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
_____________________

*** 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

April 20, 2016
_____________________

*** Highlights ***

– Hot Zones now randomly rotate between three possible zones for each level range and are currently set to rotate every 3 months.  Talk to Franklin Teek in the Plane of Knowledge to find your Hot Zone and earn bonus loot and experience!

*** Items ***

– Changed the parcel system so that when sending items with LORE augmentations they are checked on the recipient to ensure they don’t already have the augmentation. The item and its attached augmentation will be parceled back to the sender in these situations.
– Vander’s Bane can now summon imps at full power every four seconds. Any imps summoned within the next four seconds will be lower level and smaller.
– All visual ornaments will now change the icon of the item they modify into the icon of the ornament.
– It’s now possible to complete the achievement for wearing a set of the Golden Hero Hero’s Forge ornaments, regardless of how the character acquired that set.

*** Quests & Events ***

– Ancient Heroes – Lady Vox – Corrected a bug that prevented the task from updating when opening Lady Vox’s Hoard.
– Made the medallion pieces used for entry into Veeshan’s Peak ‘no destroy’. The Priest of Discord, however, will still accept these items if you want to be rid of them.
– Wither and Decay and Anashti Sul, Damsel of Decay (Raid and Group) – Bimbly Ironstein can help you to [leave] the instance and return to the static version of Sul Vius: Demiplane of Decay.
– Wither and Decay and Anashti Sul, Damsel of Decay (Raid and Group) – All chat messages for these events will now use the Event Messages color and filter.
– Anashti Sul, Damsel of Decay (Raid and Group) – Gift of Endless Life and Gift of Living Death now block Gifts of Anashti Sul. This should prevent being struck by the damage component of Gift of Living Death multiple times within the same volley.
– Anashti Sul, Damsel of Decay (Raid) – Being inside the area of effect of a Tendrils of Pestilence aura will now change the screen color to indicate the imminent danger. Make sure to enable post effects if you wish to see this visual warning.
– Anashti Sul, Damsel of Decay (Raid) – The Tendrils of Pestilence hazards will despawn after a few minutes.
– Anashti Sul, Damsel of Decay (Raid) – *Entering* the Tendrils of Pestilence aura will no longer result in damage, though standing in one still will. This should prevent being struck by the Tendrils of Pestilence multiple times within the same second.
– Anashti Sul, Lady of Life (Raid) – Curse of Health will now block the effects of most healing spells triggered by passive AA abilities. This applies to: Recourse of Life, Healing Light, Cascading Theft of Life, Tunare’s Grace, and Vehement Recompense.
– Wither and Decay (Raid) – The titular bosses, Wither and Decay, have had their health lowered by 10%.

*** Spells ***

– Added special messaging so that spells which fail due to a caster or target requirement check will now tell you why in most cases.
– Enchanter – The Mind Shatter line of DoTs has been increased in power and efficiency. Levels 80 and above now return mana via resource tap rather than a separate buff.
– Enchanter – The Strangle line of DoTs has been increased in power and efficiency. It will no longer stack with itself above level 62 when cast by the same caster.
– Enchanter – The Baffling Constriction line of DoTs has been increased in power and efficiency. It will no longer stack with itself when cast by the same caster.
– Cleric – Increased the damage dealt by the Sermon of the Righteous line significantly. Spells in this line will no longer stack on a single target when cast by the same caster.

*** AA ***

– Corrected an issue where spells that deal damage as a percentage of the target’s health as well as Mana Burn spells were not reporting the damage dealt to anyone but the caster.
– All fade abilities will now make the caster the last possible target of their attackers’ rampage attacks regardless of whether the caster successfully escapes from combat.
– Consolidated the purchased versions of the following glyph AA abilities to be the second rank of the previous tier glyph to which they logically upgrade:
– – Glyph of the Master is now rank 2 of Glyph of Dragon Scales
– – Glyph of Lost Secrets is now rank 2 of Glyph of Arcane Secrets
– – Glyph of Genari Might is now rank 2 of Glyph of Draconic Potential
– – Glyph of the Cataclysm is now rank 2 of Glyph of Destruction
– Consolidated the 5 Dragons of Norrath progression AA abilities to a single line with 5 ranks.
– Wizard – Adjusted ranks 13-16 of Mana Burn so that the damage added to incoming spells is applied as a static amount.

