Quarm.Guide

by Level Up Larry and Secrets

Kunark AMA

Luna: Q: With the Kunark spells being droppable, I feel like we may see some strain with our guild banks. Would there be a way to make these spells stackable to make storage easier? A: This is something we are researching, though it is low on development priority. Realistically, we would want to just test it, see if it works, and if it doesn’t, let’s look at alternatives to doing so.

Thrang: Q: Can VP weapons be made tradeable so they arent seen as junk loot? A: No. We were at one point going to buff VP loot but decided against it.

Xalm: Seeing as you’ve made a lot of QoL changes, any thoughts on balancing iksar armor, maybe let them use Kunark clicky sets? An iksar in pinkicite would be hilarious also. A: We did investigate this, but no, I think this would be rather important to keep the restrictions the same for the purpose of people still picking ‘classic’ races. I realize there’s some hypocrisy here with other changes, but we won’t be doing this because some of that is important to early EQ race identity. This largely fades out by PoP in terms of usefulness, anyway.

Grindlord / Kemadin: Q: How will tradeskill items work for epics and self-found players, such as tinkered rebreathers for warrior epic? Is there any chance that at some point after the Kunark release that solo/self-found flagged players could have an avenue of some kind to obtain their epic (possibly through a MASSIVE plat sink or otherwise)? A: That’s a good question, and something we haven’t considered yet. Likely, we’ll add in special quests as we did with enchanted bars for Sol Ro quests. For raid completions, though, you’ll have to do that as a raid or by yourself. Good luck 😊

Fenwich: Q: I’m a bit confused about how Chardok is going to work. Is it revamped? Is it not revamped but the mobs from the revamp are in? Are the faction NPCs in? Is SWC a quest and a drop or just one or the other? If the faction is in are the Droga goblins dropping salts? A: The truth of the matter is that a lot of that development had just fallen to the wayside until the very last moment. We disabled the drops, but it’s all revamped. This includes the SWC and related quests like Regal Band of Bathezid. Honestly, I don’t think we mind keeping those in.

Katinaa: Q: Is the cazic quill going to drop more often from General V’Ghera for rogue epic? The robes are a pita to get already and if the drop rate is as low as it says now going to be a huge blocker. A: They will drop at their normal rate. However, when Kunark officially launches, we will change those quests to only require one of the four items, so they will be significantly less hard to complete.

Grimmlok: Q: Will highly sought after spells aka torpor for shamans be as dismal a drop rate as p99/live or will instances have a higher drop percentage or maybe be no drop to prevent plat hogs? Drop rates are between .2% off drakes/guardian type mobs to .5% on raid targets i.e. VP, Gore, Talendar etc. A: We will not be adjusting drop rates on Torpor et al before launch. The rates in the DB are those on live for Kunark early access and its official launch.

Saelilya: Q: When is the DB drop going to happen for the open-source contributors? A: There will be a DB drop ahead of official launch on July 1st. We recently did one ahead of early access. Expect it the week of.

Cutelizard, Sharlow: Q: Are the Kunark Archaeologist quests in game? A: We’ll be implementing these and adjusting (nerfing) the rewards as needed. They won’t be in for Iksar Early Access, our intent is to have them done on or shortly after Kunark launches.

Avenoll: Q: Are there any plans to help with the Sarnak Herbalist for the Necromancer epic. It was posted in the epic suggestion thread. As is, it’s a public bottleneck that can be camped and locked down. Will the Manisi Herb be available to drop in the Chardok instanced zone or any changes made to its spawn? A: We’ll make sure to address any bottlenecks we’ve missed before, during and after Kunark launch. We’d like to remain agile for any quick fixes like this. Thanks for mentioning this one!

Hoptastic: Q: With the Kunark early access and epic drops being enabled will that also include enabling old world spawns such as bergurgle and eejag, or only drops off of already spawning mobs? A: Kunark early access will include the enabling of 2.0 content, which includes these mobs. We won’t prevent the completion of epics that are doable entirely in open world during this period.

