Update Notes: Tuesday November 28, 2017 "Planes of Prophecy"

EVERQUEST II: PLANES OF PROPHECY

There is no place as powerful or influential as the celestial realms, the very planes of the gods! It is here fates are decided, prophecies are fulfilled, and realities are remade. Venture deep into these ephemeral lands, forge deific alliances, and harness primal powers as you battle against Lanys T'Vyl and her Tenets of Hate, and thwart their attempt to deliver destruction upon Norrath and the pantheon, alike.

Master your destiny in the Planes of Prophecy, EverQuest II's 14th expansion! Experience the wonders of the Plane of Magic. Survive the Plane of Innovation's mechanical dangers and the festering denizens of the Plane of Disease. Master the raging storms within the Bastion of Thunder and the abyssal ebbs in the Brackish Vaults. Repel the searing flames of Solusek Ro's Tower and the Molten Throne!

• All new dungeons for Solo, Heroic, and Raid players.
• Soulbound Weapons – A new weapon type that gains experience and levels up, increasing in power.
• Increased Level Cap – Adventure up to 110!
• Ascension Levels – Ascend to level 15.
• Mercenary Levels – Your mercenaries can level up to 10.
• Tradeskill Levels – Craft up to 110.
• Guild Levels – Increased to 250!

GENERAL

• Channeler UI: You can now right-click “Toggle Dragable” on the Channeler hotbar to allow / prevent icons from being dragable.

• The level curve for post 100 has been drastically increased for both adventuring and tradeskilling, and the largest portion of experience should come from quests and completed dungeons. To further that end, experience multipliers will also now modify quest experience. For example your vitality will now increase the amount of experience from all sources.

• Tithe points may now only be used to purchase consumable deity abilities, and can no longer be used to increase Divine Potency, Divine Stamina, or Divine Critbonus.

• Divine attributes are now obtained via expendables that directly increase either Divine Potency, Divine Stamina, or Divine Critbonus.

• The required XP to gain a tithe point is now 5 percent of the total XP required for the character's current level.

• To decrease the erratic spike damage we have increased the chance of obtaining a higher critical type, but decreased the higher critical bonus multiplier. The new multipliers are Legendary: 1.25 (unchanged), Fabled: 1.65 (down from 2), Mythical: 2 (down from 3).

GUILDS

• The experience point requirements for level 200 guilds have been reduced.

ZONE POPULATION / PROGRESSION
General

• Many Planes of Prophecy instance zones require keys to access. Once a character has unlocked a personal or account wide key through quest or adventure content they will have access to these zones. You can see what keys your character possesses with the /keys command in game.

Pillars of Flame

• The following exploration regions are now easier to trigger while on a mount: The Needle, The Sun Spires, The Long and Dusty Road, The Master's Plateau, Kyrnok, The Isle of the Nagga, Camp Char'Gin.

ABILITIES
General

• Removed dual conversion penalties from taking both prestige conversion abilities.
• Standardized the prestige conversion crit bonus from potency to a ratio of 20 potency grants 1 crit bonus.
• Added the crit bonus to max health component to all fighter crit bonus prestige conversion abilities.
• Replaced the Guided Ascension experience bonus on the Guild Buff for level 200 guilds with a 0.5 Fervor increase.
• Most dependencies or prerequisites for Alternate Advancement and Prestige abilities have been removed or reduced. Current AA layouts may have to be re-committed.
• Divine Crit Bonus will increase crit bonus overcap by .5 per level.
• Corrected a bug that prevented potency over 10,000 from applying to taunts.
• Class resolve buffs have been removed and all encounter resolve levels have been adjusted accordingly.
• Judication now increases Fervor and Fervor overcap instead of potency and is no longer based off of the group’s potency.
• Most damage reflection abilities have been replaced with damage shield abilities.
• Increased the primary attribute increasing buffs for most spells cast over level 100.
• All Max Health debuffs have been replaced with debuffs that increase damage applied to the target.
• All damage spells over level 100 have been increased. Specific abilities have been increased further, called out below.

BRAWLER

• Increased the damage of Devastation Fist VII.

CRUSADER

• The damage reflect granted by Legionnaire's Conviction has been converted into a damage shield to more properly scale with increased encounter damage.

DRUID

• Hierophant Obfuscation no longer reflects hostile profession spells and now grants damage reduction to the Druid.

ELEMENTALIST

• The damage reflect granted by Shock of Rime has been converted into a damage shield to more properly scale with increased encounter damage.

ENCHANTER

• Dreamweaver's Trance will increase the reuse speed and duration of your primary group mesmerization spell by 0.4 seconds per rank.

FIGHTER

• Alternate Advancement and Character training choices that modify percentage based heals should now correctly modify those heals.

