Everquest 2: The Shadow Odyssey goes live

[Bateluer]

Details

All servers are currently down for the update, but you can still download the updates via the launcher. The anticipated time for them to come back up is 12:00 Pacific Standard Time.

Also, the popular EQ2Map mod will no longer work with the revamped maps in TSO. The boys and girls at EQ2Interface have already updated EQ2Map for TSO, fortunately. EQ2Map 1.1.1



Journey through more than 20 new zones, including the new overland zone, Innothule.

Experience nostalgic EverQuest dungeon themes, such as Najena, Mistmoore and The Sebilisian Empire, and adventure through more than 18 goal-based dungeons, such as Ruins of Guk and Befallen.

The Achievement Point level cap will be increased to 200 to offer new achievements for class- specific lines.

A new Dungeon Delving mission system for players to replay content with new and different experiences.

Five new Heritage Quests with unique rewards being added.

A new, mysterious group of erudites with powerful new armor and equipment will barter for void shards earned during your encounters.

Epic tales of the odyssey are told through battles with dozens of new creatures and hundreds of new quests.

Two new deities have been introduced into Norrath, Rodcet Nife and Anashti Sul.

Includes Legends of Norrath? strategic online trading card game, digital starter deck and booster pack.

 

[ITPaladin]

I don't understand that...Mistmoore...that is already in EoF.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: ITPaladin
I don't understand that...Mistmoore...that is already in EoF.

I think it has something to do with the new dungeon delving, goal based system. This expansion caters to higher level, raiders though.

 

[ITPaladin]

well it has group instances 50+.

I recently finished the 2 hour patcher, now still waiting on 4000/13690 files for LOTRO.

 

[Bateluer]

I'm just going to leave the launcher up when I leave for work, won't be able to play until tonight anyway, possibly Weds. I get most of my gaming time in general in on the weekends regardless.

 

[Bateluer]

The Shadow Odyssey November / 18 / 2008

The Shadow Odyssey is now live!

You can visit EQ2Players.com to read news and articles about the latest EverQuest II expansion or you can dive right into game and visit the new airship near the Sinking Sands docks to visit the newly discovered Moors of Ykesha.

An all new map system has been added for all players.

GAMEPLAY

You can now mitigate critical attacks done to you. Critical attacks work as before but the player can mitigate the amount done to them by having higher agility for melee classes or higher intelligence for priests and mages. In addition, you will now find certain creatures can critical against you. They will use their calculated damage times their critical multiplier to determine their damage. PvP based combat will now also follow this formula. Players against an npc will continue taking the higher of max damage plus one or damage times critical multiplier. There are also some items which now reduce the amount of critical damage you take while in combat.
As a result of the critical mitigation addition, damage formulas have changed slightly. Damage is now calculated the following way:
base damage calculation
weapon attacks add in dps and weapon multipliers
spell and weapon tier multipliers
attribute modifiers
base damage multipliers
normalized damage ( +spell/ca/heal amounts )
critical multiplier

All of your characters will now receive a 10% experience bonus for each character at the maximum level. (Up to 50% max). You?ll also receive a tradeskill experience bonus for each character at the maximum tradeskill level. Your current experience bonus will be displayed on the character selection screen. This experience bonus can be disabled on a per-character basis by right-clicking on the experience bar.
Shield Block chance is no longer an uncontested avoidance. It will now multiply your base chance to block with a shield rather than add.

Pet buff icons will now tint when out of range. Examine data will now also list the range of the spell.

Combat arts will now properly use the max damage + 1 as the minimum critical amount when attacking an npc. PvP combat arts will still use damage time the critical multiplier.

Fish and water-only creatures should now stay underwater.

Item purchases that require items other than gold in exchange now have a confirmation dialog.

Characters will now continue to get Apprentice I versions of spells and combat arts placed in their spell book at appropriate levels above 50.

/load_uisettings will no longer work while the crafting window is open.

Glide/Slow fall can now be suspended by holding the jump key while falling.
SPELLS


Fighter

The recast time on Rescue has been reduced.

Druid

The Darklight Wood portal spell will no longer be removed while betraying.
Summoner

Improved the hate amount of the pet?s defensive based stances.
Brawler

Devastation Fist has changed slightly. It is now a high damage attack without a stifle penalty. Against higher end creatures it will be more potent.

Brawler Defensive stances now grant additional agility and parry skill.

The combination stances also grant additional parry skill.
Bruiser

Brutality now improves the base damage of combat arts and increases the strength of the raid.

Divide and Conquer now has a positional hate boost and is not interruptable. However, it now has a slightly longer reuse timer.
Berserker

Screaming Rage line will now grant the raid additional dps instead of health regeneration.

Reduced the casting time of area of effect abilities and increased their damage.

Insolent Gibe will now inflict melee damage in addition to the taunt. This melee attack cannot be parried, riposted or dodged.

The Rampage line will do slightly more damage.

The Stifled Rage line will grant additional shield effectiveness.

Blood Rage will give a small rush of adrenaline to the berserker now healing them for a small amount when hit.

The penalties for Adrenaline have been reduced.
Coercer

Possessed Essence should no longer be able to mesmerize targets.
Conjuror

There are new appearances for the Inferno Golem pet. As a result the spell has been renamed to Fiery Magician.
Guardian

Added agility and wisdom bonuses to the defensive stances. Also improved the Aggression bonus.

Increased the hitpoints on the Battle Tactics Line.

Increased the mitigation amount of the Rallying Cry line.
Monk

The Wisdom of Zephyl line has had its casting speed bonus reduced slightly.
Paladin

Castigate will now add in normalized spell damage effects.

