Now that Stillmoor is going to start seeing some PvP action thanks to the approaching addition of Conquest, RIFT players have started questioning what other maps around Telara would be ideal to one day undergo a similar transformation. The map on top of that list for some players? Ember Isle. The sheer size of Ember Isle would make a very expansive PvP playground, and if choked full of interesting objectives, there could be a lot of potential. The cliffs alone would make fantastic defensive points. Pair those cliffs with some fancy siege weaponry? Oh yeah.

One RIFT player came up with some pretty cool objective ideas, including some ways to boost crafting in Conquest, and ideas on how to add siege vehicles, rifts, colossi, mines, secret extractors, and even include the current Ember Isle natural defensive systems.

Hello again, fellow RIFTers. It’s time to wrap up the Ember Isle Guardian Quest Guide with Part 3, the final installment in this series. If you missed the other parts, here they are: Part 1 and Part 2. We left off last time at the journey toward Fell Fields. Let’s jump right to the action.

Are you tired of the daily grind? Are you seeking adventure and new experiences? Maybe it’s time you took a trip to exotic Ember Isle! The ancient home of the Kelari has much to offer everyone, from single adventurers to gigantic gatherings we have it all! But don’t take our word for it, take a look for yourself at a few of the famous landmarks you could explore.

Welcome back to the Ember Isle. Part 1 of this quest guide can be found here. For your convenience, I have added map coordinates for many key locations in this installment. Let’s begin right where Part 1 left off– heading toward Forlorn Fen.

Ember Isle is a pretty amazing place to quest. The island’s got it all– dailies, story quests, reputation to grind, resources to gather, and plenty of zone events, rifts, and invasions to distract you along the way. To help you out, here’s an introductory guide to the Guardian-side quests (see, it isn’t just about you, Defiants!), and a suggested walkthrough. You don’t have to follow my suggestions, of course. Half the fun in exploring new content is blazing your own trail through it. Speaking of blazing, let’s get started.

Patch 1.6 is coming soon and we get a whole new slew of screenshots, shown above. If you haven’t been over to the PTS yet, ZAM put out a good interview with Hal Hanlin that discusses all the new features. We find out that Instant Adventures are not coming right away, but they will be in before 1.7. There will be a new 5 man dungeon that is Rift’s biggest yet which includes up to 11 bosses on it’s hardest difficulty level and a non-linear design. No raid will be included with 1.6′s launch though Ember Isle hosts two different Dragons.

Other features include Onslaught, which is a new invasion tactic. There will be Sourcewells all over Ember Isles that have turrets you can upgrade. Once upgraded, invasions will start to target the Sourcewell area thus starting an Onslaught.

The major addition at the release of 1.6 will be Onslaughts. “We have areas called Sourcewells, which are the genesis of the sourcestone. You’ll actually see crystal deposits of sourcestone lying around that you can use to charge your planar charges up. If you find a Sourcewell, you’ll also find some old broken turrets around, both offensive and defensive. You can use your planar charges to activate and level these up, make them more powerful, and create defended areas to hold off enemies. And that’s good! Because as soon as you start leveling these up… what’s gonna happen is something we refer to as an Onslaught, which is a series of invasions that are targeted at that location. So in effect, you’re telling the game ‘All right! Bring it on!’… that’s kind of a fun, ‘push button, get to kill things’ gameplay.” Hal notes though that it really becomes critical during zone events, as the Sourcewells need to be defended to defeat the zone boss… but upgrading the defenses incites even more invasions through the Onslaught system. Thus, it becomes a strategy of “Is it worth upgrading this turret if it means another invasion?” Hal did mention that perhaps the Onslaught spawns need a bit of spacing saying, “They don’t come slowly! My first feedback point last week was ‘maybe we need to spread the spawns out just a little!’ because if you have 45 things that hit all at once…” It remains to be seen if the spawn rate of Onslaught invasions will be changed prior to the 1.6 going live!

We can’t wait for 1.6 to go live as it will feature some major additions to RIFT!

During one of my recent low-level alt adventures, I happened to perch my character on one of the mountains surrounding Meridian, and I realized that my camera had caught a view of a life rift, water foothold, and death rift in the same vicinity. I watched as a random mob passed by the foothold and found itself in combat with both water mobs and life mobs. Needless to say, the mob didn’t live long. It made me realize, though, that one of the things I most enjoy about RIFT is the random nature of the dynamic content. I want more of that.

The environment should be at odds with the enemies of the elemental planes. Take a look at the recent RIFT trailer Trion released. Dynamic content should be like that. Dynamic content should be random. It should be unpredictable, and it should be risky. It should catch you by your toes off guard, and make you rethink your journey. It should encourage us to group together, change roles on the fly, and dive into combat as a group.

One of RIFT’s best features is its large array of small group content. A small group of friends and guildmates can go rift and zone event stampeding, crack open their own expert/raid/PvP/crafting rifts, or group up for warfronts, 10-man raids, chronicles, or dungeons. The varying difficulties of rift content and dungeon content make grouping up with players of different gear levels easy as well. Groups seeking a challenge can try out a master mode dungeon, for instance.

He charged like a wild bull, this once-great priest and scholar, bony spikes sprouting between his knuckles. Anthousa raised two fingers in warding, and her spell deflected his jagged fist. Around them, Kelari clashed in the streets of Atia.

“Kelari blood runs in the gutters because you cling to old, stupid ways!” sneered Karris, a wave of heat from his open palm melting her ward away.

The High Priestess made no sign of discomfort even as the dregs of Karris’s spell singed her eyebrows away. He’d become obscenely powerful; Anthousa had to keep him talking. Anthousa found her most imperious tone, always close at hand. “Kelari blood need not concern you, Karris. All I see is another gibbering Wanton.”

One of the best qualities that all successful MMORPGs share is immersion. Now, there are a couple different definitions of immersion floating around when it comes to gaming. My definition simply means: the details in a game that make us eager to return to an MMO’s world. Do you remember the first time you were simply awed by the graphics in RIFT, or amazed by the fact that you could come up with five different leveling builds and actually use them all? Do you recall charging recklessly toward that first shiny artifact in the grass? That’s immersion.