Originally posted by Ailion (Source)

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Just a heads up, some Bladedancer and Ranger changes are already up on PTS. Patch notes haven’t been posted yet.

1. Bladedancer: Dauntless Strike: No longer increases the Critical Hit chance of group members. It now applies a debuff to the target, increasing the target’s chance to be critically hit by 5%.
2. Bladedancer: Blade Hustle: An additional effect has been added. You now gain Blade Hustle every 3s, increasing the damage of your next Quick Strike or Precision Strike 3-9%. Stacks up to 10 times.
3. Bladedancer: Disengage: Can now be used anytime. Now on GCD.
4. Bladedancer: Dancing Steel, Hundred Blades: Now on a 30s cooldown, down from 60s.
5. Ranger: New ability added to the Blood Raptor. The Blood Raptor can now charge at the enemy, dealing physical damage.
6. Ranger: Escape Artist: Cooldown has been reduced to 1 min, down from 2 min.
7. Ranger: Fleeting Instinct: Effect can now be applied both in and out of combat.

Over the weekend, Trion posted a few updates on the forums for Clerics, Warriors, and Rogues. Among the updates, there were notes of current bugs impacting Fiery Spike and Expose Weakness for Rogues, Reckless Strike for Warriors, and Light of Redemption for Clerics. Light of Redemption, the Sentinel ability, has actually been temporarily disabled as of late Saturday. Here are the three dev tracker posts, starting with the Cleric update:

Originally posted by Pithos (Source)

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Hello everyone,

We’ve had to disable the 61 point Sentinel ability, Light of Redemption, due to a bug.

Thank you to everyone who reported it, and we hope to have it active again soon.

Keep reading to see the others.

And for Rogues:

Originally posted by Ailion (Source)

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Some updates:

1) The damage bonus acquired by Flame Blitz (talents, heat retention etc.) is currently being transferred to Fiery Spike, resulting in more than expected damage added to Fiery Spike. This will be fixed later.

2) The additional damage from Expose Weakness is being “distributed” over the duration of DOT effects. For example, if Expose Weakness increases damage by 100, using Impale results in Impale getting an additional 100 damage over 20s, or 9 per tick, instead of 100 per tick. I may re-function Expose Weakness by removing the 20 Charges limitation.

Finally, an update for Warriors who might be using the RB/VK DPS spec:

Originally posted by Ailion (Source)

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Hey guys,

Just to let you know, Reckless Strike is currently bugged because it is tagged both as a physical attack and a non-physical attack when it should only be a physical attack. As such, it is enjoying all the non-physical damage bonuses from the Riftblade talents.

I will be getting that fixed, but not a hotfix at the moment.

Storm Legion’s first closed beta weekend event may be under NDA wraps, but thanks to yesterday’s Rogue reveal live stream, we can now share some new information about the Tactician– the Storm Legion Rogue soul. Ever want to use a flamethrower in RIFT? Now’s your chance. Tacticians come complete with a fully-stocked arsenal of technological gadgets including the flamethrower, mechanical cores, engines, and if paired up with the Saboteur soul– even a Molotov Cocktail or two.

The Tactician’s style of gameplay shares a few things in common with both the Tempest Warrior soul and the Harbinger Mage soul. Trion wanted to throw some new, cool stuff into the soul, along with aspects that synergize well with other souls and help fill any sort of gap in the current souls to choose from. The Tactician is bit of a hybrid soul, combining AoE damage and AoE healing power along with a wide assortment of utilities and support abilities that synergize well with many Rogue souls, including Bard, Saboteur, and Nightblade. Ability wise, the soul carries lots of fire power– flame tech and magical tech specifically.

Here’s a rundown of some of the different Tactician gadgets and ability types:

Torrents

• AoE abilities that are channeled and projected in a flamethrower-type manner (shown in the title image), damaging everything the magical effect hits. Rogues can move while casting these abilities.
• There are also Torrents that form a magical line between the player and either the mobs or players in front of them, as shown to the left. The line stays connected, leaving the player free to be mobile and in essence, move the AoE themselves.
• Torrents require smart player movement and good positioning, making the Tactician more of an active soul.

Cores

• Cores are mechanical gadgets that can be placed on the ground and are stationary, which provide a function, whether it be pulse AoE damage, buffs, or pulse AoE healing. Example shown to the right.

