Rift: Planes of Telara

[Modern Angel]

Newsflash: Every single thing you enjoy is made of math. Games, all of them, are made of math. Computers are made of math. Cookies are made of math. Going the ICP route of ignoring it because you just want to explore the wonder of pixel universes/giraffes doesn't change the underlying facts. Dikus are math.

And really, it's completely fine if that ruins your immersion. But if you refuse to take part in solving the equation that's not the fault of the people who insist you do or play something else. That's your fault for trying to cram your playstyle into a group/game that's not for you. They're not "elitist assholes"; they just don't want to put in 30 hours a week into something that takes 10 because people can't be bothered to risk breaking their immersion.

X damage in Y time isn't a design flaw. That's literally 99% of games, any genre, ever.

[Threash]

Anyone know if the racials have been changed for this beta weekend?

[Modern Angel]

Yes. In the patch notes. I'll let you read them. :D

Nerfed into the ground!

[Arrrgh]

I discovered that I'm now too lazy to heal without healing add ons like Vuhdo. Joined a BG with my justicar/sentinal/something, noticed I'd have to individually target anyone I wanted to heal and then click a spell, said fuck it and become one of those people with heals who only heal themselves that everyone loves.

Decided to try an instance so I put enough points into justicar to get the tank aura (huge agro and more HPs), zone into the first fairy instance, another cleric joins, looks at me and says you're not a tank and then leaves. Stereotypes die hard.

But she was right for reasons other than her complaint that clerics can't tank. Justicars at that level have no taunt. Do they ever get taunt? Why do they call classes that can't taunt tanks? They also have weak AE agro and the trash packs at the start of that instance were 3 packs.

I generally play the side that had dwarves but since Rift dwarves are an abomination I'm going to play the other side just to put them out of their misery. Later when they're puzzled about the lack of players on the guardian side they will of course never admit the possibility that one of their races being a graphical joke has anything to do with it.

I've been playing the large purple race. I have no idea why they're large and purple. I'm sure there's some back story explanation somewhere but it wasn't noticeable enough to get me to read it so I still have no idea why my defiant characters look that way.

[Segoris]

Racials were nerfed to be complete shit now. Basically, it's a +10 to a single stat to a race, and some of the races get some fluff animation/travel ability. I don't disagree that the racials needed some adjusting, but this is pretty awful.

[Shatter]

Yeah they bitch slapped racials for B6.  They needed rework but they are essentially not worth mentioning anymore to the point they might as well of just removed them altogether

[Modern Angel]

Dwarves are always awesome. Always.

[Hawkbit]

Unless they require addons to play.

[Segoris]

Decided to try an instance so I put enough points into justicar to get the tank aura (huge agro and more HPs), zone into the first fairy instance, another cleric joins, looks at me and says you're not a tank and then leaves. Stereotypes die hard.

But she was right for reasons other than her complaint that clerics can't tank. Justicars at that level have no taunt. Do they ever get taunt? Why do they call classes that can't taunt tanks? They also have weak AE agro and the trash packs at the start of that instance were 3 packs.

Justicars get an actual taunt ability, it's called bolt of radiance (while Mien of Leadership is active). That is in addition to having a lot of aggro generation. About why call a tank when a soul can't taunt? Honestly, since b2 or b3 I can't remember the last time I used a taunt ability as my natural threat generation has been high enough to not even need it (lots of dungeon runs in both Defiant and Guardian zones, including some pugs).

Also, I strongly agree about the dwarves. They are, by far, the worst implementation of dwarves I've seen. At this point though, with the way names are displayed, there's no reason to be anything except a dwarf or kelari with a 2 letter name for pvp servers. Stats/racials are no longer important, the races have no individuality anymore, so just go with what with be the toughest to see by environment, though having to stare at a dwarf avatar would be a pain in the ass.

[Typhon]

Unless they require addons to play.

Like stilts?

[Paelos]

Having to do X DPS in Y time is a design flaw, not a need for DPS meters.   

I've agreed with that forever and have railed against boss enrages since they were put into the game. Now it's just the norm in WoW which explains why I'm raiding less.

[AcidCat]

But if you refuse to take part in solving the equation that's not the fault of the people who insist you do or play something else. That's your fault for trying to cram your playstyle into a group/game that's not for you.

Well, like I said, my solution is to just not raid, period. I don't want to be a liability to people more serious about the game than me. Thankfully these games generally have enough content to support my playstyle in addition to those who seek efficiency and mastery of game systems.

I particularly like the drop in/drop out public groups of Rift, no obligation, no worries.

[Rendakor]

Having to do X DPS in Y time is a design flaw, not a need for DPS meters.    

I've agreed with that forever and have railed against boss enrages since they were put into the game. Now it's just the norm in WoW which explains why I'm raiding less.

Y doesn't have to be an enrage timer, it could be "before the healers run out of mana" or "before too many dps stand in fire and die". Enrage timers are only useful when all other mechanics of a fight are easily negated. Having a fight or two that's basically a DPS race has always been a good way to test class balance (Patchwerk comes to mind).

[Paelos]

Having a fight or two that's basically a DPS race has always been a good way to test class balance (Patchwerk comes to mind).

Agreed, and there are other factors in play usually beyond the simple hard enrage I was talking about. It's a math problem to be sure.

[Threash]

I much prefer races this way.  Now you can play what you want without gimping yourself.