GEOMANCER

• The damage reflect granted by Shock of Stone has been converted into a damage shield to more properly scale with increased encounter damage.

ROGUE

• Added a weapon damage bonus overcap component to Daring Advance
• Daring Advance IX will trigger an additional damage effect on hostile ability cast.

ASSASSIN

• Increased the damage and combo multiplier on Fatal Followup IV
• Increased the damage of Death Blow V
• Increased the damage of Gushing Wound X
• Villainy IX improves the base auto attack damage of the Assassin.

BEASTLORD

• Added the ability Feral Destruction, which inflicts melee damage on all targets within the area of effect.
• Added the ability Warder’s Ferocity which allows the Beastlord to absorb their warder, protecting it from harm and increasing the Beastlords Crit Bonus Overcap.
• Added the ability Savage Rake which inflicts melee damage on the target while flanking or behind.

BERSERKER

• Chaos IX will grant weapon damage bonus to group members.

BRIGAND

• Enhance: Barroom Negotiation will increase the crit bonus of Barroom Negotiation by 1 per rank.

BRUISER

• Savage Assault VI has been converted into a single larger hit, with a high to hit bonus.
• Enhance: Slurred Insult will increase the crit bonus of Slurred Insult by 1 per rank.
• Enhance: Abuse will increase the crit bonus of Abuse by 1 per rank.
• Enhance: Stone Deaf will reduce the power cost of Stone Deaf by 20% per rank.

CHANNELER

• Thir'Slaa's Shell will grant 4 extra triggers of damage absorption for channelers over level 101.
• Essence Weave will grant 5% more max health and heal the construct for 5% more for channelers over level 100.
• Added the ability Fusillade which deals ranged damage on the target encounter.
• Sanctuary of Darkness will increase the Fervor of combat arts.

COERCER

• Peaceful Link VII will trigger mental damage on the target's target, when the target casts a hostile ability.
• Power of Mind IX will grant an increased amount of max power to the group.
• Signet of Intellect IX grants a large ability modifier boost to the group.
• Enhance: Stupefy will now increase the duration of Stupefy by 0.1 second per rank.
• Enhance: Forced Hesitation will decrease the resistibility of Forced Hesitation

CONJUROR

• Conjuror's Pact IX will grant the pet a combat mitigation debuff.
• Geotic Rune IX will grant elemental damage reduction to the group.
• Enhance: Summon Spells now increases crit bonus of summoned mage pets abilities by 1% per rank.

DEFILER

• Maelstrom VI will deal increased damage.
• Putrefy X will deal increased damage.
• Shroud of Armor IX will grant increased Max HP to the group, has had it's fighter restriction removed, and no longer grants physical mitigation.
• Enhance: Spiritual Circle now increases the duration of Spiritual Circle by 1 second per rank.

DIRGE

• Harl's Rousing Tune X will increase crit bonus overcap of the group.
• Riana's Relentless Tune IX increase the Fervor of combat arts
• Enhance: Elegy at Death's Door corrected a bug that prevented the increased health and power restoration from taking effect.
• Enhance: Elegy of Awakening corrected a bug that prevented the increased health and power restoration from taking effect.

FURY

• Death Swarm X will decrease the combat mitigation of the target.
• Intimidation IX will reduce the combat mitigation of the target
• Lucidity IX will grant the target Fervor
• Enhance: Ring of Fire increases crit bonus of Ring of Fire by 1% per rank.
• Animal Form’s triggered Tear effect will increase power by 2% per trigger and deals increased damage above level 100.
• Enhance: Porcupine now grants a percentage based heal to the targets.

GUARDIAN

• Battle Tactics VIII will increase the group's max health.
• Call of Shielding VIII will reduce the amount of elemental, arcane and noxious damage the raid receives.
• Enhance: Tower of Stone will now increase the trigger count of Tower of Stone by 1 at the fifth rank.
• Tower of Stone no longer requires a tower shield equipped.

ILLUSIONIST

• Prismatic Chaos VIII has had its damage increased and its trigger limit increased from 3 to 9.
• Synergism VII will trigger it's effect on 100% of hostile spell hits.
• Enhance: Illusory Allies will increase the duration of Illusory Allies by 1 second per rank.
• Time Compression will increase the critical damage of all spells by 1 per rank.
• The damage reflect granted by Illusory Barrier has been converted into a damage shield to more properly scale with increased encounter damage.
• The damage reflect granted by Spellshield has been converted into a damage shield to more properly scale with increased encounter damage.

INQUISITOR

• Act of War VII has had its trigger chance tripled.
• Tenacity IX will grant weapon damage bonus and weapon damage bonus overcap.

