Feldon
Wednesday’s sprawling two hour Critical Hit podcast with Nathan “Kaitheel” McCall is absolutely worth listening to, as Nathan goes into the best uses of design hours, what it takes to revamp zones such as Qeynos and Freeport, why the starting islands were removed, the importance of storytelling, and more. But if you are a raider or otherwise into the mechanics and itemization of EQ2, and you listen to only one EQ2 podcast this month, it should be EQ2Talk Episode #63 with Kyle “Kander” Vallee. He goes into a lot of the thinking behind the upcoming update (and this fall’s...
Itemization
From the EQ2 Forums: Last week, you got an inside look at Cobalt Scar on a tour with Haohmaru, ttobey, and Kaitheel. This week, we bring you an early look at the Siren’s Grotto! Join Tim “Haohmaru” Heydelaar, Chris “Chrol” Garlick, and Christopher “Phatkins” Atkins as they take you through this new dungeon, coming with Game Update 66: Scars of the Awakened, which will be released on April 30.
Logo Mockup by EQ2Wire In addition to the new content in Game Update 66, which hits Beta today and will go live on April 30th, there are numerous class tweaks. But instead of class balance (although there is some of that), the overriding theme of the class improvements in this update could best be summed up as “What Bugs Your Class Most?” All those things about your class that drive you crazy, like having to be directly behind the mob to use your biggest hits as a Dirge, or having to be exactly 5 meters from the mob to do...
Not everyone has the time to watch a Twitch or Youtube video talking about upcoming Game Updates, Expansions, Features, etc. Some are not able to watch videos at work and would rather read a transcript. And there are a number of EQ2 players who are hearing impaired. So for you guys, I am happy to present another EQ2Wire exclusive Transcript of an SOE Webcast. This week’s session is about the upcoming Game Update 66: Scars of the Awakened which lands on the Beta server next Tuesday and goes live April 30th. Inside this transcript, you’ll find out… The Othmir...
From the EQ2 Forums: BAG SORTING UPDATES Bag Sorting: Added Fuel, Food, and Drink filters. Added Tier sorting method “/sort_bags tier”. Added Ascending and Descending parameters for sorting called with “a” and “d” respectively (ie: “/sort_bags tier a”). Bag Dumping: Restored old bag swap functionality. Dragging a bag over another bag in your equipment window will swap the position of those bags (without moving their contents). To dump the contents of a bag into another, open the destination bag and then drag and drop the source bag into the open destination bag’s window. Bag Dumping now supports partial dumping....
Logo mockup by EQ2Wire From Holly “Windstalker” Longdale on the EQ2 Forums: To all Norrathians, The Velious saga continues! New lands and adventures will be uncovered on April 30 with Game Update 66 entitled EverQuest II: Scars of the Awakened! Ever vigilant, Norrathians march united under the banner of the New Combine army, deeper into the perilous continent of Velious. Finally, the army breaches the borders of a region known as Cobalt Scar – a majestic, lush, but tormented region. And from within dark passages in the surrounding mountains, the inhabitants of Sirens Grotto beckon to all.
One thing that made it into yesterday’s Update was a change to how loot drops in the Chains of Eternity Advanced Solo zones. Previously, after killing flattening laying to rest the boss of each zone, 1-3 Mystery Crates would be granted to the player, containing either Legendary jewelry, Fabled armor (very rare), or consumables like Research Reducers, temporary Adornments, or Food. Because the items were in a Mystery Crate, the items could not be traded to other players, even if you had done the zone with 2 players (rather than 1 player and a mercenary). Players reported a very...
From the EQ2 Forums: GENERAL You can now put a true/false parameter on the /hide_illusions command to force hide or force show instead of toggeling the hide illusions option. If you don’t use a parameter it will just toggle as before. The /hide command will once again default to /hide_illusions instead of /hide_guild_achievements. POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Wurmbone’s End: Nox Incessit Prime Temple-Blocker Grudk now gives more time to kill his spider adds. Adds have less health. Wasp and bug encounters have been lowered in number to help reduce lag issues. ITEMS The experience required to increase the level...
The Advanced Solo zones in Chains of Eternity drop some amazing loot, including a full set of jewelry upgrades as well as (somewhat controversially), the basic raid gear that drops in Chains of Eternity raid zones. This has been nice for players who are either tackling them with a mercenary or a second player. However due to the way the loot in these Advanced Solo zones drop (in one or three mystery crates), most players end up with an item they cannot use. Worse, the items cannot be traded with group members. And more maddening still, the loot table...
