Patch Scheduled Tuesday, September 25, 2012

From the SOE forum:

All EverQuest Live Servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, September 25, 2012 at 4:30 am US Pacific* for a Game Update. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for approximately 3.5 hours. Keep an eye on the EverQuest website and the forums for status updates and for news if additional downtime is needed.

*Time Zone Converter

Patch Scheduled Wednesday, September 19, 2012

From the SOE forum:

All EverQuest Live Servers will be brought offline on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 at 1:00 am US Pacific* for a Game Update. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for approximately 7 hours. Keep an eye on the EverQuest website and the forums for status updates and for news if additional downtime is needed.

*Time Zone Converter

Upcoming Player Studio™ Will Allow You To Make Marketplace Items

From the SOE web site:

Player Studio™ is a new program that invites (initially US-based) players to download sample geometry, learn how virtual items are constructed, and try designing items. You can try your hand at writing a creative name, item description and rationale for how it fits into the ongoing narrative storyline.

Selected items will be offered for sale in the SOE Marketplace alongside items created by staff artists, priced in SOE's Station Cash virtual currency. Revenue from the sale of these items will be shared back with the creative player.

The program is not yet officially running, but you can read up and even start creating items now. More information will be released at SOE Live 2012 in Las Vegas, NV.

Nineteenth Expansion "Rain of Fear" Announced

SOE announces Rain of Fear expansion:

EverQuest celebrates an unprecedented 20^th major game release with the Rain of Fear™ Expansion. Thirteen years after the initial launch of EverQuest and 19 expansions later, Rain of Fear™ continues an exciting storyline that started two years ago with the mysterious House of Thule™ Expansion, and continued in Veil of Alaris™.

You and your friends destroyed the newly created god, The Triumverate, causing an explosion that rocked Norrath and released the stolen power of fear. This power is returning to Norrath, falling from the sky in the form of crystalline shards.  Who will gain control of the essence of fear and bring balance between good and evil? 

The Harbingers of Thule entreat you to gather the essence of their lost god before it falls into the hands of others.  You will uncover the mysteries of the giant crystals that have fallen to Norrath, explore newly discovered lands, revisit the frozen wastes of Velious, and battle old foes empowered by shards, confront them and reclaim the power of fear.

Along the way you will progress up to the unprecedented level of 100!  We're pretty excited to see the first character reach level 100 in EverQuest, a true gaming landmark.

We will also be adding a few amazing features to this classic game.  We will be adding a way to track your relative aggro level.  Ever wanted to know when the bad guy was about to turn around and mash your rogue before it happened?  With the new aggro meter if you get caught over-aggroing, you'll have no real excuse. There are also new Collection and Hunter Tasks; these will allow you to gather up various items all over Norrath as well as track your kills to gain new titles and new rewards.  Want to become the Gnollslayer?  Gnomeslayer?  Now you can.  We will also be making some major improvements to the brokering system.  The Autonomous Brokering system (name may change if people continue to have issues pronouncing it...) is something that you have asked us for, something that we've wanted to make for you, for years. You will be able to turn off your computer and keep your trader up in Bazaar!

 Join the discussion at the SOE forum or visit Fanra's EverQuest Wiki Rain of Fear page for more information as time goes by.

Temporary Paladin Divine Stun/Healing Light Nerf

From the SOE forum:

Just a heads up for you Paladin types..

Healing Light will no longer proc from the AA Divine Stun. This is a TEMPORARY change until such time as code has time to address a significant exploit with this combo. No other stuns are being affected.

-- Elidroth Renato (Doug Cronkhite), Senior Game Designer, Sony Online Entertainment, LLC

Dragons, Dragons, Dragons and Giants, Giants, Giants! Return

The Dragons, Dragons, Dragons group/raid quest and the Giants, Giants, Giants! solo/group/raid quest have returned to the game.

There has been no announcement from SOE, so we don't know if this is intended (it is assumed that it is) and no idea of how long they will remain in the game.