MONK

• Calm Tranquility IX will grant a small chance to ability doublecast to the raid.
• Dragon Rage VIII will trigger a threat increase on hostile ability cast.
• Dragonfire V has had its damage increased
• Rising Dragon VIII has had its damage increased.
• Will of the Heavens IX will grant a short duration immunity to root, stun and daze effects
• The damage reflect granted by Shock of the Master has been converted into a damage shield to more properly scale with increased encounter damage.

MYSTIC

• Ancestral Avatar VI will increase the fervor of the targets combat arts.
• Ursine Avatar VIII will increase the Fervor of the casters combat arts.
• Spirit Tap no longer processes heals based upon damage dealt, and now restores 10% of group members health and power every 0.5 seconds.
• Enhance: Lunar Attendant will increase the duration of Lunar Attendant by 1 second per rank.

NECROMANCER

• Bloody Ritual will restore percentage based power to the caster.
• Necrotic Reconstruction X will cure the caster as well as the pet when cast.
• Rending VII will increase the fervor of qualifying pets.
• Teachings of the Underworld IX will grant ability modifier to the group.
• Enhance: Summoned Pets now increases crit bonus of summoned mage pets abilities by 1% per rank.

PALADIN

• Increased the damage of Divine Inspiration IX
• When cast by Paladins above level 100, Sigil of Heroism will grant Heroes Bulwark when cast, which reduces all damage done to group members for a total of 5 attacks.
• The damage reflect granted by Faith has been converted into a damage shield to more properly scale with increased encounter damage.

RANGER

• Focus Aim IV will increase the casters Aim
• Killer instinct III will increase the casters Aim
• Thorny Trap III will place an arrow trap which attacks all hostile targets that move into range.
• Makeshift Arrows VIII will deal increased damage
• Triple Shot VIII has been converted into a single larger hit, with a high to hit bonus.
• Enhance: Triple Shot will now increase the damage of Triple Shot by 1% per rank.

SHADOWKNIGHT

• Increased the damage of Devour Vitae VII
• Increased the damage of Grave Sacrament VIII
• Increased the damage of Malice X
• Increased the damage of Shadow Coil VIII
• Increased the damage of Pestilence V
• Increased the damage of Unending Agony IX

SWASHBUCKLER

• Increased the damage of Dashing Swathe VIII
• Increased the damage of Lucky Gambit X
• Inspired Daring VI will increase the swashbucklers auto attack multiplier.

TEMPLAR

• Glory VI will trigger a ward on the targets group.
• Unswerving Hammer V now mashes face.
• The damage reflect granted by Divine Light has been converted into a damage shield to more properly scale with increased encounter damage.

TROUBADOR

• Allegretto IX will increase the Fervor of spells.
• The damage reflect granted by Requiem of Reflection has been converted into a damage shield to more properly scale with increased encounter damage.

WARDEN

• Armor of Seasons IX will grant max health to the group.
• Increased the damage of Instinct VIII
• Regenerating Spores VII will grant Fervor to the target

WARLOCK

• Increased the damage of Apocalypse VI
• Increased the damage of Cataclysm X
• Increased the damage of Dark Siphoning VIII
• Dark Siphoning will now restore percentage based power.
• Increased the damage of Grasp of Bertoxxulous IX's triggered Venomous Runes effect
• Increased the damage of Rift V

WIZARD

• Increased the damage of Ball of Fire VIII
• Increased the damage of Firestorm IX
• Increased the damage of Ice Spears X
• Increased the damage of Immolation IX
• Increased the damage on Rays of Disintegration IV
• Increased the damage on Ro's Blade IX

ITEMS

• Leveling Weapons. Several items when enhanced with the essences of other planar weapons will gain in experience and level with you.
• Rising Tide effects will now drop when out of combat.
• Rising Tide effects will now modify Fervor instead of using potency conversions.
• Increased the duration on Grandmaster's Proficiency from 0 seconds to until cancelled.
• Many stackable items have had their stack size increased to 900.
• Expendable Tinkering items have been converted into stackable items. Recipe outputs should now grant the same number of items as the tinkering baubles had charges.
• Death’s Advance will no longer cause Death March to affect the entire raid.
• Death’s Advance will now grant Spell and Combat Art Fervor to Death March.

