From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Temple of Veeshan: Guardian’s Edifice [Raid]

• Derig Cinderaxe’s adds will now despawn if he is defeated.

The Nexus Core [Advanced Solo and Heroic]

• The Maligned Gyro’s spiral ripper adds now move more slowly.

High Keep: The Pickclaw Depths

• You can escape from prison much sooner after being captured by Bigz the Big.
• Bigz the Big no longer becomes immune to damage when drinking his potion.

More after the jump…

If you’re playing a Channeler and wonder when EQ2’s 26th class will get their very own Epic Weapon quest, you don’t have much longer to wait. From Kander on the EQ2 Forums:

We are shooting for December 17th for the Channeler Epic. I should be able to give you 100% solid date next week.

Epic Weapon quests have always been a mystery which players need to work out. When these quests appeared shortly after Kunark was rediscovered, players worked tirelessly, combing the depths of class lore to figure out where these quests started and how to complete them.

So when asked if players could know what some of the prerequisites of the quest were, Kander stuck to secrecy with a:

Nope. Sorry.

However he did throw a bone:

Oh and just to be nice. Since I am really very nice. You do not need Raincaller. How about them apples?

From the EQ2 Forums:

From the EQ2 Forums:

From Holly “Windstalker” Longdale‘s twitter:

Ethereal jewelry and adornments are dropping in Tears of Veeshan dungeons from today until Jan. 3! Good luck! #eq2

— Holly Longdale (@WindstalkerEQ2) December 3, 2013

UPDATE: Looks like these new Ethereal items are not present in Census. Hopefully with the next hotfix/update, we’ll get a new export.

From the EQ2 Forums:

The US EverQuest 2 Servers will come down on Tuesday, December 3rd at 7:00AM Pacific Time* for an update. The expected downtime is approximately one hour.

All EU Servers will come down at 5:00 PM PT (2:00 AM CET) on December 4th for a brief update. Downtime is anticipated to be approximately 2 hours

From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL

• Currency can no longer be moved directly to the shared bank from the Currency tab. You will need to move it to a bag first and then to the shared bank.
• Corrected an issue where a player would not receive Ornate Crate of Goods if their group loot options were set to Fabled+.

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
General

• Ground mounts can now be used in Sleeper’s Tomb: The Forgotten Catacombs and Chelsith: The Ancient Vault.

Vesspyr Isles

• Many named NPCs in this zone were adjusted to have more health and less melee damage. Additionally, several of their non-functional spells were fixed.

Accursed Sanctum: Guardian of Adherence

• Lowered health of sanctum enforcers.
• Increased the variance of which these adds will mem-wipe so that there is less chance of them doing it all at once.
• Lowered damage output of custodial architect.

If you haven’t checked out the EQ2Wire Tears of Veeshan Frequently Asked Questions guide since the launch of the expansion two weeks ago, we’ve added some new questions and details!

• Armor slots — Which armor slots drop from which Adv Solo and Heroic zones.

• Bonus “column” heroic named — These appear at the end of heroic zones for players who have completed the Tears of Veeshan signature quest and drop tradeskill materials.

• More ways to acquire Draconic Etyma — including the “Ancestral Champion” quest, as well as weekly and daily Tradeskill missions.

• Cryptic (Adv Solo) and Arcane (T1 Heroic) armor upgrades — Cryptic and Arcane armor with 4 gems can be converted into a gem of the next tier PLUS all adornments (including white) are popped off with a conversion item that costs 10 Etyma. This takes a lot of the pain out of upgrading items!

• Anchor Tags added to Tears of Veeshan FAQ allow you to link () a part of the FAQ to a friend.

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.

Over the last year, Free-to-Play has become less and less inhibited by restrictions and additional costs. This has unbalanced the equation such that even diehard EQ2 players have pondered whether a Gold Subscription is worth keeping when so much is simply given away.Recently, the EQ2 team seems to have realized the inequity of the current situation and the need for more carrots for Subscribers.

Tomorrow, we’ll get a rather big reason to keep an EQ2 Gold Subscription up. From Holly “Windstalker” Longdale‘s twitter:

With our patch tomorrow, until Feb. 25, 2014, Gold Members will receive DOUBLE for all alternate currencies earned! #eq2

— Holly Longdale (@WindstalkerEQ2) November 20, 2013

With this change, all in-game alternate currencies (ie not plat) will drop at twice the rate. This should also help immensely with the earning of [eq2u]Draconic Etyma[/eq2u].

