One way in which the game differs from WoW is actually a regression, IMO. WoW got rid of skill ranks before Cataclysm came out, but Rift still uses them. So every couple levels you have to hit the trainer.
The upside is that one trainer serves an entire calling, so there’s only 4 trainers to deal with, and as a result there’s a lot of them around. Especially in the level 6-20 areas, there’s a group of trainers at every quest hub.
Ranger is actually one of the best solo classes, the boar is a great tank.
Well, bought the game on Steam and now downloading it, so we’ll see how it goes. I’ll have to see if there are any websites with standard specs for the kind of character I want to play. I looked over that spec calculator, but there are so many options that I have no idea what I should pick to build out a character like I want.
-XT
Respeccing is cheap and easy, and you have more than one spec available even early on. How did your first night go?
It went ok. I made it to level 4. I figured out how to train, how to sell, how to distribute soul points (I just put them into the pet for now) and got a second soul (marksman).
Some weird things though. Sometimes when I’m running in one direction, the game will suddenly jump for no apparent reason and I’ll be running or facing a different direction. It’s pretty annoying and a bit disorienting. I’m not sure if I like the graphics or not yet…it’s certainly different than WoW or even WAR, which are the last MMORPGs I’ve played. A lot of the stuff seems very WoW like, which is what I expected from this thread.
It looks like I can just log out anywhere…is that correct? Are there some sort of bonus exps if I log out in a certain place?
I’m definitely going to play some more tonight. Some of the stuff is probably going over my head. I’ve seen a bunch of sparkly books on the ground and picked them up. Right clicking on them says they are added to my collection…not sure if that’s significant or not. I also have seen a lot of sparkly posters, but reading them doesn’t seem to do more than give me some information that I don’t have any context for.
-XT
That used to happen a lot to me during beta, it went away though. Someone told me it was my mouse, do you use a cordless?
At level four you can, you are not out of the tutorial zone yet.
It’s all basically lore fluff. After the tutorial zone you get to collect artifacts that are like easter egg hunts on every zone, basically more fluff but a fun thing to do if you are into exploring.
[QUOTE=DigitalC]
That used to happen a lot to me during beta, it went away though. Someone told me it was my mouse, do you use a cordless?
[/QUOTE]
Yes, a cordless mouse. I’ve never had this problem with other games though. Like I said, it’s a bit disorienting to be running in one direction, then to suddenly be facing another direction.
Ah, that makes sense then.
Cool. Yes, I like exploring. I actually enjoy that as much or more as doing quests and such.
-XT
You can log out anywhere, but you’ll only get rested XP if you log out in the capital city for each side: Sanctum for Guardians and Meridian for Defiants. It takes about the same amount of time to get to the city as it does in WoW, maybe a little longer. I know on the Defiant side you’re given a quest to go to Meridian by level 15, but there’s nothing stopping you from going there earlier.
Actually, you will get rested XP if you log out in the inns in some major towns (Argent Glade in Silverwood, for example).
Of course, they’re usually right next to the portal, and the banks/AH/etc are all back at the main city, so I pretty much always just end up back at Sanctum anyway.
Yes it is, it bugged the hell out of me when it happened. It doesn’t anymore now that i don’t use a cordless mouse, you might try their forums for some help.
What are the plus signs on the mini-map? I seem them from time to time but no idea what they are supposed to signify.
-XT
Healers.
Every time you die, you lose 10% of your soul. If you have 0% and you die again, you get major penalties to your stats. You go see healers and pay a fee to mend your soul to 100%. It serves the same purpose as gear durability does in WoW: cash sink and a brake on your gameplay by making you stop after a string of deaths.
OK, so xtisme isn’t the only new RIFTer from this weekend. I also grabbed the game as well. Is there an SDMB server/guild? I didn’t see one in the pinned list on top of the Game Room Forums. Plus, anybody want to get together and grind a few levels?
Yes; there’s a resting area in every zone, as far as I know, although they’re not always nicely marked. Look for the “rested” buff icon (sort of like a greenish new moon).
But I set my “hearth” to Sanctum and simply teleport back there before I log off, to dump stuff into the bank and AH. Using the ports to get back to the zone you’re questing in is cheap and fast.
There’s a button next to the minimap that let’s you set exactly what icons appear in it. I suggest turning on “low level quest” so you don’t miss anything. There are some nice quest chains that start with seemingly minor quests. And if you do many rifts or invasions (and you should!), you’ll outlevel the quests of your zone.
There’s at least three Dopers playing Guardian on Estrael, purely by happenstance. See this thread. I’m “Sublime”. I’m always happy to group up, but my playtime is often limited.
I picked up mining, but there doesn’t seem to be anything on the mini-map telling me if there are resources…do you just have to spot them visually? I don’t see any way to turn on resources on the mini-map.
Also, I found two things called artifacts…no idea what they are for though.
-XT
Oh man, that frustrated me when I first got it, too.
When you learning Mining, or either of the other two gathering professions, you get Track skills. It’s not like WoW where you just flag or unflag the tracking status on the minimap. You click the Track skill, and it’ll place a buff on you. The tracked material will then show up on your minimap. To turn it off, you need to right-click the buff. Mining tracks Ore, Butchery tracks butcherable animals, and Foraging has two tracking skills, one for Plants and one for Wood.
The upside is that the buff stays on permanently until you take it off. It’ll persist through disconnection and death.
If you right-click the artifact, it’ll pop up your collection window and show you the spot you can click on to put the artifact in. (Seems like an unnecessary step; rightclicking the artifact should just put the artifact in your collection, but I digress.) When you’ve collected all the artifacts in a specific collection, you can go to an Artifact Collector in your main city and turn in the collection for tokens or a prize.
In fact, if you find the Artifact Collector, they should send you on a small quest within the city and you’ll be able to make a set right away. At least, I know that’s possible in Meridian, don’t know about Sanctum.
Artifacts are very much an optional part of the game. It’s a giant worldwide Easter egg hunt, and you’re usually rewarded by looking in out-of-the-way places.
The extra step is there because some artifacts can go into more than one collection. You choose which one.
There is an intro artifact collection quest in Sanctum, too. I think there’s a special achievement for completing the collection in the other capital city.
Don’t throw away artifacts you’ve already collected. There’s a thriving market for them on the auction house. I typically sell my for about 10g each, but the rare ones can go for a lot more.
Aha. I haven’t run into those yet. Every artifact I’ve picked up has belonged to a single set. (Of course, my highest level is 22, because I keep rolling new characters while waiting for my friend to catch up.)
Yeah, a friend with more experience in the game suggested posting for 1s/10g buyout and seeing what comes of it. I got a fair bit of gold for it, but I don’t typically go out of my way to amass large collections.
On the other hand, another friend filled her packs with stacks and stacks of artifacts to sell. Bad idea when the auction house is modeled after WoW’s but doesn’t have anything like Auctioneer or Postal to mitigate the repetition of posting auctions or retrieving mail. :smack: