General Information

Stockpile is a special version of The Black Garden that uses small orbs instead of the fang. Players collect these orbs and run them to cleansing pillars to earn points. There are only two cleansing pillars up at a time and each usage of them pushes them closer to depletion. Each cleansing pillar may be used only a finite amount of times (I believe nine).

The Basics

To have any chance of success your team must collect orbs and return them to the cleansing pillars. I must point out that each player can carry three orbs at a time AND each use of the cleansing pillar (whether you have one or orb three) takes a single charge! Why does that matter? The cleansing pillars start out on even footing. One is north and one is south. There is no advantage for either team. The second and third round of pillars are set close to your team’s side. If you turn a single orb in on your side you’re burning a charge. That gives your opponent an advantage. The only time you should turn a single orb in is when it is for the win or when you’re at your opponent’s cleanser! Depleting their charges is good; depleting yours is also good… for your opponent.

It is a team sport

PvP is not a solo experience. Don’t treat it like one. If you grab three orbs and run by yourself towards a cleansing pillar be prepared to be killed. It is a great strategy to send two or three players to each cleansing pillar and kill members of the team that is stupid enough to only hold the middle. These kill teams will end your life, pick up your three orbs, and turn them in gleefully. Don’t make this mistake. Find some friends and collect orbs together. When you’re fat with orbs head to the cleansing pillar in a pack. You still might be killed and help the other team but this practice vastly reduces the possibility of that. You certainly won’t be killed by a single person lurking in the dark.

The Middle

The tone of Stockpile is often set by the first engagement in the middle of the map. The team that wins this first battle frequently assumes that they will win the match. This isn’t always the case. I will say it makes the most sense initially to go completely in force into the middle. By capturing the middle you ruin your opponents’ morale and have the chance to pick up as many orbs as you please. After the first engagement, however, it is dangerous to tunnel vision and focus only on the middle. If you win the middle, grab orbs as a group and go turn them in. If you lose, move on to plan B.

Plan B

In the event that you’re overwhelmed in the middle, abandon it. Sitting at your spawn point and dropping down a few players at a time guarantees a loss. Split your team up and head to the cleansers. You will find that the other team will initially stream in a few at a time. Pick them off, take their orbs, and turn them in. Eventually they’ll figure it out and come in force. This is when you hold them as long as you can while other elements of your team take the middle and grab orbs to run to the opposite cleanser. Rinse and repeat this process.

Healers and Marking

If you’re the leader and don’t want to mark healers, promote someone else to raid assistant or pass the lead. If you don’t you are personally responsible for reducing your team’s chance of winning. No, I’m not kidding. You can win without marking but you win more when you do. Get marks on healers ASAP and, if you’re not marking and you see a number run by, switch and fight that person! Nobody cares if you almost have a rogue dead. That healer is going to heal them anyway. Switch and kill numbers as a group and you’ll increase your odds of winning.

If all else fails

Sometimes the enemy will have too many healers. Sometimes your team won’t have read this blog post. Sometimes you’re just outgunned. If everything goes out the window just know that Stockpile is only to 500 and you can queue a new one again soon. Good luck everyone!

If there’s a will, there’s a way

The main premise of these shows is that the host comes in, looks at what is usually a dump, and makes plans to turn it around in x amount of days with y dollars. The host often brings in a specialist in interior design and asks them how much time and money they think it would take — for dramatic (but still accurate) purposes the specialist quotes a huge number for one or both. Every show (that they air, anyway — skepticism makes me believe there are failures that don’t get aired), however, he pulls it off! He does the impossible and turns a pile of crap into a treasure trove of gold.

Now, there are always hard and fast “you just can’t do it this way.” You can’t expect to clear the top tier zone in green/quested/low-quality gear. Trying to do so means you’re not giving it your all. I don’t mean “if there’s a will, there’s a way (regardless of anything else)” but rather “if there’s a will(ingness to do at least the minimum of what it takes to be prepared), there’s a way.” If you’re willing to at LEAST get the right gear, to at LEAST have a roster of appropriate specs, then you stand a chance.

You don’t have to min/max. You don’t have to have all of the potions available for your role. You don’t have to have the perfect spec. I sure don’t! I make sure my spec is good, I try to get the right runes (even though I sometimes forget when I get a new piece), and I try to keep stocked on health potions. I did push myself hard to get T2 Earth PA for the shield glyph and I do keep an eye on where my gear upgrades are, but I don’t min/max and I still feel like a decent tank. I’m willing to do the minimum and a little beyond that to be a raid tank for my guild without feeling like I’m spending more time working than playing the game, so there’s a way for me to be a main tank sometimes.

Don’t get in over your head

A lot of restaurant owners I see on these shows have weird reasons for how/why they came to be owners. One person “thought it might be profitable” — hah! Clearly, people need to research things before they start them… and before they get thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars in debt! This applies to just about everything. Don’t become a guild leader “because it seems fun.” Find out what’s involved in it first. There’s a very handy book on guild leadership, even! *nudge* On that same note, don’t jump straight into hardcore raiding without proper knowledge of what is involved… and hey, there is a book that can help you learn how to raid, too! *wink*

But seriously, too many people get an idea in their head and run with it without thinking. That’s not to say you should never do something fun on impulse. By all means, impulse and fun can often go well together, within certain boundaries! But leading a guild, joining a hardcore raid organization, taking on a big DIY project to repair your roof, or applying for a job you’ve never even heard of before… these are all things you should probably do a little research in first.

And for the love of all that is gumdrops and lollipops, if you’re nearing a million dollars in debt over a restaurant that you thought “might be profitable”, it’s time to rethink your life goals!

Shut up and listen

Most importantly (this is something I really need to work on), just shut up. Some people will know less than you, but some people will know more than you. I know these shows are all about the drama and the ratings so it’s probably all scripted when the owner, who knew the host was coming to change things because things suck, acts outraged and stubbornly blind to the disarray of their restaurant.

Okay, so reality show gimmicks aside, this is still a real thing. No one wants to be told they’re wrong. No one wants to be told what they work hard for is wrong. No one wants to be wrong. But let’s face it, everyone has room to grow, learn, and expand. If someone is talking to you and they are clearly wrong, listen anyway! Just because they’re wrong doesn’t mean you’re right. They might say something that’s totally absurd, but you have the opportunity to step back and wonder why they are saying that. Why do they think they need to tell you to do something different? Maybe they’re just blind and think that they can’t be wrong so you must be, or maybe you’re both wrong!

Just always be willing to work, think, and re-evaluate things to keep your heels out of the dirt so you can move forward with your life and pursuits!

For those of you who know me, not like many of you do, I am not the most avid MMO player. Shocking, yes. I try; really I do, but until RIFT it never seemed to pan out for me. I am or was, as you probably could have guessed from the title, an altist/altaholic. Before I started playing RIFT I never really used a character for very long, my previous record being around 3 months. In fact it was usually much shorter than that. I’m sure many of you know someone just like me; someone mostly incapable of staying with the same character for any period of time. Afterwards, they get burned out creating a few characters and just bail. After finally being able to stick with a character for some time, I think I have narrowed the causes of my problems, and maybe they’re yours or a friend’s as well.

Firstly the problem stems from a lack of investment in the character. I try to make a character “mine” but the vast majority of MMOs don’t really allow you to make a character your own, with a few exceptions. I feel that this is really part of the problem, everyone looks the same, you have next to nothing invested in your character aside from time, and let’s face it, you probably have some to spare. Customization is great to an extent. However, when a character creator is too detailed it makes it even harder to stick with a character. I could make any combination of traits and designs, and I just keep making new and different characters, playing them for only a small amount of time. A character has to be yours, so time must be spent to really decide what you want. Otherwise things spiral out of control and all of a sudden you have the max allowable characters and you don’t want to play any of them. What I have started to do is to make a character and then just walk away. I’ll walk away for about 10 minutes and sit back down and see if I still like the character’s appearance. If I do like the character I continue on, and if I don’t I start over and repeat the process. It’s just a simple trick to see if I like my creation after I’ve had time to wander.

