Trion has announced the 5th calling for RIFT known as the Primalist in a new Dev Diary video which you can check out here.
The Primalist
The Primalist is the 5th calling in RIFT. From the Dev Diary video, a few things have been revealed about the Primalist.
[Update] Primalist Livestream. Trion has now also held a Primalist livestream, revealing more about the new calling including a whole bunch of tooltips and all soul trees. Check out the summary and tooltip compilation here!
New Focus Bar
The Primalist makes use of a new focus bar that moves between Fury (bear) and Cunning (Eagle) as you use different abilities. The further you go in either direction, the more effective or powerful the abilities you use become.
Six Souls (+4 Future)
Primalist will be releasing with 6 souls at the beginning, with 4 more added in the future. It’s unknown what the 4 future souls are.
- Vulcanist: Ranged ST DPS. Fire + Earth abilities.
- Berserker: Melee AoE DPS.
- Typhoon: Ranged AoE DPS. Water + Air abilities.
- Titan: Tank.
- Dervish: Melee ST DPS.
- Preserver: Healer. Uses blossoms and seeds.
Each soul has 31 points (compared to existing Callings’ 61 points) so the Primalist’s soul tree differs a bit from existing ones. This has been confirmed by Lead Systems Designer Vladd.
A few interesting tidbits were garnered from the video.
Typhoon Storm VFX
It seems that Typhoon has some new vfx assets:
RIFT Primalist Typhoon
It’s not an ‘entirely’ new idea, but the storm vfx looks unique compared to the existing ones in-game. It’s not too surprising that the Primalist would have new vfx though.
Titan Totem
What’s even more interesting is that the Titan seems to make use of some kind of pulsing stone totem:
RIFT Primalist Titan
Will it act kind of like the Beacon of Despair from Cleric’s Defiler soul, generating threat on targets and perhaps making the Titan take a percentage of damage? Who knows at this point. At the very least, the pulsing AoE from the Titan’s totem seems to keep the mobs at bay, acting as a kind of ‘wall’.
Primal Avatars
Red Hawk mentioned in the video that you will want at least 21 points in your primary soul to obtain the “Primal Avatar” of that soul.
Primalist’s Primal Avatars
Each soul has one Primal Avatar that provides a significant boost to your spec and gives you a vfx on your head of the associated creature. From the video we know that the ‘Primal Avatar: Tiger’ is for the Berserker soul.
Berserker Soul Tree
During the video, Trion briefly showed the Berserker soul tree and hovered over some abilities. This is the Primalist’s Melee AoE DPS soul.
RIFT Primalist Berserker Soul Tree Preview
The abilities are:
- Condensed Wrath. While you have a single stack of Wrath, your single target damage is increased by 5/10/15? %. This bonus is decreased by 5% for each additional stack of Wrath.
- Primal Avatar: Tiger (21pt ability). Channels the Primal Spirit of the Tiger. Sets Fury to max and stops focus bar movement. Reduces the cooldown of Corpsefall and Icefall to 0 and applies 3 stacks of Calculated Action and Restrained Fury. Lasts 15s. 2min CD and oGCD.
- Heart Freeze. Interrupted and Debilitates up to 10 enemies for 5s. 30sec CD. Instant. 35m range.
It looks like each tree requires 31 points to max out.
Primalist ETA
So what is the Primalist release date?
No exact date, but Lead Engineer Snedhepl has confirmed it has a RIFT 3.4 release:
It’ll be out in 3.4.
[Source: Snedhepl]
Remember how Live Content Designer Kerilar mentioned in a tweet that Primalist, Planetouched Wilds and the Assault on Bronze Tomb Warfront will be released at the same time?:
They all go live at the same time. Wrap your head tight, so it doesnt explode!
[Source: Kerilar]
With that and what CM Ocho mentioned about the name of the patch in a thread on the forums, it seems we now have confirmation that:
The 5th Calling Primalist, the new zone Planetouched Wilds and Assault on Bronze Tomb Warfront will be released in RIFT 3.4: Into the Wilds!
RIFT 3.4 Release Date
When is RIFT 3.4? Senior UI Artist Gingers has mentioned Fall 2015. [r] (So between Sept 23rd to Dec 21st).
Primalist Cost
The Wilds Pack
The Primalist is currently available for early purchase from “The Wilds Pack” on the RIFT Store which costs $100.
- That pack includes the 6 Primalist souls as well as a special mount, portrait, warfront announcer, scaling trinket, 30-day patron, companion pet, minion card and costume + cape.
- Some items are available instantly whilst others (like the Primalist class) will only be available once 3.4 hits.
You can learn full details about The Wilds Pack here.
Primalist for Credits
The Primalist class will be available for Credits on the RIFT Store when 3.4 launches.
Similar to the Storm Souls and Dream Souls Packs, there will also be a Primalist Pack available in game for credit purchase/gifting once 3.4 is live. It will include the calling and initial 6 souls.
[Source: RIFT Game Director Archonix]
Price of the Primalist Pack is currently unknown.
Other Interesting Tidbits
Not exactly about the Primalist, but I’ll mention a few other stuff of interest.
