Beta 6

KNOWN ISSUES

 * Extra icons for the Ascended Courage buff are being applied to players in Warfronts, including those not under the actual effects of the buff. THESE EXTRA ICONS HAVE NO GAMEPLAY EFFECT!

FEATURED

 * Brand new system: Ancient Wardstones. See under the heading ANCIENT WARDSTONES for more detail.
 * Many, many soul changes based on the latest rounds of your testing. Specifics are below under COMBAT and individual Souls. Note that this means you were probably given a free respec; check your Soul spec before combat!
 * Racial Ability updates; see below under their own special section!
 * Several Rift consumables have become part of the ASCENDED POWERS system. This, too, has a details section below.
 * Added Ascended Courage to Warfronts. See the WARFRONTS section.
 * We are testing the delivery of preorder and Collector's Edition rewards which means you will be able to see these in Beta 6! This will not count against your launch/head start rewards.
 * Master Looting has been implemented!

GENERAL GAMEPLAY

 * Level requirements have been removed from the previously-level 20 mounts. If you can get to them, and can afford them, you can use them. This includes the Collector's Edition turtle mount.
 * We have removed the level requirement for equipment rewards granted by quests. All quest rewards will now be bound by the wider level range required to obtain the quest itself. If you can complete it, the gear will be usable.
 * Preorder and Collector's Edition rewards are available if your account has these entitlements. Obtaining them in Beta DOES NOT count against your rewards at release. Check your characters' mail!
 * Peace of the Grave now lasts 30 seconds and also flags the player as immune to PvP.
 * Companion pets now function in a similar fashion to toggled abilities.
 * Hoppy, the Harbinger of Regulos, and Planar Squirrels have stopped causing unwarranted aggro from NPCs. They won't stop causing jealousy aggro from other players, though!
 * Cleaned up the duplicate error messages when renaming a pet to something that fails the name filter.
 * Underwater breathing abilities no longer disable fatigue.
 * Very large NPC corpses are now easier to target for loot and butchering.
 * Fixed a bug that could cause interactable objects to become unclickable when they shouldn't be.
 * The Last Resort item has been removed. If you find yourself stuck, use the 'I'm Stuck' button on the Support window!

ANCIENT WARDSTONES

 * This is a new type of content that will evolve over time. We welcome your feedback and suggestions as we work on turning the awesome up to eleven.
 * This system is currently visible in the zone of Scarlet Gorge.
 * On entering Scarlet Gorge, a new quest is offered. Defiants should seek out Mariko Bella at Old Mule Run, and Guardians find Paula Becksten at Overwatch. This quest provides the Ascended Power to 'Activate Ancient Wardstone' and shows you what these new objects look like. The next step is to go exploring and find them!
 * Once you discover an Ancient Wardstone, use your new ability to start an event. This might be one of several things - they're a bit of a surprise and award experience and Rift currency.
 * Completing these events allow the Ancient Wardstone locations to be upgraded. Standard quests are daily repeatable, while area quests reset every 10 minutes while the Wardstone is active. Rewards for the first quest completion are, naturally, higher than subsequent turn-ins.
 * Beware! Not only do these Ancient Wardstone locations become Invasion targets, they can also be destroyed by members of the other faction. Guard them with care. For the adventurous - you can activate Ancient Wardstones in areas of zones controlled by opposing factions. Any Ancient Wardstone location can be activated for either Guardians or Defiants.
 * Yes, some of the content in opposing areas is PvP oriented, but not all.
 * But wait, there's more!
 * Deep in Scarlet Gorge, a horrible beast of the Planes has slept for millennia. Behold - Urthura, 'The Dweller Below.' If a single faction controls all Ancient Wardstones in Scarlet Gorge, the sweet smell of power awakens Urthura from her slumber, causing her to rampage across the Gorge, intent on destroying everything in her path. Where she spawns depends on which faction activated the wardstones that summoned her. Once spawned, she can be claimed by either faction, so get that raid together quick!
 * Fortunately for the residents of Scarlet Gorge, Urthura tires easily, and can only awaken about once each day.

ASCENDED POWERS

 * Planar Charges are used to activate Ascended Powers. You gain charges by closing Rifts.
 * Your current Planar Charges are displayed as small crystals next to your portrait, and are only shown when you have at least one charge.
 * Visit Planar Foci merchants to purchase Ascended Powers.
 * Flares for player-summoned invasions are now Ascended Powers instead of consumables.
 * There is now a new Ascended power that can be used against Invasions; see Holy Champion for Guardians and Anti-Planar Augmentation for Defiants.
 * Changed the Upgrade Wardstone ability item into an Ascended Power.
 * The consumable items that upgraded wardstones have been removed.

RACIAL ABILITIES

 * Updated all Racial Abilities.

High Elves

 * Removed Wisdom of the Ages.
 * Tavril's Grace now increases Wisdom by 10.
 * Added: Angelic Flight: Flies toward the selected area. Cannot be used in combat.

Dwarves

 * Removed Second Wind.
 * Bahralt's Mettle now increases Strength by 10.
 * Added: Density: Dwarves can fall twice the distance of other races safely.

Mathosians

 * Removed Heroic Resolve,
 * Thedeor's Will now increases Dexterity by 10.
 * Added: Motivational Roar - Increases the movement speed of the Mathosian and nearby group members by 30% for 10 seconds. This ability cannot be used in combat.

Eth

 * Removed Eth-Made Shield Generator.
 * Sun's Fortune now increases Intelligence by 10.
 * Added: Agility: Increases movement speed by 70% for 15 seconds. This ability cannot be used in combat.

Kelari

 * Removed Kelari Frenzy.
 * Flame's Ferocity now increases Dexterity by 10.
 * Added Camouflage: The Kelari transforms into a ghostly fox for up to 30 seconds, giving them a wider radius to avoid aggro with, and despawning any pets the Kelari may have. This ability cannot be used in combat.

Bahmi

 * Removed Sefir of Power.
 * Removed Sefir of Constitution.
 * Added: Sefir of Strength: Increases Strength by 10.
 * Added: Mighty Leap: Leaps at the selected area. Cannot be used in combat.

