Update: Rift 1.8

FEATURES

 * Infernal Dawn: The new 20-player Raid that challenges players with seven new boss encounters as they enter Mount Carcera to prevent the rise of Laethys and the release of Maelforge from his imprisonment beneath the volcano.
 * Kick back on the shores and relax, or go on a wilderness adventure; the new Fishing and Survival skills let you do both! See more under FISHING AND SURVIVAL, listed below.
 * Players and Guilds can have an easier time finding each other through the new Guild Finder tool. See GUILD FINDER below for how to use it!
 * New Leaderboards feature allows you to compare and compete against your friends, guildmates, and other players in a variety of categories. More under LEADERBOARDS, below.
 * All-new appearances and animations for Druid Faerie pets, Beastmaster Primal Companions, and Ranger pets!
 * Instant Adventure comes to Ember Isle; level 50 characters can now join the action immediately with the new Ember Isle queue available in the Instant Adventure menu.
 * Achievements that are partially completed are now highlighted in the In-Progress Achievements list on the Achievement window.

INFERNAL DAWN: NEW 20-PLAYER RAID

 * Deep beneath Mount Carcera on Ember Isle, Laethys and Maelforge have joined forces to escape the ancient volcanic prison. It comes to the Ascended to fight back their efforts and prevent them from bringing fire and rage to Telara along with their followers.
 * Infernal Dawn is a new Raid zone intended for 20 players who have gained some prior experience and spoils from battling Telara's threats in Hammerknell Fortress.
 * Access to the deeper bosses of Infernal Dawn will be released in several stages following the 1.8 update to give raids time to learn and experience the different encounters over time. See Forum Thread Here about the release.
 * Even Hammerknell-geared characters will find valuable equipment obtained throughout the Infernal Dawn raid.

FISHING AND SURVIVAL: NEW TRADESKILLS

 * Two new tradeskills are now available: Fishing and Survival, which deal with fishing equipment, catching fish, turning them into handy buff foods, and camping gear that provides the Rested buff.
 * Either or both of these skills can be learned alongside your existing three tradeskills and will not take up one of those slots.
 * See the new Fishing trainers in Sanctum or Meridian, or go talk to the introductory NPCs and trainers in Argent Glade or Kelari Refuge to get started!
 * The enterprising Fisher will find various treasure, artifacts, or even companion pets in addition to food materials.
 * An adventurous Survivalist can not only cook fish into delicious meals - that provide a variety of benefits - but also craft tents and bedrolls to bring some comfort to the outdoors.

GUILD FINDER

 * To better assist the meeting of guilds looking for members and free agents looking for a guild to call home, the Guild Finder tool has been introduced in 1.8.
 * Press Shift+G, or select Guild Finder from the Social menu, to pop open the Guild Finder for characters not in a guild.
 * Choose from several criteria on your search for a good guild match such as guild size, roles needed, playstyle, and more!
 * Contact guild recruiters directly from the tool; they'll receive a message if online or a mail if not currently available.
 * Recruiters can also accept your invitation request if you happen to be offline, and you'll receive an in-game mail letting you know.
 * For guilds, Senior Officers and above will have access to edit the guild's Recruitment tab by default.
 * Access to the Recruitment tab and flagging of Recruiters are controlled via guild permissions.
 * Guilds can set up their recruitment criteria and enter a description of their guild to control what appears in the Guild Finder.
 * Guilds will only be listed in Guild Finder search results if they have checked the List In Guild Finder option on their Recruitment tab.

LEADERBOARDS

 * Characters can now compete and compare their activities via Leaderboards that track various stats and achievements in a wide variety of Ladders - PvE, PvP, Raiding, Crafting, and more!
 * Characters will be placed in a League (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond) and Division for each of these Ladders. Compete on the Leaderboards within a Ladder to increase your score, gain a higher rank, and reach a higher League!
 * On each Leaderboard, see where you're at among your Friends list, your Guildmates, the top 50 of your Wargroup, or Divisions that attempt to match your character up against similarly progressed characters.
 * View Leaderboards via the Social menu button, or use the default hotkey ';'.
 * Leaderboard positions are tracked and can be shown for the current week, the previous week, and the best overall week (historic high).
 * Your character's League is refreshed daily. In cases of extended absence, your character can rise or drop at most one League, as it will be updated on your next login.
 * At the release of 1.8, Leaderboards will be using some recent historic data, but expect to see quite a bit of shuffling as the first week of live activity is shown.
 * For some of the more involved boards, mousing over the Leaderboard's icon will show a tooltip with details on what activities count toward scores.
 * The Leaderboard for Expert Darkening Deeps is temporarily disabled due to a timing issue. We are working on a fix and will re-enable the Leaderboard as soon as it’s ready!

