Hints of Patch 1.10 Appear on PTS

The folks at Trion Worlds have a lot on their plates right now. The development of Storm Legion seems to be going well so far, and we’re starting to hear details about what’s in store for the expansion. That’s fantastic, but one thing we haven’t heard a lot about so far is RIFT patch 1.10, which is coming before Storm Legion. Elrar talked about the overall goal for 1.10 during the second live stream, which is to bring Guardians and Defiants closer together during gameplay, but we haven’t heard much about that goal since.

The Public Test Shard (PTS) has also been suspiciously quiet regarding new patch 1.10 goodies– until late last week, when a new update was deployed on the PTS. Yep, here’s the beginning hints of 1.10! The information uncovered after this update is only a mere fraction of the 1.10 details headed our way, of course, but it’s nice to have some new features to play with and show off. There will be more to come. For now, let’s explore what arrived on the PTS last week.

Note: As always, any PTS information is subject to change at any time.

First off, there have been some new UI adjustments. The character screen, shown below (click for the full size version), has been altered a bit to make room for our cape slot. The ring slots, neck slot, trinket slot, synergy crystal slot, and seal slot have been all moved to the right side of the frame and made a little smaller.

I also personally noticed a difference in the size of my inventory bags, at least at my resolution. The individual item frames are smaller, so the bags take up less room on the UI. My current speculation is that this change was made in preparation for additional bag space and/or larger bags in Storm Legion.

We also have some shiny, new overhead NPC icons on the PTS server. They can be toggled on by selecting the option “Show additional overhead NPC icons” under Settings -> Interface -> Misc. The UI option’s already on live servers, but it doesn’t do anything at the moment. To the right is a preview of a tradeskill trainer NPC icon as they currently appear on the PTS.

Each NPC type has a special icon. Below is a preview of the current icons. Starting from the left side, the icons in order are: class trainer, vendor, auctioneer, soul healer, stylist, guild charter magistrate, Instant Adventure NPC, banker, and guild banker.

The mailbox also has a new, similar icon, which is shown to the left. These icons should make searching through NPC-heavy areas for vendors, mailboxes, and trainers much easier, especially for new players.

There is also a new Ascended Power to be on the look out for in patch 1.10. It’s called Ascended Resurrection and will be available to every soul. It’s an out of combat resurrection, available at no cost. It will not consume planar charges, despite being an Ascended Power. Daglar confirmed this here.

This will mean that every player will have access to a resurrection without having to switch souls or utilize a soul that has one– quite a smart move, one that will make resurrecting during raids a whole lot quicker. It’ll also give Trion room to give the current souls that have resurrections some new abilities in Storm Legion. Part of me wonders if we may see more souls with in-combat resurrections as a result (Paladin immediately comes to mind), but for that, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Trion has also been hard at work developing more Instant Adventures for the current leveling areas. The latest area that received adventures on the PTS is Scarwood Reach. The IAs are currently being tested and receiving weekly updates and bug fixes. There are also some new achievements for the IAs, which are shown in this article’s title image. The variety of Scarwood Reach’s IAs, so far, seem pretty solid. Some of the end bosses are quite challenging in their current state.

Achievements are sometimes the best way to track new changes as they arrive on the PTS, and one very interesting hint was thrown in this PTS update regarding our next world event– it seems the event is called “Monster Mash.” There is a new World Event achievement category with its name as well as a single achievement (so far) with this description: “Dance with death in the Monster Mash: The Black Garden Warfront.”

Interesting! The achievement’s image is a pumpkin, which makes sense for the upcoming fall months. The warfront requirement is a unique one, and makes me wonder if Trion will make special, sliver warfronts that feature monsters and ghastly ghouls (or if players are perhaps the monsters!). Either way, it’ll be interesting to see what the team comes up with for a fall holiday event.

Also on the PTS, Meridian has seen some NPC shuffling. There have also been reports of a new, air-based zone event in Iron Pine Peaks called Storm Rising.

Those are all the new goodies for the moment. As always, we’ll be keeping a close eye on the PTS for new details and information as they arrive.