Players on the Nagafen server have had little to celebrate over the last year. Between a number of unpopular mechanics changes, and the popularity of Battlegrounds continually nibbling away at ‘proper’ PvP, it’s been a long time since there’s been any good news.

But as if the forthcoming Game Update 64‘s substantive changes to PvP and Battlegrounds weren’t enough, tonight Nagafen players are celebrating the server first kill of Vyskudra the Ancient. If you haven’t heard about this, you’re not alone. Observers of GuildProgress may be puzzled to learn that this enemy has been defeated at all on Nagafen, as only the top 3 guilds worldwide have slayed it. It turns out, this enemy of Skyshrine did not perish at the hands of a raid guild, but instead suffered a one-shot death by a single individual.

Update from Kander:

I do not know what happened to it. I am more then a little upset we missed it. No excuses.

Either way, I will talk to Zoltaroth about whether or not we can wipe those discos.

Itemization of any MMO is a thankless job. If I had my way, EQ2 Itemization would be a Senior Designer position with foot massages, baskets of fresh fruit, and refreshing margaritas. Instead, it seems to be the hot potato job that everyone prays they’re out of before the music stops.

A systemic problem we’ve been talking about for years with EverQuest II is that even the most obvious Itemization imbalances tend to take months to straighten out, all the while players spend hours farming and working towards items that will eventually be nerfed into oblivion.

Four months after the release of Game Update 63: Skyshrine, it seems the time has come for those Mythical weapons — which have been perplexingly dropping from Skyshrine Solo and Group zones — to undergo the knife. When these exceedingly rare but otherwise easily acquired Mythicals first popped up, players rightly expressed concern.

Now, in what has become a too-common refrain, months of silence has been followed by a “So sorry, but we have to nerf these items” note. Again, I consider this a systemic problem which has been present in the EQ2 team for years so let’s not shoot the messenger…

From the EQ2 Forums:

DUNGEON MAKER

• Corrected an issue that caused some buff objects in Dungeon Maker to reduce NPCs hit points by too much.

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Withered Lands

• Daerlina and Swampmaw will now return to battle more frequently after a defeat.

Plane of War x4 Raid

• Commander Goreslaughter and Corpsemaul – The diaku war riders will spawn near commander goreslaughter instead of on top of random players. Commander Corpsemaul no longer has Unbridled Fury of the Shadows. Mauler’s Affliction no longer interrupts casting.

QUESTS

• The quest “Etch the Stone” is now properly repeatable.

From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL

• Updated Awesomium browser files to fix some compatibility issues.

• Fixed potential crash on exit.

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Plane of War x4 Raid

• Commander Goreslaughter and Corpsemaul ? The crystals of death and destruction now have unique appearances and spawn close to the commanders, in 2 sets of 2. There are only 3 diaku war riders per wave and they no longer knockback.

Buried in the update notes for the forthcoming Game Update 64 (and reiterated in the GU64 Webcast) was an interesting detail:

• Elemental, Noxious, and Arcane Resists would be folded into player-selected Character Traits, but Physical Mitigation would not.

These days, most players select Physical Mitigation as a Character Trait choice rather than Resists. Physical Mitigation usually works out to be a better bang for your buck. Further, a number of players have already reached the hard limit on resists and so don’t benefit from it at all.

So the idea that players would login after Game Update 64 and lose 1,656 mitigation was not the most appealing prospect and spawned a discussion on the EQ2 Forums.

Game Update 64 “Qeynos Rises” has arrived on Test and Test Copy and the Notes for this update have been posted on the EQ2 forums. GU64 is expected to hang around on Test for about a month before going to the Live servers.

Among a number of other changes, GU64 sees Qeynos rebuilt as two zones. North and South Qeynos become the Capital District, Elddar Grove and Qeynos Harbor become the Provinces. Changes to Battlegrounds, PvP, and Fighters are all headlines, with the curious change that Plane of War has been opened to all.

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Halas and Darklight Wood

• Newbie experiences in New Halas and Neriak have been updated to make them more rewarding and fun. Neriak’s Darklight Wood got a much-needed art overhaul which adds to the ambience of eeeeevil. New and better armor sets are available to level 20 and we will be recommending players opt for New Halas or Neriak upon entering the game their first time.

Xelgad (by way of Ashlanne) has posted some additional information about the upcoming Fighter changes that come with Game Update 64. But first, Piestro has some comments about rushing to judgment:

Obviously this is a change that we knew people would be passionate about. Of course until people see the actual changes any evaluation of their impact is premature. The best way to move forward is to write down your concerns, and then formulate a test plan based on those concerns. That will give you the best possible start to actually testing the changes, and seeing what their actual impacts are.

And now that overview of the Fighter changes in GU63 from the EQ2 Forums:

Greetings everyone, Xelgad here! I’d like to explain some of the changes to our fighter archetype that you will be seeing on the Test Server soon.

From the EQ2 Forums:

Hey all, Xelgad here! I wanted to explain some of the improvements to our Character Development window that you will be seeing on Test Server soon.