Difficult: Q: Will warriors gain triple attack at 60 during Kunark? A: Warriors will gain triple attack in 60 if they had it during Planes of Power at 60.

Bubbee / Ardivoli: Q: Can you post a list of the legacy items, please? Are certain sought-after items (that aren’t currently listed as “legacy”) going to be legacy? A: This will be posted following launch, but it’s a fairly short list – off hand, I can think of Goblin Gazughi Ring, Fungus Tunic/Staff, Circlet of Shadows, and Mosscovered Twig/Branch. We’ll add more as time goes on.

QuarmHopeful: Q: Yes/no to making Greenmist completable during June? A: No. Some content is restricted to the release of Kunark officially. This is one of them.

Thrang:
Q: Can we get a custom quest to increase the number of bag slots in the bank sometime in the future? A: This is not in our plans. At least, not in the way you’ve directly described. We’re about 2 years out from even enacting that plan if we so choose.

Infurn / Trispis: Q: Why didn’t you call the no-drop fungi tunic “Non-Fungible Tunic”? It would be cool to include it. A: Easter eggs are often hidden in places you won’t expect them. Our entire content is open source, so we must be careful with placing them. Please look forward to it.

Caredil: Q: Will VP zoning be simplified? IE, possible to port out? A: This isn’t something we planned. Maybe we should? That’d be cool!

Dospac: Q: Will other Kunark quests get the legacy treatment? A: Generally, bottlenecks will be addressed which may include that process. We’ll evaluate as time goes by as to which ones we want to make into legacy items as Kunark progresses. But we wanted to make sure that we got the high-ticket ones addressed, first. Moving quickly and addressing these problems as they arise will be the best.

Xalm: Q: Will Ton Po’s Bo Staff of Understanding get legacy status, or will the item drop at all? A: Yes. Rarely from Trakanon. Won’t be in until July 1st.

Rylo: Q: With limitations to and from Kunark, will there be an EC tunnel equivalent in Kunark for Iksar during the pre-launch A: No, we will not be allowing an EC tunnel equivalent on Kunark during the Early Access period.

Oenla: Q: Leveling and grouping is gonna be awkward with only 5 classes playable? Nevermind most probably aren’t gonna focus on tanks or shamans. Any way to make it feel less restrictive? I totally not asking for more Iksar classes that’s silly! A: Haha, can you imagine? No, but I’d sooner make Barbarian Paladins down the line after PoP than any Iksar classes.

SpaceDuck: Q: Will iksar armor quests items be adjusted along the same lines as the other mid-level armor quests? e.g. https://www.pqdi.cc/item/4985 (Scaled Mystic Gauntlets) getting wis swapped in for int along the same lines as Totemic Gauntlets https://www.pqdi.cc/item/4942 A: Good call! Let’s get this done ahead of Kunark Launch on July 1st.

Gally: Q: Cleric Epic - Will the x4 shards farm in Skyfire be activated? A: Yes. Due to the nature of how they’re farmed, we aren’t anticipating any changes to the drop method or chance.

The Snow Himbo: Q: Will the clipping plane changes made in classic zones recently apply to Kunark zones, too? A: Yes! Though, I’ll probably do them while mellowed out from my upcoming surgery.

BearCurious: Q: What will be done to help low level XP. Kurns will be a nightmare if it’s not adjusted. A: There will be no adjustments to experience rates in Kunark. We will slightly boost the experience rates per the timeline in dungeons globally, but a significant boost to experience gain beyond that will not be present until Velious.

Dannyll: Q: Can you change active character lockout timers before Kunark, many/most of us Zeal users spend half an hour per day looking at a lockout screen due to crashing when zoning and that just sucks. A: This is up to the Zeal author to fix. We are working on an unrelated zoning crash fix to/from instance(s), however, there is no timeline on that one.

