It’s been five months since RIFT’s 4.1 update. And after a one-day delay, the 4.2 Celestial Storm update goes live today.
The most recent expansion, Prophecy of Ahnket, went live last fall. It featured five new overland zones, the Tartaric Depths raid, and access to levels 66 through 70 with legendary abilities. In late June, the expansion became permanently free for all players. All you have to do is log in to claim it now.
Since this expansion is free, the Celestial Storm update is free as well — meaning anyone can jump right into the new content.
We spoke to the RIFT team in an exclusive demo presentation of the new update. Check out what you can expect as soon as you log into RIFT today.
4.2 Update: Celestial Storm Highlights
Continuing with the level cap set by Prophecy of Ahnket, Celestial Storm’s new content centers around level 70. It features primarily solo content, with some group content. It includes:
- New overland zone, Vostigar Peaks, with new creatures and areas
- Tenon Fortress
- Maze of Steel
- Loads of new storylines and quests
- Three new raid rifts
- The Iron Legion
- Decay of Ahnket
- Egg of Destruction
- New puzzle
- New instant adventure
- Tartaric Depths normal mode
- Four new Primalist Souls
- Class balance changes
- New mounts and other items
- New artifacts and achievements
Notable Mentions
The team pointed out some important new content that’s coming with the 4.2 update.
New Primalist Souls
The four new souls are completely free for anyone who owns Primalist Calling. If these aren’t unlocked for you yet, you’ll have your chance.
Players can pick up the Ascended Essentials Pack to unlock all souls. The RIFT team is also bringing the Wilds Pack back to the store, for the first time since 2015. Players who get this pack will receive old and new souls, minions, pets, and many more rewards. For about a month, this pack will be discounted at $20.
The four new souls included in the update are as follows:
- Mystic: Support
- Farseer: AoE healer
- Predator: Burst damage dealer
- Primal Lord: Single target DPS
Complex Enemies
In the new high-level zone, many mobs have several interesting combat mechanics. As the devs put it, they are not simply “a huge sack of hit points.” They have varied attacks for the players to maneuver around, and require skill to successfully defeat.
Summerfest is Back
Summerfest returns to RIFT on Friday, July 21. According to the devs, this world event is one of their favorites. This year, there are a lot of new rewards which players can pick up with in-game currency.
One of these rewards, the Carriage Liberty, is designed after a new mount by a similar name — the Spectral Carriage (pictured below). This reward has the same architectural style as the mount.
In addition, there will be new backpacks and cosmetic items such as cosmetic weapons and new effects. Players will have greater control over their looks to make their characters stand out from the crowd.
New Mounts
New unique and beautiful mounts are coming to RIFT, including the Jetpack and Spectral Carriage. You can find the Spectral Carriage in the new lockbox.
Spectral Carriage
The Jetpack’s special abilities can make a player burst forward or shoot up into the air. It can even damage enemies. As long as you have the Jetpack mount, you’ll be able to reach hard-to-get places. You can build it now through a special questline.
Class Balance Changes
Balancing is a “continuing effort” for the RIFT team. They always have to work on balancing, but also make sure each soul is fun to play as well. Warlords, Mages, Firestorms, and Clerics have all received improvements in 4.2. Rogues have been left untouched.
The Future for RIFT
After talking about the latest update, we spoke to the team about what’s in store for this MMO.
Player-Dev Relations
The devs and the new full-time community manager continue to be active on the forums. With a dedicated RIFT CM, the developers are hoping they can run more events and have more interactions with the player base in the future. This includes bringing back PTS events, where players can test out new content with the devs.
The new CM — Jennifer “Yaviey” Bridges — said that she has started to look at forum threads, looking at current issues, and trying to figure out how they can best be resolved to make players happy.
PvP
The focus is on PvE right now. That being said, the devs still want to support PvP. They’ve received a lot of feedback from players wanting Conquest back, which was a game mode that consisted of open world, instanced PvP. While there are no plans for its return at this time, they are looking at ways to make it more friendly to solo players.
They also explained there may be new warfront and gear developments in the works… But for now, they’re keeping their lips sealed, and couldn’t announce anything more.
RNG
There are a lot of new rewards in this expansion, some of which are reliant on RNG for drops. The devs explained they don’t want the game to be too heavy in RNG, but it’s still always been a part of the experience. So they try to spread out items and rewards to make players happy.
Fortunately, for players who aren’t very lucky, everyone can earn new lockbox prize tickets in Celestial Storm. These tickets can be used to purchase items in a new store, including older lockbox mounts and cosmetic items.
To get started with RIFT 4.2, take a look at the Ghar Station 4.2 Quickstart Guide.
Celestial Storm goes live today, July 20. Comment below to let us know what you’re most looking forward to!
See you in game!
Published: Jul 20, 2017 12:10 pm