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Altar of Malice Crafting/Housing Preview

Searching the Shattered Seas

The normally calm coldain dwarf, Agnor, was starting to get very nervous. His employer, one Niami DenMother, should have been back from a quick search mission many hours ago. Instead, there was only silence.

He fretted, he paced, he even (for him) babbled to the lady gnome that he fancied rather more than he felt he should.

"She told me she just needed to make a quick check of the Isle of Refuge to find a missing quartermaster. After all, the island wasn't that big, and it was likely the quartermaster just got busy and forgot to check in. 'Back afore lunch.' she said! Pfaugh! Here it is nearly dinnertime, and she's still not back." His habitual frown deepened as he peered around, as if hoping Mum would appear at any second.

"Mum's pretty resourceful. I'm sure she's fine." Gnormajean adjusted her spectacles and tried to smile reassuringly at Agnor. "But, since she hasn't checked in, it can't hurt us to head over there and check on her, can it?"

Agnor paused before saying that he'd go check on his own. Gnormajean not only wouldn't appreciate the protective coddling, but she was a skilled illusionist, and would be handy if they got attacked by something unfriendly. "Perhaps you could prepare some dinner that we can eat along the trail, if worse comes to worst, my lady?"

He almost cracked a smile as she blushed prettily and bustled about packing a picnic dinner for the two of them. With Mum missing, it didn't seem the time to act like a romantic fool.

As a native of Thurgadin, he'd never seen the Isle of Refuge before it was closed to visitors. He had, however, heard various stories from Mum and others, and thought he knew what to expect.

Nothing had prepared him for the grim reality, however.

He wasn't sure what had caused the tower to do that ... whatever that was. The tower was in pieces, pieces that slowly floated around the remains of the tower. Former Far Seas crewmembers were roaming around, acting violently crazed.

Suddenly, his fears for Mum's safety didn't seem so farfetched.

The pair grimly began retracing Mum's path, all the while hoping they weren't too late. She wasn't in the tower, though someone had seen her nosing around it earlier in the day. She wasn't at the Far Seas base camp, though several there remembered seeing her. She wasn't at the digsite, though, again, she'd been seen there, with explosives, no less!

Gnormajean instinctively bit back several excited questions at the mention of explosions. There would be time to satisfy her gnomish love of explosions after they found Mum ... if they found her.

Spurred on by worry, they flew to the island to the northeast, since they'd heard mention that Mum had been sent on to visit the pygmies there while looking for the missing quartermaster.

Eyeing the sight that greeted them, Agnor frowned mightily. "You don't think she ..."

"... tried to ride one?" Gnormajean finished the half-spoken query. "While that would be just like her, given that she was on a search and rescue mission that is looking more dangerous all the time, I hope she'd have refrained!"

Still they worried, however, and chafed at the delay as the locals refused to answer any questions until plied with ... pickles.

While Gnormajean was a talented provisioner, she didn't have anything but the local harvests on her at the time, and their picnic didn't contain pickles, either. Rather than head home to make or buy some pickles, she began taste-testing the various foodlike harvests that she'd found, trying to make up a local pickle recipe on the fly.

Agnor, on the other hand, headed straight for a Far Seas Supply Division representative who was lurking nearby, in hopes that the prevalence of pickle loving pygmies intent on trade would mean that the FSSD had already learned how to turn the local foodstuffs into proper pickles.

In short order, he handed over the recipe to Gnormajean, wincing in sympathy as her eyes watered from a too-large taste-test of the local kith peppers. Hyggin soon had his pickles, and Gnorma and Agnor had the reassurance that Mum hadn't been smished by a rampaging deino, but had been seen heading still further north.

So, north they flew, and north some more, as twilight painted both sky and ocean in ever-darkening shades.

Eventually, they saw more islands ahead of them, and headed for the larger, western one.

While Castle Highhold loomed up on the horizon, looking lovely even in the deepening evening gloom, they decided to bypass it for the moment, and, instead, head for Wanderer's Dock. There was a Far Seas encampment there, and they were praying that they'd also find Mum there.

