Update Notes & Downtime Notice: Tuesday, November 17, 2015 “Terrors of Thalumbra”

Tomorrow is the launch of Terrors of Thalumbra, EverQuest II’s twelfth expansion!

From the EQ2 Forums:

All EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, November 17, 2015 at 7:00AM PST* for the Terrors of Thalumbra expansion update. Estimated downtime is approximately five hours.

EverQuest II: Terrors of Thalumbra is scheduled to unlock to players at noon pacific** on Tuesday, November 17, 2015.

Time Zone Conversions

• PST: November 17 @ 7:00am – Noon
• EST: November 17 @ 10:00am – 3:00pm
• GMT: November 17 @ 15:00 – 20:00
• CEST: November 17 @ 16:00 – 21:00

and your Update Notes from the EQ2 Forums:

TERRORS OF THALUMBRA
Deep underneath Norrath lies a realm on the edge of the Plane of the Underfoot, known as Thalumbra. This expansive, subterranean domain is home to fabled races and ancient terrors!

When the dark shroud upon this land is pierced by Lanys T’Vyl, the recently resurrected demigoddess of Malice, it spells doom for all! You are a hero on the stage of Norrath. Will you play your part and protect Norrath from those who seek to destroy it? What mysteries will your torch uncover deep beneath the surface? Can you withstand the terrors of Thalumbra?

Features:

• Subterranean Overland Zone – Overland zone deep beneath Norrath’s surface.
• Signature Quests – Special quests for both Adventure and Tradeskill players!
• New Level Agnostic Dungeons – Brand new dungeons that scale for players 20-95
• Upgrade Your Items – Through the new Infusion system!
• New and Updated Deity System
• New Relic Item System
• Heroic & Advanced Solo Dungeons, Challenging Raid Zones and a New Contested Zone for level 100s!

Level 100 adventurers are to speak with Virun D’Xyafin in Neriak or Dangle Springbolt in Greater Faydark to begin their adventures.

GENERAL

• You will now earn Tithe while Questing and Adventuring at all levels, which may be used to purchase consumable Deity abilities, or permanent passive stat bonuses. For each adventure experience point you earn, you will also earn a single Tithe experience at a 1:1 ratio, meaning any extra experience you earn due to bonuses such as vitality or characters at maximum level will also increase the rate at which you gain tithe. You may spend tithe points via the Diety window, which can be opened in the menu or with the /toggledeity command.
• Some stats have had a new hard cap applied. Once this hard cap has been reached, any extra amount of this stat will no longer affect the character directly.
• Crit Bonus now has a hard cap of 3000.
• Weapon Damage Bonus, and Spell Weapon Damage Bonus now have a hard cap of 300.

GUILD

• Repeatable quests will no longer contribute status to guilds over level 100. Missions will continue to grant status to guilds over level 100.
• Guilds above level 100 may purchase a new banner amenity which will grant them a buff that scales based off of guild level.

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Freeport / Qeynos

• Freeport and Qeynos sages are now selling “Tome of Order and Discord” to interested parties.

Commonlands

• Water creatures should no longer wander outside of player’s reach, close to the guildhall.

MERCENARIES

• All tank mercenaries introduced with Altar of Malice, including all purchasable tank mercenaries and the 10-year veteran mercenary, Lord Valkiss Ssi’sh, will now hold better aggro. Paladin mercenaries remain untouched in this regard.
• All mercenaries introduced with Altar of Malice, including all purchasable mercenaries, both 10-year veteran mercenaries and the new Terrors of Thalumbra Collector’s Edition mercenary now have increased hitpoints and resists.

ABILITIES / ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT
Fighter

• Most fighter damage abilities, buffs and debuffs have been increased by approximately 15%.

Scout

• Most scout damage abilities, buffs and debuffs have been increased by approximately 30%.

Beastlord

• Offensive and Defensive warders innate buffs have been rebalanced for level 100. These buffs have also been made visible.
• Weakness will now be removed after casting 2 advantages. The duration of Weakness has been reduced from 5 to 3 seconds.
• Beastlord Advantages have had their base values increased above the scout 30% increase.

Dirge

• Confront Fear – Grants the target an Ability Reuse to Potency conversion.
• Clara’s Chaotic Cacophony – Grants the caster’s group Final Ability Damage for combat arts.
• Oration of Sacrifice – Grants a single trigger damage spell to the target.
• Noxious Symphony – Grants Increased Noxious resist for the Dirge’s group.
• Battle Cry – Grants the target a Multi Attack to Potency conversion.
• Zander’s Choral Rebuff – Increases Noxious Damage done to the target encounter.

Swashbuckler

• Pirate’s Fancy – Increased the damage granted to area effect abilities.
• Thieving essence – Deals Increased damage and grants more ability modifier to the group.
• Shadow – Increases Physical Damage done to the target encounter.
• Dagger Storm – Will deal more damage.
• Marauder’s Vaunt – Increased Final Ability Damage granted to group members.
• Double Cross – Increases Elemental Damage done to the target encounter.

