Thursday, December 10, 2015

[Off Topic] Fae Yule Part 2!


    Yesterday I did a bit of a commentary/summary on the new patch that went live! It included the winter holiday that always appears around this time of year, Fae Yule. Since there's so much going on during Fae Yule, and it's so cool and fun, I wanted another post dedicated just to the in game holiday event! I'll give a header for each section so you can know what to look for. I will cover the lore/story behind Fae Yule (what there is of it that I can find anyway) the quests, the rewards, and anything else I can think of! I also have a video that I took myself of my character Raeslyn as she goes about trying to stop the bad guys from ruining the wonderful holiday spirit! If you want to know what would make us apathetic Ascended, Guardian or Defiant, stop in our endless quest for glory, epics, and new mounts just to sing around the tree, guzzle eggnog and mead, and participate in silly events....well, I'll try to convey how much fun I find Fae Yule!



Lore Behind Fae Yule:
     It's really hard to find any definitive lore behind Fae Yule. From what I've been able to gather by reading quest dialogue and doing the activities, is that, ever since the beginning of Telara's creation, the Rifts have always been present. It wasn't until the Ward was erected that the Rifts were unable to interact in such a strong way with Telara. But even after that, there were dark things that stirred upon the land. This was never more evident then when the months shortened, became colder, and the land took on a more "darker" aspect. Long periods of black would overtake certain areas in these shorter months, where evil could gain a stronger foothold. Adventurers would become lost and confused, and many would never be heard from again. Until one winter, a determined young High Elf hunter by the name of Illuminaria decided to do something for the poor unfortunate souls that became lost her home of Silverwood. By setting out small, magical candles that burned brightly despite the darkness and refused to go out no matter the wind and the cold, she was able to guide lost travelers back to the safe roads that led throughout the wood. She saved many lives that winter, lighting candles wherever she went to help those less fortunate. As the winter wore on, the story of her heroic deeds became more widely spread, and it cheered people's spirits. Eventually, this gift of setting out magical candles became commonplace among the sentient beings of Telara, leading to other such traditions like handing out special gifts, performing fun activities, singing holiday carols, and drinking spiced beverages to ward off chill. All these activities and traditions eventually became known as a festival, which was simply named Yule, after Illuminaria the "Yulemother" as she had become known as. Through the years, the people of Telara kept up the tradition of the Yule festival, setting out candles for lost adventurers, giving gifts of cheer and joy to their neighbors, partaking in special drinks, and having a merry old time. By doing this, they were able to forget about and push back the dark despair that was the winter months on Telara. Especially in the northern regions of the world, where the mountains and the snow ruled over the passes and the locals became trapped in their small towns.

     During all these years, the Fae, creatures of the Plane of Life, were under the thumb of Greenscale. When Greenscale was finally defeated by the combined might of the Ascended just recently, the fae were finally freed from his iron control. Being the fun loving, trickster types that they are, the Fae immediately fell in love with concept of festivals and holidays. One such holiday that they became heavily involved in was Fae Yule. Now, a bogling by the name of Greatfather Frost and a whole host of Fae creatures, including satyrs, have decided to make Yule a holiday that no one-Ascended included-will likely forget! From the green grasses of Freemarch to the distant peaks of Iron Pine, you can hear the tinkling of bells, see the brilliant colored lights, and smell the delicious scent of rich foods. As the days grow ever shorter and darkness again crosses the land, you can find Telara sprinkled with festive lights and packages, beautiful sparkling trees and dancing Fae. Even the poor treants that have become native to Telara over the millennia haven't been left out of the festivities, being festooned with strings of blinking red and green lights.

     Unfortunately, all is not as merry as it seems. Crucia, the dragon of Air, has developed an intense aversion to everything Yule. Subtle manipulation being her forte, she's been moving behind the scenes, sending her Storm Legion troops in secret to destroy the Yule decorations, wreak havoc in the northern towns, and turning the weak willed treants against Telara. One such treant, a powerful, mighty creature named Yulelogon, is now rumored to run amok across the land, stomping through the forests and mountains of Telara, crazed by Crucia's insistant whispers and mindlessly killing any creature he comes across, forcing the reluctant heroes of Telara to take up arms against him. In previous years of Fae Yule, Atrophinius, the famous Satyr that Trion seems to love plunking down everywhere, was also rampaging around, blaming the festivities on his lack of mead and furiously smashing up all the decorations and presents he can find. This year it appears like he's finally come to his senses, although sadly his mead is still gone. Seems some thieves stole it or something. But Greatfather Frost is determined that Atro be part of the holiday cheer, even though he's nothing but an ornery drunk. Did I say that out loud?

