US Servers: 7:00~9:00am PDT | 10:00am~Noon EDT | 15:00~17:00 BST | 16:00~18:00 CET
EU Servers: 9:00~11:00pm PDT | Midnight~2:00am EDT | 05:00~07:00 BST | 06:00~08:00 CETFrom the EQ2 Forums:
GENERAL
- Fixed an issue where a character’s backpack appearance would reset after zoning in certain situations.
ITEMS
- Equipment drops from Karnor’s Castle have been brought back down into progression.
The @EverQuestII twitter account posted this news last night:
The final set of summer Ethereals is now available so earn them while you can!
However we’ve now confirmed that we’re still in the midst of Wave 2 of Ethereals and that Wave 3 won’t start until later this month. From Caith on the EQ2 Forums:
The second wave still has a few weeks in it, wave 2 ends and wave 3 begins later this month.
False alarm folks! Wave 2 started on July 15th and I believe each wave is supposed to last at least a month.
It looks like the Rise of Kunark expansion, which was up for its third unlock vote on the Stormhold server, has squeaked by with the exact percentage needed to unlock. If the vote had gone the other way, it would be a full three months before the next one. From the EQ2 Forums:
The results are in! The community has voted and it looks like everyone is ready to assail Chardok and conquer Karnor’s Castle! The Rise of Kunark expansion will launch at noon PT on August 16th.
The final results for those of you interested were 66% of participants voted to unlock the next expansion.
From EverQuest2.com:
New adventures await you, Norrathains! GU101 is scheduled to release on Tuesday, August 23, 2016, and there’s something in this update for players of all levels.
New Fabled Content to Explore From The Fallen Dynasty!
These new Fabled dungeons can be accessed through a portal just off the docks in The Village of Shin. This content is intended for level 100 characters, and a membership is required to enter these zones.
The Fabled Fallen Dynasty is made up of The Fabled Nizara, City of the Nayad which will have both Heroic and Advanced Solo versions! Also available will be The Fabled Cavern of the Crustaceans Raid for groups of 12 players and The Fabled Xux’laio’s Roost Raid and The Fabled Antechamber of Fate Raid for groups of 24 players.
The EverQuest II team are working full steam ahead on the thirteenth expansion due to hit this November, but in the meantime, they’re getting ready to drop a whopper of a Game Update which should keep us plenty busy this summer.
First up, the much beloved Public Quests first introduced in Destiny of Velious are making a return in current tier content. The EQ2 team have been given new tools to create PQs in weeks instead of months. In addition to faster development, the new tools promise to exhibit less server and client lag as the battles are underway. Game Update 101 will bring us more level 100 content in the form of Fabled Zones from the The Fallen Dynasty adventure pack. Nizara returns in Advanced Solo and Heroic versions, while x2 and x4 raids have both been added.
Five new Level Agnostic Dungeons have been added to Dungeon Finder and they can be played by characters from level 10-100 with content scaling appropriately. Finally some quality-of-life tweaks have been made, and healers who cast Wards will want to check out some changes to how these mechanics have changed.
Read the Beta Update Notes for August 3rd
The Stormhold Time-Locked Expansion server is back at the voting booth for its third ballot asking whether the Rise of Kunark expansion should be unlocked. The imminent launch of the Race to Trakanon server did little to encourage voter turnout as the last Stormhold vote failed with only 46% voting in favor of unlocking Kunark. Now, for the first time in the EQ2 TLE server’s history, it looks like this server may be stuck on its current expansion for three more months. To unlock an expansion, a supermajority (2/3rds) must vote YES.
From the Stormhold server launch announcement comes this curious clause:
Players will have the option to vote to unlock content on Stormhold (PvE) and Deathtoll (PvP) servers every 30-days. The voting period will last a week, and if the server votes not to unlock the next expansion, the vote will start again after 30-days.
If the server chooses not to unlock content three times in a row, the votes for the next expansion will change to 90-days in-between votes. This will reset back to 30-days in-between votes after an expansion is successfully unlocked on your server.
Players must be within 20 levels of current content cap to be eligible to vote.
