Game Update 63: SKYSHRINE Launches April 17, 2012

Nadia · March 2012

EQ2Wire Guide to Skyshrine

http://eq2wire.com/2012/04/17/eq2wires-guide-to-game-update-63-skyshrine/

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=515981

The Destiny of Velious saga continues! Adventurers breach the barriers of the Withered Lands, seeking entrance to Skyshrine, the glorious, ancient dragon city!

The great citadel of Skyshrine has long housed the Claws of Veeshan behind its massive walls and arcane protections. Now, the unthinkable has happened -- Skyshrine is under siege! Battle and befriend dragons and their wurmkin in the forbidden city of Dracur. Explore the past to unravel the mysterious events that transformed the formidable draconic city into a battlefield full of daunting challenges, terrifying foes and unimaginable treasures!

Far below Skyshrine a different battle rages on. Once known as the Wakening Lands, a majestic valley touched by the Plane of Growth, today oddly overgrown and overrun by a sickly magic… and now known as the Withered Lands. This strange corruption has affected not only the land, but has touched and twisted many of the creatures that once thrived here, including the legendary caretakers of the forest. Now turned to a dark purpose, the caretakers cultivate the afflicted plants and animals. In the deepest regions of the creeping woods, chaotic storms drench the forest and singe the gnarled treetops, where an angry dragon flies menacingly overhead!

Save the forest from corruption, aid the armies of Norrath in reaching Skyshrine, explore the intrigues of dragonkind and save their embattled city!

Destiny of Velious Content Updates Include: *

Level cap raised to 92
Withered Lands outdoor zone with over 100 quests and solo, small group, and raid content
Play YOUR way in Skyshrine instances with solo, normal and challenge group modes
Experience endgame storyline events with Heroic Group and Raid instances

Earn prestige class talents to build the power of your character

All new tradeskill quests and items woven into the story arc

New Drake mount

Age of Discovery Additions:**

Poet’s Palace Dungeon Maker theme and items
New Dungeon Maker adventurers
Tradeskill apprentices with new recipes (one Elite!)
Elite mercenary

New warders to tame for Beastlords

*Requires Destiny of Velious expansion

**Requires Age of Discovery expansion

Coming to a Test Server near you by Thursday, March 15, 2012!

adding this link if EQ2Wire reports any more info regarding the update

http://eq2wire.com/tag/game-update-63/

Nadia · March 2012

more GU63 news --- Prestige AA

http://eq2wire.com/2012/03/16/xelgad-talks-prestige-aas/

Game Update 63 “Skyshrine” rolls out to the live servers on April 17th, but parts of it are now available for testing on the Test and Test Copy servers. In addition to the new Velious zones and a level cap raise to level 92, some of the biggest news is the opening of a new “Prestige” AA tab.

Here’s how it works:

As you know, the level cap is increasing to 92 with this GU.

Instead of gaining more Alternate Advancements, you’ll earn Prestige Points automatically as you level.

You gain 5 Prestige Points per level, one at every 20%.

You spend these points in the new Prestige Tree, which is similar to existing Alternate Advancement trees.

For GU63, the tree will consist of two columns and five rows. As I write this, the fifth row is not ready for Test Server.

The first two rows are unlinked, but the next three are linked vertically.

As you’re testing and giving feedback, consider that we do not intend this tree to provide nearly as much increase to character power as the Heroic Tree did. We want to hear if you think a Prestige Skill encourages unfun gameplay or just doesn’t seem to fit the class, but none of them are intended to make a huge increase to player power. Additionally, the test server currently allows unlimited respecs for standard Alternate Advancements, Beastlord Warders and the new Prestige Points.

Regarding format, the columns are intended to provide two distinct paths. Most classes are fairly straightforward – DPS vs. Healing, Area of Effect DPS vs. Single Target DPS, ect – but Rogues, Summoners, Bards, and Enchanters each have a column dedicated to what we’ve been calling “versatility,” which is intended to expand the role of the class slightly or provide a situational benefit that does not directly increase DPS. We expect those columns to be significantly less popular among min/max’ers, but obviously they need to be viable in other playstyles.

…There is a new forum category for “Game Update #63 Classes.” All feedback involving classes should be posted in the below forums once they are available:

Priests :http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/…m?forum_id=2844

Fighters: http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/…m?forum_id=2845

Scouts: http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/…m?forum_id=2846

Mages: http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/…m?forum_id=2847

As always, your feedback is appreciated!

