Be Fabulous This Valentine’s Day!

It’s time again for Telara’s brave and intrepid heroes to remember that true power doesn’t come from legendary abilities, awesome loot, or fully upgraded gear: true power comes from love.

Well, okay. Admittedly, those things will probably be a bit more helpful than love when you go challenge Malannon in the Tartaric Depths, but that doesn’t mean love isn’t powerful in its own right. It just means it isn’t super useful for clearing content.
Anyway. Love. It’s great. Filial, platonic, romantic, or whatever, it doesn’t matter. Love is an amazing thing. That’s why RIFT is looking to help you out by offering some lovely items perfect for celebrating the season of love.



New Items in the RIFT Store


Amorous Attire – Whether you’re headed out for a night on the town or just want to look good doing whatever you do, this fresh and fanciful outfit will have heads turning and jaws dropping. While we can’t guarantee it’ll help you find love, it certainly won’t hurt.

Golden Love Buggy – Telara’s most romantic ride is back and better than ever thank to some new golden gilding and a magical heart! Find love by travelling across Telara with the help of this all-terrain spider mech, or just park yourself in Tarvil Plaza and let love come to you.

Self Love Bug – Not getting quite as much love you’d hoped? Feeling a little lonely? Just like hearts? Then the Self Love Bug is for you! Using this lovely little item will cause hearts to appear around your character, letting all of Telara know that someone loves you – even if it’s just you.

50% off Fabulous Bundle of Dye Buckets – Dress to impress with the help of 74 different wardrobe dyes! After all, who will be able to resist a stylish mage with Sapphire robes or a regal warrior clad in ruby armor? Remember, beauty might only be skin deep, but style tells people who you are.

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RIFT PrimalStream: Fri, Feb 10, 3:30pm PST

The new Primalist Souls are under development. We know you’re all eager to hear more -Brasse has captured a wild Keyens to spill info!



This Friday, we’ll talk about the upcoming Primalist Souls… what are they? How are they being built? How will they compare, contrast and most importantly, synergize with the existing Primalists?

While the new souls are still a work-in-progress, we have a lot of interesting information to share, and Keyens will be happy to take your Primalist questions as well. Post ’em to this handy forum thread, or tweet @RIFTgame before midnight on Thursday!

While we’re at it, we’ll show you the gorgeous new Valentine’s Day items in RIFT! We are proud to offer a gift option healthier than wine and chocolates for your special someone.



Host: Linda “Brasse” Carlson

Guest: Chris “Keyens” Meyer

RIFT LIVESTREAM
http://twitch.tv/trionworlds

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CRACKING XARTH’S SKULL – FORTRESS SIEGE & LFR LIVE!

The long awaited Fortress Siege, Cracking Xarth’s Skull, awaits the Ascended, along with the new Looking for Raid (LFR) feature. Challenge this new gameplay style for the very first time in Telara!



CRACKING XARTH’S SKULL

This is the moment we’ve been waiting for! After several weeks on the Public Test shard, Cracking Xarth’s Skull is ready for prime time. It is estimated that the Fortress Siege zone event will initiate every four hours. If the Ascended are successful in beating it, a raid will then open, via the new Looking for Raid system!

From our October introduction to the Fortress Siege:

A sole warrior may wish to face challenges around the exterior walls of the fortress, picking off less protected foes, a vital task to support those further in.

Further feats of valor are within the grasp of a group of Ascended, as they penetrate deeper into the concentric rings of fortifications, facing lieutenants with their squadrons.

With enough skilled veterans on hand, it may even be possible to wrest control of powerful siege weaponry to blast down the inner gates themselves!

Listen for the call to battle that will sound at times of direst need. This signals a far more intense and challenging fight!

There’s a lot more to read up on for the Fortress Siege: See the full article here!



LOOKING FOR RAID

We’re serving up this Siege with another brand new feature, Looking for Raid. LFR is bound to [control + i] by default; similar to the LFG keyboard default of [i].

LFR ties in with our new Individual Loot system, so that you no longer have to compete with others for coveted drops for your build. This game feature, at its core, is a priority-based queue system based on raid karma. Like LFG, LFR will respect your ignore list.

