Its been 1 year since rift was realesed and with their 365th birth day they have deciced to add a nice update to the game. The 1.8 update will add New skills

RIFT Anniversary Video: A year in review and a look to the future.

Fishing:

Players can now fish,with fishing you can Catch fish and find  artifacts, and even get  new companion pets.
Fishing spot will be all over Telara the best way to find rare items is by finding a good fishing spot
Players can now Craft fishing poles and lures to help them catch more rare things from the deep

Survival:

Players can now Cook and craft items to help them in the world of Telara's

When eating these delicious items of Telara they will also give you a in game buff (different food give off diffrent buffs)
Players can also Craft tents, bedrolls, and other utility items.

Along with 1.8 update comes more boss encounters The Devs announced "There are 7 different raid bosses in infernal dawn. Some bosses, such as Maelforge, are actually multiple encounters with their own rewards. In addition there are a few smaller mini bosses that also offer minor rewards for killing them."

Another thing people have been craveing for in Rift has been SOME pvp action or arena fighting the devs said this about arena's  "We have no plans for arenas at this time, RIFT is a massively multiplayer game and we really want to embrace the mechanics of getting large groups of players together and arenas are counter to that. That being said we are adding leaderboards to both PvE and PvP content complete with divisions and rankings so players looking to compete will have a great tool for measuring how badass they are. We’ve also got some exciting new PVP content cooking but it’s still too early for us to give any details" ( i was looking forward to arena fighting to but ONly time will tell what will be added next  >_<)

More Pictures of Maelforge