A new 500mb update has graced the PTS (Public Test Shard)! Some of these are clearly going to be added in during Fae Yule whilst others are likely slated for Patch 2.6.

Note: Trion has stated in a previous livestream that Patch 2.6 will be released on PTS in January with a Live release of approx. February. Therefore, the below is only a small portion of what Patch 2.6 contains.

Some of the below may appear in hotfixes prior to Patch 2.6, especially the Fae Yule items.

Summary:

• New Wardrobe items
• Life/Death Weapon Skins added
• New Achieves -> Bounties
• New Raid Weeklies
• New Raid Rifts
• Goboro Reef IA
• Dream Weaving Craft Profession Added
• New Dimensions
• Dream Orbs (new rng rune-like augment)
• VFX Improvements
• Data Mining
• Others:
  • New Tempest Bay Daily
  • 160% Vials in Rift Store -> Boosts
  • Dimension Item List Categories
  • Mage Arbiter Test Gear
  • Minimap Cleanup

New Wardrobe Items

It’s unknown when these will be released – but clearly at least some of these items will be released prior to Patch 2.6.

Fae Yule Formal Bundle

This will likely hit Live shortly. 1,100 Credits (990 for Patrons). Red is a nice dye with this outfit, so is white/black with various Secondary Dye colors for the Sash and highlights. Rift Store -> Wardrobe.

Icebound Steel Bundle

The Icebound Steel Bundle costs 2,125 Credits (1,912 for Patrons). As always, all things are dyable. Rift Store -> Wardrobe.

Silverwood Defender’s Bundle

The Silverwood Defender’s Bundle costs 2,125 Credits (1,912 for Patrons).  Rift Store -> Wardrobe.

Hats and more Hats

Unknown ETA on these, but clearly the first 3 will be coming out during Fae Yule. 400 Credits (360 for Patron) each. Rift Store -> Wardrobe -> Premium.

Life/Death Weapon Skins

The Life and Death-based weapon skins that are available in Greenscale’s and Regulos’ Lockboxes (as well as in River of Souls, Greenscale’s Blight and Primeval Feast Raids/Chronicles) are now up for direct purchase with Credits at Rift Store -> Wardrobe -> Weapons.

Life Weapons	Death Weapons

These weapon costume items cost 750 Credits each (675 for Patrons).

New Achievements

Bounties

A new Achievement category has popped out for ‘Bounties’ under Achieves -> Character. There’s 130 achievement points allocated with a single achievement listed thus far “Start Small, Aim Big” that gives you the title: “Initiate Bounty Hunter” for completing your first Bounty.

There’s also a new NPC in-between the Artifacts Vendor and World Event Merchant at Tempest Bay called XJ12 Infiltrator. Your task – should you choose to accept it – is to go out and hunt stuff! Or at least that’s the assumption.

This ‘Bounty’ concept sounds similar to the Bounty Quests that you get in Droughtlands by interacting with the Wanted Posters. Could this be similar? Perhaps as you progress you’ll get harder and harder mobs to fight. Are they individual mobs or a collection (like ‘kill 10 Vaar’)?

Who knows! We’ll probably find out more, and the NPC may be updated with actual quests once 2.6 properly arrives on the PTS in January (Live release will be approx. February 2014).

Avid Reader

Under Achieves -> Zones is a new 100 point ‘Avid Reader’ with the title: “Avid Reader” reward. This is rather interesting. On first look, the “Unstable” books may indicate that these books are rewards for certain Unstable Artifacts that are coming in 2.6.

However, given it says “Unstable books” and it isn’t under the ‘Character’ achieve tab like the Artifact Sets achievement is – this could very well be a series of Books that can only be collected during certain events, just like the Unstable Artifacts – except Unstable Books.

Exciting, given the books usually contain interesting bits of lore and Storm Legion doesn’t have that many books around in the open world.

