First I’d like to wish a Happy New Year to all of you. No doubt many took advantage of the Double XP weekend and squeezed in the last bit of Frostfell magic.

In the coming weeks, we should be hearing more from EQ2 developers and their work on the upcoming Game Update 63 coming in February. This update is expected to include new Destiny of Velious content, including dungeons, raids, and more.

Here are some issues we’re tracking this week, some of which got a nod from a developer or community:

• Character Lighting
• EQ2Players
• Invisible Mercenary Healers
• Timorous Deep (Kunark) client crashes
• Tradeskill Apprentice Recipes for Provisioners
• Characters Stuck in Frostfell
• Character Transfer Server Tokens
• What House Items do you want?

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Here are your Update Notes for December 20, 2011 from the EQ2 Forums:

DUNGEON / PLAYER HOUSING RATINGS

• The house and dungeon leaderboards have now been converted from the previous 5-star rating system to a new “Like” system.

• When visiting a house or completing a dungeon maker zone you now have the option to “Like” the zone in either of the two categories.

• The leaderboards are now based on the accumulation of likes.

• Awards continue to work as before and are given to the players at the top of the leaderboard.

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Brian “Omougi” Ferguson has spilled the beans on Tradeskill Apprentices at EverQuest2.com:

What exactly IS a tradeskill apprentice?

A tradeskill apprentice is an NPC that you can hire to work for you in your house. You will need to be tradeskill level 10 or higher before you can work with a tradeskill apprentice.

Who are these tradeskill apprentices anyway?

The first tradeskill apprentices available for hire will be Coldain dwarves. Now that Velious has been reconnected to the rest of Norrath, the Coldain are eager to learn the advances in tradeskills that have taken place during their years of isolation. They’re offering their considerable skills at research in exchange for the guidance and mentoring of crafters from the mainland of Norrath while they learn.

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Smokejumper responded to a thread from nine days ago on the EQ2 Forums asking for a clear answer to what exactly is Age of Discovery.  He basically said what we already knew about the content included in Age of Discovery.  Reading through it and some of his follow up posts, it looks as though the “expansion” will be coming out near the end of November but price and distribution information won’t be released until next week by the marketing folks.
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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.

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When one creates a character in EQ2, even for the sole purpose of tradeskilling, they must first select an Adventure class. There are a surprising number of characters out there which are max level Tradeskillers who have explored and completed every Tradeskill aspect EQ2 has to offer. Later on, they realize that they may have chosen their Adventure class hastily. These are not players who wish to respec their Adventure class and keep their AAs or quest discoveries (except Tradeskill-specific ones). Even though such a feature is intended for crafters, it would of course also be available to adventurers, but they must understand they would likely be reset to level 1 or 10, their completed and in-progress quests would be reset, and they would lose all AAs.

The request for Adventure Class Reset came up on the forums over a year ago, and the functionality actually briefly appeared on the Test server, with an NPC who could be hailed to instantly become an Inquisitor. This NPC was removed and since then, we haven’t heard much on the subject. Until today…

From Domino on the EQ2 Forums:

This hasn’t fallen off our radar, however we have a lot of big features for the upcoming expansion that do need to take priority. So as much as we’d like to, we can’t give you an exact date because this will depend on what other more urgent issues arise needing the attention of the team. We do still intend to make this happen, but it would be safest to say it won’t happen before the expansion. When we do have a better date estimate, we’ll make it known.

Game Update 61: “The War of Zek”
UPDATE NOTES

A GENERAL SUMMARY OF WHAT’S IN GAME UPDATE 61:

