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RIFT 1.5 - 29/9/11
== FEATURES ==
* New Chronicles, epic storyline experiences for solo and duo players, become available with 1.5. See CHRONICLES, below.
* New Planar Attunement system lets you continue to grow your character past level 50 and choose how you want to enhance their abilities. Details under PLANAR ATTUNEMENT!
* Veteran Rewards are being added as a bonus for longtime Ascended.
* Master-mode Dungeons challenge even the most experienced and well-equipped players who come looking for a fight! See below for more details on what to expect and how to enter them.
* A new Weekend Warfront joins the mix - check out LIBRARY OF THE RUNEMASTERS, below!
* New competitive rewards have been added for purchase with high-level zone event currency. Find them on the Planar Goods merchants in Sanctum and Meridian! More details under ZONE EVENT REWARD UPDATES.
* The Golden Maw unleashes chaos from an abandoned kingdom across the sea, as the Ashes of History world event begins SOON!
* AddOns for RIFT will soon be going into live beta! These are optional tools that can be used to enhance your personal gameplay experience.
= ASHES OF HISTORY - WORLD EVENT =
* Two dragons of the Blood Storm have been defeated, but four still remain. With Akylios' influence waning, the ancient Travel Stones, once buried, are on the verge of rediscovery.
* The cults of Laethys and Maelforge seek control of these long-abandoned portals to help them bring forth a future of fire and chaos. If Telarans wish to regain them, they'll need all of the Ascended help they can get!
* Keep an eye on your World Event UI for the start of this world event.
= CHRONICLES =
* Chronicles, epic storyline experiences for duos and strong solo characters, begin rolling out with 1.5.
* The Chronicles of Attunement is a solo experience for all characters who reach level 50, congratulating them on their journey and introducing players to the Planar Attunement system.
* Duo or strong solo 50s can enter the Chronicles version of Greenscale's Blight or Hammerknell to take part in additional storylines separate from the Raid versions of these zones.
* The rewards for Chronicles - outside of taking part in the story itself! - include Planar Attunement experience, gear of use to newly-50 Ascended, and chances at unique artifacts, new and old vanity items, and mounts from prior events.
* Level 50 characters can access the new Chronicles window from the menu buttons on-screen or by pressing the 'J' key.
* Under times of high demand, Chronicles will use a queue system to make sure everyone gets their turn!
= PLANAR ATTUNEMENT =
* Advancement doesn't stop at level 50; after the Chronicles of Attunement, you can start earning Planar Attunement experience to further customize and enhance your character!
* Planar Attunements provide base enhancements to your character's Calling from each Plane, and is not Soul-specific.
* Your experience bar will turn into a Planar Attunement meter when you reach level 50. The mouseover tooltip will indicate that you are earning experience toward Planar Attunement.
* You must purchase all Planar Attunement abilities of a given tier before you can begin spending points in the next tier up.
* Rested experience does not apply to post-level-50 Planar Attunement experience.
= VETERAN REWARDS =
* Our players are what make RIFT possible - as a 'thank you' from us to you, additional bonuses are earned based on how long you've been with us in Telara.
* Veteran Rewards are calculated based on prior existing time subscribed as well as any purchased future subscription time on your account. For example, if you've been subscribed for 3 months and renew a 3-month subscription, you will receive 6-month Veteran Rewards at the time the renewal occurs.
* Check your in-game mailbox to receive Veteran Rewards!
* For additional details including the list of rewards and milestones, see:
http://www.riftgame.com/en/game/veteran-rewards.php= MASTER-MODE DUNGEON - DARKENING DEEPS =
* For those Ascended looking for a group-sized challenge, new Master Mode dungeons are underway, starting with Darkening Deeps.
* Intended for elite groups of Ascended, these Master modes may require you to use multiple roles and advanced tactics including crowd control and support souls.
* Epic rewards await those who successfully complete these dungeon modes; dropped items are more powerful than tier 2 Expert gear and provide an alternative to Raid Rifts and entry Raids for gear. There are rumors of a few super-powerful items to be found as well!
