Rift: Planes of Telara has been out for 6 months now. It was released in March 2011 after several months of Rift beta testing. In these 6 months 4 major patches have been released, each of them adding more content to the game. Prior to the release every patch is available on public test shards (test servers) where any player with an active subscription can enjoy and take part in Rift Planes of Telara beta testing.
On the Rift official forums there is a thread about Rift beta where all players can engage in discussions and share opinions. This discussions help developers discover bugs and get a general feeling on the next updates.
The next big patch to come is Patch 1.5. It was announced at this year's Gamescon for the late September - beginning of October and several features have been made public. There are no official patch notes yet but we have some info about its content. Some of this content, like the new warfront Library of the Runemasters it's already available for Rift planes of Telara beta testing. Among the patch's new features is the master mode for dungeons.
This is not yet part of Rift beta but the Trion representatives at Gamescon let loose a few details, just enough to get the players all excited about this. Darkening Deeps and Deepstrike Mines dungeons will be the first ones to be revamped with this new difficulty mode. Based on the players feedback and preference some more maybe be added but for now will be just these two. No info on when they will be added to Rift Planes of Telara beta though.
The players running these dungeons on master mode will find only 1 or 2 bosses with changed mechanics and tactics, obviously they will be harder. This new mode is supposed to be more difficult than already available expert mode and will require full attention, awareness and in depth Calling knowledge from all party members in order to get the bosses down. As they are harder than experts but still dungeons they will be probably aimed for more than casual players.
The overall general impression is they will be mini raids, harder than an expert dungeon but with just a few bosses that can be taken down in one night thus avoiding raid planning and such. Until they are not on public test shards for Rift beta testing we cannot know more. Being harder than expert modes which require T1 as entry gear, these new dungeons will probably need T2 or a combination of T1 and T2. The drops and rewards will be raid gear, a few items as there are only a few bosses and new vanity mounts and maybe pets.
Clearly these new master mode dungeons are for casual raiders or already T2 geared players. The boss fights will be more tactical than on expert modes but the fact that they can be run with just a normal group of 5 players will make them accessible to non hardcore raiders. Keep an eye on the official forums for the date when they will be part of Rift Planes of Telara beta and available for testing.
Dana Hartsman is an avid online mmo player and sough out expert in power leveling for the game of RIFT. You can visit his blog for this and many other topics: http://www.power-leveling-secrets-guide.com/
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