Rift

Getting The Quest Completion Achievement in Stonefield #Rift

stargrace May 30, 2011 5 Comments

You’d think that after all of my adventures in Stonefield, I’d be eager to leave it behind. However; there was one achievement that still eluded me that I REALLY wanted to get – and it was the achievement for quests in Stonefield. 87 in total. Now, typically when you work on this achievement it happens naturally over the course of questing and you even end up with extra quests still to complete. Not the case in Stonefield. I had been sitting at 3 missing quests for quite some time now and I just could not for the life of me figure out what I was missing. Turns out I wasn’t the only one. In fact had I not done a search for this specific issue, I doubt I’d have completed at all.

Two of my missing quests were quite simple. One happened to be the quest over top of Deepstrike mines that I had forgotten about. I saw the quest on my way out of the instance the one time I had done it but it didn’t exactly click at the time. I went back and completed it, and then headed to another hub where I found my second missing quest, unlocked once I’d completed the first one.

The third and final missing quest remained a mystery for the better part of the day. Thanks to some amazing searching my better half stumbled into a video that showed us exactly where it was I needed to go. See that scaffolding pictured above? Yep. It’s on the very top of that and it’s not easy to get to. I spent the better part of an hour playing super mario with the scaffolding, making my way slowly to the top. Once you’re up there you’ll see a glowing pickaxe laying down that you can pick up.

For one portion of the scaffold climb, it was in my best interest to mount and jump into the corner on the outer edge of the scaffolding. A game of balance and many falls later (where I almost died, numerous times because taking ANY falling damage in Rift seems to be extreme).

Like I said, it wasn’t an easy climb at all. But well worth it!

Finally!

That completed the achievement for Stonefield for me, and I was happy to do so. My cleric is now level 35, half way to 36. I’ve been questing in Moonshade (I believe that’s the name of the zone, I could be mistaken, but it does start with moon at least) which is a very nice change to Scarlet Gorge and Stonefield. I’m really eager to hit the 40’s and to be able to join in more adventures with my guild mates. This weekend I helped them do Iron Tombs on their alts, but healing it at level 35 wasn’t exactly a challenge. I’m still glad everyone had fun.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Lets Talk Cleric Builds #Rift

stargrace May 29, 2011 1 Comment

I spent most of yesterday cursing the zone Scarlet Gorge. I thought Stonefield was bad, but Scarlet Gorge is much worse for defiant characters. There’s so few quests in this zone over all that there’s no achievement for completing them (to start things off). The best way to get up north (which is all Guardian might I add) and hence to the dungeon located up there, is to go from the zone above and head South. I was lucky enough to get a guild run through Foul Cascade and completed two quests within the zone. I noticed that the defiant zones are all very dark and .. dark. I’m looking forward to trying a guardian counterpart once I hit 50 on the cleric.

I ended up purchasing the Templar PvP soul with the intention of trying it out and perhaps purchasing a fourth soul build some time down the road. I can only put 10 points into it until I hit Rank 2, except I don’t even know what is required to hit rank 2. I matched it with a purifier / justicar mix (most of my points into purifier for aoe heals) and justicer for some survivability. I heal in PvP Warfronts, it’s just what I’m most comfortable doing.I like being able to snare anyone who attacks me, and reflect their damage back at them for a limited time. I’m still not sure if it was worth it to pick up, but it’s neat to try it out.

I also changed my main solo / duo spec quite a bit. I dropped druid, and picked up shaman. I’m now using a justicar (barely, 11 points into this) / shaman (most of my points spent here), sentinel build (I wanted a few single target heals) which is working out VERY well for me. My dps is much higher then it was before and I still have good survivability. I’m very pleased with the changes and hopefully I won’t be regretting them any time soon, hehe.

My third spec is my dungeon spec. I have a sentinel / purifier / warden build with most of my points into sentinel / warden. I’ve had this spec since I created my character and it’s a comfortable (and easy) heal spec without a lot of complications. I have a few group heals at my disposal for when AoE’s hit, but other wise I’m concentrating on single target heals.

I would like to add a fourth soul to the mix, but at 21 plat it will be a little while coming. I have the coin right now (barely) but that would mean not having enough coin to purchase anything else I may need. My crafting is quickly approaching the 200 mark, which means only 100 more to go after that. I’ve been focused on completing quests, so I haven’t ventured into areas above my level yet (in fact most areas are below my level by quite a bit) but I’m not in a rush and I know I’ll get there eventually. Yesterday I finished the puzzle in Scarlet Gorge (pictured above) – it was a lot of fun, and I got a nice upgrade of some gloves (blues) woohoo.

Anyhow, enough rambling for today. Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

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

stargrace May 27, 2011 2 Comments

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!