The information in this preview is taken from information on the Test server, and is currently slated to go Live the week of February. 4-8. Due to the nature of Test, details may change before this update goes live, so please do not take any of the below as set in stone. Again, this is only on Test as of this writing. Be sure to also check out the Epic Crafter Cloak Teaser and the Erollisi Day Crafting Preview for other GU42 offerings.
Domino, Rothgar and the rest of the dev team are at it once again. (We know there are many hard-working devs that are involved in these things, but we're kind of hooked on Domino-love over here!)
There are several items of interest to tradeskillers in this update, highlighted in the January 22 Test Update Notes. I won't cover everything included in these notes, so I recommend that you check out the notes for yourself. However, I'll cover several of the main highlights.
When GU42 is released, two recipes will automagically be added to the Carpenter Essentials recipe books. The "plain Nektulos pine tree" will be a level 60 carpenter item, and the "pristine windcloth lantern" will be a level 62 carpenter item. (As you will see from the enlarged view if you click on the lantern image below, it hangs a bit lower than the Frostfell lanterns.)
The tree was a bit larger than intended and was adjusted a bit this week, though we don't have the new size comparison handy at the moment - it no longer is taller than the ceiling in a Qeynos 1-room home. It has now been modified to have 100 rent status reduction, as is proper for a tier 7 common furniture item.
Now you see why that Test disclaimer is up there? {grin} A lot of buff, polish and tweaking can still happen, as things not only get some extra eyes on them, but files are found that were changed by the devs, but didn't make it into the Test patch for some reason, etc.
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The book containing the recipes for the medium male and medium female mannequin can be scribed at level 55 in any crafting class, although the recipes will have a difficulty level of 75. This will allow T6 crafters a chance to attempt these recipes, although they will be a struggle until higher levels.
Note the mention of "any crafting class" above? These items are not restricted to any one crafting class, so any level 55+ crafter who has the appropriate faction can obtain this book and craft the items.
These recipes will require, among other things, a tier 8 rare hidebound pelt. The mannequins are fully tradeable and not lore.
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Many heartfelt thanks go to Briana, one of the many dedicated crafters on Test, for providing Mum with 2 mannequins to play with for screenshots and the like. It saved me a ton of harvesting, scrounging and/or whimpering over there, and is much appreciated. As always, additional thanks go to Kaisha for the hours spent playing with lighting, placement and tons of image editing for high-quality images for the site.
Dressing up the mannequin is as simple as dragging the item onto the mannequin. Alternately, you can right-click on the mannequin, select the Customize option, and drop the item into the appropriate slot on the mannequin. There is a catch, though. The items themselves stay with you, they are not physically stored on the mannequin. If it makes it easier to wrap your brain around the concept, think of the mannequin as storing the dressing room preview of the item(s), not the actual item(s). What you do with the item after you dress up your mannequin is up to you - you can wear it, store it, sell it, destroy it, whatever. Until such time as you or another trustee changes it, the mannequin will "remember" the item IDs and display the items accordingly. (Thanks go to Rothgar for several clarifications on the process in the SOE forums!)
Rothgar also stated in an update that there will be a showhood option for the mannequins, so that hats can be displayed with hooded robes and such.
This new quest, which is meant for level 30+ crafters, follows the same reward pattern, allowing the crafter a choice of one of their level 30-39 advanced recipe books, and introduces a new Provisioner recipe book which will only be available via this quest. If you want further details on the quest itself, keeping in mind the warning that things on Test can still change before they go live, you can read the writeup here.
It should also be noted that a few changes will occur with the Journeyman Service quest at this time - the quest will give 250 faction with the appropriate crafting society, as well as achievement experience for completing a quest. In addition, one of the items from Provisioner Mastery Volume 1 will be changed from being a level 35 item, down to level 25, to match the other two recipes in the book.
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Brasse's Dwarven Battle Bread - Ah, our beloved and talented Brasse (and she's a phenomenal lady in person as well as online!). Picture if you will, a dwarven lady, ale in one hand, some bread in the other. Make her angry, and do you think she'd throw her precious ale at you? Goodness no, she'd throw the bread! As a salute to her, you get to make some pretty solid bread (with extra feyiron to give it heft) to throw at your enemies. Yield is 6 for the third quality level combine, and 10 on a pristine combine.
Meanwhile, you should check out Brasse's comic about the bread!
The Queen's Masquerade - Tired of using The Jester's Cap to illusion into an evil race, and want to illusion as a good race instead? Try a swig of this and you could become a froglok or other random good race for up to 6 hours! (As with the jester's cap, the illusion does NOT persist on zoning. You will lose the illusion and buff as soon as you zone - pretty hard to keep an illusion up when it is a random-effect one.) Not only do you change appearance, but you even give that queenly "royal wave" of the hand as you change! (Yield is 2, each of which has 5 charges, for a total of 10 charges.)
Forget Me Not - "Mirror, Mirror NOT on the wall ..." By this point, Mum is giggling so much that you're not going to get a full explanation. It is one of the most amusing set of emotes I've ever seen! Kaisha demonstrates more in this brand-new Komic. (Yield is 2, each of which has 5 charges, for a total of 10 charges.)
One change that we were warned about almost a month ago was to the enchanted fire emerald lantern. Apparently I was just "slightly" off-target with my bug-zapper comments on this lantern (based on the look and the sound), as it now has bats circling and swirling around it!
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