EverQuest servers are scheduled to be taken down for a game update at 4:00 A.M. Pacific Time tomorrow (Wednesday). Downtime is expected to last for approximately four hours.

Here are the patch notes as posted by Roshen on the EQ Forums:

*** Highlights ***

- Alternate Advancement Ability Auto-Granting: AA abilities are now auto-granted for Gold players who check the opt-in box on the "Alternate Advancement" window. Abilities up to and including level 85 and Underfoot are auto-granted. See the "AA" section below for more details and exceptions.
- Leadership AAs have been converted to standard abilities. You no longer need to earn separate leadership experience to obtain these abilities. To learn more about the change, you can press 'L' in-game. See the "UI" section below for additional details.
- Many spells and AA abilities related to fighting multiple NPCs at once have been altered. See the "Spells" and "AA" sections below.
- Heroic Adventure Rares - Many problematic spells used by rares inside of Heroic Adventures have been changed, and target selection for all of their spells improved. See the "NPC" section below for more details.
- Heroic Adventures no longer lock, so players can be added to them at any time. Request timers are unchanged.
- Increased the spawn chance for all rare NPCs in House of Thule.
- Progression servers have a new poll available regarding the implementation of Alternate Advancement Ability Auto-Granting. You must be level 60 and on a progression server to vote.
- Perfected Augmentation Distillers are now being sold on the Marketplace.

*** Items ***

- The Breakdown in Communication gemstones are now on a lore group. Previously, you could have more than one, though wearing multiples would zero out their stats without giving a message as to why. If you find yourself in a situation where you don't have the highest BiC augment for which you are eligible, delete all your BiC augments and hail Fezbin Fizzles in Abysmal Sea to receive the correct replacement.
- Increased the drop rate for Xorbb's Caged Hatred from 1 percent to 5 percent.
- Slightly improved the damage done by the Revenge effect on the Ring of Revenge.
- The Orb of Calm Tides has gained the ability to clear away stormy skies if it is raining in addition to its original power of calling forth rain showers during clear weather.
- Reaper Strike and its Recourse, as well as Lich Sting and its Recourse, now fade after their owners deal 800 hits.
- Leeching Embrace now fades after its owner deals 360 melee hits.
- Leeching Touch now fades after its owner deals 180 melee hits.
- Cultural molds, patterns, symbol patterns, and crafting tools are now available for sale from Culturist Devari in the Plane of Knowledge.
- Fixed an issue where some item ornaments weren't rendering properly.
- The Ceremonial Elixir of Scholarship has been renamed Dusty Ceremonial Elixir of Scholarship. It will remain tradable on Firiona Vie for now. Sarvil Amberstone now awards a new Ceremonial Elixir of Scholarship, which is not tradable on Firiona Vie. If in the future the Dusty Ceremonial Elixir of Scholarship becomes no-trade, the community will receive advanced notice.
- Perfected Augmentation Distillers are now being sold on the Marketplace.


*** Quests & Events ***

- Heroic Adventures no longer lock, so players can be added to them at any time. Request timers are unchanged.
- Hate Rising - Raid - Corrected a text error that appears when players are struck with the Spear Throw ability.
- Hate Rising - Raid - Banshees now properly remove charm from their victims when defeated.
- Hate Rising - Mission and Raid - Treasure chests no longer spawn in inaccessible areas.
- Endless War - The cliknar bombers in this Heroic Adventure now stop their attack runs after the fourth step, like other, similar effects.
- Endless War - The cliknar bombers in this Heroic Adventure now deal roughly half their previous damage, and their damage isn't inadvertently increased by players' AAs.
- Ritual of Terror - Raid - The duration on the silence component of the Confusing Mists debuff has been reduced to 1 tick.
- Working Overtime - Nibbling Moles in this Heroic Adventure will no longer leave corpses.
- Espionage Starts at Home - Fleeing Witnesses in this Heroic Adventure will no longer leave corpses.
- Dark elves killed during Neriak - Fourth Gate Heroic Adventures now have a chance to drop dark elf Hero's Forge armor ornaments.
- Ancient Heroes - The raids offered by Old Man McKenzie now allow up to 6 of the same class template to be chosen. Previously, these raids only allowed one of each class to be chosen.
- Ancient Heroes - The missions and raids offered by Old Man McKenzie now reward a small amount of experience upon completion.
- All reward sets that grant experience now list an approximate value of the amount of experience given.


