Rift Storm Legion Info

[chaos5061]

PVP/WARFRONTS
* New Conquest Daily and Weekly quests are now available in Tempest Bay.
* Warfront Bolstering now displays which items have been overriden with stats for PvP.
* A Conquest vendor is now available in Tempest Bay.
* Random Warfronts no longer grant Storm Legion-level experience when completed between levels 10-49.
* Increased healing by 5% for levels 1-60 in PvP.
* Notoriety-granting consumables are no longer usable inside Warfronts.
* Karthan Ridge: Matches now require only 5 players per team to start. Increased notoriety granted for completing matches. Notoriety is now granted for destroying Power Sinks.


CRAFTING
* Fishing Derby quests are now broken down by Fishing skill - you should no longer receive a Fishing Derby quest for a zone your skill is too low to fish in.
* Fishing Derby reward marks are now based on your Fishing skill rather than the location you are sent to. Optional Tacklebox rewards are still zone-specific.
* Added new rewards to the Fishing Derby quests!
* Shipment recipes for Lanzan Cloth, Chiffon Cloth, and Empyrean Silk are now available on the Outfitter trainer.
* Gathering skill trainers are now located at the start of Storm Legion zones.
* Improved the Fishing starter quests and added two new ones to the line.
* Several items that required higher Salvaging skill than their craftable skill have been fixed.
* All Feasts can now be sold to merchants, if desired.
* The waters in Morban are now all set to require 270 Fishing skill.
* All ponds in The Academy in Kingsward, and in the Bogling area of City Core are now properly fishable.
* Fixed a bug that could require you to close and re-open the crafting window to use ingredients acquired while it was open.


ITEMS
* Depleted Empyreal Defender's Marker and Depleted Empyreal Tactician's Marker have their upgrade paths corrected.
* End-game armor sets now properly display their set information.
* Veteran's Experience Vials and Veteran's Prestige Vials have corrected durations on their tooltips.
* Command of the Nightwalker: Removed the erroneous second effect which is from Voice of the Undead King.
* Some random zone drops that were unsellable can now be sold.
* Escapist Ring and Quicksilver Seal should now properly display damage and duration on the item tooltip.
* Increased stats on the quest rewards from No Time to Bleed.
* Rare Brevanic Equipment Caches now award items to level 50 characters.
* Brevanic Equipment Caches now grant the proper power items to Mages between levels 50-53.
* Added a 25-count version of the Autumn Harvest Ambersap voucher.


UI/SETTINGS
* Frozen Eclipse Stone now sorts under Raid Currencies.
* Added a 'Who' option when clicking a player name in the chat window.
* An audio cue is now played when a temporary ability is added.
* Tooltips on the Stats pane will now display more detailed rating information about targets above or below your level for some stats.
* The upgradable item UI now has rarity outlines and comparison tooltips.
* Fixed a bug that could cause item stats to be improperly displayed for weapons not usable by your Calling.
* In some rare cases, characters' display of Lifetime Favor differed between the PvP window and the Achievement window - the Achievement count is correct, and the PvP window should now be synced up to match.
* Increased performance of the Projected Textures video setting. When in scenes with no projected textures you will no longer take a performance hit.
* RIFTConnect: Fixed an issue with screenshots posted to Facebook that still displayed UI even when the option to hide UI was checked.

[chaos5061]

** Upcoming NA Restart - 3:00am PST 12/14/12 **

Good evening!

The NA region shards will be restarting at 3:00am PST on the morning of 12/14/12 to pick up some server-side config changes. The estimated downtime is approx. 20-30 minutes.

There are no additional patches/patch notes associated with this restart.

[chaos5061]

** Upcoming NA Region Update - 8:00am PST 12/19/12 **

Good evening!

The NA region shards will be coming down for an update tomorrow, 12/19/12, at 8:00am PST. The estimated downtime is ** 30 minutes **.

Patch notes will be updated!

I'll be here in the morning with status updates during the downtime.

[chaos5061]

RIFT 2.1 Hotfix #1 - 8:00am PST 12/19/12 [NA] - 2:00am GMT 20/12/12 [EU]

GENERAL
* The Fae Yule quest, 'A Frosty Free-for-All' will now grant rewards each time it's completed.
* Corrected the Fae Yule dates on the World Event UI.
* Interior rooms in Tempest Bay now grant the Rested buff and allow you to log out instantly.
* Lowered cost of Porticulum travel in Storm Legion zones.
* Fae Yule: Holiday Thievery: Now properly grants the quest items to higher level characters.
* Brevanic Portal Generator: Can no longer be used while inside an instance.
* The following items can now be used anywhere BUT inside a Warfront or Conquest: Chancel of Labors Teleport Device, Wyrmbane Spire Teleport Device, Zareph's Return Teleport Device, Guardian Distinguished Service Medal, Unseen Insignia.
* All Planar Attunement teleports can now be used anywhere BUT inside of Warfronts or Conquest.
* Dimensions: Fixed picking up Dimension items through the UI list.
* Achievement subcategories are back in their proper list order.


