Originally posted by Hartsman (Source)

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Hello, Ascended!

What an amazing year it’s been. As we approach RIFT’s first full birthday, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on some of the things that have happened since launch and discuss the thinking that will shape the year to come.

If you’re reading this, chances are you already know that we think about MMOs differently than everyone else. To us, everything is about the quality of the service, the speed of meaningful updates, and the relationship that combination creates with you. We never forget that you are the reason we do everything we do.

In our last big Producer’s Letter, we talked about the kinds of themes we were aiming for. We talked about making more story-based adventure available to more people (which surfaced in the form of Chronicles and Slivers), unique and better ways to play with others as easily as possible (which took the form of Instant Adventures, Onslaughts that added new build-and-defend gameplay to Ember Isle, and the largest zone events we’ve ever created), and ongoing advancement that occurs even after you hit level 50 (which then arrived in the form of Planar Attunement).

Coming to a PTS near you! (some of these were part of builds from the last couple of days)

GENERAL
* Random Augment boxes purchased with Planarite have been moved to the Planar Voucher merchant and had their costs adjusted.
* Wardrobe slots now have toggles for armor visibility in that slot.
* Conversely, removed the Options entries for hide helmet and hide shoulderpads – if you currently have these enabled, your wardrobe slots will default to hiding these armor pieces.
* Fixed an issue in which NPCs in Rise of the Phoenix ran slower than intended.
* Added an option to automatically decline all marriage proposals under Misc options.
* Weekly Guild quests for Mining have been adjusted to require more raw ore and fewer gems.
* Fixed level requirements on various level 20-29 Earth Rift rewards, and some general 30-39 Rift rewards.
* Ascended Powers: The Defiant ‘Aura Augmentation’ and Guardian ‘Holy Champion’ quests no longer require you to stand right by the questgiver to advance the quest.
* Slightly increased the health of normal mobs of levels 41-52.
* Hammerknell: Inquisitor Garau: Fixed Arcane Porters failing to spawn in certain situations.

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Check out the latest screenshots of Rift’s latest content update: 1.7 Carnival of the Ascended

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. – Feb. 1, 2012 – Trion Worlds, the leading publisher and developer of premium games for the connected era, continues to increase accessibility to their hit MMORPG Rift™ by introducing Rift Lite, a version that allows anyone with a Trion account to experience the game’s first 20 levels at no cost and with no playtime restrictions. Rift Lite debuts today with the latest patch, Carnival of the Ascended, which features Ascended Weddings, PvP improvements, the new River of Souls Chronicle, and much more.

“In the past ten months, Rift has evolved at a breakneck pace, through seven massive updates that set new expectations for live MMOs, in features, in content, and in service,” said Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer of Rift and Trion’s CCO. “We think a Lite edition with no time limit is the best way for players to see what an amazing experience Rift continues to be.”

Today we are proud to announce a new site in the Junkie Nation network: GUILD WARS 2 Junkies! We are extremely excited about Guild Wars 2 and are eagerly awaiting open beta and release later on this year. Last year at PAX Prime, we got the chance to interview Eric Flannum, Lead Game Designer for ArenaNet, and his passion for the game came through with each sentence. We got our hands on the demo at the show floor and spent as many hours as possible checking out the Charr and the Sylvari.

The PAX Prime experience solidified in our mind that we had to make Guild Wars 2 Junkies. GW2 is primed to be the best new MMORPG of 2012. So if you want to keep up-to-date with all the latest news, notes, and developments of ArenaNet’s Guild Wars 2, then make sure you visit us regularly at GUILDWARS2Junkies.com!

So if you think you might be a Guild Wars Junkie then let us feed your addiction.

Need your Rift fix while offline but you don’t have an IOS device? Well, time to do your happy dance because Trion has released an Android version! It’s the same as the IOS version so if you haven’t heard about this app yet you can look at my write up here. Keep in mind this is also a beta app, and it does not appear to be working on some Android phones, but Trion is busy working out all the kinks!

I fired this baby up on my Android phone on my way to lunch today and it looks basically the same as the IOS one. I was able to smack talk in guild chat, view the guild wall, get some artifacts from Shinies and see all the zone events I was missing out on by not being at home! I still love this app, as do my children who actually play the scratch off games for me, and with an Android OS version now even more players can stay connected when they aren’t .. you know.. connected!

1.7 In-Progress Set #3 – 1/25/12
GENERAL
* Mounting now cancels auto-attack, preventing you from accidentally dismounting due to an attack firing.

CLERICS
* Reduced the mana cost of Area-of-Effect Heals.

JUSTICAR
* Reparation: Now able to heal other party/raid members using Reparation. Healing from Reparation will not affect players with Mien of Honor currently active.

MAGES

STORMCALLER
* Lightning Burst: No longer has a damage penalty in PvP.

DOMINATOR
* Degeneration: Ability added to the Dominator soul, obtained at 10 points. Now has a 15 second cooldown and can affect NPCs.

PYROMANCER
* Burning Bright: No longer gives separate bonuses for PvE and PvP.
* Cinder Burst: Damage now reduced by 15% in PvP, instead of a 20% reduction.
* Fulminate: Damage now reduced by 15% in PvP, instead of 20%.
* Inferno: Now gives 10 Charge when cast.

Rift is rapidly closing it on the one year anniversary in March of this year.  With both the start of the new year and the upcoming one year anniversary of the game, let’s look at some of the most popular predictions for Rift in the coming year.

1) Rift Going Free To Play – There is a lot of talk about the game going free to play in the next year.  The reason this prediction is popular is because of the multiple other MMOs coming out this year, including Guild Wars 2 and Mists of Panderia.  This is not even including Star Wars, which just came out.  The problem with this prediction is that it has already been squashed by Trion on multiple occassions.  They have already stated that the game is doing well financially and they have no reason for it to go free 2 play at this time.  Chances of Happening in 2012:  0%

As you know, with 1.7 the PvP specific Souls and their associated achievement are going the way of the Dodo bird. If you are an achievement whore now is the time to pick up your “I’ve Got Soul and I Am a Soldier” before it’s gone! With the loss of PvP Souls we are being given a new PvP Planar Attunement, and I hopped onto PTS tonight to see what it has for us to play with!

Originally posted by Gersh_Trion (Source)

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With the 1/20/12 build to PTS, we will be introducing a number of improvements for new players including an extremely exciting Preset Soul system!

Preset souls represent a quick way for new players to rapidly find the right combination of play style, Calling, and Souls to give them a great experience right out of the box. Presets can also be used by existing players as a quick way to try something new without having to pore over websites for hours on end comparing specs. In fact, many of our initial presets draw from popular builds within the community which we’ve tweaked to be a little more friendly towards leveling players. We’ve even retained some of the more popular build names created by you for many of these presets! In addition, we’re in the process of updating our early content to be more new-player friendly, with tweaks to encounters, help tips, and quest flow.

REALLY IMPORTANT NOTE: The changes are in addition to the existing Soul and Role system and do not replace the current way Soul specs work – they are intended to make it easier for old and new players alike to become familiar with different potential specs and gameplay they may not have tried before. Think of them like guidelines; those of you more familiar with the Souls and abilities you want to use can continue to customize and swap things in and out at will.
Newly acquired Abilities will now be displayed in a special pop-up UI window at the time they are learned, making it easy to drag new abilities directly to your hotbar – or cancel them from the list if you don’t want to place them at that time.