* Groups wishing to tackle Master Mode dungeons must form up and enter the zone with the Master dungeon difficulty selected. Master Mode groups cannot be formed through the Looking for Group tool.
= NEW WEEKEND WARFRONT - LIBRARY OF THE RUNEMASTERS =
* A new Warfront joins the weekend rotation - this one in an all-new setting!
* Within the depths of Hammerknell, Guardians and Defiants fight to take control of abandoned Dwarven Rune vessels. With the ability to bind powerful planar beings, these artifacts could prove invaluable to the armies of Ascended.
* Join the fight to control these powerful vessels - but be warned, the longer one is within your grasp, the more its dark power will eat away at your soul.
* Earn points for your team by holding the relic as long as possible. None can withstand the power of the relic for too long, though, and the carrier will take an increasing amount of damage until they die. Points can also be gained by defeating enemy players.
= ENDGAME RIFT & ZONE EVENT REWARD UPDATE =
* Awesome new weapons, armor, and Synergy Crystals have been added to the Planar Goods merchants that can be purchased with Inscribed Sourcestone - these are expert-level equipment and worth checking out as a means of gearing up your character!
* Combined Crystal sourcestone and Inscribed Sourcestone into a single currency for end game rift rewards.
* Crystal Sourcestone has been removed and any existing Crystal Sourcestone will automatically be converted into Inscribed Sourcestone.
* Added Inscribed Sourcestone drops to all high level events, Rifts, and Rift related daily quests.
* Significantly increased the rate in which players can obtain Inscribed Sourcestone.
* Items that used to cost Crystal Sourcestone have had their costs converted to Inscribed Sourcestone.
= WARFRONT ACCOLADES =
* A new Warfront Accolade callout system gives recognition and group bonuses to Favor, Experience, and Prestige for completing a variety of certain feats in Warfront PvP.
* Example feats include the defeat of two opponents at once, defeating multiple opponents in a row without dying yourself, or for saving a teammate from the brink of death with a well timed heal. There are even Warfront-specific feats for unique actions!
= GUILD WALL =
* A new tab in the Guild UI allows members to post messageboard-style updates for all guild members to see. Use it to set up Raids, Events, or just to coordinate with friends who may not be online at the same time.
* Permissions allowing members to post on the Guild Wall, or to delete posts, are set under the Rank permissions settings.
GENERAL GAMEPLAY
* You can now interact with merchants, quest NPCs, and Healer NPCs while they are in combat! This should help in some situations where a great many invaders are present.
* Trinkets and other usable-equippables will now enter a 30-second cooldown period when equipped.
* Quantum Sight and Omen Sight now last 15 minutes.
* The Planar Vendors in Sanctum and Meridian have been reorganized to hopefully make them more user-friendly. A number of the goods available have been repriced.
* Ascended Powers are now on their own merchant in Sanctum and Meridian.
* Fixed an edge case with master looting where a group could become ineligible for assigned loot.
* Fixed a bug where characters could end up with multiple stacks of Soul Exhaustion.
* Fixed the message 'Dummy has decayed from [item] appearing whenever a temporary enchantment was applied to an item.
* NPCs now give a more descriptive error message when you attempt to turn in too many repeatable quests in a single day.
* If you try to pay for a cash-on-delivery mail attachment multiple times, we don't actually charge you more than once.
* When right-clicking stackable items to move them into a Guild Bank, they will be merged into any existing stacks in the bank if there is room.
* Quests that share updates with party members will now also share across the whole raid, not just within your raid group.
* Using click-to-move no longer acts bizarrely if you click on a floor above or below your character.
* Smart Targeting now actually changes your target to the one chosen by your ability.
CHAT SYSTEM UPDATES
* You no longer need to be Prestige rank 2 to join the World Defense chat channel.
* Characters will be added to the World Defense channel when reaching level 50 - current level 50s will be added automatically after the update.
* Combined some of the level range chat channels - new channel ranges are Level 1-29, Level 30-49, and Level 50 chats.
* When your character is automatically added to a new level channel (when reaching 30 or 50), we'll no longer also remove you from the old one.
