Feldon
Looks like Game Update 53 has been very popular, as a few servers are struggling with keeping up. Rothgar reports on the EQ2 Forums: A couple of the highly populated servers are seeing some performance problems now that we are reaching primetime and many new players are logging in. This is probably due to the large number of things that happen to your character the first time you log in after GU53. Until the performance comes back down to normal levels, we will be locking some of the servers to keep the problem from getting any worse. Currently the...
Year: 2009
So far, today my coverage of Game Update 53 has been entirely positive. I think Game Update 53 is actually an excellent update, with the live quest, HEIRLOOM LORE-EQUIP flag, etc. However in the long term, I think all the great things about this update may be overshadowed by some colossal mistakes. The bland Racial Trait revamp which I’ve already talked about. And an issue that a lot of people don’t take seriously, but I think needs to be discussed — the Avatar Loot Nerf. So far, I have refrained from covering these changes, hoping that cooler (and wiser)...
The Shard of Love A lot of folks have been asking me where the Shard of Love is and how to get there. First, it should be noted that the Shard of Love is not a group zone like any of the other group zones in The Shadow Odyssey or Rise of Kunark. The Shard of Love is a very casual group zone that can be completed with 3-4 players. It scales to level (50-80) and rewards appearance items, house items, and reusable cast items. It does not reward the typical armor, jewelry, weapons you are used to in...
What was expected to be a 4 hour upgrade got done in about 1 hour, 45 minutes. All EQ2 Servers are back up! ProfitUI There are a lot of folks who run ProfitUI add-on for EQ2. I use some of the plugins from ProfitUI, but not the whole package. As you may know, gm9 stepped down as ProfitUI developer in April. Others have stepped in to keep it going, although I have to say I wish it were more clear just what is going on with the project now. If I go to the ProfitUI project page, the last...
Kiara has given us the news we’ve been waiting for… As you know, Shards of Destiny is going live tomorrow (Sept 23). The US servers will be coming down at 6am PDT for the update. We estimate about four hours of downtime and anticipate having the servers up and running again about 10am PDT. We’ll keep you all updated should the times change for any reason. For Runnyeye and Splitpaw, the servers will come down at 9pm PDT (5am in London Sept 24th) and should be back up and running about 1am PDT (9am in London). Thank you for...
Shards of Destiny (Game Update 53) goes live tomorrow, Wednesday September 23rd. Most notably absent from the Game Update 53 notes are whether the Avatar Gear changes are going live, and whether the Racial Traits received any changes based on the significant feedback posted on the forums. If you want to read the full Gu53 Update Notes you can read them by clicking right there. I did some significant cleanup for readability and a few clarifications. It’s worth a read, even if you’ve read the official notes. HOWEVER… we do understand that the full Update Notes are a lot...
UPDATE: Servers will go down September 23rd from 6am to 10am PDT. And you can read the complete update notes from EQ2Players. However you might want to read my revised notes… NOTE: I have gone through these notes and slightly improved them for readability specific to issues I’m familiar with. If that bothers you, go and click on the EQ2Players link above.
Thanks to Mistal who got the scoop over on Test about what House Items we might be seeing in the Nights of the Dead event this fall. I believe this is on top of all the rewards from last year, but don’t quote me. EQ2 Forums
If you meet these criteria: Live in the U.S. Have access to a big-box store or games store. Desire some item or items on StationCash. then you may be interested in the retail-only “Double StationCash” deal cooked up by the EQ2 Marketing Department. Head to Wally World, Buy More, etc. and look not for the 30 day EQ2 cards, but the FreeRealms-branded 500, 1000, or more SC cards. If you redeem them this weekend, you will get double credit. You can then spend those points at any time. More Details at EQ2 Forums (and for a snapshot of what...
Note: No EQ2 Content So what have I been doing instead of updating EQ2Wire? Why getting ready for Talk Like a Pirate Day. 🙂 How? By going back and playing the Monkey Island games of course! Set in the Carribean, these hilarious point-and-click adventure/puzzle games started in 1990 and have continued since. The latest are Tales of Monkey Island, and the first adventure is available FREE as a gift on Talk Like a Pirate Day. The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition came out just this summer and was completely rebuilt from the original 1990 game with 1920 x...
Some very good news for Nagafen players who have been experiencing significant performance issues with the server for several months now. However this news is bittersweet for Venekor players who have been anticipating this server merge for several months now. Brenlo has posted this news on the EQ2 Forums: I know many of you are looking forward to the upcoming server merge. Sadly, you will have to wait just a bit longer. We are postponing the merge until October 20th. So an additional month. As many of you know, Nagafen has had continued issues with the Database and while...
