DECEMBER 5, 2006

Headlines:

East and West Commons have been combined and graphically updated to form a newly revamped Commonlands zone!

Hot Zones:

New Hot Zones! Some new zones and some familiar stomping grounds make up this set of Hot Zones. Included in these zones will be some new encounters and new items for you to enjoy.

The new hot zones are:

• 20 Kurn's Tower
• 25 Unrest
• 30 Tower of Frozen Shadow
• 35 Lower Guk
• 40 The Hole
• 45 Chardok
• 50 Sebilis
• 55 Grieg's End
• 60 Cazic Thule
• 65 Splitpaw

AAs:

• Corrected an issue with the AA - Petrified Roots that was incorrectly increasing the chance for an NPC to break root. This ability should now correctly reduce the chance an NPC has to break root.
• Modified the Serpent Spine Expendable AA abilities to be more powerful for the same cost.
• Added Spell Critical chance increases to the Expendable AA Glyph of Destruction and opened it up for use by casters.
• Deep Sleep will now work on mesmerization spells over level 70.

Items:

• The weapon delay restrictions have been removed from the Mossy Tundra Stone and Everlasting Forge Coal.
• Several high level TSS shields now have their appropriate augmentation slots.
• The proc rate on Brightflame, Pride of the Lifebringer has been increased to a more appropriate level.
• With the exception of diseased forages, the forages from The Serpents Spine zones have been given a small vendor value.
• Changed most of the gems in the game to stack to 100.
• Dyn'leth's Spy Glass has been improved to work more effectively.
• Keikolin's Mindhaze Sleeves now have a chromatic damage focus effect instead of a magic damage focus effect.
• The swarm pet from the Savage Platinum Fists functions correctly again.

NPCs:

• NPCs can now potentially drop more than 8 items. Also, stackable items will be dropped as stacks instead of as several single items.
• Added cash loot to some NPCs in Sunderock that had none.
• Butcher Redloe now correctly describes how to make Blood Sausage.
• Termun in Crescent Reach is a bit more forgiving of foreigners.
• Lowered the poison effect on the lower half of snakes in the mesa.
• Removed some errant drops from the base Thundercrest zone.
• Increased the drop rates for the Powersources in Ashengate and Frostcrypt that are used for various armor tasks in Crescent Reach.

Spells:

• Fixed an issue with casting spells as soon as spell gems started to become available, where the user would get a "Spell recovery time not yet met" error.
• Players will now always be able to see themselves and their group members who are invisible or hiding.
• Bolt spells should now function more appropriately. Arrows and bolt spells should now work regardless of height differences between you and your target, as long as you have line of sight.
• The recourse effects from Doppelganger and Dimensional Instability can no longer be buff blocked.
• Necklace of Warportal Fragments effect now requires vendor bought Small Portal Fragments as a reagent instead of Portal Fragments.

Quests:

• Fixed a pathing issue that would cause the pilgrims on the Altar Escort task to warp through Icefall.
• The Evidence of Corruption task has been modified slightly. Zhureni will no longer want Igneous Cairn Stones, Lava Ooze Glands, or the Vial of Burning Liquid until you have collected them all.

Tasks:

• Changed an error in the text of Dorina's Quest in the Mesa.
• Corrected an issue with the following Grandmaster Cultural Symbol quests: "Thundercrest Expedition", "The Latest in Clockworks!", and "A Bit of Spider, a Bit of Drake". If you are a Dwarf, High Elf, or Gnome, have the quest from before this update but haven't completed it, and the task has less than 6 steps including hidden ones marked with a "???", there are some special steps you can take to update your quest to include these changes while keeping your current progress. NOTE: These steps are not required and your task can be completed without going through this, but your task may not display updates properly.
1. Go to the Artisan in your home town that gave out the task. Be sure that you have a few minutes and do not zone or log out until you have completed all steps.
2. Say "Broken" to the Artisan and it will start a new dialog tree.
3. Read everything carefully and respond appropriately. There will be text in brackets. Be sure to say exactly what is in the brackets. You will be asked to remove tasks at certain steps. Be very certain you have the correct task highlighted before you hit the remove button. Take your time and follow the directions carefully.
4. Following these steps properly will give you the updated the task and preserve the progress you have made on the old version.

Tradeskills:

• Some of the grandmaster cultural symbol tasks have been made easier by being less specific about the NPCs that are needed for the kill step. For example, if the kill step was "kill 120 Isle Drakes" it will now be "Kill 120 Isle Creatures". Additionally, the kill steps will only be able to be completed in the base zone, or instance of the base zone that is mentioned in the task text. The loot step will still only be on the specific creatures, and only in instances.
• Metal Bits now stack more efficiently.
• Changed the name of the three old cultural sewing kits and their tokens to make them stand out. They will continue to work for basic tailoring as they have for a while, and they will continue to not work for cultural tailoring, as they have not for a while.
• Added fish from The Serpents Spine to the Bait Dispenser.
• Fixed a misspelling of the recipe name for Feir'Dal Sewing Kit and Teir'Dal Sewing Kit.
• Removed the tradeskill flag from Onyx Ring.
• More of the "Blue Diamond Cultural" was set for Luclin release on progression servers.
• Crystalwing Sewing Kit and Crescent Essence recipes can now be learned.
• Crescent Essence can now be traded.