January 23rd, 3:00 am ------------------------------ *** Patch Information *** ** Quests ** - Ragefire portion of the Cleric Epic quest has been changed. Please see the Developer's Corner on our web site for more details - Added Quest NPCs to Thurgadin, Kael and Skyshrine for Beastlord quest armor - Gravel leaf tea will now fit in the combine container for the associated quest - Grimling Blood should now be dropping - Idia in the bard guild in Kelethin was telling you to turn in a quest item to the incorrect NPC. Changed quest text to reflect the correct NPC to hand the item to - In Iceclad, Keref Spiritspear won't be so unreasonable when you complete the task that he asks of you - Citizens in skyshrine no longer defend the 'vermin' spiders - Increased the drop rate of the Staff of Elemental Mastery: Earth - Bloody Shak Dratha Hearts should now be dropping - Quest of Nobility should now be working properly - Increased the spawn rate of Brother Qwinn tenfold ** Items ** - Adjusted statistics on equipment that was dropping in the Umbral Plains. Many of the items had AC that was inconsistent with the armor types of the classes. The AC has been reduced on some pieces and raised on others. In all instances where the AC was dropped a different statistic was raised. Several items received a significant upgrade while others were downgraded - Also in regards to Umbral Plains armor, Ranger has been removed from the plate class armor that was dropping and have been added to the usable classes on the chain equivalent. Bards have been added to the plate equipment list. This might mean that some Rangers will have armor that they can't use. Our Customer Service personnel will trade out that armor for the chain equivalent - Ghoulbane is now No-Drop - SoulFire charges can only be used by Paladins (though they can be used from inventory) - Raised the armor value on many Beastlord specific armor pieces - Added effects to a few of the Wild Lord's armor pieces - Added Vah Shir to Imbrued Plate Mail useable races - Rhino Hide armor is now Druid and Monk usable - The Crustacean Shell Shield is now magic - Scroll of Knowledge can now be equipped in the primary, secondary, and range slots - Scroll of Enlightenment can now be equipped in the primary, secondary, and range slots - Thought Horror Fangs can now be thrown - Iron Scroll of War must now be worn to activate - Cloak of Thorns right click effect should work now - Runed Bone Fork is now equippable primary, secondary and ranged. The "range" value has been removed to prevent people from accidentally throwing them - Spider Fur Collar has been given weight 0.0 to be consistent with other pieces - Dark Cloak of the Sky must now be worn to activate - Sage's Crown is now No-Drop to match every other Velious quest armor - Icicle Circlet is now No-Drop to match every other Velious quest armor - Bone Collar of the Possessed should no longer cause players to crash when inventory is opened - Idol of Rallos Zek can now be used by ShadowKnights - Helm of Grim Blessings can now be used by Wood Elves - Flayed Skin Bracer is no longer a Lore item - Greaves of Avoidance can now be used by all races - Steel Threaded Wrist Wraps are no longer lore - Bravado's Breastplate now grants a larger Hit Point bonus - Guise of the Hunter can now also be worn by human bards and rogues - Primal Cudgel now has the proper effect - Added "Recommended Level" equal to the current item use level for the several items. All of these items require the player to be level 51+ to equip them and/or use their effects. Setting the "Recommended Level" field like this just lets the player know what level they need to be to use the item. The actual utility of the item was not affected in any way, this change is purely informational - Several items have been changed to be not useable by Iksar. They had been erroneously set as Iksar useable in the last item patch. These were primarily items that were usable by Beastlords (and were therefore changed to allow all Beastlord races to use them), but that had been specifically restricted from use by Iksar due to their inherent armor value ** Zones ** - Shades in Umbral, Maiden's Eye and Vex Thall are now considered undead - Placed portals to and from Great Divide and Nexus - Added many new items to better round out the rewards for high-level Luclin encounters ** Horses ** - Implemented horse trade in quests. There are now four stable hands who will buy back specific colored bridles located in the stables in the Bazaar - Being stunned will now stop players on horses. Not stopping them when stunned was causing warping and other bad things - Knockback spells, and spells that throw you into the