Of course Mum wasn't there, and Agnor almost kicked the mailbox there in frustration at the silent reminder that Mum hadn't even bothered to send mail saying she was delayed. He wanted to rail about irresponsible women, but, given his present company, decided silence was a wise move.

Apparently, Mum was up at Castle Highhold. At least, that's where she said she was heading next.

Before Agnor and Gnorma could head out, though, they were given one final warning, that increased their worry for the irrepesible halfling. "The Ghorkaal village north of us has some extremely unfriendly dark elves in it. They like knocking people's mounts out of the sky if they fly too close. You may want to swing a bit southeast before you head to Castle Highhold, or swing wide over the ocean before you go north."

It was with huge sighs of relief that they touched down in the courtyard of the castle, to spot the flame-haired Mum loudly scolding, apparently in fine fettle.

"Twas verra irresponsible o' ye, Roberta-lass, tae nae check in wi' yuir boss an' tell him ye were safe. He's been verra worried aboot ye, an' I've been on a wild goose chase trying tae follow ye tae be sure ye were safe!" Mum, still unaware of Agnor and Gnorma standing in the evening shadows, plunked her hands on her hips and stared up at the barbarian woman. "Verra irresponsible indeed! Twas a guid thing that ye did here helping th' defenders, but next time, check in, eh lass? I'll go an' pass word that ye're safe, sae folks will stop worrying."

Before Mum could port out, however, Agnor had winked at Gnormajean, cleared his throat,and proceeded to give Niami a taste of her own medicine. "Mum! Thank Brell you're safe. When you didn't check in several hours ago, we feared the worst, and have been on a wild goosechase trying to retrace your path. One might even call it irresponsible of you to ignore several mailboxes along the way, and not warn us that you were taking longer than planned, and to not hold lunch, much less dinner on you."

"Irresponsible? But, I was jus' help- ... och."

They could practically hear the quartermaster's eyes rattle as she rolled them.


Welcome to the Altar of Malice, the 11th expansion for Everquest II! This expansion is released to all-access members on November 11, 2014 and to free-to-play members on November 25, 2014.

As with past expansion previews, this page is going to be updated in chunks, as time and energy permit. The bottom of the page will include a list of updates, with time/date stamps, so you can easily check and see what has been added since the last time you checked this article.

Also, as with past expansion previews, this is being written during the beta testing phase, so information can/will change without notice (including once beta is done, and we're waiting on the launch patch). Every effort will be made to update these articles with current information, but things can change without notice.

Some things will need only a quick note, others will be detailed enough that I'll split them out into separate pages. For now, I'll get things started with some of the quicker notes.

Getting Around the New Expansion

Tranquil Sea will be available from any world bell. Crafters should check their mail for the tradeskill quest starter from Captain Ethan Darani. Adventurers will want to check in Qeynos Harbor (Rosalinda on the docks), or East Freeport (Viminy next to the bell) for the signature quest starter.

You will also find some waterspouts in the Shattered Seas, to make travel from island-to-island in the same zone a bit faster. Simply fly low over them to be given a bit of a speedboost.

Phantom Sea is north of Tranquil Sea and can be reached by flying north and north some more.

Additionally, if you're a level 20+ crafter, you can buy lore, single-use port baubles to "Return to Highhold" and "Return to Refuge" baubles from the Far Seas Supply Division vendors in Mara and on the Isle of Refuge (IoR). The IoR vendor, Shazra is to your left on a hillock, once you pass the first arch in Tranquil Sea. Isn't she ... um ... lovely?

Phantom Sea requires a bit of travel awareness when visiting Kithicor Island. You see, there's Wanderer's Dock (A on the map below), and Castle Highhold (C on the map below). You'll also need to visit the Blessed Knoll during the crafting timeline. (D on the map below.) Then there's the grumpy dark elves in Ghorkaal. And by grumpy, I mean they have NPCs specifically planted to knock you out of the sky if you fly too close. That'd be B on the map below. Yeah, squishies will want to avoid them, and you can swing wide on the water side, or swing a bit more south when flying over land. On the plus side, Ghorkaal is pretty, in a dark, hate-filled kind of way!

