RIFT three faction PvP will be available on the Public Test Shard on Thursday, 17-May @ 4:00PM PDT (11:00PM GMT).

Conquest PvP will allow players to engage in massive, cross-shard battles. Players will align with one of three new factions (Dominion, Oathsworn & Nightfall), earn rewards and bonuses for your team and earn bonuses that can be used outside of Conquest. Crafters will also play a vital role in every Conquest battle.

This looks to be very similar to the Guild Wars 2 World vs. World PvP, however that does not make it any less exciting for existing RIFT players wanting to do some cross-server PvP. Excellent job Trion, this actually makes me want to log into RIFT tonight.

Official Announcement

Public Test Shard Getting Started

Posted on the Rift YouTube Channel

"Join an Instant Adventure for the thrill of battle, on-tap. Waiting around for your guild before a raid or just have some time to kill? At the click of a button, your level 45-50 Ascended will be whisked away to Shimmersand or Stillmoor for action, experience, and loot. The conflict scales as people join or leave the group, so you could cleanse a den of cultists one minute and liberate an entire zone the next. Instant Adventure: Open-world action on demand!"

RIFT's patch 1.6 goes live today, among some fixes this new patch introduces a new zone called Ember Isle which gives players a variety of new quests to complete, as well as a Dungeon called Caduceus Rise.

For more information check out the official patch notes: