Thinking about giving Rift a go, a couple quick questions.

[Deleted]

in my opinion, the best class in Rift would be a Cleric. it has very good heals, but can also do great dps, both ranged and melee. On top of that, the cabalist's AOEs really make you feel powerful

Hope you will enjoy it!

[Migey]

If theres one thing I always loved about the game, it was the armor customisation. The dye system was AWESOME. It was so awesome to be raiding with a bunch of guys who all looked awesome, because they wore consistent armor with cool colour schemes. The main warrior tank looked totally badass with a cool helmet, and his entire gear was black with gold highlights, i ran as a cleric in Green/Brown which actually worked very well, etc.

The raiding was also awesome.

I just hope Maelforge/Leathys will be up to Akylios standards...

[Booniehat]

The game as whole is excellent. PVE is also really good from all accounts (my own included). The Soul system is brilliant.

I'd say the weakest point of the game is the PVP. (But that's not saying much as it's still quite good, just not as good as it could be). It's quite unbalanced, made even more so by the current allowance of twinks. Can be frustrating if you are unlucky enough to queue at the same time with a whole load of them. It can feel somewhat like lowbie PVP brackets in WOW. I know alot of people give WOW crap for unbalanced PVP and whatnot but it's really still much better overall. But I'd also say Trion constantly reinvents itself so fast, I won't be surprised to see it get significantly better in a couple patches.

Flavor-wise, the lore is so-so and doesn't really catch my attention as well as the other AAA titles. But this is of course highly subjective, YMMV.

[Adelle]

Heya, I didn't want to post a new topic since there are several already around here but I am hoping someone will reply.

Played Rift last April (yeah a long, long time ago) and leveled a mage to 50. Didn't do much afterwards, came back to playing hardcore WoW and didn't have time for Rift. The game though was really nice and I am willing to go back and play.

My problem is that I don't have any clue anymore about the end-game PvE mage specs and process of gearing up. I'm actually kinda scared to log on my level 50 and ... not know what to do/what to focus on/where to go. Am even willing to level another mage just to get in touch with what's new. The information out there is really spread. Been reading the Rift forums as well - so much info. Can someone give me some tips as to what's the competitive leveling spec/raiding single target spec/raiding AoE spec/raiding mage healer spec at this moment? When me and my friend first bought Rift a year ago I just picked 'souls' from the sound of the discription in-game (didn't really read any forums and guides to tell me what's the best for leveling etc.). Was really into throwing lightnings and electricity (felt powerful, doh) so specced stormcaller/elementalist for leveling and that's how I leveled. Not familiar with the other mage souls much...

Anyway, any short tips that could help me not be like a complete headless chicken in the game would be AWESOME . THANKS in advance!

[Tarien]

Heya, I didn't want to post a new topic since there are several already around here but I am hoping someone will reply.

Played Rift last April (yeah a long, long time ago) and leveled a mage to 50. Didn't do much afterwards, came back to playing hardcore WoW and didn't have time for Rift. The game though was really nice and I am willing to go back and play.

My problem is that I don't have any clue anymore about the end-game PvE mage specs and process of gearing up. I'm actually kinda scared to log on my level 50 and ... not know what to do/what to focus on/where to go. Am even willing to level another mage just to get in touch with what's new. The information out there is really spread. Been reading the Rift forums as well - so much info. Can someone give me some tips as to what's the competitive leveling spec/raiding single target spec/raiding AoE spec/raiding mage healer spec at this moment? When me and my friend first bought Rift a year ago I just picked 'souls' from the sound of the discription in-game (didn't really read any forums and guides to tell me what's the best for leveling etc.). Was really into throwing lightnings and electricity (felt powerful, doh) so specced stormcaller/elementalist for leveling and that's how I leveled. Not familiar with the other mage souls much...

Anyway, any short tips that could help me not be like a complete headless chicken in the game would be AWESOME . THANKS in advance!

For any guides on spec and rotation you should check out Bluedots.org. If you find that too complex then I can probably break it down and give you builds to use for anything you want to do.

I personally have six specs: Single target PyroLock, AoE PyroCaller, Healing ChloroLock (51pt Chloro), PvP PyroDom, Soloing ChloroLock (36/30 split), and a spare build for experimenting or grabbing whatever my guild needs.

I wouldn't level a new mage, while our rotations are a little more complex due to their resistance to macro's they are not that hard to pick up.

