By “First” day, I mean first day of Kunark being Live. I spent a considerable amount of time on Beta, so I’m already fairly adjusted (and knowledgable) of the new continent.

For the first time in a very, very long time, I’ve actually had a reasonable shot at a number of server discoveries after an expansion launch. I didn’t waste any time. I think a few of them were even game wide discoveries. Yay me.

Kylong Plains, the first zone that people were introduced with, was quickly swamped with players the very moment the servers came back up. So much so that for the first time in a couple years, we saw overland-zone instancing. I believe today it was as high as Kylong Plains 6. And considering how large these zones are, that’s a lot of people! Common (over-repeated) questions for Kylong Plains included, “How do I get to the new expansion?”, “How do I get a Sokokar?”, “How do I get to the new expansion?”, “Where is Drolvarg L&L?”, “How do I get to the new expansion?”, “What faction do I need to use the city?”, and the ever popular “How do I get to the new expansion?”

Kylong Plains consists of the old EQ1 zones Dreadlands, Burning Woods, and Firiona Vie. I have to say, with all the arbor giants, drolvargs, and drachnids roaming around, it definitely had the Dreadlands feel going on. The goblins were a bit annoying, as were some of the Sarnaks. But most annoying are the Iksar. I swear, they had eleventy-billion HP. Your typical solo mob only has about eight billion HP by comparison.

After grinding through Kylong, and completely finishing the zone (and dinging 72), I zoned over to the next part of the expansion, Fens of Nathsar. So far the population is light, but will be increasing over the next few days pretty quickly I’m sure. It has parts of Lake of Ill Omen, Swamp of No Hope, a small part of the Frontier Mountains, Field of Bone, and the ruins of Cabalis going for it. I haven’t yet finished all the LoIO and SoNH quests yet, but I’m hoping to move on pretty soon. The sabertooth cats are getting on my nerves, as are the wyverns.

Thankfully, the only annoying question out of Fens is regarding those damn mushrooms. They really are hard to find.

It surprises me the number of people who want to group in Karnor’s Castle, instead of solo grind. Friends commented to me how abysmal the experience points are in Karnor’s Castle. Meanwhile, in about 24 hours of straight soloing I’ve rocketed up to level 73, and 71.5 Tailoring, probably the fastest I’ve ever leveled since my newbie days. Not to mention around 15 Achievement points in rapid succession. And all with no vitality to speak of! Though with RL catching up right now, my leveling is going to slow dramatically down. Still, why group when solo questing is so lucrative for exp?

It also surprises me how good the quested gear is. Half of this stuff that I’m getting from these solo quests is practically on par with Tier 7 Fabled and Legendary. Hell I’m half tempted to drop my Najena’s set for these pieces. The mob drop loot isn’t half bad either; the Legendary is definitely on par with high end Tier 7 Legendary/Fabled. What I didn’t expect was all this Legendary loot from easily soloed named mobs!

Well, easy for a Conjuror anyway. I’m not sure how easily a Berserker or Templar can handle these named.

But mobs hit a lot harder now. I’ve had way too many close calls where a mob is beating on me and my pet hasn’t pulled aggro yet. When that happens, I only have a few seconds to get my pet to get aggro before I become roadkill. Which I found out the hard way; I’m probably the very first casualty in Kylong Plains after the servers came back up. Oops!

One problem is going to be spells. Since I’m completely Adept III’d / Master I’d out, the only things that are upgrades are going to be more Adept IIIs or Masters. Which is fine, as many Adept Is are selling for 50g to a plat right now. But that also means people are getting away with selling Tynnonium Clusters for upwards of 5 plat apiece! No thank you, I’ll just harvest them myself until prices drop down.

Another is leveling my tradeskill. Tailors receive woefully few recipes for tier 8 to level up on; for level 71 I got a whopping 5 boots recipes, and 6 dress robes for level 70. Meanwhile there’s already level 80 Sages, Alchemists, and I’m sure Jewelers. Tailoring is just going to take a bloody long time to level by comparison, especially with all my cloth recipes calling for about 9 or 10 roots per combine. Not to mention the level 70 rush order writ requiring 6 dress robes. Sure wish they were made out of leather, I’ve got too much leather now!

Soon I’ll be able to move onto Kunzar Jungle, and Jarsath Wastes. But first, Fens of Nathsar needs to be finished.

As soon as RL catches up, anyway.

So today’s patch day for Rise of Kunark. As with every major game update, and especially with every major expansion, most of the day is spent waiting for the servers to come up. So while we’re waiting for the game to patch, let’s go over the changes introduced today.

First thing you’ll notice is a new patcher! And about time too, the Desert of Flames motif was getting a bit old.

EQ2Players.com was also updated just in time for Kunark.

Now as for the actual patch notes…My comments below are in red, for readability sake.

