Archaeologist

Announced on eq2players, New Character Class: Archaeologist

The EverQuest II team is happy to announce the inclusion of a new character class in Game Update 34. This class will be the first class to allow players to start new characters in Haven as an exile. We now introduce you to the Archaeologist.

Class Details
Archaeologists are the first example of 'Master Classes' in EverQuest II and will be one of the harder roles to fill. Archaeologists will start out weak initially, relying on stealth, speed, and the Investigation skill that has recently been added to the game. As they gain levels their class skills will include increased combat proficiency with the bullwhip, and pickaxe, and exceptional evasion abilities.

Races Allowed
Only humans, dwarves, and gnomes may select the Archaeologist class (Arc for short) in Exile.

Tradeskill Synergy
As master explorers and discoverers, the Arc class will gain a 20% increased chance of harvesting rare tradeskill items, and will benefit from a tradeskill exp. bonus of 1% per tradeskill level.

Signature Quest
To help starting Arc players, a new Signature Quest starting in Exile will take players through the first 20 levels of experience. The quest involves the search for an artifact known as the Orb of Detection. This orb will grant Arc's increased resistances, and invisibility on command. Archaeologists will be able to maintan their invisibility while harvesting.

New Title System
In addition, the Arc class will be the first to demonstrate the new Class/Title system which grants players visible titles based upon the level of experience in their class. Here is a peek at the first 30 levels of titles for the Archaeologist class.


 * XL 1-2: Digger
 * XL 3-5: Field Worker
 * XL 6-9: Investigator
 * XL 10-13: Exhumer
 * XL 14-17: Excavator
 * XL 18-21: Spelunker
 * XL 22-25: Speleologist
 * XL 26-29: Collector
 * XL 30: Curator

Class Hat
Also included in this update will be the Archaeologist Class Hat: The Fedora. Arc characters will start with this hat at first level, allowing us to avoid the time it would take to build the full quest line. It will not be equippable until 65^th level, and is No Trade, No Drop, and No Destroy. Due to this perceived bonus of receiving a hat at first level, the fedora will only be half effective if the character is swimming, or it is raining outside your house.

Phobias
As an added bonus, we have forced the apprentice developers to work hard on including a phobia system into the game. This manifests in a new fear effect in the game which will cause an instant evac to the tutorial islands for any character affected by their phobia.
 * Archaeologists will have the 'snakes' phobia.
 * Paladins will have the 'dirt' phobia.
 * Dirges will be phobic to songs in Major keys, especially from Boy Bands or American Idol.
 * Other classes will get to learn the hard way.

In Closing
The EQII dev team is very excited to share this new class announcement with you. The Archaeologist class should be available on the third Tuesday of April, provided the server hamsters hold up. Here is a preview picture of a 70th level Archaeologist to hold you over until then.