SOULS
* Abilities that improve Critical Hit Damage now grant the proper benefit.
* Reaver/Paladin: Reduced the shared cooldown of Shield Defense and Crest of Entropy to 1 minute to match the cooldown of the actual abilities.
* Certain healing-triggered Greater Essence effects now proc on Tactician, Bard, and Chloromancer AoE healing abilities.
* More Trinkets now work properly with Bard healing.

ARCHON
* Non-damaging Archon debuffs have had their range increased.

BARD
* Some targeted attack abilities have had their range increased.

BEASTMASTER
* Enrage: Ability description and buff tooltip should now match.

CHAMPION
* Bull Rush: Can now be used in combat.
* Blitz: Now reduces the cooldown of Bull Rush by 5 seconds, and causes it to generate an additional Attack Point.
* Mark of Exclusion: Should now work as expected.
* Fixed an issue with Slayer's Bearing, applied by Dominating Bearing. It should now correctly gain the bonus from ranks of Intense Training.

CHLOROMANCER
* Corrosive Spores: Ability description now lists the correct duration for the effect.
* Natural Awareness: No longer procced by the Torvan Scanner quest item.

DEFILER
* Feedback: Range increased to 35 meters.
* Defiler Links have become less deadly for Defiler at higher ability ranks.

DOMINATOR
* Haunting Pain: Updated VFX - it now plays only once rather than once for each DoT effect applied.
* Slightly increased the speed of the Nyx's Orb projectile.

ELEMENTALIST
* Rushing Wind and Necromancer's Reaper's Swiftness no longer stack their bonuses.

INQUISITOR
* Unequipping Qil's Inquisitor Crystal will now remove the damage bonus from currently-active Armor of Awakening.

NECROMANCER
* Reaper's Swiftness and Elementalist's Rushing Wind no longer stack their bonuses.

PARAGON
* Death Touch: Now also snares the enemy target for 8 seconds.
* Shifting Blades: Removed internal cooldown on this ability.

REAVER
* Creeping Corruption: Fixed this lasting through death.
* Binding of Devouring Darkness: Now actually provides the effects listed on the ability description.

SENTINEL
* Faith Rewarded: Can now be used by multiple Sentinels at the same time without causing issues.

SHAMAN
* Furious Assault: Damage reduction is now 15%, down from 17%.

TEMPEST
* Electricity Cascade: No longer consumes stacks of Arc.
* Electricity Blast: Multiple Tempests should now be able to use this on the same target properly.
* Enhanced Conductivity: Will no longer play a sound effect and VFX on you and the target every time you attack it.
* If the target of Delayed Blast dies, the temporarily ability 'Delayed Blast Detonator' will be removed from the Tempest.
* Arc: Removed internal cooldown on this ability.

VOID KNIGHT
* Unstable Void: The 5% reduction to non-spell damage should be correctly applied now.

WARDEN
* Oversaturation: Increased the range to 35 meters for where you can heal a target to cause damage to the enemy.
* Healing Flood: Ranks 2-11 will now work properly with Invigoration.
* Curative Waters: Now places a buff on the ally which generates an area effect cleanse instantly, and again after 3 seconds.

WARLOCK
* Conflux: Now interprets the entire stack of Haunting Pain DoT effects as one DoT for its damage calculations.
* Conflux: Now requires a valid DoT to be on the target before it can be used.


ZONES
* NPC aggro radius and assist ranges in Mathosia are now scaled relative to the level of the area (i.e., smaller radius in lower level zones).
* Storm Legion-based Instant Adventure loot caches can now drop Infinity Stones for level 60 players.

ASHORA
* The Silver Army: Corrected the damage on Sandstorm, Blizzard, and Sonic Shriek.
* Dust Devils: The djinali for this quest has had his hit points toned down.

FREEMARCH
* Adjusted general population in most areas of the zone. General thinning out of mobs, adjusting routes and population.

MORBAN
* Zone Event: Rotten March: Pets hit by Thal'Dralak's Summon Makeshift Golem ability will no longer spawn a pet each time they are summoned.

