Nice Try, Guardians of Stillmoor #Rift
stargrace 
I thought my leveling would slow down in the 40’s but as of yet it hasn’t. My cleric is level 43, and I spent most of my evening yesterday following a level 50 (the other half of course) around Stillmoor while an invasion went on. It was nice to see players taking part in this again, as my lower level rifts have been sorely neglected while I’ve been leveling up. One very interesting thing happened throughout the evening though.
I play on a PvE server – however you can flag yourself for PvP four ways. Number one, manually do it. Number two, attack a PvP flagged guardian (their name will show as yellow to you, and once you yourself are flagged their name shows as red), number three attack a guardian NPC and number four, queue for a warfront (although you will not be flagged when you leave). The final boss of this invasion happened to be fairly close to a guardian outpost, and so the guardians thought it would be just swanky if they pulled the boss to the center of their outpost. While I did not attack any guards, I was using AoE heals (and I imagine that a lot of players were using AoE attacks in general, which hit NPC unintentionally) and using those AoE heals on PvP flagged players meant that before too long I was also flagged PvP. The second the invasion boss fell the guardians rushed forward to take down those who had been flagged and of course since I was only level 42 at the time I turned tail and ran like heck for my own nearest outpost. Then once I was in the safety of the guards I gated back to Meridian where I waited for the flag to expire while working on some dailies. Better luck next time!
On a semi related note, I was wandering around Iron Peak and I noticed a tear that I couldn’t open. I had no idea what that meant so after asking in guild and looking on my map I noticed I had stumbled into my first raid rift. Moving around the corner I noticed a raid force (two groups) of guardians were gathered at an expert Rift, another that I had never seen before. The mobs to this rift were level 52, far beyond anything that I could successfully hit – but I do have one proc that seemed to work when I was attacking. So I stood a very safe distance away and pinged an attack or two off on their raid encounter. When the rift was completed (nice job guys) I also received rewards for “participating” even though I doubt I barely did 500 damage total. It was a fun way to spend a few minutes, and I earned a handful of planarite to go along with my adventures. I admit now, the Guardians seem to best the Defiants (at least on my server, and Warfronts) at everything we do. Perhaps once I make level 50 I’ll see what the other side has to offer.
Before the invasion took place in Stillmoor I also had the chance to partake in my first crafting rift. These are spawned with a special lure that you can obtain once a week via a crafting quest. They’re not easy to make, but the crafting rifts are open just like regular rifts so all participation is noted. I hope to tag along on more of them. The rewards were really nice (it was a weaponsmith rift but I still got rewards based on my own craft). I also managed to win a minor catalyst (I believe that’s the name, I’m probably wrong. It’s one of those purple named yellow swirly bits for combines) and a whole lot of other goodies. I’m looking forward to making use of them as I continue leveling up. Right now I’ve got the ability to harvest in Stillmoor but my adventure level leaves much to be desired. It’s no fun harvesting in areas with level 50 mobs when I can’t actually attack them and do any damage.
As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself! I hope everyone has an amazing weekend.