RoK: Launch Day Community Q&A

MMORPG.com:

Can you resolve the conflicting information on whether or not the current AA point cap will be raised and/or will there will be new abilities within the existing trees?

Scott Hartsman:

Yes, the Achievement point cap is being raised to 140 total. In your 70s you will be able to invest 20 new points in each achievement tree. By the time Rise of Kunark got into its first content testing, it really felt like the expansion was missing something without having new Achievement point dings to go along while we were exploring and doing quests, and we knew we had to balance in an achievement point boost for this expansion.

MMORPG.com:

Can you clarify how the Kunark city will work with the existing factions? If it is listed as 'evil', will good-aligned characters still be able to visit, like evil-aligned can in Kelethin, without being attacked.

Scott Hartsman:

In the overall Norrathian view, the Sarnak are considered to be evil while not being particularly malicious. They were magically bred to be a race of soldiers, and are strictly concerned with the well being of their own race, discovering their own origin, and what happened to the rest of their kind that they had evolved from.

In that sense, their “evilness” is derived largely from the fact that they’re not particularly altruistic, as one expects of a “good” race on Norrath. They don’t mind outsiders being around, provided that the outsiders are there to assist them in their goals.

From a practical point of view, this means that good-aligned characters will indeed be able to visit the city of Gorowyn, provided they’re not there to hinder the Sarnak in any way.

MMORPG.com:

Will the new factions have a purpose, whether it be to get quests (Like having good faction with the Lyrech gives a few in the Loping Plains now) or getting faction-specific gear/items or... something?

Scott Hartsman:

Yes – There are a number of faction-based camps throughout Kunark. These people are quite happy to make special rewards available to those who go above and beyond the call on their behalf. Some of these rewards are gear, others are recipes, and so on.

In support of this, the factions window has also received a small improvement, breaking factions down into geographical regions in the world, in order to help people keep a closer eye on their new Kunark-related factions.

MMORPG.com:

(Many questions regarding armor sets.)

Scott Hartsman:

I can gladly confirm that there are multiple new armor sets coming out for this expansion, primarily broken down by class, and with set bonuses. There are sets themed toward each of the major races in the expansion. (Di`Zok Sarnak, Iksar, and Dragon.) These new sets are some of the best looking equippables ever to be seen in Norrath, hands down.

MMORPG.com:

Scott Hartsman:

There are multiple routes to progress into Kunark raid content. Having previous-tier raid gear is obviously a huge help -- That will get you into the newer raid content faster, or let you start higher up in the progression, depending on how well geared that you are. However, there is no hard-tie to previous raid content.

MMORPG.com:

Scott Hartsman:

There are a couple different ways to obtain the piece of visual awesomeness that is the famed Kunarkian Rhinoceros. I won’t spoil the details of the mounts here, but they’ll be desirable. There are both guild rewards and at least one faction reward at the moment, and one of them has a distinct combat advantage that some folks will find highly attractive.

MMORPG.com:

Scott Hartsman:

We considered adding Dexterity and Charisma as stats to the system so as to better replicate the originals, but then realized that we didn’t need to make them exactly like EverQuest epics.

Just kidding.

These weapons are tuned to be just as desirable, both the group versions and the raid upgrades, as their EQ counterparts, but they are very distinctly designed to fit into EverQuest II, with effects that are tailored to the expanded roles that the EQ2 classes play.

I wish I had time to answer the complete set of questions – I did try to pick a large cross-section to make sure that all of the general topics were covered. We look forward to seeing you in Kunark! .