TOV launches, Game Update 68 patch notes

http://eq2wire.com/2013/11/12/update-notes-tuesday-november-12-2013-tears-of-veeshan/

Update Notes for the Tears of Veeshan expansion (ie Game Update 68) from the EQ2 Forums:

After rediscovering Yelinak, now the steward of Vesspyr Isles alongside other fallen and familiar dragons, players learn of the time/space powers behind the Tear of Veeshan stolen by prismatic dragon Kerafyrm the Awakened. With Kerafyrm’s fearsome power looming over Norrath, players are called upon to shine light into the darkness brought on by the Awakened’s draconic army, and set the stage for a new Age to begin!

Features:

• New class – Channeler!
• New Dragon-themed AAs
• AA limit increased to 340
• New overland area, Vesspyr Isles – Adventure, amenities, quests, collections, and more!
• Nine new dungeons
• Two new raid zones
• More Tradeskill and Tradeskill Apprentice Items
• New PvP item tier

GUILD HALLS

• A new, larger guildhall is available to guilds who have reached level 95. The new guildhalls are accessible via the dock in Antonica or Commonlands and include an additional basement area accessed via a teleporter. Item count is 2000. In addition, tradeskill stations are now available as no-count amenities for all levels of guildhall, although personal tradeskill stations may still be used also.

GUILD HALL AMENITIES

• Creature Conjuror now has new functionality. He can summon powerful epic and heroic bosses that will auto-attack players. You can dismiss these creatures by right clicking on them and destroying them. He can also summon mirrors of himself – an Augmenter and a Suppressor. The Augmenter will buff the players within the zone only like a guild banner. The Suppressor will apply debuffs to the summoned creatures. The augmenter can also make the player not die during the testing. This does not stay through zoning, and only works within the guild hall itself.
• Guildhall Mailbox amenity item, the Far Seas Express Mailbox, now has separate entries for Freeport style mailbox, Qeynos style mailbox, and Shattered Lands style mailbox.

MERCENARIES

• Mercenaries now gain health based on the player’s stamina.
• For those who have completed the quest “A Gathering Obsession Beyond The Grave” there is a new mercenary for hire within the Village of Shin!
• You may now purchase slots for individual mercenaries so you can rehire that specific mercenary at any time. To view, unlock, and switch between mercenaries you’ve hired, just open your “Character” window, click on the “Mercenary” tab and then click the “View All Your Mercenaries” button. To rehire a mercenary (without unlocking their slot) you just need to go back and hire them at the place you initially found them.

PVP / BATTLEGROUNDS

• New gear and new marks for players level 95!

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
General

• City Sages now have A Thexian Log Book, Clockwork Chirurgeon User Manual, and Day Log of R.F. available for those that completed the accompanying quest.
• Duo Zones and the Pirate Kings have been adjusted for the new maximum health of players.

PvP General

• Travel restrictions between nearby adventure zones have been removed for the area around the city of Freeport & the city of Qeynos on PvP servers. The mariner bell in those adventure zones should now display travel options on the map allowing players to get to nearby adventure zones, the same as the non-pvp servers.

Eidolon Jungle and Obol Plains

• Aerial collectables are much easier to see now!

Moonlight Enchantments

• A dryad trader now only lists the Coral Frond once.

The Dreadcutter: The Pirate Kings

• The Pirate Kings now drop a two handed weapon pattern and a one handed weapon pattern. They can be turned in at the front of the zone. You must have killed the pirate kings to turn in your pattern. These versions of the weapons are more powerful.
• The merchant near the front of the zone will also convert pre-expansion weapons into the new versions.
• The first two bosses now drop Draconic Etyma and Purple War Runes instead of their original drops.