The Phases of Fae Yule:

     There's 3 phases to Fae Yule. Each one will be unlocked on a specific date. You have until that date to complete the previous phase's quests. Some repeatable quests, though, will carry over into the other phases. As the phases unfold, they will reveal more information on the story of Fae Yule and what Crucia's plan is about ruining it. For this year, here are the phases:
  •  Phase 1: Remembering the Yulemother (December 10-16)
  • Phase 2: Reclaiming Fae Yule (December 17-23) 
  • Phase 3: Fae Yule Celebration (December 24-January 1)
Each new phase will introduce a story quest that awards 1 Dark Ice Bell (with a chance at a special mount, mini pet, or other goody) as well as 10 Dark Icicles. A rather interesting addition to this year is 2 real money specials. If you buy credit through the rift store on your account, you can gain a holiday item in game.
  • 20$ worth of credit will give you the reward of a Jolly Hellbug Pet, which sounds really cute.
  • 100$ worth of credit will give you a Jolly Hellbug Mount reward. Pretty steep cost though.

Fae Yule Quests:
     This isn't a complete, comprehensive list, cause that would take too long, it's no doubt been done already on more popular sites, and I'm a firm believer in using your own brain and doing something for yourself. So while I'll give basic instructions for each quest, I'm not going to sit down and draw you a step by step diagram for everything. Where's the fun in playing a game if everything is done for you? Might as well just make a bot and go draw a stickman somewhere....All the quests marked with (Random Daily) are just that. Quests that are cycled at random and can be repeated once a day for the duration of the event.

