Kelethin City Festival Returns (February 1-7)

Written by Cyliena on . Posted in EQ2, Live Events

city_festival_kelethin
Set your sights on Greater Faydark because the Kelethin City Festival returns from February 1-7! Spend City Tokens on local specialties, generic festival goods, and more. Make sure all your characters have finished the Kelethin Postage Collection, speak to Kella Swampfoot to assist with festival quests, and achieve 94 seconds or less in the local Aether Race to earn the Bixie Barnstormer title.

WHEN: 12:01am PT on February 1st – 11:59pm PT on February 7th
WHERE: Greater Faydark, Green Knoll, /way 536, 44, 53
QUESTS: Special Delivery, Special Order Crafting, Special Order Gathering
ACHIEVEMENTS: Delivery Ahoy, Harvesting Hoopla, Kella Caffeinated, Requisition Acclamation
MERCHANT ITEMS: EQ2 Traders | EQ2 Furniture

   

Update Notes: Tuesday January 31, 2017

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization

US Servers: 7:00~9:00am PST | 10:00am~Noon EST | 15:00~17:00 GMT | 16:00~18:00 CET
EU Servers: 9:00~11:00pm PST | Midnight~2:00am EST | 05:00~07:00 GMT | 06:00~08:00 CET

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Lost City of Torsis: Reaver’s Remnants[Challenge Heroic]

  • Neh’Ashiir has had her max health reduced.

Monolith Of Wrahzul

  • Reduced the control immunity on Fathad Zastim.

ABILITIES / ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT

  • Spell Weapon Damage Bonus and Weapon Damage Bonus have been consolidated into one stat, Weapon Damage Bonus.
  • Corrected an issue with Glacial Freeze that would cause the targets to heal after returning to their natural level.
  • Pass Judgement will now correctly grant a Fervor component to Heretic’s Destruction instead of Fervor Overcap.
  • Targets of Oration of Sacrifice may now trigger Fierce Combat for the entire duration of the effect at a maximum of once per 1.5 seconds.
  • Unfetter will now correctly remove the stealth component to Hidden Assault.
  • Corrected an issue with Shadow Trickery’s fervor effect not applying correctly. Added the amount of fervor increased to the examine of Shadow Trickery.

Surprise Afternoon Update Notes: Thursday January 26, 2017 — 2-4pm PST, 5-7pm EST

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization

tom-baker-doctorwho

Update: EQ2 US servers are back online.

From the EQ2 Forums:

All US EverQuest II Servers will be brought offline on Wednesday, January 26th, 2017 at 2:00PM PT (10 PM UTC) for an update. Estimated downtime could be up to 4 hours.

All EU servers will come offline at 9:00 PM PT (5 AM UTC January 27th) for this update. Downtime is anticipated to be approximately 2 hours.

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
General

  • Ikile Harmonia <Tradeskill Tutorial> and Ralika Mekkila <Crafting Trainer> in Kelethin should no longer fall to the forest floor.
  • Lama Mukhlisah in The Stonebrunt Highlands should no longer fall through the floor.
  • Proctor Talnisk <Representative of Dominus Rile> in Fens of Nathsar should no longer fall through the floor.
  • Monsters and Bosses in Kunark Ascending dungeons all now see stealth and invis.

ITEMS

  • Brought the [eq2u]Ring of Pursuing Sagas[/eq2u] and [eq2u]Band of Pursuing Sagas[/eq2u] into the correct item progression.
  • [eq2u]Gossamer Blade[/eq2u] and the [eq2u]Blade of the Naya’Patel[/eq2u] will now accept cyan adornments.
  • Corrected the stats and effect on Gossamer Blade.
  • Removed the 2 extra resolve and predicated effects that were added to the wrong tier of some raid armor.

QUESTS

  • Nonsense is Better Than no Sense at All – Certain elements of the coin quest now require the completion of specific quests to pick up the coins.
  • Awakening Bonds: …Is Whole Again – Corrected an issue that prevented the seeress from fully updating the quest for some players.

Plus whatever emergency glitch/exploit needed to be patched in such a hurry.

