Feldon
Today’s hotfix notes are brief: ITEMS The Legends of Norrath “Mysterious Key” is now flagged No Trade as intended. The Legends of Norrath “Draught of Ingenuity” potion is now flagged Heirloom instead of No Trade. MUNZOK’S MATERIAL BASTION Munzok’s Edict no longer persists through death.
Raiding
Here are your Hotfix Notes for October 21, 2009: GENERAL Nu’roga now has plunderable loot! Malicious Thoughts and Icicle Explosion now trigger on ranged and melee attacks. Frostburn and Mutagenic Burst now correctly modify each other’s damage. Purifying Persistence should properly modify the caster’s heals rather than the targets. LoN The Cloak of Crystal Shards, Assassin Master’s Cloak and Cloak of Runes returned from Collector Rattelis are now Heirloom. ITEMS Icy Prison now has 3 shield effectiveness to match its deflection chance. Charm of Solusek Ro once again triggers multiple times on AE casts, however its effect is now...
After reprinting the excellent Letter to SoE written by Shianne (Spritelady), we here at EQ2Wire weren’t expecting much of a response. So today’s detailed feedback from timetravelling was a real eye-opener. As he says, there is a fine line between challenging and frustrating. Some fights in TSO are just plain annoying with the unbelievable amount of curing they require. Nobody is asking for easier fights, just ones that are not hair-pulling annoying, fights that healers are quitting over. Here’s the refreshing quote from EQ2 Forums: A good thread with some excellent feedback! From the population side, we are definitely...
One of the exciting aspects of the 2009 Nights of the Dead live event is the contested x2 Headless Horseman Knight. No less exciting (and surprising) than the loot that drops from said encounter: Hallows Gallows Bloodthirsty Choker 2.0? \aITEM 430679940 306448646:Hallow’s Gallows\/a Soulleach \aITEM -1026839664 -1911359172:[Soulleach]\/a Secret Sash \aITEM 71107619 -1772367845:[Secret Sash]\/a Brainless Belt \aITEM 1534172351 1374785267:[Brainless Belt]\/a and of course these humorous items: an oddly empty crate \aITEM -1414756000 -2003420917:[an oddly empty crate]\/a Frictionless Piece of Eight \aITEM -1495753407 -624402372:[Frictionless Piece of Eight]\/a Note that some players are reporting issues with the new Hedgemaze zone (an instance...
Most of my gametime these days is either raiding with my Ranger, or leveling my Dirge alt. I do live events (looking forward to Nights of the Dead), but otherwise, I’m fairly bored with the runaround quest lines. Groups in the 20’s-60’s are few and far between, but that is an issue for another blog post… Our guild is currently running Ward of Elements (I have all but shoulders and the cloak from Aiden) and we do as much x4 raiding as we can with 2 1/2 groups. That’s the first 3 named of Tomb of the Mad Crusader...
This week’s hotfix will be hitting today, October 13th (not the date on the Update Notes announcement). EMPEROR ATREBE’S LABORATORY The zone boss, Ka’El Ka’Vrish, should now reset properly in Kor’Sha. ITEMS Fists of Judgment will no longer indicate that they have a duration. MIRAGUL’S PLANAR SHARD Tuskers will now stagger his memwipe effects. Enraged Haladan no longer gets an AE auto attack buff when he goes berserk, but will instead proc Haladan’s Fury (frontal only, slash damage AE spell). PVP You may now speak to the Priest of Discord on all PVP servers. PVP weapons have been adjusted...
Here are your EQ2 Update Notes for October 7: GENERAL Legends of Norrath (LoN) cards and booster packs that drop in game are once again tradeable. ACHIEVEMENTS The Maj’Dul Monitor Achievement now accepts quests completed in the Courts. MIRAGUL’S PLANAR SHARD The dire and alpha snowbeasts associated with Enraged Haladan now have somewhat less health. Hard Mode: Brilliant Adepts have less health. Boreas and Argos should no longer cast Trio of Teeth on players while they are leashed. Curse of Confusion now lasts 18 seconds rather than 30 seconds. PALACE OF THE ANCIENT ONE Anashti Sul will no longer...
