Feldon
Windslasher, who headed up the Rebuilding the Spires event has shared their insight into why we did not see a “Grand Finale” to the Spires Event: Congratulations on finishing the spire! While it would have given me great pleasure to have an epic-x4 dragon with 20 million hitpoints spawn and attack you, that simply would not have fit the theme or lore of this event. The idea here was to let everyone on the server contribute in a 100% cooperative effort that permanently affects the game world. So the bosses that attack the spires during construction have a lore...
Commentary
It’s too bad EQ2 developers don’t really talk to the players about Live Events and instead make assumptions. Over 2 years ago, the first Spires were being rebuilt. Tradeskillers did all the work, and then when the spire reached 100% completion, an Epic x4 dragon appeared, killing them all. Raid guilds swooped in and battled it out for the contested win. Some even swarmed the various zones by logging in dozens of alt characters to intentionally lag out other players to prevent them from successfully taking down the mob. In the end, the raid guilds got Titles and all...
So far, today my coverage of Game Update 53 has been entirely positive. I think Game Update 53 is actually an excellent update, with the live quest, HEIRLOOM LORE-EQUIP flag, etc. However in the long term, I think all the great things about this update may be overshadowed by some colossal mistakes. The bland Racial Trait revamp which I’ve already talked about. And an issue that a lot of people don’t take seriously, but I think needs to be discussed — the Avatar Loot Nerf. So far, I have refrained from covering these changes, hoping that cooler (and wiser)...
Some very good news for Nagafen players who have been experiencing significant performance issues with the server for several months now. However this news is bittersweet for Venekor players who have been anticipating this server merge for several months now. Brenlo has posted this news on the EQ2 Forums: I know many of you are looking forward to the upcoming server merge. Sadly, you will have to wait just a bit longer. We are postponing the merge until October 20th. So an additional month. As many of you know, Nagafen has had continued issues with the Database and while...
UPDATE: We have migrated to https://eq2wire.com/ Please update your links to this site.
It’s time for a server defrag. From the announcement at the EQ2 Forums: There will be maintenance on the Session databases across all games on Wednesday September 9, 2009. It will begin at 12AM PDT and is estimated to last until 12PM PDT. All game worlds will be unavailable for the estimated 12 hour maintenance, as well as the Station Store and all commerce avenues. This may affect the performance of the forums and any or all accounts’ abilities to log in. We apologize for the inconvenience and will update the information as we are able. The Community team...
I have to admit, I have not dedicated as much thought to the races I play in EQ2 as perhaps others have. My Ranger was human because that was my first character and I guess I didn’t want anything too fantastic (in hindsight, I’d go for the wood elf). My Guardian was born around the introduction of Kunark, so is naturally a Sarnak. And lately I’ve been having a lot of fun developing my Ratonga Dirge. While I’ve never chosen a race because of the benefits, I have really enjoyed the unique (but not overpowered) traits of the Sarnak...
Some breaking news for you! As we’ve reported, in Game Update 53, almost all LEGENDARY and FABLED instance dungeon/raid loot except patterns will be picking up the new LORE-EQUIP flag which, along with the HEIRLOOM and ATTUNEABLE flags will allow instance Fabled and Legendary loot items to be looted and transferred to alt characters on the same account. timetravelling clarifies: -We do not currently have plans to change the looting options (by adding an Alt Need option between Need and Greed). However, it is something to monitor and we’ll keep an eye on it. -This change is intended to...
Kudos to Xalmat who worked overtime the moment Gu53 hit the Test Servers to create an Comprehensive Guide for the new Achievements system that EQ2 will be receiving. As mentioned, this will be a way to track all kinds of in-game tasks such as killing 10,000 undead, completing 20 Heritage Quests, clearing Veeshan’s Peak, crafting 1,000 combines, Discovering all the locations in Lesser Faydark, etc. For some of them, the journey is the reward, for others there are more concrete rewards like Titles, Clothing, House Items, etc. This is also a replacement for the Slayer Title system. P.S. This...
At the first of every month, the EQ2 forums accumulate questions for developers. Answers to the questions posted around the first of July have now been posted. There’s nothing earth-shattering this month, despite the large number of questions answered. You can read it yourself here: Dev Q&A 2009.07.01 Answers @ EQ2 Forums
Even though we do not have a specific release date for Gu53 (Shards of Destiny), “late September” has been posited as a timeframe we should be watching for. As we approach the duly appointed time, more information is coming out about what we can expect in this update. Unless you follow the EQ2 Dev Tracker, you’ve probably missed some salient details. … Skill Up Catch Up Not every EQ2 player has access to a Guild Hall, specifically the Training Dummy amenity. This is relevant because at the great speed most folks now level up into their 50’s or 60’s,...
Ratwarlock has chimed in with an article covering the appeal and drawbacks of both Instance and Contested Dungeons. It’s worth a read over at his site RatWarlock.Wordpress.com. Sentinel’s Fate (The 6th EQ2 Expansion expected in February 2010) will ship with one large progressive contested dungeon (reportedly twice the size of Sanctum of Scaleborn, with a progression of shareable quests available as you traverse the depths). Our Stand EQ2Wire believes that both types of dungeon have their place. Folks have gotten a bit burned out on having to “stick to the script” each time they group up in the ~20...