Remotes

• These are the Tactician’s buffs and support abilities, basically. There are remotes, for instance, that provide AoE healing reflection, raid shield-type absorbs, etc.
• Remotes are one reason why it seems that Tactician and Bard will go very well together in a raid-type environment.

Engines

• These are self-buffs. The player can only cast one at a time.
• One example provides the Rogue with additional healing every time they are hit, called Curative Engine, which we saw previewed during PAX Prime earlier this year. Another causes splash damage to happen every time damage is dealt.

Now, as far as synergy goes, the team talked about a few options for the Tactician. For the beta, players are able to choose from preset builds. One of the Tactician’s is named Flame Trooper, and is a Tactician/Nightblade build. This one seems good for both single target and AoE DPS, Tactician providing the AoE, Nightblade the single target. Both souls are more magical than physical. Tactician and Saboteur seems a popular combination, and allows the Rogue to put out massive AoE DPS. More on the Sab later!

PvP-wise, the Tactician itself might be good for a support PvP player, one who travels in a group. The soul doesn’t seem to be as well situated for a solo PvP role. The soul might be good in Conquest, for example.

Speaking of Tactician support, the Bard and Tactician will do very well together, and with the re-vamped Bard, this combination will allow Rogue players a true AoE healing and support option. The combo will provide tons of buffs and lots of group healing (but not tank healing, necessarily), similar to the current style of the Cleric -icar builds, except with true support options, as well.

The Bard soul itself is seeing a major overhaul, most of the details for which were discussed during PAX Prime 2012. Here are the basics– Bards will only have to juggle three Motifs, can use Cadence while moving, Cadence has a new AoE function, and finishers refresh Motifs. Bards will become more mobile and more versatile. The Bard’s range will be 20 meters.

Oh, and in case you haven’t heard– Rogue combo points will be on the Rogue in Storm Legion, and not on the mobs. This is for all Rogues. Pretty nice change! At the very end of the live stream, the team finally talked about the changes to energy regeneration. Trion has adjusted Rogue ability costs and energy costs across all souls, making it harder to become energy starved, especially while doing single target DPS. Massive AoE abilities (like Torrents, for example) or repeated burst may still drain energy.

Now for some other Rogue soul details:

• Saboteurs are getting a fun ability called Molotov Cocktail that spreads pretty flames everywhere. They’re also getting some new, more powerful bombs, and some spreading time bombs. Saboteur rotations are being made a little easier, and the soul has additional utility.
• Assassins will gain the ability to use three poisons. A top-tier Assassin talent allows the Rogue to use Assassinate and other stealth attacks out of stealth. Stealth itself isn’t seeing many changes.
• Bladedancer is seeing some minor improvements, including better scaling and better survivability.

Riftstalker changes weren’t discussed in much detail (although it was mentioned that early Tactician may work well with Riftstalker), but the team was quick to state that we should see equal mitigation across all tanking souls. That’s the goal, anyway. Trion wants players to pick tank souls and callings for their flavor and style, not based on which tank tanks “better”. Justicars splash heal while tanking, Rogues teleport, Reavers have DoT abilities, etc. Gersh also admitted that certain fights may still prefer certain tanks later down the road, but this is not the intention.

The same philosophy was discussed when a question was asked regarding the comparison between the Rogue DPS souls. Trion is trying to get DPS classes balanced closer. This may not happen exactly, of course, but that’s the goal. Since gear scaling has seen some shifting, balance may be a little easier this time around.

And to wrap us up, here are a few random leftover items of interest:

• This live stream took place on the Pelladane map, in one of the earth-themed caves called Core of the Architects.
• Speaking of maps, click the map above! Storm Legion map preview time!
• The cool hat Elrar’s character wears during the stream (seen in the image with the flame line) is a piece of level 60 Rogue gear.
• The Harbinger Mage soul gets an ability to transform into a huge, futuristic Valkyrie-type creature with 61 points in the soul.
• Elrar showed off a cute bear mount.
• In a couple of weeks, there will be a Dimension-specific live stream. The team reiterated their goal of a live stream every week until launch, if they can keep up that schedule. The starting time of those streams will be the same as this week’s– 2:30 PM PST.
• Next week’s stream has already been announced. Dynamic content!

