Originally posted by Hartsman (Source)

What an amazing year it’s been. As we approach RIFT’s first full birthday, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on some of the things that have happened since launch and discuss the thinking that will shape the year to come.

If you’re reading this, chances are you already know that we think about MMOs differently than everyone else. To us, everything is about the quality of the service, the speed of meaningful updates, and the relationship that combination creates with you. We never forget that you are the reason we do everything we do.

In our last big Producer’s Letter, we talked about the kinds of themes we were aiming for. We talked about making more story-based adventure available to more people (which surfaced in the form of Chronicles and Slivers), unique and better ways to play with others as easily as possible (which took the form of Instant Adventures, Onslaughts that added new build-and-defend gameplay to Ember Isle, and the largest zone events we’ve ever created), and ongoing advancement that occurs even after you hit level 50 (which then arrived in the form of Planar Attunement).

• In addition to those other key elements, RIFT saw more features, content and gameplay added than many games will deliver in a full-blown expansion.
• We released Ember Isle, the biggest zone in the game to date, along with the largest dungeon to date, Caduceus Rise.
• Ember Isle was particularly important to us, since it showed off our ability to level up the look of world zones, and demonstrated an important iteration toward a new way of doing zone content – A way where dynamic content, events, and story quests are blended together more closely than what came before.
• Five new raids debuted, for groups of both 10 and 20 players: River of Souls, Gilded Prophecy, Hammerknell, Drowned Halls, and Rise of the Phoenix.
• Celebration weekends that provide a way to get your friends checking out the game easily, while adding bonuses to our esteemed subscribers.
• Master Mode difficulty for one dungeon (as of the time of this writing) with more on the way soon (edit: NOTE! This post was written for translation before 1.7′s release)
• Alternate Gameplay Warfronts and Weekend Bonus Warfronts, Post-50 soft bracketing, PvP Rifts, and world PvP bonuses. And a new warfront entirely: Library of the Runemasters
• A new world event every update, each with its own new zone event and frequently its own rifts
• A new Addon system that enables creators to add some really great things to the game. From buff management, to custom layouts, to outfit management, to auctions, and countless others!
• A new Costume system, giving you the ability to look like what you want to look like
• A Veteran Rewards program that rewards loyal subscribers, and Ascend-a-Friend that gives us a way to say thanks when you get your friends on board
• That is not even counting the hundreds of quality of life and playability improvements we’ve brought to the core game.

It’s really insane when you look at them all one after the other. Who does this in under a year? Here. Have a look: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.6.1, 1.7

And we’re just getting started.

As we were planning out 2012, we focused on some key themes: Things that make RIFT unique that we’d like to make even stronger, and places we’ll continue to build on that people really enjoy. Here’s a sampling of the kinds of thoughts that have gone into our 2012 development so far.

• RIFT is about playing with other people

  This is really the key theme of the game, and where it really shines.

  We’re continuing on with our theme of eliminating all barriers to playing with your friends, whether you’re talking about getting new friends into the game, or playing with friends on other servers. We’re also coming up with new ways to make friends, and giving big groups and guilds even more to do together, both in PvE and PvP.

  While we think this is a place that RIFT is strong, there’s more we can offer and places we can continue to leap ahead to give you the best experience possible. We’re planning some great new things to roll out over the coming year.

  We’ll also be expanding Instant Adventure through improved variety and types of adventures, as well as the amount of the world they can be played in.

  It will be an excellent addition to Ember Isle, and there are many other zones that can benefit from this sort of gameplay. Traditional questing is great for some, while many are looking for newer ways to advance. We will be expanding the ways you can choose to progress through the lower level zones.

  Moreover, we’re also looking into the introduction of a Mentoring system, which will empower players to play through areas they have not been for quite a while and be well rewarded for it.

• Souls: Making a great system even better

  We’ve been hard at work on making Souls and Roles easier to understand, while taking a cue from the great combos that you have created, via Soul presets. These new templates will give new players (or players trying a new calling for the first time) a much easier route to understanding the fun of the system and the options it provides, while giving them a way to just pick a popular combination and advancement path if they just want to get in and play.

  We’re looking to maintain the popular feel of the core system itself, while making it more fun to use and keeping the advanced play intact for those who love experimenting and playing with the numbers.

• PvP: It’s time for a leap forward

  The PvP enhancements in 1.7 might as well be called “PvP 2.0.” The Prestige ranks are being re-leveled to provide a more fun progression for everyone. These updates to Prestige Ranks are aimed squarely at making the PvP experience a lot more fun for fresh-50s and lower ranked players. We definitely heard you and agree that was a great place to spend time improving.

  Expect a progression path that’s more fun and more frequently rewarding. Expect a system where you no longer have to swap out a primary soul just to be competitive in PvP. Characters getting their Break Free type abilities built-in.

  The new Mercenary mechanic in Warfronts is included in 1.7 as well. As the number of people participating in PvP has been going up recently, certain wargroups and brackets have become too-Defiant or too-Guardian favored, causing the other side to suffer extended queuing. The mercenary mechanic aims squarely to fix that, by having people from the more populous side standing in as Mercenaries to ensure the queues are flowing as fast as they possibly can.

  We’re also taking the next step in world PvP action through more focused PvP rifts (where only one can exist in the world at a time) and introducing global side-based rewards for the most recent victors, among other enhancements.

  We have some even bigger thoughts for the future of PvP that we’re really excited about for how PvP could eventually transcend the two existing factions and we look forward to sharing those as well.

• Interactions: You want more of them

  When we say interact, we mean both interacting with the game in non-combat ways, and interacting from out of game entirely. “Emphasizing Verbs Other Than ‘Stab’,” is how we talk about it internally. It’s how we think about the kind of a lot of activities you’ve complimented us on over the months – From puzzles and cairns, to artifacts, and more.

  The new RIFT Mobile app is a great example of a new external interaction. Farther down the line, we expect that our plans for Leaderboards of all kinds will provide a new type of interaction and social discovery.

  Our new social gatherings, Weddings being the first example, provide a new kind of non-combat social activity. We’re really interested in seeing what people think here. Enhancements to crafting and new tradeskills are yet another key element on our agenda.

• The End Game is just the beginning

  For raids we have even more 10-person and 20-person excitement on the way. Slivers have done a great job of getting more people into this level of the end-game, and we’re thrilled to be able to keep making this kind of content. As some of you already know about from helping us, the next 20-person raid is already in testing.

Remember, we have several more dragons and their cults to slay before Telara can breathe easy. And then, of course, there’s talk of what will come after, which we’re really looking forward to sharing later this year.

There’s even more excitement in store for 2012 than what we’ve talked about here, and we’re really looking forward to talking about all of it in much greater detail over the coming months.

As always, we will continue to listen to you. You have given us some of our best ideas and we are looking forward to what lies ahead.

On behalf of all of us here at Trion: Thank you very much for being a part of RIFT. Here’s to a great 2012 and beyond!

Scott Hartsman
Executive Producer, RIFT

GENERAL
* Corrected some items that were changed to Bind on Pickup that were previously Bind on Equip, and fixed several items whose required level to equip was inadvertently raised.
* If you are currently over the Favor cap, you can now regain spent Favor when returning an item during the refund buyback period.
* Mobs in Expert dungeons and first-tier Raids and Slivers have powered up and now deal increased damage and have more health.
* Increased hit points slightly on standard population mobs from levels 42-52.
* Augments have returned to providing the same bonuses on crafted items as they did in 1.6. Existing augmented items should be automatically updated.
* Mathosia: A Dim, Dark Eye: King Aedraxis should have his usual appearance back.
* Fixed the occasional doubled message when gaining certain updated Achievements.
* Using /resetuitodefaults should no longer cause a client crash.

PVP
* Reduced the amount of Valor provided by PvP armor sets by 7.5%.

SOULS

CHAMPION
* Weapon Specialization: Now increases damage by 0.4% per point spent in Champion, and no longer has a max damage bonus cap.
* Deadly Strikes: Now enhances damage by 11-33%, increased from 6-18%.

PARAGON
* Teaching of the Five Rings: Now increases damage by 0.4% per point spent in Paragon, and no longer has a max damage bonus cap.

PYROMANCER
* Glyphs of Power: Increased base bonus to 10% from 5%.

RIFTBLADE
* Rift Fury: Now increases damage by 0.4% per point spent in Riftblade, and no longer has a max damage bonus cap.

DUNGEONS, CHRONICLES, SLIVERS, AND RAIDS
* Bosses in Runic Descent and Foul Cascade that come from Rifts are engaging properly again.
* Caduceus Rise: Updated mob placement to make pulls slightly easier.
* Greenscale’s Blight: Fixed the Prince Hylas loot tables.
* River of Souls: Chains of Death: The Achievement ‘In Service of the Soulstream’ will now be granted at the correct time, instead of at the incorrect time, which was not correct.
* River of Souls: Chains of Death: Increased the priority of the ‘Essence of the Endless’ disguise so that it doesn’t drop off when using other disguise/shapeshift items.

