The final chapter of the Rain of Fear expansion is expected to go live on Tuesday, July 16.

Here is a look at the new zones!

Heart of Fear

It's time. The desperate battles, relentless hunts, and cutthroat dealings of the past year have all been working up to this moment: the final confrontation with Cazic-Thule's terrifying power. The god of fear is dead, but brave adventurers must enter the final reservoir of his lingering power on Norrath, the Heart of Fear, to conquer its evil once and for all. But brave adventurers are not alone in their quest—a myriad of monsters both familiar and new inhabit the Heart of Fear, hoping to steal Cazic-Thule's power for themselves and ascend to become Norrath's new god of fear. Can you stop them all in time? Can you even find them? A betrayer in your midst is eager to teach you the new meaning of fear. Prepare yourself.

That giant shard in the middle of the Shard's Landing crater is looking a little healthier these days, and two emissaries of shadow have appeared at its side...

"Heart of Fear" is broken into three separate zones: The Threshold (the top level, a large mountainous area littered with creatures of fear and Alaran believers); The Rebirth (the middle level, a network of caverns that perhaps serves as the main "gestation" area for creatures of fear); and The Epicenter (the lower level, as its name suggests: The Heart of Fear).

(Screenshots of the new zones can be found below the jump!)

Soon to be unleashed on live servers is the Shadow of Fear...

An extension of the Rain of Fear expansion, Shadow of Fear brings about two new zones: Chelsith Reborn and the Plane of Shadow. Here is a look!

Chelsith Reborn

While the shards of fear were falling on Norrath, a significant shard landed in a remote part of The Grey. It was discovered by one of the undead Shissar stalkers who delivered it to a Shissar, Vyzh'dra (one of the more prominent figures among the Shissar).

Not too long after this, a new city emerged in the middle of The Grey. It is a massive and pristine city reminiscent of ancient shissar architecture and designs, and outsiders seem confused as to how it came to be. No one has come out of the city since it arrived...

(Check out the Plane of Shadow below the jump...)

Hi everyone - we have posted a few guides to help you get started in Rain of Fear:

• Rain of Fear: Expansion Overview
  
  • Tier information, where to find spells, where to start, links to other guides/named information.
• Group Progression
  
  • This includes a task list, starting NPCs, and their locations. Links will fill in here over the next few days as quests and bestiary are entered to the site.
  • Unlike Veil of Alaris (which had a very linear progression path), Rain of Fear is a very open-ended expansion. (You can start anywhere.)
• Visible Armor Guide
  
  • Templates have been eliminated. In Rain of Fear, you only need the item drop, the vendorbought essence, and the container (which you only need to buy one time).
  • As of right now, you'll find placeholder item links here. These will fill in over time as items find their way into our database.
• Raiding in Rain of Fear
  
  • There are two tiers of raids in Rain of Fear (broken into three tiers of progression), and raid currencies are back. We also have a bonus raid zone in a new permanent instanced version of North Temple of Veeshan (event equivalents to 12 Tier 1 ROF events + one Tier 2 ROF event).

As for where to start in Rain of Fear: It's an open expansion (no locked zones + non-linear), so you can start in any zone you'd like. For travel purposes, however, you may want to go to Shard's Landing and into the center of the zone (the location of a big crater - you can't miss it!). There, talk to the Portal Tender NPCs (marked with "Portal Tender" under their names) that are near each of the six portals and get their Portal Attuning tasks. They just require some running around on your part, but completing those tasks will make for a much easier and faster time while you're travelling through the expansion (map locations for actual older-world zone connections are found in the Overview linked above).

There are Alarans in this expansion and you will probably want to get your Alaran skill level up to 100. There are two easy tasks (non-combat) in Shard's Landing that will help with that:

• "Welcome to Shard's Landing" (pre-requisite for language task, auto-available to you when you zone in - a very simple explore task)
• "Words of the Unspoken" (auto-boost to 100 Alaran; this task is available from Councilman Nostulia in the southwest part of the crater - findable/CTRL+F)

A reminder: If you have any corpses in game, get them rezzed! All player corpses will be decayed when servers come back up for the launch tomorrow.

Servers will be coming down tonight just after midnight Pacific Time:

All EverQuest Live Servers will be down on Wednesday, November 28, 2012 at 12:01 a.m. US Pacific* for the EverQuest: Rain of Fear Game Update. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for approximately 10 hours.

While you're waiting for servers to come up, you can check out this news story for a sneak peek video of Rain of Fear.

This patch will most likely knock Lucy's Item Collector out of commission for a period of time. We'll get that restored as soon as possible so that we can get items flowing into our database.

In the meantime, happy hunting!!

The EverQuest developers are smart. They have an expansion focused on the shards of the God of Fear scattered among the land, so they took it a creative way. The world around these remnants, consequently, is twisted by it. And the local populace is mutated into grotesque, horrifying abominations.

The storyline focuses on who and what has been mutated, and everyone who is in a rush to stop it. It's taking the story behind the expansion and integrating it to anything and everything. And, in this developer diary to celebrate the launch, they talk about how it's really, really cool. 

