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 expansion), has some refreshing vision towards the future of EQ2, itemization and content design, and is very candid about some of the missteps in Chains of Eternity as well as other past changes.

All comments below are paraphrased from Kander’s comments in the 1 hour 40 min podcast. Any errors in meaning are the fault of the editor.

Stat Consolidation

• If there is one thing Kander could go back and change about EQ2, he would never have gone along with Stat Consolidation (where each class has just one primary stat and then Stamina for increasing health).  The different benefits you got from each stat were some of the “meat and bones” of EQ2 and chasing different stats and having to make choices on which gear you equip added a lot of depth. We had a lot more choice itemization-wise. For example, building up Intelligence to increase poison damage for scouts.
• As far as Stat Consolidation, we’re actually planning to head back in that direction as far as the next expansion to provide more choices. Right now, itemization feels a little bit stale. Players should need to think about their gear.

More after the jump…

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 both your Melee and Ranged CAs as a Ranger.

Read over the notes and give us your take. Are these great, long overdue changes, or does it almost go too far, making things a little too convenient? As a Ranger, I’m excited about the changes, but will I become even lazier now that I can stand pretty much anywhere in the room and do my maximum DPS? I certainly applaud a number of the changes which were things that “didn’t make sense” which have now been fixed.

After the jump, Game Update 66’s Beta Notes…

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 make their way to Cobalt Scar to see what’s left of their homeland.
• New Tradeskill quest line.
• New Tradeskill Apprentice recipes.
• New overland zone with numerous quests at Advanced Solo difficulty.
• New Heroic zones. New Advanced Solo zones. New raid zone with internal progression.
• Itemization is an overlay for Chains of Eternity, not a gear reset.
• Gear upgrades will be in 7-8 slots and there are clear upgrades for all gameplay levels including solo, group, and raid.

From the EQ2 Forums:

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 high incidence of receiving items that they could not use for their class.

The bosses of all the Advanced Solo zones (except Wurmbone’s End HM) have these loot rules:

• 100% chance at two (2) Advanced Solo gear items — 50% Smart Loot
• 10% chance at a third Advanced Solo gear item — 50% Smart Loot
• 10% chance at a solo-level Spirit Stone
• 5% chance at a group-level Spirit Stone

Wurmbone’s End (HM) has these loot rules:

• 100% chance at four (4) Advanced Solo gear items — 50% Smart Loot
• 10% chance at a fifth Advanced Solo gear item — 50% Smart Loot
• 10% chance at a solo-level Spirit Stone
• 5% chance at a group-level Spirit Stone

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 of a Spiritstone has been lowered in many cases.
• Potency has been added back to Trinket of the Grim Virtuoso, Nexus of Acid, and Gravedigger’s Mark.
• Prime Fortified Soul Trap will once again cap out at 60 Stamina at level 50.
• Rune: Greater Cyclical Battering II now has 11 multi-attack.

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 includes the rather useless Dungeon Maker rewards such as [eq2u]Demonicus Steaks[/eq2u], temporary adornments, etc.

Fortunately, it looks like some changes are coming to how the loot will be granted from these zones. From Kander on the EQ2 Forums:

We are going to change the way advanced solo zones drop loot. Very soon.

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 “/sort_bags name”.

• In addition to sorting by “name”, you can type the sort_bags command yourself and put “level” to sort by level of the item instead.
• Any option that you set for filtering items will also affect which bag the item goes to upon looting!
• If you’d rather a bag not be sorted, feel free to mark the bag as a “Skip”.

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 of Cobalt Scar in Game Update 66 at the end of April

Download SOE Podcast #143 [15:31 mp3]

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.

NOTE: Greater Spirits drop from heroic zones. Obols drop from any Chains of Eternity zone including overland trash.

Game Update 65.5 Red and Yellow Adornments Vendor

A new NPC named Dulgur Bindmagic is being added next to Drinal’s Steward in the village of Cardin Ward in Obol Plains.

From the EQ2 Forums:

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 have been upgraded to be more in line with the challenge.

