Tomorrow is the launch of Terrors of Thalumbra, EverQuest II’s twelfth expansion!

From the EQ2 Forums:

All EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, November 17, 2015 at 7:00AM PST* for the Terrors of Thalumbra expansion update. Estimated downtime is approximately five hours.

EverQuest II: Terrors of Thalumbra is scheduled to unlock to players at noon pacific** on Tuesday, November 17, 2015.

Time Zone Conversions

• PST: November 17 @ 7:00am – Noon
• EST: November 17 @ 10:00am – 3:00pm
• GMT: November 17 @ 15:00 – 20:00
• CEST: November 17 @ 16:00 – 21:00

and your Update Notes from the EQ2 Forums:

TERRORS OF THALUMBRA
Deep underneath Norrath lies a realm on the edge of the Plane of the Underfoot, known as Thalumbra. This expansive, subterranean domain is home to fabled races and ancient terrors!

When the dark shroud upon this land is pierced by Lanys T’Vyl, the recently resurrected demigoddess of Malice, it spells doom for all! You are a hero on the stage of Norrath. Will you play your part and protect Norrath from those who seek to destroy it? What mysteries will your torch uncover deep beneath the surface? Can you withstand the terrors of Thalumbra?

From the EQ2 Forums:

It’s time for the next event in Fall Frenzy!

Beginning on Friday, November 6th, Etheral Adorns will begin dropping in Norrath. There will also be DOUBLE Rare Drops! This is the last Fall Frenzy event before the launch of Terrors of Thalumbra. 

Two important notes:

• While Ethereal Adorns will start dropping, they will not be double.
• These events do not take place on the TLE servers.

Enjoy these bonuses beginning Friday, November 6th.

From Robert “Caith” Fouts on the EQ2 Forums:

We’re getting closer to Terrors of Thalumbra. So far, we’ve shared two zone previews (Thalumbra and City of Maldura), and we’ve talked about what’s in store for Tradeskillers. Now, here’s an introduction to two new systems that will be introduced with the expansion:

Deity Abilities
Delving into the depths of Norrath has awoken a deeper connection between the gods and the physical realm, allowing them to channel power more directly through their chosen instruments in the form of powerful new miracles. As you gain adventuring experience you will also gain tithe experience, and tithe points. Tithe points can be spent in one of two ways, the first is to purchase charges of these new miracles. You can only have a certain amount of tithe points banked or spent on miracles at any particular time. While you can purchase any abilities that match your city alignment as well as neutral abilities, the ability from your chosen deity from completing the existing deity quest lines grant will be at a discount.

For example, if your deity is Tunare you would be able to purchase the Lifeshield ability at a discount. This will allow you to use the ability more often as well as to hold more miracles as it reduces the amount of tithe points spent on that ability. You do not have to have completed any deity quests to make use of deity abilities.

US Servers: 7:00~8:00am PDT | 10:00~11:00am EDT | 15:00~16:00 BST | 16:00~17:00 CET
EU Servers: 9:00~10:00pm PDT | 12:00~1:00am EDT | 05:00~06:00 BST | 06:00~07:00 CET

From the EQ2 Forums:

ITEMS

• Chest of Wondrous Booty will now display the correct items that it rewards.*

QUESTS

• Rum Cellar and Fabled Echoes of Faydwer missions have been added to the Mission Timer Window.

*Editor’s Note: This is the random chest which can be purchased from the Altar of Malice Rare Loot Merchant. Also, Kander indicated that several rare items missing from this merchant will be added with tomorrow’s update.

Yesterday, a merchant offering the rare heroic drops from Altar of Malice zones appeared on live servers. Players were quick to report how much was missing from this merchant and how high the prices were. It seems EQ2 Lead Designer Kander agrees, at least on the first part…

More rares coming. We missed an entire directory. Sorry all, we are really in full tilt for the expansion and things slipped by. More items soon.

and:

An update with lots more stuff, rare, bows, etc coming Thursday, September 17th.
Apologies everyone, we are marching forth with the expansion.

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Phantom Seas
The Rare Drop Merchant for Altar of Malice can now be found in the Phantom Seas!

Precipice of Power [Raid]
The stone adds in the Brell Serilis encounter should no longer kill pets unless directly attacking them.

