‘Tis the season once again for Santa Glug gifties, ice dragons, crafting binges, and more. Frostfell kicks off following an update on Thursday, December 10th (eta 8am PT/11am ET) and runs through 7am PT/10am ET on Thursday, January 7, 2016. Last year’s content makes a return appearance, and due to my insane finals week I’m going to just point you here for those older guides (the 2014 quest tracker is here).

Frostfell won’t be on the TLE servers, but look for Frostfell trees in Freeport and Qeynos, where merchants will be selling seasonal items! Read more here.

This year Frostfell has a hoard of new items—gifts, crafted, purchased, and craft rewards—which you can check out on Niami’s EQ2 Traders Frostfell write-up. There are five new quests, but only if you own the Terrors of Thalumbra expansion, as they require access to the city of Maldura. You begin the new series by speaking to Jarith Icewing at 334, -24, -1512 in the Frostfell Wonderland Village. Continue reading below for the  walkthroughs.

From Ann “Cyliena” Hosler on MMORPG:

The ancient kingdom of Maldura, not heard from since before the Shattering, has made a desperate call for help to those residing aboveground. Their messages, unclear by the time they reached the surface, prompt the heroes of Norrath—those who have achieved level 100—to take action and delve into the unknown.

EverQuest II’s 12^th expansion, Terrors of Thalumbra, introduces new content for level capped adventurers and tradeskillers. A plethora of new dungeons (13 Heroic, 6 Advanced Solo, and 1 Contested) and four raid zones can be found within the vast underland zone of Thalumbra, the Ever Deep and the city of Maldura. The local denizens, dwarves and gnomes called the dhalgar and gnemlin respectively, are wary of outsiders but desperate for help.

 

Pros

A lot of group and advanced solo content  Core storyline is entertaining & wide open for future updates  New infusion mechanics allow players to delve into equipment customization

Cons

Gear continues power creep, which could be an issue if the level cap increases in the future  Side stories offer their usual humor, but otherwise aren’t very compelling  Solo quests offer only a few hours of entertainment

Read Review: Journeys Into Subterranean Norrath @ MMORPG

US Servers: 7:00~8:00am PST | 10:00am~11:00am EST | 15:00~16:00 GMT | 16:00~17:00 CEST
EU Servers: 9:00~10:00pm PST | 12:00~1:00am EST | 05:00~06:00 GMT | 06:00~07:00 CEST

From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL

• The /summon_chest command can no longer be used while on a transport.

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Maldura: Palace Foray [Heroic]

• Dragoon Z’Koz will always drop a treasure chest.

Kralet Penumbra: Temple of the Ill-Seen [Advanced Solo]

• Should now spawn shinies properly.

Kralet Penumbra: The Master’s Chosen [Heroic]

• Necromantic Concentration buff can now appropriately be dispelled.

If you didn’t get your fill of testing during the Terrors of Thalumbra expansion beta, or you just can’t wait until Frostfell arrives on non-TLE servers, you’re in luck. Frostfell has now been activated on the Test server and you can check it out, report bugs, and provide feedback!

From the EQ2 Forums:

Now that Test has been updated… Frostfell is active on Test!

There’s plenty of Frostfell cheer throughout Norrath this season! Gigglegibbers and Frostfell elves are busy celebrating the holiday within the player cities, and encouraging everyone to visit the Frostfell Wonderland Village, accessed through the Magic Closets in Qeynos Province District, Freeport, Haven, Kelethin, Neriak, Gorowyn and New Halas. There you can assist Jarith Icewing and Frestishan with their holiday challenges, or help Candice Cheriweth, Gardy Ex-Giftgiver, Mr. McScroogle, Queen Bunny, and Snarf Frostfoot with some holiday tasks, but only after you release them from their deep freeze! For those that have a talent for crafting, you can help Sogs Frostfoot, or gather presents to craft wondrous new Frostfell goodies for yourself. Don’t forget to log in each day and claim your extra-special Frostfell present from everyone’s favorite Frostfell Gigglegibber, Santa Glug!