As for gear, if you have 100 focus get into expert dungeons (normals and chronicles if you don't) and start farming for gear and plaques. A chronicle is a solo or two man dungeon that takes place inside the raid instances, let's casuals see them and has some nice lore backstory. Once you have 200 focus get into raids and start farming those

You also want to be attending any of the big invasions that come along in Iron Pine Peaks (IPP), Shimmersand, Stillmoor or Ember Isle (EI) (and do the EI quest line for some raid quality epic pants), as you want to be stockpiling ISS to buy the best essences for your sigil. Buy a 6 slot sigil asap with planarite (7500 planarite). Also the current world event see's Molten Ingots dropping from fire and earth invasions and rifts, collect those, the essence that is sold by the world event vendor is considered BiS I think.

[Acquiesce of Telara]

When I first returned to the game a few months back, I considered rolling a new Cleric to get back in touch with the class. What I ended up doing instead was using Ember Isle as a training ground.

If you start running the Ember Isle quest chain, you'll being with fairly weak mobs and they progressively grow more powerful as you follow along. Over the course of a day or so you'll see a nice transition and grow more comfortable with a build. Between the questing, rift invasion events, and occasional groups of mobs, it was pretty much a one-stop-shop for getting my builds together.

[Adelle]

Wow, thanks! I will check out in detail Bluedots.org. Just really didn't want to feel like a complete ^^ headless chicken in a group and drag down the other players...

Edit: Yeah, back in the day the stormcaller rotations were quite complex (was reading guides on the Rift forums for level 50) and I didn't know how to use macros in Rift then. I will look more into it when I actually spec and see how things are going atm. THANKS for help. Will write if any questions :P.

[Leafos]

If you haven't already tried it - you're able to choose 3 sub classes in each meta class e.g;

Mage
-Pyromancer
-Elementalist
-Archon

http://rift.zam.com/ <-- This site will help you with attunements, soul trees and much more.

If you choose to level a Mage then here's a good way to start; http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?rift...s.Vthz0xoAzz.0

[Adelle]

Oh, God, where to start from... I decided not to level a new mage but rather play around with my level 50. Played for a day with my friend and I can safely say it feels like a different game. Did all the three 2-man chronicles available, started on the Ember Isle quests and stumbled upon the Planar Attunements by accident. Tried to read http://bluedots.org/content.php?218-...uide-for-Mages but I'm not sure I understand how is it ment to look... do you start from Attunement of Fire?

Also specced 36 pyro / 30 warlock / archon, following that guide http://bluedots.org/old/2012/01/26/p...30-full-guide/. Set up the macros, spent some time on the dummy but can't really get a feel for it too much yet. May I ask - how am I ment to fill up my CHARGE to 100 when most of the macros have Internalize Charge built in so I'm spending Charge pretty much all the time. Maybe I'm ment to turn it on/off manually by using the Internalize Charge spell itself >.<? Also as a filler spell as far as I understand I am ment to spam my Flame Bolt macro which casts Fireballs (a.k.a. fireball is the filler spell when not having to refresh dots). And lastly for now - if I get an Opportunity proc do I hit the macro asap even if a dot's about to fall of or I prioritize refreshing the dots and then hitting the Opportunity macro? Sorry for completely noobish questions, but am sure I will be fine when I get a feeling of what I'm doing actually.

[Alixie]

I decided to try Rift again after not playing for several months. Stepped my 25 cleric into a warfront, big mistake. They introduced twinking*. Making lots of alts and playing them in bgs is one of the biggest thing I like to do in an MMO. Twinks just killed this game for me.

*They introduced a feature to turn off gaining XP. Supposedly to let people keep their quests yellow so they dont out level the zone. Big surprise only 10 people are using it for that purpose and the rest are abusing that feature to make gank machines in the lower pvp brackets. I miss that level 50 was when you endlessly farm for gear, and below that pvp was just for fun. Worst feature to ever be introduced.

[Pachycrocuta]

I decided to try Rift again after not playing for several months. Stepped my 25 cleric into a warfront, big mistake. They introduced twinking*. Making lots of alts and playing them in bgs is one of the biggest thing I like to do in an MMO. Twinks just killed this game for me.

*They introduced a feature to turn off gaining XP. Supposedly to let people keep their quests yellow so they dont out level the zone. Big surprise only 10 people are using it for that purpose and the rest are abusing that feature to make gank machines in the lower pvp brackets. I miss that level 50 was when you endlessly farm for gear, and below that pvp was just for fun. Worst feature to ever be introduced.