Update Notes: Tuesday January 24, 2017

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization, Raiding, TLE/Prestige Servers

US Servers: 7:00~9:00am PST | 10:00am~Noon EST | 15:00~17:00 GMT | 16:00~18:00 CET
EU Servers: 9:00~11:00pm PST | Midnight~2:00am EST | 05:00~07:00 GMT | 06:00~08:00 CET

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Vaedenmoor: Realm of Despair [Raid]

  • High end difficulty encounters have had their “Panic” mechanic made a bit more lenient toward the beginning of the encounter.
  • Vhaksiz the Shade has had his health adjusted.

Ruins of Kaesora: Ancient Xalgozian Temple [Raid]

  • Xalgoz has had his health adjusted.
  • Xalgoz’s Staff of Control should now correctly be able to be used on Xagloz but is still not a required item to defeat his encounter.
  • The Strathbone Runelord should no longer remain immune to damage at low health for an extended amount of time.

Moonlight Enchantments Return (20th-21st)

Written by Cyliena on . Posted in EQ2, Live Events

Moonlight Enchantments Banner
The monthly Moonlight Enchantments event begins tonight! The grottos open up on the 20th at 12:01am PT and close on the 21st at 11:59pm PT. The time applies directly with no conversion for all servers.

Grotto Zone & Location Collection Quest(s)
Brownie Darklight Wood
/way 14, -32, -238
Tree Bark Festive Flowers
Strong Brew Root Beer
Zygomyd Nektulos Forest
/way -363, 0.42, -682
Mushroom Spores Earthly Tasks
Comforting Confections
Naiad Enchanted Lands
/way -278, 5, 18
Naiad Scales Naiad Aid
Dryad Antonica
/way -696, -4, 621
Dryad Leaves Pollution Problem
Fay Greater Faydark
/way -132, -44, -771
Flower Petals Seasonal Blooms
Blooming Good Tea

Achievement: Shinies Beneath the Moonlight
Merchant Items: See on EQ2 Furniture | EQ2 Traders Corner | EQ2 Design Gallery

Update Notes: Thursday January 19, 2017

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, Itemization, TLE/Prestige Servers

Downtime notice from the EQ2 Forums:

All EverQuest II Servers will be brought offline on Thursday, January 19th, 2016 at 7:00AM PT (3 PM UTC) for an update. Estimated downtime is approximately two hours.

The EU EverQuest II Server will be brought offline on Thursday, January 19th, 2016 at 9:00PM PT for an update (Approx. 5:00 AM UTC January 20th). Estimated downtime is two hours.

UPDATE: Due to the occasional typo in past downtime announcements, we assumed that the notification above was a mistake and that US servers would come down at 7am PST while EU servers would come down at 9pm PST. We were wrong. All servers came down in the morning and no further update is required.

From the EQ2 Forums:

ABILITIES / ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT

  • Fixed an issue with Ethershadow Assassin that was granting it two points of base damage per point of power spent.
  • Smoothed out the curve for obtaining Fabled and Mythical critical hits when crit chance is over 1000.
  • Spiritual Leadership may no longer critically apply.
  • Increased the base ward amount of Spiritual Leadership.

TRADESKILLS

  • The recipe for Blocker’s Bauble will now return the correct product.

Commentary: Are Epic 2.0 Quests Burying Players in Prerequisites?

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Itemization

buried_alive_kill_bill

The original Epic Weapon quests introduced in 2009 were crafted by 18 designers working on nothing else for 3 months. All 24 quests required the completion of prior Heritage quests, befriending various Factions, and a fair share of “filler” content. It was expected, or certainly anticipated that the Epic Weapon 2.0 Quests would have similar prerequisites. However nothing could have prepared increasingly jaded players for the mountain of homework which has dropped into their laps as the curtain has been pulled back on Epic 2.0.

Only two characters have reached Ascension Level 8 at publication time, so we have yet to glimpse Parts 4 and 5 of these quests, yet even lifelong EQ2 fans are already begging for mercy. With the vague dialogue and inscrutable clues that only make sense in hindsight, players are at their wit’s end hailing NPCs by the thousands in a scattershot zone-by-zone grid search to figure out where to go next.