RISE OF KUNARK IS HERE!
To arms! The continent of Kunark has been rediscovered in the waters of the Timorous Deep! The lich emperor, Venril Sathir, has spent the last 500 years nearly conquering the breadth of the land, driving the Di’Zok to make their final stand in the city of Chardok. Suddenly awakened into a hostile world, the sarnak of Gorowyn have begun to explore not only a vast and varied land, but also their own mysterious past — not stopping for anything that might stand in their way. Will you be able to tame this harsh land, or will you be unable to stop the Rise of Kunark?

Standard stuff detailing the expansion. Sarnaks, and those starting in Timorous Deep, are evil aligned by the way.

RACIAL TRAITS

• Most races have had their racial traits improved to be useful from levels 1-80!

Bout flippin time! Most of the new racial traditions are pretty good, but they definitely lean each race to a specific set of classes.

• Along with the new racial traits there is a new way to see what racial and class traits you can choose now and further along in your adventuring career.
• By pressing the ‘L’ button you will open a window that contains three tabs. Two of them are for spending your Achievement points, and the third is the new “Character Development” tab. Check out this new tab to see all your options and at what level you will achieve them.
• As a part of the launch of this new system, every existing player will be able to review and change their character development choices one time.

This is a pretty neat thing. Now no more guesswork as you’re leveling, or need to look things up. It’s all presented in-game.

GAMEPLAY

• Level 20-70 experience gain rate has been smoothed to be more beneficial, and pre-70 quests now pay out more experience!

I’m not sure what they mean by this. I’m guessing that it’s just smoother, with no more sudden jumps in amount of experience needed. More quest experience is both a good and a bad thing. Good for those trying to level quickly, bad for those trying to focus on Achievements more than Levels.

• New characters who choose Gorowyn or Kelethin as their home city will be greeted with a new, in-game, cinematic when they first enter the game.

Reminds me of WoW’s cinematics. Not necessarily a bad thing, but perhaps getting a bit overdone in other MMOs.

• Only items in ranged and melee weapon slots can be swapped while in combat.

Now this change is going to get people fired up. No more swapping gear for clickies or procs or the like. When you enter combat, they’re stuck as is! Fortunately most tinkered items can now be used from bags now, at least.

MAP SYSTEM

• Zoom, pan and resizing have been added to the in game map.
• To zoom in use your mouse wheel or the buttons in the lower right corner of the map.
• Once you are zoomed in you can pan around the map my clicking and dragging your mouse when the cursor displays as a hand.
• The map window can now be resized just like other UI windows in the game.
• Always wanted a minimap? Now you can make one!

A neat change, probably in preparation for the new map system being implemented. Believe me, you’re going to need this in Kunark! The maps are huge.

MUSIC

• EverQuest II now boasts all-new adaptive combat music!
• Expect fights to sound differently based on the pace of combat, whether you’re winning or losing, as well as how difficult the fight is
• Turn your combat music back on! It’s seriously worth it.

The patch notes aren’t kidding. The new combat music is good.

SPELLS

Troubador

• The daze effect has been removed from Precision of the Maestro.
• Concentration is no longer needed for the Performer’s Talent line.
• Performer’s Talent line will now only trigger on the initial damage hits.

Dirge

• The Death’s Door line no longer requires concentration.

Yay? I don’t know much about bard spells.

TRADESKILLS

• The level cap on all primary and secondary tradeskills has been raised to 80 for players who have purchased the Rise of Kunark expansion.
• New level 70-80 tradeskill recipes are now available for all classes, as are level 70-79 tradeskill city writs for all starting cities.
• Several new quests are now available in Kunark for higher level crafters of all adventure levels. Speak to Assistant Jones at the docks in Kylong Plains, and Taskmaster Greeblentus in Teren’s Grasp to learn how you can assist.
• Several optional new faction paths allow crafters to assist certain factions within Kunark and earn their trust. Taskmaster Greeblentus can guide you towards these.
• A new tradeskill faction has entered Norrath with the discovery of Gorowyn: the Academy of Logistics, bringing more titles for players to earn and new faction furniture items to be purchased.

Standard expansion stuff.

• Stack sizes of harvested items have been increased across all level ranges.

Thank god! Stack size is now 200 for harvested goods, as well as fuels.

• Changes to the crafting UI automatically bring up the reaction arts you need, and will override your 1-6 keys while the window is up. If you want to continue using your old hotbars, simply click elsewhere so the crafting window loses focus.

I have mixed opinions on this. On the one hand, I don’t necessarily want to use the 1-6 keys. On the other hand, it does free up a few hot bars.

• Tradeskill delegates now offer a new tradeskill tutorial quest series to give more information to new crafters (or old ones who would like a refresher). If you were in the middle of the old tutorial quest series you will find these autocomplete, and you can pick up the new one.

Good! The old quest wasn’t all that helpful if you ask me.

• Tradeskill reaction arts now auto-upgrade as you level up, no more hunting in knowledge books to find your latest!

This is part of the tradeskill revamp. Should make life a lot easier.