RIFTS AND INVASIONS
* A new zone event weekly quest is available from Raj Tahleed in Meridian and Abbess Katia in Sanctum.
* Increased the experience gain around Rift activities - a small increase to experience gained from Rifts, a moderate increase for footholds and Major Rifts, and a large increase for zone event Colossi!
* The Defiant's Flare and Guardian's Flare abilities now summon more numerous and stronger assistants to help take down an enemy foothold. The ability cooldown is now 2 minutes.
* Raid Rift tears no longer time out and disappear.
* Guardian or Defiant invasions summoned by Ascended Abilities should more reliably assist each other.
* Anti-Planar Augmentation and Blessed Champion abilities now have a duration and cooldown of 1 minute, instead of the previous 30 second duration and 5 minute cooldown.
* After invaders take over a location they will start stacking the 'Burning Out' debuff, causing them to take increased damage for each stack.
* Player pets no longer deal reduced damage to Invaders.
* Zone event broadcasts should now always contain the name of the zone the event is starting in, rather than just an area within the zone.
* Between the high level zones - Stillmoor, Shimmersand, and Iron Pine Peaks - only one zone event will be active at a given time.
* Raid Rift tears now have a unique map icon.
* When a PvP Rift is active in a zone, the activity icon will be visible on your main map, which has a tooltip giving info about the active Rift and event.
* PvP Rifts will also be visible on the main map when zoomed in, even if you're not currently in the zone.
LOOKING FOR GROUP
* The Random Daily Dungeon completions via the LFG tool now also award experience for Planar Attunement, where appropriate for your level.
* Stats contributed from armor set bonuses now count toward tier requirements when looking for dungeons.
* Fully LFG-formed groups now default to having the tank set to leader.
* LFG groups can now vote kick someone who is not in the instance.
* You can also access other useful things from the party member's right click menu even if they are not in your instance - promote, mark, invite to guild, friend, etc.
* Fixed a case where you wouldn't be able to use the Leave Dungeon option if you entered an LFG dungeon from within another dungeon.
* Two-player parties that disband during a LFG queue pop no longer leave an orphan window on the screen.
* Characters who level while queued in the LFG system will not be kicked for forgetting to spend Soul Points for a couple of levels. Once you leave the queue for any reason you will have to spend those Soul Points before you can rejoin it.
* LFG players who are briefly disconnected but still in the group will no longer cause unusable replacement popups on the group leader's screen.
* Killing the first boss in a normal dungeon will properly remove the party's LFG cooldown debuff, much like the Expert dungeons do.
* Party leaders that are overleveled for their LFG instance can now successfully use the Find Replacement popup if needed.
* Leaders of raids with 5 players or less can now enroll them in the LFG queue, even if more than one group exists in the 'raid'.
* Parties queued for LFG will remain in the queue when converted to raid, as long as they meet the 5 player or less limit.
* Leaders of LFG raidframe groups can now change the order of players within the party.
* The soul respec window will now warn you that respeccing may kick you from an LFG queue, depending on how much you change!
* The LFG system will no longer get confused if you add a party member during a dungeon queue pop. It also won't forget group member names if someone is in a Warfront when the window comes up.
* Attempting to use Master Looter to grant loot to a member who is offline now has a more useful error message.
GUILDS
* Guild Perk: Bloodthirsty: Duration increased to 10 seconds, percentage healed lowered to 5-15% healing, and now cannot trigger a second time while active.
* Found and removed a weekly guild quest that had an incorrect level set on it and would result in only 2 quests being offered, rather than three, in a particular week.
COMBAT
* Fixed a bug that caused passive abilities to not apply on pets if they were already summoned at the time of login. Also fixed a bug with item abilities not triggering on pets if the item was equipped prior to the pet being summoned.
* Area effect heals that were using up a heal count on a dead friendly target will no longer do so.
* Fixed an issue causing tooltips from some abilities (most trinkets, in particular) to display inaccurate values for damage and healing when the character has active effect that modify their incoming/outgoing damage or healing values.
* Your camera angle will no longer change when struck by an NPC using Thunderous Kick.