*** Highlights ***

- The Convorteum and the First Creation:

The Convorteum is a secluded area of the Underfoot that is the home of the First Creation and the heart of the conspiracy against Brell.  It is a massive, inverted pyramidal structure sprouting from the ceiling of a huge, lava-filled chamber. Those that have been converted to the Faith of Self come to the Convorteum at times to show their loyalty to the First Creation and to show that they accept the tenets of the Faith of Self – place oneself above all others. This creates confusion in the minds of some, mixed messages that have lead to much sadness, loss and even madness.

The First Creation was the first and most loyal creation of Brell Serilis, and the very first sentient form he ever created. The First Creation chose to rebel against Brell. His tampering with the design of new races is subtle but in powerful ways, causing them to turn along paths that lead to destruction and harm to the Underfoot.

The First has done something to distract Brell, to turn his attention away from the Underfoot.  Brell’s loyal servants are not usually ones to question his actions or decisions, and few of them have even tried to discover what is wrong, or even understand that anything is wrong.  But a few have, and the intrusion of upworlders gives the loyalists more options, more tools, to further their understanding of the problems in Underfoot.

- Many of the rare creatures in Underfoot have been moved to consolidate their spawn locations.  Be on the lookout for new places to find them.

- Most Underfoot raids have had significant tuning changes made in order to make them more surmountable.  Please see the “Quests and Events” section for details.

- There is a new stats pane on the inventory panel that displays many stats not aggregated elsewhere.
*** Items ***

- The focus on the Ranger Breastplate has changed to Focused Storm of Arrows Fury which increases damage from Focused Storm of Arrows.  The amount is equivalent to the increase in damage other damage increasing breastplates get over existing foci.
- The Underfoot berserker breastplate effects should now stack with Shared Bloodlust.
- Changed the augment slot on the Magmatic Deflector from type 4 to type 7.
- Added an augment slot to the Eyepiece of the Fancy Tinker.
*** Tradeskills ***

- Three more ranks of the Salvage Alternate Ability have been created.  Each rank offers an additional 5% of salvage ability.  You must own the Underfoot expansion in order to purchase these new ranks.
- Added bag tokens for the new tradeskilled ornaments.
- Added Faerune to Cosgrove Arcanist Seals and Cosgrove head seals, as long as they did not already have a worn focus.
- Tradeskill Treasurer NPCs will always give molds to dwarves, even if they are asked for patterns.  They will no longer offer a quest for armor patterns.  Any Dwarven books turned in as patterns are unavailable for now, but are not lost.  We will continue to work on a better solution.
- Increased the direct damage of the Tallon and Vallon tactic poisons by an additional 50%.  This portion can hit for critical damage.  Doubled the synchronous damage done by these poisons.  This portion will not hit for critical damage.  The duration of the debuff has been increased to 12 ticks.
  

*** Quests & Events ***

- Fippy the Destroyer’s power up damage and frequency has been reduced.
- Reduced the damage on Fippy the Destroyer’s Shadow Strike ability.
- Add numbers have been reduced in all phases of Fippy the Destroyer’s event, except between the first and second phases.
- Reduced combat values on all non-unique Burynai in the Masked Invaders event.
- All Burynai in the Masked Invaders event should be a bit more manageable in general.
- Slightly increased the time between power-ups for the Brutale in the Masked Invaders event.
- The Burynai Destroyer has been made slightly more difficult.
- Reduced damage output from the bosses in Grunkuck’s event.
- Increased the interval between add spawns in Grunkuck’s event.
- Grunkuck’s mate will now spawn near Grunkuck in order to help keep her safe.
- Brath’s damage when his regeneration ability is removed has been slightly reduced.
- The Arcane Shards of Brath will not immediately split if the one they hate the most is too far away.  You now have 15 seconds to engage them before they get angry and split in two.
- The Icy Shards of Brath will now correctly reset the Strike of Brell timer when they are hit by six cold spells.
- Reduced the number of ‘food’ aphids in the Guardians of the Hive event from 15 to 10.
- Increased the time between possible aphid wave spawns in the Guardians of the Hive event.
- Slightly reduced the HP of each of the boss Klik’nar in the Guardians of the Hive event.
- Increased the time before the healing mushrooms cast their spells in the Guardians of the Hive event.
- Fixed a bug with the young queens in the Cliknar Queen event.  They had taken on too many of their progenitor’s powers due to overenthusiastic genetic material.  They have returned to their proper status.
- Corrected combat settings for the Death Beetle event.
- The Living Legacy event rewards for 2010 and later will no longer be dependent on your server’s best score.  Any event completion from this point forward will be able to grant its reward immediately.  You still will receive the best augment if your 2008 or 2009 scores were better.
- Added some in-mission reward chests to Underfoot missions in Cooling Chamber, Brell’s Rest, Underquarry, Foundation, Pellucid Grotto, Arthicrex and Shining City.  Rewards for the other missions are forthcoming in the next update.
- The Shade of Darott will no longer immediately send you out of his mission if you accidentally hail him twice.
*** Spells ***