*** Progression Servers ***

– Corrected an issue that was causing NPC Harm Touch to deal more damage than is intended.
– Chloroblast and Nature’s Touch are available for purchase from Rushka Deklamoor in the Commonlands tunnel and Srendon Gladetender in Greater Faydark when Velious has unlocked.
– Hybrid discipline tomes are available for purchase from Bakrav Uramis in Commonlands when Velious has unlocked.
– Pathing for Veeshan’s Peak 1.0 has been restored to its original version. This should prevent the wandering NPCs from all piling up in a bad location.
– Derakor the Vindicator is no longer visiting Skyshrine on progression servers. This guy no longer thinks he owns the place.
– The classic version of Plane of Mischief has been repopulated by many inhabitants that had previously gone missing.
– Nortlav the Scalekeeper can be found in the Hole once Velious has been unlocked. He uses the Velious version of Mitigation of the Mighty.
– Buffed bosses that use spells now have an aura that applies the Presence of the Mighty effect. Presence of the Mighty increases damage from spells. The damage increase from their spells should roughly match the increase from their melee max hit.
– All buffed bosses will regenerate less health in combat.
– Velious era buffed bosses will mitigate less incoming damage.
– The object from Skyshrine that leads to Cobalt Scar will now display a message if you attempt to use it and do not have the key.

*** Collections ***

– Moved an inaccessible collection location in Fate Rewards the Bold.

*** Miscellaneous ***

– Hot Zones now randomly rotate between three possible zones for each level range and are currently set to rotate every 3 months.  Talk to Franklin Teek in the Plane of Knowledge to find your Hot Zone and earn bonus loot and experience!
– A number of adjustments have been made to the Alcohol Tolerance skill:
– – A higher Alcohol Tolerance skill will now have a bigger impact on how intoxicating a drink will be.
– – A higher Alcohol Tolerance skill will now result in a quicker recovery from the effects of intoxicating drinks or spells.
– – Alcoholic drinks now have varying degrees of potency that can be viewed when inspecting an item.
– In the spirit of the anniversary we’ve applied a bit of polish to the merchant/banker theme music.
– Group chat, raid chat, and fellowship chat messages are now queued for display while zoning similar to tell messages and guild chat.
– Reduced the rate that NPCs hit by melee combat will emit sound.
– Adjusted the animation system so that attack animations take priority over taking damage animations.
– Improved the message displayed to group and raid leaders when a member of their party requests an instance while a member of that party already belongs to an instance.
– Corrected an issue where buffs that have an endurance upkeep cost but are not a combat ability would not fade when the caster ran out of endurance.
– Many Luclin zones will spin up new instanced versions when they are populated by enough adventurers.
– Velious zones with open raids no longer have a maximum player limitation.
– Temple of Veeshan will no longer load balance.
– Removed the embedded Legends of Norrath (LoN) client from the EverQuest client.  If you wish to continue playing LoN, please download and use the standalone client available at www.legendsofnorrath.com.
– Corrected an issue that prevented the Plane of Knowledge book in Blightfire Moors from showing up on the find list.
– Made a number of adjustments to the classic Dracoliche model to improve targeting and melee combat with these NPCs.
– Addressed an issue that was causing some parts of the Hero’s Forge Tipsy Gnomework armor sets to not properly appear.

