.....................................................................

------------------------------
July 14, 2004
------------------------------

Headlines! 

Veeshan's Peak has been re-worked. Enjoy the new challenge. 
A new Adventure Zone appears on Stormhammer. 
You can now remove augments without losing them. 

Veeshan's Peak! 
With this revamp we have Updated the level and NPC list for the zone: 
Please note that this zone is now an elemental level zone! The entry 
quest to Veeshan’’s Peak has been changed. The original key quest has 
not been modified. However, the new entry quest uses the old key and 
offers an alternate quest to do instead of the original key quest. 

- Items in the zone are now of elemental planes quality. 
- Faction now matters: Dragons in Veeshan’s Peak will now speak to 
players if you have the correct faction and can understand them. 
- New quests and lore: The dragons in Veeshan’s Peak will now give 
players the option to acquire items through questing for them. 
- The zone is now an exp zone as well: Hunting in the areas before the 
dragons yields experience and loot. 

New Adventure Zone for Stormhammer 
Stormhammer gains a new adventure zone. This is a 2 group adventure 
zone for characters of level 65. 

Can you help the Eldritch Collective find and rescue Professor Bartleby 
Beckelbracker? Search the Desert of Ro for the whereabouts of Bartleby 
and his assistant Bomo and try to save them from the steel clutches of 
their enemies. 


Augment Removal * 
- You can now purchase special "distillers" that will remove 
augmentations without destroying them. These distillers are sold by a 
merchant in Butcherblock. The item inspect window for an augmentation 
will tell you which distiller is required to remove it. 
- The existing solvents can still be used to destroy an augmentation if 
you don't want to keep it. You no longer need a different solvent for 
each augmentation slot. The interface will allow you to select which 
augmentation you wish to delete. 
- For those with custom UI's, you will need to update your 
EQ_Container.xml file in order to use the new augment window. 

Pets * 
- Zoning pets are in. Persistent pet data includes: Items, Spell 
Effects, hit points, mana, name, height, and mana cost to summon them. 
All PC summoned pets should zone with you in all instances except for 
when you die. Pets will also follow the same rules as no rent items if 
you log with a pet. 
- Pets can be shrunk again. Please wash them in only Cold water to 
prevent inadvertently reducing their size. 

Tribute Changes * 
- Some items have had their favor value lowered. 
- Players will now "Pre-pay" for tribute benefits. When benefits are 
activated, the player will immediately be charged for those benefits 
from their Favor pool. After that, the player will be charged every 10 
minutes for the next 10 minutes of benefit. If benefits are deactivated 
before the timer is depleted, no refund is given for the time 
remaining. 
- Players now have the ability to activate/deactivate the tribute 
benefits they've selected (as a whole) whenever they like using a 
button on the Tribute Benefit Window. However, every time the player 
activates his benefits, he will be "Pre-pay" (see above). The ability 
to change selected benefits (downgrade) away from the Tribute Master 
has been removed. 
- When visiting a Tribute Master, the player's benefits will 
deactivate. Players may re-organize their selected benefit load, but 
will not be able to "preview" the benefits (seeing the effect on their 
character when the benefit is selected). Benefit descriptions should 
give the player a good indication of what the benefit will do when 
activated. 
- The EQ Label that shows the Tribute Benefit Timer will now show green 
when benefits are active and gray when they are not. 

Item Changes 
- Manastones will no longer work in Forgotten Halls. It was not 
intended for the item to be used there and some naughty folks were 
taking advantage of the zone. 
- Malcohm Thimbleton, in the Plane of Knowledge will now swap out some 
Robe Graphic items for Tunic Graphics. * 
- The Staff of Revealed Secrets now has a 2hb weapon model instead of 
the little stick it had before. Enjoy your bigger stick. 

UI Changes 
- It is now possible to display your mana as a numeric value on your 
inventory screen. * 
- By mousing over your buff icons, you will now be able to see the 
buffs remaining duration. * 

Berserkers 
- Berserkers now have innate crits beginning at level 12. 
- Tainted Axe of Hatred now comes in stacks of 20. 

Additional Notes 
- You now have the ability to sell back LDoN items and augments to the 
adventure merchants for a percentage of their original cost. * 
- We have increased the number of NPC debuff slots from 30 to 50. 
Necromancers rejoice. * 
- The Doppleganger AA's re-use timer has been reduced to 30 minutes. * 
- Sprint and Planeswalk have had their movement rate increased. * 
- Beware! Many named mobs in Gates will now summon. 
- The Hide all traders option, for the Bazaar, will no longer need to 
be reset each time you enter the zone. * 
- /stopspellcast will no longer give spells recast delays. 
- Leadership: Group/Raid mark npc should now update for people that are 
added to the group or raid. 
- Main assist will no longer clear if the main assist zones. 
- Bards should once again play the stringed instrument animation when 
playing a stringed instrument song. 
- Hynid fleshrippers, tide feasters, and shore stonemites in Natimbi no 
longer hit so hard.

.....................................................................

------------------------------
July 15, 2004
------------------------------

- Issues for shaman and druids with the Healing Adept AA have been 
corrected. 

- Finishing Blow will correctly be capped by level. 

- Kick Mastery, Vicious Smash and Strengthened Strike no longer 
increase the damage on all melee attacks. They now only apply to their 
intended attacks. 

- You will again have to hide to use your rogue Sneak Attack abilities. 

- Item recast timers should display correctly. 

- Planar Durability will now add the correct amount of hit points. 

- You now will be able to see mana displayed numerically on the default 
UI. To see the mana value, you will need to view the mana bar on your 
inventory screen. 

- A casting time has been added to the Demi Lich Skullcap. 

- Some clickable items from the new Veeshan's Peak have been modified. 

- Berserkers who had purchased the AA, Fury of Ages, are being refunded 
the purchase points in order to fix a data error. You will be able to 
re-purchase the AA for the same cost. 

Clarification 
- Malcohm Thimbleton, in the Plane of Knowledge will now swap out the 
following Robe Graphic items for Tunic Graphic items: 
- Guardian Robe 
- Shade Silk Robe 
- Shainai's Nightie 
- Bile Stained Robes 
- Cured Shade Silk Robe 
- Robe of the Azure Sky

.....................................................................

