May 2011

A Night of Crafting (and a little PvP) #Rift

stargrace May 27, 2011 2Comments

Another busy day in Rift yesterday. As I mentioned in a previous post, crafted gear is really important in Rift but I find the system too simple over all and there for it lowers the value of the gear. So far all crafted gear is better then my equal level adventure quested gear, and better then quite a few dungeon pieces. I even had a pair of blue shoes made that were better then my rare planar boots that I had just purchased (grrr). I have three characters (maybe I’ll add a fourth) and each of them craft. My main (the cleric) is an artificer, and also has mining and foraging. I picked up the quest to add steel to my list of combines yesterday and came across my newest pet peeve. Well, two of them actually. Number one, I have already completed the quest for steel but I keep getting the drop for it. I can’t do anything with it since it’s soulbound and I’ve completed it – but yet the ores keep dropping them. On that same note, the tailor quest keeps dropping from mobs too. I would love it if quests would recognize when you’ve already completed it and stopped dropping and it should not drop for me if I’m not a tailor. I’ve lost track of how many quest starter pieces I’ve deleted.

I got to see my first glimpse of Deepstrike Mines thanks to my other half running me through on his level 50 warrior. I queued along with a friend as heals/dps/tank/support (between the two of us we had everything covered) for approximately two hours and we didn’t even get so much as a nibble. It didn’t matter WHAT we set ourselves as in order to cover the roles of a group, the dungeon just wasn’t going to happen. I wanted to complete the quests before they turned completely gray to me (they were already very green) and so we teamed up and did the dungeon as a duo instead of a full group. I really think the LFDungeon tool needs a LOT of work.

After that was done I was just a bubble shy of 32 so I set out to do some PvP via Warfronts. We lost every single one, and I was the only healer in each of them which means I was ganged up on as soon as any Guardian found out I was the healer. Still, I trudged through each Warfront gleefully, and after a few runs I managed to hit level 32. Pleased with my progress, I’m still making my way through Scarlet Gorge, which is very pretty and seems to have fire rifts at every turn.

I logged back to my crafter characters (one is an apothecary with runebreaking, the other an outfitter) and leveled them each up a few points as well as completed some daily crafting quests. The best part is that those characters are each level 13 and level 8 – and my crafting quests currently send me to Stonefield to turn them in. The first character was lucky enough to get summon via the guild banner, but the 2nd character I decided to walk. She made it without deaths thanks to a few other players running around questing in the early parts of Stonefield (specifically where all those trolls hang out).

Thanks to the other half I also managed to complete the puzzle located in Stonefield which I had never even seen before. It was my first puzzle, and it was a lot of fun – the best part is that it rewarded me with a purple bp that was a major upgrade over what I was wearing. All in all it was a pretty progressive evening, with a lot of fun moments tossed in.

I’ve also built myself a 3rd spec. I mentioned a while back that I was considering this and simply didn’t have the cash to afford a 3rd spec, but I decided now was the time. I’ve now got a single target heal spec for dungeons, an AoE heal spec for Rifts / Raids and I’ve got a dps / tank spec for questing and soloing. They’re taking a little time to get used to but I’m quite happy with my choices. For me it’s not about what’s “best” but what feels “right” for my play style. I spent the better part of an evening testing out different combinations that just didn’t feel right out on the field, so I would tweak them over and over until it felt “right” for me.

Inching my way into the 40’s is a nice experience. I don’t know what I’ll think once I get to 50 and how much there will be for me to do – but we’ll just have to see. Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Goodbye Stonefield, Hello Scarlet Gorge #Rift

stargrace May 26, 2011 3Comments

It’s surprising how fast the levels go when you actually sit down to play Rift – I spent most of my free time yesterday in game, something I haven’t really done since release. I found myself working my way through the quests of Stonefield without too much trouble and before I knew it I had hit level 30 and moved on to the next zone, Scarlet Gorge. No surprise here the zone is red desert like with tall mountains of rock pillars and mining excavations, it looks fantastic. The best part about being in this zone is that while I never once saw a major invasion in Stonefield (and hence never earned any of the shards or stones required for the rare planar gear) I saw a major invasion almost as soon as I entered Scarlet Gorge (granted it WAS prime time US hours, which I don’t typically play) and earned myself two of the blue-type shards. Random note, the icon for the blue shards looks FAR too similar to the purple ones, so when you’re browsing the rare planar merchant it’s difficult to tell which shards you need for which items without actually mousing over the items. I think the blue ones should be given a blue background, instead of the purple one they currently sport.