GENERAL

 * We've changed how quests that grant rewards through the diamond-shaped treasure icon (most noticeable when completing dungeons) are queued before you elect to obtain the reward. These now have a maximum limit on how many can be pending before the oldest outstanding rewards are lost.
 * Starting with 1.8, cash and experience-only rewards will be granted automatically at quest completion. You'll still need to manually redeem the ones that require you to select a reward.
 * You will be notified when approaching the cap of pending rewards from these types of quests. You'll always have access to the most recent ones gained, but the oldest ones in the list will be forfeited when you exceed the cap.
 * A new equipment slot for crafted Seal items is now available. Recipes to create Seals are available beginning around level 40/skill level 225 for all production crafting skills with the exception of Runecrafting, and can be found on various crafting recipe merchants.
 * New Chronicle daily quests are now offered. These can be picked up at Raj Tahleed in Meridian or Abbess Katia in Sanctum.
 * Traveling between Porticulums within the same zone now has a cost of 1 gold for Stillmoor, Shimmersand, Iron Pine Peak, Moonshade Highlands, Droughtlands, Stonefield, and Gloamwood.
 * The Treasure UI now displays on the right side of the screen by default, beneath the Rift progress meter.
 * Fixed an issue causing the option to never auto-flag PvP to occasionally be ignored when attacking neutral but opposite-faction NPCs.
 * Nimble mounts (90% speed increase) no longer require you to wait until level 30 to purchase them. They're now available for 25 platinum at level 25.
 * Players can no longer un-equip their weapons while Mind Controlled. I'm afraid we can't let you do that, Ascended. :>
 * Added some variety to loading screens for higher level characters loading into Meridian and Sanctum.
 * Daily and Weekly quests on offer should no longer change after a shard-only restart.
 * Fixed a rare bug that could leave characters locked after transferring shards.

WORLD EVENTS

 * By popular demand, the 'Skirmish in the ________' Zone Events that ran during Phase 5 of the Carnival will now be available as random events in Shimmersand, Stillmoor, and Iron Pine Peak.
 * World Event quests should either be properly autocompleted or removed at the change of event phases.
 * Infernal Awakening in Scarwood Reach will now update from 5 Rifts, as indicated in the event text, rather than 10.

RIFTS AND INVASIONS
The 'Invasion Defeated' splash text is no longer displayed for Invasions you don't have contribution toward defeating. Same goes for Footholds. Zone events in Scarlet Gorge and Scarwood Reach should have a longer start-up time after the initial announcements. Glowing Puresource will now drop during the Visions of Future Past zone event in high level zones when you're on the Frontline of the Planes or Shield of the Land quests.

INSTANT ADVENTURE

 * Instant Adventure comes to Ember Isle; level 50 characters can now join the action immediately with the new Ember Isle queue available in the Instant Adventure menu.
 * When joining an Instant Adventure group in far away lands not yet discovered by your character, you can now respawn at appropriate local graveyards - not back at Meridian or Sanctum.
 * Most Instant Adventure bosses can now be taunted.
 * Death's Approach, Scaldwater Fields, and Firesand Desert have been split into smaller adventure locations to better define adventure objective areas.

LOOKING FOR GROUP

 * Group Queueing Updates: When queuing for LFG as a group, the game now takes a 'snapshot' of group members at the time of queuing. Once queued, group members can separate, add others, join raids or Instant Adventures, and not lose the queued status of the initial group members. They will not be automatically removed from the queue for changing group composition. Mousing over the LFG Queue status icon will show the names of people currently part of your LFG queue group.
 * Fixed an edge case where a player with unspent Soul Points in a role not currently active would be kicked from the LFG queue when using a Porticulum.

GUILD PERK

 * Fixed Killing Spree and Blood Thirsty consuming each other when both were active.

COMBAT
While in combat, equipping weapons now triggers the global cooldown. If you are already in global cooldown at the time of equip/swap, it will cause the cooldown to be extended.
 * Focus targets now persist if you move out of view of the target - also if the target is a friendly player and they die.
 * Focus Target now displays proper health percentages if you have that option enabled.
 * Fixed taunt abilities like Provoke causing linked NPCs in a group to not aggro with the target.
 * Area of Effect abilities should no longer affect companion pets.
 * Fixed an issue causing NPCs to rarely not face the target of their ability while casting.

SOULS

 * A new Ascended Power, Fury of the Ascended, has been created as a replacement for Anti-Planar Augmentation/Holy Champion that is available at all levels. This new ability is granted at level 1, and shares a 1-minute cooldown with Anti-Planar Augmentation/Holy Champion (if you have one of these).
 * Anti-Planar Augmentation and Holy Champion are no longer available to be trained from merchants, though characters that already have one of these abilities will not lose them. Fury of the Ascended is meant to replace these Ascended Powers and allow players to become more familiar with how it works at earlier levels.
 * Added a new option under Settings, "Recast Ground Channels", which is off by default.
 * Turning the Recast Ground Channels option on will allow you to interrupt your ground-targeted channeled spells (like Pyromancer's Fire Storm) with a second cast and target area selection for the same spell.
 * Abilities will no longer overwrite other versions of themselves that have superior Soul Tree-enhanced bonuses.
 * Justicar NPCs will no longer use Sovereignty.
 * Updated all ability tooltips for Warrior and Cleric abilities.
 * Fixed a case where the more complex ability tooltips would have incorrect numbers shown.

CLERIC
A number of buffs have been converted to passive effects to help minimize the amount of rebuffing needed!

CABALIST

 * Lurking Decay: Now a passive effect. You may need to swap roles once if you first log in with Cabalist as an active soul post-1.8. One less buff to recast!

DRUID
Druids have been reviewed to increase their DPS viability and address a lack of in-combat movement abilities.
 * Pet abilities will no longer fail due to facing requirements.
 * Brutal Impact: Now increases the damage of Fervent Strike and Combined Effort by 3-9%.
 * Crag Hammer: Now properly calculates damage when proccing.
 * Fae Step: New ability available at 20 points. Teleports you directly to the target. 20 meter range, 15 second cooldown, no global cooldown.
 * Hot-Blooded: Now increases the Spell Power bonus of Bombard and Eruption of Life by 5-25%. No longer requires you to spent points in Rage of the Fae to obtain.
 * Rage of the Fae: Reduced cooldown to 2 minutes.
 * Shield of Oak: Now absorbs all damage types. Increases movement speed by 5% while active.
 * Slothful Spirit: The debuff now increases the target's casting costs by 50%.
 * Spirit of the Wood: Can now also trigger from Wild Strike.
 * Stone Burst: Ability Removed.
 * Wild Strike: Now hits 5 targets.