RIFTS AND INVASIONS

 * PvE Quest hub Wardstones are now immune to players of the opposite faction. This change applies to all server rulesets and does not include Ancient Wardstones.
 * Rifts will now reward slightly more Planarite.
 * Revised the loot obtained from most zone invasion events.
 * Zone events with Colossus invasions now have a unique map icon to distinguish them from regular invasions.
 * Fixed the buff placed on targeted Wardstones during Colossus-spawning zone events. Previously, the Guardian version was being applied to both factions' Wardstones.
 * The buffs placed on Wardstones at the start of zone events now only target invasions, not nearby random enemies or passing cats.
 * Increased the number of Invasions required to get achievements from 30 to 500 per planar type.
 * Increased the number of Footholds to destroy for achievements from 10 to 100 per planar type.
 * A number of Rift locations in Gloamwood that could trap players in the world objects that spawn will no longer do so.
 * Zone Invasion event 'A Royal Raid' now references that Kayahan is the Gnar King.
 * Gathering of Souls: Fixed Grimnir sometimes not spawning at the end of the event.
 * The Witching Hour: The boss should now correctly spawn for this zone event.
 * The contribution bar now properly tracks when attacking Footholds.

Rift Currency

 * Completing zone events and Major Rifts drop a unified form of currency across the following zones. Planar Goods merchants in those zones all accept that unified currency.
 * Silverwood, Freemarch: 'Corrupted' currency.
 * Gloamwood, Stonefield, Scarlet Gorge: 'Cursed' currency.
 * Scarwood Reach: 'Vile' currency.

MAIL

 * Cash on Delivery mail is now available for use. CoD mail marked as Spam is returned to sender. You also cannot delete CoD mail if the item is still attached.
 * You can no longer return mail to sender if it was generated by an NPC or the game system.

LOOTING

 * Master Looting is now available. An icon on the raidframe shows who the master looter is. The leader can right click someone from the raidframe to make them master looter when the raid is in that loot mode. They can also use /setmasterlooter, which will work on their target or a supplied name.
 * We now show a warning if you roll on loot while your inventory is full.
 * If the winner of a loot roll has no inventory space, the item stays on the corpse but is only lootable by the winner.
 * You can now roll need/greed on loot while dead, even if the Soul Walk/respawn option is on screen.
 * Coming in a future beta: You’ll be able to see multiple roll windows at once!

GUILDS

 * Guild Perks: Earthly Ties no longer reduces the cooldown of *everything*. It does work, though.
 * Fixed issues with multiple guild members able to accept a guild quest on the same day.

COMBAT

 * There should now be a much smaller difference in damage done with abilities using a fast weapon versus a slow one. This sounds minor but is actually a high impact change!
 * Fixed a bug where resistances were providing less than half of the mitigation they should have been.
 * Increased the base damage on all weapons.
 * Increased the base damage for all Attack Power-based abilities.
 * Auto-attack no longer benefits from Attack Power.
 * NPCs now hit a bit harder and have more health.
 * Melee pets will try to position themselves behind their target if they are not their target's target. This check happens every 5 seconds.
 * You can now command your pet to attack enemies that are under debuffs that break on attack.
 * Fixed an issue causing some pets to behave incorrectly. This fix will reset pet settings (passive/defensive etc, what abilities are toggled on) to the defaults.
 * When NPCs cast spells, they change their target to the target of the ability for the duration of the cast. This means you can actually see the change in the target-of-target portrait.
 * Group member portraits now show debuff-type coloring on debuff icons.

SOULS

 * Soul acquisition quests have changed slightly; these no longer include the end step to use an item on the NPC corpse. Any in-progress Soul quests from previous Betas will be removed from your quest journal.
 * Warriors: Damage values have been updated across all Warrior souls.
 * Warrior Tank Souls: Each now gets a passive buff with 5 points spent that enhances their max hit points based on how many points are spent in the soul.
 * Warriors: Light's Decree, Storm Blade, Avatar of Fire, and Furious Strikes' extra attacks should no longer trigger the extra attacks off of each other.
 * Warriors: Targeted buffs have had their cooldowns lowered to the 1.5 second global cooldown.
 * Warriors: Self buffs have their cooldown lowered to 10 seconds from 15.
 * Warriors: Reactive abilities no longer grant attack points. This change affects Frenzied Strike, Bloodthirst, Inescapable Fury, Turn the Blade, Backhanded Blow, and Flesh Rip.
 * Mages: Fixed an issue causing abilities that consume a set amount of Charge to be free of cost when another Charge consuming ability was active.
 * Pets now benefit from their master's Hit and Focus.
 * A lot of these ability changes resulted in soul point respecs; check your spec before you go into combat!

Archmage [PvP]

 * Victims of an Archmage's Rift Tomb can no longer melee attack from a distance after the effect wears off.

Assassin

 * Magnify Pain: Now increases the Critical Hit damage and healing bonus by 10-20%.
 * Serrated Blades: Works with both Ranged and Melee weapon attacks. Now causes your target to bleed based on 50-150% of your weapon's damage over 6 seconds, down from 100-300%.
 * Slip Away: Taken off of global cooldown.
 * Murderous Intent: Now benefits Saboteur's Charges.
 * Enduring Brew: Healing increased. The DoT and healing debuff now stacks to 5 instead of 10.
 * Impale: Duration increased to 16 seconds from 10. Total damage increased.
 * Hidden Veil: Moved to a 40-point root ability.
 * New 51-point root ability: Serpent Strike: A venomous attack that deals weapon plus Water damage. An additional 100% damage bonus from Attack Power is applied to this attack. Usable after dealing a Critical Hit. This ability is not affected by global cooldown. Awards 1 combo point.

Bard

 * Motif of Regeneration: Corrected healing for ranks 1 through 6. Changed tooltip to indicate amount healed every 3 seconds.
 * New Root ability - Verse of Captivation: Available at 34 points, replaces Motif of Encouragement. Mesmerizes an enemy for 8 seconds. Any damage on the enemy removes the effect. Mez lockdown! Can only be used on one target at a time.
 * Motif of Encouragement: Rather than removing this entirely, it now causes up to 5 surrounding critter mobs to follow the Bard. Lasts 15 seconds. Yes, that means you can have a squirrel army.

