Rift: Planes of Telara

[kildorn]

I had a serious complaint when levling in B1-B2 that I only got two Sourceshards from lvl 1-21, buying the purple tank pants on my way out the zone.  That wasn't fun and didn't feel like I got to use what I earned at all. 

Now in Stonefield, I've just obtained my third Sourceshard and I'm lvl 23.  It seems as if the rifts are more frequent or something, but either way its a lot better to actually be able to use the gear I earn in the zone I earned it. 

The blue shards are easy to come by when the zone isn't overcrowded. They seem awarded based on participation and only happen in bonus stages (rarely on a major rift complete)

It's the epic shards I have a complaint about. They only drop from zone event bosses, only with high participation numbers, and in later zones you needed 3 or so to buy anything. So at 34ish on my mage, I had 2 of them from every zone I'd outleveled that I'd never be able to do anything with.

[Segoris]

The blue shards are easy to come by when the zone isn't overcrowded. They seem awarded based on participation and only happen in bonus stages (rarely on a major rift complete)

It's the epic shards I have a complaint about. They only drop from zone event bosses, only with high participation numbers, and in later zones you needed 3 or so to buy anything. So at 34ish on my mage, I had 2 of them from every zone I'd outleveled that I'd never be able to do anything with.

IIRC, epic currencies also drop for high contribution on Major Rifts bonus stages. They are a bit rare seeing most rifts are minor rifts, but they are still more common then zone events.

[kildorn]

I still want to know the contribution formula. Because going by my contribution bar, DoTs and HoTs count entirely too much, and it seems based on actions taken per second. Slow casting nukes cause me to have low contribution, while spamming instants or dots caps out my contribution meter thingy.

My Reaver is always top contribution due to AE DoT spam and the HoT tics that come with it.

[Threash]

Contribution is something warhammer never got right either.

[Hoax]

Even if it weren't for the horrible lack of item variety and the durrrrrrr understanding of world pvp the last four posts illustrate why I never came close to being tempted to play Rift.

Of the two new things they bring to the table one is an absolute stupid joke. Rifts are so fucking bad. Bonus stage? Shard farming? Trolololollolol. They do more harm then good to my perception of the world as a living space. Huge fucking disappointment.

[Threash]

Rifts are incredibly fun, your perception is moronic.

[Hoax]

An insanely formulaic encounter that is immersion breaking in its stupidity (RAWR INVASION, ok lets spawn 8 guys then wait until they are dead and spawn 8 more slightly badder guys!   ) that comes complete with "BONUS ROUND" timed goals and does nothing to test the abilities of a party (don't give me shit about how Raid Rifts and L50 Rifts will be different if it sucks for the first 35 levels...) is incredibly fun?

You must be new to this shit or just too stupid to get sick of it. In a playgroup of 5 RL friends, all of whom besides me seem to be leaning towards buying the game because they are more tolerant of diku bs than I found Rifts to be formulaic and stupid within the first weekend of play. Shit is whack, I'm happy for you that you are so easily amused though.

[March]

Rifts are incredibly fun, your perception is moronic.

<Shrug>... I don't mind the Rifts, but I can't say they are anything really awesome *in themselves*.

The cool part about them is that they are random and seem to have some sort of invasion type focal point which adds spice to the questing game.

The rift fights themselves are rather indifferent tab targeting affairs; in fact, I'd say that WaR's public quests were better actual encounters.

At least that has been my experience sub-20.  Whether the Rift encounters become more engaging at higher levels, I couldn't say.

[kildorn]

PQs were more involved as encounters because they were statically spawned and thus involved the terrain/why are they there kind of thing.

Rifts seem amusing as encounters, but are recycled heavily (iirc, the achievement for gloamwood is to do all TEN types of rift encounters in the zone), and are a little more randomly thrown together than any logic behind what rifts are. If they're invasions, they should be themed as such. If they're weakened walls of the planes spilling random shit through, have things fall out and be surprised to be there. Hell, randomly have US fall through into the other realms for a few minutes or something.

