PTS 1.2 Patch Notes – 4/22/11 – In Progress

PLEASE NOTE: Patch notes for the PTS represent work in progress and are subject to change prior to any patches reaching live shards.

PTS 1.2 4/22/11

GENERAL GAMEPLAY
* Those who managed to sneak behind enemy lines and complete the introductory artifact collections inside Meridian or Sanctum now have a special reward coming their way!
* To make Artifact set collecting more fun for more Artifact hunters, rarity rates have been tuned to be less extreme between common and rare Artifacts. We’ll be keeping an eye on this through future updates to see if the rates need another boost.
* Artifacts for the Guardian version of the introduction quest for artifact hunting no longer have a sell value.
* Markers for completed quests will now always appear on the main map regardless of whether they are currently being tracked in quest stickies.
* ‘Discover’ quest objectives will no longer increment while a character is dead.
* Characters can no longer accumulate multiple daily quests from the same ‘group’ in their quest journals.
* For quests requiring you to kill level-appropriate targets, tooltips for mobs of too low level will no longer indicate that they will count for the quest.
* Reduced Auction House deposit prices by about 25%.
* You now receive an alert message when reaching a currency cap on your character (ex: Planarite).
* New clothier NPCs have appeared in Meridian and Sanctum following the rise in numbers of fashionable Ascended.
* You may now purchase a 5th role at your Calling trainer!

SLIVERS
* As we all know, Telara’s universe is comprised of a myriad of planes and realities that all intersect with each other and with Telara at seemingly random angles and times.
* A “Sliver” is a place where a thin slice of another reality can be seen intersecting with our Telara.
* Some of these slivers are places where planar conflicts may have already been won or lost. Help set things right in other realities, or protect our own from their influence!
* The Planar Goods merchants in Meridian and Sanctum now sell the ascended power to view slivers – Omen Sight for Guardians and Quantum Sight for Defiants.
* These new abilities allow you to see things others might not be able to see, and potentially lead to the discovery of the entrance to Gilded Sanctum, a raid instance intended for 10 players.

WARDROBE SLOTS
* Wardrobe slots are now available for you to customize your character’s look!
* All characters have access to the first wardrobe set (all armor slots) at level 1.
* Additional purchaseable wardrobe sets will allow you to save and swap multiple outfits quickly.
* You can only equip armor of the appropriate type for your calling – Plate for Warriors, Leather for Rogues, etc.
* Additional clothing items will be available in the future, including from new Clothier vendors in Sanctum and Meridian.

CRAFTING RIFTS
* Lures for Crafting Rifts and are obtained by completing the new weekly crafting quests in addition to the tradeskill-specific Plaque the quest awards.
* These Rifts drop raw materials, Augments, and other goodies for crafters.
* Reaching the final stages gives a chance of obtaining an additional plaque!
* Crafting Rift lures open a Rift of appropriate level for the zone. In addition, materials awarded are also based on the zone level where the Rift is opened.
* All levels of crafting Rifts give a chance for an additional plaque from the bonus stages, even below your character level.
* Bring your friends and spread the wealth!

ROLE/CALLING DISPLAY
* Shifted from 5 different Combat Role colors to using a combination of Combat Role icons and Calling name colors.
* Callings use the following colors: Red – Warrior, Purple – Mage, Green – Cleric, Yellow – Rogue.
* An icon is displayed to the left of the player’s name to indicate their Combat Role.
* Defensive/Tank – Shield icon, Damage – Sword icon, Healer – Cross icon, Support – Flag icon.
* These indicators now also appear on search results and Warfront leaderboards.

RIFTS AND INVASIONS
* Increased the rate of major zone events – the type that drop purple zone currencies.
* Gear from Expert Rifts has been increased in power. Existing items will be updated automatically.
* NEW EXPERT RIFT: The Expert Earth Rift ‘Auricore Forerunners’ is now available!
* NEW RAID RIFTS: The Raid Rifts ‘The Golden King’ and ‘Drakith Hatchery’ are now available!

ANCIENT WARDSTONES
* Ancient Wardstones should no longer disappear mysteriously.
* Ancient Wardstones now have their own tooltip type with related information displayed on mouseover.
* Ancient Wardstones are now shown on the main map when controlled by one of the factions.
* During zone events, Neutral Wardstones now take reduced damage, much like Defiant and Guardian wardstones do.
* Invaders attacking the Ancient Wardstone in Howling Plateau of Scarwood Reach will no longer travel through Scarlet Gorge to get there.

GUILD PERKS
* Planar Protection: Fixed a typo in the tooltip for this perk.
* Recall Scrolls should continue to count down their reuse time while you are logged out.

GUILD QUESTS
* Guild quests requiring you to kill a number of monsters from rifts now require that your target be green, but no longer require an overall minimum mob level for guild level 10 quests or below.
* New weekly harvesting guild quests are available from Horace Shoe in Meridian, and Cardinal Gladewillow in Sanctum. These are taken and completed as an individual, but reward your guild.
* More standard guild quests have been added to the mix!
* Player-kill objective PvP quests now require more updates in general.
* Warfront PvP quests now update more consistently.

CULT SAGA
* Forces of the Plane of Death: Updated the quest text to indicate that participation in the Rift is required to receive credit.
* The Means of the Endless: Towers should give more time between waves, and mobs will despawn after wipes.
* Cutting Off Communications and Tombs of Old can now be updated through the Expert version of the appropriate dungeon.
* A Family Affair: The aura detector can now be used again on Jiles Newkosa if you fail to kill him the first time.
* Powers of Life and Air: Now requires only Honored notoriety.
* Securing Source: Now asks a bit more than just running the Deepstrike Mines dungeon.

COMBAT
* Autoattacks now resume more quickly after performing abilities.
* Reactive Abilities now check if an effect comes from your character or your pet, which allows abilities like ‘Flesh Rip’ to appear correctly.
* Scorpion and Ranged Spider-type (yikes) mobs: Skittish: Reduced from a 25% Dodge bonus to a 10% Dodge bonus.
* Fixed a bug where the Battleworn debuff didn’t prevent NPCs from regenerating health outside of combat.
* NPC Assassins: Malicious Strike ability for these NPCs now deals damage and snares the target by 30%.
* NPC Assassins: These NPCs no longer use Paralyzing Strike when attacking from stealth. They now use an NPC version of Assassinate instead.
* Basilisks’ Toxic Discharge, Scarab’s Septic Wound: These NPC abilities are now properly cleansable as Diseases.

SOULS
* PvP Souls: Break Free: In addition to cancelling crowd control and movement impairing effects, Break Free now grants 5 seconds of immunity after being activated.
* Reaver, Void Knight, Paladin, Warlord: Fixed a bug causing AoE taunts to only trigger an 8 second cooldown with each other rather than the full shared 1-minute cooldown.

ARCHMAGE [PvP]
* Mana Shield: Fixed so this now works as described.

ARCHON
* Exhilaration: Now only triggers on damaging or healing Critical Hits.
* Power in Numbers: Corrected an issue where the second rank of this ability was not affecting aura abilities.

ASSASSIN
* Serpent Strike: Damage increased. Cooldown reduced from 10 seconds to 8 seconds.
* Impale: Damage increased.
* Assassinate: Damage increased.
* Backstab: Additional damage bonus from Attack Power increased to 100% from 50%. Ability base damage increased. Now has a 6 second cooldown.
* Murderous Intent: Fixed a bug where this was not giving the correct percentage increase to physical damage.
* Poison Malice: No longer causes stealth to break when activated.
* Hidden Veil: Reworded ability description.

BARD
* Cadence: Damage slightly reduced for ranks 2 through 10. Cadence will also correctly give 3 combo points instead of 2 when you have points spent in Expedited Wounds [Infiltrator].

BEASTMASTER
* Backhanded Blow: Fixed a bug causing this to not deal extra damage per bleed on the target. Also properly affected by abilities that modify attack-point building attacks.
* Flesh Rip: Now correctly considered a bleed effect for other Beastmaster abilities. Also no longer incorrectly triggers a global cooldown.
* Removed the ‘Messy Wound’ effect that showed on the target’s debuff bar when they were critically hit by a pet.
* Protective Companion: Fixed a bug causing non-offensive polymorphs (such as several quest effects that disguise you) to break while this was active.
* Spoils of the Hunt: Should now heal correctly.

