New Updates

Game Update: All EverQuest Live Servers (except Al'Kabor) will be brought down at 5:00 am PDT on Thursday, April 24, 2008 for a Game Udpate Hotfix to resolve some issues experienced with the previous game update. The servers are estimated to be down for 6 hours. (PDT is -7 GMT: 6:00am MDT, 7:00am CDT, 8:00am EDT, 12:00 GMT).


4/24/2008

Here's a sneak peek at Thursday's Update Notes. 

*** Highlights ***

 - Reduced experience requirements and increased bane damage on SoF evolving bane weapons.
 - Several speed and stability changes have been made to address issues with proximity loading.
 - Critical heals should be calculating their effectiveness correctly again.
 - Fixed a problem that was not allowing players over level 62 access to Bastion of Thunder and the Halls of Honor on the progression server.

*** Items ***

 - The Guardian Expediators are no longer so fragile (they are no longer temporary items).
 - Added bard mods to the melee centric slot 12 augments.
 - Reduced experience requirements and increased bane damage on SoF evolving bane weapons.
 

*** Spells ***

 - Spells should once again display their cast messages when they land.
 - Critical heals should be calculating their effectiveness correctly again.

*** AA ***

 - If the Summon Resupply Agent AA fails to cast, the refresh timer will reset itself.
 - AAs that reduce spell recast timers (Such as Fortified Intervention and Fortified Survival) should now properly reduce their timers.
 - AA experience should now be split properly again.

*** Miscellaneous ***

 - Leadership AAs should work more reliably with mobs that come from outside of the group's awareness range.
 - Several speed and stability changes have been made to address issues with proximity loading.
 - The client will now load more information upon initial zone-in to make later movement smoother.  There will be a performance hit when first zoning in, however.
 - The tracking window updates have been optimized and should be somewhat faster now.
 - Fixed issues where /guildstatus and /guildinvite were not working on players outside of proximity range.
 - The corpses of group members who die outside of proximity range should once again be targetable by clicking their name and should show on the map.
 - Fixed several issues with the /hidecorpse command:
 - - You can now hide corpses after being resurrected from hover mode.
 - - Corpses of group members not in zone will no longer be hidden with /hidecorpse allbutgroup.
 - - /hidecorpse looted will not hide your own corpse.
 - The /who guild command should now return players in the zone who are in /roleplay mode.
 - The /who count command will again work for all players in the zone.
 - Using the center view key after moving downward on a mount will no longer cause your view angle and movement angle to be out of sync.
 - Right clicking a player's name in the bazaar window will again face you towards them and generate a path.
 - Due to issues with NPCs summoning players below the world, NPCs will once again summon to their exact position.  The change will be returned once the issues are resolved.
 - Fixed a problem that was not allowing players over level 62 access to Bastion of Thunder and the Halls of Honor on the progression server.
 - Fixed a problem with access to Theatre of Blood.  You should now be able to enter Theatre of Blood at level 68.

*** Previously Updated ***

 - As of 4/16/2008, enemies will forget about feigned players after one minute rather than two.

- The EverQuest Team

4/17/2008

Here's a sneak peek at Thursday's Game Update. Please note that changes may or may not be made to these before the servers reopen. 

*** Highlights ***

- The 10th Veteran Reward, Summon Resupply Agent, is now available!

- Alternate Advancement experience has been accelerated significantly for those with fewer AAs spent and will scale back down to the normal rate as more AAs are earned.

- Many keyed zones from the Ruins of Kunark, Scars of Velious, Shadows of Luclin, Planes of Power, Gates of Discord, Omens of War, Depths of Darkhollow, and Prophecy of Ro have had their key/flag requirements modified.  All players that have obtained the key/flag will still be allowed entry into the zones, as will players that have met minimum level requirements for the zones.  The zones and minimum level requirements are as follows:

- Required Level 46 -
The Howling Stones
Old Sebilis
Skyshrine to Cobalt Scar

- Required Level 55 -
Sleeper's Tomb
Veeshan's Peak
Vex Thal
Locked areas of the Temple of Ssraeshza

- Required level 57 -
Bastion of Thunder
Halls of Honor
The Temple of Marr
Tower of Solusek Ro
Drunder, The Fortress of Zek

- Required Level 60 -
Plane of Water
Plane of Air
Plane of Fire
Plane of Earth
Ikkinz
Uqua
Yxtta
Kodtaz

- Required Level 62 -
Plane of Time
Inktuta
Qvic

- Required Level 65 -
Txevu
Tacvi

- Required Level 68 -
Anquish

- Required Level 70 -
Dreadspire
Demiplane of Blood

- Required Level 72 -
Theater of Blood
Deathknell

- The Season of the Fabled has come to an end. The Fabled NPCs have packed up their camps and are riding off into the sunset for another year.