- Beastlord – Steeltrap Jaws, Lockfang Jaws, and Fellgrip Jaws have been reworked to only be limited by their own triggered effects and not other spells cast by the pet.
- Beastlord – Friendly pet is now a contact ability that shares a stacking slot with steeltrap jaws and other similar spells.  It will fire up to 6 times per cast and has an increased chance to proc.
- Berserker – Reflected Bloodlust will now also effect piercing weapons for the berserker.
- Berserker – Axe of Rallos Dread effect will now increase the damage the target takes from the next 50 melee hits by 5%.
- Berserker – Axe of Rallos and its attributable effects are now harder to resist.
- Cleric – Aquifer Splash now has a wear off message.
- Cleric – Blessed Aquifer should now disappear when all the charges are used.
- Druid – Removed the recast time of Blessing of the Heartwood.
- Druid – Sundew Blessing’s description now matches its functionality.
- Necromancer – Necrotize ally no longer does damage to the caster’s pet.  The stun has been increased to 12 seconds up from 10.
- Paladin – Protective Confession’s melee guard effect is now in slot 1.
- Paladin/Shadowknight – Withstand Blow’s melee guard effect is now in slot 9.
- Ranger – Increased the range of Jolting Frontkicks from 30 to 50.
- Rogue – Increased the range of Assault to 50 up from 30.
- Rogue – Assault aggro has been lowered to approximately 2/3 of the original value.
- Rogue – Twisted Chance Discipline is now on Timer 3.
- Shadowknight – Malarian Skin’s Melee guard effect is now in slot 6.
- Warrior – Added cast messages back on to all ranks of Field Armorer.
- Warrior – Field Armorer can now be used regardless of what you have targeted.
- Warrior – Field Armorer now has a 1.5 second recast and shares a timer with Champion’s Aura, Commanding Voice, and Myrmidon’s Aura.
- Wizard – Self-Immolation will now trigger a DoT effect on the caster instead of a DD effect.
- Wizard – Self-Immolation is now listed under the Direct Damage -> Fire category.
- Wizard – Malediction of Havoc can now be found in the Direct Damage -> Fire memorization category.
- Wizard – Malediction of Havoc now has a -50 resist modifier.
- Wizard – Removed the cast messages from the Malediction of Havoc Reflection Spells
- Wizard – The “Syllable of fire/ice/magic/mastery” effects now grant a damage bonus to the next spell of their respective types.  The mastery syllable will grant bonus damage to any spell.  They also cause damage to the caster while they remain unused.
- Fixed a bug in spells that vary with distance that was causing incorrect values when damage was reduced to 0.
           

*** NPC ***

- Many of the rare creatures in Underfoot have been moved to consolidate their spawn locations. Be on the lookout for new places to find them.
- The hive in Arthicrex and the tunnels of Volska’s Husk have had their population thinned out a bit.
- Lowered the damage and HP of NPCs in Brell’s Rest, the Cooling Chamber, and Pellucid Grotto slightly.
- Cliknar in Underquarry should be less observant of what’s happening to other nearby Cliknar.
- Removed the humanoid property from Cliknar that do not stand upright.
- Enforcer Stoutspore’s Sweeping Blow ability will no longer affect or aggro NPCs.
- Underquarry – genati ancients, iron golems, burynai tricksters and welterwizards, and cliknar adepts no longer see invisibility.
- Arthicrex – cliknar adepts, cliknar arcanists, cliknar auxilioids, cliknar seers, and bellikos recruiters no longer see invisibility.
- The Hive Nurse in Arthicrex should now be less resilient.
- Corrected some text errors in Volska’s Husk.
- Changed the repop times (and rare spawn percentages) in the following zones:
– Fungal Forest – 17 minutes
– Underquarry – 22 minutes
– Cooling Chamber – 22 minutes
– Shining City – 17 minutes
– Arthicrex – 17 minutes outside the hive ascent, 22 minutes for everything on the ascent and up into the hive
– Foundation – 17 minutes
– Pellucid Grotto – 17 minutes
– Volska’s Husk – 22 minutes

*** Mercenaries ***

- Mercenaries can now be maintained with Bayle Marks (an alternate currency).  These can be purchased on the marketplace as an alternate payment method to platinum.  Platinum is still accepted by all mercenaries, but Bayle Marks will be consumed first if they are available.
- Fixed a bug that allowed mercenaries to continue attacking even when invulnerable.

*** AA ***

- Bard – The Selo’s Kick ability should now be instant with no mysterious duration component.
- Bard – Selo’s Kick no longer checks against physical resist in order to land.  It can however still be dodged/parried/etc.
- Berserker – Precise Blow has been increased in effectiveness.
- Druid – Egress should now work as intended.
- Druid – The Spirits of Nature ability has had its damage increased slightly.
- Druid – Wall of Wind will now only hit NPC targets and should be constricted by line of sight.
- Enchanter – Forceful Banishment has been made more… forceful.
- Monk – Stunning Kick has been revamped and should now work as described.
- Monk – Infusion of Thunder will now stack correctly with Heel of Kanji.
- Monk – Quickfoot once again will reduce the time required between Flying Kicks. It should now not conflict with Heel of Kanji, but it will also not enhance it any further either.
- Monk – Eye Gouge and Crippling Strike have had their resist modifiers adjusted to function properly at their higher ranks.
- Paladin – Blessing of Light will now correctly focus Silvered Fury.
- Ranger – Mobs under the effect of Harmonious Arrow’s harmony spell now have their awareness range reduced to 15 rather than 18.
- Shadowknight – Hate’s Attraction will no longer affect players.
*** Miscellaneous ***

- Updated pathing in Volska’s Husk and Underquarry.
- Corrected an issue that previously prevented NPCs from correctly calling for help when taking very low amounts of damage.
- Fixed several grammar issues in Underquarry, Foundation, and Lichen Creep.
- Fixed several resource leaks.
- Fixed a thread-safety issue with non-”original” graphics memory modes.  If you are running in “original” mode, you will be automatically switched back to “most memory” mode.  The eventual goal is to remove the need for “original’ mode. You can still switch it back to “original” if you encounter problems (please post about any issues you have).  NOTE:  This has nothing to do with “West bug” like symptoms in Field of Scale, etc.  That’s a totally separate issue.  This may address the problems reported with corrupted textures when the memory optimized modes were introduced.
- Fixed a problem with twinheal when triggered from an item.  It now does the twin-heal and consumes the twinheal charge.  Previously the charge was consumed but no twinheal occurred.
- Fixed a rare zone crash associated with achievement links.
- Made some hardware changes to address the spell and ability timer issue some zones on Povar were experiencing.
*** UI ***

- Added a new stats pane on the inventory panel that displays many stats not aggregated elsewhere.
- Fixed several issues with the extended target window having phantom empty entries during raids.

- Changed -

- EQUI_Animations.xml
- EQUI_Inventory.xml
- EQUI_MercenaryInfoWnd.xml
- EQUI_MercenaryMerchantWnd.xml

*** Previously Updated ***

- Envoy Therma now drops the correct tier of armor pieces.
- Immature Sporali will now correctly despawn if their creator dies.
- Corrected an issue with the Guardians of the Hive reset.
- Added spell runes to the chests in the Underfoot Raids in place of some of the purity augments.
- Reduced the difficulty of the undead and rares in Cooling Chamber.
- A Darkhollow Sporkin in Arthicrex only needs one mushroom. He will no longer reward you for more.
- The EverQuest Team

- New items may be discovered in Foundation, Underquarry, and Arthicrex.
- Three treasurer NPCs have arrived at the library in plane of knowledge to help players store their cultural patterns.  Please pay careful attention to the instructions that they give you.
- Many Underfoot events have been changed.  See the events section for details.
- Many spells and abilities have been changed.  See the spells section for details.

*** Items ***

- Added endurance to the Underfoot evolving weapons that were missing it and removed endurance from those weapons that did not need it.
- Added endurance to the Ring of Genari Agitation, Ring of Genari Provocation, Belt of the Unknown Soldier, and Belt of the Hiveslayer.
- Any existing Plush Bears that players have will be changed into Gift: Haiti Relief Plush Bear.  If the player wishes to keep the bear for themselves, they simply need to open the gift themselves.  If they wish to give it to another, the unopened gift can be traded to that person.
- Moved some zonewide drops from Pellucid Grotto to Foundation where they were intended to be.
- New items may be discovered in Foundation, Underquarry, and Arthicrex.
 

*** Tradeskills ***

- Three treasurer NPCs have arrived at the library in plane of knowledge to help players store their cultural patterns.  Please pay careful attention to the instructions that they give you.
- Appropriate NPCs in the underfoot will now drop the rare tradeskill components.  Not all golems are properly set yet.  This will be fixed in a future patch.
*** Quests & Events ***

- Players in possession of a Dragon Brood Crypt Key will now receive the proper rewards upon opening the chest at the end of the mission.
- The Icy Shard of Brath in the Wrath of Brath event should now properly be affected by spells landing upon it.
- Brath’s regenerative abilities now weaken him greatly.  Be warned, when his regenerative powers end, he WILL be angry.
- Brath’s shards have become slightly more dangerous.
- Targamin Blockstacker will no longer accept agranite from previous failed attempts at the Wrath of Brath events.
- Old agranite will now crumble to dust when you enter the Wrath of Brath instance.
- The knockback portions of most spells in the Wrath of Brath event have been removed.
- The Wrath of Brath spell will now correctly pull you towards the caster instead of pushing you away.
- The number of Masked Invaders facing players over the course of their event has been reduced.
- The captives in the Seeds for the Waterstalkers quest will now reset after ten minutes if they are not successfully rescued.
*** Spells ***

- Removed the reagent requirement from all ranks of Vigorous Axe Throw.
- Holy Intervention should now be focused by appropriate healing foci.
- Holy Contravention is now an evocation spell.
- Modified the spell particles and icons of Holy Intervention, Holy Contravention, and Erud’s Retort to better represent their functionality.
- Corrected an issue where ranks II and III of Blast of Hypergrowth did not cast the correct upgraded spell.
- Modified the Field Armorer ability:
- – Now hits everyone in the group regardless of their class
- – Removed hit limit
- – Duration changed to 24 seconds
- – Recast changed to match duration of 24 seconds
- – Endurance cost changed to 600/700/800
- – Field Armorer should no longer land on pets.
- Removed the stamina and strikethrough bonuses from Bracing Defense.
- Monster summoning spells should no longer summon base elemental models.
- Fixed a bug that caused Leech touch and similar spells to sometimes nuke the caster for large amounts of damage.
- Fixed a bug with free targeted spells that caused them to fail if you had anything targeted.
- Infusion of Thunder will now stack with Champion.  It will no longer stack with Intensity of the Resolute or Glyph of Courage.
- Infusion of Thunder will no longer conflict with Scaledfist Discipline or Heel of Kanji.
- Zan Fi’s Whistle will no longer be overwritten by Drunken Monkey Style or Shared bloodlust.
- Drunken Monkey Style will now go to the song window instead of the discipline slot.
- Haergen’s Feralgia can now be memorized via context menus.
- Splash of Runedust can now be memorized via context menus.
- Hypnotic Stare can now be memorized via context menus.
- Protective Confession Rk. III can now be cast in combat like the other two ranks.
- All ranks of Assault can now be used while in combat.
- Items summoned from the Cauldron of Many Things or Cauldron of Endless Goods will no longer expire when their owner does.
- Necrotize Ally now has a 12 second recast.
- Necrotize Ally will now correctly nuke and stun the caster’s pet when triggered.
*** NPC ***

- Lowered the physical resist of Underfoot NPCs that had been set too high previously.  This was most common in Kernagir, Pellucid Grotto, and Brell’s Temple, but affected many other NPCs as well.
- Added depop mechanisms to adds for rares in Arthicrex and Lichen Creep.
- Corrected NPCs that were giving negative Beta Neutral faction hits.
- Removed some superfluous Gs from the names of two NPCs in Kernagir.  The Gs have been sent to a farm where they can play all day long.
- The Squires in Crystallos should no longer constantly use their Savage Slash ability.
- Lowered the AE radius of Taskmaster Jialli’s Beguiling Gaze ability.
 

*** AA ***

- Bard – the Flurry AA has had its minimum level increased to 76 to match the prerequisite ability Burst of Power.
- Monk – Corrected the description for Hastened Purification of the Body.
- Shadowknight – the reuse timer on Hate’s Attraction has been reduced to 2 minutes.
- Shaman – Inconspicuous Totem should no longer conflict with Pact of the Wolf.
       

*** Achievements ***

- Players will now get a message when they cause the Burn the Heretics achievement to fail.
- Fixed an issue that was causing the quest Exterminating Deagus’ Pests to not register for achievement purposes.
 