• All dungeon and overland loot items have been re-itemized. What does this mean? It means loot everywhere should be legitimate for the level it drops for, no matter where you go now. Go explore some nooks and crannies you haven’t seen for a long time and get off the Golden Path! The loot’s good again.
• The Velious saga continues as you journey past the Citadel of Drunder to the Plane of War itself in a new dungeon and raid, and a continuation of the Signature quest line.
• New dynamically-scaling dungeons have been added. These scale to your group between levels 60-90 and are designed as new single group heroic content that’s more re-playable. We’ll be watching your reactions to these initial two dungeon experiments and improving on these in the future!
• The new House Rating System lets you publish your house so other players can rate it, as well as adding house leaderboards, easy access to housing, and more! (And we increased House Ownership limits to 20, instead of 10!)
• If you ever wanted to show EQII to your friends, it’s now very easy. Push a button, record, and post your footage to YouTube with our new Video Capture system.
• The Eastern Wastes area in Velious now has a lot more overland content added to it (the new quests start at the Ry’Gorr keep).
• A big revamp of the class AA tree so that it’s easier to select the AAs you want, and adding more utility to the AAs that were weak previously.
• Many stats have been un-capped so that they have meaning as your characters progress. This doesn’t result in massive power increases, but it does let all stats continue to have meaning as you earn new items and power. Additional mechanics changes were made to increase power for many classes. (See below for things like spell auto-attack, flurry improvements, etc.)
• Tradeskillers now have their own AA tree to chase!
• And yes, Fae and Arasai now have a level 85 quest that can unlock their ability to FLY!

After the jump, the full detailed Game Update 61 “War of Zek” Notes…

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Niami Denmother has turned in an in-depth preview of Game Update 61, including new House Signs, Tiles, Dividers, Paintings, the new House Rating system, and Furniture. Don’t miss it!

Hot off the presses, er patcher, here are the Game Update 61: The War of Zek Update Notes from the Test Patcher. Game Update 61 is expected to reach the Live servers near the end of August.

Game Update 61: “The War of Zek”

PLANE OF WAR

The time is near for the great Fortress of Drunder to reveal its true purpose to all. The very bedrock of the Eastern Wastes shudders and rocks as a massive planar portal rips itself open within the fortress walls. The sounds of war echo through its halls as the God of War himself prepares his innumerable armies to march across the frozen face of Velious and seize control of the lands of Norrath for all eternity.

The Plane of War is a normal and challenge mode raid.

Elements of War is a normal and challenge mode heroic experience.

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Bunji dropped the news that Game Update 61 is hitting Test today:

We plan to push the current GU61 content to Test tomorrow morning.

GU61 (or most of it) is scheduled to hit Test around 7-8am PST tomorrow morning, 7/28.

What’s in Game Update 61?

• Dynamic Dungeon: Silent City [60~90]
• Dynamic Dungeon: Djinn Master’s Prism [60~90]
• Plane of War: heroic dungeon (normal and challenge)
• Plane of War: x4 raid (normal and challenge)
• Reitemize Level 20-90 dropped, quested, and crafted Items
• Alternate Advancement (AA) Revamp, especially Subclass (Monk, Templar, Paladin, etc.) tree.
• Tradeskill AAs [25 pts]
• House Rating System
• Dungeon Finder – Dungeons of any level, same-server only
• Fae/Arasai Flying
• New content in Eastern Wastes
• Beastlord Prelude Event for Good or Evil (Exile may choose one)
• Velious Signature Quest continues

The disclaimer above makes it clear that not all of Game Update 61 will be on Test today, but we’re anxious nonetheless. Read more about Game Update 61 in the Fan Faire EQ2 Panel.

Note: The Freeport Revamp, Tradeskill Apprentices, Item Reforging, Mercenaries, Design Your Own Dungeon, Beastlord Class, etc. are all part of the EverQuest II: Age of Discovery expansion to be released this November.

Niami Denmother has turned in another entertaining preview of this year’s Tinkerfest Event. More recipes, more quests, and more house items adorn this perennial favorite. Check out her writeup at EQ2Traders.

Tinkerfest 2011 runs July 29th through August 8th.

Here’s our third video from SOE Fan Faire 2011 “EverQuest II: Tradeskills and Housing”.

If you’d like to view the Slides from this panel in higher quality, check out the updated EQ2 Panel #3 – Tradeskills and Housing writeup. We’ll upload an HD version of this video soon.

Starting the EverQuest II: Freeport and Beyond panel…

Pre-panel Buzz: EQ2Players is being replaced with a new site. Sometime this year, it’s a priority, which it hasn’t been before.

Dave Georgeson starting the panel. There’s so much info, they’ll be giving that first and then Q&A at the end.

Update: This is a video of EverQuest II Panel #1 “Freeport and Beyond” added on July 14, 2011.