Phase One Quest List:
  • Gifts of the Yulemother (Random Daily)-Use a Yulemother's Gift on those who are less fortunate. Just wander your capital city until you find a "humbug". Hint: they also have grey clouds above their heads.
    • Reward: 1 jingling bell (a container with random Yule rewards inside) and 25 Unique Snowflakes (Yule's main currency in Rift)
  • Cheer Up (Random Daily)-Collect stolen holiday cheer from Rift creatures that grant experience. Go out in the world and kill Rift critters. Don't forget to mentor yourself to the lvl of the zone you are in, if needed!
    • Reward: 1 jingling bell and 25 Unique Snowflakes
  • Season's Greetings!( Story Quest)-Invite Atrophinius to the Fae Yule Celebration. This is a story quest, which gives you a bit of background for Fae Yule. You need to go find Atro and go through a little conversation with him about his mead(or lack thereof) and convince him to participate in the festivities on behalf of Greatfather Frost.
    • Reward: 1 dark ice bell and 10 Dark Icicles (the bell has a chance of giving you a cool pet and not sure what the Dark Icicles are for yet)
  • Sled Slalom (Repeatable)-This quest you get after you first gain the quest "Sledding and Snowmen", found with the other questgivers in Sanctum/Meridian that tells you to go through the portal into Iron Pine Peaks. Once there, follow the road of candy canes to another quest giver, who gives you this quest, which is repeatable as many times as you want in a day. Grab a sled at the top of the hill(follow the flags up the hill to find the platform) and slide down through the gates(again, flags, alternating Guardian and Defiant themed) and over the final jump. You will be flung a ways, be knocked off your sled, and land in a snowbank surrounded by candy canes. Just get up, follow the candy cane road back to the questgiver, and start over, or take the giant portal back to Sanctum/Meridian.
    • Reward: 5 Unique Snowflakes
  • Snowman Snowpocalypse (Repeatable)-Grab your sled at the top of the hill and hit snowmen on your way down. Explanation on how to get there is in the previous quest description. Note that this quest can be kind of a pain because every time you go over a slight bump or a turn, your sled has a tendency to shoot you miles over your intended target, forcing you to backtrack if you want to complete the objectives. You need to hit 10 snowmen as WELL as complete the sledding course for this to count.
    • Reward: 5 Unique Snowflakes
    • Note: After the first few times, I don't find these quests entertaining enough to be worth the 5 snowflakes. The novelty wears off after the first few quest completions.
  • Light the Way (Random Daily)-Not marked as a story quest but gives you some lore info on Yule and Illuminaria. The objective is to use a special candle to lead 3 lost travelers to safety out of the darkness. This quest kind of confused me a bit at first. What you do is go outside the city and find large patches of black smoke. Inside the black smoke is a terrified lost traveler. Just place the candle near or on top of them, and it will dispel the dark cloud. Can only be done in Freemarch or Silverwood.
    • Reward: 1 jingling bell and 25 Unique Snowflakes
  • A Frosty Free For All (Random Daily)-Celebrate Fae Yule with a fun snowball fight. Hit 8 combatants with a snowball. You can hit players or specific npc's that run across the snowball "arena", called Brazen Reveler(Guardian) and Fearless Celebrant(Defiant). You have to be in a specific area of the capital city in order to do this quest, probably because otherwise it would just get annoying for anyone else...you'll know when you're in the right spot cause you'll get a snowball icon on your action bar and your character will glow green. It's a small area marked off by a line of snowboglings
    • Reward: 1 jingling bell and 5 Unique Snowflakes
  • Dashing Through the Snow (Random Daily)-Collect 10 white flowers(called Icebuds) located around your capital city to feed to Greatfather Frost's Vaiyuu. The icebuds are easy to spot, they are sparkling frost covered white flowers found all over in Sanctum and Meridian. Grab 10 and done!
    • Reward: 1 jingling bell and 25 Unique Snowflakes
  • Holiday Thievery(Random Daily)-Collect stolen gifts from Air Rifts that grant experience. You need to collect 2 of the gifts. Don't forget to mentor down if applicable so you get credit!
    • Reward: 1 jingling bell and 25 Unique Snowflakes
  • Stormproofing The Wardstones (Random Daily)-Use your character's Ascended ability "Nexus Infusion" on a Wardstone. There's one right outside Sanctum across the bridge and outside Meridian once you go down the steps. Just target the Wardstone, and click on your Nexus Infusion spell. You do need to have at least 1 Planar Charge though in order for this to work. Planar Charges are those little blue crystals on the far left side of your character portrait, at the bottom. You can commonly hold 3, but characters can extend that with PA lvls and other things. When you use the Nexus Infusion ability, one of the Planar Charges will be lost and you'll have to close a Rift to recharge.
Phase 2 Quest List:
  • Surely Sober Satyr (Story Quest)-Atrophinius is mad that he's sober and he's not enjoying himself, so wants you to go fetch some things to make some alcohol for the poor satyr. Collect some Wassail from Greatfather Frost, then go to Freemarch (Guardians and Defiant both have to go to Freemarch. Seems only fair since Atro was in Silverwood for the 1st part) and collect:
    • 5 Frostblossoms, 5 Nutleaves, and 5 Winterglory
    • Reward: 1 Dark Ice Bell and 10 Dark Icicles
  • Wassail for Atrophinius (Random Daily)-Collect 5 bowls of Fae Wassail located around the capital city. They are easy to spot. They are small stone dishes with green liquid that sparkle to indicate they are quest items.
    • Reward: 1 jingling bell and 25 Unique Snowflakes
  • Baffling Crucia's Winds (Random Daily)-Close Air Rifts that grant experience. Exactly what it says. Go find some Air Rifts, which are the pretty silvery Rift markers on your map. Don't forget to lower your lvl if in a low lvl zone.
    • Reward: 1 jingling bell and 25 Unique Snowflakes
  • Deck the Halls (Random Daily)- Go to the Lodge of the Planes (Guardian) or Spirit of Rhaz'ade (Defiant) and place holiday wreaths on the walls. These 2 places are the capital cities' taverns/Inns, and aren't hard to find, especially if you play on an RP server.
    • Reward: 1 jingling bell and 25 Unique Snowflakes
  • The Safest Way (Random Daily)- Kill 15 Rift creatures that grant experience. Just go out and beat up some Rifts. Just remember to mentor down!
    • Reward: 1 jingling bell and 25 Unique Snowflakes
Phase 3 Quest List:
  • Gift For a Bogling (Story Quest)- Rescue the 5 stolen presents that Crucia's forces have made off with. You'll have to travel to Iron Pine Peaks for this quest. The location is the Howling Caves, which is north of Whitefall. Inside the cave, the piles of presents will just be laying around for you to click on. Keep moving as you pluck up the presents, because they don't have a normal respawn timer, instead appearing elsewhere once picked up at that location. Kind of weird.
    • Reward: 1 Dark Ice Bell and 10 Dark Icicles
  • Yuletide Exchange (Daily)- This quest is a bit different than the others. For one thing, the quest giver is in a random spot. In Sanctum he's up on the top balcony of the Inner Sanctum and in Meridian he's located in the same part of the building as Orphiel is. Just go inside, and go up the ramp behind the Wedding Co-ordinator. He's located just above our heads in that main room. You don't need to use the little portal thing in the center of the room. The quest wants to take a present from the pile next to the questgiver (a bogling named Rellop) and deliver it to someone in need in a random location around Telara. But don't worry, you can take a shortcut to get there. Next to Rellop is a giant magical wreath portal. Just jump through it and you'll arrive next to who you need to deliver the present to. Once done, just jump back through the portal again.
    • Reward- 1 jingling bell and 25 Unique Snowflakes
  • That's the Fae Spirit (Daily)- Drink from a bowl of Fae Wassail, which as far as I can tell, is a really cool alcoholic drink that also has the benefit of transmogrifying your physical state into something else. In this quest, that happens to be a Faerie, or a Satyr. Once you've drank from the bowl, which can be found in a few out of the way spots around the city, you need to go kiss someone in 3 separate locations. This quest was actually the most annoying for me because I couldn't figure out how it worked. Just walk over to the spot you need and type /kiss. You don't need to target anyone. You can tell your at the right location because there will be a big red bow and some mistletoe above you. It's neat seeing the interaction of the Fae NPC's as you perform the deed.
    • Reward- 1 jingling bell and 25 Unique Snowflakes
Nightmare Tide (Plane of Water) Quests:
  • Bring Me Gifts! (Daily)- Bring Captain Jack Skyeling (located at Port Scuddra) a gift off the corpse of a random mob. Just go out in the surrounding area, kill the specific mob, loot the gift, and return it to the questgiver.
    • Reward- 1 jingling bell and 25 Unique Snowflakes, with the addition of 50 rep points for the Cerulean Rhenke
  • Spirit the Kindling of the Season (Daily)- This quest is located at Ghar Station Rosh in Draumheim. You need to go out and slaughter some treants that are causing trouble and bring 8 pieces of kindling back to the questgiver.
    • Reward- 1 jingling bell and 25 Unique Snowflakes, with the addition of 50 rep points for the Atragarian faction
  • Visions of Sugar Plums (Daily)- Located at Ghar Station Mem in Goboro Reef. You need to jump up onto a bed and dream up a present for a specific NPC. The NPC will differ from day to day, and could be located in a different spot, at the Temple of Ranri. You have to interact with an item in order to begin dreaming.
    • Reward- 1 jingling bell and 25 Unique Snowflakes
  • Faeblight Sparkle Returns (A High Level Quest)- Collect 500 Faeblight Sparkles from various tasks around Telara. Once you have 500, you can turn them in and get a Faeblight Sparkling Shard of Wonder, which you can then turn in for a piece of Nightmare Tide gear. You'll have to be pretty dedicated if you want any of these. Here's where you can get the Faeblight Sparkles:
    • 6 from lvl 65 random warfronts, or 2 if you don't have random charges left
    • 6 from lvl 65 random expert dungeons, or 2 if you don't have any daily charges left
    • 4 from a few Nightmare Tide daily/weekly quests. These are Spirit of Adventure (weekly instant adventure quest) Five If By Sea (weekly Nightmare Tide Zone Event quest), Cerebral Catharsis (weekly raid rift quest), Sea of Ladon (daily Raid Rift quest).
    • 10 from Conquest if you win
    • 1 from Zone Events
    • Reward- This is a one time only reward, and it will be either a DPS/Healing Nightmare Tide item or a Tanking Nightmare Tide item. Once you choose which one you want and click accept, you can't take it back and you can't get a new.
Fae Yule Minion Adventures:

     This Fae Yule, you can buy a specific minion from the World Event tab in the store called Grish. You'll need him in order to do any of the Fae Yule minion stuff or gather more Fae Yule minions, because the start of the special Fae Yule minion adventures can only be completed by him. You can purchase him with 10 Dark Icicles and 500 Unique Snowflakes or 750 credits. Yes, that is a little steep. After you buy Grish, he can be sent on the first Fae Yule Minion Adventure, which will reward you with another minion as well as a chance at other Fae Yule things like:
        1. 10-20 Unique Snowflakes
        2. Dark Icicles
        3. Jingling Bells
        4. Fae Yule dimension items, both previous years and current
        5. Fae Yule mini pets
        6. Fae Yule wardrobe armor and new weapon looks
        7. Festive holiday food and drink
     Also available, if you were interested, is last year's Fae Yule Minion Adventure questline. This one starts by purchasing the minion card: Rudy from the Rift store. It's thankfully not as expensive as Grish. 3 Dark Icicles and 250 Unique Snowflakes, or 500 credits. This works the same as the 2015 mission setup. You need to have Rudy in order to start the missions off, because it's a minion adventure that only Rudy can complete. Once you've done that, you'll gain a sequence of missions that will eventually lead you to gaining the other cards. You have to go in order, and each of the missions will help you with their titles.