Pukc: Q: Will we see Oakwynd in any form? A: You’ve already seen the Oakwynd twins! Or at least, an alternative version of them – oh, you meant the GM event item. So, we have a system where we can award time-limited items now from GM events. Please keep an eye out for events that we may host sporadically. Any items that are awarded will always be temporary. We’ve had issues in the past with perceptions of fairness and GM event items. I will also say that it’s my dream to allow artifacts, but the player who earns them might have unintended side effects with them! Like being able to be killed and having their artifact looted, for instance… this Halloween should be great fun. 😊

Ak_Lonewolf: Q: With many Epics taking place in City of Mist, is there going to be a City of Mist Instance to help prevent turn in/epic fight bottlenecks? A: It’s something we are considering, yes.

Klaze: Q: I would like to understand the rationale behind this decision in the first place. Early access Iksars. I mean, why? A: I always found it odd that out of nowhere, a bunch of lower level Iksars just randomly sprouted out of the city of Cabilis one day. They have an established society, the players there should all be around the same as the other cities that have been around for years and years, right? The secondary incentive is so that we can have an exciting experience for players that challenges them without the full roster of classes available. Without Cleric and Enchanter, how far can people go?

Sullonn: Q: Will Akkstaff respawn change from 2 hours? A: Any bottleneck we deem problematic will be addressed. Please post these in the epic feedback thread in discord, we will be looking at those.

Trispis: Q: Demi Lich Skullcap? A: This will likely be replaced with a mana-free, gem-slot free version of one of the necro’s core abilities.

Manachill: Q: Can iksar have the skill to lick their own eye and satisfy thirst? A: No! Why would you want this? WHY?! I made a promise that I’d answer ALL questions. You have all made me regret that. Next one will be an AMAA.

Cutelizard: Q: Keys for howling stones, seb, vp, etc… any chance those will be part of the key system like Sky right now? A: Yes. They will be added to the keyring system and not be required to enter the zone beyond the initial flag. VP will be turned into a proper door, not just a gate.

Ranni: Q: Are there exp penalties? A: Race penalties and bonuses should still be in per Classic.

BizarroStormy: Q: Are there going to be any changes to the way VP trash spawns work, ie; worms? A: Yes. Open world will be left unchanged, but instanced VP will contain 18 hour respawns at a minimum for all content. This is so that the instanced content is more accessible to guilds who prefer to prepare for their encounters with the denizens of VP.

Charli: Q: Some of the databases show that Kunark spells will drop off of PoSky mobs. Will that start occurring after June 1st? A: Yes. This will be the case. Beastlord Spells will still drop during Luclin, however.

Foojack: Q: Are the iksar sets from hate and fear going to drop during kunark on this server? I believe we currently have an amalgam of hate and fear 2.0 with classic mobs and drops. A: I believe this is the case. Some of the gear that drops are completely out of era. There’s a community resource that has a list of items players may find as drops. I’m sure it’ll be updated ahead of Kunark.

(name missing): Q: Will enraged golem for wizard epic have its velious era fear 2.0 175k hp stats? Thats gonna be a slog in kunark and fairly difficult (but doable with charm pets). A: Given the golem’s ability to deal virtually no damage, I think this is in line with completing a powerful epic. Bring charm pets.

Cutelizard: Q: Can you give a breakdown of what we might expect for keying to VP? I’m assuming (but perhaps incorrectly!) that it might be a slightly less awful process than p99, but any commentary you have on that whole process would be helpful. A: Mostly the same process! Expect ground spawns to spawn quicker, bottlenecks to be removed, and kind of an evaluation of spawns we may have to adjust or make more painless.

Spife / Vaethral: Q: What time on the 1st will we be able to play our lizards? Midnight gaming session or a more sensible time on Saturday morning? Lizardfest when? A: 3PM ET on Saturday, June 1st.

