Tanking in Rift.

[Airlick]

Sooo, I downloaded and started playing Rift today. I rolled a warrior, as it was my favorite (though not main) class in WoW, and I'm thinking about building a Paladin.

What I wanted to ask, is: is tanking fun in the game? What defines fun for me is smooth but challenging play (I don't want to just stand still and mash buttons and occassionally use taunt. On the other hand, I don't want it to be frustrating neither - getting 1 shotted thanks to RNG and things like that) and depth of character build and itemization. That's the most important thing for me.

Another question would be: is respeccing possible? Or if I roll a Paladin I will never be able to choose any other warrior spec?

[theWocky]

Sooo, I downloaded and started playing Rift today. I rolled a warrior, as it was my favorite (though not main) class in WoW, and I'm thinking about building a Paladin.

What I wanted to ask, is: is tanking fun in the game? What defines fun for me is smooth but challenging play (I don't want to just stand still and mash buttons and occassionally use taunt. On the other hand, I don't want it to be frustrating neither - getting 1 shotted thanks to RNG and things like that) and depth of character build and itemization. That's the most important thing for me.

Another question would be: is respeccing possible? Or if I roll a Paladin I will never be able to choose any other warrior spec?

Rifters will need to correct me, but I believe a cleric tank is closest to a wow paladin, is it not? I don't really tank. I heal and dps.

[Angarin]

Rifters will need to correct me, but I believe a cleric tank is closest to a wow paladin, is it not? I don't really tank. I heal and dps.

It was in beta from what I remember. The justicar class specifically

[Fencers]

Yes, a Cleric tank is most similar to a Warcraft Paladin.

The Warrior soul titled Paladin is not like a Warcraft Paladin, however.

What I wanted to ask, is: is tanking fun in the game?

I only play tanks in MMOs. Nothing else.

Tanking is pretty interesting in Rift. A lot depends on what class and soul combination you tank as though.

For example, a Reaver Warrior spec will likely be very "stand there and hit 1,2,3,4". Whereas a Riftstalker Rouge spec [/spit] would be more involved and dash around a bit.

A Justicar Cleric tank would need more careful cooldown management than a Void Knight Warrior tank, where a Paladin Warrior tank would be on par with a Justicar in buff maintenance but be less engaged than Warlord perhaps.

Depends on the type of tank you want to play really.

Another question would be: is respeccing possible?

Of course. Silly question.

The game is designed so that you repsec often and have up to 7 specs on reserve to call up at any time.

In Rift you are expected to play everything available to your class ideally. Which can range from a melee Support/Off Heal Warrior with a pet to a dual wielding magic casting long range nuker Warrior to a Warrior tank focused on AOE.

Or a melee mage or a support mage or healer mage. Or Off healer/AOE DPS Cleric that swaps to full tank for the next boss and then swaps to a melee dps pet build with some long ranged attacks.

In Rift you are not one thing. You are everything.

[Deleted]

Yes, a Cleric tank is most similar to a Warcraft Paladin.

The Warrior soul titled Paladin is not like a Warcraft Paladin, however.

I only play tanks in MMOs. Nothing else.

Tanking is pretty interesting in Rift. A lot depends on what class and soul combination you tank as though.

For example, a Reaver Warrior spec will likely be very "stand there and hit 1,2,3,4". Whereas a Riftstalker Rouge spec [/spit] would be more involved and dash around a bit.

A Justicar Cleric tank would need more careful cooldown management than a Void Knight Warrior tank, where a Paladin Warrior tank would be on par with a Justicar in buff maintenance but be less engaged than Warlord perhaps.

Depends on the type of tank you want to play really.

Of course. Silly question.

The game is designed so that you repsec often and have up to 7 specs on reserve to call up at any time.

In Rift you are expected to play everything available to your class ideally. Which can range from a melee Support/Off Heal Warrior with a pet to a dual wielding magic casting long range nuker Warrior to a Warrior tank focused on AOE.

Or a melee mage or a support mage or healer mage. Or Off healer/AOE DPS Cleric that swaps to full tank for the next boss and then swaps to a melee dps pet build with some long ranged attacks.

In Rift you are not one thing. You are everything.

20 role slots coming in 2.3

[Fencers]

I would like 20 role slots.

Super frustrating to delete specs I may want to use later. 6 specs was not nearly enough.

Have no idea how Mages manage to play this game without stabbing themselves given the number of specs they play.

