In the last Thone of New Tunaria raid we managed to take down the Harbinger of Absolution.

This time we have been prepared to get further. The trash encounters posed little resistance to our raidforce and even those niffy Gardist/Highpriest/knight encounters fell swiftly. We faced the Harbinger of absolution again and quickly dispatched that mutant.

So here she was — again — Queen Lenya Thex. She charms, she has a nasty knockback and is no easy going like the Harbinger is. We managed to get rid of her sources of might, the two statues that are quite hidden and managed to take her down.

Unfortunately this encounter is not meant to drop any loot - it is just a timesink — but it was great to see her in the dust, and to see Mayong Mistmoore spawning at her spot. This is where we will continue next time but then Mayong will follow her into the abyss.

Via eq2players.com:

Calling all EverQuest® and EverQuest® II players! What’s more fun than defeating opponents in your game and picking up Legends of Norrath booster packs, starter decks, and combo packs? Well, how about the opportunity to get even more of them?

Introducing the Legends of Norrath Promotion Weekend beginning at 2PM (PDT) Friday, September 28th and concluding at 11:59PM (PDT) on Sunday, September 30th. During this special weekend, EQ and EQII players will not only enjoy a significantly increased rate of card pack drops, but will have the opportunity to obtain two brand new cards, Hatred (1P1) and Switch (1P2):

For now, these two new cards will only be available during this three-day promotional weekend, so don’t miss out on the chance to get them!

It’s not only a great time for current Legends of Norrath players to score big, but the perfect opportunity for EQ and EQII players to come see what all the buzz is about with this great new addition to the universe of Norrath. It will be a blast – especially with such an increased opportunity to win cards!

So combat those EQ and EQII enemies this weekend and loot, loot, loot! Then use your card bounty to continue on your way to becoming the ultimate Legends of Norrath player!

UPDATE: In case you are having problems reading the cards description:

Hatred:

Card type: Ability (1 Leveltoken)

Card cost: 1 Mana

Card text: “While your avatar is in combat with one or more light combatants, this ability gets +2 defense. (SHADOW) This ability gets +3 defense in combat against one or more light combatants instead.”

Card comment: “Forget all the poetics about stabbing and spitting your hate. I loathe all who walk in the light with the blunt force trauma of a battle hammer and I exult every day I crush their skulls in my hands.”

Cards number: 1P1

Illustrator: Kieran Yanner

Switch:

Card type: Ability (3 Leveltoken/3 Defense)

Card cost: 2 Mana

Card text: “When you play this ability, destroy one of your abilities.”

Card comment: “We cannot see beyond the choices we must make. So choose — wisely! ~Lanken Rjarn, Erudin’s Craftkeepers Enchanter Guild”

Cards number: 1P2

Illustrator: Kieran Yanner

UPDATE: Added “Hatred” card comment. meanwhileI was able to get 4 of each cards for my collection ;-)

Via eq2players.com:

Beginning at 11:30 p.m. PDT on Monday, September 24th, all SOE services will be unavailable so that we can perform significant upgrades to our authentication and account management systems.

Currently we expect this maintenance to take approximately 14 hours. But as first indicated, it could extend to as long as 24. Customer service, chat and support will also be unavailable at this time. Phone support will still be accessible. SOE websites will indeed be inaccessible at that time but there shall be an automatic site redirect that will be continually updated throughout the day as to the progress of the maintenance.

We apologize for this interruption, however when service is resumed you will have an enhanced user experience to manage your accounts at Station.com.

UPDATE: Maintenance seems to be finished — all EQ2 forums, the eq2players.com site, Legends of Norrath and EQ2 itself seems to be up and running again.

Via eq2-daily.com (via cuppycake.org):

For those interested, go apply for the Rise of Kunark beta.

