...I missed these mythical patch notes...

Here is what Trion removed from the patch notes going up today:

SOULS

BARD
* Due to the below changes, characters with Soul Points spend in Bard have received a free Soul Point Respec.
* Invigorated Soul, Coda of Restoration: Now affects up to 5 targets.
* Motif of Tenacity: Now unlocked at 12 points.
* Anthem of Defiance: Now unlocked at 18 points.
* Motif of Regeneration: Now unlocked at 24 points. Now casts on the Bard and heals up to 10 raid or group members nearby with each tick.

CHLOROMANCER
* Lifegiving Veil: Now affects up to 5 targets.
* Radiant Spores: Now has a base chance to proc of 10%.
* Phytogenesis: Now increases the chance for Radiant Spores to proc by 2-6%.

JUSTICAR
* Reparation: Now affects up to 5 targets.

PALADIN
* Reverent Protection: Now only affects up to 5 targets, and range increased from 10 meters to 35 meters.

PURIFIER
* Surging Flames: Now converts 50% of overhealing.

REAVER
* Infestation: Cooldown increased to 1 minute; damage increased due to the higher cooldown.

Champion soul has 2H skills, and Thunderous Kick which is a knockback you can get with as little as 6 points in that soul.

...Overall, I do prefer to live and let live...even on PvP servers...

The other day I came across a Defiant at about half health while questing.  We stood there for a second eyeing each other, and I decided to let him live.  A couple minutes later while I was fighting a mob he came back at full health and killed me.  Never again.  I will kill any Defiant I can now regardless of the situation.

Gratz.

Darkening Deeps guide at Rift Junkies:  http://www.riftjunkies.com/2011/01/10/darkening-deeps-dungeon-guide/

Yeah I saw the missing torso effect for the first time last night.  Never saw it in any of the betas or since launch until yesterday.

I went with 6 months.  Could easily see myself playing 4 months more so at that point it is the same price to take the 6 month plan.  Equivalent of 2 months free.

Any thoughts on a decent soul-combo if you wanted to be sort of a, well, Aragorn warrior type, while still being durable enough to tank a bit? (big old two hand swords) I assume you'd want to have some parrying and good armor-buff-stats. My first role is definitely more of a tank-tank-tank Paladin type.

I believe the Champion soul specializes in 2H weapons.  If you are level 10 then you only have 3 souls and it would be pointless to buy another role.  At level 13 you can start doing the quests for more souls.  Once you have the other 5 regular souls then you can think about another role.  In the meantime it is much cheaper to go to the trainer and 0 out your soul points and swap a soul or two in your first role to see how they play.  Also, you can swap any soul that has 0 points without paying to 0 out the other points you have spent.  Hope that helps.

Link to 1.01 update notes:

http://forums.riftgame.com/showthread.php?116999-Rift-1.01-NA-3-10-11-8-00am-PST

From Scott Hartsman:

What a Launch it's Been! (Rift 1.01 update)

    Hey, everyone.

    As you’ve probably noticed -- We launched! Last week was four retail launches in four different territories. By and large, everything went extremely well. Nothing exploded, and we’re rapidly adjusting to the pace of being a live game.

    Now that we’ve all collectively survived the process of taking a game from Beta to Live, it’s time to resume focusing on what’s coming up in the future.

    In the next day, you’re going to see our first real update. (8AM PST Thursday for the NA servers, 2AM UTC Friday for the EU servers)

    This first update does have some new content, and also includes a rather large collection of tweaks, fixes, and updates that come from a few different sources.

    They’ve been picked out of what people have been reporting in game, as well as a number of beta-reported polish items that didn’t make it in time for head start, and also some further refinement and tuning after seeing what happens when people finally get the chance to play characters that’ll be around forever.

    Some of the things to expect tomorrow are…

    • Raid rifts!