*** Miscellaneous ***

- Fixed a bug that caused NPCs to continue to attack mercenaries that were invulnerable.
- Mercenaries should no longer eat your Gift of Amazing Exquisite Radiant Mana.
*** UI ***

- Fixed a crash bug that occurred with certain custom UIs that modify the display of inventory slots in bags.
- Fixed a bug that could leave pets in the extended target window when their owners got charmed.
- Changed -
- EQUI_AchievementsWnd.xml
- EQUI_AchievementWnd.xml
*** Previously Updated ***

   – Fixed an issue causing newly-created items (like the plush bear) to disappear in some zones on Povar and Erollisi Marr.

- The EverQuest Team

Welcome to EverQuest Underfoot, the 16th expansion for EverQuest!

The Underfoot centers around the Heart of the World. This is the vast magma ball that floats in the center of a hollow sphere that stretches across a great distance. Standing on any open interior portion of the sphere, adventurers can look up to see the massive, blazing ball of living lava. The sphere is large enough that while individual areas may have a “bowl” shape it is very minor. Lava flows into and out of the Heart of the World from volcanoes, lava tubes and crevasses all around the hollow sphere, like blood into and out of a heart.

The Plane of Underfoot is ruled by a curious being known as Brell Serilis, the Duke of Below. It consists of an elaborate system of caves and tunnels and is inhabited by all sorts of creatures, both good and evil, that normally dwell underground.

In his temple at the top of the tallest volcano, Brell spends his days making new races. Most he destroys, returning them to their primal clay. Some he makes into his servants. Recently things have changed. Conflict exists in the Underfoot. There are those who continue to worship Brell Serilis and those who feel abandoned by him.  Brell’s presence is no longer felt in the plane, and in his absence much of the machinery that serves Norrath and other worlds is breaking down.

It is into this troubled realm that adventurers can now travel.

- New Content: New areas for adventurers to explore including Brell’s Rest, Pellucid Grotto, The Underquarry, Brell’s Arena, The Foundation, The Cooling Chamber, Arthicrex, Lichen Creep, Kernagir the Shining City, Fungal Forest, Volska’s Husk, and Brell’s Temple. Travel to the Underfoot solo, with a group, or in raids to complete new quests, tasks, and events to acquire new items, spells, tradeskill recipes, and abilities.

- Extended Target Window: Track friends and foes with greater accuracy. The target window now lets you assign people or group roles to specific locations on the window for easy re-targeting.  You can track main tank, raid tanks, main target, main assist, puller, etc., or just put a specific player or NPC in the window.

- New Achievement System: Display and manage your progress through the world of Norrath. The achievement system allows players to track various categories of their advancement such as levels, Alternate Advancements, quest completions, and other progression tracking events.  At the launch of Underfoot, players can track their General, Tradeskill and Underfoot progression Achievements.
     – Open displays achievements you haven’t completed yet.
     – Complete lets you toggle the display of achievements you have already completed.
     – Locked toggles the achievements you aren’t quite ready to work on just yet. As an example, if you are level 30, you should be focusing on obtaining level 40 instead of level 50.  In some cases, like quest lines, you may be able to complete locked achievements. This helps direct the players to content they should be focused on for their level and progression stage.

- Master Tradeskilling: Create powerful new weapons, armor, food and drink items, poisons and more.
*** Items ***

- Made changes to the Type 3 “Irae” augments that affect DoT spells.  They should now be giving approximately the same total effect they did before the change to allow the focus “spell damage amount” to spread its damage over DoT spells.  There may be further changes to these shards.

*** Tradeskills ***

- Aded an Ink of Pain to the Iceflame Guard research recipe.  This is to include the Absorb Hit part of the Prism Skin that is a recourse on the Iceflame Strike part of Iceflame Guard.
- Added an Ink of Zek to the Last Rites research recipe.  This is to include the chance spell part of the spell that casts the Last Rites Trigger spell.
*** Spells ***
  
- The Dominating Aura will now behave as an Aura instead of a Trap.
- Boon of the Cetacean and Boon of the Avian should now last 4 hours as described.
*** AA ***

- Calling forth a Servant of Ro now summons a slightly smaller servant.
*** UI ***
- Split the AA display into assigned and spent points.

- Changed -
EQUI_AAWindow.xml
EQUI_Animations.xml
*** Miscellaneous ***

- Reduced the prices for many guild hall portal attuning stones.
- Removed weapon base damage caps for all classes of characters above level 70.
- Fixed some issues where invulnerability type spells interacted badly with auras.

*** Known Issues ***

We are aware of some issues with the achievements listed below. These issues will be fixed in subsequent update.

- Conquest: “Gem Collector” is displaying the wrong gem names in the achievement window.
- The Time Trial and the Challenge of Toughness for Search to Saunk are currently not obtainable.
- Conquest: “Burn the Heretics” cannot currently be completed.
- The Achievements for epic 1.5s are not currently backfilling if you’ve completed the 2.0 quests. 
- Conquest: “Alphabet Goop” is currently using the secondary names of the NPCs instead of their “title” names.  Defeating them in the order of their secondary names will complete the achievement.
- The EverQuest Team

- AC and Attack values on food and drink will now be properly added to your character.
- Corrected the description on The Frightening Writ. It now properly mentions that it grants access to a scarecrow mercenary rather than the title “the Haunted.” It will now grant access to the new title “the Gravedigger.” This title is retroactive – if you have already used your Writ, you will now have access to your Gravedigger title.
- All UI engine changes required by the expansion are now live. Some patching of UIs may be required. Most of the popular UIs should already be updated – check your favorite UI site.

*** Items ***

- AC and Attack values on food and drink will now be properly added to your character.
- Changed the way the Vibrating Gauntlets of Infuse and Vibrating Hammer of Infuse function in order to avoid the linkdeath issues that were possible before. If you transmute them there will be a slight delay before you can transmute them again.
- The bard wind instrument focus on Icy Greaves has been increased to match the focus on other items in that armor set.
- Corrected a polarity issue with the Countersprung Enhancificator. It should now behave as intended when it comes in contact with water.