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Moonlight Enchantments is back, as it is every month on the 20th and 21st, but for June there are two interesting developments. First are 10 new items including house/guild placeable tiles which are rolling white, red, or blue clouds, a tile which looks exactly like a plowed garden, and tiles for fallen leaves and coolest of all, a tile of wooden shingles, perfect for those house breakouts when you want to make a clubhouse.

More importantly, there’s been a change to the Strong Brew Root Beer quest such that 1 character can repeat it indefinitely.

If you need 30-40 tiles, the idea of running multiple characters through each of the 5  Grottos throughout Norrath may be rather daunting. While each of the 5 grottos offer different types of quests and a variety of rewards, sometimes you just want to grind. Fortunately with the change to the Root Beer quest, if you want to just make barrels of root beer and get as many tokens as possible, now there is such an option!

Players who have explored the depths of Velious already know that crafters have a bigger role to play this expansion than in many years. In addition to saving players time and money, in Destiny of Velious, tradeskillers are integral to transforming raw materials looted in cellars, caves, and other dark places into the shiny new armament that players actually want.

Although most of this information has been posted on other websites, it hasn’t all been available in a single organized article, so that’s what I’ve set out to do here. We cover the biggest purveyors of armor and weapons in Velious — Thurgadin, Ry’Gorr, and Drunder — who via faction and crafter recipes offer a full selection of armor, jewelry, cloaks, charms, and weapons.

Crafters: Before going any further, if you haven’t already explored Niami Denmother’s EQ2Traders website, specifically her Special Armor guide, I highly suggest it. This article also owes its history to an article posted by Whilhelmina shortly after Velious launched.

On October 11, 2011, Primal Velium Shards were removed as a primary component from Thurgadin and Ry’Gorr armor. Also Drunder armor pieces now drop within Drunder zones. As a result, crafting Drunder armor is now optional and reserved for those with particularly bad luck. Fortunately for them, the materials used to make Drunder armor have been made much more prevalent. This guide has been updated to reflect these changes.

This is a multi-page article so please use the navigation below to select a section.

Jump To: Intro | Thurgadin Armor | Ry’Gorr Armor | Drunder Armor | Pattern Jewelry/Cloaks

Traduction française à EQ2Artisans

Slow Combines

We understand that the completion times on those extremely tedious combines for certain Velious quests will get trimmed back to a normal time. Currently, they take as long as Coldain Prayer Shawl updates (up to 3 minutes per combine!).

Dojo Prestige House Not Getting Outdoor Area

From Gninja on the EQ2 Forums:

There are no plans to add an outdoor area to the personal Dojo, Sorry!

Kael Drakkel Contested Changes Delight Some, Bore Others

Some players were very happy, overjoyed even, at some changes to Kael Drakkel contested dungeon which reduce or eliminate some frustrating stuns and knockbacks. Other players feel that the changes went too far, with players now able to solo the giants or at least do battle with barely a click from a well-geared healer. For players desparately needing gems from Kael, the changes will certainly speed up the process, but has the challenge been removed?

More Options for Guild Hall Standard Bearer

Now that even heroic dungeons require 100’s of Crit Chance and Crit Mitigation just to either fully hit, or fully avoid hits from mobs, players are looking at every way to boost these numbers. Players posted a thread requesting Crit Chance and Critical Mitigation buffs as options from the Standard Bearer Guild Hall Amenity.

Gninja gave some positive news:

I plan to be adding more standards to this amenity with GU61 so keep the ideas going

Today, arguably the largest Game Update we’ve seen in years hits the live servers. Game Update 60 adds 4 new dungeons, 4 new raid zones, more crafting, more quests from a solo shard quest to a Heritage Quest, major changes to PvP from gear to itemization to mechanics, not only a new Battlegrounds lobby, but a 4th Battleground 18 vs. 18.

We are still waiting for the full list of Game Update Notes, but in the meantime, here’s just a quick bullet point list of what we can expect:

New Level 90 Dungeons and Raid Zones

The Crystal Caverns will naturally be familiar to those who adventured through Velious in EQ1.