New Features for ’15!

Shortly after SOE’s data breach in May 2011, the company partnered with Vasco to provide security key fobs for its customers. These were made available for purchase as well as being given out to all Fan Faire 2011 attendees. Since then, requests to produce a mobile security app serving the same purpose on iPhone and Android have been numerous.

Now it looks like an EQ2 player (SandsMans) has stumbled upon an official Daybreak Defender app on the iPhone app store, apparently published without fanfare on October 24th, 2015,  which should theoretically offer the functionality of a mobile authenticator keyfob.

iPhone users who wish to add security to their Daybreak Games accounts can now Download the Daybreak Defender app and use it in lieu of a physical key fob. Please note that we have not yet tested this app!

Two factor authentication (password + key fob or mobile app) is more important than ever as Daybreak no longer recovers stripped/deleted characters even in the case of hacked accounts.

UPDATE from Daybreak Games:

@EQ2Wire We are looking at options to expand availability beyond iOS, but have no specific details/dates to share right now.

WARNING: If you add the authenticator to your Daybreak account, be sure to remove it BEFORE deleting this app from your phone. Otherwise you will need to contact Customer Support which can take multiple days.

Dedith, creator of the Dragon’s Armory website, has posted an update regarding his EQ2 fansite. He now supports equipped items which have been Infused, as well as further clarification of which stats are available or disabled on Time-Locked Expansion servers.

From the EQ2 Forums:

While I do update the news at Dragon’s Armory, I’m certain many folks have their characters linked in directly. So, I am taking the time to post here to let folks know of updates that have recently been applied:

• Terrors of Thalumbra support

I’ve added support to show on each worn item the details of any infusion applied to that item. Here on the front tab of my shield, you can see the details of both the Deity and Physical modification layers.

Continue reading the announcement on the EQ2 Forums.

Visit Dragon’s Armory!

After a six multi-month absence, Dellmon and Osgz are back with another installment of EQ2’s best only podcast EQ2Talk to review the Terrors of Thalumbra expansion. Is there anything in the expansion that Dellmon likes? You’ll have to tune in to find out!

From EQ2Talk.com:

In this episode Dellmon and Osgz judge the newest expansion for Everquest II, Terrors of Thalumbra. While both hosts struggle in the swimsuit portion, they soar in the talent competition as they both discuss some of the high flying points of the new content and zones. Feathers did get a bit ruffled over just how much each wants their hand held while working through the quest lines. Listen in to see who is crowned the victor in this podcast and which dwarf just has to eat crow.

Click here to listen to Episode 80

US Servers: 7:00~8:00am PST | 10:00am~11:00am EST | 15:00~16:00 GMT | 16:00~17:00 CEST
EU Servers: 9:00~10:00pm PST | 12:00~1:00am EST | 05:00~06:00 GMT | 06:00~07:00 CEST

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Maldura

• A Far Seas Trading Company representative has arrived in Maldura and will now sell Age of Malice blank runes in exchange for Coin of the Grand Artificer (they are still also available for far seas tokens from the original sources). She can be found in the Mushroom Bar and Grill.

Maldura: Algorithm For Destruction [All Versions]

• The electro-charged battery is now automatically placed in your inventory, when appropriate, during the encounter with X-O Arachmech.

Kralet Penumbra: Uzulu Deep [Event Heroic]

• Urzzra-Uzulu’s Thought Graze now drains more power.
• Urzzra-Uzulu’s Thought Overload is now limited to 20 meters.
• Fixed a bug that caused Urzzra-Uzulu to keep its stoneskin active throughout the encounter.

In my time covering EverQuest II, we’ve had three really great Community Managers — Christine “Kiara” Renzetti, Margaret “Luperza” Krohn, and Racheal “Afista” McKenny.