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 for me is, you will no longer be able to use the red clicky [eq2u]Celestial Fragment of Subversion[/eq2u] item on him to take off his last 30% of health. I used this item regularly, and only on some occasions was I able to kill him without it. The only “loot” that I cared about from any of the lesser names in any of the Chains of Eternity zones was the red 30% damage clicky. All the other items were pretty much fluff. So with this change, I am even less enthused about the time spent killing the subbosses of each zone.

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
General

• Scout shields should now drop much less often from Avatars.

Chelsith: The Ancient Vault

• Corrected a bug that was causing items and obols to not drop off trash encounters.

Wurmbone’s End

• You should now be less likely to fall through the world when zoning into any of the Wurmbone’s End zones.

Wurmbone’s End [Advanced Solo]

• [eq2u]Celestial Fragment of Subversion[/eq2u] can no longer be used on Prime Magnate Mrelg once he has become the challenge version.
• All-Blocker Mohngu must now be defeated in order to spawn Necromunger Garrkk.
• Necromunger Garrkk must now be defeated in order to spawn Prime Magnate Mrelg.

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 tradeskill writs are now available!

ITEMS

• End line Chains of Eternity collection quest rewards have had their quality improved to match the effort of attaining them. They are now Ethereal.
• Fixed stats on [eq2u]Empowered Chestwrap of the Silver Reaper[/eq2u] to be in line with other rare drop breastplates from Drinal. Adornments will pop off of this breastplate, and reforges will be reset with reforge tokens.

Note: The stats on the Empowered Chestwrap of the Silver Reaper will be updated on EQ2U the first time someone views the item details page after 7:45am tomorrow morning. 🙂

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 3 expansions with Yellow and Red Adornments being sold by vendors, Chains of Eternity tried something new with Pre-Adorned items. The most desirable adornments are now found in dungeons and raid zones already attached to items (often of a different class/spec to the adornment). While this is an intriguing concept, and it has the potential to extend gameplay, it has also led to player confusion and frustration.

But one slice of the EQ2 playerbase who have yet to see the silver lining in this concept of Pre-Adorned loot are Raid Leaders who have been given the unenviable task of deciding whether Pre-Adorned items will go to someone who needs the gear upgrade, or someone who needs the adornment.

While Kander isn’t yet ready to throw in the towel on pre-adorned loot by slapping all the adornments on a vendor, it seems he’s recognized the inherent difficulties and is now providing an alternative to dividing the child:

There will not be a merchant for CoE adornments. We are adding green adornment removers that will remove green adornments without destroying the item, they will be available for plat from a merchant. We are also adding adornment removers that will remove any one adornment without destroying the item. These will be very costly, plat wise from a merchant, but will be rare drops in all CoE heroic and raid zones.

After the jump, the full Update Notes, including the pricey new Adornment Dislodgers which don’t destroy the items…

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” effect can now only trigger once every 15 seconds.

DUNGEON MAKER

• XP for weaker creatures has been reduced in dungeon maker dungeons.

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 time suggests.
• Refining metals will no longer have a chance to return a refined loam.
• Default primary components for the recipe creation page will now default to unrefined components, if available. Changing the quantity will pull any primary components available, including refined.

ITEMS

• Level 90+ spirit stones now start as Legendary.
• Drednever journal pages will now go into the Collectibles container.
• Obols and Greater Spirits for the Steward merchant now drop for everyone that is eligible.
• Obols are no longer flagged as “Ethereal”.
• Fixed a bug that was causing Obols to drop from every kill in the Altar of Abhorrence.

See a Complete List of Drinal’s Steward Heroic Armor (requires [eq2u]Obol[/eq2u]s and [eq2u]Greater Spirit[/eq2u])

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 item instead of the item level if there is one specified.
• You can now use the Deposit All button on depots to deposit every valid component from your bags.

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 now a 4 second delay.
• [eq2u]Steward’s Claws of Battle[/eq2u] now has permanent block chance added to it.
• [eq2u]Staff of Fear Feasting[/eq2u] now has permanent block chance added.
• [eq2u]Gilded Shield of Marr[/eq2u] has had its protection increased slightly.

DUNGEONS

• Wurmbone’s End [Advanced Solo] The All-Tender has had his leash greatly increased.