Welcome Back -- a guide to what's changed.

[the_real_seebs]

Welcome back!

People leave MMOs. Sometimes they come back. Since people who come back always want to know what's changed, I've decided to maintain a post that covers the key changes. This is mostly personal opinion. I'm mostly ignoring soul and calling balance issues and tweaks, with a few rare exceptions; suffice it to say that balancing is ongoing, and you should always assume that you need to review your builds.

There are a number of new porticulums, especially in very early starting areas. If you haven't been to them in a while, it may be worth running around and picking these up.

I'm mostly ignoring bug fixes. So basically... This is at most maybe 5% of the changes made. But it's the changes that really stuck out as being big changes that would affect what you can do in the game.

How to use this post: If you remember the patch during which you last played, skip ahead to that heading. If you just remember about when you last played, use the handy cheat sheet to look up what patch it was.

February 2011: Beta to Head Start
March 30, 2011: Patch 1.1
May 10, 2011: Patch 1.2
June 22, 2011: Patch 1.3
August 3, 2011: Patch 1.4
September 28, 2011: Patch 1.5
November 16, 2011: Patch 1.6
February 1, 2012: Patch 1.7
April 18, 2012: Patch 1.8

Note that there are tons of hotfixes, and a few patches have had sub-patches (1.0.1, 1.2.1). I ignore these and just treat everything during a given patch as "hotfixes".

You may also find the official RIFT trailers and videos interesting.

Beta to Head Start

Patch notes for beta aren't really available to us now. Among the biggest changes that occurred during or near beta:

• Guards on PvE servers (only) are tougher vs. players.
• Public groups can now be merged.

1.0 Hotfixes

• Raid rifts -- new rifts aimed at raid-sized groups.
• Locations can be linked in chat.
• Coin lock feature (When logging in from a new computer or such, you get emailed a code; until you enter it, you can't do anything that destroys your stuff or removes money from your characters.)
• Mobile authenticator added for Android and iOS.

Patch 1.1

• First world event (world event mechanics added).
• Video capture, complete with YouTube uploading.
• Unmerge option for public groups.
• Rift contribution is no longer measured against other players.

1.1 Hotfixes

• Self-cast modifier key added.
• River of Souls event bonus pack for characters who existed prior to the event.
• River of Souls raid open.
• Change to AFK logic; if there's no queue, you can be idle for a very long
  time without getting kicked.

Patch 1.2

• LFG tool added (same-shard only; this changes later)
• Wardrobe slots (cosmetic equipment)
• Crafting rifts -- new rifts that reward crafting materials
• "Slivers" and quantum/omen sight added.
• New "sliver" raid added, enterable only with those abilities.
• New diminishing returns design for CC in PvP.
• Experts retuned for LFG, and to stop requiring second healers.
• PvP rank adjustments.

1.2 Hotfixes

• LFG instance ranges increased.
• Item sellback and purchase confirmation added.

Patch 1.3

• Guild banks.
• Character transfers added! Character transfers are free, once per character per seven days.
• AH remembers recently-used prices.

1.3 Hotfixes

• "Trial shards" introduced.
• "Exposed" removed.
• Bind-to-Account vouchers for planar currencies.
• Most event currency made Bind-to-Account.
• Hammerknell Raid now open.

Patch 1.4

• PvP rifts added.
• LFG goes cross-shard.
• New sliver raid (Drowned Halls)
• Alternate-mode warfront feature added.
• Water Saga epic quest chain added.
• Quest items stored in separate quest bag.
• BoP items tradeable to eligible characters for 30 minutes.
• Soul Quests removed (souls are now purchased)
• Synergy Crystals added (they give soul-specific set bonuses from armor sets)
• PvP ranks 7 and 8.
• "Take All" button for mailbox.
• New crafting cooldowns.
• Apothecaries can salvage planar essences.

1.4 Hotfixes

• Can stay mounted in more of Meridian or Sanctum.
• Taskbar icon flashes when message boxes pop up.
• Vengeance stat added for PvP, Valor retuned.

Patch 1.5

• Chronicles (solo/duo instances) added.
• Veteran rewards added (subscription-length bonuses).
• Planar Attunement (post-50 advancement).
• Master-mode dungeons.
• New warfront, Library of the Runemasters.
• Introduction of addon API.
• Ancient wardstones removed.

1.5 Hotfixes

• All zone event sourcestone is now purple, drop rates and costs retuned.

