Artifact Pinatas for Summerfest!

We thought we’d seen it all… but the artifact pinatas were something totally unexpected. Every artifact hunter in Telara is on high alert for this innovation – read on for the details of all the new artifacts coming for the Summer Solstice (Update 3.7) and Summerfest!


Telara can always count on one thing… an evergrowing list of elusive artifacts, a devlish progressive plot hatched by the devious Simon Ffinch. We artifact collectors have just one thing to say to that: “Long live DeadSimon!”

During Summerfest this year, artifact pinatas will appear in every zone. They are available in every zone, and are unmistakable – giant sparkly mirrored balls! These ethereal pinatas will shift in color to designate what type of artifact explodes forth when the pinata is brought down: normal, twisted, unstable, poison, burning and nightmare. The artifacts are all part of unique sets created exclusively for Summerfest! Here’s a hint: if your group wants to collect a specific type, they need to coordinate their strikes accordingly. Good luck!

Each glorious pinata will drop around 20 artifacts, and you only have 10 seconds to collect them! Simon says that he can usually pick up 4 in the allotted time frame. We are eager to learn what the record is!

As a bonus, if you are of the appropriate level, you should get some in your RIFT loot bag as well. All of these new artifacts are tradeable, so have fun exchanging and selling them on the auction house.

Summerfest runs from July 14 through August 3rd, so don’t delay your efforts to collect all your Pinata shinies, because as we all know, time flies, especially when you’re collecting artifacts!

Artifacts for Summer Solstice (Update 3.7)
DeadSimon shared that poison, burning and nightmare artifacts have been added to Stonefield and Gloamwood. Get your hunting gear ready, as there are 126 new sets available – 21 sets of each type in each of these two zones.

With Summerfest and Summer Solstice introductions combined, there are a total of 1,052 NEW artifacts spread across 133 new sets. Who needs sleep, right?

DeadSimon likes to collect the Pinatas themselves, as you can see in this exclusive screenshot below…

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RIFT Livestream – 7/22/16 – 3:30 PM PDT

Join Ocho and Keyens on the Trion Worlds Twitch channel for our next RIFT livestream. This week we’ll be talking about the Summer of Souls, including details on Paladin and Saboteur!



RIFT Livestream
Twitch Channel: http://www.twitch.tv/trionworlds
Start Time: Friday, July 22 at 3:30 PM PDT (GMT-8)
Duration: 45 minutes

See you all there!

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Summerfest is Here!

Have fun in the Telaran Sun – Summerfest returns, now through August 3rd!


The sun is blazing through clear blue skies for Summerfest! Enjoy everything that the festival has to offer, including the traditional scavenger hunts, battling Swarmlord Khargroth, and some amazing quests. This year we also introduce brand new Artifact Pinatas – scattered throughout Telara, these oversized Artifact balls are literally bursting with shiny goodness. Gotta collect ‘em all!

For our many Minion enthusiasts, we proudly introduce Mitch, a famous Telaran Playwright and sadly un-Ascended Adventurer.

In addition to being a coveted Artifact Attractor Minion, Mitch also starts a Mission chain that chronicles the difficulties of his ill fated world tour with his puppet theatre. No really, we’re serious about that… it’s a sad tale… Did we mention that the artifacts you acquire through his quest series are all unique? Aha, now we REALLY have your attention!

Don’t miss out on the tons of new items available during Summerfest 2016! Notable among earned goodies are the long requested Alsbeth’s Raiment (wearable by both genders) and the mysterious Burning Husk Mount.

While the origins of the Burning Husk are unclear, Scholars point to ancient elven rituals (which some would like to forget), whereby wicker figures were craftily woven to enclose sacrificial offerings. These were then set on fire with ritualistic witchcraft, committing their unlucky passengers to the flame. Though such practices are now forbidden by both the High Elves and the Kelari, dabbling in the tradition has found new life with the risk taking, nigh immortal Ascended. What’s a slight burning sensation compared to getting to your destination quickly and with undeniable panache?