Instead, we get some evil invasiony ones, and some "click keg to get wasted and continue!" ones.

I find rifts amusing and a good time, but they do lack the thematic flair of Warhammer PQs.

[raydeen]

I d/l'd the client last night and logged in and played for a few minutes and was rather...nonplussed. Made a necro so I got a skeleton pet, talked to a couple of NPC's and then went to some area that had masses of enemies pouring out of something or other and I had to kill 6 of them. It was a complete mess as everyone in the area was probably tab targeting mobs like I was and just firing attacks off. I was kinda drunk at the time but I'm pretty sure I was shooting at some mobs that ran behind me. All I did was just stand there, tab, fire, repeat. Finally got my six and then turned in the quest and logged out. I'll give it another shot this weekend but it didn't grab me right away. It kinda felt even more generic than some of the f2p korean games.

[Paelos]

The entry level experience sucks. I will agree with that. They don't really do a good job of holding your hand and explaining what it is you're supposed to be doing.

I mean you kill 10 rats with one spell for a reason.

[Nebu]

1) Are the invasions better implemented than the alien invasions in COH? 

I enjoyed PQ's in WAR for a while but found that they got old really fast.  Thankfully, I could ignore PvE entirely and just level on PvP. 

2) Can you level to endgame in Rifts on PvP alone?  Will your gear suck if you attempt to do it?  How tied are PvE and PvP? 

Getting my PvP gear through PvE would make me very very stabby. 

[Merusk]

Someone up above mentioned that itemization is wonky at lower levels for PVP.  You don't even see gear available on vendors until level 25.  How it compares to the PvE stuff is an exercise I'll leave to someone actually buying the game.

[Threash]

1) Are the invasions better implemented than the alien invasions in COH? 

I enjoyed PQ's in WAR for a while but found that they got old really fast.  Thankfully, I could ignore PvE entirely and just level on PvP. 

2) Can you level to endgame in Rifts on PvP alone?  Will your gear suck if you attempt to do it?  How tied are PvE and PvP? 

Getting my PvP gear through PvE would make me very very stabby. 

Never played CoH so i cant answer the first.  You can level through pvp, in my teens with guardian instant queues i found it one of the fastest methods of leveling, with rift farming slightly better and quest grinding just plain sucking, the problem is that the order is reversed for gear aquisition.  You can very easily level up through pvp and gear up through crafting though, unlike other games the stuff you can make at your level is superior or equal to what you would get playing.

[Nebu]

You can very easily level up through pvp and gear up through crafting though, unlike other games the stuff you can make at your level is superior or equal to what you would get playing.

Lotro was like this.  While leveling crafted gear was far superior to quest gear.  That's a definite plus for Rifts. 

Thanks for the rest of the response.  The game is well made.  I just need to explore more before I decide what I think.  I'm wondering how long I need to play before my opinion is considered valid.  Right now, the level 1-5 experience (Guardian side) is just not fun.  Like not at all.  This is a big mistake.  I don't want to feel like I have to achieve some level before the game gets interesting.  It should be interesting right out of the gate.  In WAR, I coudl pvp immediately after I created a toon and gear up.  In DCUO, I could fly around and beat up bad guys in my spandex jumpsuit right out of the box.  I'm really getting tired of having to earn the right to have fun.  Seems that I need to get to level 5 or so just to get a whiff of the fun.  How long until I get enough abilities and have complex enough fights that I'm doing more than spamming the same 4 buttons? 

[Threash]

The first seven or so levels are the tutorial zone, it isn't a whole lot of fun specially when you keep doing it over and over but it shouldn't take more than 30 mins or so.  You can start pvping at 10, which should give you 13 talent points.