INQUISITOR

 * Nysyr's Rebuke: Now properly requires line of sight to cast.

JUSTICAR
The below is intended to make Justicars less dependent upon avoidance (Dodge, Parry). They now have increased mitigation to compensate for these changes.
 * Cavalier: Now a passive effect. You may need to swap roles once if you first log in with Justicar as an active soul post-1.8.
 * Devout Deflection: Now adds 33-100% of your Wisdom to Parry, and 33-100% of your Intelligence to Dodge.
 * Salvation: Now a passive effect. You may need to swap roles once if you first log in with Justicar as an active soul post-1.8.
 * Shield of Faith: Now reduces damage taken by 3-15%.
 * Sovereignty: Now deals Life damage and stuns the target for 2 seconds.
 * Stalwart Citadel: Now adds 33-100% of your Wisdom value to Block.
 * Supremacy: Now reduces Physical damage taken by 9-18%.
 * Thorvin's Law: Now reduces non-Physical damage taken by 2-4% plus an additional 1.2% per point spent in Justicar over 26.

PURIFIER
Tweaked the way several Purifier spells stack together so Purifiers are less likely to 'block' a major cooldown ability.
 * Rite of the Ancestors: Can no longer be cast on a target currently under the effect of Spiritual Conflagration.
 * Ward of the Ancestors, Gathering of the Ancestors: Can no longer be cast on a target currently under the effects of Spiritual Conflagration or Rite of the Ancestors.
 * Restorative Flame: No longer suffers from casting pushback.

SENTINEL

 * Empowering Light: Now only selects targets that have a Poison, Disease, or Curse on them.
 * Healing Invocation: No longer suffers from casting pushback.
 * Healing Communion: Now heals for less in PvP.

WARDEN

 * Fixed line of sight requirements on Cascade, Orbs of the Tide, and Orbs of the Stream.
 * Deluge: The Revitalizing Water HoT now scales based on any HoTs existing on the target, not just ones you cast on them. No longer suffers from casting pushback.
 * Healing Flood: Now heals for less in PvP.
 * Healing Spray: Now heals for less in PvP.
 * Overflow: Now heals for less in PvP situations.
 * Soothing Stream: Now heals for less in PvP.

MAGE
The duration of various Mage DoTs are more standardized to help with more viable rotations.
 * Toggled abilities, such as Internalize Charge, no longer cause Opportunity to proc.

ARCHON

 * Consuming Flames: Can no longer be cast on a target under the effect of Purifier's Rite of the Ancestors or Spiritual Conflagration.
 * Cleansing Flames: Now removes one Poison, Disease, or Curse from up to 10 party or raid members in the target area. Only chooses targets that have an effect to remove.
 * Leeching Flames: Reduced duration to 8 seconds.
 * Pillaging Stone: The ability description will now correctly update the stats given by this buff as you spend points in Strength of Stone.
 * Searing Vitality: Reduced duration to 8 seconds.

CHLOROMANCER

 * Lifegiving Veil and Lifebound Veil: Healing in PvP increased by 15%.
 * Natural Conversion: Fixed a case where this could be consumed by an existing damage over time effect instead of on the next damaging spell cast.
 * Natural Healing: No longer affected by pushback while casting.
 * Withering Vine: Now instant cast. Increased duration to 16 seconds.

DOMINATOR

 * Charged Shield: Will no longer remove your Mage Armor buff if cast on an ally.
 * Degeneration: Fixed an issue with the damage portion not dealing the damage shown in the ability description.
 * Haunting Pain: Increased duration to 16 seconds.

ELEMENTALIST

 * Icy Carapace: Increased duration to 16 seconds.
 * Ignite: Reduced duration to 8 seconds.

NECROMANCER

 * Corpse Explosion: Increased duration to 30 seconds.
 * Necrosis: Reduced base duration to 10 seconds. Spending points in Flesh Rot now increases the duration of Necrosis by 2-6 seconds, increases base damage by 20-60%, and increases the benefit to Necrosis from Spell Power by 20-60%.

PYROMANCER

 * Ground of Strength: The immunity effect now also grants immunity to Banish effects such as Rift Prison.

STORMCALLER

 * Fixed some spells granting Charge while Storm Guard is active.
 * Forked Lightning: Increased max number of targets this can hit to 8.
 * Lightning Rod: Fixed an issue where this was not impacting abilities that chain damage between targets, such as the Chloromancer's Nature's Fury.

WARLOCK

 * Defile: Fixed Defile continuing to consume Charge if it was cleansed from the target.
 * Empowered Darkness: Now costs 75 Charge to cast, but no longer consumes Charge or blocks Charge gain while active. Reduced the damage bonus for the Warlock to 70% while Empowered Darkness is active. 15 second maximum duration.
 * Life Leech: Reduced base duration to 10 seconds. Spending points in Improved Life Leech now increases the duration of Life Leech by 2-6 seconds, increases its base damage by 20-60%, increases the benefit to Life Leech from Spell Power by 20-60%, and increases the amount healed by 10-30%.
 * Opportunity: Now has a 1-second internal cooldown.
 * Sacrifice Life: Damage: Reduced cooldown to 30 seconds and increased the damage bonus granted to 20%.

