Author Archive

EQ2Wire: Aug 13 2008-September 8 2017

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Commentary

After 9 years, it is time for me to call it quits on this EQ2Wire News site.

I feel I have always put players first, and that choice has repeatedly cost me support I might have otherwise gotten from the EQ2 team and Sony Online Entertainment. At the last SOE Live, I was jokingly branded “chief shit-stirrer” by the Community Council for my constant vigilance of issues affecting customers, and my frequent and often uncomfortable requests for accountability.

I have often cast a bright spotlight on business and development choices that I felt negatively affect players. Even though all that, a mutual respect had been maintained for 7 years. And for every negative article, I spent as much time (or more) promoting Game Updates and Expansions and providing players with up-to-date information whenever possible.

A great many other things are going on in my life which bring me great satisfaction, from growing heirloom tomatoes, to judging and preparing competition BBQ, to developing circuit boards from Arduino projects. With limited time, something had to give. With my deteriorating relationship with Daybreak Games, and the fact I no longer play EverQuest II, that decision has come into sharp focus over the last few months. The hardest part has been the idea that I will be letting players down. All I’ve ever wanted to do for 9 years writing this site and 7 years flying to Las Vegas and writing about this game, is to help people.

I wish Norrath well and hope that the next expansion is successful and that players out there step up and document it and help others.

I will continue to maintain and update the EQ2U Players site, which still receives over 30,000 character lookups per day, as long as the EQ2 Census service remains available.

eq2wire2017-soelivephoto

Dellmon, Feldon, Kander, and Leko at SOE Live 2013

   

Massively Overpowered: Guide to EverQuest II’s Days of Summer Reward Event

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2

From MJ Guthrie over at MassivelyOverpowered:

Did you hear about EverQuest II multi-month Days of Summer reward event? If so, lucky you! Here is an event that was launched with so little fanfare that even though I am playing every week. it completely slipped out of my mind — even after I learned about it the first week! It’s also an event that rewards players with some pretty snazzy rewards if they complete each of the weekly quests, so missing out entirely will make you lose out on a familiar, level 100 gear, housing decorations, a prestige house, and more. So many goodies! That may be because this summer event is akin to prelude events before expansions as it is aimed at helping people gear up for the upcoming expansion. Now don’t you wish you knew more about it? Well here you go.

daysofsummer2017-1

Continue reading…

Bonus XP & 25% OFF Marketplace for Members from September 1-5!

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Daybreak Cash, EQ2, Live Events

From EverQuest2.com:

Ready to spend a rewarding weekend in Norrath?

bonus_xp_banner_old

From 12:00PM PT on Friday, September 1, 2017 until 12:00PM PT on Tuesday, September 5, 2017, ALL players on ALL servers will receive Double Bonus XP! Have your eye on something in the Marketplace? If you’re a member, you’ll also recieve 25% off of ALL Marketplace items!

Additionally, from 12:00AM PT on Friday, September 1, 2017 to 11:59 PM PT on Monday, September 4, 2017, you can enjoy DOUBLE Ethereal Rewards!

Not an All Access member yet? With bonuses, discounts, access to new content, and more, there’s never been a better time to join!

Update Notes: Tuesday August 29, 2017 — Running Long

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Free-to-Play (EQ2X), Game Updates & Maintenance, PvP/BG/Proving Grounds

From the EQ2 Forums:

All EverQuest II Servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, August 29th, 2017 at 7:00 AM PT (14:00 UTC) for an update. Estimated downtime is less than 2 hours.

At the 3 1/2 hour mark, the forums were updated with this notification indicating a possible total 4 1/2 hour downtime:

This morning’s downtime downtime is running longer than expected – EQ2 servers should be unlocked by approximately 11:30AM PT.

From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL
Isle of Refuge (Free Trade)

  • Random events in the Obulus Frontier are now more common on a Free-Trade server.
  • All waves of Kunark Ascending Ethereal Events are now active indefinitely.
  • Players will earn double Ascension Experience on a Free Trade server.
  • Weekend Treasure Rush has been enabled on Free Trade servers, where Kunark Ascending encounters will drop double loot. This event activates every Saturday and Sunday on a Free-Trade server. Treasure Rush bonuses do not stack with other double loot drop events.