*** Items ***

- Added new spell drops to Meldrath's Majestic Mansion.
- Increased the drop rate slightly for some spells in Crystallos.
- Added recommended and required levels to some trade skill drops to help clarify their use. This does not change their actual use as trade skill containers do not pay attention to the recommended and required levels of items put in them.
- Added a set of new vendors that sell many of the spell research components. The cost of these have been adjusted so that they sell to an NPC closer to the price it cost to make them, but merchants will sell them at a premium.  This means that you can save money while gaining skill. Also when you make spell combines you can choose between saving money, or saving time. You save money by making the sub-combines yourself, you save time by buying them.
- Chromatic focus is now available for slot 12 augments for Cultural armor.
- The engineer steamworks that work within the guardian have developed devices that help them move within the beast.  Fortunately for adventurers they can be a bit absent minded about them and adventurers can find them lying about.
- A vial of raging heartblood is not as vile as it was previously.

*** Quests & Events ***

- Rylin Coil will now show and give all three tinkering mastery books for the tinkering mastery quest.

*** Spells ***

- The Shadowknight spells Touch of Kildrukaun and Touch of Severan that were linked together to share the reuse timer with a previous Game Update have been unlinked.
- Secrets of Faydwer's Talisman of the Puma has been renamed to Talisman of the Cougar.
- Cast time on Quellious' Word of Tranquility has been reduced from 4 to 2 seconds.
- The Adrenal Boost focus effect has been changed to Life Line, which is a mana cost reduction on Pure Life.
- The Closefisted Claw focus effect has been changed to Ethereal Breath, which is a damage increase on Ethereal Conflagration.
- Breastplate worn effects that enhanced one rank of a spell or discipline now enhance all three ranks.
- Reuse time reduction bonus on Assassin's Efficacy, Impenetrable Body, and Fit of Berserking Rage have been set to 25%.
- The Rage of Tri'Qaras effect triggered from Bulwark of Tri'Qaras is now a damage bonus that stacks with other effects.
- The recourse from the Challenge for Honor line will now appear in the bard buff box.
- The Vinelash Ensnare effect triggered from Vinelash Cascade will no longer overwrite the highest version of Entrap.
- The efficiency of Secrets of Faydwer direct damage spells now scales up on higher ranks of the same spell.
- Improved Block and Improved Parry have been merged.  Any item that previously had Improved Block or Improved Parry will now have Improved Parry / Block.

*** NPC ***

- Halima in Crescent Reach can now be found in the find window.
- Henrik O'Danos no longer sells Hypericum twice.
- Ralfin in Bloodmoon keep will now cast his heal spell less frequently.

*** AA ***

- Added Rangers to the Critical Affliction line of AAs.
- Increased the range of the Wrath of the Wild AA line to match other Damage Shield spells that Druids have.
- Increased the hitpoints and resists of all "Wards" for all classes to make them better able to resist ambient damage.

*** UI ***

- The tracking window can now be sorted alphabetically and reverse-alphabetically.  Also, there is now a check box to set whether you want the tracking window to auto-update every six seconds.
- Our UI xml schema has changed. If you are using a custom UI you may need to update this file in your custom UI directory.

- Changed -

SIDL.xml
EQUI_FindLocationWnd
EQUI_TrackingWnd.xml

*** Miscellaneous ***

- Situation where double length timer was given on events has been fixed. This occurred specifically to people who dropped out of the expedition and hadn't been kicked out of the zone yet.
- Changes have been made to the way the client is notified about other entities (players, NPCs, etc.) in the zone.
- Changed NPC summon behavior to summon the player right in front of their current heading at 1/2 their melee range.  Calculations used to determine when the NPC should summon have been made a bit more accurate.
- Iksar and Wood Elves should be able to increase their forage skill caps after purchasing the forage AA.
- Corrected a problem with hate generation from skill attack abilities such as Hail of Arrows and Decimator's Volley.  They were generating considerably more hate than they should and have been returned to their previous, lower hate generation.
- Zone-wide /who commands now use a similar code path to server wide /who all commands.  Note that this will impose a similar time limit to how often it can be used.
- The bobbing effect of levitation has been removed.  A new effect that pushes you off the ground about a foot and a half has been introduced.
- Fixed an issue with the "Public if Usable" permission in the guild bank.
- Fixed an issue that could place levitated players below the world when entering certain zones.
- Fixed an issue that would cause levitate to fail if a player's mount was hit by a spell (usually an aura).
- Stacks of two items in the guild bank can now be split.

*** Previously Updated ***

- Fixed an issue with the reset of the Kildrukaun event in Crystallos.
- Lockout timers linked on many similar long-reuse spells of the same line.

- The EverQuest Team

Note: Update:  Yes, this was an April Fool’s Day joke which was only active on April 1st.

