Update Notes: Thursday, January 31, 2013 – Wurmbone’s End Solo

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization, Raiding

If you’ve been flopping, leashing, or feign deathing past the second and third-from-last named encounters in Wurmbone’s End [Advanced Solo] to save time on your way to the boss of the zone, you’ll be seeing a change today. Now, you must kill at least 2 names before the final named will spawn. The popularity of this zone, specifically the last named (Prime Magnate Mrelg), derived from the fact that, when allowed to go into Challenge mode (by not clicking on his smoky “breath”), he drops three loot chests when killed. This was not an unexpected change.

The bigger inconvenience/bummer for me is, you will no longer be able to use the red clicky [eq2u]Celestial Fragment of Subversion[/eq2u] item on him to take off his last 30% of health. I used this item regularly, and only on some occasions was I able to kill him without it. The only “loot” that I cared about from any of the lesser names in any of the Chains of Eternity zones was the red 30% damage clicky. All the other items were pretty much fluff. So with this change, I am even less enthused about the time spent killing the subbosses of each zone.

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
General

  • Scout shields should now drop much less often from Avatars.

Chelsith: The Ancient Vault

  • Corrected a bug that was causing items and obols to not drop off trash encounters.

Wurmbone’s End

  • You should now be less likely to fall through the world when zoning into any of the Wurmbone’s End zones.

Wurmbone’s End [Advanced Solo]

  • [eq2u]Celestial Fragment of Subversion[/eq2u] can no longer be used on Prime Magnate Mrelg once he has become the challenge version.
  • All-Blocker Mohngu must now be defeated in order to spawn Necromunger Garrkk.
  • Necromunger Garrkk must now be defeated in order to spawn Prime Magnate Mrelg.

Harrow‘s End

  • Drinal should no longer drop an empty chest if raid members relog or go linkdead after killing Fitzpitzle.

Sleeper’s Tomb: The Forgotten Catacombs [Solo]

  • The Eternal Sentinel should now be easier to deal with when fought with a merc. He will now reliably charge even if focusing on the mercenary.

Sleeper’s Tomb: The Forgotten Catacombs [Heroic]

  • Frost should lose its buffs, where appropriate, much more reliably.

TRADESKILLS

  • Level 90+ provisioner writs have been updated.
  • Alchemist level 93 rush order Warrior Essentials will now correctly ask for Forward Charge VIII.

ITEMS

  • Items in a merchant list will no longer show old tooltips from previously examined instances of the same item if it had any adornments or experimentations.

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Comments (48)

  • Tomatoh

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    This is stupid deyond belief… they give you Celestial Fragment of Subversion in the advanced zones so you can use it.. but wait.. no you can’t..

    Wurmbone’s End [Advanced Solo]

    Negate Matter can no longer be used on Prime Magnate Mrelg once he has become the challenge version.

    Reply

  • Yeoj

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    Why do this?How was this hurting the game to make such stupid changes?Most of the time you’d get three boxes of crap anyway,research reducers,crude material etc,and have a slim chance of getting something really good.Its ADVANCED SOLO!!! I know you can group with one other player, but to me SOLO means ALONE.And did I understand correctly there will no longer be 3 boxes? Then what’s the point in HM? They improving the loot the one box drops in HM?Pointless.Most popular zone to ghost town in one swoop.

    Reply

  • Pomma

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    Pretty simple. Someone who couldn’t figure out how to (or wasn’t strong/talented enough to) skip to the end bitched about it to SOE and they nerfed it. I’m not surprised really, but not being able to do the red clicky item is just plain retarded. Again, no doubt a complaint from some whiner who couldn’t do it even with the item and complained out of jealousy.

    I swear, I can’t get simple quest or item issues fixed without a kneejerk “working as intended” from SOE, but some purist or whiner bitches about someone getting something “too easily” or “for free” and they’re on it like a bonnet.

    And people wonder why this game is a shadow of its former self. Its made all the more hilarious when we’re consistently told how dedicated they are to the playerbase. That may be true, if you consider your playerbase to consist only of bronze and silver accounts, role players, and purists.

