EQ2: Tears of Veeshan Release Date Announced!

Dragons, dragons, everywhere…

Everquest 2’s upcoming expansion features dragons front and center. The evil prismatic dragon Kerafym has stolen an ancient artifact and slain Yelinak. The New Combine Army has been fractured, and Kerafym is reaching beyond the bounds of time itself. The journey of Tears of Veeshan begins in Vesspyr: The Eternal Broodlands, where the spirits of dragons pass when they die. Yelinak begins the tale, leading brave adventurers on the path to thwart Kerafym’s plans across the very fabric of existence…

But what excites me more than the lore (you all know I’m not a quester by now, right?) is the new stuff! Dungeons! AAs! Gear! Even a new class!

Vesspyr connects to 9 – nine! – new dungeons, with a variety of content for solo, groups and raids with Shissar, Bixie, High Keep, Nexus, and Temple of Veeshan themes. How’s that for sweet? From the sounds of it, they’re instanced, which is a bit of a shame. I miss large, sprawling overland public dungeons. Train to zone!

What’s a new dungeon without new gear? There’s new gear galore, as well as a new itemization system that drops patterns rather than gear itself. They’re advertising it as an end to the torments of rogue gear dropping when there’s no rogues in the party, as the pattern will allow you to create the gear that you can use. I’m a bit curious how that will end up affecting gearing up – it seems like a system where you’re going to get what you can use will vastly reduce the shelf life of the new content. But without further details, I will withhold complete judgement and hope they’ve set up some new system to keep acquisition on the slow side.

And a new class – The Channeler. I’ve not had the pleasure of seeing it, or an official description of it anywhere, but from the searching I’ve done it seems like it’s a pet-based healer type. I’m curious!

In keeping with the theme of the expansion, there will be new dragon themed AAs for every class, and an increase in the AA cap to accommodate the new AAs. Crafters get new recipes and new crafting quests – including apprentice recipes and quests! I’m glad to hear that, my apprentice has just been sitting neglected in my house with his nose buried in his books. He’s been more decoration that I click once a day than anything else – I wonder if they’ll get some personality in these quests?

And there’s finally some images to go along with the pre-order information. Preorder and get a bunch of new shinies like a cloak, mercenary, flying mount and house. That weird grassy patch with the flowers is the new house!

And tier 4 guildhalls, I wonder how large those will be. Given the size of T3, possibly large enough to get lost in.

All in all, it sounds as though there will be content for everyone, no matter what playstyle you prefer. The beta is slated for October 15th, and launch has been announced for the 12th of November. Soon!

Read the Producer’s Letter.
Check out a brief itemization description.
Preorder Tears of Veeshan.