*** Hotfix  ***

- We are continuing to receive a trickle of reports that some players are being changed into race/gender combinations that they did not request.  While this appears to only be affecting a few players, since this is a permanent change to the character and we want to play it safe, we are going to suspend the race/gender change service at this time until we can track down and fix the problem.   We have been unable to reproduce the reported problems in a testing environment so do not have an ETA on a fix.  Due to the difficulty in reproducing the problem, we anticipate that it may be several days before the service is returned.  For the few players who have been left in a state other than their requested race/gender, we apologize for the inconvenience and you will be given an opportunity to issue the command again to return to your preferred race/gender combination once the service returns.


- The EverQuest Team

4/01/2008

*** Hotfix ***

- The problems previously reported with the race/gender change service have been corrected and we are re-enabling the service at this time.  In addition, we’ve reset the system so everyone may request a fresh change even if they have previously used the system.  If you were inadvertently changed into a race or gender that you did not request, please re-issue the command to be returned to your original race/gender combination.  Again, this service will only work if you are in a static, non-instanced zone, so please be aware of your location when you issue the command.


- The EverQuest Team


4/01/2008

*** Hotfix ***

- We’ve been receiving reports from some players that their characters have been changed into a different gender or race than the one they requested.  We have identified one possible cause for this problem and will be making changes to the system to prevent this from occurring.  In the meantime, we have cleared out the request logs and temporarily suspended the service while we sort out the problems.  The service will return as soon as we have a fix out on the live servers.  Our current ETA on the return of the service is 1 hour.


- The EverQuest Team


4/01/2008

*** Highlights ***

EverQuest is pleased to announce the introduction of a new service that will allow you to permanently change the gender or race of your characters.  This is something that has been requested by players since the inception of the game, but has only recently become possible due to changes that have been made in how characters are stored.

In order to make the use of this feature as simple as possible and to allow you to request this service without leaving the game, we have added NPCs to every static (non-instanced) zone in the game that listen for the key phrase “I want to be a <race/gender>”.  All you have to do is shout your request to the zone and when the NPC hears the key phrase, they will add your request to the processing queue.  The NPCs do not currently have a way to respond to requests via the shout command, so you won’t get a response to your request.   This is something we plan to add to the system later, but we didn’t want to hold up the release of this service.

For example, if you have a female character and want to request a change to a male character, you would issue the following command:

“/shout I want to be a man”  (note: “I want to be a boy” and “I want to be a male” will also work)

The service can take compound requests which include a change to both your race and gender.  If you wanted to change your character into a female iksar, for instance, you would issue the following command:

“/shout I want to be a female iksar”

Because we are anticipating a large amount of interest in this feature and wish to prevent possible performance problems that might occur, the servers are being limited to processing only a certain number of requests at a time and each character will only be allowed to change one time.  Once your character has been changed, subsequent requests will be ignored.  During heavy request times, it may take up to 24 hours before your request is processed.  If your request hasn’t been processed within 24 hours, please reissue the command, ensure you are in a static, non-instanced, zone, and make sure that you have spelled the name of the race/gender properly when you do so.

Important Note:  Once the service has been requested, it cannot be altered and the change to your character is permanent.  GMs are not able to assist with reversals, so please be absolutely sure about your decision before requesting the change.  Changes to your race may alter your faction standings, so please be careful when exploring the world right after a race change.

Enjoy,


- The EverQuest Team

3/26/2008

*** Hotfix ***

Based on player feedback, we made a few improvements to the following existing raid encounters:

Lethar and Selay Raid: We made tuning changes to the Lethar and Selay raid in TSS including:

• Increased the tether range on Selay slightly
• Modified the rate at which Selay fires off her AEs to avoid her casting an AE at the same time Lethar does for the most part (although it may still happen once in a while!)
• Selay will now follow Lethar when he moves from location to location to avoid having her tether just because he moved

Crystallos Raids: We made some tuning adjustments to Crystallos Raids including:

• Fixed a reset issue with the Halls of Fire raid in the Fire Wing
• Fixed a reset issue with the Keeper of Stones event. Also changed the Adds in the event to spawn in a more physically spaced out manner so they don’t all come at the raid at the exact same time.
• We made a tuning change to the Kildrukaun the Prophet raid. We added a new mechanic to the event. Enjoy!
• Made various tuning changes to the Vyskudra event. The stormrider drakes have had their offense values lowered and will react differently to mezmerization spells than they previously did.
• Made various tuning changes to the Ice Constructs event in the Ice wing. The Ice Constructs should be easier to kill but now have additional mechanics.

- The EverQuest Team

*** Highlights ***

Happy 9th Anniversary EverQuest! The anniversary activities will begin on March 16, 2008.

