* Players can speak with Kelryne V'Ziath in Neriak to learn a recipe for Chocolate Cookies of Seething Malice.
* Players using the metalworking skill will now see sparks fly when their hammer hits the tongs (on most graphics settings).
Housing It is now much easier to move houses!
* Just go to the new house and purchase it. Your old house will be relinquished automatically and all of your items will move to your new house.
* When you enter your house for the first time, you will notice a moving crate on the floor. You can move it around and retrieve items from it, but it cannot be picked up or destroyed.
* Items in the moving crate count towards your total item count in your house, but do not provide status cost reduction and are not useable.
* Items cannot be put into the moving crate.
* The moving crate will disappear when all items are removed from it.
Zones
* Players can now reside in the city of Neriak
* New adventures await low level characters in Darklight Woods.
* You should now be able to find Askadian in the Emerald Halls.
* Creatures that add to assist Mayong in Castle Mistmoore can no longer be stolen by another raid group by using aggro.
Skills & Abilities
* The minimum skill required to use Longshadow Evidence has been lowered to 2.
* Hate Position abilities are now more reliable than they previously were at causing an enemy to change targets to account for the change in hate positions.
* The /target command will no longer work unless you can see the mob in question.
Spells
* The Mystic spell 'Shadowy Attendant' will now summon the correct pet.
* The Wizard spell 'Accord' will not apply hate increase to non-fighters
* The Warlock spell 'Boon of the dark' will not apply hate increase to non-fighters. Its triggered effect will also work on members not inside the Warlock's group.
* An issue causing arrows to not be consumed if Quick Shot was triggered has been fixed.
Achievements
* The triggered effect for a Druid's 'Infusion' now only works while in combat.
* The reuse timer for a Mystic's 'Glacial Strike' is now correctly shared by 'Cold Flame.'
PvP
* Reduced the pvp stun duration for the crown of enlightenment.
Quests
* The 'Tie That Binds' quests have been removed from the game. All new players will receive the 'Set Recall Point' ability at the same time that they receive their 'Call of???' ability. Players currently on these quests will find them auto-completed. Existing characters who have not started these quests will be granted the 'Set Recall Point' ability instantly.
* Changed text of dialog in the mage writ class to correctly refer to Krulkiel Trackers instead of Krulkiel Marauders.
* Objects clicked to give Legend & Lore quest books will no longer become inactive for a brief time before allowing the next player to use them.
* Players can now kill the Adherants, Hellhounds, and Vampires wherever they find them for credit toward "The Stiletto's Thirst' quest in the Bloodline Chronicles.
* Some quests that were not evaluating prerequisites correctly in all zones will now do so.
* You will no longer be able to obtain the next quest in a quest chain by sharing prior to completing the prerequisite quest for certain quest chains.
* Ineligibility for quest sharing will no longer repeat the same reasons
Items
* New merchants have arrived in all major cities offering musical instruments for your fun and entertainment.
* Kithicor's Nighthunter Hood now has a hood appearance.
* Symmetry III now properly adds +15 damage in addition to healing.
* Wu's Intercession will now trigger properly from the Gloves of Whispered Echoes.
* The Crescent Moon Skullcap will no longer vanish after zoning.
* The chance for a chest to drop 2 of the same item has been lowered substantially.
* Low level weapon damage adornments should now do damage when applied to faster weapons.
* Poisoned seeds of the Tender should once again work properly
Pets
* Riding a griffon, cloud or carpet will no longer cause /pet hide to cancel.
* You will no longer appear mounted after dismissing your mount.
* Fixed an issue with deity pets that caused them to become controllable.
* Fixed an issue with deity pets conflicting with the summoner pets.
Interface
* Custom UI's that change the quest journal should not longer crash when looking at group members' quests.
* The LFG window has received new functionality to help adventurers pool their resources and face the challenges of Norrath. Click the LFG button on your group window or use the /lfg command to open the LFG window.
* The interface for creating a guild has been improved.
* Custom Options file names are now limited to 50 characters.
* Since the world has seen the addition of multiple cities now, chat channels will now reflect that by using a good and evil naming convention.
