According to player reports, it seems an unintended consequence of today’s patch is that Marks of Manaar have disappeared from loot tables of enemies in various Sentinel’s Fate dungeons. We’ll update you as we know more.
UPDATE: It appears that all Quest Drops off of mobs may now be broken. More info as we have it.
When the expansion launched, tinkerers (and others) noticed that Tinkering Blueprints for the expansion were not dropping. This has now been resolved with today’s hotfix.
Here are your Hotfix Notes for February 25th, after the jump..
continue reading February 25 Hotfix Notes – Battlegrounds Launch…
Several players have reported that Xilaxis the Explorer in the new Labs x4 raid zone is not dropping any loot other than small wooden chests of plat (not a bad reward, but some armor would be nice). Fortunately, timetravelling is on the case:
I found the issue with both his normal- and challenge-mode item tables and corrected them. Should be hotfixed soon, apologies for the frustrations!
No words on those pants though.
Many folks (including myself) have been trying to figure out the purpose of the Gruegnach illusion available from the NPC when you first zone into The Hole, and what, if any benefit it creates.
There’s a thread on the EQ2 Forums which works out exactly how it works. It’s rather tricky to say the least, but at least we now know what EQ2 Devs were aiming for.
UPDATE: timetravelling indicates in the same thread I linked above that he is aware of the complexity of how this illusion works and will be working to clean things up.
Leveling Slowdowns
Also, in an effort to slow down leveling in The Hole, the quests to turn in horseshoes, paws, tails, etc. have been modified to only be repeatable once daily. I’m actually kind of sad to see this but considering I was able to gain half a level just standing in 1 spot repeatedly hailing the NPC, I can see why the change was made. There are clearly some issues with the leveling speed in EQ2 from 80-90 right now.
I know I will get some hate mail saying “What does it harm letting us level as fast as we want?” but I think it negatively affects the health of the game if the de facto level that all players are expected to be is level 90.
It has been an interesting week, to say the least. Expansion launch weeks always are. It’s also been a rather bumpy ride for the servers and developers resolving issues that made it through Beta.
We’re trying to get back into the habit at EQ2Wire of skimming the forums and finding the gems of info which may be of interest to our readers. Here’s the standouts for this week:
What I have noticed in the last 3 days is that folks have a LOT of questions — more so than we saw with the release of The Shadow Odyssey. Between itemization changes, stat consolidation, AA revamps, tranmuting/adornments changes, the number of factions, etc. it seems what’s really needed is a central Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) which points to the resources out there on the web to help you get quick answers to all these questions. So here we go…
Here are your Hotfix notes for today, February 19th, after the jump…
Reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. 
There are some fantastic writeups and coverage all over the web regarding Sentinel’s Fate and Game Update 55. However I do see an opportunity to answer some of the questions I have been receiving in-game over the last 2 days in a sort of Mega FAQ.
Let me tell you, I have been having a LOT of fun in The Hole. Although at first glance the quests and faction earning are a bit confusing. It will undoubtedly become old hat for people, but I’ll see about providing some more information on this subject soon.
Some players are reporting sporadic results patching into the European EQ2 Servers. There have been numerous issues and delays with the Patcher. At this point, the Station Launcher is not successfully patching for most people, so we are recommending the standard EQ2 Launcher.
Players are reporting that they are starting to receive those product keys from DLGamer. DLGamer did not buy enough keys from SOE to fulfill demand.
EU Servers have actually been up for some time now, BUT nobody can get patched because the software on the EU Patch servers (3 different servers in 3 different languages) is not up-to-date. It is unclear why this download didn’t start earlier.
The current estimate is that folks in the EU will be able to play roundabout 12:30AM GMT.
More as we have it.
It’s 4 hours since the launch of Sentinel’s Fate, and we are already hearing widespread reports of players who have reached level 85, 87, and even some level 90 characters. So there you have it, no longer is questing a required way to level.
Unfortunately I wonder how many players will completely skip the contested version of The Hole with as easy as it is to level. I really hoped we’d see a return to form of Kingdom of Sky with people leveling via a combination of dungeon crawls, heroic quests, etc. rather than just pressing the Easy button . I hope I’m wrong.
Sentinel’s Fate is now available for purchase from Steam for anyone outside the U.S.A. and Canada. Meanwhile DLGamer is currently working with the SOE Marketing Dept to get more product keys.
We have heard from Kiara that Direct2Drive has been authorized to sell Sentinel’s Fate to anyone outside the US and Canada. Specifically Australia. So if you have tried and received an error message, try it again:
As soon as we hear from DLGamer or Steam posts the expansion, we’ll let you know!
We were thrilled to notice that Kanga’s awesome EQ2 Adornments site is being updated for Sentinel’s Fate. Check it out!
These will likely be the #1 and #2 questions today.
How do I get to Odus?
By far the fastest way to get to the expansion zones is to take a Druid Ring to Antonica, and then run uphill to the Ulteran Spires and take the Spires to Sundered Frontier. Any Wizard Spires in the world will take you to the Sundered Frontier. You can also purchase the new Wizard Spires guild hall amenity.
What’s up with my AAs?
When you login, your AAs will be completely reset.
Helpful Hint: If you forgot to take a screen snapshot of your AAs before the update, you can view your AAs on your EQ2Players Profile.
Kingdom of Sky AAs (Main Class – Enchanter, Cleric, Druid, etc.)
The Kingdom of Sky trees have changed substantially since TSO.
INT, STR, AGI, WIS, and STA are now folded into the top line. And you only need to spend 1 point in that top line to start spending points on abilities. You must spend 22 points to get the original KoS end-of-line ability. However instead of being limited to 8 points per, you can now spend 10 points per ability.
Once you have spent 70 points, you can start spending points in the new Sentinel’s Fate AA abilities. Although the Sentinel’s Fate AAs fall directly under the original lines, you do not need to spend points above those abilities to get them. After spending 16 points in the Sentinel’s Fate abilities, you can get the SF end-of-line ability.
lines added for effect
Echoes of Faydwer AAs (Subclass – Illusionist, Inquisitor, Fury, etc.)
Spend 70 points in the original Echoes of Faydwer AAs and then you may start spending points in the Sentinel’s Fate line at the bottom. Once you have spent enough points, you can get the end-of-line ability.
Apparently DLGamer has been randomly giving keys to those who purchased Sentinel’s Fate, instead of in the order they were purchased.
From Kiara:
UPDATE: DL Gamer issue. We are going to be providing them more keys. They will NOT be selling anyomore until they have satisfied the people who have already purchased. If you ordered and are waiting on them you will get your key TODAY.
DLGamer are now reporting that they have received more keys and will be making them available in approximately 1 hour.
Sentinel’s Fate is now ONLINE on U.S. Servers. EU servers won’t be up for a bit longer.
Steam will be selling Sentinel’s Fate in approximately 20 minutes. Good news since DLGamer didn’t ask for enough keys. O.o
From Kiara:
US servers are Good to Go and should be coming up very shortly.
EQ2 ZAM has coverage of Game Update 55 including the Golden Path questline, revamp to Butcherblock, etc.
And here are your massive Game Update 55 Notes from EQ2 Forums. After the jump…
DLGamer seems to have run out of Sentinel’s Fate product keys and Steam has not yet listed Sentinel’s Fate. Kiara is aware of both issues.
More news as we have it.
In addition to the ~175 of us in the #EQ2 Chatroom I linked here, the UStream Sentinel’s Fate Launch Event is going on as well. There are nearly 400 visitors in that chat and live video event.
You can find EQ2Wire in either chatroom as Feldon30.
Ryan O’Sullivan at AdventuresofTaas.com was able to obtain the Sentinel’s Fate Collector’s Edition and thought some might be interested in seeing the contents. His Sentinel’s Fate Collector’s Edition Unboxing.