*** UI ***

– The AA window now has a sort-able timer column.
– There is a new setting in the raid options window for the raid leader that, when checked, will automatically fill people into groups.
– You can now save over existing hot button sets, spell sets, and extended target sets by selecting them in the save menu.
– – This new menu works like load and delete.
– – The new save menu has an option ‘Add New Set’, which works as before.
– Fixed a graphical UI bug which would happen when you have multiples of the same illusion in your key ring and one is removed.
– Made room for heroic stats to show numbers greater than 999.
– Added a Collected / Not Collected status on collectible items. This will show as Not Collected if any of your achievements can be incremented or completed by collecting the item.
– The Parcels tab will now properly sort chronologically instead of alphabetically when sorting by Sent date.
– Alerts associated to events will now disappear when the event has ended.
– Cleaned up some missed references to EQ Players when support was removed for it.
– Converted the options window to have its General tab layout its elements using a vertical layout box to ease adding / removing options.
– Added an option called ‘Auto Show Rewards’ that will control whether or not the rewards window will appear when you’ve been granted a reward or when logging in with pending quest rewards. Please note that if you have pending rewards over the cap, it will still show the rewards window regardless of the setting.
– Added a ‘Clear Note’ button to the Parcels window.
– Added an option to the ‘General’ tab to control whether or not to randomize the selection of the loading screen music.  The default setting is randomized.

– Changed –

EQUI.xml
EQUI_AAWindow.xml
EQUI_Inventory.xml
EQUI_ItemDisplay.xml
EQUI_MerchantWnd.xml
EQUI_OptionsWindow.xml
EQUI_RaidOptionsWindow.xml
EQUI_TCGStartupWnd.xml
EQUI_TCGWnd.xml

*** Previously Updated ***

– Corrected Shield of the Dark Waters to function as a shield.
– Corrected the descriptions for collection items found in Crypt of Sul to properly match their achievement names.
– Enchanter – The icon for Dichotomic Reinforcement has been changed to help differentiate it from other  spell effects.
– Shadowknight – Corrected a timer conflict with Mindless Hatred and Reaver’s Bargain.
– Captain Krasnok (Raid) – Corrected an issue that would prevent you from entering Krasnok’s chambers after he is defeated.
– Captain Krasnok (Raid) – Corrected an issue where Krasnok would not reset properly after defeating unworthy raiding parties.
– We have reduced the time needed to gather the keys to Veeshan’s Peak in the following ways:
– – Reduced the respawn timer on the Top Shard of the Jarsath Medallion by half.
– – An ancient Jarsath is now about three times as likely to spawn rather than a placeholder.
– – The bloodgill marauder will respawn twice as fast.
– – Verix Kylox’s Remains is now almost twice as likely to spawn rather than a placeholder.
– – The shard of the Kylong medallion that spawns in the Kaesora library will respawn twice as fast.
– – The rotting skeleton has had its chance to spawn instead of a placeholder slightly increased.
– – The pained soul has had its chance to spawn instead of a placeholder slightly increased.
– The broadcasts for the tipsy gnome run that occur before midnight PST will now occur on the correct days.
– Corrected the issue that prevented the Agent of Change from functioning properly in /pick zones.
– Blumblum Swigwater can now be found in Cobalt Scar.
– Yelinak can now be found in Skyshrine.
– Narandi will now spawn correctly at the end of the 10th Ring War in Great Divide.

– The EverQuest Team

So Qindaar has been at this game for Seventeen years.  He has met a lot of people, enjoyed the guilds he has been in and enjoyed the world that Sony created.  Daybreak games owns the rights to EverQuest now and all its associated games.  I don’t play the others although I do have accounts with them.  Qindaar is 35% into level 105, the cap, all there is now is achievement points to get, but its the same old stuff day after day.  The game needs a fresh new idea.  I do not see how Daybreak can maintain the game much longer without breathing some new life into it, something more rewarding than kill or be killed for experience.  EverQuest and Qindaar may be coming to an end sooner than later.  Come on Daybreak, make this a lasting legacy and breath some new life into it.

Qindaar level to 105 this morning.  This is the first time in the 17 years of playing that Qindaar has managed to hit the cap.  He still needs to complete level 105, but just being there is a thrill for the time being.  Some shots are included of the final moments of the big 105…

This is my first attempt to add a video to my blog, hopefully it will work.

In the meantime Qindaar has been making good progress to level 105.  He is currently 37% through level 104 thanks to Daybreak games added XP for the 17th Anniversary.  Qindaar may make 105 by the end of the weekend.