Guild Level 100 - Amenities

Along with the crafting and adventuring caps raising by five levels, guild levels also will increase. One totally new depot, a scroll depot, will be added as a new level 100 amenity. This depot will hold both recipe and spell scrolls (adepts, masters, what have you), and can hold 1000 different unique items. While these recipes and spells stack to 10 in inventory, they stack to considerably more in the depot.

In addition, several existing depot amenities will have larger versions become available at level 100:

  • Collection - holding 10,000 unique items
  • Lore & Legend - holding 1000 unique items
  • Potion, Poison & Totem - holding 400 unique items
  • Fuel - holding 200 unique items
  • Ammo - holding 2000 unique items
  • Food & Drink - holding 4000 unique items
  • White Adornments - holding 1000 unique items
  • Harvestables - holding 2000 unique items

Housing Love - Trustees!

This appears to be going in with the expansion- houses on beta now recognize any of the owner's alts that are on the same account as trustee with regards to adding/removing and moving items. These auto-trustee alts do NOT show up on the access list, so visiting using the guildhall portal is still out unless you place them manually on the trustee list as well, but this is still a happy thing for many of us!

Apprentices

Contrary to earlier information, there will NOT be a new apprentice with this expansion. There is research to complete for the new tier of grandmaster spells. In addition, at level 100, you will be able to research a bunch of purple adorns and some essences that appear to be raid-oriented (example image below of essence of disease research results). These recipes will take 20 days to research. I'll have more details on these later, as I'm still trying to wrap my brains around them, and am waiting to hear back on a few nigglies. Your apprentices will also ask 96+ crafters to make a new tier of baskets, toolbelts and what have you, using the new tier of resources. As it stands currently, the level 96-100 apprentice tasks will award you with 20 commons or 1 rare, or 1 crafting potion.

It appears that the fragments are raid drops, but I have no further details at this time.

Resources

There will be new resources available for the new 5-level tier from 96 to 100. These resources will be able to be harvested in both Tranquil Sea and Phantom Sea, and your pack pony and harvesting goblin will also be able to bring back resources from this tier. There will also be a new spellshard and foundation to be harvested in this tier.

  • Dens ("odon lair"): stringy meat, ragged leathery hide, pristine leathery hide(rare)
  • Fish ("a shiver of threshers"): fresh thresher fin
  • Garden ("pygmy brambles"): sulfur fruit, hylocereus fruit, handama leaf, kith peppers, hiven root (rare)
  • Gem ("exposed stone"): iodocus cluster, lumium cluster (rare soft metal), uncut tourmaline, sapphire bixbite (rare gem)
  • Ore ("rictus ore"): cadmium ore, carbide ore (rare)
  • Root ("gnarled roots"): leonid root, hiven root (rare)
  • Wood ("felled hardwood"): larix lumber, araucaria lumber (rare)
  • Material (from all nodes): incandescent material
  • Foundation/Spellshard (from all nodes): transcendent

Red Shinies

For those who have earned their Earring of the Solstice, you will be able to spot two new red shiny collections - one in Tranquil Sea, and one in Phantom Sea. The Tranquil Sea collection rewards a lovely Far Seas Fountain, and the Phantom Sea collection rewards a Far Seas Snowglobe. (The globe is not musical, but the outer ring on the Far Seas emblem inside it rotates.) Due to the nature of how water previews, I have also included a closeup on the insignia that is at the bottom of the fountain (reflections are from a Qeynos guildhall, since it was more fuss than it was worth to try to fully get rid of reflections.

Recipes

This tier is is only 5 levels, and some of our "traditional" standbys in the various tiers have been left by the wayside. Before we get into some of the details on who gets what in this tier, there are a few things to note.