- The Fabled: The gods and servants of the Planes of Power have been deemed Fabled and have had their power increased and treasures updated. In addition, all of the past Fabled will be will be making a return appearance this Fabled season.

- Scavenger Hunt: A new anniversary scavenger hunt is also available for adventurers. Speak with Garin Tvalish in Plane of Tranquility if you are interested in participating in a world search.

*** Items ***

- Crystallos weapon augments now fit into socket 4/8 instead of 7/8.
- The "Absent Absinthe" quest in Hills of Shade now requires components that have been influenced by the Hills of Shade.  (The item names have changed.)
- Added eight new evolving weapons on some of the SoF faction vendors for players with maximum faction.

*** Quests & Events ***

- Fixed an issue with the quests given by Tenish in Crescent Reach. He will now require you to be level 71 for his tasks instead of level 75.

*** Spells ***

- In order to resolve a stacking issue with the second rank of the Tumble AA the AC component has been replaced with a Melee Guard effect

*** Tradekills ***

- Zumzal in Grobb now carries Blessed Water of Innoruuk

*** Zones ***

- Removed the recently imposed restriction on teleporting to campfires and banners in certain instances.
- Adjusted the spawn rate of many rare NPCs in Mechanotus, Mansion, Steamfactory, Dragonscale, Loping Plains, Bloodmoon and Crystallos.

*** Miscellaneous ***

- Corrected the default size of the Pyrilen and Gelidran illusions.

*** Previously Updated ***

- Prime Researcher Elnot will now be able to assist you in finding your next progression task for The Buried Sea missions for entrance to Solteris.
- Servants summoned by Haezvair will no longer attack him.

- The EverQuest Team

3/08/2008
Legends of Norrath's Second Expansion, Inquisitor, Has Been Released!

Your job is clear; hunt down the Forsworn and force them to retake their oaths to the Tribunal or face the consequences! You will not be alone in this. Along the way meet up with the Oathbound heroes Terin, Cyndra, Karlemayne and Eluviel and employ their special skills to help you achieve your goals

Inquisitor, the latest and greatest addition to Legends of Norrath, features 250-plus cards including new units, avatars, abilities, items, and loot. Get the scoop on all the new features here. Then head over to the Design & Strategy Articles forum where you'll find great articles on Inquisitor by the LoN game designers.

Starting today and running through the weekend, the Tournaments Lobby will be hosting Release Events. Each player will receive one random Inquisitor Starter Deck and 3 Inquisitor Booster packs to build their tournament deck. Each participant will also receive a Burynai Rockshaper (3P2) digital promo card! Please see the Events Calendar for details. Don't miss it!

2/28/2008

Your job is clear; hunt down the Forsworn and force them to retake their oaths to the Tribunal or face the consequences! You will not be alone in this. Along the way meet up with the Oathbound heroes Terin, Cyndra, Karlemayne and Eluviel and employ their special skills to help you achieve your goals.

Inquisitor, the latest and greatest addition to Legends of Norrath, features 250-plus cards including new units, avatars, abilities, items, and loot. Get the scoop on all the new features here. Then head over to the Design & Strategy Articles forum where you'll find great articles on Inquisitor by the LoN game designers.

Starting today and running through the weekend, the Tournaments Lobby will be hosting Release Events. Each player will receive one random Inquisitor Starter Deck and 3 Inquisitor Booster packs to build their tournament deck. Each participant will also receive a Burynai Rockshaper (3P2) digital promo card! Please see the Events Calendar for details. Don't miss it!

February 27, 2008
_____________________
*** Highlights ***

- Hot Zones: New Hot Zones have been created! Be on the lookout for new
items and content in the following zones:

Level 20 North/South Ro
Level 25 Solusek's Eye
Level 30 Blightfire Moors
Level 35 Stone Hive
Level 40 Dulak's Harbor
Level 45 Skyshrine
Level 50 Akheva Ruins
Level 55 Crypt of Nadox
Level 60 Riwwi, Coliseum of Games
Level 65 Torden, Bastion of Thunder
Level 70 Ruins of Illsalin

- The 9th Anniversary is approaching. The Fabled Planes of Power will be
active starting March 16th!

- Fan Faire Requests: At the 2007 Fan Faire, attendees got a chance to
discuss their suggestions directly with the development teams. After the
launch of Secrets of Faydwer, the EQ team started working on the list of
suggestions and feedback they were given. Below are two of the most
recent changes based on that feedback:

- Guild Bank items and deposits now sort after the contents have been
changed.

- The Adventure window now includes the ability to sort entries by the
properties of each adventure entry.


*** Items ***

- Added recommended levels to&nbsp;some SoF bracers that did not have them
before.
- Changed the additive in Monster Summoning IV spell research recipe to
Ink Additive of the Nameless.
- Ranthock Roots now have the tradeskill flag.


