Like many others this week, I decided to poke back into Rift when it went free to play. There were a few issues on starting day like loyalty not being there for everyone and some very long queues, but most gamers are used to these sort of issues and they were not too bad. I picked up with my level 50 cleric not knowing what the heck I was doing, or where I should go. I was reluctant to start over with another character because I really wanted to attempt 60 on the cleric, and I’ve worked really hard on her crafting and other skills. Plus I have one of everything, so I just wasn’t keen on starting another of everything.
Thanks to the cookie cutter soul builds it didn’t take that long to understand what I was doing. You hit buttons, stuff happens. I’m in a dps / solo spec right now that gives me enough heals to stay alive and enough dps that I don’t feel like an hour has passed before anything dies. I decided to queue for some instant adventures after picking up a daily (weekly?) quest for it, which were a lot of fun. It just drops you into a random group in a random zone, and off you go. I think for mine we were in Stonefield. It also mentors you down, so I think I was level 25. It wasn’t a whole lot of experience, but it was a fantastic refresher on “what to do” in game.
Afterward I decided to start the Storm Legion content. I know there’s Ember Island, but I had heard that the experience there didn’t quite measure up, and since Storm Legion came out after, a lot of the gear is also just not worth it. I may adventure there at another time, or when I’m looking for some place new.
I was looking forward to getting my skills above 300 as they’ve been raised with the level increase – however, I won’t be able to afford that for quite some time. Looks like they cost 11 plat each to train, plus the cost of recipes, and I have a grand total of 10 plat to my name. It looks like money has gone through a bit of an overhaul though and it’s far easier to get coin these days than ever before. Perhaps with a few more quests under my belt I’ll be able to afford to train up.
I also have a lot of crafting lures on me, but I’m not sure where people go any more to complete those. I’ll have to ask in channel.
All in all, I’m really happy to be back – enough so that I signed up for Patron (a subscription) just to enjoy the perks and earn more loyalty as I play. You can find me on the Faeblight server as Seduisant. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!
Adding: For Rogue, the Tactician/Marksman and Ranger/Marksman combos work quite well for soloing too. Tactician leverages its torrent abilities, and the Ranger has a tanking pet so you can blink away at range.
@Gdub — There are suggested solo specs for each calling that are all “good starters.”
For warrior, put 4 points into Warlord before anything else (this gives you a heal on strike passive ability). 2nd soul is any of the dps souls (usually Champion for the AE capability, but Paragon or Riftblade work too), and 3rd soul is Tempest (for the range!). Build up points in Warlord until you have 11 for the “block with no shield” ability, or even 12 for the charge ability, then put all the rest in your dps soul.
For the rogue, the 1st 4 points go into Tactician for the “heal when you are hit” ability. The next 8 points go into Riftstalker for the “heal when you kill something” ability. And the 3rd soul is generally Nightblade or Bladedancer. NB has some range where BD has more AE capabilities, so.. up to you.
For mage, 8 points Chloromancer for the “heal when using life spells” ability, then the rest in Harbinger. Yes, melee is the preferred solo build for mage anymore. Though Necromancer/Warlock, or Elementalist/Pyromancer are both viable as well, it’s just that the “Chlorbinger” is definitely “easier.”
Finally, for cleric, so long as Justicar is your 3rd soul so that you get some small heals on every hit that you do, you’re pretty much fine. That said, the “easiest” combos are Justicar up to 16 points for its AE strike, the rest in Druid and then use the Justicar attacks to maximize self heals and the druid buffs on non-physical damage. Deep Inquisitor with 16 in Defiler (for its tank pet) is also well liked (justicar as 3rd soul with no points), Shaman with 16 in Defiler is also nice if you like melee, or a deep Defiler build with the extra points in Inquisitor also works quite well.
What you may notice about all these “solo specs” is that they have their secondary and possibly tertiary souls with just a few points for self-heals, survivability, or both, and then some leeway in the primary soul, but you want a dps soul there so that your kill times aren’t insanely long.
*sniffle* I miss the old days when a Reaver/Paladin tank build also did amazing AE dps with big self heals. That one got nerfed to oblivion. Paladin/Rifblade was another lovely solo build, but it’s just not really any good anymore :-(
So I just downloaded the F2P Rift, and having never played it before, I don’t have any of the loyalty stuff, but that’s completely fine with me. I was wondering if you had any recommendations on what a good starter class/build would be? I know a couple of people who play the game, but I will probably solo a bit before I get into the swing of things.
I went back to Rift with the expansion and leveled 3 toons to 60, and another to 56 before drifting off. I logged in this weekend and was fairly impressed with all the new cosmetic option in the store. Not sure I feel so great about the ability to buy blue-level dungeon gear, but it’s also not “the top of the line” either so.. not worried about it overall. Spent some fun time in the Dendrome seeing the new “stronghold” things and zone events. Not sure if/when I plan to log in again, but it was an enjoyable Saturday morning.
Welcome back. :). My biggest beef with rift currently is how godawful slow 50-60 feels compared to 1-50 before SL released. Even using xp buffs the amazing xp of instant adventures is painfully slow. All in all Rift is one of the best MMO options out there. I just bought 2 new character slots cause the I guess OCD in me didn’t like that I couldn’t have all 4 classes on both sides on one server. ;). I got a lot of leveling to do now. Defiant 56 rogue 50 mage and warrior 18 cleric. Guardian 50 rogue and cleric 16 mage and 5 warrior. Heh. Yes. I am an altoholic.