FEATURED

* Emperor's Athenaeum:
The Order of Rime has managed to re-open this ancient vault of Venril Sathir's. What secrets lie within? What terrible guardians? Venture in with a single group of adventurers to find out what awaits!

* Kunark Overland Quests:
A mysterious army has appeared upon the shores of Kunark and begun pillaging the land and slaughtering those that oppose them. Citizens of Dreg's Landing in Kylong Plains, Sathir's Span in Fens of Nathsar, the City of Jinisk in Kunzar Jungle and Danak's Upper Command Camp in Jarsath Wastes are looking for your help in learning about the invaders and defeating them.

* Kurn's Tower:
After Najena's magic revealed the void tear slowly consuming the tower, the Bellywhumpers have frantically dug a passage into Kurn's Tower once again! Delve into your choice of the x2 raid or the single group instance, and attempt to solve the mysteries within!

* Research Assistants:
Research Assistants have moved into many cities in Norrath. These hardworking men and women will do the research to upgrade a spell or combat art from journeyman to adept or from expert to master. They will only assist one character per account at a time and only help those level 20 or higher. Research Assistants can be found in each of the six hoods and villages of Freeport and Qeynos, Neriak, Haven, Gorowyn and Kelethin. You can ask any guard in those areas to point you in the direction of a Research Assistant if you can't find them.

* Shadow System:
A new shadow system has been implemented for the game. This new system uses your graphics card to build the shadows rather than your CPU and it comes with a few extras as well. Using the shadow mapping technique and 3.0 Shaders we're now able to cast softer shadows, fade shadows, and cast dynamic shadows from trees, plants, feathers, and more! The new system fixes a few shadowing glitches found in certain armor sets and self-shadowing and depending on your computer's settings may also significantly improve performance.

* Spell Renaming:
All spells have been renamed to have a consistent naming structure across all levels. New spells will now be differentiated by roman numerals. So you will see Ice Comet, Ice Comet II, and so on in your spell book now. All combat text will refer to the base name though. In addition, the tier structure has changed to be more distinct. Apprentice I – III are now renamed just Apprentice, Apprentice IV is now Journeyman, Adept I is now Adept, Adept III is now Expert, Master I is simply Master and Master II is now Grandmaster.

* User Books:
Players can now leave their permanent mark in the world of Norrath by authoring their own books. Empty books will be available from level 50+ sages. Once you edit the content of an empty book you become the author and from that point forward you are the only one who can edit the book content. Player-written books are tradable so you can give them to your friends or even sell them on the broker. Find them on the broker by selecting "user books" under the advanced search options.

* Voice Chat:
Station Launcher will soon have a new release with voice capability. It will allow you to start voice chatting as any of your EQII characters before running the client or while patching. Going into game while voice chatting in Station Launcher will be seamless. If you're already chatting, the client will detect this. If you're voice chatting as a different character than you're playing, a new button will appear on the voice bar allowing you to switch (or you may switch in Station Launcher). Station Launcher will also keep voice chat active after the client closes.

Severon and Elyssia (plus a couple of their boxed alts) took part in a raid that took down Godking Anuk last Wednesday, the 20th, earning us our first guild hall trophy! Woohoo!

Severon earned his epic Thursday night (well, ok, Friday morning, LOL). He's the first Empire member to obtain one, and hopefully not the last! Please join me in toasting his success!

FEATURED

* Appearance Slots:
- - - Players now have access to primary, secondary and ranged appearance slots.
- - - The wield style (one-handed, two-handed, shield) of the weapons must match the weapons that are currently equipped.

* Bristlebane's Day:
(3/31/2009 - 4/8/2009) Jesters, thieves, bards and fans of mischief are invited to enjoy the festivities that surround Bristlebane's Day! You never know what laughs and pranks are to be found, during this enjoyable time of year. Celebrators are present in every home city, and the oddest of objects have been spotted in Antonica, The Commonlands, Darklight Wood, Timorous Deep and Greater Faydark! Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for special events occurring only on the highest of silly days, 4/1/2009!

* Lavastorm:
Lots of brand new content has been added in this classic zone. Almost all of the population has be re-tiered for solo players, with a new level 45 to 55 adventure quest line with the industrious…but rather insane Sootfoot goblins, and a new level 40-45 tradeskill quest line. Brand new void invaded areas also feature new level 80 solo quests. Additionally, a solo-able daily shard quest had been added as well as mount paths and additional teleporters to make traversing the zone much easier!

* Shard Armor:
A new set of shard armor is now available from merchants!

* Threat Meter:
- - - Players can now see how much aggro they have generated towards NPC’s in combat.
- - - A new UI element will display players’ aggro percentage for their current target or implied target.
- - - Players with the most hate will also see the hate value for the player below them.
- - - Players’ aggro value will also appear above an NPC’s head, just below their remaining power.
- - - The aggro value displayed above an NPC’s head may be toggled off under Options -> User Interface -> Name and Chat Bubble

* Ward of Elements:
A brand new level 80 two-group raid instance has been added! This zone is balanced for players without a proliferation of raid gear, and should provide an exciting challenge to any group of 12! The first six bosses can be tackled in any order, and provide fantastic fabled loot with brand new armor sets upgraded from the tier 2 void shard sets, complete with new appearances! You can find it in Lavastorm beneath the Hollow Tower and Deep Forge.

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.