Coming Soon: Scout Poison Fix, Weekly Group/Raid Gems, Heroic Spirit Stones, and New LADs!

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization, Raiding

treasurechest-wallpaperhi-660x

So far, at least from the in-game comments I’ve seen, Altar of Malice has been well-received. Not everyone agrees about the difficulty of the heroic zones, but there’s a clear progression that players can strive towards. With any expansion, there will always be balance tweaks needed and a bug fix or two. We saw such a fix just last night with the missing textures in Zavith’loa zones turning parts of the zone black or white. This has been addressed with a client patch. Some other fixes and features coming up soon:

  • Scout Poisons overwriting each other
  • Weekly Heroic/Raid Gems
  • Heroic Green Adorns (Spirit Stones)
  • More Level Agnostic Dungeons
   

Level Up in Level Agnostic Dungeons

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping

Amongst a few other fixes, today’s update largely focuses on Level Agnostic Dungeons. While at least one confused poster thought that LADs were supposed to present a “challenge” for a stacked group, in fact LADs are specifically designed to address the lack of grouping in low levels by allowing low and high level characters to group together on somewhat of an even playing field. Stats are brought up or down as needed so that a level 20 healer can keep a level 94 tank alive. As part of today’s update, Afista has posted a featured article on the subject:

LevelAgnosticDungeons

We’re happy to announce that the update on February 3, 2015 will increase the maximum level for Agnostic Dungeons to level 94! These zones have been adjusted so that you can group with any of your friends between levels 20 and 94, regardless of your difference in level. We’ve also made some adjustments to make sure these dungeons are fun at any level! Looking for some new rewards? We’ve got those too. Make sure you check out the level 90 equipment that will help you gear up during your adventures! So where should you head to check out these update?
There are currently five Agnostic Dungeons in the world, ready to explore. We also plan to add more dungeons to the system later this year! Here’s a closer look at each of the five, currently available dungeons:

More 4 Second Weapons Coming in February

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization

capt-caveman

There’s a certain logic in most of the scout weapons coming from a land of Dinosaurs, Pterodactyls, and tar pits being clubs. However less-than-enthused players have been looking daggers at the EQ2 team and pointedly commenting about how there just aren’t enough piercing weapons to go around. Worse, the few piercing weapons  available to scouts have stats like Ability Recovery Speed and Reuse Speed which scouts acquire in spades from other item slots. A quick look at Item Discoveries of scout-usable weapons on EQ2U bears out our concerns.

Fortunately, the EQ2 team intend to deliver an update in February that should solve this shortcoming. Kander advises that the weapons will drop and have the correct scoutish stats!

We have an update coming in February that will be adding a large amount of weapons. Should be quite a few 4 second piercing weapons. I won’t give away the details quite yet, but help is coming.

We’ll make sure they have the proper stats.

I will check the batch for Brawler/Beastlord weapons. Especially some 4 second delays.

and in response to Errrorr‘s request for bows which beat Tears of Veeshan’s archery choices:

They will drop.

Late update from Kander:

We have 60+ assorted fabled weapons coming to live in a couple weeks. We are going through them now to make sure there is stuff for everyone. These will most likely also drop as patterns, so you will be able to choose your poison. Yes. Pun intended.

Update Notes: Thursday, January 22, 2015

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization, Raiding, Tradeskill

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
General

  • Raid encounters that dropped 2 armor patterns and 1 accessory or 1 armor patterns and 2 accessories will now always grant 2 armor patterns and 1 accessory.

Ossuary: Cathedral of Bones [Raid]

  • Sacrificer should once again react to players who have the “Sanguine Spray” effect on them.
  • The Marrow Sapper has had its health decreased.

Ossuary: Choir of T’Vyl [Event Heroic]

  • Legion of Many should no longer retain his increased damage when he resets.

Update Notes: Thursday, January 15, 2014

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization, Raiding, Tradeskill

From the EQ2 Forums:

US EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Thursday January 15, 2015 at approximately 7:00AM PST. Estimated downtime is 1 hour.

EU EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Thursday, January 15, 2015 at approximately 7:00AM PST. (Approx. 3:00PM London Time on January 15, 2015)
Estimated downtime is 2 hours.

and:

HEROIC CHARACTERS
Heroic characters now start at level 90 with 320 AAs!