The Fortress of Drunder consists of 3 new group dungeons, 3 new x4 raid zones with both regular and challenge modes, a new x2 raid zone, as well as a crafting zone. Drunder zones are only accessible via flying mount.

• Drunder: Spire of Rage (group)
• Drunder: Strategist’s Stronghold (group)
• Drunder: Tower of Tactics (group)

• Drunder: Citadel of V’uul (x2 raid)
• Drunder: Sullon’s Spire (x4 raid)
• Drunder: Tallon’s Stronghold (x4 raid)

• Drunder: Vallon’s Tower (x4 raid)

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If you have been following the posts (and tweets) of Emily “Domino” Taylor, Tradeskill lead for EQ2, over the past few months, you’ve probably picked up on her increased involvement and interaction with the other parts of the EQ2 team. Today’s news that she has stepped up from Tradeskill Lead to Associate Producer then is not too surprising, as she has already produced and contributed to several live events and had a hand in creating increasingly elaborate content beyond that of Tradeskills.

Domino has quickly grown from creating new tiers of tradeskill content (for most tradeskill classes, a mostly copy-paste operation) to producing complex quests and designing entire events. We’ve seen the introduction of elaborate Heritage quests, the first ever Signature tradeskill quest (the Coldain Prayer Shawl), as well as Tradeskill Epics, and a large variety of content for tradeskillers, all while more than doubling the number of recipes available to Carpenters and other classes.

And all along, Domino has made a point of communicating with players moreso than many other developers, and rapidly correcting the numerous shortcomings and frustrations of the EQ2 tradeskill system as it existed when she took over. I think one could safely say that, with the exclusion of the actual “mechanics” of crafting (the dull 1-2-3-1-2-3 four second crafting cycle), Tradeskills are one of the most polished parts of EQ2.

So with today’s announcement that Domino will be taking more of a “big picture” vantage point on the EQ2 development process, who will pick up the Tradeskill banner? As it turns out, someone who is no stranger to the task: Paul “Frizznik” Carrico. I’m hopeful that with his background in game mechanics and content design, he’ll be able to lend a hand to continuing to shepherd tradeskills, while addressing some of the mechanical shortcomings of the actual crafting process (the aforementioned 4 second crafting cycle having proven to be a more effective sleep aid than Diprivan), as well as the niggling bugs and caps that have largely hampered the draw of Crafting and Harvesting skill buffs. As we saw last week, Frizznik has wasted no time and already put through some changes in Harvesting speeds for lower level characters.

After the break, the full announcement…

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Continuing last week’s news that Harvesting is being changed to have a faster speed, Frizznik has posted a new thread with a summary of the changes coming to Harvesting Tools:

The other thread was getting long, so I wanted to create a new one so folks could easily find the changes to them, and to let you know some new developments.

Woodworker made tools are changing.  There are no longer seperate tools for each harvesting type.  There is now one tool at each tier that gives harvest time reduction and double harvest chance.

• 20: Ash Harvesting Kit: 2% Double Harvest, .1 second reduction in all harvesting times.
• 30: Briarwood Harvesting Kit: 4% Double Harvest, .2 second reduction in all harvesting times.
• 40: Teak Harvesting Kit: 6% Double Harvest, .3 second reduction in all harvesting times.
• 50: Sandalwood Harvesting Kit: 8% Double Harvest, .4 second reduction in all harvesting times.
• 70: Redwood Harvesting Kit: 10% Double Harvest, .5 second reduction in all harvesting times.
• 80: Compact Redwood Harvesting Kit: 13% Double Harvest, .5 second reduction in all harvesting times.

If you have any of these tools, when you log on after this goes live, those tools will auto convert into the new Harvesting Kit.  Woodworkers now only have one recipe to make the Kits rather than skill specific tools.  The only writ to make tools was in the 70-79 range and I changed it to only ask for Kits rather than single tools.

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Frizznik is putting forth some changes to crafting in Game Update 60. Due to the loss of pristine bonuses when crafting new items that came with Velious, players have discovered a range of levels from 17-20 where there are no tradeskill quests to do, and XP has become a slow grind. So new tradeskill writs are being added from level 15-20 to resolve this issue.