*** Spells ***

- Corrected all instances of Fear Spells that were bypassing the Fear
Immunity granted by the Fearless AA.


*** NPC ***

- Mercia has set up shop in the Plane of Knowledge to sell some of the
odd jewelry supplies.
- Added Thraynis, Vetiver Root, and Sea spirit to the alchemy merchants
that carry the larger sized herbs.


*** Tradekills ***

- Cultural Charms made with pottery now require only one rare component.
More information can be found in the scrolls. Additionally you can learn
the new recipes by scribing the scroll, or just experiment as usual.
- Reduced the casting time of the bag summoning for the final stage of
the tradeskill trophies.
- Fixed omissions in systematic spell research books where peridot was
added to some recipes, but the books did not include the changes.
- Alchemist will want to look for a note from an alchemist that has made
a few discoveries about potions.
- Made contraption parts tradeable.
- Added Intricate Claviger Sleeves to the Intricate Human Cultural
Smithing book.
- Added tribute to cultural charms.
- Tools to alter steam cores and gyro cores have been created by the
Ak'Anon Strike gnomes. If you prove yourself worthy they will sell them
too you.
- Added Class XIX Augmentation Distiller, Class XX Augmentation
Distiller and Class XXI Augmentation Distiller to the appropriate bazaar
and guildhall merchants.
- Augmentation distillers can now be traded between players and sold
back to NPC vendors for a small loss.


*** AA ***

- Several AAs that provided timer reductions to other AAs have had their
requirements fixed. The changed AAs include: Hastened Ligament Slice,
Hastened Cacophony, Hastened Funeral Dirge.

These AAs will now require you to purchase the first rank of the ability
they focus before you can purchase these AAs.


*** Zones ***

- Additional Augments have been added to all parts of Crystallos.
- Old Man Thorren on the Beta server is now able to take tokens from
multiple characters on the same account.&nbsp;If you used multiple characters
to turn in tokens, simply ask Thorren to [combine] your tokens.&nbsp;He'll
keep track of how many tokens are on your character and ask you to log
in other characters on the same account that have also turned in
tokens.&nbsp;You can repeat this as many times as needed to accumulate enough
tokens total to earn a beta reward for your account.


*** UI ***

- Changed -

EQUI_DynamicZoneWnd


*** Miscellaneous ***

- Added default height sizes to many of the illusions in the game.&nbsp;This
should cause illusions of creatures that are typically non-human heights
to grow or shrink the user as appropriate when they change into that
illusion.


*** Previously Updated ***

- Slightly lowered the damage done by the four Squires of Crystallos.


- The EverQuest Team

February 6, 2008
_____________________

*** Highlights ***

- We've made improvements to increase the stability of the servers.

*** Items ***

- Added the ability to wear the Spiritlight Earring in what do you know... the ear.
- Fixed the drag icon of the new clarity potions, and changed the drag icon of the spirituality and replenishment potions.
- Increased the maximum stack size on a small selection of tradeskill component items.
- Removed the no-trade flag from the LoY vendor sold ribbons.
- Altered the casting time on all of the Eron's jewelry pieces that have a click effect to 4 seconds from 5 seconds.
- Changed the icon of The Basics of Jewelcrafting to a book instead of a scroll.
- Added Required levels to the Enchant Palladium and Enchant Dwerium scrolls. This does not alter how they work, it just clarifies the abilities.
- Moved recommended level from the gems to the metals in the new jewelry. With this change, moving the expensive gems to other metals will yield better results if you are below the recommended level.
- Fixed the spelling of Runed Scroll of Pestilence.
- Changed the weight of the spell research kit to 4.0.
- Removed fire focus effects from SoF Shadowknight armor and cold focus effects from SoF Necromancer armor due to their limited utility for those classes.
- The clockwork key is no longer tradable on the Firiona Vie server.

*** Spells ***

- Wearing an item with the Servitor of Scale focus will now work correctly while also wearing an item with the Spire Servant focus.

*** Quests & Events ***

- Made a change to the Bargangle fight that should prevent him from staying hidden inside his bedroom. Called him a coward a few times, that seems to have riled him up.
- Slightly changed the way Breakneck spawns in Meldrath's Mansion. He spawns off different doors. These doors are less spread out across the zone. Areas where he can't be spawned and that have no bearing on the raids in the zone have been locked off.
- Charming Tiny Tops now stunts their growth. But they become resistant to charm much younger these days.

*** NPC ***

- The casino now gives out the new stackable illusion potions. Additionally the elixir will now stack.
- The Wyvern trios in Crystallos will now summon when they are low on health.
- Increased the experience given by the Golems in Crystallos.
- Slowed down the re-spawn in Gyrospire Zeka 11%, and Gyrospire Beza 22%.