The next seed of my destruction revolves around the old adage “the grass is always greener.” I’ll see a class that looks cool or I got killed by a certain class and think to myself “that looks pretty sweet. I have to try that.” This process will repeat itself ad nauseam until I have at least one of every class which isn’t always a bad thing. I just tend to take it to the extreme in that I’m always switching characters, never staying with the same class or making multiples of the same one. I’ll play the same areas, doing the same quests over and over again and it gets tiring. However, having multiple classes in the beginning isn’t so bad, because the descriptions never really do the class justice. If you haven’t decided on a class then try all of them out, taking the time to really get the feel of the class and its abilities. Then make the decision based around what you want to play and don’t pick a class just because someone tells you to pick that one. Just because someone says a class is better at “blank” doesn’t mean it’s actually fun to play. Choose what you want and screw all those other people who say otherwise.

Next… well, it’s friends. Not what you’re thinking though, they aren’t the cause. When I play alone I switch around classes a lot, constantly even. I feel no obligation to a class or a character and well, that’s why this is getting written. After establishing your class with friends it’s easier to stick to it. They all know you as that class and if you start over you can’t play with your friends, and if you don’t want to play with your friends… well, I don’t know what to tell you. Get better friends? If none of your friends really play MMOs then try to find a guild that fits your play style and interests and join up; this will help keep you accountable to your class choice.

What helps me the most though is to just become invested in your character. Make up a back story or persona for them. I’m not telling you to start roleplaying, unless that’s your thing, then more power to you if so. Make it so that you want to play as this character, this character who is an extension of you, or maybe they’re the opposite of you. Just don’t view your character as simply a conglomeration of pixels but as something more meaningful. That’s probably simple for most of you, or obvious even, but when I was in all those MMOs I never really did it or thought to do it.

Now these aren’t the only things that may cause my or even your altism or altaholic tendencies but it’s a start. “But Dr. Klassi until RIFT you’ve only played a character for 3 months or so,” well shut up, no one is asking you. That ended not through my altism, but the game being broken after a certain level. That character was the start of the decline of my altist tendencies. I’ll let you try to guess which MMO. No hints for you!

Dr. Klassi M.D. PHD (not really, it would be impressive though, right?)

Welcome to RIFT 1.7: Carnival of the Ascended!

== FEATURES ==
* PvP: Prestige updates, PvP Planar Attunements, and Warfront Mercenaries, oh my. Check out the PvP Update sections for a lot of info on the latest in RIFT PvP.
* Sweeping changes have come to the progression of gear at levels 45+. See ITEMIZATION ADJUSTMENTS, below, for details.
* No matter who you are, you now have twice as many Expert Dungeons to play in! The two tiers of Expert Dungeon difficulty have been combined into one.
* The new Soul Preset system is now available for use by all players, old and new. Check out USING A PRESET BUILD for info on how you can use the new, optional Purposes to try out new specs.
* Playing RIFT with that special someone? Maybe you’d like to propose at the top of the Stonefield waterfall? IN-GAME WEDDINGS are now available for Ascended.
* A new Chronicle appears! Grab a friend and disguise yourself as Endless Cultists to infiltrate and sabotage Alsbeth’s plans within the River of Souls!
* The Master Mode of Caduceus Rise is now available for the conquering!
* A sixth role is now available for purchase!

* KNOWN ISSUE: Augmented items are getting some incorrect positive and negative bonuses with the 1.7 version. This is being fixed and the bonuses received from Augments should be returning to 1.6 values shortly.

LEVEL 45+ ITEMIZATION ADJUSTMENTS
* With this patch we’re focusing on improving gear progression in endgame content. The goal is to create a smoother high-end item progression and to ensure level 50 players can be competitive in either/both PvE or PvP with a clear route of content to upgrade through.
* The following improvements are being implemented toward this goal:
* Content tier adjustments to better match with the items granted:
- Intro 50 content: level 50 Dungeons, Chronicles, Rifts, and Zone Events.
- “Tier 1″: Expert Dungeons, Ember Isle, early Prestige Ranks, Expert Rifts, and Zone Events.
- “Tier 2″: Master Dungeons, entry Raids and Slivers, mid-Prestige Ranks, Raid Rifts, and Zone Events.
- “Tier 3″: Difficult Raids and Slivers, high-end Prestige Ranks.
* Items will improve consistently between tiers of content, instead of having small improvements early on followed by huge power jumps in later tiers.
* The overall power of a new level 50 character will be increased slightly, and the power differential for items between 50 and top-tier content will progress more evenly.

DUNGEON, EXPERT DUNGEON, AND CHRONICLE IMPROVEMENTS
* The biggest change in support of the above progression is the combining of Expert Dungeons to a single difficulty tier, which impacts both gear dropped as well as LFG reward categories. The rest of the level 50 Dungeons and Chronicle content will be getting minor balance tweaks and major itemization adjustments.
* After these changes, the difficulty and rewards from content should be clearer between Chronicles/Level 50 Dungeons and Expert Dungeons.

PVP UPDATES
* In the ongoing effort to more appropriately match up characters of different ranks, and give a smoother entry to high-level PvP, we will be revamping the existing Prestige system in 1.7.
* The Prestige system has expanded from 8 ranks to 40 – existing ranks will be converted to the appropriate rank on the updated scale.
* Bolstering is now enabled for level 50 Warfronts. Players entering a level 50 Warfront below Rank 13 will have their stats boosted to be more effective for both rank-appropriate and mixed-rank Warfronts.
* Marks of Retribution gained from closing PvP Rifts and completing weekly quests are now consumables that grant 1600 Favor.
* Existing Marks of Retribution have been converted back to Favor at 1600 Favor per Mark. Players who find themselves exceeding the current Favor cap after the conversion will need to spend that excess Favor and get below the cap before more can be earned.
* Reinforced Crystallized Insight is now available for purchase from Girdoom in Meridian and Templar Zim in Sanctum. These consumables grant 100,000 Planar Attunement experience at a cost of 15,000 Favor.
* PvP Rifts: To encourage open-world PvP hotspots, only one PvP Rift can now be active at one time across all zones. Sealing a PvP Rift now grants a buff to your entire faction, ‘Prismatic Glory’, which increases Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Endurance by 10, as well as increasing Prestige, Favor, and Planar Attunement experience gains by 5%.
* Removed grey-item drops from player corpses, and significantly increased coin drops.

PVP SOUL UPDATES – PVP PLANAR ATTUNEMENT
* With 1.7, the PvP-specific Souls have been converted into a Planar Attunement-based character enhancement.
* A large amount of Planar Attunement experience is granted each time you gain a Rank in PvP. Yes, this will be granted retroactively for ranks already gained.
* The Achievement, ‘I’ve Got Soul and I Am a Soldier” is now a Legacy Achievement.

PVP EQUIPMENT UPDATES
* We have made changes to Armor Mitigation in PVP to address a disparity between Physical and Elemental defenses. This will result in characters with high Armor Mitigation for their Calling at level 50 having the mitigation reduced in PvP and being hit by Physical attacks for damage values closer to current Elemental damage values.
* Removed Rank requirements from all PvP armor sets. You still need to purchase sets sequentially, but the limiting factor is now total Favor gained rather than rank.
* PvP weapons and Synergy Crystals will still require specific ranks to purchase and equip.
* PvP Synergy Crystals have a reduced notoriety requirement to equip. A new set requiring Rank 40 and Revered with the Order of the Eye or The Unseen has been added.
* The previously-Rank 3 and Rank 4 gear is now available without prior purchase requirements.
* The previously-Rank 7 and Rank 8 armor has been upgraded to include Vengeance, and the amount of Critical Hit on it reduced slightly.
* Increased the amount of Valor provided by all PvP armor sets.
* Added Valor to PvP set weapons.
* PvP Armor merchants now stock Bows for Defiants and Guns for Guardians.
* Rank 25 and Rank 36 Two-Handed Swords now available for Defiants.
* PvP: One-handed Axes are now available for Guardians and Defiants at rank 1, 12, 25, and 36.
* Rank 25 and 36 Two-Handed Axes are now available for Guardians.
* PvP Armor set merchants now display items filtered by Calling. Filtering can still be disabled if you’d like to purchase items designed for other Callings.
* Costume versions of PvP Rank armor are now available from Desma Chontos in Meridian, and Templar Sanzo in Sanctum. These still have rank requirements to equip.

