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RIFT's Deepstrike Mines dungeon revamped for level 60
RIFT is returning to Deepstrike, according to Trion's latest blog post. The devs have revamped the dungeon for level 60, in large part due to the mass influx of F2P players who leveled right on by some of the classic game's dungeon crawls. Deepstrike Mines was the winner of a player vote to see which classic dungeon would receive the upgrade treatment, and senior game designer Andy Kirton has plenty to say on said revamp's particulars.
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.
Hands-on with Rift: Planes of Telara at Gamer Day II
As part of its recent Gamer Day event, Trion Worlds invited Massively back to its studio for another look at Rift: Planes of Telara. Having now been to two of these Gamer Day events, I can say without a doubt that last week's was the more festive -- the player-community leaders and swarm of devs certainly made the whole experience much more wild than the first and reminded me that I was supposed to be having fun (not just studiously taking notes for you lovely readers, although I did that too!). Since this was my second day-long hands-on with the game (the first being last summer when I got to check out Rift's dynamic content), I thought it best to focus on two areas: improvements to systems I'd seen before, and totally new elements I hadn't seen at all (like the Guardian starting zone, PvP, UI enhancements, Deepstrike Mines, and several new souls including Riftblades, Bards, and Wardens!). Follow along after the break for my second impressions of this MMO that continues to surprise me with its glittering shine of polish.%Gallery-101448%
Rift: Planes of Telara introduces the Deepstrike Mines
There's a new zone up for viewing in Rift: Planes of Telara, and it follows the theme of all the previous ones: nice to look at and will probably try to kill you. The Deepstrike Mines are an old part of this world, created by the Eth sorcerer kings years ago. The kings were eventually overthrown by the titans they had enslaved to guard the mines, and the new inhabitants are even less pleasant. Walking dead, flesh-eating scarabs, and angry earth elementals are just a few of the creatures patrolling and working there these days. The sourcestone -- a powerful fuel source -- is valuable enough to make it worth reclaiming. Are you willing to brave the mines? Check out the new images and video below from Rift: Planes of Telara to see what you'll be up against.