[Hoax]

What's not being mentioned is that if you enter a 10-19 BG with 10-15 toon you are literally worthless and the team with more worthless guys has a huge disadvantage. +4 levels is nigh impossible to overcome and that trend continues at least into the 3X's. Everyone is counting on crafting gear to save the itemization, going to be funny when people find out that crafted shit uses the exact same "look" as pvp shit which uses the same look as rift shit which uses the same look as quest shit. Only Korean f2p's have less satisfying paper doll aspects. There are a handful of weapons that look cool but the armor is bland with a capital b.

[Draegan]

I'm curious as to how you spent 5 hours of play time inside the newbie instance only.

It wasn't 5 continuous hours of gaming. I played while grading exams.  It was probably more like 90 continuous minutes.  I should have been more clear.

That makes more sense.

[Draegan]

The blue shards are easy to come by when the zone isn't overcrowded. They seem awarded based on participation and only happen in bonus stages (rarely on a major rift complete)

It's the epic shards I have a complaint about. They only drop from zone event bosses, only with high participation numbers, and in later zones you needed 3 or so to buy anything. So at 34ish on my mage, I had 2 of them from every zone I'd outleveled that I'd never be able to do anything with.

Are the essences still available for purchase?  They are worth far more than the armor.

Edit: Those complaining about the simplicity of Rifts are underestimating what the game has got to show you.  Just wait until you see what they cook up in the later parts of the game.  They don't throw overly complex systems at you right away.

Editx2:

What's not being mentioned is that if you enter a 10-19 BG with 10-15 toon you are literally worthless and the team with more worthless guys has a huge disadvantage. +4 levels is nigh impossible to overcome and that trend continues at least into the 3X's. Everyone is counting on crafting gear to save the itemization, going to be funny when people find out that crafted shit uses the exact same "look" as pvp shit which uses the same look as rift shit which uses the same look as quest shit. Only Korean f2p's have less satisfying paper doll aspects. There are a handful of weapons that look cool but the armor is bland with a capital b.

They add bolstering for BGs so you get bumped up in power if you're lower in the bracket.

[Segoris]

Now, I enjoy the game and am going to be cat-assing in for the headstart, but I have to comment on the bolster being the solution - it's not. Too many abilities for dps use weapon damage + X% or + X amount, meaning that level 10 person just lasted another 2-3 hits while still not doing any damage. The bolster is nice, but I notice at least for levels 10-30 the scaling of damage and healing for most souls is bad. Some do very well (saboteurs and bards for example).

[Threash]

What's not being mentioned is that if you enter a 10-19 BG with 10-15 toon you are literally worthless and the team with more worthless guys has a huge disadvantage. +4 levels is nigh impossible to overcome and that trend continues at least into the 3X's. Everyone is counting on crafting gear to save the itemization, going to be funny when people find out that crafted shit uses the exact same "look" as pvp shit which uses the same look as rift shit which uses the same look as quest shit. Only Korean f2p's have less satisfying paper doll aspects. There are a handful of weapons that look cool but the armor is bland with a capital b.

Complete and utter bullshit in no way representing reality.  My sab was top damage and kills at level 12, and only because i didn't start earlier.

[kildorn]

Someone up above mentioned that itemization is wonky at lower levels for PVP.  You don't even see gear available on vendors until level 25.  How it compares to the PvE stuff is an exercise I'll leave to someone actually buying the game.

There's no gear until 25. There's usually only one item every 5ish levels available as well. And it doesn't rotate through slots, it's just *random item for that rep*

So while you get xp, my judgement on leveling via pvp is: so not viable.

edit: they mostly fixed the level brackets via bumping everyone to ~1 level under the bracket. The only part that sucks is that since the game still uses a rank system for skills, you will always do slightly less damage/healing/whatever than a "real" level whatever.

[Nebu]

So while you get xp, my judgement on leveling via pvp is: so not viable.

Thank you for that.  So PvE game with PvP tacked on is the standard here.  I'll treat it as such.