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?

• If you are in a guild hall, you may travel by Druid Ring to Vesspyr Isles. Player-summoned druid rings may or may not show Vesspyr Isles as a travel option. This has been reported as a bug. Tinkerers may also craft a [eq2u]Wormhole Generator: Obol Plains[/eq2u] and then fly to the druid ring there to travel to Vesspyr Isles.

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:

• New class – Channeler!
• New Dragon-themed AAs
• AA limit increased to 340
• New overland area, Vesspyr Isles – Adventure, amenities, quests, collections, and more!
• Nine new dungeons
• Two new raid zones
• More Tradeskill and Tradeskill Apprentice Items
• New PvP item tier

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:

cl_ignore_merc_chatter true

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:

Hello again, Norrathians!

We are all getting ready to usher in our next expansion, EverQuest II: Tears of Veeshan (ToV)…and not a moment too soon! Open Beta is being prepared now for Oct. 15 and launch is coming on Nov. 12!

In ToV, our next epic chapter unfolds! Kerafyrm, the great, evil prismatic dragon, has stolen a powerful artifact known as the Tear of Veeshan and slain Yelinak – Norrath’s wisest and eldest dragon. The New Combine Army that united Norrath’s peoples is fractured and powerless and it is said that Kerafyrm’s plots now reach far beyond Norrath. In fact, his plans are rumored to reach beyond time and space to all existence! You and your allies will be all that stands in his way.

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.

UPDATE:

The EverQuest 2 Servers will come down on Tuesday, October 1st at 7:00AM Pacific Time* for an update. The expected downtime is approximately 5 hours. 

From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL
Memberships have changed!

• We’ve removed Item restrictions from Free and Silver accounts.
• Permanent 10% Mount speed and 15% Coin Loot Bonus to Gold membership!
• Destiny of Velious expansion content is now free for everyone too!

HEROIC CHARACTERS & 1 FREE HERO’S CALL OFFER
Heroic characters can now be created! Answer the Hero’s Call!

From now until Oct. 15, you can take part in our 1 FREE HEROIC CHARACTER ‘Hero’s Call’ Offer. All existing accounts created prior to Sept. 22, 2013 will have access to 1 free Level 85 Heroic Character! All accounts created after Sept. 22, 2013 will get access to 1 free account per household. These free Heroic Characters will be unlocked permanently!

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Siren’s Grotto: Dissension

• Pysllon’Ris’ abyssal titan and kelp fiend adds have had their health reduced by 30%.
• Pysllon’Ris’ abyssal titan and kelp fiend adds should no longer automatically kill certain classes.

ABILITIES / ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT

• It is now possible to cast abilities whose mana costs have been reduced to zero (either via AAs, the Enchanter ability “Channeled Focus”, or similar modifications) when the caster has zero mana.

ITEMS

• [eq2u]Swallowed Helmsman’s Compass Needle[/eq2u] has been returned to its correct stats.
• The potency on Perpetual Lamentation now properly stacks with other effects.
• The potency on Enduring Temperance now properly stacks with other effects.
• The crit bonus and health on Scrutiny of the Hounds now stacks with other effects.

PLAYER HOUSING

• Players should no longer incorrectly receive messages when paying upkeep on houses with personal housing depots.

DEPOTS

• Hide Unusable functionality has been added to the Lore & Legend Depot window.

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Cobalt Scar

• Yeppa’s Last Stand: The othmir have moved their tradeskill forge to a less exposed location.

CHARACTER ACHIEVEMENT TEMPLATES

• Auto-consume items will now auto-consume after the AA Template is committed.

PLAYER HOUSING

• Mannequins: Resolved an issue where a player would be unable to select an outfit for a hireling after moving items between houses.

TRADESKILLS

• The Hydra Helm recipes can no longer benefit from material conservation effects.

ITEMS

• Dawnbreak should proc much more reliably.

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 their comprehensive plan to make Itemization awesome again in EQ2.

Watch the EverQuest II: Itemization Evolves panel recorded on Friday, August 2nd at SOE Live 2013!

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!