• Tinkerers and transmuters now have 6 reaction arts like other classes. These still need to be purchased from the appropriate vendors, however.

Thank god! One of my biggest complaints about Tinkering and Transmuting is that it was insanely difficult to get a Pristine, as well as the reduced number of arts. Hopefully this will help matters.

• Harvesting tools no longer need to be equipped to be used. They do however still need to be attuned.

Nice change! I can free up a few macros and hotbuttons with this change.

• Recipes no longer yield non-pristine products. Instead, if you fail to create a pristine quality product, your fuel will be returned for handcrafted recipes, or your rare for mastercrafted. More details can be found in this discussion: http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=366825

Part of the overall tradeskill revamp. Basically this means: pristine or bust. A good change.

• Carpenters will find some belated evil furniture items appearing in their existing recipe books … just in time for a very evil Frostfell?

Better late than never, I suppose.

• Experience granted by tradeskill writs will now scale more smoothly. They should grant about 5% at higher levels and a bit more at lower levels.

Yay! Less tedious leveling once I run out of pristine bonus exp.

FOUR YEAR VETERAN REWARDS
It’s only our third birthday! Why four year veteran rewards already? Remember that you get 90 days free Veteran Reward time for each expansion that you own. Four expansions plus three years means new rewards!

• Your fame has grown. Tales of your exploits have been told among the citizenry of major cities across Norrath. In the cities, children grow up wanting to be just like you. Don’t be surprised if you’re worshipped by all while gracing them with your presence.
• A treasure chest that symbolizes your amassed wealth as an accomplished citizen of Norrath. Your home city is lucky to have you as a citizen. Placing one of these items in your home will cause all landlords to give you a 25% discount on your coin rent.
• All that fame and constant recognition can be draining on Norrath’s own superstars. Sometimes it’s refreshing to be able to disappear into the background. You can do so more easily with your own Billy Illusion.
• Not that a person of your stature would need such assistance, but famous people lead busy lives. Any time they can save leads to more time for heroic deeds and economic exploits. The most advanced adventurers and crafters do have their public to think about, after all

Check out this news article on EQ2Players.com for all the details about the veteran rewards.

A new title, reduced rent in housing, and your own Billy, and of course more exp potions. What’s not to like?

There were also a couple stealth updates for Conjurors: Our DS and Fire Seed spells have a much shorter recast time now, as does Call of the Hero (down from 8 minutes to 2 minutes). Not sure on any other stealth changes yet, though.

All in all, a pretty good patch for Rise of Kunark. Except for the not being able to change your equipment during combat, anyway.

Just got my Rise of Kunark retail box. Let’s see what’s inside of it, shall we?

The picture is pretty self explanatory. Standard stuff for a retail box like this. Three DVDs means only one thing: EQ2 is huge! If you don’t already have a DVD-ROM drive, now is a good time to consider getting one.

And something I discovered while patching, the files from the DVD were pressed onto the disk all the way back in late September. Needless to say, they’re a wee bit out of date.

To quote Gallenite:

It’s been a fantastic beta so far.  Thanks to everyone who’s been patiently awaiting the NDA coming down before sharing information with their friends.

As of 4:37pm PST Friday Nov 9, 2007 (a time also known as “right now”) you’re all released from the confidentiality requirements of the Rise of Kunark Beta Non Disclosure Agreement. 

May your next days be filled with tales of adventures and triumphs in Kunark, and we’ll see you live next week!

- The EverQuest II Team

Of course, it doesn’t help that the login servers crapped out, but it’s good that the NDA is lifted, and just in time for the weekend.

I’ll keep the spoilers light. Let’s just say if you aren’t already level 70 when the expansion is released, you’re going to have a pretty difficult time; the lowest level mobs (besides in Timorous Deep) are all 68+ in Kylong Plains (the starting area where you first zone into), and 68+ in Fens of Nathsar (the second zone you enter, on the other side of Kylong).

I don’t know how many people have actually noticed, but ever since October 8, 2007, SOE has placed banner ads on the majority of their major websites, including Everquest2.com and EQ2players.com.

I understand why people put banner ads on a website (revenue), but come on! SOE is a major multi-million dollar operation, not to mention it’s a divison of the multi-billion dollar Sony Corporation. Are finances really that desperate that banner ads are necessary for revenue? What about my $14.99 a month I pay for my EQ2 subscription, and my $1-5 extra for the EQ2Players.com features, aren’t those sufficient to cover website operations?

Hell, one could buy a ton of web space from GoDaddy for that kind of money alone.

So just what is SOE advertising anyway?

Aside from the random Windows Live ad, CapitalOne ad, Best Buy ad, and random hotels, there’s a few other interesting things that pop up on the SOE websites.

Competing MMOs

LastChaos, a competing MMO. Although it’s free to play (I’m sure you have to pay money for some premium content), it’s a sad day to show advertising for your competition.

And speaking of competition, I found this on the forums. LOTRO anyone?