PELLADANE
* Gravity Coil: Made line of sight more forgiving when attempting to destroy the core.
* Corrected a situation where two instances of Colonel Lojacio could appear in the zone, and prevent Baron Teruran from spawning.

SERATOS
* Fixed an issue that caused Thought Police to appear on any item viewed by players on that quest.
* Kill Ten Rats: Added a map indicator for the final objective.

STEPPES OF INFINITY
* Slightly adjusted the location of The Grand Designer rare NPC so it doesn't get stuck in terrain.

[chaos5061]

DUNGEONS AND RAIDS

A HERO RISES
* Neala Sparks will now send a letter to level 60 Ascended, inviting them to visit her stall.
* Only one character is now allowed in an instance of the Chronicle.
* Adjusted the start of the Mech section with additional failsafes for characters getting stuck inside the airship on the initial teleport.

ARCHIVE OF FLESH
* You should no longer be able to get on top of the doorway in Animator Cahail's room.
* Characters will not remain in combat after slaying Vorka.

EMPYREAN CORE
* Updated several general population NPCs to have them no longer use Assassin type abilities.
* Doctor Perfidus: Reduced the starting amount of Impenetrable Shield effects for both Standard and Expert.
* Changed several mobs from Beastmaster to a less deadly soul type.

ENDLESS ECLIPSE
* Matriarch of Pestilence: Fixed the damage type of the Sudden Doom ability.
* Matriarch of Pestilence: Player corpses will now be moved to the entrance of the fight area when the encounter resets.
* Matriarch of Pestilence: Reduced healing by the Matriarch.
* Kain: Player corpses will now be moved to the entrance of the fight area when the encounter resets.
* Kain will now target himself to cast Voracious Hunger.
* Progenitor's Laboratory event: Reduced movement speed of Vigilant Beholders. Removed Volatile Compositions from the Laboratory.

EXODUS OF THE STORM QUEEN
* Expert: Valthundr: Decreased stacks of Frozen Soul applied by Frost Bound from 3 to 1.
* Added proper notoriety rewards to Expert Exodus of the Storm Queen.

FROZEN TEMPEST
* Manifest Visions will no longer use Assassin type skills.
* The zone-out portal should no longer be mostly blocked by collision.
* Crucia: Corrected an issue that could cause Ball Lightning and Target Acquired to not function properly.
* Added failsafes to catch those who might happen to jump off of railings, which teleports them to a nearby already-visited location.
* It should no longer be possible to get only one item from defeating the Kolmsasveli and Toinenveli encounter.
* Crucia: Addressed Orbital Strike sometimes being avoidable.
* Crucia: PROBABLY fixed the Infinite Storm (renamed to Storm of Failure) from going off incorrectly when people move to the second platform.

GOLEM FOUNDRY
* Expert: A blocker will now prevent access to the main room of the Foundry while a boss is in combat.
* Expert: Manslaughter: Will no longer call upon Grapplebot before using his Anti-Personnel Weapon. He'll also use the Anti-Personnel Weapon more frequently!
* Clarified the text on the Hops on Trops achievement to indicate that it requires killing C1-ON3 without anyone taking damage from the AoE portion of Caltrop Carnage.

STORM BREAKER PROTOCOL
* Baron Slagstorm: Slowed the tick rate of Chain Lightning's damage over time effect. Duration increased to 12 seconds in Expert.
* The first wave of the onslaught will complete after a set amount of time unless the teleporter has been destroyed.
* Fixed collision around the onslaught fight area.

TRIUMPH OF THE DRAGON QUEEN
* You now need to kill 15 of General Typhiria's minions to obtain the Typhiria's Angels achievement.
* General Typhiria has strengthened the power of her attacks when she enrages.

UNHALLOWED BONEFORGE
* Bruzhail: There are (probably) no more safe spots during Spectral Stampede. Only 3 waves of Centaurs appear instead of 5.
* Bruzhail: AoEs left behind by Spectral Centaurs are placed closer together bur disappear more quickly. Damage slightly reduced.

