Rift: Planes of Telara

[Draegan]

Is there a quick easy way to switch roles?  On a mage, I picked stormcaller, dominator and chloromancer, and I'd like to try warlock, necro, chloromancer.  She's level 12.

How would I go about swapping two roles out?

Go to your class trainer and "buy" a new role.  Then from your talent window you can switch roles in the icons on the bottom of your screen.

You can also access these roles under your ability pane "P".  From there you drag icons down onto your hotbar so you can hotkey them or click them to change without opening any window.

[Falconeer]

Does the headstart applies to all preorders? I preordered the collector on Steam but I didnt get any mention to the headstart, and it still says the game will unlock in ten days. So I wonder, maybe no headstart in Europe? Maybe no headstart on Steam? Maybe just bad communication? Ideas, thoughts?

[Kirth]

Does the headstart applies to all preorders? I preordered the collector on Steam but I didnt get any mention to the headstart, and it still says the game will unlock in ten days. So I wonder, maybe no headstart in Europe? Maybe no headstart on Steam? Maybe just bad communication? Ideas, thoughts?

Headstart applies to steam pre-orders (at least to mine).

[Falconeer]

I am glad to hear that, and makes sense. I just wonder where it says so cause I am probably being blind but I can't find it anywhere.

[Merusk]

Is there a quick easy way to switch roles?  On a mage, I picked stormcaller, dominator and chloromancer, and I'd like to try warlock, necro, chloromancer.  She's level 12.

How would I go about swapping two roles out?

Go to your class trainer and "buy" a new role.  Then from your talent window you can switch roles in the icons on the bottom of your screen.

You can also access these roles under your ability pane "P".  From there you drag icons down onto your hotbar so you can hotkey them or click them to change without opening any window.

You'll have to have done the quests like Threash said, too.   The first new role (spec) is 30 gold, the second is 3 platinum.   Obviously this isn't going to happen in the open beta for you.  There's also respecs for each spec, also from the class trainer.  When you respec you can pick 3 new souls or just fill out the trees for the 3 you've already got picked for that spec.

It's a really damn nice system.  Had I the cash I'd be buying this game because of it, even though I know that SWTOR will lure me away even if it's only half as good as Rift.

[March]

Being able to heal as a bard, tank as a riftstalker and also dps all as a rogue may have me sold on this game.

Yep... I always play a healer, but this combo of options is just too good to pass up.  The Bard is stupid good in the early game... If it scales to end-game, I don't see how it will avoid massive and constant nerfs.

For that matter, (most) everything can be stupid good... the pessimist in me sees round after round of Nerfs to keep the PvP balance while shitting their PvE players.

[kildorn]

They actually appear to be purely balancing around pve (or are completely terrible at this balancing thing), because all the changes make no sense.

Alpha notes are apparently fixing Flame Spear by removing the DoT. Which is.. not the problem with Flame Spear.

[Xanthippe]

Is there a quick easy way to switch roles?  On a mage, I picked stormcaller, dominator and chloromancer, and I'd like to try warlock, necro, chloromancer.  She's level 12.

How would I go about swapping two roles out?

Go to your class trainer and "buy" a new role.  Then from your talent window you can switch roles in the icons on the bottom of your screen.

You can also access these roles under your ability pane "P".  From there you drag icons down onto your hotbar so you can hotkey them or click them to change without opening any window.

You'll have to have done the quests like Threash said, too.   The first new role (spec) is 30 gold, the second is 3 platinum.   Obviously this isn't going to happen in the open beta for you.  There's also respecs for each spec, also from the class trainer.  When you respec you can pick 3 new souls or just fill out the trees for the 3 you've already got picked for that spec.

It's a really damn nice system.  Had I the cash I'd be buying this game because of it, even though I know that SWTOR will lure me away even if it's only half as good as Rift.

Thanks for the info (to everyone who responded).

I actually can afford a second one too.  I think I'm up to 7 plat on my ranger (lvl 25).  (I've played a lot this beta.) And what else would I spend it on?

I like the defiant side, but I'm wondering which side to go for release.  I'm going to play a ranger/bard/something, I just love how it plays.

[Threash]

If you craft at all make hats and shoulders, they sell like hotcakes.  I had like 4 plat on my lvl 16 rogue from making soft leather hoods and soft leather shoulders, and that was after salvaging most of them to keep using the mats.  Then i spent it all on dyes :(

[Draegan]

Is there a quick easy way to switch roles?  On a mage, I picked stormcaller, dominator and chloromancer, and I'd like to try warlock, necro, chloromancer.  She's level 12.

How would I go about swapping two roles out?

Go to your class trainer and "buy" a new role.  Then from your talent window you can switch roles in the icons on the bottom of your screen.