Spyware

Historyswatter, no doubt spyware in the form of a toolbar. Click here to see an image of the page that pops up (don’t worry, it’s just an image file, nothing more).

Popups

Free Laptop, anyone? I can’t remember if I clicked this to see what it is, or if it was a popup. Either way, these are annoying. I also saw a bona fide popup banner, the bane and cardinal sin of the web.

Flowers…?

I have no idea what the hell this is supposed to be. The link ended up being a completely blank page.

Merchandise

One of the least questionable banner ads I’ve seen on the Internet in years. Reminds me of CafePress, actually. Ah, the glory days of the Internet…

Ads by Google

One word…wonderful. So much for quality control. Next thing you know, there will be plat seller ads. And don’t think I’m not looking for plat seller ads!

Official Dev Response

I quote Gnorbin, the new community guy for the EQ2 forums:

The web team reviews the advertisements that you see on the station pages in question (it’s all of them across SOE, not just EQIIPlayers) to ensure there’s no foul-play. The adverts aren’t netted in, they’re permitted to be shown.

Uh huh, right.

Yesterday, after nearly a year of off-and-on grinding, questing, and frustration, my Berserker hit level 60. And for a change of pace, it was on a quest turn-in. Usually it’s on some random mob.

And for the first time ever for me, I have an alt character that’s nearly as high level as my main. The last time this happened was back in my EQ1 days when I was still a mid-30s Mage, sometime in 2002.

It’ll be interesting to see how my tier 7 experience the second time around is shaped. Before, I had my Conjuror, and I could easily tag along in a group and go hunt things, and play it casual. Or I could easily solo just about anything in my path; Conjurors are after all one of the best classes at soloing.. Now, as my Berserker, I’ll actually be forced to lead groups instead of playing casual. I’ll have a much harder time soloing things, and exploring the world.

Already I’m having a frustrating time. My experiences in Kaladim to finish the fourth Rallos Zek quest was painful. To be fair, I was fighting white and yellow-con 1-up mobs who are highly social and have a huge aggro radius. Even my Conjuror would have difficulty in a situation like that. It also didn’t help matters that my gear is still mostly Tier 6 Mastercrafted (though I have some very nice Desert of Flames Fabled on). In two levels I’ll get another significant gear upgrade. And in about 4 or 5 levels I should be adequately leveled to lead groups through the easier parts KoS.

Of course, by the time that happens, Kunark will be around, and no one will be hunting in KoS anymore if they can help it. I can’t remember the last time I saw anyone hunting in Silent City, after all (though there were a few instance runs in Flames).

So what’s in store for my Berserker?

Well for the Overrealm, we have Tenebrous Tangle, which I’ve been hunting and about exhausted quests from. Only a few repeatable quests remain, as well as several Heroic quests (not to mention a few from the Claymore series). Sanctum of the Scaleborn will likely be my heroic dungeon of choice after I reach about 65, while people remain interested. I can move on to Barren Sky at about 63 or 64 and start the solo quests there, and will be able to hunt in Bonemire around 67. Palace of the Awakened becomes an option around 66 or 67 for tanking. And I can start tanking instances around then too, and get some much needed gear upgrades. Assumingthe population holds out in this level range (which I highly doubt).

For Faydwer there’s New Tunaria right now. But I can’t recall the last time anyone actually hunted there. Loping Plains will have lots of solo content for me for a few levels yet. Mistmoore Catacombs is an option for grouping in a few levels, though it’s not a popular zone by any means. Kaladim should be feasible around 65 or so, though again groups there are rare. Castle Mistmoore will open up at 70, but I don’t see it being a popular place to hunt after Kunark comes out. And I can start doing the Faydwer instances around level 70 too, though popularity will also wane with Kunark. And then there’s Unrest, and the Shard of Fear at around 70 as well.

Gear wise, I already have my suit of Xegonite ready (the pieces I will replace anyway). I need to get more Acrylia jewelry made to fill in most of my spots. A new Buckler is a must. I got my tradable weapons covered for now, until I can get better from mob drops anyway. And of course I’m going to need about 16 or 17 spongy loam for the Adept 3s I’ll need until 70. There’s a few quests I’ll be able to start, and hopefully finish. Claymore probably won’t be an option, but Swords of Destiny might be.

I gotta say, my Berserker is better situated for tier 7 than my Conjuror was nearly a year and a half ago. It’s probably because I already know what to expect from Tier 7, and I’ve had time to plan things out. Definitely not so with my Conjuror, I had to figure things out as I went. And spell upgrades for the Conjuror were (and still are) a high priority; it took nearly the entire expansion cycle to get the Masters I have now, and I’m still missing a few minor ones. Just as well, Kunark will take care of that problem soon enough.

Course, once the expansion rolls around, I’ll probably worry about the Conjuror 100% until I hit level 80. But I’ll worry about that in 3 weeks.

I happened across this thread on the SOE boards, titled Newb guardian, I cant kill anything even cons.