     Don't lose track of which missions you've done if your aiming on getting the minions, because sometimes its hard to remember which missions you've completed or not. For me, I just write stuff down in my Rift journal. Of course, not everyone has a gaming journal like I do cause I'm a crazy nerd...
  • 2015 Minion Cards:
    • Grish
    • Sundereth
    • Atrophinius
    • Xharlion
    • Seoras
    • Grendelkhan
  • 2014 Minion Cards:
    • Rudy
    • Ivory
    • Slobberjaw
    • Atrophinius
    • Yulelogon
    • Greatfather Frost
     There's also a 10 hour long promotional adventure that you can do to earn additional Fae Yule rewards. As anyone who plays with minions knows, this will cost you 250 Adventurine to participate in. Which should be fine as long as you've done anything with your Minions to gain enough currency.

Fae Yule Instant Adventures:
     These can be found in IPP or by hitting the > key on your keyboard to bring up the IA window, where you can than click on the Fae Yule holiday ones, which will take you to the designated area in IPP. Like all IA's you can join and leave as you wish, and mostly revolves around killing mobs or grabbing things off the ground to complete the task. These IA's are narrated by various Fae Yule NPC's, and it's actually pretty funny listening to them, especially Atrophinius, who is so drunk he can't even narrate for you properly lol! Above is a short video clip of a part of my IA experience. I won't write a list of all the IA's, or what you need to do, because that's rather obvious once you join the queue. At the end you will face a random, holiday themed boss and gain a cache with a chance to win the Fae Yule currency and/or other item.

Fae Yule Achievements:
     There's also a ton of Achievements relating specifically to the holiday time! A lot of these achievements are easy to earn, just do your Fae Yule quests and you'll get the achievs along the way. Here's a list of the achievs and their requirements!
  • For Whom the Jingle Bell Tolls- Collect and summon the list of holiday mini pets from your reward bags or from the Rift store. There are 10 critters in total. You need to summon them as well as just collect them!
    • Reward: Snow Ki Rhin. A white dragon horse mount thing.
  • Snowmancer- Collect and use 4 snowman clickable trinket things that you can earn throughout the holiday. There's Satyr, Bogling, Holiday, and regular Snowman. Click on them to use them to gain credit toward this achievement. They are easy to obtain and can be gotten through any of the Fae Yule activities.
    • Reward: "Snowmancer" title and a "Call of the Snowmancer" clickable item that lets you strike fear into the hearts of Ascended everywhere with your mastery of fluffy soft snow by calling up a blizzard.
  • Snow Puppet Master- There are mini pets you can gain through Fae Yule called puppets and you can summon them like regular mini pets. There are 5 of them and you need to collect and summon all 5 in order to complete this achievement. The puppets are Tasuil (who is an adorable tiny corgi with a giant head), Faceless Man, Dacia, Fae Yule Caroler, and Fae Yule Spirit Singer. The pets aren't soulbound immediately, so you can actually use the AH to collect them too if you need to!
    • Reward: A Grandfather Frost puppet. Interesting how that is GRANDfather Frost, and when you see the NPC in the cities, it's GREATfather Frost. I also seem to remember previous years, the guy being Grandfather Frost....I'll have to check back.
  • 25 Thousand Imported Twinkle Lights- Collect and use all of the Lights of Yule from Fae Yule. There are 4, green, blue, red, yellow. They are little bobbing motes of light mini pets that you can collect and summon like other mini pets. They do get annoying after a while though, just to warn you! You can get them like the other mini pets.
    • Reward: White Light of Yule. I'm assuming the same design as the others, except white?
  • Winter Homemaker- Buy any 3 of the Dimension Fae Yule kits from the Rift Store. Pretty self explainatory, and easy achievement! Also, if you don't want the dimension items and need the snowflake currency for other things, a sneaky thing to do is buy the dimension kits, then return them to the store unopened and refund yourself the currency. It will work for all 3 kits and net you an easy achiev!
  • The Nightmare Before Fae Yule- A meta achievement that requires you to complete specific achievements in order to complete this one. These achievements are:
      • Snowmancer
      • Snow Puppet Master
      • Winter Homemaker
      • 25,000 Imported Twinkle Lights
    • Reward: The Nightbringer. This is a really cool and pretty black Vaiyuu mount with glowing green eyes.
  • There are also 6 PvP Achievements:
    • Victory: The Gift That Keeps On Giving
      • Win 5 Whitefall matches during the Fae Yule special warfront
    • You Shouldn't Have...No Really, You Shouldn't Have
      • Receive a Fae Yule Cake in Whitefall during Fae Yule
    • He Knows When You've Been Naughty
      • Kill Santa Claws and take on his form
    • A Wintery Winning Wonderland
      • Win a Fae Yule Whitefall match
    • You Are On My List
      • Kill 5 players while under the effects of "Santa Claws"
    • A Bloody Fae Yule
      • Complete all the Fae Yule Whitefall achievements
      • Reward: The Santa Claws mini pet. A cute little white werewolf with a santa hat
  • There are around 12 Other Achievements that aren't on this list, because they require doing a whole bunch of tasks or aren't really spectacular in the rewards department, although a few of them give you a title or some tiny award. These are:
    • Fae Yule Grande Cape
    • Stocking Stuffers
    • Fae Yule Feasting
    • Sled Race 2000
    • Naughty, Definitely Naughty
    • New Silent Night
    • Inappropriate Gifts
    • Sometimes The Thought Is Not All That Counts
    • Making A List, Checking It Twice
    • Seasonal Work
    • Things That Go Bump In the Night