Yesterday as part of their Daily Grind column, MassivelyOP asked “What Makes a Really Great MMO Community Manager?”

When Funcom hired new community managers a few weeks ago, some readers questioned why we’d cover it. Big whoop, community managers are glorified retweeters, right? Yeah, not so much. A talented community manager can work a playerbase and keep everyone happy even in dark times. “Sinking, panicking games dump their CMs overboard first, not realizing their CMs are the best at bailing,” I argued at the time. “Hiring good CMs is a good sign in a lot of ways.”

Comments can sometimes be painful to read, but I found some interesting answers to the question posed…

Good communication and consistency. Don’t lie to players and expect them to respect you after. Things change, we get that and though we might not like it we can accept it.

Keep your game community up to date with what’s going on with the game and the company. Post replies to threads on the forums giving whatever bits of info you can (or even saying you have no info). Post threads of your own with important updates.

Around Thalumbra, there are a number of fun timed quests that can be completed for a variety of rewards! I have seen a lot of people asking about these quests and the rewards, so I decided to make a short guide to how they work and where they are!

First of all, the timed quests are repeatable every 2 1/2 – 3 hours, and they vary in difficulty from very easy to pretty hard. They all require you to complete a set of tasks within the allotted time, or it will fail and you will have to wait before trying again. All of them reward you with the same thing, a “Dirt encrusted key”, which can be unpacked for a reward, as well as some coin and faction.

Unpacking a “Dirt encrusted key” awards you with “Ancient silver engravings” which can be sold for status, as well as one of three possible rewards:

• An ancient gold key
• An ancient platinum key
• An ancient umbrite key

These keys are then used to open corresponding treasure chests which appear randomly out in Thalumbra. The different keys correspond to different tiers of loot, where opening a gold treasure chest, being the lowest tier, awards you with something of solo quality and going up from there. You may have to fly around for a while before finding any chests, and it is possible to use multiple keys of the same type on the same chest. There is therefore no harm in saving up a bunch of keys until you manage to find one!

Now that you know what the rewards are, you might be thinking “This sounds fun! Where can I start these quests?” Here you go!

To date, there have been ten different timed quests discovered:

  Crate Courier (465, 19, 885) (easy)
  The Lost Miner (446, 85, 366) (easy)
  Rubble Rampage (184, 79, -440) (easy)
  Swimming For Shrooms (950, 43, 198) (easy)
  Unsealed Tombs (362, 177, 555) (moderate)
  Memory Bloom (515, 73, -167) (moderate)
  Millions of Leeches, Leeches for Me (342, 483, 100) (moderate)
  Extinguish the Flames (-107, 232, -692) (Hard)
  Pox Raiding (-428, 258, 393) (Hard)
  Leech Liberator (-404, 31 -497) (Hard)

EQ2 Lead Designer Kyle “Kander” Vallee is not usually one to tweet, but he dropped an interesting note this afternoon! For those thinking that the Time Locked Expansion servers would receive no attention going forward, you couldn’t be more wrong. Now that expansion 12 is out the door, work begins on the 13th expansion. We might also get a spring content update (fabled zones, perhaps?).

Today we start planning for TLE tweaks, early spring content [hopefully] and Exp13. Anyone got ideas for where they want to go? I do…

— Kyle Vallée (@EQII_Kander) December 1, 2015

Button up that winter coat – the New Halas City Festival returns from December 1-7! Spend City Tokens on local specialties, generic festival goods, appearance clothing, or food & drink. Make sure all your characters have finished the New Halas Postage Collection, speak to Kella Swampfoot to assist with festival quests, and achieve 104 seconds or less in the local Aether Race to earn the Snowflake Chaser title.

Be sure to check in with the merchants to see if there’s any new items this month!