Right away I can see the problem that the forum poster, Ladsud, is having:

Hi, just started eq2 yesterday and choose a guard.

It never ceases to amaze me how many people pick up a brand new MMORPG (to them, at least), and either because they don’t know better, or because they’re a glutton for punishment, pick possibly the worst beginner class you can possibly pick. And in this case, it’s a Guardian.

I can see, from a beginner’s perspective, how a Guardian would appeal to an average beginner. You have here your stereotypical low-IQ plate-wearing sword-chucking thug. They’re typically one of your most powerful characters in an offline RPG, usually wielding the Sword of a Thousand Truths, and able to survive–and inflict–those annoying 9,999 HP attacks (Final Fantasy, anyone?). They also evoke the fairy tale image of a knight in shining armor, off to slay the dragon and rescue the princess, who is usually in another castle.

I can see that.

On the other hand, you have the reality of the situation. Guardians are tanks. Their job is to hold aggro, while monsters let loose all sorts of carnage.  They have very low damage output compared to other classes. And because they have such low damage output, they aren’t as able to kill mobs quickly, and have to resort (typically) to simply outlasting their opponent in solo play. And in group play, you have to act as the group leader and lead your group to your destination, being aware of your surroundings, where your enemies are, where your group members are,  whether or not you have aggro, and being absolutely sure you will survive when a giant tarantula decides to attack and devour you.

That’s a lot to keep track of. It’s pretty difficult for a veteran at times, but it’s especially hard for a beginner. Forget dealing with all that, beginners are still learning how to play; they often aren’t ready for all this multitasking so early.

Add to the fact that Guardians are very gear reliant; you have to remain on top of gear upgrades, so that you can survive your encounter of the third kind. A caster can get away with letting his gear slip as long as he has his spells, but not a Guardian. You let your gear slip for too long, and you get eaten alive. Forget to upgrade that weapon, and you lose aggro. Let your combat arts fall behind, and though you can survive getting beat on, you won’t be able to kill anything with any kind of speed.

In a word, unforgiving.

So I have to wonder, what compelled Ladsud to create a Guardian in the first place? I can only speculate, but perhaps he played a similar tank class in a different MMO. I know Warriors in EQ1 are just as unforgiving, if not more; if you don’t have access to high end loot, you can’t even go to high end zones and tank, though your DPS is somewhat respectable (for auto-attack). If he came from EQ1, then he should be familiar with how Warriors function, right?

On the other hand, Warriors in WoW can spec all-out DPS, and put out some crazy numbers. Maybe he thought the Guardian class was like the WoW Warrior? If so, he was pretty close; Berserkers would fit the criteria here, as they’re more damage-oriented than Guardians.

I may never find out, but I do have advice for people playing an MMO for the first time: Pick a class that works well for beginners; these classes tend to be excellent soloers. Not only will you gain the satisfaction of killing just about anything you see, within reason anyway, you’ll learn the game that much easier. In time, when you’re ready, you can go back and reroll a tank class, should you still desire to play one.

One of the things i love to do is thoroughly analyze a subject — such as a class in an MMO, or the process you follow to build a computer — figure out what makes it tick, and share my findings with the world. It’s something I found I was very good at while I was an admin for The Magician’s Tower. It was actually one of the reasons I became an Admin, so I could more easily create, edit, and update guides that people (including myself) posted.

So today I’m going to continue that practice, and with something I’ve been wanting to do for awhile.

Ever since I’ve started playing my Berserker, one question frequently gets asked: “What AA spec should I do?” I suppose it’s natural to ask this; you don’t want to play a gimped character. And certainly the wrong Achievement build for a Berserker can gimp you, both in solo play and in group play, at least when compared to another achievement build.

So for my first part in a multi-part series, I’m going to thoroughly dissect the different Achievement Points options for the Berserker class, specifically in the Warrior tree. We’ll see exactly what they are, what they do, and whether it’s a potentially good or bad buy for a Berserker to get. In part 2, I’ll analyze the Berserker tree. And in part 3, we’ll start talking different build configurations, and the pros and cons with each.

Warrior Achievements

Like all Class trees, the Warrior tree starts with a starter ability, then divides into five separate trees, shorthanded to the STR tree, AGI tree, STA tree, WIS tree, and INT tree. All abilites have a maximum rank of 8 points, except the final abilities. The final abilities cost two points, and require 22 points in its corresponding tree to purchase.

The starter, Bind Wound, is a throwback to the old EQ1 days when a Warrior would Bind Wound himself from low health to high health, so he could continue to (painfully) solo. Prior to a tough fight, this should be one of the pre-combat buffs you cast. Really, you have no choice but to buy this.

Strength Tree – Executioner

This tree is famous for Weapon Expertise, which is essential for maximizing your damage output. Generally you’ll want to spend points in this tree.

Executioner’s Strength – Increases base Strength by 4 per rank. Since Berserkers already have insanely high Strength, there’s little point in spending more than the minimum requirement for this.

