Game Update 27 Notes

[Fenna]

GU27 Notes

*** Headlines ***
- Get more from your practicing your craft with new Tradeskill Work Orders!
- The hand of the gods can be felt with two new Live Events!
- Be rewarded with more experience as a solo or raid player!
- Assassins, Bruisers, Defilers, and Troubadors: Get your shiny new profession hats!
*** Tradeskill Work Orders ***
Artisans rejoice! New Tradeskill work orders have been added to the game.
You can begin obtaining work orders when you've reached the subclass level (20).
Please see a local Work Order Foreman to get yours. Work orders, not cash money. Well, technically you do get rewarded for doing them, but yo...
Rewards include faction, status, and coin. Exiles will not earn faction, however.
Work orders are both timed and untimed--the component cost for crafting an untimed work order is greater.
*** Experience Changes ***
While we feel that solo quests can be quite rewarding, we were not satisfied with the experience from solo combat alone, especially for those characters who prefer to target slightly lower creatures. Therefore, we have increased the experience earned in the following situations:
Non-Heroic creature experience has been increased slightly.
Experience for blue con creatures has been increased slightly.
Experience for green con creatures has been increased significantly.
In addition, we also wanted to increase the reward for defeating the nastier foes you meet during raids. Therefore, epic creature experience has been increased significantly.

