[MMO] Rift - Discussion

[Avogadro]

Each time you use a planar power, it will drain 1-3 of those charges, but until you do that they persist (even after dying or logging out). You gain one charge back for each rift you seal. If you've been closing rifts but not using any powers, you've just been running around with all 3 charges unused for a while.

The blue stones you see in settlements and quest hubs are the wardstones I mentioned. Planar creatures or the godless Defiant (if you are on a PvP server, wardstones are attackable by enemy players, not just NPCs!) will try to attack them, and if they are destroyed the NPCs in the area (vendors, quest giverts, etc) despawn for a while.

If you are into world PvP this is a good way to stir up trouble, especially if you know which enemy hubs make particularly good targets thanks to the quests they offer. I play on a PvE server just to not have to deal with the hassle.

 

[Rhezuss]

Each time you use a planar power, it will drain 1-3 of those charges, but until you do that they persist (even after dying or logging out). You gain one charge back for each rift you seal. If you've been closing rifts but not using any powers, you've just been running around with all 3 charges unused for a while.

The blue stones you see in settlements and quest hubs are the wardstones I mentioned. Planar creatures or the godless Defiant (if you are on a PvP server, wardstones are attackable by enemy players, not just NPCs!) will try to attack them, and if they are destroyed the NPCs in the area (vendors, quest giverts, etc) despawn for a while.

If you are into world PvP this is a good way to stir up trouble, especially if you know which enemy hubs make particularly good targets thanks to the quests they offer. I play on a PvE server just to not have to deal with the hassle.

Ok thanks a bunch for the explanations!

I need 1 more of those blue stones you get as a reward for sealing rifts...I have 1 (is it scourgestone?!?!) and over 130 planarites...

 

[Avogadro]

Ok thanks a bunch for the explanations!

I need 1 more of those blue stones you get as a reward for sealing rifts...I have 1 (is it scourgestone?!?!) and over 130 planarites...

Close a major rift. Minor rifts are good for planarite and incidental rewards, but the stones are rewards from major rifts only. Rift level doesn't matter. BTW, if you have your sights set on the chest armor reward, it's very worth it. I got it on two characters, a warrior and a mage, and in both cases the armor lasted me from L10 to the mid 20s.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Playing a Rogue - Assassin / Bladedancer / Saboteur. Just hit level 10.

So far the game is ok, but nothing spectacular. It's definitely a WoW clone right down to the default key bindings, but it differs just enough to be unique. I absolutely love the assassin build, but I wonder if I should have gone with a Nightblade as one of the secondaries. Any suggestions?

Finally, the only thing that I'm really disappointed with so far is the size of the map. Please tell me that that's not all that's there. The current zone that I'm in (Silverwood?) is decent in size, but I feel like I could have half of the world map uncovered in an hour or two if I really wanted.

 

[HumblePie]

Playing a Rogue - Assassin / Bladedancer / Saboteur. Just hit level 10.

So far the game is ok, but nothing spectacular. It's definitely a WoW clone right down to the default key bindings, but it differs just enough to be unique. I absolutely love the assassin build, but I wonder if I should have gone with a Nightblade as one of the secondaries. Any suggestions?

Finally, the only thing that I'm really disappointed with so far is the size of the map. Please tell me that that's not all that's there. The current zone that I'm in (Silverwood?) is decent in size, but I feel like I could have half of the world map uncovered in an hour or two if I really wanted.

As far zones and sizes go...

There is a starting zone for each side. Guardians have Silverwood + Sanctum and Defiant have Freemarch.

Next is an intermediate zone for each side. For Guardians it is Gloamwood and for Defiant it is Stonefields.

After those zones, the zones are mixed or "contested" zones with quests for both sides. In order of difficulty is.

Scarlet Gorge
Scarwood
Moonshade Highlands
Droughtlands
Ironpike Mountains
Shimmering Sands


There is also an unreleased Raid zone that will be released in the first couple of months after the game goes live. This zone is as of right now covered completely on the map with the fog of war. It is the spot between Freemarch and Silverwood on the map near the broken bridge that spans the two zones when you first start your character. It is supposedly the original city that both Guardians and Defiant cohabited in before they broke apart.