Siren’s Grotto: Dissension [Raid]

• Gen’ra now drops, in challenge mode, upgraded charms and earrings, one of each, every kill. The rest of the drops are unchanged. Any old Gen’ra HM earring or charm can be upgraded to a new one via a conversion merchant.
• Overlord Talan now drops, in challenge mode, upgraded wrists and shoulders, one of each, every kill. The rest of the drops are unchanged, Any old Talan HM items can be upgraded to a new one via a conversion merchant.
• Psyllon’Ris now drops upgraded necklaces (2 per kill) and gloves (1 per kill.) The old ones can be converted to the new ones at the conversion merchant.
• Indestructible Hydra Helmets have been upgraded.

Tower of Frozen Shadow

• The access quests required to enter the various Tower of Frozen Shadow zones have been lifted.

TRADESKILLS

• The Far Seas Trading Company on the Isle of Mara requests your assistance once again with a new tradeskill questline available upon reaching level 93!
• Owners of the Artisan’s Pack Pony should also keep their eyes open while working on the new questline for an opportunity to train their ponies to gather rares and holiday harvests.
• On completion of the quest line, a daily mission in Obol Plains and a weekly mission in Vesspyr Isles will also become available.
• Level 90 essentials and advanced recipe books now exist for all crafting classes, and can be obtained via the recipe merchants (essentials) and the quest line (advanced).
• Five new tradeskill collections can be found in Eidolon Jungle, Obol Plains, and Vesspyr Isles.
• Koros, the Far Seas faction merchant on the Isle of Mara, has a new flying mount for sale to crafters who have earned sufficient Far Seas faction and tokens.
• The tradeskill group dungeon missions from Madria Varas in the Isle of Mara can now be done hourly rather than daily.
• The stats of level 91/92 handcrafted and mastercrafted equipment has been increased to match 95 handcrafted and mastercrafted equipment.
• Additional recipes are available to research from tradeskill apprentices. These require components obtained in the Tears of Veeshan expansion. These recipes can be scribed by all classes, but some recipes may be more challenging to make if you are not the class that specialized in that item.
• Merchant Sllithzes in the Falinpol tower in Vesspyr Isles will also sell you recipes to make some of the adventuring items sold by Etyma Merchant Delvakin.
• All merchant purchased holiday tradeskill books are now heirloom.
• Alchemist-created standard buff elixirs can no longer be dispelled.
• Mass production now scales up in increments of 5 of the stat.
• Stats granted by adornments will no longer be boosted by experimentation.
• White Adornments of Recovery are now adornments of Reuse. They now give Ability Reuse instead of Spell Reuse.

HARVESTING

• Harvesting nodes can now be harvested at any harvesting skill level. In order to be eligible for rare harvests, your skill must still meet the previous requirements.

COMBAT MECHANICS

• Damage Per Second now uses the curve that Multi-Attack used to use and Multi-Attack now uses the curve that Damage Per Second used to use.

ABILITIES / ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT
General

• The Heroic tree now caps at 100.
• The class tree now only requires one point per ability to move down the lines.
• A second and third Heroic Expertise ability can be purchased for an additional 20 and 30 points, respectively.
• Abilities that increased Multi-Attack now increase Damage Per second.
• Abilities that increased Damage Per Second now increase Multi-Attack.
• Abilities that grant a chance to outright resist a control effect now cap at 100% chance instead of 10%.
• Abilities in the prestige tree that clear the reuse of other abilities should trigger more reliably.
• Player controllable pets now have increased health based on the caster’s stamina.
• Pets will now benefit from any stat conversion abilities that their owner possesses, such as those found in the Prestige tree.
• Alternate Advancements that grant AE Auto-Attack to the caster are now passive. These effects can be disabled with Singular Focus.
• Ability Casting Speed’s conversion to Doublecast has been drastically increased.
• Sorcerers and Summoners now gain bonus damage with Spell Weapons.
• Heals should no longer doublecast. This indirectly resolves an issue where Defiler wards would seemingly not benefit from ability modifier.
• Fixed a number of cases where the hate list for players and NPCs wasn’t being updated as expected. This should fix most of the causes for Call of the Veteran failing to work as expected.