While we do not receive official “loot table” data from Daybreak Games to see which items drop from which enemies in which zones, we have been able to crowdsource this information using Dedith’s Dragon’s Armory Tracker plugin. Those who are running this plugin are helping to populate EQ2U’s Loot Database!

If you setup this plugin a while ago, it’s possible it may not be setup correctly. I suggest anyone who runs Advanced Combat Tracker to go ahead and follow the instructions at the following link to install or update your plugin and make sure your settings in EQ2 and the plugin are up-to-date!

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

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
General

• Fixed a bug that could cause some overland zones and popular dungeons to crash.

Vaedenmoor: Realm of Despair [Raid]

• Raenha, Sister of Remorse should now allow a little extra time to defeat her.

ASCENSION
Adjusted the minimum time required to gain ascension levels to account for the four extra scrolls granted to all characters.

After years of watching players race through content and levels within hours of expansions launching, the EQ2 devs clearly wanted something different this time around. With Kunark Ascending, a new Ascension subclass system was put in place. Most important, gaining Levels in the new Ascension system strictly time-limited. The design ensures that no player will hit Ascension Level 5 until December 13th, one month after the expansion launched. It was designed so that even if a player somehow did find a way around the rules, a failsafe was put in place to prevent progression before the aforementioned date.

After complaints about fairness and glitches in filling Ascension XP scrolls, a new hybrid Ascension XP system was rolled out on December 6th. With the updated system, half of your daily Ascension XP pool comes from Ascension scrolls, while the other half just comes from waiting patiently, sort of how Vitality works. Also, in a “make right” for the glitches people experienced, players were mailed four Ascension XP scrolls. The new system is sufficiently complex that an Ascension Frequently Asked Questions seems essential to navigate all the details.

We’re happy to report that Ablivion’s invaluable EQ2Library site has received some updates for the new Kunark Ascending expansion. For the past few expansions, his site has contained detailed strategies for Heroic zones, Gear recommendations, selected Loot information for popular zones, and more. For Kunark Ascending, he’s already started working on documenting the Overland Achievements, Collections, Timed Treasure Hunt quests, the Ascension system, Tradeskills, Consumables, Merc Gear & Leveling, Adornments, and much much more.

In light of the issues with the Kunark Ascending Signature Quest Reward “Dread’s Vision of Greenmist” being NO ZONE and with existing Ascension XP scrolls having their XP amounts cut in half, there is an unscheduled downtime happening in just a few minutes…

All US servers will come offline for unscheduled maintenance shortly. Downtime is anticipated to be less than 2 hours but we will provide updates should they become necessary.

People keep asking about a rollback. There should be no need for a rollback to restore people’s missing Greenmist weapons or the infusing and adornments which have been applied to them.

Update notes:

ITEMS

• Corrected the issue with Dread’s Visage of Greenmist being marked no-zone.
• Smoothed out the potency progression of raid accessories.

ASCENSION

• All old ascension scrolls have been reverted back to granting 1,000,000 Guided Ascension xp, new scrolls from the masters grant 500,000.

With this morning’s patch, one of the two powerful new level 100 Greenmist weapons rewarded for completing the Kunark Ascending Signature Quest was accidentally flagged NO-ZONE:

• Dread’s Visage of Greenmist — now flagged NO ZONE
• Fear’s Visage of Greenmist

As a result, players are losing the weapon as well as impossible-to-replace Ethereal adornments earned over this summer’s Ethereal event. Take heart though — According to Gninja in the Discord chat, this was not intended and will be fixed ASAP:

We will get you your lost greenmists back and adornments. We have logs of all that stuff. Caith is taking care of it as quickly as he can.

