Rift patch 1.6, "From the Embers," is expected to hit live servers this week!  We've been busy on the Public Test Server and have all the guides you need when exploring the new content.

The largest chunk of content is Ember Isle.  Start with our Ember Isle zone page, but you might also be interested in:

• Travel Stones - How to get there and how to get around.
• Sourcewell - What are they, how did they get there, and why they are important.
• Ember Isle Quest Series - All the quests, listed geographically.
• Ember Isle Maps
• Ember Isle Lore - The Story behind the Kelari, the Sourcewells, the Pyrkari and the Civil War.
• Emerald Enigma - the Emerald Isle puzzle!

Also expected with From the Embers are a new raid zone and sliver:

• Rise of the Phoenix - a level 50 raid zone in Stonefield
• Caduceus Rise  - a dungeon in Ember Isle with four Modes.

Last, but certainly not least, the first Telaran holiday will make its appearance with the Fae Yule Celebration!  You'll be spending snowflakes for your Wassail and Candy Canes as you honor the Yulemother.

We welcome your contributions!  Anyone with a (free!) ZAM account can edit our guides, and don't forget to upload your discovery logs to help our database grow!

Ember Isle, in all its denoted glory! I primarily explored the west and south sides.

Last week, I was able to go to San Francisco for a discussion with Design Producer Hal Hanlin and to test the newest patch in Rift. Currently 1.6 is on several testing servers, and during my time in the game I was able to see many other players running around the content. I focused primarily on three topics: the lore behind Ember Isle and its spirits; the new Onslaught mechanic; and the style and variety of the terrain. Read on to get my personal “feel” for Ember Isle, and what players can look forward to!

In their latest art trailer update, Rift has released a new "The Making of Ember Isle" Trailer for players to check out. Combining epic music with developer commentary is always a good choice, and this trailer is a fantastic highlight of all the good things to come with Rift's 1.6 patch.

You can watch the video below, but also be sure to check out our 1.6 chat with Rift's Hal Hanlin, where we get all the details on this new Rift update!

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 Issue #2: A Starting Zone Like No Other!

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

Can you feel excitement in the air? How about the burning sparks flying across the sea from Ember Isle? Rift’s patch 1.6 is in the near future, and ZAM had a chance to meet with Design Producer Hal Hanlin this week, to learn some more information about the massive amounts of content being added to the game. While primarily focusing on the gigantic new landmass being added to Telara, we also were able to learn a bit about the new onslaught mechanics, instant adventures and the five-man dungeon, Caduceus Rise. Read on for more!

The Rift NA shards will be coming down for 1.5 Hotfix #12 - which includes a new Deflect rating for Riftstalkers' Guardian Phase - at 8:00am PDT tomorrow, 11/2/11. The estimated downtime is 30 minutes.

RIFT 1.5 Hotfix #12 - 8:00am PDT 11/2/11 [NA] - TBA [EU]

RIFTSTALKER

• Guardian Phase: Now gives the Riftstalker a chance to Deflect attacks, reducing their damage taken by the Riftstalker's Deflect rating. Deflect rating is increased by Dexterity.

GENERAL

• Players with old Sourcestone vouchers in their inventory can once again use them to create Sourcestone tokens.
• Iron Pine Peaks: If you completed the quest 'The Missing Link' in Dayblind Hollows without immediately accepting the followup, 'Collecting Threads', you can now resume that quest chain.
• All pre-existing Harbinger of Regulos items that haven't yet been added to your Companion list are no longer Soulbound (much like newly acquired Harbingers of Regulos).
• Achievements: King's Breach [Expert]: Dogs of War should properly trigger once again. Hunter Suleng's Ethereal Warhounds are back to spawning at the correct level.

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 Issue #1: Epic From The Beginning!

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

Everyone's getting in on the Halloween festivities! This time around, however, the team over at Rift decided that scary wasn't a good angle to take, so this year we're getting... a pretty ridiculous Halloween trailer. Words can't really describe this, but I think this is probably one of the greatest MMORPG-themed Halloween videos I've seen in a long time. Kudos, Trion Worlds, and enjoy this batty trailer!

I'm so sorry for the puns.

RIFT 1.5 Hotfix "#11" - 8:00am PDT 10/27/11 [NA] - 1:00am GMT 28/10/11 [EU]

GENERAL

• Planar Lure items that open specific Rifts are once again working!
• PVP: Increased the experience payout on world kill quests and weekly quests.

The Extra Life charity event was a marathon-style gaming session that started on October 15 and invited gamers across the world to play games for 24 hours straight and raise funds for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. Trion Worlds got on board by hosting a Rift Extra Life event on the Belmont and Astrophinius servers. Players who signed up and joined the event-specific guilds received the title “the Charitable,” while players who stayed up for 24 hours received the title “the Insomniac.” There were also prizes for the best results in certain categories: highest level, most favor, most critters killed and so on.

I decided to try it out — partially because it's a great cause, and partially because I'm insane. The following is a record of my thoughts on the Rift Extra Life event and my increasingly sleep-deprived mental state over the 24-hour session.