EQ2 Insider Episode #4 – September 10, 2014

EQ2Wire will be liveblogging EQ2 Insider Episode #4, which as it turns out will be Maggie “Luperza” Krohn‘s last episode as she has taken a position at Curse.com. You can watch EverQuest II Insider #4 at Twitch right now.

This was a live blog of today’s EQ2 Insider Episode #4.

• Talking about SOE Live and how positive and fun it was.
• Talking about updates later this year.
• Kander encouraging people to play Altar of Malice beta as players will earn very nice rewards on Live for their efforts on Beta.
• Nathan (Kaitheel) will be talking today about Altar of Malice Lore.
• They’ll be talking about Level Agnostic Dungeons today.
• Grandmasters.
• Nights of the Dead.
• Kaitheel will be going over House Decorating Dev Picks.

Kaitheel showing some screenshots of new zones:

• Deathweave Isle — land of spiderbears

Gninja showing:

• Brokenskull Bay — explore the ship Hate’s Fury, the jail, a place kinda like Tortuga Bay. Pirates and spiderbears.
• Feral spiderbears
• Treasure Rooms

Gninja, Akil, Kander, and Maggie talking Level Agnostic Dungeons

• Currently level 20-89. They want to go over level 89 but it will take a lot of work.
• Plenty of level XP. Good rewards for your level plus Etyma.
• Starting with 8 zones.
• How did the EQ2 team pick the dungeons? They looked back at the expansion and tried to pick zones that are not overly complicated scripted events, but are showcase zones. They’re challenging for 3-4 people, fun for 6. Not as easy as mentoring down.
• Akil: When we do cross-server dungeons, we will include Level-Agnostic Dungeons.
• EQ2 team has to go through each zone and make it work as level-agnostic, including balancing mobs and making sure it works well, not too easy, not too hard. So they can’t just flip a switch and do every zone.
• Rewards are based on your current level, but you do get Etyma no matter what level you are.

Kander talking about Grandmaster Spells

• There are a handful of spells that will not be upgraded. Otherwise every spell will be upgradeable to Grandmaster (ie Master II). You do not need the expansion for level 1-95 Grandmasters. You’ll need Altar of Malice for level 96-100.
• Grandmasters require an All Access sub. If you unsubscribe, they drop to Master. If you sub, they go back up to Grandmaster.
• Grandmasters use the Master spell as a recipe component.
• Grandmasters require you to pay attention while crafting. If you just walk away, they will fail and you lose some components. Sage and Jeweler  will be at an advantage.
• Tradeskill components to make Grandmasters will have to be rare harvests — not from goblin, pack pony, or guild harvester.
• Can be Researched.

Ancient Spells

• Only drop in Altar of Malice. As Ancient spells exist from level 10-100, they must clearly drop in more places than AoM.
• 4-6 per class. Your big hitter spells.
• To scribe, you must have your Grandmaster.
• Cannot be Researched. They are drops and tradeable.
• Upgrade is 10-20% over your Grandmaster spell.
• If you drop back to Free-to-Play, then they drop back to Master. If you resub, they go back to Ancient.

There will be a new Tradeskill Apprentice in the expansion with new stuff. Most likely where you will get Grandmaster recipes.

Emily “Domino” Taylor has come back to EQ2 team temporarily to create some tradeskill quests for the expansion.

Kaitheel talking about Nights of the Dead.

• New quest, new tradeskills, new achievement, new items you can buy, new rewards.
• The new items can be acquired in-game with quests, tokens, etc. There will also be StationCash stuff.

Kaitheel now touring 3 Dev Pick houses.

Thanks all for tuning in to this live blog.

Also…

Yes, that’s a duck. #duckmount