For more information:
https://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/index.php?threads/heroic-characters-level-up-to-90.556133/

Update Notes: Thursday, December 18, 2014

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization, Raiding

From the EQ2 Forums:

ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT SYSTEM CHANGES

  • Up to 280 AAs will be granted as part of leveling up. Every level after 10 until level 90 characters will receive 3 AA points. Every 5th level characters will receive an additional 2 AA points, for a total of 5. Once a player reaches 280 AAs, all AA grants will cease. If characters are not at 280 AA points upon reaching level 90, they will receive additional points to reach 280.
  • All existing characters will be grandfathered their missing additional AA points. For example, in the new system a level 25 character would have been granted a total of 56 AA points, so all level 25 characters will be granted an additional 56 AA points. This AA grant won’t set a character’s AA count above 280.
  • Touch of the Steward, the AA bauble from Chains of Eternity, is now usable starting at level 10 instead of level 90.
  • The Marketplace AA bauble, Untapped Achievements, will now grant 320 AA points instead of 280 AA points. All existing Untapped Achievement baubles will be automatically exchanged for the new version.

Have You Taken the Altar of Malice Expansion Survey?

Written by Feldon on . Posted in DGC Wants Feedback, EQ2, Expansion News, Grouping, Itemization, PvP/BG/Proving Grounds, Raiding, Tradeskill

Have you taken the EverQuest II: Altar of Malice expansion survey? If not, head here:

aom_survey

Personally as someone who has dedicated some time to writing good survey questions, this has to be one of the most generic surveys I’ve seen. On one hand, there is an entire page dedicated to the six raid zones in the expansion, yet the entirety of the tradeskill and heroic content are each distilled down to a single 1-10 rating question. What if you love the zones, animations, populations, humor, and the music, but you dislike difficulty, how would you rate that?

It’s pretty clear that Marketing largely referenced the expansion’s press release without much (if any) consultation with the EQ2 team. I wonder what if anything SOE will learn from this survey. I feel that the way the questions are written is prone to lead to invalid conclusions.

Update Notes: Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Art, Appearance, Housing, EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization, Tradeskill

Here are your update notes this week. Of course the biggest change is Dungeon Maker being nerfed into oblivion. Also don’t forget that there will be a 3 hours of e-commerce and voice chat maintenance today coinciding with the patch.

From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL

  • Corrected an issue where coin would vanish when deposited into the shared bank as an exile.

DUNGEON MAKER

  • The Dungeon Maker feature is now available to all players.
  • Dungeon Maker dungeons no longer grant experience or rewards. Players can still spend existing tokens in the Marketplace.
  • Most avatars and toolbox objects are available to all players.
  • Spawners no longer drop in the world.
  • Current dungeons have been unpublished. [Ed. Note: This is being done to reset the Leaderboards)

Producer’s Letter: Dungeon Maker XP Going Away December 16

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Grouping

In a long-awaited change that should come as a surprise to none, Dungeon Maker XP and rewards are being removed as of December 16th. Here’s EQ2 Senior Producer Holly “Windstalker” Longdale‘s announcement on the EQ2 Forums:

Greetings Norrathians,

Three years ago, we added the Dungeon Maker system to EverQuest 2. During that time you all have used it to create some amazing dungeons to explore, creating your own spins on the world of Norrath within your private instances. We could not be happier with the fantastic creativity that’s been shown and that’s exactly why we added the feature to the game.

Unfortunately, some players also found that Dungeon Maker could be used to bypass adventuring and quickly gain experience without risk. Worse, those same players would often then complain that there is no challenge in the game because they leveled up to max in DM, and then received no challenge at all from the rest of the new content. Additionally, players that level through the content instead of DM were feeling cheated for not taking advantage of the experience exploit while their friends were already at max level, thus diminishing their enjoyment of the content.

The solution is easy to identify. Essentially, Dungeon Maker is way too easy to exploit for experience. We could spend time buttressing the Dungeon Maker systems to make them non-exploitable, but we would rather spend that time on new content and new adventures for everyone to play, not just the smaller segment of players interested in Dungeon Maker.

Frostfell Wonderland Goes Live Tomorrow — December 11th ~ January 8th

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Live Events, Tradeskill

frostfell_banner

From the EQ2 Forums:

The weather outside might be frightful, but the Norrathian streets are decorated and the citizens are so delightful! The Gigglegibber goblins and Frostfell elves are spreading cheer throughout Norrath this season and encouraging players to visit the Frostfell Wonderland Village. You can access the Wonderland through the Magic Closets in Qeynos Province District, Freeport, Haven, Kelethin, Neriak, Gorowyn and New Halas. In addition to the return of your favorite Frostell festivities, you can also look forward to plenty of exciting new content this season!

