Dimensions are, without a doubt, one of the coolest features in Storm Legion. Leveling’s definitely important for the moment, but hey– style is important, too! Just in case you want to get your style on and build your own slice of Telara, here’s a guide to help you get started. This guide’s focus will be on dimension building from a beginner’s point of view. Stay tuned for more advanced guides later down the road.

First things first– grabbing your first dimension. RIFT’s dimension system is very intuitive, luckily, and there are two ways to gain your first dimension. You can either simply purchase a key from any of the dimension vendors (so far they seem to be in Meridian/Sanctum, Argent Glade/King’s Retreat and most major towns and cities of Storm Legion), or start the beginning dimension quest chain, which can be obtained in Meridian/Sanctum. The introduction quest series is a nice way to get a feel for how to go about building in your dimension, and also gives you a starter pack of goodies to play with.

During the final Storm Legion beta weekend, Volan, the massive, tech-influenced colossus that was first previewed months ago during E3 came out to show players just how dangerous he is. If you didn’t get a chance to take part in the fight yourself, one of our new Rift Junkies video gurus, SilentStorm, captured an impromptu video of Volan causing quite a bit of death and destruction all around. The fight definitely took those who stumbled upon it by surprise!

Keep reading to watch to the video.

Some of us have already seen a bit of the Defiler– the expansion’s new Cleric soul– in action on Storm Legion’s beta server, but for those who haven’t, here is all the information and highlights from Friday’s Cleric reveal live stream, which will most likely be viewable on Trion’s TwitchTV page shortly. For now, if you’d like to watch it, it can be found on Youtube.

The Defiler soul’s slightly different from the other new Storm Legion souls thematically. The team referred to the soul as “tragically misunderstood.” It is a ranged healing soul, capable of both AoE healing and tank healing, as well as putting out decent damage. Defilers are unique in that they balance both life and death within their fingertips. The soul does require some fairly in-depth strategy to play to its full potential, which may be why it’s somewhat misunderstood thus far.

It was Storm Legion’s second beta test last weekend, and RiftJunkies was there to get the inside scoop! We joined Community Manager James Nichols, better known to us as Elrar, for a tour of some of the new zones, raids, dungeons, and Dimensions.

When you enter the new Frozen Tempest raid there is no doubt that you’re stepping into the home of the Storm Legion. Where Regulos’ lair in Eternal Eclipse is dark and organic, Frozen Tempest is bright, cold, and heavily influenced by magitech. The centerpiece of the raid zone is a huge clockwork wrought metal tower called the Tempest Engine, which leads up to a platform where players will finally get to meet (and shoot at) the infamous Crucia.

We received news today that Storm Legion’s third beta will take place starting Friday, November 2nd and last until Monday, November 5th. This beta event will be open to anyone who makes a RIFT account and downloads the beta client. Scott Hartsman, RIFT’s Executive Producer, had these words to say regarding the decision to make Storm Legion’s final beta completely open to the public:

“The first two closed beta stress tests were big successes, and we appreciate all the valuable feedback that we’ve used to improve and polish STORM LEGION. After months of hard work, we’re ready to show this incredible game to the world, and we encourage RIFT fans old and new to log in and try it out before the official launch on November 13th.”

This final beta event, which is being called “At the Gates of Infinity”, will feature all the leveling content of Storm Legion, including all seven dungeons, a chronicle, and all leveling maps.

November 2nd’s open beta begins at 10 AM PST. Similar to the other beta events, players will be able to create new characters or transfer characters over from their live accounts.

Also, for pre-orderers, early dungeon access to Exodus of the Storm Queen, the first 5-man dungeon, begins October 30th.

Storm Legion’s mega beta weekend is in full swing along with Extra Life 2012 today, but just in case you aren’t able to attend the festivities, Trion held another fun live stream yesterday, this time focusing on Dimensions. Let me just say– player-made Dimensions are going to be hot in RIFT. The amount of creativity that players can put into them is frankly quite astounding, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the game attracts some new players due to the seemingly unlimited potential Dimensions have.