The biggest change is that class foci from armor will instead be granted through the Character Development window. Carried over from tier to tier for years, these foci have become part of the standard class more than a reward for acquiring high end gear. You can choose one bonus every nine levels, starting at level nine.

(Do you really want this? Of course you do!)

On June 21, 2012, Dave “Smokejumper” Georgeson (Executive Director of Development) discussed the upcoming Game Update 64, specifically PvP, Battlegrounds, and Fighter changes with Akil “Lyndro” Hooper (Lead Designer), Mike “Xelgad” Ganz (Associate Game Designer), and Brian “Omougi” Ferguson (Associate Game Designer).

Game Update 64 will be hitting the Test and Test Copy servers next Tuesday.

NOTE: Make sure you’ve got your volume turned down as the video opens with a loud throat clearing.

From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL

• The in-game browser files have been updated. If you experience any problems with the in-game browser, help UI, or customer service petition functions please post your details here:

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=519345

From the SOE Forums:

Changes are coming to PVP and fighters class for EverQuest II. Host Dave “Smokejumper” Georgeson (Executive Director of Development) is going to discuss the upcoming changes with Akil “Lyndro” Hooper (Lead Designer), Mike “Xelgad” Ganz (Associate Game Designer), and Brian “Zuglash” Ferguson (Associate Game Designer).  They have lots of details to share about PVP, fighters and more.  EverQuest II fans do not want to miss this webcast.

Join us on Thursday, June 21, 2012, at 4:00 p.m. US Pacific Time* on Twitch TV! The webcast is expected to last about 20 minutes.

For PVP fans and fighters this is a must see webcast!

Time Zone Conversions

Le sigh… Like all SOE Webcasts, it’s 4pm Pacific, 7pm Eastern, midnight in Western Europe, and 1:00am in Copenhagen.

File this under better late than never, but Game Update 64 will be rolling out much-needed changes to the Itemization of Drunder raid zones. New items are being added throughout the Drunder raid timeline which will more closely resemble what players have come to expect in Skyshrine zones. In addition, some of the items that people still desire out of Drunder, specifically the insanely rare Mythical weapons will become more common.

From Kander on the EQ2 Forums:

Sullon’s Spire [Challenge], Tallon’s Stronghold [Challenge] and Vallon’s Tower [Challenge] Raids will have new itemization with GU 64. Item scope will be boosted to be in between Skyshrine normal mode raids and challenge mode raids.

From Holly “Windstalker” Longdale on the EQ2 Forums:

Another month has zipped by already!

We wanted to wait until after E3 to share a few more details about what we’re up to and what’s coming up this month.

By now you may have heard about the SOE corporate initiative called SOEmote(tm) that will launch in EQII later this month. SOEmote uses a webcam and microphone to project your facial expressions, including talking and voice, onto your character in real time! It’s used in groups and also allows you to broadcast to your guild, almost like a webcast. We’re all excited to see this launch and how you use it. If you want to share your shananigans, the YouTube recording option is now in the EQII Share window.

In today’s update for June 13, 2012, EQ2 finally ditches its ancient Mozilla web browser in favor of the Awesomium browser, powered by Webkit (Safari/Chrome). EVE Online recently adopted this browser. This should resolve numerous problems with viewing complex websites in the in-game browser.

Armor distribution in Skyshrine zones have been rebalanced to match group/raid distribution. Some Skyshrine group mobs will start dropping Primal Velium Shards, while Skyshrine raid encounters will hand out Pure Primal Velium Shards. And finally, today marks the introduction of Quest Target Icons. If you enable this setting, you will be able to see an icon over any enemy which will update quests in your journal if killed.

From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL

• The in-game browser files have been updated. This may cause the browser not to function with some custom UIs until they are updated.

• Note: Firewall software will need to allow the file awesomium_process.exe access to run for the browser to function properly.

We didn’t get a Game Update this week, partly due to E3, but we can now look ahead to Test to what’s coming next week. Highlights from the Test Update Notes on the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Withered Lands

• Named within Withered Lands should all respawn correctly now.

Challenge Mode Raid NPC?s (x4 epic)

• Challenge mode raid NPC’s have had their max health reduced.

While they aren’t glamorous, Content and Itemization are the meat and potatoes of the modern MMO. The thankless job of adding and maintaining these core items may not elicit splashy E3 announcements or garner press attention, but neglect them for a moment, and players will arrive at your gates brandishing pitchforks.

Players have been unable to ignore the skewed armor distribution of Skyshrine. In particular, the new solo, group, and raid zones all seem to heavily slant towards priests and fighters. Normally we would be able to confirm this data using Zam’s drop information statistics which they periodically receive from SOE, but they are still awaiting their Skyshrine GU63 data dump. Without definitive proof, I have been forced to make a guess at how Skyshrine loot has been distributed.

Here are your update notes for Thursday, 17 May 2012:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

• Mount drops in the Underdepths and Betrayal in the Underdepths have been made less rare.

Dracur Prime: Sevalak Awakened

• Sargon the Destructor text messages won’t go to the entire raid anymore, just the person about to be cast upon.  The duration of the red text messages has been shortened.