EQ2 Adds 11th Adornment Slot Color

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Itemization

spongebob_rainbow

If you were worried that we would run out of Adornment colors in EQ2, have no fear. In the last few weeks, new items have started dropping with a new adornment slot — Grey. That adds to the existing gaggle of adornment colors White, Red and Yellow (both now obsolete), Blue (PvP), Purple, Cyan, Temporary, Green, and Orange.  That gives us 6 active adornment colors. With the release of Kunark Ascending, a Black adornment slot was found in the game’s icon files, although no items have yet been found with that slot color. With Grey adornments, that potentially puts us at 8 colors going into November.

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Update Notes: Thursday August 24, 2017

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization, PvP/BG/Proving Grounds

From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL

  • Fixed an issue with spacing in the group window.

PROVING GROUNDS

  • The revive point within Tower of Frozen Shadow will now revive you within the zone.
  • Corrected an issue that prevented the 101st orc from granting the final reward in Scourge Keep Duo Arena.

FAMILIARS

  • Mission crates and public quests now have a chance to drop either Season 1 or Season 2 familiars.
  • Corrected the damage multiplier that was granting some season 2 familiars higher damage hits than intended.

EQ2’s Fourteenth Expansion Won’t Require Epic 2.0 Weapons

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Expansion News, Itemization

two_handed_swords

From Kander on the EQ2 Forums:

To clarify, the Epic 2.0 will not be required for the expansion, expansion access or 99% of the expansion content. It will not be required for any solo or quest content, including the signature line. There will be some specific content, that if you have done the epic, you will be able to participate in. It isn’t required. Alts and new players will have virtually no pre-reqs for expansion 14 content. We’re even going to gear your alts and new players for said content before they begin. The plan is to make the new content easier for alts to go through after the initial pass.

We will be doing things to help alts catch up, like the summer promo quests and tithe baubles, etc, on Ascension and several other aspects of content. More news soon.

Epic 2.0s will not be required for any raid or heroic content. They will remain the best items for those slots throughout the expac content though.

Words From the Tribunal – Kander’s Candor

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance

gu104-101

From Kander on the EQ2 Forums:

Greetings Fellow Norrathians!

It’s time to start talking about what we have in store with GU 104 on August 22nd , as well as where we are going with some much anticipated changes coming this year!

Large Class Balance Pass

With GU 104, there will be a rather large balance pass which adjusts the outgoing damage across most classes, focusing primarily on Assassin, Wizard, and the Warlock class but most classes will experience some increase. Further updates have also been made to abilities for some of the support classes. This is by no means the final balance pass, and there will be lots of changes and improvements coming with the expansion. Expect, as we mentioned, to see a full new tier of class profession abilities as well as new Ascension abilities. [As a note, all of the current Ascension abilities will remain relevant, and we have no plans to introduce upgrades to current Ascension abilities.] With the expansion, class profession spells will drop as they have historically, so look forward to those master and ancient spell scrolls!

Game Update 104: Sol’s Summer

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization, Raiding

gu104-sols-summer

From EverQuest2.com:

All of your favorite features from GU103:  The Menagerie are getting bigger and better than ever! GU104: Sol’s Summer brings new additions to Familiars, Proving Grounds, and Expert Raids as well as a host of balance changes and more!

Familiars: Season 2

New Familiars have found their way to Norrath and Season 2 includes 30 more Familiars to collect! Familiars are unique pets that grant their masters powerful buffs. Some of these new Familiars will be dropped in-game and others will be available to purchase in the Marketplace. Not to mention, all Rare and Ultra Rare Familiars will now be worth status, including those that are dropped in-game!

