*Release* Rift Catch-All - if it isnt for any of the other threads - it goes here

I'm really surprised at how extensive the new in-game store is, in fact, I sort of feel that it has *too much* stuff in it. I'm fine with the xp/rep boosts, mounts, pets, costumes etc, but I'm not so certain how I feel about them selling stuff like crafting goods, recipes and bags (the actual crafted bags, not bag slots)... and selling the reward items from past world events and holidays just seems wrong and devalues the time some of us spent grinding for those rewards :/

I started playing Rift again in May (stopped a few months after launch) and have been surprised how much I'm enjoying it. The Storm Legion expansion is fantastic, and the F2P experience with the new zone has been great. There is so much to do!

I'm on Faeblight (supposedly RP but not really, end result is perhaps a more friendly server than some) in a guild called Tractus Apparatus. Nice people, adult, mature, quite a few couples. They do casual raiding Mon/Tues/Wed nights from 9-12 EST. Casual as in, real life is always first, attendance is not required, you aren't penalized for not going. Just sign up on their forums if you can make it. In order to support that kind of flexibility they require you to be able to play two different kinds of roles (tank, heal, dps, support). It seems to work pretty well. I came from a stricter WoW raiding schedule which I had grown tired of. So this has been nice!

Very nice how you can transfer servers once a week for free. And you can join a Crossevents channel which you can use to temporarily hop over to other servers to join groups for great hunts, events, raids etc.

All in all, loving it.

Anyone care to comment on how the PvP is? Battlegrounds can only be played so often so wondering how the larger scale ones are and how it compares to GW2?

I can't really compare it to GW2 since I only tried the pvp there a little and didn't like it much. I had a BLAST pvp'ing while levelling up in Rift. It's much more difficult at lvl 60 going against geared players. Which is to be expected and at least you can buy the first set of pvp gear relatively quickly. and also for pretty darn cheap on the store.

The large scale warfront is called Conquest (available at lvl 60) and it's three sided. I have done it a few times and am not quite sure what I think yet. Each team just runs from spot to spot to spot to try and claim the most territory. Fights occur frequently at each spot. If you are lucky and get in with a pre-made or at least a group with someone who calls next target and a team that actually listens, it can be fun. Unless of course the other sides have better geared premades and you get wiped at every turn. I think lvl 60 pvp in Rift, much like other games, is going to be most enjoyable if you are in a pvp guild or at least one that runs some pretty dedicated pvp teams.

I had just hit 51, and was spellspun/witchweave cloth farming in Stillmoor with my warrior (needed more bag space). A zone event starts up, and I worked my way through it, swatting invaders and running shadestone. Event winds up to the finale, and I find myself attacking the boss without taking the chance to switch over from my farming setup.

And the SOB decides I'm the one thing he needs to stomp that day. Insert Yakkity Sax theme music here.

Thankfully, some of the raid could heal, and kept me alive while I tanked Goblab and his crew of level 52 mages. Fun stuff.

I leveled a healing cleric to 40 doing just pvp after 10. It seems a little out of balance but im sure alot of that is people that have no idea what they are doing. Im hoping its better balanced at 60.

Are you guys still on shatterbone? Still got my level 21 cleric on there.

Manach wrote:

Are you guys still on shatterbone? Still got my level 21 cleric on there.

Thats where my characters are. Didn't really run into anyone from the site while playing though. On a bit of a single player game run atm though, so haven't been playing much the last couple weeks.

Infyrnos wrote:
Manach wrote:

Are you guys still on shatterbone? Still got my level 21 cleric on there.

Thats where my characters are. Didn't really run into anyone from the site while playing though. On a bit of a single player game run atm though, so haven't been playing much the last couple weeks.

I play (on Shatterbone) pretty much daily, and haven't seen any names I recognize here. It's a big game, though.

Crappy. I found a great build I wanted to follow (Harbringer / Chloro or something) where they said levelling is fast, fun, and easy. Then I realized I need the expansion to play a Harbringer. Tough to spend the cash with a Steam sale right around the corner

Anyone happen to have a spare key laying around from the Raptr promo a month ago?

I wouldn't be surprised if Rift ends up back on steam soon, I think I saw something in the CDR updated for it recently, they just need a few microtransactions to go through steam rather than trying to sell the base game.

So I thought I would give this a try as the skill system sounds cool and its free so why not? And I was wondering if anyone has any advice on how to get the most out of the ten or so hours I might play. I know I won't get to see the full depths of any of the systems in that time, but I've never really clicked with an MMO so I'm just not going to count on getting any more time out of it then that.

IHateDRM wrote:

So I thought I would give this a try as the skill system sounds cool and its free so why not? And I was wondering if anyone has any advice on how to get the most out of the ten or so hours I might play. I know I won't get to see the full depths of any of the systems in that time, but I've never really clicked with an MMO so I'm just not going to count on getting any more time out of it then that.

I would suggest checking out any rifts outside your starting city. Those are a big part of the game and quite fun.

IHateDRM wrote:

So I thought I would give this a try as the skill system sounds cool and its free so why not? And I was wondering if anyone has any advice on how to get the most out of the ten or so hours I might play. I know I won't get to see the full depths of any of the systems in that time, but I've never really clicked with an MMO so I'm just not going to count on getting any more time out of it then that.

Well, as with most MMO's I am not sure that you'll get all that much out of 10 hours.

For gameplay as was mentioned find some rifts, particularly at low levels (and even better a zone invasion).

The PvP battlegrounds are fairly standard fare.

I think to really get a feel for how the class system works you will want to hit at least level 30 or so.

The Shatterbone server has been migrated to the Wolfsbane server.

For those who are not aware and may be interested Trion has replaced their game launcher with a catch all launcher / digital games store (al a Steam and B-net) called Glyph.

If you fire up Rift and it is a particularly old install Glyph may not recognize it.

Steam version seems to be updating fine. I'll report back after it's done.

edit - Well, it crapped the bed once but went fine when I restarted it.

I am still playing. The last event "mech week" helped me level a ton.
I was doing instant adventure to my 30's but leveling really stalls there. But completing the 3 daily events will net you a level and a half by themselves and only take roughly an hour or so to complete. So my cleric (purifier/cabalist/druid) is now level 43 and stalling again.

They just taper off the leveling curve drastically at high levels. You need 250,000 xp and quests and the like will only net you 3500 xp a pop. (and even with rest xp it is not tolerable) The best way to level other than the dailies is by doing the local kill quests in the areas while instant adventuring.

I have done some dungeons which would help a lot but I find my more than adequate healing skills barely passable if a hair sub par for healing dungeons. And I can't queue for support (which I really prefer because I can dps, debuff and off heal very well) with my current spec. I have a 34 mage that can queue for support to great success but I really don't like slogging through the 30's again. I'd rather push my cleric to 50+ for sure.

Anyone have any tips for faster leveling 40+? (not power leveling btw)

I got by grinding quests pretty hard until I could get to the SL content, but that can be a bear. 5k per quest and 450k XP from 49-50 is excruciating.

AnimeJ wrote:

I got by grinding quests pretty hard until I could get to the SL content, but that can be a bear. 5k per quest and 450k XP from 49-50 is excruciating.

Yea that last stretch is a bear. I think i've stalled around 45 both times i went back to the game.