Feldon
It seems we’re the only ones calling today’s update “Game Update 59”, but either way, the Update Notes have now been posted!! The patch notes from the EQ2 Forums (after heavy reformatting and cleanup): We are still over 2 hours away from the EQ2 servers coming up with the Destiny of Velious/Game Update 59.
Expansion News
Some players are now reporting that when they patch EQ2, they are getting an 800MB download of new Velious assets. There may be another mini-patch right before or right after servers come up.
EQ2 Servers will be going down in about 10 minutes to commence preparations for the Destiny of Velious expansion. We thought we’d take a quick look around the web to see how other press and EQ2 sites are covering the expansion. Calthine and Cyliena over at EQ2 ZAM have been working their fingers to the nubs catalogging every Quest, NPC, and Item in Velious. They plan to unlock their quest guides throughout the day. Niami Denmother at EQ2Traders has loaded up her site with tons of Tradeskill info about Velious. Karen Bryan at Massively has checked in another edition...
In the last Webcast, we were told to be on the lookout for a trailer for EverQuest II‘s seventh expansion Destiny of Velious. This trailer is now exclusively available for viewing at Massively.com. Watch the trailer at Massively.com and then come back and post your comments about the trailer, as well as your thoughts on what has, to us, been a very low-key (some would say hush-hush!) launch.
From EverQuest2.com: We’re just hours away from Destiny of Velious, and we’ve got a little bit of news to share for Launch Day! First, all EQII and EQ2X servers will be coming offline at 3:00 am PST [11:0o GMT] on Tuesday, February 22nd, and we anticipate having them back online around 9:00 am PST [17:00 GMT], for an estimated six-hour downtime. This includes both international and US servers. Second, if you had issues pre-ordering the expansion on Monday, February 21st, please try again! All of SOE’s authentication servers were offline briefly today and should now be restored to normal....
We’re working on an article about Shared Stats and Destiny of Velious. Share your comments about Destiny of Velious and shared stats and how they benefit: Summoners Conjurors Necromancers Enchanters Coercers Illusionists Shamans Defiler Mystic Also, any comments on Damage Over Time limitations for Necromancers and other pet classes above are appreciated.
Now the calm before the storm… Tomorrow morning at 3:00am PST (11:00 GMT), the EQ2 servers will go offline to begin the process of installing the Destiny of Velious expansion and its related Game Update 59 patch. According to the announcement, the servers are scheduled to come up at 9:00am (17:00 GMT). So what are you looking forward to? Public Quests Dungeons Kael Drakkel Contested Dungeon Tower of Frozen Shadow (x2 raid) Velious x4 raiding Tradeskills Flying Mounts Give us your comments, good, bad, or indifferent. Even if it’s just that there’s 2 days to go until Rift launches...
In the Destiny of Velious Webcast #3 (video and notes), we first heard about War Runes. These are a new set of Red Adornments available to raiders in the Destiny of Velious. They’re essentially a “greatest hits” of the best, most popular, most powerful Procs/Effects from Avatars, Shadow Odyssey Fabled, and Sentinel’s Fate Fabled. War Runes open up Red Adornments to new slots, specifically Weapons (Primary, Secondary, Ranged), Charms, Belts, and Cloaks. From Silius in Webcast #3: [War Runes are applicable to] your 3 weapon slots, 2 charm slots. Easy mode raids will have belts that have a red...
Coinciding with each Expansion, there has traditionally been a Game Update. There have been numerous features which are available whether you’ve purchased the expansion or not. Today, we look closer into some of the features that will likely (but which we can certainly not guarantee) be available on Tuesday to all players. It is POSSIBLE that some of these items may end up being flagged Velious-only, so this is our best guess at this point… Guild Hall Tapestries with Guild Heraldry File this under things we heard about since the Fan Faire that launched EQ2Wire where Guild Halls were...