Troubador

• Energizing Ballad – Will now grant the target a Flurry to Potency Conversion.
• Jester’s Cap -Greatly Increase damage on Jester’s Ruse.
• Arcane Symphony – Will grant Increased Arcane resist for the Troubador’s group.
• Elemental Concerto – Will grant Increased Elemental resist for the Troubador’s group.
• Countersong – Will buff the caster’s group with Potency and Ability Modifier.
• Demoralizing Processional – Will buff the caster’s group with Final Ability Damage for spells.
• Zander’s Choral Rebuff – Increases Arcane Damage done to the target encounter.

Warlock

• Focused Casting now splits its conversion bonus between Potency and Crit Bonus.

TRADESKILLS

• Carpenter Essentials Volume 43 has 9 new building blocks from the Plain Fulginate set.
• Carpenter Essentials Volume 53 has 9 new building blocks from the Plain Sandalwood set.
• Carpenter Essentials Volume 53 has 9 new building blocks from the Indium set.
• Carpenter Essentials Volume 63 has 9 new building blocks from the Halasian set.
• Level 100 crafters who own Terrors of Thalumbra and have completed “The Captain’s Lament” (offered by Ethan on the Isle of Mara) may begin the new Terrors of Thalumbra tradeskill questline in the Isle of Mara. This can be completed at any adventure level. You will need to complete this questline in order to purchase new level 100 recipe books.
• Level 100 repeatable daily missions will be offered by Gwynvyn in Maldura once you have completed some of the main questline. By request, these quests are structured so that if you prefer to do all 7 daily quests all at once, you can do that instead of picking up just one per day. However, this does mean that they are not visible on a mission timer like normal missions. There is one weekly mission also offered by Gwynvyn that does show the normal mission timer so can be used as a reference if you prefer to do them all at once.
• Level 100 tradeskill writs have been added. However, be aware that while you’ll still receive personal status points, guilds over level 101 will not gain guild XP from writs. The daily missions from Gwynvyn do award a coin that can be sold for status to level up your guild.
• Koros Splinterlimb in the Isle of Mara now sells recipes that allow crafters to upgrade equipment found in level agnostic dungeons.
• Carpenters will find some additional building block recipes in their existing books for sets that had some missing pieces. In addition, recipes for triangle building blocks can be purchased in Maldura.
• Refining will now grant a 5% bonus instead of a 10% bonus.
• Refining will no longer grant bonuses to potency, crit bonus, Weapon Damage Bonus or Spell Weapon Damage Bonus. This will not affect items that have already been created with refined materials.
• Experimentation’s effect on crit bonus and potency has been reduced from 10% to 5%. This will affect previously experimented items.
• Crafters (weaponsmiths) have been granted a recipe that allows them to change weapon delays between 4 and 6 seconds.
• Terrors of Thalumbra Handcrafted and Mastercrafted items may not be transmuted or salvaged.

ITEMS

• “Shroud of the Roekillik” now allows Roekillik illusion on mounts.
• Prestige Items – Some new powerful equipment will now be flagged Prestige, and may only be equipped by a member.
• Relic Items – Some items are just so amazing, you just can’t handle more than one at a time. A character may only equip a single relic item at a time. If you have both the Sword of Relic Awesome and the Relic Boots of Rythmic Walking, you would need to un-equip one before equipping the other.
• Gear Infusers may now be used to apply a bonus to one or more stats on an item. Most infusers grant a random bonus within a set range to a stat that already exists on the item, while some rare infusers will add the stat if it does not already exist on an item. Most gear will now drop or be created with a random bonus applied to certain stats. These random bonuses may be increased via purchased infusions in the /toggleinfusion window.
• The loyalty merchant Toowik Mclure has had a shipment of Relics and Infusers from Thalumbra.
• Upgraded the platinum granted by “a small bag of platinum coins”, it will now grant 500 plat.
• Weapons with a delay lower than 4 seconds have been increased to 4 seconds. This is to help reduce event scheduler lag. Crafter’s have been granted a recipe that allows them to change weapon delays between 4 and 6 seconds.
• You may now reforge into Potency
• You may now reforge out of excess Crit Bonus, Weapon Damage Bonus, and Spell Weapon Damage Bonus
• Corrected a bug with item effects and procs, including poisons, that stated “Cannot be modified except by direct means” being modified by final ability damage effects and negative damage reduction effects.

QUESTS

• Earning Rank – Quest is now properly categorized as “Maj’Dul”.
• Knights in the Round – A vision of Sir Vallius Bayle now has a despawn time.
• The Pirate’s Bride – Deletion of quest now removes the “An Assassination Contract” from the player’s inventory.
• The Pirate’s Bride – Alyra The Assasin now provides “An Assassination Contract” for each player of the group on the quest.

LIVE EVENTS

• Aldaelon Rootbed and Omarin T’Zaana, the Sundered Ground event merchants, have returned to Kelethin and Neriak, respectively, for a limited time. Be sure to trade in any remaining Primordial Malice Baubles you have hiding in your pockets!
• City Festival merchant, Claudia, will now exchange Primordial Malice baubles for City Tokens.