Not surprisingly, the impending vote (which will conclude this Friday August 5th), has garnered loud responses from both sides of the aisle. The first thread on the topic “3rd RoK Vote – 3 more months of EoF if it fails” contains most of the discussion for-and-against. A second thread also gathered some comments on the subject. And finally, a third thread includes a YouTube video promoting the idea of unlocking. I suppose it’s fitting in an election year that campaign videos would be popping up!
US Servers: 7:00~9:00am PDT | 10:00am~Noon EDT | 15:00~17:00 BST | 16:00~18:00 CET EU Servers: 9:00~11:00pm PDT | Midnight~2:00am EDT | 05:00~07:00 BST | 06:00~08:00 CETFrom the EQ2 Forums:
ZONES / POPULATION
Qeynos
- The Aerakyn Mentor has had his name changed to Lonce Jellysmots.
ITEMS
- [eq2u]Orb of Concentrated Memories[/eq2u] can no longer be modified by reuse speed.
- Writ of the Arena Master now has its effect.
- Undying Champion’s Knuckles now has the correct class restrictions for a fist weapon.
- Epic Weapons that lost their FABLED tag are once again fabled.
- Undying Champion’s Dagger can no longer be used by brawlers.
QUESTS
- The unicorn-rump-sitting-cheap-Far-Seas-wine-drinking escaped fabled spirit in The Village of Shin can now also delete your active “Warzone Devastation” quests.
RACE-TO-TRAKANON EVENT SERVER
- Corrected an issue that prevented the first 10 players to obtain level 80 adventure level from receiving the Undying Power adornment pack claim. This fix was retroactive.
- Corrected an issue that prevented the first 10 players to obtain each class epic from receiving the Greater Undying Power adornment pack claim. This fix was retroactive.
CENSUS
- Added ts_level and ts_class to the type field in census character export data. This is in addition to existing information as to avoid causing any issues with older census websites.*
* The way Tradeskill Class and Level were exported on characters made it almost impossible to do searches for all characters over a certain tradeskill level. Nine queries were necessary. This update will change this to only require one query.
Talk about being in the right place at the right time. After a single month on the app store of iOS and Android devices, Niantic‘s Pokemon GO (Pokemon being short for Pocket Monster) has obliterated even the loftiest expectations and entered the national consciousness. Some 80 million people have downloaded and played this new augmented reality game. Despite a few early hiccups, including a spying fear when the initial iOS release requested FULL access to your Google profile before a patch fixed it, the game has been a staggering success. The Pokemon GO juggernaut was strong enough to buoy Nintendo’s own stock from a low of 13,500¥ six weeks ago to a high of 31,770¥, a 135% leap, despite the fact that Nintendo actually has no role in and gains no financial benefit from its development. This realization has caused the stock to return to year-over-year averages.
So why do an article about a game I’ve never even played? Because I feel strongly about APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and public data.
The Pokemon GO app for iPhone and Android provides scant guidance to its players. At first, the app provided a Footsteps feature which provided an exact distance to the nearest monsters. However after one week, this feature was reduced to a misleading estimate that reports all “nearby” Pokemon as being the maximum distance away. With this change, players were obligated to walk (or drive) around aimlessly in search of Pokemon. Nature abhors a vacuum, and, so a cottage industry of third-party websites sprang up including Pokevision, Pokehound, and PokeNotify. These sites harvested game data to pinpoint Pokemon on a convenient Google Maps overlay.
Set your sights on Greater Faydark because the Kelethin City Festival returns from August 1-7! Spend City Tokens on local specialties, generic festival goods, and more. Make sure all your characters have finished the Kelethin Postage Collection, speak to Kella Swampfoot to assist with festival quests, and achieve 94 seconds or less in the local Aether Race to earn the Bixie Barnstormer title.
Kelethin City Festival 8/1 – 8/7! This is the first time Stormhold has been able to enjoy it in Kelethin! #EQ2
— Nathan McCall (@kaitheel) July 31, 2016
WHEN: 12:01am PT on August 1st – 11:59pm PT on August 7th
WHERE: Greater Faydark, Green Knoll, /way 536, 44, 53
QUESTS: Special Delivery, Special Order Crafting, Special Order Gathering
ACHIEVEMENTS: Delivery Ahoy, Harvesting Hoopla, Kella Caffeinated, Requisition Acclamation
MERCHANT ITEMS: EQ2 Traders | EQ2 Furniture
From the EQ2 Forums:
Starting today, you can purchase transfer tokens to the Isle of Refuge. Find out more details about transfer tokens for EverQuest II in our Knowledge Base!
