Here is the latest updates from the Producer of EverQuest, enjoy the read:

https://www.everquest.com/news/eq-producers-letter-may-2016

May 18, 2016
_____________________

*** Highlights ***

– Numerous AAs have had their effects consolidated into their main lines.
– We’ve simplified many item mods so that they’re now calculated using Heroic Stats.

*** Items ***

– The following item mods have been converted to ‘Heroic Mods’ and will now be calculated as a function of a player’s total Heroic Statistics:
– – Accuracy: 4 points per point of Heroic Dexterity up to 150 accuracy.
– – Avoidance: 3 points per point of Heroic Agility up to 100 avoidance.
– – Combat Effects: 3 points per point of Heroic Dexterity up to 100 combat effects.
– – Damage Shield: 1 point per point of Heroic Strength up to 35 points of damage shield.
– – Damage Shield Mitigation: 1 point per point of Heroic Strength up to 25 points of damage shield mitigation.
– – DoT Shielding: 1% per point of Heroic Wisdom or Heroic Intelligence (whichever total is higher) up to 35% DoT Shielding.
– – Shielding: 1% per point of Heroic Stamina up to 35% Shielding.
– – Spell Shielding: 1% per point of Heroic Wisdom or Heroic Intelligence (whichever total is higher) up to 35% Spell Shielding.
– – Strikethrough: 1% per point of Heroic Agility up to 35% Strikethrough.
– – Stun Resist: 1% per point of Heroic Stamina up to 35% Stun Resist.
– The caps on Heroic Mods have been extended once the player’s corresponding Heroic Statistic reaches 400 points. The increased caps and the amount of Heroic Statistics required to increase Heroic Mods beyond their initial caps can be viewed as tooltips in the Stats page of the inventory window.
– Removed the restriction that required Secrets of Faydwer to be unlocked on the server and owned by the player in order to utilize the effects of Heroic Statistics.
– Coinciding with the conversion of numerous ‘Item Mods’ to ‘Heroic Mods’, all items that previously had mod values that are now ‘Heroic Mods’ have had their values converted into Heroic Statistics. If the existing Heroic Statistic on an item was already greater than the conversion value, then it has been left unchanged.  Due to the fact that each Heroic Statistic (besides Heroic Charisma) now impacts two Heroic Mods, the conversion ratio has been scaled as follows:
– – Accuracy: 1-3 points is now 1 Heroic Dexterity, 4+ points is now 1 + total/8 rounded up.
– – Avoidance: 1-2 points is now 1 Heroic Agility, 3+ points is now 1 + total/6 rounded up.
– – Combat Effects: 1-2 points is now 1 Heroic Dexterity, 3+ points is now 1 + total/6 rounded up.
– – Damage Shield: 1-3 points is now 1 Heroic Strength, 4+ points is now 3 + total/2 rounded up.
– – Damage Shield Mitigation: 1-3 points is now 1 Heroic Strength, 4+ points is now 3 + total/2 rounded up.
– – DoT Shielding: 1-3 points is now 1 Heroic Intelligence and/or Heroic Wisdom, 4+ points is now 3 + total/2 rounded up.
– – Shielding: 1-3 points is now 1 Heroic Stamina, 4+ points is now 3 + total/2 rounded up.
– – Spell Shielding: 1-3 points is now 1 Heroic Intelligence and/or Heroic Wisdom, 4+ points is now 3 + total/2 rounded up.
– – Strikethrough: 1-3 points is now 1 Heroic Agility, 4+ points is now 3 + total/2 rounded up.
– – Stun Resist: 1-3 points is now 1 Heroic Stamina, 4+ points is now 3 + total/2 rounded up.
– Bottles of Replenishment and Spirit can no longer be dispelled.
– Frozen Orb of the Fabled King can now cycle through its 5 variations using the item conversion button.
– Stone of the Crystal Circle can now cycle through its 3 variations using the item conversion button.
– The stats on Jenniy’s Two-ton Cuirass will again give you something you can hold on to.
– The spell descriptions for Seething Fury on the Rogue epic, Ragebringer, and Rage of Tallon on the Warrior epic, Blade of Tactics, are now correct. The attack and haste components of the buffs on these epics were moved to the items’ stats long ago.