*** Quests & Events ***

- Corrected the description on The Frightening Writ. It now properly mentions that it grants access to a scarecrow mercenary rather than the title “the Haunted.” It will now grant access to the new title “the Gravedigger.” This title is retroactive – if you have already used your Writ, you will now have access to your Gravedigger title.
- Mercenaries will no longer count towards the minimum player requirements for missions they can not enter.
- The Broodmother in Bloodmoon Keep is no longer rootable.
*** Spells ***

- Pets are no longer removed if you’ve been logged out for more than 30 minutes.
*** NPC ***

- Fixed a problem preventing NPCs from summoning their pets.
*** AA ***

- The chance for Mortal Coil to proc the blocking Mortal Residue has been reduced from 100% to 5%. In addition, the duration of Mortal Residue has been reduced to equal Mortal Coil’s duration.
- Reduced the reuse time for the Berserker Savage Spirit AA to 60 minutes.
*** UI ***

- A large number of UI optimizations have been put in place that should noticeably increase frame rates under certain circumstances.
- All UI engine changes required by the expansion are now live. Some patching of UIs may be required. Most of the popular UIs should already be updated – check your favorite UI site.

- Changed -
- EQUI.xml
- EQUI_Animations.xml
- EQUI_CastSpellWnd.xml
- EQUI_HeritageSelectionWnd.xml
- EQUI_MercenaryManageWnd.xml
- EQUI_ServerListWnd.xml
- EQUI_Templates.xml
- EQUI_VoiceActionBarWnd.xml
- SIDL.xml

*** Miscellaneous ***

- When changing race to a gnome, tinkering skill is now properly set at 50 as if you had rolled a new gnome.
- You can now select your heritage if you change races into a Drakkin.
- Changing race will no longer remove certain ranger abilities.

*** Mercenaries ***

- Added a new selectable assist mode for mercenaries.
- There are two new buttons in the mercenary management window: “Auto Assist” and “Call Assist”.
- When “Auto Assist” is engaged, mercenaries should behave exactly as before with respect to what targets they use for attacking/healing.
- Using a tank mercenary with “Auto Assist” disabled, the merc will wait for the “Call Assist” button to be pressed before engaging any targets. When the “Call Assist” button is pressed, all targets currently on the group enemy list (that are in his awareness range) will be added as valid targets and he will begin attacking using the normal AI for determining targets.
- Using a healer mercenary with “Auto Assist” disabled, the merc will behave normally except you can press the “Call Assist” button to override normal rules for not healing pullers. If a puller is in the awareness range of the healer merc when “Call Assist” is pressed, it will have a 3 second window where it can drop a heal on them.
- /mercassist on — Turns on mercenary auto-assist mode.
- /mercassist off — Turns off mercenary auto-assist mode.
- /mercassist — Calls for assist when your mercenary is not in auto-assist mode.
- Fixed an issue where players could cause their tank merc to attack other players’ pets.
- The scarecrow tank mercenary now has endurance.

- The EverQuest Team

- The Unscribed Glyph item will no longer charge AAs when granting glyphs.
- Fixed the possessive apostrophe issue with the Atathus` Warfire line of items.
- The Thick Banded Belt’s sell-back price has been changed to match the price of other looted items.

*** Tradeskills ***

- Rouan’s Draught of the Wanderer will now return a bottle and cork on fail instead of 20 bottles.
*** Quests & Events ***

- Fixed a misspelling in a dialog from the Protector.
*** Spells ***

- Corrected description errors in the spells Theft of Pain and Phantasmic Reflex.
- Damaging cast procs (such as Sympathetic Lightning) will now proc only on damaging spells, rather than all detrimental spells. This will prevent damage procs from triggering on debuffs and mesmerizing spells.
*** AA ***

- The Second Spire of the Minstrels will no longer apply a damage bonus to procs or item clicks. Any bonus it applies to DoT damage will be divided over all ticks of the DoT rather than adding its full amount every tick.
- The functionality of Mortal Coil has been changed slightly to prevent some unwanted effects in specific situations. The triggering of mortal coil now leaves a ‘Mortal Residue’ upon your body for a short time which will block the continual application of Mortal Coil. Most players will see no change in the way this AA behaves.
*** UI ***

- Added left-click functionality to player and group UI gauges when used in custom windows.

- Changed -

EQUI.xml
EQUI_Animations.xml

*** Miscellaneous ***

- NPCs that summon will now summon players to half of their melee distance in the same direction the player was in prior to summoning. The method used to calculate the position of the summon should correctly account for floor height and invisible zone walls. So players should not fall through the world after being summoned or be locked outside of zone boundaries.
- Fixed a calculation error that allowed a player to sometimes stand just outside of a rooted/summoning NPCs melee radius and not be summoned.
- Fixed a problem that caused the spell Doom of the Mephits to crash the zone when you had a mercenary.
- Fixed a problem with pets where they would not re-attack an NPC when instructed to after the NPC had charmed its owner and pet hold was on.
- Alternate currency that is in item form will now automatically be reclaimed when exiting a monster mission.

*** Previously Updated ***

- The requirement to enter Howling Stones has now been lowered to level 40 to allow Hot Zone access for relevant players.
- Fixed a problem that was preventing players that did not have the key from entering the dragoncrypt zone.
- Fixed a bug that would send characters below the world when zoning from Paineel to Toxxulia Forest.
- The clicknar in Toxxulia will now fight back. They still have a very small aggro radius.
- The EverQuest Team

*** Highlights ***

- Many of Old Man McKenzie’s items have faded from memory.  If you have one of these faded items, give them to the Old Man in Plane of Knowledge and he will return your Brews.  If you had augments in these items, be sure to put them in bags before you zone.

- Most items from Old Man McKenzie’s group missions have been upgraded in power.  They have also had their required levels reduced to 80.  These items do not need to be turned in to see the changes.

- You will now have to impress Old Man McKenzie with your accomplishments before he will allow you to start a Nagafen or Vox raid or see items that come from them.  People who have completed more than seven raids from Solteris, Meldrath’s Mansion, Crystallos, or all but the first tier of Seeds of Destruction raids will impress him.  You must request a Nagafen or Vox raid from him or attempt to join one in progress for him to check your accomplishments and allow you to see the raid items.

- New Hot Zones are now available.  Speak to Franklin Teek in the Plane of Knowledge to see what new tasks he has in store for you.

