It’s time for EQ2′s ninth (NINTH!) expansion Chains of Eternity is landing on the live servers tomorrow, so here are the requisite links to more info to keep you informed during the downtime and as you begin to venture into the new content.

• EverQuest2.com’s downtime news article, featuring links to…
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Official Forums
• ZAM’s Chains of Eternity info compilation
• ZAM’s Chains of Eternity prep list
• SOE Customer Service’s expansion launch day reminders
• EQ2 Traders’ Chains of Eternity general crafting preview
• EQ2 Traders’ Chains of Eternity furniture preview
• EQ2 Traders’ tradeskill achievements & prestige abilities

The main talking points are thus:

• All level caps raised from 92 to 95
• 2 new overland zones
• Several new solo & group dungeons
• A few new raids
• Quest feather color-coding
• Tradeskill prestige abilities

I’ll post more info as it’s available, and the game update notes will be shared here as soon as possible. :)

I sold a crapton of status loot last night so I could dump status into the hall escrow, and I wasn’t even looking at the guild XP bar — BAM. Level 70!

In other news, Game Update 63: Skyshrine hits live servers tomorrow. Here’s a rundown of various previews and guides already floating around the interwebs:

• EQ2 Traders: Crafting Preview
• EQ2 Traders: Furniture Preview
• ZAM: Skyshrine Preview
• SOE Community Fancast: Skyshrine Part 1 – Part 2
• Heroic & Raid content in Skyshrine

EQ2Interface doesn’t have a UI comparison up yet, but I imagine it will be coming sometime today or tomorrow morning.

Stay tuned for downtime updates, and I’ll post the patch notes as soon as they’re available!

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Update #1: ZAM has posted that the downtime is expected to last 5 hours, beginning at 7am Pacific tomorrow morning.

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Update #2: The servers are up and Skyshrine is live! Patch notes incoming momentarily… Enjoy!

[Check out the official GU blurb from the forums!]

Age of Discovery is the eighth expansion of the groundbreaking EverQuest II franchise.  Age of Discovery offers never-seen-before features including user-generated content and the re-imagining of the Beastlord class from the original EverQuest release.  You can make your mark in-game by creating your very own Dungeon, hire some much needed help for your heroic battles, push tradeskilling research to new heights, customize your weapons at the forge, and of course, play as a Beastlord. There’s a lot to like about this expansion!

A GENERAL SUMMARY OF WHAT’S IN GAME UPDATE 61:

• All dungeon and overland loot items have been re-itemized. What does this mean? It means loot everywhere should be legitimate for the level it drops for, no matter where you go now. Go explore some nooks and crannies you haven’t seen for a long time and get off the Golden Path! The loot’s good again.
• The Velious saga continues as you journey past the Citadel of Drunder to the Plane of War itself in a new dungeon and raid, and a continuation of the Signature quest line.
• New dynamically-scaling dungeons have been added. These scale to your group between levels 60-90 and are designed as new single group heroic content that’s more re-playable. We’ll be watching your reactions to these initial two dungeon experiments and improving on these in the future!
• The new House Rating System lets you publish your house so other players can rate it, as well as adding house leaderboards, easy access to housing, and more! (And we increased House Ownership limits to 20, instead of 10!)
• If you ever wanted to show EQII to your friends, it’s now very easy. Push a button, record, and post your footage to YouTube with our new Video Capture system.
• The Eastern Wastes area in Velious now has a lot more overland content added to it (the new quests start at the Ry’Gorr keep).
• A big revamp of the class AA tree so that it’s easier to select the AAs you want, and adding more utility to the AAs that were weak previously.
• Many stats have been un-capped so that they have meaning as your characters progress. This doesn’t result in massive power increases, but it does let all stats continue to have meaning as you earn new items and power. Additional mechanics changes were made to increase power for many classes. (See below for things like spell auto-attack, flurry improvements, etc.)
• Tradeskillers now have their own AA tree to chase!
• And yes, Fae and Arasai now have a level 85 quest that can unlock their ability to FLY!

