The Ages End storyline continues in EverQuest II: Darkness Dawns.

All servers will come down at 6am PDT on Tuesday, July 23, 2013 for the Darkness Dawns patch. Estimated downtime is currently four hours. The full patch notes are now available below.

Your dedicated ZAM staff brings you our coverage of the GU67: Darkness Dawns material to help guide you with the new content and features!

• Daily Objectives
• Personal Depots (crafted by Tinkerers)
• Darkness Ascending (signature series)
• Waters of Norrath (heritage quest)
• All ZAM Coverage

DARKNESS DAWNS
The oracles still see chaos and uncertainty on the horizon even with victory for the New Combine army in Cobalt Scar. Join Field Marshal Vishra at Scarstone as he tirelessly guards the newly found Tear of Veeshan - an artifact that could turn the tides of war forever in this time of delicate peace (Darkness Ascending). Is it the key to preventing the end of the world foretold in the Ages End prophecy? Those that have completed "Tear in the Grotto" are being summoned to find out!

FABLED DUNGEONS

• Fabled Clefts of Rujark (accessed from Sinking Sands and Pillars of Flame)
• Fabled Scornfeather’s Roost (accessed from Sinking Sands and Pillars of Flame)
• Fabled Djinn Masters Prism (accessed from the ‘Fabled Dungeon Portal’ in Pillars of Flame)
• Fabled Pedestal of Sky (accessed from the ‘Fabled Dungeon Portal’ in Pillars of Flame)

NEW CONTESTED AVATARS
Three New Contested Avatar Raids: Pit yourself against three new contested avatars in the overlands - Prexus, Solusek Ro, and Drinal!

ARENA OF THE GODS
The Arena of the Gods is a raid instance that allows 24 players to challenge any of the 9 avatars that are in game (includes the new contested avatars released in this GU). Once you kill an avatar and are rewarded, you can continue to practice the encounters as much as you want (there is a 3-day lockout timer for rewards). Entrances to the Arena of the Gods can be found in the cities of Freeportand Qeynos.

CHARACTER ADVANCEMENT TEMPLATES (CATs)
This new system will allow you to store up to 3 personal AA profiles on your character and as many as you want on your hard drive!

Previous Alternate Advancements will not disappear and will be imported into this new system. Achievement mirrors will allow you to save your existing profile to your hard drive so you can load them in the new system.

When you select any AA tab in the ‘Character Development & Alternate Advancements’ window, you will notice a new selection box in the upper-right corner, which allows you to select from personal and server suggested AA layouts, or load locally saved layouts. There are also new buttons in the lower-right, which allow you to switch between profile 'View' and 'Build' modes, and 'Commit' profiles you have selected or created.

CAT instructions for View & Build modes:

• Editing current personal profile: To edit your current profile, just begin spending AA points normally. It will switch you to 'Build' mode automatically. Once you are done spending points, click on the 'Save' button. Choose which personal slot to save over (you can rename the slot if you wish) and hit 'Save' which should then commit those changes to your character.
• Choosing a different personal or server profile: In the selection menu, choose a new personal or server profile. Once selected, you can either make edits of your own or use the profile as is by clicking on the 'Save' button. Choose which personal slot to save over (you can rename the slot if you wish) and hit 'Save'. Then push 'Commit' to apply those changes to your character.
• Saving a profile to your hard drive: Once you are done setting up a profile, click on the ‘Save’ button. Enter the template name you wish to use to identify the file. Then click on the 'disk' icon which will save the profile inside of your root eq2 install folder. The save file format will be, “CharacterName_TemplateName.aa”.
• Loading a profile from your hard drive: Click on ‘Load…’ from the selection menu and it will bring up a list of the profiles found on your local hard drive. After loading the profile you want, you can make any edits you wish, and then click the 'Save' button. Choose which personal slot to save over (you can rename the slot if you wish) and hit 'Save'. Then push 'Commit' to apply those changes to your character.
• If you wish to start creating from a blank template, select ‘New’ from the drop-down menu.

On the right-hand side of the AA window, there is now a list of AA icons representing a timeline of how the AAs for the currently selected profile are to be spent. In 'Build' mode, if you click on one of these icons it will roll your layout back to that point (removing all spent points below that icon).

You are able to build a profile beyond your currently available points, and the points will auto-spend as you level!

Remember to ‘Commit’ your changes to your character if you switch profiles, for uncommitted changes will be reset when you zone!

NEW DAILY OBJECTIVE SYSTEM
You can now earn a ‘Loyalty Point Token’ each day by completing two of several daily tasks. Look in your journal under the new ‘Daily Objectives’ tab for more information on current tasks. Special merchants in Freeportand Qeynos will accept these tokens in trade for unique items.

GENERAL
Updated new character armor! Both the new and legacy starter armors have been added as crates to the class trainers.