Currently on Test, the Ruined Ulteran Spires of Norrath in Zek, Everfrost, Lavastorm, and the Loping Plains will be revitalized in an upcoming Live Event. Tradeskilling is a significant part of this event. I have not tested it out personally. Currently on Test Servers
This article is due for cleanup with the release of Sentinel’s Fate. Some skills in EQ2 can be increased by practice. These include Slashing, Ranged, Piercing, etc. All others can only increased by Equipment, Alternate Advancements (AAs), buffs from themselves and other players and in some cases, racial traits. You can view all of these traits in the Persona window (press P). Ranged/Piercing/Slashing/Parry/etc. Skills: Multiply your level by 6.5. This works out to 520 at level 80. Double Attack/Ranged Double Attack: 100%. Double Attack and Ranged Double Attack only affect Auto-attacks. Casting Haste: 100%. At 100%, the casting time...
UPDATE: We have migrated to https://eq2wire.com/ Please update your links to this site.
Go Play! Besides, the EQ2Flames server can’t take much more of this. 🙂
While we wait the last 1 1/2 hours for the EQ2 servers to come back up, I thought some of you might like to check out a few more tidbits expected to come in Game Update 53 at the end of the month. I’ve focused on new features here. If you want, you can read the full EQ2 Test Update Notes courtesy of EQ2 ZAM. GENERAL Runic Deflection should proc slightly more reliably. House layout files now properly save the scaling of an object. The save_layout and load_layout commands now properly save and load positions of NPC amenities. ACHIEVEMENTS...
EQ2 is undergoing maintenance for a few hours, so here’s a free kitten… Remember folks, EQ2 (and all SoE games) will be going down starting at Midnight (3am EDT) tomorrow for Server Maintenance (This is not Gu53). All games will be down for 12 hours (that’s 3pm EDT). [Read More] However all is not lost, the Allakhazam EQ2 Chat on IRC will be up and running and you might see a few SoE folks popping in from time to time. Check it out! For instructions on how to connect to the chat using mIRC, Trillian, or other chat client,...
Contrary to our last post, Hot Zones (increased chance of Fabled drops in level 80 dungeons) are on a rotation schedule. So far, we’ve seen all 3 Guk zones. It changes out each night at Midnight, so check it out tomorrow on Labor Day. 🙂 The rotation schedule will be up at EQ2 Wiki as soon as the entire rotation has been determined.
We’ve now got more details on the new “Hot Zones” feature. These have been active on the European servers since last week and will be hitting U.S. servers at 2pm PDT (5pm EDT). There is no server downtime expected for this feature to be enabled. Every day, a level 80 dungeon will have an increased chance of FABLED loot drops. This is on a rotation like the Daily Double. The selected zone will change for all U.S. servers at midnight. Read the Announcement at EQ2 Forums Just as you have been able to determine the Daily Double by looking...
It’s time for a server defrag. From the announcement at the EQ2 Forums: There will be maintenance on the Session databases across all games on Wednesday September 9, 2009. It will begin at 12AM PDT and is estimated to last until 12PM PDT. All game worlds will be unavailable for the estimated 12 hour maintenance, as well as the Station Store and all commerce avenues. This may affect the performance of the forums and any or all accounts’ abilities to log in. We apologize for the inconvenience and will update the information as we are able. The Community team...
Niami Denmother has checked in her extensive Crafting Preview for the Shards of Destiny (Gu53) update. There’s a lot to see here, so check it out at EQ2 Traders!
I have to admit, I have not dedicated as much thought to the races I play in EQ2 as perhaps others have. My Ranger was human because that was my first character and I guess I didn’t want anything too fantastic (in hindsight, I’d go for the wood elf). My Guardian was born around the introduction of Kunark, so is naturally a Sarnak. And lately I’ve been having a lot of fun developing my Ratonga Dirge. While I’ve never chosen a race because of the benefits, I have really enjoyed the unique (but not overpowered) traits of the Sarnak...
So what exactly does 150 Void Shards get you these days? So you were frugal with your void shards and hired a tradeskiller to make your T1 set [38 shards] and T2 sets [112 shards]. You traded in more shards for Jewelry, Charms, Cloaks, and Baubles. You needed a few more shards for that shiny new T3 pattern that dropped out of Ward of Elements. And after all this, you’ve still got 150 shards or more just burning a hole in your money purse? Have we got a deal for you! As you may or may not know, almost...
Some breaking news for you! As we’ve reported, in Game Update 53, almost all LEGENDARY and FABLED instance dungeon/raid loot except patterns will be picking up the new LORE-EQUIP flag which, along with the HEIRLOOM and ATTUNEABLE flags will allow instance Fabled and Legendary loot items to be looted and transferred to alt characters on the same account. timetravelling clarifies: -We do not currently have plans to change the looting options (by adding an Alt Need option between Need and Greed). However, it is something to monitor and we’ll keep an eye on it. -This change is intended to...
In a previous post, I postuled that the the EQ2 Achievements system is “just the beginning”. While it may be, when I checked out the Achievements listed over on Test for my account, I saw only the low numbers — 25 Werewolves, 20 Heritage Quests, etc. Turns out, these are just the lowest numbers in each series. Rothgar has chimed in on the EQ2 Forums to inform us that the Achievements go up to 10,000 kills for Slayer titles, 50 Heritage Quests, etc. The slayer quests do go up to 10k for all types. Since the slayers are all...