Feldon 
EQ2Wire answers 20 Frequently Asked Questions about EverQuest II: Chains of Eternity:
- Help! All My AAs Were Reset! Is there a Backup?
- What about my AA Mirror?
- Can I Turn Off the AA Spending Prompt?
- What is this Chains of Eternity: Touch of the Steward item? Can I get 280 AAs for free?
- What is the Level cap for Adventuring, Tradeskills, and Guilds? Did they increase the AA cap?
- Have there been any changes to Adventure XP in this expansion?
- How come I’m not getting Veteran Bonus anymore for having Max Level Characters?
- Help I’m not getting any XP!
- How do I start the Chains of Eternity content?
- Are Tradeskill AAs separate from my Adventure AAs?
- What new Tradeskill content is there in Chains of Eternity?
- Are there any Tradeskill (or Adventure) Writs for level 91-95?
- What are the Tradeskill Materials for Level 91-95?
- What are the names of the Tradeskill recipe books for Level 91-95?
- Should I have received Pre-Order Items by now?
- Can we have more than one Mercenary? There’s a pulldown menu to select them!
- What’s up with the Research button now having an “Instant Upgrade” button?
- What are some known bugs in the expansion?
- What Group Dungeons are there in Chains of Eternity?
- What Solo Dungeons are there in Chains of Eternity?
- What Raid zones are there in Chains of Eternity?
Q: Help! All My AAs Were Reset! Is there a Backup?
A: On October 29, 2012, Dethdlr backed up the AAs (and Prestige points) for every character that has ever been looked up on EQ2U, and then nearly every level 90-92 character. All told, that’s over 400,000 characters. Head over to EQ2U (you don’t have to have an account) and Search for your character. When you go to the AA tab, look for the “View AA Backup” link just under your name.
Q: What about my AA Mirror?
A: If you saved your AAs to a [eq2u]Mirror of Reflected Achievements[/eq2u], then you must spend 1 point in your AAs before swapping specs or you will lose your AA setup.
Q: Can I Turn Off the AA Spending Prompt?
A: Open your Options (Alt-O). Click Advanced in the upper right corner of the window. Navigate to User Interface -> Game Features and then find the [X] Confirm Alternate Advancements checkbox and uncheck it.
Q: My AAs *keep* resetting. This is annoying. What do I do?
This problem has since been resolved, but when Chains of Eternity launched, it was possible to corrupt your AAs by spending points too quickly. A delay was subsequently added to ensure that AAs are stored properly.
Q: What is this Chains of Eternity: Touch of the Steward item? Can I get 280 AAs for free?
A: Perhaps out of recognition that grinding Alternate Advancement points no longer carries the sense of accomplishment it once did, and more importantly, the challenge of trying to balance content between two level 90 characters, one with 100 AAs and one with 280, this item will ding your character to 280 AA points.
NOTE: You only receive TWO of these items per account when you flag your account with any version of the Chains of Eternity expansion. To get yours, type /claim and click the Chains of Eternity tab.
Q: What is the Level cap for Adventuring, Tradeskills, and Guilds? Did they increase the AA cap?
A: The level cap for Adventurers, Tradeskillers, and Guilds is now 95. The AA cap is still 320 points. There are new Prestige Abilities, and you can spend 25 points in this window when you have reached max level.
Q: Have there been any changes to Adventure XP in this expansion?
A: The biggest change in Chains of Eternity is the removal of Group XP Split. Now, you are no longer penalized for grouping! Note that if you are mentoring someone, or you are using a mercenary, or the other characters are not active participants but just on autofollow (ie. not on the hate list) then you will see a reduction in the amount of XP you get compared to being grouped at a natural level with active players. This has been a contentious issue and you should read more about it on the EQ2 forums. From Lyndro on the EQ2 Forums:
We will now give you solo XP when you are grouping if you aren’t mentored down, and you are on the hatelist when the creature dies.
Solo XP was only reduced if you are mentored or fighting green con creatures. In this case you don’t get the “Encounter Bonus Experience” anymore. You’ll probably still level faster if you mentor down, it just won’t be an order of magnitude faster than fighting level appropriate content.
Q: How come I’m not getting Veteran Bonus anymore for having Max Level Characters?