------------------------------
August 11, 2004
------------------------------

Headlines! 
_____________________ 

New PVP System goes live * 
Raid Leaders can set up and change groups from the Raid Window * 
Special Skies are back! 
New Hot Zones 
EQ will now be more friendly in Windowed mode 


All New PVP System for PVP Servers * 
_____________________ 

The Watch List: 
- Safe Zones: We’’re still looking into a better solution for the 
problem of safe zones. Expect some kind of change in the future. 
- Point System: There are still concerns of potential exploits with the 
point system at this time. Therefore the selection of PvP items 
available on the merchants will be limited to consumable items for now. 
We’ll monitor the accumulation of points after this update. If all goes 
well, we will add a selection of equipment to the merchants in the near 
future. 
- Sullon Tokens: As a secondary concern with the point system, we are 
delaying the addition of the turn-in quest for Sullon Zek tokens. If 
there’s a potential problem with the point system that eventually 
requires us to make adjustments to the way points are awarded, we don’t 
want players to end up with less than full credit for these tokens. 
Once the point system has had any potential issues ironed out we will 
add a quest to turn in your tokens for PvP points. 

PvP Changes 
- Melee attacks have a 50% increased range. This does not affect thrown 
weapons or archery. 
- All safe zones have been removed save Shadowrest and the Bazaar. 
- The maximum damage any one spell can do is now capped at 40% of the 
target’s total hit points, down from 75%. 
- Archery damage has been increased to 80% of its base damage in PvP, 
up from 66%. 
- Being stunned while on a horse will now cause the horse to disappear. 
This only applies to stuns caused by other players. 
- Lowered player melee mitigation, effectively lowering Armor Class by 
20%. This will increase the damage potential of melee weapons in PvP. 
Originally the targets full armor class was considered. 
- Player spells now have a separate duration field for PvP. Individual spells will continue to be tuned during beta. 
- Player spells now have a PvP specific resist mod. Spell lines with 
resist mods differing from their normal adjusts initially include: 
Movement Rate 
Root 
Enthrall 
Mana Drain 
Stuns 
Direct Damage 
Damage over Time 
Pet procs/innates 
- Added higher level snare spells for rangers/druids with increased 
resists mods. This should allow them to land snare spells with similar 
frequency to other snare spells. These spells are available on the PvP 
merchants for 1 point each. 
- Necro and Mage pets have had their PvP resists increased to closer 
match the existing Beastlord pet resists. 
- Lowered the duration of most snare, Enthrall, and Root spells and 
abilities. 
- Berserker snare is no longer unresistable. 
- Added a set of pumice stones to the PvP merchants that will cast 
various forms of dispel magic with a 1.5 second cast, 12 second cast 
time. 
- Arena deaths will now place you at your bind point, and not in 
shadowrest. 
- PvP Resurrection effects now last 5 minutes + 1 minute/negative 
vitality point. The Max duration is now 15 minutes instead of 25. 
- Made further changes to prevent hill ghosting. Please test this and 
give feedback. 
- Ranged weapons are no longer restricted by the Z axis, allowing 
greater freedom of use on varied terrain. 
- Snare will now properly slow mounts. The mount will still be faster 
then normal running while snared, but will considerably decrease their 
movement rate. 
- Spells now have a minimum chance of landing of 5%, up from 2%. 
- Water will no longer cause you to be immune to people outside of 
water and vice versa. 
- Zoning with low health will no longer set your hit points equal to 
the amount of +HP gear you are wearing. 
- Players killed in PvP combat will now spawn in Shadowrest with full 
equipment. A naked corpse will remain in the location they died for 3 
hours. Note that this effectively removes item loot from Rallos Zek. 
With the addition of no drop augments it became rather trivial to 
effectively remove item loot from the server anyway, and we felt the 
benefits of the new death system outweigh the benefits of an item loot 
system. 
- Players who are killed in PvP combat will respawn with special 
resurrection effects on them. The duration of these effects is variable 
dependant on how frequently they die. 
- Summon Corpse Potions are now usable by any class/race. 
- A system to score PvP kills has been implemented. For more 
information see below. 

Scoring System 

The new scoring system will award points to any player who kills 
another player. If the player is grouped the points will be split 
between the players in the group. The points awarded will be based on 
three things: 
1. Level of the killer 
2. Scoring Modifier 
a. Level Difference 
b. Infamy Difference 
c. Vitality score 
3. Time since the victim was last killed by the same player. 
1. Level of the killer 
Each kill has a base point cost determined by the level of the killer. All subsequent 
modifiers apply to this base number. 
2. Scoring modifier 
The scoring modifier is based on three things. Each of these factors results in a score 
that is then applied in whole to the point value of 
the kill. 

a. Level Difference 
For each level the killer is above or below the victim, the scoring 
modifier increase by one point. If you kill some one who is higher 
level than you, you’ll gain more points then you will for a lower level 
character. You will also subtract points from your modifier for killing 
a player lower level than you. 

Higher level characters are more powerful, and should be worth more 
points. A victim must be at least level 20 to awards points. 

b. Infamy Difference 
Each time you kill another player, points are added to your infamy 
pool. At certain thresholds a player will gain an infamy level. When a 
player is killed, the infamy levels are compared and the killer gains a 
scoring modifier point for each infamy level his victim is above him. 
He can also lose scoring modifier points for killing someone who is of 
lower infamy. Infamy will gradually deteriorate while the player is 
online. 

Players who regularly PvP are generally of higher skill level then 
those that do not. This encourages players to kill other players who 
are of more equivalent skill. 

c. Vitality 
When a player is killed their vitality is set to –10. For each 5 
minutes they are alive, they will gain back two points of vitality. 
This vitality total is added directly to the scoring modifier. 

A player who dies very frequently is worth less points then one who 
stays alive longer. 

d. Group bonus 
Groups of 4 or more will receive a bonus % of points for each kill. 
4/10%, 5/15%, 6/20%. 
Example: 
Frizznik kills Rytan. Frizznik is level 60, while Rytan is level 62 for 
a level difference of 2. Frizznik has an infamy level of 5, while Rytan 
has an infamy level of 2, which results in infamy difference of –3. 
Rytan has not recently been killed, so his vitality is 0. Level 
Difference + Infamy Difference + Vitality = Scoring Point Modifier or 2 
+ (-3) + 0. 
Each scoring modifier point adds or subtracts 5% to the base score. 
Normally Frizznik would gain 100 points for killing Rytan, but because 
of the scoring point modifier he will gain 95 points instead. 
3. Time since the killer has killed the same victim 
Players that repeatedly kill the same player will see a steep decrease 
in the amount of points a player is worth. They will gain half the 
points for the kill they normally would for each time they kill that 
player in a 24 hour period. After the score has dropped below 1 point, 
they will begin to lose points for killing the same player. 

Leader Board 

The leader board tracks the players with the most total PvP. A number 
of other useful statistics will be available in the leader board. 

Point Rewards 

Players will be able to redeem their points for equipment via a Lost 
Dungeons of Norrath style adventure merchant interface. These rewards 
will span from level 20 on up to 65 and include some pieces that are of 
elemental quality and possibly beyond. 

A player’s point total is capped based on their level. They cannot gain 
more points once they hit that cap, although they can gain more infamy. 
There will be a number of consumable PvP items that will be focused on 
PvP combat, and will only function against other players. 

Windowed Mode * 
_____________________ 
The EverQuest process is now more friendly. Alt+tab'ing to other 
windows should be much more responsive.You can also choose to adjust 
your maximum Frames Per Second(FPS) in the Options Window under display 
settings. The valid range for the slider is 10 to 100. The default is 
100 which means EverQuest will not throttle your FPS. Lowering your 
setting will cap your FPS at that value and free up the CPU for other 
tasks. 

Raid Window Additions 
_____________________ 
- The raid window contains a new row of buttons which the raid leader 
can use to organize the raid members into groups. 
- Lock/Unlock: The raid must be locked before the raid leader may use 
any of the new buttons. 
- RemLeader: Removes the 'Group Leader' flag from the selected player 
from the 'Players Not in a Group' list. (Only 12 players may be Group 
Leaders, so this may be necessary to allow creation of a new group with 
a new leader). 
- NoGroup: Removes the selected player from their current group and put 
them into the 'Players Not in a Group' list. 
- 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12: Moves the selected player into the 
numbered group. 

Hot Zones have changed! * 
_____________________ 

Hunt for greater XP rewards in the new Hot Spots. Make your way to the 
following zones. 

60-65 Plane of Torment 
55-60 Chardok 
50-55 Grieg's End 
45-50 Nurga 
40-45 City of Mist 
35-40 Kaesora 
30-35 Dalnir 
25-30 Hollowshade Moor 
20-25 Runnyeye 

Kill a few goblins for me. Oh, and that Grieg guy. 

AA Changes 
_____________________ 
- The cleric AA Touch of the Divine has had its healing power 
increased. The original ability has been refunded, so players who wish 
to retain the ability will need to purchase it again. The portion of 
the AA that will remove detrimental effects, when it goes off, will not 
be going in with this update. 
- The necromancer AA Swarm of Decay has been refunded. 
- The shaman AA Call of the Ancients has had its description changed to 
reflect the fact that the summoned ward casts healing spells, not 
endurance regen spells. The ability has been refunded because of this 
confusion. 
- The rogue ability Seized Opportunity has had its chance to work 
significantly increased. 
- The druid ability Viscid Roots was increasing the chance for roots to 
break, not decreasing it. This has been corrected. 
- The paladin ability Hastened Piety now affects the reuse time for 
both Hand of Piety and its upgrade, Pious Supplication. Previously, it 
wasn’t affecting Pious Supplication. 
- When an AA is an upgrade of another AA and both are triggered 
abilities, players can make a hotkey and use either one, but will only 
get the upgraded effect if they use the hotkey for the upgraded 
ability. 
- The Mass Group Buff AA will now reset if you duck to cancel the 
spell. 
- The double attack AA now works with secondary hand attacks. 

Consent Changes * 
_____________________ 

There are some new consent commands available for groups and raids. 

- /consent group -- flags your current corpses so they can be dragged 
by all of your current group members 
- /consent raid -- flags your current corpses so they can be dragged by 
anyone in your raid (including people who join the raid later) 
- /consent guild -- flags your current corpses so they can be dragged 
by anyone in your guild 
- /deny group -- removes the flag 
- /deny raid -- removes the flag 
- /deny guild -- removes the flag 

Tacvi Changes 
_____________________ 
- Tacvi will no longer give lockout timers. Instead, when you beat an 
encounter there, you will gain a timer for that specific event. Then, 
when you come back to the zone, if that timer hasn’t expired yet that 
particular event won’t be up, but other events in the zone will be if 
it has been long enough since the last time they were defeated. 
- Loot in Tacvi has been given a thorough audit. Many changes were made 
including changes to the statistics of the items, changing item names, 
changing where the items drop, and over a dozen new items were added to 
the zone. 
- The Tacvi zone timer was increased from 6 hours to 12 hours. 

Misc. 
_____________________ 
- Diamond Dust will now drop more frequently in permafrost and can now 
also be found in SolusekB * 
- Names will now scale with character they’re associated with. So a 
giant will have a much larger name than a Halfling will while retaining 
its much smaller brain. 
- Names for larger characters will be visible from a greater distance 
than the names for smaller characters are. They will also scale up 
slightly as you increase your distance from a character, making them 
more readable from a greater distance. 
- Tinting should now work properly again on Robes, let the Fluorescent 
Pink tinting begin! 
- We have added Tooltips for your status bars.* 
- We have made some changes to the fonts EQ uses so that they are more 
clear and visible. 
- Pets will no longer attacks NPCs after their owner has COH'd 
- The Fiery Defenders particles should no longer blink 
- If your Minor Illusion fails, you will be able to use another 
illusion on yourself without zoning. 
- Instant cast combat abilities can once again be used when you have a 
discipline up. 
- Augments now fit into multiple slot types. 
- Zoning pets will now save their taunt toggle settings. 
- Spell damage done to yourself will no longer display to others. 
- Pets will no longer poof when you are Call of Hero'd. 
- Weapon Augments will now proc properly. 

*denotes a community requested change

.....................................................................

------------------------------
September 14, 2004
------------------------------

Headlines 
___________________
Omens of War is live! 
New Teleportation Spells to Barindu. 
Just me and my shadooooow! 
Reflective Water? 
Register now for the New Orleans Fan Faire. 

Omens of War 
___________________ 
Explore the war torn lands of Kuua and reap the benefits of new AAs, 
spells and items including the new, powerful, Epic 2.0. Lush new areas, 
filled with beautiful creatures and vibrant, living landscapes await 
you at every turn. We hope you enjoy all that EverQuest: Omens of War 
brings to the game. 

Travel to the Omens Zones 
___________________ 
The Priests of Discord in Norrath believe they have been granted a 
gift. A unique knowledge has been bestowed upon them which they believe 
was granted as a reward for preaching the way of Discord. That gift, 
they claim, is the knowledge of a way to a world that is enveloped by 
Discord itself -- an ethereal poison that wreaks havoc and strife upon 
all it touches. 

Speak to a Priest of Discord to learn how to enter the World of Kuua. 

The Task System 
___________________ 
Only have a short time to play or are you waiting for a group or raid? 
Immerse yourself in a Task. You can find Task Masters all over Norrath. 
They can be found in most home cities as well as in places like the 
East Commonlands, the Butcherblock Mountains, Toxxulia Forest and the 
Swamp of No Hope. For the more daring individuals, the most challenging 
tasks can be found by speaking with Task Masters in the Dreadlands and 
the Overthere. 

You can open the task window by hitting Alt+Q and start enjoying this 
new game-play style and enhancement to the EverQuest experience. 

Be mindful of turning in task items in stacks, as with all quests in 
EQ, please seperate the items before turning them in for a reward. 

Epic Weapons 2.0 
___________________ 
Will you be the first of your class to earn these powerful new items? 

Guild Tribute 
___________________ 
Omens of War expansion brings a new Guild Tribute system. This system 
will allow guild members to donate items/cash for Tribute points, and 
allow officers to select benefits that the entire guild will receive, 
deducting the cost from the guild’’s tribute pool. 

Guild Tribute is an extension of the tribute system introduced in Gates 
of Discord and purchasers of either expansion, will be able to reap the 
new benefits. 

Retail Claim Item 
___________________ 
Those of you who purchased the retail version of EverQuest: Omens of 
War will need to use the /claim command in-game to receive your in-game 
items. Enjoy! 

Select your title 
___________________ 
You can hit Shift+T to bring up the new Title selection UI which will 
allow you to choose from the titles you have earned, through AAs, 
levels or accomplishments, to be shown with your character name in-
game. 

Voice Macros 
___________________ 
Using Ctrl+V will bring up the new Voice Macro UI. There you will see a 
list of available voice macros as well as the options of Play, Tell, 
Group and Raid. Selecting a macro and play will play the macro for you 
only. Selecting a macro and using one of the other options will send 
the voice macro to either a tell (using the person you have targeted as 
the recipient), group or raid. 

To create your own voice macros, make a sound file using the same name 
as one of the existing voice macros, which can be found in your 
EverQuest>Voice>Default directory and place it in your EverQuest>Voice>
User directory. 

You can create hot keys of your favorite Voice Macros by selecting the 
macro you would like and clicking and holding on the Tell, Raid or 
Group button until the icon appears on your cursor. 

We hope you enjoy this new way to immerse yourself into the EverQuest 
experience. 

New Spell Slot 
___________________ 
For the first time in EQ, you can open up a new spell slot by learning 
the Mnemonic Retention AA ability. 9 Spell slots! Wow, Why I remember 
in the early days of EQ, we only had 8 spell slots and we liked it. We 
cast spells all day, going uphill both ways. You whippersnappers have 
it easy =) 

More Buff Slots 
___________________ 
If you find that you need more room for beneficial buffs on your 
character, activate the Mystical Attuning AA and open up more room in 
your buff slot window. 

Improved Customization for Graphics 
___________________
-There are now 3 sets of options (Spell, Environment, and Actor). All 3 
sets have similar options that affect each type of particle. These 
options allow for more customization when setting up your display and 
filters. 

-An "advanced" button has been added under the display tab in the 
options window. This will allow you to toggle some of the new settings, 
for our new customizable graphics and effects. You will most likely 
need to expand the options window to see the new Advanced button. 

- Shadows; Toggles the new dynamic shadows. 
- Water Swap*: Switches between old style water, and new reflective 
water the next time you zone. 
- 2.X Pixel Shaders: Toggles the use of pixel shaders 2.0. 
- 1.X Pixel Shaders: Toggles the use of pixel shaders 1.0. 
- Vertex Shaders: Toggles the use of vertex shaders. 
- Sky Reflection Type*: Set to Static to use a preset reflection or 
Dynamic to have the sky reflected on the water. 
- Dynamic Update Interval: Control the CPU costs of the dynamic 
reflection by adjusting how often to update the reflection texture 
- Dynamic Sky Reflection Size*: Allows you to control how large the 
reflection texture is. 
(The * indicates a setting that will take effect next time you zone). 


- You can now see real time shadows within the world of Norrath. Use 
the shadows option in options>Display>advanced to turn them off and on. 
Now, even when soloing, you will never be alone. Those of you with 
older video cards may have some performance issues when attempting to 
use shadows. If your machine does not meet the recommended system 
specifications, we suggest that you play with shadows off. 

- Enjoy sunsets and moonrises viewed above EverQuest's new reflective 
water which is available for everyone, wherever there is static water, 
e.g. Oceans, seas and lakes. You can toggle the new water shaders on 
and off using the Water Swap button, under options>display>advanced. 

Zoning Screen 
___________________
When zoning, you will now see the loading splash screen. You have not 
crashed, do not be alarmed. 

New Improved Particles 
___________________
-You will now be affected by the environment around you, be sure to 
check out these effects especially under water, in frigid weather, dry 
climates and upon death. 

Spells 
___________________
- Clerics Symbol and Aegolism spell lines no longer require reagents. 
- Necromancer pets will no longer require peridots. 
- The beastlord spell, Tureptan Spirit, now has a healing component. 
- New transportation spells are available in the Abysmal Sea. Check 
with your transportation spell contact for more information. 
- Bard PBAoE spells will no longer damage targets that are moving, 
however any other spell effects from the PBAoE spell will still be 
applied to the targets as usual. 
- Beneficial spells can now be used in the EverQuest tutorial. 

Skill Cap Changes 
___________________ 
- Piercing now caps at 250 at level 60 for warriors, rangers and 
beastlords. 
- 1h Blunt and 2h Blunt now cap at 250 at level 60 for beastlords 

Items 
___________________
- The Timespinner pet will no longer cast spells. 
- The Dagger of Death has had its AC value reduced. 
- Some of the new Omens of War items will now display an "Attunable" 
attribute, which means that they can be traded freely until they are 
equipped or augmented. Attunable augments will become no-drop flagged 
when added to an augment slot, attunable items will become no-drop when 
equipped. You will not be able to auto-equip an attunable item that has 
not been attuned to your character. Please be mindful of the new 
Attunable flag before equipping or augmenting new items. 

Alternate Advancement Abilities 
___________________ 
- Berserkers have received some new AAs. This should bring their AA 
selection up to par with comparable melee classes. 
- Added the ability for shadow knights to train the Gates of Discord 
ability Improved Theft of Life and the Planes of Power ability 
Suspended Minion. 
- The healing wards that priests can summon using their Gates of 
Discord AAs are now immune to most spells. 
- Lowered the reuse time on the Magician ability Host of the Elements 
to 15 minutes. 
- Added the ability to train Quick Damage to Magicians as a Luclin 
Class ability. 
- Increased the critical hit chance for the Wizard Gates of Discord AA 
Frenzied Devastation. 

Fan Faire 
___________________
We are proud to announce the Halloween, New Orleans Fan Faire! The 
event dates are October 28-30, 2004, and space is going fast! The last 
day to guarantee your spot by pre-registering is October 11th. For more 
information, please go to http://everquest.station.sony.com/fanfaire/ 
See you in New Orleans! 



UI Changes 
___________________
The following XML files are new or have been modified: 

- EQUI_Animations.xml 
- EQUI_BuffWindow.xml 
- EQUI_CastSpellWnd.xml 
- EQUI_DynamicZoneWnd.xml 
- EQUI_GuildManagementWnd.xml 
- EQUI_GuildTributeMasterWnd.xml 
- EQUI_OptionsWindow.xml 
- EQUI_TaskSelectWnd.xml 
- EQUI_TaskWnd.xml 
- EQUI_TitleWnd.xml 
- EQUI_TributeBenefitWnd.xml 
- EQUI_VoiceMacroWnd.xml 
- EQUI.xml 
- EQUI_AAWindow.xml 
- EQUI_AdvancedDisplayOptionsWnd.xml

.....................................................................

------------------------------
September 23, 2004
------------------------------

Monk Epic 
- Speaking to certain monk epic mobs will no longer reset the monk's 
progression. 
- Monks that turned in their letters will now be able to continue the 
quest from where they currently are. 
- Monks should have an easier time locating the lost Disciple. 

Guild Tribute 
- Players with Gates, but not Omens, should now be able to open the 
Guild Tribute Master to both opt-in and donate for Guild Tribute 
Benefits. 
- Suspended pets will no longer vanish when their owner turns 
invisible. 
- Skies will now show correctly for Windows 98/ME users. 
- Warriors will be reimbursed for their Press the Attack AA. They can 
buy the ability with its new range if they wish. 
- Salvage will no longer return items that would be returned normally. 


-- The EverQuest Team

.....................................................................

------------------------------
October 13, 2004
------------------------------

- Summoned pets no longer vanish when their owner turns invisible
- Froglok animations are now fixed, seriously, no really we mean it 
this time.
- Continue the Adventure! Read the first in the new series of EQ 
Novels. 

Warrior Epic
______________________
- Modified the way Decaying Lord Galuk Drek is spawned in Veksar. He 
should now be more approachable and less of a bottleneck for those 
warriors at this step.
- Lowered the respawn time of the Dragorn Champion in Wall of Slaughter 
significantly. We have also lowered his aggro and help radius. 

Bard Epic
______________________
- Corrected an issue in the Dragons Necropolis that caused more NPCs to 
be present than was planned for.
- The Kithicor Forest encounter should now reset properly.

Ranger Epic
______________________
- Rangers triggering the Senvial, Grinbik and Uisima events for their 
Epic quest will need to have the trigger item on their person.
- It should no longer be possible for a ranger with Senvial’s Blessing 
to get the reward for the Senvial event.

Druid Epic
______________________
- Corrected an issue with the Coven spawn in South Karana.
- The Blackened Dryad event in Kithicor should now respawn correctly 
after a failed attempt.
- Only the druid who initiates the Goblin Hide and Seek event will be 
allowed to the loot the bag upon completion.
- More than one Druid can now summon and talk to the Compelled Spirit.
- We have increased the drop rate of the carved Prexus totem.

Magician Epic
______________________
- The Path for finding the air essence should last a bit longer.
- Magicians will now receive a message when the air essence is not 
available.

Gates of Discord
______________________
There’s a new NPC in Natimbi that will make traveling to Qvic much 
easier. Speak with her for a small teleport.

Tradeskills
______________________
- Alchemists can now create Amber Resin.
- The Feran Glove and Boot recipes will now combine and return their 
intended items.
- The recipe for the 56th level Necromancer spell, Servant of Bones, 
should now combine correctly.
- The Dagger Blade Mold, used in Gates smithing recipes, has been 
renamed to a Knife Blade Mold.

Items
______________________
- Seething Fists of Slaughter- Previously this item had no equipped 
slots. This now has primary and secondary equippable slots 
- Fangs of the Serpent- Previously this item had no equipped slots. 
This now has primary and secondary equippable slots.
- Bone Plated Sledge - This item now has 36% haste instead of +36 atk.
- Boots of Shifting Time - Previously these boots had a worn leather 
graphic. They are now a worn plate graphic instead.
- Zulaqua's Cloak - Added 30 AC to this item 
- Crystal Dagger - This item now has a +12% backstab mod.
- Tome of New Beginnings - Berserkers now can equip this item.
- Lambent Stone of Focus - This item is now a type 7 and type 8 
augmentation.
- Crystal Mail Sleeves - This item now has berserkers as usable 
classes. We have removed Beastlords from this items usable classes. 

AAs
______________________
Altered Spell Casting Reinforcement and Spell Casting Reinforcement 
Mastery so they will no longer increase the duration of the following 
spells.
- Flame of Redemption
- Hawk Strike
- Fateseer’s Boon
- Protection of the Eye
- Savage Wildcaller’s Blessing
- Flames of the Valiant
- Falcon Strike
- Prophet’s Gift of the Ruchu
- Aegis of Abstraction
- Might of the Wild Spirits
Altered Healing Adept, Advanced Healing Adept, and Healing Adept 
Mastery so they will no longer increase the healing of the following 
spells. 
- Harmonic Balance
- Divine Balance

Misc
______________________
- Added a new option to turn off the loading screen when zoning. You 
will still see the progress bar.
- Added a new shadow command to allow you to turn off the shadows in 
your text bar. The command is /shadow
- Changed the Dynamic Zone window to show player status in the member 
list. Online players are yellow, Link Dead players are red, Offline 
players are blue. 
- Hide / Sneak will now remain active across zone lines.
- All NPCs in Omens of War expedition zones are now KOS. Beware!
- Summoned pets will no longer vanish when their owner uses 
invisibility! Rejoice!
- Vallon Zek should no longer assist Tallon Zek.

The Rogues Hour!
______________________
RA Salvatore presents a brand new series of EverQuest fantasy novels. 
Explore the ever-expanding world of Norrath in the first book, 
EverQuest: The Rogue’s Hour, available in stores soon.

-- The EverQuest Team

.....................................................................

------------------------------
October 25, 2004
------------------------------

Headlines! 

Items for Anguish! 
New Storybook entry. 

Omens of War 
________________ 
Due to a database error, itemization of the Anguish zone was lost. We 
have re-itemized the zone and wish you luck in uncovering its riches. 

Tradeskills 
________________ 
- Fire Beetle Eyes now stack. 
- The Smithing Chisel is no longer flagged Lore. 
- Lightning Core is now stackable. 
- Changed the name of the Gnomish Vanishing Device to Half Capacity 
Gnomish Vanishing Device. 
- Golanda Nuts now stack. 
- The Beauty of a Simple Stone should now have text. 
- The Sandblasted Ringmail Bracelet and Large Sandblasted Steel Girth 
should now fit the appropriate-sized races. 
- Caerlyna should no longer be dispensing no-drop bag tokens. 
- The cast time on the 5 and 10 dose Greater Elixir's of Concentration 
should now have the same cast time as the single-dose version. 

Berserkers 
________________ 
Warcry and Hastened Warcry should now work as intended. 


-- The EverQuest Team

.....................................................................