ITEMS
Sturdy armor molds will no longer refuse to grant the quest for players that did not have enough city faction.
The passive effect for Finsher III now grants potency, instead of offensive only potency.

Commentary

A merchant selling rare heroic drops from the previous expansion’s dungeons has been a late-summer mainstay over most of the last 6 years. The purpose of these vendors is to somewhat level the playing field for those players who have had rotten luck with the dice. Yet every year this vendor has been added, certain desirable rare items are left off, while other seemingly common items make an appearance. The prices also tend to be a surprise, with some item costs being completely out-of-whack.

From Kander on the EQ2 Forums:

Altar of Malice Rare Drop Merchant!

Coming soon! More info next week!

Short and sweet. Not that Kander is short. Or sweet. Unless you mean the colloquialism “sweeeeeet”.

He then added in another thread:

Going to say it right now. It will not include the ethereal weapons. Those effects will be readily available in expansion 12 on a new item tier. More info super soon.

US & EU Servers: 7:00~8:00am PDT | 10:00~11:00am EDT | 15:00~16:00 BST | 16:00~17:00 CET

From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL

• Fixed an issue where renaming a guild would revert after a server restart.

TLE General

• Fixed an issue where players could visit published houses from anywhere.

ABILITIES / ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT
Assassin

• Villainy – Corrected a bug that granted more mitigation than intended below level 80.

Ranger

• Hunter’s Instinct – Corrected a bug that granted more mitigation than intended below level 80.

US Servers: 7:00~8:00am PDT | 10:00~11:00am EDT | 15:00~16:00 BST | 16:00~17:00 CET
EU Servers: 9:00~10:00pm PDT | 12:00~1:00am EDT | 05:00~06:00 BST | 06:00~07:00 CET

From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL

• Fixed a client issue with animations taking too much memory after running the game for a long time and zoning around a lot.
• You no longer get an experience penalty if you are unable to get a hit in on an NPC that your group kills.

CENSUS

• Fixed a bug where PvP KvD stat [a new leaderboards stat] was not exporting with decimal places to census.

PVP SERVERS

• Harvesting time has been reduced by 50% for players who are adventure level 10 or above.

ITEMS

• [eq2u]Dire Balm IV (Adept)[/eq2u] and [eq2u]Dire Balm IV (Master)[/eq2u] will once again drop.

QUESTS

• The Rescue of the Green Hoods should more reliably update now when rescuing the captured Green Hood women.
• If on the quest, Fire and Ice, all 3 shards must be used before Lady Vox will appear.

From the EQ2 Forums:

Greetings Norrathians!

Here’s a quick update on what’s coming up for EQ2.

Server Consolidation

EverQuest 2 is best with friends, and in August we’re working on bringing players from different servers together!

Our engineers have continued with database work that will allow not only cross-server dungeons and true cross-server battlegrounds, but also server consolidation. It’s a very complicated process, but we are targeting the end of August for US Servers to start testing at the very least.

From the EQ2 Forums:

PVP General

• Fixed an issue where players could mentor below the minimum PvP mentor level while inside PvP exempt zones.

Time-Locked PvP

• Pumice stones are now available from gratified merchants.
• Qeynos and Freeport now correctly flag opposing faction players for PvP.

ABILITIES PvP

• Evac spells will no longer work on characters that are in PvP combat.

ITEMS

• [eq2u]Spirit Totem of the Wolf[/eq2u] will now grant a small “in combat” speed bonus.
• Fixed a bug with personal depots that increased status and coin rent for the houses they were placed in.

MARKETPLACE

• Increased the size of the depots on the Marketplace. Their description now displays how many items they will contain.

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Kelethin

• Philosopher Yubee in Kelethin will now give the same advice pertaining to Erollisi Marr, as Philosopher Rhimes.

ITEMS

• Boots from fabled EoF dungeons have had their weapon damage bonus and spell weapon damage bonus corrected.
• The Wild Divine will proc when Healing Arrow or Healing Barrage are cast.
• Crafted and Merchant versions of the altar to Erollisi Marr are now available.
• Hand of Thule’s Avatar now grants stamina, instead of ridiculous amounts of strength.

QUESTS

• Power to the Tower – The damaged core should only be resetting when it is not successfully defended.