*** Items ***

- Many of Old Man McKenzie’s items have faded from memory.  If you have one of these faded items, give them to the Old Man in Plane of Knowledge and he will return your Brews and an additional reward.  If you had augments in these items, be sure to put them in bags before you zone.
- Most items from Old Man McKenzie’s group missions have been upgraded in power.  They have also had their required levels reduced to 80.  These items do not need to be turned in to see the changes.
- You will now have to impress Old Man McKenzie with your accomplishments before he will allow you to start a Nagafen or Vox raid or see items that come from them.  People who have completed more than seven raids from Solteris, Meldrath’s Mansion, Crystallos, or all but the first tier of Seeds of Destruction raids will impress him.  You must request a Nagafen or Vox raid from him or attempt to join one in progress for him to check your accomplishments and allow you to see the raid items.
- The new Orb of Tishan’s click effect has been repaired.
- The Frost-Strung Bow now offers a bit more protection.
- Replaced the missing AC from the new Thick Banded Belt.
- Tobrin’s Mystical Eyepatch can not be activated as often.
- The new Staff of Forbidden Rites has had its recast time raised and will only have one augment slot.
- The Barbarian Hunting Spear, Staff of Forbidden Rites, Warhammer of Divine Grace, and Staff of Ankexfen have had their ratios increased to match other weapons in their tier.
- The familiar summoned by the new Scimitar of the Mistwalker has become faster but weaker.  The scimitar itself has become slightly less powerful.
- The Improved Dodge effect on the Idol of Many Hands, the Silvery Trinket, and the Frost-Strung Bow has been reduced to level VI to match the focus on other items in its tier.
*** Quests & Events ***

-  Classic Missions have undergone a careful bug fixing pass resulting in the following changes:
     – Harm Touch has been changed to remove an exploit allowing the use of unintended higher level versions of the ability. In addition, the ability will no longer refresh upon the death of the Shadow Knight. This affects the Classic Mission ability as well as the normal version of the ability.
     – Paladins should now be able to create a Lay On Hands hotkey.
     – Shaman have been granted the haste spell Alacrity.
     – Lady Vox will now leash to her spawn point should she find herself outside of her room. This has been changed to provide an encounter more in the spirit of the event.
     – Lowered the hand to hand damage on each of the classic mission characters to be more in line with their previous values.  Monks of course still have much higher unarmed damage then other classes.
- The classic raids will once again drop items instead of brews.
- Old Man McKenzie no longer remembers encountering the Corrupted Gnome Explorer in Guk.
- Old Man McKenzie’s group tasks now require a minimum of three adventurers to obtain and all three must be present to open the chests.  The raid events will still require 12.
- Fixed an issue that caused the classic mission task to end when players were added or removed from the task.
- Fixed an issue that caused players to be able to use AAs in the monster mission that the shrouds were not intended to have.
- Fixed an issue that caused players that were dead and in hover mode to sometimes not receive rewards when the chest was opened at the end of the classic mission.
- Sulgar now promises the correct reward for Tarton’s Wheel.
- Fixed some spelling errors in Blackfeather Roost tasks.
- The Dark Tower: Fallen Guard task now specifies the correct zone in its description.
*** NPC ***

- Modified the placement of some Rallosian Shocktroopers in Korascian Warrens.
- Increased the chance for Library Director Eslisar to spawn in the Keasora Library.
- Fixed a placement problem with an Elder Air Wyvern in Crystallos.
- The Pixxt Deathbinder’s spell Consuming Flames now takes significantly longer to cast.
*** AA ***

- Glyph of Angry Thoughts should now always give you the full hate bonus as described.
- Harm Touch 1 – 10 will no longer refresh upon the death of the Shadow Knight. This is to make the ability consistent throughout the entire level range.
*** Zones ***

- The following zones are now Hot Zones providing new challenges and increased experience. Speak to Franklin Teek in the Plane of Knowledge to see what new tasks he has in store for you.

   – Level 20 – South Karana
   – Level 25 – Lake of Ill Omen
   – Level 30 – The Twilight Sea
   – Level 35 – Kedge Keep
   – Level 40 – City of Mist
   – Level 45 – Howling Stones
   – Level 50 – Veksar
   – Level 55 – Grieg’s End
   – Level 60 – Plane of Nightmares
   – Level 65 – Kod’Taz, Broken Trial Grounds
   – Level 70 – The Buried Sea
   – Level 75 – Thalassius, the Coral Keep
   – Level 75 – Ashengate, Reliquary of the Scale

   – Apparently while performing some end-of-the-summer cleaning, the doors within Howling Stones were left unlocked. It may be some time before a maintenance crew can be sent there again to lock the doors up tight. Use this knowledge as you will.
   – In addition, the spells protecting the entrance to Howling Stones have weakened, and adventurers of lesser skill and strength may find its halls now accessible.
*** UI ***

- Changed -

EQUI_Animations.xml – new dragitems
EQUI_CharacterListWnd.xml – minor alignment fixes
EQUI_CharacterSelect.xml – minor alignment fixes
*** Miscellaneous ***

- Fixed a bug that was causing chat messages sent to your guild to sometimes be lost.
- Fixed a problem with sound effects stacking that caused many sounds to play incorrectly.
- Fixed a problem that caused you to lose all the money on your shroud when removing the shroud and upgrading a mercenary.
*** Previously Updated ***

- Both the classic raid tasks and the zones they take place in have been set to their intended maximum of 42 players.
- Removed the ability for mercenaries to accompany you on Ancient Heroes missions.  It seems that they don’t much like being taken to a time when adventurers didn’t carry coin around.
- The chests in the “classic” missions offered by Old Man McKenzie will now hang around a while longer once opened.

- The EverQuest Team

*** Highlights ***

- Ancient Heroes: Old Man McKenzie, a frequent patron of the taverns in the Plane of Knowledge, thinks you adventurers have it too easy these days! Back in his day they didn’t have all this fancy armor and magical weaponry, they relied on their wits and not a little luck to survive! Think you’ve got what it takes to survive in McKenzie’s Gold era? Now’s your chance to prove it! Enter McKenzie’s world and take on the denizens of Nagafen’s Lair, Permafrost, and Guk as they were originally meant to be played, at level 50!