BLADEDANCER
* Flash of Steel: The minimum required range to use this ability has been reduced to 3 meters from 8.
* Deadly Strike: Corrected an issue where rank 9 and 10 were both trained at level 42. Rank 10 of Deadly Strike is properly trainable at level 48.
* Quick Strike: Additional damage bonus from Attack Power increased to 100% from 50%. Ability base damage increased.
* Precision Strike: Additional damage bonus from Attack Power increased to 100% from 50%. Ability base damage increased.
* Mass Subdue: The damage from Mass Subdue will no longer trigger secondary effects like Serrated Blades or weapon poisons, and will no longer cause the incapacitation effect to break as a result of these secondary effects.
* Blade Tempo, Side Steps, Blade and Soul Parity, Double Coup, and Dualism: No longer cause stealth to break when activated.

CABALIST
* Distorted Shadows: Fixed rank 10 to do appropriate amounts of damage.
* Dark Water: Fixed the damage dealt per tick to match the intended total damage listed on the tooltip.

CHAMPION
* Mark of Extermination: Effect now ends when the target dies.
* Intense Training: Fixed the incorrect soul tree display for the impact of Intense Training on Soldier’s Bearing, Slayer’s Bearing, and Destroyer’s Bearing.

CHLOROMANCER
* Living Shield: Fixed an issue where this was returning mana if the absorb shield was removed before it expired. Also correctly removes mana when it deals damage.
* Enduring Tether: The cooldown reduction granted by this ability is now reflected in the Soul Tether tooltip and affects it properly.

DOMINATOR
* Controlled Opportunity: In addition to its current functionality, this now also gives the next damaging ability used on the target a 100% chance to hit, but prevents that ability from critically hitting.

DRUID
* Weight of the World: Fixed tooltip to properly indicate that healing is affected as well as damage.
* Friend of the Weald: Fixed tooltip to indicate that it also affects attack power contribution.

ELEMENTALIST
* Charged: Now properly affects ranks 8, 9, and 10 of Lightning Strike.
* Tempest: Corrected an issue where Tempest would apply inconsistently to AoE abilities.

INFILTRATOR [PvP]
* Focused Intent: No longer works against non-player targets.

INQUISITOR
* Sanction Heretic: The damage over time portion now has a separate name, Sanction, so it can be differentiated in combat logs.
* Life and Death Concord: Now has a 6-30% chance to proc and no longer has an internal cooldown. Utilizing the proc now gives Bolt of Depravity a 10 second cooldown after that cast.
* Armor of Treachery: Now increases Armor and Endurance.
* Armor of Devotion: Now increases Spell Power and Critical Hit.
* Armor of Awakening: Now increases spell damage by 5%, critical hit by 5%, and mana regeneration rate by 10%. Increases damage taken by 5%.
* Aggressive Renewal: Added a tick for a total of 4 intervals, increased the mana restored, and reduced the cooldown to 1 minute.

MARKSMAN
* Due to the below changes, characters with soul points spent in Marksman will receive a free soul point respec.
* Fire and Forget: Removed.
* Eradicate – New Ability: Available after spending 44 points in Marksman. Removes up to 2 buffs from the enemy target.
* Close Quarters Combat: Now a 1 point passive ability rather than an activated one. Now available as a 6th tier branch ability.
* Bull’s Eye: Now available as a 5th tier branch ability.
* Crossfire: Available after spending 26 points in Marksman.
* Sniper Training: Revised. Now increases the damage of Empowered Shot and Deadeye Shot by 5-15%.
* Controlled Fire: Removed.
* Improved Hit and Run: New ability available after spending 38 points in Marksman. Allows the execution of ranged attacks while moving; causes Empowered Shot and Deadeye Shot to become instant cast abilities, removes cooldown on Empowered Shot, and reduces the Energy cost of all Marksman abilities by 50%. Shares a cooldown with Hit and Run.
* Hit and Run: No longer causes stealth to break when activated.
* Rapid Extraction: Revised – it now reduces the cooldown of On the Double, Hit and Run, Improved Hit and Run, Bull’s Eye, and Retreat by 15-30%.
* Strafe: Now deals an additional 20% damage if you are standing on your Pedestal.
* Rapid Fire Shot: Revised. No longer adds a buff that increases your attack speed. Now a ranged damage finisher that fires 1 shot per combo point up to a maximum of 5 shots. 20 second cooldown.

NECROMANCER
* Corpse Explosion: Rank 3 now has a 10 second cooldown instead of 45 seconds.
* Blood Spike: Ability description now updates to reflect changes from Clattering Bones.
* Plague Bolt: Fixed an issue that allowed this to gain damage bonuses from other players’ stacks of Deathly Calling.
* Shadow Revenant: Ruination: No longer gains damage bonuses from Vengeful Spirit for stacks of Deathly Calling above 5 on the target.
* Soul Rend: No longer gains damage bonuses for stacks of Deathly Calling above 5 on the target.

NIGHTBLADE
* Heat Retention: Fixed an occasional issue where this wouldn’t always trigger when using a damaging ability that awards a combo point.
* Ebon Fury, Twilight Shelter, Twilight Transcendence: No longer cause stealth to break when activated.

PALADIN
* Balance of Power: Removed internal cooldown. Tip the Balance still has an internal cooldown.
* Improved Paladin’s Devotion: Now shows correctly reduced cooldown in tooltip and on the cooldown timer.

PARAGON
* Shifting Blades: The tooltip has been updated to better reflect that this ability is intended to be used with two-handed weapons or sword-and-shield builds.
* Deadly Grace: Fixed a bug causing this to trigger on every other Dual Strike, instead of on all of them.

PURIFIER
* Ward of the Ancestors: Reduced cooldown to 3 seconds. Ward of the Ancestors cannot be cast again on the same target for 20 seconds.
* Caregiver’s Blessing: No longer triggers the global cooldown.

PYROMANCER
* Burning Bonds: Using this will no longer cause a pet to stop attacking an enemy if the Pyromancer has the Unbreakable Bonds ability.
* Ground of Strength: Now reduces damage received by 20% and reduces damage dealt by 10%.
* Fire Storm: Will no longer award Charge if an ability that blocks Charge generation is active. Updated description.
* Combust: Fixed an issue causing multiple stacks of the DoT effect to only deal the damage of one stack. This now works properly.

RANGER
* Double Shot: Fixed a bug where this would cause Fang of the Life Lord to trigger.

REAVER
* Power From the Masses: Now triggers off of any damaging ability used, rather than just AoEs.

RIFTBLADE
* Planar Blade: Fixed a bug causing Planar Blade to not proc as much as was intended.
* Stonespear: The root from this ability should now break based on damage dealt to the rooted target.
* Fixed several issues that were causing Burst abilities to trigger out of order.

RIFTSTALKER
* Rift Disturbance: Now generates more threat than before.
* Planebound Resilience, Planar Refuge, Scatter the Shadows: No longer cause stealth to break when activated.

SABOTEUR
* Incriminate, Carpet Bombing, Rapid Setup: No longer cause stealth to break when activated.
* Spike Charge: The bleed effect from Spike Charge should now trigger the Blood Rage effect on your pet if you have soul points spent in Ranger’s Blood Rage.
* Combat log messages now appear when Energy is refunded for using Charges out of combat.

SENTINEL
* Word of Hope: Now also increases the spell power bonus of Healing Breath by 2% + 1.5% per point spent in Sentinel above 36.

STORMCALLER
* Building Storm: Now gives a 100% critical damage bonus to Hypothermia-causing spells, up from 50%.
* Lightning Storm: Will no longer award Charge if an ability that blocks Charge generation is active. Updated description.
* Lightning Conductor: Now correctly affects ranks 9 and 10 of Thunderbolt, and rank 10 of Electrocute.

VINDICATOR [PvP]
* Subdue: Now properly lowers damage against all targets.