Meanwhile, harvesting speed is getting a boost for low levels, with the base harvesting time dropping from 5 seconds to 3 seconds. If you’re concerned that harvesting will be too fast at high levels, have no fear. Deity buffs, racial traits, tinkered tools, and crafted tools are all being nerfed adjusted to make sure the maximum harvesting speed is still around 2 seconds.

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Fastidious crafters took advantage of yesterday’s update and trundled back to the daily Tradeskill Group instances for a chance to loot one of the two volumes of the new Far Seas Strategic Pricing 3rd Edition. As with past editions, these recipe books allow crafters to create shard armor and jewelry for players with a reduced number of tokens/shards. Interestingly, neither players nor crafters must have faction with the Ry’Gorr to make or receive this armor or jewelry. They do however require the designated dungeon-dropped crystals.

With yesterday’s Test Update Notes, we found out that the current Velious shard armor will be dropping from 70 to 52 Primal Velium Shards per piece.

However it seems the recipe book to craft shard armor has been partially updated to reflect the new shard prices. Assassins, Berserkers, Brigands, Bruisers, Coercers, and Conjurors (all classes starting with A, B, or C) are asked to pony up 63 shards per piece, while all other classes pay 40 shards per piece. Nindaene, the player who brought up this issue, also noticed that crafted armor has more mitigation than Ry’Gorr purchased armor.

Domino posted on the issue:

As you may have noticed from the Test server update notes today, we are in the process of lowering the shard costs of the armor. However, it looks like some of the recipes were pushed live with a lower cost than they should have been set to yet. So yes, these prices are an error and will likely change again as we are still in the process of adjusting the prices based on feedback. We’ll get that corrected as soon as possible (hopefully Thursday) but in the mean time it might be safest to hold off on crafting the items, since the final shard cost is not yet finalized. Apologies for the error, and thanks for pointing it out!

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If you are a level 80+ Master Crafter who has completed the Tradeskill Epic, this post by Domino may interest you:

Epic crafters, you might want to visit the tradeskill society in your home town while Bristlebane Day is with us. The grand jester has been having some fun with red collectibles for the season…

Players immediately noticed that every red shiny was dropping just one item. It seems there’s something else you have to do to get the others.

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In the run up towards Game Update 60, there are several things of note regarding Player Housing and Graphics that we’ve been meaning to cover. These include House Item Limit Expanders, Prestige Houses, the Network Status Page, and also a tip of the hat to Ryan “Imago-Quem” F. who has moved on to PlanetSide 2 and incoming graphics guru Alex “GermInUSA” who continues to polish up the EQ2 graphics engine while adding new features.

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Are you a dedicated decorator that likes to play with house layouts?  If so, check out Gracey’s course in EQ2 Layout Editor being held this Thursday, March 17, on the Test server:

This Week’s Topic:  New to the layout editor?  We can help!!

Time:   THURSDAY @ 5pm PST, 8pm EST, (Friday @ 01:00 GMT)

Where:  Test Copy server – Gracey’s 1 Room Gorowyn house

What to bring:  yourself and maybe some paper and a pen for notes

What level do I need to be:  You can make a level 1 char on Test Copy if you don’t already have a char copied over.

Chat:  If you come to Gracey’s house or let us know in either Antonia_Bayle.Homeshow or Test.Test we will get you a guild invite and we are using Norrathian Decorator Academy guild for chatting. Sending a tell to me around class time will get you an invite into the guild as well.

Fun stuff to come:  Tiling displays are set up in the guild hall to help you work through some of the most common problems – it’s in Halas if you would like to visit.

Reports on previous classes have been very positive.   Beginners are welcome! For instructions on how to access the Test server,  see page two of the original thread.  For an introduction to the EQ2 Layout Editor,  EQ2 Designers.com has a good tutorial.

Tradeskillers who selected the Frost Gryphon, rather than the Boreal Gryphon, as their level 85+ tradeskill flying mount are experiencing an issue after today’s Game Update. Namely, the Frost Gryphon seems to have been flagged Guide-only. It’s not immediately obvious in the following screen shot, but we have confirmed this. Domino is aware of the issue and hopefully we’ll get a fix ASAP.

This is being discussed on the EQ2 Forums.