GENERAL

• Instant Adventure: Once assigned to a group using Random Queue, you won't be automatically moved to another group or queue after some time has passed.
• Characters below level 25 can once again queue for random normal dungeons.

PRIMEVAL FEAST

• The Ritual Shaman should always spawn, even if his sacrifice target dies during the spawning script.
• The Sacrifice debuff itself no longer kills its target.
• The Sacrificed targets can still be killed by mobs if the mobs are not tanked.

INFERNAL DAWN
Laethys:

• Increased time between minion spawns in the first phase of the Laethys encounter.
• Increased casting time of Annihilating Flare.
• Decreased damage done by Golden Cleave.
• Molten Gold will no longer be cast immediately after Metallic Orb.
• Increased duration of Stoneseer's Wisdom.
• Reinforced Laethys scripting against the vile 'Gold Piles bug'.

Starting Tuesday, July 24th through Sunday, July 29th you can earn several titles for yourself by competing in Conquest. Kill, craft, and capture your way to victory all weekend long as you sink your teeth into 3 Faction PvP!

Titles are earned by playing your favorite faction all week long – or play one faction each day for at least 3 of the days and earn all three titles! The top crafters in Conquest each day even have their own special title for helping the war efforts.

Get all the details on the Rift Community Blog!

The North American region shards will be coming down July 18 at 6:00am PDT to take care of some additional server-side maintenance. The estimated downtime is 2 hours.

Here's our Time Zone Conversion Tool to help you plan. Patch notes are available below.

Traversing Telara is an exclusive series of articles from Trion Worlds that explores Rift's lore and gameplay mechanics through the eyes of one intrepid adventurer. It's a great read and a fantastic introduction to the world of Telara. Even if you're a veteran of Rift, you might enjoy hearing about the game from another perspective! Read on for Traversing Telara #14: Gods and Souls!

Catch up on all the past issues of Traversing Telara here!

RIFT 1.9 Hotfix #7 - 8:00am PDT 7/12/12 [NA] - 1:00am GMT/2:00am BST 13/7/12 [EU]

GENERAL

• Now that we have fully cross-shard Friend and Ignore lists, these lists are no longer cleared when you transfer to a new shard.
• Summonable Snowmen can once again be summoned during Summerfest - the daystar no longer has them hiding in fear!

SUMMERFEST

• Removed an extra Air Vent that was not actually venting near Kelpmere in Moonshade Highlands.
• Fixed the dual credit per bug toward the Achievement on the Bug Squishin' quest.
• Removed the mounted runspeed increase on Alo's Amazing Ice Cream quest.

CONQUEST

• Fixed the bug where Conquest buffs would sometimes not be cleared when you left Conquest.
• Now when you have more people near an Extractor, the faster the Extractor is captured.
• Crafting Portable Turrets or Lifesprings will now grant the 'Crafty Conquest' Achievement.
• Leaving and re-entering Conquest should no longer cause some objectives to disappear from the quest tracker.
• Personal Bankers and Mailboxes can no longer be summoned in Conquest.

INSTANT ADVENTURE

• Fire Brigade in Silverwood can now be completed by larger Instant Adventure groups.
• Higher level characters who are auto-mentored for Instant Adventure now get set to 14 in Freemarch/Silverwood, and 25 for Gloamwood/Stonefield.
• Achievements for defeating bosses in Instant Adventure should now be crediting properly for ALL bosses.

CRAFTING

• The recipes for Heroic Brightsurge Vial, Heroic Enduring Vial, and Heroic Powersurge Vial are now Bind on Pickup.
• Outfitter: The 300-skill crafting daily quests now require Bolt of Spellspun Silk rather than raw Spellspun Silk pieces.

For me, walking through a video game convention is like being in an art gallery candy store. You're surrounded by such beautiful creativity, yet you can't wait to stuff all of it into your gaping maw. Alas, mice and keyboards are (mostly) inedible, relegating me to the difficult task of being forced to play some of the most gorgeous games about to hit our PCs.