------------------------------
December 15, 2004
------------------------------

*** Update Headlines *** 
___________________________

* Backflagging 
* Gates AA point refunding 
* New Hot Spots 
* Mistmoore 

Backflagging * 
___________________________

As you know, when a guild gains or loses members, they often find 
themselves dedicating a large amount of time re-playing content that 
they have long since completed in order to gain access to zones for 
newer members. During our Community Summit this last summer, and in 
many subsequent discussions, we have heard the recurring desire to find 
a way to ease the frustrations associated with this backflagging. 

While the issue is not as simple as removing flags altogether (we feel 
flags are necessary for the zones they are currently attached to), we 
have looked into ways that we can reduce the frustrations of 
backflagging and feel that we have arrived at a fair and equitable 
solution, which is detailed below. 

- A new implementation of the 85/15 rule has been introduced into 
Planes of Power zones including the Plane of Time. This should resolve 
the outstanding problems that occur from time to time with the current 
85/15 implementation. 

- The new 85/15 has also been introduced for the locked zones in Gates 
of Discord. 

- An alternate means of flagging guild mates for locked content in 
Planes of Power and Gates of Discord has been implemented that will 
allow you to flag raid members for the zone you are in by completing 
raid content within that zone. 

The implementation varies slightly from zone to zone to fit the story 
and nature of the zone, but in general will involve killing a raid 
target within that zone, looting an item, and completing a single group 
quest to change that item into a zone flag. This only applies to zones 
that don't already have a single group task or system to gain access. 

AA Changes 
___________________________

- Reduced the cost of many Gates AAs. Players will receive a refund 
equal to the difference on AAs that now have a lower cost. * 

- Changed the monk AA Crippling Strike to an activated ability that 
does an eagle strike attack as well as a snare. 

- Changed the monk AA Stunning Kick to an activated ability that does a 
round kick attack as well as a stun. 

- Changed the monk AA Eye Gouge to an activated ability that does a 
tiger claw attack as well as reduces the targets offensive ability. 

- Due to major changes in how these work, AA points for Crippling 
Strike, Stunning Kick, and Eye Gouge have been refunded. 

- Reduced the reuse time of the Ranger AAs Frost Arrow and Flame Arrow 
to 3 minutes. * 

- Hobble of Spirits will now stack with the Beastlord's proc buffs. * 

- Fixed problem with the Beastlord AA Bestial Alignment where if you 
had maxed buffs this AA would not reset if it did not take. 

- Duration enhancement focuses and AAs should now increase the duration 
of pet buffs. 

- If your stored AA's go above 30, they will no longer be set to 30 
when you zone. However, you should still not be able to gain more than 
30 unless you get a refund, get the AA from a GM, or get an AA from a 
script. * 

- Fixed an issue with Half Elf Paladins of Tunare and the Origin AA. * 

- If your character was created before EQ started storing starting 
location data, when you log into the game you will now be prompted to 
choose your home city from a list of valid starting locations for your 
character. You will only need to do this once and once this has been 
set, it cannot be changed. This will correct the problems with the 
Origin AA not returning some characters to their expected home city. 

Zone and NPC Changes 
___________________________ 

- Hot Spots have been moved (level ranges are approximate): * 
Shadeweaver’’s Thicket 1-30 
Kurn’s Tower 10-25 
Unrest 15-30 
Crystal Caverns 25-35 
Solusek’s Eye 25-45 
Katta Castellum 30-60 
Lower Guk 35-55 
Nagafen’s Lair 40-55 
Umbral Plains 50-60 

- Respawn time for the bosses in Tacvi has been increased from 3 to 5 
days. 

- Some Tacvi loot has been upgraded. Bosses now drop more items per 
kill and some all new items have been added to the zone. * 

- An alternate entrance into Tacvi has been added in Txevu that will 
allow guilds to bypass the Zun’Muram after they have defeated him at 
least once. Guilds that have previously defeated the Zun’Muram will 
need to do so at least once more before they can use the new entrance. * 

- Gilipus of Ak`Anon has joined the Beta Neutral Faction. You will now 
be able to complete his quest without having to raise Gem Choppers 
Faction. 

- The 3 Tormentors in the Jelvan event now share hatelist when idle or 
aggro. Anyone that is on one Tormentor's hatelist, but not on the other 
2 Tormentor's hatelist will be added. This should make it difficult (if 
not impossible) to avoid AOEs. 

- Modified the Warden Hanvar event, all guards should appear in their 
appointed places. 

- Fixed a bug in Anguish that could make Warden Hanvar unkillable. 

- Clicking on the door to Anguish while having the Seal: Mastery of All 
on your person will now prompt red text indicating your flag has been 
granted. 

- The respawn of Globes of Discordant Energy are now tracked on the 
event timer for Anguish. The method for obtaining the Globes has not 
changed. 

- The pile of stones that was used as a secondary zone between Dranik 
and Bloodfields has been removed. There is now an actual zoneline 
there. 

- Plane of Justice - previously, you could not click the red teleports 
to leave the Seventh Hammer's room unless the Seventh Hammer was dead 
(or not up). This has been changed so you can leave the room as long as 
it is not aggro. If you click on a portal while he is aggro, you should 
get a message and remain in the room. 

- Grennet Stormhand in North Qeynos is no longer a task master since he 
is part of a quest. His task master job has been taken over by Jorren 
Boxmover. 

- Increased the maximum duration for all Labyrinth Trials from 1 hour 
to 2 hours. When an event is successfully completed, the instance will 
shut down in 30 minutes. If it is failed, the instance will shut down 
in 5 minutes. 

- Changed the reclusive Girplan event in Bloodfields so that each NPC 
in the sequence stays up for 15 minutes instead of 3 minutes before 
depopping. 

- Elemental NPCs are once again Charmable in Bastion of Thunder. 

Epic Alterations 
___________________________

- Updated some text to clarify what is needed for the bard epic 2.0. * 

- Part of the rogue epic that could be skipped has been repaired as 
this was not intended to be possible. 

- The zonewide shout that occurs when killing base pop NPCs in the 
special instance of Vxed for the paladin epic has now been removed. 

- Added another check to the monk epic to make sure that the monk 
looting the item also has the Mark of Justice needed to access the 7th 
Hammer's area. 

- More details regarding the combine for the Beastlord Epic 2.0 have 
been added to the text. * 

- Fixed the hand in to Uisima for the Ranger Epic 1.5. 

- Added a hint to the Druid Epic 2. * 

- In the Hider Event in Frontier Mountains for the Druid Epic 1.5, the 
goblins should teleport a bit less frequently. * 

- Additional lore has been added to the rogue epic 2.0. * 

- Moved the Dark Huntress from Mistmoore to the Tower of Frozen Shadow. 

- Changed a few of Lirprin's dialogues to hint at where the last few 
steps are that players are missing. * 

- Arly Golyeck in Paludal caverns will now accept bribes from half-
elves, or those that are in half-elven illusion while also wearing a 
Burnoose of the Halfbreed. 