From EverQuest2.com: Soar over Norrath and see the world from a whole new perspective! Flying Mounts are one of the exciting new features coming to Norrath with the Destiny of Velious expansion! Take a look at the first flying mounts available to players, through adventuring, tradeskilling, raiding, and with purchase of the Digital Collector’s Edition. Mounts Earned Through Adventuring (Left to Right) Highland Gryphon, Tundra Gryphon, and Snow Gryphon
From EverQuest2.com: We’re celebrating the launch of Destiny of Velious with twelve days of events and special offers! February 18-22: President’s Day Bonus XP Weekend! On the first four days of Velious, enjoy bonus adventure, tradeskill and AA experience! This event runs from 10:00 am PST on February 18th until servers come down on Tuesday morning (currently scheduled for 3:00 am PST on February 22nd). February 22: Othmir Day Everyone who logs in on Launch Day, February 22nd, will receive an Othmir illusion potion. (Even those who aren’t playing in Velious!) The potion has 50 charges, and is available...
(left to right) Paul “Cronyn” Molina [EQ2 Designer], Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson [EQ2 Senior Producer], and Greg Agius [EQ2 Brand Manager] give us a tour of the upcoming Destiny of Velious expansion.
For the launch of Destiny of Velious, on Tuesday, February 22 from 7:00 am PST [15:00 GMT] to 9:00 am PST [17:00 GMT], members of the EQII and Community teams will be hosting a Stickam webcast. Tune in on Facebook or on Stickam to watch the webcast next Tuesday!
From EverQuest2.com: This Friday, February 18th, members of the EQII Development Team will join us again to give an exclusive tour of Destiny of Velious! Friday, February 18 at 4:00 pm PST [Midnight-1:00 GMT on Feb 19]: Live Tour of Destiny of Velious! Join members of the EQII team for a live walkthrough of the new expansion. Producer Dave “Smokejumper” Georgeson and Game Designer Paul “Cronyn” Molina will be on hand to give you an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at Destiny of Velious. Tune in on Facebook or on Stickam to watch the fourth webcast this Friday! UPDATE We joined...
This is PART FOUR of our guide to Destiny of Velious adornments and covers the basic Red or “Raid” adornments designated for Raiding SORTED BY FACTION. Red Adornments are FABLED, level 90, and cost 10 Pure Primal Velium Shards plus 5 plat and 4 gold. There are four major factions offering Adornments in Destiny of Velious: The Othmir of Velious Snowfang Gnolls Clan Ry’Gorr The City of Thurgadin There are solo, repeatable, and dungeon-based quests to earn faction with the Othmir, Snowfang Gnolls, Ry’Gorr, and Thurgadin. Red Adornments may also be acquired as a very rare drop from Public...
This is PART THREE of our guide to Destiny of Velious adornments and covers the basic Red or “Raid” adornments designated for Raiding SORTED BY SLOT. Red (Raid) Adornments are FABLED, level 90, and cost 10 Pure Primal Velium Shards plus 5 plat and 4 gold. Basic Red Adornments are available for 11 slots: Head Chest Gloves Boots Shoulders Forearms Legs Primary/Secondary/Ranged/Charm There are solo, repeatable, and dungeon-based quests to earn faction with the Othmir, Snowfang Gnolls, Ry’Gorr, and Thurgadin. Red Adornments may also be acquired as a very rare drop from Public Quests. A choice of 4 special...
This is PART TWO of our guide to Destiny of Velious adornments and covers Yellow or “Heroic” adornments designated for Grouping SORTED BY SLOT. Yellow (Group) Adornments are LEGENDARY, either level 80 or 90, and cost 5 Primal Velium Shards and 5 plat and 4 gold. Yellow Adornments are available for 11 slots: Head Chest Gloves Boots Shoulders Forearms Legs Primary/Secondary/Ranged Charm There are solo, repeatable, and dungeon-based quests to earn faction with the Othmir, Snowfang Gnolls, Ry’Gorr, and Thurgadin. UPDATE: This information was updated on March 8, 2011. Changes from Beta to live are reflected, as well as...
