Feldon 
Looks like Press gets a healthy headstart on posting expansion news for EverQuest and EverQuest II this year. After their private meetings with Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson and EQ2 Producer Holly “Windstalker” Longdale on Tuesday, they’ve had time to draft their articles and now, they’re available for all to read. My issue is, people at home have more information than those at SOE Live who may not yet have read these articles. Some Press sites (notably excluding Massively and ZAM) get a full boat ride from SOE, paying for hotel and sometimes even airfare, dinners, etc.). EQ2Wire covers EverQuest II all 365 days a year, and we do it without VIP treatment.
Anyway, enough politics. On to the news! These are the sites we’ve found so far:
The totally kickass key art is at the top of the article. And now the bullet points:
- Level 100 increase for Adventure, Tradeskill, and Guild levels.
- 14 Dungeons
- 6 Raids
- 6 Advanced Solo Zones
- 2 Contested Dungeons
- 2 Massive Overland zones created with the new unbelievable Layout Editor. I’ve heard that the new zones are so stunning that players will hardly believe they are running in the EQ2 engine.
- Tranquil Sea: composed of the devastated Isle of Refuge, Deathweave Isle, and the Pygmie-and-dinosaur-inhabited Island of Dichen
- Phantom Sea: composed of the haunted forest of Kithicor, the trading company’s home base Highhold, and Grimshales, an island made from a shard of Luclin
- 4 new Avatars
More after the jump…
- Level-agnostic Dungeons for level 20-89 coming this fall (before the expac) with proprotional loot available for all participants. Now, time spent leveling up or grouping up with lower level characters won’t be perceived as “wasted” as you’ll be a better character at 95-100 for having played these lower level zones.
- Also in an update this fall, a Rare Heroic Loot merchant like we’ve seen in previous years. This allows those who have been incredibly unlucky on the RNG to buy desired rare heroic drops.
- Altar of Malice will take place in the Shabby Sea, a small body of water between Antonica and Faydwer.
Altar of Malice brings with itA new playable race, the Aerakyn, may be purchased for StationCash. They offer some extra aesthetic customization (custom horns, wings, scale pattern color) and their wings actually develop over time so when you hit level 85 and achieve flight, its on your own homegrown wings.
- Guild level goes to 100, with more amenities and upgraded “elite” guild halls.
- New Rabbit leaper mount with good and evil versions.
- Collection items (shinies) will now be sellable for Status. It sounds like the Status merchant is going to get loaded up with stuff as a way for players to spend status.
- All character spells and combat arts can be upgraded to Grandmaster. Some will upgrade to Ancient quality.
- We’re going to the home of the Far Seas Trading Company — Castle Highhold — and will find out why we’ve been blocked from going there for so long.
- This Fall, All Access members will get the ability to retrieve mail attachments and access the broker from anywhere in the world.
- EQ2 will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a special heroes festival set to begin in November, with 11-year veterans getting a special Isle of Refuge prestige home, complete with a starter population pack.
Next Year!
- Hory Shet! NEW PUBLIC QUESTS coming early 2015. I am totally pumped about this one!
- Fabled level 100 versions of Echoes of Faydwer dungeons will be released throughout 2015.
- Cross-server Dungeon Finder.
- Deity System revamp. Will include new level appropriate blessings and miracles. Also the ability to worship more than 1 diety.
These screenshots really do not do justice to the few sneak peaks I saw on Monday when I visited SOE!
Let the other sites publish, I still come here to find out what the real deal is with anything EQ2 related.
Me too. Only place I have trusted for the EQ franchise for the last 6 or so years. When I used to play EQ2 daily, this was my browser homepage. I am actually here now looking at any details for EQN, thats how much I trust you Feldon. This is an EQ2 page lol.
Anyone else can publish what they like, but you have the respect of the community and until you publish, it is just a trailer or a press release in my view.
The Ocean of Tears. I hated that place. I lost my first corpse there. ;_;
Oooh, Cross-Server-Dungeon finder! Please, Feldon, ask them to make it also (optionally) cross-language so in Europe the German players can play with the French and British…not much point in it being cross-server over here otherwise.