[chaos5061]

PVP/WARFRONTS
* Conquest: Increased amount of Conquest Power granted for killing players to 5.
* Conquest: Increased amount of Conquest Power granted for taking contested points to 200.
* Conquest: Updated Conquest decay rate. It now switches to less decay per hour after the initial 24 hours of not gaining Conquest Points has passed.
* Vouchers are now available to turn Freelancer's Marks of Conquest into the prior season's currency. These vouchers are soulbound and may not be traded.
* Old Conquest rewards have been removed from the vendors inside of Conquest matches - they're still available on the open world PvP reward vendors in Meridian and Sanctum.
* Conquest: Reduced hit points on NPCs and Extractors. Increased damage from mega turrets.
* Conquest: You will no longer take falling damage in Conquest.
* Stopped Mega Turrets from being so terrible and killing you after you're out of range in Conquest.
* Increased the power of Mercenary, Freelancer, and Warlord PvP gear.
* Replaced Spell Crit and Melee Crit on Karthan Ridge and Conquest upgrade trinkets with Critical Power.
* Port Scion: NPCs in level 55+ Port Scion have had their hit points reduced.
* Assassin: Reduced the damage of Jagged Strike and Serpent Strike in PvP combat.
* Bladedancer: Reduced the damage of Binary Strike and Double Strike in PvP combat.
* Marksman: Strafe: The immunity to Snare/Root/Stun no longer applies in Warfronts and Conquest.
* Marksman: Sniper Training: Reduced the damage bonus to 2-10% in PvP combat.
* Nightblade: Reduced the damage of Scourge of Darkness in PvP Combat.
* Paragon: Shifting Blades: Reduced damage in PvP combat.
* Riftstalker: Planar Boost: Damage bonus reduced to 1% per stack in PvP combat.
* Riftstalker: Rift Guard: Reduced absorption in PvP combat.
* Riftstalker: Exceptional Resilience: Reduces spell damage by 3-9% in PvP combat.
* Riftstalker: Stalker Phase: Reduced damage bonus to 10% in PvP combat.
* Tempest: Arc: Reduced damage in PvP combat.


ITEMS
* Overseer's Helm of Repulsion: Now limited to Clerics.
* Bind on Pickup item grace period added to several Expert and Raid zone items that were missing it.
* Warp of the Sliver now correctly drops from General Typhiria rather than Soul of the Storm.
* Shadesource Greater Essences that grant Attack Power or Spell Power on heal will no longer stack with each other.
* Several items with missing names have been corrected.


DIMENSIONS
* Your Orange Brevane Wall Sconces are no longer invisible!


CRAFTING
* Guardian characters can no longer pick up the Defiant version of the daily Workorder: Rune of Possibility.
* Fishing: The Brevane/Dusken Artifact Attractor now also works in Tempest Bay.
* Runebreaking: Reduced randomness in Runebreaking. If you break down a rare item, you should get at least one rare component. Same with epic!
* Made harvesting skillups more frequent.
* Grandmaster Artificer Supply Chest will now occasionally yield Treated Wooden Boards rather than Polished Metal Scraps.
* Fishing: Fishing Derby quests are working again for when you have more Fishing skill needed than the zone it takes place in.

[chaos5061]

** Addressing the Bots **

While we were out for the holidays, there was a marked rise in both fishing and onslaught farming bots. We know that the vast majority of you are responsible, upstanding, and incredibly attractive Telaran citizens, but we do need to take a moment to remind everyone that automating play is a violation of the terms of service that will be acted upon.

As of today, we’ve already shut down a few thousand accounts over the recent rise in fishing botting, and we’ve begun removing gains from others in places of extreme bot use. A good number of these botters were brought in, as is often the case, on stolen credit cards and fraudulent Rift purchases.

That said, some folks do innocently use keyboard-assistance software while they’re at their computer. We’ve gone out of our way to make sure that differently-abled gamers are able to use the assist software that they need.

Unfortunately, for the next week or two, until the bot situation gets back under control, use of this software may intentionally be randomly unreliable, up to causing random disconnects. We ask that you please refrain from using keyboard automation software in the meanwhile.

For those who have no choice but to use this software due to a physical disability, we would like to make sure you’re still able to play. Drop a ticket to our CS staff if this temporary change does prevent you from playing entirely and we’ll see what we can do to remedy the situation for you.

As for onslaught botting, that will be handled via a more creative content solution that is currently in development, in a coming hotfix.

Once that solution is out in the wild, we’ll look into restoring standard functionality of assistance software.

Thanks for your reports and your patience!

- The RIFT Development Team

[chaos5061]

RIFT 2.1 Hotfix #2 - 1/9/13

GENERAL
* Cross-Shard Group Invites! You can now invite characters from other shards on your Wargroup to join your group. You can then queue for Warfronts, Dungeons, and Conquest, or enter Dungeons and Raids with them! Note: You cannot join Instant Adventure with a cross-shard group.
* Weekly quests no longer count against your Daily limit.
* Removed a trailing space at the end of some Artifact names to make them more searchable on the Auction House.
* Ascended have learned to hold their breath for longer underwater - the breath meter now takes longer to run down.
* Taking damage from falling should be slightly more survivable.
* Dimensions: The Stone Flask Tavern guild dimension is now accessible to accounts without Storm Legion.
* Dimensions: The purchase of guild dimensions is no longer restricted to Storm Legion owners.
* Guild Quest objectives for Dungeon runs and Warfront wins now increment for each guild member involved, not just once.
* Planar Attunement teleports used while in instances will now send you to the correct location based on your true faction.
* Raid bosses can no longer drop two of the same item.


