darkening-deeps
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One Shots: Thousands of pairs of eyes upon you
While the cheerily lit windows of a village may prove a warm, cozy sight in the case of some fantasy towns, today's RIFT screenshot gives one the feeling of anything but. Weary travelers will find no solace here, as this is the city of the goblins. Behind each of those windows lies an enemy fueled by the hatred and the fiery powers of the riftdwellers, each bent on destruction. Definitely not the kind of place one looks for a friendly tavern to pass the night! Today's darkly stunning RIFT screenshot comes to us from chadwich, who writes in to tell us of his travels in this area: "[This is] the nexus of the Goblin city, Darkening Deeps. My party and I explored deep into this cave in search of the head of the goblins' master. Eventually we put a stop to their insidious plans and brought their vile masters to justice. In the name of the Vigil!" Found a spooky spot in your favorite MMO? Feel like sharing your shiver-inducing screenshot? If so, email it in to us here at oneshots@massively.com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of the area in the picture. It's not scary to do at all. %Gallery-112285%
Enter at Your Own Rift: 'Role' play
In retrospect, it was all my fault. I had gotten too used to just throwing RIFT dungeon groups together and assuming that with the flexible soul system we'd be able to provide everything necessary no matter what archetype mixup we had. I suppose it's a testament to Trion Worlds' design that an exact group composition wasn't a top concern -- the goal is just getting five willing players together for a fun run. We were running Darkening Deeps, and I decided to start a group so that I could show off the dungeon to Rubi. We had two Rogues, two Mages and a Warrior, and I felt pretty confident going in that we would prevail. And while the Warrior stepped up and said he would tank -- taking the burden off of my Riftstalker build -- everyone else was curiously quiet when I asked if there was another healer who could back up my Bard heals for boss fights. Nothing. Not a peep. The other Rogue didn't have a Bard spec, and the Mages were whistling innocently when I asked if they happened to have a Chloromancer role tucked in their back pocket. Oh crud. This was going to hurt. Six trash pulls into the dungeon later, I called it and said that we simply didn't have enough healing power to make it through the bosses. My bad, I said, thanks for playing!
Enter at Your Own Rift: A tour guide to beta four
It was once again a busy weekend in RIFT, and I eagerly rolled up my sleeves to get to work exploring. This beta event contained a lot of great game changes and new content. First, the level cap was increased to 27, and two new hunting areas were made available: Gloamwood for the Guardians and Stonefield for the Defiants. In addition, two new dungeons were open for play: Darkening Deeps and Deepstrike Mines. But one of the most exciting additions was PvP instancing, as players finally got to try out two new Warfronts -- The Black Garden and The Codex. In this week's column, I'll give a wrap-up of my beta experience. Read on to hear more about Gloamwood, Warfronts, Darkening Deeps, and a lightbulb moment that I'll never forget.
Warfronts star in the RIFT beta 4 patch notes
As you may or may not have heard, Trion Worlds is unleashing the fourth RIFT beta event today, an event that spans the entire weekend. And as Uncle Ben used to tell us, with great beta events come great patch notes -- so what do players have to look forward to with this update? The most significant change to RIFT's beta is the increase of the level cap -- to 27 -- and the unlocking of the Stonefield and Gloamwood zones. In the prior three events, players were limited to a maximum of level 20 and confined to the two starter areas. This round, players looking for more PvE dungeon goodness should enjoy the Darkening Deeps and Deepstrike Mines, while PvPers will rejoice at the inclusion of Warfronts (Black Garden for level 10 and above, The Codex for level 20 and above). Warfronts are like World of Warcraft's battlegrounds or Warhammer Online's scenarios -- instanced PvP areas where (hopefully) evenly matched teams can go at it under special conditions. There are several quality-of-life improvements rolled into this patch as well. The skill soft queue has been upgraded to a full next ability queue, more hotbars are available, and many of the souls are getting tweaked. You can read the full patch notes here.
New Rift: Planes of Telara dungeon detailed
Curious about the dungeon-crawling experiences to be had in Rift: Planes of Telara? We are too, and thanks to new information released today by Trion Worlds, the PvE picture has been made a little bit clearer. Darkening Deeps is the subject of the latest Trion dungeon reveal, and the region plays host to all manner of rift-spawned denizens of the dark. Goblins form the bulk of the foes to be fought in the Deeps, along with water elementals and a mysterious power that calls to all Telaran heroes. In a press release heavy on lore-centric detail but light on gameplay specifics, Trion describes the dungeon as "a vast chasm, choked with smoke and the reek of goblins." Trion also highlights the Gedlo priests, spawned from Fire Rifts and responsible for directing the vast goblin horde. Adventurers looking to explore the region can begin in the Gloamwood Pines, a small village from which several denizens have gone missing. Stay with Massively this month for more Rift: Planes of Telara coverage, as we bring you news and views from tomorrow's Trion Worlds Gamer Day event. %Gallery-99479%
