Holly "Windstalker" Longdale gives insight on the upcoming Heroic Character feature.

EverQuest II players have been waiting for more information regarding Heroic Characters since their announcement back in July at SOE Live. Earlier this afternoon, Holly "Windstalker" Longdale posted a Producer's Letter that dishes out the scoop on this feature. Some brief points of this include:

• A "full" Heroic Character is level 85 (current cap is 95) with 280 Alternate Advancement (AA) points (current cap is 320).
• Existing and new players may create one free Heroic Character between October 1 and October 15, 2013. Existing accounts created on or before September 22, 2013 may create one per account; accounts created on or after September 23, 2013 are limited to one per household.
• Existing characters can be "upgraded"
• After the free period of Oct 1 - Oct 15, the cost of this feature is 3500 Station Cash (SC; valued at $35USD)
• After the free period of Oct 1 - Oct 15, players can use a "free trial" which temporarily grants level 85 and 100 AAs. The trial lasts until you hit level 86 and may have other restrictions.
• All Destiny of Velious (DoV) content will become free for all players when Heroic Characters launch. This includes the content from the DoV launch, the addition of the Fortress of Drunder in Game Update 60: Children of War, access to the Fae, Arasai, and Freeblood flight quests and the Game Update 61: The War of Zek adventuring quests, the Withered Lands and Skyshrine zones added in Game Update 63: Skyshrine, and more recently the Cobalt Scar and Siren's Grotto zones that were added in Game Update 66: Scars of the Awakened. All associated tradeskill content unlocked by these updates should be available as well.
• The Age of Discovery and Chains of Eternity expansions and their associated content and features must still be purchased seperately.

Continue reading below for the full Producer's Letter and FAQ.

UPDATE: Holly provided some clarification on the "one per household" statement during the free creation period:

To make it very clear…

Hero's Call is a limited- time “create one free Heroic Character” promotion that will run from Oct. 1 to 15. During this time, the promotion allows the following:

1.New accounts created as of today (Sept. 23, 2013) and later can create 1 free Heroic Character per household, i.e. as of today, don’t expect to create 30 new accounts and expect each one to get a free Heroic Character during the promotion period.

2.All existing accounts created on or before yesterday’s date (Sept. 22, 2013) can create or upgrade to one fully unrestricted Heroic Character for free. For example, if a family has 5 accounts they play with that were created three months ago, each account will have access to one free Heroic Character from Oct. 1 to 15 only.

3.After Oct. 15, the free Hero's Call promotional offer goes away and both new accounts and existing accounts will not have access to the "One Free Heroic Character Hero's Call" offer.

4.After the promotion ends on Oct. 15, all new or upgraded free Heroic Characters created from Oct. 1 to 15 will remain fully unlocked and won’t lose any functionality or features.

Hope that helps.

Holly Longdale
Sr. Producer
EverQuest II

The original producer's letter follows:

Calling all heroes!

We are putting in the final touches for Heroic Characters and we’re excited to be able to give you some news about them.

Before we get to how Heroic Characters work, let’s talk about why we are doing it. Primarily, we created this new feature because you asked us for it! At SOE Live, on forums, in one-on-one conversations, and lots of other ways, we’ve heard variations on similar ideas.

Former players don’t want to play catch-up to Level 95, existing players don’t want to start over at Level 1 with their friends, and some players just want to get into high-end guilds and raids because that’s what they love to do. There’s been a lot of great feedback that led us to create Heroic Characters.

The goal is to provide a fun and easy option for existing and returning players to play or experiment with our characters and have immediate access to high-level content. And we think we’ve created a great program for everyone!

First, for a limited time, players can create a Heroic Character for free. Oct. 1 until Oct. 15 is our “Hero’s Call” event which invites new players to create one free new Heroic Character per household. Existing accounts can create or upgrade to a Heroic Character for free too!

Additionally, Heroic Characters can be purchased at any time from our store. The options include: Try Before You Buy, New Heroic Character, and Upgrade Existing Character.

1) Try Before You Buy: This option offers one full level of play from Level 85 to 86 – which takes a typical player several hours – with 100 Alternate Advancement (AA) points to test out a class of your choice at a high level. The Free Trial includes a flying mount, armor, consumables, and a few restrictions.

2) New Heroic Character: A full Heroic Character can be purchased at Character Select or while playing as a Free Trial character. It includes level 85, 280 AAs, all items included in the Free Trial, and is unrestricted.

3) Upgrade Existing Character: The Upgrade option allows you to select any existing character at any level and upgrade it to a Heroic Character. All upgraded characters receive level 85 and are increased to 280 AAs, but not beyond. If you are above level 85 and have more than 280 AAs, you won't receive additional levels or points, but will get a bundle of items that includes the flying mount, armor, and consumables.

HOW TO ACCESS HEROIC CHARACTERS

Access to "Try Before You Buy" and new Heroic Characters can be found at the Character Select screen. The "Create Level 85 Heroic" button opens a window showing the benefits of the Free Trial and New Heroic Character options.

Existing characters, as well as Try Before You Buy ones, can be upgraded to a Heroic Character from the "Select Character" list by clicking on an upgrade icon next to each character. (I’d show you this, but we’re still putting the final UI together now!).

In addition to that, an in-game Marketplace item can be bought (and gifted) to upgrade an existing character to a Heroic Character. The Character window also has an icon you can use to upgrade too.

HEROIC HOTBARS!

We also have a new mode for Heroic Character hotbars to help returning players adjust to the number of combat arts/spells. It starts with one hotbar of core spells and/or combat arts to help you quickly learn and get into the swing of things. We add hotbars one at a time soon thereafter after to help you ramp up. Expert players can quickly get out of this mode at any time by modifying their UI.

MORE NEWS TO COME

So that’s the majority of the details for the Heroic Character feature. We’ve got a lot more to talk about too. Next week we’ll get into our Age of Discovery expansion changes as well as the 280AA bauble being available for sale on our marketplace for SC. Then, of course, we’ll jump into ToV details!
We hope to see you in game on Oct. 1! We will all be playing!

Holly Longdale
Sr. Producer
EverQuest II

Source: EQII Forums

Continue reading on page two for the detailed FAQ!