ZONES
* Rifts: Fixed Rank 1-3 Great Hunt Rifts with bosses that had more health than intended when facing large groups of players.
* Rifts: Slightly increased the Torvan notoriety awarded by Rank 4 and 5 Great Hunt bosses.
* Rift: Primal Evolution - Expert: Reduced the damage dealt by the boss Dian Luachra.
* Fae Yule Instant Adventures will no longer count toward specific zone achievements.

ASHORA
* Instant Adventures in Ashora now grant more Qaijiri notoriety.

SERATOS
* The Migrating Chomper protest has been put down with the mysterious disappearance of a number of the instigating beasts.

STEPPES OF INFINITY
* Adjusted mobs in Shivered Bluffs to move hazards off of the road to Zerzala.

STONEFIELD
* IA: Sanctify Miners: This IA is back in service!


DUNGEONS AND RAIDS

EMPYREAN CORE
* Achievement 'Goop There It Is' now requires only 40 mutants instead of 100.

ENDLESS ECLIPSE
* Regulos:
- Eyes of Death now only targets characters (not pets).
- Reduced health of Dark Thane Molinar and his two minions.
- Reduced Dark Thane Molinar's aggro range.
- Reduced health of Hierarch Kosic's minions.
- Reduced number of minions spawned by Hierarch Kosic's Evocation of the Dead.
- Hierarch Kosic's minions should now properly damage him - within range - when they die.
- Healing absorption debuffs will no longer continue to display after expiring.
- Glimpse the Abyss will cease while Regulos is channeling Death's Apotheosis.
- Resolved a bug that caused Invoke Calamity to deal far too much damage, and Vortex of Agony too little.

FROZEN TEMPEST
* Crucia: Fixed a case where players could end up stuck on the second platform during an encounter reset.

GOLEM FOUNDRY
* The Achievement "Dread... Naught" should be consistently granted.
* Caltrop Carnage now also has a warning-bubble VFX.

STORM BREAKER PROTOCOL
* Rapid Assault and Speed Clear now actually crediting.


SOULS

CLERIC

DEFILER
* The Beacon of Despair buff tooltip should now properly indicate the amount of damage intercepted.

PURIFIER
* Gesture of Goodwill: Now reduces all instances of Burnout.

SENTINEL
* Liberty of Thought: Now usable while silenced.
* Empowering Light: Now properly blocked by silence.
* Light of Redemption: Fixed a stacking bug with this ability.
* Marked by the Light: Now has a 1-hour duration and no longer uses charges.

MAGE

ARCHON
* Waning Power: Fixed range so it actually reaches 35 meters instead of 30.

HARBINGER
* Planar Retreat: Now usable while silenced.

NECROMANCER
* Reaper's Swiftness will now correctly affect Necromancer pets.

WARLOCK
* Salvage Corruption: No longer on global cooldown.
* Reduced cooldowns of Salvage Corruption, Deathly Pall, and Persist to 20 seconds.

ROGUE

MARKSMAN
* Added missing audio for Quick Reload and Retreat.

TACTICIAN
* Fixed a bug where chaining the use of Torrents sometimes drains more Energy than expected.

WARRIOR

BEASTMASTER
* Enrage: Fixed the effect tooltip on Primal Companion to display the right number values.

CHAMPION
* Reaper's Bearing: No longer has an internal cooldown.

PALADIN
* Shield Charge: Can now deal Critical Hits.

VOID KNIGHT
* Reckless Strike: Now properly tagged as a Physical attack and no longer gains non-Physical damage bonuses.
* Rift Shield: The absorbed amount from the number of Pacts consumed now scales correctly with Attack Power.
* Rift Reversal: Should be working properly and no longer triggers Predictable Movement.


PVP/WARFRONTS
* All participants are now automatically raid assistants in Warfront raids.
* Increased the power of Freelancer Essences and Seals.
* Freelancer's Marks are now granted by Random Warfronts and Weekly PvP quests from ranks 50-59.
* Bonus Warlord's Marks are now granted by Random Warfronts and Weekly PvP quests at rank 80.
* A new weekly kill quest has been added for Conquest.
* Conquest: Fixed turrets that were appearing oddly stretched or shrunken.
* Conquest: Also fixed a broken Planar Anomaly.
* Riftblade: Stalker Phase: Now actually grants only the stated 10% damage bonus in PvP after using a phase shift.