What is raid karma? Raid karma is a value that lives on each character that is constantly reduced over time. The more LFR raids you successfully complete, the higher your raid karma will be. This will result in having a higher priority over other players when queuing for LFR.

How do you gain raid karma? After the raid ends, all players anonymously vote on their fellow raid members, which results in positive or negative change for raid karma. Voting is entirely optional! Being vote kicked or leaving the raid early also effects raid karma, to address players who bail out early or affect other raid members so adversely that they get kicked out. The end goal is a much more positive experience for everyone.

You can join LFR as a solo player, as a partial group, or as a full raid.

When you queue for LFR you can select whether to queue as a leader or not, if you select this, the system will try to put you as the leader of a group of people without anyone who selected to queue as a leader. If it cannot find another group that doesn’t have a leader within a certain period of time it will pick one of the group members to become the leader.

Raid bosses are locked behind a “ready check” that the leader can either initiate or skip.

If initiated, the ready check needs to pass before the encounter. You can see who is playing what role, and also select a recommended preset if you do not have the correct spec for a fight.

The LFR will note if the players in the queue have a role combination that makes it impossible to complete. For example, if a boss in the raid requires two tanks, but you have three people queuing as tank only, there is no way you can meet the required roles. Therefore, it will not let you queue unless the roles are adjusted.

Another way the matchmaking is different from LFG is that LFR has a specific set of roles that must be met on a per-boss basis, as opposed to LFG which just always requires a static set of roles. LFR checks your raid composition against every boss’ role requirements, so if one boss in the raid requires a certain composition and the next boss requires a different one, and so on, it will ensure that the people it forms your raid with will always be able to meet some sort of valid role distribution for every boss in that raid.

When you enter LFR, you might notice a few differences as a group made through LFR is very different internally than one made through other means. First of all, you cannot change raid leaders while inside or invite people – you can only add new members through the LFR system. If you walk into the portal, you can invite as normal and none of the designer scripting for LFR will be there.

The raid leader is designated for the entire raid unless they leave or are vote kicked. It is the raid leader’s responsibility to initiate the actual bosses themselves, as these encounters are locked until certain criteria is met. There is a NPC in front of every boss in LFR. The leader will talk to them and is offered two options: initiate a ready check, or skip the ready check and fight the boss. If you skip the ready check the boss simply activates and you can fight it. If you decide to do a ready check, a boss window opens which explains the boss mechanics and gives you the option to choose a preset of what you queued for, which will assign you a new toolbar and spec. It does not overwrite your old spec – you can switch back at any time. At the bottom of the window there is a ready button. When pressed, your name and role for that boss will appear to everyone else to show you are ready. Once the entire raid is ready, the boss will unlock. You only have to perform this once per boss.

While you are at the boss, you can press [control + i] again to see the boss window and mechanics again. If you want to open the actual LFR window itself, you have to manually go to the toolbar and click on [Activities -> Looking For Raid].

One of the new concepts of LFR is the idea of “temporary raids.” This was designed specifically for the Fortress Siege, but is expandable for future use. In the case of the Fortress Siege, the zone event must be successfully completed to unlock LFR for the associated raid, for a limited amount of time. When this happens, a countdown timer appears in the LFR window. When the timer reaches zero, the raid will disappear from LFR. At this point in time anyone in the queue will be informed that they are removed from it, and players still inside the raid can continue on.

We are eagerly await further feedback on the revolutionary LFR system – get in there and try it out!

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RIFT Forged In Flame Grillstream!

We’re back from Pax South, where we had a BLAST meeting our fellow Ascended!

While there, we announced the date for StarFall Prophecy 4.1: Forged in Flame. We know you want, nay, NEED, more detail!



Now it’s time to help Brasse grill Executive Producer Chris “Archonix” Junior over those very same flames for answers to your burning questions about this update… and maybe, just maybe, one or two hints on what else is coming in 2017. The team is still planning out the rest of the year, so we can’t get into too many specifics while we stay on target for a March 1 release of 4.1!

Simon “DeadSimon” Ffinch will drive the game rig for this stream, lending his trademark sardonic commentary to keep things flowing slightly sideways.

