any thoughts on my question?

Krby, I think your laptop will be fine. My C2D w/ GeForce 9600 MT does just fine.

curious as to why you grabbed the armor increase over the increased dot dmg with planar attunement in the reaver line Givin, the 10% increase to all dots especially soul sickness along with Elemental increase from rift line has my soul sickness doing shitload more dmg and then ie more heals, same thing for MoA

I've done 3 dungeons now and my opinion is mixed.

IT: Well done. Graphics look great. Encounters are about right for the first dungeon.

DSM: Eh.. graphics are impressive. The last fight is way overtuned but doable if people listen and follow directions.

FC: Cool at first, but kind of boring to be honest. My least favorite so far.

Haven't done FC yet, but totally agree w/ IT and DSM. Found IT very fun, with different challenges that I hadn't expected.

The higher you go in riftblade the less % of your overall damage will be death based. And, 10 percent increase to 3 dots for 5 talent points is a pretty expensive investment. Unless it works on Flameburst, which I guess you could make an argument for it then. The 5% damage decrease stacks with Avatar of Water however, and shit starts hitting like trucks about level 35 or so.

EDIT:
Actually, after looking at the reaver tree again, I may go all the way up to Creeping Death because even at a 2 min cooldown, it's such a crazy ability, especially for PvP battlegrounds like Whitefall Steppes where you constantly face giant groups at once.

I think the game gets better the deeper you get into it. If the honeymoon is over the early, my opinion is you went into without giving it a chance from level 1. That or you are just hooked on something else (i.e. EQ, WoW, etc.) and the time vested out weighs new time to invest.

This game has a lot to offer the weary MMO gamer that has floated from game to game with boredom and lackluster experiences.

I'm really curious to see what Rift has to offer about 3 months from now and closer to a year from now. To me that will reveal much more about the longevity of this game and just how much it will retain in terms of interest.

Hey Muligan can you guys throw a few BGs here and there? I got PvP quests building up in my log I can't complete cause we can't win anything

Are the queue times better now? I'm thinking of picking this up today or tomorrow.

I haven't had a queue to log in to Belmont in a few days. I think the last time I had a queue it was like six minutes.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Yeah, queues are basically gone.

Waring, what level are you? I was doing well then kinda dropped back in levelling to a different group of participants and started losing constantly and so I took a couple of days and played an alt and now I'm winning fairly often again. Are you maybe with the group that just sucks, is afraid to die, won't pay attention to the objective, and just go for kills?

Yea I had a streak there where we went like 0 for 20 and couldn't win a damn one, mostly in Codex. Yesterday I dove in a few and won 4/5. I'm level 35.

I can't do it Waring... haha. You guys handed it to us when I first got into T2 Warfronts. We are now kicking the crap out of everyone. Eating favor and completing quests like nothing.

Can't wait for Scarlet Gorge and some open world PvP but we'll see you guys in T3. I'm leveling two characters at the moment.

Muligan - Cleric
Fletchin - Rogue (Ranger)

I don't Facebook, who should we send tells to on Belmont? I'm on there with my bro and a few folks from FL days.

Look for Leo, that's who tagged me.

_________________

World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

I think most of us can add players. Leolan, Joxur, Dalanthas, etc... we seem to be on the most.

Are you Sarissa on Belmont? I saw you near Perspice last week and wondered.

Yeah just about anyone online should have the ability to invite to our guild. The invite command is /ginvte name

Yup yup, Sarissa is my mage on Belmont. Got Sidney and a few others playing as well.

Well its been a fun ride so far. We powered our way to 50 with the guild, started all the T1/T2's and then even though we had 30+ geared 50's before another guild could field more then 6 we decided to wait before we jumped into raiding so the other 30+ people could reach 50 and be evaluated. Needless to say it was annoying but we finally are raiding and I am fairly impressed with the content.

We downed the first 3 bosses fairly easy and started off tonight with a one shot of Prince Hylas (our first kill, took a full day of wipes to learn and execute it). Spent the rest of the night learning the last dragon of the raid instance and he definitely is a fairly interesting fight. Got him to 30% on our last pull after we realized Rogue tanks > warrior tanks for the fight so hoping to finish him off tomorrow. Raid gear is nice but I really was hoping for a few unqiue aspects to it like some fun proc's or things of that nature. + stats just gets old quick.

For those that haven't got into T2's yet, they are some of the better instant content I've played and provide a fair amount of challenge without relying on just dumb RNG luck in most cases. Even after mastering them you still need to be on your toes on a few. Skarn in DSM is a PUG killer, not too many people are going to get past him in his current state without stacking the group makeup in a very specific manner. My biggest suggestion is using a chloro to cover ground phase healing and a shamicar to cover the air phase.

All and all RIFT is definitely a good balance between accessible and hardcore in my mind. They don't cater nearly as much as WOW does to the casual crowd but they also give enough rope that a casual has plenty to do and has some content to keep them busy.

I play a mage and recently have been moved to raid MT healer on my chloromancer. I run 35 chloro/31 warlock which is by far the best healing throughput build I can come up with. The healing output is amazing at the moment with chloro's, I double up almost any other cleric/bard. I also run a pyro/warlock dps mage for fights we don't need much healing for (2nd GS boss) and its fairly lack luster. Sure spike dps is great for fights you need to burn things fast with 1600-2000 spike dps but all and all sab's and broken BM warriors tend to lead most our dps charts by a large margin (1100+ warriors when I was pulling like 650-700 on a good day).

Things will change in patch 1.1....for one raids are going to fucking suck with the reduction in AE healing basically across the board. If you haven't had the chance to do Prince yet, picture raid wide AE hitting for 4.3k plus a 1k dot that is applied not to mention environmental hazards such as red circle bombs and polymorphs. Oh on top of that 3 different mobs being tanked and killed (not just weak adds). I just don't see how anyone but the best of the best is going to be able to do Prince with the healing reductions unless they drastically change his enrage timer. Oh well, mages are getting a nice buff in general so I'm looking forward to raping the scrub rogues that facerolled to meet or exceed the top mage dps pre 1.1

PVP....fuck it. So much to do just with daily factions, T2 runs and crafting that I haven't even jumped into a pvp fight since week 1. Hhug's a top notch pvp'r from WOW and I know he says its pretty garbage compared to WOW from a skill level.

Outside of VG, which i know some of you dick wranglers never truly appreciated, RIFT definitely has delivered the most enjoyment for me since EQ1. I'd say the honey moon phase is nearing towards completion so we will see how I feel in 3-6 months but with new content already on the way, a massive 20 man instance just down the road and plenty of things that take some good old fashion grinding....I think I am going to be fairly happy in the long run.

Having a good guild is definitely the key to early enjoyment of the game, some of the instances at 50 are just down right too hard for your typical pug, especially when you have idiots running stupid spec's. Our latest challenge has been trying to run some of the T2's with only me healing and no support healer which makes for extremely fast clears but a non-stop roller coaster ride.

Oh forgot to mention money....if you are one of the first crafters of a demanded item you can become rich but the random crafter plaque shit can kiss my ass. I was the 2nd runecrafter to 300 and a day later hit 300 on my potion maker. I've been doing dailys every single day with many days bugging and giving me double masters for each and I have only got ONE FUCKING PLAQUE (yes thats some nerd rage there). A guildie has done half the dailies as myself and has 7....RNG or karma fucked me. Luckily I got a lot of the rune recipes in the T1/T2's before anyone else and I've been making a steady income off +13 int runes which for whatever reason only 2 other people can make (or at least sell) on the server. I spent most my plat on mat's to make raid potions for the guild and training all my souls but I am already back up to 350 plat just from selling runes primarily over the last week or so.

