Welcome Back! A guide to what's changed (revised)

[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
June 27, 2012: Patch 1.9
September 12, 2012: Patch 1.10
October 17, 2012: Patch 1.11 (see below for links to the patch notes)
November 13, 2012: Patch 2.0 (Storm Legion)
December 12, 2012: Patch 2.1

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. (And later Android.)

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.
• XP lock -- you can disable XP gain. (Removed in 1.9)

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. (And somewhere in here, mailed guild invites.)
• 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).

Patch 1.9

• Conquest: New three-way PvP for level 50s.
• Mentoring: Starting at level 15, you can artificially lower your level, whether solo or in a group.
• Instant Adventure expanded to Silverwood, Freemarch, Gloamwood, and Stonefield.
• Queueing for "random adventure" may mentor you to put you in a low-level group.
• Barbershop! Basically, recustomization of appearance other than race or sex.
• New raid sliver, Primeval Feast. Harder than RotP.
• PvP ranks increased to 50, along with new armor and such.
• World event.
• Optional icons showing what NPCs do.
• XP locking feature removed (replaced by mentoring).
• Cross-shard friend and chat functionality; you can send tells to Character@Shard, and you can join Channel@Shard private channels. Public channels are not cross-shard.
• Daily quests for fishing and survival, additional features and functionality.
• Improvements to the 300-skill crafting quests.
• Cut/copy work in the chat input field.
• World Event currencies that recur moved to the Currency tab.
• Many addon API improvements.

1.9 Hotfixes

• Friends list is now cross-shard within entire region, not just wargroup.
• Friend and ignore lists not cleared when changing shards.
• Many encounter and Conquest tweaks.

Patch 1.10

• Faction boundaries reduced dramatically on PvE shards. PvP shards keep most of their boundaries, but LFG is cross-faction everywhere.
• Guilds can contain members of both factions, and can do either set of guild quests.
• Groups, whether player-formed or public, can contain members of both factions (who are not flagged).
• Dungeons, instant adventures, and such are all cross-faction.
• Characters can trade and mail across factions.
• Characters can marry cross-faction, and public channels are shared (except World Defense).
• Cross-shard tells, friends, etcetera are all also now cross-faction.
• You can buy things like expansions, CE upgrades, character or guild renames, inside the game.
• Instant adventure added to Scarwood Reach.
• World event for fall.
• Lots of lighting and fog improvements because of the Storm Legion rendering updates.
• Icon overhead markers available (not just numeric ones).
• Automatic "fill soul" button on soul trees.
• Rare spawns should be more reliable.
• Shuffling of locations and contents in Meridian and Sanctum to improve various things.
• Train All button on calling trainer.
• Bag UI scaleable.
• Combat logs, screenshots, etc. moved to My Documents folder.

1.10 Hotfixes

• /who command works cross-faction.
• Various improvements to synchronizing cross-faction, bug fixes.

Patch 1.11

This patch represents many fundamental mechanical changes as preparation for the Storm Legion expansion. As a result, it has unusually huge patch notes, even though this doesn't include the bulk of the new content.

Patch notes:
General, Crafting, Cleric, Mage, Rogue, Warrior.

• New world event ("Tempest Rising").
• Planar Attunement now shared across all characters on an account.
• Planar Attunement XP is shared, not levels, and XP per level increases with level.
• Wardrobe is now armor-type neutral.
• Ability training is cheaper.
• Instant Adventures will teleport you back where you were when you started, if you like.
• Mentoring improvements to stat scaling for tanks.
• General major balance changes to basically the entire combat system.
• In general, mitigation is focused less on avoidance, to make healing less bursty.
• Changes to computation of attack and spell power, and conversion from attack power to DPS.
• Also changes to crit rating, block, deflect, parry, dodge.
• Hit and Focus are now a single stat, called Hit.
• Changes to purposes, and to soul tree UI.
• Purposes now indicate how easy or hard they are likely to be to play.
• Guilds whose leaders haven't logged in in a long time will auto-promote.
• Many PvP balance and tuning changes.
• Consumables (potions, etc.) have new stats and behaviors galore.
• More cross-faction respawn points in lower-level zones.
• Iron Pine Peaks NPCs near the Chancel of Labors are neutral, rather than hostile.
• Instant-cast/non-GCD abilities are indicated on tooltips.
• And more...

Crafting:

• Rebalanced crafting rewards and skill point gains.
• Crafting merchants now sell Planar Attunement XP.
• Random augment boxes removed.
• Many items have had skill requirements or ranges of skillups altered.
• Many changes to apothecary ingredients (there are fewer of them now).
• Salvage materials no longer need to be "combined" to be used.
• Augments are now made with salvaged materials.
• Augments are now crafting-only, and do not drop in the world.
• Stat bonuses from augments have been normalized.
• Temporary crafting enhancements now use normal materials, and have been variously improved and cleaned up.

Souls:

Basically all souls have been revamped. The new Storm Legion souls are not yet in the game.

Cleric:

• Cabalist: No longer uses Decay mechanic. Easier to combine with other souls.
• Druid: Now counts as Support for LFG purposes. Still melee DPS, increased focus on positioning (attacks may do extra damage from behind enemies). Pets include tank and ranged DPS pets.
• Inquisitor: Still DPS. Life and Death Concord no longer RNG-based.
• Justicar: Healing is tied to damaging abilities, but not to amount of damage done. No longer counts as Support for LFG purposes. Still a primary tank.
• Purifier: More focus on damage reduction and prevention, still a primary tank healer.
• Sentinel: More focused on peed and responsiveness, still a primary tank healer.
• Shaman: Less RNG-based, still melee DPS.
• Warden: Now counts as Support for LFG purposes. Better damage output than other healers.

Mage:

• Archon: Still support. Pillaging Stone requires spending points in the soul tree for its self-buff.
• Chloromancer: Still a healer. Healing amounts are no longer dependent on the amount of damage done, but instead on the (unmodified) cast time of abilities.
• Dominator: Some new area of effect and area denial powers.
• Elementalist: Pet-affecting powers now affect Necromancer pets, and vice versa. Pets scale better. Rotation made more interesting.
• Necromancer: Pet-affecting powers now effect Elementalist pets, and vice versa. Deathly Calling now applied by pets, to free the mage up to focus on using it. Healing powers (Life Shift, Blood Binding) removed.
• Pyromancer: Increased emphasis on Combust.
• Stormcaller: Still AoE-focused, improved tools for applying Electrified and Hypothermia.
• Warlock: More DoTs! DoTs can in some cases be maintained more easily, or transferred to a new target.

Rogue:

• All souls: Combo points are now on the rogue, not on a specific target.
• Finishers no longer cost less energy with more combo points; instead, they do much more damage with more combo points.
• Energy regeneration and usage adjusted.
• Assassin: Poisons no longer proc from auto-attacks, and also no longer have a one-second internal cooldown.
• Bard: Bard attacks are always considered ranged weapon attacks, and benefit from ranged weapon buffs. Soul tree ability allows Codas to refresh Motifs.
• Bladedancer: Slight restructuring of bonuses and abilities. Still DPS.
• Marksman: Various power changes. Still DPS.
• Nightblade: Weapon enchantments no longer proc from auto-attacks, no longer have one-second internal cooldown.
• Ranger: Various power changes.
• Riftstalker: Rift Scavenger removed, various mechanics updated. Still a primary tank.
• Saboteur: Charges and bombs are considered ranged attacks, and benefit from buffs to ranged weapon attacks. Note: Yes, this means that DoT ticks from charges can proc poisons. Range is 30m, and the range boost is no longer in the soul tree.

Warrior:

• Abilities other than tank soul burst threat generators, which used to affect 10 targets, now affect only 8.
• Beastmaster: Now considered a support soul. Uses buffs and finishers to aid allies. Got several "call" abilities from the Warlord, which have been renamed.
• Champion: Now AoE-focused rather than two-handed-weapon focused.
• Paladin: Now slightly better at physical mitigation, slightly worse at magical mitigation.
• Paragon: Now single-target focused rather than dual-wield focused.
• Reaver: Slightly less durable than other tanks, better damage output and multiple-foe control.
• Riftblade: Elemental DPS and teleporting, same as always.
• Void Knight: Better at magical mitigation, not quite as good at physical mitigation.
• Warlord: Now a hybrid soul, with good tanking utility earlier in the tree, and better DPS later in the tree. Several "call" type abilities have been moved to Beastmaster.