Are you an adventurer without equal? Are you the kind of person that likes to explore new, uncharted lands? If this sounds like a great adventure, the Rise of Kunark beta may just be for you! Bear in mind, it’s not all fun and not for the faint of heart. Joining in this adventure means providing continued feedback so those that follow in the trails you blaze can be ensured of adventures all their own.
We’ll be adding people periodically over the coming weeks and months, you will not be immediately added when you apply. Sign-up does not guarantee acceptance in the beta program. Please note that you must have a valid station account to sign up for beta, and Beta testers are required to sign a License and Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) in order to participate in our beta program. In order to sign the NDA, participants must be 18 or older.

I do not yet have a link to the official announcment but nonetheless I just signed up — despite the fact that I should receive beta access due to my Equinox pre-order — for my three accounts.

I also still have that genius SOE FanFaire VIP Beta-Pass that literally is a “Get into beta free” pass just like those “Get out of jail” cards in monopoly ;)

UPDATE: Meanwhile i was able to find a Dev post on the SOE EQ2 forums.

UPDATE(2): If you are located in germany and the application link gives you an error 404 then please try this one instead.

I appologise if this is old news for you — otherwise the Legends of Norrath standalone client is available since 2007-09-12.

The file is approx 10MB in size but actually this is just the patcher that will grab all it’s files and download them from SOE.

This is how the patcher looks like:

Wilhelm2451 wrote at his The Ancient Gaming Noob blog about a neat idea — Naked Zones. This term does not describe an empty zone but means that you have to leave all your possesions behind when you want to enter it. You zone in without your equipment.

This could be an interesting idea for todays MMORPGs. What about a zone the size of the Echoes of Faydwer — Emerald Halls zone? Add a rapid progression in the zone place mobs that a raid could kill unarmored and without any weapons.

Fill that with alot of temporary no-zone loot that allows the raid to equip itself inside the zone plus add some quite good loot to zone/section bosses that is persistent.

This will allow players to prove skill that is comparable without the advantages that you have using your own stuff.

Ofcourse one would have to give the game a feature that upon zoning all equipment is getting stored somewhere so that players do not need to squeeze their belongings into the bank.

I like this idea — what do you think about it?

I finaly got “a warg summoning drum” in a booster and was able to trade it for “a dark warg summoning drum” that fits better for a priest.

I’m a happy dwarf now ;)

Today i was able to claim my FanFaire 2007 ingame item. A cloak with the logo of the iksar empire.

\aITEM 161910215 442323362:Sebilisian Cloak of the Gathering\/a

It is called “Sebilisian Cloak of the Gathering” and looks somewhat nice and unique. It has an activateable fireworks effect on it with a 4 or 5 minute recast. It is alot better than last years “Shield of the Gathering” that used to be a buckler that noone ever recognized as being something special.

This is what it looks like :

ERRATA: I was referencing to GU39, but ofcourse this is GU38 :-)

SOE Grimwell posted in the ‘Test Patch Notes‘ section of the SOE Forums what is believed to be GU38.

To summarize the patches:

• Dual wield gets dumped. DW weapons are now just one handed that can be equipped as one hand, primary or secondary weapon.
• Bristlebane gets introduced into the world of EQ2. This well known god from EQ1 now returns as the grand prankster he used to be.
• Another Rise of Kunark introduction quest that starts in Qeynos Harbor/East Freeport.
• Some quests got changed, some spells got changed, some item drop behaviour got changed… etc.

PS: I cannot find any reference to Legends of Norrath in the notes ;)
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SOE Gordish wrote here:

Interested in getting into Legends of Norrath beta?

If you’re interested in joining into the Legends of Norrath beta please send an email with the subject LON to eq2beta@station.sony.com , and that email should only contain just your account name.

When you’re sending in account names, please make sure that the subject is LON and the email body simply contains an account name, with no other text or it won’t be processed.

*Please Note* This covers both EverQuest and EverQuest 2 players even though the address says eq2beta.

So go for it ;). My other two accounts already got beta flagged.