If anyone is starting the game out new and looking for a server we are on shatterbone, defiant side with BOTS. I'll gladly spot you a few plat and provide any advice that I can give. Turbo is name ingame, hhug and finlana are also on there as well.

Sounds promising, Turbo. Wish y'all were with us on Belmont, but it's a much more casual crowd. We only have a handful of 50s so far and are just getting to the point where some of us are starting T2s.

I can confirm mage healing is really nice. Just doing T1s PUGs here but the difference between a mage backing me up and a bard is night and day. I'm speced as a cleric 34 purf / 32 sent.

Did my first T1 last night and had to go healing on my cleric to help the chloro mage out, he couldn't keep people up. Must have been a bad mage.

I knew Turbo would show up here somewhere! Finally... Thanks for the laid-out, in-depth, thoughtful post on the game =)

I feel like I know more about it than from the last 4+ pages combined.

Still sad to hear about the PVP, but unsurprised =/ I'd take Hhug's word for it as well, especially from the level of skill I saw from him in VG. Keep on rockin' worlds, Turb =)

Oh one funny note....for those of you that know who the Goon Squad is, apparently some where in alpha and identified some of the top end guilds that were going to be playing in RIFT and who their Guild Leader's were. When the game launched they went out to all the top guild's servers that the guilds announced and took all the fucking names of the GM's. My guild leader had his 2 names of his main/alt both taken. Same went with 5 or 6 other major guilds.

Some people's kids....

nice

Anybody raiding PvE guardian side? Or have room in a static that I can reroll into? All my bros either don't have time or have quit thus far and I'm about to wrap up a 9 week film project/shoot and get my social life back so I can waste it on MMORPGs again.

Also tell me what class I should play because holy fuck did 1.1 almost destroy every warrior spec I liked.

If you reroll I'd say give rogue a try if you haven't Givin. My brother is a rogue and still parses top 1-3 in dps in raids even after sab nerfs and better yet we are starting to use him as MT for some of the critical fights. We use him for Lord Greenscale since rogues ability to take damage is definitely better at this point in most situations. Most top end guilds are using Riftstalkers as MT's in key fights.

Granted I am sure they will eventually nerf from too many warriors bitching but so far they haven't done anything to hurt them. Best of all the average rogue SUCKS at tanking and gearing them takes some work and dedication so if you put the time in your unique compared to dime a dozen warriors. Armor sucks since itemization is poor but good news is accessories/essences all have plenty of rogue tank oriented items so you get to gear up a lot faster in those slots since your the only one that needs. Hhug picked up 2 greenscale loots and 4 rift raid loots in 2 nights since he is our only rogue tank.

Also we finally took the time to go back and do some raid rifts after getting the initial server firsts and wow...any one in a guild just starting to raid Greenscale should go spend 4-5 days doing nothing but raid rifts. The boost in dps/hp from all the essences is much higher from essence upgrades then from T2 to Greenscale gear (outside of weapons). Also some almost GS quality armor drops plus you get to buy additional essences for inscribed stones (10). Air are probably best to start as its fairly easy and most the items focus on + crit which is typically best for your dps classes.

champ beastmaster builds are still parsing over 950 dps so its not broken per say. Just not doing the 1100+ dps it was pre 1.1.

_________________

Come to the dark side, Givin. Join us on Belmont as a Defiant.

By the time you level to 50, we'll be starting raids, I reckon.

You guys having a fun time in ROS/GS?

We had hit a bit of a road block on Greenscale on the last phase and chose not to exploit him like half the guilds that have actually killed him (you can get him stuck in the air phase which makes the fight a joke).

Finally downed him, lost like 1 person the whole fight after weeks of beating our heads on the wall lol. I've went 3 weeks without a damn raid loot hoping i would get the relic staff to drop and we get the stupid rogue weapon.

ROS fights are interesting and trash is fairly challenging for the first time through. We downed the 3 foci and warmaster so far, had Pluto to 9% I think so he should die tomorrow.

Rift patch notes keep my thinking that even thought trion makes stupid mistakes and knee jerk reactions like other company's they still are fairly focused on delivering constant upgrades to their product and strive towards balance. It's no WOW killer but still managing to keep me logging in 4 hrs a night 5 days a week just for raids so I can't complain. I know I will never go back to WOW without a gun to my head and VG is dead so this is as good as its going to get heh.

If anyone is stuck on any of the raid content and can't get a clean idea on the strat off the web feel free to ask.

Here's your 1.2 patch notes, due up to release the 10th of May.

TS 1.2 4/22/11

GENERAL GAMEPLAY
* Those who managed to sneak behind enemy lines and complete the introductory artifact collections inside Meridian or Sanctum now have a special reward coming their way!
* To make Artifact set collecting more fun for more Artifact hunters, rarity rates have been tuned to be less extreme between common and rare Artifacts. We'll be keeping an eye on this through future updates to see if the rates need another boost.
* Artifacts for the Guardian version of the introduction quest for artifact hunting no longer have a sell value.
* Markers for completed quests will now always appear on the main map regardless of whether they are currently being tracked in quest stickies.
* 'Discover' quest objectives will no longer increment while a character is dead.
* Characters can no longer accumulate multiple daily quests from the same 'group' in their quest journals.
* For quests requiring you to kill level-appropriate targets, tooltips for mobs of too low level will no longer indicate that they will count for the quest.
* Reduced Auction House deposit prices by about 25%.
* You now receive an alert message when reaching a currency cap on your character (ex: Planarite).
* New clothier NPCs have appeared in Meridian and Sanctum following the rise in numbers of fashionable Ascended.
* You may now purchase a 5th role at your Calling trainer!

SLIVERS
* As we all know, Telara’s universe is comprised of a myriad of planes and realities that all intersect with each other and with Telara at seemingly random angles and times.
* A “Sliver” is a place where a thin slice of another reality can be seen intersecting with our Telara.
* Some of these slivers are places where planar conflicts may have already been won or lost. Help set things right in other realities, or protect our own from their influence!
* The Planar Goods merchants in Meridian and Sanctum now sell the ascended power to view slivers - Omen Sight for Guardians and Quantum Sight for Defiants.
* These new abilities allow you to see things others might not be able to see, and potentially lead to the discovery of the entrance to Gilded Sanctum, a raid instance intended for 10 players.


WARDROBE SLOTS
* Wardrobe slots are now available for you to customize your character's look!
* All characters have access to the first wardrobe set (all armor slots) at level 1.
* Additional purchaseable wardrobe sets will allow you to save and swap multiple outfits quickly.
* You can only equip armor in wardrobe slots of the appropriate type for your calling - Plate for Warriors, Leather for Rogues, etc.
* Additional clothing items will be available in the future, including from new Clothier vendors in Sanctum and Meridian.



CRAFTING RIFTS
* Lures for Crafting Rifts and are obtained by completing the new weekly crafting quests in addition to the tradeskill-specific Plaque the quest awards.
* These Rifts drop raw materials, Augments, and other goodies for crafters.
* Reaching the final stages gives a chance of obtaining an additional plaque!
* Crafting Rift lures open a Rift of appropriate level for the zone. In addition, materials awarded are also based on the zone level where the Rift is opened.
* All levels of crafting Rifts give a chance for an additional plaque from the bonus stages, even below your character level.
* Bring your friends and spread the wealth!