Ascension XP

Meanwhile, players who have been stockpiling Ascension XP scrolls — waiting for bugs to be fixed in the current Ascension XP system — got a surprise this morning. Stockpiled scrolls had their XP capacity cut in half from 1 million XP to 500k XP. Overall the new Ascension system rolled out today seems to be a winner, as it is a hybrid of daily scrolls (which now hold up to 500k; 600k if you are All Access) and a Vitality-like system which works out to 480k per day (20k per hour). Do the math and a fastidious player can now earn 1,080,000 Ascension XP per day, slightly more than before.

The problem is all those  people who had been stockpiling Ascension XP scrolls. If you saved 12 scrolls up to this point, they just dropped in value from 12 million Ascension XP to 6 million. The 4 bonus scrolls granted in today’s update don’t really make up for that shortfall. It’s puzzling as to why the existing scrolls weren’t left alone while new scrolls were added.

NOTE: The original 1 million Ascension XP scrolls are going to be reverted and new 500k scrolls are being added to the merchants.

From the EQ2 Forums:

CENSUS

• Fixed a bug where characters who had wardrobe items would not export properly to census.

ASCENSION EXPERIENCE

• The method for gaining available ascension experience has changed! Based on feedback, you now gain available ascension experience similar to how vitality is gained, about 20,000 per hour online or offline. Additionally, you can acquire items that further increase that amount instantly, up to a maximum of 7,000,000. Members get a 20% bonus to all guided ascension experience earned, the guild buff for level 200+ guilds grants a 10% bonus and you get a 100% bonus for each ascension class of level 10.
• Guided Ascension scrolls now directly modify the amount of guided ascension experience the character has available.
• All characters that have at least one level of ascension have been granted four Guided Ascension scrolls to address the loss of Guided Ascension experience some characters experienced with the spell buffs.

Two days ahead of schedule, Frostfell seems to be going live tomorrow morning after the patch. From Kaitheel on the EQ2 Forums:

Due to scheduling issues Frostfell is now going to be activated on Tuesday, Dec. 6, instead of Thursday Dec. 8 on the live servers, which means everyone will have two more days to enjoy it!

From Kaitheel on the EQ2 Forums:

Join us in celebrating this Deepice holiday! Whether you are an adventurer or tradeskiller you’ll find something new awaits you! Step through the Magic Closet within your city to enter the Frostfell Wonderland Village, an enchanting land of ice and adventure! From there you are welcome to visit the Frostfell Workshop, where Meg Gingersnap, a Frostfell elf is looking for some assistance. Don’t forget to log in each day and claim your extra-special Frostfell present from Santa Glug!

New Features for ’16!

I am happy to report that EQ2 Census is now correctly exporting most EQ2 characters and thus you are once again able to enjoy sites like EQ2UPlayers and Dragon’s Armory to lookup your EQ2 characters. Not every character is exporting however — If your character has made use of the new Wardrobe feature with more than one Head, Shoulder, Primary, etc. wardrobe slot filled, your character won’t update until Tuesday’s patch.

If you are really curious, the data EQ2 was trying to publish to the Census server wasn’t formatted in the exact perfect way it had to be. Anyone who has ever worked with XML can tell you how persnickety it can be about containers. While we’re not exactly thrilled that we were down for 15 days, we appreciate that this happened while the EQ2 team was adding new stuff for us, specifically Ascension info, Mount info, Wardrobe info, and more information about Collections.

Thanks everyone for your patience!

 Servers: 7:00~10:00am PST | 10:00am~1:00pmEST | 15:00~18:00 GMT | 16:00~19:00 CET

Servers were up after 1 hour 8 minutes. Woot!

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Obulus Frontier

• The shadeweave bud will no longer lock to the first person that starts to harvest.

Lost City of Torsis: The Spectral Market [Heroic]

• The Algae Fiend should no longer target pets with his curse.

Vaedenmoor: Realm of Despair [Raid]

• Raenha, Sister of Remorse should no longer cause the zone to crash.
• Raenha, Sister of Remorse will now reset her health triggers if the script is failed.