The first thing to know is that all weapons and armor follow a set naming sequence. Level 95 handcrafted gear will be named Tranquil _ of the ____. (Yep, tailors will get a bit confused about the tranquil cloth sets of the past 10 tiers and the totally unrelated Tranquil gear sets, but if you sort by descending level, you'll be able to find the new stuff easily enough.) Level 100 mastercrafted gear will be named Phantom __ of the ___. Level 100 mastercrafted gear will be named Xiocite ___ of the ____. This sort of results in a bewildering array of names, but at least if you remember the Tranquil/Phantom/Xiocite naming, you'll be in the right ballpark when searching for stuff.

The second thing to know is that the mastercrafted gear, while very yummy, also tends to take multiple rares. Don't go into too much sticker shock, as, at last check, it was very worth the expenditure. Note that if you want to create a refined mastercrafted item, ALL the rares going into the creation of the item will need to be refined.

The third thing to note is that there's a bug with recipe pricing. This bug WILL go live due to cut-off deadlines for the final expansion build, but will be fixed with the first hotfix after the expansion goes live. Until then, recipe books are going to cost more than they should. (A multiplication error apparently happened when the books were made stackable so they could fit into the new scroll depot. The fix is in the works, and waiting for the first hotfix.)

  • Alchemist - fighter CAs, plus a smaller lineup of poisons and potions than you may have expected. For poisons, you have a handcrafted, mastercrafted and mastercrafted fabled version of vitality breach, caustic poison and hemotoxin. You also have handcrafted and mastercrafted potions (but not mastercrafted fabled.) Since there is no dust byproduct from making experts for this tier, the handcrafted (Cerebral) versions of potions and poisons will use 5 common leonid roots as their primary ingredient. The mastercrafted (Gnostic's) potions and poisons will use 1 rare hiven root as the primary ingredient - poisons yield 10, the mastercrafted potions yield 5. The mastercrafted fabled (Exemplar's) poisons will use 2 rare hiven roots for the primary ingredient. Feedback was given that the handcrafted "Cerebral" label would be confusing since there are cerebral ebb poisons in earlier tiers, but like tailors with the "Tranquil" issue, it looks to be what will go live.
  • Armorer - level 96 and level 100 handcrafted chain and plate, plus level 100 mastercrafted chain and plate. There are no imbues in the traditional sense of the term, but chest and legpieces take imbue materials.
  • Carpenter - There are no strongbox recipes, nor sales crates. Carpenters get the least recipes of any class. Fortunately, what they do get is rather nice, in my opinion. See for yourself! I'm still sad that a couple level 100 mastercrafted topiaries went "poof", but I'm hoping they'll reappear somewhere.
  • Jeweler -scout CAs and a lineup of jewelry. While tailors got the belts to sort of even out the crafter love, jewelers get a couple charm slot items.
  • Provisioner - you'll have level 96 long duration food and drink, level 97 with short-duration but better stats, level 98 again with the long, level 99 with the short, and level 100 will contain both long duration food/drink and the short duration better stat versions.
  • Sage - Your lineup is priest and mage spells. There are no notebook recipes this tier.
  • Tailor - this short tier does not have hex dolls or cloaks. To sort of make up for this, they've been given a rather large array of belts to craft. Other than that, you'll have a couple sets of level 96 leather and cloth, a couple sets of level 100 handcrafted leather and cloth, and a couple sets of mastercrafted leather and cloth. There are no imbues in the traditional sense of the term, but chest and legpieces take imbue materials.
  • Weaponsmith - do I want something of the Grimrunner, or of the Striker, or of the Lodaka, etc.? Those will be the sorts of questions weaponsmiths are likely to get. There may be, for example, only one type of scout-useable stabby weapon (the rapier), but you'll have several rapiers to choose from with a variety of different blue stats. Throwing weapon (shiruken etc) recipes are still not in the weaponsmith book, and I continue to put in /bug reminders about it. There are no imbues for these weapons.
  • Woodworker - Bows, round shields, bucklers, arrows and wooden weapons are your lineup this time around. While the weaponsmiths have the sharp and stabby weapon recipes, you're going to be king/queen of all the blunt weapons this time around. There are no totems in this tier, nor are there imbues. Please note that the mastercrafted Xiocite Lodaka Buckler and Xiocite Striker Targe may/may not be able to be made when the expansion launches, due to a needed recipe fix. If they are not accepting the araucaria lumber primary on launch, they will be fixed with the first hotfix.