A FEW IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT!

• The reitemization means that the following things are going to occur:
  • All of your items are going to become UNATTUNED.
  • Any item that you are wearing at the time of this update *that has adornments on it* will have those adornments popped off and returned to your inventory. (You can put them right back on afterward, if you so desire.)
• Because of the AA revamp, *all AA points are reset*. Thus, you should plan a bit of time to reassign your AA points after this update.
• We are excited to bring you the Plane of War raid, but since the raid progression has not yet been completed by players to allow access to that raid, we’re going to take advantage of that situation to keep the door locked for a week to give it a bit more polish.
• The Dungeon Finder feature scheduled for GU 61 is slightly delayed. It will become available ASAP after it sits on Test for a week or so.

There’s lots more. See the details below for more info!

The Fortress of Drunder has emptied of Rallos Zek and his armies as they pass into the Plane of War to prepare for their eventual march on the Western Wastes. The Demi-Gods, Tallon and Vallon Zek, are subjugated within its towers, ignorant of Rallos’ grand scheme. Only Sullon Zek, the Maiden of Rage, is aware of what is to transpire. Trapped within her own tower, she has taken great risks to seek out worthy and daring heroes and guide them into the walls of Drunder.

Now it is up to you to grapple the Minions of Zek and battle your way through events that will gain you amazing allies and set into motion a war that will end all wars!

Delve into Drunder’s:

• Three new Heroic Dungeons – Spire of Rage – Strategist’s Stronghold – Tower of Tactics
• Three new x4 Raids – Sullon’s Spire – Tallon’s Stronghold – Vallon’s Tower [Normal and Challenge]
• One new x2 Raid – Citadel of V’uul

The highlights:

• New group instance: Zraxth’s Unseen Arcanum
• Spell visuals updated; many casting sounds reverted; many casting animations reverted
• New “Mount” and “Currency” tabs in the Character window free up bag space
• You can specify one mount as “active” and another as “appearance” — the best of both worlds!
• New outdoor areas in the largest homes in cities across Norrath
• Increased house item counts
• Click-to-cure functionality in group and raid windows
• Target and Implied Target windows show casting activities of NPC targets
• Marketplace items are searchable by name
• Woodworker-crafted totems now stack to 100 (NOT a retroactive change)
• Tradeskill fuels renamed to be more consistent across tiers
• Crafted ammo now stacks to 200
• Guild level progression smoothed out (Yay!! This change resulted in us gaining about a level and a half.)
• Guild Harvesting Depot amenity now holds 200 unique items (was 150)
• New house item rewards for Kingdom of Sky questlines
• New usable doors available from City Festival merchants
• More tiles available from Moonlight Enchantments merchants
• Interesting developments in Greater Faydark: Orcs are trying to burn down Kelethin, and kobolds have overrun the former location of Spire Shadow Outpost!

Click through to read the patch notes in full…

GU 57 goes live in a few short hours, and here are some highlights that may interest you:

• Regions of Interest: Many quests will now highlight areas on the map to show where updates can be obtained
• Total revamp to the UI appearance
• Inventory and Persona combined into new Character window
• Newer version of spells will overwrite older versions in hotbars instead of being inserted into a blank hotbar space
• Lots of classes have been redesignated as “neutral”
• Major spell effects revamp
• Inner zone travel locations now support path linking
• Appearance slots no longer restricted to level 20+
• Kunark writ agent in the guild hall now offers writs to New Halas citizens
• Harvesting NPCs won’t spam individual harvests anymore (yay!)
• LOTS of class progression/ability changes
• New tradeskill quests for level 10+ crafters
• New tradeskill quest lines in Butcherblock and Steamfont
• “Pristine” designation removed from all crafted items
• Gorowyn has been overhauled to ease travel within the city

Click through for the patch notes in full!