WEDDINGS
* Wedding Rings now get converted into Used Wedding Rings if they are equipped at the time of divorce.
* Taking a wedding gift no longer prevents guests from using the forge at a Dwarf wedding ceremony.
* Eth reception guests now show up *after* the ceremony, instead of before it.
* Cancelling while taking a wedding gift no longer prevents you from receiving more gifts.

Welcome to RIFT 1.7: Carnival of the Ascended!

== FEATURES ==
* PvP: Prestige updates, PvP Planar Attunements, and Warfront Mercenaries, oh my. Check out the PvP Update sections for a lot of info on the latest in RIFT PvP.
* Sweeping changes have come to the progression of gear at levels 45+. See ITEMIZATION ADJUSTMENTS, below, for details.
* No matter who you are, you now have twice as many Expert Dungeons to play in! The two tiers of Expert Dungeon difficulty have been combined into one.
* The new Soul Preset system is now available for use by all players, old and new. Check out USING A PRESET BUILD for info on how you can use the new, optional Purposes to try out new specs.
* Playing RIFT with that special someone? Maybe you’d like to propose at the top of the Stonefield waterfall? IN-GAME WEDDINGS are now available for Ascended.
* A new Chronicle appears! Grab a friend and disguise yourself as Endless Cultists to infiltrate and sabotage Alsbeth’s plans within the River of Souls!
* The Master Mode of Caduceus Rise is now available for the conquering!
* A sixth role is now available for purchase!

* KNOWN ISSUE: Augmented items are getting some incorrect positive and negative bonuses with the 1.7 version. This is being fixed and the bonuses received from Augments should be returning to 1.6 values shortly.

LEVEL 45+ ITEMIZATION ADJUSTMENTS
* With this patch we’re focusing on improving gear progression in endgame content. The goal is to create a smoother high-end item progression and to ensure level 50 players can be competitive in either/both PvE or PvP with a clear route of content to upgrade through.
* The following improvements are being implemented toward this goal:
* Content tier adjustments to better match with the items granted:
- Intro 50 content: level 50 Dungeons, Chronicles, Rifts, and Zone Events.
- “Tier 1″: Expert Dungeons, Ember Isle, early Prestige Ranks, Expert Rifts, and Zone Events.
- “Tier 2″: Master Dungeons, entry Raids and Slivers, mid-Prestige Ranks, Raid Rifts, and Zone Events.
- “Tier 3″: Difficult Raids and Slivers, high-end Prestige Ranks.
* Items will improve consistently between tiers of content, instead of having small improvements early on followed by huge power jumps in later tiers.
* The overall power of a new level 50 character will be increased slightly, and the power differential for items between 50 and top-tier content will progress more evenly.

DUNGEON, EXPERT DUNGEON, AND CHRONICLE IMPROVEMENTS
* The biggest change in support of the above progression is the combining of Expert Dungeons to a single difficulty tier, which impacts both gear dropped as well as LFG reward categories. The rest of the level 50 Dungeons and Chronicle content will be getting minor balance tweaks and major itemization adjustments.
* After these changes, the difficulty and rewards from content should be clearer between Chronicles/Level 50 Dungeons and Expert Dungeons.

PVP UPDATES
* In the ongoing effort to more appropriately match up characters of different ranks, and give a smoother entry to high-level PvP, we will be revamping the existing Prestige system in 1.7.
* The Prestige system has expanded from 8 ranks to 40 – existing ranks will be converted to the appropriate rank on the updated scale.
* Bolstering is now enabled for level 50 Warfronts. Players entering a level 50 Warfront below Rank 13 will have their stats boosted to be more effective for both rank-appropriate and mixed-rank Warfronts.
* Marks of Retribution gained from closing PvP Rifts and completing weekly quests are now consumables that grant 1600 Favor.
* Existing Marks of Retribution have been converted back to Favor at 1600 Favor per Mark. Players who find themselves exceeding the current Favor cap after the conversion will need to spend that excess Favor and get below the cap before more can be earned.
* Reinforced Crystallized Insight is now available for purchase from Girdoom in Meridian and Templar Zim in Sanctum. These consumables grant 100,000 Planar Attunement experience at a cost of 15,000 Favor.
* PvP Rifts: To encourage open-world PvP hotspots, only one PvP Rift can now be active at one time across all zones. Sealing a PvP Rift now grants a buff to your entire faction, ‘Prismatic Glory’, which increases Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Endurance by 10, as well as increasing Prestige, Favor, and Planar Attunement experience gains by 5%.
* Removed grey-item drops from player corpses, and significantly increased coin drops.

PVP SOUL UPDATES – PVP PLANAR ATTUNEMENT
* With 1.7, the PvP-specific Souls have been converted into a Planar Attunement-based character enhancement.
* A large amount of Planar Attunement experience is granted each time you gain a Rank in PvP. Yes, this will be granted retroactively for ranks already gained.
* The Achievement, ‘I’ve Got Soul and I Am a Soldier” is now a Legacy Achievement.

PVP EQUIPMENT UPDATES
* We have made changes to Armor Mitigation in PVP to address a disparity between Physical and Elemental defenses. This will result in characters with high Armor Mitigation for their Calling at level 50 having the mitigation reduced in PvP and being hit by Physical attacks for damage values closer to current Elemental damage values.
* Removed Rank requirements from all PvP armor sets. You still need to purchase sets sequentially, but the limiting factor is now total Favor gained rather than rank.
* PvP weapons and Synergy Crystals will still require specific ranks to purchase and equip.
* PvP Synergy Crystals have a reduced notoriety requirement to equip. A new set requiring Rank 40 and Revered with the Order of the Eye or The Unseen has been added.
* The previously-Rank 3 and Rank 4 gear is now available without prior purchase requirements.
* The previously-Rank 7 and Rank 8 armor has been upgraded to include Vengeance, and the amount of Critical Hit on it reduced slightly.
* Increased the amount of Valor provided by all PvP armor sets.
* Added Valor to PvP set weapons.
* PvP Armor merchants now stock Bows for Defiants and Guns for Guardians.
* Rank 25 and Rank 36 Two-Handed Swords now available for Defiants.
* PvP: One-handed Axes are now available for Guardians and Defiants at rank 1, 12, 25, and 36.
* Rank 25 and 36 Two-Handed Axes are now available for Guardians.
* PvP Armor set merchants now display items filtered by Calling. Filtering can still be disabled if you’d like to purchase items designed for other Callings.
* Costume versions of PvP Rank armor are now available from Desma Chontos in Meridian, and Templar Sanzo in Sanctum. These still have rank requirements to equip.

WARFRONTS – NOW WITH MERCENARIES
* In order to reduce queue times to as near-zero as possible, players may be added the opposing faction’s Warfront team as a “Mercenary”.
* Queue for Warfronts as normal and you may be assigned as a Mercenary when the Warfront map loads. You’ll receive a Mercenary buff and on-screen callout and will be placed as part of the opposite faction’s team.
* Coin is now granted for completing Warfronts.
* Damage dealt by your pet is now included in your leaderboard totals.
* Warfronts: The quests given in Port Scion are now automatically removed when your character leaves the Warfront.
* Warfront: Stockpile – Black Garden: The leaderboard now displays the number of stones you’ve carried throughout the game properly.

REALLY IMPORTANT NOTE: The changes below are in addition to the existing Soul and Role system and do not replace the current way Soul specs work – they are intended to make it easier for old and new players alike to become familiar with different potential specs and gameplay they may not have tried before. Think of them like guidelines; those of you more familiar with the Souls and abilities you want to use can continue to customize and swap things in and out at will.

NEW CHARACTER CREATION UPDATES
* The Calling selection screen now calls out which roles a Calling is able to potentially fill – Tank, Damage, Healing, Support.
* After selecting a Calling, characters will be required to choose a “Purpose” (Preset Soul Combination) during character creation.
* Each Purpose will start out with a preset combination of souls, abilities and equipment. Players will have the opportunity to preview these before the character is created.
* New players can also preview what their character would look like in a variety of armor ranging from starting gear to epic endgame appearances!
* If you use the Randomize button after making changes to the character you are creating, there’s now a warning prompt before it changes any settings.
* Updated the character selection screen with faction-sorted and colored Character listings.