We will collect questions in advance – please join us on this forum thread, or tweet your question @RIFTgame

RIFT Livestream

Twitch Channel: http://www.twitch.tv/trionworlds

Start Time: Friday, February 3 at 3:30 PM PST (GMT-8)

Duration: 45 minutes

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RIFT 4.1: FORGED IN FLAME

We are excited to announce the next chapter in Starfall Prophecy with 4.1: Forged in Flame! On March 1st, join us to explore new systems and content in Telara.



We’ve become familiar with the struggles of the Comet of Ahnket; sections of the Planes of Life and Fire have been torn up and merged with the enigmatic and malevolent Tenebrean. Now the lords of Fire and Life battle for control of the comet’s power, while Ahnket herself is bent on the destruction of Telara.

It is up to you, Ascended, to change the dreadful fate that lies in store for our beloved lands. It is time to assail the Lords of Fire!

Forged in Flame brings with it a new 10-man raid: Tartartic Depths. This fiery prison was created by the devils to imprison the Red Flight – to ensure that no dragon would ever hold sway over them again, as Maelforge once did.
Rituals conducted within the Tartaric Depths have created Malannon, an avatar of the Tenebrean god, The Enigma. Some of you have glimpsed one of the four bosses on the Public Test Shard already, and there are three more to come.

Tartaric Depths is accessed through our new Looking For Raid (LFR system), already in game and being fine tuned as we approach 4.1.

Forged in Flame will also see the introduction of the long awaited Eternal Items! These unique weapons will be earned (and improved) through a level 70 questline. Developing your Eternal weapon will require you to complete many challenges, such as sealing rifts, conquering jumping puzzles and vanquishing monsters. Every Eternal Item is truly “Best in Slot,” providing an unmatched degree of power.

Clerics, Mages, Warriors and Primalists will gain a 2-handed Eternal weapon, while Rogues will earn two one-handed Eternal weapons. On very rare occasions, Eternal armor pieces and additional weapons will also drop in Telara, and can be improved through the Active Upgrade system.

Intrepid Gyel Fortress is already well into development and will release in February, but 4.1 will bring Intrepid Rise of the Phoenix as well! This brings yet another level 70 challenge to the game.

Finally, we are bringing exciting tint improvements to the wardrobe system! Colors will be much more accurate to the dye selected; more vibrant and appealing. New colors will also make an appearance!

There is no additional charge for this update – it will be accessible to all who have invested in Starfall Prophecy. We’ll bring you more information as we march toward launch. Watch for articles and livestreams to come!

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RIFT Livestream Jan 13: The Balancing Act

What is balance, anyway? Who decides what abilities get buffed, nerfed and tweaked? How do they make the call?

This week, we explore the philosophy, methodology and processes employed by the RIFT Systems Team when addressing the ever-moving goals of class balance. RIFT is unique among games in having am almost limitless combination of soul builds to work with, and this complexity often leads to heated discussions between passionate gamers on forums, Reddit and in-game.

Chris “Keyens” Meyer will be on hand to talk about how the team views and evaluates balance, and the challenges of trying to accommodate the widely varied opinions and desires of RIFT players when it comes to specific classes, skills and builds. Balance in this game is definitely not one size fits all, and Keyens will describe the internal process of evolving class skills, including when and how the Systems team decides to tweak them.

Keyens will delve into the challenges of working with player feedback, parsers, opinions, synergies and perspectives in a world of widely varying playstyles and approaches. We will take a number of questions from the Livestream forum question thread.

Caveat: Keyens is here to address class balance philosophy, evaluation and process, not the highly detailed raid parse of a specific build or what happened with a single ability or soul.

Finding new ways to take on content with RIFT’s complex Soul system is part of the meta game in Telara.

Please post your Balance questions for the livestream to this thread.

We look forward to hearing from you!

~Brasse

RIFT Livestream

Twitch Channel: http://www.twitch.tv/trionworlds

Start Time: Friday, January 13 at 3:30 PM PST (GMT-8)

Duration: 45 minutes

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$99 PATRON SALE EXTENDED TO JAN 18th!

When Archonix is away on holiday, the Boglings get busy. This time, they’ve decided to rig the Patron sale to go on for an extra week, to allow even more people a chance at it!