*** Quests & Events ***

– Velishan (Raid) – Velishan will now correctly cast the AE Frozen Limbs periodically while in ice form.
– Velishan (Raid) – Velishan’s Targeted AE while in ice form, Frost Shock, now has a much lower impact radius.
– Sleeper’s Tomb – This will now automatically switch to the post-awakened version after Kerafyrm has been awakened instead of requiring developer intervention.
– Brew Day – Corrected a scheduling error that turned Brew Day into Brew Year.

*** Spells ***

– Enchanter – The Mind Shatter line will now return mana at a lower rate. It will still return more mana than it did before damage was increased.
– Enchanter – Added hate modifiers to the Mind Shatter, Strangle, and Baffling Constriction lines so they generate less hate when they land.
– Ranger – Increased damage and efficiency of the Locust Swarm line of DoTs, but one character will no longer be able to stack multiple spells from the same line on the same target.
– Ranger – Added a negative hate modifier to the Locust Swarm line of DoTs so it will not generate as much extra hatred as the increased damage would otherwise cause.
– Ranger – Renamed Cloud of Wasps to Wasp Swarm and Horde of Hornets to Hornet Swarm so that those two spell names now fit better in their line.

*** NPC ***

– NPCs handle snare immunity and root immunity independently now. The message displayed when a snare or root spell fails to land on an NPC due to their immunity will indicate this.
– Gargoyles across Norrath, celebrate by flapping your granite wings! In classic zones, Gargoyles have reverted to their classic appearance.