Nadia · March 2012

280 AA required to level past 90

http://eq2wire.com/2012/03/21/280-aas-required-to-level-past-90/

Hey folks,

I know that much of this is information that you already knew, but we wanted to get everything in a centralized place, so people don’t have to dig around to try and find the answers to these questions.

The AA requirement won’t be 320 for sure (We don’t want to require AoD), the bar for earning XP in 90 is going to be 280, because you have your heroic endlines at that point (and I hate large primes so 277 wasn’t going to work). The requirement exists so we (the developers) and you (the players) have a little more information about what a level 91+ player is. Right now if you form a pick up group, you really don’t have an idea whether your tank has 65 AAs or 317 AAs. The same goes for us, content for a level 90 with few AAs is pretty different than content for a level 90 with a whole lot of them.

Nadia · March 2012

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/03/24/the-tattered-notebook-new-details-on-game-update-63/#continued

Skyshrine

Old EverQuest vets will recognize Skyshrine, the home of the Claws of Veeshan dragons, although it was originally located in the Wakening Lands (according to the lore, they've been corrupted by some sort of magic). The city is under siege, and players will have the chance to help the dragons and save the city from destruction. It will include solo, group, and raid instances, so it looks like there's something for everyone.

Nadia · April 2012

massively did a preview - goto link for full article

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/03/31/the-tattered-notebook-a-scenic-tour-of-the-withered-lands/

near the New Combine Foothold where you first drop in, there's an open-world dungeon, called the K'Val Ruins, and it looks like it's designed for small hunting parties. It's guarded by Giants, and inside are a few nameds. Again, the dungeon makes great use of flight, and there are several shafts where you can fly up and down to various levels of the temple. You can fly safely through the zone because even though the giants inside are massive, the halls and rooms are even more impressive.

Nadia · April 2012

gu63 - aa exp curve to flatten

http://eq2wire.com/2012/04/03/alternate-advancement-xp-curve-gets-flattened/

EQ2 Lead Designer Lyndro had this to say:

Yes, the experience to reach 280 AA has been reduced. This change will go live with the game update. All existing players will have the AAs converted to the new tables, so you’ll probably be granted a few points when you first log in. Since the amount of experience it takes to earn a point is different depending on how many points you have, how many points you get will vary.

How Many Free AAs?

Senya and other players on Test reported receiving up to 33 AAs after the revised figures:

245 to 278
235 to 266
190 to 212
162 to 182
88 to 102

from comments (at same link)

As per test…

If you currently have 248 AAs, you’ll be at 280 with this change.

If you currently have 284 AAs, you’ll go to cap of 320.

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?start=15&topic_id=516875

From what people are reporting it looks like a 13% increase. That's a best guess from the average, and may not be accurate because it's from looking at whole AA levels not actual xp figures. But based on that:

current_AA * 1.13 = post_GU63_AA

Nadia · April 2012

new drake mounts with the update - can be quested or raid drops

http://www.everquest2.com/news/article?month=042012&id=5189

Saxx0n · April 2012

Has the /who hack been fixed?

Are mercs still used in pvp?

Of course these are relevant to the pvp server. Until these exploits are addressed for pvp these expansions are moot for me.

Nadia · April 2012

Originally posted by Saxx0n
Are mercs still used in pvp?

i do not pvp in EQ2

but 6 weeks ago, Mercs damage was nerfed for PVP

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=515264

http://www.eq2flames.com/player-vs-player-issues/87352-mercs-pvp.html

Greyhawk4x4 · April 2012

Originally posted by Nadia
new drake mounts with the update - can be quested or raid drops

http://www.everquest2.com/news/article?month=042012&id=5189

That drake mount looks amazing.

Nadia · April 2012

I wasnt aware of this

http://eq2wire.com/2012/04/13/soe-community-webcast-transcript-game-update-63-skyshrine-pt-1/#more-13367

We’ve done something we’ve never done before, which is to create Challenge Heroic instances, as well as Solo Heroic instances which are balanced for either a really powerful solo character. Otherwise they’re perfect for duoing with another player or a mercenary.

Nadia · April 2012

transcript #2

http://eq2wire.com/2012/04/13/soe-community-webcast-notes-game-update-63-skyshrine-pt-2/#more-13414

Skyshrine will not immediately be added to Dungeon Finder, because it would let you bypass certain requirements. It’s like with travel bells and druid travel. We want people to discover these zones first, and then later we can consider adding faster travel.

The access quests for Skyshrine dungeons only require 1 person to be keyed to access them.

