More on Dragon Rings, Wizard Spires, and Upcoming Mounts

While we don’t have a definite date when the Dragon Ring and Wizard Spire Rebuilding events will be coming back, there have been a series of updates and questions about them which is worth consolidating into one place.

Due to the Spires event running every 30 minutes instead of the planned hourly interval, and some underestimation of players’ desire to participate, the event had been nearly completed on several servers less than 18 hours after it began. Perhaps the availability of Velium Shards on the vendor was a stimulating factor. Either way, the event was suspended and the devs put their heads together on the best way to bring the event back. Domino, new Associate Producer of EQ2, provided this update on Friday:

he current plan is that when the event is resumed, any servers below 50% progress when the event was suspended will resume progress where they left off. However, due to some of the issues that are being addressed currently, some servers had progressed further than intended in the time the event was active. Servers that had over 50% progress will be reset to 50%. This should extend the life of the event and allow more people to participate. This looks to be the following servers: Antonia Bayle, Butcherblock, Crushbone, Everfrost, Freeport, Guk, Permafrost, and Splitpaw.

As mentioned, the event will NOT reactivate this [July 16-17] weekend, so relax and enjoy your weekend doing other things. We’ll announce next week when it will be reactivated, and provide more details at that time. We will be sure to give at least a day’s notice in advance so you can plan appropriately.

Thanks for your patience, watch for more details next week, and we look forward to seeing you at the rebuilding sites!

When the Spires event draws to a close and the final Epic boss spawns, will it appear in every iteration of Great Divide, or just a single instance? Gninja advised us that “every instance that is up will get an epic boss.”

Regarding how the Title and Bauble for completing these events will be obtained, Gninja assured players that you don’t need to be present for a kill:

The title and bauble will be on the merchant after the final named has been killed and portal is active. Prices on everything on the merchant (aside from Velium Shard) also reduces at that point as well.

About the difficulty of the mobs:

The named do have almost triple the hp of the other ^^^ NPCs. But when you are engaging them with so many people its tough to judge where the hit points need to be. Unfortunately the solo stuff got extensive testing and feedback on test server but the balance of the hitpoints were a bit harder to judge. This should become less of an issue as the event progresses in difficulty.

and getting credit:

The quest will only update if you actively engage the final named at the end of the event waves. That named is what stops the NPCs from keeping spawning. One thing I was seeing people do was standing near the spawn points where the creatures spawn and engaing and killing them very quickly this might leave some not getting update as they will not have an opportunity to get on the hate list.

You can get on the hate list just standing near the NPC, casting a heal on someone on the hate list or doing anything to the creature that makes them not like you. Once the difficulty increases the boss should have significantly more health and it should take a bit longer to take them down.

What about the mounts available for completing these Events? Gninja again:

A new version of the mounts have been created and should be hooked up to the merchant when the event turns back on. They are now usable by crafters and I have lowered the cost a bit.

Speaking of mounts, ttobey had this response about making Kunark Sokokars into proper flying mounts:

Chris Myers did the komodos and squirrels. The thing he is animating right now tops both.

and:

I’ve spent so much time over the last 6 months doing leapers , gliders etc… and now I’m concentrating on some new npc’s for you to fight, but sokokookooars are definitely on a list here.