Thirty days into one of the smoothest launches in MMOG history, the
team at Trion ups the ante with the first major content patch of their
new title. Rift
launched with more content than any other new game ever had, and the
content team flexed its collective muscle by introducing style="font-style: italic;">The River of Souls
patch so quickly. With such an ambitious and robust amount of
additions, tweaks and fixes we will spend the next few weeks looking at
the major points of the patch. We start our overview of patch 1.1 with
some of the biggest additions and fixes, next week we will continue
with a look at the changes made to the souls of Rift.



WORLD EVENT



The most dynamic of the content unveiled in the patch, style="font-style: italic;">The River of Souls
helps to flesh out the story of Alsbeth; a formerly highly revered
Guardian Ascended who’s betrayal helped sow permanent discord between
the factions and made her one of the most important players among those
loyal to Regulos. Not content to rest on her laurels, Alsbeth is up to
even more nefarious work with her group: the Endless Court.



  •  The
    Endless Court
    invades Telara! This worldwide event for all present-day Telara zones
    and level ranges culminates in the opening of the River of Souls raid
    zone.



The invasion is taking place in stages and revolves around Alsbeth’s
desire to somehow corrupt or capture energies from the pipeline that
carries the fallen souls of Telara. The first stage was unlocked the
patch was released, with subsequent stages set to roll out over the
next few weeks.

  •  Events
    and rewards are
    available for characters of all levels!



Even players as low as level seven can conceivably earn rewards and
help to turn the tide against Alsbeth, with rift events and invasions
occurring in every zone.

  •  The
    new World Event UI
    keeps you up-to-date on current and future event progress. Check it out
    to see where your server stands in the fight against the Plane of Death.



Appearing just above your quest tracker, and with a similar look and
feel, this interface device works well to help sever as a visual guide
to the current state of affairs. It would be nice to see a
bit  more detail here, but given the nature of the invasions
and the desire of most players to keep their interface uncluttered, it
works pretty well.

  •  Quest
    starters in
    Meridian and Sanctum offer currency rewards for special vendors,
    including limited-time items only available during this event.


href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/97144"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 225px; height: 121px;"
alt="Rift Quest Hub"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/97144">

Quest Hub in Meridian



Located near the porticulum are several NPCs that give single and daily
quests, as well as a vendor that offers some vanity pets and class
specific rings. You will need a special currency known as Otherworldly
Sourcestone to purchase these items. Completing the daily quests, in
addition to participating in the world events will net you plenty over
the course of the event.



VIDEO CAPTURE



The inclusion of in-game Twitter feeds and screenshots for achievements
helped tie the game well to the social media aspect of MMOGs, but the
addition of in-game YouTube functionality takes it to a whole new
level. Spurred on mainly by meme creators, the number of game related
videos on the popular video site has gone through the roof in recent
years. Adding this aspect to the game really puts Trion on the cutting
edge of community builders in the genre.


  •  You
    can record video through RIFT up to 3 minutes in length. If you
    add a YouTube account through the Settings menu, RIFT will
    automatically upload videos to that account!
  •  Type
    /record or press CTRL+Y to start recording. Use it again to stop!
  •  Small
    icons next to the minimap show when video is recording and
    encoding.
  •  Once
    encoding is complete, you will have the option to upload if you
    have attached a YouTube account.


href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/97140"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 300px; height: 160px;"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/97140"
alt="Rift World Event"> href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/97141"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 300px; height: 160px;"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/97141"
alt="Rift Dragon">

style="font-style: italic;">The River of Souls is a dynamic
event that touches many aspects of gameplay

GENERAL


  •  After
    merging your group with another public group, you can now
    un-merge it! Look for the menu option to Unmerge Group if you were the
    party leader of a group that has been merged.
  •  Fixed
    the loot bug where only the tank could get mob loot.
  •  All
    artifact nodes now have a consistent 1.5 second gathering time.
  •  You
    can now accept a quest on behalf of your guild even if your
    personal quest log is full.
  •  Guild
    members cannot be promoted while offline.
  •  If
    a group disbands after killing a mob with loot that would
    otherwise trigger a roll, that loot is now free-for-all.
  •  Fix
    for quickly opening a series of clickable loot (such as geodes
    for gems) with auto-loot that would occasionally result in lost items.
  •  Server
    Announcements now stay on-screen for twice as long.
  • There
    are now Raid Rift daily quests! See Abbess Katia in Sanctum or
    Raj Tahleed in Meridian. These award Inscribed Sourcestone which you
    can use to buy all sorts of cool things.

Having tons of content is a good thing, having tons of content with
dangling carrots of tangible rewards is a *great* thing. While some
players may decry any sort of currency based vendor loot as “welfare
epics”, they allow goal oriented gamers the ability to prioritize their
playtime and set attainable goals for themselves.

  •  Angelic
    Flight and Mighty Leap will not interrupt movement when used
    (auto-run or holding down a movement key).