By now we’ve all heard that Friday, October 5th is the Storm Legion Rogue soul reveal live stream, which happens to be revealing, of course, the Tactician. It will take place at 2:30 PM PST on Trion’s TwitchTV page, and will also be available after the show for viewing. The team at Trion started the official thread yesterday asking for questions from the playerbase that the team will answer during the stream.

Rogue players, get your questions ready! As always, Rift Junkies will be providing highlights and screenshots for the live stream later in the weekend.

Keep reading to see the full announcement.

It is time once again for an exciting soul reveal! The tactician is next on the list and the RIFT community team is gearing up to bring you a glimpse at what is to come. If you’re a rogue or like to play one you won’t want to miss this live steam!

Get your first glimpse at the tactician and discover its role on Friday, October 5th at 2:30PM PDT.

During this preview you will have the opportunity to submit questions to James “Elrar” Nichols and Elizabeth “Dahanese” Tobey.

This particular thread exists to give you a chance to post questions that I can forward to the Trion team so that they can be prepare to answer them. Please remember that this is just a sneak peak. Elrar and Dahanese won’t be able to answer everything just yet but they’ll be happy to show you some of the exciting things that you can expect in the future.

If there is something that you’d like to know please submit questions in this thread or via Twitter @RIFTgame #RIFTLS (please use the hashtag or we might miss your question). I’ll collect them all and pass them off to Trion before show time.

Please bear in mind that the Storm Legion souls are still a work in progress and this is a first look. Consider it just a small peak into the amazing things that will arrive with the expansion.

In the coming weeks you can look forward to a lot of live streams about Storm Legion and the unveiling the Cleric soul!

Friday also proves to be a good day for beta testers to begin testing the Rogue changes and the Tactician along with all the other calling changes and new souls. Storm Legion’s first closed beta starts this Friday, October 5th.

The Storm Legion Rogue reveal (Tactician!) live stream has been confirmed by Elrar to take place next Friday, October 5th. In that same forum reply, Elrar also gave us another bit of exciting news. Here’s the full reply, which starts off with an answer regarding the date of the Rogue reveal:

Originally posted by Elrar (Source)

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It will indeed be next Friday, October 5th!

Getting all the ducks in a row and we should announce Monday – and if our plans work out you’ll be seeing at least one live stream a week up through launch starting in October as we explore all that Storm Legion has to offer, full steam ahead!

One live stream a week? Yeah, I’d say that’s full steam ahead. Live streams are a great way to show off all the features (and souls!) waiting for us in the expansion, and if this plan succeeds, Trion will undoubtedly create a charged-up cloud of excitement. No, wait. Storm of excitement. There we go. Stormy metaphors to the max.

In other news, Trion also released some more information about the new Hunt Rifts coming to Storm Legion in a short blog post.

The next Storm Legion new soul reveal Live Stream headed our way will feature the Tactician, our new Rogue soul. A couple weeks ago, Elrar confirmed that we wouldn’t have to wait a whole month before getting to steal a glimpse of the Tactician in action. This came as a relief to many players who are anxious to find out about their favorite soul.

A couple days ago, a more specific timetable was announced on Trion’s Twitter feed, shown to the left. It seems Rogue fans will have to wait at least another week for their reveal. And yep, before anyone asks, the first part of that Tweet is indeed a “rouge” joke.

As we begin our final countdown toward the time remaining until Storm Legion’s launch, it definitely appears the folks at Trion have their hands full. October promises to be a busy month with the Rogue reveal, Cleric reveal, the announcement of Storm Legion’s open beta, and RIFT Patch 1.11 somewhere in there.

Originally posted by Daglar (Source)

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Re: Aillion is too busy fixing rogue energy to post, lets hope..:3

Aillion is super busy making rogues even more fun and amazing in the expac.

Also, last time I played under the 2.0 ruleset, my rogue didn’t have any energy issues.

Yesterday, Gamespot released Trion’s Storm Legion Developer Diary video to the public. This video will probably be announced by Trion today at some point, along with our exciting Mage soul reveal during the official live stream, but until then, feast your eyes on this very awesome glimpse into Storm Legion.

Keep reading to watch the video and see our highlights and commentary.

