Increased Rare Spawns for Frostfell and Double Experience for New Years

From the SOE forum:

Increased Rare Spawns December 23, 2011 to December 26, 2011

Who do you want to see coming down the chimney of your Guildhall this year - Santug Claugg? Only if he’s dropping phat loot! The rare mobs of Norrath have decided to make the rounds this year and will appear quite a bit more often for a limited time!

From 11:00 a.m. Pacific* December 23, 2011 until 11:59 p.m. Pacific* December 26, 2011, we’ll turn up the spawn rate, so get out there and work on your Hunter Achievements!


Double Experience** December 30, 2011 to January 2, 2012

New Year’s Eve is the time to make resolutions… and great experience gains! From 11:00 a.m. Pacific* on December 30, 2011 through 11:59 p.m. Pacific* on January 2, 2012, we’ll dramatically increase experience gains from mob kills to help start the new year with a ding! Make sure you log in during Double Experience** and reap the rewards of EverQuest at New Years!

*Convert To Your Local Time Link

**Experience awarded per kill will be doubled; please note that other modifiers and caps will still be in place and will affect experience gain normally. As a result, total experience gains may vary slightly, depending on each individual’s situation.

Frostfell returns to Norrath December 8, 2011

From this SOE forum thread:

It’s that time of year again, when Santug Claugg gets ready to give presents to the deserving, and sometimes less than deserving, adventurers of Norrath. Starting December 8, 2011 and running through January 8, 2012, Frostfell will be upon us!

All your old favorite quests will be returning this year, whether it be aiding the Frostfell Goblins in saving Santug or commencing Operation: Jolliness to keep Santug in good spirits. There are also a number of New Year’s Adventurers available, so don’t forget Pizimp Nobbletod.

As an added bonus, starting on December 14, 2011, a brand new Frostfell quest will be released! Santug Claugg has become obsessed with the Braxi and wants them to pull his sleigh. Unfortunately there has been an incident with the ship transporting the Braxi to Santug and as a result, Braxi and Gigglegibber Goblins are scattered on beaches throughout Norrath. Make sure to seek them out!

Mercenary Rosters To Come For Real Life Cash Only

Well, the long awaited ability to have several mercs and swap them out as needed arrives on Test Server. However, in a surprise (although it shouldn't be, considering SOE actions lately) it was announced that they will only be available for Station Cash.

One of the most anticipated features we planned to implement this year for EverQuest is now on the Test Server: Mercenary Rosters! No longer will you have to settle on just one Mercenary, but instead you'll be able to maintain a full roster of mercenaries and switch between them as needed. Log on to the Test Server today to see this feature in action and give it a whirl

When Mercenary Rosters travel to the Live Servers, they will be available for purchase via the in game Marketplace in various sizes depending on your personal needs and desires. We can't wait to hear what you think of this new feature and see how you all use it!

See you all on Test!

Follow the flames as players let SOE know how they feel on the issue on the SOE forum thread.

UPDATE:

As I mentioned yesterday, we were still discussing the options and/or availability of obtaining Mercenary Slots via game play methods. Today, we finished up those conversations and have this information to share with you.

There will be two methods (two slots) that you will be able to obtain an additional mercenary slot:

• One will be given for doing VOA content
• & another will be given for tradeskilling

In addition to this, we are also considering having rentable mercenary slots obtainable by numerous ways (not just by means of the Marketplace). Something similar to a 2 hour rentable mercenary that you can either pick the race/class OR...we may have the race randomized.

We're still discussing/considering these final details but at minimum, we will have the first 2 methods available to you by our January update.

As we get closer to the release, we will update you with more details.