Log in to RIFT today and enjoy this summer celebration, it won’t last long!

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Introducing the Trion Worlds Creator Program

We are both excited and humbled when we see the spectacular things players create for our games. To show our appreciation for all you do, we’re proud to introduce the Trion Worlds Creator Program!


Whether you’re a shoutcaster, livestreamer, YouTuber, musician, or artist we want to support your creative spark. We’re looking for folks who consistently produce content featuring any or all of our games. Regardless if it’s your first time contacting us or we’ve been in touch before, everyone is welcome to apply!

Creators who are accepted into the program will be eligible for the following (and more):

• Early Access to New Content and Games
• Special Creator Program Loot
• Giveaway Codes
• Promotion on Official Social Media Channels
• Trion Worlds Event Invitations

Apply for the Trion Worlds Creator Program today and share your passion with the world!

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RIFT IS OVERRUN WITH RAZORBACKS! ROUND ‘EM UP JULY 7-13

Razorbacks are going hog wild in RIFT! Now through July 13, you’ll have a chance to get a brand-new mount by helping terrified Telarans fend off these predatory pigs.

Get to wrasslin’ and wranglin’ while completing Instant Adventures and closing Nightmare Rifts to earn Succulent Truffles – special event currency that can be exchanged for Razorback Troves that, when opened, may contain the mightiest swine you can ride!

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RIFT Livestream – 7/08/16 – 3:30 PM PDT

Join Ocho and Tacitus on the Trion Worlds Twitch channel for our next RIFT livestream. This week we’ll be talking about additions to Summerfest and Dimensions coming in RIFT Update 3.7: Summer Solstice!


RIFT Livestream
Twitch Channel: http://www.twitch.tv/trionworlds
Start Time: Friday, July 8 at 3:30 PM PDT (GMT-8)
Duration: 45 minutes

See you all there!

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3.7 Summer Solstice Preview: Warlord and Berserker

Warlord and Berserker are getting buffed in Update 3.7 Summer Solstice! Read on for how we’re approaching these upgrades and why we picked these Souls to update.


Warlord
Warlord has been perceived as a more complicated alternative to Paragon that wasn’t rewarding enough for the extra effort it took to play. We wanted to make it into a brutal damage dealer that was every bit as good as its sibling, as well as providing a completely alternative playstyle.

To accomplish this, we improved the “feel” of the abilities, while also making the choices about what power to use, and when, much clearer. Of course we needed to give it a bit of a boost as well; everyone likes to do more damage! Making the rotation of abilities more rewarding and fun to play was a central theme that traveled throughout or changes to this Soul.

A major changes to Warlord soul is that Surges are no longer finishers that have to be manually maintained. They are all passively activated any time a finisher is cast, which makes them powerful tools to increase damage over time. This allows the Warlord to feel great as long as they keep fighting. Additionally, Piercing Thrust hits much harder now, making it very important as a follow upaction. Missing a Piercing Thrust will hurt a lot.

Adding more DPS options opens up many of the hybrids that formerly always used Paragon by giving them access to more utility focused abilities from Warlord. This probably won’t drastically alter the hybrid landscape for warriors, but will make selecting Warlord as a second or third Soul a better choice.

Berserker
With Berserker, the buffs coming in RIFT Update 3.7 were much simpler than with some of the other Souls we’ve featured. We simply wanted to improve sustained damage over time. Berserker is still a Soul that can throw out a lot of damage in a very short period of time, but when its buffs are down it should now do better overall. Reducing Berserker’s reliance on abilities with a 1 minute cooldown was very important. as well as making the shift from Cunning to Fury feel more impactful and interesting.

To do that, Icefall and Corpsefall have been merged into a single ability called Wrathfall. This will activate Icefall in Fury mode and Corpsefall in Cunning mode. We also added a new AoE ability called Shatterfrost to deals drastically increased damage on foes who have recently been damaged by Icefall. Managing your Cunning and Fury will be even more important, so that your abilities will synergize to even greater effect! We also made sure to increase many of Berserker’s single target damage abilities, for single target situations.