The 17th Anniversary for EQ is upon us with many different things to accomplish over the next couple of weeks.  Today Qindaar was fortunate enough to Ding Level 104. With all the events and the extra XP being offered by Daybreak Games there is hope that Qindaar will get to 105 and the cap for the first time in his 17 years.  This is the closest he has ever gotten to the cap level.

On a different note, Daybreak released a letter discontinuing the introduction of EverQuest Next.  I know a lot of us were looking forward to a new game with better graphics and all the bells and whistles that go with it.  Sadly they dropped the ball.  I don’t know how much longer the original EverQuest will be around but there is a new and upcoming game that look promising and it has my attention.

It is called Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen https://pantheonmmo.com/ it looks promising and still in development but worth the watch.  You may see a see blog on this game here in the near future.

March 16, 2016
_____________________

*** Highlights ***

– The Mechanical Fortune Teller in the Plane of Knowledge has information for you regarding the 17th Anniversary events!
– New rewards are available on a jubilant merchant for Commemorative Coins! Look for her in the Special Celebratory Goods section of your find window in the Plane of Knowledge!

*** Items ***

– Corrected an error that allowed some items to ignore recast timers when they were placed in a key ring.
– Fixed an issue with the Dragonscale Skystrider Scales familiar that allowed more than one of these to be summoned at a time.
– Corrected the spells attached to the Fabled Ball of Golem Clay so that it stacks better and obeys the recast timer.
– Transmogrification Scroll is now named Race Change Scroll. Hero’s Forge Armor Crate is now named Hero’s Forge Suit Consolidator.
– A lore conflict has been resolved with augs inside of key ring items and the parcel system.
– The Bottles of Adventure that are offered when claiming your monthly membership bonus are now Heirloom items.

*** Quests & Events ***

– The Mechanical Fortune Teller in the Plane of Knowledge has information for you regarding the 17th Anniversary events!
– Keep an eye out for the 17th Anniversary tipsy newbie gnome race across Faydwer!
– New rewards are available on a jubilant merchant for Commemorative Coins! Look for her in the Special Celebratory Goods section of your find window in the Plane of Knowledge!
– Anashti Sul, Lady of Life (Raid) – Corrected some typos in the names of the achievements.
– Anashti Sul, Enslaver of Souls (Group & Raid) – The Dance Dance Retribution achievement can now be failed if a member of the raid is struck with Mortal Decay.
– Wither and Decay – The All Retch and No Vomit achievement will no longer be failed if a pet enters a vomit aura.
– Wither and Decay – The Third Time’s a Charm achievement can now be acquired.

*** Spells ***

– Fixed a bug with the Shadow line of no effect spells being overridden by spells with AC in the first slot.
– Beastlord – Changed Scorpion Venom, Turepta Blood, Chimera Blood, Diregriffon’s Bite, Malaria, Festering Malady, and Fever Spike to instant cast like the rest of their spell lines.
– Beastlord – Converted poison DoT lines (Scorpion Venom), disease DoT lines (Malaria), and cold DoT lines (Edoth’s Chill) to a new system. All spells will now do more damage per tick, but a single caster can no longer stack other spells in the same line on the target. This change will increase DoT damage overall while using fewer debuff slots.
– Druid – Changed the particle effects on the Frostfell Aura and Wildfire Aura lines so that they no longer make a sound when applied.
– Enchanter – Changed the particle effect on the Mana Reiteration line so that it no longer makes a sound when it is applied.
– Monk – Increased the skill damage percentage and minimum damage amount added by Eye of the Storm.
– Monk – Increased the damage amount added to attacks by Dichotomic Form.

*** NPCs ***

– The Keeper of Lost Things in Shadowrest has retired, permanently.
– Fungusmen across Norrath, celebrate by squishing your hands together! In original and Kunark zones, Fungusmen have reverted to their classic appearance.

*** Progression Servers ***

– After some historical review, we have changed the expansion at which the Temple of Cazic-Thule becomes the Accursed Temple of Cazic-Thule from Velious to Luclin.
– Removed the requirement to wake the Sleeper in order to start the countdown to open the Shadows of Luclin.
– The version of Mitigation of the Mighty on Kunark bosses will have a less severe Spell Threshold damage reduction. The version of Mitigation of the Mighty on Velious bosses will have no Spell Threshold damage reduction.
– Bosses on progression servers will now regenerate more health, especially while idle.