The world is fairly large in size without being ridiculously so. Personally I rather have a decent sized and diverse world that is populated and done up correctly, than have vast tracts of world that have nothing in it yet (ala Vanguard).

As of right now it takes about 40-60 minutes or so to go across any given zone (depending on any confrontation you may run into).

 

[CurseTheSky]

Hmm, 40-60 minutes to run across each zone doesn't sound so bad at all. I guess it's just hard to judge scale based on the world map. I just don't want to feel like I'm flying through the game and have seen absolutely everything on the map within a month.

I trust that they will release new areas later on, but I don't want things to go stale too quickly.

 

[SunnyD]

Looks like I'll give Rift a go tonight. Assuming I can get it downloaded in time.

 

[Fayd]

Open beta is basically getting hammered from all of the new accounts being created.

They should've created a couple of extra open beta servers while leaving the rest for people who pre-ordered...

I remember the "full server" pains from SWG and old WoW days - man it sucked to have to wait in queue for up to an hour...

http://www.frontiernet.net/~splatter/netcongableno.html

 

[coloumb]

Ugh - they made some undesirable changes to justicar/shaman - they removed a couple of mana regen "spells" which made it easy to continuously "chain pull" mobs in the previous beta. Now I've gotta take a sip of ye old elixir every few fights. I picked up "Ageless Ice" last night but didn't get a chance to test it [Ageless Ice + Purpose].

I tried out the Direct Damage Cleric Caster build [Cabalist/Inquisitor/Sentinel] - good single target dps with a bit of group AOE DOTS [awesome for RIFT battles] but not so good survivability due to only 1 heal on an 8 second CD and Vex with Contempt [heals 90% of damage done] doesn't seem to be working properly.

Ultimately, I'd like to have a "shadow priest", "prot/ret hybrid", and "holy" cleric builds [and maybe a PVP build as well] all wrapped up in one Cleric. Though I suspect I'll have to go Mage Chloromancer if I want a "shadow priest" type build..

 

[pontifex]

they added at least 2 new servers either last night or the night before.

 

[Rhezuss]

It's weird...when I play the game I say to myself that I won't buy it and when I don't play, I can't wait to get home and play...

 

[HumblePie]

Ugh - they made some undesirable changes to justicar/shaman - they removed a couple of mana regen "spells" which made it easy to continuously "chain pull" mobs in the previous beta. Now I've gotta take a sip of ye old elixir every few fights. I picked up "Ageless Ice" last night but didn't get a chance to test it [Ageless Ice + Purpose].

I tried out the Direct Damage Cleric Caster build [Cabalist/Inquisitor/Sentinel] - good single target dps with a bit of group AOE DOTS [awesome for RIFT battles] but not so good survivability due to only 1 heal on an 8 second CD and Vex with Contempt [heals 90% of damage done] doesn't seem to be working properly.

Ultimately, I'd like to have a "shadow priest", "prot/ret hybrid", and "holy" cleric builds [and maybe a PVP build as well] all wrapped up in one Cleric. Though I suspect I'll have to go Mage Chloromancer if I want a "shadow priest" type build..

LOL, if you pick Cloramancer, your dps is squat. Even an AFK cleric will out dps a cloramancer build. I'm serious. Cloramancer =/= shadow priest at all.

 

[pontifex]

It's weird...when I play the game I say to myself that I won't buy it and when I don't play, I can't wait to get home and play...

haha! I'm kind of going through that now. I'm pretty burnt out on it now though. my highest character is 13 and all the others are between 7 and 10.

I'm sitting here playing tonight and I'm like, no, no more of this. I spent way too much time on WoW when I played it (it wasn't to the point where anything suffered).

Had fun for awhile and got my mmo fill i guess. It just seems like a waste of time right now. and until MMOs can offer something more than the same old same old, I think I'm done with them.

 

[Rhezuss]

haha! I'm kind of going through that now. I'm pretty burnt out on it now though. my highest character is 13 and all the others are between 7 and 10.