[Dark_MadMax]

2) Can you level to endgame in Rifts on PvP alone?  Will your gear suck if you attempt to do it?  How tied are PvE and PvP?  

Getting my PvP gear through PvE would make me very very stabby.  

You can level entirely on rifts and its faster than questing (when the rifts are there thats it ) -provided you have  a guild doing it (you  cant exactly solo or  5 ppl even a minor rift efficiently). You can level off pvp as well albeit its very slow. No idea about gear-   I get some gear from  various sources and it worked up to lvl 42 so far. All in all I dont see leveling as being worth discussing .You can hit lvl 50 in a week or two of casual play. I mean I started in beta 4 and my time played for lvl 42 is 3 days. And  Lots of it was spent dicking around .

[kildorn]

So while you get xp, my judgement on leveling via pvp is: so not viable.

Thank you for that.  So PvE game with PvP tacked on is the standard here.  I'll treat it as such.

If someone feeds you gear/money for gear it can work, just.. they really dropped the ball with the sub level cap pvp gear vendors.

That said, you can get some NICE toys from the pvp quest chains. There's a daily that gives you a random green (meh), but like, if you do the 3 black garden quests (win, kill flag carrier, and something else), you get a "win 5" quest that gives you a blue weapon equivalent to the best you can get out of silverwood/rifting at that level.

[Hoax]

Complete and utter bullshit in no way representing reality.  My sab was top damage and kills at level 12, and only because i didn't start earlier.

I was 3 shotting level 14 and lower without any problems with far from a minmaxed build in the lowest bracket. Ditto the next bracket at 29, it was a pretty bad joke. When I did BG under leveled it felt the same, people could dispatch me with ease and my damage was pretty anemic.

[kildorn]

Complete and utter bullshit in no way representing reality.  My sab was top damage and kills at level 12, and only because i didn't start earlier.

I was 3 shotting level 14 and lower without any problems with far from a minmaxed build in the lowest bracket. Ditto the next bracket at 29, it was a pretty bad joke. When I did BG under leveled it felt the same, people could dispatch me with ease and my damage was pretty anemic.

This patch? I started warfronts at about 13 with my riftblade, and was happily topping charts the whole time. But my stormcaller even at the level cap for the warfront feels like he gets 3 shot by anything that glances at me while dealing really sad damage.

[Ingmar]

Stormcalling weak, hm, where I have I heard that before.

[Threash]

Complete and utter bullshit in no way representing reality.  My sab was top damage and kills at level 12, and only because i didn't start earlier.

I was 3 shotting level 14 and lower without any problems with far from a minmaxed build in the lowest bracket. Ditto the next bracket at 29, it was a pretty bad joke. When I did BG under leveled it felt the same, people could dispatch me with ease and my damage was pretty anemic.

This is more likely spec than level, a lower level is still at a disadvantage but they are not a detriment to their team or unable to contribute like you implied.  Specially if built well.

[kildorn]

Stormcalling weak, hm, where I have I heard that before.

Hah. They're actually tied for top dps spec, but mages in general are at daoc levels without the baseline stuns or obscene damage if ignored. So, not like daoc at all, except completely unable to cast spells <3

[Pennilenko]

I preordered. It should be a fun enough diversion for at least 6 months.

[snowwy]

Tried a few "classes" so far. Champion is decent fun, but seems gimped to all the flame spear-chucking tards out there. Tried stormcaller to 16.....not impressed. Doing a druid atm, seems OK i guess.
Then again, i'm not reading up on latest Flavor of the BetaX-builds. Can't find the fun in Rifts, just as others said, tab, 1, tab 1, tab, 1 ...zzzzzzzzzz. Still slightly tempted to pre-order though...hope i have the willpower not to.....

[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?

[Threash]

Get to 13 and do the quest for the other souls, they are very simple.  All you have to do is finish a rift for each soul you want to unlock.  Then either buy a new role from your trainer or just reset your souls.

[Lakov_Sanite]

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.