Vigor of Trust now improves the base healing of spells.

Lay of hands has had its recast lowered but now consumes power.

Lowered the casting time of heal spells slightly.

Single target spells now cast at 0.5 seconds and their damage is increased slightly.

Reduced the duration of the Incite line so the full taunt amount is gained faster and before the spell is reusable.

Added intelligence to the defensive stance.

Improved the spell Divine Favor so it scales more appropriately for level.
Shadowknight

Contract from Below now improves the base damage of spells.

Adjusted the damage and casting time on a number of spells. Many DoTs were also given more initial damage to go along with the pace of combat.

Tainted Sacrament and its upgrades have changed to be an area of effect taunt and damage spell.

The Harm Touch line is now a 5 minute recast.

Mana Sieve now drains health and converts it to power.

Draw Strength line now also reduces intelligence of the target and gives it to the shadowknight.

The defensive stances now grant additional intelligence for the shadowknight.
ACHIEVEMENTS


Crusader

Avenger?s Relentlessness now grants double attack.

Improved the casting bonuses of Avenging Invigoration.

Removed the mount restrictions from the Agility line.

Aura of Leadership is now a small protective replenishing ward.

Reduced the recast of Divine Aura to match similar skills of other classes.
Berserker

Altered Perseverance to give a heal when the berserker drops to low health.

Gut Roar will now riposte the next melee attack.
Brawler

The Strength line has undergone a number of changes and has had the weapon restrictions removed. It will also grant a bonus to improve deflection chance.
Guardian

Improved the riposte damage reduction of Cripple.
Paladin

Changed Prayer of Resuscitation to modify Lay on Hands and its upgrades.
Shadowknight

The Siphon Hate ability has changed and now protects the shadowknight from a large hit and then increases hatred for the shadowknight on termination.

Reaver now adds additional spell damage.
Warrior

Changed Gladiator?s Revenge to do additional riposte damage.

The stamina line no longer requires a buckler but since you are no longer penalized for a lesser shield the double attack values have been reduced.
PLAYER VS PLAYER

The recent kill list has been increased to 20 players but anyone on it is still removed after 30 minutes.
ITEMS

Ayonic Axe, Lamentation of the Intrepid, Marrow?s Song, and Incandescent Blade have all been changed to a 4.0 delay.

Removing an item which grants additional effects to a spell will cause that spell to cancel. Certain cases where the player is disarmed in combat will not cause the spell to drop though.

Overloaded Heal and Empowered Heal have had their effect radius reduced to 25m. Pond Wash and Mind Wash have had their radius increased to 25m.

Lesser Overloaded Heal, Overloaded Heal, Empowered Heal, Holy Water Sprinkler, Pond Wash, and Mind Wash can now only trigger once from Area of Effect heals. The trigger chance on some of these effects has been increased to compensate.
HOUSING & GUILD HALLS

Three new amenities added to guild halls! Achievement Counselor, Collection Binder, and the Mariner's Bell: Island of Mara.

The choice of where to go with the Druid Portal hireling has been moved to the portal itself, instead of a list of dialog choices. The created Guild Hall portal now functions like a mariner's bell.

The "collect an item" window used to retrieve items in a house will now display the owner?s name for NO-TRADE items that you cannot pickup.

The guild hall supply depot now contains sortable columns for item name and level.

No-Trade house items can now be returned to their owners via email by anyone with Trustee access or higher.

The Guild Hall Faction Market Broker will now properly appear as a purchasable amenity in Tier 2 Qeynos PvP guild halls.

The Slayer Poster amenity will no longer sit buried into the ground when first purchased.

Training Dummy Supply Chest will now properly enforce Use Access.

The hitpoints of the placed Training Dummy has been doubled.

CLIENT

The "Flora Displacement" option has been optimized and does not reduce framerate so much.
Lowered memory usage in large zones.
USER INTERFACE

All windows with a Help button have had the help button?s position swapped with the settings button to reduce accidental opening of the browser.
Charge counts and stack sizes on icons will no longer become misaligned after using the /loadui command.
The stats section of the Persona window has been expanded to include more information.

CHAT CHANNELS

Many of the alignment-based chat channels have been replaced with non-alignment versions on PvE servers.
Good_Help / Evil_Help is now Help
Good_Newbie / Evil_Newbie is now Newbie
Good_Crafting / Evil_Crafting is now Crafting
Good_Traders / Evil_Traders is now Traders
All race and class channels have been merged into non-alignment based channels.
If you have joined any of these channels, you?ll need to leave them and join the new channels as the old channel names will still remain valid as custom channels.

TRADESKILLS

Two new tradeskill collection quests can be found for those who wish to seek them out.
The deity historian in Butcherblock Mountains is now selling a book of "Decorative Deity Shrines" recipes, for those who wish to display their deity's influence in homes and guildhalls.
Fixed an issue where recipe tooltips would display an incorrect number of components when components were separated into multiple stacks.
Outfitters are now able to produce vest versions of cloth armor in the level 10-19 range.
Tailors now have recipes for crafted canvas, ruckas, and broadcloth vests.
Sackcloth and tranquil sackcloth shoulder armor now have appearances. The tranquil threadbare shoulders remain without specific appearances.
The tailored tranquil dragon's breath armor set now has a slightly different appearance from the regular dragon's breath armor set. All tailormade armor with a robe graphic is now called a robe, and all tailormade armor with a vest graphic is now called a vest.
The tranquil sackcloth vest is now a slightly different shade from the "dashing tunic" acquired in Sebilis.

ZONES

Veeshan?s Peak

Phara Dar will no longer critically attack when Khalan is dead.