September 2011

Figuring Out My Mage Builds #RiftGame

stargrace September 7, 2011 No Comments

Determined to take advantage of the bonuses remaining from the 6 month anniversary celebration I decided to play my mage a little, and got her to level 37 while working on her mining. I tend to really enjoy achievements even though they don’t really do a whole lot for my characters, and I ended up completing a bunch of them in Stonefield, including dances with squirrels, plop, and a mountain achievement (plus I got the puzzle completed for that zone). It was fun and easy which is exactly what I was looking to do for the evening in-game. I also took her to a few warfronts where I played around with my specs until I found something that was comfortable. When I’m out soloing my spec tends to be an elementalist / chloro spec so I have an awesome tank pet, some nukes, and a few heals. In dungeons I’m either dps which is a stormcaller / elementalist build or I’m support and I use an archon / chloromancer build. My mage isn’t 50 yet so I have no idea what’s best for ‘end game’ but I’m sure I’ll have fun figuring it out. I really like how the dominator plays, and I tried a dominator / choloromancer build for PvP but I couldn’t really get the hang of it. I’m not sure if dungeons even use dominators, it’s a shame if they don’t because I think the class is fantastic.

If you have suggestions on mage builds that work for you at 50, please don’t hesitate to let me know! I’m always eager to learn more and try new specs. Aside from playing around with different builds I spent most of my evening running around after red shinies, quantum sight is fantastic, except there are just WAY TOO MANY shinies in game! I think at this point I’ve only completed 20 collections or so – granted I don’t purchase any from the broker, so they’re all collections I’ve completed myself.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

A Flawless Server Transfer (Including Guild) #RiftGame

stargrace September 6, 2011 5 Comments

Last night I was heading to a quest turn in when I came across a dragon mote. Like I typically do, I stopped to kill it – and low and behold a purple appearance helmet dropped from it! Pictured above, I think it looks pretty swanky and in the countless motes I’ve killed I’ve never gotten it before. I’ve killed a lot of them too as I tried to save up tears for various things. I moved servers – taking the guild I help run along with me (after making sure everyone was ok with it first of course) and moved all my alts too. I had to level my warrior to 15 first before moving, and empty the guild bank but everything went flawless. I was playing defiant on Deepwood (which is a fine server) but have since moved to Shatterbone which has a nice population of active defiant players. I don’t regret the move at all and even had some work crafting the cleric dps rings for players (made a quick 10p in one tip, woohoo). It’s important to me for a server to be active, not just in numbers of players but in actual things going on. When I moved to the new server I saw DRR going on, crafting rifts (which they call crifting?) and numerous faction grinds. Channels are busier then I’m used to seeing, and it’s delightful. Since Trion allows us the ability to move once a week if I didn’t like the server I wasn’t concerned, because I would just move elsewhere at the end of my trial time.

Ogur and I did a few T2 with Shadowgeist, and then Ogur took my baby mage to King’s Breach where I dinged 35. Sadly the birthday celebration bonuses end today but I think I took good advantage of it while it was available (I’ve been trying to break myself of the habit of logging into EQ2, even though they had ‘back to school’ stuff going on – and I actually managed it. Quite frankly I’m tired of forcing myself to enjoy a video game). I’ve been doing my crafting dailies in the hopes that I’ll come across a plaque (artificer) so that I can purchase the stalwart warrior ring – but so far plaques have been unkind to me, whether I open rifts or do dailies. My only guarantee is that I’ll get one Wednesday when I do my lure quest.

The fallout from the PvP changes doesn’t seem too bad yet. Channels of course are making things sound much worse then they are, but I’ve seen plenty of PvP still happening both in warfronts and in the world via rifts. I haven’t participated in them myself since the changes to my rank 1/2 gear but then again I’m not a HUGE PvP player, I tend to take part only when the urge hits me (which it will I’m certain).

Now that I’ve got my cleric specs posted I plan on doing the same with my mage. Although she’s only level 35 so far and it’s difficult to decide what I’ll be using at 50. So far she’s sporting three specs, one is a dungeon dps spec, another is a support / heal spec, and the third is my solo build that I use while I’m out exploring. No doubt I’ll be making numerous changes as time goes on.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself! I Hope everyone was able to enjoy the magnificent holiday weekend.

My Tank/Healing/DPS Specs for Cleric #RiftGame

stargrace September 5, 2011 5 Comments

I threw my back out on Friday and haven’t been able to sit at my desk for any great length of time, so posts and gaming have been neglected on this long holiday weekend. Thankfully today (four days later) I’m feeling about 95% better, so it’s time for things to get back on track! Pictured above, my cleric in King’s Breach, also known as the zone I hate the most. I was healing the expert version of it yesterday and thankfully we beat the final named on the first run. Not everyone survived, but if they can’t move to the location without the spikes before the spikes get them there’s not a whole lot I can do about it. I did switch out my healing spec to another one for the fight though to better help the group.

I typically run with a cookie cutter single target heal spec, it gives me big heals on the tank and two heals for the group. I have an in combat rez which I can not stress enough as being VERY IMPORTANT. If you go into a group as support I highly suggest you have an in combat rez. I don’t understand players who do not. Mages are even luckier, because theirs is on a 5 minute cool down, where as the cleric requires 10. There’s nothing fancy about this 34/32 build, it plays much the same as my WoW discipline cleric, shields are your best friend. I’ve healed all of the T1/T2 dungeons with this spec and have no complaints at all. I have a macro to cure upon mouseover, which is really handy.

I also have an AoE healing build, for Rifts and encounters where the group is taking more damage then I would like, such as the final fight in King’s Breach. This spec also comes with an in combat rez, which I love. Most of my heals are HoT, which is nice when the group is taking damage because you never really need a whole lot of massive single target heals. I use the same mouseover cure button from the previous build, remember you NEED TO CURE group mates.

Then there is my DPS build, the duracell build. It’s made for AoE fights, and as I said before I run this spec with three macros, one for single targets, one for AoE damage, and one for mana regeneration. I never run out of mana and as long as there are numerous mobs around my DPS is amazing (plus you’ve got to love the heals from doctrine). There are videos and a lot of commentary about this spec over on the Rift Forums.

I also have a tank spec in my fourth slot, and if I could afford the 5th build (it’s 100p ouch) I would have that as my pvp build (I recently got rid of it for my tank build). Tanks are tricky creatures to play as a cleric. You do far better at aggro management if you’re dealing with more then one mob, and the heals you proc also help generate threat. Wisdom is the main contributing factor to your block / parry / dodge skills, and a shield is a must. I’m debating getting myself a full tank set of gear, but for now I need to finish off my T2 for heals / dps. I picked up another planar focus so that I can fill it with tank-like planar essences. I need to do a few more DRR before I can purchase the good ones, but I’m feeling confident so far.

There are countless other builds and I wish we had more then five of them on hand at one time (and I wish they were not quite so expensive to unlock). I’ve been running around Freemarch when I can, looking for red shinies with my quantum sight. There are so many blasted shinies in this game!

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!