RIFT’s Public Test Shard (‘PTS’) was updated on the 28th, 29th and 30th September 2015 with 285mb, 680mb and 1.13gb updates respectively. As per usual, mainly bug fixes but there’s also some additions to icons, new Wilds dailies and Class adjustments.
Patch versions are TEST-303-39-A-1041989, TEST-303-40-A-1042461 and TEST-303-41-A-1042873.
Summary:
- Welcome Message Updated. Livestream info; 3.4 image.
- Primalist-related Additions. Primalist Calling Pack on PTS; Primalist Capes.
- Icons Galore. Wilds weapon icons (incl. new snake staff); Primalist Soul icons; Disc Building Block Icons; Fire Budgie and Ash Strider mount icons.
- More Swimming Mounts. Cyclone/Volt and Tiger-based mounts have swimming animation files.
- Class Changes. Warrior Tempest Buff; Primalist Typhoon on PTS.
- Crystalline Scale. Boase previews ‘Crystalline Scale’ achievement reward item.
- Other Info. New Planetouched Wilds Quests; Mind of Madness Raid Testing; Crafting Rift Lures BoA.
As always, everything below is subject to change prior to hitting Live and some things included below may never make it to Live release.
Welcome Message Updated
The Welcome Message that was added to the PTS a few days ago has now been updated with some new, informational images.
As per the image above, this week’s RIFT Livestream will be held at 3:30PM PDT on Friday, October 2nd 2015. Archonix and Dead Simon will recap all the Planetouched Wilds (and probably 3.4)-related additions to the game. Be sure to tune in on their livestream channel!
Other images include RIFT Store promos and a Patch 3.4 image:
RIFT Update 3.4 Image
Update 3.4 Welcome Window Message
Update 3.4 welcome image looks spiffy. Low on details though. Would be useful if (on Live) it has a button that links to full patch notes on RIFT Forums, although there’s currently no indication of that. King Khar’s special little sheep as a postage stamp is a nice touch.
Primalist Pack Image
Primalist Calling Pack Welcome Window Message
Primalist Calling Pack will be available when 3.4 hits that will unlock Primalist for your account. Comes with the 6 currently available souls. There’s currently 2x Primalist Calling Packs in a giveaway/contest here on RiftGrate that you can check out; ends Monday 5th Oct.
Primalist-related Additions
A few additions related to the Primalist calling.
Primalist Calling Pack
Primalist Calling Pack is up on the PTS under RIFT Store -> Services. Costs 5,250 Credits (4,725 for Patron). Bind on Pickup, but giftable.
Primalist Capes
A whole bunch of Primalist Cape skins have appeared in the latest data files.
- bahmi_female/model/cape/bahmi_female_cape_dervish_001.ma.
- human_female_cape_titan_001.ma
- bahmi_male_cape_typhoon_001.ma
- bahmi_male_cape_preserver_001.ma
- elf_male_cape_vulcanist_001.ma
- human_female_cape_berserker_001.ma
There’s .ma files for every race and gender.
There’s one Primalist Cape for each of the Primalist’s initial souls. Reminds me of the Dream Soul capes rewarded from the Runic Athenaeum questchain since they too displayed the soul icons, although the Runic Athenaeum ones were a lot more varied in cape design.
Not sure where you’ll be able to obtain these. Perhaps as part of the Planetouched Wilds questchain, or through dailies/quartermaster. The Shal Korva quartermaster currently only has Seal runes and the heirloom Ring.
Icons Galore
Lots of icons in latest update. Note too exciting though, all stuff we already know about.
- Planetouched Wilds Primalis-themed Weapon Icons.
- Primalist Soul Icons.
- Disc Building Block Icons.
- Mount Icons: Fire Budgie and some version of the Ash Strider.
Weapon Icons
The first weapon icon shows a cobra with bones sticking out. This looks to be the 2-handed staff model. So far I haven’t seen a skin for this model, and it doesn’t appear in 2-handed wardrobe under search term “_”, which is where you can view all other weapons.
Also, the warrior shield in the last icon still doesn’t display on the PTS. The skin has been datamined before, and the ‘model’ is viewable in wardrobe. However, the model is completely black – the skin hasn’t been attached to it yet.
Mount Icons
Two mount icons appeared.
