GU52 patched to the test servers last week. It's likely we've all read the update notes for it by now, but what can we actually expect to see? Well, here is a first look at some of the new features in the latest update to EverQuest II!

With all the new stuff going in with GU52, I was more than a little excited. So, I decided to fire up the test server, patch and login. This is a small write-up of my first experiences with this new GU. Unfortunately, you won't find anything major here on the new tradeskill items, or the new quests. Why? Well, for one, I was only logged in for a brief period, so I didn't get to explore the quests and new zones at all. As for the tradeskills, the character I copied over to the Test Copy server isn't high enough to use the recipes. I know, I know... I’m a slacker!

So what did I find upon logging in? Well, the new GPU shadow system is on there now, but it doesn't appear to be working properly. Maybe I’m doing something wrong, but telling the game to use GPU rather than CPU shadows results in no shadows at all. Oddly, my frame rate has increased though. So I’m not sure if that's just to do with the new shadow system, or if SOE has actually refined their code some more. Whatever the reason is, I am pleased to get some better and smoother frame rates out of my machine. At least it means I won't need to upgrade for a little bit longer! Now, if they could just enable SLI support and proper quad-core support, I’d be a happy man...

But I digress. Back to the topic! The next item I noticed upon logging in, is that the spell name-changes are now live! It seems that SOE has decided to go for the Tier 8 spell-names. For example, as a Conjuror, one of my mage pet'spets is called "Igneous Apprentice". My T8 one is called "Fiery Magician". Under the new spell name system, all my mage pet spells will be called "Fiery Magician", but will have a number after them so I know which of the spells is the highest level one. Thankfully, the quality (Adept III/Master I) of all my spells was kept with this new system,  so that's a good thing.

There is also a major change for Summoners. The Heart/Shard spells every tier have been scrapped. Now, we get 1 single-target heart/shard spell at around level 18, and it scales to level. So, at level 80, it works the same way as the current level 70-odd shard spell does. From what I can tell, if any of your shard spells were master at any point, then this new spell will be. Don't take my word for it, but it might be well worth finding a cheap master I shard/heart spell and scribing it in preparation for this. My new one was Master for the simple reason that my T8 spell was mastered anyways.

Now... spell quality levels. Guess what? There is no Apprentice I/Apprentice II/Adept I/Adept III/Master I/Master II anymore! Instead, they have converted as follows:

Apprentice I - Apprentice
Apprentice II - No Longer ExsistsExists
Apprentice IV - Journeyman
Adept I - Adept
Adept III - Expert
Master I - Master
Master II - Grandmaster

I'm not sure if I like this yet... but it does make it easier to look up spells on the broker. Also, because of this change, AAs have changed slightly. If you have a castable ability, instead of saying it's Apprentice, Adept, Master or whatever, it now says "Rank #". Obviously the number relates to how many AA points you've put in that specific ability. Not only that, but instead of all AA abilities just being lumped under the "Abilities" tab in your Knowledge book, they now appear under the appropriate tabs. So extra nukes gained by mages (like Bewilderment), will now show as a spell. A melee-speced Inquisitor who converts their spells into attacks, will now find these attacks under the "Combat Arts" tab. I like this change as it lets us easily see how our gear will affect AAs.

Now, this is for Conjurors/Necromancers specifically. If you possess your Mythical pet on the live servers, and mouse-over it's abilities, these are listed as Master IV. If you do this on Test, they're simply listed as Grandmaster, which obviously implies Maste 2II quality. I haven't had a chance to check the official forums yet to see if this is just a display bug, or if we have actually had our pets downgraded. Will definitely have to do some test parsing on the training wall to see if that's the case or it's just a display issue. In either case, I encourage summoners to copy over their characters, test this out and do /feedback so we know where we stand.

The last feature I found with my quick running around, was the Research Assistant. Specifically, I found one in Willow Wood, next building along on the same side as the bank. Apparently, he will only upgrade spells from Level 20 onwards, or would for me anyway. This means there is a possibility that Conjurors and Necromancers will not be able to get their Master I, single-target shards through this guy. Unfortunately, I cannot confirm this as I already have them mastered, so if anyone can say for certain if this is the case, it'd be appreciated!

What I can say, is that the lower tier spells take about 3 days to get up to master. I'm not sure how useful that is, considering how quickly people level these days anyway. Also, you can only use the assistant on 1 character at a time, per account. A T8 master spell seems to take 27-29 days to research. Why this variance? I don't know... all I know is one of my nukes said it'd take 27 days, while one of my pet spells would take 29. I really don't know why there is a difference when they were all scribed at Adept III before I copied over. So, in Tier 8, you could basically get 1 master spell per month. That's not too bad! There was no cost listed for the use of this feature.

And thus ends my first impressions of GU52. I hope this gives you all some idea of what to expect, and I’m personally looking forward to delving into the new quests and new zones! I'm sure I’ll have something else to write at that point.