Tomorrow marks a week that Destiny of Velious has been live.  I’ve had time to run through the Icy Fingers quest series on three characters, get my flying mount, check out Thurgadin, and even run through the first quest area in the Eastern Wastes.  I’ve also poked my head into the Tower of Frozen Shadows: Shadowed Corridors.  I’ve learned a few things during this time that I’d like to pass on.  This is mainly meant for the non-raiding portion of our audience since the raiders most likely know all of this information already or have the level of gear so that this doesn’t really apply.

A syndrome that I think many people who write about MMOs experience is that find ourselves actually PLAYING the game less and less. I’m certainly guilty of this myself. We get interested in a game, start writing about it based on our experience, and next thing you know we aren’t catching groups or raids anymore. So with Velious I made a commitment to get back in the game.

So one of my first experiences has been getting into Public Quests, which spawned the article yesterday. The concept certainly makes for an interesting type of content, one that was popular in Warhammer and is a huge draw for the new Rift. So far, I have heard feedback from quite a few players who have checked out Public Quests and have gotten mixed results.

Public Quests provide different kinds of rewards than we’ve seen in the past. Right now there are 2 Public Quests: Storm Gorge which is Southeast of Thurgadin and the Ring War which is Northeast of Thurgadin. There are plans to add several more Public Quests as we heard about in Beta (possibly the Sleeper!).

So if you played in the Beta, or heard tales, you know that like past betas, the solo overland content was rather… challenging. We’re talking badgers and gnolls that ignore 30-40% of damage done to them, have upwards of 100,000 hp, and put out damage in the thousands. Notorious were the crystal spiders needed for the flying mount quest which, if they successfully poisoned you, were doing upwards of 4,000 damage *per tick* until cured. If you didn’t whip out a potion or use that click-to-cure, you were dead in seconds.

2 weeks before Velious Beta ended, SmokeJumper admitted that it was too difficult and so sweeping changes were made. Players who were originally getting slaughtered in Velious overland zones were then able to with stand 2-3 mobs beating on them with few ill effects. When Beta closed, we had been told that more changes would be made to try to strike a balance.

What we’ve seen so far in Velious is that things were tweaked to still present a challenge, but some of the tougher effects have been dialed down.

In the Destiny of Velious Webcast #3 (video and notes), we first heard about War Runes. These are a new set of Red Adornments available to raiders in the Destiny of Velious. They’re essentially a “greatest hits” of the best, most popular, most powerful Procs/Effects from Avatars, Shadow Odyssey Fabled, and Sentinel’s Fate Fabled. War Runes open up Red Adornments to new slots, specifically Weapons (Primary, Secondary, Ranged), Charms, Belts, and Cloaks. From Silius in Webcast #3:

[War Runes are applicable to] your 3 weapon slots, 2 charm slots. Easy mode raids will have belts that have a red slot. Hard mode raids will have cloaks that have a red slot. So hard mode raiders can add effects to 7 total slots, on top of having red slots on their raid armor.

War Runes are the more specialized procs, custom-made procs, a lot of which are upgraded from Sentinel’s Fate procs that players have noted as being their favorites, the procs that make an item their favorite item.

These are raid-only dropped adornments. Whoever loots them and clicks on a War Rune gets flagged so he/she can go to a War Rune merchant and buy that adornment for raid shards. He/she gets permanent access to them.

This is PART FOUR of our guide to Destiny of Velious adornments and covers the basic Red or “Raid” adornments designated for Raiding SORTED BY FACTION.

Red Adornments are FABLED, level 90, and cost 10 Pure Primal Velium Shards plus 5 plat and 4 gold. There are four major factions offering Adornments in Destiny of Velious:

• The Othmir of Velious
• Snowfang Gnolls
• Clan Ry’Gorr
• The City of Thurgadin

There are solo, repeatable, and dungeon-based quests to earn faction with the Othmir, Snowfang Gnolls, Ry’Gorr, and Thurgadin.

Red Adornments may also be acquired as a very rare drop from Public Quests. A choice of 4 special Red Adornments are available for purchase in the City of Thurgadin to those who have completed the quest The Fallen Swords: Here, There Be Giants. Finally, special Red Adornments called War Runes are available as drops in raid zones, redeemable in Kael Drakkel.

UPDATE: This article has been updated as of March 8, 2011 with figures adjusted since Beta and Charm slot being folded into Primary/Secondary/Ranged.

This is PART THREE of our guide to Destiny of Velious adornments and covers the basic Red or “Raid” adornments designated for Raiding SORTED BY SLOT.

Red (Raid) Adornments are FABLED, level 90, and cost 10 Pure Primal Velium Shards plus 5 plat and 4 gold. Basic Red Adornments are available for 11 slots:

• Head
• Chest
• Gloves
• Boots
• Shoulders
• Forearms
• Legs
• Primary/Secondary/Ranged/Charm

There are solo, repeatable, and dungeon-based quests to earn faction with the Othmir, Snowfang Gnolls, Ry’Gorr, and Thurgadin.