BLADEDANCER

 * Deadly Dance: The damage bonus from Deadly Dance now only applies to Combo Point-generating attacks that use melee weapons. No longer applied to Saboteur Charges or ranged weapon Combo Point generators.
 * False Blade: Renamed to Meditative Trance. Functionality changed - now a Finisher that heals the Rogue over 12 seconds.
 * Improved False Blade: Renamed to Improved Meditative Trance. Functionality changed - increases the amount healed from Meditative Trance by 25-50%.

MARKSMAN

 * Electrified Munitions: Damage now scales with Attack Power.
 * Empowered Shot: Energy cost reduced to 40 from 45.
 * Eradicate: No longer has a 'travel' delay between use and hit.
 * Strafe: Fixed a bug where Strafe would not deal damage when channeled on a target-of-target.
 * Vampiric Munitions: The amount of healing siphoned has been reduced from 50% to 40%. Healing reduction remains at 50%.

NIGHTBLADE

 * Dusk to Dawn: Fixed a bug where the Nightrage buff would not be applied if the first tick of Dusk to Dawn killed the target.
 * Fell Blades: The amount of healing siphoned has been reduced from 50% to 40%. Healing reduction remains at 50%.

RANGER

 * Improved Escape Artist: Ability Removed - the functionality has been rolled into the base Escape Artist ability.
 * Shadow Fire: Fixed the Shadow Fire buff not applying if the target is killed or immune to damage on hit.
 * Splinter Shot: Energy cost reduced to 40 from 45.
 * Steady Hand - New Ability: Increases the effect of Attack Power on ranged weapon abilities by 5%, plus an additional 2% per point spent in Ranger above 26.
 * Zardonis' Ranger Crystal: 2-piece Bonus now also reduces the Energy cost of Shadow Fire by 10.

RIFTSTALKER
Changed several abilities to make Riftstalker mitigation more consistent during encounters.
 * Improved Guardian Phase: Now also reduces damage taken from Physical attacks by 5% and non-Physical attacks by 7%.
 * Rift Guard: Now only absorbs 10% of incoming damage in PvP at its base level.
 * Shadow Guard: Now reduces Physical damage taken by 3-15%.
 * Zardonis' Riftstalker Crystal: 2-piece bonus: Functionality changed - now increases maximum health by 5%.

SABOTEUR

 * The goal of Saboteur changes in 1.8 is to make the Saboteur a competitive AOE DPS soul, in line with other AOE DPS souls like the Cabalist and Stormcaller, but based more on setup rotations for damage.
 * Due to the below changes, character roles with soul points spent in Saboteur have received a free respec for that role.
 * All Saboteur Charges can no longer be parried, dodged, blocked, or deflected.
 * All Traps, except Land Mines, no longer have a cooldown.
 * Shrapnel Charges are now removed when a character resurrects while in PvP.
 * Bomb Specialist: Damage increased by 5-25%, up from 3-15%. Now also reduces the Energy cost of Bombs by 1-5.
 * Caltrop Charge: Functionality changed - Now causes the target and surrounding enemies to Bleed for 10 seconds when detonated. Damage increased.
 * Carpet Bombing: Reduced cooldown to 1 minute from 2.
 * Charge Booster: Functionality changed - now increases the Attack Power contribution to damage of Charges by 10%. For every point spent in Saboteur above 21, the Attack Power contribution is increased by 3%.
 * Chemical Bomb: Duration of the effect increased to 10 seconds, up from 8. Damage adjusted.
 * Combat Survival: Ability removed.
 * Combat Wounds - New Ability: Increases the damage of Spike Charge and Caltrop Charge by 15-30%.
 * Combined Arms: New ability. Your Fragmentation Bomb detonates all Charges on the primary target. Existing Combo Points on the target trigger Shrapnel Bomb, dealing Physical damage to surrounding enemies.
 * Demolition Specialist - Functionality Changed: Now only takes a single point. Your Annihilation Bomb detonates all Charges on the primary target. Existing Combo Points on the target trigger Shrapnel Bomb, dealing Physical damage to surrounding enemies.
 * Embers Charge: Now deals damage and causes the target and surrounding enemies to take an additional 5% damage from non-physical attacks. Lasts 12 seconds per Charge.
 * Fragmentation Bomb: Reduced cooldown to 10 seconds from 15.
 * High Explosives: Functionality changed - your Fragmentation Bomb, Time Bomb, and Annihilation Bomb now cause the target and surrounding enemies to Bleed for 10 seconds. Now stacks up to 3 times.
 * Improved Chemical Bomb - New Ability: Available at 20 points. Increases the damage of Chemical Bomb by 15-30%.
 * Improved Entangling Trap: Moved from availability at 20 points to 15 points.
 * Improved Spike Charge: Ability removed.
 * Increased Explosive Power: Damage increased by 5-25%, up from 3-15%.
 * Rapid Setup: Reduced cooldown to 30 seconds from 1 minute.
 * Spike Charge: Duration of the effect increased to 10 seconds, up from 9. Damage Over Time interval is now every 2 seconds, down from 3. Damage adjusted.
 * Splinter Charge: Now deals damage and applies its debuff to the target and surrounding enemies. Reduces target armor by a fixed amount. Lasts 12 seconds per charge.
 * The Trapper: Ability removed.
 * Trench Warfare: New ability. Increases the Attack Power contribution to the damage of all Bombs, Traps, and Land Mines by 10%. Also affects Detonate. For every point spent in Saboteur above 26, the Attack Power contribution is increased by 5%.
 * Zardonis' Saboteur Crystal: 2-Piece Bonus: Functionality changed - now increases the damage of Blast Charge and Spike Charge by 30%.
 * Zardonis' Saboteur Crystal: 4-Piece Bonus: Functionality changed - now increases the damage of all Saboteur AOE abilities by 15%.

