EverQuest II Story

EverQuest III – The Return of the King

March 19, 2009 at 6:14 pm (EverQuestII News)
Tags: EverQuest, EverQuest III, Return of the King

What would it take for the EQ franchise to reach the top of the MMO market again?

EverQuest is celebrating its tenth anniversary this week and although they’re still going strong, Dalmarus can’t help wondering if we’ll ever see an EverQuest III. Could it be done? Even more importantly, *should* it be done? In this week’s edition of Forever Fantasy, Dalmarus attempts to rein in his cranky old geezer dreams about “the good old days” while discussing what should be critical if a third rendition of EverQuest were ever made.

It may sound like a crazy gimmick, but losing track of time and getting caught in the middle of Kithicor when the sun fell was no laughing matter. On those rare instances you were extremely lucky, you could scurry your way out of there like a rat abandoning a sinking ship to survive another day. Most of the time though, you’re greatest hope was to just make it close to the zone line before dying so you wouldn’t have to wait until morning to go in and get your corpse.

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EQ2 March Producer’s Letter

March 19, 2009 at 6:12 pm (EverQuest II Guide, EverQuestII Guide, EverQuestII News)
Tags: EQ2, EQ2 March Producer

Producer talks more on fighter revamp

Fighters all over Norrath have been anxiously awaiting the fighter revamp that is still gracing the test server. So what’s up with it and when will we be seeing it? The EverQuest II Producer’s Letter to the community gives a little update on the situation.

Recently we’ve been working on some changes to the fighter classes, particularly in the way that they manage hate. Our intent was to adjust these classes so that fighters would rely more on their taunts and abilities to gain and hold aggro and less on high DPS and hate buffs from DPS classes.

Why do we feel this is necessary?

Well, we’ve been talking since the last Fan Faire about how we’ve drifted away from the hate management and damage sink that tanks were originally intended to be. With this, there has also been an increase in the DPS that tanks have been doing while in combat. This begins to impinge on the role that we’ve envisioned for the Scout and Mage classes, and we feel that moving forward we need to make some adjustments, as it is increasingly difficult for us to do proper and cohesive game balancing as the lines get more blurred.

We introduced this to the test server in early January and the response from the community was strong. Recognizing that this is a very sensitive and delicate topic, we postponed the revamp for more testing and evaluation.

In the end, with all of your feedback, we’ve decided to re-examine the structure of the fighter revamp.

What does this mean?

For those of you on the Test servers, this means that there will be some changes coming. The changes made with the initial release of the fighter revamp need to be removed. However, rather than just roll back your characters to when we first introduced the changes on Test back in January; we’re going to need to split out the consolidated spells, which will reset them to Adept 1. We’re currently working on a plan to allow you to upgrade them to something higher than Adept 1, and as soon as we have the details of that plan worked out, we’ll be posting about it. For our Test Copy server, we’re going to need to wipe the entire character database, which will likely take several days. Once we’ve got that database cleaned, we’ll reopen that server and allow you to copy your characters back over as you wish.

For all of our players, this means that we’ll be reinitiating the adjustments to tank balance from a fresh point. The difference is going to be in how we go about planning and communicating the changes, because we want, and need, to know what you think.

Our plan is to start an open dialogue with you, our players, and to get your feedback every step of the way. This will mean more time in between updates, but we think that it’s worth it to get you more involved in the direction of the game. We hope that you agree. We realize we haven’t been stellar at consistent communication in the past, but consider this a big step towards this goal.

We are also looking at incentives to get more of you playing on the Test server, for further feedback. We truly believe that if we can get more of you testing and contributing your feedback, we will know more about what you all want, what you all believe is best for the game. We want to acknowledge here that this is your game, and many of you are the experts at various aspects of this game. We want this to be a collaborative effort between SOE and its players. When we get the details of the Test server incentives worked out, we’ll be announcing it on the forums and on EQ2players. We’ll also be announcing the plan for improving our communication and creating an open two-way dialogue with you as soon as we’ve worked out all of the details.

In the meantime, make notes! We’re looking forward to collaborating with you.

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EQ2 Celebrates Brewday!

March 19, 2009 at 6:11 pm (EverQuest 2, EverQuest II Guide)

The best holiday ever celebrates the goodness of ale!

It is time for the fun-filled holiday of EverQuest II’s Brewday! The event kicks off this week and runs for a little over a week. Enjoy quests, fun little items, and drink your dwarf silly! Check out this holiday preview:

Grab yer ale and yer favourite dwarf! It’s time for Brewday!! This year, Brewday will run from March 12th through March 19th. It will be turned off on the morning of the 20th, so make sure you experience it all by the 19th!

