2011

Leveling the Alts and Quiet Days #RiftGame

stargrace September 1, 2011 2Comments

Foul Cascade – it’s nice every once in a while to take a break from the mindless slaughter of evil denizens and look up to the sky. This was the sight that greeted me in the Scarlet Gorge instance and I have to say I was quite impressed with what I saw. It’s amazing the little details that go into this game and every day no matter how many times I’ve been to a zone before I can still spot something that makes me go ‘ohh’ when I look at it.

Yesterday was the day. The day my dragon tear mount FINALLY hit level 50 and morphed into a useable mount instead of just the swirling orb that I’ve had in my inventory for the past few weeks. I farmed dragon tears as much as I could as well as doing my weekly quest (you need to level it 49 times, and are granted 8 levels via quest a week with a random chance for a level item to drop from dragon motes and rifts) – I was expecting some sort of awesome achievement for completing this task but alas, there was none. Still, the mount is cute looking and fits in well with the others of my collection.

Yesterday guild quests and weekly crafting quests re-set, so I spent a fair amount of time working on that. I didn’t earn any plaques (boo) but I did partake in a few crafting rifts over in Shimmersand. There’s one Guardian guild (Wildfire) who always seem to be there working on Rifts, which is nice to see.

My mage finally reached level 30 – only another 20 levels to go. I’ve been leveling her through dungeons alone while bonus experience for kills has been in affect, so I haven’t leveled her via the same quest grind that I did the first time to 50 with the cleric. I worked on my warrior a tad last night as well, and made it out of the starter tutorial. Level 8, and I’ve probably died on that character more then any of my other characters did. I also noticed how incredibly empty the starter zones are now.

I hope everyone has an amazing September 1st, no matter where you find yourself! Happy gaming.

Rift Extends Their Half-Birthday Celebration #RiftGame

stargrace August 31, 2011 2Comments

Half Birthday Bonuses Extended!

UPDATE 8/30: We know many of you have been weathering out the storm on the east coast – so we’re keeping the subscriber bonuses turned on an extra week, you now have until September 6th to enjoy all the bonuses to XP, Guild XP, Favor, Prestige, Planarite, and dugeon & raid currencies. Have fun!

Another indication that you’ll never be able to satisfy everyone in any game, ever. There are a few posts on the birthday celebration thread complaining about the bonus that Trion has set out for players because experience (and rewards) are a bit too much for them. These players feel that the game is being made too easy, and I can see where they’re coming from as there’s no way to reduce your experience gain (a-la EQ2 for example, with the ability to turn off quest and leveling experience). On that same subject I really think it was nice of Trion to extend these bonuses for those who have been without power due to hurricane Irene these past few days, allowing them the chance to partake. Personally? I’m excited, I wanted to get my mage a few more levels (30 would be grand) and I’m having fun earning guild experience and doing rifts where the planarite is more then I’ve ever seen before. Does it diminish how difficult the game is? Not for me personally. It’s not making dungeons any easier, and while it is nice to be getting bonus plaques on a steady basis from raids (and dungeons) I can earn them with my guild bonus to begin with (which incidentally does not stack with the birthday celebrations) so I don’t personally feel that it’s too over powered. The only instance where I feel it MIGHT be a bit too much is in PvP – but then there’s a large patch coming to change PvP gear to be less relevant to PvE which I’m all for. I don’t think players should be able to grind to rank 8 in PvP and use that gear to raid in PvE (sorry guys).

I finished off a guild quest yesterday and it boosted us half way through level 10 which I was happy to see. Today quests re-set and I’m hoping we get an easy one (guild consists of three members) and I’m looking forward to doing my crafting weeklies as well as (queue the music) obtaining my dragon tear mount – today I should be able to level it to 50! Finally. Excited? Yes, yes I am.

I hope everyone else is having a wonderful week, no matter where you find yourself. Happy gaming!

A Day of Dailies

stargrace August 30, 2011 2Comments

I’m not going to sugar coat it, yes, I’m avoiding EQ2 at the moment. The latest game update has me so incredibly discouraged that instead of logging in I’ve been finding other things to do – oh, except I can’t actually log in because my guild hall is one of many affected by a bug that prevents anyone from entering / loading the hall. I already petitioned once to free my characters and then was met by the bug a second time later on in the weekend. Even if I wanted to play, I wouldn’t be able to. I’m hoping that with today’s patch more things get fixed, and as my sadness with GU61 dies down I’ll find the desire to play. In the mean time – Rift!

Yesterday I took the day to meander around and work on little odds and ends that had been collecting in my quest journal. I finished off the major chain in IPP, and then farmed Rifts for dragon tears and guild quest updates (as well as planarite, I’m trying to save up 25k). I did my daily PvP quests, DRR, daily crafting quests, daily IPP quests, and daily dragon tear quests. I purchased the rest of my PvP gear (the stuff I can wear at least, I’m only rank 2 so far) and I’m sporting a little over 400 valor although that doesn’t seem to stop players from killing me almost instantly in some cases. I spent the majority of my evening helping out with PvP Rifts in IPP, which was a lot of fun (despite the deaths). I also saved up enough dragon tears to purchase Gil, a cute little frog-like creature. I’m working on leveling up my mount and have another 15 levels to go which is not so bad.

I’m sad to see the half birthday event come to a close, it’s been nice to get bonus plaques while doing dungeons and the extra favor and other rewards sure have been nice. I didn’t get my mage to 30, but 27 is still a nice comfortable level for an alt. I hope everyone else had a great weekend, no matter where you spent it.

Happy gaming!

Bringing Out the Alts #RiftGame

stargrace August 28, 2011 2Comments

I don’t have a lot of incentive to play alts in Rift because my cleric can quite literally ‘do it all’ when it comes to adventuring. The only reason I created one of each arch-type in the beginning was in order to have multiple crafters (although if I had it my way players would be able to choose as many crafting options as they want). With the 6 month birthday celebration in place there is also a 100% bonus to experience from kills, and so I’ve been playing my lower level characters to take advantage of it. My mage is now level 26, and is quite fun to play. She also happens to be a 300 apothecary, and has the ports to most of the major cities.

Thanks to a guild rally banner I also managed to find myself in Shimmersand at level 24, doing level 50 crafting rifts. I didn’t earn any plaques (blast it!) but I did get a nice selection of crafting materials. I purchased the recipe for black dye, and have been selling it on the broker for 7p a piece which is netting me some nice income on my lowbie mage. I think both my cleric and my mage have around 50p to their name now, which is no small amount for me. My rogue is still sitting at level 14 or so, I have no real desire to play that character and I’m not quite sure why. I did level her to a 300 outfitter, but I haven’t obtained the ports to the higher level cities yet, so I haven’t been doing her daily quests. Perhaps after a while I will.

I’ve been contemplating trying the guardian side of things, perhaps on another server. I haven’t made up my mind yet but Shadefallen and Faeblight both come to mind. I have characters there already, so we shall see I suppose.

I hope all my friends on the East Coast are keeping safe with the hurricane moving through. We’re getting wind and rain here in Ottawa but it’s more east then I am and will be hitting the Maritimes. As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!