Quests

Currently on beta we are testing two different sets of questlines. One is the actual AoM quest series for level 95+ crafters. The other is not tied to the expansion and will be a new series that offers one quest per crafting tier, starting at level 5. Since it may be released at the same time as the expansion, I figure it is a good idea to clarify the colliding emails you might see. The mail from Captain Ethan Darani will contain the quest starter for the AoM crafting line. The mail from the Harbormaster, containing a message in a bottle is the new Shipwrecked series for all crafters.

In addition to some lovely recipes as quest rewards, the completion of the level 100 portion of the Shipwrecked line allows you the ability to hire a new furry fury mercenary.

Buyable Furniture

The Far Seas Supply Division has received some new stock, including several new items of furniture. These buyables will be sold on Far Seas Supply Division (FSSD) faction merchants to those who have 40K faction with the FSSD and have Far Seas Trading Company Tokens. You can eyeball the furniture here.

Far Seas Prestige Tree

Crafters will be able to earn 25 more prestige points as they level from 95 to 100 in their chosen tradeskill profession. These points may only be spent in the new Far Seas prestige tree, which is a new tab under the Tradeskill Prestige button. Additional information on this new prestige tree can be found here.

Adorning

There are a large number of adornment recipes this time around. The Lesser and Greater versions of the Incandescent adornments will be found in the Essential Adornments Volume 11 book from adorning trainers and guildhall recipe vendors. (These vendors will also sell you the dilutions and distillations books, so you can convert to/from the 4 types of adornment materials.) The Superior versions of these adornments will be from a dropped recipe book Advanced Adornments Volume 11. Londiar, in your home crafting society, will now also ask you for T10 and T11 adornments for the daily adorning task, where appropriate.

In addition, there are several purple adornment recipes that can be either researched or purchased with Far Seas Supply Division tokens. More on those will come as time permits.

Tinkering?

Sadly, we have seen neither hide nor hair of any new tinkering recipes, and queries have gone unanswered. If this changes, I will post more information here. My guess, though, on this last day of beta, is that the closest we get to new tinkering is being able to blow up a gnome in the AoM crafting line. :P