    Reply

  • Whoooo

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    Isn’t Necromunger Garrkk the one that you have to hide behind a statue or get instan-killed by his zone wide spell? lol

    Did they ever fix that? LOL

    Only zone that people ran will be the zone that no one will run now! Thumbs up SOE!

    Reply

  • Le Clown

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    pomma +1

    Reply

  • Madcat

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    Nice update, i m ride doing this WE Advenced solo 😉 thanks.

    I bet people will do with advenced solo what they have do with dungeon maker stop to use it due to “limit”, more limit and again.

    There is nothing to do in this game and they only put update for put restriction… 🙁

    Why not instead remove restriction ?

    Allow to trade gear from box in solo, so it can be nice to duo. And even allow to trio those zone… yes they are hell easy but it’s not that easy with small player who dont have even the velious requirement gear… And that allow to carry merc when you dont have heals…

    Searously i m curious to see how many Wurmbone’s End[Advenced Solo] run after this one, i bet … half less than befor 😉

    But anyway those 3 box always give junk, only got 2 fabled (i was not even able to use, with junk adornment +riposte wtf) from more than 100 run.

    Dont misunderstood me, i m happy, my girlfriend will not anymore ask me to play this lame game 😉

    Reply

  • Madcat

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    Please please nerf Dreadcutter solo, this zone take less than 5 min for one box it’s not normal ! (lol)

    Reply

  • Kwill

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    I just don’t get it, I really don’t. Why change something like this? Was it hurting anyone, at all? The fallout will be that finishing the signature quest is going to be difficult for more people — is that the idea?

    I am glad I finished it on one character, because now I don’t think I will be able to clear this step with my coercer, who is not raid geared. Instead, I will spend the obols and forget about ever seeing it.

    I think spending dev time on closing loopholes is a poor use of resources — how about developing some new content or fixing known bugs that really are annoying, as Pomma said?

    Shame on them for making it harder for the casual player who really can’t exploit stuff.

    Reply

  • Madcat

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    while they r at fixing thing that are cluless (and no one care) why not put those Legendary Box from advenced solo in … let say .. ornate chest ?

    Treasured chest give legendary box that give fabled items… And after all this time Ethereal gear are still labeled Fabled…. Sure they care to do thing right. Or it’s just for the nerf god 😉

    Reply

  • Pomma

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    I don’t really feel its fair for raiders to get the amazing loot out of the end raid zones. I don’t have the time personally to learn how to raid, join a raiding guild, prove myself, learn my class, and attend raids consistently, so why should I be penalized as a free to play roleplaying level locked player? I think I should get all of that loot as well.

    OR

    Lots of people are farming POW for gear to sell in /auction. As someone with no money and no hope of making any money because I have one toon with no alts on a free to play account who can’t solo PR, I think thats unfair. SOE should immediately nerf POW and all old raid zones to not drop any loot or plat. Oh, and get rid of SLR while they are at it.

    Oh wait, they’ve already talked about doing option 2. Playing SOE’s games are like working for a company that hates productive employees. The better you are, they more they fuck you.

    Reply

  • Golur

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    As Kwill says, those most affected will be those just levelling someone to 95, and trying to do the Sig quest. It’s long enough as it is – this will make it much, much harder, and for no real reason.

    As for getting the 3 Boxes – it’s not affecting ANYONE else, as the gear is Heirloom, and useful only for selling or TMing at best – so why oh why do this?

    Why so quick to nerf, and so slow to fix?

    Reply

  • Anaogi

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    The next person who calls for a nerf ’cause “ITS NOT FAAAIIIR!!!11!eleventy!!” should be forced to play nothing but bad text-based games for the rest of their natural lives.

    I’m sick of suffering for other people’s inadequacies.

    Reply

  • Coben

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    Here’s the main stream issue.

    #1: People do not want others to get things they cannot have.

    #2: Those who cannot obtain those same things as someone who can box, solo, trio, or whatever they can’t do want nerfs.