Throughout the video, various RIFT developers have some words to share, including Hal Hanlin (Design Producer), Brian Clarke (Associate Development Director), Simon Ffinch (Design Director), Nicholas McDowell (Lore Lead), and Adam Gershowitz (Senior Producer). A few of Storm Legion’s dungeon interiors are showcased, as well as some of the design concepts for the new outdoor areas. Crucia is shown in greater detail, and we even see a cinematic of the Infinity Gate.

Most of the enemies shown have a model stye that mirrors the technology-influenced fantasy artwork of most of the concept art seen so far. It’s a very steampunk-like style, full of gears and industrial tones that blend quite starkly with the vibrantly detailed areas that Trion’s design department excels at. All-in-all, Storm Legion looks fantastic.

Now, for some interesting stuff. At around 1:36 in the video, we’re able to briefly see all four new souls in action. In the title image of this article, the four souls are lined up (from left to right– Rogue, Warrior, Mage, Cleric). Most of the characters seem to be casting a self-buff, which can be seen better in this screenshot:

The Rogue casts something that has a green glow to it, almost resembling a spell from the life plane. The soul seems to be melee since we see dual weapons equipped (melee support-oriented, perhaps?). The Warrior disappears in the flash of a purple storm. Yep, that’s a big reveal there, and one that many of us didn’t see coming. Here’s the big question– is that a stealth/vanish ability, or is that a teleport? Either way, it looks like the new soul will have some added mobility!

The Mage casts an instant buff of some type and hefts his two-handed weapon that looks very much like a sword. Rumors have been predicting the two-hander for a couple days now. The Cleric, well, unfortunately doesn’t give much away. We can tell he’s using a neat-looking staff and casts an instant ability that almost has a death magic-like appearance. This would fit for the rumors of the Cleric soul being an additional ranged DPS spec, however.

There’s one other very cool reveal in this dev diary video which is shown below– a mount! At around 2:17, we catch a glimpse of a mount model being edited on a computer screen. It looks like some type of gliding bird creature, which makes a whole lot of sense for an expansion focused on the air plane. The mount’s reigns and seat are clearly visible.

Players in this speculation thread assumed it was a flying mount at first, until Elrar popped in and gave us a hint:

Originally posted by Elrar (Source)

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You guys found it before I did.

And no, it’s not a flying mount – but Khelendross’ original assumption might be on the right track

Forum member Khelendross went on to edit their original post, but this was the part Elrar referred to specifically:

“The other possibility is that its a mount that hovers but doesn’t actually fly. They won’t do flying mounts in this game, it would completely nullify the point of the zone puzzles and cairns.”

Bingo! Sounds like we’ll be able to hover above the ground and glide in this mount, but not actually fly and gain altitude. Players are also speculating that this mount will be Storm Legion’s Collector’s Edition mount.

Yep, it’s time for more speculation, this time of the Rogue soul variety. What are Rogue players hoping to get as a new Storm Legion soul? There are a few possibilities out there. Some type of healing soul is a popular suggestion, as is some type of ranged DPS engineer/technology-focused soul. A second tank option is also another idea. Let’s narrow the ideas down a bit, shall we?

In one recent forum thread, Daglar made an appearance and gave everyone a little hint in response to one suggestion:

Originally posted by Daglar (Source)

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Don’t know what they’ll call it. Bloodsomething probably.

No blood in the name. Current internal name starts with a T.

~Daglar

Ooh, now that’s a hint. Since this informative bit was posted, players have been having fun coming up with appropriate “T” suggestions.

Here are some of the ideas being tossed out:

• Thief
• Technician
• Trickster
• Troubadour
• Technomancer
• Tormentor
• Terrorist
• Turnblade
• And of course there’s always the possibility that Daglar is having some good ol’ fashioned Developer fun. The internal name might just be something like “Temp_RogueName” or “Test Rogue”

A couple of these sound like they might fit very well. Any other thoughts or speculation out there?

Ah, Bloodstalker. This is the build that redefines “one-trick pony”. If you need anything other than single-target DPS on a raid boss, then this is probably not what you’ll use.

But when you can pull it off, it’s worth it. Bloodstalker will do more single-target damage than any other spec in the right circumstances.

At this point, you may be wondering “What is Bloodstalker?”. It’s the common nickname given to a hybrid Assassin/Riftstalker build, mainly because mixing the two soul names together wasn’t particularly appealing. Bloodstalker combines the powerful bleeds from Assassin with the crit and damage bonuses from Riftstalker’s teleports in order to maintain very high single-target DPS.