*** The Hand of the Gods ***
The influence of the gods continues to grow stronger on Norrath as the prophets of War and Tranquility call upon the faithful for assistance.
Prove your mettle to the followers of War by speaking with Tychus Zeksworn in Zek, the Orcish Wastes.
Show your penchant for peace by contacting Sensei Makoto Shoda in Zek, the Orcish Wastes.
*** Profession Hats ***
New profession hats are available for Assassins, Bruisers, Defilers, and Troubadors!
Visit the original quest givers for Relic and Hooloh hats and trade your current headgear for your all-new profession hat! Please remember that you cannot change back to the original appearance once the trade has been made.
*** Gameplay ***
Mounts can now be toggled off by using the whistle or summoning object again while the mount is active.
You can no longer set your public access level to friend or higher. Visitor is the new highest default setting. Note that this only applies to the default setting for your house--you can still set specific friends to be trustees to your heart's content.
In order to prevent lost items and coin, you cannot zone while a consignment transaction is in progress.
You will no longer get an error message if you change targets while harvesting.
It should now take a bit longer to drown after you run out of breath.
Consigned items purchased while possessing a pet will now correctly be placed in the pet owner's inventory.
*** City Guild Raids ***
The old society quests used for the city raid guild writs have been replaced with a new quest series to help ensure players zone into the correct instance.
*** Player-versus-Player ***
- When in passive mode, pets will no longer attack aggressors unless they are directly attacked themselves.
The Village of Shin is no longer protected via carnage rules.
The carnage flag will automatically be applied when entering a city if you are not a member of that city's alignment.
Spells that summon dumbfire pets can now be used against other players without first being in combat. Examples include Undead Tide (Necromancer) and Band of Thugs (Brigand).
Arena merchants should no longer talk about killses and winses. They have been instructed to stop watching Lord of the Rings and get back to work.
Pouch of Trappings and Pouch of Nauseous Memories can now be equipped and used as range weapons.
*** Quests ***
In "Tombs of Night: A Search for Answers", the scout that spawns when Lureclaw and Gulp are killed will now run to the shore prior to dying so the rock sample doesn't find its way into geometry.
Residents of Beggar's Court who had completed the "Big Trouble..." quest and stopped talking to Durio Dexus should now be offered his next quest after speaking to him.
When a timed stage of a quest fails to be completed, the quest helper window will now update properly.
*** Items ***
Repair costs on Fabled items have been reduced significantly. Previously, they cost four times as much as Legendary items to repair.
The distance that Tarton's Wheel will teleport its user has been shortened. This should make the teleport effect a bit more reliable for its wielders.
The Sergeant's Scimitar should now work properly for those who can wield it.
The effect on the Scallywag's Plumed Hat should now function correctly.
Shields and symbols should now always list in which slots they can be equipped.
Certain collection tome pages found in the Forsaken City now have a chance to be a No Trade page that previously were only found on enemies. Page 10 of "From Pond to Paladin Vol. II" will now drop or be found on page ground spawns.
The Narin Earring of Exploration will now equip properly.
*** Zones and Population ***
The Seraph of the Stags will no longer attack the other creatures around it.
Some monster damage types should more closely match their attacks (e.g. badgers pierce because they bite you).
To help improve performance in and around Qeynos and Freeport, the loading distance in the cities, villages, and adventure yards has been reduced.
Murdunk's Falls have been fully reclaimed and will no longer be called the Pool of Ruins. Our apologies to those who enjoy ruins, but there are plenty others to be found elsewhere.
The icefloat in Everfrost carrying tradeskill devices has melted away due to global warming caused by tradeskillers.
In "Tombs of Night: A Search for Answers," the scout that spawns when Lureclaw and Gulp are killed will now run to the shore prior to dying so the rock sample doesn't find its way into geometry.
*** Combat ***
Maximum power pool increases bonuses have been adjusted to be more consistent throughout level progression. This will increase the amount of maximum power bonuses below level 60, and lower it above 60.
Weaker tier spells will no longer be able to overwrite stronger tier spells.
The double attack skill will no longer work with ranged weapons.
Epic opponents no longer have a chance to score a critical hit when casting spells.
The following spells can now be cast while feared:
Bruiser: Indomitable Will
Bruiser: Close Mind
Defiler: Voice of the Ancestors
Inquisitor: Fervent Focus
Monk: Will of the Void
Potion: Freedom of Action
Achievements:
Rogue: Torporous Strike: Critical reduction changed to casting and recovery speed reduction.
Predator: Placating Strike: Increased melee damage and hate reduction effectiveness.
Predator: Toxic Expertise: Modified examine information to indicate it affects spell triggers and not combat arts.
Coercer changes:
Empathic Link: Removed restriction from hate decrease so that it can affect fighters as well.
Paladin changes:
- Offensive stances now grant additional disruption skill.
Wards will now stack with shadowknight reactive heals/damage shields.
Divine Favor no longer has a hate reduction component. Its duration was increased from 2 to 3 minutes.
Shadowknight changes:
Infernal Blessing will now stack with paladin wards.
Death March's triggered duration is now 10 seconds, automatically triggers when it is cast, had its DPS bonus reduced, and now reduces casting times.
Offensive stances now grant additional disruption skill.
Warlock changes:
Boon of the Dark: Can be cast on a raid member. If they are a fighter, this transfers a small amount of the warlock's hate toward the fighter.
Stop Breath's debuff amount has been increased, and its power cost reduced.
The Null Caress spell will no longer cause the target's UI to display the zone loading screen.
Wizard changes:
Accord can be cast on a raid member. If they are a fighter, this transfers a small amount of the wizard's hate toward the fighter.
*** Tradeskills ***
Fuel amounts in almost every recipe have been modified. Most recipes had their fuel costs reduced, though some now require more fuel. Provisioner recipes were not changed.
Tradeskill quests (work orders and writs included) should now use tradeskill level instead of adventure level when determining any applicable experience or status rewards. Tradeskill level will also determine con color in the quest journal for tradeskill quests.
Bandoliers, pouches, satchels, and sheaths now have recipes that will allow you to imbue these items with magical properties. These new recipes will automatically be updated in the recipe scrolls that contain recipes for those items already. In addition, all level 60 to 70 imbue recipes will now no longer require additional components besides scintillating materials for build components.
Sisal Fiber should now be usable as a rare cloth component in level 10-19 recipes.
Minor Vigor is now a level 4 recipe and found in the level 4 artisan books.
Disease Imbued Ebony Wands should now be named correctly.
The Steel Chain Mantle recipe is now Steel Chainmail Mantle.
Rare round shields and bucklers should now use the correct amount of fuel.
The Reprieve line of potions should persist while zoning.
The level 60 Armorer shield imbue recipes should now be the same level as the recipe to make the items.
Essence of Unflinching Will is now called Essence of Burning Will to match the name of the spell it makes.
There should now be a clearer progression between level 50 and 60 hex doll effects.
*** User Interface ***
The character portrait in the inventory window now has a plain background and no longer follows the animations that your character makes in the game world. You can use your mouse to rotate your character around. Why make such a change? We're keeping that under the cloak of secrecy for now...
The option that controls the number pad for text input should once again be operational.
Double-clicking on an item in your Overflow slot will transfer that item to your inventory instead of opening the Persona window.
The guild recruiting icon in the guild window will no longer follow the right edge of the window.
Attempting to attune an item in your house vault should no longer give an error about not being in a bank transaction.
The "kick from raid" context menu command has been changed to "kick group from raid" to better reflect its functionality.
The /kickfromraid command has been renamed to /kickgroupfromraid.
*** UI Files Updated ***
eq2ui_mainhud_guild.xml
eq2ui_inventory_inventory.xml