    #3: The challenge of this game has become EasyQuest because of those individuals who suffer lack of intelligence.

    #4: People are more worried about what others are doing versus enjoying the game themselves.

    #5: Loot is loot regardless, and SoE doesn’t want people to get “free loot” hence the nerfs after the game being out for 9 years.

    People who continuously bitch about things get things done, but those who’ve been playing loyally for years have no say so. The new players are those who are gaining control over what’s happening in the game. So, I guess to get anything reverted or changed the way we want is to bitch over and over about it till gets changed.

    What is going to happen within the next few patches is no more plats in all raid zones and removing SLR because people cannot afford these “luxuries”. I cannot believe people are complaining about the ability to play AuctionQuest! Only time will tell, but the way that SoE is doing things is killing EQ2 just to make Eqnext to seem that much better.

    Reply

  • Feldon

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    The sig quest should be completable by killing the non-Challenge boss of Wurmbone’s End. I’ve done it with a healer merc.

    Reply

  • Feldon

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    It used to be that after you finished all the solo quest lines, there wasn’t anything left to do for solo players. Now incredible loot is available. Most of these zones are soloable with merc. And still the cries for nerfs.

    Reply

  • Moose

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    Took them long enough but like every thing else nuke to a band aid requirement for a fix.

    Good thing I am on a mmo break for some time. I will follow the game but at this time I am seeing zero reason to log in and it’s almost at the point to uninstall again.

    Thanks Feldon for your tireless work to provide updates.

    Reply

  • Landiin

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    The names in this zone die in a couple of sec, so flop to required names, kill move one. Zone takes 15 more sec then it did before.

    As far as not being able to use then negate matter cube goes. I don’t know why they would take that out. I kind of thought that’s why you killed all the other names was to get one of them to use on the end guy if needed.

    Reply

  • Uberfuzzy

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    Point of order: the red clicky is [eq2u]Celestial Fragment of Subversion[/eq2u] that CASTS “Negate Matter” (meaning your links/popups above will never resolve), and they are -30, not -25

    Reply

  • Liftik

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    I agree that to make the zone “correct” you SHOULD have to kill all the namers to get the last one to pop, but removing the ability to use an item created SPECIFICALLY for Adv. Solo zones is just stupid. Another knee-jerk reaction/fix from Sony.

    End result: Sony, I won’t be doing WE HM anymore, if your goal was to piss people off and keep them away from this zone… mission accomplished.

    Reply

  • Feldon

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    Uber: Fixed the link. Thanks!

    Reply

  • shimmerman

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    This is the reason I am not going to continue playing this Game. For every good or semi – rational improvement that is made….. SOE goes and blows it by making it worse, The items that drop are crap, not like its worth a damn, and even if the drops were descent, they are not even remotely raid worthy.
    The hole 160 stat gear is craptastic and not even close to being what is needed for the beginning raider. While it may help some the bottom line is the drop rates on the upgrade tokens is crap.

    So there ya go. After 10+ years with EQ 1 & 2… the days of paying for a game that Sucks from stupid decisions now is coming to a close.
    The killed this with crit, itemization and now with the Nerf bats.
    Whats next?

    Reply

  • Geez

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    They have just made it significantly harder for new players trying to progress thru the sig line now there are 2 more names to kill. Imagine a lvl 93 mage decked out in quest reward gear from WL and EJ timelines trying to cope with the necromunger fight. Everyone up until now has been able to skip on by.

    I thought the sig line was an excellent way of guiding players thru the new zones and instances but can see a lot more players getting stuck now and then not knowing where to go next.

    Too many changes at once without thinking it all through. My crystal balls tell me more changes will be made in Tuesday’s update

    Reply

  • Avianna

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    This would not be a bad change if the mobs in the zone were actually added to a loot table instead of the stupid gems they drop that we can no longer even use. if they didn’t want us to skip the mobs in a zone make a point to killing them that is a positive point, not some bullcrap of oh gotta kill this name to spawn this name to spawn this name. add loot tables to all the mobs in the zone and get rid of the stupid gems that we can no longer use and clutter up our bags anyways. I have complained about the zones since they first came out with this “no point to do anything but skip to the final name and kill it and zone out” type of game play anyways.