USING A PRESET BUILD
* Players always have the choice to make a custom build, or to play as one of the supplied preset builds.
* Preset builds will have a fixed progression path which can be previewed when you open the Soul Tree window.
* Characters with unspent Soul Points who are using preset souls will be guided to purchase specific abilities in the Soul Tree that are appropriate for their level.
* Players can view additional helpful tips and guides about their Purpose (and other available Purposes) by clicking on the Purpose button in the soul tree.
* At any time, a new character can spend their Soul Points in a non-highlighted ability or swap out a Soul with 0 points spent to further customize their spec. Doing so will set your Purpose to ‘custom’ and remove the highlighted progression path.
* You now have access to all Souls from your Calling at level one, which means experienced players can immediately customize their starting Soul spec if they choose to not use the presets.

SOUL TREE CHANGES – NEW AND EXISTING CHARACTERS
* When you open the Soul Tree you should see a window that looks pretty familiar!
* On the Soul Tree UI is a new button showing which Purpose is currently selected – this displays ‘Custom’ for existing characters with their own specs set up.
* When viewing a Role that has 0 points spent in Souls, the Purpose button at the top of the UI can be used to view a list of preset Purposes that you can choose from to help set up your character’s spec.
* Purposes are a combination of 3 Souls that have a highlighted ability progression path to suggest where to next spend Soul Points.
* When checking out Purposes, you’ll see a description of what the spec is, some tips, and some important abilities for that particular combination.
* Selecting a Purpose will slot 3 souls into the Soul Tree UI and start showing the next suggested ability to spend points in. The Preview button at the top of the Soul Tree will place outlines around the abilities the Purpose will ultimately recommend through level 50.
* AT ANY TIME: A Soul with 0 points spent can be exchanged with any other Soul, just like it works currently.
* AT ANY TIME: You aren’t forced to spent points only where the Purpose is suggesting – you can spend points in a non-highlighted ability and it will set your Purpose to Custom and stop highlighting abilities in the Soul Tree.
* Existing characters will receive any Souls they may be missing with this update.

ADDITIONAL NEW PLAYER IMPROVEMENTS
* The number of aggressive monsters in Terminus and Mathosia have been reduced.
* Monsters in Terminus, Mathosia, Silverwood, and Freemarch have had their agro radius and run speeds adjusted. This will allow players to avoid surprise “Aggro” and flee combat easier when they get in over their heads.
* The hit points and damage dealt has been reduced on normal mobs from levels 1-17.
* A number of help tips have been updated to be easier to understand.

ASCENDED-LY EVER AFTER: IN-GAME WEDDINGS
* With 1.7 comes the introduction of in-game marriages and instanced wedding gatherings!
* See the Marriage Coordinators in Meridian or Sanctum to purchase rings you can use to tie the knot with your chosen. Both parties must agree to the marriage and can also choose to dissolve it at will.
* Marriage Coordinators also sell invitations, costume items, and other goodies for use with the new wedding instances! You can invite friends to join you for your very own wedding ceremony and resulting party. Using the wedding instances is not required for marrying another character.
* For detailed instructions on in-game marriage and what you can do with the wedding instances, see the Wedding Planner book also available through the Marriage Coordinator.
* As a note of caution, Dwarven weddings can get pretty rowdy! You may see your PvP flag turn on when entering the Dwarf-themed wedding instance.
* Being married in RIFT is meant to be an expression of partnership, and does not provide any additional gameplay benefit. You can see who a character is married to by inspecting them, but that’s it!
* Interested in participating in a Valentine’s Day world-record-setting event for the most marriages during a 24-hour period? See details on the blog at: http://community.riftgame.com/en/201…alentines-day/
* Added an option to automatically decline all marriage proposals under Misc options.

GENERAL
* A sixth role is now available for purchase!
* You know all those times you hit ‘Leave Party’ instead of ‘Ready Check’? Yeah, Leave Party got moved down to the bottom of the menu list.
* Increased the available Wardrobe slots to 5.
* Wardrobe slots now have toggles for armor visibility in that slot.
* Conversely, removed the Options entries for hide helmet and hide shoulderpads – if you currently have these enabled, your wardrobe slots will default to hiding these armor pieces.
* Newly acquired Abilities will now be displayed in a special pop-up UI window at the time they are learned, making it easy to drag new abilities directly to your hotbar – or cancel them from the list if you don’t want to place them at that time.
* Added a new ‘Lock XP’ checkbox to the Interface > Misc settings pane. Checking it will stop your level 1-49 character from gaining experience until it is unchecked. Characters at the level cap and trial characters cannot lock their experience.
* You can now choose to disable auto-weapon-sheathing with a new Settings option: Interface > Misc > Disable Auto Sheaths.
* You can now use the command ‘/interact’ to interact with an NPC you have targeted if you are unable to right-click it.
* The maximum water depth that you can ride your mount in has been increased and made consistent across all player races. Female Dwarves should notice the biggest overall boost, while Bahmi males should see only a slight difference.
* Doubled the duration and removed the 2 minute cooldown on Omen Sight and Quantum Sight.
* The background color of target casting bars now correctly indicates their interruptible (blue) or non-interruptible (gold) status during cast time for channeled abilities.
* You can now split stacks in your bank even if your inventory is full.
* Dismiss Pet no longer cancels Veteran Reward Vendors or Personal Bankers.
* Applying a rune to an item now only pops a confirmation prompt if you will overwrite an existing rune.
* Fixed an issue that could cause a quest-giving item to stop offering the quest, even though it hadn’t yet been accepted.
* Weekly Guild quests for Mining have been adjusted to require more raw ore and fewer gems.
* The guild perk Blood Thirsty will no longer be removed by triggering Killing Spree.
* Ascended Powers: The Defiant ‘Aura Augmentation’ and Guardian ‘Holy Champion’ quests no longer require you to stand right by the questgiver to advance the quest.

CURRENCY UPDATES
* Added Eternal Crystallized Insight, a new item that grants 100,000 Planar Attunement experience when consumed.
* Expert Dungeon, Raid, and Planar Goods merchants will now sell Eternal Crystallized Insight for their respective currencies.
* Players can now visit the Crafting Specialty Goods merchants to exchange Artisan Marks for Master Crafter Marks.
* You can now purchase Augment boxes for Artisan Marks instead of Planarite from the Crafting Specialty Goods merchant.
* Augment boxed now award special stat and dual-stat Augments more frequently.
* Added Exceptional Augment Boxes that contain Epic Augments to the Crafting Specialty Goods merchants.

RIFTS AND INVASIONS
* Zone Events on Ember Isle now also grant Inscribed Sourcestone when event objectives are completed. Only players who have contributed during each event objective will receive these rewards. Some of the less difficult objectives will not be awarding Sourcestone. In order to maintain the same overall total Inscribed Sourcestone granted, the amount obtained from Colossi kills has been reduced.
* Rift-type content now takes gear into consideration when scaling, and will be slightly more difficult in the presence of highly geared characters.
* ‘Puresource’ type reward containers now stack to 99.
* Fixed level requirements on various level 20-29 Earth Rift rewards, and some general 30-39 Rift rewards.
* The Invasion commander, Hardshell Nightmare, will no longer off itself after spending only a short while on Telaran soil.
* Guild Quest: Upping the Ante: Should now always give credit if a Rift is closed by a guildmember.

INSTANT ADVENTURE
* Additional Planar Attunement experience is now granted for level 50 characters doing Instant Adventure.
* If an Adventure Group is waiting for a new chain of adventures to start, the teleport invitation for new group members now waits for the start of the next set.

SOULS
* Planar Attunement: Fixed a case where weapon-based stat bonuses from Planar Attunement could be lost and not appropriately granted when changing equipment.
* Mage and Cleric abilities that are low-ranked compared to your level now always use the ability cost of one rank below the max currently available to you. This won’t change costs for characters who’ve trained up their abilities to current rank as they level.
* Mage Charge is now reset to zero when changing roles.
* Fixed an issue causing some abilities that increase outgoing damage to combine with each other incorrectly.
* Characters will no longer be taken out of stealth when their guild increases a passive Perk.
* Mounting now cancels auto-attack, preventing you from accidentally dismounting due to an attack firing.
* Many tooltip clarity updates for abilities on Souls.

CLERIC
* Reduced the mana cost of Area-of-Effect Heals.

CABALIST
* Curse of Discord: Fixed the durations on ranks 1-7.
* Dark Passage: Now teleports 10 meters forward.

DRUID
* Eruption of Life: Now triggers off of any damage.
* Faerie’s Favor: Now instant-cast. Increased the healing amount. Now affects up to 4 additional party or raid members within a 20 meter radius if cast by the Greater Faerie.
* Faerie Healing: Increased the amount healed.
* Fury of the Fae: The Satyr will now autocast this even when out of combat.
* Mead Rush: New ability usable by the Satyr. The Satyr charges at the enemy for a damaging strike. 10 second cooldown. Also, MMMEEEAAAADDD!!
* Trickster Spirit, Slothful Spirit, Spiteful Spirit: These have all been changed to spells that deal Earth damage at a 30-meter range.

