Feldon 
If I was a bit harsh in my “Let the Sleeper’s Tomb Testing Begin! Group & Raid Zone” article, it’s only because I believe content should be thoroughly tested before it is pushed to the Live servers. Players have memorized every pixel in Skyshrine and are thirsty for new enemies to “punch and take their stuff”, so it seems smart to get Sleeper’s Tomb so bug-free, balanced, and itemized smoothly that players feel the wait for new content was worth it.
Holly “Windstalker” Longdale has posted a news update about when we can expect Sleeper’s Tomb, and the first wave of Contested Avatars.
Good day intrepid adventurers! Next Tuesday we are bringing you a big update that we lovingly call “Sleeper’s Tomb.” This is the first chapter of our expansion, Chains of Eternity, releasing in November. We have some additional content releasing with Sleeper’s Tomb that is definitely worth getting ready for! Check this out:
Sleeper’s Tomb, Chapter 1 Begins!
Norrathian’s will find Jorlak, an aged Dracurion chronomage, outside of the Sleeper’s Tomb in Velious’ Eastern Wastes. He will launch a quest that gives adventurers access to world-changing events in Norrath’s history, including the rituals of the heralded warders who kept the great prismatic dragon, Kerafyrm, asleep for many ages.
Start Your Chains of Eternity Adventure
Level 92 players should be on the lookout for a message from Erus Dal’viv, the Swordbearer. He has a mission for adventurers that will help the Duality’s research into the Age’s End Prophecy… a mission that could take an unexpected turn.
Avatars of War Appear!
The defeat of Rallos Zek has ascended the demi-gods of War to full godhood. They will appear in the lands of Velious ready to take on any who challenge them. These Avatars – now known as the Hounds of War – will take on any and all who dare confront them as they choose to appear in Eastern Wastes, Withered Lands, or Great Divide.
Ride Dragonkin across the Skies! Or Decorate with One!
New wyvern mounts are available through the new Sleeper’s Tomb content released on Live servers for those who have the Velious expansion. Or you can buy a wyvern mount of your own from the Marketplace. And if flying isn’t your speed, you can decorate your house with a wyvern plushie from the Marketplace. Each Beastie Box gives you a random color of wyvern when it’s opened. Collect all five colors!
Stay tuned. We’ll be posting more soon!
Sleeper’s Tomb will launch in both group and raid versions Tuesday. September 18 after exactly one week of public testing. Will it be enough? I will breathe a sigh of relief if the zones are bug-free and itemization makes sense.
I really hope the new “Avatars” will be as challenging and fun as the old Avatars. I loved killing these back in the day.
One week of testing… Sometimes I wonder why I bother playing on test with the major load of stuff making it to live without any kind of testing (or barely tested).
I suppose I should be glad that Freeport, Qeynos and Withered Lands quests, as long as the Beastlord class had proper testing, but all other stuff… Depends on the dev in charge I suppose.
“I will breathe a sigh of relief if the zones are bug-free and itemization makes sense.”
It would take divine intervention for any release anywhere to be completely bug-free. The trouble is that Bristlebane’s as likely to use divine intervention to make something go awry for the heck of it. Plan for wacky outages and issues, but be pleased if it goes well! 😀
Wait, next week–next week? Like next week? Sweet!
“Contested” Avatars was and is a bad idea.
I’m imagining that the new “contested” Avatars will just be some sort of Public Quest; anyone that sees it shouts, “The avatar is up!” and people from all over can come running and help kill it (unless, like current PQs, it’s on a timer). Even IF a guild has it on “lock down,” just like current PQs, if you participated, you can get loot from the public box that drops . . . as long as you participated “enough.”
It will be interesting if they DO bring back Avatars the way they were or some different incarnation, but I can’t see them taking the avatars out (because the 99% never got to kill it) and then just putting them back in the same way they were in the past.
I’m curious to see how they implement these Avatars.
I hope they ll put at last one avatar in PQ. (but they can put some top Avatar on the old way so everyone is happy)
The game lack of life, and one thing is nice, public quest. There is thing like this in RIFT, zone event and it bring life in dead server.
I hope they *do not* put in any avatars in Public Quests, at least not until they get the whole “You are not entitled to the contents of this chest” bug completely fixed. As it stands now, it’s a crapshoot whether or not you’ll receive any reward for participating in Public Quests because SOE’s “participation detector” is all kinds of FUBAR. As gaming goes, very little is more frustrating than spending time working on a quest and in the end being denied a reward for your efforts. It’s even more lovely to /petition the incident, and have in-game CS look into their book of “101 Excuses to Avoid Being Helpful the Playerbase” and have them tell you that they have no record of you participating in the quest, so there’s nothing they can do.