     Like Every year, I'm having a lot of fun so far this Fae Yule. It's a nice break from trying to save the world every day to relax, enjoy the holidays, drink Wassail, and go sledding on the mountain! There are plenty of adorable mini pets to snag, cool mounts to shoot for, and neat zone events to participate in. If you turn your in game volume on while doing the Instant Adventures in particular, you can hear Greatfather Frost and Atrophinius talking about their experiences. Atro in particular is very funny with his drunken commentary on the Storm Legion. He really hates those guys, eh? As soon as I've done checking everything out for the day I'll post some pictures to go along with this summary. Actually, I think this is the most detailed summary yet of an in game holiday! This is in part, thanks to research on the interwebs about Fae Yule and that I actually have free time to sit down and write up an extensive guide to the holiday! (AKA I'm broke from BlizzCon and Christmas and therefore can't afford to make any new cosplays or go shopping or do any of the other millions of things I'm always working on instead).
 
     So, happy holidays everyone, enjoy your Fae Yule, but don't drink too much Wassail (or eggnog hehe!) and try not to get on Atrophinius's bad side. I can't believe that 2015 is already ending. It feels like it just got here. It's so shocking that as we get older, the years seem to just blur by. But I had a great year, nothing that I regret too much, and I'm looking forward to the year 2016! Especially BlizzCon 2016! Although I plan on adding a few other cons to next year too, if I have time and money! I have so many non Blizzard cosplays I'd like to try, including a Rift one! If you're curious to see any of my cosplay, by the way, you can find a link to my page in the About The Journalist tab of my blog! :)

    ~Dark Out!



 

Wednesday, December 09, 2015

[Off Topic]: Patch 3.5, Winter's Wrath, and the Dark Pantheon, Oh My!


    Omg, lots of new and exciting things coming with patch 3.5 and I can hardly wait to play it tonight after work!! It launches December 9th, which is today woot!!!! Here's a look at what all is being introduced/changed in 3.5 "Winter's Wrath":

