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alt="Rift" src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/99486">

 

One of E3's greatest strengths is also its most glaring
weakness. While every developer worth their salt is represented, and
most with completely amazing booths, the amount of media is tenfold
that and we all want face time. Of course, being gamers first, we want
as much access to shiny new stuff as anyone – so when Trion invited us
over to catch a glimpse of the upcoming 1.3 content patch we were all
over it.



Known officially as Waves
of Madness
, the new content patch opens
tentatively on June 22nd with a fancy world event that will guide
players to unlocking the secrets of the ancient fortress known as
Hammerknell. Like the former content patch, style="font-style: italic;">River of Souls, the
end
result of the world event will be a new 20 player raid in the
aforementioned fortress. Just like the prior world events players will
have a special quest UI element automatically added and can begin
participating immediately in the first of 4 phases. Unlike the prior
event, this one seems a bit more stable and evolved with players in all
level ranges able to make meaningful contributions.


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alt="rift" src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/99461">



The struggle in Waves
of Madness
is even more epic, and hectic, than
prior world events as the players
will be battling not one but two planes – as they battle each other
(at least on PvP servers). It seems the Dwarven sanctum of Hamerknell
has attracted the attention not only of the residents of Telara, but
also the denizens of the planes of both Water and Death, with the
former having a more vested interest as one of their powerful dragons
is trapped inside.




We were treated to one of the more climactic moments of the event as
Jornaru, a rather nasty boss,
attacked the world and then retreated into the dungeon –
challenging us to follow if we dared. Through the magic of GM-esque
powers we formed our own one toon wrecking crew and took up arms
against him. Inside Hamerknell we found a ton of bosses, in fact we
were advised this is now the largest raid in the game. Featuring
multiple wings and gated content, bosses will have to be vanquished
in a particular order and they all must be knocked out before gaining
access to the final boss, the dreaded water dragon Akylios, which may
be the largest boss we have ever seen in an MMOG.



style="border: 0px solid ; width: 580px; height: 363px;"
alt="rift" src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/99464">

In addition to the exciting new content, the update also features a
host of calling and soul improvements, bug fixes, tweaks and a couple
of new features that have highly anticipated. One of the more
innovative features coming to Rift
is a free (yes free!) server
transfer that will be accessible in-game and have a one week cooldown.
As our gracious host informed us during the walkthough; “We want people
to have fun and play together, they shouldn't have to pay 14.95 to do
that” Also making it under the wire for inclusion is the Guild Bank
feature that will allow players to store and share items with each
other – artifact junkies rejoice! Sadly the addon API didn't make it
into this round of updates, but it should be in place in time for the
next patch.



We would like to thank the folks at Trion for taking the time to show
us this massive new raid zone and break down the major points of the
patch. Check out the new patch trailer as well as some awesome
screenshots below:






title=""> src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/99510"
alt="Rift Waves of Madness"
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title=""> src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/99511"
alt="Rift Waves of Madness"
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 125px;">
title=""> src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/99473"
alt="Rift Waves of Madness"
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 125px;">
title=""> src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/99468"
alt="Rift Waves of Madness"
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 125px;">
title=""> src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/99467"
alt="Rift Waves of Madness"
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 125px;">
title=""> src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/99466"
alt="Rift Waves of Madness"
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 125px;">
title=""> src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/99465"
alt="Rift Waves of Madness"
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 125px;">
title=""> src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/99464"
alt="Rift Waves of Madness"
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 125px;">
title=""> src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/99463"
alt="Rift Waves of Madness"
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 125px;">
title=""> src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/99462"
alt="Rift Waves of Madness"
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 125px;">
title=""> src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/99461"
alt="Rift Waves of Madness"
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 125px;">
title=""> src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/99460"
alt="Rift Waves of Madness"
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 125px;">



To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our RIFT Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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