WARFRONTS – NOW WITH MERCENARIES
* In order to reduce queue times to as near-zero as possible, players may be added the opposing faction’s Warfront team as a “Mercenary”.
* Queue for Warfronts as normal and you may be assigned as a Mercenary when the Warfront map loads. You’ll receive a Mercenary buff and on-screen callout and will be placed as part of the opposite faction’s team.
* Coin is now granted for completing Warfronts.
* Damage dealt by your pet is now included in your leaderboard totals.
* Warfronts: The quests given in Port Scion are now automatically removed when your character leaves the Warfront.
* Warfront: Stockpile – Black Garden: The leaderboard now displays the number of stones you’ve carried throughout the game properly.

REALLY IMPORTANT NOTE: The changes below are in addition to the existing Soul and Role system and do not replace the current way Soul specs work – they are intended to make it easier for old and new players alike to become familiar with different potential specs and gameplay they may not have tried before. Think of them like guidelines; those of you more familiar with the Souls and abilities you want to use can continue to customize and swap things in and out at will.

NEW CHARACTER CREATION UPDATES
* The Calling selection screen now calls out which roles a Calling is able to potentially fill – Tank, Damage, Healing, Support.
* After selecting a Calling, characters will be required to choose a “Purpose” (Preset Soul Combination) during character creation.
* Each Purpose will start out with a preset combination of souls, abilities and equipment. Players will have the opportunity to preview these before the character is created.
* New players can also preview what their character would look like in a variety of armor ranging from starting gear to epic endgame appearances!
* If you use the Randomize button after making changes to the character you are creating, there’s now a warning prompt before it changes any settings.
* Updated the character selection screen with faction-sorted and colored Character listings.

USING A PRESET BUILD
* Players always have the choice to make a custom build, or to play as one of the supplied preset builds.
* Preset builds will have a fixed progression path which can be previewed when you open the Soul Tree window.
* Characters with unspent Soul Points who are using preset souls will be guided to purchase specific abilities in the Soul Tree that are appropriate for their level.
* Players can view additional helpful tips and guides about their Purpose (and other available Purposes) by clicking on the Purpose button in the soul tree.
* At any time, a new character can spend their Soul Points in a non-highlighted ability or swap out a Soul with 0 points spent to further customize their spec. Doing so will set your Purpose to ‘custom’ and remove the highlighted progression path.
* You now have access to all Souls from your Calling at level one, which means experienced players can immediately customize their starting Soul spec if they choose to not use the presets.

SOUL TREE CHANGES – NEW AND EXISTING CHARACTERS
* When you open the Soul Tree you should see a window that looks pretty familiar!
* On the Soul Tree UI is a new button showing which Purpose is currently selected – this displays ‘Custom’ for existing characters with their own specs set up.
* When viewing a Role that has 0 points spent in Souls, the Purpose button at the top of the UI can be used to view a list of preset Purposes that you can choose from to help set up your character’s spec.
* Purposes are a combination of 3 Souls that have a highlighted ability progression path to suggest where to next spend Soul Points.
* When checking out Purposes, you’ll see a description of what the spec is, some tips, and some important abilities for that particular combination.
* Selecting a Purpose will slot 3 souls into the Soul Tree UI and start showing the next suggested ability to spend points in. The Preview button at the top of the Soul Tree will place outlines around the abilities the Purpose will ultimately recommend through level 50.
* AT ANY TIME: A Soul with 0 points spent can be exchanged with any other Soul, just like it works currently.
* AT ANY TIME: You aren’t forced to spent points only where the Purpose is suggesting – you can spend points in a non-highlighted ability and it will set your Purpose to Custom and stop highlighting abilities in the Soul Tree.
* Existing characters will receive any Souls they may be missing with this update.

ADDITIONAL NEW PLAYER IMPROVEMENTS
* The number of aggressive monsters in Terminus and Mathosia have been reduced.
* Monsters in Terminus, Mathosia, Silverwood, and Freemarch have had their agro radius and run speeds adjusted. This will allow players to avoid surprise “Aggro” and flee combat easier when they get in over their heads.
* The hit points and damage dealt has been reduced on normal mobs from levels 1-17.
* A number of help tips have been updated to be easier to understand.

ASCENDED-LY EVER AFTER: IN-GAME WEDDINGS
* With 1.7 comes the introduction of in-game marriages and instanced wedding gatherings!
* See the Marriage Coordinators in Meridian or Sanctum to purchase rings you can use to tie the knot with your chosen. Both parties must agree to the marriage and can also choose to dissolve it at will.
* Marriage Coordinators also sell invitations, costume items, and other goodies for use with the new wedding instances! You can invite friends to join you for your very own wedding ceremony and resulting party. Using the wedding instances is not required for marrying another character.
* For detailed instructions on in-game marriage and what you can do with the wedding instances, see the Wedding Planner book also available through the Marriage Coordinator.
* As a note of caution, Dwarven weddings can get pretty rowdy! You may see your PvP flag turn on when entering the Dwarf-themed wedding instance.
* Being married in RIFT is meant to be an expression of partnership, and does not provide any additional gameplay benefit. You can see who a character is married to by inspecting them, but that’s it!
* Interested in participating in a Valentine’s Day world-record-setting event for the most marriages during a 24-hour period? See details on the blog at: http://community.riftgame.com/en/201…alentines-day/
* Added an option to automatically decline all marriage proposals under Misc options.

GENERAL
* A sixth role is now available for purchase!
* You know all those times you hit ‘Leave Party’ instead of ‘Ready Check’? Yeah, Leave Party got moved down to the bottom of the menu list.
* Increased the available Wardrobe slots to 5.
* Wardrobe slots now have toggles for armor visibility in that slot.
* Conversely, removed the Options entries for hide helmet and hide shoulderpads – if you currently have these enabled, your wardrobe slots will default to hiding these armor pieces.
* Newly acquired Abilities will now be displayed in a special pop-up UI window at the time they are learned, making it easy to drag new abilities directly to your hotbar – or cancel them from the list if you don’t want to place them at that time.
* Added a new ‘Lock XP’ checkbox to the Interface > Misc settings pane. Checking it will stop your level 1-49 character from gaining experience until it is unchecked. Characters at the level cap and trial characters cannot lock their experience.
* You can now choose to disable auto-weapon-sheathing with a new Settings option: Interface > Misc > Disable Auto Sheaths.
* You can now use the command ‘/interact’ to interact with an NPC you have targeted if you are unable to right-click it.
* The maximum water depth that you can ride your mount in has been increased and made consistent across all player races. Female Dwarves should notice the biggest overall boost, while Bahmi males should see only a slight difference.
* Doubled the duration and removed the 2 minute cooldown on Omen Sight and Quantum Sight.
* The background color of target casting bars now correctly indicates their interruptible (blue) or non-interruptible (gold) status during cast time for channeled abilities.
* You can now split stacks in your bank even if your inventory is full.
* Dismiss Pet no longer cancels Veteran Reward Vendors or Personal Bankers.
* Applying a rune to an item now only pops a confirmation prompt if you will overwrite an existing rune.
* Fixed an issue that could cause a quest-giving item to stop offering the quest, even though it hadn’t yet been accepted.
* Weekly Guild quests for Mining have been adjusted to require more raw ore and fewer gems.
* The guild perk Blood Thirsty will no longer be removed by triggering Killing Spree.
* Ascended Powers: The Defiant ‘Aura Augmentation’ and Guardian ‘Holy Champion’ quests no longer require you to stand right by the questgiver to advance the quest.