CRAFTING
* Fishing now contributes to the Master Gatherer achievement. Fixed the wording on Grandmaster Gatherer to say Fishing instead of Butchering twice.
* Butchering: Increased the percentage of Truehide skinned from highest-level beasts.
* Fish Lure recipes now appear under the correct headers in the recipe list.
* Underground fish near the Jurota Lakes and in Cape Jule have been returned to their natural aquatic habitat.

[chaos5061]

RIFT 2.1 Hotfix #3 - 11:30am PST 1/10/13 [NA] - 2:00am GMT 11/1/13 [EU]

GENERAL
* Onslaught: Now with some area effects to make standing in one spot more life threatening. We're still looking at Onslaughts in general!
* Added new Runes purchaseable at Honored to The Qaijiri, Eternal City Survivors, and Necropolis Caretaker notoriety vendors.
* Daily quests in Ashora now grant 150 Qaijiri faction. Onslaught dailies still give 120, and Instant Adventures give 100.
* PvP: Karthan Ridge: Fixed some locations that allowed Defiants into the Guardian spawn area.
* Level 60 characters can now complete 'The Storm Queen Rises' quest.


CRAFTING
* Fishing: Changed repeatable Fishing quests into Daily quests, increased their requirements, and improved their rewards.
* Frazzleweed has become an invasive species! It can now be found more frequently in the highest-level zones.


SOULS
* Fixed a Fae Extraction abuse case so this ability can be re-enabled.
* Mages: Charge no longer decays outside of combat.
* Pyromancer: Countdown: Reverted an earlier change - can again be cast on targets that already have countdown active. Now stacks up to 2.


DUNGEONS AND RAIDS
* Clarified the description text on Endless Eclipse and Frozen Tempest for which ones are personal and which ones apply to the whole group.
* Also clarified group vs. personal dependency for other Storm Legion Expert dungeons.

ENDLESS ECLIPSE
* The rewards for finishing the introduction event have been moved to drop when defeating the Progenitor.
* Kain: Made warning areas on the ability Voracious Hunger not disappear for characters who are very far away when the ability is cast.
* Regulos: NPCs spawned when players die now despawn after Regulos' defeat.

TOWER OF THE SHATTERED
* Commissar Typhiria: The Searing Flesh debuff can no longer be taken out of the instance.

TRIUMPH OF THE DRAGON QUEEN
* Addressed an issue that could cause the Altar of Sparks event to not reset.

[chaos5061]

Good afternoon, Ascended! The NA region shards will be coming down for 2.1 Hotfix #4 tomorrow, 1/16/13, at 8:00am PST. The estimated downtime is ** 45 minutes **. Patch notes will be updated! I'll be back in the morning with status updates during the downtime.

[chaos5061]

RIFT 2.1 Hotfix #4 - 8:00am PST 1/16/13 [NA] - 2:00am GMT 17/1/13 [EU]

GENERAL
* You can now move while casting Nexus Infusion.
* You can now invite cross-shard players to Dimensions and Weddings!
* Notoriety merchant Runes, Pets, and Costume pieces are now Bind to Account.
* Notoriety merchant Minor Runes can be applied to Storm Legion gear as low as level 50.
* Notoriety runes from PvP merchants are now Bind to Account.
* Artifacts for the Tide Heralds set should now drop from Storm Legion water invasions.
* Fixed some wonky thunder sounds used throughout the game.


SOULS
* Beastmaster: Enrage: No longer a channeled ability, and now deals Physical damage over 10 seconds. Increases Party and Raid member damage by 5%, Critical Hit Chance by 5%, and Critical Hit Power by 10%. Increases the Primal Companion's damage by 25%, Critical Hit Chance by 25%, and Critical Hit Power by 50%. Lasts 10 seconds.
* Champion: Mark of Exclusion: Fixed a bug where this ability could be cast multiple times in a row.


ZONES
* Life Saga: The Changeling Revealed: Cealhaidh the Corruptor will no longer follow players around when they teleport during this quest.
* Onslaughts: Increased the number of Invasions and the amount of the invasion buff when up against higher player counts and upgraded turrets.
* Defiant or Guardian invasions should no longer attack Barrier Relays in Storm Legion zones.

