Here are your Update Notes for Friday, December 9th, 2011 from the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL

• Characters created before 12/6/2011 no longer have class or race pack restrictions.  Characters created after that date are still subject to your current membership restrictions, if applicable.

• Fixed a crash that could be caused by doing a raid with a large number of mercenaries.

• Fixed a bug that was preventing mentoring on PvP servers.

• Dungeon maker items in the marketplace that contain house items will now display previews in the paperdoll window.

• Fixed issues with Shader 3.0 causing client crashes.

The complete Update Notes after the jump…

From the EQ2 Forums:

Age of Discovery is the eighth expansion of the groundbreaking EverQuest II franchise.

Age of Discovery offers never-seen-before features including user-generated content and the re-imagining of the Beastlord class from the original EverQuest release.  You can make your mark in-game by creating your very own Dungeon, hire some much needed help for your heroic battles, push tradeskilling research to new heights, customize your weapons at the forge, and of course, play as a Beastlord. There’s a lot to like about this expansion!

From the EQ2 Forums:

• Fixed an issue with the 48 hour no-trade grace period.
• Fixed an animation issue with the Soga Human Female model riding on the Terrorbird mount.

With the first fix, it will, once again, be possible to simply collect all the loot during a group or raid and trade it to people at the end, or trade items within a group/raid (those who were present for the kill) in case of a looting mistake.

If you’re a Scout, a Fighter, and maybe even a Cleric, Druid, Enchanter, or Mystic in EQ2, and you push yourself to play the absolute best (even if you’re not geared the best), you’re probably already familiar with the concept of Autoattack.

Game Update 61 introduced a new type of Autoattack called Spell Autoattack for Mages and Priests. You might be tempted to jump on the DPS bandwagon, but before you run out and equip a Wand, there are some things you really ought to know!

UPDATE: This article has been updated thanks to feedback from Ferk, Anaogi, Barx!

From the EQ2Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Temple of Rallos Zek [Challenge]

• Bosses should no longer get double buff packages.

Temple of Rallos Zek: Foundations of Stone [Challenge]

• During the Statue of Rallos Zek fight the automatons of escalation have reduced abilities and should be easier to handle. The statue itself will wait much longer after its final text before it activates retaliation.

Sullon’s Spire [Non-Challenge Mode]

• Hragdold the Frenzied: Ironclaw Priests now heal for less. Clawstorm mana drain is lessened, and it’s not cast quite so often.

Spire of Rage

• Spells that the Sullonites use now have longer casting times and they will start using them later in the fight as opposed to right away.
• Grolla Skullwielder will now say she is casting Sweeping Crash and it now has a longer casting time.

Strategist’s Stronghold

• Hypatia should now tell you when she will cast Fortification of Blades and it now has a 3 second cast time for her.
• War boars in Warmaster Korok Hai’s encounter should now stun a lot less.

Tower of Tactics

• Lady V’uul will only make her orbs vulnerable if she reaches 100% damage reduction. She should call out when this happens. All three orbs should be targetable and killable.

ITEMS

• Temple Guardian’s Shard of Illumination is now heirloom.
• Soul Touched Crystal Wand is now heirloom.

From the EQ2 Forums:

DUNGEON FINDER

• Dungeons are now broken into categories.
• If a player declines a DF offer, they must wait 15 minutes before they can queue again.
• The dungeon finder will now give an indication of how many players of each archetype are queued for each dungeon.
• Any member of the group can now set group options, but everyone in the group must vote on the changes before they apply.

LIVE EVENTS

Nights of the Dead

• The headless Horseman should once again be patrolling Nektulos Forest.
• An Essence of Fear and an Eerie Essence are now being offered to everyone correctly upon completion of the quest “The Troubling Truth”.
• An Essence of Fear and an Eerie Essence now have appropriate descriptions.
• The “Petrified Bone Tile” can now be scaled even larger.

ITEMS

• Titaniir, Aether Strike has been returned to a 4 second delay.