I'm sitting here playing tonight and I'm like, no, no more of this. I spent way too much time on WoW when I played it (it wasn't to the point where anything suffered).

Had fun for awhile and got my mmo fill i guess. It just seems like a waste of time right now. and until MMOs can offer something more than the same old same old, I think I'm done with them.

Hahahah same!
Highest toon is my Champion/Paragon/Warlord level 13.
After that there's my Shaman/Inquisitor/Justicar level 7.

I tried to see the whys but I can't seem to find any anwsers to that other than, like you say, i'm mmo fill.

Rift is cool, have some nice ideas, but it's too much like WoW meets Allods meets your generic MMO basics...

I'm gonna invest my 50 bucks + 12-15 / month on other stuff.

Pontifex, have you tried Age of Conan? Just for the the combats it's worth the try.

 

[SunnyD]

Alright. Put in a couple hours last night, and I have to say it's nothing new or innovative. It felt like I was playing a more refined, slightly more "mature" version of NeoSteam meets WoW. IMHO the souls concept is nothing more than talent trees. Big deal. The graphics are okay, not as refined as WoW, but more refined than NeoSteam. For a steampunk genre, it's a bit too serious in content, but too silly in experience. It seems to have an identity crisis of sorts.

My best experience though, I have to say, was watching the chat spam of all the noobies that logged in and 10 minutes later say, "I'm going back to WoW... just so I can tell all my friends to try this game!"

 

[pontifex]

Hahahah same!
Highest toon is my Champion/Paragon/Warlord level 13.
After that there's my Shaman/Inquisitor/Justicar level 7.

I tried to see the whys but I can't seem to find any anwsers to that other than, like you say, i'm mmo fill.

Rift is cool, have some nice ideas, but it's too much like WoW meets Allods meets your generic MMO basics...

I'm gonna invest my 50 bucks + 12-15 / month on other stuff.

Pontifex, have you tried Age of Conan? Just for the the combats it's worth the try.

I think I played a beta before it came out and didn't really appeal to me. It sucks because I was really into Conan at the time (reading all the books, etc).

 

[natsfan99]

Playing in the Beta today it's...ok. Very Warhammeresque. The choppiness of the animations is kind of taking me out of it at the moment. Granted I've only played for 15 minutes but eh, we'll see.

Exactly the feeling I got.

 

[Rhezuss]

Exactly the feeling I got.

I heard they toned down the anims for the beta. The retail should have all animations up and working, and other stuff as well. Read that in the general chat yesterday evening after asking the question myself.

Other thing, I read part of the 60 page thread about DPS meters and addons in general. Trions, IMO, made a really major decision in making addons a no go in Rift. A good thing in the MMO world where all that counts is that your DPS be as high as possible and if not, you no go to raid with us...

It may help players start using all their skills assets their classes offers instead of spamming 4 skills for 10 minutes boss fights. Not that it means more skill will be required by a player but it may means that, finally, we may see players play THE WAY THEY WANTS TO PLAY!

This kind of features is what make me buy this game afterall...

 

[CurseTheSky]

For me, this is going to come down to the end game. If this ends up being another treadmill of new raids and gear every 4-6 months, and nothing else to do other than raid, grind (rep, mats, gear, etc.), battle grounds, and arenas, I won't be sticking with it.

However, if they really did manage to innovate something for the late game that gives you some kind of purpose, I'll be thrilled. I'm just so tired of games that try to convince people that they should be constantly raiding for the newest and flashiest gear, just because.

"We can beat the big end-game boss easily right now in our tier 7 gear, but we should all get tier 7.5 because it looks SOOOOOO much cooler... and the stats are a little better. Wait, what do you mean if we can already beat the hardest boss that there's no point in getting better gear?! Blasphemy!"

 

[CurseTheSky]

Well, I just logged into a MAJOR rift invasion. Err, not a "Major Rift", but rather a ton of minor / major rifts all over the place. We spent about 2 hours cleaning up what we could, won a bunch and lost a few. It was pretty fun, and I got about 2 levels worth of exp out of it.

