[MMO] Rift - Discussion

[KIAman]

You guys are awesome, thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. I'm not a lvl 20 full reaver build for tanking just for kicks.

Anyways, I have more questions for the gurus.

1. How does the reward system for a rift work? Does getting top contribution guarantee a rare (blue/purple) planar thingie?

2. What does getting all those artifact collections do? Is it just for fun or do they provide some functionality once completed?

3. Do rare stuff ever drop from mobs? What's the point of grinding mobs other than XP and money?

4. Does weapon DPS mean anything? If I have an attack that does weapon damage + 10, why not equip the highest dmg weapon that might be low DPS because it attacks once every 5 seconds.

5. Why are only 2 pvp armor available per type in the 1-20 zone? I'm 20 and way outleveled them (they are lvl 12).

6. Any intrinsic benefit of pvp armor? Pvp mitigation?

 

[coloumb]

The end game of RIFT really isn't much different than other MMO's. I just hit 50 this morning and have a bunch of quests I still need to do - that should keep me busy for about another week or so. I leveled up a cleric so I'll be able to switch from healer to caster dps [for harvesting mats/RIFT invasions] or a "tank/dps" spec which should allow me to solo RIFTs and maybe low level dungeons [I didn't run any of the dungeons].

From what I've seen so far, the end game will consist of:

- Complete artifact collections
- Run dailies for faction rep gear
- possibly grind up a crafting profession or 2 depending upon if there is a nice faction or daily crafting recipe [I have zero interest in leveling up alts for this - I have 2 alts which can craft the default recipes from all professions]
- running dungeons/"raids" for gear
- pvp for rep/gear
- gathering mats for crafting/ah trading.
- closing up rifts and battling invasion mobs to buy planar gear.

There are quiet a few posts on the RIFT forums about people complaining there is nothing to do at level 50 - they are bored and/or do not like the class imbalance [obviously referring to PVP]. Not sure what they were expecting...

 

[Veliko]

You guys are awesome, thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. I'm not a lvl 20 full reaver build for tanking just for kicks.

Anyways, I have more questions for the gurus.

1. How does the reward system for a rift work? Does getting top contribution guarantee a rare (blue/purple) planar thingie?

2. What does getting all those artifact collections do? Is it just for fun or do they provide some functionality once completed?

3. Do rare stuff ever drop from mobs? What's the point of grinding mobs other than XP and money?

4. Does weapon DPS mean anything? If I have an attack that does weapon damage + 10, why not equip the highest dmg weapon that might be low DPS because it attacks once every 5 seconds.

5. Why are only 2 pvp armor available per type in the 1-20 zone? I'm 20 and way outleveled them (they are lvl 12).

6. Any intrinsic benefit of pvp armor? Pvp mitigation?

I am a new player myself but let me take a stab at these:

1 - Most likely.

2 - They seem to be a bonus type thing. I completed a set and automatically got a quest to hand in at Sanctum - got some XP and gold.

3 - Yes but it isn't worth grinding mobs in the hope of getting a rare drop.

4 - Weapon DPS takes the attack speed into consideration.

 

[SunnyD]

You guys are awesome, thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. I'm not a lvl 20 full reaver build for tanking just for kicks.

Anyways, I have more questions for the gurus.

1. How does the reward system for a rift work? Does getting top contribution guarantee a rare (blue/purple) planar thingie?

2. What does getting all those artifact collections do? Is it just for fun or do they provide some functionality once completed?

3. Do rare stuff ever drop from mobs? What's the point of grinding mobs other than XP and money?

4. Does weapon DPS mean anything? If I have an attack that does weapon damage + 10, why not equip the highest dmg weapon that might be low DPS because it attacks once every 5 seconds.

5. Why are only 2 pvp armor available per type in the 1-20 zone? I'm 20 and way outleveled them (they are lvl 12).

6. Any intrinsic benefit of pvp armor? Pvp mitigation?

1. I've only had a couple of instances where a rare shard didn't drop for me off an event boss. Usually I participated late and/or died at least once during the encounter. Major rifts are less certain, but odds are good if you participate for >1/2 the rift and get all bonus stages, you'll get a blue shard.