US Servers: 7:00~9:00am PDT | 10:00am~Noon EDT | 15:00~17:00 BST | 16:00~18:00 CET EU Servers: 9:00~11:00pm PDT | Midnight~2:00am EDT | 05:00~07:00 BST | 06:00~08:00 CETFrom the EQ2 Forums:
ZONES / POPULATION
General
- Flight is now allowed in the Skyshrine Capitol and Highhold premium guildhalls.
Time-Locked Servers
- The travel bell in Qeynos harbor no longer hates time-locked servers.
ITEMS
- Merchants that sell items for status will now only buy those items back for half of the sell value.
RACE TO TRAKANON
- The achievement Race: Completed 400 Collections is now Race: Completed 355 Collections.
The cogs are oiled and the steam is rolling out—it’s time for Tinkerfest celebrations! The event runs from 12:01am PT on July 21st through 11:59pm PT on August 3rd. This year features one new collection, new quest reward options for “We Can Rebuild”, as well as more merchant items, Tinkering recipes, and Master Tinkerer blueprints. Previous quests will make their return along with the Aether races in Butcherblock, Great Divide, Lavastorm, and Tenebrous Tangle.
The new Tinkerfest Jump pack!
Niami has posted pictures of the new recipe and merchant items over on EQ2 Traders. The Stormhold TLE server will have a special Tinkerfest themed merchant, a celebrating tinkerer—as well as Shiny Tinkerfest Cog spawns—in Freeport, Qeynos, and Steamfont.
Too many alts? Get the Tinkerfest quest tracker! Print it out or copy it to your own Google Drive by going to the File menu and choosing “Make a copy…”.
From EverQuest2.com:
Look to the Marketplace for new items that are available starting today! Also, members will earn bonus Ethereal coins until Monday, July 25.
As of this patch, players now have the ability to display a quiver appearance in-game! Look to the Marketplace under bags > quivers for new items that let you show off your interest in archery! Quivers are priced at 1299DBC.
Also, new bags are available in the Marketplace on all servers! 66-slot bags of a variety of appearances are available for 999DBC. Regular 50-slot bags can be purchased for 599DBC.
Double Ethereal Coins
Summer 2016 Ethereals are in full swing! If you’re not familiar with this year’s Ethereal event, check out the post here.
Members earn DOUBLE Ethereal Coins until Monday, July 25, 2016 at 11:59PM PDT.
Not currently a member? All Access membership has its perks!
Commentary
Previously, there were only a few ways to get bags with more than 63 slots — the Claws of Veeshan bag for attending SOE Live 2014, the Rallic Pack from doing the Tuesday Daily Tradeskill Mission in Tranquil Seas, and Naylie’s Nebulous Newsbag from completing the Guide quest “Nebulous Newsies“, or if you purchased the Terrors of Thalumbra Collector’s Edition for $89.99. With today’s Marketplace update, it looks like anyone can now buy 66-slot bags for $10. While it’s possible to acquire two of these convenience items through gameplay, if you want more, there’s only one choice.
From EverQuest2.com:
Are you ready for another adventure this summer? Have you been waiting to pick up the most recent expansion, Terrors of Thalumbra? Now is a great time to get it! Why? For the first time, Terrors of Thalumbra is available to purchase with credit card or with Daybreak Cash!
EverQuest II: Terrors of Thalumbra is now available for $34.99 or 3499 DBC (Standard Edition), $89.99 or 8999 DBC (Collector’s Edition), and $139.99 or 13999 DBC (Premium Edition).
The monthly Moonlight Enchantments event begins tonight! The grottos open up on the 20th at 12:01am PT and close on the 21st at 11:59pm PT. The time applies directly with no conversion for all servers.
New items were added to the grottos last month. Check out Niami Denmother‘s preview on EQ2 Traders if you missed it.