Update Notes: Thursday, December 11, 2014

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Art, Appearance, Housing, EQ2, Free-to-Play (EQ2X), Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization, PvP/BG/Proving Grounds, Raiding, Tradeskill

It’s Bug Bash (and Altar of Malice heroic zone rebalancing) time!

From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL — BUG BASH WEEK

  • Fixed an issue where you could lose your grandmaster spell if you betrayed.
  • The tooltip and examine window information will now correctly display the damage type of missile weapons.
  • Rejoice! Exiles can now use the shared bank!
  • Exiles can now change suffix titles!
  • SOE Live Request: Added the command /dump_items_to_log, which, true to its name, will write the contents of your inventory to your log. Please note that only items known to your game client will be logged; as such, the output may vary depending on whether you’re in a house zone or not.
  • SOE Live Request: Players may now drag game commands such as “Summon Mount,” “Melee Attack,” “Ranged Attack” etc. into the Edit Macro window to create a step with the appropriate command.

Implemented support for mouseover macros. By specifying %v (similar to the usage of %t) as the target in a macro, the player name under the mouse cursor will be used as the target of the spell cast. This only applies to the following UI elements:

  • Your own character info window (found in the upper left corner with the default UI)
  • Target Window
  • Implied Target Window
  • Group Window
  • Raid Window

Altar of Malice Heroic Progression Rebalance This Week

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping

Looks like this week’s Bug Bash update slipped from its Tuesday slot (Windstalker on Twitter):

But for those who have been taking a beating in Altar of Malice’s heroic zones, I’m happy to announce that the chiropractor is in town and some adjustments are being made. From Kander on the EQ2 Forums:

Our current view of the Altar of Malice Heroic Zone progression is a bit skewed. We will be toning down some dungeons to better fit in the progression. This progression is mainly based on what resists are recommended for each tier which are:

Tier 1 Heroics = 100K base resists recommended
Tier 2 Heroics = 120K resists recommended
Tier 3 Heroics = 120K + resists recommended

Update Notes: Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Art, Appearance, Housing, EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization, PvP/BG/Proving Grounds, Raiding, Tradeskill

From the EQ2 Forums:

US EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 at approximately 7:00AM PST. Estimated downtime is 1 hour.

EU EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Wednesday, December 3 , 2014 at approximately 9:00PM PST. (Approx. 5:00AM London Time on 12/04/2014). Estimated downtime is 2 hours.

From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL

  • Fixed a bug where mercenary names would show as gibberish on non-english servers.

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Zavith’loa: The Lost Caverns [Advanced Solo and Heroic]

  • Fixed a bug that caused Beastmaster Kau’mua to heal for more than intended.
  • Fixed a bug that was rarely causing Ceracuspis to get stuck in his charging animation.

The EQ2 Team Wants Your Focused Feedback

Written by Feldon on . Posted in DGC Wants Feedback, EQ2, Grouping, Itemization, PvP/BG/Proving Grounds, Raiding, Tradeskill

In order to institute Quality of Life tweaks and changes to Itemization, Class Balance, and overall gameplay, the EQ2 team launched Focused Feedback threads a few weeks back on a number of topics. We still have time to post our comments in these threads:

From Caith on the EQ2 Forums:

Update: We will be keeping all focused feedback thread open until January 5th, 2015 at which point we will be locking the threads to move onto the next phase.

Update Notes: Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Expansion News, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization, PvP/BG/Proving Grounds, Raiding, Tradeskill

First up, starting at 10:00am PST tomorrow (1:00pm EST, 18:00 GMT, 19:00 CET), Free-to-Play EQ2 players will be able to buy and start playing the Altar of Malice expansion.

Now for the downtime announcement…

US EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, November 25, 2014 at approximately 7:00AM PST.
Estimated downtime is 1 hour.

EU EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, November 25, 2014 at approximately 9:00PM PST. (Aprox. 5:00AM London Time on 11/26/2014)
Estimated downtime is 2 hours.

All accounts will also be able to purchase and play our new expansion, Altar of Malice, at 10:00AM PST.

GENERAL

  • Fixed a bug where general achievements would export to census with “Altar of Malice” as the subcategory.
   