air, now affect people on horses properly - Horses now levitate when their rider should. - Fixed a bug that was causing the client to crash when attempting to follow someone while on a horse. /follow should also now work when the person you are following is on a horse ** Spells ** - Wizard Familiar spell scrolls will now increase in purchase cost with the spell level - Several spells will no longer be interrupted, spells such as the 'proc' generated by Instrument of Nife - Several spells that were not functioning in the planes have been fixed and now work in the planes - Bards should now gain singing skill when singing and should no longer gain skill in an instrument when they are not using one. - Characters are no longer damaged by damage shields when using throwing weapons - Atol's Spectral Shackles has had its casting difficulty reduced - Made some changes to Nature's Recovery to make it more stackable ** Visual Issues ** - Wolves and warders should no longer appear to be very small - Characters no longer lose their hair or beard when their illusions wear off - Weapons should now appear properly (sometimes they wouldn't show up at all) when a player zoned in - Characters in wolf or bear form (or other races that aren't player races) should no longer have parts of them tinted based on the armor the player was wearing - Bear form should now look correct to people that zoned in after the spell was cast on them - May have fixed the problem with extra mouse cursor showing in game - Fixed a problem with NPCs, PCs and some objects not being visible in some zones (Wakening Lands, Plane of Growth, Emerald Jungle and Swamp of No Hope) ** Performance Issues ** - More work on reducing zone times for Luclin city zones - "Hitch" created when player characters enter a zone should be gone now - Fixed a bug that could cause the client to crash in some cases where a character tried to purchase an item from a vendor but didn't have enough money - Characters with pets that zone (horses, familiars and warders) should now be able to zone from North Qeynos to Qeynos Hills ** New Features ** - Holding shift while clicking the resolution in the options in game will reduce the resolution. If you are already in 640x480 though, this does nothing. Normal click increases the resolution as it always has and still wraps back to 640 after the highest resolution your machine supports. - Using 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 resolutions, the /wincolor command, and getting the inventory window in fullview mode are now available to all EverQuest players (these features were restricted only to Velious owners) ** PvP ** - It is no longer possible to bandage others of the opposing deity team on Sullon Zek ** Alternate Advancement Abilities ** - Lowered the reuse time on Rampage AA ability from 15 minutes to 10 minutes - Rampage is now fixed. Previously was only hitting one target - Mass Group Buff button should work properly when zoning - Casting Reinforcement should now work on all buffs cast, not just those cast on yourself - The Discipline Duelist should now be doing the correct damage when using Chaotic Stab - LifeBurn should now reset properly after being interrupted - Dire Charm should now reset properly after being interrupted - Fixed the Quick Buff ability to work as described - Leech Touch should refresh properly now - Exodus and Nexus Gate now have a casting time of 1/10th of a second *** Do you want to join us? *** So you got your Epic weapon... and now spend your free time holding weekly sight seeing tours to the Temple Veeshan, along with nightly Luclin lunar dinners. If on top of all this you know the name of more Dragons than relatives, we would like to invite you to apply to join our San Diego EverQuest QA Team! For more info please go to our Job Employment site ( http://www.station.sony.com ) to read up on all the juicy details. If you're interested please submit a resume, including your EQ playtime and information on characters owned. - The EverQuest Quality Assurance Team *** Fan Faire News *** * Congratulations to Union of Power! * The guild Union of Power has the most pre-registered players attending the Fan Faire! This means that they will be given a two hour slot from 5-7:00 p.m. on Saturday in the Intel Arm Yourself for Adventure Game Room! Everyone else will be limited to an hour of play time. * Walk-ins * Registration is closed, but we will be accepting walk-ins at the Dallas Fan Faire! However, there is a limited number of spaces left! Registration will be at 6:00 p.m. The cost for walk-in registration is $95 to be paid at the door. Cindy Archuleta Community Relations Manager Sony Online Entertainment