ROLE/CALLING DISPLAY
* Shifted from 5 different Combat Role colors to using a combination of Combat Role icons and Calling name colors.
* Callings use the following colors: Red - Warrior, Purple - Mage, Green - Cleric, Yellow - Rogue.
* An icon is displayed to the left of the player's name to indicate their Combat Role.
* Defensive/Tank - Shield icon, Damage - Sword icon, Healer - Cross icon, Support - Flag icon.
* These indicators now also appear on search results and Warfront leaderboards.


RIFTS AND INVASIONS
* Increased the rate of major zone events - the type that drop purple zone currencies.
* Gear from Expert Rifts has been increased in power. Existing items will be updated automatically.
* NEW EXPERT RIFT: The Expert Earth Rift ‘Auricore Forerunners’ is now available!
* NEW RAID RIFTS: The Raid Rifts ‘The Golden King’ and ‘Drakith Hatchery’ are now available!


ANCIENT WARDSTONES
* Ancient Wardstones should no longer disappear mysteriously.
* Ancient Wardstones now have their own tooltip type with related information displayed on mouseover.
* Ancient Wardstones are now shown on the main map when controlled by one of the factions.
* During zone events, Neutral Wardstones now take reduced damage, much like Defiant and Guardian wardstones do.
* Invaders attacking the Ancient Wardstone in Howling Plateau of Scarwood Reach will no longer travel through Scarlet Gorge to get there.


GUILD PERKS
* Planar Protection: Fixed a typo in the tooltip for this perk.
* Recall Scrolls should continue to count down their reuse time while you are logged out.


GUILD QUESTS
* Guild quests requiring you to kill a number of monsters from rifts now require that your target be green, but no longer require an overall minimum mob level for guild level 10 quests or below.
* New weekly harvesting guild quests are available from Horace Shoe in Meridian, and Cardinal Gladewillow in Sanctum. These are taken and completed as an individual, but reward your guild.
* More standard guild quests have been added to the mix!
* Player-kill objective PvP quests now require more updates in general.
* Warfront PvP quests now update more consistently.


CULT SAGA
* Forces of the Plane of Death: Updated the quest text to indicate that participation in the Rift is required to receive credit.
* The Means of the Endless: Towers should give more time between waves, and mobs will despawn after wipes.
* Cutting Off Communications and Tombs of Old can now be updated through the Expert version of the appropriate dungeon.
* A Family Affair: The aura detector can now be used again on Jiles Newkosa if you fail to kill him the first time.
* Powers of Life and Air: Now requires only Honored notoriety.
* Securing Source: Now asks a bit more than just running the Deepstrike Mines dungeon.


COMBAT
* Autoattacks now resume more quickly after performing abilities.
* Reactive Abilities now check if an effect comes from your character or your pet, which allows abilities like 'Flesh Rip' to appear correctly.
* Scorpion and Ranged Spider-type (yikes) mobs: Skittish: Reduced from a 25% Dodge bonus to a 10% Dodge bonus.
* Fixed a bug where the Battleworn debuff didn't prevent NPCs from regenerating health outside of combat.
* NPC Assassins: Malicious Strike ability for these NPCs now deals damage and snares the target by 30%.
* NPC Assassins: These NPCs no longer use Paralyzing Strike when attacking from stealth. They now use an NPC version of Assassinate instead.
* Basilisks' Toxic Discharge, Scarab's Septic Wound: These NPC abilities are now properly cleansable as Diseases.


SOULS
* PvP Souls: Break Free: In addition to cancelling crowd control and movement impairing effects, Break Free now grants 5 seconds of immunity after being activated.
* Reaver, Void Knight, Paladin, Warlord: Fixed a bug causing AoE taunts to only trigger an 8 second cooldown with each other rather than the full shared 1-minute cooldown.



ZONES
* Zone bosses spawned by Ancient Wardstones in Scarlet Gorge, Scarwood Reach, and Droughtlands now display on the main map.

DROUGHTLANDS
* The talking Raptors around Redoubt no longer have say text on aggro. Clever girls.
* You can no longer mount in the upper levels of Lantern Hook.
* Battle Royale: Gave the Arcane forces a bit more survivability.
* In the Name of Lantern Hook: The first quest objective now shares updates with a group.
* Scout and about : Adjusted map indicators.
* Clearing the Rest: Added map indicators to help with finding the Fleshrend Centaurs.
* In the Name of Lantern Hook: Updated quest text to better indicate that using the Standard is what summons Mongrok.
* Thwarting the Emberlord: Fixed an issue that could cause Morkael to get into a broken state. Also corrected the display of the sword-type quest reward to not look like an axe.
* Back to the Pit: Quest rewards corrected!
* Carrion's Song: Increased Carrion's respawn rate. The Flightsong ability now lasts twice as long, though it reduces Carrion's damage output by 50% rather than 75%. Flightsong still hits Carrion like a truck. Reduced Carrion's level from 43 to 42 to match the quest level.
* Words of the Damned: Added some visuals for being teleported around Redoubt Tower.
* NPCs at Brigand's Bluff and Fallback now have levels appropriate to the surrounding content.
* Stormbrood Lair: Mob population now responds better to the level of player activity in the area.
* Hook and Crook, Grab and Go: You should now be able to continue on a scavenger hunt regardless of whether a new one has started.
* The Biggest Void: Reduced the amount of mana taken and damage done by Netharius' Life Glutton ability. Netharius and his Summoned Nethers now deal less damage, and the Summoned Nethers have slightly less health.
* The Full Rundown, On the Hoof: The tooltip for Whirl of Speed now displays the correct duration of 6 seconds.

FREEMARCH
* Uncanny Box: Fixed an issue that could cause players to teleport to another tower in the Iron Fortress.
* Trial of Combat: Sir Olgedon should no longer be able to enter a broken state after being defeated in combat.

IRON PINE PEAKS
* A new zone event has been added to Iron Pine Peaks! Planar Chill - hold the Icewatch Bulwarks to defeat the forces of Crucia!
* Frozen Gauntlet: Visually improved and optimized this daily quest. Also made it update properly for all members of a group.
* You can now turn in Iron Pine Peak event dailies even when the corresponding event isn't running.
* Shipment Triangulation: Fixed the icon for the Locator Device.
* Bitter Winds: Fixed some rare cases that could cause this quest to stop working.
* Redsnow Bodyguards no longer get so confused over who is Defiant or Guardian.
* Consequences of Neglect: You can now progress past the second objective of this quest.
* A Gathering Storm: Added map markers to the second and third kill objectives.
* An Unbearable Burden: Fixed several issues with the debuff applied during this quest.
* Defiants that die near Choke Water no longer respawn at the Guardian resurrection point there.
* Jengri Blackfoot can no longer be helped repeatedly by Savik and Kric.
* Moved a few artifacts that were impossible to reach or iced over.

MERIDIAN
* Garad Nallam, the primary planar merchant in Meridian, now has the appropriate 'Planar Goods' merchant title.

MOONSHADE HIGHLANDS
* Added a porticulum to Reclaimer's Hold.
* Honor Them: Quest now grants updates for the entire group.
* Mistfall Monsters: This quest now has map locators for both objectives.
* Memories of the Past: Fixed incorrect tagging mobs for corpse scanning.
* Wild Element: Fixed an issue causing Bound Sobeks to incorrectly grant credit for this quest.
* Tormented Minds: Fixed Veiled Nightmares not being attacked by guards.
* The Key to it All: This quest now gives more accurate instructions.
* The Relics of Bahralt: Abyssal Thieves should no longer mount more than one ambush in each location.
* A Holy Remedy: Fixed an issue that caused a few of the Sickly Dwarves to be incurable on this quest.
* Death's Embrace: Sped up the respawn of Abyssal Focusers.
* His People's Shield: Updated quest visuals to have a physical form for those with lower settings who can't see the visual effects.

