From the article:
"Once they hit the end of their adventures in Timorous Deep, new Kunark players will then have a chance to blend in with the rest of Norrath. The rest of the Rise of Kunark expansion is based on levels 65 and higher. That means sailing out via the docks in Gorowyn and leveling up the rest of the way in the preexisting zones from 20 to 65. When players return to Kunark, they'll enter into the Kylong Plains..."

Recently Sony Online Entertainment announced a new art direction for EQ and EQ2 boxes, as well as expansions that include the base game and all previous expansions.  I think the later is a very welcome (and much needed when MMOs start having as many expansions as they do today) change.  I really like the box art they've shown us (see below), but I'm feeling wary about changes of this kind after the dissapointing graphics that SOE embraced in later EQ expansions and in the EQ2 release (thank Tunare for SOGA models!).

Box art revealed for upcoming EverQuest and EverQuest II expansions signals new marketing direction for flagship MMO titles.

Currently in development, the EQ expansion, Secrets of Faydwer, and EQII expansion, Rise of Kunark, are scheduled to be available at participating retail stores and via digital download on November 13th.  With the new box art, packaging and branding focus have shifted to emphasize the all-in-one nature of the products.  Both Rise of Kunark and Secrets of Faydwer will ship with the base game plus all previous expansions to date.

Combined, EQ and EQII have sold more than 4.5 Million copies in the eight year history of the franchise.  Traditionally, the graphics of both games have been highly stylized and the key art box fronts have reflected the look and feel of a fantasy novel, complete with characters and action.  The new box art direction captures the mystery and adventure of game play, without the strict literal interpretation of the in-game characters and art.

New EverQuest II Rise of Kunark Box Art and Logo!
Rise of Kunark (RoK) is the fourth expansion pack for the critically acclaimed EverQuest II franchise.  RoK introduces a new playable race, The Sarnak, and new starting area, Timorous Deep.  RoK provides a full range of content for new player�s levels 1-20, as well as for high level players who can now advance up to level 80 in their Adventure and Tradeskill classes.

New EverQuest Secrets of Faydwer Box Art!
Secrets of Faydwer (SoF) is the fourteenth expansion to the genre-defining EverQuest series.  With SoF, players can now advance up to level 80 and explore 15 new Adventure, Encounter and Raid Zones.  Along the way, players can challenge new NPCs and discover thousands of new items, including Heroic attributes that push abilities to new heights.

Highlights

• Rumors have it that Bristlebane has returned. Is this just another joke, or has another deity returned to Norrath?
• The dual wield designation has been removed and replaced with a system that will allow for more variety.
• There is a new Appearance tab in the Inventory window. Items worn here will not convey benefits, but will override what people see on your character.
• The Estate of Unrest is now a persistent instance.

Dual Wield Changes

To allow for a better selection of weapons for all classes, the Dual Wield designation on weapons has been removed. These weapons are now either One Handed, Main Hand, or Off Hand. 

The damage on these weapons has increased, bringing them in line with pre-existing One Handed weapons.  While wielding two weapons, the base delay of your melee weapons will be increased by 33%, yielding a small net gain in damage compared to what existed with Dual Wield weapons.   For example:  A 3 second delay weapon will instead act every 4 seconds while you are dual wielding.  These weapons will also use the longer delay when determining whether or not to proc any special effects on them, gaining a more beneficial proc rate.

The damage rating on Two-Handed has also been raised slightly to ensure that Two-Handed weapons remain appealing. 

• All Dual Wield weapons are now One Handed, Main Hand, or Off Hand.
• While wielding two weapons, the base delay is increased by 33%.
• Two handed weapons now do slightly more damage.
• A few, powerful weapons will be flagged Main Hand but the majority will be useable in either hand if your class can dual wield.

Bristlebane Returns

Do you consider yourself a practitioner of pranks, a student of the silly, or even a fan of the funny? Does the idea of pulling a practical joke over on someone sound like your idea of a good time? If so, you might make an excellent follower of Fizzlethorpe Bristlebane, the Grand Prankster. Recently scores of puckish jesters, fanciful bards and quick-witted thieves have all been spreading rumors about the imminent return of their favorite Sire of Shenanigans.