Beastmaster

 * Enraged Companion: Roots instead of Snares on Pounce.
 * Fight as One: Now has a cooldown of 1 minute and a duration of 10 seconds.
 * Dismiss Pet will now activate properly.

Blade Dancer

 * Blade Finesse: Increases your auto-attack damage by 10-50%, up from 4-20%.
 * Contra Tempo: Whenever you parry or dodge an attack, there is a 50-100% chance of gaining an advantage, causing your next Combo Point generating attack to generate an additional Combo Point on your target. This is increased from only applying to Keen Strike, Quick Strike, and Precision Strike.
 * Precision Strike, Quick Strike, Dancing Steel: Damage slightly increased.
 * Blade and Soul: Increases your critical hit chance by 50%, up from 20%.
 * Double Coup: Also increases the damage of your next Keen Strike by 100% after using Quick Strike or Precision Strike. Reduced the cooldown from 3 minutes to 2.

Cabalist

 * Obliterate: Now has a 60 second cooldown.
 * Affinity for Death: Now takes up to 5 points, reducing the cooldown of Obliterate by 6–30 seconds.
 * Leviathan's Mark: Now takes up to 3 points, reducing the cooldown of Sigils by 10–30 seconds.
 * Dark Water: Now has a 15 second cooldown, lasts 15 seconds.
 * Death's Dominion: Now increases the damage of Shadow's Touch by 2-10%.
 * Surge: Now only 1 point, increasing the number of enemies Maelstrom can effect by 2.
 * Symbol of the Ancient: Now available as a 36 point root ability. Increases spell damage by 5%, plus an additional 2% per point spent in Cabalist above 36.
 * Negation of Life: Now a tier 6 branch ability. Increases Obliterate's modifier to Lurking Decay's damage by 0.25+0.03 per point spent in Cabalist above 26.
 * Tyranny: Now a targeted AE instead of GTAE.

Champion

 * Two-Handed Specialization: Now only affects physical attacks. Gives more contribution per point spent in Champion, capping at 50% now instead of 15%.
 * Deadly Strikes: Now requires a two-handed weapon. Enhances damage by 8% instead of 6% per point for all non-finisher ability attacks..
 * Disruptive Strike: No longer an attack point consumer that reduces casting time of targets. It now functions as a high-damage single target attack point builder that generates 2 attack points.
 * Slayer's Bearing: No longer has a negative effect.
 * Destroyer's Bearing: Enhances the damage of attack point consumers by 50% while active. It no longer has a negative effect. Causes finishers to build an attack point after consuming the available points when triggered.

Chloromancer

 * Living Shell: Now returns 2% of the Chloromancer's max mana per second while active.
 * Chloromancers now gain the ability to Track Life Creatures after spending 10 points.

Dominator

 * Mana Wrench: Now drains and returns mana based on the max mana of the Dominator instead of a flat amount.
 * Improved Mana Wrench: Now increases the amount of mana drained and returned by Mana Wrench by an additional 1% of the Dominator's max mana, per point spent in the ability.
 * Clinging Form: Now a tier 1 branch ability.
 * Mental Discipline: Combined into Efficient Control.
 * Improved Mana Wrench: Now a tier 3 branch ability.
 * New Branch Ability - Quick Thinking: Reduces cast time of the next spell cast after a crowd control spell by 0.25-0.5 seconds. Tier 1 branch ability.
 * New Branch Ability - Quicken Form: Reduces casting time of Transmogrify to 0. This is a tier 4 branch ability.
 * New Branch Ability - Durable Control: Causes your Transmogrify, Mass Exhaustion, and Disorient effects to break after the enemy receives damage equal to 5% of your max health, plus an additional 0.25-0.5% of your max health per point spent in Dominator. Tier 4 branch ability.
 * Reflective Presence: Added 1 minute cooldown.

Druid

 * Strength of the Fae: No longer triggers global cooldown. Now has a 2 minute cooldown.
 * Combined Effort: Now increases Attack Power and Spell Power by 50% for 10 seconds. Also deals more damage.
 * Summon Satyr: Increased the damage of both Enraged Assault and Satyr Sweep.
 * Heed the Call: Moved to a tier 2 branch ability. Takes up to 3 points, reducing the casting time of Summon spells by 2–6 seconds.
 * Spirit of the Wood: Moved to a tier 4 branch ability. Now grants your Fervent Strike a 6-30% chance to cause your pet's next ability to critically hit.
 * Brutal Impact: Now a tier 3 branch ability.
 * Rage of the Fae: Now increases the pet's damage and healing by 100%.
 * Stone Strike: Root now lasts 4 seconds.
 * Earth's Clutch: Removed.
 * Friend of the Weald: Now available at 36 points. Increases the damage and healing of your pets' abilities by 10%, plus an additional 6% per point spent in Druid beyond 36. Increases Fervent Strike damage by 5% plus an additional 1% per point spent in Druid above 36.
 * Forest Blessing: Moved to a tier 5 branch ability. Now takes only 1 point, reducing area of effect damage done to your pet by 35%, plus an additional 2% for points spent in Druid over 21.
 * Savage Force: Now increases Bombard and Eruption of Life damage by 5-25%.

Elementalist

 * Elemental Forces: Reduced damage dealt.
 * Greater Elemental Affinity: Now reduces area of effect damage done to Elemental pets by 35%, and an additional 2% per point spent in Elementalist beyond 21.
 * Force of Nature: Now increases the damage done by Elementals by 0.4-2% per point spent in Elementalist.
 * Planar Expansion: Now increases the Air Elemental's damage by 2-10%.
 * Air Elemental: Reduced damage of Lightning Bolt and Ball Lightning.
 * Swapped positions of Elemental Armor (38) and Sever Bonds (44) in the root abilities.
 * Velocity: Now gives Crystalline Missiles a 50% chance to increase the damage Elemental pets do against the target by 10-50% for 10 seconds.
 * Elementalists now gain the ability to Track Elementals after spending 10 points.