US Servers: 7:00~9:00am PDT | 10:00am~Noon EDT | 15:00~17:00 BST | 16:00~18:00 CET EU Servers: 9:00~11:00pm PDT | Midnight~2:00am EDT | 05:00~07:00 BST | 06:00~08:00 CETFrom the EQ2 Forums:
GENERAL
- Fixed an issue where Aerakyn’s would sometimes show mirrored particle effects at their feet.
- Fixed a UI related crash in the client.
Event Server: Race To Trakanon
- Tinkering trainers are now available on the Race to Trakanon server!
ZONES / POPULATION
Lesser Faydark
- Tunare’s Battleweary ability should not trigger as quickly allowing more time to complete the encounter.
Sundered Splitpaw
- Encounters within Sundered Splitpaw will set a zone lockout timer when killed.
Agnostic Dungeons
- Adjusted difficulty scaling in agnostic dungeons that can scale to level 100.
ITEMS
- Scourge Watchman’s Quiver is now 36 slots.
and…
ITEMS
- Marketplace quivers are now able to hold both arrow and throwing ammo types.
One of the appearance items which EQ2 players have requested over the years are Quivers. With a ranger as my main character, it’s fine to travel with an appearance bow on my back, but my preference would be a quiver. Starting tonight, the [eq2u]Scourge Watchman’s Quiver[/eq2u] is now available for purchase from the Marketplace for a price of 1299 DBC. It holds 26 stacks of ammo (it currently only accepts arrows but will be updated to hold thrown ammo in a future update).
After equipping the quiver, a new option becomes available in the Character Options tab under Back Gear. I already have a Claws of Veeshan backpack (from attending SOE Live) and Rallic Pack (for completing the Tradeskill daily in Altar of Malice). Now I have another option as shown…
As of midnight, it appears that Wave Two of Summer Ethereals have begun! As we wrote about earlier this year, rather than weapons, the new Ethereals are Jewelry and Charms. Here’s a post from two weeks ago giving today’s date from Kander:
Wave two starts July 15th. Yes, each wave drops a different item.
We will be doing double Ethereal tokens here some time in future also.
When asked if we’d still be able to buy Wave One items after Wave Two starts, he answered in the affirmative (quoted for posterity):
Yes,
With an overnight change in the items available on the in-game vendor, players have noticed that one new charm has been added — Bonecaster’s Mettle. It is oddly marked FABLED instead of ETHEREAL but can still be resold to the vendor for 15 Ethereal Coins. You’ll note that the existing three pieces of jewelry and three Ethereal Rune adornments (which vary based on your class) remain:
Interestingly, players have been reporting receiving two rewards instead of one since last night. Some were hoping there would be a Double Coin event, but instead it looks like we’re getting a Double Reward event. Unlike past Ethereal events, this summer’s Summer Ethereals are tied to completing a specific Mission (quest) for a daily zone. The rotation can be viewed in the right column of EQ2 Library.
With the advent of the EQ2 Census service which allows us to build websites like EQ2U and Dragon’s Armory, we’re able to track the progress of players on the new limited-time Race to Trakanon server as events unfold. If you want to check things out as they happen, click on the button below to taken to our EQ2U Race to Trakanon Leaderboards page:
The Race to Trakanon server is also included in our EQ2U Leaderboards site which lets you see PvE, Quests, Collections, Crafted Items, Rare Harvests, and other trackables as characters complete them. Check it out!
Not everyone is racing to Trakanon this week, as fastidious EQ2 content testers have taken up live event wrangler and quest artiste Kaitheel on his offer and are now trying out the updated Tinkerfest event!
From the EQ2 Forums:
Tinkerfest is now active on Test!
Like clockwork, Tinkerfest has returned [to test]! Take up your favorite wrench in celebration of all things gnomish, be they metal, combustive, mathematical, experimental, or a combination thereof! Adventures, rewards, buyables and crafted items await you, both new and familiar at Gnomeland Security, your headquarters for all things Tinkerfest, in Steamfont Mountains. While you’re there, be sure to take a swig of Tinker Thermald’s cask-strength gnomish spirits! It’s sure to liven up the celebration!
New features for ’16!