ARDENT DOMAIN
* Ardent Domain Onslaughts should start back up properly after failing the Zone Event 'Feeding Frenzy'.
* Auditorium Carnos Instant Adventures will now wait a minimum of 30 minutes between triggering.

IRON PINE PEAKS
* The Achievement 'To the Library!' can now be completed.

MATHOSIA
* Streamlined quest flow to get new characters into Silverwood more quickly.

PELLADANE
* Onslaughts: Corrected the unintentionally long fallow time between Onslaughts in Pelladane.

TERMINUS
* Streamlined quest flow to get new characters into Freemarch more quickly.


DUNGEONS AND RAIDS
* Triumph of the Dragon Queen: Fixed a case where the Altar of Sparks could become non-interactable if a player dies while under its effect.


CONQUEST
* Conquest queuing has officially changed - although some of these effects were appearing early on Live! While you can still select a team via the Join buttons, this is now treated as a preference and not an absolute. If your requested team is currently full, while another team has room, you will now join that team rather than remaining queued. If the entire match is full, you will remain queued until a space opens.


CRAFTING
* All crafting dailies that grant Notoriety now give 400 per turn-in.
* Increased the currency cap for Master Craftsman's Marks to 500.
* Reduced NPC sale value of 'trash' fish to 1/4 of their previous value.


ITEMS
* Epic Raid drops that required both the Heart of Crucia and the Heart of Regulos now require only one heart, plus an additional component purchased in Tempest Bay from the Raid Gear Merchant.
* Epic Dungeon Vendor: Epic upgrades are now available for all Belts, Chests, and Helms from the Expert Dungeon store.
* Dropped Raid gear can now be upgraded using Empyreal Marauder's Cells. Upgraded pieces gain the raid set bonus.
* Pestilent Chain Leggings now have the correct Critical Hit Chance value.
* Screaming Blade is now properly statted for tanking.
* Empyreal Vanquisher's Dagger is now Unique-Equip to match the other paths of its upgrade tree.
* Raid-tier helmets have received a stat increase.

[chaos5061]

Good evening!

The NA region shards will be coming down for 2.1 Hotfix #5 tomorrow, 1/23/13, at 8:00am PST. The estimated downtime is ** 45 minutes **.

Patch notes will be updated!

I'll be back in the morning with status updates during the downtime.

[chaos5061]

RIFT 2.1 Hotfix #5 - 8:00am PST 1/23/13 [NA] - 2:00am GMT 24/1/13 [EU]

GENERAL
* All Spell and Melee Critical Hit Chance items have received an upgrade.
* Adjusted the Onslaught area damage effect so it has a smaller radius, ticks more slowly, and has longer gaps between them appearing.


QUEUING
* When in an Instant Adventure group, joining a Conquest queue will only add you and not your entire group.
* If you have queued for Conquest solo, and join a group before the queue pops, the invite will go only to you and not the entire group.
* When a Conquest group invite occurs, only people who have selected a Conquest faction will receive an invite.
* Corrected Conquest 'Join' buttons so that team preference is properly accounted for.


PVP/CONQUEST
* PvP: Silence is now affected by diminishing returns in PvP, and displays immunity status on nameplates just like Stun, Root, etc. do.
* Conquest: Sourcestone can now be carried while mounted.
* Conquest Guild quest, Destroy the Dishonored, no longer has an objective to take Extractors. If you still have an active version of this quest with this objective, you can either abandon it or petition for completion once the kill objective is complete.


SOULS

BARD
* Anthem of Glory: Fixed a bug with this ability breaking disguises granted from quests.

BEASTMASTER
* Call of Kinship: The heal over time effect now has a maximum stack size of 1 for ranks 1-7.
* Call of Kinship rank 5 now displays the proper duration increase from Hunt Master.


ZONES
* Rifts: Increased the Torvan Hunter notoriety awarded by Great Hunt Rifts.

A HERO RISES [Chronicle]
* You now levitate much longer when first entering the mech suit.

ASHORA
* Volan: Volan will now cast Mortar Storm more consistently.

EASTERN HOLDINGS
* Zone Event: On the Hunt: Fixed boss broadcasts to only display in Eastern Holdings.

SERATOS
* IA: Fixed a case of players being teleported underground in Fetid Plains adventures.


DUNGEONS AND RAIDS

EMPYREAN CORE
* The wandering population near Doctor Perfidus will stop stacking on top of each other.

FROZEN TEMPEST
* Adjusted Crucia's Infinite Storm to add a bit more time to react to it during casting.
* Increased range of the Crucia encounter mech's ability 'Static Cloud' by 5 meters.