CURRENCY UPDATES
* Added Eternal Crystallized Insight, a new item that grants 100,000 Planar Attunement experience when consumed.
* Expert Dungeon, Raid, and Planar Goods merchants will now sell Eternal Crystallized Insight for their respective currencies.
* Players can now visit the Crafting Specialty Goods merchants to exchange Artisan Marks for Master Crafter Marks.
* You can now purchase Augment boxes for Artisan Marks instead of Planarite from the Crafting Specialty Goods merchant.
* Augment boxed now award special stat and dual-stat Augments more frequently.
* Added Exceptional Augment Boxes that contain Epic Augments to the Crafting Specialty Goods merchants.

RIFTS AND INVASIONS
* Zone Events on Ember Isle now also grant Inscribed Sourcestone when event objectives are completed. Only players who have contributed during each event objective will receive these rewards. Some of the less difficult objectives will not be awarding Sourcestone. In order to maintain the same overall total Inscribed Sourcestone granted, the amount obtained from Colossi kills has been reduced.
* Rift-type content now takes gear into consideration when scaling, and will be slightly more difficult in the presence of highly geared characters.
* ‘Puresource’ type reward containers now stack to 99.
* Fixed level requirements on various level 20-29 Earth Rift rewards, and some general 30-39 Rift rewards.
* The Invasion commander, Hardshell Nightmare, will no longer off itself after spending only a short while on Telaran soil.
* Guild Quest: Upping the Ante: Should now always give credit if a Rift is closed by a guildmember.

INSTANT ADVENTURE
* Additional Planar Attunement experience is now granted for level 50 characters doing Instant Adventure.
* If an Adventure Group is waiting for a new chain of adventures to start, the teleport invitation for new group members now waits for the start of the next set.

SOULS
* Planar Attunement: Fixed a case where weapon-based stat bonuses from Planar Attunement could be lost and not appropriately granted when changing equipment.
* Mage and Cleric abilities that are low-ranked compared to your level now always use the ability cost of one rank below the max currently available to you. This won’t change costs for characters who’ve trained up their abilities to current rank as they level.
* Mage Charge is now reset to zero when changing roles.
* Fixed an issue causing some abilities that increase outgoing damage to combine with each other incorrectly.
* Characters will no longer be taken out of stealth when their guild increases a passive Perk.
* Mounting now cancels auto-attack, preventing you from accidentally dismounting due to an attack firing.
* Many tooltip clarity updates for abilities on Souls.

CLERIC
* Reduced the mana cost of Area-of-Effect Heals.

CABALIST
* Curse of Discord: Fixed the durations on ranks 1-7.
* Dark Passage: Now teleports 10 meters forward.

DRUID
* Eruption of Life: Now triggers off of any damage.
* Faerie’s Favor: Now instant-cast. Increased the healing amount. Now affects up to 4 additional party or raid members within a 20 meter radius if cast by the Greater Faerie.
* Faerie Healing: Increased the amount healed.
* Fury of the Fae: The Satyr will now autocast this even when out of combat.
* Mead Rush: New ability usable by the Satyr. The Satyr charges at the enemy for a damaging strike. 10 second cooldown. Also, MMMEEEAAAADDD!!
* Trickster Spirit, Slothful Spirit, Spiteful Spirit: These have all been changed to spells that deal Earth damage at a 30-meter range.

INQUISITOR
* Clinging Spirit: Can no longer get the ability effect without points spent in it.
* Corporal Punishment: Duration is now 12 seconds.

JUSTICAR
* Healer’s Creed: Now increases the healing you receive by 5-10%.
* Light Makes Right: Now works properly immediately after being purchased.
* Rebuke: Now works more consistently on different mob types in Dungeons and Raids.
* Reparation: Now able to heal other party/raid members using Reparation. Healing from Reparation will not affect players with Mien of Honor currently active.
* Reprieve: Increased the bonus from Spell Power.

PURIFIER
* Divine Cascade: Ability removed.
* Gathering of the Ancestors: New spell available at 38 points. Places an absorption shield on up to 10 party or raid members within 35 meters. Cannot be applied again on the same target for 20 seconds – this is a separate ability blocker from the Ward of the Ancestors single-target shield. 30 second cooldown.
* Rise of the Phoenix: New spell available at 44 points. Resurrects the target with 50% health and mana, can be used in combat. 5 minute cooldown.
* Surging Flames: The triggered heal now has a 20 meter radius.
* Item: Asphodel’s Purifier Crystal: 4-piece bonus now reduces damage taken by 7% for 10 seconds. This effect now overwrites and cannot be overwritten by Protect the Flock.

SENTINEL
* Empowering Light: Removed the pretty pointless ‘range’ displayed on this ability – it’s a PBAE, and remains a PBAE.
* Healing Communion, Healing Benediction: Both spells now have a 20-meter radius.
* Life’s Return: Cooldown is now 5 minutes.
* Marked by the Light: Now has a 15-meter radius.

SHAMAN
* Battle Charge: Reduced cooldown to 10 seconds.
* Brutalize: Now deals 30-60% of Massive Blow’s damage over 10 seconds. Reduced maximum stack size to 3.
* Dauntless Courage: Now affects all melee damage.
* Ekkehard’s Invocation: New ability available after spending 15 points in Shaman. Instant-cast ranged spell that deals Air damage.
* Favored of the Valnir: Now increases the duration of Lightning by 4-8 seconds, causing increased damage on each additional tick.
* Vengeance of the Frozen Earth: Ability removed.

WARDEN
* Cascade: No longer has a mana cost.
* Deluge: Will no longer generate infinitely-looping visuals in some cases.
* Healing Showers, Orbs of the Tide: Both abilities now have a 20-meter radius.
* Healing Cataract: Now has a 25-meter radius and affects up to 10 party or raid members.
* River of Life: New spell available at 44 points; resurrects the target with 50% health and mana, can be used in combat. 5 minute cooldown.
* Ripple: Now has a 20-meter radius.
* Tidal Resonance: Fixed this ability not expiring correctly.
* Waterjet: Reduced the benefit given to this spell by Spell Power.

MAGE

ARCHON
* Pillaging Stone: The debuff portion of Rank 1 no longer persists through death.
* Flowing Sand: Now provides the movement speed debuff even if the target is immune to the Snare portion. Reduced the cooldown to 45 seconds from 2 minutes.

CHLOROMANCER
* Wild Abandon: Fixed a case where this ability could break certain boss mob roots and snares when it shouldn’t be able to.

DOMINATOR
* Degeneration: Ability added to the Dominator soul, obtained at 10 points. Now has a 15 second cooldown and can affect NPCs.
* Disorient: The stun portion no longer persists through death.
* Incompetence: No longer persists through death.

ELEMENTALIST
* Icy Carapace: Fixed a bug causing this ability to not work correctly when cast while Elemental Forces was active.

PYROMANCER
* Burning Bright: No longer gives separate bonuses for PvE and PvP.
* Cinder Burst: Damage now reduced by 15% in PvP, instead of a 20% reduction.
* Fulminate: Damage now reduced by 15% in PvP, instead of 20%.
* Inferno: Now gives 10 Charge when cast.
* Lockdown: Will now debuff the enemy, increasing the Fire damage they take, even if they are immune to the Snare portion.

