I’ve been helping a couple of newer players find their footing in EQ2 recently, and it has reminded me of how many aspects of Norrathian life are not immediately obvious to newer players. One example are the overland ring events. I’m not talking about the Druid Circle event that is still ongoing in EQ2. Rings events are always around, and always profitable, if you know where to look.
Ring events tend to involve a small gathering of monsters, clustered around an object of some sort. It could be a nest, or a campfire, or a tent, or any number of other things. You can tell something is going on because the object is targetable, and will come up with a white name in your target window.
Here is an example of one the the overland ring events in Antonica. The rat nest is probably the earliest ring event that a Qeynos side character will encounter. There are usually a few of them along the road which runs alongside the city moat.
 The Rat Nest Ring Event in Everquest 2. At first, it will just be surrounded by ordinary creatures. If you defeat all of those, then another sort of monster will appear, which we’ll call the intermediate monster, in this case a large moat rat. If you defeat that, then there is a good chance that a named monster, the Two-toed Rat, will appear. Like most Named monsters, it is guaranteed to drop a chest, making it a great source of loot for low level Qeynosians (or folks in need of low level loot to transmute). Many also grant AA xp. There are a few quests that require you to kill or catalogue intermediate or Named enemies from ring events, so it is important to be aware of them for that reason also.
The Rat Nest Ring Event is the simplest sort, with your only possibilities being either getting a named, or not. Other ring events may also have a chance of a glowing object appearing in the world. Using that object will give your group a buff for a time, perhaps even turning you all into lions or wolves for a while!
For another example, the Antonican camps with gnoll youths and gnoll mystics, if cleared, have the intermediate monster “Darkpaw Packleader”. Killing him may lead to a glowing buff object, the named “Tark Searfang”, or even both (or neither)! There are several other sorts of gnoll camp in Antonica, each with their own possibilities.
Some ring event spots can play host to a Distressed Merchant. These poor folks have had their escape route cut off. If only someone would get rid of these nasty monsters, the merchant would be extremely grateful!
 Everquest 2 - Maltheas saves a distressed merchant In addition to being able to do your selling and repairing with such a merchant, they also sell a number of creature catalogue quest books that you can’t get anywhere else, so saving a distressed merchant can be great for building up your library!
There are ring events all around Norrath, especially in the older overland zones. Keep your eyes open, and who knows what you’ll find, and who you’ll meet!
 It's Quacker Yig!!! Oh, Quacker Yig. Your name speaks of formless and ancient horrors from beyond time and space, but you’re so cute! What is your purpose amongst us? Do you mean us harm, or are you here to guide us to wisdom? Do you desire to devour our souls, or just a few morsels of moistened bread? Such are the mysteries of Quacker Yig.
As half of the EQ2 servers are down for 7 hours or so for extended maintenance (though not mine, which is just down for about an hour for the patch), let’s have a quick peek at today’s update notes!
The important change for me in today’s update is the Halas Writs. Until now, they’ve had a very small level range, meaning you would only ever be offered one at once. This meant that if you only used the chronomancers for automentoring, their five-level steps were too wide for you to be able to get all the writs. That’s being sorted, hopefully giving new players a bit more of a choice of writ.
A shrub which shows your progress on the Druid Circles event is also useful, but comes too late to be much help to most servers. This is not the first time that a progress counter has been added long after the start of an event. Something to keep in mind for the next one.
The full notes are after the leap:
Continue reading Everquest 2 – Quacker Yig brings forth the June 10th 2010 patch notes
I occasionally get asked what quests Maltheas is working on, so in the absence of any desire to talk about the iPhone 4, I thought I’d share his current quest journal!
In the early days of EQ2, collections counted towards your quest limit! Thankfully those dark days for questers are no longer with us, but we are still often up against the generous limit of 90 active quests. Maltheas has 5 free slots at the moment, after a serious effort to clear up some tome quests, which will quickly vanish the next time he decides to load up.
 Maltheas' Quest Journal The lowest level one there, “A Key to the Past” has been a thorn in my side for about four years. It is a quest set in a peculiar little instance called the Tomb of Valor in Stormhold. A chamber is filled with wandering undead, and sarcophagi which begin to open. You need to quickly close them again, or else more undead appear. While being attacked you can’t shut sarcophagi, so it starts going downhill from there. Malth is at the point where he is in very little danger down there, but he still can’t deal with the undead fast enough to keep all the sarcophagi shut and get Lord Chesgard to spawn. I haven’t given that a go for a couple of levels, so should probably have another try sometime soon. I’d probably do better if I did not feel bound to chronomancer down to a level where the undead are green, to give them a fighting chance!