Inquisitor

 * Life and Death Concord: Now has a 4-20% chance to proc. Improved ability description.
 * Contempt: Now takes only 2 points. Causes Vex to heal you for 45-90% of damage done.
 * Fanatic's Faith: Now directly increases your Critical Hit damage/healing bonus by 4-20%.
 * Vengeful Recovery: Removed.
 * Mental Resilience: Now takes up to 5 points, increasing Vex and Sanction Heretic damage by 2-10%.
 * Ritual of Judgment: Now a 36 point root ability. Increases spell damage by 5%, plus an additional 2% per point spent in Inquisitor above 36.
 * Nysyr's Rebuke: Now ranged, single target. Damage increased.
 * Fanaticism: Now has a 45 second cooldown.
 * Corporal Punishment: Now lasts 5 seconds.

Marksman

 * Single Minded Focus: Increases the damage of your single target Marksman abilities by 3-15%, up from 2-10%.
 * Marksman's Pedestal: Increased the damage bonus with ranged weapons by 15%, up from 10%.
 * Rapid Extrication now affects Controlled Fire, Fire and Forget, and Close Quarters Combat.

Necromancer

 * Ancient Tomb: Now reduced area of effect damage done to Undead pets by 35% and an additional 2% per point spent in Necromancer above 21.
 * Deadly Plague: Now causes Deathly Calling to increase the damage of Plague Bolt by 1-5% per stack.
 * Shadow Revenant: Ruination ability now spreads Necrosis and Looming Demise to each enemy hit, if the initial target is affected by those abilities.
 * Life Bane: Now increases the damage done by Undead pets by 0.4-2% for each point spent in Necromancer.
 * Shadow Revenant: Reduced damage of Ruination. Increased damage of Oblivion.
 * Reduced damage of melee DPS pet's Jagged Wound, Soul Rend, and Blood Spike.
 * Skeletal Zealot: Blood Spike now uses Necrosis to receive a 100% chance to critically hit, instead of Looming Demise.
 * Skeletal Knight: Bone Shatter now uses Necrosis to deal additional damage, instead of Looming Demise.
 * Reduced damage of tanking pet's Bone Strike and Grave Touch. Bone Strike now deals an additional 10% damage for each stack of Deathly Calling on the target.

Nightblade

 * Scourge of Darkness: Fixed a bug so this now benefits from Coup de Grace and Heat Retention.
 * Dusk to Dawn: No longer causes your pet to stop attacking.
 * Necromancers now gain the ability to Track Undead after spending 10 points.
 * Blazing Fury: Now benefits Saboteurs' Charges.

Paladin

 * Enduring Stamina: Now Unyielding Defense. Increases the amount of damage mitigated by a block.
 * Unyielding Defense: Moved to a tier 3 branch ability. Changed to now mitigate the damage of attacks that are blocked.
 * Graceful Under Pressure: Moved to a tier 2 branch ability.
 * Aggressive Guardian: Moved to a tier 1 branch ability. Now 10/20% bonus.
 * Reverent Protection: Properly absorbs damage.
 * Improved Reverent Protection: No longer modifies duration; instead if increases damage absorbed by 10-20%.
 * Shield of the Hero: Now gives additional 5% Hit instead of 10%.
 * Aggressive Block: Now increases Block by 10% instead of 20%.

Paragon

 * Teaching of the Five Rings: Changed; now increases damage while dual wielding by a percentage for each point spent in Paragon up to 30. Only affects physical attacks.
 * Predictable Movements: Cooldown increased to 2 minutes.
 * Updated damage on all follow-up attacks.
 * Way of the River: Now gives a 3% bonus to critical hit chance, rather than 5%.
 * Paired Strike: Now makes all follow-up attacks critically hit for 5 seconds.
 * Combat Precision: Now modifies the damage of all non-finisher ability attacks.
 * Flurry: Now lasts for 4 seconds, but each hit does more damage.

Purifier

 * Fiery Kinship: Removed.
 * Flame Ward: Now takes up to 2 points, increasing armor by 3-6% after healing.
 * Protection of the Ancestors: Moved to a tier 2 branch ability. Now takes up to 5 points, increasing the amount absorbed by Shield of the Ancestors, Ward of the Ancestors, and Rite of the Ancestors by 10-50%.
 * Healing Blessing: Now instant cast, lasts 1 minute, and has a 2 minute cooldown. Reduced the healing amount.
 * Intense Flames: Now takes up to 5 points, increasing the healing of Healing Flare, Healing Flame, and Restorative Flame by 1-5%.
 * Disciple of Flame: Now a 36 point root ability. Increases healing by 10%, plus an additional 1% per point spent in Purifier above 36. Increases absorption of all absorb shields by 5% plus an additional 2% per point in Purifier above 36.
 * Rite of the Ancestors: Now has a 2 minute cooldown. Lasts for 15 seconds and cannot be triggered more than once every 3 seconds.
 * Fiery Blessing: Now has a 2 minute cooldown.
 * Life's Blessing: Now takes up to 5 points, reducing the cooldown of Blessings by 6–30 seconds.
 * Divine Cascade: Now only hits up to 3 enemies.
 * Ancestral Flame: Moved to a tier 4 branch ability. Now takes up to 5 points, adding an absorb to Restorative Flame equal to 7-35% of your Spell Power.
 * Caregiver's Blessing: Now instant cast, lasts 1 minute, and has a 2 minute cooldown. Causes the next 3 single-target heals to grant the ally an absorb shield.
 * Spiritual Conflagration: Increased the benefit from Spell Power to 200%. Now heals and shields the ally (not the Cleric) every second for 4 seconds. No longer interruptible by damage.
 * Enflamed Rejuvenation: Now a 2-10% chance on a single target heal to increase the effectiveness on your next single target heal by 6-30%. Improved ability description.
 * Life of the Era: Now available at 20 points. Functions as an AE raid version of Life of the Ages. Requires a component.
 * Wisdom of the Era: Now available at 32 points. Functions as an AE raid version of Wisdom of the Ages. Requires a component.