STORMCALLER
* Absolute Zero: Fixed this causing more than one next cast of Icicle or Arctic Blast to cause a root effect.
* Electrocute: The knockback should no longer occasionally fail.
* Flash Freeze: This will now deal damage even if the target is immune to the root portion of the ability.
* Lightning Burst: No longer has a damage penalty in PvP.
* Storm Shard: Fixed an edge case where Storm Shard wouldn’t apply the critical hit damage bonus.
* Fixed an issue where damage from Hailstorm and Eye of the Storm could be blocked by abilities like the Chloromancer’s Wild Abandon.

WARLOCK
* Item: Nyx’s Warlock Crystal: Updated the 4-piece set bonus. It now reduces the cooldown of Empowered Darkness by 15 seconds, and casting Defile increases the total damage of your damage-over-time effects by 15% for 20 seconds.

ROGUE

ASSASSIN
* The Attack Power contribution to the damage from Poisons has increased.
* Expose Weakness: Fixed a bug where the damage increase from Exposed Weakness was not applied to all three stacks of Serrated Blades’ damage.
* Leeching Poison: The Attack Power contribution to the healing from Leeching Poison has increased.

BLADEDANCER
* Blade and Fury: Your Quick Strike and Precision Strike increase the damage of your next Keen Strike by 10-20%, up from 5-10%.
* Blade Finesse: Functionality changed. Now increases the Attack Power bonus of your Finishers by 5-25%. This bonus is applied only to attacks using melee weapons.
* Combat Expertise: Functionality changed. Now increases the Attack Power bonus of your Combo Point-generating abilities by 5-25%.
* Combat Culmination: Functionality changed. Your Finishers cause Physical attacks to ignore 1-3% of the target’s armor per Combo Point for 10 seconds.
* Deadly Dance: Can now be triggered by Compound Attack.

MARKSMAN
* Strafe: The buff effect can no longer be purged while channeling.

NIGHTBLADE
* The Attack Power contribution to the damage from weapon enchantments has been increased.
* Dusk to Dawn: This is no longer a channeled ability but a straight damage-over-time ability. Now awards 2 Combo Points when used and does not give additional Combo Points per second. Energy cost reduced to 45 from 60. Cooldown reduced to 45 seconds from 1 minute. Damage has been reduced.

RANGER
* King of the Jungle: Now increases pet damage by 20%, increased from 10%. For every point in Ranger above 21, increases pet damage by 6% – increased from 3% per point.
* Feral Aggression: Increases Critical Hit chance and also pet damage by 100% for 15 seconds. Cooldown reduced to 1 minute from 2.
* Pin Down: Cooldown reduced to 1 minute from 3.
* Diffuse: Cooldown reduced to 1 minute from 2.

RIFTSTALKER
* Shadow Stalk: Using this ability should no longer put both the player and the target into combat.
* Rift Barrier: The damage shield from Rift Guard now only reflects damage from the first tick of a DoT, in line with other damage shields in the game.
* Planar Vortex: The damage from Planar Vortex now takes the Riftstalker out of stealth.

WARRIOR
* Power regeneration rate has been increased.
* Disarm abilities now properly block abilities that require either Ranged or Melee weapons.
* Bash, Furious Rage, Flinching Strike, and Face Slam no longer have multiple ranks to upgrade.

BEASTMASTER
* Calming Influence: Now obtained at 20 points in Beastmaster. Now puts a single target to sleep for 45 seconds – the target must not be in combat at the time of the effect. Any damage on the target removes Calming Influence. Only 1 target can be under Calming Influence at a time. (Aurelis) I hope this has a decent radius on it, since Beastmaster’s can’t stealth like rogues can!
* Primal Rage – New Ability: Increases the damage of attack abilities for the Beastmaster and their pet by 7% per Bleed effect on the target. Duration is increased by the number of attack points when used. Obtained at 44 points in Beastmaster.
* Enraged Companion: Aura now grants a 7% bonus, increased from 5%, and overwrites the Reaver’s Enraged Essence. Buff effect should no longer stick around after the pet is dismissed. (Aurelis) ): But I love my Enraged Essence! Our raid beastmaster and I are no longer friends!

CHAMPION
* Slayer’s Bearing: Now properly works with AoE attacks.
* Removed the reduced PvP effectiveness from Soldier’s Bearing and Weapon Specialization.

PALADIN
* Aggressive Block: Now properly triggers Rising Waterfall.
* Preservation: No longer prevented from being cast on a Paladin after the original target removes it. No longer causes you to enter combat.

PARAGON
* Deadly Grace: Fixed a bug causing Deadly Grace to deal less damage than it should.
* Force of Will: Fixed a bug causing Force of Will to not effect AoE attacks. As a result, the critical hit damage bonus of all attacks has been changed to 5-15%, down from 10-30%.
* Rising Waterfall: Will no longer immediately break the buff granted by Surging Energy when it critically hits. Can now trigger from Paladin’s Aggressive Block.
* Removed the reduced PvP effectiveness from Teaching of the Five Rings.

RIFTBLADE
* Stoneshield: No longer causes the next ability to miss; instead, the next ability used on you will deal no damage. It also no longer triggers off of abilities the Riftblade used on themselves.

VOID KNIGHT
* Spell Sunder: Now checks for line of sight.
* Surge: No longer ignores line of sight for threat generation.

ZONES

DROUGHTLANDS
* A new porticulum has been constructed in Fallback! (Aurelis) Thank goodness! In my opinion, all zones should have two ports. Not a kazillion like Ember Isle, but just two or three…
* Thwarting the Emberlord: Fixed an issue that could cause this quest to not reset properly.

EMBER ISLE
* Anchors to the Depths: Fixed the placement of Shrines to Ithkus that were hiding under the sands.
* Crawl No More: The catapults should no longer be stuck in a fired position when the catapult has an active target.
* Drakes in the Drift: There is now a teleporter to the base of the Kelari tower when the quest is completed.
* Feline Intervention: Fixed an issue causing the Corrupted Wildstalkers to not despawn correctly if left unconscious.
* Pyrkari at Large: Fixed an issue where the pyrkari would sometimes not despawn when brought to the cages. The lasso effect now also leaves the pyrkari if the player who lassoed them dies.
* Raw Recruits: The reset time for the Shamblers has been significantly increased.
* Recluse Wrangling: The devour ability of the Recluse can now consume multiple spirits at once.
* Returning the Spirit: Fixed a case where players would be unable to obtain the Blessed Water.
* Science Under Pressure: There’s now a higher chance for the Smoldering Piles to appear in larger numbers. Stavel will also leave properly if his timer runs out.
* The Nexus Infusion ability no longer works on the Bazaars in Ember Isle during the In Golden’s Grasp event, since it doesn’t actually do anything for them.
* Added a tutorial tip for new arrivals to Ember Isle that gives a heads-up about the potential difficulty of content on the island.

GLOAMWOOD
* A new Guardian porticulum has been completed in Gloamwood at Tearfall Run. (Aurelis) See previous port comment for Droughtlands!
* Notoriety items for the Waykeepers will no longer drop for Defiants.
* Dead Water: The mobs inside the cave you enter on this quest now have a longer respawn time.

SCARWOOD REACH
* Fall of House Aelfwar: Quest should no longer get blocked sometimes by a nearby foothold.
* A Temporary Solution: Players can now get a Pinch of Sourcestone Powder at any time while on this quest.

SHIMMERSAND
* Additional NPCs in Shimmersand grant a small amount of Dragonslayer Covenant reputation when killed.

STILLMOOR
* Monster Hunter of Stillmoor: Now has additional item rewards available.
* One With Nature: The Aelfwar House Signet item is now properly removed from players when this quest is completed.
* Additional NPCs in Stillmoor grant a small amount of Order of Mathos reputation when killed.
* The zone event ‘The Blight’ should now properly award Glowing Puresource for participants who are on the quests Shield of the Land or Frontlines of the Planes.

