Feldon
From EQ2Players: There’s still a short time to register for Fan Faire 2010! Registration will be closing at 11:59 pm PDT on Friday, July 23. Platinum passes are sold out, but a limited number of Silver and Gold passes are still available. As always, Fan Faire registrants will receive some special in-game items. Depending on the level of pass you purchase, you’ll get either one cool EQII item, or two cool EQII items. We wanted to give you a sneak peek at the these items, so scroll down to see the goods. And remember, Silver, Gold and Platinum attendees...
Month: July 2010
Here are your hotfix notes for July 22, 2010: LON MOUNTS Legends of Norrath mounts have all been upgraded to a standard 65% run speed. PERAH’CELSIS’ ABOMINABLE LABORATORY Arkatanthis the Destroyer: The Benthic adds that challenge group members will try to challenge players unaffected by benthic freeze wherever possible.
We have not been posting individual announcements about the recurring Moonlight Enchantments and City Festivals because we have that information in our new Calendar which appears in the left sidebar of EQ2Wire at all times. Due to a glitch in the activation of the Moonlight Enchantments event, the event has been extended to July 22nd. Also, yesterday, I tweaked the sidebar Calendar to display multi-day events just once per month. As a result, I have been able to correct the dates on upcoming recurring events.
Druidess
On 6/30/10, EQ2 issued a challenge to the talented in game home decorators of Norrath. The contest ran from June 30th – July 14th. Contestants were given the theme of “Bedroom Sanctuary”. Submissions ranged from the New Halas homes all the way to some of the older house models of Qeynos and Freeport. Winners are going to be given an in game trophy, to be placed in the respected homes. Congratulations to the winners. All submissions can be viewed here.
Xelgad has been paying close attention to feedback on his Guardians: Requesting Feedback thread on the EQ2 Forums. His response to this feedback includes some additional tweaks we might see as a result of ideas submitted by players. These changes are expected after Game Update 57. You can read his comments after the jump…
From SOE-Rothgar on EQ2Interface: Rest up because you’re most likely going to have a lot of work to do when GU57 hits test server in just over a week! I can’t go into a lot of detail right now, but we’ve made some pretty big UI changes for 57. The default UI is getting a re-skin and many windows have been modified. We’ll post more when we can. This was posted on July 16th, so that would put Game Update 57 onto Test as early as the end of this week.
Here are your brief Update Notes for July 20th, 2010: ITEMS The Skinbreach Silk Cord should now have resists. Band of the Corrupter should now also proc 75 Agility. Icy Keep: Many of Vrewwx’s Drops from the Challenge Mode have been adjusted to be more in line with the Difficulty. UNDERFOOT DEPTHS Vaclaz and Vaclaz Released: Non-Priests are now given precedence when choosing who will receive keen insight in order to disrupt the roekillik energymaster adds. A priest will only be chosen for this task if there are no other raid members available.
Zraxth’s Unseen Arcanum is a new challenging one group dungeon which will make its first appearance at Fan Faire this August.
Tinkerfest opens this weekend, and what better place to find information about this event then at EQ2Traders? Niami Denmother‘s ever thorough writeup of this event includes all the new quests, collections, and new house items available. Among the many new crafting additions include both diamond plate and hammered steel deck plating. Perfect for adding a small factory or work area to your house or hall. Tinkerfest will be a limited duration Live Event. It is currently expected to be available from July 23 starting at 12:01 a.m. PDT, through August 2, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. PDT. We’re waiting for...
From EQ2Players: Direct 2 Drive is offering a special deal on an EQII pack that will help new and returning players get into the game quickly. For a limited time, pick up EverQuest II Sentinel’s Fate, along with three Flask of Adventuring bonus potions, the Vestiges of Glory Armor Pack, and a 30-day subscription for new accounts, all for just $14.95. This offer expires July 26th, so don’t let it pass you (and your friends) by! Also available for purchase in Pounds (UK) and Euros (EU).
This week’s rollup post includes news about Antonia Bayle server upgrades, some out-of-whack procs, and further speculation about Free-to-Play (F2P). After the jump…
Xelgad has taken another measured step towards collecting player feedback. Last month, it was a shoutout for Top End Guilds to post some of their highest parses. Today’s request appears to be some light finally being shone on guardians after nearly 2 years at the lower middle of the “fighter” pack in tanking ability. Greetings Guardians! First off, allow me say that we understand that the class is being outshined at the moment, and we’re working on it. It’s going to take more than just one change to get Guardians back to working as a strong class again. I’m...
CORRECTION: Ikik is still on the Vanguard team. Today we learn from EQ2Flames just who was laid off from the EQ2 team. Timetravelling designed some of the more interesting raid encounters in the Sentinel’s Fate expansion, including Roehn Theer: I wanted to pop in and thank you all for playing EQ2 for the last few years. You helped make it an absolute joy of a job, and I’m sorry to be moving on, but I suppose that thems the breaks. Please keep on keepin’ on, having fun, and kicking the crap out of all of the encounters us poor...