SANCTUM
* Assassination attempts have become so frequent that they no longer stun Cyril. Cyril, Borrin, and Shyla now have boss-style immunities, including against interrupts.
* Quartermaster Melke, the primary planar merchant in Sanctum, now has the appropriate 'Planar Goods' merchant title.

SCARLET GORGE
* The Living and the Dead: The Uythradge Eye will now dismount players.
* Spared Parts: Reduced the respawn time of Elemoil.
* Broke Down Bahlmus, Spared Parts: The modified DX-27 will now drop the Carmintium Belt for all party members.
* An Unlikely Initiate: Fixed an issue that could cause Agogag's cage door to close instead of open.
* Strange Brew: Noxious Fumes debuff is now less obnoxious. It shouldn't get stuck on you.
* Crushing the Constructs: Increased respawn rate of quest targets and flagged additional mobs in the area to count toward this quest.
* Rift: Basilisk Den: This rift should no longer claim to be 'Minor' when it's really full of super strong creatures.

SCARWOOD REACH
* Added a respawn point, resurrection NPC, and Healer just outside of Trollblight Caverns to alleviate rage caused by dying in the cave and having to run back from Perspice.
* The undead population of Granitewood Crossing should be a little less punishing.
* An Innocent Condemned: The Cage Key can now be looted by all members of a group.
* Proof of Concept: Now with 100% more Reliquary sealability.
* Recovering the Unknown: Fixed map marker to show actual quest objective area.
* Can You Hustle?: Quest objectives no longer require you to complete them sequentially.
* Honest When Dead: Fixed missing map marker.
* Wrongfully Buried: Elysia Raymund now offers this quest only to Defiants.
* Rift: Eaters of the Dead: The Flesh Mound for this event should no longer fail to spawn.
* Rift: In the Ground: Elite mobs should no longer spawn throughout this entire Rift.
* Draylo Fuzzchin's supply of Greater and Mighty Mana Potions has finally run out.
* Risen Channelers in Granitewood Crossing no longer have a knockback attack and had their damage output reduced by 20%.

SHIMMERSAND
* Foiled Plans: Players in Hazeed's Cave waiting to take on Hazeed will no longer be teleported out when another player defeats him.
* Miracle of Modern Magic: The quest marker for Fibrous Reeds should show a more accurate area.
* Pillaged Goods: This quest now requires only 7 Confiscated Sourcestones instead of 10.
* Turn the Hourglass: Quest objective should now increment more reliably.
* Foiled Plans: Fixed a rare issue where the Enthralled Stonemaw would fail to die during this quest.
* Making a Deal: This quest now displays a map locator for both objectives.
* Assistance from the Dead: You can now re-awaken mobs for this quest if your initial target is killed by someone else.
* Ritual Rescue: Fixed this quest for Dragonslayer Covenant dailies.
* The bridge in Gildstone Sanctum can now be crossed after completing the quests 'The Prize and the Power' and 'Strike the Earth'.
* The Pulsing Grit buff can no longer be purged from Akala's minions.
* Sandstone Brutes in Gnawbone Valley will no longer hide in walls.
* Players running the Low Quality Renderer should find it much easier to complete the Shimmersand Puzzle.
* A Crafter's Lament: Quest now grants credit to all members of a group.
* The Inmate Disguise will now display on the quest sticky for the following quests in the Flatyard: Slither the Voice, Welcome to the Yard, A Man Who Can Get Things, The Mastermind, Loose Ends, and Final Preparations.
The Kobold members of The Wanton in Firesand Desert now drop Ritual Firebrands.
* Removed the prerequisite quest for Ritual Firebrands.
* Zone Event: Wind and Wings: Corrected the progress text.
SILVERWOOD
* The Vigil's Shield: Tweaked the mechanics of this quest slightly for playability.
* Lord of the Fae: Makirn will not respawn so quickly if there is no one nearby on the quest.

STILLMOOR
* A new zone event has been added to Stillmoor! An Eye for an Eye - gather shadestone to summon your own champion in order to defeat Gogalab the Pox Bringer!
* Ruston is now a potential invasion location for Defiant invaders.
* Stillmoor got a bit less stingy - daily quests now award notoriety comparable to other end-game zones.
* Guardian players that were eligible but did not receive the Marshal Kain storyline rewards (a Necrotic Semblance or Necrotic Rage essence) should seek out Sergeant Coda at Thalin Tor.
* Abominable Reconnaissance: Removed the use time on manifests to make them a bit easier to click on while also fending off abominations.
* Master and Wolf: Improved respawn time of quest targets.
* Following the Light/The Light that Leads: The Retreating Instincts ability now makes the targeted wisp unattackable. Additionally, the polymorph it puts on your character can now be clicked off.
* In a Quiet Place/Where the Dead Rest: Fixed an issue that could cause the Obrivic Sentinel to not return to his original location after being kited away, or remaining hostile to players.
* Dark Discoveries: Increased the drop rates on the Abominations slightly.
* Dirty Job: Adjusted the visual effects that appear when near the Blessed Weapons so they are more visible and last longer.
* Sniffing Them Out: Coyotes should now properly spawn when requested.
* The Past: Added more clues and adjusted the location of existing clues to make this quest easier. Added another Cooking Fire nearer to Tigram Stillstep for luring Gunder away. Spawn rate of Stillstep Lackeys reduced.
* Drugon Khaliknos now respawns more quickly.
* The Hunt Rages On: The named mobs for this quest now respawn much more quickly.
* The Big Three, The Dead Ringers: Reduced respawn times on targets of these quests.
* Decreased respawn times on some daily quest targets in Stillmoor.
* The Endless Citadel should be slightly easier to fight through - especially for those who use mana to dispatch their enemies.

STONEFIELD
* Taking the Trog for a Walk: Goorn should now properly reset when a player abandons this quest.
* The Smoldering Tormentors of Rock Ridge have grown more numerous!
* The Last Valley: Centius respawns more quickly.
* Stealing Glory: Only players on this quest should receive Soul Essence.
* Extra Strength Relief: The Fluid Injector now dismounts players at the start of use.
* Gnarvul, Questing Overseer, and XT-300 have now been sighted by reliable sources in Stonefield.


DUNGEONS AND RAIDS
* If players log out while in a raid, as long as one member is still actively online the raid will be kept and offline members shown as Disconnected.
* The health of general population mobs in Expert Dungeons has been reduced.
* Greenscale's Blight and River of Souls now have closer respawn locations.
* Many bosses have had a pass done to bring them in line with their intended difficulty, and to make them more fun for melee damage characters in general. In a number of cases, some encounters were more challenging than intended. These changes should also help with forming appropriately matched groups through the upcoming Looking for Group system.

ABYSSAL PRECIPICE
* Kaler Andrenos: Kaler's Ice Geyser now deals Water damage.
* Expert: Calyx now resets if pulled off of his platform. A blocking wall is also activated at the start of the encounter.
* Expert: Renthar should be less likely to chain high damage abilities on a single target.

CHARMER'S CALDERA
* Gronik: Slightly reduced the amount of power Gronik gains over time.
* Cyclorax now uses mana.
* Expert: Adjusted the encounter space around Ryka Dharvos so the lasers can't be so easily avoided.