More Fae Yule Achieves

New Years 2014

Under Rift Store -> World Event is a new “Assorted Barrel of New Years Fireworks: 100 Pack” for 352 Credits (317 for Patrons). Pop them out and use all the fireworks for the title: “the Jubilant”. Achieve located under World Event -> Fae Yule.

Others

As promised by Tacitus, new Fae Yule achieves that are not related to the Rift Store have popped up. You’ve got yourself Fae Yule Looting achieves, food eating, snowmen-massacring, lumpings of coal, rifting, zone eventing and artifact collecting.

The Eternal Crystallized Insight (100,000 PA XP) meta reward for these non-Rift Store achievements is rather lacklustre compared to the Rift Store-based achievement rewards (mounts/pets), but it is more or less in line with Storm Legion-based meta achieve rewards.

New Raid Weeklies

Raid Weeklies have been added to the PTS with new NPC Tarn Birdesa <Raid Master> residing at Plaza Aurentine at the library (with all the other PvE vendors and questgivers). Poor Mito Kien, the <Raid Quests> NPC right next to him still hasn’t been given a job to do after all this time.

There’s 3 new Raid Weeklies:

• One for TDQ (this rotation was ‘Kill Jultharin’)
• One for Endless Eclipse (this rotation was ‘Kill Matriarch of Pestilence’)
• One for Frozen Tempest (this rotation was ‘Kill Artifex Zaviel’)

Rewards are 450 IS, a Dendrome Raider’s Cache and some experience.

The Dendrome Raider’s Cache gives Empyreal Slayer’s Marks (Dungeon and Tier 1 Raid currency) as well as a rare chance at Expert-to-Tier 1-ish Dendrome gear.

New Raid Rifts

There are new Raid Rifts, bought in the usual location: Rift Store -> Rifts for 60,000 Planarite and 900 IS (same as other Raid Rifts). Hell’s Insurgents can be opened in the Dendrome and Bloodfire Incursion can be opened in Steppes of Infinity. They are both Plane of Fire-based.

It is expected that the Daily Raid Rift will include them in its rotation. New Fire-based Essences are likely to drop from these, and if the Greater Essences (like Charred Flamesource) also drop from these rifts, I can see these becoming popular DRRs.

Goboro Reef IA

Not much information pertaining to this, but just feast your eyes on this^.

WARNING: Do NOT click the Join button for Goboro Reef on the PTS as the zone is not out yet and thus your client will crash and any subsequent attempt to log back into your char will result in client crashes.

“Fight the Awakened and ascend to the Halcyon Gates”! Halcyon is likely to refer to calm and peace. The calm before the storm? (Thanks to whiplord in the comments section for the link!)

In any case, it states its level range is Level 58 to 60. We know that the Level cap will increase to 65, so perhaps this Goboro Reef zone will be released prior to 3.0 as a sort of Ember Isle 2.0-type deal? (i.e., harder than current mobs, perhaps Level 62 mobs; but still Level 60-relevant).

Dream Weaving Craft Profession

Dreamweaving has arrived! Or, at least, on the PTS. Slated for Patch 2.6, this crafting profession is fully up (all 375 levels) on the PTS! You can train for this profession via Reva Song <Grandmaster Dream Weaver> right next to the Dimension Key vendor at The Canals in Tempest Bay.

Dreamweaving creates Dimension Items, Dimension Keys and Dream Orbs. Dream Orbs are of particular note because they act like Runes (but stacks with them) on Armor pieces (excl. Capes/Belts). More on Dream Orbs further down this post.

NOTE: Everything is heavily subject to change – craft requirements are placeholder-only.

Requirements

The Dreamweaving Craft requires a Craft/Gathering Slot. Currently there are 9 total Craft/Gathering Slots as well as 2 stand-alone slots for Survival and Fishing.

Update 12.18.13: Faratha has confirmed that in 2.6, the max slots will be 10 so you can have everything.

As hinted at, the main materials required are known as Dream Ribbons that you get from salvaging Artifacts.