Well, now we know the real reason that Avatar Loot was nerfed. It wasn’t because it was “overpowered” or because it would “break the next expansion”. It was so similar items could be put on the endboss of an instance. As posted by Jasuo on the EQ2 Forums, two of the charms dropped by Miragul in Miragul’s Planar Shard (x4 raid zone) are very similar to Avatar Charms: and yes, we will be back later today to talk about the new EQ2 zone which requires a LoN item to access.
Resolving hopefully the last of the Game Update 53 issues, we’re expecting the next Hotfix on Thursday, October 1. Here are the Update Notes: GENERAL The destroy confirmation is now more clear in confirming that you are actually destroying an item. The Guardian of Eternity has returned to Charasis: Vault of Eternal Sleep Research Assistants are a little more helpful when asked about their jobs. ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENTS Monk Enhance: Mend will once again work properly. ITEMS Najena’s Ring of Readiness is no longer heirloom. Additionally, the Ring of Readiness effect will only function as long as the ring is...
It’s too bad EQ2 developers don’t really talk to the players about Live Events and instead make assumptions. Over 2 years ago, the first Spires were being rebuilt. Tradeskillers did all the work, and then when the spire reached 100% completion, an Epic x4 dragon appeared, killing them all. Raid guilds swooped in and battled it out for the contested win. Some even swarmed the various zones by logging in dozens of alt characters to intentionally lag out other players to prevent them from successfully taking down the mob. In the end, the raid guilds got Titles and all...
This year has seen the introduction of three raid zones to EverQuest II. The Ward of Elements x2 — Once some initial bugs were corrected and a few mobs adjusted, this zone is a real success story. It’s very well-balanced for its target audience with sufficient difficulty and very good rewards. Players with T2 armor, Epic weapon, and the right group makeups are successfully clearing the first 3 named, working their way up to clearing 5 and then finally clearing the zone once they’ve geared up further. Kurn’s Tower x2 — This zone got some initial complaints, and gear...
Like any Game Update, inevitably a few bugs slip through. Game Update #53 (Shards of Destiny) had more than a few. Some received attention in Today’s Hotfix: GENERAL /hide will once again hide illusions. Discord (PvP) tokens are no longer fabled. Saving and Loading house layouts is temporarily disabled for further tuning. ACHIEVEMENTS The Octagorgon Assassin achievement is now located under Dungeons instead of Raids. ITEMS Certain items dropped by Munzok have been upgraded. Spirit Drain on the Spirit Draining Wristguard no longer heals the target of the attack. SHARD OF LOVE Regardless of which order you defeat the...
So far, today my coverage of Game Update 53 has been entirely positive. I think Game Update 53 is actually an excellent update, with the live quest, HEIRLOOM LORE-EQUIP flag, etc. However in the long term, I think all the great things about this update may be overshadowed by some colossal mistakes. The bland Racial Trait revamp which I’ve already talked about. And an issue that a lot of people don’t take seriously, but I think needs to be discussed — the Avatar Loot Nerf. So far, I have refrained from covering these changes, hoping that cooler (and wiser)...
Shards of Destiny (Game Update 53) goes live tomorrow, Wednesday September 23rd. Most notably absent from the Game Update 53 notes are whether the Avatar Gear changes are going live, and whether the Racial Traits received any changes based on the significant feedback posted on the forums. If you want to read the full Gu53 Update Notes you can read them by clicking right there. I did some significant cleanup for readability and a few clarifications. It’s worth a read, even if you’ve read the official notes. HOWEVER… we do understand that the full Update Notes are a lot...
UPDATE: Servers will go down September 23rd from 6am to 10am PDT. And you can read the complete update notes from EQ2Players. However you might want to read my revised notes… NOTE: I have gone through these notes and slightly improved them for readability specific to issues I’m familiar with. If that bothers you, go and click on the EQ2Players link above.
Shards of Destiny (Gu53) appeared on Test just moments before midnight last night. This update is expected to go live in late September (the initial date was September 22nd, but this was an internal target). Here are the Test Update Notes: Test Update August / 27 / 2009 FEATURED Achievements The new achievement system gives players a fun new way to track their accomplishments! Most achievements will award players with achievement points that can be used to compare their progress against other players. Some harder to complete achievements will offer non-stat item rewards. The basic categories are General, Quest,...
