RIFT 2.2 - 8:00am PST 2/27/13 [NA] - Scheduled 2:00am GMT 28/2/13 [EU]

RIFT 2.2: Carnival of the Ascended!

== FEATURES ==
* Happy second anniversary, RIFT! The Carnival of the Ascended returns to celebrate the first appearance of the Ascended in Telara.
* Introducing Planar Attunement Tier 3 and Planar Attunement of War Tier 2! The Planar Attunement level cap has increased to 1079.
* New Crafting daily quests for harvesting professions! Butchering, Foraging, and Mining now have Daily quests available for all skill levels.
* Four Storm Legion Raid bosses now come in Hardmode flavor! You may voluntarily trigger hardmodes of Gelidra, Artifex Zaviel, Progenitor Saetos, and Kain the Reaper for additional challenges and new Achievements.
* Two new Dimensions are available for you to get your design on! Auditorium Carnos Plaza and Kestrel's Cry Ravine can be purchased from Dimension merchants in Tempest Bay, and Kestrel's Cry Ravine is additionally available in Sanctum and Meridian.


= World Event: Carnival of the Ascended =
* The Carnival is in town - check out Sanctum, Meridian, Shimmersand, and the new location in Tempest bay for ongoing celebrations!
* This year brings new carnival games, new zone events, and a new alternate-mode Warfront to play!
* Prizes to obtain include a new mount, new costume helmets, dragon balloon companion pets, and dimension items.
* Since we heard people like companion pets, we gave a balloon pet to a Fluffy pet so your pet can follow you while being followed by a pet - these can be bought with Favor and Carnival tickets on the event merchants!
* The Carnival-themed RIFT Mobile scratcher has also made its return!


GENERAL
KNOWN ISSUE: The newly-added Torvan Hunter cape appearances are invisible. They still grant stats in the meanwhile and the art will be properly added in the first hotfix!
* Augment Wardstone and Bless Wardstone abilities have been replaced by Nexus Infusion, which is now granted to all characters. Wardstones that were previously upgraded using these abilities now work with Nexus Infusion instead.
* Characters now start with a skill of 1 in Fishing and Survival. Existing characters who don't already have these skills will gain the base 1 point on next login.
* Cache Finder guild perk now works with Infinity Stones, Frozen Eclipse Stones, and Empyrean Stones.
* Guild Perk: Planar Knowledge: Now gives the proper PA experience bonus at higher ranks.
* Falling from a great height once again plays the impact animation and sound effects, but still has no damage applied.
* Increased kill counts for guild PvP quests, but reduced the number of Warfront victories required.
* Fixed a chat channel bug where players on PvE shards could get permanently stuck in chat channels for PvP shards. You can now use /leave to quit those channels!
* The recent Fae Yule items have been added to the World Event merchants in Sanctum and Meridian!


SOULS
* All weapon enchantments acquired through Planar Attunement now indicate the required item level on their tooltip.
* Channeled abilities that allow movement while casting now act more predictably when fighting large-scaled enemies, such as High Priest Arakhurn.

CLERICS

CABALIST
* Dark Passage: Can now be used while Silenced.

INQUISITOR
* Perseverance: Fixed Pyromancer's Flashfire causing the Inquisitor to be stunned even when Perseverance is active.

JUSTICAR
* Increased the base threat generated by Justicar melee abilities.


MAGE

ARCHON
* Fixed a case where the cooldown on the Point to Point teleport could be reset before it expired. Point to Point also no longer resets the direction your character is facing.

CHLOROMANCER
* Living Aegis: No longer claims it should generate Charge when it does not.

ELEMENTALIST
* The Fire Elemental pet now has a new look!
* Elemental Forces: Will no longer consume Cycle buffs when cast.
* Ashen Armor: The pet buff from this now lasts 16 seconds.
* Burning Ground: Fixed a bug where this ability stays blocked if you die while casting it.

HARBINGER
* The tooltips for Lightning Blade, Luminous Weapon, and Reaper's Blade now list these abilities as self-buffs instead of just buffs.
* Fury of the Ascended, Holy Champion, and Anti-Planar Augmentation will no longer consume Eldritch Armor procs.

NECROMANCER
* Possession, if used with a Skeletal Zealot pet active, will now transform the caster into the newer Greater Skeletal Zealot model.

PYROMANCER
* Combust: Will now display the correct amount of damage dealt on the tooltip.


ROGUE

ASSASSIN
* Poison Malice: Fixed a tooltip bug where the damage value of the ability and its effect tooltip did not match.
* Stealth should now break from any damaging attacks.

BLADEDANCER
* Duelist Pose: Duration now 30 seconds, up from 15.

NIGHTBLADE
* Smoldering Blades: Fixed a tooltip bug where the damage value of the ability and its effect tooltip did not match.
* Stealth should now break from any damaging attacks.

RANGER
* Feral Aggression, Animalism: Cooldown reduced to 45 seconds from 60.