    • Improvements to Rift, Invasion, and Foothold experience gains

    • See more quests at once in the tracker if you choose

    • Better item stack management

    • PvE end-game difficulty better suited to the power of real end-game characters


    Making sure that we can do an update like this successfully is an important step on the road to doing even larger scale content and systems additions in the not-too-distant future.

    Our team will be right here while this first update is going on. We’ll be checking out the servers alongside you, and will be here to respond to any surprise issues that do occur.

    We also have a lot more in development than the first look you’ll be seeing tomorrow.

    On top of ongoing new content and large feature development, many of which you’ll be hearing about on our site and others, there are some other, smaller improvements we’re working toward – I wanted to call these out specifically since they’re pretty frequently commented on.

    • Mages. Yes, we’re both listening to you and paying attention to the post-launch gameplay data on our servers. While a well-played mage does do extremely well, and mages are very well represented in the overall number of active characters, there are issues with competitiveness in some low and mid level ranges and certain combinations of souls, due largely to mages’ overall fragility and cast times.

    • Mail Spam. Chat spam protection has been going really well on the whole, which, predictably, pushed spammers into mail. We’ll be putting more protection in place there soon.

    • Event Contribution. This system is being reworked to be more in line with the idea of events being massively social occurrences, and the focus on abilities themselves will be going away entirely.

    • Anti-Hacker Protection. As a very high priority, we’re working on new and interesting ways to help you make sure your account is protected from password phishing and keyloggers. In the short time since head start, we’ve already banned a couple thousand spammers, hackers, farmers, and thieves. We’ll continue improving our detection and ability to take action on them well into the future.

    • Dismount and Exposed. Expect some changes here as well.


    Thank you all for your dedication so far – We look forward to this first small update, and a host of even larger ones in the future!

    - The RIFT Development Team

...

Just played for about an hour and a half....

I saw your /tell requesting an invite but for some reason it did not have your in-game name in it.  Could not invite you.  Very odd.

Speaking of 0 point souls for clerics, here is one opinion:

http://riftclerics.net/riftclerics/

So how many of you are zero-pointing a soul?....

I'm level 23 with an Inquisitor/Warden/Purifier role that has no points in Purifier.  OTOH I also have a group healing role with points spread over all three souls.  The former is fine for DPS and leveling while spreading the points around made more sense to me in the latter.

...But I don't think we'll see another until we're in the next region.

The next one is in Granite Falls, Stonefield.

The Wanderers have left Sunrest and relocated to Molinar.  Still playing Guardian.

A lot of The Wanderers members have been unable to play much due to the brutal queues on Sunrest.  The officers are meeting later tonight EST to decide if we will stay or move to another PvP server.  If you are playing with us please check our forums later tonight for details.

...did they change it and just not update their website?

Yup, changed in last beta.

Right now Pulpit, Meadow, and Cortilian can invite you to The Wanderers.

I thought only CE got the turtle mount? Or was it all preorders? I got one, but didnt buy a CE. Either way, I guess I don't care lol.

Everyone got one for now but if you don't upgrade to the CE by the end of head start it will go away.

Don't know Vindel but see if you can download the launch client after deleting your beta client.  If you can then you should be good to go.

...Edit: I'm starting with a Defiant character.

Die scum!  Oh sorry, but we are playing on an RP server so I need the practice.   

The Wanderers have decided to make Sunrest (RP-PvP server) their home for Rift.  All here are welcome to join us.  Please create an account at The Wanderes site if you intend to play with us.  I'll post in-game officer names here as soon as we have them so you can whisper one of us for an invite.  We had a good group playing together in beta and we hope to add to that as we move forward at head start and beyond.

Edit - Forgot to say we are playing the Guardian side.   

Please post server info as soon as you know.

Esloan from HORriftIC INTENTIONS mentioned he and his friends will be playing Guardians on Lotham.  I'm checking with him to confirm that will actually be a PvP server as I read the names and rulesets are changing on some/all servers.  Also checking with Blackadar to see if he wants to join us if we go there.  Will post the info as soon as we figure out what we are doing.