*** AA ***

– Druid & Shaman – Reduced the success rate of Covenant of Spirit.
– Multiple – Reduced the effectiveness of Staff Block for Enchanters, Magicians, Monks, Necromancers, and Wizards.
– Pet Users – The expansion requirements for what was previously Quickened Fortify Companion have been lowered to better follow the natural progression of the ability.
– Bard – Refunded Extended Quick Time as the bonus conferred by this ability did not extend Quick Time more than Extended Ingenuity.
– Berserker – Corrected an issue where Blood Pact Strike was not reflecting Blood Pact Penance.
– Cleric – Reduced the success rate of Touch of the Divine.
– Cleric – Renamed the ability ‘Powerful Elixirs’ to ‘Extended Elixirs’ and corrected an issue that caused it to extend the duration of spells outside of the single target and group target Elixir spell lines.
– Monk – Adjusted Kick Mastery to work on all 3 kick special attack types.
– Monk – Adjusted Punch Mastery to include more ranks and more closely match the bonuses offered by Kick Mastery.
– Monk – Adjusted the proc rate of Fists of Steel, ranks 9-10 reduced by 1-2%, ranks 12-15 increased by 1-4%.
– Monk – Corrected an issue where Five Point Palm was not correctly reflecting Five Point Palm Focusing.
– Monk – Pressure Points has been updated to increase the accuracy of all 6 monk special attack types.
– Monk – Renamed Heel of Brithrax to Focusing of Brithrax and adjusted the damage multiplier to function on all 6 monk special attack types.
– Monk – Renamed the ability line Way of the Katori to Disciple of the Katori.
– Necromancer – Corrected data errors for Scent of Terris that caused the line to reduce the target’s magic and corruption resistances for less than the intended amounts.
– Necromancer – Modified Hand of Death to directly apply the effects of Death’s Grip when the ability is activated rather than requiring the caster to have their health reduced to 80% to trigger the effect.
– Necromancer – Reduced the expansion requirements on ranks 2 and 3 of Life Burn to better align with the consolidation.
– Necromancer – Refunded Quickened Death Bloom as it did not function in its current form and added 4 additional ranks to Death Bloom and Death Blossom to correctly shorten the cast time of these abilities.
– Paladin – Corrected an issue that prevented ‘Extended Divine Call’ from functioning as intended.
– Paladin – Removed the restriction that prevented Divine Stun from triggering the effects of the Healing Light ability.
– Paladin – Renamed the ability ‘Fervent Blessing’ to ‘Hastened Lay on Hands’.
– Paladin – Renamed the ability ‘Hastened Piety’ to ‘Hastened Hand of Piety’.
– Paladin – Renamed the ability ‘Rush to Judgment’ to ‘Hastened Divine Stun’.
– Ranger – Corrected ranks 1-13 of Scout’s Mastery of Piercing to include 2-handed piercing weapons.
– Ranger – Corrected the description and implementation of Nature’s Reprieve.
– Ranger – Increased the effectiveness of ranks 10-17 Ranged Finesse by 1-3%.
– Ranger – Refunded ranks 1-3 of Blessing of the Hunter as the mana return offered by this ability was included in ranks 13-15 of Hunter’s Fury.
– Ranger – Refunded ranks 1-3 of Quickened Cover Tracks.
– Ranger – Renamed Scout’s Mastery of Blunt Weapons to Scout’s Mastery of Crushing.
– Shadowknight – Corrected an issue where Vicious Bite of Chaos was not reflecting Vicious Bite of Chaos Recourse.
– Shaman – Corrected a data error that caused rank 10 of Rabid Bear to heal for less than rank 9.
– Consolidated Hastened Mending to be ranks 2-4 of Mend Companion.
– Multiple – Consolidated Blood Tithe to be ranks 4-9 of Affliction Mastery for Druids, Shamans, and Necromancers.
– Multiple – Consolidated Hastened Silent Casting to be ranks 6-13, Quickened Silent Casting to be ranks 15-17, and Extended Silent Casting to be ranks 18-22 of Silent Casting for Enchanters, Magicians, Necromancers, and Wizards.