Dexella gave you a shout out for the Eq2Wire App!!! <3 Dexella!!
It is a shame those of us that spent money to come out here and support SOE get the latest updates on the web that we could have gotten from home.
Feldon thank you for the updates.
There is a reason myself and many others come to you first and check out Eq2wire countless times a day.
Oh wow! This stuff looks great!
Yeah, I agree with Wilhelm..let the others publish. Real players know where to come for info )
I haven’t been this excited for an expansion in a long time, good job EQ2 team!
This all looks amazing. The only item of concern for me is the implementation of Grandmaster level spells for all spells. Will there be new drops like Master books to give you the Grandmaster version? Or will the only way to achieve it be to research it? (Thus turning this into nothing more than a money grab from SC reducers)
Grandmasters will drop throughout the world from level 1-100.
Waaaa..
The poor isle of refuge.
And is it just me or are those revamped Grimlings from luclin? If they are wouldn’t that put that chunk of Luclin as the section right off Katta Castellum? Unless this section was taken from elsewhere on Luclin, maybe a part of the Grimling Forestm that’s a bit farther away than Katta would have been.
Bah, I really wanted to actually go to the moon. But bringing parts of the moon to us is almost as good. Even though I miss Shar Vahl.
XD I kept getting strange looks from my hubby as i kept “squeeee!!!” ing as i read the article. XD
So excited! Can’t wait!
My hubby giving me strange looks too for the exact same reason, GriffonLady!
I want to be a Pigmy necro that raises a mob of Pigmy skellies to kill the bad guys. What fun!
Wait, wouldn’t the Isle home technically be the 11-year veteran reward?
Yes, it’s the 11 year vet reward. EQ2 turns 10 in Nov 2014, but because of a few past expansions that added +90 days (there were 4 of them marketed that way) vet rewards are 360 days ahead (nearly a full year) of actual possible played time.
Yep. To be honest, it would be nice for them to retcon all of that “expansion = longer vet times” thing and just roll the 10th + “11th” year’s rewards into one. It’s confusing to people who weren’t around back then and/or people looking in from outside. This is coming from someone who has been here since day 1 so the reward for me personally is not the issue; I just think it was a silly idea and what better time to fix it than on the 10th anniversary?
Yes technically. 🙂
Finally Kithicor! Besides Luclin, this was the single other thing I wanted to see. Looking forward to seeing more.
I sure hope I dont have to upgrade my computer to run the new stuff but other than that..Wohoo!!
This all looks awesome so far ty for the updates Feldon
Great coverage as always Fel – you do the EQ2 community proud!
Looking like a great expansion. The zone art looks phenomenal. Isle of Refuge yay! Kithicor Forest yay! Lots of great new content, features and niceties coming. Plus a revamped PQ system on the way, as well as cross-server dungeon finder – was beginning to wonder if it would ever happen. Great great news.
Looks like they’re pulling a rabbit out of the hat for this expansion and the upcoming months.
Feldon you are the only site worth visiting. I hope everyone sees the donate button on the side. Have a beer on me. Thank you
I’m really hyped but really skeptical. Is Highhold going to be the SAME Highhold we got in ToV? I rather not play through a fourth version of the zone. Is the devastated Isle Of Refuge going to have an artistic overhaul (please say yes)?
That said, the art in general for EQ2 has definitely become better and keeps getting better with each expansion. Only wish armor and weapons got the same treatment.
Totally new zone art.
Good to hear.
uhhh they need to revamp the ENTIRE aa tree’s
I see ALOT of totally useless aa’s that you Sink points in just to get something that actually help a little, but with new gear and effects on that gear it becomes more and more obsolete.
Granted alot are % based enhancements to keep them from being obsolete, i see alot that are not and are now trash aa’s. Just make Enhancements to abilities more efficient. example …5 points in class tree reduces ability cast time by .5 seconds then you have another aa that makes it instant cast…makes the other aa obsolete”
so far looks like the best xpac ever.