This is PART ONE of our guide to Destiny of Velious adornments and covers Yellow or “Heroic” adornments designated for Grouping SORTED BY FACTION. There are four major factions offering Adornments, Armor, Jewelry, Weapons, and House Items in Destiny of Velious: The Othmir of Velious Snowfang Gnolls Clan Ry’Gorr The City of Thurgadin There are solo, repeatable, and dungeon-based quests to earn faction with the Othmir, Snowfang Gnolls, Ry’Gorr, and Thurgadin. Yellow Adornments are LEGENDARY, level 80 or 90, and cost 5 Primal Velium Shards and 5 plat and 4 gold. UPDATE: This information was updated on March 8,...
In furtherance of that less-than-optimistic thread about Destiny of Velious, SgtPmpkn had this to say: Supposedly this content is already created, as the art/lore/mechanics/etc are mostly complete. Once the base Velious is released, they will tweaks any bugs that arise, but also then be testing the content for the next GU, which would be a larger amount of time, to test and tweak, if they already have the art assets and other items already done. To which SmokeJumper (EQ2’s Senior Producer) responded: Yup. That’s the plan. We didn’t want to release everything at once, or else we’d get the...
A decidely frumpy thread speculating about the positive aspects of the upcoming Destiny of Velious expansion entitled “So… Has anyone got anything good to say about Velious?” has drawn the attention of SmokeJumper who announced that the main Signature quest telling the storyline of Destiny of Velious was withheld from Beta to keep it a surprise: Much of this gets explained in the signature quest line. As usual, the sig line was not included in the beta test so that it would be new to everyone at launch. This is slightly risky from a QA perspective, but is traditional...
Destiny of Velious introduces Public Quests. These are interactive battles between NPCs that players can join in and receive a variety of rewards. Drawing inspiration from Warhammer (and possibly Rift, although we don’t know the creative timeline here), these are the opposite of Contested content because everyone who participates receives a reward. If your gear is really limited, then you can even click on NPCs and coordinate fighting with them and use their abilities instead. All those present and participating in the battle gain access to a Loot Chest which can contain a piece of armor commeasurate with the...
Your questions answered about the Destiny of Velious Flying Mount: The Flying Gryphon is a level 86+ solo adventure or tradeskill quest with a 5 day timesink. Cloud of Bats is a level 86+ solo quest available to Freeblood characters to allow flight as a swarm of bats. You do not need to Pre-Order or meet any special requirement to get the mount, just buy Destiny of Velious, complete the quest, do the 5 day training of your gryphon, and then presto you have a choice of 3 colors of Flying Gryphon. The options are Snow Gryphon, Highland Gryphon,...
If you are an EQ2X player with Bronze or Silver access (a Gold monthly subscription is roughly analygous to an EQ2 live subscription), and are thinking about buying Destiny of Velious, you may wish to read this excellent post by Claviarm on the EQ2 Extended Forums about some extra fees you may be on the hook for: So now that the NDA has been lifted, I just wanted to let all the bronze and silver players out there know ahead of time that Destiny of Velious may not be a wise purchase unless you also set aside some money...
From the EQ2 Forums: Attention Fan Faire Attendees and EverQuest II: Extended Platinum Members: We have some hot news that we think will make your day! You’re already slated to receive the EverQuest II: Destiny of Velious Digital Standard Edition on 2/22/11 as part of your EverQuest II: Extended Platinum Membership or Fan Faire 2010 attendance, but we understand that many of you wished to upgrade to the Digital Collector’s Edition of Destiny of Velious so you can enjoy the bonus items and content. Here’s the great news! It is now possible to pre-order the Digital Collector’s Edition and...
With the screen shot restriction lifting on registered EQ2 Fan Sites, we are now starting to see more updates out there on Destiny of Velious. One of the first to get updated was Niami’s wonderful EQ2Traders site, which already has screen shots of many of the new Destiny of Velious carpenter recipes. Check out her ever-evolving DoV preview, as well as the new Carpenter Items page.