* The client will now load the target ring textures from the ui/images folder allowing users to customize target rings
Neriak Video Preview by Zilreed![ 10 Comments ] Print News | Category: General News - Vault News Zilreed has yet again put together an awesome video showing off some of the new content coming in Live Update 35 which is due out later this month. This video focuses on Neriak but also shows some footage of the new race; the Arasai!
Enjoy the video and give props to Zilreed we all know she worked hard to get it to us so we can all see a little bit of what's coming.
Confused about the Rise of Kunark expansion? Gallenite has your cure...[ Comment ] Print News | Category: General News - Vault News - Official News Since the announcement of the new EverQuest II expansion Rise of Kunark, many questions have arisen in the midst of numerous interviews, sneak peeks, and general hearsay about the incoming addition to Norrath. In response to this, and to clear the air about the new material, Scott "Gallenite" Hartsman has posted a FAQ in the official forums clarifying some of the promised features in the expansion.
"Three new (actually old) gods are returning to Norrath -- Bertoxxulous The Plaguebringer, Karana The Rain Keeper and the mysterious Tribunal, each with their own assortment of blessings and miracles."
Here are some of the high points about the new expansion we can expect to see...
Expect same type things as Echoes of Faydwer with common themes from EverQuest I.
Epic Weapons: Every class will have unique quests with group and raid content. Some of the similarities with old world epics are desirability and level of challenge but there will be some differences... the beginning epics will begin as Legendary and move progressively toward more fabled content so not so seasoned adventurers will feel rewarded.As their character progresses so does the quest and the challenge. EverQuest II Epics will not be only for Raiders. The final version of these epics will be obtained NOT through long time sinks of camping long spawns... but rather will be based on toughness of encounters rather then just being lucky in the right place when something happens to spawn. Progressing your quest will be based on your own strategy and experiences.
Last 500 years: Much like the rest of Norrath the shattering/rending left much devastation, Kunark did not escape it. Venril Sathir wasn't happy with where he was and after the Gods abandoned Norrath he left his castle and took over Cabillis... he then reached toward the east toward Sebillis... which has become Venril's source of power. Cabillis becoming massive has become partially underground containing some of the remnants of old Sebillis. Trakanon has NOT been forgotten... and he has his very own unique place/story in Kunark. Giants, Sarnaks, and Frogloks all are almost being overrun by the influx of Sathir's horde of Iksars. but it is the Sarnaks that are the wild card here in this war against the Sathir army.
Yes the Sarnaks will be a PLAYABLE race! Sarnaks will have very specific racial abilities which will set them apart from all the other races much like the Fae did in Echoes of Faydwer. Obviously they will not fly... We will have to wait and see what new abilities these Sarnaks have evolved and used against their foes.
Sarnak's starting area will be in Timorous Deep... Chardok has been changed and become a defensive stronghold not safe for a starting low level sarnak. The Sarnak have set up in Timorous deep for the younger sarnaks to train up in relative safety. The Iksar society believes the sarnaks to be almost extinct and now you can prove otherwise... Wage your very own war against the Iksars. As it is now the Sarnak will be a Neutral race and the starting areas in timorous deep will also play home to some of the other neutral races.
Some of the additions given to EverQuest II over the last few expansions will be expanded on and further tweaked to give even more playability and customization such as the some tweaking of the AA trees currently in existence. A new AA tree will not be added for the Rise of Kunark however some Trees will be given some love where needed.
There will be a guild level increase to match the tradeskill and adventuring levels. the new cap for Adventure/Tradeskill/Guild will all be Level 80!
Zones will be very large much like Echoes of Faydwer. There will be some familiarity of the lands from original EverQuest. Very large areas and zones contained within that you will not have to zone between. Almost seamless zoning. There will be zoning between the large regions but less then in the past.
Expect to see NEW dungeons unearthed by the shattering never before seen but possibly heard of in original EverQuest as well as some old favorites you might remember from EverQuest 1 retouched and remastered to awe inspiring detail made famous by EverQuest II.