[Airlick]

I guess I phrased my question wrong. I don't want a WoW's Paladin, I want something as close to a WotLK/Early Cata Prot Warrior as possible, that means many buttons to mash and a LOT decisions to make. It wasn't like Paladin, just blowing Consecrate and standing still.

Thanks for the anwers so far, I only need one more to know everything I need about what I want to play. :P

[theWocky]

20 role slots coming in 2.3

Serious? 20? or... "you make joke?" ~ did Borat come through with that comment?

---------- Post added 2013-05-16 at 02:26 AM ----------

I guess I phrased my question wrong. I don't want a WoW's Paladin, I want something as close to a WotLK/Early Cata Prot Warrior as possible, that means many buttons to mash and a LOT decisions to make. It wasn't like Paladin, just blowing Consecrate and standing still.

Thanks for the anwers so far, I only need one more to know everything I need about what I want to play. :P

Warrior, probably - it can play a class similar to WoW DK and Warrior as well as WoW elemental shaman.

Oh, a cleric tank was different to wow paladin - I had a paladin.

Rift is more raid "awareness" orientated than rotation orientated for tanks from my experience.

[Edge-]

Serious? 20? or... "you make joke?" ~ did Borat come through with that comment?

I'd take 20. Seriously, with the flexibility of the soul system, there are at least that many specs that I could swap between, especially if I were a hardcore raider that wanted to min/max for every fight.

[Fencers]

I remember the hell it was waiting for people to portal back to town to delete a spec so they can come to raid with the right spec for the fight. /never again

[Airlick]

Serious? 20? or... "you make joke?" ~ did Borat come through with that comment?

---------- Post added 2013-05-16 at 02:26 AM ----------



Warrior, probably - it can play a class similar to WoW DK and Warrior as well as WoW elemental shaman.

Oh, a cleric tank was different to wow paladin - I had a paladin.

Rift is more raid "awareness" orientated than rotation orientated for tanks from my experience.

Well, thanks for the answer. Glad to hear I made the right choice.

The thread may be locked, if any mod chooses so.

[Calliso]

Serious? 20? or... "you make joke?" ~ did Borat come through with that comment?

---------- Post added 2013-05-16 at 02:26 AM ----------



Warrior, probably - it can play a class similar to WoW DK and Warrior as well as WoW elemental shaman.

Oh, a cleric tank was different to wow paladin - I had a paladin.

Rift is more raid "awareness" orientated than rotation orientated for tanks from my experience.

Yep 20! this is from the reddit the other day 20 total role slots (more than enough!) will be available in 2.3. Currently slated to give out a few of those via Loyalty as well. (more on that next week) - Bill Fisher, Creative Director

[Darxis]

Quick question from an old WoW vet
I played RIFT on its release for a very brief time and seeing it going F2P has got me interested in trying again.
I want to know how viable a Paladin/Warlord tank build would be. I've got a build in mind here but I'm not sure how it'd work. Can someone who's actually been playing the whole time tell me if this will work or am I horribly off?
http://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#4...yEEw/8kChkEGz0

[Fencers]

Warlord is pretty meh-y. WL is a PVP/solo orientated soul. Not that great for PVE content, to be honest.

[Aydinx2]

Quick question:
How viable is Rogue tanking atm?
Forgot the soul name, but it was basicly a rogue with 2 1h weapons for tanking.
Can I tank dungeons/raids? I remember them being "unliked" a while ago.

[Vulcanasm]

Quick question:
How viable is Rogue tanking atm?
Forgot the soul name, but it was basicly a rogue with 2 1h weapons for tanking.
Can I tank dungeons/raids? I remember them being "unliked" a while ago.

You're thinking of the Riftstalker, which I played from closed beta to when I quit (just before the "instant adventures" patch).

I had the same question.

Riftstalkers were unpopular early on because they had a much higher skill cap than any other tank. You needed an on-use trinket for all non-trivial pulls. The risk was that you'd get squished before you could activate defensive finishers. In that sense they played *exactly* like Brewmaster Monks in WoW -- Brewmaster mechanics are Riftstalkers minus the teleports plus better DPS.

Poor initial threat generation was a secondary problem. Many Riftstalkers were extremely bad and wanted groups but didn't want to go Bard (because Bards are terrible in every game -- even Rift). Because they couldn't figure out a fairly simple 4 button build-up, there was this perception that they couldn't hold aggro. I never had aggro problems, though, even at the end ... when some DPS outgeared me by an entire tier. Most good Riftstalkers didn't. But that perception stuck.