Yes, The Wanderers will be playing Guardians on either a PvP or RP-PvP server.  Blackadar has a guild, All Out Assault, that will be playing Guardian as well.

Right.

Also agree.  The zone wide invasions are really fun.  The time just flies by and next thing you know you have gained a level or two.

Endgame Raiding Preview: http://www.g4tv.com/games/pc/63677/rift ... g-Preview/

Interview with Scott H:  http://games.on.net/article/11634/Massive_Attack_Scott_Hartsman_Executive_Producer_of_RIFT

Well, I think I am officially burned out on MMORPG. I tried playing this for several hours last night both guardian and defiant and I couldn't level the toons past five before I just felt the need to log off....

Level 5?  Well if Rift were sex then getting to level 5 and quitting is about like unzipping your fly and then deciding you don't like sex!   

Which server are y'all on?

[Edit] Nevermind, I see I just needed to scroll up the page.  

So Wanderers have not yet selected a server for actual release?  And everyone is on Briarcliff for beta?  

We have not selected a server as they are being renamed before headstart.  Many of us are on Briarcliff for beta.

Looks like all the servers a down right now though.

The Wanderers will be going Guardian at headstart, either on a PvP or RP-PvP server.

Some of us are playing Defiant on Briarcliff.  Whisper Pulpit for an invite to The Wanderers if you play there.

Beta 7 patch notes:  http://forums.riftgame.com/showthread.php?67066-Beta-7-Patch-Notes-2-14-11

Found this at Massively:

Sci-fi MMORTS titles are a rare breed, and so it's with keen interest that we note the beginning of Starjack Online's open beta phase. The free-to-play title from Limbo Game Studios has been in testing since August of 2010, and has finally thrown open its doors for the public.

If you're unfamiliar with Starjack, Limbo bills it as a "4X, real-time strategy, massively multiplayer game." What exactly is 4X? It stands for explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate, and you'll be able to do all these things in real-time (i.e., no turns) in a constantly changing persistent universe. Starjack is also unique in that nearly everything in the game is player-created, including ships, fleets, troops, colonies, and resources.

If it sounds like a lot to digest, don't worry, as Limbo assures us that the game is as accessible as it is deep. To that end, Starjack allows players to automate various empire management tasks, "removing the tedium and the need for micromanagement." You can learn more at the game's official website, where you can also create an account and grab the beta client.

http://www.starjackonline.com/

Gratz Blackadar.  The game really looks great on high settings.

Another nail in the coffin.  I got sucked back in a few months ago but didn't stay long.  The big changes that came out a while back included removing the ability of guilds to own keeps making oRvR even more pointless.  RIP WAR.

Beta 6 is over.  Sad to see it end.  We have 21 people in The Wanderers guild now.   Two of us have dinged 30 with about a half dozen in their 20's and most of the rest in their teens.  We completed our first guild quest to kill 1000 rift mobs.  We got 300 guild XP and a few silver for completing it.  That put us a little less than half way through level 1.  I took a quest to close 100 rifts as our next guild objective.  Beta 7 runs from 2/15 to 2/22.  Hope everyone can make it.

[Spoiler]

oh god, you can get pets from rifts.

Yeah I got the Regulos Death Pet or whatever it's called from a rift last night.

Spoiler for Hiden:

It's a bunny rabbit.  Reminded me of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  LOL

Servers are down for some maintenance.

Contact Trion tech support.  That is more than enough reason to move you to the front of the queue!

...Now, where's my beta 6 invite?!

    Hey everybody, I just wanted to make a general update and let everyone know that beta invitation emails are going out a little slower than they normally do, but they are going out. Right now, we're still on track for having invites sent to people who have pre-order or VIP keys before the event starts.

    As usual, we are sending invitations out in waves, and we will continue to send invites throughout the event to try and catch anyone who added a code right before, or after the event started.

    Thanks!

    Last edited by Zann; Yesterday at 11:48 PM.

    Erick "Zann" Adams
    Assistant Community Manager - Trion Worlds, Inc.