PTS Update for 21st-22nd May 2015 Part 2

RIFT’s Public Test Shard (‘PTS’) was updated on the 21st-22nd May 2015 with ~3.55GB and 683MB respectively. This is Part 2 of the update.

You can check out Part 1 here. Patch versions are TEST-302-46-A-1006590 and TEST-302-47-A-1006979.

Summary:

• New Dimension Items & Keys. Mathosian Cascades, Octus Monastery, Tulan and dimension items from Artifact vendor.
• Strands Changes. Strands will be craftable via Dream Weaver/Apothecary.
• Achievements. Intrepid: Gilded Prophecy.
• Appearance Sets Tab. 75 appearance sets to collect!
• Further Information. More info from the community.

As always, everything below is subject to change prior to hitting Live and some things included below may never make it to Live release.

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New Dimension Items & Keys

Besides the Tempest Island mentioned in Part 1, there’s three more new Dimension Keys readily viewable on the PTS. These can be found under RIFT Store -> Dimensions -> Dimension Keys. There’s also some more Dimension Items obtainable from Artifact Vendors.

Mathosian Cascades

Mathosian Cascades costs 900p or 1,700 Credits (1,530 for Patrons). It is situated in an area that we might not be able to access in the open world.

Mathosian Cascades has the following upgrades:

1. Item Limit: 625.
2. Item Limit: 940. Cost: 540p
3. Item Limit: 1875. Cost: 1620p
4. Item Limit: 2500. Cost: 3240p
5. Item Limit: 5000. Cost: 9180p

No Credit price added in yet.

Note: The item limit might not be final. Morticus stated that the item limit for the dimension was probably copied over from another dimension. [r]

The dimension is in a large, open area surrounded by mountains from all sides.

The accessible area is part of the open plain. However, strangely, there’s a pond/lake in the area but you cannot access it because the boundaries of the dimension are just cut off in front of it.

Octus Monastery

Octus Monastery is another dimension key available on the RIFT Store. It also costs 900p or 1,700 Credits (1,530 for Patrons) although that could be placeholder.

Octus Monastery has the following upgrades:

1. Item Limit: 315.
2. Item Limit: 470. Cost: 90p or 54 Credits.
3. Item Limit: 945. Cost: 270p or 162 Credits.
4. Item Limit: 1260. Cost: 540p or 324 Credits.
5. Item Limit: 2520. Cost: 4800p or 1800 Credits.

Again, item limit might be placeholder. Octus Monastery is situated in Tarken Glacier but devoid of any buildings or doodads. The key feature would be the floating platform with the two magic symbols.

You can also drop down to the very bottom, which is a relatively open area. That said, you’ll need to make your own teleports/way up and down from the floating platform and the frozen lake underneath.

As well as the platform and lake, in the background is a large floating collection of glaciers similar to the Vengeful Sky dimension.

Tulan

Key to Dimension: Tulan is available under RIFT Store -> Dimensions -> World Event. It costs 5 Summerfest Friendship Bracelets and 200 Summerfest Merit Badges or 680 Credits (612 for Patrons).

Given its location on the RIFT Store, it will likely appear with this year’s Summerfest World Event. ETA unknown, but probably some time between June and July. (Thanks to Kiwi and Dimensionpts for the info on this dimension!)

The Tulan dimension is basically located in Tulan, Cape Jule at /setwaypoint 8285 11924 although a few adjustments have been made to ‘enclose’ the area off. The main area of the dimension has multiple water falls, streams and walls along the outer border.

It’s a rather large dimension that encompasses the entire port. All the main buildings and doodads have been removed, leaving only the main ground structure in place.

The dimension borders expand to slightly past the docks so that you’ve got a bit of of the water to play around with. It does not extend to the ‘beach’ in the below image. However, it does encompass the water area just beyond the wharf.

A fairly large dimension. Unfortunately it currently only has a max item limit of 1,000, although this is hopefully placeholder.

You can check out these dimensions (and the Tempest Island dimension) by typing their name out in the search field in the Dimensions window (default key “[“) on the PTS.

