Update Notes for June 24, 2011 — Leapers and Gliders

Today brings a substantial update with lots of fixes, tweaks, as well as the much-lauded introduction of Leaper and Glider mounts to EQ2 at levels 30 and 60. In a perplexing move, Ground, Leaper, and Glider mounts will all travel on the ground at speeds of up to 150%, making them as fast as any of the current Flying mounts, only lacking the differentiating ability of flight.

All servers will come down for an update at 7am PDT (3pm BST / 4pm CET) on Friday, June 24, 2011. U.S. servers are expected to be down for one hour. International servers should expect a two hour downtime.

From the EQ2 Patcher:

INTRODUCING LEAPER AND GLIDER MOUNTS!

New mounts have been added to EverQuest 2!

Leapers – mounts whose powerful jumping abilities will help you cover vast amounts of distance with each vault, are available to players beginning at level 30.

[Level 30] Players interested in obtaining a new mount should seek out Saldas Rubbleground in Butcherblock Mountains.  His expedition has found some mysterious fossils in the cliffs, and he could use the help of some strong adventurers to help him in his research.

Level 30 tradeskillers can also help out the expedition by speaking with Ellerith Groundspark, who is helping to keep the workers at the site well-supplied.  With the small team he has to work with, he will need the assistance of some experienced crafters to help him with what he needs done.

Gliders – a mount that can ride on the wind, giving players a brief period of flight before falling slowly to the ground, are available to players beginning at level 60.

Players who are looking to have one of these mounts for their own should look for Ferwah Shieldwall in Tenebrous Tangle, at the Vicious Breeding Grounds.  She represents a group of researchers who have discovered a new species of creature that they believe to be endangered, and are looking for assistance in their efforts to protect what they have found.

Tradeskillers who would like the help with the efforts should look for Darga Fleetpaw, who is also found in the Vicious Breeding Grounds.  Far from home and with few resources, the researchers need help putting together what is necessary for their important work.

Also, be sure to keep an eye on the Marketplace for Leaper and Glider mounts and house items!

GENERAL

• Fixed a bug with the /pvp_stats command.
• Fixed a bug preventing customization for some characters.

GRAPHICS UPDATE

• Implemented MSAA option under Display – Performance.
• Note: Shader 3.0 must be enabled to use this feature.

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Shard of Love

• Mithaniel Marr in the Shard of Love will now leave behind a chest more reliably when defeated.

Sullon’s Spire [Challenge]

• The non-named NPCs in this zone have had some of their abilities removed.

Tower of Tactics

• Lord Kefzaanin should no longer stay invulnerable when successfully completing the time trial.

Tower of Frozen Shadow: Umbral Halls

• The Fifth floor mirror should now allow you to return to the fourth floor if the fourth floor boss has been defeated.

Tower of Frozen Shadow: Haunt of Syl’Tor

• Upon entering the first floor you can now use the mirrors to return to the seventh floor or leave the tower.

• It is no longer possible to respawn Tserrina once the encounter has been completed.

Tower of Frozen Shadow (x2)

• Heroic encounters within the zone should no longer show as a broken encounter
• Adds in the Necretia Widowmaker encounter should no longer cause the encounter to randomly reset.
• Soldiers on the third floor should no longer cause the floor to become gated if a raid force dies to one of the soldiers.
• It is no longer possible to respawn Tserrina once the encounter has been completed.
• Tserrina should no longer have excessive multiattack.

Throne of Storms (Heroic)

Players can now do the event that frees Wolfsnack from the jail cell without having to be on the Quest: End of Immortality. The Jail Cell key that drops from Tribunus-Prime Hagandr will now drop independent of the quest so player that have completed the quest previously can still grab the key and redo the entire event. For player that have yet to complete the End of Immortality quest that are part of the player group, they will still get the appropriate update when the event has progressed to the part or stage they are on. Also, with this change players will no longer be able to lower the throne if all members within the group have previously completed End of Immortality quest.

Throne of Storms: Hall of Legends [Challenge]

• The Phantasmal Remnant in the King Tormax fight does not drain as much power as before, and should not memwipe to Tormax’s current target.
• Static Storm elemental in the Imperator Kolkseggr fight no longer has symbiotic aura.

Fortress of Rime [Challenge]

• The Rime Master Assassin will cast icy deathblow on a single target once per 30 secs, instead of 2 targets per 20 secs.  Icy deathblow is now cureable.

Temple of Rallos Zek (Heroic)

• The Enraged and Empowered Idols’ spell, Shrapnel, no longer stuns and now has only a 10 meter radius.

Temple of Rallos Zek: Foundations of Stone [Challenge]

• Supreme Imperium Valdemar will now announce when he is in retaliation mode, and has a graphic to alert players of this fact as well.  His divine blast spell no longer knocks players back.

Sinking Sands

• Plumetor Dul’Sadma should again speak to evil players and rebuff good players, instead of the other way around.

Kraytocs Fortress [Challenge]

• There is now just a single kraytoc shocktrooper per wave, and all kraytoc adds have lower health.  Kraytoc now casts explosive metallic deposits on all raid members instead of just a few, to maximize player’s chances to destroy pillars.