    Simple point: The whole point of going into a dungeon is to get loot, if the loot if useless and pointless do not go into that dungeon. since none of the mobs drop loot other than the occasional adept=pointless, the names drop gems I don’t or can’t use=pointless now the final name won’t spawn unless I do all kinds of other pointless stuff=pointless and all of the above makes zone=pointless. and it is the same way throughout this entire expansion which makes expansion=pointless.

    My friends ask me about the game I tell them don’t bother, there is better out there for less. They wonder why they are losing customers….
    How can we get our customers to come back…. Here is a clue! Pull out your “handy dandy notebook” and pay attention.

    Reply

  • Edoo

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    What they fixed is that it was faster/easier to get 3 chests from WE than to get 2 chests from ST and even to get 1 chest from many of the other solo zones. Lots of people running the WE solo wouldn’t do the ST solo for 2 chests because they thought it was too much work.

    Reply

  • death

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    WTF is wrong with you people. Everyone just ran to the last guy. Now we have to kill a few names big deal.

    Reply

  • Gash

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    He was not up for me even after I killed the first 3 named.
    He didnt spawn until I went back and killed the Necromonger.

    Reply

  • Madcat

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    @EDOO yes too much work … for what it give. junk with 0,01% of something better than 2% (if for your class and if it’s the slot you need) you ll be able to use

    Reply

  • Twisty

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    notes state clearly what needs to die for last guy to spawn. read.

    evening after patch saw 2 Etherials on broker, whereas it’s been about 1 a week at best before. anyone want to comment on perhaps better luck of getting Etherials out of HM WE? ’cause that would sort of make it worth it again

    Reply

  • Madcat

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    Just got one Ethereal from Dreadcutter heroic, (i prefere duo this than do the new HM WE adv solo…) and got it 😉

    Please nerf DC (heroic), i can duo this zone, it’s not normal ! =P

    Reply

  • din

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    having to kill the other names makes sense – thats how the nearby zone works with their final name.

    but not being able to use the red gem is just stupid, i’m drowning in the gems at it is.

    lets hope no one tells me how quick DC is compares to the other solo zones. Since they all use the same loot table, I try to farm DC for my alts

    Reply

  • din

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    i wonder what effect having to kill the two names would have on toons doing the solo quest line ? They shouldnt be level 95 if they are just doing the quests.

    making the challenge mode harder is a judgement call on Sony’s part, but they should allow the solo players to complete the solo quest line.

    Reply

  • Anaogi

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    ST is less hassle, give 2 chests, and still has that crappy fight they not-fixed. I ran WE Adv Solo yesterday–didn’t seem too bad to me, but the hassle increase was noticeable, and there’s simply no legit reason to make the red gems not work for the HM end boss.

    Also: Nerf-callers smell like elderberries.

    Reply

  • Liftik

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    Just to be clear and fair (what? new concept SoE?) you can still use the Celestial Fragment of Subversion on Prime Magnate Mrelg while in normal mode (after interrupting his challenge mode). Obviously, you don’t get 3 boxes for normal mode however.

    Reply

  • Elderon

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    So, i already kill that annoying porting All-Blocker guy on my run for the end boss, and with this change, you are telling me that i only have to make a diversion to the top of the hill to kill Necromunger, which may take me a few more minutes?

    I’m not sure what all the fuss is about to be honest. Even when i didn’t have raid gear this was all possible for me on any of my toons. I didn’t even know you could blow past all names when i originally did the Sig line so i killed all those names anyway.

    The only real downer is the removal of the Red-Clicky for Hard Mode Mrelg, which i kinda thought was a little easy to be honest. (It’s supposed to be Hard Mode)

    Put Adorns on your Gear. Reforge your equipment. Try Harder.

    Reply

  • Deah

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    Im all good with nerfing solo content. Add x2 raid instead.