Tradeskill Changes 
___________________________ 

- The Tradeskill window will now allow up to 500 favorites (up from 
100). * 

- The drop rate of spiderling silk has been increased, as there are 
many new combines that require this item as a component. * 

- The Rune of Zephyr should now drop off of the appropriate level of 
NPC’s. * 

- Several Tradeskill recipes have had their missing ingredients added 
to the game. These items will now drop off of appropriate NPC’s. * 

- Increased the drop rate of Tae Ew Scales. * 

- Increased the drop rate of Putrescent Blood. * 

- Made several quest-related combines "Learnable". * 

- Fixed a few grammatical issues with the "Forge of Icewell Arms" book. 

- Fixed an issue with one of the Abysmal Sea tradeskill books (The 
Beauty of a Simple Stone). It should now be able to be read. 

- Fixed the recipe for the Imbued Northman Kite Shield (Rallos). 

- Fixed the research recipe for Malosini, it should now combine 
properly. 

- Fixed the recipe for Tuna Rice Surprise, it will now return the Wok 
on success. 

- Fixed the Large Sandblasted Steel Girth, it is now usable by the 
appropriate races. 

- Fixed the Sandblasted Ringmail Bracelet, it is now usable by the 
appropriate races. 

- Fixed the multiple-recipes for Vegetable Oil, they will now return 
the correct yields. 

- Fixed the disparity in between the cast-times on the various "Greater 
Elixir of Concentration" potions. 

- Added the Blood Treated Kaniz Hide to the game. 

- Added a recipe for players to create a package of vegetables. * 

- Added a "Fully Charged Gnomish Vanishing Device" to the game. * 

- Added LDoN Foraged items to the Interactive Objects in all LDoN zones 
(this includes the foraged alchemy components). * 

- Removed the lore tag from the Smithing Chisel. * 

- Taught Barbarians how to make Large Leather Gorgets and Pants. * 

- Evaluated the PoP Smithing disparity between plate and chain. * 
1. One block of ore will now yield two sheets of metal. * 
2. Removed the Chain Jointing requirement from the combine. It now 
requires one Superb Leather Padding instead. * 

Item, Spell, Discipline and Skill Changes 
___________________________ 

- Auto range attack implemented, no longer will it be necessary to 
range attack manually - /autofire is a toggle command that will fire 
your ranged weapon until you run out of ammunition, turn on autoattack 
to switch to melee combat, or use the /autofire command again. * 

- /melody ability implemented for bards - To use /melody, type /melody 
. The numbers are the same numbers you would use for the /cast command. 
The melody will repeat the songs in the specified order until a note is 
missed due to an interruption. * 

- Modified Mirrored Mask, so it is no longer no rent and poof on death, 
however the click effect only works inside Anguish. 

- Increased the chance on the Cleave effects to affect DPS as they were 
originally intended. 

- Fixed a bug with the Frenzy of Conquest benefit. 

- No-rent containers no longer poof on login if they contain items. 
They instead change into an unenchanted container with the same number 
of slots, and a chat message notifies the player. * 

- Changed the Mark of Justice to take the player's group instead of 
just the player when attempting to engage The 7th Hammer. * 

- Cryston, Staff of the Riftnow has the focus of Quickening of the 
Ikaav. 

- Dragorn Head Statue Piece and Dragorn Torso Statue Piece are now very 
large and can fit in bags. 

- Clear Rock and A Large Rock are now very large and can fit in bags. 

- Polished Stone of Renewal can now be used by berserkers. * 

- Berserker: Hastened War Cry has been fixed. 

- Bards will stop playing songs when feign death effects hit them (some 
NPC encounters do this). 

- Players are no longer able to have Form of the Great Bear and a mount 
on at the same time. 

- Holyforge will now increase your chance to slay undead, and if you 
have the Slay Undead AA you will have an even greater chance of a slay 
with Holyforge. * 

- The spell Nature's Blight was not increasing the damage as stated and 
should be working as intended now. * 

- Fixed a bug with haste items and haste augments. Their effects were 
stacking when they shouldn't have. It will now only take the greatest 
haste effect from the item including augments. 

- When combining the aegis of chaotic worship with the soul temper and 
a flask of water, you will receive the temper and the aegis of chaotic 
worship back if you don't have the correct flags instead of just the 
aegis back. 

- The Monk's feign death success rate has been improved. It was 
previously capped at 95% at 100 skill and now it ramps up the success 
rate for higher skill levels. * 

- Fixed several inconsistencies with pets affected by focus items. 

- Increased the mana regen gained by Elemental Simulacrum. 

- Touch of the Devourer was changed to allow partial damage when it is 
resisted. This is an increase in the overall damage of the spell. 

- New items are available on the PvP point merchants. * 

- Might of the Wild Spirits and Savage Wildcaller's Blessing should now 
stack better. 

- The effect on the Wristband of Secrets no longer works on other 
players. 

- Increased the focus % of the following effects: 
Hastening of the Ikaav 
Quickening of the Ikaav 
Alacrity of the Ikaav 

- Increased the potency of Pure Spirit. 

- Nature's Balance should now only remove beneficial spells from the 
target. 

- Removed the scaling focus mods from the following spells: 
Force of Ikkibi 
Order of Trushar 
Sylvan Anger 
Taelosian Geomancy 
Burning Night 
Anger of Taelosia 
Sylvan Kindle 
Clear Fire 

- The the class-specific quest chest armors from Omens of War now have 
a .8 second cast time. 

- The pre-nerf LDoN armor sets can now be sold back to the merchants, 
like other LDoN items. They are the versions with two type 2 slots and 
one type 3 slot (instead of one each of types 1, 2, and 3). These items 
are those with the following in the item name: 
Royal Attendant * of Sand 
Incorporeal * of the Specter 
Mucus-Drenched * 
Immortal's Bloodied * 

Miscellaneous 
___________________________

- Multiple procs on a pet are now working properly. * 

- A resource leak in the graphics engine was corrected and we have seen 
a measurable improvement in client stability as a result. 

- The sky system now influences the ambient lighting. 

- Animated traps such as the ones in soldunga/b are now detected by the 
collision system and will cause a small amount of damage. 

- You can once again target things on the other side of a water surface 
and other passable surfaces. 

- Added code to check and validate specialization skills. If the values 
are not legal, the player will be informed why they are not legal and 
they are reset. 

- Added popup confirmation dialog when you attempt to give an augmented 
item to an NPC. * 

- Added optional parameters to /book command -- /book open, /book 
close. * 

- Fixed bug where a player who had more than 2 million plat in his 
inventory was unable to purchase anything from a vendor or trader. 