Possible Teth Sculpture
Possible Teth Stone Monument
The statue/sculpture/monument shown at the very beginning of the trailer might actually represent Teth. It wouldn’t be a surprise if some of the inhabitants of the Planetouched Wilds were to worship Teth, who (according to artifacts on the PTS) can change forms. The numerous hands and masks might represent his various forms.
Planetouched Wilds
Planetouched Wilds Teaser
Not much, but here’s a screenshot of the brief moment they showed off a very small portion of the Planetouched Wilds. As we’ve garnered from PTS data files and mini-map compilations, there’s a large mass of blue and red crystals in open mining tunnels scattered throughout the area.
The screenshot also shows some cloth in the top-right which is typical of some of the structures in the zone. There’s also two blimps and floating island in the distance at the top of the screenshot.
Ovog Ceremonial Robe
Ovog Ceremonial Robe
The video also showed off the Ovog Ceremonial Robe wardrobe bundle that we’ll be getting at some point. It’s already on the PTS. Just search for “Ovog” in Wardrobe (with Show Uncollected checked).
There’s also a Primalist Cape as seen in the top-right image. Unknown how we’ll obtain this.
Risen Arak Wallpaper
RIFT Arisen Arak ‘Wallpaper’. Click image for 1920×1200 version.
At the very end of the video is this ‘wallpaper’. The main new things you’ll notice is Arisen Arak, the Primalist in the bottom-right hand corner and a prominent female character in the foreground.
Click the image above for a 1920×1200 version of the ‘wallpaper’ taken from a screenshot of the video. I’m sure Trion will have the actual high-res wallpaper on their site at some point.
The female character will most likely be of some importance to the Planetouched Wilds storyline.
Color Scheme
Notice the color scheme. There’s the blue-ish/green water on the left which possibly represents the Plane of Water; there’s green at the back which represents Nightmare/Lord Arak and then there’s orange to the right.
We know that there’s new Poison, Nightmare and Burning artifact types on the PTS. Could it be possible that the orange ‘water’ to the right is hinting at a Plane of Fire expansion?
Pure speculation of course, and I might just be crazy.
Arisen Arak
As for the green golem in the background, that should be Arisen Arak, the guy whose model has been in the data files for a few weeks now.
Arisen Arak Model
He will most likely appear in the Tier 3 “Lord Arak Raid” raid. Unsure if the new ‘wallpaper’ with Arisen Arak means that we’re also getting the new raid in 3.4, but my guess is that with all the things being added to 3.4, they’ll probably hold off on the raid until 3.5 (slated for some time in Fall/Winter).
Trion New Logo
It seems Trion’s logo has changed as well:
Interesting little tidbit.
Look forward to the Primalist calling, Planetouched Wilds zone and Assault on Bronze Tomb warfront in RIFT 3.4: Into the Wilds, coming some time this Fall!
Keep an eye out for other Primalist information that Trion starts posting up in the coming weeks/months until 3.4 hits!
[Update] You can check out the Primalist Livestream Summary for further details on the Primalist calling, including compilations of tooltips for the various souls!
RiftGrate 
I’m definitely going to be checking out the Preserver build. 🙂
Although I rarely tank (only for quick expert queues), I’m actually interested in this whole ‘wall’ thing. The totem pulses AoE that seems to keep mobs away. Wonder how that’ll play into current or future raids. Does it affect other players in, say, PvP? Will be interesting to play around with at the very least.
Awesome! I can’t wait to play this Primalits. Seems to be a great big fun. Oh and btw as always good job with the article Khortish
100€ what a joke haha
This is really a joke!!!!!
How…did they add a ‘Primalist’ during an ‘Into the Wilds’ content patch…and still not implement a tamer soul? Or a shape-shifter?
The -only- thing they just said describing the souls within Primalist that was at all intriguing, was the Preserver. As I listened to the the other souls, I recalled all of the souls I’ve just played with while setting up my new 4 classes.
It doesn’t sound like a new class to me, it sounds like a new mechanic…and that mechanic could have been added to any one of the existing classes as a new soul ‘archtype’ so every class could experience a new playstyle.
However, the -mechanic- seems interesting, I’ve seen it in other games and if it’s done right, it’ll add a new level of interaction with the game, which is always good.
That price tag, though…
Just have to wait for the Primalist-only pack that will be available for Credits when 3.4 hits. Unsure on price at the moment.
LOL-I feel sorry for the ppl who spent 100$ on this. Today after it’s release, I was constantly disconnected from the main shard i play on..so i tried a different one.it worked..i bought the primalist pack with 5K credits or whatever..have plenty of those to blow…but NOTHING happened. a guild mate told me to try logging out and logging back in. wow. I certainly hope trion get’s their **** together soon because I am sure I will be in a LONG list on that Live Support Chat in the morning…..
issue STILL not fixed with digital purchase…….that was 6 hours ago..on line at trion support chat…been waiting nearly 40 minutes…still no reply…… and sorry it was 4725 credits that I got screwed out of …not 5k lol
Hope you get this issue resolved asap Xiliel! Can’t imagine how frustrating it must be. That said, CS is probably overwhelmed right now due to the players who were unable to login to their mains after 3.4 patch.