You’ll never see Patron offered at a lower rate, so don’t miss out – lock your rate in NOW with this fantastic deal! $99 for an entire year ($8.33/mo).

There are a great many reasons why Patron status is coveted throughout Telara. Patrons receive loyalty rewards, store discounts, affinity rewards and convenience perks. In addition, all Patrons gain an amazing array of in-game bonuses, including experience gains and mount speed.



See all the incredible bonuses here!

Remember, when Archonix gets back next week, it’s all over!

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Fortress Siegestream – January 6, 2017 – 3:30 PM PST (11:30 PM GMT)

The long-awaited Fortress Siege is already on PTS and we want your help in testing it! We’re serving this Siege up with a side order of LFR – the Looking for Raid feature!

Join Brasse as she grills Kerilar and RoughRaptors mercilessly on all aspects of this epic Siege and LFR. Read up on what we’ve previously said about the Fortress Siege in RIFT, way back in October, and get ready to rumble in the real thing! We’ll be on the Public Test Server and eager to give you all a little walkthrough.

If you’re already a Siege veteran on PTS, make sure you provide as much feedback as possible in our official forum thread!

We will also announce the winners of the Fae Yule Snobuild Contest – so tune in too, Dimensioneers!

RIFT Livestream
Twitch Channel: http://www.twitch.tv/trionworlds
Start Time: Friday, January 6 at 3:30 PM PST (GMT-8)
Duration: 45 minutes

Bring your castle-storming gear

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RIFT WINTER SALE

Hold on to your festive hats, this sale is bringing in HUGE savings for RIFT fans!

Essentials Edition, 25% off! Starfall Prophecy (Standard/Deluxe) 25% off! RIFT Credit sale bonuses! $99 Year-long Patron! Get in on the details NOW!

Greatfather Frost must have been into the Fae Yule mead again, because he is in a very generous mood!

There must be a hitch, you say. Darn right there is! The Boglings in accounting didn’t take too well to the Greatfather’s generosity, so after some serious squinting at the deep discounts and clucking disapproval among themselves, they clamped on some very firm dates for these sales – check them carefully to make sure you don’t miss out on the deal you want!

All offers are available through the Glyph Store.





RIFT Essentials Edition

25% off from December 21st, 2016 through January 2nd, 2017


This must-have pack offers an enormous variety of souls for you to truly customize your characters, and more! (Also available through Steam.)
Four Souls from Storm Legion (Tempest, Harbinger, Defiler, Tactician)
Four Souls from Nightmare Tide (Arbiter, Liberator, Oracle, Physician)
Primalist Calling and Six Souls (Titan, Preserver, Vulcanist, Dervish, Typhoon, Berserker)
Earring Slots
Gear Unlock for Planewalker: Water
Six character slots per server
Bag slots 4 & 5 (if you have not already unlocked them)





Starfall Prophecy Standard, Starfall Prophecy Special Edition and Upgrade!


25% of from December 21st, 2016 through January 2nd, 2017


This deal is available through the RIFT in-game store ONLY.


NOTE: The Upgrade option from Standard to Deluxe edition will be available at 25% off during the month of January – watch for our announcement in the new year!


Starfall Prophecy Standard offers:
All-new zones on the Comet of Ahnket
An instant level 65 boost, along with boosted gear and consumables
Access to levels 66-70 and the Legendary Skill selection





Starfall Prophecy Deluxe gives you all of that and MORE:
A gorgeous Ethereal Drake mount
Asha Catari’s Raiment (comes in male and female styles)
Ring of Ahnket Portrait frame
If you already own the Standard Edition, the Starfall Prophecy Deluxe Edition is available as an upgrade as well, also at 25% off – this is the best time to grab it!




A whole year of RIFT Patron status for $99!


Available only between December 14th, 2016 through January 11th, 2017


If you have already pre-paid RIFT Patron status, this will be added to the existing term.


There are a great many reasons why Patron status is coveted throughout the lands. Patrons receive loyalty rewards, store discounts, affinity rewards and convenience perks. In addition, all Patrons gain an amazing array of in-game bonuses, including experience gains and mount speed.


See all the incredible bonuses here!