STONEFIELD
* A Failure of Leadership: Quest location markers for this quest have been corrected.
* Dead Drop: The Earthmaul Ward quest objective should be easier to find.
* Notoriety items for Granite Falls will no longer drop for Guardians. (Aurelis) You know what, why not? Why can’t I buy their love? I’m okay if I start out at -60,000 and have to grind all the way up, but Granite Falls sells a pet! I want it!

DUNGEONS, SLIVERS, CHRONICLES, RAIDS
* Expert and Master Dungeons, Raid Rifts, Slivers, and Raids: Reduced the critical hit damage bonus that most ‘regular’ NPCs get when they critically hit a target with insufficient Toughness. In effect, non-tanks should be less likely to be absolutely gutted when taking a critical hit by a general-population NPC in these areas.
* Characters of level 47+ now have a choice between 3 Plaques of Achievement or a random blue-quality item when they complete a random standard dungeon via LFG.
* New epic-quality loot has been added to the Chronicles for Greenscale’s Blight, Hammerknell, and River of Souls.
* Sub-bosses in the Greenscale’s Blight Chronicle now drop Plaques of Achievement.
* New epic-quality loot has been added to standard Abyssal Precipice, standard Charmer’s Caldera, and standard Caduceus Rise.
* End bosses in standard Abyssal Precipice, Charmer’s Caldera, and Caduceus Rise now drop Plaques of Achievement when defeated.
* Targets marked by Raid leaders are now visible to players who join the raid after the mark occurs.
* If your invitation to teleport to an instance fails because it is full, group/raid members can now trigger the teleport prompt an additional time by re-zoning into the instance.
* Fixed a case where a raid member could be stuck with a ready check and be unable to initiate another if they were a leader or assistant.
* Fixed a case where a raid member logging in right at the completion of a ready check would cause incorrect results to display.
* Fixed an issue in which NPCs in Rise of the Phoenix ran slower than intended.
* Characters under the effect of any type of Mind Control ability are no longer able to enter new instances – Chronicles, Dungeons, Warfronts, Slivers, or Raids.
* While in a LFG-formed random Expert group for an instance you already have a normal lockout for, you no longer get locked from your random version if disconnected before the first boss.

CADUCEUS RISE
* Cinderstorm’s Molten Cinders beams now appear properly in additional attempts after a wipe.
* Fixed the achievement, Bloody Bothersome, that was triggering incorrectly in Expert mode.
* Expert: The Rapid Assault achievement should now award properly in both Caduceus Rise and Upper Caduceus Rise.
* Increased Caduceus’ health. Slightly decreased the health of Erupted Core. Drastically decreased the health of Erupted Ember.

DARKENING DEEPS
* Fixed some collision on Scarn’s elevator shaft.

DROWNED HALLS
* Players who have been polymorphed by Hydriss should no longer get pushed outside of the encounter area by the Tsunami ability.

GREENSCALE’S BLIGHT [Raid]
* Added runspeed buffs to Hylas, Aleria, and Infiltrator Johlen.

GREENSCALE’S BLIGHT: THE FALLEN PRINCE [Chronicle]
* Shadow of Metamorphosis should now properly end if you leave the zone while under the effect.

HAMMERKNELL [Raid]
* Runebone Sorcerers’ Silent Void ability no longer roots targets inside the effect for the entire duration.
* Darktide Serpents’ Brine Net ability no longer roots targets inside the effect for the entire duration.
* Population mobs in Hammerknell award Planar Attunement experience more consistently.
* Inquisitor Garau: Fixed Arcane Porters failing to spawn in certain situations.

ITEMS
* Several Akylios relic items now have proc effects.
* Some non-relic Akylios items have also been upgraded.
* Hammerknell trinkets have been improved slightly.
* Costume versions of PvP Rank armor are now available from Desma Chontos in Meridian, and Templar Sanzo in Sanctum. These still have rank requirements to purchase.
* Updated the description text on Marks of Ascension and Greater Marks of Ascension.
* Random Augment boxes purchased with Planarite have been moved to the Planar Voucher merchant and had their costs adjusted.
* The stun effect on Gale Mirror, Torrential Mirror, Storm Mirror, Cyclonic Mirror, and Tempest Mirror (Air Rift consumables) no longer work on NPCs that are immune to stuns.
* Fixed a bug where some items showed a ‘Vanity’ category instead of ‘Costume’.
* The artifacts from The Heir of Hammerknell set should now be listed in the Auction House as Collectibles rather than Quest Items.
* Some old items related to quests that are no longer in the game are now displayed as grey-quality loot items rather than quest items.
* Abyssal Soulstone: Fixed a bug causing this essence to not work properly for Warriors.
* Amplified Soulstone: Now properly increases damage from Elemental Touch.
* Elder Chain Coif: Now properly gives Spell Critical Hit rather than Physical Critical Hit.
* Golem Inductor: Will now proc slightly more often.
* Isle Embrosia can now be re-sold to NPCs after the buyback grace period has expired.
* Lavaforged Helmet incorrectly had Block on it which has been removed – the points have been redistributed into Dodge and Parry.
* The Planar Conqueror armor set is now compatible with Blighted Synergy Crystals.
* Fixed several Planar Lens items that had their stats removed.
* Scarn’s Hide is now tradable and can be sold.
* Shimmering Windstone: Increased Dexterity.
* Adjusted the NPC sale amount of Staff of Eruptions and Searing Obsidian Dagger.
* Rising Crest: No longer usable by Clerics.
* Vornia’s Chain Spaulders, Notched Weapon, Maelforge Acolyte’s Hat, and Maelforge Acolyte’s Slippers now all have proper NPC sale values.
* Wind’s Breath: Now procs slightly less often.

CRAFTING
* Crafting will now use items directly from your bank – No need to swap a bunch of items around before heading over to the crafting stations!
* Artificer: The recipes for Diamond Focus and Diamond Icon have been changed from consuming 8 Brilliant Diamond and 4 Jagged Lightstone; they now require 1 Brilliant Diamond and 8 Orichalcum Bars.
* Apothecary: The recipe for Mighty Intelligence Serum now requires 2 Basiliskweed Stems rather than 4.
* The Apothecary recipe, Growth Brew, now requires 1 Eternal Planar Dust and 1 Tempestflower Stem (additional Eternal Planar Dust and Gnarled Core material requirements removed). (Aurelis) That’s great and all, but I’m still not likely to craft this that much for our local ogre because the duration is just so short that he would burn through them too fast… Why can’t this last longer!
* Carmintium Spellcutter: The recipe and resulting item have both been renamed to Orichalcum Spellcutter to match the actually-required materials.
* The recipes for Tormentor’s Robe and Tormentor’s Shoulders are now Bind on Pickup.
* Fixed several crafting recipes that had a skill requirement to learn the recipe that didn’t match the skill required to craft the item.
* Expert Dungeon dropped recipes have had material requirements updated to reflect the increased power of the crafted items.

ART AND AUDIO
* Smoothed out the appearance of shadows in the distance.
* Added proper ambience sounds to caves on Ember Isle.
* Reduced the volume of steam geysers on Ember Isle around Scaldwater Fields and Wellspring Flats.
* Fixed ambient volume in Droughtlands not being correctly raised/lowered by whatever your Ambient Audio volume is set to.
* Added some visual effect improvements for the low-quality renderer.
* Mounts have more audio variety at audio and are not so silent!