Tillary: Q: Will someone complete the Frogloks of Krrup and make a dungeon for them? A: An interesting idea. I’ll have to keep this in mind for an event dungeon sometime. It’d be cool to have a proper Village of Krrup. This area existed on EQ2, and it was more of a city you could align yourself with. They were directly in contention with the Sebilis Frogloks.

Thrang: Q: What will the spawn timers be in Field of Bone/Kurn’s Tower on release considering players will probably farm killable mobs for awhile A: The Field of Bone and Kurn’s Tower will have the newbie respawn code activated. If everything gets too bad, we have a contingency plan of activating a portal to “Oops, All Icebones!” in the Field of Bone.

Nicolas / Zephon: Q: Will there be any new special zone events opened or planned (like Domain of Frost in Halas for example) on or near Kunark launch? Any hints? Will we get a Kunark/Iksar themed event zone (aside from Oops, All Icebones!)? A: Oops, All Goos! Feat. The Kly, but they’re a goo monster, too! Just in time for spooky season and another one of the Oakwynd twins to appear.

Swish: Q: Will there be any PVP Quakes? A: Maybe. Try red99 server.

Kryllmancer: Q: (in reply to Swish) What are we going to do with all these golem wands? A: Serious answer: I don’t know what the context is. A: Goofy answer: You don’t want to have a purpose for those wands. You think you do, but you don’t. Is this one of those out of season jokes? It’s not even April yet. Don’t you guys have phones?

Luciania: Q: Will there be any level minimums for the instanced zones yet? A: Considering that I haven’t placed them yet in the game world, that question is arbitrary. I’d imagine Kunark instances would be 50 required to enter.

Magellan: Q: Will Kunark Evacs work only from within dungeons at first? A: We won’t be changing any existing functionality with zone-specific evacs, so I think they’ll work wherever they work right now. There aren’t exclusions for specific code paths.

Sharlow: Q: Are we going to see raid targets like Dragons, VS/VSR, ect in open world outside of quakes, or are they still going to be strictly quake/instance spawns? What about smaller targets like the Kith Darkelves, Chardok Royals, or triggered spawns like The General, Ixi, Ragefire? A: Quake/instance spawns will be identical to classic for major raid targets once Kunark releases formally on July 1st. Drusella, Royals, Dark Elves, etc, will be in their own instances once Kunark releases. It’s my intent to have an instanced Kithicor ahead of the Early Access. Thanks for reminding me. Ixiblat will just have the base NPC highly reduced in respawn timer, such is the case for the open-world Ragefire, too.

Xalm: Q: How will the firepot room work? A: It’ll be bindable by casters indefinitely.

Talenn: Q: Will there be any updates to existing game mechanics that get launched with kunark? Such as guards immune to charm…. Bard swarm limit… things that were in place upon classic launch to limit exp farming. Maybe with so many more zones those limiters are less required? A: To be honest, I wanted to on launch. I mained a bard on P99 and loved to AOE Kite. And I farmed you know, Kelethin guards and such. But in my opinion, these kinds of things devalue the new player’s experience and ruin the need to group. Why would you sit in a group with a holy trinity composition when you could run 5 classes that run a group and one bard kiting to the side of them? Any group would instantly be empowered by a bard disproportionately to any other class in the game.

Also, recently, we had the ability to talk to the Darkpaw Games Team at PAX East. They’re fantastic folks, and I spent 2 hours speaking with one of the engineers there. 
We gave them a lot of ideas. Some of them were on paper, some of them were things we completed.
They took some of them and did an excellent job in implementing them. I still don’t know if they came from just us, but I have a striking suspicion that they did.

I’ve seen some of those already in Teek today.  One of those was an AOE cap of 25 we were mulling about implementing on PBAOEs across the board. 
They ended up implementing this on every PBAOE on live. The change live had mixed reactions, but the game was better off for it. 
Teek had one of the most successful launches and they’ve started making additional changes in favor of ‘un-bottlenecking’ the epics, as seen in their patch notes ahead of Teek. 
Whether they go to the extremes we did is yet to be seen, but I think the core, fundamental game of EverQuest is better when it focuses on individual journeys.
That is going to be a much better game for those changes. Be it here, P99, TLP, or Live.

