From the EQ2 Forums:
MEMBERSHIP
- Now until Feb. 25th, Gold members earn DOUBLE on all alternate currencies!
POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Vesspyr Isles
- Delvakin in Falinpol now sells an item that can be used to turn fully upgraded Cryptic, Arcane, or Potent armor into an upgrade gemstone. Cryptic armor converts into a Brilliant Blue gemstone, both Arcane and Potent armor convert into a Deep Green gemstone.
Some good updates tomorrow. White Critical Chance adornments will now work in nearly every equipment slot, allowing players to boost their crit chance until they can get ToV gear replacements. Also, lots of little fixes to zones which players have been reporting.
From the EQ2 Forums:
POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
General
- Challenge Duo zones will now drop purple adornments instead of red adornments.
- City Sages are now willing to put a price to A Thexian Log Book, Clockwork Chirurgeon User Manual, and Day Log of R.F. for those that completed the accompanying quest.
Cobalt Scar
- Cobalt Scar tradeskill harvestables no longer spawn under the world.
Fabled Djinn Master’s Prism
- Instruments should no longer lose their “move” or “inspect” verbs when the encounter resets.
- Instruments will no longer reset once a valid song has been played but they will still reset once the Djinn Master’s threshold has been passed.
Ssrez’Ras: Chamber of Stasis
- Deviator Yothsra will no longer get stuck immune to damage.
- Casting Verdict on Ziskaya will no longer prevent her from fleeing combat.
Here are some of the most Frequently Asked Questions we are seeing about the new EverQuest II expansion Tears of Veeshan. This article will be updated as more details are found!
How do I get started in Tears of Veeshan? 
The Tears of Veeshan expansion begins with the Tears of Veeshan: The Eternal Broodlands Signature quest, which you will receive an in-game mail about, and which you can pick up in either Qeynos or Freeport. Once on the quest, you will begin a path that takes you to the Vesspyr Isles.
How to travel directly to the new zones without doing the quest lines?
Here are the Update Notes for the Tears of Veeshan expansion (ie Game Update 68) from the EQ2 Forums:
After rediscovering Yelinak, now the steward of Vesspyr Isles alongside other fallen and familiar dragons, players learn of the time/space powers behind the Tear of Veeshan stolen by prismatic dragon Kerafyrm the Awakened. With Kerafyrm’s fearsome power looming over Norrath, players are called upon to shine light into the darkness brought on by the Awakened’s draconic army, and set the stage for a new Age to begin!
Features:
EverQuest II: Tears of Veeshan launches tomorrow, and one of the benefits of an Open Beta is, we don’t have to wait for any pesky embargoes to take a look at what zones players will be journeying to in less than 24 hours. NOTE: All screenshots in the article were taken by me.
Tears of Veeshan includes nine new Instances which are available in both Advanced Solo and Heroic versions. The new solo/heroic zones are all accessible from the Vesspyr Isles (which are another realm of the Ethernere, sharing vestiges of the Tenebrous Tangle).
The Fractured Hive
The Nexus Core High Keep
High Keep: The Pickclaw Depths Stratum of the Protectors
Ssrez’Ras: Chamber of Stasis
Temple of Veeshan: Laboratory of Mutation Temple of Veeshan: Halls of the Betrayer Temple of Veeshan: Vulak’Aerr’s DominionNOTE: The difficulty markers above are my estimates, not from a developer.
After six years attending gaming conventions, namely Fan Faire and then SOE Live, one learns to carry a healthy dose of skepticism into any keynote or panel. The Age of Discovery (2011) and Chains of Eternity (2012) panels dazzled us with glitzy new features, beautiful new zones, and tweaks to itemization and mechanics. But by and large, these nips and tucks to itemization have remained in the well-worn rut of “Stamina + Main Stat increasing on a straight line” introduced with the Destiny of Velious expansion.
In Kyle “Kander” Vallée‘s interview with EQ2Talk this spring, he candidly shared his frustrations with Stat Consolidation and his plans to bring back Player Choice and Variety in itemization. But while I had reason to be excited for the Tears of Veeshan Itemization and Mechanics panels at this year’s SOE Live, I wasn’t fully prepared for the daring long-term plan for Itemization with which we were presented. I observed a confident, unified development team laying out their vision for a future in which choice is put back into player hands, and where the complexity that has always set EQ2 apart from more “accessible” games such as WoW is embraced rather than smoothed over.
From the EQ2 Forums:
BETA TESTING REWARDS
- If you’ve earned a Beta reward bundle, you may now claim them on live (via /claim under the ‘Beta Reward’ section). Note: You may only have one of each beta bundle reward in your claim window at a time. Once you claim that bundle, you may then earn another of that same bundle.
GENERAL
- Fixed a bug causing you to not be able to research your spells if you have a lower level player targeted.