If Bristlebane has truly arrived and resumed his place aside the other gods who have also returned to Norrath, why has he waited until now? What sort of mischievous plans does the Royal Trickster have in store for his faithful followers? What about the other gods who have yet to reveal themselves since their departure? The answers to these questions are undoubtedly wrapped within a riddle only Bristlebane himself can solve.

Those interested in devoting themselves to the Master of Mischief should speak with Tobel Patadash, the self-declared Prophet of Bristlebane at the docks of The Enchanted Lands. Be advised, however, that the Gigglegibber Goblins have their own nonsensical opinion of who they believe the real Prophet of Bristlebane is as well!

Appearance

• Upon reaching level 20, you'll be able to access new appearance item slots on the inventory window.
• Items worn in the appropriate slots in the Appearance tab will override the outward appearance of your character.
• Items worn in the Appearance tab will not convey any of their benefits to the character wearing them.
• Some clothing items, such as city rewards will be wearable by everyone.

Grouping/Raiding

• When a player joins or leaves a raid, other members in the raid receive notification in the raid channel.
• Moving or swapping players between groups should not display any notifications.
• Players in the same group as the new member joining/leaving will receive 2 notifications, one in the raid channel and one in the group channel.  This is by design so log parsers can track players joining and leaving.

Gameplay

• Like Estate of Unrest, but just don't have the time? Well now you can get both rest and Unrest, as the Estate of Unrest is now persistent!
• Adventurers of all levels who believe their sea legs are ready to see service should see Admiral Marc Grenich in Qeynos Harbor and recruiter Livia Montelius in Freeport East. Glory awaits those who wish to explore the presence of mysterious Iskar within our waters. What lies beyond the horizon? Join up to see!
• Trivial Loot no longer includes Quest items, so Quest items will drop on gray encounters.
• Harvestable shrubs in level 1-9 zones now appear more shrub-like.
• Strafing with autorun on will actually cause you to strafe instead of turning your character.
• NPC encounters will more reliably avoid attacking a mezzed player than before.

Items

In efforts to clean up examination windows, the following effects now appear as attributes instead of as added effects, and have had their text description size reduced:

·        Flowing Thought

·        Health Regeneration

·        Damage Per Second

·        Melee Double Attack

·        Ranged Double Attack

·        Melee/Ranged/Spell/Healing Criticals

·        +Spell Damage

·        +Healing

·        +Spell Damage and Healing

• The Scroll of the Fire Seeds is no longer flagged Lore.
• Gnomish Gent's Mechanized Façade no longer needs to be equipped for the illusion to persist.
• Ranged weapons will no longer trigger procs on weapons equipped in the primary or secondary slot.
• +damage and +heal items have been changed. Instead of normalizing by casting time you will get the full benefit on non AoE spells if the casting time is greater than .5 seconds and the reuse time is greater than 2 seconds.
• AoE spells gain 1/3 of the amount per target as do triggered reactive spells.
• Lifetaps continue to function the same. Also, damage is applied up front based on the amount of damage/healing the spell will do over time.
• Combat art damage has also been added to the system and the Bruiser Brutality line will buff this raid wide.
• There is now a 2-second usage delay for using most widgets in the world (i.e. quest widgets).
• Menders will now repair items in general inventory slots when you use the “Repair All” option on the mender window.

Guild Status Items

• When selling guild status items, guilds now only advance via sales of level-appropriate items.  Members of higher level guilds can still sell lower level items for personal status gain.
• There is now a text description at the bottom of status items that tell you what level guild will gain advancement from selling those items.   Generally, items found in the nearest 10 level range will continue to advance your guild.  (E.g. A level 50 guild will be able to gain advancement from level 51 items and higher, which drop from T6 creatures and above.)
• If you go to an NPC who will buy your status item and your guild is too high level, you will see the status points in YELLOW instead of the normal teal.  Those are the items that will only grant you personal status

Quests

• The Gnome Observatrons now show the Quest that requires them.
• The Disk of Bylze now shows the Quest that it offers in its tooltip.
• Completing the Bloodline Chronicles Quest line now adds Vampires to your Master Strike.