Alan “Brenlo” has chimed in on the EQ2 Forums with the news that GU53 will be appearing on Test servers tomorrow. He’s also spilled the beans on Hot Zones and what this means for you. Tomorrow morning, Shards of Destiny is going to the Test server! Woo Hoo! We hope you are as excited as we are to see the new content and try it out for yourselves. I encourage you, if you have time in your busy schedules, to jump onto Test and try the new content out. We would love to hear your feedback and the more...
As announced at EQ2Players… EQII’s next Game Update #53, Shards of Destiny, is slated to go live in late September. We will be bringing some exciting new content to the world of Norrath with Shards of Destiny. Erollisi Marr’s influence is felt once more in Norrath. Our players will be able to explore the Shard of Love and learn more of the popular goddess’ story. The Shard of Love is a single group zone. There will also be a new x4 dungeon to test your skills. Miragul’s Planar Shard will continue the story of the powerful mage. There are...
GENERAL x4 raid mobs who heal themselves by 2% when they kill players now only heal this way to 45% of their max health. They will no longer heal at all if they kill players and the mob’s health is above 45% already.* MUNZOK’S MATERIAL BASTION During the final Munzok fight, Elemental Augers will no longer cast Icy Storm (instead they cast two weaker spells). Munzok’s AOE spell Void Inferno no longer clears players’ targets, and Ripping Voidforce does slightly less damage to players who are close to Munzok himself. PALACE OF THE ANCIENT ONE Void Rippers on the...
ITEMS The Meathook from Sinking Sands is now a piercing weapon. Illusionists: The Shifting Visions 6-piece set bonus properly adds damage to Dynamism again. The Stick of the Sootfoot Boomer now triggers correctly off of offensive spells. The Great Horn of Drelakor can no longer be wielded by priests. The Purple-Saddled Mistrunner Horse can now be turned into a house plushie. KURN’S TOWER Kurns Tower (x2) has been tuned a bit and the bosses are not so stingy.* Ilenee’s Despair and Betrayal now teleport less frequently. Kurn now has an additional spell to help make transitions between controllers smoother....
Some of us who have made significant progress in Ward of Elements and have wanted to sink our teeth into some new x2 content have ventured into Kurn’s Tower x2 raid zone and found the challenges to be formidable, but the rewards not so much. Perhaps the biggest concern about the zone was that no set patterns dropped. Timetravelling has chimed in with some big news. He has made substantial changes to the loot table including: The common items from the first 3 bosses have been removed and moved to a basepop (trash) table Ione can now drop up...
Miragul himself has returned to Norrath and can be found residing in Miragul’s Planar Shard, a new x4 raid zone connected to Everfrost. The zone features a variety of encounters, some of which can be completed in normal mode, or for those seeking additional challenge and rewards, hard mode. This zone shares the artwork of the Crucible.
Before I start the notes, July 14th marks the availability of the Automated Character Transfer Service. For $25, you can transfer your character from one server to another. Check out the “Station Marketplace” within EQ2. I don’t have a current link for you as far as this announcement, but I can confirm that the items appeared on the Station Marketplace for me this morning. July 14th Update Notes GENERAL The Firiona Vie statue distributed to Fan Faire attendees is no longer a LORE item. EMPEROR’S ATHENAEUM 4 Warriors are no longer control immune. Enchanters, show us what you got!...
Here are some less concrete things that were discussed at Fan Faire. Race change is something a LOT of people are asking for. EQ2 devs asked for a show of hands of how many people would like this feature and half the room raised their hands. It IS being looked at. Yes, there was some resistance for lore reasons, and betrayal/alignment/quest issues are substantial, but it’s certainly possible with enough development time. The amount of money they’d make off this would more than make up for it. You can scratch “never” out of your vocabulary for this one. Heck,...
I present the EverQuest II Expansion & Game Update News from Fan Faire in a rollup post. This is partly based on the Fan Faire 2009 Consolidated News by Kalyyn. I started with Kalyyn’s great writeup and have built upon it, adding dozens of new details and minor corrections based on everything I observed at the 2009 Fan Faire EQ2 event in Las Vegas. I’ve archived the individual news posts I submitted over the weekend. If you still want to read them, they’re [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] And now, without further ado,...