Patch Notes for July 16, 2014

[fendaann]

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/story.html?story=34728

Patch Notes for July 16, 2014
10 hours 55 minutes ago by Railus
Here are the patch notes for this morning's game update:

*** Call of the Forsaken: Argin-Hiz ***

- Call of the Forsaken: Argin-Hiz has been released! The hot ash winds blowing from portals in Ethernere-Tainted West Karana and the Southern Desert of Ro have dissipated, opening the way to the city of Argin-Hiz. The final relic needed to send Lady Lendiniara home lies within the city walls!
- Finish the final chapter of Call of the Forsaken in the all-new zone, Argin-Hiz!

*** Highlights ***

- The time draws near to send Lady Lendiniara back to her world. Retrieve the final relic from Argin-Hiz, stay alert, and heed the call!
- "Death, Death, Death!", previously only available as an SOE Live event, is coming to Live servers for a limited time! See the "Quests & Events" section for more details.
- A number of improvements have been made to mounts. See the "NPC" section for more details.
- Made several changes to the quests and NPCs in the Argin-Hiz launch event. See the "Quests & Events" section for more details.

*** Marketplace ***

- New Worg mounts will be arriving soon on the Marketplace.

*** Quests & Events ***

- The time draws near to send Lady Lendiniara back to her world. Retrieve the final relic from Argin-Hiz, stay alert, and heed the call!
- "Death, Death, Death!", previously only available as an SOE Live event, is coming to Live servers for a limited time! Tudasali, Emissary of Thurgadin, will need your help to defeat the enemies of his people. Starting July 30th, seek out Tudasali in the Great Divide to offer your assistance. This is a "monster mission" that pits adventurers in classic gear against many old world raid targets under a tight time limit!
- Made several changes to the quests and NPCs in the Argin-Hiz launch event:
-- Most quest mobs have had their aggro and assist distances lowered. Ash giants and corpseseeker ashes now have greatly reduced assist distances.
-- The drop rates of all quest items have been increased to 100 percent.
-- The corpse-seeking ashes, ash giants, the Ash Hurricane, and most quest NPCs have had reductions to their HP and/or AC.
-- Lowered some attack stats for all launch event NPCs.
-- Forlorn ash NPCs can now be hailed for the task "Sympathy for the Forlorn" after 90 seconds have passed.
-- All of the tasks now award coins and XP.
-- Forlorn ashes, flameseeker ashes, flame elementals, ash giants, and cinder mates can now be snared.
-- Increased the XP gained from forlorn ashes, flameseeker ashes, flame elementals, ash giants, and the Ash Hurricane.
- The Brothers Zek (Plane of War) - The currency reward for this raid has been upgraded to Fists of Bayle, and the amount given has increased to 20.

*** Spells ***

- Bard - Corrected an error that prevented Largo's Assonant Binding from being cast while in combat.
- Bard - Ryken's Reckless Renewal and Ruaabri's Reckless Renewal will no longer take full modification from instrument effects.
- Beastlord - Ensnaring Bite has been renamed to Fatiguing Bite, which will allow your pet's procs to restore some endurance to your group.
- Increased the number of saved spell sets to 30.

*** NPC ***

- A number of improvements have been made to mounts:
-- Mounts that previously offered stat bonuses as part of the mount spell will now cast a separate buff spell so that you can ride whichever mount you like best without having to worry about buff stacking conflicts.
-- When right clicking the bridle of the mount you are currently riding, you will now be automatically dismounted. This functionality does not apply to the Bridle of the Flying Imperial Sokokar.
-- When right clicking the bridle of a different mount than the one you are currently riding, you will be automatically dismounted, and the new mount will be summoned.
-- Paladins and Shadowknights: When right clicking a non-expendable bridle, your mount will be summoned instantly, matching the functionality of the mounts summoned by your AA abilities.
- Being much higher or lower than the chessboard for the Grandmaster fight in Plane of War is no longer a viable strategy to avoid the chess pieces or out-of-bounds penalties.

*** AA ***

- Shadowknight – Visage of Decay was not applying the melee skill damage reduction as originally intended. This has been fixed.

*** Tradeskills ***

- Soloist Planar Seals now have better instrument modifiers than Soloist Ascension Seals.

*** Achievements ***

- Hero of the Tower of Rot - Completing the task "A Rotten Heart" will now update that step of the this achievement.
- Slayer achievements will now properly update for group and raid members if the final blow to an NPC is done by a member that doesn't have the Rain of Fear expansion.

*** Progression Servers ***

- Corrected a problem that prevented Thach Jerden from spawning on Progression Servers at the appropriate time.

*** Miscellaneous ***

- Corrected the messaging when starting trader mode in the Bazaar.
- Corrected an issue that would cause some zones to stop responding and disconnect all of the players in the zone.
- Heroic Characters can now be copied to test using /testcopy.
- Increased the maximum FPS cap.

*** UI ***

- Enabled number pad key input on edit controls. This includes the chat window.
- Autorun has no default key binding now.
- Moved the icon definitions from the EQUI_Animations.xml file to their own file: EQUI_DragItems.xml. This will reduce the need for custom UI modders to update their UIs when new icon sheets are added.

- Added -

EQUI_DragItems.xml

- Changed -

EQUI.xml
EQUI_Animations.xml

*** Previously Updated ***

[fendaann]

Argin-Hiz goes live today! Servers are expected to be back online around 8:00 A.M. Pacific Time (11:00 A.M. Eastern Time). Patch notes have been posted here, and our Call of the Forsaken guides have been updated to reflect the latest content.

Note: You may hear some rumblings about new content emanating out of The Void (two missions + one raid), but those aren't expected on live servers until July 23 (this date is not official, but it appears to be set for a one-week delay).

If you're having problems logging into EverQuest, it's likely related to a DNS problem on SOE's end (their official forum post about this issue can be found here). This should resolve itself within the next 24 to 48 hours.

Today's patch will no doubt knock out our Item Collector for a period of time. We'll have that back up and running as soon as we can.

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/story.html?story=34729