MERCENARIES
Fixed a rare case where gear would no longer load on a mercenary. Items in this state will be reimbursed to the character’s overflow upon login.

ABILITIES / ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT
Corrected an issue with pets not benefiting from resolve class buffs.

ITEMS
Corrected an issue that caused wands to have a minimum range.

Button up that winter coat – the New Halas City Festival returns from December 1-7! Spend City Tokens on local specialties, generic festival goods, appearance clothing, or food & drink. Make sure all your characters have finished the New Halas Postage Collection, speak to Kella Swampfoot to assist with festival quests, and achieve 104 seconds or less in the local Aether Race to earn the Snowflake Chaser title.

WHEN: 12:01am PT on December 1st – 11:59pm PT on December 7th
WHERE: Frostfang Sea, near the Cairn of the Huntress, /way 26, 148, -82 (Kella is found at /way 99, 151, -135)
QUESTS: Special Delivery, Special Order Crafting, Special Order Gathering
ACHIEVEMENTS: Delivery Ahoy, Harvesting Hoopla, Kella Caffeinated, Requisition Acclamation
MERCHANT ITEMS: EQ2 Traders | EQ2 Furniture

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

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Lost City of Torsis: The Spectral Market [Heroic]

• Adds in the Merchant Caniz encounter should respawn slightly slower.

Crypt of Dalnir: Baron’s Workshop [Heroic and Solo]

• Placing the Main Valve Lever and pulling it to open the slime grate will no longer cause smaller races to be stuck with a MAIN VALVE LEVER IN THEIR HEADS.

Kaesora: Xalgozian Stronghold

• Colonel Gozier should no longer port you out of the world.

Lost City of Torsis: Ashiirian Court [Raid]

• Lord Ghiosk will now be guarding the library once again.

For the last two weeks, players have been hard at work on the unforgiving Kunark Ascending quests, solo zones, and dungeons. Much of it has gone smoothly, but there are always issues, and with EQ2’s expansions coinciding with the American harvest celebration of Thanksgiving, the fixes seem to arrive at a Tryptophan-addled pace. Here are some issues we’re monitoring which will hopefully see patches tomorrow and possibly Thursday…

Census Updates

Over the last 5 years, Census — the public data API which makes sites like EQ2U and Dragon’s Armory possible — has been incredibly reliable, with only about 3 days worth of total downtime that I can recall. As time permits, the EQ2 team have also managed to keep pace with new functionality and adding new data to the service as needed to support Game Updates and new Expansions. However for Kunark Ascending, something went wrong. One of the most oft-requested Census features is the ability to track Character progress on completing shiny Collections. An unknown glitch with the new code that would have provided us with Collection data ended up blocking updates of every EQ2 characters who has even 1 collection complete. Basically we are dead in the water until a fix comes. Once the fix comes, we should be able to add significantly more data to EQ2U!

There’s a black Friday sale. Info here:

https://www.everquest2.com/news/eq2-shady-swashbuckler-black-friday-sale-2016

From the EQ2 Forums:

Status: 11/22/2016 15:59 PST – US servers will be coming down at 4:15PM PST for a brief maintenance.

And Twitter:

All US EverQuest 2 servers will come down at 4:15 PM PT for an unscheduled maintenance. Downtime is anticipated to be approximately 1 hour.

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Lost City of Torsis: Reaver’s Remnants [All Versions]

• You should no longer be able to kill the Spirit Flames in the Tzirathk encounter.

Kaesora: Tomb of the Venerated [Advanced Solo]

• Icicle Storm no longer reduces potency.

From the EQ2 Forums:

Hey all,

Don’t miss your last chance to finish up special rewards from The Race to Trakanon Event Server. This server is scheduled to close in January 2017.

Transfer tokens will go out to players on The Race to Trakanon server on Thursday, December 1 at (or around) noon PST. Players on this server can use this token to transfer to a server of their choice. If you do NOT use your transfer token before the server closes, your character will be moved to Stormhold.