Transform yourself into a character built to mimic the classic EQ experience before even the lands of Kunark had been discovered. Prove your mettle by besting the Undead Frogloks of Guk or the Kobolds of Nagafen’s Lair, with up to 5 friends. Or if you’re feeling especially gallant, gather a raid force and take down Lord Nagafen or Lady Vox! With all new rewards you’ll want to conquer them all!

Below level 80? Seek out Franklin Teek who’s hiring adventurers to slay creatures in the ‘Hot Zones’ of Norrath. Some say he is a ‘fixer’ for some unknown party, while others think he seeks to live vicariously through the escapades of others. All we know for sure is he always seems to have work for those in need, and he’s willing to pay well to have it done! Completion of any one of Franklin’s ‘Hot Zone’ quests by December 1, 2009 will qualify you for the Ancient Heroes Road to Underfoot event. Get to the Plane of Knowledge to see if he has work for you!

Participate* in all three of the Road to Underfoot events and pre-order and purchase the expansion by December 1, 2009 and you’ll be one of the first to experience EverQuest® Underfoot™!

- Giants Giants Giants!: Haven’t participated in the Giants, Giants, Giants even yet? Don’t fret, you now have a little while longer to fight against the greatest “big” foes of Norrath. Seek out Tzudani, Emissary of Veeshan in the Plane of Knowledge and heed the call while there’s still time. Good Hunting!

- Character Transformations Potions on the Marketplace: We’ve added two new potions and a combo pack to the marketplace that permit you to transform your characters.

*Potion of Amnesia – Using this item will allow you to change your character’s name. Once you change your name the change is permanent.
*Potion of Disgenderment – Using this item will immediately change your character’s gender to the opposite of what it currently is.  This is a permanent change.
*Witness Protection Pack – This pack contains a Potion of Amnesia and Potion of Disgenderment. Using the Potion of Amnesia will allow you to change your character’s name.  Once you change your name the change is permanent. Using the Potion of Disgenderment will immediately change your character’s gender to the opposite of what it currently is.  This is a permanent change.
- Norrath’s Timeless Heroes Winners:  Tomeseeker Salkien in Plane of Knowledge has a new book with some interesting recipes celebrating Norrath’s Timeless Heroes – Tharkis (Luclin), Acceber (The 7th Hammer), Jyve (Antonius Bayle), Merlu (Maelin Starpyre), Oriaas (The Tribunal), Rouan (The Tribunal), Souldor (Erollisi Marr), Straha (The 7th Hammer), Terminat (Maelin Starpyre), and Tnexus (Prexus).
*** Items ***
  
- Existing poisons from Chalandria’s Fang will start rotting.  The new poisons it creates will last longer.
- Changed the icons on poisons to differentiate them from potions and inks.
- Obliteration ornamentations sold in the marketplace now have a particle effect.  This will affect items you currently own with that ornamentation.
- The wedding bands from the wedding pack can now be traded on the Firiona server.
- Tomeseeker Salkien in Plane of Knowledge has a new book with some interesting recipes.
- The reward augmentations from the Giants, Giants, Giants event have been rebalanced to have a smoother progression curve and to allow for a more usable group-level reward.  – At low levels the augment has lost power, but it now ramps up much more quickly.  The end reward for the raid remains the same.
- Geomantra effects are now usable by non-mana using classes.
*** Quests & Events ***

- Fixed an issue with the Tainted Beast that was causing it to despawn too quickly.
- The groups of Ritualist NPCs in the War of Bloody Kithicor raid will no longer wither the storyline NPCs so long as all the NPCs in that group have aggro on players.
*** Spells ***
  
- All spells, disciplines, and AA’s that buff a player or pet with invulnerability effects will now count down in the guild hall and guild lobby.
- Divine Barrier has been returned to the normal buff window pending further review.
- Corrected an issue that was preventing Magicians from using Promised Recovery scrolls.
- Bard DoT chants have had their debuff portions split into a separate spell that is automatically triggered when the chant is cast.  Multiple instances of the base DoT from different casters will now stack, but the debuff portion will not.
*** AA ***

- The spell “Blood Pact” can no longer be added to the blocked buffs list.
*** Miscellaneous ***

- Fixed an issue where removing an item from a trader’s satchel did not update on the trader’s merchant window.
- Fixed an issue that was preventing the raid window from saving its settings.
- Removed restrictions on using general channels when dead and in hover mode (again).
- Fixed an issue that was preventing NPC height changes from working properly.
- Fixed an issue that could cause a player to become “ghosted” in their guild (in the guild, but not in the guild, and not removable from the guild by player or GM).
- Fixed an issue that caused your LFG tag to drop if you zoned with a mercenary.
- Fixed an issue causing non-attuned attunable items to not be sold to a someone with a buy line open on them.
*** UI ***

- Buffs with limited procs now display the number of charges remaining on the buff icon.
- Fixed a problem that caused buff icons and labels to get out of sync. The buff timer display is now more accurate as well.

- Changed Files -

EQUI.xml
EQUI_Animations.xml
EQUI_CastSpellWnd.xml
EQUI_NameChangeWnd.xml
EQUI_OptionsWnd.xml
EQUI_VoiceActionBarWnd.xml
SIDL.xml
- The EverQuest Team

- Giants Giants Giants: Angered by Norrathian adventurers’ blatant disregard for Dragonkind, Tzudani, Emissary of Veeshan, has called adventurers to battle Norrath’s greatest and largest foes. Amongst these behemoths there are the giants themselves, foes of the children of Veeshan and one-time rulers of Norrath. Standing in your path will also be massive constructs built by some to protect their homes and by others to destroy the world. Regardless of their origin and purpose, these giants stand ready, unafraid of your tiny blades and feeble magic. Challenge them with your raid force or fight them with but a single group if you are feeling truly brave. Fight against the greatest “big” foes of Norrath, from the Ancient Cyclops to the powerful Lord Brekt. Seek out Tzudani, Emissary of Veeshan in the Plane of Knowledge and heed the call.

