One of the problems with diving back into the world of Telara on an alt or completely new character is the fact that, well, RIFT’s quests aren’t always that exciting. Sure, some of the quest chains are awesome. Some entire maps are awesome. I’m a huge fan of Gloamwood and Iron Pine Peaks, for example. Other maps, for me, prove a little more difficult to muddle through the second or third time around (Scarwood Reach and Scarlet Gorge, I’m looking at you). I don’t know what it is about the 30-40 leveling hurdle, but for some reason, my alts always get stuck there.

I don’t think I’m the only one with similar leveling hurdles, either, because many new players that are trying out RIFT for the first time find themselves a little underwhelmed at around the same levels. Trion was pretty quick to notice one of the glaring issues at these levels and have since changed the entire look of Scarwood Reach. The lush, green surroundings are a huge improvement, believe me, but there’s still… something off about the 30-40 level range.

INFERNAL DAWN
* Laethys:
- Increased Laethys’ Enrage timer by 1 minute.
- Increased the timer for the Laethys Achievement, ‘Gold Rush’, from 8 minutes to 9 minutes.
- Slightly increased the time between minion spawns in the initial phase of the encounter.
- Greed’s Wrath will deal substantially less damage when it ticks just after the target has taken damage from Golden Subjugation.
- Laethys no longer gains Energy while channeling Golden Destruction.
- Gilded Shrapnel can no longer be reflected.
* Maklamos the Scryer: Now with even more squashed bugs.

As always, everything on PTS is highly subject to change before it makes its way to live servers.

Today’s update to PTS includes the following (high level notes; more details to come):

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CONQUEST
* An early version of Conquest is now on PTS for testing! At this point, Conquest will only be accessible when specifically enabled for a playtest.
* Align yourself with one of the three warring groups – the Dominion, the Oathsworn, or the Nightfall, and join three-way cross-shard conflict in a contested sliver of Stillmoor.
* Capture, defend, and enhance conflict points to not only control the region but also gain access to bonuses and resources for your team.
* Fight Colossi on the field of battle to demonstrate your power and gain additional buffs.
* The Conquest Bar displays your current Conquest bonuses and can be found in the ‘K’ menu under Conquest.
* For those looking to contribute in ways other than direct combat, gather Sourcestone resources and use them to create beneficial effects that help everyone in your faction. These resources can be deposited in a depot inside your base where other crafters can also process them.
* New crafting recipes for use during Conquest are now available on the trainers in Sanctum and Meridian.
* Matches begin to lock down when a single team claims 40% of the control points, or when 5,000 deaths have taken place in the match; at that point a 10 minute timer will begin for a last chance at rallying your troops!

Originally posted from The Blog (Source)
Introducing Conquest – Test the latest in RIFT PvP on Thursday, 5/17

Three faction PvP and the essence of open world combat will soon storm upon the shores of the Public Test Shard!

Welcome to Conquest – choose your side and square off in a no-holds-barred, interdimensional battle royal on Thursday, 5/17 @ 4:00PM PDT (11:00PM GMT). This is the first massive test of this brand new feature!

Conquest at a Glance

• Engage in massive, cross-shard battles capturing the excitement of Open World PvP at its best!
• Align with one of three new factions, the biggest difference is their philosophy. (You will be able to change factions.)
• Earn rewards and bonuses for your team – or supercharge yourself with bonuses that can be used outside of Conquest!
• Everyone can contribute – crafters play a vital role in every Conquest battle.
• This is a brand new feature, details and specifics will likely change based on your feedback and play tests. For the latest info keep an eye on the PTS Forums!

Some cryptic Trion staff member posts have surfaced on the official RIFT forums this past week. A staff member by the forum name 3 3228466 787 is the main culprit, with posts that are intentionally cryptic, containing poetry, numerical codes, random pictures, and phrases. Fans of the game and forums have banded together in an attempt to muddle through the confusing posts, and figure out what the heck the folks at Trion are up to.

What do we know so far? Here is a summary of the posts, findings, possible theories, and reactions so far. I’ll try and keep this post updated with the latest information, so if you know of any new details, feel free to drop me a line. Special thanks to the awesome people on the official forums who helped come up with this information. It’s all interesting stuff!

UPDATE 5/13/12: New Guild joins the streaming gallery: Imperium of Steampike EU. See the stream after the break!

RIFT Junkies is inviting all guilds who are working their way through Infernal Dawn to stream their content on the front page of the website! If you and your guild are interested in doing this, please send an email to Draegan@Rerollz.com with the following information about your guild:

• Your guild name and server/region
• You guild raid schedule
• Link to your stream and/or embeddable code
• Link to your guild website

What we’ll do is list all the guilds below after the break and embed their stream. We’ll attempt to keep a live stream on top of the post at all times, schedule depending. If we get a large group of guilds with conflicting raiding schedules, we’ll rotate them up top as much as possible. Keep checking this post updates

CONTINUE READING FOR A FULL LIST OF STREAMS!

GENERAL
* Instant Adventure: Increased amount of experience given when participating in Instant Adventure on Ember Isle.
* Riftblade: Rift Storm hits no longer trigger Blade buffs or Elemental Touch.
* Laethys tweaks for Infernal Dawn raid.

RIFT Junkies is looking for some new writers to help us cover all the new things coming in Infernal Dawn. Are you an expert at your calling? We need people to help cover all the callings and help teach our readers the latest specs. Are you a valiant raider? We need those brave souls who plan on tackling Infernal Dawn to help report your adventures to everyone.

RIFT Junkies is currently looking for volunteers to write on the following topics.

• Calling Specialists
• Raiding, 10 man and 5 Man Content
• News Writers
• Bloggers

Fill out our “Join the Team” Form here.

OR

If you are interested please send a 200-300 word writing sample to Draegan@Rerollz.com along with any other questions or concerns. RIFT Junkies is the #1 Premiere Fansite for RIFT which is read by hundreds of thousands of people every week.

Join the team!

GENERAL
* NPCs that are nearby but not fully displayed on your screen will show up briefly as green cylinder effects, until they are fully loaded. [this actually started after the last hotfix! ]
* Rogues now regenerate 24 Energy per second, up from 23.
* Elder Tablets and their lower level counterparts no longer grant Energy regeneration.
* White Wedding garb and veil have agreed to stop eating dyes without changing color.

Hit us after the break for a full list of videos.

UPDATE 5/9/12: Added Ember Conclave