Update Notes: Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Art, Appearance, Housing, EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization, Raiding, Tradeskill

From the EQ2 Forums:

US EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, November 18, 2014 at approximately 7:00AM PST (15:00-16:00 GMT). Estimated downtime is 1 hour.

EU EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, November 18, 2014 at approximately 9:00PM PST (19th Nov 5:00~7:00 GMT). Estimated downtime is 2 hours.

From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL

  • Elite mercenaries Kenny, Matri Dut, and Perrin should now despawn after 5 minutes of being first hired.
  • Fixed an issue where Kylong Plains was at the wrong location on some Fast Travel Maps.
  • Removed the Burned Woods entrance from the travel map.
  • Resolved an issue where specifying the name of a mercenary in a macro resulted in a “not found” error.
  • Fixed a bug where you would not be able to see your bags in your inventory or house vault when inside a guildhall or house and you have a lot of stuff.

Update Notes: Thursday, November 13, 2014

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Raiding

UPDATE: EQ2 Servers are back up and accessible after just 40 minutes of downtime. Go play!

Assuming we don’t have three hours of company-wide firewall shanigans like we did yesterday…

US EverQuest II US Live Servers will be brought offline on Thursday, November 13, 2014 at approximately 7:00AM PST. Estimated downtime is 1 hour.

EU EverQuest II EU/RU/JP Live Servers will be brought offline on Friday, November 14, 2014 at approximately 5:00AM GMT. Estimated downtime is 2 hours.

and from the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL

  • Aerakyn Beastlords will be granted a Reptile Warder when logging in and during character creation.

Podcast: EQ2Wire Interviews EQ2 Lead Designer Kander for Altar of Malice

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Expansion News, Grouping, Itemization, Raiding, Tradeskill

EQ2Wire was fortunate enough to interview EQ2 Lead Designer Kyle “Kander” Vallée for today’s Altar of Malice expansion launch to talk about a broad spectrum of topics including:

  • The building blocks of MMORPG content design and how collaboration between artists, animators, musicians, and designers makes it possible for a cohesive expansion with a strong theme and storyline.
  • The new Altar of Malice zones as they fit into Solo, Adv Solo, Heroic, Event Heroic, and Raid playstyles
  • How Altar of Malice builds on the Itemization bedrock laid by Tears of Veeshan
  • A hint of what we can expect in next year’s content-focused updates.

Download the EQ2Wire Altar of Malice Kander Interview [50:27]

This is my first (and possibly only) podcast recording so please be gentle. I’m not an old pro at this like Dellmon, Aliscious, and Osgz of EQ2Talk. 😉

Update Notes: Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization

From the EQ2 Forums:

US EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Wednesday, November 12, 2014 at approximately 7:00AM PST. Estimated downtime is 1 hour.

EU EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Wednesday, November 12, 2014 at approximately 9:00PM PST. (Aprox. 5:00AM London Time on 11/13/2014). Estimated downtime is 2 hours.

and from the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Castle Highhold [Solo and Advanced Solo]
Va’Tak Telaris’ relic of power can always be seen once it spawns.

Altar of Malice Frequently Asked Questions

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Art, Appearance, Housing, EQ2, Expansion News, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization, PvP/BG/Proving Grounds, Raiding, Tradeskill

eq2_aom_eq2wirefaq

Table of Contents


Q: So what’s new in the expansion?

  • Adventure, Tradeskill, and Guild levels can now all go to 100.
  • 100 new Quests including new Signature line for the expansion
  • All new level 96-100 harvestables, spells, recipes, armor, weapons, etc.
  • Two new Tradeskill questlines by Domino
  • Two new Overland zones (The Phantom Sea and The Tranquil Sea).
  • Ten new Heroic zones with 4-5 bosses per zone.
  • Five new Event Heroic zones with a single ring event and boss (10-15 minute zone!)
  • Two contested Heroic zones for leveling from 96-100 (if you prefer to grind).
  • Six raid zones, many of which are tuned for entry-level raiding
  • Avatars of the Gods gets 4 more Avatar raid fights
  • New PvP Gear
  • Nearly all spells can be upgraded to Grandmaster from level 1-100.
  • New “Ancient” spells/combat arts.

