From the EQ2 Forums:
GENERAL
- Fixed an issue with connecting to the 90 – 95 chat channel.
- Mounts and baubles no longer have their usage verbs blocked by your subscription level and can be used regardless.
POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
General
- Boss fights where mobs are summoned and added into an encounter will no longer reset the health of the boss mob.
The Thanksgiving holiday falling just after an expansion is always a pain. Just when we need those Tuesday/Thursday updates the most, the fixes start to thin out, or are postponed. But for those who have been waiting patiently (and even if you haven’t), the time is finally here for the post-Chains of Eternity Mega Patch. Tomorrow’s update contains a ton of fixes to issues that have been brought up repeatedly in /bug, here, and on the forums.
The updates include:
The complete Update Notes after the jump…
From the EQ2 Forums:
POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Harrow’s End
- Exhaustive Souldrain should now have examine text that accurately explains what it does.
- Drinal should no longer think he is using less soulwells than have been consumed. This should correct the issue with him dropping empty chests.
- Drinal will no longer auto consume the last soulwell if players do not allow him to consume any other soulwells. After all four soulwells have been destroyed he will imbue himself with a random ability and challenge level will be set to one soulwell.
- Triggered effect on players from Power over Death has been increased in potency.
EQ2Wire answers 20 Frequently Asked Questions about EverQuest II: Chains of Eternity:
From the EQ2 Forums:
Chains of Eternity is EverQuest II’s 9th expansion! In Chains of Eternity, adventurers will travel to the realm known as Ethernere in their quest to stop the siphoning of souls from Norrath. Here, the heroes will fight to save not only the mortals of their world, but prevent the imbalance in Ethernere, as well as meet the God of the afterlife, Drinal, the Silver Reaper. They may yet find the answer lies not in fortunes and portents, but deep in Norrath’s past. Adventurers will also uncover all new areas in the mortal realm of Norrath.
The fate of the living and the dead are in your hands, heroes! Are you up to the challenge before you?
I don’t want to misquote anyone, so I am transcribing the most clear-cut questions and answers. Anything else will be in the transcript video.
Question about tradeskillers making kilts and getting more styles.
Q: Freeport and Qeynos lets anyone do writs. Neriak is more picky. Gorowyn is selective as well. Can this be made more consistent?
Q: A Krono is $17.99. Why is it more than 30 days sub costs at Walmart for $14.99?
A: We don’t endorse the selling of cards in-game, but it’s a completely supported in-game method of trading in-game subs.
Q: Are you going to try to stop selling cards for plat?
A: No.
From the EQ2 Forums:
ZONE PROGRESSION
Raid zone timers have been returned to their previous states. Most are 2.8 days minimum and 7 days maximum. Plane of War is again 4.8 days minimum and 9 days maximum.
Sleeper’s Tomb
- Updated shader on golem NPCs to address a crash issue.
Players have pointed out that the minimum lockout timer for Plane of War was 2.8 days, so we’re not sure if this is a typo in the update notes, or if SOE is keeping PoW at a longer lockout until they can address the exploit.
From Akil “Lyndro” Hooper on the EQ2 Forums:
I have an update! The actual fix is going to be riskier than we expected, and we want to take more time to make sure nothing explodes, so we’re going to roll back the zones to the way they were until we can get the fix to live. We are aiming to have the zones back the way they were on Thursday.
Since I know it’ll be the next question, the fix is going to function outwardly the same way things do right now. There are going to be a couple extra edge cases where you may get conflicting 30 minute lockout timers if you reset your old instances after the raid you want to join starts up their new instance. To combat those, we’ll also be adding the ability to reset the 30 minute timers, as long as you haven’t been locked to the zone (Which means it isn’t a 30 minute timer anymore anyway).
Until the fix is in please don’t exploit… Actually, even after the fix is in please don’t exploit.
Thanks.
and from Kander:
So we probably should have explained this better. It was a quick band-aid to stop a major exploit.
This is a temporary fix, that is giving code the time to fix it correctly. We will have this changed as soon as possible, as soon as we can get it tested properly.
Shouldn’t be too long.
Thanks for being patient and understanding.
According to Zoltaroth, the EQ2 team are looking into alternate solutions that would allow them to return to the soft timers. This would restore the ability to do raid zones in as little as 3 days or as long as 5 (or 7 or 9 depending on the zone).
More as I have it…
Less than 72 hours before this year’s SOE Live fan gathering in Las Vegas, the EQ2 team have rushed a ham-handed fix for an exploit that, according to one player, has been present in the game since launch, and players have been exploiting for at least 5 years.
From hennyo on EQ2 Flames:
This is a bug that has been in the game since day one. The first time I heard of it being used was [Spirits of the Lost], but the first [expansion] I know it was extensively abused was [Echoes of Faydwer]. Even then though, most people that used this bug back then only used it sparingly, because quite frankly everyone thought anyone caught using it would get their accounts banned.
So why is after all this time did they implement this fix, instead of just banning the exploiters? Did they seriously not know about this bug, do they have no clue what they are about to do to their game? Seriously are they THAT mad about a few players farming loot a tad faster than they planned?