Executioner’s Wrath – A melee attack that greatly increases the next attack’s chance at a critical hit. The higher the rank, the higher the damage this attack does, and the higher the chance at a critical. Do note that auto-attacks tend to eat this. This is an excellent ability to use in a combo; use this, turn off your auto-attack, then cast one of your very high damage combat arts, or an AE attack, to do massive damage!

Weapon Expertise – Increases the chance at a melee critical hit, up to 22% at rank 8. Weapon critical hits always do 1 to 30% more damage than the rated maximum, while combat arts always do an additional 30% over what they would have already done. This is probably one of the best Achievements that a Berserker gets, and is highly recommended for all players.

Executioner’s Anger – Increases hate generated by the Berserker, up to 10% at rank 8. It’s unclear if this stacks with other forms of hate gain (such as from Coercers), or if it allows you to exceed the 50% hate gain cap. Generally you’re better off spending the points on other achievements to boost your damage, than increase your hate. Not to mention this ability is completely useless when soloing.

Executioner’s Fury – When below 50% health, your critical chance goes up, and your combat arts do more damage. This is sort of a ‘last ditch” ability, but isn’t all that useful unless you intentionally keep your health down. Healers tend to want the tank to keep their HP as high as possible, and aren’t likely to let you keep your HP down.

Agility Tree – Dragoon

This tree is best known for Dragoon’s Cyclone, which turns a good chunk of your attacks into AE attacks. This is less useful for a Bersker, and more for Guardians, though, as Berserkers already have many abilities that fire off AEs.

Dragoon’s Agility – Increases your base Agility by 6 per rank. Generally you don’t want to waste points on stat Achievements, since the effect is so minimal.

Dragoon Spin – A PBAE melee attack with it’s own recast timer separate from your other abilities. Good for helping you get aggro, and kill things faster. Few Berserkers have this, though, as they already have a lot of AE abilities for this purpose.

Dragoon’s Cyclone – Grants your primary weapon a chance to AE, striking up to four targets in front of you. This triggers at a rate of 5% per rank, up to 40%. While useful, it is also risky in a tightly-spaced dungeon where AEs are a bad idea to begin with. Not to mention it’s completely useless when fighting less than two enemies.

Dragoon’s Avoidance – Increases your defense stat. The amount of defense increased varies with level. This is excellent if you want to consider going full defensive, but since a high end tank will already have very high Defense, most of these points will likely go to waste.

Dragoon’s Reflexes – Causes you to parry all incoming attacks, and dodge all non-direct AEs, for 12 seconds, but you are stifled for the duration. This is mostly useful for a raid tank who is trying to position a mob in a high risk situation, and not really all that useful in solo and group situations.

Stamina Tree – Gladiator

This tree is also called the Buckler tree, as every ability (besides the stat ability) requires you wear a buckler at all times. This is also a favorite tree among Berserkers, due to Gladiator’s Finesse.

Gladiator’s Stamina – Increases base Stamina by 5 per points. Like other stat Achievements, it’s not generally a good idea to put points into this more than necessary, especially since Berserkers have very high Stamina to begin with.

Buckler Reversal – Whenever you parry, riposte, or block, or you are parried, riposted, blocked, or deflected, you counter attack. This resets every 30 seconds. Higher ranks deal more damage. While it looks good on paper, the damage dealt from this is very low overall in any given parse.

Gladiator’s Finesse – Increases chance to double attack with your primary weapon, up to 60% at rank 8. This ability is the bread and butter of the entire tree, as it generally increases your damage output to that of dual wielding, while maintaining your ability to use a shield (albeit a buckler).

Gladiator’s Revenge – Increases your chance to outright riposte frontal attacks, and parry all other attacks, by 1% per rank, up to rank 8. If you plan on tanking while using a Buckler, this is a requirement, as it brings your avoidance to nearly that of a Tower Shield.

Arena Endurance – Decreases power cost by 10% for all combat arts and abilities, and slightly heals you whenever you cast any combat art. This is a great ability to have, as it lets you use 11% more combat arts for the same power pool. Excellent for those long fights.

Wisdom Tree – Demolisher

This is perhaps the most defensive of the five trees, and overall the weakest. Not highly recommended by anyone.

Demolisher’s Wisdom – Increases base Wisdom by 7 per rank. See above for my thoughts on stat increasing Achievements.

Belly Smash – A melee attack that can only be used after your target has been knocked down. Decreases target mitigation if it lands. Higher ranks increase the damage dealt and mitigation decreased. This is useful for soloing and grouping, but not for raiding, as Epic mobs cannot be knocked down.

Seasoned Veteran – Increases the Damage Per Second stat by 2.4 per rank, up to 19.2 at rank 8. While good on paper, it’s an awful lot of points to get here, not to mention many classes can buff your DPS.

Unshakeable – Increases physical mitigations. The amount increased depends on level. While good on paper, in practice if you have low mitigation, you’ll gain far more from upgrading your armor and spending points elsewhere, than here. Once your mitigation hits around 50%, you’re heavy into the diminishing returns curve, practically nullifying any usefulness from this ability.