*** Tasks ***

- The "Gathering the Essence" lines in Crystallos have been changed so you can collect the items before you accept the task and still get credit for them.
- Altered a few of the tradeskill trophy tasks to use some slightly less annoying steps. Pottery will make Fine Shaped Potion Vial's instead of Bola Weights. Tailoring will replace Etched Scale Stock Whip with Rough Leather Gorget Template, Concussive Bola with Pristine Leather Tunic Template, and Robe of Haunted Dreams with Fine Silk Robe Template. Tinkering will also replace the Steam-Powered Piston with a Collapsed Gnomish Recharge Kit.

*** AA ***

- Added additional ranks to Elemental Fury (Magician) and Quickening of Death (Necromancer) AA lines.

*** Zones ***

- Elevator music now plays in the Mansion elevators. The sound soothes the inhabitants and they should be less likely to attack folks that are just riding up or down.

*** Previously Updated ***

- Realnyna in Crescent reach will now respond to hails.
- Fixed a bug that could cause the Last Stand Into Eternity task to fail to trigger properly.
- It is no longer necessary to be in a raid to get the chest to drop off of the "Breaking Walls" events in Devastation.

- The EverQuest Team

11/13/2007

*** Important Note about Pre-Orders ***

If you Pre-Ordered EverQuest Secrets of Faydwer from the Station Store, here’s some important information you’ll need to note.
Read the details.


*** Secrets of Faydwer ***

Welcome to EverQuest Secrets of Faydwer, the 14th expansion for EverQuest!

The clockwork armies of the evil gnomish necromancer Meldrath the Malignant gather in the Steamfont Mountains, awaiting his order to invade the kingdom of Ak'Anon. The launch of his great air fortress Mechanotus has torn open the earth, exposing new paths into unexplored regions of the ancient continent of Faydwer.

Rediscover Faydwer as you adventure in the nearby Loping Plains, home to the soul eating wereorcs of Bloodmoon Keep. Strive to end the torment of humans and elves cursed for centuries in the Hills of Shade. All the while, an ancient menace stirs east of the Dragonscale Hills, where the prismatic dragon Kerafyrm the Awakened plans his revenge.

Level Cap Increase: Players can now achieve level 80. New high level item sets, new Alternate Advancement ability lines, and new spells will come with this increase, including a new AA that grants a new spell slot.

Heroic Items: One aspect of player power is based on the seven physical and mental attributes of their characters: Agility, Charisma, Dexterity, Intelligence, Stamina, Strength, and Wisdom.  For player characters that have reached the maximums for these attributes, equipping normal items with increased attributes offers no benefit.  Heroic Items feature particular stats that allow players to go beyond those maximums.  For each point in a heroic stat, the player gains one point in the statistic and the maximum on that statistic is increased by one point.  In addition, heroic stats offer benefits beyond the normal statistics.

- Heroic Intelligence: For intelligence-based casters, increases mana pool, mana regen, and the maximum amount of mana regen a character can have.

- Heroic Wisdom: For wisdom-based casters, increases mana pool, mana regen, and the maximum amount of mana regen a character can have.

- Heroic Strength: Increases endurance pool, endurance regen, and the maximum amount of endurance regen a character can have.  Also increases damage done by melee attacks and improves the bonus granted to armor class while using a shield.

- Heroic Stamina: Increases hit point pool, hit point regen, and the maximum amount of hit point regen a character can have.  Also increases endurance pool, endurance regen, and the maximum amount of endurance regen a character can have.

- Heroic Agility: Increases endurance pool, endurance regen, and the maximum amount of endurance regen a character can have.  Also increases the chance to dodge an attack, grants a bonus to defense skill, and reduces falling damage.

- Heroic Dexterity: Increases endurance pool, endurance regen, and the maximum amount of endurance regen a character can have.  Also increases damage done by ranged attacks, improves chance to successfully assassinate or headshot, and improves the chance to riposte, block, and parry incoming attacks.

- Heroic Charisma: Improves reaction rolls with some NPCs and increases the amount of faction you gain or lose when faction is adjusted.

New Content: There are 15 new realms for adventurers to explore including Meldrath's maniacal Fortress Mechanotus, the Dragonscale Hills, the Loping Plains, and Kerafyrm's Lair: Crystallos. Travel through Faydwer solo or with groups to complete new quests, tasks, events, and raids and to acquire new items, spells, tradeskill recipes, abilities, and more.

*** Live Highlights ***

Book of Legends: The Book of Legends, a tome that holds the record of those who have come together to celebrate EverQuest at the SOE Fan Faires, now lives in the library within Plane of Knowledge.

New Loot All Options: "Loot All" functionality has been added to corpses. This includes a "Loot All" button on the loot window and the ability to shift-right-click loot a corpse.

