Producer’s Letter: Quick Update on EQII & Livestream on Feb 18th

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

From Holly “Windstalker” Longdale on the EQ2 Forums:

Hello, Norrathians!

As you’ve likely heard by now, there’s been some changes around here in staff. I want to assure you though that this team is still in full-time dev and operation mode, and we continue to have awesome plans for EQ2. We’re shuffling a few things about, but our goals in delivering fun stuff won’t change. For example, in a couple of weeks we’ll be releasing rare bosses for the AoM dungeons and more. We’re tinkering a bit so I apologize for the silence and certainly any concerns or worry it may have caused you.

We’ll have more news as we rip along here doing what we do and what we love – which is keeping our world busy and alive for our incredible community of players. Above all, we are grateful for your continued support and love of the game.

I would really like to hear from everyone and chat with you about all of this which is why we’ll be hosting a Twitch livestream on Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 3pm at twitch.tv/everquest2. The team looks forward to having you tune in so we can address any questions you may have.

Thanks and see you in game!

Holly Longdale
Executive Producer, EverQuest & EverQuest II

Let’s Get Serious About Adornments!

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

More than a few players have looked at my EQ2 character‘s vacant adornment slots with incredulity. Why have I been so slack on adorning? The answer has multiple parts:

  • I never knew when I will replace a piece of gear and thus be out the cost of the adornments or worse unable to carry those adornments forward.
  • War Runes have been by-and-large out of reach of my casual heroic gameplay style.
  • The purple adornments I really want have been drops behind an unfavorable RNG.
  • Green adornments for the most part have lacked significant growth, or just haven’t been worth the trouble to acquire.
  • White adornments haven’t kept pace with player power and barely increase stats with the exception of a few slots.

With Tears of Veeshan, Altar of Malice, and recent patches, nearly ALL of these issues have been resolved.

Update Notes: Thursday, February 12, 2015

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

From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL

  • Map Fog has been removed.

ABILITIES / ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT
General

  • Expert Spells of a higher tier will now do more damage than the same spell Master previous tier. For example: Level 91 Faith Strike (Expert) will now do more damage than level 81 Faith Strike (Master).

ITEMS

  • Bound transmutation stones purchased from the loyalty merchant may now be transmuted correctly.
  • Corrected an issue where some pvp adornment added red gem armor lost its ability mod.

QUESTS

  • Altar of Malice and Tears of Veeshan Weekly Missions are now classified as Weekly Missions in the Quest Journal.
  • Altar of Malice Weekly Solo Dungeon, Weekly Heroic Dungeon and Weekly Raid missions will now award Malice Gemstones.

Kander elaborated on that last note with these comments:

Armor Gems will be on the weekly quests starting tomorrow. You will be able to earn any heroic gems and red raid gems once a week.

He also indicated that the ability to convert Green gems to Red gems was coming, and that those few Red gem armor pieces that aren’t upgrading correctly will be fixed soon.

Update Notes: Tuesday, February 10, 2015

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

From the EQ2 Forums:

US EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, February 10, 2015 at approximately 4:00AM PST for an update. Estimated downtime is 1 hour.
The Nagafen server will be undergoing additional maintenance during this time. Estimated downtime for Nagafen is 4 hours.

EU EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, February 10, 2015 at approximately 9:00PM PST for an update. (Approx. 5:00AM London Time on February 11, 2015) Estimated downtime is 1 hour.

Alle deutschsprachigen Server werden um 6:00 CET am 11.02.2015 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 11-02-2015 pour une mise à jour du serveur. Le temps d’arrêt sera d’environ 1 heure.

and from the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Ossuary: Choir of T’Vyl [Event Heroic]

  • Legionnaire Spirits should be less punishing.
  • One player in the group should be able to see Ubis the Dagger when he shrouds himself.

ABILITIES / ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT
Berserker

  • Destructive Rage (Ancient) will now also boosts strikethrough for raid members.