The best part is that most builds that incorporate Berserker as a second or third Soul will continue to function identically; the only difference is doing more damage!

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Rift's Summer Solstice Update Coming in July

For Rift, Summertime is about much more than catching some rays and going on vacation: it's about a major update which is set to land in July and which will cover/overhaul several aspects of game-play, in ways never seen before. The biggest deal is obviously what's hailed as the next major technical milestone for the game: the 64-bit upgrade. There are plenty of other improvements in the works too though, mostly concerning Classic Souls.

A number of Classic Souls will see major improvements or rather overhauls which will grant them new abilities and buffs, features which will then allow them to form new synergies. The Elementalist is one of the Classic Souls which will be impacted by the change, but it won't stop there. The other souls to be overhauled through the 3.7 update are the Berserker, Druid and Warlord. In addition to all that, the devs have plans for three more souls to be updated trough a later update.

Also part of the upcoming update is Summerfest, a series of events which will once again bring new rewards like Artifact Pinatas and outfits like Alsbeth's Raiment and which is meant to celebrate the season as well as the power of the Rift community.

Following the multi-core update, which has already significantly upped the stakes speed-wise in the world of Rift, the game will now move onto the next big thing: 64-bit support, of which a lot is expected indeed, including more stability and improved performance.

The changes that will directly impact players though concern the guild system. The upcoming way of doing guilds will include new players into a starting guild automatically. The starter guilds will be locked at lvl 5, which means players will be perfectly positioned to launch onto more established guilds as they progress up the levels. Guild creation will become a lot easier too: the multiple-signature system will be done away with, thus players will be able to create guilds even with a single character.

In addition to all the above, the update will bring some changes to the Dungeon system as well: namely, players who complete a dungeon at least 5 times, will become veterans of that given dungeon. What that means is that if a veteran does a dungeon with at least one non-veteran, he'll enjoy a 15% increase to the experience, currency, tokens and reputation earned through that run.

Philip Thalberg works for esportslistings.com, the best spot to compare odds for esports betting. 

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RIFT 3.7 Preview: RIFT Goes 64 Bit!

While RIFT readies for a public Beta Test of 64 Bit gameplay, RIFT’s Lead Engineer, Dan “Snedhepl” Hollinger gave us more in-depth information about this amazing engineering effort, and why it’s important to all players!


Why the heck should you care about 64 bit?
You may have heard with the announce of RIFT 3.7 Summer Solstice that Rift will release a 64-bit client in the near future. What you may not be aware of is the purpose, practical or otherwise, of this evolution. I’m here to cleanse that particular debuff for you.

Let’s talk about what 64-bit means in general.
First up: what is a bit? A bit is either a 0 or 1 and in a computer we use groups of them to represent everything from colors, to your position in space, to what your abilities do. When we’re discussing a 8, 32, or 64 bit system, what we’re talking about is how many bits can the processor operate on at once. Some of the earliest game systems and computers were 8-bit. Eventually they grew to be 16-bit and in the most recent era: 32-bit. These numbers created a number of limits in their systems, most notably memory related but also in terms in the precision and size of processing. For example, in an 8-bit system, it’s only possible to represent 255 different numbers. This means that a character could only exist in one of 255 positions horizontally on the screen and that we’d only be able to access 255 memory locations (assuming no fancy tricks are employed to expand that). Additionally, we’d only be able to access 255 locations in memory (RAM). That is pretty restrictive! Luckily as we increase the number of bits we get a significant amount of additional space. A 16-bit system can represent 65535 numbers! 32-bit? 4,294,267,295!

4,294,267,295 certainly seems like a lot…but is it?
For modern day computers, 4,294,267,295 translates to 4 gigabytes. And while that’s quite a lot of memory for many cases, it’s also not enough for many modern games. There’s a lot more we can do with RIFT, or handle better, with the ability to use more memory. This includes the beautiful textures, models and other art that already exists as well as what we have planned for the future. It includes data we house in RIFT that references things like characters, abilities, friends and the like. While these things individually may not be a big deal, when taken together they very quickly add up. 64-bit would give us access to 16 exabytes (or 16 million gigabytes). Of course there’s no hardware currently that would allow anyone to take full advantage of that much space. But what the conversion to 64 bit does change is that instead of being software limited to 4 gigs, instead we’re only limited by how much RAM is installed into any given machine.