*** Tradeskills ***

– Tharkis’ Select Reserve Catnip will no longer consume two items from the stack when used.

*** Miscellaneous ***

– PvP is now disabled in most instances on the Zek server.
– In raids, you can now set all items to automatically be marked as free grab when using the advanced looting system.
– – This is done by setting the loot type in the raid options window to ‘Entire Raid’.
– – The other settings in this window are currently ignored when using advanced looting.
– Added the ‘Increase Windowed Gamma’ option to the advanced display options window.  This setting is off by default.
– – This setting will apply dramatically increased brightness when the client is in windowed mode with ‘Windowed Gamma’ disabled.
– – This is intended to correct the brightness of the game for desktops with relatively dark default settings.
– The music that plays between launching the game and entering the world from character select is now randomly selected and will change each time you return to character select.
– The following sound settings will now be saved on a per character basis. If a character does not yet have their settings saved they will default to the values already set by the last character that was logged in:
– – Sound Volume
– – Music Volume
– – Sound Realism
– – Combat Music Enabled
– – Environmental Sounds Enabled
– Cleaned up how all INI files are handled in the client to use a more efficient method.
– Corrected a zone crash that could occur when players were under the effects of Fear.
– Unusual precipitation isn’t just for the Plane of Fear any more. You may notice strange rain in other zones as well.
– Found and corrected many zones that had never had their experience modifiers reset from when they were Hot Zones. The following zones have had their Zone Experience Modifier lowered to match other zones in their era:  Acrylia Caverns, The Burning Woods, Crypt of Dalnir, Dragon Necropolis, Dreadspire Keep, The Great Divide, Iceclad Ocean, Mons Letalis, Nagafen’s Lair, The Overthere, Ssraeshza Temple, Stonebrunt Mountains, Valdeholm, Wall of Slaughter
– The following zones have had their Zone Experience Modifier increased to match other zones in their era:  The Temple of Cazic Thule (both versions), Chardok, Dranik’s Scar, Frontier Mountains, Grieg’s End, Kurn’s Tower, Najena, Riwwi, Coliseum of Games, The Ruins of Sebilis, Solusek’s Eye, The Estate of Unrest, Velketor’s Labyrinth

*** UI ***

– You can now opt out of the automatic master looter calculation for grouping and raiding in /advloot’s loot settings window.
– – This will not prevent you from being designated the master looter by the group or raid leader.
– – If everyone in your group or raid deselects the master looter candidate check box, the master looter will be chosen as if everyone has the candidate checked.
– When a zone repops due to a scripted event, items in the advanced loot window will now properly clear out instead of remaining until they expire.
– The color and filters tabs of the options window have been replaced with a single Chat Settings tab which can now be sorted and filtered.
– Removed support and UI for the old EQ Players service.
– The Max Results Per Trader field in the bazaar window will no longer reset itself between opening and closing the window.
– Fixed an issue causing Drakkin player characters of any heritage other than Atathus the Red to show as that heritage to other player clients.

– Changed –

EQUI_AdvancedDisplayOptionsWnd.xml
EQUI_KeyRingWnd.xml
EQUI_LootSettingsWnd.xml
EQUI_OptionsWindow.xml

*** Previously Updated ***

– Anashti Sul, Enslaver of Souls (Group & Raid) – Added messaging to the Aura of Pain mechanic. The characters struck by the auras will see a custom message and a raid-wide message will also indicate which two characters were targeted.
– Anashti Sul, Enslaver of Souls (Raid) – The event will now reset properly.
– Anashti Sul, Enslaver of Souls (Raid) – Corrected a bug that would cause Anashti Sul’s corpse to vanish on success, again, for real.
– Corrected an issue that caused some early-game raid bosses to spawn without their loot.
– Bosses in Phinigel instances have regained their Mitigation of the Mighty buff.

– The EverQuest Team

Happy Anniversary EverQuest.  I cannot believe I have been playing for so long.

-Qindaar