Get the most current goings on over at the EQII Official forums by clicking here. Some of the things you will find are rumors of the Shard of Fear, some background on the creation of the Arasai and more.

The Vault Network is once again very excited to announce the launching of our latest site, Tabula Rasa Vault. Please take a moment and drop by to see what is going on with this highly anticipated game crafted by MMO legend Richard Garriott.

Tabula Rasa Vault

View the latest comic from Brasse.

Want to know more of what direction Grimwell want to the community to go? He also talks on how he handles positive and negative feedback from the community. Click here to read the complete interview.

Don't have a credit card, but still want to play the game. SOE fills you in on what a "Reloadable Card" and lets you know they accept them for all SOE games. Click here to read more.

Check out the new box art for the All-in-One EverQuest II collection which will include the upcoming expansion Rise of Kunark

This weeks zone review covers the Thundering Steppes. The review covers quests, to include the Haddens Earring heritage quest, as well as instances located in the zone. So, take a Click if you want to read more.

Need a laugh, check out Hurikhan's latest comic.

Scott "Gallenite" Hartsman discusses the new way of designing zones. He also talks about some of the zones we remember well, such as Lake of Ill Omen and Swamp of No Hope, but don't bee fooled Kunark was affected by the shattering. Click here to read the interview.

SOE goes more in depth about upgrading the account management system last Tuesday. Click here for more details.

There is a new zone review on EQ2Players for the Commonlands. This review includes information on instances , named mobs, and the connecting zones.

EQ and EQ2 are going to be having a Legends of Norrath promotion this weekend. Starting Friday, September 28 and ending Sunday, September 30, you can enjoy higher drop rates of cards and the opportunity to get two new cards, Hatred and Swtich. Here is an example of the two cards:



For more details head over to EQ2Players website.

The new post cast is out, click here for details.

Lady Scarlet

This is what Grimwell had to say:

The account management system upgrade for today is complete. The EQII US and EU English Language servers are now up, and the French and German servers are in the queue. Thank you for your patience during this maintenance, should anything change we will message to you on as many different fronts as possible.

Lady Scarlet

EQ2Vault has a New Manager

Lady Scarlet

This is just a reminder that servers will be going down at 11:30 PST tonight, for the official announcement and news updates keep an eye on EQ2Vault and the Official Site for updates... Keep in mind after 11:30 PST the official boards will not be available until the maintenance is completed. We will try to keep you as up to date as possible here on the Vault.

Lady Scarlet

SOE has released a message about the servers being brought down next week, the downtime will be longer than normal. Here is the message that was posted on the official forums:

All SOE games, websites, message boards, Knowledge Base, Station store, and other services will be unavailable for approximately 24 hours beginning on Tuesday, September 25th. All SOE services will be undergoing upgrades to the authentication system and as a result, all logins for SOE services will be unavailable. Technical and Account support will only be available by phone during this time. Please keep an eye on this website for more news and information about this maintenance as it becomes available. We appreciate your patience and understanding during this downtime.

(Intentionally no time specified yet, this is just an early warning)



Lady Scarlet

The following changes were made to the test server:


Gameplay

* Like Estate of Unrest, but just don't have the time? Well now you can get both rest and Unrest, as the Estate of Unrest is now persistent!

* Upon reaching level 20, you'll be able to access new appearance item slots on the inventory window.

* Equipping items in the appearance slots will change the way you look without affecting your stats.

* Only items usable by your class, and heavier than your currently equipped armor can be worn.

* Some clothing items, such as city rewards will be wearable by everyone.

* Ranged weapons will no longer trigger procs on weapons equipped in the primary or secondary slot.

* +damage and +heal items have been changed. Instead of normalizing by casting time you will get the full benefit on non aoe spells if the casting time is greater than .5 seconds and the reuse time is greater than 2 seconds. AoE spells gain 1/3 of the amount per target as do triggered reactive spells. Lifetaps continue to function the same. Also, damage is applied up front based on the amount of damage/healing the spell will do over time. Combat art damage has also been added to the system and the Bruiser Brutality line will buff this raid wide.

* There is now a 2-second usage delay for using most widgets in the world (i.e. quest widgets). Using the widgets will also unhide you.



Items

When selling guild status items, guilds now only advance via sales of level-appropriate items. Members of higher level guilds can still sell lower level items for personal status gain.

There is now a text description at the bottom of status items that tell you what level guild will gain advancement from selling those items. Generally, items found in the nearest 10 level range will continue to advance your guild. (e.g. A level 50 guild will be able to gain advancement from level 51 items and higher, which drop from T6 creatures and above.)

If you go to an NPC who will buy your status item and your guild is too high level, you will see the status points in YELLOW instead of the normal teal. Those are the items that will only grant you personal status



Spells/Combat Arts

Completing the bloodlines quest which gives out the vampire bane spell will also grant vampires to the master strike.



Bruiser

* The Brutality Line now grants +combat art damage instead of dps.



Ranger

* The Miracle shot line now requires the ranger to acquire the target with line of sight. The actual shot does not require it though.



Test Only


Brawler

Reduced the damage of devastation fist against epics to be direct damage that scales with level.



Lady Scarlet

As Legends of Norrath beta gets further underway we are seeing more and more getting their invites. But how?

Grimwell had this to say:

If you a player of either EverQuest, or EverQuest II and you would like to beta test Legends of Norrath, please send an email with the subject header "LON" to [email protected]. Please include your Station Account name (not the password) in the body of the email.

To read more about this go check out the post on the official forums!

Check out some new Screenshots of the upcoming expansion due out November 13th!






Lady Scarlet