EQ2U Introduces Ascension and Item Compare, Plus a Word on Autoattack Stats

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, EQ2 Data & EQ2U

For level 100 characters who complete the Signature quest line, the Kunark Ascending expansion introduces four new Ascension classes of Elementalist, Etherealist, Geomancer, and Thaumaturgist. These new “classes” are not tied to your current class, and with enough patience, you can eventually level all four of them up to Ascension level 10. Ascension also grants powerful new spells/abilities which can be upgraded through Crafting, Research, or by spending Daybreak Cash.

We are happy to announce that EQ2U has gained an Ascension tab to let you chart your character’s progress on gaining Ascension levels and abilities.

eq2u_ascension_article

Missing Character Graphics, 1 FPS Frame Rate After Today’s Patch

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance

invisible_man

We are monitoring a situation where some players who use the streaming client are experiencing non-rendering (invisible) Character and NPCs and extreme rendering lag after today’s update. Others cannot even zone their character into the game, getting stuck with a “Loading UI Resources” error. There’s a discussion on the EQ2 Forums. The developers are aware of this issue and investigating.

UPDATE from Discord as of 8:45am PST:

We’ve got a process running that should correct the issue with the bad data being on some of the patchers, may take about an hour.

In-Game Update from Gninja:

If you are having issues with extreme lag and art not loading please logout and rerun patcher and check the Full Download on the Select Game Version screen. Then Validate Game Assets. We are looking into it still though. We are running a process that should correct the missing data on some of the patch servers. It may take about an hour to fully run.

Update as of 1:00pm PST: Buffs are crashing zones. The more buffs, the more crashes. Public Quests and Raids are basically impossible right now. Servers will come down later today to fix this issue.

Update Notes: Thursday January 12, 2017

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

US Servers: 7:00~9:00am PST | 10:00am~Noon EST | 15:00~17:00 GMT | 16:00~18:00 CET
EU Servers: 7:00~9:00am PST | 10:00am~Noon EST | 15:00~17:00 GMT | 16:00~18:00 CET

Additionally…

Accounts and Purchases will be unavailable beginning at 4 AM PT (Noon UTC) for approximately 2 hours.
PST: 4:00am – 6:00am
EST: 7:00am – 9:00am
GMT: 12:00 – 14:00
CET: 13:00 – 15:00

From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL
Fixed an issue where client updates for Beastlords would be sent way too frequently.

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
General

  • Shady Swashbuckler XVIII – Now offers The Shield of the Magi, for those who have completed “Koada’dal Magi’s Craft”.
  • Several Heroic bosses have had issues with spawning more adds than was intended. These should now properly spawn the correct number of adds more reliably.

Poll Results: The Shadow Odyssey Unlocks on Stormhold (TLE) January 12th

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, TLE/Prestige Servers

eq2-logo-the-shadow-odyssey-white

From RadarX on the EQ2 Forums:

The vote is complete and 64% of the server voted to unlock the next expansion, The Shadow Odyssey. This content is scheduled to unlock on January 12th.

It seems this vote got a little help as the original rules indicate the vote shall be a supermajority of 2/3 or 66%.

Players will have the option to vote to unlock content every 30-days. The voting period will last a week, and it will take a majority vote of 2/3 (or more) of the server votes to unlock the next expansion.

The time-locked Stormhold server received the Rise of Kunark expansion in August 2016. Despite initial paranoia that the Race to Trakanon server would leapfrog it, Stormhold soundly beat Kunark content weeks before this was done on the race server. The first vote to unlock The Shadow Odyssey in October failed to pass. Now after five months, it looks like we can Avoid the Noid Void no longer.

Closing the Book on EverQuest Next and Landmark

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Commentary

eqnext_georgeson

In a eulogy, it is customary to say positive things about the deceased. Now where to begin…

I played Landmark in Alpha and quite enjoyed what depth it had in the progression of harvesting nodes, huge array of crafting materials, compounding recipes, and choice of crafting tables. And I was blown away by what players were able to create. Inside of just a few days, players discovered bugs (unintended features?) with the engine that allowed the partial removal of voxels which allowed for incredible designs and nearly photorealistic structures to be created. While there wasn’t a whole lot of “game” per se, what was there had enough complexity to hold my interest. I had a genuine desire to level up my harvesting tools and get access to better recipes and spent hours harvesting and exploring the world.

