Feldon
Kiara chimed in this evening with this news: This is a head’s up to let you know that we’ll be bringing the servers down tomorrow morning to push Elements of Corruption (GU #51) live! Unless of course the “big one” hits and Southern California drops into the ocean… In that case, it might be delayed again… In addition to this, Vivox will be updating voice chat, so it will be unavailable across all games. The estimated time for the servers to come down is 7am PDT. If there are any changes to the plan, we’ll let you know.
Game Updates & Maintenance
While we do not have a date yet for GU51 (The Lavastorm Revamp, now minus the Fighter Revamp), we now know that it will be released sooner rather than later, with as many of the fixes, improvements, and content as possible, excluding the much maligned Fighter Revamp. Kiara posted: The Lavastorm changes ARE going to be pushed live. Right now they’re being separated from the fighter changes so that we can push them live (and a little extra polish is being thrown on as well). I don’t have an exact date yet for the Lavastorm changes going live, but...
Looks like Game Update 51 — Elements of Corruption — including the Lavastorm revamp, new x2, x4 raid zones, T3 armor, and fighter revamp have been further delayed. From a March 9, 2009 post on EQ2Players: As many of you know, we’ve been working on Elements of Corruption (Game Update 51) for some time…there really is a lot of good stuff coming, including new zones, new raids, new quests, a revamp of Lavastorm, the list seems endless. However, we’re not quite ready to release it. I know many of you were expecting us to do so this week or next,...
Here is the new Tier 3 Void Shard Armor. NEWLY REVISED FOR 3/4/09 — T3 Set Bonuses have been adjusted. Note: Just in case it’s not clear, I have Photoshopped out the Set Bonuses from all but 1 item in each screen shot. Every T3 Void Shard Armor set has set bonuses for having (2), (3), (5), and (7) pieces from the set. Bard, Enchanter, Predator Druid, Rogue, Cleric Summoner, Sorcerer, Shaman* * You know those whacky Shamans… always running around buck naked wearing just twigs and funny hats. 🙂 Actual screen shots BTW. Crusader, Brawler, Warrior [placeholder] Bard/Shaman,...
Ok, I hopped over to Test and got the scoop on how the T3 Void Shard Armor seems to work. There are two NPCs: Assilus Poisonbolt <Elemental Pattern Quartermaster> Borden Chargehammer <Elite Void Shard Armor Quartermaster> As you run the new x2 Raid Zone “The Ward of Elements”, one or more Molds will drop from raid bosses. To buy your T3 Void Shard Armor Pattern from Assilus, you must have the necessary Mold and the requisite number of Void Shards. Borden will take your Pattern and the requisite T2 Void Shard Armor piece and turn it into a T3...
From EQ2Players. In Game Update 51 (scheduled for a mid-March arrival), Tradeskillers will get some love: A new Tradeskill Instance in the Void. This will be a bit different than the existing 3 group tradeskill instances which level 50-80 tradeskillers have been doing since TSO came out. Updated recipes for shields, orbs, and other secondary slot items. Guild Hall Trophies were mentioned at FanFaire ’08 and will make their appearance here. These trophies consist of 2 raid “bosses” from the original launch and 2 additional raid bosses from each subsequent expansion. Tradeskillers will make a “trophy mount” which, when...
There’s a great writeup at EQ2Players about the new level 45-55 solo content coming to Lavastorm and which is currently on the Test and Test Copy servers. Note that they are patching and fixing things all the time, so some of this content may not yet be doable. When I logged in, faction and rewards were not fully functional.
You’ve probably heard a lot about the tanking changes which were put on hiatus. The cancelled Game Update #51 – Lucan’s Art of War was split into a couple of hotfixes and the fighter revamp got put on hold. Currently, fighters hold agro through a combination of taunts, hate transfers from Assassins, Coercers, etc., and by putting out superior DPS. In the current situation Shadowknights are putting out more DPS in multi-target fights than some “DPS” classes. The intention of this well-intentioned fighter revamp is for fighters to be able to hold agro in a fight entirely by taunting...
BROKERS Players should no longer get an erroneous message about vendor slots being full when first opening the broker after a fresh login. ORCISH WASTES The Avatar of War will now cast Furious Axe of War at the start of each combat, rather than waiting. QUESTS / MISSIONS An issue that could prevent some players from getting daily missions if they had completed the previous mission has been fixed.
Some odd bugs have been introduced into the TSO Mission system and the Broker system as well. The solution to the TSO Missions is to bring up your Completed Quests and click on any existing missions. They will vanish from the list. The solution to the broker slots refusing to sell items is to send a mail or click Take Coin.
Don’t you love unannounced tweaks? 🙂 There are some threads on the EQ2 Forums indicating that some graphics were revamped as part of the Feb 5th update. The ice in Everfrost is more translucent and looks really cool. However an inadvertent change was made to the grass in the Antonica Guild Hall. It looks rather black and spotty now. A hotfix is planned.
It is not easy to take a Game Update, remove a significant chunk of it, and release the rest. What was originally planned as Game Update 51 contained the much-maligned Fighter Revamp, as well as changes to Auto Follow, Spells, Items, the introduction of the HEIRLOOM tag, and some other items as well. Most of those improvements went live on February 5th. According to EQ2 Devs, for the remaining components of what was formerly known as GU51 (minus the Fighter Revamp) “We’re aiming for the week of February 16th as early as possible. “ There is no official list...