– Multiple – Consolidated Spell Casting Expertise to be ranks 1-3 of Mastery of the Past for Bards, Enchanters, Magicians, Necromancers, Shadowknights, and Wizards.
– Multiple – Consolidated Vengeful Spirits to be various ranks of Destructive Cascade for Druids, Enchanters, Necromancers, Shadowknights, and Shamans.
– Pet Users – Consolidated Advanced Pet Discipline to be ranks 2-3 of Pet Discipline.
– Pet Users – Consolidated Hastened Companion’s Blessing to be ranks 10-12 of Companion’s Blessing.
– Pet Users – Consolidated Hastened Companion’s Relocation to be ranks 2-4 of Companion’s Relocation.
– Pet Users – Consolidated Hastened Divine Companion Aura to be ranks 2-6 of Divine Companion Aura.
– Pet Users – Consolidated Hastened Fortify Companion to be ranks 5-7 and 12-14 and Quickened Fortify Companion to be ranks 3, 10, 15, 19, and 23 of Fortify Companion.
– Pet Users – Consolidated Persistent Minion to be rank 3 of Suspended Minion and Quickened Suspended Minion ranks 1-3 to be ranks 4-6 of Suspended Minion.
– Pet Users – Consolidated Quickened Companion’s Aegis to be ranks 2-4 of Companion’s Aegis.
– Druid & Shaman – Consolidated Hastened Call of the Wild to be ranks 2-5 and Quickened Call of the Wild to be ranks 6-8 of Call of the Wild.
– Druid & Shaman – Consolidated Hastened Paralytic Spores to be ranks 3-8 of Paralytic Spores.
– Druid & Shaman – Consolidated Hastened Paralytic Spray to be ranks 3-5 and 7-8 of Paralytic Spray.
– Druid & Wizard – Consolidated Hastened Exodus to be ranks 2-9 of Exodus.
– Magicians & Shamans – Consolidated Hastened Malosinete to be ranks 13-18 and 21, Extended Malosinete to be ranks 7-11 and 23-25, and Quickened Malosinete to be ranks 2-6 of Malosinete.
– Magicians & Shamans – Consolidated Hastened Wind of Malosinete to be ranks 5-10 of Wind of Malosinete.
– Monk & Warrior – Consolidated Hastened Grappling Strike to be ranks 2-9 of Grappling Strike.
– Bard – Consolidated Extended Fierce Eye to be rank 2 and Hastened Fierce Eye to be ranks 3-9 of Fierce Eye.
– Bard – Consolidated Hasted Bellow to be ranks 27-29 of Boastful Bellow.
– Bard – Consolidated Hastened Bladed Song to be ranks 10-12 of Bladed Song.
– Bard – Consolidated Hastened Blades to be ranks 4-6, 16-18, and 34-35 and Extended Dance of Blades to be ranks 25, 32-33 of Dance of Blades.
– Bard – Consolidated Hastened Cacophony to be ranks 10-15, 22-24, and 34-36 of Cacophony.
– Bard – Consolidated Hastened Dirge of the Sleepwalker to be ranks 4-6 and 25-26 and Reaching Dirge of the Sleepwalker to be ranks 10-12 and 19-21 of Dirge of the Sleepwalker.
– Bard – Consolidated Hastened Funeral Dirge to be ranks 7-12 and 28 of Funeral Dirge.
– Bard – Consolidated Hastened Hymn of the Last Stand to be ranks 16-18 of Hymn of the Last Stand.
– Bard – Consolidated Hastened Lyre Leap to be ranks 2-4 of Lyre Leap.
– Bard – Consolidated Hastened Quick Time to be ranks 3-5 and 9-15 of Quick Time.
– Bard – Consolidated Hastened Selo’s Kick to be ranks 4-5 of Selo’s Kick.
– Bard – Consolidated Hastened Song of Stone to be ranks 10-15 and 23-24 of Song of Stone.
– Bard – Consolidated Hastened Tune In Your Head to be ranks 2-8 of Tune Stuck In Your Head.
– Druid – Consolidated the buff Nature’s Fury Effect into the primary Nature’s Fury buff.
– Druid – Consolidated Extended Nature’s Blessing to be ranks 7-9 of Nature’s Blessing.
– Druid – Consolidated Hastened Nature’s Fury to be ranks 4-11 of Nature’s Fury.
– Druid – Consolidated Hastened Nature’s Guardian to be ranks 13-18 of Nature’s Guardian.
– Druid – Consolidated Hastened Spirit of the Bear to be ranks 2-4 of Spirit of the Bear.
– Druid – Consolidated Hastened Wall of Wind to be ranks 5-10 of Wall of Wind.
– Druid – Consolidated Hastened Wrath of the Wild to be ranks 7-11, 15-19, and 30-31 of Wrath of the Wild.
