙂
5. 2 New Red Shiny Collection Collections in Lavastorm exclusively for tradeskillers (NO TRADE).