Updates

  • Nov 3, 5:30 p.m. The cats decided napping was NOT in the cards for me today, so I've added a summary of the tradeskill classes. This round of image editing is also done, and I'll be spending the next little while coding up the carpenter furniture page.
  • Nov 3, 6:15 p.m. Despite site sluggishness, the carpenter furniture page is now done.
  • 8:40 p.m. Fixed the story to refer to Quartermaster Robbins as a barbarian woman, not a human woman, after biting her kneecap just know in beta. My apologies to the barbarians out there for mistaking her race. ;D
  • 9:15 p.m. Whoops! Fixed the carpenter link to be the proper link
  • Nov 4, noonish: Purple adorn recipes were added to the Far Seas vendors and some also to the apprentices. I'll be sorting all that out later, but changed the apprentice section to note that more is incoming. Updated the resources section with details on harvestable names. Added a quests section with a bit of explanation. Actual quest writeups will occur ... later. Next up is the Far Seas eye-candy once I grab and edit screen captures.
  • 2:18 p.m. I promised Far Seas eye-candy, I am delivering Far Seas eye candy. :D I've also expanded on the travel section to include flight warnings for Ghorkaal.
  • Nov 5, 4:00 p.m. Added a quick blurb to the Quests section and a picture of the new merc. More later. Some quest recipes were added and I'm a-testing them.
  • Nov. 6. 10:30 a.m.: I am snickering a bit right now at one bit in the beta patch notes: "The missing topiaries have been returned to Advanced Carpenter Volume 100. (Rumors they were stolen by a knight seeking a shubbery remain unconfirmed.)" And, even as I snicker at the Monty Python reference, I am doing the happy halfling dance and scurrying to screenshot these gorgeous items. I was VERY sad when they disappeared from my recipe books over a week ago, and now I get to show them off in all their leafy glory. Other than that, there's a lot going on behind the scenes in prep for another chunk of information for you folks. I am still actively testing, so the updates aren't happening as fast as I'd like, but trust me, you want me testing, giving feedback and submitting bugs. Right, enough babble. By the time you hit the carpenter furniture page, I should have it updated with the topiary in the mastercrafted section.
  • 4:00 p.m. Information on the new tradeskill prestige tree has been put in place. I also added a tiny bit more detail to the apprentice section, and have dropped in sections for adorning and tinkering. The adorning section will be fleshed out later.
  • Nov 10, 10:25 a.m.: Yes, I'm still alive. Since we don't know when beta will be going down, I spent a chunk of the weekend data-gathering, in prep for a huge writing binge later tonight. I've got both quest sets documented, and some images snagged of some of the adventuring/collection quest furniture rewards. I didn't get to work on earning one of those lovely green bug mounts like I wanted to, but those are the breaks. Once I'm back from a checkup, you should start seeing stuff added to this page, barring any new distraction on this end.
  • 2:12 p.m. Added in a note about recipe book pricing, added in an example of one of the new (adorner) researched essences. More to follow after another quick check to see if something was changed on beta.
  • 7:20 p.m. Phew! Once you take a look at the AoM Crafting Quest Series writeup, you might see why it took so long to get it into a finalized form. 23 quests to document, plus screenshots, travel warnings, etc. Wheee! I still need to do the writeup for the 10-quest Shipwrecked! line that is also going in tomorrow, and hope to finish that tonight. If "oomph" allows, I also have images on my hard drive of many of the adventure quest and collection quest furniture rewards, and I may get around to editing, uploading and php coding the whole shebang for some eye-candy during the 7-hour patch time tomorrow. Maybe.
  • 11:25 p.m. Is my brain leaking out my ears yet? The writeup for the Shipwrecked! quest series is done!
  • Nov 11, just after midnight: I whipped up some bare-bones details on the dailies and weeklies
  • 6:55 a.m.: I am up, the game is down for the patch, and I'll have a few more offerings to drop in on this page today. Stay tuned!
  • 7:25 a.m.: AoM Patch Notes have been html formatted for those who tend to avoid the forums.
  • 8:08 a.m.: 31 images are now up on the AoM Adventure Furniture page. In total, the AoM images directory has 167 jpg's in it that have been used throughout these articles. I don't want to know how many more screen clips I took during beta that ended up tossed out after all the work I put into getting them! I also don't think I want to know my word count, as it likely would depress me. :D (Expansion time and holiday events during this time of year are the main reasons I haven't joined NaNoWriMo, despite having a strong interest in it. I do have a novel or three knocking around in my head, but at this rate, they are going to stay there.) I'll just have to keep letting the muse out for mini-romps to keep it satiated during the next few months as we approach Frostfell, Erollisi Day, Brew Day and Bristlebane Day.
  • AoM is now available for purchase at this link
  • 2:37 p.m. I finally took an hour nap! {eyes the servers} Apparently they took a longer nap than me. Holly ("Windstalker") tweeted about 40 minutes ago that they have two QA teams running through some things right now, so I'm going to guess today is officially a "Rough Day" for them. Hopefully they'll get things beaten into shape soon.
  • Nov 12: Someone harvested a recipe book off the mysterious gem node that we can only find using our new TS prestige ability starter. I'll post screenies and more details later, both in this article and in the prestige article. Also, I've put in a /bug about the items that grant tradeskill xp NOT granting tradeskill xp. Update: Caith says they're looking into the xp item issue.

Created: 2014-11-03 05:05:40          
Last Modified By: Niami Denmother          
Last Modified on: 2014-11-22 03:05:56          

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