INQUISITOR
* Clinging Spirit: Can no longer get the ability effect without points spent in it.
* Corporal Punishment: Duration is now 12 seconds.

JUSTICAR
* Healer’s Creed: Now increases the healing you receive by 5-10%.
* Light Makes Right: Now works properly immediately after being purchased.
* Rebuke: Now works more consistently on different mob types in Dungeons and Raids.
* Reparation: Now able to heal other party/raid members using Reparation. Healing from Reparation will not affect players with Mien of Honor currently active.
* Reprieve: Increased the bonus from Spell Power.

PURIFIER
* Divine Cascade: Ability removed.
* Gathering of the Ancestors: New spell available at 38 points. Places an absorption shield on up to 10 party or raid members within 35 meters. Cannot be applied again on the same target for 20 seconds – this is a separate ability blocker from the Ward of the Ancestors single-target shield. 30 second cooldown.
* Rise of the Phoenix: New spell available at 44 points. Resurrects the target with 50% health and mana, can be used in combat. 5 minute cooldown.
* Surging Flames: The triggered heal now has a 20 meter radius.
* Item: Asphodel’s Purifier Crystal: 4-piece bonus now reduces damage taken by 7% for 10 seconds. This effect now overwrites and cannot be overwritten by Protect the Flock.

SENTINEL
* Empowering Light: Removed the pretty pointless ‘range’ displayed on this ability – it’s a PBAE, and remains a PBAE.
* Healing Communion, Healing Benediction: Both spells now have a 20-meter radius.
* Life’s Return: Cooldown is now 5 minutes.
* Marked by the Light: Now has a 15-meter radius.

SHAMAN
* Battle Charge: Reduced cooldown to 10 seconds.
* Brutalize: Now deals 30-60% of Massive Blow’s damage over 10 seconds. Reduced maximum stack size to 3.
* Dauntless Courage: Now affects all melee damage.
* Ekkehard’s Invocation: New ability available after spending 15 points in Shaman. Instant-cast ranged spell that deals Air damage.
* Favored of the Valnir: Now increases the duration of Lightning by 4-8 seconds, causing increased damage on each additional tick.
* Vengeance of the Frozen Earth: Ability removed.

WARDEN
* Cascade: No longer has a mana cost.
* Deluge: Will no longer generate infinitely-looping visuals in some cases.
* Healing Showers, Orbs of the Tide: Both abilities now have a 20-meter radius.
* Healing Cataract: Now has a 25-meter radius and affects up to 10 party or raid members.
* River of Life: New spell available at 44 points; resurrects the target with 50% health and mana, can be used in combat. 5 minute cooldown.
* Ripple: Now has a 20-meter radius.
* Tidal Resonance: Fixed this ability not expiring correctly.
* Waterjet: Reduced the benefit given to this spell by Spell Power.

MAGE

ARCHON
* Pillaging Stone: The debuff portion of Rank 1 no longer persists through death.
* Flowing Sand: Now provides the movement speed debuff even if the target is immune to the Snare portion. Reduced the cooldown to 45 seconds from 2 minutes.

CHLOROMANCER
* Wild Abandon: Fixed a case where this ability could break certain boss mob roots and snares when it shouldn’t be able to.

DOMINATOR
* Degeneration: Ability added to the Dominator soul, obtained at 10 points. Now has a 15 second cooldown and can affect NPCs.
* Disorient: The stun portion no longer persists through death.
* Incompetence: No longer persists through death.

ELEMENTALIST
* Icy Carapace: Fixed a bug causing this ability to not work correctly when cast while Elemental Forces was active.

PYROMANCER
* Burning Bright: No longer gives separate bonuses for PvE and PvP.
* Cinder Burst: Damage now reduced by 15% in PvP, instead of a 20% reduction.
* Fulminate: Damage now reduced by 15% in PvP, instead of 20%.
* Inferno: Now gives 10 Charge when cast.
* Lockdown: Will now debuff the enemy, increasing the Fire damage they take, even if they are immune to the Snare portion.

STORMCALLER
* Absolute Zero: Fixed this causing more than one next cast of Icicle or Arctic Blast to cause a root effect.
* Electrocute: The knockback should no longer occasionally fail.
* Flash Freeze: This will now deal damage even if the target is immune to the root portion of the ability.
* Lightning Burst: No longer has a damage penalty in PvP.
* Storm Shard: Fixed an edge case where Storm Shard wouldn’t apply the critical hit damage bonus.
* Fixed an issue where damage from Hailstorm and Eye of the Storm could be blocked by abilities like the Chloromancer’s Wild Abandon.

WARLOCK
* Item: Nyx’s Warlock Crystal: Updated the 4-piece set bonus. It now reduces the cooldown of Empowered Darkness by 15 seconds, and casting Defile increases the total damage of your damage-over-time effects by 15% for 20 seconds.

ROGUE

ASSASSIN
* The Attack Power contribution to the damage from Poisons has increased.
* Expose Weakness: Fixed a bug where the damage increase from Exposed Weakness was not applied to all three stacks of Serrated Blades’ damage.
* Leeching Poison: The Attack Power contribution to the healing from Leeching Poison has increased.

BLADEDANCER
* Blade and Fury: Your Quick Strike and Precision Strike increase the damage of your next Keen Strike by 10-20%, up from 5-10%.
* Blade Finesse: Functionality changed. Now increases the Attack Power bonus of your Finishers by 5-25%. This bonus is applied only to attacks using melee weapons.
* Combat Expertise: Functionality changed. Now increases the Attack Power bonus of your Combo Point-generating abilities by 5-25%.
* Combat Culmination: Functionality changed. Your Finishers cause Physical attacks to ignore 1-3% of the target’s armor per Combo Point for 10 seconds.
* Deadly Dance: Can now be triggered by Compound Attack.

MARKSMAN
* Strafe: The buff effect can no longer be purged while channeling.

NIGHTBLADE
* The Attack Power contribution to the damage from weapon enchantments has been increased.
* Dusk to Dawn: This is no longer a channeled ability but a straight damage-over-time ability. Now awards 2 Combo Points when used and does not give additional Combo Points per second. Energy cost reduced to 45 from 60. Cooldown reduced to 45 seconds from 1 minute. Damage has been reduced.

RANGER
* King of the Jungle: Now increases pet damage by 20%, increased from 10%. For every point in Ranger above 21, increases pet damage by 6% – increased from 3% per point.
* Feral Aggression: Increases Critical Hit chance and also pet damage by 100% for 15 seconds. Cooldown reduced to 1 minute from 2.
* Pin Down: Cooldown reduced to 1 minute from 3.
* Diffuse: Cooldown reduced to 1 minute from 2.

RIFTSTALKER
* Shadow Stalk: Using this ability should no longer put both the player and the target into combat.
* Rift Barrier: The damage shield from Rift Guard now only reflects damage from the first tick of a DoT, in line with other damage shields in the game.
* Planar Vortex: The damage from Planar Vortex now takes the Riftstalker out of stealth.

WARRIOR
* Power regeneration rate has been increased.
* Disarm abilities now properly block abilities that require either Ranged or Melee weapons.
* Bash, Furious Rage, Flinching Strike, and Face Slam no longer have multiple ranks to upgrade.

BEASTMASTER
* Calming Influence: Now obtained at 20 points in Beastmaster. Now puts a single target to sleep for 45 seconds – the target must not be in combat at the time of the effect. Any damage on the target removes Calming Influence. Only 1 target can be under Calming Influence at a time.
* Primal Rage – New Ability: Increases the damage of attack abilities for the Beastmaster and their pet by 7% per Bleed effect on the target. Duration is increased by the number of attack points when used. Obtained at 44 points in Beastmaster.
* Enraged Companion: Aura now grants a 7% bonus, increased from 5%, and overwrites the Reaver’s Enraged Essence. Buff effect should no longer stick around after the pet is dismissed.

CHAMPION
* Slayer’s Bearing: Now properly works with AoE attacks.
* Removed the reduced PvP effectiveness from Soldier’s Bearing and Weapon Specialization.

PALADIN
* Aggressive Block: Now properly triggers Rising Waterfall.
* Preservation: No longer prevented from being cast on a Paladin after the original target removes it. No longer causes you to enter combat.

PARAGON
* Deadly Grace: Fixed a bug causing Deadly Grace to deal less damage than it should.
* Force of Will: Fixed a bug causing Force of Will to not effect AoE attacks. As a result, the critical hit damage bonus of all attacks has been changed to 3-10%, down from 10-30%. [edit: % fix]
* Rising Waterfall: Will no longer immediately break the buff granted by Surging Energy when it critically hits. Can now trigger from Paladin’s Aggressive Block.
* Removed the reduced PvP effectiveness from Teaching of the Five Rings.

