PTS Update for 28th July 2014

A relatively small ~150MB update hit RIFT’s Public Test Shard for the 28th July 2014.

Quick Summary:

• New Fury of the Ascended ability currently under testing.
• New Normal Dungeon queue: “Nightmare Coast (60 – 63)”
• New Leaderboard: “Time: Nightmare Coast” under Storm Legion Group.
• New “Crushing Force” Zone Event in Goboro Reef seen.
• Warrior Soul Changes for Paragon, Tempest and Warlord.

 New Fury of the Ascended Ability

A new test ability: “Fury of the Ascended NEW” is available in the Dummy Foundry under Standard or Expert difficulty by speaking to Fluffy (the werewolf) in the instance. It costs 5 planarite (for testing purposes of course) and it seems to change up the way Fury of the Ascended will work.

Old vs New

Here’s the old ability vs the new ability. The old version increased out-going damage against invasions by 200% and reduced incoming damage from them by 75%. It also increased out-going damage against Colossi (zone event bosses) by 20% and reduced the incoming damage from them by 75%. Lasted 60secs with a CD of 60secs and a cost of 1x Planar Charge.

The new version lasts an entire hour, has a 1min CD and requires 3x Planar Charges. It increases damage you do to Colossi by 20% and reduces damage taken from Colossi by 50%.

You now also get a stacking buff for each invasion that increases damage you do to them by 15% and reduces damage taken by 5% per invasion mob. You get one stack for every invasion mob within a 15m radius of your targeted invasion mob whenever you attack them.

By Invasion mob they mean each mob, not the group. So if there’s 3 mobs in an invasion group, you will get 3 stacks of the buff.

From an Old vs New comparison:

• if you are fighting 14 or more invasion mobs that are within 15m of your targeted invasion mob, the new Fury of the Ascended will allow you to deal more damage to them than the old ability;
• if you are fighting 15 or more invasion mobs that are within 15m of your targeted invasion mob, the new Fury of the Ascended will allow you to take less damage from them than the old ability.

This has likely been added in to solve the issue of footholds that have been overtaken by 15+ Invasion groups of 45+ mobs that aren’t getting debuff stacks whilst making it so that smaller invasion groups are less of a snoozefest (when using Fury of the Ascended).

Note that as this is on the PTS it has not been finalised and – depending on player feedback – values may be changed prior to it hitting live. Please provide Feedback to MikeD here or via the in-game report feature.

Also note that right now the old and new abilities stack. This may be unintended.

Not sure how to get on the Public Test Shard or access the Dummy Foundry? Click here!

TL;DR – Big invasions easier; Small invasions harder. Colossi will deal 25% more damage to you when using the new Fury of the Ascended buff compared to the old.

New Dungeon Queue: Nightmare Coast (60-63)

As the heading suggests, there’s a new dungeon queue found under your Looking for Group window (default key “i“). If you click on the “Specific Dungeons” arrow in the bottom-left corner of the window and go to Normal Dungeons, you will see “Nightmare Coast (60-63)”.

The Nightmare Coast Dungeon is coming in RIFT 2.8: Madness Wakes and should provide some decent gear to get you ready for 3.0. It acts as a prelude dungeon for RIFT 3.0: Nightmare Tide just like Exodus of the Storm Queen did during Patch 1.11 for RIFT 2.0: Storm Legion. It is currently available for testing on the PTS south of Fortune’s Shore in Shimmersand.

Nightmare Coast Dungeon Entrance

New Leaderboard: “Time: Nightmare Coast”

A new “Time: Nightmare Coast” is available in the Leaderboards under Storm Legion Group. Leaderboards can be accessed via default key “;” or by clicking on the Social button (speech bubble icon) in the mini Menu Bar and choosing “Leaderboards”.

Crushing Force Zone Event

Nothing big; just that a new “Crushing Force” zone event announcement has appeared in Events/Level 60 chat on the PTS. This is the second zone event appearing on the PTS with the first being the “Flame Wave” zone event.

The new zone event seems to be related to Architects – perhaps dealing with the ones who potentially entered the Plane of Water via the Televeyer in Planebreaker Bastion. On the other hand, the older ‘Flame Wave’ zone event revealed a few months ago is related to the Bloodfire Army and their likely strong presence in Goboro Reef via Gyel Fortress.

This shows that Goboro Reef contains both a Fire presence as well as an Earth presence, backed up by Gyel Fortress, Lady Glasya, the Bloodfire Army and an Earth-related achievement revealed previously.

Warrior Soul Changes

Vladd has added some changes to some warrior souls as the beginning of attempts to even out ranged/melee soul dps across callings. (Kervik is also working on this). [r]

• Paragon: Shifting Blades – Damage reduced to 20/40/60% based on combo points used.
• Tempest: Arc – Damage reduced to 20/40/60% based on combo points used. Removed the 50% damage reduction in PvP.
• Warlord: Reverted change to Battle Surge and Tactical Surge that was on PTS.

Need access to the Public Test Shard or don’t know how to get to the Dummy Foundry to test out the new Fury of the Ascended ability? Click here!

For past PTS Updates, click here. You can also find past datamining and 3.0-related news updates.