A: With this spring’s Skyshrine Guspansion, the level cap was raised to 92, yet the Veteran Bonus was left at 90. This set a questionable precedent, and so this time around, Veteran Bonus requires you to be max level (95) in order to get bonus XP for all your other characters.
Q: Help I’m not getting any XP!
A: Make sure you have moved your AA slider to 0% once you have 320 AAs.
Q: How do I start the Chains of Eternity content?
A: You must be level 92 and complete the quest Unexpected Consequences (which has been in-game for several months now) before you can do any of the Chains of Eternity content. You will then receive an in-game e-mail directing you to start the Chains of Eternity quest lines. NOTE: You must do these quests and be on the Signature quest line in order to access the Advanced Solo and Group Dungeons in this expansion.
Q: Are Tradeskill AAs separate from my Adventure AAs?
A: Yes. You now have 40 AA points to spend in the Tradeskills AA tab without taking away from your 320 AA max.
Q: What new Tradeskill content is there in Chains of Eternity?
A: While there are no new Tradeskill quest lines, Chains of Eternity includes a complete set of armor, weapons, jewelry, cloaks, etc. to fill out the current tier in a shortened level 91-95 range. In addition, Crafters gain access to new white Adornments, a new class of green adornments called Spirit Stones, and four new abilities: Salvaging, Experimentation, Mass Production, and Refining.
Read more in Niami Denmother’s CoE Crafting Preview!
Q: Are there any Tradeskill (or Adventure) Writs for level 91-95?
UPDATE: Since Chains of Eternity launched, there are now Tradeskill Writs at level 91 and 93.
Q: What are the Tradeskill Materials for Level 91-95?
- Rares: Black Star Sapphire, Osmium Cluster, Tungsten Ore, Metallic Reptile Hide, Bubinga Lumber, Bunyan Root
- Common: amethyst, iridium cluster, swamp ash lumber, rhenium ore, matoppie roots, thick bear pelt
- Provisioning: aduki bean, plump lychee, ripe mangosteen, white peony tea leaf, panther meat, raptor meat, plump haddock, cutthroat trout (the last 2 are new this expansion)
Q: What are the names of the Tradeskill recipe books for Level 91-95?
A: With the introduction of this spring’s Skyshrine Guspansion, new recipes were introduced for levels 91-92. For reasons that escape understanding, the standard naming pattern:
- Alchemist Essentials Volume 89 and Advanced Alchemist Volume 89
has changed to:
- Grandmaster Alchemist’s Basic Compendium I and Grandmaster Alchemist’s Advanced Compendium I
The Basic books (formerly Essentials) are available from the usual vendors. The Advanced books are mob dropped.
View Level 91-95 Tradeskill Basic/Advanced Recipes at EQ2U!
UPDATE: With Game Update 66, Tradeskill recipe books have reverted to their normal names with Advanced or Essentials in the name.
Q: Should I have received Pre-Order Items by now?
A: Yes. You should have received an e-mail with a receipt for your order. When you type /claim in-game, you should have a Chains of Eternity tab with a Chains of Eternity: Collector’s Edition Reward Crate. If you do not have this, Open a Support Ticket at SOE.com.
Q: Can we have more than one Mercenary? There’s a pulldown menu to select them!
One of the subquests in the main Signature quest for the Chains of Eternity expansion requires you to use a different mercenary. In order to prevent players losing Rare mercs, or having to return to their home city and re-hire their normal merc (both at great expense) the ability to ‘store’ your normal mercenary was added in order to complete this quest. This hints that some day we might see the ability to have more than one mercenary!
Q: What’s up with the Research button now having an “Instant Upgrade” button?
A: In the past, you could buy Research Reducers with StationCash that would reduce the amount of time needed to get your next Master spell by 1 day, 3 days, or 7 days. The new button lets you “buy out” the remaining time on your Research and finish the Master in one click. I spoke to Holly about this and this new method is intended to actually be more affordable and less complex to use.
Q: What are some known bugs in the expansion?
- There is an issue with all buffs getting cleared when logging in a character.
- Players are reporting a substantial reduction (as much as 10,000) in health and other stats.
- Players trying to use the Shave and a Haircut item receive the message “You no longer have a customization token!”.
- It seems in the process of removing the Tinkering skill requirement from every item (except the mender bot), the Tradeskill level was removed too. As a result, many items that were usable by crafters now require an adventure level. For example the overclocked manastone and tinkered harvest tools. [Forum]
- Adornments cannot be searched for on the Broker.