Looks like the new HEIRLOOM tag was not fully tested for The Proof in the Pudding tradeskill epic updates. The following characteristics have been discovered: Pulling the completed items out of the Shared Bank will not update the quest. You must delete and reacquire the quest “The Proof in the Pudding”. Turning in the quest “The Proof in the Pudding” will consume ANY update items from your personal bags AND the Shared Bank. So if you created more than 1 of each item in the hopes of updating the quest for multiple characters, they will be ALL used up...
Looks like loot, AA, and the enjoyment of doing an x2 raid won’t be the only reasons folks will be packing like sardines into the new x2 raid zone. Posted by fyreflyte here: (The 12 new armor appearances being introduced in GU51) will indeed require some additional void shards (though not a staggering amount), but they won’t be directly purchased off the merchants. You’ll have to complete some of the x2 content to be able to get your hands on them =) Thus far the appearances have only been used on loot that will require some running of the...
This was planned to be Game Update #51, but with the Fighter Revamp changes postponed, this is now just a big hotfix. There’s still some great stuff in here: HIGHLIGHTS A new (item tag) has been added: HEIRLOOM. These items are the same as NO-TRADE except that they can be placed into your shared bank. Characters on the same account and server can then pick them up out of the shared bank. Normal shared bank rules apply on PVP servers. Void Shards Proof in the Pudding update items (Master Tradeskiller) Certain Tradeskill Faction Reward items Kunark Faction Tradeskill Recipes...
EQ2Players is now hosting a lore-filled, if vague preview of what is now being called Game Update #51 “Elements of Corruption”. This is the Lavastorm revamp, adding means of travel, teleporters, x2 raid zone, new 45-55 content, new 80 content, etc. The release date for this update is unknown, partly because of the separation of the Fighter Revamp from the old Game Update 51, which is now being released as part of Erollisi Day. Lavastorm Revamp Preview at EQ2Players
As I predicted, the Lavastorm revamp will take a page from the Everfrost revamp last fall. As posted by timetravelling here: Travel around lavastorm will be MUCH MUCH easier. We’ve added more teleporters as well as travel mount paths. None of the old content is slated to be removed, some of the mobs will see slight tweaks and might be moved around a bit, but we don’t plan to actually remove any quests or content. The level 80 content is actually in brand new areas we’re adding to the island, none of the old areas are being overwritten. Lots...
Looks like whenever the servers come down to patch in Erollisi Day (which will be sometime between now and February 10th), we will see most of the various patches, fixes, and changes expected to come in Game Update 51, minus the Fighter Revamp. I know some f0lks have been anxiously awaiting the HEIRLOOM tag so they can move Void Shards from one character to another, do updates for Proof in the Pudding (Tradeskill Epic), etc. with alts, and buy faction recipes for alts as well. Erollisi Day will be activated February 10th, but the patch will happen before then....
This comes to us from EQ2Traders. As we mentioned last week, GU51 is getting a new HEIRLOOM tag. There were theories that this might be applied to The Proof in the Pudding quest combines (Master Sage/Jeweler/Woodworker/Carpenter/Armorer/etc.). We now have confirmation that this will in fact be the case. If you have a level 80 sage and level 80 carpenter and both are on (or have completed) the quest, you’ll be able to make the combine for your alt, put it in the shared bank, log out, log in, claim it, and update your quest. What we did not know...
Today (Jan 27th) at 3pm PST is Aeralik’s GU51 playtest over on the Test Server. This is the second one of these hate/agro playtests with developer involvement. These changes are espected to go live February 3rd according to this missive by Kiara: The estimated date for GU #51, Lucan’s Art of War, to go to the live servers is Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009.
Kander slipped an interesting comment into the raging TSO Stinks topic: FYI: Stay tuned for the Shard of the Day solo quest, with some additional solo content. Cannot say more, but keep your eyes peeled for GU52. The current plan is that it will take a time investment similar to that of running an entire instance. So there you have it folks, while people have found a variety of more or less legitimate ways (which not everyone else approved of) to load up on Void Shards, now there is going to be an official way to get 1 shard...
Looks like substantial changes are being made to agro control and hate generation on the Test server in response to the Topic I linked here. Aeralik has hosted one play test and is expected to host a second one tomorrow. Time will tell which classes benefit the most, which ones are the losers in all these changes, and whether this will really rewrite the book on tanking in EQ2.
The complaints about GU51 are rolling in. Even the biggest fanboys who usually cannot find fault with any of the EQ2 team’s well-intentioned changes are not happy with what seems to most to be a rushed, massive change to something that has taken 4 years to develop in its current form. The issue that many are bringing up is not only have fighter stances and taunts been changed dramatically, but most Hate transfer from Swashies, Assassin, Coercers, Rangers, and most other classes have been reduced dramatically or eliminated. It would probably have been wiser to make all the taunt...
The fighter rebalance in GU51 is coming, whether we want it or not. There is a lot of “The Sky is Falling” responses about it both Pro and Con. Here are some useful quotes: Originally posted by Aeralik: Prior to this change, tanks relied heavily on hate transfers and hate gain/hate reduction while dpsing to gain aggro. Now the emphasis is more on the tank achieving this with their abilities… Originally posted by Flaye: NOBODY should be getting a “set it & forget it” hate transfer, if we’re ALL supposed to be playing more intelligently, paying more attention, &...
As scheduled, the Test Update #51 notes have been posted. Substantial changes to Tanking and Hate Generation are included. Test Update #51 is promised to run on the test server for 3+ weeks to allow adequate time for feedback. GAMEPLAY Taunts and detaunts can now critical similar to how melee and spell criticals work. Threat output and hate position changes will now be displayed to the chat windows. You can find it under Combat in the Hate Adjustment category. Hate gain mods will no longer affect taunt adjustments. Area of effect spells and combat arts will no longer spread...