Live Update #22. April 13, 2006

Headlines

- Celebrate the holidays as the Brew Day Festival comes to Norrath!
- Recruit new guild members easily with the new guild recruitment system!
- Explore a dangerous new raid zone in Kingdom of Sky: The Lyceum of Abhorrence!
- Get a haircut or a shave from barbers in your home city!
- New treasures and challenges await in the icy caverns of Permafrost!
- New rewards have been discovered within the treacherous depths of the Obelisk of Lost Souls!
- Great treasures await those willing to risk certain peril in the Wailing Caves!
- Orc tribes across Norrath have formed a dangerous new alliance with the Rujarkian orcs from the Desert of Ro!

The Brew Day Festival

- A new holiday is upon us: it's Brew Day in Norrath!
- Seek out the portals in Antonica or the Commonlands to partake in the libations.
- Rasel Alechaser needs your help to make the perfect brew beyond the portals.
- Seek out your local bartender if you wish to purchase tasty spirits.
- Those who overindulge in the festivities may find their senses a bit... fuzzy.

Guild Recruiting

- Now recruiting for your guild in EverQuest II is even easier!
- For guild leaders and other ranks with access, there is a Recruiting tab in the guild window that allows you to choose your recruitment settings.
- In this tab, you can enter a number of pieces of information that will help you recruit for your guild:
* Short Description
* Full Description
* We offer training to new players
* Looking for: Fighters, Priests, Scouts, Mages, Tradeskillers
* Play Style: Standard, Casual, Hardcore
- You may also select up to four Descriptive Tags from the following set:
* Good Aligned, Evil Aligned, Chatty, Organized, Roleplay, We enjoy doing quests, We enjoy doing raids, We play at odd hours, We are a crafter oriented guild, We are family friendly, We may use mature humor, The inmates are running the asylum, We're very funny (in our opinion), Our humor may cause physical pain, We're serious folks
- Leaders may assign Recruiter status to guild members.
- Guild Recruiters can go to their Persona window under the Options tab and begin "Recruiting for Guild." You will enter information pertinent to the recruiting process and begin recruiting.
- Guilds with Recruiters online will appear in the guild window (Default key: "U") for those without a guild.
- Recruits can view information about guilds with Recruiters who are currently online, and can automatically send a message with information they may want to see before responding (name, adventure level, artisan level, race).

Lyceum of Abhorrence

- The Lyceum was once a quiet retreat for followers of Harla Dar to study and enhance their abilities, but the Amygdalan have now taken the island and remade the Lyceum into a ghastly shadow of its former glory. Those droag not killed were transformed into horrible abominations, persisting even past death to learn from their new masters.
- Welcome to the Lyceum of Abhorrence, a new raid zone available in the Kingdom of Sky.
- Brave adventurers fluent in the Draconic tongue should seek out Zhaviz Ne'pasda in Tenebrous Tangle for more information on this deadly dungeon.

Rise in Orc Activity

- As discovered by Captain Arellius of the Freeport Militia, the Brokentusk and Lonetusk orcs in the Ruins recently acquired new weapons and armor from the Rujarkian tribe based in the Desert of Ro. The captain's report raised concerns that other orc tribes may form similar supply treaties.
- It appears the worst fears of the Militia have been realized. Field officers are reporting that other tribes of orcs are now utilizing Rujarkian armaments in battle.
- Scouts have confirmed that this includes Bloodskull orcs in the Commonlands; Ree orcs in the Wailing Caves; and the Vallon, Tallon, and Deathfist tribes in the Orcish Wastes and Deathfist Citadel. It is unknown at this time if any additional tribes have followed suit.
- This orc aggression must not be allowed to go unchecked. Adventurers are encouraged to take up arms against these savage beasts. Any sort of alliance formed by these previously disparate factions represents a significant danger to all of Norrath.

Dungeon Exploration

Permafrost:
- New treasures and challenges await in the icy caverns of Permafrost.
- Many named creatures in Permafrost can now be spawned by defeating recognizable placeholders. Though these encounters will remain rare, some can be seen more often.
- Powerful new items have been created and can be found on the dangerous denizens within Permafrost.