WHEN: 12:01am PT on December 1st – 11:59pm PT on December 7th
WHERE: Frostfang Sea, near the Cairn of the Huntress, /loc 26, 148, -82 (Kella is found at /loc 99, 151, -135)
QUESTS: Special Delivery, Special Order Crafting, Special Order Gathering
ACHIEVEMENTS: Delivery Ahoy, Harvesting Hoopla, Kella Caffeinated, Requisition Acclamation
MERCHANT ITEMS: EQ2 Traders | EQ2 Furniture

US Servers: 7:00~8:00am PST | 10:00am~11:00am EST | 15:00~16:00 GMT | 16:00~17:00 CEST
EU Servers: 9:00~10:00pm PST | 12:00~1:00am EST | 05:00~06:00 GMT | 06:00~07:00 CEST

Fr0m the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Kralet Penumbra

• Reduced the random chance to get multiple scouts in Kralet Penumbra encounters which will reduce the overall amount Dark Assault is being cast.

Kralet Penumbra: Tepid Depths

• Reduced the damage on Mental Detonation and Aberrant Assault. Lowered spell dps on Mind-Rippers and Spell-Eaters.

Maldura: Algorithm For Destruction [Agnostic]

• Electro-charged reinforcements now drop electro-charged batteries.
• X-O Arachmech now drops an X-Electro-charged battery.

Maldura: Bhoughbh’s Folly [x2 Raid]

• When speaking to Bhoughbh to turn in his requested items the quest “G.W.A. Gnemlin With Attitude” should update for all members of the raid.

Maldura: Forge of Ashes [Raid]

• Kyrus will no longer death touch players who are returning to collect their soul shard.
• The Forge Golem has been increased in difficulty.

From the EQ2 Forums:

There will be a brief general maintenance at 5:00AM PST* on Tuesday, December 1, 2015.

During this maintenance, logins may be intermittently impacted.

PLEASE NOTE: This is not a game-specific maintenance. There will be no update or patch notes.

Thank you for your patience.

~The Team at Daybreak

A few months back, Mercenary Packs were made available from the EQ2 Marketplace, giving players a chance to acquire their mercenary of choice. They are made available in packs of 3 or 7. This weekend, these packs are now on sale. From the EQ2 Forums:

From 12:01AM on Friday, November 27th through 11:59PM on Sunday, November 29th, all Mercenary Packs will be on sale in the EverQuest II Marketplace for 50% Off! Don’t go into holiday battles alone; have a merc by your side!

Read More on the EQ2 Forums, including details of today’s 25% off StationCash sale.

Players who are continuing to soldier on with end-of-life operating systems like Windows XP and Windows Vista have been struggling to use the in-game EverQuest II Marketplace, especially over this Black Friday / Cyber Monday weekend. EQ2 Developer Maevianiu has posted that he will shoehorn a fix in for these operating systems, although they will have some functions limited due to the lack of security offered by these versions of Windows:

 Vista is no longer supported, but I am working on a fix. Our next scheduled update is Thursday of next week so it should be out with that. In the meantime Vista and XP users will not be able to use the marketplace. Additionally, Vista and XP users will have limitations on what they can do in the marketplace due to security issues with those operating systems once the fix goes live.

For those players affected, they can still purchase the 25% discounted Daybreak Cash from the website. From Jamiss on the EQ2 Forums:

You can purchase Daybreak Cash from the shop at https://www.everquest2.com/shop.

For those rare few of you who got Daybreak Games’ e-mail about the upcoming Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals (I did not, and one other person I spoke to only got ONE e-mail despite having 7 accounts), this will be old news. For everyone else, it looks like Daybreak Cash will be 25% off on Black Friday (November 27, 2015) and you’ll be able to get three months of All Access for just $29.99 on Cyber Monday (November 30, 2015).