STORM BREAKER PROTOCOL
* Drastically increased the damage of all Storm Breaker Assault Frame abilities.
* Reduced the number of onslaught waves from 2 to 1 on the final terrace.

TOWER OF THE SHATTERED
* Added achievement point value for boss-kill achievements in this dungeon.

TRIUMPH OF THE DRAGON QUEEN
* Jultharin: Fixed an issue that could cause the spark walls to not appear.


CRAFTING
* Crafting Rift lures can no longer be used at Raid tears.
* Reduced the experience payouts from 325+ skill crafting daily and weekly quests.
* Changes to Fishing loot caches:
- Fishing caches no longer drop straight cash - they now drop Artisan's Marks, new bind-on-pickup Dimension items, and recipes in certain zones (Ember Isle, Shimmersand, Stillmoor).
- Other recipes that used to come from loot caches are now available as alternate rewards for some deep-water Rare Fish turn-in quests.
- Consumables and Artifacts that used to drop from the rare fish turn-in Tackleboxes now drop from fishing loot caches.
* Fish exchange dailies no longer steal your fish if you abandon the quests.
* Feast of Vengeance: Now grants an appropriate amount of Critical Power.

[chaos5061]

Upcoming NA Region Maintenance & Update - 7:00am PST 1/30/13 **

Good evening, Ascended!

The NA region shards will be coming down tomorrow, 1/30, an hour earlier than their usual time - at 7:00am PST. Shards will be offline for approximately ** 4 hours ** for both a game update and server software updates.

Patch notes will be updated!

I'll be here during the megadowntime with status updates as usual.

[chaos5061]

RIFT 2.1 Hotfix #6 - 7:00am PST 1/30/13 [NA] - 2:00am GMT 31/1/13 [EU]

GENERAL
* Swift mounts (110% speed) and higher now all scale to your fastest purchased mount's speed. [Currently the Swift Spotted Valmera is not scaling like it should after this change.]
* The Specialty Crafting Goods vendors in Sanctum and Meridian now sell lower-tier planar dusts in exchange for the next higher tier dust.
* All Feasts now persist through death - whether you respawn, resurrect, or Soul Walk.
* Warrior PvP PA: Thunderous Leap can no longer be used in instances other than Conquest/Warfronts - such as Dungeons, Raids, Weddings, etc.
* Corrected some unreachable Artifacts and some sneaky typos!
* Fixed a bug where characters who temporarily had Storm Legion access (on a trial basis) would lose the Prestige they had gained at the end of the trial period.


PVP/WARFRONTS
* Teleporting to a Dimension from an active Warfront now applies the Ascended Disgrace debuff.
* Personal Mailboxes can no longer be summoned in Warfronts.
* Conquest: Conquest Marks are now granted to all participants for every 100 kills that occur during a match.


ZONES
* Instant Adventures for 'Complete Zone Event' will now only trigger for IA groups of 3+ players.
* Fixed the Instant Adventure ready window disappearing immediately when queuing for IA with a group.
* Completing the Chronicle 'A Hero Rises' now properly grants Eternal City Survivors notoriety.

ASHORA
* Daily: The Thirst Quencher: Added some new spawns and moved some scouts out of rocks. Lowered scout respawn time.
* Daily: Snake Charmer: Increased spawn rate of snakes, reduced their wandering distance, and moved some further away from the rocks.

ENDLESS ECLIPSE
* Goloch: Slightly increased the casting time of Baleful Smash.

FROZEN TEMPEST
* Reduced the number of Stormborn Talons to 1 in each pack prior to Crucia.
* Crucia:
- Reduced the health of all constructs in phase 1 by 30%.
- Reduced the number of shields on all constructs to 5 (from 10).
- Decreased the cooldown of Dissipation Blast to 10 seconds, down from 20.
- Players are no longer stunned when Crucia goes airborne at 60%.
- Reduced the number of Wind Lash phases from 3 to 1.
- The projectile that creates Storm Cannons travels much faster now, removing a situation where there are no cannons to negate Exploding Tempest.
- Dying on the second platform no longer creates Scattered Storms.


CRAFTING
* Fishing: Fishing just got more dangerous for characters more than 20 levels below the level of the zone they're fishing in - Fisherbot is on patrol!
* Fishing: Improved the cash payout for completing Fishing Derbies. Additionally, level 50+ characters now get both Planar Attunement experience and Uncle Stan's Tacklebox as rewards.


ITEMS
* The Screaming Blade now has Deflect rather than Attack Power.
* Dimensions: The Round Flesh Rug dimension item is now scale-able.