AC Mitigation Improvements: We modified the AC Caps and over-cap returns for mitigation for all classes to bring them more in line with their intended ability to mitigate damage. Warriors, Paladins, Shadowknights, Clerics, and Monks received a minor increase in their mitigation ability. Rangers, Bards, Rogues, Shaman, Beastlords, and Berserkers received a moderate increase in their mitigation ability. Druids, Necromancers, Wizards, Enchanters, and Magicians received a considerable increase in their mitigation ability.

Fog Rendering System Enhancements: An entirely new fog rendering system has been implemented in the EverQuest graphics engine. This new system is used in all zones that currently have fog.

Multi-core CPU Support: If you have a Multi-core CPU you no longer have to manually set their processor affinity! EverQuest will automatically assign itself to an available core. If you run multiple copies of the client, each new copy running will assign itself to the next available core. Those interested in customizing which core or cores EverQuest clients run on, check the forums.

*** Recently Reported Issues ***

While some of the other issues that were resolved in this update were reported via bug reports, here are a few we'd like to highlight.

Issue: West Display Bug
Summary: When you face west the video geometry disappears except the UI and the Sky. When you face another direction the issue goes away. Normally this is only fixed by doing a reboot of your PC or reloading EQ.
Status:  We have made a change that should reduce the chances of the "west bug" occurring; unfortunately the change requires us to turn off some optimizations. If you want to disable this workaround, please add the following line to your eqclient.ini: DisableWestBugFix=1 (The EQ team would like to thank Community Member Strommmm for his feedback on helping us with this issue.)

Issue: Solteris Instability
Summary: Some people have reported that the Solteris raid zone continuously crashes during raids.
Status: Optimizations have been put in place to improve stability. We will continue to monitor the status of this zone and other instanced zones.

*** Items ***

- Prestidigitase, Staurolite, Harmonagate and Taaffeite have been modified to work in the new jewelcraft system. They will also continue to work in their original fashion if you prefer the jewelry made that way.
- Improved damage on some high end hand-to-hand weapons
- Improved damage on several 2 handed weapons
- New item modifiers are available in Secrets of Faydwer zones:
 - Damage Shield Mitigation: Reduces the amount of damage taken from damage shields on your opponent.
 - Heal Amount: Increases healing spells by the total amount of the modifier.  This is a base value that is scaled to the casting time of the spell so quick casting spells get less and longer casting spells get more.
 - Spell Damage:  Increases damaging spells by the total amount of the modifier.  This is a base value that is scaled to the casting time of the spell so quick casting spells get less and longer casting spells get more.
 - Clairvoyance: Gives a chance to gain mana equal to the total amount of the modifier when casting spells.

*** Spells ***

- Lesser Summon Corpse, Summon Corpse, Conjure Corpse, and Exhumer's Call have had their scribe-levels lowered for shadowknights.
- The Bewilderment line now has an improved resistance modifier.
- Player animations when using various AE spells and combat abilities now display properly.
- The protection granted from Shielding Thunder now stacks with Weapon Shield Discipline.
- The Consecrate Ground line now has a chance to root undead NPCs that enter the aura's area of effect.
- Recast timers on many mage summon item spells such as the Phantom Armor line, Aenda's Trinkets line, and Armaments line were removed.
- Necromancer pet haste now bestows strength and a damage mod.  Upgrades to the line should be improvements under all situations.
- NPC casters will no longer auto-learn Dispel-type player spells. 
- The Decrepit Skin, Ward of Tunare, and Skin of the Reptile lines are now limited by the number of heals / runes bestowed to the buffed player instead of number of hits scored against the buffed player.  The number of "procs" should be relatively the same, but no longer random.  These spells will scale down in effectiveness against lower level NPCs.
- Beam of Solteris and Hail of Arrows now have a hit limit of 8 targets.
- The cleric group complete healing spell "Word of Redemption" now mimics Complete Heal in that it heals for 7500 and cannot be focused.
- Single-target fire, ice, and magic instant cast spells from TSS and SoF now share the same recast timer.  The recast delay on Cloudburst has been decreased so it can be chained.  The Cloudburst line is now more damaging but less efficient than the - Flashfires and Cold Snap lines.  Recourses from these instant cast spells now bestow a short-duration buff that applies a damage increase to the next spell with a 3 second cast time or more.  Most other wizard direct damage spells have had their cast times nearly halved and had this time applied to the reuse delay, allowing the use of 2-3 direct damage spells in the time that would previously be required to cast one.