VOID KNIGHT
* Pacts: Changed the way Pacts are spent. Abilities no longer consume all Pacts on the caster – they consume a set amount and their effects are modified by those Pacts consumed. This should allow Void Knights to strategize the use of Pacts while also keeping some in reserve when using abilities.
* Fusion of Flesh: Revised – now protects the Void Knight for 20% of their maximum health for each Pact consumed by the next 5 non-Physical hits over 30 seconds. Each non-Physical hit heals the Void Knight for 20% of their maximum health. Consumes up to 5 Pacts.
* Discharge: Revised – Now costs 2 Pacts. The first damage effect will remain the same and occur with 1 or 2 Pacts consumed; the second hit will scale based on how many Pacts the Void Knight spent. The overall damage of the ability should remain the same as the previous incarnation.
* Tempest: Moved to require 26 soul points, with additional ranks added. The first damage effect will occur regardless of how many Pacts are spent and is unchanged, while the second will scale based on how many Pacts were spent. The overall damage of the ability should remain the same as the previous version.
* Rift Shield: Now costs 5 Pacts. The overall absorption should remain the same, with the only change being that it doesn’t consume all Pacts available.
* Ravenous Strength, Ravenous Defense: Now apply and last as long as Pacts. Any abilities adding a Pact will add these, and anything that removes Pacts will remove them.
* Ragestorm: No longer incorrectly hits more than 5 targets.
* Insatiable Hunger: Fixed a bug causing this ability to take the value of the target’s weapon in calculation, rather than your own.
* Improved Rift Summon: Now shows correctly reduced cooldown in tooltip and on the cooldown timer.
* Quality Care: Fixed a bug causing Quality Care to trigger off of pre- and post-phase Warfront heals. Also fixed a typo in the ability description.
* Spell Sunder: Won’t incorrectly remove Distraction debuffs from the target.
* Accord of Emptiness – New ability: Reduces damage dealt by melee attacks by 20%, and non-physical attacks by 10%. Available with 50 points spent in Void Knight.
* Spellbreaker: will no longer remove the Reaver’s Binding of Atrophy. The debuff from Binding of Atrophy can now be removed.

WARLOCK
* Devouring Shadows: Will no longer award Charge if an ability that blocks Charge generation is active. Updated description.

WARLORD
* No Permission to Die: Fixed a bug that could cause this to not actually heal the Warlord on ‘death’.
* Promise of Steel: Cooldown reduced from 10 seconds to 8 seconds.
* Call to Battle: Now also places a buff on the Warlord, Battle Caller, which increases their Attack Power. This buff stacks with Call to Battle and other raid-wide buffs.
* Call to Entrench: Now also places a buff on the Warlord, Entrenchment Caller, which reduces their damage taken. This buff stacks with Call to Entrench and other raid-wide buffs.
* Call to Regroup: Now also places a buff on the Warlord, Regroup Caller, which increases the threat they generate. This buff stacks with Call to Regroup and other raid-wide buffs.
* General’s Order – New Ability: Available with 51 points, this ability acts like Sergeant’s Order versus a group of up to 5 enemies.

ZONES
* Zone bosses spawned by Ancient Wardstones in Scarlet Gorge, Scarwood Reach, and Droughtlands now display on the main map.

DROUGHTLANDS
* The talking Raptors around Redoubt no longer have say text on aggro. Clever girls.
* You can no longer mount in the upper levels of Lantern Hook.
* Battle Royale: Gave the Arcane forces a bit more survivability.
* In the Name of Lantern Hook: The first quest objective now shares updates with a group.
* Scout and About: Adjusted map indicators.
* Clearing the Rest: Added map indicators to help with finding the Fleshrend Centaurs.
* In the Name of Lantern Hook: Updated quest text to better indicate that using the Standard is what summons Mongrok.
* Thwarting the Emberlord: Fixed an issue that could cause Morkael to get into a broken state. Also corrected the display of the sword-type quest reward to not look like an axe.
* Back to the Pit: Quest rewards corrected!
* Carrion’s Song: Increased Carrion’s respawn rate. The Flightsong ability now lasts twice as long, though it reduces Carrion’s damage output by 50% rather than 75%. Flightsong still hits Carrion like a truck. Reduced Carrion’s level from 43 to 42 to match the quest level.
* Words of the Damned: Added some visuals for being teleported around Redoubt Tower.
* NPCs at Brigand’s Bluff and Fallback now have levels appropriate to the surrounding content.
* Stormbrood Lair: Mob population now responds better to the level of player activity in the area.
* Hook and Crook, Grab and Go: You should now be able to continue on a scavenger hunt regardless of whether a new one has started.
* The Biggest Void: Reduced the amount of mana taken and damage done by Netharius’ Life Glutton ability. Netharius and his Summoned Nethers now deal less damage, and the Summoned Nethers have slightly less health.
* The Full Rundown, On the Hoof: The tooltip for Whirl of Speed now displays the correct duration of 6 seconds.

FREEMARCH
* Uncanny Box: Fixed an issue that could cause players to teleport to another tower in the Iron Fortress.
* Trial of Combat: Sir Olgedon should no longer be able to enter a broken state after being defeated in combat.

IRON PINE PEAKS
* A new zone event has been added to Iron Pine Peaks! Planar Chill – hold the Icewatch Bulwarks to defeat the forces of Crucia!
* Frozen Gauntlet: Visually improved and optimized this daily quest. Also made it update properly for all members of a group.
* You can now turn in Iron Pine Peak event dailies even when the corresponding event isn’t running.
* Shipment Triangulation: Fixed the icon for the Locator Device.
* Bitter Winds: Fixed some rare cases that could cause this quest to stop working.
* Redsnow Bodyguards no longer get so confused over who is Defiant or Guardian.
* Consequences of Neglect: You can now progress past the second objective of this quest.
* A Gathering Storm: Added map markers to the second and third kill objectives.
* An Unbearable Burden: Fixed several issues with the debuff applied during this quest.
* Defiants that die near Choke Water no longer respawn at the Guardian resurrection point there.
* Jengri Blackfoot can no longer be helped repeatedly by Savik and Kric.
* Moved a few artifacts that were impossible to reach or iced over.

MERIDIAN
* Garad Nallam, the primary planar merchant in Meridian, now has the appropriate ‘Planar Goods’ merchant title.

MOONSHADE HIGHLANDS
* Added a porticulum to Reclaimer’s Hold.
* Honor Them: Quest now grants updates for the entire group.
* Mistfall Monsters: This quest now has map locators for both objectives.
* Memories of the Past: Fixed incorrect tagging mobs for corpse scanning.
* Wild Element: Fixed an issue causing Bound Sobeks to incorrectly grant credit for this quest.
* Tormented Minds: Fixed Veiled Nightmares not being attacked by guards.
* The Key to it All: This quest now gives more accurate instructions.
* The Relics of Bahralt: Abyssal Thieves should no longer mount more than one ambush in each location.
* A Holy Remedy: Fixed an issue that caused a few of the Sickly Dwarves to be incurable on this quest.
* Death’s Embrace: Sped up the respawn of Abyssal Focusers.
* His People’s Shield: Updated quest visuals to have a physical form for those with lower settings who can’t see the visual effects.

SANCTUM
* Assassination attempts have become so frequent that they no longer stun Cyril. Cyril, Borrin, and Shyla now have boss-style immunities, including against interrupts.
* Quartermaster Melke, the primary planar merchant in Sanctum, now has the appropriate ‘Planar Goods’ merchant title.

SCARLET GORGE
* The Living and the Dead: The Uythradge Eye will now dismount players.
* Spared Parts: Reduced the respawn time of Elemoil.
* Broke Down Bahlmus, Spared Parts: The modified DX-27 will now drop the Carmintium Belt for all party members.
* An Unlikely Initiate: Fixed an issue that could cause Agogag’s cage door to close instead of open.
* Strange Brew: Noxious Fumes debuff is now less obnoxious. It shouldn’t get stuck on you.
* Crushing the Constructs: Increased respawn rate of quest targets and flagged additional mobs in the area to count toward this quest.
* Rift: Basilisk Den: This rift should no longer claim to be ‘Minor’ when it’s really full of super strong creatures.

SCARWOOD REACH
* Added a respawn point, resurrection NPC, and Healer just outside of Trollblight Caverns to alleviate rage caused by dying in the cave and having to run back from Perspice.
* The undead population of Granitewood Crossing should be a little less punishing.
* An Innocent Condemned: The Cage Key can now be looted by all members of a group.
* Proof of Concept: Now with 100% more Reliquary sealability.
* Recovering the Unknown: Fixed map marker to show actual quest objective area.
* Can You Hustle?: Quest objectives no longer require you to complete them sequentially.
* Honest When Dead: Fixed missing map marker.
* Wrongfully Buried: Elysia Raymund now offers this quest only to Defiants.
* Rift: Eaters of the Dead: The Flesh Mound for this event should no longer fail to spawn.
* Rift: In the Ground: Elite mobs should no longer spawn throughout this entire Rift.
* Draylo Fuzzchin’s supply of Greater and Mighty Mana Potions has finally run out.
* Risen Channelers in Granitewood Crossing no longer have a knockback attack and had their damage output reduced by 20%.