Dracur Prime: Vyskudra the Ancient

• The player who slays an energized storm elemental and those closest to the slayer will receive the Elemental Storm Energy Buff.  The Elemental Stormstrike buff will no longer generate hate taunting the elemental stormlords.

Great Divide

• The Cliff Stalkers in the Great Divide will now grant experience when slain.

Some exciting news for players who have been wanting a setting for Autoattack during combat in EQ2! On the Test server, a new option has been added to the Character/Persona/Inventory window under the Options panel:

This option should allow Rangers to set “Forced Ranged” and never need to use kludgy macros to ensure they are always doing ranged autoattacks. A ranger never wants to be doing melee autoattacks and we have relied on macros with the command /auto 2 for years.

Further, this will be a sigh of relief to Mages and Priests who will now be able to use their choice of either Focus/Ranged ‘Wand‘ items or traditional Symbol items and still choose whether they want to use the new Spell Weapon Autoattack, or stick to Melee combat. This change will be of particular benefit to Enchanters, Druids, Mystics, and Clerics, all of whom have Alternate Advancement lines that require melee combat for their best effects to apply. This will also allow healers to work around a bug with some cures and buffs which place them into ‘spell combat’.

A few days ago, I finally got around to doing some updates to Dethdlr’s Adornment Calculator.  Thanks to everyone who sent in bug reports over the last several months.  I think I’ve gotten all of them taken care of now but there may still be a few in there somewhere.

Also, I’ve added a second white adornment dropdown for each slot since a lot of the Skyshrine items have two white adornment slots.  Some two handers even have three white slots but I didn’t add a third dropdown.  Just use the secondary dropdown for those cases and make sure not to choose reuse speed since that doesn’t work in the primary slot.

If you don’t see the second white slot dropdown when you load the calculator, you’re seeing a cached version.  Try holding down Shift and Ctrl keys and press F5, or click the Refresh button/icon in your browser or whatever button/clicking combination you have to do to convince it to really reload the page and you should see the new version.

I still haven’t added in the public quest adornments or the class specific adornments for beastlords, those are still on the list of things to do.

As usual, let me know if you find anything out of whack.

Dethdlr

Here are your Update Notes for Tuesday, May 15, 2012 from the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Skyshrine: The City of Dracur

• Malicor Kehrn will no longer fight his partner in crime Nefari Kwol.

PLAYER HOUSING

• The Vale of Halfpint Delight door will now display the correct destination.

Here are your updates for May 10, 2012.  The quest All You Need is Time in Withered Lands should now be fixed as well as the ratio of Tier 10 precious metal rares.

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Withered Lands

• Hexapola: players outside the raid should no longer cause the raid to reset if they agro raid insects.

Skyshrine x4 raid zones, challenge mode

• Belkreiz Blazeclaw will no longer spam messages about reckless adds unless an add actually spawns due to the Time Vortex Curse.

• Belkreiz Blazeclaw will no longer spawn Ancient Dracurian Seer’s if there are already 3 or more of them present in the zone.

Here are your update notes for 8 May, 2012.  There is a fix for the quest “All You Need is Time” currently on the test server but it hasn’t made it to the live servers yet.  If you are stuck on that quest, Gninja says to /petition it.  He has given customer service steps on how to fix it.

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Skyshrine x4 raid zones, challenge mode

• Belkreiz Blazeclaw will no longer spam messages about reckless adds unless an add actually spawns due to the Time Vortex Curse.

• Belkreiz Blazeclaw will no longer spawn Ancient Dracurian Seer’s if there are already 3 or more of them present in the zone.

Skyshrine: the Underdepths

• Sevalor’s Deathless now has a 35 second duration, rather than permanent.

From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL

• Fixed a client crash that could happen when trying to examine an item in certain situations.

• Skyshrine: the Claws of Veeshan faction will now be in the Destiny of Velious category along with all other DoV factions.

If you’ve bumped into those three new mercenaries in the old Skyshrine city who just won’t give you the time of day, Gninja has some spoilers for you:

The [elite mercenaries] in Skyshrine require a “Key” which you get access to after you have completed the heroic questlines. Through those same questlines, you get a portal to appear in the contested (near the solo zone entrance portal) that will take you back to the city back in time at will.

UPDATE: We have some first-hand player notes from Techno:

• There are 3 “elite” mercenaries in Skyshrine, Inquisitor, Monk (uses black widow stance), and I want to say Brigand, one in each of the districts.
• I say “elite” because they’re a step down from the other elites. Elites cost 30p to buy and 3p every 30 minutes with a 5minute cooldown. The golem “elite” cost 5p to buy, 30g every 30 minute.
• They’re really a middleground between the old ones and the elites.

Being able to travel to the pre-war City of Shyshrine is crucial if you intend to buy items from the Claws of Veeshan Faction merchant. Along with +50,000 faction, you’ll need the head of Dozekar which has been giving players fits due to it being marked LORE. Tip of the hat to Celidur for pointing us in the right direction on these items.

View Claws of Veeshan Faction Weapons & Armor*

*This EQ2U category is missing 3 items which have yet to be discovered.