*** Spells ***

- Greatly increased the proc rate of Life Drain Poison and Soul Drain Poison.
- The Ire of Marr and Wrath of Marr effects now last for 5 minutes.
- Beastlord - Corrected effect caps that caused Sha's Reprisal to have unintended results.
- Cleric - Made several changes to how the Shining Rampart line of spells works:
-- All ranks now trigger-cast a separate damage absorption buff called Shining Defense, which absorbs 10 percent of incoming melee damage up to a total of 3200 hits.
-- The Shining Rampart buffs themselves now have a limit of 72 defensive procs before they fall, and will proc less often on creatures that are below the level of the spells.
-- All ranks of the Shining Rampart spells have had their mana costs increased a bit to be more equitable with the other two priests' lines of spells.
- Cleric - Added a proc limit of 120 to the Ward of the Divine line of spells.
- Cleric - Anticipated Interposition should now have a more distinctive icon.
- Cleric and Shaman - Corrected an issue that could prevent Free or Silver players from properly casting the Preincarnation spell.
- Druid - Made several changes to the Skin of the Reptile line of spells:
-- All ranks now last the same base amount of time: 4.5 minutes.
-- Mana costs are now lower and scale more smoothly.
-- All ranks have had their proc limit increased to 72 procs.
- Enchanter - Corrected effect caps that caused Dreary Deeds to have unintended results.
- Magician - Changed the early ranks of the Burning Aura line of spells to be limited to 48 procs, rather than 240 incoming attacks, to match later spells in the line.
- Magician - Hulking Bodyguard now fades after 48 hits like later spells in the line.
- Magician - Added a target limit of 12 to all beam spells.
- Necromancer - Corrected effect caps that caused Death's Malaise to have unintended results.
- Paladin - Increased the proc limit on the Ward of Tunare line of spells to 32.
- Paladin and Shadowknight - Corrected effect caps that caused Helix of the Undying to have unintended results.
- Shadowknight - Leechcurse Discipline now has a hit limit of 350 incoming hits.
- Shaman - Made several changes to the Lingering Sloth line of spells:
-- All ranks now have a limit of 240 defensive procs before they fall.
-- All ranks now increase in mana cost as their levels increase.
-- Increased the chances for ranks 1 and 2 of Lassitude and later to cast a healing spell from 30/40/50 percent to 45/47/49 percent.
- Wizard - Increased the target limit on all beam spells to 12.
- Wizard - Increased the target limit on the Funnel of Frost line from 8 to 12.