SHIMMERSAND
* Foiled Plans: Players in Hazeed’s Cave waiting to take on Hazeed will no longer be teleported out when another player defeats him.
* Miracle of Modern Magic: The quest marker for Fibrous Reeds should show a more accurate area.
* Pillaged Goods: This quest now requires only 7 Confiscated Sourcestones instead of 10.
* Turn the Hourglass: Quest objective should now increment more reliably.
* Foiled Plans: Fixed a rare issue where the Enthralled Stonemaw would fail to die during this quest.
* Making a Deal: This quest now displays a map locator for both objectives.
* Assistance from the Dead: You can now re-awaken mobs for this quest if your initial target is killed by someone else.
* Ritual Rescue: Fixed this quest for Dragonslayer Covenant dailies.
* The bridge in Gildstone Sanctum can now be crossed after completing the quests ‘The Prize and the Power’ and ‘Strike the Earth’.
* The Pulsing Grit buff can no longer be purged from Akala’s minions.
* Sandstone Brutes in Gnawbone Valley will no longer hide in walls.
* Players running the Low Quality Renderer should find it much easier to complete the Shimmersand Puzzle.
* A Crafter’s Lament: Quest now grants credit to all members of a group.
* The Inmate Disguise will now display on the quest sticky for the following quests in the Flatyard: Slither the Voice, Welcome to the Yard, A Man Who Can Get Things, The Mastermind, Loose Ends, and Final Preparations.
The Kobold members of The Wanton in Firesand Desert now drop Ritual Firebrands.
* Removed the prerequisite quest for Ritual Firebrands.
* Zone Event: Wind and Wings: Corrected the progress text.

SILVERWOOD
* The Vigil’s Shield: Tweaked the mechanics of this quest slightly for playability.
* Lord of the Fae: Makirn will not respawn so quickly if there is no one nearby on the quest.

STILLMOOR
* A new zone event has been added to Stillmoor! An Eye for an Eye – gather shadestone to summon your own champion in order to defeat Gogalab the Pox Bringer!
* Ruston is now a potential invasion location for Defiant invaders.
* Stillmoor got a bit less stingy – daily quests now award notoriety comparable to other end-game zones.
* Guardian players that were eligible but did not receive the Marshal Kain storyline rewards (a Necrotic Semblance or Necrotic Rage essence) should seek out Sergeant Coda at Thalin Tor.
* Abominable Reconnaissance: Removed the use time on manifests to make them a bit easier to click on while also fending off abominations.
* Master and Wolf: Improved respawn time of quest targets.
* Following the Light/The Light that Leads: The Retreating Instincts ability now makes the targeted wisp unattackable. Additionally, the polymorph it puts on your character can now be clicked off.
* In a Quiet Place/Where the Dead Rest: Fixed an issue that could cause the Obrivic Sentinel to not return to his original location after being kited away, or remaining hostile to players.
* Dark Discoveries: Increased the drop rates on the Abominations slightly.
* Dirty Job: Adjusted the visual effects that appear when near the Blessed Weapons so they are more visible and last longer.
* Sniffing Them Out: Coyotes should now properly spawn when requested.
* The Past: Added more clues and adjusted the location of existing clues to make this quest easier. Added another Cooking Fire nearer to Tigram Stillstep for luring Gunder away. Spawn rate of Stillstep Lackeys reduced.
* Drugon Khaliknos now respawns more quickly.
* The Hunt Rages On: The named mobs for this quest now respawn much more quickly.
* The Big Three, The Dead Ringers: Reduced respawn times on targets of these quests.
* Decreased respawn times on some daily quest targets in Stillmoor.
* The Endless Citadel should be slightly easier to fight through – especially for those who use mana to dispatch their enemies.

STONEFIELD
* Taking the Trog for a Walk: Goorn should now properly reset when a player abandons this quest.
* The Smoldering Tormentors of Rock Ridge have grown more numerous!
* The Last Valley: Centius respawns more quickly.
* Stealing Glory: Only players on this quest should receive Soul Essence.
* Extra Strength Relief: The Fluid Injector now dismounts players at the start of use.
* Gnarvul, Questing Overseer, and XT-300 have now been sighted by reliable sources in Stonefield.

DUNGEONS AND RAIDS
* If players log out while in a raid, as long as one member is still actively online the raid will be kept and offline members shown as Disconnected.
* The health of general population mobs in Expert Dungeons has been reduced.
* Greenscale’s Blight and River of Souls now have closer respawn locations.
* Many bosses have had a pass done to bring them in line with their intended difficulty, and to make them more fun for melee damage characters in general. In a number of cases, some encounters were more challenging than intended. These changes should also help with forming appropriately matched groups through the upcoming Looking for Group system.

ABYSSAL PRECIPICE
* Kaler Andrenos: Kaler’s Ice Geyser now deals Water damage.
* Expert: Calyx now resets if pulled off of his platform. A blocking wall is also activated at the start of the encounter.
* Expert: Renthar should be less likely to chain high damage abilities on a single target.

CHARMER’S CALDERA
* Gronik: Slightly reduced the amount of power Gronik gains over time.
* Cyclorax now uses mana.
* Expert: Adjusted the encounter space around Ryka Dharvos so the lasers can’t be so easily avoided.

DARKENING DEEPS
* Expert: Glubmuk’s Poison Bolt should not hit characters fewer than 6 meters from him.
* Expert: Scarn’s Wind Buffet no longer ignites smoldering bones.
* Scarn’s Smoldering Bones stay on fire longer.
* Incinerator Gerbik now uses mana.
* Non-boss NPCs in Darkening Deeps no longer count toward quests requiring dungeon boss kills.

DEEPSTRIKE MINES
* Kaleida: Reduced the radius of her crystals’ AoEs substantially.

THE FALL OF LANTERN HOOK
* Oludare: Fixed the targeting method used by Oludare so he won’t turn to face a new target while cleaving or rear-kicking (in the face).

FOUL CASCADE
* Expert: Sparkwing learns to use his ranged abilities. It’s super-effective.

GREENSCALE’S BLIGHT [Raid]
* A number of new Relic quality weapons have been added to Greenscale.
* Prince Hylas: Slightly reduced the absorption amount of Spiritual Barrier.
* Prince Hylas: Modified the amount of damage increased by Avenging Wrath.

IRON TOMBS
* Expert: Players immune to knockback will no longer be immune to Totek’s Ancient Fury.
* Expert: Bonelord Fetlorn’s Boiling Marrow no longer affects pets.
* Guardians now respawn next to the Messenger of the Vigil.

KING’S BREACH
* Expert: General mob populations have been reduced by a few pulls.
* Expert: Immunity to knockback no longer prevents damage from Konstantin’s spikes.
* Expert: Konstantin’s Cleaving Strike now has a proper effect radius.
* Expert: Konstantin’s Mathosian Fury displays an on-screen warning before use.
* Expert: Players within 3.5 meters of Konstantin receive a 20% damage bonus.

REALM OF THE FAE
* Expert: General mob populations have been reduced by a few pulls.
* Chillblains: Fixed the targeting on the Elemental spawn, which was not working reliably.
* Luddoghan: Made some adjustments to prevent his ground goo from targeting the tank.

RUNIC DESCENT
* Rictus: Adjusted how Rictus uses his abilities and reduced some of the associated stuns and stun durations.
* Expert: There is now a text warning when Eliam gains Dark Fury.