   

Update Notes: Thursday January 5, 2016 — No Longer Hammer Time

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization, Raiding

 Servers: 7:00~9:00am PST | 10:00am~Noon EST | 15:00~17:00 GMT | 16:00~18:00 CET
The downtime ran an additional hour and there was a tweet advising us about it.

A bunch of Update Notes, but the one you’ll probably be hearing the most about appears, at first glance, to rein in the incredible power of items such as Ethereal Onslaught, Ethereal ConduitIre-Dread (the hammer), Spine of Ancient Terror, Spine of the Deep One, which can Reset the Reuse of some or all of a character’s abilities sometimes several times a minute. This effect has been the subject of much debate on the forums for the last year and a half.

From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL

  • Added Resolve as a searchable stat on the broker.
  • Fixed a bug where switching your warder in the warder UI would not update the abilities displayed.
  • Fixed an issue where tool-tip information would not display correctly on some Deity abilities above rank 12.

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
General

  • Adds for Captain Vhankmin and Tabor’Zaai should now despawn when the encounter is defeated.

Companywide Outage Affecting Daybreak Games

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2

kid-computer

For about 3 hours, there has been an outage affecting Daybreak Games and specifically EverQuest II logins, Forums, Websites, etc. It was such a complete outage that websites could not be loaded at all. We’ve now received confirmation that it was indeed a DDoS attack.


Games and websites do seem to be functional again for many players, although some continue to experience issues as Daybreak closes off different windows of attack.

Gorowyn City Festival Returns (January 1-7)

Written by Cyliena on . Posted in EQ2, Live Events

city_festival_gorowynRing in the new year and come visit the shores in Timorous Deep for the Gorowyn City Festival, returning January 1-7! Spend City Tokens on local specialties, generic festival goods, appearance clothing, or food & drink. Make sure all your characters have finished the Gorowyn Postage Collection, speak to Kella Swampfoot to assist with festival quests, and achieve 244 seconds or less in the local Aether Race to earn the Wind Warden title.

WHEN: 12:01am PT on January 1st – 11:59pm PT on January 7th
WHERE: Timorous Deep, on the dock, /way 2339, 80, 1441 (the merchants are found at /way 2388, 21, 1349)
QUESTS: Special Delivery, Special Order Crafting, Special Order Gathering
ACHIEVEMENTS: Delivery Ahoy, Harvesting Hoopla, Kella Caffeinated, Requisition Acclamation
MERCHANT ITEMS: EQ2 Traders | EQ2 Furniture

40% Off Marketplace, and Double XP & Status

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Live Events

From EverQuest2.com and also sent by e-mail:

Have we got a New Year’s surprise for you!

To wrap up 2016 and start 2017 off with a bang, we’re having a HUGE sale in the EverQuest 2 Marketplace!

Beginning today and running through Tuesday, January 3 @ 11:59AM PST (~NOON), the Marketplace discount for All Access Members will be increased to 40% off.

doublexp-2017-jan3

That’s 40% off many of your favorite items* – including the newest Frostfell additions! What has been missing from your collection that you just can’t wait to add? Now’s the time to get it!

December 2016 – EQ2 Producer’s Letter

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2

NOTE: Contains no EQ2 content.

From the EQ2 Forums:

Greetings Norrathians!

DING! Another year has slipped by like a roguish Gigglegibber. Santa Glug is up to his old tricks and it’s time to usher in another new year!

This past year was a whirlwind with GU100 in Spring, live events, weekly live and Stormhold updates, new Isle of Refuge and Race to Trakanon servers, and, of course, the Kunark Ascending expansion. Whew!

And we are ready to keep on keepin’ on! We are well into our planning for 2017 and have some exciting plans, including a very cool concept for our next expansion that we are running through now. Big plans for Norrath!

The Race to Trakanon server was our first experiment with an event server and we are looking at options for what we may do in the coming year.