- /yell messages are no longer displayed if the yelling player is in 
your ignore list. * 

- Some models that were scaled dramatically could cause the collision 
system to fail, resulting in warps to ceiling and other strange side 
effects. For example the vases in dranikcatacombsa at 1000,-1011, 0 
would always cause players to be pinned to the ceiling due to this bug. 

- Players standing on the lip of an edge should now slide down off them 
more smoothly. 

- There have been some optimizations to the collision system. You 
should see improved performance in zones with very large stationary 
objects (potimea, bloodfields, etc). 

- Fixed a number of small bugs in the zoom camera behavior. These fixes 
include removing the possibility of having the first mousewheel click 
causing the camera to bounce back into first person, a bug that could 
cause the camera to get stuck “one click” out of first person, as well 
as smoothing out the camera motion a bit. 

- Scrolling to third person and tabbing to another window should no 
longer cause the screen to bounce back and forth. 

- Summoning mounts in certain places should no longer cause players to 
fall through geometry. 

- Getting out of water should be much easier to do. * 

- Mounts are no longer dismissed when zoning. * 

- Spell scribe timers (putting a new spell into the spell book) now 
take only 1 second. 

- Players should no longer experience 20k falls when standing on cliff 
edges while suffering from low frame rate. 

- The bounding radius for small races was too tall, preventing them 
from accessing some areas. For example, gnomes couldn't enter the small 
huts in Steamfont. This was a global problem that is now fixed; that is 
just one example. 

- Weather effects are now working properly when the Wake of Karana 
spell is used. Additionally, sounds related to starting 

- /who commands now display both class title and base class name for 
players over level 50, e.g. "Bedazzler (Enchanter)" * 

- Fixed a bug that caused a lot of writing to the dbg.txt file during a 
raid. 

Zone Revamps - Mistmoore (Legends) 
___________________________

In Mistmoore's Catacombs, the servants of the Trueborn, a sect of 
vampires with Mayong Mistmoore's blood flowing through their veins, 
grew tired of their masters throwing them into the fray against the 
Norrathian intruders. They came to desire more power for themselves. 

It was not long before the first words of dissension crept through the 
catacombs on the will of whispers. The Trueborn servants congregated in 
dark, musty halls away from the eyes of their masters and over time 
their numbers grew along with their ambitions. Their time had come and 
soon they would rise up to claim their rightful place in Mistmoore 
Castle, gaining accolades from Lord Mayong Mistmoore himself for their 
brilliance and bravery -- or so they supposed. 

Over several months, the Trueborn traitors recruited an army to their 
cause. On a black night as the moon was swallowed by a thick veil over 
Faydwer, they struck, killing their masters and leading their army 
toward Mistmoore Castle. They slaughtered all in their path and many 
masters of the Scions sect, the Trueborn's rival blood-children of 
Mayong, were destroyed that night. 

The fierce wave of the lesser Trueborn rushed into the cellars of 
Mistmoore Castle without detection. Unbeknownst to all but the 
servants, Norrath's adventurers had uncovered winding caves beneath the 
surface that bypassed the castle’s defenses. In a matter of hours, the 
castle was overrun and the servants of the Trueborn declared themselves 
the true Children of Mistmoore. 

Since taking control of the castle, many Children have busied 
themselves repairing the damage from the battle while others continue 
to seek the magical ore that was uncovered in the catacombs. 

They all prepare, waiting for the day their master returns to grant 
them glory. 


Zone Revamps - Splitpaw (Legends) 
___________________________ 

Farsoth Mal, son of the Ishva Mal, leader of the Verishe Mal tribe, sat 
by his father’s side watching him rule his minions in Splitpaw Lair. 
His father may have conquered this lair some years ago, but Farsoth 
believed they should rule far more than just one underground kingdom. 
He grew to despise his father for his lack of ambition and many hours 
were spent in bitter arguments between the two. The Ishva Mal grew 
tired and angry at the ceaseless challenges to his authority, gaining 
as much contempt for his son as his son had for him. 

During a particularly heated argument of growls and grisly barks, the 
Ishva Mal reminded his willful son that his power was absolute and that 
he shared his throne with no one. With one quick motion, the Ishva Mal 
brandished his spear and sliced off his son's paw, determined that he 
would finally win the respect he deserved from his son. But the Ishva 
Mal's cruel methods would prove to be his downfall. 

The Ishva Mal grew to be a greater tyrant each day, so much so that the 
Verishe Mal mages and warriors secretly formed the Council of Nine to 
challenge his rule. Farsoth saw the plans the Verishe Mal had in store 
for his father, but did nothing to stop them and instead chose to use 
them to his advantage. 

Farsoth learned much from the council's mages and became obsessed with 
the summoning arts they practiced. His fascination eventually led to a 
plan that would secure the throne . . . for him. 

Through all he'd learned from the Verishe Mal mages, he believed he 
could summon a powerful entity from the Plane of Fire itself. Farsoth 
thought with such power at his side, nothing could stop him from ruling 
the Splitpaw Lair and any lands he desired. 

He prepared for weeks, researching and gathering the reagents he 
required and finally he set to work to summon a terrible beast to bring 
an end to his father's rule. 

Farsoth was distracted by his own anger, forgetting vital components as 
he wove the spell and the unthinkable happened. Flames shot out of the 
portal that Farsoth opened and, at the same time, rocks rained down 
upon the inhabitants of the lair. Then, the portal shifted its focus 
and water flooded into the corridors, extinguishing the flames and 
washing away the rocks. The portal shimmered once more and waves of all 
types of elementals poured into Splitpaw. 

Farsoth certainly attained part of his goal. His father was killed, but 
so to were most of the gnolls he wished to lead to greatness. 

Now he is a prisoner to the swarms of enraged elementals that have made 
Splitpaw Lair their new home. 

* Denotes a change requested by the community. 

- The EverQuest Team 

.....................................................................

------------------------------
December 17, 2004
------------------------------

We apologize for the recent issues with our attempt to ease 
backflagging. Our coders and designers have worked tirelessly through 
the night to come up with tonight's update which should resolve the 
backflagging solution issues. We have also identified a few other 
issues and added corrections for them as well. 

- Backflagging issues have been resolved. 
- Raids can again enter Anguish. 
- Huntress / High Priestess titles should now display correctly based 
upon gender. 
- An itemization issue in South Karana and Splitpaw has been corrected. 
- The debuff in the Muramite Trial of Efficiency will not cast as 
often. 
- The mirrors in the Tower of Frozen Shadow should once again function 
properly. 
- The Monk AA Hastened Purification of the Body has been corrected to 
be 10% of the newly reduced reuse time for Purify Body. 
- Added the spell Tranquility of the Glade to the ranger's repertoire, 
which rangers can recieve by turning in a rune. 
- The berserker ability Crippling Strike should now have a fixed 
duration 

-- The EverQuest Team

.....................................................................