ITEMS
* Greater Essences that can be equipped simultaneously now stack properly with each other. Previously, a few cases of matching elemental type Greater Essences would sometimes conflict. Now, if you can equip both in the same Focus, you receive the benefits and effects of both Essences.
* Unique-Equip Families have been removed from most Greater Essences; you should now be able to equip any Greater Essences together. Planar Lenses still share a unique-equip family (you can only have one Lens equipped at a time).
* Added description text to the Lute and Flute artifact merchant items.
* Strength-type random essence containers should no longer give out underleveled essences.
* Cult Saga quest reward helms for Mages and Clerics have their Hit replaced with Focus.
* The Pyroblade from Fall of Lantern Hook is now a bind on pickup item.
* Royal Ruby Charm: Melee Critical Hit is now Spell Critical Hit on this item.
* Sandwarden’s Robe: Changed Spell Critical Hit to Spell Power on this item to differentiate it from Robe of the Last Ritual.
* Whip-Worn Britches are now called Whip-Worn Boots and should have the correct appearance when worn.
* Petrifying Rune: The root proc effect now breaks on damage.
* A number of mysterious items no longer drop with no apparent use (Diviner’s Frond, Sublimated Stone, etc). They may make a reappearance someday!
* Scotty’s Research Papers are no longer Soulbound and have an appropriate sell price.
* The Rare Essences, ‘Marching Flood’ and ‘Battle Tide’ are no longer Soulbound when acquired.
* The ability on Divine Defender will now trigger properly, instead of not at all.
* Warmaster’s Hammer: Spell Critical Hit removed and replaced with more Parry.
* Totem of Overgrowth: Healing from this item now correctly displays in the combat log.
* Titan’s Eternal Band now properly has Focus instead of Hit.
* Martyr’s Fist now has a chance to deal an additional 90 Life damage, instead of claiming to restore mana – which it never did.
* The Crystallized Fire Elemental essence sold in Fortune’s Shore has been removed and replaced with a new Greater Essence. Existing Crystallized Fire Elemental essences will not be changed.
* The effects of Sacred Heirloom of Eth and Totem of Overgrowth have had their chance of triggering with Area Effect abilities decreased, and their chance of triggering on single target abilities increased. These also now only trigger from the first tick of a heal over time spell.
* Lich-Skin Jerkin and Battlemaster’s Jerkin can now be sold to vendors.
* Wand of Charred Earth: Changed Melee Critical hit to Spell Critical hit.
* Night Leather Jerkin now has Attack Power rather than Spell Power.
* Scorching Blade of Talos: Now properly has Spell Power.
* Fang of the Life Lord: Updated tooltip to clarify that the user is healed for the damage caused.
* Aelfwar Conspirator’s Signet will now properly display in combat logs, and has a more informative tooltip.
* A number of offhand books and skulls have their appearances fixed.
* Several shields were improperly set to be equippable by both Warriors and Clerics, including: Bulwark of the Dragon, Arbiter’s Defense, Prince’s Crest, Aegis of Souls. These have been corrected.
* Despoiled Band was not able to be equipped by anyone; now it can be equipped by anyone. Oh, and it also has a correctly spelled name.
* Hand of the Eviscerator now triggers properly.
* The Fleshreaper now triggers properly.
* Verdant Archbow should no longer proc on non-damaging abilities.
* Arcane Hand Icon should no longer trigger when using Sacrifice Life: Mana or other non-hostile spells. It also now triggers only on the target of the ability that caused it to proc.
* Helmet of Transgressions is now Warrior-only.
* Mortuous Shadestone should proc more reliably now.
* Bahralt’s Symbol of Justice, Thedeor’s Symbol of Retribution, and Thontic’s Amulet of Discovery: Replaced Hit with Focus on these items.
* The cooldown on Unseen Insignia will now continue to count down while you are offline.
* Battlemaster’s Jerkin now has real stats.
* Fervent Shadestone Necklet and Mighty Shadestone Necklet now have Focus instead of Hit.
* The axe ‘Shadefall’ now has Endurance rather than Wisdom.
* Grand Bauble of Brilliance now has the correct icon and appearance.
* Waylon’s Ring has been resized so it fits as a ring instead of a necklace.
* Buckley’s Necklace is now an actual necklace instead of a ring. Increased stats to bring it in line with other neck items.
* Brilliant Shadestone Amulet now has Focus instead of Hit.
* Shroud of Anti-Life now sorts under the proper Auction House category.
* Spectral Horse items are no longer Unique.
* Essence: Watertouched Soulstone: Updated the ability description.
* Essence: Elementalist Sourcestone: Now works as described.
* The Quicksilver Yearbook now requires being equipped to trigger.
* The essence Beholden Target now correctly has Attack Power instead of Spell Power.
* Ancient Ironwood Staff now has Endurance instead of Dexterity.
* Faeguard Belt has its Block changed to Parry, as Rogues do not generally block.
* Many Expert Dungeon and Raid loot items had no sell value – this has been corrected.
* Changed the name of the dropped cash item, Shimmering Powder, to Glittering Powder to avoid duplicating the name of the Epic Runecrafting ingredient, Shimmering Powder.

CRAFTING
* New weekly crafting quests have been added for all six production skills. Each awards a plaque as well as a Rift Lure that can be used to open a ‘Crafting Rift’ (details above).
* The recipe window now has a Search feature! Search recipe names, ingredient names, equipment slots, and Rune ‘usable on’ slots for recipes that your character knows. You can also filter by the type of modification a Rune provides (Strength, Spell Power, etc).
* For each production skill, one Master workorder has been bumped up to 250 minimum skill instead of 230.
- Order of Mathos Workorder: Mighty Bottle of Critical Strikes has been changed to Workorder: Mighty Healing Tonic, which does not include Pristine Distillate as an ingredient, and requires 250 skill to receive this quest.
- Icewatch Workorder: Radiant Rage Runeshards now requires 250 skill to receive this quest.
- Icewatch Workorder: Soulbind Leather Shoulders now requires 250 skill to receive this quest.
- Dragonslayer Covenant Workorder: Carmintium Sabatons has been changed to require Carmintium Pauldrons, and requires 250 skill to receive this quest.
- Dragonslayer Covenant Workorder: Carmintium Longsword has been changed to require Carmintium Stilettos, and requires 250 skill to receive this quest.
* Armorsmithing Workorders that duplicated the required items from other workorders of the same rank have been updated – in most cases this means a Sabaton Workorder now asks for Boots instead.
* Workorder: Basic Healing Tonics and Workorder: Mighty Healing Tonics (previously Mighty Bottle of Critical Strikes) are no longer set as level 1 quests.
* Exquisite Cloth, Light Downy Cloth, and Tough Silken Cloth now only drop for Outfitters.
* Slightly increased the drop rate of all crafting quest items. In addition, they can now be found on a wider variety of mobs and resource nodes.
* The description for the quest ‘A Peerless Leather’ now refers to the correct quest objective items.
* Bottle of Spellstrikes and Bottle of Critical Strikes now trigger the effect ‘Bitter Aftertaste’, which prevents another such potion from being used for 60 seconds.
* Redistributed some ingredients in Runecrafting recipes! The changes are as follows:
-Unwavering Rune recipes now use Perpetuals in their recipes instead of Sentience Runecrafting materials.
-Resolute Rune recipes now use Perpetuals in their recipes.
-Recondite Runeshard recipes now use Sentiences instead of Kinetics.
-Potent Rune recipes now use Perpetuals instead of Kinetics.
* Recipes for Quicksilver Bow and Hunting Bow now require only 1 Core each.
* Fine Leather Shoulders now require Fine Leather instead of Reinforced Leather.
* Enchanted Cores and Evergreen Cores can now be found in both Silverwood and Freemarch.
* The following crafted items are no longer Unique-Equip: Ebony Hatchet, Darkmetal Scepter, Orichalcum Ritual Blade, Darkmetal Sword, Divine Defender, Orichalcum Mace, Eviscerator, Damascus Shiv, Damascus Saber, Band of Crystallized Mana, and Titan’s Signet.
* Smoldering Runeshards have been renamed to Smoldering Runes.
* Updated any references to Windstealing Rune to say Windshielding Rune. This recipe is now purchasable from Quartermaster Ciaba with the requirement of Storm Inquisition notoriety.
* The scroll for Recipe: Medium Leather Hood was previously Epic, though the crafted item was Uncommon. This has been corrected so the recipe scroll shows Uncommon rarity.
* Plaited Silver Ring has been renamed to Plaited Cinerium Ring.
* Death Warding Potions have been renamed to Unholy Warding Potions.
* Glowing Wrathful Rune now displays its name correctly after being applied
* Fixed a typo where Honed Demon Horn mentions parry. This reference has been removed. Like other versions of the Demon Horn augment, Honed Demon Horn only award Attack Power and Dexterity.
* Jagged Lightstone now sorts properly under ‘Gems’ for auctions.
* Recipe: Exalted Bottle of Tricks: Now requires notoriety with the Arcane Hand, who sell the recipe.
* Darkcloth Belt, Conditioned Leather Boots, and Conditioned Leather Jerkin now sort under the appropriate categories in the Recipe window.
* A number of items from Dungeons and Raids were not able to be Salvaged or Runebroken. Now all dropped equipment in Expert Dungeons or Raids should be salvageable or runebreakable.
* The following items now Salvage correctly: Silver Choker, Lariat, and Pendant; Gold Chain, Choker, Gorget, and Lariat; Fine Platinum Chain; Platinum Choker, Gorget, and Necklace.
* Tweaked node respawn rates in Shimmersand, Moonshade, Scarlet Gorge, Scarwood Reach, Iron Pine Peak, and Stillmoor. Adjusted respawn rates and frequency of Orichalcum, Shadethorn, and Twilight Bloom.
* Fixed miscellaneous Butchering issues: Telthaeus in Stillmoor can now be butchered for proper loot. Blackhorn Grazers and other Cattle mobs (with the exception of critters) can be butchered. Sloptongue mobs no longer require 215 butchering, which was way above level, and have been adjusted accordingly.
* Fixed a variety of typos on items, augments, tooltips, and recipes.