Stance Mastery – Decreases the penalties with offense and defense stances, as well as Hunker abilities. Also while good on paper, this is less useful if you already have high Defense and Offense skills from your gear, and low to no use when you are heavily buffed. Not to mention many Raid mobs practically ignore your Defense rating to begin with, or so people believe.

Intelligence Tree – Slayer

This tree is most famous for the high haste you can gain. Not just auto attack haste, but combat art haste too!

Slayer’s Intelligence – Increases Intelligence by 8 per rank. Need I repeat myself here?

Acceleration Strike – A combat art that increases casting speed, recovery speed, and haste by 25% (more with higher ranks) after using three more combat arts. Duration increases with higher rank. For spending a minimal amount of points, you gain a lot of benefit from this ability!

Slayer’s Speed – Increases Haste by 2.2 per rank, up to 17.6 at rank 8. This is the equivalent to Seasoned Veteran, but for Haste. But unlike Seasoned Veteran, you’re likely to spend points in Acceleration Strike anyway, and if you have the points to spare there’s little reason not to purchase this.

Parry – Increases Parry skill. The amount of Parry increased depends on level. This is similar to Dragoon’s Avoidance, but for the Parry stat. Unlike Defense, though, Parry is hard to raise. However a higher Parry isn’t as directly as effective as a high Defense stat (or so I believe). Good for tanking though.

Relentless Assault – Hastens recast time and recovery time of all combat arts. If you have the points to spend, this is an extremely powerful ability to have, as it lets you fire off all of your combat arts (buffs included!) more often.

Final Thoughts

Though I’ll discuss the various pros and cons of different builds later, the most popular current Berserker builds include:

STR448 STA448 INT448 – The pure DPS build
STR448 STA4488 INT43 – The Buckler Tank build
STR4488 STA4488 – High Hate Buckler Tank build
AGI4488 INT4488 – Tower Shield Tank build

By current, I mean they only account for 50 Achievement point limits. With Rise of Kunark, we’ll see the limit raised to 70 per tree.

I myself run STR448 STA44882 INT43 on my Berserker. It’s proven to be a good build for me.

I’ll admit it, this one snuck up on me. I wasn’t expecting it until next week for some reason. Anywho, this is the last Game Update until Rise of Kunark comes out (short of the annual Halloween update, but that isn’t considered part of the Game Update cycle).

So what was all in the update? Let’s see what the patch notes say…

Game Update #39 October / 17 / 2007

HIGHLIGHTS

• The Fear Gate in the Feerrott has opened! The Shard of Fear, a fraction of the Plane of Fear, is now accessible by Norrathian mortals. Only seasoned adventurers traveling in groups should dare look upon this realm of terror and dread.
• Further sighting of mysterious visitors from Kunark have occurred in the waters near Freeport and Qeynos. See Admiral Marc Grenich in Qeynos Harbor and Livia Montellus in Freeport East to join in the investigations of these visitors.
• Guild banks have been extended with several new options. See the Guild Banks section below for details.

The new Shard of Fear has been anticipated since Fan Faire. I don’t know the difficulty, but I imagine it will be at least as hard as Unrest was, or Castle Mistmoore. More Kunark lore is good, I’m looking forward to the final chapter of the pre-expansion quest line, to see what they have in store for us. And Guild Bank options? We shall see…

GAMEPLAY

• “The Tablets of the Blademaster” quest no longer requires that the player be in the Pillars of Flame zone to examine the spirit vessel.
• The Valley of the Magi instance off of the Commonlands should be functioning properly again.
• The Misty Mustang whistles should now summon pinto looking Misty Mustangs instead of Elddarian Chargers.
• The quest “A Portrait of Destiny ” can no longer be shared.
• Vhalen’s Tools can now be examined outside of the Acadechism for a quest update.
• Server Performance Improvements for dungeons and raid encounters.
• Usable Items that are not usable from inventory will always show darkened out while not equipped.

I heard people complaining about the Misty Mustang horses looking like Elddarian Chargers, good to see they reverted back to their old appearance. Vhalen’s Tools fix is good for those working on Swords of Destiny. Better server improvements is always good. And of course the usable items change will make it easier to see at a glance what you can use.

PETS

• Deity pets can now be used along with collection pets.
• Pets with random names will now persist that name through zoning.

Can never have enough fluff pets. Or pets in general. Though I don’t know why anyone would care about random named pets, since you’ve been able to name your pet for a very long time.

TRADESKILLS

• Provisioners now have a recipe for prickly pear pie, and no longer have two different recipes for prickly pear cookies.
• Carpenters, inspired by the Night of the Dead, have begun researching new and sinister furniture items. A limited selection is now available with more development expected to yield further results in the future!
• Harvested items will now display the level of recipes they are used in.