DARKENING DEEPS
* Expert: Glubmuk's Poison Bolt should not hit characters fewer than 6 meters from him.
* Expert: Scarn's Wind Buffet no longer ignites smoldering bones.
* Scarn's Smoldering Bones stay on fire longer.
* Incinerator Gerbik now uses mana.
* Non-boss NPCs in Darkening Deeps no longer count toward quests requiring dungeon boss kills.

DEEPSTRIKE MINES
* Kaleida: Reduced the radius of her crystals' AoEs substantially.

THE FALL OF LANTERN HOOK
* Oludare: Fixed the targeting method used by Oludare so he won't turn to face a new target while cleaving or rear-kicking (in the face).

FOUL CASCADE
* Expert: Sparkwing learns to use his ranged abilities. It's super-effective.

GREENSCALE'S BLIGHT [Raid]
* A number of new Relic quality weapons have been added to Greenscale.
* Prince Hylas: Slightly reduced the absorption amount of Spiritual Barrier.
* Prince Hylas: Modified the amount of damage increased by Avenging Wrath.

IRON TOMBS
* Expert: Players immune to knockback will no longer be immune to Totek's Ancient Fury.
* Expert: Bonelord Fetlorn's Boiling Marrow no longer affects pets.
* Guardians now respawn next to the Messenger of the Vigil.

KING'S BREACH
* Expert: General mob populations have been reduced by a few pulls.
* Expert: Immunity to knockback no longer prevents damage from Konstantin's spikes.
* Expert: Konstantin's Cleaving Strike now has a proper effect radius.
* Expert: Konstantin's Mathosian Fury displays an on-screen warning before use.
* Expert: Players within 3.5 meters of Konstantin receive a 20% damage bonus.

REALM OF THE FAE
* Expert: General mob populations have been reduced by a few pulls.
* Chillblains: Fixed the targeting on the Elemental spawn, which was not working reliably.
* Luddoghan: Made some adjustments to prevent his ground goo from targeting the tank.

RUNIC DESCENT
* Rictus: Adjusted how Rictus uses his abilities and reduced some of the associated stuns and stun durations.
* Expert: There is now a text warning when Eliam gains Dark Fury.


ITEMS
* Greater Essences that can be equipped simultaneously now stack properly with each other. Previously, a few cases of matching elemental type Greater Essences would sometimes conflict. Now, if you can equip both in the same Focus, you receive the benefits and effects of both Essences.
* Unique-Equip Families have been removed from most Greater Essences; you should now be able to equip any Greater Essences together. Planar Lenses still share a unique-equip family (you can only have one Lens equipped at a time).
* Added description text to the Lute and Flute artifact merchant items.
* Strength-type random essence containers should no longer give out underleveled essences.
* Cult Saga quest reward helms for Mages and Clerics have their Hit replaced with Focus.
* The Pyroblade from Fall of Lantern Hook is now a bind on pickup item.
* Royal Ruby Charm: Melee Critical Hit is now Spell Critical Hit on this item.
* Sandwarden's Robe: Changed Spell Critical Hit to Spell Power on this item to differentiate it from Robe of the Last Ritual.
* Whip-Worn Britches are now called Whip-Worn Boots and should have the correct appearance when worn.
* Petrifying Rune: The root proc effect now breaks on damage.
* A number of mysterious items no longer drop with no apparent use (Diviner's Frond, Sublimated Stone, etc). They may make a reappearance someday!
* Scotty's Research Papers are no longer Soulbound and have an appropriate sell price.
* The Rare Essences, 'Marching Flood' and 'Battle Tide' are no longer Soulbound when acquired.
* The ability on Divine Defender will now trigger properly, instead of not at all.
* Warmaster's Hammer: Spell Critical Hit removed and replaced with more Parry.
* Totem of Overgrowth: Healing from this item now correctly displays in the combat log.
* Titan's Eternal Band now properly has Focus instead of Hit.
* Martyr's Fist now has a chance to deal an additional 90 Life damage, instead of claiming to restore mana - which it never did.
* The Crystallized Fire Elemental essence sold in Fortune's Shore has been removed and replaced with a new Greater Essence. Existing Crystallized Fire Elemental essences will not be changed.
* The effects of Sacred Heirloom of Eth and Totem of Overgrowth have had their chance of triggering with Area Effect abilities decreased, and their chance of triggering on single target abilities increased. These also now only trigger from the first tick of a heal over time spell.
* Lich-Skin Jerkin and Battlemaster's Jerkin can now be sold to vendors.
* Wand of Charred Earth: Changed Melee Critical hit to Spell Critical hit.
* Night Leather Jerkin now has Attack Power rather than Spell Power.
* Scorching Blade of Talos: Now properly has Spell Power.
* Fang of the Life Lord: Updated tooltip to clarify that the user is healed for the damage caused.
* Aelfwar Conspirator's Signet will now properly display in combat logs, and has a more informative tooltip.
* A number of offhand books and skulls have their appearances fixed.
* Several shields were improperly set to be equippable by both Warriors and Clerics, including: Bulwark of the Dragon, Arbiter's Defense, Prince's Crest, Aegis of Souls. These have been corrected.
* Despoiled Band was not able to be equipped by anyone; now it can be equipped by anyone. Oh, and it also has a correctly spelled name.
* Hand of the Eviscerator now triggers properly.
* The Fleshreaper now triggers properly.
* Verdant Archbow should no longer proc on non-damaging abilities.
* Arcane Hand Icon should no longer trigger when using Sacrifice Life: Mana or other non-hostile spells. It also now triggers only on the target of the ability that caused it to proc.
* Helmet of Transgressions is now Warrior-only.
* Mortuous Shadestone should proc more reliably now.
* Bahralt's Symbol of Justice, Thedeor's Symbol of Retribution, and Thontic's Amulet of Discovery: Replaced Hit with Focus on these items.
* The cooldown on Unseen Insignia will now continue to count down while you are offline.
* Battlemaster's Jerkin now has real stats.
* Fervent Shadestone Necklet and Mighty Shadestone Necklet now have Focus instead of Hit.
* The axe 'Shadefall' now has Endurance rather than Wisdom.
* Grand Bauble of Brilliance now has the correct icon and appearance.
* Waylon's Ring has been resized so it fits as a ring instead of a necklace.
* Buckley's Necklace is now an actual necklace instead of a ring. Increased stats to bring it in line with other neck items.
* Brilliant Shadestone Amulet now has Focus instead of Hit.
* Shroud of Anti-Life now sorts under the proper Auction House category.
* Spectral Horse items are no longer Unique.
* Essence: Watertouched Soulstone: Updated the ability description.
* Essence: Elementalist Sourcestone: Now works as described.
* The Quicksilver Yearbook now requires being equipped to trigger.
* The essence Beholden Target now correctly has Attack Power instead of Spell Power.
* Ancient Ironwood Staff now has Endurance instead of Dexterity.
* Faeguard Belt has its Block changed to Parry, as Rogues do not generally block.
* Many Expert Dungeon and Raid loot items had no sell value - this has been corrected.
* Changed the name of the dropped cash item, Shimmering Powder, to Glittering Powder to avoid duplicating the name of the Epic Runecrafting ingredient, Shimmering Powder.