 One of those trivial things that bothered me, and while I
know minor issues shouldn’t be major complaints – the devil is in the
details.

  •  Fixed
    multiple status updates going to Twitter during important
    discoveries.

Once again Trion fights spam at its source – oh the irony.


RIFTS AND INVASIONS


  •  A
    large number of new Essences have been added to merchants in
    Meridian and Sanctum for purchase with Inscribed Sourcestones.
  •  Tweaked
    cooldown times between zone events.
  •  Fixed
    some instability with Wardstones disappearing when a large mob
    population is nearby.
  •  Rift
    events no longer track player contribution against other
    players. You are checked for participation in the event and given
    rewards appropriately. It’s still important to participate in as many
    stages of a Rift or event as possible to receive the best rewards.

One of the best changes of the patch, and it’s one that isn’t getting
much notoriety. One of the key parts of style="font-style: italic;">Rift so far has
been the
emergence of cooperative gameplay (in an MMOG, go figure right?), but
to undermine that at the very heart of the game by creating a sense of
competition for rewards was counterproductive at best. Hopefully the
combat meters/epeen crowds won’t be too upset by this.


ASCENDED POWERS


  •  Planar
    Charges are no longer consumed immediately when starting to
    cast an ability. They are consumed when the effect actually takes place
    — no more wasted charges on an interrupted cast.

If I were a Guardian I would thank the gods for this change, but since
I’m not I will simply thank the folks at Trion for saving me tons of
frustration. Nothing is worse than multiple well-meaning individuals
triggering a mass resurrection spell at the same time and then watching
your charges go up in smoke as you bounce like bunny on crack trying to
cancel the spell cast.


GUILD PERKS



There are some solid fixes here, but mostly cosmetic in nature with
Guild Perks still coming into their own at this stage in the game. I am
glad they explained the Journeyman fix however; I was going mad trying
to figure out which buff I was missing.


  •  Killing
    Spree and Blood Thirsty use the proper perk tokens now.
  •  The
    following perks will now properly show the description/tooltip
    values associated with them: Lucky Penny, Call of the Ascended,
    Journeyman, Foe Hunter, Cache Finder, and Rift Extraction.
  •  Journeyman
    no longer always shows in the buff bar.


CULT SAGA



One of the biggest knocks on the game so far has been that the questing
is a bit anemic, and while I agree with that sentiment to a point, epic
quests have been a great way to immerse oneself in the story of Telara.
Don’t let these quest lines die on the vine or get removed from your
quest log to make way for more solo-friendly fare, grab a friend or two
and get em done!


  •  Epic
    quests now award Achievements and titles at key advancement
    points. These are granted retroactively so if you already completed
    portions (or all!) of the epic questline, you will receive these on
    login.
  •  The
    conclusion to the Saga of the Aelfwar is now obtainable.
  •  The
    epic questline updates for Greenscale’s Heart and Death
    Corruption Sample are now granted for only one raid member per
    Greenscale kill.
  •  The
    Saga of the Endless: Darkblade’s Terror will now properly update.
  •  The
    Peacemaker: Disguise step no longer required. Defiants can still
    get to hide in the bushes!
  •  The
    Peacemaker: Disguise items for this quest have been removed
    following the quest re-work to no longer require them.


href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/97143"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 600px; height: 267px;"
alt="Rift Invasion"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/97143">

Even the shouts of the enemies
are epic in Rift


COMBAT


  •  Updated
    the tooltip description text for Attack Power and Spell Power
    in the character sheet.
  •  Effects
    subject to diminishing returns will now also use diminished
    durations on player pets.
  •  ‘Immune’
    scrolling combat text no longer appears on characters in
    stealth.
  •  Player
    tracking abilities no longer proc trinket effects.
  •  PvP
    Combat: Abilities now only check for caster facing their target
    at the start of a cast – they will still land if a target moves behind
    you while casting is in progress
  •  Fixed
    a bug causing some Soul abilities to be inappropriately blocked
    when respawning after a death.

I don’t have any hard data to support this claim – but I bet this was
one of the most reported bugs in the game recently. Logging out and
back in cleared the bug, but with the new mobile authenticator app and
increased security measures in place it would have been a serious pain
in the ass to do so.


  • Occasionally
    NPCs would be unable to attack stealthed players. Not
    anymore!

Rogues, my heart weeps for you. Ok, that last part was a lie, welcome
to our world.


  • Increased
    the amount of Armor on Cloth items.

 Coming soon: the Mage tanking soul. Why not? They
can do everything else in the game practically better than any other
soul, why leave out tanking? If I sound bitter, it’s because I am – I
know they needed some love but come on. More on this rant in next
week’s article for sure.




Overall
reaction to the patch thus far has been positive with most
players enjoying both the content and the fixes. Next week we get into
the more controversial aspects of the patch, those relating to class
balance. Keep closing those rifts and battling back the forces of the
Endless Court in the meantime.


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

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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