QUESTS

• The quest “Researching Lavastorm: Relics of Battle” once more rewards the Flame Researcher’s Robe.

With today’s update, the entirely optional Beastlord Prelude #2 quest goes live.  It provides an explanation for where Beastlords have been and why they’re now returning to Norrath. Don’t worry — whether you complete these brief lore quests or not, anyone who purchases the EverQuest II: Age of Discovery expansion (when it goes on sale) will be able to create new Beastlords in November.

More controversial in today’s update is the removal of any “shard” cost from Thurgadin and Ry’Gorr armor.

You can expect crafters to be exceedingly busy today as they fulfill orders for full sets of Thurgadin armor as it is now essentially free minus the cost of common materials. Ry’Gorr armor also requires one of the tradeable gems listed below from Kael Drakkel zones. Don’t forget to tip your crafter!

If all crafters are currently assisting other customers, or you just prefer to go the Vendor route, Thurgadin and Ry’Gorr will be happy to sell their armor to allies with +40,000 faction, and a few plat. In the case of Ry’Gorr armor, you’ll also need one or more of the above gems from Kael Drakkel.

Check out EQ2Wire’s Guide to Velious Heroic Armor & Jewelry

Apparently any possible disruption this might cause to Progression or reduction in Tower of Frozen Shadow 1-3, Pools, Ascent, and Fortress groups hasn’t dampened the spirits of players excited to get free lootz for all their alts! Don’t worry, be happy!

No sooner than we’ve posted a long-simmering article about Velious’ steep heroic progression than changes have hit Test which could turn EQ2’s heroic progression on its ear. Brace yourself. Everything you know about Velious shard armor is about to change.

Are you spending much time in Kael Drakkel? Drunder? Elements of War? That’s ok, neither are most other people.

EQ2 has a storied history of challenging dungeons. Players who have been around since the Fallen Dynasty fondly recall Nizara for its breathtaking challenge. Echoes of Faydwer delivered the instant classic Estate of Unrest. Kunark followed up with the mid-summer release of Veksar 2 and Runnyeye 2 (both forerunners of so-called Hard Mode zones). The Shadow Odyssey had a pair of zingers — Ruins of  Guk and the Palace of Ferzhul. However no EverQuest II expansion has played host to as many difficult dungeons at one time as the Destiny of Velious.

Today’s update removes the need for Critical Mitigation from Velious overland zones, as well as Kael Drakkel: Throne of Storms and the Temple of Rallos Zek (non-challenge). From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Sullon, Tallon and Vallon x4 raid zones (challenge versions)

• Many of the adds in the boss encounters now have reduced health.

Sullon, Tallon and Vallon x4 raid zones (non-challenge versions)

• In the non-challenge instances of these raid zones NPC bosses now have less health and do somewhat less damage with their melee attacks and spells.

Temple of Rallos Zek: Foundations of Stone [Challenge]

• The damage from the breath weapons that the Statue of Rallos Zek uses is easier to mitigate. The statue of Rallos zek will wait a couple of seconds after it says its text before casting retaliation of zek on itself.

Tallon’s Stronghold [Challenge]

• General Aakita and Utehk have less maximum health.

Great Divide and Eastern Wastes

• Critbonus has been removed from all overland mobs. Critical mitigation is no longer required to survive.

Reversing yesterday’s odd changes to the Zek and Drunder Breastplates, here Today’s Update Notes for September 28, 2011:

ITEMS

• Temple of Rallos Zek non-challenge BP mitigation values should be fixed.
• Temple of Rallos Zek non-challenge BP crit mit should be at 34%.
• Talisman of the Ethernauts should work for real this time.
• Fixed crit mit values on Elements of War caster legs and forearms.
• Fixed the stats on the Feinting Dagger of the Cunning Gambit and Feinting Blade of the Cunning Gambit.

Yesterday, Test received an update with these auspicious line items:

• Kael and Drunder group BPs have been modified to better fit within the progression.
• Temple of Rallos Zek Raid Hard mode BPs have had their power increased.