EU servers are now 3 hours late patching and Holly has an update that it will be another 2 hours before EU servers are back up. That’s 2pm PDT, 5pm EDT, 22:00 GMT, 23:00 CET.

The #EQ2 Beta servers are up after the EU patch which is delayed by internet funk. We're hoping for about 2pm if all goes well.

— Holly Longdale (@TheWindstalker) July 7, 2015

Original article follows…

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Fabled Echoes of Faydwer

• Collectibles in the Fabled Echoes of Faydwer dungeons will now lock you to the instance when looted.

The Fabled Crypt of Valdoon [Advanced Solo and Heroic]

• You can now click Valdoon while he’s giving his speech to initiate combat sooner.

Fabled Freethinker’s Hideout [Challenge Raid]

• The werewolf guards at the entrance should now have the intended amount of health.

ITEMS

• Corrected the spell description for the solo and raid versions of All for One, they now correctly say 48 to 148 potency for the solo version, and 58 to 158 potency for the heroic version.
• Icons on the bottom fragments of Ydal now know left from right.
• A Quarter of the Ankh of Ydal items will automatically convert to the new collection piece versions.
• Fixed a bug with the ability mod of Paingiver’s Gloves.
• Altar of Malice Armor fragments and Armor Upgrade gems may now be sold for status.
• Lore and Legend items may now be sold for status.
• Slaughterer’s Boots now have the correct spell weapon damage bonus, and weapon damage bonus.

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
The Fabled Acadechism [Advanced Solo and Heroic]

• Kelzaral the Animator should be much less destructive.

The Fabled Freethinker Hideout
Drops for The Fabled Freethinker Hideout have had the following adjustments:

• Moved armor drops from Treyloth to Othysis.
• Moved accessory drops from Makonis to Treyloth.
• Makonis will now always drop 2 armor pieces.

Precipice of Power [Raid]

• You can now combine two cruxes from the same boss drop table to form the other from the same drop table by examining the cruxes.

ITEMS

• The effect “Bolstered Block” can now be triggered by using “Blinding Dust”.

From EverQuest II Lead Designer Kyle “Kander” Vallée on the EQ2 Forums:

Greetings Fellow Norrathians!

Just stopping in to give everyone the low down on the new Fabled Echoes of Faydwer zones we will be releasing today.

People are asking what zones will become Fabled and what play styles will be covered. The answer is we tried to cover as many as possible with this release. We have 3 Fabled Echoes of Faydwer heroic zones: The Acadechism, The Court of Innovation and the Crypt of Valdoon. We also decided to make an advanced solo version of each of these zones for our solo players and are releasing the Fabled Freethinker Hideout raid zone in two flavors, Normal and Challenge.

• The Fabled Acadechism [Heroic]
• The Fabled Acadechism [Advanced Solo]

• The Fabled Court of Innovation [Heroic]
• The Fabled Court of Innovation [Advanced Solo]

• The Fabled Crypt of Valdoon [Heroic]
• The Fabled Crypt of Valdoon [Advanced Solo]

• The Fabled Freethinker Hideout [Raid]
• The Fabled Freethinker Hideout [Challenge Raid]

Downtime Notice

US EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, June 23, 2015 at 7:00AM PDT* for an update. Estimated downtime is approximately two hours.

EU EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, June 23, 2015 at 7:00AM PDT* for an update. (Approx. 3:00PM London Time on June 23, 2015). Estimated downtime is two hours.

Echoes of Faydwer Fabled (Level 100)

That was fast! After a week on the Beta and Test servers, the Echoes of Faydwer Fabled solo and group dungeons plus a raid zone are patching live tomorrow, providing new content for level 100 players. These new zones also drop this summer’s Ethereal weapons which are on a 30-day rotation as previously mentioned.

Un-Deleting Characters and Items

For the first 15 years of its history, SOE has been known for its exemplary customer service which included the extraordinary safety net of recovering deleted and transmuted items as well as deleted characters (sometimes due to hacked accounts). In the aftermath of recent changes within the company in its transition to Daybreak Games, we’ve seen petition times jump to 3-6 days, and cutbacks on what support events are covered, particularly on deleted characters. It’s our understanding that restoring a hacked account can take several hours of painstaking reconstruction and digging through log files.