Julian "Mirai" Williams

From EQLive, here are some details about the new collection and hunter achievements being introduced with the Rain of Fear expansion:

Not only does EverQuest: Rain of Fear have all sorts of new content to explore, there are also a number of systems going in that will add all new achievements to pursue!

Collection System

Collection items are found throughout every new zone in Rain of Fear. The items each fit into unique sets, and provide additional insight into the lore and stories of EverQuest: Rain of Fear. With four sets in each zone, and eight to ten items making up a complete set, there are tons of items to collect. There is even a "meta set" that is scattered throughout all of the Rain of Fear zones!

There are two ways to gather these collections. Some of the items are found through drops. Others are placed out in the open in the zone and "sparkle" in order to grab the adventurer's attention and promote exploration. The items and collections are themed to each area. For example, you may collect Beard Styles off of Coldain and Frost Giants.

It’s always nice to go home after spending a little time away. It was that same sense of belonging that the loading screen for EverQuest: Rain of Fear inspired in me when I took part in a guided tour of the new expansion.

I admit it has been a while since I ventured into the vast world of EverQuest, but I still had a big daft smile on my face as the strains of Jay Barbeau’s sweeping theme swelled in the nerd center of my heart.

With a band of plucky journalists and SOE devs, I was part of an intrepid venture into the various new zones of Norrath; places tainted and warped by the shards of fear, pieces of the fallen god Cazic-Thule that have rained down across the lands – hence the title of the expansion.

It is simply staggering that EverQuest is up to its 19^th expansion, there are few – if any – MMOs that can boast the richness of content and history contained across the huge, sprawling landscapes that comprise EQ. Rain of Fear promises all new places to explore, as well as new twists on classic, beloved characters and areas.

The zone of Shard’s Landing is intended to be a hub for EQ adventurers, its purple portals leading to other areas awash with mobs and treasure.

A City of Bronze port click item, a 24-slot container, and a phase spider metamorph click (for pets and familiars) are among the many items available to people who pre-order the Rain of Fear expansion.

Here is a look at the spider:

And for a host of goodies available with expansion pre-orders (for both Standard and Collector's), check out this article over on the official EverQuest site.

An offline Bazaar system is among the features being introduced with the Rain of Fear expansion. Just how exactly will it work? Here are the details!

The Art of the Deal

Players have long requested the ability to sell items while they are offline, and with EverQuest: Rain of Fear this will become a reality!

Brokering while offline couldn't be simpler with this feature upgrade! Simply set up your broker as you normally would, making sure to have correct pricing on all of your selections, and then click on the new button in the trader interface labeled "offline mode." If you prefer to use command lines, we've got you covered; the command "/offlinemode" will have the same effect.

Using this button (or command) will log you out of EverQuest, but your trader will remain active. Any sales made during this time will work normally, and you'll be happy to log back in and find freshly delivered piles of platinum on your character!

SOE Live unveiled details of their newest expansion to the venerable EverQuest, Rain of Fear, which will be available November 28th. 

Cazic-Thule, longstanding as the God of Fear, has been killed and dethroned, and his death has split his might into Fear Shards, which have been scattered all over the world. Worse yet, unify enough and he returns to life. 

New features to the expansion include an aggro meter, which shows your aggro as a percentage, and the Autonomous Brokering, which allows items to be delivered to you instead of sought out when trading in the Bazaar. They have added more simple Slayer tasks, like killing ten barbarians, which expands into twenty, which expands into up to one thousand. Most tasks reward you with simply titles, but the more complex ones grant experience or rewards. Some even grant you bonuses to your abilities or spells against that monster type.

SOE has also said that it's very easy to get to level 100 through the quests themselves, and there is a relaxed focus on grinding, which is a welcome relief. And, most notably, to get a wizard portal from the world event, players will have to build it themselves. I am always excited for more player events, like Firefall.

Julian "Mirai" Williams

EverQuest and EverQuest II have expansions coming up, and - like with most expansions - there are pre-order kits available. What do you get in them? Well let's find out!

EverQuest: Rain of Fear pre orders come with the Harbinger's Staff and Fear Corrupted Phase Spider Metamorph Totem, both of which are only available through the pre-order. The standard edition comes with these, plus seven additional items, including a painting, an idol, a pair of storage cases, and a bracelet. The Collector's edition comes with even more, including a house pet and an upgraded Rucksack.

EverQuest II: Chains of Eternity, meanwhile, comes with a Cloak of Mourning that's exclusive to the pre-order. Regular edition gets two Scrolls of Ressurection plus Drinal's Scythe as a mounted replica. The Collector's edition, however, includes several powerful potions (including a six hour double experience potion), a Firiona Vie Memorial Tapestry, and a werewolf mercenary companion. 

Pricing has been announced for both expansions, just in case you need to start saving those dollars. EverQuest: Rain of Fear and EverQuest II: Chains of Eternity come in at $39.99 for the standard edition, or $89.99 for the collector's edition. Preordering the collector's edition will currently carve that price down to $59.99, adding another sweet bonus to the bundle of loot.

Julian "Mirai" Williams