Fan Faire 2009 presented a lot of ideas and plans for the future. A scant few were nailed down to a specific time frame. We know that we are getting the Shard of Love and Miragul’s Shard in Gu53, as well as the amazing Shaders 3.0 graphics tweaks. However the rest of Gu53 and any part of Gu54 remain a mystery. You’ll be happy to know that the AA XP Slider is slated to be contained in Gu53! Obviously there is still some time between now and September, so this may change, but this is certainly good news that...
July 7, 2009 Hotfix Update Notes EMPEROR’S ATHENAEUM 4 Warriors in Emperor’s Athenaeum should reset less frequently. 4 Warriors have fewer buffs—especially defensive ones. FENS OF NATHSAR Kaluhm the Northern Lord now drops his treasure correctly. Pulnil the Haggler is less confused about the quests he can offer and advance for those that have completed the quest “Everyone Loves a Snitch”. GUILD HALLS Players at trustee or higher access can change the appearance of mailboxes placed within their guild hall. ITEMS Focus: Lich III on necromancer item sets will now function properly. Focus: Bane of Warding V should now...
I’ve edited the “EQ2 Fan Faire Rollup” post so many times, trying to get it factually accurate and inclusive, I’m surprised I haven’t worn a spot on the hard drive. We’ve had the facts and figures. Let’s play the game! Soloing to 80? I’ve always considered soloing to 80 a recipe for disaster as you will be at a huge disadvantage. Playing the game solo to 80 ill prepares most classes for grouping. You don’t know how to play your class in a group. You don’t know how other classes complement your class. Soloing to 80 can be bad...
I present the EverQuest II Expansion & Game Update News from Fan Faire in a rollup post. This is partly based on the Fan Faire 2009 Consolidated News by Kalyyn. I started with Kalyyn’s great writeup and have built upon it, adding dozens of new details and minor corrections based on everything I observed at the 2009 Fan Faire EQ2 event in Las Vegas. I’ve archived the individual news posts I submitted over the weekend. If you still want to read them, they’re [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] And now, without further ado,...
The comprehensive writeups on Fan Faire and the events and photos are always worth a read if you couldn’t make it. I admit I’m all about the details and the expansion news. I don’t try to cover the whole event as others do that better than I can… One writeup I want to mention is CompleteHeal. Calthine (great to meet her of course!) has a writeup at Zam as well. I took some pics of the event last night, some general Fan Faire pics, and of course lots of pics from the EQ2Flames gathering last night. Hope to get them up...
An interesting day indeed, talking about the game. As much as people may doubt it, most of the Devs really do listen and want folks to play the game. It would pretty dumb if they didn’t. They know the mistakes of Kunark, and the issues (to a lesser extent) in TSO. Oh and talking to Pantz, Crabbok, Atan, and more isn’t too shabby either. Record turnout for the eq2flames mashup. WTF are you Gage? 😛
A line of folks stretching out into the casino, ready to head into the main Fan Faire hall. Then at 8, the welcome by Brenlo, who couldn’t resist havimng a little fun, using every opportunity to hawk the game he is now Exec Producer for — EQ2. Prizes included Turtle Beach headsets, 3d display goggles, and PNY 8800gts video cards. Well, if you could do an emote (you’d think folks would practice by now ;)).
Getting ready to board the sorriest excuse for an airline around. First airline I’ve ever dealt with that cannot offer an exit row to a 6’9″ passenger online, at the ticket counter, at the gate, and when the gate rep made a rude comment about my height not being his fault, I notified customer service. Maybe there is some small satisfaction in getting a cocky employee of the most customer-hostile airline in trouble. But as I stand in a completely backed up jetway, because three gate attendants haven’t learned the fine art of staging an aircraft boarding, I realize...
From Curse.com. Through a bit of internet sleuthing we’ve discovered that recently, Sony Online Entertainment decided to trademark two new titles, one each for EverQuest and EverQuest II. The trademarks in question took place on June 10th, 2009 and are EverQuest Underfoot, and EverQuest II Sentinel’s Fate. While nothing is announced yet, there’s a good chance these two titles are the names of each game’s respective expansions. So why would SOE do this? Well, they have the annual SOE Fanfaire coming up in a week, in which they’ll no doubt continue their recent tradition of announcing expansions for their...
For your viewing pleasure if you have not yet been able to make it over to the Test Servers, look what washed up on the northern shores of Fens of Nathsar not 500 yards from our old friend the Tangrin… It is unexpected to see humans, halflings, giants, and ratonga working so closely together. What could their mission be? Note also that this is not just a temporary event, but that it will persist into the next expansion. Whether we should read further into that is a question that I just don’t have enough information to know the answer...
That’s a lot of notes to read, so I will distill some of the key points. Procs If you read Bruce Ferguson’s parting comments, and you generate a good potion of your DPS from gear with effects like Goblin Bane, Void Bane, or Vampire Bane, or if you are an Assassin wearing Soul Lancer armor, you might want to read the relevant section again: We’ve discovered that with the items that we released with The Shadow Odyssey, that proc additional damage, the amount of damage being caused has grown considerably, and we need to adjust it. So, in the...