Vaethral: Q: Locket of escape legacy item? A: We have the Ring of the Dead, but hell yeah, why not? Let’s put it in on the bosses in that zone at a low % chance.

Korain: Q: It’s been implied that triggered epic mobs will only be lootable by the triggerer. Does this extend to all loot that triggered mob can drop, or just the drops for their epic? A: This may be in for launch, but as I mentioned recently, there’s going to be a lot of work to do to make epics personalized. This is part of that process.

Ziglax: Q: Would it be possible to have a class breakdown at the end of classic before everyone goes lizarding? A: I’ll make a clone of the DB at that point in the time anyway – so even before or after then - we’ll be able to get that data.

Vaethral: Q: Are classes generally set in stone for a while or are there balance tweaks you’re planning to make going into Kunark? A: Classes are generally set in stone. Sometime after Kunark, some classes may inadvertently be affected by ongoing work by Torven or the TAKP team when we catch up to their code, database, and quest changes.

SuperBryant: Q: Are you going to introduce any new class options to Iksars under the guise of helping group composition on Kunark the first month and why will it be Bards? A: Why don’t Iksars make great bards? Because it’s all scales!

Vaethral: Q: Can you roll the dragon hp buff in after the June preview and see if we can down pre buffed versions by july1? A: We won’t be doing the giant HP change after all as we mentioned at the start of the AMA. We may, however, add a challenge mode version of VP for cosmetic or novelty items in the future. Good hunting in the meantime, though, scaley skins!

Sunk: Q: Do you know what you’re going to do for Charasis respawn times yet? Half the battle in that place is getting to a camp and holding it down IMHO. You almost must bring a premade group/duo/trio etc, I wouldn’t consider it a “leveling” dungeon all that much? (but wtf do i know <3) EDIT– Any thoughts on making the keys to the individual wings non-temporary, people just corpse them anyway but just curious, ty! A: We’ll likely keep the original respawn time in Charasis. I agree - that zone is hellish! As for keys, they’re part of the crawl. Apologies, but that will stay.

Feedme: Q: Will there be alterations to charm-able mobs to make them not charm-able ala kedge? A: Yes. Especially in cases where people use charm as a mechanism to grief others.

Dolath: Q: Will the sleeper mechanism be reworked to be progress-based, allowing players to fully enjoy each stage before advancing? Was in a server where seasoned players triggered the Sleeper early, before most players were ready for the VP stage. A: First, this is a Kunark AMA, but I’ll address this directly. Our plans are to allow people to pick which version of Sleeper’s Tomb they want to enter. The tomb will not change depending on The Sleeper’s awakening. Druzzil Ro’s magic prevents The Sleeper from awakening permanently. If Druzzil Ro were to meet her demise at the end of Time, however…

Sharlow / Fabby: Q: Are we going to see Cultural crafting, Wu’s, or any new crafting recipes with Kunark dropping? Will the Kunark tradeskill changes be in game June 1st? Like ability to make Forged Javelins and other era locked recipes? A: Any tradeskill recipes in the database (it’s open source) that were previously Kunark locked will now be accessible during the Early Access period, such as Forged Javelins. Field of Bone potions will not allow entrance to Kunark, however. They will remove you from Kunark zones if you aren’t an Iksar.

Slowsin: Q: With Autofire being in the game, super useful for rangers, can the rest of the classes get autoskill? This is a great QoL feature and needed for older players like me that encounter pain repeatedly pressing buttons over a length of time. A: It’s one of the only buttons you must press as a warrior. I’m opposed to it personally. Also, kicking at opportune times as a high-level warrior will interrupt, so there are benefits beyond just pressing your ability on cooldown. This is a slippery slope to full automation. We don’t want to go down the route of policing cheaters.

