The Darkened Sea

The Darkened Sea (TDS) is EverQuest's 21st expansion. It will be released for All Access members on October 28, 2014. Free to play accounts (with purchase of expansion) will gain access on November 11, 2014. Beta September 16 – October 24. Beta sign ups began September 3.

Pre-order
It appears there will be no pre-order for The Darkened Sea.

Features

 * Advanced looting feature
 * Adaptive System - Always loot what you want and never show you items you don't want to see. Auto loot and put in inventory.
 * Random Rolling
 * Master Looter
 * Solo, Group & Raids!
 * Assign master looter in raids.
 * Level Cap Increase to 105
 * New Spells, AAs, and Items for Level 105
 * New feature: The Mount Key Ring!
 * New Tradeskills, new cultural gear.
 * New Spells
 * New AAs
 * Auto-Granted AAs from House of Thule to All Access characters (if auto-grant enabled).
 * New Hero's Forge armor sets.

Zones
There will be eight zones at launch. Three tiers for group gear, two tiers for raid gear.
 * Tempest Temple - Hub zone. Worshipers of Karana seeking to create the perfect storm.


 * Brother Island
 * Caverns of Endless Song - Siren queen. Some swimming but most fighting out of water.
 * Combine Dredge - Mining platforms to harvest from the bottom of the ocean. Raised from the ocean by magic.
 * Degmar, the Lost Castle - Insane dwarves. Magical barrier keeps out the sea.
 * Katta Castrum: Waters Rising
 * Thuliasaur Island - Dinosaurs and lizardmen. And Drogmor.  Temple to Cazic-Thule.


 * Arx Mentis - Final zone. This zone is a floating fortress of the Combine Empire.

Getting to TDS
Characters will be able to zone from The Buried Sea to Tempest Temple (hub zone). It is expected that there will be druid and wizard ports and guild hall portal access to TDS.

Lore
Firiona Vie has been traveling the world on a mission from the goddess Tunare to bring the realm back into balance. Her latest efforts have brought her to the Buried Sea, seeking to heal the ruler of the Combine Empire, Tsaph Katta.

Now it’s time for you to travel to the domed city of Katta Castrum and find Firiona! After Firiona came here with her allies to heal Tsaph, the city was attacked by Lanys T`vyl and a corrupt splinter faction of the Combine. In the chaos, Tsaph was kidnapped. Now it’s up to Norrath’s heroes to find and rescue Tsaph, foil the nefarious plans Lanys has, and acquire amazing loot along the way!

Video trailer
SOE Live 2014: EverQuest - The Darkened Sea Expansion Keynote