2. Lucky coins can be traded in for pets, forms or (looks like the most useful thing) a mount.

3. Yes. I had a rare sword drop off a mob soloing PvE with my mage last night.

4. Yes, as always. There are a bunch of skills that call for a bonus of x% of weapon damage, or weapon damage + X special type. Usually weapon tier damage/DPS is scaled appropriately. You won't find any weapons that will be 100-150 damage every 20 seconds giving you 5.0 DPS. It's all scaled relative. Besides, you'll be spamming skills, so general weapon DPS is meaningless.

5. Variety.

6. Dunno. Probably better stats + endurance &/or damage bonuses.

 

[Rhezuss]

I think i'm gonna get back to Age of Conan to see at their new graphics engine. I'm 3gb of patch late but I think i'm gonna give it a month just to see how it is now.

 

[Avogadro]

yes and compared to the rogue it's pathetic.. that was my warrior build it kills soo slow its not even funny where the Rogue (any rogue) just decimates it's targets in a quarter of the time and has sick heals and a pet on top of that..
but then again maybe the combo gets better later none of my toons are past 23.
the Warrior is only 15 so may not have come into the power band of the build yet..
but I'm really disappointed in it so far.

My experience has been completely different with my Warrior. I have leveled as a paragon/champion/beastmaster from 6 to 45 (my current level) and have never felt underpowered or that I leveled slowly. I knew getting into that build that I'd need to rest/drink every few mobs since I didn't have self healing capability, but never felt that it slowed me down a lot since I kill mobs so fast.

Try a build like this at L16 and see what you think. Predictable Movements is a decent "oh crap" button, but I wouldn't complain if you skipped it for the third point in Double Jeapordy. Always keep your highest DPS 1H weapon in your main hand and remember that Strike Like Iron is your friend.

http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0cukm.xgz.V0c


Also, paladin/reaver/warlord or paladin/void knight/warlord are awesome tank combinations, and if you like to do group content, mentioning "warrior tank LFG to do <whatever" will make you lots of new friends very quickly.

Here's a quick warrior tank build for L18. 18 is a good point at which you can start tanking Iron Tombs or Realm of the Fae, and with the extra talent point you pick up at 18, your tank build can be that much better.

http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0chAE.xbRuo0M.xzo

 

[Skott]

I'm going to try Rift soon as I get my new rig built (hopefully this coming weekend). I havent played a MMO in a long while. Well, there is World of Tanks but I don't really consider it a MMO. Been reading a little and watching some YT videos. I've always played a Hunter or something akin to it in MMOs so thinking a Marksman or a Ranger. I hear Marksman/Ranger/Sab are fun to play. More interested in PvE than PvP. Looking forward to seeing what the Rift invasions are like. Did they fix the account hacking problem? I heard they did but still see people complaining about it on their forums.

 

[Veliko]

I'm going to try Rift soon as I get my new rig built (hopefully this coming weekend). I havent played a MMO in a long while. Well, there is World of Tanks but I don't really consider it a MMO. Been reading a little and watching some YT videos. I've always played a Hunter or something akin to it in MMOs so thinking a Marksman or a Ranger. I hear Marksman/Ranger/Sab are fun to play. More interested in PvE than PvP. Looking forward to seeing what the Rift invasions are like. Did they fix the account hacking problem? I heard they did but still see people complaining about it on their forums.

I think the complaints now are about the problems that it caused at the time but the problem itself is now fixed.

For what it's worth I have found the official forums to be a complete and utter cesspool of angst and anger which is a shame. It's almost as bad as the official WoW forums.

 

[pontifex]

outfitter seems worthless as I always find better gear than I can craft. I think I've only used maybe 2 items that I crafted, other than bags.

same for other crafting professions?

I'm also a runecrafter so i usually just runebreak my outfitter creations to make runes.

 

[pontifex]

I'm going to try Rift soon as I get my new rig built (hopefully this coming weekend). I havent played a MMO in a long while. Well, there is World of Tanks but I don't really consider it a MMO. Been reading a little and watching some YT videos. I've always played a Hunter or something akin to it in MMOs so thinking a Marksman or a Ranger. I hear Marksman/Ranger/Sab are fun to play. More interested in PvE than PvP. Looking forward to seeing what the Rift invasions are like. Did they fix the account hacking problem? I heard they did but still see people complaining about it on their forums.

Ranger/bard/marksman is awesome for PVE. I'm now level 37 and soloed just about everything except some dungeons and similar level elite mobs and rifts.