1.11 Hotfixes

• Pretty much all crafting materials now stack to 99.
• Discovery log moved to same configurable directory as other logs.

Patch 2.0 (Storm Legion)

Tons of rebalancing changes and tweaks to souls. Be sure to read the full patch notes and check tooltips carefully. AoE heals for bards and clerics are generally reduced.

• Level cap now 60. A level 60 character gets 76 total soul points.
• New souls: Mage gets Harbinger (melee DPS), Warrior gets Tempest (ranged elemental DPS), Rogue gets tactician (technology-themed support), Cleric gets Defiler (death-themed healer).
• Two new continents, adding ten more zones total.
• New city (Tempest Bay).
• Hunt rifts (yet another new kind of rift).
• Seven new dungeons, plus expert modes.
• New raid dungeon (Frozen Tempest) and new raid sliver (Triumph of the Dragon Queen).
• New warfront for 50+ characters.
• Dimensions -- highly customizable player/guild housing.
• Upgradeable items -- gear you can customize and develop.
• New crafting materials, recipes, and quests; new cap 375.
• Capes!
• Everyone who participates in fighting a mob is eligible for cash, quest completion, and XP. Tagging still affects loot drops.
• Guild level cap increased to 25.
• Planarite cap increased to 100k.
• Quest log can have 25 normal quests, 25 dailies, and 25 carnage quests.
• Did I mention the addition of carnage quests?
• Food, drinks, and gems stack to 99.
• Fatigue does more damage.
• Conquest on hiatus; conquest decay is disabled.
• Massive overhaul of all sorts of PvP stuff relating to valor, vengeance, etc.
• Many, many, rebalancing changes, tweaks, and tooltip fixes across most souls.

2.0 Hotfixes

• Recipe vendors don't show recipes you've already learned.
• Skills automatically increase in rank, you don't have to "train" them.
• Soul Walking shows aggro range indicators around aggressive NPCs.
• Movement rate increased while unmounted (experimental).

Patch 2.1

• Fae Yule event returns.
• 20-person raid, "Endless Eclipse" -- you get to fight Regulos!
• New Chronicle, "A Hero Rises"
• Conquest back, now level 60.
• New Storm Legion crafting rifts.
• New Lures for Major versions of hunt rifts.
• Auto-follow more robust; not broken by interacting with NPCs or inventory.

[Sinfullysweet]

Thank you Seebs! Looking through it now, cause there has been a lot of changes since I played last. =D

(took a 3 month hiatus to take care of a garden so way behind on the changes)

Do have one question, I still don't have a character at max level, so I have never played in an instant adventure. Does it require a group or can I go solo? I get performance anxiety when playing in a group, so I am hoping that I can play solo. =D

[the_real_seebs]

I am not entirely sure! IA is a thing you usually join and it tends to end up with largeish groups or raids, but I think in principle it might be possible to solo it. No idea.

Note also that it's available at a broad range of levels now, not just level cap.

[Alatarv]

I am not entirely sure! IA is a thing you usually join and it tends to end up with largeish groups or raids, but I think in principle it might be possible to solo it. No idea.

Note also that it's available at a broad range of levels now, not just level cap.

I have been in a solo IA at times. Because the mobs get buffs when your IA raid gets big, solo isn't usually an issue. For you, they're just regular mobs. Now, the big elite you fight on the last stage of IA chain is a different matter altogether. Solo...well, you'd best be a cleric.

[Edaros]

What would be nice is to see a complete game guide that explains everything like many player generated guides do, but from the developer.

Speaking of which anyone know of a good current guide for those of us trying to get back in game that want a quick easy run down on how the many many different aspects of the game work etc?

[Denna]

Seebs,

Just wanted to say thank you for this (and your previous) guide. I post regularly on the Rift subforums over at MMO-champ and we're regularly linking and quoting your guide, probably twice a week, for all the interested ex-players who ask us if it's worth coming back.

Your post alone has probably helped re-recruit any number of former players.

[Pineal]

I was wondering where WoW stole "Scenario's" from.

Smile Trion - Its biting them in the Arse (From history wow copying everything any competing MMO has that's new/different has worked well for them - however Scenario's are very out of place, very boring, and is recieveing alot of player backlash - i guess its just nice to finaly see them be "punished" for their very obvious "stealing")





As a player whom played untill level 30 @ release then left the game.... and has just returned...