- The Sokokar Trainers in Skyfire Mountains seem to have gone on holiday.
- The Achievement Counsel in Qeynos and Freeport have yet to learn the ways of Tradeskill Prestige abilities and thus cannot advise you on how to relearn them.
- Krivix Honorclaw, the Chains of Eternity: Collector’s Edition Paladin mercenary, has less Stamina and Avoidance than the standard Paladin mercenary available in Qeynos.
UPDATE from Gninja on the EQ2 Forums:
The Lujien Paladin merc should see a boost in next hotfix. He had an issue in his buffs that was blocking a few things.
Q: What Group Dungeons are there in Chains of Eternity?
NOTE: You MUST be progressing through the Chains of Eternity Signature quest line (or grouped with someone who is) in order to access the Chains of Eternity dungeons.
- Harrow’s End: Baleful Domination
- must have completed Shades of Drinal: Fate’s Crusade
- entrance: {446, 33, 512} in Obol Plains
- Temple of the Faceless
- must have progressing in the quest Shades of Drinal: Skies of Red
- entrance: Temple of Cazic Thule in the Eidolon Jungle
- Throne of Fear
- must be progressing in the quest Shades of Drinal: Skies of Red
- entrance: Speak to Brind on the Danak Shipyard docks in Jarsath Wastes.
- Wurmbone Crag
- must be progressing in the quest Shades of Drinal: Puzzle Pieces
- entrance: Speak to Brind on the Danak Shipyard docks in Jarsath Wastes. Actual zone is up in Skyfire Mountains. {-1127, 123, 2015}
- Wurmbone’s End
- must be progressing in the quest Shades of Drinal: Puzzle Pieces
- entrance: Speak to Brind on the Danak Shipyard docks in Jarsath Wastes. Actual zone is up in Skyfire Mountains.
- The Dreadcutter
- must be progressing in the quest Shades of Drinal: Dreadcutter at World’s End
- entrance: the Dreary Landing dock at the bottom of the cliff in Obol Plains {63, 13, 962}
- Sleeper’s Tomb: the Forgotten Catacombs
- entrance: a door down in the Pit of the Awakened in Eastern Wastes at {39, -334, 2913}
- Chelsith: The Ancient Vault
- must be progressing in the quest Shades of Drinal: Puzzle Pieces
- entrance: Speak to Brind on the Danak Shipyard docks in Jarsath Wastes.
- Sleeper’s Tomb (Contested)
- entrance: a door down in the Pit of the Awakened in Eastern Wastes at {39, -334, 2913}
Much of the information above is from EQ2 ZAM.
Q: What Solo Dungeons are there in Chains of Eternity?
A: The Solo versions of the Chains of Eternity zones let you experience the storyline and full animations just as if you were doing the Group or Raid version of the encounters. The Advanced Solo Dungeons require level 95 and are balanced around either two players (duo) or one player with mercenary (molo). Difficulty information to come…
- Harrow’s End: The Deathtoll Tower — only accessible during a quest
- Temple of the Faceless: Imprisonment
- Throne of Fear: Ascension
- Wurmbone Crag
- Wurmbone’s End
- The Dreadcutter
- Sleeper’s Tomb: The Forgotten Catacombs
- Chelsith: The Ancient Vault
The zone-in information is the same as for the Group zones.
Q: What Raid zones are there in Chains of Eternity?
- Temple of the Faceless: Altar of Abhorrence(x4)
- Sleeper’s Tomb: Unearthed (x4)
- Harrow’s End (x4)
A: We can assume that each of these zones contain mobs which can be fought at regular (EM) 0r Challenge (HM) difficulties. There were plans to include a x2 (12-person raid) but this was not ready in time for the expansion. Difficulty information to come…
Q: I’m a crafter and I have discovered drapes that open and close. Is there any help for me?
A: Step away from the computer!
It seems something happened to player stats (at least to monk/human combination).
My monk is seeing a reduction of 3k HP, 1 k mitigation and 2-3 k in resists.
AA skill is the same as before/ items are the same.
Die this happen to any one else?
Regards
Spacedealer
Someone saw Jazabelle hoping around in a mound of drapes heh?
I heard Chelsith and Sleeper’s tomb didn’t have the level 95 requirement in beta yesterday. cannot confirm.
