Exclusive Swashbuckler Epic concept art revealed

Earlier in the week we spotlighted leaked photos of two of the twenty-four Epic weapons being introduced in EverQuest II's Game Update 42 this Tuesday. Today we got our greedy little hands on the concept art behind another one, the Swashbuckler epic, a sword (rapier?) dubbed "Charm's Way." You can click on the image to see a larger version.

These class epic weapons will only be acquired at the end of a long quest whose steps are not revealed. Players will have to piece together the clues spread across Norrath to even find the quest starter. No pre-released guides for these bad boys. Why? A short history lesson going back into MMO history explains all.

When the original EverQuest was in beta back in 1999, the lead designer Brad McQuaid appeared in-game as a Paladin with a flaming sword, the Fiery Defender. This was one of first times particle effects were seen on weapons in the MMO. Everyone wanted that flaming sword. When the game launched SoE put in a very long, difficult and arduous quest for Paladins to acquire that epic, class-defining weapon. Every other class immediately demanded one of their own.

The first EverQuest expansion, Ruins of Kunark, was released in 2000 and epic quests were implemented soon after culminating in the best looking, most powerful weapons in the game, tailored to each class. But these were no quest on rails. Zero information was given on where to start, who to talk to or even what the final reward would be. Players on every server ran across the known lands, hailing every NPC to check for a new response, noting down any new mobs that appeared in long established zones and then congregating on class message boards to share information. It was a wild goose chase in the dark. With no map.

But every class started putting the pieces together. Some quest NPCs only appeared at certain times of the day, other NPCs required a certain amount of faction to interact with, some rare mobs had to be camped (hello Quillmane) and others had to be triggered in just the right way. The race was on for each class to discover the final prize before any of the other classes did the same.

Some classes were able to do this very quickly, but others, such as the Magician class, which required a 3-day raid to get to a spawn point of a rare mob as well as a drop from a mob that had only been seen in the game a handful of times (see Quillman above), took over 9 months to be unraveled.

For every class, a raid was required at some point in the quest chain, cutting off many players from their class weapon for many years until mudflation allowed old raid encounters to be defeated with a single group. For classes like the Cleric whose epic had a manaless, clickable resurrection spell, this caused much controversy as many players wouldn't be accepted in raid guild without theirs.

Sounds painful but what it did was bring the community together like never before. And it was so popular that EverQuest introduced a new generation of epic weapons in its eighth expansion, Omens of War, released in 2004. This time there were two versions of each class epic, one that can be achieved with a small raid and an upgraded version that required a full raid.

Since the launch of EverQuest II over three years ago players have been demanding epic, class defining weapons. SoE promised them with the launch of their 3rd expansion, Rise of Kunark, last November. But the San Diego fires that caused an evacuation of SoE's SoCal facilities for an entire week made it impossible for them to finish the quests and art for all 24 classes in time.

Now, in Tuesday's Game Update 42, a promise unwittingly made nine years ago in the beta of the first 3D MMO is being fulfilled for the current generation of players. Complete with community defining quest info blackout in place. And a race to see which class can claim to be the first to wield one of the most coveted items in the history of Norrath.

We can't wait.