RIFT 2.1 Hotfix #2 - 8:00am PST 1/9/13 [NA] - 2:00am GMT 10/1/13 [EU]

** Addressing the Bots **

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks for your reports and your patience!

- The RIFT Development Team

=

RIFT 2.1 Hotfix #2 - 1/9/13

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


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

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

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

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

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


DUNGEONS AND RAIDS

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

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

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

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

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


SOULS

CLERIC

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

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

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

MAGE

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

HARBINGER
* Planar Retreat: Now usable while silenced.

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

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

ROGUE

MARKSMAN
* Added missing audio for Quick Reload and Retreat.

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

WARRIOR

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

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

PALADIN
* Shield Charge: Can now deal Critical Hits.

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


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


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