Pyromancer

 * Burning Bright: Now increases Fire damage by 0.2-0.6% for each point spent in Pyromancer, and reduces max health by 3-9%.
 * Mass Burn: Removed.
 * New Ability - Fulminate: Unleashes FLAMING DEATH on the target. Instant cast, consumes 100 charge when cast. 45 second cooldown. 51 point root ability.
 * Fixed an issue preventing Fiery Concentration from affecting the max ranks of Fireball and Cinder Burst.
 * Pyromancer's Armor: The proc now causes Cinder Burst to appear in the Reactives window.
 * Pyromancers now gain the ability to Track Fire Rift creatures after spending 10 points.

Ranger

 * Doubleshot: Increases the chance to fire an additional shot when ranged auto-attacking by 10-50%, up by 5-25%.
 * New Branch Ability - King of the Jungle: Increases your pet's damage by 10% and reduces the damage your pet takes from area of effect abilities by 35%. For every point spent in Ranger above 21, your pet's damage is increased by 3% and damage from AEs reduced by 2%.
 * Improved Escape Artist: Reduced to take only 1 point.
 * Improved Trick Shot: Each additional enemy affected by your Trick Shot has a 15% chance to add 1 Combo Point, up from 5%.
 * Shadow Stalker: Pet removed.
 * Rain of Arrows: Now a tier 5 branch ability, down from 51 point root unlock. New ranks have been added, so remember to go train! Cooldown reduced to 8 seconds and damage dealt has been reduced.
 * New 51-point Root Ability - Feral Aggression: Increases the Critical Hit chance of the pet by 100% and causes pet to be immune to all Fear and Confuse effects for 15 seconds.
 * Master Huntsman: Functionality changes to Dire Wolf and Blood Raptor. Your Dire Wolf's Maul infects the enemy, reducing healing taken by 6-30%. Reduces the cooldown of your Razorbeast's Quills by 1–5 seconds. Gives your Blood Raptor's Bloodied Blow a 5-25% chance to double attack.
 * Some changes have been made to Dire Wolf and Blood Raptor. The Dire Wolf is a DPS pet with more focus on PvP. The Blood Raptor is a DPS pet with more focus on group encounters.
 * Dire Wolf Abilities: Bite: causes Physical damage. Maul: Causes a bleed for Physical damage over 10 seconds. Howl - Greater Dire Wolf - Reduces the Hit chance of surrounding enemies by 5% for 10 seconds.
 * Blood Raptor Abilities: Bloodied Blow: Causes physical damage and returns some to the pet as health. Razor Lash: Hits up to 4 enemies for Physical damage. Rend: Causes a bleed for physical damage over 10 seconds, can be applied up to 3 times.
 * Trick Shot: Removed cooldown. Damage has also been reduced.
 * Razorbeast: Fixed rank 4 so it uses the correct abilities.
 * Prey of the Weak: Damage bonus reduced to 5-15%, down from 10-30%. The duration has been extended from 10 seconds to 20 seconds.
 * Piercing Shot: Damage slightly increased.
 * Shadow Fire: Duration of the haste buff increased to 15 seconds from 10.

Reaver

 * Blood Fever, Flesh Rot: Fixed damage type in tooltips.
 * Planar Attunement: Moved to a tier 1 branch ability and now affects all damage over time abilities.
 * Strong Constitution: Replaced by Power From the Masses, which gives you 1% damage mitigation for each enemy you hit with an AOE up to a max of 10%. This has been moved to a tier 5 branch ability.
 * Sinister Bindings: Changed to Sinister Intent, which increases threat generation of all Reaver damage over time abilities by 15%.
 * Wasting Away: No longer stacks, and now has a 5-15% reduction to Strength.
 * Entropic Embrace: No longer has multiple applications, and now gives 4-20% bonus.
 * Power in the Blood: Swapped places with Planar Attunement.
 * Reavers now get the ability to track Death creatures at level 10.
 * Power from the Masses: Now properly triggers off of Blood Fever, Flesh Rot, Necrotic Wounds, and Soul Sickness while Plague Bringer is active.

Riftblade

 * Updated damage on all Bursts.
 * Elemental Deflection: Should now properly increase Parry. Moved to tier 2 branch ability and can take up to 3 points.
 * Riftwalk: Icon in the Soul Tree has changed.
 * Rift Fury: Now enhances the damage of non-physical abilities by a percentage for each point spent in the Riftblade up to 30.
 * Enhanced Burst: Now only modifies Elemental damage.
 * Elemental Touch, Storm Blade: Now deals damage based on the equipped weapon rather than on damage dealt.
 * Planar Blade: Returns 10 Power to the Warrior on critical hits, in addition to refreshing cooldowns on Riftwalk and Rift Summon.
 * Avatar of the Rift: No longer enhances Elemental damage by 10%, it now increases damage of Burst abilities by 40%.
 * Avatar of the Fire: Removed, replaced with Rift Strike, a heavy hitting attack that gives the Riftblade a 5% increased chance to critically hit for 8 seconds.
 * Riftblades can now track Earth creatures at level 10.

Saboteur

 * Fixed a bug so a Saboteur will no longer remove the Blast Charges and Spike Charges of other Saboteurs when they are detonated. This means multiple Saboteurs attacking a target will stop roflstomping each other.
 * Fragmentation Bomb: Cooldown increased to 15 seconds. Damage increased.
 * Carpet Bombing: Now also resets the cooldown of your Bombs.
 * Spike Charge, Blast Charge: Damage has been very slightly reduced!
 * Charges, Bombs, and Detonate can now be used with any weapon equipped.
 * New Ability - Incriminate: 20 point root ability. When activated, all threat generated is transferred to the target party or raid member for 6 seconds. Does not trigger global cooldown.
 * New Ability - Track Constructs: Added at 6 points.