WARRIOR
Warriors have undergone some in-depth ability changes to make them scale better with Attack Power. The goal is to ensure that, as Warriors gain improved gear, their effectiveness increases in turn. Warriors no longer receive the bulk of their power from just weapons.
 * All Warriors now get a passive buff called Building Fury, which gives increased Attack Power contribution to Finishers based on the number of Action Points used.
 * Finishers no longer have their own individual damage increases based on Attack Points.
 * All damaging abilities have been rebalanced to work with Attack Power being used in a more consistent manner.
 * Increased the Block Absorption soft cap to 60%, and hard cap to 70%.
 * Warrior attacks deal slightly lower damage in PvP at level 50.
 * Effects that grant Attack Points - like the Paragon's Weapon Master - now show up properly in the combat log.
 * Fixed a bug causing Reaver's Enraged Essence to appear to co-exist on a target with Beastmaster's Enraged Companion.

BEASTMASTER

 * Effects that increase the damage of Bleeds no longer boost the initial hit of: Tearing Slash, Feral Sweep, Flesh Rip, Slashing Strike.
 * Tearing Slash and Feral Sweep: Both have been rebalanced due to their Bleed ignoring armor.
 * Enraged Companion: Should now properly grant the buff to your entire Raid. Protective Companion should always be removed.
 * Fierce Strike: Now buffs the pet rather than debuffing the target, which should help with stacking issues.
 * Flesh Rip: Will properly remove itself from the reactive ability UI when used.
 * Primal Rage: Reduced cooldown to 15 seconds, increased duration to 5-15 seconds. Now properly applies to the Beastmaster and their pet. No longer gives you the buff if your target has no Bleed effects, but will still consume a cooldown.
 * Slashing Strike: Fixed the delay before the ability deals its initial damage.
 * Survival of the Fittest: Ability changed. Now increases your damage by 0.2-1% per point spent in Beastmaster, and your pet's damage by 0.5-2.5% per point in Beastmaster.
 * Rasmolov's Beastmaster Crystal: 4-piece bonus reduced to 20% to be more in line with other Synergy Crystals.

CHAMPION

 * Bloodthirst now gains a 200% Attack Power contribution instead of a weapon damage modification.
 * Cornered Beast: Now has a 2.5 second duration, dealing damage every 0.5 seconds. Cooldown reduced to 30 seconds. Increased damage.
 * Deadly Strikes: No longer modifies Bleed damage effects. The first hit of Beastmaster Bleeds are still affected. Fixed a bug allowing Deadly Strikes to work with one-handed weapons in certain cases.
 * Destroyer's Bearing: Grants an Attack Point on 3-point Elemental or Physical damage-type Finishers 100% of the time. Bonuses from Intense Training now increase damage for Physical-based attacks only. In summary, Destroyer's Bearing: Grants 1 Attack Point on all finishers, grants 35% damage bonus to Elemental-type attacks, and 50% damage bonus to Physical-type attacks.
 * Disruptive Strike: Now gains a 200% Attack Power contribution instead of a weapon damage modification. Cooldown lowered to 10 seconds from 15.
 * Punishing Blow: Increased damage.
 * Slayer's Bearing: Reduced to 3% critical strike damage bonus. Intense Training now increases the bonus by 3% per point.
 * Take No Prisoners: Now only increases the first hit of a Bleed effect.
 * Titan's Strike: No longer stuns the target, and deals damage to additional targets based on Attack Power. Cooldown reduced to 15 seconds. Also fixed a bug causing Titan's Strike to not be affected properly by Teaching of the Five Rings, Rift Fury, or Weapon Specialization.
 * Weapon Specialization: Increased to 0.6% ability damage increase per point spent in Champion.
 * Rasmolov's Champion Crystal: The 4-piece bonus damage for area of effect attacks has been reduced from 35% to 20%. Now only affects Mighty Blow, Cornered Beast, and Bladefury to be more in line with other Synergy Crystals.

PALADIN

 * Touch of Life, Life's Rapture: Now heal for 50% of their normal value in PvP.
 * Sweeping Strikes: Removed the Life-damage portion of this ability, and increased Physical damage dealt.

PARAGON

 * Paired Strike, Path of the Hurricane, Path of the Raptor, Death Touch: Now gain a 200% Attack Power contribution instead of a weapon damage modification.
 * Bend Like the Reed: Damage buff effect reduced to 5/12/25.
 * Flurry: Duration reduced to 2.5 seconds, dealing damage every 0.5 seconds. Cooldown reduced to 30 seconds. Increased damage.
 * Force of Will: Critical hit damage bonus reduced to 2-6%.
 * Reaping Harvest: Increased damage.
 * Rising Waterfall: Now has different damage effects based on whether you're Dual Wielding or not. Gains a 200% Attack Power contribution instead of a weapon damage modification. Increased the damage for non-dual-wielding to match that of Power Strike. Can now trigger Way of the Wind.
 * Strike Like Iron: Reduced to 10/20/30%.
 * Teaching of the Five Rings: Increased to 0.6% ability damage increase per point spent in Paragon.
 * Way of the Mountain: Now only enhances the damage of follow-up attacks when dual wielding.
 * Way of the Wind: Now deals damage based on Attack Power. Removed ranks 2 and 3 since all ranks have the same effect.
 * Way of the Wind and Deadly Grace can no longer trigger Burst abilities.
 * Weapon Master: Now triggers off of follow-up attacks. Grants its Attack Point 100% of the time.