My crafting is above my adventure level, which is something I’m always happy to see. I can craft up to level 32 items – but I have yet to come across supplies for that tier quite yet, so for now I harvest materials for my daily crafting quests. I’m saving up those artisan tokens for recipes, but I’m not sure if I want to purchase any or just keep saving up until I hit the end levels. So far everything I’ve crafted is far better then my quested rewards – dungeons being the exception along with planar gear and pvp rewards.

The progression is still very linear with some randomness thrown in depending on how you like to play. If you’re in a populated zone you could easily join a raid and bounce around doing nothing but closing Rifts and footholds, and level that way. You could queue for dungeons at the same time, and complete a quest here and there. The problem for me is that if you’re only doing one of these things (or even all three I suppose) it becomes very redundant for alts. I know they’ll have to do the exact same quests that I just completed, and that has put me off playing them. On the other hand they’re also both crafters (I have a mage and scout along with my cleric) and their crafting is far above the levels that they’re adventuring in. It makes doing my crafting dailies quite an adventure as I have to walk from location to location. I try to stick to the roads because being level 7 coming across level 18+ mobs makes for a very painful trip.

When it comes down to it – am I having fun? Yes. I am. I’m excited to be in a new level range, excited that I’m slowly closing the gap between me and my friends, and excited to work on my characters some more. I’ve done a lot of tweaking to my soul specs (I have three now) but I’m going to save those details for another post because I’d like to get into a lot more detail.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Why I’m Not Leveling #Rift

stargrace May 24, 2011 7Comments

The title of this post is not completely true – I did hit level 26 today on my Defiant cleric. I’ve been playing off and on since release and this is my highest level character. Of course I’m playing Rift meshed between a handful of other games and real life, but there’s another reason why I’ve been neglectful in my leveling. Pictured above, the cleric in Stonefield. This zone is almost completely empty every single time I play. It’s me fighting minor rifts alone, me questing alone, and me in the small quest hubs alone. In fact the last few times I’ve played I haven’t seen a single other character around. It makes for some pretty lonely times. Of course, this is also mostly my fault. While everyone else was off leveling and exploring – I was playing other games and so I was left behind. It makes sense, I don’t expect anyone to hang back and wait for me and I state this every time I join a guild, that I tend to take things slower, and do my own thing. Sure, I could use the new LFG tool and get into a dungeon eventually, but I wanted to explore the massive outdoor world. I just wish this tier were not so desolate.

As if it were not bad enough that I never see anyone around me – I also never hear anyone in the public channels for my level or this zone. I enjoy doing my own thing and watching chat filter by, the illusion of being social without actually being social. Except for some reason that doesn’t work here, either. I’m not on Faeblight server which which is where most of my twitter friends ended up, I’m playing on Deepwood – and there ARE lots of players around. Meridian is full(ish) every time I head there. Because there is only one starter zone and progression is so linear and there is no mentoring in game there’s very little reason for folks to want to come back to the lower level zones unless they are working on achievements and collections. One of my major pet peeves has always been seeing huge empty zones – there should always be a reason for a player to go back to a zone within a game. When new zones are added (or levels) they tend to make older zones obsolete.

Needless to say, I haven’t been logging in nearly as much as I’ve wanted to. I do my crafting dailies, as well as the dailies in Meridian, and wander about completing a quest or two before logging out. Hopefully I’ll get inspired enough to work my way out of this tier and the next one will be better.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!