Patch 1.6

• Ember Isle -- a new zone for well-geared 50s.
• New dungeon, Caduceus Rise (actually more than one instance).
• Fae Yule world event.
• New sliver raid, Rise of the Phoenix.
• 90% mounts adjusted to level 30, not 40.
• Addons can manipulate inventory.
• Foraging and mining of some mob corpses.

1.6 Hotfixes

• Instant Adventure -- LFG-like open-world adventure for 45+.
• Mail to your own characters on same account regardless of faction.
• Auction House is also cross-faction.
• Rift Mobile app (access to guild chat from smart phones/tablets) for iOS.

Patch 1.7

• Massive revamp of PvP ranks and gear.
• Massive itemization revamp at 45+.
• T1/T2 experts combined into a single tier.
• "Purpose" system provides soul templates to help newbies to a role.
• In-game weddings.
• Master-mode Caduceus Rise.
• River of Souls chronicle.
• 6th role slot.
• "Mercenary" system reassigns players to opposite side in warfronts to reduce queue times.
• Wardrobes have individual settings for equipment visibility.
• Crafting uses bank items.
• HUGE volume of UI updates -- seriously, read the patch notes for these.

1.7 Hotfixes

• Guild bankers added in crafting areas of capitals.
• Change to Target Nearest behavior.
• Item comparison tooltips show stat comparisons.
• Equipment visibility on the non-wardrobe wardrobe slot.
• Ember Isle restricted to level 48+.
• Ember Isle added to the "only one event" group of Ironpine
  Peak, Shimmersand, Stillmoor.

Patch 1.8

• Infernal Dawn (new 20-player raid).
• Fishing and Survival skills.
• Guild Finder.
• Leaderboards.
• Instant Adventure on Ember Isle.
• Seals (a new inventory slot, exclusively crafted).
• New max-level crafting quests.
• Anti-Planar Augmentation and Holy Champion replaced with a new Fury of the Ascended power.
• Many pet graphics updated.
• Debuffs have a new priority system to prevent weaker debuffs from overriding stronger debuffs.
• New recipes to refine 20 of a material at a time.
• Addon-style @ specifiers work even if you don't use addons.
• Non-party-leaders can recommend players for invitations.
• "Usable" at the Auction House now filters out already-known recipes.
• Many more UI tweaks and improvements, QoL changes, and so on.

1.8 Hotfixes

• Nameplates added! New settings. Color is based on the colors that unit names were drawn in.
• Streaming client; you can now play before a patch is fully downloaded.
• Porticulum cost changes (in-zone ports are always cheap).

[Sinfullysweet]

Thank you Seebs! Awesome bullet point list. =D

[merrier]

Very nice summary! I was thinking it would be good to have it stickied and updated going forward. Then when people asked the question there would be a place to point them.

It would be like at release where we pointed lots of questions to the 'things I wish I'd known sooner' thread.

[the_real_seebs]

Can't edit posts for long enough. I've saved a copy of the text so I can update it for 1.7, or if people have suggestions.

[Valnak]

Throw the man some likes.

[BiologicalBabes]

Throw the man some likes.

Aye aye captain

Good post, something like this was needed a long time ago. 10/10

[Hackiedoodle]

This is really great. I've popped in a few times over the last six months, and have gotten kinda confused each time, more and more. Great stuff.

[Isadore]

Very nice Seebs, great work.

[Antigonos]

im sure trion can give you an account status allowing you to edit indefinitly, throw a pm to a cm.

nice work m8!

[Jonus]

Awesome post Seebs!

Might want to also direct people to the Rift home page's video section to see the trailers/intros for all the world events to get an image grasp of HK bosses, Ember Isle/etc.

http://www.riftgame.com/en/media/videos/

[the_real_seebs]

BTW, I'm interested in specific feedback, things people think I missed that are important enough to mention, things you don't think need to be in here...

I've added the authenticator and Rift Mobile to my local draft.

[Trivet]

BTW, I'm interested in specific feedback, things people think I missed that are important enough to mention, things you don't think need to be in here...

I've added the authenticator and Rift Mobile to my local draft.

I'm sure there is a lot more you are missing i'm just to lazy to go through the patch notes :/

[intrinsc]

I vote for this to be stickied.

[Weez]

Great post! Thank you for doing this.

[Fujitasix]

Needs a sticky, particularly with the disgruntled TOR players looking for new entertainment that doesn't involve pandas and pokemon.