You can also access these roles under your ability pane "P".  From there you drag icons down onto your hotbar so you can hotkey them or click them to change without opening any window.

You'll have to have done the quests like Threash said, too.   The first new role (spec) is 30 gold, the second is 3 platinum.   Obviously this isn't going to happen in the open beta for you.  There's also respecs for each spec, also from the class trainer.  When you respec you can pick 3 new souls or just fill out the trees for the 3 you've already got picked for that spec.

It's a really damn nice system.  Had I the cash I'd be buying this game because of it, even though I know that SWTOR will lure me away even if it's only half as good as Rift.

That a quest for other souls, you can still play around with configurations of three souls.

[Draegan]

Being able to heal as a bard, tank as a riftstalker and also dps all as a rogue may have me sold on this game.

Yep... I always play a healer, but this combo of options is just too good to pass up.  The Bard is stupid good in the early game... If it scales to end-game, I don't see how it will avoid massive and constant nerfs.

For that matter, (most) everything can be stupid good... the pessimist in me sees round after round of Nerfs to keep the PvP balance while shitting their PvE players.

Bards are not main healers.  They are off healers.  If you want to have versatility and main heal, then roll a Cleric.  They can supposedly tank, somewhat DPS, and main heal.

[March]

Being able to heal as a bard, tank as a riftstalker and also dps all as a rogue may have me sold on this game.

Yep... I always play a healer, but this combo of options is just too good to pass up.  The Bard is stupid good in the early game... If it scales to end-game, I don't see how it will avoid massive and constant nerfs.

For that matter, (most) everything can be stupid good... the pessimist in me sees round after round of Nerfs to keep the PvP balance while shitting their PvE players.

Bards are not main healers.  They are off healers.  If you want to have versatility and main heal, then roll a Cleric.  They can supposedly tank, somewhat DPS, and main heal.

I understand that, but for the first time...ever... I've been able to heal while watching the game and playing it the way everyone else does.  If the design is intelligent, they will back away from hard-coding the trinity and allow for some alternate group combinations that take advantage of Justiciars paired with Bards paired with Archons or some such thing... the way Wardens made a lot of non-tanks tanks in DAoC.  If the game devolves into a stupid Tank, (main) Healer, DPS snoozefest, I will have considered it a failure.

As a side-note, once someone implements some (workable) combination of dual targeting and smart(-ish) group heals that allow healers to do damage *and* heal a'la Archmage in WaR and Bloodmage in Vanguard... you'll see much greater uptake on the healing role.  Finding greater synergy among the Roles and incrementally stepping back from the Trinity would be exactly the sort of small innovative iteration that would make Rift a real force.  Instead we have 19 flavors of DPS - completely overboard on the DPS roles.

[El Gallo]

Do generic bonuses from different trees stack?  For example, if I get the +5% melee crit chance talent from shaman tier 1 and the +5% critical hit chance talent from druid tier 2, do I get +10% crit on all my melee attacks?

[Threash]

Do generic bonuses from different trees stack?  For example, if I get the +5% melee crit chance talent from shaman tier 1 and the +5% critical hit chance talent from druid tier 2, do I get +10% crit on all my melee attacks?

Yes.

[Draegan]

As a side-note, once someone implements some (workable) combination of dual targeting and smart(-ish) group heals that allow healers to do damage *and* heal a'la Archmage in WaR and Bloodmage in Vanguard... you'll see much greater uptake on the healing role.  Finding greater synergy among the Roles and incrementally stepping back from the Trinity would be exactly the sort of small innovative iteration that would make Rift a real force.  Instead we have 19 flavors of DPS - completely overboard on the DPS roles.

Play a chloromancer then and click cast through target in your options.  The Chloromancer is the closest thing to a bloodmage you're going to get.

[Minvaren]

Downloaded beta last night, just had 2 hours of my life slip away from playing to level 7 or so.

...not bad overall.  Need to tweak some graphics settings (and make it a bit brighter?), but it's a fun little MMOG thus far.  Like others have said, the class system is quite interesting.  Looking forward to crafting.

Going to play a few more hours today and tomorrow before I decide on a purchase or not.

(edit : playing shaman/"single target healing" cleric thus far)

[Rokal]

As a side-note, once someone implements some (workable) combination of dual targeting and smart(-ish) group heals that allow healers to do damage *and* heal a'la Archmage in WaR and Bloodmage in Vanguard... you'll see much greater uptake on the healing role.  Finding greater synergy among the Roles and incrementally stepping back from the Trinity would be exactly the sort of small innovative iteration that would make Rift a real force.  Instead we have 19 flavors of DPS - completely overboard on the DPS roles.