Tradeskills

• Crafters who respec their tradeskill class from now on will be able to complete their new class's tradeskill quest in the Isle of Mara.  Crafters who respec'd previously are still able to exchange their crafting tools by speaking to Rai Faela Nurwin near the brokers.
• Pristine crafted chain and plate armor appearances are now more consistent.
• Level 20+ crafters can speak to a grandmaster crafter at their local tradeskill society headquarters to assist with a few tasks and earn a small reward.
• Tradeskill recipe book merchants have begun stocking all the essentials books up to volume 70.
• Tradeskill faction merchants in Neriak and Kelethin have begun stocking some new furniture items.
• Rare harvestable icons are once more available, now with extra sparkle!
• Condemning Smite Adept III now producing byproduct flickering dust

Achievements

Paladin

• Smite Evil should now work on evil pets.
• Group Armament achievement renamed Raid Armament: Affects all non-fighters in the entire raid.
• Doom Judgment - Damage bonus increased from 5% to 7% per rank.

Ranger

• Fettering Poison now correctly increases snare amount.

Guardian

• Unyielding Will - Adjusted reuse speed bonus from 180 seconds to 75 seconds per rank.

Shadowknight

• Doom Judgment - Reuse speed bonus adjusted from 20 to 8 seconds per rank.

Spells/Combat Arts

• Spell lines from the Bloodlines Chronicles have been tuned to become more comparable in desirability relative to other spell lines
• The following Fighter group buffs now affect all raid allies:
• Guardian: Call of Command
• Berserker: Screaming Rage
• Paladin: Vigor of Trust
• Shadowknight: Contract of Shadows
• Monk: Swiftness
• Bruiser: Brutality

Bard

• Resistance Chorus Songs: Now affect the entire raid.

Brawler

• Devastation Fist - Improved reuse speed from 5 to 3 minutes. Can be used against all NPC opponents, but damage varies depending on the difficulty of the opponent. Self-stifle duration set to 10 seconds. NPCs that are still alive gain a 30s immunity timer to further Devastation Fists.

Bruiser

• The Brutality Line now grants +combat art damage instead of dps.

Crusader

• Doom Judgment - Improved reuse speed from 5 minutes to 2 minutes.

Cleric

• Symbol of Corruption - Reduced resistibility, reduced power cost, increased damage.

Dirge

• Death's Door: Triggered damage can occur anytime the Dirge receives damage instead of only when struck in melee combat. Its chance to trigger no longer uses spell or weapon normalization, allowing it to trigger more often.

Enchanter

• Mana Cloak - Removed power cost. Improved reuse speed from 15 to 3 minutes. Reduced duration from 3 minutes to 30 seconds. Increased trigger chance to 100%. Maximum of 3 triggers per person in the group.

Fighters

• Intercept: If the ally is lower than 50% health when this ability is cast, the Fighter can absorb two hits instead of one.

Ranger

• The Miracle shot line now requires the ranger to acquire the target with line of sight. The actual shot does not require it though.

Shaman

• Umbral Trap - Is now an area effect. Improved reuse speed from 3 to 2 minutes.

Sorcerer

• Iceflame - Increased range from 12 to 35 meters.

Troubador

• Performer's Talent: Triggered damage can occur anytime the Troubador receives damage instead of only when struck in melee combat. Its chance to trigger no longer uses spell or weapon normalization, allowing it to trigger more often.
• Requiem of Reflection: triggered effect can occur for any hostile spell type cast on group members, not just when taking damage.

Warrior

• Unyielding Will - Improved reuse speed from 30 to 15 minutes. It now toggles.

PvP

• The tinkered charm and magnetized generator can no longer be used against players.
• If a player cons red to you then hostile spells will no longer use the improved chance for the spell to hit.

UI

• You can now sort the quest journal by quest level

The Final Chapters

New Raid Zone

Dressing Room

Tradeskill Profession Reset Option

PvP Gameplay

Neriak and Kelethin Status Housing Options

Kingdom of Sky Achievement Tree Review

No More Destroying Copper

Ditch the Mice and Grab Your Dice as a Global Leader in Online Gaming Debuts New Title in Las Vegas

May 18, 2007 San Diego, CA – Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE), a global leader in the online games industry, today announced that registration is open for its annual Fan Faire event being held on August 2-4, 2007 at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas. The SOE Fan Faire is a real-life social event held annually to allow gamers from around the world the chance to meet in person with other members of their online community. The event is filled with colorful costumes, passionate players and gigabytes of activity, making it the vacation destination of choice for players of SOE’s most popular games. Fan Faire attendees will also be treated to the world debut of SOE’s new online game.