*** Tradeskills ***

- There is a new level 80 cultural armor set for all races and level 75 and 80 cultural symbol sets. New quests can be found for level 75 and level 80 quests.  Additionally there are new cultural raid augments to go with the cultural armor for the Serpent's Spine, the Buried Sea, and Secrets of Faydwer.
- Jewelry Making has evolved to a new method. Now jewelry makers will make base pieces of jewelry and gems that can be put in this jewelry for different effects.  This will allow people to get jewelry customized for their needs.
- Practitioners of spell research will no longer need to use runes, words and pages.  Instead, they can use the systematic spell research system to make all spells previously made with these materials.
- Within one of the newly discovered areas of Faydwer you will be able to find a gnome who wants a measure of revenge.
- A discovery has been made and now Gem Studded Chains are less difficult to make.

*** AA ***

- Harm Touch and Lay on Hands have been reworked. Changes to how these abilities work will enable us to more easily adjust and tune these abilities. The primary change you will notice is that both of these abilities have been changed from innate skills to the AA system. For the first 10 ranks of these new AAs you will automatically gain the next rank as you level up - you won't need to purchase the AAs. Starting at level 51 you can continue to increase the power of your ability by purchasing new ranks of AAs. These roughly correspond to some of the previous AAs that existed for either ability.

All previous functionality for these abilities has been turned off. All AAs based on focusing these abilities have either been refunded and replaced with new AAs or have been modified to work with the new abilities.

- Refunded the Harm Touch AAs as part of the changes to how Harm Touch operates.
- Refunded the AA "Improved Lay on Hands" as part of the changes to how Lay on Hands functions.
- Corrected an issue with the Flurry line of AA's that was causing them to trigger up to 94 percent of the time on a successful triple-attack, instead of up to the intended 30 percent.

*** Zones ***

- Fixed an issue with Halls of Honor where NPCs were dropping the incorrect item for the Hot Zone quests.

*** UI ***

- Corrected a few typos and errors with a few of the UI windows.
- Added "Claims" option to the EQ menu button which toggles the Claim Window.
- Made a few minor adjustments to the claims window.
- Added a slider/ctrl to loot slots with stacks. Shift-/Ctrl- semantics work with this functionality.

- Changed -

EQUI.xml
EQUI_LayoutCopyWnd.xml
EQUI_ClaimWnd.xml
EQUI_OptionsWindow.xml
EQUI_MailWindow.xml
EQUI_LootWnd.xml
EQUI_LeadershipWnd.xml
EQUI_GuildManagementWnd.xml
EQUI_TributeBenefitWnd.xml
EQUI_Animations.xml
EQUI_VideoModesWnd.xml

*** Miscellaneous ***

- Zoning to Toxxulia no longer puts player in Antonica chat channel.
- Changed the way offensive and defensive procs work so they will no longer interrupt melee swings for non-hybrid characters.  Hybrids already worked that way previously.

- The EverQuest Team

*** Highlights ***

- Steamfont Revamp: The sounds of gnomish cheers and clockwork gears echo across the continent of Faydwer as the Steamfont Mountains transforms its appearance.

- Halloween Events: Citizens and denizens of Norrath and beyond will encounter new and old ghoulish tasks and fiends as the spirit of Halloween takes over EverQuest this eerie season. Visit the EQPlayers website for more information about the Haunted Activities.

- Hot Zones: New Hot Zones have been created! Be on the lookout for new items and content in the following zones:

Level 20 The Castle of Mistmoore
Level 25 The Permafrost Caverns
Level 30 Trakanon's Teeth
Level 35 The Warsliks Woods
Level 40 The Dawnshroud Peaks
Level 45 Velketor's Labyrinth
Level 50 The Deep
Level 55 The Temple of Droga
Level 60 Nobles' Causeway
Level 65 The Halls of Honor

*** Items ***

- Improved several Rogue usable 1HP weapons from TSS and TBS.
- The last stage of the smithing trophy has become easier to evolve.
- The cultural and template books are now also not tradable on the Firiona Vie server.
- Cultural items should now have a tribute value.
- The Elegant Ogre Cultural Smithing books now include the Warborn armor recipes.

*** Tradeskills ***

- The clockwork tailor near the loom in Ak'Anon should now be carrying the proper items. Additionally the high elf and wood elf merchants have fixed the problem with their deliveries and are now carrying their own items instead of each others.
- Some secrets to making Mistletoe Cutting Sickles and the Inferno Scepter have been discovered and they have become less difficult to make.
- Disabled the water of terror recipes, the rest had already been disabled.
- Duskwoven armor now uses the correct thread.

*** Previously Updated ***

- Gretamog in Ogguk, and Zok Drup and Zok Gleeup in Rathe Mountains should now be carrying the proper items. Additionally, the Tanner family in Freeport welcomes their daughter Josephine to their business. She offers the human and half elven cultural threads.
- Gralbug and Puglala in Ogguk, Frankle Ironhair in Rivervale, Draan N'Ryt in Neriak 3rd Gate, and Garren D'Vek in Neriak Commons should now be carrying their cultural items.

- The EverQuest Team