*** NPC ***

- Increased the spawn chance for all rare NPCs in House of Thule.
- Fellowship campfires are no longer targetable and will now be listed in the "Find" window as "Fellowship Campfire - Player Name's Fellowship."
- Heroic Adventure Rares - All Rares inside of Heroic Adventures now appear in the "Find" window.
- Heroic Adventure Rares - Messages now appear in the chat window and in pop-up text whenever a rare is spawned inside of a Heroic Adventure.
- Heroic Adventure Rares - Many problematic spells used by rares inside of Heroic Adventures have been changed, and target selection for all of their spells improved:
-- Guard Captain N'Mar - The Shield of Foolishness buff now lasts for approximately 2 ticks.
-- Guard Captain N'Mar - The Punitive Measures debuff is now only cast on one player at a time, and now lasts for approximately 2 ticks. It also has a longer recast timer.
-- Guard Captain N'Mar - Greater Evocation now only hits one target, instead of all targets in an area, and won't be cast on the main tank in a group.
-- Firesting - Blazing Venom won't be cast on the main tank in a group, lasts for one more tick before casting Spontaneous Combustion, and deals less damage each tick.
-- Firesting - Spontaneous Combustion damage was halved, and is no longer inadvertently modified by player AAs.
-- An Enraged Bixie Drone - Brutal Strike is now only cast when the drone is below 50 percent health. The spell deals slightly less damage and will not be cast on the main tank in a group.
-- Tleroth the Mistress of the Web - The messaging for the Webstorm spell has been improved.
-- Princess Honeywing - Scent of the Future Queen had its description revised to better reflect its effects.
-- Princess Honeywing - Bixie drones spawn less often, drop no loot, and are capped at a maximum of 10 up at a time.
-- Monarch Deathwing - Monarch's Retribution now lasts for approximately 2 ticks, has a longer recast timer, and cannot remove players, pets, or mercs from the Monarch's hatelist.
-- Monarch Deathwing - Debilitating Fumes now lasts for approximately 3 ticks.
-- Gellwing, the Corpse Looter - Brutal Strike is now only cast when Gellwing is below 50 percent health, deals slightly less damage, and will not be cast on the main tank in a group.
-- Gellwing, the Corpse Looter - Empowered Blade's damage has been reduced to 25 percent of previous damage.
-- Bloodsucker - Life Leech deals one-third its previous damage, but now heals the caster for damage dealt. It now only lasts approximately 3 ticks, and has appropriate descriptions.
-- Bloodsucker - Base attack speed has been slowed by 20 percent.
-- Oozoroze - Prismatic Ooze now only lasts approximately 3 ticks, and its damage scales with the Oozoroze's level.
-- Oozoroze - Creeping Ooze's damage has been reduced by approximately 50 percent.
-- Vorovelze - Fungal Cloud now lasts approximately 3 ticks.
-- Lieutenant Robert Ward - Panic has been renamed to Crippling Panic and no longer has a fear effect.
-- Jattius Rattican - Infectious Agony now lasts for approximately 4 ticks.
-- Spirit of the Hills - Crushing Fist's damage was reduced slightly.
-- Squire Gordon Flock - Panic has been renamed to Crippling Panic and no longer has a fear effect.
-- Squire Alan Wells - Crippling Blade now silences its victim instead of inflicting a fear effect.
-- Evoker K`Lexor - The Shield of Foolishness buff now lasts for approximately 2 ticks.
-- Evoker K`Lexor - The Punitive Measures debuff is now only cast on one player at a time. It lasts for approximately 2 ticks and has a longer recast timer.
-- Evoker K`Lexor - Greater Evocation now only hits one target, instead of all targets in an area, and won't be cast on the main tank in a group.
-- Rilen D`Tradis - Resentment now lasts for approximately 5 ticks, and Rilen selects his target randomly from his hatelist.
-- Rilen D`Tradis - Messaging has been added to clarify the interaction between his spells.
-- Bloody Tome - Shared Insight now has a cap on the amount of mana an individual character loses.
-- Plague Bringer - Caustic Cloud now only lasts for approximately 3 ticks.
-- Plague Bringer - Has a new ability called Plaguetouch.
- Fixed issue where some NPCs were not scaling to the appropriate player's level in Heroic Adventures.
- Fixed an issue where some NPCs were not dropping certain loot in Heroic Adventures.


*** AA ***

- Leadership AAs have been converted to standard abilities. You no longer need to earn separate leadership experience to obtain these abilities. To learn more about the change, you can press 'L' in-game. See the "UI" section below for additional details.
- Auto-Granting of AAs for Gold Subscribers:
-- A checkbox has been added to the AA window which will allow players to choose if they wish to participate in the auto-granting of AA abilities when they meet the requirements for those abilities.
-- For Time-Locked Progression Servers, the Call of the Forsaken expansion must be open before auto-granting becomes available.
-- All AA abilities up to and including level 85 and the Underfoot expansion, except those noted below, are auto-granted.
--- Excluded AA from auto-grant:
---- Alchemy Mastery
---- Arcane Tongues
---- Baking Mastery
---- Blacksmithing Mastery
---- Fletching Mastery
---- Fletching/Bowyer Mastery
---- Jewel Craft Mastery (Enchanter)
---- Jewel Craft Mastery (Non-Enchanter)
---- Poison Mastery
---- Pottery Mastery
---- Tailoring Mastery
---- Tinkering Mastery
---- Spell Casting Subtlety
----- Spell Casting Subtlety has been removed as a requirement for other "Silent Casting" abilities so players may choose to purchase them as desired.
- Berserker - Decapitation - Changed all levels of this ability to function on enemies at the purchase level minus 1. Reduced the proc rate to approximately 2 per minute for a raid geared player.
- Berserker - Decapitation - Created 3 new ranks of this ability to bring its maximum effective level up to 99.
- Cleric - Divine Retribution will now fade after 40 procs.
- Enchanter - Changed the buff icon for Deep Sleep to avoid confusion with mesmerization effects.
- Enchanter - the First Spire of Enchantment now has a proc limit of 24.
- Ranger - Headshot - Changed all levels of this ability to function on enemies at the purchase level minus 1. Reduced the proc rate to approximately 2 per minute for a raid geared player.
- Ranger - Headshot - Created 3 new ranks of this ability to bring its maximum effective level up to 99.
- Rogue - Anatomy (Assassinate) - Changed all levels of this ability to function on enemies at the purchase level minus 1. Reduced the proc rate to approximately 2 per minute for a raid geared player.
- Rogue - Anatomy - Created 3 new ranks of this ability to bring its maximum effective level up to 99.
- Shadowknight - Mortal Coil now has a hit limit of 1320 incoming hits and will trigger Mortal Residue more often. Mortal Residue's duration has been extended.