After tackling the tasty treats of End of Nations earlier in the day, it was time to check out RIFT, where I spoke with Trion Worlds' European Product Manager for RIFT and Defiance, Kevin Taylor. We spoke about some of the ingredients that went into Patch 1.9: Conquest, before getting some hints as to what will be on the menu for their upcoming Storm Legion expansion.

Our friends over at Farm Status have returned!  Episode 18 is here, and so are Josh, Chris and Trevor. The Trio discuss 1.9 in all its glory (or lack thereof). Including conquest likes and dislikes, the many hotfixes, mentoring, the barbershop and some possible explanations of what Trion is trying to do about the future of Rift. 

Download the Farm Status at Podomatic or iTunes!

You can contact the Farm Status folks here:

• EMail: Farmstatuspodcast@gmail.com
• Text or Voicemail: 917-830-RIFT (7438)
• TwittER: @Farmstatusrift
• Facebook: facebook.com/farmstatusrift

RIFT 1.9 Hotfix #4 - 5:45pm PDT 7/2/12 [NA] - 2:15am GMT/3:15am BST 3/7/12 [EU]

* Made the first of several tweaks we're looking at to improve the lag situation/server performance.

CONQUEST
* Mega Turrets located at bases, now with more 'mega' than before.
* Explosive Charges have been scattered throughout all three teams' bases. Avoid them, they hurt!
* The Archlich is tired out from being dragged up and around towers. He's much happier out in the fields - and plans to stay there!
* Fixed a case where players could end up in the Conquest map without being assigned to a Conquest faction.

GENERAL
* Summerfest: Life Invasions will now drop Summerfest Merit Badges!

RIFT 1.9 Hotfix #2 - 8:00am PDT 6/29/12 [NA] - 1:00am GMT/2:00am BST 30/6/12 [EU]

SUMMERFEST

• Removed the hedge mazes in Meridian and Sanctum.
• Plant Trees in Scarwood Reach: Made this one much easier.
• Defiant: Bug Stomp: Fixed so this quest no longer removes Summer Sunfish.

CONQUEST

• Conquest: Increased the Conquest Power payouts for kills, capturing extractors, and overall contribution.
• Conquest: You should now see larger numbers of enemy targets from farther away when doing Conquest with large groups.
• Conquest: Fixed Lifesprings and Turrets being infinitely-usable in Conquest.

GENERAL

• The 'go to recipe' button in the Crafting UI now takes you to your sub-combine recipe that crafts the fewest ingredients. Players who have both individual and bulk cloth/hide/ore recipes will be taken to the single-craft recipe from this button.
• Fixed the Defiant crafting daily NPC Sern being non-responsive to players trying to turn in their quests.
• Also fixed a variety of other NPCs in Sanctum and Meridian that didn't want to talk to players.
• Workorder: Mathosian Longbows should all be giving the correct Wondrous Flux item again.
• Primeval Feast: Removed some objects that caused line of sight obstruction around the Fae Lord Twyl encounter.
• Players can no longer end up with channel owner permissions in cross-shard level channels.
• Entering or canceling Mentoring now has a 2 second casting time.
• Rank 50 PvP cloth armor now actually has the different appearances for Guardian and Defiant mages.
• A case allowing queued channeled abilities to be cast while moving has been fixed.

Rift's highly anticipated patch 1.9 will go live today! There's lots of exciting stuff, like barbershops and Conquest, and to kick it all off Trion brings you Summerfest, the 1.9 world event.

Summer is here and people all across Telara are taking a break from their hard-won battles to enjoy the fine weather, great food, and fantastic fishing that summer always brings.  This two-phase event features Hedge Mazes, Scavenger Hunts, Daily Quests, and of course a lot of great new loot from the event merchants.  Head to Sanctum or Meridian as soon as you're done patching to join in the fun!

For a sneak peek check out our Summerfest Guide!