It’s now a week AFTER the release of Kunark Ascending and Marketing needs to justify their existence, so they’re holding a contest! From the EQ2 Forums:

We’re excited to be celebrating the launch of Kunark Ascending! To add to the festivities, we want to give YOU a chance to win some great prizes!

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.

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

All Servers: 6:00~7:00pm PST | 9:00~10:00pm EST | 14:00~15:00 GMT | 15:00~16:00 CET

From the EQ2 Forums:

All servers will come down at 3 PM PT (11 PM UTC) for a brief update to address an outstanding issue. Downtime is anticipated to be approximately 1 hour.

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

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Obulus Frontier

• Sarnak Infiltrators are no longer quite as hearty.
• Players who have not completed “Kunark Ascending: Opportunity ‘Noks” will now evac inside the Crusaders’ Cave.
• Banker, broker, collector, and other service NPCs in the Greenmist Crusader caves no longer require you to speak sathirian.

From the EverQuest II YouTube:

The Kunark Ascending expansion is now live!

Welcome to Kunark Ascending from #EQ2! Servers are now unlocked!

— Holly Longdale (@TheWindstalker) November 15, 2016

Have any questions for the developers?

Table of Contents

• So what’s new in the Kunark Ascending expansion?
• How do I get to the new Obulus Frontier overland zone?
• Where do I find all the Instances (Solo, Advanced Solo, Heroic)?
• What are the Prerequisites for starting the Kunark Ascending signature quest line?
• Is there any easy way to lookup my EQ2 character and see if I have done all the prerequisites for the expansion?
• Do I have to do the Terrors of Thalumbra signature line before I can start the Kunark Ascending quests?
• The first part of the Kunark Ascending signature line has a sneaking quest on a boat. Can I just skip this part?
• Do I really have to do all these old quests like the Greenmist Heritage Quest and learn all these languages (Di’Zok, Draconic, Sathirian, and Froak) on ALL my characters?
• What can you tell me about Tradeskills in the expansion?
• What are the new Ascended Classes? Do they replace existing classes?
• How long does it take to level my Ascended Class? Can I have more than one Ascended class per character?
• Have you got a list of Heroic Dungeons arranged by Difficulty?
• Have you got a list of Raid Zones arranged by Difficulty?
• Can I start working on my Epic Weapon 2.0 Quest?
• What changes are there to the Deity buff?
• What’s the new Enemies (Threat list) window?
• What is Combat Mitigation and how does it affect encounters?
• How do I upgrade Mercenaries with the new Training and Gear features?
• What’s the new Wardrobe feature?
• Are there any new Adornments in Kunark Ascending?
• Is it true that Quest Regions of Interest are no longer marked on the map? What about quest feathers?
• Help! There was some really important information on the Kunark Ascending beta forums but they’ve disappeared!
• How do I see what expansions or account features I’ve got on my account?
• Where can I download a high resolution version of the Kunark Ascending poster art?

From the EQ2 Forums:

KUNARK ASCENDING

Norrath remains in danger from Lanys T’Vyl, God of Malice, and her pursuit of power! Return to Kunark and adventure through unexplored lands full of strife as a powerful force of iksar plan to overthrow the lich emperor, Venril Sathir. Uncover dungeons long sealed or lost, amassing power and piecing together the history long buried, in an attempt to keep the last Chaos Stone out of Lanys’ evil clutches!

It will take great courage to stand against the coming darkness and stop her from ushering in a new age of dominance by the gods. When the Tenets of Hate ascend to godhood, will you stand against them?

Kunark Ascending is the 13th EverQuest II expansion and brings new and exciting adventures to Norrath.

Journey to Obulus Frontier in North Kunark where you’ll explore the ruins of Kaesora, fight through the Crypt of Dalnir in Warslik Woods, traverse the City of Mist, and adventure through more areas both familiar and undiscovered!