Update Notes: Tuesday December 20, 2016

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, TLE/Prestige Servers

US Servers: 7:00~9:00am PST | 10:00am~Noon EST | 15:00~17:00 GMT | 16:00~18:00 CET
EU Servers: 9:00~11:00pm PST | Midnight~2:00am EST | 05:00~07:00 GMT | 06:00~08:00 CET

From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL

  • Values for current and max character Health and Power are now on separate lines in the character UI to better fit the values.
  • Time-Locked Servers: Corrected an issue with players not being able to fill out the Shadow Odyssey expansion unlock poll.

Turbine Spins Off LOTRO, DDO to New Studio, Daybreak to Publish

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Commentary

NOTE: No EverQuest II content.

lotro_ddo

Turbine has announced today that Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) and Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO) are being spun off to Boston, MA-based Standing Stone Games. As part of the announcement, we’ve learned that the two Free-to-Play games will fall under the publication of Daybreak Games. It is unclear if the two new titles will become part of Daybreak’s confusingly titled “All Access” program which includes EverQuest, EverQuest II, PlanetSide 2, and DC Universe Online, but excludes H1Z1:KotK, H1Z1: JS, and Landmark.

Here’s Turbine’s announcement:

Greetings,

Today we have some momentous news! The game teams responsible for The Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) and Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO) are now moving from Turbine to Standing Stone Games, a newly formed indie game studio. In addition, we’ve partnered with Daybreak Games to provide global publishing services. They’ve had a long, successful history developing and publishing MMOs, and we’re happy to lean on their expertise.

With the announcement out of the way, I wanted to talk to you about what all this means.

Introducing the EQ2Wire Forums

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2

eq2wire_forums_promo

After much consideration and consultation with players in the EQ2 community, I have decided to launch forums for EQ2Wire and our EQ2U Players site.

Player research and sleuthing has already begun for the Epic Weapon 2.0 quests, and now more than ever, a place is needed to discuss and document Combat Mechanics and Itemization strategies, while sharing Class builds and other knowledge. I also want a place to discuss the incredible Data API (Census) which Daybreak Games offers to players that makes sites like EQ2U possible. I want a place that EQ2 players really feel like they’re at home, comfortable to customize their forum profile with custom avatars, signatures, and more. This will be a community run By Players For Players.

Even if you have an EQ2U account, you will need to Register a new account on the EQ2Wire forums. I do suggest people use the same e-mail address used for your EQ2U account just for ease of identification and possible badges and extra features later on.

All users of the forum are expected to read and comply with the Forum Rules. This is not anarchy.

Also I have had a conversation with RadarX about this. I’m allowed (encouraged?) to promote my forums and my fan sites (EQ2U, EQ2Wire) through this announcement, my own Signature, etc. However he will be deleting thread replies such as “Let’s move this conversation to the EQ2Wire Forums” as that is thread derailment. If a useful discussion happens to be on my site, then someone can link it here within reason. I do appreciate that Daybreak is not taking an adversarial position on my launching of these forums.

Register for the EQ2Wire Forums!

Update Notes: Thursday December 15, 2016

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

US Servers: 7:00~9:00am PST | 10:00am~Noon EST | 15:00~17:00 GMT | 16:00~18:00 CET
EU Servers: 9:00~11:00pm PST | Midnight~2:00am EST | 05:00~07:00 GMT | 06:00~08:00 CET

From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL
Fixed an issue where summoning a merc when using a custom UI that did not have the new merc equipment page would cause a client crash.

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Lost City of Torsis: Ashiirian Court [Raid]

  • The first earned revive location should no longer revive players in the wall.

PUBLIC QUESTS

  • The Danak messenger now rides a less stampeding rhino.
  • Missions tied to “Shade of the First Brood,” “Battlement Bound,” and “Long Live the Emperor!” should now update when their public quest rewards are accepted.
  • “Shades of the First Brood” and “Battlement Bound” will now respawn properly.

LIVE EVENTS
This year’s new Frostfell quest “Little Lost Goblin” is now available as intended to all players, regardless of which expansions they own.

QUESTS
Remnants of the Past [Challenge Heroic] will now update on the correct boss kills.


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