– Druid – Consolidated Viscid Roots to be ranks 2-4 of Enhanced Root.
– Monk – Consolidated Hastened Eye Gouge to be ranks 22-24 and 28-29 of Eye Gouge.
– Monk – Consolidated Hastened Five Point Palm to be ranks 7-11 of Five Point Palm.
– Monk – Consolidated Hastened Purification of the Body to be ranks 2-11 of Purify Body.
– Monk – Consolidated Hastened Stunning Kick to be ranks 16-18 and 25-27 of Stunning Kick.
– Monk – Consolidated Hastened Thunder to be ranks 3-5 of Infusion of Thunder.
– Monk – Consolidated Hastened Zan Fi’s Whistle to be ranks 10-12 and Extended Zan Fi’s Whistle to be ranks 13-15 and 23-24 of Zan Fi’s Whistle.
– Monk – Consolidated Stonefoot into Kick Mastery and adjusted the minimum damage bonus to work on all 3 kick special attack types.
– Monk – Consolidated the 2-hand blunt minimum damage component of Disciple of the Tonfa into Way of the Katori.
– Monk – Consolidated the hand to hand and 1-hand blunt minimum damage components of Fists of Steel and Punch Mastery into Disciple of the Tonfa.
– Monk – Consolidated the minimum damage component of Heel of Brithrax into Kick Mastery.
– Necromancer – Consolidated Hastened Blood Magic to be ranks 3-8 of Blood Magic.
– Necromancer – Consolidated Hastened Hand of Death to be ranks 4-6 and Quickened Hand of Death to be ranks 7-9 of Hand of Death.
– Necromancer – Consolidated Hastened Mercurial Torment to be ranks 2-4 and and 6-8 of Mercurial Torment.
– Necromancer – Consolidated Hastened Pestilent Paralysis to be ranks 4-7 and 10 of Pestilent Paralysis.
– Necromancer – Consolidated Hastened Scent of Terris to be ranks 3-7 of Scent of Terris.
– Necromancer – Consolidated Hastened Wake the Dead to be ranks 7-9 and 16-18 and Quickened Wake the Dead to be ranks 25-27 of Wake the Dead.
– Necromancer – Consolidated Soul Seeker to be ranks 2-4, 6-11, and 13-16 of Life Burn.
– Rogue – Consolidated Extended Envenomed Blades to be ranks 13-18 of Envenomed Blades.
– Rogue – Consolidated Hastened Getaway to be ranks 2-6 of Stealthy Getaway.
– Rogue – Consolidated Hastened Ligament Slice to be ranks 4-9 and Expertise of Blades to be ranks 10-12 of Ligament Slice.
– Rogue – Consolidated Hastened Purification to be ranks 2-11 of Purge Poison.
– Rogue – Consolidated Hastened Tumble to be ranks 3-5 of Tumble.
– Rogue – Consolidated Seized Opportunity to be ranks 2-16 of Chaotic Stab.
– Shadowknight & Necromancer – Consolidated Hastened Harmshield to be ranks 2-4 of Harmshield.
– Shadowknight – Consolidated Consumption of the Soul 1-26 to be ranks 2-21, 30-35, and 37 of Leech touch and Hastened Leech Touch to be ranks 22-29 and 36 of Leech Touch.
– Shadowknight – Consolidated Quickened Scourge Skin to be ranks 2-4 of Scourge Skin.
– Shaman – Consolidated Extended Spiritual Blessing to be ranks 7 and 16-17 of Spiritual Blessing.
– Shaman – Consolidated Hastened Ancestral Aid to be ranks 16-18 and 25-26 of Ancestral Aid.
– Shaman – Consolidated Hastened Cannibalization to be ranks 6-8, 12, and 15-16 of Cannibalization.
– Shaman – Consolidated Hastened Crippling Spirit to be ranks 3-5 of Crippling Spirit.
– Shaman – Consolidated Hastened Dampen Resistance to be ranks 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 of Dampen Resistance.
– Shaman – Consolidated Hastened Rabidity to be ranks 2-4 and 12-14 of Rabid Bear.
– Shaman – Consolidated Hastened Spirit Call to be ranks 12-21 and Quickened Spirit Calling to be ranks 31-33 of Spirit Call.
– Shaman – Consolidated Hastened Spiritual Channeling to be ranks 2-9 of Spiritual Channeling.
– Shaman – Consolidated Hastened Turgur’s Swarm to be ranks 3-5 of Turgur’s Swarm.
– Shaman – Consolidated Hastened Union of Spirits to be ranks 13-15 and 26-27 of Union of Spirits.
– Shaman – Consolidated Hastened Virulent Paralysis to be ranks 10-18 of Virulent Paralysis.