Boofolio: Q: Are you considering allowing players to polish their Rocks? Adding a cast time to the manastone/manarock for use in kunark zones and beyond. A: We have the Mana Robe item for this. No rock-polishing, please. Save that for <rule 5.2 removed>. It’s a novelty classic item. You’re about to see why we’re fine with keeping the item in past classic. We don’t anticipate it to hurt.

Howlingmad: Q: There are rumblings of limitation of multiquest turn-ins specific to epic. Is there an official answer to this? Is it limited to epics, or does it extend to everything? Thanks. A: This extends to major personal quests, like Epics, Access Quests, Ring of Dain Frostweaver IV, Coldain Prayer Shawl, Earring of the Solstice, etc. Anything that is considered a significant personal journey should be affected by this. We’ll be the benevolent dictactors that decide that line. It’ll be drawn in odd ways. So, going forward, that’s the intention. PS: Yes, we know this might be moving towards loot rights and selling them instead of obtaining items yourself. But that still requires player-to-player personalized interaction and doesn’t allow, really, for long-term farming. I think that’s the primary difference between that and multiquesting.

Salenie: Q: Looking at the database updates on pdqi.cc, I see the Eye of Innoruuk https://www.pqdi.cc/item/20656 has a 50% (instanced) chance of 1 drop per kill. Can this be increased as it was a huge problem for all Necromancers getting their epic weapon? Can Slime Blood of Cazic Thule https://www.pqdi.cc/item/20655 be increased? A: This is a custom change, and the percentage is intentional. We want people to have reason to go back and complete all of EverQuest’s older content.

Visceryn: Q: During the Kunark AMA broadcast can you tell us any Iksar related jokes to keep it lively? A: What’s an Iksar’s favorite sport? Cricket! A: Why do Iksars avoid fast food? Because they can’t catch it! At least, not without a Shaman to buff them… A: Where do Iksar go that have lost their tails? The re-tail shop. A: I hope all of these Iksar puns haven’t been too… slimy for you!

Rosham: Q: I’d appreciate learning a bit more about the vision or goals for the raiding scene for the server. A: We’re always evolving and trying something new here. We can quickly recognize, as we did with the HP pool change, that some changes will be massively unpopular. When we experiment outside of that box, we’d want to make sure we don’t impact the progression of the rest of the game. Adding temporary, time limited item rewards to the game will ensure that we can experiment, reward players, and not have that core, fundamental balance broken. So, that’s the direction we’ll head towards. We still want to do Bloodied Rivervale, Bloodied Kithicor, and now this new Veeshan’s Peak (Hard) zone. But we need to make sure we do this in a way that is both respectful of the source material and innovative enough that people will want to challenge themselves for the rewards.

Dordycacker: Q: Will the Wizard epic be pre-revamp? Getting Cazic Skin or Post-revamp? The golem sprocket/enraged golem? A: Where possible, we’ll use the post-revamp and adjust them further if needed. We want to ensure that people have access to these items, and a lot of the epic adjustments were anti-bottleneck changes.

Meat: Q: Will VP Dragon AOE be LOS’able and can we extend the leashing on VP dragons to just past the first bridge right before the first ramp up from zoneline? I know there was a mention that you didn’t know if there would be any leashing which is also amazing… is this set-in-stone already? A: We probably aren’t going to be leashing the dragons there. It’ll be the same as it is on The Al’Kabor Project from February 2024. So, if it worked there, it’ll work here. If you wish to practice raid strats, the entire game is open source. Feel free to check if your specific strategy works yourself!

Grimmlok: Q: Will the spawn rate for Lizard Broodlings from golems in PoFear be 100% or only a % chance? Thanks. A: I believe the chance is unmodified, but we have instances.

Hellothere: Q: will there be an increase in wizard mana regen to counteract the higher raid mob health pools? A: No. The HP pools have only been slightly increased while regen removed from VP creatures. It’s now a boost from 32,000 to 38,000. Phara Dar is even more, at 42,000, but not much higher.