Rift: Planes of Telara

[Draegan]

F13 isn't angry or bitter.  It's jaded, skeptical, and mean.  There's a difference.

The jaded and skeptical part is fine.  The aggressive attitudes around here should go away in my opinion.  The people here are far too intelligent to feel the need to resort to name calling and belittling.

When I said mean, I meant very blunt.

[Merusk]

My only significant beef with them is that they need to show much clearer who is a tank and who is a healer. I'm sorry but this is the age of LFD whether you like it or not, and we are not all doing every rift with our buddies. It need to make a giant shield above the person with current aggro, or something, saying HEAL ME DUMMY!!! Having a tank spec's name in oragne is not really enough.

Tanks are dark orange names.

So the colorblind shouldn't be healers?

[Bzalthek]

Really?

[Koyasha]

Target's target window works fine for me, when I'm playing a healer.  I see no need for anything beyond that.  In fact I simply target the enemy and cast through them a lot of the time, since I have the options selected to cast spells on my target's target and such.

[March]

Target's target window works fine for me, when I'm playing a healer.  I see no need for anything beyond that.  In fact I simply target the enemy and cast through them a lot of the time, since I have the options selected to cast spells on my target's target and such.

Yeah, not really working all that well in practice, especialliy in rifts... just too many folks fighting solo battles.  I've stopped trying to target heal rifts anymore... will only do Bard or Chloro healing... indiscrimintate green healing rain numbers.  The absence of click casting (not taht @mouseover shit) pretty much seals it for me.

[AcidCat]

I had logged out at a small quest hub, and logged in today to find myself faced with an overwhelming amount of Death invaders that promptly gave me a dirt nap. I have to say I enjoyed it, just for the sheer unpredictable chaos of these kind of situations. I've never liked open PvP, it delivers TOO much chaos, and just allows strangers to repeatedly waste my time at their leisure, but these invasions add a lesser version of that kind of chaos that feels more, I dunno fair somehow, it just works for me. Most of the time I can avoid invasions and rifts but they are just intrusive enough to mix it up in a good way.

[Threash]

Yeah, i just love how all invasions start by basically kicking everyones ass.  Then a quest hub or two falls.  Then everyone groups up and fights back.

[Venkman]

Yea, it's one of the main things I like (the other being so easy to multi-class). The rifts themselves coulda so easily been like WAR's static spawns, where it only works when a dense group of players happen to be around the same level. Instead these can roll over needed content in a way that compels players to (eventually) clear them out.

The one thing I wish was for the map to show me where there is a density of players before I join the public group. Would make for a lot less running. Unless there's some setting I'm missing?

[Soulflame]

From what I've seen, at least in the two zones I've been in, is that players head for A Big Town and defend there.  If you're defending an outlying town, one handy thing is that wardstones can be buffed and healed.

[Shatter]

My biggest concern is that these big invasions turn the map into such a cluster you cant make heads or tails of wtf.  Like someone said some kind of indicator of where people are massed would be helpful since it sucks to run through 5 rifts to find 0 people doing them

[Falconeer]

The one thing I wish was for the map to show me where there is a density of players before I join the public group. Would make for a lot less running. Unless there's some setting I'm missing?

This!
I am enjoying invasions and zone events much more than I did in beta and in the first week. The thing is, they are so much better when you start understanding what is going on and what you can do about it, and espcially what kind of rewards you can get out of it. At level 35 I am now basically leading the Zone Events by spamming in zone chat what is going on and where people should be at all times. Needless to say, this works 1 out of 5 times, but when it does it's super cool, with multiple huge raids going up and down the zone clearing everything and finally confronting the final bosses. Not to mention that from 30+ it all happens in contested zones, meaning there's a high chance the fight with the final boss will be AGAINST the other faction too, or alongside them. I've seen the craziest stuff happening around a zone event boss, with the two factions teaming together only to slaughter each other right after the boss fell, or 60+ players beating the shit out of each other while the boss happily murdered both sides. Hilarious and cool, makes the game feel alive and dynamic.

Sadly, as I said, Trion did an awesome job putting it all together, and the events, the on screen messages, the map cues, they are all there and working. But it's not nearly enough. People are coming from 10 years of the same old shit and they are basically refusing to understand anything different. Their brains ignore the on screen messages, refuse to acknowledge that there could be something out of questing/leveling, and they do all they can to not understand the basic logic of something they haven't been handheld through for the whole process. So, my suggestions are about some sort of tutorial that explains the zone events (and why is it worth to complete them, what is a sourcstone and a shardstone, how to get them and where to spend them) and probably most important of all, better feedback about what's the state of the event. I recalled many times to go and protect a wardstone only to find out that there was NO ONE protecting there (so, useless) and/or that too many wardstones were already gone so it was too late anyway, or that a specific wardstone was too close to be destroyed. A simple indicator of all wardstones health could do wonders.