REAVER

 * Blood Fever: Fixed a calculation that caused Blood Fever to deal higher damage than intended. Reduced the amount of damage Blood Fever deals in PvP.
 * Cyclone Strike: Fixed the tooltip reporting the same damage twice.

RIFTBLADE

 * Damage of all Burst abilities has been rebalanced; they've been reduced to reflect that they are off the global cooldown.
 * Avatar of the Rift: Now deals damage based on Attack Power.
 * Burning Blood: Now bases damage off of your Attack Power.
 * Enhanced Burst: For 6 seconds after using a Burst, now applies a 10-30% damage bonus to Elemental attacks that do not consume Attack Points.
 * Fiery Burst: Now has a 10 second duration and 8 second cooldown.
 * Icy Burst: New ability available at 2 points in Riftblade. Finisher ability that deals Water damage on the next attack.
 * Improved Freeze Armor: Removed.
 * Scald - New ability replacing Improved Freeze Armor. Deals 10-20% of the damage done by Icy Burst as Air damage when used against someone under the effect from Fiery Burst.
 * Rift Fury: Now affects all attacks, similar to Teaching of the Five Rings or Weapon Specialization. Increased to 0.6% non-physical ability damage increase per point spent in Riftblade.
 * Rift Storm: Has been changed to more closely match Cornered Beast and Flurry. Lasts 2.5 seconds and hits every 0.5 seconds. Cooldown reduced to 30 seconds.
 * Rift Strike: Now gains a 200% Attack Power contribution instead of a weapon damage modification.
 * Rift Surge: Fixed a calculation that caused Rift Surge to deal higher damage than intended. Tooltips should also now be consistent on this ability and effects.
 * Static Shock: Now deals damage based on your Attack Power.
 * Storm Blade: Duration lowered to 5 seconds instead of 6. Now deals damage based on your Attack Power.
 * Rasmolov's Riftblade Crystal: 4-piece bonus increased to 20% and no longer requires Riftwalk. Should now be more in line with other Synergy Crystals.

VOID KNIGHT

 * Fusion of Flesh: Now heals for 50% of its normal value in PvP.
 * Residual Absorption: Duration reduced to 0.5-1 second.
 * Rift Shield: Can no longer be cast on a target under the effect of Purifier's Rite of the Ancestors or Spiritual Conflagration.
 * Rift Tap: Fixed a calculation that caused Rift Tap to deal higher damage than intended.
 * Spell Breaker: Fixed a bug causing this to remove more effects than indicated.

WARLORD

 * No Permission to Die: Now has a 60 second cooldown and lasts for 10 seconds.

DEBUFF STACKING GROUPS AND PRIORITIES
All player debuffs have been assigned priorities within their stacking groups. Less powerful debuffs should no longer overwrite the more powerful ones within each category - the order below does not indicate overwrite priority within a group.

ATTACK POWER DEBUFF 1

 * Druid: Trickster Spirit
 * Riftstalker: Rift Disturbance
 * Saboteur: Debilitating Trap
 * Paladin: Pacifying Strike

ATTACK POWER DEBUFF 2

 * Archon: Waning Power
 * Necromancer: Looming Demise

SPELL POWER DEBUFF 1

 * Riftstalker: Rift Disturbance
 * Saboteur: Debilitating Trap
 * Paladin: Pacifying Strike

SPELL POWER DEBUFF 2

 * Archon: Waning Power
 * Necromancer: Looming Demise

ARMOR DEBUFF

 * Marksman: Lightning Fury
 * Ranger: Piercing Shot
 * Saboteur: Splinter Charge
 * Champion: Mark of Inevitability
 * Warlord: Leader’s Mark
 * Reaver: Ravaging Strike

PHYSICAL DAMAGE TAKEN DEBUFF 1

 * Archon: Illuminate
 * Chloromancer: Wild Growth
 * Bard: Coda of Jeopardy
 * Warlord: Spotter's Order

PHYSICAL DAMAGE TAKEN DEBUFF 2

 * Shaman: Vengeance of the Piercing Cold
 * Archon: Ashen Defense
 * Bard: Coda of Cowardice

MAGIC DAMAGE TAKEN DEBUFF 1

 * Inquisitor: Clinging Spirit
 * Justicar: Censure
 * Warlock: Neddra's Torture
 * Saboteur: Embers Charge

MAGIC DAMAGE TAKEN DEBUFF 2

 * Inquisitor: Spiritual Deficiency
 * Archon: Crumbling Resistance
 * Elementalist: Exposure
 * Bard: Coda of Distress

INCREASED CASTING TIME DEBUFF

 * Cabalist: Nebulous Haze
 * Archon: Lingering Dust
 * Dominator: Accelerated Decay

INCREASED CRITICAL HIT DEBUFF

 * Sentinel: Luminous Gaze
 * Assassin: Lethal Poison
 * Champion: Mark of Extermination

REDUCED HIT CHANCE DEBUFF

 * Ranger: Dire Wolf Howl
 * Warlord: Battlefield Distraction
 * Reaver: Blood Fever

CASTING COST INCREASE DEBUFF

 * Dominator: Transference
 * Druid: Slothful Spirit

STRENGTH AND DEXTERITY DEBUFF

 * Archon: Pillaging Stone

PLANAR ATTUNEMENT

 * Rogue and Warrior: Weapon PA bonuses have been changed in line with Calling-based Attack Power updates. Instead of increasing weapon DPS by 0.2 for every point spent in a weapon PA node, you will now gain 2 Attack Power per Planar Attunement point spent in Weapon PAs for each appropriate weapon equipped. The Warrior two-handed weapon mastery will give an additional 2 Attack Power per point invested (since only one of these weapons can be equipped). Attack Power bonuses are also applied to your pet.
 * Warrior: War: Focused Strikes debuff is now removed when a player dies.
 * Cleric: War: Mark of Purification: Functionality changed. Now, your single-target cleanses have a 5-25% chance to remove an additional Curse, Disease, or Poison effect.
 * Cleric: War: Blessing of the Martyr: Functionality changed. Your attacks have a 15-30% chance to make enemy players vulnerable, increasing their damage taken by 1% for 10 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.
 * Mage: War: Rift Tomb: Fixed an issue where Rift Tomb could be parried, dodged, or miss.
 * Rogue: War: Expedited Wounds: Functionality changed. Reduces damage taken from Critical Hit attacks by 1-5%.