I've got most points in ranger, followed by bard, then marksman. Bard is nice because of the healing capabilities.

 

[SunnyD]

outfitter seems worthless as I always find better gear than I can craft. I think I've only used maybe 2 items that I crafted, other than bags.

same for other crafting professions?

I'm also a runecrafter so i usually just runebreak my outfitter creations to make runes.

Most of the crafting classes are useless for base items. You need to do dailies for Artisan Marks, and with those buy the special recipes, pretty much regardless of what profession you choose.

I use outfitter/runecrafter myself, doing the same thing you do. Cloth drops like toilet paper in a toilet, rune materials not so much.

 

[pontifex]

Most of the crafting classes are useless for base items. You need to do dailies for Artisan Marks, and with those buy the special recipes, pretty much regardless of what profession you choose.

I use outfitter/runecrafter myself, doing the same thing you do. Cloth drops like toilet paper in a toilet, rune materials not so much.

even the stuff you buy for artisan marks is crap from what i've seen. maybe level 50 stuff is decent but at 37, drops are much better than crafted stuff.

 

[akugami]

Yeah, most of the items crafted are only replacements and an alternative path to gaining equipment that you would be able to get if you go the questing route. They're roughly on par for the most part. Sometimes a little better, sometimes a little worse.

Rings, necklaces, & staffs/wands are a bit harder to come by and certainly more useful to get crafted ones. However, with how easy it is to gain tradeskills, almost anyone can get them and the market is flooded. I think it's too easy to gain skill levels. I don't want insane time sinks but it just seems a bit too easy in Rift. I don't think the equipment truly becomes desirable until you can craft the purple items.

I'm in my low 40's and while the game is fun, I'm questioning the longevity of it. I don't mind slow leveling as long as the developers make it fun. I think the most important thing is a sense of adventure and that you're actually accomplishing something in your play session. As it is, it's mostly still a grind. Sure, you're not sitting still in the same spot (like EQ) but running around doing fetch quest isn't a whole lot different. Granted you do get to see more of the world. Quite frankly, the game needs more dungeons.

 

[SunnyD]

Crafting is also painful when you get to the point that you NEED plaques in order to progress.

 

[Throckmorton]

Apparently ganking is a huge problem... My friend got to the 30s and told me about the horrors. There is an achievement to kill 100 enemy players in a contested zone. The problem with that is there is no level restriction-- you can kill 100 players 20 levels below you and get the achievement. WTF was Trion thinking?

 

[blurredvision]

Apparently ganking is a huge problem... My friend got to the 30s and told me about the horrors. There is an achievement to kill 100 enemy players in a contested zone. The problem with that is there is no level restriction-- you can kill 100 players 20 levels below you and get the achievement. WTF was Trion thinking?

PvP is PvP. I'll never understand why anybody complains about getting ganked on a PvP server.

 

[Throckmorton]

PvP is PvP. I'll never understand why anybody complains about getting ganked on a PvP server.

Modern MMOs discourage ganking. In WoW you don't get honor points for killing someone who is too low level. In Rift you apparently get an achievement for ganking.

 

[SunnyD]

PvP is PvP. I'll never understand why anybody complains about getting ganked on a PvP server.

Exactly why I don't play a PvE game on a PvP server. It infuriates me when I'm trying to enjoy the content and do quests only to be camped hours on end by some idiot with nothing better to do. Same reason I don't play eve either.

On a side note... I've come to the conclusion that Pyromancer absolutely SUCKS. Period. For PvP or PvE both. In PvP I'm dead pretty much as soon as someone even looks in my general direction. In PvE the killing efficiency simply isn't even there. In the time it takes to setup, cast and kill one regular mob, my warlock/chloro or even stormy/domi will have chain-pulled 3 mobs with no downtime. Oh well, I wanted to try it at least.

 

[cblais19]

Been lurking for a while, just wanted to add a couple observations on crafted items. The Armorcrafter in my guild has some nice low 30s blue gear that remained competative until I got some rewards from some 40+ quests in Droughtlands. Critical to remember is the ability for crafters to add stats to their items via the various essence things, which can boost their overall potential.