Aidis Darvidas
The most difficult part of a raid encounter can be managing the Adds or additional enemies that come at predefined moments during the fight. EQ2 has a storied history of people trying different methods to manage, crowd control, confuse, or completely reset Adds during challenging fights. Clearly, the desire to beat more difficult enemies is a powerful temptation to cheat. Manipulating the outcome of a fight through timely brawler death feigns or leashing certain mobs by fighting at a distance are tactics which have existed in EQ2 from the very beginning. Such exploits were very publicly documented in Veeshan’s...
UPDATE: We heard about layoffs today, but linked to (and quoted) the 2009 article. Here is the correct link and quote: From IndustryGamers.com: The developer behind DC Universe Online and The Agency, Sony Online Entertainment, has laid off 35 employees, or just over 4% of its full-time workforce, in an effort to “better align the company’s resources…as well as improve operational efficiency,” says SOE’s Scott Gulbransen, senior director of global PR & corporate communications. The official statement: “In a move to better align the company’s resources against areas of growth that meet consumer demand in today’s online market as...
From the EQ2 Forums: Greetings Norrathians! We have been made aware of a potential threat to your account security, and ask you to read this, pass it on, link it and let others know. There is a serious phishing scam being perpetrated right now. You may receive an email telling you that your password has been changed or asking you to log into the linked site for some reason. Please double check the URL of the site that you are being asked to access. The legitimate SOE site will have this URL: http://auth.station.sony.com. Please do not enter your information...
Procs. We’ve all seen them. “On a successful healing spell.” “On a successful attack.” “On a successful melee attack.” (this one makes Rangers cry) But how often do they really trigger? How big a part do they play in actual healing, spell damage, combat art damage? Aidis, newly minted EQ2Wire contributor has crunched the numbers and found that one such special effect — Flash of Intuition — isn’t so special: After a review of several healing procs, and how important base is for healers, many items that proc a temporary increase to base [for the players next ward or...
We’ve got Today’s Hotfix Notes straight from the Patcher for you. They include the aforementioned changes to various instances in Desert of Flames and Kingdom of Sky, some itemization fixes, and tweaks to raid mobs in Underfoot Depths and Icy Keep.
Will you be in the San Diego, CA area on Saturday, July 24th? The SOE Block Party at SOE Studios in sunny San Diego, CA brings a day you will never forget. Join fellow gamers and developers from SOE for music, food, tours, game previews, giveaways, raffles and much, much more. SOE will offer activities for the young ones, so bring everyone in the family! Attendance is free! The SOE Block Party is Saturday, July 24th, 2010, from 4:00 pm – 8:00 pm at the SOE Studio (8928 Terman Ct, San Diego, CA, 92121.). Shuttle buses are scheduled to...
Hirofortis has posted a thought-provoking thread on the EQ2 Forums regarding Critical Mitigation on raid gear and pondering just how much Crit Mit is needed to proceed in raiding. Just looking at the Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 raid gear available in-game, a player can acquire critical mitigation amounts of 110%, 127.8%, and 141% respectively, not including any critical mitigation achieved by having high numbers in the necessary stats. Critical Mitigation from Raid Armor Sets T1 T2 T3 Head 10.00% 12.00% 15.00% Chest 20.00% 20.00% 20.00% Shoulders 10.00% 12.00% 15.00% Forearms 5.00% 9.60% 12.00% Hands 5.00% 9.60%...
Even though Amnerys (it’s pronounced “am-NAIR-iss”) has technically been EQ2 Community Manager for a few weeks now, she has posted an introduction on EQ2Players. You can read this intro at EQ2Players. She also references her original posting to the Station Blog when she was brought on as a Community Relations Rep.
Have you registered for Fan Faire yet? It’s less than a month away and registration closes in two weeks. That means it’s time for Calthine’s annual Fan Faire Tips! If you are planning to attend Fan Faire, I recommend reading her survival guide. Between tracking down guildies, meeting new friends, and trying to catch all the panels and events that affect your game(s) of choice, the Fan Faire weekend becomes a blur. It’s helpful to be prepared.
Test Copy has always been a temporary server, subject to complete wipes of all characters and guilds. In fact, the Test Copy server started out as a PvP Test server, and while it has been a PvE server for over 2 years now, the PvP switch has been “flipped” a few times for testing of Battlegrounds and PvP content leading up to Sentinel’s Fate. Despite all cautions to the contrary, some players have built up characters and guilds on Test Copy, so they may be interested to know that another wipe is happening. Test Copy is currently down (we’re...
From the EQ2 Forums: The US servers will come down on July 14, 2010, at 7am PDT for a hotfix. The Update Notes will be posted in the Update Notes forum when available. Runnyeye and Splitpaw will be patched at 9pm PDT (4am GMT) on July 14, 2010.
The second opportunity for players to submit their own artwork to be turned into in-game EQ2 paintings has come and gone, and the results have been announced! From EQ2Players: Greetings, Norrathians! We are thrilled to make the highly-anticipated announcement of the winners of our Notable Norrathians Forum Challenege! It was not easy to choose just ten out of the amazing entries we received. The talent and creativty displayed were truly wonderful and there’s a certiain very-jealous dark elf in the office right now! We’d like to thank everyone who submitted an entry (the dark elf made note that she’s...