Most of the greener ones are in heroic dungeons, such as Runnyeye. Heroic dungeons are soloable, but you do have to accept that it’s going to be a bit of a slog, and you usually need to be a few levels higher than if you were grouping. Maltheas can currently get about halfway through Runnyeye before it starts getting totally impossible, and it’s the quests that need to go further that remain. Deathfist Citadel is similarly unpleasant, and only the sewers beneath it are survivable at the moment. The green Nektulos quests are actually in the D’Morte Burial Chambers, from the old Bloodline Chronicles adventure pack.
For every quest there is a time, and their time has not yet come. Extreme Questers enjoy pushing their limits, but at some point you have to accept that certain things are impossible at your current level!
 N'Kzak the Unnatural - A battle for another day. I’m probably going to let Maltheas level in the next few days, once I’ve cleared up the rest of the quests in his journal that I think might be doable. Levelling to 42 is tempting, as you get a big power boost from being able to use mastercrafted gear, but I’ll try to see what 41 can manage first. Maybe that will be the magic number that brings Lord Chesgard to his well-deserved end.
Do you have a quest, in whatever MMO you play, that has been sitting in your quest journal for years?
Edit: It seems this video is autoplaying for some Internet Explorer users. I’ve moved the entire post below the “keep reading” link”. – Ark
Continue reading In which Maltheas fails to understand internet memes and viral marketing.
Everquest 2’s City Festival runs for the first week every month, and this month it has washed up in the Frostfang Sea. Below, you can see all the items that are available for city tokens, as well as the collection reward post box which is sitting on the counter to the left. It’s a fine starter collection of furniture for this cold land. The floor tile is “polished ice”.
 New Halas City Festival rewards
Today we have a treat! Glopp, one of the rare Froglok Ninja of Marr, will be taking us along as he moves to New Halas. Ordinarily this sort of thing is Maltheas’ job, but he refuses to leave, and seems to be building some sort of blockade in case someone starts trying to bulldoze Qeynos, so Glopp has kindly offered to fill the gap. Ninja of Marr are quite a lot like ordinary ninja, except that they are much louder, quite incapable of stealth, always politely inform their target that they are considering stabbing them, and give them a few minutes to put their armour on.
 Glopp, Froglok Ninja of Marr, is a very odd being. Have no fear for your current home. Everything will be moved automatically when you buy a house in New Halas. First, you must find the ambassador of your current city. For Qeynos, he is Ambassador Duryo Valstath in Qeynos Harbour, near the entrance to South Qeynos. He will ask you where it is you wish to move to, and grant you a quest. In this case, it will be “Moving To New Halas”.
 Ambassador! With all these choices you are spoiling us! For citizens of Kelethin, you can find your ambassador over in Green Knoll, down a North-West ramp from the city proper to the forest floor, quite close to the road to Butcherblock. Those who are citizens of other cities will first have to betray, and your local ambassador will grudgingly help with that too.
 Gibrien Marsden, Ambassador of Kelethin, wondering who Glopp is talking to. Next, we simply sail to New Halas, in search of the Halasian ambassador, the fair Brynhilde Maersdottr. She can be found in the North-western corner of Halas. You hand her the documents you were given in your old city, and that is it. Your Call to Qeynos or Call to Kelethin ability will be replaced by Call to New Halas, and you are free to go buy your new home.
 Glopp becomes a citizen of New Halas. Houses in New Halas are in an area called Raven’s Roost, up a passage in the North-Eastern part of the city, in sizes to fit all budgets. A tier one guildhouse, sharing the layout of the 5 room manor, is also available.
 It's a good thing monks don't feel the cold. I was going to also do a little guide to the New Halas housing, but it turns out Ysharros already made one! Go look!
With GU56 came a few fixes that I’d been waiting for. When Kaladim was relevelled down to Tier 4 a few months ago, many of the old quests were missed, so a T4 character could not pick them up. That now seems to have been rectified, opening up one of the most handy Signature quests around for an adventuring Templar. Such as, for instance, Maltheas!
 Maltheas is granted the Legendary Stormhammer! Once wielded by King Kazon Stormhammer and said to have been crafted by Brell himself, it has had a complicated history, some of which you may learn if you follow in Maltheas’ footsteps. It’s a fairly epic quest that you won’t get done in a single day, if only because of lockouts on a necessary instance, but Maltheas just about managed to solo it at 40, and a tier 4 group should have no problem whatsoever. Stormhammers for everyone! You can find out how to get started over at EQ2i’s handy guide to the Stormhammer Timeline.
 Maltheas shows off The Stormhammer on the docks of Nektulos Forest.  I concur with my colleague. Ooohs. That is one nice hammer. Probably the best weapon he’s likely to get his paws on at his level, especially after sticking a fiery adornment on it. I suspect Maltheas will be wielding The Stormhammer of Legend for a rather long time.
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