If stuff like that is going to happen in Rift from time to time - just frequently enough where people aren't groaning about yet another rift invasion - then I'll be happy to be part of it. One or two rifts open within spitting distance of each other is kinda fun, but having literally two dozen scattered across the zone is very interesting.

I'm also now seeing what everyone was saying about zone size. I felt like I was flying through Silverwood, but just now realized that I'm level 15 and have explored less than 50% of that zone. It wouldn't take a ton of time to just ride around and see everything in the zone, but it would still take more time than, say, Duskwallow Marsh in WoW.

 

[SmCaudata]

I'm enjoying the game. The comments about raids are interesting. I played eq2 which meant all players had to be skilled and the need to gear up in the lower dungeons to succeed in the higher tiers. One bad player could wipe the raid. Skill and communication was more important than dps. Also the art of pulling...something wow lacks imo. I'm enjoying my solo time and liked that the first few dungeons have tricks to them. Gina give it a shot for a few months with the founders pricing.

Worst case I don't like it and the monthly fee is made up for the now discounted prices on games I skipped.

 

[sour07]

this game is pretty fun i just downloaded the beta and went with an offensive warrior. so far its pretty badass but its so much like wow, so i still dont know if its worth it.

 

[Wordplay]

So a quest in Gloamwood was bugged for me last night. I kept turning into a lycan because of a curse and I couldn't talk to the NPC that could lift the curse. Had to get a GM to work some magic and help me through it.

Also since I was not in a populated area there were no Major Rifts or zone events. All the good stuff was happening in the lower level areas but since so few people have leveled nothing interesting has happened in Gloamwood. That kind of scares me because that points out to me once everyone has leveled, making an alt will be boring. Not enough people to have fun with Rifts which turns the game into a vanilla WoW type level game. Kill X, get Y, escort Z etc.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

I heard they toned down the anims for the beta. The retail should have all animations up and working, and other stuff as well. Read that in the general chat yesterday evening after asking the question myself.

Other thing, I read part of the 60 page thread about DPS meters and addons in general. Trions, IMO, made a really major decision in making addons a no go in Rift. A good thing in the MMO world where all that counts is that your DPS be as high as possible and if not, you no go to raid with us...

It may help players start using all their skills assets their classes offers instead of spamming 4 skills for 10 minutes boss fights. Not that it means more skill will be required by a player but it may means that, finally, we may see players play THE WAY THEY WANTS TO PLAY!

This kind of features is what make me buy this game afterall...

There's plenty of WoW guilds that will take crappy players. The good guilds even in rift will figure out if you're good or not one way or another.

 

[JoshGuru7]

Ugh - they made some undesirable changes to justicar/shaman - they removed a couple of mana regen "spells" which made it easy to continuously "chain pull" mobs in the previous beta. Now I've gotta take a sip of ye old elixir every few fights. I picked up "Ageless Ice" last night but didn't get a chance to test it [Ageless Ice + Purpose].

Try out a Druid main soul with Justicar 12 and Warden 0. At level 34 with the satyr, my cleric can not only chain pull but chain pull groups of 3+ mobs and you get two mana regen skills (druid has a version of purpose as well). You build convictions a lot faster using Druid since they are split between life/physical while the Shaman is mostly just physical. So neither my health or power ever drops below 80% unless I'm doing something very aggressive. It's a very strong solo questing build but not particularly useful in PvP when you up against smart opponents who can Purge you.

I don't particularly love the caster cleric souls either. You can do alright if you work really hard with a Cabalist/Inquisitor build and you have the luxury of using your AOE stuff. However, for the same effort you can do a lot more ranged damage as either a mage or a rogue, and a comparable amount with a VK/Riftblade warrior. You will have a very hard time bringing down a good bard with cab/inq, and from 10-40 the warfronts are full of bards right now.

Right now my healing cleric build of choice is about 50/50 sentinel/warden. Your group healing really picks up once you get empowered breath improvement in sentinel and ripple in warden to the point that you can start to pass bards in rifts and PvP. Warden by itself is good for getting numbers, but you need a bit of burst from Sent to have any hope of keeping somebody alive against focus fire.