  • Affinity-A Patron benefit thing apparently, which is fine by me cause I've been subscribed to Rift since it's launch in....uh....2010 was it? And I've kept subscribed to the year long sub even after the game went F2P (which I still don't agree with but whatevs). Apparently, Affinity means you collect Patron points just by logging into the game on a Patron account. For each day that you log in, you gain 5 Affinity points, plus you get an extra 3 points bonus as you play throughout the day. I'm assuming this is for playing for 3+ hours straight or something. Or for logging in multiple times? You can redeem your points for neat things on the Rift store, like mounts for any of your characters (which I take to mean that they are BoA, awesome!) or end game loot stuff! A huge bonus and a definite incentive for peeps to subscribe to Rift. I like this idea! UPDATE: The Affinity items are NOT BoA items sadly, and if you want the mounts on multiple characters, you need to keep saving up affinity until you have enough for each character to buy their own. Which makes me sad because I really want Bolt and Volt on all my mains! :(
  • PvP- New and improved rewards for participating in pvp skirmishes. I'm not a big pvp'er, but I've been known to try my hand at it from time to time. I'll say this: I prefer Rift pvp to WoW pvp any day of the week! It just seems so much more....meaningful. Ya, that's the word I want. There is also a new tier of pvp gear available for end game for players who do hardcore pvp! You can earn this new tier of pvp armor, called Warmonger's Armor, by upgrading your Frenetic armor pieces (no idea what those are, as I haven't even got a char to end game yet LOL). There are also all new epic quality weapons, Warmonger Weapons on the Rift Store for pvp currency (Favor) and are also upgradeable. I actually really like the upgrade option that Rift introduced. It makes me feel proud to work toward upgrading my armor for better stats rather then just throwing it away at the first opportunity for something better! Apparently the Warmonger weapons give a chance a special effect in combat that could potentially turn the tide of battle. Sounds exciting! :)
  • Ascended Troves- Trion is giving all of us Ascended a lovely gift basket and it's pretty darn awesome!!! Even non patron's get one! :) Starting at lvl 10, you can pick up your gift basket in the Rift store. It's full of gear you can use, mounts, pets, reward currency, dimension items, etc! For every 10 lvls, you'll be able to open up the Trove and gather more epic loots! The Troves work kind of like a nesting doll, where each one is wrapped inside the layer of the one before it. Like peeling an onion. If you aren't quite at the lvl where you can open your trove yet, just keep it in your bag or bank until you ding, then open it and reap the benefits!
  • Fae Yule-Once again it's Christmas time in the real world, which means that the citizens of Telara will be celebrating the world renowned Fae Yule holiday! I love Fae Yule of all the holidays! The holiday spirit, excitement, and magic just gets me every time! Fae Yule will be added to the game On Dec 10th and go until Jan 6th, which thankfully gives me plenty of time to do stuff for it since I find myself working quite a lot lately to make up for my trip to LA for BlizzCon! There are bunch of new things to do for Fae Yule this year!
    • Instant Adventure-Fae Yule Style!-Greatfather Frost and Atrophinius(was wondering when he would pop up again...) have set out to make Fae Yule the best one yet and restore order to the holiday, but they seemed to have consumed a bit too much mead(no surprise there) and are having trouble completing the work. Queue up for IA in Iron Pine Peaks to help restore Fae Yule to it's rightful holiday state. Somebody's gotta do it!
    • Minions-All new holiday missions for your minions! I've only just familiar with the whole minion thing, so I'm kind of on the fence about this. They are fun and all, but I'm not really sure on their point in the game, other then random amusement for bored end game players. And in case you weren't able to do Fae Yule 2014's minion missions, they are going to be available again this year (which is good cause I didn't do them!) and you can also buy the minion card from last year: Rudy, from the Rift Store this year.
    • Sparkle Quest- I'm not really sure what that even means...but the Rift sites says that you can earn bran new end game gear and rewards from the newest raid (Mind of Madness) by doing Expert Dungeons, winning Random Warfronts, looting the chest in Conquest, participate in experience-giving Zone Events, or by doing assorted daily and weekly quests. But it seems that last year's Faelight Sparkles will magically dissolve out of your currency window so they are no longer valid for this year. So if you saved them up from last year, too bad so sad, gotta work from scratch like everyone else! Once you earn enough currency from doing these tasks, you can buy some awesome end game gear, either for dps, healer, or tank.
    • Fae Yule Quests and Zone Events-Earn currency, dimension items, pets, mounts, armor, and more this holiday by doing all the quests that were available last year! Like sledding down the slope in Iron Pine Peaks, dreaming up gifts in the Plane of Water, or performing tasks for the npc's in your capital city!
    • Dormant Fae Yule Gifts-For the duration of Fae Yule this year, the final lvl 65 boss on Expert dungeon mode will drop a Dormant Fae Yule Gift. If you hang onto these mystery packages for 12 days, they will...uh...hatch?...and you can open them for a piece of gear from the first tier of raids in the Nightmare Tide expac! Hang on to them, upgrade them, and equip them and this armor would be just as good as those that drop from the raids!
    • Achievements and Rewards- All new and old achievements, new pets, mounts, rewards, interactive items to liven up your group. The star at the top of this year's Yule tree is a set of necklaces that will make any Ascended blush(lol curious what that is...) The necklace costs 2k+ snowflakes or dark icicles, or you can buy it with credit. It's worth the equivalent of the first set of raid tier in Nightmare Tide, but you can also upgrade it to tier 2 very easily.
    • Rift Store Purchasable Items- On the store itself, purchasable with credits, are a bunch of new holiday themed items, like animated backpacks, a "Midnight Mink" mount, Faeblight Sparkle weapon skins, and a couple of cute portrait badges to complete your festive holiday look!
Well, that's a lot of stuff to take in eh? I'm so excited for Fae Yule tomorrow! Once I've had a chance to log in tonight and tomorrow, I'll update this post with specifics about the actual Fae Yule event and other goodies like Affinity! I can't wait for work to be over with already, and I haven't even started my shift yet haha!