Current Dream Ribbons salvaged as follows:

• Common (White) Artifacts = 1 Dream Ribbon
• Uncommon (Green) Artifacts = 2 Dream Ribbons
• Rare (Blue) Artifacts = 5 Dream Ribbons
• Epic (Purple) Artifacts = 20 Dream Ribbons
• Relic (Orange) Artifacts = 50 Dream Ribbons

The amount of Dream Ribbons you gain increases as your Skill increases – mainly the brackets are 0-75, 76-149, 150-224, 225-299, 300-375. By the time you hit Grandmaster, the salvageable amounts are as follows:

• Common (White) Artifacts = 3 Dream Ribbon
• Uncommon (Green) Artifacts = 4 Dream Ribbons
• Rare (Blue) Artifacts = 9 Dream Ribbons
• Epic (Purple) Artifacts = 28 Dream Ribbons
• Relic (Orange) Artifacts = 75 Dream Ribbons

Note: Some Artifacts will not be salvageable, such as ones that respawn very fast. (my guess is artifacts like the quest-based artifacts that appear in Sanctum and Meridian).

Dream Focus
To craft, you must be near a Dream Focus (craft station) which is located next to the Grandmaster NPC. However, you are given a quest to create a Dream Focus dimension item and you can subsequently use that Dream Focus dimension item in your dimension to act as your craft station!

Leveling Up

You will need a LOT of Dream Ribbons (thousands) to hit 375. Along the way you’ll also need various Wood, Plant, Leather, Bars and Fish.

Dimension Items

The Dreamweaving profession can create a huge plethora of Dimension Items.

It’s actually really hard to show a lot of the Dimension Items you can create with Dreamweaving because almost all of them are animated items.

The above image is the concept of Paints (plus an animated Quicksand). You see the Charred Earth Terrain Paint, Death Terrain Paint, Life Terrain Paint and Quicksand Overlay. The Paints act as ‘skins’ that cover whatever it is you are placing it over – it doesn’t affect the 3D model of the stuff you put it over, just the skin. In the background you can also see part of a Massive Smoke Plume (it’s reaaaally massive).

Just some more of the items – again, very hard to show them off with still images.

To give you an idea of how many items you can craft with the dreamweaver profession, below is an image of only the stuff you get from the Trainer. Does not include Cash Shop recipes and excludes Dream Orbs and Dimension Keys.

All tradeable!

Below are the Cash Shop ones (not viewable at the moment):

Video: Dimension Items

There will not be Craftman Mark-based Recipes nor will there be Dream Weaving dailies. You can obtain recipes via the Trainer, Cash Shop and through other methods not yet mentioned (probably open world/dungeon drops). [r]

New Dimensions

One of the biggest perks of the Dream Weaving Craft Profession are the new Dimension Keys, all tradeable!

Yep, there’s quite a few. They range from small dimensions all the way to large ones listed below. All tradeable when you craft them.

Note: the “Key to Dimension: Anywhere” isn’t what you think. It is a plain location with no doodads. Complete sandbox.

Screenshots – New Dimensions

Below is an image album with screenshots from all the dimensions:

IMGUR ALBUM: New Dimensions – Dreamweaving

Once again, these are tradeable!

Dream Orbs

Dream Orbs are also created by the Dream Weaving profession. These orbs provide random, Calling-appropriate buffs to all armor slots (excl. Capes/Belts) and stacks with Runes.

As per the above image, the costs, level requirements and the amount of Dream Orbs each level of Dream Orb creates is shown.

Examples of what you can get from these Dream Orbs are shown below:

Lesser Dream Orbs

Median Dream Orbs

Greater Dream Orbs

All-in-all a lot of RNG. You get a few tries per coruscating, but expect coruscating ethereal shards and artifact costs to ‘change’ – at least a little – when Dream Weaving comes out!

Stock up on cheap artifacts now? Probably a good idea.