There’s a lot of fun in store for you, this Brewday. All the quests from previous years will be active for folks who would like to relive past drunken celebrations of Brell!

There are a few new rewards this year, including your choice of one of four new plushies! You will only be able to get one this year, so make sure to come back for future Brewday festivities to collect all four.

For this year’s all new quest, you’ll be doing a good deed for a slightly inebriated dwarf in need. Gilin Rockbreath has a problem.

It seems that his gnomish goggles are distorting his vision just as much as the ale he’s guzzling! You’ll find him in the Bar of Brell, where he’ll tell you his sad story.

Then he’ll ask you to run about Norrath, out of the goodness of your heart, to find out if his goggles are broken or not!

For peeks at the rewards and other fun bits from this year’s event, give the portal a click!

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Alberto is growing up…Rat leveling…I hate carpentry!

June 15, 2007 at 6:41 am (EverQuestII Guide)

Well if the title doesn’t tell you everything, then I don’t know how else to say it…

Today was very eventful…first off, finished a few tradeskill writs on Minadroc and he advanced to about halfway through level 45. I really, REALLY hate the 2-3 recipes per level on the carpenter…it makes leveling more like work than fun!

After that I took Blathmic over to Fallen Gate and got three – yes, you heard right – three more levels on the Rat Berserker with Stargrace’s coercer alt and Shadowgeist mentoring us down. Awesome – he burned through his vitality very fast down there!

Tonight I decided to continue with Alberto (the new Necromancer) and I am very surprised that I’m enjoying a pure caster like this…it’s really quite a fun class! Alberto is now level 15, has 7 AA’s (INT line), 60-some quests completed, and is also the proud new owner of an inn room in Neriak (8 Indigo Road if anyone wants to visit). It’s pretty sparse but I have not twinked Alberto at all yet. I’m enjoying wearing the quested gear from Darklight Woods, and being frugal with his little bit of money that he has earned is a good lesson for someone who usually doesn’t have to worry about plat. It’s definitely different…it’s been a long time since Cord was broke and a penny-pincher.

Hopefully the below Fury Master I looted in Darklight Woods helps him earn enough to get some bags. Definitely need more room for loot!

This is up for sale on Antonia Bayle for 65gp…please, someone support the Necro and buy it!

Here’s a pic of Alberto decked out in his T1/ T2 quest gear. He will be sleeping on the floor for a while until he can afford a bed…

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Heroic Opportunities Guide

June 15, 2007 at 6:38 am (EverQuestII Guide)

Simple Guidelines:

* Examine all of your combat arts/spell.

Open your Knowledge book and right click examine each and everyone of them.
Many of them will have a 2nd icon in the Examine Panel. This Icon corresponds to the symbol names used here (Sword, Hammer, Lighting etc.)
Note that all of these 2nd icons have a colored background. Each color corresponds to an archetype
- Fighter (blue)
- Priest (yellow)
- Scout (green)
- Mage (red)

* Heroic Opportunities are opened with a specific Ability, which doesn’t cost power, is instant and has 10 sec recast time:

Fighting Chance (Fighter)
Divine Providence (Priest)
Lucky Break (Scout)
Arcane Augur (Mage)

* Heroic Opportunities come in 2 phases:

1) Starter Chain

in the center of the starter chain window is the previous step of the chain
around it are all the possible branches, displayed thru icons, which correspond to various spells (see above)
if a combat art/spell is successfully executed the starter chain advances
if a wrong combat art/spell is successfully executed the starter chain is interrupted !

2) Combat Wheel

can be ordered (big clockwise arrow in center) then combat arts/spells must be executed clockwise beginning with the top icon
can be unordered (arrows pointing in all directions) combat arts/spells can be executed in any order.
Please note that the person that executes the last combat art/spell will not only get the credit but also any single buffs ! For instance you want Crippling Shroud being cast on the tank so make sure to execute the Horn after the Moon !
has a 30 sec timer as indicated by blue bar on the other rim; if time runs out arrows in the center turn red.

* Scouts have the unique ability to re-roll an Heroic Opportunity with Coin as long as the Heroic Opportunity hasn’t started yet.