Strategist’s Stronghold (Heroic)

• Health has been lowered slightly on Warmaster Korok’s adds.
• Prime Shini-Zonn Hypatia no longer casts Tallon’s Command. Her damage has been reduced slightly.

Spire of Rage (Heroic)

• Health has been decreased on many of the boss encounters and their adds. Damage has been lowered slightly as well.

Citadel of V’uul

• The result target lock fear, Submit, from the Brawler Twins, Ferti and Clodae, is now curable.
• Health has been lowered on Overlord Sparerib’s adds. Damage has been lowered slightly on his fight and The Guardian of V’uul.
• Queen Vorticia V’uul now drops raid shards when defeated.
• Queen Vorticia V’uul now has a chance to drop war runes when defeated.

Kael Drakkel Contested

• Faber Jonenry should no longer spawn and respawn multiple times.

Sundered Frontier

• The Sundered Frontiersman achievement will now update on the Hall of the Fell Blade.

Befallen: Forsaken

Sir Loros Highgarden will now reset properly when using evacuation.

ABILITIES / ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT

Crusader

• Crusader’s Faith now applies as a group buff to the Crusader’s group. All damage inflicted by that group will apply the heal to the Crusader.
• Enhance: Crusader’s Faith now applies its effects to the group.

Bard

• Rhythmic Overture now applies as a buff to the bard. All damage inflicted by the bard will apply toward Victorious Concerto.

Druid

• Protective Instinct now applies as a buff to the druid. All damage inflicted by the druid will apply towards the ward.
• Howling with the Pack now heals with the initial tick of Damage over Time abilities.

Mystic

• Spirit Tap now applies as a buff to the Mystic’s group. All damage inflicted by that group will apply as a group heal and power restoration.

Wizard

• Fiery Blast now monitors the caster’s damage on any target. The damage inflicted is still dealt to the target of Fiery Blast.

Swashbuckler

• Storm of Steel and Arctic Blast now can be used with any ranged weapon.

Brigand

• Double Throw is now Double Blast and now can be used with any ranged weapon.

ITEMS

• The Coldain War Wizard’s Shield is no longer Lore.

• Temporary adornments will once again be displayed on tooltip and examine windows

• Fixed a bug with temp adornment durations when zoning and/or camping.

• Fixed a bug keeping players from replacing an adornment on an item if the new adornment has the same spell effect as the old adornment.

• “Call of the Inebriated” now has an automatic bind location for citizens of New Halas and Gorowyn.

• “Order Book: Blackshield Destroyer Saltspew” can now be bought from city Sages, after completing the quest “Blackshield Orders”.

• “Order Book: Blackshield Landing Party” can now be bought from city Sages, after completing the quest “Blackshield Operation”.

• “The Archtome of Haoaera” can now be bought from city Sages, after completing the quest “Brink of Annihilation”.

• “Krymok’s Peace Plan” can now be bought from city Sages, after completing the quest “Errand of Destiny”.

• Pouch of Crystal rocks stats have been modified.

• V’uul armor stats have been increased slightly.

• Drunder raid jewelry should now use the same item sets as the previous tiers.

• Yellow and Red Adornment procs can no longer be resisted.

• Quenching Stream, Smoldering Affliction and Prophetic Affliction now can be applied to the target at the same time.

• Thaumaturge’s Prophetic Mitts should now have a yellow adornment slot.

QUESTS

The Graveyard

• It should no longer be possible to get stuck while working on Custodian Zaddar’s quest line.

Great Divide

• Toridar Mudhoof was speaking to anyone that would hail him.  This was allowing characters that had already completed the evil side of the Daggerflow quest series to start the good side and become gated.  Toridar is now more mindful when being hailed by strangers.

Eastern Wastes

• The crystal objects harvested for Not Enough Crystals! will now be deleted from your inventory when you turn in the quest.

• The Bundle of Coldain Pick Axes for the quest A Draft Pick will now be deleted from your inventory when you turn in the quest.

• The first step of Gritstone’s quest “Awaking Phenocryst” can now be completed in any zone, since it is being updated through an item in your inventory.

Orcish Wastes

• Orca’s and Lute’s reports have been relocated to nearby trees and can now be collected for “Reports from the Borderland”.

Drunder: Shard Missions

• The Drunder missions: Top Secret!, The Strategist’s Bow, The Art of War, and The Tactician’s Blades can now be completed.

PvP / BATTLEGROUNDS MERCHANTS

• Open PvP Merchants feature a new Prestige Items vendor.  A similar merchant is also found in the Champion’s Respite.  The merchant features a selection of never before seen house items including items previously found on the weapon merchant.

PvP GENERAL

• You can no longer cancel a mount using the Maintained window.

BATTLEGROUNDS

• Soul Pillager’s Sabatons and Foot Wraps are now available in the Champion’s Respite.

• Fixed a bug where set bonuses that were disabled in battlegrounds were not being disabled.

• Players can no longer join a BG match while engaged in PvP combat.

MARKETPLACE

Mounts will always show in the marketplace regardless if “Hide Unusable” is selected or not.