RIFTBLADE
* Stoneshield: No longer causes the next ability to miss; instead, the next ability used on you will deal no damage. It also no longer triggers off of abilities the Riftblade used on themselves.

VOID KNIGHT
* Spell Sunder: Now checks for line of sight.
* Surge: No longer ignores line of sight for threat generation.

ZONES

DROUGHTLANDS
* A new porticulum has been constructed in Fallback!
* Thwarting the Emberlord: Fixed an issue that could cause this quest to not reset properly.

EMBER ISLE
* Anchors to the Depths: Fixed the placement of Shrines to Ithkus that were hiding under the sands.
* Crawl No More: The catapults should no longer be stuck in a fired position when the catapult has an active target.
* Drakes in the Drift: There is now a teleporter to the base of the Kelari tower when the quest is completed.
* Feline Intervention: Fixed an issue causing the Corrupted Wildstalkers to not despawn correctly if left unconscious.
* Pyrkari at Large: Fixed an issue where the pyrkari would sometimes not despawn when brought to the cages. The lasso effect now also leaves the pyrkari if the player who lassoed them dies.
* Raw Recruits: The reset time for the Shamblers has been significantly increased.
* Recluse Wrangling: The devour ability of the Recluse can now consume multiple spirits at once.
* Returning the Spirit: Fixed a case where players would be unable to obtain the Blessed Water.
* Science Under Pressure: There’s now a higher chance for the Smoldering Piles to appear in larger numbers. Stavel will also leave properly if his timer runs out.
* The Nexus Infusion ability no longer works on the Bazaars in Ember Isle during the In Golden’s Grasp event, since it doesn’t actually do anything for them.
* Added a tutorial tip for new arrivals to Ember Isle that gives a heads-up about the potential difficulty of content on the island.

GLOAMWOOD
* A new Guardian porticulum has been completed in Gloamwood at Tearfall Run.
* Notoriety items for the Waykeepers will no longer drop for Defiants.
* Dead Water: The mobs inside the cave you enter on this quest now have a longer respawn time.

SCARWOOD REACH
* Fall of House Aelfwar: Quest should no longer get blocked sometimes by a nearby foothold.
* A Temporary Solution: Players can now get a Pinch of Sourcestone Powder at any time while on this quest.

SHIMMERSAND
* Additional NPCs in Shimmersand grant a small amount of Dragonslayer Covenant reputation when killed.

STILLMOOR
* Monster Hunter of Stillmoor: Now has additional item rewards available.
* One With Nature: The Aelfwar House Signet item is now properly removed from players when this quest is completed.
* Additional NPCs in Stillmoor grant a small amount of Order of Mathos reputation when killed.
* The zone event ‘The Blight’ should now properly award Glowing Puresource for participants who are on the quests Shield of the Land or Frontlines of the Planes.

STONEFIELD
* A Failure of Leadership: Quest location markers for this quest have been corrected.
* Dead Drop: The Earthmaul Ward quest objective should be easier to find.
* Notoriety items for Granite Falls will no longer drop for Guardians.

DUNGEONS, SLIVERS, CHRONICLES, RAIDS
* Expert and Master Dungeons, Raid Rifts, Slivers, and Raids: Reduced the critical hit damage bonus that most ‘regular’ NPCs get when they critically hit a target with insufficient Toughness. In effect, non-tanks should be less likely to be absolutely gutted when taking a critical hit by a general-population NPC in these areas.
* Characters of level 47+ now have a choice between 3 Plaques of Achievement or a random blue-quality item when they complete a random standard dungeon via LFG.
* New epic-quality loot has been added to the Chronicles for Greenscale’s Blight, Hammerknell, and River of Souls.
* Sub-bosses in the Greenscale’s Blight Chronicle now drop Plaques of Achievement.
* New epic-quality loot has been added to standard Abyssal Precipice, standard Charmer’s Caldera, and standard Caduceus Rise.
* End bosses in standard Abyssal Precipice, Charmer’s Caldera, and Caduceus Rise now drop Plaques of Achievement when defeated.
* Targets marked by Raid leaders are now visible to players who join the raid after the mark occurs.
* If your invitation to teleport to an instance fails because it is full, group/raid members can now trigger the teleport prompt an additional time by re-zoning into the instance.
* Fixed a case where a raid member could be stuck with a ready check and be unable to initiate another if they were a leader or assistant.
* Fixed a case where a raid member logging in right at the completion of a ready check would cause incorrect results to display.
* Fixed an issue in which NPCs in Rise of the Phoenix ran slower than intended.
* Characters under the effect of any type of Mind Control ability are no longer able to enter new instances – Chronicles, Dungeons, Warfronts, Slivers, or Raids.
* While in a LFG-formed random Expert group for an instance you already have a normal lockout for, you no longer get locked from your random version if disconnected before the first boss.

CADUCEUS RISE
* Cinderstorm’s Molten Cinders beams now appear properly in additional attempts after a wipe.
* Fixed the achievement, Bloody Bothersome, that was triggering incorrectly in Expert mode.
* Expert: The Rapid Assault achievement should now award properly in both Caduceus Rise and Upper Caduceus Rise.
* Increased Caduceus’ health. Slightly decreased the health of Erupted Core. Drastically decreased the health of Erupted Ember.

DARKENING DEEPS
* Fixed some collision on Scarn’s elevator shaft.

DROWNED HALLS
* Players who have been polymorphed by Hydriss should no longer get pushed outside of the encounter area by the Tsunami ability.

GREENSCALE’S BLIGHT [Raid]
* Added runspeed buffs to Hylas, Aleria, and Infiltrator Johlen.

GREENSCALE’S BLIGHT: THE FALLEN PRINCE [Chronicle]
* Shadow of Metamorphosis should now properly end if you leave the zone while under the effect.

HAMMERKNELL [Raid]
* Runebone Sorcerers’ Silent Void ability no longer roots targets inside the effect for the entire duration.
* Darktide Serpents’ Brine Net ability no longer roots targets inside the effect for the entire duration.
* Population mobs in Hammerknell award Planar Attunement experience more consistently.
* Inquisitor Garau: Fixed Arcane Porters failing to spawn in certain situations.

ITEMS
* Several Akylios relic items now have proc effects.
* Some non-relic Akylios items have also been upgraded.
* Hammerknell trinkets have been improved slightly.
* Costume versions of PvP Rank armor are now available from Desma Chontos in Meridian, and Templar Sanzo in Sanctum. These still have rank requirements to purchase.
* Updated the description text on Marks of Ascension and Greater Marks of Ascension.
* Random Augment boxes purchased with Planarite have been moved to the Planar Voucher merchant and had their costs adjusted.
* The stun effect on Gale Mirror, Torrential Mirror, Storm Mirror, Cyclonic Mirror, and Tempest Mirror (Air Rift consumables) no longer work on NPCs that are immune to stuns.
* Fixed a bug where some items showed a ‘Vanity’ category instead of ‘Costume’.
* The artifacts from The Heir of Hammerknell set should now be listed in the Auction House as Collectibles rather than Quest Items.
* Some old items related to quests that are no longer in the game are now displayed as grey-quality loot items rather than quest items.
* Abyssal Soulstone: Fixed a bug causing this essence to not work properly for Warriors.
* Amplified Soulstone: Now properly increases damage from Elemental Touch.
* Elder Chain Coif: Now properly gives Spell Critical Hit rather than Physical Critical Hit.
* Golem Inductor: Will now proc slightly more often.
* Isle Embrosia can now be re-sold to NPCs after the buyback grace period has expired.
* Lavaforged Helmet incorrectly had Block on it which has been removed – the points have been redistributed into Dodge and Parry.
* The Planar Conqueror armor set is now compatible with Blighted Synergy Crystals.
* Fixed several Planar Lens items that had their stats removed.
* Scarn’s Hide is now tradable and can be sold.
* Shimmering Windstone: Increased Dexterity.
* Adjusted the NPC sale amount of Staff of Eruptions and Searing Obsidian Dagger.
* Rising Crest: No longer usable by Clerics.
* Vornia’s Chain Spaulders, Notched Weapon, Maelforge Acolyte’s Hat, and Maelforge Acolyte’s Slippers now all have proper NPC sale values.
* Wind’s Breath: Now procs slightly less often.