UI/SETTINGS
* Right-clicking on the party pet raid frame when using Show Party As Raid mode now shows the proper right-click menu.
* Party member selection hotkeys (default F1-F5) now work properly when your party is displayed as a raid.
* Raid member UI should be a bit better with displaying the state of logged out or AFK members.
* Group leaders are now indicated in Raids.
* Fixed occasional tooltip titles getting stuck on-screen when a debuff appeared under the mouse cursor on the Raid UI.
* Set Leader, Promote Assistant, and Demote Assistant menu options are now available through the Raid UI right-click menu while in Warfronts.
* Promote Assistant and Demote Assistant menu options are now available in the right-click menu on target, party, or raid member displays.
* Fixed a bug where sometimes the LFG window would think you were in an Instant Adventure group when you were, in fact, not.
* Target tooltips now show Elite for group and raid encounter NPCs.
* Fixed a loot confirmation popup sometimes appearing if you were grouped while looting an already-owned container (like the Rift Loot bag).
* Fixed a bug causing the combat log to not show the caster of certain abilities.
* Guild Wall: Fixed the scroll-to-top reset when deleting comments.
* Guild Perk reset charges are now shown in the Guild Bank currency log.
* Your current target is now indicated by an icon on the minimap and main map. The icon will show red, yellow, or green, depending on whether the target is hostile, neutral, or friendly.
* Fixed the ‘receive item’ spam in the chat window when combining stacks between your inventory and your bank.
* Defiants should no longer appear on the Guardian tabs of a Warfront leaderboard if they joined the Warfront while you were viewing that tab.
* Fixed the Warfront UI window being blank while your character is mind controlled.
* Tracking of completed Artifact sets no longer turns off after a loading screen is displayed.
* The Artifacts tab now shows the rewards to be gained from displayed Artifact sets.
* Fixed the Artifacts tab disappearing from the character window for those crazy players who completed all Artifact sets!
* Planar Attunement experience rewards for Achievements are now shown on the Achievement UI.
* Switching Roles with the Soul Tree open will cancel any previewing of souls or soul point spending in progress that has not been saved.
* Added a new splash screen after leveling up displaying your level and soul points available. The display can be clicked on to open the Soul Tree window if you are out of combat.
* The Abilities listing in the menu tray now glows when you have untrained abilities.
* Tweaked the ability tooltips when mousing over abilities in the Soul Tree window; they now show ability stats like cooldown and mana costs in the tooltip.
* Tooltips now properly display whether an ability is a ranged or melee effect based on the ability’s use range and not general category.
* Tooltips for abilities with cooldowns now use abbreviated cooldown duration text.
* Fixed the mouse cursor not highlighting when targeting items you can salvage.
* Corrected zone event notice broadcasts to level channels for non-English language shards.
* If you get disconnected due to your shard being down, we now show a message letting you know this, instead of surprising you with a different shard’s character select screen.

What is The Raider’s Companion?

The easiest way someone may describe my new book would be to say it teaches people how to raid. To be honest, that isn’t the whole truth. That is part of it, certainly. What The Raider’s Companion truly is, is an explanation of how I’ve been able to be a successful raider and raid leader for a decade. There is a decent amount of literature out there on the nuts and bolts of how to raid. There isn’t a lot of attention paid to how to do it well. How do you take a bunch of good ideas and bring them together to build a more successful raider? That is what I tried to do in my book. I teach the fundamentals and I explain why they are fundamental instead of just saying “You have to do this.” I share the things that have worked well for me over the years and how they’ve turned into long term success. Most importantly I explain how attitude has a greater impact than anything else you can do. In short: I’m not trying to sell you a book. I’m trying to convince you to come around to my way of thinking. That is why The Raider’s Companion is useful to any raider. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been raiding one day or one year, you’ll have a different perspective after you read the book.

The Next Step

So far The Raider’s Companion has a pretty good track record. We launched a Kickstarter project that ended up over-funded. We brought in Amanda to add illustrations throughout and found a professional editor to make the manuscript shine! It helps having a far better idea of what you’re doing too! All of this culminated in a bigger, heartier, more impressive book that has, thus far, impressed the heck out of me. Of course my opinion doesn’t mean a whole lot! I wrote it. Now I have to get it out into your hands and I’ve got some ideas on how to do that! I have review copies of The Raider’s Companion available on a first come, first served basis. Anyone is eligible to receive one providing you meet one obligation: you must write a review that links to the product page shortly after receiving it. The review can be short or long. It can be good or bad. I’m not trying to influence your opinion. All I ask is that you do review it and let the world know about it! There is no better marketing than the word of a real member of the MMORPG community.

I would also be more than willing to be a guest on your podcast, do an email/phone interview, or anything else of that nature. If any of this strikes your fancy please email me! Remember, Epic Slant Press is a small business. We don’t have endless supplies of books and shipping funds! If you want one, get in early! I’ll ship it anywhere in the world. If you care enough to read the book and review it I care enough to get it to you!

Additional Information

If you’d like to know more about the book please check out the product page on Epic Slant Press. We’d also like to hear your opinion about it! Aurelis and I spent some serious time trying to put together something that made sense and spoke to what the book truly is about. You could even +1 it if you’re so inclined! On that page you’ll find a couple of samples, a FAQ, some bullet points, where to buy the book, and a nice big empty area for your review to go in! So head over to Epic Slant Press, check out The Raider’s Companion and Learn how to raid, complement your skills, and build your legacy!

The Raider’s Companion – Learn to raid, Complement your skills, Build your legacy

* KNOWN ISSUE: Augmented items are getting some incorrect positive and negative bonuses with the 1.7 version. This is being fixed and the bonuses received from Augments should be returning to 1.6 values shortly.
* KNOWN ISSUE: The Dwarven wedding ceremony is a bit rowdier than intended, and is currently PvP-flagging attendees. We’ll be fixing this asap. – I think I would have rather seen it the way it is now!

PVP
* PvP: One-handed Axes are now available for Guardians and Defiants at rank 1, 12, 25, and 36.
* Increased the amount of Valor provided by all PvP armor sets. – A reaction to the fact that damage is way too high on PTS in PvP atm.
* Added Valor to PvP set weapons. - Evidently way too high.

SOULS
* Fixed an issue causing some abilities that increase outgoing damage to combine with each other incorrectly.

CLERIC

CABALIST
* Curse of Discord: Fixed the durations on ranks 1-7.

INQUISITOR
* Clinging Spirit: Can no longer get the ability effect without points spent in it.

SENTINEL
* Empowered Light: Removed the pretty pointless ‘range’ – it’s a PBAE.

WARDEN
* Tidal Resonance: Fixed this ability not expiring correctly.

MAGE

ELEMENTALIST
* Icy Carapace: Fixed a bug causing this ability to not work correctly when cast while Elemental Forces was active.

ROGUE

MARKSMAN
* Strafe: The buff effect can no longer be purged while channeling.

WARRIOR 

BEASTMASTER
* Enraged Companion: Buff effect should no longer stick around after the pet is dismissed.

CHAMPION
* Slayer’s Bearing: Now properly works with AoE attacks.
* Removed the reduced PvP effectiveness from Soldier’s Bearing and Weapon Specialization.

PARAGON
* Force of Will: Fixed a bug causing Force of Will to not effect AoE attacks. As a result, the critical hit damage bonus of all attacks has been changed to 5-15%, down from 10-30%.
* Deadly Grace: Fixed a bug causing Deadly Grace to deal less damage than it should.
* Removed the reduced PvP effectiveness from Teaching of the Five Rings.

RIFTBLADE
* Stoneshield: No longer causes the next ability to miss; instead, the next ability used on you will deal no damage. It also no longer triggeres off of abilities the Riftblade used on themself.

ITEMS
* Several Akylios relic items now have proc effects.
* Some non-relic Akylios items have also been upgraded.
* Hammerknell trinkets have been improved slightly.
* Abyssal Soulstone: Fixed a bug causing this essence to not work properly for Warriors.
* Isle Embrosia can now be re-sold to NPCs after the buyback grace period has expired.
* Wind’s Breath: Now procs slightly less often.
* The stun effect on Gale Mirror, Torrential Mirror, Storm Mirror, Cyclonic Mirror, and Tempest Mirror (Air Rift consumables) no longer work on NPCs that are immune to stuns.
* Staff of Eruptions and Searing Obsidian Dagger have had their resell values adjusted.

