RIFT 3.2 Launch Date Announced – April 15th

[Img Src: Trion Worlds]

Trion has announced that RIFT 3.2: Echoes of Madness will launch on April 15th 2015 (this Wednesday). You can check out the article here and CM Ocho’s forum thread here.

You can check out a full round-up of what’s coming to RIFT in 3.2 on the PTS/Live Comparison Page and also read up on preparing for 3.2 here.

I’ll briefly go over everything below as well:

3.2 Wardrobe System

New system where you collect appearances instead of using physical items.

• All your existing wardrobe items will be sent to you via mail, but the appearances (including dyes) will remain intact in your wardrobe sets.
• Wardrobe collections are region-wide unlocks.
• New Dye Bucket system which are unlimited use dyes. You’ll get all the ‘silver’-cost dyes for free. Others cost Credits.
• Dye Bucket system is account-wide unlocks.
• You can still use the old single-use dyes by applying to the wardrobe slot. However they are single-use and won’t appear in the dye bucket selection window.
• Dyes now belong to the dye slot, not the appearance slot. If you change a slot’s appearance, the dye colors will remain the same until you change the color in the associated dye slot.
• A new Wardrobe category has been added to Achievements with about 1.3-1.4k achievement points.

You can find out more information about the 3.2 Wardrobe System below:

• 3.2 Wardrobe System Livestream Summary.
• Rift Wardrobe: Save Your Marks (tip for getting a lot of marks).

Tier 2 Return to Hammerknell

Hammerknell Fortress Left Wing. Room Prior to Zilas. Src: Greg Frizzell

Tier 2 Raid will be “Return to Hammerknell” coming with 3.2. This raid is located at the top of Moonshade Highlands.

Few things to note:

• All 11 bosses are available.
• Old HK achieves are going to Legacy.
• The Level 50 Hammerknell Fortress is being removed.
• Bosses drop new currency: Fragments of Madness.
• Trash mobs will have chance of dropping unique gear for slot/s that you can’t get anywhere else in Tier 2.
• Rune King Molinar, Vladmal Prime, Estrode and Inquisitor Garau have had their mechanics adjusted, although still similar themed fights. The rest have minor adjustments if any.
• Akylios is back to pre-nerf levels – so one-shot waves even after Phase 1 and 120 Hit reduction debuff.

For more information on Return to Hammerknell:

• Return to Hammerknell Livestream Summary.
• RIFT 3.2: Echoes of Madness Hammerknell Article.

Gear Changes

• On the PTS they had Tier 1 Store-bought Raid Weapons with Relic upgrades. Stats can be seen here.
• Tier 2 armor is also available with Fragments of Madness. Stats/Models can be seen here.
• Nightmare Seals now go up by major tier instead of incremental. If you are still in-between a tier, you’ll still upgrade incrementally until you reach the next tier.
• Two new major Nightmare Seal tiers. They use a special component to upgrade that you get from Nightmare Rift dailies. You’ll only get the opponent if you have a currently (pre-3.2) maxed out Nightmare Seal.

Nightmare Rift VI

On the PTS there were new Nightmare Rift VI achievements and lures. Unknown if this will be added in for RIFT 3.2.

Quest Additions

• New Onslaught Daily/Weekly at Flargle Plaza, Draumheim. [r]
• New Instant Adventure Notoriety turn-in at Flargle Plaza (Draumheim), Tempest Bay, Sanctum and Meridian. [r]
• New Crafting Weekly NPC ‘Howard’ next to daily NPC at Choreburg crafting station, Draumheim. [r]
• The Crafting Daily NPC now also appears outside Tempest Bay crafting station.
• Fragments of Madness is now also rewarded for NT Daily/Weekly quests (except new Crafting Weekly). [r]

Instant Adventure Additions

• IA Queuing has changed. No more zone-specific; now Random or Featured.
• At the beginning the Featured will be the new Hammerknell Fortress Instant Adventures. HK IAs will not appear with 3.2 launch. [r]
• Old IA achieves have become Legacy. Anyone who has gotten any of the achieves will get special zone suffix titles. No. of IAs completed will go towards new Instant Adventure achievements under Achievements -> Character -> Instant Adventure.
• IA Notoriety Turn-ins as mentioned before. [r]

There was also a Tarken Glacier IA achievement so we might be getting new Tarken Glacier IAs.

Crafting Additions

• New Crafting Weekly NPC ‘Howard’ next to daily NPC at Choreburg crafting station, Draumheim. [r]
• The Crafting Daily NPC now also appears outside Tempest Bay crafting station.
• Crafted Attractor Minions for Artificer, Armorsmith, Outfitter, Runecrafter and Weaponsmith. [r]
• 28-slot NT bag from Outfitter trainer.
• 30-slot bag from RIFT Store -> Storage. Requires Dreaming Rune Amender (Runecrafter), Lucid Dreams (Dream Weaver) and Nightmare Textile Amender (Outfitter). Or 2,500 Credits (2,250 for Patrons).

Fishing Improvements

• Uncle Stan is now in NT next to Fishing Trainer in Choreburg crafting station, Draumheim. He has a daily that gives your choice of craft marks, notoriety, Recipe: Rare Atragarian Artifact Attractor or Tarken Treasure Chest.
• Uncle Stan also gives you a new fishing rod quest if you are 450 Fishing.
• Fishing Lures now last 5min, Artifact Lures now last 2min. Extended duration Artifact Lures now last 4min.
• You can now skill-up in low-level (gray) areas; but at a much lower rate than appropriate-level areas.

Dimension Additions

3.2 Dimension Interactive Items

• Lots of new interactive items with a lot of lines of text that they can speak at random or when prompted. Found under RIFT Store -> Dimensions -> Interactive.
• New Cat dimension items that you can obtain from Key Whee (Sanctum) or Dee Vah (Meridian). These NPCs are found wandering Sanctum/Meridian. (use a target macro).
• New Music Boxes: Iron Tomb, Goboro Reef, Draumheim and Tarken Glacier.
• New Indoor/Outdoor Flurrifier and Perm-a-Froz that gives snow vfx to your dimension.
• New Steppes of Infinity and River of Souls Projectors.
• New Interactive Books. Place them in your dimension, click and read.

More information/screens can be found here.

PvP-related Additions

Visible Elo Rating on PTS

• Elo Rating is now visible to you. Also includes win/loss/tie information.
• CQ Premades will be reduced to groups of 5.
• You will not be able to join at CQ timer (5min timer).

Other Tidbits

• Twisted Artifacts now available in Plane of Water zones.
• Mounts now sorted by mount speed.
• A ton of ‘Echoes of’ rare mob achievements added to Achievements -> Zones -> RIFT -> Moonshade Highlands.
• New Portraits: Akylios’s Grasp (tentacles); Red Intricate; Purple Flower.

Plenty of stuff coming with RIFT 3.2: Echoes of Madness. Get ready for it on the 15th April 2015!

You can find out more information in past PTS Updates, Datamining, News Tidbits and the PTS/Live Comparison page.

You can also check out how to prepare for 3.2 so you don’t waste or miss out on stuff with the Preparing for RIFT Patch 3.2 article!