From the EQ2 Forums:
ZONE PROGRESSION / POPULATION
Current Raid Zones
- Due to an exploit, raid zones now have a hard 2.8 day [ 2 days 20 hours] lockout timer. Timers will expire naturally and are no longer able to be reset. This will include all Velious and future Raid zones.
- Plane of War is now a hard 4.8 day [4 days 20 hours] lockout timer.
Nu’roga
- Witch Doctor Bzegon now properly summons Crusader of Rok Nilok.
ITEMS
- The proc Temporal Magnate will no longer function in PVP combat.
In the weeks or months leading up to a new Game Update or Expansion, players have come to expect the familiar call to Testers to try out new Group or Raid content. Sometimes a specific schedule is posted, with developer chaperones to monitor player reaction to encounters, zone design, and so forth. At other times, testing as at-your-own pace. Either way, Bug Reports are collected and placed in a queue to be fixed at some future date.
If any “show stopping” bugs occurred during this Testing, such as a boss that would not spawn or could not be defeated, or a door or gateway which would not activate, the testing session would end prematurely with the feeble hope that players would return the next night to make another go of it. Even if many of those players could find time in their schedule to test again, this shortcoming has led to less enthusiasm for testing and a diminishing pool of testers.
From the EQ2 Forums:
POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Sleeper’s Tomb: A Temporal Leap (Raid)
- Drakeen should hit significantly less hard with auto-attacks.
Tower of Frozen Shadow (Raid)
- Killing Spectral Librarian Emiida and the Shadowed Tome of Ages Past should more reliably flag as completed when it comes to opening the portal to Tserrina.
ITEMS
- Fixed a combine issue with Sullon’s Vengul Wrath.
- Kraden, Eradication Blade: The effect Reign of Terror will now proc properly.
- Earring of Dissonant Cries: The effect Glorious Rout no longer suggests that it debuffs crit bonus and now has riposte chance.
- Vallon’s Whetstone of Cunning Culling now has riposte chance on its worn effect, Alacrity of an Undaunted Champion.
From the EQ2 Forums:
ITEMS
- The Qeynos Ceremonial Plate Helm should now have the correct appearance.
- Avatars: Evasion of a Dauntless Champion’s proc now has the proper icon.
- Avatars: Vallon’s Hoop of Concentrated Convergence’s effect, Concentrated Convergence, will now only drop if you take significant damage to your max health.
- Avatars: Rings of Planar Scrutiny – Scrutiny of the Hounds now also grants 1100 ability mod.
NOTICE: We have identified a problem with responses to the Sleeper’s Tomb Survey on EQ2Wire. Specifically, after looking at timestamps, we have determined that through some automated means, approximately 180 answers were submitted within just a few minutes. This is highly suspicious and casts doubt on the veracity of the survey. It is unfortunate that someone would abuse the system to try to manipulate or discredit results.
Further surveys will be conducted on EQ2Wire only after we are able to prevents duplicate voting by a combination of IP addresses, sessions, and/or cookies.
UPDATE: The results of this survey have been adjusted to remove the most obvious bot entries. This accounted for some 180 responses to the survey. However it is still possible that the results represent a nontrivial amount of ballot box stuffing.
We were excited to see some unbiased results, but unfortunately there are people out there who prefer manipulating the numbers.
Have you taken on the group or raid versions of the new Sleeper’s Tomb found in the Eastern Wastes? If so, why not take our Sleeper’s Tomb Survey below. If you have not yet run the zone, please come back and take the poll when you do. Results will be posted in a week or so depending on response rate.
After a small hiccup where Jorlak’s portal had to be activated, players have started exploring the group and raid versions of the Sleeper’s Tomb and nervously eyeing the Avatars of War (Vallon, Sullon, and Tallon Zek) which have popped up in the Eastern Wastes.
From EverQuest2.com:
Outside of the Sleeper’s Tomb in Velious’ Eastern Wastes, an aged Draconian chronomage named Jorlak awaits intrepid adventurers daring enough to begin a perilous quest.
Also throughout Velious, Avatars known as the Hounds of War have returned! These representations of the gods have been sent to the plane of mortals to challenge those willing to fight! The Hounds of War will spawn in Eastern Wastes, Withered Lands, and/or the Great Divide.
From the EQ2 Forums:
Sleeper’s Tomb, Chapter 1 Begins!
Norrathian’s will find Jorlak, an aged Dracurion chronomage, outside of the Sleeper’s Tomb in Velious’ Eastern Wastes. He will launch a quest that gives adventurers access to world-changing events in Norrath’s history, including the rituals of the heralded warders who kept the great prismatic dragon, Kerafyrm, asleep for many ages.
Start Your Chains of Eternity Adventure!
Level 92 players should be on the lookout for a message from Erus Dal’viv, the Swordbearer. He has a mission for adventurers that will help the Duality’s research into the Age’s End Prophecy… a mission that could take an unexpected turn.
Thanks to Polish EQ2 player Kinya who has provided us with some screenshots of the visually stunning Sleeper’s Tomb group zone. The EQ2 Art Design team have really outdone themselves this time.
