I’ve gotten a lot of questions about what changes we’ll be seeing to Transmuting come February 16th. So I thought it was worth a rehash as Transmuting is changing quite a bit. The Way It Was Transmuting started out as a secondary tradeskill. It granted the ability to not only break down unwanted Treasured, Legendary, Mastercrafted, and Fabled gear, but also make certain adornments. But the drawbacks have been many. Transmuting could only be skilled up to 100 by breaking down items. Reaching 400 skill could only be achieved by crafting (at great expense) hundreds of worthless low level...
Expansion News
Everything you know about the main Character Stats is about to change. For the past 5 years, in addition to the primary stats that each class uses: Predators have focused on STR to do melee and ranged damage and INT to increase poison damage. Druids have focused on STR to do more melee damage. Crusaders have focused on INT for spell damage and WIS for healing. These are just the most obvious examples, but all 24 classes had some unique benefits from the different Stats. Starting with Sentinel’s Fate, each class now benefits significantly from just ONE statistic, even...
It looks like SOE have renewed their partnership with nVidia for the launch of EverQuest II: Sentinel’s Fate. When firing up the EQ2 Test, I was presented with the NVidia: The Way It’s Meant to be Played logo.
From EQ2Players: You’re invited to SOE’s first ever Ustream Beta Tour, on Friday, February 5, 2010, hosted by Alan “Brenlo” Crosby, Senior Producer of EverQuest II. Beginning at 4:00 p.m. PST (7:00pm EST), tune in to SOE’s Ustream channel to get an exclusive guided tour of EverQuest II: Sentinel’s Fate, through the eyes of the game’s producer. Sentinel’s Fate, the sixth expansion of the groundbreaking EverQuest II franchise, transports players into a universe of legend and lore where adventures are just the beginning. The fabled lands of Odus, filled with epic quests, magnificent dungeons and limitless content provide the...
We’re a bit late on this, but EQ2Players has the latest preview leading up to the Sentinel’s Fate expansion, this time covering the 3 parts of the airship Vigilant. All three of The Vigilant instances (the Incursion, the Infiltration, and the Rescue) are geared for adventurers level 90+. EQ2Players Preview of The Vigilant.
We’re now less than 3 weeks from the release of Sentinel’s Fate. There has been no sign of Halas on Test. We’ve already been told that Halas is important to SOE, that they want it to be a starting zone to win new players. And I just don’t see them adding a starting zone with 20 levels of content with less than 2 weeks of testing. So at this point, EQ2Wire is now ready to call Halas for for Game Update 56 a few months after the Sentinel’s Fate expansion. This is purely speculation on our part until there’s...
Kiara is continuing to give us detailed previews of every zone we’ll be seeing in the Sentinel’s Fate expansion. Today’s preview is the third of the Erudin zones — Erudin Royal Palace. The last of the Erudin group instances is the Erudin Royal Palace. It is the central stronghold of the corruptive influence on Erudin and Odus as a whole. Stephanie Young is one of the artists who worked on the Erudin zones. She [has a history with these zones as] also worked on Erudin in EverQuest and EverQuest Online Adventures.
If you have not yet had a chance to work out the puzzle we posted an hour ago (with corresponding pieces being posted on EQ2 Zam, EQ2 Traders, etc.), then don’t click this link:
Another puzzle for astute EQ2Wire readers… It involves mortal peril of a different sort…
From Fyreflyte on the EQ2 Forums: Post expansion-launch, the useable effect on Najena’s Ring of Readiness will give a flat +2000 spelldamage buff. The cooldown and duration will remain the same. I realize this effect has been available to you for over a year now, but due to the way it scales, it can not be left in game as-is. Without a rating system to curb its effects, the item would have only become more powerful with each expansion, crippling our ring itemization for sorcerers. I understand this will be an upsetting change for those that spent countless hours...
When Commission crafting was altered in March 2009 to prevent crafters from using their own Void Shards and other NO TRADE/HEIRLOOM materials for other players, it closed the book for several crafters on this highly profitable market. However it was quickly discovered that a crafter could still use their own shards if the customer had at least the requisite number of shards in their own inventory to make the item. This was accomplished by swapping out ingredients in the Commission Materials window. Today’s Hotfix marks the closure of this exploit: Patch Notes January / 26 / 2010 GENERAL You...
Saints be praised! (No, not those Saints) As I was ducking in and out of Fish’s Alehouse and Inn, trying to keep out of sight, not one, but 13 parcels of mail addressed to one “Feldon @ EQ2Wire” (that’s me!) arrived at the front desk. After bribing tipping the innkeeper, I opened the packages to discover that each contained a detailed illustration of an escape route to South Qeynos! With the navigational guidance of my enterprising readers, I was able to avoid the Qeynos Harbor guards and use my tinkered spring shoes to make it to the secret exit!...