One is for the Fire Budgie mount whose skin was included in a previous PTS Update. The icon and skin also appeared in the RIFT 3.3 Hotfix #14 update (30th Sept). Chances are it’ll appear in a Budgie Madness Promo Week on Live that’s probably going to appear very soon (perhaps even this Thursday!)
The second is of some kind of Ash Strider mount icon. Looks like an orange/brown-ish Ash Strider with gray scales. Of course, this could just be an icon for something else like a companion pet or artifact.
More Swimming Mounts
Character config files have popped up with new swimming animation files for some mounts.
- anim\mount\swim\move\asset\human_male_mount_floating_stormlegion_swim_move_forward.kf
- anim\mount\swim\move\asset\human_male_mount_tiger_swim_move_forward.kf
These apply to Tiger (mount_tiger) and Cyclone (mount_floating_stormlegion) mounts. For Cyclone, this likely includes Bolt and Volt mounts.
These new animation files are backed up by RIFT Art Manager Marigold’s recent comment that Bolt (and similar) mounts were “on the list to get swim”. [r] Unsure though whether these mounts will be made Amphibious retroactively or will require the Mount Swimming Manual item.
Class Changes
A few class changes to note:
Warrior Tempest Buff
Vladd stated in the chat channel of a previous livestream that he wanted to buff Tempest’s DPS by about 5k. He has now added some damage (and a shield) buffs to the PTS that you can test out. Focus Fire has also become a personal buff (instead of a raid buff like it is on Live).
You can find the differences between Live and PTS including comparison screenshot here.
Primalist Typhoon Soul on PTS
The Primalist’s Typhoon soul (Ranged AoE DPS) is now available on the PTS! Please play around with the soul and if you have any feedback, post them up in the Typhoon Feedback thread. Check the second post for changelog and any bugs that Trion is aware of.
Crystalline Scale
In a previous update, “The Wild Hunt” achievement – earned from defeating all rare creatures in the Planetouched Wilds – added a “Crystalline Scale” reward.
Boase was able to obtain a copy of the Crystalline Scale from a dev to test out. When used, the item will transform you into one of 5 different Planetouched Wilds dinosaur mobs: a Raptor, Kadghak, Crystal Croc, Skyhunter and one other.
Crystalline Scale 4 of 5 forms. Src: Boase.
You can view the full images of each in Boase’s post here.
The Crystalline Scale transformations have a 10min CD, work in combat and can be affected by size enlargement potions like the Air Head Brew, as shown below:
Crystalline Scale with Air Head Brew. Src: Boase.
The Crystalline Scale item will be quite rare and difficult to obtain. Don’t let the number of objectives on that “The Wild Hunt” achievement fool you. Each one of those objectives contains 8 rares each.
On a positive note, you don’t need the ultimate Teth kill achieve “Keep What You Kill” to complete “Into the Wilds”!
Other Info
New Planetouched Wilds Quests
Trion has populated various towns in the Planetouched Wilds with new dailies. There’s:
- 1 Daily in Khort (was 3 prior to latest patch);
- 1 in Jad;
- 1 in Shal Korva;
- 2 in Woe.
(Thanks to Gatsby for the info!)
Act III of the Planetouched Wilds questchain is also up! (Thanks to m12342 for the info!)
Mind of Madness Raid Testing
Raid testing for the upcoming Tier 3 20-man, Mind of Madness has been on-going for a few weeks now. If you notice incredible lag on the PTS, it might be due to hotloads from the raid devs. The hotloads are fixes/adjustments to the raid that don’t require shard downtime, but do lag the PTS a bit.
Reminder that the Mind of Madness raid will not be coming out at 3.4 release, but a bit further down the road during the 3.4 patch cycle.
(Thanks to Gatsby and Sedvick for the info!)
Crafting Rift Lures BoA
Can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before, but crafting rift lures are now Bind on Account!
This change is applied retroactively as well. However, you need to unstack your lures to turn them into BoA.
(Thanks to Accol for the info!)
A few additions, although the large file sizes for each patch is once again due to small edits in large collections of files. Look forward to some new Primalist capes, and be sure to give your feedback on Warrior Tempest and Primalist Typhoon changes!
For past PTS Updates, click here. You can also find past datamining here.
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