[Shatter]

I think even with the racial changes Ill still play Defiant...cooler mounts :P

[Draegan]

The Mathosian racial is the worst racial ever known to gaming.

You can't use it in combat, it puts you to sleep, doesn't do anything, and it kills you.

So it's essentially a special emote you can use out of combat and it also kills you.

lol.

[Sky]

Yeah, I lolled at that one. Totally not making it to release.

[Modern Angel]

See, when I first saw it I didn't see the no in combat part. I thought, "That shit is GREAT!" Then someone pointed out the no in combat clause and duurrrrrrrr

[Ard]

Yeah, I lolled at that one. Totally not making it to release.

It not only didn't make it into release, it didn't make it into beta 6.  Go read the non-leaked actual beta 6 patch notes.  It went from one of the worst to probably one of the best.

Edit: here, since it's public anyhow, and people tend to be lazy.  I do however expect both the mathosian and ethian ones to get hit with the nerf stick once they figure out the ramifications of racial based runspeed mods in pvp warfronts.

RACIAL ABILITIES
* Updated all Racial Abilities.

HIGH ELVES
* Removed Wisdom of the Ages.
* Tavril's Grace now increases Wisdom by 10.
* Added: Angelic Flight: Flies toward the selected area. Cannot be used in combat.

DWARVES
* Removed Second Wind.
* Bahralt's Mettle now increases Strength by 10.
* Added: Density: Dwarves can fall twice the distance of other races safely.

MATHOSIANS
* Removed Heroic Resolve,
* Thedeor's Will now increases Dexterity by 10.
* Added: Motivational Roar - Increases the movement speed of the Mathosian and nearby group members by 30% for 10 seconds. This ability cannot be used in combat.

ETHIAN
* Removed Eth-Made Shield Generator.
* Sun's Fortune now increases Intelligence by 10.
* Added: Agility: Increases movement speed by 70% for 15 seconds. This ability cannot be used in combat.

KELARI
* Removed Kelari Frenzy.
* Flame's Ferocity now increases Dexterity by 10.
* Added Camouflage: The Kelari transforms into a ghostly fox for up to 30 seconds, giving them a wider radius to avoid aggro with, and despawning any pets the Kelari may have. This ability cannot be used in combat.

BAHMI
* Removed Sefir of Power.
* Removed Sefir of Constitution.
* Added: Sefir of Strength: Increases Strength by 10.
* Added: Mighty Leap: Leaps at the selected area. Cannot be used in combat.

[ezrast]

Level X0-X7 players now get buffed in warfronts. The details aren't clear, but at least you won't get utterly roflstomped upon entering a new bracket now.

[Modern Angel]

I missed that. That is awesome news.

[Ard]

Holy crap, I missed that also, and I was looking for it.

edit:  yup, there it is, awesome.

* Added Ascended Courage to Warfronts. Increases the effectiveness of characters for the first seven levels of each Warfront bracket. We'll be evaluating this in Beta 6 for further balancing.

[Draegan]

That's HUGE.  Since doing a warfront if you weren't near max was pointless.

[Threash]

I was getting the ascended courage buff at level 18.

[ezrast]

=== KNOWN ISSUES ===
* Extra icons for the Ascended Courage buff are being applied to players in Warfronts, including those not under the actual effects of the buff. THESE EXTRA ICONS HAVE NO GAMEPLAY EFFECT!

[veredus]

The new Kelari racial is actually awesome. That description doesn't match it in game, in game npcs ignore you. It's great for getting through high agro areas.

[Threash]

The elf wings are pretty cool too.

[Merusk]

Man, those Rifts are addicting. I discovered I'd gained two levels running them in the 8-10 bracket and went on to finish out another 2 just chasing them down.  For some reason they're more fun than the PQs in WAR were and I can't quite figure out why.

[kildorn]

The pvp bracket buff needs one other minor change: the spells are level based (get X rank at Y level), which aren't buffed by the changes. So you may in essence be level 18 for damage calculations, you're doing about 70% the damage/healing of a real level 18. I noticed a HUGE difference in my pvp capability when I went from 17 to 18, because 4 of my 6 primary spells had a rank up there.

[Mrbloodworth]

What server is everyone on?

[ezrast]

Mostly Rocklift Guardian, but I've also been playing Reclaimer Guardian just for open world ganking.

Since Saboteur charges don't deal damage, they don't break CC. My assassin/sab can kite a melee mob through about 4 fully primed detonations before it has a chance to catch up. I'm hoping for hilarious results when I level high enough to try it on players in the pvp zones. In the meantime I'm leveling as a bard, which is amazing for healing in WFs.

[Threash]

Saboteur is so much fun in pvp.  I was topping the charts in damage and killing blows at level 11.

[Hawkbit]

I rolled a Warden/Sentinel/Purifier for this beta.  I still plan to play my Paladin at launch, but I hit a point where nobody seems to want to heal in a rift.  So instead of beating my head against a wall, I decided to try healing.  Considering I've never played a dedicated heal class in any MMO before, I'm actually liking it so far.  It is pretty amazing how much better a public group of 20 does when they have someone healing them. 

I'm definitely going to switch it up though and go for an offensive role to flip into when soloing.  Pure healers aren't terrible to solo, just a tad boring. 

[Modern Angel]

The parses we were running showed Saboteur not being awesome in group content but I think a lot of that is knowing when to detonate at less than five charges so there's no waste, which takes a lot more finesse than I was expecting. That said, Saboteur is just a fun class all around and I can't think of much else like it in the MMO world.