"Fan Faire is an example of SOE’s commitment to our dedicated and passionate fan base of players," said Alan Crosby, Director of Community Relations, Sony Online Entertainment. "A majority of this year’s attendees will have been actively playing our titles for many years and this event is a terrific opportunity to provide them with a ‘thank you’ in the form of a fun-filled and community-driven weekend experience."

In addition to enjoying the game-oriented environment, attendees at SOE’s Fan Faire 2007 are scheduled to be treated to a welcome reception at the Rio’s famous Voodoo Lounge, a poolside party, the SOE player ‘Hall of Fame’ inductions and ceremony, and How-To forums, including a special workshop for game enthusiasts interested in breaking into the industry. Fan Faire attendees will also have the opportunity to meet the development teams behind some of the world’s most successful online PC games. With special activities being planned for each game, attendees should quickly fill their schedules. For the first time, this year's SOE Fan Faire will feature Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, Star Wars Galaxies and The Matrix Online in addition to EverQuest, EverQuest II, EverQuest Online Adventures and PlanetSide. In addition, Fan Faire plans to showcase a hands-on demo of Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising™, the new massively-multiplayer online game being co-published by Platform Publishing and Perpetual Entertainment, scheduled for release this fall.

This year’s Fan Fair promises to deliver a weekend packed with activities and adventure for everyone ranging from casual gaming fans to entire guilds of vacationing gamers who bring their whole family along on this quest for excitement. Game-related activities will include tournaments of multiple SOE titles, costume contests, a silent auction for game memorabilia, real-life quests throughout the venue, and exclusive ‘sneak peeks’ at upcoming products from SOE. With attendance projected to be in excess of 1500 of gaming’s most dedicated fans, Fan Faire 2007 will be the vacation destination of choice for online gaming enthusiasts.

For more information on Sony Online Entertainment’s Fan Faire 2007 or to register visit: http://www.soefanfaire.com

SOE implemented a number of significant changes to how buddy key accounts work.  See below for more information:

In-game advertisements from platinum sellers are a constant community concern, and something we take very seriously at SOE. The dev team has been looking into different ways to curtail this behavior, and have made some changes to Buddy Key accounts that should help ebb the tide of spam from platinum sellers.

Specifically, Buddy Key accounts will soon be under a set of restrictions similar to Trial accounts.

For those who do not know, a Buddy Key account for EQII has been a way for players to invite their friends to try the game out. If you purchased the Echoes of Faydwer expansion, you may remember finding a postcard in the box with a 7-day buddy key to share with a friend. The goal behind these Buddy Keys has always been to provide a means for you to invite your friends to share the fun of the game with you; as such the keys offered unrestricted access to the game during the trial period.

The platinum-sellers have abused these buddy keys as a means of having a second account to advertise their wares with at no extra cost when the account is banned. To remedy this, the following changes are coming.

Users of Buddy Key accounts will no longer be able to:

• Join or create a guild
• Send mail or receive mail from other players
• Use /auction
• Speak in chat channels
• Group or raid invite players in other zones
• Purchase items from player sales displays or the broker
• List items on the broker
• /claim rewards
• Exceed level 10 (adventure or tradeskill)
• Trade with players
• Do tradeskill commission work
• Purchase, visit or tour a house
• Send tells to other players (unless the trial player is on the other player's friend list

These restrictions, similar to the restrictions placed on Trial accounts, should reduce the volume of platinum seller spam that you may be experiencing. As always, if you receive in-game messaging from someone offering in-game coins for real money, please file a /petition through the game system so the offender can be identified and handled.

People who use a Buddy Key for legitimate purposes will also be under these restrictions during the 'try out' phase, but can upgrade to a full game account with purchase as they always could.

Thank you for your patience while the dev team worked on this new resolution.

Source: http://eq2players.station.sony.com/news_archive.vm?id=1090&section=Community