UPDATE: The Sleeper’s Tomb, which opens next Tuesday, offers two variations:
If I was a bit harsh in my “Let the Sleeper’s Tomb Testing Begin! Group & Raid Zone” article, it’s only because I believe content should be thoroughly tested before it is pushed to the Live servers. Players have memorized every pixel in Skyshrine and are thirsty for new enemies to “punch and take their stuff”, so it seems smart to get Sleeper’s Tomb so bug-free, balanced, and itemized smoothly that players feel the wait for new content was worth it.
Holly “Windstalker” Longdale has posted a news update about when we can expect Sleeper’s Tomb, and the first wave of Contested Avatars.
Good day intrepid adventurers! Next Tuesday we are bringing you a big update that we lovingly call “Sleeper’s Tomb.” This is the first chapter of our expansion, Chains of Eternity, releasing in November. We have some additional content releasing with Sleeper’s Tomb that is definitely worth getting ready for! Check this out:
This month will see the introduction of the Sleeper’s Tomb group and x4 raid zones. So when can players test these zones? Oh, really any time.
Some astute players noticed late last week that the EQ2 Beta server was accessible from the Launchpad. We received confirmation last week that the Test Copy server was morphing into the Beta server. That’s great, but there was no clarification or announcement of whether anything was ready to be tested. Until today…
From Gninja:
Currently the beta server has the next update on it (Prelude). It has been getting some focused testing in preparation for going live. If you would like to check it out feel free to log in over there copy a character over and check it out. You can find the entrance in the Pit of Awakened in Eastern Wastes. As far as expansion content that content has not been added to the beta server as of yet.
From EverQuest2.com:
Death is rampant across Norrath. Citizens are suddenly falling dead as their spirits are torn from their bodies. No one on Norrath seems to understand why the souls are being pulled from the mortal plane, but all signs point to a massive disturbance within Ethernere, the realm of the dead. The heroes of the world must travel to Ethernere to find the cause of the unbalance in the Grey Wastes, and discover what has become of its caretaker – the mysterious being known as Drinal. If the heroes can return balance to Ethernere, the siphoning of souls may be halted. Should they fail, both the living and the dead will suffer a dismal fate.
Introducing EverQuest II: Chains of Eternity! This is the 9th expansion of the revolutionary EverQuest II franchise. This expansion contains must-have features such as level increases, prestige abilities and new game items only available with this expansion, such as adornments that become more powerful with your character. Also, explore new content in two spirit-realm versions of familiar lands, and experience adventure with new dungeons and quests. Put right the imbalance in the Ethernere!
From Holly “Windstalker” Longdale on the EQ2 Forums:
Greetings Norrath!
The time has come! We are very proud to announce our next expansion, EverQuest II: Chains of Eternity!
The team is hard at work developing our ninth – yes, our ninth – expansion and implementing the finer details, several of which I will go into here. When the expansion launches, Norrathians will pass into Ethernere, the realm of the afterlife, where all spirits pass after death on their way to their final resting place.
Recently, something has gone horribly wrong in Ethernere and it is bleeding through in the mortal plane. Over the summer months, evidence of ripples between the realms was in evidence as items with ethereal energy appeared upon the dead. As the tears between the realms widen, it will be up to the heroes of Norrath to save the immortal and mortal realms from collapse!
The adventures in this expansion will be great ones! The team is spending a lot of time ensuring that you experience the story, rather than merely read it, so I won’t give it all away in this letter. As for features and details, we’ve got a lot to crow about. We hope players enjoy it as much as we’ve enjoyed weaving it together.
Cross Over to More Content
In two re-imagined Ethernere overlands inspired by Feerrott and Loping Plains, players will find a region in chaos. The natural ebb and flow of spirits passing through the Ethernere to each spirit’s final resting place is corrupted and on the edge of destruction, threatening every mortal’s life and afterlife. Through the trials of nine new instanced dungeons, players will attempt to mend the end of all things. Prelude content and dungeons give insights into the threat from the other side while telling all new stories – including advancing the story behind the Ages End Prophecy. Players meet new creatures from the beyond and face a whole host of new challenges.
As was hinted last month, players will see new raid content in the month of September, specifically the Sleeper’s Tomb. It’s our understanding that the difficulty of this zone will stop short of the Plane of War. Meanwhile, there have been sightings of new ETHEREAL Charms over the long weekend. It’s unclear if the charms have replaced or simply augmented the ETHEREAL weapons which first appeared in August. Remember folks, Ethereal items have an equal chance of dropping from any enemy — they do not have a higher chance of dropping from named encounters.
From the EQ2 Forums:
It’s a start of a new month, and a lot is happening in our beloved Norrath. Here’s a peek at just a few of the new features and events that will be happening this September. More will be revealed in the coming weeks!
Ethereal Charms (NEW!)
The ethereal winds have shifted in Norrath. In the month of August, mysterious and powerful weapons were randomly appearing across the land. This month, new items with similar power are beginning to appear. What could their presence mean?
Sleeper’s Tomb
What rests within this tomb? Only the bravest of adventurers should dare to enter this new zone in mid-September for new group/raid content!