CRAFTING
* Crafting will now use items directly from your bank – No need to swap a bunch of items around before heading over to the crafting stations!
* Artificer: The recipes for Diamond Focus and Diamond Icon have been changed from consuming 8 Brilliant Diamond and 4 Jagged Lightstone; they now require 1 Brilliant Diamond and 8 Orichalcum Bars.
* Apothecary: The recipe for Mighty Intelligence Serum now requires 2 Basiliskweed Stems rather than 4.
* The Apothecary recipe, Growth Brew, now requires 1 Eternal Planar Dust and 1 Tempestflower Stem (additional Eternal Planar Dust and Gnarled Core material requirements removed).
* Carmintium Spellcutter: The recipe and resulting item have both been renamed to Orichalcum Spellcutter to match the actually-required materials.
* The recipes for Tormentor’s Robe and Tormentor’s Shoulders are now Bind on Pickup.
* Fixed several crafting recipes that had a skill requirement to learn the recipe that didn’t match the skill required to craft the item.
* Expert Dungeon dropped recipes have had material requirements updated to reflect the increased power of the crafted items.

ART AND AUDIO
* Smoothed out the appearance of shadows in the distance.
* Added proper ambience sounds to caves on Ember Isle.
* Reduced the volume of steam geysers on Ember Isle around Scaldwater Fields and Wellspring Flats.
* Fixed ambient volume in Droughtlands not being correctly raised/lowered by whatever your Ambient Audio volume is set to.
* Added some visual effect improvements for the low-quality renderer.
* Mounts have more audio variety at audio and are not so silent!

UI/SETTINGS
* Right-clicking on the party pet raid frame when using Show Party As Raid mode now shows the proper right-click menu.
* Party member selection hotkeys (default F1-F5) now work properly when your party is displayed as a raid.
* Raid member UI should be a bit better with displaying the state of logged out or AFK members.
* Group leaders are now indicated in Raids.
* Fixed occasional tooltip titles getting stuck on-screen when a debuff appeared under the mouse cursor on the Raid UI.
* Set Leader, Promote Assistant, and Demote Assistant menu options are now available through the Raid UI right-click menu while in Warfronts.
* Promote Assistant and Demote Assistant menu options are now available in the right-click menu on target, party, or raid member displays.
* Fixed a bug where sometimes the LFG window would think you were in an Instant Adventure group when you were, in fact, not.
* Target tooltips now show Elite for group and raid encounter NPCs.
* Fixed a loot confirmation popup sometimes appearing if you were grouped while looting an already-owned container (like the Rift Loot bag).
* Fixed a bug causing the combat log to not show the caster of certain abilities.
* Guild Wall: Fixed the scroll-to-top reset when deleting comments.
* Guild Perk reset charges are now shown in the Guild Bank currency log.
* Your current target is now indicated by an icon on the minimap and main map. The icon will show red, yellow, or green, depending on whether the target is hostile, neutral, or friendly.
* Fixed the ‘receive item’ spam in the chat window when combining stacks between your inventory and your bank.
* Defiants should no longer appear on the Guardian tabs of a Warfront leaderboard if they joined the Warfront while you were viewing that tab.
* Fixed the Warfront UI window being blank while your character is mind controlled.
* Tracking of completed Artifact sets no longer turns off after a loading screen is displayed.
* The Artifacts tab now shows the rewards to be gained from displayed Artifact sets.
* Fixed the Artifacts tab disappearing from the character window for those crazy players who completed all Artifact sets!
* Planar Attunement experience rewards for Achievements are now shown on the Achievement UI.
* Switching Roles with the Soul Tree open will cancel any previewing of souls or soul point spending in progress that has not been saved.
* Added a new splash screen after leveling up displaying your level and soul points available. The display can be clicked on to open the Soul Tree window if you are out of combat.
* The Abilities listing in the menu tray now glows when you have untrained abilities.
* Tweaked the ability tooltips when mousing over abilities in the Soul Tree window; they now show ability stats like cooldown and mana costs in the tooltip.
* Tooltips now properly display whether an ability is a ranged or melee effect based on the ability’s use range and not general category.
* Tooltips for abilities with cooldowns now use abbreviated cooldown duration text.
* Fixed the mouse cursor not highlighting when targeting items you can salvage.
* Corrected zone event notice broadcasts to level channels for non-English language shards.
* If you get disconnected due to your shard being down, we now show a message letting you know this, instead of surprising you with a different shard’s character select screen.

Coming to a PTS near you! (some of these were part of builds from the last couple of days)

GENERAL
* Random Augment boxes purchased with Planarite have been moved to the Planar Voucher merchant and had their costs adjusted.
* Wardrobe slots now have toggles for armor visibility in that slot.
* Conversely, removed the Options entries for hide helmet and hide shoulderpads – if you currently have these enabled, your wardrobe slots will default to hiding these armor pieces.
* Fixed an issue in which NPCs in Rise of the Phoenix ran slower than intended.
* Added an option to automatically decline all marriage proposals under Misc options.
* Weekly Guild quests for Mining have been adjusted to require more raw ore and fewer gems.
* Fixed level requirements on various level 20-29 Earth Rift rewards, and some general 30-39 Rift rewards.
* Ascended Powers: The Defiant ‘Aura Augmentation’ and Guardian ‘Holy Champion’ quests no longer require you to stand right by the questgiver to advance the quest.
* Slightly increased the health of normal mobs of levels 41-52.
* Hammerknell: Inquisitor Garau: Fixed Arcane Porters failing to spawn in certain situations.

* KNOWN ISSUE: Augmented items are getting some incorrect positive and negative bonuses with the 1.7 version. This is being fixed and the bonuses received from Augments should be returning to 1.6 values shortly.
* KNOWN ISSUE: The Dwarven wedding ceremony is a bit rowdier than intended, and is currently PvP-flagging attendees. We’ll be fixing this asap.

PVP
* PvP: One-handed Axes are now available for Guardians and Defiants at rank 1, 12, 25, and 36.
* Increased the amount of Valor provided by all PvP armor sets.
* Added Valor to PvP set weapons.

SOULS
* Fixed an issue causing some abilities that increase outgoing damage to combine with each other incorrectly.

CLERIC

CABALIST
* Curse of Discord: Fixed the durations on ranks 1-7.

INQUISITOR
* Clinging Spirit: Can no longer get the ability effect without points spent in it.

SENTINEL
* Empowered Light: Removed the pretty pointless ‘range’ – it’s a PBAE.

WARDEN
* Tidal Resonance: Fixed this ability not expiring correctly.

MAGE

ELEMENTALIST
* Icy Carapace: Fixed a bug causing this ability to not work correctly when cast while Elemental Forces was active.

ROGUE

MARKSMAN
* Strafe: The buff effect can no longer be purged while channeling.

WARRIOR

BEASTMASTER
* Enraged Companion: Buff effect should no longer stick around after the pet is dismissed.

CHAMPION
* Slayer’s Bearing: Now properly works with AoE attacks.
* Removed the reduced PvP effectiveness from Soldier’s Bearing and Weapon Specialization.

PARAGON
* Force of Will: Fixed a bug causing Force of Will to not effect AoE attacks. As a result, the critical hit damage bonus of all attacks has been changed to 5-15%, down from 10-30%.
* Deadly Grace: Fixed a bug causing Deadly Grace to deal less damage than it should.
* Removed the reduced PvP effectiveness from Teaching of the Five Rings.

RIFTBLADE
* Stoneshield: No longer causes the next ability to miss; instead, the next ability used on you will deal no damage. It also no longer triggeres off of abilities the Riftblade used on themself.

ITEMS
* Several Akylios relic items now have proc effects.
* Some non-relic Akylios items have also been upgraded.
* Hammerknell trinkets have been improved slightly.
* Abyssal Soulstone: Fixed a bug causing this essence to not work properly for Warriors.
* Isle Embrosia can now be re-sold to NPCs after the buyback grace period has expired.
* Wind’s Breath: Now procs slightly less often.
* The stun effect on Gale Mirror, Torrential Mirror, Storm Mirror, Cyclonic Mirror, and Tempest Mirror (Air Rift consumables) no longer work on NPCs that are immune to stuns.
* Staff of Eruptions and Searing Obsidian Dagger have had their resell values adjusted.

CRAFTING
* The recipes for Tormentor’s Robe and Tormentor’s Shoulders are now Bind on Pickup.
* The Apothecary recipe, Growth Brew, now requires 1 Eternal Planar Dust and 1 Tempestflower Stem (additional Eternal Planar Dust and Gnarled Core material requirements removed).
* Fixed several crafting recipes that had a skill requirement to learn the recipe that didn’t match the skill required to craft the item.
* Expert Dungeon dropped recipes have had material requirements updated to reflect the increased power of the crafted items.

UI/SETTINGS
* Fixed a bug causing the combat log to not show the caster of certain abilities.

PTS FIXES
* PvP: Significantly reduced the Vengeance bonus to PvP armor and weapon sets. Endurance has been increased across all sets.
* Shaman: Lightning Hammer: Tooltip now shows the proper duration and damage after acquiring Favored of the Valnir.