I wish people could stop saying Rift didn't add enough over the WoW formula. It's such a clueless comment. The rift/dynamic content part of Rift is simply awesome, and this is just launch. It's exciting to think what they will be able to do out of it.

[March]

The one thing I wish was for the map to show me where there is a density of players before I join the public group. Would make for a lot less running. Unless there's some setting I'm missing?

This!
[snip]
Sadly, as I said, Trion did an awesome job putting it all together, and the events, the on screen messages, the map cues, they are all there and working. But it's not nearly enough. People are coming from 10 years of the same old shit and they are basically refusing to understand anything different. Their brains ignore the on screen messages, refuse to acknowledge that there could be something out of questing/leveling, and they do all they can to not understand the basic logic of something they haven't been handheld through for the whole process. So, my suggestions are about some sort of tutorial that explains the zone events (and why is it worth to complete them, what is a sourcstone and a shardstone, how to get them and where to spend them) and probably most important of all, better feedback about what's the state of the event. I recalled many times to go and protect a wardstone only to find out that there was NO ONE protecting there (so, useless) and/or that too many wardstones were already gone so it was too late anyway, or that a specific wardstone was too close to be destroyed. A simple indicator of all wardstones health could do wonders.

I agree with you generally... but I disagree that they did a great job alerting folks.  As an experienced MMO gamer, I'll freely admit that a prose message that pops up saying Warrior Redoubt is under attack - is essentially meaningless if I don't know what/where Warrior Redoubt might be... or why I should care.  Needs visuals on Map and better integration with the quest interface.  The fact that a Zone Quest appears on my bar is a good alert, but I'm just not getting a good feel on how to manage this particular quest - so I tend to ignore them.  It's not simply a question of hand holding, it requires visual connecting of dots - at a minimum in some sort of tutorial in the newbie zone. 

If it is as awesome as you say, then I for one am not getting it.

[Comstar]

. I recalled many times to go and protect a wardstone only to find out that there was NO ONE protecting there (so, useless) and/or that too many wardstones were already gone so it was too late anyway, or that a specific wardstone was too close to be destroyed. A simple indicator of all wardstones health could do wonders,

I think that's part of your job- when you see that, tell the rest of the zone! There IS a message "XXXX is under attack", "XXXX is about to fall!" and it's clear on the map where the invasions are. You get 3 abilities (repair/upgrade the stone, spawn some defenders to fight the invasion, or boost yourself vs invasions) to help too.

A quest tutorial to use the abilities (along with "How to get Planer money and where to spend it" and the same thing for the PvP gear) would be nice though.

[Dark_MadMax]

I agree with you generally... but I disagree that they did a great job alerting folks.  As an experienced MMO gamer, I'll freely admit that a prose message that pops up saying Warrior Redoubt is under attack - is essentially meaningless if I don't know what/where Warrior Redoubt might be... or why I should care.  Needs visuals on Map and better integration with the quest interface.  The fact that a Zone Quest appears on my bar is a good alert, but I'm just not getting a good feel on how to manage this particular quest - so I tend to ignore them.  It's not simply a question of hand holding, it requires visual connecting of dots - at a minimum in some sort of tutorial in the newbie zone. 

If it is as awesome as you say, then I for one am not getting it.

Its seems player not reading tutorials .I cant vouch my life on it but I am pretty sure at about level 10 it was explained how to use invasion map. -Open your map and roll over the invasion (crossed swords) it would show their direction with an arrow . On a typical zone even just roll over the groups of the invasions - it clearly shows which quest hub they  targeted. It is  2-3 targets at same time , one being the most attacked typically. The map also shows  event bosses when they  spawn.

[Maledict]

to be fair, even when you do tell people where to go they often ignore it. The key to zone invasions beyond the initial zones seems to be all about defense - you need a solid team to deal with the massive stream of invasions that roll up. All too often you can see folks shutting down rifts, but it's all useless as the wardstones fall to the hordes of attackers, and no matter how much you call for reinforcememnts folks just aren't interested in helping.

[Rendakor]

Something that would help make more people care would be removal of map fog; I see so many people spamming "Where's the boss?" because he's NOT on their map because they haven't revealed that portion yet. Or, show Rifts/Invasions/Bosses etc. even if the area hasn't been revealed.

The reason no one defends the wardstones is that the rewards for doing so are shit compared to Major Rifts; even if there are 5 or more invasions going for one wardstone, you're still not going to get any sourceshards/sourcestones out of it. But I think the whole rewards system needs work; something to do with previous tier sourceshards, as well as the ability to buy sourceshards with planarite would go a long way.