Is anyone able to further explain the cross-faction changes? How far this co-operation can go?


And a friendly suggestion!

As someone who's just come back to the game... some of the stuff in the guide is interesting, but i know nothing about. Could you expand on things (not too much) while keeping the explanation in mind for people that pretty much know nothing about the game?

IE:

Patch 1.2
• "Slivers" and quantum/omen sight added.

^^ Those sound interesting! What are they? What do they do? Little bit of info??


Patch 1.6
• Ember Isle -- a new zone for well-geared 50s.

^^ IS this like a daily quest island for some endgame loot? Whats on this island? How do you get there?


Patch 1.4
• PvP rifts added.

^^ That sounds cool! How does that work? IS it like a portal somewhere into the enemy's more populated areas or something?


Patch 1.9
• Conquest: New three-way PvP for level 50s.


^^ Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa


Thankyou very much for the writeup - it's helped me figure out what's changed since i played a very long time ago, and filled my head with questions and curiosity!

[Golden]

Slivers are small pieces of Telara that are in another dimension. They are dungeons for 10man raids. Right now there are 4 of them, Drowned Halls, Gilded Prophecy, Rise of the Phoenix, and Primeval Feast. You can only see the entrances to them by using omen/quantum sight (an ascended ability available at 50 that you purchase with 15k planarite, iirc).

Ember Isle is a new zone, an island with level 52 mobs. It is where you go at level 50 to quest and level after you get a bit geared up. For guardians there is a portal to Ember Isle near the Sanctum Bridge, down near the water, but you must be at least 48 to even use it. The defiant portal is similarly just outside Meridian to the southwest.

PvP rifts are summoned by players at the special raid rift tears in IPP, SS, and SM. You get the ability to summon them from a pvp vendor in the main city at level 50. The opening faction must take stones from the rift to specific gathering spots around the area outside the rift, while the opposing faction tries to kill them, steal the stones, and destroy the rift structures.

As for Conquest, that is a complete topic and has its own information threads and posts. It is a warfront composed of the entire SM map with 3 opposing sides. Each side tries to take control of and defend certain structures while killing other players. Once a certain number of total kills is reached or until one side controls 66% of the structures, a timer starts. At the end of the timer the side controlling the most wins and gets more xp and conquest points (and if they die they can respawn - the players on the other two sides get kicked out if they get killed). Then another timer (10 min) starts and planar footholds spawn and must be killed before time runs out. If they are, a boss spawns for extra xp and points.

[Bloodless]

THANK you so much, I just returned from leaving after 1.6 and now I do not feel like a noob all over again

[Hayashiko]

Nice. It's been a while.

I won't mention what game I came from, but let's just say that it feels good coming back from under the snow.

[Nuuli]

Thank you Seebs! Looking through it now, cause there has been a lot of changes since I played last. =D

(took a 3 month hiatus to take care of a garden so way behind on the changes)

Do have one question, I still don't have a character at max level, so I have never played in an instant adventure. Does it require a group or can I go solo? I get performance anxiety when playing in a group, so I am hoping that I can play solo. =D

There isn't much of an option, you can find yourself solo or not. Players can pop in and out at will. Should you wish to solo IA's, try the low pop times or even transfer to a low pop server and knock out solo IA's. Don't worry about performance with IA's, some of the quests are gathering while others, blowing up objects, transforming mobs, and a boss at the end. The IA's objectives adjust to the number of players.

Once you're done, remove yourself from the IA and you're transported back to where you began. Also, your level adjust if you choose random.

[USN]

I stopped playing right before Hammerknell, so it's been a wee bit since I've stepped into the game. This thread is genius. I know a lot has changed since I last played, but it was really great to see how everything progressed.

Thanks for your dedication to updating this thread

[Lande]

Very helpful seebs, thanks!

[Tea Pot]

Impressive!

I've returned to RIFT to find it's better and bigger. I was lured away from RIFT by another new MMO, but that interest lasted shortly. A friend recently reminded med how good RIFT was, that it was still constantly tweaked and tuned and that there are lots of new contents.

Thanks for doing such a great job (all of you behind this game)!

[Dibdab]

Awesome, last time I played was 1.1 maybe 1.2 can't remember, so this defiantly helped. Didn't have clue what had being going seems like a lot of awesome changes.