Other things happening in the wonderful world of Rift right now!! Like a behind the lore look at the Dark Pantheon bosses in the Mind of Madness finale!! Here's some info!
        "You've tested your mettle beyond the edge of space and time, through the twisting synapse forest of the Unknown, topping the perverse Pillars of Justice and conquering Envy in the Heart of Darkness. These are all gateways to the true horrors concealed within the Mind of Madness!" That quote is taken directly from Rift's website, here Mind of Maddness Dark Pantheon! Read it, really cool stuff! :)
The new bosses are Lady Justice, The Enigma, Dark Genesis, and Arisen Arak! Sooooooo cool, I wish I was end game and geared just so I can check this place out and explore it all! And of course get all the cool achievements and gear and things.
  • Lady Justice: The Goddess of Reason and judgement. She's apparently supposed to bring order to the chaos of existence caused by the Enigma. That should mean she's the good guy right? Well, she's trapped inside the vessel and its warped her sense of right and wrong and her ability to think straight, so obviously she's going to think we are the enemy and need to be destroyed, so she's the first boss.
  • Enigma: Well, since Enigma means puzzle, or something that can't be solved, that's exactly what he is. He's the delver of secrets, and arises from chaos. he's driven in a perpetual quest to figure out the mysteries of everything. He's not evil or good by any means, but he sees such a big picture that he doesn't really care about all the "petty" fighting going on around him, and of course that means he thinks Ascended are beneath him. His lack of regard for what he considers lesser beings, leads to us all getting squished unless we can defeat him first! Rawr!
  • Dark Genesis: He's like the opposite of Lady Justice. He's located at the Monolith of Ruin and relishes in all things chaos and dark. He plots to bring destruction to Telara. I'm not sure what he has against our world personally, but he's gotta go down. We need to go there and kill him and put an end to his dark dreams of power.
  • Arisen Arak: So, Arak has found out his true origin, and is now able to harness the powers of the other bosses to transform himself into an all powerful uber being, called an Onir, which is apparently divine in origin. He's also immortal. Oh boy. As long as the others remain imprisoned and sleeping, their dreams and nightmares return him to life, no matter how often you smash his face in. Just his existing shatters reality, tearing through space and time and bringing the eternal Nexus into the cosmos of Telara. The good thing is, he can only take control of one of the others' powers at a time, and if your fast, you can align yourself with a deity before Arak destroys them.
     So, pretty cool eh? I would love so very much to delve into Mind of Madness and check it all out, and take screenshots and get achievements and all kinds of really fun things for my beloved characters! I shall have to be patient however, and wait for the right time! It's just so hard to see all this neat stuff and not want to dive into it blade first!

Off Topic Comment: I did an amazing good Samaritan thing today that I'm really proud of! A good friend of mine, who has 3 children and lives down the street, has fallen on really tough times. Her kids are all really young (oldest is 7) and she can't afford to get them Christmas presents or anything for this year, so I took her shopping today and got a whole bunch of things for the kids, as well as a neat hoodie for the dad, and even something for herself to put under the tree!! I did all of this, with no strings attached, and no obligations for her to do anything for me in return. I'm just incredibly happy that I was able to make someone else's holiday a little brighter! I also invited them all over to my house for Christmas dinner if they have no where else to go. :) What have any of you done lately, in game or out, that you're proud of? Happy Holidays!
   
            ~Dark out!