I'm too new to the game to know what to make of a lot of these changes. The better EXP for soloing sounds like it's good for everyone.

[miir]

Tradeskill writs make me happy.

[vn_Tanc]

You diss WoW "faction grinds" but are happy to grind out tradeskill crap for guild points?

[miir]

You diss WoW "faction grinds" but are happy to grind out tradeskill crap for guild points?

Tradeskill writs actually take the grind out of tradeskill leveling, dumbass.... you make cash, status and faction. They make leveling up the more grindy tradeskills like carpenter much less tedious.



But what would you know about EQ2 anyway.

[vn_Tanc]

But what would you know about EQ2 anyway.

Yeah after all I only subscribed twice.

[Canoe]

In my opinion the tradeskill writs rock.

I tradekskill anyway, to get the items / make money etc, to have the extra bonus of getting status points (for guild and for a bigger / better house / items for house / horses etc...) is awesome.

[miir]

But what would you know about EQ2 anyway.

Yeah after all I only subscribed twice.

If you actually had a clue about the game, you wouldn't have made yourself look like a fucking moron by thinking the new TS writs were a grind.

Accruing status (or as you ignorantly called it, guild points) is anything but a grind. Doing writs, raids and HQs in the normal course of leveling up my illusionist, I racked up well over 2 million status... and it was never a grind. I didn't even turn in the status drops. I just handed those over to an alt. They totalled up to over a million.
There were people in my previous guild that had never done a single writ but still had several hundred thousand status.

[Fenna]

Accruing status (or as you ignorantly called it, guild points) is anything but a grind. Doing writs, raids and HQs in the normal course of leveling up my illusionist, I racked up well over 2 million status... and it was never a grind. I didn't even turn in the status drops. I just handed those over to an alt. They totalled up to over a million.
There were people in my previous guild that had never done a single writ but still had several hundred thousand status.

That's really good to hear! So far my SP seem to be coming along rather slowly; I do constant quests and hand in all the SP items but I still don't have many. Granted I haven't played much yet. And I love tradeskills, so the writs will be very helpful.

I'm looking forward to getting a nice mount once I get enough SP!

[Marbus]

Heritage quests Even at level 20 you can start on some of them... lightstone may be even lower, three of those can rack up 100K status easly.

Also as you get higher the writs are worth more so if you are killing mobs to level up anyway, might as well have a quest or a writ right? On a 40% horse purchasing with Status and PP will save you about 5 plat vs just buying outright. Everything is interconnected...

For instance... collection quests. When I first started I didn't do many I just thought it was some extra experience, however many of them, especially once you get to level 25 or 30 (T3 areas) are status reduction rewards for your house. Just like the horse you can save a bunch of plat by using some of your status to purcahse a bigger place, then if you have enough status reduction items your rent is half the cost of the normal rent plus it's not costing you much if any status either...

Over a year now, finally got a character into the 40s (Mathis is 42 now) and I'm still lovin' the game. Was so excited to put on my new Mastercrafted Armor at 42 since my previous armor was a little to Metro for my tastes (purple and teal)... lo and behold my new armor was made by someone using the Bedazzeler! But oh well... it protects well and has great stats right? heh... However I did switch from knuckles to fistrwaps and I definitely miss the "crunching" sound when fighting

Marb

PS - I have a new Necro as well, damn I thought monks were easy to solo with! If you want to solo I would suggest either as a very viable option.

[vn_Tanc]

If you actually had a clue about the game, you wouldn't have made yourself look like a fucking moron by thinking the new TS writs were a grind.

Accruing status (or as you ignorantly called it, guild points) is anything but a grind. Doing writs, raids and HQs in the normal course of leveling up my illusionist, I racked up well over 2 million status... and it was never a grind.