Obelisk of Lost Souls:
- There are many new rewards to discover within the treacherous depths of the Obelisk of Lost Souls.
- Many of the named creatures within Obelisk of Lost Souls now have placeholder creatures that must be defeated before they can spawn--some creatures will be found more frequently, while others have become even more elusive.
- Potent new items are now available on the ferocious foes in the Obelisk of Lost Souls.

Wailing Caves:
- The Wailing Caves poses new challenges and dangers.
- Great new treasures await those willing to risk certain peril.
- In an experiment gone wrong, Kyllik the Fated touched off a massive explosion that rocked the caves. The caves have since become a bit unstable. Watch for falling rocks!
- Lord Ree has ordered that his gauntlet of spikes be repaired. Watch your feet!

Barbers

- Sayergei the Stylist and Barber Whiskerwuzzle have set up barber shops in North Qeynos and West Freeport, respectively.
- Visit them if you wish to purchase an option to change your character's appearance at Character Select.
- Sayergei the Stylist has set up shop in the room above the Gem Box in North Qeynos.
- Barber Whiskerwuzzle and his troll, Razorburn, have set up shop in a stall near the stables in West Freeport.

Kingdom of Sky

- The KoS house plant no longer requires as many corpse items to produce a reward. For example, if you were once rewarded for turning in 2 fertilizer, 4 water, and 4 bones, you will now see a reward at 1 fertilizer, 2 water, and 2 bones.
- Those who have completed "Burglars Afoot" can now find a quest attached to the Unseen Hand map earned after defeating the Soundless Guardian. There is also an extra map in Drippy's strongbox for those who lost theirs.
- There are now visual indicators to help guide you to the right locations to free the mist essences in "The Inhabitants of Cloudmist Isle."
- The Mutagenic Outcast will no longer heal itself when it kills a player pet.
- You can now select your reward for "Kicking the Blood out of the Nest."

Desert of Flames

- Characters that are level 65+ and have never received a Court tower change quest from the Courts' dagger boxes can now get the quest one time for each faction.
- Drywind Isle will no longer come up as a target location for the Court of Truth "Map Verification" faction quest.
- An issue that would sometimes prevent the runes in Fountain of Life from being placed has been corrected.

Player-versus-Player

- There is now a 60-second countdown that begins when you elect to mentor another player. While it is in progress, moving or casting a spell will cancel the countdown. Mentoring will begin if the countdown is completed without interruption.
- While mentoring, you may not make hostile acts against another player or player pet, nor can you perform beneficial actions upon any player or player pet that is hated by another player.
- PvP players can now use the /emote command, which can be seen by players of the same alignment.
- Many items with control effects have had their durations reduced for PvP combat.
- You can now use the /pvp_stats command to see your current PvP statistics.
- You can now gain status, faction, and fame if you have your experience turned off on PvP servers.
- Re-engaging a fleeing enemy across zone lines will result in an honorable kill regardless of their health percentage.
- The recent kill list (/recent) will no longer reset a player to the top if you kill them again.
- Enemy players will no longer understand what your pet says when possessed.
- Treasure will now drop from enemies fleeing across zone lines in PvP as long as they zone without immunity.
- Whispered Remorse, Bewildered Rucksack, and Smuggler's Sack now use ammo.

Gameplay

- Upon death, the most expensive item equipped in each slot within 2 minutes before death will take damage. If an item was equipped in more than one slot, the next most expensive item will be damaged in addition to the most expensive item. A single item will not be damaged more than once per death.
- The in-combat delay required to swap items has been reduced to 2 seconds.
- Implied targeting will no longer work on players who are not in your group or raid.
- Pets will no longer retain hate if you evac from an encounter.
- Treasure chests should be less likely to end up in places you can't reach them.

Quests

- Status awarded for completing level 60-70 writs in Freeport has been increased to match status awarded for doing the same in Qeynos.
- The Screaming Mace: The key to the chamber of the mace has been issued to all Thulian terrorfiends. However, Gorfuzod the Keeper has been training hard and will now pose a somewhat greater challenge.
- Winchester in South Qeynos now gives out writs of the correct level.