ITEMS

  • Cyan adornments will drop in Altar of Malice contested zones more frequently.
  • Transmutation Stones have been added to the drop tables in Altar of Malice contested zones and Loyalty Merchant. These stones have the chance to transmute into up to 5 Polished Mana.
  • Tier 1 Raid armor (red gem) has been increased in power in almost all cases.

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

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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

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/

Guide: No Shortage of Ferrin for Solo Players

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Itemization

treasuremap660px

In addition to the Solo and Advanced Solo dungeons in Altar of Malice, there is actually quite a lot that soloers can do each day and each week to acquire armor and [eq2u]Far Seas Ferrin[/eq2u], this expansion’s currency. If you use the popular EQ2MAP UI modification, then the location of nearly all of these mission starters can be found there. There’s also some info on the EQ2 Forums. Thanks to Oakmiser for his assistance in composing this article!

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.

Dragon’s Armory Releases “Armory Tracker” Loot Data Plugin

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Itemization

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Given the choice between cold hard facts and the mystery of not knowing, I will almost always choose the facts. Guesswork and lack of information are the root of many misunderstandings in this life, and EQ2 is no exception. To date, EQ2 does not publish loot table data to Census, thus we have no official data from the game as far as who drops what.

Fortunately, it has been possible to monitor loot and which mobs it drops from using Advanced Combat Tracker (ACT). Today, we’re happy to announce that Dedith of Dragon’s Armory developed his own ACT plugin which keeps track of all the loot that drops in your groups/raids, who dropped it, and what zone you were in when it dropped.

And it is now possible to see this data on EQ2U. You can either look at an item and see who drops it, or you can drill down from any Zone and see what drops in the zone and also filter by NPC. By default, we will show Level 95+ and Legendary+ items, although you can adjust these filters to show everything!

This Dragon’s Armory ACT plugin requires you to enable Extended Chat Logging in-game. Please see the instructions in step 7 for details. Without this setting, no loot entries are accepted!

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)

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
   

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: Wednesday, November 19, 2014

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

From the EQ2 Forums:

US EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Wednesday, November 19, 2014 at approximately 7:00AM PST.
Estimated downtime is 1 hour.

EU EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Wednesday, November 19, 2014 at approximately 9:00PM PST. (Aprox. 5:00AM London Time on 11/20/2014)
Estimated downtime is 2 hours.

and from the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Altar of Malice

  • Experience for defeating NPCs in Altar of Malice Solo and Advanced Solo zones has been increased.

ITEMS

  • Expendable items can no longer be transmuted.
  • Refining common harvests can no longer return high quality slag.

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.

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.

Nerf! Research Reducers Removed from Skyshrine Zones

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

gu63-skyshrine-battle

Shortly after the Skyshrine Gu-spansion (a game update that raised the level cap, added a new overland zone, 3 advanced solo zones, 4 heroic zones, and 2 raid zones), a reward was added to the advanced solo versions of the Skyshrine zones — Research Time Reducers. Previously these had only been available as a reward from completing Dungeon Maker zones.

Research Time Reducer items reduce the time it takes to research a player Spell or Combat Art to its next quality tier, such as from Adept to Expert or from Expert to Master. They ranged from a savings of 6 hours to a full 7 day shortcut.

In February 2012, the benefit of the Research Reducers was dropped from seven days to one. Just one month later, Research Reducers, along with nearly every other useful reward, were completely removed from Dungeon Maker. Players are now reporting here and here that with Tuesday’s update, these potions have been removed from the Skyshrine zones as well. The only way to acquire them seems to be an SOE referral program.

These are now the only 3 ways to get Grandmaster 90-95 spells:

  • Wait 40 days.
  • Pay $20 in StationCash.
  • Spend 4-8 hours harvesting to get the spell rare (or prepare to pay out the nose*) and hire a crafter if you happen to be on a server with a player who has discovered the recipe**.

* Current estimates to Grandmaster a max level character are 8-10,000 plat if you do not harvest the materials yourself.
** Only 2 players have discovered the level 90-95 Grandmaster recipe books, and they are both based on Guk.


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