Update Notes: Tuesday August 22, 2017

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization

From the EQ2 Forums:

PROVING GROUNDS

  • Scourge Keep Duo Arena is now on the Unranked Matches accessor and may be run solo or with a partner.
  • Tower of Frozen Shadow has been added to the Proving Grounds match rotation.
    • Game Type: Race to Completion
    • Players: 6 v Environment
    • Confront the threats within the Tower of Frozen Shadow, defeating each of the mystical threat in any order, though choose carefully as they are known to appropriate the abilities of the fallen.
  • The Battle for Felwithe and Battle upon the High Seas have been removed from the Proving Grounds rotation until they can be converted into single group heroic matches.
  • The Underdepths lockout has been increased to 3 hours.
  • New rewards have been added to the Proving Grounds Proven Merchant.
  • All Proving Grounds merchants have been moved out of the Proving Grounds and onto the home servers.
  • Proving Grounds champions will now receive a Mark of the Champion: Season 1 currency upon zoning into the Proving Grounds.
  • Corrected a bug that would prevent players that had a number appended to the end of their name from receiving their Proving Grounds champion flagging. This fix is not retroactive for previous rounds.

Update Notes: Thursday August 17, 2017

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization, Raiding, TLE/Prestige Servers

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Vaedenmoor Raids

  • Code has been put in place to prevent players from entering any version of the zone while still locked to a previous zone and/or not passed the minimum lockout time. Players will be banished from the zone if they fail this check regardless of any lockouts displayed on their lockout window.
  • This applies to Vaedenmoor: Heart of Nightmares [Raid] and Vaedenmoor: Realm of Despair [Raid].
  • Any previously saved zone instances have been reset.

Chamber of Rejuvenation [Raid]

  • Noxious Attuned can no longer be resisted.
  • Trakanon should now call out his target when he snaps his jaws.

Lost City of Torsis: The Shrouded Temple [Expert & Event Heroic]

  • The Meld of Haze is now immune to the ROOT effect from Terrestrial Coffin.

Nektulos

  • Jawharah Izzah, Shady Erudite at the Nektulos Docks, is now willing to sell Spiritbreaker to those channelers who have completed their epic quests.
  • Jawharah Izzah, Shady Erudite at the Nektulos Docks, is now willing to sell The Wards of Kelkarn to those troubadors who have completed their epic quests.

Sundered Splitpaw: Gladiator’s Triumph

  • The Pit Champion will now correctly spawn at the end of the arena event.

ITEMS

  • Woven Vulcanized armor pieces from Lord Nagalik now possess additional defensive stats.
  • Stats on the Ring of Removal from King Drayek have been increased to match his other drops.
  • The Prismatic Greatsword of the Scale now has additional weapon skill bonuses.

QUESTS

  • The Truespirits’ Lament – The shadowy creatures that start this quest have been disciplined. They will no longer attack or be visible until Destiny of Velious is available on TLE.

 

Later addition:

TIME-LOCKED SERVER POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

The Isle of Refuge: Darathar’s Flight

  • Reduced the amount of bonus hit points Darathar gains on Time-Locked servers.
  • Reduced the amount of combat mitigation Darathar gains on Time-Locked servers.
  • Corrected a bug that allowed Darathar to be killed without locking players to the zone.

The Crypt of Vox

  • Reduced the amount of bonus hit points The Element of Vox gains on Time-Locked servers.
  • Reduced the amount of combat mitigation The Element of Vox gains on Time-Locked servers.
  • Reduced the amount of bonus hit points The Spirits of Vox gains on Time-Locked servers.
  • Reduced the amount of combat mitigation The Spirits of Vox gains on Time-Locked servers.
  • Reduced the amount of bonus hit points The Fragments of Vox gains on Time-Locked servers.
  • Reduced the amount of combat mitigation The Fragments of Vox gains on Time-Locked servers.

Spirits of the Lost

  • Reduced the amount of bonus hit points Venekor gains on Time-Locked servers.
  • Reduced the amount of combat mitigation Venekor gains on Time-Locked servers.

From Intern to Full Time: Daybreak’s Community Coordinator

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2

After Tony “RadarX“‘s departure from Daybreak Games on July 14th, EQ2 players have been wondering who our new Community Representative would be. Now we know!