Check out the latest screenshots of Rift’s latest content update: 1.7 Carnival of the Ascended

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. – Feb. 1, 2012 – Trion Worlds, the leading publisher and developer of premium games for the connected era, continues to increase accessibility to their hit MMORPG Rift™ by introducing Rift Lite, a version that allows anyone with a Trion account to experience the game’s first 20 levels at no cost and with no playtime restrictions. Rift Lite debuts today with the latest patch, Carnival of the Ascended, which features Ascended Weddings, PvP improvements, the new River of Souls Chronicle, and much more.

“In the past ten months, Rift has evolved at a breakneck pace, through seven massive updates that set new expectations for live MMOs, in features, in content, and in service,” said Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer of Rift and Trion’s CCO. “We think a Lite edition with no time limit is the best way for players to see what an amazing experience Rift continues to be.”

Rift Lite is accessible across all servers to anyone with a Trion account, giving potential Ascended a risk-free opportunity to play the game IGN called the “Best MMO Game” of 2011. Players can create a character and experience the first 20 levels in the plane-besieged world of Telara, working their way through the zones of Terminus, Mathosia, Freemarch, Silverwood, and visiting their faction’s capital cities.

In addition to the new trial, Rift 1.7 features many quality of life improvements, including:

· PvP Improvements – Smoother advancement and better rewards

· Ascended Weddings – Share eternity with your soulmate, Telara-style

· River of Souls Chronicle – Undead adventure for two

· New Master Mode Dungeon – Caduceus Rise

· Expert Dungeon Overhaul – More options, better loot!

· Better Endgame Equipment – Improved loot for your endgame Ascended

Today’s update marks the initial stage of the Carnival of the Ascended. In a few weeks, the largest and most spectacular World Event Telara has ever witnessed will kick off, celebrating the heroic feats of the Ascended. Amazing in-game events, special loot, and prizes will make the Carnival World Event something that won’t be soon forgotten.

1.7 has promised a host of changes to whole swathes of Rift. Included in the changes is a wholesale revamping of PvP advancement. PvP souls are “going the way of the Dodo” and being replaced by the Attunement of War PA hex tree. The 8 Prestige ranks are being replaced with 40 more granular levels. Most level 50 PvP gear will have Rank restrictions removed, requiring only that one amass the requisite Favour to purchase it. And players below level 13 in the new system will have their stats ‘bolstered’ to make them less squishy and boost competitiveness. Also relevant to this discussion is the addition of PA respeccing (first one’s free, after that it’s 100 plat).

So far, so good. But there are two problems with the way Trion has chosen to implement the new system. First, PvP PA will be commingled with PvE PA. Second, players who have already reached the higher Prestige ranks will have their Rank converted into PA points equivalent to level 38 (out of the 40) but filling out the PvP attunement tree appears to require some 110 PA levels (meaning long-time PvPers will effectively go from being max Rank to being about a third of the way to max).

PvE content also appears to provide significantly more PA xp than PvPing. And, since all PA xp seems to be usable in any hex tree, players who have never done any PvPing at all can, with a (free) respec, get as many PvP levels as players who have spent months actually engaging in PvP content.

This is not only severely punitive to PvP veterans, it flies in the face of the entire purpose of the Planar Attunement system. PA was intended as a series of small bonuses for doing what you do anyway. The cumulative effects are significant but they’re not overwhelming. And Trion has repeatedly and consistently said we don’t need to feel like we have to grind out PA levels and min-max it. PA isn’t supposed to radically change the game.

But now for PvP–but only for PvP–grinding PA is going to be required. Moreover, the arbitrary number of PvP levels doesn’t scale rationally to the scope of the hex tree. Assuming a Rank 8 player converts all of his new PA xp into the Attunement of War tree, he will still need over 70 levels of War PA to fill out the tree. That just doesn’t make sense. If there are 40 PvP levels and 110 or so levels of War Attunement hexes, Rank needs to convert to a greater percentage of the available hexes.

Worse, PvP hexes are now going to be fed mainly by PvE. Regardless of how many more levels one needs to fill out the hex tree after the new paradigm goes live, filling them mainly by PvPing won’t be viable because PvE xp is easier and faster to accrue. Players will feel forced to go PvE whether they want to or not to maintain their competitiveness. Needless to say this has a lot of the hardcore PvP community up in arms.

Meanwhile, Planar Attunement will continue to work more or less as designed for PvE. In short, Trion doesn’t seem to have thought this through.

A player can’t just respec and get full HK gear. She has to actually go do HK. A lot. She can’t PvP and get raid gear, either. She has to go raid. Obviously, some PvP weapons (which will still have PvP level restrictions, at least nominally) are very useful in PvE and some relic weapons are better than their PvP counterparts. That’s fine. No-one thinks the two aspects of the game should be totally and completely isolated from each other. Rather, it just makes sense that the rewards most applicable to one aspect of the game should flow primarily from participating in that aspect of the game.

The basic idea is a good one. Putting PvP talents into PA has the potential to broadly expand the options PvPers have. And raising the max level is actually a plus. It’s always nice to have something else to work toward. But it’s not reasonable to gut the players who’ve already put in the time and effort to reach the top levels. All the more so when players who have little or no time investment at all can match them simply by respeccing (for free). Throwing PvE and PvP PA xp in one basket only compounds the problem.

The fixes for these issues are simple: Make PvP PA only level via xp gained in PvP and give high Rank players more initial PvP PA levels. If Trion makes those two changes, I am confident most of the dissenters will be satisfied.

RIFT’s preset soul build addition, also known as Calling Purposes, is fresh out on the PTS and available for player testing. Information about this feature and other additions Trion has in store for new players and old players alike can be found here. This brief guide will cover the various Warrior builds and some of the Warrior-centric features upon starting a new character. For the Cleric version of this guide that features more general information about the feature, check here.

There are four Warrior preset builds, or callings, to choose from. They are available for new players to choose from when creating their character, and are also available for Warriors of any level. There are two DPS builds, and two tanking builds. Upon inspecting the builds further, the UI gives detailed information about the specs, its key abilities, a brief guide on how to play the spec, and some general tips for it.

Upon beginning a new character, players will be able to preview their Warrior in various gear sets. Pictured above is the high level preview, and the selection screen for the different callings. If a player chooses to level their character with a suggested calling, suggestions are made for skill point placement. They can be automatically placed as well. The feature itself is entirely optional, and Trion’s goal here is to assist new players and also encourage veteran players to experiment with new classes, new builds, and new roles.

The Four Warrior Builds

Here are the four specs, each with a screenshot of the information window, a link to the spec in Zam, and my personal comments:

Destroyer:

Description: An offensive Warrior who uses massive two-handed weapons to strike mighty high damage blows against their enemies.
Group Role: Damage
Souls: 44 Champion, 22 Paragon, 0 Riftblade
Comments: This spec seems decent for a player new to the Warrior. It grants more AoE damage abilities than the current popular Champ/Para build, which may be useful for leveling and farming purposes. The damage output should be high enough for most grouping purposes.

Pathfinder:

Description: An offensive Warrior and their Companion who fight together to overwhelm their enemy.
Group Role: Damage
Souls: 38 Beastmaster, 28 Champion, 0 Riftblade
Comments: Trion is attempting to make Beastmaster viable in 1.7 again, and this is their attempt at a build that makes use of the new changes. They’re on the right track with the build, but a few of the point placements kind of leave me boggled. I would personally place more points in Champion, and place them in more useful spots (no points in Titan’s Strength? Really?). Sadly, Beastmaster could still use some work.

Defender:

Description: A defensive Warrior who uses a heavy shield to stand toe to toe with their enemies and defend their allies. Fights will be longer, but survivability is greatly increased.
Group Role: Tank
Souls: 44 Paladin, 22 Warlord, 0 Void Knight
Comments: The build itself is viable, and a decent suggestion for aspiring tanks who are in the process of leveling. The top-tier Paladin talents aren’t all that fantastic in comparison to the other alternatives, but for leveling, they’re not too bad. Some of the points in Paladin seem a little oddly-placed, however, and I would personally move some around. The points in Warlord are solid, and allow a new tank to get a feel for the Warlord utilities.

Dark Thane:

Description: A defensive Warrior who wields the power of the Plane of Death to destroy their enemies while defending their allies. Fights will be longer, but survivability is greatly increased.
Group Role: Tank
Souls: 38 Reaver, 28 Paladin, 0 Void Knight
Comments: I guess this is supposed to be a leveling build, since it concentrates on most of the tank self-healing options. I personally would have rather seen a standard high mitigation build here, using the same three trees. It would seem more logical to present both a Warlord build and a high mitigation build, but we may see more builds added in the future.