    Reply

  • Ragefighter

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    It is not that hard as an inquisitor (but as a healer most stuff is easy to do alone) I think they should reconsider the change to the [eq2u]Celestial Fragment of Subversion[/eq2u]. If anything make it do a lower amount of total % HP like 15-20% instead of 30% since it is a “Hard Mode” Encounter.

    It’s just the fact that the only use for those items is these fights that you might not be able to kill and need that extra boost, otherwise there is 100% no point to kill anything else in the zone, at least when the red things were usable it gave an incentive to clear the zone because it could make the last named die faster. now it’s just forcing us to kill two named in the zone that will drop nothing of use for most people.(I don’t know if other classes use those healing or mana clicky’s but as a cleric I don’t need to)

    Anyway it really doesn’t effect me much since I only ran the zone when people asked me to help kill the last named so my zones were clear when I zoned in LOL.

    And +1 on the Add an x2 zone! =]

    Reply

  • Periphery

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    So people are upset because they have to kill some other names and trash adding an extra 5-10 mins on to the zone and because they cant use an item on the hard mode version of the last name to make it much easier?

    QQ QQ QQ QQ QQ QQ QQ QQ QQ QQ QQ QQ QQ QQ QQ QQ QQ QQ QQ QQ

    Reply

    • Feldon

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      So people are upset because they have to kill some other names and trash adding an extra 5-10 mins on to the zone and because they cant use an item on the hard mode version of the last name to make it much easier?

      What is the point of the red clicky if not for killing the boss of Wurmbone’s End HM? in Skyshrine, I only ever used the red clicky on the hardest mob there. Problem?

      Reply

  • dx2

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    @Anaogi

    But text based (rp) games are quite nice !

    Reply

  • Anaogi

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    Oh yeah, a x2 zone. We’ve begging for another one or two of those for how long, now? That would be a welcomed addition.

    Reply

  • Pomma

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    @ Everyone who thinks we’re bitching about having to kill a few mobs…

    Its the principle of the thing and you know that. Its that they focus on all these little things rather than fixing bigger issues. Then people defend them because this “one little thing” isn’t worth bitching about.

    But its one little thing, then another, then another. All the while also adding inexplicable nerfs and not fixing obvious other issues

    Reply

  • badcat

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    WEll they need to make one of those 2 other bosses killable in solo mode the one guy is impossible. This was a stupid mistake

    Reply

  • Zapphod

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    I am not against the idea of killing the other named although the one I avoid is the one not on the list of requirements (can’t recall his name) but it is just an annoying long winded fight for no purpose in my opinion.

    I do not understand the point to the red clicky change as this is what they were added for so it just seems like an over reaction to me.

    What I don’t like is this continual process of making these zones harder, currently it seems to me that the solo instances are really only useful to players not in large guilds who don’t raid or do heroics as better gear is available to those that do yet they seem to be gearing solo zones to players with heroic and raid equipment who don’t need anything from them.

    Reply

  • Gourdon

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    I did this zone last night on my assassin, anticipating that it might give me problems. Having to kill the Necronaut is a time waster, though he isn’t very hard to kite. I didn’t even bring out the merc to kill him. Mrelg went smoother than expected, got him on the first try. One thing I did notice is that the ratmen along the approach to Mrelg were affecting my ability to target them, which was 100% annoyance 0% challenge.

    Reply

  • Kwill

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    I just got to this step on my coercer, who is casually geared. Will try it today and see if I can get through it solo.

    Reply

  • Striinger

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    Is this the first Signature line that’s totally Soloable?

    Reply

    • Feldon

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      Is this the first Signature line that’s totally Soloable?

      Yes.

      Reply

  • Kwill

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    I was not able to do the necromancer, solo, and I am so clumsy with a merc that I got a guild member to help me finish, which we did quickly. He didn’t need to kite the adds, as he’s raid geared and just killed the guy.

    The rest I soled with a healer merc. It’s doable solo, if you can get a helper for Wurmbone End. It is a long quest, but I think given the problems with the vendor and the key, it’s worth doing it on a character you might play fairly often.

    Reply

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