New recipes are always good. And the UI indicator for harvested items is a nice touch. Not only will it help us veterans remember what is for what, but it will help new players as well.

ACHIEVEMENTS

• Mystic
  • Weapon Mastery should now improve the dps, max health, attributes and crushing skill of the shaman pet.
• Fury
  • Pact of Nature will scribe the spell for the player even if their inventory is full

Poor Shaman, always getting the short end of the stick with their pets. At least now their pets should be at least somewhat useful.

SPELLS

• Clarified the Slaughter spell scrolls to be Assassin: Slaughter and Berserker: Slaughter to reduce confusion
• Instant cast non proc spells will now get a small bonus from +spell/heal/combat art mods
• Spells that summon multiple limited pets will display that information more concisely in the tooltip.

Inquisitor

• Contempt now uses ordination like the other spells in the line do.

Nice to see that the two Slaughter spells got distinguished. There’s still a few that need tweaking, but otherwise it isn’t too bad.

HOUSING

• The obsolete option to “Relinquish” homes has been removed. It’s no longer required since of the advent of automatic moving crates. To move your belongings, simply go to your new home and buy it. Your items will be moved into the new home automatically.

So true, the Relinquish option is definitely obsolete now. There’s literally no reason to get rid of a house anymore.

GUILD BANKS

Guild banks have been extended with several new options:

• Each guild bank tab can have its own name.
• There is a space on each guild bank tab for a comment.
• Each guild bank tab can now be set so withdrawing any quantity from a stack is considered as withdrawing one item for the purposes of the withdrawal limit.

Excellent changes, these were much needed. Nothing quite as annoying as your guild leader setting a withdraw limit of one item, and you meeting that quota on a single root. Of course, withdraw limits tend to be annoying anyway, but I digress.

BROKER:

• Two-handed weapons will no longer be returned in broker searches for “Primary” slot weapons.

UI

• When you run out of a charged item (* totem) the tooltip will no longer say “Charges: 5 / 5″ it will instead say “Charges:0/5″ to reduce confusion.
• There is a new UI window that will show only debuffs on your character:
• The UI window is called MainHUD.DetrimentalEffects
• The old effects window will now only show beneficial effects

I had a chance to play around with the new UI window. I’m not really sure it’s any better or worse than we had before, though it does help organize better.

All in all, a good patch. Hopefully Shard of Fear will keep us busy until the expansion rolls around; there’s only so many more Unrest runs we’ll be able to squeeze out until then.

It looks like SOE is taking preorders for Rise of Kunark now. That’s good for the lazy who don’t want to wait for the box. Me? I like waiting for the box.

So here’s a quick rundown of some of the features of Rise of Kunark – All-In-One Compilation.

• Journey beyond current limits with the new level cap increase from 70 to 80
• New zones, quests, armor, weapons, creatures and more…
• Achievement point cap raised from 100 to 140
• Includes Legends of Norrath^TM strategic online trading card game, digital starter deck, booster pack and loot item
• All-New Player Race, The Sarnak
• Quest outbound from the new starting city, Timorous Deep
• New Mount – Explore the world on the shoulders of a new rampaging beast – The Kunarkian Rhinoceros
• SpecialPre-order Bonus! Burynai Seeker House Pet. Burynai are a race ofcollectors and builders that have a strange affinity for certainorganic items found in Norrath. Give a Burynai seeker one of theseitems, they’ll bury them and store them for later. Rumor has it thatthey also may sometimes discover collectible items (shinies) that youdidn’t even know were lost under your home!

Taking this one at a time, here’s what I think.

This was pretty much expected since the beginning of time. It was announced long ago, and it’s been nearly two years since a level cap increase. Players are getting bored being at the cap of level 70, and 100 AAs. And there’s only so much you can do to balance new raid content at level 70 without completely overpowering players. So, some breathing room with 10 extra levels is quite welcome.

Wouldn’t be much of an expansion without this.

This is a little bit controversial. I’ll explain in another post. Sufficit to say I don’t think this is a terribly good idea.

Hmm, interesting? I’ve already dumped more money into it than I should have, so essentially this is just a bonus for getting the expansion. But since this is an all-in-one compilation, this is an easy way for SOE to introduce players to their new cash-cow card game. Who knows, players might actually like playing LoN.

For the altaholic, new player, or someone wanting to start over, Sarnak must seem pretty cool. I certainly like the idea myself, though I don’t know if I have the plat funds to start yet another alt. I highly anticipate an immediate rush of new Sarnak once the expansion goes live; you see it whenever a new race/class/whatever is added in MMOs, and EQ2 is/was no different with Frogloks, Fae, Arasai, and Neriak.

As explained at Fan Faire, Timorous Deep is the starting area for Sarnaks. Wouldn’t make too much sense to make a new race without a new starting area (though it did happen for Frogloks).

Also announced earlier. I expect to see people running around on Rhinos shortly after the expansion.

Now this is different! I wonder if it’s preorder only, or if you can get it in the retail box too.