Sentinel

 * Healing Benediction: Increased the benefit from Spell Power to 250%. No longer interruptible.
 * Vigilance: Increased the benefit from Spell Power to 250%, along with increasing the base value.
 * Divine Call: Increased the benefit from Spell Power to 250%.
 * Watchful Gaze: Now a tier 1 branch ability. Increases Spell Power by 1-5%.
 * Righteous Burden: Now takes up to 2 points, reducing movement speed by 15/30%.
 * Swift Recovery: Removed.
 * Life's Return: Now heals the target to 50% health.
 * Lasting Invocation: Now takes up to 5 points, healing the target for an additional 6-30%.
 * Walk in the Light: Now directly increases your Critical Hit damage/healing bonus by 4-20%.
 * Intensity: Removed.
 * Protect the Flock: Now takes up to 2 points, causing AE heals to reduce damage the target takes for 3–6 seconds.
 * Embolden: Moved to a tier 3 branch ability.
 * Shared Recovery: Lowered the benefit from Spell Power to 75%, increased mana cost.
 * Word of Hope: Now available as a 36 point root ability. Increases the bonus your Healing Invocation uses by 5%, plus an additional 3% per point spent in Sentinel above 36.
 * Touch the Light: Now available at 14 points.
 * Healer's Covenant: Now available at 20 points. Has a 2 minute cooldown.
 * Life Efficiency: Now increases AE heal effectiveness by 1-5%.
 * Noble Blessing: Now available at 20 points. Functions as an AE raid version of Heroic Blessing. Requires a component.
 * Refreshing Communion: Removed.
 * Healer's Haste: Now reduces the casting time of the next 5 heals by 30%. 2 minute cooldown, does not trigger the global cooldown.

Shaman

 * Overwhelming: Now directly increases your Critical Hit damage/healing bonus by 4-20%.
 * Thick Skinned: Moved to a tier 1 branch ability. Now takes up to 3 points, reducing the damage you receive by 1-3%.
 * Favored of the Valnir: Moved to a tier 2 branch ability. Now takes up to 2 points, increasing healing received by 5-10%.
 * Unstoppable Force: Removed.
 * Endless Winter: Moved to a tier 5 branch ability. Now takes up to 2 points, causing Critical Hits with melee attack abilities to restore 2-4% mana.
 * Hailstones: Removed.
 * Long Memory: Moved to a tier 3 branch ability. Now takes up to 5 points, granting Crushing Blow a 6-30% chance to reset the cooldown of Massive Blow.
 * Lust for Blood: Now takes up to 5 points, increasing the damage of the next melee attack ability after a Critical Hit by 6-30%.
 * Stormborn: Now a tier 4 branch ability. Takes up to 5 points, increases Lightning Hammer's Air damage by 6-30%.
 * Call of Ice: Now a 36 point root ability. Increases melee damage by 5%, plus an additional 3% per point spent in Shaman above 36.
 * Rage of the North: No longer triggers global cooldown. Lasts 7 seconds, works on all melee attacks, and has a 1 minute, 30 second cooldown.
 * Vengeance of the Winter Storm: Lowered base damage.
 * Frozen Embrace: Now takes up to 5 points, increasing Massive Blow's chance to Critically Hit by 6-30%.
 * Lightning Hammer: Now has a 6 second cooldown.

Stormcaller

 * Cloudburst: Reduced the benefit from stacks of Electrified to 15% per stack. Reduced Cloudburst damage.
 * Stretch of Cold: Now increases Water damage by 0.33-1% for each point spent in Stormcaller.
 * Icicle, Ice Shear: Reduced damage.

Void Knight

 * Void: Fixed an issue that kept this ability from reducing elemental damage.
 * Improved Pain Tolerance: Now Blood from a Stone. Gives a chance of gaining a Pact by attacking a target that does not have Mana.
 * Energy Retention: Now takes up to 5 points, and is a tier 1 branch ability.
 * Pain Tolerance: Now Quality Care, which gives you a 10-30% chance to gain a Pact whenever you are healed.
 * Rift Shield: should now absorb all forms of Water, Fire, Earth, Air, Life, and Death attacks.

Warden

 * Surging Rapids: Now takes up to 5 points, increasing instant heals by 3-15%.
 * Ebb and Flow: Now a 6-30% chance to increase Wisdom by 2% per application (up to 5) for 10 seconds.
 * Restorative Tide: Now takes up to 2 points, healing 75-150% of your Wisdom when critically hit.
 * Tidal Resonance: Now takes up to 2 points, reducing the mana cost of your next HoT by 15-30% after getting a critical hit with a water-based ability.
 * Unbound Steps: Removed.
 * Still Waters: Now takes up to 5 points, reducing the cooldown of Deluge by 6-30%.
 * Diona's Gift: Now takes up to 5 points, increasing the healing bonus granted by your Tidal Surge by 6-30%.
 * Overflow: Now takes only 1 point, granting a proc that heals for the Warden's Wisdom when the ally is hit after being Critically Hit by a heal.
 * Rising Waters: Now takes up to 5 points, increasing the additional healing done by Deluge by 6-30%.
 * Downpour, Healing Showers: Increased the benefit from Spell Power to 250%.
 * Ocean's Blessing: Now a 36 point root ability. Increases the Spell Power bonus on your heal over time spells by 6%, plus an additional 3.6% per point spent in Warden above 36.
 * Healing Current, Healing Spray: Now limited to 1 stack per caster on target, instead of 1 stack total.
 * Soothing Stream: Now limited to 4 stacks per caster, rather than 4 stacks total.
 * Deluge: Revitalizing Water (the additional healing based on number of HoTs) now only considers HoTs cast by the person casting Deluge.
 * Cascade: Now castable on allies and restores 15% of the target's mana over 3 seconds.

Warlock

 * Empowered Darkness: Reduced Charge consumption. Added a 1 minute cooldown.
 * Neddra's Influence: Now increases damage done by DoT effects by 5-15% plus an additional 0.2-0.6% per point spent in Warlock.
 * Draining Bolt: Increased damage. Swapped positions with Neddra's Grasp.
 * Draining Bolt, Neddra's Grasp: Swapped positions. Damage and ranks for these abilities adjusted to reflect their new acquisition levels.
 * Sacrifice Life: Speed: Removed.
 * New Ability - Defile Life: 38 point root ability. Deals Death damage over 10 seconds, Consumes Charge, instant cast.
 * Neddra's Grasp: Reduced Damage.
 * Opportunity: Procs from this now appear in scrolling combat text.

