We got a chance to talk to Hal Hanlin and pick his brain about the upcoming addition to Rift: Conquest. We went over the basics of conquest earlier and now we get to ask some of the questions we’ve been wondering about. Conquest is currently on the PTS servers and being tested at specific times, so keep your eyes out on the official forums for updates on when the next round of testing is going to happen.

In the mean time keep reading and find out what Hal Hanlin had to say about RIFT’s new three-way faction war: Conquest.

Conquest, Trion’s new three-faction PvP area, has now seen its second PTS test. Plenty of players popped in to get in on the action, and most walked away fairly impressed. The developers still have to work out a few tweaks in the system, but for the most part, Conquest is shaping up to quite an enjoyable experience. Here’s our overview of some of Conquest’s features, along with some tips for first-time players, and my personal review.

It’s pretty easy to figure out how to maneuver through Conquest the first time you hop in. Players will have to choose one of three factions: Dominion, Oathsworn, and Nightfall. These factions are independent from normal factions. Each Conquest faction has their own starting base on the map, which is an instanced version of Stillmoor. There are no NPCs or mobs in Conquest, but most of the structures and cliffs are still around. In this sense, Conquest takes the shape of an open-world PvP zone, but sadly, remains very instanced. Players will join a queue for Conquest, just like any other warfront.

There are a lot of cool things to check out on the Public Test Shard (PTS) right now. One of which is RIFT’s mentoring system, and to pair along with it, a new low-level Instant Adventure. Both are planned to release in patch 1.9. Mentoring systems have been successful in multiple MMOs including Final Fantasy XI and EverQuest II. Such systems offer players a way to enjoy older content and group up with friends and guildmates of all levels. Right now’s the perfect time for RIFT to introduce a mentoring system, because the game is in a very comfortable state, and new players are trying out the game every day.

Like most features in RIFT, the mentoring system is easy to use and very straightforward. We thought we’d show off some of its natural simplicity, and talk about some of the pros and cons of using it.

RIFT’s Public Test Shard is useful for all kinds of things: testing out new features like Conquest, playing with new builds, and keeping tabs on world events. Oh, and datamining! Since the PTS client is closer to the client Trion’s development team works on, every now and then PTS players are able to glimpse into the world of Telara as imagined in the future, and find out about the cool things headed our way that haven’t been announced publicly. Most of the information datamined is pure speculation at this point, but that’s half the fun!

This past week, a couple PTS players noticed some very interesting additions to the achievements tab. One of which is pictured above, and was located under the “Zones” section. Yep, that’s right. Six new zones. Six. Dusken Spires, Eternal City, Pelladane, Seratos, Morban, and Steppes of Infinity. Interestingly enough, there are six planes. Could these possibly be the new zones in the next huge content addition?

Trion, in the past, has talked about the addition of expansion-type content that will eventually allow players to move through the planes, and take part in battles in a world we are unfamiliar with. It’s possible that these zones are connected to that content, since the numbers match. It’s also possible that these zones are connected to content located in Planetouched Wilds, which is an area discovered on the PTS last year, or a new continent entirely.

For a game that’s been out for only a little over a year, RIFT has a solid assortment of quality-of-life features. These are the little things that often go unnoticed, but really make a difference when to comes to our enjoyment within the game: smooth, built-in UI features, and the ability to customize those UIs further. A polished AH, the guild perk system, being able to flip between souls on the fly, the dungeon finder, achievement system, and the wardrobe system. Oh, yeah, and AoE looting. Other games have since added it, but RIFT was among the first big MMOs that added the feature.

Among the latest added 1.8 features, we’ve seen even more great quality-of-life features. The guild finder, the fishing and survival additions, and the new fishing dailies. The NPCs for which that are in actual convenient spots. Convenience? Come on– how often does that appear in an MMO? And last but not least, we can’t forget about leaderboards. They’re convenient in the sense that they display information that’s normally quite difficult to obtain, and what’s more– leaderboards are fun, and profit all kinds of players.

Following in the tradition of other Junkies Nation sites, such as Rift Junkies and Guildwars2 Junkies, TERA-Junkies is a premiere fansite, run by hardcore fans for all fans. We will be dedicated to bringing you all the guides, news, and up-to-date happenings of all TERA. TERA took the internet by storm earlier this month and the game’s amazing combat and action-packed gameplay is too hard to ignore. From here on out, we hope that TERA-Junkies.com will be your go-to website for everything you could possibly need for TERA.

TERA-Junkies is brought to you by Ryan Raplee and Jason Dodge, owners of Rerollz Media LLC. Rerollz Media is the owner of Junkies Nation and it’s affiliated network of fansites including RiftJunkies.com, GuildWars2Junkies.com, ForceJunkies.com, DefianceJunkies.com.

Link: WWW.TERA-Junkies.com

Some cryptic Trion staff member posts have surfaced on the official RIFT forums this past week. A staff member by the forum name 3 3228466 787 is the main culprit, with posts that are intentionally cryptic, containing poetry, numerical codes, random pictures, and phrases. Fans of the game and forums have banded together in an attempt to muddle through the confusing posts, and figure out what the heck the folks at Trion are up to.

What do we know so far? Here is a summary of the posts, findings, possible theories, and reactions so far. I’ll try and keep this post updated with the latest information, so if you know of any new details, feel free to drop me a line. Special thanks to the awesome people on the official forums who helped come up with this information. It’s all interesting stuff!

Fish are biting on live servers! Here’s a basic guide on Telara’s fishing spots to help get folks started. All information was initially gathered from the PTS, so some of it may need updating. I am currently in the process updating it, so if you notice anything that needs to be fixed, lemme know in the comments section!

Listed below, you will find information on a given area’s skill required, fishing quest turn-ins, and the locations for shallow and deep water pools as well as the fish that can be found there. In all areas unless otherwise stated, Unmarked Boxes or Sunken Treasure Chests can drop that have items within them. These won’t be listed, nor will grey items. Feel free to drop me a line if you notice any mistakes.

The folks over at Trion gave us an exclusive screenshot of the Maelforge encounter from RIFT’s upcoming brand-new 20 man Raid coming soon. Do you think you’ll be able to slay the dragon?

For a while now, Trion has been trying to make crafting more useful for endgame. Crafting in RIFT is currently useful while leveling, very useful upon immediately hitting level cap, and useful when new content and item expansions cause players to hit the ground running. What’s missing? Yeah, all that time in between. During these large expanses of time when players are happily making the gear ladder climb during raids, PvP, or instances, crafting tends to take the backseat.

There are a couple reasons behind the issue. While raiding and PvPing, vendor-bought gear and drops quickly become better than crafted alternatives until new recipes are added. Leveling crafting is also simple. Tradeskills are easy to max, so during the periods when recipes are easy to obtain, crafted items become commonplace. Crafted items like runes and consumables are needed at all times during endgame, but when crafting is both commonplace and simple, these items become easily obtainable through alts and the auction house.