*** Progression Servers ***

– Sleeper’s Tomb – This will now automatically switch to the post-awakened version after Kerafyrm has been awakened instead of requiring developer intervention.
– Chloroblast and Nature’s Touch are available for purchase from Rushka Deklamoor in the Commonlands tunnel and Quelolista Samautia in West Freeport when Velious has unlocked.
– The Presence of the Mighty aura effect will no longer aggro pets, break invisibility, or break feign death.
– Thylex will no longer respawn shortly after Vulak has spawned. There is now a random variance on Thylex’s respawn time.
– Secrets of Faydwer tradeskill items will no longer drop on Progression Servers until the expansion is unlocked.
– The named drakes in the Halls of Testing in Temple of Veeshan now have Mitigation of the Mighty and will spawn twice as frequently, on average.
– Jortreva the Crusader, Grendish the Crusader, Susarrak the Crusader, and Charayan the Crusader in Skyshrine are restricted until Planes of Power has been unlocked.
– The rocks blocking the entrance to The Nest from Broodlands and Broodlands from Lavastorm should be removed more reliably when access to these areas has been unlocked.

*** Miscellaneous ***

– It should no longer be necessary to zone after adding a key to your keyring before you can enter a zone that requires that key.
– Corrected some Hot Zone targets in Sarith and Atiiki.

*** UI ***

– Fixed an issue that caused problems with the advanced loot window and raids when an NPC/chest would drop more than one of an item.
– – This only occurred when the raid loot mode was set to ‘Entire Raid’.
– Added a save confirmation for saving over existing spell sets, hot button sets, and extended target sets.
– The current and maximum labels for Heroic Mods in the Stats page of the inventory window will now display the total corresponding Heroic Statistic necessary to increase that modifier in the tooltip when hovering over the label.
– The item display window no longer displays values for mods that have been changed to Heroic Mods.
– Adjusted the spacing, layout, and groupings of the stat labels in the Stats page of the inventory window.
– Changed the expedition window to report whether players meet the requirements needed to participate in an expedition.
– – Note that requirements for dynamic zones are calculated when it starts up, so there will be a delay before the flagging status is updated on your client.
– – Additionally, some expeditions are set up in special ways so the Status window may display as blank for these cases.
– Fixed a bug in the expedition window which caused it to show with status ‘unknown’ when adding members to an expedition.
– Changed the raid window to report whether players meet the requirements needed to participate in an expedition.
– – Flag status can be sorted.
– – The Dump command in the raid window has been modified to include the Expedition Missing, Task Missing, and Flagged status.

– Changed –
EQUI_DynamicZoneWnd.xml
EQUI_Inventory.xml
EQUI_OptionsWindow.xml
EQUI_RaidWindow.xml

*** Previously Updated ***

– Liquid Courage – Corrected an issue with the bonus objective where player pets and mercenaries would not increment the bonus counter.
– Liquid Courage – Corrected a bug that could prevent the Golden Helm of Rallos Zek from being awarded to a qualifying player. Additionally reduced the number of enemies needed to be killed to award this bonus item.
– Fixed a crash with custom UIs and inspecting items.
– Fixed an issue with the AA cost column not sorting properly.
– Fixed an issue where the default UI would report invalid errors in UIErrors.txt when inspecting an item.

– The EverQuest Team

Been very busy with work and Passover, finally coming up for air.  Have not played recently, but logged in today and saw a minor patch update.  See below for details.

April 22, 2016
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*** Items ***
– Corrected several problems with augments that drop from new hotzones:
– – All races and classes can use them.
– – They now correctly fit in equipment augment slots 7 or 7 and 8 as applicable.
– – Lowered the augment distiller requirements to match those of other hot zone augments.

*** Quests & Events ***
– Fixed the spelling of the Hot Zone task that asks you to kill Boogyman(men). It now appropriately asks you to kill Boogeyman(men).

*** UI ***
– Fixed a crash with custom UIs and inspecting items.
– Fixed an issue where the default UI would report invalid errors in UIErrors.txt when inspecting an item.

– Changed –

*** Previously Updated ***
– Fixed a problem that allowed some hot zone augments to drop in zones that were not currently flagged as hot zones due to rotations or due to them being on Progression Servers that have not unlocked hot zones yet.

– The EverQuest Team