Warlord

 * Dancing Steel: Icon changed.
 * Imposing: Now a short term buff.
 * Figurehead: Incoming healing bonus reduced from 5% per point to 2%.
 * Call to Aid: Now increases all healing by 5% and has a duration based on how many Attack Points are used. Cooldown lowered to 10 seconds.
 * Aspect of the Fallen Hero: Power cost lowered to 10 from 50 to be in line with other Aspects.

DUNGEONS AND RAIDS

 * Increased the damage that Dungeon mobs deal.
 * Melee damage of most dungeon bosses has been reduced. (Reduction in spike damage potential.)
 * Remember that time you awesomely ran out of the boss AE just in time, only to get hit with Exposed and beaten down after your effort? Fear no more! Dungeon creatures can no longer cause the Exposed debuff.
 * Dungeon mobs of levels 1-50 no longer critically hit.
 * Raid members now display a tooltip when hovering over their display in the raidframes. This is an option that can be disabled under Combat settings. Player tooltips now display race and zone names as well.
 * Pets can now be displayed in raidframes. This can be enabled through the raid panel.
 * Raid leaders can now reset instances which are bound to the raid.
 * Boss Enrages now have a visible buff effect.
 * Chat messages now show in the General tab when someone joins or leaves a raid.
 * Fixed the teleport to instance option not showing up a second time if it was not deliberately dismissed and a group member re-entered the instance.

Darkening Deeps

 * Braxtepel: Hot Tar can no longer critically hit. No longer requires line of sight.
 * Scarn: Searing Heat now radiates from the boss and is tracked in the combat log.

ZONES

 * Added protective measures for Porticulum Masters in various locations. Beware the Portal Defense Force.

Freemarch

 * Sunken Confession: The thief in this quest has undergone a name change.
 * King for a Day: Players killed by Jakub can now recover their corpse on the first tower before the encounter instead of on the actual encounter area.
 * Adjusted Rift events in Eliam Fields to account for a large boulder in the area.

Gloamwood

 * Renamed Shadefallen Ancient I to Felling an Ancient.
 * Renamed Shadefallen Ancient II to Ending a Legend.
 * If you happen to kill the targets for these quests without being on them, you get a quest starter drop!
 * Removing the Head: Cleaned up kill target respawn scripting on this quest.
 * Blacksap Ancients no longer go into hiding from nearby Footholds.

Mathosia

 * Fixed some spirit spawning issues with High Elven Inquisition and Dwarven Inquisition.

Scarlet Gorge

 * Guardian and Defiant quests in Rock Ridge have been reordered slightly.
 * Three new quests added to Rock Ridge.
 * Rats in a Cage: Quest removed.
 * Mission of Mercy: Fixed a problem that could cause players to not get credit.
 * Adriana Weaver now stealths before unlocking cages.
 * Rise Up has replaced Caged and Abused as a daily repeatable quest.
 * The quest, 'Into Scarwood Reach', is now given by Jarik Braun.
 * Follow That Gnar: Made the Gnar easier to follow.

Silverwood

 * Kaerin Brandeon in South Argent Glade will now respawn after 30 seconds instead of instantly.
 * Added a few more Vespid Hives in Sterling Hills, and reduced their respawn times.

Terminus

 * Shyla the Fallen no longer repeats herself when engaging the player for the first time.
 * Shyla the Fallen no longer repeats herself when engaging the player for the first time.
 * (get it?)

PVP

 * Stat and power distribution on PvP Favor set gear has been updated to match recent changes to PvE power progression.
 * Duels now play a countdown animation before the battle starts.
 * Dueling players will no longer be distracted by the Join Public Group button.
 * If you are under the leaving-PvP flag timer when you log out, the countdown no longer resets when you log back in.
 * Engaging in PvP in protected areas can catch the attention of peacekeeping Guards! You'll still need to be in range of them to get their aggro, though.
 * Player-summoned Guardian and Defiant invasions will no longer cause you to get PvP-flagged if attacked.

Warfronts

 * Improved Solo queue times.
 * Warfront daily quests now sort under the appropriate zone instead of under the Daily quest category.
 * Zone-specific loot drops have been added to level 10-30 instances of The Black Garden, The Codex, and Whitefall Steppes.
 * Your group can no longer join a warfront queue if a party member is offline.
 * Fixed a bug where you could fall through the world or be stuck in geometry when leaving a warfront.
 * Power-up buffs found in Warfronts now increase Attack Power and Spell Power instead of Damage.
 * Power-ups in Warfronts no longer persist once you leave the map.
 * Added Ascended Courage to Warfronts. Increases the effectiveness of characters for the first seven levels of each Warfront bracket. We'll be evaluating this in Beta 6 for further balancing.

ITEMS

 * Reduced Planarite costs of Rare Planar Goods in Silverwood and Freemarch by 20-30%. Reduced cost slightly in all other zones.
 * Greater Essence rebalancing: Completed a major balance pass on all Greater Essences. The majority of existing Greater Essence items have been removed. Any that were slotted in a Focus have also been removed.
 * All new shiny Greater Essences have been added to the game. Keep an eye out for them!
 * Equippable items marked Unique are now shown as Unique Equip to distinguish them from items which are Unique to player inventory.
 * Some quests still rewarded Jagged and Glowing Sourcestone, some Rift NPCs still dropped it, and some vendors still sold it. All of this has been corrected!
 * Some planar currency was rewarding the incorrect type when acquired. This has been fixed!
 * Added Valor and Toughness stats to item tooltips.
 * Dyes now buy and re-sale for appropriate amounts.
 * Updated costs on mid-range Planar Foci. Updated Foci icons.
 * Updated a handful of quests that hadn't had their Planarite rewards scaled up to match the new single-currency progression.