Special Bonuses to Credit Purchases!


Available from December 14th, 2016 through December 31st, 2016


Credits are available in-game through the RIFT store!

Purchase $20 in credits and get a Jolly Hellbug Mount for ALL characters on your account!
Applies to $19.99, €19.99 or £15.49 credit packs


Invest in $100 RIFT credits and receive a tradable code for the Starfall Prophecy Standard Edition to use yourself or to give to a friend!
Applies to $99.99, €99.99 or £76.49 credit packs


Don’t delay until the last minute, you KNOW you’ll forget! Get your credits while they’re HOT! You will need to sign in with your Glyph account in order to access credit purchases.

Enjoy your winter holidays!

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RIFT FAE YULE SNOBUILD Contest!

Join us over the holiday break and build a unique Fae Yule creation! We have prizes for all participants and some pretty sweet rewards for the winners! Even if you’ve never tried Dimensioneering, this is a great opportunity to explore your creative side!



On the Dec 16th RIFT Livestream, Brasse invited some experienced Dimensioneers (and one befuddled Elf) to strut their stuff and create sculptures, using nothing but snowman parts, in a mere 30 minutes! We’ve included some of these builds in this article to show you what you can do with very limited time and limited components.

Now we’re giving YOU almost two weeks to create a RIFT Fae Yule SnoBuild! Take up the challenge!

Some may choose to build a sculptural scene, while others will stick with a single sculpture – make your Fae Yule SnoBuild YOUR way! The background will not be included in judging, so no need to build out your entire dimension.

Snowman parts are brand new for Fae Yule this year. You don’t have to include Snowman parts in your sculpture, but we wanted to give you some great inspiration with the screenshots here. There are six different body parts, four arm styles, four carrot nose styles and even coal for the eyes!

The Fae Yult Kit: Snowman is found on the RIFT Store in game, under “World Event. It contains 30 pieces, and is available for 600 Unique Snowflakes (Fae Yule event currency) or 315 Credits.



Prizes:
Every valid entry will receive a special Dimension Item Pack after the contest closes.

The top ten entrants will win a Fae Yule Levitation mount!

The Grand Prize winner will be selected from the top ten and will also win a year’s worth of RIFT Patron Status!







GUIDELINES, RULES AND STUFF:
OFFICIAL RULES ARE LINKED HERE. The super-short, condensed version is below, but the much more detailed official rules are binding.

Dates: 12:01am PST Tuesday, December 20th, 2016, through 11:59pm PST, Monday, January 2nd, 2017

Build a Fae Yule sculpture or scene within your dimension, using any dimension parts you wish, but don’t lose sight of the theme. Make it as small or as elaborate as you like. With two weeks to do it in, we are sure you can come up with something incredible!



Please respond to THIS thread with your entry, consisting of up to four screenshots of your Fae Yule SnoBuild. One entry per account!

The builds will be judged after entries close.

The RIFT Team shall award each Entry a number of points based upon the following 100 point scale: 0-50 points for creativity; 0-25 points for originality; and 0-25 points for adherence to the guidelines.







To be eligible to enter the Contest, as of the time you submit your Entry, you must:
Be at least 18 years of age (minors may enter through their legal guardian); and
Have an active Trion Worlds account, a RIFT Forum account in good standing, Internet access, an email account and access to a personal computer; and
Not have won a prize in a contest from Trion within the last twelve (12) months (Livestream awards do not count, as those are not official contests); and
Open to residents worldwide excluding residents of: Quebec, Canada, Brazil and Italy (hey, we don’t make the rules!). Canadian residents will be required to answer an additional mathematical question in order to claim their prizes.

While we’re at it, I’d like to give a shoutout to two community-run contests also going on right now:

Fae Yule Dimension GIVEAWAY Challenge, hosted by Nouvae of The Dimension Gallery – Deadline December 29, 2016
“Radical Botanical” Garden Competition, hosted by Bella – Deadline January 29, 2017



Well now, it’s time to break out your toolkit and get building!

;-)#

Brasse







Ps. Thanks again to our all our Dec 16th Livestream builders: Kitasia, Feendish, Aeryle, Gwyndeth, Sparklynn, Audzilla and Wren!

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