Heroic Opportunities Listing

Fighter Initiated: Fighting Chance +

Sword (solo)
- Sky Cleave – Horn = (common) Single-target slashing dmg (66% of moderate DD)
- Crushing Anvil – Horn = (uncommon) Encounter crushing AE.
- Hero’s Armor – Horn = (rare) 15% AC increase
Chalice (with priest)
- Divine Blade – unordered – Hammer + Sword = divine DD
- Crippling Shroud – unordered – Horn + Moon = reactive brief 10% slow on mob
- Chalice of Life – Chalice = doubles effect of special heals (reactive, ward, HoT) for 90 sec
- NEW! Divine Nobility – Chalice + Sword = Heal over time to a group member
Coin (with scout)
- Luck’s Bite – unordered – Cloak + Boot = piercing DD, 50% to 250% extra dmg
- Swindler’s Gift – ordered – Cloak + Flexed Arm = Group accuracy buff for 2 levels
- Raging Sword – ordered – Cloak -> Horn = attack speed inc for 90s, and 4 times melee damage and taunt
- NEW! Ardent Challenge – Sword + Dagger = group +10 STR and AGI buff
Lightning (with mage)
- Scholar’s Insight – ordered – Horn -> Lightning = +2 lvls knowledge for mage, DD for 70% of moderate DD
- Storm of Ancients – unordered – Sword + Lightning = DD + slows mob
- Soldier’s Instinct – unordered – Flame + Arm = 20% attack speed buff for 90 sec.
- NEW! Arcane Aegis – Fist + Star = Crushing / Magic mitigation increase
Hammer (with priest and mage)
- Lightning
  - Thunder Slash – unordered – Hammer + Lightning + Sword = Divine + Magic + Slashing Damage (3 hits)
  - Archaic Ruin – ordered – Eye -> Flexed Arm -> Flame = 70% bonus to arcane/slash/divine dmg
  - Ancient Wrath – ordered – Flame -> Fist -> Hammer = massive DD, maybe AE
  - NEW! Arcane Salvation – Star + Arm + Chalice = Increased in-combat group power regeneration

Priest Initiated: Divine Providence +

Hammer
- Divine Judgement – Hammer = single target divine direct damage (for 100% moderate priest nuke)
- Inspiring Piety – Hammer = priest knowledge inc 2 levels, plus Divine Judgment nuke
- Blessing of Faith – Chalice = instantly restores some power, inc power production 10% for 90s
Coin (with scout)
- Piercing Faith – unordered – Cloak + Moon = Piercing DD (cloak needs to finish HO) and -5 AGI on mob
- Divine Trickery – ordered – Hammer -> Cloak = Divine DD + pierce/divine resistance lowered on mob 5%
- Faith’s Bulwark – ordered – Chalice -> Coin= AC inc by 20% for 90s

Scout Initiated: Lucky Break +

Coin
- Ringing Blow – Dagger – 2 lvl accuracy increase
- Swindler’s Luck – Dagger – Short duration stun (not broken on hit, but short!)
- Bravo’s Dance – Dagger – 20% haste for 90 sec
Boot (with fighter and priest)
- Chalice
  - Verdant Trinity – Chalice = 50% group heal
  - Nature’s Growth – unordered – Mask + Sword + Druidic Stones = Group regeneration
  - Shield of Ancients – Lightning + Horn + Moon = absorbs 15% dmg for 90s
  - NEW! Capricious Strike – Hammer + Dagger + Sword = single-target DD
Horn (with fighter and mage)
- Lightning
  - Trinity Divide – unordered – Star + Mask + Horn = Addt’l piercing dmg + increases hate on fighter by all mobs in group
  - Soldier’s Gambit – unordered – Dagger + Sword + Lightning = bonus nuke dmg 100%-300%
  - Ancient’s Embrace – ordered – Lightning -> Cloak -> Flexed Arm = Chance to “riposte” slash dmg for group when hit for 90s
  - NEW! Resonating Cascade – Mask + Dagger + Lightning = Increased in-combat group power regeneration
  - NEW! Grand Proclamation – Lightning + Mask + Arm = Increased power pool for the group
Chalice (with priest and mage)
- Lightning
  - Breaking Faith – unordered – Lightning + Eye = Doubles dmg of last hit, reduces arcane, divine, and lightning resistance by 5%
  - Archaic Shackle – Does addt’l dmg, roots briefly and slows by 5%
  - Crucible of Life – ordered – Lightning -> Coin -> Chalice = Full power & health to group plus 10% heal on hit
Moon (with fighter, priest, and mage)
- Fire
  - Strength in Unity – unordered – Flexed Arm + Chalice – Increases str, wis, int and agility of the party by 10 pts
  - Ancient Demise – ordered – Boot -> Coin -> Lightning + Hammer = Great AE DD + lowers arcane resist on mob 10% for 5 min.
  - Past’s Awakening – ordered – Fist -> Star -> Cloak – Buffs power and health bars, does 4x dmg to all encounter mobs
  - NEW! Tears of Luclin – Boot + Dagger + Lightning = Increased damage on mage DD