CRAFTING

 * Crafting dailies have been updated. They now reward experience. Lowered the items required and increased Artisan Mark rewards.
 * Defiant Rift notoriety vendors should no longer sell recipes requiring Guardian faction notoriety. They should also now have appropriate notoriety requirements.
 * Fixed a bug where low level crafting quest reward bags were awarding Ancient Dragonbone. They should actually award Tin Bars now... whoops.
 * Recipes will no longer display as green when they can no longer increase your crafting skill.
 * Artificer trainers now sell blacksmith components used in Weaponsmithing and Armorsmithing, such as grinding stones and flux.
 * Fixed the duplication of Mighty Philters of Restoration. There should also be a Heroic version.
 * Mana Tonics now display the proper amount of mana restored on the item tooltip.
 * Apothecary daily quests should now display required items.
 * Potions cannot be runebroken at this time.
 * Various other Apothecary name and icon fixes.
 * A number of Apothecary potions that were rendered obsolete in the Apothecary overhaul that took place last beta have now been removed from inventories.
 * Bows no longer require Forges to craft. They use Workbenches.
 * Fixed some miscategorized recipes. This was especially apparent for Artificer recipes.
 * Divine Defender recipe no longer creates a Blessed Maul.
 * Defender's Helmet, Steel Sabatons, Shadethorn Spellstaff, and Stoneshatter Spellshield recipes no longer create misnamed items.
 * Fixed a typo in the Shadethorn Spellstaff recipe.
 * Fixed flavor text on Exceptional Runebirch Sample.
 * Runecrafting: Epic, Rare, and Uncommon Crystals can now be broken back down into powders.
 * Updated offhand runes to require a Totem or Shield. The exception are Thwarting Runes, which are Shield-only. Updated block values for Thwarting Runes, which are now considerably higher.
 * Outfitter Shaleweave recipes should now produce appropriately named items.
 * Corrected the equip requirements on Fleshreaper and Divine Defender.
 * Fixed an issue where clicking on a resource tracking ability twice would randomly remove one other active tracking ability. Now these buffs can only be removed by right-clicking the buff icons.
 * Update resource node spawn rates in Freemarch and Silverwood. While nodes in general should respawn quicker, ore has gotten some specific tweaks.
 * Reduced the amount of drops coming off of mobs when butchered.
 * The Craft All button is now disabled when using a Planar Augmentation while crafting an item. It re-enables if the Planar Augmentation is removed.

GRAPHICS AND AUDIO

 * Face shape customizations appear properly in game again, and should match what you set up in character create.
 * Cleaned up some cases of visual effects appearing randomly in the world in wrong locations.
 * Even more subtle Bard music effects.
 * Bards casting musical abilities should no longer see their instruments flicker during casting.
 * Breath sounds for players are much quieter.
 * Riding a mount into water will no longer cause the mount to disappear and leave the rider in a floating, mounted position. Instead the rider will start swimming, which we think makes more sense.
 * Casting an ability and then queuing the same ability will properly animate, again.
 * The camera now follows the arc of knockbacks so there's less flying off-screen involved.
 * General fixes to some visual effects not playing correctly.
 * Updated body animations to prevent legs moving independently of upper body animations.
 * Characters should now appear correctly in the portrait windows.
 * Fixed a rare bug that caused some NPCs and world objects to become invisible.
 * Fixed some objects not appearing with the low quality renderer enabled.
 * Rift pieces should despawn properly when closing a Rift while using the low quality renderer.

COMMANDS AND MACROS

 * You can now preview items on your character after inspecting another player.
 * You can now also link items from the inspection window.
 * Fixed issues with alt+tab when using the low quality renderer.

UI/SETTINGS

 * Added a neat overhead arrow to whatever you're targeting!
 * The Collections panel has been merged into the new Character Sheet.
 * The 'Show Collections' button in the lower left icon tray has been replaced with a 'Show Crafting' button now that Collections are part of the character sheet UI.
 * Added Block Absorption amount to the tooltip for Block in the Character Sheet.
 * Chat channel coloring now works properly.
 * Warfront and Guild Officer chat can now be colorized and moved just like every other chat channel!
 * You can now toggle between display of server time and local time by left clicking the clock below the minimap.
 * Changing the clock time also updates your chat timestamps to the appropriate time selection.
 * The experience bar now plays nice when importing UI settings.
 * The Stealth action bar is now only auto-populated with abilities that are used while stealthed.
 * Stealth ability buttons will work like a toggle now; pressing them a second time will cancel stealth.
 * Purchasing a stack of an item from a merchant will now display the purchase stack window allowing you to select how many items you wish to buy.
 * Corrected the minimap not revealing explored areas for some video cards.
 * Also fixed edges of the main map showing as revealed when they shouldn't have been.
 * Target of Target portrait should no longer get into a state where it displays 0/0 and negative percent.
 * Video Settings: Simplified selection of edge softening options. See Advanced Video settings.
 * Video Settings: Merged shadow options into one dropdown.
 * Fixed an issue which would cause invalid resolutions set in the config file to crash the client on startup.
 * Selecting resolution changes from the settings dropdown should now apply correctly, and not cause the game to claim a 'Custom' resolution.
 * The confirmation popup windows now stay on screen regardless of UI scale and won't disappear with the Reset UI Scale action.
 * You can choose to preserve the aspect ratio when resizing windowed clients by holding down shift while resizing the window.
 * Special characters will once again display properly in the chat window when using copy/paste and slash commands.
 * Fixed a crash on relog after changing video settings.
 * I’m trapped under a huge pile of patch notes! Send help!

CLIENT/SERVER

 * Addressed some performance issues that should improve game experience for users with ATI cards.
 * Server lag and capacity improvements!
 * Improved login queue wait time estimates.
 * Improved client performance in VFX-heavy situations.
 * Fixed the file shortcut to rift.cfg to point to the correct location for new installs.
 * Fixed client to properly persist the maximized window state.
 * Added error detection for corrupt game data. You will now get a warning and helpful suggestion to use the Recover option in the patcher if it detects a problem.
 * Added a message if the client can't connect to the game servers on the standard ports (6900-6909), but CAN connect successfully on port 80. This case suggests that the required ports are blocked, and you may have a network issue!

Patch notes for Rift Beta 6.