posted
So I just hit level 30 in this MMO. I'm pretty impressed; it might be the least buggy release I've seen.
First thing to know is this is largely a WoW clone. The look and feel of things are pretty similar. The gameplay will be nothing terribly new to any experienced MMO player. That said, the game is very pretty. The textures, colors, and atmospheric effects are all very nice, and combine for some impressive environments.
The major difference in this game is the class system. You can have up to 3 classes at a time, investing in each tree as much or little as you want. There's a great potential for hybridization, as you might guess. That's a lot of room for customization, but the game takes it further. The combination of 3 classes you take is called a "role." You can have several different roles built, and you can switch them anytime you're not in combat.
I have to say I love this system. It lets you easily try out other classes (one of my favorite parts of this type of game) without the pain of levelling them individually. It also allows you to, say, have a healing role in pvp or dungeons, but not be gimped while soloing.
Anyone else here played it? What do you think?
(Samp, I recall you saying you were working on an MMO. Any chance this was it?)
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posted
The only gripe I have about so much customization is that you can easily shoot yourself in the foot if you don't spend some serious time analyzing your choices for trees. I had a big a problem in the beta test, as early as level 7 with abilities that were essentially the same, but with different kinds of damage. I have a lot of trouble managing all my abilities in WOW, but Rift would have been a nightmare by level 60, unless you just dump abilities in favor of the ones you get later, but even then, what if I wasted talent points in them early on?
Not that I'm just looking to be the best at what I do, I'm all for options, but even the suggested trees often felt wrong when I started investing in them.
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BB, I also found the choices daunting. What I've been doing is largely playing each class by itself to get a feel for it. It's only really recently that I've felt comfortable with hybridizing more.
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quote:(Samp, I recall you saying you were working on an MMO. Any chance this was it?)
I wish, and I considered it, but I don't think I would have wanted to be a grunt level tester for RIFT. The issues of class balance alone would have, in my eyes, been an insurmountable and neverending headache. I don't have any clue how they managed to make it as passable as they did, but they did so largely by turning the skill trees into a quiz with plenty of wrong answers. That's bad design, so far.
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Hmm..I haven't experienced that much myself, but I can imagine how it could be a problem at higher levels.
Like you, I cannot imgaine how they plan on balancing things.
I should add at PvP is a bit lackluster, largely for reasons you've touched on. Individual players, who've clearly figured out something the rest of us haven't, often end up swinging the outcome of matches dramatically.
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posted
PVP is exactly what I expected it to be, since they set up a system wherein real class balance is effectively impossible during the server level-up phases.
If not entirely.
It's had the result of causing people who rolled mages to either re-roll or quit in protest, since they have been gimped since day one. PVP at 50 is flat-out terrible, with plenty of drama over unbalanced class skills (Hi, Riftblades) and a terrible buff/debuff management and visual inventory system.
Now, I am still amazed that they could make it work as well as they did, and I'm watching them intently to see how well they can possibly pull it off, since they've done better with it than AoC/WAR did with more traditional systems, but I've been skeptical since day one and have long since abandoned being an early adopter for any MMO. We'll see.
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Hmm. I've been playing a mage, and I haven't felt gimped yet.
The healing class you can take as a mage, incidentally, is very difficult to play, but a lot of fun. It's one of the more interesting healing systems I've seen.
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quote:Originally posted by Juxtapose: Hmm. I've been playing a mage, and I haven't felt gimped yet.
They really are terrible compared to every other class, it's been a major source of drama and headaches.
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quote:Originally posted by Samprimary: PVP is exactly what I expected it to be, since they set up a system wherein real class balance is effectively impossible during the server level-up phases.
If not entirely.
It's had the result of causing people who rolled mages to either re-roll or quit in protest, since they have been gimped since day one. PVP at 50 is flat-out terrible, with plenty of drama over unbalanced class skills (Hi, Riftblades) and a terrible buff/debuff management and visual inventory system.
I don't know why but I just had the biggest deja vu reaction I've ever experienced reading this. It was eery, I think I knew exactly what you were going to say through the entire quoted section.
I better go to bed before my psychic powers can fully manifest.
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quote:Originally posted by Juxtapose: Hmm. I've been playing a mage, and I haven't felt gimped yet.
They really are terrible compared to every other class, it's been a major source of drama and headaches.
Seems like Trion thought so too. Mages got a general damage boost and push-back reduction in the latest patch.
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I'm currently a level 42 Warlock/Necromancer/Archon and I am loving it. I simply don't die. I can take on 4 enemies at once, end the fight with full life, and gain all my mana back after the fight in a matter of seconds.
Most of my points are in Necromancer so I get the Skeleton Knight, but I have about 13 points in Warlock as well for the extra Damage over Time spells.
I'm actually not as gimped in PVP as a mage as others are. Since I can keep myself alive so long while dealing out a ton of damage, I usually do very well. I'm usually in the top 5 damage dealers for both sides combined.
I am also really loving the rifts and invasions that just pop up.
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quote:Originally posted by Juxtapose: Hmm. I've been playing a mage, and I haven't felt gimped yet.
They really are terrible compared to every other class, it's been a major source of drama and headaches.
Seems like Trion thought so too. Mages got a general damage boost and push-back reduction in the latest patch.
It's a pretty healthy push. They also made it easier to ride around without being constantly harrassed by trash mobs, which is, as far as I can tell, the most welcome change.
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I've got a 47 cleric, 28 mage, 20 warrior, and 19 rogue on Defiant side of Faeblight. Enjoying it, but not particularly worried about the whole gear grind and whatnot. Right now I'm still mostly exploring the world and experiencing the content. I've got plenty of time to run the expert dungeons later, after all.
I'm enjoying it enough that I canceled my EQ2 sub in favor of Rift. . . .
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I hit 47 last night on my Necro and am trying to get to 50 by this weekend to take more advantage of the world event playing out. I had a blast with some guild mates last night. We must have closed close to a dozen death rifts in our leveling area.
I have a little over 300 of the sourceshards so a couple hundred more and I'll be able to buy the Death's Guise trinket thing. It is Bind on Equip so I may hang onto it for a year or so then sell it for 1,000 platinum.
I was worried about the amount of Planarite I was getting from rifts until I got up into my 40's. Now I am getting over 100 for each rift I close. I'm over 10,000 planarite now. Once I hit 15,000 I'll get my portable Soul Healer, and I'll be unstoppable!
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