It seems after imbibing a little too much jum jum mash, I let slip a disparaging comment about Queen Antonia within earshot of a Qeynos Guard! Now I’m a wanted man and I need your help! I’m stuck in Qeynos Harbor, but I can’t risk traveling by boat or carpet. As you can see, the exits are surprisingly well-guarded. My best chance is to high tail it to South Qeynos and meet a well-connected politician who can smooth things over with the authorities. Legend tells of a secret entrance to South Qeynos. Can you help me find it? If...
Check out this new zone preview from the Sentinel’s Fate expansion at EQ2Players. The Erudin Library is designed for levels 87-89. You’ll need to rely on cunning to track down and bring a killer to justice. This is the easiest of the Erudin zones, and has a very unique flavor to it: The zone was built as a Clue-style murder mystery. In order to get the best possible rewards (and complete some quests), players must search the zone for clues and accuse and defeat the guilty Scholar Primarch. [We] set up the murder mystery such that each time through,...
Previews of Sentinel’s Fate are coming in on a consistent schedule (thanks Kiara!!). Check out the preview of the 3rd Vasty Deep dungeon at EQ2Players.
It seems sanity has prevailed at SOE. From EQ2 Forums: The status of retail distribution for Sentinel’s Fate at launch internationally is still uncertain. However in an effort to properly serve our international community we have partnered with several digital distributors who will be providing the expansion to our international customers only starting on Feb 16th 2010. The digital downloads will be IP locked so that only the international community can take advantage of this. When it became apparent that whoever at SOE Marketing signed deals with Amazon, GameStop, and Best Buy forgot about the rest of the world,...
There have been some questions popping up on the EQ2 Forums as well as EQ2Flames about whether the Sentinel’s Fate expansion will be pushed to European servers at the same time as North American servers. Kiara has this to say: All the servers will patch at the same time. I’ll be posting a schedule closer to release day, just so everyone knows what to expect. But the plan is that the servers will be up and ready for folks to begin patching their games by 8am PST. And just to clarify, we have confirmed that just as with previous...
Another zone preview from the upcoming Sentinel’s Fate expansion. This time, it’s one of the Vasty Deep dungeons. Check it out at EQ2Players.
EQ2Players has been updated with a preview of the Vasty Deep dungeons. There are some new and familiar screen shots, and more information about these zones. Check it out!
A zone I have been anxious to get a look at is the contested “The Hole” which will encompass an area over twice the size of Sanctum of Scaleborn, and a level range from 82 all the way to 90. We are thrilled to present the first screen shots of this zone: Around the web, others have posted new screen shots this evening including: EQ2 Zam | EQ2 Traders | Ten Ton Hammer | MMOQuests | Shattered | MMORPG-Info | kithicor.org | LoreLibrary | Archive of Ik | EQ2 Daily | TheBrasse.com | EverSeek.com
EQ2Players has been updated with a expansion zone preview covering the Northern half of Odus — the Stonebrunt Highlands. This is a level 85-90 overland zone with solo questlines. Adam “Zaphax” Stephens was lead designer on this zone and answered some questions with his thoughts on the design of the zone. Check out the new writeup as well as some new images and wallpapers of Sentinel’s Fate at EQ2Players.
EQ2Players has as new preview available of The Sundered Frontier, which is one half of the overland area of Odus. This includes some screen shots and an interview with gninja, leader designer of this zone. You can also find some wallpaper sized screenshots which have not previously been posted. All of this after the jump:
EQ2Wire is thrilled to present some more screen shots from the upcoming Sentinel’s Fate expansion. These images are taken from the first part of Odus players will encounter, the Sundered Frontier. It seems many things have changed, and many others have stayed the same. Odus seems to have been scooped from out of the earth and is now scattered across the Norrath sky. Visitors will likely arrive by Spire or Airship! Check out these screen shots (Scroll down to get a clickable grid of thumbnails): Also check out this exclusive Sundered Frontier screen shot available only on EQ2Wire: EQ2Wire...
>> Download Highland Stalker Preview HD Video [22.5MB WMV]. << >> Download Highland Stalker Preview SD Video [13.8MB WMV]. << Guarding of the Reasoned and Guarding of the Learned The Guarding of the Reasoned (right) comes with the retail boxes The Guarding of the Learned (left) comes with the digital downloads.
While there is still a lot we don’t know about the PvP Battlegrounds feature first mentioned in October and slated for inclusion in the Sentinel’s Fate expansion in February, we have sussed out a few details. Battlegrounds will be cross-server. Specifically a shared instance or instances accessible by players from different servers where you can meet in battle. Battlegrounds will be available on both PvE and PvP servers. It is currently unknown if these Battlegrounds will be the full PvP Ruleset (which is quite different than dueling on PvE) or a hybrid. PvP gear is quite powerful compared to...