Also, dungeon drops can be really hit or miss, I'm using a crafted staff vice the dungeon drop I could've achieved due to RNG. One big thing that can put the hamper on purchasing crafted items, or indeed using quest/dungeon rewards is lucky drops from the puzzles. Got a level 35 epic chest that's still significantly better then blues in the low 40s.

Also, clerics are awesome.

 

[CVSiN]

My experience has been completely different with my Warrior. I have leveled as a paragon/champion/beastmaster from 6 to 45 (my current level) and have never felt underpowered or that I leveled slowly. I knew getting into that build that I'd need to rest/drink every few mobs since I didn't have self healing capability, but never felt that it slowed me down a lot since I kill mobs so fast.

Try a build like this at L16 and see what you think. Predictable Movements is a decent "oh crap" button, but I wouldn't complain if you skipped it for the third point in Double Jeapordy. Always keep your highest DPS 1H weapon in your main hand and remember that Strike Like Iron is your friend.

http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0cukm.xgz.V0c


Also, paladin/reaver/warlord or paladin/void knight/warlord are awesome tank combinations, and if you like to do group content, mentioning "warrior tank LFG to do <whatever" will make you lots of new friends very quickly.

Here's a quick warrior tank build for L18. 18 is a good point at which you can start tanking Iron Tombs or Realm of the Fae, and with the extra talent point you pick up at 18, your tank build can be that much better.

http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0chAE.xbRuo0M.xzo

Thanks for the builds.. yeh Ive tried similar builds I'm not going for tanking at all pure DPS and PVP ability only. I hate tanking lol..

The Reaver/Rift combo is ok.. it just disappointing DPS and to get max DPS you have to waste time stacking all the dots and then you'll do decent DPS.. the problem is with the rogue its 1 button and instant pain and when you do get a 5 stack of combo points and use a finisher the mob just flat dies.

I have faced some nasty warriors in the BGs though.. no clue how they hit as hard as they do and yet shrug off attacks from everything until dogpiled by 6 people..

I'll give her 1 more shot but that build with para was pretty much the build i chose first and was underwhelmed compared to my rogue.

 

[blurredvision]

Modern MMOs discourage ganking. In WoW you don't get honor points for killing someone who is too low level. In Rift you apparently get an achievement for ganking.

It doesn't matter if it is discouraged or not, it's still a PvP server. Ganking happens. If you want to control what levels can fight each other, then join a PvE server and do the warfronts. Even if there wasn't an achievement, ganking would still occur and you'd still come here to complain about it.

 

[Malladine]

Thanks for the builds.. yeh Ive tried similar builds I'm not going for tanking at all pure DPS and PVP ability only. I hate tanking lol..

The Reaver/Rift combo is ok.. it just disappointing DPS and to get max DPS you have to waste time stacking all the dots and then you'll do decent DPS.. the problem is with the rogue its 1 button and instant pain and when you do get a 5 stack of combo points and use a finisher the mob just flat dies.

I have faced some nasty warriors in the BGs though.. no clue how they hit as hard as they do and yet shrug off attacks from everything until dogpiled by 6 people..

I'll give her 1 more shot but that build with para was pretty much the build i chose first and was underwhelmed compared to my rogue.

The tough as nails murder people spec is Rift/Reaver, not reaver/rift. Reaver for survivability with the shield, Rift does the damage through mainly spear spam.

PVP! - I use Champ/Paragon/Vind - most points in champ, 5 in vind for the +10% damage vs players and Para is nice for the +str and +crit self buffs. Using a lot of str/crit gear.

Easy PvE questing try Reaver/Paladin. Sucks for fighting solo mobs but AoE is badass. Can handily kill 5 mobs 1 level above me.

 

[smackababy]

Wow, Titan's Strike is so OP in pvp... 5 second stun? Yeah, np.

 

[Xed]

Don't worry, Trion is pulling a Blizzard and going overboard with nerfs to cater to the whiners. Some changes were justified to sabs and certain warrior builds but wtf.

 

[Throckmorton]

It doesn't matter if it is discouraged or not, it's still a PvP server. Ganking happens. If you want to control what levels can fight each other, then join a PvE server and do the warfronts. Even if there wasn't an achievement, ganking would still occur and you'd still come here to complain about it.

Yes, ganking happens, but in WoW for example it's not an issue. You get ganked once in a while. That's completely different from the game rewarding ganking with an achievement.