QUESTS

• A Poison Most Precious - Deletion of the quest now removes the full buckets of seawater, the empty othmir buckets, and the sacs of octopus ink.
• A Poison Most Precious - Use of the empty othmir buckets now removes the intended amount, one at a time.
• A Poison Most Precious - Excess empty othmir buckets are now removed when you have gained enough full buckets of seawater.
• Elemental Problem Solved - Clicking the elemental barrier removes the Al'Sedhati Vidyut potion from inventory and advances the quest.
• Celestial Watcher - Quest is now automatically removed from journal if incomplete.
• An Eye on the Celestial Watcher - Quest is now automatically removed from journal if incomplete.
• A Gnollish Trinket - Stone of Graw now alerts you if you are missing a necessary trinket.
• A Scrying Shame - Tish Tickers will now advance the quest, even if you do not have the five ancient silver coins in your inventory any longer.
• The Footsteps of Dartain: Experimentation - Completing this quest or deleting it will now result in the removal of the Spiritual Lucidity vision buff, granted by the use of the Enchanted Slobberjaw Eye.
• The Footsteps of Dartain: Experimentation - The Spiritual Lucidity vision buff, granted by the use of the Enchanted Slobberjaw Eye, now lasts for 15 minutes, per usage.

Raids: Progression
Raid progression within Planes of Prophecy will work differently than expansions in the past. In order to progress in raiding there is a specific order that bosses must be defeated in to open up access to other bosses. These bosses are broken into 4 tiers with tier 1 being the easiest/least tricks, whereas tier 4s have more complicated mechanics. You will not be able to engage a tier of bosses until the previous tier has been defeated. This means if you have killed all tier 1 bosses in one zone but not the tier 1 bosses in the other zones you will not be able to engage the tier 2 bosses in the original zone. This will require some zone hopping, but once they have been defeated you will be able to run each zone from start to finish. Most zones have bosses of all tiers, and most have a large number of bosses; there are 49 in total. You will be able to pull bosses in progression as long as 75% of your raid force has the previous bosses defeated, though those that have not defeated them may find the encounter more challenging. Bosses in each zone will put a marker on the map showing their number in progression order.

Raids: Zone Access
Gaining access to raids will work as follows: Once 75% of your raid force has completed the signature questline you will gain access to the Plane of Innovation: Wasteyards [Raid]. Upon defeating all tier 1 bosses within the zone you will gain access to Plane of Disease: Virulent Incursion [Raid]. Defeating all tier 1 bosses there will give you access to the next zone, and so on. All the raid zones are set to allow you to enter them as long as 75% of the raid has unlocked access.

Raids: Alternate Characters
To make access easier for alternate characters, once you have defeated all bosses of a tier you will get a key for your keyring (/keys) that will allow all characters on your account access to the same bosses your main character has access to. Armor from drops will work in a similar way: if you loot a pattern and turn it in for your shiny new breastplate, you then get access to buy more breastplates of that pattern’s type, which can be given to your alternate characters via the shared bank.

Raids: Mechanics
Many of the bosses in the Planes have the ability to deathtouch their main target if that target is not a fighter. This isn’t always the case and it doesn’t happen instantly in most cases, but the majority are set up this way. This makes threat management all that much more important, so you may want to go easy on the huge ascension abilities on pull or even large spikes in damage without letting your tank know its coming. Unless you want a date with death; just a suggestion!

Resolve has been fully removed from player cast buffs, so gaining resolve is no longer dependent on class makeup, and comes 100% from the individual player’s gear. Kunark Ascending bosses have had their resolve requirements rebalanced to take this into account.

ITEMS

• Corrected an issue that prevented items that had infused or reforged bonuses from applying their base stat number as well.
• Corrected the issue with Illusion: Clockwork Calamity that gave more ability modifier on TLE then intended.
• Snacks can no longer be force fed to other players.
• Corrected an issue that prevented the Planes of Prophecy: Ascended Master Primer from increasing Ascension classes that were already level 5
• Corrected the name of the Fury of the Magus spell scrolls.
• Corrected the name of the Planes of Prophecy Overloaded Ascension Potion Bundle.

ASSASSIN

• Corrected the issue that allowed the damage increase to Fatal Followup IV to also apply to Fatal Followup III.

PALADIN

• Corrected the issue that prevented Sigil of Heroism from applying its damage reduction component over level 100.

DEFILER

• Removed the incorrect fighter requirement for Shroud of Armor IX's Max HP component.

DIRGE

• Corrected the bug that allowed Harl's Rousing Tune X's crit bonus overcap to apply to all versions of the spell.

GUARDIAN

• Corrected the bug that allowed Battle Tactics VIII's Max HP component to apply to all versions of the spell.

MONK

• Corrected the bug that allowed Calm Tranquility IX's Ability Doublecast component to apply to all versions of the spell.

TEMPLAR

• Corrected the bug that allowed Glory VI's ward component to apply to all versions of the spell.

WARLOCK

• Corrected an issue that prevented Dark Siphoning's conversion to percentage based power restoration from taking effect.

QUESTS

• Corrected an issue where the quest "Water Canvas" would become gated if doing the quest as a group on different stages.

ZONES

• Fixed a bug that caused some shinies in Pillars of Flame to spawn behind the zone lines.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the Fount of Power fervor overcap from applying if you had any fervor buffs.