Ok, so this means RIFT-64 will be able to use more memory, and we’ll be able to add more art over time and that’s all great, but what benefits will that get me today?
The answer to that is quite simple and can be summed up in a single word: “stability.” While RIFT typically does not use up all of its 4 gigabytes of memory, it can get to that point over longer play sessions. We’ve waged war on crashes for some time now; out of memory errors are the number one and two sources of crashes – and occasionally number three as well! When 64-bit comes out, the game will suddenly have access to at least 8 gigabytes of RAM in most cases (depending on how much you have installed and whatever else is being run at the time). Because we’ll have more space, we’ll drastically reduce the number of crashes that are experienced by the playerbase as a whole.

I would be remiss however in also ignoring some other very important upgrades that come with the change to 64-bit. Our internal tools are going to reap similar benefits that the client does! This will enable us to work faster and thus produce more content in the same amount of time.

All in all, the 64-bit era of Rift is going to bring more stability and beautiful art to the worlds of Telara… and that’s always a good thing!

-Dan “Snedhepl” Hollinger

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3.7 Summer Solstice Preview: Druid and Elementalist

Druids and Elementalists gain major upgrades in Update 3.7 Summer Solstice! Find out how and why these two venerable Souls are getting even better!


Druid
With a very versatile selection of abilities, Druid has always been one of the most popular Cleric Souls for leveling and Instant Adventure. That same versatility always carried a price tag however, as Druid tended to be less effective than other specialist Souls when facing the most difficult content in RIFT, such as dungeons and raids. People love playing Druids, and have long requested that the Soul be adjusted to enable competitive status at the highest levels of play.

In addition, we’ve felt for a while that Clerics were a little light on the number of high Damage Souls suitable for Raid and Dungeon environments. These things together made the Druid an obvious pick. The Cleric community really rallied around these efforts too, providing lots of excellent feedback and suggestions through our class forums.

With the upcoming changes, the new druid has a much more active playstyle than before. Several passive buttons or hour-long buffs were replaced with active abilities that reward precise management of several related stacks of debuffs on the target to maximize damage per second. In addition, Druids can now use the ability Conduit of Nature to gain one of four very powerful buffs. This allows Druids to get full benefit from their pet’s presence even in raid or PvP situations that might otherwise make the pet ineffective. One nice thing about this approach is that where the pet is already fully effective (for example, using the Faerie Healer pet in Instant Adventures), that option still exists – using the Conduit of Nature ability is entirely optional.

Up-and-coming Druids should strongly consider investing a bit in the Shaman Soul tree as well; for most Druids, the Shaman ability Massive Blow adds a considerable amount of damage to their repertoire.

Elementalist
The RIFT Elementalist shared similar issues as the Druid: it was a great soul for leveling but fell off in high end play. We love Souls that utilize pets, like Elementalist and Druid, but making the pets perform appropriately and intelligently in all environments is a major challenge. We wanted to tackle this in a slightly different manner with the Elementalist than we did with Druids.

In difficult situations, the Elementalist will now be able to tap into the raw power of the planes through their pet, rendering it powerless for combat but providing massive benefit to its master. The specific power granted will depend on the elemental nature of the pet, anything from dramatically increasing the caster’s resistance to damage via Earth pets, to making spells from the Elementalist school instantaneous through Fire pets. Picking the right pet and utilizing its elemental nature effectively can turn the tide of previously difficult encounters!

Anyone who played Elementalist previously will see an increase in power from these changes, and a number of interesting combinations exist with other Souls when they invest just enough to get the 58 point Conduit of Power talent. We can’t wait to see what fantastic combinations you come up with when RIFT Update 3.7 Summer Solstice goes live!

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