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
General
City Sages now have The Book of Sacrifice, The Book of Power, and The Book of Trials available for those that completed the accompanying quest.

Halas
Trainer Hawk Dunlop inFrostfangSeais no longer giving advice about the elementals that are attacking Darklight Woods.

Chelsith: The Ancient Vault
Murmaz the Believer should no longer spam "requires Beastlord" when hitting him when he has Frigid Barrier active.

Cobalt Scar
Harvestables should no longer spawn at the same location as the recovering othmir involved in Recurring Ministration.

Freeport
Kaherdin Surechest has been moved to a different prison cell in the Freeport Militia House, to avoid any conflict with a weary Kor shaman.

PLAYER HOUSING
A new “House-Lore” item flag has been added. A house can only have 1 of any item flagged as “House-Lore”.

TRADESKILLS

• The Personal Harvest Depot recipe now creates a larger version of the Personal Harvest Depot.
• New Personal Depots can now be crafted! The recipes to make these have been added to the existing Personal Harvest Depot recipe group.
• Material conservation effects will no longer function when crafting the Insignias of the Deep.
• The Mirror of Reflected Achievements recipe has been changed to produce A Polished Mirror instead. This produces a normal tradable mirror. Swapping your AAs is now handled entirely via the Character Advancement Template system.

MERCENARIES
Added a /useabilityonmerc command that performs the same basic function as /useabilityonplayer, but attempts to use the ability upon the active mercenary of the specified player (or the mercenary itself, if specified directly).

ABILITIES / ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT
General

• Level restrictions on Alternate Advancements have been removed. You can now access all of the abilities once you reach level 10.
• Impairments that reduce mitigation now further reduce the chance for player spells to be completely resisted.
• Dumbfire pets now have an increased chance to critically hit.

Mage
Root Mastery now increases root duration by 6% per rank instead of 2s per rank.

PvP ABILITIES / ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT
Beastlord
Beastlords can now tame the "Cobalt brownhide" bears in Cobalt Scar as an exotic warder!

Brigand
In PVP combat, Cuss can now dispel increments of Frozen Solid and Toxic Aura.

Swashbuckler
In PVP combat, Tease can now dispel increments of Frozen Solid and Toxic Aura.

Druid
In PVP combat, Serene Symbol can now dispel increments of Frozen Solid and Toxic Aura.

Mage
In PVP combat, Absorb Magic can now dispel increments of Frozen Solid and Toxic Aura.

QUESTS

• New Heritage Quest: Level 95 adventurers can start their path in Siren’s Grotto - Alluring Embrace (Solo). Help restore the Waters of Norrath, and you will be rewarded!
• The War of Skyshrine: Keeping Enemies Close - Quest category has now been set as Signature.
• Ry'Gorr Mining Operations - The barrel search region is now highlighted on the map.
• Egg-cellent - Quest associated regions are now highlighted on the map.
• Egg-cellent - Entering Goahmari Village via flying mounts will now trigger the intended ambush.
• On the Run - Finding the mysterious liaison now updates for the entire group.
• The Lands Above - Quest journal now specifies that you must speak with Field Marshal Vishra in the Withered Lands to complete this quest.
• Little Tarby Lost – You now have more time to react to the hungry wolves after speaking to Tarby. Tarby can also survive a bit longer now if attacked.
• Seek out Controller Kenjedeau - Quest journal now gives an accurate description as to Kenjedeau's location.
• Over Their Heads - Gallie now recognizes that the saliraptor is standing next to her for the last step of the quest.
• Writs are now offered to players up to level 85 from NPCs on the dock in Kylong Plains.
• Lost Soldiers - Injured Combine Soldiers no longer can be hailed while running back to camp.
• Unexpected Weather - Alvian farmers will no longer give multiple updates.
• The Broken Hand - Aggressionnow has a quest target flag.
• Conflict Among the Kobolds can once again be turned in.
• “Refurbished Goods”, “Remnants of a Traitor”, and “Shards of the Eye of Stormhammer” - Each can now be repeated for those that have deleted and regained “The Stormhammer” quest, after finishing them.
• The Book of Sacrifice now awards "Book of Sacrifice" house item.
• The Book of Power now awards "Book of Power" house item.
• The Book of Trials now awards "Book of Trials" house item.

ITEMS

• Cloak of the Vipers now has an improved appearance.
• All vitality potions and baubles now require level 4 to activate.
• Psionic Conversion now properly drops when the target dies, rather than switching to the caster.
• Mounts can now be cast and dismissed in dungeons (like before the mount will not be visible and give no run speed buffs in dungeons).

PvP ITEMS

• The merchants in Champion’s Respite now charge less Havoc Marks for their wares.
• New Chaos Bringer PVP gear is now available for purchase in Champion's Respite!
• Imperial PVP gear can be upgraded into Chaos Bringer gear!