EverQuest II Altar of Malice Zone Previews – The Tranquil Sea & Brokenskull Bay

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Art, Appearance, Housing, EQ2, Expansion News, Grouping

EQ/EQ2 Community Manager Ry “Roshen” Schueller interviews designers Jeffery “Extemper” Bard and Carlos “Gninja” Mora as they give us a sneak peek of the stunning The Tranquil Sea and elaborate Brokenskull Bay, two new zones in the upcoming Altar of Malice expansion releasing next Tuesday for All Access members and November 25th for everyone else.

The Tranquil Sea is the first overland zone players encounter in the Altar of Malice, and contains the Isle of Refuge, Alla’thoa, and much much more. Brokenskull Bay is a swashbuckling instance styled after Tortuga and will be available in a few different heroic versions, an advanced solo adventure, plus a level 96-100 Contested zone to help players who wish to level up through wanton slaughter.

Update Notes: Tuesday, October 7, 2014 — Level Agnostic Dungeons, Grandmaster Spells

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization, Raiding, Tradeskill

UPDATE from Afista on the EQ2 Forums:

These are the correct scheduled server down times for each server. I am looking into why there was a delay and will update you all whenever I have the information.

ALL servers are supposed to be patching at the same time. Here’s the announcement from the EQ2 Forums:

All US EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, October 7, 2014 at 7:00 AM PDT. Estimated downtime is 1 hour.

All EU EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, October, 2014 at 7:00 AM PDT. (3:00 PM London Time). Estimated downtime is 2 hours.

From buildmaster Bunji on the EQ2 Forums:

LEVEL AGNOSTIC DUNGEONS

  • These dungeons allow players, level 20-89, to group together without the need for mentoring and have both a challenging and rewarding experience.
    • Charasis: Maiden’s Chamber
    • Library of Erudin
    • Nejena’s Deep Forge
    • Vasty Deep: The Conservatory
    • Templeof the Faceless
  • You can enter an agnostic dungeon by queuing through Dungeon Finder or by using the agnostic dungeon entrances found near the arena entrances inFreeportand Qeynos.

MASTERS

  • Grandmaster spells are now available from crafting or via the spell upgrade (Research) tab in your Knowledge Book.
  • Free players can now scribe and research spells up to the Master level.

x4 Etyma Currency from ToV Missions is Coming Back!!

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Grouping, Itemization

Have you been missing x4 Etyma currency (x2 for F2P) ever since this summer’s “Level Up, Gear Up” promotion ended? You’re not the only one…

From Holly “Windstalker” Longdale‘s twitter:

Also:

First Five Level-Agnostic Dungeons, Grandmaster Spells Coming Thursday Oct 2nd!

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization

The first five level-agnostic dungeons, open to level 20-89 players, as well as the availability of Grandmaster spells at all levels and tiers, is expected this Thursday. Racheal “Afista has posted an in-depth preview of what we can expect on the EQ2 Forums:

We’re excited about Level Agnostic Dungeons and Grandmaster Spells coming to EverQuest 2 on Thursday, October 2, 2014! So what exactly are these dungeons and why should you check them out?

Level Agnostic Dungeons

Level Agnostic Dungeons are instances in which characters between levels 20-89 have a chance to group together, regardless of the difference in their adventure level. These dungeons are accessible by joining the queue on your Dungeon Finder Tab (Alt + Z) from the EQ2 Options Menu. Within each dungeon, adventurers will be able to battle heroic monsters and receive individual rewards based on their own level. This is a chance to earn great XP and enjoy a new spin on some classic dungeons!

Altar of Malice Zone Preview: Phantom Sea

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Art, Appearance, Housing, EQ2, Expansion News, Grouping

It’s time for another zone preview from this fall’s expansion Altar of Malice, this time the overland Phantom Sea. From Nathan “Kaitheel on the EQ2 Forums:

Unswayed in their quest to find Captain Greymast, the heroes sent by the Overlord of Freeport and by the benevolent Queen of Qeynos, arrive in the Phantom Sea, a body of water peppered with mysterious islands that have not been seen by eyes outside of the Far Seas Trading Company since the Age of Cataclysms.

eq2_aom_phantomseaprev_1_423

The island of North Dshinn shares a great many commonalities with its southern sister in Tranquil Sea, but here the zealous Allu’thoa have succeeded in decimating the pygmy population. The last few survivors have been forced to flee their village, Gazanti, leaving the revered deinodons on the island to fend for themselves. This abandonment has gained the attention of the Far Seas Trading Company, who has sent a small band of members to investigate.


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