Interestingly enough, despite the fact that there are two DPS builds and two tank builds represented, there’s a definite gap of missing Warrior builds here. There’s no high mitigation tank build, and no dual wield DPS build. It would be nice if Trion opened up player suggestions for suggesting builds. This would allow new builds to become available, and would also get the community involved in the project. Overall, this addition seems promising for new RIFT players, and even veterans may find some use from it.

RIFT’s preset soul build addition, also known as Calling Purposes, is fresh out on the PTS and available for player testing. Information about this feature and other additions Trion has in store for new players and old players alike can be found here. The preset build feature promises to be a helpful aid for new players leveling in RIFT, and also a handy, optional way for veterans to experiment with new builds, classes, and class roles. Let’s dive into some of the specifics about this cool feature, focusing on the Cleric class.

New players will probably gain the most benefits from this system. The benefits are seen as early as the character creation screen. When creating a new character, players will be prompted to choose their faction, then gender and race. Added to the race selection screen is now a handy set of buttons that allows players to preview the character in various sets of obtainable gear.

There are three selections: low level, mid level, and high level. After choosing a race, they’re able to preview the different gear selections based on class. This basically prepares Clerics for the fact that they’ll be wearing chain robes throughout much of their leveling and endgame experience, and that eventually, the robes look pretty cool and lose that silly single-shoulder option.

After choosing Cleric, players are able to choose one of four possible calling purposes, or preset builds. “What is your purpose?” this creation screen asks. These builds are entirely optional, but for new players, they’re a great starting place for getting a feel for how the different specs play. Shown above is a screenshot of the different purposes, their names, and the character preview screen.

One cool thing about this screen is the fact that it lets players know how flexible the Cleric class is. While clicking on the different callings, the character previews combat animations with applicable weapon types. This lets the player preview combat animations, and also shows them the type of weaponry they will generally want to obtain during the leveling process. While four builds is a limited number of Cleric builds, a bit of everything is represented: healing, tanking, straight DPS, ranged DPS, melee DPS, and hybrid healing DPS.

The feature also streamlines the early leveling process. Instead of having to obtain each soul through questing, players are able to start off with three empty soul trees. This enables 0 talent point abilities, and while that sounds fairly minor, for Clerics, it’s a rather significant bonus. Choosing Thunderer, for example, which is the Shaman/Justicar/Inquisitor spec, gives players Crushing Blow and Vex, granting players a ranged pull at level 1.

One of the complaints many new RIFT players have is how difficult it is to know which classes to grab when the information given in-game is a very limited (and severely outdated). This gets rid of that confusion altogether, and gives players the ability to grab a spec right away and see if they enjoy it. As the player levels, the system will also suggest a particular advancement route.

The Four Cleric Builds

Readers who have enjoyed the Cleric class for a while probably have some questions in mind. “Which specs did Trion pick? How could they possibly choose just four?” I wondered the same thing. Here are the four specs, each with a screenshot of the information window, a link to the spec in Zam, and my personal comments:

Flame Keeper:

Description: A pragmatic Cleric who can heal and prevent damage by combining Fire and Life.
Group Role: Healer
Souls: 34 Purifier, 32 Sentinel, 0 Warden
Comments: This spec performs well healing group content while leveling, and is solid for expert dungeons and a large portion of endgame healing as well. It gives beginning healers a lot of tools to play with. I wish a second healing spec was represented along with it.

Seraphic Guard:

Description: A defensive Cleric who can survive vicious assaults and keep the attention of monsters, all while supporting their group with minor healing.
Group Role: Tank
Souls: 51 Justicar, 3 Shaman, 12 Inquisitor
Comments: I think this tanking spec is good, but could be better. Initially, I wondered why there weren’t more points in Shaman, but then I realized that with 1.7, Shaman will have reduced value to tanks because of the change to Favored of the Valnir, which will be becoming a DPS talent. Inquisitor grants the Justicar some fun utility talents, but I think the last 2 points in Inquisitor could be better placed.

Thunderer:

Description: A versatile Cleric who uses the might of a storm to deal solid damage in melee while converting that damage into healing.
Group Role: Damage (with a fair side of support healing)
Souls: 44 Shaman, 2 Inquisitor, 20 Justicar
Comments: This spec isn’t bad. I personally prefer the 51-point Shaman/Justicar/Inquisitor build, but this variant offers a bit more utility that many players may prefer. I also prefer more points in Inquisitor. I wish the Inquisicar version was offered as well, however, because the two specs play entirely different. Note: Remember that 1.7 is making Favored of the Valnir a DPS talent and that Ekkehard’s Invocation is replacing Vengeance of the Frozen Earth.

Arbiter:

Description: An aggressive Cleric who punishes their enemies from range by combining powers of Life and Death.
Group Role: Damage
Souls: 51 Inquisitor, 10 Sentinel, 5 Warden
Comments: This spec is fairly standard, and a good choice for a suggested straight DPS spec. I do wish there was another suggested, however, either Shaman, Druid, or Cabalist.

I assume Trion may add more suggested callings in the future, which would be nice to see, especially for Clerics. There’s more than one viable healing build and straight DPS build, and it would be nice to see more than one option in both categories. The good news? The bases are covered, and new players will at least be aware of all four Cleric roles. It would also be incredibly easy for Trion to add new builds, and even possibly ask players to submit their own ideas for other builds. That might be a fun way to get the community involved in this project.

As far as ease of use goes, the entire feature is easy to pick up on, and should be a welcome addition to a new player’s arsenal. The tips are pretty useful, as well. Hopefully the system will encourage new players to stick around and experiment with all of the versatility Clerics enjoy. For veterans, it’s easy enough to toggle between the suggested callings and other specs players may have. More good news? We’ll be getting a sixth soul spot. Clerics rejoice!

Platinum. Planarite. Inscribed Sourcestones. Plaques. Marks. Greater Marks. Special Event Currency…

Rift has a boggling number of currencies — far more than I have ever seen in any game, MMO or otherwise — and up until this point, each has had a serious flaw. At a certain point, each becomes mostly obsolete, continuing to accumulate, but with little, if anything, left to buy with it.

With the Rift 1.7 patch on the horizon though, it looks like Trion is finally beginning to address this problem. In the most recent PTS Set (#2), Trion has added new sinks for almost every currency. Those thousands of expert dungeon plaques you had saved up, or the hundreds of raid marks that sat in your vault collecting virtual dust can now be traded in for planar attunement xp. This is a perfect sink. The gains from PA levels are extremely incremental, but desirable enough to be worth something, and it will remain something that players will continue to be able to benefit by purchasing for a long time to come. [If you are interested, current exchange rates on the PTS are included at the bottom of this article.]

There remains one glaring exception, however: Platinum. Sure, there are plenty of fixed, one time gold sinks. Mounts of all shapes and sizes to suit your fancy abound across Telara. You can also buy extra role slots, which certainly have a drastic effect on your character’s overall versatility in the game, and 1.7 is even bringing a sixth slot for purchase — thank Thedeor! Still, there comes a point when there’s just not much left to purchase and the pile of platinum starts to grow ever larger, daily by daily.

While I find it mildly entertaining to marvel at the new record amount of platinum in my bank whenever I reach a new milestone of a thousand, it highlights a problem. Despite the fact that my character has attained a great deal of wealth, there’s really not much benefit to it. There are only so many consumables to buy — and basically all of those are from other players.

The result? Buying power among the player base continues to steadily rise without plateau, and platinum as a resource continues to dwindle in value. Yes, we can trade it in higher quantities amongst ourselves, but there just isn’t enough sinks taking money out of the economy compared to the rate at which it is being added. Ember Island only exacerbated this dilemma by taking quest rewards up to a whole new level.

What we need is a new currency sink for platinum — something more than a one time, fixed cost like an extra role slot. While the notion of being able to buy experience with a resource that is tradable might not be palatable, there are plenty of other options. More powerful potion/weaponstone recipes that require expensive vendor bought components, for instance, would be an excellent solution, but it wouldn’t necessarily have to be something that increased a character’s power. Consumable vanity items that turn your character into this or that, make weapons sparkle, temporarily increase mounted speed, or just otherwise did something “cool” would probably fly off their digital shelves, so to speak. And who wouldn’t plunk down a chunk of change on some experience booting vials, even if they weren’t quite as good as the veteran reward vials?

Bottom line is we need something to do with our gold. But, that’s just one dwarf’s opinion. In the meantime, I guess I will go admire my ever growing hoard. Hey, ladies, do you think this massive pile of coin brings out the sparkle in my eyes?

Addendum:
These are the new currency exchange rates currently on PTS in Set #2, so they are, of course, subject to change before going live.