Rift Patch 1.9 Preview

For a while now, the patches to Rift have all been under the 1.8 patch, receiving constant hotfixes to make the quality of life in Telara that much better.  Trion has really stepped up their game for the next incoming patch.  Set to appear sometime in the week of June 24^th, the 1.9 patch promises to contain new features that will appeal to both new and veteran players alike.  Trion has also released a statement on their upcoming expansion for Rift, Storm Legion, which proves to be extremely interesting for the future of this game.

Of the plethora of amazing new content incoming, let’s begin with the new game mode: Conquest.  Trion is known for listening to its community and delivering, to its best ability, on what they want.  Hence, Conquest was born.  Conquest features something I’ve honestly never seen in an MMO before – three-faction PvP.  In this game mode, you choose one of the three factions for an all-out 1v1v1 battle to control Sourcestone Extractors.  During these battles, you can expect chaos; although there’s no official information on faction sizes, one can only imagine how crazy Conquest games can get.  Of course, at least in my mind, there’s always the chance that teams can decide to form a pact and double up on the remaining faction, forcing them out easily so they can do battle amongst themselves, though I’m sure Trion has come up with something to combat this relatively obvious threat to making Conquest fun.  In addition to the new PvP game mode, the 1.9 patch contains the latest level 50 PvP armorfor characters on both Guardian and Defiant.

In an effort to make newcomers feel more welcome in Rift, a mentoring system will be initiated, allowing high level Ascended to play low level content to assist their friends, all while being able to now further their character.  Before this mentoring system, high level characters could still help out, it just didn’t benefit them in any way, shape, or form beyond the warm, fuzzy feeling they got from knowing they helped someone on their way to greatness.  Another lesser, but important addition to the game is the long awaited Barbershop.  Prior to this addition, the way you designed your character when you first started them is the way they are stuck forever with no way to ever change things up.  With the Barbershop being put into Rift, players will be able to simply seek out the Stylist and adjust their appearance to however they like, within the boundaries of the game of course.  From the looks of it, the Rift Barbershop is going to be different from say, the World of Warcraft equivalent in a couple critical ways – you’ll be able to change everything about your appearance rather than only being able to change your hair dew, color, and facial hair.

The rest of what this patch contains are markedly less significant than what’s been previously mentioned, such as a new Sliver where you, with the aid of your friends, must defeat Fae Lord Twyl in Primeval Feast, or the addition of Instant Adventure in Freemarch, Silverwood, Gloamwood, and Stonefield.  Coupled with the new Summerfest world event, the 1.9 patch is really adding a lot of extra content that will promote players to interact with other players along the way.  This is important for me because it was one of the most influential reasons I quit playing WoW – the game wasn’t nearly social enough, so I really love seeing Trion putting more into the social aspect of the game.  By creating new means for people to find friends and meet new people, they facilitate the creation of enjoyable memories of questing and leveling with the community – a key factor that keeps people coming back for.

The last topic for this article, the latest Storm Legion statement, is something I’ve become extremely ecstatic about.  Trion has recently announced that when players buy the Storm Legion expansion, the full version of Rift will be included.  In a game like World of Warcraft with now four expansions, the barrier to entry is quite expensive because to experience the game in its entirety you are essentially forced into forking out the money for all the expansion packs, ending up in a pricey investment.  What Trion is doing here by bundling the core game and expansion for no added fee, is destroying any means for the barrier to entry to grow beyond its current point.  Not only a great deal, this will allow new players to experience everything and likely make them more open to buying expansions in the future.  What about people who already bought Rift and are getting the expansion after the fact?  Never fear, Trion is here.  It’s been confirmed that current paid account holders will be given a discount on Storm Legion.  There’s plenty to look forward to from Rift in the near future and win-win situations are abound.