Dimension Items

Besides the dimension items craftable by Dream Weavers mentioned in Part 1 of the PTS Update, there’s also a whole bunch of new dimension items you can obtain from the Artifact vendor.

The Word of Power: Knowledge seems a little costly. That said, there should be other Word of Power dimension items obtainable via other means not yet known when 3.3 hits.

The Word of Power: Knowledge has animated symbols. The Zeuxis Bust is nice, but the max scale size is rather small so it’s likely meant more as an indoor piece.

The Tall Rose Coral Tree is rather large, even at its normal size. Same with the other corals.

The Draumheim Well doesn’t actually go deep and bottoms out at the bottom of the well’s structure. There’s a watery effect there, but no splash when you jump in.

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Strands Changes

Strands of Draum and Strands of Arak will be undergoing changes. With last week’s hotfix the Strands became Bind on Pickup. However, this decision is being reversed. The Strands are used in high level crafting recipes and for upgrading various equipment.

• Strands will be tradeable again.
• Strands of Draum will be crafted by Dream Weavers.
• Strands of Arak will be crafted by Apothecaries.
• Recipes cost 50 Grandmaster, 170 Master and 350 Artisan Marks each.
• The Strands will still be available on the RIFT Store, but the crafting marks price will be removed so they will be Credit-only.

The recipes require a variety of items, mainly involving Diaphanous Cloth, Fabled Hide and Thalasite Crystals + a bunch of vendor mats, with the Strands of Draum requiring the addition of 12 Dream Ribbons.

The recipe costs are subject to change with Vladd indicating that the target is at about the 50 plat range for each.

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Achievements

Achievements have gone from 36,347 to 36,612. A 265-pt increase. First up, the Chronicle -> Hammerknell: Runes of Corruption is up 35pts since last PTS Update (as per Live). There’s also a 10pt reduction from 525 to 515 for Return to Hammerknell raid. Not sure what was removed.

Intrepid: Gilded Prophecy

The big addition is Intrepid: Gilded Prophecy, found under Raids -> RIFT: Nightmare Tide. Has 240pts altogether.

The biggest difference between achievements would be that the Intrepid versions seems to have Hardmode achieves.

The assumption is that Intrepid: Gilded Prophecy will be slated for a Tier 2 release since it would help players gear up and spread the instance locks somewhat for the current tier.

There’s no secondary portal next to the original Gilded Prophecy on the PTS (like there is for Intrepid: Drowned Halls) and it’s unknown at this stage whether any testing has begun for this 10-man raid.

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Appearance Sets Tab

There’s now a new tab in the Character window on the PTS called ‘Appearance Sets’. This is a new addition that relates to Wardrobes.

The Appearance Sets are basically as-named, they track your progress in collecting certain wardrobe sets. The UI is similar to the Artifacts UI so you can search for a set, Sort by Progress and even select whether you want to filter by All, Incomplete or Complete.

There’s currently 75 appearance sets in total to collect. Most of the appearance sets are Premium sets or sets from World Events like Summerfest, although you will find a few based on dropped gear like the Akala set, which is basically the Sandcovered set.

There’s currently no achievements in relation to the appearance sets, although like other collections, it feels like something that Trion could add in the future.

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Further Information

You can also check out some posts by other players about the latest PTS Update, including:

• The Changing Faces of Plane Touched Wilds by Slipmat. Want to see what the outer edges of Planetouched Wilds looks like from a distance? Slipmat has a few before/after screenshots from the latest patch!

• New Crafting Recipe Feedback & Inquisitires by Kiwi. Kiwi has posted up her own screenshots of the latest dimension items, keys and crafted goods.

• Dimension Touring Company on latest Update. Feendish has posted up two articles about dimension additions in regards to the latest update. Check them out here and here.

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Some nice additions on the PTS with the latest two updates on top of the 3.3 crafting items shown in Part 1 of the latest update. That Tulan dimension is definitely something to keep an eye out for as we approach Summerfest!

You can check out other articles related to the recent update below:

• PTS Datamining Part 1
• PTS Update Part 1
• PTS Update Part 2

For past PTS Updates, click here. You can also find past datamining here.