CRAFTING
* New weekly crafting quests have been added for all six production skills. Each awards a plaque as well as a Rift Lure that can be used to open a 'Crafting Rift' (details above).
* The recipe window now has a Search feature! Search recipe names, ingredient names, equipment slots, and Rune 'usable on' slots for recipes that your character knows. You can also filter by the type of modification a Rune provides (Strength, Spell Power, etc).
* For each production skill, one Master workorder has been bumped up to 250 minimum skill instead of 230.
- Order of Mathos Workorder: Mighty Bottle of Critical Strikes has been changed to Workorder: Mighty Healing Tonic, which does not include Pristine Distillate as an ingredient, and requires 250 skill to receive this quest.
- Icewatch Workorder: Radiant Rage Runeshards now requires 250 skill to receive this quest.
- Icewatch Workorder: Soulbind Leather Shoulders now requires 250 skill to receive this quest.
- Dragonslayer Covenant Workorder: Carmintium Sabatons has been changed to require Carmintium Pauldrons, and requires 250 skill to receive this quest.
- Dragonslayer Covenant Workorder: Carmintium Longsword has been changed to require Carmintium Stilettos, and requires 250 skill to receive this quest.
* Armorsmithing Workorders that duplicated the required items from other workorders of the same rank have been updated - in most cases this means a Sabaton Workorder now asks for Boots instead.
* Workorder: Basic Healing Tonics and Workorder: Mighty Healing Tonics (previously Mighty Bottle of Critical Strikes) are no longer set as level 1 quests.
* Exquisite Cloth, Light Downy Cloth, and Tough Silken Cloth now only drop for Outfitters.
* Slightly increased the drop rate of all crafting quest items. In addition, they can now be found on a wider variety of mobs and resource nodes.
* The description for the quest 'A Peerless Leather' now refers to the correct quest objective items.
* Bottle of Spellstrikes and Bottle of Critical Strikes now trigger the effect 'Bitter Aftertaste', which prevents another such potion from being used for 60 seconds.
* Redistributed some ingredients in Runecrafting recipes! The changes are as follows:
-Unwavering Rune recipes now use Perpetuals in their recipes instead of Sentience Runecrafting materials.
-Resolute Rune recipes now use Perpetuals in their recipes.
-Recondite Runeshard recipes now use Sentiences instead of Kinetics.
-Potent Rune recipes now use Perpetuals instead of Kinetics.
* Recipes for Quicksilver Bow and Hunting Bow now require only 1 Core each.
* Fine Leather Shoulders now require Fine Leather instead of Reinforced Leather.
* Enchanted Cores and Evergreen Cores can now be found in both Silverwood and Freemarch.
* The following crafted items are no longer Unique-Equip: Ebony Hatchet, Darkmetal Scepter, Orichalcum Ritual Blade, Darkmetal Sword, Divine Defender, Orichalcum Mace, Eviscerator, Damascus Shiv, Damascus Saber, Band of Crystallized Mana, and Titan's Signet.
* Smoldering Runeshards have been renamed to Smoldering Runes.
* Updated any references to Windstealing Rune to say Windshielding Rune. This recipe is now purchasable from Quartermaster Ciaba with the requirement of Storm Inquisition notoriety.
* The scroll for Recipe: Medium Leather Hood was previously Epic, though the crafted item was Uncommon. This has been corrected so the recipe scroll shows Uncommon rarity.
* Plaited Silver Ring has been renamed to Plaited Cinerium Ring.
* Death Warding Potions have been renamed to Unholy Warding Potions.
* Glowing Wrathful Rune now displays its name correctly after being applied
* Fixed a typo where Honed Demon Horn mentions parry. This reference has been removed. Like other versions of the Demon Horn augment, Honed Demon Horn only award Attack Power and Dexterity.
* Jagged Lightstone now sorts properly under 'Gems' for auctions.
* Recipe: Exalted Bottle of Tricks: Now requires notoriety with the Arcane Hand, who sell the recipe.
* Darkcloth Belt, Conditioned Leather Boots, and Conditioned Leather Jerkin now sort under the appropriate categories in the Recipe window.
* A number of items from Dungeons and Raids were not able to be Salvaged or Runebroken. Now all dropped equipment in Expert Dungeons or Raids should be salvageable or runebreakable.
* The following items now Salvage correctly: Silver Choker, Lariat, and Pendant; Gold Chain, Choker, Gorget, and Lariat; Fine Platinum Chain; Platinum Choker, Gorget, and Necklace.
* Tweaked node respawn rates in Shimmersand, Moonshade, Scarlet Gorge, Scarwood Reach, Iron Pine Peak, and Stillmoor. Adjusted respawn rates and frequency of Orichalcum, Shadethorn, and Twilight Bloom.
* Fixed miscellaneous Butchering issues: Telthaeus in Stillmoor can now be butchered for proper loot. Blackhorn Grazers and other Cattle mobs (with the exception of critters) can be butchered. Sloptongue mobs no longer require 215 butchering, which was way above level, and have been adjusted accordingly.
* Fixed a variety of typos on items, augments, tooltips, and recipes.


PVP/WARFRONTS
* PvP Souls have been moved from the rank 2 PvP merchants in Meridian and Sanctum, and are now on the General Favor Quartermasters.
* Across-the-board improvements for PvP rewards and dailies.
* Rank 5 weapons have been moved to the rank 4 vendor, and had their names and prices updated.
* Rank 6 weapons are now available for purchase.
* The effectiveness of Valor has been updated. The numerical values have changed, but you will still gain 2% reduction per level up to 50.
* Complete PvP armor sets now give the following Valor:
- Rank 1 and 2: 15%
- Rank 3 and 4: 22.5%
- Rank 5 and 6: 30%
- Blazing Valorous Rune: 50 Valor - 2%.
- Radiant Valorous Rune: 25 Valor - 1%.
* Stat distribution for all PvP armor sets have been updated to be a bit more competitive with Expert Dungeon and Raid sets.
- Boots, Gloves, and Rings that were previously rank 2 no longer require a rank to purchase or equip.
- New items have been added to make a rank 1-2 set comparable to the tier 1 dungeon merchant sets.
- New Boots, Gloves, and Rings have been added to the rank 3-4 sets, and their quality has been upgraded to be comparable to tier 2 dungeon merchant sets.
- Favor costs have been updated on many items across rank 1 through 4 sets.
* Increased the experience, coin, prestige, favor, and notoriety awarded from completing Warfront daily quests.
* Increased the Notoriety awarded for Warfront outcomes. Wins award 250, Ties award 150, and Losses award 100.
* Also increased the amount of Prestige and Favor awarded for losses or ties in Warfronts.
* The range for receiving rewards from kills in Warfronts now includes the entire zone.
* The Battle for Port Scion: Infiltrators using Step Into the Shadows will lose their grip on Sourcestones.
* Updated The Battle for Port Scion Notoriety rewards:
- Eldritch Vanguard Steed and Noble Guard Valmera no longer have a Notoriety requirement and can be purchased from the General Favor Quartermasters.
- Friendly-rank necklaces have been upgraded to Epic items.
- Decorated-rank rings have been upgraded and now require Honored to purchase.
- Revered-rank weapons have been moved down to Decorated. Two-handed Warrior weapons are now available.
- Eldritch Vanguard Warsteed and Noble Guard Armored Valmera can now be purchased at Revered.
- New consumable helm Runes are now available at Glorified.
* PvP Quests: Securing the Port and Relentless Assault now only update when winning matches in The Fall of Port Scion.