Items

- Several weapons that can be acquired in Deathtoll now have proc effects.
- The Whisperwind Shortbow can now be equipped in the ranged slot.
- The vultak eye ward no longer stacks with itself.
- Advanced cross-skill recipe books now have a higher chance of dropping as loot.
- The heat debuff portion of all Warding Ebb poisons should now work properly.
- The power drain ration of Mental Breach poisons has been reduced.
- The amount of hate generated by stat/debuff combination poisons has been reduced.
- The debuff values for stat/debuff combination poisons have been changed: skill debuffs were increased, while resistance debuffs were decreased.
- The proc effect on Blood of the Brood Watcher now works correctly.
- The proc effect on Right Hand of the High Priestess now works correctly.
- The Sacrifice effect has been removed from Cap of the Plague Bringer and replaced with Curse of the Living Dead.
- The rewards for completing the Deathtoll access quest (Amulet of the Forsworn and Amulet of the Resolute Servant) can now be equipped in either the neck or wrist slots.

Zones and Population

- Cataloging the Orcishwastes? There's another Nublood henchman wandering around, ready for his close-up.

Combat

- Possessing a minion while it is casting will no longer cause it to become permanently rooted.
- All forms of evac spells should now prevent enemies from following adventurers to their destination.
- Re-entering the range of a group maintained spell will no longer cause equipment effects to proc. For example, invisibility should no longer be broken by someone with imbued items coming into range of a group invis spell.

Brigand:
- Cuss' dispel amount has been reduced.

Crusader:
- Offering of Armament will now automatically cancel if the recipient dies.

Defiler:
- Defiler group wards will now work properly when they are recast before expiring.
- An issue that could cause damage to "leak" through a ward when the ward critical healed has been corrected.

Enchanter:
- Blink will no longer trigger additional spells when it is cast.

Mage:
- Word of Force now has a lower power cost.

Monk:
- Dragonbreath will now correctly modify the opponent's reuse timers.

Mystic:
- Mystic group wards will now work properly when they are recast before expiring.
- An issue that could cause damage to "leak" through a ward when the ward critical healed has been corrected.

Shadowknight:
- Shadowy Elusion's casting time has been reduced.

Swashbuckler:
- Gibe's dispel amount has been reduced.

Warden:
- Verurous Journey's casting time has been reduced.

Wizard:
- Engulf now has an additional tick of damage.

Achievements

- Bard: Harbinger's Sonnet's effect radius has been increased.
- Crusader: Combat Leadership will properly trigger when a spell is cast.
- Crusader: Legionnaire's Wrath now has a reduced critical percentage per rank (8.5%).
- Rogue: Swear has a slightly higher taunt amount.
- Rogue: Boot Dagger now does more damage.
- A number of raid mobs that did not previously award Achievement experience will now do so, including:
* Gnillaw the Demented, Essence of Fear, Gnorbl the Playful, Vilucidae the Priest of Thule, Hurricanus, Terrorantula, Siyamak, Barakah, Malkonis, Ahkmun Rhoen, the Rujarkian Champion, the gargoyle boss in Living Tombs, the giant named snake in the Living Tombs, and Urzyd the Undying.

Tradeskills

- Provisioner supplies can be now found in the Craftsman specific tradeskill societies as well as the general city tradeskill zone merchants.

Art

- Illusions will restore themselves after using a flying mount.

User Interface

- Tooltips and examine information for melee weapons, ranged weapons, and shields will now list the equipment type (sword, staff, buckler, etc.). Thanks for the request, FanFaire attendees!
- Lotto rolls will now go to their own channel. This can be customized in a window's Chat Options.
- Pressing CTRL and an arrow key in the chat window will no longer cause your character to strafe.
- Haste and DPS will no longer display over 100% in the persona window (this is only a visual change).
- Item links will now appear when receiving items from mail, adding items to a trade or duelbet window, and receiving items from a trade or duelbet window.
- Cancelling a waypoint that is too far away will now also stop giving direction information.
- You can now use /waypoint_cancel if you wish to cancel waypoints using a command.
- The mender will no longer show status points as a cost to repair items, as it does not cost status to repair equipment.
- Failure to disarm a treasure chest (without triggering the trap) will now give an indication of the fact.
- Lotto looting mode will now require responding to no-trade confirmation dialogs similar to the other looting modes.

UI Files Updated

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