PVP/WARFRONTS
* PvP Souls have been moved from the rank 2 PvP merchants in Meridian and Sanctum, and are now on the General Favor Quartermasters.
* Across-the-board improvements for PvP rewards and dailies.
* Rank 5 weapons have been moved to the rank 4 vendor, and had their names and prices updated.
* Rank 6 weapons are now available for purchase.
* The effectiveness of Valor has been updated. The numerical values have changed, but you will still gain 2% reduction per level up to 50.
* Complete PvP armor sets now give the following Valor:
- Rank 1 and 2: 15%
- Rank 3 and 4: 22.5%
- Rank 5 and 6: 30%
- Blazing Valorous Rune: 50 Valor – 2%.
- Radiant Valorous Rune: 25 Valor – 1%.
* Stat distribution for all PvP armor sets have been updated to be a bit more competitive with Expert Dungeon and Raid sets.
- Boots, Gloves, and Rings that were previously rank 2 no longer require a rank to purchase or equip.
- New items have been added to make a rank 1-2 set comparable to the tier 1 dungeon merchant sets.
- New Boots, Gloves, and Rings have been added to the rank 3-4 sets, and their quality has been upgraded to be comparable to tier 2 dungeon merchant sets.
- Favor costs have been updated on many items across rank 1 through 4 sets.
* Increased the experience, coin, prestige, favor, and notoriety awarded from completing Warfront daily quests.
* Increased the Notoriety awarded for Warfront outcomes. Wins award 250, Ties award 150, and Losses award 100.
* Also increased the amount of Prestige and Favor awarded for losses or ties in Warfronts.
* The range for receiving rewards from kills in Warfronts now includes the entire zone.
* The Battle for Port Scion: Infiltrators using Step Into the Shadows will lose their grip on Sourcestones.
* Updated The Battle for Port Scion Notoriety rewards:
- Eldritch Vanguard Steed and Noble Guard Valmera no longer have a Notoriety requirement and can be purchased from the General Favor Quartermasters.
- Friendly-rank necklaces have been upgraded to Epic items.
- Decorated-rank rings have been upgraded and now require Honored to purchase.
- Revered-rank weapons have been moved down to Decorated. Two-handed Warrior weapons are now available.
- Eldritch Vanguard Warsteed and Noble Guard Armored Valmera can now be purchased at Revered.
- New consumable helm Runes are now available at Glorified.
* PvP Quests: Securing the Port and Relentless Assault now only update when winning matches in The Fall of Port Scion.

ACHIEVEMENTS
* Keep Your Enemies Close: Now specifies the proper ability.
* We Three Kings: Fixed a case where Derribec wasn’t always giving proper credit for being the last alive.
* There Will be Blood: Fixed an issue where credit was not properly being awarded.
* Rapid Assault: Abyssal Precipice: Fixed so this achievement is not always awarded, even when the criteria has not been met. Characters who had received it while not actually completing the required task will have this achievement removed.
* Spikeless: Now gives credit only to the player completing the achievement rather than the whole party.
* The Silent Vigil: Achievement can now be gained by Defiants.
* Champion of the Droughtlands, Droughtlands Hunter: Guardians should now be able to achieve these.
* Baron It All: Now displays under the proper category and gives achievement points.
* Look Into the Light: Now functions as intended.
* Melted Sludge: Should properly give credit.
* Avoiding Death’s Grasp: Now properly gives credit and has an updated description.
* Back In the Bottle: Time limit reduced to 100 seconds to match the encounter.
* Pressure Cooker: Updated the description text and made it so you can actually get credit for this achievement.
* The achievements ‘Thwarting Their Plans’, ‘On the Hunt’, and ‘Stillmoor Days, Mathosian Knights’ could potentially not credit properly if the associated quests were completed as a group. If you were caught by this, you’ve now been credited with the appropriate achievement. It will also work properly for those yet to complete them.

GRAPHICS AND AUDIO
* Fixed a bug that could cause incorrect animations to play when stacking polymorph effects.
* Improved quality of shadows.
* Fixed an issue causing visual effects to occasionally streak across the screen.
* More natural-looking character skin.
* Improved the appearance of Water Elementals and Living Oceans.
* Updated sounds for High Elf and Kelari males.
* Various ability sound fixes based on user bugs and feedback.
* Voiceover audio should no longer continue to play after you have logged out or teleported.
* Improved rendering of ghostly characters.
* Touched up audio for Paragon and Justicar abilities.
* Attack sounds for weapon-based melee attacks should come through a bit more clearly.

COMMANDS AND MACROS
* Tab-targeting now skips hostile players if you are not PvP flagged and have the PvP Auto Flag option turned off.
* You can now use the ESC key when typing in chat while the respawn countdown window is active.
* If all nameplates are disabled in your settings, pressing Ctrl+U will only toggle the UI.
* Added the @mouseoverui macro argument to supplement @mouseover; @mouseoverui will oly select from UI elements and never pick targets when not moused over a UI selection.

AUCTION HOUSE UI
* Adjusted window size and panels.
* Browse: Moved Results field to the bottom of the window. Reduced size of Category filter dropdowns.
* Auction: Added a checkbox to set the same price as an existing auction on new auctions.
* You can now filter results by Item Rarity, Calling, Lesser or Greater Essence types, Min or Max Buyout Price.
* All tabs can be sorted by stack size.
* The Auction and Bids tab can be sorted by unit price.
* Clicking a text field on the Auction UI now highlights existing text in that field.
* Pressing the ENTER key when creating an auction now creates that auction.
* You can now price an auction you are creating by buyout price or unit price.
* You can now automatically set the starting price to be the same as the buyout price when creating an auction.
* Auction prices now always display the Bid amount above the Buyout amount, and the location of the Bid amount does not move if there is no Buyout set.

UI/SETTINGS
* Group and Raid overhead arrows, map icons, nameplates, and ground reticules are now all blue to maintain consistency, instead of mixed colors.
* A blue “X” now distinguishes your own map waypoint target from others in your group.
* When departing a guild and joining a new one, your member notes and officer notes will be reset.
* An option has been added to the Raid window (default key: Y) to lock raid frames from being moved outside of Edit Layout mode.
* The Guild MOTD text box now allows you to type in it even when other things are updating in the guild UI window.
* Added more specific error text when trying to trade with a character that is out of trading range.
* Splitting stacks of items in your inventory now brings up a count window showing the total stack size instead of always displaying one less than the full stack amount.
* The Spell Power tooltip also explains that it increases outgoing healing.
* A dropdown has been added under Misc settings to change/add a modifier key to activate the right-click context menu in game, or to disable it entirely.
* Raid markers can now be seen on player, target, target of target, and focus target frames.
* Fixed an issue where icons, particularly arrows, on the edge of the minimap would show in the wrong location.
* Waypoints are now cleared when changing characters or leaving the main world map (i.e. entering Warfronts).
* Fixed some quest highlighting bugs when opening, closing, or scrolling through the Quest Journal.
* The Class Mechanic UI now updates size when changing the global scale, rather than waiting until your next role change.
* The ‘only show my debuffs’ setting now only applies to targets that you can harm.
* The ‘show all party buffs’ filter now applies to frames other than just the party frames for party members.
* Added a new minimap filter to show High Level Quests.
* Fixed a bug causing the 2D Scrolling Combat Text to appear in an incorrect location when playing at resolutions wider than 2000 pixels.
* You may now track artifact set progress on-screen much like quests.
* Sending an in-game mail message now attempts to auto-complete the subject line based on recently typed subjects.
* Fixed a bug preventing ability tooltips from displaying when mousing over a buff icon on the target or pet portraits.
* The crafting window should no longer reset the scroll bar position randomly while you have it open – same with the skill and soul training windows.
* The Auction House now shows “Apothecary” rather than “Alchemy” when searching recipes.
* The middle mouse button can now be properly bound to the ‘look behind’ function.
* Video capture now stops when resizing the game window.
* Party member portraits now show a Role icon next to the player name.
* Mail expiration text in the mailbox now says “Expires in X days” rather than just “X days from now”.
* Player mouseover tooltips now show the character’s Role if you are grouped with them.
* Fixed bank bags that wouldn’t always save their positions on your screen.
* You may now hide your character’s shoulder armor in much the same way as the Hide Helmet option works.
* The Notoriety panel of the character window now lets you view more than one notoriety group at a time.

