May 27, 2011

#RIFT 1.2.1 – Patch Notes

GENERAL
* Cult Saga: Final Epic weapon rewards have been upgraded in power!
* Guild Perk: Planar Protection now consumes only one Planar Charge, only from the caster, and not other group members.
* Brought the Fire Rift Raid difficulty more in line with other Rift Raids.
* Shimmersand: Damage Control: Fixed an occasional bug with the Earth Beacons and this quest not resetting properly.
* Crafting Daily quests will no longer take you above the intended Notoriety rank with the Quarry Rats, Granite Falls, or the Arcane Hand.

ITEM SELLBACK/PURCHASE CONFIRMATION
* Any item purchased with a special Currency will have a confirmation pop-up on purchase.
* Any item purchased with platinum/gold/silver with an Uncommon rarity or higher will have a confirmation pop-up on purchase.
* You may now sell back items for a full refund under the following circumstances:
– A single item, not a stack of items.
– Within 30 minutes in-game time from purchase (the 30 minute timer stops counting while you are offline)
* Modifying the item with a Rune or temporary effect will cause it to no longer be fully refundable.
* Dyeing the item will cause it to no longer be fully refundable.
* If the item has left your character by mail, trade, or Auction House listing, it will no longer be fully refundable.
* If the item was used to activate a quest or update a quest objective, it will no longer be fully refundable.
* Item tooltips will show a full ‘Return Price’ while still within the refund period. Once the 30 minutes have passed or the item is made ineligible for a full refund, the tooltip will display the normal resale price.
* Items that have been returned for a full refund will not appear in the Buy Back list.

PVP/WARFRONTS
* The following objects can no longer be interacted with while under the effect of Slip Away, Twilight Transcendence, Scatter the Shadows, Defer Death, or Phase Shift:
– Black Garden: The Fang of Regulos
– The Codex: all control points
– Whitefall Steppes: the Sourcestone
– Port Scion: Sourcestone and capture points
* Using Slip Away, Twilight Transcendence, Scatter the Shadows, Defer Death, or Phase Shift while carrying Sourcestone in Whitefall Steppes or The Battle for Port Scion will now cause the sourcestone to drop.
* Respawning in a Warfront now regenerates energy and power more quickly for Rogues and Warriors.
* The Codex: Reduced the amount of time it takes to flip control of a control point.
* The Codex: Increased the maximum match duration to 20 minutes.
* The Battle for Port Scion: The Bridge respawn point now becomes unlocked after the match has been running for one minute. The amount of time it takes to gain control of the respawn point has been halved.
* The Battle for Port Scion: Returning Sourcestone no longer grants a buff to your team members.
* The Battle for Port Scion: Slightly updated the paths that the heroes take when spawned from defeating the Endless boss. They now more regularly assault the southern objective on each side.
* The Codex has been updated with alternate routes out of the spawn areas for both teams. Several sections of the terrain have also been smoothed out to avoid wonky movement.

SOULS
* Fixed an issue causing Synthesis, Righteous Mandate, and a few other effects to not end properly when their caster logged off.
* Inquisitor: Ritual of Judgment: This once again applies properly to the DoT portion of Sanction Heretic.
* Vindicator: Fixed a couple of issues with the Subdue ability. This was previously only working on three of the Warrior taunts (Incite, Grim Lure, and Spark), and will now properly apply for any taunt used. Subdue can no longer be used against NPCs that are not player pets.

A Night of Crafting (and a little PvP) #Rift

Another busy day in Rift yesterday. As I mentioned in a previous post, crafted gear is really important in Rift but I find the system too simple over all and there for it lowers the value of the gear. So far all crafted gear is better then my equal level adventure quested gear, and better then quite a few dungeon pieces. I even had a pair of blue shoes made that were better then my rare planar boots that I had just purchased (grrr). I have three characters (maybe I’ll add a fourth) and each of them craft. My main (the cleric) is an artificer, and also has mining and foraging. I picked up the quest to add steel to my list of combines yesterday and came across my newest pet peeve. Well, two of them actually. Number one, I have already completed the quest for steel but I keep getting the drop for it. I can’t do anything with it since it’s soulbound and I’ve completed it – but yet the ores keep dropping them. On that same note, the tailor quest keeps dropping from mobs too. I would love it if quests would recognize when you’ve already completed it and stopped dropping and it should not drop for me if I’m not a tailor. I’ve lost track of how many quest starter pieces I’ve deleted.

I got to see my first glimpse of Deepstrike Mines thanks to my other half running me through on his level 50 warrior. I queued along with a friend as heals/dps/tank/support (between the two of us we had everything covered) for approximately two hours and we didn’t even get so much as a nibble. It didn’t matter WHAT we set ourselves as in order to cover the roles of a group, the dungeon just wasn’t going to happen. I wanted to complete the quests before they turned completely gray to me (they were already very green) and so we teamed up and did the dungeon as a duo instead of a full group. I really think the LFDungeon tool needs a LOT of work.

After that was done I was just a bubble shy of 32 so I set out to do some PvP via Warfronts. We lost every single one, and I was the only healer in each of them which means I was ganged up on as soon as any Guardian found out I was the healer. Still, I trudged through each Warfront gleefully, and after a few runs I managed to hit level 32. Pleased with my progress, I’m still making my way through Scarlet Gorge, which is very pretty and seems to have fire rifts at every turn.

I logged back to my crafter characters (one is an apothecary with runebreaking, the other an outfitter) and leveled them each up a few points as well as completed some daily crafting quests. The best part is that those characters are each level 13 and level 8 – and my crafting quests currently send me to Stonefield to turn them in. The first character was lucky enough to get summon via the guild banner, but the 2nd character I decided to walk. She made it without deaths thanks to a few other players running around questing in the early parts of Stonefield (specifically where all those trolls hang out).

Thanks to the other half I also managed to complete the puzzle located in Stonefield which I had never even seen before. It was my first puzzle, and it was a lot of fun – the best part is that it rewarded me with a purple bp that was a major upgrade over what I was wearing. All in all it was a pretty progressive evening, with a lot of fun moments tossed in.

I’ve also built myself a 3rd spec. I mentioned a while back that I was considering this and simply didn’t have the cash to afford a 3rd spec, but I decided now was the time. I’ve now got a single target heal spec for dungeons, an AoE heal spec for Rifts / Raids and I’ve got a dps / tank spec for questing and soloing. They’re taking a little time to get used to but I’m quite happy with my choices. For me it’s not about what’s “best” but what feels “right” for my play style. I spent the better part of an evening testing out different combinations that just didn’t feel right out on the field, so I would tweak them over and over until it felt “right” for me.

Inching my way into the 40’s is a nice experience. I don’t know what I’ll think once I get to 50 and how much there will be for me to do – but we’ll just have to see. Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Nomadic Gamer