Red Adornments may also be acquired as a very rare drop from Public Quests. A choice of 4 special Red Adornments are available for purchase in the City of Thurgadin to those who have completed the quest The Fallen Swords: Here, There Be Giants. Finally, special Red Adornments called War Runes are available as drops in raid zones, redeemable in Kael Drakkel.

UPDATE: This article has been updated as of March 8, 2011 with figures adjusted since Beta and Charm slot being folded into Primary/Secondary/Ranged.

This is PART TWO of our guide to Destiny of Velious adornments and covers Yellow or “Heroic” adornments designated for Grouping SORTED BY SLOT.

Yellow (Group) Adornments are LEGENDARY, either level 80 or 90, and cost 5 Primal Velium Shards and 5 plat and 4 gold. Yellow Adornments are available for 11 slots:

• Head
• Chest
• Gloves
• Boots
• Shoulders
• Forearms
• Legs
• Primary/Secondary/Ranged
• Charm

There are solo, repeatable, and dungeon-based quests to earn faction with the Othmir, Snowfang Gnolls, Ry’Gorr, and Thurgadin.

UPDATE: This information was updated on March 8, 2011. Changes from Beta to live are reflected, as well as adding the Legs slot.

This is PART ONE of our guide to Destiny of Velious adornments and covers Yellow or “Heroic” adornments designated for Grouping SORTED BY FACTION.

There are four major factions offering Adornments, Armor, Jewelry, Weapons, and House Items in Destiny of Velious:

• The Othmir of Velious
• Snowfang Gnolls
• Clan Ry’Gorr
• The City of Thurgadin

There are solo, repeatable, and dungeon-based quests to earn faction with the Othmir, Snowfang Gnolls, Ry’Gorr, and Thurgadin. Yellow Adornments are LEGENDARY, level 80 or 90, and cost 5 Primal Velium Shards and 5 plat and 4 gold.

UPDATE: This information was updated on March 8, 2011. Changes from Beta to live are reflected.

Big changes to Mechanics and Itemization have coincided with the last 2 expansions and Destiny of Velious is no exception. Today we delve into changes to:

• Procs (Item Effects)
• Adornments
• Critical Chance
• Critical Avoidance
• Primary Stats (Stamina, Intelligence, Agility, Wisdom, and Strength)
• Health
• Power
• Melee Range
• Multiattack
• Ability Mod

Here are some notes from Friday night’s live Webcast of Rich Waters, Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson and Salim “Silius” talking about the upcoming Destiny of Velious expansion, including player-submitted questions. Getting into the mechanics and itemization changes, we get very close to a full transcription as there is a lot of detail and information here. We recommend listening to the webcast to get a complete picture of what was said.

Some bullet points:

• The EQ2 team have the next year of Game Updates planned out with more group zones, raid zones, heritage quests, etc. The first Game Update will add more dungeons.

• Items will become a lot more modular and straightforward, with procs largely moved to adornments.

• Group players in Sentinel’s Fate should be able to jump right into grouping in Velious such as Tower of Frozen Shadow.

• Casual raiders in Sentinel’s Fate may want to test the waters with the contested Kael Drakkel dungeon which falls right before the easier raid content.

• High-level raiders who are already doing Underfoot Depths should be able to move into the easier raid zones in Velious without grouping, although Kael Drakkel is a good stepping stone.

• Silius went into detail on the new Adornment scheme including a new type of adornment War Runes.

• We won’t see new Battlegrounds gear or other PvP content until the Game Update after Velious.

• A new mechanic on mobs (NPCs) called Critical Avoidance which means you’ll need well over 100% Crit Chance to succeed harder dungeons and raids. This effect reduces your crit (including healing!).

• Flying mounts start at level 86.

• On March 1st, everyone will be able to fly as a live event. The gnomes are putting in experimental test pilot tracks in Lavastorm, Tenebrous Tangle, and Butcherblock. You’ll be able to grab a tinkered craft and run through the race against time.

(left to right) Greg Agius [EQ2 Brand Manager] interviews Rich Waters [EQ2 Lead Designer], Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson [EQ2 Senior Producer] and Salim “Silius” [EQ2 Developer, Itemization], about the upcoming Destiny of Velious expansion including reader questions.

Upcoming Dev Chat Webcasts:

This Friday, February 18th, members of the EQII Development Team will join us again to talk about itemization in Destiny of Velious. This will be the last in our series of four Live Webcasts leading up to the Destiny of Velious launch! Be sure to tune in to learn more about the upcoming features and get the scoop straight from the people who work on EQII every day.

• Friday, February 18 at 4:00 pm PST: Topic TBA

Topics will be announced soon. Tune in on Facebook or on Stickam to watch the fourth webcast this Friday!

Submit your Questions on the EQ2 Forums

The Itemization Battle

When examining any piece of equipment, players must evaluate whether that item is an upgrade for their class based not only on their existing stats, but also whether the stats and effects on that item are of benefit to their class. The character’s spells, combat arts, AA setup, and existing gear must all be considered. Choosing item upgrades has never been an exact science.