Q&A

Q: How will the Veteran Bonus be handled now that the level cap is being raised to 92?

Lyndro: For now, we’re leaving the Veteran Bonus at level 90. I won’t guarantee that it will stay level 90 forever.

Q: Are you planning to revamp any old zones in the near future?

Lyndro: We’ve got Qeynos coming this summer (Game Update 64 in August). That’s going to be a Freeport style revamp. We’re going to tell new stories, and add new quests. Qeynos is going to be turned into two zones where Freeport was one zone.

Nadia · April 2012

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/04/15/a-land-corrupted-and-a-city-under-seige-a-look-at-gu63-with-the/

There are 14 to 15 instances of Skyshrine for players to tackle, in addition to 12 different heroic instances, three raid zones, and three solo zones, so this update brings quite a bit of new content.

Sunscour · April 2012

Just a great big pile of AWESOME!!

Nadia · April 2012

http://eq2wire.com/2012/04/16/game-update-63-skyshrine-downtime-announcement/

On Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at 7 AM Pacific* all U.S. EverQuest II servers will come down for Game Update 63: Skyshrine. Expected downtime is approximately 5 hours.

Time Zone Conversion

PST: April 17 @ 7:00am~12:00 Noon
EST: April 17 @ 10:00am~3:00pm
BST: April 17 @ 18:00~23:00
CET: April 17 @ 19:00~0:00

Nadia · April 2012

patch notes

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=517341

JeroKane · April 2012

I would come back in a heartbeat if they fix the broken items and itemization lvl1-80 !

The completely wrecked it with the script they ran over 8 months ago, but as usual, the just move on and didn't bother fixing it !

/le sigh

Nadia · April 2012

Originally posted by JeroKane
I would come back in a heartbeat if they fix the broken items and itemization lvl1-80 !

The completely wrecked it with the script they ran over 8 months ago, but as usual, the just move on and didn't bother fixing it !

/le sigh

I agree SOE should have kept at fixing gear but I wouldnt call it broken

current players would not notice much difference if they didnt see gear preAugust 2011

or at least I havent - and ive leveled a few new characters in the past few months

http://eq2wire.com/2011/08/29/game-update-61-reitemization-pushes-devs-players-to-the-limit/

Nadia · April 2012

EQ2Wire Guide to Skyshrine

http://eq2wire.com/2012/04/17/eq2wires-guide-to-game-update-63-skyshrine/

Nadia · April 2012

critical commentary about the GU63 gear being a bit too good

http://eq2wire.com/2012/04/19/the-skyshrine-gear-reset-putting-all-your-eggs-in-one-update/

eyeswideopen · April 2012

Well, this is DoV: Part 2. When's Part 3?

Nadia · April 2012

Originally posted by eyeswideopen
Well, this is DoV: Part 2. When's Part 3?

they consolidated part2 and part3 into part2 -- there will be only 3 game updates this year

http://eq2wire.com/2012/01/25/takeback-only-3-game-updates-this-year-gu63-slips-to-april/

GU64 - Qeynos due in August

GU65 - expansion due in November

Hedeon · April 2012

Originally posted by Nadia

Originally posted by eyeswideopen

Well, this is DoV: Part 2. When's Part 3?

they consolidated part2 and part3 into part2 -- there will be only 3 game updates this year

http://eq2wire.com/2012/01/25/takeback-only-3-game-updates-this-year-gu63-slips-to-april/

GU64 - Qeynos due in August

GU65 - expansion due in November

so we are getting age of discovery in November yea? do wonder how long they plan on playing catch up on expansions, selling half done expansions and then claim the GUs is actual expansion additions, it just means GU´s doesnt really exisist anymore as free updates

Nadia · April 2012

Originally posted by Hedeon it just means GU´s doesnt really exisist anymore as free updates

if future game updates requires expansions to play them - I agree

the august update wont require any expansions

Nadia · April 2012

gu63 bugfixes, 04/26

http://eq2wire.com/2012/04/26/april-26-2012-update-notes/

Nadia · April 2012

more gu63 info

http://eq2wire.com/2012/04/27/elite-mercs-and-claws-of-veeshan-faction-items/

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Game Update 63: SKYSHRINE Launches April 17, 2012

Destiny of Velious Content Updates Include: *

Age of Discovery Additions:**

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Game Update 63: SKYSHRINE Launches April 17, 2012

Destiny of Velious Content Updates Include: *

Age of Discovery Additions:**

Comments