Currently your dream orbs ‘carry over’ when you upgrade an item, unlike runes that are destroyed on upgrade.

Note: Again though, everything is subject to change since it is on the PTS!

Update 12.18.13: Faratha has confirmed that Dream Orbs are useable for Level 40+ items.

VFX Improvements

On the optimisation front, Trion have pushed onto the PTS some code that aims at optimising some of the video effects on certain systems. The main benefits will be in areas with large amount of video effects such as raids, dungeons, pvp and open world bosses.

Testing of the new optimisation is up on the PTS and Trion would greatly appreciate it if you come and test – for the sake of finding anything that would crash on your system and at different settings.

Formal playtests will also be held next year. Check out the forums to provide any feedback/bugs you might find.

Data Mining

A new update comes new datamining for TehFrank!

Once again he’s found a few new things floating around. Check out his posts here.

Of particular note are the following:

A couple of these seems like Rooster/Budgie mounts with the top-left clearly being the mount that Archonix showed off on the forums earlier last week:

The others seem like a Sheep/Lamb pet and a strange, unidentified Frog/Toad mount (or perhaps a stoney, red-eyed, no-grass Shambler?) or pet.

Other datamining information includes:

• A ‘Doctors Without Borders’ promo with a Bogling Nurse, medical gear and a ‘Doctors Without Borders’ store page.
• Goboro Reef lighting models, including a SKY_goboro_reef_draum_dome_01. Draum = Dream; so perhaps there are Dream Domes (housing structures) in this Goboro Reef zone.
• Bits of the Nightmare Rifts model.

Others

New Tempest Bay Daily

A new daily is available in Tempest Bay right outside the Haunted Terminal. Location. It’s called “Two Front Fighting”, rewarding the standard 2 plat 55 gold. Requirement is to kill 50 Fire or Air rift creatures that grant experience.

Not sure if the Planes requirement changes on a rotation – or if this is in relation to the Awakened (Fire mobs ala underwater questline near Ember Isle) and the final part to the Epic Air Saga (Crucia storyline) incoming with Patch 2.6. (i.e. fighting on two fronts; Crucia, air, and the Awakened, Fire).

No notoriety right now, but as you can see from the quest text – that could very much change by the time this hits Live.

So why this random NPC all the way near Haunted Terminal? It’s close to the last place we saw Crucia teleport. Perhaps the Haunted Terminal will become a new quest hub for Phase 3 of the Epic Air Saga.

160% Vials

160% Transcendent vials are up on the Cash Shop on the PTS.

Updated ‘Dimension Items’ window

There’s now sorting by Chronological or Alphabetical order as well as sorting by Categories including Decoration, Household Item and Landscaping!

Mage Arbiter (3.0 soul) Test Gear

There’s Mage Tank gear for the Arbiter soul coming in Rift 3.0. It is basically equal INT, equal WIS gear with high END and Deflect on everything. So at the very least it seems that – at least with the current iteration of the soul – the Arbiter soul probably uses Deflect.

Of course this is test gear so may have absolutely no reflection on what the final stats that the Mage Tank soul will employ.

This gear is available from the Dummy Foundry on Master Mode difficulty. If you want to learn how to get to the Dummy Foundry, check out the following guide:

Guide: Accessing the Dummy Foundry

Again the 3.0 souls are in alpha testing so are highly subject to change. Still, you can pick this gear up from the Dummy Foundry and pretend you’re a Mage Tank :P.

Minimap Cleanup

The Mini-Map has gotten an all-round cleanup based on what level of terrain you are on. As you can see from the comparison above, the Mini-Map is a lot cleaner with only key information and terrain shown for the terrain level you are on.

This is likely an on-going cleanup that Trion have been working on, but it definitely helps with Dendrome and future 3.0 Content which have multiple levels of content.

That’s all I could find for this update! Will update if more comes available, but look forward to the major 2.6 PTS update during January of next year!