[Nebu]

The reason no one defends the wardstones is that the rewards for doing so are shit compared to Major Rifts; even if there are 5 or more invasions going for one wardstone, you're still not going to get any sourceshards/sourcestones out of it. But I think the whole rewards system needs work; something to do with previous tier sourceshards, as well as the ability to buy sourceshards with planarite would go a long way.

This is a problem.  The reward system needs some help.  You can sit on the road clearing the invasion force for 20 mins and get a worse reward than if you get to the boss 30s before it dies.  Allowing people to convert planarite into shards at some conversion rate would help as well. 

[Typhon]

I'd like to be able to convert previous tier sourceshard into planarite because I want the Focus thingee that has 4 lessers and 2 greaters that costs 7500 planarite.  Seems to me that once I have that, I won't need another, but coming up with 7500 planarite is tough.  Currently not buying anything trying to save up - thus wanting to convert the sourceshard into planarite so I can get back in the rare planar items game.

Those who have made it to 50, am I doing it wrong?

[Draegan]

7500 is easy to get in a few hours time at level 50.  You get somewhere between 100-200 planarite per rift.  I'd save up though.

[Nonentity]

I hit 50 in the middle of last week. At this point in time, I want a dungeon finder tool. Even as a healer, getting groups together is a pain in the ass, because I'm not part of one of the few uber guilds on our server that has people playing.

[Shatter]

IN the latest podcast...LFG tool coming server specific only.  If that doesnt work well they plan to make the LFG tool work across multiple servers like Warfronts. 

[Nebu]

I hit 50 in the middle of last week. At this point in time, I want a dungeon finder tool. Even as a healer, getting groups together is a pain in the ass, because I'm not part of one of the few uber guilds on our server that has people playing.

Maybe level an alt for a couple of weeks.  Right now the end game lacks critical mass.

[Mrbloodworth]

I hit 50 in the middle of last week. At this point in time, I want a dungeon finder tool. Even as a healer, getting groups together is a pain in the ass, because I'm not part of one of the few uber guilds on our server that has people playing.

Maybe level an alt for a couple of weeks.  Right now the end game lacks critical mass.

I thought it was about soul acquisition? ( At least partly )

[Hawkbit]

My warrior had all eight PvE souls by the first part of 14, lol.  I tend to open my options up asap.

[Nebu]

My warrior had all eight PvE souls by the first part of 14, lol.  I tend to open my options up asap.

My toons are all done by 15-16 as well.  I enjoy switching specs constantly. Theory crafting is probably the most engaging part of the game.

[Threash]

The only soul that takes more than 5-10 mins to get is the pvp soul, and that only takes a few hours if the queues are fast.

[Sky]

Theory crafting is probably the most engaging part of the game.

[Koyasha]

Yeah, I really like that respeccing is cheap enough that every day or two I can go 'hmm, maybe I should try THIS' and can afford to do it without putting any sort of a strain on my finances.

Also, as for the LFG tool, we shall see how that goes.  I'm really not interested enough in MMO's in general anymore to put up with that nonsense if it's like WoW's dungeon finder, but if it's a proper LFG tool that helps me form groups instead of doing it for me, then great.

[Threash]

Making respec costs static and based only on your level was a great decision by Trion.

[Draegan]

I hit 50 in the middle of last week. At this point in time, I want a dungeon finder tool. Even as a healer, getting groups together is a pain in the ass, because I'm not part of one of the few uber guilds on our server that has people playing.

Maybe level an alt for a couple of weeks.  Right now the end game lacks critical mass.

I thought it was about soul acquisition? ( At least partly )

That was a long time ago.  You get all your souls early on now.  Though they could add souls like that down the road.

[Mrbloodworth]

Woops!

[Kovacs]

This game is really defining "directed experience" for me.  I'm at 30'ish now and missed IT, DSM lasted about 3 runs and all I'm really hoping for now is some sort of branch in these rails.

I'm really afraid that this game is going to be about perfecting 'on the rails' leveling under the guise of polish.  Not that I'm a huge fan of the "Quest Hubs Are the Devil" Goddamn "?" burn in hell school of thought.  So far I'm afraid this game errs way way too much on the "Jesus Fuck get your hands off me I know what I'm supposed to be doing yes, thank you, again!  Over-Handled." Side of the argument.

[Bzalthek]

Posting while on Meth makes you difficult to understand.

[snowwy]

Posting while on Meth makes you difficult to understand.

Yet, it made sense to me....Having the same experiences as Mr. Meth up there....one char at 33, one at 21, neither has been in IT.......did i miss something= Hell if i know, the grind is on rails anyway.....f'ing boring.....
Still have a 12 warrior to run through the stuff, but can't really be bothered, because i've seen it all......besides IT.......

[Cadaverine]

The follow-up(s) to the story quests in Meridian take you to IT.  And there's also a quest from the Faceless Man, I think, to talk to someone's spirit, which is it IT.  Should have opened up at around levels 15 - 17.