Vanguard actually did this pretty well. Same deal as WAR, you could have one offensive and one defensive target at a time. With some classes like the Disciple, you increased the power of your healing spells by doing damage (think combo points for rogues in WoW, only you spend them on heals and buffs). It was such a great concept, it's a shame other developers haven't taken inspiration from it.

[Kirth]

As a side-note, once someone implements some (workable) combination of dual targeting and smart(-ish) group heals that allow healers to do damage *and* heal a'la Archmage in WaR and Bloodmage in Vanguard... you'll see much greater uptake on the healing role.

Bear shamans in AoC had this feeling, the combat system combined with direction based heals added some fun to the normal healing role.

[Vinadil]

Hmmm... all this Vanguard talk reminds me that there WERE some good things there that just got overshadowed by all of the bad.  A dual target system would be great for Rift from my experience there so far.

[Xanthippe]

Bards are not main healers.  They are off healers.  If you want to have versatility and main heal, then roll a Cleric.  They can supposedly tank, somewhat DPS, and main heal.

I just played my little cleric guardian side - she's got the main healer souls, purifier/sentinel/warden (I think?), and is level 12.  I'm just wondering how well this plays later on, since I'm having no trouble at all soloing quests.  Way more survivable than my mage (stormcaller/dominator/chloromancer) and kills shit about as fast. 

On Sunrest, at least, the guardian side is far more civil than the Defiant side.  Less populated, and many fewer dicks.  How do others on other servers find the different sides from a community point of view?

[Bzalthek]

Silkweb guardian.  Haven't run into many dicks (1 maybe 2) and even the anti-wow discussions are civil.

[Paelos]

I like it fine, but not enough to throw box + sub at it on release I think. Not during tax season anyway.

[Morfiend]

Bards are not main healers.  They are off healers.  If you want to have versatility and main heal, then roll a Cleric.  They can supposedly tank, somewhat DPS, and main heal.

I just played my little cleric guardian side - she's got the main healer souls, purifier/sentinel/warden (I think?), and is level 12.  I'm just wondering how well this plays later on, since I'm having no trouble at all soloing quests.  Way more survivable than my mage (stormcaller/dominator/chloromancer) and kills shit about as fast. 

On Sunrest, at least, the guardian side is far more civil than the Defiant side.  Less populated, and many fewer dicks.  How do others on other servers find the different sides from a community point of view?

I have found Sunrest Guardian side very hospitable, even the general chat. Defiant seems to be a slightly lower maturity level, but I havent noticed a huge difference.

[Xanthippe]

Whoops, I just realized that my guardian is on Harrow.  I have no guardians on Sunrest.  Defiants, yes - defiant chat is much like barrens chat and dominated by wow comparisons, good and bad.

[Ratama]

This is one of the most jaded MMO communities that I know and you're all so positive about this game... I want to understand.

Every community has its eternal optimists; there's maybe, what, high single digits of folks that think this will end well?  I stopped posting rather than keep pissing in the only pool for this game here; if Rift ever gets its own subforum, I'm sure there will be a proper trainwreck/post-mortem thread.

Also, I think a lot of the really jaded folks think so little of WoW clones in general that they don't even bother to read threads dedicated to them, let alone post.

[kildorn]

Bards are not main healers.  They are off healers.  If you want to have versatility and main heal, then roll a Cleric.  They can supposedly tank, somewhat DPS, and main heal.

I just played my little cleric guardian side - she's got the main healer souls, purifier/sentinel/warden (I think?), and is level 12.  I'm just wondering how well this plays later on, since I'm having no trouble at all soloing quests.  Way more survivable than my mage (stormcaller/dominator/chloromancer) and kills shit about as fast. 

On Sunrest, at least, the guardian side is far more civil than the Defiant side.  Less populated, and many fewer dicks.  How do others on other servers find the different sides from a community point of view?

I run Stormcaller/Chloro with a pretty even split (Chloro's mana regen functionality is <3 in this post recharge world) with 0 point elementalist for a pet. It's pretty survivable, but turns into a mana sink when I need to actually survive things.

I have a bunch of guardian on faeblight I believe, and the lowbie chat is iffy.

[Hawkbit]

I was all gung-ho about being Defiant until today.  I made a new defiant and watched the whole five minute transaction right in the very first room you pick your first soul... the one where they are torturing Guardians by yanking their souls from them to instill into the body of a defiant.  I realized, all of the sudden, that the defiant are some pretty nasty fuckers, overall.  Finding myself aligning more with the Guardians now, which is okay seeing how they tend to be a touch more mature and helpful.  