I’m not sure about the level prerequisite in solo zones. They’re needed for the timeline and you’re not 95 when you reach them. Could the prerequisite be only for group?
The AA resetting on zoning bug used to be due to turning off AA confirmation and spam clicking your AAs too fast. Unless that’s been fixed I’d suggest leaving confirmation off.
Would be nice to know the exact conditions of the bug, for example, if it’s only the last AA you spam that causes it, that way we could spam everything else then slow down at the end.
Just to be clear. You do earn less exp if you use a Merc still?
You SHOULD be getting less EXP if you use a merc, the penalty was removed to encourage grouping, not to reward moloing.
Gotta love being able to instant click buying master from the SC shop.
IMO Holly is full of it with the reason for the intant upgrade button, at this point they might as well put the same thing beside the vitality bubble on your adv& TS experience bars. Took well under 2 hours for getting to 95 adventure and under 30 minutes for tradeskill (Potions of progress and Innovation FTW) that is a confirmation there.
Hopefully the raid and group content will actually introduce some challenge this go around.
The new overland zones look good and I didn’t run into any issues on the questlines and I finished more than half.
•Krivix Honorclaw, the Chains of Eternity: Collector’s Edition Paladin mercenary, has less Stamina and Avoidance than the standard Paladin mercenary available in Qeynos.
Thanks for confirming this … I knew something was fishing about this merc. Can anyone speak to the effectiveness of the healer one?
I wondering about the general effectiveness of Krivix Honorclaw vs the SK standard Merc or even the SS mercs.
Feldon:
Your link above: “More information/strategies about these zones can be found at EQ2 ZAM.” is not working. just FYI.
I never claimed I thought Merc’s should be treated like a player in regards to exp. In fact I was going to say there would be no reason not to use a Merc any more even if you were able to solo.
“Harrow’s End: Baleful Domination
must have completed Shades of Drinal: Fate’s Crusade
entrance: {446, 33, 512} in Obol Plains
Temple of the Faceless
must have progressing in the quest Shades of Drinal: Skies of Red
entrance: Temple of Cazic Thule in the Eidolon Jungle”
“Must have completed” versus “Must be progressing” – Does that mean that if we’re NOT working on this quest, we can’t do these instances? I.e. there isn’t really 9 new instances?
This information is from EQ2 Zam. I have not personally run these questlines or these instances, so any clarification is appreciated. I know for a fact that there are 8 instance dungeons in the expansion, plus Sleeper’s Tomb contested.
Well, good to know what to do about all of my collectors edition pre-order items being missing 😛 Everything but one item: the cloak. I have ONLY the cloak from pre-ordering.
That back up of the AA was a blessing. Thank you!
RMT Rage is a medical condition.
You can enter the instances while on the quest and after having finished the quest but for Harrow’s End solo which is only while on the quest, and ST instances which have no prerequisites.
@Panther — I cannot speak for today, but yesterday the Pally werewolf was much worse than the standard Neriak SK merc.
UPDATE from Gninja on the EQ2 Forums:
EQ2 Programming and Design teams are now in the grueling window where QA and CS are sending them bug reports (sometimes with steps to reproduce, sometimes not) and EQ2 devs are going through all of it.
The bug list above has been seen by SOE so hopefully we start to see these issues picked off over the next few days. 🙂
Feldon – Thank you for addressing my question and asking for clarification
Whilhelmina – Thank you for your answer! This makes me feel much better. Didn’t want to do this solo and then not be able to do the heroic version to experience it with friends!
Any word or thoughts on them offering the expansion for kronos?
Is anybody else having problems accessing the forums? I’ve tried for two days now, and I keep getting the “error page 503”. I’ve cleared my cache and tried a couple of different ways to get there, and still no-go.
Any advice?
@Streppoch I cannot access them via my computer either (running IE), but *CAN* via the browser built into my tablet(Galaxy Note 10.1).
/boggle.
Try deleting cookies or switching browser.
Yeah, I did all that (in Chrome, by the way) and still nothing worked. However, I had no problem getting to the forums using Firefox. So the issue seems to be with my Chrome browser. Now I just have to figure out why…
Make sure your link is not to the old forum.
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/index.php
Nope, I have the links to the new one and Chrome still can’t find it. Weird.
Found it. It was a hidden cookie. Thanks for the help! =D