ACHIEVEMENTS
* Keep Your Enemies Close: Now specifies the proper ability.
* We Three Kings: Fixed a case where Derribec wasn't always giving proper credit for being the last alive.
* There Will be Blood: Fixed an issue where credit was not properly being awarded.
* Rapid Assault: Abyssal Precipice: Fixed so this achievement is not always awarded, even when the criteria has not been met. Characters who had received it while not actually completing the required task will have this achievement removed.
* Spikeless: Now gives credit only to the player completing the achievement rather than the whole party.
* The Silent Vigil: Achievement can now be gained by Defiants.
* Champion of the Droughtlands, Droughtlands Hunter: Guardians should now be able to achieve these.
* Baron It All: Now displays under the proper category and gives achievement points.
* Look Into the Light: Now functions as intended.
* Melted Sludge: Should properly give credit.
* Avoiding Death's Grasp: Now properly gives credit and has an updated description.
* Back In the Bottle: Time limit reduced to 100 seconds to match the encounter.
* Pressure Cooker: Updated the description text and made it so you can actually get credit for this achievement.
* The achievements 'Thwarting Their Plans', 'On the Hunt', and 'Stillmoor Days, Mathosian Knights' could potentially not credit properly if the associated quests were completed as a group. If you were caught by this, you've now been credited with the appropriate achievement. It will also work properly for those yet to complete them.


GRAPHICS AND AUDIO
* Fixed a bug that could cause incorrect animations to play when stacking polymorph effects.
* Improved quality of shadows.
* Fixed an issue causing visual effects to occasionally streak across the screen.
* More natural-looking character skin.
* Improved the appearance of Water Elementals and Living Oceans.
* Updated sounds for High Elf and Kelari males.
* Various ability sound fixes based on user bugs and feedback.
* Voiceover audio should no longer continue to play after you have logged out or teleported.
* Improved rendering of ghostly characters.
* Touched up audio for Paragon and Justicar abilities.
* Attack sounds for weapon-based melee attacks should come through a bit more clearly.


COMMANDS AND MACROS
* Tab-targeting now skips hostile players if you are not PvP flagged and have the PvP Auto Flag option turned off.
* You can now use the ESC key when typing in chat while the respawn countdown window is active.
* If all nameplates are disabled in your settings, pressing Ctrl+U will only toggle the UI.
* Added the @mouseoverui macro argument to supplement @mouseover; @mouseoverui will oly select from UI elements and never pick targets when not moused over a UI selection.


AUCTION HOUSE UI
* Adjusted window size and panels.
* Browse: Moved Results field to the bottom of the window. Reduced size of Category filter dropdowns.
* Auction: Added a checkbox to set the same price as an existing auction on new auctions.
* You can now filter results by Item Rarity, Calling, Lesser or Greater Essence types, Min or Max Buyout Price.
* All tabs can be sorted by stack size.
* The Auction and Bids tab can be sorted by unit price.
* Clicking a text field on the Auction UI now highlights existing text in that field.
* Pressing the ENTER key when creating an auction now creates that auction.
* You can now price an auction you are creating by buyout price or unit price.
* You can now automatically set the starting price to be the same as the buyout price when creating an auction.
* Auction prices now always display the Bid amount above the Buyout amount, and the location of the Bid amount does not move if there is no Buyout set.


UI/SETTINGS
* Group and Raid overhead arrows, map icons, nameplates, and ground reticules are now all blue to maintain consistency, instead of mixed colors.
* A blue "X" now distinguishes your own map waypoint target from others in your group.
* When departing a guild and joining a new one, your member notes and officer notes will be reset.
* An option has been added to the Raid window (default key: Y) to lock raid frames from being moved outside of Edit Layout mode.
* The Guild MOTD text box now allows you to type in it even when other things are updating in the guild UI window.
* Added more specific error text when trying to trade with a character that is out of trading range.
* Splitting stacks of items in your inventory now brings up a count window showing the total stack size instead of always displaying one less than the full stack amount.
* The Spell Power tooltip also explains that it increases outgoing healing.
* A dropdown has been added under Misc settings to change/add a modifier key to activate the right-click context menu in game, or to disable it entirely.
* Raid markers can now be seen on player, target, target of target, and focus target frames.
* Fixed an issue where icons, particularly arrows, on the edge of the minimap would show in the wrong location.
* Waypoints are now cleared when changing characters or leaving the main world map (i.e. entering Warfronts).
* Fixed some quest highlighting bugs when opening, closing, or scrolling through the Quest Journal.
* The Class Mechanic UI now updates size when changing the global scale, rather than waiting until your next role change.
* The 'only show my debuffs' setting now only applies to targets that you can harm.
* The 'show all party buffs' filter now applies to frames other than just the party frames for party members.
* Added a new minimap filter to show High Level Quests.
* Fixed a bug causing the 2D Scrolling Combat Text to appear in an incorrect location when playing at resolutions wider than 2000 pixels.
* You may now track artifact set progress on-screen much like quests.
* Sending an in-game mail message now attempts to auto-complete the subject line based on recently typed subjects.
* Fixed a bug preventing ability tooltips from displaying when mousing over a buff icon on the target or pet portraits.
* The crafting window should no longer reset the scroll bar position randomly while you have it open - same with the skill and soul training windows.
* The Auction House now shows "Apothecary" rather than "Alchemy" when searching recipes.
* The middle mouse button can now be properly bound to the 'look behind' function.
* Video capture now stops when resizing the game window.
* Party member portraits now show a Role icon next to the player name.
* Mail expiration text in the mailbox now says "Expires in X days" rather than just "X days from now".
* Player mouseover tooltips now show the character's Role if you are grouped with them.
* Fixed bank bags that wouldn't always save their positions on your screen.
* You may now hide your character's shoulder armor in much the same way as the Hide Helmet option works.
* The Notoriety panel of the character window now lets you view more than one notoriety group at a time.


CLIENT
* While waiting in a server queue, you can now click the Settings button to change game settings.

Looks like a lot of positive shit. I'll keep checking it out in between WoW content pushes.

I'm really sick of reading patch notes for something that's still a week away. I think I'm seeing it practically every day at this point. Is it that big a deal?

I mean this with all sincerity - are people still playing Rift like before? When it first came out, there were posts on top of posts and now there's almost nothing. WoW was shit and people were saying Rift was the new game of choice, but do those sentiments still persist? Are those of you who quit playing WoW for Rift still playing Rift, or have you migrated back to WoW? I'm sure the opportunity to do ZG and ZA yet again is pretty overwhelming (har har).

I quit playing after a pretty awful T2 dungeon run.. 3 hours and still hadn't finished, with what I thought of as a pretty competent pug.

I guess I'm just not really all that interested in something quite that hardcore. I haven't played since. not against the idea, I haven't cancelled yet.

I didn't quit wow for this, and won't be going back to wow any time soon. I'm enjoying my Gamefly sub at the moment.

I took some time off for travelling and my GameFly sub too, actually. Finally got through AC:B.

The same thing happened to me; a few times, actually. Bad groups are a big deterrent and one that might only get worse with the new LFG system (though it could get better, too).

Fortunately, guild groups are much more solid now than even a week ago when I was away.

I'm actually finding I'm able to play the game more casually now, since I don't force myself to join bad groups.

I like the difficulty, I just don't like the time investment required. It's still a great game.

Yeah I've had a handful of expert groups go on for 3+ hours and it gets to be a bit much, but hopefully once the patch hits that reduces the health of trash and makes some of the more pain in the ass bosses easier it shouldn't be that bad.

For our guild I'd say about 60% of the people who originally started are still playing pretty often, we're definitely on the more casual side of things though.

Looks like another event starts tomorrow leading up to the release of 1.2:

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game ... eview.html

I quit because everyone I was playing with quit first and I have little desire to meet new people and join a guild of complete strangers.

So come to Belmont and play with a guild of complete assholes you already know.

Haha Leo!

You too. We need one of your caliber.

How many 50s do we have now?