From DaybreakGames.com:

As our company continues to grow, we’re always excited to have new talent join our team. Daybreak’s Marketing department is happy to introduce our new Community Coordinator, although she’s already a familiar face to many at our company.

Meet Roxanne “Roxxlyy”

roxxlyy

What is your role at Daybreak?
I spent the last year or so as an intern in the Marketing department here at Daybreak, focused mostly on supporting various PR initiatives. I really enjoyed it, but I have always wanted to pursue community management. Good news – I’m now going to be doing just that! I’m happy to report that I am now a full-time member of the Community team, taking on the role of Community Coordinator.

Days of Summer – Week Three

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance

From EverQuest2.com:

Yun Zi is back again this week with another quest! The merchant has a fresh list of locations that he’s interested in having you visit for him. For your assistance, Yun Zi will grant you new rewards including ranged weapons and ranged slot adornments, a Fellowship of Stone focus rune, a ring, and an earring. Plus, if you’re looking to decorate your home to match the summer season, he also has a Siren Enchantress Plushie and some Aqua Hanging Seaweed!

daysofsummer_341

In order to complete Yun Zi’s new quest, you must have all of his previous quests finished! If you haven’t completed them yet, you’ll have to do some catching up before you can unlock the next set of summer rewards.

Yun Zi will have another quest available for you on Tuesday, August 22nd at 12:01AM PT. Quests will continue to unlock every Tuesday until summer comes to an end on Monday, October 2nd at 11:59PM PT.

   

EQ2 Patcher Issue Resolved

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

tom-baker-doctorwho

Our new EQ2 Community Manager Roxxlyy posted an update yesterday afternoon indicating that the issue preventing many players from downloading or updating EverQuest II with the patcher should now be resolved. From the EQ2 Forums:

Login and patching issues are believed to be resolved at this time! Please let us know if you are continuing to see any persistent issues.

Daybreak Acknowledges Login Failures and Connection Issues

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance

From our new community person Roxxlyy on the EQ2 Forums:

Hey folks,

Just wanted to let you all know that the team is very aware of the various issues impacting logins, downloads, and the whole slew of connection problems that many of you are facing. At least one major issue causing these problems has already been detected, and the team is working on a fix for it at this exact moment.

I’ll be continuing to update this thread with new information as it becomes available.

And

We’re continuing to work on the problem, and have made positive progress. Please let us know if these issues continue into tomorrow!

We have learned from Discord that the issue is apparently the Content Delivery Network (CDN) used by Daybreak. Commonly used by most major websites and software companies, Content Delivery Networks store copies of often-requested files in every region around the world so that local customers aren’t downloading files from far away. According to the message, connections between certain ISPs and the CDN are currently failing.

EverQuest II Socket Errors Preventing Patching

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance

Since Friday, a number of players have reported Socket Errors and a failure to patch two files. This is preventing players from accessing the game according to several threads on the forums.

EQ2Wire hosted the 2 files needed to patch the game and login between August 10-15. Now that the problem is resolved, we have removed these files.

Update Notes: Thursday August 10, 2017

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization, Raiding

All Servers: 7-9:00am PDT | 10:00am-Noon EDT | 15-17:00 BST | 16-18:00 CET

From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL

  • Added “Camera Shake” option under Display (advanced)  “Camera” to enable / disable camera shakes.

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Chamber of Rejuvenation [Raid]

  • The reaction time for Prescient Gaze has been slightly increased.
  • The range for applying Noxious Attuned has been removed.
  • The duration of Noxious Attuned has been increased.

Update Notes: Tuesday August 08, 2017

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, TLE/Prestige Servers

From the EQ2 Forums:

The Fallen Gate and Stormhold Servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, August 8th, 2017 at 4:00 PM PT (23:00 UTC) for an update. Estimated downtime is less than 1 hour.

From the EQ2 Forums:

TIME-LOCKED SERVER CONTENT RELEASE

The Sentinel’s Fate mid year content releases on Stormhold.