When should I use Bloodstalker?
Almost never, unfortunately. The list of drawbacks is as long as your arm, and that means that on many encounters, it’s just not worth using. Bloodstalker excels at melee-friendly straight-up burn fights, but suffers when forced out of melee range or when AoE is needed. Also, if you’re unable to stand behind the target, damage output will drop significantly.  Third, Bloodstalker is the most energy-starved DPS spec in the game, so without an energy cost reduction buff, it’s completely unplayable. Fourth, without the assassin synergy crystal bonuses (tier 1 4-piece at minimum, and preferably Hammerknell 4-piece), it’s not worth using.

Lastly, the rotation is significantly more complicated than most other specs, which can make it difficult to use on any encounter that demands high awareness, such as General Silgen. Bloodstalker is not a spec for beginners, or for those who want to deal decent damage without a great deal of effort. For those who are used to fairly simple rotations like Ranger or Nightblade, Bloodstalker will be a bit of a wake-up call.

For bosses like Sicaron, Murdantix, and Beruhast, though, Bloodstalker’s high DPS is often worth the effort.

Strengths

• Extremely high single-target DPS
• High survivability thanks to Rift Guard and Planebound Resilience, as well as the ability to switch to Guardian Phase in truly dire circumstances
• Lots of mobility

Weaknesses

• Very low AoE damage
• Zero utility (no interrupts, or purges, or… anything, really)
• Requires melee range, and needs to be behind the target
• Complex rotation
• Requires synergy crystal
• VERY energy starved

Talents
Bloodstalker is a mix of Assassin and Riftstalker, with the leftover points thrown into Marksman. This is the standard build.

If desired, it’s possible to switch some points around to pick up a few abilities (such as Slip Away or an interrupt), but on fights where you’d need any of those things, Bloodstalker is generally not worth using in the first place.

Abilities

You’ll want to use the following buffs: Stalker Phase, Virulent Poison, Lethal Poison, Baneful Touch, and Planebound Resilience. If someone else is providing the 5% crit debuff, then you can use Leeching Poison instead of Lethal Poison to help the healers out a bit.

You’ll also want the following macros.

#show Puncture
suppressmacrofailures
cast Backstab
cast Puncture
cast Savage Strike
cast Swift Shot

#show Backstab
suppressmacrofailures
cast Backstab
cast Savage Strike
cast Swift Shot

#show Annihilate
cast Annihilate
cast Expose Weakness

#show Shadow Assault
suppressmacrofailures
cast Shadow Assault
cast Shadow Blitz
cast Shadow Stalk

Additionally, you’ll want an addon of some kind to track buffs and debuffs. You need to track the following: Impale’s duration, Ruthless Stalker’s duration, Annihilate’s duration, if Expose Weakness is not active on the target, and the remaining cooldown on Poison Malice. Karuul Alert works well for this. When set up properly, you’ll end up with something like this:

Single Target Rotation

As mentioned before, Bloodstalker’s rotation is complex.

Finishing move priorities, in order.

1. Keep Ruthless Stalker up by pressing the Shadow Assault macro every 8-10 seconds. Ideally, try not to use Shadow Assault or Shadow Blitz when you’re already at 4 combo points.
2. Keep Annihilate up. Try to refresh it just as it’s about to run out.
3. Keep Impale up. Never use it without both Ruthless Stalker and Annihilate active.
4. Use Final Blow as soon as Expose Weakness wears off, even if you’re below 5 combo points.

For combo point builders, mash the Puncture macro (switch to the other CP builder macro when you’re at 4 combo points). Use Poison Malice on cooldown, unless you need to save it for some reason (IE if the boss forces you out of melee range).

At the very beginning of the pull, try to stealth in and use Expose Weakness->Shadow Step (or Shadow Stalk)->Jagged Strike.

AoE Rotation

As a Bloodstalker, you should lead off an AoE situation by opening your talent pane and switching to another spec. If it’s too late and you’re already in combat, then use Rift Disturbance and Fan Out, while keeping Ruthless Stalker active.

Despite the severe limitations, Bloodstalker is the best at what it does. Mastering it will give you great bragging rights on DPS race fights like Sicaron and General Silgen, but it’ll take a lot of practice to reach that point.