The focus this week has been on new EQ2 Senior Producer Dave Georgeson, and EQ2 Server Performance, which has been a persistent black cloud over EQ2 for the last 2 months.
Test Copy
Test Copy is getting some major use as it is where PvP and Battlegrounds changes are tested.
Gninja advised us:
We will be working out a schedule as to when the test_copy server will be pvp vrs pve. We are working it out now and will get back to you guys shortly.
Stuck at Character Select
An issue with being stuck at Character Select on Thursday was caused by a Configuration issue which has been corrected. EQ2 Forums
Adventure/AA/Tradeskill XP Weekend
The e-mail and EQ2Players announcements for this weekend’s Bonus XP event neglected to mention that Tradeskills will also see a bonus. We have not yet been informed what % the bonus will be, but 30% is a good guess.
Zone |
Start |
End |
Pacific US |
Friday, April 23 @ 3:00pm |
Sunday, April 25 @ 11:59pm |
Eastern US |
Friday, April 23 @ 6:00pm |
Monday , April 26 @ 2:59am |
GMT |
Friday, April 23 @ 22:00 |
Monday , April 26 @ 06:59 |
Copenhagen |
Saturday, April 24 @ 00:00 |
Monday , April 26 @ 08:59 |
Game Update 56 Goes to Test Soon
We don’t have an exact date, but Game Update 56 will be moving to Test and Test Copy soon. When we know exactly what content will appear on Test and Test Copy, we’ll let you know. It would not be surprising if New Halas is not in the first build. EQ2 Forums
Thundering Steppes Revamp Mothballed
Gninja has confirmed the news we speculated about earlier this year.
Unfortunately we will not be making drastic changes to Thundering Steppes this time around. That doesn’t mean there will be no changes but we are not considering it being revamped. GU56 will be full of cool stuff though (Including but not limited to New Halas and some new raids) you should see it hitting test servers in the not too distant future.
A revamp of Thundering Steppes seems to be completely off the development radar at this point, with Butcherblock Mountains stepping in as the “place to be” for level 20-35 content.
Although subject to change, our understanding is that, just like Timorous Deep, level 20 players will be offered a quest guiding them from New Halas to the Butcherblock docks to begin level 20-35 content.
Level 82 Mastercrafted Armor
It seems the strength of level 80 Tier 1 and Tier 2 Shard armor from The Shadow Odyssey was always destined to overshadow Level 82 Mastercrafted armor. But that doesn’t mean the EQ2 team haven’t given up on it yet! Domino has managed to land some additional upgrades to the Level 82 set:
Look for some changes coming to level 82 mastercrafted armor with GU56 (for a start, it should all be level 82 now …) including the addition of yellow adornment slots and some resists. We are also in the process of discussing the possibilities of some stat tweaks.
It now seems even less likely that any of the Tier 1 Marks of Manaar gear will be an upgrade to any player. Note that Tier 2 Marks of Manaar gear (which has Critical Mitigation and better stats) must be sought out in Moonfield Hamlet in Stonebrunt Highlands.