DROUGHTLANDS

 * Thwarting the Emberlord: Fixed an edge case that could cause this quest to not function properly.

EMBER ISLE

 * The Raid Rift tear in Fort Zarnost no longer blocks attackable objects for PvP Rifts.

IRON PINE PEAK

 * Updated quest flow and population around Howling Caves and Cloudborne Caverns.

SANCTUM

 * Divine Work, Divine Rewards: Increased the power of the Blade of Light reward to better match the other rewards from this quest.

PVP/WARFRONTS

 * Group Queueing Updates: When queuing for Warfronts as a group, the game now takes a 'snapshot' of group members at the time of queuing. Once queued, group members can separate, add others, join raids or Instant Adventures, and not lose the queued status of the initial group members. They will not be automatically removed from the queue for changing group composition. Mousing over the Warfront Queue status icon will show the names of people currently part of your Warfront queue group.
 * When Silenced or Disarmed in PvP, you now see a Silenced! or Disarmed! message immediately in scrolling combat text.
 * Belts are now included in set bonus groups for the PvP Armor sets.
 * Many item effects and Essences have had their healing efficiency reduced in PvP combat.
 * The Guild Quest 'Lowering their Defenses' now updates for Mercenaries.
 * The Battle for Port Scion: Increased the health of Saerloth the Avenger, Executor Khazik, Ithluk the Maimed, Custodian Leyr, Blade Master Keelan, Veylara, and Vachii Odego by 50%.
 * Achievements: Flawless Victory - Whitefall Steppes: Achievement no longer depends on Shutout at Whitefall Steppes being completed.
 * Fixed an edge case where you could sometimes enter a Warfront while dead.
 * Sheepish Concoction and Scotty's Sheeping Wand can no longer be used in Warfronts.

DUNGEONS, SLIVERS, RAIDS, and CHRONICLES

 * All Expert and Master mode dungeons now drop Corrupted Souls from the final boss.
 * All Standard-mode dungeons and Chronicles now drop Malformed Souls from the final boss.
 * Raid Assistants can now Ready Check through the right-click character menu, just like Raid Leaders.
 * Gilded Prophecy: Fixed an issue with Rumbling Earth and Earthen Toil.

HAMMERKNELL: RUNES OF CORRUPTION [Chronicle]

 * The zone quest now completes after defeating the Rune King and Prince Dollin to fix a case where the quest would remain non-completed. The King and Prince's loot chest now appears in the Throne Room.

HAMMERKNELL [Raid]

 * Inwar Darktide and Inquisitor Garau are now available after only Murdantix has been defeated, rather than after Murdantix and all downstairs bosses. Defeating Inwar and Garau still opens the portal to the Harbor and allows you to approach Jornaru and Akylios.
 * Reduced the health of base population throughout most of the zone.
 * Rune King Molinar: Increased casting time of both King and Prince's versions of Consuming Essence. Reduced health of Incorporeal Revenant. Increased the damage reduction Mages receive against Prince Dollin's Life Rend and Terminate Life abilities.
 * Estrode: Fixed Flaming Breath ignoring the effect of absorption shield.
 * Grugonim: Reduced Grugonim's health. Increased duration of Bloodplague Essence. Reduced the maximum health reduction applied by Manifested Death.
 * Inquisitor Garau: Reduced Garau's health.

CRAFTING

 * A new equipment slot for crafted Seal items is now available. Recipes to create Seals are available beginning around level 40/skill level 225 for all production crafting skills with the exception of Runecrafting, and can be found on various crafting recipe merchants.
 * New crafting daily quests are available for characters with 300 skill!
 * All Planar Essences should now be able to be Salvaged or Runebroken appropriately.
 * Harvestable mobs from levels 40-44 now grant Titanium when mined.
 * Butchering: Bulk recipes have been added to Butchering Trainers for base materials. These new recipes will allow you to process 20 hide directly into 20 leather.
 * Butchering skillups from creating leather have been normalized.
 * Butchering: Skill requirements for Butchering mobs have been normalized to improve the overall rate and progression of skilling up Butchering.
 * Skinning now counts properly toward Achievements for harvesting.
 * Foraging: Bulk recipes have been added to Foraging Trainers for base materials. These new recipes will allow you to process 20 raw wood directly into 20 pieces of lumber.
 * Foraging skillups from creating lumber have been normalized.
 * Foraging: Pristine Distillate now requires 260 Foraging skill to both learn the recipe and craft the item.
 * Mining: Bulk recipes have been added to Mining Trainers for base materials. These new recipes will allow you to process 20 ore directly into 20 bars.
 * Mining skillups from creating bars have been normalized.
 * Apothecary: Glorified Healing Potion now requires 3 Twilight Bloom instead of 4 Basiliskweed Stems.
 * Apothecary: Heroic Rootcatch Brew now requires Twilight Bloom instead of Basiliskweed Stems.
 * Apothecary: Mighty Brightsurge Vials and Mighty Powersurge Vials now have comparable material requirements.
 * Apothecary: Pure Adrenalite, Etherialite, Saintstone, Thiefstone, Valorstone, and Vitalium now require Eternal Planar Dust instead of Endless Planar Dust.
 * Apothecary: Sheepish Concoction has its duration extended to 5 minutes. Recipe now requires Soulbind Leather instead of Reinforced Leather.
 * Outfitter: Recipes for Witchweave Cowl, Witchweave Breeches, and Witchweave Bag have had their skill level requirements adjusted to match the skill required to create the item.
 * Outfitter: Recipes for Steeled Leather Brigandine, Steeled Leather Boots, and Steeled Leather Leggings have had their skill level requirements adjusted to match the skill required to create the item.
 * Outfitter: Conditioned Leather Jerkin recipe has been adjusted to require more Steeled Leather and less Cinerium Bars.
 * Outfitter: Recipes for Implacable Steel Gauntlets have had their material requirements adjusted to be in line with other similar recipes.
 * Weaponsmith: Runeguard Blunderbuss now properly requires the Forge instead of a Workbench.
 * Weaponsmith: Recipes for Lightsmasher, Malevolent Greataxe, and Spark Smiter have their material requirements adjusted to be in line with other similar recipes.