From the EQ2 Forums: ITEMS Fixed an issue with the adornments Prime Fortified Soul Trap, Nexus of the Bastion and Nexus of Flame. Unfortunately, this fix is not retroactive to those already missing their adornments. Please submit a customer service ticket for reimbursement of any lost adornments.
From the EQ2 Forums: NEW RAID ZONES New x2 raid zone Wurmbone’s End: Nox Incessit (with normal and challenge versions). Entrance located in Jarsath Wastes. New x4 raid zone The Dreadcutter: The Pirate Kings. Entrance located in Obol Plains on the dock. NEW BAG SORTING, SWAPPING AND DUMPING FEATURES Bag Sorting: Open up the Bag Options window from the button on each bag to access the filters that you’d like to set for a respective inventory bag. After setting your options, hit the “Sort” button on your Character window. This will send a command up to the server with...
On February 21st, SOE Podcast #143 was posted and it includes a brief interview between Colette “Dexella” Murphy, EQ2’s Community Manager, and Kyle “Kander” Vallee, EQ2 Lead Designer, Brian “Omougi” Ferguson, EQ2 Systems Design, and Kenneth “Terrogaunt” Roecks, EQ2 Programmer. After the jump, we provide a transcript of the EQ2 part of the Podcast including: Wurmbone Crag: Nox Incessit [x2 Normal and Challenge Raids] Dreadcutter: The Pirate Kings [x4 Challenge Raid] Bag Sorting — one-click sort bags by Level or Name into 14 categories PvP Balance — continued tweaks PvP Blue Adornments — new slots PvP Guardian — buffed! confirmation...
Although we’ve already been advised that the era of “Pre-Adorned Items” isn’t coming to an end any time soon, we can look forward to a new vendor being added next week in Game Update 65.5 which will allow us to purchase some of the more run-of-the-mill Red and Yellow Adornments for [eq2u]Obol[/eq2u] and [eq2u]Greater Spirit[/eq2u]. Greater Spirits -> Obols If you happen to have an abundance of [eq2u]Greater Spirit[/eq2u] but are running short on [eq2u]Obol[/eq2u], you’ll be able to trade them in. A [eq2u]Crate of Obols[/eq2u] will also cost 7p and 1 Greater Spirit in exchange for 18 Obols....
From the EQ2 Forums: GENERAL Fixed an issue where NPC death animations would not play correctly. POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Harrow‘s End Fixed an issue that was caused by players reviving before the encounter tried to teleport them out of the room. Drinal should now teleport players who are far away from him when he begins his fight instead of teleporting players after the encounter resets. Befallen: Cavern of the Afflicted and Royal Palace ofErudin Respawning NPCs in these zones will no longer give out XP, treasure loot, or corpse loot. Wurmbone’s End [Advanced Solo] Necromunger Garrkk’s adds come...
From the EQ2 Forums: ABILITIES Player strikethrough can now go over 50%. POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Chains of Eternity Raids Basepop armor tables have been weighted to drop less leather, priest chain. Scout and Mage drops should be slightly higher. Tallon’s Stronghold Raid This zone now rewards the proper amount of adventure XP. ITEMS The HEIRLOOM tag has been added to all items flagged APPEARANCE-ONLY from the adornment removal process. Planar Mender’s Aura now increases ward values properly. Drinal’s Castle: 4 Soul Drinal Ethereal Breastplates have had their effects improved. Amalgamon: Totality of Elements – Weapons dropped by Amalgamon...
If you’ve been flopping, leashing, or feign deathing past the second and third-from-last named encounters in Wurmbone’s End [Advanced Solo] to save time on your way to the boss of the zone, you’ll be seeing a change today. Now, you must kill at least 2 names before the final named will spawn. The popularity of this zone, specifically the last named (Prime Magnate Mrelg), derived from the fact that, when allowed to go into Challenge mode (by not clicking on his smoky “breath”), he drops three loot chests when killed. This was not an unexpected change. The bigger inconvenience/bummer...
From the EQ2 Forums: GENERAL Fixed an issue with casting bars on heroic and raid enemies. ITEMS Fixed a bug where Will of Thorns proc could work in reverse. [eq2u]Fist of the Unrivaled[/eq2u] now has 18% Block Chance. [eq2u]Torque of Soulful Revival[/eq2u] now gets melee benefits from its effect rather than caster benefits. The effect Eternal Damnation now supplies strength and agility in its effect. Resolution of Heated Battle can now trigger when using combat arts. [eq2u]Necklace of Isabella’s Flame[/eq2u]: This item’s passive effect now grants caster stats as opposed to melee stats.