Mage Initiated: Arcane Augur +

Lightning (solo)
- Arcane Fury – Lightning – Arcane DD equal to one mage nuke
- Arcane Storm – Star – Same as above but AE
- Arcane Inspiration – Flame – Restores 20% power, plus 20% power regen and 50% of hits taken convert to power
Hammer (with priest)
- Suffocating Wrath – unordered – Hammer + Lightning = Halves all mobs arcane spell dmg for 36s
- Arcane Chalice – ordered – Flame -> Chalice= Restores 10% power and major group heal
- Ancient Crusible – Moon = Instantly restores 33% of health and power, +25% regen on both for 24s
Coin (with scout)
- Arcane Trickery – unordered – Lightning + Dagger = addt’l 75% dmg, 5% arcane debuff on mob
- Trickster’s Grasp – ordered – Flame -> Mask= Additional 4-tick 150% arcane DoT
- Rain of Daggers – unordered – Lightning + Dagger = High dmg proc for 90s

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EverQuest II: Rise of Kunark

June 15, 2007 at 6:29 am (EQ and EQII)

Game Description:

Centuries of war have left their mark on the continent of Kunark. Explore this massive region as your existing character or as the new playable race – The Sarnak – and discover a world full of intrigue and danger. Engage in all-new adventures as you embark on a crusade to reveal the truth of the wars between the reborn Iksar Empire, Sarnaks, and Dragons and uncover artifacts long since thought lost to history. The lush, nostalgic continent of Kunark begins your courageous path from the new starting city in Timorous Deep.

Rise of Kunark is the fourth expansion pack for the critically acclaimed EverQuest II franchise. With the introduction of the new playable race, the Sarnak, and new starting area, Timorous Deep, Rise of Kunark provides a full range of content for new player’s levels 1-20 as well as advanced, high level players whom can now achieve up to level 80 in high level zones, both increasing their Adventure and Tradeskill classes.

Rise of Kunark includes many highly-detailed areas that are fondly remembered from EverQuest as well as brand new areas only recently unearthed! Hundreds of new quests, dozens of new NPCs, brand new Epic Weapon quests for each class, and new armor sets await those who dare set foot on this fabled continent.

Feature Set:

All-New Player Race – Start up a brand new Sarnak – the classic dragon-like humanoid creature that now inhabits Timorous Deep. Exiled from your homeland and magically altered, discover how your new breed came to be, and eventually return home to help your race triumph over the evil Iksar.

New Starting Area – Begin your adventure from the new starting area in the islands of Timorous Deep. Conclude your day of epic quests and retire to new housing within the Village of Gorowyn.

Level Cap Raised – Continue your adventures on your existing character in Kunark, expanding on your achievements as Adventure, Tradeskill and Guild levels all increase to 80.

More Unique Zones – Advance your way through new massive regions, containing many zones filled with nostalgia and danger, such as the Emerald Jungle and the Skyfire Mountains

Hundreds of New Quests – The tale of Kunark is told through hundreds of new quests, aimed at gameplay of all types: solo, group, and raid.

More Weapons & Armor – New Epic Weapon quests for all 24 classes, with new weapons for both those who raid and those who choose not to. Battle through the opposition and acquire additional fabled and legendary armor sets as well.

New Mount – Explore the world on the shoulders of a new rampaging beast – The Kunarkian Rhinoceros.

New Deities – Recent activities on Norrath have again attracted the attention of the gods. Bertoxxulous the Plaguebringer, Karana the Rain Keeper, and the mysterious Tribunal return to exert their influences on planet. As with the existing gods of Norrath, players may pledge to these new deities to gain access to their Blessings and Miracles.

Dozens of New NPCs – Encounter and engage a wide variety of new enemies that inhabit the menacing lands of Kunark.

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A break for some Tradeskilling

June 15, 2007 at 6:23 am (EverQuestII Guide)

She did quite a bit of harvesting for the other girls, and a little bit of tradeskilling. She is just short of lvl 60 Jeweler. Maybe half a dozen combines and she will be all good and level 60. Then next will be discovering where the heck to get the T7 tradeskill books. I am guessing that there are 2 possibilities. When I hit 60 the T7 books will show up on the vendor in MajDul, or else I need to locate a vendor somewhere in KoS.