CLIENT
* While waiting in a server queue, you can now click the Settings button to change game settings.

According to executive producer Scott Hartsman they developed the technology to “..substantially address some of the shortcomings that this genre still has.” Most of these shortcomings are based around static content. According to the interview, Trion has assigned specific roles to each server which increases modularity and allows them to start and stop processes more quickly and easily. For example, one group of servers may be responsible for non-player activity while another group of servers may control activities that directly affect the player. By breaking up these functions Trion can more easily scale the Rift Events to handle 100-1000 players. The problem they encountered was making these servers perform well together.

Yeah, it was hard, but it was well worth it. We’re really just now at the point we’re about 25% into all of the things we can do with our technology and we’re looking to add more

-Scott Hartsman

This is encouraging news for those of us that hope for a long and fruitful life with Rift. As they improve this technology and continue to scale the servers, we may see even more world changing dynamic content that doesn’t have to occur with a static content update. The most intriguing news to me is the attention Trion has placed on non-player activity. I believe non-player events and interactions can really lend themselves in creating a more believable, living world. This type of interaction is lacking throughout the gaming industry and it’s nice to see a publisher building technology to address the problem.

Hi all, With the opening of the final phases of the River of Souls World Event in Europe we have identified several issues that only came to light in a live server environment. Due to this we have had to temporarily disable the World Event in Europe and are delaying the opening of the event on North American shards until a full investigation and corrections can be made.We do not have a specific ETA at this time and apologize for the delay. We strive to provide a high-quality experience and will not start the event until it meets those standards. In the meantime, all players in Europe and North America can continue to participate in Phase 1 of the world event and earn Otherworldy Sourcestones. Thank you for your patience and understanding, we will keep you updated when additional information is available.

Hotfix #14 04/08/11

WORLD EVENT
* Rings from the event merchants are now properly labeled as ‘Unique’. These rings were previously set to be Unique but the text was not appearing on their tooltips.
* Added a display for the level requirements to Shadetouched Weapons Cache quest starting items. The level requirements existed previously but were not displayed on the item tooltip.
* Death Rift: Eternal Souls: You know that dragon that had wings but liked to walk a lot? He flies now!
* The Battle for Freemarch zone event now rewards Otherworldly Sourcestone for participation while the River of Souls event is underway.
* Adjusted the stage objectives for the River of Souls event Rift, ‘Pride Before the Fall’. Added better messaging to the stages involving the Soothing Stone Light.
 
GENERAL
* Fixed the Normal Practice Dummy having the defenses of a Boss Practice Dummy.
* Guild Perk: Planar Protection: Fixed a bug that caused this perk to consume Banner reagents.
* Fixed a bug where the Sir or Dame title would occasionally not be sent to eligible characters.
* Corrected the stats on the essence ‘Elusive Prey’ to have Melee Critical Hit instead of Spell Critical Hit.

ZONES
* Fixed issues in high-level zones that could cause Invasions to not spawn. This should help with zone events not spawning their Invasions as well.

SANCTUM
* Scotty’s Induction Ceremony for the Runeguard will no longer be interrupted by hostile creatures appearing in the same area.

SILVERWOOD
* The rare spawn mob, ‘Pandora’, can now be killed by Defiants.

DUNGEONS AND RAIDS
* Over 100 new item drops have been added to Expert Dungeons and Raids!

DARKENING DEEPS
* Expert: Scarn: Fixed the fires so they stay stuck on the bone piles.
* Expert: Scarn: Molten Phlegm effect is now cleansable. If your buddy is on fire, put them out!
* Expert: Scarn: Reduced area of Scarn’s frontal cleave so it shouldn’t catch players who are visibly outside of the front area of effect.

GREENSCALE’S BLIGHT [Raid]
* Duke Letareus, Infiltrator Johlen, and Oracle Aleria now drop 3 items when killed.
* Prince Hylas now drops 4 items when killed.
* Greenscale now drops 4 items when killed, and additional Relic items have been added to the possible drop list.
* Resolved a rare edge case where the instance would crash during a raid wipe-triggered Lord Greenscale reset.

AUDIO
* Addressed a bunch of audio issues with combat sounds being very quiet or not playing at all.
* The Lute purchased from Artifact rewards has more even-volume sound effects.
* More audio volume-level fixes for sounds playing too loudly (level up, anyone?) or too quiet.

CRAFTING
* A system fix to Unique-Equip crafted items that made them look for the base item when checking the Unique-Equip status went in with the 1.1 patch. This made identical rings or weapons with different Augment or Rune types unable to be equipped at the same time (or re-equipped if you already had them on a character and removed one or both). We are taking a look at the current Unique-Equip crafted items affected by this to see if further adjustments to their power are needed in order to keep them desirable.
* You can no longer close opened crafting reward containers and lose items left inside.
* Quests from dropped Cloth starters (The Caress of Cloth, Textile Texture, and From a Humble Scrap) can once again be completed and lead to the follow-up provided by the turn-in NPC.
* Calamitous Runes and Ravaging Runeshards now provide Spell Critical Hit. Devastating Runes and Destructive Runeshards now give Melee Critical Hit.

SETTINGS
* Added a self-cast modifier key dropdown under Settings -> Combat. This allows you to set a key that will always try to self-cast an ability if that key is held while the ability is used (such as setting up ‘Alt’ to allow ‘Alt+1′ to attempt to self-cast the ability in hotbar slot 1).
* There are now two sliders to scale the size of player and NPC nameplates under Options -> Name.
* Video recording: A bit rate slider has been added to the recording options window that will affect the quality and size of the video created.

CLIENT/SERVER
* Coin lock should be behaving better for players who also run VPN software on their machines.
* Server performance improvements.

Originally posted by Gersh (Source)

---

I wanted to stop by and give a quick update on Malformed & Corrupted souls, and which fixes are in progress to help with the rate of earning these items.

Dungeons are one way of aquiring these items, but at the same time we want a path in which playing RIFT content opens up access to additional RIFT content. So Malformed and Corrupted souls should have also been dropping off the appropriate high level rift content. Currently on live this is not the case and the team is working to remedy that issue ASAP.

Ultimately players should be able to obtain these items from more locations then just dungeons

Malformed Souls
Tier 1 End Dungeon Bosses (Common)
Level 50 Rifts (rare)
Shimmersand, Ironpine, and Stillmoor Colossi Events (uncommon)

Corrupted Souls
Tier 2 End Dungeon Bosses (Common)
Expert Rifts (Common)
Shimmersand, Ironpine, and Stillmoor Colossi Events (rare)
Shimmersand, Ironpine, and Stillmoor Zone Events (uncommon)

After we get these items fixed on LIVE we will continue to watch the drop rate for these items, as well as the rate in which the content is being spawned and completed. Ultimately we want this content to be accessible, but not trivially common.

Thanks,
-Gersh

GENERAL
* The intensity of Alsbeth’s assault on Telara is increasing! The number of rifts, invasions, and zone events is rising in all zones!
* Fixed a bug that was allowing some creative people to equip one more weapon than they had hands for. This was not an intentional advantage of being an Ascended.
* Removed Valmera mounts from the resourceful Defiant players who managed to purchase them. Don’t worry, we refunded the cost, and hope you enjoyed them while they lasted!
* The Dye Vendors will be returning from their vacation with this update.
* Guild and PvP Quests: Killing the same character more than once will again give credit toward these quests.
* Quest: Harbinger of Sorrows: Modified quest text for better clarity.
* The Saga of the Endless: Trophies of Death: Quest now updates by closing Death Rifts.
COMBAT
* Warriors: Tempered Will, Paladin’s Devotion, and Ruthless Pursuit can now only be used when the Warrior is under one of the effects these abilities remove.
* Tracking abilities no longer dismount you on use.
BEASTMASTER
* Protective Companion’s Pounce taunt now properly causes the taunt target to switch to the pet.
ELEMENTALIST
* Icy Carapace: Rank 7 now lists the correct damage for this ability.
SABOTEUR
* Charge Booster: Reworded description for more clarity. Using Detonate with 5 Combo Points will fire off a Booster Charge, dealing 50% weapon damage. The total damage dealt is increased by 15% for every point spent in Saboteur above 21.
VINDICATOR [PvP]
* Tactical Strike: Fixed an issue causing this to trigger several times more often than it should. Now triggers 5% per point spent. Damage increase to target has been reduced from 10% to 5% per stack. Description updated to note that this stacks up to 5 times.
VOID KNIGHT
* Residual Absorption will no longer show as a buff that can be clicked on to remove.
WARLOCK
* Empowered Darkness: Ability will no longer get overwritten by weaker buffs.
DUNGEONS AND RAIDS
* A number of Greenscale belts were incorrectly equippable by all characters. They are now limited by class for equipping.
* King’s Breach: Expert: Konstantin’s Mathosian Fury can no longer be removed by player abilities. It also has a tooltip description!
CRAFTING
* Salvaging Rings and Necklaces that use gems in their recipes now returns salvaged gemstone items as well as regular gems.
* Crafted bow: The ability on Hawk’s Talon was not triggering, and has been fixed.
* Crafted bow: Verdant Archbow’s tooltip has been corrected so it properly lists the damage done.
* Relic-quality items should now be Salvageable and Runebreakable, although why you would want to break such lovely items remains a mystery. But you can, if you want to!