From the EQ2 Forums: GENERAL Target casting bars will now clear the spell when they fail to successfully cast. POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Chardok Queen Velazul will no longer reset if attempted without a group. Wurmbone Crag Greatly reduced the HP on Errlik the Bludgeoner’s gnorgers. His gnorger that casts the Doom Tooth fear is now labeled as “a dooming gnorger” for priority killing. ABILITIES / ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT Sorcerer Sanguine Sacrifice should now apply reliably. GUILD HALL AMENITIES Transport The Magic Carpet to Norrath now includes the Great Divide and Jarsath Wastes destinations. TRADESKILLS Level 91, 93, and 95...
Today’s update is all about Itemization, specifically Group and Raid zones in Chains of Eternity. Heroic Itemization Players have been clamoring for Chains of Eternity Heroic zones to drop items even as good as some of the powerful items found in Advanced Solo zones, and it looks like those sentiments have been heard. (Don’t worry Soloers, the solo zones still drop a ton of loot). Sleeper’s Tomb (Contested) has had a bigger problem as players quickly abandoned it when they found that the loot was hardly better than that from the much easier instanced heroic zones. Pre-Adorned Items After...
From the EQ2 Forums: GUILD HALL AMENITIES Depots You can now set tradeskill access separate from withdrawal and deposit access on each Depot’s UI. Transmuting components are now labeled properly and can be added into the harvest depot by selecting the appropriate choice in the deposit dropdown. Treasured – Fragments and Powders Legendary – Infusions Fabled – Manas ITEMS Augmented Blessing and Augmented Smite no longer stack proc chance. They now increase in effectiveness for each similar effect you wear. Augmented Blessing and Augmented Smite no longer proc in PVP combat. Augmented Blessing and Augmented Smite’s “On Damage Received”...
Here are your Update Notes for January 10, 2013 from the EQ2 Forums: ITEMS Ammo Conservation adornments have been removed from red and yellow dropped adornment tables. QUESTS Quest items Listenomitron and Voice Modulator now work as quest baubles during their associated quests in the betrayal quests.
Here are your Update Notes for Tuesday, January 8, 2013 from the EQ2 Forums: GENERAL You can now invite another player to create a raid even if they have a mercenary but you do not. You can now fill remaining spaces in your bags from your overflow via /empty_overflow or from right-clicking on the overflowing inventory icon. GUILD HALL AMENITIES The standard bearer should now offer guild markers for use in marking strategic locations within instances. Only those marked as a raid looter can remove these markers. TRADESKILLS The Refine ability icon should now refresh instantly, as the recast...
From the EQ2 Forums: QUESTS Sleeper’s Tomb [Contested] now has dropped and POI quests that can be used to earn [eq2u]Obol[/eq2u], spirits and more! Alma Marigold will now offer Kelethin: Dreadooze on more than one occasion. TRADESKILLS Maker’s Marks should now appear on all items crafted through the Quantity Crafting system. BATTLEGROUNDS You can no longer accept a battleground match while dead.
From the EQ2 Forums: GUILD HALL AMENITIES Depots The maximum number of different resources that you can store in a Guild Harvest Depot has been increased from 200 to 1000. Several new Depots have been added as guild amenities! Check the “Depot” tab in your guildhall amenity list for details. The maximum number of items in a single depot stack has been increased from 20,000 to 99,999. Set Access now works with storage containers for the purpose of withdrawing items from the containers. Deposit remains open to all. Storage containers will now show the minimum level to use an...
It’s time for a double helping of updates as servers will go down today from 3-4pm PST for a second update. From the EQ2 Forums: ITEMS Items no longer lose their sale value to vendors when you transfer to another server. Many Brawler weapons have had delay adjust to 4 seconds. Some CoE brawler weapons have had permanent block chance added. [eq2u]Soul-Skiver of Blame[/eq2u] is now a 4 second delay. [eq2u]Claws of the Cursed Soul[/eq2u] is now a 4 second delay [eq2u]Claws of the Cursed Soul[/eq2u] now has permanent block chance added. [eq2u]Soul-Bladed Claws of the Silver Reaper[/eq2u] are...