[Aydinx2]

You're thinking of the Riftstalker, which I played from closed beta to when I quit (just before the "instant adventures" patch).

I had the same question.

Riftstalkers were unpopular early on because they had a much higher skill cap than any other tank. You needed an on-use trinket for all non-trivial pulls. The risk was that you'd get squished before you could activate defensive finishers. In that sense they played *exactly* like Brewmaster Monks in WoW -- Brewmaster mechanics are Riftstalkers minus the teleports plus better DPS.

Poor initial threat generation was a secondary problem. Many Riftstalkers were extremely bad and wanted groups but didn't want to go Bard (because Bards are terrible in every game -- even Rift). Because they couldn't figure out a fairly simple 4 button build-up, there was this perception that they couldn't hold aggro. I never had aggro problems, though, even at the end ... when some DPS outgeared me by an entire tier. Most good Riftstalkers didn't. But that perception stuck.

Not to toot my own horn (wut) but I was a pretty good Riftstalker myself.
Never had aggro problems, and did decent DMG.
Yeah it wasn't really easy to keep cooldowns up and hold aggro on everything, but it was fun.

[Vulcanasm]

Not to toot my own horn (wut) but I was a pretty good Riftstalker myself.
Never had aggro problems, and did decent DMG.
Yeah it wasn't really easy to keep cooldowns up and hold aggro on everything, but it was fun.

Do you still play? I'm curious how they're holding up. Riftstalker was the most fun character concept I ever played, in any MMO. (Chloromancer was a close second, before Trion gave it 50 nerf-bat beat downs)

I don't know what you consider "decent", as far as damage goes, but Riftstalker was always low. When I left, 400 dps was "good" for a Riftstalker. DPS classes were doing 1200+. But, hey, you could solo most non-instanced group content -- not as well as a Justicar, but you could do it.

[Aydinx2]

Do you still play? I'm curious how they're holding up. Riftstalker was the most fun character concept I ever played, in any MMO. (Chloromancer was a close second, before Trion gave it 50 nerf-bat beat downs)

I don't know what you consider "decent", as far as damage goes, but Riftstalker was always low. When I left, 400 dps was "good" for a Riftstalker. DPS classes were doing 1200+. But, hey, you could solo most non-instanced group content -- not as well as a Justicar, but you could do it.

I don't play anymore.
My main is Riftstalker/Ranger (or marksman or something, the bow user without pet).

Edit: I will start playing actively again when it goes F2P.
Atm enjoying my lvl 17 mage untill it hits 20 (everything else is above lvl 20, so no play).

I don't mind too much if it's not viable, I think it can work in PvP tho.

---------- Post added 2013-05-17 at 09:57 AM ----------

I remember the hell it was waiting for people to portal back to town to delete a spec so they can come to raid with the right spec for the fight. /never again

"Back when I was young, we only had 6 specs. So we had to go back during the raid to get the proper spec for a fight" -Old man's voice

[Nobleshield]

It's roughly the same as in WoW before Mists added that active mitigation crap. A Rift Warrior's Paladin soul is closer to a Protection Warrior, while the Cleric's Justicar tree is closer to a WoW Paladin (very simple rotation too, high self-heals). Reaver is like a DK, Void Knight is kind of a weird mix. Most tanking builds in Rift were deep into VK or Paladin (Reaver too but it's not as heavily used as the other two are better), with extra points into the other one you didn't take; the most common being 61 Void Knight/15 Paladin/0 Tempest (for a ranged autoatttack) which also does higher damage, or 58 Paladin/18 Void Knight/0 Tempest which has better cooldowns.

The thing to remember in Rift is despite the illusion of flexibility of the soul trees, there is still the "one spec to rule them all". You can easily screw yourself if you never bother looking at guides and pick what you think goes well with something else, when it really doesn't. Take Rogue for instance, for Rogue tanking there's like two specific specs that work, and everything else might be enough to get you through 5-mans and the easy raid but you'll have trouble, and it's not easy to find (and this is a pain point for me as I was kicked out of my Rift guild for wanting people including our main tank to use proper specs instead of whatever garbage they thought was good without anything backing it up other than reading a tooltip). You don't just make a "Paladin", you can make a tanking build based around Paladin and while you'll have most of your points (58 to be precise, the 61 point ability is garbage) in Paladin, you're still a Warrior. The flexibility lies in multiple role slots so you can swap from VK tank to Paladin tank before a boss that hits hard, or go from ranged to melee DPS.