Let’s get right into the action and go over the highlights of yesterday’s live stream and Dimensions in general, shall we?

Big news was announced today by the folks at Trion. Even though our Rogue soul reveal is going to take place on Friday, October 5th, and we’re still waiting to see the Cleric reveal, we’ll be seeing our first Storm Legion closed beta event this weekend, starting October 5th! Here’s the full announcement, which was posted on the forums and on Trion’s Facebook page:

Originally posted by Elrar (Source)

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RIFT: Storm Legion’s first Closed BETA Test begins this Friday, October 5th and runs all weekend long!

Take your first steps on Dusken & Brevane as you check out Dimensions, new souls, class changes and more – all while helping us stress test as we prepare for launch!

Who’s invited? Anyone who has Pre-Ordered! Chase the storm today and secure you seat – www.StormLegion.com

You can also opt-in for a chance to be invited to Beta Events via your account center: https://account.riftgame.com

We highly encourage opting into to our mailing lists as well to ensure you receive all notices about BETA outside of the initial invitation.

During the weekend, players who pre-ordered (including the one-year sub deal) and those who didn’t but opted in and were chosen will be able to test out all the new souls, including the Tactician (Rogue) and Defiler (Cleric). This was confirmed in Trion’s Twitter feed earlier. This will be a bit of a spoiler for Cleric players, but hopefully a good one.

Trion’s talked about RIFT players gaining access to Storm Legion’s beta a few times now, but the team’s always shied from giving away much as far as the details are concerned. Yesterday, Elrar gave us a little more information on the official forums, where he also announced the current promotion that lets folks save pandas while pre-ordering the expansion:

Originally posted by Elrar (Source)

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Save a Panda by Pre-Ordering RIFT: Storm Legion now – We’re giving a dollar for every pre-order we get this week but that’s not all, anyone who has pre-ordered our first expansion will be invited to our upcoming BETA tests!

We’ll have more details soon and if you haven’t pre-ordered or are not a current subscriber you can still have a chance to be invited, but you’ll need to opt-in. Simply visit https://account.riftgame.com/ to sign up for your shot at BETA or just pre-order today, you’ll be protecting our panda pals while automatically guaranteeing yourself a seat!

Later on in the thread, he made two clarifications: Players who pre-order from a different retailer will have to affix their pre-order code to their account in order to grab guaranteed beta access. Also, players who purchased the Storm Chaser Edition, which is the one-year sub deal plus the free expansion and mount, will gain guaranteed beta access as well. Elrar also noted in a different thread that the Storm Chaser Edition will be available for purchase all the way up until the launch of Storm Legion, which is on November 13th.

We unfortunately, still don’t have a date for beta access yet, but at least the details are starting to trickle in.

From the Official Forums Scott Hartsman talks to us today about Beta 6 and beyond.

Hi, everyone – We’ve dropped a little below our own bar for keeping you up to date on the state of the game, and for that I definitely apologize.

It’s not out of any desire to not keep you informed, but purely out of how many hours a week that everyone is putting into the builds, features, and updates for Open Beta, Head Start, Launch, and what comes beyond. Not an excuse, just letting you know that’s where every waking moment has been going.

With that said, we did want to get updates out on a few hot topics that have come up since Beta 6.

RIFT™ OPEN BETA EVENT SCHEDULED TO START FEBRUARY 15TH

Sign up at www.riftgame.com/betasignup to play in “Telara the Merciless” beta event

On February 15th Trion will lift the veil on their upcoming MMORPG Rift™ with a six-day open beta event, giving all would-be Defiants and Guardians the opportunity to preview the epic world of Telara before the game launches worldwide on March 1st. Servers are scheduled to be open from 10 AM PST on Tuesday, February 15th to 10 AM PST on Monday, February 21st, giving users a taste of Telara, including two playable factions, the first 42 levels of play, three PvP warfronts, and several zones and dungeons to explore.

Sign up now at www.riftgame.com/betasignup for a guaranteed spot in the “Telara the Merciless” beta event, and secure your spot in the Rift head start period (February 24-March 1) by pre-ordering the game now at http://www.riftgame.com/preorder.