Adding in the ability to turn off experience gain is probably the biggest mistake that Trion has made. Personally, twinking is pathetic, and the people who can't make it at max level pvp where people have a more equal footing are the ones that twink so they can steamroll others to make themselves feel better. I am sure that there are others who have quit because of the x9 twinks in the warfronts. Because of this feature, I just pvp around level 27 until I get the 13.5k favor to get the 90% mount from the favor vendor, and then stop pvping until maybe level 50.

[Deleted]

1. From what I have found in order to upgrade from a trial to a full version of the game it's only $4.99 (and $14.99/mo subscription), is this correct?

2. What's the community like in Rift? It seems like the WoW community has gone to crap during Cataclysm, I've noticed a lot more immature people trolling and just acting like asshats in general.

3. A few people I've talked to say that leveling is a huge grind. Understandably, every MMO is going to feel like a grind when leveling, but is there anything cool that might stand out in Rift that might make the grind a little more entertaining?

4. How is the end-game in Rift (raiding?)? Lately I have been getting insanely bored with raiding in WoW (pretty much everything post t11 Cataclysm).

5. What's your favorite class that you have played in Rift?

Thanks in advance for all the info

1 Yeah upgrade is cheaper online

2 Community is great. Reminds me of vanilla wow when people work together towards a common goal

3 The levelling isn't that much of a grind. Rifts, Events, PVP etc all great for spacing out the actual questing

4 The end game is amazing both 10 and 20 man raids which are both fun and a challenge in there own rights

5 My favourite is my cleric. Got literally every build going ranging from ranged Dps, Melee Dps, Healer, Tank, Support. You name it and a cleric can do it.

[Tarien]

Oh, God, where to start from... I decided not to level a new mage but rather play around with my level 50. Played for a day with my friend and I can safely say it feels like a different game. Did all the three 2-man chronicles available, started on the Ember Isle quests and stumbled upon the Planar Attunements by accident. Tried to read http://bluedots.org/content.php?218-...uide-for-Mages but I'm not sure I understand how is it ment to look... do you start from Attunement of Fire?

Also specced 36 pyro / 30 warlock / archon, following that guide http://bluedots.org/old/2012/01/26/p...30-full-guide/. Set up the macros, spent some time on the dummy but can't really get a feel for it too much yet. May I ask - how am I ment to fill up my CHARGE to 100 when most of the macros have Internalize Charge built in so I'm spending Charge pretty much all the time. Maybe I'm ment to turn it on/off manually by using the Internalize Charge spell itself >.<? Also as a filler spell as far as I understand I am ment to spam my Flame Bolt macro which casts Fireballs (a.k.a. fireball is the filler spell when not having to refresh dots). And lastly for now - if I get an Opportunity proc do I hit the macro asap even if a dot's about to fall of or I prioritize refreshing the dots and then hitting the Opportunity macro? Sorry for completely noobish questions, but am sure I will be fine when I get a feeling of what I'm doing actually.

Okay, let's break it down a bit

Let's assume you have the build nice and pat, here is what you should have on your action bars:



1 = Macro1 (below)
2 = Macro2 (below)
3 = Fireball
4 = Pillaging Stone
5 = Burning Shield
Q = Internalize Charge
E = Inferno
F = Cinder Burst
R = Macro3 (below)

The Q, E, F, and R keys can be something else ofc, I just find them easy to press.

Okay, so opening up on a boss first stack up Pillaging Stone x 5. Then:

1) Once that is up you need to press Q to get Internalize Charge up, then Macro1 twice to get Flame Bolt and Searing Vitality up, and then Macro 2 twice to get Countdown and Dark Touch up.

2) Once your DoTs are up, turn off Internalize Charge and cast Fireball twice.

3) Now back to your DoTs, but this time turn on Internalize Charge and press Macro 1 twice and Macro 2 once, as Dark Touch is still up and does not need refreshing.

4) Turn off Internalize Charge. Fireball three times. Go back to step 1.

Seems like a lot right? But really with the keybindings I have above, this is what the rotation looks like (assuming Pillaging is already up on yourself):

Q, 1, 1, 2, 2, Q, 3, 3 <- first 'lap'
Q, 1, 1, 2, Q, 3, 3, 3 <- second 'lap'

It's a really simple rotation, swapping Dark Touch for an extra Fireball every other lap through it and turning on Internalize Charge when you have to cast DoTs.

Now, once you master that, there are a few other tricks to master. Make sure you can do the above rotation flawlessly though, before moving on. You should be able to go from 100% -> 0% mana without making a mistake while practising on a dummy.