With tomorrow’s update, players who mistakenly Delete an Item or Character will now be able to restore them for Daybreak Cash. Player opinion has been rancorous and divided on this issue. On one side, players are castigated for their carelessness with the delete button or use of weak passwords, while others are quick to remind us EverQuest II is not a free game and most pay a monthly subscription, plus Campaigns and/or Expansions and surely there is enough room under that umbrella for this safety net.

As posted by Chrol on the EQ2 Forums on Tuesday, June 16th:

Hey all,

The following instances from Echoes of Faydwer (expansion 3) are now available on Test and Beta servers as Fabled level 100 versions:

• The Fabled Acadechism [Advanced Solo & Heroic]
• The Fabled Court of Innovation [Advanced Solo & Heroic]
• The Fabled Crypt of Valdoon [Advanced Solo & Heroic]
• The Fabled Freethinker Hideout [Raid & Challenge Raid]

You’ll find the entrance to these dungeons (a door!) just off the dock in Butcherblock Mountains at approximately 724, 24, 581. They can also be accessed individually through their original entrance locations within Greater Faydark, Klak’Anon, and Loping Plains.

There are a ton of new items, collections, missions and challenges so give them a whirl and please reply here with any and all feedback and bugs.

Thanks!

-Chrol

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Precipice of Power [Raid]

• Tribunal adds should despawn even if you do not kill the original copy of the Tribunal boss.

Ossuary: Cathedral of Bones [Raid]

• Villadre’s adds should now despawn when she resets or is defeated.

ABILITIES

• Consistent Strike and Consistent Smite will now do damage at low levels.

PVP

• Kylong Warfields will now grant Marks of Bloodshed to players over level 95.

BATTLEGROUNDS

• Battleground of Theer tiles will no longer apply buffs or debuffs to players on the tiles, with the exception of the Order tile which will still damage those upon it.
• Battleground of Theer will now kick players who have hidden in the protected spawn points for an excessive amount of time.

ITEMS

• Several Altar of Malice weapons that had an erroneous extra white adornment slot have had them removed.
• Gemstone of Scornful Malevolence may now be used to upgrade new block armor.
• Ethereal Expertise will now message when it is applied, as well as when it is consumed.
• Ethereal Expertise will no longer break swarm pets.

TRADESKILLS

• Zander’s Choral Rebuff II (Grandmaster) may now be crafted.

QUESTS

• Zikana Sly’ssar will now offer his quests to Aerakyn.

From the EQ2 Forums:

ITEMS

• The description for Allied Energy II now correctly lists the maximum increase of 115.
• Ethereal Weapons will now drop much more commonly.

Ethereal drop rate is going to be fixed this time. We promise!

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
F.S. Distillery: Stowaways [Event Heroic] and [Challenge]

• The curable version of Supply Chain will no longer target mercenaries.

MERCENARIES

• Lady Gretta Cheroon should now be a female when casting illusions on her.

and from Kander on the EQ2 Forums:

Guys, there is an issue with the Ethereal weapons. Yes, they are dropping but no, its not correctly. This should be correctly dropping tomorrow morning.

and from Holly “Windstalker” Longdale‘s twitter:

Morning update for #EQ2 tomorrow. We'll be increasing the drop rates of the summer ethereal weapons.

— Holly Longdale (@TheWindstalker) June 8, 2015

Thus addressing the concern that of the four Ethereal weapons added on Friday, only [eq2u]Fai Thass, The Ravager[/eq2u] has dropped, and only for 2 players on Oasis. You can watch Recent Item Discoveries on EQ2U, specifically Ethereals for the last 30 days, to see them roll in.

Today Robert “Caith” Fouts, Nathan “Kaitheel” McCall, and Kyle “Kander” Vallee were joined by EQ2 Community Manager Ry “Roshen” Schuller to talk about upcoming changes in this fall’s expansion-sized Campaign, or as the EQ2 team has been calling — the Campansion. Here are my rough notes, subject to my interpretation and these are mostly not direct quotes. Any mistakes are my own!