There have been some clarifications posted by EQ2 Community Manager Roshen on the Free Character Transfers which will be usable from December 3rd til the 10th…

Some people are asking if our normal rules for transfers can be relaxed during this free transfer window. For our transfers during Dec 3 – Dec 10:

• Your account must be at least 30 days old
• A character must be level 5 to transfer
• You can move more than two characters per day. An account will be able to move up to 100 characters (although each character can only move for free one time).
• You still need to be an All Access member to transfer

and finally…

REMINDER: you will need to remove items from the broker before you’re able to transfer. To transfer, you must have no items listed on the broker (including boxes, crates, display cases, and coins)

From the EQ2 Forums:

CENSUS

• Added infusion stats to census output.
• Added prestige flag to census output.
• Added infusable flag to census output.
• Added relic flag to census output.

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
General

• Beastlord and Channeler Trainers have returned to Freeport and Qeynos.

From the EQ2 Forums:

Hail Norrathians,

Now that server merges are complete, we want to give you the option to move your characters to a server where you can play with your friends. Starting on at 10AM PST* onThursday, December 3, and running until around 12PM PST* (noon) on Thursday, December 10, 2015, players will have the option for one FREE server transfer for each of their characters, between the following servers:

• Antonia Bayle
• Halls of Fate
• Maj’Dul
• Skyfire

How Do I Transfer for Free?

A seemingly random selection of  people who have not played or subscribed to EverQuest II in a while are noticing a “Nov15 Winback” entry on their accounts and the granting of 14 days of All Access membership, without receiving an e-mail informing them of this Winback Promotion. Others received the e-mail but have not noticed All Access having been turned on for their accounts. Another hush hush marketing promotion.

May the odds be ever in your favor.

Table of Contents

• So what’s new in the expansion?
• How do I get started with the new expansion content?
• What do I get for completing ALL the quests in the expansion not just the Signature line?
• What is there to know about Tradeskills in the expansion?
• What’s up with the new Harvesting materials/rares?
• Help! There was some really important information on the Terrors of Thalumbra beta forums but they’ve disappeared!
• What itemization changes have there been in the ToT expansion?
• What are RELIC and PRESTIGE items?
• What’s up with Weapon Delays this expansion?
• What is the new Deity window in Terrors of Thalumbra? Are there any new Deities we can worship?
• What’s Infusing?
• Can you really spend 500,000 Platinum to Infuse one character’s items?
• Are there any new Adornments in Terrors of Thalumbra?
• Have you got a list of Heroic Dungeons arranged by Difficulty?
• Is there a Contested Heroic Zone? What’s the best way to level?
• How do I get to Terrors of Thalumbra Zones?
• Is there a labeled Zone Map for Thalumbra?
• Is it true that Quest Regions of Interest no longer marked on the map?
• Which UI Modifications are still compatible with Terrors of Thalumbra?
• How do I see what expansions or account features I’ve got on my account?
• Where can I download a high resolution version of the Terrors of Thalumbra poster art?

From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL

• Fixed an issue causing houses to think you have less house vault slots than you should.
• Fixed a bug where the three center deity window abilities would overlap slightly with the gold rings around them.
• The stack count now shows on infusers in the infusion window.

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Thalumbra

• Aberrants in Thalumbra no longer drop Amygdalan loot.

EverQuest II‘s twelfth expansion Terrors of Thalumbra is now LIVE and accessible to all who purchased it. We are currently working on updating EQ2Wire with an extensive Frequently Asked Questions as well as adding support to our EQ2U Players site for the new features which have been added. Some quick links while you are waiting:

• EQ2 Wikia: Terrors of Thalumbra
• EQ2Traders Guide to Terrors of Thalumbra
• Caith: Deity and Infusing Systems Guide
• Konofo’s Guide to Infusing
• A Zone map of Thalumbra created by player Amaitae
• Dungeon List: Stygian Threshold
• Dungeon List: Kralet Penumbra
• Dungeon List: Maldura
• Harvesting in Terrors of Thalumbra

Help! The Terrors of Thalumbra Beta forums are gone! Don’t worry — We have archived them here!