CRAFTING
* The recipes for Tormentor’s Robe and Tormentor’s Shoulders are now Bind on Pickup.
* The Apothecary recipe, Growth Brew, now requires 1 Eternal Planar Dust and 1 Tempestflower Stem (additional Eternal Planar Dust and Gnarled Core material requirements removed).
* Fixed several crafting recipes that had a skill requirement to learn the recipe that didn’t match the skill required to craft the item.
* Expert Dungeon dropped recipes have had material requirements updated to reflect the increased power of the crafted items.

UI/SETTINGS
* Fixed a bug causing the combat log to not show the caster of certain abilities.

PTS FIXES
* PvP: Significantly reduced the Vengeance bonus to PvP armor and weapon sets. Endurance has been increased across all sets. - Ok so PTS PvP damage was insanely too high.
* Shaman: Lightning Hammer: Tooltip now shows the proper duration and damage after acquiring Favored of the Valnir.

Prestige Rank Overhaul

The biggest and most appropriate change is the complete rework of the prestige system. Rift currently only offers 8 PvP ranks. Each one takes a “long time” to earn (I disagree but that is the general community sentiment) and rewards are locked by those ranks. Trion has a match system to put you in games with players “close” to your rank but a rank 8 will pretty much be at a huge advantage over a rank 5. To combat all of this Rift will go from an 8 to 40 rank system. This will address the instant gratification crowd (each level requires less time even though the overall total is the same), allow rewards to be earned at a more reasonable rate, and make matching a whole lot easier.

I’m excited about this change even though it will largely not impact me. The only outcome I see is that I’ll have fewer lower-ranked people to destroy and more one-on-one comparisons will be even. I can accept that and it might actually get some of my guild mates into the warfronts. The perception of fairness is important in PvP and this change will reorient that perception to a less negative one.

The Path of War

The Path to War is a hotly debated topic on the PTS. Trion is removing the PvP souls and replacing them with a seventh planar attunement tab. The notion behind this is that investing in a PvP soul meant losing the ability to make a more traditional build. On top of that the souls were not well balanced against each other so Trion decided it is best to just let them go. This is controversial for a few reasons. The first is that there is no apples to apples change. Some PvP soul abilities that are deemed a necessity didn’t make the cut (De-Taunt, as an example, disappears). Certain passive benefits were toned down. At the same time, more passive abilities were added into the tab (think extra valor, vengeance, etc.) so a character can now achieve greater statistics than previously possible.

The final area where people take issue with this system is that the PvP PAs are shared with the regular PAs. You now have to choose whether you want to put your points in for PvP or for PvE/PvP. The argument being that “PvE” PAs help in PvP but PvP PAs do nothing in PvE. This has some PvP-focused players quite miffed. Trion does address this by giving a character a full PA level each time they gain a new rank. In the end you’ll have 3900 points which fills roughly 30-40% of the tree. Again, for some players, that isn’t enough. They want enough PA per rank to be fully maxed out when they reach rank 40 which, to me, is a poor idea.

The PvP PA tree offers more benefits than are currently achievable with a character’s PvP soul. Even if you spent 21 points in the tree you can’t get what you’d get out of a max PvP PA tab. Why then should you get the entire tab through the regular course of leveling? What would your incentive be to continue to PvP after 40? Planar Attunement represents post-max level play. You should reach rank 40 and then start working on your PA. The only issue is that grinding PA is most effective in Ember Isle through a PvE activity. I can get being upset about that. Trion addresses this too, however, by allowing you to exchange Favor for experience in this patch. As long as the rate of PA gained through PvP is similar to that of PvE I don’t see the issue. Some people just don’t want to work for their rewards I guess.

Item Improvements for Everyone

Trion is trying to make PvP less of a “I have better gear so you’re dead” experience. Any rank 4 that ever had to deal with an unmatched game knows your statistical chance of killing a rank 8 was about zero. Sure, it happened sometimes, but most of the time you just got stomped. To alleviate this there are now only going to be three PvP sets instead of four. They are also no longer gated by rank. If you earn enough favor to buy your piece you can go for it. The statistics have also been adjusted slightly so that the top gear isn’t as huge a jump as it currently is.

In some ways I’m sad about this. Earning your PvP gear was a rite of passage. You took your lumps (until the matching system came in) and bought your pieces and eventually started to compete. With the matching system I don’t see a real need for this change. With 40 ranks we simply should not see a rank 4 equivalent going up against a rank 8 anymore. That said, it isn’t a bad change. If the patch releases before I hit rank 8 I’ll be able to buy some pieces that were previously unavailable to me.

Bolstering

To make the gear change seem even less necessary Trion is also adding bolstering to Rift PvP.

Bolstering simply pumps up your stats to the minimum recommended for PvP. In the event one of your stats is higher than the bolstered value already then it uses that instead. Bolstering will adjust most of your core stats, including Valor. Once you have reach rank 13 you should have the appropriate amount of Favor to purchase a full set and will no longer be bolstered.

In short, until you reach rank 13, you basically don’t need PvP gear. I believe this is what is done to make up for the removal of the rank 1/2 set. I think it is a good idea. Your first PvP experience shouldn’t involve some jerk in a warfront blowing you up in two seconds. It isn’t fun and gives a bad perception of how the whole system works. I think this will bring more players into the warfronts.

Mercenaries

Quite possibly the greatest change coming in 1.7. I am not a fan of the “two factions” MMORPG. I believe it is a long dead mechanic that has no place in a game that doesn’t focus on RvR combat. Even a PvP-focused MMORPG doesn’t need factions. Mercenaries reduces the inane and illogical black-and-white separation of the Guardian and Defiant.

The Mercenary system seeks to slash queue times by queuing some players and groups as mercenaries – this designates you as a team mate of the opposite faction as a sword for hire, you’ll receive a Mercenary buff and on-screen callout. Expect to see shorter waits between warfronts and while we realize it might be hard to not kill the dwarfs, remember: they could be on your side now!

There is nothing bad about this system. Shorter queues, less “us vs them” mentality, and more of a “this is a sport, not a death match” feel. I’m not a roleplayer in MMORPGs, I admit that. This may be upsetting to those people but at the end of the day anything that lets you play more and wait less is a good thing. I look forward to this system being expanded to the Looking for Dungeon tool.

Other Changes

There are some other things that have been talked about in patch 1.7 but didn’t seem to make the focused test. One of them is that there can only be one PvP rift up at a time and the winner of it will earn a faction-wide buff. I think this is a bad idea but don’t think the benefit is enough to worry about. With server populations wildly unequal one side will ultimately come to dominate and basically have the buff up constantly. I think instead of trying to lure players into PvP Rifts with rewards Trion should address the main issue: they’re not fun. If PvP Rifts were more fun and engaging people would participate more. Nobody wants to run stones to pads and be ganked. It is far easier for the attacker than the defender. That is precisely why players across all servers level up alts on the opposing faction, open the PvP rift with that character, and then log to their main to kill it. This change does not address that concern.

Damage has also been drastically increased in PvP to the point where players are calling out about it. As of right now everything seems to be a three shot shootout. I’m not a fan of this kind of play and I hope damage comes down significantly.

Beyond those changes everyone will now get Break Free at level 1. That is good and will be useful in PvE as well. There is a lot going on in this patch and I’m excited about it. I just hope Trion gives it enough time to properly simmer and be perfectly cooked when it is served!

Evidently you can propose a project and if enough people sign off on it Lego will seriously consider turning it into a real set! Seriously, I know where I’ll be spending my web time for a while! Why not play some Lego Minecraft: http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/4038

I imagine there isn’t a huge market for Ferrel the Lego person but still, I can dream!

Zeke over at Iron Man Mode is running a drive right now and asked if Epic Slant Press could help out. We of course said yes. If you’re planning your 2012 charitable donations why not consider Child’s Play? This drive will be running until March 20th and you can donate through the Iron Man Mode site.