Amplifying Infusing

Players have be able to upgrade armor through Gems and adding Essences to change the Damage type on Weapons. However this has been very limited as it requires the devs to create hundreds of items for each boost/change. A new feature is coming with this fall’s Campansion #12 (Expansion-sized Campaign) called Amplifying Infusing which will allow items to be customized and upgraded on a more detailed level. Not all items in the game will be upgradeable, as this will be limited to items in the expansion and perhaps a few AoM/RC items. For example, you might get a bauble from a zone that allows you to boost stats or add a totally new stat to an item. You will be able to change the Weapon Delay (1, 2, 4, 6, 8) and Damage Type (Mental, Fire, Noxious) on Weapons.

current prototype of Amplifying

Amplifying Infusing requires a dropped material (which could be rare) to boost an item. We’re not sure what it costs just to change the stats, delay, or damage type on an item. The prototype shown just costs plat, but the finalized version will use a material. This will work alongside but not replace Reforging which will largely remain in its current form. The plan is to have a longer expansion Beta test this year so that more feedback can be collected on this feature.

From the EQ2 Forums:

US EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Thursday, June 4, 2015 at 7:00AM PDT* for an update. Estimated downtime is approximately one hour.

EU EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Thursday, June 4, 2015 at 7:00AM PDT* for an update. (Approx. 3:00PM London Time on June 4, 2015). Estimated downtime is one hour.

Alle deutschsprachigen Server werden um 16:00 CET am 04.06.2015 zwecks einer Serveraktualisierung heruntergefahren. Die vorgesehene Stillstandszeit wird etwa 1 Stunde(n) betragen.

Le serveur de langue française sera arrêté à 16:00 CET le 04-06-2015 pour une mise à jour du serveur. Le temps d’arrêt sera d’environ 1 heure.

and from the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Precipice of Power [Raid]

• Samhain adds in the Cazic-Thule encounter have been removed.
• The zombie effect should no longer spam from the spell “Heart Stutter”. It should only play once the spell is applied.
• Duration between adds has been increased in the Cazic-Thule Encounter.
• Duration between “fear” increments has been very slightly increased.
• Judicators and Bailiffs should now despawn when Tribunal has been defeated.

With the Altar of Malice expansion and its related Signature quest, players earned the unlimited ability to safely break off adornments from their gear without destroying either the items or the adornments. However there was a catch! All adornments returned — whether from this quested Ability OR from the crafted Adornment Dislodgers — became NO TRADE. Feedback on this choice has continued at a dull roar and it looks like we can expect some more flexibility…

From Kander on the EQ2 Forums:

We’re going to change it so that it now returns heirloom instead of no trade. Look for this soon.

We are are also looking into making green adorns heirloom.

As to [making removed adornments] trade-able, we may have some info for you with the fall release. More later.

From the EQ2 Forums:

US EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Wednesday, May 27, 2015 at 7:00AM PDT* for an update. Estimated downtime is approximately one hour.

EU EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Wednesday, May 27, 2015 at 9:00PM PDT* for an update. (Approx. 5:00AM London Time on May 28, 2015). Estimated downtime is one hour.

Alle deutschsprachigen Server werden um 6:00 CET am 28.05.2015 zwecks einer Serveraktualisierung heruntergefahren. Die vorgesehene Stillstandszeit wird etwa 1 Stunde(n) betragen.

Le serveur de langue française sera arrêté à 6:00 CET le 28-05-2015 pour une mise à jour du serveur. Le temps d’arrêt sera d’environ 1 heure.

and from the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
F.S. Distillery: Stowaways [All Versions]

• The barrels used against Sir Wharfie should always respawn and be visible should the encounter against the armored rat reset.

F.S. Distillery: Distill or Be Killed [Heroic]

• The achievements, Like a Bull in a Pirate Shop and Crowd Control, are now achievable.

USER INTERFACE

• Fixed a bug where some attribute values were exceeding the maximums displayable in the UI.

TRADESKILLS

• The recipe for Smite Corruption II (Grandmaster) may now be crafted.
• The recipe for Unflinching Will V (Grandmaster) will now correctly return Unflinching Will V (Grandmaster) when crafted.

ABILITIES / ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT
Conjuror

• Plane shift will now grant chance to proc pet’s primary quick attack.

Necromancer

• Undead Knight IX appearance is now that of a Jun’Rah.