Screen grab of the opening cinematic

Regulos in all his glory (also from the opening cinematic).

The very first thing you seen when you gain control of your character. The tutorial overlays are useful if you're new to MMO's.

The quest giver interface.

The Defiant love their technology.

The very first opportunity for combat.

If you look around in this starting area, you'll notice things aren't going very well during this time period in Rift.

You're fearless leader. She's here to offer encouragement and upgrade your worthless starting mace to something a bit better. And if you look really close, you might even spot a Brian or two.

The Faceless Man. I don't believe this is the last time you'll see this character...and he has no face. I had to take a picture.

This big dude escorted me to the next zone. You'll notice quickly that there are a lot of BIG things in the world of Rift.

You're first Rift encounter. This sequence is pretty intense and sets the stage well for the game.

Asha will hold off Regulos as you make your way through the Rift and back in time. You're job is to prevent all of this from happening.

Grab from the cinematic following your entrance into the Rift.

We're led to believe Asha fell to Regulos after we pass through the Rift.

A shot taken immediately following my exit from the Rift.

Some scenery around the post-intro starting zone.

The post-intro starting zone: Ark of the Ascended. Notice the special overlay on the left hand side for the World Event that was occurring.

One of your first assignments, shoot some canons at the bad guys. Is it me or did I do this exact same thing in WAR?

Your second questing area: King's Retreat.

This area is directly south of King's Retreat and is where you'll accomplish many of the that area's quests.

A fire squirrel, as promised.

A random rift event.

Kelari Refuge. This was the final quest area during my run up to level 10.

Level 10!

I hope you enjoyed this tour of Rift as much as I did playing through it. In the future, I hope to write similar posts covering the remaing levels 11-50. Stay tuned!

GameBreaker.tv – The Sanctum 12: Content King

Player Vs. Rift – Episode 3: Of The Fortress

The Rift Podcast – Episode 37: Elrar, Abi, Micajah and Patch 1.1

The Rift Reporter – Episode 8: River Of Souls

Rift Riders – Episode 5: Elitists and Gankers

Rift Watchers – Episode 7: Swimming In The River Of Souls

Last updated: 4/4/11

Main

Main stats are available to every character regardless of class. These will provide a benefit to your character regardless of role, though some are far greater for your role that others.

Armor: This is a core attribute aimed at all classes for damage reduction. 1 point in Armor = 0.017% reduction in damage.

Dexterity: This stat increases physical(melee) crit, dodge and parry. This stat is aimed at Rogues and classes with a focus on avoiding damage. 1 point in Dexterity = 0.5pt in Physical Crit, 1pt in Dodge, 0.4pt in Parry.

Endurance: This stat increases your characters health, which obviously benefits all classes. 1 point in Endurance = 9pts of Health.

Intelligence: This stat increases Spell Power, Spell Crit, and Maximum Mana. It is aimed at Mages and other Mana using classes. 1 point in Intelligence = 1pt in Spell Power, 0.5pt in Spell Crit, and 10pts of Mana.

Strength: This stat increases Attack Power, Block, Parry, Physical Crit, and is aimed at physical DPS and tanks, mainly Warriors. 1 point in Strength = 1pt in Attack Power, 1pt in Block, 1.5 in Parry, and 0.4 in Physical Crit.

Wisdom: This stat increases Spell Crit and Mana Regen and is geared towards Healing. 1 point in Wisdom = 1pt in Spell Crit and 0.5 in Mana Per 10.

Resistance

Resistances work the same regardless of class or school. Each point in a particular school of resistance results in a 0.5% reduction in that school’s damage and a 0.1% chance to resist. Resistance is available in the following flavors:

Air
Death
Earth
Fire
Life
Water

Melee/Ranged

The next two categories are a second layer of calculation. Your base stats translate to these categories, which then in turn convert to actual benefits in game. This first set applies to melee and ranged DPS classes.

Attack Power: Increases Physical DPS and applies to all physical DPS souls. 1pt in Attack Power = 0.1pt in Physical DPS.

Block: Increases chance to block with a shield, for shield wielding souls. 1pt in Block = 0.28% chance to block an attack.

Dodge: Increases chance to avoid an attack for all avoidance play styles. 1pt in Dodge = 0.024% chance to dodge an attack.

Hit: Increases chance to land a physical attack, applies to all melee dps. 1pt in Hit = 0.01% chance to hit the target.

Parry: Increases chance to parry an attack, applies to all avoidance play styles.  1pt in Parry = 0.28% chance to parry an attack.

Physical Crit: Increases chance to critically hit with physical attacks. Applies to all physical dps souls. 1pt in Physical Crit = 0.41% chance to critically hit with a physical attack.

Spell

Focus: Reduces Target’s Resistance. 1pt in Focus = -1% chance for target to resist spell.

Spell Crit: Increases spell-based critical strikes. 1pt in Spell Crit = 0.04% chance to critically hit with a spell.

Spell Power: Increases spell-based DPS. 1pt in Spell Power = 0.02 DPS.

The case for add-ons

There are several cases that can be made for the inclusion of addons.  The first is that they improve our quality of life.  One example of something that I miss are addons that will help me organize my bags.  I personally love having one window for my bank and bags, instead of the multiple windows the default UI provides.   There are people that also like to change the skin of the default UI.  Folks like to add tool bars or use addons that change the normal functionality of the stock toolbars.

Another reason is the ability for addons to increase the amount of information you can see on screen.  Addons like Deadly Boss Mods for World of Warcraft are a prime example.  The information is available in the default UI, but making that information more accessible is key  for many players.  Addons can not only increase the amount of information or change it’s location, but they can reduce the amount of information to only that which a player wants or needs to see. As a former raid leader, I used several addons that let me streamline my management of the raid.  I had an abundance of information available to me that allowed me to make critical adjustements in the middle of a raid.

Finally, there is the matter of the min/max player.  These individuals  use addons to squeak out every single ounce of performance that they can from their character.  Damage meters are a good example.  The ability for these players to get real time feedback on damage per second, threat, or healing statistics is imperative.  There are currently programs that can parse your data after the fact, but many prefer the ability to make adjustments on the fly.

The case against add-ons

A common complaint that I hear is that by allowing addons you’ll get damage meters and gear score programs that will encourage elitist behaviors.  I’m sure most people are aware of the “meter” measurement in other games where you’re categorized by your placement on a scale of dps/healing. Gear score addons have the specific purpose of ranking people solely by the equipment their character has.  These types of addons can have a side effect of taking focus away from enjoying the game and shifting it to raw numbers, that may or may not be telling the whole story.

There is also a feeling that addons somehow lower the skill level of players.  By using programs such as Deadly Boss Mods, you’re allowing a player to not pay as close attention as they otherwise would have to.  This particular addon simply enhances a bosses abilities and makes them more obvious to a player.  However, this also leads to a dependence on them and they quickly become mandatory.

Where to from here?

Regardless of where you stand on the issue of addons, Trion has left itself some room by neither confirming nor denying if they will eventually add the API and allow addons.  Up to this point I have enjoyed the game and the lack of addons hasn’t hampered that all. Trion has give us a lot of flexibility in UI placement, that has to a certain extent, made it a bit easier to leave in an add-on free world.

What are your views?  Should Trion allow add-ons?  Feel free to comment and let us know!