ABILITIES / ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT
Paladin
- Fixed a situation where a Paladin’s Marr’s Favor could critically heal them.
LIVE EVENTS
Nights of the Dead
- A Nights of the Dead merchant has been convinced to part with the “[eq2u]Dedicated Jack-o-Lantern[/eq2u]” for 50 candy corn.
QUEST
- Printing Pressganger: Now correctly offers a forearm reward for priests.
- Fire and Ice: King Drayek should no longer break his script if damaged too quickly.
Kander posted this on the EQ2Forums:
Greetings and welcome to the Tears of Veeshan open Beta!
First, let me thank you all for choosing to come and help us. We are grateful for your time, and will see that you are justly rewarded!
We have a lot to test with this expansion, and we appreciate all of you who are helping us.
You can access Vesspyr: the Eternal Broodlands via the dragon rings or druid rings.
All heroic and advanced solo content is accessible directly from specialized entrances in the overland.
Here is the zone list:
- Nexus Core [Heroic]
- Nexus Core [Advanced Solo]
- The Fractured Hive [Heroic]
- The Fractured Hive [Advanced Solo]
- High Keep[Heroic]
- High Keep[Advanced Solo]
- High Keep: The Pickclaw Depths [Heroic]
- High Keep: The Pickclaw Depths [Advanced Solo]
- Izshrash’Khar: Stratum of the Protectors [Heroic]
- Izshrash’Khar: Stratum of the Protectors [Advanced Solo
- Ssrez’Ras: Chamber of Stasis [Heroic]
- Ssrez’Ras: Chamber of Stasis [Advanced Solo]
- Temple of Veeshan: Halls of the Betrayer [Heroic]
- Temple of Veeshan: Halls of the Betrayer [Advanced Solo]
- Temple of Veeshan: Laboratory of Mutation [Heroic]
- Temple of Veeshan: Laboratory of Mutation [Advanced Solo
- Temple of Veeshan: Vulak’Aerr’s Dominion [Heroic]
From the EQ2 Forums:
Open Beta for EverQuest II: Tears of Veeshan will open tomorrow, on Tuesday, October 15, 2013. This is a great chance for players to check out the new Channeler class and new dragon-themed Alternative Advancement (AA) systems for each archetype. We’d love your feedback on these features, as well as other parts of the expansion! Beta will last until the launch of Tears of Veeshan onTuesday, November 12, 2013!
How to copy your Live and/or Test character over to the Beta server:
- You can click the ‘Beta Copy’ button on the character create screen to copy the currently selected character.
- You can log in your character and then use the /beta command.
From the EQ2 Forums:
GENERAL
- Fixed a message about losing 0 coin when looting a treasure chest in certain situations.
QUESTS
- Channeler Prelude: Players will now find some help on the docks of the Danak Shipyards in Jarsath Wastes. It seems someone has placed an animal handler on retainer.
- Channeler Prelude: Instances are now more group-friendly.
MERCENARIES
- Mindbender Talid should no longer apply “Peaceful Calm” on fighters in the group.
BATTLEGROUNDS
- Fixed an issue with raids not forming correctly when entering a battleground.
From the EQ2 Forums:
GENERAL
Adjusted group experience gain.
Players have discovered an unexpected change in yesterday’s update which introduced Heroic Characters.
From GrouchyMouse on Unrest on the EQ2 Forums:
As I was in game tonight, there was chat about the NPC at Tenebrous Tangle who’d normally flag a epic’d toon for ER (talk to him and then go to Lavastorm to get the quest) was handing out a “Shattered Weapon“. The person who’d gotten the item hadn’t done the epic for their non-HC [Heroic Character] toon. I meandered up on my HC toon and also received the item. The dialog, however, was near exact for the dialog when you speak to him after getting your epic. On a hunch I went to Lavastorm and sure enough, Epic Repercussions was started with Fiery Jewel of the Underfoot quest.
So…the epic for a class doesn’t need to be done at all now, or so it seems.
This change isn’t completely out of the blue. If you read yesterday’s Heroic Characters article posted by Cyliena on EQ2 ZAM, you may have noticed this passage which hinted at a change:
Digging deeper into some of the quirks of Heroic Characters we found out that, in the time consuming process of backtracking into years-old content to obtain epic weapons, the team has “made a few adjustments, but we don’t want to trivialize those items.”
Apparently, if you are level 90+ (or maybe 85+) you will also receive an in-game mail when logging in which points you to this NPC. Thanks to Serana Masiop for the screenshot…
Summary
With yesterday’s update the Epic Weapon quest has now become optional.