27, as of yesterday's roster (which is at lanysrefugees.com), though a few haven't been on in a little while...

Yeah Givin, you and Xan should come to Belmont. Warpd made the switch a few days ago.

Evening raiding has gotten to be a lot more fun now that we are getting eared out. Only takes what Leo, about an hour and a half to do the T-1's, and a few hrs to do T2's.

All in all, I am with Turbo, this is the most fun I have had in an MMO since Vanguard. Not to mention the graphics are phenomenal.

Here are todays patch notes..

Rift 1.12: 5/4/11

SPOILS OF WAR - PRELUDE
* The Planes of Earth and Fire are suddenly showing an increase in activity, expanding their reach into zones previously left to other planar forces. Their Rifts and Invasions grow more numerous - but why?
* Look for new daily quests to appear in the cities of Sanctum and Meridian. Investigate the recent appearance of shells belonging to ancient golden dragon eggs, and mysterious coins showing up in Guardian and Defiant economies alike.
* Special reward packs for completing these new quests offer chances for uncommonly seen artifacts, rare and useful crafting materials, platinum and more. Reward packs also have a chance at containing a limited-time companion pet!


GENERAL
* Warfront-related guild quests now only progress on their proper maps.
* Multiple other quests requiring wins in Warfronts were fixed as well.
* Abandoning any variant of the Tools of Destruction quest will no longer remove Shadetouched Scepters, Blades, or Executors from your inventory. Additionally, Shadetouched Caches are no longer unique, so more than one can be held in your inventory at a time.
* Fixed a problem where some characters were not getting locked to the River of Souls raid properly.
* Shimmersand: Permanent Slumber: Fixed an issue that would sometimes prevent this quest from resetting correctly.
* Auto-AFK detection is now a bit less aggressive, so you won't get flagged AFK just for stepping away briefly.

_________________

_____
"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -Henry Louis Mencken
_____
VEGETARIAN -Noun (vej-i-tair-ee-uhn): Ancient tribal slang for the village idiot who can't hunt, fish or ride.

Do you all want a Rift Forum ?

_________________
"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

Considering the game has 1 thread? I doubt it matters too much.

I stand corrected, I see 2.

It would replace AoC deaded forum, but cool Maybe when there 3 topics :p

_________________
"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

There are three already.

And Rift is still a lot of fun.

Any info about the game that matters I just read from Something Awful anyway. I see no need for a specific forum.

Do you guys raid at all on Belmont? Honestly if I play, I'm looking at raiding mostly and the whole casual hangout experience doesn't really interest me.

The thing that i liked about Rift at the start is also the thing that killed it for some people. A few of the T1's and most the T2's were just ass rape both due to gear checks and mechanics. We spent 6 hours to get the first skarn kill on the server and now you can literally 2-3 man it.

I understand making content accessible with so many MMO alternatives out there but a little part of me cry's to see them nerfing so many things and giving T2 gear such big upgrades even though I guess its warranted. I guess it just shows the days of slamming your dick in a door for hours trying to kill something are long gone from main stream, luckily they still make games like demon souls!

All I have to say is I am rejoicing about the raid gear upgrades, i went 1 month without a loot because most of it was a joke. I finally got the 2 hand relic staff from Greenscale a few nights ago and now am picking up all the glyphed armor since they are giving it just enormous buffs.

My only bitch is the 2 hand relic has a fucking knock back and 230 damage use ability that roots a mob....zero use in 99.99999% of raid situations. For a relic item that you have to beat the 2nd hardest encounter in the game which is a freaking bitch to get....i'd think the item dev (or janitor) could have came up with a better idea.

I basically just log on to raid now and do my crafting daily's but to be honest thats all I really want out of the game. I have a hectic job that requires a lot of time so 20 hours raiding a week plus 5 - 10 hours on the weekends dicking around is good for me. I was excited to do some pvp but just haven't got the itch. I hope they put in some money sinks that add value at some point in time, i've been dominating the rune market and up to almost 1500 plat and the only thing i could buy is eternal planar dusts for 5 plat a pop to make raid potions.

PS...whoever is running the healers/raids for you guys, if you don't use senticar builds now, do so. They are damn near a requirement on prince/greenscale. Not sure how far you are into the raid content but the last 2 bosses in greenscale (well maybe just greenscale) and Pluto/herald in ROS are way easier with a rogue tank. Its doable with warrior tanks but your room for error is greatly reduced with a warrior tank.

We hit a bit of a wall on herald in ROS, its the hardest encounter in the game at the moment and just..bleh. Looks so easy on the few kill video's out there but the positioning and timing have to be very precise.

My chloro is getting nerfed come 1.2...i'll be interested to see how much they hurt my hps Chloro is really a great class and about the only way I think I would have ever healed again after running a defiler in EQ2. Thing that pisses me off is people see a few high end parses and think they are so amazing but its only a very small % of chloro's that really know the class well and can execute that pull off high dps + lead healing parses.

Good luck with the guild, I'd come join ya but have put in a lot of time into this guild and have a good thing going

What are the systems specs for this game?

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We do what we can with whomever is logged on. We are doing some raid rifts, Expert rifts etc, and still trying to finish the T2 zones. Few more pieces of gear and we should be good to go.

I believe Leo is outfitting his Rogue with the Leather tank gear, not sure about the other Rogues.

Anyway, it is still a fun game to log in a few hrs a night, kill some shit, get an item and some Plaques and log out.

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"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -Henry Louis Mencken
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VEGETARIAN -Noun (vej-i-tair-ee-uhn): Ancient tribal slang for the village idiot who can't hunt, fish or ride.

Rift is still a great game I believe and we are going strong on Spitescar with quite a few old school people. (if you like PvP)

The game probably merits its own forum more so than AoC. Rift could probably be expanded a bit in terms of topics. I can think of discussing Builds, Dungeons, etc.

Leo, I'd say Scott is pushing patch notes a lot because he's all about the playerbase having confidence in him and his team. I think the last World Event kind of shook him and that's why he's sharing so much. He did this for a spell in EQ2 just to let people know he was taking care of business and listening to people.

Right now we have...
Duty - Duty
Muligan - Muligan
Zeronus - Tombomb
Amezz - Jomei
Sansheck - Clerichall (Solu Ro friend)
Detlev - Detlev
and a lot of other guys that just do not come to mind at this time.

Looking back now, I wish we could have met up with you guys on Belmont but if the server doesn't say "PvP" everyone freaks out ever since Nagafen (EQ2).

We'll see you guys in Warfronts at least and who knows what the future holds. I will say that I seriously doubt we'll leave/quit this game unless EQ3 comes out relatively soon and knocks our socks off. It's really just the best Fantasy MMO out. I have faith in the team and I like what (and how quickly) they've addressed and added content.

Take care,
Muli

I think we have two or three rogues with tank builds (thinking Nev and Kern).

Givin: We're just about to start raids. I have a feeling once we do, we'll keep doing them as often as possible. The overall sentiment is that we want to raid. There's plenty of time for casually hanging out afterwards, for people who want to do that.

Khan: Some T1s we're clearing in under an hour. I know this because I had to wait a couple minutes for Soul Recall to reset the last time we cleared one.

BTW if anyone cares, Magelo.com has Rift profile system up now if you want to use their nifty signatures or keep up with goals.

(I just noticed this yesterday)

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"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

As much as I would love to come play another game with some of you, my schedule just wouldn't allow it right now. Between work, being a Dad, and trying to finish up my degree, I really don't have time.

I appreciate that you want an asshole of my caliber though Leo.