WARRIOR

BEASTMASTER
* Calliope's Beastmaster Crystal: Fixed tooltip that inaccurately showed the effect increasing Strength rather than Attack Power.

PARAGON
* Flurry: Now properly flagged as a Builder and will benefit from any bonuses applied to Builder abilities.

TEMPEST
* Lightning Torrent: Fixed a bug where the lower-ranked Lightning Torrent's damage can sometimes persist beyond the channel time.

VOID KNIGHT
* Spellbreaker: Should now correctly remove Curse, Poison, and Disease debuffs, including associated effects.
* Discharge: Now deals additional threat based on the damage dealt.

WARLORD
* Tactical Surge, Battle Surge, Defensive Surge: No longer on global cooldown.
* Recovery Posture: Tooltip now displays the correct max number of active Postures allowed.
* Disorient: The debuff from Disorient should now end when the debuffed target dies.


ZONES
* Daily quests in various zones that require you to kill Invasions or seal Rifts now auto-complete when the objectives have been completed.
* Instant Adventure: Uncommon-type IAs now give Infinity Stones to characters who are mentored down from level 60.
* Instant Adventure: Experience and Notoriety rewards are now boosted for larger IA groups.
* Instant Adventure: Adjusted Instant Adventure bosses to be easier for small IA groups.
* Added map icons for the entrance locations to all Storm Legion dungeons.
* Cloud Chasers and other flying mobs now fight back if stunned while flying.
* Ashora and Eternal City Onslaught questgivers should now be friendly and always remain interactable for turning in Dailies.
* Onslaught Fire Invasions will no longer attack their own footholds.
* Adjusted the boundary between Morban and Steppes of Infinity, so all parts of Arcanum Conservatory and Camp Skyburst are within Steppes.
* Fixed an issue with the daily Hammerknell Chronicle quest, Checkmate, that sometimes would not give completion credit.
* Players above level 50 can now complete the Water Saga quest 'Unworking the Ritual'.

ARDENT DOMAIN
* Auditorium Carnos: The Arenamaster will no longer shout to all of Ardent Domain, but just the area of the Auditorium.
* IA: Girakh the Crazed's level now matches that of the adventure.

ASHORA
* Dust Devils: Made this quest more friendly to groups working together. The cyclonic devolver is no longer aggro to players of the opposite faction.

CAPE JULE
* Rare spawn NPCs in Cape Jule that were not displaying a diamond icon on their portrait now do so.
* The Son of Auram NPC will no longer attempt to pose like a scarecrow.
* IA: Stopped the Kelrath Onslaught IA boss, Titan of the Deep, from becoming invulnerable at 50%
* IA: Moved an Empowered Shahrokh NPC out from hiding in rocks.

CITY CORE
* IA: No Mercy for Mutants: The quest objective text has been updated to display the correct mutants required.
* IA: Field Study: Fixed potential wrong assets spawning for groups of 10-14 characters.

EASTERN HOLDINGS
* Batua has bellied up to the bar and you should have less difficulty getting your drink on for the quest 'I Love You, Man!"

FREEMARCH
* The quest flow of level 6-9 content in Freemarch has been revised for a smoother experience.

KINGSWARD
* Now's the Time: Beastlord Terrik can no longer be crowd controlled during this quest event.
* Carnage: Fierce Creatures: Corrected the map locator.

MORBAN
* Fixed a typo on the Bitter Enemies achievement description.
* Adjusted the route of Disciple Ilnageth.
* Increased the variety of creatures that count toward the Scold the Shapers achievement.

SERATOS
* The 'Drifting Ascended' rare mob will no longer spawn inside terrain.
* Added a new achievement: Thirsty Skull Dance Party. The bartender is also more reactive to acts of affection!

SILVERWOOD
* A new Porticulum is located at Highglades Lookout, near the entrance to Hedgerow Court.
* Also streamlined the flow of level 6-10 content in Silverwood.

STEPPES OF INFINITY
* A new wild Zone Event appears! Champions of the Firestorm may now trigger in Steppes of Infinity.
* Zone Event: Shattered Earth: Fixed a case where some players would not receive rewards after participating in this event.
* Zone Event: Fortress Defense: Removed some extraneous visual effects from the boss fight to help improve performance.
* Added Rift-closing IAs to Steppes of Infinity.

A HERO RISES [Chronicle]
* More elements of this Chronicle now have voiceover audio.


DUNGEONS AND RAIDS

ENDLESS ECLIPSE
* A portal now appears after Goloch's defeat that teleports players from the entrance to the Plane of Death.
* Sicaron will no longer run to icons on the second platform phase.
* Kain the Reaper: Players under the effects of Voracious Hunger will now be less resistant to Kain's Life Bane and normal attacks.
* Kain will now use his powers of the Plane of Death to slay anyone nearby should he reach his Enrage state.
* Hands Free Spree achievement now requires you to be hit 20 or fewer times, instead of 5 or fewer.