Getting periodic rewards for a tedious job you have to repeat doesn't make it any less of a grind. Though it might fool the hard of thinking into believing it.

[Kilmoll the Sexy]

You mean like camping the same area for days or weeks to get a certain drop?

[miir]

Getting periodic rewards for a tedious job you have to repeat doesn't make it any less of a grind. Though it might fool the hard of thinking into believing it.

A grind is doing the exact same thing over and over and over again for marginal but steady reward.

For example:
Killing a certain type of mob for a small faction hit.
Camping an area killing mob respawn for steady XP.
Using specific skills repeatedly to raise/max that specific skill.


Tradeskill writs don't fall into any of those categories.

For completing tradeskill writs, you receive: Tradeskill XP for making the required items, Faction, Status and Cash.


Tanc, I know you're just trying to troll but it's pretty obvious you really have no idea what EQ2 is like anymore. You're grasping at straws trying to call tradeskill writs a grind.

There are things in both WoW and EQ2 that could be considered grindy. That's the nature of MMOGs.... they are repetitous. I think EQ2 has done a pretty decent job on cutting down the grinds and timesinks.

[Fenna]

I didn't have to grind at all in WoW or so far in EQ2. Both games have done a fantastic job of offering so many quests that you'll never have to kill a single mob (outside of defense) unless it's for a quest and you'll level up regularily.

PS - I have a new Necro as well, damn I thought monks were easy to solo with! If you want to solo I would suggest either as a very viable option.

I started playing a monk last week when I rememered that my original character, a ranger, was just my "starter" character (I wanted stealth to explore). I'm having a blast with my monk. Due to lack of stealth I find myself fighting my way around the map, so I'm out-leveling my quests just through natural gameplay. I'm actually trying to avoid aggro because questing is the most enjoyable part of the game for me!

Heritage quests Even at level 20 you can start on some of them... lightstone may be even lower, three of those can rack up 100K status easly.

I'm very much looking forward to finding a Heritage quest. I remember all the classic items from EQ; it's a very fun touch that they included so many of them in the sequel. Getting lots of SP is a bonus! I'll look around to find where those quests start.[/quote]

[Marbus]

If you can make it to the Commonlands there is a wisp that drops a burned out lightstone, examine it and take it to a guy by crossroads and that will start the greater lightstone quest. Also at level 20 or 22 you can talk to the dwarf in the castle... gah what is the name of it, the little outpost N and slightly west of the NQ gate (between NQ gate and Oracle Tower). He starts the Dwarven Workboots quest, you can easily complete that by 25 if you have a group to help on the Griffon.

Glad to hear you are enjoying the Monk, I have like 6 alts and the monk was initially an after thought but is now my main and I love him. At 42 I've been soloing the 45 and 46 crocs in the Sinking Sands this week, can usually also take a 46^ at 42 and still have almost half health... great class My first character was a ranger, when he couldn't solo 3 blue snakes just outside the gate I decided he probably wouldn't be my main, heh.

Of course I hear of Necros in the 60s taking Epics but I have yet to witness that myself

Also be sure to get Kingdom of Sky by level 20, jsut for the AA points if nothing else and would suggest Splitpaw saga, not as fantastic exp wise as it use to be but as a monk you can solo the arena every so often and get a nice reward to sell.

Marb

[Fenna]

I did make it to Commonlands with my ranger, via the wizard spire to KoS and back down. And I also got the DWB quest from the dwarf in that castle you're describing--I didn't realize that was a heritage quest! I'll get that again on my monk for sure.

I have purchased both expansions and all the adventure packs. Nothing like spending a ton of money before even getting a character to level 10! I was pretty confident about the game once I spent a number of hours on the Isle.

My first character was a ranger, when he couldn't solo 3 blue snakes just outside the gate I decided he probably wouldn't be my main, heh.

So it wasn't just me! I have two other friends, one playing an illusionist and another a conjurer, and they go through mobs solo very easily. While my ranger was having trouble taking more than 1 blue con at a time. It's taken me some time to get used to NOT running for my life when I catch aggro as a monk. Now I can stand my ground!

I imagine rangers must be very powerful in the right situations, just not for soloing.

[miir]

I imagine rangers must be very powerful in the right situations, just not for soloing.