At one time, all 5 main stats including Intelligence, Wisdom, Stamina, Agility, and Strength had a part to play in the effectiveness of an item for every class, not just hybrid classes. This is not to mention +Health, +Power, Offensive and Defensive Skills, and the various Resists. The last 3 expansions have added or greatly expanded upon effects such as Crit Chance, Multi Attack (formerly Double Attack), Crit Bonus, Potency, AOE Autoattack, Flurry, Strikethrough, etc.

Here are your exceptionally brief Update Notes for today, January 6, 2011:

ITEMS

The following adornments should now properly display what slots they can adorn:

• Focus: Lesser Intimidation
• Focus: Lesser Power
• Focus: Lesser Vengeance
• Focus: Lesser Effectiveness
• Focus: Lesser Resilience

Today’s hotfix refunds the purchase cost of Research Assistants, adds 200 house item slots to The Mistmoore Crags Estate and a few other things.  Read the full hotfix notes after the jump.

If you’ve been hoping for any hint of class tweaks we’ll see in Velious, Xelgad has posted an early preview. Naturally this does not include any mention of new AA lines or other abilities we may gain.

We’re still three months from the Destiny of Velious launch, and more sweeping changes than the ones listed below were made in less time, so take this as an early teaser, subject to change. In short, there is great news for Illusonists and Summoners, and some news for other classes as well.

It looks like some unexpected changes to Research Assistants have hit the Test server. Spell and Combat Art upgrades are now possible without any involvement by a Sage, Jeweler, or Alchemist. And instead of hailing an NPC, Research is being folded into the interface.

From the Test Copy notes:

RESEARCH

• The Research window has been moved in to the Knowledge window.
• Journeyman through Master spell tiers can be researched.
• You are no longer required to speak with a Research Assistant to start/change/claim research.

EQ2 dev Bunji has posted on the EQ2 Forums regarding the Daily Solo Void Shard Mission:

We’re working on a fix for this one which is planned for the next Hotfix.

A Bow to Pull With

Any good plate tank needs a good pulling bow.  You know, one that can hit mobs from way across the room.  You may not use it all the time, but you at least have it on your hot bar.  They come in handy for all sorts of things.  Once you’ve used one with an extra long range, it’s hard to go back to using anything else.  They even make questing easier since you can hit the mobs from so far away (less running around).

Today’s hotfix notes include the ability to relocate your City Bind Point to any city you are aligned with, more crafted Marks of Manaar equipment, and other changes to live events and raids.

Here are your update notes for Tuesday, 19 October 2010 after the break:

Hiding in every Game Update, there are changes that go through that are either undocumented, or otherwise slip under the radar. Some of them appear as a single line item in the Update Notes, but have significant ramifications. Some don’t appear at all. Today, we shed some light on these changes.

Amnerys has posted the complete Game Update Notes for Game Update 58: Arcanum Revealed on the EQ2 Forums.

Here they are after the break:

The Legends of Norrath: Dragonbrood – The Anarchs website has been updated with screen shots of the new EQ2-applicable loot cards, including a Legends of Norrath loot card for EQ2 called the Gnom-o-matic Equipment Unattuner. This card will allow players to unattune (and thus transfer items to other characters on their account) up to 3 items.

The Legends of Norrath website and forums have alternately described the Dragonbrood expansion (LoN’s 11th expansion) as ‘Coming Soon’, available ‘This Fall’, and arriving in ‘October‘. Sources suggest the Legends of Norrath: Dragonbrood expansion will coincide with the release of Game Update 58.

Game Update 58 is looking to be a massive update, not so much in content, but in changes large and small to the game, and its User Interface.

Game Update 58 includes:

• A level 90 dungeon – Zraxth’s Unseen Arcanum
• New bosses in the Vasty Deep dungeons with new loot
• Spell Animation and Sound Effect tweaks
• Click-to-Cure
• Mounts and Currency tabs
• Numerous UI tweaks
• Outdoor Balconies have been added to 6+ room houses, making them feel a part of the city they belong to.
• House item limits have been increased, and Moving Crates now count independently of house item limits.
• Additional house items have been added to Moonlight Enchantments, City Festivals, and of course Nights of the Dead
• The adventure Vitality XP bonus remains effective at level 90.
• Betrayal now suspends your access to spells and spell upgrades you are no longer permitted to use, but does not totally reset them. Should you betray back to your original class, your spells will be restored including any spell upgrades you have purchased or researched. Changing your alignment or citizenship without changing class no longer resets your spells.
• Numerous Tradeskill tweaks

We have been unable to confirm if we can expect:

• New loot for Marks of Manaar

Update: We’ve been able to confirm this feature of Game Update 58:

• A fix for the Call of the Veteran to reduce some of the problems, and better messages when it doesn’t work.

Our more detailed preview of Game Update 58 after the jump…