*** Progression Servers ***

- Progression servers have a new poll available regarding the implementation of Alternate Ability Auto-Granting. You must be level 60 and on a progression server to vote.
- Hero's Journey achievements that award armor or weapons are now restricted on progression servers.


*** Collections ***

- All Heroic Adventures now spawn 4 Collection items every run. That number was previously randomized in some adventures.


*** Achievements ***

- The Underfoot requirement for opening the "Achievements" window has been removed.


*** Miscellaneous ***

- The doors leading from Lower to Upper House of Thule now appear in the "Find" window and no longer prevent players from entering. On progression servers, Call of the Forsaken must be active on the server for at least one month for the restriction to be removed.
- The doors leading from Upper to Lower House of Thule now appear in the "Find" window.
- The zone line leading from Upper House of Thule to Morell's Castle now appears in the "Find" window and no longer prevents players from entering. On progression servers, Call of the Forsaken must be active on the server for at least one month for the restriction to be removed.


*** UI ***

- "EQ" buttons can now be made into hotbuttons. Click and hold any "EQ" button to create a hot button that can be used in any hotbar.
- In the "Edit Social" window and chat windows, putting a '#' symbol before a command will now ignore the rest of that command. This can be used in socials for "commenting" or for ignoring a line without needing to clear the line.
- Right clicking on AA hot buttons will now take you to the correct AA in the "Alternate Advancement" window.
- Leadership abilities were removed from the "Leadership AA" window. The abilities are now built into normal game function and are available without having to spend points.
-- The Leadership abilities window has been removed.
-- Any hotbuttons that were made for these abilities retain their functionality.
-- Leadership abilities are now available without having to spend Leadership AA points.
-- Removed the "Fast LA Purchase" checkbox from the General options.
-- Press 'L' in-game to read a description of the new functionality and to see where to access the abilities.
- Fixed the positioning of the "Player Studio" icon and "Created By" label to properly anchor to the bottom of the preview window when the "Marketplace" window is resized.

- Changed -

EQUI.xml
EQUI_AAWindow.xml
EQUI_Animations.xml
EQUI_EQMainWnd.xml
EQUI_FindLocationWnd.xml
EQUI_GroupWindow.xml
EQUI_MarketplaceWnd.xml
EQUI_OptionsWindow.xml
EQUI_PlayerWindow.xml

- Removed -
EQUI_GroupMentorWnd.xml
EQUI_LeadershipWnd.xml


*** Previously Updated ***

- In the Heroic Adventure "Royal Access,” the bookcase within the parlor will now disappear when clicked.
- The ornate chest within the Heroic Adventure "Royal Access" now contains either a key or a note when opened.
- The Heroic Adventure "Life After Death" will no longer become gated if you give Brother Estle more than 3 items of Bear Bile, Sapling Resin, or Sapling Charcoal.
- Player corpses in the Dead Hills raid "The Legacy of Bayle" will now collect near Adana Baxter if Bayle's troops regroup.
- Defeating Brood Mother Visziaj in Crystallos will now also unlock credit for and items belonging to Chief Researcher Entharr, as long as he remains... absent.
- Corrected an issue that prevented players from obtaining the bonus reward for the Erollisi Day quest "The Perfect Companion."


- The EverQuest Team