My ranger (who was not even mega-twinked) solo'd disgustingly well up until his mid 30s. In his teens in Antonica, any single non-heroic would drop dead even before reaching him. He could often 1-shot blues.
Even in his high 20s, I would hunt around the back entrance to Varsoon and have the whole area (20+ mobs) cleared of non-heroics before they would start respawning.

The Ranger's weak spot is grouped mobs.... even non-heroics can be trublesome. Rangers don't have AEs that aren't ranged and they can't melee mobs down fast enough.

They have much utility vs single targets.
If you don't mind kiting, you could easily take down even level solo heroics. Root, stun and snare make kiting surprisingly easy.... slow but easy.

[Marbus]

Ranged and Sneak but early on weapons and armor make a big deal.

Initially I had just all leather armor I has purchased with a little bit of gold some friends had given me. Last month I broke out the ranger, now that my monk is a tailor, and make him some Mastercraft imbued armor, upped the AC a bunch, and also gave him Mastercraft imbued weapons and a MC bow as well. Now I can solo yellows with him with ease if I seak up and start off with the backstab like attack, it takes about half their health with the first blow. However if I'm face to face from the beginning it's going to be iffy...

However Rangers can be pretty powerful. Working on Blades faction last night Nos came to help me knock some of it out real quick and one of his character is a 50 ranger. Last and and the times we have grouped before, we make a freakin' fantastic team. Rangers are great and ranged attack Pulling the Rujarkan mobs, about 5 at a time, three would be dead before they even got to us from his bow. Even higher mobs, back in the 20s we did a bunch of Splitpaw together, we could wipe out the Hideout area in like 25 minutes, I would pull and he would just pick them off... they just aren't tanks at all. They weren't in EQ either but could almost tank, now they are definitely a ranged DPS character... but a great one at what they do.

What's great about the monk is that they are so well rounded, Zerkers are similar but with our avoidance we not only out damage them but usually loose less health and have FD is necessary but I've probably only used mine like 6 times in 42 levels...

If you purchased the packs, the Bloodline chronicles has a monk spell in there called Devistation Fist, I think it's level 35, it is a MUST have if you like to solo. It will kill, 90% of the time about, any regular or blow mob with 1 hit. Thus in Zek or Ferrott you can easly pull 4 mob, kill the first one instantly and deal with the other three, might can even take 5 if you use your heal. There is also a spell in Splitpaw once you get faction but I'm not sure which one it was, can't remember it being nearly as useful but there aren't as many solo options in Bloodlines like Splitpaw.

One other thing, don't be afraid to move on to Enchanted lands in your late 20s as a monk. I stayed in TS way too long. There are a lot of level 30 quests at the docks in EL and the MOBs are all 1 down arrow so you can kill them with ease at 28 and get good quest experience. Zek is similar, tons of Grunts right outside the gates and quick quests for good exp. My 30s went MUCH faster than my 20s.

The other thing I have done is started harvesting, I use to get SOOOOO bored with my guardian waiting to heal back up but with the monk I kept the harvesting up so that while I'm healing I grab a few items, makes the time go by quickly and most rares sell really well or if you have a guild someone could make something nice from it.

Marb

[Niffoni]

I started playing EQ on Permafrost a little while ago, and it's a total blast so far. Having said that, I've looked back on what it used to be like at release, and even a good year afterwards, and it looks like it was absolutely sadistic, and completely miserable. I can see why WoW exploded (although to be fair, the name value of Blizzard and Warcraft probably had more to do with it).

Played WoW for a few months up to 60 and had a great time mostly, but as soon as i got to the upper levels it got really boring, and frankly, kinda idiotic with all the paint-by-numbers encounters. Awful, awful stuff. But the journey was a lotta fun.

So far, EQ2 is following the same pattern, in that I'm having a great time (Level 43 Fury, Niffoni on Permafrost ATM), but we'll see if the upper levels turn me sour.

Basically, I love EQ2 in its current state (and the Tradeskill changes are great), but I'm glad I never played it at release. It clearly was not an "early bloomer".

[Marbus]

I agree, I enjoyed it last year but there have definitely been good changes along the way. I think it's a good balance for hardcore and casual. I was talking to Barren last night, use to be Ailia in ROS (I think that is how you spell it) and he is leading raids and having a blast on end game stuff as well so hopefully they are providing some good balance.

Marb