FROZEN TEMPEST
* The teleport after the Twin Giants now operates correctly when they are defeated.
* The zone quest now properly updates when the Twin Giants are slain.


PVP/WARFRONTS
* New PvP consumables have been added to Mercenary Burke in Tempest Bay.
* Conquest: Turrets should no longer be immune to abilities that deal damage and generate healing, such as Warlock's Life Leech or Warden's Geyser.
* Conquest: Increased the size of Empowered Sourcestone nodes in Conquest.
* Conquest: Conquest Power is now awarded for upgrading turrets.
* Kills made in Conquest now update the Guild Quests, 'War on Many Fronts' and 'Battles Old and New'.
* Ascended Courage: Now displays the items whose stats are replaced while in Conquest. The buff can no longer be seen on you by other players.
* Fixed Leaderboards not updating for Damage and Healing dealt to idols in Port Scion.
* Port Scion: Bosses offer repeatable quests again.
* Cone and Chain damage effects now have their damage reduced in PvP combat, equal to AoE effects.


CRAFTING
* Mining, Butchering, and Foraging now have daily quests similar to those of the other crafting professions. To pick them up, visit Padma Ultan in Meridian or Eldain Diomid in Sanctum. If you're over skill 300, visit Romas Periga in Tempest Bay.
* All Storm Legion Daily crafting quests now offer a choice of Artisan's Marks or Master Craftsman's Marks.
* All Storm Legion crafting Daily and Weekly quests now give coin in addition to existing rewards.
* All crafting recipe scrolls that have notoriety requirements to buy are now Bind to Account.
* Renamed the "Shipment of..." recipes to "Twenty (Item name)" for clarity.
* Reduced drop rate of Empyrean Silk.
* Staves are now finally salvageable by Artificers, not Weaponsmiths.
* Additional misbehaving Tomes and Totems that weren't allowing Artificers to salvage them have been put in their place!
* Artificer: Low-level rings and necklaces now drop the correct components when salvaged, including Gemstone Fragments, Iridescent Power, and Clear Crystal.
* Removed Rock Salt from merchants as it's not actually used in any recipes.
* Added a proper "You cannot fish here" error message for fishing, instead of the vague 'Required conditions not met'.
* Fishing Derbies will no longer consign you to death by Fisherbot - they now have appropriate minimum character levels.
* Fishing: For all Moonshade Highlands and lower zones, uncommon fished Dimension items - like the Flowering Cherry Tree - are less uncommon. The more common fished Dimension items now drop less frequently (are more uncommon)!
* Fishing up Quick Minnows and Mottled Flatfish now credit the proper Fishing Achievement progress.


DIMENSIONS
* Fished-up Dimension items are now Bind on Account!
* Dimension items from the Facebook contest are now Bind to Account.
* All Dimensions now properly support up to 200 concurrent visitors - updated Bogling Boggle and Stone Flask Tavern to allow this, which sadly has side effect of removing the ability to fish up junk items in their water areas (which wasn't originally expected but somehow worked).
* Dimensions: Using 'Duplicate' to place Dimension items will now use objects in your storage crate before those in your inventory.
* All Dimension items acquired by giveaways (like Fae Yule Candy Canes) are now set to Bind to Account.


ITEMS
* Raid-dropped and Raid merchant gear has gotten a boost.
* The cloak from the Torvan Hunter notoriety now looks way cooler. [… almost. See Known Issue at top!]
* Demulcent Faesource is now more powerful than Nurturing Faesource.
* The Bleeding Sky: Stats corrected - the 'old' version is now The Ancient Bleeding Sky and you can petition to trade it for the new DPS-oriented version if desired.
* The set bonus "Rage of the Flamesire" has been fixed.
* The Pet Yeti can now be loved by characters of all levels.
* Strandling Spider is now Bind on Account.
* Planar Jerkin, Shoulderblades of the Gorger, and Reinforced Planar Breasplate now have more Calling-appropriate stats.
* Randomly-generated items of the 'Wraithful' type are now named Wrathful.
* Fixed incorrect Resistance values on Planar Focus tooltips.


AUDIO
* New audio mix for stormy weather in Steppes of Infinity.
* New and separate notification sounds for successfully salvaging armor and weapons.
* Updated electricity sound effects for Tempest's Chain Pulse and Electricity Blast hits.


UI/SETTINGS
* Toggled abilities (ex: Stormcaller's Static Flux) now say 'Toggled' instead of Instant in their tooltips.
* Item Upgrades: Mousing over the potential upgrade items now shows tooltips comparing the output item to the base item.
* Fixed a UI bug that caused item names to be cut off in the Upgrade Item window.
* Ability tooltips now display the ability's rank.
* Fixed a display bug with the shard list where it was inaccurate and delayed when shards first start up.
* Server optimizations to reduce ability lag!