Now that you have that bit mastered there are few other things to take into account:

1) First you will need to be aware of your Cinder Burst procs. They are pretty obvious on screen, so cast them immediately and always turn on Internalize Charge for them, if it is not already on (and turn it off again if you aren't casting DoTs afterwards). Internalize Charge is off the GCD so get used to switching it on and off rapidly for a single spell.

2) You will occasionally get Wildfire procs, these appear in the same place as Cinderburst procs, just spam through them. If you have enough charge, spam with IC up or alternatively use them to build charge. When you get the proc you can cast them four times, so remember to turn on IC for the fourth as you move into your DoT rotation.

3) Sacrifice Life: Damage (SLD) and Heat Wave should be used asap. Basically once you have gone through your second loop of DoTs with IC on, press this Macro3 twice to get SLD and HW buffs, and spam fireballs. The *only* other thing to cast is Countdown when it comes off CD or Cinder Burst on proc, as they both hit harder than Fireball.

4) Thanks to the Warlock Magical Affinity talent you will have tons of charge. Once you are used to the rotations, if you have bucketloads of charge don't be afraid of turning it on or leaving it on for the odd Fireball. Better to have a Fireball hit for another 2-400 damage than be at 100% Charge an not gain anything.

Okay, that is a LOT to digest. I suggest that you get used to each item one at a time. These are like the inner secrets of PyroLock, they take time to discover and understand and master but they are what seperates the novice from the expert.

Notice that I only say expert, because there is a 3rd level of Pyrodom and it is the true master. Once you have everything above mastered and you are able to toggle Internalize Charge rapidly never going over 100, keep your DoTs up as much as humanly possible and get every Cinder Burst off on the next GCD, it's time to switch from rotation to priority.

This basically means that you are casting things when they need to be cast. So initially you would stack Pillaging, turn on IC, cast your DoTs, turn off IC, spam Fireball, but instead of running through your DoTs, you refresh them as soon as they expire, turning on IC for each refreshed spell. You would also be juggling your Cinder Burst and Wildfire procs (and sub 30% of the mobs health, Inferno), managing your charge so that you are never above 80 or below 20 and managing your SLD and HW cooldowns.

At this point there is no rotation, and it would feel like a mess to anyone who hasn't first learnt the ins and outs of the spec through the previous two stages as I outlined them above. So do not worry about this yet. I include it for completeness sake.

And I'll stop there Primal can come along and correct me on any mistakes I made or improvements he things I should add. There are some changes in 1.8 coming that may add another DoT in (Life Leech) but if you get to grips with what is above you'll be in a good place to add that in when the time comes, and it is a tiny DPS increase anyway.

Any questions?

Macro1: (copy and paste this into the games /macro commands)
#show Flame Bolt
suppressmacrofailures
cast flame bolt
cast searing vitality

Macro2:
#show Countdown
suppressmacrofailures
cast countdown
cast dark touch

Macro3:
#show Heat Wave
suppressmacrofailures
cast sacrifice life: damage
cast heat wave

[Kuthe]

1. From what I have found in order to upgrade from a trial to a full version of the game it's only $4.99 (and $14.99/mo subscription), is this correct?

2. What's the community like in Rift? It seems like the WoW community has gone to crap during Cataclysm, I've noticed a lot more immature people trolling and just acting like asshats in general.

3. A few people I've talked to say that leveling is a huge grind. Understandably, every MMO is going to feel like a grind when leveling, but is there anything cool that might stand out in Rift that might make the grind a little more entertaining?

4. How is the end-game in Rift (raiding?)? Lately I have been getting insanely bored with raiding in WoW (pretty much everything post t11 Cataclysm).

5. What's your favorite class that you have played in Rift?

Thanks in advance for all the info

1) I'm fairy sure that's right. It's super cheap.
2) The community is AMAZING! Well it was on my Oceanic server. Everyone so far I have played with acts professionally, talks great and doesn't cry about everything. In about 300 hours of gameplay, I've seen one negative person, and that's just because he claimed to be elitist, and was pretty terrible.
3) The leveling is great up until level 40, that's when I hit the 'grind' stage, imo. But I also get that 'grind' feeling when I hit Grizzly Hills on every single one of my toons in WoW. Just take a break, or play some PvP, do a dungeon. It's pretty easy to get back into the mood of it. The whole world events *rifts* make leveling so much funner, though at lv 45, you kind of start getting sick of them destroying your quest mobs.
4) Raiding is fun, I enjoy is lots. The new 20man raid looks great, but we won't fully know until next week, but with the amount of content they release, they will just keep making it greater.
5a) My favorite class is the Rogue Bladedancer.
5b) If you like PvP then play a Cleric, zomg, so Overpowered! Impossible to kill a good one, the healing is insane!