Both Emalae (Sage) and Selara (Alchemist) dinged another 2 levels each. The scholarly tradeskills are nice because there are quite a few recipes before you run out of pristine bonus and have to grind each level. But I do find the harvesting and tradeskilling part of EQ II almost therapeutic. I feel like I just get into a “zone”.

Selara is also now good to make Emalae Adept III’s for 2 of the last 3 Monk levels that she dinged. I quite like being self sufficient in this way. I also quite like that I have been able to help out a few real life friends and some Divine Chaos guildmates with spell/combat art upgrades.

On related matters, my nephew popped in last night while I was harvesting on Kilanna. He also plays EQII, and asked me what I was going to do with Kilanna once she reached 70. My response to him was “Oh I will probably take her on raids and do some harder solo quest for a while before the next expansion comes out”

My recent excitement about raiding has actually surprised me. I have solo’d probably 80% of my play time up to this point and didn’t think I wanted to raid. Now I am in a guild that raids and I am looking forward to it. There does not seem to be a focus on raiding in the guild, or any pressure to do so, but I am a little bit excited about it.

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Damn those educated wolves

June 15, 2007 at 6:12 am (EQ and EQII)

Antonica/North Qeynos – Scholar Demini

Ha! My back-mounted stick is way fancier than yours! N00b.

One thing I love about EQII (or, indeed, all MMOs) are the little idiosyncrasies that crop up due to the limitations of the gaming mechanics and the way my increasingly infertile mind interprets them. For instance, running around Antonica like a blue-arsed fly (paging Arsai players) on the Sage Of Ages quest I find myself in the odd position of hunting dozens of wolves and bears and scouring each and every critter den I can find for missing pages of a book. Which just paints the odd mental picture of packs of feral wolves sitting around in a circle discussing the latest works of literature. Maybe they read The Da Vinci Code? Maybe that’s why they’re always so angry?

Damn you, Lassie. How dare you say Asimov’s work will always be a pale shadow of H.G. Wells. Eat pain stick!

Nonetheless, I worked my way through it, covering most of Antonica in the process and picking up scraps of parchment, plenty of canine saliva (pre-packed in handy pouch-friendly bottles for your convenience!) and the odd piece of gnoll appendage, which helped immensely with my Know Your Cuts Of Gnoll Meat Lore & Legend quest (or whatever it’s called).

Also managed to pick up two Achievment Points along the way, which have gone into the Brawler tree and leave me needing one more to unlock some fancy-dan, kick-ass kung fu move or another that will flatten all around me like something out of a Jackie Chan chair-throwing movie.

Ultimately though, it’s left me with an obvious path into Thundering Steppes and at level 22 I think it might finally be time to leave the rolling fields and picnic spots of Antonica behind me once and for all. If only I wasn’t obssessed with clearing every last quest in my journal before I go. Hell, I’ve still got some Down Below greyed-out jobbies to take care of at some point and the anal retentive in me just can bring myself to delete them. So TS and the Sage of Sega will have to wait for now. There are some Shrillers and Bloodsaber Adepts with my name on them.

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EverQuest 2 Platinum

June 14, 2007 at 4:28 pm (EverQuest 2 Platinum)

Usfine have one good seller to recommend. They deliver promply and generraly always have a good supply of Platinum. ha one good seller to recommend. They deliver promply and generraly always have a good supply atinum.

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Everquest 2 Free Trial

May 2, 2007 at 9:37 am (EverQuestII Free Trial)

A free trial is a great way for a game to become something that will draw a player to continue playing without any initial risk aside from the original purchase of the game. With a Massively Multiplayer Online Game(MMOG), it is nearly an industry standard to enable gamers the opportunity to play the game without having to pay a further price for initial subscription.

Though there is not yet any word on if there is to be a free trial offered for EverQuest II, every other MMOG released by Sony Online Entertainment has had at minimum, a 14-day trial with the purchase of the game. This may not hold true upon the release of EverQuest II, but the chances of it being offered are great.

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« Older entries

EverQuest II Story

EverQuest III – The Return of the King

EQ2 March Producer’s Letter

EQ2 Celebrates Brewday!

Alberto is growing up…Rat leveling…I hate carpentry!

Heroic Opportunities Guide

EverQuest II: Rise of Kunark

A break for some Tradeskilling

Damn those educated wolves

EverQuest 2 Platinum

Everquest 2 Free Trial

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