Another producer's letter and images of the pre-order items are released for the upcoming EverQuest II expansion.

The EverQuest II: Tears of Veeshan open beta will begin next week and now more information about what the expansion will include and the pre-orders are rolling in. Yesterday evening images for all the pre-order items were released and a short time ago Holly "Windstalker" Longdale posted a Producer's Letter, which had a few points of interest in it. Continue reading below for the full details!

Producer's Letter Take-aways:

• Open Beta begins Tuesday, October 15
• Expansion launch is on Tuesday, November 12 (so yes, less than one month for a full beta)
• Overland zone is Vesspyr: The Eternal Broodlands where you'll begin your quest to stop Kerafyrm
• Vesspyr is the dragon Ethernere
• Nine dungeons connect to Vesspyr; these are a mix of solo, heroic, and raid instances featuring Shissar, Bixie, High Keep, Nexus, and Temple of Veeshan themes
• "There’s a lot of quests and missions too that will reveal the local storylines in each dungeon."
• Channeler class will be released with the expansion
• The new itemization plan will be introduced with the expansion (sneak peek)
• AA cap will raise by 20; new cap will be 340. Dragon AAs will be introduced.
• There will be new crafter and tradeskill apprentice recipes; crafters will have a new questline
• The new mercenary slots and Tier 4 guild halls are not tied to the expansion and will be released to everyone (assuming that you have unlocked the mercenary feature and that your guild meets the unspecified T4 hall reqs)
• Reminder that Nights of the Dead will begin on October 15 (Calthine already has updated our NotD guide if you want a sneak peek!)

You can read the entire Producer's Letter and leave feedback at the official forums.

Have you pre-ordered Tears of Veeshan yet? There are two editions available: Standard and Collectors. The Standard Edition is priced at $39.99 and the Collector's Edition can be pre-ordered for $59.99 ($89.99 after pre-orders close). If you do not already own Chains of Eternity you will be granted instant access to the expansion content upon pre-ordering ToV.

SOE Live 2013 attendees will receive the SE of Tears of Veeshan for free but can optionally pre-order the CE for an "upgrade price" of $20. For SOE Live attendees that haven't gone through the upgrade process before, this is how it works: you pre-order the CE as normal.. you WILL see $59.99 when you check out, but you are not charged at that time. When you are charged (on expansion launch day) you should only be charged the $20 upgrade fee.

What about the pre-order goodies, you may ask? Check out each of them below and click on their images to enlarge!

Standard and Collector's Edition Items

Veeshan Loyalty Cloak                                               Aeraykn Monk Mercenary

 Collector's Edition Only Items

Ethernere Enclave Prestige Home                                        Shissar Custodian Plushie

      Etherwing Mount                                                     Tears of Veeshan Painting

Pre-order Tears of Veeshan now at EverQuest2.com and stay tuned for more expansion coverage!

Ann "Cyliena" Hosler, Managing Editor

Follow me on Twitter: @Cyliena