Have fun, it is truely a great game.

[Tarien]

I also get that 'grind' feeling when I hit Grizzly Hills on every single one of my toons in WoW.

Aw man I really liked that zone. The whole werewolf theme (Were you bitten? WERE YOU BITTEN?!) with the epic horse ride to safety afterwards, the lore stuff about the world tree they tried to grow there, and best of all the Harrison Jones (Indiana Jones) references, I found it all pretty awesome

[wrists]

Oh, God, where to start from... I decided not to level a new mage but rather play around with my level 50. Played for a day with my friend and I can safely say it feels like a different game. Did all the three 2-man chronicles available, started on the Ember Isle quests and stumbled upon the Planar Attunements by accident. Tried to read http://bluedots.org/content.php?218-...uide-for-Mages but I'm not sure I understand how is it ment to look... do you start from Attunement of Fire?

Also specced 36 pyro / 30 warlock / archon, following that guide http://bluedots.org/old/2012/01/26/p...30-full-guide/. Set up the macros, spent some time on the dummy but can't really get a feel for it too much yet. May I ask - how am I ment to fill up my CHARGE to 100 when most of the macros have Internalize Charge built in so I'm spending Charge pretty much all the time. Maybe I'm ment to turn it on/off manually by using the Internalize Charge spell itself >.<? Also as a filler spell as far as I understand I am ment to spam my Flame Bolt macro which casts Fireballs (a.k.a. fireball is the filler spell when not having to refresh dots). And lastly for now - if I get an Opportunity proc do I hit the macro asap even if a dot's about to fall of or I prioritize refreshing the dots and then hitting the Opportunity macro? Sorry for completely noobish questions, but am sure I will be fine when I get a feeling of what I'm doing actually.

This is the macro I created for that spec, so i only ever spam one key, and use the modifiers to control EVERYTHING.

#show Flame Bolt
cast [alt] [notactive] Internalize Charge
cast [shift] Dark Touch
cast [ctrl] Searing Vitality
cast [Ctrl] [Shift] Life Leech
cast [ctrl] [alt] Cinder Burst
cast Inferno
cast Flame Bolt
cast Countdown
cast Fireball

So whenever you want to hit your IC, just hold alt down while you press your spam key. etc etc. the other post does a nice job of explaining priorities so i wont repost any other things q:

[Primalthirst]

Primal can come along and correct me on any mistakes I made or improvements he things I should add.

I would recommend leaving Flame Bolt on its own button since if you get Wildfire procs with the provided macro you won't be able to refresh Searing Vitality in a timely fashion.
I would also recommend a macro you can spam whenever you get an Opportunity proc.

#show Cinder Burst
suppressmacrofailures
cast Cinder Burst
cast Fireball

Addons like Karuulalert or NKrebuff can be very helpful for tracking DoT uptime, especially when learning.

When 1.8 hits this week there are going to be a few changes, but nothing huge. Mainly just Sacrifice Life: Damage buffs and the possible inclusion of Life Leech. I'm not 100% sure what is going to be kocher, possibly Withering Flames will also need to be added. I need to do some proper testing but my connection is terrible at the moment.

Adding Inferno into a macro is a bad idea, it causes ability lag.
Keeping as many abilities on individual keys as you can is the best method since it gives you greater control and performance.

[Tarien]

Yeah, the point of the way I laid things out was to keep it simple while you learn about the spec. It is definitely one of those easy to learn, difficult to master type specs. I wouldn't put Searing on it's own button until you're moving from the rotation to the priority.

Good point about the Opportunity procs and using an addon to track them, though I am not sure that they require a seperate macro. Either you're casting Cinder Burst or you're casting Fireball, you already have buttons for those, why add a third?

[Primalthirst]

Because then when you see an Opportunity proc you don't need to look at your Cinder Burst cooldown to see which button to hit, you just hit the macro.
You still have a Fireball button, but you replace the Cinder Burst one with the macro.

[Tarien]

Because then when you see an Opportunity proc you don't need to look at your Cinder Burst cooldown to see which button to hit, you just hit the macro.
You still have a Fireball button, but you replace the Cinder Burst one with the macro.

Good point, think I'll do that