- TLE- Stormhold — A special Tinkerfest themed merchant, a celebrating tinkerer, can be found in Freeport, Qeynos Qeynos Capitol District, and Steamfont Mountains.
- New Collection! — Tinkerer’s Extraordinary Toolbelt
- Quests Rewards — “We Can Rebuild” offered by Tinker Thermald in Gnomeland Security has new quest reward options
- Myron, Tinkerfest Merchant, in Gnomeland Security has new things to sell — Tinkerfest Blueprints 7.0, New mounts!, New house items and baubles!
- New recipe added to the existing “Master Tinkerer Blueprints 2.0” recipe book — Tinkered Mechanized Bow
This event content is currently set to run 07/21/2016 at 12:01 AM PDT time until 08/03/2016 at 11:59 PM PDT time on the live servers.
Please post any feedback and bugs that you encounter with this event in the Feedback thread!
When asked about Fabled Mara, Kander had this response on the EQ2 Forums:
Yes. August. GU 101 + New public quests and some more surprises,
From EverQuest2.com:
Norrathians, a new adventure is awaiting you on the first EverQuest II event server,Race to Trakanon, which is available NOW!
Remember, on event servers, you can earn rewards based on your achievements that can be claimed on another regular live server!
AND if you log in during the first fourteen days (from now through Tuesday, July 26, 2016 at 11:59PM PT) and get to Level 10, you will get a SUNBRITE CLOTHWORK PEGASUS!
The Sunbrite Clothwork Pegasus will be available to be claimed on each character on your account! This is a limited time offer, so you must log in to the server and get to Level 10 by Tuesday, July 26 in order to claim one for yourself!
This special server is available to members. Not a member yet? Visitwww.everquest2.com/membership to learn more about the benefits of membership, including access to special servers like this one!
Want more details on Race to Trakanon? Visit our announcement article here.
Check out the Race to Trakanon Updated Frequently Asked Questions page.
Check out our EQ2U Race to Trakanon Leaderboards page!
US Servers: 7:00~9:00am PDT | 10:00am~Noon EDT | 15:00~17:00 BST | 16:00~18:00 CET EU Server: 9:00~11:00pm PDT | Midnight~2:00am EDT | 05:00~07:00 BST | 06:00~08:00 CETFrom the EQ2 Forums:
GENERAL
- Fixed an issue causing the command /loadui to hang.
ZONES / POPULATION
Agnostic Dungeons
- Reduced the damage on several attacks from mobs in agnostic Kralet Penumbra zones.
Zek, The Scourge Wastes: The Siege [Raid]
- Fergul’s Dust Blind spell no longer requires line of sight to Fergul to be cast.
AMENITIES
- The druid ring hireling is now available in the Highhold Guild Hall.
The Race to Trakanon announcement thread has been updated with a new Frequently Asked Questions for the upcoming Race to Trakanon limited-time progression server which will open up next Tuesday, July 12th. When the server closes (it will run for at least three months and there will be 30 days notice before shutting it down), characters will be transferred to the live server of the player’s choice. Competing or participating in the Race to Trakanon server results in Coins which can be used to buy powerful items on the Live servers or the Stormhold TLE server.
EQ2Wire will be ready for this new server as we are working on an updated Leaderboards page which will track everyone’s progress towards the eighty plus Achievements which have been added for the new server!
From the EQ2 Forums:
What content and features are enabled?
The Race to Trakanon server operates under similar rules to a Time-Locked Expansion server. As this is the Race to Trakanon, it means that it contains content up to and including Kunark is available. Classes and features from future expansions will not be available.
What races will be available for the event?
All races are playable.
What classes will be available for the event?
Beastlord and Channelers are the only classes that will not be available.
After some initial hesitation to do so, the EQ2 team have released results (with a percentage!) of the Time-Locked Expansion server poll for unlocking the Rise of Kunark expansion. Interestingly the Race to Trakanon server will launch on Tuesday, and all expansions up to and including Kunark will be available from Tuesday. Characters will be rewarded for being first or in the first 30 characters to achieve specific achievements.
From the EQ2 Forums:
The results are in! The community has voted and only 46% voted to unlock the next expansion so the server will remain on the current expansion.
We’ll announce the next vote when it’s approaching!
