SOE Liveblog: EverQuest II Expansion #11 (Altar of Malice)

Now it’s time for the EverQuest II: Altar of Malice expansion panel with nearly the entire EQ2 team. We’re liveblogging as well as recording a video of this panel in 720p HD. This panel is also being livecast on Twitch.

Liveblog began at 12:00pm PDT and ended at 1:00pm PDT on Friday August 15th.

Holly “Windstalker” Longdale to the stage. Tim Heydalaar and Dave Brown to the stage.

Showing PlayerStudio items.

Updates! – For years, we’ve been doing weekly updates. This January, we wanted to focus our updates more, with weekly updates and monthly updates with content. Going through the list of items added this year.

• Fabled Kingdom of Sky
• Heritage Quests
• Oakmyst & Darklight Houses – by player request
• Highkeep Contested & Guild Halls
• Dreadscale’s Maw & Deathtoll Raids

Last year:

• Nights of the Dead
• New Frostfell zone
• Flying Meatbe…uh, Bovoch

What’s the next mount?

• Showing video of Bunny mount by Tom Tobey and Chris Atkins. Hilarious. Leaper mounts.

All Access

• Ability for members to Broker anywhere in the game. Receive Mail attachments anywhere in the game. Some special spells and items might be limited to subscribers.

Level Agnostic Dungeons

• Level 20-90 zones with suitable loot for your level.

Rare Heroic Loot Merchant — if the RNG is not your friend

PvP 6v6 Deathmatch – based on Roehn Theer zone. Traps and powerups which move around the board.

Sell collection items for status! – Shinies are awesome

Grandmaster Spells – Available to all characters, all levels. Research and Drops

Isle of Refuge Prestige House for 10 year Vets. Starter population pack with characters that are remiscient of the zone. Bladefin the shark.

Deity System Reborn – Updated Miracles and Blessings – Possibly worship more than one god.

New Public Quests – Redesign the system so it’s easier to put them in the game. Make your contribution rewarding. Coming next year.

Fabled Echoes of Faydwer – Inner Sanctum and Crypt of Valdoon

Cross-server Dungeons

Altar of Malice

• See this morning’s press article for the list of specs in the expansion.
• Prestige Abilities to 100. Brigand Shadow. Allows brigand to summon a shadow of the caster to help them.
• Temporal Mimicry for Illy – For the duration of the spell, you mimic the abilities of the target. For instance if the targeted wizard does Ice Comet, he casts Ice Comet.

A new Tradeskill Apprentice

Loot to play your way… – Continuation of the Itemization Magna Carta — choice in itemization.

• Rare Ancient spell scrolls, ie. Master III
• showing a silly image “Slap in the Face” — kills all group and raid members.

New Player race — The Aerakyn

• Customizable horns, unique combat animations with wing attacks, scale color, hair color, wing color. Wings advance over time until they are a flying mount at 85.

Jeff “the” Bard, Storyteller and Designer on the EQ2 team coming to the stage in costume to tell us the story thus far and leading up to Altar of Malice.

Game Designer, Jeff Bard, giving an amazing performance! http://t.co/QSMhETsrQf #SOELive [Luperza] pic.twitter.com/M5N0Y7yzV7

— EverQuest II (@everquestii) August 15, 2014

Showing screenshot of Tranquil Sea. First place you start is the ruined Isle of Refuge. Then you travel to the home of the Far Seas Trading Company to find out what went wrong.

Akil “Lyndro” Hooper, Tim Heydalaar, and Dan Brown to the stage.

Showing the new overland zones. Holy crap. Doesn’t even look like EQ2.

Phantom Sea – Kithicor forest — audience went insane

Showing Highhold — the Far Seas Trading Company HQ which is far above the rest of the zone.

Showing Sshraeshza, Temple of Akheva zone.

Showing Castle Highhold — under seige by the Akhevans.

Showing Broken Skull Bay pirate city. Holy crap.

Showing Zavith’loa. Journey to the center of the earth type zone. Giant lizards. Zavith’loa lizardkin.

Ossuary of Malevolence – PRiests and Priestesses for their god Lanys T’Val. Like a giant bone church. Massive church organ.

Beta late September or early October.

Contest

If you knew the language (Gnomish) on Jeff Bard’s photo ID, you won an SSD.

Showing the 10th anniversary logo and two swords. A player knew the name of the sword and won a prize. Showing the Roehn Theer versions of the  Qeynos Claymore and Soulfire. Because we didn’t to show Antonia and Lucan on yet another logo. 😉

Now they’re doing intros and brief Q&A at the stage.

• Q: Can we have level 85 crafters? Can we have guild hall storage for recipes?
• A: Recipe scrolls and spell scrolls cannot currently be placed in a depot. We’re working on that. We’re not looking right now at creating level 85 crafters. It’s a matter of hours to level, and it would detract from those who invest the time to level naturally.
• Q: Is every item going to have proc effects going forward?
• A: Kander — Yes.

These are just the few questions asked at the end of the Expansion panel. EQ2Wire will NOT be liveblogging the EQ2 Q&A and tomorrow. I WILL be recording them in 720p HD with a new high quality microphone and will be posting these videos NEXT WEEK.

LIVEBLOG CONCLUDES