In terms of size it is around the same size or bigger then EverQuest 1's Kunark. The team is focusing on Quality so that everything released will be as polished as possible and if they happen to miss something it can be added through content additions much like Estate of Unrest etc. In fact in terms of quality some of the original artists that spent their time doing the art for EverQuest 1's Kunark release are back with the EverQuest II team and are redesigning those same areas to further add the sense of familiarity that the old Kunark had. the artists and designers have been hard at work to make some the biggest interiors seen to date in EverQuest II.
Some of the zones you can expect to see that survived if even partially can include Timorous Deep as a level 1 through 20 starting city/area with vast oceans, Sebillis, Chardok, Cabillis, Field of Bone, The Overthere, Skyfire Mountains, Emerald Jungle, and City of Mist.
There will be 3 new gods returning back to Norrath with the ability to worship. This will further allow people to customize their characters with special abilities and items through worship of the Gods of old.
Other additions include that of a new style mount: The Kunarkian Rhino made famous in EverQuest 1 in the Overthere. You can also occasionally see an old concept art in one of the splash screens in the current game.
Rise of Kunark will be released as a standard version as well as a limited print collectors edition which will includes lots of little goodies for the true EverQuest Kunark Fan.
Keep an eye out for more news coming soon about the new expansion and what you can expect to see!
Discuss it here on EQ2Vault by clicking the comment link at the top of this post!
The EverQuest II team is extremely happy to announce the following addition for update #35, expected to launch toward the end of May.
Coinciding with the release of the dark elven city of Neriak as well as the new race to be found therein, the Arasai, your EQ2 and/or Station Access account will be gaining at least one new character slot.
We will be adding one slot to the standard EverQuest II subscription, increasing the base number of character slots available to 7.
Station Access members also see their limit increase by an additional slot.
To summarize, with update #35 the EQ2 subscription plans will have slots available as follows:
* Standard EQ2 Subscription: 7 character slots
* Station Access Subscription: 12 character slots
Good hunting, be it in Darklight Wood or elsewhere.
- Scott
Will there be additional high level content added as we continue with our live plans? Definitely.
For now, though, this particular letter is about the upcoming release of Neriak and Darklight, which is very intentionally 1-20, with a new city and its housing to call home for those who choose, to help round out our starting experiences and set the stage for additional coolness in the future.
- Scott
So look forward to getting some new raid content in the future but understand this publish is more geared towards rounding out the new player experience. And new players means less sitting around LFG for low to mid players :)
Read all the comments about the Producer's letter over at the Official forums or discuss them in our forums by clicking the comment button on top of this post.
Reports from the Test server... New Race and New City![ 7 Comments ] Print News | Category: General News - Vault News We have some confirmed reports that a new race called the Arsaii, a new city called Neriak, City of Hate (Sound familiar?), and a new adventure zone called Darklight woods has hit the Test Server. We dusted off our patcher and sent some scouts in to investigate... check out what they found...
With the hotfix and testing behind us, the free Character Transfer service is now open. Thank you for your patience while we worked out the dupe bug. Also, please remember that the free transfer period has been extended by another 48 hours to ensure that everyone has a chance to complete the transfer.
Character Transfers Temp suspended... Oops![ Comment ] Print News | Category: General News - Vault News - Official News --Grimwell Writes on EQ2Players
While I'd rather be telling you that the free character transfers are rolling along without a hitch - the truth is that we have hit a little snag. It seems that there is a bug in the transfer process that is causing some players to unintentionally dupe their possessions. This is a bad result for a whole lot of reasons so we need to shut down the transfer service for a bit.
Just as soon as the dev team has the bug totally quashed, the transfer service will be brought back online and we will extend the free transfer service for as long as this outage lasts. Fear not, you will still have your chance to jump servers -- we just have to take care of this uninvited visitor.
"Greetings Norrath! For those wishing to take advantage of the character transfers, the free period will begin May 1st at 12:01 am Pacific. Visit eq2players.station.com/cs to get started! Safe Journeys!"
Game Update #34![ 2 Comments ] Print News | Category: General News - Vault News - Official News *** Highlights *** - A new mount is now available. Tame your own fearsome Warg! Talk to Heinrich in the Loping plains to get more details.
-You can now share many of the quests in your quest journal with others. Even if you've completed them already!