ITEMS

 * Rogue defensive Essences have been added to Earth and Fire Planar Merchants in Sanctum and Meridian.
 * Rift Faction Merchants now sell new Runes that will add resistances to your Planar Focus!
 * Several Mage items from Hammerknell have gotten a boost.
 * Tweaked some Rogue items on the Hammerknell gear NPC.
 * Fixed the misspelling of Abyssal Signet.
 * Artifact: Top DPS Build: Now has a shiny new icon!
 * Ember Isle collectible books are now Bind On Pickup to match other collectible books in the game.
 * Exalted Healing Tonic has its tooltip updated to reflect the actual amount healed.
 * Lesser Glittering Windstone and Lesser Coruscating Windstone can now be equipped in the same Focus.
 * Philter of Power now has a stacking priority and should no longer be overwritten by a weaker buff.
 * Planar Defender's Maul is available for purchase again.
 * Poisonous Coating: The poison damage will now only proc from ranged weapon attacks and not any ranged attack.
 * Transplanar Synergy Crystals can now be equipped at level 42, to match the equipment levels of the first Transplanar set items.
 * The 4-piece set bonus for Stalwart's Battlegear now correctly deals Death-type damage.
 * The 4-piece set bonus for Deathbringer's Battlegear now correctly deals Air-type damage.

COMMANDS AND MACROS

 * /who results now include a player's guild.
 * Typing /a or /artifact in your inventory search bar (ctrl+f) now highlights all artifacts in your inventory.
 * Players who are not party leaders can now recommend people to be invited to the group by using the /invite command or right clicking the desired person's portrait and selecting 'Recommend Invite'.
 * You can now use the command '/combatlog 1' and '/combatlog 0' to explicitly turn combat logging on or off (it previously would toggle the current setting).
 * Addon-style '@' specifiers in Macros are now supported even if Addons are disabled game-wide.

GRAPHICS AND AUDIO

 * Adjusted the sound of steam vents in Ember Isle to use less computery resources when audible.
 * Optimized loading of textures and sky around Rifts for improved performance.
 * Slowed down the forward walking speed of characters along with the animation so characters at a walk move more naturally. Run speed and backwards walking speed are unchanged.

UI/SETTINGS

 * Added a new Setting checkbox to the Combat panel to control whether Target Nearest Enemy uses or ignores the front-of-character targeting cone.
 * The new 'Sort By Progress' button on the Artifact window allows you to sort your Artifact sets based on how complete they are!
 * Added Friends Online and Guild Online UI to the menu button tray that displays how many of your friends and guild members are currently online. It can be moved via Layout Editor.
 * The Planar Attunement window now remembers the last PA tree you were viewing if you re-log and open the window again.
 * Planar Attunement tree buttons can now be dragged to the ability bar, and used to open specific trees.
 * The World Event 'Track' option now actually remembers your chosen setting between logins. If an event is untracked during a phase change, the tracking will be turned on again automatically to show the new phase info.
 * Planar Attunement Rest-bonus experience once again displays properly in the combat log.
 * Scrolling combat text now displays details for Absorbed damage.
 * Targets that are immune to interrupts should now *always show the gold cast bar when casting.
 * In addition to the gold casting bar, non-interruptible abilities now have a fancy spiky cast bar frame.
 * The 'Usable Only' checkbox on the Auction House now filters crafting recipes that you've already learned.
 * Canceling or creating an auction now preserves your scroll position on the Auctions window.
 * Fixed a bug causing secondary hotbars to be cleared under some circumstances.
 * The Achievement score displayed on the Guild Roster should now always match the total displayed on a character's Achievements window.
 * Tooltips for crafted and augmented first-on-shard items now display correct stats.
 * Optimized loading of Guild Banks and fixed them occasionally opening without a vault being displayed.
 * The quest sticky usable-item icon is now a bit larger.
 * Widened the ability mouseover and Soul Tree tooltips to get more room for text.
 * Added a proper error message for trying to preview items while polymorphed.
 * Added some more details to the confirmation box that shows after copying a character to the PTS.

Source

 * http://forums.riftgame.com/official-rift-news/patch-notes/312119-rift-1-8-8-00am-pdt-4-18-12-na-tentatively-1-00am-gmt-19-4-12-eu.html