  • Unseen Arcanum
  • Underfoot Depths
  • Icy Keep

The Shattered Lands mid year content releases on Fallen Gate.

  • The Bloodline Chronicles
  • The Splitpaw Saga

Screen Shake-Disabling Checkbox Coming Soon!

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance

shakes_combohero

EverQuest II attracts a diverse playerbase with different desires and physical abilities. Some players have limited eyesight, the use of only one hand, or other physical differences which require adaptation, special controllers, disabling certain game features such as particle effects, etc. For years, EQ2 has “shaken the camera” to convey the force and effect of certain attacks, the earth moving, etc. However certain players have very negative reactions to this visual such as vertigo, headaches, and nausea. After years of requests, now it looks like those who wish to suppress this jarring cosmetic effect will soon have an in-game checkbox.

From Bunji on the EQ2 Forums:

This option will be on Test server today after it updates ( under “Camera” in advanced options ).

Now if we can just get a solution for Colorblind players. Perhaps a Tint setting in-game, or a config file “eq2_colorshift.xml” that players can add a list of zones identified as having a lot of red or green tints which are basically invisible to strongly red-green colorblind players. This way, zones like Thalumbra, Veeshan’s Peak, etc. would be automatically shifted in hue. As it is, some of these highly saturated zones are practically unnavigable for certain players. There are some third party DirectX filters, but an in-game feature would be preferable.

EverQuest II Days of Summer 2017 – Weekly Rewards

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, Live Events

From EverQuest2.com:

daysofsummer2017-1

It’s time for some summer fun! And what better way to countdown the end of summer than helping out the ambling tradesbear, Yun Zi, to earn yourself some weekly rewards from his trove of inherited treasures.

Maybe you’ve been away for a while and need a quick way to catch up to play with your friends or you need a bit of a boost so you can run those expert heroic zones, or perhaps your house is feeling a little stale and needs some redecorating? No matter what you need, Yun Zi has plenty of rewards to help you out!

Update Notes: Tuesday August 1, 2017

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, Itemization, Raiding

Our new Community intern Roxxlyy posted this:

All EverQuest II Servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, August 1st, 2017 at 7:00 AM PT (14:00 UTC) for an update. Estimated downtime is less than 2 hours.

UPDATE: Today’s downtime has been delayed til 9:00am PDT (Noon EDT). Servers are now down for maintenance.

and here are our update notes:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Vaedenmoor: Heart of Nightmares [Raid]

  • Terris-Thule will no longer speed up her casting of her AE spells with the removal of the “Daydream” spell.
  • Corrected an issue that would occasionally cause Saryrn and Terris-Thule to become immune to all damage.

Update Notes: Sunday July 30, 2017

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, TLE/Prestige Servers

Continuing our new pattern of out-of-band TLE server updates, here are some update notes posted just a few minutes ago (Sunday July 30th @ 5:30pm EDT, 2:30pm PDT):

TIME-LOCKED SERVER POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

The Isle of Refuge: Darathar’s Flight

  • Reduced the amount of melee damage dealt by Darathar on Time-Locked servers.
  • Increased the amount of ability damage dealt by Darathar on Time-Locked servers.

The Crypt of Vox

  • Reduced the amount of melee damage dealt by The Fragments of Vox on Time-Locked servers.
  • Increased the amount of ability damage dealt by The Fragments of Vox on Time-Locked servers.

Update Notes: Friday July 28, 2017

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, TLE/Prestige Servers

This was an emergency patch yesterday. From the EQ2 Forums:

TIME-LOCKED SERVER POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

The Isle of Refuge: Darathar’s Flight

  • Reduced the amount of bonus hit points Darathar gains on Time-Locked servers.

The Crypt of Vox

  • Reduced the amount of bonus hit points The Element of Vox gains on Time-Locked servers.
  • Reduced the amount of bonus hit points The Spirits of Vox gains on Time-Locked servers.
  • Reduced the amount of bonus hit points The Fragments of Vox gains on Time-Locked servers.

Spirits of the Lost

  • Reduced the amount of bonus hit points Venekor gains on Time-Locked servers.


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