Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

The lower content will center on a new faction; an occurance that EverQuest 2 has become so famous for over the last two expansions. This time you'll be helping goblins, which is certainly a change, but there is an even more unusual twist. Unlike every other faction you have likely ever seen, the goblins absolutely adore you. They like you so much they aren't going to sell you anything at all. You'll have to complete quests, some of which are repeatable, to help ruin your faction and unlock what they have available.

What is available for purchase you ask? The usual battery of items appropriate to a player’s level, mixed in with a few pieces of furniture and a mount. The furniture of course fits the theme with items like mining carts, Lava Blossoms, a Dakota Bone Trophy, end even a tinfoil hat to wear. The mount was, of course, on fire but at least provided a reasonable speed bonus. The Lava Armor was impressive, although statless, and will make a trendy addition to appearance outfits so many people are fond of.

The end game content sits mostly on the western end of the zone with an entire new area full of void monsters. The tie in is with the Shadow Odyssey expansion, so if for some reason you haven't purchased it yet, some instances will be unavailable. Quests are available right inside where the old Solusek teleporter is and progress players toward a two group raid instance called the “Ward of Elements.” The EQ2 dev Timetravel provided some details, which included the tidbit that we'll meet Najena herself, "It's very long with eight bosses, however the first six are non-linear and can be done in any order as players learn the zone."

The only thing we didn't see was the new epic X4 instance that sits on a small island just west of the docks. SOE did not confirm this was ready for the patch, but it appears to be part of it eventually. It looks identical to the void portals in the Moors of Ykesha, and my curiosity couldn't be curbed so I poked my head inside. While I was only able to see the first room, it was identical to the Anchor of Bazzul. Ginormous void creatures patrolled around with a named mob standing in front of three forcefields.

This was a significantly large update for the EverQuest II team and when questioned if this was indicative of what we could expect in the future, he answered “There won't always be a zone revamp, and the new content won't always be lots of level 80 instances. However, this is more of the style to expect with the content updates a bit farther apart, with lots of stuff tied together in it.” It sounds like updates are going to add up to what they were originally in EQ; just a little more that are fewer and farther between.

This covers most of what we'll see in Game Update 51, and while I'm sure there are a few things we didn't see or weren't quite prepared for the tour, you get the idea. While I'm not sure how jamming an entire server of high ends into a single space will prove popular, as everyone completes their quests it should lighten up and augment The Shadow Odyssey content well. Since I have a clear memory of Lavastorm, I can say with certainty that it's a lot friendlier to soloers and worth a look. Keep an eye out for this patch hitting the EverQuest II live servers sometime in the next few weeks.