The result of these changes, however, has been less than desirable. The Mitigation (not crit mit, but the basic mitigation) of all the Breastplates (Robes, Cuirassen, Hauberks, Gis, Tunics, etc.) from Kael Drakkel: Fortress Spire and Drunder: Tower of Tactics has been reduced by over 90%.

Here are your update notes for today, September 20th, 2011:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Fortress of Drunder: Citadel of V’uul (x2)

• Overall health of trash and boss encounters has been lowered.

PLAYER HOUSING

• Added a unique house ID number to saved house layout files. This can be used to identify a file from one house that has the same zone as another house.
• NOTE: Old version 5 files should still be loadable. New saved files will be version 6 and include the unique ID.

ITEMS

• Kingdom of Sky “Cloud Mount” questline rewards have had set bonuses re-added to them. This set bonus should work with the new and old quested items. Classes that cannot acquire the specific pieces have also been removed from each item.
• Elements of War weaponry should now have more lenient class restrictions.
• Son of Blades and Spreading Shadows should proc correctly.
• Brock’s Thermal Shocker is attainable in game once more. Players who have already completed the quest “Find Gingus” should be able to get the Thermal Shocker from the Shady Swashbuckler.
• The Soulshattering Band is no longer equipable by Fighters and Scouts.

QUESTS

• Quest Demonstration of Loyalty should now update properly in Nektulos Forest.

There are several options to upgrade your character’s Chest slot in Velious without raiding. There are now three questlines in Velious that offer Chestpieces, including the Othmir quests, the Flying Gryphon questline, and the new Thrael’Gorr quests introduced in Game Update 61. Public Quests have also offered a Chestpiece for those who are either extremely lucky or extremely patient.

Depicted at the top of this article is the power progression in Scout Chestpieces from Othmir quest gear all the way to Zek HM. Click the image to view all 11 items side-by-side.

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Plane of War

• Players may now enter the plane of war, once someone on the server has defeated all 3 demigods of war (Sullon, Vallon and Tallon Zek) in challenge mode.

Drunder x4 raid zones

• Players can now enter the challenge mode Drunder x4 raid zones without having killed the previous demi-god in challenge mode.

Sullon’s Spire x4 raid [Challenge Mode]

• Aaranae Acrimae: Her adds have less health. The rage devourer no longer casts the aoe multistrike.

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Kunark

• Creatures found within Kylong Plains, Kunzar Jungle, Fens of Nathsar and Jarsath Wastes are once again dropping items.

Stonebrunt Highlands

• Vreshana Kestral will no longer send characters to The Palace of Roehn Theer if they opt not to go.

Gninja provided some great news on Friday for players carrying unadorned gear from Velious’ two x2 raid zones (Tower of Frozen Shadow and Tower of Vuul):

The X2 zones drop items with red adornment slots, so those are the shards that will start dropping once my change makes it to the current build.

Both X2 zones should be getting the pure primal velium shards dropping from all the named.

Providing the means to buy Red Adornments for items with red adornment slots is certainly a welcome change. And the more powerful War Runes retain their rarity as they still must be acquired via “flagging” (although as of a recent update they are now Heirloom).

Announced at Fan Faire and rolled out in late August, the long-awaited revamp of level 20-90 gear was staggering in its ambition. Some 7 years of items, numbering over 50,000, would go under the knife or be recreated entirely for the Revamp. Now just over two weeks since the launch of Game Update 61, it remains unclear just where we stand on the Great Reitemization of EverQuest II.

More than anything, players have wondered at the intent of the revamp, seeking out an overall vision of item progression that would flow from level 1 through to level 90 items. Thus far, there hasn’t been one. In fact, any kind of guidance whatsoever on this crucial Reitemization has been singularly lacking from both EQ2 Mechanics and Management.