ANY character (level 85+ ?) may speak to Kinloch Skry’mir in Tenebrous Tangle and get “a shattered weapon“, take it to Researcher Sel’Quar in Lavastorm, and then continue on to Sa’ib Waseem in Paineel in The Sundered Frontier, to do the quests A Fiery Jewel of the Underfoot, and later Epic Repercussions.
From the EQ2 Forums:
POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Siren’s Grotto: Dissension [Raid]
- During the Hydra fight mages & priests can now damage the kelp fiend adds, while fighters/priests and scouts can damage the abyssal titan adds.
The Fabled Djinn Master’s Prism
- The Djinn Master now allows multiple scepters to be active during his fight. He will no longer ignore scepter effect when it is on more than one player.
ITEMS
- Level 90+ regenerating ward adornments will now disable if the owner mentors below level 90.
Join members of the EverQuest II team including Akil “Lyndro” Hooper, Carlos “Gninja” Mora, Nathan “Kaitheel” McCall, Michael “Xelgad” Ganz, Nandy “Zoltaroth” Szots, Kyle “Kander” Vallée, and Holly “Windstalker” Longdale as they talk about EverQuest II’s upcoming 10th expansion — Tears of Veeshan.
Watch the EverQuest II: Tears of Veeshan expansion panel recorded on Friday, August 2nd at SOE Live 2013!
When Kander told me that Sunday’s EverQuest II: Q&A panel from SOE Live 2013 had some good questions raised, I despaired that nobody had recorded it. That was, until I found a post on the EQ2 forums from Zictor (who I got to meet at SOE Live!) who had recorded the audio from this panel!
Download the SOE Live 2013 – EverQuest II Q&A panel Audio
Read Zictor‘s transcript of the SOE Live 2013 — EverQuest II Q&A panel
I provide a backup of Zictor‘s transcript of the Q&A panel after the jump…
Join members of the EverQuest II team including Michael “Xelgad” Ganz, Brian “Omougi” Ferguson, Nandy “Zoltaroth” Szots, and Kyle “Kander” Vallée as they talk about upcoming mechanics and systems changes in EQ2.
Watch the EverQuest II: Systems (Mechanics) panel recorded on Friday, August 2nd at SOE Live 2013!
The above logo is a medium resolution screenshot from the EverQuest II keynote.
Highkeep
More screenshots after the jump…
If you didn’t see the EverQuest II keynote live on Twitch or on the replays, you can watch it on Youtube. I’ve set the video to start at 27:30 which is right after Holly “Windstalker” Longdale gives ladies man Mark Tuttle a well-earned hard time and launches into the keynote. 😉
From the EQ2 Forums:
The US and EU EverQuest 2 Servers will come down on Tuesday, August 6 at 5:30AM PDT (8:30am EDT, 13:30 BST, 14:30 CET, 10:30pm AEST) for an update. The expected downtime is one hour. Guk, Everfrost, Butcherblock, Crushbone, Permafrost, and Oasis will require an additional two hours of downtime.
and here are those update notes:
CHARACTER ACHIEVEMENT TEMPLATES
- Basic Leveling Profiles now include Tradeskill Prestige points.
- Players can now purchase AA points as they are gained in ‘View’ mode, versus always having to build and commit a profile.
Back: Carlos “Gninja” , Holly “Windstalker” , Akil “Lyndro”
Front: Kyle “Kander” , Nandy “Zoltaroth” , Mike “Xelgad“
Welcome to the EverQuest II: Itemization Evolves panel from SOE Live 2013. Panelists are Michael “Xelgad” Ganz, Brian “Omougi” Ferguson, and Kyle “Kander” Vallée.
Disclaimer: All things discussed about the expansions are subject to change!
More slides after the jump…
Welcome to the EverQuest II: Itemization Evolves panel from SOE Live 2013. Panelists are Michael “Xelgad” Ganz, Brian “Omougi” Ferguson, and Kyle “Kander” Vallée.
This is a LIVE BLOG hosted by Blyve:
http://blyve.com/event/5138f951143e787b3a000000
Welcome to the EverQuest II: Tears of Veeshan Expansion panel from SOE Live 2013.
This is a LIVE BLOG hosted by Blyve:
http://blyve.com/event/dc37f951bddea0042f000000
Welcome to the EverQuest II: Systems panel from SOE Live 2013. Panelists are Michael “Xelgad” Ganz, Brian “Omougi” Ferguson, and Kyle “Kander” Vallée.
Disclaimer: All things discussed about the expansion are subject to change!
Itemization will be discussed in our next systems panel: EverQuest II: Itemization Evolves.
More slides after the jump…
Welcome to the EverQuest II: Systems panel from SOE Live 2013. Panelists are Michael “Xelgad” Ganz, Brian “Omougi” Ferguson, and Kyle “Kander” Vallée.
This is a LIVE BLOG hosted by Blyve:
http://blyve.com/event/f936f951ce62705701000000