[Bzalthek]

soooo, I found out about mob mentality in Rift.  I just popped on to give some of the public stuff a try, and turns out there was all kinds of invasions going on and next thing I know I'm steamrolling shit 5 levels higher than I am.  3 hours later I'm worn out and wonder where the fuck the time went...

[Draegan]

Bards are not main healers.  They are off healers.  If you want to have versatility and main heal, then roll a Cleric.  They can supposedly tank, somewhat DPS, and main heal.

I just played my little cleric guardian side - she's got the main healer souls, purifier/sentinel/warden (I think?), and is level 12.  I'm just wondering how well this plays later on, since I'm having no trouble at all soloing quests.  Way more survivable than my mage (stormcaller/dominator/chloromancer) and kills shit about as fast. 

On Sunrest, at least, the guardian side is far more civil than the Defiant side.  Less populated, and many fewer dicks.  How do others on other servers find the different sides from a community point of view?

If you're feeling magey, roll a necro/warlock/chloro.  Fast grinding, never die.

[kildorn]

soooo, I found out about mob mentality in Rift.  I just popped on to give some of the public stuff a try, and turns out there was all kinds of invasions going on and next thing I know I'm steamrolling shit 5 levels higher than I am.  3 hours later I'm worn out and wonder where the fuck the time went...

The funny thing is, I feel obliged to help out with invasions, and during the beta that leaves me constantly sighing and going "another one? Oh come on, I wanted to go pvp or something" as I run over to tank another wardstone defense.

[Bzalthek]

They must have upped the invasions or something to test load.  Cause over at Sanctum Watch we had 3 or those giant treant (vindicators?) things, 40ish warbringers, at least a dozen war mages, (and some commanders) and 3 rifts in close proximity (and a helluva lot more across the map).  It was epic.

[Tannhauser]

So glad they fixed the bard's audio file.  Just a small change, but it made a big change in my 'quality of life' playing him.

I want to play Defiants, but after an hour long WoW barrage in chat I'm not sure.  Half of those addicts that were slamming WoW will be back to it in two weeks.  The stuff I heard last night, it's just, just...

As for the game, it's very polished and stable.  It's strongest elements are the soul system and the artifacts to me.  The soul system is very fun to theorycraft on.  I'm not sure what artifacts even do, but I squee a little inside when I add one to my collection. 

[Lantyssa]

I was all gung-ho about being Defiant until today.  I made a new defiant and watched the whole five minute transaction right in the very first room you pick your first soul... the one where they are torturing Guardians by yanking their souls from them to instill into the body of a defiant.  I realized, all of the sudden, that the defiant are some pretty nasty fuckers, overall.  Finding myself aligning more with the Guardians now, which is okay seeing how they tend to be a touch more mature and helpful.  

In that time and world, the Guardians held all the power.  They failed to stop Ragnoros and now the world is thirty minutes from complete and total annihilation.  It's not nice, but the world is quite literally about to die in that reality and the Guardians are still more focused on stopping the Defiant than stopping Ragnoros.  You leave the tutorial zone as Ragnoros wins.  They need to play up the desperation more, but being an MMO they can't properly show just how bad things are.

[Koyasha]

Regulos.  And yeah, one thing I find interesting about the storyline of the game is that, ok, the Guardians kinda saved the world back when the king of Mathosia tried to sell out to Regulos or something, and apparently at that time, Orphiel and some of the major Defiants were on Regulos's side, but the game also shows us that the Guardians won in that timeline, crushed the Defiants, and then Regulos wins and eats the world or whatever.

Also, Guardians certainly don't seem particularly better, they may not seem to be the type to do experiments or whatever on you, but apparently they are just fine with killing the Defiants' soldier-types, destroying their weaponry and defenses, and then leaving them to the undead once they're defenseless.

So the Guardians may actually have been right in the first place (Defiant machines were, apparently, what broke down the barrier keeping Regulos out in the first place) but at the point in time that the game's 'current' timeline takes place in, the Guardians are unequivocally wrong, and if they wipe out the Defiants like they did in the failed timeline, Regulos wins without question.  The fact that this is so absolute an observation - Guardians win, Regulos also wins by default - since it already happened in the failed timeline seems like an odd decision from a story perspective.  Course, the Guardians don't know what happened in that failed future and they probably wouldn't believe the Defiant time traveler anyway, but either way, they are definitely way more focused on punishing the Defiants for what happened in the past than focusing on defeating Regulos.

I also thought that the game's going so far to make you the Special One was a little silly from a story perspective, cause every player is apparently the one Defiant that came back from the future.  Instead of, y'know, having that one be a specific NPC, and having all the players be new Defiant ascended created with the data brought back from the future.

[Threash]

I didn't think defiant pcs were meant to be "the one", but just one ascended among many.  You could see them making more at the starting place.