- New Spam Filter: Added server-side SPAM filtering to reduce or eliminate bothersome noise in chat and in-game mail.

- Poison Component Drops: Poison component drops have been increased, mostly at the higher levels. At the higher levels it has been doubled, and the NPCs have been given a chance to drop 1 or 2 components. Humanoid rogues will drop 1 to 4.

- Client Memory Optimizations: The client now uses less memory and has several new modes of operation to allow you to configure memory usage versus performance..

* * * Items * * *

- Removed the Echo of Anger effect from the Discordling War Mask.
- Increased the AC on the tier 4.5 shields from the hard mode raids.
- Put the correct sharpshooting focus on the items with sharpshooting from the hard mode raids.
- Many items with Geomantra have had a shared recast timer added to them.
- The Aspect of the Brood item should now work more consistently.

* * * Quests & Events * * *

- Fixed a problem that could cause one of the chests in the Korafax raids to be killed by NPCs and therefore disappear.
- The gold abacus will now reward players who defeated any number of dragons during the Dragons, Dragons, Dragons event. Players who defeated all 20 dragons should remove their current Gold Plated Contact Spring and obtain a new abacus from the Distribution Facilitator in the Plane of Knowledge, as the rewards are now likely to be better.

* * * Spells * * *

- Removed regeneration messages from several recently added buffs.
- Prolonged Destruction “charges” will no longer be consumed by spell procs or melee procs.
- Promised Recuperation will no longer be overwritten by inferior promised healing spells.
- The cast times on the Pure Wildmagic spells triggered by Wildmagic Strike will now match the cast times of Wildmagic Strike.
- The pets summoned by Rank II and III of Minion of Sebilis will now come equipped with the appropriate mod items.
- Changed the name of some of the common click effects to make the upgrade path clearer.
- Circle of Life and Circle of Mana effects have had their level decay removed.
- The Messenger Bane poisons have been given an extra tick of duration to make them more reliable. They still will not be perfect if you get a bad run.

* * * Tradeskills * * *

- Poison component drops have been increased, mostly at the higher levels. At the higher levels it has been doubled, and the NPCs have been given a chance to drop 1 or 2 components. Humanoid rogues will drop 1 to 4.
- The Messenger Bane poisons have been given an extra tick of duration to make them more reliable. They still will not be perfect if you get a bad run.
- The Rogue vendor only poisons are now easier to make.
- The refining steps in the make poison skill are now easier.

* * * AA * * *

- Resolved several conflicts with the Monk’s Third Spire of the Sensei abilities.
- The description for the Shadow Knight AA Mortal Coil has changed to accurately reflect how the ability functions.

* * * Mercenaries * * *

- Corrected an issue with the minotaur mercenaries that was causing them to spawn with 0 endurance.
- Corrected an issue with the Siren Mercenaries that was causing them to be less effecient then other healer mercs.

* * * Spam Filter * * *

- We’ve added a SPAM filtering for chat.
- Messages flagged as spam will appear as “Soandso tells you, (SPAM)”. Clicking the word (SPAM) in the chat window will display the filtered message.
- You may also completely disable the display of SPAM flagged messages in your Options->Filters page.
- Clicking someone’s name in the chat window will bring up a menu that allows you to report what they said as either spam or not spam (in case the message was mis-flagged as spam). The information reported is used to refine the SPAM filter (it does not take effect immediately).
- In-game Mail can also be filtered for SPAM. Mail flagged as SPAM will have its subject replaced by “SPAM”. Buttons have been added to the mail window to report emails as spam or not spam (in case they are mis-flagged as spam).

* * * Client Memory Optimizations * * *

- The client now uses less memory and has several new modes of operation to allow you to configure memory usage versus performance.
- There are four modes of operation selectable in the Options->Display->Advanced window:

Least memory usage–This is the most aggressive mode. It only loads graphical assets on demand (at the time they are needed) and is aggressive about unloading assets when memory usage goes up. In this mode you may see gray textures as things load.

Balanced memory usage–This mode tries to minimize the visibility of gray textures while still being fairly aggressive about unloading assents when memory usage goes up.

Most memory usage–This is the default mode. This mode loads all assets needed for a zone while you are zoning, but only loads what is needed for what is currently in the zone. This mode still consumed less than we used before the optimizations.

Original–Loads all assets as before the optimizations. This mode should only be used as a fallback in case of problems with the other three modes. This mode will eventually be phased out.

* * * UI * * *

- Added a few new icons.
- Added in functionality to support the new Spam Filter system.

- Changed -

EQUI.xml
EQUI_AdvancedDisplayOptionsWnd.xml
EQUI_Animations.xml
EQUI_MailWindow.xml
EQUI_NameChangeWnd.xml
EQUI_ServerListWnd.xml

* * * Miscellaneous * * *

- You can now map the mouse buttons 3-8 to in game commands in the Options->Keys menu.
- Fixed a problem where the train button was available for AAs that you could not afford to buy.
- Fixed a problem with bandoliers and attunable items.
- Fixed a problem in the bazaar where having separate versions of the same item with different charges and price caused the bazaar to only use the newer price..
- Updated to latest voice SDK.
- Fixed a problem with the right click effect on Vibrating Gauntlets of Infuse.
- Fixed a client crash when inspecting certain buffs.
- Fixed an issue that caused the welcome screen to take longer than necessary to come up.

* * * Previously Updated * * *

- The algorithm used to generate rewards from the Living Legacy abaci has been changed. If you were one of the affected people, please obtain a new abacus in the Plane of Knowledge and re-click.
- Fixed a problem that could cause one of the chests in the Korafax raids to be killed by NPCs and therefore disappear.
- Fixed a bug that caused Pallorax not to spawn when he should.
- The Kurn’s Tower Hard raid will now drop the appropriate chest.

- The EverQuest Team

We have employed new gnomes to ensure the system runs as it should but they’re a little misbehaved so bare with us as we get them all in line. There are lots of new features and options added both to the front end and the new forum version.

Enjoy your stay!