While we applaud members of the EQ2 Design who have put in absurd hours trying to wrangle some sense of order to this monstrous undertaking, the chaos has been palpable. The lack of direction has led to conflicting announcements, and some items having undergone their fourth revision in just a few short weeks.

The increasingly permeable barrier between Test and Live seems to be fluctuating. Someone call Fringe Division! A bullet point in yesterday’s update notes elicited widespread commentary on the EQ2 Forums, leading some to theorize that it was a typo. It wasn’t:

Critical chance should no longer appear on items below level 80.

The result was many items lost some or all Crit Chance, Crit Bonus, Reuse, etc.

Further, items from the new Elements of War heroic zone also got hit with the Nerf[TM] bat, seeing reductions from 42 Crit Chance to just 12%.

Here are your update notes for today, September 8, 2011. Of note, War Runes (red, raid-only adornments) are going Heirloom!

We’re not really sure what the removal of Crit Chance from lower level items is about — maybe it’s a typo and they meant Critical Mitigation. Considering they just went through and added Crit Bonus to thousands of items (which does nothing without its sister stat Crit Chance), removing Crit Chance would make no sense.

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Silent City: The Delving Dead

• If you have completed all the collection quests for the Delving Dead, you can now find an explorer within the zone that will reward you for your efforts!

ITEMS

• Critical chance should no longer appear on items below level 80.
• Treasured items between 40 and 69 have been rebalanced.
• War Runes are now heirloom.
• Legslot items that did not have a valid appearance should now be less revealing.

QUESTS

• The Essence of Fear and the mass of iksar spirits necessary for the quest “The Name of Fear” should now be visible within the Shard of Fear.

Here are your September 7, 2011 EQ2 Patch Notes:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Pedestal of Sky

• Fixed the missing geometry in this zone.

Foundations of Stone [Challenge]

• The blink portion of Icy Snap AOE that the Statue of Rallos Zek casts will now only blink players a max of 2m, and will only affect players a certain distance away from the statue, not players close to it.

Sullon’s Spire x4 raid [Challenge Mode]

• Aaranae Acrimae: Her debuff to max health and mana is greatly reduced. Leechweb does less mana damage on its initial hit.

Progression is a funny thing. Funnel players into too strict a progression path of gear, of levels, of dungeons, and you take away player choice and limit options. Provide too many options or no clear path, and you have player confusion about what they’re supposed to do next in the line of progression.

The Shadow Odyssey had a straightforward (if restricting for developers)  progression, with 3 and later 4 tiers of armor from Heroic through to x4 Raiding. This is not to mention the open-to-all Shard of Hate raid zone which had internal progression from a named encounter that almost any pickup could kill, to arguably the hardest raid mob in the game (Byzola). Sentinel’s Fate broke from the set bonuses of The Shadow Odyssey and scattered itemization throughout the zones. It also gradually increased the reliance on the Critical Mitigation survivability stat, at least in raid zones.

If Sentinel’s Fate had an overabundance of options, Destiny of Velious went the opposite way. The Velious group zones and even the overland solo zones all went on Progression lockdown, each requiring copious amounts of the Critical Mitigation survivability stat. Everything was put on a straight path with few diversions. Access quests also made a return to group dungeons, something unheard of since EQ2’s third expansion. Every Destiny of Velious raid zone has been offered in a Normal or “easy” (EM) and Challenge or “hard” (HM) mode. The reduced buff packages and easier scripts in the normal zones have allowed many guilds to participate in these raid encounters that would not normally have the gear, coordination, or skill to do so.

From the EQ2 Patcher:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Silent City: The Delving Dead

• Levels below 90 should actually have collections.

TRADESKILLS

• Appearances on some tranquil threadbare crafted armor have been updated.
• The Scroll of Fire Seeds is now heirloom rather than no trade.

After people started wondering where oh where has the Shady Swashbuckler gone, Gninja had this to say on the EQ2Forums:

Shady is currently permakilled for an exploit he will be returning tomorrow after the update. Sorry for not letting you guys know.

This just in from Smokejumper on the EQ2 Forums: